The Dale Jr. Download - 544 - Resuming After Rain In Charlotte: You Can’t Take That Risk

Episode Date: May 28, 2024

Dale Earnhardt Jr. checks in remotely from the beach house after a rainy Memorial Day weekend for a new episode of Dirty Air. Mother Nature had other plans for the “Greatest Day in Motorsports.” As a result, there was a lot to debate and unpack: Tip-toeing into sports betting Getting to know the neighbors The 2024 NASCAR Hall of Fame Class Should Kyle Larson get a waiver?  Coca-Cola 600 winner Christopher Bell calls in  During the Ask Jr. portion of the episode, listeners inquired about: Dale’s recent exploration of the Gee race shop attic Dale’s experience of getting interviewed by Josh Berry during the Charlotte Xfinity race Dale’s sim rig setup at his beach home 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.

All right, everybody, here we are back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. This was going to be a little different. You can tell I'm not in the studio, but the rest of the team is back at the studio. I'm at the beach, so I'm going to record remotely, and we've got a lot to talk about this week. We've got a great guest coming on, which I'll tell you about later, but we need to talk about the 600 and everything else going on in the sport in our lives. So it's going to be a lot of fun. Let's get started. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media. Who's the new gap? In the studio for Dirty Air.

And then Dale started singing 99 bottles of beer. There are some voices on the show that you're going to hear. Keep the camera roll. All right, so we're in the Bojangles studio, and I want to remind you now, through June 9th, you're going to get a free sausage boberry biscuit using the promo code Dale Jr., D-A-L-J-R, and you can get that by placing your order on bojangles.com or inside the app. So download the app.

Place your order with this code, D-A-L-E-J-R, and you get the free sausage, boberry biscuit. I have people coming up to me all the time thanking me for the free bird dogs. So this promotion is working. I'm happy about that. I like helping people get free stuff. So anyways, available for a limited time. Go get it.

you can at Bojangles. So anyways we we talked about how you know I'm not in the studio I am at the beach this is my sim room you can see over my shoulder my gaming rig and you know my trustee printer to help me print off all these documents for the shows here that we're going to be doing and I'll be back ticker behind you too you got a tiny Tickr. It's changing. Yeah, tiny ticker. Tiny tickers going.

I like that thing, man. You can pretty much put anything you want on there. How many days is it until Christmas? You can put that on there. Dang. Yeah, it's pretty cool. So it'll be cycling. I don't know if you can see it real well.

But yeah, I'll be back and forth through the summer. And we're going to keep the shows rolling. I have. down here for a couple of days and and I thought we could have a little conversation before we get into the race stuff and everything happened at the 600 there's a couple things that have been going on in our lives everybody you know our lives mine you guys lives we've been having a little bit of a fun we've been having a little bit of fun since North Carolina opened up with

sports betting and so obviously with the NBA playoffs NHL playoffs kinds of things going on there's some cool opportunities and we've been playing it slow trying to just kind of learn how this how all this works i don't i don't know about you guys but i don't i'm not i'm not pretty i'm not well versed in in the gambling and and um slippery slopes so just kind of you know want to take it easy but um we ended up following all of us ended up following a couple handles on social media that were uh that were teeing up you know some bets that they thought they thought you know, they were giving advice, right? Which we do as well on Dirty Mode Doe.

And what we learned or what I learned is that there's these things called ladder bets or lock trains. And so we had a lot of fun with this. You take a unit or whatever you're comfortable with, a small amount of money, and you're going to make this bed and keep reinvesting the winnings over a series of six to eight bets. and you're eventually going to end up with this big lump sum, right? And it's kind of like a pyramid of upside down pyramid of sort of, you know, creating all this opportunity. And if everything goes well, you're going to end up winning a lot of money starting with a very small amount.

And we did that. We, all of us together started with, you know, a tiny little sum and built it up to a lot of money. And a couple hundred bucks. And so, but I was going to leave and come down here to the beach for the last bet. We had, you know, all of us had been successful. We had taken this tiny little bit of money and built it up. And there's one more bet to make, right? We're going to finally get to the top of the mountain.

But I had to go out of town and I'm inside Carolina. There's both sports books here. So you cannot place. bets. And the bet busted. The bet busted. Yep. Someone texted in the group chat like this is a sign. It was me. Yeah. I said this. This is a sign. Dale can't bet. We're not going to bet. We're not going to do it. So I got to ask. So did anybody else in the group make the bet? No. Absolutely not. Heck no. Yeah. It's a sign, man. I don't do that. Oh, man. Well, it saved us. Because the bet busted.

And I was going to, I was going to, I wasn't going, so we had talked about this. Like as you, like if you say if your unit is $10, right, and you're going to start with $10 and do this ladder bet, and you're going to take everything, every time you win, you're going to put it all back into the next bet. We talked about like pulling some back, right? Right. I was 100% committed to, I was 100% committed to going all in. and boy, I'm glad I couldn't because I would have lost all that money. And so, I don't know, I'm glad that I went out of town, saved us all. Yeah, it was destiny.

Yeah, isn't it crazy a vacation just saying to save some money? Yeah, I was checking my phone to get one text message of thank you or nothing from you guys. You know what? I should have. You're right. We saved it for the show. We saved it for the show. one whole unit that one whole unit you saved me really uh wait no but you had amass all this wealth

yeah i started super small i started with like you know three dollars and then so it was like yeah i think i was up like 20 bucks or something like that oh come all right no i'm serious well that uh i just say that all to i just say that to um to let people know you know we we have dirty mowedoe and And we have a lot of fun with that and Tim's and the tart do a good job. But, and we're sort of, you know, sticking our toe in the water a little bit, learning about sports betting. And it is fascinating, fascinating stuff. And the things that you can bet on, and, I mean, there is limitless, limitless in one single game. There's so many crazy things that I had no idea that people could place bets on.

stuff that you would think is like a true lock. Like, you know, we've talked about it. The runs scored in the first inning of a baseball game. You can pick either team, right? Are they going to score a run? And you just assume, you know, you know, game cranks up. They're probably not going to score a run in that first inning. You know, the team's going to get loose and, you know, the pitchers are going to get tired and all those things.

But so it's pretty interesting, the things you can bet on. I wanted to ask you too. And this got me thinking about you guys yesterday. So we had this house in South Carolina. We really enjoy it. We've been here for a couple years. And we don't really know many people in the neighborhood and haven't really made a big effort to get out there and meet the neighbors too much. We're cool with it.

I mean, I'm not like, you know, I'm just, you know, I'm not antisocial, but I'm, you know, an introvert and shy and. don't really interject or push myself on to other people and neighbors. And so, yeah, so we've been here several years and we haven't really. We've got one neighbor just across the street that we've came to know and really appreciate. And Amy says, all right, this summer we're going to meet the neighbors. So when I got here, we went over to a person's house. Amy said, you know, when you get here, I went to the Xfinity race, and then I went to the cars tour race at Tri-County, and then I got up early, early in the morning and came to the beach.

Amy and the girls were already down here. And she says, when you get here, we're going to a person's house. And so I immediately get anxious. And, you know, I make everything a bigger deal than it really is. But so I get super nervous. It's going to be fine. I'm going to go. We're going to have a great time.

But I'm still, you know, so I get here and I start asking Amy all these questions. How did you meet these people? Who are they? Who all is going to be there? And she's getting really annoyed with me, all these questions. She's just like, really, relax. Stop being such an idiot. And, yeah.

Yeah. And so, but, you know, you guys are younger. And I, I'm just assuming, like, for you guys to just, up and go to another person's house, it's not a big deal, right? I think, I wonder if we get older and we're a little more, I don't know, selective is probably not the right word, but I remember when I was young, you know, going to somebody else's house, if I was with a friend or knew a friend was going to be there, I didn't care that I didn't know anyone else or didn't, had never met the person whose house it was, but I don't know. We went over there, we had a blast. All the kids,

There's a bunch of kids over there. Everybody's, all the kids were getting along. And we just, we hung out the majority of the day and the evening. I missed a lot of the race. I tuned into the race, and it was already in the rain delay. And so, you know, it was, but it was fun. And I, the following day, yesterday, we ended up going to another person's house who I'd never met.

And spent the afternoon at the pool with the kids. Now, our neighbors were there. So the common link is the neighbors that we do know, right? They're kind of connecting us to these other people that they have friendships with, right? So two days in a row putting myself out there. The introvert in me is going crazy. but it was good.

It was fun. It was fun. So, you know, are you guys, what are you guys? Are y'all, is that part of your, I guess, you know, what do you guys think about that? I think the neighbor thing is the awkward part. Like I don't think, I don't, at least for me, I can go and have a conversation with most people. But then, like, if it's a neighbor, it's like, okay, this can't be awkward because I'm going to see them all the time. That's true.

That's true. That's very. That's very. So that's where I feel like it's different versus like, oh, when you were a kid, you went to someone, you know, someone's house. Well, you didn't have to go back if you didn't like them. But you're kind of stuck next to your neighbors, which I think makes it a little bit. Those conversations are always, I feel like for me a little bit more awkward.

I think I'm getting over that hump a little bit of I used to like, you know, going, I could go anywhere and be happy anywhere. But now I'm like, ah, I want to stay home. I want to be home. I like home, you know. Yeah, I got here. And, you know, we have a, we love this, this vacation home with ours. And we often dream about moving down here full time.

But, you know, it's just a daydream about that. But we love being here. And so when I was, you know, I just got my SIM rigs set up and got this, you're going to podcast a little bit here this year. So I was excited about just like settling in, enjoying the house, maybe grabbing some dinner with the family, but Amy's like, nope, you got plans when you hit the ground.

When you hit the ground, you got plans, get ready, get ready, we're doing it. But I just wanted to say, in case of our neighbors are, to your point, Andrew, if they're listening, hey, I had a blast. Hey, I had a great time. I need to do that more.

I'm just, you know, I'm just apprehensive about, for no good reason, I guess. But I thought that was interesting. made me think about you guys and I'm like, you know, because I'm older. You guys are, shoot, nearly half my age and I wonder how you guys, I think, you know, like Alex and you guys, you're looking for friendships and engaging with people and you're looking for experiences. So you're probably putting yourself out in those situations weekly or every other weekend.

Going into town, meeting people and friends and new people at bars and stuff like that or watching games and whatever you're going to watch the race somewhere. And that's just not my life, you know, and it never really was part of my life. I never was that kind of person. I wasn't going to be the, yeah, I'm going downtown to watch the game with the guys and meet a bunch of other people that might be there, right? I never was that kind of person. I was pretty locked in and didn't really get out of the house much.

For every person I meet, I need about three days to myself. That's fair. That's fair. My social battery runs out quick. After like two days of meeting people, I need like a full week to like by myself. Mentally recovered. That's funny. I just want to point out that in the note sheet, Dale, all you wrote was went to a stranger's house twice.

Like, what did you just walk in? I thought he walked in somewhere. Right. Yeah. Well, the funny. Yeah, I mean, the funny thing about our notes is I want to put in there that. Just enough. I want to talk about this, but I don't want you to really know too much.

right right so um i want you to yeah yeah so i um i really enjoyed another thing that we have going on should we talk about the uh the instagram milestone yes yeah that's big deal all right so yeah i wasn't sure about how to handle this um so on my instagram

uh my followers kind of was idling around 970,000 950, 950,000 950,000, something like that for a really long time. But in the last couple of years, it started trickling back, it started, you know, rising. And I got to thinking, man, you know, it might be fun to do something when we reached that one million followers milestone. And so I got with my team and we thought about how to, how to do something fun, but also something that would be impactful in the community and elsewhere.

And so our team at Junior Motorsports and part of my brand team came up with this really cool idea. Morgan, who's handling a lot of my social media, dove into a bit of a deeper dive of where our followers are, where they're located. and we basically picked the top 10 cities from where our followers are located. And then we went to those cities virtually and researched some of the top charitable initiatives in those cities. And some are charitable initiatives that we're familiar with, that we already work with, the foundation that we have. And we did a really deep dive into who those charities are and what they do. And we picked a charity in each city and we're going to donate a million dollars,

$100,000 to each charity in each city where our followers are located. So it's just a tip of the cap of appreciation. to all the people that do, you know, follow me and support, you know, our work here at Dirty Mo Media. Most of the posts that you're going to see on my Instagram are going to be about our shows, and Dalton does a great job, making sure all that content's there and allowing me to collaborate. So you're going to see some personal stuff, but most of it's our Dirtymoe Media work and everything else I got going on professionally. And so it's helpful to have people engaging and following what you're doing,

and I wanted to acknowledge that. So this was just kind of a fun way to do that. But thanks to our team at Junior Motorsports for coming up with this cool plan. I'm comfortable and happy with that. That's a great way to acknowledge something that's pretty neat. and I really enjoy Instagram. It's one of my favorite. I mean, I don't spend any time really on any other social media apps

except for Instagram and Twitter. And so it's kind of fun to be able to hit that milestone and then be able to make a cool donation and support some of the cities where our followers are at. I saw where I've seen this a couple times but Elon went on Twitter or X you know

and he asks he keeps asking, he does this like every four or five six months he puts a poll up and says what do you like better Twitter or X? As far as like the name the name

yeah he just did this a couple days ago and what were the results? Well it's like 98% everybody wants Twitter. Right. That's what I would think. I agree. I agree. Like I still call it Twitter. I'm never, I'm just kidding.

Yeah, I'm not going to switch. I can't change. And too, too, I'm too lazy to change. And so, but he keeps tweeting this poll every so often. And I wonder, like if the results continue to skew, I wonder if the sorry I was moving this thing out of the way I wonder if the results

continue to be heavily toward Twitter whether he'll just rebrand it back what a waste of money that would be I guess to like brand everything X and then build a website X.com and then he would just be like Twitter well just go out part of my part of me feels like he's just trolling with that if there anyone will be it

doesn't matter it doesn't matter I wonder you're right about rebranding it that would be a big undertaking but he probably should have just named it Twitter X. Yeah. When he rebranded it the first time. Yeah. And that way he could call it TwitterX or anyone else who wants to do that,

and we could keep calling it Twitter, and everybody's right. There you go. I feel like. Maybe they'll do a throwback weekend where like for one week, like Darlington, it just goes back to Twitter. Right, yes. They're going to adjust accordingly according to the NASCAR schedule. That's all of it.

All right, a quick shout out to our sponsors, Tire Pros. There are a few people who love cars as much as I do, but these tire and service experts equally love the drive. You've got to give your vehicle some TLC by heading to your local TirePros or to TirePros. Find that location near you. So, yeah, a lot going on in the motorsports world. It's fun. This weekend, yeah.

So, you know, I kind of like, would like to get to, you know, Andrew loves to go. in the opposite order. Do whatever your heart desires in terms of the order. If they were up to Andrew, we would run the race backwards. And in our, in our, you know, in our analysts of the race weekend, we would start with the checkered flag

and work back through everything, through everything that happened. I'm just trying to get to, you know, what the people want to hear first. But let's go, let's go in order. Let's go in order. Have you ever heard this very, very, very famous slogan, Andrew called, Save the Best for Last?

I've never heard that, actually. Okay. Well, you're learning something new. All right. There's a couple different things that I see here. Obviously, Ricky Road, Carl Edwards, and Ralph Moody were selected for the NASCAR Hall of Fame class. Pretty awesome. We can debate, you know, who believes.

belongs in who does, if you're on the ballot, you're, you're almost guaranteed that you belong in the Hall of Fame. It's will you get selected? So there's no, there's really nobody on the ballot that doesn't really belong in the Hall of Fame. There may be an exception to that and everybody's got their own opinion. I would never come out publicly and say, you know what, that guy doesn't belong on the ballot. I think that'd be a sh** thing to do. Even if you thoughts so much. There are a couple people that I'm curious as to why they don't

get on the ballot. And one of those is Ray Elder. I might have talked to y'all about Ray Elder in the past, but the guy won six. So there was a NASCAR West, which is the K&N series. There was a legit. There was a

legit NASCAR Cup Series West at one point. Right? There was. And Ray ran in that series and won the championship six times. And he would race with the Cup teams when they came to Riverside. So the Cup Series goes out to Riverside and races twice a year. Ray would run that race. He won it two years in a row.

Beat Richard Petty's and David Pearson's and Kale Yarboroughs. Outright. He came to Daytona to qualify for the Daytona 500, and I think he won a duel. Dang. And might have ran forth into Daytona 500 one year. I mean, this is, and which is, going to Daytona for a West Coast guy was absolutely foreign because they had nothing like that on the West Coast. So how he got out there and was able to take his car and create speed with it, it's very

impressive. That kind of speed anyways. But again, congratulations to Ricky, Carl, Ralph Moody. Moody's been on the ballot for a long time and finally got in. I can't wait to see Harry Gant go in. I'm excited about Harry. I think he's absolutely one of the more famous names in our sport over the years. Handsome Harry.

A guy ran the fence and one four in a row became Mr. March and all that fun stuff. Skull Bandit. He was a fun. popular driver to pull for. Yeah, iconic. Yeah. What do you think about Carl Edwards? I mean, I know he's been a name that's been floating around a bunch and now to finally

make me in the Hall fame. I don't have, I mean, it's Carl. Yeah. I think it, I think this is a tough thing for me, Andrew. You're putting me in a really tough spot because I got in at a young age in, in terms of Hall of Famers, right? And I'll go to the events and I'll look around and I'm like, you know, I'm definitely like the outlier here. I'm much younger than a lot of the people in this room that are that are wearing blue jackets. I certainly could have patiently waited an opportunity later in life

to get in, which would have allowed someone to go in in front of me, like a Ralph Moody or a Ricky Rudd, right? and so I struggle a little bit when a younger guy goes in. Now there's the there's the automatics like Jimmy Johnson and, you know, recent retirees that are still rather young in terms of the grand scheme of life. There's the ones that absolutely are first ballot. Go right in. That makes sense. And I think Carl is a Hall of Famer.

be in the Hall of Fame. But some of the other names on the list, I wish they were in there, and they should already be in there, right? Sure. Like Harry Gant, for example. So I was hoping Burton would get in, you know, this year. I think Jeff Burton belongs in the Hall of Fame. The thing about Jeff is they had a great racing career,

but he also had so much more that he put into the sport. He's been such a huge value to the sport as a broadcaster. He has been a big He's been big in the safety part of the sport And pushing that forward He does a lot of things So the long list of things that Jeff Burton does That would I think get him an automatic bid in

But anyways, that's I don't find I really don't find that conversation fun debating who belongs in I don't find it fun to discuss I don't want, you know, I don't enjoy like grading this class, right? I don't think we should do that. But yes, my opinion.

The Denny Hamlin Bracket Challenge is back again. It's starting, is it this weekend? Starting this weekend. Yeah, brackets are open. They come out in literally five minutes. Yeah. All right. So, you know, look through round one, a lot of interesting pairings.

They've, uh, we got Suarez versus Bush. which is the 15th and 18th seed. Kyle Bush and Josh Barry. I feel like that's the most head-to-head. That's going to be the hardest matchup, I think, because Josh Barry, me, he finished, what, 10th at the COC 600? He's been having good runs, sneaky good runs, and Bush, you know, is he struggling this year?

Is he, you know, that's going to be an interesting one at Gateway. Yeah, well, we know it. There's a lot of good. Yeah, he sucks just as bad as Ricky, according to Kyle Bush. I wish they were paired together. That would have been perfect. Yes, I agree. So that'll be fun to pay attention to. I'm going to have to get my bracket filled out. I asked fans this weekend, who's someone to watch for the bracket challenge? Because obviously the seeds weren't placed until the points were set after the race. But a lot of people looked at

Busher, a lot of people looked at Larson. Byron is some of the favorites. I mean, Bush are a 15 seed. I think is a really solid, solid bet, you know, get some banks of a buck. What do you think, Dale? Like, who are the people you think are good in this type of head-to-head situation? I don't know. I mean, I think the cream's going to rise to the top. I'll get my bracket. We'll fill it out.

We'll see how we all do. Talk about it next week. See if there's any real surprises or upsets. I'm sure there will be some. I think a. A driver that might go farther would be a host of our. The guy, you know, kind of outperforms every once in a while. If he's, you know, if he's got a, if he gets fortunate in round one,

I think he could, he could get, you know, into the second, third round. But, you know, I think it absolutely comes down to two recognizable top ten. Top ten, yeah, two top ten drivers. Of course, we had what was, Brad is Lasky was in it last year. He was. Yeah. I would have been surprised. I was surprised by that, right?

This year, not so much. But yeah, absolutely. Last year was definitely a surprise. Yeah, for sure. I want to move on. I want to talk about the Xfinity race. I was there, a lot of fun, great racing, really, really great racing. Throughout the field.

And Justin Al-Gyre, I think, had, there was a couple teams that had the best car at different points in the race, but Justin had a great car of the first half. They lost a little bit of balance and speed in the third stage. And I know that, you know, he crashed out, you know, trying to kind of go for it all there on two-tire stop late in the race. So that was kind of unfortunate. But Junior Motorsports had, you know, second, third, and fourth place in the finishing order,

which is a great day for us. We, you know, the engine department at Hendert Motorsports was able to find us a few more horses that made the job a little bit easier for the drivers this past weekend. But the big news from that race, I think, is Austin Hill and Cole Custer. And so there's been quite the back and forth. And I guess today would be the day, maybe tomorrow, whether we learn if anything's really going to happen between NASCAR and Austin Hill.

Austin and Cole got to get on the front straightway and it cut the right front tire. on the 21 car of Austin Hill and he goes down into turn 1 and he and Custer crash out. I listened to Austin's post-race interview and I don't disagree with anything he said. He's like, you know,

all that was really stupid and it was mostly Cole's fault. Cole said in his interview, you know, we got we ran tight off of term 4, Cole brushed the wall and he said I was going to crowd him down the front straightaway. And so,

And so when Cole went down to crowding, Austin Hill, you know, they made contact, and I really put that on Cole. And he said as much. He's like, I went down to crowding. You don't, through a dog leg, crowding a guy or doing anything to get really close to a guy is taking a risk because both of you might interpret how you're going to run this dog leg and use up the race. And so that's what happened. They crashed, they clashed together and cut the right front tire on the 21. So, you know, I think Austin, you know, listening to his post-race interviews relatively correct in everything he says. But, you know, they get around the back straightaway and Austin decided that he was going to turn Custer around, right? And so, that's kind of where it gets sideways. No pun intended. And I think that NASCAR might have to do something here with Austin.

I don't know what it is. I don't know the severity. I can't even guess now after last week's penalty with Stenhouse being $7,500. Stenhouse gets penalized $7,500. Kyle Busch gets nothing for what we know was an intentional wreck. So what precedent has that set for this particular situation where I see it exactly the same way. Yes, Austin Hill wrecked Cole Custer intentionally.

Yes, that's bad. Yes, he deserves some sort of a punishment, but something similar happened the week before and nothing was, nothing happened. So what is anybody's guess if NASCAR does anything on

this situation? It'll be certainly interesting to see. But speaking of someone's day who did not go sideways, Christopher Bell. All right, Christopher, thanks for coming and joining us today. on the Dale Jr. download. You are coming off your second win of the season at Charlotte 600. I've always wanted to win a points race at Charlotte, never did get that done.

And so that's a pretty cool deal. A big racetrack for NASCAR. It's got a lot of great history. What was the feeling like to finally claim a win there for you? That was a weird one, Dale. I'm not going to lie. The way that it all unfolded, you know, at the end of that race was just a wicked twist of emotion. And everyone kind of felt like we were racing to the rain.

And at least my group did. And my spotter and my crew chief were communicating that to me. And then all of a sudden, whenever we come down pit road, we haven't lost the track. So we're like, okay, well, maybe we're going to get back on track. And then we did lose the track. And they didn't call the race. so then it quit raining and we're like all right well i guess we're going to race this thing out so um i never in a million years thought that we were going to uh get canceled after the rain stopped

they started drying the track um i thought we were in it for the long haul did you um i imagine you probably didn't because of the process of of going through the celebration of winning and all that but you know did you think that they should have started the race or could have did you go out to the racetrack at any point and kind of get an idea of of how, you know, damp things might be, or what's your kind of take on that? Yeah, I mean, I did not go out and look at the track and see how what it was or what was going on. But I was surprised that they were going through the drying process because it was probably 10-15 before that it stopped raining. And then I knew that we had at least two hours of racing left and then however long it was going to take to dry the track.

So whenever they did not cancel the race, whenever it quit drying, I went back to the motorhome. And I was trying to get a nap in because I knew that it was going to be a late one whenever we got going. So I was just laying on the couch and trying to close my eyes. And it's almost impossible to take a nap during a rain delay whenever you're leading the race. I can tell you that because you're so focused on how, you know, what's going to happen whenever you go back racing, how you're going to execute the rest of the race. And then, yeah, I got woke up to the fact that we won. That was very unique for sure.

They came and got you out of bus, and that's how you found out? Well, so I'm laying on the couch, right? And I got the broadcast in the background, and they're playing these radioactive things. So it's just kind of like background noise, right? And I don't know that I wasn't like asleep or fully asleep anyway. But so then all of a sudden the background noise stops whenever the booth comes on. And I kind of like open my eyes a little bit. I'm watching the TV and Mike or I don't remember if it was Harvick or boy or someone on the booth starts talking and saying well they're attempting to drive the track and it isn't going well and then at that same time my phone buzzed and it was the NASCAR notification that we get and they said that it was official and like literally so the booth comes on my phone buzzes and then Ty Gibbs my teammate barges in my motorhome all at the exact same time so and

And I'm seconds from having my eyes closed almost asleep. So, yeah, it was a wild change of events for sure. Was the, so where did you go from there? Is the celebration of the win similar to other weeks? Or is it a little subdued? What was in, you know, is everybody, is your team all kind of looking around? Like, wow, is this really happening? Yeah, it was not a normal victory lane.

I can promise you that. And I think it is the very first Victory Lane that I got booed out of, whether it was my fault or someone else's fault. But they announced my name as the winner in Victory Lane and the whole crowd, what crowd was left erupted in booze for me. So that was a first. But yeah, it was quiet. I went to Victory Lane. I golf carted to Victory Lane. My car wasn't there yet.

It was still on pit road, I guess. So I beat the car there, and then my team pushed the car in. and it was it was it was different like normally you know you're doing your burnout on on the racetrack and the crowd's excited and you get to victory lane and all your teams pumped um but this one had a different different vibe for it for sure well i wouldn't take any of those booze personal they're probably booing for other reasons not so much who won but how you know how the end or the race come about but it's unfortunate um but it's part of our sport and I wanted to ask you.

So you're sitting 11th in points, but you got two wins. You're in, from my perspective, when I watch this season, this looks like a Christopher Bell season. Like this is kind of how things are going on. It's unbelievable, Dale. It's unbelievable.

Every year. Every year. Every year. You'll figure it. out whatever's going on, you guys seem to always be ready when the postseason comes to perform like you know you can. But are you at this point just kind of like used to how your team has these struggles and has these sort of imperfections throughout the regular season that always seem to have to get addressed at some point? Well, so number one, I'm extremely proud and

happy, I guess pride's probably the right word for it, about how our group steps up to the plate whenever it comes postseason time. And, you know, like you said, this is kind of become the norm from us over the last couple years throughout the regular season to have ups and downs. And then whenever it comes playoff time, you know, we've got it right the last two years. So, you know, I'm proud of that statement. But on the other hand, it's been very disappointed. pointing because each time that we leave a season, you know, we're looking forward to the next season and have big hopes, big goals, big ambitions. And, you know, leaving 23 was the exact same way.

Going into 24, we hoped to be a regular season championship contender. And it started out really good at the beginning of the year. We won early at Phoenix, had great races at Cota, Richmond, and then it just kind of fell apart on us. So, you know, we're still looking for that consistency and the ability to be a contender weekend and week out throughout the regular season. So I don't know, man. It's been a disappointing season because we had, you know, a lot more expectations of ourselves.

But in the postseason aspect, we've got two wins now and we're trying to bank those playoff points. So I'm just going to keep plugging away and hopefully we can get the ship turned around here before the postseason. Right on, man. Well, we appreciate you giving us some time today. Congratulations on the win this past weekend, the points and the bonus points and all the playoff stuff that goes toward that. It's going to serve you well in the postseason. I think that, you know, you have everybody's attention.

We talked about this last year, how everybody kind of overlooked you and you pushed all the way to the finals. I feel like that that won't be the case this year. you've got everybody's attention everybody knows what you're capable of and I feel like you got a really good shot and putting yourself in a situation to go race for a championship again

at the end of this season man so good luck with that we'll be pulling for you again thanks for your time today absolutely we'll see you later thank you all right it's great to talk to Christopher Bell and you know that's a great opportunity for us to tee up the conversation around the race the 600 and we're obviously

obviously want to get into the Carl Larson stuff as well, him trying to run the double. And everything that came about Sunday afternoon, Sunday night. I will say, listening to Christopherville talk about how the booth came on air to tell the fans what was going on. I do not envy being in that position. There's been a couple times in the NBC booth where we had to come on air with some bad news or something that we know is unpopular. and we have to deliver it anyways, and you're not wanting to be that messenger in that moment, but it's just the way it goes.

So, all right, Kyle Larson, he goes and runs the Indy 500. There was a big debate about, you know, what should he do? Weather's pushing the Indy 500 late. The way I feel about it is this. Like, Kyle Larson has to run the Indy 500. They have so much invested in that race they've prepared all month

practicing qualifying money has been spent and there's no way he can back out of trying to run that event so all right that has to move forward and it did right

that's the choice they made and that's fine Kyle may miss the 600 I'm totally fine with that that that decision was not made Sunday. That decision was made way back when Carl Warson said,

I want to do the double. Because when you make that choice, you've got to know that anything could happen to make it tough to make both events, right? And so he made that choice a long time ago, and I'm fine with it. And if something happens, which it did, that would make him miss the second.

600, that's what happens. No problem. I do not think he should have left Indy and came to run the 600. And I don't know that a lot of people feel that way, right? I think what what we all think is pretty much the majority across the board. So Justin Algar starts the car and drives the car up to the rain delay and finishes 13th, right? Kyle Arson gets there. I guess. he was going to get back in the car when if the race were to get restarted that doesn't happen the 600 ends as a rain rained out event I don't have a problem with that there's protocols in place that when our races are beyond halfway and we have a you know rain delay or any kind of rain event the race can be called official it's been a way it has been forever for as long as I remember

that's what happened. I'm fine with that. I don't have a problem with it. I wasn't there. I don't know what the racetrack looked like. I don't know what the surface of the racetrack look like. I have been in some situations where it's humid and damp and nothing. They can't dry it.

They can't dry it. I'm not willing to, I've seen them, fire them cars down into term one on what they thought was a dry racetrack. Y'all remember the Winston years ago where they all flew into term one? I was in that race. Everybody goes down in term one, wipes out. We thought the track was dry. Everybody thought the track was dry. But we got down in the corner and the cars just flew into the fence, multiple cars. And so you can't take any chances. You can't take that risk if they thought that the track was not dry enough and if they thought that it was too late in the evening

to race this thing out, then that's the decision they make. And I have to be okay with that. It's beyond halfway. We're not going to come back tomorrow and finish it. That is against all the things that we've ever done in the past. And we're not, you know, they decided that they weren't going to be able to get the rest of the race in that evening for whatever reason. and so listen like I didn't spend a dime on that race and I know that NASCAR fans spent a lot of money to come and be there

they saw a pretty good race from what I heard all the way up until the point when the rains did come I think the Oval at Charlotte runs very well right now it's one of the more exciting races that I've seen over the last couple of years with the next-gen car I hate that this was a bad experience all around for everybody because it doesn't allow the oval to really show what it's truly capable of. And when we're arguing earlier in the show about whether the oval should come back for the second race, well, this doesn't help that argument. So, you know, I was a bit removed from the day, right?

I was doing my own thing, so I wasn't as plugged in and invested as a lot of the the fans that were watching at home or a lot of the fans that spent their hard-earned money to be there. And so I can appreciate their frustration and their opinions about it. But from my perspective, from what I see, I really don't see somebody mashing the wrong button or pulling the wrong lever here. Yeah. And I was there.

And I mean, to first state, I mean, I even texted in our dirty mo group chat. I'm like, oh, this race is over. As soon as I saw how much it rained, at first it was just a few light drizzles. Okay, they throw the caution out. And then it poured. It was heavy rain, like enough to lose the track, enough to, you know, have weepers. But it was a quick enough cell to where, you know, this is me sleeping on it. I could see why NASCAR's like, okay, the rain came in fast. It was intense, but it was quick. Let's see if we can try and drive the track. At least it was like, From my perspective, I'm completely, you know, I don't know what the conversations were like, you know, in the NASCAR Tower. But it seemed like, okay, that was quick enough.

Maybe there's time to save it. I think where the frustration comes in from the fans is it looked like they were trying to save the track and then it was getting too late. And then they called it. I think is where that frustration comes. But, I mean, it was definitely enough rain to where I was not going to be surprised if they called that race. I was getting ready to go to that alternate victory lane because it was enough rain. we were past halfway, we raced enough, we're all right, I could totally see this decision being made.

Yeah. Look, I don't think that it's definitely, it's not the outcome that Charlotte Mergebyway or NASCAR wants. No. They don't want this. And I'm sure that they would have loved to have had a different end result. I will say that it is interesting just for me personally, and I don't expect anybody to understand this,

but if I had been there in person and watched all of that play out, I'm sure that my feelings about it would be a little more charged and a little more emotional. And being sort of on the fringe of it and seeing everything happen, I'm like, okay, that's the way that ends.

All right, no problem. All right. We'll go to the next one. But, you know, so many times in my life I've been rooted in the moment and it, and a lot of times, you know, I get, I, you know, get emotionally charged when something doesn't go the way I think it should or whether I think NASCAR made a mistake or they, they made it poor decision. They could have done it this way and it would have been way better. And, I mean, it is hard to freaking shake that, that frustration and anger. And so I can appreciate, you know, where, where a lot of people are on. this.

But, and I'm almost glad that I wasn't that invested in it this weekend. Right. That it didn't ruin my day. And I think that point right there is like, you know, you speak of the emotion of things, well, oh man, there's rain like, oh, crap, that's going to be it. And then there's that little glimpse of hope of like, okay, they're drying the track. We're going to go back racing. And then I think where the disappointment goes is, oh, well, when you don't go back racing, you were hoping to.

That's, I think, where a lot of fans are upset about that. Yeah. And so now there's a conversation also about Kyle Larson and a waiver. Yeah. I want to get some thoughts on this. Jordan Biaki on our tear down Sunday night took a pretty firm stance that he does not believe

Carl Larson should get a waiver. Yes. And so, and I, And I can understand a lot of his points about that. But for me, I feel like that NASCAR has been so loose with these waivers at this point. I never doubted him not getting a waiver or getting a waiver. I thought he'd get one.

I really don't know how NASCAR feels about Kyle Larson going to race at Indy and missing the 600. Do they care? Does that make them mad? Are they frustrated with Larson for choosing the 500 over the 600 in that moment? I don't know. Even if they were a little annoyed, I doubt that it's a, I doubt that it's moving the needle much and they would withhold the waiver. I don't think that we should be debating whether Kyle should get a waiver or not.

Kyle Larson will do enough this year as a driver in terms of wins and success and performance to deserve an opportunity to race for a championship. If he missed a race, missed a couple races, whatever. Why you missed them? I don't care. I think having the waiver is more annoying to me than anything because every time this comes around, every time a driver gets hurt. hurt and misses a few races, why they got hurt, whether they were racing or skiing or whatever, right? We have to debate it. And I'm really sick of it. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of the next waiver conversation we're going to have to have. I just assume get rid of the waiver. Let's not

have it. I know you're going to tell me why we have it and why we need it. Well, I can play devil's advocate. Jimmy Johnson wins the Daytona 500. Hypothetically this year. He's He doesn't have to race until the playoffs, but he makes it? Why would he not race? Because now, without the waiver, you don't have to attempt all 26 starts. But that's his career and that's his livelihood. Why would he not go race? Because I'm just saying right now, he's part-time.

He races, you know, 6 to 10 a year. Say he wins one of them. He all of a sudden, now he can make the playoffs. Is that fair to all the other people who invest more time and money into racing all the 26 races? Get rid of the waiver. I think, yeah, get rid of the waiver and just do either top 30 in points or X amount of starts, you know, 15 starts. Right.

I mean, 15, you know, whatever. What's to stop like Denny Hamlin or 2311 gets a win early in the year? Now they're going to save money. They don't have to build the rest of the cars, you know. They're just going to save their money, invest more time and resources into getting ready for the playoffs. What's to stop a team like that from doing that? Like skipping how many races? I don't know if you're saying 15, then it would be the other, you know.

11? Yeah, 11. I'm fine, whatever. I mean, nobody's going to do that. I don't know. If it's a small team. Let me ask you. Small team wins a, you know, Super Speedway race?

Yeah, I think they would. Junior Motorsports ain't skipping. No races. We don't have all this shit. And I understand, I know there's sponsor obligations as well. and most teams, you're right, would be racing the 26 races. But what's to say there's a car that hasn't sold all their sponsorship, right? They go win a race early in the year.

Someone wins the Daytona 500. They have not sold their whole year. What's to stop them, you know, a big name, a Daytona 500 champion from, and I'm using the Daytona 500 as an example, from skipping races later in the year. Well, there's not a big stopping. No, there ain't. And if they're a small team and not able to. to fund the season, it's probably best that they may miss a few races.

I mean, you know, if I would see that as a smart business decision, if you were like, hey, man, I've got $3 million, and it's going to cost me five to run the whole year. And if I go win the Daytona 500 and I, you know, and I have all the success and I'm in position to where I might actually be able to go into the postseason, but I'm going to skip three races. I mean, that's just running your business in a, you know, that's just making smart business decisions to make sure that you, you know, you don't end up in the red at the end of the year. Certainly, yeah, it's a good business decision, but we need our, we need our big stars.

If you're, if this driver is in the playoffs, they are going to be talked about, at least for those first three races, you need that name in every single race. That's what I. Let me ask you. Okay. Who? Give me a driver. Give me a driver. Let's say, for example, and I have no idea what the situation is at Track House, but let's say Daniel Suarez, he wins Atlanta, and he has not sold all of, you know, he has not sold sponsorship yet for the rest of the year.

There's still a few open races that maybe they haven't sold sponsorship at. Daniel Suarez, a significant name, decides to skip out on races. I don't think that is a thing that should be, you know, allowed if we take this waiver away. I'm kind of in the middle on this because, like, with how much we talk about at the end of the year, how important every point is, and they're going after stage wins and they're short pitting

and all this stuff, like, isn't the penalty of not getting any points enough of a reason not to want to skip races? Like, I feel like at that point, the penalty should just be, okay, you don't get any points for this race, Kyle Arson. Like, if that's what we're getting, I don't think a waiver needs to be had.

I don't think, you know, I mean, maybe the top 30 in points thing would be a good thing. Daniel Suarez, if he's in the playoffs. How much the point? There's also no guarantee. He's not competing for a regular season championship. Now there's a little bit of a... So there's less for him to compete for. If I'm Daniel Suarez, I haven't sold on my sponsorship.

All right, we're not going to race Pocono. Oh, great. Now all the fans at Pocono, we're hoping to see Daniel Suarez, don't get to see him. If they want to take that point penalty, then, I mean... And my point is, our superstars... If you're in the playoffs, you are a star. They need to be in all 26 regular season races. That's what I think.

I think they would. I mean, when you're talking, Andrew, when you talk about Daniel Suarez, it's not just Daniel Suarez that goes and sits at home. It's all the team guys too. Yeah. Track house cannot operate that way. No race team can truly operate that way. if they're going to race for a championship,

they can't miss races, they can't take weeks off. You can't go home and come back and think you're just going to keep up with the Joneses and the competition. That's what I'm saying. By missing a few races. If they're a legit contender, they're going to show up and race.

If they're not a legit contender, then me and you can just watch them go sit at home, not run their race, not come. They're not going to be a, you know, they're not going to be, you know, any kind of a factor in the playoffs. Because they're not here every single week. You can't sit out a week and be competitive in this series.

Would you consider 2311 a competitive team? Sure. Okay. So, Denny Hamlin, when we talked about him about the whole charter stuff, say the, you know, they can't get to an agreement. What happens then? one of the things he said is okay well now 2311 won't travel to the races that are too expensive we won't go to L.A. for the clash we won't go to the races that it costs a lot to travel

no he didn't say that he said he wouldn't go to the clash he didn't say anything about other races that costs a lot of money okay but even so even so like the clash a non points race right but again like I think we let's we need we need our stars in every race and I think the only way to truly guarantee and regulate that is to have a waiver. Oh, geez. I disagree. So the waiver for you isn't even operating as it's written.

The waiver is, you're looking at the waiver as a bind, a way to bind the teams to force them into running every single race. Now, you can have a whole other, you know, protocol in place to handle that. You don't have to, the waivers, like for driver health, if they miss a race for injury or whatever. It's not, hey, man, we're going to have this waiver, so we bind all these teams to compete every single week and force these drivers to show up.

Then I would make it more of the argument of a Jimmy Johnson then. Wins a race early. He only has to race five or six because that's as many races as it wins on going. No, because I think you could take the waiver out. You get rid of the waiver because it's stupid. And go back to an idea of, of where you've got to be a certain, you've got to be, you've got to finish at a certain level in performance, whether that's points, whether that's wins or how many races you attempt,

all of those things. And that will settle it out. I, you know, you're not, people, people, you know, look at all of the Xfinity teams that don't have the funding, but still show up. and that's at the Expedity level or the truck level. In the Cup Series, you're not going to have teams literally taking the week off. Nobody that's really a contender and a true threat to win a championship, a true playoff team is going to take time away and just say, you know what, we're not going this week because it doesn't matter. That would hurt their credibility.

that would hurt their standing in the sport, their pride, their legitimacy, and all of that affects partnerships, sponsors. Who could take you seriously if you don't show up every week? It ain't like golf where those boys, you know, they can take a couple tournaments off and only play these select ones. You know, if you have a problem there or something like that happens, we could put protocols in place to drive, you know, to where you'd have to drive performance to be able to,

you'd have to show up to the track to create, check these boxes, right? But the waiver conversation, especially when we get into the situation with what's happening with Larson, it's just annoying because he's going to race for a championship he should, he will, and here we are debating about whether he deserves a waiver or not. It just doesn't, it's just, a waste of time. Yeah. I think we can,

I think where we're kind of spinning in circles, we both agree there's got to be something to keep teams in check, right? Whether it is points. I'm saying, since the points rule isn't in play, then we need a waiver, right? If it ends up being a top 30 thing or, you know, something else, I would be all right with that.

So I think we're kind of arguing the same thing. Well, I appreciate, I appreciate you having a different opinion. man. I mean, I... But I just don't think my opinion is like if Jimmy Johnson wins a race early, I know, I know, but then like, well, he wouldn't be high enough in points.

Then that's fine. But like, my point is, if you're going to be in the playoffs, I want you in all 26 races. I think we can agree on that. Yeah, I think so. Maybe that's your... Maybe that's as simple as it is. I mean, maybe you get rid of the waiver.

Yeah, I mean, that would, that would of probably exclude Kyle Larson though if you said right so that's why the waiver's in place you know it's yeah geez yeah so but the but I don't the waiver to me was always like a health thing right right right yeah and now now we're kind of using it as it in an unintended way right or we not always just used because of health reasons but I'm sure that wasn't like and you know I don't exactly know what the terms of the waiver are but I'm sure that's not the express you know use of it but it's only recently been used in our knowledge as you know waivers so do we need so maybe the waivers should be strictly for health reasons and we need another

competition one system in place that's competition driven right maybe yeah yeah we're figuring things out maybe there just needs to be a clause in in naskar's rule book that says hey if you attempt the double. Why isn't that in there? I don't understand that. Why not? I mean, we handle this going forward, right? Didn't Blaney hint that that he wants to possibly do it in the future? Blaney said him, he wanted to do it with Scott McLaughlin the same year. And so an Indy car driver then does the double, which has never been done before. Has it? I don't think it has. That would be cool. Maybe back in the day. All right, a lot of great conversation around everything going on in the sport. and the Dirty Air segment brought to you by Tire Pros.

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Take it to tire pros. All right, everybody. We're live for the Ask Junior portion of the show today, the Dale Jr. download. As you can see, maybe you can see. I don't know. I'm not at the studio. The guys are all at the studio, Andrew and Dalton and out, Alex. I'm on vacation this weekend and enjoying some time with my family at the beach, but we are coming to you. to talk about everything that is going on in the sport, so you'll get the same shows this week with Dirty Air and also our guest segment coming out Wednesday. But this is the last junior portion, so let's get to these questions.

Yes, and I think we can see and hear you, which is great news. Awesome. I love that. We're doing what is intended. This first question coming from Johnny, he saw, you took some pictures looking at the attic above an old race shop. Did you have any cool fines? It seems like you did. Yeah, my uncle, Robert G. Jr. and Jimmy G. are selling a piece of property that they owned forever. And they worked in this shop a long time back in the 80s all the way through the 90s.

And they hung the body on, for example, the 1990 Daytona 500 winner for Derek Cope in that shop. and it was a it was cool man to go up in there and you see all kinds of old racing parts and stuff and um i uh found an old hood that was one of my dad's race used hoods that my uncle wanted me to have and um so i was able to it was probably 1994 1993 um i don't know exactly anything else about the hood but I know that it's used. There's rubber and all kinds of debris on the backside of it to indicate that it's actually been in a race. And it came off of the car.

If you heard the Bobby Hillen interview, Bobby Hillen talked about how he raced for this group out of Australia that bought a car from Richard Shielders. The hood came off of that car. So pretty cool. And love going to old race shops and seeing history and learning about what's going on there and finding old parts and pieces off old cars

and stuff like that. It's great. Yeah, no, that was super cool. Yeah. This next question coming from Carl, what was it like having, you know, rolls reverse, Josh Barry interview you during the Xfinity Series race? I really appreciated Josh signing up to do that. You know, the guys in his first year in the Cup series,

He's like up to here in water and, you know, he's just about drowning in information and everything coming at him. But he took time to get outside of the box a little bit and do something that I think he would really enjoy. I like to see our drivers find a way to learn what the broadcast is about, what it's like to do the broadcast and some of the challenges that come with it. and I think he walks away with a better appreciation for not just, you know, myself or anybody else that works in the booth, but our pit reporters and the job they're trying to do. And even our print media, right? Like it really helped me understand and appreciate how hard the print media works, everybody in the media center and gave me a really a newer appreciation for their roles. So that's good for our drivers to experience and see, and I think it's helpful across the board.

So I hope he enjoyed it. He seemed like he had a fun time. Seems like he did a great job. Everybody compliment him about his, you know, his winner interview on the front straightaway. How cool is that? Yeah, I know. He's super cool.

We actually talked to Josh on Sunday, and we've got a great clip of his perspective of interviewing you, but he's like, this is like a different universe. Like, what kind of world is this? And he had to break the news that Justin Allgaier was speeding on pit road to you. Yeah. Yeah. That's a tough part of doing live television, man.

It's like, you know, we're going to do an interview, we're going to have fun, but also there's this little bit of bad news I need to share with you. Right, yeah. We talked about at the top of the show, and I'm not making this name up. This is from the YouTube chat. The random guy, he's very random, wants to know about the SIM rig in your background, and I also see that it's 24 days to summer, according to the ticker behind you. You can see it that good.

Yeah, what's the SIM rig set up you got? Yeah, I basically teamed up with WR1, Chad Wheeler. He makes SimRRR1 for that company, WR1. And he sponsored our e-sports car at Junior Motorsports for a couple of years with Michael Conti. So that's a WR1 chassis behind me, a triple screen, 34-inch curved monitors. I built a PC. So, yeah, it runs pretty good most of the time. But I really enjoy, it's a new rig, a newer rig that I've had for a while,

but I haven't put it together until I got it down here at this vacation house. And so Amy's not thrilled about it. She doesn't love the idea of me racing on the SimRig while we're here with the kids on vacation. But just in case there's a big race going down or something. something I need to do because I work for eye racing too so there's times when they're like hey we need to try we need you to try this or what do you think about this and so I need to read nearby I need to access the software so yeah I'm very thankful to have it so what was that picture you sent us of the it's the podcasting slash sim room it was from the outside it was like

glowing bright red it was at night what's like you got like lights in there that like glow oh is that Yeah, it's that one back there. Yeah, I've got some, yeah, you've got to have some, some accent lighting in this room. It's all, you know, it's all kind of like these kind of basic colors. But if you look over my shoulder at both of those pictures, that's the Daytona Beach course. And I went on Getty and found two photos of cars racing at the Daytona Beach course, because I thought, man, you know, I got a beach house racing photos, beach course racing photos. Amy was like, yeah, I'll allow.

And so I had those framed at the local, in a local shop in Moorsville brought them down here to add to our studio, our off-site remote studio here. Yeah. I got my printer right there and I'm printing all of my crap for you guys to be able to go through my notes. That's important thing in that room. Yeah, my little mini ticker. Yes. We've got a big tech coming.

Our fans don't know. No, they don't. We've got a big 14 foot. ticker coming to the dirty moe offices and we're going to shoot some stuff in there we're building out this new office and we're going to shoot some stuff in there you'll get to see that soon so i'm excited about that but here's the mini ticker it's a taste of what we're getting and this and the sim it's the calm before the storm uh dale that's it i know we've got a busy we've got a busy day we're just cranking things out here on uh dale junior down though that's a good place to

end it this week ash junior with exvinity all right man i appreciate everybody thank you Xfinity for everything you do. Appreciate y'all tuning in. Hope y'all enjoyed the shows. We're trying to create great content here while I'm not in the studio and I hope you enjoy what we're doing over the summer. And because we'll be doing it from this, you know, we'll be doing it kind of like this quite a bit during the summer.

So you still get all the same great stuff. Christopher Bell called in earlier in the show and gave us a great interview. And we've got a big guest for this week, or this week tomorrow that we want to tell about. You'll have to listen to the podcast later today to learn who that is. So have a great week, everybody. Thank you, Exfinity and Exfinity Mobile for everything you do.

All right, so we're going to talk a little dirty mod dough with Alex Tim's. Tampa Tim's. He's at the table. Hey, buddy. Good weekend for you. Did you bet Bell to win? I did. Bet Bell to win? He did. I did. All right. All right, man. You bet Ty Gibbs to win, McLaughlin to win? Yeah, I had like a little, you know, kind of Memorial Day

Winners Parlay. So I tried. tried to get them all there. It looked pretty good for a while with McLaughlin, but then New Garden. He kind of got chuffled back with some pit stops and stuff, something like that. Right on. So you ended up cashing some bets.

Oh, yeah, we did good. The rain delay was big for me. I had Denny Hamlin top five. He finished fifth, and I had Chastain and Bowman top 10, and they finished, I think, eighth and ninth. So the rain delay. Nice.

I didn't love not seeing all 600 miles, but it cashed the bets. Worked for you. All right. We're going to Gateway this week. weekend coming up a newer kind of track on the schedule not a lot of uh history there to dive into as far as you know kind of seeing what you think about your ivers and their performance and what it might be um you've got some early predictions uh i got nobody in particular but really just guys

that have raced there kind of back when it was the nationwide series expedity series like they have a little more experience there uh new hamster is kind of a similar track so many guys that run well there uh so i'll probably target those guys all right on all right man um well Dirty Mo Doe, it drops every Thursday on our Dirty Mo Media platforms. You don't want to miss at Tampa Tim, Steve LaTardt, giving you all of the information coming up every single weekend. This weekend at Gateway, tune in. They'll have all the lines and more specific bets to make or some ideas on where they think you can make some money. So hopefully you're following Dirtymo Media and Dirty Mo Doe with Steve LaTart.

Tampa Tins, thanks a lot, folks. All right, we had the car store racing this past weekend at Tri-County Speedway. I went to the race. Great, hard racing throughout the field. Butterbean, Brandon Queen was able to pull off the wind. He's dominated at Tri-County. We got an update with Blake. Let's get it.

After a postponement of the events at North Wilkesboro Speedway a week and a half prior, the Z-Max Cars Tour presented by Sound Gear was back in action to the high banks of Granite Falls, North Carolina's Tri-County Speedway for the late-models, and the pro-late models. And with the championship battle tightening up in each of the two divisions, it was imperative for drivers and teams to be firing on all cylinders at this critical juncture of the schedule. After a day full of practice on Friday, it was the late model stocks who took to the track first on Saturday afternoon. At the end of qualifying, it was Brendan Butterbean Queen, fresh off his fourth place effort at North Wilkesboro Speedway in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series that took the Thunder Road Harley Davidson Poll Award. Deke McCaskill qualified in second with Carson Quaple in third.

Chad McCombie and Andrew Grady rounded out your top five with Jacob Hefner, Connor Hall, Connor Zillish, Chase Burrow and Trayton Lapsovich, making up your fastest 10 qualifiers of the 30 cars starting field. With the high speed and high banks of Tri-County Speedway, it did not take these drivers long to dazzle in front of a packed house. Off a four they come. McCombie trying to stay with him. Not going to happen.

McCaskell is second and Chase Burrow. On the bottom, looking for third, maybe looking for second as he draws to the back-quarter panel of McCaskill. McCaskill in row two through the Death Wish Coffee restart zone. We are back under Ray and Burrow has one of the best starts that we've seen all night from the inside row. They're side-by-side for the race lead off the two, but Queen clears down to turn three. Queen was able to get a fantastic drive off of Turn 4, but Burrow is not done yet. If you are looking for a Cinderella story in the Z-Max Cars Tour book no further than that of the 2022 Cars Tour,

late model stock, rookie of the year, battling against the driver who finished runner-up in the championship standings and a partial schedule with a family-owned race team. Burrow, not letting Queen get away. If he can have a good drive here to turn crash on the back straight away, several cars involved in the jam-up off the second corner. Huffin's cars got major damage. Ronnie Bassett Jr.'s involved.

And that's Katie Hedinger, who is Brogside to the inside wall. Burrow back down to the bottom again. He is at control in this position. Queen slides up off the corner. Burrow, they touch. Morrow slides up into Queen. Still trying to save it. Here comes McCaskill to the bottom.

Three one for the top spot at Tri-County. McCaskill concedes on the bottom. Queen hangs on the race car, as does Burrow. Off of turn number two. Brendan, Queen fends off the challenge for now. Through the late race restarts, it was Brendan Butterbean Queen who hung on over Chase Burrow, who was looking to capture his first Cars Tour win. Yeah, it's huge.

This team needed it more than anybody knows. We hadn't won since November, so a lot of doubting ourselves, doubting a lot of stuff. I knew Lee had never forgot how to work on these things. I knew we had a fast car. I really just speechless, man. When you don't win for a while, you don't know when it's going to happen again. Chase Burrow ended up bringing it home in second with Deke McCaskill 3rd, a career best run for Andrew Grady saw him in fourth with Cade Brown, fifth,

Bryce Applegate also a career best run in sixth. Brick Cruz finished seventh with Connor Jones and eighth, Chad McCombie Ninth, and Minnie Tyrell rounded out the top ten. It was also the fifth race of the year for the pro late model division in a field that included two separate ties over the course of qualifying. It was close and competitive throughout with Nick Loden grabbing the Molly Poll Award, Tristan McKee and second, Ashton Higgins. against Jake Bowman and T.J. DeKare rounding out your top five that was separated by just one-tenth of a second.

It was your front row starters and Nick Loden and Tristan McKee that put on an early show for the fans, but eventually it became just a little too much. The front row starters about to line up the way they came to the green with Loden up top, McKee on the bottom. And McKee, not necessarily entering on the bottom. You can see he enters high and is able to cut that car low on exit as they'll brush off a turn two. The rush into turn three. Loden Harden to the outside wall as they crash for the top spot.

Caution is out. The rest of the field tries to get through, and they will, as McKee and loaded and tangle for the top spot. After a few incidents that took out some key contenders early in the race, it ended up being Wilson Motorsports Zone, Jake Bowman, who pulled away in the ensuing 75 laps to go on and win his first ZMAX Cars Tour race. Like, I mean, we came in yesterday for practice, and I knew we had a really good car, and we just focused on just running race pace.

You know, that was the main thing, just staying, having a long race run. We did it tonight. I mean, we've had a lot of bad luck in the past, and it's good to change it around this weekend. I want to thank all the Donnie Wilson guys for not giving up on me, you know. I mean, I know I can get it done, and we know we can get it done, and we did. TJ DeKare, Spencer Davis, Jimmy Renfrew Jr., and Caden Honeycutt completed your top fives in the pro-late models. While they have about a month off, it is this Saturday night. The late model stocks will be back in action at Larry King Law's Langley Speedway.

You catch all the action there on Saturday night, or you can tune in live on Flow Racing all season long. For the ZMAX Car Store, I'm Blake McCandless, and this has been your Cars Tour recap. All right, it's time for the white flag. The tear down, as I mentioned, dropped on Monday. Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi talked about everything going on at the race this weekend. in Indy and at Charlotte, the 600, and gave their opinions about everything that they saw and everything is happening.

Really enjoying having those two guys as part of our team this year. Dropping today, action is detrimental with Denny Hamlin and Doorbump are clear. And then tomorrow, Speed Street with Connor Daly and Chase Holden. Luke Colmes is our interview for our guest segment this week. So can't wait to talk to Luke. That drops as well on Wednesday. Thursday, DJD Reloaded. And Dirty Mo Doe both coming out.

Don't forget the Denny Hamlin Brackett challenge is back for its second year. It's head-to-head single elimination tournament style featuring 32 drivers in the NASCAR Cup series. It stretches over the course of five races beginning Sunday at Gateway and ends in Nashville on June 30th. This year, there'll be some prizes and things for the winners, the grand prize winner, will be really happy. if they're able to walk away with this. So there will be an additional 11 winners also that can enjoy some prizes as well. It's all free.

Be sure you sign up. The bracket opens on Tuesday at 10 a.m. Eastern and closes at 3 p.m. Eastern on Sunday right before the green flag flies at Gateway. Go to dirtymodea.com slash bracket challenge to enter. I'm going to be filling mine out today. Check out Dirtymo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram.