The Dale Jr. Download - 430 - Snakes, Snacks, & Stage Breaks

Episode Date: March 28, 2023

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and co-host Mike Davis had a ton to talk about in the Bojangles Studio today as they kicked off another week of the Dale Jr Download. The sun has set on one of the most compelling NASCAR Cup races to date, as the stars of stock car racing took on drivers from the Formula One, IMSA, and IndyCar ranks at Circuit of the Americas this past weekend. The Download crew discussed: Favorite nostalgic snacks No stage breaks at COTA Late race cautions Road course ringers’ response to the physicality of Cup racing During the fan favorite Ask Jr. segment, listeners wrote in questions about: What format should NASCAR use at the All-Star race at North Wilkesboro? Thoughts on Kurt Busch’s emotional comments in the broadcast booth Getting a song stuck in your head during a race Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What do you think? Didn't get him? I mean, of all things to say, I want a victory beer. He's a seven-time champion. Oh, my God, that is hilarious. Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. Welcome back to another episode of the Dale Jr.

Download with my co-host, Mike Davis, and this is episode 430. I don't even know why we tell everybody what the number is. It doesn't really matter. It's not like we're trying to get to some. But it's on the page, so I say it. It's Tuesday, March the 28th, here in the Bojangles Studio. And I've been looking forward to this one, man. There's a lot to talk about.

We had a big race weekend, Cota, a lot of things happening. I took a ton of notes, and so kind of excited about this particular episode. And let's get right into it, Mike. Just do it, man. I can't wait to hear it. Yeah. So I had a recent trip to Texas, right? Vacation, friends, and family.

And on that trip, I, you know, I like beef jerky. So on that trip, the Texans, man, they, they some people down there, some small batch meat processors, you know, small family-owned brands and companies that actually do some amazing stuff in terms of beef jerky, beef sticks, and all that kind of stuff. And so anyways, I found some of that stuff And it got me thinking I was talking to a buddy mine I was telling him about this awesome jerky That I found down in Texas And we got to talk about it. You remember the dipping beef jerky?

How can I forget? Shredded beef jerky. Yeah. Have we talked about that on the show before? I feel like we might have. It was like one of the biggest milestone moments in Del Junior Download history where you, I think we might have even made a t-shirt

with shredded beef jerky. Yeah. And so we were thinking about Pre-chewed, that's what you said. What are some other pretty incredibly nostalgic treats, I guess, that sort of like shredded beef jerky. So, I mean, whenever I see that in a store, I still grab a can.

Whole can goes in all at once. So, I mean, it's one of those things. So another one would be, and I don't know if this is, I don't know if this is even exists anymore, but remember little candied cigarettes? Yeah. But I don't know that those exist anymore. I don't know if the youth of America are still smoking candy cigarettes.

I know, right? Those are so good, though. Were they? Yes. You never had them? I had them. I didn't get them because I thought they were good. I thought that they were cool.

It looked like you were smoking a cigarette. I actually got them because they tasted good. Oh, right. Gator gum was another one. You read Playboy for the articles. Hey, I was in there. I did do an interview. You did an article.

So this is absolutely true. that you know speaking of play boy articles I mean they were always pretty decent as were the candy cigarettes Gator gum Gator gum Dude did anybody here ever eat Gator gum

No never Are you serious? I heard of it Oh my God So Gator gum I don't know whether they had anything to do with Gatorade But the packaging

You would assume so because the packaging looked exactly like the original green bottle of Gatorade, right? And so the logo and everything was the Gatorade logo, but Gator Gum instead. And, man, the first, I think the flavor was about, yeah, there it is. Googled it. The flavor was probably going to be about 12 seconds, just under 15 seconds. Oh, it is gone. It is the best.

12 seconds of your life. 15 seconds of gum. you're ever going to chew. But then about 15 seconds in, man, it turns to a concrete. So you've got to spit it out quick. Or it's going to be a permanent fixture in your mouth. It like becomes part of your teeth.

Yeah. Yeah. So just like shredded beef jerky probably does, actually. Yeah, I don't know. Anybody else, anybody else have a nostalgia. A nostalgic, like go-to snack or candy. Or candy, whatever. It's like, for mine, it's like the bunch of crunch.

You get only at movie theaters, really. Those are, I don't know if they're still around, but yeah, that was nostalgic for me. I'm trying to think, dude. I mean, I hate to. I put you on the point. I'm sorry. Yeah, I'm trying to think. I don't know that I had a go-to candy.

I know I ate a lot of it. Yeah. All of it. Razzles are always big razzles fan. Razzles. They're still around, I think. Yeah. You know that stuff you'd chew, like it has a moment of powder and then it becomes gum.

Dude, I'm going to tell you, too. I swear to God. You weren't. Some of the best gum I ever ate. was 10-year-old tops bubble gum. You were out of your mind. That's the worst gum. I know.

But it's old. I got some 87 packs of tops back in like the early 90s or mid-90s when I was messing around with baseball cards and stuff. And boy, I eat every damn stick. Really? Hell yeah. It was so hard. It wasn't hard. I mean, you know, the first bite was pretty hard.

But then it turns, it's kind of like the razzle, goes to powder, and it becomes gum. You'd lose a tooth trying to chew that gum. I never lost any teeth. I never did. Lose teeth chewing that gum. I'll tell you that, see, this isn't necessarily nostalgic. Because to qualify for nostalgic candy, does it have to be discontinued? Because, see, I'm always been a gummy.

Everything gummy, gummy, everything, right? But, like, that's still very prevalent today. So it's not really nostalgic. It doesn't have to be candy. Fruit roll-ups. Oh, dude, we were talking about fruit roll-ups. Just Sunday, me and my buddies. How damn good were those things?

They were really good. Gusers, gusers. Gushers were right. Yeah. Fruit roll-ups were a staple in any good lunch box. You know, at school. You ever had a fruit roll-up? Like lunchebles?

You were in the end crowd. Lunchables? Lunchables were good. Yeah. That fruit roll-up, man, was, you know, you'd start eating it and you're like, man, I got to drag this out. Yeah, right. You could ball it up and toss it in and be done.

That's right. But then you got, man, you almost space this out a little. bit. What about those candies that popped in your mouth? Like, like, uh, like, uh, pop rocks? Yeah, pop rocks. I didn't like them. Didn't like them. No. I think the, the stigma around, you just like the cement flavors of the top's gum. I think the stigma around the pop rocks and, and drinking soda and your belly exploding, um, that, you know, it's a, it's a bullshit rumor about it. But everybody, you know, when I was a little kid, everybody's like, oh man, if you eat those and you drink some soda, your belly will explode. And so I was like, you know what? That's probably, that's probably,

Scientific approach. I like that. Yeah. Meanwhile, let's just try these smoking, this cigarette candy. I mean, that's good for you. Man, I know we're going to forget some. We're going to walk out of here in about 10 minutes and be like,

that was the one I should have mentioned. Well, you know what? Dalton can make this a social media conversation that continues throughout the week. Tell us what your favorite nostalgic candy. Okay. Or snack or go to. I've mentioned things that aren't candy. Come on, man.

Why are you putting us in a box? Is free roll up candy? Why are you putting us in the damn box, Mike? All right, fine. But, like, I kind of think that. like NASCAR throwing them yellows putting them drivers in a box just like it right yeah i'm just kidding NASCAR NASCAR i'm kidding jokes buddy i um i enjoyed the no stage breaks this weekend at CODA and i what was a hell of a transition it was thank you i really

enjoyed the no stage breaks at CODA and i um i want NASCAR to try it at the short tracks with the trucks and the Xfinity cars. I raced in the Martinsville Xfinity race, and there's no damn reason for a caution stage break in that event. I mean, there's plenty of natural yellows for the truckers and the Xfinity guys in Martinsville. They're going to run over each other and give you all the yellows you need.

And I hope that that could be considered. Maybe not everywhere. Maybe not even Richmond. We're going to Richmond this weekend. Everybody knows Richmond's been a boring race from time to time, particularly in the last couple of, you know, last decade. The potential for a boring race is there. I got my own ideas about what they can do to that racetrack

to put on a hell of a show. I mean, I'm interested to hear that, actually. Yeah. Because I love Richmond. I've talked about, you know, either they need to repave Richmond. Okay. All right, which is probably unlikely because actually the surface isn't in terrible shape. they need to add grip to it.

I know that sounds counter. It sounds counterproductive. It does sound counterproductive. It does. It sounds counterproductive. So there's been times when there's a lot of different variables at play here.

It's not one little switch that fixes it. But there's been years past where Goodyear has brought a tire where they would move around, right? Even, I mean, it wasn't 2014 or 15. They were running against the wall all the way around the track. And it was crazy. I never seen anything like this. So, I mean, I know that the tire can play a big factor in whether the cars run all on the bottom or they can move around and find speed in different lanes.

But I don't even know if Goodyear knows what makes that happen. And so if Goodyear, you know, can't guarantee, hey, man, this tire we're bringing is going to make multi-grove racing. If you can't guarantee me that, then the only other things that I have in my toolbox to work with are track grip, right? And so it's a bit of an abrasive racetrack, slick, and you'd think that that would put on a great race,

but it really hasn't. When this track has succeeded, when it's been great in the past, it's when it was either recently repaved. If you look back in the early 2000s, some of the best racing we had there, the surface was very dark, relatively new, or it had been sealed with a sealer. And so the sealer acts, you know,

I put it on my driveway, and it's really the same thing. It's just standard asphalt sealer. And so it's really, really slick and super treacherous when they put it down. But as cars race over, it and they and they it becomes tacky it becomes this sort of um you know it becomes this sort of thing that you want to you know chase up the racetrack and and as we as you run on it you also wear

it away it wears away and uh so that bottom groove becomes less dominant and then you go chasing after the newer sealer or the sealer that hasn't been used or ran on this also happened at this same phenomenon sort of happened at new hampshire years ago, 15 years ago. They sealed New Hampshire. And for years, we ran after that sealer. We'd chase it up the racetrack. As we wore it away, we went further and further up the track to find more.

And the guys that didn't want to do that could roll the bottom. The guys that wanted to chase the grip and the sealer would run up the racetrack. And there you had it. You had multiple grooves, cars passing, cars coming and going. And so the sealer is an idea. We haven't sealed a racetrack in a really long time. So that is a freaking risk. You got these low propitiles,

don't know how this next-gen car would react to a track with sealer. The drivers will complain about it. Every time they've ever sealed a racetrack, if you go back even to the early 80s and read the articles in the Grand National scene, every time they sealed a racetrack, the drivers complained. It's awfulest terrible. It slowed Rockingham down like four seconds when they sealed

because it was so treacherous. So, you know, but hey, Harder to drive race cars. You had me at drivers complaining. Yeah. So anyhow, sealer's an idea. All right, if you're too nervous or you think that sealers are, you know, too risky. The resin, all right.

Not the PJ1. Resin. Resin is what they used at the first Nashville Super Speedway event when they brought that track back. We had a great race car is running all over the racetrack. The resin is something that the drivers have. have been more favorable to. They've hated the PJ1. None of them like it.

I don't think it's cool either. But the resin has been something that's been a bit useful in certain times when it's absolutely necessary for some change. And so the resin is grippy from right, is grippy right from the get-go. It's not something that needs to be activated or ran on or, you know, somehow triggered into effect. It's there and it's grippy, kind of like, you know, Coke syrup or anything else that you might spray down on a racetrack surface or a pit stall or whatever.

And so if they covered the entire track with resin or at least the second, you know, third, fourth groove all the way to the wall, I think that is probably the less risky application that would absolutely change the racing we see at Richmond. I didn't really want to go down this whole thing. Yeah, I'm sorry, I got you down it. No, man, but you asked the question. I did. So anyways, going back to stage breaks.

Let's move on back to stage breaks. Good job NASCAR, taking away the stage breaks at Cota. We had a fascinating race. We had some, you know, we're going to have all types of racing throughout the year. We're going to have Super Speedway racing where they're in a pack, and we're going to have, you know, mile and a half races where they're running side of a side. We, you know, this is, we need strategy races. We need fuel mileage races.

We need a little bit of everything. And this certainly checked some of those. boxes gave us a bit of an, you know, an IndyCar, open wheel, F1 style strategy race where different teams were on different strategies. Now, honestly, the two-stop strategy looked to be the best, but Tyler Redick was so fast, he could make three stops and still beat the field. Most of the other guys that were on three stops weren't as quick as the 45, and so that strategy wasn't really panning out for them as well as it was for Tyler, but Tyler was just so fast. and so congratulations to those guys.

It's impressive what he's been able to do on road courses in his very short period of time being in a cup series. But I enjoyed the race. It felt longer. I don't know why it felt longer without the stage breaks, and that's consuming a ton of time. That should make the race feel shorter, but the race felt longer for me. We had a caution for dirt on the track, and here's something that I wanted to say. about that. So I was watching at home, right? Caution comes out for dirt on the track. We just watched Denny come through there and spin out. He missed the corner and got into dirt and went around.

My first reaction to that was probably similar to a lot of people that I know, at least. That didn't need to happen. Why did you have to throw the yellow for dirt? It's just dirt on the track. All right? the one thing that the broadcast the one thing that we I'm sitting at home in my living room quiet living room watching the race and just as opinionated as hell right just sitting there just oh man look at that

look at that this is good this is bad do do it right watching the race from the comfort of my own home and listen to what the broadcasters are telling me that's the information I got I don't have my fucking tablet open I ain't listening to driver communication or nothing like that some fans do. The one thing that I don't know or I don't have information about when that caution comes out is,

well, how many drivers are complaining about that? All right. So my first reaction was, what tailed NASCAR? Why did you throw that yellow? Had a damn good race going. You screw the flow up. My next reaction was, well, I don't know how many drivers might have been complaining about that. I'm sure Denny was after he spun out in it.

and if two, three, four guys complain, if they're hearing the chatter over the radio and NASCAR monitors all of this, if they have anybody complaining about any kind of treachery on the racetrack, the re, dirt, they have to react. They can't ignore it, right? Yeah, they have to consider it or take it seriously.

They do. Yeah. And so. They may ignore throwing a cause. question for it. All right. And so everybody, you know,

some people are like, well, that dirt's been there for 20 laps. Well, for at least, you know, a handful of laps,

they were more than likely getting a bunch of chatter on the radio from drivers. And so I'm going to give a break on that one. You know me? Hey, man.

I mean, if I'm NASCAR in the booth and I got drivers hollering, I'm, you know, I'm a mile away from this damn corner. I know I got some guys

down there, track workers that are standing there looking at it, but, you know, they're just, you know, I don't, I don't know who these people are that got their eyes on it.

So I'm going to take the driver's voices into consideration and maybe throw the yellow. Hey, let's get that cleaned up. But you're assuming that drivers were complaining about it. Well, I'm pretty sure they were. Because you just said that you weren't listening to drivers. I know, but I'm pretty sure they were. Okay. All right.

If we know one that was. Yeah. Well, I'm sure more than one. There was a lot of dirt on the racetrack. When they should put a camera on it, I'm going to tell you right now, as a driver, I would have been raising hell about that. Yeah, you would. Except the only guys that didn't complain.

The only guys that did not complain about the dirt were the guys that didn't want to yell out front. Or, yeah, strategically. There'll be, you know, there's races going on where there ain't on the racetrack and you got guys hauling about debris. That's right. Trying to make some shit up because they need a yellow, right? Now NASCAR's hearing all this. And on the contrary, if you need a yellow, you'll make the smallest little thing to be like there's a boulder out of the track. And I'll throw some damn shit out of my car.

Make a damn caution. Whoa, easy. I mean, some people have done that. I'm just saying from a driver's point of me, some people don't. done that, right? Have you ever done that? I think I did one or... What?

I think I threw some padding out of my car once. I don't think that it got my caution that I wanted. And you lost some padding. Yeah. Well, we had the padding there just for that. We'd ride a... What? Are you serious?

Oh, yeah. This is the Bud days or Hendrick? Bud days. Yeah, Hendrick wouldn't have been so rebel. Yeah. But boy, yeah, Tony Jr.'s packing you a lunch to throw out the window just in case. We didn't have an extra piece of padding. we had a piece of padding that would be the padding to choose

if you needed to throw some padding on the track. All right. I love that. So there was, there was, okay, that caution to me really, I didn't want it. I had, you know, I'm watching the race. It's going great.

Dammit, the caution is out. This changes everything. It takes a strategy out of it. We're not, you know, you're not 100% sure in the moment. Exactly how this affects the race, right? The caution that I was a little more annoyed by was the three car. Three car has a left rear tire issue. I didn't get to see what happened.

I didn't get to see the rest of the racetrack where there was debris everywhere. Yeah, this was late in the race. Yeah, 10 laps to go, 11 laps to go. I'm sitting there watching a hell of a race and I'm like, okay, damn. You know, I see the three smoking, smoking, it's coming off his car. But I didn't really get to look at, you know, how much debris was on the track. So, but anyways, you've got to take NASCAR's word for it that they threw that yellow and it was necessary. Now, hold up. I got a piece of information for you.

Yes, hear it. If you look at the NASCAR race report, if we are talking about the same yellow, and I want to emphasize that, but this is the one where the three spun wrecked with Ross Chastain and a couple others, like 10 to go, like lap 60, 61, something like that. On the race report, it says that the yellow was thrown because the one car was stoned. stopped in turn one. All right. And it was true.

On door bumper clear, this is something I want to bring up. On door bumper clear, Freddie says that car, Ross Chastain, stayed there. Intentionally. Backwards. And then they threw the yellow, and then the safety car came back, or came out, a safety truck, and then he drove off. Ah. I'm just saying Denny Hamlin was penalized for manipulating a race.

Ross Chastain, that was 10 to go. He stayed on the lead lap. He finishes in the top five. because of other, you know, restarts and stuff, how is that not manipulating the race? It is. And in the race report, it says that the caution was thrown because the one car stopped in turn one. I mean, you would have to ask him and look at telemetry. I mean, you can look at telemetry and see if he's trying to fire the car.

You can see exactly what he's trying to do to the car to get it going, whether he's making that effort. NASCAR has that information, that data to be able to tell whether. hope they look at it. Right. Listen, I'm not sitting there trying to rat somebody out, but I'm just saying, listen. It's a great point to bring up, Mike. It's a great point to bring up. He could have won that dang race.

Yeah. Well, you know, NASCAR would have to look at it and say, hey, man, we feel like that what you did here wasn't right, or maybe they find what they were looking forward to feel good about it. I don't know. But I was wondering. So, okay, so there it is. The one car stopped on the racetrack is what brings out that yellow. So NASCAR, again, is throwing the yellow.

for the right reasons, right? Got a car sitting there on the racetrack, you know, backwards in turn one. That was the moment where the shit hit the fan. That is right. The dominoes started to fall after that. Yep. And so, you know, drivers bear a lot of responsibility

for the end of that race, but I'm biased, man. I'm partial to the drivers, and don't put me in that box, right? Don't take me in the toy store, tell me not to touch anything. All right. So if drivers, if you want them to be sharks, if you want them to be lions, if you want them to be fearless, if you want them to be fearless, if you want them to do whatever it takes, you got to be careful of the box you put them in. And you can't have, you know, you can't.

and I don't know who I'm talking to here. I'm certainly, you know, judging by what we know, NASCAR had to throw these yellows, right? Yeah. But I'm just saying the drivers bear some responsibility, but I also understand that, man, when you put drivers in a late caution situation, I don't know what else I can ask them to do.

Not only a late caution situation, but in a configuration that requires them to all funnel into a turn where they're five wide into one wide or two wide or whatever. That's my next. Go ahead. That's my next point. Yeah. Track design.

So, listen, term one is not a bad corner. I'm not saying whoever designed term one did a bad job. Maybe that's not the first term for the racetrack, right? Maybe there's, maybe there should have been a different term one, right? Take that corner and swap it with another one. maybe we don't have the type of restarts that we have. Maybe we get through term one without somebody being backwards 95% of the time. Think about term one at Indy Roadcourse.

That's a terrible. We've debated that. Terrible freaking situation and scenario. It's great on the first restart of the race. Yeah, they're going to get through there. It's a whole race to run. They're not all going to take these crazy chances, but three laps to go, two to go. A green white checker shoot out.

you're going to funnel them all down into that. I mean, it's unrealistic. Unrealistic in our racing series. Shouldn't we say that? Yes. Because, I mean, we had the other guys from the other racing series in this Cota race this Sunday, and they were like, you guys are barbaric. What, do you feel like CODA was designed for NASCAR racing?

No, no, I think, but I think that's kind of what your point is. Yeah, so that's right. Do you feel like the Indy Car Road course, the Indy Road course was designed for NASCAR racing? Absolutely not. Right. So, I mean, that's the, I got to put a little bit of a, responsibility on the, you know, the turn being what it is, right? The turn, having the drivers, the ability to get 10 wide and then have to funnel back down to,

and if, and like drivers have said this all the last 48 hours, if you do not block that inside and if you, if you're not willing to go wherever everybody else is going, you're going to get used up. Somebody's going. Yeah, somebody's taking it. If you go in racing clean, you will be a victim. You know, and that, all right, so Jordan Taylor, great race car driver, fast all weekend, clean, clean racer. Doesn't, has never raced in a race like this before, doesn't do bumper cars, and how did he fare in those restarts?

Awful. Right. So the very, that's the extreme example of how, you know, how you will get treated if you don't do what. Alex Bowman does, right? He has to go, he's forced down that wreck where the 99 gets turned around or the 99 and 19 get together. That's not Alex's fault. No, it was Ross. Ross do, well, Ross dives down, right, far, far low to do what Ross needs to do.

Ross is. Which is bold people out of the way. Let me make my point. All right. I know you're wanting to get on Ross, but I'll let you get on in a second. Ross dies really low. He's still in the right. There's other cars going with him.

Bowman has to go down there. If he doesn't, he's going to get used up. That's right. If he doesn't, he's going to be the 19 spun out backwards. That's right. So he goes down to block Ross, but they're all now pot committed into that corner. Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, running the back of each other, and they end up going straight into the cars that are trying to turn the corner.

And so they're all, you know, if you've got, don't do whatever freaking necessary you're going to get used up and whatever necessary means put your car and yourself in bad situations where you're going to bang into people and get beat around it's destined for failure any that turn the way it's designed that turn in ending road course term one that's in a green white checkered it's going to be ugly for a handful of people every time. And so I don't know what you do about that.

I don't know how you, I don't know how you fix that other than hope that you don't have late yellows, right? Because I don't love these late yellows. Now, that's a whole other thing. Like, why, how come, like, so when I was a race car driver and I'm running the race

and we get a late yellow with three to go, it would piss me off to no end. I don't care if that late yellow actually put me in a better position to win the race. I never looked at it like, yeah, here's my opportunity. I was so mad that I ran 495 miles and some tic-tac bull-hshshs. And it was always tic-tac bull-hshs in my mind, whether it really was or not, brought out a yellow. Like, we really couldn't finish the last two laps because of this.

I always would get really pissed off about it. That was as a driver years ago. Right or wrong, right? If it's wrong, it's wrong. Now as a fan or a broadcaster, you would think that I would like it. Oh, hell yeah. Overtime.

Ooh, free racing. Drama. All right. They're going to be knocking each other around. Yay. I don't. I still hate it. The moment the caution comes out,

I have the exact same emotional reaction that I did as a race car driver. And it's frustrating because there was such a great, pure, awesome event happening and playing out. And it gets interrupted and turns into a show. And we were on the grand stage. We had all kinds of people all across the world watching us because of who was in the race, MSA drivers, F1 drivers, F1 champions.

We got all kinds of new eyeballs on us. And we basically, invited all these new guys to the party and then threw a big fight at the end. Okay. And so it's a bit embarrassing, but and frustrating because, damn it was, it was, it was, it was this race that I didn't want to end until it wasn't. And then I was like, damn, will this ever end? Damn, let's not have enough.

Don't do this again. Don't go. T.J.'s FaceTime me on the phone. Let me watch the entry to Turn 1 from where his vantage point. So I'm watching his face time, which is about seven. seven seconds ahead of the broadcast. And I'm like, please, man, I'm watching, so I'm watching TJ live, and the broadcast is seven seconds behind on my TV.

And as I'm watching TJ's screen, I'm like, y'all just get through this turn one straight. Please don't, you know, end up upside down or turn around. Because I just was ready for it to be able with, because it was taking the, it was taking the shine off of what had been a really nice day. Yeah. Can I just make a point? Go in. How am I going to do this?

Let's see here. All right, because I almost don't want to even use code as an example, because I agree with you that I wanted it to end two. It started to get silly. Like, I don't know if I was embarrassed by it, but it was silly. And honestly, I just felt like if Tyler Reddick doesn't win this race, then it's embarrassing because there was clearly a class of the field, and it was him.

And if he doesn't win it because of these charades at the end, because they can't seem to keep it on the track. And I mean, NASCAR's having to throw cautions because of course they do, that they did nothing wrong. I'm just saying, then I would have been embarrassed. But let me just make a point. I go back to like Vegas or Phoenix. And I'm thinking, man, without a green, white, checkered restart,

those races are as forgettable as they come. They really are. And I'm listening to all these drivers talking. I've been listening to Denny. I mean, everybody's talking about maybe we should go single file restarts at the end. Or maybe we should just get away. with the Green White Checkers, right? All that stuff.

And I'm just like, wait a second. For a second, let's just say, who are we trying to be in NASCAR? Like, what is our identity? Can we just be something that we are and not feel like we have to go mirror other racing series? Like, you know, maybe we are the ones that fight at the end of the party. Or maybe we are more physical. I don't, that's what we've always been. Yeah.

We're the bumper cars. Yes. Kimmy Reichenen. Jensen Button, you're going to come into this series. You're going to have to, you know, roll up your sleeve. a bit more than what you would do in your series. Of course, this is NASCAR. I don't know why we've got to be so embarrassed by that.

Now, it did get silly at the end of Cota. That's why I'm saying I'm not really applying this in the very specific example of Cota. I'm just saying I like the fact that we have green, white checkers. I like that we're more physical. I enjoy that as a race fan. And I know the drivers can be cranky about it. One week they're the pusher, one, or the, you know, the receiver, one week, they're the giver. And it's like, but that's also part of the entertainment value for me, is that you can be

hypocritical and we can sit there and scrutinize that. But the fact is, is that you better roll up your sleeves when you come to NASCAR, because by God, that's what we are. Yeah. I feel like I can use CODA as a specific example because those drivers were in the race and they were bringing a lot of attention to us. And so for that one moment, those people will not be watching next week. The people that tuned in to see Kimmy race and the people that tuned in to see Jordan race won't be tuning in for Richmond.

I don't mind a green-white checker. I think it's a great to try to get a green flag finish for our fans. But I think I am fine saying to the ticket purchaser for this race this weekend at Richmond, I'm going to give you one attempt. Not unlimited attempts. It ain't a damn circus. I'm going to try my hardest one time to get you a green flag finish. I'm not going to end under caution.

I'm going to go one time for a green white checker. That for me, if I'm coming to a race, that's enough. I want you to just try one time. All right? I don't need three. I don't need unlimited. I don't think we need to go to single file restarts. And that right there would have addressed the issue.

And that right there would have stopped the. silliness from continuing, right? Having a limitation, too much cake will make you sick. It's cake is great, a good piece of cake. But damn, do you need the whole pie? Do you need unlimited cake? Just eat all you can until you want to throw up. We want these F1 guys to come back.

We want the MSA guys to come back. I feel like what they were exposed to at the end, for better or worse, whether you like it or not, whether you care or not. I think, you know, I just would rather them have. not seen our worst or been a part of us being our worst selves, right? I will say this, though. This is, you know, I don't put really any of this on NASCAR. Usually, man, we're quick to, you know, we're quick to call them out.

The other thing I want to say is NASCAR is a family, right? We're all in it. We're all in it. Everybody in industry. And we can all say, whatever. the hell we won't. We have. In weeks past, we've been critical of NASCAR, critical of drivers, whatever. But damn anybody outside of that bubble say anything. Even the same shit. Right. Not even the same shit. I might say, you know what? That was embarrassing. I don't want to

hear nobody outside that bubble say it was embarrassing. It was embarrassing. I feel the same way. I'm pissed. You're pissing me off. Right. Don't do it. Don't talk about my mom. Don't say that. I I'll talk about my mom. That's right. Ain't that funny? It's true. I was sitting there. I was like, I found myself having that happened throughout the day yesterday. I was like, man, I think this way. I feel this way. And then I'd hear somebody outside the bubble outside the industry saying. And I'd go, that's bull's s'm, man, you better not be saying that. I don't like that. I don't like you saying that. Do you even mean the drivers that were outside that? Yeah. Okay, so they were very critical of that. They were. I thought that, you know, some of the things that, like,

Like, some of the things that they said was, I would say, 99% of the stuff that those F1 drivers and Jordan and all of them guys said, I thought it was good. You know, they were tired, it was hard, it was hot, it was pushing and shoving. Yeah, falling out of the seat. Right. And I'd never seen anything like it. I've never experienced anything like it before. But then there were a couple things that they said where I was like, I mean, you're getting a little close to the bubble. Right.

Or you're getting you're pushing an issue a little bit. Right. hitting a nerve. I have to get offended. Careful now. It's funny how that happens, right? Listen, I think that sort of informs my position on this. Is it like, yeah, okay, you have your opinion.

I understand it, but the fact of the matter is, this is, I just don't want to be ashamed to who we are. And I'm not embarrassed by it that we don't, you know, wear the tuxedo to the dance. We wear the jeans and that's okay. It's who we are. I don't mind it. Some days I'm okay. the fight breaks out that ends the party. But damn, sometimes I just want to party all night, man.

I hear you. All right. NASCAR is the party all night. Last night, no. Literally, it went all night. No, in Cota. It Cota, somebody's buddy didn't like somebody else's buddy, and they f***ing fault, and it ended the party, and the party's over. I don't know. I don't know if that's what happened. But listen, speaking on that, there are some other Coda things that I just, they can be quick answers, but let me just get your impressions on them. Ready? Maybe you have this in your notes, maybe you don't. All right? You mentioned Chastainan and Suarez, or the fact that they got into it a little bit and had some words afterwards with Bowman.

Thoughts? My only opinion about that is NASCAR probably should talk to Daniel about hitting the 48 after pit entry. Right. Right. So, I mean, I don't mind the, I don't have anything to say about the teammates being at odds. It happens. Yeah. Sure.

Just, I like Daniel a lot. I think he's a really freaking good dude, and he's better than that. And I wish that he would say, you know, he could hit him all he wants out on the racetrack coming to the, you know, under the cool-down lap, if he wants to go pop somebody in a door or whatever. But once you cross that line, you know, there's sort of, it's either there's an imaginary line, right, a code or whatever, or a physical line on the racetrack where Pit Road speech. Begins, whatever you want to call it, right? You gotta...

Can't do that. You gotta stop. He was looking for him that whole last lap, even as he was taking the... Of course, he was talking about it. Yeah, and he was talking about it, but they just happened to find him in pits. I understand that emotion. I understand that frustration, and I understand the feeling like I'm got to go show my frustration, I've got to do it, and the only way I know how it is to pop him in

a bumper or whatever. And what he did was fine, just where he did it. Yeah. Okay. Bubba Wallace saying driver should be replaced. Talking about himself. He should be right. He's just overreacting.

And obviously, I don't think he even feels that way. But this is what I understand. I understand what Bubba's trying to do here. And this is the same thing that kind of like Chase Elliott used to do all the time. Chase would run second and go, I suck. I'm terrible. Right. He would say that.

I let everybody down. And I don't think he really. feels that way, but he wants us to all know that he's upset, that he's upset and that he doesn't think that that's good enough and that he, I think he feels that, yes, to a point I've let my team down, I didn't win the race, and I think that they think the car is good enough, and I didn't get it done. But I don't think Bob Wallace truly genuinely thinks, man, I need to be replaced. I understand. I think what he's saying is, hey, man, just so y'all know, I feel pretty bad about this,

and I should have done better. But I think he's trying to exaggerate to a point just to get that point across, right? To get that emotion across. And that's where drivers can be too hard on themselves. I used to do that too, you know, get out and just beat myself up, only to try to show you that I realized that I didn't measure up today, right? You don't want a driver to get out and go, what, man? What I do?

I didn't have nothing to do with that, you know. You want them to admit some fault, but I think, there is, you know, moments where some of them, myself included, can be much too hard on yourselves. Yeah, yeah, I understand that. By the way, I meant to ask you about this earlier. I really thought what Denny did on Action's Detrimental this week was pretty clever. He basically replayed all those last restarts and then identified all the people responsible

that could have shown more responsibility and could have shown more patience or whatever, but didn't. And he caught him out on each one. And he said, by the way, I'm going to be this guy at times too. He's not saying all these guys are not good and I'm good. No, he's like, no, no. If we're going to sit there and talk about the good moves and everything, let's at least draw attention to, okay, there's a lot of people there.

This is the guy that didn't hit the brakes but could have because he wasn't being pushed from behind. You know, like it was Austin Cendrick and Kevin Harvick on that first restart. It was, you know, Ross and Bowman, Swares, all those guys. trying to figure out who was the, you know, who could have done something a little different in the second one. Anyways, I thought that was interesting. I did too, man. He's doing an amazing job on that show.

I was wondering how he would respond to being fined for something that he said during his podcast and how he would come back and continue to podcast. And I think, I mean, this past weekend, he's shown that he ain't going to adjust. He ain't checking up. No, he ain't. He ain't tapping breaks. Ryan Preci, yeah, he said he got wrecked by a bunch of hacks. A lot of these guys just pay their way and don't respect cars.

somebody needs an ass kicking. I want to make a decision for you. I want to put Ryan Priest on your radar as far as talking to talk or walking the walk. You know how you were with Denny? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, Danny are doing nothing but talking. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He didn't doing nothing.

So you're thinking Ryan Priest is doing a lot of talking, but not a lot of walking? He did some talking. Let's see the walking, right? Oh, yeah. He has a chance to go out there. He was very clear on what he thinks needs to happen. Is he talking about somebody else doing the ass kicking? Is he doing the ass kick?

Do you have there what he says specifically? Got wrecked by a bunch of hacks. A lot of these guys just pay their way and don't respect cars. Someone needs an ass kick it. And the response is, well, you have a foot. Who's he thinking? Who's doing an ass? Who's doing the ass kicking?

All right. Oh, dude. I posted, before we go to Ask Jr., I wanted to talk about one thing. I posted on my social media, the snake. Did you see that? Oh, yeah, I saw it. So, dude, I found that in my house. So I have a movie theater downstairs,

a basement bar movie theater thing going on, right? And there's some toys in there. We go in there and the kids watch Disney and whatever, big movies. And the snake was in the toys. And the for sale sign was in the front yard. No, it's not that easy. You're not just going to move on out. Yeah, dude, I couldn't freaking believe it.

And in the toy So it's in their toy Like in Isla's toy Yeah so my kids were We were trying to talk them into watching a movie right And they're down there playing with the toys And Illa goes mom there's a snake And I was like

Really? And Amy goes Allah that's nothing the kid about is it seriously a snake And while she's saying this Nicole's just digging through the toys And I was like yeah mom it's a snake And she's fine

She's just she didn't take off running or nothing And she's just looking at it going, yeah, it's really here. And so we walked down there and, uh, damn, there's the snake right there. And it's trying to get underneath this, uh, toy, right? It's, we're trying to move toys and it's trying to hide, right? And so, uh, I got a piece of Tupperware, put it over the top of the snake, slid a paper plate underneath that, flipped it over, put the top on. It was big.

And it's seven inches long. It's time. Oh, it wasn't that big? No, baby. Okay. Yeah. And so, but anyways, while I'm doing it. doing all this, it's snapping, right?

It's trying to bite. And it's just, and I'm like, man, it's pretty aggressive. And it looks like a copperhead. And so, looking on the internet, though, baby copperheads have a greener yellow tail, and this one didn't. My wife took a picture of it and sent it to this guy who cleans our aquarium, and he knows all about snakes, fishing all kinds of, he's a scout leader kind of guy, knows a lot about the outdoors.

He's like, oh, that's a water snake, I'll come pick it up. Perfect. I want to show it to the sky. So he comes by the house and gets it. And he's going to bring it back when he's done showing it to the scouts and turn it loose, because it's a water snake, he's going to turn it loose by the creek. But how it got in the house, I have no idea. Thrilled that it's not a venomous snake.

Yeah. Thrilled. Because, I mean, babies, you know, I don't know if they got hatched in the house or what. I mean, they're more or whatever. He said those usually hatched a couple dozen. What? Yeah. So, I mean, if there's one, wherever they hatched,

There's multiple more, right? But it's a water snake, and why it's not near the creek or anywhere near the pond or whatever is confusing how to get there. Is there something you can do to see if there's more? I mean, like I don't know. It's not like you can call an exterminator, right? Keep your eye open because you just got to watch where you step. I don't know. I ain't moving.

You ain't watching movies that either. I ain't crawling. There ain't no way you've gone back in that movie theater. I'm not crawling through the crawl space of my house looking for. snakes no just in Isla Nicole in I'm just gonna live my life man

let me know what you see Andrew you're ready for some Ash Jr. Let's do it All right Dale we are live here on Ash Jr. Hey everybody thanks for tuning in

We're having a great time here on dirty air today and now it's time for Asch Jr. Andrew is in the booth He's got all your questions ready And let's get right to it Shout out to the YouTube chat too they were populating the chat with a bunch of dad jokes and knock-knock jokes while they were waiting,

so it was pretty entertaining to watch. But this first one comes from Adam Lloyd. What format would you like to see for the North Wilkesboro All-Star Race? I think that the star of the night, so let's just go ahead and get it out of the way. Let's get rid of all the gimmicks. Anything feels like a gimmick. It's been done in the past. Let's get rid of it.

The star for this race is the track. the history, the nostalgia, the surface, all that. So let's let that just be the thing. People have wanted racing at North Wiltsboro for decades. Let's give them racing. So make that first segment really long, right? Relatively long. 100 laps, whatever, that'd probably be the minimum.

Let's just turn the cars loose and everybody just sit there and enjoy watching those cars race around that track and just soaking it in. I think just being there and watching the cars compete will be plenty for that first little stage. And then I would sort of maybe I would probably run three-stage race, 100 laps, 75, 25. I'd be very limited on tires. But otherwise, I wouldn't get too fancy. No invert, no draw, no funky stuff. The only thing that I would say that would be really helpful,

and I've been trying to promote this and talk about this and encourage this. All right. So how do we, this, I think, is a really cool idea. So bring back the pit crew challenge. Bring back the pit crew championship. Have a trophy that a crew wins that they take to their shop, and it belongs to them until the pit crew. pit crew championship happens again the following year.

And then whoever wins that takes that trophy from that team. So this be like a college trophy, right, that travels from team to team. And so, you know, bring the pit crews in, set it all up where the drivers basically do just a pit stop. There's no lap. There's no hot lap. There's no entry. There's nothing that's timed other than the stop itself.

All right. So the car rolls onto the pit road and it trips. a line about about one stop, one pit stall away. They do the pit stop. They pull away and it trips a line about a stall away. So bam, bam, it's about a, you know, 14 second experience, right? All the cars, all of them, the cars in the All-Star Race and the cars in the open all go through this process. And you crown a champion. And that champion can be any team, right, that is the fastest that day. And so all of the

times that the teams have for their pit stop is how you set the lineup for the feature. There's no qualifying. There's no you have some practice and whatnot, but otherwise, the way

the pit crews pit the cars and the time that you're given determines where you're going to start for the race. And so what that will do is put a bunch of pressure on the teams because that will affect, you know, your day, right? If you have a bad pit stop and you start toward the back, you've got to work through that. If you have a great pit stop and you start toward the front, your team has set you up to succeed.

They are a big part in playing, they're then playing a massive role in the success of the weekend, which they should. And so basically the Open, the All-Star Open that will run before the All-Star race itself, that lineup will be set by the pit times. and that'll happen obviously on Sunday. The race is Sunday or Saturday? I think it's Saturday. When is the All-Star?

Saturday or Sunday. I think it's Sunday night. Is it Sunday night? Yeah. So the Open is already, you got the lineup set for the Open. You can have your fan vote. On Saturday, before the All-Star race,

there'll be two heat races. All right, the Pit Stop Times will set the lineup for those heat races and there'll be duels, just like Daytona. But you might have some really good cars that are going to be mid-pack or even worse because of some mistakes or whatever on their pit stop.

So, anyways, I think doing it by the pit stops a lot of pressure on the cruise. You want to put them in that situation. You want to put them in a pressured situation. And it also is going to, you know,

pretty much guarantee you won't have the fastest car starting on the pole. And that'll make the heat races matter where we're not going to have an elimination. So if there's no elimination, the heat races don't matter, right? Well, now they do because you might have some guys that had some bad pit stops that got some work to do in those heat races,

to try to give themselves a better starting spot for the main event. So I think that's a great way to do it. But otherwise, you know, the racetrack is the star, and I hope that they just let give the fans a lot of racing, a lot of laps. There's also, you know, don't forget the super late models there on Tuesday, the Cars Tour, which I'm racing in, and Kevin Harvick's racing in, and several other to-be-determined cup drivers and Xfinity drivers and so forth are going to be competing. That's on Wednesday, and so the trucks are racing as well on Friday, I believe.

So it's going to be a lot of fun, a lot of laps, a lot of racing, just hopefully everybody can come out. I love the pit crew challenge idea. That would be great to see implemented. This next question, a lot of people were asking about, if you saw Kurt Bush's emotion on that last lap of the Coda broadcast, You know, obviously still dealing with, you know, those concussion symptoms. He wanted to be in the car. What were your thoughts on the emotion he gave on TV? Yeah, just there was a lot there.

Obviously, I think he truly is happy for the 45 team and happy for Tyler, and he's putting in a lot of effort and investing a lot of time with the team and the crew, trying to be an asset for Denny and them. But there was that sadness in his heart and in his words about, being injured, not being in the car, it was a moment where I think it really hit home for him that he wasn't where he wanted to be, and that was behind the wheel. And so, you know, those realities happen and have happened before, I'm sure, for him. He's already probably experienced this in some moments, you know, when he sits down and turns on

a TV for the Daytona 500, and he's not in the race. But those are private moments. This was a very public one. and so I can certainly understand, I guess, what we were listening to. And, you know, I think that Kurt did a good job. Kurt's a good guy that has great intentions and does a pretty solid job in a booth. And, you know, it wasn't planned out that that 45 car was going to win that day. It just so happened that while he was there working, that's what went on.

and he reacted in a very honest way. And so I hope that it seemed like he really enjoyed the day and enjoyed the celebration afterwards, and good for him. I appreciate the passion he brought to the broadcast. I think we've got time for one more quick one. This one's coming from Chris. Have you ever gotten a song stuck in your head during a race? Oh, yeah, all the time.

All the time. Yeah, I think we were at Pocono and I had Springsteen, Eric Church Boy, I couldn't stop singing that And so, I mean, you do. You sing while you drive. Yeah. I don't know what else you need to know.

It's pretty simple. You know, it's pretty, pretty, it's just like everybody else that drives up down the road except for we actually don't have a radio play and you're just hearing it in your brain, right? And there's no way to get it out because, you know, like typically, like you got to listen

to another song. So the way I get it out is to actually listen to that song. Yeah. Right. And so like when we get, When we get done and get in the car, we're getting the rental car to drive home, like you listen to that song, and that's like finally washes it out. But yeah, that's happened time and time again.

I talked to Chris Busher about that years and years ago, and he said he had Tennessee whiskey stuck in his head for the entire Bristol night race. That would be so annoying. That's a long, and especially with the rhythm track like Bristol is. I thought that was funny. Hey, before we get out of here, Dale, you know, a lot of times when people ask us, you know, what NASCAR race would I go to? What's the best track?

We always say the same one. We always say Bristol. Bristol is an iconic racetrack, and if you've never been, it's unreal. And guess what? You can plan on being there in just a few weeks. That's right. Bristol under the lights on dirt. What's also really special is that it's Easter,

and before the race starts, there will be an Easter celebration for anyone who wants to attend, and it's free. It starts at 4 p.m. on the fan midway stage with an amazing lineup, including the keynote speech by Tim Tebow and music singer-songer. songwriters Phil Wickham and Corey Asbury. So make the Bristol Race weekend, a family weekend

to remember. You can visit the Kids Zone, the Food City Fan Zone, and Fan Midway, experience on-site camping, tailgating, concerts, entertainment, great food and beverages, and so much more. Don't forget, kids' cup tickets are just $10. Bring a kid to a race, man, Bristol. That'd be fun. $10. Can't beat it.

To get your weekend package and save, visit Bristoltix.com. That's Bristol, T-I-E. dot com as Dale Jr said in 2004 it's Bristol baby and that's that man two weeks yeah also I think they are bringing back the pre-race live stage show for the fans at the racetrack Kenny Wallace I believe is going to be there in person is that the Bristol race yes yeah awesome there you go you know more you pay for a ticket for that all day long right that's great for the fans they're going to enjoy that it'll get them pumped up for the race to start that's great man I appreciate it

Mike great show dirty air Asch Jr. tomorrow, Chip Canassie is our guest. So make sure you want to tune in for that. We've wanted him on here for a long time. It's going to be a lot of fun talking to Chip. We'll see you. Check out Dirty Mo Media. Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.