Door Bumper Clear - 356 - Ryan Blaney: Starting Off with a Bang

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

Freddie Kraft is joined by Tommy Baldwin, Karsyn Elledge, and Ryan Blaney to recap the Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium. The DBC crew breaks down all the run-ins from “The Madhouse”, and debate whether or not Bowman Gray deserves a points race after last night. They also break down the new rule changes NASCAR imposed in the offseason, discuss why Tommy and Freddie weren’t invited to Ryan’s wedding, and why Ryan feels the perception of how he is on the radio is unjust.Plus Reaction Theater, #ASKDBC, DBC picks and more!   Want more DBC? Check out and subscribe to the new DBC YouTube channel! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The following is a production of Dirty Mode Media. Should we just go back to being assholes? Yeah, that's what we are, right? Let's continue being an asshole. I am probably closer to Tommy than anybody else in this sport. What the fuck are you talking about? I think the two of you definitely have being assholes covered. Who can really be a bitch when they want to be a bitch?

That was the first person to come to money. I try to stay calm. Here's what pisses me off about that. What is that supposed to be? Exactly what I said. Who are you? Who are you? Well, fuck it.

I guess we'll just go back to being ourselves. Yeah, we'll buckle up because you might get you feelings. Yo, what's up, everybody? Freddie Craft here, Spotter for Bubba Wallace. Welcome to the new season of Door Bumper Clear. I don't know why you're already laughing. You're going to say it? Oh, it's uncension.

Now you want me to do the new intro? Welcome to the new fucking season of Door Bumper Clear. Like we just said, it is now uncensored. We have been on the podcast version. I assume I think that's right, Tim's. We've obviously made some serious changes, upgrades, in my opinion, in the offseason. New studio, new hosts on the show here, a lot of new guests coming in. So obviously, you know, going into the off season, we kind of knew.

I knew probably for maybe a couple months that things were changing around here. Mike came to me and was like, what do you, what do you want to still do it? And I'm sure Mike would have kept doing it with three new spotters probably if I had bailed out. I said, man, I really want to keep doing it. but the only way I'm going to keep doing is that if I can have Tommy do it with me. And my thought process behind that was just, for one, Tommy is the closest person to me in the sport. I've known Tommy my whole life, literally my entire life. Him and my dad were friends growing up.

None of those stories will ever be told on this podcast. I don't think, Tom. No. Maybe a big else. No. I don't think any of them could ever read. What happened with Mr. Kraft, stays with Mr. Kraft. And he's no longer with us.

Thank goodness on that part. But, you know, for one, for me, like, it's just, it meant a lot to me. For one, Tommy gave me my start in the sport on the Cup series, especially for first cup car, spotted four was the seven. And then on top of that, somebody that I can always count on is like one of my, literally one of my, not only in the sport, but one of my best friends in life. You know, when I moved down here, somebody I know I could always count on if I had a problem in North Carolina, Tommy would probably be the first phone call I would make on that point.

And then from a competitive aspect, he's done it all. You know, he's spotter, crew chief, tire changer, car owner, you name it. he's done it in the sports so i just knew that his perspective on things is going to be a wide base you know just a wide ray of of things to he can cover and talk to so i think it's the most knowledgeable person on that we've ever had as a as a host on here myself included um so carson i don't know like i know you've got some stuff going on your own we're going to have some fun this summer with one of your own shows you deserve your own show we mentioned it last year she's been a show since she was born true a show show i mean jesus we're going to have a lot of fun with you on here

and I'm sure you're going to be enjoying your time with us. I'll have to keep you guys on your toes for sure. Yeah. Well, I don't know about that. Yeah. Good luck. Or keep you in line, I guess. And then today, I wanted to kick it off with a bang and bringing a really good guest to start the season off and unfortunately we couldn't find any. I know. I know, I was probably page three on your guests. I know.

Ryan, Blaney, I've been trying to get John here for a while. Welcome to DVC. Yeah, I'm happy to be on. Early morning. Y'all film early. Yeah. This is. Yeah, listen. It's just, I was, I got to be honest with you. I was, I was actively cheering against you last night because I was concerned. I'm like, if this motherfucker wins, he's probably going to bail on me tomorrow. It would have been more fun of a podcast.

We would have just come to, I would have come to your house and done it. Yeah. Yeah. What are you guys doing? How's your off seasons? Off season. I don't think I had an off season this year, unfortunately. But, yeah, it was good.

Completely rebuilt everything I own. our short track program, my personal short track program with the kids and got a lot of stuff put out there and hopefully getting some more announcements coming up with Luke, but Cup stuff's gone well. We had a good winter. Cars are ready. I mean, this past weekend was, you know,

was all about just getting started, getting warmed up, meeting, greeting all the new officials and old officials and drivers pissing each other off to get ready to do the wrong things on two Sundays from now. But yeah, I think overall it was a good winner. I think, you know, we've seen each other a couple times. You weren't around much. I'm trying to get away from you.

Yeah. You know, we had a couple spotters. We hung out in our annual golf trip. We lost one for a day, and I don't know where he was, but he showed up. He ended up having to take a train back to Miami. Back from Miami to Orlando. Oh, the night started in Orlando. And the next morning, he was in Miami with my old.

this son. I have no idea. And next thing you know, he was on a train back. He missed the first half of the golf day, but he made it back and everything was good. I'm not going to name any names, but yeah, it was fun. It was a fun trip. It was 44 of us. Every year we do this golf trip in Orlando,

and it was a great time. I can only do it every other year because I'm one of the people that usually end up in Miami, if I'm going to be honest. Did you? Were you on the train? No, I didn't know. It was the same week as Chili Bowl. I already booked the trip to the chili bowl, so I didn't get to go on this one. That was probably safer. Your off season was pretty quiet, just got married.

Yeah, I got married. That was the highlight, and people asked me, they were like, what was the highlight or more stressful, like championship race or wedding? I was like, wedding by fault. It's my first time I'm doing this. Hopefully it's your only time. Yeah, yeah. But now that was fun.

It was a blast. Can I tell the story about your dad? Well, yeah, I guess. We don't have a choice now because you brought it up. But, you know, I've been married a couple, two, three times. And, you know, when I was marrying Beth, you know, been happily married for over 20 years now, of course. But I never got my invitation, the invitation from my dad, you know, my RSVP. So I finally called him up.

It's like three days before the weddings. And I'm like, hey, man, you know, you're coming to the weddings. He goes, nah, I'll go to the next one. They never came. He never showed up. I'm like, okay. Oh, my gosh. That's who he was, right?

How many people have asked you how much different married life is? is now. I mean, it's way different. Every person. Yeah. But is it though? It's not. It's really not. Like, you know, I mean, we already live together and right, you do all those things. And now it's just like... The government's involved. The government, yeah, there's a piece of paper that says yes. And you have this thing on your finger. And really the biggest thing now is like talking about children, right? Like, that's the next step.

That's the only difference in married life to me. At least for us, personally, it's like, okay, when do we start the children talk? So that's the next question that they follow up with. I was going to say. When you're having kids. Yeah. How is married life and when are the kids coming? I'm like, well, I think Dale hit you with both of those recently. Whenever you were on his.

He hit me at both of those at the wedding. That doesn't surprise me. I mean, the thing that blows my mind is just remember him. I mean, he was only two foot tall when we first, you know, met and walking into the Bill Davis. I mean, the kid, he was so shy. Never said anything. But the one thing I always did notice with Ryan is when he was walking around, he was looking. He was paying attention, you know.

And one of the things that, I mean, this is a tie-in between me and Ryan both, is, you know, another reason why you were the top or the previous, the only name on my list was I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you. You know, you gave me my opportunity to start spotting in the Cup series with Michael and Dad back in the pilot car. And I don't know, Ryan has a similar, you know, connection to Tommy. Yeah, yeah. I mean, Tommy, if you want to tell the story,

because I'd actually like to hear your perspective on how all that got started in 2012, right? When Dad was driving your cup car at Tommy Baldwin Racing, and then we got a, it was nationwide back then. car in 2012, and we did like seven starts, I think, that year. So, well, how did all that, I want to hear from you, how did all that kind of transpire between my dad and you? I'd love to hear those conversations. Well, I mean, it was a little awkward at first because it started before that because we, I don't even remember where we went testing.

It's somewhere in Georgia or South Carolina somewhere. I think we were in Nashville. I ran his cup car. No, it wasn't Nashville. It was somewhere, somewhere in South Carolina, we were going to do. a test for Richmond. And we were bringing Stephen Light at the time and your dad. And I called your dad up the night before. I said, hey, have, you know, I don't even know how old are you at 13, 14, 15 years old, I think, 60, somewhere like that. And I was like, hey, have Ryan bring his driving stuff. He can, we get him

in a cup car. And your dad was like, really? I'm like, yeah, bring a bunch of pills. I mean, you're only about 47 pounds back then. And I was like, yeah, bring all his stuff, have him bring all his stuff. So, you know, making us real quick, Stephen Light went out. He ran pretty good in the car, and your dad got in an after. It was the same tires and the short track tires, so it was tire wear. He went slower, and the car didn't even, the car didn't even look the same as Stephen, you know. We had data on the car. So I'm like, all right, let's put Ryan in the car. So we stuffed some pillows in there, a bunch of padding in there, got him in the car, right? So he gets, goes on the track. Never been in a cup car, never been in there. Nothing. Gets in the car, goes about one lap,

all of a sudden, wah, wah, go through the corner. I'm like, so fast through the corner, I'm like, he didn't even step on, I don't even think he stepped on a break. Well, he went just as fast as Stephen Light did on sticker tires and three-tenths fast in his dad, and we went and looked at the data, and I've always argued with his dad about his breaking, you know? So looking at the data and looking at the times, and I looked at Dave, and I'm like, you're done.

And he didn't talk to me for like three days. And we raced, and Stephen Light ran good. He actually led a bunch of laps that two nights later. Richmond finished 13th. I think Dave finished 19th in both of our cars. And that's what got our conversations after Dave got done being mad at me. Talking about the stuff. And, you know, I was like, I picked up the phone.

I'm like, hey, man, I'm just going to go buy a bush car and let's just put Ryan in. Let's figure it out. And he's like, really? I'm like, yeah. What else are going to do? Fuck it, right? So I'm like, all right, I went to RCR. I bought a car.

got an engine from them, leased an engine from them. Dave found some money and showed up at Richmond with this car and practiced well, qualified eighth, I think. Yeah. Ran seventh. Ran seventh, his first ever Bush race. And I think it was Bush back then. You know, the key thing is that I think I was spotting that night.

Oh, God. And he raced around Brad Keselowski the whole race. They run, I think, fifth and ninth, the whole race. And I, you know, every time he would pass him, I would say, wave to him. You know, I said, you know, give him a wave, you know. Just give him a wave, you know. So just, you know, get some respect and stuff. And I think that's probably what got the ball rolling between, you know, you and Brad and Penske.

