Door Bumper Clear - 89 - Catching Grasshoppers and Secondhand Smoke

Episode Date: February 26, 2018

A remote T.J. joins Brett, Casey and Jason after Atlanta to discuss Harvicking, garbage pit guns, throttle data, embarrassing injuries, heading to Las Vegas, 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.

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This is Dale Jr., and you're listening to Dirty Moe Radio. Outside, door, bumper, clear the 18th. Best car I've had here in a long time. You're going to do it. You're going to win it. Right with you. You're clear. Check the flag.

You win. Oh, yeah. Hey, everybody. I'm T.J. Major. Spotter of the 22 cup car, the 22 Exfinity car, and the 25 truck. And joining me as usual. Brett Griffin, Spotter for Elliot Sadler, Clint Boyer, Myatt Snyder, thanks to One Main Financial for bringing us this show.

T.J. is at a remote location this morning. He's actually calling in from his basement, probably his mother's basement, but nonetheless, we do have returning for two weeks in a row. That's a streak, by the way. Our lovely co-hosts. Yeah, they let me come back. Hey, guys, this is Casey Hames. I work in marketing within the NASCAR Expinity series.

Looking forward to hanging out with these guys again. Welcome back. You're not really hanging out with me today. Yeah, I mean kind of listening to you, I guess. Did you ever have a job, TJ, where you, like, went the first day and then you didn't come back after lunch? Yeah. Yeah, I did too. I went and bailed hay one time.

My boss man came to me. He's like, hey, man, we're going to bail some hay after work and load it on this truck. We'll pay you $100. And I was like, man, this is going to be an easy $100. I didn't go back. I was like, you can keep $100 and I'm out. Yeah. It's way too hard.

Way too hard. So thanks for coming back. Hey, new problem. Yeah, I felt hay for, uh, I felt hay for two summers. They make you itch? Uh, yeah, it hurt. It hurt your, hurt your arms, too. Uh, with the, and you're like, your forearms get all chewed up.

Yeah. Yeah, I was red and itching. That wasn't for me. It doesn't sound like fun. Can you believe we got that racing yesterday? That was nuts. Uh, you know, after seeing the percentages of, of, you know, the chances of getting it in, I was, um, optimistic, like not very optimistic. And then, you know, I saw that, you know, we all saw the radar

kind of, kind of, you know, clear up just a little bit. But, no, I didn't, honestly didn't feel like we were going to get it in. And just the way the weather is there, it's kind of like Martinsville or, you know, just showers kind of linger and hang around a little bit. And they don't really ever, you know, go away long enough to get the track dry. So I think NASCAR on the track did a great job of even moving everything up an hour to give us that. for time. You know, it actually worked out perfectly. So I think everybody did a great job and I was glad to get it in. I think we were lucky. I mean, I woke up at eight, looked out my window, nine, looked out my window, 10, looked out my window at 11. I was like, you know what, I'm going to go to the track,

even though it's raining just to be there in case. And drove right in, went grab lunch, you know, around 12, 15. And man, by 2 o'clock, it was like, man, we got a chance, you know, and everything just stayed west of us. And to your point, had I seen that forecast? knowing Atlanta, knowing how hard it is to dry it, man, I would have been like, hey, we got to do something quick. We got to try to make arrangements to get this race in, but they sat on kind of the original plan and it works. So kudos to those guys for that.

I know it takes a lot of hard work with jet dryers and air tightens, and people don't realize, man, that's a lot of coordination of stuff. But we got lucky. Especially that track. Yeah. I feel like they, you know, they planned everything well there. And Atlanta's not an easy track to dry either. So, you know, Atlanta's one of the hardest places to drive because of the surface.

So I think, you know, one more rain shower in the middle of the afternoon, a good, you know, good rain shower where it soaked everything. Probably would have done it. But, you know, luckily that never happened. And, you know, we got to have a good race. Yeah, we were lucky, man. What about your weekend? You have a good weekend? It was okay.

Had a good, had a fun run on the truck race. Dalton Sarge was learning. He's still learning quite a bit. and the Exfinity race, I feel like we had the second best car to Harvick. He was playing with the field. He was playing with the field both days. Would they call it Harvich? Yeah.

Harvicking? Yeah. They said it on the broadcast like 30 times. I mean, if I had a dollar for every time they said it, it was. Yeah, he has its own verb, I hear. Oh, yeah. I heard they bashed a buddy of ours on the broadcast, TJ. Did you hear about that?

No. So the six car, the six car blew up. It was a trail of smoke like nothing. I've seen in a long time. Oh, yeah. Yeah, there's not going to be a mosquito there for a year. Yeah, no. And then I guess, you know, Bubba didn't know exactly where Stenhouse was.

Stenhouse probably didn't even know where he was. And they managed to run into each other. And I guess D.W. just slammed Freddie on air saying how that's the spotter's fault. Can DW not look out that window where he's at and see the smoke and realize we couldn't see anything? Yeah, I don't know. Maybe we're supposed to see through the smoke at certain points in time. But it was really hard to tell where. you know i saw everybody checking up and i told joey i just said look you know just check up over here

everybody's going real slow just kind of creep in there and pick your way through it i'm pretty sure the car's sitting on the bottom you know so and you know but i was a little later in there than him but um there's uh i mean i don't at some points we can't see either no so and there's times like that just you know the driver might be driving into it there was a lot of smoke right there it wasn't a normal it wasn't a normal, you know, it wasn't a normal just, oh, there's a, you know, smoke trail. It was a lot of smoke, so it was hard for us to see as well.

