The Dale Jr. Download - 524 - Bristol: Goodyear Got It Right

Episode Date: March 19, 2024

Dale Earnhardt Jr. reacts to Sunday’s wild NASCAR Cup race at Bristol on this edition of Dirty Air. The racing world is abuzz after the stunning 500-lap event, which saw teams and drivers scrambling to get ahead of the tire wear situation: A step in the right direction for short tracks? Race winner Denny Hamlin calls in How will Goodyear react to the race? A little more practice could help avoid a crisis  Asphalt vs. concrete  During the Ask Jr. portion of the episode, listeners wanted to know all about: Dale shaving his beard Having music played through his helmet during races NCAA bracket picks Favorite weekend morning cartoons Dale’s steering wheel technique 21+ and present in NC. First online real money wager only. $10 Deposit req. Bonus issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire 7 days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See full terms at fanduel.com/sportsbook. Gambling problem? Call 877-718-5543 or visit morethanagame.nc.gov. 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.

Hey everybody, it's Dale Jr. back again for another episode here at the Dale Jr. download. It's Tuesday. It's time for some dirty air here in the Bojangles studio. We got a great week of content, but here on Dirty Air, we're going to talk about Bristol, and Denny Hamlin, race winner is going to call in. It's been a few hours. Have the teams figured out anything from this race weekend where we saw so much tire wear? Let's get started. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media. All right, everybody again.

It's going to be a great show today. I had such a great time watching the race, and I've been dying to talk about it. A quick thank you to today's Dirty Air sponsor. That's Tire Pros. Just the other day, I saw one of their mobile vans at the race shop helping a teammate get their tire changed. Wow.

Boy, I could have used that. I didn't know they had that. What convenience. That's unmatched in today's world. Find a van near you at TirePros.com. Man, if you have that flat tire on the highway, that is what you need. All right, man, so it was an awesome, awesome race this past weekend.

I think the Jeff Gluck poll was 88%. So feel pretty good about that. I was thinking it would be 50-50. We were about 150, 200 laps into the race. A lot of people were being negative, negative nancy's, about the race so far. But I was apprehensive on bashing. and thinking, man, this could actually turn out to be pretty good.

I like seeing the guys on the track thrown for a loop. Everybody was scrambling, trying to figure out what was the best approach and how to handle this. And I had seen this many, many times at local short tracks around the southeast where drivers, you know, due to the abrasive nature of the racetrack, which the brushed concrete at Bristol is very abrasive, due to the gumball tires that we run on the short tracks, you've got to be careful.

You can go up there, take the lead, run up front all you won't. But you might not be there at the end. Somebody's going to be saving and being smart back in the race is going to drive through the field and take the victory away. We see it all the time. And I love that chess match. I love that unknown. Like who's really saving?

Who's not saving? Who's saving enough? We had that multiple times. throughout the day, every run throughout the day was, you know, was a challenge for the drivers to try to figure out how to get their tires to last the most. And so short track racing, I don't know about everybody else, but I have fallen into this routine of having a very short-term memory. Something in the sport can happen that will completely make me forget

what the challenges were leading up. to that or what we've dealt with in the past. And so I have to remind myself, like short track racing was in jeopardy. Now, I don't want to be gloom and doom, but, you know, short track racing has always been such an incredible staple and a big part of our sport back in the 50s and 60s when NASCAR was kind of getting itself off the ground. Every race was a short track, except for Daytona and Darlington, Atlanta, and then Charlotte comes long. Otherwise,

everywhere they went was a half mile dirt or asphalt race track. I mean, short track racing is our roots. And so, it's in trouble. It's been in trouble. Especially with the next-gen car. But before the next-gen car, we're

losing short tracks. We'd lose a short track on the schedule so often that some of our industry insiders are calling places like New Hampshire and Phoenix short tracks now, which is ridiculous. We're so starved for short tracks.

We're just changing what a short track is. But we've needed to figure out how to get the next-gen car to be more exciting on those type of racetracks at Bristol, at Richmond, at Martinsville. And so, hallelujah. What a happy accident. You know, we show up. They're talking about tire wear in practice. they thought it would get better.

Usually it does. We show up to places that are abrasive on a test like Darlington, and you'll go out and you'll run 20 laps and wear a tire completely out. But you know, as you put more rubber down on the racetrack, that's going to improve throughout the test. And when race weekend comes, the tire is going to be fine. And that's what we anticipated happening at Bristol. But as I noted on social media, after about 100 laps, man,

that racetrack was not taking any rubber at all. All that rubber was not, you know, getting put down on the racetrack. It was just forming up in this sort of very dry, shredded, like, beef jerky mess that was just getting thrown up into that top groove. And so, you know, they've changed a lot of things about how they make these tires. They've taken a lot of chemicals out. Tires gotten greener over the years. And now, you know, when the tire does shred,

debris, that debris used to be tacky. You could be balls on the racetrack and it would collect in the race cars and you could grab it with your hand and it would leave a black goo on your hands. Like it was, if you touched it it came off and onto you.

Right. Well, the stuff that we had Sunday up on top of the racetrack was just like dry shredded tire. It was very, very interesting that the tire wasn't tacky and maybe that was a temperature situation. Maybe that's temperature related. Couldn't really get a ton of heat in this tire and it just shredded off, you know, because that, you know, brushed concrete is like a cheese grater. But anyhow, you know, that I knew as soon as we weren't laying rubber down on the track and that tireware was not going to improve. We were going to have this tireware issue all the way to the end of the race. So now the drivers have to slow down, chill out, try to save what they could. And we all watched that happen. We watched the drivers adapt. We watched the crew cheese. and the teams adapt and everybody start to put a plan in place

to get their driver to the finish line and they did. It didn't fall apart. We didn't, you know, we didn't self-destruct. NASCAR didn't have to step in and throw competition yellows like we were having, you know, happened in some of these situations in the past. Goodyear did freak out mid-race, go into PR mode. Unnecessary, necessary. I don't know.

I don't know what I would have done if I were them, but I know they were concerned. there's a race going on I think they could have held that PR mess off until the end and decided whether it was necessary or not at that point but in the middle of a race, man, don't be distracting me

with this. I want to see what's happening on the racetrack. So anyways, I want to applaud good year. They have been very conservative over the years on doing anything with their tires.

If you're making tires, if All right. You out there, you own the tire company that makes the tires for the racing, okay? And you're also trying to sell tires to consumers out on the highway. So the racing tires that you're going to make, you want them to look great. You want them to be durable. You want them to create a great reputation for your company. So you're not going to make a tire that isn't trustworthy, isn't good, is going to fall apart,

it's going to shred. blow out, you're not going to make those tires, even if they ask you to, even if competitors and race car drivers want it. They're not going to, you know, you're going to be able to make a tire that is safe and durable just like you're trying to sell on the highway. And so I applaud Good Year for being aggressive. That's hard for them to do because they could get negative publicity. The drivers could get out and complain.

Fans could be frustrated, and we've seen that in the past. One driver who's, you know, very happy about this is Denny Hamlin. Denny won the race this past weekend. He's going to be able to answer a lot of questions that we have today, so let's bring him on in. Hey, Danny, how you doing? I'm doing good. Yeah.

All right, man, you've had a couple days to process everything. Appreciate you going home and knocking out actions detrimental. I'll listen to the show. It's a great show. sometimes a guy comes off a win especially shoot it was midnight when you recorded that I didn't know if you'd have any real deep dive information because shoot man your adrenaline and your excitement overwinning the race kind of overrides everything in that moment but you gave some great insight on everything that went down and what the drivers had to deal with like I said

you had a couple days to think about it and and what do you think you've learned what are the teams learn from what happened? Yeah, I mean, I think the teams have a lot of the same questions that they had over the weekend, but I mean, just trying to draw some conclusions on, you know, what it might have been, right? I think that, you know, certainly the easiest one was to say that, you know, there's something going on with the tire itself that is different. You know, the only counter to that is that actually many of our Toyota cars ran the old tire from the fall. and it did the same thing. So, you know, the thing is with the tire is that it's got oils in it, right?

It is a partial green tire. And so any kind of oil has some sort of viscosity to it. And there's something, and this is for the length of time ever since, you know, 20 years ago, Martin's Zill always had to be a certain temperature to actually start laying rubber. I think that there was a decent amount of track temp difference this weekend from what we've had because we've been racing in the fall. It's always been warmer for the last four years. We haven't been at Bristol in the spring in a long time.

So I think I'm truly a believer now in the fact that the track temp play the bigger role than anything. So they could go test next week and if it's 70 degrees outside, they're still not going to find out what it was. So I think that it's just one of those, you know, perfect storms for them that that just kind of all lined up and ended up giving us what was a great race. I agree. So I agree that there's a lot of variables there that you can't repeat. How do you, how do you, and I know the drivers all communicate, you all try to have a like-minded

opinion and voice going forward so that just a lot of, you know, when the drivers want to collaborate and be involved in things. You want to try to kind of have a streamlined opinion. How do you guys keep Goodyear? How do you keep Goodyear from overcorrecting? How do you communicate with Good Year? Have you even started those conversations? Yeah, I mean, I think that I'm sure some drivers have for sure I haven't yet.

It was great to hear kind of, you know, a good year come out on Sirius yesterday and say, you know, be pretty positive about it. I'm glad they've taken that approach. So certainly, you know, we would all like to know what it is. That way we can implement this on other tires. Now, do we want all this in a mile and a halfs and stuff like that? No, probably not. But I think this really could be a big benefit to the short tracks.

And so we're going to definitely try to keep them positive, keep them aggressive. The teams itself, they know they can, you know, JGR feels, hey, we can go get another 20 laps out of this if we went tomorrow. So there's clearly differences in the car. that we could do as well to help them out. Yeah, I had that argument yesterday with the guys at door bumper clear. I agree with you, man. I think if the teams, you know, realize things are going to be that severe,

they would definitely take the opportunity, if given, to make adjustments that could improve the durability of the tire, or just how hard the car is on the tire, cambers, things like that. Good to hear that your guys feel confident they can make that tire run longer. If you, you know, go to Richmond, right? I don't think that you have this kind of same scenario because, and I'd like to hear your opinion, the concrete at Bristol and at Martinsville, it's brushed concrete.

It's not like smooth. It's brushed, and so it's got a bit of a texture to it that's kind of abrasive and difficult. Whereas a Bridgman, I think you could take a tire like this and not have, even if it doesn't lay rubber, I don't think you have the wear issues that you have at a place like Bristol. Yeah, you're not going to for sure. I mean, again, this could never happen again. There's a, there's a strong possibility of that. This is just a one-off. And what it, what I think the side result could be is that Goodyear could get more aggressive when they're developing new tires, right? I mean, that's what we hope is that they're not afraid to see cords at the end of a fuel run when they go tire testing. Like usually they see one little band of cord and now we're going to go to a little harder compound. And that's with only just a few cars on the racetrack. So I think that we've always been quick to react.

Chase Elliott mentioned that. You mentioned that yesterday. So hopefully we don't overreact and actually we go the other way on some of these tracks that we know historically has had very minimal tire wear. Yeah. So I think the key part, there's a lot to this, but driver opinions, I was really careful to listen to the drivers when they got out of the car how they commented about the tire. I think, you know, if you go back 15, 20 years ago, myself even included, man, we would get out and we would hammer good year. If our car didn't drive right, if it didn't feel good, I'd talk about having basketballs at Dover and hockey puck.

at Bristol and, you know, Tony Stewart would get out and just hammer these guys, just brutal, brutal, brutal, comments. And so I was, you know, thinking, gosh, I hope nobody does that. I think that they didn't, right? Everybody got out and said, hey, man, this might be a little extreme, but we like it. We want, we want this. We can make adjustments, but we really like what we saw. Even drivers that didn't have great days got out and were very, very kind of measured in their opinion.

I think that goes back to the driver text, right? The group conversations that y'all have where you guys go, hey, man, they're going to try to get aggressive. Good ear is going to get aggressive? Let's not hammer them. If it doesn't go like we think, is that true? Are y'all having those conversations where you guys are trying to, you know, help Goodyear along here?

Yeah, I mean, I think that we all try to get on the same page the best we can, right? We've got Jeff Burton there to try to kind of moderate that at times and kind of be our singular voice because you try to get us all in the room. Everyone's going to have a different opinion. I thought overall the consensus is that this is what we asked for and it was okay. And I mean, the one thing you never heard about this weekend was, hey, we need more horsepower with this. Or we needed, you know, we couldn't pass or aerodynamics. Like that was a non-factor.

If you wanted to drive to the front this week, you absolutely could. And some people, that was the approach they took. said, I'm just going to drive hard and see what happens. And, you know, others were more calculated. And so that's why you saw so many lead changes is that others, you know, who were in the lead chose not to fight for that lead. They said, okay, you go ahead, right? It was very much like a horse race where, hey, a guy jumps out. He's probably not going to have enough stamina to make it to the finish. So it's, it was very, it was a chess match at 120 miles. an hour of Bristol. Me and Kyle Larson were beside each other for the lead and we both started

slowing down, not wanting to take the lead and, you know, almost coming up with a, hey, let's just slow everybody down here. Let's keep the front. And so it was a, it was definitely a fun race from that instance. And I understand everyone will have a different opinion. If you ask the Penske guys, they're probably going to be the most negative about it. History shows for whatever reason, And the Penske cars wear out tires. This has been for decades now. So they're really hard on tires where, you know, historic organizations like JGR is better on tires. So it just is, it's ebbs and flows, but it shows that definitely cars make a difference in how you treat them.

So one of the things that I get asked a lot throughout my whole career. Have you ever peed in a race car? Apparently this is something that you are now doing. at least you've talked about it twice in the past six months. And we get that question from time to time, but it's fun to answer. For me, it probably happened half a dozen times in my career. There's just times when it just says you cannot, you can't hold it too much, and you've got too much race left.

Am I to believe that just six months ago, that was the first time in your entire career you've ever done that? yeah it was uh Atlanta how did you go your entire career without ever like you know lap 50 having a full bladder I don't know I I just the the bladder was bigger I guess and it's spunked over time I just don't know what exactly it is but no not able to hold it as much um but for me I really I like it now because it keeps me drinking. Like when I get so full before and I was not able to go, I'd have to stop drinking in the call. And so I wasn't hydrating myself because I was in such pain. And so now that I'm able to let it go, I'm able to keep hydrating throughout the entire race. So I love it.

So when you take a pee in the car, what lap in the race was this this week? I was under caution probably the end of second stage. Okay, so you're not too late. Yeah. Do you tell the interior guy, do you let the guys know right away? No, I told him this weekend when we got out in Victor Lane, and he was like, damn it. He's like, I got to watch the thing again.

Hey, when, so you got a white suit. I did, yeah, so when I had a white suit. One time, I used to have a white suit, so if I ever peed in the car, I'd get them to bring me a Gatorade or any kind of a colored drink so I could pour that on me before I'd get out so nobody can see my yellow piss stains all over my suit. Oh, man. Well, there was, trust me, there's many, many text conversations between myself and JDR says, stop with the white suits. That is trouble, man. You're going to have to figure out how to get some Gatorade and you've got to make it. You get the alligatorade and you blend it in.

That's a better move right there. That's right. All right, man. Hey, thanks for calling in today. I know you busy all week. Good luck in Cota. Enjoy those track limits. And you'll be missing the short track racing that you did this past weekend,

I'm sure, on Sunday. But have fun, man. We'll see you. All right. Thank you all. All right. That brought back a lot of memories all the The Alligator A.

that, yeah. You know, you're like embarrassed. You can't hold it. I mean, you're racing along. You're like, it's distracting. So you've got to get rid of the distraction, and you're uncomfortable. But you can't do it during green flag. You have to kind of wait for a yellow to focus on happening.

Yeah. Takes a lot of focus to do that. And you're like, because you're, I don't know what it is about your body. The yellow comes out and yellow comes out. Yeah, the yellow comes out, and you're in full yellow mode. There's a lot there. On our puns. But yeah, I would get done and I'd go,

hey, bring me a yellow Gatorade before I get you. I really am thirsty. And so I'd pour that yellow Gatorade on my suit to sort of blend it in. So I didn't hop out and just like, oh, Grandpa peed on himself. You know what I mean? So, but I did. When I, when I had this happen, I felt so bad about it because it is nasty, right? the interior guy has to clean this up.

Monday, whenever the car is going to come back, they take the inserts out, they do all this, they wash these cars. So I know they're going to deep dive into this interior. And so I'm not going to make this a surprise. They're going to smell it immediately. But I always had a hard time breaking the news to my interior guy at him. But I know that we have Denny's interior guy's phone number.

Should we give him a call? Ask him how this experience is going for him. All right, so we got on the line here, Denny's Interior Guy, Denny's Interior Guy, how you doing? Oh, really? So, Denny, I assume you're a little fed up with this new trend of Denny peeing in his car that he started this year. I know, but it's part of the deal. I'm surprised that it's taking him this long in his career to finally start this process, but now he seems to like it. So happening on the regular now, you're getting this issue every other week.

Well, I'll say, yeah. I mean, I'm traumatized. You sound pissed. Yeah, no pun intended, right? So, you know, how does he break the news? I guess he's told us he said something in Victor Lane this past weekend. You're happy you've won the race, but then you get that dropped on you. Yeah, well, I mean.

Right then in Victor Lane? Yeah, he can't control it. Oh, man. It's like he turns time. I guess he feels like when he's in that driver's suit, it's just okay to go anywhere. I guess. I mean, we're talking to JGR management about. Well, man, we, I have a question for me, actually.

Did it impact the racing service at Bristol at all? I'm glad you brought that up. You think Danny went to Akron, Ohio, and pissed in the good year mix? Absolutely. I think. Who needs resin? And he's the only one to know, right? So he knew exactly.

Man. Shredding tires up. How to run in the beep. They're going to call it PJ 11 the next time they put down. P.P. Yeah, BP 11. We got that all-in T-shirt. We need P-P-E-11.

Yeah. All-in. He's all out. All out of P. All out. Golly. I'm actually, sorry. I think, hopefully that. Man, well, I don't envy your situation.

All right. Thank you for talking to us today. Denny's interior guy. I appreciate the phone call. And yeah, good luck, I guess. I guess good luck. Good luck with that race. Yeah, thanks. All right. We appreciate that. That was cool.

You know, it's interesting how Denny's interior guy and Stephen sound alike. No. I guess so. I still can't get over. He can't listen to Yellow by Colby. Yeah, that is funny. That is funny. The weight is over, NASCAR fans. FanDuel, America's number one sports book is officially live in North Carolina. and right now new customers get $250 in bonus bets guaranteed when you bet your first five bucks. Just go to fendule.com slash Dale to sign up. Then you can bet on everything from individual race winners to prop bets

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Restrictions apply seeful terms at fendule.com slash sportsbook. Gambling problem, call 87777185543 or visit more than a game.nc.gov. I want to, you know, Denny had a great car. The 19 car had a great car as well, True X. Some of these guys had different, you know, had different challenges. Denny talks about organizations having, you know, cars that traditionally wear tires more. I never even thought of that.

Whereas, you know, he feels like their cars are better at saving tires or taking care of the tires for long run. You could see where, you know, certain teams, organizations, you know, struggled as a whole. You know, it's like all, you know, all the Gibbs cars were running up front. Now, you know, Ty Gibbs, maybe, you know, you could see he pushed a little bit harder than the 11, the 19. I'm sure he'd go back and do that differently.

But you would see the, you know, all the Penske cars just sort of throughout the day having more and more issues trying to make it, you know, that 45 or 50 laps that you needed to go. But anyways, you know, I think to Jenny's point, they can go make adjustments. on these cars knowing they may give up speed, they may give up some balance and comfort in the car. But teams have been, teams have been so used to how durable the good year tire is. There's never, you know, it's been a long time since they've had to worry about beating up the tire.

it's allowed them to get more and more and more aggressive with settings. You know, stiffening up the car, camber settings, all those things that are going to beat up the tire and abuse the tire, they've been able to, you know, kind of be pushed pretty hard on that. And so when throwing a soft tire into the mix, you know, a lot of the teams, you know, weren't ready for that. And I think, to Denny's point, they could make the adjustments dial a lot of things out of the cars. to make the cars.

And that's my whole stance. Good deer don't move. Good year don't change. Ask the teams to make the adjustments. Ask the teams to adapt. Just the same way they adapted during that race. Ask the teams to find what they can inside those cars and in the setups of those cars to make those tires work.

Denny talks about it. They've already, you know, in just 24 hours, found 20, 25 laps. I spoke kind of like to your point. their teams weren't expecting it. I spoke to Chris Gabehart and Victory Lane after the race, and he's like, yeah, by 80 to 100 laps, we expected the track to be rubbered in, and it just did not happen that way.

But, you know, Denny was saying he doesn't want Goodyear to change the thing. Chris Gabehart had something similar to saying. I think we've got a clip. I don't want Goodyear to get drugged through the coals on this. I mean, Goodyear, they made us race. They made us make decisions. Do you want to manage your tires or blow them out? Do you want to pit under green,

or do you want to stay out and wait for a caution? What do you want to do? And that's great. That creates great racing. So, you know, we need to figure out how to do this more often and not kind of a freak set of circumstances that we're all scratching our heads. But honestly, kudos to Goodyear for making us all work. Yeah, I agree with that. And I'm glad that everybody's being vocal about it, you know.

A lot of the, you know, if he doesn't say that, if we don't come on our show and voice our opinions, the fans are left to make assumptions and decisions on their own, right? and more often than not, they're going to look at that race. If you don't have Kevin Harvick and Clint Boyer up in that booth describing everything that's playing out, they did an amazing job, really, really entertaining, entertaining listen. If you don't have that going on, if you don't have Denny and all these guys getting out of their cars and giving us the full rundown, fans would be left to assume that that was not a good show.

That was a problem. That was an issue. Good Year needs to fix. and so it's good that everybody's coming out and saying, now, man, let's not hammer Goodyear. There's other avenues that we can take to make this tire work. I mentioned that I thought Goodyear jumped into PR mode a little bit too quickly. I'm not a, you know, a Goodyear CEO or I'm not an executive.

Would I have reacted the same way more than likely? But I wish they would have held off on that explanation until the race was over with. because I felt like at halfway, things weren't going to get worse. I think that was the reason for the press conference was, just in case, this really turns into a shit. Yeah. I need to get in front of it. But one of the things that we, you know, would have fixed all this,

and something that I think we need to consider is bringing some practice back to the race weekend. We talk about how the teams had a little bit of practice. They saw wear. They were concerned, but not too terribly nervous about it, figured it would fix itself during the race when the track rubbered in. Well, they would have learned in practice had they had two or three hours, like we traditionally used to have before 2020. They would have learned, hey, man, this track's not taking rubber.

This track isn't reacting the way we want. The tire isn't improving in wear. The wear was similar throughout the entire practice. We had a little practice, maybe an hour on Friday, maybe a couple hours on Saturday, and nothing's changed. We need to work on our car. I think that as we've trimmed down the race weekend for financial reasons, right, we try to make this cheaper, we're putting ourselves in situations where we could have helped ourselves. We could have, you know, made the adjustments had we had a little bit of time on the racetrack, you know,

that we would have had in a traditional weekend that I don't think we would have. we need three hours of practice every weekend. But I believe we need it back at a lot of places. And especially in scenarios like this, when it allows Goodyear that confidence to try to be aggressive. And I don't think it affects the race one bit. You don't think so? No, not really.

I mean, the good cars are going to run good. Don't you think that, like, I know this weekend's kind of a unique situation, but with more practice, it would have taken away some of the fun and watching teams react to the conditions on the fly, because that's what I really enjoyed about watching the race, is like the lack of practice actually helped, I think, my enjoyment of it, because, I mean, even like Chris Gabehart said, the goal wasn't to perfect the car mid-race.

It was just to get it within the ballpark. So to watch teams react that way, I thought was interesting. I agree. But do you think practice would have ruined it? No, I don't. You have a really, really good valid point there. If you have enough practice, the teams, you know, solve the Rubik's Cube. Yeah.

And then we don't have this just crazy race. But we all don't want, we all really don't want that race, right? Really? No. I enjoyed it. I did too. I enjoyed the hell out of it. But do I want them to maybe get the tire to run 20, 25 laps further?

Do I want them to get to 80, 100 laps before we start secording? I think that's really the place. we want to be. I don't think that Goodyear drivers or anybody, fans myself, want to go to a short track and have a 45-lap tire.

I mean, really, if they run hard, it's a 30-lap tire. So we've got to get more than that. Yes, they can make the adjustments to the cars, but then you would have to give them the practice, right? Right. So I mean, this is a big circle we can argue around, and I just feel like that

would it have taken a some of the shock and absurdity of the first 100 and 200 laps probably and that might have been a good thing because I know a lot of people were spiraling out of control on social media that this was terrible that this was a joke and so we would avoided sort of that the team still would have been challenged all we really want is the drivers to have to manage it right and so even if they practice for a couple hours I think it would have just given some of these teams that couldn't get the car to run 30 laps no matter what the driver did, a chance to show up on Sunday and have an opportunity.

You would have still had a tire that failed before the fuel ran out, which is what we want. Okay, right. We want a tire that's going to fail if you drive the shit out of it. Just like Clint said, he made that Days of Thunder reference. drive at 40 laps my way and 40 laps your way and then you set the tires side by side, right? That's what we want in racing. I want a tire that before the fuel runs out of the car,

you can destroy it if you're not smart. You can abuse it, and it will cost you, right? I don't want a tire that's so bulletproof, the driver can run 100% until he has to pit for gas. That's when we're going to hear about aerotype, can't pass. Everybody's the same. I get stuck in 30th and I can't go anywhere. That's why.

Because that tire is so good, everybody can run hard every lap, every corner. And so, you know, this gave us an extreme version of what we're really all looking for. I think that, you know, Goodyear could probably make an adjustment and fix it. maybe just allowing the teams a couple races to figure it out would be enough. I think adding a little bit of practice just so we can avoid, you know, a serious issue like we had at India in 2008, would be nice. And it would give good year and the teams the knowledge to continue this path, right? Showing up and racing, showing up and racing and showing up and racing,

doing a little tire testing in between, there's a variable that's missing, even in that equation to try to solve exactly where we need to be with the tire to short tracks to make the short track racing better and that's the weekend practice and so I'd appreciate if the teams were given those opportunities and maybe they don't even want them

maybe the owners are like nah I don't want to spend the money to any's point you know I love the fact that there were you know teams that seem to figure it out teams that seem to adapt and drivers that didn't Yeah. You know, it was funny because, to Denny's point, you could drive to the front, and that little carrots out there, right? You're like, I could take the lead.

I could drive into the top five if I want to. It's going to cost me. I might, you know, I might hate it at the end of this tire run and have to pit early. But, damn, that's a, you know, that's a lure that's almost too good to pass up for some guys. And so you see guys that typically maybe don't run up in the top 10 driving toward the front, right, and paying the price later. There were some drivers out there that Goodyear definitely didn't have the inventory for. No matter what happened, they weren't going to change their style or adapt, right?

And that's what we want. We won't weed these guys out. The spotters and the crew chiefs, they had to talk their drivers off the ledge. T.J. talked about how they had a lap time that they wanted Brad to run. We do that in our late model races. Before the race starts. I mean, we're doing this shit before we even get to the track. I think we need to run an 1880.

If we can run an 1880, the whole race will win the race. So we get to the racetrack, watch lap times, watch practice, start the race. This is what the leaders are doing. All right, man, we're going to run this lap time for the first 50 laps, no harder. And every time you would get a couple of tents too quick, spotter comes on the radio. that's too fast slow down

okay okay okay and so it's because it's a chess match you're positioning yourself right hoping that if everything falls in line you've got a way better tire those last 20 laps than all the guys in front of you

and that you're going to take advantage of it puts on a hell of a show and so we heard TJ talk about that you know having to back his driver down and so I love that you know helping them understand the severity of the tire wear. Drivers, you know, don't know how bad these tires are wearing. They can't see that right rear when it comes off the car.

Now, they watch that right front when it rolls around the front of the car. I can feel it too, but... Well, you can feel the cord happening, but I always would, you know, if I thought I had a tire issue, we come down pit road, jacked a car up, traditional pit stop, and I'm watching that, I'm looking over the steering wheel, looking over the hood, watching that right front tires that rolls over to the wall. Is there any cords or any chunks, blisters? What do I see?

You know? And sometimes you don't see shit. You're like, ugh, what the hell? So I know the drivers were trying to watch, you know, tires on the front of the cars. They're getting rolled across pit road during their stop, but they can't see the right rear. And so they're having to get information from spotters and crew chiefs

about how severe the wear is. It's like, you know, when you get damage on your car, you know, you don't know how bad it is. You can't see a photo. You can't watch TV. You've got to get information from your crew about how bad the spliters been or how bad the right rear quarter panel is. You don't know.

Yeah. I mean, Redick on DBC yesterday, he said, I don't even know how damage my car was until I got out of the car. Man, that whole front thing was destroyed. Exactly. So the question is, is do the driver, you know, the thing that was fascinating too was do the drivers listen? As they're getting this information from teams and spotters about lap times and where and, oh, the scenario is dire. Look, man, this is unlike anything we've seen before, fix and adjust. Would the drivers get it?

Would they make the adjustments to their line, how they drove the car, to try to improve tire wear? I think they definitely got smarter. Yeah, they did. I mean, so many drivers after the race that were in scrums and that I talked to, they're really surprised that that last caution never showed up on that long green flag run. One last thing that I will say that I really thought was cool is Denny gets out of the car and makes this comment. He says

the victory meant more to him because of the way he had to go about winning it. He quotes, in his quotes, I know I had such a huge role in the result. If the car was not good, I wasn't going to win, but I feel like I played a huge factor

in the result. I'm really proud. It's a real proud one for me. Certainly one of the more proud ones I've had in my career, no question. So, what I'm hearing is we made a win mean more. we made a win at Bristol mean more than a win at Bristol means. All right, we made the race harder to win.

And if you guarantee fans a similar event in the fall, you're going to sell more tickets and you're going to have better TV ratings. I'm sure of it. So anytime you can make the win mean more to the driver, anytime you can make the race harder to win, I'm more than likely going to be more entertained, more fascinated and more impressed, right? That was impressive to watch those guys figure that out.

And I mean, I watched every freaking lap because you thought any minute something was going to happen. We're not sitting there waiting, you know, we're not sitting there passing the time through stage one, stage two, stage three, waiting to see what happens at the end. You know, every single moment of that race was a potential, you know, storm. That's the longest I think I've been invested flag to flag in a long time

like you said I mean anything could have happened at any anytime I was watching the press box and just glued

to the racetrack didn't look at the TV at all that's not typical for how I typically would consume a race the recipe is there for Bristol

to become one of the favorite tracks of the schedule again and I think that we're close to it you want to know too another thing about like

we always a lot of the reasons You know, people say, man, they ran the bottom at Bristol years ago. How do we get them back to the bottom, right? You know, we've been putting a PJ1 down and to stick them and stuff like that, trying to make them race on the bottom. So they'll push each other and knock each other out of the way because that's the only way around the track.

But another thing, too, is, man, when those marbles, they started, everybody was like making such a big deal out of the debris, tire debris on the racetrack. Man, in the 70s and 80s and 90s, that's every single race. You did not get out of the groove. It was marbles. And drivers would, you know, wreck and they'd get out of the car and go, Yeah, man, got in the marbles.

That was natural common occurrence every single week. And so when that started happening, I'm like, yeah, I've seen that before. You know, this is, no one's going to go up there. It's too dirty. There won't be anybody cleaning that off. It's too much clean off. It's not happening. And so we never saw anyone run the fence.

They talked about how when they got out of the resin, the wear was worse. The tire wear was worse higher up the racetrack. But also those marbles, man, you were not going to go up there. because it would kill your tire. You get that on your hot tire and it's stuck and it takes laps for that to get worn away. And so that was another compelling, sort of very nostalgic thing that we saw.

And hearing about putting scuffs on and them being more durable. When's the last time we've ever heard that? Teams used to scuff tires any time there was ever, ever, of concern about tires blistering? Because back in the 80s, and 90s, tires had a lot more tread on them. And the blistering was the issue.

You wouldn't go into the cords like a tire does today. You blistered tires because it had so much rubber that the heat would build underneath and it would blister away from the bottom layer. And so today's tire is so thin, the tread depth is so thin. And all the oils that Denny's talking about have been taken out of the tire.

Some of the less greener oils, the more toxic chemicals, have been removed from the tire. and now when that tire does wear it rars straight to the cord it's like a powder it's crazy how all that's changed over the years but I mean in the 80s and 90s the whole track will be littered with marbles and debris

off the racing groove and you really didn't venture far you know out of that singular you know one or one and a half two grooves now there were tracks that did have a high line and you know depending on I think like we learned this weekend and temperature, track temp, and all those things, that tire's going to wear differently. Marbles are going to be less or more or whatever. But, man, it was a very fascinating thing

and brought back a lot of memories. We would go to races in the 80s and 90s, and if there was ever any concern of tires blistering, teams immediately started scuffing every single set. So the teams could access all of their tires, even their race tires. Nowadays, you're not allowed any of the access to them. You get to put air in them. you get to stack them up that's it but in years past in 80s and 90s man if there was a tire

concern they just would go ahead and scuff them no problem alleviated problem fix no concerns because when you scuff the tire it sort of shocks it or it makes the tire more durable going through that cycle and cooling back down just hardens the rubber in some weird way so that it'll be a more durable tire when it's put on the race car during the race and so that was another fascinating thing that, you know, got brought up during the event on Sunday. Let me ask you this then. A lot of people cited, obviously, like, temperature, but then also concrete doesn't really rubber up. They've noticed until 65 plus degrees. That's a great point. And the other thing, too, is, like, at Martinsville and at Bristol, when the track does rubber

up, and it did put a little, little faint bit of rubber down at certain points of that race, when they would run long enough. not noticeably, but when the caution comes out, the hot tire picks the rubber back up. So they'll blacken the groove, and then caution comes out, and they'll pick all that back up, especially at Martinsville.

And then they repeat that whole cycle over again. The track goes back green. I mean, the literal surface of the track is green, like a new track, like a fresh track, and they've got to rubber it all in again, right? And if the runs long enough, that again happens. until the caution comes out and they pick it all back up. It's this sort of vicious sort of circle,

especially at Martinsville for years that happened. I believe that happens on asphalt racetracks. Okay. The color of the racetrack doesn't allow us... I just believe the color of the racetrack doesn't allow us to see it is easy. So the rubber gets laid down, it gets picked back up. I think that happens anywhere and everywhere. But it's more noticeable on a concrete racetrack.

And probably more, it happens more, aggressively. Aggressively, yeah, is the word I'm looking for. At a concrete racetrack. But I still feel like, you know, the brushed concrete, when they brush it when it's wet, right? And it cures with a, with a, if you rough, if you took your hand and rubbed your hand across it like that,

it would hurt. It's like sandpaper almost. It would, all right? Do that. Go to asphalt track. Not as painful. That's what the tire is dealing with. So if you take this issue to Richmond, it's not going to be a problem.

But if you go back to Bristol or Dover or, you know, these concrete tracks, you've got to be a little concerned and be careful. So let me ask you this then, asphalt or concrete, especially when it comes to Bristol. I hate concrete. I don't think concrete should be surfaced on any of the racetracks we run on. I don't. I would dig up every concrete track right now. even the corners of Martinsville and pave them.

No question. No hesitation. Why do you hate it so much? I don't like the way. So concrete is poured in sections, blocks, right? So they've got to cut concrete because as it goes through a season of change and temperature, it has to change and, you know, it swells and contraction. So they, if you look at a, you know, if you ever drove down the interstate, right,

They pour concrete in chunks, right? And if you ever drive down the interstate on an old concrete interstate, it's like, the don't, doon, the car starts hopping and bouncing. Well, it's just like a deck, a wooden deck that's not treated. The edges of those boards bow up, right? Well, that's how that concrete does at the joists. When they went to Indie, when they took Indie to Dover for the first time, they had massive issues with the joists or the joints,

the joints in the concrete where it was cut. those had bowed up and down over the years, right? And so it was these little peaks. And they had to go grind all of that down. Massive grinding at Dover to get the Indycars or the RL where they could run through there smoothly. And they didn't run there very many years before. They just quit.

But when I would run at Dover, my tires would get hot, and they would build air pressure. And they would feel like basketballs, Like they were literally bouncing across those joints. You know, lap 250 in the race, you know, 80 laps into a run, tires are screaming, massive buildup in air pressure and temperature, and they felt like they were literally leaving the surface of the racetrack as they were jumping these joints.

And so I just don't love the way, I don't love the way concrete feels in a race car. I don't love the way it reacts to the tire. I don't love the way that it's unpredictable in terms of the groove. And so, you know, when you, we would go to Dover and race, for example, sometimes the only way around that racetrack was right on the bottom, and then you'd go back and you could run the top, and you didn't know why.

You know, it was tire temperature and all those things, but it was always that way on the concrete tracks. They were very unpredictable. you go to Atlanta, you knew you were going to run the fence at some point. You go to Fontana, same thing. You know, you go to these asphalt racetrack traction. You knew you might start on the bottom, but you were going to end up at the top, or you might run the middle here or whatever.

It's very predictable. But I just don't like concrete. I think it's, I think that, you know, the way the cars react and slip, the way the tire reacts and the slip angle of the tire, it's not the best. choice in racing surface for our cars, for oval stock car racing. It's not the optimal surface.

If you could have the perfect surface, you certainly wouldn't make it concrete. They made concrete, you know, they poured concrete in the corners at Martinsville, and they poured concrete at Dover and at Bristol, only because the asphalt couldn't hold up. In the heat of the summer, they would rip that asphalt up and tear it up.

And they had problem after problem after problem. But that was in the 80s and in the early 90s. Now, technology is much better these days, and I think the pavement would hold up. We're going to find out. I think when they go to, you know, North Wilsonboro with that new asphalt there, modifies, late model stocks,

cup cars, trucks, all going to, two and a three seconds faster around that racetrack. If they don't have any tire, you know, if they don't have any surface issues, I'll be surprised. They may have minimal, you know, some failure of the surface. at some point, but hopefully it's no big deal.

But I beg Marcus and those guys to pave Bristol one day. I doubt I'll see that in my lifetime, but I imagine maybe one day. All right, so before we move on from Bristol, I came back to the office yesterday. I think it was yesterday. Andrew, you were at Bristol, man on the street doing your thing. Do you have fun? I had a freaking blast. Yeah.

Yeah. It was a ton of fun. Yep, good. Everybody's texting me like, hey, saw Andrew today. Oh, really? Yeah, people like you, man. Who did you, okay. How'd you get texts from?

Different people. Different people. Yeah. I saw a bunch of people there. I'm always, I'm always knowing. You're always, yeah. I know where you are. You're always watching.

That is actually kind of terrifying. It's terrifying, yeah. So you had this conversation with Joe Lagano? Yes. All right. Joey had something to say. Well, yeah, I was asking. you know, it was kind of a follow-up, you know, hey, do you have any good Dale Jr.

Impressions? He's like, no, but I have something to say to Dale. Okay, good. And this is what he had to say. All right. I saw him the other day, and I walked to him, I said, hey, I got a problem with you. And he's like, what? And I said, really, like, insurance salesman? That's what you think I look like? Because he said that in the Netflix talk. I was like, come on, man. And we laughed about it. It was kind of funny. But do you think you could sell insurance? I mean, I think I'd be a hell of a salesman. That'd be awesome.

Yeah. I mean, he's probably not wrong. I like the thing of a better race car driver, but, yeah. Sometimes she just can't help the way you look. No, that's right. Hey, insurance that, yeah. He said, do you know blippy? Oh, yeah. He says Cinderick looks like blippy.

Do you see that? Bighty? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if that's a good thing. That's not a good thing. That's awesome.

I'm glad he both. Cendrick is going to come after me. Let's see. Get a understanding of all of this. He's not going to be happy. I saw him. He was talking to someone, but I really wanted to go up and say like... You got all year.

Yeah. All right. Don't work yourself. I want to go to Martinsville, so we might have to catch him there. Yeah. Yeah. Man, let's let that one marinate a little while. Team Penske's looking real good. They got an insurance salesman.

They got blippy. Driving their cars. And Blaney. Yeah. Blaney, who's like Marlboro Man. Yeah. Yeah. You know, that's one of the things I think that you run the risk of when

you're an analyst or you're somebody that's got to give their opinion all the time, which I don't have to, but, you know, the stuff that we do, the content we create, it calls for it. And sometimes you're going to say something. You're going to like, God, dang, how they're going to, how they're going to take this? Because drivers, I was one, right? I was a driver. We usually take things too personal.

And a lot of times we're, you know, everything's creates a chip. You know, you got a chip on your shoulder. about everything, right? And so they're sensitive. So anyhow, he's a good sport. He is. Yeah. I agree. And he's a hell of a race car driver. One hell of a race car driver.

Way better than he'd ever be as a salesman of insurance. And I bet he'd sell some insurance. Well, I asked him like, hey, do you think you can do it? And he's like, I could probably do it pretty good. I think he's competitive about whatever he does. I'd like to see him try. So I'm glad you got to do that. When do we see the rest of the content you created?

I knew you were out there working. Well, I'm editing today's show today, so I'm going to hope to get to all of it tomorrow and, you know, be out Wednesday or Thursday, hopefully this week. The man on the street from Bristol, Andrew Curlin, sometime this week. Sometime this week. All right. That's right. This week's segment was brought to you by tire pros, man.

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Show your neighbors some love and make sure you tell them Dale sent you. Let's get into Asch Jr. Let's do it. We are live. All right. out there in YouTube land or wherever you're watching this. Thank you for tuning in. Also, talking about Xfinity.

Xfinity is a big supporter of Asch Jr. I know that I'm supposed to be talking about Xfinity Mobile. They have the fastest mobile service with 5G and millions of Wi-Fi hotspots all across the country. Nationwide coverage, it's always going to come through in a clutch. I know I'm supposed to tell you that. But I got to tell you, man, I got an email. Oh, so I've been, you know, share it with you guys.

I'm an Xfinity series internet customer. I live in an area where that's provided, and that's the plan that I purchased about five years ago. And I love it. I've never had any problems with it, but I got an email this past week. They repped my speed up. They doubled my upload speed.

Missed that one. They doubled my upload speed. Double. It's a big deal. And no cost, no extra cost. They're like, hey, man, just going to tell you, your speed's faster. Paying the same, no problem.

How about that? That's pretty cool. I was very happy about that. And I know for a fact that this is not like special Dale Junior treatment. This is like just, I'm a normal customer. They don't know who the hell I am. You know what I mean? So I was very happy about that. Because sometimes things happen in my life and I'll go, Amy, that was cool.

And she goes, everybody's nice to you, Dale. Shut up. Not everybody gets that. So, but in this case, I think this was a normal thing. Yeah. But I was very happy about that. So thank you, Xfinity. And Andrew's got your questions you sent in to, have we sent them into Twitter?

Yes, Twitter. Facebook. By the way, shout out to Facebook. They've been killing it with the questions. I'm still not calling it X yet. I don't know if I'll ever do that. I'm not going to do it either. I'm not, it's not a, I don't have a problem with it.

I'm just so. It can be whatever wants to be. You know what? It's kind of like the lucky dog. And it took me a while to get to free pass. I still struggle with that one. It's a lucky dog. Yeah, I still want to call it the lucky dog.

But I'll do it in the race and they'll be like, hey, junior, you know, it's not been a lucky dog for years. So let's get to the question. Yes, this first one from the YouTube chat, they're asking why you shaved. Yeah. So, honest answers. I went, this is, all right, honest answer. I made no secret about turning 50. 50 in October.

It's got me a little spun out. Not sure how I feel about it. 40 was no big deal. We partied. We had a great time. 50, not sure how happy about that I am. None, really. Not happy at all about it.

I hadn't had my haircut in a while. It was getting pretty rough. Hadn't been trimming my beard. I was wearing sweatpants most every day. That is rough. Yep. I was just dragging. I was really just kind of doing the bare minimum.

Yeah. Yeah, brushing teeth. That's good. Yeah, that was, that was it. We appreciate that. There was like a span of about five days there where I was like, this continues, it could become permanent. I'm glad you said that because I was going to tell you.

Yeah, so I was thinking like, man, I'm going to go get a haircut. Amy schedules me of this haircut, and I thought, man, I'm just going to give her a clean slate. You know, blank canvas. So every once in a while, I don't know that if you grow beards, you know this. Like the skin around this area gets dry and it just needs air, right? And moisture and all those things. And so when you have a beard, it sort of gets a little bit irritated sometimes. But the other, you know, so I was like, you know,

spent probably time to knock it off and give it a little bit of time to breathe. So I've been trying to keep it short. The pot, the reason why I grew a beard. beard was because I was a Gillette young gun and they wouldn't let you have like it wouldn't let you grow any facial hair right and so like I was like it's a great deal I like being one of the Gillette young guns but I can't do what I want I can't grow up go-toe you or whatever the hell I want to do right and so I was always fighting against that I'd grow a go-toe or something and they'd be like hey you're allowed to do that I'm like well who are you tell me what to do my face damn beard

police you know yeah Fun police, beard police. And I couldn't even grow a beard there at one point. And so, you know, when I was younger, it was patchy or whatnot. And so once I got to where I could grow one, man, I was like, I'm growing the beard. And then I was like, I'm going to see how long I can get my beard. And, you know, then I'm trying to push against, you know, Amy. She's like, hey, that's too long.

And I'm like, oh, yeah, watch this. I'm going to keep going. And so, you know, it's like this sort of rebellious thing that's just out of control inside of me, man. And so, and then, yeah, anyways, I kind of, and there's one other thing about growing a beard. We're always doing, when you're a race car driver, you do multiple photo shoots a year. And especially now where everybody's got 18 different sponsors, you've got to do a photo shoot with all of them. And every photo shoot means makeup, all right? and I hate getting makeup put on my face.

Hate it. Right? And so some makeup people go very thin, very light. Almost don't even do anything. They're like, all right, you're ready. And you're like, oh, okay, this is a good day. And then sometimes, man, they're packing it on there. It's like you don't even recognize yourself when you look in the mirror.

And you're like, is this necessary? I really don't. This is like too noticeable. Like everybody knows. As soon as I go home, Amy's like, hey, you got makeup. You're wearing makeup. It's like super obvious. And so when I would grow the beard

It's like, hey, you can't put makeup on that part Right? So it's again rebellious. I'm like, no makeup here, buddy. Yeah. Shorten the time in the makeup chair by a lot. And so I shaved the beard and I forgot that I had this Hellman's shoot just last week

And man, I went in there and they Spackled that right on. Yeah. And I was not liking that. But, and I came home and as soon as I walk in the door, or my girls and Amy are like, you got makeup on.

And then I got to tell Aala who's five why I'm wearing makeup. So it's the thing. We're going to start adding makeup. So there's a long explanation about nothing. That was pretty good. Yeah, thank you. There you go.

So you shaved the beard. Yeah. Nice. I think I'll, you know, I got some text messages from friends that have seen me since, and they're like, it's weird. I don't like it.

It was a little jarring when I saw you this morning, for sure. guess yesterday. Yeah. So I think, you know what that means? We're keeping it. What? You're going to, you're going to keep shaving? Because people don't like it. Because people don't like it. You're going to keep shaving it. All right. The rebellious, like, oh, yeah, really? You know, all right. It's the opposite. Yeah. I'm going to make it normal. We're bringing clean, shaving back on the down low. I'm a pain in the ass, I guess. This is what I'm getting down to. There you go.

Yeah. This next question, let's see, I've got a bunch written down here. This one comes from Alan. He said, you know, given the opportunity, would you ever want music playing through your helmet? Yeah. So I think so. I think that would be totally fine. I wanted, so when I was racing in the bud car, probably 2003, 2004, we would go to

three-day test at Daytona in January. and the entire test was making single car runs. You'd make a change to the body, just a little puff, a little aluminum piece, or a little change to the air cleaner or whatever, right, tiny changes. They would have a list of 150 things that they wanted to go out and make one run with.

And so you had to have absolute clean racetrack. So everybody would pull out on pit road and you'd get in line and cars would go one at a time and run two or three laps. And there would be about a half a mile or three quarters of a mile between cars. You wanted that much of a gap so you weren't affected by the air of the car in front of you. So you could get two or three cars on the racetrack. But it took a long time.

You'd come out on pit road and you'd pull out and see like 25 freaking cars sitting there in line. You're like, damn, I got to weigh a long time before I make my next run. So you'd pull out there and it'd be 30 minutes of you moving up in line. One car after another, going out and making their run, finally it's your turn. And so finally, I told Tony Jr., I said, man, I know you don't want, no, if I said, hey, give me some music during a race, they would go, absolutely not. Nobody's doing that. And it's a distraction.

How could you be serious about racing if you want to listen to music during the race? So that would never be something you would ask for. Would I think it would be, do I think it would be a distraction? No, I think you'd race just as good, if not. maybe better. If you had the right song playing, maybe you're even more motivated, right, or having a better time.

So I think in a way, music is motivating and can be, can drive energy, right? Can affect your mentality, moral, your mental state, right? So I wouldn't, if a driver came to me and said, I want to listen to music, I'd say, well, what kind of music?

And if I thought the music was going to be good music or music that would give them energy and exciting, you know, make them excited, I'd let them listen to it. I would. I'd try it. But back in them days, man, you didn't want to do anything that might give the team the thought that you weren't focused. So, but we're going to the test and I'm like, Tony Jr., I want music in my car.

How can we do that? So we rigged up a wiring system for the helmet that would allow me to plug a MP3, this is MP3 days. They didn't have iPods or nothing. But you would plug an MP3 player into it. It would play music. and anytime Tony Jr. keyed the mic, it would block it out and I could hear him. And so if he had to tell me anything important,

like a spotter saying, hey man, it's your turn. When this car goes by, take off. Things like that. But yeah, I was able to listen to music during the tests. What was on the playlist back then? My playlist has always probably been traditional alternative, 90s alternative, current popular, rock

Pearl Jam Yeah things like that Oh yeah Gotcha Yeah Someone in the YouTube chat said

Free Bird's solo That would be fantastic Hell yeah Just you'd win that race Yeah This next question is coming from John Have you filled out

An NCAA bracket Not yet Any teams That you like Nope North Carolina Tar Heels All right

Yeah I'm a Tar Heels Man Nice It's a shame It's a shame My Wolfpack beat them on Saturday.

Oh, yeah. Well, it happens. It does. Yeah. We'll take them as they come. This next question is from Rick. Favorite Sunday morning cartoon? Sunday.

Man, my cartoons came on Saturday. Saturday morning. Rick said Sunday. They must have changed over the years, but back in, you know, 40, 35, 40 years ago, Saturday morning cartoons was a thing, man. You'd watch Saturday morning cartoons and then NWA wrestling with Dusty Roads and Magnum Tiae and Tully Blanchard and all those guys. Oly and R. and Anderson.

No. I never did that. I think my, I mean, you know, Bugs Bunny was the, you know, Bugs Bunny was always the, Looney Tune stuff was always kind of the good stuff. But the Coyote, Wiley the Coyote. That was always good with the Roadruder. Yeah. I don't know.

I have to think back, man. I liked Tom and Jerry a lot. Tom and Jerry was good. You know, it's funny. My kids, you know, they're into the Disney and all the things and the bluey and lots of pepper pig. And I try to slide in some of that old stuff. They're like, what is that? Really?

And they don't want, they don't see Tom and Jared. I'm like, wait, man, this is supposed to entertain you. And they're like, this ain't what we're, this ain't it, man. Yeah. We got time for one more question. This one's from Leroy. Where did the origin of like your steering wheel technique? Oh, that's a great question.

I saw that in my timeline over the week. You know, I feel like when I, if you look at pictures of my dad and obviously Mark Martin, but when you look at pictures of drivers from back in the day, like if you, there's a clip of of Kale Yarborough driving around Arlington and we're riding in the car, I think that they kind of used a similar hand position, but Mark Martin is the one driver that it wasn't intentional, but if there's anybody that I'm exactly the same on hand position as Mark Martin, and I don't know why, what I do with my hands is, it is just something that just happened, instinctual. It ain't that I saw a person do it and I said, okay, that's the way I'm going to do it.

it just you know you drive out on the racetrack and you start driving and you start doing it and you're either going to be the way I do it or you're going to be one of these 10 and 2 guys you know and so Brad Keselowski started driving for us and he's a 10 and 2 so he goes in a corner and he don't move his hands and I'm like

I'm going to try that so we're at a test and I'm trying and I'm like I'm slower I'm like car it even changes the balance of the car which is probably a good thing but I was like, man, if I could, I would have to do this for like a year or two years before I actually felt like I got back to how fast I could run. Yeah. Like I think it slowed me, it would slow me down and I would eventually get back the speed I lost and get used to doing it. But I don't know, man.

I just love just wrestling that wheel and I'm going to teach this car lesson, you know. But you're all about that rebellious. Yeah, I guess it is. But man, you know, when I see Mark Martin drive a car, and I'm like, yeah, I get it. You know, he had this, they call it the Arkansas pool. Where is he from? Mark Martin. You're right.

Yeah. I think you're right. Yeah. So, anyhow, I don't know. I think it's just instinctual, and I think dads was similar. I think drivers that I grew up watching in the late 70s and early 80s, all of them drove the cars that way because none of them had power steering

like we have it today. And so driving the car this way was not enough leverage. You didn't have enough leverage to keep in the turn, keep the car, drive the car where you wanted to go. Some probably still drove it that way. I think if I think about, like in my mind

that video of Kale at Darlington, I think he actually does kind of keep his hands like that through the corners. But I think with the older cars and the harder, you know, he had to tug on the steering wheel that was a better leverage to get the car to turn but it's hard to break habits does it translate over to when you drive on the road no you ever just like take a right hand turn no no i don't think so i tape the middle of my steering wheel yeah yeah yeah that's a good one man

i know we talked about that a lot and it's not it's just instincts of it's you know you're gonna grip the bat or swing a hammer or swing a golf club right yeah so awesome Well, that's a good place to end. Ash Jr. today. I did see someone in the YouTube chat. They wanted to know where Dale was. They did not realize that Drew Carey was the new host, the download. Is that what I look like?

I guess that's what they said. Well, that's a shame. You got to keep a guy. What's wrong with Drew Carey? The guy's funny. If I had his sense of humor, now then I'd be okay. Right. With that.

But, you know, I don't know. Drew Carey. I guess the glasses. No hat. I've always got the hat. I forgot the hat. I got in the car today, I'm driving out of the school. When I look in the mirror, I'm like, well, damn it.

Yeah, you feel all right? I know, right? I usually wear a hat, which I like to wear a hat. No beard. Every day. I didn't wear. I forgot my hat today. Not again.

Never again. I'll show you. Yeah, you better. All right. Thank you, Xfinity, for my faster download or upload speeds. And appreciate all the great questions. We got a white flag here. We do.

Okay. All right, everybody. It's time for the white flag. Man, what a great show this has been. Already out this week with Dirty Moe Media is the Tear Down. I mentioned Jeff Gluck with his rap, Jordan. Those guys are doing great work with the tear down every single week. You don't want to miss an episode.

Action is detrimental with Denny Hamlin. He won the race. So he gives us great feedback on his experience immediately as soon as he gets home on Sunday night. Doorbup are clear with me and Tyler Reddick. That was a lot of fun. Seeing them guys hadn't been on there in a while. May drop in more often this year since I got. a lot of time on my hands.

And tomorrow's Speed Street with Connor Daly and Chase Holden. Chase is doing a great job for us this year, teaming up with Connor. That drops tomorrow. On Thursday, Dirty Modeau, those guys are going to preview the COTA race with gambling becoming legal in North Carolina. A lot of conversation around Dirty Mo Doe and Steve LaTart and his boys and the gambling picks that they're trying to convince people to make, man. Pressure's on, boys, because gambling is live and legal in North Carolina.

DJG reloaded on Thursday. You never know what's going to happen with that show. They've had a lot of fun over the last couple of weeks trying to do impersonations of me. And then they got Jason Keller a call in and tell his version of some incidents that me and him got ourselves into over the years. So enjoy the new DJD reloaded this year on Thursdays.

Everybody have a great week. I'll be watching this one on the TV. Hopefully it's an exciting one in Texas. We'll see you. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Twitter. Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.