The Dale Jr. Download - 508 - A Good Bird From A Champion

Episode Date: November 7, 2023

Dale Earnhardt Jr. returns from NASCAR’s Championship weekend at Phoenix to join co-host Mike Davis for this year’s final edition of Dirty Air. After crowing three new NASCAR champions in races that ranged from chaotic to nerve-racking, the guys had a lot to discuss: What to do when the Airbnb doesn’t have everything you need Why was the Truck race so chaotic? JR Motorsports has a lot to be proud of this season Was the Phoenix Cup Championship race a good race?  Dale’s early season Ryan Blaney prediction pays off Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Hey everybody, welcome back to another season of the Dale Jr. Download. Mr. Dela Hart, Jr., Billy Bob's juggling act. And that's the voice of my co-host, one of my best friends in the whole wide world. Mike Davis. Come on, wait. Get pumped. Get pumped with me.

You here with me? You with me, man. You ready? Yeah, my phone's about to die. We're doing more than a show. You said we're doing a show. What are we doing now? What have you promised?

What have you told him we're doing, Mike? I don't know who the hell you are anymore. Like, what is going on here? Who's the new guy? She should have just pissed all over me. It would have been fine. Chad Gannouse. Chad Gannouse is going to come on to.

Is it Gannouse? Is it a Gnows? I think maybe, you know, you want to say canals, but when you put those two words together, you're going to put a junior. You've never mispronounced anything in your life on that. No. No.

You've never butchered the English language. Ever. Not a signal time. Crack it up, I'm cold. It's time, Mike, to plan the trip. Party Sunday at the houseboat. See you there. You're lucky my brain works the way it does.

Why? Because you're assuming the world. You're having enjoyment. You're enjoying it. What's that me? We're screwed. Crang it down. I'm hot.

Shield my eyes. I have my fingertips and I can't freezing up. That was weird. I am weird. You are. Yeah. I bet he's no crime. I've got comfortable.

You what? You missed a dentist appointment? I have decisions in my life that I regret. Let's do some way too early championship picks. Mine's Blaney. Blaney. My chest is starting to hurt. I'm being sore in my chest.

Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. back again for another episode. episode of the Dale Jr. Download. It is the final week of the 2020 year season, whatever you want to call it. And we're in the Bojangles studio. I'm here with my co-host, Mike Davis. How you doing, Mike? I'm doing well, bud. How are you doing? Things are great. Good. Coming off of the championship race in Phoenix, and we are, yeah, we're breaking this day in right. That's right. We've got guest here Chelsea and Travis

Wagner are in watching the studio they're part of the foundation so welcome to you guys and they are winners they're winners yeah yeah we surround ourselves with just winners they're raffle winners that's right for the foundation the Dale junior foundation which we I won't give

a specific number but we're I talked to Kelly yesterday and we are giving away we're in the process of sending to all of the charities that we work with annually, the hundreds of thousands of dollars that we've raised this year. That's amazing.

Yeah. Awesome. Pretty cool. But another thing that's cool, I mention it. We're in the Bojangles studio. And now through November 22nd, you can get a free regular-sized dirty rice by using the promo code D-A-L-E when you place an order on bojangles.com or in the app. This is at participating stores.

and remember that code is D-A-L-E for a free Dirty Rice with your online or Bojangles app order. I'm assuming that this promotion is to try to drive people to their online store and to get their app and check their app out. Yeah. Which is kind of, you know, that's the wave of the future, man. Is it? Yeah.

Well, I think so. I mean, you know, all these, you know, there's an app for everything. That's right. And now, even, you know, I remember the first app, do you remember the first app you downloaded on your phone? I think I do. I think I do. Let's hear it. I think it was with you and T.J.

Right when the iPhone came out, we started playing this like car parking game. Oh, freaking A. Yeah, that was the first game game, I think. Oh, I remember that. I wonder if that, yeah, you had to move the cars around and fit them into us. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I wonder if that thing's still out.

Why did Andrew just bust out laughing on that? I'm curious. Oh, it's just What's so funny, Andrew? Well, because I played a similar game. It was called Harbormaster, and it's like with boats. Yeah, that you had to, like, dock the boats.

I love that. It was so much fun. I believe the very first app that I downloaded was the beer. Oh, yeah. Remember, you, you know, you start it, you hold your phone upright. You'd have a full beer. Oh, yeah. And then you turn it and drink the, ha, watch me, man.

I'm drinking a beer. That's it. Yeah. Oh, my God. Hours and hours of entertainment. And now Bojangles has their very own app, but you order food, which is good. Progress.

Yeah. So, yeah, this will be a fun one this week. This is it, our final week. And so let's get right into it, man. We've got a lot to talk about. Let's jump right on in. As I mentioned, we're coming out of the Phoenix championship. race weekend, went to, when we go to Phoenix, man, we're there, probably that's the longest

week that we're at the, you know, that we travel in. Every other race, what I'm trying to say is every other race we travel in, maybe Friday night, Saturday morning, whatever, right? This one, yeah, this one, you got to be there early. We sit down with all the drivers in the Xfinity and the Cup series for about 20 minutes apiece and fill up the, you know, and fill up the, you fill up our Thursday with a lot of media. So I think we flew in Wednesday night, and we usually stay at the wigwam. Okay?

Yeah. And I think I've told this story about last year, stayed at the wigwam, and I had to put an iron and board to somewhat lock the back door. It wasn't really locking it. So my back door, I'll try to help you understand

what my concern was. All right? So my back door was a, sliding glass door. And the part that slid obviously is supposed to be on the inside of the fixed part of the sliding door. On my room, the sliding door was on the outside of the fixed area. So, and it was, you could, I could, I could push that sliding door and warp it and

stick my hand outside the room. Yeah, sounds great for burglars. If somebody was on the outside, all they needed was a stick to sort of slide between the sliding door and the fixed part of the sliding door and unlatched the door and they're in.

Piece of cake. Piece of freaking cake. And if anyone would actually know about that, then they had probably done this a time or two, right? ease on into the room. Get on in there and get what you need. Yeah. So I put the ironing board at the door,

so at least it'd make a hell of a lot of racket and give me a little bit of a chance to... That'll stop them. Not to stop them. It was giving me a little bit of a heads up, right? Yeah. They weren't going to do this... Quietly, not in my room.

And so this year, we decided to forego staying at the wigwam and get ourselves in Airbnb. There you go. Right? Got us a nice room, or a nice house, in the ads. So there's the streets in Phoenix and then the ads. And we were in the ads, man. But it was me, Steve LaTart, Rick Allen, Tony Mayoff,

who works with us here at Junior Murder Sports, and Russell and Jimmy, the two stat guys with Racing Insights. We hung out, we ate pizza, sushi, watched the football, had a good time. Yeah. Good. We did catch a little bit of hell for getting the Airbnb and not staying at the wigwam. Sorry, whoever did that, same on them.

Airbnb's a good idea. It's all right. And I'll probably do it again next year. Yeah. I did hear the wigwam did get remodeling done on some of their room. So sorry, wigwam, not trying to give you any bad press here. Who gave you grief? Like the boss?

I'd rather not say. Okay. I'd rather not. Okay. They know who they are, though. They know who they are. Into a bind there. I got you.

Sounds like a boss. Yeah, but one of the things that happen on this trip, man, are for the Airbnb, right? You go to Airbnb and be, and, you know, when you stay in at a hotel and you're traveling and staying in hotels regularly, man, or my bus, there's always shampoo, everything you need, right? Everything. At the Airbnb's, not so much, right?

You stay in some Airbnb's, Mike. I have Airbnb a place myself. Do they have? Yes, we absolutely make sure. You have soap, shampoo, all the things. I mean, if you're going to be, you know, the standard Airbnb person, I think it's a nice little courtesy to have. But some don't.

