The Dale Jr. Download - 60 wins, Who’s to Blame, Selfish Racing & 2 Beer

Episode Date: October 17, 2025

The Dirty 30 brings you the best 30 minutes from Dirty Mo Media every Friday — the funniest, wildest, and most jaw-dropping highlights from your favorite shows. This week Denny Hamlin reacts to getting his 60th career Cup win and why he was so emotional.On Door Bumper Clear, they break down what exactly happened between Ty Dillon and William Byron. And, who is to blame.On Dale Jr. Download, Dale and TJ discuss the art of racing at Talladega and when to help a teammate and when to do what’s best for your own race.And finally in the guest show, Dale sits down with Kevin Pennell who everyone calls "Two Beer". But how exactly did he get that nickname? He finally explains the origins. And for more content, check out our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMediaReal fans wear Dirty Mo. Hit the link and join the crew.👇https://shop.dirtymomedia.com/FanDuel: Must be 21+ and present in select states (for Kansas, in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino) or 18+ and present in D.C. First online real money wager only. $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets which expire 7 days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut, or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit GamblingHelpLineMA.org or call [phone] for 24/7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPENY in New York. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey everybody, I'm Dillon Hart Jr. And this is The Dirty 30. The best highlights from all of our podcast this week, 30 minutes every single Friday. The Dirty 30 coming at you. Let's get right to it. Hey, guys, welcome to Actions Detrimental Post Las Vegas, the first race of the round of eight. We'll come home with a dub. Did you think that that race was winnable with 15 to go?

Mm-mm. Well, that's not. true. When I got clear of that wreck and went from starting ninth, the wreck happened. Now I'm sixth on the outside and now I'm behind a four tire car. I thought the key moment was Brad. There's a lot of key moments. Brad was on two. I didn't want to start in the same lane as him because I thought that, you know, I was going to have to go three wide on him to get around them. That likely breaks my momentum. I'm likely to get freight trained one way or another.

When he chose the lane he chose, it now put me sixth on the outside. I'm behind Larson. He's behind two tires. I got Brad on the inside of Larson with two tires, and it's like, okay, now me and him are going to be the only guys on offense here. Like, we should be rolling. And I was really surprised that Larson didn't get a better restart. We took off there.

I gave him a push. I was pretty close. I really wasn't on his bumper much. He actually was off the 22 way more than I thought. Both lead at both first and second. I feel like had a gap. Yeah. And at that point,

I was able to get to the outside of him. Now, I didn't end up gaining any positions from that, but it just, that allowed me to kind of feel my car out and some clean air and realized that this thing had superpowers. Now that you've had 24 hours,

What's 60 mean to you? Huh. I mean, I just never thought. Like when on NASCAR's post, social posts, and it was like win one, and then the ticker went until it was like win 27. Like the 2016 Daytona 500 was win 27? Have we won so many races in the last nine years? Like that's a lot.

We're now at 60. In 2016, Daytona 500 was win 27. I mean, we've gotten hot lately. And it's just they rack up quickly. It's crazy because as a driver, and we expect to win so much that I feel like, if we go four or five weeks without winning, it feels like a freaking eternity.

But it's hard to win. And, you know, if you can average three and a half, four wins a year they just tally up really really quickly and um for me personally what does it mean it's like i still feel like when i look at the names on the list that i'm now a part of for the top 10 i feel like my name does stick out um as not one of the greats of the sport you know i i see the names i'm like oh these are the legends of the sport these are the people that grew the sport We're just the best, the best. And then, you know, lots of them are guys that I raced against in my era.

And so I knew how good they were. It's just very gratifying that I was able to still race at a high level this long into my career. You're usually very stoic. You don't show too much emotion. but it got to you when you won. What was that? It just been such a buildup, I think, around the number. It was, you know, obviously, you know, some home stuff going on and really happy that my dad is able to see 60.

you know because him and my mom just had so much sacrifice that they endured to keep me going you know to keep their son's dreams alive like this it just were so selfless and and you could argue reckless and keeping this thing alive but it's it's just like working and getting a trophy like that that's what makes you really proud is that you know that this all paid off it all paid off in the end did it make it any sweeter that it felt as if the fans also appreciated it yes yes you went from being the most booed driver and driver intros yesterday to the most celebrated at the end when you were driving your car through that you know up to victory lane right there's fans on both sides of the barrier. It just felt like a big moment that they all appreciated.

I mean, I truthfully was really surprised not to hear booze from the crowd after the race. Like usually it's just a given. I'm going to get, you know, usually the fans in general after the race, you're going to get, even if they're not fans of you, people always just get cheers because it's the end and, you know, it's the winner. but all of my post-race interviews when I get out of the car at the start-finish line, it is, you know, it's 50-50, you know, I think. I just, I'm sure there were some booze, but I didn't hear them. I just didn't hear them at all. I thought it was all really positive. And it truthfully was before I said anything. So I don't think I influenced it in that kind of way. So yeah, it makes me very humbled and very appreciative of the fans to do that because it certainly meant a lot for me personally.

That was a big accomplishment for myself, a life accomplishment, a life goal in this sport in my profession. And for them to kind of give me that moment, I really appreciate that. But also, you know, the fans in the stands don't get to see what. was on the broadcast, you know, you tearing up in your car on that cool down lap. Like people watching on TV, they're all privy to that. But the fans in the stands don't see that. So it just, I don't know. Yeah.

You know, they don't know how you're feeling in the moment until you get out of it. Right. And I felt like they had already felt good about it. Yeah, I mean, I went back and watched and like, thank goodness my shield was down. Like, y'all didn't see the heavy stuff. The heavy stuff came down far before I raised that shield. I was a wreck. The entire last lap and then cool down lap was just, I was a mess.

And so when I finally pulled myself together is when I raised my shield. So yeah, it's just, I don't know, sometimes it just, it hits you. What was that conversation like when you talked to your dad? Yeah, I mean, he's just so proud of me. I mean, I don't know what to say. I don't want to come off super soft in this. That's not me. But it's great because, you know, he always, you know, sends me messages and stuff after the race.

And, you know, we have sometimes we have phone calls that, you know, talk about it. and he's always got questions, but either way, it's like, he's always like, you're the best, you're the best. He's, he's my number one hype man when it comes to, uh, to confidence. And so, um, yeah, he just always says how proud he is. And certainly, uh, I'm, I'm so happy that, uh, he was able to see all those wins. What did your mom say when you got home here today? She's just super excited, really, really excited. Uh, I came home. The kid, had some confetti poppers ready to go and my mom was videotaping it and whatnot. So she just came, give me a big hug.

You know, just that's kind of what my mom does. Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome to another episode of Door Bumper Clear where we're all or some of us are running on very little sleep. Some of us because they stayed up too late studying notes. Some of us because we were flying back forward. I think, I don't know, you may, you may be the most rested person here. But I am still Freddie Craft, I think.

spotter for Bubba Wallace, spot for Dean Thompson this week. Joining me as always, Thomas. How are you today? Good morning. I feel good. I got a little toothache, but... You had an interesting remedy for your toothache. You were just telling us.

Just drink a bottle of tequila. Not a bottle. No, no, no. No. Carson, I don't know where the hell Carson is today. Who knows? I forget where she took off to. But Stephanie Odie has joined us.

I don't know what the hell you did to get thrown to the wolves like this. Speaking of how the hell did you get here? Mike Ford. Where did you come home? How the hell did this happen? How did I end up here right now? That is the question. This is as I know Lee D.Fa, I was catching up on episodes, sort of get my bearings.

And surreal is maybe not the word I use. Completely bad-shy crazy might be the word. Hi, Dylan. The communication mishap. Who was miscommunicated? What exactly happened? So it was about 31 laps to go. Ty Dillon's slowing down, getting into pit road, and then massive slam.

Obviously, William Byram did not see him signal or anything. He said that he didn't hear anything. And then you see Ty saying that he told his spotter to tell William Spotter that, but he didn't get any signal. So do you think that Williams' frustration was warranted, or should he have been more aware of the cycle? So before you go, I'm so excited for this conversation.

This is, I think, in the NASCAR podcast power rankings on this discussion, door bumper clears P1. So can you, instead of just answering that question, like, just do a deep dive on how this all works because I think it's fascinating of, like, what is the spotter's role when someone pits? And it's just everything that goes into it because that was the one kind of like just thing that was hanging out there yesterday at the end of the race that no one really understood how to answer. for it too. So, you know, in this moment, you know, so I think one of two things happened here. And there's a lot of stuff that happens up there that, you know, it happens quick. Like, I know that the spotter of the 10 basically had a half a lap to communicate. They was, they made the call to pit as he basically passed a start finish line. For the record, Freddie, they were terrible. They were awful. They were old. They were the, by far the slowest car out there at that time. Yeah, by far. And they were like the first ones to pit every time. So they were usually ended up on the oldest tires, late in runs. So whatever, he gets the call to pit.

Now, what happens in our world is we will try to run down to the guy. Like, if this is me, if I'm spotting the 10, I will try to run down to the guy and let him know, hey, tap him on the shoulder. I'm pitting this time. The leader or whoever is behind us. It's usually whoever is behind you or maybe the next two guys behind you just to let them know. So you could be talking to multiple people. You can be talking to multiple people. You know, but it's tough.

Like where these two guys stood, they're very far apart on the roof. So I don't know that the spot or the 10 had time to go down there. He may have sometimes you just kind of step back, get on the, get on a stool and get up and wave and tell him like a lot of times you're like we or you just have a guy hanging over the rail. Tommy, you've seen this before where you just got you're hanging over the railing waving your hand. Like that that's a signal to pit. But sometimes you can like if you're too separated, you can't see that. So you try to go down to the guy. And I think one of two things happened here.

Either he didn't have time to go down there and was trying to wave from his spot hoping that he would see him. and Brandon obviously never saw him. You know, there's pretty obvious the 24 had no idea that the 10 was pitting. The other problem is it's possible that in this moment we also communicate as a lap down car. Like if the leader's catching us or lead lap car is catching us, I'll look at somebody and say, I am going to the top or I am going to the bottom. And it's all hand signals. We're not really talking because it's probably a distance between this.

So there's very possible, like my hand signals and I'm going to have to change these now, but my hand signals for pitting and I'm going to. going to the bottom are the same. Like if I look down at something like this and I go like that, that means I'm pitting. I'm coming this time. Usually if they look there right behind me or whatever, they'll know, especially if it's for a bad off position. But it's possible that the spot of the 10

did like pitting. Because it wasn't time to pit yet. No, no, he was right? There was no, we weren't in a pit cycle. And yeah, so he, when he does this, you hear the spotter of the 24 tell William that the 10's going to run the second or third lane because I think that maybe if he did see a hand signal saying down, he might have thought that he was going to give him the bottom. Like, you're going to get the bottom here. And that was the message that got relayed.

You know, I don't know that that's what happened, but it could have happened. You know, where that can be easily confused with I'm pitting or you're going to, you go to the bottom. And it's just like it says here, miscommunication is the best term for it because I don't know. Obviously nothing was done maliciously.

And I kind of, Ty, would be the one I maybe put the most fault on just because he didn't execute. his entry very well. He ends up sliding off the bottom. You know, sometimes you see a guy. When you have a car that's handling that bad, it looks like that all the time. How many times you guys up there when a car is really slow and it's just all over the racetrack? And it's all over. Well, sometimes you can't even slow it down well enough to get to Pitt Road, you know? And he was, I think at the time he was over a, he was a second and a half off the pace. Yeah. I just think that we got to the, he got to the point there when you got, I think he heard in his interview, like, it was almost relieved that that took him out of the race because they were so bad. But, you know, in that moment, like, it happened a day before, no, that in that race with, you know, we were running down the back stretch and Charles made the call to pit and priest was right behind us. And I knew I didn't have time to get the priest's guy. So I told Bubba, I'm like, you really have to let priest know you're coming here, which they do in all the ways. You see him wave out the window. You'll see him wave out the window. You'll see him swerve back and forth down the back straight away. That's kind of a signal to the guy behind you that I'm coming to pit road here.

And I didn't see any of that at a tie. You know, so it's, you can blame the spotter if you want, but a lot of it's on you as well. You got to execute, like if, if, I think if William sees tie slowing down on the white line. I like to see when they told them the pit, though. They told Ty to pit about the start, finish line. Oh, the lap before. Oh, my God. Yeah.

So they had about a lap, the three-quarters of a lap to figure it out. But it was, yeah, I mean, it's just unfortunate. But, you know, I think Ty could have done a lot to help there. And you know that these guys are by. You know, you know, like, what's going on around you, but I think Ty was probably just really frustrated to how his day was going. And so going off that great question. The next question is, do you guys now this weekend get together and talk about that as spotters?

Yeah. Like, do all you guys go, man, what do we need to do differently? We talked about it on the roof yesterday because obviously the 24 spotter was, was pretty heated at the 10 spotter. And, you know, at the moment, it's like, hey, let's everybody calm down. You know, let's, we don't know what happened. Can you go into details on what? I didn't hear it.

I couldn't really hear it. There were kind of a few people down from me. I saw two of them get heated yelling at each other. Then I saw somebody else. Tyler Green kind of went in and defused the situation and said, hey, man, this guy, you don't know that he did anything wrong. You know, I don't know what happened. I wish I knew that he went down there or didn't, you know.

And like I said, I know it's there's literally, there's probably 25 people between the two of them on the roof. So it's hard to get down there to them. There's bags. There's everywhere on the roof nowadays. Wires, cables. Yeah. Monitors.

The amount. of monitors and iPads up there is driving me insane. But So do you guys now will go through your council? Like how does that? Do you got? Yeah. So I mean, we won't for that. We won't. We'll just, we have as group chat that we'll all talk about. But like I said, it's probably something that's very specific to that moment. Just a miscommunication between those two where it was very obvious to the 24 did not know

that the 10 was pitting. And we have to figure out what what the spot or the 10 could do better to let that know or to let him know or the driver of the 10. Whoever really dropped the ball there because obviously, you know, this changes a lot of things as far as we, you know, the playoffs are concerned. Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. download. And I am remote today. Kids are on fall break.

So we go to Talladega. There's an opportunity for Denny to be a good teammate. You know, Denny can be calculative on what he wants to do, who he wants to help, who he doesn't want to help, right? I think that's a pretty neat spot to be in if you're Denny Hamlin. other drivers in the final are still kind of racing to get in right you have you have you got I mean we know kind of Blaney in those guys what they have to do but you got you know Byron at minus 15 Larson's at plus 35 he's a pretty good he's in a pretty good situation he just doesn't need to crash out but Byron and Chase Elliott 5 minus 15

minus 23. What's going to be the protocol with teammates? Because we know in the past there's been a lot of manufacturer orders. There's been a lot of teammate orders. We've seen that fade away a little bit. It's not quite as big of a part of Super Speedway racing as it used to be. Now it's more about fuel mileage and so forth. But kind of what's the attitude if you're a teammate to another driver in the chase going into this race?

I mean, I think this is a whole different This is a scenario that we really haven't seen in a while As far as heavy hitters Needing to make up some ground like Joey and and and Blaney here Normally they're in the plus at this point Or you know have been in the plus and they're in a good spot Now you got two A's that need to be that need to win this race And now that changes

To me it changes the whole thing you know how like how these guys now have to race each other you've got five championships below the cut line right now yeah yeah that's it's a whole different scenario in my opinion yeah i'm interested how they work with each other now well if i was the um if i was the driver of any of those cars i would just tell um i would just tell everybody like i'm you know i'm gonna try to do what i can to be a good teammate when that's possible but i can't i'm not going to do any anything that I think is detrimental to me, even losing one position. So I'll race and be a good teammate, but I will not do a thing that's going to cost me a spot.

I always want to be moving forward and trying to be at the front of the field and leading every lap. And so there'll be things that I do out on the racetrack that you'll be like, damn it, that wasn't a good teammate move. But it's something I had to do for myself that I felt like was put me in the position. try to win this race. Y'all be curious to see how long Blaney and Lugano worked together early on the play work and then at what point does, what point do you go all right, we're not teammates.

Yeah, well you got to beat this guy. They're racing and he's over for the last spot too. Yeah. At what point does that drop off? Like is it 10 to go? I don't know, man. No, no, no, no, no. It drops off coming off off. I don't know. No, no, not earlier. Listen, if Blaney and Joey are running first

and second with 20 to go, it don't matter who. I agree. they're not they're not going to shuffle one or the other out early they're going to need that teammate to be able to stay in those positions all the way to the finish they're going to try to work together for the benefit of both of them all the way to the finish and then i think you know coming to the white that's when it gets a little blurry and you may see a teammate with a run he has to take and he's going to have to, you know, he's going to make that choice. He's going to do that thing that's, you know, he's going to do that thing for himself in that

moment. It may come with two to go, but I'd say, you know, you take a risk. The one thing that you don't want to do is go back to, if we're talking about Penske, for example, you don't want to go back to Roger Penske and have to look him in the face and say, the move I made costs us both a win. Whatever move you make, it better be the one that wins you the race. If you're going to take a win from your teammate, you better be a win. able to know for sure that that

move is the one that will win you the race so that you know you can't cost both of you the race. So let me ask you this. If you're, you know, if you're Ryan and Joey you're running top three to five the first stage, do you take stage points? You know what I mean? Like,

are you stage pointing this thing in the beginning? Or are you setting yourself up for the win? Because to me, I mean... I'm just racing like hell. But I mean, I know that, but like you're going to have to pick one side or the other. Because at some point No, you don't. You can race for stage points and the win.

I mean, I guess. Why not? What the f— It's race. Go race. The only thing that, TJ, the only thing that I think could actually truly affect that is their fuel mileage. What's their objective, right, to be in the best position late in the race to assure themselves the track position. And if they have to say, look, you know, I got to do this thing that's going to cost us track position now and likely stage points, but it's going to benefit us later, then I see them doing that.

But I'm thinking of it from just purely the driver's standpoint, my mentality would be go to the front, be at the front, take the lead, lead, lead, lead. Yeah, for sure. And I think they will. I think they'll have a good shot at doing that. I think they'll be in control of some of that. But at some point, what I was saying is the decision is going to have to be made. Do we take first and second second in this stage? Or do we sacrifice a little bit here. You can do both, though. Like Kyle Larson earlier this year, first in stage one, second stage two, second for the race. So like you're right. Like you can. you can have your cake and eat it too yeah you can it's so hard at Talladega though because of the wrecks and stuff I mean you know how hard it is we're talking about them being to get to get to

TJ the wrecks or the wrecks they are well yeah I mean you when you go to Talladega or Daytona you can't strategize for crashes no you can't I agree with that you just race you just got to race I agree with you 100th I go and if you race hard every lap and see where you end up and the plate qualify up front

I feel like that your chances of crashing go. Your chances of crashing in Talladega are 80%. Right? Let's just roughly say, you got an 80% chance of crashing. All right. Now that might drop down to like 70 if you race hard all day.

If you're in protect mode and defense mode and just, you know, if you're in, like, conservative mode, you might actually raise that percentage. And I just feel like that if you're racing hard all the time, then there's a better chance of you being in front of the crash when it happens. At least that's what my experience was. And anytime I tried to be conservative or chill or lay back or settle in any point in the race, I'm like, I'm actually in the danger zone right here.

This ain't good at all. Yeah. I'm actually going to drive into the wreck when it starts to happen. You know, so it's, I think it's a good practice to be of the mindset that I want to lead every lap. It's not realistic that you're leading every lap. But if you're in the mindset of I'm going to be doing everything I can all the time to try to be in the lead, then I think that you're putting yourself in a safer spot. You are.

I think when you get two, three rows back, you're in your stock right there. you're just kind of like, you just, you know it could get you. Yeah, if it happens, it's right where you're at. Hey, everybody's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. download, and we got a great guest for you today. His name is Kevin Pinell, but everybody knows him in the racing industry as Two Beers. We're going to learn how he got that nickname. You can imagine how that might have came about.

But this guy, Kevin, Two Beers, whatever you want to call him, has been part of the DEI circle for a really long time. he was working with the AC Delco crew when I would come in and drive that car for two championships in 9899. He was with the Bud guys back in those days. And we've just always been together, one big family. Dad gave you your nickname, Two Beer. How'd that happen? I've always wondered this.

Well, obviously the late model racing, you know, we went to the beach and raced with you on some of the big races. And we went down there and everybody wanted to go out to some of the same. establishments. Oh, yeah. I went out with them. Figured I was going to get in, but I didn't get in, got thrown out. Damn. Too young.

Too young. Sit out there in a dully, and there was a cooler beer. So I sat out there with a cooler beer by myself until they decided to come back. I was passed out. Damn. I done sitting there and got sick. Yeah. Oh, no.

Messed all over, messed up all over the side of it. I threw up. Oh, shit. So they were like, you know what I mean? Oh, you know what I mean? You can't drink. You don't need but two beers and all this stuff. And then they got back to the shop.

And, you know, your dad was like, you know, told me I could, I could go with her, but I couldn't, you know, get into trouble drinking and all that else jazz with them. Got back to the shop and the storytime hit on Monday nights. Yep. He went down to the house and came back. You can't. If there's a story to be told and then boys in that shop know it, you ain't surviving. You can't hide it.

You can't hide it. It's coming out. Five o'clock, the damn beer, cooler came into the shop and the five alive and the absolute vodka. Or Jacking and Jack and. Yeah. All that stuff came out of the cabinets and it was story time. So he went down to the house and came back and he had a Stein and it would only hold two beers. And I didn't know it at a time and he sat the Stein on the table.

And he says, two beer. Like that. You know what I mean? And I didn't answer. And he's like, he goes, Kevin, like that. And I go, what? he goes, I got a mug right here. This mug will only hold two beers.

Whenever you think you brave enough to drink another beer again, you can have it, but this is all you can have. I'm going to put it up here in the cabinet. Yeah. And he slid it up there in the cabinet with all the pictures where they were and all that stuff. But that's where it's set for all these years. Damn. And it was just, it got exposed on a Monday night, Thunder night, you know.

Man, you, your nickname Two Beer has followed you ever since. Nobody. Yeah. Nobody calls you Kevin. And that's the thing about it. You know, people, you know, you get in uniforms and you get Kevin put on there and they're like, Kevin, when did you get that name? You know what I mean? But, you know, mom and dad, they're not really proud of it, but in the same stuff, you know what I mean?

It got me to where I am today. You know what I mean? I mean, your name is your name. But hey, I'd much rather get it from who I got it from than someone else. Check out Dirtymo Media on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok.