Door Bumper Clear - 314. Martinsville & Jeff Gluck: The Sky Is The Ceiling

Episode Date: October 30, 2023

The Championship 4 field is set! Freddie Kraft, Brett Griffin, TJ Majors, and Casey Boat welcome in Jeff Gluck from The Athletic to break down the penultimate weekend of the NASCAR season from Martinsville. With a full season almost under wraps, the group discusses the biggest surprises of the year, the remaining open seats still up for grabs, Sammy Smith’s strong words against teammate John Hunter Nemechek, and Jeff Gluck’s fashion makeover for the 2024 Daytona 500.In Spot On Spot Off, was Richard Childress in the wrong by saying “nobody is as stupid as Sheldon Creed?” Does Denny Hamlin rebound from another heartbreaking departure from the Playoffs? Will there be a first time champion crowned at Phoenix?Plus, the group previews the 2024 rookie of the year race, Jeff Gluck shares the one driver he has yet to have on the 12 questions podcast, and the table comes to agreement on an almost unanimous “What an idiot” award winner. DraftKings State-Specific Problem Gambling Information:In Massachusetts, call [phone] or visit gamblinghelplinema.org, In New York, call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369). In Tennessee and Kansas, Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino & Resort (KS). In West Virginia, Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit www.1800gambler.net. All games regulated by the West Virginia Lottery. Please play responsibly. In partnership with Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races. In Connecticut, Help is available for problem gambling call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org. Licensee partner Golden Nugget Lake Charles (LA). 21+, age varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. See DKNG.co/autoracing for eligibility, terms and responsible gaming resources. Bonus bets expire seven days after issuance. Eligibility and deposit restrictions apply.  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.

The following is a production of Dirty Mode Media. No, bumper, clear. Clear by two. Please really shallow entry. Bumper, clear. Hey, everybody, I'm T.J. Majors. It's part of the six-a-cup car, the eight-xfinity car, and this is going to be one that probably needs to be deleted. This is the finale, man.

This is championship week. This is the last week of the 2023 season. Freddie, thank goodness for you, as I know you cannot wait to go spot more races that are outside of NASCAR. Brett Griffin spotted this year a whole whopping five races for collard racing. You're tired. I am tired because I've been in a hotel all week. What's up, Freddie Graz spotter, Bubba Wallace, Chandler Smith. Yeah.

Are you coming to Phoenix? Yes. Oh, so you're just not spotted. No. Because you're going to spot. They got good food and good stuff to do out there. They do. They got the rusty spur.

Casey, how was your week this week? Hey, guys, Casey Boat here. And I hear we have a really, really cool guest. I'm just going to skip over anything you just said, Freddie. No, we're going to talk about it. Probably. I mean, you might as well get it out now. Casey gotten 14 car accidents on the way to Martinsville this week somehow.

He did not. And she... Is that why her car looks like that? It looks like she raced Martinsville. It was not my fault. She blew Freddy's motor. Whoa. Here we go.

Should we intro our guest before this? This show typically gets the most downloads of the year. Believe it or not. Last year you beat her two years ago, you beat Blake Shelton when he came on, which is quite an ordeal. This guy's a contributor for the athletic. He's a contributor and I guess owner, realistically, of the tear down. He kind of is the founder of the NASCAR tweet up. Social media darling and currently poll losing Jeff Gluck.

Well, first of all, I only beat Blake Shelton because I pick the most talked about race typically to come in. So it's like I pre-plan it. But I didn't know that you guys were all going to be here today. I thought, you know, you might be passed out somewhere not answering your phone or you might have some business to do. I expected both of those actually as well. I thought it was going to be me and you probably hosting the show. When you guys walked in the door, I was like, wow. They really showed up.

So I feel very honored. We would never miss you. Casey was on time too. So that was kind of weird. I was on time. As usual. So, Casey, let's talk about it. Let's talk about it now.

You got hit by a deer. Uh-oh. Yes. So your car was wrecked. Okay. So I would like to preface that. Most of this is not my fault. It just happens to be me.

Of course. Started out the day, my co-worker runs into my golf cart. Then go to an appearance. Then I go into it. And it was obviously, like, completely unintentional. For sure. But no damage. We're good.

Then I go home from an event. And I happen to find a deer running from the middle lane into my car. and so I swerved. What are you doing? I just want to afraid to be able to see you. I swirmed. Did you say you found a deer in the middle of the road? Okay.

One deer goes in the middle of the median. All of them. The one you hit. So I'm driving back to Greensboro. I know. I'm driving back to Greensboro. And a deer literally was about to run into the front of my car. So I swerved and it hits the side of my car.

Oh. So you wounded it. Wait, a second deer? Same deer. Oh. We're not friends anymore. So I feel really horrible for the deer, but yes, my car is pretty damaged. So if anybody has...

Pretty damaged by ass. That's going to be like $18,000 damage. Hey, that's not... Listen. Hey, we're not done yet, by the way. It's not Lamborghini Denny damage or whatever it is. So, yes. So if anybody knows of any...

How's the deer? I don't know. I'm scared. I feel really bad for the deer. You think he's going to come back and get you? I just like Deer needs retribution I have

I will forever have that image of my head of the deer looking at me as I'm like trying to swerve out of the way and then it hits my driver's side but yes I spent 30 minutes trying to get deer off of the side of my car then how do you try to get deer off the side of your car

I pulled into a gas station and I had to use the like what are you getting off the car I don't know I don't want to know but I feel really bad Deer. Blood and fur. I was going to say.

So you're getting remnants of the deer off. Yes. Or not the deer off. It could be mud. I'm just hoping it's mud from like the deer's feet. Yeah, that's what it is. Have you ever gone back and listen to yourself, tell stories?

Yes. I'm trying not to. Because I don't want to, I didn't want to tell the story. You ever going to look for that little baby that's looking for his mother for you. I'll short it up. So she gets hit by a deer. Golf car gets run into the next day she's on the way of the race track.

They get rear ended in somebody else's car in front of the race track. Then we're riding the elevator up together. And Chad calls and says there air conditioning broke and then my motor blew up. So anything that had to do with Casey on Saturday was just get the basically Friday. So she was at the race too because that race pretty much blew up. Yeah.

The expedited the race. Apparently it was a good race. That was Jeff. That was me. Yeah. Whenever you say that your motor blew up, I just think that just something else. So when you say that on the elevator, we've already had three.

I said that she blew Freddie's motor up and that that turned bad. But okay, I do, I need to start this argument. because argument. I swerved. If the deer hit you in the front, wouldn't it be way worse than if I had worked? I think it's the same outcome. No. For who?

You were the deer. Yeah. Like, I feel like my airbags would have blown. Like, the glass would have been damaged. What about the brake pedal? Do we think about that at any point? I could not break. There were cars around me.

Brad, I don't think most people thought about that on Saturday in general. True that. Yeah. So Chad was mad and said that I still hit the. Deer. Well, I side with Chad. I think I saved my life. So, there we go.

I also side with Chad. Anyways, you always do. Well, we are. Have a moment of prayer for Chad. We officially have our championship four with Ryan Blaney and William Byron claiming those last two spots. I mean, Jeff, it looks like your poll. Everybody loved the race.

So I don't know what you guys thought of it. What race were they watching? Let's talk about the poll for a man, Jeff. at what point did you decide, man, I'm going to put a poll out here. It was after one of the arrow package changes, 2016, I think it was like the low downforce package they were trying after Atlanta, before Atlanta is what it is now. So we're seven years into this poll. And to start with, there was some pushback from NASCAR executives that you were even doing

this. And the fact that fans said it were a bad race, it was upsetting NASCAR executives. Do you remember those days? I mean, there was, I mean, not just NASCAR executives. There's been many people in the industry over the years that have said, like, hey, why do you do this, man? Like, you know, we don't need to be putting it into a category like this. Like, can't people just enjoy the racing? And my argument, my counter to it, I guess, is that, look, if NASCAR is going to make lots of changes to make the product better and, like, hey, we're changing this package to make the product more entertaining or more racy or we're changing this format to do this.

well then isn't not fair to ask if people are entertained by the changes that they made that's that's my point in all of it although now i've just been doing it long enough it's almost like habit you know so your your poll got so famous that it got hacked i think so i i people don't believe me when i say that last year for the uh Atlanta the first Atlanta weird race you know super spewer race yeah yeah whatever you want to call it uh because i always watch it because i know that it's possible to buy votes. So I'm always just making sure that there's no, because usually, honestly, like, if you watch after the first 300 votes, it doesn't really, it's like within two, three percent. Wow. Sample size doesn't move it. Like, not really. I mean, it might move, you know, like I said,

a few percent. But this one Atlanta, I mean, it jumped like 15 percent in like 10 minutes or something after thousands of votes had already been in. And I was like, ah, somebody doesn't like the new Atlanta or whatever. And they're trying to mess with it, mess with the poll. Yeah. So, but I don't know. I think that was just a one-time thing, hopefully. So some of those people that got upset, you were doing this poll and we were getting the answer, no. Then when you started getting the answers, yes, they started getting exciting of those same people. I mean, tracks have put out press releases on the poll.

I mean, just, I mean, yeah. I mean, it's something like, hey, especially compared to other tracks, if they're like, hey, we got the best rating of this year. Like, we have the best race this year. Is that not something to, like, sell to your fans? Also, if you think about it, your tweet or your poll is essentially one of the only ways fans can really provide their feedback on the race other than mean tweets, right? Oh, they got that bull-a-h-h-h-fand-council. Do you vote on your own poll? I don't think you can you?

I don't even think you can. I don't know if you can. No? I don't think you can because when I look at it, you, I just see the results already. How often do you check it once you put it up? Um, especially in the first few hours pretty often, just because I'm worried about any funny business or something. And I want to have, because if I need to, if, if, if it goes crazy and I need to be like, no, listen, guys, this, this was kind of like the real result before.

I want to have that number just in case. What's the, what's the best and worst races? Um, I think the best all time was Bristol spring, the year before they went to Bristol dirt. Maybe it was the 2020 race, that sound right? Yeah, we did three years of dirt, right? Was that, is that the race you guys? that run over? Yeah, pretty much. I'm pretty sure that's the race that Brad won. Chase Dorjeu? Chase wrecked Joey. Yeah.

For sure. Right, right, right. And you're happy. And what's the worst race? The worst? It was recent. Oddly, yes. Was it one of the Martinsville ones? Martinsville last year or something? Yeah, it was really bad. 18%. I think one of the last indie races, too, was really, really, really bad. Have you noticed a trend, like, between short tracks, you know, super-stores? Because there's actually some people, because I'm not very good at math stuff, but there's some people, like, data analysts or something. There's a few of them.

And they'll go through the poll and they'll make little charts and send them to me and be like, hey, sometimes I'll retweet them. They're like, here's what the short checks did this year. The average is down on the short checks, but look at the intermediate averages up. Now, I don't want to make it out like it's scientific too, because it's just still a Twitter poll. Which, I mean. This week in general is a perfect example because that fucking race was terrible. And it's trending at what, like 80%? It's still 80-20.

10,000 votes, 80%, but there's more to this than what meets the I. If Lugano wins that race, it's probably not yet. What's your... Jeff Gluck apparently made a deal with Jordan Bianchi that Jordan would get to influence what Jeff wears at the Daytona 500. That's true. I mean, well, I was going to be able to... Have you seen how Jordan dresses?

I was going to dress him as I do in like all target apparel. I don't even... Like... That would be so funny. But yeah, I lost. I lost. Oh, you lost? So it's over?

I mean, it looks like I'm going to lose unless it's somebody buys those. So what do we think you end up wearing a Daytona? Because he's going to put a pole out there and people are going to pick what you wear. Yeah, it's going to be some plaid suit. He's going to try to make me unbutton my buttons all the way down, like almost to my belly button, which I'm not going to do. I see some bright. I see some bright colors in your view.

Oh, it's going to be terrible. He's like Jeff legitimately sounds bitter about this. I'm very upset. Because I thought I was going to win. And last time I was in Target, I was kind of looking around and be like, oh, this would be great to make Jordan wear this. This would be hilarious. What is the most annoying thing about Jordan Bianchi for you? I don't have a brother, but I feel like he must be what a brother, having a brother's like where half the time you love him, half the time he just annoys the absolute shit out of you.

You know, like just presses your button and trolls you. I got a brother and I got a friend like that. Just reliever. You have a friend like that? Yeah. I wonder who that is. Yeah. I think that's probably what it is.

I mean, just I think sometimes he's. doing it on purpose, then sometimes he's just like legitimately not doing it on purpose and it still annoys me. And that's what it's more annoying. And this is coming from me. I think he's just a f***le. He doesn't like Christmas. He doesn't like kids. Doesn't like children. Yeah. I was giving them shit yesterday. I stopped by their tweet up and I was given George and I said, you know, why is it, you break news, you break driver news, tell where then people get, you know, they get upset and they're mad, Jordan should be doing this. Austin Hill does it and everybody thinks it's great.

Austin Hill starts breaking news and interviews after the race And everybody thinks, oh, that's good. Spoiler alert. I don't think they thought anything about that. It's great. So, man, it's kind of cool that it seems like the short tracks get the bigger tweet-ups. Well, what happens is Bob and I've talked about this over the years. Because, like, if we go to Sonoma, the percentage of people at Sonoma who, like, are hardcore enough about NASCAR to follow a NASCAR writer on Twitter and be like, oh, I'm going to follow you.

And I want to meet you. And here's what time I'm going to, you know, it's just not. But when you go to, like, Talladega. that gets a big crowd. And then, like, I think the biggest one, you guys, the North Wilkesboro one, that was the biggest, probably one we've ever had. But that is like, you would think that is the highest percentage you're ever going to get of, like, the true hardcore NASCAR fans, not the casuals.

Because the only people that were at that race were people who truly cared about NASCAR, you know, and I think Martinsville would be the same way. Like, you're not going to pull too many randoms for Martinsville, you know. You can say what you want about the short track package. There was an amazing crowd yesterday. Oh, it was sold out. It was full. I mean, it was, like, I looked around, I'm like, well, damn, this is a, this is full. I mean, there was, I mean, there's obviously a few empty seats, but it was. There was traffic early. Yeah. And that, you can always judge by, like, whenever you're going to the track, like, if you're getting there early and there's already, you're already sitting in traffic, you know it's going to be a pretty full race. And I felt like that yesterday. Justin Haley, he met us out last night. He was two hours behind me. He got, I don't know what he was doing if he got, but he got trapped and he was two hours behind me getting home. So, I mean, there was plenty of people there. Yeah.

And for everybody who complains about them holding the parking lots, it is because there's so many drunk people walking around. Like, I cannot tell you how many calls from serious last night I was listening to were complaining about parking. But, like, if you watch the track, like, you watch traffic, people are so drunk that they're, like, running into cars. So I would think that's why. I was talking to actually, because we were stuck in traffic for, like, 45 minutes, just barely moving out of the parking lot. And I asked, like, why do you put the hour hold? on traffic because I guess last year they didn't and there were people who were just trying to high tail it out of there and you know you have all these people exiting the grandstands and

they're just people driving too aggressive and must have clipped a few people so now they hold it let people get to their cars they held it last year after the cup race really okay it must have been a few years ago that's what the security guard told me bristol does that too i mean they do that for yeah you know it's a small track yeah i rolled right out piece of cake i had to it's because we're veterans. These rookies, they don't know where to park. So, Jeff, you are an innovative guy in my mind from a journalistic standpoint. Obviously, you started the tweet up, you started 12 questions, you started Jeff Gluck.com back in the day. You're doing the podcast. What are you working on now that we may or may not be privy to? What's the next big thing that you're going to do?

I don't, you know, I don't really have anything. I think that probably the next thing that I should be, should have, I actually think I'm behind on this is probably like video. I think you see all the young kids doing video now and half the media scrums. It's, you know, there might be like 15 reporters in the media scrum and 14 are holding up their cell phones, you know, just recording it. And, you know, Bob does it, Dustin does it, Matt Weaver, people like that. I've been resistant to it because I just feel like I guess I'm kind of old school where I'm asking somebody question. I want to look them in the eye. I want to feel like we're having a conversation. because that's, I feel like for an interview,

if somebody's going to give you a genuine answer, they don't need to be, like, looking into your phone. But at the same time, like, you watch, I mean, you see how much people on X or wherever Instagram react to the clips of the interviews that drivers are doing, you know, and I don't have any, I have them recorded for writing an article, but I'm behind on that kind of stuff. And I'm behind on, you know, like Eric Estep on YouTube,

like has well over 100,000 subscribers. and he's built that all himself. And you can make a living off that kind of thing. So I don't really have much of a video presence. And I feel like that's one thing I've fallen behind on where I feel like I was kind of doing a good job of staying ahead on like social media, Twitter, when that was coming along.

I think all the journalists now, you have to be multi-dimensional. You have to be able to do a podcast and you have to be able to do video and edit your own video and edit your own podcast and write. And, you know, when we were coming along, it was just like, yeah, you're a newspaper writer. That's it.

But I also don't really think I have like a face for a video. Sorry if you're watching this on DirtVision. So I don't know if I want to do that. We got all three guys faces for radio. I can see you being a TikTok star. A TikTok star? Your target apparel. That's right up your airling.

I could like dance, do dancing and recap. You could dance while you interview people? Yeah. Oh, man. 2023 is winding down. We would normally do this at the end of the next. show what we can for you today. Biggest surprise this year.

Wow. On the NASCAR side. Well, I mean, this is, it's kind of cheap to say this because, but like the Chase Elliott whole, the whole storyline has got to be the biggest surprise because who would have thought that he missed the playoffs? Because even, like, you could say, okay, well, that's because of the injury. But even when he came back, I still, I was probably 90% sure. Well, he's going to win a race.

Like, it's not even a question. Sure, he's going to win a race at some point. I think we all thought he was going to. I think we all did. So that's the biggest surprise just because, I mean, didn't he lead the series in wins last year? He had five wins last year. Do you notice a different and a difference in the overall vibe when it comes to all the playoff drivers and Chase not being there?

Because I don't know if you know this, but like I feel like Chase has been non-existent from the media standpoint in the last few weeks ever since the playoffs started, which is so different than previous years. Yeah, I mean, well, we'd love to talk to them every week and stuff. But, you know, the way it works, at least from a media standpoint, is, you know, if you're not in the playoffs, you're not really required to do a lot of the obligations. So we lose that, you know, like, you know, once Kevin Harvick's out, you know, he came in for a few, you know, retirement type stuff. But, like, for like the forever 400 at Homestead, like we had a Rodney Childers press conference, but there was no, we never talked to Harvick the whole weekend, you know. Kyle Bush, we haven't talked to him in a few weeks now, you know.

It's just like, man, you kind of miss that. you know, hearing from those guys. And, you know, I, I, from a media standpoint, you would hate to, you hate to not have Denny in the Final Four because he's going to say something at Media Day or whatever. And, you know, I, I think all the guys are obviously very deserving who were there, but who's going to give a, who's going to give a sound bite out of those to get people talking? You know, there's no, no Tony Stewart kind of thing going on.

Yeah, exactly. Which was my mom, by the way. It was your, my question. I said, what would you to win a championship or whatever? And he's like, I'd wreck my, he says, I wreck your one with the championship, you know. So I text my mom right after that happened back in the day. Watch out. Hey, mom.

If Tony's behind you. Yeah. Hey, door bumper clear fans, it's Mike Davis here. President of Dirtymo Media and co-hosted the Dell Jr. Download. Listen, do us a favor. The next time you buy merchandise, do it with RacingUSA.com. Every item is discounted every single day, so you never need a coupon code. You're guaranteed the industry's lowest diecast pre-order price.

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So news last week, Casey, you want to tell us where Jesse Love is going to race next year? I guess my comment overall is storylines. Oh, congratulations, by the way, Casey. Wait a minute. Hold, hold up, hold on. So Casey comes in here last week, Jeff. and her chest is boat out. And she's got this bright smile on her face.

And she is gloating. Is she gloating? It sounded gloatish. It sounded very gloatish. And she makes this comment. She makes this comment. No, you said there's more. You didn't say did you hear the news?

She thinks she is the only person with a NASCAR hard card that knows Jesse Love is going to the two expedited car with RCR. That is the way that she portrayed the comment. Freddie. Yeah, that's accurate. T.J. She might leave in a minute. I'm just going. How bold and how boastful was her comment that we didn't know where Jesse Love

was going, but she did. I don't recall that whatsoever. You just exaggerate a little bit. There was a little big. I can't wait. Do I ask Casey what she thinks? T.J. There was a little bit, but it wasn't like overbearing, but there was definitely a little bit. So when we found out that she thought she exclusively

knew where Jesse Love was going, we started making fun of her and she got mad. So then she starts texting Jesse Love. And Jesse Love tells her, oh my gosh, please don't let the DBC guys break my news. So she's over here mad in the corner. We can't even see her, right? She's over here, pouting. I mean, I'm telling you when I say pouting, she's got her phone down or heads down.

Pretty much like she looks right now. I wish she could see, I was going to say, I wish you could see her face right now. So we start dropping these hints, and they obviously weren't obvious, but it's just wearing her out. And she keeps telling Andrew, oh, you got to cut this out. You got to cut this out. That's a lie? That's actually true.

Well, you said, you literally said his name, so yes. We said love. We said love in no context of a human being's name. Who doesn't love love love? I was just looking up for a friend. I'm so sorry. Jesse Love. I honestly didn't pick up on it.

When I saw, did you tweet about it afterward? You said, hey, we dropped some vague hints. I was like, oh, they did? You didn't hear like too soon? We were saying like that. We said the number two. And the number of people asking if I was pregnant with number two. First of all, I listened to you guys on like two times speed most of the time.

That must be exciting. If you listen on half speed, that's what we normally sell. So next time Jordan needs breaking news, he just needs to reach out to Casey because she apparently has the ends on all the stuff. I'll let him know. She's going to throw with them die-cast cars. I can't see it. And you think I can't tell a story?

You just exaggerate them like everything. Yeah, it's a dangerous game to like roast somebody with your back. I can't see. I mean, she might be able to. I'm just glad he had, Freddie has a haircut. She could pull a gun. It was rough for a while. She can knife you.

I guess on that note, there's, been quite a few breaking news, so to speak. What's you got, Casey? Eric on the roll of retiring. Casey, where's Eric in the run next year? Obviously, we know where Sheldon Creed's going. Thanks, Austin Hill. What do you think, like, I think the 10's maybe the only open, like,

I don't think it's open. It's not really open. What, I mean, what do you think of the news leading into the off season and anything we can expect moving forward? Man, are there any things that are really, like, still unanswered? I mean, it doesn't seem. like, you know, even in the past, it would feel like, you know, before, I think before the charter especially, you know, like you'd have like a front row, you go in with a couple open seats

and be like, oh, we got to decide in December what these guys are doing. Like, is McDowell coming back or whatever? It seems like everybody's kind of like locking things down earlier and earlier. I mean, I could be wrong, but it just feels like people have to know what they're doing. And because if you don't and you're leaving somebody scrambling, what do you, I mean, I mean, you don't, you don't have a lot of options because everybody's committing to stuff. So this year was Justin Haley was super early. Yeah. That was like.

It seems like that. Like, so the 10, all signs point of Noah over there. And then colleague is really the only one. Yeah, I was going to say colleagues is the only one that nobody really. You know, you kind of got an idea of what's going on over there. But, I mean, I don't know that it's locked in. Brett might know more about it than I do. But there's still a couple trucks.

Trucks are still up in a little bit. Like, I wonder who's going to get in the 38 truck. That might be interesting. That's an, that's an. But, yeah, I mean, for the most part, it seems like everything's kind of... Spotter. Now, Spotter World is still smooth and shaking. When are you going to tell us?

I mean, it's kind of settled. It's pretty much figured out now. I ruined some poor fans day yesterday. He came up to me. He's like, my guy's not leaving, is he? And I was like, oh, yeah. There may be a Toyota team that needs a new spotter if, I don't know what happened yesterday, but apparently our good friend Joel got upset.

Oh, he did. I think he got mad at Nick. I think Nick may want to... Oh, I saw that battle. You know those things that you go down to, like, look at sharks in, those cages you get in. That might be what Nick wants on the roof at all. So, Nick, you're referring to Tyler Reddick's spotter, right? Yes.

Nick's just got to survive one more week. Tyler was holding up Eric really bad. But, hey, like, nobody could pass all day or something. We couldn't get around to 78 at one point. Like, it's just. The caution comes out and you have a good pit stop and you get a good restart. It is a huge point swing. Why pit?

I mean, nothing mattered yesterday. I'm going to race. You got to race as hard as you can. I don't blame him. But I can see why you would also be frustrated, too, because you got a guy running you down, which he was catching you so fast. It probably wasn't going to matter.

Speaking of the good race poll, did you see Joel's pole? No, what was his pole? Was his pants on zip? Joel's pole. Oh, about Harrison. Is Harrison Burton a hack? Yes or no?

Yeah, I saw that. I voted no. Did you vote? You voted no. But I think I was the first vote, so I didn't see what it was a hundred percent in that one? Yeah. If my phone would work,

I would go look at it, but I don't know. Did you buy votes? Harrison's buying votes on that one. Are you looking at that? Yeah, Joe Nick texts me on the way home and said, I think Joel wants to kill me. And I said, what did you do?

And he said, we held them up. And then I got to Big Al's and Joel text me, did you ride home with Nick? I said, I did not. I said, what do you do? And he just, he went off on a tangent for a little while. But first of all, it's not Nick. Is there a bigger hack than Harrison Burton is the poll?

He voted no. 47% voted yes and 53% loaded that. So you voted... So you're voting that there is not a bigger hack than Harrison Burton? Oh, no, no, that's not what that's not what I'm. Is that what the question was? Did it say... What did Harrison do?

Yeah, yeah. Tell us why... Oh, no, no, I voted yes. I voted yes. No, no, no. Why are we saying that Harrison Burton is a hack? Harrison, would you like to do the 12 questions with Jeff Gluck this week? No, fuck that guy.

Actually, you just want to do. I think that Harrison. I'm going to prove it to you right now because I feel bad. I feel really bad. I think that Harrison and. Oh, boy. Damn it. Harrison and Redick were side by side.

The question is, is there a bigger hack in Harrison? I promise I voted yes. I voted yes. Oh, they were. I saw. Harrison ran out. If I had cell service, I would show you. Right, right, sure.

Harrison did, um, Harrison drove Reddick over the curve off before one time, like, all the way over. Like, he wasn't even there. I was like, oh, that's going to work out well. I'm going to at some point I will have a screenshot I'll bet you're not I'll send it to you

It doesn't look like It's just giving me like the circular thing I can't prove it It's a sign We had to trade AC for Funny I can pull this poll up just fine Yeah Casey Casey

Can you walk outside So our phones work for a second Take all the phones outside Oh Oh boy So I don't understand Why I get so mad at the guy's spot Because he's not the one making that decision

the driver is. Yeah. I mean, what are you going to do at that point? Like, you can't just move over. Like, I, I, I, yeah. What if you guys got one chance per race to radio to an opposing driver and yell at them? Get the f*** up out of way. Like a challenge flag.

Like, what the hell are you doing, dude? Obviously, you can do that in ARCA. Bristol. I've always wanted that one time a year to do it to the tower. Oh. That probably would not work out. Yeah, because that'd be the last time you did it. So we get a free pass.

We can say whatever we want. No, you're done after your past. Funny story about the Bristol Arker race. Yeah, did you know this? Our buddy, Jesse Love, was out there in practice. And I guess he screwed up somebody's mock run or something. Pulled out to make a two-lap qualifying run. Yeah, like something happened.

Some happened he screwed up another Vennerini car's mock run. And all the Vennerini spotters, when I spotted there, I had all the frequencies on my radio. Well, the spotter of the other car got on strange channels and started yelling at Jesse about screwing up there. Oh, my God. Wow. Yeah.

And then the crew chief got mad at the end. And then the crew chief ended up getting him at the end because, was it really, did it really hold you up? What was it? I don't know. Six, eight-tenths or something like that? Yeah. Was it, did it really hold? Jesse was way off.

Jesse was way faster? It really cost you eight-tenths or something like that. Oh, boy. Let's chat Martinsville Xfinity Series race because I feel like there's a lot here. So we know, you know, Sammy Swift, Smith. Oh, Sammy Swift. Sammy Smith dominates, but then obviously falls short. So, Sammy Swift.

Blooper show, let's get a blooper show. I'm just going to stop talking. Andrew, do you want to take over? It's been a long weekend. Hey, so if you guys heard, Sammy Smith, he dominated but fell short. John Hunter Nemechek blocks him. Sammy Smith said after the race, he didn't want to make any enemies, but he made one.

Front stretch got a quote from him that said, John Hunter Nemechek is definitely not a teammate next Saturday. Now, do you, my question, make sure you ask them this. Yeah, let me know you want me to ask them. Do you think that you'll see any retaliation next weekend with John Hunter going for the championship? No. I don't think there'll be any retaliation there.

I think that hauler won't make it to the track if they feel like there's going to be. Sammy Smith would be a fool to retaliate again. Sean Hunter. You can say you're not going to be a teammate. Do you know why he's not going to retaliate? He said he's going to retaliate. I mean, listen, he can race him a little harder if he wants to.

I mean, that's part of a part of the term. If that's considered retaliation, then yeah. If he's going to race him hard probably, sure, he's going to make him earn positions, probably. But that's the chance. He's not going to move over for him. Exactly. But let's back up because the four of us started a text thread, which ended up being rather enjoying on Saturday evening.

There is a video out there, pictures out there, of the 18 and the 20, way out of line way before start finish on the green white checker and NASCAR does nothing. Oh, I mean, we talked about this last week that you're going to see pictures of you, you, but, right, and he, I don't know, like they obviously blamed it on laying back at Homestead, according to T.J. And John Hunter was laid back a little bit, but, you know, at the same time, when I was talking to Hirschman about this, who sponsored John Hunter, John Hunter's like way good on points. He just has to finish. So why would you be up the guy's ass on a restart. You know, are you going to get penalty now for trying to play it safe?

Like, it's just such a can of worms you opened up. But by far, he was well out. The screenshot I sent you, he has broke the plane of the 21's bumper. And he lifted, I assume, to get back in line. He was way behind him into one. But the rule is not you have to give it back. He broke the plane of the 21's bumper. And the start finish line isn't even in the picture. Like, it's well, you know, well before the start finish line. Like, even before that, though, there's a lot of talk about teammates yesterday. The only person I saw being a quote unquote bad teammate in this whole scenario was John Hunter. Because he should have, if you're playing to get two cars in the final four from JGR, he's running third, Sammy's running fourth.

John Hunter should have picked the top and give Sammy the bottom and let Sammy handle his own business. But Sammy did win Phoenix last year, so there's probably a reason why John Hunter maybe want to prevent him from winning that race. but I don't know. I don't know if you're all in on the team aspect, you should have picked the top and gave the 18 the bottom and let the 18 go race his way into the place. I think John Hunter is blocking the 18,

which is why he's out of line. He's not trying to improve his position. He's trying to make sure the 18 doesn't improve his position because to your point, 181 in the spring. Last thing he wants to do is have to race that guy in a championship weekend. But like from a rules perspective, Jeff, how do you have all of this proof of the rules being broken and you do nothing?

You know, I don't know. I think that's my answer, Jeff. You can't use that one. I think because I didn't, if I had seen that in the moment, I think I would be more mad about it. But I didn't see until the screenshot, right? And then I go back and I go, oh, damn, look at that. Like, how could you miss that, right? But, I mean, I was up, you know, I was in turn one looking down the front.

I saw somebody go three wide, but I didn't even think, oh, he's before the start, finish time. I mean, obviously that's their job. That's not your job. That's their job. But, you know, it's, I think there's probably a lot happening. Yeah, I'm sure it's a missed call. You want to get it right. But I think sometimes like that, like if it's not, especially if it's further back in the pack or further back in the field, it's, I think, I don't know if they're watching for that.

Well, they got Eckus for it last week. And he wasn't, well, he was second row for third round. Yeah, but... Here's my point, though. All right, if you call it out, the 20 and the 18, they were both in violation of a rule, clearly. This is no gray area. Black and white, they're a violation of rule. You black flag them.

Well, they're not going to pit because there's only two laps, and you're still being scored for those two laps. And that is going to happen in 28 seconds from the time you went green right there, right? It's going to happen really fast, whatever, whatever time that is. So now you're going to have to disqualify both cars. You put them as last car in lead lap. Absolutely. Yeah.

We have not, you'll be disqualifying from, yes, their finishing position to the LIA. So when you get to Phoenix, which is a very, very, very easy place for this to happen. Right. Now what are you going to do with a green white checker in the Xfinity series and this happens? Yeah. Well, I think you go, we're not going to miss it this time. But I don't know. I, I'd love to sit here and say, hey, look, they're watching every single thing that's consistent.

But, you know, it's, I mean, they miss stuff. I mean, it's just, they miss it. I don't know what you, I mean. Do away with the rule if you can't police it. That's fair, but do you have to have somebody then like doing the video of every single restart and just going, maybe that is something you have to do. Like this person's job is. Restart official.

Yeah. I mean, maybe they have that and they still don't. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, I'm saying T.J's line too much. I watched the 20 make the block and then I watched the 20 lift. to completely screw the 18 again. Because now not only did you not successfully get inside of the 20 if you're the 18,

now you can't go because this guy's slowing down. He's holding up the whole line. He completely took the 18 out of the race. But in reality, that Bush should have been DQed anyway or put it to the back. This is set up before that, though. This should all have been handled beforehand. They should have had more of a plan. If you get in this scenario, they know what their running orders are.

John Hunter, hey, the 18 is trying to win. Let's make sure we don't, you know, if he wins, he wins. if you win great, you deserve to win the race as well, but let's not take each other out or hurt each other's chances like that. You know what I mean? If he beat you straight up, he beats you. But I don't know why. Like when they chose on the restart, was the 18 choosing from second place or third? On that restart? Yeah. He was fourth. The two RCR cars are front row, then the 20 and then the 18. Yeah. I mean, yeah. At that point, though, I don't know if any of them Exfini guys that aren't going to block.

I don't think they see teammates at all. I think it's race everybody, like they're your enemy, every single lap. I mean, I found out out of homestead. I was going to say the place you're at certainly does that. I mean, it comes from the top, up, them down. There, but even Dale's reckon. That's what I'm saying. But I don't think, you know, there for a while,

I thought Sheldron and Austin Hill were actually really good teammates there. They were working together at the beginning of the year. They were get to the plate races. They were first, second lining up. Even the Atlanta race, you're like, damn, these guys are going to be hard to beat. And that crumbled, I think that crumbled. Didn't it seem like, though, that Austin Hill always got the best end of the stick.

Always. And the moment that he doesn't is when it all goes down. But is part of that in Xfinity, like the sort of less teamwork that people move so much? Like, if you're going to do that, like, let's say Martin Denny were going to do something, you know, in years past or this year or whatever. Like, they're tied together. You know what I mean? so you're going to have to deal with your guy. A lot of times in Xfinity, it's been like,

well, that guy's leaving this year or next year, or I'm leaving next year, so what do I care? Yeah. You know, like, I know we're not going to be, I don't really have to deal with the consequences for this for very long. Both instances that we're talking about, like, they're leaving the next year. So I guess that is valid. And the Ty Gibbs, Brandon Jonesing last year had that same element.

Short track, timing in the year, not being able to get away from each other. I mean, at this point, everyone's, it's, you think it's cut throat in the beginning of the year. It's super cut throat now. So I guess I'll ask you this, Jeff, because we've talked about this a lot, like playoff format. You know, if we didn't have, if we weren't competing for those four final spots, would we have seen as much action and as much, I guess, drama than we normally would on a given race? Yeah, I think that's where it's a plus side for the format. And like I go back and forth all year and even in the playoffs on whether I like the format, like still this far into it where this is like the ninth or tenth edition or something. of this format, basically.

And I'm just like, sometimes I'm like, ah, you know, this isn't the best way to decide the champion. Maybe they should do, like, go back to more of a longer thing. Or like, you guys have talked about with the not the one race playoff, all this stuff. And then you see times like yesterday or this weekend. And you're like, oh, well, I mean, like, I think people are, we talked about the poll earlier. People think the cup race was good because of all the points drama and the playoff drama. And now this guy's in.

And, oh, what does this mean? And Byron's falling back. He's only plus three. Like, you don't really. you're watching that so much that it sort of over it's like an overlay on the race and then you go well that was entertaining like I never

got bored because you're constantly like oh what's going to happen so I mean that's that's the entertainment part of it and it seems to be it seems to be working I guess so my like I thought all the way throughout I thought that race was embarrassing and it's it's it's I mean you're just running each other over you're it's MoMA great times 10 yeah and it's and you see the different and it's I think it's ability kind of plays a factor into it because the same scenarios on the line on Sunday

and you don't have, I mean, guys are running into each other, but not to that extent. But I mean, there's just all race, just pile up after pile up. And Rick, I mean, we blew up with 60 to go. It's a two-hour drive to my house. I almost made it home for the finish. Like, it was ridiculous. And I think that it's just desperation. And I think that you, like, you can, that race will still matter a lot if, I go,

keep harping on that three race playoff. but it matters a lot, but it doesn't, it's not the end-all, be-all, where you just got to go in there and start wrecking each other to get that final spot or, you know, like, I just keeps lending itself to, I thought that race was awful, and I thought that, you know, you could fix it by not making it the cutoff. I don't know, that's probably not a popular opinion, but I just, I hate the fact that you just, like, you know what's going to happen in these races now. Like Ty Gibbs went in there and blew Brandon Jones off the racetrack last year.

And then, you know, now Austin and, and, you know, now Austin and Creed get into it with Justin winning. So, like, I don't know. I hate the fact that we just like, you know what? It's all, you know, win at all costs and, and just wreck the guy in front of you because I need that playoff spot. I don't, I think it happens at any track, honestly. Maybe not to that extent.

But I still think, you can't. You can't just blow the corner and drive into somebody. Well, but I still think you're going to, if you go to like a Kansas, say Kansas is a cutoff. They're going to drive five wide down to the corner and they're going to start using people up. We see it to end of all these races. It's the reason we all picked the left side on the late. race restart because everyone goes down to that first corner and uses everyone up on the outside. They just,

Martinsville is just a much easier corner to do it at and it's just an easier try to do it. So, but that's short track racing though. I mean, I don't think you can fix it. Tony Stewart said he'd wreck Jeff Gluck's mama. I mean, that's, that's, but he's not lying. No. Yeah.

It's, it's, I have got to make the championship for it. The only way to do this if I'm Sheldon Creed is, not the 21 out of the way, which he did very respectfully, I thought. Like, you cannot not do that. You know, this is going to sound weird, but one of my favorite races this year was the race, the first Atlanta race when Brad and Joy race for the win, because we had basically a plate race with no wreck at the end. Everybody finished that race. They raced really hard, back to the line, and nobody got hooked. You didn't have, the front stretch wasn't full of, you know, tow vehicles, ambulance stuff. Like, everyone finished that race, and it was a good race. We don't have to have wrecks like that. And, you know, I wanted to win that race.

but also, you know, these guys, like, it just doesn't have to end like that, and I'm glad that it did in that race. But you guys are overlooking that you guys are all, you are real racers. You are true racers. And so you're looking at this from like, we want to see this decided fairly and with respect.

And I lean toward that side, but there's a significant number of NASCAR fans now who have been raised on seeing commercials every week and being this like, oh, wreck, fight, wreck, fight, all the stuff, which didn't, that, you know, there was a time when, NASCAR would never show wreck footage on commercials ever. Like that was against their policy.

Now it's like that's almost all they show at times. This is what they hype the race is. So if people watch Martinsville and they don't see what they saw in the Xfinity race, some people are dissatisfied. So I understand like, we're like, man, this is, that's not the best display of driving we've ever seen. But some people are like, yeah, that was freaking awesome. Do you think anybody was dissatisfied with not seeing somebody rip the wall in three and four after they showed that replay five thousand times? and they banned it. I bet they were.

I can't believe you're promoting an outlawed mood. I mean, I get it if you're recapping it, right? Recapping it is telling the story of this happened here last year. Yeah. Promoting it is completely different. Yeah, but like it's, yeah, it's, you can't, you can't promote something. That's outlawed. It's like guys would get suspended for something and then they use it all the time.

They use it for, you know, replay. And it's like, hey, hey, hey, great fight, great fight. By you, it's 10 grand. Yeah. I was like, this is ridiculous. That drives me. But what they're doing is a success because they're selling them out. When trucks race, Taledaginax,

do you think they're going to show any replays of what could happen? Right. Trucks? No, like the fight with Nick and Matt. You know what I mean? You don't think that's going to be. Yeah, you'll see it for sure. Yeah.

I don't know. All right. We probably bullshit it long enough. Well, I was just about to say, I mean, we're going into our second of the last show potentially of the year. Maybe ever. Potentially ever. True that.

Yeah, this is it. This is it. I know you have your whole bet with Jordan. If you'd like, I know that there's some really cool dirty-mo merch online at shop junior nation.com. And especially around the holidays,

this could be, you could add some of this gear to your bet if you'd like for Daytona. I would rather wear that than whatever he's going to have me wear. I mean, that would be far. I mean, yeah. Show up to the. You're going to be in a leisure suit.

I would have to I'd rather wear that. Show up to Daytona wearing a DBC shirt. So is it? What are the roles of anything? It's whatever he deems as like, I think he's going to try to dress me in something that he would wear. But it can be like a costume or something. I mean, that is what he wears. See, I just thought of it as like a bad Miami Vice look, but you just went to a whole other level of insulting Bianchi.

Could you see Jeff asking a media question in Daytona wearing like that bunny costume from the Christmas story or something? God. Goes walking to the media saying. The pink nightmare. You are giving him some great ideas right now. I just think I think Gluck's going to end up looking like a pimp. That's exactly what he's going to look like. I agree.

That guy from Friday. If you would like to look cooler than whatever Jeff is going to be wearing in Daytona, head to shop junior nation.com to get all your dirty moan media merch. Big P-I-N-P-P. That is not what they say. You know what the worst is going to be? Because sometimes... That's what the song says.

Sometimes they, you know, a lot of times at Daytona 500 is when they offer up like some celebrity interview. And you're like, wow, it's really cool. Like I got to interview Jay Balvin at Bristol. It's like walking to somebody's holler like, hey, you know, like I've interviewed like Vince Vaughn one year at Daytona at 50 cent. They're going to be like, who is this idiot? Yeah, like, what in the world is this guy? Like this is a NASCAR? What?

Oh, God, this is... I can't wait. This may be the most entertaining thing in the whole off season. Yeah, I don't... I'm going to retweet it right now and just say vote yes. We should have Jordan.

We should have Jordan like drop hints. Like, what are you going to wear all throughout the off season? Just like a small pitcher of like a corner or something. You know what I mean? Like... All right.

Let's move on to spot on, spot off. Spot on, spot off. Spot off. Spot off. Spot-on. It was super fun yesterday to ride around there. I am spot off. Damn. Where did he come from? First topic. NASCAR says they will not repossess Rickware Racing's 51 charter,

even if the team is a bottom three charter this year. Freddie? I don't know where I land on this because I don't, I hate the idea of just taking a charter away. I wouldn't mind the idea of forcing them. to sell their charter. But I think that in NASCAR's eyes, they see improvement. And for that reason, like, I think if they were just terrible and remained terrible, this might be a different outcome.

But they, you know, Rick Ware Racing, we've talked about on here, has improved greatly this year. They're more competitive. Now they're making steps for next year to be even more competitive, they hope. So I think that plays a factor into it. But, like, I think that if you were just sitting there and just, awful and like they had been for four or five years there they didn't seem to be putting much effort into getting better that that might have come into play but i think now with with what you

see going on there i think it's the right call to not repossess the charter right i am spot on for nascar's decision to not take it because they are putting legit resources into this program or at least that's what they're telling us um signing justin hayley a legit legit resource from a driver perspective, big upgrade from where they've been. From a team perspective, it gives them, and I've had drivers tell me this point blank, it gives them an opportunity to go out and get better people. Because do you want to be a mechanic for Josh Balicki or Justin Haley? Nothing against Josh Policky, but he ain't ever won't shit. Not at least at the NASCAR level. So I look at it as, are they really going to do this RFK alliance? And if they are, that's a big

elevating resource to their performance. It should make them be able to go out and run top 22, top 25 every week. If they're going to run around out there dead last again next year, then they lied to us all. Because I know good and well, Justin Haley ain't a last place driver. You alluded to Justin Haley's announcement being kind of early in the season than normal. Do you think this could be why? Could they have seen some pressure?

I think it was early because Justin wanted to announce it and be the narrator of why he's going to an organization that historically runs the back 10% of the field, right? And Justin did a great job, as did his team, of getting it out there soon enough to where they control the narrative and he controlled the why. Because when I opened that tweet and we talked about this with Justin, I opened the tweet up and I had no idea he was doing this. And I go, what the fuck is he thinking? And then you talk to him, which I did later that day. And it's like, oh, well, this is what he's thinking. And I hope it works out for him. You know, signed a multi-year deal. an opportunity to go race and get better.

And listen, we've seen teams get a lot better. I mean, look at Michael McDowell. Two, three years ago, he wasn't really relevant anywhere other than maybe a plate race. Obviously, one of a day, it's on a 500. But outside of that, like, they weren't relevant. They weren't lead lap finishers. I think Rick Ware is making good moves. I think they've hired some really good people.

Obviously, Tommy Baldwin was affiliated, is affiliated. So was Robbie Benton. But you've got to put your money where your mouth is. If we're sitting here next year and you're still last in points running last every week. That point I think NASCAR has to intervene. But can you really go take a charter back? A charter that's worth $40 plus million.

Can you literally just say give me this back and we're not going to give me anything in return? Well, they put that into the agreement that they could. But I have to be careful because I don't want to, you know, after I voted wrong in the Harrison Burton poll or whatever, I have to make sure I'm saying the right thing. So spot on for them not taking it. But I do think it's not as black and white as, you know,

sort of Bob Pockris was describing his explanation from NASCAR, like, you know, it's not like they're starting park team. I think it's, you know, basically, you know, the fact that it's written into the language that like, hey, if you're in the bottom three, it didn't say if you're not trying. You know, so I think it needs to be more than just like, hey, they're not starting parking so they're good. But I agree with what you guys said where, you know, they are clearly making an investment. I mean, the Justin thing being a multi-year deal. I mean, that is a big thing, too. It's not just like, hey, let's get this guy and make it look good so they don't take it or something. So, you know, they're clearly trying to get better.

So I think that is worth something. And it would be a huge step to be like, yeah, thanks. I got this charter now. Ooh, we're going to make some money, boys. Yeah, that would be a bad look as well. I'm spot on for them not taking it because they're making the effort to add names. Like Brett said, you got Tommy over there. You signed a driver with a name with multi-years.

you signed them early and who knows i'm if you get justin early and you're like they did it also gives them the ability to hey uh what do you doing next year they started that months ago hey you want to come over here we need you know i'd like you to work on this car now you you have a chance to go add names you know early and who knows i don't know i'm sure they've got a plan and um obviously they shocked us a little bit when they did all that so when you when you're justin haley tj and you have an opportunity to go sit down with steve newmark and breck has and you look them in the eyes and they say to Justin Haley, we want you to come over here because you can make our team better.

We can give you resources to make that team better and you can essentially make us better too. That's a big deal for a guy like Justin Haley to hear that. Yeah, I mean, any driver, you go and sit there, you know, and do that. But for Justin to, I felt like Justin was at a point where he might have felt like he needed to do something too. And it's just my opinion. and, you know, I think it's, I'm excited to see. I feel like Justin's going to go in there and feel like he has something to prove, too.

So you want a guy that's going out and has that fire to go and, you know, he wants to go and run good. So, I don't know, I think it's a good move. I think they're making the right moves and we'll just have to continue to see what pieces they get. Yeah, you got to think that they, when they wrote this rule, it was, did they have the foresight to know that these charters are going to be worth $40 million at some point? You know what I mean? When this roll was written, what was that charter worth? I was going to say four. What buyer pay for the 78 charts?

Like $6 million? I remember when the first one got sold for like a million that was like, wow, is it really working? Geez, a million bucks for it. I bet Tommy Ball and wish you wouldn't have sold it. Oh, my gosh. Because that's the thing. Like what this, all right, so let's say last year they were going for $10 million, right?

Which is a big rumor. Let's say you have to spend $8 million to fund your charter because you have zero sponsorship. Now that charter is worth $40. million. It was absolutely worth you spending $8 million to fund this charter that's now worth $40 million. And so where is the ceiling on this thing? How many more years are you willing to spend $8 million knowing that it's going to go up more than $8 million a year every year? It's like a franchise, like a football franchise. You see the guys that bought these football teams 50 years ago or whatever for, you know, nothing. Yeah, and now look at him. Billions.

Billions. Look at Michael Jordan. 200 million turns into 2.2 billion in what 10 years? Yeah. The sky's the ceiling. No, what is it saying? The floor is the ceiling. What?

He says, I know what you're talking about, but I don't know what it was. I don't remember it. It was something that somebody screwed up with, I think it was it, was it, was it him? I think it was. Yeah, I don't remember. But it was, it was, yeah, somebody screwed up that saying. I'm going to title that the show.

There's no way Andrews ever heard of it. No. Rock he lives under. Before us are stealing. And I damn sure can't Google it in here with no Wi-Fi. Now we have no air conditioning and no Wi-Fi. I still can't prove that I voted the correct way that comparison. God, so much for 12 questions.

It took me 10 minutes to look up whether or not Alex Bowman had won a race this year because I couldn't remember. But he hadn't. No, he has not won a race this year. Alex has. Because that's what I was looking at is like, Hendrick has 10 wins. Obviously, Byron has 6, Larson, that's 4. The other two have zero.

Yeah, because we talked about Alex and Chase both. having to win races to coming back. But Bowman was he really, I mean, not to go to total side check, was he really ever the same? I mean, it probably took him, even though he came back, like, to have a back injury like that that you're dealing with for so long. I mean, I think it was Denny, maybe on his podcast talked about, like, after he'd come back from his broken vertebrae, like he didn't have the feel in his butt, like in his lower back for a while, like for the rest of that season or something, which you need, obviously,

as a race car driver to have the feel. So, you know, maybe I think Bowman, you know, should get some sense. lack on how he, you know, how he's run, in my opinion. Back to drama between Austin Hill and Sheldon Creed. Richard Childers tells Dustin Long, I've had drivers drive for me before, but nobody as stupid as Sheldon Creed. Spot on, spot off, Jeff. Just go Brad.

Just leave this one at the Brett. That's why I was avoiding. No, I 100% won't, Jeff. I don't think I can make it through this part. Listen, we had a text thread Live looking We had a text on Saturday night And I've fucked up

And I tell you all I'm like I royally Royally Because my brain It doesn't work right Look look at the most obvious To say that somebody's the stupidest person That every charge of her children It's a fairly obvious answer

And I'm not trying to Well I am trying to insult somebody I guess But you know John West Townley was like Probably one of the worst race car drivers we've ever seen at the top level. He wrecked everything all the time. He tried to murder somebody, his estranged wife and her, you know, with breaking their house with an axe a couple years ago and got shot and he's no longer with us.

It doesn't change the fact that he was stupid while he was with us in my opinion. Anyway, Brett, speaking of stupid. I am as stupid as he is accusing me of being that's all I'm going to say until he gains his composure and can finish the story the the text was oh my god

Brett and that that set off a chain reaction of disaster he said oh my God Brett did you just tweet about a dead guy and I was like because Brett tweeted Brett tweeted with a gif and said live look at John West County. You just say live look? Because I thought he was doing it on purpose.

I forgot he had passed away. And I apologized to his family and friends. Because I f***ed that up. They f***ed it up so bad I deleted the tweet. How does that happen? Because I was like, how does Brett feel bad about this? I thought it was, I mean, dark humor. And I'm sorry, but it was, no, it was not.

No, I didn't mean that at all. that he's dead? I've never seen somebody backtracked. Like, he was apologizing to his family in our group text. You don't think any family members were in there with us? Oh, God. I was like, I mean, I was dying. I was worse than this in my hotel room by myself.

I kind of, like, I didn't, I didn't see it when I first opened when I came in there and I'm like, oh my God, this happened. Like, that was like, holy. The responses to it. Oh, my God. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. They responded. They were not. Some were, some were on our, some were on your level, and then some were just. Some were calling me bad names. The dark humor was high-ass on them, but. I mean, you should be used to on Twitter. You probably don't see a lot of it.

What's Larry Kable guy say? Lord, I apologize. Oh, goodness. So are we spot on your spot off for Richard's comment? Okay, sorry. We got sad track. Sorry about that. These are the stories that probably shouldn't be told that we tell on here. I'm sweating now. It makes me look worse than you because you feel bad about it. Yeah, Jeff's like, Jeff was, he was running with it.

He told the line. He's like, you're right. I wouldn't delete it. I was asking people last night. I was like, should I even talk about this? Like, does this make me look terrible? I mean, maybe it does. So, sorry, I hope my girls never see this. If so.

Anyway. It would be fun. Anyway, so. What was a question? I forgot. To Richard Childress's comments about Sheldon, being that he, is the stupidest driver.

Yep, pretty much. Are we spot on or spot off for this comment, Jess? How can you be spot on? He didn't even do anything. Like, how can, what are we talking about? Why is everybody mad at him on his team, aside from the fact that he's leaving and Austin Hill staying? Andy Petrie's yelling at him, Childress is saying this stuff.

Austin Hills, you know, I watched that, because after Austin Hill was so mad and everybody's so mad, I thought, oh, maybe I missed something. So I went back and watched the replay. We were all sitting in the press box. They're playing it. And I'm like, point out, like, where he does something wrong. We're like, no, not yet, not yet. No, no, no. He didn't do anything?

What do you do? Like, that's about as fair as you could ask to, a final four spot on the line, you have to win. Like, and Austin would have made it in, too. No, he wouldn't have. Yeah, I thought that until Freddie, Freddie came up with, Jeff stupid. Yeah, I thought about on point. I actually looked into this with a stats, statistician guy for MBT. Yeah, whatever guy. And he was not, Cole Custer did what he had to do. He would have been one off. So I was wrong about that. But still doesn't change anything. I'm spot on for Richard's comments because

Sheldon was stupid. What Sheldon should have done was wrecked the f***ck out of the 21. Like, that's what he should have done. Like if you're going to go there, you've got to go there. Like, you know, you talk about John Hunter wrecked Brandon Jones. John Hunter won the race. I'm not sorry, Ty Gibbs. Tide Gibbs won the race. You know, so

if you're going to take the, if you're going to move the guy, Sheldon was too nice. You know, he moved, you know, we saw, we heard comments of 80 Petrie saying, you know, you didn't give him a chance. What the fuck? You didn't give him a chance. And that was his mistake. Because what he should have done was line up behind, take the white flag, you square him up into one and ship his ass in the fence and the race is over. The yellow comes out. You're leading. Race over. You win. You're in the championship four. That was stupid on his part. He gave him a chance to race next to him down the backstretched

and you saw what happened in three and four. So if you're, but we would have murdered. Like, we just sat at the same table, the same podcast last year. Why would you care? Why would you care if you murder? He's in the championship before. Like, if you're going to go there, go there. Like if you're going to bump the guy, get rid of them. Like when, because what you can't do is to what happened. You can't move the guy out of the way and then not win the race. Like that, that can't happen. If you're, if you're thinking your teammate is going to be, you know, race you respectfully back or respectfully enough to race it out, which by the way, I love Austin Hill. I spotted for him before. Great guy. I love him. He started it. He drove into turn one and door

slammed the two in the middle of one and two. That set the tone. That set it off right there, I think. But it's okay if he does it. Yeah, like that's my point. Like, no matter what Sheldon did there, he was going to be the bad guy, I think, in that scenario on that team. No matter, even if he won, I don't know that they would have been real pumped about it. He was still going to be the bad guy. Yeah. So, you know, what he should have done, if you're trying to get in that championship for,

you square him up in a turn one every you take the white flag and wreck his ass. And get, and get that, because this is what we talked about when it all costs. And this is the stupid we do now at this race because we got to get in this final spot. That's what if, if you're going to go there, we're talking about there's no such thing as halfway If you're going to go there, go there. Rec the guy, win the race, and go to the championship four. If you're a fan, the spot-on factor for this of authenticity is 100% because you got Andy Petrie on TV going up and arguing clearly was Sheldon Creek. And we were allegedly told what Freddie said, which is what the fuck are you doing? You didn't even give him a chance.

We've got Richard Childress, MF and the driver saying he's the stupidest driver he's ever hired. Oh, by the way, he's got to come and race for him this weekend. That's all. awesome. You've got Austin Hill walking by Sheldon Crete's pit box, clapping and making antics there, when in reality his crew chief and tire changer and mechanic didn't do anything wrong. They were watching the race from where they sat. Then you have Austin Hill going out and make these comments about they used to be friends and he can't wait for him to leave and go to Joe Gibbs racing. So if you're a true fan, this is entertaining as it's 100%, right? Like it's top level. But if you're in the sport, which we are, the four of us are, I've worked on the PR side.

Those are all PR nightmares. I mean, it's Richard Childers taking his watch off and beating up Kyle Bush PR nightmare, because you have three different individuals within your organization representing you publicly poorly. I don't think that is a PR nightmare, though. And the reason why is it would be a PR nightmare if those people regretted that or were embarrassed about that. I don't think that Childress is going, man, I wish I had done that or said that, right? Like, I think he's, they are, they're very, you know, they get their chest out and they're like, no, this is how, you know, we feel this way.

So as a PR person, you just represent what they feel. I mean, is it a bad look? Oh, I 100% agree it's a bad look. And people are, fans are judging them for it. But from a PR standpoint, you're like, well, we're, we just keep going with this, the talking points. I mean, it's like the PR from Tyler leaving last year. The timing couldn't be worse or whatever. But that's, that is representing your leader, your organization. So if you're a Mike Arning, if you're a Drew Brown, if you're a true PR 20 plus year veteran, you're, you're shaking your head and going,

please, please stop. I agree, but I just think it kind of, nobody's going to get mad at you. No, your boss is not going to get mad at you. Yeah. Because, you, you know, you just have to just keep going with what the team feels. Now if they go, boy, can you clean this up for us? That's a PR night I think Andrew also has a clip too, if you want to share that at my own. This is Sheldon Creed post race talking about because he heard what Richard Childers said and not what Richard Childers said, but what Austin Hill said after the race. They clearly like him, you know, and he's done a really good job and he's won four race he was here. So I'm so happy to be going where I'm going. I'm just proud of my guys for giving me a car capable today, you know,

to be there at the end and have a shot at that. This place always ends, you know, just dirty racing and that. They're all going to be bad. I've got a little more race left, and I'm going to go and give it all on the table for my guys because they deserve it. You know who I want Shelton Creed to dress up as for Halloween? Austin Powers. He looks like awesome powers. That would be awesome.

He does a little bit. He should show up in Phoenix is awesome power. The tone was almost set for this. When was RCR fan day? Was that Friday? Friday afternoon. Sheldon gets up at RCR fan day. They had serious XM out there and they're doing live interviews with all the drivers and, you know, whoever else. And Sheldon gets up there and says, yeah, I've had a deal sign for a couple weeks and it's going to be the best opportunity I've ever had at RCR fan day.

Wow. I didn't know that. So the tone, there's obviously. Yeah, they don't like that. They don't like when people are leaving. Yeah. No, yeah. We saw that last year.

I'm still spot off for Harvick leaving, Clint leave. like there's a history of if you're leaving you screw you yeah that's how it is i'm i'm spot i got fired because elliott sadler left well yeah blame it on it probably had a few other reasons but i still don't i think there was multiple things though that still happened austin didn't get the best restart at the end of that race if that that all that stuff really probably doesn't happen like it does if austin gets a good restart then then he doors shelton when he doored shelton is when it's when sheldon started um i think that's when And the Sheldon's like, okay, well, that's how we're going to race.

We're going to do some bumping. And then Sheldon timed it perfectly, in my opinion. He did it in three. He moved him off the racetrack. He, I mean, also still cleared him down the front. And this is the move that I was talking about before with a late model race there. The guy over there in the hat. You know, you can move people up the racetrack without wrecking them.

And I think Sheldon did a great job two times in a row to get him up the track. and the only part where I think Sheldon really messed up was into three. I think he lifted down the back stretch. I'm assuming he lifted three quarters way down to back to try to keep the 21 on his outside. And because you saw the 21 give up some ground really quick, I think Sheldon saw that and lifted himself,

but then I also think Sheldon rolled into the corner. I think he might have got back in a little bit. He was too fast. And he went up the racetrack. If Sheldon runs the bottom in three and four. 100%. He missed a corner. He missed a corner.

Yes. I think he checked. up to try and hang Austin on the outside of him, like you said. And then was like, oh, I'm way too slow because he lit. And then, that's what I'm saying. Then released a break. And then was like, oh, now I'm going too fast. Yeah. I mean, listen, man, it's hard to judge already. But then that's why he didn't, he didn't necessarily slam the brakes in front of Austin purposely. He had to gather it up. He had to make the corner. And the only way he was going to make the corner was to slow down. And the 21 saw that as an opportunity to, okay, well, F this guy. I'm going to cram him in a

Yeah. Yeah, because you can see, I don't know if you said this. because I was texting somebody, but you can see that on the SMT, he throttles up a lot harder earlier than he did the previous. He tries to hit him. Like, if there's anything you want to look at and talk about the dirty part, he was trying to wreck the two.

Yeah. And he, like, he was trying to wreck the two right there. And if you want to talk about being dirty, I mean, first of all, you started in a one on the restart.

You're not willing to concede you lost the race. No, and like a guy races you, how you race him. And then he was going to finish him right there if he could have. and then bringing it on the two the whole time, and it was still in the same way. But the only part that I think where Sheldon messed up

was he got in there a little hot and got up the racetrack and gave the 21 an opportunity to hit him. And the same to get under him. You've never been more right on this show than you are right now. Well, okay, so I had heard a counterargument to this or another explanation. So tell me if he thinks this is wrong,

that Sheldon was going, and he was trying to park it in the corner enough to get a bump from behind and not realizing that Algar was going to come up on his inside. That's all you're wrong, you can stop already. It's not my ass.

I completely disagree with that. If you get bumped in the middle of the corner, Martin's over an exfini car, you're going sideways. You don't want to get hit in the corner. Especially when you're getting in the gas. A cup car? I will say yes.

A cup car if they hit square in the middle. Wide tires. They can hold that. They can drop a gear. Yeah. I watched Bubba do it seven times in a row to whoever you were behind that one in the cup race. Yeah.

We put Cindrick in Concussion Protocol. Yes. I mean, he hit Cindric like, It was like four or five laps of every coin. He was driving in there to hit him every time. And he's a phoenix car if you hit, you're spinning out. Okay. Like right there.

Good to know. I did talking about dropping a gear and going. I heard they're testing a new trans axle, Phoenix, hopefully to eliminate that. So that would be nice if that works. I don't know if it will work. I talked to NASCAR about this a little bit yesterday because I said, hey, I'm coming on door bumper clear.

You want to give me some info? Case we talked about shortch. I didn't know it was actually going to be viewed as a decent race. I thought we'd be. When's your meeting? I thought we'd be saying, how about the short track packages? And I wanted to ask about, you know, our, me and Brett, we both said that there needs to be a different short track car, all the stuff. So I ran all the stuff by them.

And they did say for Phoenix, like, they do think there's some things. It's not just, you know, it's not just tires, which I think the tire, well, actually it didn't really wear it yesterday. But it laid down more rubber. But they are trying some stuff at Phoenix that they think could be not, not. game changes in what they thought like that up-down splitter was going to be at Richmond, but they feel like there's enough tweaks to make on this car still that it's, it's doable. It needs to be big.

We did this last year, though, too. Phoenix tests, we're talking about, not the race, obviously. We did this, Phoenix, which will be a couple weeks. Champions Week, I think. We did this, we did this test last year at Phoenix, too, though, because I went to that test. That's where we tried the, what we were in the mufflers and stuff there. I think the tire was actually, it didn't have much fall up, but it laid a lot of rubber down, which changed the racetrack, which made the race track, which made the

racing. There was actually a second lane a little bit. Um, if anything, to me, it's just too much tires still. And they don't have, you still don't, look at how many, the McSvaney cars were sideways off the corner if they wanted to be. Like, I mean, there was more throttle control in a infini car than a cup car. And to me, it should be the opposite way. There should be more throttle control in a cup car. You should have to work. You should have to, it's an art. I mean, how many guys back then, you know, when you first started spot and it was like that? And how many times as we see, you know, guys drive it, how many times have you seen Jimmy or Kyle or Greg Biff or cars come off this corner of Dover sideways? Like you could, you could see their whole door

side. Every lap. Like at lap after lap, you're like, he's wrecking, no, then it got to be a normal. A 500 horsepower and a wide tire. That's what I'm saying, though. Like, there's no art to, there's no art to driving it like that anymore. I asked at one point yesterday, because we were, it was like the middle of the long run. Chase was leading, so it was towards the end of that long green run. And, you know, he wasn't catching us. I wasn't worried about it, but our internet wasn't working, so I didn't have lap times. And I was like, what, are we good? Like, it was the nine catching us, you know, whatever.

And they're like, no, literally every car on the track is running the same lap time. Yeah. That's a problem. If you got like that. And we're all in the nine had stayed out. Some guys had short pit a little earlier and stayed out or two to two. And we're just all running the same lap. Like, no matter what it was, like, we literally in the beginning of the race could not pass a 78 car.

Like we weren't very good. And we were trapped behind the 78, the 15 and the 51. I couldn't get around them. It took us probably 10, 15 laps. It took us 70 laps to pass a 78. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Because he was running outside. He was on the outside.

And he laid a little rubber down up there or was gripping up on the exit of four. And he could keep the momentum. Which is, it's cool that it does that. But, man, these guys just don't have their, you don't see as many guys. How many times we go to Marswell? See, he got back it in. Yeah, there's no penalties anymore. Like, you can't, you can't.

There's no wheel hopping. There's, like, you don't have any wheel hopping anymore. If you get in too deep, you just drop a gear and take off. Like it's just, it's all, when you get into deep, literally they just wiggle a little bit and then they point, they stem on the brace. Even if the guy hits him in the back, all it does is it messes the guy behind up. It doesn't even mess him up. I hate it because that's my favorite racetrack and I thought that race was terrible. I feel like it's closer. I felt like it was a little bit better. It has been. Yeah, it was better than the last one. I feel like we're getting there. The bar has been pretty low for right, right, right.

I feel like Martinsville's like a dive bar. It's the best cup track in the worst town. And if you're a dive bar person, like it's, you got to go watch a race here. I will say this for you guys. It was better on TV than it was in person. It is the best thing I can tell you were doing both. You were there? No, but I mean, I'm hearing what you guys and I've seen what everybody on Twitter was saying about in person. And then I was obviously watching on television, as were guys like Brian Murphy, who's obviously a purist from a racing perspective. The Xfinity race from an industry perspective was flat out embarrassing.

To have an hour red flag or whatever that thing was to clean up the trail. The way that whole thing played out from a TV perspective, full-blown embarrassing, if you're a true racer. Sunday was a decent race. Was it great? No. Do they need to look at your poll where 80% are saying it's great and stop working on this car? 100% no. Please don't do that.

But it was a better race on TV. Maybe NBC's to credit for that. But it was a better race on TV than it wasn't personally. Can I ask you this? You talked about that hour-long red flag and I was driving home. So it's my understanding that we took an hour to clean the track up and then went yellow and burned off like three or four. Like three or four more laps and went to a green white checker instead of a five lap. Yeah, you know, like, why do you not just get the track clean, roll off, pit roads open?

Apparently what happened, because I asked about this too. So apparently what happened was all those cars sat there for so long, and then when they left, they had all dropped more stuff. Like, they'd sat there for 28 minutes for that red, and stuff all puddled. So they'd clean the whole backstretch, got all that done after, like, several cars had, like, oiled it down. And then all the cars move off, and now they've got stuff on the front stretch. And, yeah, that just was a bad situation.

You know, they had to completely buy the Walmart in Eden completely out of tide. Really? Now they're waiting the track. They were still cleaning it in the morning when I got to the track. Yeah, like, apparently, like the sun being down and all of stuff, like, they could not get the oil off the track. It was so stained and so, like, it was still so slippery. I would find whoever did that to the track.

Whoever. I think it was multiple because I asked. I would find them all. Well, it was multiple wrecks, though. It was that one that caused the red flag, and then it was after the race. Yeah, but what causes that is those people driving around there are leaking fluid. I totally agree with you. Because in NHRA, if you oiled down the track, isn't there a penalty?

Yeah, I think so. I would find the shit. I would say, like, hey, you lose your, you know, you lose your pit selection or something next week. I wouldn't let a practice for a month. I'm telling you that. You can't ruin the viewer experience and the fan experience because you're stupid. Because how often do you see, like, oh, that guy, I don't know, he's starting to smoke a little bit. You might blow up.

And you even hear, oh, you know, it's, maybe it's, it's, going to overheat or something and then they keep driving around and oh wow what happened like if they know there's a consequence to it and like we look we got to get off the track so this happened to chanler on saturday we uh you know big stack up we kind of get in the back of somebody and i don't know i still haven't heard what happened on if we knocked an oil line off but it's you know he runs into somebody and it's a little bit of smoke down the backstretched and i'm like oh we got a tire up you know and then when he comes by me i'm like oh no it's coming out the center of the back of the car i said we got a problem i said pit but you know we drove by the pit road entrance one time i because

just because I thought it was a tire rub, and we came down at pit road, and we were leaking, and they had to clean up a mess for us, too. But, like, it's, I mean, I know you say it's stupid, but a lot of times it's not malicious. You're just, you know. Invertently, it happens. But if you go back and look at this and these idiots knew they were leaking and they still did it, I'd find them. I think it's the number one thing to get spotters called to the hauler.

It's usually, you know, have him stop. Have him stop. He keeps going. And it's like driver, crew chief and the spotter has X number, be in the hauler after the race. Yeah, even though you told him to get out, you've done your, part. Yeah. It is what it is.

Spot on, spot off. With another heartbreak ending for Denny Hamlin, does he have a better year next season? Jeff. How do I say spot on for this or spot off? I mean, spot off for him being out because from a media standpoint, he gives us so much material. He gives us so much talk about people. Obviously don't like him.

He got the most booze. But I think you need that foil a lot of times. You need somebody to care either way. um which you know i think a lot of the the drivers who were left people are are kind of neutral on a lot of them people probably feel strongly about larsson maybe one way or the other more um blaney's popular but you know byron and bell i think people are kind of like they don't they don't hate them i don't think but they don't like love them like they're chase elliot um but people definitely feel strongly about denny hamlin you know there's no you're not neutral on him either way right

So the fact that, you know, he's eliminated after it seemed like it was going to be his year. And he didn't really do anything wrong that I can think of the entire playoffs. So you just at homestead, he just has power steering failure, jerks the wheel out of his hands. He's done. But, you know, will he, will he have another chance to come back? I mean, we're the same age. So I don't want to say that he's old. But obviously, from a driver's standpoint, at some point in your mid-40s, you drop off.

So to keep thinking that, well, you know, he's. He's still on top of his game. He'll be able to come back next year. He'll be able to do it and his team won't. You know, you don't know if JGR is going to have a down year. You don't know. So, I mean, this really could have been his last best chance. But again, from his standpoint, just like last year, what are you going to do about it?

Last year you got hail melon. I mean, there's. I mean, even he said it during, I think it was a serious interview. Like, he felt his team overall, they had a better and more successful season this year, which I actually agree with. I think, you know, long term. And, like, if you look at his stats, they're, they're, they're, oppressive and I don't know I think age is also do you agree with this like age in this sport

I don't necessarily feel like what age he's at he's pretty much going to peak I don't know I mean well history tells us that that that's not the case yeah I mean David Smith who's now at RFK always you know he'd done the research that a driver's peak age is 39 that doesn't mean after 39 you're done but at some point it seems to just drop off a cliff I don't know why I don't know if it's hand-eye coordination or what it is. But, you know, some guys, I mean, Mark Martin did it. Mark Martin's an exception, though. But most guys.

I mean, Jimmy Johnson didn't go out winning. Kevin Harvick, it doesn't look like he's going out winning. Guys, it's heartbreaking. I mean, Denny Hamlin, three wins this year, 51 in his career, three Daytona 500s, future Hall of Famer, doesn't have the championship, has two more chances at it, we think. Obviously, that's a crazy statement to make because you don't. know to your point. Can he stay healthy? Can he be fast? Can he win races? Can he make it even into the

playoff, not to mention into the final four. It's part of what makes this sport great. Denny Hamlin, whether you like him or not, is a needle mover. We need more needle movers in the sport in both directions. We have Chase Elliott, big time needle mover. We have Denny Hamlin, the opposite spectrum, big time needle mover. Kyle Busch, he goes to RCR. He wins three races. It looks like he's going to continue to be a needle mover. He's not a needle mover this year. Not for me. Like he's not pulling in my emotions. He's not making me happy. He's not making me mad. He's not doing either one. He's become just a normal guy like a Harvick became. Harvick used to be a big needle mover. He's really not anymore. Still has a big fan base, right? But I think Denny's great for the sport.

His podcast is good for the sport. His performance is good for the sport. Solid team behind him. Chris Gaphart may be my number one pick if I were allowed to pick who's going to be my crew chief if I were a driver. But I think from a championship perspective, having this conversation now doesn't even make sense for us to do. But to your point, at some point, he's going to get too old to go out and compete at the level which he competes. I think it's very obvious that Danny didn't transfer to the final four because he's dumb and

goes to too many basketball games. Your team, Eddie Gossom. I think that that's, yeah, I think that's obviously what it is. That's probably what broke his steering. Like, I think he was driving into one. He was probably thinking, like, who the Hornets opening the season with? Oh, I'm in the fence. Like, I think that's what happened.

So you think he only concentrates to win races. He doesn't concentrate to win championships. Yeah, that's it. Yeah, like he's only, I mean, the 51 wins, he must have just, like, it must, it's probably not during basketball season. We've got to go back and see, like, how this correlates, you know, maybe, I bet a majority of his wins are probably in the basketball offseason if I had to guess now. Now that I read some stuff.

How does he win during the golf guys' tour season? This is what Eddie Gossi said. Why can't Denny Hamlin win NASCAR title? He's won a 51 races, three Daytona 500s. Coke 600, but never the championship. Inside scoop folks in the garage, question his focus, his intelligence. He makes emotional decisions, losing points, and he's distracted by too many non-competition items.

Talented butt. And then they show this picture where it looks like he's a goofy hat. He's so always, yeah. And then I heard there's a Facebook post that's longer that gets in the more detail. That's kind of the same thing, but a little bit longer. I mean, whatever. But I thought he had a great year, and he would be in the final four, I think, if the steering doesn't break last week. So it is what it is.

And listen, these things, this is why we talk about a one race. I hate a one race deal, you know. And if he wouldn't win the championship, it was a three race deal because he would have wrecked in one of the final three races. So still, but like it's, and he was in, he was good. He was the second best car there yesterday. And unfortunately, the guy that was the best card was somebody who was racing. So showed a lot of grace in his. post-race.

I don't know, like, Jeff, I don't know if it's spot on or spot off, but then he's not done. He's still as competitive as ever, what I see. And if anything, this style of racing takes more, um,

takes more brain. Like, it takes a lot of, a lot of, um, intelligence to race these cars now and to not make the mistakes. And because it's hard to pass. It's hard to do that.

And I still think Harvick would be, I think Kevin would have, if it's I mean obviously they've they've lost some speed the come that places had not had as much speed as they've had in the past years and if they did I think Kevin's right there because Kevin still manages some pretty solid finishes from even when he when he they don't have speed he knows how to chip away at it because he's smart and he knows what to do and I still see Denny doing these same things I don't see a difference in Denny now you know just because of a part breaking or something I still see him racing hard I don't I don't see a difference in Denny yet so I don't think think his age is a factor right now. But I guess what happens is you run into, you run out of time eventually, like Harvick, right? Like, yes, I totally agree. Like, he's completely overached this season. He's still, you know, on top of his game and doing everything he can, but he doesn't have the cars. Now he's run out of time, you know, in his career. He's not going to be interested in being part of a rebuild project. Yeah. So, like, if you get to Gibbs next year and for, you know,

things happen, right? Like, we, we think we, we know, at least I do, from year to year, okay, this team's going to be good, this team's going to be bad. What if Gibbs, you know, for some reason, comes out struggling next year, the other teams take a step up. He's just scrambling to, you know, get top tens. And he's like, man, like, at my age, you know, we're not going to be competitive. Like, I'm, what can you do? Yeah, I don't know if Denny, I don't feel like, I don't feel like Denny's there yet.

I feel like even a bad year for Gibbs would be something like that, you know, a back staff of the top 10. But I don't, you know, I think that's where they rely on guys like Denny to help get it straight. Because Denny is going to help, you know, I'm sure they've relied on Kevin. They're leaning on Kevin big time because he's the most experienced guy there. They need his input. So I think Denny would be a useful piece to getting things back right at that point. I don't know if he, I just don't feel like he's done.

I don't feel like he is, you know, I feel the same way with Brad. I still see the fire by me. I talk to Brad all the time, and I still know his desire. I still see the work ethic every week that he puts in, the studying that he does every week, and that's not sowing down, you know. Ryan Blaney said something really interesting yesterday that I thought was. I want to know what you guys think,

because you're segueing this into this, DJ. He said there's only four or five areas where you can really work on this car to make it go faster, and obviously their team has kind of figured out what those areas are and how to make it better. He's had some strong races, yeah. Is it really only four or five areas? you can work on the car? I mean, they've definitely made the box smaller that you got to work in for sure,

because you don't have the fabricators that can mold these bodies like you used to. There's, I just think the areas that they can work in, man, you thought we had to stay in a box before. Now everything's like even smaller, you know, they've made everything, the windows are tighter that you've got to play in. Yeah, there's definitely, they've definitely, I don't know about the areas. I mean, I kind of know what he's referring to, but there is before you could make all your own stuff. Now we buy the stuff. So the areas are definitely getting consolidated and not as many of them to, to play in. So he's right. I do think he's right. But that's where you got to zero in, man. That's where these guys, you find the speed. You got to go find things that work with this new car.

we ever you can see you know there's no no you know pretty obvious we struggled the beginning part of last year but you know the the engineers that we have the crew chiefs the um the drivers we've they've put a lot of work in man and you got a lot better fast well i mean yeah i mean it was a lot faster than i thought it was going to be so you know for chris to get three wins this year and three of those wins could have easily been the six as well so which is cool to see you know, Brad and Chris make great teammates. So, and it's good to see the trajectory that we have going even in the next year. Like, I think we, I think everybody, we all made it further than everybody expected us to make this year, starting the year out.

I'm done picking Denny to be a champion. I've done it for a lot of times, but I'm done because maybe I'm jinxing him. Still pulling for him. I did the same thing this year, so. He was, I mean, races could he have won. Like, he won three, but it felt like he could have won eight. Yeah, and then you have it. Then, by the way, you have enough playoff points that he would have been able to overcome eight point, missing the cutoff by eight points.

But that was the drama of yesterday, too. Like, I mean, sitting at this table last week, I was like, William Byron, all he's got to do is manage this race. He'll be fine. Look at all these points he's sitting on. And then turn the race on, and I'm like, ooh, he was out for a while. Boy, he sure didn't manage to screw that up. So do, I mean, should it be considered where you look at overall points and what each position means for a driver like a Denny Hamlin who, like a one shot and you're pretty much done? for it. I think ultimately we're gonna like when we take a big step back from this era and say who

was the best and all stuff, it's, it's not as cut and dry as, you know, when Dale Sr. was winning championships or Gordon or Jimmy even, even though that was largely in the chase format, you know, the 10 race format. But like, I think you're just, even final four appearances, right? Like a couple years ago, Harvick doesn't make the final four when he had the dominant season. So you can't look at that and be like, well, he didn't have a good season. We can't like, like, You have to account for that. So I think ultimately it's going to be wins. I think you're going to sort of default to like, all right, who is the best of this area?

Who is the, you know, how many races do they win? Period. Like, I don't think you can really use championship runs as like the indicator anymore because it's so much like the baseball playoffs, what we're seeing now, the diamond backs in the world series. Like you ride the hot hand, you stay around, you stick around long enough to get the momentum and try to ride it to a championship. experience a thrill of racetrack like you're in the driver's seat with Draft King Sportsbook.

Bet on your favorite racers and feel the rush of every pass, pit stop, and victory like never before. Right now, new customers can turn five bucks into 200 instantly in bonus bets. Bet five on anything to score big no matter what goes down on the track. All right, Kyle Larson, who's going to beat him this week? Anybody? It's going to be hard. Can Bell do it? It's going to be hard.

Bell's got a shot. It's going to be interesting. I think Larson's got to be your favorite, though. just the raw speed they've had and being the talented race car driver that he is. Yeah, Bell and Larsen being the first who to lock in. Going to have a little extra time to prep for the race. But who knows, man, it's Phoenix. Anything can happen.

If I'm Rick Hendrick, I feel good about my chances. No doubt about it. Two of them. With props parlays and more, there will be action to follow all race long. The racing action doesn't stop until the checkered flag drops. Download the Draf King Sportsbook app now and join with code DBC. New customers can bet $5 to get $200 instantly in bonus bet. That's code DBC only on Draft King Sportsbook. The crown is yours.

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Speaking of William Byron, before we go, last spot on, spot off, Casey, I think Andrews got a clip. I had no idea until the race was over, and I saw William get out of the car. By no means did he collapse, but he sat down on the ground. You could tell physically he was struggling, but he obviously made some comments about what he was going through inside the race car. And it's important that our fans get this communicated to them,

because I think too often, especially in today's, time. Freddy and I talked about it last week. Denny drove his guts out. He was racing Ryan Blaney side by side. He wrecks. And when he gets out of the car and takes his helmet off, he's not even sweating. Like you don't see the physical demands inside the race car. Well, and just to add to this, Jeff, I know you were in this media scrum as well. Byron was sitting on the pit wall just because he was so exhausted after the race. I'm really happy for my team. I can't state that enough. with like 56 to go, man. I just, I couldn't.

It was so blurry in the car, and I just wanted to pull in, but you're not going to do that. I was going to, you know, have a failure or do something first. So it's kind of hell in a bottle. I've never been so mad in a race car. I've never wanted to get out so much.

I've never been so frustrated at the car. And, you know, how loose I was, how tight I was in spots. I mean, I just had no grip. And it's tough to do that. that's a 25 years old you're you're obviously racing your way into a championship situation I can't you it's blurry like your vision is going blurry and you still finish the task I mean you know I mean like kudos to him but you don't have a choice like you know like it's that's your whole season right there you know it's if you if you pull in you're you're done

you know we saw he was out for a while that a good portion that racing before that that big wreck in three and four where a tie got turned, he was out. He was like minus two. And then that wreck happened knocked a couple guys out. And then he was plus three or four of the race. It seemed like you, you go. Well, they're really not me out. We've finished the race. You got to wonder, though, if he's 100% today. And in the same level playing ground with Christopher Bell, Kyle Lars and Ryan Blaney, they're getting ready for Phoenix. Is he physically and mentally in the same spot? Or does he got to spend a couple days here to, because it sounds bad. I think you spend a couple days anyway doing that, like recovering.

trying to do the best you can, setting yourself up for this weekend. You know, I knew it was Brad asked for a cold towel a couple times, and that's not normally, you know, so he's like, he actually did say it was pretty hot in there, but that's all, he said it a couple times, and that was it. Phoenix is not exactly going to be cool either, so do we potentially see some of the same issues? I think there's more, you'll have more air movement at Phoenix, so for sure, so I don't think you're going to have any issues there. I think that was a problem. This was sort of like the first real, um, hot,

next-gen race where at a small track because like this this could be the same kind of issue like at the clash right but the clash isn't isn't hot and usually martinville races are not warm at all so i think the combination of the air not moving and then the just it being like true x was pouring a bottle after bottle of like cold water on his over his head afterwards and you don't usually see that yeah um so it seemed like a lot of guys were kind of falling out of the seat a little bit but i mean biren to hang in there and do that i mean yet like freddie said you have no choice but like I was talking to Max Pappas after the race for article I was doing on The Athletic. And, you know, like he was saying, like he's, he's, he's,

he's longtime coach basically, right? And he was like, nobody after this, after we, what we just saw, nobody can tell me that William Byron is a kid anymore. He's a man. Like that is something that, that requires a mental toughness to stay. So not only just finish the race, but to hang in there and get the spots. I mean, because he falls back. What do you make it by, four or five?

He ended up making it by eight. But that is because he got all up to 13. When he was struggling, he was in by three. Yeah. And if he falls backwards, there's enough cars easily that he's done. And he was basically like committing to, I'm going to drive this until I pass out. Yeah. And I mean, that's insane.

That's insane. That's mental toughness right there. Casey, to your point, 86, the high for next Sunday. That's normal. Last year it was quarter. I feel like it was not as, it was not as hot last year. Martinsville, it was freezing too last year. Yeah. I was wishing it was going to be 50 even yesterday.

Well, looking ahead to this weekend, spot on spot off, a first time champion will be crowned in Phoenix. You have Larson versus the rest of the field. A new champion, 100% will be crowned in the Xfinity series. And then Ben Rhodes is the only potential repeat in trucks. Brett. Obviously, it's exciting. I mean, when I look at this cup piece, right, first thing I did was went and looked at what happened in the spring. William Bywin.

Byron. Oh, Bywin. buy one. Billy B. Willie B. Let's make it easy on my southern dialect. Willie B. finished first.

Ryan Blaney finished second. Kyle Larson finished fourth. Christopher Bell finished sixth. Dude, that's tight. Like, that's one pit stop with 20 to go, and it's whichever pit crew wins, wins the race. Then I went back to last year's championship race,

and I remember picking Christopher Bell as one of my DBC picks because he got hot. I thought he got hot at the right time. Christopher Bell finished 10th last year in the same race. Kyle Larson finished. ninth, William Byron's sixth, and we all know Ryan Blaney was fast to the point that people even said he probably would have won the race had his teammate not been racing for a championship. He finished second.

Legano won his second championship. So, man, looking at statistics, looking at finishings, finishes, the 24 and the 12 seem to be the two favorites. Yeah. To your point of last year, Ryan was the fastest car, but he just rode behind Joey and, you know, protected him. protected Joey's back bumper to let him win the championship. But, you know, and you said they're hitting on all cylinders right now.

They had a phenomenal, marvelous, stupendous. Weaver gave me a new word this week this round. You know, they were great everywhere. And they're hitting on all cylinders. They're hot as a place they've been good at. And, you know, I don't know. And Dale picked them, which Dale can sway anything in NASCAR if he wants it. So, you know, it's hard to go against him right now.

I think having a first-time champion is cool. But I still say the best driver in the field is Kyle Larson, and that's who I would pick right now on the cup side if you made me pick. Xfinity side from an emotional standpoint. Who all is in this thing? Algeyer. Algeyer. John Hunter. Sam Mayer.

Sam Mayer. Sam Mayer. Cole Custer. I'm going to say I want to see John Hunter win it because he deserves it because of how fast he's been all year. But I'm also going to say as a tie, I want to see Justin Algear win it because. he's such a great guy. And he's made this Final Four so many times, and he's so good at Phoenix.

So I literally am at a tie on who I would like to see win it there. And then in the trucks, who all's in it? Ben Rhodes and who? Ben Rhodes and who? Corey Heim. Hosevar. Hosevar. Granite Finger.

I have purchased a, I'm not sure if it'll fit anymore because I gained 20 pounds of those. I bought it. But I have bought a Carson Hosevar T-shirt. Do you going to wear it on Friday night? I might have to cut sleeves out of and cut the neck so it'll fit over my fat ass

but I am pulling for Carson Hosal. You wouldn't have been yesterday that cup race there I heard he made some moves actually I heard it on the tear down that he was knocking Ty Gibbs around

and he was But man it's hard to be a rookie Marginville in a cup car I just think he was I remember Dale Jr. hitting everything including the Paysgar I'm just saying when you go to Martin'sville you run in the cup race

you want to be competitive but I think he was trying a little too hard to be competitive again. I mean, he, well, listen, he did what we, you know, we,

we crucified him on this show for it. He did it again yesterday. He right hooked somebody down the back straightaway. Yeah. And you can't do that. We told him he can't do that. You can't do that. And it's just,

it's reactionary. It looked like, I think it was Dylan. It's been built up. I think, and Ty moved him in three and four, got underneath them, and then they bounced off each other little bit in one and two.

And then he just, he lifted and right, hooked him down the backstretch. And you're like, damn it. Like you've done so good for the last few months and then you just like something happens, you just revert right back to that way. You can't do that.

Like you've got to be better than that. Especially like you're not racing for anything. They were lapsed out. That's what I'm saying. You were showing plenty of speed, which the only thing that he needs to go and doing his races is show that he can compete. And it doesn't, you don't have to be. I mean, he was literally running like he was running top 10 in the race.

Like, I mean, racing everybody's super hard. And I don't think that's the tone that he needs to set. doing that he's shown already that he has enough speed now he's got to show that he has the the mental capacity to do it and by doing that that a week obviously that was a step back we've seen him do really well here and he's obviously doing really well the trucks and looking forward to see what he can do this weekend but got a you got a big brain a little bit more on the cup side who you got exfinity champion man i it's hard to it's not going to be hard to go against Justin, but I know we feel like we say that every year there. But that is the last guy.

And I feel like maybe now they had him out. And I feel like putting him back in right here, he, I feel like he's going there with, like, I'm going to show these guys now. They, they screwed up by letting me back in right here because he's arguably been the best, one of the best cars. I mean, he has been one of the best cars all year. He's been super fast. putting him with Pullman has certainly Yeah they've Reignited a fire in Justin And that team

My wild card here is going to be Gonna be Sam Mayer He's showing up at times Two JRM guys, Freddie, surprise Well I mean he just shows up Sam's Marty Lindley and him have really clicked this year And he

Sam he's fast at places Where I think he's going to be fast at So NASCAR did not do Sam any favors on Saturday. Did you catch that move? Were they parked him? No. I don't know why they, I was probably gone. Because he was leaking on the track. Oh, is that the guy you wanted to find?

He definitely would be getting fine if But earlier in the race, somebody wrecked and one of the seed cars. Oh, I saw that. And they're like, which I don't understand. I guess I know what they're doing, but it didn't seem like an emergency, but I don't know. Maybe they saw some I didn't see. But they're like, stop so-and-so. Stop. Let us get our trucks across. And all of a sudden, like somebody stopped

and Sam was like chain reaction. Sam way laid this guy down the front straightaway and blew the whole nose off his car. And I was like, oof. Yeah. I mean. So they also messed up on a, that one of the cars spun out down there into one. And Sam did a good job missing him, but he came to a complete stop. And a bunch of cars went around him. Sam stopped. Like stop, stop. Like this day and to maintain your pace like we argue. You don't know if you keep up enough speed, you get to keep your spot. No. They put, they put him back in front of about 10 cars. And I don't know. I don't know. know how you do that if the guy stopped but i mean it just be consistent with it yeah that's been a problem all year i mean that the whole thing like that goes back to like the chicago thing of not getting the order right i mean that's hopefully they can clean that up because that that is not you know and there was some a few pileups in in cup yesterday too where you're just like all right well how they're going to sort this out and there was people going ah it's not the spot i should be in and the this the truck race last year we had an incorrect restart it was two playoff guys i think i remember Yeah, because Lambert spotted for one of them.

It was Majesky and maybe, I don't know who the hell Lambert was spotting for last year. Oh, Chandler. So, you know, so there was a question of the lineup, I think it was off pit road probably. And Lambert's trying to get an answer on. It was him, it must have been Chandler and Majesky. And he's like, are we ahead or behind the 66, whatever, 99, whatever he was last year? And they choose based off what, Majesky was ahead of Chandler on the choose. they choose.

Yeah, they bone. Then they call it. After we choose, they're like, oh, they revert 18 ahead of 66 or whatever it was. And it's like, no, now you're too late. Like it was. And so we had the last restart of the race was incorrect, like with championship contenders. So it was, you can't, like to your point, that can't happen. Like, wave it off, get it right.

Get it right. We choose. Like whatever you got to do, the lineup has to be correct, especially at a place like Phoenix where lane choice is a big deal when you get down in a one and we're 18 wide down there. So, yeah, you can't, you can't screw that up. uh champions if you go by pure speed i think it's john hunter and probably cori heim um but toyota toyota yeah they're fast uh but i mean host of ours been just as good as hym and they've been really good on short tracks um so we'll you know we'll see what they got but i think the coolest

part about trucks and exfinity is we get to see a full-blown race play out and you feel like it's just going to be exciting on its own i feel like in uh on the cup side if if we don't get a caution after that second stage ends, what kind of real championship battle are we going to see? Yeah, or one with 15 to go. You know what I mean? I want to see a 60 lap run. Then I want to see a 15 to go caution. All right.

It was just throw a caution. The pressure on these drivers to execute getting on pit road, running maximum speed while on pit road. Maximum speed to exit pit road. And listen, these teams have analytics on all this. They can tell you who's the best of this. This is why True Exped yesterday. Obviously, he didn't mean to. He didn't think he did.

But you can't afford to give up any time anywhere. And it's going to be a big deal there on the Cubside. What do you think the penalty would be if you just picked the tire up and rolled it out on the pit road? Didn't I ask that a couple weeks ago? Yeah, you said you could be, I mean, let's just, let's just, oops. If you're running second, you're not going to catch the guy. Like, what? Just roll a tire out there.

Just roll a tire out there. Well, you're going to have to get a fan to do it. Not really. Could you imagine an industry guy rolling a tire out on pit road? What if it's a fourth car? Your fourth car that doesn't even isn't even anything. I mean, oh, whoops. Oh, I dropped it.

It fell off the wall, Brett. The fine after that would be not worth it. It would be millions. Whatever you would think of your gaining by doing that. I thought that was fun. Y'all lost y'all's minds. I wouldn't. I'm just saying, this is what I was questioning before.

I throw T.J. out there. Yeah. There's been, well, Nick Payne may bring out a caution this week. Sorry, Nick. Where are your parachute? I don't know where you stand. I think they're down there at the same stand together. I'm telling you. He needs a spot on the shark cages. Ah, Joel, forget it. Was there a lot of yelling? I don't know. I think so. I was down there. I was down there by you. Oh, yeah, that's right. It's quiet on our end. How well do you know, Joel? Mostly from, I mean, tweets, really. I mean, I talked to him in a few times, but not as.

Dude, he's so awesome to talk to. He's so miserable. miserable than it's funny. Man, I feel happy for him that he's about to escape. I say Joel is the guy that could win the billion dollar lottery and bitch about the taxes. That's Joel in a nutshell. Yeah, he's very, you know, Minnesota Wilde, he's angry at them and NASCAR, he's angry at them. He's angry at Andy Petrie. But he likes his dog.

He loves his dog. That's really what matters. You know he's really mad at? Nick Payne. No, probably his old Grouchy back in the, he's still 18. He tweeted that the other day. Somebody said, who's the worst cruise? He tweeted in Puscha.

They ain't worked together in 10 years. So, Joel, we could tell this story. He's quitting anyway. Joel is at... We think. Joel is at a race, and he is spotting for Greg Biffle, who he's been with forever. And Matt Pusia is the crew chief.

Matt Puscha communicated to Joel on Channel 2 that Joel needed to have Biffel do something. Well, what he was asking Joel to communicate was against the rules because Biffle was the free pass or whatever the scenario was. And a lot of times, and this is good for spotters, we know the rules better than crew chiefs, especially in the lower series, but at the Cup series, it happens too. And sometimes we don't even know the rules. Like when Freddie spun out at Charlotte, and he didn't know he needed to stop and do a stop and go, right? It's happened. So Joel starts fussing with the crew chief on Channel 2.

And Joel just says flat out to him, I'm turning this radio off because I don't want to hear you the rest of race. Joel turns the radio off. So on Channel 1, Pusia keys up and on channel one, obviously the driver and everybody's listening. And he says, Joel, you better turn that radio back on or I'm going to get you fired. No, he said, he said, turn on your channel two or we're going to have a problem. Turn on your channel two or we're going to have a problem, which means. Joel said, we've already got a problem. Joel's response to Channel 1 was, we've already got a problem. Wow. So I can find out about this after the race. I'm laughing about it. Because, listen, in the heat of the moment, you can't let your skirt blow up in your face and get all butt hurt and get mad.

This is part of sports. Now, obviously, they shouldn't be on Channel 1 where the driver's out there racing and having all this drama. But I get a text from Biffel the next morning. And it was, hey, man, any chance you know who can spot for me this week? And I was like, no way. I replied to Bufeldon. I'm like, dude, there's no chance they're going to fire him over this. He said, oh, he's going to get fired.

Like, this is, they're that mad. Wow. And so that's when, and Joel already had issues with Pusia building up to this old. thing. So I was there. I was spotting for Trevor. So me, Joel and Herm get in the car after the race is over, and I don't know this is going on during the race. And we get in the car to head to the airport, and Joel's like, I'm getting fired. And I'm like, no, you're not. Like, he says it all, you know, he says, I'm quitting. I'm going to get fired. And he would say it every week. And he's like, I'm getting fired. And I'm like, oh, if you're not getting fired,

he's like, no, no, no, no, I'm getting fired this time. Sure enough, he got fired. Wow. Dude, he told them what races he wasn't doing, right? This year. Yeah, I mean Hey, buddies I know, I'm jealous The peg, the meter is out The give a f*** meter is run out So yeah, it's end of the long season

For a lot of us and Maybe we just have Joel on next week I would love for him to come on here I would actually pay him to come on here He can co-host because I won't be here We don't have Joel read the questions This is a stupid This is a stupid question

Who wrote this stupid question? Let's move on to the DVC-A Maine where we catch up on all things dirt and if you have any free time this week you should probably be in the charlotte area between the what the top gun invitational at milbridge oh there it is today and tomorrow plus you have world finals the rest of the week and this weekend i mean jeff you've dove into being a dirt fan i don't ask you a two-part question number one what all have you learned about the dirt racing world versus just kind of the other motorsports that you've covered.

And how big of a deal is it that Kyle Larson and Brad Sweet have bought the series from Tony Stewart? Yeah, two great questions. I remember going to my first chili bowl and I was kind of nervous because I was like, man, I'm going to be covering this dirt stuff and I'm going to be such an outsider. They're going to be like, oh, there's the NASCAR guy. And the people are going to be like, why is this NASCAR guy here? Like stick to NASCAR kind of thing. You know how motorsports fans get territorial?

It has been the complete opposite the entire time. Every time I go to dirt stuff, that people could not be more. welcoming because if they feel like if you if you take an interest in your in their sport and you want to learn about it and like you're there because you're you know you're not just like showing up to do some instagram thing or something right like you're there because you care like they're people are they will totally embrace you i mean people have been the nicest race fans that i've encountered are in the dirt world i feel like it's it's a great community um i i wish i could do more dirt stuff because i mean the drivers i mean they're it's so great so laid back

It's so accessible. I think the value that you get, you know, ticket-wise for bringing a family there. I mean, you know, being able to go to the pits afterwards and every driver stays, I mean, you go to a race that Larson's in. And he'll stay for like an hour afterwards and talk to like... Every single person he'll go through. Yeah. He doesn't, he doesn't, he signs all their autographs, takes pictures, totally patient.

Because he gets it because he grew up in that world, you know. So I love the dirt stuff. I think it's phenomenal. And yeah, them buying, high limit buying, the All-Stars is going to be intriguing. I was trying to get Larson to explain exactly why they were doing that because I don't totally get the vision for it. And he kind of said this week that there's sort of a lot of details to work out still, like their schedule. They don't really know how many races they're going to do and all that stuff. But, you know, how much is going to be midweek and things like that.

But they obviously, you know, look, everything that Kyle and Brad are doing, they're doing it because they want the sport to be better. They care about it. They're trying to increase purses, make life better for all their fellow dirt racers and stuff. And, you know, I think they're going to do it well, whatever they do. I just don't know exactly where they're going with it or what the vision is. I can't go to the fucking world finals. Thanks, T.J. I told you.

Thanks for ruining that for me. Appreciate it. Yeah, we got a truck practice on Thursday night, Thursday evening. Fuck truck practice. Yeah. Me and Freddie were both planning on going on the dirt race. Brett. Brett say it for me.

a truck. I've been trying to tell you all for years. I'm looking forward to the truck race this weekend. I am too, the race. I'm watching it. Yeah, I'm looking forward to the race. I got the guy I've had a few times, Jake Drew. He's been there before. I think he's won there before in a K&N car, so we'll see how he does. But yeah, it's kind of messing up mine and Freddie's world finals plans because I think we

were both going to go this Thursday to the dirt truck. I don't even know who's driving my truck this week. That's probably something you should figure out. Maybe they don't know. No idea. Maybe you should go to the dirt race. They don't know who's going to spot it. I have no idea.

Can you ballpark it? No. Let me ask you this. If you call them Wednesday and say your flight got moved or something, you can't make it. Listen, as of right now, I'm not going Thursday because I don't have a flight. I said, if you get me a seat on your plane. Good luck getting a flight commercial because I say. So you're saying there's a chance.

So you're saying there's a chance. It is so bad. So I'll switch with you. You want to do my truck while you're out there? Well, don't forget to catch our. show every Wednesday on DirtVision and tons more dirt action this week throughout the weekend. Moving on to Relection Theater. Oh, boy.

Oh, boy, is right. We got 15 calls. We got at least 70 new calls by Sunday morning. And then Brandon, how many we have when you opened it up? Oh, my gosh. We had probably close to 100. Close to 100 more. 100 and so, 170.

Yeah. That'll fill your Christmas. episode up. So thank you, thank you to all those who called in. We got a lot of hot tub comments, and Austin Hill is an idiot. We didn't get to play all 100 of them, but, uh, good summary. Here are the highlights. Well, boys, I'm out of the water, and I've done dried off because we're headed to Phoenix, baby. Woo! Go Twill. I knew it. I'm glad you got out of the hot tub. They've been, that wasn't a good weekend for hot tubs. They're popping bottles, them Blaney fans.

Yeah, I'm sure. You know, it's one thing to not understand which of your drivers caused both of them to miss the championship race. Austin Hill. But it's a completely other thing to go air all the dirty laundry in front of the media. What a bunch of fucking idiot. No PR nightmare, though, Jeff. We're good. By the way, I just want to warn you.

I thought about almost doing this yesterday. at some point I'm going to call in a disguised voice and try to get on this show as me without reviewing. Brett tried it one day too and it didn't work. No, it did work. Oh, you was honest. Obviously, one way of disguise. You should do it. I will.

You should absolutely do it. When you're dressed up. Yeah. Hey, NASCAR, the short track racing package sucks so bad your pace card just quit. Hey, I got an idea. Maybe the short track package should include a short track transaxle so you can eliminate shifting and get rid of the shit. Later.

So Bubba, we were coming out of backtracks and Bubba's like, I don't know, we're on one to go I think, or coming to one to go. No, it was on one to go. We had shows really. And Bubba's like, there's all over the back straightaway. And I was like, okay, 10, four. So I tell my official and he's like, it's in three and four too. He's like, it's like, it's everywhere.

And then the pace car driver's like, I'm dead. I'm dead. It just pulls out of it. Apparently the pace cars, bro. He's like, I figured how to come out of somebody's car because it wasn't. M.R.N. said, Because obviously it's a bad look for a pace car to be broke. I mean, the OEMs probably are panicking going, oh, no, our pace car has brought down on national television. That's not what OEMs come to this sport to do.

What was it? It's like the guy that time that wrecked the Corvette that was out there on PaceLaps and F1 to look like a fool. Anyway, what they said on MRN radio was that there was so much rubber built up on the track that the rubber built up underneath the Pace Car and it screwed up some of the wiring and the Pace Car. they unloaded a backup they had it ready to go but i think it actually NASCAR actually avoided quite the disaster there because let's say that the leaders

you know they're right behind the pace car really right and the pace card just suddenly dies and somebody does a sam mayer into the back and so like what if you destroy the leader with the pace guard dying i mean i was trying to get out of line and go around them because you're not keeping up pace card speed what if he dropped stuff and the leaders cut their tires i don't think you i think the cup cars are

a lot sturdier than the exfini cars in the front end though. I just enjoyed the lap and a half that we had to clean up truck as the pace car. Yeah. I was excited. I was already in the garage working. We were working on our car.

I was watching that. That was a great clever call by that fan, by the way. Jesus. Austin Hill must have his nose so far off Richard Children's ass that he can smell the last time he had a proctologist up there. What's a word? Proctologist.

You recently visited a proctologist? That's not what they're called. Is it proctologist? Proctologist, yeah. I call it a butt doctor. If you meet a proctologist at a party, just plant yourself there. You're going to hear the best stories you've ever heard all night. Wait, what?

That's not a party I want to go. Yeah, I'm out. What the fuck. Probably would have kept that in Andrew. The Seinfeldre efforts. Hey, Andrew's at this party. You guys want to come? No, I'm good.

I'm not in that. Andrew and his friend with a smelly big is outside. They don't want to come in. Yeah, why's all these gloves laying around? It was a party. Andrew can drop Seinfeld references, but there's no idea what's going on in the world at all. You open a cooler and there's no beer to all the rubber gloves. What the f*** was that, Nash, NASCAR?

You're going to let the last 40% of the fucking race go without a caution? You've been throwing fucking famed of caution all fucking year alone. But you're going to sit here right now and let this shit go green. the entire last half of the race bicycle? Get the f*** out of here. Somebody should have rolled a tire out there. Were they supposed to pick up? I mean, we all say

don't make up, don't have phantom caution. If we throw a phantom caution there for a piece of something. Hey, it's up a shiny tower. It's not moving. Put it out. How many times we used to hear that back in the day? If we do that and two guys get out there in any of them, wreck, or move positions, everyone loses their cool.

Yeah, let it play out. It was a natural finish how it should have played out. I used to love back in the day. It would be like... Love. Love. Just you love. It'd be...

There'd be no... Because, like, what happens normally if there's actually debris is the corner spotter will call it in. And then NASCAR, say, you sure, whatever? And then they'll throw the yellow. But back in the day, used to be, uh, turn two spotter. You got anything? Yeah. Like, what?

Uh, yeah. Now that you mentioned it, I see something. Oh, there it is. Like, do you see anything? No. And I'd be like, you see anything? You see anything? Are you sure?

Are you sure? Are you sure? You want to go check your phone and then check again. Usually, when did that happen? Wendell Jr. was a lucky dog. You could almost bank. Really? Hey, don't pit here. Don't pay it here.

Dale's in the lucky dog spot. Don't short pit. Del Jr.'s lucky dog. You're going to have to show me some stats. It was Dale Jr. Number one and number two was Danica. Danica was not lucky dog. You could expect something.

But I did see, though, that was like, I think Joe Srigley, he's from tobychristy.com. He had a stat that I think it was like 168 lap run to the finish. which is the longest run, green flag run to end in Martinsville race since 1996. Wow. So that was a... That was a long run. No wonder people thought there was going to be a caution.

Yeah, I mean, four guys banked on it. You know, they were banking on some caution. They couldn't make it. Richard Chuldress says Sheldon Creed is the stupidest driver that's ever drove for him. Somebody needs to put Pop Pop on the porch porch because he's out of his mind. Sheldon Creed didn't do anything that a black three car wouldn't have done years of go to get in the position he was in those final laps. Without somebody driving like that,

Richard Childers' name would be just as synonymous as Cecil Gordon or J.D. Mcduffey. Nobody other than racing nerds would even know who his old ass was. Big Richard Childers fan. And he's right? I wonder if they let Shelton Creek come in the shop this week or do simulator time. Do you think he drives a two-car this week? I was going to ask that. Can they do that? Gosh, man. If you don't, that'd be a bad look.

Now that's a PR nightmare. That's a PR nightmare. The thing is they probably have a contract that he has to drive it. And without calls, you can't. If you fire him here in breach, then he can sue. I think if they wanted to, they could somehow, but it'd be bad. It'd be, I wouldn't want to do that. The tweet up, that's what I want to talk about.

The tweet up we had was amazing. Just Gluck is a, we don't deserve him. He is far beyond, uh, I thought you said you were going to call him. He didn't tell me you already did. on our side of humanity. However, he dressed like my middle school teacher. He looked like the science teacher in my middle school class, and I wish I had the gut to dress like that, too.

The man looked comfortable, and the man delivered. What comes out of his mind through his mouth and those fingertips when he types is something amazing. I think Jeff Luck should be president of the United States, to be honest with you. But also got to meet Mr. Kraft. Freddie was so cool at my overbearing. Please let me have a picture.

with you situation, but he was awesome, as is deluxe, every single time. We love you guys. We will travel and spend our money because of you guys. Don't go anywhere and keep telling us those stories. You're right. I couldn't tell that was your voice. You disguised that well. Yeah, I'm a really good, I have a really good impression. The United States. I would have liked to announce my candidacy. We might as well do it right now here on the show. I am running. Can I be a run of me? Well, that's a good way to lose. Yeah, I don't know about that. I think you might have some baggage.

That's the biggest verbal reach around I've ever heard of my life on a podcast. Yeah, that made me uncomfortable. But thanks, except for the science teacher part, which obviously for the Daytona 500, I won't be dressing that way. Do you think that you're going to just fall in love with Jordan's clothes at Daytona and just wear it for the rest of the year? What if you're like, oh my God, this is so comfortable? I don't have that kind of budget. I mean, you know, Jordan brings a separate suitcase, a separate bag of just shoes to the race each week. Wow.

Yeah, that's dedication to fashion. I don't even have that many shoes. What if you come home and Sarah's like, man, you were looking good today, Jay? I'm at a loss here. I don't even, yeah, we can keep going. That's it, actually. That's it. Thank you for the call.

All right, let's move on a reaction theater. Let's try it again. Don't forget to use 704-802-9572. Moving on to AskTBC, use hashtag AskTBC to send in your questions. This first one is from Nell. Jeff, yeah, I love Nell. Jeff, looking forward to next year, which of the new full-time cup drivers do you think will have the most success and why? Well, first of all, shout out to Nell, obviously a fan of your show and one of my old patrons.

I actually wore my, I have a misfit shirt. that they gave me at Bristol. They all sign. They told me to wear it to taunt you with it, I think. That's awesome. Yeah, I actually, part of my, the old Facebook group I used to have when I was on my own. Oh, I tried to get into that group. Yeah, you did. I wouldn't let you. Denied? They virtually watch, they get on Zoom every week and watch the races together. Really? They have to like mute and time it because they, you know, you have different timing stuff. But they all, they're all across the country and they all watch together. And at Bristol, they got together. So Nell was one of those.

That sounds like a great place for Brett. Yeah. Yeah, that's why I was like, yeah, you know what? Seriously. I was thinking next year I'm not going to do a truck because then we could do like live truck broadcasts. Yeah, like the Manning cast, but drunk idiots. So who we got, we got Hosevar next year coming in.

We got Josh Barry coming in. Zane. Zane. And obviously, Neimancheck doesn't really count because he already. Yeah, it's not his first year. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, out of those, I guess I would kind of, lean toward Zane.

Really? I mean, Hosevar is pretty tempting. Barry, I just don't trust SHR enough, so it's hard. But I think... Let's talk about the SHR for a minute. What do they do? You're losing Kevin Harvick.

You're bringing in potentially Noah Greggson. So your driver lineup is Briscoe, Grexon, Priese, Priest, Barry. Josh Barry. So not a lot of wins amongst those four in the Cup series.

obviously. Here's the biggest question, though. It's the last year of their Ford deal. And there's a lot of speculation out there, Jeff, as to what do they do after that? So you're going into a year where you need to have a great year. Is that fair? Yeah, but I don't see how you do that at this point. They're stretched so thin, I feel like. And, you know, what are you supposed to do? Like they, you have inexperienced drivers. You don't, you know, losing Harvick is a big blow. and losing sponsors. I mean, we already knew that they were losing, you know, Bush Beer.

Now they're losing Smithfield. Because I thought, you know, and Amarola said this weekend, hey, I was hopeful that Smithfield, I could get them to, you know, stick around and continue. And then there was talk that, you know, maybe they go with him to, you know, the Xfinity series on some sort of limited basis. And now it turns out they're leaving altogether,

which is, I mean, that's tons of money. Tons of money. They were one of the highest paying sponsors left. So I don't know. you do aside from regroup or try to get slimmer downsize or something, I mean, obviously, if you can get so much money for your charter or something, I mean, you know, look at, Roush used to be five teams, right? And I think if they were going to try to maintain that over the years, it wouldn't have worked out. So sometimes, you know, less is more. And I think,

you know, if your SHR, you just have to consider after this coming season, like, what do we, what do we do to reduce and strengthen it as a whole? Yeah, they got to have a good year. I mean, somehow they've got to pull together and have a good year. And then, I mean, we talked about this on here even. Rodney Childers is on Twitter asking for resumes. Right. I don't see a lot of crew chiefs doing that. In the offseason, you've seen more tweets about it.

Yeah, but to your point, there's another fairly big sponsor over there that's leaving that I know of. And it just, it seems like, you know, we talk about on here all the time that you have to have that A guy because you know, if Harvest not performing. There's something wrong with the cars. You know, you don't, I don't think you have that guy next year. Like, you know, who's your A guy? Barry, that's never, you know, run 10 cup races or

you know, brisco's a winner. I mean, Briscoe's going to be reliably. But he hasn't, he was struggled all year. He's been a worst car all year in that stable. He's, they've gotten better. They've picked it up a little bit here. Well, the bar was pretty low for a while. Wow. Wow. Yeah, it was they were literally last. But he's actually Stewart-Hoss racing to do well. I have a lot of

friends over there. I want to see them do well. But it's going to be a challenge. What do you do? I mean, what do you? Here's the good news for Stuart Haas racing. Gene Haas is a very wealthy human being. And as long as he wants to keep racing, he's going to have the money to keep racing. But you still need the OEM support on the technical side.

That's what I'm worried about is what happens in 2025 for Stewart Haas Racing from an OEM standpoint. That's the biggest question mark hanging over the entire season for me going into 2024. You've got a good group of young drivers there that have won another series. And so you have to regroup and you have to keep trying to give them the pieces and get the cars fast. If you give those guys fast cars, we saw Brisco win races with fast cars, drove over his head a few times, but he was fast. And, you know, same thing with Priest. Priest has shown speed at times. And I think if you give these guys fast cars, I think these guys are capable of winning races.

Hendrick did this same thing. I mean, we were just sitting here watching them lose. Jimmy Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Casey Kane and Dale Jr. And they put guys in there that didn't have a lot of wins in the Cup Series or even a lot of experience in the Cup Series. And somehow or another, here they are this year with 10 wins, right? Obviously, Kyle Larson is a special guy. But to your point, Hendricks' cars were fast when they were replacing those drivers.

Yeah. They've got some work to do. But I do think the driver pool there, you know, if they can have fast cars, they can succeed. Yeah, and you look at, just take yesterday as an example. Like the 10 is in position to win the race late. The 41 and 14 ran well all day long. Kevin was, Kevin was good, you know. Like, so when you give these guys what you, what they need, they can perform, but it's, they're not getting what they need. If they can get a spark at some point, you know, show some speed early in the year next year and get some good runs, that could boost that place. You know,

it can give you. Absolutely. You know what I hope happens. Next one is from Mark and for you, Jeff. is there a concern about writing articles that might be critical of an organization and having an effect on what your sources within that organization give you for early information? How do you balance that out? Yeah, I mean, it's a balance, especially in NASCAR where I think there's a lot more sensitivity. It's not like the New York Yankees beat where, you know, New York sports writers just like go to town on their affiliate writers or something, right? Like, you're just like, yeah, this guy sucks or something, right? Like, and they're just like, yeah, of course. You know, in NASCAR, you know, we've seen other media members in the past come in,

and if you're too heavy-handed, you're just not going to get anywhere. It's just part of the game because people aren't going to work with you. They're not going to give you interviews. It's just they can cut you out so easy. So you have to strike the balance. I think you also don't want to be too much the other way where you're just like, everything's awesome. Oh, this guy's awesome.

You're doing great. and you never criticize anybody because it's not going to come off as respectable or authentic. So you have to strike about my goal personally would be like if I'm going to critique somebody, you know, obviously not everybody's like this, but it would be in an ideal world they look at and they go, oh, that's fair. I mean, that's, yeah, I did that. Yeah, I'm not living up to my before. And a lot of guys, too, like, if you're going to point something out, they already, most,

these drivers are their own worst critics and they hold themselves to a higher standard than you're going to. If you were going to say something about Chase Elliott this year, we're going to be like, yeah, Chase Elliott failed this year because he didn't win. He didn't make the playoffs. He's not performing how he should. He'd be like, yeah. And he would go farther than you would, right? So I think, you know, you try to strike that balance.

You don't try to get personal with stuff. But otherwise you're not going to be, you're not going to last long in the industry because your readers and your listeners are going to be like, all right, this guy's just blowing smoke. He's not really giving me the real thoughts here. So what's the point? you know who was the last person you pissed off oh boy it can't be that long ago um i'm trying to think off the top of my head i can't was it you that there was a point where kevin harvick wouldn't speak to you was that was that you was that somebody else no there was a few years there where yeah

um years yeah i mean you you'll go through that at times um where because i think i printed i think i printed what harvick said to me after a race like he cursed at me and i just put it on Twitter or something. I was like, here's Harvick's comment after the race. And like, that really didn't go over well at all. I mean, that's what he said, but like they didn't like that that was on there, you know? That was probably about 10 years ago, though. Are y'all buddies now? I wouldn't say we're buddies, but he's gotten a lot better. Like, he's, you know, in his later years, he's been a really valuable, you think? He's great. I mean, he agreed to do 12 questions with me this year. So, I mean, like, he was, you know, I've had people say, no, they're not going to do

before. Who? Well, let's see. One year, well, I haven't gotten Ty Gibbs yet on my 12 questions ever.

So there's one. We asked him to be on the show, actually, and I don't think we, I got to. He came on one time. Yeah, but we asked him again. You told me to ask him. I did? I would like to do it to 12 questions

with Ty Gibbs if he'd ever like to do one. Oh. But I don't think he wants to right now. That's interesting. What an idiot. Moving on to what an idiot, and I have a feeling this could be a long one. Freddie? Mine's Eddie Gossich.

I don't know where that came from this morning. It seems like there's some acts to grind there. I don't know if Danny didn't show up for appearance someday or something. But as far as I know, I see Denny putting in tons of work. I feel like he's fairly intelligent to be a 51-time winner, now team owner, very successful man. and I just it's it's it was seemed really out of bounds like I don't know it just was a I think an awful look and I don't I mean I I had my one idiot like I changed it 12 times this week it was it was Petrie and then RC here for a little while then Brett took over the lead I thought nobody was going to catch Brett and then and then this tweet comes out and you're like what the fuck is this guy talking about like I don't usually winning what an idiot's good for you yeah yeah and this one it's actually bad it's a bad look it's just awful like that's Especially you were the president of Texas Motor Speedway, who when they re-got, I don't know how much he had to do with the reconfiguration,

but it's probably one of the worst reconfigurations we've ever had. So, I don't know, maybe he should go to more basketball games or something, play the golf guys tour. I think I would interpret it as like, first of all, I don't think it's a good look at all, but I think that the Denny that Eddie Gossich probably dealt with in the prime of his career is completely, completely different Denny. now. I mean, I think, yeah, you know, probably it was hard to get Denny to do stuff back in the day and probably maybe Eddie holds a grudge for that or something, right? But like,

Denny has evolved into this extremely valuable voice in the sport who is balancing all this different stuff and has been winning and doing well while balanced juggling all this. I don't think him being a basketball fan or something has any, you know. If anything, it probably helps him keep his sanity. You know, it gets to go to a game and enjoy a game a little bit and take his mind off some things. I'd rather him go to a basketball game than go skiing down a mountain. Seems a little safer. There's way worse things that could be doing.

Who's your one-in-a-tage-T-J? I can't word to do it. Man, like, there's so many to pick from this weekend. Like, it could be, you're, I don't know how it's still not you. I mean, when you wake your kids up laughing or, you know. It happens. I don't know how that doesn't win it for the year, honestly. There's a lot.

I mean, everyone Freddie mentioned there with between all the guys the next infinity deal. I would throw, I would throw Joey in there because just turning the 54 for P2 right there, almost wrecking Denny too. I mean, there was no need to go down there and wreck him. You had bowling in turn one. What was that, by the way? Turn three. So, 54 just squeezed down in front of him. He was clear and he didn't want him there.

I mean, that's what everybody does. As soon as the guy gets clear and you want the bottom, you take it, and that's just how the line works. like you let him get clear. I mean, if you get a better X, he doesn't get clear, right? So he got clear, didn't do anything that none of us wouldn't have done, and he just shipped him. Yeah, no chance. And he almost took out a championship contender early in the race,

in the process. Yes, and I just don't think that move was worth it, like at that point. Like, there was why, like, what's the point of that? Now, next week, he's probably got to be watching out a little bit. You know, maybe Ryan loses one of his blockers next week because the 54 probably isn't, doesn't appreciate getting. getting DNFed there, you know, so. All right.

Well, my one idiot is Brett Griffin. I thought that, first of all, I thought I was going to have this hand to me because he texted me last week and he said, hey, are you coming to Martinsville? And I thought, I'm supposed to be on your show after Martinsville. What do you mean am I coming to Martinsville? But then it was, it was his way of asking me if I was confirming for the show. So then I thought, damn it, I lost my chance to make him my idiot. that would have been so easy.

Oh, he redeemed himself. And then I just scroll in my timeline and it just falls into my lap. I'm like, this is unbelievable. Did he really do this? Live look. I'm just really glad I looked at my phone again and said, had a text from you to save me from myself. So thank you for that. Oh, God, I'll be laughing about this for years.

Sorry. I know it's, yeah, God, I'm probably going to get so much blowback for thinking this was funny, but I'm sorry. It's only funny. It was only like I was like I was like I said oh shit Brett what an idiot and then when Brett said what he's dead How the fuck do you not know this? I just hit my head on the microphone too so I might be eligible now What did you have? Did you call anybody?

My was Eddie Gossage and I truly don't have anybody any higher than that and I literally was sitting there. I was like all right I'm a sports fan. I cheer for my team which is the gamecocks like. an absolute 16-year-old high school girl, right? Like, I go nuts over the Gamecocks. And I also cheer against my enemy, and when they fail, like Clemson, I love to see them suck. Like, it's my second favorite thing in sports behind seeing my Gamecox do well. But I don't ever go attack Dabo personally. I don't ever go attack their play. Actually, I stood up for their quarterback a few weeks ago saying that he should not have been put in that position to where he had

to take the brunt of the decision he made publicly an hour after he did it. So I just, man, what a bad look for Eddie. That's then this is coming from me. Like that's bad. That's even worse. Guys got plenty of experience and a dumb tweet said that was a dumb tweet. Yeah. Well, congratulations. Moving on to DBC picks. Congratulations, Brett. You won Martinsville. I've been on fire and I won, I think, three in the first nine, It still don't matter. It don't matter. And I was looking at the numbers and literally none of us can improve our position.

TJ's going to win. I'm going to finish second. Casey, congratulations on not finishing last first time ever. And Freddie, dude, you suck. And I'm actually, so Tyler Redick, he's very interested in once again attending our dinner. But this time he said that, you know, we should maybe step it up and go to State 48. And I think Freddie. He better get a limo because that's a long way.

Yeah, I was going to say, that's too far. No, I think maybe pay for the long. We drink. Do I get a dinner invite? All right. You are invited. I'm the commissioner. You are the commissioner.

He's not invited. Did Jason go with us? Yeah, Jason went, I guess you can go. All right, we got to hurry because I got to go. Yeah. DBC picks. I'm going to take, I'm taking Kevin Harvard. I think we should just pick who he thinks is going to win the race because it doesn't

matter about DBC's picks. Take who he thinks going to win a race. It doesn't matter if you picked them before or not. All right. Who I think is going to win the race? I am going to go with Ryan Blaney. Solid. Who goes next?

It doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Just pick. I mean, you can't pick Ryan Blaney now. No, you can pick Ryan Blaine. All right, you can pick Ryan Blaine. I'll take Christopher Bell. Knew it.

Homer. Yeah, I didn't see that one coming. Actually, I was going to pick somebody else for DGC. Picks. Right. Jesse Love. Who you got, Freddie? I'll take Larson.

I was going to take Larson, too, but just to be different, I'll take Byron. Byron's been on fire, six wins, crazy fast. They've not been crazy fast as of late. Jeff, like I think you guys even talked about it on tear down. Who you got? Who's going to win the race? I'm going with Blaney, hot hand. They just got the short track package right, and he's gone second, second, fourth,

in his last four races at Phoenix. So I think he's going to follow the Lugano plan last year. That's a solid pick. All right. Well, what else can we expect in Phoenix? I know you have to run. I mean, any drama? Championship weekend. I'm sure it'll be a little bit of a lot.

Yeah, a little bit. Are you glad the season's over? Yes and no. We've had quite a bit of speed almost every week now at all the different types of tracks. So you kind of hate to not go to the track this week and be in the top five or ten. But also I know what an offseason has done for the place,

and I'm looking forward to another one and to see where we can start next year. Gluck, you ready? You glad? I'm not because I think I was sort of, last year we just had these crazy moments all year and I think that I kept waiting for those to happen sort of throughout the summer and especially in the playoffs like all right here when's this crazy moment coming it's going to get everybody talking and talk radio and just blow up all the podcasts and

I just I don't really feel like we ever sort of got that so I'm just sort of like oh that's that's it like it's it's just ending oh okay so I guess I'm not really in that mode yet like I feel like it hasn't We haven't gotten the resolution. Maybe it'll be next year. Freddie, you glad us over? I'm looking forward to this race because we have a battle on our hands for 9th and points, which we've had a really good playoff. We've jumped from 16th to 9th, actually past Truex in points when he got knocked out this week.

So I'm looking forward to this race. We've got a battle. We're tied with Ross for a couple of points ahead of Joey. Truex isn't far behind. So it's going to be a battle. But hang our hat on another top 10 of points. It would be nice after we, you know, owner point last year. we finished 10th.

But yes, I shouldn't say I'm ready for it to be over because I'm just going to go racing for three weeks after that, so it doesn't really matter. But yeah, I'm looking forward to going on vacation. Later, T.J., have fun. Gluckie, get one word. 2025, you get to pick the championship race. What track you picking?

Homestead. There you have it. All right, well, thanks for listening, as always. And we look forward to seeing me and Brett will be. Everybody's asking me where Brett was this week, and I promise you was not the racetrack. I was at a baseball film.

Hopefully you'll be, are you coming to the racetrack next week? Yes. Yes. So we'll see Brett. Everybody asks where to meet us. Hang out around the elevator. That's where the best chance you'll see us

because we have to take the elevator to the roof. So if you find an elevator that the spotters are going up, that's about an hour before the race is where you'll find the spiders. Which I think is the sweet elevator as well. So you'll see me there too. There you go. Okay. Jeff, we appreciate you coming on.

You stuck around here instead of flying back to Denver this morning. You're a busy guy. You're one of our favorite. guys to come on. We appreciate all you do for the sport. You're one of the bigger mouthpieces in the social media space and we appreciate, as you've given us credit for in the past, we appreciate your honesty on everything you do. I appreciate it. This was fun. I look forward to this every year. Hopefully I haven't screwed it up enough to ruin my invite for next year. I think this is like time number four on here already. So no, this is, I love doing

this. So thank you guys for letting me come back. That was really cool of you. Good luck in your presidential race. Thank you. Yeah. I will need a running mate just not for it. So Casey, Casey, you're not here next week. So thanks for, what do you thank Casey for? Just doing her phenomenal stupendous, awesome, marvelous job all year. Thank her for still being here after all this shit. She gets through you guys. It has been a few years.

Sorry, I made Andrew. Casey, are you coming back next year if we got to show? Am I invited? I just ask you a question. Can't answer a question. If I'm invited. Wait, what was the question? Were you ever invited?

I was typing down Jeff's purse. I heard in Vegas, you told me that you were the one that actually found me and invited me. So I'd like to think, yes, if I am allowed back, absolutely. Well, we love you, and we hope you have a great offseason. Are you glad the season's over? A little bit. But I have the banquet that they work, so. Well, that should go well.

Nashville again, right? Yes. And I forgot what I was going to say, but Christmas show, whoever tweeted me. Yeah, we'll plan on half. I confirmed Reddick is in. He said he might start celebrating again. He better celebrate something. Hopefully he doesn't show up another candy cane full of fireball.

But we got to pick a date because I'm gone like half of December. All right. We'll pick one of those days. Yeah. Perfect. Thank you all for listening. Have a great week. We out.

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