Door Bumper Clear - 91 - The Guy Who Really Won the Southern 500

Episode Date: March 12, 2018

A sleepless Brett joins T.J., Casey and Jason to discuss Harvick’s penalty and three-peat, Gordon’s Hall of Fame nomination, an executive on the spotters stand, dinosaurs on the dance floor plus 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 June. and you're listening to Dirty Moe Radio. Outside, door, bumper, clear of 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're win. Oh, yeah! Hey, everybody. I'm TjMajors. It's part of the 22-cup car. The didn't have any senior car this week. And didn't have a truck this week.

Man, easy weekend. Full-time pay for a part-time job. Is that how that works? Four and a half, something. Brett Griffin Spotter, four, Clint Boyer, Elliot Sadler, Myatt Snyder,

and I have not been to bed yet because we had plane issues, and those are always fun. I got home at 7.30 a.m. this morning after a six and a half hour delay in Oklahoma City. But you slept on the floor, I bet. I didn't sleep.

I can't sleep on planes, and I definitely didn't sleep. And I played that rules of survival on my iPad the whole time I was at the FBI. So you should make for a fun show today. Yeah. Yeah, I'm already like edgy. You know, you play rules of survival on your phone.

Yeah. You know that's like a thousand times better on a computer, right? Well, I can't play it on a computer. You, I just had the best idea. What do you have? Oh, no. You playing the PubG game, which is basically roles of survival on the PC. Yeah.

Streaming it. Because I would love to watch you cuss at people when you play. We put the little camera up and it'll be on you when you play. You ever watch Bubba do it? Uh-uh. Be just like that. You need to watch them do it. There needs to be a segment on the show.

I can see you getting so mad at somebody out there. I love that rules of survival game. It's fun. This needs to happen. Thanks to Juan May for bringing this podcast you guys today in Exalted Studios, and we have Casey back again. Hey, guys. She's so short that her feet don't touch the floor on this couch.

I'm trying really hard. Apparently, I was supposed to have a pillow to sit on or to lean back on so that I can touch the ground. but it's really awkward, so I'm currently. So is there like a girls, when you go on a girls' bathroom, is there like kids' toilets and adult toilets? Are they all adult toilets? No, there's, I mean, I can use the adult toilet.

Don't worry. You can reach? Yeah. Because I'm, this is questionable. Although I did see those sinks. Jump up on it. The small sinks where they have the little kids sinks, I've been tempted to use them.

They are perfect for me right now. I'm not going to lie. I'm really short. Like, I don't even want to. I'm five-ish. Five-ish? Five-o-ish. Five, almost, five-ish. Five-o-o-lo-ish. So are you like four-eleven, really? No, no. Yeah, no, I'm five. I'm five. No one ever. You don't admit if you're in the fours. It doesn't matter now. You don't ever use the fours. I'm not in the fours. I don't think it's a blow-dry your hair under the hand dryer. I could. I really could. I should consider that. It would make a lot easier.

should. What did you do all weekend? You were home. I went to DeCoyne for Chad's race. Oh, is that fun? How do you do? Yeah. 11 hours there. Tanner did? Oh, you drove? 11 hours there and 11 hours back. Dang. Yeah, so I worked the whole time, which is nice. But although I don't have... Worked? Yeah, I did. I worked. Work how? My laptop. Oh, work, work like, did handle stuff. I was like, you had to go up there to work. Yeah, and then I had to make sure things at the track. going okay. I did not drive because we don't know. You don't trust me with a hauler. It doesn't

work. But we have cable in our mother home, which is something I don't have at my house, which is pretty nice. So I caught up on all the shows that I like. You don't have cable? No. Oh, you young people. Why? We don't need cable anymore. Yeah, we're not there enough. Netflix, chill. I have Netflix, yep. And all the apps, like I use my parents log in for direct TV. Here we go.

Now you're stealing piracy. Yeah. So can you believe how hard it's snowing outside right now? That's crazy. It looks like we're in Montana. It's sticking now. Is it? Yeah.

That's what she said. Oh, maybe I don't have to go to work after. Yeah. It's sticky. It's crazy now. So did y'all win? No. Okay.

So. What was the name of the track? Decoigne. Decoigne. Decoigne. Illinois. Yeah. So it's like in this arena.

It was freezing. It was so cold. Snow there? It did not snow. It might as well, though. It was so cold, and the track was so... So I don't know, like, whoever follows dirt racing. You know, there's, like, certain lines in the dirt where you can try and adjust it, like, chili wool.

Yeah. Well, the lines were so bad on the top of the track that everybody hugged the bottom. So you have... So build a big burn up. Yeah, it was, like, 24 cars all on the bottom. And you would try and get on the outside, and then people would just hit the wall, and then they'd go even further back. So it was bumper cards basically, and he got seventh. I mean, he had to start 15 because they did these, like, you know, Chili Bowl passing points.

Passing points. So you basically draw, and if you draw close to the beginning or close to, like, one or two. You better stay there. Yeah, and you can't move back and you don't get points. So Chad was, like, he would drew, he drew, like, one, once. Started on the pole, one, started on the pole for the qualifier, one. But then you start, like, further back because you don't have any points. that you have to earn.

He started like, yeah, he started pretty far back. He went from like the back to second for his heat race and then qualifier got stuck behind a car that was stopped on the track. It was just a long one. Jason, what were you doing in Miami?

It was a conference for PR students across the country. Oh, yeah, okay. In Miami. Okay, yeah, in Miami. In Miami. Perfect location for it. Yeah, exactly. Where at in Miami?

It was we had the Hyatt Regency in downtown, So it's not near south. It was like 20 minutes from South Beach. It was really awesome. How much was this? My school, UNC Charlotte paid for it. This is like going to California for farming equipment. It was like 60% conference, 40% fun.

How many kids were there? 60% fun. One per school, but like 150 total. So how did you get to go? They asked me, hey, you want to go to Miami? I'm like, yeah, sure. You didn't have to apply for it? Are you like the top of your class?

I'm probably among there. They like me. I was like the social media person for my club, the PR club I'm in, so they're like, hey, you want to go and do it? I'm like, yeah. What did your grade? You got a free trip. Yep. Did you fly?

Yep. You flew for free. Stayed for free. Stayed for free. Stayed for free. He's 20. Yeah. Remember, he's only 20.

You can't drink yet. So what was your grade point average? It's probably like 3-7. What's high? It's four. How old were you when you first started to drink when you had your first drink of whatever? Don't buy you. Oh, man.

Like, when it was, like, cool? Probably, like, eight. Like, well, it's different. In New York, you can go to Canada. I'm not talking about all the legal. I'm talking about how old were you the first time you had alcohol. And, like, finished it? Yeah.

Probably, like, 16-ish. Yeah. How old were you? I mean, I started drinking wine kind of early, but... 14. When I was in, like, high school, I was more, like, probably, junior senior. Party girl.

Junior senior year, I kind of was like, oh, whatever. So 16. Yeah, 16, 17. Yeah, we were in sixth grade. Oh, God. My mom's going to love this story.

Why am I not surprised? She sent me a cross-country with my cousin from Florida. His name was Michael Lowry and his family. So we're in the back of the station wagon, and we're sitting on seats that face backwards. Most people in this day of time, I've never done that. You're in the station wagon sitting down, but you're facing out the back of the car. Doesn't that make you sick?

No. But we stopped. And he talked his mom in a buy on us, Bartles and James Wine Coolers. So we're sitting in the back, and I was like, dude, we can't drink these things. He's like, she doesn't know it's alcohol. And she didn't know it's alcohol. It says wine on the label. Well, she didn't know.