It's a good point. Some don't. All right, we get in there. No shampoo and no soap. I didn't. I didn't complain. I'm not like, oh, man, these shtoles. I don't know.

I'm not an Airbnb pro. And this house was on the market. Maybe they, you know, maybe they're. transitioning from being awesome at Airbnb to let's sell this motherfucker. All right. Well, you're thinking through all this, all the options. So, anyhow, I'm like, well, I got the shower running. I'm getting ready to get in this dang thing, right?

So there's the hand soap at the sink. That's going to have to do. Oh, yeah. All right. So we get the hand soap in there. I'm washing hair, face. With hand soap. Yeah.

It's resilient, man. And that was, yeah. And you know what? That worked for the rest of the weekend. Oh, wait, you never went to the, wait a second. I thought this would be for the first. Wait a second. So I get home.

You just stuck with a head soap the whole week? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I get. That's pretty hardcore. I get home. I get home and I jump in a shower and Amy's in the bathroom and I'm like, man, nice shower. This is going, I really needed this. I'm washing the Phoenix off of me.

You know, Phoenix is dusty. Everything gets a little dusty. Well, yeah, head soap doesn't. I mean, hey, I think of everything, does it. At that racetrack, I don't know if you ever been to Phoenix. At the racetrack. Yeah, I've been to Phoenix. Yeah.

It's a dust bowl. It is. All right. Something about that big old dusty hill. So I'm in there, man, I'm washing the Phoenix off. And I was like, Amy, you know, so nice to have shampoo and soap and all the things. She's like, what are you talking about? I'm like, man, I was hand soap all weekend.

And she's like, really? And I was like, yes. I was like, you know, so I tell her. I'm like, you know, we get there, no soap, no shampoo. So I grabbed the hand soap from the sink and we're good to go. Feels like something a quick run to the store would have fixed. You know, man. So I, you know, being, I'm, I don't want to say this is a male-female thing, but when I got the hand soap, problem solved.

Felt good. We're good to go. Yeah. We're good to go. Amy's like, that's idiot. That's idiotic, man. Why didn't you get, you know, the next day you get the stuff. You're driving back and forth to the track.

Hey. Hey, no, I think that is a male-female thing because there's the, if there was no hand soap, then you have to rationalize water's going to have to do. Water's it. I would have, that's where I would have draw on the line. I would have, if there was no soap, I wouldn't have went in there and gotten the dish soap. I would have went to the store. You know, I wouldn't have continued to search the apartment until I found something.

I wouldn't have made my own soap. I would have went to the store and gotten the right stuff. But the hand soap did it. Hand soap solved it. I no longer needed anything, right? First of all, I don't believe for a second that you wouldn't have tried for one time dish soap. I don't believe that I'd have been smart enough to think dish soap. I think you would have.

You'd have learned a lot about yourself. Hand sanitizer detergent. Yeah. I mean, who hasn't done a hand sanitizer? sanitizer bath. You know what? I can't do that. Hand sanitizer don't suds up

and I can't, it's annoying. That's all about the subs. That's where dish soap whatever has done you good, man. Yeah. Yeah. You've been over-sutted. It'd have been right.

All right. So it's still funny to me that you guys felt like that was the fix for the whole week. That was not. No, no, not you guys.

Oh, just you. Let's not put anyone else in this boat. Oh, they're not as smart. I don't know what they did. We didn't know talk about this. That got you. I'm just.

I'm sharing this with you. Okay. All right. This is me. This is what I did. I'm mildly impressed by this, by the way. So, you know, it begs a question, obviously. What have you ever done when you were missing either utensils like a toothbrush?

You ever brush your teeth with your finger? Yes. Yeah. Of course. That's the question. I was actually wondering. Did you bring toothpaste? Oh, yeah.

Okay. I had my toiletries. Okay, you had that. Which the word toiletries, man. Man. Got to come up with another. What the hell is that? Yeah.

Right. Who came up with that word? Yeah. Tolatries. It feels like it doesn't belong. Doesn't belong. One of these isn't like the other. I'm not, you know, I'm brushing my teeth.

I'm brushing my teeth here, man. We don't need to call it toiletries. Right. That's an old other conversation. What would you have done? Let me ask you this. What would you better do without deodorant or toothpaste? Deodorant.

Do without deodorant? Do without? Yeah, do without deodorant. Gotta have toothpaste. Yeah. Yeah. I got to brush my teeth. Me too.

Yeah. I'm probably going to regret saying that to you. I will not go there. I'll let you have a day off from the teeth joke. You know, that's a whole other conversation. We're never going to get this show finished. Doing no deodorant deodorant. I've reward deodorant my whole life.

And then, you know, hearing about the aluminums and da-da-da-da-da, this and that. other and you know and thinking about how like absorbent those pores are in your armpits right and what do you you know that stuff's just sleeping right in your body into your bloodstream like what do you you know i never cared about none of this stuff until i don't know in the last like three or four years everybody's getting a little more self-aware i have no idea what you're talking about really aluminum aluminum what does anyone else know what i'm talking about you're putting aluminum Thank you. Deodorant.

What kind do you use? Speedstick. Oh, you're f***ed, man. You are screwed. That explains everything, did it? You're screwed, Mike. You better quit. Does it have some sort of hazardous materials?

I, you know, who knows, right? Right. That's a narrative that's out there? Yeah, I don't want to, I don't want to. We don't want to get there. I don't want to get into the debate about it, but. The word is, is like, man, be careful. The people would say certain deodorants may be harmful, right?

Because you're putting this in a pit that is absorbing all day, into your body, right? So there's some that have, I guess, aluminum's in them. It's the whole thing. Okay. Luckily, man, I stole some deodorant from this hotel. The wigwam? Did you sneak into the wigwam again? 20 freaking years ago, I was on a trip to Hawaii on a bud appearance.

I had this bud appearance in Pearl Harbor on the battleship that's there or the whatever. Okay. And long freaking time ago. And so I think Dad was alive. He was that long ago. It's like 2000, 2001. And they had this, that's really badass deodorant that I just, I was like, man, I like it. I'm using it during this stay.

I took it with it. And I've used this brand of deodorant. since then. And I was like, man, what if this has got the aluminum in there, but it doesn't? Lucky me. I did use degree there for a while.

It was a little span. They were a sponsor. That's kind of the rules. Yeah. All right. No. Oh, which is the green one? That's why.

That's a degree. That's degree, yeah. I was using. Green? Yeah, I have degree. It's green. Yeah. It's the white.

The white. Yeah. Not the anti. No, not that one. Yeah. Yeah, the white one. I used that one like in the 2000s. Like the chalky, taalky stuff.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't use that. I mean, you'd put a shirt on. You'd see it. You had to make sure you did not put your deodorant on before the shirt. Yeah. Because it was getting on this freaking shirt.

Well, you got to make sure you hold it out so it doesn't get on when you go under. Yeah. Yeah. Oh. No more. Anyone used to do the spray? Oh, yeah. That's body spray.

Yes. That burns. Yeah, that burned a bit out of me. The, uh, some people quit, like LW, my brother-in-law, Craig to Kelly, they quit wearing deodorant and started taking like, you know, fish oil tablets and stuff like that that's supposed to like kill your body odor. So they just do not wear a deodorant, period. Is that true?

I don't know. I just, well, that, what I said was true. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know that there's, I, uh, I, uh, Yeah, I don't want to stink, man. I mean, I might, if I didn't, if I knew that I didn't have B-O that would bother like you or anybody else in the room, I would quit wearing deodorant.

I don't wear deodorant so that you smell it. I wear it so that I don't stink, right? That's fair, I guess. Somebody, yeah, I was in a room the other day and somebody had on too much cologne, and I'm like, dude, like, you're, that's too much, right? Yeah. I don't.

We all know that person, right? Everybody's got that person. Yeah. Too much cologne guy. I mean, it's like, oh, gosh, getting all over me. I mean, the smell made it feel like it was blanketing me. I was going to smell this way the rest of the day. That's got to be way more harmful than breathing in that stuff.

Secondhand cologne. Right. We're getting way off base. Yeah. Way off base. All right. And that's it for the show today. NBC break.

Go to door over clear if you want to hear about Phoenix. We're moving on. No. I don't know if that's even the best place. Oh, that's true. Going forever. I'll never go. podcast. Well, Doorpapa Clear credit got some momentum. They had a bit of a lull right around the Chicago

week for whatever reason. I don't know what it was. I got it might have been some some, you know, some, some, some hole on the internet. But they picked the momentum back up. Yeah. Got things going again. Uh, ended strong, just like the NBC broadcast. I think that was one of our best of the year. It was good. I wanted to tell you that. I mean, y'all did a great job covering in the whole weekend. I felt great about it. It was good. Look, I get done with those broadcasts, and I don't judge, I don't really try to judge all of us. I do judge the whole thing as a whole, but I certainly am critical of my own work. And this year was sort of hit and miss for me.

One of the things that we really got thrown that was new on our plate was the action adventure segment, which is really that thing we do right after gentlemen start your engines. And I really paid a lot of attention to people's opinions about it because it was new. And I wanted to glean through the criticism of it to find out how to be better at it, right? What were some of the things people liked? What was some of the realistic things they didn't like other than just, oh, that sucked? You know, what was some of the things you could actually work on? So, yeah, I paid a lot of attention to what I was reading in the comments on social media and read it and so forth.

the first one out of the gate at Nashville was great. I mean, I'll be honest. I don't use like to brag on myself, but I thought we did a great job. And people were like, man, that's a way to start a show. That's a way to start a race. That's a way to get us going.

You know, and I'm thinking, man, we got something here. Okay, I'm going to go with this. And then we stumbled. A couple good ones here and there. A couple more stumbles. One of the problems that I have with the action adventure is, you know, you're, you got, it's real emotion, but there is a bit of acting. As an analyst, you're reacting, right?

Watching a race and just seeing, saying what you see. When you're doing the action-adventure, you're sort of like teeing up a thing about to happen and trying to get someone excited about it. And so there's a, you're selling. And it doesn't come easy. and so a lot of times too so I'll go back to this one of the things

I have a problem with is just general regular nuances of doing television a producer their job is to tell you what's happening right and so while you're working a producer is talking to you

telling you that B-roll is about to run telling you that you need to to send it down to pit road to this particular pit reporter. They're telling you that a commercial's coming. They may count you down to a commercial. Ten, nine, eight, whatever, right? They're producing. That's their job.

And the people that have been in television and radio for the majority of their lives and have chosen this profession and really worked and honed their skills can do the job and hear a producer all at the same time. not me. Good. Yeah, I can't imagine. I can't do it, right? And I don't think a lot of people that don't do TV could, right?

And so I still struggle with it. I still, I don't think I'll ever, ever be great at sort of trying to complete a thought or voice an opinion with a producer talking in my ear. And it's not the producer's problem. It's just, I'm not wired to be able to do it. And so I've worked really hard with my producer to try to stay, clear when I'm trying to do that action adventure. And so, anyhow, that's kind of more often than not when the action adventure doesn't go

well. It's because I get tripped up because there's moving parts happening with the show in my ear. But sometimes you just suck and you just don't do a great job at it. You mix your words up. Forget what you really wanted to say. You get a little nervous or caught off guard. or whatever. But this particular weekend, I had a mistake on Saturday. I mixed a few words up on my action adventure on Saturday for the Xfinity race. On Sunday, they split me and burton up. He had a

little piece on pit road. He said his piece, and then I was going to do basically another version of what we did Saturday about restarts. And so I wrote what I wanted to say, down on a piece of paper. This is about the way I probably would do it every week. I take it to Rick. Gall and I say, Rick, read this. Tell me if you'd change anything. He goes, man, I think that's great. I love it. And then I will spend the rest of the morning running that through my head, like memorizing

it. I bet I read that through my head and rehearse that more than 500 times. Wow. Between 9 o'clock and 12. And when I got up there to do it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, went well i didn't screw it up i didn't trip on a word i didn't my producer stayed clear i asked her to do that for me uh she she she did an awesome job even after that the rest of the day our whole team kicked but i felt the race was good i felt we were i was entertained by what i was

watching in the race there were some lulls but in general the the the championship was never really decided until that last final 15 20 laps right it's a good race. Entertaining. Going back to giving compliments to the broadcast, I know we've said this before, but it's worth repeating again. When Christopher Bell blew the break roller, the graphic and the explanation that Steve, that deserves an Emmy, that whole graphics, the team that does all that, and I know Steve

is involved, but I'm saying I know that there's more people involved in that. That entire group deserves an Emmy. That is the way that you guys were able to implement that in that moment. You came right out of a commercial break and explained. exactly what happened. I just don't know that anybody could do that better. I mean, that is an amazing it's an amazing benefit for the viewer at home to be able to have that and explain this, especially with this new car. I just, I felt, I felt like we needed to at least give accolades to whoever is responsible for that, Steve and whoever else, because it was well done. And it

was necessary in that moment. Yeah, I agree with you, man. I don't know what the, you know, an Emmy, whatever award they want to give us. I think that they should absolutely, be acknowledged and I hope and I would hope genuinely man it genuinely deserves that kind of recognition and I would hope that Steve would be a part of that absolutely because he articulates it so well and he's done that ever since we brought that sort of animation in to explain this new car and all the inner workings of the transmission and transactional transactal and all of the tolling issues and he has done such a good job spelling out and I learn every time. In that case, the actual rotor exploded in the animation.

Like I thought for sure we're just going to go see where the rotor is and all that stuff and everything's got its color and it's like that's going to explain. But then he goes, when it heats up and you're going to hit those brakes and everything. And then you saw, boom. And I'm like, wait a second. That is literally an animation and a graphic impeccable quality in the moment of exactly what just happened. And so I just thought I was impressed. I would have one complaint. What's that? It was on the left front in the animation. Oh. That's right. But that's okay. It was on the left front.

It's okay. That's okay. Yeah. Um, still Emmy worthy. Let's go on through it, man. Truck series. Pretty in everybody, if you didn't see the truck race, I'm never supposed to tell you not to watch, but maybe you, maybe you just skip that one. Um, but if you did see it, you know, what happened. A lot of crazy crap going on at the end of that race. And, you know, it's exactly what we saw at Martinsville in the Xfinity race. Yeah. And, you know, so I mean, there's, you know, I don't want to give the truckers a hard time because it ain't just truckers, man. None of that happens if Carson Hosevar doesn't wreck Corey Hime with 30 to go. and then Hime retaliating with four laps to go, right?

If all of, if those two guys don't get near each other and do that, then I don't think we have any kind of real drama at the end of that race. But when you have a championship on the line, trucks that all, you know, they, there's a lot of on throttle. The trucks, you know, are very aerodependent. And the way they race is, kind of brings this kind of stuff into play. I won't say youth, I mean, there's some young guys, but some veterans as well.

But anyways, when you have a championship on the line and you're going to have a late restart, chances are there's going to be some things like that that happen. I don't care if it's at any level, even at the cup level. You know, sometimes it might happen. I wouldn't be shocked or surprised to see it at the cup level. I know it's probably more unlikely because the drivers have a bit better racecraft. and understanding of what's what's what's fair and not fair but you'd agree that the truck series has developed the reputation of having this type of immaturity almost on a weekly basis right

I mean like no it's consistent I wouldn't say that it's not consistent I mean I don't see it every week I watch truck races and I don't really see it all the time every week I think it's you know Martinsville in an Xfinity race I'm going to go to Martinsville next year and I bet you you the first Martinsville race in Xfinity won't have this. I bet you the second one will. It's not really a, it's not a serious problem. It's, you know, it's a little bit on the drivers for sure. They bear all the responsibility for their decisions, but it's the box they're put in, man, just like the Xfinity, the Xfinity cars at Martinsville. That's finish was just as comical and absurd that the it was crazy and it bared i mean all of the conversations and and and all the

things that happened that things were said let's go back refresh your memory to martinsville yeah yeah i don't i i remember it i'm i feel like it's not the same actually but but but i i actually understand your point yeah every corner they were running over each other knocking each other out of the way Everybody got run over at Martinsville in the Xfinity race. I guess I apply a different logic with Martin'sville. The whole downfield was destroyed and start finish line at the end of the race. Does the fact that Martinsville, a half-mile short track mean anything, though, in that conversation? I mean, Phoenix is just another quarter mile longer?

It's definitely more room. It's a mile. It's a mile. So, like, yeah, it's not the same as a half-mile short track. I don't know. I apply a different approach. to each one of those. And I did feel like the formats and everything puts them in a box.

You are 100% right about that, Dale. I mean, like, they are doing that. The retaliation at the end of the truck race is what I don't remember seeing that at Martinsville. Yeah. Like deliberate retaliation take you out. You're not going to end this race. And that is what we saw at Phoenix in the truck race. And it did affect the end and the championship.

as we know. That's what I think is the difference for me. Freddie on Doorbumpur clear said that, you know, he had some comments on Twitter that made me pause for a minute because I was trying to figure out what he meant. He said, you know, what Carson Hosevar did was worse than what Hym did. And I'm like, well, why? Because Himes, or what, I'm sorry, what Hime did was worse. Heim's retaliation costs in finger the championship.

So he's saying that's worse than what Carson did. And I'm like, I didn't understand where he was going with that until, you know, he spells it out. It makes sense to me. But, you know, Carson started it, right? It doesn't, you know, Hym doesn't do what he does on lap four if Carson doesn't do what he does. And Carson has this reputation of doing it. And so I don't know that you, I don't know that I could say one's worse than the other. I think they're about equal.

It's a bad look. It's a bad look for the truck series. How do you come back from that, right? Yeah, if you're Carson-Hosvar especially and Corey Hime, what do they need to do? Do you think that they have to earn people's trust? They obviously want to grow in this sport. They want to get opportunities.

Do you think this hinders that? I'm hesitant to tell you my point of view because I don't know that it'll be popular. You know, this is the thing, man. All right. We'll cut to the chase here. Carson has done this so many times. And he went in the corner and not, you know, hits Heim and goes up the track further. Looking at the motion of his truck as he drives down in the corner across the track,

hits Heim continues to go up the track. I'm like, he didn't, it's indefensible. It's indefensible. And him coming out of the radio and going, walk me through what happened there. I'm like, wait a minute, man, you know what you just did. He's like playing the, oh, I don't know what just happened card. You know, it's like, no, man, you know what you did. And beating the steering wheel and getting all animated inside the car.

To me is not. It's not an excuse. It's not a get out of jail free car. I don't know that it's genuine. Oh, oh, I see what you're saying. Okay. I mean, I think that he may feel some sort of like, damn it, I screwed up again. I, damn it, I really don't, I got to quit doing this.

But I'm sure that he feels like, man, I got to straighten this out. I got to stop doing this. But he doesn't feel that way in the moment to stop doing it. He keeps doing it. there's something innate inside his mental approach to all of this that really, really, really, really needs some work. And he's going to, if he continues this type of stuff, ruin this incredible opportunity he has because he is incredibly talented. and so I

in a couple of weeks will soon forget any involvement that Heim had in all of this I will forget that Heim wrecked him with Fordigo I will forget that that

cost in finger the championship I will forget all of that in about two weeks what I will not have forgotten is what Carson has been doing that's it that's it that's the whole thing for me and i believe that's probably likely for about anybody else in the industry i think you're right and for that reason i don't think that's an

unpopular opinion i know that it's harsh to say but that fact the fact is i think that that's probably how most people feel about right so does heim have work to do to to rebuild his rep no because he doesn't have a reputation of doing these things i got your point yep all right but carson They're not in the same boat. And so Hym's going to go on down the road pretty much damage-free. Carson, on the other hand, digs a deeper hole to try to climb out of. Talking about trying to repair a reputation, I don't even know if that's putting it lightly, right? Got it, yeah.

Now, look, I hate to say that because, dude, man, I want to like Carson. I want to pull for him. Dude said some cool things about me. You can go read it in the press. But, you know, and he is so fast. He's so good. But this little thing that he's doing isn't, I don't think it's this easy, you know, thing to cure.

It's something built and instilled way down in him. That's part of his DNA. That'll be really hard to extract. Okay? That's what I worry about because it continues. If he would have been able to race Heim cleaner, even if they beat and bang some, right? If he would have been able to allow Him to finish the race,

even with some contact, that would have been a, hey, I think Carson's getting it. I think he's figuring it out. that was a better thing there in the past. Maybe he's done something stupid, but he continues to do this. All right, so that's kind of where I am at it. I don't, you know, and the truck series,

to me, as far as how the race got, you know, got out of hand and unraveled, I see it as, I disagree a little bit with you, Mike. I see it as exactly how the Xfinity race went at Martinsville. I put a lot on the drivers, but I also put a ton on this system, the playoffs. It's a one race for everything playoff scenario. You know, at Phoenix for the title with three laps to go, I don't know what you're supposed to expect. Yeah, I think you say it better than I did.

I agree with what you're saying. Same, and the Xfinity race at Martinsville is the same thing, if not more. You've got eight people in that moment trying to get through. That's right. Right? So it's going to be, if you put them all, if you, if you said, all right, let's just hypothetically. One thing that's consistent about all of this is late race restarts. both at Phoenix and at Martinsville, right?

Late race restarts. If the races run green, we go caution-free, we don't have a bunch of craziness, but it's the cautions inside of 10 to go, right? Tell me what's going to happen if we went to every elimination race, lined them all up, and threw the green, and said, race is over in three laps.

I think you're saying that they would all have a collision and it would be chaos. Yeah. But then the Xfinity Series race, at Phoenix, not Martinsville, was a good exhibit of hard racing late restarts and they didn't go act like fools.

You know why? Why? Because of the truck race that happened the night before. Oh, yeah. All right, so when we go to the Dules at Daytona, forever, we'd race at the Dules at Daytona, all right, in February.

You spend six months building this pristine car polishing, molding, fixing, right? You send it out there and you go out there in a 125. and wad it up. Right. And the first race, you'd have this big crash that would take out six or eight, ten cars, and everybody that's in the second race would go, oh, shit.

Can't do that. We better not do that. Right. I forgot. This car is important. I forgot. This car is massaged and perfect. I better get it into the actual race that is Sunday, the Daytona 500.

Right. And so the second race would be like, everybody mind your piece of cues. Everybody take it easy here. We know what's at stake now. boy, that was a good reminder. And so I think it was a little bit of that. Yeah, you could write. I see that.

But I mean, certainly with the vocal reaction from everybody in the industry after Friday night. I mean, everybody was harsh on the way that that thing, embarrassed. Embarrassed. It was absolutely embarrassing. And it's fortunate we didn't have that two nights in a row. Let's move on to Exfinity to race, AJ Almonddinger. Al-Gyre and Mayor came up short trying to win the championship for junior emergency sports. I saw Al-Gyre at the end of this race last year, walked up to him, and, man, we were both heartbroken, right?

And I told him, I said, let's not do that again. We're going to win this year. We're not going to do what, you know, we're going to be standing there on pit road trying not to cry. Um, he, you know, we don't win. Cole Custer wins, a deserving champion. Cole back down in the Xfinity series after a little short stint in the cup series, trying to prove that he belongs in the cup series, and he goes out there and gets it done. I walked up to Algeyer and I said, man, I'll tell you, I don't really,

I don't feel like his heartbroken as I did last year. And he goes, yeah, I don't either. We're not going to stand here and pout. And I said, you know, I feel like we put up a good fight for it. We weren't good enough. he goes, yep, I feel the same way. We raced them hard, we had a shot, and we just didn't get it done. And so looking ahead of 2024, man, we've got a lot to be excited about.

We're going to make some changes trying to improve a couple cars. Brandon Jones, I think, can run a lot better than he ran this past year. I know he's a race winner. It's my job and our job at Junior Motors Sports to try to give him everything he can to compete. And I felt like we didn't meet that goal. this year so I'm going to do some things to try to get him better we want to um you know we're trying to you know bring in Sammy Smith and and he I think did some great things at the end of the year that I was happy to see some speed qualifying well and racing well and a few events there

he's 19 got a lot to learn but I think people will be you know give us about two and a half years with Sammy and see where we are. And then, you know, Josh Berry spent over a decade with us racing in late models, winning over 100 races, track championships at multiple places, cars tour championship, the national title. I never dreamed in my life that I would ever win a national title at the regional division or the regional level. And Josh got that for us.

One of my more prouder trophies that we have. And so and I mean right here in this office or right here in this studio we surprised Josh with his opportunities to race in the Xfinity series. You know, just trying to get him

12 races was Herculian. Yeah. And then to be able to turn that into a full deal where he would go and win races and prove that he belonged. We had a rough year with Josh this year. I take a lot of responsibility for that. It's not a Josh Berry problem. It's just, you know, we all sit down in all season, and it's a puzzle, right? You put it together, and you go, we're going to put these pieces together, and this should work. We all sat there collectively and said, that looks like a good puzzle. And it just didn't bear the fruit. So, you know, and I'm disappointed in that, and that will bother me for quite a while as

Josh moves on to racing the cup series. I wish that we had done things differently, but it's, you know, you put a team together, and sometimes it works, and sometimes it just doesn't. And for this particular year, it wasn't productive, and, and, but Josh moves on to racing the Cup Series and I, you know, I will forever be pulling for his success. Same. Yeah. Now, I mean, starting immediately, we race against him. We're going to Florence in a couple weeks.

I'm going to run my late mile stock car. He'll be out there driving a Ford that Harvick owns that Rodney's built. but, you know, so when we race with him on the late mile stock, so that'll be a lot of fun seeing him at the track and competing, but I'm sure he's going to smoke us being as good as he is. But seeing him race on Sundays next year, I cannot wait to watch his progression, watch him learn, get better and better and better, right? Did you talk to Sam Mayer after the race?

You know, Sam, Sam was really, sad, I thought. Look, I walked up to Sam, it's hard to tell, you know, but I walked up to Sam and I thought, man, he looks pretty heartbroken. But listening to his media comments afterwards,

I was really proud of him. His interview post-race got a lot of great positive criticism. I told Sam standing next to the car after he got out, I said,

Let me remind you that no one thought you would be here. Nobody was going to put Sam Mayer in the championship four. And you have came a hell of a long way as a driver from where you were to start of the year, even at the halfway point of the year. He has progressed. We get another year with him. Marty will be back as his crew chief. and he is maturing, he took a big leap forward in maturity just as a man, right?

And he takes that inside the car with him. He ran a really good race. He had some moments during that race, not just at the end either and some other points during restarts and so forth where the old Sam mayor could have came out. And he could have knocked some people around. And honestly, been able to you it was able to be excusable because of his age and his past history right but there were a few times where I was really watching him close and I'm like that was good

patience that was smart he didn't do you know he didn't he didn't he didn't do the aggressive inexperienced thing there and so and even at the end that final that final restart I think him and Justin both will run that back through their heads over and over. I bet they're upstairs right now in the competition meeting going over and over and over that final restart, what they could have and should have done. But again, you know, Sam maybe could have done things a little differently, but, you know, he didn't do something that he has to excuse or regret or explain away. So I'm excited for him.

I'm glad that Justin and Justin's program should. be as is going forward. So will Sam's, those two cars made the final four, I think they'll go into next year and continue to improve and be even stronger. No reason why they can't try to, you know, both get back to the final four. We got, you know, we will, we will work in the offseason to try to give Brandon and Sammy Smith both the same opportunity. I'm looking forward to it.

A lot of potential. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of potential there. Going into the cup race One of the things that was so fun Let's go over the Blaney hand gestures All right So my man Blaney

Is easily Anoint behind the steering wheel Man I say this on the I'll say You know I've said this on the broadcast a couple times Specifically using the word Shortfuse Or the phrase

Blaney's got a short fuse. And as soon as I say it, man, I go on Twitter and all of the glass holes, Blaney fans, will be like, why does Dale say he has a short fuse? That is not true. Hey, man, they go to his defense.

Am I wrong? I mean, I'm assuming you're telling the truth about that. I don't know what they go to his defense. No, am I wrong about him being a short... No, I think that goes back even year. Like, you and him have even had little issues with him in the short fuse while you were still racing his rookie year like no but i don't yeah that's not a problem people act like that's a degrading thing to say no you said

short fuse is in race cars not uncommon and not a not a terrible thing not no blaney even said it in his post race press conference that he gets mad easily thank you from the man himself from your man from your man glass holes that's right um people that it's like you know you could congratulate Blaney and then you have people like coming at me saying he you can defend what he says in the radio and I'm like why do I give a crap about what he said on the radio if he won a championship why do I care what he's doing in the car to win a championship I could not care less I like it I like the cursing it gives us great audio they play it during the commercial they're like listen to Blaney I'm like y'all have to put that on air and they're like oh we're gonna yeah and so

but the hey the funny the funniest part for me is we're riding along with him in the car and he's driving along and he's just flipping his hand he's like uh-oh over and over he's getting so frustrated and the one car's in front of him just kind of driving the same line lap after lap and blaney's like flipping his hand in the air and i'm like what blaney's just driving and but blaney knows more than we do right blaney's out there on the racetrack i i'll look i'm going to give him that he knows more than we do right right Right. And he's, he knows that Chastain's being strategic and tactical in how he's trying to airblock, right? But it's just so funny. If you just kind of ignore that little part and watch Blaney ride around the track, man, he's, his hands up in the air and he's flipping the bird.

And he's like having this sort of conversation. Yeah. Right. With himself and with Chastain. Therapy. Yeah. Self-therapy, self-medication is what that is. That is what the bird finger gives you. Sometimes it just feels better.

There was a, it was like a flip of the bird, and it was like just dash level, you're all right? It wasn't like at the windshield. Yeah. It wasn't out there at the windshield, like, boy, I want you to see this one. Right. Again, he's just self-therapy there. Yeah.

And he's smiled after that. He was like, oh, that felt good. Yes. So I'll say this too. Like, sometimes, like I've tried to cut. and complain without mashing the button on the radio, and it doesn't work. It doesn't feel as good, does it?

You got to have somebody hear it. You can't. Yeah, so it does, it only, it only works and relieves that sort of pressure if someone hears it. And it doesn't matter who hears it. And so, you know, maybe they need, you know, maybe there needs to be like a life coach on the radio that Blaney just talks directly to.

The therapist. Licensed therapist. Yeah. You know what? Just for all drivers. Who does he need? Who could be Blaney's life coach for the radio? No, no, no.

This person doesn't have to have an ability to even talk back. They are just there, and they don't have to have, we're just going to label them the life coach, right? They could be somebody straight out of the grand stands. This person This is just Blaney needs to say these things One person needs to hear it And then that's the end of the

That's the end of it They're just like kind of a trash can catch all For all of the cursing and the madness That Blaney needs to release It's like that stress ball Yes But then we wouldn't be entertained Maybe he could have

Well that's fine He could have a special button that he mashes Where he just curses And this only one person Just is the only one listening to it That reminds me about back in Kurt Bush's heyday when he was just letting him fly on the radio. And I remember his PR guy who was one of the all-time greats, Tom Roberts said, you can say all those things, Kurt.

Just don't press the button. It doesn't work. So, hey, maybe the person does talk back. So Blaney can, you know, Blaney or let's just say any drive. You believe that shit. 10-4. Yeah, man, that was bullshit. You know, somebody to agree with you.

That's a crew chief role. Creachie's busy, man. Crews he's busy doing strategy, talking as engineers. He ain't got time for this chitter-chatter. Sorry. Steve LaTart would tell you that a lot of the things is just working with the driver. They know how your buttons are pushed and he knows how to play him. Steve LaTart will tell you the crew chief role has changed tremendously since he last did it. He can no longer do it.

Is that right? Yeah. He said so on the broadcast. Interesting. Okay. So the crew chiefs today have so many more responsibilities. They're not really this sort of line of community. for the driver anymore.

So that's more of the spotters role. Like we hear the spotters now more talking to the drivers, right? Right. Like Josh Williams. Come on, man. Hang in there. Hey, big picture here, buddy. Things the crew chief would say 10 years ago.

That's more than, you know, so maybe the spotter's the guy that's like, yeah, man, I agree. Even if the spotter doesn't agree. Even if the spotter's like, you're an idiot. You know, the driver just needs to hear somebody go, you're right. He is an ass. you're right that was screwed up you got you got the raw end of that right okay listen you're you're right you're right but i'm i'm just so i'm so um amused at just the idea just the hypothetical of

you and tj uh back at that like there's no way that would work all the time you would get too pissed off at your it's like you getting pissed off at your therapist yeah and and i just want to see what comes of it now like again again Again, I think you're right. Drivers just need to be coached down or coached up. But what happens when y'all go at odds, then it's right back where we were. And I'm here for it, by the way. I don't have a problem with any of it.

Well, I don't think that Josh Williams and Blaney would go at odds. I don't know them enough. I don't know Josh Williams enough. But I'm just thinking about you and TJ. Yeah, this probably wouldn't work with me and TJ. He doesn't, he's not agreeable. that was be honest with you um you did need a crew chief to a person use as a sounding board didn't you person yeah anyone person crew chief

spotter and when that crew chief didn't play that role it didn't work no i'm not going to say names i'm just saying that it didn't work yeah i mean you could even go back to the ureys man sometimes they would um get you wound up yeah you know and pops would go take out that guy whatever it is i mean Like, that was just how they're I always felt like that, you know, yeah, I always felt like that the URIs were like, yeah, screw him. Right.

Well, yeah, yeah, go get you. That was BS. Yeah, man. But when the crew chief's not that way, when the crew chiefs like counter to what you're thinking, the spotter can't do anything. He'll lose his job. Right.

You're not, the driver don't pay the spotter. The team does. And if the crew chief goes into the ship, shop on Monday and goes, hey boss, this spotter we got, I can't work with him. That's right. He's out. So that ties TJ's hands a little bit. Yeah, that's fair. Okay, so did you think that, from your comments, it sounds like Ross didn't do anything wrong. And I think we all sort of agree, like Ross is going to race like himself. He's not going to, I'm not saying it's wrong. Ross didn't do anything wrong. Right. And he won the race. So, I mean, how can you hate a guy for trying to win the

race. Blaney, but I just want to see some, um, I want to see some social media memes and stuff with the Blaney hand gestures. All right. Like, where's the videos? I haven't seen anything. Remember when Blaney and Bubba were driving down the road and they were mimicking, uh, the other drivers?

That popped up recently. Did it? I want to see that done. About Blaney. About Blaney. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

The funniest part of the whole exchange was William Byron's crew going the 12 is melting down. Go get them. I'm like, he said that. It was true. It was true. I'm standing there, I'm like, man, I picked Blaney to win. Look, you know, I know I'm supposed to be by, uh, non-biased in the booth.

But, man, I'm pulling for Blaney. I picked his ass, right? Right. You had a lot on the line on that. Yeah. I'm like, Blaney, come on, man. Don't learn. Don't, don't miss this up for me.

Don't self-destruct. There's one guy that's been in your bucket since February and you're going to let him down. Yeah. But, you know, now. the meltdown on the radio was notwithstanding. I would say that did you think that Blaney was trying to race

Ross too hard too soon? Like before the last pit stops, I think that there was at least an idea that he was pushing the envelope trying to make the pass because he was trying to get out in the lead. It's so important to get the clean air. Right, 100%.

And I felt that way too. I appreciated what Blaney was doing at that point of the race. But I think everybody else was just trying to wait and see what happened. I will say this. I was worried and nervous when he was doing that. I won't be in the next time. Because I was sitting there going, man, Blaney is about to race the shit out of this guy

and lose the big, you know, he's going to race the shit out of the one. The one, yeah. And lose the big picture. But he didn't. He raced the shit out of the one and still won the race. And so... Well, yeah. The one won the race.

I'm sorry, still won the championship. So I will... Next time I'm watching this same scenario play out, I'm going to go, you know what? Blandy's got it. I'm going to trust that Blaney knows what the hell he's doing. He's... I mean, he's a champion. He knows what he's in that car.

So that's the way he thinks he needs to be racing in the moment. Who's the question what he thinks he needs to do, right? Not me. Not anymore anyways. There's a debate, though, about the race itself. Was it a good race? And I want to go to Jeff Gluck's poll. Jeff Gluck does the poll every week.

We're all very aware of that. 67.9%. So 68% said yes. That is a good race. But that ranks 11 of the 16 Phoenix races in the poll. Number five of eight championship races in the poll. Ford, Homsed, Ford Phoenix. It's number three.

of the four championship races that have been raced at Phoenix. Last year, only got 28%. Ugh. I'm surprised that it's number three of the four Phoenix races, because I don't really remember the other ones being all that great. Certainly last years must have not been very good. I thought it was a good race. Am I wearing the rose-colored glasses with the number 12 Blaney written on the side?

Yeah, I bet. I think you are a little bit, but that's okay. It's fair. I mean, listen, your vantage point, when you're calling the race, you're just such a better vantage point than us. The race, listen, from being honest, I think I can all the way go back to, I didn't love the championship four in terms of storylines and personality. Wow.

I know. I'm sorry. I'm saying I didn't love it. Like, I would have loved a little bit more, I don't know, personality. That's going to be a YouTube clip. Just that little part right there, right? Put that out there. So you had that.

You had that. There wasn't a whole lot. of compelling things beyond their abilities to race, which is unquestionable. That's for sure. Really? Secondly, then the first half of that race was just, it just wasn't that good. Really? Mike.

Am I, do you disagree? You disagree, obviously. Man. I don't know, man. It was almost, almost painful. I put it this way. Knowing that it's a championship race, there was nothing, especially in the first half of it that felt big in terms of what I was seeing on the track.

Again, your broadcast was great. Everybody's doing what they can. You take away Christopher Bell's issues and there is not a single thing about that race that was memorable until the very end when Blaney started mixing it up with Ross. That's just my opinion. I know. I'm surprised by that. So here's the thing.

So when you're at the track, standing there watching the race, from a high vantage point. Listen, my vantage point from the booth is going to give me a different energy and a different entertainment level and value than even the person standing in the pits, right? When you're down in the pits, you see a whole lot less of what's happening on the track. And when you're watching on TV, listen, we got cameras everywhere. We're doing our best to give you everything you can, but still, you can't freely look around. wherever you want to try to see whatever it is you'd like to look for, right?

So while I'm standing there in the booth, there's a, during the pre-race even, during the pre-race down on the front straightaway, there's this tension building. It's a level of anxiety and energy, just building, it's bottling up. Pressure's growing, pressure's growing. Get the green flag, it continues to build. we have started the race in a very, very short period of time. We're crowning a fucking champion. When the race begins, William Byron,

who we've told his story in the last half hour of the pre-race, or the last hour, you know William Byron's story, and he is now leading the race. If everything goes as is, William Byron could be our champion, who basically started driving race cars 10 years ago. All right. His meteoric rise through trucks, Exfinity, into Cup. And then he ran in Cup and was just top 10 in the shit out of everything,

not winning really a lot of races. And here he is in his year where he breaks through. Driving the 24, iconic car. I mean, all of these things are in your face as you're watching this play out in that stage one. All the while, just outside of you, right in the corner of your eye the 12 and the 20

are just methodically sort of moving forward climbing into the conversation right Blaney qualified 15th the 20 was outside you know back there as well and you know so there's those things happening in that first stage

that were satisfying my entertainment and so you know the stage ends we're going to have a pit stop oh shit blaney lost some spots oh man all that shit he gained now he's back behind a couple of guys oh he's mad i hear him on the radio all those things are are entertaining me and then you know you have stage two right and you got you got kind of oh here's larsson now larcen's finally you know showing what he can do and and now he's in the conversation

the 24 might be fading a little bit what's going on there now blaney's yep we saw that car in practice the 12 car was the best car in practice now look at him hauling ass 20 blaney's got a real shot at this finally we get to see him side by side naked neck with the 24 and the 5 and looks like that 12's got the better race car and then the 20 has the issue now it's just three this is very much more clear picture now all right so we're that whole process is playing out and to me you know I'm entertained because

nothing was decided nothing was known all the way up until the very end still weren't sure 100% that we weren't going to get that late yellow that would flip the script all over again Blaney you know comes on pit road sort of in a great position for that

final stop loses all of those you know loses all the positions to the five and the 24 has to restart behind him again, has to muscle his way right back by him. I know you enjoyed that part. But yeah, and so that's the big, that's the big, you know, that's the million dollar, like, not debate or question. It's like, that's the problem with everybody sitting in a different position and viewing

the race from a different space. You know what I mean? If you were sitting next to me in the booth 100%. You'd have really had not much choice to plug in. I agree with that. I'm tethered to that window by this microphone headset that I'm wearing.

I'm not on my couch. I'm not going to get up and go in the living or the kitchen. Dig through some snacks. Let the dog out. I don't know if that's exactly what I did. Help my daughter with her homework. I might have had some heat. Okay, okay.

I'll get the trash out. Jesus, I come back and I'm like, I missed 20 laps. What's going on now? This is boring. For me, listen, Dale, all those things are true, except your reenactment of whatever my house is going on. That was not your house. That was not what's going on. But I would say, look, there's a couple things here.

One is, and this isn't, this isn't exclusive to just this week. We know that the car doesn't make good passes, the dirty air thing. It does have an effect on the, um, on the, um, on the, the excitement. It was not, look, the Xfinity race is what we had. You talk about learning from the day before, and this has happened all year. The Xfinity series has been the product that really kind of puts on the best show. I mean, it just does.

The cars put on the best show. So that happened again this time. I don't agree with that. Okay, well, I'm just, maybe this is my opinion. That Xfinity race to me had no more excitement than Sundays. I did not, I was watching that Xfinity race. I wasn't like. wowed by what I saw.

Okay. I just disagree on that, but that's okay. I mean, you had a different vantage point than I did. The other thing is, again, Ross did nothing wrong, but the guy that won the race wasn't even for contending championship. Again, and when you're trying to be immersed in the bigness of the event, that took away a little bit. Really?

For me? I'm only speaking on me, and so anybody wants to step at me about that and they disagree. Fine. I don't care. Everybody can feel differently. I'm just saying. the fact that this is the first time that we didn't have the race winner be the champion, right? It's the first time in this playoff era.

Yeah, I grew... I think I would prefer to have the champion win the race. I don't. So, look, and I'll tell you why. Look, I grew up in that era where a lot of times, man, almost every time someone else won that last race. And the championship might even already be decided before we got to that last race. And so to see Ross win didn't bother me, and when the champion was always winning that final race, it rubbed me the wrong way.

It's like, what's going on where these guys can show up at this one race in the year, and all four of them are going to run up in the top four positions? Or the champion's always going to win this race? That's a little, that rubs me the wrong way. I think that's not saying it right. You had to win the race to win the championship is the better way of saying it. Not the champion just always won the race. I'm saying that I like the fact that you had to go win the race to win the championship.

By the way, and that was all happenstance, by the way. It's not like that that was in the rules. I get it. But I'm just saying is that for me, you know, Ross up there doing his thing. And it's like, you know, these guys were running second for Blaney, you know, third, fifth, seventh, whatever they were running those last, you know, 50, 75 laps. The end of the race hooked me, for sure. I'm not, I don't want to talk about that.

I'm just felt like the, I'm surprised that Gluck's pole is actually as high as it is, to be honest with you. I was surprised by how low it was. I thought it deserved it by a 75 or an 80. I mean, it's a high 60, but. Yeah. I was, again, you know, maybe it was just in the way I consumed the race, which I felt like I consumed it as objectively as I could. I'm also grading it higher because Phoenix has been born as shit. That's true.

But that also weighs into the track itself doesn't put on the big event, like the bigness of the event. We knew that that was going to be the case. And it lived up to expectations on that, frankly. How many people said, don't you wish this thing was at a homestead again? I saw that everywhere. Now, that's not a coincidence. It's because the event itself did not meet an expectation that we somehow have. I felt like when I was at Homestead, man, I remember when we had the championship race there.

Boy, that was cool. I wish it was like that again. Went to Phoenix. And when I'm in Phoenix at Phoenix, it felt worthy. Oh, being in the town, being in the city and all the buildup. At the track. In the moment during the race, at the end of the race, the celebration on the front stretch, the celebration in the middle, all of the things going on, the grandstand. I mean, it felt championship worthy.

I don't disagree with all of that. You have to be there, though, to be able to appreciate that. And you were at? You were at those homestead races. Right. Again, I'm not knocking Phoenix and all the buildup and all the efforts that everybody put in to make that event. I'm talking about the race itself for me was a bed of a letdown. I know, but I mean, when, how many homestead races did you watch at home?

I don't know the answer to that. You were at them all. I guess. many. I know. So you were physically there, which would give you a whole different experience than being, I mean, had you been at Phoenix this weekend, your whole opinion may likely be different. I think we're saying the same thing there. Okay. I don't disagree with you. Your vantage point and being at the track would definitely create a different experience. But I, I'm just saying for me that didn't, you know, it was a bit, I don't know, the end, the end salvaged it

for me. The end. And Blaney, I was so happy for Blaney. So does anybody else have an opinion about that, by the way? I've been to Homestead and Phoenix for both championship events. And I will say, like, NASCAR does know how to put on a championship event no matter where they are, but I still felt like Homestead had more of that championship field than a Phoenix race. I don't want to turn this into a Homestead versus Phoenix. What did you think about the actual race this past week? The Cup race. It was nice to see comers and goers. Like that final pit stop, I assumed Larson would have just won the championship because he came out first on Perry Road.

So that to me seemed different than, like last year I remember it was like a Joey Lugano show. So that was like the biggest thing I noticed was seeing people come and go and Blaney actually having a race his way back through the field. It felt like he was more worthy because he had to earn it. I thought knowing Phoenix and how the races is. had been going there, there was no shot for Blaney to drive through there in a short period of time. I thought the comers and goers was going to happen

no sooner than lap 25, right? And there just weren't enough laps left in the race for Blaney to accomplish what he ended up ultimately accomplishing. And so I was like, well, shit, okay, they did have a different tire.

The track was super wide. They were using the top of the race track on both ends. Last year they ran on the bottom of three and four. really could make any time at the top so I mean the racing and the track even is hard I put a lot on the track and how the track surface tire and the car all work they improved that even which I didn't think was actually going to happen the drivers put on a good show the the facility fans camping all of that stuff was to the max a lot of hospitality and stuff going on around the track,

so it's felt big and important. And then the race, like the cars being able to move around, there was a lot of passing and some pretty good battles to watch. And so, I mean, it checks all the boxes for me. It's as good as I think Phoenix is probably ever going to get. and so, you know, Phoenix ain't going anywhere. And that championship races, we're going back to it. They're having a test at Phoenix in the winter

to continue to try to further that short track package and improve it. They say they got a lot of new things and a lot of excitement around some of the stuff they're going to try. Also, the tire that they brought to Martinsville that they learned a lot about, Good Year's more invested and involved in trying to help get this process going. So Good Year's scarred, man, from years and years of drivers complaining about their tires and the indie issue where the tires ravelled and fell apart. So finally, you know, Good Year's back in the game, ready to get it, you know, help solve the short track package.

So I'm bullish on all of it. The top five races of, it's going on, you know, quickly going over the top five races of 2023 with the pole that Gluck puts up. I love this poll, man. I've been always a big fan of Gluck and the pole. And Gluck will lose his senses every once in a while and be like, man, I'm going to have to move the pole. Twitter, you know, Twitter made it hard on him.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm going to have to move the pole. I'm like, God, just a freaking pole, man. It's really not that deal. Luckily, it stayed where it is. Kansas Spring Race was number one this year, 93.3%. The Coke 600.

Who would have guessed? An oval race at Charlotte would ever be popular again. It was 91.2%. Daytona, the regular season finale, 91. Fontana, 89%. And the Atlanta Summer Race, 87. we're going to go to the bottom five. The bottom five.

I'm trying to think if I can guess these. I bet I could. I feel like Martinsville Spring was there. That was the worst. That was the worst number 38. Martinsville Spring, 37%. Watkins Glen, 39%. Sonoma 43, the Phoenix Spring Race, 44%.

So the bottom four are, let's say, road course short track package. That's right. Yes. Right? So, and then the Vegas spring race, 48%. Pretty interesting. Vegas suffered early in the season. But only three races, this is Gluck furthering his information on Twitter,

an incredibly awesome follow. If you don't follow Jeff Gluck, I'm sure you do. Only three races made it into the 90% club this season, down from seven in 2022. a little concerning. On the other hand, no races were under 30% this year. Five were under 30% the last year.

And he wants to do a Was it a good season poll next Monday. So watch for that one. If you want to vote. I always vote on these. Yeah, me too. And I'm thankful that Jeff continues to do them. If he was going to move it to another platform,

I was probably not going to ever see it. Yeah. So was it a good season? Do you want to go ahead and give a, since you're so good of predicting things? I still feel like I'm a bit, you know, I'm a bit blinded by the success that Blaney had. And, you know, I was pretty entertained throughout. Now, listen, man, that short track stuff, the short track package is frustrating. saw some promise there at Martinsville and again this past weekend at Phoenix that gives me some hope.

You know, a lot of people expected you to take a pretty big victory lap on this prediction, but you've been actually keeping it on level with this Ryan Blaney. You deserve to get some kudos for the fact that you did pick Blaney at the beginning of the year and stuck with him. We baited you into trying to change. We did. I almost came close. There was a little bit of a moment there early. in the playoffs where I was like

if he doesn't if I don't see something this next race I might have to change my prediction but luckily man they got the ball rolling in the playoffs they continued to grow and grow in confidence in how they were going to you know I think one of the best stories that I heard

over the weekend talking to Blaney he said you know I raced against his dad Dave me and Dave came into the Xfinity series together and I think he had the coolest Xfinity Series car, the Amicoe 93, beautiful car. And so, and Dave was so nice. I never talked to him, though.

I was too shy, too scared to talk to him. And so, and I told him this. I said, man, I was too nervous and two, we were on two different pages. He had, he was older, had kids. I was a young idiot. And I was like, you know, we just didn't, we didn't become friends.

like I wish we had. And anyways, I, you know, I got to know Ryan. I remember standing on the, me and Ryan qualified together side by side in his first cup race at Kansas, and I stood next to him at his car before we climbed in. And I was just with Dave there. And I was like, hey, man, today is all about running all the laps.

I don't know what kind of nerves you're feeling. what kind of pressure you're under or what you think you need to go out here and do. But I would just say, you know, don't screw up. Don't put yourself in a bad situation where you bust your ass and try to run every lap. Nobody expects you to do anything beyond that. There's nobody, nobody's like sitting there going, boy, if you don't run into top 10, because if you go back and think about Blaney Ryan's career, early on man

he got very minimal opportunities he raced in the Xfinity series before Penske right he was getting these opportunities and they were very very brief and he had to flash if he didn't flash you didn't think he might

ever see him again nobody really knew much about him he wasn't like he dude this guy's nobody was sitting there going man he's dominating the short track circuit He's a star, he's a rock star I hadn't really heard much about Blaney until I see him at an Xfinity race drive

in Tommy Baldwin's car and he ended up running a top 10 that night I think and so it was like he had to flash right finally he got this opportunity with Penske and man he would have moments I remember he raced for Penske in this limited role he had this race at Indy where he led some laps but lost the race

and I'm like, I call him and I'm like, dude, damn good job today. And he was furious at himself. He's like, those races I'm supposed to win. He was madder and heck. That's when the first time I saw that little fuse. And I was like, dude, no, man, you, everybody in the industry is like, hey, Brian Blaney, good driver. More, you know, get him some more time. He's going to be great.

And he's like so mad at himself that he didn't win that race. He's like, it's Roger Pencey's car. It wins every time anybody else is in it. I lost. And so, you know, I, I, I, um, he wins his first rate. So he's, he's renting a house from Brad Caslowski right next to my mother's house. Uh, and, and my neighbor as well. He wins his first cup race.

And I call him. I'm like, hey, you're having to get together at your house? Yes, crew guys are coming. I said, I got to beer. I'll be there. And I brought two coolers over and we partied all night long. And I text Dave. And he's like, hey, would your, I was like, Dave, you got to come on over here, man.

This is awesome. He's like, would you want your dad to come over and party with you? I'm like, I kind of, kind of would have. But I get it. We laughed about that this week. And so I sent Dave a picture of all of us that night at Blaney's first win. We had this picture that we all took. And he's like, yeah, you tried to get me to come over and I didn't.

And so, you know, Ryan moved out of that house eventually. He's going on with his life. We rarely, you know, speak as much as we used to. But it's been fun watching his career. I really don't have favorites out on the racetrack outside of people that drive my own cars. You know, there's people that I like to see do well, Truex, have friends that. man, I was pulling for him to do that. You too, actually.

You know, I was pulling for Byron as well because Byron's connection to junior motor sports and how we worked with him over the years. And Byron will have more opportunities, I'm certain. But man, I was happy about that. And, you know, I will say that we'll have more conversation around that pick. and what we think about, I'm going to say this, for our Thursday show, we're going to do sort of a, what drivers performed and what drivers didn't,

who we thought elevated their game, who we thought did not, we may make, and I'll just say, we're going to make some predictions. Way too early. Way too early predictions? Yeah. Way too early predictions. So you want to tune in on Thursday for that.

All right, everybody, this has been our Tuesday show. We're going to wrap it up. a lot going on this week. Make sure you tune in to Thursday. I know a lot of people listen to our Tuesday and our Wednesday show, but Thursday we got a big surprise, a lot of things to talk about. We also have surprise and disappointments from 2003, way too early predictions, all of those things that you'll want to tune in and hear. Tomorrow we'll have Kevin Harvick is our guest. So Kevin was excited to come on. to the show, wanted to come on to the show, wanted to be our last guest of the year,

and we think he deserves that. We're thrilled that he'll be here, and I can't wait to talk to him. So tomorrow, Kevin Harvick, and again, Thursday, we're going to wrap up this whole year. I hope you'll tune in. We'll see you then. Take it easy. Check out Dirtymo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.