The Dale Jr. Download - 25 Years Later: Dale Jr. Remembers His July Win At Daytona

Episode Date: July 7, 2026

After a triumphant return to Chicagoland Speedway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is back behind the microphone with a new episode of Dirty Air. He joins co-host TJ Majors to recap the weekend in Chicago and break down the biggest storylines from around the NASCAR garage, including: Dale has gone paperless thanks to Jamie McMurray The rain in Chicago was disruptive Zane Smith has been running too well to seek revenge Shane van Gisbergen gets even with Austin Hill Don't mess with the guys buried in the points Chevrolet and Ford continue to close the gap on Toyota Race winner Chase Briscoe joins the show During the Ask Jr. portion of the episode, listeners sent in questions about: TNT's feature on Dale's 2001 Fourth of July win What Dale remembers from that race celebration Dale's post-race hot dog-and-beer experience His preferred hot dog toppings Helmet swaps with other drivers The switch from open-face helmets to full-face helmets Dale's conversation with Chase Elliott after the O'Reilly race Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. This is the most fun I've had in this chair in the last hour and a half. I don't know if we've ever argued. Did I piss you off over the weekend? I'm still sour. Did I want the best man at your wedding? Who was your best man, Dale? T.J.

You don't need a cool best for that race? What are you thinking? Get them, T.J. Hellway is starting to show. All right then. Hey everybody, it's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. download. We are not in the Arby's studio, but you can still go get your new meat and three blocks. You get more meal for your money at Arby's.

We have the meats and we have a great show for you today. We've got a lot to talk about. T.J. is here. TJ's remote. Look at you, buddy. I'm remote. Yeah, he's upstairs. I'm in my little room where I got my sim rig over my shoulder.

you all've seen this. We're excited about the show. We've got a lot to talk about. There is a lot that went on, especially if it was the first stage. Yeah, first stage. Anyhow, right out of the gate, I want to shout out Jamie McMurray,

hit my teammate at the TNT, which TNT is doing a hell of a job. We made some big gains over last year. I'm pretty happy about it. I know people are still pretty particular about our broadcasts, as they should be. And I love to read the feedback, but I think we made it we got a badass sort of college game day style set for the pre and the post race

we're doing a pretty kind of a by the seed of your pants pre and post race with some great characters and everybody can kind of kind of just get up there and say whatever they want which you know that's it's fun so we've been doing that and I want to shout out Jamie McMurray because, boy, he turned me on to something. I pull stuff off of Twitter. Like, I found this handy little 5-10, 15-lab average deal off of social media. I wish I could. Yeah, I wish I, is that who it is?

I think he does a lot of that stuff. Yeah. Well, I don't want to get it wrong. I wish I could credit. I should be able to credit that guy, my bad. There's so many people that have awesome graphs and stuff on Twitter. This is a picture of the screen from the monitor on the, this is just a laptop. times and it's kind of the same thing but I can add I know this is like everybody knows how to do

this but Jamie McMurray so we're in the car or we're on the in the plane I don't know we're all we're head to the race and man I we get all of this information from racing insights our friend Russell and all the guys racing insights are freaking awesome and they make our job so much easier And so, but they send us all this stuff and we have to, you know, we print it out. And I've been doing it, you know, doing this job for almost a decade now. And so you got like probably 150 pages of stuff printed out and you don't use all of it and you won't. And if I read through all of it, I would probably, I throw away three quarters of it. I'm not going to use it.

It's just not something I'm interested in talking about or it's not a stat that matters to me. and I just grab the shit that matters, and I put it in a little pile. But man, when you're doing the race, you ain't got time to look at all that. And Steve LaTartre went paperless this year. He does everything off his iPad. So Jamie Murray told me about a program

that would allow me to get my little iPad pen and do all of this paperless. So this was my first weekend where I didn't print, a thing. And it's kind of like, you know, going to work naked. I don't know. I don't know how to explain it. It was very nerve-wracking, but it was so, so much easier. And so shout out to Jamie for give me the confidence to do it. And, man, I love it. And so. Think about how much less clutter you're going to have back at home because you can just store all this. Yeah. I know nobody will know this or think about this or care. But our

qualifying show was, I thought for me it felt a thousand times better. The things we were commenting on, the information we had, the way the show flowed and how, you know, and I think it was just because it was all easier for me to get to where I wanted to go in my mind with all of this on one big space, you know, one big page. I can just kind of move from one side of this document to the other and get to exactly what I want to talk about immediately. And so I was wanting to credit, Jamie. He's a good dude, good teammate. And so anyhow, Chicago land was awesome. I think we had a ton of rain. And when I tell you, it was raining hard. It's hardest I've ever had rain. It was so loud. Raining sideways

at times, but the drops of rain were like baseballs. It sounded like just big old, big old drops hitting the ceiling of this fifth wheel I was in. Shout out camping world. They sent me a fifth wheel to stay in and it's freaking awesome.

So we're, you know, it's just pouring rain saturating the ground and everybody probably saw all the parking lot destroyed and cars stuck. So what that meant was when the race started, there was

traffic a mile and a half, two miles long trying to get into the racetrack, not moving, lock down. You know, I don't run a racetrack. I don't know what, I know they had to shut down a lot of parking lots and that created some problems. I don't necessarily want to get into that debate. I just know that it happened and we're not going to gloss over it. I don't know what they could have done differently to make it easier, but I'm actually kind of surprised that that's not a little bit.

I haven't really been on social media, but I'm kind of surprised that I haven't heard more about that. So I suppose even though it was very inconvenient for a lot of people, I don't know what you guys might have been picking up on the last couple of days. The race poll, which is not official, but it's something that I love that Jeff Gluck does, got like an 80%er. So it was like 82, 86%. It was really high. Pretty high. Yeah. So I'm like, hey, you know, usually even the people that, usually the people that do this poll,

even if they didn't go to the race, if they see that traffic, they'll vote no, you know. Or if they see, if they see like a glaring issue, they'll go, ah, no, not a good race. Were you talking about Sunday or Saturday? Sunday. So Sunday, I watched it quite a bit. bit. I got to the roof quite a bit early. And I know they had brought in. I talked to a couple people. And honestly, I thought the traffic flowed into the lots where they could park. And I guess they've got 17 buses and had a constant cycle of buses going to the parking lots. And it was

close enough to still walk and stuff too. But like, honestly, I thought, I thought traffic flowed in. NASCAR wanted us to back a race up eight minutes. Yeah. Because people were still in the line in traffic. Yeah. So I guess the line to get in was less than an eight, what was like, I think it was an eight minute, an eight minute line.

And that's just like, I mean, it was flowing in. Yeah. I got you. Well. Yeah. And I mean, not, I mean, a lot of people probably. We had some, I hear you, bud. We had some cameras looking at it, you know, and it's like, you know,

those cars aren't moving. And it's way out there. This camera would zoom out. And you're like, and the race is happening. Hell, it was still a line of cars trying to get in when the first stage was over, T.J. Yeah, I didn't, I mean, I was working.

I didn't see at that point. Before the race, so, like, but is that, is that? I don't, I didn't want to, I don't want to make that part of the show. I just wanted to mention it, but the race, so the traffic issue was what it was because of the rain. I hate it. I don't know what they could have done differently. I'm sure there's a lot of people disappointed.

I haven't heard a ton of push back around it. We got a great, yeah, we got a great, was it a good race pole, which is awesome. Drivers talked about how much they love this racetrack. Every single driver that I heard from said, bring it back. Love it. Awesome racetrack. Want to do it again. And I talked to Steve O'Donnell, and they absolutely want to go back to Chicagoland.

And he's like, hey, he told me on Thursday. he's like, hey, man, it's look like we might be sold out. I was like, no shit. I was like, I heard all these bad things about ticket sales and how the hell did we get to a sellout? And sure, we had an awesome crowd. Crowd was badass. There was a lot of people there.

Yeah. There was a lot of people. Yeah. I mean, I don't know, 40,000. I heard some numbers. Maybe it was 60. I don't know what it is. That's a great number.

I mean, you're drawing all those folks out. And it'd been raining all weekend. Traffic was mud everywhere. And we still had. all those folks come out. So if we get relatively decent weather, and maybe they move it to, and maybe they move back a couple weeks

or forward a couple weeks. I don't know when it needs to be, but hopefully we get back there next year. Yeah. Yeah. The track also, like I went for a walk underneath the grandstands between sessions, and they had a ton of options.

A lot of shit going on down there. Food. There was a lot of, like the fan area was awesome. The, there's tons of food stuff, man. Oh, yeah. Third party vendors. there's everything, man, like a lot. So I was very, I was really impressed with it.

Yeah. Well, I was happy. So just, you know, quickly we get to, we'll go over the O'Reilly race. There was, I don't know, man, that race, we, I look, when you look at the statistics in the rundown, you got, I don't know, Junior Motorsports had four cars in the top 12 or some shit. Um, not terrible, but, you know, of course, Chase, uh, getting beat by Brandon Jones on that final restart. Brandon Jones just did a great job.

Got to give Brandon Jones his flowers. Guy used to drive for us. I know what kind of driver he is and, uh, know what kind of guy he is. And so, uh, pretty solid dude. And, you know, shout out to him just doing a hell of a job on that final restart. He got a great position going down to be. back straight away on Chase and off into three, Chase just buried it in there, but couldn't, couldn't outperform the 20 car on the top. So that was frustrating because I wanted Chase to win

because Chase has fun in our cars. I wanted to give him a good enough car to win, and I don't think we did. So, you know, that we'll get another shot at it at Indy with Chase, which will be fun in the 88. The seven car, Algar had a really quick car, probably a top three car, but they had a couple of mistakes one on pit road it was that was costly um you know the eight car struggled tight no good balance the the nine car quopple balance was it good but he fought hard on restarts and was able to get some track position and do okay um and uh yeah um yeah um and uh yeah um yeah who'm i forget quiet race otherwise yeah Connor Connor Connor yeah oh yeah Connor had a badass car at the started the race.

He did, yeah. Talking about how his car just drove perfect. And then they ran him out of gas. He was low on fuel, probably had about a gallon and a half, and ran it out of gas up on the banking. So not a, I wouldn't, it was a mistake, not a fluke deal, not a, you know, not a happens. It was a mistake on our part. There was others that did it too.

Yeah. And so once he got back there, he just a couple of things, knocked the side off of it, killed the side force the side skirt rolled up under the car he just car just wouldn't driving good after that yeah spun it out but dirty air is dirty air is way different when you're back I mean it's just different from where yeah

when you go from the lead to the back it's hard man yeah I'm gonna tell you though man it looked like a lot of fun they got on the fence and uh used all the racetrack but um so a rally was fun but not as good as I'd hoped not as good as I expected. And JRM left there feeling like we got some work to do. Do you feel like an earlier race for O'Reilly, like a one o'clock race, would have been, you know, a better start for, even for a cup,

an earlier start too that way. Because, I mean, I thought the race was good, but if you give, if that's a hot, slick track, man. I know. I mean, yeah. I think the hotter the track, the better the race, especially there. Same. but it's you know they they want to get the fans a comfortable experience and they are you know they got the lights and all they spend all this money on the lights so um i think they've actually upgraded the lights there to LED it's like a couple million dollars projects so you're going to use them damn things if you spend that kind of money on it so um I know a couple other tracks I won't say which ones are getting new LEDs not new lights they're just getting their current lights replaced

Yeah. Which will be pretty common. Well, it wasn't my story to tell. So, you know, sometimes I don't, you know, these guys will tell me this happened in an elevator. Guys like, hey, man, going to get me some new. We're putting in some new lights over and such and such. Yeah. And I'm like, all right.

I don't know if I need to tell that information. But anyhow. So cool. Cool to have them. All right, everybody, it's the weekend you've all been waiting for and it's coming here fast. July the 17th through the 19th, North Wiltsboro Speedway comes alive with the, window world 450. It's three days of racing, old school excitement. You can't miss it. The action is going to kick off Friday with the ZMAX cars tour. We have the late model spears manufacturing 75 for the pros,

and then late model stock cars will be running the Skyline National Bank 100. Saturday, we'll have the Craftsman Truck Series for the Fate Fest 250. And then, of course, Sunday, the NASCAR Cup Series stars will take on one of the most historic race tracks on the season with the Window World 450. Points Racing is back at North Wiltsboro, and you need to be there to see it. Before the Green Flag flies, we'll have multi-platinum country hitmaker Sawyer Brown for a pre-race concert. That's free for anybody who's in attendance.

Be part of the most epic race weekend all summer. Grab your tickets now for the Window World 450 at Northwiltbril Speedway.com. Let's get into the cup race. Two incidents in stage one, I believe. A lap one. Yeah, well. Why not? Well, you're talking about the...

Lap one was... Lap one, let's talk about that. So, John Hunter Nimmecichick squeezes Stenhouse into the fence. Stenhouse lifts off the gas after slapping the wall. and was it Priest? Yeah, priest has to avoid and lift.

Priest has to avoid and Connor has to avoid priest and it's just they all go, nobody hit anything except for Connor. Like they didn't hit each other. It was kind of strange. When you first looked at it, it's like, oh, priest comes across the track, hits Connor. That didn't happen.

Yeah, I thought that happened. And I thought that's what happened. I didn't. I did too. And so, but poor Connor, man, he just can't catch a break. I know.

I don't know what to, I don't know what to think about it because I mean, I can't really remember a driver having this much, this big of a roll, long of a run of bad luck. I mean, I'm sure there's probably all kinds of drivers screaming right now when they're hearing this going, boy, I had a run like that, you know, everybody's probably had a little stretch of races like this, but I can't, you know, we got such a spotlight on him because of how, great his season was last year and how hyped he is as a rookie. But the universe is not pleased. I don't know what he needs to do, but just keep showing up, you know. That's all you can do.

The organization, the cars aren't good enough right now. And Justin Marks has talked about that. They know they got to get better. And they're, you know, they got all the right people there. they definitely got the right crop of drivers. I think they got some of the most talented drivers of the three that they have. And so.

Personnel as well. They've got a lot of good people. Yeah. You just got to keep showing up. Yeah. Until it clicks. But, yeah, it was a tough deal to see, man. It was like,

out of all the cars out there. I mean, always Connor. Yeah. I pull for Connor. I pull for all these guys. I pull for Zane Smith, too. I don't know. You know, Zane Smith goes down in the corner and wipes out Hosevar,

and then he wipes himself out. I'm like, what in the hell? What was that? What was going on, the last couple of laps that started that? And honestly, I don't know that anything was going on. Maybe Hosevar did a little air blocking or something that pissed him off. I asked TV to go back and look for something if there was some contact or something that might have pissed Zane off.

but we know that they wrecked together at Iowa last year and then I believe at some point during the Nashville race Zane swiped at the 77 and missed. I know there was a race somewhere in my mind this year where Zane went after Hosevar and didn't get him. Would you guys say you recall something similar? Oh yeah. And so...

Yeah, those instances definitely happened. Yes. There's a history. And so I guess I'm a little surprised that I tried to, I reached out to Zane. He didn't reply back to me. But I was like, you know, I'm sure he's pissed off. I'm like, dude, I like the aggression, but you can't wreck yourself. You know, you just can't do that.

There's too much, man, there's so much, he puts too much effort into this. to go out there and do that to himself, you know? Yeah. Not to mention the car and the crew and the ownership and partners. He's had speed lately and that just ruined a race. I know it. I'm like, dude, you got all this great positive momentum. I just hated to see it because I like him.

I like him as a driver and as a person. I like Zane a lot and I want him to be around. I want his deal to work. I want him to be a successful race car driver in this sport. And I don't know that he's got enough. roots into the ground to make those kind of things go out there and do those kind of things. Now, if you're established, you've got a bunch of wins, and you go out there and throw a race by, you know, if you're pissed off and want to get after somebody, you know, you can throw a

race and get away with it. Get away with it. But I just was disappointed there, but I'm just wondering if anything happened leading up to that during the Chicago land race, or was that just still like a year's worth of I'm mad and I'm getting you. Here it is. Later on, SVG would park Austin Hill

into the fence backwards. SVG on the incident with Austin Hill said I was shooting for the bottom trying to get clean air. It was really, it was so tight, meaning the situation was tight. And he chopped my nose and got into the wall. He said he's sorry about that.

Sorry to the guys. They're all nice people. And it happens. And he said, they asked him if the contact was intentionally, he said, no. And SVG, will you speak to Hill? He said, I'll talk to him, but he just grunts. And then Hill was mad in his car. He goes, you wait.

You know, like, I'm going to get that fool. Y'all just wait on, you know, wait. I'm going to get my opportunity. So this ain't over. Well, did you see what Hill did on leaving Pitt Road? So he pulls off Pit Road. And unfortunately, we miss that on the broadcast, which I'm mad at myself about, or I'm mad at us, I guess, for not seeing that.

But he pulls off pit road and drives into the left front of the 97. That's some short track. I mean, we all have wanted to do it. We've all maybe done it at some point in our careers. And, boy, you get wrecked. You want to go out there and you want to wreck him. you if you if you Austin Hill knows his race is over but oh yeah he knows it above the rear window he he knows his race is over and so when your race is over you're like I want his race to be over

and so what can I do on my way out to make his day a long one right so he goes over and slaps him in the damn left front trying to bend the toe link or do something, right? And maybe he did. But, you know, that, I guess we can talk about, I know that Denny was, you know, had some comments about this, should the sport police itself, all that stuff. And that's kind of what I saw on Sunday was the garage policing itself, you know. And there's a, I think there's a line. I don't know that I think that Zane crossed it because he wrecked himself.

He crossed the line that maybe, you know, as a driver, you don't want to cross. Oh, 100%. But the thing about, like, turning a guy that pissed you off, I don't know how to articulate this. Zane has to be embarrassed, you know what I mean? So Zane has his punishment when he goes back and, you know. That's right. Everybody in the sport, everybody in the industry in the garage knows Zane. he knows they know and he's serving his penalty right he's serving his shame um and that's the

same way for all these incidents right uh it we don't need to eradicate it or rid it from the sport wouldn't you agree like a little bit of this is a good thing and the potential that that guy on the racetrack might park your ass that being a possibility needs to be in there right right? And so it keeps some guys in line. We need a lot more of that, in my opinion. We need a lot more of it's how it used to be. It used to kind of, you didn't mess with people, and the racing was better. You couldn't just drive through people.

Yep. And do things you did because they're repercussions. Now everybody, you feel like they feel like they're protected and they can get away with it. I agree. And there's my whole, my, the only thing I care about, in all of this, I think, is these type of moments are TV gold. And they are podcast, gold, storyline, gold. Oh, their internet.

Boy. Social media gold. Yes, sir. So that is what our sport needs. We need controversy. We need some ruffled feathers. We need some hurt feelings. We need some guys that are pissed off.

and there is a line though. There's a line that you can't cross that would be in the in the, in, that would be in the name of safety, right? We don't want to write, right hook,

like there's a way to turn a guy. You want to wreck a guy, there's a way to do it that I wouldn't say is respected, but it's accepted. Was Sunday accepted? Well, no right hooks. I didn't see any right hooks.

Zane wrecking himself, we talked about that. But if, we're just hypothetically, if SBG did that on purpose, that's the traditional way to park a guy. Now, we don't want right hooks. Nobody does, and drivers know that that's like against the code. So there's a line, right? We want aggression, we want guys pissed off.

We want some people doing some shit. They shouldn't be doing. It's great for TV. It's great for our sports. it draws fans. People are going to talk about it. People are going to tune in next week. Anytime SVG and Alston, he'll get around each other, we're all going to be watching. And so that's a good thing. And I think also if you let the guys place this stuff, they know that line. Whenever you see the right hooks, it's never been like payback.

It's heat of the moment them trying to like, it's never been like an intentional, like premeditated thing, I feel like. I say, if we sit here and go, man, I love that. I want to. more of that, Jeff Burton, the mayor, who has safety top of mind, is going to say, oh, that's good to a point. Now, you know, we can't be hurting people, and he's right. And so I always kind of think about, like, when I talk or say something, I think about what my peers or the people that I respect might think about my comment or my opinion.

I liked it. I want more of it. I hope it continues. I don't want them to fix it. Hosevar, you know, we were trying to get Hosevar and Hymn on the show together. And Hosevar, for the winner's interview, and Hosefar's like, I don't want to do it. I don't want to fix the relationship. And he's like, I like, he respects Hym, a ton.

Absolutely, there's no way they don't respect each other's ability. but he doesn't want to fix it, right? He's like, I kind of like the rivalry. I kind of want to keep it. I want to have a rival or multiple rivals, right? And so I like that attitude, and that's kind of what, you know, we need guys like that, but also we need guys on the track like SVG and even Austin Hill.

We've seen him just not put up with Parker guy, right? And so, you know, it's wild when those two hardheads you know, run into each other. And I said it on the post race. They're a couple of big boys. So it'll be interesting to see how this kind of resolves itself. More than likely, nine times out of ten, it's kind of a conversation that happens in the NASCAR truck

or they get them together eventually if it continues. Yeah. Do you think it's at that point now or do you think? Elton Sawyer and those type of guys, they probably will get them together. they probably will. I bet you a thousand bucks that Elton Sawyer has a plan to speak to both of them this week.

And if he don't get them together, he's definitely going to have a conversation with them. Does SVG get fine though? Because you look at the priest incident, now there was the verbal stuff that hurt priests. You can't admit it. If he doesn't admit it, NASCAR can't assume or NASCAR could assume.

I mean, we all watched it. And I mean, we're comfortable to sit here and go, I thought it was intentional. Zane, I thought it was intentional. SVG, I thought was intentional. And we can comfortably sit here and say that, right? But for whatever reason, and I'm sure there's a good one, NASCAR won't assume. NASCAR will only act when they've got factual evidence or an admittance of guilt, you know, and that's the kind of way they've done this in the past. If,

I think if you, I think if you don't react in the moment, like when we're doing these short track races and a guy wrecks somebody intentionally, if you don't park him right then and there, it's kind of hard to park him next week. It's harder. Now, you can do it, but it's just harder.

Everything, it makes fans mad because you didn't react in the moment. It makes the drivers that got wrecked mad that you didn't react in the moment. and that's the way people prefer it is like if SVG parks him you go all right SVG that was intentional man bring it to the penalty box five laps something like that right that's what they did with dad at charlidlidlmere speedway you know he run over jeff but i and they brought his ass into a penalty box for five laps or something like that it was

somebody yeah maybe it was uh he spun out or uh Phil parsons i can't remember who it was somebody but if you don't do it in that moment, it gets harder as time goes on, right? You get days removed from it. But if they're, I mean, it's a weird box they're kind of in now, though, because I don't think what priest did, priest was being raced the way that he didn't appreciate

being raced and he handled it and he would, you know. He said too much. But like, dude, he said too much. And then he went on to. To me, to me, if I say I'm done with you, like, I know what you're saying. saying but like no but he went on TV he went on radio shows Monday and Tuesday and said more yeah well I'm just saying like during the race if you say you're done with a guy like how about how

speaking of priests how about him getting upset that we used his audio in conversation during practice did y'all hear about this so it was all over social yes yeah I mean during practice we've talked about his headrest multiple times where we'll do an in-car can and he's down in the corner and his head's moving around. And we'd talk about his headrest and how he likes his headrests a little differently than most people. And we talk about it, not in a negative way, like, oh, look at that headrests. It's wrong.

Yeah. We just talk about how it's different. And during the practice, so they've asked him apparently in the off season to change his headrest, maybe raise it up, maybe tighten up the gap between the helmet and the padding. I don't know. They made him make adjustments. He don't love that. He don't want that.

But he did it. This weekend, I guess, maybe. You know, he started easing those adjustments out. I don't know. But this weekend, they walk over there, as they do every single week. They got guys, they got inspectors like David Green that walk around and look at everything. And if they don't like something, they say something. And so they didn't like something about Priest's headrests, and they asked him to change it.

And he was pissed. And he'd come over the radio during, practice talking about it. Or he was in his garage stall. I'm not sure where he was, whatever. But he's talking about it on the radio. Well, they played it, and we talked about it on TV. No big deal.

No, big deal. But he was a little bit annoyed, I guess, that that conversation wasn't more private. And, but honestly, man, it's just a, it's just a, I don't know why, I don't, I don't know, you know. There must be more to it. Yeah. I don't understand.

That's not a big deal to me that that story was talked about in this little moment during practice, you know? I don't know. I think any time a driver is frustrated on the radio, TV or social keys in on it. Yeah. I mean, we have to. You guys have such great access to stuff. Yeah, but I mean, it's your job. If there's a conversation going on that we pick up on and we think it's interesting, we're going to talk about it.

It's your job. Yeah. But back. to Austin Hill, do you think he's going to get punished, though, for the Pit Road incident? Now, that, yes. Because I think that could, that could warrant. Well, he did this off a turn two. Yeah, it was on the best on the race track. But it's, but, you know, I honestly, I could see him being penalized where I could say they might not penalize SVG. And I know people aren't going to agree with that, especially if you're an Austin Hill fan.

or if you work at RCR. I mean, I don't know, though. He didn't say he was going to do it. It's under caution, though. Like, that's the... I don't know, man. That's a tough one. It's a bad spot.

I agree, yeah. You could, if he... I mean, his car was damaged. Didn't want to turn right there. TJ, you're not wrong. You're not wrong. If he were to say that, you know, I'm sure if they did penalize him

and he'd appeal it, and that would be his argument. But that's a tough spot to be in if you're NASCAR. And that's, you know, here they put yourself in their shoes, man. All you folks listening, put yourself in NASCAR shoes. You've got to react. Are you going to penalize FG? Are you going to penalize Hill for what he did? Who are you going to penalize?

Who are you going to penalize? I'm going to do this. What are you going to do? Just look the other way. All right. Nothing happened. Nothing tried. You guys figure it out.

Dale, I thought you brought up something interesting, though, on the post-race show. And you mentioned that as with this new format with the chase, could we see drivers that having bad seasons and back and they're having issues with drivers? Are we going to see more of this? And I think if NASCAR lets us happen, I think you're going to see a little more of this. And I'm here for it. Me too. I feel like that, you know, we made the points change, the system change,

and we made it for good reasons. and those were obvious. But there's also going to be some additional benefits that we didn't expect or we didn't recall about what this system created and produced in the past. And with winning your in, every car in the field today is alive in a potential playoff car, right?

Or a potential chase car. And so they go to the racetrack thinking, you know, that's their, that's their, that's their hollow, narrow focus is like, we're going to win this race. Yeah. And so even though they know, you know, there's a likelihood that they won't win it, they're still alive. Yeah. What happened last week? Doesn't matter anymore. We can still win this week.

Yeah. Now that, now this stuff carries over. Dude, the guy that's 20th in points or I'm probably further back in that. The guy that's 25th in points knows that his ass ain't going to make the chase and he's just like grinding through these weeks.

He's not the one to mess with. He is not the one to f*** with. He is not the one to mess with. Which I kind of like. And we don't know, like, I don't know what the deal is with Austin Hill. I don't know what the, you know, if he's in line for that car next year,

he might be under the spotlight a little bit or the pressure might be on him to perform right now. And that just took a race away from him as well, you know. Yeah, I'd be surprised, I guess, if he doesn't get that deal. I think he's run fairly decent in that car. I think he's done a good job. Yeah, yeah, we'll see.

I want to see the rest of the season, but I think he's training in the right direction for Austin to get the ride. And they got a lot of time with him. they know who he is. Yeah, he fits there well too. Yeah. I mean, interesting to see, though, if he moves on,

that opens up the spot on their O'Reilly program. They got two opening spots on their O'Reilly program with Jesse Love going to the 21. And so that's going to create quite a bit of churn in the O'Reilly series. There's going to be, I think O'Reilly series silly season is going to be quite dynamic. I can't wait to see who gets those spots. Yeah.

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Download 26 at checkout. Head over to Lionel Racing.com to lock in your favorite NASCAR moments into your collection today. So Toyota has been dominating. this the cup season. And they did come away with the win this weekend. They had seven cars in the top ten. But it looks to me like the tide is turning a little bit.

The Toyota's have an awesome amount of downforce and speed built into their cars. And they are taking advantage of it. but I'm telling you, Ford and Chevrolet are closing the gap. They're starting to show up with the short run speed they need to be able to match the Toyotas. They still got a little bit to go to be able to run as fast as a Toyota does over 40 laps. So as the tires wear, as the track gets slick, as things start to get more challenging, the Toyotas continue to perform where the other cars start to struggle, some gains still need to be made within the Chevy and the Fords.

But they're getting there. And we are rolling toward this chase. And we had Kyle Larson up on the desk pre-race, and he says, I got confidence that we can get there. I wasn't so sure at the start of the year, but now I'm seeing it. I know he busted his ass in the race this weekend, but the five car was fast. The 24 had two great stages.

and gave the lead up on a pit cycle, a green flag pit cycle. I don't know if that would have mattered in the end, but didn't seem to have the pace he needed just for the final run to the checkered. But still, I'm starting to, it's so fun because there for a while, I don't know how you guys feel,

but there for a while I was like kind of digging the Toyota dominance, but as anything, you know, you get too much of anything, you're kind of like, all right, now let's get some other boys up here. Let's see somebody come up here and challenge them. It's getting pretty interesting because I think that before long, I don't know if they'll get it all this year to be able to beat them, but I still feel like that the Toyotas will be just too good all year,

but they're getting closer. And it looks like HMS is probably the one team that I think gets there first. What do you guys think? I mean, I think we're starting to go back to some tracks now. Going back to Atlanta, we'll see a little bit. We'll probably, I don't know if it'll be the best test for it, but you'll probably be able to see a little bit of how it's going to shake out. I feel like some gains have been made.

I still think by there. by far the best. But I don't know. I want to go back. I think Chicago is a no one's been there in so long and these cars haven't been on that track yet. So it was kind of a cleaner slate than some other places. You know what I mean? Like it was just kind of a clean slate going there. And we saw that. We saw a pretty big variety in qualifying. Qualifying was a lot more equal than than what we've probably seen in a long time, you know, don't you think? Yeah. I mean, I was happy to see the RFK speed qualifying Chevrolet, put some cars up in the top

10. There was a lot of parity there in the top five. Yeah. But, you know, we look at the race, the race starts. I know that Byron won the first two stages, but generally, you begin the, you begin to run, any tire run. and there might be a Chevrolet that's really fast. There might be a Ford that's pretty good.

And they're all kind of mixed and mingling in and around a bunch of Toyota's. But as we get to lap 20, 30, 40, the gap starts to widen. So, you know, the Toyota's just continued to perform as tires get mad and hot. The other cars just start to struggle just a bit. But the gap is closing. Atlanta is a handling racetrack. Atlanta will be an opportunity, though, for a Ford or a Chevrolet to pop off a win and take one away from the Toyotas.

And then you go to Wilkesboro, the 450, which is something I'm super excited about. Yeah. I am really looking forward to that weekend. Got the Cars Tour race on Friday night. Chase Elliott's racing for Junior Emergency Sports there. We're going to have, I think Zane Smith might be in that race. But we got a few cup guys that are going to run. I don't think that that's a place where, you know,

you could just easily say that Toyota's can dominate. I think the short tracks are kind of free game. Don't you think, T.J.? Well, it's definitely a more even playing field when you go to, I mean, we don't all have huge notebooks for tire fall off there, you know, and long-reaching. and how they're going to play out. I'm really excited to see.

I think you get a little bit of everything there. You can have some front end speed, but you're going to, what I like about it is at some point, they're going to catch the back of the pack. And when they catch the back of the pack, that brings second closer to first, third closer to second.

The next thing you know, we got guys all over each other trying to make a pass from a guy that's not letting them get the preferred lane. That's right. You know, so it's going to do a lot. And if we get to a long run there, which I'm hoping with the package and stuff that we can we can hurt the tires if you run too fast a little bit and do yourself some damage in a long run and kind of have all that put into a bowl at the same time and and that would make for a great race.

Yeah. I like it and we go to Indianapolis and I think if you put any car in the lead at the end of that race, they keep it. It's a single lane racetrack. there's no way to pass. If the leaders out there in clean air, there's really no way to pass them. Super hard, yeah. Yeah.

That's going to be a fuel mileage race kind of. You just got to put your, yeah, it is. You're going to call that race to try to put your car out front. Yes. What did you guys make of Brad's comments about how Toyota is JGR and 2311

working better together and that's helping fuel their success? I think, you know, 2311 pays JG. are a big chunk of money to have that relationship. And so that's why it works. Yeah, but I don't. That's why it works so good.

I think they pay, but I also, I also see those guys. They do work good together. I mean, you can see it. And I think a big part of that is because of Denny. You know, I think Denny promotes that and pushes for that. And it's, it's almost like a, it's almost like a seven-car team in, in one aspect. Yeah. They do all work. They do all work well with each other, in my opinion.

Like, you can, you can kind of see it. And if, if they might pay for the, you know, the information and technology and stuff. But I still think if, you know, if 2311 were to find some speed at something, I do think it translates back over to the other side as well. I think their relationships are this that good. And I think that's more of what you, he's not talking about the, you know, paying for the note stuff. he's not. Yeah, he's talking more about just a, but I find from here, they all get it. Yeah, but I think the checks what makes it easier. The check doesn't hurt. Yeah. So, yeah. Brad just, I think that Brad is trying to,

so Brad's using the media as some, as leverage to try to get forward to react in the manner that he wants them to react. Brad isn't trying to change anything about what Toyota does. He's only trying to use the media to say, so Ford will hear it and go, maybe we need to do something, you know, to make this better. Because I've noticed Brad over the last several weeks

get more and more vocal about this is he's getting a little more frustrated with the lack of progress that they've trying to make to close the gap. so I just think that's him being savvy or you know because sometimes that's what you do man if you can't if you if the if the conversation behind closed doors isn't working or if you feel like it's not working you'll go in that media center and you'll make it known what you're you know you'll go use that media center

to your advantage if you can and so I think that's what's going on there yeah I have another question for you you mentioned Kyle Larson and you said they're getting better. Do you have any concern though that, I mean, he's on his winless street keeps growing. Are you at any point worried about him? No. What is he going to do? Leave. You're going to quit? No, but I'm just saying like, do you think that he can compete this year? You think this is like for a championship? Oh, I mean, they've got to get their cars a little better. They got to execute a little better. He's driving his ass off trying to make that thing work. Yeah. So,

I mean, they were all, they were all really sketchy this weekend. There's a lot of slip, a lot of cars moving around on top of the racetrack. It was a handful for all those guys. And he's, he's that guy that'll push it over to the limit. Yeah, and this is nothing new with Kyle, like, in my opinion. I don't see a different Kyle out there. I'm not worried about it at all. If you told me, if you told me he was going to win the next two races,

I wouldn't be, it would not shock me at all. That's right. he did it. Like he, like he's stepped over, he has always had that tendency and it's, there's a couple, there's a few guys like this in the field and most of them have a dirt

background that every once in a while they step over the line because they're just trying. They're, you know what I mean? And, and Larson's kind of always been that way, but he always makes up for it, you know,

yeah, you know, I don't, I don't, I'm not worried about him. That was a, you know, the only thing you could say,

I guess, Travis, is the points lost. You know what I mean? So like if you're talking about, well, you know, did he help himself in terms of his opportunity to win the championship? Well, you know, if he's in fourth, when the chase starts, that's better than sixth. And he's in that little battle with Ty Gibbs and Chase Elliott. And he's pretty well clear of Chris Busher.

So I think that he doesn't have to really worry about that. But he wants fourth. He doesn't want six. He doesn't want fifth, right? every spot in that top six matters and as you if you if you start to chase fifth instead of sixth your chances of winning the title go up 10 15 percent right so you want to you know that's the only thing I would say that I would be worried about if I were him is like all right I got to look at who am I racing in points what do I need I need to go out there and just make sure I'm

putting the points together every week to beat these two guys, right? So I don't think he runs third down. Blaney is just going to do Blaney things and do enough to get across the finish line and start to chasing third. Consistent. Yeah. Hey, this is Dellenhart Jr. And for all the latest Dale Jr. download gear, including the Imo drink some beer t-shirt

that we've been talking about here around the office, head over to shop.dirtymomedia.com for all the latest merch. All right, everybody, this is do some Asch Jr. Exfinity is sponsoring the Asch Jr. segment once again, and they are waving the red flag on Internet price hikes and raising the green flag for savings. You get the speed and reliable Wi-Fi that you need locked in

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Imagine that. Let's get to some questions. First question, this was a popular one, is what was your reaction to the T&T piece about your Daytona win? Dude, I had no idea that they put that together. And I didn't even like connect it to July 4th, you know, is sort of like a, they were. So we get this text images from our producer on the pre-race. And Jeremy, he's a great guy.

Tons of fun to work with. Easy going. And he's done some inside the NBA stuff. So he's like, hey, kind of wants our show to have that feel where we're just chopping it up and giving each other a hard time. And he texts us, all right, man, this is what we're going to talk about, y'all. segment one, most patriotic races in NASCAR. Segment two, you know, it's just, that's it.

That's all you, all right, you're going to talk about that, segment one. No more notes, no more information than that. You're on your own. And so we sat down at the desk and I got the text messages. Tomorrow we're on the air at 4 p.m. local. Here's what the outline of the show looks like. segment one, two, three, four, five, and it's just one bullet point for each segment.

And so I start writing down most patriotic NASCAR moments. I mean, I'm having a hard time picking one. And so my mind went to like, you know, I just remember racing in Daytona or as a kid going to Daytona in July and I thought that was epic. Being at the beach during that weekend, racing in the morning. and getting out on the beach and the sand and playing as a kid or swimming at the pool by the afternoon after the race. And Daytona just felt like where we were supposed to be.

And anyhow, you know, we're going through. Everybody else starts talking about a race. And they talked about the Dover 2001 race, which was cool. And then they, Marty started talking. teeing up this piece. And as soon as he started talking, I recognized the race he was presenting. And I'm like, oh,

and they started running this piece. I can watch it. We got a monitor in front of us, so I'm watching it happen. And the drivers are looking, I don't know what the drivers were watching, but they got this iPad, you know, and I guess it's, you know,

scenes from the race or whatever. And that was just really cool, man, to hear them all have an opinion or a comment or and then the fan reaction to it on social media afterwards. I got text messages from my wife and, you know, just my sister,

everybody. It was cool. I mean, it was just really, really cool. I told Jeremy thanks for that. I got connected to a couple of the individuals in the production team that worked on that piece directly and thanked them. And, you know,

It was just awesome. I felt like a million bucks for that brief moment. What do you remember of the celebration after you won that race? Because I think a lot of people were tweeting in about, you know, how iconic that was. What do you remember from that? You know, just the, I don't know how drivers feel about it today, but when you win a race, when you, back then, when you won a race, NASCAR, Couldn't wait to get you into Victory Lane because they had an interview that needed to get done.

And everything, as soon as you got out of the car in Victory Lane, it was like somebody had you by the wrist or by the arm. And they were like, all right, go over here, sit here, stand here, put this hat on, smile, take this picture, change your hat. Hold this. Hold this photo. Hold this trophy. Put this over here. Hold this flag. Put this hat on. Change this hat on. put this at them. And Victory Lane celebrations would often feel like a photo shoot or like work. And I got a taste of that when I was racing in the Bush series in 9899. And so I had an intentional. Anytime I won, I was like, I'm going to do what the hell I want to do.

I'm old. I'm old celebrate with my team. Like when we won the Daytona 500 in 2004, I pulled down on the front straightaway and get out. We didn't do front straightaway interviews. They wanted your ass to maybe celebrate a little bit, but get to Victory Lane. And get so the broadcast could get the interview because the broadcast is trying to go off air. Yeah. We're on a big network, and they're trying to get the hell off air.

They got another damn show to run. They got another TV show, whatever it might be. It's got to start. And so you couldn't be farting around, you know, in the infield somewhere. But I was like, I'm going to do what the hell I want and celebrate with my team. I don't want to be around any handlers, any NASCAR people telling me where I needed to be and go. and so we pull down into the infield and do some donuts and I see Michael do it I see Michael in his car and so I park and he parks and we get out and it's just like man we'll get to victory lane soon enough

no rush we'll get there and then everybody runs out there chocolate mires and all my team I think the hardest, when I watched that clip, when I watch that clip, the hardest part of it is there's a real short clip of Danny Earnhardt, my dad's brother. Mm-hmm. And I remember it. Yep. And the look on Danny's face.

That's really the only time you see that, too. Like, I saw, he just walks by the camera as he's passing by, and you can And everybody around Danny is in elation. And a couple people got their hands on Danny, and they're shaking him, and everybody's just jumping and happy. Danny, Sr., has this look on his face, like the same look he had on his face in February when we lost dad.

And that's the hardest part for me, because I know that I was young and naive. right. I lost my dad, but I was young and naive, and I was, I wasn't, I didn't realize

what I'd lost, you know what I'm saying? And Danny did. He was old enough to know. And so that was tough, but just a really cool piece. And I just remember we were going to get to Victor Lane

when we got to Victor Lane. We weren't no damn hurry. And so, but now they do the front straightaway interview and all kinds of stuff, so they go ahead and get the interview knocked out. All right. Next question, speaking of the broadcast,

people want to know how was the hot dog and beer after the race? Oh, man. The hot dog was really good. And the beer was fine. Yeah, I could drink it. Probably not my preferred. It was a heavy. It wasn't a light, I don't believe.

What's your go-to topping for a hot dog if you get a pick? Oh, chili, mustard, ketchup, deal relish. T.J. ketchup. Thank you. I don't know why people are like, oh, you can have ketchup on a hot dog. Yeah, you can. It's great.

We all three. A lot of places. Yeah, I think Chicago, it's like mustard only, right? Some places won't give you ketchup. Yeah. Well, that's ridiculous. That is ridiculous. All right.

I don't disagree. I'm hungry. I know. I'm going to keep you longer, so delay your going to lunch. Yeah. Next question. Did you ever do a helmet swap with any driver? That's a great question.

I never did. I might have swapped once with Jimmy Johnson or somebody. But like Tony Stewart had a different helmet for every race in his final year. And I don't know how many helmets drivers have these days, but most guys could have multiple helmets during a season. and I wore the same helmet all year every week. And so by the end of the season, I had one helmet that I used all year. And I didn't have – I was going to keep that.

So there are some out there that I gave away, but not many because I didn't use but one helmet over the course of 12 months. And sometimes I would keep the same helmet into the next year. so some helmets I wore multiple years. I figured you'd have a few. That's crazy that you just... Yeah. I get one that fit and was comfortable.

I didn't want... You know, you try to... I kept trying different helmets and I'd be like, this thing gives me a headache or it's not comfortable. Where's my old helmet? Give me the other one. You know?

And I'd just stick with what worked. Same with shoes. Once I got a pair of shoes broke in, I didn't want any more shoes. I just wanted to keep wearing the same pair of. over and over until they fell apart. Gloves too. I hated new gloves because they just,

they're not comfortable. Once you break in a pair, you should kind of want to wear the same ones. What was it like making the transition from the open helmet face mask to... I didn't mind it so much. I wore the open face because dad did. But in streetstocks,

you know, and stuff like that, we had, I think we had different helmets. We had clothes face. helmets and stuff back in the streetstock days because shit was flying all over the place in those cars. But you didn't know when somebody, you know, you didn't know what was going to come out from under the car in front of you so you didn't want to be an open face helmet. But I just switched to the open face because dad had it and it was comfortable. It was cool and nice.

Yeah. The closed face helmet took some getting used to because it's not as cool. It's hot even though you got the air pumped in. It's just not as the air blows in there. but it's just not as a it's a little stuffy. Yeah. Another question,

you talked about Chase Elliott earlier in the show. People want to know, what was your conversation like with them after? Are you kind of like... He was like, man, I'm sorry. I was like, dude, I am so thankful that you drove our car tonight. You know, I know you wanted to win.

You did everything you could. That's a, you know, that's a tough, you know, green white checker. You're going to win some. You're going to lose some kind of thing. And I didn't think we gave them a good enough car. and anytime you got Chase Elliott behind the wheel as a control car on a green white checkered

if you got a good enough car you should come out on top so I feel like we could have given a little bit better race car at the end I mean it was running third with 20 to go and you got you know they got side by side and he goes dives three wide takes the lead so I mean he did a really good job just to even have a shot at it do you feel pressure when the cup guys come down and get in one of your cars to make sure that that moment is great for them. Yeah.

Yeah. Like when those guys get in the car, you're, I mean, you're pretty proud. We're proud of our team. We're pretty proud of it. And we're pretty confident in the job we can do and the cars we can put on the racetrack. But, man, and months before the race,

you know, you learn or sign the deal or whatever. He agrees to drive the car. And you're like, man, this is going to be fun. Just like for the late model stock race, the cars tour race at Wilkesboro. Chase, you want to do this? Yeah. All right, man. Meet you to shop.

Let's see how the seat fits. All right. Hell yeah. That's all fun and you're all excited. And then you get to the racetrack on race day or even for practice. And you're like, I hope this thing turns good. I hope this car drives good. What if he drives, what if it drives like?

Yeah. Damn. Yeah. And then you're like, sorry, Chase. I'm sorry, man, we didn't give you a good enough car. You know, it's a lot of pressure and you kind of, you don't want to let them down, right? Yeah, that makes sense.

Yeah. I feel like that's a good spot for us to stop this week. All right, man, appreciate all the questions. There's some great questions today. Xfinity is waving the red flag on Internet price hikes, and they're raising the green flag for savings. You get the speed and reliable Wi-Fi that you need, five years locked in at one price.

no slowdowns, no late yellows, just straight to Victory Lane with Xfinity. Imagine that. We're using Xfinity to bring this show to you today. All right, let's ask Chase Briscoe, the winner from this weekend at Chicagoland. We were just talking, Chase, about the 2000-Datona win

and what I remembered from the celebration. And I was telling them back in those days, they wanted you to get to Victory Lane as quick as possible. And then as soon as you got to Victor Lane, there was somebody telling you the next thing you were going to do for the next hour. Get out, do an interview, put this hat on, hold this trophy, change this hat, change this hat. And there was really, that was like stuff that got in the way of what you actually wanted to do, which was high five of your fucking guys, back slap,

scream, jump around, spray champagne, and act of fool. When we won those races, I would always delay going to Victor Lane. The NASCAR wants you to get to Victor Lane. They got to interview the broadcast needs. The broadcast is trying to get off the air. And so, But I would always just drag my feet and go into the infield and goof off. But what's the experience like today as a cup guy? When you win the race, right, do you have to continuously remind yourself to drive to the front straightaway for the interview? Or is that like, you know, is that a natural thing after all these years now? Because y'all been doing the front straightaway interview for a couple years.

And I kind of wonder what goes through your head. Yeah, for me, honestly, I feel like my whole career, it's pretty much been on the front straightaway. I guess my truck series, 2017 would have been like the only year where it wasn't like that. So, yeah, you kind of just, it's kind of normal now. You do your burnout and you get out. It's kind of cool because now you celebrate with the crowd, I guess, and you kind of hype the crowd up on the mic where I guess before it was a little bit harder to do that, especially now they make the mic live for the whole crowd.

So that part of it is really cool because you can kind of feed off their energy and get them riled up and get them screaming. But and also it allows your guys like normally all come run out there on the front straightaway. So you do get a little quick moment like why everybody's still excited because it's, I mean, you know, it's different 30, 45 minutes later. Like it's not as exciting, right? Like so you get that first initial where everybody's fired up. And so I enjoy how it is now. You know, I didn't get to do a whole lot of it how it was before. but you do get to at least, you know, experience that with your guys.

The tough part I feel like about now, at least Chicago land, you know, you would take your pictures with all your guys. And it was like a five to ten minute thing. And then they're taking them out of there and even taking the car. And then you're just by yourself for the next 45 minutes to an hour. And then you don't see your guys again until you get on the airplane. So it is kind of unique how it is because you do want to, you know, hang out with your guys and like experience with them. And you don't really get to do a whole lot of that. Chase, speaking of your celebration, is that going to be your new celebration going forward, the fishing reel?

Yeah, I think on Bass Pro Shop weekends, that's definitely going to be the new thing. I thought about it last year. I'm like, man, this is kind of be cool. I think if it was a Bass Pro race, I don't think it would make a whole lot of sense. You know, if it's like Columbia Bank or something on the car, but certainly for Bass Pro Shop races, I think that's going to be the new thing. Johnny and JP thought it was pretty good, too. So, yeah, that'll be my new thing.

I thought you reeled in too fast. You need to reel it in a little longer. Yeah, I got to throw it out there more and set the hook. and then do it next time. When the bait, we got to come up with a celebration for the bank. I'm just spread the money. Maybe you're opening the vault. I don't know.

You're open the vault up. Spend the deal. Oh, yeah. Like Lashaw McCoy used to have that touchdown celebration where he'd spun the vault thing and then like pull it open. Yes, yes. It would be you, Chase. You'd be awesome.

Yeah. You need to look that up. Well, hey, fantastic job. all day long. You know, when the race started, though, there was some work to be done. I don't know if you felt like you had the car to win the race, but I was kind of surprised at how, like, you were able to get your car better. Byron's car maybe wasn't as good as it was earlier in the day.

There was a lot of, you know, guys that were improving their cars or maybe not so much. Yeah. Did the track come to you, too? Yeah, there was a lot of change with the racetrack it looked like. Yeah, there was, it was definitely an odd, honestly, just an odd weekend, not even an odd race. You know, the weekend started and, you know, what I remembered Chicago land being, it was very different than that. And maybe some of that's just the next-gen car. Like if I was in an O-Rider car, it would have felt the same.

But it had way more grip than I remember having. You know, the bumps were somewhat similar, but still different at the same time. And so, yeah, the weekend started and we were just extremely tight. qualifying was still tired and I would be lying if I said that I was excited for Sunday. I thought it was going to be a 7th to 10th type of day like just with how my car was. And James texted me first thing Sunday morning and was like, look, I've been up all night long and I think I've figured out some things that will help you not be so tight. So he said I'd just drive with some explicatives in there and yeah, we'll see how it goes.

And so yeah, the race started and I was like, okay, I'm definitely not as tight as what I was. I was actually on the free side. So I felt like I was maybe an adjustment or two away from being able to kind of be where I needed to be. And then, yeah, we were able to kind of slowly get some track position and get up into the top five and then, you know, up in the top three. And your car just changes so much from being in the top two or three to being intent that, you know, I honestly kind of went back to the free side. But all night, I knew my strength was kind of a long run. I could see that with the 24. But I knew I was kind of racing the 11.

It felt like for what was going to be the win. And then my car, I got it into the fence and bent the toe link. And then I was out of control. And James just did an amazing job there on that final green flag stop. Obviously flipping it, or not flipping it, but kind of jumping Byron. And then just tightening me up, even only seeing, you know, eight or so lapsed me with a bent toe link. He could see how loose I was all of a sudden and was able to give me an adjustment. and, you know, if we don't do that adjustment,

I definitely probably tank super hard at the end with just how loose I already was at the end. Did you know the toe link was bent? Or did you learn this? Yeah, as soon as I hit the wall and drove through three and four, I was like, holy smokes. I went from my steering wheel kind of being here

to the corner to here and here. And, yeah, I was sideways. And I was still able to kind of run Byron back down, but I was going to spin out at any point. So yeah, they did a great job, like I said, and just getting me tightened up just enough to be able to kind of hustle it again. When you look at the points, we talked about this in the post race. You know, it's been a couple of great weeks,

and you've been able to kind of leapfrog a few cars. You've had a little bit of time, I guess, to maybe look at that and kind of position yourself for what you want to do over the next several weeks. We've got some tough racetracks to go to. I think you have to have some confidence for Indy, but what's your opinion on the racing at Atlanta, how you feel about your ability there, and then going to Wilkesboro for the 450 for the points race there?

Yeah, I think, you know, the points thing, I think going into this past weekend, you know, our whole goal this whole time is, man, we need to be top five in points. And we've, you know, done ourselves a huge hole to begin with. But, yeah, last weekend, I think we were 107 points out of fifth. And truthfully, I think James and I finally, we talked about it.

week. It's like, well, maybe fifth is going to be a little tough, but let's try to get to sixth or seventh. And now we're 46 points out of fifth. So it's very realistic now to get to there. But you're going to need to survive Daytona and Atlanta. But yeah, I'm excited for Atlanta. I love the racing there. I hate Super Speedway racing, truthfully, like Daytona and Talladega. But Atlanta is so fun because you just take every single run you can get. You're just absolutely getting after it. And it's just, I don't know. I just feel like I'm at a rental go-kart track and just being the most aggressive guy on the racetrack. And it's a lot of fun.

So, yeah, I'm excited to go there and do that. Hopefully can have a great finish and survive and kind of get out of there. But then, yeah, North Wilkesboro, 450 laps around there is going to feel tougher than the Coke 600 and Southern 500, I feel like. It is just so fast and you don't really get any time to take a break. So 450 laps around there is going to be, I think, pretty interesting. and then, yeah, Indianapolis should be a great track for us and a couple of the other tracks, Richmond, and whatnot. So, yeah, just got a truth that I feel like survive Atlanta and Daytona,

and if we can do that, then I think that, you know, there's a realistic chance to get to top five in points, and if we can win another race or two before the end of the regular season, then we're in a really good spot. Yeah, I think so too, man. I did not think that fifth was realistic, but it's crazy how the points swing so wildly and a win.

I still have a hard time realizing how quickly you can overcome a hundred point deficit. I mean, we saw Denny chew away at that lead at Redic had for a while and he worked really hard methodically to get there. And there was some problems at Redic had as well.

But, you know, I sit here and I've kind of looked at the points and I go, all right, you got Reddick and Denny up there doing their thing. Blaney's just going to sit in third and probably just try to get across the finish line to start to chase there. And then you got Gibbs, Chase Elliott, and then Larson battling for fourth, fifth, and sixth. And then there's a cutoff there. I don't think Brisco or I don't think Brisco or Bush or anybody kind of gets into that conversation.

So they're all battling for seventh on back. But now you're sitting here with a realistic opportunity you think to actually get yourself into the top five. I mean, the top six has an 85% chance of winning the championship, the top six. So if it ain't fifth, six ain't terrible. Yeah, definitely want to be top six. Yeah, you got a shot at it, though. I didn't think you did. I didn't think you really could get there.

Yeah, I'll be honest. I think, like I said, I mean, James and I literally just talked about it going into this weekend where we were 11th and points, but, you know, 8th, 7th, even, like they were all within pretty close striking distance. And, you know, we literally, I remember saying, like, maybe fifth is not going to happen unless you just can go and have this amazing streak. But we were trying to just focus on getting the sixth or seventh. And, yeah, now, I mean, fifth is very attainable. I mean, only 46 points is not a lot of points.

So, yeah, like I said, we just need to, you got to survive Atlanta and Daytona. Those are going to be the two that are going to dictate if you get to fifth or not just because, you know, the other races, the odds of having these big swings aren't really there, at least as high. So, yeah, hopefully we can survive those two. And if so, I feel like the ball is definitely in our hand to go and get it. All right, ma'am. Well, we'll be pulling for you. You're a good dude. Love seeing you win and have success.

And we love Bass Pro Shops. Yeah, I appreciate it. Yeah, so, hey, keep kicking ass and. Well, hold on. Before we let Chase go, though, Chase, do you have any questions for Dale for next week since Chase and no are going to be taken over the helm next week for you, Dale? Yeah. I'm excited.

Yeah, me too. Yeah, I guess what's the do's and don'ts? I feel like you can tell me the doos and dotes and I'll try to keep it on the tracks, but with Noah, it's going to be hard to keep that thing steered in the right direction. This is what, this is all you need to know. You are not live. Anything that happens that you don't like can be thrown in a trash can, never see the light of day, and you control the narrative.

It's fun. You're going to have a good time. And just, yeah, yeah, just have fun. Yeah. It's a great. Play off Noah, be yourself, have fun. It's a great space. I think you'll enjoy doing it. And if we... Yeah, I'm excited. It's awesome for me because I got shit to do,

and sometimes I can't be there, or Amy's taking me somewhere that I can't actually do my show. And so I'm really, really thankful that you guys want to do it. so I'm very appreciative of that. It's going to be a lot of fun. I think people are going to tune in just to see how y'all do it differently. Yeah, heck, yeah.

Call me the substitute teacher. Awesome. That was going to be my backup plan there for a little bit. That's right. That's right. I'm going to use it. Oh, my God. I'm finally going to use it.

That's hilarious. I can't even picture that. Yep. Perfect. All right, buddy. Well, thank you. Yeah, thank you guys. Appreciate it.

Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Place your bets This. This segment of Dirty Modo is brought to you by Fanduel. Russell is here. Let's talk about we got some lines that have come out. We also got some top ten props to talk about. We're headed to Atlanta.

Tyler Reddick looks like he might be the favorite in terms of, at least with the odds. Blaney, Chase Elliott, William Byron, Larson, Joe Legano is at plus 1,400. And then Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin, Briscoe, Hosevar, Denny, has kind of struggled there, even with his great season. I don't know if he can get up there and figure it out. what do you guys think about who's going to win this thing? Who do we bet on to win? I'm not a bet to win this weekend.

I don't really like to bet to win this weekend, but I agree with the books and have Tyler Redick as the top. Then I have Chase Elliott, and then the big surprise on the board is the highest he's ever been, as Carson Hosevar. Yeah. You know, he won the last drafting track race. He's been finished top 10 and six of the last eight drafting tracks.

I like him there. well um let's go with some top tens then um i like zane zane smith he read the notes tj read the notes no he rang good there last time too he was fast there he's top 10 in the last four drafting track races the longest let's put zane yeah let's put zane in our top 10 let's get two more you can do this parley but also people maybe just bet zane top 10 alone because it's plus two 80 yeah yeah plus two a all right well we'll bet Zane alone at 280.

What about Suarez? I think Suarez goes there with a little bit of a chip. I think he's motivated there. Not that he's not trying every week, but just I feel like Daniel could have a really good run. I like Christopher Bell is leading there late when Hosevar hooked him. I just feel like Christopher Bail's on a mission.

I don't remember if he Hosevar hooked him. Look like he's a Kahn. I can't last time we race there I feel like I remember something like that going on I like Hosevar if you got Svarez up there

I think it's not uncommon to see teammates working together late in the race Penske does this all day long they start the race and run the first two stages and dominate it

but when they I know I'm just they bury themselves they do they do but I'm saying if Swarz is up there I think you could put Swarz and Hosevar

in a combo Like I can see Cendrick running top five first two stages And then they You know what I mean But he could have a really good run too But what about Cbeil and Sores Cbelle and Sores would be plus 358 I like it

Yeah Let's do it Cbell Sores Seabell's starting to come on too A lot of bad luck Yeah he's starting I don't know Just needs to break through it

seems like. What about Ricky Stenhouse? He'll be up there. He was up there near the last race. I don't, I could see Joey being up there. I could see Brad and Joey both being up there with, the nine. I could see the nine being up there. Yeah. You're not going to trick me with Pizzlowski again this week. No way. Oh, yeah. Man, I had your hopes up after Saturday. I thought I was going to send a text say, look at how smart we are and then look what you did during the rain. Yeah. Killed me. Yeah. Yeah, we heard you. Sorry. I'm going to stop right there at Christopher Bell and Sauras.

I think that parley lands. I'm not going to try to get too stupid or too cute with it. Anything else? Oh, I have one for you then. He hasn't done well on drafting tracks. Denny versus Bell is Bell's minus 115. I like Bell. I do too.

Yeah. Denny has not been good there. It doesn't have a top five there. I don't know what it is, but Denny's, Danny is one of the best restrictor plate racers of our time. And I don't know what it is about the racing at Atlanta, the new Atlanta. He just seems like it'd be right up his alley

because it's exactly how like we used to race at 2004, 2004, 2002, 2002, 2003. The runs are coming fast and furious and you can take all the runs and make the passes. And it just seems like this would be right up his alley. but he just kind of hangs around. Doesn't really go for it early. And then when it's time to go late, he's got too, it's too congested.

I'll be curious if with the new format with points, does he change his style? I hope he does. In the one year during the playoff race, his goal was just to get 20th. Yes, I know. I mean, you're a Denny, bro. What's the mindset?

Well, I mean, hell, this week, he said that he was lazy at times. And so I'm like, what happened to the no mercy, Denny? Hamlin that we saw a couple weeks ago. Like the fact that he was... Damn, you're trying to wreck him. No, I just want him to fucking race

the whole way. Like, he was saying that on multiple restarts, he would, instead of getting out of line and making a move, he just stayed in line and pushed instead of, like, he got lazy. Like, I think he needs to stay on the chip and go for it. I will say, though, that Denny did finish better than Bell in every drafting track race this season.

Yeah. Well, I mean, you're, you guys, we might see a different Denny Hamlin this Sunday with the point system. way it is he might be going for it sounds like we need to get Travis a radio I don't think Gail wants that during the right no Danny let's look at the bracket while we got Russell here Bowman versus Gillen yeah the numbers totally lean towards towards Bowman so all right yeah briscoe chase Elliott I think you got to take

Chase Elliott his home track again this is our dominant for Chase Elliott Hamlin, Membale, we just talked about, Byron and Blaney. Yeah, this is an interesting one. I still think it leans to Blaney, but Byron's been really good at this track too. That is a tough one. I feel like if you ran them straight up, I like the, I like the Chevys better right now than I do the Ford's. But I don't know. I think this is, I mean, this is a handling racetrack.

Handling is going to be important. And I don't think that the Fords were, I don't think the Fords are the same Fords that were good here over the last probably four or five years, you know what I'm saying? Is that all makes sense? Like Toyota's gotten way better and now Chevrolet's maybe improved somewhat. So I think the job gets tougher for Blaney. I don't know.

I've seen the end of this race. I like Blaney's execution better than I do the 2014. right now, even though they just did sweep two stages last week. Yeah, he had a really good run. I don't know. I mean, the end of these races are, I don't really know if I see someone that stands out, it kind of just, like, lines upright.

Has Blaney got the pit crew situation sorted? It's been better, but it has not improved to the level where, like, he would like. Yes. Yeah. That might be what ends up costing Blaney. You can't give up a bunch of times. track position at Atlanta. It's just really hard. There's a lot of churn in the top

five, but if you're 15th, man, it's really hard to get their runs and make the passes you need to be able to move forward. Yeah, like Blaney's still a 32nd ranked pit crew for the year. For the year, I know, but they've made changes. I didn't know if that's what has been in the last five weeks. At Chicago, they were the 17th best. Yeah, so they've made some gains, but still not top 10. That might be kind of. That might be costly for him Sunday. At what point they just got to make

the move and give him Luganos? What's Lugano's Pit Crew? Luganos for the year is the second best. You got one driver racing for a championship. What like Roger, what are we doing? Yeah. There you go. I mean, I don't want him to make the change, but come on. Yeah, you do. Why don't

you? Because I want Dini to win. Oh, all right. Well, Russell, appreciate you coming. in brother. No problem. Are you going to be at the racetrack this weekend? Of course.

Wouldn't miss it. I look forward to seeing you there. This Dirty Modo segment is brought to you by Fandul, the premier gaming destination in the United States of America. Thanks for joining us here in the Arby's studio. Sorry, we're not there, but we're still loving our Arby's meat and three box. You can get your new meat and three box at Arby's now.

You get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meats, and I appreciate the show. Thanks for tuning in, everybody. Thank you, T.J., Travis. Thank you, Briscoe, for calling in. Russell. It's been a fun show, guys.

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