The Dale Jr. Download - 608 - New COTA, F****** Amazing
Episode Date: March 4, 2025Dale Earnhardt Jr. is back in the studio to react to the first road course race of the year this week on Dirty Air. He joins co-host TJ Majors to praise the changes made to the course for this season ...and unpack the thrilling finish:The COTA short course is phenomenalWhere was NASCAR governing track limits?Connor Zilisch wins the Xfinity raceBeing better teammatesRoss Chastain and Chase Elliott have lap one contactWill Austin Cindric get penalized?Race winner Christopher Bell joins the showDuring the Ask Jr. part of the episode, listeners asked questions including:Dale’s most random message written on a Panini trading cardThe recent Amazon Prime production dayDale’s most overlooked race victoryGetting in trouble in middle schoolHow Brad Keselowski is feeling after the COTA race Dirty 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.And for more content check out our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMediaMust 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 (800) 327-5050 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.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Young guy that I met at the shoot, he goes, my dad and you and two other guys, he named these two other kids.
He's like, y'all hung out every day. Y'all are friends and y'all spent a lot of time, right you?
He's like, my dad told me one of the times that you got in big trouble, you brought a playboy magazine to the classroom.
Now, oh, fuck.
All right, there it is.
Jall hit the floor.
I was like.
And wonder you were so cool.
I was like, yeah, I don't remember that.
The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media.
Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr.
And we're back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. download.
And it's Tuesday, so we're doing Dirty Air.
And I was just texting back and forth with some folks about a throwback.
It's going to be running on Sundays that I can't wait for it to be revealed.
Throwback.
Yeah, there's some throwbacks out there.
Some Earnhardt throwbacks coming.
for the throwback race.
And sometimes when people do throwbacks to dad, they just do them.
Sometimes they reach out to me and go, hey, what do you think is to look good?
And so this particular instance, they've asked me.
I would reach out to you and ask you what would be cool to run.
Yeah, well, they've already got the idea.
They just asked me if I think things are in the right place as far as the way the car looks.
Do you like when they ask you about to throwbacks?
or do you like to be surprised?
I mean, I don't have a preference.
I mean, it's got to be cool to be like,
oh, I didn't know that was coming.
That's cool.
That's a good, you know.
Of course it is, yes.
It's pretty cool.
I mean, you know, I don't know,
throwbacks are,
the throwback weekends,
one of my favorites.
I like the ideas that people come up with.
A lot of things have been done,
but it's kind of cool sometimes when they're done again.
Yeah.
Man, I would have ran that gray ghost every year.
I would have.
I would have.
I would have ran it every year and not giving a F what anybody thought, you know.
You know, when I was trying to dress up for Halloween as a six, seven, eight year old kid,
all I wanted to be was a football player.
So I was a football player every year for at least three or four years.
I didn't give a shit.
My buddies and friends, they were whatever they wanted to be.
I was what I wanted to be.
And so, you know, maybe throwbacks kind of like Halloween, man.
What was the football player that you wanted to be?
Was there a certain player?
No.
I didn't know if there was a
What do you mean?
No.
Did you really give a shit?
Well, I didn't know if there was a certain
player that was like,
you're idle.
I don't think it's a fucking crazy question.
It's not a crazy question,
but do you really give a fuck about the answer?
Yeah.
Really?
Like if you had a favorite player, yeah.
Well, my uniform was a piece of shit generic red one.
Didn't even have numbers on the shirt,
asshole.
Way to bring up a really
touching subject.
They all wanted to be a walk-on player.
Dude, I was.
I wanted to be a fucking rock star.
He wanted to be Rudy before Rudy.
From Washington.
I wanted to be a badass, but I got the damn store brand fucking shirt and jersey.
It was a whole, it was a full kit, but still.
Was it the plastic come up with like the kicker face mask that every kid had?
Man, they didn't make anything else back then.
This is the fucking 80s.
Sorry.
They definitely didn't make anything else.
What do you think they made in the 80s back in 1982?
He would know.
What kind of helmet do you think was going around on the fucking Walmart?
I know in early 90s, all the helmets.
We weren't shopping at Walmart yet.
What do you think we were getting from Roses?
Kmart.
What do you think was happening at the Kmart?
Zares.
We weren't getting to freaking awesome helmets.
He wouldn't know.
He's not from the 80s.
I mean, I was born in the 80s.
What year?
89.
88?
Yeah, because you remember him?
Hey, you said I wasn't, I was bored.
Yeah, but you got to remember something from the 80s.
All right, hey.
I can't wait till our Dirty Mo Doe segment later.
I had a good week.
One, two, three, four parleyes hit last night.
Last night.
Wait, you've had some last night too?
You've been crushing it.
Whoa.
We're hot.
We'll talk about that.
Dirty Mo Doe is still alive and kicking, man.
It lives inside of this show.
And we post the videos on the YouTube channel for it.
Well, I'm just saying, you're hearing the feedback.
People are like, oh, dirty mowedo's gone.
We're thriving right now.
It's not gone, dummies.
It's thriving right now.
It's in the show, people.
It's driving.
Come on.
We do miss Lartre.
But hey, we still got Tim's, Travis, me.
I don't bring much to the table other than winning.
I usually think of her.
I don't bring much to the table except for I don't lose.
I usually lose.
Dale's carrying the team.
Hey, for 10 days, I've been giving you guys my parlays, and you've been sh-h-kn on them, Travis.
I give you a hard time, but I ride them.
I don't know about that.
We're going to talk about it.
We're going to talk about it.
All right, so right before we go to Kota, man, I just want to say real quick, the Cars Tour had its open, season open to this past weekend.
The Cars Tour is often running.
If you don't go to a race, watch it on Flow Live.
We had a historical moment in the pro-lake models,
the first female winner in the Cars Tour,
Jade Evidesian.
And she apparently comes from the dirt world and kicks ass.
Yeah, midgets and stuff.
Yes.
Yeah.
And so, hey, we're thankful that she's trying to gain some more skill at her craft.
Develop.
Development and all that good stuff over in the Cars Tour.
And so there was a little issue in tech.
She was second when they crossed the finish line,
but the leader got thrown out for left side weight.
But don't let that fool you because she was...
She was right on his ass.
They had many resorts where she was racing side-by-side for the lead.
Hey, man, she earned it.
Put yourself in position.
No matter how it falls down, you know, she earned it.
She'll probably, you know, definitely want to go out there
and cross the finish line first, and she keeps it up.
She will.
So congratulations to her.
Connor Hall, driving for Junior Motorsports,
gets the late-mile stock version,
or portion of the night
and we have a very talented
female in that field as well, Lainey Bice.
So pretty cool.
The series looked great
on TV, on flow. The booth was awesome.
Lots of cars.
It looked great. Yeah, everything was good.
So great kickoff to the season.
We got a couple of weeks off until we go to Wake County.
And then after Wake County,
we're going to Cordial,
where I race.
I just learned it's Cordial.
Oh, it's not Cordell?
I thought it's Cordell.
Some people say it's both.
But we're going to Cordial, Georgia.
April 12th, I'll be racing in that one.
And I am racing.
You know why?
Because I've got the eight cars points from last year.
So if I need a provisional, I'll take a provisional.
So the work, you know, that I'm talking about being nervous all the time?
No more nervous.
That Florence stuff scared you?
Scared me?
Yeah.
By that last time I went to Florence to watch race that last race.
Holy cow.
Look, man,
Qualifying is fucking hard.
And we had 40 cars at the race this weekend.
Yeah, there's a lot.
I don't know how many will be in Cordille,
but there will probably enough for somebody to go home.
Probably 41 now.
I'm racing.
When will you start mentally, like, getting ready for the race?
Can you not tell I'm mentally ready?
I'm talking about it.
Yeah, but I'm like, are you already, like, thinking about, like...
Is that a real question?
Yeah.
I heard Cordill is one of the toughest tracks you all go to.
Hey, TJ, are you mentally getting prepared for...
For which one?
For your next race?
I think I'm still in Coda.
I don't know.
I mean?
What kind of question is that?
What do you mean?
What kind of question is it?