I'm telling you, she was naive. So we had a Bartles and James Wine Cooler. I don't know how old you are in a sixth grade, but I didn't drink again to high school. But that was first time I had it. Yeah. So, so Miami was fun. It was awesome. Did you learn anything? Tattoo? Did you get tattooed?

I learned how to have fun. Did you go clubbing? Oh. We went to a couple sports bars and then a block party, like a huge block party in Miami. It was like they do it once every like month or so. This is where I'm from. Did you bring your, uh, what are those juice box things, what you call them? Capri's son.

Yeah, did you bring your name? Yeah, I brought my mom. I like my name. What's the craziest thing you saw? Oh, there was a lot. This is a perfect show for it I know It was just really fun

You just like met all these people Thursday In my Sunday we're like Is there? There any hot chicks there? Well PR I think the industry is like 60% female

40% male So indeed Look at you Yeah Perfect field Tattoo No Did you get a tattoo?

I met some people with tattoos One guy had North Carolina On his chest With a state flag So it looked pretty cool In case you forgot where he's from He just looked down his chest

Yeah Yeah. Did you see it? Did any females have things on their children? We did go to the South Beach, so that was fun. Yeah. You like South Beach. I love South Beach. Go to quality meats, get you a Moscow mule. Remember that time? Joe Stonecrab, tear up the stone crab.

Remember that time earlier went to South Beach and it came all over the headlines? What? What? Remember when they went down there a long time ago, some tabloid or whatever, blew it all the water? Oh, that was Panama City. Oh, that's right. I think it was South Beach. Yeah, they went to Panama City.

Beach, whatever. They left Bristol, Dale Jr., and Elliott and Martin Truex, and Jamie McMurray, and some other friends left Bristol, flew to Panama City. The next thing you know, it was in the tabloids because Martin Truex made the rental guy. You know how, and no offense to any people that are rent-a-cops, but the security guard for the condo complex basically came in to tell them to, tone it down. Well, Martin Maldolph at him, that guy got mad called the cops. So ends up on TMZ and then tit-tabloids and this whole deal that they're even there. But they had fun.

How long ago was that? I'm jealous. That was 2003. We went out, the reason I remember the years, we went out the next week, and maybe in 2004 and won the race at Texas. So it was fun. I want to know how Phoenix was for you guys. Man, I froze on Saturday. It was cold. Yeah, it was, I only had cup practices on Saturday, but it was cold. You lucky. Yeah. It got colder and that experience. So you went hiking?

I did go hiking. So impressed. I went six miles. I had to look up if it was actually a trail or if it was like a bar called a trail. I really looked at it. It was six miles. It was like white tank mountain. It had a, add.

The most famous. It was so random. Here's what's by the whole thing. It's the most famous trail there is called the waterfall trail. That's cute. It don't rain in Phoenix. There wasn't a waterfall after I hugged my ass all way up that hill. The pictures I saw there were waterfalls?

No. You said it don't rain in Phoenix, but it rained. There was, there might have been pictures with waterfalls, but there wasn't real life waterfalls. Pretty sure Saturday got rain delayed. Yeah, that was. No, when you tweeted, when you said like, hey, I actually went hiking, I looked, I was like, is this a bar that he's just joking with me? Because it was the most, you're supposed to do camelback. I think a lot of people want hiking.

Well, Camelback was. so far. This place was right by my hotel. But anyway, that's the first time I've hiked since 1993. Are you serious? So you're good until what? I'll ruin my shoes, man. They're all dusty and dirty.

Oh, yeah. What do you do? It was fun. Was it worth it? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I'd go again. It said I burned a thousand calories. Yeah.

It was impressive. It also says you look up at 426 in the morning. So that's when you just go start drinking IPAs. It's what everybody does. I burn a thousand calories. I can drink IPAs. night. Everybody wakes up at 4.30 in the morning there.

I guess the time change. I'll tell you what, this first year I've ever gone back and forth every race. Screw this. Next year, I'm not doing this. This weekend was harder than the last weekend. It's kicking my ass. Well, yeah, but you got back. But it gets harder every week because you're going back and forth, back and forth.

So next week should be fun. I would say these first five weeks are the hardest on us. I agree. This is the hardest part of the schedule for me right here. Pulled Daytona for 10 days. Then you hit Atlanta. And this time Atlanta, the weather was great. But a lot of time, just the weather.

weather alone can be exhausting. And then these three back to bag, I just saw our haulers pull in from Phoenix that came all the way back home to Fontana, California to turn around and come all the way back home. Literally the West Coast, like the Coast coast off, like an hour from the coast. Yeah. All the way. I mean, logistics are a big deal. I mean, that's the thing about that plane breaking down.

Like, you're like, how are we getting home? Yeah. You know, and it's. Or like the rain delay for Atlanta where, or was Atlanta? Yeah, Atlanta where they were. concerned about having the, you have to go all the way to the West Coast after? Yeah. Should they move the West Coast?

Would it be easier if you move the West Coast to later? I don't think it's easier. I mean, I'd rather, honestly, I'd rather just get them out of the way. Yeah, I mean, I don't mind getting them out of the way, but, I mean, I think logistics for TV, it's super easy for them and for the rest of it. It's probably a pretty large pain, but. Well, we have other trucks. Like, we have trucks that came out there and they swapped out, you know, so.

Yeah, some of them, some teams will bring haulers out there. It is easier now, though, because some of the cars, if you don't tear all your stuff up, you can take the same car to, you know, a lot. But there's a lot of differences, too, as well. But now the way these cars are, you can run other cars or other tracks more than you could. Back in the day, we had strictly a short track car. Like, it was not going to run anywhere but Martinsville or Bristol. And now they can kind of interchange them a little bit more.

You know, obviously, you can take a Daytona car somewhere. They're spending almost $200 million on Phoenix. Oh, yeah. What did you see for $200 million? What was Daytona's price on the real? 400 million. So this is half that. For Isom Raceway.

They're still redoing the whole infield, too. It is. Isom Raceway. I mean, I don't look at that and see ISM. I see Ism. I see Isam. Yeah. I don't even see anything but PIR still.

But that's not on the sign. I don't see the sign. I wonder how many times people still called it PIRR. I just call it Phoenix. Yeah? Yeah. I don't know what IASM is. I don't know.

Well, they also sponsor the screens, like at IAC tracts, the screens that are at the track. Are those ones that take your picture? Actually, yeah, I think it was that those are the company that does that kind of stuff, the demographics. Those are the ones that take your picture, like the rest of that. They have face recognition software. And when you walk by them, it recognizes you. Oh, perfect.

Awesome, huh? Yeah. I mean, as far as that much money on a project, though? But just tell me what you saw for $200 million. 20,000 grandstand seats. And some dirt moved around. It's kind of it, really. These construction people are just making bank and not doing anything.

I mean, they're getting ready to obviously redo the line. They put in an escalator. That was awesome. 200 million. Oh, I did see that, actually. Yeah. Was it an injector? Still parked in the dirt parking lot.

If you could find a parking lot to park in. Got dirty. Spotter bag looks like I've been on the dirt road drinking barbeds and James. So one thing they've done is like we used to have some, they used to, there's probably 10 or 15 to us that have cars, right? You know, we grouped together. All of us, all the fancy guys were riding together. And we used to park somewhat close to the elevator.

