The Dale Jr. Download - 587 - The Bud 8 Is Back

Episode Date: October 22, 2024

The legendary Bud 8 is back. This morning Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced he is partnering with Budweiser to bring back the DEI-styled No. 8 along with the iconic red Budweiser scheme at Florence Motor Speedway. Dale fills listeners in on the details of this partnership and unpacks NASCAR’s weekend in Las Vegas on this edition of Dirty Air:Bringing the red Budweiser No. 8 paint scheme to the Florence 400How the Bud partnership came together in light of the No. 8 trademark expiring recentlyBringing more eyes to late model stocks and grassroots racingAJ Allmendinger’s surprise win in Las VegasWho else can lock into the Xfinity Championship Four?Joey Logano was out and now he’s INChase Elliott is in a tough positionRace winner Joey Logano joins the showOur four-person  parlay ahead of Thursday Night Football21+ and present in North Carolina. First online real money wager only. $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets which expire 7 days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling problem? Call 877-718-5543 or visit morethanagame.nc.gov Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey everybody, it's Dale Jr. and we're back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. Some big news came out today about our Bud deal, and we're going to talk to the winner of the Vegas race. Joe Laganos calling in. Let's talk about it. The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Hey. You're Dale and Jr., Neil Dill, Jr., you're a complete moron if you undue your belt in a moving race car. Moron. Five, four, three. Hill's rally to disregard the bird. That was unnecessary. The Dell Jr. Download starts now.

Go, go, go. Hey, go. Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. And we're back in a studio here at Dirtymo Media for the Dale Jr. download. It is Tuesday. And I'm in here with Andrew, Dalton, and Tim's. No, T.J. No, Amy, Amy here, the first of every month.

But T.J. was here last week, not here this week. we got some big news I wish she was here to talk about it be kind of nice to your TJ's take you know get his he's always got some good honest hard takes on things he does always count on him for that I love that video that by the way that we put out I did too man God you know no one

no one will know how hard everyone worked to get the video to actually see the light of day for that dumb video but it was so good yeah buddy hilarious So anyhow, if you haven't seen that clip, we're picking on TJ a little bit, and you can go watch it, I think posted a couple days ago on Dirtymo Media.

Pretty funny. But we got some big news to share. Obviously, at 8 o'clock this morning, we announced a collaboration with our old friends at Budweiser. And as everybody knows, I love racing at Florence Motor Speedway. There's a couple events that happened throughout the year. One of them being the South Carolina 400, I believe this year it's a 250 lap late model stock race.

The other 150 laps will make up the other local events and heat races and so forth. So it's 400 laps of racing, but the late model stock portion is 250 laps. I couldn't be more excited about the length of that race. I love the long late model stock events. And the Florence Motor Speedway is an old worn-out surface. You will have to be smart about how you race. And man, I just can't wait to go run it, and I've ran it for the last couple of years. And yeah, it's a great event.

It happens the Saturday before Thanksgiving. And we reached out to Budweiser and said, you know, with the opportunity around the actual trademark of the number coming up for grabs, everybody knows, I think at this point, that we've applied. applied for it. It's a process that takes a little bit of time that it's playing out right now. But we reached out to Bud and said, man, if we're ever going to do, I'm, you know, I announced that I wasn't going to race in the Xfinity Series next year and going to kind of focus more on what we're doing with the cars tour. In terms of motorsports, what I want to do is race the late model stock car a little bit and focus on my job as a broadcaster, which, kicks back off next year.

So I'll be broadcasting the bulk of summer races in June and July. So I'm going to try to late model race a little bit in the first half of the year, maybe again near the back half of 2025. But we have this last race remaining in the year at Florence. And yeah, so we actually was thinking about not running the race. And we called Bud and I said, man, if we're going to do this, we got an opportunity to do something really cool. And we had some great conversations.

And a lot of the people that used to work there when I was familiar with the brand or in constant communication with the brand back 20 years ago are obviously probably no longer working there. I know several of them that we stayed in touch with over the years. There's a new group of folks. But they all understand the history of, the

8 car, the red bud car, they all are excited about this opportunity which was really nice they understand kind of I've always felt like that no matter what I was always going to be

Team Bud, right? For what Bud Riser did for me when I was starting my cup career I just owe them such a debt of gratitude, and so I was always going to be Team Bud, and they've been a company that has traditionally maintained great relationships with a lot of their ambassadors over the years, right?

And I know Kenny Schrader that used to drive the Bud car still continues to have a really good relationship with Anaheuser-Busch and Bud, and in Bev, I guess, these days. But I, you know, I really always felt like, you know, one of the things that made me feel that way, too, was when I announced my retirement from cup racing the commercial they made, right, with Lord Huron. And I'm a big Lord Huron fan, right?

When I got my concussion in 2012, one of the things my doctor told me to do was go to a concert. That's the concert I went to. We were talking about that last week. Yeah, I didn't know that. Yeah. And so it was in Milwaukee. And so I, you know, they made that commercial out of their own pocket, right?

And there were some complications and challenges around that commercial, you know, dealing with the trademark of the eight, right? Couldn't really show that. You could tell, you know, but they still went ahead and made this sort of little tip of the cap that they didn't have to do. And, man, that just really made me feel great about the way I felt about. them, right? That loyalty and that partnership. And so I always wondered if we would ever do something again. And so here we are with an opportunity to put the eight back on a race car and bring back

that iconic paint scheme and obviously take it to a racetrack that I really love and want to support. Steve Zach Rice and his family, Jacqueline, everybody. Florence has been amazing trying to continue to you know have that racetrack serve in its community and being a place for people to come have a fun fun time on the weekends and so I'm looking forward to it I'm I've seen the car and seen you know the gang upstairs in junior motorsports designing some merch we talked about putting out a couple pieces so that'll be that'll be out there and available to

anyone who might want to have it. Showing off one right here. And Andrew has a shirt on today. And so that stuff has been meticulously sort of crafted and designed. We have some people that work at Junior Murder Sports that I have 100% trust in to be able to put together some nice merch for folks that want it. And I can't wait to see the die cast. You know, I'm a massive die cast fan, especially having worked with Lionel to develop the, the mold for the late model stock car so that myself and other racers that run this car could have

uh have their own car uh designed and and and produced by line l and so it'll be cool to have that in my my my case i got two cases at home that are filled that are about full and so uh i don't know man there's just a bunch there's a bunch about this to to be excited about i know that um it's going to pull on you know it's going to i know it's going to be a great nostalgia for a lot of folks. I know it will hopefully draw a lot of folks to the racetrack in Florence

before Thanksgiving to see the race in person. Some may be seeing a late model stock race for the very first time. Some will more than likely fall in love with the discipline and the style of racing and the grassroots atmosphere that I love so much. You may have been to those kind

of races in the past and just kind of gotten disconnected or or separated. And so it'll be cool, I think, to have people reminded of why this is fun, why it's fun to go to your local track, why it's fun to be a part of whatever's going on there. On the other side, it'll be streamed on Flow. I hope it'll get great numbers for Flow.

And, you know, our streaming partners like Flow are so critical to the success of grassroots racing, the success of these racetracks like Florence Langley all the racetracks that the Cars Tour goes to Flow the streaming partner like Flow is extremely critical to the success and future of Cars Tour so I mean getting their numbers up and getting people to see how easy it is to access this content and watch these races live is because I think there's a ton of people out there that are

would love to watch them and just don't know how or where it's at right so I hope this program we'll check so many damn boxes. And we've talked about possibly doing another event next year. We don't know exactly where that might be. The Cars Tour is still kind of rummaging through their closet to put their schedule together. And we're in conversations about that and what that schedule looks like. I want to run strictly Cars Tour events next year.

and as my calendar has always kind of been anywhere from three to five events. So somewhere between, you know, three to five events and the cars tour is what I'm going to try to do next year again at the start of the year and toward the back end of the year. But we're hopeful that we'll have another opportunity to drive the Bud brand around the racetrack next year. So pretty exciting. And I'm really shocked that we were able to keep this A secret. Such a good secret. It's hard to do these days.

It was hard. You know, with how diligent our media is in motorsports and, you know, Gluck and Weaver and all those guys, Bob Pocker's, they're all so extremely, Jordan Bianchi, he'd be upset if I forget his name or not, left him off that list. But they're, you know, they're just really great at digging up all the all the crumbs and piecing it together. And so I was thankful that we were able to announce this and everybody could learn this all at the same time.

We had a little fun teasing it a little bit on social media with the photos. So that photo of the big giant can, I, we were at, I remember we were at the shoot that day. This is probably 2004-ish. and we were, I was, I had those cans and we were doing a shoot where I'm holding the can toward the camera and I went over to the guy and said, man, can you make this can giant and make me really small and I'll kind of look like I'm looking up at the can and then you can take a picture and you can post, it was a piece of cake, right, to edit and put that together. But I remember doing that and thinking it was so funny.

So that was your idea. Yeah, and I mean, they never were going to use it anywhere. but we were just kind of goofing around in between, you know, the real work. And I always saved that and kept that on my phone. We even had him doctor the ounces on the can from like 24 ounces to 2,400. But I save all that stuff. I have folders and folders of all kinds of photo shoot content and pictures that we took back then. Um, anyhow, it's, um, thankful to, to have that stuff because in moments like this, it's

kind of fun using it in some of the T's that, and that the PR team put together. They put together this little program over the last 12 or 24 hours of how we'd roll this out. And we change our, you know, you change your avatar and your background image and all those things. Yeah, and then Bud's, you know, Bud's, Tony Jr. changed his, I didn't even know they, I don't know if he did that. Oh, yeah, Tony Jr. changed his background image on his Facebook to, one of the bud cars going around the wall at, at, it's homestead, and I don't know if that was intentional

or just by chance, coincidence. I don't know, but, and we have a guest tomorrow. Yes. Tony Sr. So Tony Senior, I know we've had Tony Jr. and Tony Senior on the show, but I don't believe that I've ever really been able to sit down with just Tony Senior, right? This is the first time on this show.

Right, and go, I have, I'm really excited about that because I got, I've never really, he's not a guy that wants he is not a guy that is going to sit down with you and tell you about his life right and he's never going to give you the opportunity to

sort of dig into that any of that real history and so I this he won't have he won't have anywhere to run and hide when he comes in here tomorrow we're going to we're going to dig into his his story and how it relates to my dad

and obviously we'll try our hardest to go through that whole process but he raced himself he won races in dirt cars as a driver at metro line and and other places his father raced a lot on dirt against ralph earnhardt and that's how i think that yurie family's got to know each other um and so um him and dad married sisters my mother and her sister and so Sandra was her name that's Tony Jr.'s mom and

Robert G. So that's how all that kind of connects and him and dad used to run wide open and he's told me some stories about how they would be out cruising in Concord or Canapolis they had their hot rods and I mean think about this. This is probably

probably 1974 or 76. And they're out cruising around and some old beater. And some guy had the front of his car low to the ground and the back jacked up, you know, with kind of looking like a street drag. And so they went back to Dad's shop, pulled the front springs out of the car and cut the springs down, put the springs back in it and went back out and cruised in like a little. 30 minute window.

They were back out cruising after they altered the profile of the car to be more like the other guy they saw. And I mean, you know, just you would, you did when you were, you know, you were a kid and,

with a little mechanical knowledge. And they used to work at the same, they used to work at, I want to say freight liner. I probably got that wrong, but they, dad used to weld, on tractor trailers and stuff like that,

and he would quit because he couldn't get off to go racing, so he would just quit his job, knowing that they badly needed that type of a mechanic or technician, and so he would quit for a couple weeks, and then when he needed money, he'd come back to work, and they rehire him, and Tony Sr. said Dad would kind of just kind of come and go throughout the year. And I'm not sure about, you know,

I want to ask him about that, like really, you know, kind of how all that happened. And then he just, all of a sudden, I remember, I used to go with Dad to the Xfinity shop. Dad kept his Exfinity car, which was the Bush Series at Mammals in that two-car garage that was Ralph Earnhardt, a tiny little building comparable to today's standards. And I remember walking in there one day and Tony Sr. was under the car working on it. And I had never seen him there. And I asked Dad, I think on the ride home, like what, what,

Tony Sr. was doing there and he said I hired him. He's working for me. So at some point, you know, dad said, I want you to quit your job and come work at my race shop and that must have been a bit of a, you know, there must have been some consideration there.

Guys got all these, you know, all these years and equity work, you know, built up in this other job, a real job, right? You know, racing wasn't a real job back then. And then they went, then the story, you know, the rest of the story is, they you know, they race together in the Xfinity series,

and then I drove for them, and then we went in the Cup series, and then a lot's happened since then. I don't think we'll get to all of it. I mean, I know we won't, right? Because then he comes and works here at Junior Motorsports. It was, you know, didn't end all that well. It wasn't a great ending.

We've since, you know, kind of mended those fences, and I think we're in a really good spot now. And, you know, I love that man like a, like a grandfather. You know, I really, really have incredibly strong feelings for Tony Sr. And how he's, you know, how he impacted my life. Man, he, he, they called him Rosie because he would get mad. He often would lose his patience and temper. And his face would turn red immediately.

And you just never wanted to be on the other side of that. I mean, he would rip into you. And, man, I mean, it was, he never, he didn't have much of a filter, you know. And as tough as those times were, they were brief, not often, but when, you know, they did get your attention. And it did make you think about the decisions or choices you were making and how to maybe, you know, avoid that. and then going forward. And I appreciated it. You know,

I was, I would much rather have had that than no guidance, no, you know, no sort of, you know, no one lecturing you or trying to, trying to shape you or keep you,

keep you in line. And so I'm thankful that people and, I'm thankful that individuals like that existed in my life. Because I certainly needed it. And, um, but anyhow, he's,

you know, with Tony Jr. and Tony Senior, now they're in the Cars Tour, working on Spencer Davis's car and still, you know, they're at Fury. Tony Senior's kind of retired. And so, you know, we'll talk about, you know, what he spends his time doing. He still works on race cars. Still goes to the racetrack. He was at North Wilsonboro for the final Cars Tour event.

And they had a rough night. And Tony Sr., he's as all in as he's always been. I think after the race, he was, you know, giving his peace of mind to Kip Chiltern about the night. And I think he's done that the last two races, actually. So he's still, you know, still rosy. But I'm excited to talk to him tomorrow. And kind of excited to see what he thinks about this deal with the Bud car.

And, you know, we're going to have a lot of fun with it. We got a month to get to the event, to the race. If you've ever, you know, if you ever been to a late model stock race, you know, this is kind of the cars that I drove when I started in the 90s. I raced a legend car for a year and a street stock car for a year, but eventually moved into the late model stock car and ran that for four years, racing at Florence Motor Speedway on Friday nights and Myrtle Beach on Saturday nights, occasionally going around to some other racetracks like the fairgrounds and Nashville and so forth. But primarily I raced those four years at Florence and Myrtle Beach. and and so it's I you know we are lucky so lucky to be able to still race at Florence Merdle Beach is no longer with us it's been redeveloped and actually the

people that are at Florence and own Florence and promote Florence we're running Myrtle Beach when Myrtle Beach shut down they moved to Florence and it's since taken over that racetrack and really improved it so I hope you'll come out I hope you'll check it out if you can't watch it on flow mark your calendar that's Saturday before Thanksgiving. We're going to go out there and be there for a couple days. There'll be an open practice the day before. Come by, bring your die cast, bring any of your old, any of your old Budgear,

if you want me to sign it, you pretty much can, you know, I think the ticket can pretty much get you access to the infield. We park right inside the racetrack. You will not miss us. We are right across to the track. is not got any walls, except on the front straightaway. Which I love.

You know, if you get in trouble, you don't destroy your race car by getting into the fence. You can just tear the body up a little bit, you know, getting, you know, pinning the nose in the dirt or something like that. But my point is, is that, you know, when you get there, you're going to be,

you're going to be surprised, but yet impressed, and it's got a very, very throwback feel to it. And it used to be a dirt track. originally when they made this track, I think, in the late or early 70s, it was originally a dirt track, and there's a guardrail in the front straightaway that is now buried under the dirt. Wow. Yeah, and so there's some areas so that there's an inside concrete wall,

and just on the other side of that is a dirt mound all the way down that extends the entirety of pit wall. And under that dirt mound is the old original, guardrail and there's some areas where the dirt is eroded away and you can see it and so um that triggers that you know that sort of got lost speedway nostalgia for me um any that old evidence of the original dirt track it's really really neat that it's still there but uh yeah when they decided they were going to put a wall up they just put the wall up and then covered the guardrail with dirt uh and so it's pretty pretty neat but um yeah

We're going to have some fun. Again, 250 laps. That'll be a tire management race, as are the kind of races that I like. You know, you've got to try to go out on the racetrack and you're going to run 250 laps. I think we get a set to start to race on. Then at 125, there may be another set of tires to put on. So you've got to run 125 laps on a set.

Now, if you ran as hard as you could, you would probably be out of tires in 40 laps. so you have to make that last all the way through 125 laps. So you have to be smart. You certainly don't want to get lapped or give up, you know, and you got to manage how much track position you want to give up. But with a 250 lap race, it's really not all about that. It's kind of just about, you know, trying to put yourself in the best position possible.

But it's fun. I love the management as, you know, the newer tracks, right? The tires don't wear quite as much. you run basically as hard as you can the entire race. I'm too old for that. It's not in it. It's not my company. It's not my cup of tea.

Is that North Wilkesboro now? I didn't want to call out anybody. Oh, I'm sorry. All right. So I basically, you know, I'm going to run three races a year. I'm going to run the three races I want to run, all right, at the tracks that I want to go to. It's way it should be.

So, hey, beyond, I guess my next Florence race would probably be Darlington weekend. We run the cars tour the second Darlington. And so I think that's going to remain the same on the schedule next year. So yeah, so I'll probably run this race at the end of November here. And then the next time we go to Florence will be in the middle of August or sometime. Yeah. Yeah. So, but there'll be a few races popping up on the calendar at the first next year. And yeah, one of them might have the Budweiser logo on the car. So you were talking. about teasing this last night on social media. And I saw, I don't know if you guys saw the Reddit thread of like, what is Dale Jr.

up to? Someone said the 6.7 is finally making its way on the race track. That's pretty good. We'll talk about the best commercials later on in DJD Reloaded. It's the first time that we will have driven the car on a racetrack in competition in 17 years. Yeah. And, yeah. That's crazy.

Did you ever think this would happen again? Did you ever think you'd have Bud 8 on a car? In any capacity? I never thought that the trademark would not be renewed and I was a bit of a bit, I was certainly surprised when Teresa decided not to renew that trademark. Not sure why, but, you know, I, you know, so we applied. and I always, I said this on the show before, listen,

one of the things that I really appreciate about Teresa is her ability and awareness in terms of protecting trademarks and likeness. She was always really great at making sure that she took really good care of those things when it came to dad and when it came to me or d i or all of those things right that you know so um i appreciated that i really did even all the way i saw that um i saw that effort when we were trying when we're going through the autopsy photos uh we were um you know there were people that were trying to get those released uh i certainly didn't want them released but I didn't I I was really impressed with how hard Teresa fought that and thankful that she

did because I don't think I had the the I was naive you know and I don't think I had the vision to understand why that was important and why she was fighting that so so hard and and but I'm so thankful that she did took a lot of effort took a lot of traveling and spent a ton of money to do it. So, you know, she's always kind of been protective that way. And, you know, I thought as long as she had this aid, I was very happy that it was in a safe place. I knew that it was always going to be fine. But if she doesn't want to pay for the trademark anymore, I'm like, well, we better get that because I don't, I don't, I want it safe. I want it somewhere it can be taken care of.

And when we thought about doing something with it, we were like, well, I told Kelly, my sister, I was like, man, I don't want to just make merch. Like that just don't feel good to me. I don't feel authentic. I don't need to make merch just out of, just for no reason at all, right? So, but if we race the car, then I would feel comfortable with the merch. being made and there would be a purpose right and so uh you know so that's what kind of got us talking to to to bud about it like hey man we got this opportunity to kind of come together and do

something on a small scale in terms of of of the you know the grassroots level um i don't see this ever ever going anywhere beyond this like exfinity or anywhere like that so um and i don't think i I want it to do that. So, yeah, we'll have some fun with it. It'll be great to reconnect with the brand and hopefully represent them really well. They've been so fantastic to me over the course of my life, and it's awesome that we're all friends and can do something together. And there's a fire suit coming with this, too. Yeah.

There is. That'll be cool. Yeah. Um, that's what I'm saying. There is. Yeah, yeah. So we, we, uh, yeah, we, uh, yeah, we, uh, yeah, we, uh, we'll have a fire suit. Luke Colmes has the benefit concert, uh, this weekend, uh, in Charlotte.

And asked me, so they are also, uh, there's a companion auction for this concert. Mm-hmm. And so he, he, he texted me and said, hey, you know, got this concert. Certainly would love you to come to the concert. but we were looking for stuff for the auction. And so I told my sister that we ought to, we ought to auction off this uniform for that benefit. Oh, wow.

Yeah. So there'll be, I think there may just be one uniform, there may be two that will get made. So we'll see if they, if that's something we can do. But that's what I told Kelly you ought to do the uniform, is just let they all. auction have it. That's cool. It's really cool. Yeah, because we were trying to bundle a bunch of stuff together, right, for them to be able to use, and I think that would do a good job of

helping them raise some money for Western North Carolina. And, yeah, so, I imagine, Dirtymoe Media, a bunch of you guys probably born. I'll be there. I'm going to a wedding. You're going to a wedding. Hey, you just have one. Are you going? I know. It's just wedding season. We're doubling up. We're going for nothing. It's actually her sister's wedding. So, We'll be having fun up there. Me and Amy talked about going, taking their girls. It's a, there is a, the concert keeps growing, right? So I don't think we would be there for the entirety of it.

I'm not sure exactly what we'll see or what we'll catch while we're there, but I think it'd be fun to have the girls go and see the event, like something that, of that magnitude, they've never been around anything like that. Never, like really concerts or, Well, they went to some Xfinity races. Right. As they're getting older and they're sort of absorbing things that are happening to them.

Like those Xfinity races, they hardly remember. Or, you know, they wasn't really like registering, like, what was happening and why they were there. And, but they do, they love music. We listen to music all the time. And so I think that it might be interesting for them to experience. That'd be cool. That'll be probably my favorite part to seeing how they take it, Take it in.

But anyhow, there it is. The announcement's out. We finally, I was surprised, man, 8 o'clock this morning. Team was up early. Usually we're releasing things around 10 or noon or something like that. You had to wake up early for a lot. And the reception is unbelievable. Well, I hope so.

There's something about this whole deal that is, it's like seeing an old friend. It really is. It's like the red and the aid and bud and everything. It's a familiar. familiar like warm feeling and and I think a lot of fans out there are feeling that and so this is way like it's cool but it's even cooler above just like hey we put a paint scheme together like it really feels like something has transformed and and there's going to be a ton of support around this I can't wait to see what happens yeah I think that it's fun too because Harvick has been

racing on the grassroots level he just raced this past weekend at the boring in Vegas and he had Bush on his car, the Bush light. So, and he's doing, you know, it's, it's cool to, I'm sure it's the same for him to sort of have those colors and be able to go race them at that level while he's still, you know, he's now out of full-time cup racing and he's having fun. Right. And he still can do that with an old friend like, like the Bush brand. And so, you know, that's kind of fun to watch. So, you know, we're kind of tag teaming this deal, and I'm sure he's probably going to run those colors some more.

He's already looking for the next race he wants to go to. I'm having as much fun watching him sort of discover what he can and how much of this he can include into his life and how much fun he's having. having with it. And we were talking about this before the show, but the, I mean, you raised one paint scheme. Like it is such a recognizable paint scheme. You know, you had, you know, the baseball scheme and a few other one-offs, but for the most part, like it is the recognizable bud eight that we see on the table there. And so, like, you know, we're talking about nostalgia. I mean, like, that is the car

that is coming back. Yeah. And the car looks so good. It looks identical, basically. Yeah, well, thanks. You know, a team, it's not a easy, it's not a hard car to, to rebrand or put on, you know, put on this late model stock car that's a very basic, simple but clean looking race car. And I was, as we were having that conversation, I learned a bunch when I worked with Bud about brand identity and brand continuity. they really, you know, I mean, of course everyone's going to go, well, you know, back in those days, everybody had the same sponsor for the majority of the year, you know, whereas today a lot of cars are piecemealing multiple different partners together into one season. And so you have a lot, you know, you'll run four races for this brand and six races for this brand. So you've got multiple different cars and designs with every team.

yes, 25 years ago, all of us had pretty much the same sponsor all year long, but with that said, the one-offs and the special schemes were really getting prevalent. Before Lionel's time, die casts were a big part of the merchandise business back then,

and teams, sponsors, drivers, everybody was trying to create as many unique die-cast pieces as possible. And it was just fun to change it up a little bit or represent a campaign that one of your partners was trying to, you know, a new part of their business that they were trying to promote. But Budweiser insisted like we want everybody to see that car on that car on the track every week. them to instantly be able to recognize that car in the field we believe in continuity and in the brand identity and the instant recognition and man i mean that makes a whole lot of sense because now all these years later you know if i had drove you know 10 or eight different bud cars throughout

the year each year would this scheme be all that transcending or or recognizable or would it be as iconic today, likely a little bit less iconic. And so I appreciate their insistence on, they knew how to sell beer, right? They knew how to make sure they were easy to spot, easy to find, and they knew what they were doing. I really, really appreciated that. I learned a ton working for them and still have, you know, still, you know, still, feel strongly about a lot of those principles and try to infuse that into what we're doing here at Junior Motorsports with our

own race cars and stuff like that to a point, you know, but it's certainly a different time these days, but yeah, it's going to be fun. We're going to have a lot of fun with that. We'll try to go out there with a fast race car and have a great result in the race. And one last thing, you know, we're talking about the merchandise. You can get that now at shop junior nation.com. Right on. Hey everybody, I want to talk to you a little bit about safety culture.

You may know safety culture's logo from Shane Van Gisbergin's car, but safety culture is more than just a sponsor. It's also the workplace operations tool for the trackhouse racing team. And what does that actually mean? Well, the team uses safety culture's app to manage everything from pre-race inspections on the car to assembly checks, and they even do some of their training on the app. Every race team has an incredible amount of individuals. that maybe don't even travel to the racetrack, work back at the shop, that are a big part of the success of that race team, preparing cars, getting them ready to go to the racetrack and run these races and try to win checkered flags and ultimately championships.

No matter what you're trying to achieve, no one has time to waste from construction sites to factory floors. Safety culture is designed to drive improvements not just in safety, but broadly across quality and efficiency too. Are you ready to put your workplace in the pole position? Well, head to safetyculture.com slash SVG. So with Vegas, the Xfinity Series and the Cup Series, raced on Saturday and Sunday, and listen, I told you all, this is my 50th year on the planet,

and I was not going to have a party this year. And instead of a party, I was going to go do things and see the world. And we've done that. We went to Ireland, London. We went to Scotland. I've been to Mexico twice. Cabo, Cancun,

Montana, never been to Montana. Went to Montana this year. But we did travel. And I'm thankful, and I'm kind of wrapping that up. We're kind of cruising into the holiday season, so we're going to try to get back to some normalcy, which I'm

excited about. We went to a lot of places this year. Over this past weekend, I was in Cancun celebrating a very close friend's 40th birthday. It's kind of a bit of Amy's family, a lot of his friends and so forth. It was a great trip.

It was good. But while I was there, man, I did not have access to seeing the Xfinity race like I expected. Right. I mean, I know that it's hard. It's hard. It's hard. Internationally, it's impossible. It is just not possible.

It's not hard. It's like you got to go to a bar that has the right channel. That's how I've always tried to navigate. They ain't got it. Mexico doesn't have a CW. No, I don't think so. So, you know, there's, I didn't get to see much of the city rates. I'm sitting there staring at my phone, following on the app, you know, using the NASCAR app and trying to, you know,

trying to understand exactly what's going on with strategy and so forth and what kind of issues some of our teams were having. The eight car was struggling and, you know, we had some problems with the one car. forth. Justin had a really solid day. Did a really good job just to get in and out there in a good position points-wise, but Sammy and Sam didn't end up all too well when it was all said and done, so they got a little work cut out for them going into the remainder of this round. A.J. Armadinger surprised me how well he's run. Colle. A. A.J. A.J. A.J. A.J. A.O. struggled this year and but they have you know that is uh i don't want to see out of character but it certainly is an improvement upon how they've been performing give them credit you know

colleague uh i look at colleague a little bit as some competition because we're we're the same manufacturer and um man we go to deton and talladega for so many years and just could not beat them felt like that that was where you know my dad always put an emphasis as an owner on those races and always wanted to win at Daytona and win at Talladega and colleague was really the cars to beat there for quite a while. So there's some friendly competition. And I got to give them credit, man. A.J. had a really quick car.

I'm a bit surprised by A.J.'s performance at this point in the season because they really hadn't been a playoff contender or a championship contender. And he has now... you know, obviously locked himself into the finals. But he's ran well enough to not be like, you can't view him as undeserving of this opportunity. I mean, if he's winning, if he wins at the Roval or he goes out and does it on a road course,

you're going to say you expect it. But when he goes to Vegas and does what he does, I think that that's a bit of a shocker. When you think about who are the four cars that should go to Phoenix for a title, I wouldn't have put AJ in that group at all I don't think a lot of people would have I mean there's clear in the Xfinity series it's Allgaier Custer

Chandler Smith have been the class of the field Yeah and Then there's kind of room for a fourth You've got Austin Hill Jesse Love Sam Mayer Sammy Smith AJ I feel like there's room for that one Wildcard guy I always felt like Austin Hill had the edge

On all those guys And they've They've had some odd results this year, some races where they haven't shown up. But he's an aggressive guy, Austin Hill. I wouldn't, you know, Austin Hill at minus eight, I would be a little bit nervous racing around him because he's aggressive. I mean, let's be honest.

The guy is physical. But it's been interesting to see how they put themselves in the position. I would have expected at this point in a year that Austin Hill, Hill would be in a much better position points-wise at this round. But AJ winning, much like in the Cup series with Agano, has kind of flipped this a little bit. And now you've got a guy that a lot of people probably didn't expect to get this far, already locked in. Justin's at plus 32, hopefully in a good spot.

We've seen 32 points go away quickly in a race. And Cole Custer gets in. I mean, I just feel like Cole Custer to me, if the seven isn't the favorite, Cole Custer is the favorite. You know, guy went... Yeah. I mean, he's pretty damn fast everywhere he goes, annoyingly so.

And, you know, the Chandler... From there on down, though, I think it's kind of a crapshoot between Chandler Smith and Austin Hill and Jesse Love. Sam and Sammy, I think they're in must-wins. I could be wrong, but I think, you know...

Minus 23, I think you can claw your way out maybe. With some stage racing and really being smart and good results. Minutes 53's tough. Yeah. These other boys are going to...

Oh, minus 53. Yeah, you must win. But Sam's going to need a couple of these guys to have some bad days. And I don't know if you can rely on that. Two races, they just got to put together two decent races.

But this Xfinity playoff pictures pretty compelling. Can anybody, though, go to Phoenix and upset Cole? Cole was pretty much dead on last year at Phoenix. Nobody was going to be.

beat that car. Earlier this year, Justin had himself a race put together. Yeah, he did. That's higher. So, I mean, it was whooping the field. You can never count out the seven if he's in it. Let me say this, though. Phoenix, at the first of the year versus Phoenix, the championship race, it's

a completely different preparation, a whole different mindset. All the tricks come off the shelf. Updates. Oh, God. Yeah. I mean, I don't, I hate to be a tech guy. on championship weekend, especially for the Xfinity series.

So if you're Jim Pullman and you're Justin O'Geyer, or even Colchester and Chandler Smith, like you're still trying to make it into Phoenix, but if you're plus 32, you feel like I've got a decent shot, how much emphasis are you already putting on Phoenix if you're these guys? Or is it not much at all? I know AJ and the 16 team and Joey Lugano, they can put all their focus on it.

But you, I don't know, if you're a team that you feel pretty good, like can you put any focus on Phoenix, or is it really just the next two immediate races? I think you have to divide and conquer a little bit. So, I mean, you can't wait till Phoenix Week to get ready for Phoenix. Right. And I know they're already building the cars and they're getting ready, but, like, AJ can now do all this Sim time for Phoenix.

Same with Ligano. Like, they can put, I mean, the next two races don't matter at all. You know, it's a very important race to win, Vegas. Yes, yeah, good for them. I mean, you're right. You're right. They don't have to worry about what happens in these next two events. They can certainly start, you know, debriefing and simming and, you know, going through scenarios and watching tape and figuring out what their strategy might be, all those things where the other teams are still having to focus on what's coming at them this weekend.

but yeah I mean Homestead's been a good track for junior sports I'm hoping our guys can go in there stay off the wall you know if you do hit that wall it's okay to hit it but you you can knock the sidewall out of the tire it's easy to do

so having that discipline to stay off of the wall and just kind of maybe dial it back just a notch now Sam is not going to do that right Sam's going to go all in. Sammy will as well, they should. But Justin, on the other hand,

needs just to make sure that when he gets to stage three, he's not hit the fence, right, and not brought himself down pit road changing a tire. That's probably the worst part about it isn't having to come to pit road to put the tire on because you can get the lap back, you can get back through the field, but you are now down

a set of tires. And so the Xfinity series doesn't have excess sets of tires. You're behind on tires. You're done because when everybody, you know, we have that late yellow or we get, everybody's going to come in, put tires on with 40 laps to go, 30 laps to go, whatever.

You don't have a set to put on. You're done. So you can't have a puncture at all because of that reason alone. That'll end your race. And so that'll be, that's why it's so important, I think, for Justin and Jesse Love and all these guys to try to avoid that possibility, which is very probable at Homestead because of how they run the fence all day long.

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which expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply, see terms at sportsbook. Fandul.com. Gambling problem, call 8777185543 or visit more than a game.nc.gov. Moving on to the cup race, Joe Ligano wins on strategy. And there's a huge, you know, kind of,

I don't say it's the debate, but there's, you know, there's two kinds of people right now. in the NASCAR Cup world as fans. There's the ones that think that Joey is just doing Joey things, and him going off into the final four is just the way things are. It's automatic. Then there's the people that think that he doesn't belong there and doesn't deserve to be there.

There's a bunch of debate about that. Me and you had this conversation, Andrew, you could go back to Nashville where they had the accident on the back straightaway. This is all Austin Cindricks doing. The repercussions are still coming in from Austin Cendricks spinning at Nashville. So, you know, Joey wins that race. A bunch of turnover at the end of that race in terms of the front of the field. And it put Joe in a position and he wins the race and locks himself into playoffs.

There's a great stat. Sorry, I heard it. Okay, this is good. How many laps, total lapse, has Joey Lugano led in his three wins this year? 22. Oh, no, that is a good number, though. It is less than that. Wow.

It is 14 total laps. He led nine at Nashville, nine at Atlanta and six this past weekend in Vegas. So, you know, that's crazy. It is. There's a ton. I mean, it doesn't pass the eye test. You know, I mean, you don't, I appreciate it, but you don't have to show. anybody's stats. You can know

that Joe Lugano has just not been that great this year. But this is the way that it's, this is the way they've, they've set up the pins at the bowling alley. This is how it is, and he knocked them down. The part that I'm most,

really the only part that I can't get over is he wasn't in until the 48 got penalized and then he gets in, through that penalty and then he goes and wins

and so I mean hell I mean when the checker flag fell at the roval him winning this race would have mattered none but now he's going to race for a championship that to me is the hard part to come

I'm with the terms with I'm with you I'm not really bothered that he only led a couple laps or he only won this race in that race at a happenstance or whatever you know I can deal with that sort of clunky oddness in sports right it happens uh rarely but it does you know and um you know it's like a hell merry uh or anything else uh lucky lucky bounce or you know immaculate reception uh all those kind of funk flunk funky little moments but

But how he has now found himself into the final four over the last two weeks and the things that happened during those past two weeks with that suspension or that penalty for the 48, that to me is like hard for me to comprehend. And yeah. And, you know, and I really can't decide whether I want him to win the title or not. He's going to. It's an even year. It's just enough amount of chaos.

Isn't that odd too? That's about the even years? It is so crazy. I mean, NBC put a stat out and he's literally every other year since the beginning of this format he's made it in. It's just, and like,

you know, like you said, at the end of the Roval, he's out, and you're like, oh, streak is over, but then it's not because, you know, one Sunday later. And I know it's Joey Lagano,

he's a two-time champion, that's the point you're going to make. Wasn't what I was going to say. Oh. And like, and he's had a great playoffs. Like we went through and did all the average finishes just in the playoffs alone of the top eight drivers. And he's the fifth best out of the eight. Bell is like well beyond anybody else. He's got an average finish 5.7 out of the playoff races so far. Insane. Which is crazy. The next closest is Byron at 10.2. But it's like, I don't know. It's just, he has had so many dominoes

fall his way and I know you need two things to win a championship you need skill and you need luck and my god is Joey Lugano had so much luck this year is it luck I don't know you gotta look at you gotta look at Cindrick spinning

and him ending up winning that race that's lucky Danny Hamman was going to win that race remember he got wrecked coming to take the checkard by Austin Dillon at Richmond he would have locked himself in the playoff's there Yeah. So I don't think it's,

I think it's definitely there is some luck. I am fine with all that. That is sports. I know. To me, to me that is sports. It's the penalty that kicked him back in.

And then he goes and went. I know. It's kind of very familiar to when they added Gordon. Yeah, it's like this, it's like got that. It's a little bit close to that. I don't like that.

You know, and like what if, you know, they added him, they added Jeff in there. I'm thinking, And if he wins his championship, what the f. Yeah. And so I don't feel that way about Joey.

I kind of can't decide whether I want him to win a championship. I kind of might. He's calling in in about 30 minutes. Yeah. I think they know how to play the game. And so people are mad at Joey and saying, you know, oh, he shouldn't be there, right? But this is the game.

Like, oh, you only have to lead one lap. I mean, it's like. You only have to get. That's it. That's a good point. I mean, you know, Jimmy Johnson won five championships in a row. He was fast, but they also played the game. You know, they also knew how to sort of be what they needed to be when they needed to be it.

I'm not just. I don't want to turn this into a big old, I don't like the playoffs. You know, I don't want to do that. It's a waste of a bunch of waste of energy because the playoffs thing. They're not going to change it. They're not going to listen to my show and go, oh, well, we should probably change it. But, man, yeah, I don't know.

Maybe I shouldn't have a problem with it. Maybe I should, it is. I mean, it's not like he's manipulated anything. No, and, like, to his credit, he's done everything. Right. I mean, you can't discount what they've done. It's just, here's where we got so excited last week, especially before the Bowman DQ,

is like, oh my God, the top eight drivers in the points are our final eight. Like, this is awesome. Oh, that don't matter to me. I don't know. But then Joey gets in. He's like, oh, all right, well, it's seven, and then there's Ligano. And then Lugano goes and wins. And I know it's the playoffs and this is the format.

I know, but I will never understand people being like, oh, well, just little old Joey Lugano found himself into the playoffs. Like, he's, I know. He's a proven two-time champion. He does this all the time. Like, it's not uncommon. And I like Joey, and they're extremely talented group. If he-Pensky this time of year is unbelievable.

I think what's saving this whole thing is his credentials. Yeah. Right. Don't. That's a good point, Don't know, because if you take his credentials away, it's really... It's a hard to swallow. Yeah. Yeah, really kind of too fluky.

Right. But he's got the damn credentials. And we talked about it for weeks leading up to this. How's Joey going to get in this year? How's it going to get in this year? is it going to happen? Because we knew it was just, you know, he's dangerous. I think what sits funny and what still sits funny for me too is like Bell dominated the race,

but it ultimately was a strategy play that won him in. It's not like he had the outright fastest car in one. And again, that's part of it. And I'll be fine with it. I'll be fine with it. I know it's sports, but it's like. I don't have a problem with those parts. I mean, that's a race.

I know. Strategy, fuel mileage. Yeah. No one's arguing that part. Oh. What am I saying? No one is. Well, I mean, you know, I mean, it's just there's something that for me sits funny about, just because we haven't really talked about Joey Lagan a lot this year, and now he's the first guy. But again, that's the playoffs. And we always, we did say multiple times, especially over the last couple weeks, that Joey was going to, you know, find a way. Find a way. You cannot count him out.

You cannot count them out. I really didn't believe my own words, but maybe we wield it into existence. These stats are crazy, though, just to go back to them. Bell, with a 5.7 in the playoffs, average finish. I'll read them out. That's what you got to do. It's insane. Bell, 5.7 average finish, Byron, 10.2, Hamlin 13, 13, Larson, 13.1, Lugano, 14.2, Elliott 15, Blaney, 18.85, Redd.

20.57 and then if you throw Bowman in there, even with the DQ, he would sit about fifth at 13.85 average finish. Christopher Bell's finished outside of the top 10 once in the playoffs. Yeah. Yeah, it's impressive. Well, and Lugano's win really shook up these playoffs. I mean, there is a huge gap between fourth and fifth right now before Ligano's win. It was going to be like 13, 14 points. Now it's plus and minus 27. That part, of the playoff system I like, oddly. It's unorthodox. It kind of goes against my traditional values

or beliefs in our sport. But if Joey doesn't win, you know, it looks like it's a much clearer playoff picture, especially for Denny, Tiler-Retic. But since that launches Joey that far ahead and locks him in, Denny's minus 27, Tyler's minus 30, Blaney and Chase Elliott beyond 45 out.

But that, I like to see, those are damn good race car drivers, damn good race teams, and they are in a really tough spot. To me, that's the best thing about NASCAR, is seeing a talented, great, elite individual in an uncomfortable position. And what will they do?

How will they perform? That's what's going to draw me to the television on Sunday. Is that right there? Denny being down 27. If it was minus eight or relatively close. It's a stage. It's not as... Two stages.

I'm not as intrigued. I'm not as intrigued. I'm more intrigued by... seeing somebody do something unnatural or, you know, unsurmountable. Somebody, you know, if Denny and any of these guys can win their way in or find a way in, I feel like they're all hanging on to very thin hopes at this point, even with two races left. But you've got Homestead a fantastic racetrack for the playoffs.

I can't wait. And Martinsville. Another fantastic race. short track. Now, Martinsville in the regular season, we got a lot of problems. But Martinsville in the playoffs has steadily been a pretty impactful event. Right? Look at Blaney what he did last year.

Passing on the outside, punched his ticket to win a championship. So I'm excited about these next couple of races. I mean, looking at this playoffs, these playoffs standings, you said Danny, Redick, basically anyone outside the top four, is going to have to do something impressive. Does the top four stay the same?

Is this our championship four that we're looking at here? Lugano, Bell, Larson Byron? Yeah, I think so. And if anyone else, I mean... That's easy. I mean, for me, that's an easy yes. If anybody can point their way in or win their way in, it's any one of those guys.

Look, Tyler Reddick doesn't have a whole... I don't think Tyler Reddick has a great track record at Martinsville. But he knows how to run the damn wall. He knows how to run. He knows how to run a fence. And so, you know, he could win this weekend. Denny Blaney, those two run relatively good. They were running good last year at Homestead before they had issues.

And they both, you know, raced for the win last year at Martinsville. Chase is the one that I don't just think, he's just not, I don't see him. Yeah, something's not clicking. Yeah, they're just not. Nothing against them. No, no, no, no, they're great. They're great. People.

Great race car driver, great team, but they're just missing something. So, I mean, there's three of the four drivers, I think, I have good confidence, could win one of these two races. But, yeah, I also say those four, you know, Byron Larson Bell with Lugano, those four would, would, are likely to be our four. I mean, if your Bell and Larson just kind of need to put together two solid races, don't you think? That's a tough trouble, no problems. Yeah, Bell's in great shape.

The tough part, the tough part for like, imagine the tough spot that Chase Elliott's in right now. They don't really have the speed and they're trying to claim a spot that right now currently his two teammates have two of those four spots, right? One of them's gone. Joe's got it.

for Chase to get into the final four, he's got to maybe take a spot away from a teammate. I don't know if people really understand how uncomfortable and how difficult that position is. It's when you're building, you're going to build three race cars in the same race shop and they're likely all going to battle each other indirectly for a few of these spots.

and, you know, Chase's got his back to the wall, and his teammates aren't going to be in a position to help him, right? And honestly, I mean, I know they'll be transparent. They'll be sharing information to a point, but the Williams team and Larson's team, they've got to protect themselves, right? They can't. You know, that is a very tough spot.

And we've lived it here at Junior Motors Sports, right? When our cars are trying to battle their way through the playoff rounds, it gets quirky when the teammates are competing for the same thing. Is it a tough spot because you're used to working together all year? And now you're... It's awkward. It's quite... Yeah, not enemies.

You're just not quite as... You're not as... The communication, the common... You know that people are holding stuff back. ...the general conversation. Everything sort of whittles down. Everybody's got their head down. Everybody's working.

The noise gets a little quiet in the shop, you know. Yeah. Man, it's a completely different shop than five weeks into the season. Everybody's back slapping and, hey, man, let's get this thing going. Let's all go together. Let's help each other. Now it's like, I'm busy, bud. I got, I got, you know.

Does that hurt big teams? Is that, you know, when you look at, no? I don't know. I don't know. Like if there's, you know, in years past, when two teams, teammates are racing at Phoenix or Homestead for the championship together. Does that hurt them? Is the, you know, if Lugano is the only Penske car, is that an advantage? Disadvantage. Bage or disadvantage.

Really? Yeah. You have to have, I mean, your teammates push you. So, uh, while literally like Blaney did have Phoenix. Yeah, Blaine literally pushed Ligano. Yeah. Well, you're, I mean, your, if you have a competitive teammate, He, again, we're going back to what that conversation we had earlier, you want to beat him. And so you got people in your own shop that you want to beat.

And that's a healthy thing to a point, right? It can be problematic and destructive to a team. But it's healthy to a point that your teammate is good and you look at him and you go, damn it, I want to be, I want to beat him. I want to be that good. They're running good. They're the apple of the eye, the owner's eye, right? They're the, they're the, you know, the favorite son. And so, you know, you want to go out, you want to be, you want Rick Hendrick to be calling you saying, good job, you know, not another guy.

Of course. Yeah. And so, I mean, you're motivated, isn't it? I think a good, good competitive teammate absolutely motivates the other teams in the shop. And it too, oh, man, I mean, if you got one car out there doing great, you can look at the, other guys go, he's taking these tools and going and running good. Let's go. We got no excuse here.

The whole company, you know, a whole company benefits from somebody being successful. Like a rising tide raises all ships type of thing. It's very motivating to not be the one that's the worst or not performing when the others are. I've lived that. I've been a teammate that was the good teammate. I've been a teammate that was the not so good teammate. And it's really motivating to try to figure out how to go out.

And you look at the, look, you'll look at the practice sheets. Where's my teammates? Man, you know, am I as good as them? You're looking at everything. All the metrics, you're like, hey, how do I measure up against those guys? Right. I need to be somewhere where they are or above at all times. So looking, if this is our championship four,

with Larson and Byron being two teammates, you're saying they benefit from the other being in the championship with them. They're just all pushing each other. They're pushing Chase Elliott, too, is motivated to get up there and figure out a way to be with them. He doesn't want to be, he doesn't want to, you don't want to be the guy that, you know, Bowman's over there going, well, you know, I was going to be in there,

got that penalty. Chase doesn't want to be the guy that sees the other two carry on and move forward, right? and represent his, you know, the company. He wants to be the champion, dude. What do you think about Reddick pulling in Earnhardt, flipping down the front stretch and then driving the car away? Yeah. Well, that's a tough race car, man.

I think that it's cool. You know, our drivers are gritty and tough. And so I thought that, you know, that's kind of a neat moment. But didn't bother me the car flipped like it did. Yeah, just kind of an odd, weird, you know, transition from the turf to that little Legends Oval and, you know, not a big deal. But I keep seeing clips on social media where people are showing us any other car in the history of the sport that's ever slid through the same situation and how they kind of popped in

and landed back on all four tires. But it doesn't really bother me. I'm not going to get all spun out about a car. Yeah, you don't, do you think this specific thing is a next-gen problem, or it's more just the way the track and how he hit it? Yeah, I think it's just out. The car's... I think this was more definitely racetrack than it was.

It's race track. It's how the car sprung. It's a setup of the car bit. You know, I don't think the pan helps. you know, underneath the car that any air gets under there, it's going to create a little lift so that might have been aided a little bit

on just getting it a little higher in the air for that car to kind of rotate and tip over. I'm not too bent out of shape about it. Blaney had a couple of hard hits or he had a hard hit in practice. Yeah. You know, the guy has

had some hard hits. I hate to see that but he I've been seeing where he's I've been seeing where he's had some quotes and some media's had access to him and he says he'll be in

he's racing this weekend he's going to you know he's bound and determined to go to homestead and keep fighting and I hope he's feeling all right after this past weekend I know I saw some that he was asking for Advil and stop on Sunday.

I don't know if that was related to a crash or he just wasn't feeling good or just... I don't want to speculate, but I know that was something he requested during the rest. Yeah, I mean, there's been no hard... There's been no hard concrete, hey, you know, this is what's going on. But we do know that he wasn't feeling a whole too well after the crash and that he did ask for some Advil during the race

and so the media has pinged on that and asked him about how he's feeling and he says my plans are to be racing next weekend another hard crash during the race Austin Dylan oh my gosh that was what in the hell was that all about why did Hemrick do that Dylan was not pleased with him

no as you wouldn't I mean that was like blame him that was completely Hemrick's doing, right? I don't know what happened. I'm not trying to like pin it on someone, but it just looks like he just drove in too far and got him loose.

So weird. That is a fast spot on the racetrack. I'm not sure if there was something going on between them too that Hemrick was upset about or if it was just, you know, Hemrick didn't expect him to check up into the corner like that or what, but my God, that was a nasty, nasty hit for Austin.

And, yeah, he has their right to be upset. I mean, his wheel broke. Like, it broke the aluminum wheel, and part of it was in Larson's car. That's why they come down on pit road. I'm watching the end car right now, and Hammer just, he can, he, I watched them on entry. I watched it, too. Look, I don't want to, I don't know what was going on there.

I don't know why it happened, didn't have to happen. But good Lord. All right, so we got Joey Lugano, the winner from Vegas calling in. And Joey, first off, I want to thank you for your time. I know that this is a very tough part of the year, and you would rather be doing anything but interviews, but we're thankful that you're going to give us some time today. I'm sure you're getting pulled in a lot of different directions considering you're coming off of a win.

But hey, let's ask you what everyone else in the NASCAR world wants to know. How in the hell do you keep doing this? You know, I mean, you just have this odd, unique ability to do what, needs to be done when it needs to be done. And I mean, it's like what any great athlete would strive to be. I'm trying to think of how to compare this to somebody in sticking ball sports, but you truly are remarkable in our sport. I don't know that there's anybody like you when it comes down to crunch time.

Well, first off, I love talking to you. and I have a little bit more time now that I can just think about Phoenix and not the next few coming up, which is great. But I don't know. I mean, I wish I knew the answer because it seems like we've made the championship four in many different ways now. And it's not like the same scenario that happens. And when you look at Vegas, we are really this whole playoffs, right, really from what happened at the roll hole to being out. And all of a sudden, oh, we're back in. And I told my wife beforehand, I said, me, how crazy.

being out, we're back in, we go win Vegas, and we flip this whole sport upside down. There people who even know what to think, and knowing the whole, we did it. Well, I'll quickly turn around, but I got a great team, and I know that's the cliche answer, but I really do, and when you look at the victory from Vegas this weekend, it took everybody. You know, the car had to be right. We had to pack the fuel. We had to calculate it correctly. We had to communicate it right. I had to do the part behind the wheel and make sure that we saved just enough and not too much and not too little. and yeah it just takes everybody to do that so proud of that right and it takes execution all the way through the race it's not just a fast car that wins nascar races it's the strategy as well and we got a really well-rounded race team i wonder to stepping back a little bit to the week after the roval actually the first few days of that week how aware of what hendricks decision was going to be on the appeal to appeal to appeal how aware of all of that were you

Did you find out roughly the same time that we all did that they chose not to appeal? And how, I guess, what was your reaction? What was your first interaction around that decision? Yeah. So, I mean, when I got the news, I was like, okay, like, cool, but seeing this story before. You still weren't sure. You might be lucky here, but most things that are too good to be true are not true. So I felt like that's how it was going to be.

So I didn't get my hopes up too high But obviously you do dream of what could be I'm like man this is awesome you hope right I mean that you wish bad on somebody but yeah Boy I'm sitting here is the beneficiary of this thing like This could be big We put ourselves in that spot that we'd be next in line So when that opportunity came up and you know you find out the same way everybody else did

That they weren't gonna appeal it It seems like it's a pretty black and white thing anyway So when they weren't gonna appeal it's like well here we go go second life don't waste it wow so let's talk about the Penske organization and the playoffs every we've seen it with you seeing it with blaney i feel like that this team or this company knows how to be great uh when it matters uh obviously you're you have a knack for doing what what is necessary uh in all in all scenarios in the playoffs but you're you're you're you're the organization Pinsky, they find speed that they just wasn't there.

And it's really hard to do in this car. This car to me is still a bit of a mystery. And in terms of being able to really find a true advantage over your competition. But how do you, you know, how confident, I guess, are you in that? Because that's kind of always been the mainstay. When the playoffs come, Pinsky shows up. One of their cars is going to be good enough to get them to that championship. So where do you feel like the company is in terms of that?

Yeah, I think we're in a good spot. I don't think you ever look at it and say, man, where we want to be. Because I don't think that goal has ever achieved, right? It's the journey trained to reach perfection. And is the season long enough to where you go through ups and downs? Absolutely. there was times throughout the year where we had speed but we couldn't put a race together there is times in the year that we had no speed and gosh we were executing well but it wasn't good

enough and it seems like right now we're able to do both right i don't think our speed is exactly where we wanted it to be we weren't the fastest car in Vegas but our long run speed was good and that that was huge improvements from what we've been at mile and a halfs for the last two years especially for the 22 cars so you know i'm probably out of the gains that we've made, we really become competitive at mile and a half again, which makes me so excited because I used to, I got to the point we're dreading these races. And now, yeah, I can get to the point we're excited again about going to mile and a half. So that part's great.

So it's just a lot of effort. And, you know, when you get back behind the eight ball a little bit and you're getting beat by whatever name the team, panic sets in, right? That's one thing that's real. Like that panic mode sets in and we're like, we've got to figure something out. We don't want to throw the whole year out. You know how many years he got left? You don't want to waste it, and that panic sets in,

and it seems like that drives us. I don't know why that's what it is, but it's like, boy, we don't want to suck. We just are able to find stuff. Everyone goes to work. Everyone keeps their head down and grinding, and we've found ourselves in good situations, and here we are once again in a solid position to go out and have a real chance at a championship. Last question for you, man, before we let you go. So we hear about this all the time, talk about this, the guy that wins this, you know, with the race at Vegas, he doesn't have to worry about the next two events.

He gets to start focusing on Phoenix. How real is that? Is that really an advantage for you and your team to go ahead and start having those conversations, the SIM work and strategy and all those things that you're preparing to do for Phoenix? Absolutely. 100% it is a significant advantage and here's the reasons why for for one yeah everyone's got their tongues hanging out trying to get you know their homestead cars as good as they can they're their martinsville car as good as they can their strategy for their all that stuff right and there's only 100% you can give right so to be able to to think about phoenix now you'd have

to take something away from those races and they can't afford to take something away from that so for us, we can afford to take something away from the next two races to be better in Phoenix. So we earned that opportunity. There's only one race that really matters when there's championship for us now. So the smart move is to move all your focus as much as possible to that race. And so does that mean that we're going to go lay up the next two weeks? No, right? But we're probably just going to do what the 12 asks us to do as far as car set up, you know, practice plans.

you know, what can we do to help the 12 get into the championship for? And how do we stay focused on Phoenix as the 22 car? So, you know, that's kind of our position that we've earned. We need to take advantage of that because that's what I think is going to make the difference. What I've seen make the difference in our two championships and hopefully does it again. Well, we thank you for your time today. You always so gracious with the media. You do such a great job.

Some great answers, great insight on where you are and where your team's at. Good luck going forward. Have some fun over the next couple of weeks and getting ready for Phoenix. We'll be pulling for you when you go race for the championship. All right, thanks. I'll see in the carpool lane. Yeah, see you there, buddy.

All right. All right, so it's time for Dirty Modeau with Alex Thames. Tampa Tims. Do you get mad if I call you Alex Tams during Dirty Modo? I don't know. You call whatever you want. Tampa Tims. You don't know them like that.

All right. Well, Dirty Mode coming out every Thursday. giving you the best bets for the upcoming race weekend covering everything that they feel like we ought to be doing. But first, we have the group bet of the week. And again, Thursday night football, group parlay. Thursday night football at 8.15 p.m. on Prime. The Vikings and the Rams.

So we had a bet last week. I think everybody's propped except for Dalton. Yeah, that's right. Not a game either. That would have been a good win for us. I know. I know. I actually, I wrote a poem about it. So I'm going to read that real quick. Alvin Camara, you let me down. Your prop didn't hit and that made me frown.

All my friend's legs cashed, but yours was what I was after. Although it's not fair, I don't blame you. I blame Spencer Rattler. Why? He didn't have a good game. They never got it. I didn't even think they got in the red zone. That was one of the props is he wasn't going to have a touchdown pass. Well, I know, but I was hoping that Camero would at least get close enough to get a touchdown. Our props were kind of working against each other in a little. We didn't think about that. We didn't.

We weren't teammates on them. Well, we have the Vikings and the Rams, and we're all putting together a leg for the prop, Tampa Tims. Even Andrew has one. Dalton. Andrew's going to drop in with a money line bet, and so who wants to go first? Don't why you kick it off? All right. I'm going back to the Anytime touchdown.

I hate to do it, but I got to stick through. I'm going Kyron Williams Anytime TD. Okay. Minus 165. Rams running back? Rams running back. All right, not bad. I like that because I feel like, well, I don't know, man.

I'm worried about the Rams and how, you know, the Vikings have been so good this year. It's hit six out of the last six games. There you go. Oh, I like that. That's good. I'm not just flying blind here. I'll go with mine. I'll go with Justin Jefferson 70 plus receiving yards.

I like that. I think that's cleared in all but one game this year. Donald's slinging it. Yeah. 70 plus. 70 plus. All right, and I'm going to go with Darnold, quarterback for the Vikings,

under 28 and a half passing attempts. This is at minus 108, but it's hit five of the last six. But he's right up against it, just about every game, right around 27, 28 attempts. I'm just hoping that they can get themselves out to an early lead and grind the ball on the ground a little bit. but even in some of their close games

where they've lost to the lions or playing Green Bay he's barely or he came close to this prop without clearing it but Donald at under 28 and a half passing attempts will be my leg and Andrew's got the money line

I've got the money line one of my good friends lives in Minnesota so give me the Vikings to win the game expert analysis yes absolutely that is that is the reasoning. They're minus 172 right now. Tampa James, you'll put this prop together. You'll post this on your handle.

Yes, yes, I will. Dirty Moe will retweet it. Yep, dirty moe retweet it. Yep, dirty moe retweet. And we'll do all that. All right. So we got NASCAR bets. Coming out of Vegas, assuming, man, Vegas, you had a pretty good weekend.

Yeah, it was a light weekend for me, but we had a good weekend. We had a Byron was a big plus money matchup against Larson, so that was good for us. I had Christopher Bell to win, though. That was a heartbreak. Yeah. I thought I had a good price on them, too. but yeah Joey came out on top excited for Miami because I'm still riding the bell train he's got to win one of these eventually that does that does seem like a race that

he could go out and win who you know is there anybody else I guess especially below the cut line that you got confidence in I like Ryan Blaney this week I like really yeah 13 to 1 is a good price it's probably why I like it but I mean he's he's good here I think he's finished what he's got a 9.5 average finish here in the two next gen races so I think it's a, when you're that below the cut line, I think it's kind of a little easier. You know what you got to do. You got to win, and I like that price.

Right on. All right. Do you take, I mean, at Homestead's pretty straightforward. There's rarely any like fluke winners, but is there a dark horse? There is a guy I do kind of like. Austin Dillon, he's got a sixth place average finish here. Damn. They got 10th and a fourth in the next gen era.

So it's kind of shocking, kind of surprising. You're going to go to top 10, Austin Dillon? The top 10, Austin Dillon's the bet, yes. If you want to sprinkle a little bit on his win, I think he's like, sh-h-h-housand-a-thousand or something like that. So he's, yeah. Put a dollar on.

But he's never let a lap in the next gen era. Ever? At Miami. Oh, at Miami. So, that's not awesome. But, yeah, top 10, Austin Dillon's probably the good bet. All right, man. Well, uh, that's some good bets.

Dirty Modo will cover that and a whole lot more. Uh, this Thursday when, uh, him, Tampa Timms, and Lart and those guys get together. And, uh, We'll see what they come up with. All right, this past weekend, the Cars Tour ran their finale, the season finale for the 2024 season, and we crowned a champion for the two series,

the Pro Series and the Late Model Stocks. Let's get the recap. On a memorable Saturday night in Wilkes County, the Z-Max Cars Tour presented by Sound Gear embarked upon the North Wilkesboro Speedway in a triple-header effort with the Smart Modified Tour looking to crown a pair of champions in both the Pro Late Models and Late Model stocks

in two divisions that have held a close championship battle all season long. With the pros, it was Dawsonville, Georgia, Spencer Davis, who entered the night with a six-point advantage over Caden Honeycutt, while Chesapeake, Virginia's Brendan Queen, held the points lead for the first time all season long, sporting a nine-point margin over Connor Hall. The night began with the pro-late models, who was led to the green flag by Land of Lake Florida's T.J. DeKare, Honeycutt, who started the night in second, immediately jumped up to the lead, while Davis, who started in third, had some early drama to get the night under the night. way. We fire off. He's able to try and make these moves and bearing early on. Contact. He shuts it down

into turn one. DeCare saves it. Now Davis gets up into the marbles. He may have a problem. Championship implications early for Spencer Davis. Now the question is can you get the marbles off the tires and battle back? That car still rolling slowly down the front stretch losing a bunch of spots. Is that of Davis who is the championship points leader? After stopping on the racetrack a lap after making contact with T.J. DeKere, Davis was assessed a three-lap penalty for the infraction. It proved to be a margin too deep to climb out of as Davis was never again able to get back onto the lead lap. With the early troubles for Davis and by dominating the entire race, Honeycutt fended off a late charge from DeKare in order to secure not only the race victory, but the 2024 ZMAX Cars Tour Pro Late

Model Championship. Man, it's unbelievable. You know, just a, I got from Ernie and Dustin Bryson just to frace this car and just everyone that just believed in me man just they just believed in me and I believed in them too right after right when we went to Ace and I made my first lap I knew these guys definitely had it and we definitely had an opportunity to go out and win a championship so man just run out the elevator just all the thoughts in my head all the family members I've lost and I wish they were here watching I wish they were here man they they would have been really proud.

So thanks for my mom and dad and everyone that supported me. Yeah, sorry, I'm just really emotional. This is just, it's really cool. And it might be a pro-Lay Mall championship, but man, it's any championship's awesome. With Caden Honeycutt taking the driver's championship, it was still an evening where Spencer Davis could hold his head high as he and his 29 team were able to secure the owner's title for 2024. Man, it's awesome.

You know, we took this one car all year, couldn't swap teams or not. We went out here and we did our deal. We had an average finish of 3.9 every race all way up until this one where I made a mistake. Driver's Championship would be cool, but championship is a championship. Everybody that's sitting here, everybody that works at my shop, everyone that works at Fury, all those guys work real hard and have this trophy means a lot, man. Would I like to get both, but sometimes things don't go your way. With Honeycutton Davis first and second, Caden Cople was third in the championship standings.

Fourth was Jimmy Renfrew Jr. and Tristan McKee. rounded out the top five. For the late model of stocks, it was Carson Quaple who qualified on pole Friday night, dominating the early stance out of the race. Connor Hall, who started in 10th, made up some early ground in the opening few laps before a stack up on a restart on lap 15. They approached the Death Wish Coffee restart zone. Quaple will bring us back under the green flag.

Oh, what car didn't get going? Andrew Grady and the hood is damaged now on Connor Hall's car. Hall would be able to fix the damage to his car at a competition caution break and was still able to rebound for a fourth-place finishing position. However, it was still not enough to overcome the nine-point deficit he faced entering the night as Brendan Queen crossed the line to secure his first career Z-Max Cars Tour Championship. Man, I can't ever take it away.

And, you know, tonight's what champions are made of. We had to overcome a lot in that race that people don't know about. The carburetor spring broke and I had no tension on the gas pedal. I was having to manually pull it back with my foot so it wouldn't stick in the corners the first half. So like, oh man, I had to basically learn how to drive again. I was a gasser, Dillner. I was having to be a real gasser there, old school. It was also a very special night for Connor Jones,

who was able to end his 2024 season on the highest of notes going back to back and being able to ride the elevator to close out his 20th. 24 season. Oh, yeah, we've been through a lot. We've had a pretty up and down year, and it just feels really good to end it off with two wins. I feel like we were better when we were lower on gas. When we got a full, we were just way too loose. We were really loose in, and really loose through center, really loose off. I don't know. I think once we just wore the gas off of it a little bit, and came to us, got a little tighter, got a little snugger, and we could really move around the top. It was Queen then Hall 1 and 2 in the championship standings with

many Tyrell, Ryan Millington, and Bill Steen Chalk's Rookie of the Year, Brent Cruz, finishing up in the fifth position. Well, that's going to do it for us here in 2024. Thank you so much for listening to our Cars Tour recaps all season long, and be sure to stay tuned to Cars Racing Tour.com for more news and information and schedules to come out for 2025. For my good friend Eric Brennan, I'm Blake McCandless, and this has been your final Cars Tour recap. All right, it's time for the white flag.

Dropping after the race to tear down with Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi. Those two guys covering everything they saw and experienced in Vegas. And actually is detrimental with Denny Hamlin. I wonder where he recorded that. Did he fly home and do that? What was the deal? Yeah, he found him. All right.

Man, you know, West Coast trip didn't know if he stayed out there next night or something. Guy kind of likes Vegas. I imagine he likes Vegas. Came home and got it done. All right. Well, thank you, Denny Hamlin. Good job. Dropping yesterday, door bumper clear.

The spotters came home. T.J. was on that show. I came here this morning. wasn't sure whether I was going to see T.J. or not. But I did see a clip where he was on Door Bumper Clear, so I thought the odds were low that we might get a T.J. Citing here. Yeah.

But Door Bupor Clear is out, and they're covering everything over the past weekend. And some of the rumors swirling around in the sport, dropping to Mara Speed Street with Connor Daly and Chase Holden. And our guest show here, presented by Ally. Tony Uri Senior comes by, the Dirty Moe Studio, and can't wait to get that show. out to you. And then dropping Thursday, we mentioned it, Dremodow. And DJD Reloaded. That'll be Asked Jr. and more on the Thursday show of DJD Reloaded. A new episode of Andrew Curlin went there

from Corey LaJoy's Kickball Classic is on the next level YouTube page. All right. So if you want to see that, go to the next level YouTube page. It is Andrew went there from the Corey LaJoy's kickball classic. Did you play? I did not. No, I just asked the questions. What? You're an athlete. Yeah, why weren't you on a team? I didn't get the invite. We didn't get drafted. Yeah, I didn't get drafted. That's something.

Yeah. But it was a lot of fun. We asked some fun questions, and it's fun to hang out with some of the drivers and NASCAR personalities away from the racetrack. There's no pressure, so it was a good time. One of my favorite parts of the show is a question of a week, and we got one from William Byron. Yeah, just curious if Dale, you know, what video games he's playing right now. If he's playing NCAA or Madden or what he's into right now.

That's a great question. William, thank you for asking. I did get mad in this year. I started a franchise with Washington, but I haven't messed with that in a couple weeks. Been playing a lot of NCAA. And we're still riding with the UNCC 49ers, and we're in a league with TJ Majors and a bunch of other folks. Having some fun and watch a lot of YouTube videos and trying to figure out what the best stuff is to be doing.

and how to, dude, it's so fun. I walked into Stephen's office, maybe he won't like me sharing this, but it was right before the big championship game and he was watching YouTube plays. Yes, what works, what doesn't. That's right. So you've got to stay up, man.

There's a lot of great content creators out there always updating what the patches fix and what kind of cheese plays are working and trick plays or where the game might be broken where you can take advantage of it. But it's, but it's just, It's fun, man. It's a L'A football, man.

It's a blast. Still running on eye racing. Play a little drafty car from time to time, especially when we're in there, flying somewhere. Not many apps these days allow you to play without service, right? And so that's where

like drafty car comes in handy because I'll be up in air and not such great Wi-Fi service and good little draft car. But, yeah, still working on my sim-rids. and having some fun on eye racing. Me and the guys talked about racing tonight on the mini stock, taking a mini stock to Darlington or somewhere.

Yeah, a little fun combo. And a little hell let loose every now and then. Flanking? You still flanking? You still flanking? Still flanking on hell of loose every once in a while. That's always fun. Yeah.

I mean, we've been traveling a lot, so I haven't had a chance to really do much. But I've been itching to get back into it. So now that we're getting the holiday season, things slow down, your home a lot more. sun goes down earlier you get to hang out at home or time for hell let loose yeah we always seem to like

get into so for me eye racing is kind of seasonal this part of the year the end of the NASCAR season tends to be really busy in terms of travel and

and not just have an opportunity to be at home and sim race and then when all season comes and racing goes away, you sort of get this, you can't wait for racing, you won't racing. So I end up racing a lot on eye racing through December, January,

and on into probably May. And then I kind of, you know, kind of slow down just a little bit throughout the summer, spending time with the family and all that. But man, it's like it's seasonal. And I think that, you know, NCAA football, those things,

I'll play the hell out of that until I just get tired of it. just drop it and never pick it back up until probably the next release or whatever. Hell Let Loose is just kind of always, I've been playing that for four years. And I'm still pretty happy with that. So I'll keep playing that. I'm a bit surprised by that

because usually like a first person shooter similar to NCAA football or something like that on console, I play the hell out of it and just get tired of it and drop it and quit it and just never pick it back up. But, yeah, I race some kind of seasonal for me and the rest is kind of whatever. I'm pumped for the new video game.

NASCAR? Yeah. Sorry. He's just pumped for the new video game. Whatever's coming out next. Well, we were just talking about ir racing. Yeah. I can't wait for the next game.

You can't wait for the console version of the new NASCAR game. That iRacing is helping put together. Yes. Yeah. I'm excited about that too. I'm a little bit nervous because I want it to be well received. And I think it will. I think it'll be a great game.

but I'm, you know, you're always still, it's kind of like when I, like, BAM writes a song, they like it, they think it's good, people are telling them it's good, but the rest of the world hasn't heard it yet. How will they respond, right? That's got to be pretty nerve-recking. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Okay, of course. All right. Well, Dalton, you've got this week's social media standout. I do. This comes from Blue Dog 373 productions on Twitter. We were talking about your contacts

and your glasses last week. week and he commented and said, glasses make you look extinguished. You ain't going to like contacts. I don't think he meant extinguished. I think he meant distinguished. I think he meant distinguished. Yeah. Well, I don't know what looking extinguished looks like. You look exhausted. Yeah. You look like you cool out of fire pretty good. You look a little charred. I guess. Well, we thank Blue Dog for sending that in. Yeah. That made us laugh. I ain't going to let context. Ain't going to like contacts. You haven't taken the test yet, right? It's this week, I think. Good luck.

Big week. Yeah. Buddy comes back and you got to contact us. We'll see how it goes. I'm looking forward to it. All right, that's the show tomorrow. Tony Uri Senior on the Allied guest segment. We will see you there.

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