The Dale Jr. Download - 534 - Talladega: The Answer Isn't Less Racing

Episode Date: April 23, 2024

Dale Earnhardt Jr. returns to the Bojangles Studio after a thrilling Talladega Cup race for a new edition of Dirty Air. From scoring pylons to saving fuel, there was a lot to unpack in this episode: A new “grumpy old man” moment What does Dale think about the scoring pylons? How can NASCAR solve the fuel-saving dilemma on drafting tracks? Shorter races vs. more stages: “don’t take chips out of my bag!” Michael McDowell makes one block too many  Race winner Tyler Reddick calls into the show The impact of Michael Jordan being in Victory Lane During the Ask Jr. portion of the episode, listeners sent in questions regarding: Frontstretch interviews vs. Victory Lane interviews Most heartbreaking race loss New parenting lessons Meeting and interacting with Michael Jordan 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's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. download here in the Bojangles studio. It's Tuesday, a little dirty air. This morning. We're going to cover the Talladega race, everything going on in the sport. And Tyler Reddick, our winner is going to call in, tell us all about it. I'm excited to get this show going. So let's go. The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Who's the new guy? In the studio from Dirty Air. And then Dale started singing. 99 bottles of beer. Don't stop. There are some voices on the show that you're going to hear. Keep the camera roll.

So back in the Bojangles studio for another episode, the Dale Jr. download now through May 5th. Speaking of Bojangles, have you got any of those free bird dogs by using that promo code, Dale Jr.? If you place your order at bojangles.com on the website there or in the app, there's participating stores that will give you these free bird.

Bird dogs with the promo code Dale Jr., D-A-L-E-J-R. Go online and get those bird dogs while they're hot. Yeah. That was a good read right there. That was pretty good. You nailed it. Do I need this for the Wednesday? You're going to need that again.

I would hang on to it. All right. Wednesday, we have a pretty cool guests coming in here for that show tomorrow. Casey Atwood. Man, I've been wanting to talk to him and reading up about what he's been up to. not only we're going to learn a lot about his history and the sport and everything he went through, but he's still

out there driving laps. I love that. You know, can't get it out of the blood. Yeah. Can't stop. So we'll see what Casey's been up to. The last, when we dug into what we could learn about him, I mean, the first thing or the last thing

that we could find was an article 10 years ago with Marty Smith. The great Marty Smith. We haven't really heard from him since. So this would be nice. Not Marty, Casey. Casey. So looking forward to that tomorrow, but let's go ahead and get right to some dirty air.

I saw an old man yells at Cloud. Oh, yeah. There were a few of those last week. That's been a fun little, I guess, segment. This is an old man complaining alert. So I was driving around the other day. Surely you guys have seen this. These guys taking these four-by-four pickup trucks and dropping the back down,

raised the front. What is all that about? Is that the Carolinas? That's what they call it. It's only in the Carolinas? I'm sure that's stupidity is all over the place. But, yeah. What is that?

It's dumb. What is that? It's awful. You guys are young, y'all are into that? I ain't that. No, that's just stupid. That's your thing. What's going on with that?

Tell me why y'all are doing that. Andrew seems like the kind of person that would do that. Yeah. You know, you're messing up. Do you know the universal joints, the drive chef, the rear suspension, the toe, the alignment, and the front, all that's getting jacked up, right? You know that? You know, you're going to have issues?

You know, universal joints coming out of that truck in about four years? Do you know that? You know that you're probably knocking the rear seal out of the transmission in the crank case? Or the 4x4 crank case? You know that? Not until now. Yeah. It looks sick.

What a, but I look so cool. What a bad thing to do to your car or your truck. I think it's awful. I'm sorry, it makes me sick. Yeah. I don't, it's four by fours. These are four by fours. I don't understand how they see

because they're up straight and it's bad. It's pretty bad. They made it. It's illegal. It's got to be bad for gas mileage. I guess it has been made illegal, but I still see them. Oh, yeah. Who thinks that looks good? They do.

Who's they? The four by four people. I would love to meet one person that thinks that that's an attractive looking car or truck. I don't know that I'd want to meet that person. No, I mean, I'm, Look, man.

From a distance you like to me. I'm open. I'm open to hearing their take on why this is a cool thing or why they did this to the truck. I'm open to hearing like, what, what? Are you willing to be convinced if you hear good enough answer? I doubt that I'll be convinced that I'm going to like it, but yeah, I'll give them a chance to explain. Listen, man, I mean, I'm trying to think of why you would want to do that to your truck. and other than just for fun.

I think that's it. Right? But there's no practical reason behind it. A lot of times, like when you're that age, right, put yourself back in, you know, we're going to assume large majority of the people that are doing this are anywhere from 16 to, you know, 20, 24 years old, right? 22, right? Right.

That sort of, you know, going, coming out of high school, going into college, what are you worried about at that point in your life, right? You're worried about girls. Yeah, yeah. Right? Everything's about, like, I'm wearing, I'm wearing this and I'm doing this and everything is geared toward

because I believe this makes me more attractive. You think that's why they're doing it to the trucks? 100%. Really? Yeah, 100%. So girls like it? I think one girl said she liked it

and she probably was like the prettiest girl in school and so every other guy that school did it and it just started spreading like wildfire. Yeah. There had to be a trend. Like there was probably a trend back in high school that... While I'm not convinced girls like it,

Because I look back at the stuff that I did in war, thinking that I was making myself more attracted for girls, and I was not. And my wife will tell me, like, when she sees pictures, she's like, no girl, I'm just saying like the pants I wore, shirts, whatever, the way I wore a hat or whatever, the way I had my hair, right? Yeah. Oh, I thought that was absolutely the way I needed it, right,

to be able to attract a female. And my wife will look at it and go, this is awful. No girl likes this. You were hurting your chances, right? I think this is also the case with the trucks. I don't see, but I don't think that they're getting any compliments from girls. I think it's only dudes that are coming up and going. Nice squat, dude, yeah.

There's no girl that's doing that. I think that's the thing. It's like they're not getting the girls, but the guys like it. It's like it too. Hyping each other up. Nice squat, dude. Okay. So, yeah, so that, that, so they're raising their sort of,

their profile with their buddies, right? Yeah. Well, I'm just curious about it. I see it and I'm like, guy, you know, I'm not sure what's going on here. And what this is all about? Because a 4x4 truck, man, for years and for decades, it's all about getting bigger tires and getting higher.

Right, right? Raising it up, getting bigger, bigger tires. Now we're dropping them. Wait. You're going to get a high side of that thing. Get stuck somewhere. Right? Yeah.

Not practical at all. That's not good. No. Not functional anymore. What do you mean your truck got stuck? Yeah. I squatted over this rock and couldn't get off. I don't know.

I just worried about that, man. I don't know what's going on. There's no way that that trend lasts, right? I hope not. There's no way. They're trying to outlaw it. So it's obviously stupid. Well, if they outlaw it, that's probably going to encourage it.

I know. And so that's probably going to make it last. longer than it should. So you, and you, and you hating on it right now is going to make people want it even more. I don't know. Yeah. So you got to encourage it. You think my, you think my influence of hating is going to work gets me?

People are going to rebel. It's like, it's like, am I that, in that place in my life? A young people have not, I meant forever. It's been like, oh, they'll likes it. I like it. I mean, yeah. A young year, though. So now I'm shifting into, oh, they'll likes it.

I don't like it anymore. I don't know. If you're the old man yelling at the cloud, I am. Then, I don't know, people might rebel against that. Yeah. All right. Well, oh, I guess we should say, too, just so you know,

the back, you know, not in the next month, but very soon, I'm going to go to another location and do this show. And so, you know, for the audio, people, you won't really miss a beat, but for video, I'll be in a different room. We should let them know. Be prepared. Oh, man. We've been working on.

It's going to be a culture shock the first time that shit. I'm just going to be on vacation for a couple months. And so at least that's my plan, unless somebody tries to fill my calendar up with stuff to do, which is really what everybody tries to do. But I'm going to take a summer, at least mainly the month of June. and go do this show from another location. I will wish I was in this room and this chair with you guys,

but it's what we're going to do. So be ready. Thanks for telling me now because I can start mentally preparing. Well, me and you, we have all been sort of testing equipment to making sure everything's going to work right. The great thing about that, I think, for people to look forward to, is so there's a lot of guests that we haven't had on the show because they can't get to the room, right?

We're not doing Zooms anymore, right? We don't do, and we're not a show except for on our Tuesday winter call-in. We don't do a lot of video and remote conversations. I like them here at the table, but since I'm going to be out of town, we're going to have some guests on our show that where we wouldn't normally have because we'll be doing them remotely. Some pretty cool guests. Some pretty cool guests.

Which is going to be neat. That'll be fun. Anyhow, so we've got to look forward to. Let's go and move on to Talladega. Like I said, Tyler Reddick's going to call in, tell us all about how he drove through all that nastiness on the last lap to win the race. His experience with Michael Jordan, as Michael's able to celebrate that win. Really cool to see. And you're seeing one of the great things about all of that is you're seeing NASCAR being talked about in other places.

that we traditionally don't go. In old places, we used to go because of Michael Jordan. You know, the influence that he has, you can't measure it. The value of having him as an owner, we all talked about that for the last couple of years, right, how important that is, but now having, but now we're realizing that value as a winning owner. imagine if Michael Jordan's car wins the championship one day

all right and we have him on stage giving an owner's speech I'm here for what a day that would be so I think we all are and it's interesting man talking to you know listening to some of the conversations in the industry how a lot of people like Tyler maybe even know him mainly by the shoes, man, and not the game. So that's what... That is fascinating. Tyler said in his post-race press conference that Bo, his son, who was held, like Michael Jordan was holding him on

pit road, he said he knows him as the shoe guy and doesn't really know him as like the legend that he actually is. That's crazy. That's wild. That's insane. Because, I mean, there's no, you know, there's no debate about who was the greatest basketball NBA player of all time. It's Michael Jordan. I agree. I'm a bit biased because of his connection to the Tar Heels

and playing in North Carolina in his college career, but the guy was just magic. He transcended the sport, and unlike anybody ever has sense, right? Nobody's... The person that he was off the court and how far that reach, was, right? It's global. And so nobody's

been able to do that. So I think that's why he's the greatest of all time. We're not, who are we to be contemplating that argument? But I'm pretty convinced. Nobody's going to change my mind. It's Michael Jordan. A lot going on this past weekend. There was the scoring pylon conversation going on about the old pylons coming down. There's been a lot of talk about that. And there was initially a lot of reaction of, oh my God, I can't believe they're doing this,

but then Jeff Gluck and the guys get to the bottom of it and discover how all of these pylons are obsolete. And when they fail, when they break, their parts aren't available to fix and they're expensive. And putting up a new pylon, yeah, that's a possibility. And if track wants to invest in that, that's fine. I think pylons are great. I think that they add to the vibe at the racetrack, you know.

And while, I would say this, so Talladega's scoring, it wasn't really a pylon so much, I didn't like that one. I remember, that one wasn't very good, you couldn't read it. Like positionally, like where it was located? All of it. Yeah. You couldn't read it. The damn bulbs that lit the numbers up were so tiny and too small.

and it was almost like you ever had a calculator that was like the batteries dying and the numbers were kind of fading and you're like, oh my camera. Put it in the sun to get this, yeah. It was like that. And so, you know what, Talladegas, I won't miss it.

I won't. Could they replace it with an LED screen that would give you all that information? Yeah, and they probably should. You know? Well, they, I don't know, but that's fine. I didn't love the one that was there. I won't miss it.

I would every, you know, the Arka race was always going on during the day and, or whatever it may be. And you'd come out of the bus or you'd drive into the bus lot or what we were moving in and around the infield going to appearances or whatever it may be. And you look at that thing and go, I can't freaking read. You know, you'd look at it and have to really study it to understand what you're looking at and get, you know, trying to figure out what, you know, it was a pain in the act. So bye-bye. See you later. I'm fine. I'm fine. Now, the one, you know, the one that's like at Texas, that type of pylon at that size of a racetrack in that location is necessary. I'd agree with that. Yeah. That one, that one, that one, that one probably should, they should consider, you know, something coming back there.

when you you look at the one in Indianapolis and Texas is owned by Marcus Smith he put an incredible pylon at North Wilsonboro Speedway they could have just left that old busted up pylon there and not even refurbished it or took it down entirely but they put an LED screen there

complete with the old rust marks and all that stuff and so they know there is they will do the effort when they see the value and we'll see what they do at Texas So I think at certain tracks, it's absolutely part of the atmosphere. It's an important addition and necessary addition to a racetrack. I would say that compare this to the flagman, right? We're moving into the future and we're making things more automated.

We're making things easier and less expensive. NASCAR has multiple flagmen on payroll. They could absolutely have a big giant block at the flagstand that was an LED light that lit up whatever color, green, red, yellow, and take that flagman out of that flagstand entirely. But that flagman is so critical to the DNA of motorsport, right? You would never do that. NASCAR's not going to do that. That's a bit extreme of a comparison.

but that's the way I kind of feel about the pylon in certain instances. The pylon itself is a staple, much, you know, it's almost a historical monument style vibe with it, right? At certain racetracks, they're just, you just, it's not a racetrack without it. And so I would say at Texas I would try to, I would try to put something back in its place comparable. at Talladega with such a large infield, you need to do something a little more creative

if you're going to replace what was there. What was there? Wasn't functional. Didn't work for me. I won't miss that one. So what you're saying there is kind of what NASCAR was thinking for Talladega. I saw on Twitter, Toby Christie tweeted, like he talked to a NASCAR representative.

And the decision was to invest in more video boards around the track. So more of the crowd, especially those infield campers could see some sort of scoring, some sort of replay. We'll see. We'll see what they end up putting back there. It's such a giant infield. Honestly, man, you saw all of the, you know, when you think about Teledega, I think about the boulevard, the partying, people come to that race for the party for the hellraising

as much as the race itself. Yeah. Right? The race is really the dessert. The main course is the experience, the three or four night experience of being in that environment, partying every single day, drinking beer, roaming around and seeing the sites

and looking at everybody's creativity of their campsite and what they've decided to do. People build out entire elaborate sort of setups, right? There used to be a guy. I don't know if you're still there, but there was somebody that would set up bar you paid money to go in it was a cover and everybody in the infield would go into this tent right and drink and they held they had a bar bar and servers and so employees they were yeah i mean listen man

they had a flatbed with some ladies dancing on it we saw that video right that that that what that wasn't happenstance there's somebody probably planned that there was a there was an estabre there was an that was, you know, local to the area that decided to... The Gluck and Bob Packer's tweet up looked a little bit different. You know, there's, there's like a agenda behind all of that, right? And so instead of worrying about this scoring pylon at Talladega specifically, I for my, I for years, right, they built this big open area, big bill, sort of... Like the infield.

In the garage area. Yeah. In the garage. Right. So it's an open air food court, you know, for fans. And it's at the garage, right? It's a little bit too close to the work for me. Like, I love the access, and if I'm a fan and I want to see what's going on in the garages,

which there's not a whole lot these days, it's kind of a cool place. But I really think they would have been better served or might be better served in the future at Talladega specifically to build out right real close to where this scoring pylon was an infield bar and try to capitalize on what's going on in-field, man, you know? I think that there's a there's a there's a there's a financial you know there's a economical impact

that could be positive for the racetrack if they were to try to better organize the party and the celebration that it is much like you know indy has the snake pit if you go to indianapolis right they got the snake pit but they also have these other spaces on the property that There are other concerts, other area. If you're not a snake pit type of person, if you don't want to go and get into that craziness, there's other places for you to go and see other entertainment, right?

And I think Talladega could capitalize on that. And they need to, when you go to infield at Talladega, there's a large, large, grassy spot right in the middle of the racetrack, that they don't camp. Nobody, there's nothing there. That's a spot. Blank spot, right? It's a canvas, ready to be carved.

up and create, you know, something can be created there. And I don't think it'd be that expensive, to be honest with you, to build it out. I feel like it'd end up paying for itself almost. Yeah. And would give fans somewhere to go that would be out of the sun, somewhere for them to, you know, they have that big giant concert, which is really kind of cool, right? Every year they had this big concert at Talladega that's important. It's part of the weekend.

It rivals the race in terms of popularity for the fans. They are very opinionated about the guests or the musical act that's going to play. It's better be big, better be important, better be the new latest and greatest, right? And so they need to continue to try to get creative with the fan experience in the infield before they worry about spending a couple million dollars on a pylon. Yeah, I mean, Jeff Gluck and the Athletic on the tear down said a new pylon costs $5 million. And they talk about the boulevard being crazy. The boulevard's got nothing on free camping.

I'm going to promise you that. I used to hang out back in the day, I used to hang out with some boys from Alabama that went to free camping. right and they they they they weren't uh they they weren't uh they weren't uh well off enough to be going into the boulevard they were the free camping boys and the stories out there and the things that you hear about it's crazy it's even more lawless craziness oh yeah wilder wilder the track can't control what's happening out there would you have liked to have seen them keep the pylon up even if it didn't work like as a relic you know similar to North Moxboro.

So I wouldn't. At Texas, no. You know, at Talladega, no. So you want it to be functional or? Yeah, okay. I think so. That's fair. This is the question.

I'll be honest with you, man. I think if it doesn't work, either replace it or take it down. Right. You know, if it was, you know, at Talladega, man, no. I'll be honest with you. At Talladega, not a lot of people can close their eyes and imagine what that thing look like. I can't even do it.

It's not memorable. It's a good point. And it's not, it wasn't very functional. It's not memorable. Right. So, yeah, don't waste your time leaving that thing up. Now, if it's iconic and you're used to seeing it there, and if it were to be gone, you would immediately notice. Right. Then maybe you want to leave that

one up, or you know, remodel it to the LED side, you know, type of deal where, like Indianapolis did. But that's a lot of money. They killed it with that. They did. They did. But theirs is very, very important. Yeah. In pylons,

that's the pylon. Right. Right. At Indianapolis. That's the one all pylines strive to be. So I just don't make it. They don't. Nope. And again, Texas, I think, got damaged by some storms. You have that happening. And at least I think maybe that was

Atlanta or Texas, one of them. Did you see the tweet from Dover? yesterday. They have a pylon. Excited to use this this weekend. And it was the picture of their pylon. Yeah. Their pylons important.

So at Dover, I mean, every single, when qualifying was happening, you're staring at that thing, staring at it. Staring at it. Especially if you put your number on it, you're like, oh, somebody beat me. Damn it, you know, you're looking at that pylon. I mean, you just don't know how much you're looking at it until it's gone. So I'm, I do love, I'm pro pylon. I am. It's a t-shirt.

But hey, there's a sensible conversation to be had around it. But I didn't jump into the initial reaction on Twitter because I've made that mistake before. We're getting all up in arms. That's why I love this show happening on Tuesday. If we did this show yesterday,

I would be just complaining the entire time. But it gives me a little bit of time to rest, relax, calm down, let's get on into, I guess, you know, we can talk about fuel mileage and fuel saving. You know, like Denny said, the teams are telling him to do this. His crew chiefs, Denny's like, I want to race to crew chiefs saying, back it down, back it down, save more fuel. Save me more fuel. The teams have all this information telling them, man, they can calculate that fuel mileage. They know how hard Danny's mashing the gas and all that stuff, right?

And so they know when they need him to save more and they know how much he needs to lift and how much they, you know, he's got to lift until they're happy with it. I don't love that. I don't love the fuel mileage racing. I don't think anybody does. I hear a lot of ideas on how to fix it. Adding another stage, I don't love that. But it might be all we can do. What about shortening the race?

Don't love that. To like 400 miles from 500. So, you know, that's like giving me less candy bar. That's like giving me less tater chips in the bag. You're pissing me off. Stop it. You know what I'm saying? Kind of.

No, it is. That's what it is, Andrew. Okay. Andrew, that's the answer. I bought a bag of tater chips. You do this? You ever done this? You buy a bag of tater chips and you open it up and you're like,

it ain't half full. Yeah? This is a, it's a crime. I've had that experience before. Don't give me less race. Oh, our race, we don't like our race, so let's just do less of it. Would you rather have, okay, so like on action's detrimental, they talked about like the idea of like, what if we did a 400-mile race?

And Denny, so I was thinking about this yesterday. If the fuel window is 40 to 41 laps, you could do a 150-mile race, which I think maps out to 400 miles, 40, 70. You pit after each stage, and you have to pit at least once in the third stage, and you're not really focused on the fuel window, and you're getting aggressive racing the whole time. I feel like that would be better to do that. That's a way to get that. That's a way to get that, but I don't think I have a short in a race. Why don't you just put enough stages in there to get that solution that you want to wear the guy? Basically, what you're telling me is you want the guys to not have to worry about fuel mileage, run as hard as they can to the end of the stage.

Yeah. Right, without having to pit. So just add another stage. Don't take away racing. Don't take, don't shorten. But you just said you don't want to add another stage. Well, don't. If you're giving me the choice between taking away candy bar, shortening up my candy bar, right?

Or taking chips out of the bag. versus adding another stage, I'm going to say just add the stage, man. I don't want less racing. I don't want less racing. And I don't think the stage is really changed. Like, okay, so then they run all out and they can't pass. Then they're just running two by two. Sure.

All right, let me ask you. That's fair. I'll give you that. Look, what do we want? We want exciting racing, right? We don't want less racing. We want more racing. But if the less racing gives you better racing,

I don't think it does, though. They're just going to run around two by two and then, like, it's the same thing. In that case, in that case, if that was the case, then we'll just have a 20 lap race. Perfect. I mean, what a brawl that would be. You need more than that. Why? It was exciting.

You liked it. Sure. I still think you need substance. I'm not asking for a whole, like to be taken a whole lot of away. This is 100 miles. Let's have this conversation. Don't back down. Don't back off.

Okay, so do you love racing? Yes, I do. How much of it do you won't? A lot. I still think 400 miles is a good amount. Why? What the hell, 400?

Do you just pick that out of thin air? Well, 400's a pretty standard number, I feel like, in the Cup series. The series? We have 500-mile races, 400-mile races? One, 600? 600? Five. Like, most all races.

should be 500 miles. That is like our benchmark. Really? Yes. Now look, there's some examples where we should not run 500 miles like Pocono, Dover. I mean, there's some examples

where 400 miles makes more sense. Not at Talladega. Not at Daytona. I mean, you know, I think they run the 400 in July to separate it from the Daytona 500 so you don't have two Daytona 500s. I get that. But at Talladega, there's no need to,

If you love racing and I could sell you exciting racing, you would buy as much as you could get because you love it. It is your favorite freaking thing, right? And so let's make the racing

as good as we can make it and not have less of it. I just don't buy that argument. And I've been a driver. I've been a driver and I've said this very thing. I don't like to hear drivers talk about shortening races. I don't think drivers,

I don't want to hear drivers first. Like I want to, if a fans watching a race, right, we get 100, say you've got 150, 200 fans in a room, and they're all saying, this is too dang long. Then I'm thinking about shortening the race up, because they're the ones that are watching it. Right? If a race, if a fan says, man, I want more of that,

I want a 600-mile race at this track. This is awesome. Then we're going to make it 600 miles. Sorry, drivers. No, you don't love running 600 miles. You'd rather run 400. That's too bad. So I don't want to hear about, I don't want to hear from drivers about shortening races.

I used to be one. I used to say that. I used to talk about shortening races. So I should know. Drivers don't have any business. You're talking about it. You're one of those people. I know.

So I can talk, so I can speak about it today and tell you that we don't need to listen to drivers about race links. I'm sorry, we don't. I feel like if you have the race that you prefer, right, that ultimately that is the best result. And trying to, I think shortening a race to make it more exciting is a very lazy way to get there. And so the hard work and the hard way to get there is the way to go.

the easiest route is not going to get us the result we want. So chopping off 40 laps of the race or whatever is a lazy way to try to get the end result you want. I'd rather add a stage. I mean, why not? Stage racing is here to stay. We're not going to get rid of stages. I know the fans will say, I don't love the stages, but it's here. We're not going to be able to change that.

Some races might need more stages. How cool would that be? If, you know, they, I hate this term, Crown Jewel, but talk, what if the Crown Jewel races had more stages, had more points available? So that's, that's kind of what Denny, he didn't like the idea of adding a stage

because, like, should tap, that means Talladega all of a sudden is worth more than other races. So it's like. So he wants to shorten it? He didn't really have a, they were discussing the options, but he didn't like the idea of adding the stage

because. it would make Talidate more valuable. I would take an entirely different route. I wouldn't change the length of the race. I would consider adding a stage, because why not? I don't, whatever. Fuel mileage and fuel saving is so important at that race because basically the only thing they do on pit road

is put fuel in the car. You don't really have to change the tires because the tires are so good, so durable. the cars are locked down to the racetrack pretty good so they don't really abuse the tire that much and they're kind of limited they're kind of restricted on speed right so they're not they're not using that tire

as hard as we used to use it back in the day they also made changing the tire faster right and so that made fueling the car even more critical and something you want to do even less of, right? And so they're never going to be able to make the, you're never going to be able to make changing the tires,

you know, harder or slower. But if you needed to change them more often, that would bring you to pit road and you would then have opportunity to put the fuel in the car because the driver is going to be begging for these tires, right? I can't make the moves and be aggressive with the wheel. I can't drive the car and do things I want, side drafting and all that, throwing the blocks

without better tires. Put tires on my car. Then they're going to be putting tires on the car, putting fuel in it more often. I think that what we may learn with the tire on the short tracks may be able to help us in this scenario as well. Can we get a tire that it ain't going to have a lot of fall off because they're going to run around there wide open,

but can you get a tire that does get a little uncomfortable in the pack? you know, after a handful of laps, you're like, ugh, I've got to work on the handling and, man, I need some tires to be more aggressive. That would be helpful. But as long as the crew chiefs are telling them to save fuel, it's kind of, you know, kind of is what it is. It's not as much of a NASCAR problem as some things tend to be, right? This is more of a strategy that is kind of developed, right?

This strategy is sort of developed. It is being encouraged by teams, by engineers, by crew chiefs, right? This is a response to how this car performs on pit road and on the racetrack. And so work on those things. Work on that. Chopping the race up doesn't fix why this is happening. I mean, Denny said if they could get within a fuel window, they'd be running hard. Yeah, they would.

Because stage points at the end of the day. I get it. At a stage. That's the easy route. At a stage. That's the easiest thing to do to fix it. But if you really want to fix it at Talladega, Daytona, all these places, then they need to make the guys want to get down pit road more because they need tires

and then therefore getting opportunity to put the fuel in that they really don't care to put in the car. No more than they need, right? There's another thing that makes them want. to do this strategy. So when they do go hammer down in those last 30 laps, you are where you are. You can't pass. You can't pull out a line.

The car has too much drag. So Kyle, Kyle Bush has talked about this. Then he talked about it. So they're all in a line, and you don't want to be, right? I'm sitting there, I'm in fifth, we're in 15th place, all of us, right?

Run around the racetrack. Running in 15th. 30 laps to go. We don't want to be in 15th. you know what it's time to make a move let's get out of line because we need to we need to get a bunch of cars together and pull out of line and we're going to go to the front when you get out of line with this car it's so draggy you just drop to the back right and so you can't pull out of line how do they fix that you're in 15th with 30 laps to go and you're you can't make any moves

you're you're scared to get out of the line because you're going to lose 15th. You're going to lose a lot of track position. Right? You saw the 54 Gibbs and then boys when they jumped up to the top. It's over for them.

Yeah. Everyone sees that and they go, I'm not going up there. So when we're hammered down with this car running wide open, our old cars could side draft and make runs and find air and you could find people that see you move forward

and they would go, oh, I'm getting in that line and then you know, you would make moves and could drive yourself to the front. That's not happening with this car. We see it at Daytona and Talladega when they really get after it and go hard, it sort of forms two lines of cars, the entire field two by two.

And really, the only thing happening is the front two cars kind of trading the lead position. We have, you know, I think NASCAR could look into how to take some drag off the car, right, and how to figure out a way to make the car where you do want to get out of line. You're okay getting out of line. You're okay taking that chance because sometimes it might be productive to do it. That is so tough to figure out.

I don't envy the position that NASCAR is in. And to be quite honest, when they only run. ran that hard for the last 30 laps, you have such a small sample size to go from to try to figure out how to make any changes if you wanted to, right? There's a lot going on there. So, let's say hypothetically we shorten the race or we add the stage, right? And we get this fuel, you know, we take the fuel mileage out. And they can run hard and they do, right? Yeah. Are we just going to see a two by two parade? I mean, that's the problem. I'm not arguing that part. Well, wait, wait, wait. All right. So we've fixed the fuel mileage.

but now we have the two by two parade that we don't love entirely either, right? Right. So now we're still not entirely where we want to be. So I think there's a little bit of work to do. I still think the race was exciting. You know, I still am entertained, especially in those last handful of laps, trying to figure out who was going to do what and who could make something out of nothing. Something literally almost impossible, right?

It's trying to find their way toward the front. the middle of that pack. We get down to the last couple of laps and Michael McDowell is leading the race coming off turn four. Right? And he's Brad goes to the high side and Michael's, Michael throws

the block there. And then Brad goes to the bottom and Michael throws another block that ultimately gets him wrecked. So I saw Michael at the pickup line at the school. And I talked to him and I said, he said, man, tell me honestly, what you think? What do you think I should do?

And I said, honestly, you know, me, I'm only going to throw one block. If that block doesn't work, you got me. If you watch the race where me and Jimmy Johnson get wrecked down the back straightway by Vickers, I know they're making this move off of two. I know it's coming. So we come off at the corner and I know it, there's not much I've got in the toolbox to defend this. And so we come off the corner, they make a move to pass me,

and I move down one lane. That was my block, right? And so I stopped at that. And that's pretty much the way I did it. I'm like, I'm going to throw one move, and if that move works, it works. If it doesn't, it doesn't. And the other car is going to win the race.

and so that's what I tell Michael I said man I can't throw that second block I said the second block is a is a ticket to get turned right you're asking for it and he said man I had to he's like I was willing to die and I'm like willing to die

he goes yeah he said I was willing to die the last 15 laps he's like look at my position in points it's the only way I'm going to get in the playoffs I've got to do everything I can. That was my moment. And I'm willing to risk the crash and whatever, you know, the end result may be flipping upside down, whatever, right, destroyed. He's, he knew with 15 laps to go that he was going to make that, he was, he was making that bet. All the chips you're in, whatever happens, happens. And I'm like, damn, dude, that was not me. I'm not willing

and it ain't checkers or wreckers for me in that moment, I'm going to finish fourth or fifth. If the first block doesn't win me the race, fine. You know, I'm going to run all across the line and not, you know, massage in a sore neck the next day. So that was a profound, man, to hear him say that. Pretty crazy. Got to respect it.

Yeah, that is pretty wild. So, you know, I walked, I saw him, and I thought to myself, you know, Damn it, I was very down on McDowell because it's like, all right, two blocks, man, that's too many. You throw the first one, and Brad will tell you, you block you pay, and Brad will wreck you. You don't, you haven't got to be, you ain't even got to be blocking Brad to get by Brad. So he'll just push you out of the way. So, I'm kidding, Brad.

So, you know, that's the one guy you damn sure don't want to be throwing Haymaker blocks on. but the other thing too was when he went up there to block the first time Michael McDowell said that he got a great push from Brad and so he thought that momentum would be enough to get back clear in front of Brad for the second block but as Brad moved down he then got a push from the car behind him as well

and Michael is Michael in his mind and I know he's doing this because we all do it Michael as he's running that is he's going through the travel and he's thinking about making this block, he's literally measuring in his head the distance between him and the cars around him, about to the inch, right? And he's like, he's feeling this run that he got from the two car, or the sixth car. He's feeling this push, and he's like, that gave me a foot and a half, that gave me a foot. I think coming down, I should clear. He's not counting on the push

that he's getting, that Brad's getting, right? And that's where the misjudgment comes. But pretty pretty amazing. We told you that we had the winner of this weekend's race calling in. He is here. Tyler Reddick, let's bring him on into the show. Tyler, you got us? Yes, sir. I didn't want to talk before I was supposed to screw something up. Yeah, you're good, bud. If you want to throw your camera on, if possible. I didn't know. Yeah, yeah. No, I'm dressed and stressed. Okay. Thank God. I'm a voice, but. Where's your voice? I used it up on the radio screaming my ass off.

Man, well, I love that. One of the coolest things about watching a race is seeing somebody the winner truly appreciate what they've done. What does win? I know what this is. I know what the answer is, but what is winning at Talladega feel like? What is, because I know, not so much like

what does winning the race, and how that race played out feel like. But like Talladega is hard to win. It's a unique racetrack, a special racetrack. Fans love it. The big parties. What's winning there, like, feel like for you? I've done it two different ways, right?

You know, when I won there in the Xfinity car, I had made some poor decisions in the opening laps of the race. I'd hit the fence, ripped the right side of it off, but our car was fast. And that one, like, I knew we were good enough to win. And so holding that one off and winning that one was really nice. I think it ended up being our first one of the year that year too. But this one was like, I mean, it was a roller coaster of emotions, right?

Like we pit when we did as a group of Toyotas. And, I mean, I look at my mirror and at the time I thought all of them were gone. So I was like, damn, that really stinks. I mean, there went our shot. And then I realized, oh, wait, we pitted, no one else had, so we're going to be right at the front. I'm like, all right, well, we still have a shot at this. And as that race was like closing in, you know, me and Michael, I feel like, and Martin and

Brad, we're all kind of just gauging, okay, who's got what, you know, and who's going to time it? And going down the back there, I thought, okay, we're in good shape. And then just the energy disappeared, really. It was a very odd sensation. It was just like we were going. And then me and Martin just kind of stalled out. And the bottom just took off.

And I was like, well, damn, there it goes. That's our shot. It's gone. So I immediately kind of in my mind, you know, I know points are big and some big contenders went out and are having bad days. I'm like, all right, I just got to finish. I just got to finish. If it's fifth, if it's 10th, I've got to finish.

And coming out of four, I didn't know. how crazy it was going to get in front of me. But I mean, they, they got so wild in front of me. I'm like, oh, my God, I just got to survive this wreck. And Michael goes crashing in front of me. And I, I mean, I didn't lift, but I did hit the break. I didn't realize that. Just reactionary, hit the break. I don't, I don't think I clear Michael if I don't hit the brakes, just that little bit that I did. And it's crazy this sounds. I'm door to door with Brad. And I'm not even looking at Brad anymore. I'm looking at the lights on the fence. I'm like, oh, my gosh, lights are green. green they're green. And then we got to the line. I'm like, holy crap, we just won this race.

I couldn't believe it. I mean, not even 15 seconds ago, I thought our shot to win was gone. So in this situation, it was just a rollercoaster of emotions because I thought I watched it slip away, not even 15 seconds earlier. The emotions that a driver goes through in a restrictor plate, I still call it that, but it's a super speedway. The emotions that you go through in those final moments are so profound. You win the race, right? And I guess what is the first thing that you think about? Do you think about playoffs? Do you think about how hard this team's work to get here? Do you think about, you know, Denny and Michael, your owners? What is your first, you think about your family, your son, you know, your family witnessing what you're doing and being successful?

What's the first thing you think about? well there's a lot of things going through my mind but selfishly the first thing I think about is you know the number of races already this year that have kind of slipped away you know I feel like chase Elliott stolen from us at Texas so I was like well that was really sweet we got one back we stole one back so for me yes we got five playoff points and it locks us in but I know this seems good enough, you know, even if we don't win races to be a part of the playoffs. So, yeah, I mean, selfishly, that's the first thing in mind. I was like, all right, we got one back.

We stole one back. But then, you know, as I'm coming around the racetrack, I mean, that was a crazy finish. So, you know, I'm just kind of taking into the moment with the fans. And then I didn't know if Beau was going to make that run out to the start-finish line. It's a little further way that it was at Daytona. But yeah, I kind of lost my mind. I'll be honest with you. I thought my burnout was pretty pathetic.

So I was like, well, damn, you know, I need to do something to make up for it. So I'm like, I'll climb on the fence. And I should took my helmet off first because I couldn't really see where I was putting my feet coming back down. I got it all the way up there and I'm like, okay, this felt this was fun. I'm going to climb back down. It was really exciting moment to share with the fans. And I'm a way back down. My helmet's just so big.

I can't see where my feet are. I couldn't feel if I was getting them in the holes of the fence. And every like four or five, you know, motions and steps are going down, I'm like, all right, I can jump. I look down. I'm still like eight feet from the bottom of the fence. I'm like, I can't jump yet. So there's about three or four times. I feel like I about jumped and busted my ass.

I'm glad I took my time getting back down. But yeah, getting over to Victory Lane and seeing my son, he came over to the car and congratulated me right away. I'm like, hey, buddy, you might want to like, cover your eyes or back up. There's about to be a lot of beasts going everywhere. Just don't get in your eyes. And then getting out of the car, celebrating the moment with the team immediately and then turn around. And Michael, Curtis, Denny, Bubba, my whole team being there. I think for all of us, it was just a huge moment because, you know, everyone on the 45 team knows that we're really strong.

And it's been, it's been tough. It's been hard on us to not capitalize on the speed we've already had this year with those wins. And so it just felt really great to steal one back, like I said, for us. That was, I think, why we were so happy. And then on top of that, you know, I crossed our finish line. I lose my mind. And then I hear Billy come on the radio and says, hey, we're taking MJ to Victory Lane. I was like, oh, he's here.

Yeah. I thought there was a chance he'd be there, but I didn't see him before the race. So when I heard that, I was like, oh, my gosh, this finally happened. We're going to take him to victory lane. Yeah. So that's my favorite thing about your win is that Michael was there and we got to see his true genuine reaction to success in this sport. We all, I grew up seeing his posters on the walls of all my friends. And this guy was just an icon and global property that was just. so recognizable.

And it's insane to have him as a part of our sport, much less being successful in it. But I felt like we saw the genuine joy of him having success with you guys. What were some of the cool moments, I guess, that involved Michael in Victory Lane with you? I mean, you got it. it was just his excitement level. It was very apparent from the moment I saw him

how much this win meant to him for him to be there, how much it meant to our team that he was able to share it with us. You know, and I've even heard Denny talk about it and Curtis and others, you know, Michael's so badly wanted to get to Victory Lane. So, you know, it's not necessarily, you know, the things, the words exchanged were important and cool too, but, you know, the thing that was just so obvious to me

right from the moment to get out of the car and seeing him is just how much this meant to him and how excited he was to share that moment with us. So I'm just glad, you know, I'm happy that, you know, it's really cool that I was the car they got to Victory Lane that day, but honestly, for me, my excitement level wouldn't be much different at all if it was Bubba driving the car to Victory Lane.

You know, it's just both of us, everyone here has been really wanting to take that trip to Victory Lane with him. And it's really, really cool. it happened in a place like Talladego because the range of emotions you go through as a driver, as an owner, as a competitor behind the wall, jumping over the wall. I mean, a lot happens every single lap, especially on that last one, man. It's, it's, you go through everything it feels like.

Yeah. I wanted to ask you quickly about the race, you know, the fuel mileage, saving, and how much of that really is going on for you. What is your thought process as a driver throughout this? I mean, you know, you're also trying to, you know, score stage points. So what's the balance between racing, right? And also trying to position yourself for that end, you know, being toward the front at the end when track position is critical. So, you know, everybody's largely saying, yeah, just a lot of fuel mileage saving up until the end. But it's not really so much that because the stages themselves dictate that you must compete.

to try to get those points available. Yeah, for sure. I feel like it's a balance that shifts stage to stage and race to race. You know, the crazy thing about this is I don't know if the fuel strategy isn't a part of our race at Talladega. I don't know if we have any movers, you know, comers and goers, that sort of thing. I don't think you have the shakeups that you do in those stages because, I mean, you look at the end of that race after, you know, the Toyota's unfortunately crashed and largely outside of, you know, Josh Barry sliding up into the hole that Ty Gibbs left open that when, when him and Kyle

Bush went to the third lane, I mean, not much changed position-wise. I mean, Michael would take the lead, have control of both lanes. But I mean, you're, for the majority of the time, your front row was still the front row that last green flag run. So, I mean, I'm kind of torn on the thing. You know, I don't enjoy going out there and saving fuel, but I feel like as a driver, you make a choice every single lap or you make a choice at the beginning of your run, how you're going to approach it. And you're kind of gambling, right? You're going to gamble on how much fuel you save versus your track position you're giving up. So I feel like if that gets taken away, man, we're just going to be right around out there two by two or, you know,

in a bottom lane and a middle lane and there won't be a third lane ever. So yeah, there's a little kind of torn on the whole thing. I agree with you. I was thinking about that before you got on. If, you know, if you watched the last 30 laps of the race, it was, you know, when everybody's full song and the cars are going as hard as they can go, there is no real, this car doesn't really provide an opportunity to do anything creative to move forward. You're kind of scared.

If you're sitting, you know, 12th, 10th, or 15th, you really can't do anything. You don't have anything in the toolbox to get out and make a change, move forward, right? And so if we did do things to try to eliminate the fuel mileage racing, at a stage, shorten the race, whatever it may be, you're just going to see that the entire race, right? Which we've seen at some Daytona races and so forth. So there's a little work to do. But I appreciate you, man.

I think you're such a great personality in our sport, and you're great at showing that and engaging with fans either in person or on social media and so forth. we give him a little hard time about the scooter gang and the guy brings me so I want to say this is a nod to your character he asked me if I'm at Martinsville because he has a scooter he wants to give me

and I've kind of got an idea that's what's going on we didn't connect at Martinsville and so he brings it over to Junior Motorsports and I brought that home and me and Ila and Nicole have been riding around in the yard because I didn't have a scooter. They had scooters. And so you've added a cool little new addition to my kid and my kids in our lives.

I appreciate you. You're part of the story here at Junior Motorsports with your history with us. And we love to see you have success, man. Thanks for giving us some time today. I know it's a busy week for you. Every week's a busy week for the cup drivers these days. Thanks for giving us a bit of your time. and good luck going forward.

Hey, I'm glad you mentioned it. Thank you. Yep, Scooter Game made it to Victory Lane. How about that? It sure did. All right, buddy. We'll see, man. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, guys. Tyler's a great dude. I like the person that he has grew into. You know, when we got to working with Tyler in the Xfinity series, just an incredible talent, really, really, really good behind the wheel. And he was growing up, Mike. mature and becoming a man.

And he gets into the Cup series and he's, you know, he engages on social media. He has his own opinions. He shares with fans what he likes, doesn't like, what he thinks, what he appreciates. And he's got, he's not vanilla, right? He doesn't sort of, you know, he doesn't disappear. You know, you know he's out on the racetrack, but you also know he's part of the sport, which is very, it's a good value. for us. Good asset for the series. He's

out of all the drivers, I think, of the Cup series, he's always given me the time and always been courteous. He is. He is approaching. He's very approachable. I like that too. Especially for somebody in your side of the industry. Yeah, I was interviewing him at Daytona once, and he saw these fans up,

you know, like how the fans can overlook the garage. He's all the way down at the hauler, and he's like, hey, someone give me a Sharpie, I'm going to go all the way up there and sign for those. fans and it's like you don't have to do that but he did it's cool stuff easy to root for yeah for sure i was kind of i wanted to i don't i don't like keeping them guys too dang long but i was kind of wanting to ask him about you know as you're coming as you're coming toward the end of that race and then you know the anticipation is building i this was the same back when i was racing the chance of there being the crash right at the end on that last lap or last couple you knew there was a

big chance. The crashing, that chance of wrecks are going up. Chance of you being involved in that wreck is going up. We used to, I mean, we even today say you got like an 80% chance to crash in when you go to Dayton and Talladega. Whether it's truck, Xfinity, cup, it doesn't matter. It's a pretty high percentage. I wish that percentage was lower, but it's not a scientific number. But as a driver, right, you've ran all day long and you're coming toward the end of this thing and you're like, I've got myself in a great position, but the chances of wrecking are going up. That is hard.

That is hard to stomach. That is out of your control. Right. Usually when you're in a race car, you have a lot of influence over whether you're going to wreck or be wrecked. You have a lot. But at Talladega in that pack, you don't. And as they're coming to the end,

you know the jump scare is coming. There's nothing you can do about it. what are those closing laps feel like when you're in that position? Like what's going on your head? Is it nerves? Is it like? You know, hopefully you're busy,

you know, distracted by, you know, trying to position yourself in front of the right car or get the right, get your lane moving or trying to figure out what you, you know, trying to take advantage of somebody else's bad mistake. You know,

you're trying to stay busy and occupied and, and trying to be productive. that you're not thinking about because if you start thinking about dang we're going to wreck you're done you're checked out it is over you know you might have that

you might have that feeling coming down to the last lap like he did he's sitting there going man I thought a race was over I'm just going to try to get to the finish line and score some points and then it gets dicey and now I'm there they're wrecking you know you can't you just have to drive through those moments.

But if 15 to go, 10 to go and you start worrying about wrecking, them wrecking or a wreck happening, it's hard to, you're checking out. And you can't do that. Yeah. You're not productive.

You're not thinking about how to move forward, how to win the race, how to do whatever you do in the next corner and the next, you know, it's hard, and then it's hard to plug back in. Oh, man, I don't miss that. I was going to say,

that sounds so stressful. like that nervous anticipation, especially like when you're just riding and waiting for the move to happen, waiting for everything to build up. Like, I feel like each lap your heart rate would just rise even higher. Yeah. I thought it was fascinating how team, you know, the Toyotas, had they not wrecked, how that might have played out for them pushing the whole field to run harder. They basically came to pit road and said, oh, we're going to flip this race and change the strategy. We're going to run, you know, seconds faster than the pack. and now the pack is in trouble.

Almost kind of reminds you of tire fall off in a sense, right? Yeah. So, you know, we covered McDowell's moves at the end. We covered Michael Jordan and all of that. Michael says that he loves it, loves the sport and competitiveness from it, but he doesn't love not being in control of what's happening. He feels, you know, as an owner, I do that too. I'm sitting there on a box and I'm like, I love this.

And it does drive my, I do want to win. And when we get close in races, you get sucked in, right? Very emotional and very, it's very thrilling. But you have zero control as an owner. You're not influencing in that moment, right? In the final lapse, you're not influencing any of the success or failure at all. that's very foreign I guess for someone who's been in the game right and he's been behind the wheel so the so the owner side of it people have asked me in the past when I first started getting in

when I was actually racing in the cup series I would get that question a lot do you like being an owner or a driver what's more nerve-wracking right when you're coming down to the final laps and man when you're a driver you're steering the thing you're in control when you're an owner you're it's not in your hands you have no influence now you've got to it there. You gave them the cars, but in those final laps, what happens is not

nothing you have anything to do with. And so when you win, it's weird. You win. How's the feeling different? Yeah. When you go to Victor Lane, you're like, I didn't do anything.

But I'm happy. I'm going to celebrate. I'm going to get into picture. But I don't feel like I did anything today. Everybody else here did something, right? The fuel guy filled the fuel tank full. Tire guy changed the tires. Driver drove the car.

Crew chief called the race. I'm just here. Is this your subtle way of saying you want to be on the picker? No. Is this weird? NASCAR fans, Fan Duel, America's number one sportsbook is here. And right now, new customers, they get $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you bet your first five bucks. Just go to FanDule.com slash Dale to sign.

up. Then you can bet on everything from individual race winners to prop bets to which drivers are going to take home the championship, all on an app that's safe, secure, and super easy to use. This week's race is at Dover for the NASCAR drivers. They tackle the tricky monster mile. I've won at this race before, and it's very, very hard to tame this track. It's tough, the high banks. Make sure you tune in to Dirty Mo Doe each week as they're going to give you all the insights that you'll need going into these weekends. Start your engines with $200 in bonus bets, win or lose when you place your first $5 bet. Visit fandul.com slash Dell to get started.

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Feels like a while since we've actually done this. Why does that feel like that? Well, live, we had some tech issues. But hopefully we are back. We're excited to be back. and thank you, Xfinity, for everything you do. You can get great speed if you're using Xfinity Mobile, the fastest mobile service with 5G and millions of Wi-Fi

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questions. We had a great show already today. Tomorrow, Casey Atwood comes on the show. Talk to Casey in forever. Can't wait to see what he's been up to. But, all right, let's get right to it. People in the YouTube chat are saying hello. They're excited to be live. This first question coming from Twitter from Katie, what's your opinion of the front stretch interviews versus Victory Lane? You know, I work in the networks now, and so I As a fan, I probably wouldn't love the front stretch interview as much. I liked the driver going to Victory Lane, and that being where we saw them first, right?

Because it's weird to me they get out, right? They're animated and we see them on the front stretch, and then they go to Victory Lane and they're animated all over again, right? a whole other experience there. Probably fine for them either way, but the thing that I loved, the thing that going to Victory Lane and doing the interview, the winter

interview there, often gave us the chance to get second or third place, right? Get a little bit of a post race built up. I see a ton of race fans in our in our social media begging for more post race.

and so I feel like that, you know, the move to the front straightaway was twofold. It was to get the driver's very early initial emotion in a very cool space, right, right there with the fans and the flag stand and all of that. But also, it's to get that interview out of the way, right? So, you know, the networks, if necessary, can move on, they can. And I don't love or hate the front. stretch interview, but I do wish we had a more, you know, a more, a bigger post race. Immediately, right?

You know, right after, on the same channel, don't change channels. Don't go somewhere else. Hey, go to, you know, if you want more interviews, go here. Don't do that. Let's have the post race, everything. Give me about 30 minutes. I think you should interview the top five guys, you know, and see who, you know, who finished in top five and hear from them.

And that would be cool. Not really answering the question, but I don't love it or hate it. I like seeing the driver in Victory Lane. Victory Lane is a place that's kind of like the score and pylon, right? We talk about whether, you know, we talked about it early in the show about the scoring pylons. Yes, they're expensive and they break and they're obsolete and the old ones have to get. removed but they're kind of part of the sport part of the history and victory lane is a victory lane at every racetrack is it's a very important space right right and so I want to see I

want to see the I want to see the winner there that's where they're trying to go and that's where they're going to see their team and owners and so build that space right so that you want to have the interview there. Right. And some of the victory lanes do, right? There's a lot of fan access for some of these victory lanes. Talladega has a bunch of fans around. Phoenix is a good one.

Phoenix is another good one. Really good one. I like Martinsville too. It's right on the front stretch. Everyone can stick around and see. Do you think any of your wins, like your post-race interviews, would have been different if you were interviewed on the front straightaway versus in Victory Lane?

I'd do because, you know, you, when you win the race, everybody's different. For me, when I won the race, I could not wait to see the team. Because I drove their car to win. And they made the car

that was good enough for me to win the race with. I got to see Tony Jr. I got to see Tony Senior. I got to see Steve LaTart. Great guys. I want to go to be with my team. First, that's a

the first, all I want, right? See Amy. And so that front straightaway interview is like a hurdle to that. Now, sometimes they meet you out there. Listen, that's true. You know, you win the Daytona 500, it depends. You know, you win a big race like that. You might park it on the front straightaway and get out because you were like, I want to feel that energy from this, from the fans. I need that. Victor Lane's too far away. So you might, I mean, it just has its place. Yeah. Maybe the Victor Lane, you know, maybe the frustrated wait interview is particular to the track, right, in the moment, the size of the moment. Yeah. I love it. We're talking about winning. We're having fun. This next question is coming from Jerry. What is the most heartbreaking race loss that you've had?

Gosh. Way to bring it down, Jerry. I mean, there's the one that got away. I'll think of a, I'll think of a dozen when we walk out of this room. But the probably two that jump. out right away are the losing Talladega to Jeff Gordon when Vickers spun in the middle of the corner I'm in the act of I just I'm side drafting the 24 and I'm going by him no question right

and the caution comes out in that moment and they say he's ahead when we're in turn three and four and they threw all the beer cans at Jeff which I loved and he instead of getting up by the fence I've talked about this on the show

but instead of getting up by the fence so the cans would not hit the car he pulled farther away from the fence so they could get it over in their man they were full cans bouncing off this car you gotta be pissed to throw a full

can of beer that's right I was so angry you know that this is this is back when you know it was new for races to be decided in in that way that's right

this was, you know, you're sitting there, and you're sitting there in the car, and they're like, yep, Jeff was ahead when the caution came out, and you're like, well, where on the track were we? When you decided the race is over? And how could you be so precise to say, yep, that signifies the moment? It's like you didn't even know how you lost. I know, I didn't know how lost.

Was that to continue your streak? Yeah, I think it was in five in a row? Yeah, I thought so. and then we go back and win again. I think it would end up being like six in a row total. The other one is the loss to Joligano. Same thing, right? Get the restart.

I'm going by Joey. Where is this? Talladega. Oh, yeah. 2015, I think. Yeah. I'm going by Joey. I've got him.

Oh, yeah. And there's a wreck behind me, and they're like, feel frozen. I'm like, I've got one. I remember watching, and it was the co-kewarm, Coca-Cola 600 where you ran out of gas. Oh, great. That's a good other one, great one, right? I wanted a points win at Charlotte, grew up in the area,

been going there as a kid all my life, never missed a race at Charlotte. No points race win for me, an Xfinity or Cup, just that All-Star race. It's that close. Come out of the gate, win an All-Star race, you're thinking, home track, Charlotte, I'm going to get me some trophies here. Nope, not for me. So, yeah, that's another one. I think getting passed by Harvick with like 10 laps to go up Martinsville one year,

that was a tough loss. I did not do what I needed to do. I could have adjusted. I remember this, right? This is how bad this stings. I didn't adjust the brakes. Like, I don't know if that would have mattered, but I'm sitting there, I'm getting looser and looser on entry,

and he's coming. And I could have, like, done something. Damn it. So. Wait us bring us down, Jerry. It's good. It's good. Talk about it.

Yeah. Does it matter? Yeah. Does it still matter? Yes. Yes. Will the Sting ever go away? No, I don't.

Why should it? No. If it does, then did it ever matter? I guess that's a great point. That's a good way of looking about it. The Sting shows you that it mattered. Yeah. It's fine that it matters.

I want it to matter. That's a country song. Sting still matters or something like that. Is it really? No, I'm saying it should be. Oh, we're writing. I don't think we need to write that song. I think we're going to write it right now, actually.

This next question is coming from. Cole, you know, we have the 99 bottles of beer in the wall for the brushing the teeth. Are there any other good like parenting lessons that you've had come across recently?

I can't think of one. I mean, that's, I hate being put on the spot because it's tough to come up with that. But, uh, man, I don't know. Not really. Even like,

like okay then this is like a somewhat of a follow-up but like any any lessons you can tie from racing to life that you've you know because like you've sometimes have to explain why a driver loses you know like I know uh you and Iler watching yeah just an all guy race I mean the personal stories about you know the personal stories about um being a father being a bad being a bad or a bad or making mistakes and all that those are I'm going to throw them in the personal notes and bring, I'll bring that to the show being asked off, you know, on the spot, like, what's the new life hack, you know, everybody's waiting down. Yeah, it's like, it's not the way it works. Okay. But I'm trying, I mean, I'm trying to think of, of, I mean, you know, I will say,

you can come back with some more. I've got something specific about that. I was watching a TV show and one of the characters, their kid was having nightmares. What do you, like, what's the thing that you do with that? Is there anything like, you know, you talk to them or stay up with them? Dude, I got a video on my phone. A couple years ago, Ila had night terrors and she would wake up in the middle of the night. And, dude, it was freaky because I got this one video and she gets out of her bed and she's pacing in her room around her bed, sobbing and fast.

and you'll go in there and wake them up or you'll go in there and calm them down right and get them back in the bed and they'll go right back to sleep and they'll get up in the morning and not remember none of it. It's like sleepwalking. Yeah, you're like, dude, how do you not remember that? Like, they weren't awake. And Kelly's son, Wyatt, has these night terrors

where he gets up and he's walking around the house and it's freaky. So, you know, we've, we, you know, Nicole doesn't have these. At least she doesn't yet. Nicole just got in, just got out of the crib and into a bed where she can crawl in and out. So we're dealing with that. She'll, you know, she's learned, hey, I can get out, right? The first couple nights she's slept in that thing, never come out of it.

Now she's like, you'll shut, you'll say, no, no, no, shut the door, read a book, right? Shut the door, turn the light out. And you can just stand there. He's up the door. What are you doing? You're out of bed already. Stand bored. She's like, hey, I'm not, you know, get back in bed.

What are we doing? Yeah. You're going to sleep. But the 99 bottles of beer on the wild is no longer working. It's not? It worked for about two or three nights. Damn. Kind of a new song.

That is disappointing to hear. I'm taking a peek here at the YouTube chat. This next question coming from Blizzard. I think that's your user. name. Any good, you know, we were talking about Michael Jordan throughout the show. I know you've interacted with him a handful times. Like, what was it like meeting him and, you know, talking to him? Yeah, I was, uh, he came to, he came to Homestead when Denny was racing for the championship one year before the 2311 existed. And it was a big deal. Everybody in the, everybody, our, our bosses at NBC were, uh,

clamoring to figure out how to get to him and get an interview. He's here, he's at the race, we got to get him on TV, right? And can he talk to us? So they kind of threw me in there, and he said, yeah, I'll do a deal with Dale. So I'm like, wow, right? I'm in early, early stages of my broadcasting career, and I'm thinking, and what an incredible opportunity for me. Yeah.

You know? This is like getting the call to drive for Rick Hendrick or getting called to drive somebody's car. You're like, what a great chance, you know. I hesitate to go back and look at the interview now because I was so green. But I leaned into just being excited and giddy about the opportunity to talk to him.

He was super cool. Stepped out of this motor coach. We did two or three questions. Thanks. Appreciate it. We're glad you're here. And so that was probably, that was a cool moment. A long time ago, I guess maybe 10 years ago or more, I was still racing.

Michael came to Charlotte to one of the races, and my buddy Sean is a huge fan and has all the shoes, right? And so I told Sean, I'm usually not a thoughtful, caring person. But I said to Sean, I said, hey, man, Michael Jordan's going to come. I know you love Jordans. Do you got a pair that you would love to get autographed? I'm going to, I will ask him to sign them. It's my mission. And he gave me this really unique pair in this special box, right?

And he's like, these, these are the ones. And so I take them to the driver's meeting. And as soon as they announced that the meeting is over, it's like a mad dash right to get to him everybody right dang everyone has the same idea and i just boom i just pushed all way up through there with my box and i'm like michael michael and he saw me he goes hey and shook my hand and i said i really got to get you to sign these shoes man these are my best friend's shoes and he signed them and so i hated i hate to ask for autographs but it was for for shone and so um that's really the only two interactions i can recall that i've

have had with him. And so pretty neat, though. I mean, if he's going to, you know, he's a successful owner in the sport. I'm sure there'll be more in the future. And it's pretty neat seeing what the impact that's had on the sport this week. What is Sean's reaction to, like, you giving him the shoes back? You're like, look at this. I did it.

Yeah. He's happy. Very thrilled. That's pretty awesome. Awesome stuff this week on S-Jr. All right, man. Appreciate everybody tuning in. Good to see everybody again.

we have a there's a lot of things that we talked about in this show that you guys are going to want to make sure you hear we talk about the summer stretch we got some pretty cool stuff happening for us here at the Dell Junior download and again Casey Atwood comes in for the guest segment for tomorrow and that's it thanks for thanks for tuning back in thanks Xfinity for everything you do

that Xfinity mobile 5G hotspots everywhere it's good stuff We'll never let you down. And Xfinity is a proud premier partner of NASCAR. Thank you for everything you do for Dirty Mo Media. All right, so Tampa Tams is at the desk. We're going to talk about Dirty Moe Doe. Dropping every Thursday on our dirty moe media platforms.

You don't want to miss it. If you want to, you know, if you want to gamble, play some bets, obviously going to hear some great advice. And Steve LaTart and Tampa Tims, and those guys are going to tell you some of the things they're thinking about. for the upcoming race this weekend at Dover. But also, honestly, man, I think the show provides really, really good insight on handicapped in the field on who's going to be good. Who should be good, right?

You hear some really, really important statistical information that might help you understand who the front runners might be this coming weekend. So I think the show serves multiple purposes, but Tampa Tens. You cashed out on Ligano this past weekend? Yeah, that was kind of the strategy going in for Dirty Emot. was to kind of try some new things and Lugano was pretty aggressive at these tracks usually and he likes to lead all the laps. So what's the initial bet? For him to win. For him to win the race. I know, how much? I placed $10. And so at what point in the race are you thinking you're going to cash out? Do you have a plan like a hey man, this gets to $12, whatever? Yeah, after stage two was kind of

where it should have gotten to a profit. Now, I didn't really see a big profit one, but I got to a point where I just cashed out and I said, I'm done with this bet. I think I ended up just breaking even. No kidding 10 bucks, yeah. Wow. I mean, a lot of people, I asked on Twitter if they got a good option. You were like now. You were feeling that he wasn't going to pull through win the race, so it was time to bail.

Yeah, I bailed because the strategy was to bail. So I just kind of kept through and said, okay, I'm fine with even money. If I lost 50 cents, lost 50 cents, just cashed out, enjoyed the rest of the Nashville trip I was on. But I think the books got smart at Talladega, which, kind of backfired on our strategy. So that's an interesting thing. I think is, you know, do you think as NASCAR gets deeper into this sort of, you know,

into the betting, now that North Carolina's opened up where NASCAR really lives and breeze, do you think that as popularity in gambling and sports betting rises in NASCAR, you see a difference in how the sports? books are setting the odds. You know, I have seen a little bit of a difference in the past month or sell. Especially, I guess, at Super Speedways. Yeah, I have.

I mean, I've seen them adjust drivers faster than they did in the past. You know, Josh Barry had a good two-week run at the short tracks, and the next week, he was adjusted tremendously. Really? Yeah, and it's still great value. You're still making money if it was to pull off,

but they adjusted him, and I've seen that. It's a lot faster. Think about that. Josh Barry, starting at the back of the field, you make a, you know, you make a bet for him to win and then maybe, you know, with five, you know, with 10, 15 laps to go, you cash out. Yeah. What do you think the bet would have been on $10?

You know, Joe Ligano is a favorite, right? So, you know, cashing out and getting 50 cents when he's in the top five. Probably would have got a good, you know, offer to cash out because that's a big. You get a higher offer, right? Yeah, because the higher. Because he's such a hundred dollar. Yeah, exactly. They don't want to pay all that out.

They'll still give you a decent amount. So, yeah, that could have been a good one, too. But if he doesn't ever crack like the top 15, you're never going to have chance to cash out and make money that's a loser yeah i've seen people just cash out the and take a loss but not as much of a loss yeah that's fine because the race is over it's all gone yeah it's all gone damn yeah that doesn't sound like uh so so let's say i mean what was reddicks odds you remember leganos reddicks oh reddx oh race winner he was i don't remember exactly but he was probably the favorites were plus a thousand right so anything from i think he was maybe 1200 to

Damn, those are good odds. Yeah, they're good, they're not bad. For the favorites? Yeah. Plus a thousand? Because there's so many. I mean, it is a good week to try to even place a bet on the favorite too, but yeah. But picking the winner is like a crapshoot.

Sure, especially there. Yeah, exactly. All right, what's the plan for Dover? Well, we're hoping to get back on track. The last two weeks at Dirty Mo Doe were a little tough, a little unpredictable races, to be honest with you. So nice to get back to a more maybe predictable race. I'm looking at guys that are going on concrete tracks.

the professor's guy's predictor, so I'm sure he's got that dialed up for Thursday. Ross Chastain, Chase Elliott, two guys that come right to mind for the outright win. Martin Trex Jr. as well. He's great here. So we'll see what the odds are on those guys when they comes out. Really? Yeah. Larson. Larson's always going to be there, but he's always going to be a favorite. That's my prediction for how the odds will come out. Okay. So we'll try to maybe target him to match up.

Who's your underdog? Who's somebody you think it could sneak one out? What about a Bowman? Bowman, yeah. The books, talk about not adjusting a driver. Alex Bowman, they have not adjusted, really, when he's ran well. He's seen him stealing one at Dover. Yeah, that's a good one, too. Hendricks should be fast in general.

So that's a good bet. I like Josh Barry, too. I haven't done the math on how he did in the Xfinity Series there. He raced there in the Cup Series, and he did win in the Xfinity Series. Yeah, that just seems like a track. If I'm going off just blank knowledge of the sport, I feel like he would run well. that so if you're a very conservative gambler um maybe uh you know if you're not trying to hit a big number at the end of the day putting money down on bowman and cashing out when he's sitting there in

the top five or the top three in stage three might be not a bad strategy not a bad strategy no not at all not at all i mean i'm very intrigued with watching the live betting aspect of this is so interesting to me it's stressful to watch but it is i like watching watching to see what the number does. It's brand new. I've never done that before. Right. It's fun to see what the books will offer you at different tracks, at what point, how high he can run up. Like you said, if he's running top five, can you cash out? It's, it's interesting. It's worked. Some weeks, hasn't worked some other weeks. 10-4, man. Well, good luck. I hope you get it turned around for Dover. Thank you, thank you. Yeah. We'll see you, Tampa Tams.

Thank you. All right, it's time for the Cars Tour recap. The Cars Tour was at Orange County this past weekend. A little bit of drama. good hard racing and a great finish, a great race as usual for the late model stock and the pro series. All the rising stars, these are the drivers that you're going to see in the truck, Xfinity, and Cup Series at some point down the road. Cars Tours where those guys are getting that talent, getting that experience and racecraft. We see it play out every week.

Another awesome weekend, so let's hear what happened. After a three-year hiatus, the ZMAX Cars Tour presented by Sound Gear, made its much anticipated return to the Orange County Speedway for the Orange Blossom 250. This would be the 12th time that the late model stocks have raced at the fastest 3-8th mile in America, the second most of all tracks that have ever hosted the series, and the fourth race of the 2024 season. Last week's winner, Bobby McCarty picked up right where he left off as he captured his fifth career Thunder Road Harley Davidson Pole and first of the season.

Rookie Brent Cruz would line up alongside for his third front row appearance and only his sixth career Cars Tour Late Model Stock Race. Beak McCaskill making his 100th career start with the series would roll off third, with second-place driver and points, Minnie Tyrell, completing the front two rows. Meanwhile, the championship points leader Connor Hall and defending series champion Carson Quaple found qualifying to be a bit of a struggle, and both drivers found themselves starting the race from the back half of the field. The door was open for a top-see, Turvey, and Wild Night in Rugemont, and that's exactly what we would get.

Up high where no other car is riding, and you can already see it as we have trouble in the back of the field. One car hardened to the outside wall, contact with Land and Huffman, and coming to a dead stop at the inside of turn number two. It is Logan Clark, whose car is going aflame after an incident in the back of the field. It's between McCaskill and Minnie Tyrell, but McCaskill left to third. Oh, he gets up and he may have a flat left rear tire. We'll have to see if the car could survive in turn one. So far he keeps it pointed in the right direction,

but there is serious damage to the rear deck lid of the driver, making his 100th career start in this series. As we have trouble on the front straightaway, one car, the right front is down. It is the number 62 of Lane Riggs, sparks flying from underneath that KHA machine. While McCarty would prove to be the early dominator, he would find himself facing a fierce challenge from Cars Tour rookie Brent Cruz, Hickory winner Connor Zillish, and more, as the race at the front would intensify with less than 40 to go.

Cruz, McCarty, side by side. 40 laps to go here at Orange County, and Cruz has just a nose off a turn two. Perhaps the furthest forward. Cruz has been all night. Is it going to be enough to get the lead? Off of turn number four. Cruise by a bumper.

Leads that lap, but he leans on McCarty in turn one. Leans, but it's going to be enough to go through. Almost contact for second between McCarty and Zillish, but new race leader with 38 laps to go. The 29 of Brink Cruz up to the point. Dillish into turn three. Zillish now going to drive to the bottom. And he's going to spin him out.

Contact at the front of the field as Zillish spins out and a couple of cars will get collected. And the fantastic night for Bobby McCarty has come to an end in turn four. Along with Bobby McCarty, the crash impacted the nights of Minnie Tyrell, Cade Brown, Shretton Lapsovich, and Brandon Pierce. One lap to settle it here at Orange County Speedway. A little bit of lap traffic up the road, but going to be no bother we mentioned. Could there be another first time winner in the ZMAX Cars Tour?

Well, he's going to do it tonight. Brit Cruz for the first time is a CMAX Cars Tour winner in the Orange Blossom 250. The subplot to the victory by Cruz and the KHA team is that he had suffered a blown motor late in the final practice session the night before the race. Thanks to the tireless effort to the team and a hurried commute from the track to the shop and back, Cruz had a car ready to do battle in a war that they would win in Rujmont. Following Cruz to the checkered flag was Caden Honeycutt who remained in the top five all night long, ending the evening in second.

Carson Cople and Connor Hall blazed a trail to the front, finishing third and fourth respectively, and Chase Burrow in just his second race at the season picked up his second top five finish in 2024. The night also served as the inaugural trip for the pro-late models to Orange County and the third race of the 2024 slate. Kyle Campbell had been perfect thus far in terms of the win column, but the story going into the race was Connor Jones, who captured the Malay Pole Award mere minutes after learning that he and his team had been bumped from the late model stock show, after not being high enough in owner's points to benefit from a provisional. Despite the disappointment, Jones focused forward and was ready to lead the field down for the start in only his second ever car's Tour Pro Late Model race.

While Jones would lead the opening couple of laps, Caden Honeycutt was able to make the most of an open avenue to the outside lane on an early restart, grabbed the lead, never looked back. Honeycutt now batting 500 in his Cars Tour Pro Late Model career, winning two races in his four career starts. Mick Loden had a solid night finishing second, while Spencer Davis garnered another podium effort in third. Pulsitor Connor Jones would finish fourth, and Luke Baldwin, who was called in off

the bench less than 24 hours before the race started. Rounded out your top five. The series now plans the first of two visits to Altamaha North Carolina's Ace Speedway with another double-heder event for the late model stocks and the pros Friday night, May 3rd. If you can't join us at the racetrack, be sure to catch all the action live on Flow Racing. For the ZMAX cars tour, I'm Eric Brennan. All right, it's the white flag. It's time to talk about the tear down with Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi. Those guys dropped already this week. great show every single week man such great insight from them i've been watching a lot of the clips you guys are pushing out jeff and jordan not only that they have their opinions but i love that

they have they they're true journalists man they're gonna dig and get the facts and and and give you some some great information you do not want to miss the tear down every week action is detrimental with denny hamlin's out as well doorbrumper clear those guys off the rails as usual um and dropping tomorrow's speed street with connor daly and chase holden We talked about Dirty Modo with Steve LaTart, Tampa Tim's dropping Thursday, and DJD Reloaded. Also out on Thursday last week, Carla and Andrew, they talked to NASCAR's Elton Sawyer about the current state of practice.

Man, we got into a conversation about practice. You know, I said we needed more. Chase Elliott said, no, we're fine. We don't need more. That's what inspired the show. Yeah, and then, yeah. I wonder what will inspire the show this week. I don't know.

I've got a few ideas. Okay. Well, it's been great. DJD Reloaded. It's kicking butt every Thursday. That's it. It's been a lot of fun here Tuesday. Tomorrow, again, Casey Atwood comes in and we're excited to see him finally. It's been a long time since I've talked to him. He was eager to come in when we asked him to come on the show. It should be a lot of fun here in the Bojangles studio. We'll see y'all. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.