Door Bumper Clear - Bill France Didn't Want This

Episode Date: February 16, 2026

If you were expecting Door Bumper Clear to lay up to start the year, think again...The NASCAR world is bursting at the seams with storylines following the Daytona 500 weekend, so you know Freddie, Tommy & Karsyn will have plenty to dive into. They are joined by, as Freddie puts it, one of DBC's "sons", Connor Zilisch!Connor recaps his race & the gang talks about Tyler Reddick's win leading up to a locked and loaded Spot On, Spot Off segment, where they cover:- The last lap wreck and NASCAR holding off on throwing the caution.- Comparing the plate race fuel saving strategies to past styles of superspeedway racing.- How the NOAPS field couldn't best Austin Hill ... again! - Plus, an all-time rant about followers vs. talent and the barrier to entry for racing in NASCAR.After that, we head into a 'rowdy' Reaction Theatre segment where the fans made us laugh, blush, and question their morals. However, the real fireworks start when we get to the S*** Show Hall of Fame nominees, where we discuss the viral wreck that occurred in Saturday night's race, a car hitting a Kangaroo, and an Olympic athlete with a broken heart. We rounded the show out with Ask DBC & DBC Picks, so now it's time to get ready to head to Atlanta (isn't Austin Hill really good there, too? Oh brother...)Don't forget to check out the merch at shop.dirtymomedia.com & subscribe to Door Bumper Clear's YouTube channel! Want more DBC? Check out and subscribe to the new DBC YouTube channel! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. What if we left all the spotters out of everything? That's a terrible idea. What page are we on? Why you curse that? This is why I'm just you cursing to me. I think he's a whiny. That's what I think.

Next thing you know, I got no fire suit on. Grouty nation fans are getting lucky tonight. Hey, what's up, everybody? You want to go for it this week? What's up, everybody? Welcome back to Door Bumper Clear. I am Freddie Craft, Spotted for Bubba Wallace, Dean Thompson, Gio, Ruggiero this week. Joining me, as always, my lovely co-hosts, Thomas, how are you? I'm lovely.

Well, yeah, sometimes. Very rarely, but... Was Dean even racing this week? Dean? Yeah, I mean, we ran mid-pack, and then we had some mechanical issues that took us out of the race. But, yeah, it was... You swear it. You never hardly know that guy's racing. Yeah, but he's there. But he's there, and then he usually ends up.

I mean, we were going to end up in the top ten, I think. But, you know, it's just... Who had the best spotter record of the weekend? I don't even know. I'd have to go back and look, wouldn't me. Carson. I'm lovely. I'm glad you can make it.

Where you've been all morning? Daytona. Stetsville, Daytona, stuck on the interstate. But I made it. The great thing about getting the race moved up an hour yesterday was we got the race in. The bad thing is we all got stuck at the airport. Because we were caught in the middle of a hurricane.

Yeah, we all had to sit there anyways. Our plane couldn't leave because it was three fueler trucks in front of us. So I don't think we took off to like 9. Yeah, I was about 8.30, maybe 9 o'clock. I was 7 this morning. Joining us back again for, I don't know, fourth or fifth time, it feels like this time. One of our favorite sons here on DBC, the 33rd place finisher in the Daytona 500 yesterday. Is that where it was?

Yeah, you guys must love me if you're bringing me back after I finished 30. We already had you on the schedule. Well, we're actually just glad that you ran shitty before you came on the show so that you can't blame us for how it went. Connor Zilich, if he didn't already know, driver of the Red Bull number 8. 88 yesterday for track house racing. Connor, how was your weekend? It was a long week. It felt a little drawn out, but it was really cool.

I got to do a lot of cool stuff and got to race in my first Daytona 500 and obviously finished 33rd. Wish that was a little better, but I enjoyed it. Tell me, I mean, aside, obviously your race didn't go well. We'll talk about, you know, you got caught up in a little bit of a wreck there when you got up front. But just talk about the aura of the Daytona 500. You come out there. obviously all week you probably had to do 14 different media things to get for Daytona but then

driver intros you walk out on stage with a legend i mean it was row 16 but uh jimmy johnson let him have let him have some sorry let him have something we got to bring him down a reality little bit after winning 49 races last year right yeah but i mean just the the the ambience of it all that i mean as a 13 year old it's got to be pretty yeah yeah it was cool um you know i walked out there and i looked at the list and i was like oh shit i got to walk out with j j j Jimmy. And I walked out and the fans were going crazy. And then I realized I was standing next to Jimmy Johnson. I was like, yeah, this isn't for me. Hey, everybody. But it was cool anyway. Like I, you know, I got to talk to Jimmy and Jimmy's a great dude. Like he's just down to earth. Good dude and he loves doing this stuff. But

yeah, I had a lot of fun. I, you know, got to meet a lot of cool people. And just the, I don't know if that race felt different for everybody, but it just, it felt pretty cool and special. You know, I thought there was just great energy. The weather is finally good. Like, it's about time we had a Daytona 500 where, you know, everything went smoothly. And, yeah, it's cool to be a part of it and get to kind of experience that for the first time. Talk about your race. I know, you know, we'll get into the race more in depth, I'm sure.

Obviously, there's some fuel saving games. You got to be played. But then, I mean, you got to the front. You were leading that middle lane. I saw you get a little out of shape off of four. Then it looked like the one got out of shape behind you, and it kind of hooked the 51 and then we'll get. What happened there, first of all?

Yeah, I still don't really know. There's not really anybody to blame. Like, I can kind of blame myself because I, you know, I was up tight with the 40 and the 40, and I don't know who came down or who came up, but we made a little bit of contact, and then the guys behind us made contact. And, you know, the next thing I know I'm getting hooked sideways

into the infield. Yeah, I don't really know how it all started still. Like, I've watched it a bunch of times, and it was kind of just a bad chain of events. But yeah, it was going well up until then. You know, our car was really fast. It didn't handle the best. You know, I think we struggled a little bit. You know, the wind was crazy.

You know, there was a lot of turbulence throughout the pack. You know, there were times where I'd be like, you know, get a push from the wind, and it was crazy how big of a run. I would get. And then there was times, like, it would literally, like, stall me 500 RPM. It was pretty insane how much the wind was affecting us. So certainly threw a bit of a curveball there. But up until we wrecked, I thought, you know, we were doing good.

And as the sun was going down and the shade was coming in, our car was getting better and better. But I guess we'll never know. Tommy, how hard is that balance to find when you, obviously, you want to be as fast as you possibly can, but you also now, Daytona, we're seeing it come back a little bit more. You have to handle a little bit as well. Yeah, I mean, I think starting to race a little bit early, played into play, because the heat, you know, turn four is really, really hard. It's the hardest handling spot in the racetrack because most of the time the wind's hollowing towards that turn, and it's just taking the nose and moving it to the right.

And then what happens is people get tight and then they overcorrect and then they get loose and run into people. But, yeah, it's a place gets tough sometimes. And, you know, I think, again, we didn't see much tire wear. I would like to see them go to work a little bit more on that because we didn't, you know, we're doing a lot of stuff with fuel mileage, right? Still, I mean, that was the whole whole game, but there wasn't hardly any tire changing, right? I mean, from my seat, like, when I got new tires, it was like, oh, man, this is nice. And then after about 20 laps, and then, you know, you come in for fuel.

And right after the fuel stops is when everyone's, you know, starts running hard again and you realize that you're on 55, 60 lap tires. Like, they're old and they don't drive well. And then as soon as you get tires again, it goes back to feeling nice. So I don't know if it wasn't wearing, but I could certainly feel the difference inside the car from new to old. Connor, another new experience for you was the clash. I want to hear all about that and what that was like chaotic, I'm sure. Yeah, it was, you know, by the end of the clash, I was sick of running under caution after the 24 and then going to there and

And I, dude, that race felt like it took forever. Yeah. But it's because it did. It took multiple days, actually. I'm just glad that I was at least warm when it did happen. So, um, but yeah, it was wild. I, uh, you know, I got up to the front and, you know, I, I was racing, you know, up in the top three for a little bit. And, uh, eventually it just became eight tires are better than four.

And the inside row was just doing whatever they could to, to just run into the outside row. row and I made a mistake. I wrecked tie and took him out. And, you know, I got used up probably 10 times once I was on the outside. But yeah, it was cool to be able to at least race it. I didn't think I was going to make the show going into it, you know, being group one. Especially how you locked up the left front tire. The first free laps in 12, I'm like, I know. What is he doing? We made an adjustment and it unloaded the left front. And, man, it was, it was bad in qualifying. It was just a big surprise because. I didn't have that at all in practice.

You know, we're running harder when we went to go qualify, but I struggled with it a lot. But it was fun. I think Bowman Gray is a great track. I would love to see the clash, you know, down at Daytona, like a short race at Daytona, just to kind of kick the season off and gives people something to be excited about. But I enjoyed going to Bowman Gray, but, you know,

I think it's good to keep that race moving around and keep it different. You mentioned the Rolex, obviously. When did you mention the Rolex? A little bit. When he said he was running around under caution. Oh, I thought you meant the clash. Both races. But first of all, how much fun was that riding around under caution?

Yeah, that was a great stint for a hour. I didn't. And you got a penalty under caution. Oh, my gosh, dude, it was bad. I didn't realize they stay under caution when it's like that. I thought they just parked. I thought they just would, like, park. And I had no idea you guys literally had to drive around the whole like that's got.

But how do you get a caution? How do you get a penalty under caution? Yeah, it was bad. When I turned 21, I owe my team. mates of beer. It was, it was really bad. So in NASCAR, you have a pit entry light. So when the pit entry lights closed, you can't come down pit road. If you do, you get a penalty. In IMSA, there's a pit entry light and a pit exit light. So, you know, after racing 33 races in NASCAR last year, I hadn't done an IMSA race in a long time. And I kind of just, you know, you get into a rhythm

in the race. And it's, and especially under caution, you've no adrenaline. You're just like, do, do, do to do. and I was exiting pit road after getting some, you know, we were topping off under caution, and the pit exit light was on, and I just drove right through it. And in IMSA, you can't serve a penalty until the race goes back green. So I got the penalty at two, two, three in the morning. Like four hours after. And my teammate had to serve it at 7.30 in the morning. So, yeah, we rode around with a penalty for four and a half, five hours.

and then my teammate had to serve it when we went back green when the fog finally went away. What do you do for four? Do you just sit there with your thoughts? It was like sing to yourself? It was, it was. You have to play some music? Dude, I was just asking them, tell me jokes. Anything to keep me awake, man.

It was tough. I was, you know, in those cars, we have like all the fuel stuff on the dash. And I was just like challenging myself to see how much energy I could save in one lap. I mean, it was do anything just to keep my mind. Yeah, entertain myself. But, you know, that's part of it. And somebody had to do it. And I was the fourth driver. And, you know, that was my job. So I can't complain. Obviously, going into your rookie season this year with Trackhouse, what's kind of the goals look like? What's a successful season for you look like this year, you think? Yeah, I mean, I try not to set goals of, you know, where I'm going to finish, how I'm going to do. I think that's just going to be the way it is. And I know that there's going to be some struggles earlier on. and I know that we're going to have to figure things out as we go,

but I think as long as I can get better as the year goes on, I think as long as I leave Homestead a better driver than I am right now, I think that's what I would consider a success. It's going to be a learning curve. I know that the Cups series is no joke. I know that these guys aren't going to cut me any slack, and I'm ready for that. But I think as long as I'm getting better throughout the year

and the results can show that, I think that's what I'd be happy about. During practice, after practice, don't say everything's going to be okay. Keep working on your car. There's the word from Father Tom. Grandfather, Tom. Grandfather, Tom. That's right.

Soon enough. Three weeks, right? It's coming up. When does she do? 18th? Are you supposed to do that? March 18th? It's a month away.

He's waiting for Beth to call. He'd say, hey, we got to go to the hospital. Have you picked out, like, are you going to be grandpa, pop, pop? Everyone wants me to have a different name, but I want to be grand. grandpa. Jackass. Everyone wants to be G-P?

I don't want none of that shit. Just call me Grandpa. G-pop. Anything else from the cup race? I mean, a truck race.

I mean, uh, Daytona, I mean, starting off with qualifying. Was anybody surprised to see Noah was the one that fucked that? No. I just forgot. I mean, I don't even, I can't even say for sure that he didn't do that on purpose just so we

could talk shit about it. Like, I was, I was with him after it. And, uh, he was walking down pit road. Right after qualifying. And nobody had told him. that he got a penalty.

And people kept walking up to him and be like, dude, your hand, like, out the window. He's like, yeah, dude, don't I have nice gloves? Like, aren't my gloves sick? And they're like, no, dude, like, your hand was out the window. They're like, he's like, yeah, I know. Like, we always do that. And it took until Jamie Little walked up to him to realize that he actually got a penalty for him. That's why he wasn't allowed.

Get in the game, Noah. It was funny. If anybody's going to do it, it's him. I was sorry. We might have been about to say the same thing. I was surprised to see the guys that locked in. I was expecting the Ford's. to be the ones to lock in.

And obviously, Heim, yeah, it's close, but I mean, Hime and, you know, all guys are the two that lock in on speed. The best part of was they were high-fiving and Hime was good. He was locked in, but everyone's high-fiving. And there was still a chance. Oh, shit. If they qualify in the top 10, we got to reset. Well, no, that's what we were talking about last night.

Taylor, Corey's girlfriend, was in the bus with mom and I. And we were talking about how funny and weird qualifying was because it's like you're cheering for people to beat you, but then like you kind of want people to go in front of you, so you can lock into that. Like, it was all very, it was funny. Like, we were cheering to, to qualify. Worse.

Worse. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. Shout out to my boys over on the 45 car. I did everything right at the end of the race. Shout out to Riley Herbst for pushing Tyler to the win. Listen, I don't know.

Yes, Riley made a bad block in a split-second decision trying to win a Daytona 500. I don't even think it was a block. Yeah, he was just trying to get around the outside of the nine. And I love Brad Casillaski. but how many cars have they wrecked on Super Speedways? I mean, come on. I mean,

I mean, he's... For him to say that. I mean, TJ was going nuts on the roof. And I'm like, you guys have tore up more shit at these races pushing and blocking than anybody else. I cringe when we're around him during a Super Speedway race.

But yeah, I mean, shout out to Tyler. I mean, the 45 team, Nick Payne did a good job spotting. Billy Scott, awesome crew chief. Welcome to the club, boys. Yeah, I mean, it's, It's unbelievable that, you know, the Daytona 500 is, I mean, Tommy, you know, you've won it, you know, like, what's it like just when that moment hits when you take that checker flag?

Yeah, I mean, I wish I took it in a little bit more. You know, I was already worried about what was the next race. Rockingham, I think was this next race. But, yeah, it's big. It's bigger now, the atmosphere of it. But, yeah, congratulations to those guys. I mean, I couldn't not believe how he came on in the middle of three and four that, that, that, that. I mean, they were already separated.

I think Zane was backing up to Tyler. He was. Yeah. And then he realized, why am I backing up to a guy that's not even going to push me? Yeah. Yeah, that's the thing. Like, that's a good move, like to back up to somebody, if they're covered and they can't move. Yeah.

If they can move, you can't back up to them. They're just going to go around you like Tyler did. Yeah. But, yeah, it was cool to, I mean, Chase, props to Chase. I mean, it's hard to not just go down there and block the guy coming to the checker. I mean, he knew it was going to cause a wreck. I'm sure if he knew he was going to cause a wreck. to wreck anyway. He said in his interview, he's like, if I knew I was going to wreck anyway,

I probably would have just hooked a left and tried to block the run. But I've got, I've got myself in trouble doing that before Vega last year. So props to chase. Kudos to the 71 guys. I mean, I know they didn't get the finish, but they, caution will come out, they win. Yeah, they're going to win. I mean, I'm watching a few miles and I'm like, how is he making it? Yeah, we, I was back, I was, so it's funny. I was five laps down. I'm riding in the back of the pack before that last feel stop and I'm riding with the 77 and the 77 and the 71 were right in front of me and I was like man these guys like have no urgency and there they go they're leading the race so yeah it was it was

pretty crazy how like before the stop they're literally running last and then after the stop they're racing for the I mean he was going to run what 60 laps on fuel and what's a typical window like if you run wide open it was 48 yeah yeah like it's insane They were doing a good job. Ross was doing good all week. I mean, he was probably the best guy that was saving fuel. It was Ross and McDowell were really the two best guys during the race that was saving the best fuel. Chandler Smith wins the truck race, kind of a gift from John Hunter,

who John Hunter drove me crazy all week, whether it was a truck race, whether it was taking his wrecked race car and blocking the Toyota lane yesterday. That wasn't team orders? I mean, I don't know. If it was, it was... I mean, I've seen you guys all pit together, then two laps later, you guys split up down the whole front straight on.

Well, because... Because of that. Because of that. I mean, Eric Jones was leading it. We had a barely bad pit sequence where we all came off pit road split by, I don't know, 10 car lengths. So it took us probably two or three laps to get formed up.

We got formed up. We picked up... It was three of us. It was like, I think there was 23, 67 maybe, and one of the other Toyota's. And then we picked up to 43 and he... the 11. Yeah, Bell. And then we picked up the 43 and the 11 and the 43 is leading us. And now we've got a head of steam and we're kind of diving through the traffic that's coming off a pit road.

And then lo and behold, the one guy that throws the block that fucks up the whole line is another Toyota that's wrecked that can't lead a line anyway. So now we, now that he's leading the line, we have to we run like two laps, realize, okay, he can't, he can't lead. So now we kind of have to split up and get away from him. And it's just, but I mean, like, you know your shit's wrecked. Why are you going to stall out the whole rest of our line? But I guess desperation. at the Daytona 500, you know, it's no different than Riley trying to make a move to win at the end that what's covered. But it's just, I mean, it's hard. And it like, did you get to experience the green flag cycle really? Yeah. Yeah. How crazy is that coming off and trying to figure out

where to go? Even the jewels, it was, it was pretty crazy just how, you know, aggressive everybody is. I mean, you have to be. Like, it's, that's, you can save all the fuel you want, but if you're not aggressive getting up to speed and putting yourself in the right spot when everyone cycles out, then it's all for nothing, right? It's sketchy when you're, you know, that lead car and you're the one having to make the move or whether or not you're the car that's coming with 20 miles an hour on these guys and they're throwing blocks at you. You know, I wasn't quite up front when that cycle came, but, you know, it's still, it's still pretty sketchy when you're a part of that. There was one time I thought we were a wrecked. I think it was the five and the nine. They kind of split and

block this and we had no choice but to like run in the back of them. And it's just you're doing everything you can to like manage. Tell Bubba, we were like third or fourth in the line, and I'm just trying to tell Bubba, like, the closing rate, it's almost impossible to, you know, because they're just blending. They're probably running 20 mile an hour, 30 mile an hour slower than we are. And it's like five, three, two, one, oh, stop, you know. So it's just, but yeah, the fact that we don't wreck more during that is pretty impressive.

I mean, you, you were in contention. I mean, explain what happened with. My DBC picks were looking really good for us. Yeah. Explain what happened. Tell the audience what happened with. So we just tried to kind of every, we tried, I think, both ends of the spectrum on, you know, we saved really hard the first run. Time to go. We could, you know, we could run hard to the end. Time to go. Well, now it's, we're landlocked. They're three wide in front of us. We can't go anywhere. We're going to run, you know, 15th at the stage. So Bubba was upset about that because he likes to be kind of in control. Like he'd rather try to lead from the front. So, so we, we made the decision to push the next start of the next stage. We got up there.

We were, you know, battle in the top three or four. Then the wreck happened with Justin and Danny. And we won that stage just because we kind of right place, right time. But that put us in position to pit. Now we're leading with three of our teammates around us, three or four of our teammates around us. So we kind of made a decision that we're just going to save fuel from the lead. Run three wide and 50 seconds a lap.

Once we can get, you know, we try to do that to run before with Danny. You could see like we got side by side. But then I think it was 51 and maybe some other guys made that. They had a bottom lane. They could work. and they kind of came up and covered us, so we kind of lost control of the pace there. But then it just worked out that, you know,

we were leading the middle line, and Corey was leading the bottom line, and then Bell got to the top, and then we just had all three lines, and you're like, now, all you got to do is run, I mean, I think we were probably running 40% throttle, leading the race. The two-seater was running faster in the morning than you guys.

You know, but, I mean, listen, you're playing the cards that dealt to you. But it still didn't work out. You know, we still didn't work out. we still had to pit first. We still had to pit with a smaller group. So, you know, and then you pit with a smaller group that, like I said, we got strung out where you didn't have a lot of help leaving pit road. So it took too long to get back together where we kind of lost control the race.

And now you're just trying to pick your way back up in there, which we got back up in there. We were, I don't know, we were probably fifth, six, something like that coming across the white flag and that wreck happens. And Byron, I don't think he didn't do anything wrong, but he just kind of, he got turned down the apron and came back up across racetrack right in front of us. and Bubba did a really good job not to run them over and cause a bigger wreck, but it cost us whatever, five spots or something like that. And listen, I thought the yellow was that. We'll talk about it more if they should have not. But I'm like, I told Bubba like, I get back up there by the 22 because that's who you were next to when the yellow came out.

And he's like, the yellow's like, oh, Jesus, keep digging that. I was like, how is there not a yellow? But yeah, I don't know. I thought, you know, John said something to me. My brother said something we got home last night. He goes, I don't know. Is it a blessing or a curse to be in contention for this race every year and never win it? Because I feel like we, I mean, we've got two seconds.

second place finishes. We've got multiple top fives, top tens. Would you all finish? 10th? 10th? Yeah, we finished 10. Like I said, we were probably running six or seven. Then we were right behind Riley getting into that wreck.

So who knows what would happen if we don't lose all that momentum in one or two. But, yeah, I don't know. You know, it's just all you can do, you know this. All you can do is continue to put yourself in there and hope one. You never know on the last lap, man. You got to just, you got to beat here at the end. 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? NASCAR decides to not throw a caution after a multi-car crash on the final lap. Spot on, spot off. Freddie.

This was kind of the trend for the weekend. Yeah. You know, I, but I mean, the thing that I thought was we saw single car spins were just not getting yellows. I mean, especially if they were off the racetrack, you know, I saw Austin Green in the Xfinity race, spun out in a one, sat right below. little yellow line for, I mean, we're off of four coming to one. He's sitting in one and they, he finally got rolling before. But in years past, that's a yellow. It's almost as soon as he stops.

So I was, I'm good with that. You know, I think that that's like, let it play out if it's natural. The guy spun off the racetrack. Let him get going. Let him, you know, obviously you don't want to drive by him if he's sitting there. But if you give him a chance to get going, so they did that. But this one, I thought they needed to throw yellow on the last lap. I mean, you watch Kyle Busch's in car that that guy posted.

The 67 was driving backwards. Yeah. I was waving at him. I was wave him out. I was five laps down with the 66. And, dude, I'm just kind of coasting around, like, trying to avoid all these wrecked cars. And, dude, the 66 comes through flying by me for 30 second. I was like, dude, you can have it.

Dang, so you would have been 32nd, had you know what I was like a 33rd? But you, I mean, you go watch Kyle Busch's in car that somebody posted on Twitter, and I'm sure you can find it. He's, you know, he makes it a weird decision, I think, to bail out with. It worked. Coming to two to go. I mean, it worked for five spots maybe. No, he was 30th and he finished 15.

He was 21st. He's running next to the guy that's running 21st when they, and he finished 15th. I think he was worse than 20. He said he was running 30th, but he was running. Like, he was like, if you look, he's next to Noah who's running ninth and he loses a little bit of track position there. So I think he's like 20th maybe. But anyway. So you got to, you have to make a decision there, right?

When you, when there's no place to go, you, it's a gamble at that point. Yeah. You either going to go, all right, I'm going to back off. And hopefully they don't. get one to go and a bunch of cars wreck, and then I'll go again. And it's just a reset. So I'm not, I mean, it's like, if you have no place to go, what's the sense of destroying actually a really fast race car, right, that they can bring the Talladega now, right?

They can keep working on it. So, yeah, I don't know. I mean, I don't think it's strange. Yeah, it is, you know. In our world. Some of us do it a lot. I mean, you know. But over the years, you know, so, but I know how he felt, you know.

But listen. You can't, so, but what ends up happening is because every point matters, every position matters, you leave it green, he's driving through this accident. Like, it looks like the days of thunder crash. You know, he goes into just a cloud of smoke, passes the 67th going the wrong way. You know, we were right there with them. I'm like, I don't think you should ask drivers. Like, I think the yellow has to come out of there. I don't think you should ask drivers.

You know, I mean, if you're, I mean, the wreck happened for the lead. And then it got bigger probably maybe 10th on back. But you shouldn't be asking your drivers to drive through an accident scene wide open in the Daytona 500. I just can't. I can't understand how that's a good idea. Everyone has complained so much about it. I think the fans appreciated it. I agree.

They appreciate getting to race back to the green. And, you know, I get it. I feel like it's not that bad. You know, you've got to be careful when you're driving through a bunch of wreck cars. And honestly, for me, it surprised me. how much smoke there is in the cup cars versus the Xfinity cars. Like the tire smoke for some reason, like you can't see anything when you're driving through a wreck,

you know, like a big wreck. It's so smoky. So it's very hard to see. And honestly, that's the worst part about it. But, yeah, I think the fans liked seeing them race back to the checkered. And I know it's sketchy,

but, you know. Yeah, I think if they didn't, we would all be sitting here talking this morning about how we watched the day 200 and under caution. I think if there's, I think there if there's a car on its lid. It would have been either Tyler or Stenhouse. I think if they threw it like immediately.

I think they were the two next to each other. I had to go back and look. But yeah, I mean, I'm all for it. It's just like, and I get it. They wrecked and you can still get the, you can still get the safety equipment out there once we go by. But you're asking a lot of guys. You know, we changed all our rules based on almost driving through Dale Jarrett

at the Star finish line, you know, under yellow. We don't race back to the yellow anymore because we almost kill Dale Jarrett. and when he was sitting broadside, wherever that was, New Hampshire. But now, you know, we have a wreck at Daytona, and you're asking guys to run through it wide open because you left the green flag out. You know, it's, listen, at the end of the day, our sport should be all about safety.

Obviously, competition. We want to see good finishes, but we have to sometimes protect ourselves from ourselves. And I don't think you should be asking guys to drive through wrecks wide open because you leave the green flag out. Yeah, that was very on edge. Like, it was big enough to where it's like, you know, you can call a caution there,

but I understand it if you don't. But, man, if there's, like, one or two cars that hit really hard, like, you've got to get safety to them. But I didn't see anything. And you could get safety to them as we're racing. You know what I mean? Like, you could roll them out as we're by and say, listen, when you guys come around, there's safety trucks over here and one and two because they're going to be on the apron, you know, by the time we get there. But it's still, like, it's just the idea of guys driving through there trying to race back to the line, basically, is what I hate. I'm sure Elton will have an explanation of the thought process of all the things that.

gone over everything that they studied over the winter with this because it was a big topic. It's been a big topic over the last couple years, right? Everyone has complained one way or the other, right? It's the damn that they do, the damn that they don't. So, yeah, it's, you know, and I loved it all week. You know what I mean? I thought it was great. The one, I mean, you see guys spinning and you're like, and it makes our life easy

because that's what we've been complaining about is consistency where you don't know. Like, I felt like this week I knew. Like, I felt like this week I knew if a guy's spinning, usually, you'd be like, all right, I'm spinning behind you. And you're getting ready for all the, you know, we have like a little checklist, I have to say, like, whatever, take care of your fuel, get your switches back on here and there. So I have like, usually like somebody's getting, you know, start spinning. You're like, all right, I'm getting ready to roll through this. This week, I knew, I'm like, spin behind you, keep digging.

Like, we're not going to go yellow. And then, you know, whatever, maybe sometimes you did. But, you know, so I like that part of it. It's just, you know, I think it'll as, if they keep doing it, everybody's going to adjust to it a little bit more. And it's not good. And listen, to Conner's point, the fans loved it. You know what I mean? The fans love the race back, and I promise you.

They don't want to sit for five hours and have a race not be exciting at the end. That won't be the first time I piss off today. It's going to be, there's going to be one coming up. Who's going to really? Nobody. I'm getting ready to here. All right, let's hear it. Next couple topics.

I think you're going to agree to me, but we'll see. Super Speedway races are more entertaining at half throttle than when cars are single file at full throttle in the top lane. Spot on, spot off, who has a strong opinion. Tommy? I mean, Connor, you were doing it. Yeah. I mean, single files sitting in the grandstands, at least when we're three wide, you know, it's a little, I don't know what the fans saw. I felt like we were going slow.

But, I mean, you have to do it until something changes. It's the only way to go about it. You know, I wish, I wish, I was sitting back there. And Randall came over there. He's like, man, do you think we get our lap back here? Like one of our laps back? I was like, I mean, it's three wide. I don't think I could go anywhere unless I'm going to go rip the apron.

But, yeah, I mean, we were going slow. It was, it was, I mean, you guys were the ones at front. Seven seconds off the pace? We were doing, we were doing like 52. 52 seconds, right? So you're 56 seconds, yeah. Just about. The two-seater went a 50 flat.

That new two-seater. I was laughing. I was honestly laughing the whole time we were doing that because it was such a joke to me. Like this, like this is not. You cannot tell me that Bill France envisioned the leader of the Daytona 500 riding around at 40% fucking throttle. just doing nothing.

Hanging out. Hanging out when he dreamt up to Daytona 5. I mean, like, it's just... Got to put handling in play. I mean, and Danny, I've seen Danny's comments about, you know, maybe trying, like bringing the clash there and trying a crazier package to where we have to drive the cars because that's what needs to happen.

Like, we, we, there's, I see people say take the fuel, take the stages out, you're going to save the fuel saving. That's not going to help, you know, because we're all going to just do the same thing for the final pit stop. Right now, you're running. the whole race based on the last pit stop of each stage and the last pitch stop of the race. So you're just trying to get, you know, spend as little time on pit road those three times. That's all you're doing.

Like, so it ruins the race for me because you talk about you had a good car. I don't know if we had a good car. We led to half the damn race. I couldn't tell if we had a good car or not because we were running half throttle the whole fucking time. So, you know, I don't know. I mean, we've tried 1,700 different packages with this car on all these tests. nothing has made a difference. The only thing that has made a difference is the damn tire.

The rain tire has made a difference, right? The soft tire has made a difference. Softening the tires have made a difference. Go soften the tire on these speedways and make handling come into play. Yeah. End the story. I mean, what, Danny was talking about the clash

with a different package. I mean, you can make the spoiler smaller, but most of the arrow on these cars is underneath. So, I mean, yeah, that might help a little. little bit in traffic. Okay, yeah. Let's cut, put half to, take half the spoiler. That's fine. Soften the tire, too. Soften it. Yeah. And like, that's what I thought, you know, it was weird because I noticed like some of the guys in the second duel, which duel were you in? I was in the second. Like they were, like Tyler was talking about tire wear and handling more.

And then I felt like Bubba had mentioned in our race, you know what I mean? So I don't know what that was. But yeah, it's just, I feel like, and I don't want to sit, I hate to say this today after 2311 wins the Daytona 500. But this race is, is, is become more. more about just luck than it is skill or who built the best race car because it doesn't matter. You know, it doesn't matter what kind of race car you got. If you got a ride around half throttle and then you pick, you know, you're one lap too late to try to go. And now you're blocked by three lanes or, you know, or you decide, all right, I'm going to show off how bad my race car is and go out there and lead. Well, great.

Now you've got a pit five laps for everybody else when by yourself because you, you know, so like it's just, it's taken all the skill. I've spent a lot of time over the years, like trying to get better at spotting plate races. Everything I've learned is useless, basically, because all that matters is the, I mean, we controlled the race up until 15 to go, and then it's just completely out of my hands. It's, you know, where are we come off pit road and how bad do we get blocked when we're trying to blend? This is what the whole race has become. So, like, if this is your most prestigious race, we've got to figure out a way to put it back in the hands of the teams, the drivers, the guys that, you know, like build the who,

Whoever built the best race card should win the race. Not whoever was able to save the most amount of fuel, but also still have just enough track position to be, you know, like, it's just, it's too circumstantial for me to be the Daytona 500. This might be a stupid question, but why did the Gen 6 car not have fuel saving? Because we could pass. We could race. You know, you could make up ground.

You could, you know, you could go to the back and back to the front. You know, you could make passes. Yeah, but why were the guys not? But just because, because it didn't do you any good, I don't think. You know what I mean? Where? We had more. It was kind of like the Xfinity car.

Yeah. Like you would never save fuel in the Xfinity car. I mean, you would like under yellow or try to get to like windows. But like it didn't matter if you went to the back. You knew you could drive your Xfinity car back to the front kind of you need a little bit of help. And it never really got landlocked. But, you know, it's just that was the problem now. Like, and even if we, when we're going hard, we never get that three wide, really wide open.

You know, it's just. I feel like even for me, like when we're doing the crazy thing to me, like when we're doing 47s, when we're pretty close to the pace, if I'm 25th, I can still run 40% throttle. Like, that's the crazy, but the leaders will be wide open, and I, like,

I can still run 40% throttle in the back. I just feel like the cars, I don't know if they just, like, roll in the draft, and, like, they're just, the bubble is huge. But that's what it feels like to me. Like, in the Xfinity car,

if I was 40% throttle, I'm losing the draft. Whereas these cars, like, you can ride at 40% throttle when the field's going. And as long as you're in the back of the pack, and, you know, you're in it. If there is no off throttle time.

Yeah. And shout out. On purpose. Yeah. I'm talking about. Yeah. Shout out to, I think it was Magic Mike that showed us all this.

Again. I said, I looked up, he finished second. Yeah. I was five laps down riding around with him in the back, in the third stage. We rode with him half the race. Yeah.

I was like, man, this dude's got no urgency. Yeah. And then I pitted alone because I, you know, we didn't want to. mess anyone up on the cycle. And I pit, and I look up at the pylon after I pit, and I'm like, 77, 71. I was literally just with those guys in 27th.

And now they're leading the race. I was like, man, that's crazy. Yeah. And Ricky, literally, they threw the green flag. I don't remember where he started. Last. No, he started in the middle of, but I mean, we went to turn one. He just peeled to the top and went straight to the back like he

used to. And I was like, I guess he's committed. And he did the same thing kind of in his duel. but it's just like them guy and they were the kind of the first ones to show people I feel like that's when they won the first 500 like they kind of did the same thing they rode in the back they were the they put a lease amount of fuel in they cycled all the way to the front and then you know put themselves in position to win and they won that 500 whatever it was the first year I think of this car but it's just I don't know I could go on about it all day it's just it's just it's no fun it's not fun to do anymore like I used to look forward to doing these plate races like there was like the highlight of my year and now for me it's it's it's It's awful. It's no fun whatsoever to spot because it's just, you know, no matter what's going on, the whole race, you know, none of it matters. I'm excited to see Jeff's poll this week. It could be.

It's high. I just saw it. It was 75% good. Yeah. And I'm surprised by that because. Probably because it finished under green. Yeah. I'm surprised by that because it was a high energy weekend.

It was. It was a lot of. Was it? I mean, I haven't been to 20 Daytona. Like, was it, it seemed pretty big. No, it was big. And listen, I thought they did a great job leading into the weekend. and I thought there was a lot of great promotion about it.

I mean, everything, I think, is amazing. They had a lot of cool people there. I saw you meet Gruden yesterday. I was kind of jealous of that. I walked up to Marshawn Lynch, and you see he was walking around with the camera. Yeah. And he was taking pictures. I walk up to him like, hey, dude, can I get a picture?

And he's like, yeah, bro. And he starts taking a picture of me. I was like, no, dude. Like, can I get a picture with you? It was hilarious. He's like, oh, yeah, yeah. I looked behind our hauler at one point, and it was Michael Jordan, Marshaun Lynch, Puka, Nakuua,

and somebody else. I can't remember who it was now. But the three of those guys alone, just standing there having a conversation. You're like, what the hell alternate world to be moving in right now? It was cool.

I mean, I was at the driver's meeting. I walked up to Puka. I got a picture with him, and I told him he carried my fantasy team a couple years ago. It was cool. Speaking of pictures, you got a pretty good one.

Oh, yeah, that same, kind of the same thing happened to me. I was walking through a gate right before the race was about to start and the security guard hollered at me and grabbed my arm and yanked me back around. Well, Bert Kreisher saw it happen. unleashed on this security guard.

And then as we're standing there waiting to talk to, like, that guy's boss, Kid Rock and John Daly walk up. And there I am just standing there waiting for security with Kid Rock, John Daly, and Bert Kreischer. I was like, what the fuck is going on? Yeah. I don't know what it was about being 32nd on the pre-grid, but, I mean, all the celebrities were back there.

Yeah. John Daly, John Gruden. I mean, they were all at the back of the grid. It was, I guess, the place to be. It was. That's funny. It's where we were all at. All right.

The NASCAR O'Reilly. This is going to get so hard. It's hard to get used to to say. The NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Part Series field could not work together and is more responsible for Austin Hills win than he is. Spot on, spot off. Freddie? The thing that's, I mean, he's responsible for the win.

But it drives me crazy to watch these guys not work to get. You know who you got to beat. This guy's won a hundred of these races. And you know you've got to work. together to beat him, at least get them out of the lead. And all they do when they get to him is split each other and don't push. Like that move down the backstretch, I mean, credit to Jordan Anderson. I mean, the guy shows up a handful of times a year and seems like he's always in contention.

But, you know, when the seven pulls out, go with him. Like push him by the 21 and then trying to beat the seven down the front. You push the 21 out. And I mean, I know they probably have some kind of an alliance with RCR, I think Jordan Anderson Racing does. But like, still, that's the guy you got to beat. We know the guy you got to beat. I watch these guys do this. Hold on.

So 21 is the fastest time. Fastest car by far, right? This is you. You're running third. The 7, I think, was he wrecked already? I don't think so. No. Or whatever.

The 7, you know, you know by driving around these guys, the 7's not going to be better than 21. In order to get another position, who do you follow? The thing is, though, if you push the 21, then you're never going to be up. I mean, that's the thing. But if you go with the 7, then the next car is going to go behind the 21, and then you've going to end up losing four or five spots. So do you go with the 21 to pass to seven? I had that mindset at the beginning of last year. I was like, man, when I'm behind the 21, I'm just going to

follow him and do what he does. And then I'm like, it never works. Like, I don't, it's not letting, it's not getting me to the lead of this race. Like, if you, if everybody has the mindset of, oh, I'm just going to go with the 21, then yeah, the 21's going to win every race. No shit. I watched, we were, Dean was doing a really good job trying to get the bottom going. We had Sammy in front of us, I think. And I just felt like everybody wants to be second to the 21. Yes. We would all make a run and then the whole bottom lane would split each other.

And then you're like, I'm like, do you understand we have to get in front of this guy? Does anybody realize we cannot let him just control the whole race? Hey, I mean, credit where credits do, though. Like, the dude can block a 20 mile an hour run. Like it's nothing. I mean, hey, he does the right stuff. But man, like, I just, I can't wait for the day when everybody gangs up on him. And he doesn't, you know, have one of those days.

I mean, we saw that a couple of times last year. He was upset and said he felt like everybody was working against him. I'm sorry. Yes, they are. You have to. And this is why, because if they don't, you dominate every race. But yeah, I just thought that in those moments at the end there. And listen, what I will give him credit for is he don't care.

Like, he's going to win the race. Like, he made the move to block that bottom line and kind of left Jesse. Like, he left his teammate, but put himself in position to win. I don't know if Jesse didn't see that coming or, but like, he is, like, one thing we know about Austin Hill, very talented race car driver. He's going to do whatever it takes to win a race. And he had fresh tires. Yeah.

I mean. But it's just, but yeah, but these guys just like, like take note for Talladega or whatever race is next. Atlanta. Atlanta. Atlanta's a little different animal. But he's good there too. He's good there too. But, you know, it's if you want to beat this guy, you're going to have to keep him bottled up somehow.

Yeah. All right. Last one. The NASCAR approval system is broken. Spot on, spot off. Tommy. What do you mean? Just get.

What do you mean? What do I mean? ...fowlors and... A bunch of friends and they'll let you in. Yeah. I mean, that's all you got to do. Case close. Case close.

I mean, that's what I was saying earlier. Like, this is not going to be... This is going to be very unpopular and I'm sorry. But what are we doing? Are we trying to get the best race car drivers on the racetrack? Or are we trying to get the biggest social media following? Yeah, let's just get... I'm going to buy five million tick-tacks.

TikToks. And I'm going to make a bunch of friends and, you know, do some streetstock racing and next thing you know I'm going to be driving a top five truck I mean there was two glaring examples of this weekend one Cletus obviously in the truck race how I you know

what has he done like for me I get it there's a there's a system in place that you have to run certain races to get approved for other races this a system should not be based on participation it needs to be based on results this guy run

two plate races last year wrecked in both of them wrecked half the field in one of them from trying to do a restart, talking about Cletus. And then we're just lucky the other night that he didn't wipe out half the truck field because when he spun, he went down instead of up and running, I mean, he was running in the top 10 when it happened. And I told Gio, I said, this guy's never been in this position before, Arrow, bottom, he's on the bottom of three wide. He's never been in this position before. He's going to wreck. And it was, I said, the next five laps probably. And it was two laps later.

He just loses the nose and, you know, gets loose off of four and wrecks. And it's, it was just dumb luck that he didn't wipe out half the field. We'll talk about safety. The guys, I'm sure he's a great guy. He seems like a phenomenal person. He's got great car control, the videos that I watch. He drives anything in the world. He's not ready for what he's doing.

So you cannot approve these people to go out there. Natalie Decker. Another one. How did she, first of all, how did she ever get approved? Now that she is approved, she's run 13 races and average the 29th place finish. Piling into Rex on top of that. Like, at what point do you look and say, all right, we made an mistake approving this person? and now we need to take it back.

Because you put these people in positions where this is not Cletus's fault, by the way. Is there a system for that? Like, can you revoke your? There's a committee. There's a committee. And like I want to make it clear that Cletus is not Cletus's fault. It's NASCAR's fault for letting him race. It's the same thing we talked about with Catherine Legg.

Like it's the system not. And if you had a problem with how she did and what she did. I didn't have any problem. No, I know. But don't have a problem with Cletus. than there's your example. Yeah, but Catherine has way, way more race experience. Totally.

Right? But not necessarily in, you know, what we're talking about. It doesn't matter. At the end of the day, honestly, neither one of them should have been approved. The system, like I said, should not be about. Connor, what was your approval process like? I mean, you're the perfect one to ask. Yeah, I mean, it took a while, right?

I had to, you know, I had to race at an ARCA in a mile and a half before, But, I mean, I don't, look, it would be really bad if NASCAR said no to Cletus. Like, you know, he's going to probably go out and be mad at NASCAR. But I don't know. It's a tough spot. I'm glad I'm not the ones making those decisions because at the end of the day, you've got this guy with, you know, a ton of followers that, you know, you're trying to. Yeah, he can bring a lot to the sport.

Yeah, but go through the system like we all. Like you have, like Luke has, like run modifies, run late models. Run, no doubt. You know, go through the system, learn how to race. Do all the things that we all have to do to get to the places. Spend the money like we all had to get to certain spots, right? It feels like a movie. You just don't show up.

And, okay. No, because it pisses me off. It feels like impractical jokers where, like, there's somebody in a room somewhere being like, okay, now wreck half the field. Okay, now spin out. It's like, what the fuck is going on? I mean, I think everybody knew at some point something bad was going to happen in the race with Cleetus and

I mean even I don't know did you guys see his YouTube video from the Rockingham test when he came off a two and like tank slapped it like five times and eventually lost it into the wall and that's what got him his approval for

for Daytona? No he raced last year in the Arkerva. Oh yeah but he ran. No but he had to get approval for the truck race yeah he tested at Rockingham like he didn't know he was going to run the truck race alleged like he said quote unquote until like Friday. That's the whole thing I mean, I hate to say it's a sham, but it's, you know, that's a couple years ago,

SVG had to run the Archeraytona. Elio, Caschia. Like, SVG didn't qualify. Then they crashed immediately in the Archer race. Oh, he's good. Like, I know he's good enough to run. We don't tell us he has to run. We've seen with our own eyes, this guy's a race car driver.

You don't tell us he's got to run the damn Archer race. Like, you're going to approve him anyway. So don't even go through that sham of a system. But, like, there's just no way. I'm sure I can go down a list. the truck race and probably the exfitting race and go, this guy shouldn't be out there. This guy shouldn't be out there. And when you do that,

maybe we get guys that are talented enough to drive these cars that should be approved. That, you know, instead of just taking the guy with the fattest checkbook, now you've got a guy that, you know, actually may be able to do something and prove something. But now, right now it's just, it's a participation ward. Like, all right, yeah, you went out and made a start in the, in the archer race. We don't care that you crashed. It's okay. Now you get to move to the next level just because, you know, you've got money and somebody's willing

to give you a ride. And this is not just about Cleetus, this is about it. This happens a lot. With Luke, we still are going through the process. Yeah. And we are, we, he's allowed to run all the truck races, but he's not allowed to run all Xfinity races. I still have, I had to run certain different, different tracks last year,

methodically for him to get approved, right? To run extra races for him to get approved for all the truck, the whole truck series. He's still not approved for Xfinity. Yeah. We tried doing, the kid has probably more lap, of North Wilkesboro than any drivers. One race is there. He's one ended up winning two champions there in a smart tour, right?

They wouldn't even let him run the cup test, right? It's like, it's a test. Like, wouldn't you want somebody to even go test? I went twice to try to get him approved. They wouldn't approve them. So how does all, like, I'm going through the process. I'm not scamming anything. I'm doing what they're telling me to do, right?

But how do you have no experience because you have 5 million Tick-Tacks, right? And you get to go in something and do those. I mean, there was like last year, the year before, like Cole Butcher, I think, was trying to run a couple of races for Tyler Young and wouldn't get approved. This guy's won. Damn, every big super late model racer sat on a pole to snowball derby.

I mean, he's a talented race car driver and can't get approved. And you see some of the guys out there that are running around the back and you're like, how is this guy out here? You know? Cole Butcher wasn't approved to race Daytona? Like, no, I'm talking about last year. Like, he wouldn't have proved to run like a short track somewhere for Tyler Young, like maybe two years ago.

And I'm like, but that's like it's just, you can't have it both ways. Like it's just, I don't know. It's, to me, the system's broken and they need to figure out a way to make it more about performance. You should have to actually do something at the levels you race at before you move up to the next one. And I don't know what that looks like, but it shouldn't just be, all right, you ran this race. I know you wrecked on lap five. That doesn't matter. You're okay to go to the next level.

Like, like five lapses is enough. Luke had 10 hours of CIM, Cup Sim, you know, at Wilkesboro. Like, we presented all this. Like, I think he just, get him some laps, right? Let's just see. At least a test. Right? It's just, you know.

And then at Daytona on top of it. You know what I mean? Like, it's just, I mean, you talk about safety. Like, Cletus could have, you know, that could have been a 30 car wreck because he's in the middle of the pack and spins out, just loses it because he's never been in that situation before. not that, you know, it's just a spot that he's never been in before. And then you've got Natalie piling into an accident 10 minutes later. Like, again, it's just, we should be worried about these people that shouldn't be out there at places like Daytona that could, you know, a wreck could really do some damage. All right, it's time for everybody's favorite part.

Reaction Theater. I'm sure that we have some Kyle Bush fans wondering what the new stipulations are. So, yeah, part of the show where fans call in, voice their opinions from this weekend's race. Did we get a decent amount of calls? I think we had over 200. All right, we're coming back. Did you listen? No one called my number.

But boy, I had a lot of people ask. That was so bad. They were like, that's some bullshit, Tommy. I'm like, yeah, it was. Wait, what? I told Tommy finished last in our picks thing last year. And it's like, we didn't get to go to dinner or nothing. He was supposed to buy his dinner.

I said, I pulled a prank on last show. And I said I tweeted his phone number. I didn't really do it. I told him I did. and then Evan called him all show from like a block number and he's like, you son the bitch, and I'm going to change his phone number I've had since 1994. And then at the very end, I told him, I was just kidding.

All right, before we get started, this fan had a favor to ask of you guys. Hey, we're a fucking grandfather clock. It's been 953 for two goddamn years. It is just 953. That's awesome. I think that's Josh is right. Josh won that in a lay model race. Is it off so it doesn't,

while people are recording. Yeah. That's why it's stuck at 9.53, sir. 9.53. All right, I couldn't pick my favorite rowdy fans, so there's three in a row here. Okay. New year, new rowdy, starting on the goddamn, let's go. Kyle Bush, I got to tell you, thank you, brother, for taking the pole position,

because my wife said that was good enough, and she took the pole position, too. Rowley Nation Paul Paul was good enough it sounds like I mean he won some He went some He went some leggy car race

In the Urban Down In Masters vision Probably yeah Yeah I saw I could believe he was running The Masters last year at Charlotte

Natalie Becker It took her 20 seconds to hit Sandhair I was able to give my wife for Valentine's Day present and get my pants back on and I still got to watch her records Jesus

Yeah we're out here at the oyster pub and Freddie just bought a fucking Rumpelman shot because he's absolutely crazy but he's the goat and yeah, y'all are all goaded. You're drinking Ruppelman? You were drinking Ruffman? Sounded like it was after the Rumpelman's shot

he called. Every super speedway it's always Austin Hill bit. Austin Hill Vatch. Blake driver. I can't do this anymore. It's going to happen again next week in Atlanta. I'm tired of it. Thank you, bye. Was that Jesse? Probably.

I need to call into this thing one day. I seen him this morning. I seen Jesse this morning. And he looked at me and he just put his head down. I know, man. He should have put tires on. You might have had a chance. Hey, Connor.

It's good to see you out there today. I was a loud and proud zealbilly. I was glad to see you get your first cut to you full time. But sad to see you get your first announcer curse. I was screaming. louder than when I stubbed my toe in the middle of the night trying to get some Cosmic Brownies. Thanks, man.

Zillillillies, I like that. I like Zillillies, man. Yeah, come on, man. Did you, does that, has that been a thing for a little while? I mean, I've seen it a little bit here and there. I like it, though. I think. Are you in Zillie?

Yeah, of course I am. What did I start calling you a couple weeks ago? Zillowicz. No. Zillich. Gooner? Gooner? Gooner.

A Gooner Zillich. That's from Madison Ray. That's like, that's so funny. He's leaving the house here. guys. He's like, see you, Tommy. I'm like, see you, Goonerty. There was one night, there was one night I, after like a couple of days, like, probably day after that came out, I like, I, uh, I quote tweeted it and I put some GIF and I posted it and it like failed to post and I was like, man, that's probably a sign.

I shouldn't be interacting with this. Yeah. Daytona 500 finally got a decent start time for an ass race, but we got a decent start time. No, for hauling ass. Stop the throttle pushing part time. I'm 20 mile an hour slower. Fuck how many cars wide. Tubbs series racing, but it's given chop and screwed.

Let the drivers race on foot. What else we got to lose? I'll take the arc of race. At least they got something to prove. Or cash the highlight video later on YouTube. Thought my man Bubba was the wonder win with one hell the week with Freddy's steady. Getting Exfinity 23 to P. Position.

The mission is missing missiles coming out from deep alas to last gas was smothered by Billy B. Credit's heretic and he deserves all the praise except for making us listen to people crying about chase. Freddie, stay ready. You'll have your own Harley-J. And I hope one day they fix this traffic jam of a race. I hope that's a sign that Tyler is going to give us some calls this year. Tyler, like, for, I don't know, three or four years ago, it was every week he would do that on Monday.

So, yeah. It was pretty impressive. It's really impressive. I couldn't say I could never resale like that. He would spend bars like in the middle. I do have to give a shout out. Mike volunteered me for this in the middle of the race. I appreciate him for that.

A.J. Hahn, 2004, on Twitter. predicted the winner of the race with 80-something laps to go. So congratulations to that. And I guess you want to, your prize is us talking about you on DBC. I don't know how, I guess Mike feels like we're that special.

Mike tweeted out in the middle of the race. Whoever predicts the winner, we'll get a, anybody that predicts the winner right now, we'll get a shout-out on DBC tomorrow. I wonder if anybody predicted me five lapses out. They get a hat or something? I don't know what's at all Mike's doing. Mike just got him a shout-out.

He's so cheap. Hey, what I will do is a guy, seen the guy tweeted, I think he was, I don't know, I'm going to blow this up now. But I think he said he's a graphic designer that is looking for work. So if any team is looking for him, we reach out to A.J. Hahn. AJ Hahn, was it, 2004, was it? Yeah, 2004. Yeah.

So, give him a hat of something, Mike. I mean, I can't even get a hat. Anthony. Yeah, no, his Twitter username is A.J. Hahn, 2004, though, you were right on that. Anthony Hahn. Shout out to Anthony. Congrats on picking the winner. I can't believe you didn't pick me, so the hell with you. All right.

To leave an audio message 24-7, you can call our number at 704-802-9572 or Tommy's phone number if you have it saved. And we'll play the best ones each week on the show. Don't you get any ideas, Zillow, right? All right. Well, I guess that moves us right into the Shitshow Hall of Fame. There were plenty. You know what? Let me kick the Shits Show Hall of Fame.

I feel like I'm always on this thing, so I'm just glad to not be honest. You're glad you didn't make it this time. Hold on. Hold on. Let's... Let's... Let's... Let's... Let's...

Let's tee it off. Yeah. So, what is this due... You were a talented female race car driver. Obviously, I don't know how far you wanted to take that. Talented's a stretch, but I appreciate it.

No, no, no. I mean, you won races. I mean, that's talented enough. Any way you look at it. I don't know how far you intended on taking that. I don't know how far. But that's a world that you're very familiar with.

What is this... How does this make? make female drivers look in... Between the taking three business days to run into Sam Mayer and the multitude of things I saw on social last week, obviously, while I did not go much further, I witnessed a lot of women around me who have. And it's honestly embarrassing.

It's embarrassing for the women who have worked hard to have a place in this sport to be taken seriously, to be seen as an equal competitor. And there's a lot of us that have made a career and, you know, like the Taylor Rhymers and Isabella Robustos of the world, you know, they are real talented, Jade Avedesian, talented. That's, that's just, it's embarrassing, to be honest, and that's really all I have to say about it. I mean, you look, and this is kind of where I was leaning earlier with, like, at some point you have to realize she probably shouldn't have been approved to begin with. Yeah.

But she's got 13 starts in the Sydney Series and an average finish of 29th. And that's it majority probably plate races where literally I think if she would have just rode around and not hit anything the other night, she probably finishes top 20 or just outside the top 20. I mean, so the fact that you're averaging almost a 30th place finish is mind boggling to me. Like it just shows you probably wrecking every time she races or, you know, just multiple. It's just there's no, she doesn't have a place in that series. I think it, if it ever was about results or competition, it stopped. being about that quite a long time ago with her. And you, and like I feel like, as you named, like, Jade had a great week in New Smyrna

last week, does a really good job. She's good, man. Isabella had a good run in the Archer race before they had mechanical issues. Like, you see the ones that are doing it right, and then you see this and you're like, is she there because she's a good race car driver or is because she's got a big social media following, and she doesn't mind. And she doesn't mind. It's just sad for the people that have worked.

I feel bad. I mean, I'm sure she's a very nice person. I spotted for her a couple times when she was. in ARCA and it's she's she's way overhead and when I spotted those races for her it was very clear to me that she was way overhead then and that was five years ago and it hasn't changed a whole lot who was her spotter this weekend um I I don't remember I clear up yeah they I mean they okay at that point it's up to your eyeballs and out your fucking windshield like the the fact that yeah the you know they wrecked when she was halfway down the and listen and the

guy did come back cross race track and it's not it was not he couldn't stare he just I'm saying it was not Sam's fault. He's got his cars destroyed. I'm sure he probably didn't have a brake pedal if he did. It wasn't working very good. Hood's over the windshield. He doesn't know where he's going at this point probably. So, you know, it's not his fault.

It's just... You literally had seven hours to see him coming up the racetrack. Anyways, so that's my nomination for the shit show, period, point blank. Just the name. Just nothing even in particular, just the name. We saw that big wreck at... Bathurst, Connor. I mean...

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's no reason that that race. At least throw a yellow somewhere close by... Oh, my Lord. That's not even the bad part. No, you got to watch it too. So there's a car.

If anybody hasn't seen it, obviously, we will tweet the videos and we'll try to figure out ways to get these videos. I've seen some people that aren't on Twitter want to see the videos as well. We'll try to figure out how to get them to you as well. But this guy's sitting here forever. They go right by a corner worker right here. That's not waiting to the yellow flag. And here they come.

Just pile in. Oh, my God. Oh, shit. So I don't know if it's a race control problem. I don't know if it's obviously that corner worker. I mean, dude, the car was literally on TV 20 seconds before it happened. Right. I mean.

But yeah, that's a, that is brutal. What do they have for race control? Is there a light in their car? No spotters. There's no spotters, no. But if it goes full course yellow, yes, there's a light. And, I mean, does anybody else? And there's a local yellow light, too.

It depends on the series. No race operators in the other year saying there's a car in 11 or 12? They can communicate to the team 100%. And the team can get that message to you. I mean, the team has constant communication no matter where you are on the track. And, I mean, there's no reason. I mean, I've seen a lot of complaints. I mean, I know that side of the world.

And I know there's a lot of those people. And everyone was pissed. I mean, that's pretty bad. We did see somebody hit a kangaroo for that's for our first. Yeah, I mean, I was talking to SVG about it. Look that car. Holy cow. It totaled.

Totaled. The thing went through the windshield. Look at a blood. Yeah. That's another video we'll post on our... Is there a picture of the helmet? I don't know. Oh, maybe.

No wonder why the guy was throwing up. I would be throwing up too. Yeah, the guy came out of a car apparently was throwing up. Oh, shit. Man. Yeah. Look at a green shit. It's probably grass. Yeah, you think?

Maybe it's green shit. Maybe it's green shit. True. I don't need What, Dalton, what is the Norwegian ski remits of cheating on his girlfriend? I don't think so. Oh, man. Okay, I got to show you this. Yeah, there was, gave his like Olympic interview and

basically he says that three weeks ago he told his girlfriend that she cheated on, or he cheated on her. And then after he won bronze, he tried to say that he's professing his love to her to try to get her back and on the biggest stage in the world. She came back

though, right? As far as I know, yeah, I heard that. Well, it worked. Congratulations. Fair play. Hey, what was the... That's a bold move. What was the Ram Chevy thing?

I saw that all weekend, but I missed it. Minnie was driving a Chevy in the Archer race, but it was a unmarked. Oh, like the body was a show. Got it, got it, got it. Yeah. Yeah, okay, I see. They had a lot of fun this week with some videos with old Biggie from, if you don't know who Biggie is. He was a celebrity this weekend.

He was a celebrity. He was... Biggie was over to changing tires, man. The video of changing tires is awesome. I saw, yeah, I saw something on TikTok. I'm like, I'm like, don't break that kid's balls. Dude, I'm calling it TikTok for the rest of my life. The video I saw, I forgot what they rolled up.

It was like a smart car or something. Him and Minnie jump out and I'm like, I forget. Everything's Mini, whatever the hell is called. And they get out of the smart car. I love that guy. How about the other day when he come out of a creeper with a Batman had on scared Bruce in the shop? I'm like, what these guys doing to the guy?

They're having fun over there. That's what they're doing. Oh, man. Anyway, nobody knows what we're talking about. No, I mean, they've seen the videos. They've sold the videos. They didn't show the video that came over the wall. Yeah, we'll find him and add them.

But I don't want to put that on a shit show, though, because it's not a shit show. That's great, man. I know, New Smyrna, I don't know. I mean, there was there anything over there? I didn't go over there. Hey, I want to say, I don't want to hear anything about Car Story Pro Late Model Races because every freaking video that I see. saw from New Smyrna was people just tearing shit up and wrecking pro late models.

So I don't think it's just specific to the car store. That was in the ASA race, right? That was sound like a shit show. Not quite as shit shows the rest of them this week. Really? No, this one, I mean, that's racing. Can we talk about the broadcast and qualifying? And the fact that the Fords are all doing 90% and Kevin Harvick, I mean, Kevin, man,

I love Kevin. Don't get me wrong. But he's raced for 25 years and for him to be saying, yeah, the Fords are running 90% throttle. They get more horsepower at 90% throttle. Come on, Kevin. Hold on.

To his credit, back into carburetor days. We don't have carburetors anymore. But, dude, they're wide open. But they didn't. And also, and also. That was the game that DAI played, right? I mean, I remember hearing that story. And also, why do the truck broadcasting

in qualifying still have the SMT fake throttle percent like when they lift in the middle of the corner to 75% throttle on the data and it shows on TV, why are we showing that? Like, we're wide open. Why are you making it look like we're all lifting and qualifying when we're not in the trucks?

Did you lift and qualify? Where'd you qualify? 23rd. But the cup cars, it's fine to show the data. But at least, I mean, the Ford's have been 90% throttle for four years. Can we at least just calibrate them so they show 100% throttle and don't I mean, throw everyone for a loop.

But the trucks, there's no reason that we should have. I mean, this is probably pissing me off more than it should, but it's been three years we've been showing the SMT fake truck data. You don't think it's, you don't think it's just, they're just pedaling. Yeah, man, they're just pedaling. I mean, they need. Those things are a handful. Fox, if you're listening, you've got to get rid of the SMT data for qualifying.

That's not real for, I mean, the 30 percentage. Now everybody knows it's not real. I didn't know it wasn't real till right now, so thank you for. Yeah, the trucks, the only cup has real. data where it's like the real throttle percentage, like real, the, the trucks and Xfinity cars, it's literally just a made up, it's just a made up thing. Like, it's just, it's not real. Yeah. So like when they slow down into the corner, because, you know, because the car slows down in the corner, SMT thinks you're lifting. So that's, I mean, it's all GPS. So the cup cars, it's real. Like,

when you see the throttle percentage, it's real, but sometimes, like, for some reason, the forwards aren't calibrated right. But the Xfinities and the Xfinity car, or the, or, Riley cars and the trucks, it's just a made-up thing. So when they show that in qualifying, it's not real data. Like, it's fake data. All right. Let's call Fox. Thank you.

I do want to give a shout out. Eric Brennan, another great job. He was down there in Daytona called the Arker race. I thought he did a great job. Phenomenal job. I thought he did a great job. He's going to do some truck races this year, which I think is an awesome opportunity for him. I think he's the next up-and-coming guy that's going to be hopefully calling

races on Sunday. Apparently Fox did a really good job on Sunday. They did. Everything I've seen, I mean, it's rare. You hear that. I will say that they didn't have any. Yes. They didn't have any full screen caution.

The one thing I would say is the only thing I was disappointed, and obviously I don't get to watch a lot of races until I go back and watch them. And usually the commercials are cut out at that point. But I got back to the hotel for the second, watch the second half of the second duel. And we got stuck in some traffic getting back. So I was like, basically you saw the end of it. I walk in and I go, damn it. Oh, no, we went to dinner.

And then we were going back quick on a yellow trying to get back. And I get back. And I'm like, damn it's over. already. I knew it was like within 10 laps probably. I go, that's over already, the second duel. And I look at my timing and scoring to see who won, just my live timing on my phone. And I'm like, it's green with six to go and we're just a full screen commercial. And then I look and just get her getting killed on the internet about it. At least they did good on Sunday when people were, when everybody was watching. They fixed it on Sunday. Yeah. And apparently the

4K stream was really good too. I saw a lot of things about that. Yeah. I mean, kudos Fox. I haven't heard a lot of good things. in the years past, but it seems they're going in the right direction. They don't have a choice, I feel like. I feel like Prime came into such a good job last year that it's going to raise the bar for all these. No, it's good. We need that. We need that.

Time to move on to ask DBC. The only question we have this week is for Connor. Connor, how do you feel about being the only rookie in the field? And does it add more pressure or less? I don't know. But if I've had enough people walk up to me and tell me congrats on rookie of the year, it's kind of weird. I mean, I guess I got to go to the banquet no matter what now.

And, yeah, it's, I don't know, I wish Corey was racing. I feel like he deserves to be a cup driver. And it would be cool to have to race against him for a rookie the year. But yeah, whatever. More trophies for me, I guess. You guys got many, many years ahead of you to battle it out. I'm trophy chasing. Cool.

All right, DBC picks. Freddie, you are off to a hot start to beat us. You had Ricky Sinhouse. I think you purposefully sabotaged Bubba so that I wouldn't. win. Hey, good pick with Zane. I know.

Good job, Bob. That's a good pull. And we can't pick the drivers that's already been picked. Yeah, like you can't pick Zane. Yep. And I can't pick who he picks this week. No, you can pick. Yeah, you can pick.

You can't pick whoever gets picked this week, but you can't pick whoever we pick. Sounds good. Sounds good. So Thomas, you go. I'm going to go at Bush. Damn it. Kurt or Kyle?

Which one? Kyle. Somebody sent me about J.R. Houston sent a video yesterday. Kurt must have been driving a two-seater, I guess, in a pre-race. And he was walking down pit road with his helmet and stuff. And J.R. is like, gentlemen, hide your race cars. I am going to take Brisco. Man, that's a, I feel like you could.

That's not a good idea. I should keep that for later. No, you already said it. Fuck. I meant to say Bush are right above it. That would have been another dumb one. It's the second race. I don't want to start using up my good people.

Brisco, what? He's like top five driver in the series. Well, no, I thought that was a good. I think he was in the final four last year. I know. I thought that was a good pick. Yeah, it's a good pick. Move on.

Move on. Go ahead, Colin. All right. I'll take, I'll take Hosevar. I will take Michael McDowell. Spire, a little spire action. Yeah, I mean, they probably should have won, yeah. I feel like I should take myself, but I feel like that's bad. No, you should save some, let somebody take you a set of a road course, probably.

save for next week. What are you got going on this week? I mean, when do you get back in the Infinity car? Cota is my first one. Yeah, I'm excited for that. Do you think you're going to run into everybody at Cota like you have in the years past? I don't know, should I? I would have been in last year.

I know what your car looked like. I thought your tires are going down. Made the die cast look cooler. I don't know. No, hopefully not. I mean, I've had my fair share of running into people. But, yeah, hopefully I don't. Hopefully I can just actually go out there and have a clean.

I mean, we were really fast at Cota last year. But this week, Atlanta, I raced Atlanta last year. I finished 11th, my best cup finish. Hopefully I can have another good week there. How crazy is this race? I mean, now that you've kind of run both of them, how much different, like spotter-wise, this is the craziest race to spot. Dude, it's...

How much different is it than it? It is insane. I mean, it's just, man, it's so intense. The runs. Atlanta is crazy. It is, it is... I mean, this is what Super Speedway Racing, like, I mean, it's probably the most fun for you to spot.

It's most fun we have. I mean, it's pretty... It's pretty intense. Like what you said, it's what plate racing used to be. Yeah. It's crazy. I mean, handling every single time, I feel like that cup has gone back. It's gotten more and more handling.

And obviously, this one is in the cold, so it's a little bit better. But, man, when we go there in the summer, that last summer race, you are on the edge every single lap. And it's fun. So, we'll see. what this week's like. We'll see if the winter weather over the last few months has aged the track

more and made it more handling. You know, made handling more of an issue. But yeah, I'm excited. I love Atlanta. It's sketchy. It's it makes for a good race and the fans usually like it and it always creates a good finish, I feel

like. So yeah, it'll be fun. Tommy, I know there's another good opportunity for you guys to get up there. I know you had a good run this week. I mean, run up front and then finished what, 17th. So there's another good opportunity for you. How do you approach this weekend? Yeah, I mean, the same way. Just get a good qualifying spot. Pit stalls are get pretty busy here at Atlanta, so hopefully we qualify well enough to get in a good spot that we can get a good stall. How many good stalls are there? Have you looked?

I think Atlanta is probably 10 good ones that you can make a difference at, you know, gaining a little bit. But yeah. I mean, our goal this year is to get to the checkered flags. We had so many dumb issues last year, right? It cost us a lot of stuff. And we feel that we do a really good job of calling the race and doing the stuff that needs to be done. I went almost in a full-blown panic mode for you the other night.

I think I can't remember if it was. It had to be the dual first pit stop. You guys come off pit road and have a pit road penalty for something. I don't know what it was. I can't remember what it was. We had two. I said, I said, oh, no, Tommy's already going to blow. No, I said, let's bring it.

Let's bring them back and do a four-tire change now since we got a penalty to reset. No. Another penalty. Yes. 122. No wheels loose, though. No wheels. The wheels stayed on the car this week.

That was a benefit. Carson, what we got going on? I mean... Nothing one more week until cars tour starts racing again. So I have one last weekend off and then... Where's the next car store race? First one will be at Southern National. We were supposed to be racing this weekend at Coastal, but we canceled it.

Gotcha. So, what's the car store? Maybe I'll come hang out with you guys in Atlanta. I don't know. We'll be there. A lot of entries? Our entries actually haven't opened yet for Southern.

They will. Anything on the horizon new and exciting for cars tour we should be looking out for? Well, we have a cool program that we're doing with Flow this year. That's kind of like our version of like a dash for cash. So that'll be exciting. And then other than that, we've just had a couple sponsors that have stepped up in some bigger ways

and raised some competitor awards. And then we're going to Nashville, obviously. It's going to be cool. In April, so I'm excited for that. We'll have an announcement coming on that in the next two weeks about the title partner. Flow, you say, huh? Flow, yeah. And if you do want to watch the cards for on Flow all year, you can use...

Any more Fox Sports? She's doing an advertisement. Connor. Oh, shit. Sorry, I didn't realize this was an ad. All right, go ahead. That wasn't. It's on an actual ad.

For 15% off of Flow Sports, you can use the link. FlowSports. You can use the link. link slash door bumper clear to sign up and get 15% off. Is that making the cut? But make sure you go. Oh, yeah. That'll make it only better.

Let me go watch Connor on Fox. Yeah. Fox, I hope you still love me. I'm sorry. You're pissing off. You're pissing off Fox. Man, I'm not going to get any TV time. At least we're talking about it.

Yeah, great. Rare breeds is going great. Yeah, Ray. Breed's is still rocking along. I haven't got canceled. So. Yet. Yet. Yet. Today was how many tic tacks you got?

Not as many as you, Tommy. I want to see Tommy do a TikTok one day, a TikTok, whatever you want to call it. Is it on Twitter? What is it on? I don't even know what you have. You do have a Twitter, by the way. But he doesn't run it. I don't even care about it.

Anyway, thank you guys for listening. We're going on Atlanta this week. Cheer Conoron. He can finish second to us if he likes. We're third to Tommy. And we will be back next week. I have no idea who the guest is next week. But we will be back then.

So thanks for listening. And we will see. I'll be back next to this. Yeah, it might just make Connor permanent. Like, you got to run 30 Earth or worse. You're going to get through big for us. Thanks for listening. Guys, we're out.

See, bye. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok.