The Dale Jr. Download - 432 - Respect is the Name, Carnage is the Game

Episode Date: March 30, 2023

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and co-host Mike Davis are back to close out the week and debrief their discussion with Chip Ganassi. They comment on how open Chip was and how he indicated that he wouldn’t be opposed to a return to NASCAR if the right opportunity presented itself. They also speak on what they learned about Chip’s relationships with his drivers outside of racing, as well as his perspective on the Ganassi Racing/Dale Earnhardt Inc. merger of 2009. Driver comments about respect and aggression in the NASCAR field are examined, and the guys strap in for another round of tic-tac-toe. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The following podcast. The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. What do you think? Did he get them? I mean, of all things to say. Well, I want a victory beer. Ah, no! He's a seven-time champion.

Oh, my God, that is hilarious. Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. download. This episode is called R-E-S-P. P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me, the respect recap show, or the lack of it. Should we start drug testing our employees, Dale? I mean, I think at least one of them. We already do, Mike.

Oh, do we? Yes. Well, Alex, I think we need to give you an extra one. I mean, where are you coming up with these things? Just creativity, man. I love it. Extra drug test, extra strength. Hey, it's Thursday, March 30th, 2000, 23, episode 432, Mike Davis.

my co-host here in the Bojangles studio. We had a great guest yesterday. Chip Ganassi came in here. I've always wanted to talk to Chip because I was fascinated with his racing career and how successful it was, but yet brief, he was injured, decided to eventually move into ownership even before he was 30 years old.

Quit driving entirely. Why, right? So we got to talk to him about that. We got to talk to him about the DEI merge, selling his race team, his NASCAR team. different drivers he's worked for, Montoya Dixon, just a great guy and really honest, you know. Honest, yeah.

Didn't mind, you know, telling us, even brought up the D.C. solar. I wasn't even going to think about to ask that. Right. Right. And so it's just a great conversation. One of the things that I was glad to hear, and one of the things I was glad we were able to say to him

was obviously one of my favorite parts about doing this show is celebrating the person that's sitting there. You know, right at the end, you kind of get into this very big moment of affirmation or or or just sort of celebrating them and telling them, man, hey, I'm, I want to let you know exactly what either mean to me, mean to this sport. That's a fun thing. All right.

And so just want them to feel appreciated and thankful they came over to the show. But one of the other things that I was glad we got to tell him was like, hey, man, we didn't want you to leave NASCAR case you, you know, case that anybody, I don't know for anybody's told you, but you kind of missed. We wish that you would have stuck around. I wish he would have maybe just sold, you know, at least kept a little bit of his team, but he tried to, in a roundabout way, let us know that he's somewhat still involved or, or I could be here in a minute, you know. He didn't shut the door. No. He can come back. Yeah. I like that.

He also seems impulsive, right? Like a lot of the things that I would have thought would have been this long, orchestrated, like strategic vision, like, I'm going to get into SAPCO, and me and Felix and it's going to be about five or six month negotiation over terms. No, no, no. That's not how it is. It's impulsive. It's a phone call. I'll fly there.

Let's do the deal. Hashed it out in 10 minutes, which is to say there's no reason to think that that couldn't happen again, right? Like if Chip Ganassi wanted to be back in NASCAR, it wouldn't take much. He does it on the fields, man. It's all about the fields. It's interesting, too, because typically when you do that, yes, you're going to get burned a lot, but sometimes you might get burned so severely you don't survive. He's had some moments in his career as an owner that were difficult and some that he said,

like with the D.C. solar, he's still paying for it today. But he's survived them, right? He was able to keep the race team moving, keep his, you know, keep his paychecks for his employees coming. That's, when owning a race team, we all get so zeroed in on the wins, the losses, the balls, the strikes. Owning a race team is one thing. That is employees paying them, keeping them, you are responsible for the livelihood of the people in this building.

That is number one, right? And he seems to be very good at that. He seems to be really good at making sure that that's always at the top of the list and everything else takes care of itself, right? And it pained him when he has had to let people, like and he's had to do it but he's listen there was a moment i hope our cameras really catch that when people watch this on peacock they see or our youtube channel of course but uh you know it hurt him to have to do that but he says you got to look him in the eye and shoot him straight

yeah and and not do it any other way and i believe that chip ganassie is one of a rare breed i think i i know that um you know laying a person off is uh it's a difficult to thing. But he had to make those choices. He called them difficult choices to save his company, you know. And so, you know, nobody who ever wants to be in that situation. But it's, you know, sometimes it's not even in your control. The economy, you know, a failed sponsorship program that doesn't materialize and have the benefits that you once thought it would have, whatever it may be, may put you in a bad situation. There's things that change in the sport. that make jobs obsolete.

Yeah. You know, a great example of that would be the composite body, you know, how that's changed fabricating and what teams need in personnel in terms of fabrication and so forth. And so a lot of teams have had to make these type of decisions. But he's an interesting guy, and I hope that there's, you know, I hope that there's a future in NASCAR for Chip. But I love to see him come back and be part of something, right? Part of a team.

It'd be pretty neat. Can I just bring this up? And I'm really interested to hear your response to it. And that is the one thing that I was really compelled to get from Chip Gannasi at our table was his relationship with his drivers. Yeah. Okay. Being that he was a former driver himself. So that was you.

So but also Chip Gannasi has been embroiled in some pretty public spats with drivers. And, you know, and I remember that my first. first year in the sport. I was with Jimmy Spencer. Of course, it was on the, the Bush series, Xfinity Series team with James Finch, but I lived that whole falling out that he had with Chip in 2002. That ended up in a legal spat. Now, it's settled, but still, it was not, it was not amicable, right? So then you obviously, and I didn't know how we would broach the Alex Palo thing, but he was very forthcoming in the Alex Palo. And I love the fact that it was like, hey, look, tell us about your relationship with drivers.

