The Dale Jr. Download - 607 - Atlanta Proves We Can Do Better

Episode Date: February 25, 2025

Dale Earnhardt Jr. loves what he’s seeing out of Atlanta Motor Speedway, and he is here to sing its praises on a new episode of Dirty Air. Dale and co-host TJ Majors unpack a weekend of white-knuckle, edge of your seat racing:Atlanta is a great demonstration of speedKyle Busch’s Truck masterclassAustin Hill remains on top in XfinityGoodyear answered the call for tire requestsCarson Hocevar made his presence known, for better or worseCaution call consistencyDuring the Ask Jr. portion of the episode, listeners asked about:Dale’s favorite soupWeird group chat names & blocking friendsDirty Mo Media is launching a new e-commerce merch line! They’ve got some awesome Door Bumper Clear merch on the site. Visit shop.dirtymomedia.com to check out all the new stuff.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, it's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. download. It is Tuesday, and it's dirty air, and things are going to be a little different today. I woke up this morning with a fever and... Like a real fever, or like a brown bag? One-oh. So we had a little thing going through the house. The kids have been sick, and apparently I got it now. So there was so much going on in this past race weekend that I just, you know,

I felt like I could get in here and we could do the Tuesday show. And it's to be determined what happens Thursday with, bless your heart, but I'm hoping to be here. But we'll keep everybody up to date on all that. But TJ is not at the table, but he will be here. So we're going to get this done one way or another. Looking forward to it. We got, you know, we got a lot of racing to talk about from Atlanta. A lot of things going down.

So let's get the show started. The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. All right, so there was a lot going on in Atlanta. Incredible. Just an incredible race weekend. We got asked Junior on deck today. I'm going to talk a little Lionel Racing. We got Dirty Mo Doe.

We got the white flag at the end of the show. and so it's going to be good but let's get right into Atlanta. I saw a social media post that we did from Denny's show a little clip where he's talking about Daytona versus Atlanta Adam Stevens also Bob Pockers tweeted

a video from his post race media center and I shared that as well in my social media where he articulates the way he feels about the race at Daytona versus Atlanta. Listen, number one, I mean, I'm not going to say nobody, but everybody knows how much I love the sport. Everybody knows how much the sport means to me,

and I want it to succeed and be great, and I know it can be. We are doing a lot of really great things, and there's been some good things that are signifying growth, TV ratings, fan attendance. Rick Ware came over in his media center or at the racetrack talking about how there seems to be a lot more corporate interest in partnering on his race teams and supporting his race teams than before.

So there's a lot of great things going for this sport. I was critical of the racing at Daytona, only because, but the way things are, the drivers ride around saving fuel all race, and they don't really race, right? So I see it from a driver's standpoint. Like if I was in a, I put myself in a car sitting there in maybe the third, fourth, fifth, sixth row, three wide. And I can't do anything.

I can't move. I can't go forward. I can't. There's nothing I can do to try to better my position at all for large chunks of the race. Now there's some moments when the racing gets pretty serious. but, you know, just watching it from a driver's standpoint, I was thinking we can do better. And we went to Atlanta, and I thought we saw what it could be,

what Daytona, what Talladega could be, right? I don't love the term drafting track, but it is what it is. We don't run restrictor plates anymore, so we can't call them restrictor plate tracks. Atlanta is a track where the draft is absolutely critical and what we saw at Atlanta is what I want to see at Daytona and what I think we can see at Daytona, Talladega Adam Stevens had some great ideas on how to get us there

how one route to get us there which was to get it to where they don't need fuel during the stages right shorten the stage to the length of how far you can go and take a gas I was wondering if another route for specifically just Daytona and Talladega might be to get rid of the cautions at the stage breaks. Keep the stage ending, like you're going to get to a certain lap and give everybody points and continue to score the race the same way,

but maybe we don't have the caution, right, that everybody's sort of saving the fuel and trying to get to. So I don't know if that would totally eliminate. What we really want to achieve is just to get everybody racing like hell. And that's what we saw at Atlanta. It was a thriller. I mean, from the moment they dropped the green flag on the truck race to the checkered flag, or the caution, at the end of the cup race, it was edgier seat. Then he called it white-and-knuckle racing.

That's the way that we described every race at one point in time in this sport. What's that feeling like when you're in the car and you are a white knuckle and it's just full throttle go? I used to, even before the reconfigure, man, you go to Atlanta. The tire, even though the track was worn out, the tire was going to have insane grip for about three or four corners. And you go out there and just barrel that thing down in the corner so fast. Look, there's some videos on social media of us qualifying in 2008. The car's just screaming around the racetrack and you're not out of the gas long. You are, it is edgy, edgy loose.

When that thing's turning and it's fast, it's hanging the right rear out. It's in big y'all through the corner. And it is a damn, it's scary, you know, but it's the only, when it, when it, it's kind of fun, thrilling, but also one of the rare moments where you really come to face to face with how fast you're going. going. It's like, you know, you kind of get, you lose, you lose that. As you race at all these other racetracks, everything kind of slows down and you almost, you almost lose respect for the danger. Boy, you are reminded with it. It's in your face at Atlanta. And so, you know, that tracks always kind of had that, you know, kind of way about it for the drivers, but even more so now. but I just want to say like

you know I don't you know I think what I saw at Daytona was great we had a great way to start the season but this is how I mean it can be better right we got it's okay to say look man I want it to be better

I want it to be different than what I experience it's okay to say that and that's all I was trying to do last week and so we go to Atlanta and we saw like the peak that's peak NASCAR what we saw at Atlanta

is as good as it gets and that's not an overstatement I don't know if you can replicate that exactly at Dayton and Talladega the extra mile in length on the racetracks makes the tracks a little bit bigger and the you know the runs

and the way the cars interact with each other is going to be a little bit different then he had some comments about taking drag away from the rear spoiler like taking half the spoiler off and he had a good question, would the pack go faster? It's worth trying.

Well, me and him were talking a little bit on the side. And before the next-gen car, the pack operated during the race at about the same speed, 200 miles an hour, 199, somewhere around that range, right? Not too far off, at least that's what Denny was sharing with me. That's kind of where they run now. But the cars run 10 miles an hour slower by themselves. today versus pre pre next gen right and that's kind of the problem I think is the the delta between how a car runs alone versus how it runs in the draft and I think

when you close that gap you might have a little bit more of what you saw at Atlanta but listen you know I don't want to I really talking about this more than I want to because I want to move on from Daytona and and really celebrate just how fantastic Atlanta was. Incredible truck race. And we saw we saw

Kyle Bush just use all of that incredible experience that he has and smoked them and schooled them guys in that truck. And so going down the back straightaway what's his face?

in the 52. Freezing. Freezing. Thank you, T.J. So as they go off into turn three, Joey and Brad Zalowski, who are in the booth, they're sitting there going,

oh, man, Freezing's in the pocket. Freezing is in position for a side draft. Kyle is edging ahead. And a lot of people on social media said that the reason Freezing lost the race is because he didn't get to help down the back straightaway.

There was another driver that wasn't going to push him because of manufacturer, conflicts and so forth. Even if the guy chose to not push Freezing, Freezing still had a shot at this because he was in the pocket on the right rear quarter panel of Kyle Busch in the middle of three and four.

And Joey and Brad saw it immediately. And they're like, they knew exactly what they would have done if sitting in that truck, that 52 truck. You sit there and you wait, right? And you want to time that side draft as you're coming toward the flag so that you're ahead. It's very simple. But Friesin's side-drafted him way too early,

got out in front of him, and Kyle just did it right back and beat him to the line. And so, I mean, the way to do that, I think, is either add feet to the racetrack so if Friesin maybe can go higher. He doesn't want to lose the quarter panel on Kyle's truck, the seven, but he can add feet to the lap

to take some time before he is going to side-draft at the right moment, or he could just lift a little bit and just sit right on that truck's quarter panel so that when they're coming down the first straightaway, he gets the advantage of the side draft and gets to the line first. Look, and Freezing will probably replay that

over and over in his mind, and he might not love to admit it today, but I think down the road, at least in his own mind, he knows what he probably should have done different. What do you think, T.J.? I absolutely think he timed it wrong. I think he was in, I mean, he had Kyle beat,

and he, Kyle was running the bottom, waiting for the opportunity to see his, the door of Reason's truck, hopefully earlier than later, because if he doesn't see it until the start, finish line, he lost the race. And he saw it early and just pulled him back. And perfect, perfect timing by Kyle. He did everything, you know, it showed up and he took advantage of it perfectly. I agree. Still, though, great run by those guys.

Stewart has, you know, they've kind of, they came on a couple years ago, and I think everybody was kind of pulling for him because they were a new young team. And he'd come from a unique discipline in terms of the modifies, the dirt mods. And I think people want to see, I want to see that truck run well. And it's been a bit of a struggle. They've lost a little performance of the last couple years. Good to see them run good. But Kyle goes out there and smokes them.

And then in the Xfinity race, you know, another great race, Austin, There's a lot of chatter on social media about Austin Hill leading more laps than me and dad and all that stuff at the drafting tracks. And well, he, you know, and somebody makes a great point. You know, yes, me and dad didn't run in Atlanta and dad didn't have Talladega either, but this kid, Austin Hill, has done it in a shorter amount of races, right?

So, like, I ran 30-some races, I guess, and he's done it in 20-something. So I ain't taking nothing away from him. He has the right mentality that makes a great racer in that style of racing. And he just does. He doesn't think about it. He just keeps his foot on a damn gas and he just does. With that said, he has the fastest car.

And he's great at taking advantage of that and winning races with it. Richard Childers Racing should be commended for how good their cars are in the Xfinity series at Daytona and Talladega. And I tell our guys every time that we go to those races, if you push that 21 into the lead, you're basically going to, you're signing up to run second. And I don't tell them to take him out or, but if they're going to, if they're in a situation where they get to choose between, okay I can push the two into the lead or a different car. My gut would tell me not to push the two into the lead because he's hard to pass once he gets it.

He's very smart, controls the lanes, has enough race car that not many people get runs on him. And yeah, I mean, you're just kind of, you're making it easier for him, I think, when you push him out there and get him in the lead. The other thing was, Justin, you know, hadn't really had a chance to really talk about it because, and we will,

I didn't. I'm just not really not sure how I want to approach that conversation, but he gets pushed out into the lead, and that was fortunate. Nobody had passed the 21 pretty much all day. He's pushed into the lead with a few laps to go and chose to stay low in front of his teammate. I think everybody felt the obvious thing was to hear you've got Austin Hill passed. Like you pull up in front of him, right? I thought, I'm sitting there screaming at the teacher.

TV. Like, all right, let's go up the racetrack and get, get him. He's more than likely going to have a run and be trying to pass you back one way or another down the front straightaway. But that was the move, I think. You know, and I'm sure Justin has a, you know, a long explanation of why he chose differently. He had a couple comments in his post race. You know, and he, you know, he did have a teammate on the bottom. But I think in that scenario, at least the way I feel about it in that scenario, I would have not been upset had he left his teammate.

Well, and correct me if I'm wrong, TJ, but the bottom lane kind of got strung out, right? Like they weren't connected. They lost numbers. They did lose numbers. It was basically just Justin and the eight down there. I don't remember really anybody else being up behind Sammy. Yeah. I thought Justin did a good job of trying to, you know, he knew he needed a teammate to

probably beat the 21. But at that point, I mean, I agree with you. you kind of got a, I'm coming up, I'm putting myself in front of Austin Hill because, and second of all, Austin's won a lot of these races, not by, not by coming all the way to the start-finish line. Austin's won these races because he knows if he's out front, these guys get together behind him. And I don't know how many of what the stat would be, but I'll bet it's a good portion of them

have entered under yellow. Yeah. Because he's leading on the white flag lap. Yeah, that's a good point too. You go up there and get in front of him, you don't know when the caution might come out and declare you the winner. But the other thing too is, is like you don't know what putting that two car in dirty air at the end of the race when he's on the oldest tires he's been on all day. You don't know what that might do to him.

That might sort of neutralize him to an extent. You got to wonder, right? Well, Denny said the two got shucked and he was no longer up there the top. The two, I will say the two in the top four when he's running with Austin, him, he controls the race very well. but he does struggle to me still in the pack a little bit. But like you said, once the two or the, once he gets, if he's out front, he's really hard to get around. But he, I did notice last night, or on Saturday that he was, he was, he struggled to get back up there a little bit. Austin Hills, yeah, Austin's just gotten so good at it, man.

He knows. Oh, yeah. I think what he's so good at it. I feel like the two and the 21 are relatively even equipment. And it's just the difference between Austin having so much confidence and experience. right and and and Jesse Love will we'll we'll get there and he's learning oh god he's definitely learning from yeah and he's going to be he's going to pick up the torch um and probably be just as tough in the near future but i i misspoke i guess um when if justin pulls up in front of the 21

austin hill you know maybe there's a possibility that he struggles with the arrow at that point in the race yeah um and it and you know he's not quite as dominant as he had to been most of the afternoon. If Justin takes the air just for a second, Austin has to lift. You have to try, yeah. For sure. But Justin made his, Justin committed to what he wanted to do. He did it.

He didn't work out. And he only had a solid finish. Yeah, still a decent day. And don't forget, Jesse did win Talladega last year as well. So, yeah. He's not, he is not a slouch on Speedways. Not at all. Yeah.

Yeah. So do you, as an owner, do you meet with the drivers or do you have a conversation with Justin? I don't want to ask what you're going to say. No, I mean, I'll probably talk to him about that later in a few weeks and just say, hey, you know, I would have done X. And I don't think there's no, there's nothing to gain. I don't think by having a conversation.

Justin's a veteran. I'm not going to educate him or teach him something that he doesn't already know. And I'll feel pretty good that I would just go tell him and say, I would, I wanted you to go high. I think that's fair to say and leave it at that. you know it it's a long year and and we've we've got a reasonable start for a couple of our cars uh connor zillich has been doing well just had a unlucky uh situation where they lost the door foam and they part you know they parked you if you can't keep the door foam in the car and it was so cold

that the bear bomb wouldn't stick to the door to stop the foam from coming out um carson quapel has just ran his first two super speedway Restrictor plate style races and we ran Talladega last year though he did that's right but he's still very inexperienced and you can see his hesitance

so when you go run those races and it's it's like an acquired thing it's I ran into everything for three or four times like the first in 9899 I don't think I finished a restrict plate race at Daytona or Talladega wrecked on all of them and it just it's an acquired

not an acquired taste, but it's an acquired skill. What I learned over time is that, and I say this over and over, but you can't, you can't plan. You got to just be moving and doing and instinctually choosing. How hard is that when like your spotter says to go up or down and you, you just have to do it? Like how hard is that just a truck? You don't have to do it.

You just, it's a suggestion. But how hard is it to trust them when you first get started to just do it blindly, you know? It's different. The style racing. different now though you can you can't control the things like you you could before and uh you know there is and i've had this conversation with carson before i'm like carson if you see something and you feel like you want to take that run even if i'm telling you they're lined up there and you feel like you want take it i said don't hesitate just do it i'm going to adapt right away and we're going to make that

work we're going to try to make that work right away and i'm not going to go back and look at it again and be like well you shouldn't have done this because there's going to be times when i say stay up or stay down and then a guy moves a different land or doesn't move i mean we're You work as one team the whole time with him, and I don't want him to second guess stuff. If he feels like he needs to go, that's a conversation we've already had three races now at big tracks. And, you know, we just go with it. Yeah, you got to just go with it. And you've got to learn from what works.

And you've got to learn from things that don't work. And TJ and his ability to spot a race and his knowledge and experience up there is really valuable. But I think if Carson goes to the racetrack and just says, hey, I'm going to just do what TJ tells me to do that might be tj might be making some good choices and telling him you know seeing the lines and the runs that are materializing and saying hey this line's getting ready to get a big push won't you jump in front of it those are good things that a spotter can do for you but the driver isn't learning anything if he's not trying his own ideas right and kind of learning what did and didn't work but it's again i'm not going to be too hard on carson i joked with him about not being

more aggressive, I guess, at Atlanta, and he had a good car and he had a good result in his first stage, but when he lost in track position, he sort of seemed unsure how to maneuver back there and what to do with his car. And so, and you see that a lot in the Cup series as well. And plus, when you get back in 15th, 20th position, that thing drives worse and worse and worse. so you can't always do what you want when you get in dirty air like that. But again, you know, Saturday, the truck in the Xfinity race doubleheader, really exciting, a lot of fun to watch, and it had me really looking forward to the Sunday race. The one thing that I noticed initially right out of the gate for the Cup Race Sunday was how dark the track was getting,

how well the Goodyear tire was putting rubber down. We don't, you know, we can have, we suffer, I think, all of us from short-term memory, and I think we need to remember and think back to even just a short period of time inside the last 24 months where we're begging Goodyear to soften up the tire, to get the tire to put more rubber on the racetrack, that these, you know, we need to be. needed a tire that would put rubber down and allow the cars to get on top of that and slide and move around, right? And they've done it.

And it was, they've created a tire for the short tracks that's heading and trending in a very good direction in terms of fall off and where. And they put a tire at a very high speed racetrack like Atlanta that actually rubbered the surface really well. And so I've got guys take two tires still. You still did, yeah. And you had guys that stayed out, guys that come down pit road, got two tires and would drive through the field. So tires mattered.

They were, you know, if you were running 15th and college come out and you're like, I'm coming down pit road, I'm going to take advantage of the new tire that's 20 or 30 laps better than everybody else and try to gain that track position. You did it. Chase Elliott and a couple of the guys made that work. Yeah, planning at the end of the cup race did. That's right. And so I'm very happy with the work good year's been doing across the board.

We, you know, I think for the last five years, we've complained a lot about tires and as a fan. And drivers as well have made a lot of comments about tires. We'd go to Martinsville and have a tire that would last 5,000 miles if you wanted. but they've made some really, really aggressive changes that have been great, and I'm proud of that. I'm happy about that. So, kudos to good year. We've talked about how great the racetrack was.

And so... I want to know from TJ's standpoint, what was it like spotting this race with it being so aggressive? Obviously, unfortunately, you didn't get the full race. They didn't get to spot too much. Yeah, this race, Atlanta's hard. I mean, it's different. like when he mentioned a minute ago that once you get back in that 10th to 15th range, it's still,

you're kind of, you're still stuck there a little bit, and it's hard to get out of that area. That's why you see even trending last year, you see the cars that qualified out front pretty much controlled the first two stages, and then you have everybody at the end of that second stage that swaps it, and then that splits the whole. It's like putting everything,

all the numbers in a hat and jumbling everything up, which makes it exciting, but it's still really hard to get through the middle of the pack. You kind of have the time, and I've watched a lot of it, and I can't find a concrete path that gets you from the back to the front. But I can tell you right now, to your tire point, if I'm 12th, 15th on back, and they got 10, 15 laps on their tires, and the leaders don't pit, I'm pitting. I would like to see it trend a little bit more in that direction, but it was a cool race, and I think when we go back there at the next race, it's going to be, I mean, everybody's talking about handling already when we go back. So I'm excited about that, but it's still, it's challenging getting through the pack, man.

And I thought Atlanta was a lot of fun, frustrating at times, but you weren't, you know, there weren't three lanes just stopped up not moving. It was actually you could get a run and there was a lane to take. Did it work out a lot? Not all the time, but you actually had opportunity. You know, last year, Martin Truex was really good at getting up by the wall. making passes getting on guys right rears because he could run up by the fence. And he was really successful with that. And it was hard to do this year, you know, a few guys were able to do it.

But it's tough to do. And that, to me, I like seeing guys have to drive the, you know, have to fight handling. When they were getting to turn three of those big runs, they're all lifted and sliding up the racetrack. And you got a guy that batch's corner up a little bit. He's got a big run on the exit. It was a lot of fun. But it is, it's very challenging, very hard. I forgot how hard you work at Atlanta spotting

compared you know you think of Daytona then you're like oh Daytona play track you're going to be real busy there and and you are but you go to Atlanta and it is like it's like you're it's like Atlanta had an energy drink you know what I mean like it's nuts man like I was worried

about run out of battery Hey everybody you want the latest Dale Jr. download apparel visit shop.orgia.com We're always adding new stuff all the time, especially like when we say something silly on this show. We'll put it on a T-shirt. Again, check it out at shop.dirtymomedia.com. Let's talk about some of the incidents that happened during the race.

Chase Briscoe, Rickenhouse, collided. That sent Briscoe, or Stenhouse up the track into Chase Elliott. Chase, pretty disappointed. That's the one that you guys got swept up in. Yeah, I squared Brad up for that. Yeah. You told him meant multiple times to go low. I'm glad we didn't go low because there was.

was a line of cars going by in the inside. Well, you don't know what would have happened. You basically just drove right into the car. I know. Well, Chase, when he hit the wall originally, he didn't start spinning, and he was still going, and then I look up again, and he's going out towards the house of wall, wrecking, and I'm like, oh, no, this is not good.

What's the deal with the Briscoe and Stenhouse there? I mean, looking at that wreck, I know Chase was critical of Ricky, but was Ricky crowding the 19, not giving him enough room? The contact was it avoided? I just think as that race goes on, man, you're racing for inches and there's two or three times we dove into three, three wide. And if I was about a foot from clearingbrad and I couldn't do it.

And guys, guys start figuring out, like, you know, as they do every race, you start putting a guy in more wake, it washes him up the track. Well, he puts another guy up the track and that guy has to lift out by the wall. Like that same lap behind of them guys, well, the reason why. we were all the way up against the wall like that by ourselves, is because Denny had moved, Denny had moved the 34 up the racetrack, and he was just, and that was kind of, guys were doing the past.

I know, but just watching that wreck how it started, I thought the 19 was as low as he could be, and the 47 was just on his right front, you know, as hard as he could be. Yeah. It just kind of seemed to be a bit, seem to be an avoidable, but. You think Daytona's close?

like Daytona's close racing but Atlanta is on a whole other level on these guys threading the needle through holes and stuff like it's a whole another level of doing that and these spotters are man it's Brad was moving in the holes that I weren't they were opening up as he was getting there and I'm like I don't know if you got to do it you have to you just got a sense where the front and back of your car is and judging by the speed that you may be going by somebody you got to you're like you can time it in your mind all right I believe I'm leave the right rear bumper cover is clear. For sure. And they're leaving, and you know this, a plate racing, when you're three wide and there's three lanes, sometimes the guy in the middle doesn't move all the way to the bottom, and sometimes the guy on the top doesn't stay all the way in the top when you're running the bottom. So you've got to be really aware how far a car is off your door, and you're really relying on your spotter at that point, you know, if the middle's open or not, and then by the time you go to close, hopefully the other guys not meeting you there. And it's not just front

back. It's side to side because the side draft is so important as well. Carson Hosevar had a pretty eventful day. I posted a tweet on social media that they just needed put a camera on him and we would all be entertained because there was a lot of watching the front of the pack but I knew

what he was getting himself involved in as he was running 8th to 15th at some point and he was upsetting some drivers with the moves and things he was doing and I wanted to really see it right and kind of understand why Kyle Bush was as upset as he was. Here's Kyle Bush's quote.

Go tell the 77. He's done the same fucking move 10 times. I don't care if I wreck the whole field. I'm over him. He's a fucking fucking. I'm going to wreck his ass. Yeah. So a lot of people had a lot of comments for Hosevar.

And let's see, Ryan Blaney was upset. Obviously, Chastain upset. And I, you know, there's, this is the thing so the sport needs personalities it needs things that stand out it needs drivers that we can depend on to kind of go against the norms and

we had that in Ross Chastain right we had that in other drivers as well they improve they polish the rough edges they become more well-rounded complete race car drivers Ross got polished quick Ross Yes

Ross has changed a lot as a race car driver He doesn't put himself in situations That are upsetting other drivers As often if at all anymore He's still one of the most aggressive Defenders of his position In the field he is absolutely Through looking at statistics

Real data The best defender There's nobody better So he still has the skills that he always possessed, but he just doesn't make as much noise anymore. He doesn't want to be the guy that we're walking up and interviewing in a rain delay going,

hey man, who have you pissed off today? He hated that. He hated that attention, and he didn't like that narrative about him. Hosevar sort of has that same thing, if not a little bit more, going on. Here's the problem with Hosevar. and he'll just have to own this and understand that it's going to be a little bit noisy for a while,

but this is the reason why. So I want to believe the best in people. I want to believe everybody's got a good intention or a good agenda or whatever, right? And I want to believe that about Carson. I think he actually is a good person having conversations with him. He's not a brat, not a little sht, not a punk. Now, when he drives a race car, he may get a little punky, a little brady, a little, you know, but so does Lugano and some other people.

They change a little bit when they're, you know, between being out of the car and in the car, the personality changes. They drive you, they race differently than you would expect as how they act off the track, right? Ligano is super nice guy. Awesome. Great with the media. But when he's on the racetrack, a completely different person. He's not your friend.

Not your friend. And I like that Horovar had those comments. He's like, hey, I'm not here to be buddies. He has speed. He is impressed with his speed. He is overachieved since he's gotten into the Cup series. And as long as he continues to do that, there'll be a little bit of a longer leash in terms of if he's truly genuinely making mistakes on the racetrack.

as long as he's fast his owners people around him in his camp will say hey man you're going to get better smarter you're going to clean up some of this stuff and the speed will be there and then the race winds will come

the problem with him is his past I believe that he did some things that he shouldn't have done when he was racing in the truck series and so forth he turned a few people on purpose

and it was a bad look. And he stood out because he was kind of the only guy really blatantly doing this. That stuff will follow you for a while. And the reputation that he created from those moments where I think he did two or three times, I know there was the IRP racket on the front straightaway and a couple of those moments where he, it was like obvious that he just hooked the guy, Phoenix for the points. That was just wild, you know,

all the things he was doing at that race and the truck race at Phoenix. And so it's desperate, you know, to try to do whatever he could. And he crossed the line a couple times. If you, if that never happened, I think we're really not as hard on him today. And I don't think the drivers would be as hard on him either.

They wouldn't love what he's doing. They would still have comments post race. I think they would be softened a little bit. But since he has this sort of, you know, and since he has this sort of history, even though he says, hey, I've changed, I'm no longer like that, I don't like, I'm no longer going to be doing those things.

That's great, and I believe him, but it still is his past. And since he has that sort of history, he's not going to get the grace that he's, that maybe some other drivers might get in this scenario. And so, you know, I think that that's probably why he's spotlighted a little bit more and there was a little more heat on him after this race. Honestly, man, I'm not on the racetrack,

and I'm sure if I was in Kyle Busch's car and saw what Kyle Busch saw, I would probably have the same frustration. But as a viewer and a fan, I just see a guy trying to do everything he can to win. Yeah, he knocked the hell out of some people, and he's changing lanes and door and people, and, and he's wild. But he's a rookie. He's young. He's not technically a rookie, but he's young.

And, you know, I just feel like that he's fast. He's going to be here. He's going to stick around. The veterans need to get him, you know, in the headlock in the garage and say, look, man, you're great. You got talent. You need to clean this up, you know. And he will.

He'll want to earn the respect of his peers, even though he says differently post-race. You know, I ain't here to make friends. He does want his peers to respect him. We all want that. Do you think having, like, now that he's teammates, he's got McDowell over there, you know. I think they can help him, yeah.

That's what I was thinking, like having McDowell, who's been around a while, he can. I got to tell you, and I hesitate to, say this because I don't want to really annoy the other drivers. But man, as a broadcaster and as a race fan, I wish there were some more guys like him out there. Yes, I agree. They're fun.

Man, he just, I hate when he's around the car that I'm spotting most of the time. Sure. Yeah. But, man, we need that in our sport. We need the guy that's going to make the move that these other guys aren't comfortable making at times. And he does. There's been, there was two or three.

races last year where we all left saying, you know, marked safe by the, from the 77 car this weekend, you know, like, because he had run into a lot of cars. Martinsville, the Roval. He just, it's almost like when he decides he's going to have a bad race, he just, I don't know, like has a really bad race. There may be a part, there may be some truth to that, T.J., where he, he may wake up in the morning, depending on the week's weekend, and go, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm over. it. Today, I ain't taken care of anybody. I'm

going for what I want, right? We'll learn whether that's truly in his personality as we go through this season. Do you think, though, that this backlash will be similar to what happened with Ross and he'll kind of...

He was apologizing. His first apology was to Larson and HMS, so I don't think he owed an apology to. I think he was apologizing to them because he didn't help them at the... Danny said he he wasn't going to be able to push Larson. I know, but I don't think he was saying, hey, I'm sorry Rick for being a minute's on the racetrack today.

I think he was literally apologizing for a very specific choice he made that he thinks that they might have not agreed with. So that tells you how much conversations are going on behind the scenes between teams that have allegiances or alliances or connections in technology and also the manufacturers. They all are directed or instructed to, like, do when they can to work with each other, help each other. And when you get in that car, you know whose engine you leased. You know that, you know, in certain scenarios, you don't need to make things harder on that person.

It's also that you're leasing that engine from or what have you, right? So there's nothing really wrong. I commend him for making the decision to try to win the race, which he thought he was going to do the best. commend him for making that decision. I do too. I only think that he was apologizing to them for not pushing Larson to the win and being selfish and going for it himself. And I think Rick would say, dude, you go for the win, you know, don't, don't, you know,

I appreciate the sediment, but go for the win. I'm going to be. He's still going to be there. Don't worry. Yeah. There's plenty of other races where he'll be able to help his friends on the racetrack. But in that scenario, you got to go for it. it. If he wins that race, I mean,

huge. Incredible. Huge. I think we don't appreciate how far Spires come, and it's moves like hiring a guy like Hosevar that have helped them really be able to take their cars to racetrack and perform. You know, he is, Hosevar, when he got in that car

at St. Louis? Remember him running 17th when the rotor come off of it? Pretty sure that's what got him a job. Yeah. Dude, he was running 16th with that damn thing. I was watching him, yeah. It's crazy. That car hadn't ran into top 25. So every time

he's drove, he's impressed just in terms of lap and speed. He'll clean the other stuff up. I'd say this to his face. He's a little goofy. And I think he's fun and good for the sport. Got great personality

and he does want to be appreciated and respected. And he's young and he got that sim rig up in the hauler. at Daytona and he's on there twitching and streaming and he loves rain delays now I'm sure yeah you know I mean he's just yeah he's good for the sport because he's different he's just not the norm you know Noah him them guys that are just yeah yeah yeah it's their own people man but it's fun to see them come in here and and get to know them and stuff and watch them race yeah like I won't Noah to run

great so he can stay you know what I mean I mean I I know he's uh he's a sponsor's dream because he's you know he's done such a great job kind of cultivating partnerships and relationships that have continued to keep him in the cup series he you know he was he was supported by his family coming into the sport and earned his way out of that role into a driver that has true partners that just want to sponsor his race cars it's really impressive what he's done now he's made some missteps but you know there's a few drivers like that. Like Tyler Reddick did the same thing.

He's kind of came into his own. Now he's a full-time race car driver paid by, you know, 2311. Yeah. But it is fun to see guys like Noah and Carson and them guys come in and, you know, their interviews are you'd never know what they're going to say. Yeah. And they're good people too. Yeah, I think so.

Well, the great thing about it is is I hope this, you know, I hope this kind of story of Hosevar and his, you know, imperfections and how that ruffles a few feathers and annoys, a few drivers, continues. You know, it's a story arc, right, that you want to be part of the season because it, you know, it'll get people talking and people tuning in to see how that progress goes. So we'll see.

We've got to talk about the caution late in the race. Honestly, you know, there was a ton of confidence. conversation around this, but I didn't understand it. The way I see it is, and I said this to some friends, so NASCAR, you know, they threw the yellow during the duel that they shouldn't have thrown because the cars were just a couple feet from the finish line. You just let them cross the line and throw the yellow, right? It's just 100 feet or whatever. And, you know, Eric Jones would win that duel. that'd be incredible for the 43 team and Jimmy Johnson and all that.

So that was kind of a thing that, you know, it's unfortunate. But no big deal. That happens. There was an uproar, and then they may have, you know, they went a much more conservative route. And they let a race play out and let the, you know, they do something the complete opposite the next day. And then there's an uproar over that. And then they dial it all the way back and throw the. the yellow early and then there's an

uproar over that and then they let another race play out to the finish line and there's an uproar over that and then they over-officiate the next night and you know it just kind of this rubber band effect between NASCAR trying to make a good choice and the fan reaction

to it and honestly I was totally unbothered by how the cup race ended I do not have eyes on the back straightaway to know if somebody's sitting broadside in the racetrack, but

I've seen enough things in the 30 years I've been around this sport to know that if there's even the potential of that, it's deadly. And we don't even need to have that conversation. So, you know, the and we don't even need to make it

guess work, right? Well, maybe they're all through it. Maybe, you know, it's at the back of the pack. Everything should be okay. I mean, it's a human... I know. It's a human choice. I'm leaving it up to the people in the booth. I do not love every choice they make. But in that scenario, you know, I think Denny said it best, safety prevails, right?

And he took a shot in the 500 that maybe wouldn't have had they thrown the call show now. Yeah. Well, I just don't think we need to get too called up in or make too much of an uproar, right? because we got to choose the safe logical route. Now, can they, you know, could we have the conversation around, you know, does that just extend overtime if a caution comes out after the white flag? Sure. You know, and I'm sure, and we've had that conversation is not a new one.

And there's probably reasons, good reasons, why NASCAR didn't choose to do that or doesn't do that today. We went away from it for a reason. Yeah. And so, you know, I just think I was unbothered by the fact. finish of that race. What about the Blaney caution? That was, that's the only thing, the one that I was kind of...

Where he's spinning across the apron? He's down the track, out of the groove, and, I mean, I can see both sides. Did the caution come out when, as he was sliding? He was sliding. It's like three quarters away through his slide. So the one thing that I thought was going to happen in that scenario was he was going to overcorrect back up into the racetrack, because this damn race car is, weird as shit when it gets loose.

And we see a lot of times guys get too far on input, on steering input and overcorrect. For sure. They may be getting smarter and getting some muscle memory and understanding about how they drove race cars with the steering box on it, a manual box on it for all their lives. And now they got a rack opinion, which is a little quicker. And so they're trying to learn the muscle memory to how much do they need to steer into these slides and they're getting better. I was really shocked that the 20 or the 12 didn't overcorrect back up the racetrack. And I think when that car gets sideways down across the apron like that,

and it's not coming around, I would have thrown the yellow right away to get everybody slowed down for the potential idea that that car is coming back across the track like the five did at Talladega, right? He gets drove into the door by priests. So I, you know, if he's, if they, you know, if they waited too long or either way, I think it's a yellow. Car spinning across the apron in front of oncoming traffic or down below oncoming traffic, you don't know where that car is going to go.

Let me ask you this. Say that's the white flag lap and you end the race like that. That's a tough one for me. That is a tough one, yeah. That's tough for me to end the race like that, you know. Maybe on, you know, and not that I love doing things differently depending on what part of the race you're in. I don't love that.

I like things very, you know, if you're going to do it on lap one, do it on lap 9. I know. I know. But I think in that scenario, maybe you hold the flag. If it's the last lap and the 12 goes across the apron. Yeah. It's tough. I mean, you've got to be okay with it either way.

Yeah, but we saw Priests driving into the door that five and what that did to that car and how hard of a hit that was for him. And I don't want to put any driver in that situation where they've got to make a choice of lifting to lessen the impact or, I got to stay wide open, the caution's not out, right, and driving into a potential dangerous situation. These cars are all, these cars are pretty damn rough in terms of collisions and hits.

Drivers say that even after all of the changes that we've done or that NASCAR has done to the cars to improve, they have improved absorbing more of the impacts, they're still pretty harsh. and the way the cars, you know, the way the drivers feel the impacts, it seems like they say they're still tougher than the old car. But so, yeah, I think you've got to let Blaney's. I think you've got to let that one play out because even if you do throw the yellow right there

and say he does come up the track, those guys are, you're not stopping a wreck. I know, that doesn't bother me, though. That's a car spinning out of control. What, the ones that piss me on. Honestly, he had really good control of it. The one, he did, but I didn't, I didn't think that it was going to stay, I didn't think it was sustainable. I really thought the car was over-correcting. Looking at it from my point of view, he, like, I didn't think he, I could see him, like, literally driving it sideways,

trying to get going still. Yeah. But there is that moment it can snap. The ones that make me frustrated are when a car brushes the wall and it's still going. It's still going. And there's no, you know, there's no visible debris or no obvious debris and a car just brushed the wall. those aren't yellows. Yeah, I think they've gotten a lot better at that.

They don't let, you know, a guy. I mean, I don't know that we know that for sure. You know, you might go to Richmond and be 180 laps into a green flag run and somebody pops the wall off the right, off the two with the right rear quarter panel and carries on and the yellow comes out. You just, you never know. So we'll see how it goes, but I didn't have a problem with Sunday. I didn't either.

It's not a problem until it is a problem. You know what I mean? Like you said. I think people are wanting more consistency. I could see that argument after how we, you know, basing off of the bucket of Daytona and Atlanta. I could see that. But NASCAR came out and put out a statement. So like you knew that these calls were going to get made on Sunday.

That was the other thing too. So that's a great point, Travis. NASCAR owned what happened Saturday in the Xfinity race and said we should have did something different. and what they said they were going to do is what they did Sunday, you know. In my opinion, this thing you race, it went too long. They prepared us. They forewarned us about if the situation is similar, we're throwing the yellow, and they did. And it just so happened that, you know, the 20 cars in the lead when that happens, and he's the winner.

And that's the end of the race. I mean, if the caution came out and there was 10 to go, he was still going to be the lead. Yeah. You know, and he's the one, that's just part of the strategy, though, if you want to lead on that last lap. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't really have an issue there. We can talk about Larson, squeezing the two.

We've seen that before. I think, you know, he's been the kind of driver that he's going to try to force you to lift in some certain situations and use a lot of racetrack. He is leading the race. I think that we kind of know that that's his that's his MO or that's sort of something in his toolbox. The two could have checked up a little bit. That would have caused him to lose a lot of spots going down the back straightaway. The one thing that was interesting to me was William Byron.

I think if the two's not there, William Byron drives right into the wall. His angle of attack on the exit of the corner, the way that two and the 24 came together, I was just like, where were you going, William? Yeah, he missteps that. Yeah, they just slammed into each other. I know the two come off the wall, but I didn't know that he, I didn't know that he, I didn't know that he wasn't enough. It didn't come way down the track. So that was kind of interesting to me, but it was all, you know, it was, everybody was driving.

It was white knuckle, like then he said in that moment, everybody was driving with their hair on fire. And that's some of the scenarios you can get yourself into. That's what I want is the driver to put another driver in a position that you're going to make a decision. Are you going to let up? Are you going to, we're going to go? Look, if I'm a Cendrick fan, I hate it, right? Yeah, but I... I mean, think about it.

Danny put Kyle in the same position, and so, like, you give it and you take it. Yeah, Chase Elliott won us to race at Daytona and Xfinity Series doing the same thing. I think to, maybe Austin Cendrick. It might have been Joe Lugano, but, I mean, he literally just, you know, chopped him, and he's like, you know, what happens is what happens, and we got the win.

So, I mean, when it's your car and your driver's driving the five, you're fine with it. I did text Larson and I said, hey, there's been this sort of narrative that he doesn't enjoy the Dayton and Talladega-style racing and maybe he doesn't excel at it because of his

disposition toward it. And I text him after, the unfortunate part I believe, is that Kyle Larson's never really raced in the heyday of great restrictive plate racing, like 2004, World War 2003 and on up.

He never really got a chance to be in that style of racing, maybe a little bit when he came into the series. Just a little bit. But he struggled. His first 500, he wrecked off the four. Well, I mean, it's your first 500. I probably wrecked in my first 500. But I texted him after the race,

and I said, what you did today, it looked fun. It looked badass from where I was sitting. but what you did today is exactly what Dayton and Tallinnage used to be back when, you know, you could do whatever you wanted and take a car and make moves and, you know, show your skill. And he, I said, I believe that you would have been great at it had you had the chance to race in that era. But what you did today is pretty much what it was like. And he, he said, man, today was fun as hell. He had a blast.

Yeah. And I like that. I want our Kyle Larson is arguably the best driver in the series. Overall. Yeah, there's a couple other names you could throw into that bucket. I want him to like racing at Daytona. Daytona is our cornerstone. It's the Daytona 500 is our most important event.

I want our best driver fond of that event, fond of that race, fond of going there. I want him to be excited about it, right? And when he's not that thrilled about it because he doesn't feel like he can do what he wants to do, that's frustrating for me. And so I was really glad to hear him get out of the car and say, damn, day, day, day, was fun. I enjoyed this.

If I'm the field, I'm worried. I am too. You think Kyle thinks it's more fun if he has, you know, to handle and manage runs and lifting and things like that? You're in control. You're in control and being able to make some. choices and do something for yourself as opposed to that that's still different to me than like does he think going to kansas is fun where naturally their cars are some of the best there is and it's

it's more of a you're not you're barely lifting you know what i mean like i want him to enjoy like what you said the the using the air so i'm using your drive seeing the air i guess is what you would say you know and and use things like that i know i was i was sad a little bit when i heard that he wasn't too big a fan of like Daytona and Talladega for a handful of years, rightfully so. I mean, when I watch it, it looks frustrating as a driver,

but I was glad to hear him get out of that car because I know that if, you know, if Daytona and Talladega can trend in that direction. Oh my gosh. It's so fun. Man. I can't even. Yeah.

Yeah. So that was pretty neat. It's great having that. I want the 500 to be Atlanta so bad. Yeah. Well, I don't want Daytona. I don't want to move the 500 to Atlanta.

No, I want the style of racing to get more similar at both tracks. Yes. Yeah, the final restart, so I'm not going to, you know, deny it, man. I'm a massive Josh Berry fan. He had a great run this weekend in the Woodbrother's car. I was texting with Leonard and John Wood a little bit. He would lose some track position, and then he was able to get it back.

One of the few cars that kind of, like, commit to running a certain, you know, running the bottom and kind of making his way back up. and he drove his car to the lead on a couple occasions. Really, really impressive. The last lap, he got used up a lot. But, you know, I guess there was a, I mean, at the end of those races, a lot of the fans I saw on social media were saying, man, why can't these guys just stop wrecking?

Like, why can't these are the best drivers in the world? It's hard to do that. I mean, these green-white checkers are these short-roll sprint runs to the finish in these races at Atlanta and Dayton and Tall, they are going to put these guys in tough situations where one tiny little mistake or a misjudgment or, you know, one inch or two the wrong way is going to create a big problem.

And that's kind of what we saw near the end of that race. It was like just a bunch of dudes going for it. When you were watching on TV, when they would go off into three when a guy would have it run, like spotting it is ridiculous. because you have no idea what lane the guy is going to cover, and they're literally making a last second decision on the entry to the corners. And, man, you're on the edge of your seat.

I don't know what it looked like on TV, but from the spotter, Sam, you're like, I don't know where this guy's going to go, but we're running an eight-mile an hour faster, and he's getting ready to find out. My whole body was, like, sitting there on the couch. The whole body was tensed up. Like, I was moving and leaning and trying to drive the cars around the corners for them,

talking and cussing and frustrated. That kind of wraps up our race coverage from this past weekend. There's some big news. It's not new news, but this is the first time that anyone outside of NASCAR has really reported on it. Jordan Biaki from the athletic reports that Dodge is eyeing to return to NASCAR. We had heard that OEMs may be interested in the sport. A lot of talk, whether it was Honda or who.

There was some rough, you know, comments about Dodge and whether they would be able to come back. but Jordan says that it's possible they'll have a truck in the truck series next year and cup as soon as 2007. That's very aggressive for the cup effort, which I don't think they'll be able to do it that quickly, but NASCAR is reviewing Dodge's submission to field a truck through its RAM brand, and an answer is expected soon. Sources with knowledge of the plan said, while there was no guarantees,

sources expect that the league will eventually approve Dodge returning. It would need to happen within a few months to allow them to effectively test its ram truck before potentially hitting the track with an actual race next year. They last race in the Cup series

from 2001 to 2012. And yeah, people with knowledge of the discussion said Dodge is returning with the intent to eventually put together a full Cup program. program that will be operational, as I said, in 27 or 28. I think this is awesome. Oh, man, the hemi.

Dodge has got such a cool reputation, and I know that they've had some ups and downs over the past several decades, but in my eyes, they're still a true muscle car brand. The Dodge Charger from the 70s, a beautiful vehicle, historic, the Challenger. A lot of great vehicles come out of that brand. brand and the ram's back as a yeah i mean it's just a cool brand so i'm thrilled that they were they're considering a return and um and i hope it's a successful one to be honest with you good for the sport i think oh hell yeah this is great yeah so that's pretty interesting there's a bunch of conversation

around how you know what are the teams that would would help them on this journey and what would their cup programs look like. And so we'll keep our ear to the ground. And maybe it's Jordan and these guys, you know, digging in some of the information that might help shape what this program eventually looks like. So very curious. Come on, Jordan. I'm sure there's a lot of cup teams out there that are thinking if that's a great opportunity for them or not.

Right? Yeah. Let's talk a little bit about Lionel Racing. It's time for this month's selection of our ultimate racing collector. This is presented by Lionel Racing, the official diecast of NASCAR. They're your go-to source for all your racing diecast needs. Check out the latest pre-orders at Lionelracing.com. I finally got two new towers, 40 car towers.

Oh, you got them up? I did. I've got them up in the house. I'm not sure. Amy didn't seem to complain or mind, but we now have four 40 car Dachas Towers in my office. They're not full. You've got to take your time. But I've got them about probably 70% full, so I've got a little bit of room.

I want to take y'all over to my house, man, and bring a camera and let's show these folks some of the stuff I got. I got some really, really cool pieces. But, and I'm anxious to do that. But anyways, our first winner comes from at Forever the Man, Forever underscore the underscore Man. Shout out to all our fans who submitted their Ultimate Racing Collection. Travis, this guy's collection's insane. It's ridiculous. Looking at these photos.

Oh, my gosh. He's got a lot of cars, a lot of different cars. It's pretty nice cases to display them. I mean, he was one of, we had over 300 submissions. Like, some of people, their fan caves is on. Some people, they've recreated races and, like, put the cars in the order that they finished on the track. Yep. This dude, clearly at Earnhardt fan, he's got some, a plenty of.

The track above the TV is awesome. Yeah, I like the track above the TV with the banking in Daytona. Yeah. with the cars and the grandstands and the catch fence. He's got a, he made his own confetti to put over one of the Dale Senior three Good Ranch cars. Very nice. I see that, yeah. Yeah, that's pretty cool.

This would be a fun place to watch a race. Yeah. He's put a lot of time into this. You've got to appreciate that. Yeah, our fans are incredible, and their passion for collecting is inspiring to me, and it's actually fired, kind of kicked in to gear, my passion for collecting die casts and we had a bunch of diacasts in here

that I took home and it put in my case and so anytime we get an autograph I've got a few autographs cars in my case at home I got a Joe Lugano and a Ross Chastain and Noah Gragson I got a Brad I got Martin to sign a rookie of the year Bass Pro Shop Xfinity diecast

It's like 20 years old while I was in Daytona. That's one thing. So I used to collect a lot of sportsmanobilia, but with like football, it's like, it could be a football sign, but it's losing air, it's a helmet or like it's, but die casts, you can make it very uniform in your collection

and it just looks very classy and clearly. That's the one thing I do like about that. Yeah. Well, look, if you sent in a submission and you didn't win, don't worry there will be a new winner next month, you can resubmit what you have. If you missed it this time,

You can try again the month after that. So we're going to keep doing this. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for our next post in March for your chance to win. Thank you, Lionel. If you're a die cast collector like me, then you're excited about the start of a new race season. That's because now is the time when race teams are unveiling their new paint schemes. There's a lot of new diecast on order, and it's also when new cars start to deliver from Lionel Racing, the official diecast of NASCAR.

Whether you have Junior Motorsports First Cup Series diecast already on pre-order, or you're excited about Noah Gregson's move to front-road motorsports, or maybe Chase Elliott's new sponsor Amazon Prime. There are a ton of exciting things happening in NASCAR this season. And what's so great about a diegast collection is that it can tell the story of it all like no other collectible can. To help kickstart your 2025 diecast collection, Lionel Racing has, a special offer for Dale Jr.

Download listeners. Get free U.S. shipping on your next order when you use the promo code download 25 at Lionelracing.com. That's free shipping with the promo code download 25. That's download with the number

25 at LionelRacing.com. And we are live, Dale. All right, everybody, thanks for tuning in to today's Ask Junior presented by Xfinity Mobile I have you know we've been

dealing with some illness in my house my little girls were had a fever and we're sick over the last week and Nicole had it but she's finally better but it appears that I have gotten it from her so I am doing my best

today and we're we're going to have a great show out for you this is like Jordan flu game performance that you're putting on the day. Yeah, I'm telling you, man. I'm kicking ass. But tough, you know what I mean?

I, let me see. Let's bring this chat up for everybody. Can I bring the chat on my phone? Internet here's a little. I'm going to try to bring it up here. I like to watch the chat too. Can I bring it up? We need the Xfinity internet because I don't know.

Oh, Angie's down there. Andrew, can I bring that up? Yeah, you can get the chat. Yeah, T.J, you can certainly bring the chat up. Just Google on the computer YouTube. You're on. computer, DJ. Literally on a laptop,

DJ. There's everybody. There's everybody. All right. So, TJ, you're the tech guy, dude. You should figure out

how to get a user. This is not my computer. I didn't know. I don't want to mess up your recordings. Not knowing technology. Ridiculous. Well, you didn't plug an internet cable in.

That's ridiculous. All right. All right. We're good. Dale, this actually, this first question might be perfect given the

circumstances. It's from Dan. What's the best soup out there? Especially like when you're sick down like what's your favorite soup that that gets your back oh gosh all right so this is going to be the brand and this is strictly coincidental the brand is amy's and it's amy's no amy's cooking amy i think it's called amy's no chicken noodle soup

no chicken noodle soup oh geez i bet her no grilled cheese is good too it is so good and they rarely have it in the store. There's all these different types of soups from the Amy's brand. You can get on Amazon. But when you go to buy it, I mean, the no chicken noodle soups almost always sold out. Isn't that supposed to make you feel better? Sorry, what? Isn't it like chicken noodle soup supposed to make you feel better?

Well, it's also just my favorite soup if I'm just making it. Is your favorite soup? Wait, no chicken noodle soups or what does that mean? No chicken noodle soup. So it's not chicken noodles? There's a little, look it up. I'm not trying to explain this to you. I'm sorry.

I also loves traditional Campbell's tomato. With the grilled cheese? Sure. I mean, it's really more important how you make the Campbell's tomato. You've got to put milk in it. So a lot of people. Yeah, I've never heard that. I've never heard that before.

So you take the, you take the, the tomato you put it in the thing and then you got to pour water or milk and i think milk's better um than the water yeah it's never never that's not a crazy that's not a crazy idea like when you make uh eggs you add a little milk in there you add oatmeal instead of water you do milk like it it yeah it elevates it um the other thing that i like to do is um there's a stuff called suck attach Ooh, that's not a soup though Yeah, it isn't, but I mean, it comes in a can Like soup does, so

Wait, you're getting canned suck attach Not like fresh Yeah, yeah I think it's good Sounds like what I buy eats or something John in the chat said Amy's soup is legit It is

I'm telling you, I mean, the no chicken noodle is great Amazon rates it high I just looked it up I'm not all that good I'm not all that into soup in general In terms of, oh, you want to know something this is gonna my wife doesn't like this and maybe so you know sure you want to say we're live dale other people i'm just saying it's a brand of soup or type of soup that she's

she's not interested in and a lot of other people more than likely will not find this very good but my dad used to make oyster stew and oh my god it was so good and so it's also made with like milk and a lot of pepper and and a lot of salt and oyster stew is freaking good. And honestly, I mean, it's gnarly to think about eating it, but it's good. Do you eat raw oysters? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, it is.

It's disgusting. Dude, I mean, it's free calories. I will go to the, let's, hey, I'll tell you right now. That's one of the ones that counts. I will go to the raw bar in Key West and sit down and eat as many dozen oysters as you want. Do you doctor them up or do you just eat them? Yeah, I like to put stuff up. I like to put the sauce on them and then horseradish and put them on a cracker, maybe eat them just plain.

I don't care. I mean, I'm going to eat multiple dozens. Hey, I've seen it. He's not getting it. I can sit there all day. That's one in places where you can sit down, you have lunch, and then you drink a lot and have dinner without moving. Eat oysters and get drunk. It sounds kind of awesome.

It is awesome. You don't know what the hell you're. When have you ever done that? Have you ever sat down and had lunch and. dinner at the same place while drinking? But can't I think that could be awesome? Can't one dream, Dale? Yes, they can. Thank you.

You should dream of that. You can. You should dream of that. That's usually a good shrimp. You know what else don't count is a shrimp cocktail. Boy, I will eat the hell out of a shrimp. If I see shrimp cocktail on a menu, man, that's getting ordered. St. Elmo's? Don't care. Have you had their horse? Of course.

Okay. Yeah. It kicks your ass. It'll wake you up. It clears your sinus. It clears your sinuses. That's what you need. No. No? The shrimp cocktail at St. Elmo? It just burns your sinuses. It don't clear shit. Oh, it's cleared mine. What? You just, all of a sudden, all this

starts falling out of your sinuses? Yeah. No. There's a funny story about, about San Alamos with Cole Custer. Cole Custer went there for the first time and dug in real deep and regretted it a few seconds later. Yeah. It's a burns like hell. I don't, I like it. I like horseradish.

a lot in my sauce for shrimp cocktail, so that's all good. That's a good question. Way to start off on the right foot there. Yes, it was a solid one. You know what's coming up? Amy's Oyster Stew. If they had it, I'd order it. I got to tell you, I have another item that I brought with me today. Oh.

And I'll pull it out of this box just one second. All right. We're getting an unboxing here on Ash Jr. Live. So, all right, so this is very delicate. This is from... Dale, can you move it to the other side? We've got our Xfinity Mobile bug. All right, I see.

Just a little bit. Yeah, just like that. Look, this is a... Wow. This is a hat that is from 1954. And if you go on YouTube, is all this good, this is good, right? This is good. If you go on YouTube and watch any of the races from, say, just pick Darlington, for example,

or watch any races from where there's footage and look at the people in the pits. They must have been, like, handing these out or they, every one up and down pit road is wearing these hats. Everybody. And so when I was given this, I was like, holy crap, I've, I've seen these in these old videos from Darlington and so forth, and I guess, you know, racing at a Darlington-style racetrack on a blacktop in the heat of the summer was kind of a new thing.

You know, NASCAR, for the most part, had been racing on the beach, had dirt tracks, not a ton of paved ovals. And so racing out there was probably in the garage and in the pits unbearable. You know, just And so they were passing these hats out, I think, as a way to help people kind of, you know, protect their skin

and so forth and weather the heat of the day. But anyways, this thing has so many autographs on it. They're all, it's written in pencil. Pencil? Yes. Oh. Yeah, and so. You got an eraser?

It's not even funny. Right here, Fireball Roberts. Wow. Incredible. Sarah Christian There's Buck Baker Fireball's wife even signed this Holy cow

Lee Petty signed this Jim Pascall Herb Thomas And so there's Yeah There is a ton of names That somebody has a great day

Yeah, I've got to go through and just kind of look at all of the names, but right here is Fireball Roberts. How many Fireball Roberts autographs are out there? In pencil, let alone, too. You need to get a case to put that in. I hear you. I just received it. So, I mean, I'm in the process.

You need to be wearing gloves handling this thing. It's in this big weird bag. So how did you get that? A friend of mine gave it to me. It has been kind of past. down to a few different people during its... Wow. I'm getting a little anxiety, so I'm going to put it.

There's some really great names on there, but the Fireball Roberts one is most unique because obviously his life was cut short, and there can't be that many surviving examples of his signature and especially coupled with so many other influential people in the history of the sport. So I've got a couple of little booklets that people have given me with similar, if not the same, autographs in them. And I have those kept in a safe place.

So it's kind of stuff I love to have. And, yeah, so I was wanting to share that. I brought that today. When you have something that cool and fragile and historic, like where's a good spot for that? So I will be, I will probably be putting that in a safe. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

And so I want to protect it from any kind of hazards or anything like that. And also just, it's very delicate because of it's 70 years old. And so I'll probably, yeah, put it in a safe and leave it there for a while. People on the YouTube chat. Now you can say this is a good idea, bad idea. I'm just reading what the comments. are, they're saying to clear code it. I'm worried about the pencil reacting to that.

Yeah. Right. That would be worried about doing that. Yeah. Yeah. But hey, yeah, I mean, I've been very lucky to have some things come in my possession and very thankful that the person that gave this to me wanted me to have it as they were kind of clearing out some of their collectibles.

and I'll certainly take care of it. Definitely. Let's see. Let's do, got a few options here. I kind of like this one. And TJ, you could chime in on this too. Coming from Robert,

what's the weirdest group chat name you have in your phone? Do you have any weird, like, out of context? It's pretty funny. Oh, what the heck is that? The coin boys. What was that? Yeah, coin boys. So we have a group, TJ and all of us.

called the, where did we get the coin? Because you guys are talking about Bitcoin one day. You changed it back and then Travis changed it right away. No, I didn't. It got Dale changed it and then changed it back the other day. I didn't change it back. It was, oh, there was one point that chat was, it was Dale, Dalton, Travis, and T.J. talking. Because it was just, those were the people.

No one else is. That was chiming in. Yeah. Yeah. There's this one that's actually, it's active as we speak. It's called four friends plus Brad. And it's me and three buddies and then this guy, Brad, that we know that he moved away. So he's not a friend anymore?

He's not relegated. Four buddies plus Brad. And we give him a hard time. Oh, that's good. We've got the racing group, too, that gets interesting. Yeah. Oh, yeah. There's one called talking racing.

Those guys are going to love. They got a shout out of us. But that's all that's in there. There's a lot of shi-talking and racing talking. I want to know what the YouTube chat. I want to hear some crazy group chat names. Do you mute the chats, though? I never mute.

I never mute my notifications Every text you get Notip dings you Oh and I would drive me crazy But I see it I get a I get the icon and I respond You do respond in a timely manner I hate people that don't respond to text messages

When I when they When they've looked at it And they've got a minute to respond And I'm aware of that It's really it's really rude What's why I don't have my read receipts on? That's I mean it's I don't have my red receipts. I used to do red receipts.

We talked about this. I do. I do it with Amy. That's fair. I do read receipts with one certain person. But I, um, yeah. It's, I learned a lot about, we had our fantasy football dinner last week and I learned that when you will just block people instead of. I did. So, um, wait what? So a friend of mine annoyed the hell out of me and I blocked him for like a

hell yeah. A couple weeks. A couple of weeks? Yeah. That's a long time to be on the outside. Was that Brad? I finally unblocked him. Amy said I was being petty. Thank you, Xfinity. Exfinity mobile customers get exclusive access to the most powerful Wi-Fi network on the go with speeds up to a gig. Now NASCAR fans, that means faster downloads for turn-by-turn action, smooth live streaming with fewer pit stops.

You love the word puns. And a strong connection from the parking lot to the grandstand. So for more laps and less lag, stay connected with Xfinity Mobile. Again, man, it's awesome to have Xfinity back and part of our program here, and they do so much for the sport. So thank you, Xfinity. Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Place your bets.

All right, this segment of DirtyModeau is brought to you by a Fanduel. Been enjoying my Fandual app. Dudes. I've been sending y'all some of these bets I've been winning. You got one that hit for me. I did. I got another one tonight. Do you want it?

Yes, one. All right. I'm doing some parlays on college basketball, taking basically the best favorites and piling them up into six and eight player or parlay legs and I don't know, doubling my money. It's all that matters. I've enjoyed it. Hey, some of those gimmies or guarantees aren't always gimmies and guarantees. McKee's State.

Geez. I had one. That way they had a 15-point spread and they lost. Tampa Timbs is here, as always, but we are also joined by Russell, the professor. Russell, has it going. Look at him. Good day. How are you?

Dude, my man. I miss you, buddy. I miss you. We'll see you soon, though. I know. Hey, all right. It's been too long. Russell, most of y'all know, but he works in the booth for the races, racing insights,

and gives us so much great information and makes us all look so smart. We have, and I'll tell you this, I mean, getting into broadcasting, introduce me to a lot of people I probably would have never really met or spent much time with, and Russell is one of my favorite people

that I've gotten to become friends with since becoming part of the broadcast teams. So looking forward to seeing him this summer, but it's great to have him on the show today. NASCAR's headed Dakota this week, and we have a new, layout, the changes that people are talking about, it's basically just shorten up the course, right? Yeah, it's just over a mile shorter. There's going to be 17 turns instead of 20 turns,

and then we'll go extra laps, I think it's 27 extra laps from last year. Does any of that, like, steer you in any new direction in terms of who might do well this weekend? No, I don't think so because you're still having the same turns overall. You're just, you know, they created basically two new turns. Overall, you're going to, you know, you have the 15 of the same turns, really. All right. TJ, for spotters, what does that do for you? Just makes your job easier, doesn't it?

Honestly, I probably have to work more. You know, you know when they go out of your site for the 45 seconds or whatever, and then you're like, good, you got some time. Now I don't have that. You got some time to eat your crust. I got some time. I got some time to count the lead changes like Russell did at Daytona.

You got some time to text me and see what I'm doing. We worked hard last week, Dale. Do you remember the couple years ago? I don't know if Brad needs to know about that. All right, Professor, you have the predictor model. When we're at the road courses, SVG is the first name that everybody says. Is he at the top of your model?

He's actually third behind. What? Yeah. Uh-uh. Your model's broke. The disrespect. All right. Well, who do you think's above him?

Oh, my gosh. Damn. Reddick? He's just below him. Larson and Chase Elliott are above him. Oh, my gosh. Well, Larson went through the last four road course races. Yep.

He's tied for the most in this next-gen car. Chase Elliott has the most wins among active drivers. He's won at Cota. He's been so good in this car. And then SVG. SVG's only won one race. Yeah, you're right. He's kind of, yeah, he kind of lost that, like, epic advantage he had at Chicago.

He's been somewhat normalized, leveled out. I mean, he's still a freaking SVG. Yeah. Man, I don't know, man. I think, so those three are in tier one alone. Is that what I'm led to believe? Who are some of the other drivers that you like this weekend outside of those three? So I really like Ross Chastain.

His average finish at Cota's fourth. He's one there. His worst finish there is seventh. Yeah. I like Bell again. I was going to say, see Bell's been good. Yeah. He's been, I think he's got two top threes at Coda and coming off that win with momentum.

And then, like you said, Redick, he's won at Coda. He also has three wins in the next gen car and road. courses and then we have last year's winner William Byron has been really good on road courses lately too. So no Almondinger. Did you not say AJ? No.

I think you're a sleeper those Chris Busher like a top 10 bet. Oh I like that for a top 10 bet. I'm you know the outright winners make me nervous because it's just you just

named you know almost over a half a dozen guys that could easily win. And so is it maybe smarter to maybe bet that live mid-race, the Alwright winner? I just don't know what your odds are going to be like. That's more of a Tim's question because that's going to be hard because when they start showing that dominance, I think we know pretty early who's going to be good. And I just don't know how well the books are going to adjust for that. What will you be doing there, Tim?

Well, I actually think the books are really covering their ass on SVG and Conor Zillich making his first start, because they're the top two favorites where they cross the board. So I think there's a lot of value pre-race with a lot of guys. I mean, the top two guys on the professor's predictor, or Larson, he's 11 to 1, which is like sixth best, and Elliot's 13 to 1 below him. So I think if they're top two on the professor's list,

those are two guys at target now, pre-race. All right, there's your advice. Yeah, yeah. Russell, where's Connor Zillich on the model? I knew this was coming. So remember, he's got no starts in cup. This will be his cup debut. I know he won in his Exfinity debut,

but that was in spectacular equipment, right? Wait, what do you think he's driving now? What kind of equipment is he driving today? Hey, Justin Marks. Didn't he win for you, Dale? Yeah. Well, that's what's why I mean that. I know.

I was just saying, man, that's a hard lick, Justin Marks just took. We need to go send a safety car out and check on him. So we will update the predictor after practice and qualifying. So it does take into account that information. So he will, I expect him to jump up, but just having no information, it's really hard. Yeah. Where is this predictor information? Yeah.

It's actually on NASCAR.com does an article with it. Who's the Dark Horse? The guy that the books thinks the Dark Horse is I don't think is a Dark Horse, Austin Cendrick. 37 to 1. Damn. And I know he hasn't really shown up, probably since he's been full-time on the road courses, but he's a good road racer.

Yeah. And I think that's a really, really low price for him. That's a good pick, I think. Let's say you, Professor. Like I said earlier, Busher, I think. Bush is my guy. He's been the best. He's not really a dark horse, though.

I mean, he's like a capable B-driver or like a top, you know, he's going to probably finish in the top 10. 26 to 1 on a fandle. who's a driver to avoid Russ Denny one damn and Denny

catching some strays in here what's his road course my goodness next gen record in the next gen he's got one one top 10 finish I believe in the next

next year what's going on Denny and then the other I think he's bad at road courses and next day car and then

the veteran drivers is different they're just not it's just harder there's no I mean if they could make the tires fall off the thing where you could really hurt them bad, I think those guys would definitely rise to the top more.

Yep. All right. Well, hey, Russell, thanks for tuning in, helping us out today. Tampa Tims, appreciate you showing up for Bertie Modo. Thank you, Fanduel. Make every moment more with Fandul, official sports betting partner of the NBA. We talked NASCAR today, which I can't bet, but me and the boys have been enjoying some NBA bets and telling on each other's bets as well.

All right, everybody's time for the white flag. The Tear Down was live on YouTube, reacting to the race. If you haven't already taken a look at that, you need to check them out. Them boys going live right after the race, giving their instant and raw reaction is some of the best stuff in NASCAR content today. The Tear Down, live on YouTube, post race. Check it out. Door bumper clear or dropped Monday.

They were joined by Noah Gregson. And I saw Noah when they came into the office. Him and Tommy had a debate on how the old school drivers used to race versus the new era. Got to check that out. I think the title was agree to disagree. So maybe they didn't come to terms or find any common ground there. But Tommy's been a great new addition to door bumper clear. And really approached this with a great attitude.

And she could put in a lot of effort into it. A different perspective. too. Yeah, it is. Yeah, he's still heavily involved over at Rick Ware and knows what's going on in the sport. And I really enjoyed him become part of the family. So action's detrimental with Denny Hamlin also dropped on Monday.

Denny had high praise for NASCAR. Hey, give him credit when they deserve it. Yeah, he said, listen, they're one and O right now on the calls and let's focus on the positives. He's always shining a light on NASCAR. Probably their biggest cheerleader. It's hard to believe sometimes because he's just always so pro NASCAR.

So take it for what it's worth. Another action's detrimental where Denny Hamlin just goes on and on about how great it is. Tomorrow, Herman Schrader and Speed Street will also drop. Connor Daly kicks off the new IndyCar season, so it would be great to be able to tune in to Speed Street and see how he sees the season starting.

A lot of excitement around IndyCar this year now with the move to fun. The commercials are crushing. Yeah. So there's a bunch of excitement around the IndyCar season. And I think they're going to have a great year. Bless your heart with me and Amy. We'll be out on Thursdays. I'm going to go home, try to get this cold out of my system,

and get back in here on Thursday and have some fun with Amy. You've been loving that show with her. We've only done two episodes. And I have been really interested. are surprised, I guess, by the feedback that we've gotten. People that were kind of surprised themselves that they enjoyed the show. They really didn't know what to expect. And a lot of people that are seeing some commonality in their own relationships.

And, yeah, that's what it's all about. I mean, it's our, you know, our marriage is something we work really hard at. And we were very proud of the work we've done and how far we've came. together and and so it's fun to have those conversations it's a bit therapeutic and these episodes if they're evergreen they're not really not NASCAR dependence they're not dated yeah so if you haven't listened to them yet you can go back and listen to the old episodes and they're going to be fresh I agree we got a new YouTube page for bless your heart so if you're you know if you're into subscribing to all of the dirty mo media YouTube pages out there make sure you go to bless

your heart there's I think last time I looked we've we're at 3500 or something like that so don't when we late to the bus. We're going to try to continue to grow that channel and put all this content exclusively there for Bless Your Heart with me and Amy. So anyways, we also on Thursday, we'll have Kenny Conversations with Kenny Wallace, really enjoying the new kind of partnership relationship

we've got with Kenny. And he is his own man. That dude, he goes on and on and on and tells you his take on everything going on in the sport. As soon as something happens, he's creating content around it. He's a hard worker. He does not have a filter.

He gets like breaking news, he is the first to act on it. You got to give him a lot of credit because he could be just, you know, mailing it in with the YouTube channel and so forth. But he, I mean, when something happens, he's on his phone talking about it, giving his perspective, his opinion. And, yeah, he doesn't have much of a filter. Spares no one. But anyways, enjoying all. that. Thank you for tuning in today.

I hope you enjoyed our show and I hope you'll be back again when we're back at the table. We'll see you.