The Dale Jr. Download - 406 - Steve Letarte - Chastain’s Miracle; Dale Jr’s Championship Predictions; What The Actual Hell, Ty Gibbs?

Episode Date: October 31, 2022

The sun is setting on the 2022 NASCAR season, and the Dirty Mo Media crew is recording a special edition of the Dale Jr. Download to help race fans prepare for the crowning of a new round of champions. While Dale Jr. and co-host Mike Davis have become known for their well-informed examinations of NASCAR events, for episode 406 they’ve called for reinforcements, bringing NBC Sports color analyst and former Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Steve Letarte to the Bojangles Studio. Download listeners can expect to hear a breakdown of: Ross Chastain’s INSANE last lap wall ride at Martinsville Ty Gibbs spinning out teammate Brandon Jones to win Previews and anticipation for the championship weekend events at Phoenix Raceway A case for each of the Xfinity and Cup Series championship contenders Predictions of who will win and why You can hear all of this and more on tonight’s episode of the Dale Jr. Download, available on this website and all major podcast streaming platforms. 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.

Ross Chastain, oh my word. Following is a production of Dirtymoe Media. Chastain doesn't have anybody in front of him to go past. He's too far away from everybody. Yeah, I got to get him beat two. And the line. I went down to the Southern 500 with Spire Motorsports, and we had a podcast sponsoring the car,

and it was a big deal to beat one car. To be here fighting for a championship now, it's just so surreal. Wide open, around the car. ball in three and four at Martinsville. Hey everybody, welcome to the Bojangles Studio. I'm Dylan Hart Jr. And with me is my co-host, Mike Davis, for the Ally, do it right guest segment. We've got a great guest today.

Steve Littart, my booth mate, my best bud. We're going to be talking about everything that we experienced at Martinsville. Also going to be talking to Steve and using some of his knowledge to handicap the championship battles going into this final race. And who do we think is going to win it all? and we want to thank Ally for helping us bring these great guest segments every week. Allies always showing us how important it is to connect with great allies. Week in, week out with this segment,

and they brought us a great one with Steve LaTart. So let's just get started, man, bring Steve into the show. And, man, Martinsville was crazy, so let's go. Let's do it. What's up, buddy? Man, I don't even know. It's been quite a Monday. Has it?

It has. Quite a Sunday. Well, quite a Saturday led into quite a Sunday, led into quite a Monday. Hey, I can't wait to hear both of your perspectives from yesterday because that was insane watching it on TV. It was, I'll be honest. I didn't know what I was seeing. Like, the processing time took way longer than anything else. I think I thought right away he had hung a throttle.

Yeah. I was like, man, my man, it's hung a throttle. And then it kept coming around the corner. Same thing Burton said. Yeah. Like your initial. That's what I was trying to tell somebody this morning is like, what did you think when you saw it?

I said, everybody, everybody that was there was watching it happen and then reacted. Yes. It was four seconds. Oh, yeah, yeah. There was a moment of silence and amazement. Nobody was like, nobody predicted it. Nobody was like, hey, guess what's getting ready to happen? Oh, yeah.

And then nobody, while it was happening went, yeah. Yeah. We all were going, everybody, the whole damn place was going, is that real? Right. Was that real? You know what I thought about? You know how I assume Rick Allen thinks about how he's going to call the final lap?

Betty didn't think of that one. So Rick posted something to Instagram because I was staying, I never bothered him on the final lab. And now we've worked together for eight years. And he's calling the 11 and he's calling the 20 winning and it's great. And I'm watching him watch the monitor. And I'm looking out the window thinking, you know, trying to process it. And I just very calmly kind of tap him on his shoulder a couple times and I'm pointing out the window. We talked about it today.

He goes, I knew when you were tapping me, something must have been happening because, you know, that's not a normal kind of act. And then he looked out the window and called it. But it was, I mean, yeah, it took a while. I'll be honest, the first replay didn't look any better. Like the first time I saw it on replay, I'm like, I even hit the production. I'm like, man, do we have that sped up? Y'all messed up. Yeah, like, so we got something wrong.

Is it like in slow motion? Can you slow half the cars down? What have you all done? Yeah, it didn't look right. You know what it kind of looked like? If you've ever watched that short track speed skating, but the long races where they are sort of doing a relay, and so you've got to go generate a lot of speed on the outside or inside where the others are going slower. Everybody's seen this. Yeah. This is a good example that everyone in the world can relate to.

I was giving it to Google it. I'm just a good idea. You've watched a Winter Olympics. I mean, if you've seen a Winter Olympics, yeah, you've seen that. Oh, sure. Well, look, there's not a lot to pull from on that, right? Is there a lot to pull from? I mean, trying to make sense of what that looked like. It didn't look right. Never. So that was a, I never, this part of you is like I've never seen it before,

but then we have. We just hadn't seen it work. That's the point. That's true. That's true. So I pulled up the data. He was, his speed sensor quit, unfortunately, in the middle of the corner. But he was at 130 miles an hour when the sensor quit. And the guy's running the groove, Danny Hamlin, went 61 miles an hour through the middle of the corner.

So if you say he slowed down like 120 to be conservative, he's 60 miles an hour faster than the same car. So that's basically driving 10 miles an hour down the interstate and let a guy go by you at 70. That's what it felt like for the guys in the race. My gosh. So I was thinking about why it didn't work before. And I think it has a lot to do with the shape of the bodies. And so if you did that with a truck or an Xfinity car, it wedging grind to a halt because of the, those flat, you know, quarter panels and the skew in the body, especially the truck.

And the old cup cars had that same sort of scenario. So I think it's mostly tire. Yeah. Well, you're right, but like if you look at this car out here, if you look at like the profile of an old tire, the sidewall, if you laid a tire down, you put a level on it, you know, that's probably an inch or two down to the edge of the wheel, right? Like there's an inch or two sidewall, like a bulbous, like a ballooner sidewall. So when the tire hits the wall, it's rubber-on-wall, man. It's like a go-car brake. It drags you to a halt.

Well, if you go back and look at still shots of this one car, the end of the hub, like where the single lug nut goes, it's damaged and the wheel has damage. The tires still have air. He didn't even knock the air out of the tires. So I think that it is like the ends of... I think it's all of it added up. The body definitely works.

It kind of gives out of the way. It doesn't have the wedge shape like you're talking about kind of pinching it into the wall. I think that it's almost metal on metal. It's like a slot car. I think the ends of the hubs kind of hit the wall, and it just sparks. Like, if you go back and watch it,

there's smoke and debris from the stuff on the track, but it's not like there's white tire smoke. Like the tires aren't even rubbing the wall to put white tire smoke up. Yeah. Then you add on top of that, this is the only track I know of that we don't run high gear. So if you go back to the in-car, he goes to fifth gear.

So that he never ran all. Correct. Hey. So now he has 25 miles an hour that no one. else is need. Like, for instance, say there was no fifth gear. Say there was no fifth gear, right. He'd have turned right and stay in the gas.

It'd been all cool. But he'd been on the chip like a hundred feet later. That dot, dot, dot, dot, that. And the thing would have just ground to a halt. No, my man, he reaches down. The data blows your mind. Throttle, it doesn't move. He doesn't lift 1%.

Really? It is flat like it's broken. Really? Grab's fifth gear. It's the last time he blips the throttle to get the fifth gear and then it is on the wood all the way through the corner. But that's the point. I think so a lot of things.

First of all, the car made a huge difference. Second of all, Martinsville, you're slowing down to make the corner, unlike Darlington, Miami, other places we've seen, Kansas. You know, they're big, high-speed tracks. Martinsville's the slowest mid-corner track. I mean, there's a lot of things that made this work, none of which would have made me do it. Right, right. So in other words, luck was involved. We can all agree on that.

But the fact that he grabbed fifth gear and did some of the things, makes me also go, find me a driver that thinks, like that. Have you seen the radio? He heard the radio? No. He comes by like out of four, coming to the white, and the guy's like, all right, white flag. And someone, I'm assuming crew chief, no, it starts with the spot. He goes, we're two spots short. And then someone says two points.

And Ross says, we need two. And the person emphatically says yes when he leaves turn two. And he doesn't lift again. So I don't know if this was like a plan. And the best part, Brandon McGrath was a spotter, and he is in the fence. Everybody in the world is crazy. He's like, yeah you're doing good just keep it up there yep there you go commas can be i'm like what like did

y'all talk about this i want to know somebody talk about yeah it was crazy yeah it was it was crazy i don't know which way you want to take this i i've got so many questions so dale go for you well okay there were drivers that said that that was uh embarrassing for the sport and and and it wasn't just larsson larston there were others that spoke up but larcen said the most you know probably direct comments that, you know, weren't in support of what Ross did. Where do you guys stand on that? So the racing purists didn't love it, but the racer loved it. Like he advanced well within the rules, well within the confinements of that racetrack,

for the car he had that day and the rules and he was competing, I give him an A plus, should be celebrated. We always talk about do whatever it takes. Ross has taken that to a new level of doing whatever it takes. do I want to continue to see it? I don't. But that doesn't mean it was wrong. Look, there are rules in the rule books probably that have my initials next to them. Oh, you messed this up. We didn't like it.

So we changed it. Like, it's okay. I mean, the NBA had to come up with a, you know, three seconds of the lane because Wilk Chamberlain or somebody just stood there all day and dunked the basketball. And he was like, well, this isn't a very good game. This is boring. We've better come up with a rule. Like, there are a million rules in the rule. Every rule in the rule book is a reaction to something.

So, so, and here's why. What Ross did took a tremendous amount of skill, courage, all of the above. For the next guy to do it, I'm going to be less impressed. Like the first guy, bravo. Unbelievable. But the next guy, well, now he's just copying the guy who kind of showed you how to do it. So I would have rather perhaps not ever see it again as an option, but that should in no way diminish what Ross did because it was an option, it wasn't against the rules, and he pulled it off.

Yeah, I felt like that I feel the same way about it. don't want to really see it again. Find if NASCAR comes in and makes a change. And I think that they more than likely may take that into consideration. But the driver's getting out immediately on pit road and talking about it. They sound salty like a jilted X, you know, somebody that didn't get credit for it. Somebody, you know, that has done it before and did it, you know, didn't succeed. You know, so that's the way it sounded to me, to an extent.

And because, I mean, I saw the reaction right after the race, and I'm like, what, why would you have an opinion like that? So, I mean, this is a big moment. We just saw something incredible. You know, not only do we got a guy that won his way through, celebrating, crying his eyes out on straight away. we got another guy that did something that will be remembered forever. And Ross changed everything about his career in 18 seconds. Oh, yeah, that's fair for sure. Like his identity is everything that he, you know,

a lot of talk about Bubba being suspended and like, man, you've had a good year and people are going to overlook all that because of what happened to you and Larson. And I think that's fair. He's going to have to work. Well, Chastain did the same thing. It doesn't matter what happened to the first 34. Like he is now baptized by the race fan. He is now that is now, he is free and clear of anything else that has happened.

He is now the wall riding guy from Martinsville. That's his signature moment. And it's a pretty cool moment to be your signature. Yeah. I mean, it was an impressive. I mean, listen, the only guy that maybe could have got away with being salty was the 11, and he was the opposite. He actually was impressed. He said, brilliant.

Yeah. So that's where, listen, I'm not, I'm going to celebrate it for what it was, which was that. It was brilliant. It was courage. There's a bazillion adjectives. The truth is he deserves. Somebody said on social media, well, now do we want to see all of them doing it on the last lap at Martinsville? And somebody's reply to that was would be no advantage to no one then at that point.

Yeah. Well, I don't think they can. I don't even know that Ross could replicate that the way he did it. Because, frankly, I do think that there was enough elements of luck involved in that, especially where the cars were placed on the track. Like, you know, I see people debating about NASCAR making a rule to prevent other drivers from trying it. Look, that thing was risky. That was a low-reward, high-risk move.

And it's going to be either more high-risk next time. That's why I think a rule needs to be changed because why it worked this time, there's a long, long list. The other reason why it worked is because no one, including Dale, myself, Rick Allen, and every fan in attendance thought it was going to happen. So no one was defending it. So now take the same move. He's committed, wide open, fifth gear, 100 and whatever miles an hour. What happens if the guy, you know, what happens if Joe O'Gano hangs a right to defend it?

I mean, Chastain King. He would, right. Yeah. That's my point. My point is it becomes an even riskier move because I think now that you've seen it, the next time you go to Martinsville, if it's still allowed, you're going to defend it, which makes it even more out of control. Out of control.

All right. So we're going to celebrate it. We love it. We thought it was cool. We don't want to see it again. So the question. What about Phoenix? What about it?

Could happen there? I question if it would work in three and four. I mean, the finish line is in turn four. You're going to have to get out on the straightaway. So if there's going to be something said, I hope it gets said soon. Really? You think it could happen to Phoenix. How about this?

I don't know if it would work, but if you're the third guy in the championship, would you try it? I bet your ass, Frost Chastain's in second or third going down into the third and three. He's going to try it. It's a signature move. He could call his shot. What's got to lose? Well, now we know the car can take some vicious beating on the wall without tearing up. That was a violent.

I mean, as you would expect, that in-car camera of it was violent, right? Like this, you know, just, just as you would expect. By God, that was something. I mean, here's the problem. We are days past it now, and I'm still having got my mind around exactly what happened. Like, it is crazy. Dale Jr.'s first comment, it's a video game move. I cracked up.

It is. It was so funny. It was. So how about this? Todd Gordon. It's a video game movie. I spoke to Todd Gordon today, and he told me that in 2018, when Phoenix was the cut race, they were trying that move at now what is one and two at Phoenix on the simulator.

Like they had considered, how much time could you make up back when Phoenix was flipped? If you had, if that was your, and he said they went back all the way back to remember Newman moving Larson for the final point. That's where this all kind of started. Remember, he moved Larson at Phoenix. Corrective. Took the point. That was the, we're not racing anymore, whatever it takes to advance, which has been super entertaining.

I'm not knocking it. Todd Gordon said that they went as far as to go to the Ford simulator and be like, well, let's just see if you just go wide open around the top of the flat end of Phoenix if it would work. Now they never had to figure it out. And to Dale's point, it has never been done successful until now. Let's go back to the Xfinity race with Ty Gibbs. And, you know, everything that went down there, I think that there's a, you know,

as unanimous as it is that Ross did something incredible and unique, I think the same opinion is unanimous about Ty's disrespect and how he took his teammate out to win that race. So Brandon Jones is leading the race going down into term one on the final lap. If he wins the race, he transfers into the final four to race for a championship. He drives for Joe Gibbs racing, as does Ty Gibbs. Ty dumped the 19 entering the corner. Brandon hits the wall.

Ty wins the race. Then gets out and seems to, you know, play along as the heel and has zero remorse in the moment. Now, I'm sure after the fact all this sort of sinks in, he may be feeling some emotions one way or another. But I was almost as astonished in that moment as I was Sunday. and what I saw from Chastain. And it's kind of, I hate to get too critical about it or too descriptive about it because I'm, I got three cars racing in the championship race in Phoenix.

And, um, and I don't want to sound biased about my opinions about the move. But golly, man, I'm going to tell you right now, if one of my guys dumped one of our, if our guys were in that scenario, I would have a massive issue with it, especially if, you know, one of my guys that was already locked in is taking one of his teammates out for an opportunity to race. Even though there is going to be a change next year, Brandon's coming to junior motor sports, he's not going to stay at Gibbs.

They still have a relationship with that family that has been going on for years. And so I'd have a big, big problem with that. that would take some time to resolve at the shop. I don't know where Ty goes from here. I really don't. I don't know how he can find some resolution. Public opinion, how he can sway public opinion. He didn't do any favors.

He did no favors after the race in his reaction and comment. I mean, so the chastain move, was hard to process. What I saw on Saturday wasn't hard to process for me. I was totally unimpressed on two sides. Totally

unimpressed because that's not even racing. That doesn't take any talent. I mean, I'm not a race car driver, but I can run somebody over from behind. And the second part of it was the just complete, oblivious concept of what was happening. I mean, what makes great athletes

is they have to be very selfish, and their world has to be most important to them. But everyone also has to understand, and the great ones do, there is still something bigger than you. And, you know, the layers keep growing. And for Ty Gibbs, what part of finishing second could have been such a, like, he could have actually gained back some respect from how he has processed through some of the year, and he went the exact opposite way. I was first shocked that he moved the 19 up on the restart, a couple restarts earlier. That alone made me just scratch my head.

Surely he's not going to move this 19 up. I think he was racing. Maybe the 19. No, it was the 18. He moved the 19 up. Basically, people forget Ty Gibbs got both Gibbs cars out of the race. He finally ran him up enough that the 18 had to have a flat. Then the only the 19 was left, and then he junks the 19.

I mean, it's just, and I'm with you. And then to double down with one of the biggest burnouts you've ever seen, get out like it's oh, some fans are going to like it, some are going to boo, but no, no, you wrecked your own guy. And then he's like, bring it on, man. And he was like, just a Bolivia. And then every time they put a mic in his face, he was just pushing more chips in. Oh, yeah. Oh, no, I wasn't all in.

I found some more money in my pocket. I'm going to push some more chips in. Yeah. And you're like, what are you doing? And he's performance or he's like in a vacuum. I don't know what part of the real world he's not living in. But I believe that you're at. actions on the racetrack have to be judged by your fans, by your partners, by your team, by your

teammates. But these actions, they'll be judged by everyone you race against for the near future. And I think it is going to affect him both this weekend and in seasons to come. I think that there's a lot of people in the sport that are going to be unimpressed with that. I think you asked a good question, Dale, and that is where does Ty go from here? Because, you know, for me personally, as a fan of any sport, I would say that the one close to unforgivable sense, is a lack of self-awareness by the athletes. Like you can make mistakes, you can miss a tackle, you can drop a ball, you can, in racing, you can do these things.

But just being completely self-unaware is like those things. It's like, oh, you're never going to be able to get that fixed, right? Because that's what they bring to the tape. But, you know, watching, I know you guys weren't able to watch this, but as the race is going on, the Carolina Panthers are playing the Atlanta Falcons, and you got this remarkable play by Carolina within a minute, and then this guy catches his touchdown pass,

to give them, and then he takes his helmet off to celebrate. Now, wait a second. You know that taking your helmet off on any time on the playing field results in a 15-yard penalty. That is a complete lack of self-awareness. And in this case, Ty, Junior Motorsports is going to have two cars in the championship, and Joe Gibbs is going to have two cars in the championship. And you control that, and you remove your own. companies chances of contending by being completely selfish, that's a complete lack of self

awareness. And that's like, I don't think you can fix that. So how much has Toyota spent? Because he sent a Toyota out and put a Chevrolet in, I mean, the layers upon layers. And it's more than just this. If you are, if he does go to the 18 next year, which is what I think everybody guesses is going to happen. If you're Danny Hamlin, how do you feel you're going to race him as your teammate? Oh, yeah. If you're a Truex, we all know Truex. Truex is pretty easy going. guy, hard racer, you know, you think he's going to be okay with that? Like, wait a minute, my teammate, he just wrecked it. Like, like, at what point, like, there is a, there's a long-term overflow.

If you're Christopher Bell, you were like, man, I got the next, you know, make decade with him as my teammate. I don't want him as my teammate. Like, like, it could be a, it could be a moment in time and it could be nothing. It could really affect his career. We could look back five or six years from now, and it could have derailed a company, because he ain't going anywhere. His last name's on the building. So if you go drive, he's a guy. there. I mean, and that's the other thing is I haven't heard. I've heard some whispers out of coy and stuff.

It's like nobody's really said it. It's just kind of been okay. I don't know. I would think, to your point about your company, if it happened here, you would have to take a stand because it's kind of like becomes a little bit of the identity of you and as an owner and the company. And how can you go talk to your next potential driver or partner

and be like, I know that happened, but we took care of it. I don't feel like it's been taking care of. And so I want to see if it gets taken care of on Saturday. Yeah, I think we had Ty come in here and talk to us and was on the show this year. We had a great time sitting here chatting with him. And judging, so I'm going to speculate. When he gets out of the car and says something to the effect of, you know, Jesus was hated, you know, so, you know, whatever you want to take away from that comment.

comment, I'm sitting there thinking he didn't learn that. Somebody told him that. Somebody mentioned that very line to him this week, a week ago, in trying to sit down and say, Ty, this is how we're going to work through this. You know, you've ticked off, you know, in what we've done this year, you've upset some fans, but I'm going to say something that, you know,

might make you feel a little better about the situation. and he took that and planted it in his brain and then that moment decided to recite that word that that that advice this is it's a young young dude that is absolutely lacking some awareness and we all I look at Sam and I say I was saying that this weekend I'm like you know Sam does a really good job because if I was at 19 I could not I could not do what he's doing yes he's a loose cannon yes

there's times we're a lot of racecraft missing there but he'll figure it out i think about how impressionable he is to his own family and to the people in that building and he's walking he's he's there every day he's very plugged in he's not anywhere else and he's listening to everything they're telling him and whether they're trying to help him or not you know they're telling him these things and he's taking all of that stuff literally right and i think that that there needs to be maybe a small adjustment or a big adjustment in how they are, how they are eternally communicating with Ty. Because it felt like he felt like that he got out thinking,

I did what they wanted me to do. Look how proud they're going to be in me. Look how happy they're going to be. Yeah. I did what, from what I've been listening and hearing and over the past several weeks, or several months, that I should, I'm going to get some fist pumps from my guys.

Right. You see the guys fist pumping him from the crew across pit wall? You know, he's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's affirmation. And, uh, this,

this was a good thing. No, but they're not mad. They're not ashamed. Uh, you know, and he's any, and will he get the real talk from Koi and, and, and Joe,

after this scenario, or will he get more, hey man we'll figure it we're going to work through this you're going to have you know this is part of it this is part of the process you know and so that's I think that's because I'm when he said that comment on XM radio I thought to myself I just have I can only assume that someone told him that in the past couple of weeks and he's he's hung on to that it wasn't a great time I mean the problem is is and I've said this about everything yeah totally like that one he just didn't pull that one out of nowhere.

That was somewhere in his Dewey Decimal System. He was going through the numbers, and he goes, oh, this is the one I want right here. This is going to defend what I have. We are all just to some of our actions, right? And we, you know, everything we recite, you know, you could tell when you talk to somebody who's read a lot, you know, man, this guy has a great vocabulary,

has a lot of knowledge, he has a lot of this. Well, when someone says something like that, that's not a Ty Gibbs original thought. I don't believe. That is, I don't take that. The Dale's point. That is something he has heard. And we have no idea where it was applied.

And that's sometimes the scariest stuff. in the world. It's kind of like talking to young children, right? You say something, and then they take a very harmless comment, and they apply it in the most inopportune time. You're like, well, that didn't sound so bad when I said it here, but you said it over there. That's what I believe really happened in that moment. That's right. Yeah. And as bad, you know, as bad, I don't really truly believe that Ty, you know, Ty was trying, I mean, I, I just feel like that hopefully, to your point, it gets handled. There's a little more accountability in this certain scenario for his damn sake.

But what's it take? Like we haven't heard the 18. Everybody has them in the 18. You know, do they come out and say, hey, man, we decided he's not ready for Sundays yet. That's what I was going to ask both of you guys. That's a big now. Now they're not going back on what they said because everyone's speculated, me including, said, oh, he's definitely going there.

I don't know why they haven't announced it, but for sure, for you know. What is it that? moves that, because what I will say about this system that NASCAR has is we have proven that every year, we can't, we didn't, we cannot even predict what's going to happen next. Like these athletes, these drivers, these teams, they blow our mind, like, like, go on a Mars, oh, there's going to be a moment, what's it going to be? I have no idea. And once again, we have a moment that we could have not even have dreamt up.

But my point is, for Ty, this wasn't the spring race at Martinsville. And then how about this? Then he got out after it. He goes, well, I was wrecked here in the spring. My wife was watching. She goes, well, that was okay because he said the 19 wrecked him in the spring. No, no, no. It wasn't even the 19 that wrecked him.

She goes, well, that made it even worse. And I'm like, exactly. Like my point is understanding the situation. Lack of self-awareness. I wouldn't have liked it in the spring Martinsville race. I'm like, well, he had to win a race, getting into the place. He had nothing to gain. No situation.

So in today's world, let's take it out of the sports context for a minute. In my opinion, good humans. go out of the way to help other humans. But out of sheer human decency, when it affects you at all in zero, don't go out of your way to make somebody else's day worse, just in general. Like, hey, man, like, I can just be courteous.

I'm not in rush, so maybe we get to a stop sign. Mike, you go first, because I'm not going anywhere, right? He took it to the most oblivious. Like, he had nowhere to be. He had to cut you off, took your parking spot, and then pranced his way, danced his way into the store. Like, the whole world was about him. And that was the point.

The celebration doubled down and tripled down. that was the thing is at least have a little bit of you could argue i didn't mean because then he said i didn't mean to wreck him okay if that's true you would have thought you had a little remorse in the celebration exactly if i went in there didn't mean to wreck you and i wrecked you i'd have been like oh no right gosh darned i'm going to have to tame this down it didn't add up yeah so okay coach gibbs told clare b lang that there's going to be consequences what kind of consequences changes for the better Ty Gibbs. Nothing that they've tried to do yet.

They're going to have to change something because after the fight on pit road, he talked about how he's going to be different, and then his interviews were, hey, I've got to learn more. Like, he has the talking points, but his actions don't match him. All right. So to be transparent, man, I need the damn talking points to go away.

They're awful. I actually said, remember he had an interview? Yeah, I don't know if it was you. I don't think you're on that qualifying show. So on qualifying on Friday, we interviewed him, and it was great. It was the best interview I've seen. He was like, oh, man, you know, got in a fight here before, and it's going to be okay. And he was himself, and I'm like, man, I sat right on there.

I'm like, that's the tie I want. That's the tie I know. But now you know we have talking points because, man, they let him out of the box, and he wrecks his teammate into turn one with nothing to game. Yeah. So this weekend we'll have nothing but. Oh, this weekend, it's going to be. Pure robotic talk about.

Oh, yeah, yeah. His interview, we could just cut one from about six weeks ago and just play it and say, we're just going to pretend. We talked to tie at Phoenix. is what he sounded like. Yeah. I got to be honest. And I know that, listen, I'm prefaced this by saying, this will not happen.

I know it. It will not happen because the next race happens to be the only chance that company can win for a championship. However, the only thing that seems to get through drivers' heads is when they are set out of a race. He won't be saying. No. I said he won't. But I'm telling you, I don't think anything short of that is an appropriate consequence. We'll see.

I think the only thing drivers respond to is not being able to drive a race car, whether it's the 18 in the cup series, whether it's this week. I know that they're not going to do that. However, they don't respond to anything else to whether it's actually going to affect how they do those things in the future. So real quick, before we move off the time, what makes it so frustrating for me is that I think he has everything you want a race car driver to have. He's so talented.

He's so fast. He, you know, good looking kid, pretty polished, some talking points, but I think he has of personality if it would come out and it's like man why do this to yourself you know like i don't root against anyone i don't really have any favorites but i kind of root for everyone and why i was so frustrated because i'm rooting for tied to be great why not wouldn't it be great for all of us if if joe gives his grandson could be spectacular and he is he's fast that's why i get frustrated with these actions so uh let's go ahead and preview phoenix uh jump on in the xfinity series um Regular season champion, AJ Ombandinger won't race for a championship.

How do you feel about that? Regular season champion. Regular season champion, but I think that's what happens when you have that many road courses. Right, he's a regular season champ, but he kills everybody. If you look at the data, you know I love stats. If you look at the data, he outpointed everybody at the road courses and the super speedways by such a large margin that, yeah, he's a regular season champ. I'm not taking away, but until you put a second or a third road course in the playoffs, then that's a weighted stat.

Got you there. Three J.R.M. Drivers against one Gibbs racer. Gregson-Berry both strong at Phoenix earlier this year. Whose car will have the most pace? Oh, boy. I mean, for me, that's pretty easy. I think the nine. I think the nine. I think the nine.

Wait, out of all four? Yeah, all four. All four. Oh, I think the 54 is going to be the fastest, but I've already written him off. You've written him off? Yeah. If the 54 sees the checkered flag, then my faith in driver humanity is out the window. You think.

Wait, wait, wait, wait. Yeah. I'm I'm yes he prepared to be disappointed because I am I know what are does that mean that you're I have no confidence that any driver has will I have no confidence that a driver will try to you know race him hard yeah I guess that and let me clear up I don't want to I'm not saying wreck the poor guy it's dangerous but just like you know he should never have a clear exit or a clear entry or whatever but but You better do it early because back to your original question, I think the 54 is, we'll have the most pace. You're not going to see him long. I think he's, I mean, the 54 in general has been one of the fastest cars everywhere. Kind of everywhere.

Yeah, I feel the same way. Maybe J.R.M. at the big tracks, but anywhere like Phoenix. Yeah, there have been some mile and a half where the, where the J.R.M. cars are just better. I really didn't want to believe that till midpart of the season that we had actually eclips at any, you know, in a consistent manner. But there were some times this year where we certainly were. This track, we have had fast race cars, but I'm with you, man. I think the 54 will have a half a tenth, you know, lap to lap.

He'll just be that much better. And at that racetrack, man, that shit adds up over time. I'm with you. If you're going to try to make it difficult on the 54, you better do it quick. You better not wait and think you're going to get that chance at the end of this race. If you're going to race him hard, cost him some track position, whatever it is. I will tell you that I talk to my four guys post-marked. Martinsville and and I said listen I said I don't I said we're not dumping nobody this

weekend I said we're going to try to win that championship we're damn sure not going to let that 54 win it but we're going to walk out of there with our heads up we're not going to win that we're not going to win that championship and be embarrassed yeah how we did it you know to so I and I'm not done talking to him because I got you know Sam is Sam's got nothing to lose and he doesn't like the kid anyway I was going to say. If there's one guy out there, I was going to say,

can I? Can I? Can I? Can I really? Really? I mean, it wouldn't take much. So, you know, I'm saying's like, I got this. I'm telling you.

Yeah. But, you know, and so outside, if those four are off the, if those four are not. But I think the 19, people do not want to. I don't think that Brandon will do anything. He's too good a guy. He is a very good guy, but I would have thought the same way if he would have got out ranting and raving. because that's like he was so crushed like when you watch his interview it's not

fist slamming down I'm going to do this I'm going to don't no no like there was an embrace with his significant other and there was this moment where like this wasn't fury this was like heartbroken yeah he was hurt and I'm going to tell you that's when people do crazy stuff you're right it's not when you're mad it's when you're heartbroken that'll linger and if and if he's heartbroken if he thought this was his chance that's that That's the one you have to. It's not the, he's on my list. Let me tell you that Christmas list is so long,

and nobody filling a present, ain't nothing at me. But he didn't threaten at all. That's the one you got to be careful of. I got your point. Between the three JRM drivers, you feel like Noah has the strength. I think Noah has the strength,

the swagger, the most relaxed. I thought at one point, some of it was a little of a charade to kind of take the edge off. He's won me over. Now, I don't get it. get to spend a lot of time of no away from the racetrack, so I can only judge kind of what I see publicly.

And I'm like, man, you know, I've kind of done this. You build a personas. You can kind of avoid some of the pressures and some of this. Nope. I'm convinced this far into the season, that's just who he is. He looks like he is having a blast. Like he's never had more fun driving a race car. And for that reason, I think he's like, yep, this is just like,

I'm not going to say another week, but I think, I think, you know, listen Justin is later in his ears and I think there is real pressure to do it because he's been there so close right I think Josh has been great he's probably going to come back he's been in big moments but I think no is kind of man he's bar the door here I come yeah Justin's really good at Phoenix too well the problem you really have is you can't handicap these four we're very thankful to have four great ones nobody snuck through right there's not a sneak through driver in this mess for me Josh is Josh will have to focus on qualifying. It's kind of been hit or miss. That costs him a lot of track, you know, track position early. And at a race track where, you know, it's a quick race, not a very long race.

You'll hurt your adjustments. You run in traffic. You're like one adjustment behind the guy who's out there running the front three. You can really dial your cars right in. For sure. And then when you get toward the front and the top five, it's harder, harder to pass those guys because these other three will be in the top five. Yeah, I think the championship is actually going to be decided on a pit stop or a

restart because I think wherever you drop them on the racetrack, they are so good. Someone's not going to make a mistake and let the other guy buy. I just believe someone's going to have to, you know, the best guy is going to have a mistake on a pit stop or somebody is going to do something like Kyle Larson last year, won the Cup Series championship first off pit road. I think it's going to look a lot the same way in the Xfinity series. Let's move on to the Cup Series. Joe Lugano, Chase Elliott, Ross, Chastain, Christopher Bell.

Uh, yeah. I mean, you know, I'm surprised by, you know, Obviously, no Denny Hamlin. I thought that Denny was going to make it. Obviously, I was shocked by Ross's performance in the playoffs. I thought that the series had caught up with them mid-season. But they came on strong and put the points together to get there. Joe Lugano, for me, hit or miss.

He's not a threat. I mean, he could win. All these guys are good, right? They could absolutely win. But when I look at this, Christopher Bell has been. done it when it needed to get done. Twice. Yep.

Ross Chastain is crazy. If he's within reach, he's going a raw ride to the win. Chase Elliott, you just never know. I mean, they're very strong. Joey, to me, is the weakest. You know, they show up, they win races, but then they'll run fifth to tenth, and that ain't quite good enough. I think they're consistent prep.

So I think the 22, why I don't feel they're going to be so weak is because they've been in for two weeks. Yeah. I think they've been, I think they've put zero care into Martinsville and even less into Miami. I think they've been working on Phoenix since the day they left, what was it, Las Vegas, is that where they won? Yeah.

They've been like, that's it. They've already been moved forward. So I think that makes them dangerous because there's a 60-minute practice. So they've had three weeks to prep a month. and what they're going to do for those 60 minutes. However, they're going to use that track time better than the other guys. Like, he's already been moving forward. Yeah.

I mean, I can handicap all. I think the 22 could win it because of that. I think the nine can win it because Alan and Chase through the entire ups and downs of being the most popular guy and making mistakes, they have never, ever, ever been divided. I mean, those guys have been in a lockstep. So when you get pushed into the biggest situations, plus with Hendry Motorsports being out, they're going to have the power of their whole company behind it. Same kind of argument for the 20, right?

All of Joe Gibbs Racing is kind of behind the 20 car. mentioned Christopher Bell. The concern of Christopher Bell is, is his emotional bucket empty. I mean, this guy's been on a roller coaster for the last six weeks. It can be momentum, but it can also be exhausting. It can kind of go both ways. And then the ones, the one, I mean, who, yeah, why, you know, they all have a mantra. What did the one say? Why not us? I'm sorry to believe that, too. Why not them? Ross almost won earlier in Phoenix. Does it matter to you who ran well at Phoenix almost a year ago? Nope. Yeah. No. No. No, I think you're better off to know who's going to run good next spring from this race.

They're so far apart the two Phoenix races, car development. None of that seems to matter. I mean, Chase Briscoe won it. And, you know, I don't have him the favorite by any means. I think it would be fine. Regardless of what happens in the championship season with Christopher Bell, he has finally found a way to rise to the occasion to finish races. They've had good pace over the last couple of years,

but he's finally got himself to victory lane time and time again, and maybe has risen to the top guy. He was number four. He's jumped them all. Kyle left. Martin has one year left. Hasn't been the greatest year. Could he win a couple races?

Probably so. We all know where he's at in his career. Denny has his own team. I don't know what the 20s contract status is, but if he has any less than a couple years on it, he'd be getting renewed. Yeah. Because to your point, he is without a doubt in this playoff.

He has proven that he, can do it. And that's really what you're looking for. Is this sort of a, this is an interesting thing, I think, because both Joe Lugano and Eric Jones were released, you know, at some point in their careers from Joe Gibbs Racing. And Christopher Bell, in my opinion, man, was really looking like he was going to have a similar fate. And he even laughs at it now. Yeah, I've heard it. Man, I'm the man out. I'm the odd man out. because we saw Ty Gibbs coming. We saw, you know, the Toyota pipeline,

and if you're weak, you're the fourth guy on the cup level, you're vulnerable. You are vulnerable. I think the other thing that makes us 20 very dangerous is the guy calling the shots. Yeah? I think had been dismissed. Like Adam Stevens had rose all the way to the top,

had got Kyle Bush, went on a tear, and I don't have the single-hand knowledge, but somehow he's no longer that guy anymore. He got moved and moved and moved and got moved over to what publicly would perceive to be the fourth team. Right. I wanted to ask you about Adam Stevens. Because, again, as I'm watching that Martinsville race, you know, even the Charlotte Roval, I mean, like, Pitt strategy played a factor in both outcomes, and then now Christopher Bell's there. And so I just don't – it seems like all I know about Adam Stevens is still from when he was Kyle Bush's crew chief.

but is he kind of like this underlying secret weapon that we're not thinking about? I mean, you know these guys better than I do. Well, I think what Adam has done is he's proven that if he has a talent like Kyle Bush or Christopher Bell at the top of their game, he knows how to give them the floor to showcase their talent. As a crew chief, it's not about you.

This is where you're going to laugh because you're the big football coach guy. I love Alabama. I think college football coaches here recently have thought it's about them. And we see these crazy plays being called. You're like, man, what are you doing? It's about the players. You, like, stay out of it.

Run the ball, kill the clock, win the game, move on. Like they say, oh, no, I've got to do something special. So people remember I was there. I'm going to go for it on fourth down on 35. And I think what Adam Stevens is, is he is the old school football coach. He's fine if nobody knows who he is. He doesn't care. He is the guy that's going to, he knows the guy behind the wheels is the star. And a great crew chief knows when he has a good one, just let him show everybody how good he is and, you know, privately the credit will come to you, privately the contracts will come, like, that's your job. I know it's not flashy in the public, but when I was Jeff Gordon's crew chief,

my job was to put him in position to do what he does. Dale's the same way, right? Like, everybody knows Dale Jun's, just like, I know how good he was, just give him a shot. That's all you got to do. Just don't take it out of his hands. And that's what I see Adam doing with the 20. The four-tire call at Martinsville, which I loved, was, you know what, I think you're so good, I think our car's so good. I know people are going to do a bunch of stuff. the ball, bud. Go show him. Go show him you're the best. And I think Christopher Bell loves it. He's like, all right, here we go. I'm a guy. And it was a great drive. I mean, he had to beat and bang with Keselowski. And I mean, it was, it was anything but straightforward.

Yeah, I've been really impressed with Christopher Bell the last couple of weeks for sure. But his, you know, he was so quiet, unassuming, didn't know really how much Tiger and how much fight he had in him, how much he was willing to scrap. But when he was put, he was putting, in a position, like you say, he was given the tools to go on the offense, and he got aggressive enough. Yep. And did everything he needed to in terms of, you know, using that race car to move forward. And hadn't seen him in that position before. It hadn't either, it was either he's never had the car to do it, or we just haven't seen him when he had to do it. Well, I think first half of the year, the 20 was the fastest car at Gibbs. And I think that

had the worst pit crew. Yeah. And I don't think they've made a lot of pick crew changes while everybody else is. I think they, as a group, just got better and better and better. But I will say, because you mentioned his quiet demeanor, I love the tears and the emotion because I think I knew it meant that much to Chris Rabel. And it kind of got overshadowed with the chastain thing. But if you go back and mom and dad, we did it, I'm like, you know what?

That guy, it's way down deep in there. He doesn't talk about it. He's not loud about it. But he's really good at controlling himself, almost too much. a fault at times, but to see that emotion right there, I'm like, oh yeah, he wants it as much as the rest of them. Don't be fooled by the quiet demeanor. I was glad to see that. Yeah, yeah, like I was ready for it. Yeah, especially coming from a guy that race, you know, race the Chili Bowl, has so many amazing experiences and massive wins in his life to see that this, this matters

that much. Yeah. It's going to be a heavyweight battle. Like, you're going to, once again, I think you're going to have to win. I think in thinking you're not going to win the race is nowhere and near good enough. And I expected to look a lot like it did every other year. There's going to be a late restart with all of them in the front at least three rows, if not the top two rows. All right. Then who you got? I mean, let's just go ahead and put your money where your mouth is. Who's going to win this thing? Man, I think this one's impossible to pick. You can guess. One of four. I mean, yeah, I mean, look, I really think it could come down to any of them. I think the biggest

long shot and he's the coolest story is if probably the if ross chastain wins it i would be the most surprised just because what they've already done is amazing this is a knock on ross or this team this team's been around a couple years i mean like there's a lot to when you look at just the teams penske been there gibs kind of been there done it felt it you know they know what's going on when you look at track house man they're kind of new to the situation i mean they i mean it's just a new experience for them in general. I think that Christopher Bell crossed the finish line first, Chase's second, Joey's fourth, and Ross's sixth.

He doesn't give him this finishing order. I'll tell you right now. What do you call that when you're picking all the positions? This one isn't going to be popular one. I'm going to ask you, where does Kyle Larson finish running for the owner's championship? Because the nine can't finish. Well, so that's my point, though. So think about that, right?

like Kyle Larson, I think that most drivers that finally put the mittens on at this point and be like, hey man, I'm going to race you only a little bit because I don't want to wreck you. I don't think Kyle Larson is going to be that way. I think he is the mad hatter in all of this, is how is Kyle Larson? Because he has taken it personal that he fell out of the playoffs from his own mistake in every single interview he talks about winning the championship for Mr. Hendrick. And I think don't underestimate that I think he is as motivated as the other four as as that may sound for a guy that can't have his own name on the trophy.

And when that happens, Mike, we're going to invite you to the booth to explain exactly the difference between driver and owner championships. I forgot there even is an owner's championship. I got to lose sight of it all the time. Kyle Larson said it in his interview, and I went, oh, man, we're going to have to talk about this. Well, even when he said it, I was more taken aback by the fact that he thought that Ross Chesteen's move was bullcraft and embarrassing. I was like everything he said after that.

He lost me there. I got some questions. Where are you going to be on Saturday? I know you're not going to be in the booth. where are you going to call home for the extenny race? I'm going to sit on Sam's box. Make sure he doesn't take out the 54. You got to go to Switzerland.

Sam, don't do it. Don't do it. That's probably going to be like RC. Like RC is one of the only, him and Roger are the two owners that come on the radio every once in a while. Now, just wait a minute. All right, Sam, here he comes now. Don't do it.

You know, Dale is the, I believe this. I don't think he's kidding. Because, you know, I remember, like how you win matters as much. much to him as the actual trophy, if not more. I remember when we won some race like in 2000, I don't know, Talladega, and you didn't love how it was won. I guess there was probably a big crash. Regan won or somebody like that one.

And you could not enjoy that victory because of that way it was done or what people might think about it. So if something happens to Ty Gibbs, forget that if it happened from a junior motorsport. If it's something to happen to Ty Gibbs, I think it would less sense. the pure enjoyment out of winning a championship for Dale.

I would be okay with it, but you know him very well. Because I guarantee if Ty's not up there, dicing it up, he's like, man, I just wish we would have beat him heads up.

Like, listen, it is what it is. I will have zero problems with him getting used up by someone non-JR-N. I understand that. That's fair. That's fair. But here's why,

that's out of my control. But here's why, and I think it's where Ross gets a little bit of the bad credit for this too, which is inaccurate. Why he is that way is because we're all very fortunate to work in racing.

And racing has to be bigger than what you're doing. Like it's bigger. It's more global. It's like you've got to respect it. It was here before us. It's going to be here after us. And I think the greatest athlete in any sport knows that this sport is where they make their living, but it's bigger than they are, and it's going to be around when they're gone.

And I think that's what makes, you know, the best athletes, I feel that way a little bit with Chase Elliott and Lugano. And our biggest stars currently at the cup level, none of them, in my mind, are so conceited to think that they're more important than what's getting ready to happen around here. You can be, you could be a really tough competitor, but appreciate the sport. We miss anything, Mike? I want to be in the meetings when Dale talks to the drivers this week, don't you? Or at least we should do content on that.

I want to know if he's going to sit on the one, if I could put a little Snoop camera there. Yeah. And if I could put a little mic that he can turn on and off. No, no, no, no, I don't want to listen to the whole time, but I just want to like, a lot of work. I just want to be like, let's go down to Dale on the box. Like, I want to, you know, I just want to go down and get his two cents. Yeah. No.

Send Marty up the steps. That's what we're going to actually. That's better. I agree. I agree. Listen, it's going to be fun to watch. I hate he's not going to be in the booth with us because I like calling races with Dale, but I'm thankful he's not because the amount of time and effort that you and Kelly and you

and everyone in this building has put in. I want you to go there and enjoy it as an owner. Yeah. I like the, I like to be in the booth too for the Xfinity races with you guys. And it's a, I think that it's something you guys tolerate and enjoy. but in those kind of moments, I don't think it's fair to you guys

for any owner, especially a guy owning three of the cars in the championship, for y'all to have to have to have that in the room. Yeah. It's not fair. So I took the replay off his hands this week. Did you see that one?

He tried. I was willing to go there. He was willing to do it. But I said, here's the one getting to the back of the seven who's caught in the eight. The eight's got turned around. And then right on TV,

I was like, hey, man, I took that because they're all three were yours, man. Congratulations. That's right. That's right. But, you know, that two years, your point, though, I actually like that part. Not that they're wrecking each other, but I do love

that they're racing each other. Like, yeah. It's okay that they're teammates, but man, they race like, I still want to beat you. Yeah. On a much smaller level, I will say that I also, you know, we were talking about A.J. Almingdinger, I thought he and Justin Algar had a very spirited battle for that transfer spot. It got physical, and yet they were both men after the race and just shook each other's hands and said that short-tracked racing going for a playoff. I loved how both of them responded in that. So you know you think it's funny that both drivers that were eliminated at the doorstep of the championship race, in my opinion, took it like a professional. Like a veteran should, like a professional, absolutely. And we're so quick to throw mud on these drivers when they misbehave, and we certainly have done it today on this podcast, but we also should commend them when they actually take it on the chin.

Well, that's why we get on the ones that misbehaved, because I believe they have some mentors to look up to that are kind of showing them the way. of these things. Yeah, there are a lot of things that AJ did this year that just kind of miffed me a little bit from time to time, and it erased every bit of that away. When I saw him go up there and even in his interview post-race, I was surprised, to be quite honest, that he had those feelings. And it really changed the way I think about AJ. I have some that I'm critical, and AJ is one of them about, like, how he is on the radio.

And I put it in my notes like this winter, not that he cares or needs my opinion, But I'm going to reach out to him and just tell him, hey, man, I'm critical, and this is why. Because I do believe that's what's going to hurt you some on Sundays. Like if he could remain a little more calm, he's so talented. Because to your point, we kind of analyze their performance. And he's one of them that we get some colorful radio out of. So there's a lot going on out there. It's going to be a blast out in Phoenix.

It will. One of the drivers will be curious if he shows up is Tyler Reddick. Tyler pulled into the pits middle of the race this past weekend, said he had a headache. and wasn't feeling well. He put out a comment on Twitter, updating his current situation. He was involved in stage one

and a little bit of a stack up and there was a lot of contact for him. And after being evaluated in the Infield Care Center, they concluded that he should get further evaluation, so he's going through that process this week. That was a very, it's kind of a forgotten moment now that because of everything else that happened. But when that went down during the middle of the race,

that was some mysterious. We were all curious. Like, what's going on? I mean, I got a headache. I'm pulling into the pits. We just never really see that, if ever. And so anyways, everybody got to looking back at, you know, this past week at Homestead.

He had a contact with the inside retain wall in the back straight away. there was a comment from Jordan Biaki about him maybe not feeling well this week leading up to Martinsville we don't really know what the truth is to any of that

because Tyler hasn't commented personally but we just hope I guess that he gets cleared and but that was a strange strange little bit of time right there it was I will say though that that's the roughest I don't know how to word this the race that Martinsville was

the roughest race I have seen, not for wrecking people, but just how hard you could hit each other. The cars are so well done that these hits, you mentioned the 16 and the 7 on Saturday. Those moves wouldn't even move to a car out of the way on Sunday. You had to hit the guy like 10 times harder. So you just wonder, I mean, that's got to, I mean, those have got to get your attention inside the car. So I don't know what it was with Tyler. I did mention it on air, and I'll repeat it now that Richard Childers showed exactly what class is as an owner. because he got out, put his arm around the guy.

Like, I mean, you know, he owns this car that just got parked, and we, none of us know, no, maybe Richard knew, I don't know, but just purely watching on the camera, I was like, there you know. You wonder what's like to be an owner. That guy right there was nothing but supportive of his driver who had to take probably the toughest decision, which is I'm going to pull this car in. Yeah.

So, but you're right. It's going to be interesting to see. I really hope whatever it is that caused him to park, it gets behind him, and he's back in a race car again this weekend, because he's a remarkable talent and makes any race he's in better. Yeah. I'm glad that he did that. I guess, you know, Tyler's looking out for his future and trying to take care of himself,

made a great decision there. Regardless of how he arrived at that situation, I think, you know, making the choice in that moment is a difficult one. But when you're, you know, when you have everything to look forward to that he does with his career and his family, that's the choice you have to make. but hopefully he gets checked out and cleared this week. Man, I appreciate you coming by this week. I know you've got a full plate, man.

You're going to be pulled in all kinds of directions trying to give everybody your best input and analyst on this week coming up. Favorite week of the year. I used to not quite understand it, but now that being on the media side, this is so great to watch. I'm ready to get out west.

We're going to meet with all the drivers. We're going to spend some time with them. That's going to be good. You out of the Xfinity meeting is going to be a little boring to you. You're going to, I mean, you know, you know three of them. You're going to get one extra guy. Yeah. And I'm looking forward to that.

I'm looking forward to talking face-to-face with Ty. He's trying to get his thoughts about Phoenix and kind of what's coming ahead. Yeah, I do realize now that we'll be able to sit down and listen to Ty himself. I like that. I like that. I like that. What was going on in those moments this past weekend. You should tell him thank you.

You want me to actually tell him thank you in front of all the other media members? I'm just saying to do it. I think that Steve would give me a hard time. I think. No doubt about that. Steve and then boys don't hold back. No, no. Keep you honest.

Thank you, Ty. I was actually thinking we might escort Dale out and be like, hey, man, he's not covering the race, so we're going to have him set out so you can really tell us what you think. I just pretend to not be in the race. Yeah, that's got to be good. Thank you, Steve. That's a lot of fun. You make it smarter, man.

All right, Steve, thanks for coming on, man. I appreciate it. I hope everybody enjoyed Steve's analysts this weekend. We're going to have a lot of fun moving over to Phoenix and finishing this season strong. Steve Littart on the Dale Jr. Download. You know, Mike, whether I've been in the garage, right, as a driver or in the studio as a member of the media, the biggest lesson I've learned over the years is that we are all better off with an ally. A friend, a partner.

My favorite part of the download has always been the opportunity it gives me to connect with such a wide range of people. They love racing as much as I do. And it means so much to me that when we leave the guest segment, I leave it with a feeling that I can call each and every guest on the download of True Ally. Thank you, Ally, for your continued support of the show and the entire Dirty Mo Media team. Hey, Dale Jr. Downloaders, a bit of a programming note for you.

I think you could already tell we're a bit out of order this week because we let out with the interview first. And the reason we did that, obviously, is because the way the events at Martinsville unfolded, goodness you needed to get that out steve leart hopefully you enjoyed that conversation with him i certainly did and also looking ahead to phoenix that was very important however we will still drop dirty air the dirty air segment which you guys usually know to come out first we will drop that tuesday afternoon so be looking out for that because there is some news and actually some pretty awesome news uh Alex am i wrong about that's amazing right dale junior actually disclosed a little bit more about his late model race

and maybe about what he's going to be driving and what it might look like and I'll leave you at that. So if you made it this far in the Dale Jr. download, which is the end of this episode right here, then you are privy to insider information that nobody else. Don't say it. Don't go out

and tell anybody else. This is just for the people that made it to the end. But you will get this information tomorrow when we drop dirty air. Also, some other information nobody knows about. We've got a new show coming out, don't we, Alex? Oh, yes, we do.

We have a show that's going to debut this Wednesday. It's called Dirty Mo Live. And I am excited about it. We have been working on this show for months, and we are finally going to roll out with it. It is going to be live on YouTube. We will also make it a podcast. So be on the lookout for both of those, and DBC. Going to be an awesome week.

We got a lot of good content for you this week, so we appreciate all you guys listening, and take it easy. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram. Thank you.