Now that's gone, but the lot basically sits empty. God love it, man. Now it's just a complete mess I just want to know what you're spending $200 million on. Like, I'm serious. I didn't see it. I know, yeah, I know the infield is changing a lot. Like, I actually think the Exfinity Series garage is...

Yeah, like the Exfittany Series garage is going in a different area. Well, they're moving the motorhome lot outside. Yeah, a lot of things are moving outside. There's going to be a whole deal on the infield. So it's going to let everybody on the infield. I almost, I haven't looked, so I can't really speak to it. But I think it's kind of like... Or they're going to try to set tickets to let everybody on the infield.

That's what I'm thinking, is they're going to do more of an experience for fans on the infield. How about this, though? They are going to literally, are we going to take the green in the middle of one and two? Three, like now one and two? Are they going to move pit road? Because surely we're not going to have a front stretch with pit road on the backstretch, right? No, they're going to. Because if I won't pay 150 bucks for a ticket, I want to be able to see pit road.

No, the pit stalls are still going to be back there, I believe, because there's no grandstands on the real front stretch, only to like to start finish line. And you have to have it move. Like, you can't move that. I don't know where you do that. What's going to happen when we take the green and go across our finish? Are we all going to hang it left and cut the dog leg? Yeah. I mean, I mean, I think that part of it is going to be a cool element.

You know, I'm not against that part of it. I just don't know what there's. I mean, look, we can change the start finish line for about $8 because I can go buy some paint. And we can paint over the old finish line and we can paint a new one. I do a really good checkerboard. So why don't we just take a fan's choice and see where the fans want to put it? A million dollars, and I could have done that, and it would have been the best start, finish line ever. What do you think it would be like if we had a start, finish line in the middle of a corner?

I think we're getting ready to, and it's dog. I mean, like, no, like a Bristol. Imagine. Just, bha. Just somebody's getting sent. Yeah. Yeah. All right.

Anyways, let's have this. Spot on, spot off. Before we get snowed in. We're up to, like, three inches already. It's crazy. It's definitely covering the ground. Why didn't they cancel work today? I don't understand.

Oh, I think you just did. I wish. All right, Harvick wins three in a row, four SHR cars in top 10 for first time in team history. Man, I'll go first. I don't know how you don't say spot on to what these guys are accomplishing. Realistically, Stuart Haas could have won all four races because, you know, Amarola is a quarter of a lap away from winning the Daytona. 500. Obviously, Kevin dominated the next two races and then pulled out a wind, along with a cool

little point toward the back window glass for everybody else to see there. And anytime you can look at a company and all four of your cars either make the final round of qualifying or they finish in the top 10, that's as good as you can do as a company on those two days. I mean, just like junior motorsports, you look back at us last year at Homestead. You finish one, two, three in a championship. A lot of guys are doing a lot of things right. for that to happen.

It's not just the driver. It's not just the crew chief. It's everybody's doing everything right. I think probably the biggest surprise I see, though, in this comment is a lot of us thought going into this year that Ford was going to be at a little bit of a deficit with this nose because Chevrolet got the new nose. Toyota already was having a lot of success with their nose. So I think probably the biggest surprise for me personally is how competitive Ford has been everywhere we've been with ultimately the same nose that we had. I'm spot on for, you know, somebody, it's hard to do in this sport to win three in a row.

It's hard to win two in a row. It's hard to win one in a row. So I'm spot on for, you know, these are, Atlanta's a tough racetrack. We all know that Kevin was going to be fast there. He went and backed it up at Vegas with a little help maybe. But, you know, Phoenix is also when it was a good track. So we'll see. I think it might take a little bit.

I think, you know, he capitalized on races that he could, that he could. And now I think it's getting ready to get a little harder again for him because they're not going to, you know, places where they're his playgrounds. Those Phoenix and Atlanta are two of his best tracks. I was told that he was really, really, really, really upset over the winter at some of the things that were going on in terms of this youth movement. And that he is single-handedly wanting to shove this youth movement up their butts. So he certainly drove Atlanta and Vegas that way.

And then this weekend almost felt like redemption for him. And I mean, I don't know how. You obviously can't say that he's not motivated to go out there and literally embarrass the field because that's what he's trying to do that. Yeah, he's really, he's already really good at Phoenix. So it's no surprise that he went there and won, in my opinion. He's won seven of the last 12. You give a guy a little bit.

It's like they get him shot in the arm. Yeah, you get, they get him a little bit. a little bit of a shot in the arm, and he was going to be a factor whether he was pissed off or not. Whether last week's penalty happened or not, this was probably going to be the outcome. It did help. I mean, it helped him drive with a little more motivation, but, you know, I don't know how you don't spot on it when, you know, somebody does that in this series.

Fourth guy over 40 years old to win three in a row. That's pretty impressive. Yeah. Pretty impressive. I mean, to win three in a row in general, like you said. It's crazy. I mean, he's got a chance to win four in a row. Our cars will be good at Fontana, and he's good there.

It's a very slick place similar to Atlanta, not just like Atlanta, but, you know, I don't know. It's something to see. He's good there, but he's not, it's not known as his, you know. They're just so. They had so much speed. He'll be fast. He'll be top five easily, probably. I mean, even when you look at practice in Atlanta and practice at Vegas, like that was

my thing about, okay, they found it. his roof brace broken, and he had some additional rear down force based on the photo that I saw. And I know we didn't talk about this last week on the show because we didn't know a lot about it when we do our show Monday morning. All the stuff started coming out kind of Tuesday, Wednesday, you know, y'all, yada. But when you look back at practice in Vegas, he was four tents quicker than the field on lap 10, lap 15. So it's like, you know, you put in, and I think Martin Truex was the best of this last year. You know, they'd be fast.

but then they start the race and they be crazy fast. You don't put everything in for practice. You're practicing. You're throwing things at the car to see how the car responds. So to watch him go out and be that fast in practice, like he already was going to be a dominant guy, whether his roof did that that much or not. Let me ask you this.

If you know you're that fast in practice, why go? Why even mess with it? I guess what I didn't necessarily understand just from the competition standpoint is, you know, you already won the race. you've already locked in the chase you've already got bonus points now you're on week two of being able to do it and you obviously took a small chance maybe it was a large chance i don't know all the ends and outs of what happened but you know that's the hard thing about understanding is you didn't necessarily need to take that

risk yeah can you explain a little bit just because i don't know if everybody might know exactly what happened and how that works yeah we don't i don't necessarily know either i mean i think that's the weird thing but i mean like we saw the photo that was posted on social media where Kevin's, you know, roof where it met his back glass was, was dented in a little bit. High speed. Jim Utter tweeted out for other cars that have been seen that are also dented in right there. And when people see that, they don't necessarily understand what it means. Well, it's really like adding rear spoiler to your car because what you're doing is you're giving air the opportunity to get lower as it goes to your deck lid and as it goes to your spoiler.

That air is more downforce. So when you see that little dimple in the roof or anywhere, for that matter, it basically is taking and putting more air on the rear to car, more rear down forth. It's just like adding rear spoil to the car, which is going to make you be able to go a lot faster, especially on entry at a lot of these places. Yeah, it just pushes down on the back of the car. So when you can drive it in, you can drive it in deeper and have stability.

So a lot of these guys have to lift because they're loose in. And when you take that loose in away, you can drive in faster. And an inch is, I mean, I'm not, I'm not an inch is. I'm not an inch is. I'm not an inch. way. But an inch, inch and a half, there's no telling how many counsel downforce that. People in this shop could tell us, you know, I'm not in that department, but it's certainly

going to help you. But he wasn't only one doing that either. You know, there's all these guys that are doing all his tricked up stuff. And I think that's where the Xfinity series right now, you know, I think we're putting on a better show with Xfinity series than we are in the Cup series. These composite bodies don't move as much as our bodies in Cup, you know, and that's why Cup's going to composite bodies to try to stop some of the stuff that we're doing. it's why we've changed the pit stop.

You know, the Jack guy used to hammer the door, or that was to knock it in to make side force. Like, there's all these, these guys are doing these things intentionally. You know, now there are parts that you're putting to the max that it may break because you're obviously asking that part to bend for it to have that flex.

And if it breaks, well, now you've got a lot more flex, but you're also running a risk penalty. I mean, these guys are smart. Don't get me wrong. They know what they're doing. They know, and that's an area where you can,

you might put a bracelet or that has a crack in it already or something. You know, it might be built to do that. That's just smart. Michael Watcher in the truck race years ago, his rear spoiler came off with two to go. Oh, hello. I wonder if you're going to be faster than everybody else. I mean, it wasn't like the cup spoiler now is relatively small compared to that. That thing was like this sheet of paper sticking straight up and it was gone.

It's gone. I mean, yeah. And I promise you, it was somewhat engineered to do that, right? Maybe not, they didn't mean for it to fall off, but every time that he got bumped drafted, that spoiler was meant to gradually come back. You know what I mean? We used to do it in the cup races years ago. I mean, Dale Jr. and Elliott and everybody, they'd knocked a fire out of each other early in the race.

And you literally were, man. If you lined up behind your teammate, they built the rear clips so weak in the back. So when you would get hit under the pace laps, you would run up there and bow. So like intentional but not intentional so that it's obvious. You would run up there and hit the guy in front of you and it would just bend. it down in the back and that's not going to spoiler out of the air Daytona Talladega which is the opposite of what Harvich's doing. Harvick wanted his spoiler in the air.

Daytona Talegas drag so you want your spoiler out of the air because it's going to make you go faster. Got it. It's like driving a Porsche versus school bus. So go through your, like if you're almost out of gas right now, go drive your car when it's kind of slick. Then go fill it up a gas and just see which one you have more grip with. You know, it's like weighing you down.

You just have more grip. So, yeah. Interesting. All right. One lap shoot out to end stage two. in both races. This was crazy. I liked it.

We always complain about them stretching the laps out and stuff. You come out, everyone's at the same, everyone's dealt the same cards here. So some of our best races have been no practice, no qualifying start the race. I think, yeah, I mean, for me, I want them to do a normal cycle. I don't want NASCAR to step in and go, oh, we have this many laps to go on the stage. We need to let this finish under yellow. or we need to red flag it and go under green light. Let it be organic to the way you would normally call it.

Call the caution, open pit road. If you get the track cleaned up in time, go back racing. And if you can't, you end the stage. We saw some races last year where they didn't do that. They let the stage end under yellow. And for me, that's where they created stage racing that makes it exciting because Kurt Bush stayed out to get a stage point for playoffs, to get 10 extra points to win the thing. and then he has to come out and go all the way to the 20s to restart the final portion of the race.

So for me, I think that's what makes stage racing exciting, and it gives guys an opportunity to make different decisions, which also makes it exciting. Another reason is you can't open pit road, close it, and then end the stage. That's not fair to anybody. That's not fair to anybody. And they did that a few times in the very beginning, and it's not fair. I mean, you should have the opportunity to come down with everyone else at the same time. On Saturday's race, we actually had that happen.

They opened Pit Road. A lot of guys elected the pit, including Elliot. And as soon as we pitted, Pitrow got wet. And then the racetrack got wet. And then they red flagged the race. And then we came on pit road. We took the one to go, which means we're coming to the green the following lap, leaving pit road from a red flag scenario.

In my 20 years being here, we've certainly never done that. So I think that was NASCAR's way of saying what TJ just said. You had to put a lap on them guys. We don't want to screw everybody up they just pitted. Let's at least give them an opportunity for their strategy to play out. Because we're in the desert. We're not planning on rain. Right.

And drivers were upset. They pitted when it was raining. Literally, pit roads open. Hey, I think pit road's wet. And then it was that quickly it was over. It kind of, what it does is it gives the guys, if you're leading the race, you should have the opportunity to pit when the other guy's pit. You know, now what happens is, is the guy running, you know,

11th, 12th, he's going to pit and he is going to wait, and they're going to run one lap and everyone is going to come in. He's going to be the leader. Did he really earn that? Right. You know, all because of opening it and closing it and stuff. So, but it's, I'm glad they did it, though. There was nothing wrong with my opinion.

I think from a marketing and fan perspective, it kept it exciting the entire time. It's no different than running one more lap. What is going to happen in one lap on the track? Nothing. You're going to ride around and scrub your tires. Let's just go. Yeah. Byron Leeds first career cup laps, spot on, spot off.

Man, good for him. Yeah. I think, I think T.J. agree with this. He got the lead based on a pit call. But nonetheless, it helped him build some confidence. We all know the kid can drive a race car. So spot on for seeing the 24 car with William Byron in a leading a race.

That was kind of cool. He was struggling again, in my opinion, a little bit. And then that pit call put him around. Good guys. Better cars. So he can see more. And that, you know, better cars run, the better you're going to be, in my opinion. So I think that pit call put him around better cars, he can see what they're doing.

And maybe next time they go back there, he is, you know, he has more of an idea what the good guys do. And, you know, but good for him, though. If we let you in a circus and you hang out with a bunch of clowns, you're going to look like a clown. And if you want to be a trapeze artist, you've got to hang out with a trapeze artist, right? So I think T.J. makes a good point. He's up there hanging out with a trapeze artist versus it's hard when you get beyond 12th because they don't race you cleanly. They won't let you go for a position.

You know, they're doing everything they can to basically screw up your race to help their race. And when you get up front, it's the exact opposite. The guy catches you, he let him go. You catch somebody they let you go. So it'll be good for him, you know. And like he said, it was a dream come true to lead laps in the car. It won't be the last time we see this kid lead laps. I think he's just getting started, honestly.

Yeah. This is cool. De Benedetto reaches out for sponsors on social media. Spot on, spot off. Spot on. He, you know, but he used the platform, guy wants to race. And, you know, a simple little message he put out, got a huge response and may have opened the doors for more sponsors than the sport. So, and, you know, there were some drivers that stepped up as well. So that was, um, obviously. his message. What did he say? He was basically saying, you know, he is sponsorless for Phoenix, and if he doesn't get funding, he won't be able to go. And that was when you saw Denny Hamlin

and Waltrip Brothers. Why we didn't jump on this opportunity? I don't know. Door bumper clear number 32. Yeah, we should have sponsored. Could have been right on the hood, man. Our faces. Well, I can't imagine he is full season sponsored, so you never know. Do you know how stingy Mike Davis is with a budget I'm just saying, man. We get here every week and our soundboard doesn't even work. Oh, it was working the last two weeks. Well, the first two weeks, we wasted two and a half hours.

We had to message people the night before. Hey, go check the soundboard. They make Dillner come in here and set up these cameras every week versus us having real cameras installed. Mike Davis is too cheap to do that. Well, they couldn't. I mean, it's already worldwide, so. Yeah, we don't really need to pub anyway.

But I think it's, you know, I mean, I saw the video, I started watching it, and I was just like, I can't watch this. Why? It's just like, I just can't watch it. I think, honestly, I wish there was some sort of, like, a lot of guys, a lot of drivers have managers, business managers to help them pitch sponsorship. And some people can't afford it. Some people like to Benedetto are struggling. But there's a lot of guys that like him that can't find sponsorship. I wish there was some sort of a support system for that.

I'm so spot on for the fact that his peers kicked in some money to help. But is this the way we're really going to bring corporate America into this thing? Nah, I don't know, man. You know, and that's why when I was watching it, I was like, I can't watch this. I got to seen you $100, bro, but I can't watch it. I just don't think that's the wave of, I mean, realistically, do you? you see Roger Penske? Do you see any of his drivers ever doing that?

And I'm not saying that every one of their races is sold out. I mean, we know last year Casey Kane had seven races for sale when the season started. You know, was he doing this? Like, I think it's cool that this one time it kind of happened and maybe these people pitched in and bought us tires or whatever, but this isn't realistic to how this model works on the cup level. It's not realistic to how the model works, but it's just realistic to how the way It was cool.

I mean, this was never even, this never happened. But Kenny Wallace did it. He did it with fans where he took $100 per person and put their name on the car. But again, that's a one race deal. You can't do that every week. Yeah, I thought it was a neat deal. I thought it was cool. I thought it was cool how many people came and supported him.

I do. I think that part of it's cool. I just can't see, I couldn't see me doing that. You know what I mean? I can't see. And obviously, I'm not ready. car driver but i mean i'm not going to make a social media video of door bumper clear one main financial man they're the best sponsor ever we're me and tj are going to start another one called

almost clear and we need to do sponsor guys or is to support putting a roof on your spot of yeah like i just can't it's just not my personality yeah but i'm all for what you said yes people have business means to go do that and maybe that's where they need to be putting some resources yeah all right let's take a break This is the Exaltor Race Center update. I'm Natalie Sather. Both Cup and Xfinity competed in Phoenix over the weekend. Kevin Harvick won his third race of the season at Sunday's ticket Guardian 500,

making that three out of four race wins this season. He is your Cup points leader by 12 points over Kyle Busch. On Saturday, Brad Keselowski won the DC Solar 200 Xfinity Series race. Junior Motors drivers, Justin Algear finished second, Elliott Sadler 9th, Tyler Reddick 10th, and Michael Annette 17. The Junior Motorsports late models competed at the season opener at Tri-County Speedway for Do the Do-Doo-150. Rookie JRM driver Sam Mayer crossed the finish line in third

and Josh Berry ended up fifth. This has been your Exaltor Race Center update. Exulta is the official paint partner of NASCAR, developing, manufacturing, and supplying coatings to all types of vehicles and industrial applications. For more on Exulta, visit exulta-cS.com. 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. It's where you make a difference. One main financial, not just in the neighborhood, but part of your community. Providing personal loan solutions and one-on-one local service. One main financial. Your needs, your goals, your dreams. Offer subject to restrictions and requirements of the licensee.

For licensing information, visit our website or call us. All right, guys, we're back. Let's head into Fast Lane. We'll all give three topics pertaining to racing, and one that is off the wall. Brett and T.J. both have 30 seconds to response. You ready? Kick it.

Social media has influenced NASCAR officiating decisions. How big of a role should the social voice play, if at all? Brett. It shouldn't play a voice at all. I think these are boardroom decisions. These are officiating decisions. And we can't have a group of people on Twitter influencing penalty calls. and we saw it last year with what believed to be Chase Elliott.

We saw it again with what believed to be Kevin Harvick. And if these calls are being made in the tech room, I'm fine with it. But if they're being influenced by social media, I'm not fine with it. Because such a small percentage of our fan base is on social media. And the ones that are, you just love to complain and whine anyway. So I do not believe we need to be catering to these people because they're going to find something every week. They look hard enough. I'm kind of torn here.

I'm, I like to, and it might not even be social media. They might have seen it without social media. We don't know that. We don't know that. We don't know that. So they might, you know, they have a lot of means of seeing things. So we're not, who's to say, oh, well, this, you know, media members said this. We better go ahead, you know, check it out.

You know, it was, they probably may have known about it before, so we can't really assume that it was social media because of that. But I don't agree with, you know, going back and seeing a quick video of a guy doing something on a pitts out. they should penalize them for it. That's not fair. We're not a sticking ball sport, but I look at this, I look at the NFL, and I look at they just made a rule change about what is a catch in the NFL. And they did that off of a lot of people saying a lot of things throughout their season, but they didn't do it instantly. They waited, their season was over, and then they addressed it.

And I feel like if you're going to gauge your social media fan base, pay attention to it, but don't just react in the moment because you're going to give those guys a lot of sense of entitlement, and Lord Help Us This World Already has too many people with that as it is now anyway Jeff Gordon highlights the new Hall of Fame nominees Which five nominees should be inducted next? T.J. Oh, man, I don't understand. Do we have the list? Yes, it's the next page. Before you start the timer

How is Jeff Gordon eligible when he just raced? And he just said, I want to race Martinsville. You have to be retired. Yeah, I feel like there should be like a 10 year or something. Isn't there a waiting here? You have to be retired. They changed it? They did. Why? What do they change it to? Were they running out of people? That's what I... You had to be retired for how many, three years or something. So now that's not the case. You could just... Yeah, I think it's still three. They didn't count Gordon's 2016 races towards that. But he's not retired if he's racing the car, Jason. That's my point. I know. I don't understand why they do it.

Retired means I'm sitting on my ass drinking coffee. I'm taking it out on Jason? I'm not taking it out on him. I'm taking it out on the... He's not retired if he's driving the car. If he comes and races a truck in Marchville, guess what he did? He came out of retirement.

So how is he eligible to be in this class? Anyway, he's eligible somehow. But he also made the 13th car in a 12-car chase format one time, too. So maybe it's just him. Just give the guy path. Jeff Gordon. He is Jeff Gordon.

Jeff Gordon. Did he start the buzzer? No, we can start it. You are breaking the rules. My five would be, I mean, it's tough, man, because there's a lot of people on this list that it should be. Are we including Jeff or not? He's on the list.

He's already in the Hall of Fame. I don't know why we don't already have his display up. Jeff Gordon will be in the Hall of Fame one day. There's no doubt about it. Jeff has won 30 times. A lot of people in this list has won. But, you know, in my opinion, it'd be hard for me not to put Davey Allison Buddy Baker, Joe Gibbs, and Roger Penske in that group.

Yeah. There again, I don't know when Roger Pittsky retired from being a car owner or Joe Gibbs. I think they're still here, but there's already owners still in it. Me, you make, Roger Penske certainly, you know, Jack Roush, obviously Jeff Gordon. Yeah, Roush too, I didn't see. I mean, it's extremely hard. You know, Harry Gant, handsome Harry, guy won five in a row after he was. over 40 or 50 years old, you know, I don't know, man.

It's just some of this Hall of Fame stuff drives me nuts. And I feel like we focus so much on just the cup side of NASCAR when there's, I mean, we saw Ron Hornaday go in. We saw media people go in. Like, I like it being very diverse. Dang. I don't know. Sorry.

I'm upset about this. I don't. So the Hall of Fame, like how you get into this is, to me, like you said, is a little, I don't know. Like, some of these guys, what are the stats you need to get into the Hall of Fame? I mean, they're just so, I don't know. Is it like your name? You're just popular? I mean, yeah.

What makes Ricky Rudd be on this list? The fact that he won a race for 17 years in a row or whatever that number was. Like, what does one thing qualify? Okay, you're a cup champion. You're automatically in. So Martin Truex won, X-1, X-Vinity Championship, shipping cup he's automatically in one day like i i think i think that's where we just lack diversity and we're focusing so much on cup what do you think makes rickie rudd hall of fame eligible

racing with his eyelids taped open that's it matthew how many how many years in a road did he want to race 16 17 15 a bunch i mean so one win a year for 15 years and you're in a hall Fame. I'm asking the question. I'm not being critical. So, okay, what about Harry Gant? Harry Gant. I mean, winning five races in a row.

Does that get you in the Hall of Fame? I mean, Harvick is two races away from Hall of Fame. Yeah. Well, he's already in Hall of Fame because he's won championships. There's just no, like, to get into a Hall of Fame position, to me, you need to accomplish, you know, above and beyond. Right. Not, you know, five wins is remarkable, but does that Hall of Fame material? Is that guy like a legend?

Like, these are guys that should change the sport and have changed the sport in certain ways. I don't really feel, I mean, five wins is awesome, but did that change anything? Yeah. No, he was just, he's Mr. September, what is it, September October or whatever? West October. You want to dig them? Yeah.

We could talk about this forever. We literally could. Yeah. All right. Fontiana has one of the oldest track service. is where does it rank among your favorite stops on the schedule? It used to be last. I won't lie to you.

It was my least favorite place to go. It was my least favorite track to spot because I thought the racing wasn't great and we were in the middle of a bunch of steel mills. So now that we're going to Fontana and there's a, the racing surface is phenomenal. It's slick. It's multi-groved. It's a lot like Atlanta in the way these guys are going to fall off on lap times. They got that board in turn one that shows you how fast their cars are going.

Oh, yeah. And they're going like 204 miles an hour, which makes me puckers. You know, like there's a lot of things at that track, and they're selling the seats out there, too, because we're putting on a good show. This is the same type of Atlanta deal. Do not repaid. If you repave this, it'll be the worst racetrack that we go to. So there's a theme here with old racetracks that have worn out services where the times fall off.

You know, you better get all you can get in a lap and a half on new tires, because then them tires fall off. So I think it's awesome. I enjoy the racing there because you can fan out and there's multiple grooves and the tires wear out. So love it. I think the diehard fans listen to our podcast. And the thing that I'll ask you guys to do

is watch the seams this weekend in one and two and three and four. There's four or five different seams that kind of break up the racetrack. That's what the drivers gauge on where they need to be running throughout the course of the run. That's where we as spotters are telling them, We're splitting the bottom seam in turn one and two. We're running above the top one in three and four. Back and forth all day long.

Steady given info based on who's running fast and where they're running. Those seams are what we are all looking to for grip. And you don't want to get on them because you get on them, they're slick. Yeah, so what happens real quick with the seams is those are new asphalt, basically. That's new asphalt connecting old asphalt. So when you're left front tire or right front tire hits one of them seams, it basically grips up. and turns the car.

So you'll hear these guys. I had a great lap going, then I hit a seam. And he basically had to lift because he got loose. So it's real interesting. I think it adds character to the track. It's what we all use this weekend for reference.

Yeah. It's cool. Real cool. Off the wall topic. Jason, do you have something to do with this one? I don't have personal experience. Actually, two people send this to me. A woman rode a horse onto the dance floor

of a Miami nightclub over the weekend. Have you ever seen anything stranger on the dance floor? I think this was you, Jason. I was not the, I did not see a horse. Did you bring the horse? Yeah, I just brought the horse gave to someone they walked in the club. What was she wearing? The horse?

No, the woman. This matters. I just saw this on Twitter. Oh. Well, the strangest thing. I've never seen a horse on a dance floor. But I have seen, you know, people that. that can't dance, get on the dance floor, and can be relatively strange.

Clint had a party two years ago, and in the middle of the party, he had a live band, and in the middle of the party, these two dinosaurs came walking out, and they were out there in the middle of the dance floor dancing, and it was one of those things where they act kind of, you know, like real spastic dinosaurs, you know, like the mascot thing. What? Yeah. So I still don't know who it was, but these two dinosaurs came out.

and were almost copulating one another on the dance floor, and then they proceed to just exit. It was the strangest thing. I actually, it was in a club in Vegas. Casey didn't know a copulate means. I can tell by a look on her face. I did see. Perhaps that should be a Google worthy word

in terms of dinosaurs interacting with one another. Could be. I saw a crazy clown or Vanilla Ice show one time. Yeah. And he was spastic, and he would take water bottles and just start spraying them all over the place. Yeah. And it was relatively, I mean, it wasn't really crazy. It was kind of cool.

But it's no dinosaur. Definitely not. All right. Ask DBC. Producer Jason found a few topics that were submitted by fans. Mike Barbone asks, what do you think NASCAR can do to get a better connection between couples? drivers and grassroots racing around the country. I think Harvick might obviously make comments about this yesterday, right?

He did, yeah. He and Tony did in the media center. Did you see them? No, I didn't. But what do they say, Jason? I didn't really see me. They're basically calling for more support of grassroots racing. And there's a disconnect.

Harvick said this, I believe. A disconnection between. Well, who's he calling on to fix it? NASCAR. Saying NASCAR needs to pull and better connect the grassroots and NASCAR. Yeah. I mean. Here's my biggest struggle in terms of grass-ridge racing is that the tracks that we all grew up going to as kids, a lot of them are closed.

And in addition to that, the ones that are open that used to have NASCAR races no longer have big NASCAR races. So when I look at a lot of them that are in this area, you know, the hickories, the Myrtle Beaches, the South Boston's, it's heartbreaking to know that those guys have great racetracks and don't have, you know, the support of maybe the top three-sacres. series. So just from my selfish fan perspective, that's where I see the most hurt. You know, it just tears it your heart to know that we used to go there as kids. I used to go to North Wilkesboro. My favorite racetrack is a kid. And now it's sitting up there and all it is is a weed farm. You know, that sucks.

Yeah, my answer to this was going to be short tracks. Myrtle Beach, South Boston, newer track, well, newer but older. motor mile, which was New River Valley back in the day. So they had a big late model race at Tri-County Speedway. Had to send cars home. That's awesome. A late model stock race had to send cars home. The Cars Tour, who announced they got a sponsor and stuff now, too, I think.

So we need to go back there as well. We need to have some races at them places. We need to go back and put on a Saturday show for these guys. That's where all these rivalries started. These rivalries all started at short tracks. and places like that were, and then we just kept going to big places, going to big places, and we need to go back to these places where we can have these local guys be factors in races, and that's when they're going to get chances of, you know, higher stuff.

I think we've gotten lazy too, though, because I remember when I came into the sport, we would leave Martinsville and we would drive to South Boston, you know, to watch a late model race, and, you know, the cup guys that went would walk around and be the big still there. The fans were just as happy to see them walking around the track. as they are to see the cars on the track. So I think some of us, I mean, including me, I mean, I don't necessarily invest back into going to those places

probably as much as I should. We've got a group of spotters that do a good job of that. Tony Hirschman and Mike Herman and those guys. But I see a lot of drivers that same deal, man. They used to go to a lot of tracks. And now it's like we got free time. That's the last place we want to be as a racetrack. Now, is he saying supporting, like, guys that are coming up from the grass-ooch racing

to try and get to that next level? Or is it just racing in general? I don't think he's picking drivers in general. I think he's saying that we need to go back to places that started from. Like we need to go back. Racing got interesting at these places. Winston dumped a lot of money into the Winston Cup series. They also dumped a lot of money into the Winston Weekly Racing Series.

And I think that without those dollars coming in from a sponsorship standpoint, we've seen NASCAR's backing of those series potentially. come down a lot is what Harvick is saying. I don't know that that's true, but that I think is what his comments were referencing. If you look at our, what is interesting is, you know, robberies are always good. Most of our robberies and the videos that you all see playing in the video, you know, the short segments they make are all from short tracks. Most of them.

Yeah, there's a couple of the big tracks and stuff, but most of them and short tracks produce that type of racing. Where did Kyle try to knock Lugano out at? Was that Fontana? Yeah, that was Vegas. Vegas last year. Yeah, that wasn't a short track. No, but most of them, all the helmet throwing,

everybody throwing helmets at cars, stuff, is short track. Yeah. Because, guy, you're putting 36, 42 cars and such a close, they're going to hit. Tony Stewart also swung at your guy, Lagana. Did he? Fontana. Most people probably had that. He's older now.

I hope Lagano's got some bodyguards around him. He makes a lot of people mad. He's seen our tire guy? No, is he big? Yeah. He's a big guy. He's a big guy. He's a big guy.

He's called a mule. Mule? Yeah. That's that reference. You're asking him. Mule? You have to ask him. Like M.U.

L.E. Yeah. Like, work, mill. Like, he's a mule. Yeah. Interesting. All right. J.P. Racing 988 asks,

is it bad for NASCAR for a team to dominate like this? I'm assuming Harvick, obviously. Yeah. I mean, it would be. It'd be probably more exciting if the 9 or 24 got their first win. Here's how crazy fans are. Like, you know, is it bad for a team to dominate? If it's this guy's favorite team, it would be awesome.

But if it's not your favorite team, you hate it, which I think is great in and in itself. You know, people want to make a big deal out of the three car winning the Daytona 500. Austin Dillon won the Daytona 500. The three hasn't been relevant from a weekend, week out standpoint since Delaware. Earnhardt stopped driving it. So, you know, sometimes fans just want to go out and make noise about different things. I think it's great, and I'm not saying this because I'm a Stuart Haas racing spotter. Man, I remember Harry Gant went in five races in a row when I was a kid.

These are the things in sports that you remember, that you can carry with you. So that's what makes it great. Jimmy Johnson won seven championships. Like, is eight too many? No, he's breaking history. So as a sports guy, I appreciate guys that can go out. and do things that you think probably still can't be done again and they can. I wish we could, you know, I'd like to win 10 in a row.

Yeah. So, you know, it's good and bad. It's good because you have to respect it because you have to respect what they're doing here and it's tough to do. So I think the true fan respects it. And, you know, we can, we're all trying to do it. Yeah, we're all trying to do it. All right, Cobra by Design asks,

can spotters be fined by NASCAR for any of their actions? And if so, have you ever been fine by NASCAR? Oh, geez. Perfect answer. Perfect question for Brett. Yeah. What? You're the only one that would.

Well, I'm not made that the only one, but I think you probably had the most recent contact with another spotter. We can be fine for our actions. You know, when Timmy threw that sub last year off the top of the pagoda at Indy. And Timmy didn't actually throw the sub off. The guy he threw it too, just couldn't catch. Yeah, that was a bad catch. Terrible, terrible catch.

Yeah. That guy should have been fine. That guy should have been thrown off. He should have been ejected because he made Timmy get in trouble. And I like Timmy. So can we be fined? Yes. Do I ever recall a spotter being fined?

No. I've been tapped on the shoulder. Until now. I told the comming down. Oh, yeah. Is that Loudon maybe? Yeah. I mean.

What did you do that you were so out of? I don't remember. I got a question. How nervous were you? Dude. So. How nervous were you when this happened? I wasn't really nervous.

I wasn't nervous. I wasn't nervous as much as I was shocked. You were nervous. So a high-ranking NASCAR official once told me that he wanted to come out and tell me that I need to worry about spotting my race cars and not worry about how they call their race. When he said high-ranking, he means high-ranking. And he warned me. that this was at Dover that he wanted to come do this. But his peers talked him out of it because it would cause more of a scene if he walked

out there and people would wonder, why is he out here? Well, in New Hampshire, he came out there. And he tapped me on my shoulder. So when I turned around, I thought Tony Raines was standing behind me and he wanted something. So he tapped me on my shoulder and I turned around. I was like, uh-oh. This isn't Tony Raines. And I'm like, oh, shit.

I want to know who this official is. I'm like, what's he, uh, what, he doesn't wear an official suit. I can tell you that. He wears a tie. Oh, well. And I was like, so, uh, yeah, how are you? Leave it to Brett. And he, uh, he pretty much told me that.

Did you see that? He said, yeah. You can, uh, yeah, I got that. You need to worry about, and he doesn't say much. You need to worry about spotting your race cars and not worry about how we call race. That is to date the only time that I know that he has ever come out of there. Ever. 20 years I've been up there.

Leave it to Brett. And he came out just to see me. And then you like, you slap that guy in Texas or something. Well, that was a long time ago. I was a lot younger. Not really. You what? I was a lot younger.

Wasn't that long ago. Yeah, well. What did you do? So I made me mad. So you slapped that? I don't say I slapped him. I wouldn't go that far. It wasn't that bad.

What would you call it? T.J's exaggerating. I tried to break his chest. Well, tell the truth, how many wrecks is that guy caused in his life? He's a moron. That's why I couldn't take any more. He is a moron. We had a no-touch policy put in place the next day.

You were probably the reason why a lot of rules have been set in place. That's not true either. But that guy didn't wreck any more cars, really, after that. I don't think we saw him much. He kind of went part-time. Yeah. Just don't be an idiot. It's not that hard

Should write that down somewhere So I don't Honestly I don't know of any spotter that's ever been fine I know a bus driver they got fined Elliot's bus driver Will We were at Daytona I'm sorry we were at Darlington

And it was a Southern 500 And Bobby Labani was leading the race And it proceeded to rain so hard That you could not even see The racetrack hardly from the tower All the while Will is lined up Ready for post race Ready to go home

and the security guard by Victory Lane opened the gate and hold, lo and behold, out goes Will and Elliot's bus on to pit road, and I'm sitting there going, oh, no, this ain't good. Elliot's motorhome is on pit road and the cars are on the backstretch coming to pit road. So down goes Elliot Sadler's motorhome on pit road,

and I'm sitting there going, wheel's getting ready to win the Southern 500. So Will crosses, start finish line first. NASCAR tower, David Hoots, is having. a full ball meltdown. He's going, stop that bus. It's raining so hard all the officials have left the racetrack. So now they're having to come out to try to find him. This is when the story takes a turn. Will parks the bus on pit road. He has to go get Elliott rent, get Elliott's rental car, move it to the hauler so that when Elliott changes out of his fire suit in the street clothes,

he can get in his at the time Lincoln LS with spinners on it and drive back to Emporia, Virginia. So when the officials get to the motorhome, the first thing they say, is tower there's nobody in here it's a driverless motor home sitting on pit road Mike helping keyed up and he said you stay in that bus until somebody comes back and about three minutes later you heard tower we got him and I was like poor wheel this guy's in trouble will much was it will was fined a lot oh I was going to say maybe five grand that's a lot of money to a guy yeah 15 years ago driving a bus did the gate go I get fine?

No. I feel like that's his fault. Mike Kelton told Will, he said, you're an idiot. I don't care who opened the gate. It doesn't mean that you go down the racetrack while race cars are out there. That's kind of BS, man. He finds him five grand, and he pulls his hard card. Do you know when he gives him his hard card back?

End of the year. Homestead, the last race. He'll go all year with no credentials. Then he gave him his hard car back. And Will, five grand. Poor guy. And you can't come back to the track until you pay your fine. People may not realize that.

You can't come back to work until you pay your five grand. I'd be going to Elliott rate that day. Hey, man, I got enough money. I can't take your bus. You pay that fine. Well, just garnish wages, man, $100 a week, you know. Your refrigerator is going to be empty when you get there, too. All right, anything to rant about?

Are we calling somebody? We have not. Okay. We could do one-will story a week every week. We can add this to the show. A Will story. Will story. Because they're all funny.

I got, I mean, I got some good ones. Will's Journal. Yeah. Will's Journal. We need to get him on the show one time. Man, he clams up when you start talking about him. You know, he's, oh. And then he'll say, well, the story gets better every time I hear it.

It's like, no, it ain't. It's the same story. Stop acting like that I'm making this better than what it is. I hope he watches this show. Fast time with Will's high. I don't think you can watch us yet. I mean, are we being streamed? I'll see all these cameras in there.

What's that light up there, Dillner? That one's frozen. No, it looks like it's working now. All right. Sorry. Anything else you want to rant about? I wasn't ran. I was telling you a story about the guy who really won the South of a

lot of her. All right. In a motorhome. They push like a bus. Yep. $5,000 gate guard. Oh, poor guy. I would walk right to that gate guard.

I'm like, dude, you're splitting this with me. Just you know. If you're paying half this for letting me. He's probably a volunteer for the track, too, no idea. I mean, Will probably should have known that they were going down. He probably had a radio on. Will has not left the racetrack on race day since. Like, he's like, I'm not packing up.

I'm not in a hurry. I got nowhere to be. How long ago was that? Elliot was in the 21 car, so you're talking 2000, probably. I bet 2000 is dead on it because that was also Will's first year with Elliot. Yeah. Will's gotten fired almost every year, and he's still here. I need to meet this guy.

You don't know Will? I don't know that I'm in. Oh, how do you not know Wheel? Maybe I do. So he got that nickname from his ex-girlfriend. She said, wheel. That's the way she called him. So we all started saying, wheel.

And now when he hears it, he just looks at it. You can tell he hates it. What's his favorite song? Wheel in the sky. Wheel. I've seen Wheel. We need to have a segment on here where Elliot just talks about Will. Can we bring him in?

Yeah, just one time. We're just going to have just a 15-minute questions about Will. We'll ask him to come in and one minute. What you should get Elliot to do is just get on his phone, bring up the recording deal, and just tell a quick five-minute story about Will and we'll play it. Yeah, but there's more than, like there's so many stories. Oh, yeah, that's fine. One a week.

Yeah, one a week. Yeah. All right, we'll work on it. All right, good. DBC picks. T.J is going first. No, I won, dude. Yeah.

I had Harvard. Oh, that's right. Sorry. I won. Well, I win. You pick first. Where are we going, Fontana? Yep.

Fontana. This one's going to be a good one. Well, let's see here. I want to get it back out in the lead. So I'll go for the fence here. I'll go with the, uh, true X. True X. True X.

He's swinging for the fence. I mean, you already used him, so I don't feel too bad about it. No, and I think I won with him, didn't I? I can't believe I. No. I can't. No, I hadn't used to. Well, you won with him, but you didn't win the race, yeah.

You won with him probably. Yeah. I'm going to go with my guy, Clint Boyer. Clint? That long straightaways, man. He has a lot of time to think about it. I'm hoping his ADD to kick him. Yeah, man.

It's Spontana. This could be a tough one for him. Now, we're good there. He comes off turn, too, and he knows what he thinks about what he had for breakfast, for breakfast, lunch and dinner, before he gets the three. All you fantasy players, I feel like this is one of Clint's best two downforce tracks, Atlanta and Fontana. He's really good at those two.

So we'll see. Well, when do we leave from California, like in 30 minutes? You haven't slept yet. I should have just stayed there. Dang. I leave Thursday. I'm surprised you came home. Yeah, we live in the morning.

You going? No. Where are you going? Yeah, you're going. racing again. I'm staying here, actually. You got a PR conference. Where's your boyfriend? I'm not this weekend. He's so cute. I have not. It's a romantic weekend at home. Let's not say it's romantic. We might go hiking.

Not Chad. He doesn't like hiking. Me and Natalie will might do something for both of our birthdays, my birthdays next week. What does Chad like? Is today Natalie's birthday? Yes. Yes. That's why she had balloons. Oh yeah, I brought her balloons. She had what? She had balloons walking out of here. And donuts. Donuts. Donuts. I thought you brought donuts every time you've been here. I know. I was going to stop and then I was like, oh, it's Natalie's birthday.

Somebody called Natalie's Get the Donuts back. They're right there. Oh, see? So what does Chad like other than racing? Long wats on the beach. Yeah, long wots on the beach. Watching racing. But also he helps his dad.

His dad has an exhaust company, so he welds and stuff. This weekend they're building a fence, so that should be fun. I'm not doing that. No. Myco shopping, hiking, something. That sounds fun. Yeah. We'll be in Fontana.

It's going to, they're calling for rain. Really? And it's supposed to be cold. It's going to be 40. But it's going to be 55. So you can always go to L.A., you know. And nobody driving in L.A. Ain't nobody driving from Ponta.

I used to see when I went to this track. Well, you probably also left the track at like two of us. You also didn't work 12 hour days out there. Yeah. What time did, so you left the racetrack at five or six and drove to L.A.? For dinner? Never. It always, so it always used to fall on my birthday,

and I used to celebrate my birthday at that holiday and bar every year. So the last year that I went, we went to Beverly Hills. I went to Beverly Hills and bought me some Gucci shoes. Nice. Yeah. But I was there, like, it was one of those deals where we leave Phoenix and go hang out. Yeah. I didn't leave a racetrack and go to Beverly Hills.

I drove a Tesla through Beverly Hills one time. You did? Yeah. I went out there with Brad, and he was going to buy one, and we test drove. one. Yeah. So we drove it all around down that area.

That's pretty neat. Do you feel like those guys are a little bit hypocritical if they're buying Teslas? Because they make a lot of money racing cars that need gas. Are they being hypocrites if they drive an electric car? They're saving. Yeah. Maybe they're saving the environment.

Yeah. Trying to do their best. So one guy driving a Tesla is going to save a world. Is there a hotel in L.A. That's supposedly haunted? Is there a haunted hotel in L.A.? There's a Playboy match. Hollywood or something like that.

I like to go to the Playboy match. The Roosevelt maybe. You know that's one thing I never got asked to do. What? The Playboy match. Did you ever get asked to do that? No, but now's a good opportunity. Anybody?

Yeah, because Hugh's gone. Do you know Hugh? Hugh had a hell of time over there. All right. This has been fun. Yeah. I got to go to bed. So who does, who does run that now?

Is there like... Can somebody tweet us? Whoever knows? Do you know Hugh? You're damn, right. I need coffee. Would you go if you got invited? You ready?

I mean, I wouldn't wear what most girls would probably wear there. If this show got invited, would you all go? Yeah. Are you okay with it? I go. We should probably end this show now before anything else. All right. Thank you, one main again for sponsoring the podcast.

And, of course, thank you, Exaltz. It's awesome studio. 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 Dirtymoor radio.