And so the first race is what got everything going for. I mean, we finished fifth at Bristol and our only, I think we finished in the top ten every race, but Darlington. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, the best part about this whole story was, so we run Richmond, run seventh, right, my first nationwide race. On top of the world, right? Like, oh, this is easy, right? Like, I can do this. And I think it was either a week after or two weeks after.

We took that same car to Darlington. And I didn't have a great practice, right? Darlington's tough. And qualify, like, shit. And, you know, everyone's telling me, like, oh, just take your time, right? Just take your time and finish the whole race. Lap one and a half. I wrecked this shit at this number two.

Oh, yeah. I mean, talk about peak to like my career's over. I'm like, oh, my God, I wrecked the best car we got. It was the only car we had. Yeah, it's the only car we had. Yeah, and so it just shows you the highs and loads of the sport. But yeah, that was, we ran, I think, seven or eight races that year. Were you surprised to get like, like, we're doing what?

Honestly, at the time, I didn't really know what to think. Like, I was just like, okay, like, let's go do it, you know? And that led to, you know, Brad. I remember we ran Kentucky, and I think we ran 7th or 8th of Kentucky, and Brad chased me down in the garage area and asked me if I wanted to drive his trucks for the rest of that year. So, yeah, the rest of 2012, we kind of jump between the 36 car for you, that 22 nationwide car for Penske because Brad was going for the Cup title that year, and then some of Brad's trucks, and that's what really got the ball rolling.

So Tommy was a huge part, really the main part of me getting a career in NASCAR. So, yeah, we have a lot in common when it comes to that. Yeah, I think that's the case for a lot of people in that garage. I enjoy that more now as the older we get, right, to see all my, I say, I call all you guys my children to prosper and do well in this sport. It's pretty cool. And then the Golden Corral Days, too. Yeah.

Was that 2012, too? Yeah. Right? You guys, you guys, I mean, y'all ran, I remember there was one Tadaguer race you should have won. He had a good shot at winning. Yeah, one with the tandem. Yeah, with the tandem. And Brad was pushing, and I think y'all run third that day.

And then I think the fall race, y'all even had a better shot of winning and got turned. I forget from who, maybe Kurt Bush driving that 22 or something like that. But, yeah, those were always fun to watch. You should have won. Was it the 500? 500? With the jet dryer. With the jet dryer.

I think Dale talked about it the other day. And actually, what Dale said was true. They were all having a conversation out on the back. stretch because that's where everyone's sitting. And they were like, man, we're going to call this, you know? Just that Dave win. Again, I was up there spotting that night. I know you don't, I know you find it hard to believe.

I got a pretty good track record of spotting for the 500s, so you know. Yeah, all right. So I was up there, and Roger Penske, he was standing next to me. He's like, man, I don't know, Tommy. I said, I think they're going to call this thing. So he sent the guy and went and got ice cream, right? Because it was, what, a good hour, an hour and a half, right? So we sat in there.

He sat right next to me. We sat down, we're eating ice cream and snacks and stuff. He goes, I hope they show. I sure hope they call this. I'm like, part of me wants them to call it. That would be great to, obviously, to win another 500 and then as a car owner. But as a fan, I don't know if I'd really, really want that. So I was kind of torn, you know.

I mean, we ended up finishing, I think, 17th and 15th or something that night. But, yeah, we got a lot of good stories with Ryan's dad, Dave. a great guy, a great racer, and he developed a good one here. Yeah, I remember that 500 well because I was there, I think that was a Monday race. It rained or something on Sunday night, right. And I was there like all of speed weeks, all everything. And I was still in high school, I think, at the time. And I was there all week, and I had to go home because I couldn't miss any more school.

And I remember sitting at home pissed when the track's on fire. Dad's leading, like, Tommy's car is going to win. And I was so mad because I'm like, I was there all week. I was there for like 10 days and I'm not going to be there in Victory Lane and it didn't happen. But I just remember I should have been pumped, but I was so mad that I wasn't going to be there. Yeah. Well, we have to get into spot on, spot off soon. Nice to you to show up.

What? You haven't talked to me yet. You haven't said shit that's concerned me yet, so I don't want to hear it. And it's too fucking early for your attitude. Jesus. Okay. I'm taking the uncensored. How is the clash?

There's Darren are coming out. So what I was going to ask was, how was the clash for everybody? Well, like I said earlier, I was a little concerned because I talked to Ryan a couple weeks ago about coming on. And he said, yeah. And then so his whole heat race went to shit real quick. And then I knew he was going to be starting the back. And I'm like, man, he's going to be in a really bad fucking mood tomorrow because now he's got to start last. And he's probably going to get wrecked because this is going to be a middle of the pack is going to be a disaster.

Then he starts getting close to the win. And I'm like, fuck. Now he's going to win. He's not going to show up because he's going to be hungover. But, yeah, for me anyway, listen, the clash. And, you know, it was as expected. Bowman Gray is Bowman Gray. What you get over there is, you know, some races are shit shows.

Some races are decent. I think when you saw stuff that mattered or where you had to get to a certain spot like the heat races, everybody's just trying to get the fifth. That turns into a bit of a shit show. The last chance race, everybody's trying to get to the top two. It turns into a little bit of a shit show. When you got everybody out there that they're just racing now, I thought the race itself, the clash was much better. I mean, there was a couple instances. but like you know i think overall the the runs were longer than i was expecting yeah way longer than i thought

i mean like you that from the heat races to the last chance right the last chance took forever right and i'm like oh my gosh i don't know how this feature is going to go uh but i thought everyone was like really as respectful as they could be for be be bowman gray you know and and yeah there's a couple cautions and stuff like that but you're going to have that there but it definitely was a i thought it was good race the crowd was awesome um the race put on the race was better than i thought it was was going to be because of the tire wear like you actually had to be mindful of hey am i using up too much stuff so you saw comers and goers um and long runs definitely helped that i feel like if it was five laps caution five laps caution it wouldn't have been as good of a race yeah for sure um so that

definitely helped that out and i thought it was i thought it was awesome i thought it was a home run and i hope we go back next year there's been rumblings of like not going back next year and i don't know we're going back oh we're going back yeah i guarantee you we're going back Tommy i know you know for us watching you know you don't really know what to expect going into there and Like when we saw last year with the clash at the Coliseum, you'd run that five-minute qualifying, and your last lap was your fastest lap. You know, with the new pavement,

you just kept getting faster. It seemed like I think lap five was kind of the money lap. This, you know, and it was just fall off from that point on. Was that something you guys expected, like set up while, you know, going into it? Yeah, I mean, we knew the track had a little, obviously a lot more wear than the Coliseum because they just laid the asphalt down, you know, a couple weeks every time. But, yeah, I mean, I don't know if they've changed the tires since then.

And I think they did a little bit of work on it. But, yeah, it was a good tire. It was a really good race. I'm sure we'll get into more of it as we're going on the show. But there was some guys that really was impressive. Obviously, Ryan was one of them coming from last and getting to second. I sat in the stands and watched as a fan just to watch the whole field. It was amazing of some of the racing what was going on there.

And I watched some guys that had some really good cars that could have did a lot of good things. but decided to run into people trying to pass them instead of being impatient and no longer having a good car because of it. But, yeah, it was fun. Did you get to punt anybody on your trip through the field? No, I really didn't have to, like, move guys much. Really, the only guy I lightly laid the bumper to was the 11 for second. And I just kind of got him into one, a little, like, two miles an hour faster than they wanted to go.

And I was able to turn under him and go. So I really didn't have, my car was good enough where I could kind of just save time. and then go forward. So, yeah, I didn't have to be that aggressive. I feel like our car, besides the nine, was probably the best-looking one out there. And something happened to the heat race? I mean, you were something going,

and then all of a sudden it just went to hell. Yeah, I'm not sure what happened in the heat race. I fired off good. I started third, and then I started smoking bad out of the louvers, the hood louvers. And we had something rolling on with, like, the oil cooler, and we had to replace it Sunday morning. But luckily, we were locked in.

I appreciate Joey for getting locked in in the heat race so I could have that provisional and then we made sure everything was okay in the LCQ and then just pulled off because I wanted to watch the end of the LCQ honestly because it was going to be entertaining and it was so yeah we had a little bit issue but we fixed it and honestly I thought we were pretty bad Saturday I didn't think we were very good in practice even before I got kind of spun around in the heat race I didn't think I was very good and we got a lot better so that was that was encouraging so I don't know that whole weekend but for one somebody told me I don't know you were flying right so you weren't watching on

on TV. I was on the ad streaming. Somebody told me this is going to be a crime if this is true that they did not show driver intros on television. Did they not? That's what I heard. Some of the people were telling me and the producers are nodding. That's a, that's an epic miss because those intros

were electric. Like I can't believe they didn't have it on there because I mean, just the crowd itself. I mean, I laughed my ass love. Do you see SVGs interview? No. Oh my God. Last night they were talking about it on me all the different stuff about the race and stuff. And then he's like They're like, what about the driver and shows?

He's like, there were some interesting specimens in the crowd. He said, I was driving around behind Bell. And he goes, there's a guy with his shirt off must have been freezing with a big 20 on his chest, cheering Bell every time we drove by. He's probably never seen some shit like this until he got. Can you feel that energy during the race? Like, I mean, it's hard sometimes. But like the crowd is on top of you there.

Under caution, I peek in the crowd. Yeah. And I saw the guy with the shirt off with a 20 on his chest. So, I mean, when you're green, you're not, you're not looking. You're not looking over there? But, like, under caution. I hope not. Yeah.

Oh, look at that guy. I'm not that good. I got other shit to worry about. But you under caution, I peer up in there, you know, and see. And you understand who people like and don't like. And that's always funny to me to see. Yeah, they went crazy when you passed Denny. Yeah.

They had a whole, the whole circle went crazy. It was good. I don't know if that's so much they love you or just hate him. It's a little combination of both. Yeah, it's a combination of both. Yeah. You can both reap the benefits. Yeah.

All right. Well, should we do a little bit of spot on, spot off? Sure. All right. Topic number one, we're going to talk about Madhouse collisions and who did it best.

We've got Haley versus Gregson and Bush. We've got Custer versus Almondinger, Priest versus Nemechek, and lots of other messes. So spot on, spot off. Well, I guess that's technically not spot off.

It's not really spot on. But we're just talking about some of the, there was some epic. For me, Priests is the leader. Like, that was just, like, that was just, this guy bumped me out of the way.

Hold on a second. Hold on a second. He sent out a video early that day, right? Jimmy Blewett made a video, and Ryan posted it, right? Because all the hard work, everything put in the thing. And look, Nemechek drove through three or four people to get to Ryan to move them out of the way. And, I mean, it's the first race of the year. It's not even four minutes into our season, and you're driving through people. So, hey, he sent them. I have no problem with Ryan. And I, you know what? And I have no problem with Joe O'Laganos sending the 77.

Because the 77 did the same thing to Lugano. And look, everybody should know, don't do that to Joey Lugano. And Ryan is setting the president, too. Don't do that to me. Race me. Race me. I talked to Ryan afterwards, and I said, whew, I said, did you mean to do that? Like, he's like, yeah?

He's like, hit me with a jab. I'm hitting you with a right hook. It's like, I was like, okay. Look, if people are not going to, it pisses me up. More about racing nowadays. is if people just don't try to pass you, they just drive through you. And it comes from the earlier divisions, the legends divisions

and all that stuff. And I hate them because they're not learning how to race. And these kids are also watching these guys, you know, these professionals do the same thing. And it's like how many times I watched last night people just get to somebody, not even try to pass them, move them right away, try moving them. And it's just aggravating.

This is how, this is also how Tommy got suspended the summer shootout at one point. Yeah, it is. Tommy got suspended? He calls me one day. He's like, hey, I need you to take Jack over to the shootout next couple weeks. I was like, no problem why. He's like, I got kicked out for a couple weeks.

And then they had like an epic, somebody's GoPro caught an epic rant of Tommy just screaming at parents and everything. I screamed and every, I went through every garage and told every parent and every driver how I felt. Because they were racing that way, right? Yeah. Yeah. And it's like, why are you guys even here?

We're spending thousands and thousands of dollars and just for your kids just to do that? You guys... Yeah. The same deal happened to Luke a couple weeks ago with Cordell. I mean, the kid, Luke was by far the best car. This kid just got the Luke's bumper on a restart and moved him out of the way. Never even tried passing him. That's because he knew he was the best car.

Yeah. Do you have any moves that stood out in your mind this week? The only thing that is peeking in my mind is, and I wonder how his back is today, is Ty Gibbs launching over. Oh, my God, yeah. Like caught wheels with him. And obviously, he didn't mean to jump wheels. I think he meant to just door him and pull off.

But I know what it feels like to just bottom out one of these cars. There's these blocks under the frame that are just solid. And I know I would be bedridden. I wouldn't be here today. I would be in the hospital. But that looked like it hurt really bad on the old spine. That's the one that looks, you know, I kind of see. the Custer Almonddinger thing,

the old jet out of the wall got him there. Yeah, I think I just gonna run them up here. Oh, God. And it was hard to like, it's in, from the driver's seat, like it's hard to judge distance, you know, especially at new places and especially when the wall kind of turns out like that. So everyone's trying to get a feel for passing racing guys in the heat race. And you're like, I think I have enough room.

But I, J. I don't think he accounted for the wall jetting out and just they kind of sandwiched together. Well, the thing is, again, that whole group, they just started out not even trying to pass each other. Let's just drive through everybody. And by the time they're side by side, they're going to get pissed off. I mean, it's just. I saw it again. I was driving me crazy in the last chance.

I was watching. And I think Custer was fourth on the top. Or maybe he restart second. And he was kind of like trying to hang in third. And A.J. was behind him. And AJ is just jacking him up. And I'm like, you're only hurting yourself here at this point. Like, if you jack him up, he's just going to take your row backwards.

And then, you know, they end up getting into it, which almost made it three wide, and they just kept getting into it. It was impressive, though, the watch, there was a camera angle, I don't know who had it, whether it was Fox or NASCAR, like just pointing down the front stretch

and seeing the guys, like, you're using every bit of that racetrack, including just barely missing the wall, you know, and it's like, it's just impressive that the skill level it takes to, or maybe it's just luck, I don't know, but, you know, priest, I noticed priest was on the outside of us at one point trying.

He rode the wall up, yeah, and he kept hitting that spot off of four. I was like, okay, he's going to be gone and let's say that. Yeah, he did it a couple times. Yeah. One thing I will say about priests is, you know, I think it was warranted, I think, you know. But one thing about priests is, and I learned this last year at Texas, if you take an inch on him, he's going to take a foot the next time it gets to you.

It's not like, you get me, I'm going to get you back double. It's like, I'm going to get you back ten feet. Everybody set that precedent, right? And it's like, okay. Don't do this. Somebody was comparing him to Newman yesterday. They're like, you're the new Newman. No, it's not.

Newman never really wrecked people. He was just very hard to pass, right? I mean, it's a different. There's a group out there that don't race correctly, bottom line, right? Names and names. Well, we're naming them all. I mean, we pretty much name the guys that don't take after, you know, don't look after this stuff, right? Don't understand that if they have a pretty good, not damaged car,

at the end of the race, they're going to be in pretty good shape. But, you know, they spend all this time trying to drive through people. People are going to start getting more angry and more angry about this, and they're going to start wrecking these guys until they finally stop. I mean, you know, the 77 was the same way. That 77 car was really, really good last night in that race. That was probably one of the best turning race cars and had the most forward drive. But he just, by the time he got done running into people trying to pass him instead of

passing him the right way he didn't have a car left and then he did it to joey and i knew it was coming i mean once they got by him i said oh it's over now and and that was it you know and you have to kind of like this is a exhibition race right how do you want to how much do you want to piss people off before we get going for 36 weeks right so it's like you have to kind of take that into consideration like i could have moved chase right when i got to him i'm like i don't really want to just throw haymakers at a guy in this exhibition race but that's That's not how you guys race anyway. No.

I mean, that's not how you were brought up. That's not how you were taught how to race. And, you know, I thought I gained a lot of respect with Denny last night on how he raced. And, you know, I know he fell back a little bit, but, you know, I feel that both him and Reddick, they waited towards the end of the first stage to run the outside, right? Well, they ran the outside in the beginning with stickers. And they probably tore, you know, wore their right rear up a little bit more than they did

the first stage because of it. But the way Chase. and Denny raced each other was picture perfect on how you show your kids how to race. I mean, Chase messed up a couple times and moved and got Denny out of the pocket, so to speak. But Chase, you could watch him. Chase actually stopped what he was doing, where most people would just continue to process and put someone in the wall, let both of them gather back up and start racing again. And it was incredible to watch.

and watching Ryan go through, you know, from last place, go through the field without touching anybody, just pressuring him enough for that person in front of him and go, okay, he's next lap. I'm giving you five laps, right? I'm working you, I'm working you. And the drivers are fine, you know, you can see as the further he got up, the more respect he got because the guys were like, okay, he's better than me. I'm going to let him go.

I have a spot behind. You know, you guys, you know, the spotters are going, you know, let Blaney go. You got someone, you know, no pressure. behind them, you know, everything's good. So there was a couple guys that just put on a exhibition of how you race last night. One of the things that surprised me, and I don't know if I was expecting it going in, and I don't know how much you had to move around. I know you moved around behind us a little bit.

You could run, like, you could either hook your left sides on that, you know, that gray part, or you could run up a lane in the center. There was the end of the first half there you caught us. And I'm like, if you just park on the exit, I don't think he can do anything right there. Freddie told me that you told him that. Yeah. I'm not going to blow through Bub. us. So, yeah, I guess there's like three to go. I'm like, just park on the bottom on the

eggs. He's got to, he's going to get, he's got a better run than you, but if just park, you'll be fine. Yeah, I tried to do the diamond. And, uh, and some, I was timing it. It was hard to time it right. Like, because the corners are pretty long at Bowman Grace. Like, you'd kind of run up point. Like, I got the run, but then you'd like get to him at the bad spot, like where you can't actually curl under them. But it was, it was good practice for later because, yeah, you could actually, when tires got wore out, like 30 laps on them. You could actually run up the track, turn, and go under. And I think those cars, the cup cars,

they kind of lend itself to that. Like, you know, I watched that modified race. Those guys can't do that, right? They have a ton of grip. They can't really waste, like, kind of track area going up and turning down. So, yeah, I thought the tire was the biggest thing. Like, that's why it made the racing good

is because it actually wore out. And like I said, the clash didn't really have that, just because it's a new pavement. And whether it was the pavement or the tire, whatever it was, I think combination, too, it made for a good show. and you can actually move around. I think they should put PJ at like the very top lane at Bowman Gray.

Just right around the fence. That would be awesome. That would be super cool. Well, given that, do you think that Bowman Gray deserves a points race? No. Spot on, spot off. Spot off a thousand times over. It's perfect for the clash.

What about you, Freddie? Yeah. I mean, that just that was, you don't want a points race. And the reason why for me you don't want a points race is like so many innocent bystanders end up getting wrecked a lot. You don't want that because it was, first of all, you can't, I don't think you can put 40 cars out there without it being a complete disaster. But then, you know, you have so many innocent bystanders where this guy runs in the

back of him, but he ends up running through by three, you know, three guys in front of him, and he gets wrecked. And you don't want to be, you know, determining season-long points by that. But, I mean, for me, like, I don't know why we would ever go anywhere else for the clash. If, you know, unless we go back to Daytona where the, we run a 20-lap race for the pull-sitters, you know, we should just be a bumma-gray for that clash because the atmosphere was unbelievable crowd. I mean, it was packed.

I feel like it just makes the most sense, too, location. wise even. Like, it's just in the heart of, I mean, yeah. It's history. Exactly. How come we're not talking about Stenhouse? I figured we were going to get to that later. I mean, listen, the funny thing about Stenhouse with me was, right before the clash, he was over by Bubba. We were hanging out, talking. And I was like, well, you got planned here because he was starting like deep. And he's like, man, I just want to not have any damage on my race car and not piss anybody off. Just get the hell out of here if we don't make it. Who is saying that? Ricky.

How that is? I said, well, then you got 30,000. It's only 15,000 people flipping you off by the time it's over. Literally wrecked the worst person to wreck at Beaum Gray. My main thing, my main thing going into Bowman Gray, I was like,

all right, don't touch Bert. Don't touch Tim Brown. Like, it's the only two people I care about not, do not touch those guys. And,

and yeah, that, and I don't know. I don't think he did, he didn't do anything wrong. No, I don't think Ricky. I think it was just kind of,

what? Are you kidding? Are you kidding? Are you kidding? Are you watching? He kind of clear himself. Yeah. I agree.

He was committed. I think it was just kind of a recent thing. Bert Bert 1,000% cleared himself when he was not clear I must have missed that

Did you miss that? I have to watch it three times I mean I'll be happy to go through the replay with you and when he hangs a fucking left at the start finish line I guess that's where you went to the modified maybe That's what y'all need a monitor to like play by play

play by play Yeah That's the next step So you can pull up the receipts Well you are getting old now Maybe your eyes are starting to go bad I don't know Wear my glasses

The best was the reaction from the fans. Oh. I mean, it was... The only thing that would have been better is if Bert would have just went full madhouse and fucking ran across the football field and jumped on the hood. I thought he was going to for a second because I was watching it because I was parked at that time.

I'm watching it in three and four on that building. And I couldn't see Bert because he was in one and two. So I'm watching the monitor. And like he stepped towards the ambulance, stepped away from it, started walking around. I'm like, oh, boy, here we go. And then he went to another ambulance. I was like, oh, okay. He was getting ready to get in the snap mode.

I couldn't see. I was hoping that, judging by the crowd, he might have done something, but I was hoping that, at least when he drove by in the back of the pickup, like, he rolled the window down

and flipped him off, didn't he didn't, he didn't, he didn't, I was standing right there. He didn't flip him off. He rolled the window down and smiled and gave him one of these thumbs up. I saw a funny video where he was, a picture he was standing outside their hauler

after like Ricky was at the all-star race last year. That was pretty long. I'm going to give Bert a ton of credit. Like, I mean, figuring it out, like, right, he's been to Bowman-Gray for years and years. But the way, different cars, modified its cup car.

And the first practice, right, trying to figure it out. But by that LCQ, he was pretty good. Yeah. He was passing him for six or seven. Yeah. Tim got in the wall a little bit bent to toe link early. And actually during that caution, we brought him back in and adjusted on it and put it. We had also a flat rate retire.

And he did well after they drove back up to a 10th. It would be interesting if Bert was still out there because he was right there, like you said, 50 or 6 and then all hell broke loose off fun after that. He might have been right there in position to maybe get in. God, I would have loved to... Could you imagine what that place would have done? You got to give them both credit. I mean, it was part of the show.

A lot of... Especially during the heat race. They were both in the same heat race. And the fans were not watching the leaders. They were watching those two. When when Bert got by Tim, the whole place erupted. It was awesome. It was awesome.

When we're on the topic of the series part of the season, NASCAR announced a slew of rule changes, including no more DVP clock, changes to the playoff waiver eligibility and introducing the open exemption provisional. Are you spot on or spot off to these rule changes, Freddie? I'd imagine Ryan's pretty spot off, spot on to the DVP one. Yes, I like that.

A lot. I am a big supporter of that. I don't know why it got to where it was, like, you know, with the DVP because it just created controversy of like my biggest gripe with, and I can just point out, you know, the Glenn last year in the playoffs, like, you know, I got, and tore up. I didn't even get tore up on lap one. I just broke a little, like, the steering column.

And my biggest thing was, like, how is someone in the tower or not a part of it telling us that we're done? You know, like, let us at least look at it, fix it. You know, and I think I had talks with NASCAR about it, and that's, you know, here we are now. So I feel like it's, it makes sense. Like, if you tear the whole front end off of it, okay, right, like, you're done. But if there's something you can fix and you're 10 laps down, let them go back out there and finish the race.

You couldn't have examples like your example and Josh last year, you're getting towed to pit road with a flat tie. You know, basically flat. You know, you're out of the race because you had a flat tire. That was ridiculous. And it was really just because the car. You know,

the car ends up, we didn't have this problem with the other car because you could drive it back on flats. So now, you know, it's just a reaction to that car. But, you know, the thing I, for you, Tommy, you know,

some people, Dale was talking about, I think on one of his shows recently, you know, concern about now you're bringing crash cards and stuff. And I know Jeff and then we're talking about, you're not going to be able to go in and fix everything. It's basically the stuff you've already got on the trailer. Correct. Yeah, I don't think it's additional cost to the teams.

You know, again, to Ryan's point, I think what happened was over the years of us fixing cars on pit road and sending back out and stuff falling off and causing cautions and causing problems and cars driving around really slow. It all had made NASCAR made a, you know, stance of probably going too far. But you have to adjust, right? and now, you know, the situations that happened last year, you know, especially with Ryan, that's what I think woke everything up at Watkins Glen. But, yeah, I think they made the right decision for us to be able to fix the cars. I don't necessarily know what it's going to fix. I mean, if you're going to go back 20 laps down, nobody's dropping out of the races anymore.

But it's given us to satisfaction be able to fix the car, get the car back out there, talk about it. Yeah, sponsors. Yeah. What do you think on the playoffs? So I don't, like, where do youth add? Because like, for me, I think that they ended up looking foolish, whatever it was a couple years ago was a chase, I think, where he got suspended and got a waiver.

And I think that's like, you know, all right, well, if we're giving waivers to guys you're suspending, like, what's the point of having a waiver? And I think, for me, I know Dale was harping on this last week on his show with TJ about like, just get rid of the waivers. We don't need them anymore. The reason why I think you do need that rule of attempting every race is, The only thing is you don't want a part-time guy taking a spot in the playoffs.

You know, you know, two years ago, are we going to give SVG a spot in the playoffs? He has no chance of advancing because he came out one race and one Chicago. I think that's, I mean, if we're, I just think that that's the example. I don't want that happening where people are just entering guys, maybe specialists in certain tracks. And so I think that's why the rule exists and that's why they give these waivers. But I mean, does it put up, you're actually, I'm going to give you credit. you are one of the cleaner drivers in the sport. So I don't think you ever, just really ever crossed your mind.

But, you know, suspensions is really where this is, which Jeff Gordon called the Kyle Larson rule about indie. But I think suspensions is where this is going to hit home for some guys. If you end up doing something stupid on the racetrack, it gets suspended, now you're losing all your points. Yeah, I think there was a, there was a meeting behind the meeting when NASCAR put this rule out, you know, of guys not intentionally reckon guys really hard. Right. Like if you go hook a guy and you get suspended for a race, there's going to be even more constant. consequences than, you know, than there was before. And I think that's kind of where NASCAR's idea was.

I think that's what they, you know, kind of thought in the back of their heads. I don't know. I mean, you can easily just throw this one out the window if you just, I don't personally like the win-in-your-in thing. I think you just give it to the top 16 or however many guys get into the playoffs, you know, so that would just kind of negate some of this stuff. But, yeah, I think it would make people second guess about, like, I'm out of this guy. to right hook him, which is the worst thing you could possibly do in a race car.

So it might clean that up a little bit, which is good. If you think about it, you're in a playoff right from the first race. You're fighting for a playoff spot right away. It's, okay, you win, all right? You have to win in order. I mean, obviously, you're talented enough that you're going to have enough points to be in the top 16. But, you know, look at the 21, for instance, last year, you know?

They won. They're in. They moved up 16, 17 spots. the points got all that money millions of dollars yep and uh but they earned it right it's it's it's NASCAR's rules it's not ours we just have to play what yeah you have to do you race to the rules yeah right so i i you know i like to your point i like i like when you're in just be for the fan standpoint of it because you're you're ending up with you know you know you saw how mad christopher bell was where was that was at Vegas where he didn't you know and and and he didn't

get in you know not we got to martinsville he didn't get in i don't want to bring up martin'sville but uh you want to talk about that not really um but but but But, you know, that you see a guy who just get a second. For some reason, I don't know. We had to fuck that tire. I think Tommy was done. But we were having a good run. A tire went down.

But, you know, you see a guy just, in most days, that guy finished a second. You're like, ah, good points. You know, I'm all right. But Bell was irate that he finished second because he knows if that, that's like the, in my opinion, that's the third biggest race of the year to win. It's Daytona 500, Phoenix and that Vegas race because you've got the two weeks to prepare for Phoenix. But, you know, so I think I like the winning you're in if we're going to keep this format. you know, obviously, traditionally, I just like to run 36 races and the guy the most points wins.

Is that your ideal playoff format? I mean, yeah, for me, just being a, like my ideal, like, why I know that's never going to happen. So ideally for me, I am a three race playoff guy, whether it's, you know, 12 drivers, nine races, eliminate three after three race, every three races, and then you have a three race playoff for the last four guys or whatever, or three guys, whatever it is. But, you know, for me, I think, you know, for the fans, I try to think about, like, from the fan standpoint of, like, what's going to be the most exciting and also give the balance of not just one guy winning one race is your season-long champion.

Which is a tough line to find. I mean, it really is. Yeah, for sure. No one's ever happy. And how do you feel about just giving out free spots for the Daytona 500? Personally, I'm happy for Elio because I love Elio. He was driving indie cars when I got over to Penske, and he's like one of the nicest and greatest human beings you'll ever meet.

I was pumped to race with him, you know, in Daytona. And Chase actually said it really well in our media availability the other day. it's like and Denny talked about it as well. You know, there's a, there's a kind of a point you got to make. Like, this is the highest form of motorsports in America. And if we're just giving out free spots to other folks who want to come in and run one-offs, like you got to be able to get your work in and qualify for it. You know, and it sucks if qualifying gets rained out, right?

And you don't make the show. But that's just part of racing, right? So while personally I was really happy for Elio, like digging into it more, it's like, well, I don't want to, don't get greedy with this, you know? I just, I feel like they set themselves up. Like, nobody's going to give you a provision to go run the Indy 500. You know what I mean? That's a race.

You've got to go there. You've got to show up. You've got to figure it out and you've got to get in the race. I don't know why nothing is, nothing against Helio. But they put themselves in a position where, and this is, listen, this is only going to happen at the Daytona 500. Like there's nowhere else. We're not going to get more than 40 cars anywhere else, essentially. I mean, if we do, I'd be very surprised.

But, you know, what happens next year when Helio and whoever, want a both race. Now you're putting yourself in a position where you've got to choose which one. Is it whoever enters first? I don't know how that works. Well, they said it's, I think I heard somewhere where it's like they sit down and look at the resumes and decide.

Like that's just submit it like 90 days before. It's 90 days before, which now all of a sudden they said that Jimmy and Martin would have been. So now you got Jim, if Jimmy does submit his resume and it's Helio and now you got a guy that's, my problem is like if you're going to give up a visionals, it should be a guy that help build your sport. Like Jimmy Johnson versus a guy that's just coming in for one time. And I know it's going to put a lot of eyes on the deal.

But I just always. is of the opinion of, you know, the pat, we had a past champions provisional for years to get Richard Petty and Darrell Walter been in the race because of what they've done for the sport and you wanted them in the race. Now you're going to have a one-off. And I just hope, I hope the guy, the trackhouse car should be pretty quick. I just hope he times in on Saturday, you know, on Wednesday and it's a mute point. But I don't love it. Like for your say, it's just, it's like, it just seems like you're just begging people to come race with you and we'll just give you a free spot in our race. I think it's a joke.

To be honest with you, you know, as, as hard as I fought over the years as being car owner, I think I went home twice from the Daytona 500, not making it out of the 10 years. And it's hard, man. You put a lot of effort into it. And just to give a free spot to somebody that's never done this before. I mean, it's good for the fans, right? It's like you said, it's going to bring a lot of eyes on. But all right, let's just go find a bunch of money and a good European F1 driver. and okay, we're in a Daytona 500. Come on, man. We're creating participation trophies here, you know. It's just a, and look, NASCAR has set it up the right way on the business side,

the money-wise, the points-wise, you know, so none of that. But what happens if he causes a wreck on the track and ruins it for someone like Ryan who's going for the championship or, you know, stuff like that? So I don't like it. You know, I think we all worked so hard in the garage to earn. what we've gotten today. What did they earn? What did the tracker house and Haley will earn to get into Daytona 500?

A bunch of IndyCar wins? I don't know. I mean, I guess, you know, he can go run IndyCar, right, in May? He could, but he's got to race his way in. Exactly. So, yeah, I think it's a joke, to be honest with you. Corey LaJoy said that he would rather run 20th on Sundays than go to Xfinity or trucks and win races in front of 12 people in the grandstands.

Spot on, spot off, Tommy. Why me? I don't understand what's his problem. Because you already talked shit about it in the group. Did you want to go first on this one? I mean, I think he's a whiny bitch. That's what I think. I don't understand what he has against your fans.

I don't know why he doesn't want to race against in front of 12 fans. Yeah. That's like seeing the 12 shirts, I guess. Not the 12 people in the grandstands. Yeah. Tommy, we asked you first. Yeah.

Yeah. Obviously, he's driving for us this year for some races. But, yeah, I think it's a little off, a little off the topic of, yeah, what he said. But, you know, that's him, though. I mean, that's his thought process. That's, you know, he's worked his tail off to get to where he's gotten to. And he don't want to go backwards. And I guess he thinks that's going backwards.

But I like to, you know, if he drove them, see where he would end up, right? I mean, I'm sure, you know, now he's pissed a lot of people off. If he ever does a truck racer, exfinity or race, he's probably going to have some issues, you know. That's my problem is, you know, I love Corey. Corey's a friend of mine. And I think that these comments, you know, I think that he maybe just misspoke a little bit. You know, I think he really, you know, you're really talking about maybe your partners, you know, your sponsors. From a partner's perspective, 100% agree with what he's saying.

Yeah, but that doesn't help new partners want to getting to the sport on a lot. lower level to start their branding and with a younger driver or somebody. That doesn't help that. The problem with calling out, you know, the 12 people in the grandstands on Friday and Saturday are those are your diehards. Those are the people that are camped out all weekend. Those are the people that are there to, they're in the grandstands for every race. They're in their grandstand for practice.

You know, we went to Rockingham last week to test and they had a grandstand full of people off a turn four just watching the test, you know? So, you know, anytime you just can't take shots at crowd size. and these people are coming out paying good money to support you. I don't think that's what he intended to do, but that's the way it came off. And there's, like you said, there's a lot of backlash from, you know, I look at Reddit and here, and there's a lot of people that are like,

man, I'm done with Corey, you know. I tried to get this guy that benefits for the doubt for a long time. And now he says shit like this. And it's just, I don't think that, you know, I don't think he meant it the way it was taken, but unfortunately he said it. And you got to be careful with talking shit about 12 fans, you know. Yeah.

They're passionate people, man. They're passionate folks. I think I'm going to be on the radio for Corey for Daytona and Atlanta. So we'll, uh, oh boy. I might swing by and grab a radio. We'll see what, uh, so I can listen in. See what we do. It's interesting.

I mean, he puts a lot of effort into, uh, into what he does for sure. Um, but obviously he's a LaJoy. And, uh, I don't know if you know. What's a thing? Like, you know, it's, like, you know, is. Oh, Randy. He could speak his mind too and get himself in trouble, too. And I think that just some, you know, I had a, I had a, somebody had tweeted the other day.

I think it was a buddy of mine. Scott Tapley that runs a bunch of racetracks up up in the Northeast. And he said, I bet you if he asks Randy, Randy would rather have his Bush series career than his Cup series career. You know what I mean? Like a multi-time champion. So, you know, you just got to get in where you fit in, really, sometimes and take what you can get.

Yeah, I definitely think it came off wrong. You know, and I think, right, Corey's worked really hard to get to the cup level. And, you know, he's done a great job and getting himself there. And, right, I think, in his mind, like, I've worked so hard to get here. I want to stay here. You know, I don't want to have to restart.

Yeah. Sometimes it's hard to, right? It's easy to go back and like, oh, I should have said this or that. I do that all the time. But I think he's like, he's worked so hard to get there. He just doesn't want to, you know, go back. That comes with age. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. You know how it works. I know. I'm reading this, you know, next thing. I'm like, shit, we got to talk about this. I can't even read. I don't even read.

No, don't put your glasses on yet, Tommy. We got something before that. before I start picking on you. I don't even know what we're on. You're doing a great job. You're doing a great job. You need cue cards for Tommy. We do.

Or teleprompter. Well, we do have a fun news twist to spot on, spot off this year, and you guys get to ask each other whatever you want with no limits. No limits. And Ryan, you can ask one if you have one for both of them. I'm out on this. Am I allowed to be out on this, Alex? Do I have to participate?

I don't know what I want to ask them yet. I really have to think about this. You got time. I'm not going to ask you about your kids wrecking each other at Riverhead a couple months ago. Thank goodness. How was that dinner? It was all right. I'm more worried about them after the fact than I'm worried about myself.

But, you know, like I told them, the golden rulers don't run into each other. And Luke's done it twice now. I will ask you this. We'll start off on the friendly side. We'll get this, we'll get worse 30 year. But how cool was it to be able to get Tim Brown in a car to bring him out there to the stadium? and somebody that works in your shop on a weekly basis. Yeah, it was awesome.

I mean, Tim's a key ingredient to our race team. He's very, very good at what he does. And to have the most wins there in all those championships and to get him that. And kudos to NASCAR, right, for having both Bert and Tim involved in this weekend to be part of it. It was a great deal to be part of. I think NASCAR, it worked out for NASCAR. I worked out for both Bert and Tim because they got a lot of eyes on them. And again, it's going to help Saturday night, right?

On flow, right? When the fans need to turn on something, they're going to watch those two. Racing a little harder against each other on Saturday nights than they did then. But, yeah, he earned it because of what he accomplished there, and it was a perfect fit. I was glad to ask our food. I really loved. I listened to Dale's show, when it was the last one, T. and they spent the whole first half of the show

talking about how the clash should just be poll winners and it shouldn't be included to everybody and it's, you know, just get back to what we're doing. Then they had Tim on the show and talked about how amazing it was that he was going to be in the clash. And I'm like, he hasn't even fucking run a cup race before. Like, never turned the laugh at a cup car. 20 minutes ago you wanted only poll winners.

Now we're just letting guys make their debut. But I was glad NASCAR approved those guys because they belonged in their race. But they had a race away in. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Why didn't they get a boven exemption?

That would have been, look at the resume of Tim and Bert, like, who do we pick? Honestly, what would you do if you had to pick between the two of them? I mean, you would pick Tim because Tim has three more wins and one more championship. But it's like, they're so close. Yeah. It was cool. You got a question you want to ask anybody?

You got your shit for Freddie? How come I wasn't invited to your wedding? Yeah, me too. I'm pissed. Geez. He knew you didn't like the cold. I could have used a couple days off. Yeah, I know you didn't like the cold.

Where did you go? Where was it anyway? We were in Aspen. We were in Colorado. I wouldn't have win. See? Yeah. I wouldn't have won.

How come? How come he didn't invite me? I would have went to that thing anyway. I would have said, I'll go to your next one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I know you didn't like cold aspen, right? You know, so that's why.

That's funny. Yeah. Do you got any questions you want to ask anybody? How in the hell did you convince Bubba to let you back this year? I don't know. I just, he's an idiot. I mean, he talks shit about you all the time. Yeah.

We're, we're, uh, we're, this is year 15. Is it 15 together? 15, yeah. It's like like, it's like one of the marriages where you're just miserable. we just stay together. Stay together for the kids. We stay together for the kids. Like, J.R. and Charles.

Year 18, you're out. Yeah. You're out. Yeah. Once I don't got to pay child support no more, it's over. He's gone. Have you changed Beck's diaper yet? No, we haven't even met Bex yet because I've been gone all offseason.

I text him a couple weeks ago, I go, Megan's going to get, Megan's mad at me because, like, you know, I'm like, yeah, I'm going to meet him, but I'm going to meet him anyway. So I'm going to date tone or whatever. But Megan's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, we haven't met Bex yet. I'm like, I'm worried of that. So I'm sure that'll happen eventually. But yeah. So, you know, it was funny this week. I had, we get to the track. We get to roll out there for practice. And I'm like, I never have my stuff on early. Like I'm usually like put my headset on like maybe five, 10 minutes before practice starts. And so what we're, it was a weird deal. Like only some one of us could be on the roofs. We were like swapping in and out. So everybody kind of had their shit on early. And I'm standing there and I'm like, all right, 10 minutes, guys. Crickets. They're probably on digital talking about something. God knows what. All right, guys, five minutes.

And usually about five minutes, Bubba's like, you know, you got me, whatever. Nothing. About two minutes out, JR, our engineer, text me. He's like, are you on? I'm like, yeah, I'm on. And I listen to myself, so I know all my stuff's working. And I'm like, yeah, I'm on. Are you on?

They're like, yeah. I'm like, y'all didn't change frequencies, did you? And they're like, oh, yeah, we did. And I'm like, that was nice to know. You might not want to mention that to the spotter, you know. And I think it was like, so then I had a, use different radios for the heat race and I only had, I didn't have

all my normal stuff so I wasn't listening to myself so now I'm yelling like I'm trying to talk over the cars for some reason so he's like, well you stop fucking screaming at me? I'm like, all right, shut the fuck whatever. We get over it. Way to be prepared. Yeah. Well, I was prepared. They were the ones that were not prepared. No. There was a slight miscommunication. Again, it's

just like talking to the kids. That's your job. My job. Why about show at the shop? My shit worked. I want to make sure. They didn't know. Honestly, nobody knew that they changed freaks. It seems like everyone on the team was on the same frequency but you. Excepting.

Because you were gone all off season like you've been talking and you didn't get the memo that, hey. Don't blame anybody but you. I don't want to hear it. All right. Fuck off. So then we end up. So whatever, I'm yelling.

So the next day I get all my stuff reprogrammed. It's all good. Get up there. Start talking. He's like, something's wrong. You sound fucked up. I'm like,

what? I sounded fine yesterday. I was just, yelling. Turns out sometime between Saturday night and Sunday, my microphone went bad. I swapped headsets at the break. Way to be prepared. Your shit probably stayed in the bag

from Phoenix. Yes and no. No. Don't lie. Absolutely not. I did the turkey derby, bitch. Oh, yeah. Okay. So since the turkey derby. All right. Since the turkey derby. 30 degrees of the turkey derby, right? Your snot, your water, drinking water. Got on the mic. And again,

you're the fault. Just a moldy microphone. It worked the day I want to ask Tommy. I feel like one of the highlights in my head, and I just want you to talk about it a little bit, was the fight when Casey was driving for you. It wasn't a fight. Between it brawl.

It was not. It wasn't even close to that. All I did was trip over a bunch of tires and then... And punch a bunch of people. No, it was not. Everything was fine. I mean, I got up on the pit box. I talked to Zippy about,

Hey man, what did he say? What happened? When he happened, I got off. And when I got off, I tripped over. But what happened was when I was tripping, I tried grabbing onto something. Well, it just so happened to be a couple Tony Stewart guys, right? That I was grabbing onto him. It didn't mean to.

You know, next thing you know, I got no fire suit on. I don't know what happened. Take that out of context. Take that out of context. I promise you, if you really know me when I'm fighting, that was not a fight. I've been to a couple of those. he's probably not wrong. I just,

the whole shot of you with it, I know, I just, I know, that's like seared into my brain. And I'm like, I can't believe I got fined $10,000 for tripping over tires. And then months,

months at a time, they're showing it, right? Finally, I walked into the NASCAR trail. I said, you guys done? Can I start getting my,

my money, you know, marketing money back for what you're doing? Are you going to keep showing this or what? Yeah. They laughed at me. And I'm like, yeah.

I paid $10,000 for you guys to keep promoting it. That's what I don't. I don't like about the fine stuff. Like, then they promote it. If you're going to find somebody, don't promote it. Like you can't have your promos on it. Like Ricky and Kyle deal last year, you find those guys. You're not allowed to do it.

Either don't find them and you can promote the hell out of it or find them. And it's on YouTube. You can't intro your race for that. I think I got like over $300,000 in fines in my NASCAR. Allegedly. No, real. And yeah, it's just two of them been promoted. Have you been suspended in NASDA?

car. No. Really? Gotcha, bitch. For what? I did. No, I'm saying, for what? I don't know.

I still didn't do anything wrong. You listen to my radio and tell me what I did the wrong. Wait, you really don't know, still? I still don't know. I have to have a meeting with Elton Sawyer at some point to figure it out. Same as your radios, right? This weekend, you don't know, right? You go back on my radio and tell me what I did wrong.

I'll be happy to talk about. Freddie would be like, I don't think he would ever go to jail for anything. Never. You get on the stand and be like, I don't know. What are you talking about? I don't recall. I don't know. he's talking about. I don't know what you're talking about.

Yeah, Freddy's got the old Long Island. Yeah, you know where I learned it? Yeah. Yeah. Tommy, I do have a question for you. Uh-oh. Do you know what crash out means? No. You know what it means?

So, like, crash out? No. Not in a race car. I was going to say, he's probably seen a bunch of... Do you know what crash out means? Me? Yeah. I have no idea.

Do you? I mean, I'm... I have an example because it's... Is there an example? I can't read. The example is you. Yeah. Example is Ryan is a...

known for crashing out on the radio. See, I don't get that. If you were to use it in a sentence. I kind of got a gripe about that. Grite. Well, hold on a minute now. You know, people give me a hard time for, you know, I get animated sometimes on the radio, but.

You do lose your mind a little bit on the radio for five seconds. Then you go out. Well, the biggest thing I have is I get asked all the time, like, you know, hey, why do you radio, y'all that's yada yada, and they give me such a hard time about it, media and stuff. But they never give guys hard times for hooking people, wrecking the hell out of people. It's like, this should be the stuff you're worried about. Like, I don't know.

I'd rather lose my mind for five seconds on the radio than wreck guys all the time. Like some of these guys do. Kurt Bush was the king. That was the- Radioactive episodes of Kurt Bush. My favorite shit to watch. The person that always tweets out your live radio. Anytime I see my name where he's like, tell Freddy.

Oh my God, this is funny. I love it. Yeah, I did call you out one time. You know it's him telling Bubba what to do. Yeah. And there was one time he said something like, he's on my last roll or something. I think he even spoke about, is that a fucking fat joke? I was like, why are we talking about roles?

I don't understand. It is embarrassing. I go back and I see that woman's like she lives tweets everything that goes on on our radio. And I go back, I'm like, I don't remember saying that. Sorry. I brown out. I brown out. Crash out.

Crash out. I've never heard that before. That must be new slang. I'm surprised Luke and Jack have. taught you that. No, I'm the one that's usually crashing out. Tripping over tires and shit.

You're a typical crash out. I tripped on a tire. If that's the example, when I spotted for Tommy, he crashed out on a weekly basis. Rick that motherfucker! Tommy, I said it was a great spotter for me in the expensive stuff.

He was great. I think my dad spotted for me twice. Maybe once, and I think he never spotted for me. No, he was fired. Yeah. He was just like driving. He was fired.

Tommy was a great. Spotter. He was fantastic. It's time for reaction theater where fans can call in and voice their opinions from this weekend's race. And let's hear from it. I don't know how much you've listened to the show, but this is basically people leave us voicemails, and your fan base is here weekly.

Oh, is this where the hot tub? The hot tub thing got? Yeah. It started with the bath, and then the milk's from all the way. It was a bath all year because they, I don't think, you're having a bad summer, I think, and they were like, they were talking about bringing their toaster into the bathtub. Oh, God. Yeah. And then you start

running good at the end of the year won the championships so they upgraded to a hot tub and I'm happy for them just leave the toaster out of it they were like I'm getting to the bathtub I'm bringing my tub oh man here we go poor guys I was always wondering what that was about

because I saw it and I was like bathtub I don't know what the hell we were gonna make a shirt with just like a big 12 on the side of a bathtub it'd be pretty awesome I should start selling toes or a toaster yeah I'm about that motherfucking Ryan Blaney

last the second who wasn't for that damn Kyle Bush he might have fucking been able to done something But, you know, it is what it is. Oh, 12. I'm going to win a lot of them this year. You banked on that. What on Kyle Busch?

I like that guy. Kyle didn't really do much. I mean, he, we were lapping Kyle. And I think I was like half carlinked back, like quarter carlink back into one. And he let Chase go. And I'm like, all right, he's going to let me go. And he turned to the bottom. We kind of hit a little bit.

But that's a passionate fan right there. Tommy had a good stat on Kyle this morning in the group text. What did you say? He's already taking the lead of caution. Right? He's league leader of cautions. Yeah, he did it last year. Are he leading the cautions and bringing out the caution?

His new nickname for me is Spin out Harry. That's all he does lately is spin out all last year. Just spin out Harry. Great. Now we get to hear all the fucking chase sexuals choking down on chases blizzy for the next two weeks. It's going to be a long effing two weeks before the Daytona five one in the IRS. Shit.

That guy's not from Dawsonville. No, I don't think so. He didn't sound the siren yesterday. On his glizzy. He's chuggy on his glizzy is nuts. Yeah. I just learned that glizzy is a hot dog. Yeah.

From my wife. No. Gizzy is a hot dog. What's on it? It's just a hot dog. That's what they call hot dog. That's like the kid's slang term for hot dogs now. They call him glizzies.

Yeah, I had no idea. She was like, let's go get some glizzies. I'm like, what are you talking about? She said that? Yeah, when we first started dating, I had no idea. It's like a Philly thing. Wait, she wanted a hot dog. dog?

Your wife? Yeah. Gizzy. There's nothing on it. I mean, it doesn't happen. Whatever you want to put it. It's the same. It's just them saying, hey, let's go get a hot dog.

They want a glizzy. It's just another word for my dog. I thought it was like a Philly thing, but that guy sounded like he was not coming up. Somebody said that you want to go get a glizzy. I would think it's going to cost money. I would have seen. Yeah, exactly. Sounds like something you should have.

It's going to cost money. Yeah. It just depends how much. I thought it was going to cost more money. Right. Yeah. The one thing that. I'm thinking about after this race is how that punk-ass tie gives needed to be parked after he had his little temper tantrum there.

You don't need to have him out there on the track anymore after that. See, you guys. You got real calm at the FC. Yeah, that's how I'm talking to you. I will be interesting to see, you know, somebody near and dear to my heart got fine recently for running somebody over under yellow or after the race is over. So I would be interested to see if there's any punitive. There I'm sure Bubbo will be leading the charge because I don't know I think that was a $50,000 deal. We didn't, we just bumped wheels.

We didn't drive over the side of the guy or nothing. So. That was after the race, right? What's the difference? You had window and possibly window nets down. Come on. We hit the driver passenger size. Yeah.

I want to know these folks who are leaving these voicemails. Like I want to see them in the moment. You want to see what they look like? No, just in the moment. Like, are they on their car driving home and they're just calling in. You can tell. There's either in the parking lot still drinking beer in the bathtub. there's some interesting ones.

I love this. This is great. There's no way anybody could say that wasn't entertained. Ty Gibbs, parkoring a car. Denhouse, more double birds than Danny at Polkino. The Dylan brothers were buttoned foreheads for 10 laps. We got to go back.

We got to go back. Blaney, win the 500 because every time you're on TV, my girl gets briskie. All right. I'll try to help you get lucky. That's Sunday night, bud. I'm going to try. That's awesome.

The Dylan thing was killing me because they just continued to fuck each other. Like, they were running second and third. Austin goes in there, kind of misses the corner, blows him up the racetrack. Then somebody goes by both of them. And then they, I'm like, if you guys would just let each other go, you might be having a shot at this thing. It just, they don't know any better.

It just drives me crazy watching these drivers do this. It just, they don't know any better. Oh, we get songs, too. You get songs? Oh, yeah. What's up, BBC? You're alive in the late-night mix. Right after the booming gray race.

This is the next jazz jam close out for my man. I was staring in a space on NASCAR Foxman. Chase Elliott won that raced last night. You're going to have a long ride home. This one for you, whoever you are, a band. That guy needs a radio show. I thought it was Barry White for a second. Did you see that video?

The guy, there's a guy, like, they cut, they interviewing Chase had the races over and they cut to, like, just a random chase man. And the guy is either annihilated or just oblivious way. He's just like, just out of it. Oh, I saw that on Twitter. Like, just out of it. Just had an adabodic experience, man.

Yeah, he was so excited. He just went catonic. I'm watching this bullshit right now. And if Hostavar is in any top three NASCAR series by next year, I ain't watching no more. This kid was terrible in trucks, and he ain't any better and tough. He's wrecking everybody and running through the whole field.

This guy fucking sucks. Had you disguise your voice? Was that Luke? No, I mean... I mean, he's not far off. I mean, I think he's got a lot of talent. I think he just needs to... Someone needs to teach him how to harness it and do the right things with it.

I mean, that car, I said it earlier, that car was really, really good. He just needs to learn how to pass without running into people. He does it on the big tracks, too, a mile and a half. He just, I just don't understand. I shake my head on some of these guys while they're in the race watching these guys. I'm like, why? Why? Oh, man, those are great. As a Kyle Bush fan, I'm not surprised that it took all of 20 laps before I got the toaster in the bathtub ready.

It's going to be a long year. So now it's Kyle Busch fans with the Toasters. You're right at a good run. So it's the Kyle Busch. I mean, it changed once it became a thing with you, then it was like, whoever had a bad day, their fan would call in and say they were going to, the chase was a little while there.

And then there's a bunch of them. But yeah, we love you guys. Spin out Harry. That was, that was a strong recovery, Alex, I think, from last year. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

How many, how many calls did we get? Oh, at least over 20. And like, I think most of them were. after 2 a.m. Yeah. Those are the best ones. Those are the best ones. I'm going to save this number.

Which one? I can't read. The call in number. And I... You call it every week. I'm going to see if I call in. I'm going to see if you guys will know if it's me or not. Yeah.

I mean, I'm going to put a voice on and everything. Do it after a win when it's about five in the morning. Yeah. Hey. I'm not going to make it, but here's my... I mean, we... For whatever reason, last year, kind of trended down a little bit.

Like we weren't getting as many great calls. That was a really good start. But for a long time, we had, like, we had guys writing songs. One guy ended up getting a job here because he wrote raps. Like, on Sunday night that we play on the show Monday morning. We had a guy named Jeb. I don't know what happened to him. Not Burton.

I don't think. He might be burden. But he would, he would look like country song, legit country song on Sunday night. And we'd play it on Monday morning. So we have talented fans and we love when they get fired up. That was, that's my favorite part of the show. I think the jazz intro. one was pretty. Yeah. If you too want to leave an audio message like Ryan, you can call our number 247-704-802-9572,

and we'll play the best ones each week on the show, so make them good. It's time for AskDBC, and you can send in your questions on X each week using hashtag AskDBC, and we will answer the best ones. For the future of this event specifically, what will work better long-term for the sport, taking it to the newer audiences like L.A. Coliseum, or keeping it close and connected to the established audiences like Bowman Gray. Ready? I think for me, I think it was awesome the first year in L.A. And I think anywhere you go, it'll be awesome the first year. But it's just really not sustainable if it's not a hardcore NASCAR fan base.

I think if we go back to the class, we go back to Bowman Gray next year, you'll have the same exact crowd. It'll probably be the same exact people, to be honest with you. You know, we saw from year to year in L.A., the crowd got a little bit smaller, a little bit smaller. Obviously, the last year was rain affected. But, you know, and the funny thing is, it's, it was still a. bigger crowd in LA than we had at Bowman Gray last night probably but the atmosphere of Bowman Gray

was just electric it was kind of like going back to North Wilkesboro for the first time I mean you think about it last week you know I was talking about somebody we were testing at Rockingham we ran Bowman Gray this week and we're going to go to Wilkesboro and a couple like if you would have told me that five years ago I would have told you you're insane so you know I think I think it's found a home at Bowman Gray for

hopefully as long as it wants to stay there. Yeah I agree I mean it's you know hey I thought LA was fun for a few years. You know, you talk about getting, you know, new eyes on the sport. I had, you know, last year we went there in 23, I had five different families come up and say, hey, we watched, you know, we were from out here. We watched the last couple races here, and we decided to bring our family out. It was our first NASCAR race.

So, like, that's really cool, right? You're getting into a new area, especially because we don't go to, like, Fontana anymore, right? So it was nice to have that. But, yeah, I mean, it's just not going to beat the atmosphere of Bowman Gray. I don't think so. and hey, maybe you change it up every two, three years. You know, you have the ability with that race to go to some different places. So, yeah, it's just like finding that balance.

Well, and to that point, like Landon Huffman said last night on Twitter, he was saying, like, hopefully that this could help the future of other short tracks, like a hickory and places like that. So who's to say that, you know, they don't do this for another couple years? And then it kind of pushes the issue for other short tracks to get it together, to be able to host an event like that. I mean, you can see the upgrade. They made phenomenal upgrades to the facility.

you know, if you take this somewhere else, you know, you take it to Hickory. I mean, Hickory needs a lot of help before I can do that. But I'm just saying like this, you could do the same thing over there. Or you could do the same thing, you know, take it to Stafford up by us. Or, you know, there's just a lot of racetracks where you could help them by bringing it. And I saw Phil Spain as a, you know, he's one of the bigger Bubba fans in the world. I saw a tweet from him where he was talking about like watching that modified race Saturday afternoon. Now makes him want to watch Bowman Gray on a weekly basis.

Because see, you know, that modified race might not have been the best example of modified racing. But, you know, it's entertaining, you know, and that people, we're going to want to watch that on a weekly basis now. So hopefully you're getting not only that atmosphere builds, you know, hype for our season, but now hopefully it carries over to where people go out there and watch the weekly show, Bowman Gray on a more regular basis. Yeah, I mean, I think I agree with Ryan. I think both the All-Star race and the class should be moved every couple, two, three years.

And NASCAR investing into these other facilities to do the same thing. Like, we can't, I don't think we'll ever going to lose Wilkesboro again, right? I mean, it's either going to be an All-Star race or hopefully a points race soon. because it's good racing, right? Obviously, Bowman Gray, we all agreed early. It's never going to be a points race, but what they did to the facility, to the upgrades and the atmosphere is you can't beat it.

We have a new segment coming up on DBC this year, and it's going to be called the Shit Show Hall of Fame. And we'll have an induction class each week of all the dumb shit we saw. Alex, I was wondering if we're now, maybe we're just going to be, we're going to have the fans do the induction. maybe we just put up the nominees and then we put up some kind of vote and let the fans induct somebody every week,

kind of like they do on a yearly basis, you know, with the other sports. I like that. That's not bad idea. Like we pick them now and then we'll put a poll up and let everybody vote on it. Whoever they vote, we'll set up a shit show Hall of Fame for you. You want to make your first nomination for the shit show Hall of Fame? What was your biggest shit show moment of the weekend? Well, I think Stenhouse was probably the biggest one based off the reaction of the fans, right?

you've seen the video a little bit differently than I did about how that accident accident might have happened but I think to be honest with you I think he was just pissed that the local boy was beating him beaten him and snapped and lost it I think you've lost your mind I think you've lost it he stenhoused it what do you think you got any shit shows of the week I'm trying to decide between Carson Hosevar or Ty Gibbs go ahead and pick one just pick one I'll go with Ty Gibbs that's my shit show

Hall of Fame nomination you don't think driving over the side of somebody and the problem is he's going to get the worst of that right I mean you would think you know I mean like yeah that hurt I mean that I just talked earlier that would hurt I mean so that that's my vote for the shit show and I'm not saying he obviously didn't mean to

launch like he just meant to kind of door him and pull off but oh my God that would have hurt so bad oh man my and we got warned about this early before we started this But on mine, I'm going to have to go back to the modified race. Whose ever idea it was to do a full field redraw for the modified race? I know. I'm not saying that they shouldn't.

It was they should have not have done it for that one. The poor guy that started on the outside pole was seventh coming off a turn two and then got just railroaded into the fence and destroyed his race car. But they, he knew better this startup. That's what I'm saying. Everyone knew going into it after everybody picked, they said, oh, he's going to start in the back when that whole row is going to move. up. He rolled out like he was going to win the race. And I was like, oh, boy. But it shouldn't even

be a, so they qualify. They timed trial and then redrew the whole field. What's the point of that? To get the draw order. And the guy that won it started last. He took the money, the bonus. He started last. Yeah, Fleming. And whose car was that? That was one of my old cars. Tommy's favorite car. He sold to Chris Fleming. And I just, I walked by in Fleming's in victory lane. And Tommy's standing like at that point in turn forward, where you can look straight down the front straight away in the pits. And he's just like, I should have ever sold that fucking car. Why did I sell that car? What was that car's nickname?

Moneymaker. Yeah. Now it's making money for somebody else. Way to go. But yeah, so me, like, if you're going to have, like, I was just upset that. I think you can have a redraw. You could redraw the top six, eight, something like that, but at least keep it to where it's guys that should be racing around each other because... Whole field is... They do that

every seven. I know that, but that doesn't make it right. They run twin-25s and they redraws and I'm fine with that. That's... I'm fine with because they, at least you have to get to a certain spot to get in the redraw for this. So what they do is they qualify, start straight up off a qualifying, run 25 laps. The winner draws a number. It's like 8, 10, or 12. So at least you got to be in the top 12 to get in that redraw. And then it promotes different winners because different guys will start up front in that second race and you'll get a bunch of wood. But to redraw the whole field on

something where you're trying to showcase your series. It was just, it was a really slow start to the race. And there was no officiating. No. I mean, that one wreck Fleming went from 18th, drove to the grass to sixth. It was the cost, and stayed there. I'm like, that was good. I mean,

he gained a lot of spots there. Oh, man. So, yeah. And Priest, he hit everything but the ambulance. And I think he ended up, I think he ended up in the ambulance. Tommy said that to me.

I thought he was really hurt. I'm like, he's like, no, I'm just kidding. Yeah, poor Priest. He had a, rough go at it. But you got any other shit shows you want to

nominate? You're just sticking with Gibbs? I think that's, that's the one. Yeah, that's the one. Yeah, that's the one. Just the, the air he got was

astronomical. So we were standing like behind the grandstands and I he spun out so I turned around I started talking to somebody else and I heard the eruption of the crowd I was like oh he must have hit somebody. So then I looked at the replay and I'm like oh wow he he definitely hit somebody. My first DBC pick

I'm going to pick I'm going to go Michael McDowell for the 500 That's a good pick that's a good pick Okay Tommy who do you want to pick for the five so do you know what we're doing here you paying attention?

No, I got the ADHD. I know. But I'm going to pick somebody, I think. So you just remember, you can't pick this guy again until the playoffs, whoever you pick. There's 30-something of him. I know. I'm just saying.

Shit, if I pick Blaney, he can't, right? You got me second. I'm not picking myself. I'm not doing that. Yeah, right. I'm going to pick Brad Keselowski. I think he's due. That's a good pick.

Do I have to write it or something? No, they'll track it. I got it. I will take Todd Gillen. Okay. I like that. He was pretty,

I thought he was really, I thought he was really good on the plate races last year. Yeah. Well, Tommy took my pick. Oh. I was going to go Brad. I'm going to go retired,

but he's coming back. And he's finally going to win a plate race. Mike Wallace. Martin Truex Jr. Martin Truex Jr. I thought you were going to say Mike Wallace. Well, they didn't let him in. Oh.

Oh. They said no. He got ex-nade from the X. Why can't he get an open-exam? Truex has got to get in. Hopefully he's going to have a lot of Toyota help to get him. We'll hope we'll all in his duel so we can go back there and make sure we get him in there. I think he'll make it in speed.

Anyway, we're heading to Daytona. When are you going down? I am going down the 10th February. So it'll be Monday. So I'll be a bunch of media stuff you got to do that week or no? A little bit. We're going down there a couple days early. to kind of hang out. Bub and I are actually going to go play MJ's course one time that week, so that would be fun.

Have you been there yet? Yeah, he and I played like two years ago out there and was really neat to just, you know, kind of see the clubhouse and play. What's it like for you? Like, you know, I thought it was really cool. I forget what the hell race I saw where he came up. Like, you won someone. Was it Phoenix? Yeah. And he just walked over. It was qualifying at Phoenix and he come over and stuff like that. And I saw him on pit road after I lost Miami and congratulated him and stuff. but Michael's, it's like really, really neat to be able to be friendly with MJ and stuff. He's one of the coolest guys ever. And it's insane the amount of knowledge he has about our sport. Yes. Like, you would think that just, like, when I got into this, I thought like, I was just like, it's golf game.

You know, like, he's just kind of part of this. But, like, he knows every driver. He knows who the ones to watch out for. Like, we go to plate races and he's like, man, there's some scary ones up there. So, you know. And I was like, yeah, I know. And not just the cup guys. He knows every Xfinity driver.

He knows every truck driver. Like, it's, he's not in it just. for his name to be in it and a part of a team. Like, he loves racing and he knows all there is to know. And that's, that's really, really neat that he's so committed to it. That is really awesome. I think he's more committed to it than he was with the Hornets. Honestly, I mean, and that's just from my perspective.

Like, he's super into motorsports. Yeah. And like, just getting ready for the 500, what's your, what's your, I mean, are you going probably had a thousand meetings? Yeah, yeah, you know, just it's kind of that time of just preparing and preparing the best you can. Like, there's only so much you can do. I mean, we talked about earlier the fuel safe stuff.

Like, that's a game. That's a strategy. Like, what are our plans A to Z, you know, of figuring it out if we're putting this scenario? I'd just like to finish the thing. I haven't finished the Daytona race in like two years. So that's like job number one. And then, you know, we might be in a spot to try to win it. So we'll see.

I was pissed to you two years ago. When did Austin win? 22. 22. I was really hoping you hooked him in the fence when he blocked you. Yeah. I'm going to go over. We just talked about hooking people.

I was hoping. Well, I mean, he was blocking him. So, you know, Ryan cut him a break, I think, and pushed him across the line. Yeah. No, I didn't push him across the line. I was trying not to wreck myself. Yeah, I thought you could have just stayed in there.

Maybe it turned him in the fence. The craziest thing about that race, man, like, you know, we're coming down the end of this thing. I'm behind Austin pushing. And we're going down the backstretch coming to the checker. And y'all are behind us on the bottom. So you're all third on the bottom. I'm second.

Austin's there. I think Brad was leading the top lane and maybe Briscoe behind him. And I got clear of Brad like in three. And in my mind, I'm like, lay up. Got this thing worn. No doubt in my mind. I'm going to wait till off a four, make sure one of us wins this thing. And I'm going to ride off in the sunset.

And it just shows you how quickly like your plans can go to shit there. Yeah. Because you're like, oh, my God. I told Bubba we were coming down to it. It was like a lap or two to go. And we were pushed. We were behind you guys. And I'm like, we're in the right spot.

I said because these Penske cars wrecked each other. thing every fucking year. Well, a year before that, Brad and Joey wrecked each other leading one, two. And we come up a four, and it was like, I'm like, here he goes, because Ryan went right and Austin through like a late block. And I'm like, oh, they're going to fucking hook each other. We're going to hand it to us. And then, like, they got it figured out and went across.

I'm like, damn it. The worst part about me picking Brad is he, so back in when McMurray was racing, him and Jimmy Johnson, when they were close together, there was going to be a caution. I don't know why. Even when I was spotting, I'm like, back up. There's going to be caution. Sure enough, Jamie and Jimmy would wreck every time together. And I think Brad's taking over that.

Brad seems to be in the middle of all the wrecks that are starting. That's T.J's fault. Thank God T.J's not here today because I didn't want to listen to him. As soon as we spun Brad out last night, I'm like, thank God. He's not on TV. We should have had him as a second guest today. Fuck that. I didn't want to listen to him cry all morning.

I would have been entertaining for me. Oh, my God. I'm sure he's going to go on and on about it tomorrow. Dale's show. Listen, you should show up. You should call in. I should call in. They got a hotline on that one.

Yeah. Just call in. Just shut up, T.J. Ask Jr. Hashtag, Ask Junior. Can you tell TJ to shut up for me? Just keep calling Dale's phone. Just get up eventually.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Sorry about you. Not yet. So you got Cody and and Corey. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. We chastodino the cars last, you know, on Friday. The cars are pretty much prepared. with just all the final touches on them. You know, the biggest thing is we have a practice for the first time in years. It's only 50 minutes, so it's like, well, what is the field going to do? Are they going to draft or are they going to do single car? And it's like, you know, we have an open car going, so we're going to have to try to do one, maybe two runs to try to pick up some raw speed, right?

So we're contemplating on the change that we're going to do because you're only going to get two runs, right? We're going to get a baseline run. Yeah, you're going to get one change. And then one change and, you know, hopefully learn from it if the draft doesn't get in our way. So besides that, we're getting ready. I leave Friday. We raced a tour, the modified NASCAR wheel and tour race with Luke on Saturday at New Smyrna. And then Jack races the rest of the week Monday through Friday.

But I'll be at the big track Wednesday on, and Luke actually, crew chief Jack. Oh, God. They run on New Smyrna all week. Yeah. Like with Jack? Jack will. Luke will just run the tour race. And I think Luke's going to run a late model one or two late model.

I think that practice beforehand benefits. So many, Helio is the biggest benefit, I think, because we went through this with Pistrana, whatever he was at last year, the year before. You never, like, launching off pit road is like the probably one of the biggest factors in qualifying. And, like, with no practice, like, Travis has never done it. You know, like, it's never.

So they were in, like, parking lots around here just trying to get the launch down. Yeah, so I'm saying, I'm sure they're doing burnouts in the GM center. We were all, like they were, yeah, something out, like, at least you have a practice. now where you get a couple of shots at launching off pit road. Don't get me wrong. They're putting, they will put, with Justin and Trackhouse and GM, they are going to put a full on effort on making this deal successful.

So good thing. But it's also good for us as our team, the competitors, because we get a little more, I'm not going to say relax on the inspection process, but we get to go through before we really have to go through. And it's the most. You can cheat your shit up a little bit. see what gets through there. Well, not that. It's just, man, just the correlation between the shop and the track is never the same. It's always 20 or 30 or 40,000 difference from NASCAR's machine

to our machine. So it gives us an opportunity to go through once. And I actually make the inspection process a lot easier for the real one, I think, for all of us and for NASCAR. So I kind of like those practices before we have to go through inspection, because it does make all the, you know, that easier and less hectic. Yeah. And it makes everybody make sure their stuff is right. Right. You know, like, I think there was a couple cars last year because, like, you're just way off. Like, newer teams or something like that, you miss travels by a good man. Was it Connor? I think it was Connor Daily.

Yeah. And it's just poor guys just everywhere. So it's like, you got to give guys a chance to make a couple runs to make sure that when they qualify, it's, you can actually drive the thing for a lap. Yeah. Carson, you go to Daytona? I am, actually. I get to go. watch for the JRM attempt I'm really excited Oh that's big deal

How is the JRM stuff going here That's a big deal It was I had no idea They did a really good job Keeping it under wraps Like I work in here And I didn't know about it Because it's not even done in here

It's at Hendry It's not fool anybody It's a full on Hendrik card It's gonna roll out And go in the trailer I don't mean the physical car I mean the planning It's another bullshit thing

The planning And the marketing of it And all of it I didn't know Any of that was going on Thank you very much That's because it's a Hendrick deal All right

Well, I worked for the car store, so never mind. It's a building 10C over there. It's in a shed out back. There is. That's my Dale Earnhardt Jr. Car. Yeah, I'm very excited to go to Daytona. Thank you for asking.

Oh, yeah. Well, Tommy, I'm sure. I'll be at the Oyster Pub. You know that. I'm sure me and Tommy have been there. You were there recently, I think. Yeah, well, I actually have had to go on a couple times for testing. We tested with the kids a couple weeks ago.

than we have a late model program with Rick Ware that we're putting together and went with that program. Tommy was a straw, our favorite bartender wasn't there. He's like, where did they go? Well, I mean, we've been going there for 30 years, and believe it or not, there was 12, 30 years ago, by the way. I was probably still there. There's three bartenders that have been there for 25 or more years, and it was the first time I've ever been there and none of them were there. And I got a little worried. Did they die?

I got a little nervous, and I text Freddy. I'm like, is everything okay? Because he knows him. Is everything okay? It's like, Norm from Cheers. Yeah, hey, hey, Fred. I'm like, I wanted to check him. I see, have you heard from these guys?

Did not hear him a little worried. And the other guy that got lost, ended up in Miami, he chimed in. I won't say any names, but he chimed in. And he started describing him. And I'm like, then he's describing the girl one. I'm like, no, that was no girl one. There's three guys. No, there was one girl one.

There was one girl and two guys have been there that long, and it's like, I'm a little depressed. We'll see. They'll be back this week, I'm sure. But we'll be there at some point. Meg's coming. It's a big birthday, so Meg's going to be in town. Which day is Matt's birthday? When are we celebrating?

Thursday. So once we win the duel, we'll go out and get wild. It used to be, what was it? Sunday night, we would, it was it? Sunday night used to be the time because you didn't do anything Monday, Tuesday. Yeah. Back in a day, every night used to be the time. Yeah.

Not anymore. Sunday night I used to make some rounds. I'm glad we cut down to a five-day week. All right. Well, that'll be this week's show, I guess. I don't think we got anything. I think we covered all the bases getting ready. I've seen a lot of BBC fans at the stadium this week.

It was awesome. I don't know if you got to run in any yet. But you'll see some after this one, I'm sure. And Carson, all the Joy fans will be calling you to say hi. I'll glad to answer. And Ryan, we wish you luck. I hope you have a great second place for. finish next?

That's a start. That's a start. A finish the thing. Yeah. So, thanks for having me on. Man, we hope you had a blast.

We'll hopefully get you back here before long. Well, I guess we'll hear you every week on reaction theater. Probably. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. That's a call. In person, we'll be good. Yeah, do a calling. Yeah. We'll have to see. See if you get it right. Give it a couple weeks,

though, so we like forget about it. Yeah. Then it'll really be a good game. All right. All right. All right. Thanks for listening. We'll catch you guys after Daytona.

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