The Dale Jr. Download - 323 - Chase Elliott: The Champion

Episode Date: November 11, 2020

The NASCAR season is over and a new champion has been crowned. Dale Earnhardt Jr. brings on the 2020 Cup Series champion Chase Elliott to dive into what this accomplishment means for the 24-year-old and how he pulled it off. Plus, the DJD gang reflects on the unprecedented year for the sport.Dale Jr. and co-host Mike Davis first find out they are the reasons Elliott got out of bed this morning after living it up last night celebrating in his hometown of Dawsonville, Georgia. Chase spills the details on the party and how his dad, the legendary Bill Elliott, joined in on the fun.Elliott received a special welcome home parade on Monday. He talks about that experience and why it’s unique to him among his Cup Series competitors.Long-time Cup Series crew chief Alan Gustafson is now a champion. Elliott talks about what it means to be the one who delivered it to him.Dale inquiries about the No. 9 team’s ability to perform under pressure, especially in the playoffs where they won three of the last five races. Davis asks Elliott about his performance in Phoenix and whether it met Elliott’s tough standards.Lastly, Dale delivers a special message to Chase on an accomplishment he was never able to capitalize on.In the open segment, the crew reflects on championship weekend at Phoenix Raceway. Dale Jr. dives into Elliott’s day and how Hendrick Motorsports has mastered the art of shelving tricks to use later in the season. Plus, Dale shares a story of skirting the rules and trying to hide it from competitors in the Cup Series garage.Self-admittedly hard on NASCAR, Dale gives the sport and its leadership team props for pulling off a season many didn’t think would be possible. The gang reflects on the challenges the pandemic presented, the ways the sport overcame it, and the memorable moments it created.Sunday marked Jimmie Johnson’s final farewell. Dale discusses how underappreciated Jimmie has been throughout his career and why his feat of winning five consecutive titles needs better recognition.In #AskJr, bossman Dale addresses the finish to the Xfinity Series race as Justin Allgaier battled for the title on the final restart. Plus, find out why he got mad at Steve Letarte during the race.It wouldn’t be a new episode without beef jerky. Stay tuned until the end to find out what arrived in the Dirty Mo studio. 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 Dirtymo Media. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media. Son, what I'm going to say to you might strike you kind of odd. We have almost forgotten that we are in a great mortal combat. A cloud of dust, pretty feet of missing Godrail. The battle of the forces of good. Then the gas tank tore the ocean, the disabled car by the shock of collision. And the forces of evil.

and ignites. With a twinkle in his eye. He looked at me and scratched his head and this was his reply. Son, what I'm going to say to you might strike you kind of odd. But he's getting out. He's all right. But this monstrous event is on the way. This is his hour. Jalapi jockeys are in for a jar and jolt in time and they know it and we know it.

So hold on tight. Hey everybody, it's Dale Jr. Welcome back to another episode of the Dell Jr. download. The NASCAR season is over. Sad face. We all have sad faces on. But happy face. Chase's Elliot's on the show, The Champion.

So it's going to be a lot of fun. I'm going to recap the year. Talk about what's going on in our lives. Let's get this show started now. So here in the studio, Everybody's here except Matthew. Matthew's not here. Matthew is not here. Mike's here.

Shelter's here. Leah. Yeah, so where is Matthew? Matthew is out on a production right now. Can we say what production it is? I don't even know. I don't think we can. I don't think we can.

Shh. He's out on a project. Do not talk about the project. Right. The project. But I know he has a metal detector. Because he took mine that I've probably used twice in my life. I bought the thing.

I think out of the back of a catalog that's in the back seat of an airplane, you know, when you're flying. Oh, like, what is it called, Air Mall or something like that? Yeah. It has like the fish tank coffee table. Anybody ever bought anything out of one of those? I bought a crossbow out of one of those. I've never even known anybody that's bought something out of them. And there's two things right there. That was a big trip for you.

Yep. Those are some good magazines. They always have everything, all the fun toys. Yeah. But yeah, so I bought this metal detector a long time ago. Funny story about that metal detector. I bought it. I don't know how to use it.

I don't know what it's telling me. Because apparently it tells you a little bit about the depth of where it thinks the object is and maybe what type of metal it is. And you're supposed to take that information and pretty much be able to understand exactly what's down there without even having to dig it up. If you watch the YouTube videos of these guys that are metal detecting, they're like, oh, I know that that's a bullet.

That's a horseshoe right there. Yeah, that's a horseshoe. They'll dig your eye up, sure enough. So apparently these metal detectors are good enough to tell you about what you're looking at without even digging it up. But not me. So I used it a couple times. Did not find it very entertaining. Put it back on the shelf, right?

It sits on the shelf. One day, I got fired up to use it. I don't know why. Probably you're watching a YouTube video. something and uh i got my buddy shone and me and sean are walking around in my yard right and i'm thinking in my mind man i wonder what's in my yard i bought this property i'm on this land and and and let's dig up some things and see if we see you know see find some history right and and so we're walking around in my yard and we found a couple things we found like the band from an old uh from

from a from a bucket like a wooden bucket the metal band oh okay yeah yeah that would hold the Kind of put it together. Yes. We found a few little, you know, metal pieces and things and old farm type stuff. And then we get a spike. I'm like, there's something right here. Get on down there and dig, right? He gets down there and, man, he's moving his hand around on top of the grass and grab something.

And it was a live power line. Oh, God. Like a live, not a power line, but a live. wire. What? Yeah. Like a hot electrical wire and he grabbed it and it got a hold of him. And he was like, he jumped back, right, and was like, ow, right, and jumps way up in the air.

And knowing that that happened to Sean Brawley, people listening don't know Sean Brawley, but let's just think about the people that will over, not overreact, but dramatize everything in their life. Everybody knows that one person. Sean Brawley is that person for us. Yeah. It's a big deal no matter what it is. The ignorance of what we did is pretty heavy. So when I bought this property, there was this little kid playhouse.

The family that lived in it before and had kids and they had this little kid playhouse and they had ran power to it. I took that playhouse and sent it down to the old western town and put a big church facade on the front. to make it a church with a steeple and everything. Wow, I'm learning a lot about the church down there at the town. Right. Yeah, I didn't know that. Well, we left that wire laying right there on the ground. Wow.

And it was still hot. After all, I mean, years later, we never pulled the fuse, flipped the breaker to turn it off or anything. And it's sitting there all these years laying in that grass for somebody to walk up and grab it. And boy, y'all are the lucky words. and I laughed. I laughed at Sean. So that I anticipate Matthew having a moment like that.

That metal detector is cursed. Matthew and a metal detector, what could possibly go wrong, right? Be careful, Matthew, for live wires out there. Yeah. By the way, what kind of privileged life did those kids have to have electricity running to their playhouse?

I mean, am I wrong? Right. What a nice life. Right. So anyhow, Matthew's not here. We went around in circles to tell you that. So let's get started talking about this season. The season's over.

We got a champion in Chase Elliott. The most popular driver has won the title. It's rare that that happens. Obviously, I'd never won the championship. So I had that popular driver thing locked up for a long time and kind of kept the champion from, you know. We don't want to spoil everybody. Yeah.

I mean, you don't want to get them used to it. Come on, make them work for it. Last time that happened was 1988 when Bill Elliott was a champion. His own dad was the last person to win both of those awards. And, you know, Kevin Harvick said a few things a couple years ago. Mike, you're still pissed off about that. Still pissed, yeah. But he said that I'd stifled the growth of the sport

because I was the most popular driver yet. I wasn't a champion, wasn't winning championships or successful enough. and that if I had been more successful, the sport would have been better off. So here we are. We're living in that reality now where the most popular driver is the champion. And while I think that Kevin's argument is true in terms of when the most popular driver wins a championship, it's great for the sport. I don't think that I stifled the growth of it But

That was a little harsh He was mad at me for something I'd said So he went after me Yeah But so what is paramount What's most important The health of the sport Nothing against the other guys

That were going for the title But this is the best Result that we could have Hope for if you're thinking Man I really want to sport to be healthy I want a sport to succeed This is the best outcome If you were talking about the long-term plans of the sport in the headland,

just like you said, yeah, Chase Elliott winning, everybody assumes that he's going to be most popular for years to come. And he won his championship before Jimmy won his first. Is that right? Look at there. What could be, what could we be looking at? So we could be, I'm thinking, you know, this is a guy that could win four, five. I dare say seven.

I mean, I don't know that anybody can ever go, man, this is a guy that can win. Seven. You know, we don't ever think anybody's ever going to do that again. Someone will. I don't know that you could predict that guy. He's going to need a lot of breaks to fall his way. But he could win four. I would say four would be the number that I would feel comfortable throwing out there for Chase. And that's a lot of championships. Yeah, not that we want to apply the pressure to you right now, Haas. You know, that four championships is what we expect at least. Go ahead. certainly capable of that, having won this first one so soon.