Yeah, I mean, we were sitting there, and we were fortunately right behind it. So when it happened, I was able to, you know, tell Clint how to get by it pretty quickly. But everything behind us, you know, if you didn't see the trail of smoke when it initially happened, you literally could not see the exit of two

all the way down the backstretch. So I feel like Freddie probably took a little bit more crap than he deserved for that. I mean, the way that I describe our job a lot of times to people is we say what we see. And if we can't see, we can't say it in that instance, man, he probably couldn't see it. Yeah, for sure. That's tough. Cool, man.

We're going to get rolling. Casey's got an appointment to get to. She's busy. Always blaming me. Busy professional lady. All right. Let's head into spot-on, spot off. First one, Ford shines Hendricks struggles.

I was surprised at this. Were you, T.J.? Yeah, I'll say spot on for Ford. This is the first track where we're really good, you know, an idea on how the downforce is going to be. And, you know, I was surprised to see the strength of them. You know, I was glad to see it. But I was a little surprised with the, you know, with the Chevy having the new nose and Toyota, you know, how they've been. I was kind of impressed to see the Ford's be as strong as they were.

Yeah, I was definitely spot on for Ford. I mean, obviously, TG and I work on Ford teams. Clint ran third. Harvick dominated the race. I do think, though, this isn't as aerosensitive as a racetrack as what we're headed to Vegas and then obviously looking ahead to Michigan and some of those places where we literally run wide open. You know, I think mechanical grip is a big deal at a place like Atlanta. So to see us have mechanical grip, it makes you look forward to places like Bristol, Richmond,

Martinsville, because although Atlanta's a big track, your car has to turn and it has to have grip. So big, big spot on for Ford. The Hendrick struggles, man. And I was, we lap Jimmy Johnson early, and I literally couldn't believe it. And I looked down at my fan vision, and he was running like 20th. And just overall, the Hendrick cars, I mean, Chase Elliott was the only one that I saw flirting with the top 10. You know, we were laping Byron pretty quick, and I saw Bowman struggle a couple times.

I mean, this is a place where Hendrick typically runs well. Jimmy's obviously good everywhere. So I definitely think that that's a big red flag for them. But this new nose may have a bigger impact at Vegas than it was going to have Atlanta. Yeah, Vegas is definitely a little bit different racetrack. You know, it's similar in turn one and two. But three and four, Vegas is pretty much a bottom track. In Atlanta, the turn three and four was actually a little bit better this time than it has been in the past, in my opinion.

But, yeah, I was definitely, you know, it was, I was kind of surprised to see, you know, the 48 and them guys, you know, struggle as much as they did. you know, Chase moved to a different pit strategy and he, like you said, he was slurting with the top 10 there a little bit. But definitely not as much speed as what we're used to seeing them have

in the past there for sure. This one's surprising. 13 cars finished on the lead lap on Sunday. Yeah, I mean, I think Harvard could have lap the field. I mean, we had a 30 lap run. He was already catching pretty good cars. we had a 50 lap run to finish stage one,

and he lapped a lot of good cars, including Jimmy Johnson. I think he lapped up to like 18th. At one point, there were nine cars on the lead lap. We had a lot of guys take the wave around there at the end when the caution came out for the six. But, I mean, when you look at a place like Dover, a place like Atlanta, when you have long green flag runs, the cars that are handling well are going to lap a lot of cars. And when I look at Atlanta, I think what makes it special is we actually get to see cars being passed, whether it be four position or being lap.

So I got to say, just spot on to that racing surface and spot on to only seeing 13 cars on the lead lap. Yeah, I'm not against, you know, seeing a lower amount of cars on the lead lap. But this sort of dominance doesn't happen very often. You know, it happens, you know, once, maybe twice a year like that. You know, evidently they found something at Atlanta. And he's already very good there already. That's one of his best tracks. So, you know, you put a really really good.

good car under him. They find a little bit of something there. And he's dominated that race before. And honestly, I'm shocked. That's, you know, that's the first time I remember him winning a cup race there, since his first win, I believe. So it's kind of shocking that he hasn't won more there, but he's really, really good there. And if they hit on something a little bit, it's not hard for him to dominate a race like that. It was dominant. I mean, he was absolutely playing with a field. We used to call it back in the day. He was walking the dog he was gone yeah like i said you don't see this type of you don't see this type of dominance very often and you know i've learned over the years that when it when it does happen you just got to respect it you know they they found something they they did a great job that's what we

all try to do every week so many times too it does happen and then that car finds a way not to win so it's actually pretty cool that he did come out of win yeah yeah what would you guys say is another similar track where you can potentially see this happening again where a harbaker's somebody else dominates the entire race. Yeah, I mean, I think the stages take a lot of that away, you know, because we only ran 30 laps, then we ran 50 laps, then we ran like 80 laps. So I think that keeps it to where a guy that is filing some handling issues, you know, can kind of hang on to the lead lap.

