The Dale Jr. Download - 426 - Reaction to the Denny Hamlin & Hendrick Motorsports Penalties

Episode Date: March 16, 2023

Dale Earnhardt Jr. returned to the Bojangles Studio and joined co-host Mike Davis to comment on this week’s major announcements in the NASCAR world. They discuss the penalties issued to Hendrick Motorsports and Kaulig Racing over modified louvers from the Phoenix tech process, and what may have led to the teams tampering with the parts.(3:40) They also unpack the penalty and fine issued to Denny Hamlin over comments he made on Monday’s episode of Actions Detrimental, and deliberate why such punishments could stifle drivers’ willingness to speak openly and transparently in the future. (24:51) Plus they preview this week's upcoming race at Atlanta (43:51) and fill out a fun bracket in honor of March Madness. 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.

All right. Mike, you ready? You all right? Yeah, I just saw it. I just saw what he titled this. What did you title? Up Dog. It's true. I'm like, we're just pulling this shit out of thin air. Is there like a show name randomizer on the website?

My brain, I guess. Your brain is the randomizer. I believe that. I believe it. Wait, what's up, dog? Nothing much, man. What's up? All right. What do you think? Am I hono over? Nah, a little slightly.

We don't know what we're doing here. Are you kidding me, Mike? Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. back again. Another episode of the Dale Jr. download. It's Thursday, March 16th, 2020. And we're in the Bojangles studio with my co-host, Mike. How's it going? It's going well.

How you doing? I see this bracket laying in front of you. What's going on with that? I don't know. You're studying it pretty. No, I'm assuming you have one too. I mean, this is our producer doing his job, I guess. So we have a bracket in front of us.

But it's not a March Madness bracket. What is this? No, no. It is the best kind of beer bracket, which will get to you later in the show. Okay. I love that. So we're going to do a beer bracket later in the show. And which, damn, that's actually a lot of fun.

I'm looking forward to that. Can we just skip right forward? Yeah. A lot to talk about today. We had a Tuesday episode of Dirty Air. And we got a lot of updates about things that have happened in the last couple of days. But I wanted to point everybody toward a show that we put out yesterday. Business of Motorsports, my sister Kelly, is going to be doing a few of these throughout the year,

where she will be the host of our Wednesday show. And she'll have a guest in here, but covering basically how these motorsports teams are ran, really fascinating episode this week with the president of 2311. And one of the things that I'm excited about for Kelly to sit down and talk about, this will be a really great episode that y'all should encourage her to do, Mike, is the history of the souvenir business in motorsports. Yeah, wow, fascinating. And so I'm talking, Kelly was in on.

that years ago. I hired her out of that business. And the teams, I mean, there was crazy numbers that the teams and drivers were all making. The souvenir business was captivating and interesting in the trials and tribulations and struggles

that that side of the sport has had. Kelly knows that really well. And just the challenge of licensing, right? Just trying to work with other entities and drivers and teams and organizations. and junior motor sports has done a lot of that. So I would be fascinated to sort of hear her opinion of all of those things that's went on in the sport of the last decade or two and then where we're headed, you know, what's best for us moving forward.

That's a fascinating idea. We are absolutely going to do that because, yeah, we've got not just Kelly, but we've got relationships with people even in this building that would be fascinating to get their perspective and also their history. Boy, in its prime, like you said. Was there some months? being exchanged in that souvenir business. My God. So I think Kelly's, you know, found a nice little place to really put together some great content

with this idea of this podcast business of motorsports. The first episode came out this week. Please go check it out. But let's go ahead and go over, you know, what's been going on this week in NASCAR, Hendrick Motorsports and colleague. A big, big penalty came down for some, you know, messes. with the louvers. The louvers are these vents in the hoods of the race car, and basically the air travels into the grill and out the hood of the car through these louvers. And NASCAR saw something that the teams had apparently done to modify them that they didn't like

and came down on all four teams sort of individually penalizing each team 100 grand and 10 playoff points. And so actually they were docked 100 points as well. So, you know, I think the 31 car for Justin Haley is now minus 40 or some shit. Right. So he's in a hole. He's got less points than I do. And, you know, Bowman was leading the points and now he's, you know, 27th or some shit. So it's a massive, massive penalty across the board. And this penalty has, you know, you look at the numbers, okay, 100 grand, right to check, 100 points. Say bye-bye to those 10 playoff points that you might have had or never had.

That all will, the points situation will resonate throughout the season because, you know, this could affect them deep into the playoffs as they cycle through the rounds should they get to that point, they will miss these playoff points. This will, this conversation will be in the broadcast booth regrettably all year long. And we will be talking about as we go through the playoffs, all of the things that the Hendrik Carr's experience, that 10 playoff points and how that's going to affect them is going to be part of the conversation. And now introduced into this as well so Chase Elliott is not penalized, right? Should he come back and do well, right, get into the playoffs? Now we've got to explain to everybody why Chase Elliott is not part of

this conversation, right? And how, you know, we had the same situation last year with the owner's points where one, where Kurt Bush and the 2311 and the owner's points and driver's points and everything was different. There was owners that, you know, there was drivers that weren't in the playoffs, but owners that were, cars that were without the drive. Switching drivers and putting them in, 2311 did that. Yes. And so all of this throws a big monkey wrench of confusion into us trying to explain to, you know,

the casual fan why, you know, we'll have to explain this multiple times. Yeah. As each round of the playoffs goes by and every, you know, this driver gets knocked out of this driver moves forward. Why Chase Elliott is unaffected by the points and his teammates were and how that affects him in the driver's championship, but his car and his car owner in the owner's championship will be affected differently. So anyways, that is frustrating for me as a broadcaster.

But, you know, we have, you know, we have the knowledge now that Hendrick is going to appeal this penalty, which I think they, you know, obviously they should. Anytime I think if you're a car owner and you get a massive penalty, unless it's like, you know, man, I've caught red-handed and everybody in the world can see what I did and there's no way around this. Nobody except for Hendrick and NASCAR really know exactly what they did, right? None of us has seen this piece, and none of us know, no one, right? And until, you know, unless that was laying in front of the table in front of me and you, you know, I absolutely would go appeal this penalty.

Which they used to do that. I remember when they used to take a part and confiscate it and then put it out in the trailer for everybody to see. But I would, if I'm then, I'm the recipient of a historic penalty, I appeal it even if I know I'm guilty. Right. And so here's the challenge. you know, for Hendrick Motorsports, or I guess here's the, this is the frustration from the team's side, okay? All right. They have been, you know, the next-gen car has been a product of collaboration.

