Door Bumper Clear - Austin Cindric & Jordan Bianchi: Why We Need Playoffs in NASCAR

Episode Date: September 8, 2025

Austin Cindric and Jordan Bianchi join Freddie Kraft and Karsyn Elledge this week on Door Bumper Clear. With Tommy out this week, Jordan had to bring the fire, and he did not disappoint. The crew debates if 2025 is Denny Hamlin’s year to finally win the Championship and get career win number 60 at Phoenix, Austin explains why NASCAR is better off with a Playoff format, and Jordan hints towards the possible change the Playoff format would hypothetically undergo. Plus all your favorite segments, Reaction Theatre, S***show Hall of Fame, and #AskDBC. Want more DBC? Check out and subscribe to the new DBC YouTube channel! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The following is a production of Dirty Mode Media. He called me Frat Freddy the other day in a group tech. Or he just misspelled fat. Either way, he can kiss my ass. Let's fight, let's get it over with us. Let's knock each other out and let's move on. I think he's a whiny. That's what I think.

Next thing you know, I got no fire suit on. Routy Nation fans are getting lucky tonight. You want to have gimmicks. Let's go all out. I would never, and here they come, never and like they never have before. Right enough, you love them. Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome to another edition of Door Bumper Clear.

Things look a little different in here. Today, yeah, Tommy, like I said, we kicked him off the show. We've had enough of his shit. I mean, I don't know. Honestly, I'm going to just getting around. Honestly, he had to fly to Florida. He's going to the France family reunion this morning. So he is not going to make it.

But sitting in his place, one of our illustrious media members and fellow Dirty Moe podcast host, Jordan, how are you just going? I'm well. Thanks, Jeremy. I bought it in the barrel. No one else to come in and here I am. Like, you tell how late I text you that, I was completely out of options. It's like 2 a.m.

What are you doing tomorrow morning? No, obviously, I mean, you've been on the show before. It's always a great fit. And we've already got you planned. You're coming back after Martinsville in a few weeks. We had that one plan. This one, not so much. But thanks again for joining us, Carson.

Good morning. How are you today? Good morning. I'm great. How are you today? I'm always good. Always good. It's been a pretty good starts.

Do you behave yourself last night? Yeah, I went home last night. I actually was a pretty, I still can't ever sleep, so I was up until two in the morning, but I just, I did not go out last night. So I was, it was well behaved. And also joining us, our actual guest this weekend, Mr. Austin Cindrick. How are you today, sir? Good.

I just got out of bed. Did you? Yeah. So the rest of us. You know, like we talked about this little before the show, but I've been trying, dying. Like, also Austin's spotter, Doug Campbell is one of my best friends. And I've been trying to get him on the show for years. And he will not do it.

No. Like just was not interested for whatever reason. Job status? The best revenge I can get on him not coming is getting his driver to come on. So I appreciate you dropping by to hang out with us today. And zero hesitation just to stick it into Doug even further. So happy to do it. Yeah, I mean, obviously talk about that relationship a little because you guys have been together pretty much your whole cup career, I would say, right?

So how is it working with Doug? I mean, literally I know he works a lot. You guys are in a lot of meetings when I want to go day drinking or something. He's usually at a meeting with you. So just talk about your relationship with Doug. Yeah, I mean, I might be biased, but I feel like Doug's one of the best guys on the roof. And until I start winning more cup races, no one's going to realize that. So that's a good motivator for me.

But no, Doug works as hard as I do, and that's about all I can ask. But also his decisiveness on the roof is second of none. So I really enjoy my time with Doug, not just because we kind of get along and we're good friends, but he's somebody that's willing to put in the same amount of work as I am. and usually when we show up on race day, we're ready to rip. Yeah, and one of the things I thought was really cool. I mean, it wasn't cool.

The wreck that took us all out at Daytona that we probably caused. Most guys have a bad day like that. They're going to pack up, go home, kind of pout about it. I turn around 10 laps later. It feels like you're up on the roof hanging out, talking to Doug, watching the racing, breaking down, what's going on there?

What's the thought process there? Is it just trying to learn as much as possible? And then at the same time, you guys are on your own radio channel, basically talking to each other. Yeah, so I'll take it a step further back. And when I knew that I was going to go race cup in 2021, I stayed every Sunday because I was pretty sure that Doug was going to be my spotter, you know, as far as kind of the options that were out there and the people that I knew.

So Doug actually came to every single one of my film meetings in Xfinity in my last year. And I went to the roof and watched him and Matt every Sunday. And being able to go up there and watch and see what he sees makes it a lot easier for me to request information. from him because I have a perspective of what he sees, what you guys see, the information, how easy it is to get it out in the right time. Not that I think that I could do his job, but just understanding and having the perspective because there are oftentimes I wish I could put my spotter in my race car and say, hey, this is what I can see, this is what I'm feeling, this is why I can't make these decisions,

or I need your help to make these decisions. So, you know, it's a rare, although it's a really poor opportunity because it means I was out of the race in 21, laps, but it's a rare opportunity for me to go up there and watch one of these cup races with this car and really be able to kind of observe some of that info. And he and I will sit on, you know, 2-1 and just talk to each other because, you know, no one's on our radio anymore. And it would just, you know, jot notes, even the crew chief and everybody was kind of in

the hall or doing the same thing. So, yeah, it's a great opportunity sometimes, but it's always good to kind of get that perspective. For sure. how was your race yesterday? I know it wasn't a great result. I think we all kind of were in the same boat. Obviously, we were a little bit better

just strictly because of the track position, I think. I don't know that our car was that great, but we had clean air for most of the race and were able to capitalize. I felt like you guys were kind of mired and kind of just stuck. Yeah, it was a good day

except for every opportunity to, every point in the race where they gave out points, we weren't running well. So that's a problem. And that's a problem in the playoffs. So it's, yeah, it was a frustrating day for sure because I felt like, you know we definitely had enough speed to to be able to capitalize on on on on on on a

decent day but uh yeah just not enough and and and definitely doesn't it doesn't put us in a bad spot for bristol but um i feel like we we just kind of run where we're supposed to and uh we're definitely able to control our destiny a little bit more but but that's racing and we'll go after it yeah you talk about bristol plus 11 i think it is going into there um a lot of unknowns this week it seems like with this right side tire uh we've talked to heard a lot of tire wear, you know, from the test. So, like, I don't want to ask you how you approach this week because you're going to get that accident a thousand times this week. But can you afford to be conservative this week? Or do you just got to attack it like you would any other weekend?

Yeah, I think it's like any other week for us, because we do have to go out and run well and have no issues. That's, that's for sure. And that's the best way you can control your destiny. But as you said, there are a lot of things out of your control, especially from a tire standpoint. No one's run this right-side tire. apparently also five degrees of ambient temp changes how everything there might be less than that actually yeah so and I woke up this morning and saw 58 in the forecast and I would grab the hoodie I was like this isn't good

so it should be an interesting weekend no doubt I do love Bristol but yeah it should be a very interesting weekend and Bristol's hard on the cars too I don't think there's really been too many events, even when we have had, I would say, normal tire fall off that there haven't been right front failures and things of that nature or even steering rack failures and guys losing power steering, things like that. Bristol's a really tough track on cars, but also just, you know, if somebody does have a problem, it's really easy to get wiped out if you're not kind of in front of the mess. So it's not a very warm and fuzzy place to go out and do it, but happy to go out and earn it.

Yeah. Jordan, I know, before we get to, just while we're on the topic of Bristol with this tire, what's the feedback been like from the drivers nobody knows like austin said it like even crew chiefs don't know and everybody's in this box of like we think it may be this but we also could be completely wrong you go back to the spring number of that's saturday they'll come much tire where there was or was courting everybody went to bed that night thinking man sunday's going to be rough people woke up sunday and i was talking people in the garage crew chiefs naskar officials whomever and they're all saying the same thing oh today's going to be rough and then the green flag waves what happened austin we had there's nowhere yeah i mean we were ran probably 40 laps and all creeped the bottom and kind of all looked around. They're like, uh, I'm pretty sure Larson just, uh, hell of the way. I'm like, cool, let's go time. And then it was normal Bristol. And that was it. And so it swung wildly from one day to the other.

And we don't know. So Friday in practice and qualifying could be one thing. Saturday night, who knows? And you make the joke, five degrees could make the difference. But you're seriously. Like, we don't know. The sun comes out. The sun doesn't come out.

We have no idea. So you can't sit here and logically say, this is what's going to happen because you're going to probably be completely wrong. Yeah. Good news is the sun was not going to come out in the middle of this race. I don't think. I'm guessing. It's Bristol.

You never know. But yeah, moving on to where the hell were we? Gateway. St. Louis. Worldwide technology raceway? I was laughing. I was laughing during the pre-raise. It was all the, you know, like it felt like there was maybe politicians from Illinois there or something.

Yeah. Well, it's in Illinois. Yeah. And I was like, I was like, what are many people watching this even realize this race trek is in Illinois. That's all we ever talk about is. St. Louis. But yeah, just another, I mean, it was a weird deal, obviously, very tough to pass. I mean, you can talk about that, just being mid-pack, even for us. Anybody, it just seemed like you had to be considerably better than the guy in front of you or have a little tire advantage.

Yeah, the thing is, though, that is really interesting to think about is how many lanes were available on that track. I mean, I remember times in the second stage, I mean, we're all the way up to the fence, but also able to kind of run the middle, run different lanes in traffic, just not quite enough to finish a pass. And really the best way to finish a pass would just kind of slide up into somebody's door and kind of use them up. And yeah, I think that's how some of those, some of those cautions got caused. But yeah, it's more in my mind, just everyone's so close.

Like the difference in me being better than somebody is half a tenth every lap, not, you know, this guy's catching you by two tents or you're catching him by two tents. It's, you had better air and you were catching him a tenth lap. And now you have worse hair, you have to change your line and hope that it's better and get really creative. And then the moment you find something, the guy in front of you just does what you're doing. Yeah, it just takes it away from you. Yeah. So it's a challenge for sure. And it just rewards great execution, no doubt. Yeah. And it's, you know, it seemed, it tires seemed like they mattered, especially on a restart, you know, for a few laps.

But then it felt like once you got heating everything, it was kind of just leveled back out. You know, there were some guys, and then we'll talk about, you know, the Larson stuff later. and then, you know, Bell and him came through the field at one point. I think it was the end of the second stage. They restarted like 18th and 20th. Larson went flying. It looked like he had a turbo button in his car on new tires. He was passing guys on the outside and it was this.

Yeah. But then like it's weird. Like you've seen like Bell was doing it in that run. He started like 18th. He drove right to the top five or, you know, methodically to the top five. But then once he got the top five, it was like he got stuck. He had Bubba needs to send Logano a stake for the stage two win because I know our car was pretty good, but we had Joey back there just.

taking up every lane, holding back the 11 and the 20. And I looked down to Coleman and said, man, you're like teammates right here. You're doing a hell of a job back there, but don't give it up. But yeah, I mean, but like you see, like he, as soon as he got to those guys, it just stalled. Like he blew through the first half of that deal. And I was like, oh, shit, he's going to catch us. And then because he got right to the top 10. And then it was like, all right, a couple laps to get the next guy, a couple of out.

But then once he got the fourth, it was like stuck. And he just couldn't get. He never, I don't think he ever got around Joey. Blaney was really good, too, at the end. Blaney looked like he was on the charge. and he caught the nine for third, and it looked like he was going to blow by him, and the nine did a really good job of holding off the 12, and just enough, and he lost all his momentum. Now, if the 12 would have gotten by the 9, he would have gotten to Briscoe, I think, no problem.

What he would have been able to catch Denny? I don't know about that, but Blaney had a better car than a fourth-place car, but again, it's just so hard to pass. And at one point, Blaney looked like he had a couple runs in the 9, and the 9 just did a really good job of kind of taking away that line, and then Blaney had to kind of fall back and reset, and by that time he lost all his momentum. Yeah. How frustrating. I mean, like, how do you keep your wits about you in moments like that? When you know you're better than the guy in front of you, but there's just, you don't have a lot of offensive tools. Some days are easier than others. I think I stared at the back of Ross's car for 80 total laps yesterday. You know, it's just, it's part of racing, right? And it just puts an emphasis on, on so many different things that are very subtle that I think from an outside perspective.

but really can mean absolutely everything for your race. I mean, even just thinking about, you know, I think Chase finished what third? Yeah. You know, there was a point in time, I think in the third stage. He and I were in a similar position. And one restart,

the top lane just completely parks, and he ends up third. And he was right next to me. Yeah. Meanwhile, I'm back in the trash, having to switch strategies. And then, you know, then we finished, you know, in the teens.

And, you know, it's things like that. You're like, well, I can't do anything. But at the same time, there's, There's a lot of opportunity, and it's about, as a driver, I just want to focus on what takes me to that next step to where you are able to be that over a tenth better, you know, not that same pace. By the way, back of Ross's car's right there, if you want to take a look at it. If you forgot what it was right there.

Yesterday's looked different. It didn't look like that. A little different. There's less red on it. Some other stuff from the cup race. Josh Barry, poor guy, can't get a break. obviously bottoms out last week Rex on the first lap

poured I saw I don't know I hope this tweet was before or after but poor I don't know I'm sure John Wood would still runs the account over there but the Wood brothers tweeted like thank God we made it to turn two this week and then I feel like it was 30 laps later they were out of the race again that just looked at me I don't know if you have to see it but it looked

to me like a racing deal kind of like I know Chase got in there hot got a little loose they were kind of three wide getting in there just kind of everybody going for one spot at the same time it wasn't intentional It was an accident. Chase went in their hot, slid up the track and got on the 21. It sucks for the 21.

Start your playoff back-to-back wrecks, and you're effectively in a must-win position now. 6D&S this year on accident. So it's kind of a microcosm of their year. And where it is, they've had a lot of speed. They just haven't had luck necessarily in execution on their side. How hard is that to handle? Like when you just, like, it's out of your control and it's just, you know,

how do you bounce back from that? Yeah, I mean, you kind of just have to look forward. But, I mean, with what happened there, I think you see that happen once a year at that track and just guys diving off in on the inside of somebody and getting loose. And even in this car, it's possible. So, yeah, like I said, I don't see there's any negative intent there.

It's just, yeah, if you're Josh, how do you accept that? It's tough. I mean, even as his teammate, like, it's really frustrating to see those guys, you know, do all this work, get all ramped up for the playoffs. They've run 40 laps. Yeah, they've hardly done anything. Two wreck cars.

And I will say like you talk about that happening a lot of gateway. That is now maybe the hardest place to spot for us. Just spotter location. It's very similar to turn one at Pocono. Poconos obviously much further away. But you're only at the top of the grandstands there. So you're not very high. You're very close to the racetrack.

So you lose a lot of depth getting into one. There's I don't know. I think there's a video board. There was a hospital or the stage. Everything kind of blocks the entry. the exit of the entry to one's hard then the middle and the exit are blocked by a TV screen and a stage so that's like that's just a trouble corner for us and then you get a shitty angle off of two like it's just it's not a great spotter stand so it's very easy if somebody pokes out late in a one

there's very similar to Pocono you could come across their nose and like I use I usually just tell Bubba like out of line and it's going to be on him with the camera to know if he's clear or not but it's just it's that's that's one of the harder places so it's very easy to happen there as far as other things I know what else you had a recent start there? Yeah, I don't remember that restart. Let's go to the next thing. Yeah, I don't know. He said it got stuck in first gear. I have to take him as word for it. I haven't looked at anything else to see. It sounded like it. Yeah, I mean, it sounded. It was weird because I assume he did a first gear restart. We did a restart earlier in the race on the front row. The next restart was much better.

And they talked about he liked that better. So I assumed that meant he was good. At the time, I was like, he must be restarted in first gear there because we got a much better launch at that time. And I assumed he was going to do it again. And then we just didn't go. And then we just stacked. the whole top lineup. It was can confirm. It sucks. I mean, I think it was fortunate. We all got kind of fortunate that we didn't all wreck right there because it could have got really ugly. But yeah, definitely, I think that whole line ruined our race. You know, us, you guys.

Five to five to 24. We all, I think we all took that opportunity to flip strategies there. And that strategy didn't work out, unfortunately. But yeah, that kind of just set our race back a ton. And little things like that, you say like, it changes the whole clock coming in the race. Well, and then we have a, we have a caution. in the middle of the pit cycle, that if there was a caution

that would have happened at any other time, it would have benefited that strategy because we needed to make fuel, but instead this benefit of all the cars that had just pitted and put on new tires. And we're on the lead lap.

Yeah, they manage to stay on the lay lap for all of us. So stuff. You're plus 50, the points are good, though. Oh, yeah. You have to feel really, really good. You led 75 laps, got a stage win.

Like, that's a really good day for you guys and continues to build on what I think is a potential championship four caliber team. Yeah, it's, you know, it is, that was the place that we were at least I was I think Bubba was agree with me that that was the outlier for us that I know we can run well at Darlington I know we can run well at Bristol gateway we haven't we've run okay just kind of you know 10thish 15th place car had issues haven't finished a race there I don't think or maybe we finished mid 20s last year or something like that but you know that was the one is like okay we got to figure out just get through this one get to Bristol and we'll be okay and you end up coming out you know we gained a another 25 points on the cut line. So now you got you got a cushion going to Bristol where we talk about the unknowns of Bristol.

It's nice going there with a cushion where, you know, there could be a tire wear shit show. And we don't, you know, I don't think we're officially locked in. But I think we're effectively locked in. Yeah, we just got to, you know, start the race. Start the race. Not, you know, not finished last and have those guys that are out win. So, but yeah, obviously very comfortable. Bubba is a new guy this year.

I've said it on here numerous times. I don't know if it's the baby. I don't know if it's Charles. that's a combination of everything, but the lows are not as low as they've ever been. You know, like anytime we've, in the years past, Bub has been able to get really hard on himself about mistakes and stuff like that. Even yesterday, you know, missing that shift. That could have been something that set him off to where we wreck or just have a really bad day. And he bounced right back from it.

We had next restart. We drove back up to the top 10, you know, or we put tires on late there and drove to the top 10 again. So, you know, he's just doing a really good job. The team's really doing a good job overcoming a shitty spotter. I was going to give you all the credit. I don't know you're talking about. No, you know, not for me. But yeah, no, you know, I don't know.

I don't know what the potential is. It's like we're not looking too far ahead. It's one week at a time, one lap at a time. And I think that's the way you got to approach it. I think Austin would agree with that. You know, you can't look too far ahead because look at the 21. Shit can change in an instant. So, yeah, I don't know.

We're pretty happy where we're at, obviously, and hope to continue it. But speaking of happy where he's at, Connozillich, seems he's like he popped in here a minute ago. and fuck that kid can't stop winning. Like he needs to stop winning. I tweeted their day, somebody's going to get hurt. He's falling off race cars. He almost smokes a cameraman the other day.

Didn't he rip his fire suit too? He caught it on the pin hood. He tried to slide down the front of the hood. Is this kid made you rethink any celebrations you might want to do in the future? Yeah, I mean, really pushing the issue here, man. I think that cameraman thing shouldn't be talked about because holy cow, that was really close.

Yeah. I think about that every time. I mean, those guys are, first of all, those guys are super athletic. I mean, I think he probably could have jumped that wall and been fine. But good. Can you, like, do you see that guy? Like, can you find that guy while you're, like, coming around? I mean, you got all everything going on the radio. Everybody's hyped up and everything. Like, how hard is it to find that guy before you start your burnout or start sliding around wherever you're going to go? In my past experience, it's been like already after you started. You're like, oh, there he is. Oh shit He doesn't even look phased Honestly like he didn't jump or nothing

These guys are pros I mean it's just ridiculous How good with the equipment They have to lug around everything But that could have been really ugly Really really ugly Look at Chris Wilner here From our MRI

I saw that Just stand perfect spot Takes up the phone I love when he just He just picks his phone up like Oh click Click click But then he does the head knot at the end

Like got it See what I wish kind of would And he would have played it off Like he was trying to like Knows your car Yeah yeah Yeah And he just do it burn on the wall

Yes This is what I meant to do. Got them. Man, that could have been bad. Track house driving through the grass. They just wanted to go off road racing? I guess. I don't know.

It was so weird because Chastain went on the access road. Chastain went left on the grass. And then right behind him is SVG who went right on the grass. I guess they're trying to put stuff on their tires, which is not an uncommon thing. Sounds like their cars are absurdly underweight. They know it. They need grass. What I'm hearing from you is throw Chastain out of the playoffs.

and that would just, they've got a... Not what I'm saying. It just sounds like the cars are absurdly underway if they need to do that. They have absurdly heavy grass and dirt in Illinois, apparently. That's a heavy soil.

The moisture in the soil is heavy when it gets on the tires. I don't know. Close to that Mississippi River. Heavy soil. The one thing, Jordan, I'm going to have to rely on you for this. I don't know. You might have to rely on the guys that were there.

But Christopher Bell, not very happy about the the way the race played out for the mission. Yeah, he finished seventh, was not happy with the pit strategy. Basically, his beef was, why did we not pit ahead of everybody, or at least stay on top of it, and then we would have been able to get out there and jump people on the track position. For me, what this is, it's indicative of what happened a year ago at Las Vegas. This team lost a race at Las Vegas. They should have won, and because of that, and that was because of pit strategy.

And they stayed out a little bit too long there and allowed the 22 to get a little bit more ahead, and they couldn't run them down. And they lost that race, and it really put them. out of the championship four. And if they would have won that race, they would have been the championship four. This is a driver who knows, realizes, having been through this, what the importance of every point and every win matters. And when you have an opportunity to win a race and you don't, there's frustration that built. And this is a team that throughout the course of this year has seen some wins kind of slip away for various reasons. Some of that's on bell's shoulders,

Dover, for example, and just some team execution. And so I think that's where this is coming from of just a driver who's been through this before, who knows, we need to win if we can win. we need every point possible, and today we didn't do that. Yeah, I mean, he definitely sounded not pumped about it. And you don't, he's not a guy that you get a lot of those sound bites out of. You know what I mean? Especially in that moment. He's not a guy who pops off on the radio ever.

Yeah, and, you know, I think Adam is one of the best crew chiefs in the garage. So I don't know, it just seemed to me like it kind of came out of left field. I know, like we talked about, it's a frustrating day. He had a really good car. He was able to, he was one of the few guys that was able to make passes. pretty much throughout the day. You know, maybe that was because he was at such a good car and he was set back on strategy a little bit. But like I said, he blew through the field on that one run.

He was even on older tires was able to pass us in the last five laps. We made his life very difficult. So that probably didn't help his mental state afterwards. We were, you know, like not doing anything wrong. Just racing the hell out of him trying to take his air away and then do everything you're going to do. Racing for every point you can. But, you know, like I talking about Bell not being the kind of guy. it's going to do this. I could never imagine

you being in position where you're screaming at your team on the radio. Like how hard is it not that you don't get upset, but how hard is it to not push that button and kind of have those moments where you vent? Yeah, I feel like every driver, every team relationship's going to be different, right? And I don't know Adam

and Chris's relationship, right? So I don't know how they talk together in meetings or how that goes, how that's taken, right? And I also don't really know what happened in their race either, but I've never been a person to like go after my own guys because I don't find it overly productive. There are other drivers that I feel like do.

And it kind of just depends on what your leadership style is. And I think that's something I've learned over the last couple of years of racing in the cup is how far your voice carries. And that's not just with sponsors, not with race fans. It's not with public appearance. It's within your own team, how far your voice carries. So I'm not saying what Christ did was wrong. It's probably not something I would do. Sometimes emotions, yeah, definitely take over.

I mean, I've definitely had those thoughts. I think anyone that's ran in the Cup series in the last three years, you know, has gone, why didn't we short pit those guys, you know, at some point in time? I certainly have myself. So, but it's easy to have happen. And, yeah, I think that's kind of within your own team that you have to manage. But there are a lot of not key up moments. inside the two car.

Probably about six yesterday. Here's a question for you, though. As a driver who's kind of, I say, mild mannered, right? And he kind of keeps his motions in check. When you do raise your voice or kind of want to get a message across, does it carry more weight because you're not that guy who's just hitting the button all the time and keying off? Perhaps. I don't know.

As a competitor, I try and eliminate, like, all emotional decisions. I mean, that's how I go about my business, because I feel like that's, the most clear mind you're going to have. So obviously you're never going to be in that state all the time. But I usually do try and eliminate that stuff now. If we come back on a Monday or any meeting getting ready for the week or if I have some feedback to the team of things I'm not overly happy about me, and behind closed doors, I can definitely be more animated.

But when it's on the line, we're in the middle of the game, you're not going to get that for me. Yeah. First thing to mind, Milo Manor, you know, Austin and then Blaney, the other two most mild manner guys on the radio, I think. Yeah. We have a wide range of emotional perspectives. Joe can kind of go either way, too.

Yeah. Like, sometimes he's really quiet. Other times you don't know what you're going to get. Some days you get Connecticut Joey, some days you get Italian Joe. Ryan, I think Ryan's improved. He had to. The funny thing, though, is like in meetings, Ryan, is a very measured. I've actually learned a lot from sitting across from Ryan in our meetings. He's

very measured. He waits for his time to talk, whether if that's a NASCAR meetings, Team Penske meetings, and when I say that it's not like, oh, he's immature and he's going to speak out of turn. Like, when he does talk, everybody listens because he sat there and, like, waited for the right opportunity, and it's really powerful when he does say something. So it's interesting the outside of the car as much as inside of the car, because, yeah, I don't think Chris Rabel would be somebody you'd look at and go, oh, this guy's going to completely blow up on his guys. Yeah. It's sports.

You're going to have that. It's so fun to listen to when Blaney gets fucking with that. He was like that yesterday too. And the five got into him and he was frustrated. Oh, I'm sure about that. He was like trying to tell him calm down. He's trying to figure out where to get in line. He's like, I am calm.

Just tell me what I have to do here. So speaking of frustrated, how frustrated does Alex Bowman have to be after these first two races? 20 spots yesterday in Pitt Road. They had a fast race car, didn't qualify well, making gains on a track position race. And then you lose 20 spots. Go from 7th to 27th. the second bad week in a row where you've had just a, I don't want to say disastrous pit stop,

but I don't know a better word. I mean, it's incredibly frustrated. And then it's compounded by the fact that he ends up speeding on pit road later. So it's just everything that can go wrong right now for the 48 team is going wrong from inside the car to outside the car. It's just not been a good playoff, which is why they're in the spot they're in. And you got to think they're must win, right? 35 out with two guys in front of you. Yeah.

I mean, Barry and Bowman theoretically could point their way in, but a lot would have to go wrong for everyone above them. in a must-win spot, which I guess makes it easier going to Bristol, but is there any confidence right now that they can actually do anything, though? If you're the driver of the 48 car, in Austin, you could probably speak to this better, obviously, you're coming down pit road? Is it in your mind of like, man, we just can't

get on the ball right here? And in Bristol, any mistake on pit road is compounded because it's such a small track. Your lapsed down on a green flag stop. I would imagine if you're making a pit stop, you're thinking, we're in trouble. Keep swinging the bat. That's my message. I mean, if you're on that team, you just keep swinging the bat. It's

It's not like they haven't been able to go out and do a pit stop all year. It's just the last two weeks. Yeah. No, I mean, it's just, but that's the problem with this team. And that's why they're in this position when they are. There are moments through a course of season when they're on. And you're like, man, that 48 cars, they look like a Hendrick car. And then they go through other stretches and you're like, what is going on here?

They are so far out on left field compared to their teammates. And right now they're in that bad spot and they do not look like a Hendrick team. Yeah, I agree. before we move on to spot-on, spot-off V8 supercar racing. Like, how has that come about and how much are you looking forward to doing that? Yeah, no, it should be a really cool adventure. I'm pretty much spending a month down there after the season's over, which is kind of sad because I miss a lot of football.

But, no, it's a super cool opportunity. It's something I've been wanting to do for a very long time. For those that don't know, I've raced in Australia in my past, done the bathroom 12 hour twice, which is different than Bathurst 1000. I've done the Bathurst 12 hour

twice and done some testing down there kind of a lifetime ago, almost 10 years ago. And kind of stayed in touch with a lot of those contacts, but yeah, through my connections with Ford and getting together with Tickford and obviously it's a great team,

great car, great teammates at one of their coolest events of the year in Adelaide and it's their season finale. It's probably also one of the hardest tracks on the schedule next to Bathurst. So, hey, Vegas can be too. No, it should be really cool, though.

I mean, that's the Adelaide's the old F1 circuit. So there's a ton of history there. And Australian race fans are super passionate about, about Vietz supercar racing and what goes on down there. So, like I said, it should be a fun adventure. I still get some time to test in the car, which will be good. And try and get acclimated to shifting with the wrong hand sitting on the wrong side of the race car. It's got to be wild. Yeah, it's funny.

I woke up. There's not too many secrets down there. I've also learned because I woke up about a month ago to a text from SVG completely unsolicited. Hey, if you want to be any good down there, you got to write for a break. Not a hey, hi, hello. It was pretty funny. I'm like, okay, well, I guess there's no secrets. Second of all, thanks for the advice.

How do you learn that? That's not a thing you can pick up right away, though, because everybody I've talked to sounds like that's a thing. It's multiple years of just doing it and doing it. And then it's ingrained in you. So how do you adapt to that? The last time I've been in a race in right-foot-break

was probably when I was 16 years old. So I have the skill set. It's just not something I've needed to use or wanted to apply, but I feel like with this Gen 3 car from everyone that I've talked to so far, it's kind of a must with this clunky the transactional seems to be on downshifts.

So yeah, it's a decision I'm going to have to come to, but if there's that many guys and guys that are left foot breakers, have had to transition as well. So it's something I can confidently say that I'll probably be able to figure out and that probably won't be what's limiting me from going out and running well and having a good time.

But yeah, it should be a fun challenge. Speaking of football season, you and dad got any games playing with Doug and his buddies this year? So my dad and I do an annual Colts game. Doug and some of his friends just happened to be at the game. And

long story short, one of Doug's friends was excessively drunk. and had my dad had my dad cornered we could say it's AJ and thought that he was the owner of the Colts I mean

and Doug's just sitting over at me and he's half buzzed too and he's like dude I'm so fired right now Doug it was like Christmas wasn't it like right around Christmas and where Doug's text to me he's like dude I'm getting fired

he's like AJ is he thinks that Tim Sindrick is Jimersay and will not leave him alone So when I said, like, like, open, and he's a big dude. AJ's a big guy. Like tall, all of it.

And he's just open mouth, just breathing on my dad. Or he's a mouth breathered? Share all of his opinions. It was hilarious, but it was also really funny to see Doug Sperm a little bit. He was totally cool about it. But, yeah, me and my pop student, a yearly pilgrimage to the stadium there and get to go see a Colts game, which, by the way, one and oh. Yeah, I mean, that kicked ass yesterday. Indiana Jones, man.

That's my guy. That's my old guy, man. I didn't think he was that bad, and he's proving it again. Hey, it's Dale Jr. And for the latest DBC Gear, we need you to go to shop. Dot dirtymohmedia.com. We've got plenty of options, and we're adding new stuff all the time. Shop.

Dottingmomedia.com. Spot on. Spot on. Did you want to go first on this one? I think he's a whiny bit. That's what I think. Send it. Why me?

Number one, Denny Hamlin wins his fifth race of the year, 59th of his career. He will get his 60th win and win his first championship this season. Spot on, spot off. Jordan? I say spot off only because if Denny wins the championship, he's going to have to win the race. But I think before he gets to the championship,

he's going to win another race. So if he wins the championship, that would be career number 61. That's where you're going over that one. Yeah, I think that he does win at least one more before the season ends. but Phoenix is hard. Phoenix is going to be tough because there's an organization that maybe the guy to my left drives for that has been pretty fucking good there for the last three years.

And we just need to hope that we can somehow shut them out of the play out of the final four to give ourselves a better shot at it. But yeah, you know, Danny's on a heater right now. Back to back polls, you know, wins the race this week. But it just goes to show you, I think, Austin. And you can talk about this. It takes a total package because I think he was just as good last week. But one bad pit stop sets you back.

You know, he comes out of pits in the mid-20s and you never hear from him again the rest of the night. So it's just talking about, I mean, it's just everything has to go right to get one of these wins. It's been really interesting this season. And even going through like playoff media day, people ask me, oh, you know, who other than yourself, who's the championship favorite? And you look at the season and it's really hard to pick. I mean, the ebbs and flows of who's had dominant strength. I mean, right now, it's clearly, clearly the Gibbs guys. It started off the playoffs extremely strong with really all their playoff cars.

So, but in eight weeks' time, is that still the same? You know, that's my biggest question. I mean, as far as, yeah, I think Denny sounds, I mean, from what I've heard him talk, he sounds just as motivated to get 60 as he is at the championship. So it should be interesting to see how that all plays out. But I'm not going to just sit here after. the first two playoff races and think all Gibbs has it under control. Yeah, Dawson is obviously spot off.

Denny's not winning any more races. You haven't said Denny's great today. Are you feeling okay? No, he's all right. He's pretty good. He beat us yesterday. Is that a common threat? A week.

I mean, he signs my paycheck. It's one of my favorite people. It's only when it's a pay week that Denny's great. I don't know. What's today's date? I can see if we get paid Friday. Oh, it's a pay week. He's great.

Probably bonus time too coming up. I think if we can sneak through the next round week. I think I get a little bit there. But yeah. Damn, there was something else I wanted to ask you, Jordan, and I can't remember what it is now. I'm sure it was a profound question.

I had a great answer I lined up. Yeah. Your loss. I can't remember, so I'll just go to the next one, I guess. If it comes back to you, let me know. Kyle Larson, Rex, Ryan Blaney, in stage three, ruining his chance to win.

Ryan said, quote, I just want to know what I did to deserve it. That's one I've got to remember. Spot on, spot off. Freddie? Spot off for the move. move. It looked to me, it looked to me like a guy that was frustrated he couldn't pass.

You listened to his comments. It sounded like he kind of maybe overshot the entry to three, trying to get the Ryan's door to get him tight. And then he said he just misjudged it, which, you know, I take him at his word for that. But it just looked like a guy that was struggling to pass Ryan and just kind of, like you said, you talked about it.

At some point, you got to like just bonsai entry and try to get there next to him and affect their air. And it just, that's what it looked like to me. I don't think, I don't think he, deliciously went in there, like I'm going to spend Ryan out.

But it just, look, I got it was probably frustrated and just taking a bigger risk and he needs to do it at the time. Yeah, no, I think Kyle's constantly proven that he's not really that guy. I mean, he'll overdrive his car and make a mistake, but I don't, he's, he's pretty brutally honest when it comes to things. But if you're Ryan, you know, it doesn't satisfy. It doesn't satisfy things. But, you know, it's, yeah, unfortunately, and it's funny, like, three laps before that,

Doug came on the radio and he's like, hey, The only way people are making passes, and this is, this is while I've been trying to pass Ross for 80 laps. The only way guys have been making passes is by diving it off in and just trying to get a nose ahead. And three laps later, I mean, that's pretty much exactly what happened. Yeah, there was the, how much they showed it on TV, Jordan, but it was, it was all you had to, all you could do to pass somebody was just either bonsai entry, get underneath them, or try to rush back the throttle and just get a little position on them to affect their exit. it and then you had to race them side by side for the next five laps. But, you know, it's just, it was so hard to pass. It was.

And it happened with the nine. And it happened with the five yesterday. You just made a mistake getting in there, slid up. And Kyle said afterwards, hey, I'm sorry, I made a mistake. Wasn't intentional. Here's a question, though, is this seems to happen a lot to Ryan, where he feels like, it seems like, anecdotally, he gets taken advantage of a little bit and puts him these spots where other drivers have a mistake and they get into him.

And maybe it's my wrong here. But it just seems like it happens to him more, whereas, like, a Joey, or a Denny, it doesn't very often. And I'm wondering if because Ryan is so mild-mannered and is so calm behind the wheel, and he's not, I would say, an aggressive driver. He isn't to me who goes out there and puts a bumper

on somebody. If other drivers are just maybe cognizant of the fact that, hey, I can maybe use this guy up a little bit more. And because of that, these things happen. Does that make sense? What you just described is the social dynamic of being a Cup Series driver. That's one

of the hardest things to figure out how you want to manage. And it is different depending on who you're racing and what your decisions are. Obviously, I have a much different relationship than most of Ryan's competitors do that I have with him. So it's kind of hard to speak to that as far as Ryan individually, but you do have a different way of setting a precedent with different drivers on your past history. I think the funniest thing about being a Cup Series driver is the guys that you race Xfinity with that know you and trust you, those immediately become your best friends by default.

Like, it's like in grade school. Like if you're like in seventh grade and you're like, there's only three seventh graders and you're with a bunch of eighth graders, automatically you're like best friends with all the seventh graders now because those are the only people that you know and trust and you have to like take a long time to build those relationships. And I'm sure there's a lot of preexisting relationships. I don't know what Ryan's relationship is like with Kyle, but I'm sure that's not going to help him. Here's the other thing, too, is Ryan is not a driver who's going to storm down pit road and get into confrontation and, you know, raise a ruckus.

Whereas if it's Joey or Denny or some other drivers, like, you may have to deal with them after the race on pit road. Ryan isn't really that guy. And I just wonder if other drivers know this. And they, I don't want to say take advantage of, but in those instances, they're like, you know, I can maybe use this guy up a little bit more because I don't have to worry about him retaliating either on the track or off the track. Yeah, I feel like no different than how I described Ryan in our meetings.

He's the same way on the racetrack. Yeah. He doesn't really take a lot of shit. And I think more people will have more guilt with screwing up Ryan's day than maybe others because of Ryan's reputation. And I think that carries further for longer. That makes sense. So you're advocating Ryan needs to punch more people in the face and wreck more people. It's good for business, absolutely.

It's good for us. Give you something to talk about every week. Every week I want more fights on pit road. I mean, I'm very clear about this. How much, and this is kind of, you know, a lot of my prep work that I do before races goes into, especially plate races, especially is tendencies of guys and how other guys react in certain situations. How much are you thinking about that as you're racing? Somebody's catching you or you're catching somebody else. You know, you talk about, I know if we're catching Joey or if we're catching Ross, we're in for a battle.

I'm catching the 23 car. You're catching the, we have definitely had plenty of running. Bubba is I sit on here numerous times. I can't complain about guys racing hard because my guy's one of them. and he does it to everybody. If you're consistent, it's fine. He does it to everybody, I think. But, you know, how much the thought process does that go into?

Because you know it's so hard, especially like yesterday I thought was a good example of it. Like, we don't have a lot of tire wear. It's a lot more heat related. And you could really burn your shit up, just get it overheating it, just attempting passes that are probably not going to work. So how hard is that mindset when you're catching a guy like Ross or Bubba? or, you know, like, I know I got to be smart here because, like, this is going to be very easy to burn my shit up, just trying to get this one guy in the middle of the pack. Yeah, it's always, at a bare minimum, it's always an opportunity to learn something.

You know, there are some, there is an art to being a jackass when it comes to passing. Yeah, we're, we're, we. No, it's, it's, it's consistently like a thing that you have to have the ability to do. I mean, if I'm trying to hang on for race when, I have to be able to have that. And it's interesting to see different approaches for that and have a frustrated level of respect for when it's happening in the moment. But no, it's case by case. And it really is.

And with as deep as the field is, this day and age in the NASCAR Cup series, you have to have that case by case for 30 guys. And it changes depending on who you're trying to pass. Both Coreyheim and Connor Zillich will win the championship in their respective divisions after absolutely dominating all season long. Spot on, spot off, Austin. This is tangled, tangled with. Could it be a split thing? It's tough.

I feel like I could take it two different ways with each of them, but we'll go spot on because they deserve it. Yeah. I mean, and that's the problem. That's where therein lies the problem, Jordan, of they are clearly, the best cars. When I say clearly, I'm talking Corey Hyme has led 40% of the laps this year in the truck series. They are clearly the

best cars, best teams in their respective series, but that's not this format. It's not this format. And if neither of them win the championship, it's going to be another, you know, talking point of here's why we need to change the playoff format, et cetera, et cetera. I will say this. I like Corey Heim's chances

better than I like Connor Zillich. And this isn't a knock on Zillich. I agree. I just think that the Hym is clearly head and shoulders. One, he's a great talent with a great team and two, he's got so much experience compared to a lot of the truck series guys who are still kind of coming into their own. It's such a combination that just

elevates him above everyone else. The thing with Conner's illich that jumps out to me, he's going to be great. He's going to probably make the championship for just based on the point accumulation he has. The problem is, where's the championship at? It's at Phoenix. And where is Justin Allgaier really good at, Phoenix? If Allgaier can get there, I

like Allgaier in that format. I really, really do. So it's not really a knock Connor, it's just more of a, this is how it sets up well for the competition. Yeah. And if the problem, and I'm, it is, the format is what it is. You can't, you can't, you can plan about it all you want. You can talk about 36 races. You can talk about 10 races, three race, whatever it is.

But that's not what the format is this year. And that's all that really matters. I would probably suggest deleting all forms of social media if these guys get wrecked at Phoenix in the final four, uh, if you're NASCAR or anybody that wants to support the current playoff system. but I mean Austin like as for for the 23 team selfishly

I'm torn because the I've grew up racing my whole life's racing my dad race growing up everything I did racing was based on a season long points champion and that's what I want but I know that right now sitting here today the only shot I have at ever winning a championship with Bubba in this is right now in this curve in this current format is the way it is because we have

seven DNFs this year our season would have been over in April probably. So where do you sit on this? Is there needs to be some kind of balance of a little bit of both? Or do you like the current system? Or do you prefer something like a Longer's 36 race playoff? Well, if I'm going to use Jordan's example as far as Allgaier versus Zilich at Phoenix, if that's what it is.

And Allgaier wins at Phoenix. They were in a points battle for the regular season championship for the last two weeks. Yeah, was Connor able to capitalize the last two weeks and win both those races to adjust run well? yes, but did he win? No. So does that make him undeserving? Hard to say if it makes him undeserving or not,

but the win total is obviously what sets Connor apart. But, yeah, I think this is going to be an argument that will never satisfy all parties. Yes. And my response would be that as someone who likes football, It's the only other sport that I watch. If the Kansas City Chiefs didn't win the Super Bowl as the best team in the league,

with the best quarterback in the league, with the best record in the regular season, does that make it a bad year? And I bet most people who are tired of watching the Kansas City Chiefs win would gladly see somebody beat them in the Super Bowl. So what is our Super Bowl moment and how do we define that in race?

that makes sense. Is it a single race? Is it multiple races? I think the playoff format is exciting for those who understand it. Yeah. And I think if there are any changes in the future that are to be made, it has to be first and foremost simplifying in order for more to understand and appreciate. Because otherwise, it's difficult to add more incentives and more items into the fold that, you know, a top 10 provisional in points or something like, you got to stop right there because you're going to have, you're going to lose people's, you know, interest because it's going to be really confusing. Right now, I feel like there's a lot of incentives to run well throughout the year.

I mean, talking about Connors won nine races so far. You're right. If he finishes 20th and every race in the Xfinity Series playoffs, he's probably going to be in the championship four. Okay, he's earned the spot to go race for a championship already. Okay, so we have incentives. Same thing with running well throughout the race, stage points, so on. So I think the incentives are all very good to continue to run well throughout the year.

It's just, I think if there's anything to refine, it's a simplification to help our race fans and maybe our casual fans be able to be more on board with what's on the line and what's at stake. but past that, it's pretty entertaining because, I mean, going into Bristol this weekend, Alex Bowman could go win. Yeah. Alex Bowman could go win. And right now, he's out. That's exciting. That's a moment.

That's a moment. I mean, no different than Chase Priscoe going out and winning the Southern 500 with, you know, he was equal to me on points starting the playoffs. Bang. And can Chase Priscoe win the championship? Like that's crazy, right? I mean, if I was to go out and win Bristol, you'd be like, is Austin Cinderick a serious contender for the...

It's just going to... Everybody on Monday morning is going to be having this conversation, right? And we wouldn't have that without the playoffs. We wouldn't have that conversation without the playoffs. It's that simple. So I think it makes it exciting. It's just to what level, you know, not as a competitor, but as a race fan,

what level in which am I able to accept the champion being crowned. Hypothetically speaking, if there was a championship round consisting of, say, four races, would that make it more palable for the drivers? Well, what's fair for the drivers and competitors is never going to be what's best for the fans.

And the drivers want more of a longer runway for points. The fans, I think, are some fans, I should say. Be careful. They want shorter. At least the TV networks do too. But four races, again, hypothetically. Would you be okay with that? We think that would be okay?

Kind of a fair compromise? I don't even think it needs to be four. Okay. I mean, we have three race formats. Yeah. Why does it need be? Well, you could have like a format. I'm just spitballing here of, let's say, 3,34.

Sounds like Jordan knows something that I don't. Well, Jordan knows. I'll just come out with all the team. But you could have a format of like three races and then another round of three races. And then from that, you whittled down to whatever number that driver count is. And those, that number of drivers over four. races is racing for the championship. That could be, you know, that a fair compromise where you still have the mentality of

you got to go out there and win it, you got to be aggressive because it helps you, but you also have a little bit more of a runway where, quote, unquote, the better team is going to be more, you know, the design. I mean, you're essentially taking what the NBA does. It's a series. Yeah. Each round is a series. And the more wins are better finishes you get in the series.

Then bam, you are, you are the champion. So I think, yeah. It's all stuff that's. been done before. It's just how do we apply it to our format. Yeah, I think anybody that's hoping for a 36 race season is never going to happen. So just like abandon all hope for that. That's fine. But the one thing I

did want to ask you about Austin, because I know Danny commented on this either right before the playoffs started or might have been before the race this week. The schedule this year versus the schedule last year. You know, he had, he was really critical of the schedule last year because it included an extra plate race or drafting race in Atlanta. It included

an extra road course race with Walkins Glen. And he says this year you get a better idea of just the the guys that can go out and perform well there's less wild cards essentially as a guy that runs pretty well at places like atlanta and walkins glen where do you like do you prefer a schedule that's got a little more wild card to it or something like that's just more straightforward with a couple of flat miles replacing those two tracks i think what makes an asker cup series unique and i felt like i had more of a selling point in this when we ran bristol dirt not that i was a huge advocate for that

but we raced in 2023 we did every single imaginable style of circuit racing we did dirt racing we did street course racing we have road courses we have super speedways we have short tracks we have intermediate like there is nothing that this car and these drivers can't do and that's exciting i think our fans are more inclined to watch every week because they're going to turn on the tv and see something different and see different people doing different things and seeing the race teams challenged in different ways. And it also gives our broadcasters time to explain what's so different about this and gives you something to look forward to no different than when you go to a new racetrack for the first time. And it's, oh, this is new and exciting. And everybody tunes in because no one's ever, you know, been to San Diego before in a cup car.

So I think that to be the best driver in the NASCAR Cup series, you have to be good on all types of racetracks. And I think all types of racetracks should be in the playoffs. And they are. But it's the quantity of which, Yeah. It's not really up for me to say that, to be honest. And I think NASCAR does a good job of kind of shifting a little bit. You know, next year. New Hampshire's coming out. Homestead's going in.

So you're getting, you know, Walkins Glens out this year. You're getting a little bit of a different every year, but you also have mainstays as well, whether it's a Phoenix or Martinsville or, you know. Roval. Jordan, for you, like, in this, I think this goes back with a tug of war between the fans and the drivers and everything else. like I think if you asked a drive most maybe not most drivers but

most drivers I think would rather run Gateway than Atlanta in the playoffs almost 100% and the fans I think I think you may not be I think you may be the opposite of that possibly because like how well you guys run in those style races but the fans I think would all agree they'd rather watch a race in Atlanta than Gateway

so like where to how do we find that balance it is it's a constant tug of war between entertainment versus sport but we see that in all sports the NFL you know 20 years ago was a very defensive oriented league. And they realized, like, we got to make this more offensive friendly because it's more palatable for the TV audience. And that's where NASCAR is at.

So what is that balance? Now, I don't think you need an Atlanta every single year and to have two drafting tracks in the playoffs, but you could rotate it in occasionally and have it be different. And that's the struggle. But here's the issue I have, though, is like fans are going to complain about, oh, fans are going to say, hey, we want Atlanta in there, right? And then you're going to have a 20 car accident.

And people like, oh, man, what do we have then there? Like, you have to be very careful about just making your decisions off of what fans say. Because what fans are you talking to? Where are you getting your data from? Is it from X? Is it from a bigger water? God, I hope not. Yes, I'm saying.

And, like, and, like, NASCAR fans in general, and this is a sweeping generalization, but I don't think I'm wrong, it doesn't seem like they can really agree on anything. Sports fans. Well, I will agree with that. Sports fans, but NASCAR fans particularly are very, very hard to kind of, you know, pin down on what they want, and it's always like a moving target. So you can be very careful on what you're basing these decisions off of. I think for me, more the glaringly obvious decision,

like this isn't a harsh criticism, but like when you look at the schedule, if we put Darlington and then Gateway, what do you think is going to happen at both those racetracks? Pretty similar race other than the strategy and the tire fall off, but like you're going to have, you know, race strategy and single file racing happen back to back. You want to have that variety.

There are things that make both of those races special, but the traditionalism of Darlington and obviously, you know, Gateway's got a lot of different challenges, but I think emphasizing the variety and sensationalizing that is, I think, much greater than doing the same thing week to week. All right. Austin, Dylan, SVG, Alex Bowman, and Josh Berry will all be eliminated from the playoff next week. Spot on.

I'm hanging out with Doug on Sunday, so I'm also spot on. Sorry, fellas I think those are my first four out that I picked, so I'm also spot on. Yeah. Don't say spot off. I'm just kidding. Listen, the thing, you know, being realistic about it,

this place, I think more so than any other is, I mean, it may not, more so than like the Speedway races, but this race is very easy to get caught up in somebody else's mess. and that's what I think you can get yourself in trouble with. I remember Joey, it was 2023, I think, was just, I mean, he was in a pretty good point spot. And a couple, I forget, like Joy and somebody else got together.

And he just got collected and that was the end of his playoff. I think that could very easily happen. And not just, I don't know how about Austin because he's on the cut line. It could be somebody as high up as Bell, you know, like somebody, you know, you get caught up in somebody's accent, especially if we're going to have tire wear, where we're maybe potentially, you know, blowing tires like we did a couple years ago. They were last year, whatever it was. you know, it's very easy to get caught up in somebody else's mess

here. So there's nobody, I mean, up until like, you know, even at plus 50, you're still in the back of my head going, like, you know, I know, I mean, we're pretty safe. Shut up. But you have to, you would have to go out on like lap 1. Yeah, you have to, I mean, if it's a fucking shit happens, trust me. You never. Well, especially if it's a tireware race. Yeah. And that's

the big unknown and all this. And that's why I'm spot on on this. But because I don't know, like, listen, SVG, I don't think you make 15 points up there. Bowman's in a must win. Barry's in a must win. Dylan at 11 is kind of in that bubble zone of like if he goes out and gets stage points in stage one or two, then it's a different story. And he could take advantage. But if this is a tire wear race and things are happening and guys have to manage their tires or make green flag pit stops. Who's really, really good at managing their tires, Josh Barry? And this race sets up well for him.

And they can take a chance because they know, like, forget points. We're going for the win. and they're in a position where if this is a tireware race, I feel like they got an advantage because they can be on the front foot and go after it. You're just playing devil's advocate. You want me and Austin a puncher in the base?

I'm just saying. I agree with you. I agree, though. We don't know. If this is a typical Bristol race without the tire wear, I don't think any of these guys are moving on. I just don't think Austin Dillon

is going to go and run top 10 consistently in both stages to make points. He's going to need other things to happen, whether it's yourself or somebody else to have a problem, and then he capitalizes on that. The thing is, like, and obviously we haven't had our strategy meetings or anything yet,

but like nobody really knows. So this could be a race where you see strange strategies where guys can flip stages and get stage points. And now, you know, that's, it's going to, it's going to be, it's almost, you know, road course-esque where you're deciding, you know, do I, do I sacrifice maybe my overall finishing position? Because I have to chase these points right here. And it just, there's just a lot of unknowns going into this. Yeah, I mean, no different than this past weekend. You get a caution at a certain time.

cars that aren't in position to get stage points are just going to flip. And I feel like, you know, if I'm being honest, like there's, like you said, I wouldn't be surprised if Josh goes out and has a good weekend, especially if tire wear comes into play. I could easily see Alex Bowman going out and performing well. We'll start on the poll. Last few races there. Yeah. I mean, and honestly, Austin Dillon, even then, I mean, it's not a huge gap for those guys to

make up for us if we don't have a great day or even the one car or, or, or, or, or, or, C Bells. So I don't think any of it's out of the questions. So I think there's a, if you're a race fan, there's a lot to look forward to. If you're a driver, 11 points above the cut line, there's a lot to get after it. So Bristol is a lot to do. Bristol has an elimination race, by the way. We talk about the schedule and everything. Them moving this race to the playoffs and putting it as elimination race, master stroke. Yeah. This place and I wish the racing was a little better at Martinsville, especially, but yes, they did they, like they, I thought when they had, you know, it was Bristol's a cutoff and was Daga ever the cutoff?

Daga was a cutoff in the initial few years there. I thought those were the ones that were the most excited. If you're doing this for entertainment, like those three, where it was like Bristol, Daga and Martinsville were your three cutoffs, like those were fun. Not to harp on this, but man, wouldn't it be great to have Charlotte Oval as a cutoff race

instead of the roval. Okay, moving right along to reaction theater where fans can call in and voice their opinions from this week's race. Alex, how many do we? It was not a good week, actually. Not a good week. I only have five calls.

Oh, well, that's all right. Well, I'm sure you had more than five. Are they five quality calls? 50 total. 50 total. We're struggling, fellas. Ladies and gentlemen here, you want to bitch about this reaction. They're not being great.

It's your fault. If you don't give us good shit to pick from, we can't have a good message. That's probably a good thing to be honest. It's Doug. It's Doug and AJ there. Yeah, it was just dug last night, sit in his explore and his apartment complex.

After he got off the phone with me. AJ's like, hey, Jim Irsey, man. Where to go? Good day for the team. Hello. Is this action detrimental? I just want to congratulate you, Denny, on 59 wins. Go 12.

You're shitting me. Is that the Blaney guy? Just being an asshole? That's not funny. Hey, I'm sick and tired of watching Kyle Arson. I've been betting on Kyle Arson. I'm getting sick and tired of it. What is the problem of just running in fifth place?

Why do we got to drive crazy? Try to pass Ryan Blaney for 10 laps and get totally frustrated. I walk away from the TV, and then I hear the English dude, what happened here? And I see Ryan Blaney's setting backwards. I know what happened here. It was Kyle Larson wrecked him. This guy's standing up on the phone. He's 100 in his living room, speaker phone out, pacing, pacing back and forth, yelling.

Just in the air. the English The English guy Oh man You know Blaney needs to invite Larson over Per a hot tub session

You know Maybe smooth things over Jump out and say you're going To get him with drinks And then come back And drop the motherfucking toaster In that house Wow

This took a turn That felt like a threat Honestly That's a dark turn Wow Okay Yeah we had a run on here Where some Blaney fans

we're getting in their bathtub with toasters. Blaney fans are passionate. They are. We're not going to be like an accomplice to anything. Don't do that. That's a disclaimer. We do not advise. I signed something before the show.

Am I in trouble? You know, I thought about that last call. Like, you know, we talked about like you see decisiveness on X and wherever else. How much of that you think is just strictly related to gambling? You know what I mean? Where people like, like this guy wrecked my guy, he's an asshole. It's strictly because that guy had a little money on him or something like that. You've seen other sports.

There's an increase now where. fans, or I don't even want to call them fans, but people have gone after athletes who have blown a say, we're throwing an interception, and it's, it's becoming an issue. That's crazy. We Blaney fans have got it all wrong. We need to not get in the hot tub with the toaster. What we do is we get the hot tub set up, and then we leave little piece of paper leading up to the hot tub that say things like, come run a dirt race, or open wheel, open wheel tryouts

and Indy, and then hung money gets in the hot tub, and then we throw the toilet. A toaster in at him. Wait, wait, wait, wait. The toaster things, this is... It's just been three years that's been going on for, yes. So that wasn't just the last guy that... No.

No, this is a thing. If you're a Ryan Blaney fan, you know the toast. You have a toaster in your kitchen with a 12 on it. Yes. And you take it to the bathtub with you. I forget what year. It was actually the year he won the championship, I think.

He had a shitty summer, like a really bad summer. And every week, this guy would call in. He's like, I'm getting in my bathtub, and I'm bringing my toaster with me. And then it ever, after that first call, then it was every week. Blaney, said now Blaney's been signing toasters for like two years, mad at the hell of us.

I feel like you should like, if you're Blaney, like start selling toasters. And like that's a money opportunity that's in there, right? Like, Ryan Blaney and Dorley. No, not saying don't. Maybe not electric one. Well, apparently, a battery operator.

Well, apparently Ryan Blaney fans would buy that toaster that, you know, because they are committed to be part of the CSI episode. If I was Kyle, I would showers only this week. I don't know if I get any baths over hot tubs or anything like that. No, Hansland Gretel for Kyle. Just being careful. Goodness gracious.

I didn't know it was that big a deal. I didn't think it was. Blaney fans out here putting together like a perfect murder episode or something. Of the 45 calls, 43 of them had a toaster in it. I'm telling it this is a money-making opportunity that we're leaving on the table here. Get Dirty Mo on this. Start selling some Ryan Blaney endorsed toasters and we can all make some money.

Does it like toast a number 12 in? Perfect. There you go. That would be sick. Now you're thinking. And then on the other side says, you motherfucker. Like whatever he, whatever his last quote from that week's radio was, whoever he was screaming. You could like change it to whoever you're mad at. You can like put a five on the other side one week with like an extra line. Next week it's whoever else is mad at here. If it's Chastain one week or hosts of our, you know. Oh, man. All right. Well, please to leave an audio message 24-7, we need more and less toast.

That was actually pretty good. But we got to be original. Like quality over quantity Yeah I always tell you guys Like make fun of me Make fun of Tommy Definitely Tommy The guests You can make fun of the guests

Don't make fun of me Don't make fun of Carson We won't play it I'll cry You make fun of Jordan If you want to make fun of Jordan He'll hear it I get that I'll know

Especially Martinsville weekend He'll be here for that one So if you want to make fun of any of us Call our number 704, 802-9572 And we'll play the best ones Each week on the show All right, AskDBC

You can send in your questions On X each week using hashtag AskDBC. For Austin, would you like to run the ND 500, Coke 600 double someday, and what other drivers would you like to see do it? Absolutely. Not in a rush to go do it, but my family has a pretty long history with that race, and I see my racing career as incomplete without ever doing the 500.

But yeah, doing the double. Obviously, logistically, pretty challenging. And it's been cool to see kind of the path that Kyle has kind of trailblaze. the last couple years of, one, how difficult it would be to do it, and two, what all goes into it, but also the excitement behind it. But I think there's a lot of drivers that would be plenty capable of doing it. It would be cool to see. I mean, any of my peers would be really cool to see,

see, be able to go and go and do it. I think it would be much, I'm not saying this in a way that is maybe disrespectful towards like any car drivers, but I feel like it would be much more difficult to, Be an IndyCar driver and come to the other way around. Just because of the lack of testing and lack of preparation that you would need to expect to go out and run well. At least even know what's going on or represent yourself well. Whereas Indycar, you know, we can practice and so on to be able to kind of get lined up. But it would be cool to see one of those guys cross over and come do it sometime.

When you look at next year's schedule, there is very, very likely going to be an IndyCar race at Phoenix next year, the same weekend as the NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix in the spring. spring, is that something that's a little bit more palatable where you could do that as a double? And instead of jumping into the 600 with the logistics and everything, but when they have these races like this and there may be future super weekends, especially with Fox Sports now having the IndyCar coverage, could you do something like that? Yeah, I think, I think for one, yes, that would be an awesome opportunity for anybody looking at doing the doubles. It would be great to get a race on your belt before you go do the biggest race of the year

and not being your first ever Indy car race. but I love the idea, and this is as someone who's been a lifelong IndyCar fan, I love the idea of any IndyCar NASCAR double weekends because there are so many tracks that we could do some really cool stuff around that. So I think that's just a huge win for race fans. Have you driven an IndyCar really? I mean, I know you've been around them plenty. Have you ever gotten a get-in one, I assume?

I got to do a straight-line test a bunch of years ago, just because they do it at the space center there because they got that long, a mile long runway. And it's much easier to vet an American than it is others. And Joseph Newgard didn't feel like doing four days of straight line testing. And I'm over here like, I'll do it. Yeah, I'll do you want. So, yeah, that was very, very cool to be able to get to go do.

Just because, like, a lot of, like, the smells and the sounds and all of it are all things I experienced a ton in my childhood. but like now I'm in control of these things badass like I'm and then it gets really boring after like the first two hours but yeah that was super cool but I'd love to love to be able to drive one in anger

oh boy all right what shit shows did you guys see this week? Shit show of the week the four wheeler won last week the four wheeler had to win last week that guy falling on his head was unfortunate for him but it was very funny for the rest of us it was that go car

one. Go car one. Yeah, with this guy falling out of the cart. We'll share it on the, on the poll. Still don't really know exactly what happened here. Obviously, the fans can't see this. Or I don't know. We can figure out. Maybe we can share this one. But it'll definitely be under the poll. Everybody asks me every week. I'm going to tell you again, shit show not the poll is on the dirty moe media X social media handle. And all the videos are directly under the poll. So whatever videos end up on there, there will be a video to accompany it on the poll most of the time. but this guy, I don't know, they get together this poor guy's hanging out of the car, hits the wall, flips over,

just that was pretty epic there. Slams into a barrier. I still don't know what the hell happened. Poor guy. I don't think he knows what happens. He gets out of the cart and he looks like he's, he needs a minute to recover there. I mean, it looks like a $50,000 fine right there.

That's exactly right. That was the first person I ever seen. That guy hooked himself. Like he's just, he's like, I don't know. I still don't understand. I'd like to know if there's anybody who watches the show that is good enough at, like, math. They can figure out how fast the kid was spinning.

He was full extension, so his head speed has to be boogie. That poor kid is just along for the ride hanging. Once his ass comes out of the seat, it's pretty much game over for him. He gets whipped into that barrier. Almost head first. This guy here, I don't know how this guy here ends up on the... I have so many questions about this. Thank you.

How is he? Oh, it's a Jets game. That's why. That's exactly right. The Jets need to eliminate the American flag from their pregame. Last year they had Aaron Rogers carry it out. He blows his ACL out. This guy looks like somebody's toddler.

I don't understand. Now we have somebody crawling across it. Like, is it on a stage? Because it's not like sagging at all. I don't understand what's going on. How is it holding him up? If you hold it really tight and you, they're really holding it that tight. It's like signing a T-shirt.

Yeah, but that's, I mean, there is a pretty big guy. like my size. I don't know. Makes not much sense. We'll share this one. Zillich celebration, almost wiping the cameraman out has to be on there, I think.

Go car wreck, Zillich, the flag guy. Chris Wright's still leading away with about a 97%. Is he still? I thought we did something else that beat him.

Daytona, that when he wiped out that coming to pit road. Are you going to call Tommy for DBC picks? No, Tommy's meeting already started. Tommy,

I will say that Tommy is not at the fantasy family union. Like I said earlier, believe it or not. I mean, I don't think he is. He is in Miami. And meeting, like doing some, trying to further Luke Baldwin's racing career, hopefully. So we'll try to wish him luck there. Luke won again this week.

Good for him. He had a win in tech, though, so we don't really count that one. It's not, you know. He probably cried in Victory Lane and made sure they threw the winner out. But, no. The winner was, like, one of his best friend. Yeah, Carson, loft him. I whoop tails ass

You win picks again? I'm two for two. Austin, you got to partake. Jordan, you'll just do Tommy's pick, I guess, since he's not available. Austin, you go first. So you got... What I appreciate here is that you have the

Cup Point standings in the same way in which we all consume it and it's in a Bob Pocker's tweet. Just put on... I mean, whenever... Literally, if I have a question that I need the answer to, I go to Bob's Twitter.

That's where I go. That's where I get all my information. Bob. It's just like it's just. It's like we could have easily just copy and paste it. But no, screenshot. Screen shot. Screenshot.

Bob Packers. Good work, man. The goat. Wow. I remember we were getting a little bit of a argument with NASCAR, the spotter. When I say we majority of the spotter stand. Because like we'd have rain delays. And we were getting our information to when to head to the roof from Bob on Twitter.

I was like, Can we at least get some kind of heads up? Like, you know, we're getting ready to call drivers to their cars in an hour. Like, you mean, my guys are the most mozion up there if you want to. But, like, I was like, why are we relying on Bob Packers for all of our information in this day and age? He's the best. He is the best. The goat.

So, Picks. What am I picking? You are just picking. Off of this one. We're basically just head. The four of us heads up. Just whoever finishes best wins. Anybody that's not great out.

So you can't pick Larson or Byron. You can pick yourself. I can't pick Larsson? No, you can't, you just can't pick, you can't pick off Tommy's list, so you can't pick this, the sheet. Oh, here we go. You're acting like Tommy right now. What page are we on?

What, uh, you go first, Austin. It's easy. I'm the first pick. I'll just pick Danny Hamlin. That's right. That's a good pick. There we go. That was going to be my pick, though, so I don't like that.

Why? Because you think he's great. I think he's great. I told you that numerous times. Uh, who goes next to me? Uh, Jordan. I'm taking Kyle Larson. You motherfucker.

I was going to pick. I mean, wow, this escalated. I've been sitting here thinking so hard. Wow. Thinking so hard about that. Yeah. Now you're,

they're calling a lot of names. That's, uh. That's the MS. Sorry. That was the, that was the heart came out of me. I apologize. Wow.

Jeez. Okay. I didn't really mean that. My concern with Larson is I don't know how the tires. I think he's been the best guy at Bristol for the last numerous races. This is. tire saving may be an issue. If that's an issue, but we don't know.

If this tire is the same as it was this race last year or in the spring and it's more of a less wear, then I'm taking the guy who led a 411 laps in this race and is really, really good here. That's a good point. I wasn't allowed to pick Kyle Larson. I'm afraid to say anything because I don't want to get MF. He was off your list.

Yeah, be careful with that. I don't know who to pick. I'll tell you who's awful at tire saving that's on this list as Ryan Priest. That guy's terrible. You've been hard on him recently. He sucks. I'll take Keselowski.

He was, when this race was super high tire wear in spring 2024, Hamlin, Truex, Kesslowski were the three best, they finished top three that day. So this would factor into that. That's why I picked. There you go. I'm going to take.

Catherine Legg. Shut up. No? My favorite, Coral Joy. I'll take Blaney. Blaney. Great pick. I think the wonderful thing.

Get your toaster ready. Thank you. Toast for breakfast that morning. He wins. He should like, these guys should take a photo. Have some of the DMM crew, go over there and take a photo with him and Victory Lane with a toaster.

He, I mean, is he aware of the toaster thing? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. He's been signing toasters for like a year now. He's like, I don't know that he was, he came on earlier in a year.

And I think, I think he was a, aware of it beforehand because there's people that were making t-shirts about it like the last couple years so I think he was aware of it but then he's gotten the full force of it this year I think but yeah there was a guy he came to like JRM fan day and had a toaster that was signed by us and Blaney

and everybody else I was like oh man they're taking this pretty far what else was there this week the Xfinity playoffs a couple things I thought come out of there a couple surprises maybe that didn't make it maybe a couple that did you don't expect a Gibbs

Xfinity car full time to miss. All the Collie cars miss. Those were kind of surprising to me, Jordan. I don't know. Yeah, I mean, Colleg just had a down year. It seemed like Christianakis really started to come into his own towards the end of the year. Rookie driver, a team that is struggling right now

and really doesn't have a lot of speed, but he came on strong. Same with William Swalich. I mean, he was, at the beginning of the year, he was struggling bad. And really since this summer, he's kind of starting to come into his own. He's come close.

I mean, almost won a gateway. But yeah, when you're Gibbs car, that's a tough pill to swallow and to miss the playoffs like that. It seems like it's JRAM's championship to lose in this Xfinity Series playoffs. I mean, it really does. Between Allgaier and Zillich, if I said to you, I'll give you Allgaier and Zillich versus the field, I'm taking those two guys.

Yeah, I think you have to at this point. I did want to give a shout out to old Harry B. Harrison Burton. Oh, great run. My guy. Just, I mean, one of the best kids in the garage. I don't have a lot of dealings with them. but every time I talk to him, just nice kid. Always seems to be happy.

Takes a car that was outside the top 30 in points last year at this point and finishes, I think he's 11th in points right now with it. I don't know where they're at after the reset, obviously. But that's not easy to do, Austin. I mean, that's, you know, that's obviously a underfunded team compared to some of the other ones. And to get in there and have that much improvement, 20-something spots in the standings is great for Harry and really good for Harrison.

Yeah, no, I'm a huge, I'm a board member of the Harrison-Burton fan club for sure. So I've been really, really excited to see Harrison probably overperform at a lot of times, he's bringing his experience from his time in the Cups series and really being able to out-execute a lot of guys in

a series like that. So super happy that he gets to playoff shot because he's definitely a capable driver, especially in that series. So, no, I'm excited to see what he can do. I think it's kind of, sky's a limit for them. I think they're just kind of keep swinging the bat and see what happens.

but yeah, I think he deserves me in the playoffs. You look at what a driver can do. This is a perfect example. No offense to Haley Degan, but look at what Haley Degan last year did versus what Harrison did this year. Harrison doesn't make a lot of mistakes. The team has got potential.

A few years ago with Brett Moffat in that car, they were consistently running well, and Harrison's kind of helped resurrect that, and he put himself in a good position to get noticed. And the other thing to notice is something you guys mentioned on the show last week. Hoss is going to Chevrolet next year, so they're no longer going to be a Ford Xfinity series team.

Ford needs a presence in that season. series, this team seems to be well positioned to kind of carry that banner a little bit, and Harrison seems very capable of doing that. I think one thing talking with Harrison, he's been able to take on more of a leadership role than he's been asked of him in years prior. And I think that's been a great experience for him, although under probably circumstances you would define as adversity, you know, having to go back to the Xfinity series. But, you know, I'm hoping that this whole experience makes him better because I wouldn't,

I wouldn't be surprised to see him back in a cup serious car one day, and I think he deserves it. Just from the fact that he's easy to work with. And I miss having him in our meetings and as a teammate. And just also someone's closer to me and age than the guys have teammates with. But no disrespect. But, yeah, Harrison's a good dude and deserves everything he's got going for him. Joe, you brought up the Haas switch that came about last week.

They announced it. What's the inner workings there? Yeah, I mean, you look at that organization's history. Gene and Rick Hoss, Rick Hendrick, have a prior existing relationship. When Gene first started his team, years and years ago, he was a Hendrick affiliate team. And if you look at the pecking order on the Ford side of things, they're pretty far down there. They didn't have an affiliate with Team Penske, which is the best four, the number one for team. Now you're switching to Chevrolet.

You've got an alignment of some degree with Hendrick Motorsports. You're getting Hendrick engines. It's a better situation. And that's where they started out, essentially, right? That is it. That was back in the day. I mean, Jeff Green and Johnny Sauter and all. all those guys, Ward Burton, they were the old, you know, Haas team running with Pontiacs at the time.

You with Jack Sprague, and they had a Hendrick Motorsports affiliation. Yeah. You got any bombs you on a job this morning? There's not a, I know there's not. The people upstairs have been on me about not having quite enough rumors this year. You were with last week, you nailed it. What are you talking about? Yeah, well, every once in a while, I get lucky.

But, you know, I wish I could just make them up, but I can't. It's quiet. This is a really quiet, silly season. I mean, if you look at it and you guys talked about this ad length. I mean, the only one right now in the Cup Series side is what is going to happen with Daniel Suarez and what could potentially happen with the Seven Spire car. Where Suarez is going to go? Is there a cup ride for him?

You know, if he doesn't end up in the seven car next year, I don't see a spot for him necessarily. We'll see how the Cup Series. In the Cup Series. And then that's going to be a question of where he would end up, you know, maybe in the Xenity series. We'll see. It's just a very, very quiet silly season. This is the quietest silly season in years. and a lot of teams are locked into driver contracts.

A lot of teams are kind of hesitant to take on multi-year deals right now because they're looking ahead to next year when there's a lot of big-name drivers whose contracts are coming up and they don't want to put themselves in a position where they can't make a move for a bigger name if that happens. You see, I saw comments this week from Jimmy about that team still getting or trying to get a third charter. I mean, where's that at as it's tied up in litigation?

Yeah, mediation right now. It's going to start mediating. here soon. The trial date starts in January. They want a third charter. But even if they got the third charter, they're not in a position to run a third full-time team for 2026. Yes, they want a charter. He thinks they may get a charter. But just because they have a charter doesn't mean they're going to run a full-time for 26. Even if they were able to go through this process and land a third charter, it's probably going to be a situation of we're going to have to lease that out for a year, maybe back to Rick Ware Racing or however that situation unfold. And then in 27, when we have a situation, enough runway to build up that third car, then we can do that because they do not want to rush into it. And from the conversation I've had with people on the Toyota side, they're not necessarily ready to run a third full-time team at Legacy yet, too. They just added a team at 2311 full-time.

Corrieheim is expected to run a part-time schedule next year for 2311 to some degree. They aren't in that position to run another Toyota team full-time. So you have to build it up a little bit, and that's where things are at there. And speaking of not rushing, the Dodge deal. Do we know, I mean, I know we've heard some names, Daniel Dye, Butterbean, names you get associated with that. They're talking gong show, like, do they know we start in February? Like, they don't know.

Like, they got to look at the schedule. It's a rush. And that's the thing of, like, I mean, the truck series is, listen, it's a, for lack of a better term, a stock engine, right? And the trucks besides the nose and the nose and the tail, they're a little change there. You can kind of get away with it in the truck series, but they still got to get in the track.

They still have not tested. I have been told that they will be allotted some on-track test sessions, which is not something you see a lot of nowadays, but to get them help get Dodge up to speed, they're going to let them test a little bit. Their driver line is going to be interesting. You would think that they're going to go and try to get a veteran driver.

If you're going to have a butter bean or even a Daniel Dye, who does have some truck experience, but you would like to have somebody over there kind of maybe help kind of guide the ship a little bit on a day-to-day basis. Austin, thank you for dropping by today. I appreciate it. Even if it's just to stick it up, Doug's ass.

It's 90% of the reason I'm here. I hope we didn't drag you down too much. Jordan, thank you for last minute notice. Jumping in. I did want to quickly mention Bill Davis is passing yesterday. We'll put a pin in that and give a channel. Tommy, he had a huge effect on Tommy's career. So we'll bring that back up next week and give Tommy a chance to talk

about that, just a guy that has done, I mean, countless things for the sport. Yeah, I mean, people are going to talk about the Daytona 500 win with Ward Burton and winning the Southern 500, tremendous accomplishments. But you talk about starting people's career. He was Jeff Gordon's first full-time Xfinity Series ride. He revitalized Mark Martin's career in the 80s. And so really was a launching pad for a lot of people, drivers, crew guys, into bigger things in the sport.

So he will certainly be missed. For sure. And thank you guys for listening. We'll be back next week with, I believe, the mayor, Jeff Burton. is coming in next week. So that'll be a fun one. But tune in next week. Thanks, guys.

We're out. See you. Check out dirty moe media. Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.