And then if you hit it the second half of the race or make the right adjustment, you can get back in the ball game, you know. But in terms of seeing somebody run away with it, you know, another track that I think that happens a lot is Dover. Yeah, I don't know if it's necessarily true. fact sensitive, I think it's just, you just never know when somebody's going to unload and just be that fast. You never know. We all try to do it every weekend, but you just never know when that's going to happen. And it happens, you know, every now and then you have somebody with a

dominant car like that. There's been, you know, you could probably, I'm telling you, there's probably one or two a year if that somebody just has bagged at a car. But definitely tracks, I think tracks that you have higher tire wear. You know, definitely think it's more likely to happen there because you can really, you can really, really punish your tires when they wear that much. And some guys, like, if you watch the beginning of that race, there was about, there was about four or five cars that took off to the top of the track, the first run of the race. Well, of course, it's going to be real fast for the first run, but it's also really green. So it's going to eat that tire up, too. So a lot of us stayed on the bottom,

just for fear that we were going to chew that right front up and, you know, possibly blow the tire. but I think the tracks that have a lot of tire wear and a lot of falloff are the ones where you can see somebody really show up with a dominant car and manage their car really well and dominate like that. That's also the ones we see a lot of passes. That's the way that's the way the formula works. Three air gun failures during the cup race, a crew chief actually referring to it as a garbage pit gun. I mean, I don't know a lot about the air gun situation. I don't I'm not really sure how they are given to the teams rented whatever the whatever the formula is they use to give them to the teams but obviously you know

obviously there's some there's some problems but we had you know there's there were problems with the regular air guns too you know so now it's going to be it's going to be a lot easier to point out now since their man you know the regulated and mandate is going to be easier to point out a failure you might not have heard about a failure as much before but you're going to now it's going to be easier to point a finger. But, you know, obviously it looks like they have a little bit of work to do and making sure the guns are durable enough and don't have problems.

And, you know, like I said, I don't know a whole lot about it. I don't know how many teams actually did feel like they have problems with them, but it definitely looks like it's a topic that could use some attention. Yeah, this is definitely spot off for me. And I just going to give a quick lay of the land. Teams are forced to buy slash rent these guns from NASCAR. It's done by a third party. car is actually taking in money to rent you these guns.

We had at least three failures. I heard as many as five. The thing is, you can't sell me something, and then it not work and make me lose points, make me lose money, make me lose potential chase contentions. They have got to fix it. We do not need this to be the storyline coming out of Vegas because it's only going to get bigger. The drivers can't really touch it because it is the same for everybody, but at the end of the day, these teams are going to be furious if they keep losing positions

because of something they're being mandated to buy from NASCAR. When they were making it themselves and it was breaking, they had their own liability. This is a weird, weird situation for us. Yeah, I don't, I mean, it's hard to, you know, if you figure there's probably how many guns over the wall there then, you know. You're looking at 80 guns. Yeah, you're looking at 80 guns.

Yeah, so, I mean, and we're looking at, you know, a small percentage of failures here, but, you know, if nothing happened to a big-name team, we probably wouldn't really know about it. You know what I mean? But it's definitely something that it's going to be easy to point a finger when something does go wrong. But in the long run, it's probably there was a lot of money being put into the pit crew guns. When I say a lot of money, you probably know more than I do on the number.

But there's, I mean, it's millions. We're being put into the guns to figure out the technology, how to make them faster and better. And I do think this might be a better solution. but we can't be handling. It's obviously not good to have a break and not be reliable. If they're going to be slower and we're all going to use the same company, at least be reliable. Yeah, it's got to be reliable.

Drivers can now see each other's throttle data. Man, I think this is, I don't even understand how this is legal. Like, I really feel like there are things in our sport that have to be proprietary to us and our teams and our drivers and our manufacturers. And to know that all these guys can now go get Harvick's throttle data from Atlanta and study it, like, are you kidding me? I mean, I know the drivers are mad about this, but as a competitor, I'm upset about this. I mean, obviously, I'm spot off on it, but I just don't understand how I can go see the other

team's playbook. And I feel like that's what's happening. We're at the Super Bowl, and I'm the Eagles, and I have the ability to go in and I have the chance for two hours to look at all the different plays that the Patriots are going to run for the day to prepare for it. Like, man, I'm not a big fan of this one. seeing the throttle trace doesn't bother me as much as you know to me it wouldn't be as much like seeing the playbook seeing the playbook would be seeing what harvick had for a setup that would be more playbook to me

to me this is just like this is kind of watching film you know this is like watching film of the other guys quarterback tendencies and stuff you know all these all these teams have people that work for them that study offensive linemen you know defensive linemen for tendencies you know okay does he he's going to rush to the inside does he put this arm in or out he moves his arm this way he's going to go to the inside you know they all they all study people for tendencies like that and a lot of this is really dependent on the car set up to doing how the car's handling so you know if uh if harvick you know obviously he was lifting real early for turn one a lot we all heard that but in my opinion you know not everybody's car was set up to be able to do that um so there's a lot more to it's you know i know it shows a little bit of the technique and stuff but just because you show A guy, we all know that lifting early for the corner, a lot of these guys overdrive the corners a lot. And it's, it's, you know, you've got to discipline yourself a lot. But seeing a throttle trace doesn't really, to me, isn't giving away a lot of, a lot of huge secrets.

It might, it might, you know, help somebody somewhere a little bit, but the car's got to be able to take it too, you know. And seeing this and applying it are two different things, in my opinion. And so seeing the throttle, the throttle data isn't really a game changer to me. To me, it would be, you know, the winner's car going back and getting, you know, posted at NASCAR and the setup, all their measurements being posted. That would be a bigger deal to me, you know, than, you know, seeing when a guy is turning the wheel, when he's getting into throttle and stuff like that. do you see it more for like a weekend, not necessarily Atlanta since we only go here twice, but like a Phoenix or a Vegas where we do go there twice. Once you can see throttle data for the first race, maybe seeing it use more like when you come back the next race.

Yeah, I think to TJ's point, that's exactly what drivers are able to do. And when you look at the throttle data, then you're able to say, in order to do that, this is probably how I need my car to feel. And then the crew chief has to go back and make that setup change. I mean, Harvick is the keying at Atlanta being able to run the bottom and stay on the bottom. I only saw him move up in one and two when he was running third trying to pass a two cars. So whatever he's doing in there, his car is set up obviously for that. But the more you study, you know, his throwing style, if you will,

the more you're able to say what you need the offensive line to be able to do to give him protection. So I think you can kind of back yourself into a corner. But again, if Natalie's been racing her entire career, Casey, you've been racing your entire career. And Jason's been racing his entire. all develop these skills that realistically you can only see if you've got an in-car camera or whatever going on there like man i'm a believer of this is mine don't give it away you know yeah i don't it does the just the throttle trace this doesn't doesn't bother me that much you still got to be able to put it you still got to put it all together and and you know just because a guy just because a guy

watches uh you know watches tom ready to play doesn't mean he's able to go out there and do the same thing still so i think there's i think it's part of the equation but i don't think I think it's a surefire, you know, absolutely going to be able to go and emulate it. Makes sense. All right. Let's take a break. At one main financial, we believe in the importance of community. That means partnering with our neighbors to reach common goals, lending a hand when it matters most, and commitment to our neighborhoods. Community isn't just where you are.

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Let's head into Fast Lane, which a quick overview. I'll give T.J. and Brett a topic to debate where they have 30 seconds to voice their opinion. Let's see how long this one goes. First one, Kevin Harvick swept the Xfinity and Cup races this weekend. Why is he so good at Atlanta? T.J. Well, Atlanta obviously fits Kevin's driving style. You know, we go to a lot of these places, and certain drivers are just better at certain tracks.

They just fit them better. And that's, you know, that's Atlanta for Harvick. So, you know, going to Atlanta, we all know we're going to be racing Kevin. You know, when you go to a place like Dover, you know some guys like Kyle is going to be fast, Jimmy. Before, you know, they retired. Greg Biffel was always fast there. Carl Edwards was always faster as well. So I think the question why is he so good at Atlanta, it's because he can make the bottom work on both ends.

We all know the bottom is the shortest way around the racetrack. And somehow or another, he has figured out how to go fast around the shortest way around the racetrack. So he's going to beat you. What amazes me is how quickly he can go through one and two on the bottom and still carry momentum on exit. Most guys that do that lose a lot of momentum down the backstretch. And for whatever reason, Kevin Harvick doesn't do it. Dang. So if you go to a place like, so we look at, you know, just certain tracks fit certain drivers really old. We go to Martinsville. We know Danny Hamlin's probably going to be really good there because that just fits his driving style.

He, you know, grew up racing. So, you know, getting around the bottom, you know, obviously Kevin can do that really good there. But it just fits him. You know, I don't know if you're ever going to be able to pinpoint the exact reason on why some of these guys are so good at certain places. but, you know, some of these tracks just fit certain drivers. He's got two more seconds. Pressure's on. Dale Jr. suggested that Atlanta should return to its old configuration when it's repaved, and Marcus Smith said SMI would look into it. Would you like to see this happen, Brett?

No, man, I feel like this is not realistic. I mean, Marcus Smith is saying he will look into it. We're talking about them having to spend a lot of money to take out the trial and move seats around. It just doesn't seem practical. I don't think the trioboval necessarily adds a lot of excitement to the race other than the fact, you know, that it makes it a mile and a half track, which for some reason all the tracks ran to do. I do not think it's realistic to say that we're going to do that.

I think, you know, I think it's unrealistic as well. And I'm afraid if they ever do try to change the configuration, they're obviously going to have to do some repaving. And I like Atlanta how it is. I like the speed difference. cars coming with tires all the time. You had to work pretty hard at certain times as a spotter and as a driver. And I'm really enjoying that aspect of it. But I don't think it's, I like the older land. I've never been there personally. But it looks fun. But I just think it's unrealistic at the time. And I saw a fan tweet this idea last night. And when I first read it, I was like, this is the

dumbest thing I've ever heard. But maybe they should just like repave a quarter of it at the time so that we can get all the old asphalt and then put new asphalt in and give it time to age before you do another corner. The best thing about Atlanta is the best two tracks surfaces at the downforce tracks right now are Atlanta and California. So if we go in and screw those up, we turn them into a Michigan. Michigan hasn't put on a good show since the repaving. That was a long time ago and they have a lot harsh or more harsh winters than Atlanta does. So leave it along. Hey, Brett, I got a question. What are you got? Why is there not different grades of asphalt? that they can make, like, more abrasive asphalt.

You know what I mean? There has to be because we debuted at Homestead and put on a phenomenal show once they did that reconfiguration and added banking. Like, that progressive banking has been amazing. But then, TJ, they turned around and came to Charlotte, and they said, all right, we're going to repave Charlotte, and they ruined it, you know, and then they,

here's how dumb people can be. You've got Bristol Motor Speedway. You're selling 150,000 seats to every single race you have, and you go in and change the racetrack. Like that's almost what I think we're up against is all this change. To your point, yes, there has to be something with technology they can do to make it where it's not like what Michigan is. Yeah, that's what I was thinking is.

There's got to be a more abrasive texture they can use to keep it wearing out, instead of just real fast, smooth can be on the bottom. I mean, we saw Darlington, which is just similar to Atlanta, each tires, latimes fall off four seconds. You know, they did a repay. We saw Regan Smith win the race by staying out and literally winning the race on no tires. And just looking at the legacy of what Darlington is about, that shouldn't happen. You know what I mean? That's not what it's about. That's not what, yeah, yeah, I agree. All right, next.

Jimmy Johnson is now on the longest winless streak of his career at 25 races. When will he win again? T.J. Well, Jimmy is, Jimmy's one of them guys that can win the next three. He can do it at any point, it seems like. He's been in, you know, I've seen him go in droughts before and then went two out of the next three races. Jimmy is, you know, an incredible driver, and, you know, you fear, you fear them every weekend. You know, it doesn't seem like it's even been that long, but Jimmy's just one of them guys that he's going to be in contention. He's just a factor every week. Yeah, I see Jimmy Johnson, and I heard Darrell Waltham's comments on him yesterday. He said that the older you get, the harder it is to win.

and I think Jimmy Johnson is the best Cup series driver to ever sit in a race car. I mean, he's accomplished so much in such a short amount of time. When will he win again? I mean, there's so many places to TJ's point he can win. Charlotte, Dover, Martinsville. I mean, he's good just about everywhere, but it's only been 25 races. I think the concern is Hendrik is a camp doesn't have the speed they had. When they get the speed, Jimmy Johnson will go back winning.

Yeah, they, you know, Jimmy, like I said, he might go there this week. And he might go unload at Vegas and pull a harvick at Atlanta. He's been fast at Vegas before. So, you know, it could happen. And I wouldn't be at all surprised if he did. All right. Moving into our off-the-wall topic, Tim Tebow sprangled his ankle by stepping on a sprinkler head at spring training. He did?

That's what I said. What's the most embarrassing way that you have injured yourself, TJ? Oh, man. You got to let Brett go first on this. I haven't seen the sheet. So he probably doesn't know our examples too. He probably does. I don't think I've ever really gotten hurt, like injured injured.

Better knock on wood there. I mean, I've tore my Achilles tendon, but that was playing football. I mean, I've torn out. Well, I guess I do have one story. I don't know if I could tell it. Lake of the Ozarks, way too much alcohol, playing beach volleyball. I had been running, and I was up to run in five or six. six miles at the time, and I thought I was in really good shape. And I tore a hamstring,

and I tore it bad. I had to literally fly from Lake of the Ozarks to Ann Arbor, Michigan, like get the trainers to work on it so I could walk around at racetrack. Yeah, so I guess that's the most embarrassing one is I was making so much fun of Clint and how poorly he was playing volleyball. I mean, I was constantly making fun of it, like wearing him out. And I would literally hold the ball up and hit it to him going, I'm going to hit it to you again. You think you can hit it back. I mean, I was being very mouthy and I got hurt. you Clint had a lot to save off. I went to. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I thought I tore my ACL. Like, it was bad. And it's because I had too much to drink and I thought I was 25 again.

Well, it's probably because you didn't stretch correctly before you played. I didn't stretch at all. I did 12-ounce curls for like four hours. That's how I got one. I don't know. I don't know if I have any, um, it's really, really as embarrassing as that. But I did when I was probably about seven years old, I was out in this field and I tried to catch this grasshopper. Yeah, exciting. And I went to put my knees on the ground and there was a rusty nail stick straight up and right in my kneecap. So that was in, I had to hobble all the way back to my house and my mom was having a Tupperware party at the time. and the lady that was selling came out there and ripped it out of my knee and I thought I was going to pass out.

So, yeah, it was not really, it was pretty entertaining for a little while. But yeah, I looked down and I was like, oh, okay, there's a nail sticking out of my knee. And, yeah, it wasn't, it was, it was painful as well. Yeah. I can't really talk about this one because mine's probably worse than both of y'all's. What is it? I almost got my finger chopped off in an elevator. How?

I lived in Chicago. And like those old elevators, the one with the, like, the chains and you have to close it and open it. Well, my finger got stuck. And my friend tried to open it, not realizing that my finger was there. And I was in shock. I didn't know what was happening. Like, literally, I didn't bring my wallet. I took an Uber to the hospital.

And the poor guy, I'd, like, blood all over me. Which finger is it? this one right it's my pointer finger just the tip yeah just the tip and uh yeah I was I was what are y'all laughing at oh I can't well yeah so it's just the tip it was just the tip it was that's fair um yeah so mine's probably a little bit worse I still have my fingers so that's what matters y'all have dirty minds y'all are terrible I think you had the dirty mind you pointed at the tip of your finger and I said just the tip. Gosh. But then you laughed while you did it.

It was funny. All right. All right. We're about to head into the West Coast swing. What are you guys most looking forward to? Well, I would say the weather, but it's going to be 40 degrees every morning in Vegas. Yeah, I saw that. Man, the thing I'm definitely looking forward to is all that secondhand smoke in the casinos, man.

Just go in there and sit down a slot machine and just breathe it in. Yeah, that's always good for your health. Yeah. Vegas is really, Vegas is kind of weird. When it gets cold in Vegas, it's not like a normal cold. It's like cold colds for some reason. You know, you're just not used to it there. And, you know, I saw the lows right there.

I think we have like an early Saturday morning practice as well. I think it's like at 9 o'clock or something like that. They usually do that. We're in Vegas and they schedule an early practice. Isn't this usually, well, I guess because the weekend change, but it's usually daylight saving. It's when the time changes when you're on the West Coast. I thought that was Easter. That might be a couple weeks.

