Door Bumper Clear - Michael McDowell & Sonoma: SVG is the Road Course G.O.A.T.

Episode Date: July 14, 2025

Michael McDowell joins Freddie Kraft, Tommy Baldwin, and Karsyn Elledge for another episode of Door Bumper Clear. The crew recaps a dominating day at Sonoma for Shane Van Gisbergen, Freddie and Bubba���s great points day, and the scuffle between pit crews. The DBC crew debates if Shane Van Gisbergen is the greatest Road Course racer of all time, how far he will go in the Playoffs, and Ram’s proposed reality show to find driver talent. Plus another great reaction theatre, #ASKDBC, and more! Want more DBC? Check out and subscribe to the new DBC YouTube channel! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The following is a production of Dirty Mode Media. 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 seat 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. Not enough, you love them. Hey, what's up, everybody?

Welcome to Door Bumper Clear. I'm Freddie Crafts. Spotter for Bubba Wallace. Dean Thompson this week. Hi, Tom. What's up? How's it going? I'm okay.

How was Lancaster? Lancaster was okay. We ended up seventh. Got started in the back twice. I saw him spun out one time. Yeah, 54. Got him. Got him.

On purpose. On purpose. Which he absolutely should have. Luke had that one coming? Had it coming. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, that's funny.

And good show, man. Great, great place. They do a really good job promoting it. A lot of good fans. Places packed. Good, good. Carson. How's it going today, Carson?

It's going. Did you have a nice day yesterday? I did. I had a great Sunday, fun day. And we had a smooth cars tour race this weekend for once. So I was glad for that. So nothing to complain about from my weekend. Big, big cars tour winter this week, huh?

Who? Oh, Keelan, duh. Duh. Well, I don't know. Who won the fucking race, Carson? Keelan, yeah, no, that was cool. That was cool. Is that the third time he's beat his dad?

Yes. Kevin's got nothing for him. Yeah. It was, Keelan dominated. It was fun night. And it's cool to watch them, like, race against each other. He's... He's 13, right?

Yeah. And he's a damn good kid, too. Like, the most respectful... Respectful kid ever. Like, we love having him. So it's been nice. That's good. And joining us today, Michael McDowell, driver of the 71 car.

How was your day yesterday, bud? It was an up and down day. You know, obviously he came home with the top five, so, you know, it wasn't a bad day. But, you know, we go to these road courses knowing we need to win, and it's a shot for us to get into the playoffs. So you still feel bummed if you're not sitting in, you know, victory lane. But, yeah, we just didn't quite have the speed this weekend to contend like we did in Chicago.

We were close. We were a top five car and, you know, all the practices and qualifying, we were second in our group, but that was like 15th overall. So that kind of hurt us. And, yeah, just in general, we just needed a little bit more. But we went for it. We tried an alternate strategy that didn't work. And, you know, fortunately, at the end, we were able to put tires on and get back up there.

Yeah, for sure. And it's, you know, talk about, I mean, I don't know, you probably don't want to talk about it. But, like, Chicago, like, the car just seemed like it was unbelievable. the first half of the race and then obviously you have troubles. Yeah, it was great. It was great all weekend. We were, you know, qualifying on road course is actually not my strength. I'm good at, like, getting into a rhythm and getting into a pace,

and I feel like I can get to 98% of the car's potential, but that one-lap speed has not been my thing at road courses. Oval's, it is. Like, I usually qualify better at Oval's than I do. So we felt really good at Chicago, but we knew SVG was strong, and I knew I had to get the lead on that, first lap it was I mean we talked about it we got to get in front of them we got to control it try to catch him sleeping he wasn't sleeping but you know what I mean be aggressive that first

lap when everybody's trying to settle in and see if we can do something because he has a tendency to check out yeah he just builds a gap and he keeps that gap so we had the car to do it there and so yeah it's a bummer you know racing's like that but at the same time it's part of the process of what we need to do to be better at spire and we've had a few mechanical issues this year And, you know, we're working through that, you know, whether it's processes, procedures, miles on things, how long you can run something. I mean, you know, there's still a lot for us to learn.

And then we've also introduced new problems, right? Because we brought in new people with new ideas. And any time that you do that, you try to make things better. And you're pushing things. You're pushing things. And then sometimes you go, oh, man, we haven't had these issues. Why do we have these issues now? And so we're working through some of those growing pains.

But we have speeds in our race cars and feel good about where we're at with that. But, you know, it'd be a lot better if we'd won Chicago and not had to worry about it for the next six weeks. But, you know, like I said, we're in a good spot where we have speed in our race cars and not just on road courses, but everywhere. Yeah. So we're not limited to just road courses or speedways for wins. But we do know that those are important ones. Yeah, for sure. And talk about the change to Spire this year, obviously, a front row for a while.

You make the decision to move over the Spire. Some people kind of, you know, looked at it like, oh, they just got this 34 car where he's contending for wins. on a more consistent basis and now you make a big change. How do you feel that's paid off for you this year? I'm happy with the decision, happy with the change. I feel like everybody thought like we were just getting the 34 roll and in a good spot. But you know how the sport is? Things change.

And it's not always necessarily what I won or even what Bob Jenkins won. It's just kind of how it worked out. And I'm thankful that I was able to land at a place like Spire that's growing that's on an upward trajectory. And, you know, we're not at our peak right now. And we know that. So I think that that part of it's been good. There's been more growing pains than I would have hoped for. But realistically, it's par for the course.

I mean, it really is. I mean, this is part of, you know, transitioning to a new team. How much does it help to bring kind of the core guys with you? You know, Travis comes with you, Fisher goes with you, the guys that you kind of directly relate, you know, talk to during the race. I'm sure during the week as well. But how much does that help that transition for you guys? Oh, it's been huge.

I mean, a lot of our core groups stayed the same, no doubt about it. but it's also new tools for them, you know, new simulation, new processes. And so, you know, there's advantage and disadvantage to it. Our chemistry, knowing each other, how we thrive and what we need to thrive is all good. But at the same time, we all came into it new. And so we've had to learn the tools, and we've had to learn some of the corks that are different about, you know, the Ford's versus the Chevys. And that's bit us a few times because, you know, you go to a place where you feel like, man,

we were really strong here last year. We know exactly what we need. And you put it in and it's a dumpster fire. And you're like, how could that be? It's all the same parts. It's all the same pieces. So we're learning some of those things as we go. But I feel like we've honed in on it.

I'm curious how Fisher spots because he doesn't speak. So I don't know. I feel like on the roof, he doesn't talk to anybody. Like maybe Tyler, but that's about it. He's such a quiet guy. But, yeah, I mean, obviously does a really good job. Yeah, he's a stud. Fisher, my spotter.

He just does a great job. And, you know, the great thing about, him was he was young and you know he was doing some you know broke horse spotting and he was doing some late model stuff and he was helping out with brad kay and so he had some experience in the cup series but not a lot and you know tj really actually should get the credit for it because which i don't know why anybody listened to t j about anything yeah but but with fisher i was able to hey this is what i need i know everybody wants something different but this is what i need and then on the preparation side, I was putting in, it felt like a lot, six, seven, eight hours a week,

like looking through video, looking through SMT. Like, I'm not computer savvy enough, you know, downloading everything, trying to line up audio and all the stuff. And I was, you know, spending a lot of time studying and working on that. And he was like, do, do, do, do, do, do. I was like, okay, you're taking this workload. And I was able to kind of lay out. This is what I need. This is what's real important to me. And so he has helped me out a tremendous amount being able to, you know, focus on what's really important and he helps a ton with that preparation and does a great job on the roof. So it's interesting to see those personalities. So there's a couple of them up there that you're like, oh, these guys are serial killers. They don't say anything and they just

look at you funny. And then they get on the radio and they're like very good and clear and loud and aggressive. And you're like, I've never heard you say a word. Ready? He's definitely heard me talk about it. So it's interesting to see those guys' personality. Yeah, it's funny. And to your point, there's been a swing on the roof of the last maybe two or three years of kind of going the route you went, where instead of just going to get a guy that's got 100 years experience up there spotting, you go get a guy that's got a little bit less experience but then can cater himself to the needs of the driver, really.

Well, and I think, too, when you're on smaller teams and you have a little bit less resources, you need people that can do multiple jobs, right? And so he has an engineering mind, maybe not a quote-unquote degree. He's driven race cars and he spot race cars. He's done a lot in motorsports, and he'll even tell you, like, I love racing, but I wasn't very good at driving, right? And so he's found his sweet spot, but we can utilize him for other areas. And analytics is one of those areas. And we don't have a dedicated team to analytics, right?

So it's our spotters. And so I feel like, you know, you got to be able to do multiple things. Yeah, for sure. And he's one of the guys up there, Tommy's probably seen at Fisher. He's, I don't know, he's got a Starling's strapped to his hat. Starlight got his head. He's got two or three monitors on the. on the rail that's going on and I'm like, I don't.

Oh, he came into the hauler today, or yesterday, and he had this gigantic antenna, right? And it's got all these warning labels, like, don't be within 30 feet could cause, you know. It was in his back pocket. And he's sitting there holding it like this, like a lightning rod. But, yeah, he's intense about it. It's, yeah, it is Tommy can attest to how much different it looks nowadays, even than five years ago up there. Yeah, it's not even close. I mean, it's, really, it's the next generation of spotters that are coming up.

You know, the old school guys have, you know, learn to adapt, and they're working really hard, but these kids are coming in with a lot of information, right? And, like you said, some of them have been engineering backgrounds, and they know how to use these computers, and they know how to study data up there and help your driver right away, you know? So, yeah, it's changing, man. There's a lot of equipment up there now. I mean, there's little generators and power things and Starlings and computers.

Cool suits. Yeah, cool suits. Yeah, these guys Yeah, it's definitely changing. It does get out. I still don't think I'm going to need a cool suit at any time, but TJ and Herm, they had to rock one for a little while. How good was it yesterday?

I mean, just going now moving to Sonoma, you know, tire wear, you know, strategy mattered. You know, obviously, anytime we see tire fall off, it opens up different options for strategy and how much more fun is that for you as a driver to have to manage your stuff throughout a run versus just like everybody out here is just running. open or not wide open, but running 100% the whole time.

I like both. I really do. I enjoy Sonoma and I enjoy it, you know, until last year, there was always a ton of fall off. It didn't matter if his old car or next year and there was still fall off and you had to manage it. And I felt like that's good for me. I get into that rhythm and I feel like I can manage the tires and make it last on a long run. But then you go to Walkins Glen, you go to Chicago and it's like qualifying hammer down every lap. And so I enjoy the differences. I don't know that everybody can do both really well. I think we saw that when we went to the next-gen car where, like, guys like Denny and got Martin Truex Jr. That were so good at driving it straight, keeping tires on it, doing all the things that when you went to places where you had to go hammer down and kind of struggled to get up the speed.

So I enjoyed the challenge of both. It was very interesting, though. Like, we unloaded at Sonoma lap one. I mean, I spun out, man. I can't tell you if I've spun out on a road course but myself in the last 20 years. You know, like it just doesn't typically happen. But it was three or four seconds slower than we thought it was going to be, right? And I mean, the track was super slick.

The tire, just a combination, it would chatter like Old Martinsville low air. You're like, oh, my gosh, it just chattered and spun out on my own. So it was fun. It really was because you were trying to get right to the edge, but you're also thinking about don't overslip them, don't spin them, try to make them last. And then even in particular for us, we were trying to go 50 laps on a set of, the tires and I'm like man this is going to be tough I mean they were falling off by lap 20

was a light switch for most yeah so you know trying to make them last was was a fun challenge for sure and Tommy I mean for me on the spotter stand or spotter hill whatever you want to call it there you know it was fun though I know SVG was probably out front by a good bit and kind of managing stuff but like the midpack

was awesome because you had guys that would pass guys early in the run then they would fade or late like you said after about lap 20 how much was it how did they were able to capture that on television or I know you're watching the war room they really didn't, only the restarts, they put emphasis on that, but it was interesting

to watch how fast SVG could still go with his throttle response, what he was doing, right? I mean, compared to Cody, right? I'm like, and I'm trying to talk to my guys on the pit box from the war room, I'm like, Cody's going to burn his stuff up in 12 laps.

He's going to burn him stuff up in 12 laps. He's way too much straddle, way too much throttle, way too much throttle. And you see SVG is just just laying into it easy look at his time 7 1 you know 76 4 76 2 it's like you know how is he how is he doing it but again it's a lot easier when you're out front out front you know controlling the race doing all the things you can do and again you know I'm sorry it's just he put on a clinic again yesterday they didn't they didn't really have to do any pitch strategy right now I pit two laps before the

stage end put two laps before the stage the second stage end and then, all right, let's get in our window. We're this amount of seconds ahead of everybody. Let's let them pit, put more laps on the tires than us. Okay, let's pit. Let's take the lead. Then it was four or five of you guys that came in with that last caution before 51's tire fell off to try to extend it to go all the way. But you still weren't going to win because he was going to be so far ahead of you guys anyway when he pitted.

Right. I mean, yeah, there was zero chance we were going to win yesterday. Yeah, I mean, you guys were fighting to get back in the top 10. Yeah. I mean, you know, and the finished fifth was a really good day for where you were and what was happened. Really, that strategy got you to the top five. I don't think you were going to finish there if you stayed with everybody. But, you know, I looked up, I think it was 12 to go.

All four of your cars were in the top 10 or 12. I know. I'm like, okay, Desire, oh, three of cars, they were going to have a good day, you know. It all came loose there at the end. And it usually does. Yeah. I mean, it usually does. I think one of the biggest takeaways for me is like with SVG and I'm sure we're going to get into talk about him for the next two hours.

But, you know, do we have to? We don't have to. I'm going to try not to. It's going to have to come up at some point. But, you know, there's no, it seems like there's no sense of urgency. Like, you know, when they go green, he kind of just maintains a couple car length gap and just, like, there's no, like, I'm going to build. I need to build this gap. And then he just kind of keeps the guy back there.

Yeah, but he was complaining. He was saying all the same things as the 19 was. at that time as to 24. I've learned to not believe anything he says on the radio. No, I mean, no, he was complaining about, you know, the rear grip and all the things and worrying about the air pressure. And, you know, he was saying the same things, but he was just faster. I mean, it's just...

I think that what I was impressed, I didn't see him much of the day, just to clarify. Nobody did, really. You know, starting where we started, we started 15th, and we were able to get into the top 10, but by the time I got the top 10, literally, I couldn't turn it, right? Yeah. I never saw him. and when I got on the plane and I was looking at the results

and I was looking at the points for the day like stage points I'm like wait a minute yeah yeah this Joker flipped the stage and one wait wait wait yeah like I was like hey are you sure that this did they get this right how did he do this and they were just saying that you know you literally

was able to pull out a big enough lead and a lot of the top 10 followed them right on that same stage but I think to do that shows a lot right like I mean Normally, if you finish 10th, you know, that's about right. If you flip the stage, you get one or two points each stage, you feel like, oh, yeah, I did pretty good there.

Guy won and finished second in both stages and still won the race on the perfect strategy. So he definitely had everybody covered. We were running, I don't know, like 18, 20, and something like that. And coming to the end of the first stage, and I'm counting cars as they pit. I'm like, okay, we're going to get points. Then there was a couple more that pitted out. I wasn't expecting. I was like, well, shit, we're going to finish second, you know?

And then because I think it was Ross stayed out. I'm like, we'll never catch Ross. and then I'm like, all right, we're going to get second. Everybody else is on pit road. And I can't really see Pedrow from up the hill. And I'm like, oh, shit, we got to race this 87, already. He's coming off in front of us. And so I think he came off right in front of us.

We finished third in that stage. And then the next one, he wasn't even, he was way ahead of us. Good job, by the way. And you guys did a good job. Yeah. I can not believe the 60 car didn't do the same thing. I don't know what they were thinking. I don't know.

We gained a point on them. We ran 25th all day. They think they were going to win the race. I don't know. I mean, we should have gained. It should have. We, I mean, we had a plus 20, even. We should have executed the second half of that race just horrendously. But the, you know, we should have finished probably 15th to 20th at worst with 15 points in the bank.

And they were going to be 12th or 13th or, you know, around there. And I was like, man, I can't believe they're not taking any of these points. Like, we're all, you know. It left all them on the table. And it's hard because, you know, when you're on the cut line there, like, you're almost not even racing for that guy. You know, we're almost racing. We need to jump a spot, maybe two spots to feel comfortable, even. and then you're not even that comfortable.

But, you know, we talked about it at Pocono. I think you're one or two races away from knowing what you have to do, right? Yeah, for sure. The variables are slowly getting eliminated here on new winners, right? So I feel like you're in that spot. It is tough, though, because, you know, my crew chief, Travis Peterson, you know, he wants to get as many points as he can. And I look at it, like, who cares about points?

There's the only thing that's getting us in is winning. And we're, that's not totally true. We could still do it. But in my mind, there's just, why would you even think about it like that? But when you're not fast enough to win the race, you're like, well, I don't want to just give these up just to give them up. But my argument to that before the weekend started is if you're fourth or fifth, you have a shot of them getting together, something happening. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Where if you take those stage points, you're going to be 12th to 13th, even if you're having a good day. And you don't really have a shot to get there. there. So. Yeah, I just thought we, I mean, they played the strategy perfectly on the pit box yesterday for us. We're just, I think we were, I mean, I think they almost got caught by surprise because we were planning on probably not getting points in the first stage because we started 30th, but then being in position to, you know, have probably get points in the second stage because more people were going to flip. But then once we saw everybody pull off, it was a no-brainer for

us. And, and then you like, you just put yourself, you put 15 points in the bank and restart 26th, I think it was. That second half of the race could play out a thousand different ways. You know, you could get a top 10. you get 30th like we did. I mean, 60 ended up in the middle of the, and ended up record, right? I mean, he could have, he would have finished ahead of you, both stages.

Oh, yeah, you'd have had both stages ahead of you, got some more points and probably been in the same spot as you at the end, fighting around you, and it would have been probably, they probably would be in. They'd be, they'd pass us, yeah. And you'd be out today, but, yeah, I was weird. I didn't think that was, I thought it was really good on your part to collect those points. Yeah, that's all my call. I was like, hey, guys, that's, that's,

do this here. Your part as your team, not you, Fred. Great job by Zillich Saturday. I mean, that's the last couple of laps. I'm sure you watched it. But those guys. And that was another thing with, you know,

with Shane that it's like, all right, I'm assuming they had to save fuel a little bit because I know my guys are talking about they were close. But then with five to go, it's like the gloves are off and we're just going to go to battle this out. It was good to see they had even tires, right? They pit at the same time there.

So it was fun to see. But, I mean, obviously, if they weren't teammates, It maybe would have been a little bit different story. I had a Zillage. Zillage was at the modified shop the other day and hanging out, and I made him sweep the floor. I'm like, instead of you sitting here and writing 100 times, it will not wrecking practice and ruin a race and start last

and go through the field, you're going to sweep this floor. So I sent a picture to Donnie here in the thing. I said, look, I got him sweeping the floor for you to remember not to wreck. But, yeah, I mean, those two, again, he's going to. to create havoc when he gets up to the cup ranks. He's good and, uh, and he's good everywhere, right? Yeah. And the things that you guys talk about on the show, too, is, is he has it is, it's going to be way easier to calm him down and practice and qualifying and not make those, like, you don't have to qualify on a poll by a second. You can just qualify in a poll by two tens. You don't have to work.

And that's what I said. I got the shot while he was sweeping. He was like, Connor. And he looks up. I'm like, do you realize when you wrecked in practice in Chicago, you were a second? ahead of everybody in practice. And I'm like, you know, come on. I'm just imagining Connor sweeping the floor. Yeah, well, he's just St. Connor. I'm just start calling on that. Final four.

What an interesting. The two sides of the bracket couldn't be any different, any more different. I feel like you got Redick versus Gibbs on one side, which is not a surprise at all. And then the other side, I think, is John, what's his name, Tommy? Numchuk. Numbchuk and Ty Dillon.

And, I mean, I don't know, have you gotten to see the replay of the last lap, the last corner with? I mean, that would. And you only get that because of this challenge. Like, he's not going to do that for whatever position they were running 20. Yeah, well, you still would have got it. I just love that as soon as he got clear. He was, oh, yeah. Yeah, like, it was awesome.

It was awesome. Does it pay just a million for the winner or does it pay anything else? I think it's just a win deal. Is it? Yeah. Where did you get, bro, Chicago? No, Atlanta. Oh, right away.

I was head to head with AJ and we got tore up in that, that big rack. Yeah, that was done by then. It's, yeah, I mean, but like, I just, the people that were complaining about this, this is perfect. You know what I mean? I hope, I mean, I think the whole world should be cheering for Ty Dillon. Yeah. Like, it would be the best story of the year.

I think if he could just somehow pull this off, especially after that. I didn't even realize it because I, he was kind of back there racing with us most of the day. And then we all kind of got split up on that last restart word, but there was wrecks and stuff. So I never really paid attention. I jump in the car to leave and Joey Campbell's right. He's like, do you see that? I was like, see what? He's like, Dylan went in that last corner and booted Bowman just for the challenge.

I was like, perfect. That's what they want for this thing. And like he said, I don't think, you know, I don't know that he does that or that aggressively anyway. Still finish 17. Yeah, but I'm just saying, like, I don't know that he had a good weekend. Yeah. I mean, Ty was solid all weekend.

He was good in practice. He's getting good, man. I needed him to be a little better for DBC picks. He didn't have much for SVG, but. Oh, you picked him, man. Nobody was beating me on that this week. There's no way. I was hoping that you got unlucky.

You stole him from me last week, but. Tommy, you want to give a shout out to Catherine Leg? Yeah, I know you do. I know you're going to. The note I sent you last night. The fact that she's beat the 77 car all four of her races. Say that again? Every race she's run, she's beaten the 77.

That's a stat. Straight up. That is too funny. Yeah. We like to give old Carson a little bit of grief on here. not grief really he brings it upon himself a lot of the times but did you do anything wrong he got dumped yesterday he spun himself out one time i don't think oh very josh josh spun him i so i don't know that is that in the spot on spot off or no i don't think so um i looked at a

replay that last night because i saw an end car and i was like damn he fucking just dumped him um the one the other replay i saw from like the outside of turn two and i could have been seeing things because it was two o'clock in the morning but it looked to me like for a split second right before they made contact he likes to lock front of it. likes the right front up. So I, you know, I don't think it was intentional. I saw that first angle and I was like, oh, Carson must have done something to him at some point, you know.

And but then I saw that in-car of Josh. And I thought the same thing. He got to the top of the hill there and looked like he just went straight. But only he knows. Yeah. Yeah, we'd have. I mean, he might have locked him up just. He was like, probably good.

I'm going to run into this guy, but I got to block the breakup just to stay off of once I do spin him. He did dump somebody else. Oh, Eric. He dumped Eric. probably cost Eric a top 24. That caller is going to be upset. But that was probably payback from Chicago

because I think Eric wrecked him at Chicago, so that doesn't really surprise me. There was another... Chestain, wheel hopped. Oh, he got his own teammate, right? I don't know. Are they still teammates? How does that work?

Can you dump an outgoing teammate? Does you feel better about that? If they're on their way out? Yeah. Absolutely. For your game, right? Yeah, but they were doing so well after during practice communicating to each other.

They showed, and it were talking. I would say knowing Ross, you know, Ross is just going hard there and obviously locked up. I don't think he would ship Daniel on purpose. They have a good relationship and they race each other hard. But it was one of those spots where you're like, ooh, that didn't look nice. It looked like, you know, Daniel was a little jammed up behind. I think it was 22 also. That's what's hard to describe is like everybody comes off of turn 10 and they start the block for 11.

But once somebody covers in front of you, like it starts that accordion. And you're, I'm in too deep. and now it's three on the bottom and you just end up running into the guy in front of you just because everybody woes up so much when you pull that block off so it happens pretty easy there what did you think as a driver

the deal on pit road with the 6th and the 54 I mean they had a little bit of a running on the racetrack but I saw Gluck tweet something about like he thought it was on purpose I think that's just you know that's Ty had the right away there I see both sides of this like Ty has the ride away.

I mean, he does, per the rule. Like, he's in front of the six, right? So he can pull through their box. He can drive 100% through it. Well, that's what those orange lines are for, right? Well, only if you're coming around. If you're coming around. Right.

Yeah, so it's not an interference if you're in front of them. But you don't have to take all that. You know what I mean? Yeah, but you do have to, in order to set yourself up leaving in case there's somebody in front of you. If you're going to get blocked in and all those things. You have to do that. But then also, too, seeing the carrier. Yeah, he was far. He was out there.

He had some room. Also, too, you guys got to understand, too, these carriers are also trained now, too, to take it. Yeah. Right? Like, they're trying to put into 50s. They're trying to do stuff to. And so as a driver, you're in that spot of like, oh, don't do that, man. But then you also go into that mindset of, like, you're driving a race car and they're standing there.

I mean, you don't want to hurt somebody. Yeah, but why are you playing games? Yeah, common sense says get out of the way. Play dumb games and dumb things happen. I mean, it's, yeah, it's, I don't, again, I obviously, I didn't do anything wrong. I'm sure I understand why the carrier's mad and why he's gone over there. Oh, I'd be mad too. Yeah, I'd be mad, yeah.

I'd love to see Tommy now there. He'd been fighting for sure. Somebody, Flores sent me a clip of you fighting with an official at Watkins Glen, actually, about some lugs that you didn't put on, but you were going to try to fake it until you made it. Oh, because we had the lead and we were going to win the race, and that was when they first implemented the they had to have five on and I didn't get the fifth one on and then I tried

lying and it didn't work. There's like, this went on for a while. Well, I tried. They almost threw a caution because I had them fooled. I mean, shit. We had, I mean,

we were actually going to win Watkins Glen with Ward Burton. We had the lead. It was kind of like the 88 when they won Del Jail one. We were in the same boat. The car was just that good and there was the last Pits stop. Like? And I'm like,

You should have put the lugs on. God damn right. It was habit. Unfortunately. You know, you always put four on at the end, you know? Yeah.

Are they throwing hands? I didn't know that there was an actual fight. Oh yeah, they started getting after it a little bit. I mean, nobody really, it looks like some shoving and a little wrestling,

but they'll be all right. They'll get over. Nobody really throws punches anymore. Well, they got helmets on, too. Yeah. So you don't want to hurt your hand. Next stop you being there.

You can't carry your tire because you broke your hand on the guy. helmet. All right. We ready for some spot on, spot off? Sure.

Hey, it's Dale Jr. And for the latest DBC gear, we need you to go to shop. Dot dirtymomedia.com. We've got plenty of options

and we're adding new stuff all the time. Shop. Dot dirtymobedia.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? Also, shout out to our friends at Fox Factory Vehicles. They are bringing us this week's segment of spot-on, spot-off. Fox Factory Vehicles delivers the thrill. They have turnkey, hassle-free, custom trucks and SUVs that are built to dominate any terrain all while retaining their factory warranty.

And if you want more power, you can even go supercharged. You can build and price your dream ride today at Fox Factory Vehicles.com, where performance meets precision. Okay, number one, SVG dominates for his third win of the year. has 17 playoff points and is the third seed in the playoffs who with those playoff points he will advance through round one of the playoffs spot on spot off freddie um it will be challenging he's got a gap but he's right now i mean i say i know he says he's the third seed but he's actually at the playoffs start today he'd be sixth in points once you factor in everybody's regular season standing points um so he's he would have i think barry is the 12 seed right now

has probably six stage points, six playoff points, I think, from the playoff, from his win and a stage win. So it's not a huge gap to 12th, you know, it's probably, which he also could get seven more points at Watkins Glend, it looks like. But, you know, it's not as big as a gap as he would need, I think, to comfortably advance. Plus, you're going to tough racetracks. You're going to Darlington. You're going to Bristol. Gateway, obviously, is no prize. but the, you know, it would be, I would say no,

just for the fact of the racetracks we're going to, but to your point you've made, sorry, I need the list back, Tommy. To your point. They found a lot of speed kind of across the board in the last two months that maybe they're going to step their game up at these ovals as well. I think they're going to finish with enough consistency in the first part of the playoffs to advance. I do.

They're putting this stuff together. I mean, and now with all the confidence that he has, of winning all these races. You look at that stat right there. He's the quickest to four-cup wins in the modern era. 34 races, right? He's won four races. Yeah.

Tony Stewart's second, 47. Jeff Gordon won four races and 66 races. So he's pretty good. Obviously, road course is road courses, but road courses that are in our sport, and they always have been, right? I mean, it's not like we're just coming up. Hey, we're going to go run road courses, right?

I mean, it used to be the first race of the year, right? At some time. At Riverside, right? I mean, we've been doing this a long time and just he's going to put himself in position, I think, to advance. And also, too, that first round is all about not making mistakes as you've seen, right? And so he might be the lowest pressure of all those guys of like, hey, I'd just go run 20th today and I'll make it. And usually that's right. Darlington in particular is one of those places where two or three guys take themselves out.

And they're like, oh, my goodness. Like all you got to do is finish and you'll be all right. So if he plays it smart and doesn't have any any bad races or any mistakes, he probably could advance out of that first. Yeah, you look at his results from earlier this year. He finished 20th at Darlington. That's good enough to maintain that gap. He finished second of last at Bristol.

I don't remember what happened. I said he was a DNF for suspension. We wrecked them. Oh, that's right. You did wreck him. That was nice. But, you know, that's a place where that can't happen. You know what I mean?

That's the mistakes you can't have that big, you know, where you forfeit all that. gap in one race. So it like you said, he's got to run, you know, 15th to 20th and he would easily advance, I think. And listen, I think that if he easily advances through round one, you don't want to see him in round two because the roval's in there. And now that's, you know, he's, because I don't think, I don't think I'm going out on a limb too far by saying he's not a title contender. You know, I don't think that he's going to put himself in the final four or, you know, he does somehow get in the final four. I don't know that he's going to outrace the other three

guys at Phoenix for the championship. But, you know, that's a guy that could disrupt things if he advances through the first round. Now he goes out and possibly wins the roval and steals another spot for the round of eight. Then, oh, by the way, in the round of eight, we have Talladega. So you never know what the hell could happen there. And that's exactly why these points are like that. For us to talk about this and the fans to think about it, I mean, it's not a, I mean, everybody loves consistency. We all love consistency.

That's how we've always been brought up. But wins are wins. I mean, in any other sport, wins escalate you to the top, right? I mean, SVG is tied for the most wins for the year, right? Yeah. Three wins. How can you complain about him not being in the playoffs? Right.

Yeah. How can you say, ah, no, he doesn't belong. Why? I saw a tweet last night. I think Lambert showed it to me, and I can't remember the guy's name, Adam, something. I think it was. He said, I don't understand why people are complaining about SVG being in the playoffs with his three wins, but nobody's saying anything about Josh

Barry who doesn't have three top tens but he has a win you know like you know like there's a disconnect there somewhere of just because Barry won an oval and in dominating fashion you know albeit but you know he's no more of a championship contender at this point than SVG is

you know it's just and where do you land on it because you know I'm always I always say like I was love the purity of just a full season long points but if that was the case my guys got no chance of the champion you know like and the current state of things we have all these DNFs like our season's over two months ago you're kind of the same boat like where do you stand on the system it depends on what seat you sit in right

if you're if you're a driver you like the purest part of racing right where like Tommy's talking about how you run all season long and stacking top tens and not making mistakes you pay something as a fan and knowing that this sport is about fans and entertaining like what we have is super entertaining. And I've been on the positive side of it, right? Get a win and you're in, right? So all those years, except for one, I wouldn't have pointed my way in, but a win got me in, right? So I like the format because it works out for a guy like myself that maybe isn't scoring so many stage points that you have this big buffer. But for the fans, like as you're watching the playoffs, like last year, it was incredible. I mean, when you think about homestead and you think about Martinsville and you think

about all the drama and all the last laps and you're like, man, this is what it's all about. So I think it's accomplished what it should accomplish. I do like the conversations that there's been and there is ongoing about how do we change it to make that final four or that final eight a little

bit more, not just one race kills you. Right? But I think there's probably a way to do that and still keep the fire and keep the excitement without it just being if you have one bad race you're out, right? And so I feel like there's probably a good way of doing that.

But it's been a super entertaining. Oh, this is by far the most entertaining way to do it. It's just, you know, just everybody has the problem with obviously the single race champion. Yeah. All right. Number two, SVG is the greatest road course racer in NASCAR history spot on, spot off. Tommy.

Four wins in the modern era and 34 races and all of them been on road courses. I don't know, Mike. You racing against them. What do you think? I mean, you watch them. I say, I say spot on. You can't say spot off. You'd just be ignorant if you said spot off.

I will say this, though, is this car and what we have now and the amount of races we have now is different. I think Ambrose would probably have been in that conversation had he sat in a Gibbs car, sat in a Hendrick car all those years, right? Because he had that edge. He did. I mean, he was a standout as well. But he was driving for JTG or he was driving for, you know, Richard Hedy or RPM at the time. And they weren't crushing it everywhere. else where I feel like track houses in this next gen car in particular the the plane feels much

more level I think if you went back 15 years and you put ambrose in this environment it would be very similar I think they both had that kind of standout performance but the level of execution that SVG has is incredible for somebody new in our sport because we've seen fast guys I mean you guys are talking about with Connor I'm super fast he's just as fast as SVG but crashes in practice makes mistakes. Oh, he's only 18. Yeah, yeah, for sure. But not speeding on pit road, executing restarts. I mean, he had to execute three perfect restarts yesterday as well. And you guys all know how that is. You could lead the whole day. All you got to do is sell it off in there and your day's over. So he's done a great job of executing. So I don't think you can argue that. But times are

definitely different now. And I think that him and Ambrose would definitely be, you know, neck and neck if they were in the same era. Yeah, for sure. And you look at other guys. I mean, Chase won. I feel like it's about just catching lightning in a bottle. They got it right now. The track house cars were fast. Ross has always been fast on road courses since he went over there. Ross won a road course.

Yeah. So that's enough to tell you that their cars are fast. Suarez, Daniel won, you know, Sonoma a couple years ago. You know, SVG wasn't dominating like this when he drove the trackhouse cars last year. You know, so, I mean, obviously I think there's no argument right now. He's clearly the best road course racer of this era, definitely this car. But, I mean, you go back. I mean, Jeff Gordon had nine road course wins.

Tony had seven. They only ran two a year. You know, you let them guys run five a year. They're going to stack up a bunch of... They won them without SVG there. Okay, that's fine. You can only race against the guys you race against. I know that.

I mean, it's... Chase Elliott has dominated... I mean, he has the most road course wins with this car until SVG. Now he's... I mean, obviously, he's racking up to top fives. He's still good. Yeah. But SVG is a really good road.

That's it. End of story. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's just... Spot on. His car control is unbelievable. You don't see the thing wiggle. You don't see him make any mistakes.

I mean, even when he was trying to mess with Connor on the last lap or two to go there, he was hitting him in the right spots for Connor not to wreck. I mean, he knows what to do. Michael, the biggest thing for me that I take away from it, somebody, Chris Windham, texted me about this yesterday, actually, as the race was over. He said, what makes this guy so good that nobody else can figure it out like he does? And I said, I don't understand because,

you know, SMT data, we have everything available. I know you're doing plenty of studying. I'm sure you're watching everything he does, these road course races. But unlike, you know, sometimes you see a guy, a guy that gets really good at a short track or a guy that gets really good at a mile and a half, you can just kind of go out there and figure it out

and get closer and close that gap. It seems like nobody's able to apply whatever he's doing. You know, you have all the data in front of you. It's how hard is it to just say, you can't see it. Yeah, you can't see it. I'm sorry. Well, I mean, it's like, it's like Denny Hamlin at Martinsville

in the old car. Yeah, you could look at his break trace and throttle traces, but it doesn't mean you can go do it. Just do it, yeah. Because he has a feel, like he has a feel and a timing of how he's releasing the brake and putting wheel to it and sliding the tires at just the right time and catching the angle in the apex just right. That's one thing SMT doesn't do well, right?

It's got GPS, we've got this camera system, but it doesn't show you how you're actually pointed. I think, you know, we have these conversations, obviously. Every team is having these conversations, like how is he so good and how we're going to beat him? it's the fact that he's really fast he's really good at what he's doing but he's just not making any mistakes and he's just executing everything perfectly yes he has probably a tenth or two in the bag at times but that's not really what the impressive part is you know because a j was like that too a j could just blistering fast at times right but tires would fall off or mistake here or there so I think that it's just the fact that he's putting it all together every time hasn't missed, right?

He hasn't missed. Like you said, though, in the call of cars, he did miss a little bit, right? Because he didn't have that two or three tents on the field. But, you know, you hear the commentators talk about the right foot breaking and all this stuff. It's not that. It's that he's good at everything. It's just timing. He's just good at everything.

Yeah. Right? And he's got the right rhythm and the right mindset and the right technique that just extracts the most out of the race cars without sliding it around, without beating up the tires, without making mistakes. So it's everything. And I don't think you're just going to learn that overnight.

Just like he's not going to learn Martinsville overnight, right? It's going to take time. Would he be as dominant in the last generation car? Do you feel like? Oh, that's tough, probably, because of what he's good. at would actually benefit him more in that car. Yeah. You know, like when you do talk about the right foot braking,

you talk about using the clutch, the old car. He's doing it in Xfinity. Yeah, when it comes to wheel off and it comes to all that stuff, I think it really matters. So I think he would have been for sure. Brad Keselowski and fans are calling for less road courses. Brad said on X that NASCAR Oval track races consistently have significantly better ratings,

attendance and sponsorship than road course races. clearly the Oval Racing crowd should get the dove here. Two to four road course races is plenty enough. I think it's... Spot on, spot off. Spot off. I mean, just, I mean... Freddy's like, smart.

I think his fans should just call for a reset of a year. Poor brand. Yeah, I think Brad is one of those guys that when this next-gen car came, the road course stuff was over for him. Yeah. And, you know, when it comes to the car, crowds like if yes the fans the fans love road races they love it now sonoma doesn't hold a hundred thousand people or have stands for a hundred thousand people a place was packed yeah

and it's a good crowd and put on a good show obviously i'm biased but i mean you can't ask a guy that's not very good at road courses if you think there should be more road courses it's like asking me if i should there should be more dovers yeah there shouldn't be more dovers no more So really not. Exactly. Yeah, it's all a matter of personal opinion. And for me, Bubba aside, like as a spotter, I don't like road courses because I don't like to not be able to see the whole racetrack.

You know, my job is to. He doesn't like to share. I don't like to share. I'm a bad shareer. But, you know, so that's my, you know, I don't like, especially like Sonoma is the best one. We only lose really turn 11, which I still could call if I wanted to from up there. But, like, it's hard to get the exit. So just let the one guy call it down there.

but, you know, for me, you know, Chicago, you can't see anything. You know, Mexico, you can't see anything. Walkins Glen, you can see three or four turns. But, you know, so I hate giving up that control for me. So personally, I don't want to see any road courses, but there definitely needs to have some Tommy. But what is, what do you think is the perfect number? I mean, do we just keep, because we're at six now. I don't think we're going to seven, but we're at six now.

You know, is that too many? Is that just enough? Do you want one or two less? Where are you at? I think it's enough just to break up. the consistency, I'm going to say, the consistency of the guys that are really good on the intermediates, the guys that are really good on the short tracks. Now you got guys that are really good at the road courses. Then you have some guys that are just pretty good at all of them.

So it balances out a little bit. I mean, I mean, I think right now the nine car Chase Elliott is probably the average of good everywhere compared to the field right now, right? He's done, I think if you look at his stats, he's probably been the best on the short tracks, intermediate, and road courses. So, I mean, he's, it just creates more storylines, right? And that's what we need. We, we only do this, like, again, all the other sports have 70, 80 to 160 games a year, right? There's different storylines going on constantly. We have 36.

I don't want any more, right? But we have 36, 38 storylines a year. So we have to stay in the headlines. And, you know, I think it's good that somebody like SVG is dominating right now in this because it's going to keep that story all the way into the playoffs, right? So like you said, Freddie, if he gets into the second round, he's probably going into the next round. Yeah, it'll be challenging for sure. And for me, it's just, you know, if I spot it for SVG, I'd be like, yeah, let's get 12 of these things on the schedule.

Like, you know what I mean? But obviously, you know, giving it up. And it's a bit of a struggle for us at times, which Bubba has gotten much better at it. But, you know, like yesterday just seemed like we were just couldn't help ourselves at the end of the race. We were finding every wreck or spinning out off a two because of the dirt. But yeah, for me, it just seems like four to five is the number. You know, I think that, you know, obviously you don't want to get rid of Sonoma. You don't want to get rid of Watkins Glen.

They're just mainstays in the sport. They put on great shows. The damn crowds there are phenomenal. Cota has put on great racing, I feel like, for the last handful of years. I think it's got to stay on the schedule. Then you mix in a street course somewhere, whether it's, you know, I think Chicago's coming off the schedule, did hear rumors yesterday, that Mexico possibly is also. So now you got San Diego more than likely happening.

So that's, you know, but then, you know, I don't know, a four to five. I always think those three mainstays and then, you know, mix in a international race or a street course is perfect. If you want to have a fifth one where we have an international race and a street course. Or, you know, I think you can eliminate the roval. I don't know. How do you feel about the, I mean, obviously, as a road course race, you probably enjoy it. But, like, would you prefer running the roval or the oval in Charlotte? I'll answer it like this.

There's a lot of really good, proper road courses in United States, and they're not located in Charlotte. Yeah. You know, I think that there's a lot of cool places we could go to other than racing on the Charlotte. On the Charlotte. Yeah. It's just not a great road course. it's exciting because of, you know, the chaos. But it's not, it's just not great for, you know, for a driver as far as feeling like you're getting a whole lot out of the car.

Yeah. Yeah. I wonder, I wonder that about somebody like somebody like yourself. That feels like you got Road America, you got Mossport, you got Montreal, you got a lot of great places we could go to. And then also, too, the Charlotte Oval race is so good now. Like, so we should go back to two because it actually makes sense because the race is a good race. because the race is good. I don't want to eliminate any road courses.

Obviously, I'm biased on that. But if I was going to eliminate one, it would be the roval. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, the rumors, it's been going on for weeks now. San Diego seems like it's happening. Chicago seems like it's coming off.

Mexico, you hear both ways. Like, it's coming off. It's staying. It's coming off. It's staying. I heard yesterday, though, potential they both come off. Mexico and Chicago, but not for good.

You know, there's potential to go back to those places. if need be. Mossport has definitely sounds like it's going to happen at some point. I don't know about next year, but some point we're going to go to Mossport, which is good. Chicago land rumors popped up again yesterday that it could be the one replacing Chicago and San Diego replaces Mexico City. So there's a lot of different stuff going on. I don't think Brad had many of its comment like going to seven.

I don't think we're going to seven next year. But, yeah, I think we're going to have the same five or six and that's fine. You know, I think it's, and you've got to mix it up. It's got to be different types of road courses. like, you know, I don't know why we ever stopped going to Road America. Like, the crowd there, the Fourth of July weekend, that one year was insane. And it's just like a, just one of the most iconic, you know, road courses in our country. But for sure, let's learn one next year or two.

Let's go to two for me. We need to see Emerson every now and then. I mean, what about, let me ask you this, because that's a place that Bubba has gotten much, much better everywhere else, it seems like. and we kind of still struggled at Sonoma. What is it about Sonoma? Because it just seems like it's just, it seems technical. It's more high speed cornering, it feels like.

It's more of a rhythm racetrack watching it from the outside. Is that accurate? Yeah, you just have to be pinpoint accurate. I mean, it's one line. There's only one line. And your approach and your angles are really important. It's easy to make mistakes. It's easy to blow the tires off at any point.

So it's just you've got to be buttoned up. And, you know, that's, tough to do when you're trying to push yourself to get to the limit of the speed rather than be at the speed and kind of back it down a little bit so I think that those guys that you know Bubba's done a great job of finding speed at road course of them but he's pushing himself hard to do that and you see that right because he's right on the edge you know of you know Chicago he's right on the edge but he's finding speed at Sonoma you can't be on the edge but you still got to be yeah it's hard hard to do that it's a hard to do that it's a

It seemed like, you know, I was talking to, we were talking about this, Exfinity with Dean, who's really never been there before. And it's like, it seemed to be like the harder he tried to drive, the worse it got. You know, it seemed like it's a better place. Like, I talked to Luke about this all time. Like, 95% is better than 105% because you could easily, it's just too easy to make mistakes. Like, it's just too easy to get offline. And then once you get offline, then it screws up the next three corners and, and you're just chasing your tail for the rest of the line. It's like you're talking about turn two. I mean, it was impossible yesterday if there was any dirt there. Yeah. And you just didn't

know. And so if you're at the limit and you're spinning out, there's no way around it. And so you're trying to be like one mile an hour slow enough to give yourself a little forgiveness. Yeah, but not too. Yeah, and even like Chase, you know, Chase Elliott late in the race went off there. But even earlier in the race, he went off there. It was a strength for him most of the race. He was really quick from two to three.

But he was right on that edge. And both times when it was dirty, slid off. So, I mean, it's just a fine line for sure. The clash at Bowman Gray will be back in 26. It deserves to host a regular season date. Spot on. Spot on. I don't know about a regular season. It serves its purpose perfectly.

Yeah. It's a great race. It's entertaining. All that stuff's good. It's still not a place you want to go around a points race there. We don't put like 40 of us out there and just start running each other over. Now, North Wilkesboro is close. Yeah. Right? Because it still turns out to be a pretty good race there.

I think North Wilkesboro would benefit greatly. from a points raise just on the racing standpoint of getting each other in traffic. And I think that would create passing opportunities more so than we see in the All-Star race. But yeah, I don't think we, I've did this date for the clash after last year, we have to see what the crowd does

because we always kind of have that three-year swell of, I would get support, support, and then it starts to fade off. So as long as the support is at Bowman-Grain, I think it will continue because that crowd, I mean, they show up every Saturday. I think that, that atmosphere, that was electric this year.

I don't know that we should ever move it unless that starts to fade away because that was, Tommy, I know that was a perfect, you know, model, you got the modified race before. I wouldn't call it a race. You watched your old car win. Yeah, it won again the other night. Did it? I think he won like 10 grand. He took the last place.

The challenge or whatever. That's good. But yeah, I think everybody would be spot on to that it's returning back for the clash because we don't have to go to California. We can go to Winston-Salem, which is slightly closer. But, yeah, we don't ever need to run a points race at a moment. Per Adam Stern, Dodge Ram has considered doing a reality show of drivers trying out for a ride with its new NASCAR program

similar to the old Raus Roush Racing Driver X concept. Would that be, do we think that would be cool? Yeah, I think as long, they need to tie it into the short track program somehow. You know, you don't want to just invite anybody. I remember bits and pieces of that at Roush Gong show and it seemed like there were some guys there that probably didn't need to be there. But this needs to be, you know, your regional series champions, your prestigious race, you know, the tour champion, the cars tours champions, you know,

whatever other, the super late model series, UA, whatever it is, you know, the West series, you know, whatever these local champions, and then maybe the big races, you know, snowball derby, turkey derby, whoever, whatever race you want to go to. Because I remember when I was growing up, the modified race of champions was it. You know, they ran Pocono. They ran like a three quarter mile over around Pocono. And every, the modified guy went to all these races that were, you know, Pocono qualifiers. You know, if you won this race, you got into the Pocono race. And the fields that would

show up at these other racetracks for that Pocono qualifier made the, you know, made the short track program that much better. I think you can do something similar with this where you're rewarding these short track guys with an opportunity to race for a chance to whatever, run a full season in truck or whatever it is. But I think it's got to be talent driven, no matter what. Yeah, and you've got to have the right people recruiting that and picking that. It needs to be a panel. Yeah. There needs to be a professional panel. that knows about racing and race car drivers, right? Not entertainment.

Exactly. And there's a lot of other good race car drivers out there that hasn't won championships, right? But you can tell he's really good race car drivers not in the best equipment and can do things. I mean, there's two or three guys up in the Northeast that are capable of being part of this gong show and probably making out pretty good.

But, yeah, it's interesting. I'm glad they're seeking a new pool of talent to be part of the craft and, you know, truck series. I hope it works out. I hope they can put it all together to, I don't know how they're going to do it because they really don't have anything yet. So I don't know who's going to, you know, where's just...

Yeah, because you can't just be a time trial session, Where's the team coming from? Where's the truck? There's not even a submission truck finished yet. There is nothing, there is not even a group of Dodge people that are on the same page of what they're doing yet. So I think hopefully that's going to come together pretty quickly and they can get this going. I mean, it's, well, it's only seven months away. Are they supposed to raise next year?

Yeah. Yeah. And they're looking to have a total of eight trucks in the series next year. Better get to it. Yeah. I would, what's the ideal, like, what would you think would be a proper way to evaluate talent? Because you can't just, can't just send them out there and go, right, one, you know, run as fast as you can. And we'll see who the fastest guy is because that's, there's guys that can race.

There's guys that can run fast last, but there's also guys, a lot of those guys are not good at race, you know, race craft wise. So what's the, what's so hard about it is it's, it's no matter what it's going to be subjective. And so you got to have the right people around it that, that no racing, no racing, race cars can kind of weave through some of the the BS with it. And like Tommy was saying, you want to give guys maybe a shot that wouldn't have a shot otherwise, you know, that are, you know, outperforming their equipment, but probably are never going to have an opportunity to sit in good equipment. And there's no, you would have to go build 15 trucks. Yeah. To do it right. And let him go race, right? And you're just not going to be able to do that. So it's always going to

be based on how ultimately fast you can go. And, um, but you find a place that has fall off and you find a place that, you know, wears out tires and you do a 50-lap run instead of doing a five-lap run, right, and see who can manage that best. At the end of the day, Roush found talent. Yeah, good ones. For sure. I mean, some of them, no, but. Who came?

I mean, I remember Hossfeld did it. He didn't obviously come out of there, but was it, was that? No, he ran some races. Did he run some races? Yeah, he ran. Who came, was that Darnell? Darnel came out of that. David Reagan.

David Reagan. Yeah. I mean, there's definitely value to it. Like we always say on here, we prefer, for a perfect world, you always want talent over money. So we just need to try to, this might be another step towards getting back to that. I think it's a great idea. Well, per usual spot-on, spot off was full of some great opinions. And we want to give a shout out again to our friends at Fox Factory Vehicles for bringing us that segment once again this week.

Fox Factory Vehicles is always delivering the thrill for drivers who demand the best. They have fully custom, turnkey, hassle-free, trucks and SUVs that are built to dominate any terrain. all while retaining their factory warranty, Freddie. Yeah, whether you're heading to the track or the trail, these rides are ready. No do it yourself, no delays. Carson, I mean, I don't know that Sunday Fonday with a Fox Factory vehicle is a great idea. Might make it more of a Sunday Sunday. Yeah, I mean, you'd have to cut out some of the other activities on your Sunday Fun Day.

But where would you like to take your Fox Factory vehicle? Man, I think it would just be fun to have for the summer. And, like one thing I like to do is, like trackside parking at a racetrack. Like to go tailgate, hang out. We did that at South Boston a couple of weeks. weeks ago. So I feel like it would be fun to have one of these for something like that. That would be perfect. And if you really want to feel the rush, kick it into overdrive with their optional supercharge models and unleash the power. I don't know. We definitely don't need to let you

have Sunday, Sunday with a supercharged model. Maybe somebody else to drive. But you are in the driver's seat at Fox Factory Vehicles. And you can head to Fox Factory Vehicles.com to build and price to your next dream rise. They are available through partnering dealerships nationwide. Fox Factory Vehicles brings the precision and performance that you've been dreaming of, and you can visit Fox Factory Vehicles.com today and take the wheel. All right, it's time for Reaction Theater. How many calls do we get, Alex? Like 80 or so?

80. I tell you, it wasn't a very good race yesterday. I mean, not that it wasn't a good race. It was a good finish, but it kind of gets strung out and boring a little bit there. Plus, we probably, you know, I asked for clean their act up a little bit. The people on here were getting a little out of control. You should have called in from one of your wine tours, Freddie. I don't think I got to operate a phone at that point today.

Wednesday was a long day for. Congrats to Doug and Gina, by the way. They're now engaged. I don't know what the hell she's thinking, but good luck to them. That was a, that was, we properly celebrated the lovely engagement. I saw a couple pictures. I'm sure you saw more than a couple. All you, Kyle Bush fans, turn into SVG fans.

Your wife would have you drained. You would look like. like raisins. You might even have a kid or two by now. Jesus. Kyle's, that's the T-shirt guy, right? Yeah.

Andrew's T-shirt. One legend's winner. He's one more win away from, yeah. From a county. We said five legend car wins equals one cup for the Cowbush fans. So they can get lucky after the next one, which he's probably going to get because I think he wins just about every week now. He's raised to that.

But I need to ask him, like, we need to find out, because he's racing the Masters Division, which is you got to be 40 and over. Like, could he not race against? Bubba and all them? Like, is he not want Keelan to kick his ass? Like, Keelan kicks everybody else's ass over there. Like, but, you know, I don't know if there's rules or he can't go down. That sounds like a veteran right there.

He's doing the right thing. He's getting those wins. He's doing it for the fans right now. He's stacking those devs. He's just trying to gain some confidence. Oh, boy. I bet Wacker Raj looks like Dale Earnhardt after he won the Daytono 500. You probably had everyone lined up high-fiving Josh Barry for finally

wrecking Carson Hall. I thought it's going somewhere else. Yeah, me too. Oh, man. Probably, I mean, it's such a weird deal that, you know, Carson, Carson, I felt bad for Carson listed in the Dale's show where Dale's talking about how he has no friends. And Dale's just like, you sure, maybe one guy here? No, he's like, nope, no, I made some high raising buddies. That's it.

He's like, not one lay bottle guy or not the cup guy. He kept trying. Dale's like just like, are you sure? Are you his friend, Michael? I think that's by choice. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, obviously you see it on a weekly basis with him. And I think we talked about this a little bit of Pocono, but like what's it like being Carson Hosefars teammate? I know everybody that's come on here from Spire talks about maybe he doesn't show up to meetings on time and that frustrates them. But other than that, you know, what's it like working with him, we can get out. Interesting. I mean, it just is. I mean, we're just so different, right? Like age gap and there's a lot of gaps.

We're very different. So it's a lot of gaps. been a learning curve for me to say the least in the beginning i was like oh all right i'm going to help i'm going to be able to fix this this is how we're going to do things this is and then i learned really quickly that nope no we're not and i better just focus on my stuff and uh try to get get myself as prepared as i can um you know he's young right he's young he's super fast i mean he's incredibly fast. And yeah, he's growing up in a different world than we grew up in. And man, I did a lot of stupid stuff when I was 20-somethings. And not under the microscope that, you know, that everybody

is under right now. I mean, it's just a different world that we live in. But he's super fast. He's going to figure it out. You know, these things take care of themselves organically. Yeah. One way or another. And sometimes you learn the hard way. And sometimes you get away with more than you should and it all you figure it out all comes out in the wash of it does I mean took the words right yeah Tommy Tommy likes to think he's the next day learned hard so

yeah right don't even that's a terrible comparison I do I do not he really didn't say that I like to wind the clock sometimes fuck yeah hi Dylan hey Tommy

tighten your lug nuts bro that sounds like a guy that might have won some money on Ty Dillon. Yeah. I'm telling you. That motherfucker Sv. Jesus don't miss. Bitch-ass boy Bowman. Getting a little taste of his own medicine. Go 23.

Bitch-ass boy Bowman. Listen, they were hugging each other this week. I said, so it was all kumbaya after the race, even, you know, I was texting back and forth with Alex on the way home for Chicago. And then I saw the two of them talking and then somehow they Bubba ended up buying him dinner this week or something. So all this is going on. Bubba walks in for our pre-race meeting about two hours before I said, so what lab do you want to wreck this 48? He said,

I think I'm going to drive up there in the parade lab and just get it out of the way. But yeah, there's, I mean, I don't think, again, I don't think, if anything, Bubba might have been the, it was probably the one in the wrong last week. So I don't think Alex said anything wrong. The one in the wrong last week. Yeah, I think. Yeah, I think.

Allegedly. Allegedly. Allegedly. I think I can only speak for myself. All right. Last one. A few weeks ago, Carson Eledge was saying how much she hates snakes. But I just was watching the show, and she has a snake tattoo on her left arm.

But she must not hate him that bad. Ironic isn't it? By the way, Carson, I'm single. Word. What was it? What did he say it? Word. Word.

It's a lot. Why is the snake on the right? So she can't see it. It's on the outside. Yeah. Honestly, this was one of the ones. This was one of the ones I kind of got for like no reason. Like it has no meaning or anything like that.

It just was a, I was 19 and I had free will. Can we invent a reason? I actually did get this after a breakup, for real. You know those are permanent, right? Yep. Yeah. They don't think about that one. Oh, that's so cool.

I think it'll be cool when I'm an old lady and I'm like covered it. That'd be badass. It looks like a cool old lady with tattoos. Oh, yeah. Does your dumb asses have tattoos? No. I don't have anything stupid. Jack does. Jack does? Yeah. What does he got? He's got a cardinal for his grandfather just looking after him.

Gotcha. It's pretty cool. Yeah. I got somebody who's concerned about Jack this week. I got that little bit of that this weekend. What do you mean? It was Bubba. Jack was wandering around Bubba's house. Yeah, he was at his house having lunch. I was, I was wondering what? Beth was, I'm like, what are you doing? She goes, I'm making Jack lunch. I'm like, Jack lunch. Oh, you must be feeling because he's working at Rick Wareers now. He's, you know, he's got a real job. He's got a real job. He's got a real, life, you know. I'm like, oh, he must be trying to save some money. Next thing you know, he's eating at Bubba's house. I'm like, Bubba's got plenty of money. Go to his fridge. Use his food. I think Jack's, I don't know, are we permitted to got it. Is that a girlfriend now today? So Jack's girlfriend, yeah. So Jack's girlfriend is Bubba's babysitter. So they were there. I think this is the first time I left old Bex at home for the, they were out there for, you know, Sonoma things. But, yeah, so they said, yeah, we got one camera in the house. We just saw Jack wandering back and

four to the fridge a couple times. They were concerned about maybe him not being 21. I said, no, he's 21. Yeah. He'll be okay. All right. Well, to leave an audio message 24-7, you can call our number at 704-802-9-572,

and we'll play the best ones each week on the show. All right, it's time for a little AskDBC. You can sit in your questions on X every week using hashtag AskDBC. And Danielle would like to know, or she says, I saw SG, my gosh. Hey, slow down, slick. I saw SVG was asking about... I saw SBG was asking about

Zillich and Byron's tire pressures this weekend. Do other teams have access to this? If so, where is the line? Teams seem to know everything. Other drivers and teams are doing at all times. I would like to know their tire pressure too. How do I get that information? Do you get that information?

No, not from their alliance. Yeah. They were teammates. So, you know, they were... Well, they're alliance to Hendrick, too. So they get to see their air pressure. SVG, this is probably, talking about Saturday, I would assume, because Zillich didn't race Sunday.

So SVG and Zillich were teammates on Saturday. So they, yes, you obviously share all that information within your team. I would say for us, we would know probably what JGR is doing, I would think. You know, as far as pressures-wise, I would assume you guys, I do despite, I guess Hendrick, right? No, you don't get any information? We would love to, though. That would be great. Yeah.

So you want to apply for that? We're going to push for that today, actually. Yeah, it looked like in a practice, you guys were a little awful. three cars spun. Yeah, we left on air pressure. Air pressure was off. Yes. Yes, we were.

It was funny. I'm sure you guys were the same way, Tommy, probably the same way. But I get a overview of practice expectations beforehand. And it was like the practice fast lap was about the same as what expected was. But the fall off was way more than what they, I think, what it was expected. So, you know, it's hard to add. And that's just based off of, you know, it's hard to go because last year was obviously fresh payment.

and you don't really know what to expect after a year of sitting there and they even patched a couple places and no turn one was patched. You know, how hard is that to go in kind of with an unknown? Because, I mean, we ran into the same thing I think we did. I don't know about you. Coda was another one where... Everybody did.

Yeah, it was just like, oh, shit, this is way off from what we expected. Yeah, for sure. I think that, you know, you also have a new tire there too, right? You know that new asphalt's going to lose a little. I wouldn't expect it to lose that much, so. And it was a lot. But they had problems with the asphalt. You remember originally it was moving and all the same.

stuff and they passed it and sealed it and then they had to seal it again. So there's a lot of unknowns going into that. But your targets were better than our targets because we were targeting like two and a half seconds faster than that. Oh really? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we were definitely off on all that. Yeah. It's tough. But yes, as far as sharing information, you get, like, I know we get a lot of stuff from Gibbs, obviously, and vice versa. They get some stuff from us as well. I don't know, like, what you guys do or how much do you get, Tommy, how much do you get from? We get everything. Yeah. Yeah. We get everything from our you just sounds like you just I mean you got to you guys are getting well somebody's foot to the fire here you guys get the baseline I don't I don't want to no no yeah it's it's one of those things where

there's key partners in the GM program and you know I think it's track house and RCR and obviously hendrick and they have you know the information they share we're not a part of that group we do share some information with with colleague and um with highac as well you know as far as maybe some CFD or, you know, wind tunnel stuff, things like that, that, you know, maybe baseline arrow maps and things. But, you know, our relationship with Hendrik, obviously, the engine shop, you know, we get great engines and we get some support on, you know, processes and procedures. But when it comes to that key information, that's sort of off limits. But, yeah, it's all part of it.

Yeah, for sure. What kind of shit shows did you guys see this week? There wasn't much going on. I didn't see a lot. The last lap of the Archer race was to show. shit show. Like that was, that was, I don't know if you got to watch this, but it was, I mean, I think the right guy won.

The right guy won, but it was, it was not looking like the right guy was going to win. And even him, like, I felt bad, poor Jack Wood, you know, he ends up, I don't know where he's right. He's running third or fourth, whatever, wherever he, I don't know if they choose or not. He's in that green car back there, but like they shove Swalich off the racetrack when they get to the top of the hill.

He comes back on behind Wood and ends up turning wood because I'm sure he's just seeing rail. trying to go back to the front. So it's just like you did talk about last week, Tommy, where it's like just fuck everybody on the last restart. Yeah, what's crazy. I mean, so Wallace did a great job all race long. But Launday had a lot of speed.

Yeah. But this right here was like, I'm not even trying to pass you. And then like just the good thing was just commit to running through the grass right there instead of trying to miss the, you're going to probably miss the corner. You come out at least behind them guys. Here comes Jack getting dumped by the 18. car right there or it's coming right here.

We're correct into him. Turns him. Jack stays over and then and then the other two take care of himself and open the door right back up for Swalich. But I think at the end of the day, the right guy won and I think everybody's glad to see that. I was also impressed coming to the checker that Echis wasn't more aggressive because Swalich kind of moves those guys in 11 and Echus could easily just like hung a left and

knocked him out of the ballpark or something and didn't do that. So that was refreshing to see. what else was this weekend anything i the tornado that me that was tornado in Iowa that was scary that was i mean i don't know what the hell out you know you're sitting in a pit area and all of a sudden tornado sirens are going off you're like okay now what like there's where do you go happened to us one time in nashville at xfinity race and i was sitting with tad kitchiector i was driving the jtg car and he's like i think you should take your family and head to the tunnel And I was like, bah, what's talking about?

Yeah, it's no big deal. We're in a motorhome. It won't float away, right? Yeah. Yeah, my first time I came down here, when I first came down, I stayed at Mike Herman's house between, I forget. I spot up a Bubba Greenville pickings, the first race we ever worked together, like, 2010. And then I stayed for South Boston a week after, and I'm from Long Island. We don't have tornadoes on Long Island.

I'm from Arizona. We don't have anything. It's just hot. So I get there and the thing pops up on a news tornado warning and I'm like, Herm, what are we going to do? He's like, I don't worry about it. He's like, we're not. It's not going to have.

Don't worry about it. And I've gotten desensitized to it now that I've been here a while. But at the time, he's like, I said, well, where are there? There's a box on the TV. There's a map with a box. I go, where are we in the box? He's like, well, right in the middle of it. And I'm like, where do we got to be?

He's like, I'll tell you don't worry about it. And then I'll tell you what, you know, it's end of them. You hear sirens. you hear like the I mean this thing was like six miles from Herm's house and I'm like you sure like I'm freaking out he's like no we're good and he's like as long as he goes I'll tell you what there's two old guys that are on the porch down the road for me like two houses down across the street he goes they're out there every day he's like as long as they're out there we're good he's like they know everything they know I look out there there's no old guys on

the porch I'm like where's the bathtub where the hell are we going to go he's like I'm telling you we're going to be fine and we are we were but I was like are you sure he goes I've never, this now did tornado warning pops up and I'm like, yeah, we'll be fine. Oh, this was a bit of a shit show. This thing blew up right in front of us on the way up the hill yesterday. This van. What blew up? The van blew up.

That bus right there, whatever it is. My favorite part of this whole scenario when I took this picture. So I thought that this pickup truck, so this bus had been sitting there probably for, I don't know, three or four minutes. I don't know. It overheated, plus blew a line off. It was just steaming out. There's a picture on my Twitter for anybody that wants to go look at it.

So there's just a van parked there with streaming. anti-freeze behind it. But the guy in the white pickup truck is the real shit show of it because there's like four lanes there. The guy behind him, so I thought it was like somebody bringing water up to this guy

to come help. He just sat there laying on the horn. He's like waving at the guy to get out of the way. The guy's like, go around. Oh my God. That definitely counts then. Yeah.

I was like, I was like, I don't what, I mean, there's nothing else coming. There's three other lanes and the guy just sitting there laying on the horn flipping them off. I'm like, there's nothing more aggravating than a horn. People blow the horn behind me at a stop light. It just makes you turn red.

I stop. I wait for the yellow. They like to go yellow, almost red, and I take off. Yeah. That's the long island coming out in you, I think. Oh, I hate the horn. I don't know. Yeah, there was no, do you see any shit shows on the track?

Like, that would anybody missed this week? Oh, there's plenty of shit shows the last three restarts there for sure. Yeah. No. Nothing really, there was no real, like. Quiet week. Yeah. Austin Hill and who was that Corey Day kind of caused a little ruckus on Saturday.

I don't know if that's going to qualify for a shit show. The shit show maybe Noah. Like I don't know what the hell they were thinking about. Like, did he restart right in front of you or not? I mean, I don't know. He, all I know is. They were on like the similar plan just backing up through the field and then decided to stay out on that yellow. And like they were like one of the last cars on old tires.

And I was like, there's no chance. He survives this. And then I look up and he's the one that was wrecked. worst feeling. Oh, like you. It's the worst feeling when you just know it's coming. Yeah. You're just like, oh, thanks crew chief.

I'm going to go ahead and tighten these here and we'll see in a few laps. Yeah. You're the last guy on tires where you know tires matter within, you know, three seconds of pace or whatever. It's just, oh, yeah, I didn't think that was going to work. But maybe it's just three this week, Dalton. I don't know. Light week. Light week.

Good job. Everybody kept their mind their peas and keys. It's kind of a good problem. It's kind of a lot of last week. Carson Hosebar. Tile up. The $77. Sorry, my bad.

It sounded like the, what race was it? A pedal lima? Many street stocks was a barn burner. Oh, gosh, it was so good. Coming to three to go, leaders took each other out. They put both of them in the back of the pack, and they refired through the field. It was great. That was perfect.

Wow. The sprint car race was on flow. I wonder if that race was on there. I didn't get to look at it. It was. It was. Damn it, we should have pulled that out. Well, remember to go vote on our lights.

Yeah, for sure. Shit Show Hall of Fame Twitter Bowl. I can't believe Uncle Al. I didn't win last week. Uncle Al Ford. Yeah. Busting his ass on that big wheel. DBC picks. I finally won.

Hey, congratulations. I finally won. It's been a long, long few weeks. Yeah, but the guest's fucking one eight in a row or something like that. It wins. It's freaking crazy. McDowley, you let me down. I'm sorry.

I let myself down. Where are we going? Dover? But hey, listen, I will say he was confident last week Because when I texted him to come on here He said, I'm coming in and I'm winning That's what made me pick him I had a chance to pick SVG

Before you did Yeah, I was going to whip your old ass If you picked SVG before I got to That's how racing is though You know what I mean? Like you go to Chicago You got a race winning car You're like, oh, Sonoma's my best track

We are going to lay it to them You get there, you spin out, you qualify 15th And you're just like, top five day, not bad We'll take it. Good points to everybody Oh, man. I don't know.

Do I go first? Freddie goes first. Where the hell are we going? Dover? The monster. I will take. I don't have anybody left. Me either. It's bad.

I will take. What do we got left here? I'll take Ross. Who goes next? You? McDowell goes next. I get open slate. Oh, no.

You got to pick. You got to pick. So all the guests have been picking every week. So who's ever grayed out? This is your list. Anybody grayed out you cannot pick. You can pick Tom Cruise at the bottom. And the 46?

In the 46? Yeah, they're remaking the movie, so we're going to let him be on the list. This is head-to-head. You don't have to beat us. Yeah, you've got to beat us. So you've got to pick somebody to beat Ross right now. Guest list. Have they been burning up all the good drivers?

Yeah. Yeah, they'll bring up. Yeah, I'll take Hosevar. Hey. Wow. I was actually going to pick him. Well, now you can't. It'll be a good track for you.

All right, is it Tommy's turn? Tommy, then Carson, yeah. Okay. I'm going to go with Briscoe. He's got to qualify good. I can tell you that much. Jesus, guy who's been in like a top three for the last two months, it seems like. I'm going to take Priese.

You still got Priests? Yeah. Priests is a good pick. That is a good pick. I hope he blows up in a parade laps, but why? Are you? Because I'm racing up for points. Dude, shut up.

It's not nice. Trying to get my lead back. I text, when I text him and he said he was going to win, I said, man, I would love that for the podcast and hate that for my season. How about Priest, though? Priest is doing a great job this year. And it's capitalizing. He had to.

You know what I mean? This was it. You know, I think, you know, he might have had a couple of your deal with this, but he had to make this deal work. This was going to be his last opportunity. And he's capitalizing. I feel like he's been obviously more consistent than Brad and maybe as consistent or more so than Busher has been.

Yeah, he's doing a great job. And Derek Finley, too. Yeah, for sure. Don't leave that out. Absolutely. Yeah. I had Derek. I would have never seen those two together.

Yeah. When they told me that, because we had Derek at front row, I think it was Landon, I would assume. It had to be. And when they said that he or no, I think he was doing the other car because we had Seth. But he must have been doing the other car. And they said that he was doing a priest. And I was like, that seems like an unlikely combination. But, I mean, they hit the ground running.

Yeah, it's awesome. It's awesome. I always kid him every week. I'm like, hey, it's a good thing you figured this out. You suck for a long time. This is great. Which one? Derek or Breeze?

What are we got going on this week, Thomas? Banana. Double Saturday and a Sunday. Twin Tour races, yeah. They're making up for the rain. Oh, they rained out earlier. We got to run dual features, yeah. Where are we at in points?

Fifth by 20-something out? Yeah. That's good. Still right there. That point battles. Congratulations to Eric Beers. Austin Beers. Austin Beers.

Congratulations to Eric, too. Your son won this week. So I do that on purpose because I did it years ago, and now I just call him what's his name? Austin, I mean, that's what, three in a row at that place for Lancaster for him? And I thought he was a sit and duck. I thought the one car was blowing through the field there late, and he was going to get it run him down.

But it seemed like Austin left a little bit in the tank. He caught him, but then Austin drove away the last couple of laps. Yeah, they had different pit strategy. And I can't believe it worked, but they did a good job. Are you sure you didn't lose ground on pit road because everybody in your team is 80 years old? This one, the tour average is lower. It's the smart tour. My pick crew average is 78.

No lie. My pick crew average on the smart tour is 70. What? Yes. I have an 84-year-old. He's got a forest who's 106 years old. He's 78. Then I got a guy that's even older.

He's 84 and it's me. Who's older than the forest? A guy named Chuck. He's from Raleigh. Yeah, he comes and helps. 84. And we have to take seven breaks during practice. We got to get him cooled down.

Got to get drinks in them. Hooked the crew up to the cool down unit Not to try not to say by the end of the night I am war out I wouldn't get any fights I would just say No no no yeah you're not on your own buddy I've been always cape

Fighting on my own I rather I don't like group He doesn't like organized No group fighting Carson Cars tour We're off this weekend But Langley's running in Hampton Heat

So we are going to be up there With the merchandise trailer So if you'll be at Langley come see us Is that part of the Virginia? Yeah, the Virginia Triple Crown, which you can watch on Flow Racing. How can you watch it off-Lawrace? You can visit our link, flowsports. com slash DVC1.

And you can watch Modifide. And you can watch Modifides, yeah. Michael, what do you got going on just prepped over this week? Do you have the ambition? I don't know if you're allowed to or not, but to race anything outside of the cup car, like late model, modified, dirt racing. He's got 12 kids. It doesn't have time.

You know, it's interesting. I would. Yeah, I would. but I don't like doing anything unless I can do it. All the way in, yeah. And I don't have the capacity to do it. And it just never really worked out. I mean, I feel like for the most part,

I've had to hang on for dear life just to keep my cup job. And so there hasn't been like a lot of like, oh, I can just go do this for fun. Yeah. But I think to any time you can get C-time and around other things is good. Yeah, for sure. Before we leave, first of all,

we got to give a shout out to the truck guy, Bill. The truck guy. The big podcast fan I met, Michael's dad. I should prefer. I met him at the Chili Bowl this year. I've seen him a couple races this year. He's apparently a big BBC fan, which I was very shocked to hear.

Hey now, stop that. A couple of things from our back home, our home racetrack. Shout out to Steve Halpin, our friend Pumpkin Head. We call him that because he has a head the size and color of a pumpkin. Announced his last race.

I don't know, maybe not his last race, but last full-time race. He's been doing it for 33 years, I think, at Riverhead Raceway. He announced his last race. He's actually moving down here to bother us now. So hopefully I won't share my address with him. I know he'll be at Tommy's house pretty often.

Shout out to him. And congratulations. Riverhead Raceway, our home track has the Cromerty Wall of Fame. And they announced today that they've got to this year's class is going to include Long John Silver, who is a longtime demo guy. You probably can watch him back on ESPN back in the day, rollover contest. If you ever watch this shit, it was wild.

this guy was a maniac. So he's going in. I think he's the first one from that world, that kind of Sunday show, he used to call it, a world that was going in. Tommy Ryan, who has been a long time crew member down here.

He just retired from Hendrick Motorsports. He moved down in the mid-90s to work. He's an unbelievable fabricator. He worked for Terry Labani, worked for Dale Jr. For a long time. He is going in as well. And the last inductees are Tom Baldwin,

Jr. and Tom Baldwin, Senior. So congrats Tommy. I know that means a lot to you guys. Yeah, it's pretty cool. It's, you know, I've been there, obviously, my whole life. But to be able to do something like with my dad again, right, to have this, you know, do it, it's pretty cool. Yeah. And looking forward to it.

I don't, I think it's the same week as Richmond, which, of course, we race on Saturday night one time all year. So I don't think, I mean, you're probably going to get to go. I wish I could go. But we'll be there in spirit with you. But congratulations. It's well earned. I mean, it's funny because, you know, obviously your dad was the main state, Riverhead Raceway. all Long Island racing once Charles Ajizanback passed away.

Tom, the tiger really took the torch and was the leader of the Long Island gang as far as modified racing goes. And then maybe, you know, it's funny because Riverhead, it's just really all about your overall, you know, effects on the sport and how much you meant to the racetrack. And Tommy, the autograph line for Tommy at Riverhead when we show up is, it might be the beer line, actually. But I think it's the autograph line.

It's hard to tell sometimes. But it's awesome. Congratulations. It's well-deserved. Pretty cool deal. Anyway, we're going to get out of here. Thanks again to everybody for listening. Thank you, Michael, for dropping by.

We will hopefully do this again sometime. Maybe the next win. Walkins Glen, maybe we'll get you on after that. If you get that done, or anywhere, really. You've got plenty of speed everywhere nowadays. Just a wind coming. Yeah, just get it done. Maybe after the playoffs start would be great.

It doesn't pay as well after the playoffs. Yeah. All right, everybody. Thank you for listening. We'll see you guys next week. See you. Check out Dirtymo Media. Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.