Door Bumper Clear - 331 | All-Star Brawls, SHR’s Cloudy Future, and Kyle Larson Does It All

Episode Date: May 20, 2024

The All-Star race at North Wilkesboro delivered a little bit of everything! Join Casey Boat, TJ Majors, and Freddie Kraft as they break it all down with special guest, NASCAR journalist Kelly Crandall. Is North Wilkesboro the best repave ever? Did winner Joey Logano's 800 test laps give him an unbeatable edge? Do we want to see more of the “option” tire? Plus, we dive into the uncertain future of Stewart-Haas Racing and debate whether streaming a Crown Jewel race is a smart move for NASCAR. Don’t miss JR Motorsports & Dirty Mo Media Fan Day, presented by Lionel, this Thursday, May 23. DBC will be hosting a live show at 11:15 a.m. For full details, check out Dirty Mo Media’s social channels. Want more DBC? Check out and subscribe to the new DBC YouTube channel! 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 Mo Media. No good. Buy one. Don't ever drive, man. It'll come to you. You're a fucking idiot if you think that's right. Like that just because T.J. planned it that way. Ball three, one to get you now back.

You come in time here. You come and keep up a bottle three. Model three, why? It's hard to get blocked. I mean, seriously. Might be the dumbest thing you've ever said. Door. Bupper.

Clear. So there. Bumper. Pumper. Clear. Clear, clear. Hey everybody. I'm T.J. Majors, Spotted to the Sixth Cup car this weekend. Did pick up Chuck Rice with the 41. And it's quiet here today. It's weird. Our friend Brett, no shows again. He did warn us this time. He was going to be in Myrtle Beach for a baseball tournament. I don't know how many baseball tournaments play on Mondays, but I guess this one does. So he's hanging out at the beach. It's up. By the way, I'm Freddie Crafts. Spotter for Bubba Wallace and Ty Dillon this week. What's up, Casey? Oh, if you're not blocked by Brett, you would all know that he's at Myrtle Beach because we sure did by his timeline.

Oh, does he tweeting? Oh, yes. Casey Boat. Sorry. I had a lot of ice. I had another cigarette. That's not healthy. Yeah.

I'm trying to cut them. Sorry about that. Casey Boat here. We're back from North Wilkesboro. And Freddie, I believe you brought in a pretty cool guest today. I did. And I tried to do this quite a while ago and ended up. Ditching her?

Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad I'm good. enough this time. Thanks, ready. Well, yeah, Blay, listen, this is Rajah's fault, not mine. I swear to God. Yeah, that's true.

I mean, I actually get Rajah shit. Kelly Crandall is in the house. One of my favorite writers and reporters for the series. How are you? I am great. Seriously, though. Thanks for having me. So I've been looking forward to this.

You were on the show one point. I don't think I was on then now. So I remember exactly when it was because I came in and I don't know if you all knew this at the time, but I had two broken ribs at the time. Jesus. And so, yes, it was the old studio very early. I think it was 2018. Was it the old studio like the table or like the couch?

Oh, that was. We were couch. That was a closet. And thankfully it was not a YouTube show then because as I said with the broken ribs. Like I think I sat so awkwardly. Like I'm trying to be comfortable and yeah. Yeah, that room was we had casting couches for sure. I think we were all glad none of those were on YouTube.

Yeah. It was awkward. Listen, and Brett and then like he would wear his jorts and stuff and it's very uncomfortable. times. Did you not feel? Yeah. No, I didn't feel it. Everybody was up close and personal,

more ways than one. Oh, the good old days. Well, how are you being, Cali? What have you been up to since 2018? Oh, gosh, since 2018, and we need a whole separate podcast for that. I'm good.

Very busy. So, Racer.com, the racing writers podcast, a little bit of serious XM. So all over the place. NASCAR 75 years of the book. Plug that. Everybody can go buy that.

So, yeah, just very, very busy, but very blessed. I get to do this on a weekly basis. I know that's cliche, but on this side of the, of the motorsports fence, it's a tough business. So really, just really glad I'm still around. One of the things recently, I mean, last week, obviously, you write, how many articles a weekend do you think you write now?

A weekend? Like, I mean, it's just, I mean. I mean, I can pull up my calendar, my content, my countdown calendar, if we really want to, if we really want to dig that day. Like, I literally have it on here. I think so far this month, there's been two days I haven't written anything. and we're almost to the end of May. But per weekend, I have a requirement of a minimum of three

if there's a cup car on track that day. But of course, I mean, I'm probably doing more than that. Last week popped up on mind that you followed the 11 team around at Darlington, and that was one of my favorites to read. It's like obviously, you know, you're reporting the news of the weekend most of the time. And when you see articles like that, you write some, Jordan, write some, you know, Jeff, you even pops in there once in a while. Like, those are the ones that stand out to me because it's a different look at the sport.

And what, I just wanted to know what jumped out to you most of all, following them guys for an entire day band, Gay Parts, Gay Bart, but, you know, just following them guys around for the day. Yeah, Gay Parts, I think, one of my top three crew chiefs just from, I mean, obviously how good he is, how smart he is, but the time that he takes with the media, he really understands the emphasis or the need to connect with the media, tell the story, make sure we're telling the story and that we're educated.

So that was awesome. I love getting to tell those types of stories, like you said. There's a difference, of course. We've got to talk about practice and quality. in the news of the week, but I love getting to dig into something. So when I pitched that, it simply started as, hey, let me, can I just sit on the pit box? I've never seen a view from the pit box. I think that'd just be something cool to tell folks about.

And then within five minutes, it had evolved as I was talking to Tyler Overstreet of, you know what, what if I just shadow Gabehart and just kind of take up space with him? So that was awesome. I think the biggest thing, Freddie, to get to your question was there was a lot of things that maybe I underestimated or I just, didn't think about that goes on on race day, whether it's how much time they spend in the hauler going over the data, going over and questioning how are we going to start the race, what are we going to do with tires, thinking back to, they were, you know, thinking back to they were,

this was Darlington, so they were thinking about the fall race versus the spring race and, and all of that. And then really when it was time, when I was on the pit box, it was just how much information Gabe Hart likes to have in front of him. I mean, there, there were so many screens and so many graphs and so much data and laptops that I thought I was at NASA for a second. I had no idea what any of it was. So I'm not going to be able to tell anybody's secrets, but it was truly impressive of how much he has in his ear and how much he wants to see and know what's going on. Yeah, it was definitely a great look. Go find that article on racer.com. But anyway, and just real quick, we're actually, Gaypar and I are going to sit down more for my podcast to

talk more about it, to talk more specifically about, I guess, what he's willing to share about the data and how all that works. And I love that podcast too because it's just basically you one on one with multiple, there's one episode that was phenomenal. I can't remember

what episode number it was. Just one out of 300. I mean, they're all great, but there was one that was much better than the other ones. I thought,

you're backing up, Freddie. Yeah. Stop all you're in. Well, I think if you guys could figure out what I'm talking about.

But no, we'll go find that. And that'd be fun because Gabe, listen, Gabe Hart is, listen, he's the best. Like,

he talks more trash to me. than any other crew chief in the sport. But he's just phenomenal what he does and him and Denny's record speak for themselves. He's great. You know, like Denny's great. Dan, Davehart's great as well.

TJ, how was your trip to North Wilkesboro this week? Which one? I mean, I felt like I was there for a month. Yeah. Well, you, I didn't go up for any late model stuff. I didn't not go Tuesday. I was leaving my driveway when they canceled the races on Tuesday or practice.

And oh, there was a race that night. And then Wednesday I spent the day there the entire day there for all. day there for nothing. I ran 20 minutes of practice or 30 minutes of practice, I think, at 9.30 in the morning and Or, I probably got on track about 10.30. And then I left at, I don't even know what time it was. It was pretty late. I felt like, yeah, they called it late. We were there all day. I think it was like maybe 8, 39 o'clock. And it was just drawn out day the cars tour. It's shame for them guys,

because that would have been a great race. That series is phenomenal. That would have been a good race. Kipp there. Yeah. I mean, the way that track race the rest of the weekend, I was, that would have been a fun one to watch. But how was your all our weekend? I mean, All-Sar weekend was kind of normal. It was a little bit chaotic just from the weather standpoint, which, again, I don't know. There's so much rain fell the other day.

I mean, we were, me and Freddie were stuck in a bad situation there for a little bit. It was bad. There was a lot of people were. I mean, it was, we obviously we were supposed to be on the roof, but when it got bad, we kind of went down one level, which was still open air. and just covered. And we were all okay there. I mean, it was raining.

We were just inside there. Then it started getting windy. We all started moving towards the middle. And then it got windy where the entire thing was getting rain going through it. And then we're all over there huddled by this elevator. And, man, there was probably 10 seconds there where I looked over and the wind was swirl. And I really thought there might have been some little bit of a tornado or something. Did you?

I mean, it got. We were huddled around an elevator that wasn't working because the power. The power was out. The power was out. The internet was out. Nobody could communicate. NASCAR could have canceled the race two hours prior and none of us would have known. If you ever played like any kind of organizational sports in high school, like if you ever did

that thing where you're running, you know, the team's running and like somebody at the front of the line, like the back of the line, the guy in the back of line would like run to the front and jump the line and they would do that. That's what we look like on the roof because like it was like somebody had to be in the front taking the brunt of the storm and we all hid behind that person. And then a couple of that guy would move to the back of the line. And I was, it was getting brutal. Then finally, I just gave up.

I was like, oh, we all ran. We have to run downstairs. So there was a staircase down to the room that we're supposed to be in or could be in, not supposed to be in. And I was like, everybody's like, I'm not going down. And you're going to get soaked. And eventually I'm like, I'm just getting soaked here. So we might as well run down the stairs.

It was bad. Thank you. Thank you, by the way, to the fans of the folks that North Wilkesford for for letting us hide out of there and feeding us at the same time. Let me tell you, down the stairs, though, when, because we all went about the same time. And I got about five, seven. feed into it and I was like this is a bad idea. And it was literally like somebody was taking a bucket and dumping it directly on you

when you're going down the stairs. It was it was brutal. But I mean, you saw turn one. How many, you talked about Chris's pictures from the photo room. Turn one, the photo room. Everything was flooded. It was. So what was it blocking the drain?

So I heard a pit sign. I heard a pit sign. Okay. That's the third thing I've heard now. I've heard a toolbox. I've heard, uh, there was a talk. there was a tarp or a cover for a camera, a TV camera or something that blew off and was actually covering the entire drain, which makes quite a bit of sense to me because a pit sign or something would probably have to line up pretty perfectly with it.

Yeah. I mean, when I was standing there talking to you and Kipp and we looked down and the water was going over the wall and in turn one, over the pit wall. Yeah, it was pretty bad. It was, it was brutal. They were backing trucks up and that's probably the most water I've seen laying at a place. or, you know, I don't remember me of Chicago. I know where that's, that's what I had PTSD from Chicago. Yeah. And that's not really, that sucked because, man, the racetrack was great.

I mean, every year it gets better to me, I think they do a really good job. Everyone, when we go up there the first year, I was like, oh, where's everybody going to park? We're going to sit in traffic for hours. Man, everything flows right out of there. Yeah. And credit to them for, I mean, what they had to go through to get the parking lots ready, let alone the racetrack at the facilities. Like, I can't imagine how much money was spent in gravel and whatever else they needed to do to get just the parking lot. We utter tweeted, I fell asleep early on

Sunday night. And when I woke up Sunday morning, utter tweet, I seen others tweet was like, 40% of the parking lots are unusable. And I was like, oh God. So they had sent a note to all of us. And I think it was actually an email that if you're subscribed maybe to the website, it goes out to fans as well. But they said once they, so Scott Cooper, when we all came in Sunday morning, kind of gave us the layout of what they did. Obviously, after things calmed down Saturday, and they went out and started inspecting everything, yeah, 40% of the fan parking was unusable.

So I think it was almost 900 tons of gravel they had brought in. The power didn't come back until about 2 a.m. So it was a long night with that. So for everything that had happened, for them to turn it around early enough Sunday morning to where we all walked in and it looked like everything was fine, is really impressive. And the fact that they had to use the Charlotte Motherspeed way,

like I think they brought shuttles and yeah they were carpooling people I don't I mean did you guys see any issues from like a parking standpoint or traffic from no I mean we went the way they flow that parking lot five out to 421 you can't do it any better it's not it's impossible to beat that I don't know you know I wasn't on the front side but I didn't see yeah last year we seen a lot of complaints I really didn't see anybody complaining and you know you got also realize you're going to a big sporting event like if you hang out you know hang out have you a dd and hang out in the parking lot and drink some beers and wait for the crowd. You're going to wait.

No matter what. You go to a football game. You're going to wait. Anything. Yeah. I mean, but yeah, I mean,

just the way that they got it in shape for us to all be there Sunday with feet and itself. And I will tell you this. They got, even at Darlington and, in, you know, North Wilkesboro,

they do a really good job of keeping up with the racetrack. Those, um, what would we call them? The, the Tundra. Yeah. Whatever.

They do, those things do a really, really, really, really impressive. job. They do more than what people think because 15 years ago, all of it was put jet tires out there and try to heat the track up and blow all the water off that way. These things go by and you can literally, we had a really good view of them off a term four down the front track. You can just see the

water off the track. Like it's really, they got their track trying process. They've cut it. They've cut hours off. Yeah. I was going to say we, they didn't use the Titans time tunders on Wednesday. So we got there and it took, you know, I don't know how. long they were drying before it hadn't rained but we were on i got there they were still not they had one lane dry by the time i got there and then it was another hour until they got the rest of it dry so i'm sure they're working on it for two hours probably um so that's just goes to show you they it probably cuts it in half at least i would say i would say they did a good darling then they did the same thing too with a bigger track but yeah track was in great shape super impressed with the

um the repave they did a really good job with that i mean it's probably the best repave it's probably the best repay that I've ever seen. Yeah. I mean, no doubt about it. Like, there's the, the ability to run in turn one and two, you could run from the, as low as you could possibly get to the wall. To the wall. And that is unheard of at a place like that. And it still has some of its character. Yeah. Oh, there's, there's a bump. There is a bump off a turn four that if you are a little too low, it's, it'll, we were in practice and we just, we had, I forget what happened. We had to come back to pit road. So we like, left pit road and Bubba drove by the entry to pit road. And Booty's like, bring him back. He's got to come back. I was like, all right. So I said, just take it easy. I don't

what the problem is. You ran low off of four. And we ran low off of four. And I was like, what the hell was that? Like, I thought something fell off because they thought there was a problem. If you hit it wrong, man. And then you could see it even, even the guys knew it was there. So they're trying to not stay so low.

But then you're side by side or even three wide off of there. Yeah. And it's, I mean, it'll launch you up a lane if you're not here. I kind of feel like it's a, I kind of feel like it's just, I'm glad there's a bump there honestly because it makes it hard to pass on the bottom. It makes that, you know, that, are you coming? up because there was almost a few wrecks off of term four. Well, I think after the test, which I know that's been a topic of conversation, but after the

test, those three drivers had talked so much about how it's going to be one groove, you're not going to be able to move out of the lane, you're going to wreck if you get out of, so the test told us, or I think told us what we thought was going to happen. And then they went out for practice on Friday, and the drivers that I had asked afterwards are like, I cannot believe how quickly this place widened out. Like, Ryan Blaney used the words. He's like, I am surprised. It is a pleasant surprise, and I had a lot of fun that we could go out there and we had the practice that we had.

And Denny had said, he's like, if nothing else this weekend, we had a really great practice session that looked like a race. Because Friday was awesome. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, Friday was nuts. Speaking of that, when they threw the green for practice, you could tell the guys that, you know, you could tell some of the spotters that haven't been in them situations. Because there are a lot, there's a lot of spotters up there now that haven't had to blend their guys. on track and a practice like this with that many cars. Making Q runs.

Yeah. Well, yeah. And in truck practice, literally in truck practice, we're making qualifying runs. Yeah. You know, and you could see, like, you could see the inexperience of them. Like, we sat there at Tina Pitt Road 15 minutes to go. And there was a whole, you know, and I'm like, all right, just stop here, Bailey. We're going to wait for this spot.

Well, we start rolling off and we're going to get in. And well, here comes the 43 who I would like to find still right now. And, um. What would you like to say? he might say something later for him. Yeah. Hold my watch. Like, it's just a respect thing, though.

You're sitting there and you wait for a qualify, a hole for your qualified run, and they know you're doing that. And then when you roll it right off a turn two, the guy drives around the outside and it just forces his way to get in that spot, that's just disrespectful and dumb on his part. But still, it was chaotic but fun. I mean, I liked it.

Would y'all think of that softer tire option? It was great on Friday. Yeah, I was going to say, I feel like Friday was perfect with the weather and how everything was. It just didn't fall off the way they hoped it did. I don't think. Really at all. We, you know, it fell off. It's similar little of what we had, you know, even the other tire.

Like they fall off, but they kind of fall off. Everybody falls off the same. So it doesn't really have an advantage to, you know, we put the yellows on immediately. We had a plan going in. If there's an early yellow, we're going to put the yellows on so we can go red, red for the next two cautions. and we thought that, you know, we just maintain our track position here, you know, get what you can. Obviously, we wanted to push forward.

Our car wasn't great at that point. And you're stuck in traffic. It was hard to pass. You know, it is what it is. And it's just a problem like everybody going to same speed like we always say. But, you know, it, the, I was, we're watching the lap times. And I said, when the run started, I said, these guys on the reds are probably going to take off and lap as many guys as they can and, you know, hope the tire lasts.

And I was like, but they're going to fall off. You know, then I'm watching him. And I'm like, okay, he's not falling. off. I thought at some point, and your hope is with a tire like that, I think the idea behind it is you've got this really soft option and this, you know,

I don't know. I agreed, you know, I've seen somewhere on Twitter where they said they shouldn't just call them hard and soft because if somebody's, I don't think, I don't think they're mediums and hard. If somebody turned in their option and prime,

they don't know what the hell's going on. They don't know which ones which. So, like we need to be, to make that a little easier for our fans understand. But so the soft tire, the idea I think is the soft tire is supposed to be faster at the beginning of run and much slower at the end of the run.

And it just didn't happen. You know, there seemed like the yellow tire gave up speed in the beginning of the run and never really gained it back. It would just kind of break even at best because like Joey ran us out. He couldn't pass us. Yeah. But he ran us down and caught us. I mean, Kelly, you said like, he could have, but he didn't want to be.

What else was he going to do? He drove to the back of us five times. Well, I mean, he didn't want. He was smart about it. If that's a race, he's probably going to be a little more aggressive to get a race. Well, I mean, a point. Well, I mean, a point race. You know what I mean?

I think he goes by if that's. he was very nice to you. I promise you, if he would have done worse than what he was doing, Bubba would erect him. Well, that's why I didn't do it. Yeah.

But I'm telling you right now, if that's a stage point coming up or something, and he's got a second place, he's going to do what he's got. I mean, it's still, everybody's doing what they do. But I'm just,

the fall off of the tire was, you know, we never gained an advantage of being on the yellows long in the run, late in the run. The only time that I saw it start to come into play was almost a hundred laps in. And I noticed Chris started, we were really good at the end of that first deal there.

We got to third, and we were a little better than Joey, and I think we were a little better than Chris then too. But that was 100 laps in, man. You know, you can't. It went much longer on Sunday than I think everybody anticipated based off of what we saw in practice, right? Because practice you had, it was a much hotter day. It was in the sunlight, and you had teams,

some were on the red, some were on the yellow. So there was that conflicting lap times, right? So I think going into Sunday, it seemed like the mark everybody was talking about was, what, 30 laps, maybe 40 laps. And then Sunday, they could go 100 laps. But Sunday was much cooler. It was at night. There was a lot of grip in the racetrack. So you just had so many different variables, plus a freshly repaved racetrack that I think they came in with what they thought was going to work.

And then all the variables just completely threw out the way. And I think the variables and the weather played a factor into why Bristol was so good. back in the day of two months ago when everybody thought that was the best tire ever. But, you know, to your point, after the open, you know, we ran Reds to the last 50 laps of the open. And we're there, they were concerns of our, on our team of the open, which was, what, two, three hours before the All-Star race, in the sunlight.

It was still pretty hot out. And Booty was like, man, I don't know that our tires would have went another 50 laps. Now, we were running as hard as you possibly could because we were battling Josh for the last spot. But he's like, man, I don't know that those tires would have, gone. You know, there was some chunking a little bit here and there. He goes, I don't know that they would have ran another 100, you know, another 50 laps, you know, if it went green for 100. So there was definitely concerns on our end, but for the 22, he didn't seem to have many concerns

because he kicked everybody's hands. I don't think, I don't know, I still think everyone, whether it's hot, whether it's cool. To me, it's going to fall off the same. The tire is still going to have the same. The speeds are just going to be a little bit slower. I didn't see enough. Nobody had a tire issue at all. No. That I saw it. I think it's still. needs to be softer. The 20% has not. What happened to the 24? He hit the wall before.

He hit the bump and he hit the bump. Yeah, coming off four and then hit the wall and broke a toe link. So he got loose off of four when he hit the bump and it hit right rear. Then it swung the right front over to hit. I was watching it. I saw it happen. But to me there's not like there's still no, it's qualifying laps every single lap still.

Yeah. You're not saving. There's not like we were talking about earlier. There's no conserving. Before the race, I said, you know, talking to Bubba, I was like, do you think you can save and go forward? and he's like, I don't, he's like not like Bristol. You know, he's like not, you know, it's like there's not enough there at the end to, to move, you know, even if you do save, you're not going to go anywhere.

Even Darlington. Yeah. Even Darlington. Look at Tyler. He'd run. I mean, the problem with the tire for me came in at the end of the race where what happened was, you know, these guys that pit on that first caution put the yellows on, they had two sets of reds left essentially. We had one lap reds and sticker reds. So we knew we'd have a tire advantage with 50 to go.

And we, I think we gained three spots. from it. Look at Larson. We had 50, yeah. Larson got to third, and then he faded back, and Chris got him at the end, and Chris had, what, 40 lap? Yeah, 50 or 40-something lap. Larson looked like he was just going to easily drive by Denny and Joey.

And then I think he's also said, though, that because a few of us obviously had asked, like, what happened? Was it changing your lane, or did you just heat the tires up too much? And I think he had said just over time they had pumped up the air so much that he was probably just abusing them too much. Yeah. I mean, we took all. We, on that restart, we kind of knew Larson was the first one on four tires.

we were the second one. We actually got outside of Larson and then passed him down the back straight away. He got loose in 03 and then he got back by us. But I thought the same thing you did. When he dove by the bottom and we were both going to the front. I'm like, oh, damn, we're going to do this again because we did it last year. Larsson, we pared out of cycle and Larsen drove to the front. We drove to second.

And I'm going to do this again. We stuck behind this guy again. And then we fade. Like as soon as we got to, I think six, wherever we finished, we just faded out there. We were all over Blaney for like five, ten laps. And then he drove away from us. and we just kind of. Yeah. Blaney was fast.

He'd fade a little bit at the end, but like I said, it wasn't long enough to really come into play. The only thing, like, one thing that I keep reading about is they want like, oh, we should go to the other tracks with this softer tire or these different, your tire choices would mix things up. You're still, to me, the only way these rate, their best races are the ones where it brings the driver, the driver into play more where the driver has to learn how to conserve a little bit.

Tire management. And there is none of that, even with another tire. I think this tire is better that I think if you had me to pick which one like where I don't even go next, Loudoun maybe. Like I would rather have the red tire there just because it's going to fall off better. It's a step in the right direction. But I still think like Bristol, it just, it needs to be more. I don't, I don't want to, I'm basically saying that I don't, I don't want other compounds because to me, you're still going to run as hard as you can on that tire every single lap. I want the guy to be like, okay, well, I'm going too hard here and maybe I need to back it out of or I'm going to run into an

issue. There used to be payoff at the end of the road. Yeah, exactly what we saw in Bristol, which is you saw guys in Bristol that, like a Kyle Busch or like a Ty Gibbs, if they eventually pushed too hard, what happened? They, they, the driver, stepped over that line, right? Like, you want the tie, you want it in the driver's hands to wear a little bit. Yes, it should be a mix. Yes, how hard am I pushing? Do I push hard now? Do I have to wait? Did I use up too much of my tire? Yes, I've...

Kansas was similar to that. Yeah, tire management. I've missed those words. I thought Kansas was really good, too, because you had guys. guys that were really fast. And then if they went a little bit too hard, they, oh, I had a little bit of an issue. And one thing I really like about that, I think they've done a really good job figuring out the tires is these tires don't just pop. They start coming apart and they can feel it. Yeah, it's not failures. Yes, they're not. There's not a guy popping right at front and going up and hitting the wall. They, they get super loose and they can't drive the thing, which is awesome. Then they know they got a pit. Yeah. So I think that, that, I like the direction we're going.

It just needs, I guess I'm just getting greedy and want bigger steps at a time. I think that's something that like all of us, the media, like we all need to continue to educate the driver or the fans on, TJ, to your point, which is there's a difference as we, and we talked about this after Bristol, there's a difference between tire failures because Goodyear was doing something wrong versus tire wear because the tires are softer and the driver was pushing it too much, right? If the tires are popping and just cutting down, then yeah, there's an issue that Goodyear needs to look at. Well, Chris is new. Right, but if we go to Bristol or places like last night and it's just wearing, like that's what's supposed to happen like that's a variable. I think if you go back to Bristol,

I think the I think teams are, I think they have a much better grasp on it because it used to be, I mean, you used to be able to over, you know, overdo a setup for speed and it bit you if you did that. Like, you know, you have a camera right front. Then, you know, you get too far to a run and then, yeah, you're really fast, but then you're in trouble. But I think they're on a good path, but you just want to see the driver. I want to see the driver's experience and ability to manage the car. car come into play more. Yeah. No,

I completely agree with that. Well, shifting gears to another hot topic. Yeah, we were doing that too. Well, yeah, I'd imagine maybe just a little bit. Shifting gears to another hot topic, obviously big weekend week for Larson, who is running both the Nd500 and... Who?

Oh, yeah, you haven't heard of them. I haven't heard this news. What's going on? Weird. So he is actually running the Coke 600 this weekend and the NDAG- Wait, like, by foot? Yes, yes. Cool.

Are you going to follow with it? The only time I run is if someone's chasing me. So, same. So we're on the same page here. Cops? Anyways, yesterday, obviously Kyle had a really strong qualifying effort at the ND500. We'll start fifth. And NASCAR made an announcement earlier yesterday, saying that they're shifting the time of the race to 830 from 8 to allow time for Larson to get there.

If you were attending either the Coke 600 or sorry, the North Volksville race or the ND 500, would you have wanted NASCAR to make that decision? I don't have a problem with it. I mean, it was 15 minutes. It's not like it was an hour. Yeah. I don't have a problem.

I know Jeff never like, you know, reference. There's a gluck poll yesterday, which I think was 64% yes last time I looked at it. And there was no reference of time. I don't have an issue with it. They didn't really need to move it back because Kyle was there in plenty of time.

But, you know, the optics of it maybe not are great. And you set a precedent to where, Are you going to do this for everybody? If Justin Haley's running late, are we going to hold up the race for him? Or is it just because it's your most favorite, you know, seems like your most popular guy this week, you know, and related to the 500. So, I don't know, it sets a dangerous precedent for me.

But, you know, I don't have a problem with it. I think you want the guy to be there. And I think that for me, that opens up a bigger can of worms. I don't think either one of you guys really have a problem with yesterday. But, you know, the thing that bothered me the most about it was, like, if Kyle, for some reason, couldn't be there, the five car was just going to be sitting in the garage the rest of the night. because for whatever reason they weren't going to let them run the All-Star race

and then they weren't going to let them run the Open because they tried to qualify for the All-Star Race. Kyle was on track qualifying when we were getting ready to start or even maybe running the Open. The Open. So how are you going to make that decision when the guy's not even done? You don't even know what it looks like his schedule. So I just thought that he should have let them guys, no matter what,

put All-Gyre or whoever they wanted in the car to start at the back of the All-Star race. The team earned it. They earned that opportunity. I know Kyle was a driver, but it's not like he switched teams. Like I didn't understand the fact that they were just going to like make the five cars sit there and watch the five teams sit there and watch the race of Kyle somehow didn't make it back.

What did Kurt do? What was the situation? Kurt, we didn't run the All-Star then. I mean, you ran it, but it wasn't the same format where it's- Yeah,

I think it was just the perfect storm of how everything lined up this year. From the timing to the schedule of the race to where we were. Like, it just, because I don't remember this being this close or this tight in years past. It was always a focus on what would happen. with the 600. I do not remember any talk about the All-Star race before that and what would happen. Yeah. I mean, they might, I think they've changed the Indy 500 qualifying formula. That's what I'm saying.

They did. I think it just lined up on both sides of how this fell. They did. Timing in the format of it definitely shifted for this year for sure. But who knows when this will happen again, right? So I feel like NASCAR at this point just to play. And again, I feel like, I mean, if it's 15 minutes, I mean, this is, I agree with Freddie. It sets a precedence, right? But it's a really big story. It's a, he's clearly, I feel like a crossover star from, whether it's from dirt to NASCAR or NASCAR now to IndyCar or what have you. So 15 minutes to me didn't bother me because, again, I think just the way all of this fell on this weekend that it was like, all right, I mean, we want him here because he and his team deserve to run this race. I mean, yeah, the rules of it of the five team, if they weren't going to run, that would have been really crappy. But, I mean, it worked out.

I mean, does it matter if it's five minutes, 15 minutes an hour? Does it make any difference? I mean, if you rob a bank and take $2, does it make a difference if you're better than a thousand? I felt like, and this came up in conversation as a few of us were standing out there waiting for the helicopter because the TV at the track was following it, which was really funny. That was a flyover. I wonder if the reason that they pushed it at all, because he clearly didn't need it, right? He was there, I think, an hour with an hour to spare. So a few of us were talking. I wonder if they made that decision

after he made the fast six where it was like, ooh, if he has a legitimate shot to win the poll, do we want to give them just that wiggle room for if he won the polls? Because clearly,

I think if he had just made the fast 12 and hadn't advanced, I don't think they would have touched the schedule. Yeah. So it was my understanding that he was leaving the second his lap was over and didn't care where he ended up.

Now, I don't know how Indy would have felt about that. But the first what I mean, right? Like I think the schedule, the schedule that I read was that that session was supposed to go until about 555, 6 o'clock. And that he, his schedule, they had him that he needed to be out of there by 6.15. So that's why I wonder if, all right, if they think that schedule went the full distance to 6 o'clock and he won the poll, would that 15 minutes then have been enough for him to do the poll winning interviews, photos, and then we can get him out there. Is it not enough time still, though?

I mean, it was hours before. It was like three, four hours before. It wasn't. I mean, it was. Like, why not just wait and see if he gets and be like, hey, and have it, like, I don't know, maybe they, like you said,

I don't think they need to do anything. I think that at the same time, though media probably played a factor because he did have pre-race, which this is obviously the most, like, celebrated or talked about topic, especially from a media standpoint. I imagine they want to make sure that there's enough time for you all to get your time with Arson, too, at the beginning, I would think.

I mean, we didn't get any time with him before the race. I mean, he came in. he landed, he got in the golf cart, they brought him to the infield, he went to the transporter because that was the first time, obviously, he'd seen or talked to his team, and then he went right to driver intros. He did, he did pre-race interview. Okay, so he did TV, but yeah, not anybody else.

Like people were chasing him and whatnot, but no, it was land, go to the team, do Fox, go to driver intros. Well, overall, really cool that this is something that hopefully NASCAR and IndyCar will gain some new fans on. For sure. Well, guys, the Denny Hamlin Bracket Challenge is back for. year two. Yeah, just like last year, the bracket challenge will feature the top 32 NASCAR Cup Series drivers and points going head to head following the Coke 600. The five races in June will

determine the winner. Uh, yeah, Freddie, the bracket challenge will open May 28th and close at 3 p.m. on June 2nd, just before the race at Gateway. More details are headed your way soon. Just follow all dirtymo Media social channels or go to dirtymootmedia.com for details. When we come back, we will catch up on some more topics on 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? Spot on, spot off. First topic, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. saying maybe Richard will hold my watch after being wrecked out of the all-star race on lap two. and promising to deliver payback to Kyle Busch. Kelly.

So, well, spot on, and I'm assuming that's what he said in his television interview, because I was in the scrum when he left the care center and he had a whole lot more to say, which basically was very blunt saying, just watch after the race. Because he was stuck there, right? There's no tunnel at North Wilkesboro.

So he was just going to get madder and madder as the night went on. So I'm spot on the fact that he said it, he meant it, and he followed through with it. And I'm also spot on if I was to judge the, the punch, which I'm not an expert. But one of the things I've always said for years, having watched enough NASCAR fights, is if you're going to throw a punch, don't warn them, don't tug their collar beforehand. Don't, you know, get right, like clock your, no, you just swing, right?

And he swung and he connected. So A plus on that. So I'm spot on the whole thing. It was awesome. Yeah. I mean, the wreck, I agree with Ricky on the wreck, too, because it looked to me like. It's more than 34. It's more than 34.

Yeah. Well, yeah, it looked up. Well, even looked to me like Kyle hit the wall. before he, you know, Kyle moves up into one and leaves the entire middle lane open. Oh, he doesn't hit the wall because of Ricky, really. Yeah. I mean, there wasn't an, he was going to hit. It looked to me like he hit the wall. He was really wide off that corner. Yeah, it looked at me, like he hit the wall and then hit Ricky and then kind of, you know, bounced back up in there. But yeah, this was like to your point, I thought Dale had the best tweet of the 90 when he said

cement all the tunnels. You know, Ricky said that punch looked like it had 199 laps of anger built up behind it because like if you listen to the audio, like Kyle never really says anything to set Ricky off. It's just you could see like it the whole time he's like I'm going to hit this guy. You know what I mean? It's like and eventually, you know, Kyle's smart like Kyle didn't seem like didn't know what happened in the wreck anyway. Well actually what Kyle said right before the punch was because Ricky kept saying I didn't hit you. I didn't touch you. You hit the wall and hit me. And Kyle, from the angle where you're looking at Kyle's face, Kyle does a Kyle where he kind of gets sarcastic and he's like, really? And Ricky's like, watch the replay. And Kyle's like,

I don't believe that's what happened. But if if that's, that's what you say, then okay, right? And as soon as he was, like, he didn't even finish saying, okay, when here comes the punch. So I think maybe that set Ricky off even more that he's like, I don't believe you when you say you didn't wreck me. So, yeah, I just, it was this. Then the melee ensues, they both end up on the ground. Here comes, uh, it would appear to be Ricky's dad in the middle of that. I don't know what. A whole thing was fantastic. He will feel it this for me. That's the part, who who, who, Kyle? No, Ricky's dad is definitely going to probably be sore, but I'm just spot on for the whole thing.

Keep it coming. Yeah, I mean, listen, you can't just, I'm not, I mean, I've seen Kyle go down there and throw punches too. So, I mean, hey, it's, we're all racing. And I don't think Ricky put Kyle in the fence. I think Ricky, they were going to hit right off the exit of the corner because the 34 was moving Ricky up. But that's not Ricky's fault, you know, but Kyle did hit the wall before, you know, Ricky got there. Kyle, and I mean, I don't know where he was going into one, but he left the whole middle lane open.

Yeah, I thought, well, that's the thing too. Really wide. You leave it open, and I'm going to go ahead and tell you, like, a guy like Ricky's, Kyle would, if you switch the cars, Kyle's going to do the same thing, you know, and there just wasn't, there wasn't going to be enough room on the exit, but Kyle definitely got another. They were going to hit eventually, and you know what?

If they hit a little bit later, like maybe Ricky gets turned into the wall at that point, but, yeah, I don't know. It was exciting. I'm sure we'll be talking about this. It was very obvious, too, because Kyle, you know, we started last essentially. And so there was right in front of me. I see the eight kit in the fence. I said, watch, you know, check up.

Aides in the fence. All right, keep coming. And then he goes into three and tries to wreck him because it couldn't get to him. And then he goes to Bubba down to front. I said, I think the age trying to wreck the 47. Sure enough, he goes into one. You know what? Pounds of.

I was like, oh, man. The walk to the holler. Ricky is just, like, leaning. Right. Can we break that down for a minute? Like his whole, I'm literally waiting here for you. So also, I think Kyle was told he was there because Kyle got out of the car and myself and a few other, of course, like we're waiting for him, right? Like we've already heard from Ricky.

He's promised that something's going to happen. He didn't look surprised. So a few of us are standing there and myself and I don't remember who it was standing next to me. We look at each other and we're like, all right, first one to spot Ricky wins, right? So we're standing at the 8 and we're already looking like where, like is he actually going to do something? Kyle gets out of the car, takes his helmet off, kind of messes with his hair as he normally does. I'm of the assumption that Jimmy White told Kyle

Ricky's at the hauler because Kyle stood there for less than two seconds from getting out of his car and then he started walking with purpose. Did you know it's his birthday today? Jimmy White? It's his birthday every day. I'm sure he's really enjoying it.

And that's just my assumption. That is my assumption based off of, because I didn't hear it, but that's my assumption based off of Kyle's reaction where he got out, like I said, He got out of the car. He didn't stay there and he was walking with purpose to the garage. And didn't you say like,

here we go again. Like, as if he knew this is coming. You know, uh, you know what to remind me of this is going to be weird. But remember at the end of 16 candles? When all the cars pull away and there's that guy standing there with next like,

that's what Ricky looked like waiting for you know talking about. Like everything about this was perfect. Oh. It was so good. It is like, you're looking for me. Brick, I didn't know what Brett was talking about because I got was a wee high tail out of

there as soon as race is over. So Brick calls me on the way home and he, he's like, dude, some guy just got DDT on the lift gate of the eight hall. I'm like, what? Oh, what are you talking about? Yeah, that one crew member was, I think, I think Kazim had compared it to like the Royal Rumble if you're a WWV fan. And I'm a WWE fan. So when I saw that tweet, I laughed out loud.

I was like, that's true. He was like, nobody is getting in here. Well, shout out to all of the media members and really, even fans that were surrounding that area. I would love to see, like, compilation videos of everyone's faces like Bob when he's holding the video and Davey. Oh my God. That was the best. That's another funny story because after that happened, I'm in the garage. I'm watching it with Bob.

We're laughing. Larson comes running over to watch it. Cliff Daniels comes over and we're all just making fun of Bob and we're like, Bob, you know by the time you get to the media center, that's going to be a meme or a gift. He said it was, I think it's his profile picture now on Twitter. It used to be the Brad Kay. My favorite was that. Did you ever see that?

That guy is like, my name's Paul and this is between y'all. So I was texting him last night. that's Josh Sell that works for us. And I'm like, dude, you're internet famous right now. There's a huge brawl going on. You're just standing back there. I don't think I've ever seen any emotion on Josh's face. And a lot of those guys were in the Brad K fight like years ago.

I'm pretty sure Jimmy was Brad's rep or was that a year after? I don't, he wasn't, he wasn't there. I don't think. Because, I mean, there were a lot of similar, like, I don't think so. Maybe. I don't think so, though. Anyways, moving on earlier this week, during the interview on

serious, Chase Briscoe talked about SHR's future saying there's just a lot of uncertainty. Nobody really knows what's going on. If SHR is still around, I feel like they would keep me. And on a similar topic, Kevin Harvick stated that on the differences of working with Hendrick Mothersports this past week,

seeing the owner twice in two weeks is nice. Oh, with driver contracts and sponsor negotiations being a big part of the sport is SHR dissolving? I mean, spot off for Chase's comments, spot on for Harvick's comments, because I know I have a lot of friends. I know T.J.

has a lot of friends over there and it seems like anybody who talked to that works over there doesn't know if they have a job next year. You know, they don't know, like there's a lot of guys worried about their future on that race team.

And it's a four team operation right now. So it's a big undertaking. And I don't mean, Kelly maybe knows more than any of us in the table. But, you know, I feel like every rumor I hear out of that place changes daily. You know, whoever you talk to is it's a completely different rumor.

You know, so it's hard to understand what the hell is going on over there. You know, then just backing up with just, you know, like we talked about last week, you know, two charters here, then they're going to sell the other two. Are they dissolving?

I don't know. I don't think so. I think there's going to be some remnants of SHR left, whether they keep a charter or if a charter moves down to the Formula One shop, I don't know. But it's, like I said, it seems like every time I talk to somebody else about this, the rumors changed completely. Yeah, I'm spot off for that part of it because those people are in the unknown and that sucks.

I mean, they're not enjoying it. But I do think it'll all turn out to be okay. I think, you know, it's pretty, I think what Noah and, you know, Josh and Chase and I think what some of them guys are doing is pretty impressive, you know, for in the state that that place is in. and, you know, having really solid runs. And, you know, if they don't have that penalty at the beginning of the year, there, you know, that was pretty decent to points. Yeah. Oh, I thought you were done. No, I mean, I'm just, I'm spot off.

You cleared your throat. Usually that's your. I'm spot off because I don't, I don't like what those guys, you know, those employees are going through. But I think, um, I think the future will be good still. I mean, I don't think it dissolves. I think something happens and it either, you know, I think it'll work out.

So I would say I'm spot on when it comes to Kevin and Chase's comments because who am I to, you know, disregard their feelings and their thoughts? Like they're obviously closer to it than I am. I'm spot off kind of like what TJ was saying, that it's come to this with Stuart Haas Racing. It feels like for the last three years, every year, there has been a rumor around the status of Stewart Haas Racing, whether it's manufacturer changes, whether it's driver changes, charters, something, right? And the fact that we've now come to the point where we're talking about them just completely going away is what I'm spot off on.

It's just, it's really unfortunate. I mean, I share a lot of the same opinions that you two have already said. I just, I hate the fact that you have really talented drivers and really talented people over there. And we don't know what's going to what's going to come next. Because, Freddie, you're exactly right. Every day it changes. Every day the rumor changes. But again, I feel like we've been in this cycle for three years now when it comes to this company.

Yeah, there was guys last year that I was helping. trying to help get jobs in places. And they had an opportunity to go work at Stuart Haas. And I was like, man, I don't know, you know, some place, you know, they ended up in a team in the sport. And they were talking about going to Stuart Haas, which was a much more reputable name at the time. But I was like, man, if you go over there, the future is cloudy at best, you know. And I don't know if they're going to have four cars, two cars, one car, no cars next year.

I think, you know, this is a secure opportunity over here. I think this is what you need to jump on. And then I think right now he's probably pretty little. glad that he did that. But, you know, it's just, like you said, it's just, it's unfortunate. And then, you know, on top of that, you know, we get into some, you know, rumor-based stuff, you know, I thought one of the bigger things that came out last week was Chris Rice went on serious, I assume, and said, like, listen, we've all heard rumors about them getting some kind of merger or selling their charters off to Trackhouse. And Chris came out and said, that's not happening,

you know, that basically denied it. And then that puts into flux, you know, Zane Smith, SVG, because, you know, Zane's running as alone to from Trackhouse to Spire now. And if they don't have a third chart, if Jackass doesn't acquire a third charter somewhere, you know, it seemed like the reason why their rumors are out there probably is because it seemed like such a natural fit that they need two charters. They have two drivers that are ready between Zane and SVG.

And that was just, you know, that colleagues got two charters there and then it's going to be a natural fit. Well, Chris denies it. So now what happens to Zane Smith? I mean, obviously Zane has struggled mightily this year. I couldn't believe yesterday.

I looked down to, we started the open based on points and he was essentially last, except for the 66 car that was there that showed up one time this year. So, yeah. But, you know, so, I mean, I know Zane's not performing well, but you would like to think he was going to get a second opportunity at least. Well, I think those rumors, Freddie, as you were saying, I think those rumors stem from last year

because when they announced the deal to put Zane in the Spire car, the follow-up comment was that Trackhouse intends to expand in 2025, right? And that he was probably going to come in house. And then it's ballooned since then because then they announced SVG's deal, right? and now Suarez is in a contract year. So you really do have more drivers than you have spots. And so all these rumors now about, well, maybe they'll merge or maybe they'll join forces with someone else.

Well, when that gets shot down, and then McDowell is now going to Spire, and Zane is clearly out of that ride. So, okay, well, he's now floating in the wind. Swores claims that everything's going well with getting his contract finalized. And, well, what's SVG going to do then? because he made it clear in Darlington when I specifically asked him about his season that he is eyeing the Cup Series next year that this year was all about getting him ready and seeing if he

can handle it. So that, I mean, those rumors stem even from last year and now you have more pieces falling in place and every day it's like, well, that one gets shot down. Do you think it was too much at once or too much like expanding too quickly? For trackhouse? Yeah. Maybe. And again, if you go back though, when the, These comments were made last year. It looked like at the time, like, there was how many charters available, right? Like, there were people, it seemed like the market was really good.

The chairs were leaving. Right, and the sport was good. And then we now, but here we are, flash forward. And there's no charter deal. They're going back and forth with NASCAR. Who knows what you want to spend on a charter? So I think the story changed quickly from when Justin Marks made those comments last year, when that deal was announced with Zane to what the landscape of the sport is,

right now. Yeah. And, you know, we've, and you watch any sport, there's no such thing as too much talent, you know, and they've got, they've not only, you know, you mentioned them four guys. You've Connor. They've got Connor Zillarsson where somewhere, you know, Brent Cruz is somewhere probably down the line with a deal over there, you know, so I mean, there's, there's no shortage of talent. I know, obviously those guys are a couple years away from the Cup series, but, you know, where do they go? You know, if you track house, you know, it seems like such a natural fit to me to have those two teams paired together because colleague was doing a great job with their Xfinity program. And obviously you can see right now, last night, perfect example,

they are struggling mightily on the cup side. So it just seems to me like a natural fit like, you know what, we can manage this together. You give us these two charters. I've not given to us. You know, make some kind of deal. We take these two charters and then we run our pipeline through your Xfinity system. It just seemed like such a natural fit. And it's a shame that it's not happening, but, or maybe it's not happening right now. Who knows the future holds. But yeah, yeah, just silly season is very silly at this point because it literally changes. This might be the Silliest, silly seasons. It really does.

Not even by the day. It changes by the person you talk to. Oh, that's true. Well, that always happens, right? That's anything. But it's just like, you know, obviously. But like sometimes like if I could go to certain people that are usually pretty much

in the know and the two of them are like completely different, I'm like, wow, this is, this is wild. And this is why I don't break news. Like I leave that to Jordan and everybody else because my phone will go off at like, you know, 10.30 in the morning, I'll get one text message and 45 minutes later, somebody will text me and it's completely different. Listen, I've got you covered. The easy. thing to say in any of these situations is Freddie and Brett said that's all you have to do.

The number of Jayski Reddit posts are Brett and Freddie say that this is happening. I read them all because I listen to the show and then I just wait for them to pop up on Google. I like when people take something that you say and turn it into something else. Oh, that's like. Undersea. All right. Well, back to North Folksboro. In his winter interview, Joey Lugano admitted he ran.

and 800 laps during a test session prior to the All-Star race in this era of little or no practiced, did this give Lugano an advantage over the field? Brett. Brett. I just said Brett. I looked at Freddie. Hold on. Let me call him.

I looked at Freddie. I just looked at Freddie and I had a vision of Brett giving me an attitude. So, uh, because I feel like he'd have a lot to say on this conference. That's my fear. Believe it or not when he called me last night, this might have been mentioned. And listen, I mean, the guy led every lap. So obviously it's, it's a tough look. Oh, sorry.

Yeah. I meant to ask you, where the hell did you beat him to the line on a restart or something? It was pirou. Yeah, it was pirou. Yeah, it was pit. His box was turn four. Hey, we did pick. We picked great.

Good pick. I think the biggest thing is it's a tough look if you're a fan of the sport. And you're a fan of any other driver in that race that's not Joey Legano, except for maybe William Byron and Ty Gibbs. but, you know, this guy gets out after dominating race and goes and credits it immediately to the 800 laps of practice he ran when you're like, wait a minute, my guy got 50 minutes. And I think we ran, I don't know,

we probably ran 90, 80, 90 laps in that practice session. So he's getting an extra 10 practice sessions, you know. And I think, you know, like you said, like I said, the devil's advocate, William Byron had the same test. I think Gibbs got damaged. I think he wrecked at that test and got some damage. He was at it. I don't know.

Yeah. So, you know, I don't know. Yeah. He let every lap of the open. So, I mean, it was. But I will tell you this, if he didn't start up front, he probably's not doing it. No, yeah, that's the same thing.

Like, that's where it's just, like I said, I don't think, obviously, do you think they should have had an organizational test there? Like at least one team from every organization after they, because what Joey was at was a tire test. Yeah, he ran 800 laps. He ran 800 laps. He didn't necessarily have 800 laps on that tire. So, you know, once, but once they pick a tire,

do you think they should have had an organizational test like we always have? It seems like new surfaces, like. maybe but maybe I don't know if we should have any cup guy that's going to race that track test to the tire test yes why do any

I mean that's just you know I don't think the testing is what gave Joey a big of it didn't hurt him by any means but that qualifying to give him the spot of quality like I can tell you this anytime we go do a first time event Joey Legano is probably going to win it he is really good at just doing the dirt rate every first time thing that we do he's very he's very much looking forward to iowa i can tell you that he told me not on friday but um iowa doesn't make me as nervous for that

because we've been to iowa before some of these guys they've all run iowa before but like you go to these like what i'm saying is like the qualifying session joey's really really good at maximizing every little quirky thing that you got to do to to get like the pole like he had to get to pit road good he had to run the pit road lights right he had to have a good stop had to run a fast lap there's but you like Joey's just really good at that stuff but and Joey's also really good that if you get in the lead he's really hard to get around so um I don't I don't think um I don't I mean I think Denny and them were faster I think Denny was faster than him at points um I don't think Joey was by far the best car I think whoever you put up front I mean honestly I feel like you probably could have put us up front 20 laps and it'll run too and it'd been hard to get around but I don't think um I don't think it was because of the 100 laps. Yeah. Are you going?

I don't think so either. I think we're, when Joey said that, it became easy for everyone to latch on to, right? Because that's immediately what the fans went to. I saw it on social media. I was listening to Sirius driving in this morning.

And there were callers that were calling in this morning. And they were just furious and trying to come up with ways of like, well, who else can do the tire test? I don't think it was, I agree with, with TJ. I don't think it was a tire test. I think we're overlooking the fact that we've seen this in every short track race. You give a guy a really fast car.

You give them track position. And you put somebody like Joey behind the wheel who, if you dangle that meat out there, like he's very hard to beat. So this was a typical short track race. So Joey said the quiet part out loud and just gave everybody something to complain about this week. I don't think it was the lapse. It was a short track race that we've seen all year long. Yeah.

And what lends itself? to that is just looking at the results of the 24 car. That was also at that test. You know, I mean, he, he was not, that was a little different. He was, he did have that out of rec that caused the issue. The 54 had a little bit, but, but I'm saying, but the 24 was irrelevant all night long. I don't care if Ty Gibbs was a test. He's still going to be fast.

Oh, yeah. If Ty Gibbs Lee Gibbs Lee knows, he wins. Yeah, because he started on the front row too, right? So for those, because I was listening on Sirius this morning, too, for those listening, how do teams or even NASCAR decide which drivers get to go to certain tests. How does that work? I don't even know anymore. And I think a point that TJ makes is good

that the drivers shouldn't be doing it. Not only the drivers should be, the teams shouldn't be paying. You know, the teams are wearing out their equipment to test tires for NASCAR in Goodyear, essentially. Like, why doesn't, why don't we, and I think Danny had this idea about sending Dale to do it, which I don't think Dale's going to sign up for any time soon.

But, you know, NASCAR should have, I mean, these cars are all the same now. Why doesn't NASCAR have a test team? You know, why don't they, they should be, If we're going to tire test, go take Kevin Harvick and go run all day long and let Kevin decide what tire we run. You know, to your point, even if there is an advantage. Like, whether you want to say it made the difference or not, there's a big advantage to knowing, and not only just for Joey, but for the team to know, you know, okay, we can, you know,

we start that race thinking we can't run 100 laps on these red tires. They start their race and committed to running 100 laps twice on those red tires. So, you know what I mean? It's just, you know, the little bit of knowledge you gain from it is definitely an advantage. I don't think it was the end all be all. I think the starting on the poll was probably the end all be all. But, you know, there is an advantage there. And it needs to be a way, I think, to remove that advantage.

And I don't understand nowadays, like, you know, back in the day when everybody built their own and you had different deals, you know, okay. And then maybe we don't need, you know, somebody, you know, each team's got to go or each manufacturer's got to go. I think we all need to go, honestly. I think so. I think that once you get a tire, I think there's especially a new surface like that way. You're going to Iowa next week, right? Is that a tire test or is that an organization?

You try not to go to Iowa? I don't know if that's public or not. Oh, it don't matter. Like, who cares? No, I think it is. I feel like I heard somebody mention it over there. Yeah. So going to Iowa.

But I'm saying teams are, okay, teams are going to Iowa next week. Do we know if that's a tire test or is that an organizational test? I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. I tried to get her to go. So to Casey's point, though, Goodyear takes obviously one car from each manufacturer, right? I'm not sure after that if there's like a lottery system or the teams or the manufacturer picks which driver they want to go.

It's probably changed over the years. But the way that Joey explained in the media center last night, because Brett, Jesus. Do I look ugly today? I don't understand. You are just like one in the theme. Because here's the thing. Normally I hear a lot from Brett because he's always either picking on me or. or he's in my timeline about something,

so he just haunts through. He haunts you. Like everybody else. Hey, y'all just drink every time someone says Brett. All right, you'll fall off your chairs right at the show. You know, uh,

you know what I don't think works really well, though, is only having three cars there because the wear, the wear is so different when you have a whole field there. Right. You know, if you have, I think if, you know,

the more cars you have, the more rubber it puts down, the better read you get on things. And because we were, I'm telling you, all the meetings leading up to Wilkesboro where, we're not going to be able to run 25 laps and these things are going to be done. Well, because as I said earlier, we were going by what we saw the test, right?

It was single groove. It wasn't rubbering up. It was very clear what had happened in that test. And as Joey said, I mean, you go to the test and yes, you're running tires for good year, but almost your, as he said, kind of your reward for your time of doing that is they also let you experiment on your car a little bit too. Yeah, not much, just a little bit. But that probably, I mean, but these teams are so smart, right, T.J. I mean, they're going to figure it out.

They probably did learn something, but I'm still not going to put his full performance from Sunday night on what happened at that test. No, I don't, I mean, straight up qualifying. I don't think Joey qualifies in the poll. You know, I don't have a, didn't they have a rundown on that, Freddie, and who ran the fastest slaps? I didn't see. There was a, there was a deal where who ran the fastest slaps, you know, on track, who had the fastest pit stop and things like that. But I don't know. Well, Joey's pit stop was fifth overall.

Maybe it would have got to pull. I don't know. Who knows? Shifting gears a little bit to some announcements and NASCAR last week. Even with all the changes in the schedule, some things are staying the same, such as Phoenix being the 2025 championship race and North Wilkesboro hosting next year's All-Star Race. Spot on, spot off, Kelly. Well, I'm spot off for Phoenix.

I'm just over Phoenix as the championship race. It's been one year, one year was enough. I mean, Wilkesboro, I think they've got a nice little spot for themselves now with the All-Star Race. So I'm fine with that. I think once a year thing, it's great that that track came back and everybody's happy about that. But as far as, I mean, every year, I just wait for us to hear what the finale is going to be. And I just, it's like a little part of me dies when they say Phoenix. I, this is why.

And it's nothing against the facility people. I have nothing against the people there. I have nothing against the racetrack and all of that. It's the racing just makes me want to gouge my eyes out. And this is like, I've been, Danny's been doing it. I've been harping on it, you know, for a while now, maybe a year, that three race playoff. And the reason that I've been harping on it so much is because I know you're never getting rid of Phoenix. It's never going to happen.

We set the facility's too nice. Yeah, when you spend that amount of money. They paid a lot of money for that. they apparently pay to have the rights to the championship race. The facility's amazing. It's very, and they happen to sell it out every year. So guess what?

We're not getting out of this Phoenix deal. So if you want to, if you want Phoenix not to decide the championship, you better get on board with this three race, this three race playoff. And I can, and like, to your point,

I agree. Jamie McMurray, I always referenced it on this, he came on this podcast, that Phoenix hasn't had a good race since 1989. And I'm assuming that's when it was built, because I don't ever remember a good one. But,

you know, that, I don't have such an issue with Phoenix being part of the championship picture, but the end-all be all finale for me is where I lose it. So I just keep going back to that, that, you know, three-race playoff, T.J. Yeah, I'm not. I do like to facility, and I don't think the track is slowly, I think the last race there was probably one of the better ones that I've seen in a while.

But the problem is it was a better one for Phoenix. For Phoenix, yes. But I don't think it's, excuse me, I don't think it's not fixable. Like, I think, you know, I think it's still, I think it comes down to if we have a good tire there that you have to manage and guys have to take care of their stuff. Like, hey, you might be able to run two tens fast to me for the first 20 last, but the next 30, I'm faster than you. And then you have a meat point.

And I think if there's a big enough difference in speed, if we can find a way to pass it Darlington, we can make it have. happen in Phoenix because Phoenix is it's wide in one and two it's as wide as it can as any track in one and two you can run all the way up to the wall you can run all the way on the apron so it's not like there's not lanes there just needs to be more of a management like repercussions if you do run a little bit too hard like man this guy's leading the race is running for champions is he going too hard here and then you got you know oh the the crafty vetter here you know Denny's been saving and stuff here he comes and then they have the meat point in the middle you know I don't know I

I think there'd be, I have never, I don't remember a Phoenix race where I've ever said, man, we're killing the tires today. That's the problem. But the, that's the problem. And is it really the track? But I mean, it's, it's been how many, how many different cars have we taken there? How many different packages have we taken there? How many different, like, I understand what you're saying, but it, whenever we bring there,

the race is not great. I don't, I don't think Phoenix has always been a terrible race. I mean, I've seen some good races. 1989 was a long time ago. We've had. When Phoenix was, the old configuration of Phoenix was more of a short track to me. We can hear you guys literally debate about this all day as we have multiple episodes. Kelly, from your standpoint, you hear all the feedback around Phoenix.

Have you heard at least from NASCAR, anybody else, the reason why this race continues to be the championship race? I don't think anybody is really given like an exact reason. I think it goes to all the points that we just touched on, right? I said we just read them off for you. They spent a lot of money on that facility. It's a great facility. They've got a great fan base out there. I think I had read when they sent out the press release the other day that the last six

cup races have been sold out. It's turning into a great sports market. Look at all of the other major sports that go out there. So I don't, for me, no, I have not heard someone come out and say, this is why we go to Phoenix. But I think, again, if you just take into account everything that, that happens out there in the facility and weather and weather right like just my favorite word look at all the variables i mean it makes phoenix just line up and when you spend a hundred and seventy eight million dollars the you're gonna you're gonna be the focal point for a while the other the wilksboro

obviously the news was wall star race i was i was i'm still hopeful one day and i think i think i think i saw dale tweet this last night also you know that race is a lot different if there's twice as many cars out there. You know, you saw, you saw how hard it was for Joey to get around us. You know, and now if the leader's going to be in traffic much earlier than that, and Larsen and them guys talked about that at Darlington, how much traffic affects the race. And if your car's better, you can maneuver around more. You're going to see more passing for the lead. You're going to see more passing throughout the field, really. So, you know, I would love to see them get a plate, a plate race, do not, but point, Jesus, a point race just for

the fact that I have all the cars out there. And I think it would make that racing that much better. um Atlanta also I think was announced as the first um grace in the bracket challenge yes so that's in fall of July and uh it's off June 28th but yeah uh I saw the but that I guess means final to you know process of elimination that takes Atlanta out of the playoffs next year which I think is a great thing but the only the only downside and I'm sure we'll get hate mail for this is if you do the math properly and oh yeah yeah. You can bring it up again. Again, I've brought it up.

Maybe on Twitter. We talked about it on the roof. Oh, we talked on the roof. If you do the math properly, November 2nd being the play out of the championship race and Easter being the, whatever it is, the 20th, I think next year. That's 28 straight, folks. What are we doing this year, 21, 20? 21, I think. Yeah.

So that's another two months. That's the first half or second half. That's the first half of the season? That's the first half going to the Olympics. Oh, so once we go to them, we're on the home stretch. Oh, yeah, for sure. But, you know, and listen, I get. f***ed off the Twitter on dust all the time about you got a dream job and it's so easy listen

I'm not worried about me I got it pretty easy but like these poor guys are working the shop and the truck drivers the hauler drivers I mean that's that's a long stretch without a break and these guys are putting in countless hours I think you know I've said it on here before and I think that obviously I like I think you need to go back to the Easter off weekend it was such you know that's just the way our sport works I think but these guys need to have a week off well that in the summer are implementing that stuff I mean that they're giving their guys off they're giving there, but the team itself, like I think going into, ideally for me, you take that Easter week off, which is, you know, sometime in the first 10 races of the season usually,

and then give these guys a week off before the playoffs. Like run Daytona, take a week off. I mean, the way the schedule lines up next year, if we took a week off, next week off, we end on November 9th instead of the second, which I don't think is getting very far into November. I mean, I'm sure we end in the middle of November. I think that we're ending this year, right? Isn't it the 10th this year? So, so, you know, I think that week off into the playoffs gives you an opportunity to hype your playoffs up a little bit more, you know, promotionally. And then it gives these guys a, all right, let's catch our breath. Who's in the playoffs?

Who's out? Now we can all regroup, refocus, and attack these last 10 races. But yeah, that's not going to be a fun stretch next year for sure. I'm tired already. Let's take a quick break and hear what the fans think on Reaction Theater. Now it's time for your favorite part and my favorite part of the show, Reaction Theater, where fans get to call in and be heard. And shout out to our sponsor, Consumer Cellular, for bringing this second.

to you guys. Yeah, consumer seller has fast, reliable nationwide coverage leading carriers, but with plans starting as low as $20 a month. And for a limited time, new customers receive their second month free when they sign up and use promo code month free by May 31st. Let's go to the call. Hey, DBC, this is the song I'll root for Slicky Ricky. It's confronting Kyle Busch after that race. you'll take a listen oh boy rain came down that's Ricky

Ricky waiting for you I know I'm going to talk about Bush is a Oh man I think Jay's going to have to

appreciate it TJ sucks You're definitely going to have to fix this one I love song I know I've been missing Jeb

I'm missing oh man All of them name from Dear Denny, I can't remember his name right now. No,

what about the other guy that did the rap? Oh, Tyler? Tyler, yeah. Yeah.

Brett. Ricky. Ricky Slicky. He knocked the skis that Kyle makes his ass. That was awesome. Go 47.

Man. I had some teams on that. I got a couple friends on that team and Brett started by guys getting DDTed. I was like, oh, shit.

I got to go back and watch a video. Make sure I got hurt. I don't think, I don't think, um, I don't, I don't think he connected.

I think Kyle's... Not as hard as what everybody thinks. I mean, Kyle's moving before. It ain't like he just stands there and moves when the fist hits. Like Kyle is starting to throw his arm up and moving like that. I mean, he connected. I mean, I'm not going to lie. NASCAR has the freeze frame photo where it...

I saw the one side angle. It wasn't as hard as well. We're not talking. This was not Marcus Ambrose. No, and again, maybe it wasn't hard, but he made contact. He made some contact. contact. I didn't even want, Ricky stood there for long enough. Why, I mean, the conversation like Kyle Bush is going to be pointless. Just don't even talk. Well, that's what surprised me

too, because Ricky, as I mentioned earlier, he had told us when he came to the media scrum, somebody had asked him, what do you need to hear from Kyle? And Ricky said, nothing. I'll handle it. Well, he still let Kyle talk a whole lot before he swung. So, which props him? Because he would come off a little worse if he hadn't talked to him first. What? That's not, that's not as, Post contact. That's, yeah, but I mean, when you hit him, normally you can see the, the skin molding around the fist. Okay, well, let's move on on that note. I think somebody flipped that soft tire of Niagara.

That was crap. That's really funny. That's actually, that's very clever. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. Best action of that all-star race happened on lap 2 and lap 202 involving the famed drivers in the Lagano 199

that's pretty funny too the 199 yeah it's about one o'clock in the morning drinking a little captain morning just got done watch on the race and the fight between uh ricky and Kyle

and this fucking race tonight how good it was at north Wilkesboro this needs to be a regular race on the track this race was phenomenal credit to everybody including, I think, Dale Jr. that did everything to get this track

where it needs to be. I mean, the fucking race has me harder than I'm taking a year of Niagara. I think they were talking about practice. This episode is brought to you by Viagra, apparently. Yeah, that race was not phenomenal. I don't think.

I mean, the track, the track was phenomenal. The track is great. The race was phenomenal. The race was not. Buck race was great. These cup guys are just too good. Yes, that's the problem. Like, they are too good.

Like, look, how close were, was Joey running with you in that race? Like, there was times of like, oh, they're hitting for sure. And they must have been, you know, this far apart in the corner and like running the, and running hard. Like, it was fun. It was awesome. But they, like, they're so good, man. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion, but I think that's going to be the minority of saying that race was good. Yes, yes.

you, Joey Legano. I hate you. I grew up in New England. I know that you grew up as a rich mother, Connecticut. Piece of shit. Jeez. Joey Logano.

I'm going to go out on a limit and say that's not a Joey Lugano fan. I don't think they like Joe. I don't think I got a feeling that they don't like Joey. Yeah, I couldn't tell. So after seeing the video of the fight between Stenhouse and Bush, I think we need to seal up all of those tunnels, like Junior said.

Give the raw motion back into racing. This is what the people want. We don't necessarily want the fights or the wrecking. We just want to see that raw motion out of drivers like that. That would get expensive because, like, Danny would be having helicopters flying into the infield during the race. And, you know, these guys would find ways out. Yeah.

It would just make them unhappy. Like, I don't think that would be good for anybody, right? I mean, I would go see a charity fight between Stenhouse and Bush Probably place some money on Stenhouse too Because that was a mean ass right hook Come on, man Mean, it was a mean right hook, T.J. Yeah, I don't think it was too mean.

Oh, these were all great. Definitely some interesting sponsor plugs here. I will say it's rest in peace, Eddie Gossage, because if Texas was after the All-Star race, he'd have a ring or something set up in the infield by now. He'd be ready. I'm sure that was probably already talked about in some of his meetings. He would have had signs and banners and everything. Oh, yeah.

I support it. Well, to leave an audio message, just use our number 704802-9572. Send up some songs. Some hits over the... Songs. Send some songs. We'd love to hear. Lighten the mood a little bit.

Where's our friends, Tyler? We're dead. Come back. somebody. Consumer Cellular is official wireless partner of Brad Keselowski, RFK racing, and the six car. If they can count on consumer cellular, you can too. Brad Keselowski and RFK racing no speed, and that's just what you'd get with consumer cellular. Consumer cellular has award-winning 100% U.S.-based customer service centers, so you can always get the help you need. It's like having your own pit crew right when you need them. Consumer Cellular has the same fast, reliable,

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and use promo code Month Free by May 31st. That's promo code Month Free at Consumer Cellular.com. So what are you waiting for? See Consumer Cellular.com for promotional details. DBC. Don't forget, use hashtag AskDBC to send in those questions. This first one is from Dalton. Everyone gets mad at NASCAR wanting to go to streaming service, but I'm on Peacalk and watched Indie P&Q all week with no commercials. Is having commercial breaks worse than paying $12 a month for a streaming service? Is it $12 a month or peacock? I have

peacock. I think there's different levels. It depends on the package that you have. I think I pay for way more stuff than I even know. But it is a solid question, right? How many commercial complaints have we continued to get each week? Is it commercial free? Maybe I'm not paying enough for Pica. No, I don't think it's commercial free. Yeah, so I think they say, like, we'll be right back,

but it's not quite as long, if that means. Gotcha. From what I, when I watched, I watched everything. Streaming stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Listen, I don't, I'm not buying. I mean, I don't know.

You are buying it. You did pay for it. Yeah. No, I'm not, I'm just not buying into the fact. You know, everybody's complaining about, you know, how hard it is going to be to find anything. The damn NFL, who's the king of the world, has their games are on 47 different channels throughout a weekend,

you know, and nobody seems to have any trouble finding it. If we're going to be on Fox for X amount of months, and then, you know, you're going to be on Amazon, you're going to be on TNT. It's not like we're moving around. Like these, this month at a time here, month of the time here, then a couple months for the big networks. Like, we're going to be easy enough to find.

The CW, it's going to be on the, a CW every week. I guarantee you everybody has a CW for the expanding soon. You're all going to know the CW is pretty soon. So, I mean, that's going to be the easiest one to find. So, you know, I just, I don't buy into that. But as far as, I don't know, I don't watch them at home. I'm unfortunately at the racetrack working. So, but yeah, I don't know. You guys, Kelly, you watch, Casey you watch sometimes. Like, would you rather have no commercials and pay money for that or just deal with the product you have on Fox? Well, I mean, I'm coming from a bias. perspective because as a media member, yes, if I'm sitting at home that race weekend, I would love not

to have commercials so I can stay in tune with what's going on, right? I think this, though, you're going to, you're going to complain if there's commercials and then there's going to be people who would complain if we're, as they are, that we're going to streaming. So somebody's going to be, yeah, somebody's going to be unhappy about something. I think I've seen Coke 600 is the first. So that's a, that's a marquee event for us, you know, and that'll be all. awesome to see that on on peacock now I hope there's not a lot of commercials that is a long and that'll be the next year it's going to be a big year for sponsors like you know who I work for like this next year the ratings comparison it's already a topic of competition and it's it's really interesting to me that the cook 600 is

going it's it's going to be on prime video because that I kind of raised my eyebrows at that at first and then in the media center when I when I had asked Denny about it he actually he brought up a good point if you think about it, like a lot of networks, if they're coming into something, they want to start with something big. And the Coke 600 is one of our biggest events. So everyone is going to know where to go. And that's a good thing for Prime Video because it's like, we're here, we're starting right now. It's a big event. So they get to come in really with a bang. So I kind of question that at first of why are we putting one of our, one of our biggest races on streaming? But, Denny made a good point. I think that I think if you look at it from,

a network perspective, it makes sense. And to his, to that point, I mean, Warner Day, most people are out on the boat. They're doing things. The streaming opportunity will allow it, really make it easier for people to watch too if they're not at home. And I think these new networks coming in, Amazon and TNT, they also play a factor in this off week thing. Because if you're only going to be, you know, having four or five races, you're not going to want to take a week off in the middle of that. You know, like Dale always talks about, you know, how when you start a year on this TV side, you're kind of just always ramping up and then you feel like you're, you know, hit your stride after a few weeks or maybe even

a month or two. You know, if you're only got a month, you're not going to want to take one of those weeks off and break the rhythm of that. So, you know, now that pushes you basically all summer. So the only time I thought there was maybe an opportunity even for a break could have been, you know, between TNT and NBC. But, you know, everything, all this stuff kind of plays a little factor. Moving on. Tyler asks, what if Kyle Larson does win the Indy 500? Will he have any chance to make the Coke 600 start with all of the winner obligations? I think Kyle's already said that the 600 is the priority. Yeah, so the key word there is it says with all the winner obligations,

he will not be doing all the winner obligations at first. It's already been. Yeah, let's make that clear. If he wins, it's going to be a very abbreviated celebration. Congratulations. Take a picture. I got to go. Drink the milk and get out.

The Coke 600, like the All-Star race, is the priority. and he has said that, Hendrik Motorsports has said that, it's awesome what he's doing and they're very proud of that. They want to see him race. They want this opportunity to happen. But he's chasing race wins and championship in NASCAR. That's his job. So if he wins, then yeah, it will not be a full celebration.

If the Indy 500 gets delayed for any reason and he can't start, he will not start. He will be going to Charlotte and probably Tony Kinnon will get in that car. So NASCAR is the priority. Have we looked at a long range? forecast. It looks good. Is it looking okay? Here, I don't know about Indy. I was going to say here it looks good.

Indies the problem. Our forecast doesn't show any rain for like the next week. And that's interesting too. That'll change tomorrow. That's going to be interesting too to watch because I am of the understanding talking to my racer indie car counterparts that because Kyle had said at Darlington, oh well, if you know, if something changes and I have to get out of the car, I have to leave, Tony Kinnon will get in. I'm of the understanding that whoever starts the car at Indianapolis can

is only allowed to finish it. Oh, really? So if the race starts and it gets delayed for some reason, red flag, weather, then Tony Kenan can't get in the car if Larson has to leave. Now, if the start of the race gets delayed and Kyle leaves right away, then I think Tony would be allowed. It looks okay. 81 degrees cloudy on Sunday there.

It seems to say this has been in process for a while. So there are plans in place no matter what the scenario is. Last one. Jerry wants to know, the highest rated college football window for the past several years has been at noon. Should NASCAR consider altering the start times of the races to maximize ratings? Kelly, I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this one. Brett asks. I feel like this is above my prey grade because every time that the topic of ratings or whether it's Saturday or Sunday and TV windows,

the broadcast will always tell you that they know what's best for them and that the reason that we have these races scheduled when they're scheduled is because that's what the broadcast numbers are showing is best. So there's always a lot of fantasy booking the schedule and fantasy booking timing of races, but again, I've been preached at for years that the TV networks know best of when people are watching their coverage. So selfishly, it would be great if we had earlier races for many different reasons, but again, we're in a sport that is run, whether you like it or not, is run by the TV networks. and this is what works for them.

And they're not also going to compete with another series that might be on the Yeah, I mean, first of all, you're bringing up college football. They play Saturdays. We race Sundays. And, you know, it's, listen, the proof is in the pudding, too, because they, for what we were told a couple years ago, every hour they get closer to prime time, which I assume prime time is considered what, seven, eight o'clock at night. Every hour they get closer to prime time is worth five percent more audience for them,

is what they say. Sometimes the numbers support that. You know, the closer, we have four o'clock starts. The numbers do better than when we have, you know, earlier starts. So, you know, like Kelly said, we have to kind of take them at their word for it. And like I get so jealous the days where we have like a rain now, we run like a noon on a Monday or one o'clock on a Monday and you get home. And it's like 6.37 o'clock. And you're like, well, damn, this would be nice.

Wasn't that like 1.130? I'm leaving the racetrack. The sun is still up. The expinity race at Darlington is the best race. length time of the year of the history of the sport. It's like an hour and a half, two hour race. You get all the action. I mean, it's a great race.

Every year we do it. You get all the action you need. And I don't know, like we would always, me and Brett used to go down to Columbia, to maybe catch a college football game in the fall race. Like that race is the perfect length. And that'll be my favorite race forever, probably. All right, guys, don't forget this Thursday.

We're doing a live show at J.R.M. and Dirty Mo Media's 24 FANDAY, presented by Lionel. Our show starts at 1115, so be sure to come check it out. Yeah, there's also going to be activities all day. Fan day starts at 9 a.m. and there will be autograph sessions, live music, and two other live Dirty Mo Media shows. The Dirty Mo Game Show at 10 a.m.

hosted by the one and only, Andrew Curland and Jordan Bianchi, and DJD Reloaded at 145 p.m. with Carla Gabhart, Mike Davis, and myself. Yourself? Myself. Wait a minute. Thank God. You're actually not going to be there for DBC.

Willingly. I got rid of one idiot this week. I'm going to get rid of one idiot for the live show. Okay. We still have two idiots and you guys left for our show. Don't worry. So DJ, I guess TJ's going to big time us. He's going to go on DJD reload to talk about the download.

I mean, what's up with that, man? Anyway, the DBC crew minus T.J, of course. We'll be previewing the Charlotte race at 1115, probably throwing back a drink or two. 1115 might be a little early, but I think we drank out of here earlier. And just getting to have a good time with some of the awesome race fans

that are in town next week. Casey, I guess you're going to be there with me, right? And we're going to do with Brett probably. You sound so excited. No, no, no. I mean, I was working my way to mention that Brett's going to be back for that. So that was the downtrodden part of it.

Yes. We're trying to get people to go. Mike offered me more money. Yeah. Oh, that's sure. I'm sure. That's fine. I would have paid for you not be there.

All right. Don't forget J.R.M. Fan Day this Thursday, 1115 is DBC with plenty more shows, autographed sessions, tons more that you can fill your day with. All presented by Lionel. Let's take a quick break and shift to What an idiot. What an idiot. Freddie, who's your winning? TJ, who you got? I mean, you got, I mean, you're going to go truck golfing. No, man, he's an idiot. But, um, you're, you're a kid. Oh, so that dude, I'm worried about it. He's on my list.

The guy, we don't know who he was, right? The guy swan diving into that water? Yes. I'm a little concerned on the quality of that water. There's literally two Porter Johns right behind that. And there was, I was, I was told that there was toilet paper floating in the water from the Porter Johns. So if that's the case, what else was floating in that water? And I, one time the guy got up and he faced night, he's under the water. He came out and like,

he's blowing water out of his mouth. I was like, I was like, maybe he doesn't know those are over there. I don't know. Yeah, he was, he was definitely on me. We got to find out who that was. Hopefully we find out who it was. I thought. But he, yeah, my, my one idiot, I had, I had, I had, I had that guy on the list as well. Kyle Bush for basically throwing his team under the bus when Ricky said something about he's going to get him at Charlotte and Kyle just flat out said, I suck or something. He said, I don't effing care.

I suck just as bad as you or something. What a nice thing to say about your teams. You know, like, you know, these guys put in countless hours of work during the week. And we just talked about how many, you know, how much time I put in and how many weeks in a row were in a stretch of, you know, 20-something weeks in a row. And now you just really just kick your guys in the balls and say, I suck just as bad as you do.

Oh, thanks, Kyle. Appreciate that. So that's not very bright. But I think my one idiot for the week has to go to Marcus Erickson at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Did you see this in the final row shootout? No. He lifted a lap early.

And he missed a race. Yeah. No, he made the race. Now, if he didn't, if he missed a race, he would have been the one idiot of Hall of Fame, that Siegel, the kid. the young kid. Yeah, he wrecked on his last attempt. But he, yeah, Marcus ran three laps and then lifted into one on the fourth lap, which if you're not familiar with qualifying, they run a four-lap average. So you spot qualifying. Yeah. So yeah, he, that would have been, if it, I mean, it would have been

one idiot hall of fame if he didn't make it in the race. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Can we do a, a quick, like, prop session? Because I think Justin Haley probably deserves some recognition again. Dude, I was going to say, what I was going to say earlier was, they were, There needs to be an adjustment to the fan vote. And like, because if there was a fan vote after the open, like, if you just don't open it all for this one, whatever it is. If you just open it for the open, I think everybody would have voted for Justin Haley. Justin Haley was, he put on a show and he was digging.

Yeah. I think that was really, I mean, impressive again. So props to him and Scotty Mac for getting the poll with the 500. For sure. So, yeah, he's my pick. I don't know. It's just something feels right about him this year. The old yellow submarine.

You got the idiots go? So I'm not going to give it to directly to a person, but I guess I'll give it to like the overall NASCAR rulebook. So when we showed up at Wilkesboro on the back of the Tricon truck, it initially said Butterbean. Oh, yes. Oh, yeah. And then the next day it was put to just Queen, which is his last name. So the reason I say what an idiot is because, listen, if Butterbean had showed up to North Wilkesboro in this race a year ago and somebody had said, Brendan Queen is here, I would have said, who the hell is Brendan Queen? because I, like probably many people in my position,

who don't closely follow grassroots racing, I have only ever heard of butter bean. So for the truck to say butter bean, I was like, that's fitting. People are going to know who that is who might be just a casual short track grassroots follower that have heard Dale or other folks mention butterbean. So when it was then changed the queen,

I was like, who the hell is queen? And listen, that kid did a really good job. He was another pro. He was actually on my first thing. on my list for What an idiot because he sped on Pit Road. We talked about it on here and I called him or texted him last night and I said, man, you did a really, really good job today. But you narrowly avoided Wooden Idiot territory for speeding up in the road.

He's like, I was way under my lights. I don't understand. I think he got more cheers for finishing fourth when he got out of the truck than Corey Heim did for when he was celebrating winning. And listen, he was, he got two things held him back in that race where I thought he, you know, I think Corey Heim, another one, we got to give a shout out to. He's the fastest truck every week. it seems like, you know, and he's just outperforming everybody in that series.

He got wrecked at Darlington or else he might have had three in a row. You know, but, you know, Butterbean gets rained out of qualifying. So he's got to start buried. I think he was like 26th, drives to the front, speeding penalty, drives back to the front. Who knows what could have happened? He's had a hell of a battle with Echis. I was going to say, he went toe to toe with Christian Echis, who I would say, to me, it's Corey Hyman and Christian Echis.

That's who's leading that series right now. And he went door to door, toe to toe to toe with Christian Echis, who. and wasn't faced. He was able to do that because he's racing somewhere he's comfortable with. Oh, yeah, for sure. You know, if that's Charlotte, he's not even in the picture. No, no. And I think he'd be the first one to admit that, but this is what you got to do.

You know, you got to, when you get your opportunities, you got to shine and you got to pick and choose your spot. I wish there was some more opportunities for them guys to get into the truck series like that. And I'm not just talking about Martinsville because Martinsville is not somewhere you want to go for your first truck race. I'm going to tell you, that's super hard. but yeah it's good to see butter bean and there was a couple other uh i think first timers in that

race too wasn't there i don't know i heard it feels like it was 20 years ago now at this point after all the weather and everything else happened i feel i don't remember what happened in the truck i feel like he comes up on here a little bit more but i heard our buddy uh that joel spots for there um i don't remember his name right now Connor jones got called to the hauler again he's he's making he's making it's making a pretty good streak so i think it's i think it's past crimes are hurting him He does, he does, he does dumb shit a lot. And, and he did it again this week where I think he got turned or something happened. He ended up and turned around.

And he went back up and it was like kind of like Blaney did, swerving at the guy that did it. And listen, if you're not an idiot all the time, they probably just like, all right, but like if you have a history, I mean, he's been called to the hauler. He's only been running for a year, if that. And I think he's been, this has got to be a second or third offense at the hauler. So, you know, you just like, God, Almighty. just get through a race clean and don't do anything stupid. He wrecked your guy at,

was that Phoenix last year? Is that Jake, will you do Jake True? Yeah. Yeah. Heck out. I went down there and Joel's like, hey,

my guy is wrecked your guy. And then their trucks entered up window to window. Like, oh, this is going to be interesting. I think that was one of the first. It's just, you know,

you gotta stop doing dumb shit. I don't know if it's possible. I watch a lot of his races and he does it often. It's not just a truck series. All right. Let's move on to DBC picks. Casey, congratulations. Finally, it's about time.

Guess what? It don't count. It counts. It counts. We just make it so you make it so that you can pick everybody. TJ, you go first for Coke 600. Oh, man. While you're thinking, Brett did want to give me an honor

or an idiot for the week to Jay. I don't know what the hell of his conversation. Did you guys have a conversation about what picks last night or something? Yeah, he texted me and he said, what did everybody else pick? and we had just been talking about this race. So I was like, or we had been talking about the Coke 600 because I said, send me your Coke 600 picks. So then he texted me and he said,

what was everybody else's picks? And I'm like, I'm sitting there looking at my phone going, nobody else's pick for the 600. So I said, are you talking about this race or the 600? And he was like, no, of course I'm talking about the All-Star race. Are you drunk? I was like, I was about to ask you the same question. The answer to his was when yes.

I think I'm going to go with, um, oh, boy. Where are we on? Charlotte. Yeah, and I'm out of, I don't have who I'd like. So, I'll go, Chase Elliott. Chase Elliott. I'll take Ryan Blaney. Who did Brett pick? So I have Brett's list. Elliot's off the board, so he's going with Brad Kislauski. Brad Kislaus. You got to call somebody? Like to phone a friend? Or what do you want to do? here.

Have you used all your life lines up this year? I feel like I have. I feel like this is tough though in Casey's defense because if like the start of the year it was a safe bet to go Toyota or Chevy, right? But if you look at the last couple of mile and a half races, the Ford suddenly or a few of the Fords have suddenly figured something out. And I'm trying to decide between a Toyota driver or a Ford driver. Every week is a tough week for Casey.

Oh, I know. I know. I'm trying to. I'm trying to play nice, so I'll get invited back. I'm just saying. Don't be rude. I'll take bubble. I'm not waiting.

Oh, you're done. Bubble. Oh, it's nice knowing you for you. Yeah. That's, oh, thanks, case. Enjoy your early exit. What's your average finish lately? You made fun of me?

34th, 20th, 34th. That's a good. That's where we go. All right. Before we close out the show, tomorrow we vote for the 2025 NASCAR Hall of Fame. induction. Kelly, you're obviously one of the ones who gets to votes. It's one person per ballot? No, it's two from Modern, one from Pioneer, and then one from

the Landmark Award. Gotcha. So three total and then the Landmark Award. What do you guys think of who's on the ballot? Who has a great shot of being selected? I know, Kelly, you want to share your picks? Well, when you say who has a great shot, I mean that, that's tough. So if I've learned anything over the last couple years is you go into the room, you have your ideas of how you're feeling and who you're leaning towards, and then the conversation happens in that room and you think you know how the ballot's going to go, and then they announce it an hour later, and you're completely wrong,

or maybe one or two of them was wrong. So I felt like last year when I voted it was pretty straightforward, right? It was Jimmy and Chad. How are you not going to vote for Jimmy and Chad? This one I've been struggling with, as I've been, going through my binder that they send and making notes. So Harry Gant's a good one. Harry hides a good one.

Randy Dorton just with so much talk about Hendrick Motorsports. I mean, I think his contributions obviously speak for themselves. Tim Brewer is, I look at Tim in the sense of not only does he have the numbers, I feel like, but if you're talking about the NASCAR Hall of Fame and not necessarily the NASCAR Hall of Statistics,

which I think folks get caught up in sometime, think about all of Tim's contributions. I mean, the TV stuff that he did. I think he has an Emmy, right? So he did Tech Talk and the cutaway car. Neil Bonnet's another one from that regard, where if you're talking about fame, a little bit of statistics as well and his TV work.

So all of those names that I just mentioned, I'm leaning toward. So it's going to be interesting to try to narrow it down tomorrow. I will say it's more straightforward for me with the landmark award. I think with how relevant it is right now, with everything that has been talked about the last couple years with how far this sport has come with,

safety and the injuries and everything that's gone on that Dr. Dean, right, sicking for the co-adventor of the safer barrier. To me, that just feels like that's the most relevant one that I'm probably going to go with for that. For sure. And yeah, like, I know Tommy Baldwin had come on this show a long time ago, and I know Tommy advocated for, I don't know how long you've been voting, but Tommy was advocating heavily for a guy like Mike Sophanic. Like, take us in that room. I mean, a lot of these guys have people in there trying to make a case for them, right? I mean, yeah. So, I mean. It does. It seems like you get in the room. and then the conversation starts off where, you know, a name will come up and it'll be a good discussion.

And then you can tell when it starts to turn to where, okay, now we're getting into who has an agenda, right? Who's really pushing for someone who really wants to talk about a specific person and then the back and forth starts going? So that's why I said, you think it's going to go one way based on the conversation and then the votes are announced and you end up surprised by maybe one or two of them. So it does. I mean, folks go in there with an agenda.

Folks go in there with someone they're heavily invested in. And so this will be my third year. So just in two years, I quickly, everything I had heard from others, I quickly realize what happens in that room. So it's really fascinating to be it. Yeah. I think looking at the list, you have Greg Biffel, Neil Bonnet, Tim Brewer, Jeff Burton, Randy Dorton, Carl Edwards, Harry Gant, Harry Hyde, Ricky Rudd, and Jack Sprague are on the modernera ballot. but for me, I think Randy Dorton is probably would be one of my votes. And then I feel like we lean more towards more recent, you know, drivers for some reason.

It seems like Harry Gant would probably be my second one. But I can easily see a guy like Carl Edwards getting in now. Or even Jeff Burton, really, the guy ran the mayor of the garage for as long as he did. For me, for the only one that's for sure on me, like you said, Dr. Dean Sicking on the Landmark Award, for sure for me. and we talked about this before the show, the sad fact that Sam Ard got taken off the ballot this year. I don't understand why we're taking people off the ballot.

I don't really, I guess you don't want to just have 50 people, 50 names on there, but you know, Sam Ard's a guy that was going to get in eventually. Now you're telling me he's never going to get a chance. I voted for him the last two years. I mean, because Sam, I felt like it was pretty clear that if we're going to have a Hall of Fame, yes, it's a Hall of Fame, but it's also a Hall of Statistics. And I have, I feel like the way I vote is there needs to be something said about the folks that came before us.

The folks that put down the roots and kind of made the sport what it is, right? And Sam, I mean, Sam is so memorable from that regard just with his numbers and what he did on the racetrack. So I struggle when the conversation turns to, well, there's that, but there's fame and what they did for the sport and, oh, are they, to just call it what it is, are they still alive and can they attend and can they promote the Hall of Fame, right? So there's so many different variables that happen with where people lean. I just always go back to what have you done for the sport?

What are your numbers? Like there is no sport without some of these names. And Sam not even being on the ballot anymore was really upsetting to me. Yeah, for sure. My guy, there's Larry Phillips. I just feel like he should have been a long time ago. And hopefully maybe this is his year. Short track guy.

It's already coming out again. should be interesting to hear the outcome of. Well, Kelly, thank you for joining us. What are you going to look for for the Coke 600? I don't know. Being home. It has been nice to be home. It's been busy, though.

So I think it goes back to what I just said a minute ago. On one hand, you want to lean towards a Chevy or a Toyota, but there are certain fords now that you look at Brad and Chris. have done really well at the last couple of intermediates. Ryan Blaney won this race last year. So the intermediates have been really good races. So we'll see now with obviously how long this race is and the weather and how it's going to change throughout the course of the night.

So I'm interested to see, are we going to get another really good intermediate race? Yeah, I think so. I don't, you know, I think that this car just lends itself to this style of racing. Last year's race was great and hopefully this one backs it up. No back-to-back for you, T. I'll take it. I mean, there's a lot that goes on in this race.

There's a lot of pit stops. There's a lot that can go wrong. So piecing together all of that in this race is difficult. So it's a pretty big accomplishment if you can end up in Victory Lane. And I've been close, ran out of gas on the last lap with Dell Jr. And I feel like we, I think this is the race that we got wrecked in turn one last year. I can't remember. I think we last year I can't remember.

so many races, but it's a good race. It's a great weekend. Really looking forward to it. It's a great week. If a fan day, come see us on Fanday on Thursday. Get around. There's a bunch of shops, I'm sure having Fanday. I know Airspeed is opening this week. I believe it's Thursday. So come to DJD or Dirty Mo Media fan day or J.R.M. Fanday. Come hang out us for a while then ship on over there speed and check it out. It's been a long time since somebody built a new shop in this sport and this one is one you're not going to want to miss. I promise you. Absolutely, and Memorial Day weekend and NASCAR, I feel like that's such a great combo, and the track does a great job of highlighting the military as well.

Before we close out the show today, we do obviously want to take a moment to recognize a huge staple in our sport who passed away over the past week. Eddie Gossage, the former president of Texas Mother Speedway, and we are thinking of his family and loved ones during this time. Well, thank you all for listening and have a great week. Word. See you. I'm saying holocaille? No. Take out Dirty Moe Media.

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