So that's a very popular championship. And let's talk about the other guys. I thought that I had picked Lugano to win the title. I thought that he had the mental toughness. I feel like that when you get down to that final race, everybody brings their good stuff. Everybody's going to be fast. And they were looking. I mean, they're all four running in the top.

They're all four claimed the top four positions throughout most of the whole race, right? Nobody else was up there battling amongst them. It's amazing how that is. It is amazing. Let's talk about that in a second. But I thought Joey was going to win it. And once they get to that final race and they're all running together in the top four positions, I feel like the last straw or the last bit of weakness that a driver might have is the mental side of it. Right.

And can they, can they, when this is when the pressure is really on trying to, you know, when you get in the car, you psych yourself out. Do you suck yourself up? Are you already beaten before the race begins? And we had never seen Chase in this situation, so we couldn't really evaluate him. Well, you know, we've seen him in Xfinity Series and do new and... Sure.

Yeah, but this is a whole other beast, right? Yeah. So he passed the test, obviously, by flying colors. But I couldn't evaluate Chase and understand exactly just how mentally tough he was to be able to handle the toughest, probably, most difficult thing mentally that he had ever had to face in a race car. Well, I thought Joey had it.

You know, Brad's going to stand in there and take the hits. Brad's going to put up a good account of himself, but I think I personally feel like that Brad overanalyzes a lot of situations and makes more problems for himself than it makes things probably harder than they have to be. But he also ran really good and could have easily wanted to chance. Maybe you have had a few issues on pit road. Yeah, Pit Cruz was his biggest downfall there. They had some issues there.

And Denny Hamlin, you know, I think we, I say we, I think I was open to the idea that Denny was going to come in there and be the Denny that we'd seen all year. But he was the Denny that we've been seeing in the last couple of months. And it didn't materialize for him. They didn't have the speed in the car. he talked about it. He said, you know, the balance might have been, might not have been perfect,

but I just felt like we didn't have just the speed. We just didn't have the car to compete with them. As a company, by the way. He was talking about Joe, he was racing. Yeah, he was thinking about where his teammates ran versus him. It just, none of it looked good. And that's, yeah, that's frustrating. This is a sport where things ebb and flow and teams

if you watch, teams move to the top, then other teams come and claim that position. And throughout the year, you're like, oh, this team's dominating. They're the favorites. And then they'll sink and someone rises. And look back at the beginning of the year,

when the season started, the Chevroletes had everybody surprised. They brought this new car. They were very fast. They were almost winning every race. Chase Selly, Alex Bowman, all those guys were done. doing really good things, having great years. And then they sort of fell off the map.

Right midway through the year, it's like they put all their tricks on the table or on the shelf, or the rest of the series got better than, you know, the 11, the 4, Harvick, they go on a tear, they went a bunch of races. All this happened in the same season. You know, you forget about it. It feels like five seasons all crammed into one, doesn't it? Yeah. I mean, Chase was really.

really fast and almost one Darlington when we came back. Right. Then they kind of disappeared. But man, they figured it back out. Like when it comes time to show back up and when you're in elimination mode and you've got to win, they pulled all the tricks off the shelf and put them back on the car, right? I would love to see what Chase Elliott's odds were when the playoffs started, you know, when you had the full gamut of it.

Nobody really would probably pick Chase to win. Remember when we had Chad Canouse on here, and he was telling us how, you know, they had all this stuff scienceed out and all these little pieces, and they would use, you know, they would, they would use what, they would use one trick till NASCAR rode a rule around it. And then they would have 10 more tricks on the shelf. And they would put that next trick out there until NASCAR could write a rule around it. And then they're like, well, we got this, we got eight more tricks, buddy. Yeah. You know, we can get them, we keep them coming. Bleu my mind that he said that.

Yeah, and some teams have that shelf full of tricks, and this is worth a tenth, this is worth two tents, this is going to help us in front down force, this is going to help us in rear down force. All the teams, mostly all the teams, have some of those things on the shelf. Some teams do not, you know, maybe by the end of the year that Gibbs guys, their shelf was empty. They'd used all their tricks. But it was almost as if, and, and, and, you know, and.

And this is probably not true, but it's almost as if the nine team, unintentionally or intentionally built a shelf full of tricks, hot tips, set up stuff, whatever you want to call it, throughout the first half of the year, and said, you know what, let's put all that back for the playoffs. Let's not get it taken away. Maybe after he won his first race, for sure. When he was in the play, you know, when you lock yourself in,

don't go empty the chamber right there. Yeah, it's such a hard thing to do. when you do get yourself sort of locked in to the playoffs and you know your fate of going, you know your positive fate of going into the championship, you know, the playoffs or battle for the championship, your team or your crew chiefs are most often, they do kind of dial it back.

Get a little more conservative, less aggressive on getting through tech and some of the things that they, you know, some of the holes in the rule book, right? But anyhow, when it came time to go to the shelf, for Chase Elliott at Martinsville and this past weekend at Phoenix. Right. They didn't even pass.

They threw all that stuff on the race car. Right. And sent him to the back too. Yeah. I mean, like, one of those things did. One of them did. Yeah.

The one they wanted NASCAR to see. I know. That is another. That's true. So I've always felt like that when we would go to Daytona or Talladega, right? I mean, with Tony Jr. and those guys, we had the body, for example, is just one part of it. Then you've got the chassis and things you do with the rear suspension

and there's so many things that are just borderline, right? That if NASCAR really looked at, they might go, you know what? It ain't illegal, but we don't like it. Right. So we're going to take it from you and you just put something normal in there. Whether it's a screwjack or bolt or something with a trailing arm they don't like.

But then, you know, they obviously look at the body and it's out there for everyone to see and they might go you know what that sea post grind on that sand on that or you know so what we would typically what i always liked to do was to make something super glaring like in your face right that i wanted that i was okay with them taking away uh so that that would draw their attention away from anything else or other things on the car like a little blinking red light that says nitrous yeah or something in it so you're pushing the car up for tech right and you're going into the body panels and the body tents and all the templates

and all that stuff and you got this one thing and they're like oh man no we can't let you we can't let you get you have this you got to they're talking to you like work with us here you know kind of you can't have this this is this is obviously very aggressive what you've done here to this splitter or this front fender or whatever oh man come on come on come on you do that you go to the commotion right you do that's crazy man and we start sanding on it and you're like man I can't I can't I can't go too far here. You're killing me. Right.

And they're like, nope, we don't like it. And you just keep hollering and hooting over this one little area and they're never looking anywhere else on the car. Some Jedi mind tricks going on in the NASCAR tech line.

And you were willing to give that away or give it up or give it back to them from the get-go when you loaded the car in the trailer. It's so fun, I think, what the sort of chess match is amongst the engineers and the crew chiefs that it's all going on.

and preparing the car and getting the car through tech and getting the car onto the starting grid with all the bells and whistles that they want. There's a lot more to it than what you just, when the driver fires it up and runs the laps and wins the race. So your theory then is that, you know, being the fact that Chase won, what, three of the last five races, is that what he, I mean, he won, obviously Martinsville and Phoenix,

what he won, when Charlotte, right, that they held their good stuff Yeah. To the playoffs. And boy, that it's illegal. I'm not saying that they're,

right, right. We're not saying that anything anything on their car. To corner wise man, I'm not directly calling you a cheater. This is another, what I think

they're not even shelving some of that stuff. It ain't even NASCAR or the officials that they're worried about. Oh, really? It's the rest of the garage. Oh, right. Okay.

I get it. I get it. When I would go into the competition meetings at Hendrick Motorsports, My favorite part of the meeting was at the end, this is post race, you know, getting together on a Tuesday or something. My favorite part of the meeting was being able to see what, if any,

pictures we had of the competition. As they push their cars through tech or their cars are going out on the racetrack, there's photographers everywhere taking pictures for everybody. And if we got a question or a concern about maybe something, and somebody's doing, a photographer may take extra pictures of that particular area of the car. And we, you know, can get these high-deaf pictures

and go home and just look at it. You can't stare at it all you want. Obviously, in real time, in reality, you can't walk up to the car in the garage, your competitor, and just look at it, you know, for 15 minutes. Certainly not cryptically, right? Right. And so my favorite part of these meetings was

when there might be some great, photos to look at and I don't know what I'm looking at but I'm sitting there at at at that table with all those cruchies and engineers waiting on them to tell me what I'm looking at what do y'all see what I just see a picture of her car and so what do you all what's so and they're like well look at this they got the wrong color wheelbase I mean are y'all seeing what I'm seeing you know yeah it's a side skirts not painted that's and they're like they're like well look look at how they got this little trip lip right here I'm like holy smokes I would have never noticed that you guys that's

you know, they're so smart, right? Yeah. And so the garage is sort of like trying to, you know, smoke screen itself. And, yeah, you're not really worried about NASCAR taking away something as much as you are, just your opponent's figuring it out. And what happens when they figure it out, Mike, first is, I want to say this is, not only do they copy you, they see, oh, that's cool. I add that to my car.

Now, they take it home and they engineer it. into something better. Yeah. That was how Brad Kozlowski, in my opinion, beat us in the championship of 2012. So we had tricked out our rear suspensions and we had a rear sway bar on the back of the car that when the car would travel,

it would twist the rear in-housin into skewing the car, right? So we could grab, you know, you remember how you see the cars run sideways? Oh, yeah, like a crab. Crazy, right? Well, NASCAR started doing a lot of things with rules under the cars to keep that from happening. We had little bushings in the left side of the trailing arm that would move, but you had to have something to hold it in that position.

So we fixed the rear sway bar. It wasn't working as it was intended to work. It was actually just a big pry bar that would pry the rear end back on the left side and hold it in position when the car would travel, right? Rolling through tech where it heights. Oh, my God. Right? Yeah.

We got a clear height set in tech, which is about four inches or whatever. But when we go out on the track and we're running around, the car settles down, right? When it would travel those two, three inches, it would, that rear sway bar would pry that rear end housing back on the left side. Or pry it forward, I'm sorry. It would pry it forward and skew the housing and skew the car, and then now you're hauling tail, right? It was worth about two, three-tenths. Which is huge, yeah. Huge.

God Almighty, you have them covered with that. Yeah. And we really did really, we had a lot of speech. that year with that and Brad and his team went to work they might not have seen exactly how he did it but by after a handful

of weeks they had an idea of what we were doing and went home and made it even better and then whooped our ass do you know what they did at this point not a clue but I just know that they didn't have what we had and when it came time to win a championship

at the end of the year they had taken that idea that principle and made it even better. This is fascinating because it's no different than when a football team runs a trick play. Once you run it, it's on the game film. Everybody in the world can now go look at it. They can get better or they know how to defend it for sure. That's what you're saying.

You're saying is that don't go show your trick plays, not because it's illegal. It may not be illegal, right? You can run that punter sweep all you want. It's only going to work once because then everybody else is going to be ready for it. Yeah, for sure. Well, let's talk about the season in general. I, for one, have always been super, super hard on NASCAR, where we race, what the cars look like, what the rules are, what the schedule is, what times the race start.

Yeah. How much the track is aged. How bad the sales service is it's a track. I mean, if it ain't working, if it's wrong, if it's not convenient, it's NASCAR's fault. that's really like I'm joking but no you're not you're actually being very honest super strict right super hard on them but um and I'm not gonna you know Steve Phelps is a great guy good leader right um I'm not gonna say oh the you know the I'm I don't want to put it I don't want to say you know well Steve Phelps got in charge and now look at things we're in great shape

it's not that I really I really got along well with a lot of the leaders that we've had in our industry over the years. Steve Phelps was just the guy when all this went down. He happened to be the guy in charge. But he handled it really well. When we were put in a tough position with this pandemic and everything got shut down, I mean, everybody remembers when the teams were at Atlanta, all the trailers had just pulled into the racetrack and they're getting phone calls to turn around and go home.

We're not going to race. Right. It was crazy. Yeah. And not since 9-11 when they moved New Hampshire to the end of the season had anything really felt like this. Like, man, we're not going to race. Wow. I mean, for us, the industry, to just not race, not happen, it has to be something pretty profound.

So I think we were all really scared about what this meant long term. And to really appreciate that, you have to remove all that you know or we know about the virus. now and go back to April or March and realize that we knew nothing of what's to come. It was complete anxiety and uncertainty. And at that point, I just think to appreciate what NASCAR ultimately did and Steve Phelps did, you have to remember the uncertainty and the anxiety that went along with it. And we just seemed to know, and we've lived with this virus now at this point. So like we go into a lot of confidence.

then you didn't know if we were going to race again for the rest of the year, right? Maybe even two years. Who knew what to expect? Who knew what to expect? You really think about that. That was like the uncertainty, are we going to go through layoffs?

Are we going to even keep our jobs? What's going to happen? I mean, like race teams, we're going to turn the lights out? What are we going to do? That's how much uncertainty there was at that time. That's what Steve Phelps had to navigate. Yeah.

And O'Donnell and a bunch of... For sure. It ain't, I don't know, man, I'm just so thankful. I'm so sort of taking a back really is the best way to describe it for me is I am really taken aback. And I would have been, I would have not been so confident that NASCAR could have pulled this off. And when you remember the schedule was coming out and it was different and they were having to move it and adjust it. and we couldn't go to all the tracks. A lot of the states weren't going to allow us to be able to race,

and they had to take certain tracks off the schedule. And really, I mean, I don't know how they did it. I do not know how they sat in a room, and they had to have so many officials on the line and get commitments from different people and lock down something that was going to work. I don't know how they did it. Well, they didn't even know it was going to work.

I mean, remember when we had, had Phelps on our show and it was on Zoom. We were all at our homes. You know, Phelps comes off as a very confident and a, you know, a good leader. But I will say there certainly was trepidation. There certainly was uncertainty with his voice. And, and that did come across to me when we had him on the show. You knew that this could go extremely well or terribly wrong, like terrible, terrible. And in the, when you think about the terrible situations, there were more of those than you felt like than there were the extremely wells at the time, right? Yeah. So there you go. All right. We want to give NASCAR a lot of credit. The other thing you got to give a lot of credit

to are the, you know, the protocols put in place for the screening, which we, which I personally experienced and the individuals that were tasked to screen everyone did an amazing job all year long and the industry, the teams, drivers, over the wall guys, everybody that's got their, when they go home, they got their own life, they got their own personal way of handling this situation, some more casually than others, some stricter than others, what whatever they believed to be true and right. But everybody walked a line and everybody, you know, everybody came back to work for the most part.

You know, we had a few cases in the industry, but nothing that was, nothing that shut us down or got in the way or brought this to a grinding halt. Mm-hmm. And so I think as you compliment NASCAR, you also have to compliment the industry. All the, all the people that show up to put the race on

and the teams that are included in that. We didn't have a group of people make a mistake. And we didn't have a driver in the playoffs eliminated because of COVID. Right. I was just, and honestly, you know, I feel like that we are fortunate that we are wrapping our season because it seems like, you know, things are getting a little bit, things are picking back up a little bit, and some of the other sports are having cases and so forth. Hey, listen, I was hit with that same overwhelming sense of gratitude,

and it was when that race started. When the cup race on Sunday started, it was like, holy crap, we actually made it to the finish line. Like we didn't miss any races. That was impossible just a few months ago. And I was hit with that same thing. I also was hit with the fact that if it wasn't for NASCAR, I'll be the one to say it. If NASCAR were to come out and then had an outbreak right off the jump. We're not watching football right now. We're not watching an NBA championship. We're not watching.

None of those others would have gone forward with their season. If NASCAR would have had an outbreak or, you know, a situation goes south and it was always possible. That would, we would not have had the rest of the sports. And also, NASCAR would have gone backwards 20 years because those dumb rednecks went out there and did, you know, did what everybody was telling them not to do. And we would have had to deal with that whole brain. brand again, that whole branding. So, you know, I was hit with all that as soon as that race started. Yeah.

So a lot of things came out of this season, and there are things that would have never happened. And it blows my mind because, you know, all these years I've had these ideas that I think we should be doing this and we should be doing that. And you can't get anybody to listen to you, right? Trying to get this sport to try anything new is really tough. Yeah.

I say that, but you know, we tried a lot of new stuff over the years but it's always been, you know, NASCAR's idea, double-file restarts,

stuff like that, right? But, you know, more short tracks. Mm-hmm. Ugh. Mm-hmm. Can't get one. Right?

Um, I guess what I'm trying to say is that it took the pandemic for us to be forced into less practice, shorter race weekends. Yeah, one day shows. One day shows. And it's been, from what I could tell, it's been a very positive thing. I don't think anybody has missed practice. I don't think anybody's misqualifying.

It's overrated now. Now, my traditional sort of self hates it. Like, oh, we've got to have practice and qualifying. We've always had like these full weekends, and that's just what it goes. That's just what we've always done. But honestly, it's been a big money saver for the teams. And for years, for decades, the sports tried to find ways to cut costs. Right?

Isn't that funny? just can't find a way. No, yeah. We're already at the bottom. Running as tight as high as ship as we can run. That's it, yeah. Yeah, can't go any lower. Pandemic comes in and says, watch this.

Yeah, right, right. Hold my beer. And now we're, you know, we've cut a lot of costs. I think, you know, that it's good that it's going to be something that we maintain going forward. There will be some races. I think there's seven race weekends where there's going to be a little practice. but and I don't see that kind of growing as years go by

it's just that we got so many new tracks on the schedule next year and some some things where practice is a necessity but let me give you one more silver lining sure that the pandemic gave us the pandemic gave us this almost like this ebony ebony or scrooge experience where we were able to kind of go into the future or go into the past and look what it's like to race without fans all right now to be clear empty grandstands can happen with or without a pandemic you just do the wrong things as a sport and as an industry and go you know you're going to find yourself racing without any fans you know if you lose

the popularity we took NASCAR's boom in the 90s in early 2000s we took it for granted for sure so my point is is that we got to experience because of a pandemic what it's like to race without fans and you know what it didn't look good and it didn't feel good and my hope is is that because of this whenever we do come out of this pandemic is that the drivers, especially since we got so many new young drivers, they have a new appreciation for what it means to have those grandstands for and have the support of the fan base. You know, because NASCAR prides itself on the accessibility to the drivers, right? This is what NASCAR sort of boasts. But I got to be honest, when I'd go to those NHRA events, I was like, they got us covered in accessibility. Not even close. And when we, even IndyCar, you know,

when we would have people go to the Indy 500 and cover the, they're like, you know these drivers? Way more accessible to the media than some of the cups. We got into a rut. We started developing some bad habits because NASCAR was very successful. But then, you know, you got these young drivers in that think, hey, I'm made it to cup. Where's my motorhome?

Where's my jet? I've got all this earned. No, you know, you got to work every day for fans. You got to earn the support. And I hope that the feeling of having to raise. without an empty grandstands. Whenever we come out of this, we were able to get, you know,

20,000, 30,000 fans in there. And, man, it felt so good just to have them there, right? Get back to having full grandstands. I think that it's a changed experience. When I said, Ebenezer Scrooge experience, I think hopefully as an industry, we've had a master reset in our thinking, maybe recalibration on our appreciation for the fan base, right?

Oh, yeah. You know, the drivers having to get out of the car, after a win to nobody is a root awakening and they you know they missed it that you would hear them talk about it like man that's weird I don't like it I don't care if it's 10 people up their cheer and I prefer that you know just give me somebody that's happy about what just happened so I think yeah that's a good point Mike and NASCAR posted a tribute video to the fans yesterday that kind of told that whole story and it was like the first race without fans and I think it was Harvick that got out of the car and he's like this is weird and then you got a few people back

and they get out of the car and you hear just a little bit of cheering and it just made it such a huge difference yeah yeah so we're we're excited hopefully you know it's going to be a long time before Daytona and a lot can happen but hopefully by time we get back the next year things are continuing to approve and the opportunity for fans to come to the racetrack is there and they feel comfortable enough to come you know right we can give them a great experience a safe experience so um i'm i was talking i was thinking the other day i was like i you know i used to get done with the season and i couldn't wait for it to be done because i had all this oh man finally got some time of myself going to have a weekend off on my buddies i'm going to get

drunk and uh i'm going to do this and do that and i got this and that and i'm going to do it and somebody would be like, 90 days to Daytona. And I'm like, no, don't start that now. Yeah. No, let's wait until January to start counting. Right. 98 days to Daytona, 97D. I'm like, I don't know how many days it is.

Whatever it is, your points will make. It's like, you know, your last day of school, you're like, you know, 90 days till school starts back up. Like, who does that? Nobody. Well, now I get it. Yeah. Yeah. I can't wait for the Daytona 500.

You had me a little concerned. I didn't know what to make of your social media activity this weekend. I'm looking at one picture where you've got the hotel room and you have the song. Hello, darkness, my old friend. And I'm like, do we did a check on home boy? What's going on with him? And then he's like, now he's feeling remorse for the season being over. I'm like, who is that guy, right?

But I got the second one. I was a little worried about you with the hotel room thing. But my buddy Tim Dugger, musician in Nashville, when he takes a flight to commercial flight somewhere, he takes a picture of the Nashville airport, the floor on the carpet. And it's the same. Yeah. That's funny.

And with that song. Yeah. Because that walk to his terminal is a very depressing experience, I guess. Hey, I want to ask you guys. I was mimicking him. So if you remove the obvious pandemic and all that, the NASCAR thing, give me a memorable moment from the season that like when you look back on 2020, I'm even going to say remove Chase Elliott from winning a championship because that's also obvious.

What are other things or maybe what is the other thing that you'll think about on 2020 that it represented that it had something happened? And it feels like you've got to go back five years because it feels like a five year season all crammed into one because, you know, Newman getting hurt at Daytona feels like an eternity ago. Yeah, doesn't feel like it was going to say. That was this year. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Newman's wreck and then getting out of the hospital, what, two days later.

Right. That feels like it was a lifetime ago. Yes. Right. Sure does. That was one. I think for me, Bubba Wallace's Talladega weekend or, you know, the industry's Talladega weekend sticks out to me.

Like, I will always remember this year. And then you kind of hit on a couple of things that are probably, this smaller scale but still like we had an incredible rookie class you had Cole Custer won in his first race Tyler Reddick kind of

established his footing you know I thought that there was some really kind of cool little moments within the year that 2020 did give us yeah yeah we had fans right in Chase's middle finger oh yeah Chase's middle finger that one stuck out to me

and then that's when I knew he was going to be a champion And then Graham Hill, the ir racing tribute to the flagman when the honor first race back. Oh, perfect. Yep. That was a good one. And then another ir racing one was just raising at North Volksboro. Yeah, forget about that.

Holy crap, right. The pro series, like when we had the break. Yeah. I racing brings, the drivers, everybody collaborated on this great experience where we brought sort of e-sports and sim racing to the surface. And my gosh. caught lightning in a bottle for eye racing. So that was exciting. All this happened in the same year.

Right. You even ran an IndyCar rice. Who saw that coming? Yeah. Just, uh, did y'all have any other moments? Is that, uh, um, Drew Owen said the Xfinity race and the pouring rain was the best race of the year.

Groval. Roval. Yeah. John said, I think it's a tie between Harrison Burton when winning Texas and Eldon Creed and Phoenix to amazing finishes. Hey. Okay, but that just reminded me of things I wanted to ask him as well.

Like, do we want to even bring up the Xfinity series race at the? I have it in Ash Jr. Okay. We want to save it. We'll save it. We'll save it. Yeah. That reminds me of Noah, right hook and Harrison at Kentucky.

That was funny. Yeah. That was funny. That was funny. Yeah, it was hilarious. I was entertained. Yeah. I love Harrison and me and Jeff are great friends.

But, man, it's, and when I see it. that. I think, gosh, just a few inches this way, and it had been such a great shot. Not that I want him to hit Harrison, but when's the last time somebody landed a really, really clean shot on somebody, right? It's been a while. Hey, new, put that out there on me. We ask that and ask Junior. We'll probably get a good answer. Because he kind of, he kind of, kind of just basically put him in a big old headlock. Yeah. You know what it might have been? Not that there's any video of this, but it might have been, Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace, which is a coincidence, is it not?

Because what else did 2020 give us? Yeah. You know, the unlikely pairing of Bubba and Denny and Michael Jordan. Wow. Yeah. Yeah, that was the other little piece of news this year. Lisa, the Hall of Fame announcement. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. You remember that? I don't remember that. Was that this year? That was. Going to the Hall of Fame. Good grief.

Thank you, Lisa. Man. We, you know, I think obviously Jimmy retiring was a big deal. You know, we got to appreciate what everything he's done in this sport. I don't feel like that we really appreciated Jimmy as much as we should have while he was racing while he was winning. He was part of the Hendrick crowd, you know, the polished tucked tucked in shirts, buttoned up collars. Starchy. He did not get his due, in my opinion.

Yeah, but I wonder that. But what does one have to get to get his do? Well, you know, like Sennah, Erton Sennah, he was a god. Like people, like he was beyond human. Oh. To people. People just worshipped this man because of his talent. You know, he was, you know, they, they worshipped him because he was, you know, beyond human when he was in the car and just done just amazing things.

Right. Same thing was Schumacher. Dad and Petty. I mean, how did people feel about them two? Right. Right. Right. The king. They named Richard Petty. The king. Like, that's not just the nickname you just toss around. Well, the nickname is maybe important in the legacy conversation because, you know, you had the king and you had the intimidator. But Jimmy never got strapped with a kick-ass name. Did he? He didn't get, he didn't get his due. That's interesting. And I don't feel sad for Jimmy. I just feel, I guess, a little disappointed that we didn't,

we didn't sort of enjoy that while it was here because I feel like the further removed we will be from Jimmy's career, the more we're going to miss him, and the more we're going to go, dang, man, that was, you know, we didn't know what we had. Well, Chad and Alts made that point pretty clear last week when he was talking about, Jimmy, we need a 10th, or Jimmy, we need two-tenths,

And he's never seen anything like it where he could go get it. He'd go get it. Nothing's changed on the car. He'd go get it. I mean, like, who can do that? Yeah. Before Jimmy won five championships in a row, Kell Yarborough had won three titles in a row in the late 70s.

Most everybody in the industry, regardless of the format, whether you were running under the original championship format or the new chase, playoffs, elimination, all those things, nobody ever even considered to think that somebody might tie or break that three in a row

record by Cal Yardboro. Not only did Jimmy tie it, Jimmy would go on to win five championships in a row. And that just happened a decade ago. Imagine, can you imagine? Can you eat, what do you give Chase Elliott in odds to go win five straight?

Yeah, little, small. Small, small, yeah. That's what Jimmy did. It's amazing. I don't, it doesn't register, I know you guys are understanding it, but it doesn't register with people how unreal that is. Well, yeah, it's impossible to know the enormity of the mountain if you haven't climbed it yourself or you haven't experienced, you know, something like that. That's why it's so hard to relate to what that type of accomplishment even is. and the rules changed year to year on how to get to the title,

how they added up the numbers, how you won the championship. Jimmy won it under multiple formats. And, you know, so I think he could take even more pride in that. No matter how they stacked the pins at the end of the alley, he knocked them all down year after year and did something that none of us, again, not only did he do the five in a row, but he tied Dad and Richard Petty

to win seven that that was another thing that everybody thought was completely safe. No one was ever going to join Dad and those were two guys that were going to be on that mountain

by themselves forever. And Jimmy went and did it. And so the fact that he is squeaky clean, not an ounce of controversy, not one mistake, not one off-track incident, no arrests or DUIs or ignorance.

Yeah. Not a, no, no, not one piece of film or audio of him being disrespectful to the media, to a fan. There's nothing. He had the audacity to be a good person. Go think. It's, I mean, yeah. Also, almost an. possibility when you think of today's climate and you know and Jeff Burton or somebody was on

the broadcast said they might have been a tart I don't know but they're like the same guy that I met the first time I ever met him when he came into this sport before he ever was driving in his series is the same guy that I know today he's the exact same guy and if you can imagine how incredible that is that you take anybody take pick anybody you want to pick that you know, set them down, and start pouring money into their pocket, year after year after year. Start stacking all these awesome trophies around them, all the attention, all the access that a celebrity or a professional athlete would have, start giving that to them and see it

change that person. It will change that person. Absolutely, it will change. I mean, listen, listen. It happens to the best of them. How did it not happen to Jimmy? I don't know. Yeah.

Again, he had the audacity to be a great person. I mean, something about that. And did you guys, I wonder if history will look back at this past weekend at Phoenix and look at it as the way we do sort of Atlanta, 1992, where there was the kind of changing of the guard? Only time will tell because, you know, again, we don't want to go pin pressure on chase and say. How about the, not interrupting mic.

No, no, that was the point. But how eerie is it that it's so similar to, you know, Richard Petty? Obviously, Jeff Gordon won't win in his first championship, but it was his first race in the Cups Series, and Richard Petty's last. In 1992 Atlanta, right? Yeah. Also, I mean, the same, what, the same major league baseball team

and the same. Yep, Lakers and the Dodgers won the title. Well, that was 88, actually. That was the correlation there. Yeah. The Dodgers and the Lakers won the title the same year that Bill won the championship. Oh, is that right? I didn't even realize that.

There's some weird. That is. The other thing, too, was the Xfinity series, the truck series, and the Cup series drivers all won the same race. It might have been the Daytona Roadcourse race. So Shelton Creed. Oh, yes. The Daytona Roadcourse winner is also won the championship. Cendrick Creed Chase.

By the way, Creeze. Oh, dude. Race at the end of that day-gum thing on Friday night was ridiculous. I was screaming at the TV. Yeah, I mean, look, yeah. Do y'all believe, like,

I never used to believe in weird stuff like that, numerals and astrology or, or circum, I don't, I think there's just so much going on now. It's harder for me to chalk it up to just look or, you know. You think there's something to it? I don't know.

I think it's something to. The universe aligned. Something in the stars. See, yeah. I don't know. know. I never believed in any of that stuff, but I'm starting to wonder, like, because there's a lot of anomalies and there's too many occurrences. Well, I put it this way, whether these crew chiefs and engineers, believe it or not, if there was testing still allowed, they'd all be preparing their

Daytona Road course car now. Put a lot more emphasis than that baby. I mean, that was, that's something right there. I wonder, does anybody know what car chase ran? Was that the same car that he's been winning all these races with? No, it said brand new. It was brand new, huh? Penske cars brought the same car. Chase and Denny both brought new cars on Sunday. There you go.

Wow. The champ is here. Chase Elliott. Unbelievable. He's going to join our show. I think this is his first media obligation this week. Let's get him on here. There he is.

Doing. Listen to it. He don't sound too good. Oh, he's not running on a full set of cylinders here, boys. Look at him. I do not feel well. What's wrong? What happened to you?

I am hung over. Man, what did Chase Elliott drink last night? What's he still drinking? Well, this is water, buddy. We are, we have transitioned to the good stuff. What's your drink? Lord. I drank entirely too much beer last night.

Yeah. For sure. that your drink, beer? I don't know. I feel like I kind of go in waves, but that's what it was last last night. What was the brand? Mickelope Ultra. Oh, McLoughbulture.

My buddies drink that. Man, I'm a big fan of that. But I feel like it was one of those days where it was going to last for a long time. So I feel like beer is the best way to stretch out that. Yeah. That time period. What time did you start? Man, we probably started at five or so.

Yeah. Who was, was anybody with you, did I know? Man. Just your buddy. I mean, well, actually, it started as everybody, the team and now and everybody was down here. Really? Yeah. That's pretty cool.

They got to come down and we did a little parade thing in town. I saw you driving the car around. Yeah. So, so cool. Yeah, it was really neat. I mean, it was wild. I mean, I don't know. The photos of that are pretty cool.

So man, I'm going to tell you, when your dad was racing and winning, one of the coolest things about your father was the relationship that he has with his community and how the community supported him. You know, a lot of drivers are from a hometown, and a lot of drivers, we say, oh, he's the pride of this, or he's a son of this town. but your dad's support from that community man was the real deal and now that's sort of transition and it's similar for you your appreciation for where you're from we've talked about it on the show and you've talked about it a lot and I think they return that same appreciation and when you win it's like the whole town wins with you and you got to feel that yesterday I suppose when you're driving around and doing that parade and so forth So how does that feel, man, to get that community behind you?

I mean, I really don't feel like you could ask for much more from my end. Honestly, it's something. And I've said it, you know, I said it last night. I'm not sure that there's another driver currently that would have that to come home to. I just don't know that that's out there for anybody else. So I'm grateful for that. And, you know, last night, you know, just kind of tells you about the community. I mean, obviously coming off in election and things and a lot of separation in the world, right?

But, you know, as I was driving through town, everybody was just excited for one thing, and that was really cool. Speaking of that community, I don't know if you remember this, Chase, but, you know, Dale sort of craft on it last time you heard. I did not crap on it. Yeah, he did. And you know what? They don't forget very easily. That's not true. Because on social media, that is true.

We were catching, we were catching a little hard time this week. Chase goes and wins in a championship, and Dawsonville pool. Hall went right at us. When are you coming down? I totally want to come down there. That's not coming at us. They invited us. Oh, they invited you down?

That's what it sounded like. Well, I have a feeling that, you know, although some of them might have been mad at you, I think you could probably fix it if you really wanted to. I totally want to fix it. If anybody's ever mad at me, that's like my first reaction is to try to fix it. We're just going to say we know you because now there's nothing you can do wrong in that town. We're just going to be like Chase said. Yeah.

I don't know. I don't use my name. They might lock you up quicker. Yeah, right. Yeah, right. I don't believe that. So this is what's interesting. And I'm impressed that you are here even on time because this is the first media obligation he has for today.

And it's a long day, as you can imagine. This is what replaces New York. We're number one. Nice. I mean, there's a man at this table that the first interview of his long day, very rarely did we get to it on time. And here you are. But what time did you wake up today? Is it, are we talking minutes ago?

Oh, you could almost dumb it down to seconds. I mean, it hadn't been long, brother. I can assure you that. Man. You kept telling everybody, you know, are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Yeah. Have you had a moment or has it sunk in?

Is it starting to feel real? Are you starting to understand this is your life? life. Yeah, I think I think I'm getting there. To this point, since Sunday happened, I have not had any time alone. So I honestly feel like whenever I get a chance to sit down and by myself and really reflect on the weekend and look at some photos and things, I feel like that's when a lot of it's really going to hit me, but it's just been so wide open. with one thing or another. And you know how it is to those moments. I feel like you really think about a lot of stuff and I haven't got there yet.

Yeah. You were adamant to be able to give Alan a lot of credit. And I know he's your crew chief, and he's an amazing crew chief. But you were so happy for him. As happy as you were for yourself, you were as happy for him to be a champion, too. Talk about that.

Yeah, I just think that's such a special thing. and as a driver, you know, I'm not sure there's a higher honor for, you know, just an individual driver guy who sits behind the steering wheel, then to be able to give a guy something that he deserves so very much and has yet to achieve with anybody else. And to kind of get across the finish line with him, but for him, I just think it's really cool. And, you know, I think he's a very deserving guy. and he's a kind of crew chief that deserves to be done and have a championship. And the fact that he can do that now is an honor to be a part of. I'm curious on what Chase's opinion on what we've been talking about today is.

You know, we've been dissecting the fact that you guys peak, you know, at the right time. You won three of the last five races. And also the fact that we watch these championship races every year in the top four that are going for are running first through fourth. And so, like, you know, what is that? Dale had a theory on why he thinks that is, and that is that teams put their best stuff in at the end, and, you know, and Chagin House was on our show last week talking about how they planned out kind of their strategy on what they were going to put in a car.

What is your answer to that? Why did you guys peek so well towards the end of the season, and do you guys purposely apply things that you would not have done in the regular season that you held specifically for the playoffs? Yeah, that's a great question. I feel like if you have those kind of cards to hold, you do. But that's not always the case. And timing is really important, right?

You might have upgrades or things that, you know, that's new on your car that, you know, might not have gotten taken away from you yet. That's right. You know, if you have those things, absolutely everybody's going to use every bit of But for us, to be real honest, I feel like we just hit on some really fundamental items come the end of the season. I thought our engines started running really well. And a lot of really things that didn't necessarily have big numbers, but stacked together

made a big difference. And, yeah, I couldn't have asked for a better time to get better at the simple stuff. Talk about something I noticed in your interview before the race. you said or I won't I won't be able to quote you but your your attitude before the race was and and there's two ways to go about this like I go about it the wrong way when I when I get in a high pressure situation I get miserable and I think it's not I don't I don't enjoy it I don't enjoy being in a high pressure situation I try to do my but some athletes, and you seem to be in this mentally Sunday morning, some athletes go, what a great opportunity.

Oh, man, I'm so glad I'm here. I don't know how they do it. But some drivers and baseball players, football players, when they get that opportunity and you hand them the ball on that play, they're like, yes, I've been waiting on this all my life. Right. You know? And they got a big smile on their face.

I'm like, I don't know how in the hell they do that because I'm like, oh, oh, I'm going to screw this up. This is it. I wanted, I wanted this, but now I'm here. And this sucks. So talk about that, like, because you have to, do you got to, is that something just, is that something just, is that part of you? That's just way you're going to be every time? Or do you have to talk yourself into that sort of mentality, build yourself up to that sort of mentality? Yeah, that's a super good question.

I'm not really sure the best way to answer. I just feel like, you know, that, and I mentioned it after, you know, Martinsville, I thought those were kind of situations and situations in days where we had to perform. I didn't think we did a very good job of executing on those days. So, you know, over the past couple weeks, I've just, you know, my kind of message to myself and everybody has been just enjoy, you know, enjoy being here, enjoy, enjoy the moment, try to thrive in it because, and the reason was, because I didn't think you could ever win a championship if you couldn't win in high spot, you know, high pressure spots. And because that's what the final four is, whether you're backed in a corner at the round of 16 or backed in the corner at the round of 12, that's the same as making it to the final four. you got to perform or go home.

So, yeah, I don't know. I just know that each individual out there, regardless of what you do or what you play or racing or whatever it is, the only person that knows how that individual ticks is them. And you, you know, you just have to learn yourself and be able to think about the right things to get in that mentality, I feel like. So Chase is his own biggest critic. We can all agree on that. He's always hard on himself. from where we were sitting on this whole topic,

from where we were sitting, it looked like you drove a perfect race. Did you drive a perfect race? And if not, how do you critique your championship race performance? First off, I'm sorry for drinking. I've got to get some water. You don't have to apologize to us for drinking. I apologize for hydrating.

But, you know, I think the quick answer is no. And not just to say that. But, you know, I think about the closing laps of the race and we were, you know, coming to that last pit stop and felt like that obviously didn't do a very good job getting on off pit road because Joey jumped us by a pretty good margin there. I think we had a slot, you know, a very small lead. And then he came out with probably that much or more on me. I flipped the other way.

So that exchange wasn't good. And our pit stop was really fast. So I look back at that and I'm like, well, dang, you know, what I mess up because it wasn't, you know, it wasn't perfect. But it worked out. Were you able to hit your marks and everything? Like, especially as the laps when you were just putting so much distance between yourself and the rest of the field, though. Like in the moment, it's easy to get caught up into the magnitude and the, you know, the weight of the moment. And yet you just were dialing them up, man.

I mean, just knocking them down and everything. So you just, did you compartmentalize? what'd you do? Yeah, I mean, to be honest, I was just thinking about a caution and when that was coming. Yeah. I was just so like, and I think this is part of why I was in the, you know, disbelief there after the race was I, I had sold myself the caution was coming out. Like, I could take a lie detector test until you their caution came out on Sunday. Like, that's just how much I had convinced myself that that was how the race was going.

to end was with a caution and a short run. So when that didn't happen, I'm like, well, this doesn't seem real. You know, we're supposed to be under yellow right now, you know, going down pit road for our pit stop. So I was just, you know, zoned on that and I was thinking about what, you know, I need to do on the next restart and which lane was the right lane and things like that. So I know that you and your mom are super close. What's the relationship like with your dad? He's sort of, you know, quiet. Doesn't really show his emotions, but we saw how happy he was at the end of the race.

But what's the conversation been like, I guess, with him, maybe the conversation is it, you know, the conversations we haven't seen since you've gotten that trophy? Yeah, you know, that's about as excited as I've ever seen him. You know, I remember seeing pictures of him. I don't necessarily remember, but some of his last wins there in the early 2000s and the excitement on his face, you know. I've only seen that or seen that in photos a couple times, and I got to see that in person on Sunday. And that was really cool. He's, you know, like a lot of dads, you know, I feel like he's typically pretty low-key and doesn't get too terribly fired up about really much of anything.

So that was, it was a need to see that again. Has he celebrated with you since you've been home? Yes, he was hanging out last night, which that's not his scene. Right. For sure. Tell me that there's a picture of him doing body shots or Cindy doing a keg-stay or something. I mean, this is the occasion to do that. You're asking for way too much.

But he was celebrating with you. Go ahead. He hung out. I think, I don't think he, I still don't think he drank. anything, but he was hanging out. I wonder what he sounded like today, though. He's probably, we need to do a voice check. He's probably, if he's anything like my dad who's up at 4 o'clock in the morning and working. No, that's probably accurate, yeah, probably accurate.

So what's the rest of the week look like for you? Do you even know what your schedule is? You know, not really. Morgan was texting me and calling me up until about five minutes before we started this thing, because I wasn't awake. So I haven't had a chance. I just got a link to join the Dale Jr. Download and happy to be here.

Yeah, buddy. Well, man, have fun. You know, obviously he's going to do a lot of media, but if I could just for a second tell you, you did something that I was never able to do, and that's be the most popular driver and win the championship. The last time that that's happened was in 1988 when your dad won the championship as the most popular driver.

And taking nothing away from the other three guys that were trying to win that championship, this was an incredible outcome for our sport. You know, everybody really likes you. You're one of the good guys. You handle things the right way. You do a great job representing our sport, representing yourself in your interviews on TV. It will be a popular championship. championship for a long time.

Have fun with it. Everybody wants you to enjoy it. So take all the time you won't. Have a great off season. And we look forward to seeing you soon. We'll be celebrating you however they want to celebrate this championship this year. Whatever that banquet looks like, we'll be there. And thanks for giving us some time this morning.

No, I really appreciate it. And that means a lot. You know, those are nice words. And I appreciate that. It's a, it is an honor and it's something that, yeah, I'm certainly not going to take for granted. I mean, it's a, it's a dream, you know, what else could you ask for? So, yeah, grateful and I appreciate it. All right, man.

Well, Chase Elliott on the Dale Jr. download. The champion. The champ. All right, it's time for my favorite part of the show, Ask Jr. presented by Xfinity. Proud partner of NASCAR and they're a proud partner of this. podcast and I'm a customer I'm a paying customer I don't get my internet from Xfinity for free but I do try it out and I'm real happy with it I've been a customer for not quite a year but it'll be a year here in a couple months and it's been solid

no outages not one time have I been down so you know for the folks like you know if you have like a ring camera or something like that you need to be going all the time you know, if you're a gamer or something and you're in it and it goes out, it sucks, but you can, you can live. You're going to be fine. But if the ring goes out, you can't live. Well, if you're a ring, you've got a ring camera. I know.

So, you know, that's like a 24-hour, 24-7 kind of thing that needs to be working all the time. So you need to buy it. I can be honest with it. Anytime an internet would go out, it's an inconvenience. It is. So I just want to know, I just want you to know that. I've not had any allergies. Anyways.

And that's it for S-June. Thanks everybody. Yeah, certainly you'll love that. So it's time to hear your questions. You guys sent some questions into Xfinity Racing on Twitter and in the chat here. So let's get to it. Our first question coming from Eric, what, if anything, could Noah Gregson have done different in the final laps to help his teammate,

Justin Augier, win the championship? I was surprised that they pitted for tires. When Justin stayed out, you'd think that teammates would stay out and be a buffer. It's funny interaction. So I'm in the booth. with Jeff Burton. He's doing the TV show. He's over here in his suit and his tie.

I'm a few feet away just like this, wearing a headset, listening to them and watching the race. Next to Burton is the other booth through a piece of glass, Steve LaTart, Rick Allen. Race is happening. This is all playing out in front of us. I want, you know, the teammates to stay out. Well, they come down pit road.

I'm like, well, surely they're just taking two tires, so they'll come out in between. Justin and the 22. No, they took four tires. They come out behind the 22. So now, you know, and as soon as that happened, the tart is hollering at me through the glass. What are they doing?

What are they doing? Hey, you need to tell your guys. And I swear in that moment, I could have grabbed Steve and shook him. Because, I mean, I'm living it. I'm frustrated. Right. You didn't need his help.

I didn't need him to be like, telling me what I needed to be doing. I'm like, Steve, we had a talk after that. Oh, man. Tell us about that. I was just like, it made me mad. Like, I don't, in that moment, you don't need people over your shoulder going, yeah, I should have done.

Yeah. Plus, he's on the broadcast. He isn't over. Yeah. So, I was like, I'm mad at this, that you two. So, but all that being said, Noah ended up being up there and I thought in the way at least a little bit, right?

He's trying to win the race. Almost did. Yeah. You know? And I think Noah too, Noah probably ain't thinking a bit about his teammate. He's not thinking at all

about Al-Gyar. Noah is trying to go win the race so he can get out of the car and rightfully say if I had done X, Y, and Z differently in the playoffs, I would be the champion right now. and whether anyone cares or not,

that's affirmation for himself going into the next year. Like, if I just clean it up a little bit, I got a real shot. I can do this, all right? And he needs some of that, right? He needs some of that affirmation and something to help him sort of put behind the mistakes, put the troubles of the playoffs in the rear view. So I don't even think he was thinking about Algar. I think he was like, I got a shot at this.

A win, a trophy. So. Is there anything wrong with that? No. Yeah, that was going to say, no problem. I thought, okay, so. I thought Justin did a good restart. I thought he actually held on to the lead longer than I expected.

Okay. Watching the truck race the other night and how that all worked out for Moffitt staying out. I mean, this was awful for him. Did not work out. But then that goes back to a question. So Jeff Burton said, said on the broadcast, and I think LaTard even agreed with him, that no matter what happens on this restart, Burdette and Algar made the right decision by staying out.

Do you agree with that? Yeah. I mean, they might have been able to come down and get two tires. But did you expect Cedric and all those guys? No, sure it is. But I'm saying I'm going back to that moment when it happened. Burton and Lattart said. Shocking for me to see Cendrit come down, Pitru.

Okay, yeah, I was sort of the same way. That took some cuts. Yeah, right. Huge guts to take. You didn't think you're going to come back and restart on the second row. The gutsy call is that not only did they pit, but when they see how many people come down pit road with them that they didn't take two. Because imagine, if I'm the crew chief, I'd have been like,

it had been hard enough to pit, but okay, now I'm the crew chief and I'm coming down pit road, and I see all the other cars, I get like, oh, my God, if a lot of those guys take two, and we take four. We'll be eighth or sixth. Oh, my God. Gosh, we got to take two. I'd have changed it. They took four.

They did. Still won it. I mean, he had the best car. Best car won the race. And congratulations to him. Great year. It's a great year. Goodness, yeah.

Can't fault him. All right, our next question coming from Miller. Is it concerning that every final four race for the championship, it seems like the final four are the only ones in the top five of the whole race. I guess I would worry about people being new to the sport, feeling like it's rigged or scripted. So I tried to, you know, I tried to wrap my brain around that. Oh.

So the champion has won, the champion has won the final race since 2014. 2014, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. The champions won the race. before that the champion that won the final race was in 2011 Tony Stewart I believe 1998 Jeff Gordon

and 71 Richard Petty that's something so it happened three times and then up until 2014 it had happened three times since 71.

That's amazing. You've got to bring it on that last race. Now it's happened every time in the last seven years, six or seven. So and the other thing too,

okay, so that's one crazy stat. The other thing too is that each weekend, each final race, the four guys that got to win are up in the top four all night. I wonder,

like I never, once assumed that that was an indictment on something being rigged, but I do wonder if it's an indictment on the other competitors of not racing them hard. No. So what it is, I think, is about something we talked about earlier in the show. It's the parts on the shelf. I got you. All right. So the guy that's racing for the championship, he's got a championship race car. And the guy that's not from the same organization, he don't have all that stuff. He don't have all the bells and whistles. And, you know, it's, it shows because you could, you, you see a big difference in, you know, how the rest of their teammates perform outside of Penske, I think, or, you know, I don't know.

It's, I think that, absolutely knowing what I know about Hendrick and other organizations, when they dino the engines, that car that's going for the titles, getting that best motor. when they, you know, they're going to comb the shop for the best chassis, all the best parts, the newest of everything, the less mileage and, you know, everything that the best of the best that they can provide is going on that car. And so, I guess it shouldn't surprise us that those four cars run better than anyone else. but then it makes you think, well, why don't they just do that every single weekend? I don't know what the answer to that is, because maybe they don't want to put all of their best stuff, or maybe this impossible for them monetarily or physically to give that much each week.

To put that much into each car each week would just be unrealistic to do financially. So That would certainly be the case If other teams within the organization Are also having to give up some of their You know, their stuff I mean like you could see why that wouldn't be the case During the course of the season or even the playoffs

But once everyone's eliminated and you have one Penske would be the exception Because they had two teams But like at Hendrick I wonder if like the 88 And the if there was kind of a combination of stuff Where you're pulling everything in the building If it's good in the building It's the best in the building

The matter if it's on another team, you've got to give it up, I wonder. Yeah. So it blows my mind. I don't really know. I wish I knew exactly why it is the way it is, like the champions winning these races at the end of the year. I mean, there's a lot of good reasons,

but what are the, I don't know, and the fact that they all run in the top four, it's impressive. It doesn't spook me. It doesn't make me feel like something shady's weirds happening. I just feel like that it, so when we call it, we call it getting another gear or somebody has another gear, basically you just assume all the drivers out there and the teams they have four gears, right? And it's a metaphor. And when somebody does something really outstanding, well, he found another gear. He dug in there and got in, and dug deeper and found more speed. Chackenow said it last week. He could ask Jimmy to find a 10th and Jimmy would find it. Every single time he asked him to get more when you. You know, he said it last week. Chackinaw said it last week. He could, he could ask Jimmy to find it. Every single time he asked him to get more. when Jimmy thought he was doing it all, he could find more. And I feel like that part of it is these teams buckle down and they try to do more

and it results in more. It results in them finding that they're even better than they thought they were. And they get another gear. They get, they dig in deep and get results. Our next question coming from Tyler Gibbs with Chase. and Jimmy running the Rolex 24, what's the most difficult part of that race? The hardest part, I think, is just trying to rest, trying to sleep and not, you know, you go, say you got to run, you got to run your stint, and then you're not going to get

in the car for four or six hours, going to, you know, going to someone, you know, going to somewhere quiet where you can sleep for a little bit is impossible. You know, you're wired. You get out of the car, you've got a crazy adrenaline rush running through your whole body. And if you ever race a race in the Cup Series or run any kind of race on a Saturday tonight short track, you know, when you get done, you can't go home and go right to sleep. You've got to let that adrenaline kind of fade out before you can shut down. And so I think that's the hardest part.

You get out of the car and they're like, hey, go take it. nap and you're like, are you kidding me? I can't, I can't even think about sleeping right now. And then what happens is you get, when you get, you might be able to get through the night, you know, without sleeping. But once you get to like four, five, six in the morning and you got to race to 12, noon or two o'clock in afternoon, it starts to hit you. You're like, now I got a stint coming up and I'm freaking tired, sleepy, you know.

And then you go race and drive your stint, and maybe you're not as sharp as you should be. And then you get out of the car and you're super tired, but you just can't sleep. Everybody's been that way before where they're just dead tired, but their body won't let them shut down. Their mind won't stop racing. That's the hardest part.

Kevin Thomas asks, what do you think is the most important job on a NASCAR team that doesn't get the public attention it deserves. That's a good question. That is a good question. You think you have an answer? Without a doubt. Go ahead, Mike.

Transport or driver. Oh, yeah. Go ahead. Elaborate. The transported driver, I mean, you think about pressure. You could have the best crew chief. You got to have Chaginous in your pit box and Jimmy Johnson in your car. But if that equipment doesn't get to the racetrack, they ain't racing.

You know what I'm saying? And there's no, there's really, no room for error. You think about all the miles they put in? And you talk about lacking sleep. How about the transported drivers that work all day at the racetrack? Oh, yeah.

All day from the garage open, probably cooking, probably doing running pit box, running stuff back and forth, then having to drive. I know that sometimes they run with backup drivers, but still, that right there is a job that it takes

special people to be able to do it and do it well. Because, I mean, you could get anybody in the truck. They go wad your stuff up on Highway 77, then a lot of good that did. But I think, you know, that's what sticks out to me. Yeah, I can't top that one. That's a good one, Mike.

All right, guys, that's all we got for today. We got a few more shows before we wrap up the year. And me and Mike are even talking about doing a few more things throughout the off-season to keep you guys happy with content and show you what's going on while we prepare for the next year. We've got a good one next week. We don't need to tell them who it is, next week we got a good one yeah we got one we got a guess next week that i am super excited about

big time top 10 guests yes and uh it's probably going to be two parts uh so we'll have uh two two shows out of that one guess and uh yeah i'm looking forward to that it's going to be a popular show for sure so we're excited to continue our uh our season even though nascar season is over we're not done here at the dale junior download we'll see you guys uh Next time and have a great week. I think most who listen to the show will agree. This segment is just not long enough. It goes by too fast, Mike.

Just like Xfinity Internet. It's that fast. Yeah, Exfinity X-5. That keeps me connected with great speed. I'm a customer, so I know all about it. There's no better way to step to speed with NASCAR in Dirtymo Media than X-FINITY. And you've got another way. There is all that at Xfinity racing on Twitter.

Remember, Dale's here every week. He's answering your questions live on YouTube. like Dale said a little while ago. But Dale's, we're going to have a couple other podcasts this year. So keep the questions coming. At Xfinity Racing on Twitter, hashtag is Ask Junior, and you get a chance to hear from Dale himself. All right, a big thanks to Xfinity for being a premier partner of NASCAR.

All right, everybody, last call. That's a great show. Chase was awesome. I think, man, I got to ask him some great questions there that I was really curious about. He answered the questions, even though he's tired. and really wants to sleep. Yeah.

Yeah. So thank you. His day is just getting started. I asked junior was great. A good open segment from you, Mike. You Dale. Just a solid show all the way around, and we got more shows coming. So next week, big guests, really excited about it.

Stay tuned. Lost Speedways. We've seen a lot recently on social reactions. Oh, yeah. Because they've been airing on NBC Sports Network. And the best one, the best reaction that I've seen was from, Kenny Wallace, who said that he and Schrader were watching the Asheville episode, and they started cracking up at Roy Lee Jones's flying tackle.

Oh, yeah? Yeah, Jack Ingram. You just see Schrader and Kenny Wallace sitting there watching a lost. In a Toto home out of dirt race while they're waiting for it to be running. That's like the ultimate racing moment. Well, episodes did air on NBCSN over the weekend around the race coverage. I expect that, you know, those are kind of evergreen, so you might be seeing them more often on the NBC platforms.

Also, if you haven't seen Lost Speedways, and you don't want to wait around for it to pop up on your television, you can go to Peacock TV, sign up and watch all the episodes of the first season of Lost Speedways there at Peacock TV. The Dell Jr. download is on NBCSN Wednesday at 5 p.m. this week. The podcast, obviously, you're listening to it now, but the download will air. And I think this might be, might not be, not sure

about whether this is the final TV version. Can't get them to commit to anything, those guys. I think they're going to come around. TV people, those old TV people start to reconsider. I have a feeling they're going to come around. They're definitely going to want this next guest. Door bumper clear! They're begging us to promote their show.

Season finale episode is out now. TJ, obviously talking about racing for a championship with Joe Ligano, Brett, talking about his final race with Clint, and Freddie reveals that he's going to be spotting somewhere else next year or somewhere new maybe, I don't know. Yeah, maybe a new team,

maybe one with a former basketball player, great. Please. I haven't heard of them. Please pacify these three gentlemen and listen to their podcast. give them some purpose. We took a beating in the opening of this podcast this week, Door Bumper Clear. Did you know that?

Yeah. Our fun little producers, Matthew Dillner and Jason Schultz, cut at this open of us talking about how pampered they are, and then they played it for them, and then they fired shots back at us. Can you imagine? T.J. Major. We don't have anything to listen to so we can kind of keep it going.

I could, if you want me, bring it up right now. I mean, listen, T.J. took some shots at him, said, you know, talking about it. about how he lives the pampered life, not them. Will I have a comment yet? Literally, Dylaner walks around in fields, looking at rabbit trails. Literally.

And second of all, the guy in the beginning, I passed in the hallway of the hotel Saturday night and said he was bored of death going to go sit in his room. So, bad timing for that there. He doesn't sign any of my checks. anymore.

That's the first race he's been to, right? No. They went to the last couple. Yeah, oh my gosh. But he didn't stay. He went home. He flew in on his private jet. And he flew out before the race, too.

And we're pampered. He was coming home. He left the Texas race to come home to record the podcast. Wish we could have done that. He probably could have taken us, right? He talked about pampered. Totally could have brought us. Talk about pampered.

Geez. Mike Davis. How pampered it? see i don't think he comes out of his office anymore except for that that show and lunch just lives there i mean you never see him anymore he used to be all over the place all the time how many times he stopped in here this year for the show i haven't seen him this year who are we talking about davis yeah exactly who's that who's that yeah mike he used to work here i don't know if he still does anymore i mean i go to the data room all the time when you see him yeah yeah hey

I'm the pampered 22 spotter. T.J. got his feelings hurt. Like, oh my gosh, the guilty conscience that comes out with this guy. Well, let's throw them a bone. This is their show. Oh, yeah. If you want to hear them b-buck about things, sure. You want to.

Complain. If you love complaining. Yeah, right. Some people do. If you love entitlement, complaining. That's what you need to listen to. Yeah. That's your show. Leah, do you have any gifts for Dale?

I do. We have a gift for you. What? Thank you. Look at this. Non- shredded? Well, it knows. What's in the box? Jack Leagues people sent, they sent their thanks saying, hey, you know, we caught the podcast. Do we get a knife anybody?

So they, just so everybody at home knows it. So Jack Link sent a gift package. I put it on Twitter the other day. I said, should I tell him or should I just keep it? What is this? So yeah, what I was saying is that Jack Link said thank you for all the stuff and we'll send you a gift box. I don't know that it's shredded or chewed. I don't know that it's pre-chewed the way Dale likes it.

If it's sawdust or not. And again, we get this question a lot like, well, Jack Links is obviously ad buying on your show. They're not. Free pub. Guys, thanks for supporting our brand and joy and feed your wild side. Oh, that must be the tagline. That is. Dude, there's everything in here.

Let's see. Oh. Well, turn it around. Yeah, turn the box around towards the camera. God of my. He's like, this is all mine. All right. Oh, my goodness.

Look at all that. Look at all the beef sticks. I like the beef sticks. Look at it. Whoa. That thing is packed. Now, listen, if you don't mind me saying, that's the way beef jerky ought to be right there.

It ain't. Absolutely. The shredded thing, you know, That's beef jerky Don't go mess up a good thing No, no, no What is it? I don't even know what that is.

What is this? A little cheese, little jerky A little pretzel stick. I want to tell you something When I pushed that video on my Twitter feed And I said, hey,

look what just arrived Should I tell him? That video got like 40,000 views and got more engagement. People were all about that day. And it also got a response from Amy that said, please know. And Amy said,

Please don't. She's like, don't. bring that on you're feeling it aren't you yeah you're just in the moment this is christmas morning for you the majority of this for you guys hey jack links from this point forward you pay for whatever we give you on this show all right that's that's the deal all right this is it this is it yeah you you got to pay for whatever publicity we give you he's he's remember yeah he's like y'all i'm gonna leave most of this here we'll see where he ends up coming out what he's gonna take with extra oh good for you she can get up and walk away now he's done he gone

All right. They gone. That's good. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yes. That was a great moment.

Hey, Brad. What'd you do with them Reesey cups? They gone now. Dale Jr. Mike Watkins used to be his bus driver. And he had left a sleeve of Recy cups in the refrigerator. As Mike would do, he would leave some food. Dale Jr. was a bachelor. He didn't, you know, whatever.

It was a lot of Recy Cups. They left them. In fact, two grown men had split this bag in the sleeve of them. There was like 12 of them. Mike goes in to get some of his Recy Cups one morning at whatever track we were at. And he goes, hey, Brad. Brad Burroughs, his backup driver. Did you take them Recy Cup? No.

Well, they gone. And everybody looked over at the couch. And it's like, Dale Jr.''s like, hey. Yeah. We know where those things went. You really shouldn't leave Recy Cubs. It's unintended. No.

That's not. Yeah, you got what's coming for you. Yeah. All right. You all good? Say goodbye. Goodbye, everybody. We'll see you next week.

This bit of bad assery was bad assery. It was made by Badassery. Dirty Mo Media. Dirty Mo.