I'm not sure. Yeah, I think it used to be Vegas and I hated it. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, it's really hard to beat the fried macaroni and cheese at Fix in Bologio. Where? Fried macaroni and cheese. Restaurant is going to fix.

You would find one of the places in Vegas that has that because there are so many good restaurants. I agree. So I'm going to definitely eat at Belagio at Fix, and I'm going to definitely eat it, STK and Cosmo. Have you been there? Yes, so that is good. It's literally a club that serves you bone and ribbys. Like they got jamming music, good-looking waitresses.

Maybe they're good-looking waiters. I don't really look at waiters that way. But if the guys inked up, I think that's pretty cool. Well, Vegas, I'll tell you one thing, one good thing about that 9 a.m. practice is the people watching them leave in the hotel that morning is usually pretty spectacular. They're just coming back in. You leave at seven and they're coming in and you're going out. They got big of head, walk of shame.

Yes, there's a lot going on there. There is, yeah, there's just a lot going on. You see, yeah, I'll have to take some pictures. Yeah, take pictures. Tweet them out. We're going to take pictures of Casey's boot she's got on today, too. I hate you're missing them. They come all the way up to her quadriceps.

Wow. I was cold. You got a cold now. How hard are they to get on? What? I couldn't hear you. You have to set them on end of your bed and jump into them? No, they have zippers. I mean, I have another pair that have to, like, jump into you, but these are cozy.

We're shoe guys, so we're going to pay a lot of attention to your shoe game. Noted. Noted. I almost wear another pair today. I could have. Next week, don't worry. Don't worry. All right, let's head into Ask DVC.

Producer Jason chose a few AskDBC questions to ask the guys. first one at Surfer Dave 03 asks since there were only 36 cars at Atlanta is it time to eliminate teams that are not running the full season should cars that are not competitive be black flagged I mean we've got a rule against the black flagging thing if you don't make a minimum speed on the racetrack that's when you get black flagged you know is it time to eliminate teams that are not running the full season no I don't think so at all I think the the beauty of our sport was built around the free enterprise model.

The free enterprise model means if you have the sponsorship, if you have a driver, if you have the funding, if you're able to build a car that's going to pass inspection, you can show and compete with these guys. That's how a lot of teams got into racing when you look at Roush, you know, when you look at really any of these big teams. I mean, it's very rare you see an owner come in and buy a race team because it's easy to almost, more inexpensive to just build it from the ground up. You know, is that difficult in today's world?

Yes. but if you have a sponsorship, man, I think it's great to have new guys coming out. And TJ is a big fan of, as am I. When we go to short tracks, if a local guy is able to pull something together and build a car, it's great to see those local names to be able to come out and run against these guys. I mean, it's how ultimately Elliot Sadler and Tony Raines and Denny Hamlin, a lot of these guys got the door open because it's short tracks. They showed up in their own equipment and went out and ran well.

Yeah, I think honestly, I feel like the field is better, stronger now, and we have less, we have less cars that are way off the pace than we ever have. There was only maybe one or two that were pretty far off the paces last week. And even looking at maybe one that was pretty far off the pace, but the other ones, you know, you look back there, they were kind of having, you know, they weren't as far off as you would think, and they were having a pretty good little race, too. I don't feel like we have as many cars as, you know, remember when you would get done, you'd get like halfway through a run, you'd lap some cars,

It seems like it's 15 laps later and you're laughing the same car again. I don't feel like we have as much of that now as we used to. Yeah. Did you guys see the 23 car get wrapped like the Saturday before the race? No. I mean, they were wrapping their car in the garage. If you get a sponsor, you throw it on there. Get it on there.

Absolutely. It was impressive. I will say that. Yeah. Well, that's good. That's been done before. Even back of the day, if somebody got a new sponsor, they just, you know, obviously they were wrap it. But you'd see a decal on a car.

The colors might not quite match. but they would, you know, you'd be putting a decal on the car. When I ran, when I ran a goodies dash car at Daytona, we went down there basically with no sponsor, and Remington came on board. And we were there, and they just put the logo on the car. You know, what I think put Carl along on the map in NASCAR is, you know, he came along kind of at the end of Darrell Waltrop's career.

And Darrell was struggling to make races, and Carl was making these races, and they would literally take Darrell's sponsor and put it on Carl's car. And, I mean, I think that's a good thing. You know, I mean, we certainly don't need to stop. that. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.

At Copeland, Zach asks, Almorola is off to a great start. Are we seeing his skill or the shortcomings of a 10 cars previous driver? Is it Amarola? Amarillo? Armadillo. I like Armadillo. Amarola.

Almarola? Amarola, right? I don't know. What spells Eric with an A, which already throws me off. Yeah. Eric. Tried to be different. It works.

Yeah, I think obviously, they're allmerola. to a good start. I mean, he's leading the Daytona 500 coming to the checker, ends up finishing 13th. And then obviously last week, you know, he qualifies top 10, finishes top 10 in both stages. Once again, finishes, I believe, 13th. So in order, this is his chance, right, T.J. I mean, he was at JRM and in competitive stuff, and he ran well enough to get him a shot at the Cup Series. He got to the Cup Series. He wasn't in great stuff, and he didn't run well. You know, he won a race, a range short and race at Daytona in July, but he has to show that he belongs and he has a couple years realistically to get it done.

Yeah, I think, you know, I'm not sold yet. Obviously, the Stewart Hoss cars were very fast there. So he had a really good notebook and obviously, you know, his teammate had a dominant car. So I'm not, I'm not sold yet. He raced, obviously, he raced really smart at the Daytona 500. He's become a fairly decent plate racer. But, you know, I'm just not, I'm not quite sold yet. I need to see him go to some other places.

And, you know, I need to see him consistently run well. And, you know, it's kind of, this is his opportunity, though, like you said, he's got to go and perform now. Now's the chance. You know, if you're going to do it, now's the time. I think there are places Eric runs really well. You know, I think it's places like Martinsville, places like Dover. And to some degree, if your car isn't good at those tracks, man, it really makes sense. it tough on you to run well. So I think him getting off to a strong start is certainly key.

I mean, when you look down the points and you look at big names like Jimmy Johnson and Casey Kane, they got a lot of pressure on them to get back up there. Well, you know, Eric's in a situation where he's with a new team with a new crew chief. And if he, if he were behind the eight ball here, I think it's a whole different mindset. I think he's gaining a little bit of confidence. And let's be honest, he's able to look at the paper and go, well, last year Danica Patrick ran 25th here. I'm way better than she is. So I'm bringing something to this team. I'm making this team more competitive. I'm making it finish better than it was finishing. So if we see that trend continue, I think we're just grading him right now against himself and

against her. I think it's really hard to grade him against the other three drivers that are already there because they're champions, you know, Clint's an Xfinity Series champion, Harvick and Kurt, obviously Cup Series champions, they've all won a lot of races. He's not there yet. I think if he grades himself out against them, he's going to put himself in a situation where he's going to make it tough to succeed. Worry about the tent car, worry about yourself, worry about being consistent. Yeah, I mean, the only thing I got against that is he's been, you know, he's been a cup driver for a long time.

You know, he's been a cup driver for how many years a cup as he ran? I'd say, I'd say six or seven, but I could be off. I'm sure producer Jason has the stat right in front of him. Yes, exactly. I think it's higher than that, honestly. I think it's closer to eight or nine because he was splitting time with Mark Martin. What year was he split in Palaf Mark Martin? Yeah, an O-1 car, yeah.

Yeah, and that was what, around four or five-ish? Five-ish? That was 0-5-ish, I think. So that was, you know, not long after that, then he moved to the Xenion Series for a year there. And so I think he's closer to the 10-digit number there, which, you know, so now I've got a grade, I'm tougher now because he's been there for so long.

Yeah, I get it. Totally get it. I mean, I just think when you look at the quality of a, equipment. You have to look at that and say, how good is his stuff? And I don't think he's ever been in a competitive cup car. And he is now. And this is his chance to show something. Yeah, these are what the guys dream for. You know, this is what guys that were taking subpar equipment and turning people's heads with it, they look to get in equipment like this and do something with it. So, you know, now is his opportunity. So hopefully he can make the best of it.

Ex-Sailer Dan 86 asks, do you guys or spotters in general get hit up for autographs often? What's the oddest thing you have ever autographed? I mean, we do get hit up for autographs, probably more so at Talladega than anywhere, because the fans are on top of us. You know, I had a fan stop me in Daytona. I think we always get to tweet people tweet us saying, hey, can we meet them? And obviously, TJ's been in a high-profile situation with Dell Jr. And, I mean, we always try to be accommodating.

I don't think I've signed anything crazy, though. Have you, T.J.? I don't think I've signed anything crazy, crazy. Not like a body part or something like that. But, yeah, I don't know. I'm sure there's been, I can't remember anything on top of my head that just stood out. I was at a Walmart appearance one time. Oh, I can only imagine.

For Coca-Cola. Actually, it was in Las Vegas. and a lady from Utah came through and asked Elliot if he would sign her panties. I'm scared to see you, to know what he said. What do you think he said? He was like, I can't sign your panties. She's like, well, what if I go take them off and bring them back? This is a true story.

If you ask Elliot about this, he'll hands down tell you the same story. So he was like, no, I don't. I don't think we can do this. Can we? I was like, no, we can't do this. No. We had been out, this is when you would go to Vegas early, you know, and you would stay out a couple days, have fun.

And so this was a Wednesday appearance before we had to get on track on Friday, but it was a Wednesday morning appearance. I don't even know if I went to bed that Tuesday night. And I'm standing there, this is all going down. And I'm like, what? And at the time, you know, you're in PR and all this stuff, and you're expected to intervene and help the driver not be put in a bad position. And I'm like, I'm not intervened.

And this is funny as hell. But I think they get asked to sign a lot more crazy stuff than, I mean, they get asked to sign dashes on cars and skin and people go get tattoos. And I don't think anybody wants Brett Griffin on their ass anytime soon. Oh, I got a picture of the tattoo, by the way. Of who tattoos? Yeah. The wolf pack? I got a picture of a wolf pack.

And I realize we can't share this. Show it. Well, I can show you, but I can't show everybody else. Would you get that anywhere on your body? Seriously? Yeah. It looks like something that... It just looks like bars for the three...

I've seen better tattoos given in prison. I don't understand it. Oh, man. The wolf looks a little rough. I haven't seen a good picture of it. I'm not sure I'd like to, but... Well, I got one. I'll show it to you this weekend.

Whose ass is it? I'm not telling you. Interesting. Eminem wrote that song I ain't never seen a ass like that It's definitely not hers Whoever he was singing about It's not that person

Good to know Y'all don't know that song Yes I know it Okay Jason No He's young He's young It's a older song

It's an M&M But still Dude go download Ass like that It's bad He's doing you right now I'll listen to him way back You only listen to country?

Pretty much. A couple other pop stuff, but me and the country. New York. Really? What kind of country? Some of the newer stuff, I really like some of like the 2000 stuff too. So you like Broh Country? Yeah, pretty much.

You don't listen to Old Country. Not like Willie Nelson and that kind of stuff. About like Garth Brooks. No, I don't like, I'm not a Garth Brooks person. What? No. You can't, let's talk about this first of a second. You cannot claim to be a country music fan if you don't go back and

listen to old country music. New country. No, there's no such thing. You have to listen to old country music to be able to say I am a country music fan. What can I say? What if he wasn't born yet? It doesn't matter. You still have to go back and you have to download Johnny Cash.

Know the history. Like I know some of that. You have to download Merle Haggard. You have to go back and get these old guys. I'm a fan of all music. Yeah. You know, whatever. But you got to go back.

I'll give you a playlist. All right. And you have to have it. You better be able to sing them on. there next week by our next show right yeah daddy saying bass mom's saying tanner be a little brother we're going to ride in there you got to listen to that stuff to appreciate where it's got to i'm thinking a duet might need to happen next week yeah anyway so all right do we have anything to rant about i don't i'm just tickled to be here Casey's over here screaming i gotta go i gotta be on a

no no it was canceled too again don't worry oh so y'all are exhausting am I up for picks? Yeah, you're up first. Oh, man, I haven't had a chance to look at last year's Vegas results. Jason, do you have them? Yeah, I'll memorize them. So, Trex finished first, someone finished second, someone finished third. That narrows it down.

I know who I'm picking. I will go. It makes it pick big when I say that. If I say I know who I'm picking, he goes swings for the fence. great job picking McMurray by the way I think he was a lap down at like lap 20 yeah he didn't he didn't do me any favors last night um I think I'm gonna go I'll take Kyle Kyle Bush MotorSports Kyle Bush that's who you got that's a strong that's a strong that that's that that's like going for the W right there yeah that is I'm gonna take Kyle Larson okay I mean that that's almost taking a W I mean it's gonna be a battle this week Yeah, Kyle versus Kyle. First week, I let you have a gimmie.

This week I kind of got to give me. Now, this is a race right here. Yeah, wow. This ought to be, who knows how this one's going to play. Where do y'all stay in Vegas? That's a good question. You know, Bradspotter stays at a Marriott. Are you going to room with him and stay at a Marriott in Vegas?

It sounds like a hell of a good time, you know. I think we stay. Free continental breakfast. I think we stay at Brendan's deal. South Point? I think so. Yeah. So I'm learning all this is nice.

I really have no idea. I'm having to learn all this. There's good steakhouse there. It's about 20 minutes from everybody else. But you just going to play FIFA soccer in your room anyway. That's true. I'm going to bring my laptop and play some computer games and stuff. I really hope you guys come back with stories from Vegas.

Not going to lie. That might be something we need to add to this show next week. Well, I'm going to L.A. tomorrow morning with Clint to some big farm convention. I mean, that would be a story. How many farms do they have in L.A.? That is a good question. I don't know why they had a farm convention in L.A. in Anaheim, but I think it's at maybe Disneyland. That sounds like a big farm.

Yeah. That sounds like a cover up. Yeah. No, it's not. No, like Justin Lynch is playing at some concert. I got to go to. I mean, it's legitimate. Rough life.

It's not a, I'm not making up something to go to. Who did you just say was playing? Dustin Lynch. Well, that guy too. They may both be there. These Justin and Dust. I didn't say I was a bro country guy. I don't even know what Justin Lynch sings.

All right, next week you are going to be singing Dustin Lynch. Dustin? Dustin. How I'm a smart? Clint said Justin. He might have said it. Mike it both. He probably did.

Clint probably did say Justin. Oh, man. I hate that for that guy. I could have helped him sell some tickets right there, and I messed his name. Oh, well. Maybe tweet it out. That might work.

Thanks to everybody for listening. Thanks, one million financial for sponsoring. TJ, man. Hopefully your babysitter gets well. Yeah, that's my father-in-law, so hopefully he can be healthy next week, so I have a babysitter.

Your babysitter is your father-in-law? Yeah, man. What? Only on Mondays. He likes to take sell and walk with her, and he'll take her for a walk or something. That gives him some time with her. That's awesome.

That's not a babysitter, though. I mean, it kind of is. I babysitter. You don't babysit your own baby. Yes, you do. How's it any different? I don't think that's possible. I'm still watching the baby.

Yeah, it counts as babysitting. You're babysitting when it's not your baby. What? Well, I'm still watching the baby. So what are you doing to do with your kid? It's going to be a kid sitting. Well, what? would you call it, Brett?

I don't know. Yeah, what is it called? I'm hanging out with my child. Babysitting, basically. Yeah, you're babysitting. I don't know. I don't think you can say you're babysitting your own kid.

Oh, geez, whatever. I think you can. Well, anyway, thanks everybody for joining. Yeah, and thank you to Exalto for this awesome studio as well. Appreciate it. I like that they move the GoPro back, so it's not right in front of your face either. Well, I'm just glad it's not a crotch shot anymore. I was building a complex over that, you know?

Oh, boy. Thank you, guys. Y'all have a good week. Thank you. Have a good one. All right. See you guys. Bye.

You've been listening to Door bumper clear, brought to you by One Main. For updates on Elliott Sadler and the number one junior motorsports team, go to OneMainRacing.com. Thanks for listening to Dirty Mo Radio.