The Dale Jr. Download - 599 Waivers, Exemptions & TJ's Fear of Goats

Episode Date: January 27, 2025

The green flag is waving on the 2025 season, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. joins his new co-host TJ Majors for a new episode of Dirty Air. As the NASCAR Cup haulers get ready to head to Winston-Salem, North Carolina for the Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, there is a lot to look forward to this week:Dale and TJ’s NFL teams get eliminated from the PlayoffsNASCAR amends its damaged vehicle policyDo we need a waiver rule?Helio Castroneves gets an exemptionBowman Gray modified legend Tim Brown and Rick Ware join the showNASCAR has made many changes to the MadhouseThe racing line at Bowman Gray will change due to the SAFER BarriersThe story of how Tim got the chance to make his Cup debut Plus, Tampa Timms gives out his season win total predictions for each Cup team. And, Ask Jr. on 2012 Daytona 500 rain delay, Dale Sr.’s daily vehicle, college football and rookie stripes. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Hey, everybody's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. download here in the Dirty Mo Media Studios. And man, I'm excited. We got a whole season out in front of us. Been waiting to get back into the studio and get back to work. But let's just get right to it. I got a great co-host joining me this year.

T.J. Majors, you know, T.J., everybody saw you a couple times. on the show last year. You're going to be here full time. It took you a minute to get to work today. I know. Yeah. He's late. Yeah, the wrong day on my calendar.

So we'll be on Tuesdays most of the time. So that's what I had marked. But I did mess it up. I don't know. We, you know, I'm looking forward to, you know, us doing this show together. And we had a lot of fun doing it together last year. And, hold on a second. What do we have to do to get you to be on time?

And, like, because DBC, I think you showed up. So, like, I'm usually never late, trust me. Yeah, so. I'm the guy that's like always super early. That's my point is you're on time for DBC, but for the Dale Jr. download, you're maybe planning on the day as well. Yeah. Travis is just coming off the top rope here.

I know. Yeah. I, you know, there's a lot. Well, we have a lot of text messages between you and me and Andrew and others and the Dirtymo Media family about recording today. So how about the clash? Yeah. Just, hey. Dale, we just want a little accountability right, Dale?

Yeah. Yeah, listen. We felt like, you know. There's nothing. Yeah, I messed it up. I put Tuesday on the calendar, and it's definitely not Tuesday. It's not Tuesday. It's going forward.

Yeah. So this was just an anomaly. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, I can. Why are we recording? I think you picked it. Do I got something going on tomorrow?

I don't know your schedule. You picked. I don't even know. I mean, I hope not now. Yeah. I'll look and find out in a minute. I'm looking forward to this year. Man, it's going to be a lot of fun.

Yeah. giving each other hard time and talking racing and, you know, having somebody at the table like you that's, it's so ingrained in everything going on throughout the race weekend and the knowledge that you guys have, obviously, you know, that we've experienced and heard from you over the years on DBC. Bringing some of that over to the show is going to be a lot of fun for me. So I'm looking forward to it, man, but let's see you. Full time every week for Dirty Air.

TJ's going to be a big part of that we're still going to do our guest segment that will come out on Wednesdays and then we got a we got a you know have we talked about what have we said

what have we released on the Thursday side of things because we have a Thursday show but I think we're just going to hang on to you know I think we're just going to hang on to some of the details around that it's not quite

ready to reveal not just yet it's good though it's exciting really exciting not as good is you tj not as good well it is it is it is good you might eat those it is um oh boy no i'm telling you man uh we retooled a little bit this year and i am freaking here for it it's going to be a lot of fun and uh so you know we've we actually did some shows during all season which was

kind of unique i've always wanted to do shows in december and january um but you know we just haven't ever done that we've always kind of ended our season when nascar's over and taking a break. But this year we kind of stayed a little bit in touch. So I was going to ask you how y'all season went. You've been kind of busy watching your bills climb through the playoffs. And dropped like normal. Yeah.

Hey, you know what? I was going to bet that he did not wear his bills gear. But look at him. I'm not. Did you take, do you even sleep last night? Is this what you was wearing during the game? No, I did not wear this during the game. Maybe you didn't even go to sleep.

You just drank you about a sixer. and stood stared into the middle distance wondering. I'm used to this type of collapse. So this has like been four years or five years in a row, maybe five. Are you kidding me? No. This has been like 50, 60, 70 years. Well, no, that was 20 years of not making the playoffs.

Now we've been there. Now we just can't get over there. You don't remember the four years you went to the Super Bowl? I do. I cried those nights. I was in school. I was like a 12 years old. I can't even imagine.

Listen. It was bad. Both of us, my commanders, your bills. You're probably pretty happy still. I, uh, because you had a far higher than expected season than what you were, you know, than what expectations probably were. The team over delivered. Yeah.

And I agree. Absolutely. I mean, we won four games last year. I don't think anyone had us going to the playoffs this year. A lot of people had us winning eight games. They were fun. They were fun. The team, you know, we won a lot of games in the last play.

Well, I think there for like five weeks in a row, it was like we were just, we were sneaking away with wins. that we, you know, could have been losses to be able to give ourselves the record that pushed us into the playoffs. And then we had some great games. Yeah. Won two road games into playoffs. I'll be honest with you, man. I was, I got called up in, man, we're almost there. You know, we're about to, one more game and we're going to go to the Super Bowl.

And so when we lost last night in spectacular fashion, you know, I think the score was, you know, terrible. but, and I'm biased, of course, but the score wasn't really reflective of how competitive I think our team was. We did fumble the ball, we gave them a ball, they scored on all of, they scored 21 points off of turnovers and mistakes, and, you know, we gave up the touchdown on the very first play, but otherwise, I mean, you know, there were the flashes of what our team is capable of, and, you know, they just did everything right,

and they were smart and didn't make mistakes as far as the Eagles go. But I got caught up in the idea of going to the Super Bowl, and so when we lost, I was really upset about it. And I think, you know, I was around when they won in 82. I was around for the win against the Bills and the Broncos, and all of those years of being a playoff team and expecting to be a playoff team. yeah um but i'd lost i'd forgot what it felt like i guess i'd forgotten what it you know what it felt

like to to get close and and so it kind of hurt worse than than i expected it to it took me i i sat there till about midnight last night just really fuming over how dang you were mad well yeah i mean i you know it's like a bad race well yeah i mean i so i was watching i watched all of the conference post game. I watched the coach, our quarterback, Jaden. I watched a lot of clips of locker room interviews with Echler and a bunch of other players. And the things that they kept saying was this locker room won't look the same next year. Yeah. All our, they all had a really cool message and it was, we're all going to go into the locker room. We're all going to really kind of try to enjoy this

a little bit of time that we have before we all take off and go into our different directions because when we come back this team's on a rebuild they're going to they got 80 90 million dollars in cap they got eager eager owners and GM

ready to folder players too that they got they got the money to spend and the the people around in you know the GM is ready to fire away and And so I think all the players realize, like, hey, you know, this is a badass group.

We bonded. We overachieved. Us together was working, but it ain't going to look the same next year. And maybe that's the same for all teams. Is that what it's like for the bills? I mean, do you, you know, do you walk away from this year going, well, you know, the team, does the team look different to you every season? Is there always kind of like, you know, that back third of the roster?

I don't know if it's the back third. Most of the time it's the guys that are at the end of their rookie contracts. Yeah. Y'all lost a big time receiver. Number one and number two. We had receiver last year. Yep. So, yeah, you look at the guys that are up at the end of their contracts.

Like there's probably some guys on your team that are going to get offers from a good team to go play. And they can make a lot more money there, you know. But there's not really a lot you can do about it. You just hope you can hope your GM and coach have, which I'm sure they do, have guys on our list that they want to look at and bring in. But the biggest piece is, is your season, your team's going to get better because you got, you got players now are looking at Washington, like, man, that's a fun place to go. You're going to be an attractive place to go now because it's fun, just like Buffalo. Which is crazy. Yeah, you got a great quarterback, young. You know,

players want to go play with Josh Allen and Jaden and them guys. They want to be a part of that atmosphere. Yeah. So as many players you lose, you got other players coming in that are going to replace them. But it is sad and it is kind of It's sad, but the magic's gone. I let myself get carried away thinking about how close we got to the Super Bowl instead of what I should have been doing was being thankful that we had the run we had, being thankful that for the first time in a long time, there was a sustained excitement.

Each game was better than the last. More fun to watch, to be. We're in my living room, my wife, Amy, our kids, Amy is invested. She's cheering. She's happy up, standing up, jumping, high-fiving every touchdown. Terry had, Terry had everybody in the house. Yeah.

And so, you know, those things weren't happening, hadn't been happening. And so. Well, that's fun. It makes football fun for everybody. It was fun. And I'm, you know, like you say, man, I mean, I think it's a start of something cool and some kind of a sustained competitiveness that we hadn't had in a long time. and I should be appreciative.

I am appreciative of that and looking forward to the next season. And that's why, you know, we can sit here and wear our gear, right? I'll be there. Yeah. I'll be there. I'll tell you what the downside is, if you become competitive for five, four, five years,

and you make it to the ASC championship game. So all the Bill's headlines now are people, oh, we need a new coach. And I'm just like, we just had a 13-win season. We've lost like five, having games in like three years and you want to replace the coach. There is literally like only one or two little moments that make, that are the difference between you guys losing that game last night and going to the Super Bowl.

It's not a lot. It ain't much. You know, when you can compare it to NASCAR, I mean, it's like finishing third in the Daytona 500. Yeah. And all of the preparation and buildup, it was one, it was one decision the driver made on that restart or whatever. You know, it's nothing. It's not, you don't need to go, you know. You don't need to clean house.

No. You're right there. I mean, if you hang out there long enough, it's like a race. You said, you run third long enough, you're going to win. Yeah. So I don't think they need to make a lot of changes. I know people are upset and want, some people want heads to roll and don't, you know, but just pump the brakes.

And what they're up against to get, break through, I mean, what they're up against, the chiefs. I mean, and all of the narrative around that in terms of how the chiefs are getting all the calls and everything, they're, up against, you know, they not only got to play a great game, right? Yeah, you can't have any errors. You got to have a little luck, too, because you're kind of playing against that, you know, the other, the calls. But the bad part about it is we came from, you know, Tom Brady, which was in our division. Now we got Petram Holmes and AFC2, so we can't

really ever meet them in the Super Bowl. You have to get through them to get to that point. Because if the Bills and Chiefs ever could play each other in a Super Bowl, it'd probably be a great game. But we'll never get that opportunity right now. But you just got to keep adding pieces of the puzzle, man, trying to make it work. Yeah, so the Eagles and the Chiefs will go play in the Super Bowl. Clint Boyer's got to be pretty happy about that. And they'll be the first team. The Chiefs will be the first team to try to win three in a row. No team has ever won three in a row. A few teams and no team that won two in a row made it back to the Super Bowl to try and defend that title. I was hearing that stat last night during the game.

I saw that. I heard that too. Yeah, so, I mean, pretty remarkable. And even though the Chiefs are annoying, as is anything that wins all the time, Andy Reid, that's just a cool story, man, everything that he's been through. Yeah, it's hard not to like Andy Reid. Hard not to like Andy Reid. Yeah. But, yeah, kind of a tough day or a tough night seeing your team.

I just was like, man, I just wanted to be close. And then when we had to, you know, when we had to do the things we had to do that allowed them to continue to open up the score and put 55. on us. I know. I mean, I'm fully seasoned to this from the wide right field goal to the 13 second game. And last year we missed a field goal in Buffalo playing the Chiefs to tie the game and, you know, have a shot at winning.

I'm just used to it. So, I mean, it's been a good year of football. We got a quarterback that scores over 40 touchdowns a year for five years straight that's never been done. Football's fun whenever your team scores like that. So we can just try again. Well, all right, man. We're going to move on to some NASCAR conversation, talking about some rule changes for 2025 in the cup season.

Cars will no longer be eliminated from the DVP clock. You can now go back to the garage to fix damage and then return to the race. The same rule applies for cars with flat tires, which will now be towed back to the garage, but will be allowed to reenter the race. Do you, one of the things that I was thinking about is like, does that mean, TJ, that, the teams need to start taking more things to the racetrack.

So there's a lot of reasons why this DVP clock and, you know, cars were eliminated in those scenarios in the past, right? If you got taken back to the garage, your day was over there. Yeah, you're done. There was a lot of reasons why they did that. But one of the reasons that I think about all the time as a car owner is all of our haulers were overloaded. All of our haulers were to the limit. in terms of legal limits on weights getting up and the road. Yeah.

And so when we, and we would have a $30,000 specially built crash cart. Yeah. For sure. That was just for if we crashed. Yeah. And it had, you had one that had all the suspension all over it. You had another one that had body. Yep.

Two crash carts. And you carried that damn thing everywhere. And if you didn't use it, it was like. And if you used it, you had to restock it too. Yeah. But if you didn't use it, you had to restock it, too. you're like, damn, is hauling this thing around for nothing? Yeah.

And so, but does that reintroduce some of that, right? Certainly not as to the extreme as we used to have what they are. Yeah. I don't think it's going to be to the extreme, but we've already got a lot of these parts already there. Yeah. You know, so I don't think, I don't know if it's going to add a lot to it because I really think we have most of this stuff still on carts there

because going through tech and stuff, you never know when something. just going to go bad or you get in a crash and practice or something. So I think we have a lot of this stuff already, but not to the extent of like what those crash carts were like a huge offseason project for most people. Like they built them things and they were nice too. Like they had all the suspension lined up, but it was built for efficiency too because when you did crash back then, you went to the garage, you wanted to be able to change

that right front suspension as quick as you could and all that stuff, truck arms, all that stuff. So I don't think it's going to change a lot. just going to the biggest change to me is going to you know now when you go to the garage you're going to go out there and fix it you're going to come out and be 60 laps down or now you're going to have are you going to have more cars out there that are off the pace and and maybe potentially help you know it's kind of like catching the back of the field you know more lap traffic which i think's a good thing i i don't hate that i'd hate to i hate to be in that

position but it's going to create more um it's like the leader catching the back of the field when he catches the back of the field, things change. Stuff picks up. Create opportunities to pass. Exactly. Yeah, you see a guy out there leading the race and you got, you know the guy in second's a little faster, but he just kind of hit that wall in terms of dirty air. Well, when the leader finally gets to the back of the field, that's when I start to start,

that's when I as a broadcaster in the booths start paying more attention and saying, all right, is this present an opportunity for second? You know, because now the leader's challenged in dirty air as well. And so, yeah, having more cars out on the racetrack, especially cars that are, you know, you know, for lack of a better word, moving chicanes. It won't be a problem most of the time because most of the guys, when you're, when you're that slow, you're going to be out of the way and those guys aren't going to, you know, impede that stuff. But you never know when they catch each other at the wrong spot.

It's going to create some scenarios for passing. I like the rule, especially for cars that were just, you know, getting towed back to the garage with flats. And their day was done. That was some bad stuff happened to a couple drivers over the last several months. That was a bad look. So I'm glad that's been adjusted. This will save a lot of points on people's seasons. I mean, instead of getting that, you know, you get towed out and you have something small broke.

Instead of that 36, I mean, you might come back out and get 10 more spots. Heck yeah. So this can save a lot of points. I agree. If a driver needs a waiver for a non-medical reason, they lose all of their playoff points for the entire season. This includes suspensions. And so basically, you know, that's a pretty, that one was meant. with a lot of confusion and, you know, and it was a...

Jeff Gordon called it the Kyle Larson rules. Yeah. I was going to say that's exactly what it is. Yeah. I mean, I hate putting that on. I hate putting that label on it, but I, look, I, so my, I don't like this waiver. stuff. Like the original, like the whole idea of it, I just don't love it.

And listen, I mean, I'm, I don't, I hate, I'm not, I'm trying not to use any examples, but man, I mean, if you, if you're injured and you're out, you're injured and you're out. And that's just how it is. I don't think there should be a medical waiver. I don't think there should be any waiver whatsoever. Yeah. Like, you show up, you race, you get points. If you don't race, if you don't start to race, you don't get the points.

You just don't. And so, you know, what is the argument against that? Well, you're then going to potentially lose some of your top talent. Oh. But that's just part of it. Are they going to quit racing? But they would have gotten the playoffs even without the race, so they should still get in that. All right.

Give me an example. Kyle Larson. Yeah. He would have been in the playoffs even if he missed the 600. Then what's the waiver for? So why does he need the waiver? So don't get it. Why do we need the waiver at all?

If you've earned your way in, you're in. Okay, I'm good with that then. Yeah. Okay. Like, I just don't, I don't love the optics of it. It's, it's, um, so there's this, I don't, you know, I don't love the optics of it because it's, it's sort of taking, uh, there was, this is my opinion, right? I don't know this to be fact, but let's go back, let's look at the clash, for example, right?

Um, they finally found a bit of a. happy medium middle ground but back when the clash was running at Daytona and they continued to expand the field expand the field the idea was that um there were partners uh there were brands and and sponsors going why why isn't my car in this race why isn't i want my car in this race i won't you know and then there were moments when like me or or or a big name person wasn't in the clash and and so The rule would be the rules of eligibility were continuously massaged and twisted to basically just to kind of include anything. We used to make the joke like, hey, man, you got a valid driver's license. You're eligible for the clash.

I almost ran it one year. Yeah. And so it was just, it became a joke. And it took a lot of the legitimacy or the uniqueness or the specialness out of the clash. The clash, as I've mentioned a million times, is about poll winners. I know. We used to get a poll and be like, oh, yeah, we used to leave, like getting the pole pitcher and be like, yeah, we're going to, we're in the clash. Yeah, you would even hear drivers mention it in their interviews as they won the poll.

Yeah, it was, it was cool. We're in the clash, you know, it was a cool thing. And, you know, it took, people, drivers no longer go, hell yeah, I'm in the clash. No. When you lost that, what have you done? What have you done? You've made a mistake. And so, I guess what I'm, what I'm saying?

saying is like the this this feeling like it's necessary to make sure everybody's always a part of it takes away the challenge of achieving

right and so well are you worried that if you don't if someone gets in the playoffs they might skip out on a race because that's why the way that's yeah that's what the thing is they were never going to do that the charter agreement

has like that you got to run all the races right I think the charter agreement says that you have to compete yeah like to make the playoffs you have to compete so that's why the waiver is there so like are you worried that that's not what the waiver's not so the waiver is only in my mind the waiver is only to make sure your big stars

are in the playoffs and so if something were to happen somebody gets hurt um or or or or, you know, they, something, some, you know, medical issue happens. Yeah. You know, they, I don't, I don't know that I feel that great.

I don't know that I feel good about, like, the medical pass, you know, getting the free pass off of an injury, is what I'm saying. I mean, that, that, that was never, you know, it's been, it had been, this, it had been a certain way for so many years. and then now you can miss races due to an injury and still, you know, still kind of... Run for a championship. Run for a championship.

And I just never really, like, thought that was part of the deal. And so I guess when I was asking you what the argument against it is, I was hoping you might say, well, NFL quarterback can get injured, come back, and then take his team to the championship. and say, okay, that's kind of what it's like. It's like, okay, we're, which is, you know. You're like, I'm okay with a person missing race, but the problem is then, like, let's say,

Denny Hamlin does, he's got plenty of points. He's going to be in, he's like, you know what, I don't want to race this weekend. Not going to do that. He's not going to do that. He's not going to do that. He's not going to do that. There's all kinds of mechanisms in place without the waiver.

It's not necessary. There's all kinds of mechanisms. is a, that Denny Hamlin cannot turn the machine off and just say, yep, we're not going run this week. Car ain't going to the track. I'm not going to be there. Yeah. That ain't happening.

Even Larson with a big point lead, it's not going to miss it. Yeah. And I mean, even, you know, it just ain't going to happen. All right. Let's get rid of the waiver then. I just think it's unnecessary. And it's, it's, yeah. What all we use the waiver for?

I think Kyle was the first one when we were in the Xfinney race at Daytona heard it broke his leg. right yeah and that and then he got the waiver um but to me that's just kind of the chance you take running that stuff though too like when you run them lower series like things can happen yeah i mean that's that's the way i look at it too is like it's it's um the risk you take and do you think this could be a deterrent for someone right hooking a driver and getting suspended and they would lose their playoff points like chase did to denny well i i do think that that did have a bad that did feel incorrect, right?

That, you know, you didn't a driver right hook somebody gets suspended and then turn around and get a waiver. Yeah, that does not look right at all. Didn't that what the process was? It was like, I mean, that doesn't make...

So this could be a deterrent from me. That to me, in regardless of whether it's Chase or anybody, doesn't make no sense, right? Yeah, that doesn't make much sense. And so I, you know, You know, I do not like the optics of that, and I don't like NASCAR being the one, being the pulling the puppet strings there on all of that,

and it's manipulation in a way that I don't, and I don't, it's not, I don't think it's intentional. They're just trying to, they're trying to do the right thing, but I think they could just get out of that all together. But I think that this rule change does help that, because then you lose all your playoff points. This goes, this, this is moving back in the right direction,

but on all the way. Okay. Right. I just feel like to get rid of the waivers, get out of the waiver business. Don't worry about having to make that decision if you're NASCAR. If I was NASCAR, I'm not doing this. I'm not being a part of the, you know, the waiver stuff's going away. You guys, show up, race, get your points.

Good luck. Yeah. Season starts in Daytona. Do the best you can. Yeah. You know, what happened to that? Why did that, why was that not okay? right why was that not enough anybody well it's because the you think it's just like the

clash you didn't have enough well we need that start we need that we need that we need that driver in there we need that one in there now too and you just don't you lose all the prestige and and of getting the polls and the award like when you heard yeah you know we literally i i remember leaving places being like oh we're in the clash now like it used to be even if there was 12 cars in a race it was still like you're in that group. Yeah. Like you earned it. Yeah.

There's a broader, there's a broader conversation, I think, or a thought around what's good for the short term is not always good for the long term. Yeah. And the short term gains, you can't be blind to the long term repercussions by looking at just the short term gain of a decision, right? Like, oh man, let's put this guy in. That'll be great. Awesome.

Yeah. Clash is awesome now. Well, just this year, but what we've done, you know, is kind of, you know, the clash to me is, while I love the fact that I're going to Bowman grade, I'm looking forward to seeing them race there. Yes. I wish it was, you know, I wish it was poll winners. And I wish the criteria to get in was a little more exclusive. And like, hey, these guys did this to earn it.

And it's not, I don't see that. I don't feel that anymore. So how excited are you for the clash? Like, what's your thoughts? I am looking forward to it because of Balman Gray. And I'm sure the racing will be, it's going to be interesting. But we're all going to be glued to the glued watching it and seeing how it goes. Yeah.

It's not the clash to me. It's not we got guys racing in that. Yeah. How? I mean. Well, later in the show, Tim Brown, Wickware, they're going to come on. And there's a lot of questions that I have that, you know, about one of the things that I'm probably most curious about is the, you know, the changes to the track.

Tim Brown. Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of people that are like, yeah, the safer barrier, no big deal. Well, Tim Brown will know. He's ran there his whole life. Our guys won't know a difference. No. But Tim Brown.

He'll know a difference. And who has to keep racing there once we, once we're done and we leave, what's going to happen there the rest of the year, right? That's the weekly. Are they removing the safer barrier after we run? Or leaving it? Probably leaving it. I would assume.

The place is narrow. of already. Removing a safety barrier doesn't sound like a good thing to do. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe they'll alter it or adjust it. But either way, I mean, I think since it's been implemented and installed, it's very expensive to install. I don't see them taking their way, but I'm curious and I can't wait to hear what Tim

thinks about the track. Not the Clash weekend, but the Bowman Gray Stadium from this moment on is changed forever. Oh, yeah. Right. Do they leave, you know, those catch vents that they've added are, I don't believe they are permanent. Could that, is that something that they take away? I mean, they built a racetrack at the Coliseum. I'm pretty sure they can take all this away if they wanted to.

I'd be curious if Tim knows anything about that because, you know, that's something I'm curious about. is like, I'm pumped for the clash. Clash will be great. It's going to be interesting, entertaining. Somebody's getting spawned. Oh, yeah, there's going to be all kinds of, you know. And hopefully, I honestly hope that there will be a little bit of that traditional madhouse happenstance, right? I don't know if I want them chasing each other through the infield and jumping out and fighting and getting the cops involved.

But from the videos that we've seen at the Bowman Gray, it's entertaining. and I hope that that vibe is there to an extent. They will be taking some of the catch fence off. Okay, so there you go. I mean, the track is going to kind of evolve beyond this weekend. It will evolve back, I think, to its original state, but how much remains to be seen and how that will affect how the mods have raced there

and will race there in the future. TJ, are you expecting this to be, how much more exciting do you expect this to be compared to Coliseum Clash? I just think a little bit more but kind of like going to the Coliseum for the first time you're in a new area you're in a new facility for us this place has kind of been

talked about and has the history of racing there so I feel like this is a little bit more than the Coliseum you know we're going to go there and we got guys in the field that are coming in to try to run that are this is kind of how it used to be back in the day I had short track guys from that track that would try to make the race and be good there. And, you know, you went to South Boston and raced in there. You had the locals that would run and be competitive.

Yeah. I think it's going to be harder for these guys to be competitive in this field. But, you know, I think it's going to be, once these guys put the helmets on, man, and once they figure out how to get around the place, it's just going to be the bumper cars. And they're going to be using, you know, these cars, it's hard to do the bump and run with these things. You're going to have guys getting hit and stopping them. middle corner downshifting and digging again but it's going to be interesting i'm i'm excited to see what it's like and better have the padding in that head wrist oh yeah good and soft yeah

i don't need any padding where i'm standing so well i um there was one more rule change i wanted to touch on the open exemption rule uh a well-known driver who is of significant uh contribute who is a significant contributor from another series naskar drivers are not eligible is now automatically into a cup race. It'll be the 41st car in the race, and they won't be eligible for points or prize money. And so basically, Helio announces that they are going to run for the Daytona 500 with trackhouse. But to request this, to request.

to request this open exemption provisional, we'll call it. They have to do it 90 days before the event, which they did. So I kind of, as much, I don't know if I like the, I don't know if I like the provisional, just sort of just popping up out of nowhere. It was like NASCAR just kind of had this light bulb idea. It wasn't, that wasn't the case. They had this in, written into the charter agreement.

No one really, no one in our little world as far as, you know, content creating and media, really picked up on it. But it's in there. And trackhouse goes, hey, 90 days ago, they went, man, we want to do this. We're going to, we're going to request this. And so since it's that far out, it kind of makes it less cheesy to me because it, it's then not like this sort of last. last minute, oh, we want a free pass. This is something that they had planned out. Trackhouse was like, we're going to put this deal together.

We're requesting this exemption. We're going to spend the next several months preparing a car and getting ready. And so, but it does raise a lot of questions. And I asked some of the folks at NASCAR about this. So like, okay, it would exclude. So if Helio gets, you know, is given this, right? and it excludes the idea of that so if Max Rastaping got a ride or put something together

it's already Helios I was going to ask like what if there's multiple? You don't know it's one So first come first serve I suppose Yeah I don't I don't like it in general that's what That's kind of I don't know So yeah there's only one and so if NASCAR were to approve a driver

and then another even more significantly famous contributor applied, they would be, hey, told no way, bud. Well, you know, you've got to be an open car and try to qualify your way in. But that's how it should just be anyway. Yeah, I mean. I am a bit surprised, though,

because I think Trackhouse is competitive enough to qualify. if I in and it's you know it's it's it's it's a lot of money to finish last if in if you're just looking at hey man what's it costs to start the race right it's a lot it's a lot of money for 500 yeah yeah and so to re to forego that possibility um is pretty significant for a team but it is it's going to be hard like this racing's not it's not like it's it's hard now like you got to be you got to know how to you got to know how to push how to how to be pushed there's a lot more you know intricacies of this than what they're used to be.

You could have a fast car and kind of get in the right lane and move now. It's just way different now. So I think he would have, I'm not saying he couldn't do it, but it's hard to race your way into these things. Yeah. So do you like the idea that a guy like Helio now can go to, or whoever, you know, has this open exemption rule? Do you like the idea that he can now go there and try to qualify in as an open car but have this sort of fallback plan. So he get, you know, and imagine, I mean, I'm an open team, right? And so I got to go in there and try to, but if he, you know, it's like, yeah,

there's a little bit of an extra layer of safety. He's got a little safety net. He does got a safety net. I love this idea, though. You do. Because now you're going to get maybe next year someone's like, Max, we can get you in the Daytona 500. They can entice them knowing that they're going to be in it. I will say.

Don't you want to. earn it though? Well, I mean, look, with the way... To get Max, is Max him like getting in a... He's not going to get a whole lot of time in the car, and yet he'd like to earn it, but... So you can entice him guarantee you're going to be out there to sell to your sponsors too. Is it the one going to let Carson run? Wait, wait, wait, I got thought, I got thought about this. So, all right, when this rule was probably written into, when this rule was probably developed in the minds of whoever at NASCAR, there's not there's not eight or nine open cars trying to attempt to make the race it really was only coming down to like a battle between one and one or two or three it's two or three guys so adding a

adding a fourth spot to the Daytona 500 and saying look you're not going to get any prize money you won't get any points you just out there fine I can get on board with that but as we've now we have eight or nine open cars so the optics of that is a little less comfortable or acceptable, right? It's like, wow, this, you know, there's all these guys that are going to show up and try to make this race. But there's this one that's also trying to show up and make the race that's got a free pass. And I think as, you know, if, imagine if the amount of open cars were to double next year, right? and you got 18 or 16 open cars trying to take, you know, hand four spots, four spots. But this one guy has this exemption.

Then it becomes a little more hard to accept or swallow, especially if you're one of the open teams. But when this rule was probably created, they're like, hey, there's not that many people outside of 40, 40 or 42 cars showing up to try to make 40 car race. It's not a big, it doesn't feel like a big deal. It doesn't. But I feel like as the field got larger for this race, this year, and potentially in the future,

if the field is larger and more cars are trying to get in, is it feel fair to have one guy that's got to... So we're worried about a problem that we don't have. I guess so. But I mean, it's... So next year, yes, if Max Verstopping and Lewis Hamilton and, you know, Scott Dixon, then figure it out. But right now that's not a problem. So give Elio the spot.

Sure. I still don't. I don't like it because this is the biggest race of the year. And this starts your season. You put a guy and not saying he can't do it, but he makes a mistake. Yeah, but that's, I mean, that's okay. I remember, I remember. I'm fine if he races his way into it.

Well, it earns it. Which he might. Which he could still do. Yes. So I like provisionals. I miss a 43 car field. I wish we still had provisionals. I think, you know, I think that that would be a good thing.

So I don't hate the provisional idea. Hey, they're not giving any points, prize money. It's, I don't know, a couple hundred thousand dollars to start that race. That's a pretty big deal. Them giving that up to be in the event. It's a bit of a sacrifice on their hands. I go back to, I forget what year it was, but maybe somewhere in the early 90s, 92 or so, it was Alice or Jr.

Allister Jr. was going to drive for Rick Hendrick in the 46 car. And the excitement around Alicester Jr. being in our field and trying to make the race, it was huge. It was huge. He stood out. The idea of, I mean, the idea of him making the race and even being in a really competitive car had the whole place buzzing. buzzing. Now he wrecked his car in the qualifier, and they put him in Kenny Schrader's backup car for the 500. I don't even remember how he did, but it was just really cool that he was there.

He had been running in the Arca races, gaining a ton of respect amongst the other NASCAR drivers that were competing in those races, in the IROC races, I'm sorry. And so there was some confidence in his potential inability. He's Alice or freaking junior. Yeah. And so, and he was just a great guy. You know, he had a great attitude about it, a good personality.

And so I, look, there's a lot of folks that love Helio. I think the good, great guy. He's got the credentials. Entertaining. Yep. And he'll be a good media story. He'll be a great interview all weekend. There'll be good buzz around what he's trying to accomplish or do.

people of his people that love IndyCar specifically will be tuning in and paying attention there's a bunch of great things on on that side of it and so I'm I'm kind of you know I'm kind of excited about it and I like the idea of him coming in racing and and I and is this the exemption rule the way it popped up in the media is kind of what was you what was odd because all of us were like well what's this weren't we yeah I mean are we all like

what the hell is this but it's actually been in the in the charter agreement for quite some time and they had to ask for it way out in front now more than 90 days ago and so that to me doesn't make it feel quite as slimy I guess now apparently they knew about it it it seemed like when when it got tweeted it was like oh oh oh they just come up a this. Yeah, it's what it seemed like. All right, so we got Tim Brown and Rick Ware. They're coming on to the show.

They're out in the lobby right now. I'm going to come in here and talk about, you know, racing at Bowman Gray. Tim Brown is the winningest modified racer, I think at Bowman Gray, 101 feature wins. And still going. 12 championships, 12 track championships. But he's going to race in the clash, driving for Rick Ware, the team that he works for. He has built this car. How could you not pull for this?

It's a credible story. Yeah. Well, let's hear more about it. Let's bring him on in. All right, so we got Tim Brown and Rick, where are here, Rick. Thanks for coming, Tim. Good to see you. You too, pal.

Thanks for having us. How are y'all? Man, I'm wide open, ready to go. I bet. Me too. So, man, you know, the Bowman Gray Stadium and the Madhouse, remember of the Madhouse on History Channel years ago, really kind of introduced me to you and a lot of people, I think, in terms of your life, your career,

and what a racer looks like, right? And just one of my favorite shows, I'm sure that was very impactful for you when you were going through that process. All of that seems to kind of have come full circle now as you, you know, have continued to race modifies, continue to win races, continue to be a big-time competitor at Bowman Gray and other tracks around the southeast. But all the while, you've been working at the cup level in shops all across industry and now with Rick.

And so you're going to get this opportunity to live a dream that a lot of short track racers would love to live. And that's to compete at the top level. But you're going to get to do that. that you're one of the tracks that you know the best, which is a pretty unique opportunity. It is, and I couldn't be more proud that it's going to be at that track, right? So not that it'll give me a huge advantage because the cars are so different from anything I've ever driven, but just the history of the place and get to do it at what I call my home track

and where I have had a lot of success. I'm just thankful for Rick giving me this opportunity. Yeah. So give me a quick background of all. All, you know, where your career has went as a mechanic and working in the industry? So started working for Cal Yarlborough right out of high school. Damn, where? Down behind the airport.

Which car? It was Derek Cope driving it for Fingerhut. And I worked there for several years through Jeremy Mayfield and Andretty and some of those guys driving. Wound up leaving there and going to MB2 where I worked with T.J. Then that turned it again. And then, you know, you guys bought us out for DEI and worked there for a while. And then when Michael went and done the MWR deal, I wound up working with Michael until it closed down. I left from there and went to Raus Fenway.

And now I'm with Rick. So that's been my cup tenure for mechanic. All right. Give me your racing career as a driver. So started in a modified at Bowman Gray. I grew up in my grandfather's race shop. helping him build race cars. And I knew from a very young age that I wanted to race.

And he kind of guided me through, and he was the one of helped to get into the cup garage area, right? He knew all the people. And it didn't come from a lot of money, so I had to work hard to have the money to buy the parts and pieces and go race. And then, you know, grew up going to Bowman Gray and watching my grandpa's cars race

and wound up knowing that's what I wanted to do, bought a modify and went racing, and here we are today. Yeah. And so, you know, you've really enjoyed a lot of success at Beaum Grey, 101 wins, 12-track championships. And did you ever, you know, did you ever have opportunities that look like they might materialize into deals that were truck, Exfinity, what have you?

I did. I had several phone calls, right, and it all ended up with how much money can you bring. And, man, you know, I come from a little farm. town and not a lot of money and it always ended with that last comment like how much money can you bring so once i got to be you know my late 20s and all that i kind of figured you know i don't have the money to fund a truck team or what to buy me a ride i just was content to keep racing at a high level in the modifides and just really focused on being the best that i could at that level right and with partners I've had for so long,

like Hayes Jewelers, been with me for 30 years, they gave me the opportunity to have the equipment that we need to be successful, and, you know, I'm okay with that. I hate that I didn't get an opportunity to do it, but I understand it also. Yeah, at the same time, when, you know, you didn't get that chance to see what that other side was like,

you did succeed, you know, at the local level to the highest, you know, in terms of, you know, the career that you've had behind the wheel of a modified is something that I think a lot of short track drivers would love to have, obviously. Talk about, and I've reconnected with this in my own way over the past couple of years, but talk about the uniqueness and how special the short track local, weekly community is. So that's going to be touchy, right? I honestly feel like it's a more intimate relationship than even with the cup racing, right,

because your fans every Saturday night can come down and get an autograph and spend hours with you buying merchandise or just hanging out with you. Just Saturday, we had a guy named Nick who came up from Fort Liberty and hung out in my shop with me all day, right? And he was like, man, this is so cool. And we just connected on Facebook, and he's like, man, you know, I've served the military, been in for 16 years, watched you grow up racing, and just love to come by and see your shop and hang out.

And man, we'll just become instant friends, right? And that's things I don't think that you see at the cup level, right? But that happens a lot in what I call grassroots racing. And that's what it's all about, right? And too, back to my career, working for cup teams, right? I've had a lot of success in that as winning races and things like that. And I always knew to make it to there, it was special, right? There's so many racers that can do it with a talent but never has the opportunity to do it.

So I've been okay with it. Yeah. Talk about Bowman. Tell me about Bowman Gray and what it means to you and what it means to the NASCAR ecosystem. I mean, it's got an incredible history, but I probably don't even understand exactly how incredibly special that place is. So to me, it's super special. I grew up going there with my grandpa racing, and me and my brother and, you know, the Myers kids and a lot of the kids from the racers would play in the pit area. And, you know, we had a little fire barrel.

They had a barrel that they'd catch on fire, and if it's cold out, would hang out and play around that. but then if you just read the history books of, you know, the Earnhardt's, the Paddies, Bakers, Allison's, all those guys race there. You know what I mean? And now for the Cups here, you used to go back to where I feel like it all originated, dude, that's super cool. Yeah. So, Rick, I'm going to get to you in a second.

I just got some of many questions about this. So the racetracks, one of the things that we've been talking about a little bit on the show early was the racetrack and how the Cups series going there has forced some, some upgrades, safety changes and so forth. The modifies have basically, the way the modifies have ran there over the past multiple decades, they pretty much put the wall where it is, right? And you can look at the old school retaining wall

and see how, you know, the racing there had kind of shaped this racetrack and the exterior of the track as well. Well, that's kind of all been altered a little bit. I don't know if you've actually put boots on the ground and actually walked around the track or seen it firsthand. You ran there your whole life. What do you think the changes to the track are going to do?

Not just for this clash. I'm thinking more actually long-term, especially for the coming season for the modifies and so forth. So I did get to see the racetrack for the first time Saturday, and they have done an amazing job. The place looks top-notch. from seeing it when I left there in August last year to seeing it Saturday. I was blown away.

I mean, the new lighting, the safer barrier, just all the updates that they've done is really, really cool. And that's things that I'm looking forward to enjoying for years to come. As far as the racing, it's definitely going to be different because the track's changed, right? So the safer barrier has taken away part of the groove that you race. And, you know, like coming off of turn four, you drive it straight to the track. that juke out in the wall where that's like two foot more now.

So you're going to have to change your line, but it's the same for everybody. So cosmetically, it's amazing what they've done. And the lighting, I can't wait to see how well the cars show up at night because the lighting was never great there. You know, and it's all good. It's good for everybody. Yeah. Well, I'm glad to hear that. I mean, I think you'd have the best opinion about the track.

and the changes to the track, which are necessary for the cup cars to be there, but how that does affect a weekly racer. Rick, why? What was the driving force behind this decision to run, Tim? Well, it's twofold. It's the event itself being Bowman Gray and my relationship with Tim. So, you know, backstory, I moved here in 90 to pursue racing, like hundreds of other wannabes, right?

And my relationship through Clyde Vickers at CV Products was John Linville. So I came back to Carnersville and lived with John Linville and got to meet Chip Lane who was hanging bodies, I think for the 21 at the time, but had a modified, and John Linville had his brother Dickie, who was running some stuff at Concord, and got to meet Todd Barrier because he was,

the only guy that was working with me on some of John Linville's cars. But when I moved here, all I heard was, man, you got to go to this Bowman Gray place. So come from the West Coast, go to the first race, and I can't remember what he was driving. But all I remember is some big guy who ended up being Chocolate Myers jumps out of his car, runs across the field and tries to pull somebody out. And, you know, I was just like, wow, this is just a different style of racing. But the place was packed. I mean, you could watch an ant race if there's 10,000 people screaming.

You're going to get excited. You're going to start screaming, too. So that whole concept of that track was just really cool to me. And I ended up living with John Lindville for a while and kind of met Frank Fleming. And at that time, that was where the original modified mafia, this whole Carnersville Mafia thing. There's a whole bunch of these modified guys. And, you know, modifies are just, you know, they're kind of really bad to the bone anyway, right? They sound really cool.

They're, you know, fat tires. And so, you know, got to start to go do that. And then, you know, several three or four, two or three years pass. And got my neighbor was Ken Glenn, who ended up being a crew chief for Kelly Arboral, Derek Cope. And he said, he'd introduced me to Tim. This is in 90, man, probably maybe before 94, because you actually worked for me for a few years on, I think, with my late model or something, or I think I'd bought a Bush car or something, you know. And so got to know Tim and, you know, just a great guy, you know, digging hard, working on everything. So as the relationship kind of grew, your path would cross on a regular basis.

And we actually got involved as I was working on different marketing sponsor. related scenarios. We were talking about this television deal that was coming about, and I was trying to put together some sponsorship for my Xfinity cars with Circle K and this Thirst Buster deal. And I'm like, man, I don't really want to build a modified team or whatever. So we kind of teamed up, I think it was 2008, which was, I think your eighth championship. It was the madhouse scenario. So it was perfect timing. We had, I think, you know, Hayes was involved, as always. and we had that sponsor on the car, and it was cool. I mean, that television thing kind of changed motor sports in what I would call reality television, right?

And it's kind of, we haven't really produced the exact same emotions, I don't think, since. Yeah. And probably just because of politics, right? And being politically correct for sponsors and things that, you know, back then between you and Myers and Junior Miller, they were dropping F bombs and, you know, it's just there were more, it's like watching street outlaws. There's more beeping than the car sounds. So, I mean, I just loved it. And so as I've grown for the needs of trying to have things to offer sponsors, et cetera,

one of the ideas that I came about when the modifies had exited Martinsville for several years, they were going to come back. And I can't remember the year. I want to think it was 2000, maybe 15 or 16 or something like that. I'm not quite sure, but they were coming back. And I told Tim, I said, you know, we need to get you approved for that because it would be great. And we were running a couple cars at the time. And so I was going to run Tim and I was going to try and find the sponsorship for Bert.

And we were going to run them under the RWR banner. But both of these guys with the idea, you know, Clay at Martinsville would love the idea. first to modify is coming back, but then, you know, the whole love-hate relationship of the Myers and Tim Brown. So we ran a truck for Tim earlier to make sure he got approved, and that was an ill-fated scenario. And I was really wanting to be able to be part of that with Tim to get him to make his cup debut. So fast forward, you know, we're all pedaling as hard as we can. And there was a bunch of talk about this at the clash last year. You know, were we going to come back for the third year?

Was it even going to work? And then some of the rumors were Bowman Gray. And, you know, Tim at that point had come to work for us. And it was like, yeah, it'd be cool if we kind of did this or that or whatever. And when I heard from the background of, hey, this is probably going to happen, I think I reached out to Tim and said, hey, I'm willing to commit to doing it if you're committing to doing it. And it doesn't matter, you know, hopefully we can find sponsorship. But if we don't, I'm going to do this because it's a cool once-in-lifetime opportunity. It took a while to make sure we went through all the powers that be to make sure it didn't

ruffle feathers because it's a little bit weird in that he's running an all-star race but hadn't made a cup debut yet. So my sales point was, hey, you guys own this track now? It's Bowman Gray. This is Mr. Bowman Gray. The cars only go so fast. There's got to be a value to have a million laps there and to have the, you know, I think the winning is short track by championships. in the country regardless of modifies or late models i mean i don't know there's anybody competing

running 12 championships so a little bit of long story but that's the whole backstory of how this came about and then it took on a life of its own and and it's um it's just cool seeing somebody that has worked as hard and there's all kinds of people all over this country that worked as hard as he has um to be able to be part of it you know yeah so you know i i hesitate to ask uh what the expectations are but and maybe it's not a performance thing maybe it's just uh you know in your own enjoyment or or being able to relish opportunity or you know standing there you know amongst the industry wearing that uniform and next to the car that you help build um yeah what what what when this is all over with you know what's a what's a what's a happy ending what's a what's a

satisfied result man i'm not so sure it hadn't already happened for me to be honest with you. You know, being on shows like this with you walking into the shop this morning and seeing the cup car with my name on it that's wrapped, you know, being in the media for a solid month, what I really want is to represent Rick Will and to represent all the local racers in America

that, hey, they'll never give up, right? I could go win the thing and I'm not going to be a full-time cup driver. You know what I mean? I know that. I just want to, to enjoy the moment. Like you said, I want my wife and kids. Cam and Marley are super excited for dad to get the opportunity to participate at the

cup level. I just want to enjoy it. I mean, like Rick, I keep thanking Rick for it. And he's like, no, man, thank you. It's just so cool with this opportunity. Like, and I'm trying to soak it all in and just enjoy it. Yeah, I'm excited, you know, knowing you for a long time. And, you know, there's, you know, Tim was always like.

lot of fun to work with. He was one of the guys that you could come in and get a straight answer from him if you need it and get some advice if you need it as well. And also, you know, I don't think, I think I give Tim more of a hard time than probably anybody. There's not a weekend that if I find any social media clip of Tim, I make sure to, because most of them, I mean, I mean, you've been pretty quiet here lately. I'm kind of disappointed that, you know, you've been, you must be getting older. I mean, the last clip I saw was that spotter that had to pull off your neck. Yeah, so, you know, I've got kids now, right?

That's true. And with social media, my son's old enough now that he can get on YouTube and scroll and be like, Dad, why are you beating this guy up? So it does change you, right? It does. And, you know, we go to church now, and I just don't want to be that rough guy, right?

You've done your time. I have. And you have to be that way. to race at Bowman Grave for the years, right? To survive. You've got to fight, you know, you fight your way in and fight your way out. But nowadays, man, there's more to it, right? And I want to be a role model first and foremost for all the kids out there.

And I just want to be a better person. Well, the opportunity that, and Rick, you know, the story behind it's incredible. That's, you know, kind of similar to what you do with your late model guys. you bring guys up and like Josh and Carson and these guys that graduate from the series and get a shot. Like I think it's really cool that locals get a shot to do something like you and, and, uh, and Bert. I mean, it's cool. I really enjoy it and it adds to the, it adds to it. Like, like people are going to be watching you. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's going to be fun.

There's a, you know, and maybe it's not one of the roles you want to play, but you're, there's a bit of an underdog aspect to it. And, uh, the local hero going up against, you know, the Goliath. And I would embrace that. I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't, uh, I wouldn't feel any type of way about that because that's absolutely going to have me plugged in, you know, wanting to see you do well, wanting to see you prove that, you know, you can, you can compete with those guys and hoping that, you know, you and both, Bert, have a great experience. And so, yeah, that's, that's going to, you know, that's going to add a nice twist to, to the race. and it needed a little seasoning. It needed a little spice. So this is kind of cool.

What do you, you know, you've been to this racetrack your whole life. You've seen it at its peak packed nights, the big races that you guys have over the years. What, I mean, can you imagine what it might be like with the Cup series on the property? How that might, is, can you even get more people into this? place. Man, I've thought about that a lot, right? Because, you know, like our Hays 200 race for every season is sold out, like it's standing capacity only.

I don't know how you put more people in there. But then you bring in all the TV networks and all the officials and the safety equipment stuff that NASCAR is going to bring at this level. That's insane, right? So it's a little bitty facility, right? So they're having people park all the way over to Winston-Salem Coliseum and busing them to the racetrack, right? Good problem. It is.

And I'm just blessed to, I'm going to get to witness it and be a part of it, right? So that is so cool. What about the, um, the one of the things they're doing is teching the cars at Sharpen Speedway. Do you, you're, I'm sure you're 100% versed in all the processes in terms of what's going on this weekend being not only the driver of the car, but putting the car together and having, having all that responsibility that's unique to you only. Not, I don't think any other drivers in the field will be.

involved in their cars as you will. But how do you feel about the integrity of that? And is that comfortable for you, the cars being teched at Charlotte, taken to Bowman Gray and all of that? Yeah, I'm fine with that, right? Because it's the same for everybody. So it's not like it's doing that for a reason

to give someone an advantage or not. And I understand why they're doing it, racing at the stadium every weekend. There's not a lot of room there to set up a Hawkeye tent or the stations that you have to roll through. So I understand that fully. And I think it'll make a better show for the fans that it'll be able to have some room to come and walk around and see the cars and things. Because if you set all the stuff up that we go through on a weekly basis at a big race track, wouldn't be in the room for anything else.

Got you. Do you think, and you maybe can't answer this till us all over, said none, is racing at Bowman Gray sustainable for the Cup Series? I mean, they're going, in my mind, it feels like they're going to have to really have a lot of grace. for example, the teching at Charlotte and so forth, there'll be a lot of exceptions, a lot of things that'll be forgiven because of the uniqueness of the property and the size of the property.

But if this is a good success, can you see this continuing at Beaum McRae? I would like to see it continue at Beaum McRae. Maybe if it's not the clash, maybe it's just some other kind of race for the cup cars, just for the history of the place, right? and two, I'm partial to the stadium because I grew up there, right?

But I would love to see it come back a few more times. Yeah. How does NASCAR purchase of the Speedway and acquiring the Speedway changed anything at all? It really didn't last year for the simple fact that it happened so late. You know, it was only like a month before we started racing, so they didn't want to come in and drop the grenade and change everything. But I think rolling in there this year with all the changes, you know, just I think some of this stuff was coming anyway that NASCAR on.

it not just for the clash to come and it needed updating right it needed uh safer walls because we you know we run pretty fast there even though it's a short track a little small race track but the lighting uh it's it wouldn't be this way if it wasn't for nascar now i know that not just the clash coming so you know one of the interesting byproducts of necessity you know we're talking about having to tete these cars in charlotte then come to the racetrack um there's been all kinds of discussions about even events like at Bristol that we have issues of getting haulers in and out. And it's been floated several times. There are a way to keep the integrity but tech at the R&D Center or some of these places.

And the necessities that have come over the last couple of years back when you were racing, you know, you're there on Thursday and you're unloading and you're all day Friday and you're happy hours. And nobody ever thought that we could race without being on the track for three days. And then COVID comes and we go straight out to a 600-mile race and not a single car falls out. So people think about that. And then now we don't have COVID, but that changed the way we do some things. I really believe if the integrity is there, which I believe can be policed, I think the next wave is that we may be testing some things. I mean, like, look, we don't need to take all of this room, which is room to take away from either hospitality, people, and or whatever.

it wouldn't surprise me to test that again. Maybe it may be at North Wilkesboro that we test it, right? Because, you know, the people aren't coming to the garages, and it's not typically not an event like it used to be. You know, Kansas originally built the whole walkway where you can go through the tech and people watch, well, that's because we were there all day Thursday, you know, or a loading part of Thursday.

It was just crazy. So the byproduct of this, I think, we'll have more conversations about the what-ifs. And as soon as you can do that and then go somewhere, I think it changes the opportunity to look at other venues. I personally don't see why we need to go through a whole day of tech at Mexico, right? I mean, we're coming straight off of, I think Mexico is back-to-back with Sonoma, so you're not even going to be able to use the same car.

Those are the kind of things that I think the conversations behind the scenes we're going to see more of. So I think it's also going to be a learning process for the series. No, that's a great point because, you know, you have little infills like Martinsville and so forth that could probably benefit from, you know, changes in the processes like that. And I could say if the integrity can be held, there's no reason why you couldn't make those kind of changes for some of the smaller racetracks. Does that open the door for other series to come in and race with you as well more? Because, you know, like at Martinsville. Like a car store? Yeah, I mean, if you don't have to use all the room all the time, you can get other.

That's the reason why, yeah, I mean, that's one of the main reasons why the cars tour has to run on a Wednesday for the All-Star race weekend, because Thursday, Friday, the infield is just to capacity with everything else going on with the trucks. Look at Martinsville. You know, the Xfinity cars are parked on the hills and trucks are parked on the hills, and then it's a show that is to get the trucks in and out before they can even bring the Xfinity cars to be in and out. So, again, I like full weekends. Yeah. Well, so, yeah, I think to be able to accommodate that, I think that's a byproduct of some of this.

And it can work because, again, COVID, man, COVID changed everything. And we all have to agree that the racing has been pretty fantastic since then. So, you know, practice still is practice. And I get the value. I get the television issue of it. I mean, completely. But this is something that I don't think it makes a difference to the end show. And that's ultimately what's going to make the decisions.

Is the end show, can we now allow a handful of people to have Friday or Saturday passes in the pits that normally couldn't walk through there? Absolutely we could. Now, I'm not saying that's what they want. But it just having opportunities is what's going to make, continue to grow this series like is growing, and to open up doors for other series to run. I mean, we used to run late models and modifies, right? at Richmond, but now that it's so short, you can't do that. So, you know, I for sure would say going to New Hampshire.

I mean, they're running modifies there, and they used to run, you know, the North cars back in the day. Even a late model class would run sometimes. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Some great stuff, man. Well, I appreciate it. Looking forward to the clash, looking forward to seeing how you guys do.

Tim, have fun. Enjoy it. And I know you will. Rick, thanks for everything that you do for. for people like Tim, but everything you've done as far as your impact on NASCAR and the multiple series that you run as an owner, you're leaving a legacy. I appreciate that. Yeah, you're doing awesome, man.

Chipping away. You are. And it's hard work what you're doing. Thank you for the invite. You bet you, man. Thank you all. And I hope to have you back. Maybe after a great week you can come back and tell us about it.

Yeah, it'd be awesome, man. Thanks for having us. And it's so cool just to be a part of things like this. That's an honor to be asked. So a great conversation with Tim Brown and Rick where that was, I got all the questions answered that I was curious about. I'm glad to hear what he said about the racetrack. It's not really going to be a huge thing. Yeah.

You know, because I know it's a tight, tight little facility. Yeah. And they had beaten the guardrails into this kind of big, broad, you know, bend all the way down both straightaways. And so they had kind of moved the guard rails to where they had. They could use the exit of the corners and so forth the way they wanted to. All that kind of goes away. And the drives will have to make the adjustments, but he doesn't feel like it's going to be that big of a deal. I'm glad for that because not only do we want to have a great clash, we don't want to change really what's been working there, right?

For sure. Yeah. Great story. Tim Brown, Rick Ware, just a good dude. Yeah. There's a lot of details leading up to this event that I did not know about it. Yeah. So I'm thankful for them, and I was sitting here thinking, man, like, here we are championing and supporting and wishing them well as they go to run in the clash, a guy who's never ran a cup race in his life.

But yet, we all have sort of not entirely conflicting opinions, but we all have sort of, we all, we have these, you know, our thought about that 41st spot in the Daytona 500. the two opinions don't really jive. Like, if we can be okay with this, then we ought to be okay with that. No? Is that kind of what I'm drawing from this? I do. I mean, if I can like Tim Brown in the clash,

why can't we all just race? I guess I like, I guess it's just the way you get into it. Like when you word it like it was worded like, this guy's in no matter what. It's like, well, I mean, shouldn't he kind of have to earn that a little bit? Like Tim's still got to go and race is racing. He does. You know what I mean?

Like his, his, his, his inclusion is pretty unique because he's never started a cup race's life. For sure. So, yeah, I think, yeah, I think it's, I think it's exposed a little bit of hypocrisy. Maybe. Maybe a little bit. If you don't like this, then you like that. I'm just looking inward.

Maybe. Am I wrong? I don't know. It's my favorite saying. Well, Tim's is now on the mic. We're going to get into a dirty, a dose segment. What do you think, Tim's? Am I being a bit hypocritical?

I don't oppose Helio. I'm just not like, I'm not all, I'm not embracing it like the Tim Brown, right? I just don't think that maybe the Ilios story doesn't like appeal to you as a true race fan. That's what I think. I don't think you're being hypocritical. I just think you're more. you're more excited for Tim Brown for the opportunity for that than maybe Elio is more of like a fanfare type of thing

you know maybe Tim's is here to talk dirty modeo and before we jump into that we're happy to have fan duel back for us this season fan duel is a great partner I'm certainly enjoying the app itself although my parley crashed in in magnificent fashion your bills I yeah I had my homes

going for over 30 attempts and he fell a little short of that. And Kelsey, I had Kelsey getting more, I had like a seven player parlay, the Holmes 30th passing attempts missed, and Kelsey, I think I had him at five receptions, and that missed. Oh, that had to be close.

I think he had four. Oh, he only had two. Oh, he had four. Or whatever it was. It's not enough. Yeah. He's tough to predict. One game.

But I'm named. But hey, I got the other five, but still, that doesn't matter. Right? And what the hell? You know? How come I couldn't. After my, you know, after my commanders didn't pull it out, I tried to save the night.

Did not work? So we got the sports books win totals for 2025. They've released those. Tim's is here to analyze which bets are smart to take before the Daytona race. And so let's just run through them. Yeah, we got, you know, a lot of teams. teams one is more that I'm interested in right now at the bat. Two I've already bet already. Trackhouse racing is over three and a half wins. It's a plus 120. Anything with a plus number next to it, I love the price.

But if you look at trackhouse, now SVG joins full time and he can win any row course, every row course, to be honest. His number is only one and a half wins. Personally, I think he can win two. He probably could have won two races last year, got passed by Bush on the last lap at Watkins Glen, had the best car in Chicago before he got taken out. So there's your two wins right there. That covers his number and you're halfway there for trackhouse and their win total. And I think Ross had a really down year last year. So if you're looking for positive, you know, a better year for Ross, I think he wins two races. And there you go. You cover that number.

Wow. All right. I mean, you got Hendrick at 11 and a half wins. That's a lot, dude. That's a lot. And I think they won, I think they only won 11 last year, like doing the math, I think, but that's a lot of wins. And that's with Larson having a really good year. Byron had a really good start.

I go under on that one. It's even, the price is minus $1.15 both ways, so I think the books are even, like, not sure about that. Joe Gibbs racing at eight and a half wins. You might think that's low. I thought it was low looking at it, but the only won six times last year. So I feel like that number is high,

and I would bet the under on Joe Gibbs. I just, yeah, I mean, eight and a half wins. The Creechy change with Denny and just everything going on there. I'm not sure exactly what, to expect out of Denny coming into this year. And I think he has to go out there and win about three or four races for this eight and a half to hit. Yeah, and I personally think he won three last year. I think he maybe only wins two.

I think there's a little bit of a step back. I think Christopher Bell wins close to five. Like, I think he's going to take the step up and maybe that offsets that. But then you need one or two from Briscoe and Gibbs. And I mean, Gibbs just disappeared last year. And that makes me nervous. And he is around that kind of 100-star. period where like you know chase elli at kyle larson all won their first race but

that'll be close but i don't think it gets there yeah team penske five and a half i think that sounds pretty good it's low and i don't even think you need to win to hit that right oh man 2311 four and a half wins it's it's all dependent if bubba can win win a race yeah i think tyler can get you three or four but i i think that's under i i do too yeah yeah um rfk two and a half T.J. is not going to like this, but I like the under. What do you think, T.J.? I mean, I can't. I don't agree with him because I feel like we were in position to win other races

last year other than just the plate races, which we were pretty much leading both at Talladega's off of term four. That's another team. That's another operation with a crew chief change, Bragg Zalowski will have a new crew chief this year. Also bringing in priests. So that's going to help our plate racing stuff, I believe, as well. when you have another worker there,

another car to add to the mix to compete with these guys. I think that helps as well. Jeremy Bullens is no stranger to the pit box. He is not. And so, you know, it'll be interesting to see what, you know, what that does to Brad's performance. Yeah.

I got to text from Jeremy first thing and said, hey, I don't have to go on any shows, do I? Honestly, I think I'm going to be bullish on RFK and go. I think they get the three. I would be really surprised if they exceeded that two and a half wins by a lot. but I think they can certainly win the bet. The betting price, they're over two and a half at minus 180. I would not, I hope I'm wrong on this one.

This one is kind of like I'm not positive on, but. Richard Childress Racing at one and a half. I got under. Damn. Holy moly. I mean, I'm not a big Austin Dillon guy. Oh my gosh. But I think he, I don't think Austin wins.

And I think Kyle, I just, I don't know what to expect. Yeah. I really don't. But another one where I'm like, I wouldn't be shocked if Kyle wins two races. Dude, they have Richard Childers Racing and. Spire both one and a half. I don't get the Spire one. A lot of people are very high on Spire and I don't get it.

I don't either. Well, it's because of they're adding pieces, man. They got Rodney over there now. I just have to see it first. I do, too. There's not, there's not, I haven't seen anything that tells me they're like. What driver's ready to win? Winning a race.

McDowell is definitely, he can win any road course, I think. He can win a super speedway. But it's a brand new team. I don't like that. Road course racing's got a lot harder now that we're adding in. Yeah. Now you got Shane in there. and you have Zillich running at times?

It's almost flipped where spires at one and a half and front rows at point five. It should be flipped. Yeah. They got two kind of backwards. Yeah. The price for the under is minus $250, though. So it's almost unbettable.

But I think it hits anyway. I mean, but yeah. Front row, I actually do like the under and front row. I mean, it's a risk. They got some speed, but you have three drivers now without McDowell that really haven't come close to winning. Yeah. And I'll take that bet.

Yeah. Yeah, I'd take the bed on the under on front row and Spire. Yeah. Richard Childers race, you just can't never count out Kyle Busch. You just can't. He could win three in a row. He could. He has to be the most motivated guy out there.

You know, he does not like losing. And he certainly doesn't like breaking streaks. Like that kind of stuff. Yeah. You'll hear the comments where you can tell through what. he's saying that those things matter like to go to to go winless last year

and I think he I think he feels like he's got to go out there and prove it all over again right and so he's going to be super determined I would think Richard Trillers racing gets the two wins needed it could I don't know

this is such a pivotal year he could either this could be the start of like the decline or he can bounce right back and if he bounces back great I just it's all on him, it's a lot of pressure. There's a few drivers are in that boat right now, too. How old is he? What is he, 38?

It's close to 40. It's, it's, it's, it's still, he's got two, he's got two to five years for the decline. You think so? Really is evident. I mean, you just never know, though, because if it does go bad there and they don't have any speed, but they had speed at end of last year. Yeah. So, yeah, I'd be optimistic. I think he can, I think he can do it.

Pretty cool. Well, hey, Tim's, appreciate it. These are pretty cool bets. A lot of fun. I think people can have. a lot of fun with this stuff, all these futures are good to get on board with. The only problem is, man, is that stuff sticks around in your bets forever. Yeah. If you're new to betting and you want to kind of dip your toe, this is a great way

to win totals to do that because you have something on each race. It's just one bet throughout the whole year. But the downside is, you're right, it ties up your money the whole year. It ties up your money the whole year and you're sitting there watching that bet. And then, yeah. So bet the overs. Don't bet the unders. I did a Caitlin Clark average points scored for the year. and just sitting there watching that thing because it's losing all year. Yeah, yeah.

I bet. And I was like, I just want to, you know, go ahead, take it. Yeah, get it off my slip. Get it out of my face. I know it lost. I know it lost. Take it. Yeah. Yeah.

But, all right, man. Again, Fan Duel's back this year with us, supporting us here at Dirtymo Media and for our Dirty Mo Doe segment. Alex Thames, appreciate you coming on. Thanks, guys. Let's get on to Smash Jr. Yes.

We've got a lot of questions, and I'm keeping an eye on the YouTube chat as I know that you guys are as well. This is going to be a shot in the dark, this first one. It's from Rose, and they wanted to know. So they were rewatching the 2012 Daytona 500, like the Juan Pablo Rain Delay. And there was an interview where they asked,

what are you talking about? And you're like, nothing's safe for TV. Do you remember any of the conversations on the backstretch as you're waiting for NASCAR cleaned it up? I, no. There's a lot of questions about, what happened. I think a lot of us were, a lot of us were actually okay if they didn't,

because we were wondering if they were going to call the race. Right. Yeah. And I think, wasn't Dave Blaney leading? He was leading. And then the end in castles up there too. Like it was going to be an unbelievable top of five. There was a conversation of all of us going, is everybody cool if we just say, all right,

man, Dave's the winner. And I think everybody was, everybody, maybe Carl Edwards wasn't okay with that. But I'm shocked. I can't remember who. We were joking, of course. Carl did not think you were joking. No. I'm like, I want a race.

Dave. What do you mean? Dave, way to go. I could have walked out of there. Well, I was fifth or whatever. I don't know. He said, Dave. Carl was like, like, no.

And then, and then, yeah, we had to race to the toilet. Yep. Oh, yeah. Dude. So I didn't think Brad was going to run as fast as he did. I didn't think either one he could run that fast. And he didn't, he was like, I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm like, I kind of got to go.

And so I ran by him and I went, race you. And he took off. And I is like, of course now I've got to beat him because there was all the fans on the back straightaway still. We had this, the grandstands. They were cheering? Yeah. And I got in, I got to the bathroom first. And I got in there and nearly freaking died because I was out of breath.

Oh, oh. Oh, my God. I was like, that was a dumb idea. I thought that's because you had to use the bad. Yeah, I was like, did you get stage fright? No. That was stupid. Just to take off sprinting as hard as you could for no reason.

That was dumb. They need to get back in a race. Yeah. But we got, there's another, Dre in here is asking, could we get Tim Brown on the show? He's a guest today. Tim comes in today. Tim comes in today. Tim came in with Rick Ware, sat down, talked to us about running the Bowman Gray race for the clash.

So, yeah, you're going to get to hear from Tim. Asked him to, one of the things, I mean, this is nothing to do with the clash, but I was like, hey, they changed the track. You know, you're racing the mods there all year long. Are you, you've seen it. You've been out of, you've been to the track, put your feet on it. Is it bad? You're okay with the changes?

You know, the Saferberry takes away about three foot of racetrack. They use every bit of that. That's the width. That's the size of the width of the right side tire. So they're going to have to change their line entirely all the way around the track. We talk about that. Yes. And I was actually, I was at Bowman Gray.

I was going to add this, but I wasn't on a mic. But I was on Bowman Gray. I was there Wednesday, Thursday with Dillner, who knows that place like the back of his hand. He actually said they did a good job. Yeah, we're good. With everything. The wall's not catty wampus. Yeah, but Tim Brown on the show earlier.

Yeah. Next question. Yeah. Yeah, sure. I thought you had them. Yeah. Oh, yeah. No, I do.

I'm just, I don't know. All right. We'll play your network. You want me to get the next question here? Let me scroll there. Andrew, plug your network cable and give us a question. It's almost the weekend, at least. This next question is coming from Ian, and he wants to know what your dad's daily driver was.

Dad would get a Chevrolet pickup most times that he drove, a Silverado, extended cab. Um, that's what he drove, you know, in probably the last five or ten years of his life. Um, and before that, I remember, um, now I had some old cool square body trucks back in the 80s when I first moved in. Um, that would be freaking awesome today, you know, when we were, when they were back then, it was like, yeah, it's just a truck. But, um, square bodies are pretty big these days. but I remember Teresa always getting these, or dad always having these big station wagons for Teresa to drive around. And they had the wood decaleled wood paneling on the side.

Like this Christmas movie. Oh, yeah. The lampoos like that? Yeah. Wow. Yeah. So we had a couple of those Chevroletes. Are those the first cars you remember riding in as a kid?

No. I remember my first the first thing I remember riding in was my mom 78 Monte Carlo nice yeah I remember laying to I to think about it today we drive around we drive around in my truck which is relatively safe and I am like making sure that the girls are buckled in perfectly five point harness and I was all you know I sit up straight it doesn't you know your restraint doesn't work if you're laying down you know because she'll be laying it over and playing with her sister and I'm like quit it and ma'am you know me the guy that was riding around laying down in the floorboard or the

back seat of mom 78 Monte Carlo just being a dump you know being a complete imbecile cigarette lighters and stuff to play with I mean yeah you don't even know anything about that probably but what the cigarette lighters in the bat all the every car back then had yeah oh yeah I mean you ever touch one yeah you can burn yourself any minute oh yeah I did I did the light of the lighters in the car the push in the back push in the back push in the Lighter. Really? I am I guess.

When it popped out, it would be glowing. I touched it. I was stupid. I mean, wow. You burn yourself all the time. I did. But one time they left me and Kelly in the car and went inside and me and Kelly knocked Kelly knocked a car in gear and we ended up rolling down a hill.

What? Yeah. Me and Kelly, we told that story on here a long time ago, but we ended up rolling down a a hill. This was in the 70s when mom and dad were still together. And we ended up rolling down a hill, just kind of rolled to, bumped into a building or rolled to a stop. Nothing crazy.

but they came found run down there and what do you mean I just bumped into a building nothing crazy I'm in the floorboard you just rolled down a hill into a building

yeah I'm like two or three years old and I'm down in the floorboard the car and Kelly's somewhere with a lighter with a lighter cigarette lighter

but nothing crazy just hit a building I don't know what we hit damn it geez my story I'm just saying that's what happened

were you scared I'd be nervous Did you guys realize, like, oh, crap, we just, like, I was, I don't remember this. I was two, three. Oh. I don't, you, I don't remember anything. I can, far back as I can. You just know this happened.

Oh, okay. Like, what's the earliest you can remember? I was asking, I was asking Ila this the other day. I was like, Ila, what's the earliest you can remember? She goes, I remember meeting my babysitter for the first time when I was a baby. I'm like, no, you don't. There's no way. Yeah, you call her out on it?

Yeah. I'm like, no. I was like, Do you remember what you wore for Halloween when you were two? And she's like, no. Yeah. It doesn't go back as far as I would. I've done the same thing.

And they don't, like, they can remember detail of, like, thing. Like, it's annoying, but then, like, they don't remember that stuff. You ever think, like, both of your guys' children, like, oh, is this going to be a core memory for them? Like, we're doing this. Like, is this something. Apparently he had one. Remember. Yeah.

Yeah, you had a core memory. I don't remember that. I just know who have heard about it. The one thing, the furthest back I can go is my fourth birthday. For some reason, I remember that. And I don't know whether it's actual, and it's, I don't remember, I don't know whether it's an actual memory or it was something I was told and I now remember. Yeah, I mean?

Yeah. It's like you kind of can picture the, like, details, but it's very vague. Super vague. Really bad. Mine is a birthday, too, for some reason. Something about birthdays. I think I'm right around four. At three, we had a, I'm not going to go.

We had a goat when I was really little. and it would, I was too, it would knock me over. Wait, you had a goat? No, yeah, we're not going to talk about that. No, no, no, no, no, no. We got to talk about T.J.'s goat. All right, fine. We'll go to the next question.

I don't remember Annie's name. They want to know more about the goat, T.J. I don't remember Annie's name. I mean, no, I remember that goat, and I hated that goat. So why? Why did you hate that? Because it would knock the shit out of me. Oh, yes.

Hey. Goats will do that. Yeah. Yeah, he's had goats to have done that. Are you still afraid of the goats? We. Yeah. Do you remember when we had goats?

Yes, I wouldn't get in that pen and club with them rocks. So we donated the million dollars to the Victory Junction, and they gave us two goats. And I had a little pen made for them. We put some big rocks in there, and they would hop up on them rocks. Staying right next to you and be like, look at you. Dude, it was hilarious. They would just got to be standing there doing completely nothing. and all of a sudden one would just go,

bam, and hit the other one in the hand. You're like, holy crap. And they were just doing that shit of fun, you know? Yeah. That was much better than when you got the buffalo, and we ran out to the barn, and we climbed up in the middle there, and then we're on the other side if you went over there.

Yeah. You took off running and left me in there. That was funny. That wasn't funny. I mean, well. Call Mitch and get over and get these buffalo. I was like, yeah. Yeah.

I ran. So there's a barn in the middle. of the field. I took, I said, TJ, let's go to the barn. We get in there and go to the barn. And did we call the buffalo over? They come running over there because they're going to feed them. Yeah. Oh, okay. And then I ran out and jumped the fence, which is about 50, 60 yards away. He left him. He just took off. We would go from one side in the middle there and they would run around. They would run around to the other side. And I was scared. They will chase your ass. Yeah, and probably what will have. Trample you. They would just send you like what the goat did to

TJ. They would send you like a bull. Or just trample you with thousands of pounds they weigh. You would hope that you get sent like a bull instead of getting trampled. Yes. Yes. That was one of those experiences that you remember. One of them is really, really rude. One of the buffalo is really rude.

Oh, really rude. How so? If you go up to the fence, it like, it like flinches at you. Yeah. Like if you, yeah, if you go up to the fence, it'll be like, hey. I'll come. through here, you know. You want Dave Blaney win?

But it says it in like a female buffalo voice, whichever, whatever that sounds like. But it's not, they're all female. Okay. Yeah. They're intimidating. They are. The buffalo are very intimidating.

But you know what's interesting is, the mean one of the younger girls. So we got two pair. We got this one pair long, long time ago, and then another younger pair came. The rude one is one of the younger girls. And when she acts up, The older ones put them in line.

Put her in check. Yeah. They don't like her being rude. We've seen them do it. Like, you know, it's pretty cool. Yeah. That is pretty neat. Travis wanted me to say,

TJ's that why you're so afraid of Patrick Mahomes. Because he's a goat. That's hilarious. Oh, my God. Who's Travis? I'm glad it ain't. He ain't talking about my commanders. Who's Travis?

That's right. Oh, that team the lost in Michigan. Right, yeah. All right. You just don't bring that one back. This next question is coming from Dan. Does the college football league ever get out of hand? Not really.

Not yet. It's rolling along. Normal. We're waiting on a... We're supposed to have a couple other members joining here pretty soon. If I don't want to... Wait? Remember?

Who? Oh. Well, if Noah or... Zillich will ever get an Xbox. Noah and Zillich said that they were going to co-own a team. Yeah. Co-own? Or she can co-own a team? Well, I mean, you could, but I wouldn't want to do that, but

I wouldn't want to do it, but if you and Travis wanted to co-own, he could play some of the games. You can play some of the games. Wait, I might be interested now. Why? Just play the games. Travis says he's not interested. Can me and my roommate join? Yes. Co-own. Oh. Travis would hate the league because Michigan would dominate him. Yeah. Okay. It doesn't matter

who plays your games. Have you ever had to kick anyone out? No. of the college league. But of what? Madden League I did back in the day. Who? I kicked Brad out. Killedlowski out.

Yeah. Best man in his wedding. Brad was the... Yeah, I had to kick Brad out. Your own best man. Why did you kick Brad out? Because he had it down. He, like Brad and everything, he's so smart with everything.

He knew exactly how many yards he needed with every player to get the bumps and all that stuff back in the day. He would catch the kickoff and run out of bounce of the two-yard line to have a 98-yard drive instead of a 80-yard drive. And every player, like, he was like, he gained the system. Yes, very much. Brad was, yeah, super smart at it. So we actually had Brad in for business motorsports.

I heard. And Brad has talked about it. We'll play the clip here. Are you in any of his Madden or NCAA leagues? Not anymore. No. No. You know, he may be mad one time.

He kicked me out of his Madden League. I forgot about that one. Yeah. He kicked me out of his league for beating him too much. That's that. Not true, though. Haters going to hate it. That's not true.

It's not true. Let me, I'll leave it at this. The first time me and Brad played in the Super Bowl, we were in the third quarter, and I just went down to field and scored. He did something, and it was bad for him. And he gets two delay a game penalties in a row. And I paused the game, and I'm like, dude, if you get one more, it's going to kick you out.

And he literally texts back. He says, sorry, I don't have any more remotes left because he was breaking all of his remotes. And those pieces, when he lived out there by you, I went over there, and there's pieces of Xbox remotes and, like, all the corners of the rooms and stuff. Like, we get so mad. The Lions did win a couple of Super Bowls. I think the Bills won five back then. So we had trophies and everything.

Maybe we should do that for the college league. Yeah. It's pretty fun. It is fun. It's entertaining. I hope they make the game better for next year and we can continue it. I could get into my, I could get into my level of preparation for.

Let's hear it. Oh, you don't listen. What is this a whole thing? No, no. Dale wants to talk about it. Well, let's talk about it. It's in depth here. I have a spreadsheet on my phone right here of the plays.

And players. So I got a- Oh, so he's like Brad Kissier-Skey. No, no, no. I got a spreadsheet of all of my run plays. Their average yards per use, pass plays, RPO's, screens. Come on. Look at it.

I have. There it is. Oh, my God. And it's, I have, it's like, okay, this plays, these are the plays used on first down, second and short, third and short, fourth and short. second medium and so forth. And then I have another spreadsheet that has my depth chart, all my offensive players and whether they are impact or not.

Look at DJ. Impact star, elite. And then my, then my scouting and commitments in terms of recruiting. Wow. Yeah. So when you're at each play, are you just like scrolling through like,

no, no, no. He's got them set. I don't have to scroll. Oh, you just know. I built my own playbook that suggests. to me, the play that I won't suggested to me. For that situation. For that moment.

And he's literally in that into the game? Yeah. He's literally coach on the sideline holding that sheet that has all the scenarios ready to go. So if I am at like a second medium, I have the plays suggested to me that I want for that scenario. Wow. He's really gunning hard since he lost national championship. Yeah. Have you won anything?

I made it to the championship game for the first time last season. We're in season five. I forget who won that one. For him? It was a good game, though. Actually, we had a good game. I'm Charlotte. He's Michigan.

I'm Charlotte. He's Michigan. He's built this team up. They are not, they are not like, Charlotte we think of. And he won't change conferences to play higher people. So he plays Army and Navy every year. I like my conference. I would too.

I'm going to make the American Coast Conference an elite conference. We're not going to jump out of another, to go to a different conference? I'm going to get it to where you're going to get it to where. Michigan's going to go, I need to be in that America. I don't think so. I don't think so. I moved Wyoming. I have two teams.

I have Wyoming as well. And I moved them into the SEC for a better, for a tougher schedule. And they are now playing in the second round of the college playoffs. It's fun, though. It's good. It's his preparations. I have to prepare like that to keep it fun. I am a data notes.

Like when I was biking all the time and, you know, I would compete again. I go run the same route on my bike. I would come home and, like, spend an hour looking at the data to see how I did in each segment, right? Yeah. How my watch. I got that's what makes me go do it, right? Is the data and the, and, yeah, just sitting down and playing the game, that shit is going to get old. I go biking with him.

I come back and just try not to die. You use Zwift, right? Yeah. You ever race your ghost? Right. Ghost person. Yeah. Yep.

I couldn't. I probably wouldn't. enjoy that now because my 17, my 2017 self was about two mile an hour faster. Yeah, he goes, come over, we'll go for a short bike ride. Like, I'm thinking like five miles at most because we're going like 16 miles that day. That is a short bike ride. Not for your first time ever. Oh, yeah.

No. Because like, bring your mountain bike. It'll be good too. I'm like, no. God. Yeah. But anyway, I got to do the, I got to do all of that to keep me motivated to keep doing it. Nice.

Well, that is a good place to wrap. Really? Yes. I was told the rap. Why, I mean, you took a couple of time up in the beginning. Oh. Okay, yeah, that's right. That's right, because we wanted to talk about, okay, let me find the name here.

Okay, I can't find the name. But it is about rookie stripes. Thoughts on rookie stripes going away. I was surprised that I learned that the same way everybody else did through Ryan Williams, who is one of our designers here at Gina Motorsports. He busted that wide open on the internet. Yeah, I was, you know, you don't, I don't, it shook me up there for a second because it's such a cool tradition. And a lot, I saw, you know, of course, I listened to the conversation on social media.

And a lot of people are going, well, it's not necessary now. You know, the drivers, they kind of know who everybody is. It's not for the drivers. It was for us. It was for me and you. And so when in today's in today's NASCAR, where the fields are a bit smaller and the amount of cars that actually show up to try to qualify a race

or are kind of at the lowest marks that they've been in quite some time, we don't have much of a robust rookie battle. There's some that kind of come and go. And so I get why it's kind of not quite as necessary as it used to be. Am I, you know, is, am I, am I noticing that yellow stripe on the back of the cars like I used to? No. And so, but in this, in like 1980, for example, when you went to the Daytona 500, they were probably 70 to 80 cars trying to qualify for the Daytona 500.

multiple 20, 25 rookies maybe, right? Lots of rookies, right? A dozen or more. That was when it was necessary, right? Not only for fans, but drivers as well. And it was extremely necessary back then. So it's kind of changed in terms of what purpose it served. But man, I just, you know, I hate, I don't, I don't hate to be the guy.

some traditions what's wrong with them right i mean that that that was just a thing yeah they didn't have to go away yeah if it ain't broke like it's not hurting anybody i think it was more like you if you lost your rookie stripe it was because you earned you earned a rookie anymore like hey i've got that season under my belt now like you kind of i don't know like with it it's yeah i don't know i kind of like it's kind of a neat tradition that was a right of passage or yeah to your point tj it was kind of cool to get that rookie stripe off your bumper you earned it And then there's this cool picture of AJ Foyt. I think in 1981, 82 or whatever,

he went to Darlington to try to qualify for the Southern 500 and had to go through the rookie orientation, or there was a story about that. There's a picture of his car with a rookie stripe on the back. I don't know, man. It's not a big deal. I'm totally going to forget about it. Five laps into the Daytona 500, I'm not going to give a crap.

Is there even a rookie of the year much anymore? there are some years where the battle is quite entertaining it's going to be SVG last years was good last years was I think yeah Hosebar yeah yeah um you know kind of wish that got more Barry got out there into a leave and Hosebar kind of ran him down I kind of wish it was that was I mean celebrated yeah like yeah because it was a big deal like I mean to me I think that when people not so much fans but like when the industry execs and so forth get excited about a particular rookie. You've got a guy like Chase Elliott or William Byron or somebody coming in

that's already kind of an established name. Then it's celebrated. Then it's advertised. Then it's talked about. But last year's rookie crop wasn't very, you know, maybe not that much of an exciting one going into the year, but it turned out to be a pretty competitive race and a fun one to pay attention to.

But, yeah. I just kind of thought it was a good, I mean, especially like at the Xfinity and the truck level. Oh, it's kind of a kind of, it's an identifier, you know, and it's kind of a big deal when you rip those rookie stripes off. You go from Chucks. Yeah. If you go from Chucks to Exfinity and your rookies there, to me, if you should carry it to the Cup series, and then when you're there and you establish it, you lose it. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, the word you're, I think you said it in the YouTube chat, Pamela, LD Show, peaceful Tim are all saying it's tradition, you know? Yeah. That's what's important. You know, you can't lose it. some of that identity I agree and and things like that why do you yeah why do you didn't have to go away didn't have to go away didn't have to no yeah yeah it's fine well right that's good place and I know the YouTube chat they were you know they're like oh where are the questions I screenshot a lot of the ones that I see in the YouTube chat so if you

didn't hear it today just keep stay tuned for the next couple because I put in a big folder but that's a good place to endash junior this week Yeah, appreciate everybody. You've been fun watching the chat. I think I'm going to do this for every show. We should all have it up. It is fun. All right, it's time for the White Flag.

Great show, T.J. Appreciate you being here, pal. Looking forward to this year, man. You ready? I'm ready, man. Today was a good kickoff. Thanks. We'll be tap it on Tuesdays.

Yeah, we'll try Tuesdays from here on out and I'll be on time. Dale, are you good because you made fun of me for... I have whatever you got. Whatever you had going on now. I've got it. Oh, boy. Just cough, though. you're like trying to hold it.

I'm not trying to get it out. Just let it go. Like, I'm going to bring you guys cough. I'm afraid if I cough, I might fart at the same time. Are you at that age where you don't know if it's a fart or you're going to be it?

There, I'll just let it out. Farted. There you go. Farted on the show. You're happy? This is not the first time. It's the only time I've ever told you I've done it.

I was trying not to fart with T.J. I'm trying to fart with T. All right. Wait, wait, so you'll. And we're live. All the shows are coming back on February the 2nd. Tear down, door bumper clear. Freddie Kraft, Tommy Baldwin, Carsonel is the new lineup for door bumper clear.

I can't wait to see how that show does this year. Action is detrimental with Denny Hamlin is back again. We're excited about that. Thank you, Danny, for coming back for another year. I know you having fun. Dale Jr. Download with Dirty Air, me and T.J. Also, our guest show on Wednesday, and Herman Schrader are going to be back. They're having a good time doing their show.

and I'm excited about that. And Speed Street with Conner Daly and Chase Holden. So that's going to be, I wanted to say Carson Daly for some reason. Isn't that weird? I mean, isn't that weird? Let's see if he can do a show. I wonder if he, I bet he gets that a lot. Now, Connor Daly is going to be running in the end car full time this year, which is really, really cool.

When he's in the car, he brings so much insight to the show. And he does not mind sort of talking about. know, the ends and outs of the drama going on in the IndyCar world. And there's a big excitement around IndyCar. And he does a good job. He gets all the other drivers that join on. He does. He does.

And Fox is putting out some promos. Good ones. Yeah, so I'm saying. So there's going to be some good content on Speed Street this year. But there's more. We're dropping some big news on Wednesday that you'll want to keep an eye out for. It's about the Thursday show. That's all I can say.

This is killing you, isn't it? Not really. I'm excited about it, and I'm looking forward to this year. We've got a lot of great things. We did some retooling a little bit in offseason. It happens from time to time. But I, you know, I'm getting up for it, man. I'm pumped.

Today was fun. Everybody was involved. You know, I've really, really enjoyed the group that we got and like how we all have a lot of great chemistry, and it seems like everybody enjoys each other. So this could be a really, really, really fun year for myself, but for Dirty Mo Media as a whole. And then January 29th at 7 p.m.

The Driven to Give 400. Mm. All right. I'm pumped about that. It's an online race. We're taking the many stocks to Iowa, 400 laps. This championship event will feature drivers from Junior Murder Sports, including 2024 Xfinity Series champion Justin Allgaier,

Josh Barry, Tony Kannon, all kinds of other guys are going to be participating, recognizable names. But basically, we're talking to. taking, you know, 400 laps. We'll get four drivers per car. So me and you, TJ, are sharing a car with Landon Huffman and Stephen.

And we're each going to run 100 laps and then switch drivers. It's good we're on the same team because I would wreck, me and him would wreck with each other. We would. Me and Landon would hit each other as well. We're terrible. We are. It will be streamed exclusively on Twitch. Is there pressure to win this? No pressure.

It's all for charity. I'm wrecking. We're raising some really, really good money. This is doing really, really good numbers in terms of the money it's going to raise to just be having some fun on eye racing. This is the first annual, right? Yes, we've never done this. So, you know, drivers might

go out and do golf tournaments and other things like that. We have a lot of events that we do it throughout the year, but this is the first time. I didn't know we could actually raise money. This is cool because you can get people from around the world. You don't have to get them to come out to an event. I think you pay $100 as a driver to enter, to be a part

of a team. And And yeah, we'll see how it does. And if we need to adjust that number or what have you to go forward, you can buy, some people weren't quite understand how to take this part. You can buy a black flag and a caution like you can black flag somebody or have someone back black flag. Say somebody gets a really big lead. We can pay. I'm glad I'm on your team. We can pay to have them black flag.

What's the pay? $500. Oh, everybody's black flag. It's really steep. Bill it to him. I was going to black flag Stephen. You'd need to get some, you know, you might want to get Tony Kannon to do that. He likes to do that.

I was in another charity race with him last year where they were buying black flags. And I bought a couple. I mean, it's just for, it's for charity. And so if we need a yellow, somebody needs yellow at a certain point in a race, a bunch of field back up. There may be a, you know, $500 donation coming across. You know I'm wrecking Tony, though. Because remember he wrecked me in that race.

Don't wreck, because then he's going to wreck one of us when we're driving the car. Well, that's fine. No. So, anyhow, it's going to be a lot of fun. it is really going to be a good time and I don't get too been out of shape

about the end result. We're just going to have some fun. We've been testing the car. It's a good little combination between the mini stock and Iowa. And then obviously, before we go, I wanted to mention the car store. New River Valley All-American Speedway

is the first race of the year on March 1st, 7 p.m. on flow. The car store west kicked off this past weekend with Harvick, running second to his teammate Dawson Sutton. So the Cars Tour West and East Are starting to get their seasons going And March 1st for the Cars Tour series

Here on the East Coast On Flow Racing at 7 p.m. I'll be tuning in. I'm not running in that one. I've got about four races I'm going to run this year. We'll keep you abreast on everything going on there. The first one I think is April 12th at Cordell And yeah, that's the show.

We're good? Everybody good? We're good. All right, we'll see you. See you. Go, Bills.