Do you allow yourself to get real close to them? Because you also know that you may have to fire them. They don't perform. And he's had to fire drivers. He's fired drivers. He told the funny Eddie Cheever's story, by the way. And then also, like, are you making it more difficult on yourself by getting close to drivers that ultimately, if they don't pan out, you end up having to make a difficult decision?

I thought he answered that very well, but I'm curious on what your, what you're, what your thought on his approach that is and also your own because you're a driver you've had these guys come through here you've got the noagrexans that have made you have to have you know tough conversations and you've had a bunch of other people good drivers that go on how close do you allow yourself to get to them yeah that's a great question i think that um i wanted to hear from i wanted to hear from Chip, what time, what kind of time, what type of time has he spent with his drivers outside of the racing bubble, right? What, does he get, has he taken him on fishing trips? Like, Rick would take his drivers fishing, right? That's right. What things does he do, or when does he

interact with these guys out of the racetrack? And he really didn't have much to, he really didn't have a lot to add there. He really didn't act like that there is any examples of them. And he really didn't, he really didn't act like that there is any examples of that, right? And I'm sure they go to dinners, and there's moments when they're at sponsorship functions together, and they'll, you know, they can treat that like a night out, right? Which that's a great way to treat some of those moments. But I was curious. I had pictured him as sort of this, come on by the house, man, I'm making some grilling steaks.

Oh, you know, and it's, it's IndyCar guys, as NASCAR guys, his MSA guys, all intermingling and having a great time and, you know, but it doesn't seem like that that's the case. He said very specifically, I need you Monday through Friday through Sunday. That's what I need you because, look, I'm trying to operate a business. You're integral to that business. You're either going to make my business work or you're not. And if it doesn't, then it's not going to work with me. I mean, it was very specific.

And I think the answer to that from my input or my feedback on that would be, dude, I would love to, I would love for it to work the way it works in my imagination for Chip and myself. I'm going to go home and I'm going to light the grill. I'm going to light the smoker and I'm going to cook a brisket and all the Junior Motors sports guys are going to come over and we're going to eat brisket tonight and just hang out. It's going to be a blast. But I don't have time to do that tonight. Right.

I don't. I got to go home, I got to go home, do things with my family. We got things going on in our own lives and as do the drivers. Yeah. Right. And so none of those things rarely or ever happen. Yeah. And maybe they would for him, too, had he, you know, if he were to be able to carve out that type of time, you know, to have a, you know, that was a little interesting to me. But I think it comes down to just, shoot, man, I'd love to hang out with these guys more.

I just don't have the time to do it. Sure. You know? Sure. Well, what about this? Would you have been able to drive for Chip, knowing what you needed out of a, out of your owner. Yeah.

And you had to, it feels like both ends of the spectrum. I think Chip would have been awesome as an owner because he seems like the kind of guy, he's been a racer, he's been a driver, and that gives me the confidence to go to him and say, hey, man, my car wasn't good enough this weekend.

I know that you're disappointed in some decisions I made, but the car doesn't do this, that and the other, and I need your help to get that, right? And I think that he would be the type of guy you would feel relatively comfortable with saying some of those things, right? Now, you've got to dance.

You can't really, you don't want to say anything that's going to offend the owner of this operation or you don't want to piss him off, right? And you could, depending on the day, depending on what he's doing, what he's dealing with, catch him on the wrong day, you know, anybody on the wrong day, right? You don't get a productive conversation. But he seems about, I think since he's a racer, you could absolutely go up to him and say, hey, Chip, you know we're struggling here. man, we can't, we're not going to get anywhere until we fix this part of our program.

And he wouldn't understand. And he would look at it and understand exactly what you meant. Because he understands the nuts and bolts of it. I mean, he's not a, he's not detached from how the team functions and how to make a race car fast, right? He understands all those things. Yeah. He knows how critical all the positions are. Yeah.

I love how he says that the relationship. is centered on the fact that I will give you a fast race car. I do too, man. That's it. I mean, can you ask for anything else? That reminded me of the very first time I ever heard that. I had raced for, I was, this is not a knock on any other crew chief that I ever had because I've had some very good ones.

But I was with LaTartre racing somewhere. And we finished the race and he came to me and said, our cars aren't good. enough. I got to get you a better race car. I was coming out of the car feeling like, damn it, I didn't get a good result. I feel like this is my responsibility. In my eyes, I've got the same car as everybody else out there. How come, you know, the reason why we didn't run well must rest on my shoulders. And he come up to me and said, my car's not good enough for you. I'm going to go, I'm going to work on that. And I'd never heard that before. You know, I've heard people say, you know, we missed a setup or, you know, we just didn't have it today,

or maybe we should have had this spring or this, you know, I've heard people say those things to me. But never was, never as anyone come up to me and go, our, the car we prepared and that we're making isn't a good enough race car. We're going to have to go make a better race car. And that seems to be the kind of guy that Chip is. And damn, man, if you're sitting there struggling, like we talked about when Montoya was driving his car. He's like, that wasn't our best years. You know, for him to be that honest,

and I bet in those moments, he went to Juan and said, our cars aren't good enough. I know you're busting your ass. I know you're frustrated. I'm going to work on getting the car better. He seems like that kind of guy. I like that. What did you think? I got to ask. Did you have any kind of prevalent thoughts

about what he said about the Earnhardt Gannasi, DEI merger? I was wondering if it was going to be some hot juice there, man, but it it was pretty just a he just told us a pretty standard story

yeah we got together you know nothing about it surprised me I thought there would be some there was one part of the surprise and I don't know if this was you know I assume he's telling the truth but he acted surprised that there was this

family feuding or something that was a little weird I know I mean it was like 09 when all that happened we weren't that we were past that Like there was no, there was no feud to have at that point was. I mean, the feud had been had. Yeah, we, yeah. But I'm wondering, it made me think going back to the, I wonder if there was some aftermath that we're just not aware of that Max Siegel and all those cats.

You know, we made that announcement in 2007 that we were leaving the company. Max was here for the press conference. I remember all that. And then, you know, a few months later we announced that you're going to Hendrick Motorsports. But, you know, I guess it would be fair to say that there was some aftermath and. some recoil that we just aren't aware of. I don't know. But he acted like that I didn't sign up for this family feud.

I'm like, what? Wait, what? Was there more feuding? Maybe there was actually. Maybe there was, listen, it's believable that we wouldn't know because we weren't at the organization, but there had to have been some turmoil going on internally even then, just not involving you. Yeah, I don't even know.

I mean, it's, I don't know. But apparently it wasn't, uh, apparently. He's like, look, I didn't need that much communication. He was fine with the fact that he just was handed the race team, and he went to the racetrack and raced. Yeah. I was expecting, oh, man, it was tough, unenjoyable, it was frustrating, couldn't get a hold of nobody,

but he didn't say any of those things. Yeah, well, listen, I did ask if he had much of relationship with Teresa, and I was not surprised by his answer. I wasn't either, but he didn't seem to match. He's like, I didn't need to. that's exactly what he said. I just remember with the time when we learned of the merger, the first thought everybody had of us,

I wonder what that's going to be like, the first meeting with Chip Gannasi and Teresa Earnhardt, which doesn't sound like they had many meetings. Maybe they had a lunch or two. But anyways, I really appreciated how candid he was and transparent about all that. It was good. So let's move on.

We want to touch on a thing or two that we didn't get into on Tuesday's show, Tuesday's dirty air. Okay. The talk about respect, you know, we've had, Kyle Busch brought it up. There's no, you know, there's not a much, much respect out there on the racetrack between drivers.

And in those final few restarts at Cota this past weekend, Jordan Taylor, Jensen Button, those guys had very interesting takes saying, you know, it's brutal out there, guys pushing into each other, no attempt to make the corner, or just using each other as the break to slow themselves down. Jordan's like, man, if you do that in EMSA, you'd be exited out of the building, you know, removed from the race. You know, and I think that, you know, I wonder, Denny says there's a problem, a lack of respect, you know,

something he's talked about for over a year now. There's not, you know, some guys out there have zero respect. I'm not 100% sold on there actually being a problem, right? I don't disagree that there's a lack of respect, but is that a problem? That's kind of how I feel about this to pushing and shoving at the NRAs. I don't disagree that there's pushing and shoving. Isn't this who we are? Maybe NASCAR is the disrespectful series,

where people just don't really respect each other and they're going to move you out of the way, no matter who you drive for or who you are. 100%. I think that there is a line where you can take it too far, right? And we don't want to, we don't, we, there is some responsibility by the governing body to keep people in line, right? Not let it get too out of control. But to an extent we definitely need these guys not to like each other.

Right. Right. We need them to not really enjoy competing against each other. Right. And now there's going to be so many different dynamics. dynamics on the racetrack. There'll be guys that love to race each other, and they will put on one hell of a show, and we will love to watch that.

There'll be other guys that hate to race each other, put on a hell of a show, and we will want to watch that. Right. And so I think it's a mix of no respect. Some of the veterans probably have more respect than some of the younger guys. The younger guys coming in haven't developed that respect. When I came in, I admired my dad's peers. I admired Terry Labani and I admired Rusty Wallace, but, you know, and I respected them to a point,

but I still acted like an idiot out on the racetrack. You know, while I'm out there driving my car, I still did silly things around them that would make them think, damn, this kid doesn't respect me. You know, I think when there's this sort of, there is a very big movement of younger drivers coming into the sport, right? We've got this, we're in the sportive phase where we've got some veterans that are on their way out, some guys retiring, some guys getting close to that retirement age, and we've got a very young group of drivers phasing themselves in, right?

And so why, it makes absolute sense that there would be a conversation around the lack of respect because a lot of the young guys just haven't developed that self-awareness. And they respect the other drivers they're walking around in the garage with, but when you you put a helmet on them and put them out there in the heat of the battle, they're going to lose some of that self-awareness, right? And so I feel like that all of this makes a lot of sense to me, why this is happening, why this conversation is happening, but I don't know that it's a necessary,

I don't know that it's a problem that needs addressed, and I don't know that I want them to cure whatever ails them. I want some of the disrespect to resonate week after week after week. It's part of the storyline. It hopefully develops into some rivalries that maybe would last longer than three months. Yeah. You know, the idea of these guys getting in battles and disagreements on the racetracks and then cleaning it all up in the text message the next week has never been a great thing.

Yeah. You know, I want to earn Hart Bow Dieb rivalry that just won't end. Right. You know? Right. Listen, I'll even go so far as to say, if it is addressed, let the drivers do it. Maybe we as fans don't even know that it's being addressed. Like, you know, Denny's an exception to the rule because he got on a podcast and put it on blast.

But listen, there's something that I think we as fans, and I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about me and most of the listeners of this podcast. We don't have to understand the stuff that's going out on the track that we can't see. We just have to acknowledge that there is stuff going out on the track that we can't see and it's impossible for us to know because we're not in the car. We're not in the cockpit. So when these drivers come off and go, I was disrespected. I want my respect. Well, it seems like we're like, no, we saw what happened. You won't cause that. Well, there's a lot more going on that we don't know. We just have to acknowledge it. And I don't

pretend to have to know what ends up being the resolution. I just want there to continue being a rivalry. And so far, I like what I see and all that stuff. But I think that you guys, I think that there's been things, I don't know, I can't think of a specific example, but there's probably been some times when you felt somebody specific didn't race you respectfully, but you didn't go put him on blast afterwards. You just had it in your mind, right? Maybe it was Ryan Newman. Maybe it was Jeff Gordon.

Maybe it was Tony Stewart. Somebody. Tony Stewart, like, you know, he would wear his emotion on his sleeve. Sometimes you don't let us fans privy to those feelings as much as we know how, accessible NASCAR drivers are and how forthcoming you guys are. Sometimes we're not privy to that. So there's a disrespect or respect factor that goes on, and we just have to acknowledge it. And sometimes we get the benefit of seeing it, and sometimes we don't. Yeah. So talking about respect. Got a question for you, Mike. One thing. We're going to move on to another fun game of

Tick-Tac-Tow. Remember you won last week? Oh, did I? Yeah, you did. I don't remember. Well, you claim victory, even though there was really technically nobody had put three in a row. It's disrespectful for you claimed victory. You claimed victory as a fact. No, no, I was victorious as a fact. If everybody saw the screenshot of the Tick-Tac-toe game, you did not get three in a row. Neither did I. Nobody did.

If you noticed the screenshot that you're alluding to, you saw winner takes all in one box. Never my life is I played a Tick-Tac-Co game where there was a box that was winner-take-all. I would have chosen that my first. If you would have listened to the podcast, you would have known that we tied, and then there was one box left. If I had known... The rules of the game, hold up, am I wrong here? If I had known there was a winners take-all, I'd just pick that one first, guys. You sound like a sore loser.

Hold on. Was there a winners take-all? Not this week. Well, it was decided in the game, and everybody knows that. It was not on the sheet. So are you saying that I didn't win? You claimed victory. Are you saying? Are you saying I did not win? No one won that game.

Really? Yeah. No one. won. No one won it. Room? I'm going to need another opinion here. And I can't ask Alex because he's just going to fall online, but

did nobody win that game? I will give everybody in here. They can all agree with you that you won that game, because I'm sure there's some people that would agree that you did win it. That you chose correctly, but I don't feel that way.

You are my Ross Chastin. You are exactly that person. You are not showing me any respect right now, and I am going to spin you out any chance I get. You could go two for two. We're going to play that here in a minute, but I wanted to ask you in terms of respect. So is there anything that you've ever done? My wife says to me, you're stomping through the house. I walk through the house, right? Walking normally. And she says this all the time. You're stopping. Quit stopping.

I just walk a normal. And so... Oh, you walk with a heavy foot. I guess I do. And so the next time I walk through the house, I might do it a little heavier. And so...

Oh. Yeah. Oh. Is there anything that you've ever done intentionally to annoy your wife? Oh, all the time, every day. Give me some examples. she can't stand she's got a bit of an oCD situation where she can't stand if the like the microwave

you know if you had you had something in for a minute but you took it out um in 45 seconds because it was done if i don't reset that if i leave the 15 seconds on the clock it drives her crazy really so i will very purposely go around and like keep those things uh you know a little off right all you you've got to do is walk over and just start typing a number or two in just leave it oh yeah which is what I do. Walk away. But that is a deliberate attempt to annoy. You know what?

That is pretty annoying. I walk up to the microwave and it takes you a second to see what phase, what disarray is going on here. What's going on with the microwave? Is it trying to finish something? Is it trying to start something? Is it in the middle of something? And how do I get out of this to the very beginning, right?

Yeah. I've been in that very brief, very, very quick, instant, you know, moment of who the hell did this? Yeah. You know, and just who walks away and just, you know, Amy will take the cap off of a sauce or like a, you know, any kind of like a hot sauce or anything and, and put the cap back on but not tighten it down. What? What an animal. And so I will, I love to clean up after dinner.

Yeah. Because she makes dinner in most every case. Like she always makes dinner, right? And so I like to clean it all up. I'm going to do the dishes. I'm getting everything in the dishwasher. I'm going to put away any extra food in Tupperware. I'm going to put away the sauces and clean up the pots and pans that were made the dinner.

I'm going to do it all, right? And she tells me, I love when you do that. I really appreciate that. So that makes me fired up to fucking do it again. But, man, I will grab a bottle and put it in a refrigerator and the cat falls off. Yeah. And I'm like, who puts a cat? on and doesn't just turn the damn knob.

I mean, come on. Just finish the job. Why put the cap on if you're not going to screw it down? Right. And but I have been, she has caught me doing that with water bottles from time to time, which are squeasy, right? So the cap can pop off and the water comes out. So both y'all do that. I don't believe her.

I don't think she actually has, she says I do the same thing with water bottles. I don't think so. I don't put a cap on and leave it loose. That's crazy. Yeah, it seems crazy. Don't it? Yeah. Yeah, no, that does seem crazy, but it also would be a very annoying thing.

We cannot make this a YouTube clip, okay? I don't want to get my ass in trouble. But we can't? No, man. Unless you keep me out of trouble. I don't know. I think you're in trouble. You got to bury this down deep in this podcast that she might not never find.

But literally the question was, what do we do that might be purposely disrespectful to our wives, right? Isn't that the topic here? That was a topic. Okay. That's fair. Listen. Leave it open in. Like make people kind of go find the answer.

Listen, we all know that there's way more things that you must do to annoy her than she does to annoy you. That's a fact. We can all agree on that, right? How can we agree on that? Because of who you are and who she is. Like, I could just make that bet and feel good about my money. Probably. Yeah.

I mean, you brought up a couple weeks. I think that us as husbands are going to lose that battle every time. Because, like, I mentioned one thing. I do a lot more to annoy her. And most of it is intentional. I know exactly what I'm doing. She wants to talk about calendar stuff in the morning right after I wake up because she's been up for two hours.

I don't want to talk about my calendar in the morning. I will purposely say, I'm not ready. I'm not woken up. You know what else I'll do? She can't stand us being in another room where a light is on in another room. So she will get up, stop what she's doing. We can be in a very serious conversation. She'll get up and do it.

She cannot have a light on another room. I will go around and turn off the lights. on. Oh my God, Mike. They're terrible. Is it terrible? It's pretty bad. I'm just stomping through the room.

I mean, come on. Yeah, but I'm just saying, like, I'll do it just to see if I can get it. I ain't got that much brain bandwidth to be like. Well, that's you problem. I mean, I got a lot of brains. I don't know. That's how I won that game last week. I tied that all back around.

That's what I did. All right. Well, why don't you all send us. your favorite things that you've ever done to intentionally annoy your spouse. Oh, yeah. Or your better half. Like, you know, let's not get too mean. No, no.

Do it out of love. Out of love. What do you do out of love? I don't know that I'm stomping through the house out of love. I do. I do love her. Oh, man. So much.

You love her. You want to stomp around and make sure everybody knows it. I think some of it goes back to my childhood because, like, you know, when trying to get attention from dad, sometimes I had to do it. do things that he didn't like to get his attention. By God, he's going to know I'm here. And so Amy's like, hey, you're stomping through the house. And I'm like, you know what?

I like that little bit of attention she's giving me right there, even though she's mad at me stopping. So maybe I'll stop a little harder. I'm going to, can I take a guess on something that I bet you do that annoys her? And I could be wrong. But it annoys me when you do it. So when you're in the middle of a serious conversation, but then you're just in your phone.

and I mean just in your phone and you're not even hearing anything anybody says certainly that comes up in your house right yeah both of us do that oh so it annoys you too well I Amy will never dive into her phone in the middle of the conversation

no but you will I guess yes I mean I got people texting me left and right needing things is that what we're going to say yeah all right that's the excuse yeah all right

like a wait all right may have I ever interrupted a conversation you have interrupted a severe you've interrupted a serious conversation with someone else I have I'm sure

oh yeah you're not thinking of an example no I got you yeah I'm sure I have I don't know so I'm the kind of person that feels like the trains hauling ass down the track and I got to keep it going and if I don't answer this person's question then they the train can't keep moving moving for them, right? So I got to get them their answer, even though you're talking to me about something else. And yeah, I'll go, hey, where were we? What were even discussing? Yeah.

I know. It's a terrible habit. It's not the best. That's good, though. I like the idea of people giving us on social what they do. We may find out that we're not so weird. That's the idea. Yeah. We want to feel, Del and I want to feel better about ourselves. So help us out there. All right. What's next? I think it's time for guests the driver. We're going to play some more tick-de-toe. Mike Davis won last week. Mike, can you find your game piece?

Well, Mike's finding it. Let me set up the board for the listeners here. All right. So on the top, from left to right, we got Penske Racing, Junior Johnson Associates, and Roush Racing. Then on the left side, top to bottom is Chip Ganassie Racing, RCR, and Bill Davis Racing. So I have rules for you guys this week. Last week, I was making them up as we go.

Let's be honest. This week, you have 90 seconds to guess. Damn. Okay? Down from two minutes from last week. You can't use the same driver twice. So, Mike won on Ricky Rudd. You use him twice.

Can't do that. And if time runs out... I'm always sucking so bad. The other person can either steal that square or pick like it's their regular turn, but if you get it right or wrong, it is the next person's turn, so it's no longer make it take it.

So, Mike, you won You get to go first I get to go first So I'm going to just pick a square We're looking at the grid here Okay I am going to go with

I know what I want that middle square But the middle square is RCR and Junior Johnson and Associates Is that what they called his race team Junior Johnson and Associates? I've never heard of it Is it like a law firm or something

It sounded like it But I'm going to have to go with The one I know immediately and that's going to be Gannasi Racing, Rouse Racing, which is the upper right corner, upper right corner there. Yes. I'm going to say Jamie McMurray. Jamie McMurray? Correct.

So that's Mike, top right. Jeez, this is so hard, y'all. This is impossible. What the hell? I guess I'm going to go RCR Roush racing was Ryan Newman. Yes. RCR Rouse racing was Ryan Newman. That's below you.

Yeah. Below you. So Dale gets that. The middle right. So we got the right-hand side's almost complete. Yeah. All right, Mike. Okay.

I'm going to go, I'm guessing here, and I need some help. I think, I'm right, the upper left, which would be Chip Ganassi racing and Penske racing. Juan Pablo? That's correct. Boom. He ran a couple races for Penske. That's right. I'll do Ganassi, Jr. Johnson, Associate.

Sterling Marlin. Correct. Damn, that was my win. I was going for. I would have never got it. I had nobody. So now the top row is out. So Dale gets that.

All right, so the top row's out. I need to think. All right, so it's on me now, right? It's on Mike, yes. And is my clock running? Yes. All, hold up. Okay, I'm going to guess here.

I'm going to try a guess here at RCR Jr. Johnson. Go. Didn't Neil Bonnet run for RCR once? That is correct, yeah. Ran twice. There you go, Mike. Damn, that was nice. So I've got the middle now.

Yeah, I got to save my ass twice. You got a chance to win this. See, he's got a double. You got both on the bottom, roush or, yeah. Bottom left, bottom right. So Dale can either get Roush Racing or Bill Davis Racing or Penske and Bill Davis Racing. I can only think of two guys that drove for Bill Davis.

I'm struggling with that one too. I'm going to take a guess on this one, but I think Roush and Bill Davis was Musgrave. Incorrect. Oh, damn it. Incorrect. Your turn to steal, Mike. So Mike, you can either steal or you can pick another square.

I'm going to guess on that square two, rouse racing, Bill Davis. Again, I don't know that this guy actually run for Roush. I think you ran for Bill Davis, and I'm hoping he ran for Roush. Scott Wimmer? Did not run for Roush. Incorrect. So it goes back to Dale. I think the Penske, Bill Davis one, is easier.

So it's Dale's. Dale's turn, yes. Hold on. I got to think about this. If you'd like a hint, let me know. What the hell? I gave you a hint last week. Hey, Dale, if you'd like a hint, let me know.

Do you get a hint, Tim? I won't turn down. I won't take the hint. 45 seconds. Man, I can't do it. I don't know. Bill Davis thing is a killer. For me, I mean, it's tough.

I know Bill Davis. Davis and Junior Johnson Associates is Hutt Strickland. Yes, correct. That is correct. That's the only one on the page I know. I'm going to take another guess here. Go ahead. I'm trying to, listen, obviously Ward Burton ran for Bill Davis racing. Didn't Jeff Burton have a race with Bill Davis?

Jeff Burton? I did not have that on my list. I will double check. You sound confident. No, no. I'm not confident, but I'd like to check. I feel like in the Burton's story, there was, There was, I think Jeff Burton might, and don't just check Cup.

Or are we only talking about Cup? I was only talking about Cup. Okay, is that part of the rules? Yeah. Oh, God, because I've been trying to think of Bill Davis truck drivers. I mean, I guess that would have wasted. Only thing, cut. All right.

See if Jeff Burton ever ran. If it's Cup, then I don't think. No, not Jeff Burton. Just Ford. I missed it. No Jeff Burton for Bill Davis. All right. So it's still open.

Bill Davis and Roush, what about? he was uh he's a junior he um broadcaster um road course racer not wrong a junior yeah i don't know what we're talking about five four three two one do you got to guess all right so let me guess again i'm liking this this is forcing us. The Bill Davis racing is the hard part, right? So again, I'm going to take a guess on one. Stanton Barrett. No. All right. Because I know he did run for Roush. He did in the... Oh, that's right. It was the Bush series. Yes. All right, so I'm wasted that big off. Do you guys both want a hint on one of them? I think at this point you guys need the hint on one of them.

No, I don't want to know. I mean, hold up. All right. I'm not ready to call him Mulligan. All right, Dale, it's your turn. So just to recap, Mike is currently got a double situation going on here where he can win if he gets the bottom left or the bottom right, correct, which is the bottom left. Is Penske racing and Bill Davis racing. And the bottom right would be Roush racing and Bill Davis racing.

So Dale, if he gets both because he has the bottom middle, he wins. I ain't getting at Bill Davis. That damn shit there's too hard. It's impossible. It's so obscure. It's very obscure. Right. But I feel like both drivers that I think you guys would get these guys, you'll be like, oh, definitely.

We're just going to keep on guessing. So it's your turn. I've got another class. But the Penske and RCR, I mean, it's a stretch. I don't know if it happened or not, but did Dave Marcus drive any race in the Cup series for RCR? I believe he did for RCR but not for Penske. Yes, he did. He did?

Yeah, race for Penske. Way early? Maybe that was before my time. Oh, wait, we're just going off of Alex's time? No, no, no. I didn't even check the 70s for Penske. Like the marked on here days. All right, well, you got to do that.

Yeah. Get a Dave Marker. I didn't think that would be the one they would guess. I need to brush up on my Bill Davis race in history. God, for real, man. Like, good grief. There's got to be. like, you know, after the, you know, after the, you know, when he's probably just the end days of his

cup team operation, somebody running for him that was obscure and who would that have been? That's a negative on Dave Marcus, by the way. It's all right. So it's my turn? Yeah, it's my turn? Yes. All right. I'm going to take another guest.

Bill Davis and Penske. This could apply to Bill Davis. or it could be the Roush or the Penske. Ryan Newman? He's already chosen. Newman's already chosen? Yes. By who?

And did not? You did. Roush and Rousey. I chose him. Or Dale did, sorry. Yeah. Oh, so I can't even say who, I can't even repeat who Dale fits? No one.

No driver plays twice. No driver plays twice. All right. Did I just waste my opportunity? And also he didn't race for Bill Davis racing. You're wrong. I know that. I was guessing.

Obviously, we don't know that. who that's the problem. None of us know who raced for Bill Davis racing. I'm guessing at that point. Sorry. Easy. No, you're wrong. So it's Dale, sir. All right, but so I can't say, I guess I should have written down who Dale guessed. I haven't been paying attention. I've literally been putting X's

and O's here. That's how he played Tick-Tac Doe. I didn't think it would take this long. Dude, I mean, Bill Davis' one's tough. I'll take a hint. Take a guess. I'll take a hint? Which one? Pensky or Roush? Penske. Penske? So we've had him on the download

And This was towards the end of his career back end Of course it would be I don't know much that's a hint He's been on in the past two years Jesus Yeah I don't know if that helps That's a good hint

That's a good hint Yeah This is the Penske one Penske and Bill Davis yes No 30 seconds left I mean Rusty Wallace He never drove from Bill Davis

Mike, you taking a stab at the... Go, Mike. Please finish. The hint? It's killing. Do I get a new hint? On the same one? What the hell?

No, you got a hint and I got a hint. We both share this hint. You both got that hint. You both got that hint. I can give you both a hint for the Roush one. Well, yeah, but that's... I take a hint for the Roush one. You take a hint for the Roush one?

Okay. We mentioned it on Tuesday's podcast. That's such a bunch of better hit than I got. All right, we mentioned him on Tuesday's podcast. What the hell did we talk about on Tuesday? That was two days ago. Oh, Tuesday? Yeah, he said Tuesday's podcast.

What the hell? What was that? Coda. That means he must have been in the race. Time's up. Time's up. I just got my hint. I'm going to say Kurt Busch.

Incorrect. Damn. We mentioned him Tuesday. Right back to you. Go bye. I'm going to go back to the Penske- Bill Davis side and say Jeremy Mayfield. Correct. Damn!

So Mike wins. When did he drive for... This was like 2007. He drove the 36 car. He did. Right before he taught his new... We did. It was like the last couple of races for his team.

Good job, Mike. Yeah. Two and O. That was tough. I don't gloat. Yes, you do. I let my stats do the talking. That's fun.

I honestly say, what a challenging game that is. And man, I can't wait. I can't wait. wait to go back upstairs and let the other folks like Ryan Williams and those guys that think they're real good at this stuff take a pick. Man, that's a tough ass game. This one was tough. I will agree. This one was a lot tougher. I'll make them a little bit easier next time. Wait a second. No, I'm just... No, don't make them easier. You did a great job on this, Alex.

Oh, thank you. Really good. Would you guys like to know who the Roush Racing building this ones were? So this one I thought was the most obscure. Kenny Wallace was the main one I was thinking. We mentioned him on Tuesday's podcast. Wait, wait, wait. Kenny Wallace race for... for Rouse. Yes, he filled in for Kurt Busch when he got suspended. And then Bill Davis? Yes, he drove the 23 stack or two car. He did. That's in cup. In cup. Yeah, he did. That's right. He did. And what's the Penske RCR? Pensky RCR. That one was also Ryan Newman. It can't be also. I know, but I messed that one up. But we didn't get to it. We didn't get to it. Alex. We didn't get to it. You wrote the rules of the game. Did not, again, did not think you guys were going to

to guess Newman before. So this was my fault. Wait. We did not get to it, so it's not a big deal. We didn't have to. We were all sitting, me and we didn't get to it because me and Mike are looking at it going, what the hell? We can't pick Newman. I was just happy that was not going to come up. I guess because I know I messed up, Alex. Yeah, that stays in the podcast. This stays in the podcast. Listen, like I said, the rules are getting made up as they go as well. So they're not foolproof, but. Good job. Mike, that's fun.

That was fun. Can't wait to play again. I hope we had this every week. I really enjoy this. Even losing, it's fun. We can. And I'm learning. The freaking relief driving is tough.

It is. Man, that makes it tough. I mean, it's literally impossible. Yeah. Sometimes the only way to make the square fit. So you've got to go with it. So Dale had suggested earlier. I don't remember if this was before we were taping or during the show,

but he was talking about doing one with, is it, car numbers or sponsors sponsors? Sponsors. Drivers that had the same sponsor. Yeah. I would like to switch up the little topics as well. Like no longer race teams, we could do sponsors.

We'll try them out. Whatever you want to do. I love it. It's a great part of the show every Thursday. Mike, one thing I wanted to say before we wrapped everything up for Coda and everything that happened there, did you see Kyle Busch post-race during his interview on Pit Road where Ross walks by or walks up? He threw a little shade. Yeah, he threw a little shade at him, said it.

Yeah. What did he say? Talk about the guy that doesn't respect anybody or something like that. Yeah. I was fascinated by that because you know Ross is going to see it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I also saw that somebody asked Ross Chastain if he would ever go on Denny's podcast, and he said, no, that will never happen. I can't believe that. I know. I thought Ross would absolutely do that. Come on, man. Ross is a, I feel like I know him. And why would he not want to do that?

Well, he never came on. He has been on our podcast, but he has not been on in a while, and we were trying to get him last year, and he never actually came on our podcast. It dodges a little bit. Yeah, he dodged us a lot. Well, anyhow, make sure you listen to Dirty Mo Doe. That's going to be coming out today as well. Steve LaTart gives you a rundown of some of the best opportunities to bet a little money,

and they'll rehash, I guess, what happened at Cota as well. he's got his little buddies, a little team of buddies there, Chopper and the professor, sort of helping him navigate through this. And it's interesting to see them do well and see when they lose as well. But it seems like fans are really enjoying that show, Mike. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. And we also, I'm telling you, Speed Street's been on a roll. They've had Colton Hurda on.

Who did they have on last week? Roman was on last week. I mean, Connor's going out and just getting them all, right? Yeah. So they've been hitting numbers that they have never had. They're on a hell of a hot streak right now. So Speed Street's worth listening to. I appreciate Joey and Connor's efforts, man.

They work hard. They do. And they do bring an amazing perspective to the IndyCar world. So Dirty Mo Doe. Oh, and Jordan Taylor's on this week? Jordan Taylor's on this week. Oh, that'd be a good one. That'd be worth listening.

Dirty Modo and Speed Street. Let's throw it down to Short Track Insider with Hannah Newhouse. Welcome back to another week. weekly episode here of Short Track Insider. Unfortunately, a majority of last weekend's racing was canceled due to rain or cold temperatures, but fortunately a few series were able to run, including that of the Spears SRL Southwest Tour, because yes, out in California, in some places, it was relatively warm. And for Jacob Goams, that driver was able to double down being the first back-to-back winner of that event at Kern County Raceway Park in the Super Late Model Division. Also, the ARCA-E Series was able to

open up their season at Five Flag Speedway, where William Swalich was able to take the checkered for his Joe Gibbs racing team. And of course, the Cars Tour was at Florence over the weekend for the errands 125 in, man. What a race if you weren't able to make it or missed it on flow racing. The abrasive racetrack, and of course, that's kind of what Florence is known for, made for some stellar racing. And it came down to the final restart, where Carson Quappel was able to get around Brendan Butterbean Queen and fend him off. and, of course, able to take home the win for his junior motorsports team. And for Quoppel, he has been so close to winning at Florence in a multitude of races, big races, cars tour races. So it had been a long time coming for him.

And here's what the defending Cars Tour champion had to say about finally breaking through at Florence. Breaking through the win at Florence, that gives us a bunch of confidence going through the rest of the season, you know. us starting out at the icebreaker, me and Dale both kind of struggling. That was, it was tough for us. And we really weren't too sure. We went to work when we got back to the shop leading up to the Kennelly race and didn't really find anything wrong with the car. So we really weren't sure what to expect when we went back to Florence after Kenley.

And finishing second at Kinley, that was definitely a confidence booster, knowing that we can run back up front like we usually do. But, yeah, Forrest. It was a good deal. I was super happy that we could run good there. Obviously win. It's great for us coming off our icebreaker run. And to finally get a win at Florence was pretty good.

I feel like I've been so close a few times with these junior motorsports guys and just couldn't really finish the deal. And this time it all kind of came together. And Brian and the whole team gave me a really good car that I could really work with. And at the end, I just felt like we were just really good compared to the rest of the guys. and we just had more tire left. The choose cone that was implemented at Forrence, it was different for sure. I have some experience running with the shoes cone with different series and stuff like that.

And I felt like I had a little bit of an advantage compared to some of the guys. I'm sure most of the guys have probably been familiar with the shoes cone, but there's probably some that aren't. I think it's a good idea. I mean, it just depends. Sometimes it can be. Sometimes it can't. But I think for the racing, it just helps.

it out a lot more and makes it makes it more interesting for the fans even just not being sure it's it's not line them up like normal inside outside it's you let the drivers make decisions and there was once or twice this past weekend at Florence where I was kind of surprised at where the people in front of me kind of went and it kind of made me had to change up my strategy too so I think it definitely makes it racing more interesting kind of makes it you don't really know what's going to happen you know And I think it does help with the guys that are kind of checking up to get into third to be on the bottom. I think that's going to help with that for sure because it gives you the option to choose the bottom if you want. And if you're in fourth, you can go to fifth on the inside row.

So I think it's a good idea. I liked it. And I'm sure there's some people that probably don't like it. But, I mean, it is what it is. We're all in the same playing field here. We all race in the same race. And I think Jack and Keely and all the guys really did a good job on that one. but I can't wait to finish the year off of these guys

and hopefully win some more races, obviously, but more so just run good. I think the Choose Cone, I think that'll open up some more options for everybody, obviously, but us in particular, I think me and me Spotter, Brian, and the whole team can do pretty good things with that Shoes Cone. And I can't wait to see what the rest of the year's like with Johnny Morris and Bass Pro Scholar,

and all the people who got me here, LW, Kelly, Dale, obviously, and super excited. Hopefully can get some more wins. Plenty of racing this upcoming weekend as well, if Mother Nature is willing to cooperate with us a little bit. First and foremost, the NASCAR Wheel and Modified Tour heads to Richmond Raceway on Friday. Of course, kind of a prelude into the weekend for the NASCAR weekend.

They'll race Friday afternoon into the evening, and of course that's available on Flow Racing. Also a double header for the World of Outlaw, late models and the extreme outlaw midgets at Farmer City, both Friday and Saturday the first time. It's been a national midget tour at Farmer City. Definitely a fast, tricky racetrack, and you can watch all of that on DirtVision. Also, the World of Outlaw, Noss Energy sprint cars head south to Texas for a doubleheader at Devil's Bull Speedway on Friday and Saturday. Both those races available on Dirt Vision as well.

In the Northeast, the Icebreaker, definitely an exclusive race up. in the Northeast for the world of Modifieds. Is it Thompson Speedway this weekend? They'll have Modifieds, mini-stocks, and of course, the Pro All-Star Series is also joining them a Saturday-Sunday race with the Icebreaker 125 being on Sunday. Of course, those open modifies headlining that,

that race available on Racing America. And down south, the ASA Southern Super Series is at Crisp Motorsports Park in Cordial, Georgia. You can watch that on Racing America. Nashville Fairgrounds, they are opening up their regular season opener. this upcoming weekend. All local, seven local divisions, including everything from pro late models to legends, expected to run a full Saturday afternoon of racing. If you're not able to make it, you actually can watch the season opener on Racing America.

As for some sprint car racing, non-wing to be specific, the USAC sprint cars are headed to Lawrenceburg on Saturday and Saturday only. You can watch that on flow racing. And the smart modifies are at South Boston on Saturday. No streaming available there, but hey, if you're around the area, I always say South Boston is one that you have to go check out. It's a great facility ran by great people and always puts on some stellar racing. So smart modifies are there on Saturday. And as we take a look at Out West, plenty of racing this weekend as well out there, including the Arkhamenard Series West. They head to Irwindale Speedway, undoubtedly, one of my favorite race tracks out on the West Coast.

They'll be there Saturday for their second points race of the season, and you can watch all the Arkhamard's regional races on Flow Racing. and continuing the West Coast trend on Sunday. So if you don't get enough of a racing fix between Friday and Saturday, on Sunday, don't you worry? The Northwest Super Late Model series have you covered.

They head to Tri-City Raceway in Richland, Washington for the 54th running of the Apple Cup on Sunday afternoon. That race also available to watch on Racing America. And I would highly suggest get your racing fix this weekend.

Plenty to choose from, from dirt to late models, modified, to asphalt, you name it, plenty of places to watch. Because next weekend, unfortunately, a relatively calm weekend is a lot of people taking in the Easter festivities. But don't you worry, we're going to recap all of this next week on short tracking. Check out Dirtymo Media.

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