NASCAR leaned heavily on the manufacturers and the teams to help build this car. That's right. They leaned heavily on the manufacturers and the teams to have a lot of grace in getting this car ready. And they've asked for grace from the teams and the manufacturers on supplies, parts, limited parts, all those things being frustratingly slow in development and design. They've asked for grace in safety on this car. And so, you know, it's been a big, massive collaboration. to get this car. And then in this off season, there was a lot of resubmitted designs for improvements from the firewall

forward on all the cars. The Ford cars had some challenges with parts and pieces fitting properly last year. Chevy had some overheating issues. So anyways, there was a new submitted front-in design for every manufacturer that had to be processed this all season. So it has to go to NASCAR to get approved. The manufacturer gets the approval. Then they have to submit the drawings and the CAD to the design team that's going to

manufacture these parts. And all this has to happen really quickly. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars get spent by everyone involved to be able to get all this stuff out and ready for Daytona. So they can go to the racetrack. And again, doing all this with the limited supply chain, limited parts coming back to the teams, the teams getting, you know, just enough parts to get their cars to the racetrack.

And so all of this had to be done in collaboration, right? And so reading, if you read the Hendrick response to the penalty, there's some information in there that leads me to believe that the part, parts that they get don't fit the agreed upon designs. The parts that they're getting are coming to them out of tolerance. And so one part laying on a table does not look or fit exactly like the part laying next to it. And so that is frustrating. And there has been apparently some communication back and forth on what are they allowed to do to get this part to fit. And that's where I believe this, you know, that's where I believe the confusion lies.

Well, do you mind if we just read the statement? Because I haven't actually done it. You said read the statement. Let's just go ahead and do it for our listeners in case they haven't either. So I'm going to, this is from Hendrick Motorsports on their website on Friday at Phoenix Raceway, NASCAR identified louvers on our race cars during a voluntary inspection. 35 minutes after the opening of the garage and prior to on-track activity, NASCAR took possession of the parts approximately four hours later with no prior communication.

The situation had no bearing on Saturday's qualifying session or Sunday's race. The statement cited several facts that include louvers provided to teams through NASCAR's mandated single source supplier, which is a big deal, single source supplier. They're told who to get these parts from. Do not match the design submitted by the manufacturer approved by NASCAR. which I think is what you just alluded to, Dale. Number two, documented, inconsistent, and unclear communication by the sanctioning body specifically related to the louvers.

Three recent comparable penalties issued by NASCAR have been related to issues discovered during a post-race inspection. For the March 19th, NASCAR Cup Series event at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Hendrick Motorsports has elected not to request deferral of personnel suspension, citing a strategic decision. Atlanta is now a drafting a drafting track. in a Super Speedway style race, substitute crew cheese have not been determined. So then they get into the penalties, but I think they just address the thing that you are.

All right. Okay, go ahead. So basically what I'm getting from that is that NASCAR and the manufacturers work, NASCAR and Chevrolet, Toyota, they are the ones communicating back and forth. Chevy or Toyota says, hey, I'd like to alter this part or submit a new proposed nosepiece, whatever it may be, that's a communication between the manufacturer and NASCAR. Once it's approved, then the manufacturer goes to their teams and says, here's what has been approved.

So there's this sort of line of communication. It's not direct team to NASCAR. It's not NASCAR to HMS. Right. So it goes through this long process of emails and exchanges, right? And so I believe that, you know, there is a frustration from the team. teams that the parts all aren't the same. And so in a world of restrictions and rules that are within thousands of an inch, and you get a

part that's quite a ways outside of the box and it's going to change the performance of your race car, there would be frustration. If I know, like, I can only go get four of these pieces off the shelf. All four are going to measure differently. I've got to pick the one that I think performs the best. best and the rest are basically useless to me but nope i have to put them on a car to go to a west coast swing i've got cars all over the country i got cars and haulers heading in different directions going to different racetracks that's right right the west coast swing as it certainly makes you

have to do a logistical olympic almost yes and so and i and i and i get to the racetrack and find out that they don't like something that I've done to this part to get it to fit on this race car. You just can't put a runner to the shop and come back and... No, they're not racing at Sharpton Merced Speedway right across the street. And so, you know, I think that, in my opinion, I understand 100% that NASCAR needs to be able to govern these cars and the parts and pieces are single source. That's a statement that may, it means basically, look, man, you buy this thing off a shelf, you bolt it on the car, we don't want you doing anything to it, not in the name of performance

or safety. And so you're leaving all that in the hands of the organization, NASCAR, and the manufacturer of the piece. I understand how they need to govern to be able to keep people from cheating. and I've always felt really strongly about coming down with a hard, you know, big hammer whenever anybody ever does anything blatantly illegal. But at the same time, if the parts that are coming, which are, you know, carbon fiber and molded and cooked and they're being made in a very, I wouldn't say rushed fashion, but I mean,

there's a limited amount of these pieces. there was a big push in the all season to get all new stuff made for all the manufacturers by one brand, one company is making all these pieces for everybody. NASCAR chooses this company that's going to cook all these parts for all of the support, right? And they've got to provide enough for everyone for multiple cars, right? Because we've got to go to, you know, we've got to go out west. We've got cars heading in all directions. And so I can understand the frustrations across the board for NASCAR,

but I can certainly understand the frustration for HMS in this situation. To have a part that doesn't quite meet, this part doesn't look like the design that was submitted and approved. All right? Now, if the part came to you and it's exactly like it was approved, I think that really NASCAR has a great case, but if it comes to you and it's like, hey, man, it's not,

it's, it's a little bit off of what the computer model is. And now when I put it on the car, it doesn't fit like it's supposed to because it's not the same size. So I think that that's where Hendrick is frustrated. They're not only having to, you know, they're not only having to, uh,

cut on these pieces to get them to actually feel. fit on the car, but they're out of the performance box or they're so out of tolerance that you're going to go to the racetrack and get beat by these pieces. And so it's a tough spot for everybody to be in. With all of that knowledge, I feel like that the penalties are far too severe. And, I mean, it's the biggest penalty, in my opinion, that's ever been handed down. in the sport. And I think that there, I think that there should be, I think that HMS is right to appeal.

And I believe that they will have a likely resolution that lessens this penalty in some way, some form. I don't know if it goes away entirely. But, but I think, you know, with everything that we know about limited, its apply the pieces and parts coming in different shapes and forms not all meeting the same sort of measurements i mean these are these when you're when you're racing and and critiquing things to a thousandth of an inch and and and the difference in a thousand of an inch could be a tenth or two tenths on the racetrack um you know it it it's got to be frustrating so i think that with all

of that information um it'll be interesting to see how this plays out. So let me play a devil's advocate just for a second. Sure. And I'm not saying that I believe this. I'm just playing devil's advocate since you gave a very good argument for on behalf of the teams. So clearly we can say that NASCAR is saying that there's been some sort of alterations to this part that has helped their performance. Wouldn't you think that a race team would say, wouldn't they make a case for the imperfections and the in the urgencies that these parts been manufactured. Wouldn't they do that by default, even if they have been doing something that they

blatantly knew that was going to affect the performance? We're making an assumption that they did a modification that would help performance. That is an assumption. That's what I'm saying. I'm playing devil's advocate, which is nothing but in the – I don't even know if I'd go so far as a say, and I'm assuming that's what happened. I'm just saying knowing teams the way they do, listen, we've been busted. I remember when Tony Jr. was messing with the spoiler, and he got handed a big old

penalty. But we know that Tony Jr. had an argument, but we also know that he was doing, he knew what he was doing, and yet he's going to argue that he was innocent on this, and that's just what teams are going to do. So I'm just saying, NASCAR is basically saying that they did some sort of modifications. Otherwise, they wouldn't penalize them, right? My God, if that was not the case, they're penalizing them just because the part isn't what they approved.

That is a big problem, and I think that's a very winnable appeal. I do too. So I think that NASCAR is not wrong in saying, look, don't touch it and don't work on the part. They're not wrong in that, but if the part comes to you, if you buy four of them and they're all different. You buy four of them and they're all different. If you're buying four carbon fiber pieces and all of them come to you different shapes and, you know, different tolerances and to get that thing to fit, the way you want it to, and to get it to fit and look and,

and perform exactly like the guy in the garage next to you, right? Yeah. And NASCAR gave them, apparently, some areas where they could manipulate this piece. So that they fit? Yes. Yeah. Okay.

So, I mean, they gave them the areas to make it fit. And it still was, still was so different. Well, think about the line of communication of, you know, where they could work in, I mean, All of the emails and going from, you know, approvals to CAD, the pieces get approved from the manufacturer to the organization NASCAR, then back to the teams. It's flawed. It's susceptible to some miscommunications. It sounds like some things could get dropped and misinterpreted, right?

Absolutely. That's true. That's true. There's definitely imperfections in the process. Yeah, I'm fascinated by it, and this is all new because this was never the way the sport was ran in the past. Certainly now, you know, nose pieces, tail pieces, roofs, and all those things were approved through the manufacturer, the OEM would have to get it approved, and then that information would come through the OEM to the team. So, I mean, that line of communication is not uncommon in NASCAR, but to be doing this where every single part and piece on,

the race car and as they continue to get redeveloped and redesigned and resubmitted, it seems like that it could get a little murky. And the teams are going to, if you say, hey, man, we allow, we're going to allow a little leeway here. I think that the teams are going to take as much as they can, right? They're going to look at that and read into that as much as they can. And while maybe there should have been some, while maybe, yes, certainly NASCAR should, has a right to be frustrated by what they saw, the fact that they are in this position as a group, and they have all worked in tandem to get here, and they took the parts off before the cars raced and competed in competition, I think this penalty is a little too severe.

That's a huge distinction that you just said. They actually, because, you know, they wiped the floor with everybody, except Kevin Harvick. I mean, but yeah, you know, the Hendrick cars have been very fast. They don't look to be slowing down anytime soon, but they didn't race with the parts. I agree. And I think, too, you know, you've got to look at how we don't want favoritism in our sport, but the teams and the OEMs, the manufacturers, everybody and NASCAR has worked together to get to this point and to, you know, sort of get smacked around so bad in front of the whole industry was,

is a bit tough to take if you're a team owner and putting so much of your own investment into getting the sport in this new direction with this new car, right? Think about the garage 56 program. Right. Where Hendrick and NASCAR and everyone's working together, same thing, same collaboration, right? You would think that there would be a little, what's the word I'm looking for? Grace maybe a little bit of a partnership.

I don't know. Who knows? I mean, Mike, if certainly to get a historic penalty, you would have appreciated a heads-up that you're tampering into some territory that you're going to regret back out while you still can or something like that. And I think NASCAR would say that they gave them that a heads-up.

But yeah, grace is the word. I think everything that they've been through as an industry to get to this point with the car and the grace that the teams and the manufacturers have shown NASCAR with the car could go both ways. Let's move on. Jenny Hamlin, doc 25 points, fined $50,000 for comments on his podcast, a Dirty Mo Media podcast, aptly named Actions Detrimental.

Hey, man, we thought it was a great name. I still think it's a great name. I think it fits more today than it did last week. Yeah. So, you know, I heard Denny's comments and then I read the copy, right, of all of the things that he said in his podcast. I feel like that, you know, I love NASCAR. I really do. I know it's not going to sound like it today.

But I feel like this is an overreach. I can't help it. I mean, I got to be honest. Rubbins racing. Right? But that's absolutely on the aggressive side of things, what happened between him and Ross on the racetrack. But we see this multiple times in races over the year.

I've seen this in racing all my life. You take guys into the wall. You run, you run, you take away the racetrack. I mean, if they're smart enough to lift and there's not contact, good for them. But you have times throughout races where, where guys just blatantly either don't know you're even there or know you're there and don't care, right? We hardly penalize drivers for those type of infractions

and rarely do those drivers admit it, you know, that it was intentional or anything. And maybe that's the difference. But we're now in a time where social media analysts like podcasts, they give drivers a new unfiltered platform, you know. And I think that as we evolve as a sport, NASCAR, needs to, evolve in how they view the way drivers use these platforms, right? And so if Denny gets out of the car and they get a microphone in his face on Pit Road

and he goes, I wrecked him right there, boom, bam, I would view that differently than Denny getting on his podcast on a Wednesday and going, yeah, man, I didn't take care of that guy. You would view it differently how? I would say in the heat of the moment, you've gotten out of the car at the race track, on the property and said, look, the thing I just did, I meant to do it, I might have a problem with that. But if you're going to go on social media or go on your podcast and say whatever you, you say whatever you want to say, it's, I feel like that that's kind of off limits in my mind, you know, and so, I don't know, I, I view it through a different lens. And so, you know, I would

I would think about it like this, I guess. I mean, I would say things on this show in this room that I would never say in a broadcast booth. That's right. Never. And I think there's a difference. There is. And so, you know, I think NASCAR needs to, NASCAR's a view of how drivers are using these platforms might need to evolve as the platforms evolve, right? And so maybe they could just have a bit of an open mind to, hey, man, the guy's on his podcast running his mouth.

I feel like he ran his mouth. Didn't like what he said. But that's, you know, that's sort of out of the arena. And you bring up a good point. What if he had tweeted that and not put it on a podcast? Is it the same thing? Probably. I mean, I don't think they would view it.

I think Twitter. Because Denny said, you know, controversial things on Twitter. He has. I think that Twitter is. they are more adjusted to how Twitter is used and they probably would not, it wouldn't have stung them as severely.

And now, you know, his podcast is new. A driver going on a podcast and being so transparent is a new thing for them, right? It's new for all of us. We were all taken aback by what we saw or heard from Denny on the show. Yeah, we reacted to it on Tuesday.

All of us, all of us were shocked by it. Yeah. And I think that, you know, that's probably, you know, why NASCAR reacted the way they did, because it's sort of this, it was a new,

it was a new thing, you know, for a driver to go on a podcast and say those type of things. But I feel like that in the DNAs that we're in and the way media works and everything, it should be, you know, it should be considered the platform, the place, the time, all that has, all that makes a bit of a different.

and how I would govern that particular situation. Now, I would still go to Denny and say, hey, man, let's sit down and talk about this. You know, I don't know if this happened. But if I was anyone in the NASCAR industry that was bothered by what I heard, I would sit down with Denny or call him up and say, you're going to give me 10 minutes. You know, I don't care if you're busy, but we're going to talk about this. Can you explain to me whether you really intentionally wrecked him?

And run me through that lap. and so, you know, and then maybe I would react to that information that I'm getting firsthand from Denny. There's two other things, you know, I would look at this as an opportunity. I would give Denny, instead of saying, you know, instead of coming out on a Tuesday and saying, I'm going to find you, you know, $50,000 and 25 points. I would actually, I wonder how, why you couldn't go to Denny and say, hey, Denny, I'm going to give you the choice.

I'm going to give you this penalty, 25 points, 50 grand, or I want you to go, I want you to go to Atlanta on Thursday. I got a media tour lined up for you. Yeah. I got radio shows for you to do. I got local TV for you to do.

You're going to be busy from probably about 10 o'clock to 4 p.m. You'll Bill France. way, like the old school way, just make them work. That's right. Put them to work. Yeah. So that is while, well, look, man, we all, you know, we all think that promoting the sport is a good thing, but to be honest with you, Denny would not really love the idea of going

into Atlanta and spending an, you know, entire day doing local spots, satellite media tours and all those things, but it would get the message across. and so while you're sort of punishing Denny in a way, you're also promoting the sport and allowing Denny to go promote the sport. I mean, behind closed doors, I would be taking Ross and Denny both to a fine steakhouse and giving them Rolexes because everything that they've done in the past two years has drawn nothing but good attention.

Right. Nothing good attention. And to your point on your Twitter post, if you're not wanting neither one of them to change be true to themselves, absolutely. Denny don't change. Don't change. Ross, please do not change. Right. So as frustrated as Denny is with the way Ross raises him, Ross, please don't change that.

Right. Keep frustrating, Denny. We need a rivalry. Yes. And so I don't want any of that stifled. And I'm afraid that as, you know, now. car reacted, they will stifle Denny's, you know, Denny going on his podcast and being honest, right? People are enjoying this podcast.

People are enjoying this sort of inside look in Denny's life, his business, how he views the sport and the things that happen to him on a, on a weekly basis. I wish we had all the drivers doing that. Cori LaJoy is doing an amazing job with stacking pennies. Yes. And we need more drivers. creating their own content like this, hosting their own shows, really?

And so this is a great thing. And I know that NASCAR in their statement said that. We love Denny having his podcast. We love what he's doing with that. But I'm afraid this will stifle him and other drivers. Other drivers are going to see this and go, oh, man, I'm going to zip my lip for a little while here.

Of course they will. I'm going to withdraw just so much. And worse than that, that they stifle the activity on the racetrack. Look, nobody, you don't have to love everything that happens on the track. You can hate what Denny did on that last lap. 100%. We can all be frustrated by it.

The talking heads in the media, myself included, can criticize and critique all of the decisions that were made. But it is drama. and you need a little bit of that. That's part of the recipe for a good show. It isn't the lead actor. It's not the lead of the plot. You got the guy winning the race. That's your star.

And how he did it, that's your plot. But you've got to have these little things boiling in the bottom. Right. And so I'm afraid that, you know, we definitely don't want to go back to boys have it and just like, you know, lawlessness in the garage of, you know, drivers doing whatever they want to do. anywhere anyhow on the racetrack and off the racetrack but you got to let these guys you know have these little spats and um and maybe they don't have a problem with it it's the fact that he came out and was so blatantly yeah you know blatantly sort of you know i guess it people say that it's almost like he dared them to do something yeah see that was the i heard i was talking to you

about that and i didn't feel like he was daring nascar i feel like he was daring nascar i feel like that he was daring Ross. Like he was basically saying, all right, you know, I mean, when I listened to Denny's comments, it was kind of like, everybody had been telling me,

I wouldn't do nothing. Everybody had been saying, I wouldn't, hit him back or try to get him back. And, and this is my way of doing it. And he even said, it was stupid because he cost himself

so many spots. I mean, he was really honest about it. He was like, you know, I was losing control. I decided if I'm going, he's going with me. Yeah, and he was being sarcastic in a way.

We all knew that. That was just him the way he was teeing it up just to be entertaining. Yeah. I mean, there are some instances in the past year where this point's penalty is consistent. Like, I got it right here. William Byron last year penalized $25,000 after he wrecked Danny Hamlin at Texas during a playoff race.

and so now Byron appealed that which Denny says he's not going to appeal it Byron appealed it and it was dropped to zero points and a $100,000 fine So Which I thought was unreal to be honest with you I couldn't believe that they Well, Byron was more than happy to pay that $100,000 Of course the points is what's stuck in the playoffs yes I think Denny should appeal this

I think he should appeal it based just on that alone this was a playoff race that all this went down between William and Denny. Bubba spun during the Texas playoff race in 2019. He admitted it on NBC Sports that he had done it on purpose to gain a caution. Sometime later even. He was, yeah. And he was 50 points and $50,000. So, and, you know, the thing with Ross and Denny has been going on since 2020 at Gateway.

They had issues at Gateway, Atlanta, Martinsville, Pocono. the Clashed Coliseum. You know, these guys just can't stay away from each other. And I hope it continues. But I think Denny should appeal. I know he decided that I guess he's not going to appeal it. I think he should, considering that, you know, the points. Again, just like I mentioned with the HMS points,

I mean, losing that points could trickle into some other issues later down into the season. I guess Denny thinks, hey, if I win a race, it's all good. they didn't take any playoff points away I don't think Denny's so much worried about the 50 grand as much as he is just the principle of it all The principle, right, right, right, right. Let me ask you a question real quick.

Somebody in the industry that's, you know, a pretty relevant texted me last night and this person is familiar with the rulebook. I am not. The rule book's not public, so I don't know where to even go find the rule book. But this person said intent was removed from the rule book this year so that admitting that he intended to go ruin his day should not matter.

I don't understand. You don't understand what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah, basically, again, I don't know if this intent, you know, they were saying that the reason they had to do something was because he intentionally manipulated the race or intentionally spun somebody out, intentionally wrecked them, whatever you want to call it. And, but this person said that intent was actually removed from the rulebook language this year. and so it should not even matter that he admitted that he intended to go, you know, I'm having a bad day and you're going to have a bad day with me, buddy. I don't know if you know anything more about that.

I don't. I'm just, I think that's curious. I mean, I've had, there's been so many, I understand that in this situation, Denny went on a podcast and gave a lot of information about this certain incident that, and spelled out his reasoning for doing it and what he did and what he thought. but every freaking race something happens there's an intention

every single race somebody gets annoyed because they got race too hard in the last corner so they door you on the next straightaway yeah and and in sometimes that'll cut a tire down I've seen it cut tires down and it wrecks

the guy goes into the fence into turn one I've done it I ran into the side of reading sourced and on resource and on a frustrated way at Fontana one year he I didn't like the way race me in three and four. I door him on the front straightaway. My pipes cut his left rear tire down and he crashed into turn one. Jimmy Eledge was the crew chief. Oh, that's awkward. Yeah. And so my point is,

is that, and I've had that happen to me, you know, where a guy, you know, I raced a guy and I'm thinking, man, I'm having fun. We're racing and he doors me on the next straightaway because he's mad that I'm not letting him go. And that's an intentional act that these things are just so, common. Now, Denny's was much, much more aggressive, and he continued to beat on the back bumper of the one car as they come to the checker flag. You know, but dang, man, I mean, that's just, that to me is, I look at that and go, damn, that's the same thing you see or hope to see every time you buy a ticket to a Saturday night, Friday night short track race. You hope that you're going to see some shit like that go down. That was my point yesterday on Dirty Mo Live. Like, are we to really

feel guilty that we are entertained by drivers kind of getting frustrated with each other? What are we watching? I do. NASCAR's making me feel guilty for liking this. But that's the problem. That's the problem. That's the problem. That's not okay. We should not feel bad about that. And so, you know, people that go at us and go, Denny just should shut his mouth. That is not what we want. And I'm not talking about we as dirty mo media. I'm talking about we as race fans. Do not want to encourage drivers to shut their mouth. I agree.

I'll go to Jeff Gluck's tweet, which was one of my favorites from yesterday. Yeah, you tell them. That's what NASCAR needs for all those drivers to keep their damn. Hold on. Read what he's responding to if you're going to read that tweet, because somebody went to him first and he's responding to it. I don't know. The whole thing is...

Well, somebody was like, basically, they just need to shut their mouths. You know, that was paraphrasing the way. That's what you just said. Okay, I didn't know. Okay, I'm just helping out. That's all. Go ahead. Read it.

Oh, man. It's so f***ed up. That was f*** up. Well, it's all f***ing the listeners, some context behind what you're about to read is f*** up on a podcast? Well, that's even more f*** up. All right. Well, so I guess I'll get fine for that one, too. Mike, say whatever you want.

All right. Go ahead. Read your tweet. All right. So like Mike was implying, someone tweeted, you don't have to tell on yourself on a podcast. Keep your mouth shut and nothing happens. That's right. And so Jeff Gluck's, uh,

response was, yeah, you tell them. That's what NASCAR needs for all those drivers to keep their damn mouth shut. They show way too much personality as it is. Shut up and raise guys and definitely don't do any podcasts. Thank goodness they'll all be quiet now. Right. And so, you know, which it's funny to go. It's, you know, that's a, that's a whole other conversation. It's, Twitter was full of sarcasm and, and, and, and frustrations and people going, people for what NASCAR did, people saying, hey man, just keep your mouth shut. Hey, man, just don't go on your show and, hey, don't admit to the crime, da, da, da, right?

Right. But then there was another, you know, large group of people that were just as as as Jeff Gluck was. Well, the people that are sitting there saying, shut your mouth, drivers just know your role and don't say anything are the same ones that will complain about the races being boring and that the cars don't make passes and all these things. The same ones that will vote in Gluck's Twitter poll that the race was no good are also the same people with the same lazy take.

that drivers need to shut their mouth. It's hypocritical. Well, so there you go. I think that's our take on the HMS penalties, the colleague penalties, the Denny Hamlin penalties. Maybe I feel like it was a bit harsh across the board. Maybe because it was so much all in one day. I don't really know.

But either way, and I know that I've said in the past that I want NASCAR to be mean and stern and come down with a hammer on every. everything, right? But boy, I think that this was a bigger hammer than I ever thought they'd used. So you're to blame for this. They listened to what you said in the past, and now they're going to hand it out to everybody. It's been revealed the crew choose for Hendrick Motorsports this weekend. The organization did not ask for a deferral of the suspension as they appeal of the L2 penalties. So Brian Campi will be William Byron's crew chief. Gregives back on the box for

Alex Bowman, Kevin Meandering, my old engineer on the box for Kyle Larson and Tom Gray, will be on the box with Josh Barry. All those are solid, solid guys that get a great, you know, get the job done for that organization this weekend in Atlanta. And also, we might have a little bit of an early release on actions detrimental. Apparently Denny wants to come into the studio and talk now. Oh, you got something to say. Yeah.

So, yeah, Denny usually his actions detrimental come out every Monday, but considering the circumstances, Denny needs to work now. So Denny's going to cook. It's just been building up in the last 24 hours. He's ready to unload. All right, we'll see. Going to Atlanta this weekend, there's a, new pit road commitment line

and if you haven't seen a picture of this Anthony Alfredo tweeted a photo of basically the vantage point of entering turn three committing to pit road which is on the apron of the racetrack and I believe that pit road speed begins at the line

entering turn three and it's going to add about 30 seconds to your pit stop you're going to have to run pit road speed all the way around turn three and four, and then on the pit road, as you usually would. So the concern, I guess, when they narrowed up the racetrack and they increased the banking and repaved Atlanta, the track turned into a, you know, a mile and a half super speedway Daytona-style racing, so the cars are double-file three-wide running, you know, nearly 200 miles an hour.

And so if someone or a bunch of people need to come to pit road under a green flag pit stop, they would get plowed over and run through. It would cause a terrible accident, high potential for a big crash, because there's nowhere for these cars to get off a pit road in turn four. They can't slow down in front of the field. You'd have to drop back to the very back of the pack to be able to come to pit road safely. And as we know at these racetracks, a lot of these teams pit together in bulk. And so the solution to this for the time being, I guess,

is that we will have a commitment line entering turn three. Pit road speed will begin there. It's a very safe solution. You have to have the speed line begin entering three because you don't want, even though you're going to force everybody to use the apron, you don't want them racing around the apron. You don't want them trying to get around the apron as fast as possible to turn forward pit road entrance.

What if they spun, slid up the racetrack into oncoming traffic, that would be the worst-case scenario. So pit road speed begins entering turn three. That would be a fun challenge. But if you have any kind of problem that brings you to pit road for an unscheduled stop, your race is over with. The addition of that extra 20 to 30 seconds having to run pit road speed around turn three and four will basically knock you out of the race.

But I mean, you know, anytime a speeding penalty or anything, any kind of penalty that's going to bring you back to pit road during Greenfield, flag stops is pretty difficult to overcome as it is, but even more so now with this. So hopefully your favorite driver doesn't have any of that happening during the green flag runs at Atlanta this weekend. I'm excited to watch this race. I know that a lot of people were, you know, for or against the racing at Atlanta and how it's changed since the repave, but that track will wear, I think, relatively quickly.

It's in the sand hills and sandy area down there in Atlanta. the winters and the wind-blown sand will be harsh on the surface of the racetrack. It should age rapidly when compared to maybe like a repave at Charlotte. So this place is going to be a lot of fun for us for years to come. It is going to get better and better. And as it wears and they start having to lift, move, slide around, we are in for some pretty awesome action. How many pit road speeding pedals do you reckon they'll be? I want Dirty Modo to have a prop bed on the over under all.

that's going to be you're going to want to be conservative because if you screw that up and have to come back down pit road you have to come back through that same turn three and four pit road speed trap your your day is done yeah going into Atlanta also we introduced tyler reddick's exfinity 10g paint scheme we talked about it we didn't show it on the show last week we had tyler red he was great Tyler thanks for coming on think everybody really enjoyed getting to hear from him but we talked about his Xfinity paint scheme and Xfinity, the reason why we want to continue to discuss that,

Xfinity's been so great to us here at Dirty Mo Media. And it's a beautiful car. Now everybody can go look at it and take a look at this. You'll see it this weekend. Yeah. Blue, dark blue, fade. I love a good fade to purple.

And the 45 on the door, looking pretty solid, 10G. It's clean. It is clean. You like a good clean race car. Yeah, I'm good with this. Yes, it is a beautiful car. I think we should put it up on our social media so everybody can see what we're talking about.

But yeah, well done by Xfinity 10G and Tyler Reddick. Good luck at Atlanta. Yeah, and Xfinity has talked about their, you know, being on this race car. They are exploring new ways to market themselves in this business, in this industry. So fascinating to see how that moves forward for Xfinity. They love being here. I'm glad they're sticking around. and kudos for them for looking for other ways to, you know, support this sport.

They've supported us through sponsoring the Xfinity series. They do things for us here personally at Dirtymo Media. And now, you know, they're on the side of this race car for Tyler Redick. So Tyler's going to, I think I might. Tyler was having a pretty good run at Daytona. He admittedly doesn't think he does a lot of good things at those two racetracks, but he was running really good last year at Atlanta. before I think a tire issue caused some problems for him,

but I'm actually thinking about putting him into my fantasy lineup for this weekend. I just feel good about it. That's the ultimate vote of confidence right there when you're making your fantasy lineup. But he's also due. I mean, like they didn't come out of the gate strong, so I think he's due. Everybody's due, man. We got a update on the Nashville Fairgrounds. The Fair Board approved the relationship between the track and SMI or Bristol Motor Speedway.

Now it goes in front of the metro board, which is basically 40 people. This is a confusing thing. So it's gotten passed by the fair board. Three to two. Now it moves to the city to approve. And that city board is 40 folks, but the city has now said that they're going to whittle down this council to 20.

That is happening in the near future. And so that's got to happen, but also this, you know, this Nashville Fairgrounds relationship with Bristol Motor Speedway is going to go through that council around that same time. So how does that affect the possibility of it being passed? That could be a bigger hurdle than even the fair board was. But once it gets passed through that, I believe they're good to go. There's a lot of meetings, a lot of things that have to happen before then. but I think once it's approved by Metro,

it's that the contract will get signed. Oh, so that is the big one. Yeah. So, I mean, Marcus Smith, I ask him all the time. What does this mean? You know, there's going to be a new mayor. There's, you know, the changes with the council, all of these challenges. Every time I go to him and say, hey, man, does this mean things are harder?

Does this mean we're stalled out? Does this mean the fairgrounds might not have? happen, he has not changed his position. He's been positive on it. Feels like they're in a good place. Feels good about it. They've already invested a ton of money into this process already. Hey, downloaders, let's take a second here and just have a conversation. A conversation about travel planning. My assumption is that a lot of you probably been to NASCAR races and maybe you go to one a year, maybe two or three a year. Certainly there's some of you guys that go to a lot more,

but I think the average would be about one to three races a year. That's what you plan on. And I also know that we've got a lot of Dale Jr. Download listeners in the Southeast. Of course we do, because this is NASCAR country, and then in the Appalachian region and the Smoky Mountains up near Bristol, a lot of listeners. I'm thinking about my boy, Billy Bradley,

one of the longtime Dale Jr. download supporters that up there at Bristol, see him at the track. all the time. Bristol Motor Speedway is it is absolutely the most iconic venue on our circuit. I think we can all agree on that. Maybe it's a debate that we could have. But like in terms of the thing that people must go to once in their lives, they must go to Bristol. And I just, I'm really just taken back about how awesome and how much planning the, the Bristol folks are doing for this upcoming Bristol Dirt race. I'm telling you, it's going to be on, the race is on Easter Sunday. That's unique.

Okay, that's unique to have a race on Easter Sunday. And so naturally, they are going above and beyond to make this experience for their ticket buyers, you know, a once-in-a-lifetime experience, right? Tim Tebow, the Heisman trophy winning quarterback from the University of Florida, went to the NFL, but just an amazing speaker. He's going to be delivering an Easter Sunday service message for everyone. It's going to be free for anyone who wants to attend. It's just going to be an awesome race.

And then the dirt race, listen, say what you will. I don't know where NASCAR fans are on, you know, how much dirt racing experience or how much dirt racing infatuation. I think it's, you know, that's also a debate. But, man, to have it once or twice a year is something special. And to do it at Bristol, I've always been a fan of that. So if you've never been to Bristol Motor Speedway, this is a time to try it out. It's time to go. It's time to go.

Make your plans to be there for the Food City Dirt Race on Sunday, April 9th. It's Bristol on dirt. you just got to go see it, right? I mentioned the Easter Day celebration for anyone who wants to attend. It's going to start at 4 p.m. on the Fan Midway stage. Tim Tebow will be there. Also, they'll have music by singer-songwriters Phil Wickham and Corey Asbury. Yeah, this is going to be a fantastic event.

Make the Bristol Race Weekend a family weekend to remember. You got the Kid Zone. You got Food City Fan Zone. You got the Fan Midway. Experience on-site camping, tailgating concerts, entertainment, great food beverages. Also, speaking of kids, you know, kids, kids' Cup tickets are just $10. I mean, just $10 tickets.

Take a kid to the race. Just do that. That's an obligation us older race fans have these days. We've got to take our kids to a race, get them involved, let them just not just see the racing, but hear it, feel it, smell it. You know, it's just a, it's a unique experience all in its own. We've got to get these kids involved. And to get your weekend package and save, visit bristolticks.com. So yes, get the kids out there.

It's the Bristol Food City Dirt Race Sunday, April 9th. Kids' cup tickets are $10. You can't miss it. Go do it. Let's move on. We're going to do the beer bracket. All right. Everybody, you know, March Madness is here.

I felt out a bragant. Bragnant. I felt out a bracket. Mike. Did you fill one out? I heard that you did not. You were thinking about it? They would.

You couldn't get the link to work. Couldn't get the link. That's six. I think that's a personal excuse. I don't know. I think it's suspicious. Well, when I win, I filled out.

a bracket and when I win it'll be my bragnet because you'll have a beer braggnant on that too yeah you'll feel good about it won't you yeah yeah uh so yeah you told us about your bragant the other day and who you had in your final four this is a beer bracket okay the best beer what what the hell all right so you know when i was hearing about this Alex i thought we were actually going to have brands of beer no all right but we're not these are going to be beers uh it's like situational Situational beers, okay? Like the first bracket is Campfire Beer or Beach slash Boat Beer. Which, by the way, these are ranked.

These got seeds. Alex has seeded Beach Boat Beer is the number one seat of this tournament here. Which I don't know if I agree with. And Campfire Beer being number eight, the underdog. All right, so, you know, Beach Boat Beer, Campfire Beer, I think Beach Boat Beer is good for me. That's going to move on to my next round. All right. Go ahead. Number two, bracket number two, happy hour beer.

The four three. And free beer. Free beer and happy hour beer. I get free beer all the time, so that's not a big deal to me. But I'm sure mostly people are going to say free beer. Don't you think? I'm one of them. All right.

Let's go with free beer. That's an upset. All right. After a wind beer. That's after a victory of any kind. And shower beer. What about you creep? What in the hell?

What's the hell? Who's drinking? I'm a beer in the shower. That's a college thing. Yeah. Has never had a shower beer? I've never had a shower beer. Oh, that's life-changing.

Okay, well, that ain't winning for me. After a win beer. Let's go win beer. When's that bracket? All right, the final bracket in the first round. First nice day beer. So like the first day of spring, first day of 80-degree weather, the hangover cure beer. That's the one for me.

The hangover cure beer. Hangover beer. Hair of the dog is going to move on. because that basically means we're just starting over. Today is another party, right? Because that hangover beer leads to another 12 or so. So that's to imply that the actual drinking of a beer fixes the hangover. You never tried that?

And I've tried it. It's just never worn for me. Well, you've got to drink more than one. Yeah. Okay. All right. Just to get drunk again. Round two.

Beach beer and free beer. I'm going with the beach beer. I don't think that I will be... Yeah, this is the final four, by the way. The beach beer versus free beer. Where are you going? I'm going to beach. I am too.

Beach, beach boat beer, beats the free beer. I mean, I love free beer. Who doesn't? But sometimes, you know, free beer is on the boat. That's right. The second bracket of the final four, the after a win beer versus the hangover cure beer. I'm going with the after a win beer. Well, I had first nice day beer as making it to the semis, but then we're back to being similar because

after a wind beer would be better. Yeah. As much as I love the hangover beer because for me, that signals that we're going to drink all day, the wind beer is a good damn beer. Congratulations on pronouncing signal, right? That was impressive.

I get that one? I would have lost that bad. Don't be excited the next time I said. All right. We have the same championship here. Championship round. Beach boat beer versus after a wind beer. Beach boat beer after a wind beer.

That's a tough one. Is that your final two? So I was like, Mike, I had the first nice day beer moving on. But what's your final two? My final two is beach beer burst after first nice day beer. First nice day. Yeah. All right.

Andrew, do you? I'll be honest. I just turned 21, so I haven't been to a beach. Jesus Christ. That should have been one of the things. Turning 21 beer. Should have, yeah. Oh, that's kind of a.

That's a good one. After a win beer. Yeah. That's a weird. Is it a one? I don't know. That's my after one. Get to use your real idea at the bar.

Yeah, that's a win. I don't know that, you know, I think my turning 21 beer would probably be my least favorite because it was probably my least favorite beer I've ever drank. Not a chance. It was the first one. The first beer you drink is your least favorite beer ever. Yeah. They all get better from that moment on.

I don't know. The Ken Schrader story, the weak story with Ken Schrader. It sounded like you enjoyed those beers that day. I did drink a lot of beer, but I forced to first. first handful of them down. I got you. You know, when you're young, beer tastes like shit.

Yeah. Nobody, nobody, I don't, there ain't many people that drink their first beer and go, hell yeah. Yeah. This is amazing. What a recipe.

I'm just coming around to it. Oh, so you don't even drink beer. No, now, now I'm starting to get the taste for it. It takes a while, but dude, once you lock in, it's weird. Once you lock in, you're like, you know, these are good. It's weird.

Man. Hook for life. Also a problem in some case. Well, something that tastes so bad out of the gate, you'd think you'd never acquire taste for it. Yeah, perseverance. Yes. You've just got to keep going.

All right, let's get back to it. Beach, boat beer versus after a wind beer. Ah, man, this is a tough one. Well, it's not for me. It ain't beach boat? I'm going to beach boat. All right, Mike says beach boat. You just said the beach is overrated last week,

and now you think the beach fear is the best. Hey, that's the next conversation. It's more like a boat beer. Okay. That's the only way Mike can enjoy. Yeah. Listen, by the way, beach being overrated doesn't mean that I wouldn't enjoy the beer. I'm going to go after a wind beer.

Win beer for me, buddy. You know, wind beer, now beach boat beer is a great beer, all right? But you can do that any day. You can drive your ass over to the dock and get on that boat and have that beer right now. this win beer only happens when you win. That's the problem for me. That's why that beer is so... That's what I'm saying.

That's what makes that beer better. Special, yeah. And sometimes, you're celebrating with other people in this moment. That's true. And they're all like-minded, happy, thrilled, spilling beer. Pouring beer. On people. Yeah.

Yeah, I guess that's one of it. And, again, much like the house. Hangover beer, the wind beer means that you're going to drink lots of them. Yeah. These all do feed into each other some way. I like the beer that's going to have more beer with it. Yeah. You know, you don't know.

The campfire beer, that might be a brief little sit down. That might be a lot. Right? Yeah. The happy hour beer, there you go, one hour of beer. The shower beer is, what, 15 minutes of beer? So. I don't know.

There's more questions. There's more questions and answers on the shower beer. Yeah, I guess my point is, is I see, when I see the hangover beer and the after the wind beer, I'm thinking, man, that's 12 hours of beer. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Dale, I have a question for you. So the retirement beer you had after your final race.

I was just thinking about that. Where does that rank? Those were good beers. Yeah. Yeah. Those are kind of very similar to after the wind beer. Yeah, I thought so. They're very unique.

They're very close. See, I'm going to just make a point, though, that Dale also, to be able to enjoy those beers. to their full capability, he had somebody keeping them on ice and being prepared. And that is important. Because nobody wants a warm beer. Yeah, but the same person that was keeping them on ice was also going to take and drink one of those beers. That's important. They were motivated.

Right. Yeah, right. That's right. So, yeah, we had some great reactions, speaking to the beach, being overrated. Mike's take was the beach is overrated. My take is that I'd love to, you know, I love to drag all my shit out there and spend hours. we were discussing that because y'all were surprised by how many people also agreed with Mike a ton of people Mike's biggest complaint about this show is that everyone agrees with me

and when we debate he always takes takes the shit right that's a fair assessment yeah and so on this that's accurate on this particular debate you feel like hey man I had a pretty large group of people that were very supportive of my point of view I feel like I dunked on all of y'all, every one of you. If you get like 45% of the likes, you dunked on us. First of all, it wasn't even a fair fight because this team of talented professionals that surround me right now, tee it up is, are you on Team Dale or Team Mike? Come on, guys.

What a lousy way to tee that up? And I still got 45%. That is a huge win because you don't go tee it up, Team Dale or Team Mike. You talk about the 15th time most popular driver? Yeah. The Hall of Famer? We need. What are people going to vote?

And yet I still got 45%. We didn't give people the option to choose neither. You know, typically in those type of polls, there's an A, B, and a C. And so I feel like that since we didn't do that, and you got less than half of the votes, it was not a good win. Oh, please. I've already done my celebration parade, dude. I have gone to the halls. I have made everybody feel bad about themselves. I feel good about it. There's a lot of good, like a swim-up bar. I'm more of a swim-up bar guy than a beach guy. I'm like, well, that's a good... Hold up. Then you're on my side then, Alex. So I... Don't even sit there and act like that. That's exactly my point. You'd rather be in a swimming pool than a beach because the swim pool's not salty. It doesn't have... animals that'll eat you, all these things. There's just a few of them. You're on my side. There's a couple that swayed me a little bit, but I'm still a beach

guy. Here's your problem. You guys can't actually disagree with Dale in front of Dale. No, I can. No, you can't. Well, he's been right all the time, so. Oh, God, look at you, people. Pathetic.

It's pitiful. It really is. I think I just dug the news. How did you dunk on me? He said I'm right all the time. When you have a right of the time. When you have a right opinion, Mike, I'll agree with you. Oh!

Currently. Gosh, Mike. Well, listen. Let's just move on. The crowd is spoken. Listen, you guys, you guys all fall in line, you know, make him feel good. He's been gone. He's been on vacation.

You better stop. It's going to get worse. I don't. I don't. We need just more debate topics than you guys disagree on. Just pick a topic. I'm sure we'll disagree on it. So as we mentioned,

If you haven't listened to it, make sure you go listen to the business of motorsports out yesterday. My sister's new podcast that will be releasing from time to time. Also, today we have Dirty Mode Do, Steve LaTartre's podcast, will be out. People are loving that. And Speed Street came out yesterday, and you had an amazing guest for that show. Colton Herda is on the show. That's a big get. And so, well done.

Connor Daly and Joey Mullinero. Can't wait to listen to that. All right, everybody. Thanks for tuning in today. It's been a lot of fun going around and around on everything that's happening in the sport. It has been a week. I hope everybody enjoys themselves watching this weekend in Atlanta. We're going to leave you with Short Track Insider hosted by Hannah Newhouse, a new segment that we love here at Dirtymo Media,

talking everything grassroots racing that's going on out in sport. And there is a lot happening at the short tracks these weeks. Y'all have a good one. Welcome back to this week's edition of Short Track Insider, where we talked to about it all last week. It was the debut of the Cars Tour for the 2023 season at Southern National Motorsports Park, where to absolutely no one's surprise, it was Deke McCaskill who captured the win in the late model stock division. Man McCaskill knows his way around that racetrack. A four-time track champion has seen Victory Lane with the Cars Tour 10 times. If you were going to be a betting

man, Deke McCaskill is always the man to put your money on when they go to one of his home tracks of Southern National Motorsports Park. But as for the pro-late model portion of things, well, Well, this driver is new, not only the Southern National Motorsports Park Victory Lane, but also Cars Tour, because he hails all the way from Herman Maine. And that driver is Mike Hopkins. And this win for him, he said, projected him into the 2023 season, gave them confidence knowing that they can win anywhere up the Eastern Coast Line. And there's a chance that we could see him back in the pro late model field at some point this year with the cars tour. It was a great race, a huge game of tire conservation amongst the field allowing for multiple strategies to play out throughout the weekend. We also talked about it a little bit last week.

The ASA Stars Race at Five Flag Speedway took place, and drama ensued between that of Casey Roderick and Bubba Pollard in the remaining laps of the race for the super late model portion. It was Casey Roderick who was able to come out on top, winning the Sunshine State 200, of course, Roderick. We've already talked about him so far this year, having had a ton of success earlier this year already at Five Flags, and New Smyrna, of course, when we talked about World Series opening this season up.

So to no one's surprise, he found Victory Lane. I think this is just the first for many of Casey Roderick and the Anthony Campy team. Well, looking forward to the weekend, it was supposed to be one of the first real busy weekends on the schedule, but Mother Nature said, nope, we are not doing that. As of right now, I've had to cross a bunch out of what to watch, but one that is still for sure happening is that of the Rattler 250 at South Alabama Speedway. A lot of drivers making their way there, including many of those that were at the Sunshine State 200. one of those drivers hails all the way from California, running for a full national tour championship in the ASA Stars Tour.

That is Jeremy Dawson. Here's what he had to say about this upcoming weekend. Honestly, I've always wanted to go run back east to showcase what my team and I can do against the top super late model drivers in the country. So my car owner, Bob Lyon, myself and the rest of the team, we sat down, put together a dream season for myself, focusing on running crown jewel races that we wanted to run for years now. And I honestly couldn't be more thankful for the opportunity. I do believe the ASA Stars Tour and the SRL National Series is great for our sport. It provides us drivers with a lot of big, high-paying races to compete in, with a lot of publicity. So it definitely has an influence on us running them.

I've got the Rattler 250 coming up this weekend at South Alabama. I've never been to the track or honestly seen it other than video, but I've been doing a lot of homework studying every video I can of super late model races at the track. It seems like a 3-8s bowl ring, something that fits my driving style pretty well. So I think I'll adapt pretty quickly, and anything less than a win would be a disappointment in my book. Well, the World of Outlaw late models were supposed to have a triple header this weekend

at Smoky Mountain and then doubling down at Boyd's. Mother Nature has canceled that with a whole. winter weather advisory, but don't you worry the World of Outlaw, sprint cars are still supposed to be in action this weekend at Williams Grove on Friday, Lincoln on Saturday. You can watch all of that on Dirt Vision. Lucas Oil late models were also supposed to be in action at Atomic on Friday, Brownstown on Saturday. That as well has been canceled, as has the smart modifieds at Lonesome Pine. And then, of course, the high limit racing schedule was supposed to start this upcoming week on Tuesday at Tularee. Saturated grounds expected there as well. So, unfortunate,

for them having to cancel that race at Tulare. But fortunately, if you're around the area in the North Carolina, Charlotte region, Hickory, still planning on running as the Pro All-Star Series, also known as Pass, makes their way down south for the St. Patrick's Day 150 on Friday, and the Easter Bunny 150 on Saturday. So hopefully weather plays more into our favor this next weekend, but don't you worry, we'll have you covered each and every week here on Short Track Insider. Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.