Am I mentally prepared or getting mentally?
Like when you start thinking about the race?
I don't.
I go get my suit on to climb in and crank it up and drive.
I don't know.
There we go.
That's what I wanted?
I mean, what do you do?
What is mentally prepared?
I don't know.
I'm asking you, like, is there anything that you would do specifically to get
ready for a race.
I mean, I would probably go watch last year's race there or a recent race.
Oh.
And just kind of see how they race and how they drive.
That's just what I call preparing, not like mentally preparing.
I don't really know.
This isn't like you got to go out there and run into the corner.
I just call that getting ready.
Yeah.
I am getting ready.
Like, I don't know what mentally preparing is.
Maybe that's why sometimes I don't kick everybody's ass.
Maybe I'm not mentally preparing.
I would think you there'd be a little.
Maybe I'm missing that part.
Maybe there's a little bit for qualifying, mentally preparing yourself,
kind of going through your thinking it over.
You can mentally suck yourself out.
I know how to do that.
The less mentally anything I'm doing for qualifying, the better.
I got an idea.
Maybe you should just take the Xbox and right before qualifying.
Just play football.
Hey, you got to go get in.
All right, I'm going in.
I think maybe I should just wear a blindfold.
I'd probably have just as much success in qualifying.
No, no bullshit, man.
I'm giving you a hard time, Travis.
I need to talk to, let's see.
Bubba Pollard asked him some questions.
So, I mean, I've got to call him because he runs at Cordial a lot,
and I'm going to go and see what he can do to help me.
I might call a couple of folks that race down there and just sort of.
And then, you know, I went over to the shop yesterday,
helped them unload their cars from this past weekend
when they raced at Jacksonville.
And we got a new trailer for our late, our cars tour team.
We were in bad need of a trailer.
Our trailer was banged up.
I liked that trailer.
I thought it was all right.
Well, we still got the old one, so that's the one I'll be using.
But the new, the 18, the 18, Connor Hall and his guys,
they got a new trailer.
It's beautiful.
It's beautiful.
Oh.
Same size?
Bigger.
A little longer.
Yeah.
Really, really awesome trailer.
God Almighty.
But anyhow, I'm excited about all that.
Let's get into the Cota Race.
Everybody, Cars Tour, y'all got it.
You're going to tune in next week?
Two weeks.
Two weeks.
I want to see record numbers.
I get the numbers from flow of how many people are tuning in.
We're growing.
We're going up.
Every race, better than last.
This opener was better than last year's opener.
All those things are great.
But come on, let's get it going.
Let's really kick ass and get the viewership way to hell up there.
I think it could go way up.
I mean, it's still rising.
It's rising.
A little bit at a time.
I don't know, man.
I'm ready for a big jump.
It's good shit, and I don't want people to miss out while it's here.
It is good racing, too.
It's happening, man.
Enjoy it now.
It's here.
Good short track racing, some of the best in the country.
Coda.
So we had the Xfinity.
So let me first say this, man.
And I've shared my opinions a little bit on social media.
I try not to do that, Travis, because I know you want me to save it for the show.
Yeah, save it.
But geez.
All right.
So I didn't like Kota.
Didn't like it.
Didn't like the long track.
Boring.
Cautions.
Take forever.
Course limits.
Track limits.
Bulls.
I hated the track.
Didn't like it.
But,
your paint red and white and blue and
everywhere. Formula one.
Yep. Not into it.
So, you know, when they go
up the hill into turn one, that was cool.
But as soon as they get out of turn one,
it's just a big
old flat piece of asphalt with paint
all over it and they just trying to, you know, it's like
it just doesn't look like
a racetrack. Didn't enjoy it.
Can I, have I made that clear?
Clear. Clear.
New Coda.
Fucking awesome. I love it.
New Cota is great.
I can't say it enough.
I mean,
what a...
I can't believe it.
T.J.
They didn't do nothing
but take a mile out of the racetrack.
Yeah.
It was definitely way better,
my opinion, as well.
I'm trying not to say the F word.
I'm sorry.
I'm saying it too much,
but it's just I'm so...
Hey, you're emotional about it.
It's understanding.
I can't help it, guys.
We've got a sensor button that we can.
All right, yeah, censor it.
I didn't think Six would be a passing zone
like it was,
actually turned out to be a really good passing zone.
Well, that is a great point, but they just literally took a mile off this stupid track and made it an awesome track.
I'm shocked because I would have never thought that I would like it.
And man, I got a, I am just trying to eat some crow here.
This is why I don't build race tracks.
and this is why
sometimes
you know
I just need to
stay in my lane
I mean I didn't like it at all
and now
I love it
it's like this little short track road course
all the road courses
that we run in the NASCAR
world
are relatively
traditional lengths
and and
that's that to me is
why I don't
love love
road course racing
and as much as I like the ovals.
And my favorite type of oval is going to be the beat-up-and-bang short-track-style racing, right?
And the road courses are the biggest departure from what I really love about the core part of the sport that I really love.
Everybody has a different opinion about what's great about NASCAR, and I can appreciate that,
and I can appreciate what you love and what you love.
But I love the short-track stuff.
And I love the tempers and the beating and banging.
I love the way the cars tell a story when the race is over.
And I just don't get into the road course stuff that much.
The left and right and the technical and it's a lot of, you know,
it just doesn't turn me on, man.
So they go to Kota and I was frustrated about,
Texas the Oval and what what how we were struggling as an industry to really kind of get Texas
right you know they reconfigured term one and two it was a it's a brave effort to try to
make that track better that failed or at least failed in the short term we didn't love
the new Texas and man it's it's taking some hits would you agree
How about
fucking nod in agreement?
Thank you.
All right.
TJ nod.
Yeah, somebody nod in agreement.
I agree.
So,
because I know I'm telling the truth.
And it's hard for me to say that
because Marcus is my buddy,
but it's his racetrack.
So that's why I need someone in the room
to nod in agreement.
So here's Coda now coming on to the scene.
I'm like, well, damn.
I don't like road courses.
And here's a really long one.
And these track limits?
What the fuck is that all about?
don't have what is i've never even heard track limits until now and that's really annoying kota to me
was just another another hurdle or roadblock to figuring out how to get texas oval back to good
because if to kota goes and has success texas oval's further and further into the back of our minds
and fading into the middle distance i was worried about that so you know um i wasn't a fan of kota i didn't
I didn't want Cota.
I didn't want it.
I didn't ask for it.
Selfish.
Just me.
Lots of people love Cota.
I get it.
Dude, they took a mile out of this track,
something that I didn't think would make a hill of beans.
And it turned into an incredible race all weekend, every lap.
And you know what I thought?
There's a lot of great reasons now.
I have been bullshitting, but I do want to get serious.
So why this was so smart.
We were, I've been sitting in meetings about Mexico City and with our Amazon team.
And one of our things that we're going to try to do some, one of the things that we're going to be mindful of is trying to help people understand with this relatively new track for a lot of people.
Some people have probably watched races that have been there, but some people will be seeing this race course for the first time when they watch the races.
this summer and helping people understand where the cars are on the track okay and that's that's
important and for new fans is i what turn are they entering is this a passing opportunity you know
what what the freak am i watching and so then that's kind of the that's one of the challenges
when you're going to a new road course um for a television audience and so
when they shortened up this course,
I know it still had a lot of turns,
but literally the laps were so quick
and the laps were short enough
for you to really, I think, mentally pick up on exactly
you knew kind of where they were on the track at all times.
As you watch the race, you learn the course yourself as a viewer.
And as they're having these late race battles,
you know, oh man,
they're in that turn.
It's not, there's, there's only one or two more turns to the finish line.
You were very aware of where they were on the race track.
That was something that I wasn't really experiencing before with Coda because there
were just too many turns, too, too much track.
Now, I could, if you said, hey, man, where are they on the track?
I could probably say, yeah, they're, they're on the far end or, you know, they're,
they're about halfway through the lap, but still, that to me made the racing experience for the
viewer much easier to enjoy.
So I thought that was, that's kind of an insignificant thing to some people, but
shortening up the course to make the course easier to digest and therefore, especially
when you have these badass races at the end, it was so much funner to watch play out.
And the intensity was up because the laps were shorter.
and you knew like 6A was a passing zone,
an awkward one,
but a very unique kind of moment
where they were kind of cutting this course and turn six
and then the guy could switch back and jump to the inside.
We saw a lot of great cool passes happening there.
Some wrecks.
Saw some wrecks.
And so you didn't have long as you anticipated them reaching that part of the track again
when they're having this one-on-one battle for the lead
in multiple points of each race,
you didn't have very long
of anticipation to see them get back to that point
and would he be in position to make a move?
And there were several instances on the racetrack
like the last, the breaking zone into the final turn
coming on to the first straightaway, things like that.
So it just really, really changed this course.
Something that I thought wouldn't have no bearing,
how would taking a mile away from this course really change it?
It did.
And Bravo, whoever,
thought. You know, I'm sure this was a long conversation with a lot of people giving input.
It wasn't just one person stood up and go, hey, we should take a mile out. This was a conversation
probably started around, hey, when we have a caution, the cautions are too long. Let's shorten the course.
Can we shorten the course? Okay, let's look at the course. Where could we shorten it?
I mean, this was probably something that was a process. But the team of people or the people that got
all that figured out and true in they bravo good job coda to me is now believe it or not a guy
who's not a big massive road course fan i am excited for them to go back well we need a contract
well i'm now it's something that i hope returns or hope stays part of our schedule i could
have give a crap about it before this weekend i do it i would have not cared
had Cota went away and never returned.
But now, it's like, it's giving me what I love about short track racing
in the form of a road course.
I want more of that.
What was your perspective though, T.J.
up in the spot or stand up with the race?
I was in turn 12, which is after 6B at the end of the old long straightaway there.
I can see the majority of the track there except for 1920.
I can see when they get into one, but it is way different race.
racetrack now way more fun i was there last year as well in same section and just missed like they
would get spread out going up that hill where the dirt was getting on the track and there wasn't as
much passing in that hair pin and stuff this the way this configuration is now keeps them bunched up
yeah and man there's a i'm not going to lie man there's there's what i like about coda is there's
consequences around the whole race track in in uh the asses obviously got track
The guys are getting much better with the track limit.
Stuff, the drivers are getting really good at it.
Six, you got a little bit of dirt on the right, pretty a barrier on the left.
Yeah.
There was wrecks there, guys.
And when you leave 6A, there's a wall on the right.
And those guys are inches off that wall.
And if you mess up, 6B, also a tricky corner.
How many times do you guys throw dirt up off at 6B because they're off the racetrack over there a lot?
And then the whole stadium section there, those guys are, with,
within a half of carling of each other a lot through there,
and they can dive and make passes on either side.
When guys are making passes,
it brings the other guys up to them,
which creates more racing.
I really enjoyed this layout as well.
The guys couldn't just get away from each other as much.
Lots of opportunity for passing,
and man,
a lot of opportunity for side-by-side racing,
like throughout the whole thing.
And I really enjoyed that race as far as, like,
how the guys most of the time it was pretty clean.
Obviously, you have a few incidents.
Turn 1 still.
still invites a lot of invites people to make moves, which is entertaining.
Sometimes your car's on the wrong side of it, but it's a good track.
I really enjoyed it as well.
Hey, everybody, you want the latest Dale Jr. download apparel?
Visit shop.dirtymomedia.com.
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You mentioned track limits.
That was something that...
Used to be a really big topic.
It used to be a really big topic,
and it was only a topic at Coda,
and it made me want to vomit.
Well, this new configuration has dropped the amount of corners
where they're regulating this or governing that
to a minimum of three, right?
Yeah.
And so it's like turn 2, 3, 4, or 5.
And so it was tolerable.
as a viewer.
I will say this.
I don't know if you notice this or not.
They did put like a little,
when you had,
when you,
if you missed the corner
and you broke the track limits.
Yeah,
they put that runoff,
which is way better
than running the whole pit road.
It became clear on Sunday
during the cup race,
which I wanted to talk to you about,
the turn six,
we saw teams cutting there
and,
and then the TV
and the drivers
and everybody seemed to like,
realize,
oh, they're not governing it.
Are they not governing turn six?
So what is your opinion about turn six?
Did NASCAR make it clear that they were not going to have track limits in that corner before the race?
No, no, we started in practice and qualifying.
You've seen guys get further over there and furthering, is that going to make it or not?
And then you hear no penalties.
so you're like, okay, well, we're going to try a little bit more next time.
I'm watching SVG and a couple of the drivers,
and they were cutting that corner a lot early.
And I'm watching it without sound,
and I was in a meeting,
and so I'm watching this race at the same time,
but I'm thinking he seems to know something the others don't.
Yeah.
I think everyone just kind of,
everyone was kind of feeling it out as you went and waiting for somebody to get bus.
My question is, was the information that they would not
govern six out there before the race started.
So were there drivers that did homework and drivers that didn't?
I don't think it was released anywhere that they weren't.
To my knowledge, it wasn't publicly put out there saying we're not governing this.
I mean, I never saw anything about it.
What's your opinion about that, though?
If they're going to say, okay, we're going to have track limits.
Yeah, I would have liked to have known before because we could have used it earlier.
Yeah. You know, if you're going to govern.
By the end of the race, everybody's all the way over on the blue.
Like a whole car length of a way.
inside the curb.
Yeah, and I mean, we pretty much figured out that it was three, four, and five that were the corners.
How could you not figure that out before the race?
I mean, you just, we just wait for somebody to get penalized for it.
But why didn't somebody ask NASCAR, which corners are you, are the track limits governed?
Yeah, I don't, I don't know, I guess.
Just never crossed anybody's mind?
I guess everyone was kind of feeling it out and just kind of waiting.
Could you have done that?
I probably could have reached out, yeah.
When you go to Mexico City, will you?
It's just hard.
It'd be more, to me, it'd be more on the driver's part,
because no one can really see how far you're getting out there.
Like, I can't really tell.
The crew chiefs can go to the NASCAR and say what turns have trackland.
Yeah, I mean.
That's what I'm asking.
Yeah.
I got you, Dale.
He's dancing.
I agree and nod with you.
He's little f***ers dancing around the bush.
He won't.
I think that somebody could have asked.
He knows.
Say it, T.J.
Yes, you could have asked.
I mean, sure.
Are you going to ask what corners are?
I don't think we should have to ask.
I should just think we should know before.
All right.
I love what you think, but I want to know what you're going to do for Mexico.
Yeah, I mean, if there's any corners, and I'm not sure from what I remember that racetrack,
I don't know if there's any corners that are going to be.
I would just ask.
I would call your buddy at NASCAR and I would say, hey, man, are there any corners at Mexico
that are going to have track limits and see what he tells you?
I mean, if he's like, I don't know yet or probably not or whatever, you're going to say,
I would keep pressing for more details.
If anything, it opened up the door more.
Right.
It still was a pretty cool dynamic part of the racetrack,
even though the drivers were taking advantage of the limit.
Yeah.
But anyways, good on NASCAR.
Restart zone seems to be well placed.
I reckon.
Because, I mean, there's still some diving in the one,
but it's not the whole field.
So, you know, from probably about row seven or eight on back.
Did they move it?
Yeah, it's like down right towards the exit of the corner.
Gotcha.
So you still have a little bit of straightaway,
right off the exit.
So only the first handful of rows
get a really good jump.
Let's talk about the Xfinity race.
Connor Zilich gets to win
for Junior Motorsports.
Real fast.
Super fast.
Yeah, super fast.
Not without, you know,
upsetting a few people,
namely his teammates,
his own teammates.
We, you know,
I talked to Connor after the race
and I said, you know,
I trust you'll,
you'll clean that up.
He felt pretty bad about,
you know, how that all went down.
We had the beer toast here the other day.
Of course, he did not have beer,
but we had the beer toast here yesterday.
The apple juice toast.
And, you know, he's young.
He's navigating, you know, navigating the missteps and things.
He's a good problems for him to have.
Yeah, I mean, listen, he, you know, he's a talented kid, going to have a bright future.
and, you know, learning how to be a better teammate.
That's just part of it.
He's going to have teammates all his life.
And, you know, he's, you, I really didn't know what even being a good teammate meant
or that it was even a necessity or even important, right, in the first half of my career.
And, I mean, I was friends, such good friends with True X.
and Michael, but I never went out of my way to say,
hey, I see you're struggling with this, man, this is what we did.
Or here's my, you know, here's my notes from the race,
if any of that might help you.
Didn't do any of that back then.
So, I mean, and you learn over the course of your career,
I think to be a good teammate and try to help your teammates when you can
because that's going to come around and help you.
their crew chiefs see it their crew chiefs then want to help you and um anyways that's uh that's something
that that that Connor has to improve on and we've dealt with that in the past and I'm sure
listen the shoe will be on the other foot there'll be a race somewhere else where another
you know it'll be it'll be another teammate and Connor will be on the bad end to something
going down on the racetrack and well that conversation is never ending um
And I've always said this too, if you put, if you got four, in this case, five cars that are very good cars and five very capable race car drivers, they're going to hit.
They're going to hit.
They're going to run up front and they're going to have to battle each other for positions.
And they're going to have to battle each other hard.
But we talk about it.
I talked about it in the, I will say this is a way I'll close.
I'll close the Xfinity race.
we started, we have a kickoff.
We have a kickoff luncheon for our whole company at the beginning of every year.
And my main message to everyone was, let's try to do a better job this year of being good teammates.
And I'm going to be paying attention to that.
I'll be, you know, we've had some great driver lineups here in the past,
but we always haven't been the best of teammates.
and we're very selfish a lot of times everybody out there trying to, you know,
you got Justin Algar who's a career Xfinity Series Junior Motorsports Racer.
Champion.
Right, yeah.
Right now, I mean, but this guy's living his life and making a living as a full-time
driver here.
Then you got guys that are like, hey, I'm only here for a year.
If everything goes well, I'm only here for two years.
You know, I'm not, this isn't where I'm going to live.
Yeah.
And so they're thinking.
they're not sitting there thinking like
me and Justin we're going to work together
for the next 10 years I got to be his best
you know best teammate
they're like how do I get to the
they're like how do I get to the next step
doesn't matter what collateral
damage there is right
and so we've dealt with that over the last decade
or more
where you know
guys are just out there trying to do their best
and not necessarily
teamate or not
having a teammate mindset right because it
doesn't feel like they're going to be here for that long anyways.
But, you know, it's a, it's a, I don't want to say it's a good problem to have, but it's a, it's a, it is a good problem.
It means they're all up there competing.
Yeah, it's what's, it's what's going to happen.
Yes.
It's much easier going in and apologizing when you win, too, instead of doing something dumb and getting a fifth place.
That's the thing.
I'm like, dude, you got this.
So that's another tough part is, God, just won the race.
how the hell do you ever
how do you how do you how do you how do you how do you complain about anything
the guy just won the race in your car
what's your what the hell you got to complain about
right nothing right but but
hey come on you know let's
i got to go talk to the other guys
they're pissed right the other teammates
the other crew chiefs i agree i mean we've been on
we've i've been spotting for cars when we've had
things go really bad before whenever everything was
lined up in, you know, like Daytona a few years ago, we really kind of mess that up pretty
bad and that ended up being...
Embarrassing.
Yes.
You know, and we all learned from that.
No, we didn't.
Well, for the most part.
You did not learn from it.
I, you know, I think, like what he says, like at beginning of the year you talked to
him and you try to explain to be a good teammate and you don't want to, man, the worst case
scenario is going there three wide and a one and clean out two of your cars or something.
and, you know, boat two of flat tires and someone, Austin Hill drives by everyone and goes
and wins the race. And you want to really prevent situations like that. And, you know,
Connor might have, you know, you can understand making the move, but you got to make the move
kind of stick and not really not use people up, in my opinion, as much, especially multiple
times in a race. You know, I think Connor had two incidents with teammates and one with another
competitor that he spun out. So, and Connor, in my opinion, probably could have
settled in, second or third or fourth out of that corner, and still won the race,
because he was just that fast and that good.
But he'll learn, and these are learning experiences for him, and these are, thankfully,
you know, it didn't take any other cars out at that point, and everybody rolled on,
and, you know, I don't think we all got the finishes we wanted, but a lot of speed.
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The Cup Race was
absolutely eventful from the drop of the green flag obviously going down into one up into term one
a lot of action a lot of action ross chastain dives to the inside cleans out the nine a lot of the
cars beaten and banging through that corner getting spun around damaged chase talked about how that
affected the handling on his car and they had to work on the left rear a little bit and to try
to get it improved but it never drove quite as well as it did the day before in practice and
fine and so he uh but he did work his way back up through the field and get a reasonable finish
one of the things that i thought was um you know i get obviously ross so that happens and i'm thinking
in my mind man if they ever get around each other we better get a camera on there because it's
because you heard the radio comments from alan chase's crew chief not happy basically was like hey
you better you're given the opportunity you
better take care of it.
And Chase is like, all right.
That's all I needed to know.
I want to go take him out, but I didn't want to do it unless it was definitely necessary.
And so I'm sitting there going, all right.
Well, I guess, you know, if he gets around him, he's not just going to drive past him.
He's going to make life hard.
Yeah.
Well, I figured he'd just dump him.
Yeah.
But so they, we get that opportunity later in the race.
and Ross saw the nine.
So the nine catches SVG and sends him up the racetrack in turn one and two.
And he's like, all right, there's Ross.
Ross is right there in front of me.
And as soon as Ross saw it, Ross was probably getting some warnings.
They told him that he's coming, let him go.
They said let him go.
I know, but Ross is probably, I'm saying laps before.
Oh, yeah.
Probably like, hey, man, the nine's back there.
He knew for sure.
Right?
Yeah, of course.
Yeah.
And so it wasn't like Ross looked up in the mirror and went,
oh shit I'm pulling over like he was probably thinking he had laps of warnings and and comments to think what am I going to do what is my what are my options all right and Ross says coming out of term one you know what I'm going to let him go to hell with optics I don't care what it looks like but I'd rather finish 9th 10th
or wherever I'm going to back up to,
then get turned around and be backwards and finish 28th
or 30th or whatever last place was on the lead lap.
So Ross chose the better finishing position, 12th.
He chose that.
And knowing the optics, right,
because it looks a little...
It looks a little...
A little bit of a wuss, I don't know.
looks a little chicken
Yeah
But does that fix it?
No
No but Ross
Ross is like
Hey
I
I'm telling
I don't want to get spun out
Because I'm going to finish last
On the lead lap
I'm going to pull over
And get a
Get a finish here today
And he didn't care
What the optics looked like
He didn't care if it looked like
He was being a wuss about it
and then after the race, I guess he didn't have a comment.
They asked him to decline comment.
The client comment.
I don't like that either.
I think you got a comment.
I do too.
Yeah.
I mean, there's no harm in it.
I mean, I guess you could say, that man messed up.
I went down in the corner and my shallow entry.
I got loose.
Yeah, just he was way offline.
dirty racetrack down there on the inside and made a mistake.
Lap one, I should know better.
He could have said all that.
He could have said anything,
and that would have probably been better than a no comment.
No comment is just not,
no comment is just probably not ever the best option.
That makes people talk about it more.
Is there ever a time where you're like,
you know what, the guy should have probably said no comment?
in a post race.
No.
Right?
Yeah.
You can always say something.
Something.
Yeah.
And so,
especially like Ross,
Bush beer,
I mean,
he's...
Ross is usually pretty good
in his interviews too.
And this is coming off the heels of you,
you know,
talking to Carson and Josefire
about how he race,
and then you go and do something dumb.
Yeah.
Absolutely,
yeah.
Like, if it's me,
if I'm Ross,
I let Chase race me,
and if he spins me out,
he spins me out,
because at that point,
if it's not even now,
When Chase catches Ross again, next week, two weeks, a month from now, is it worse?
Well, he's hoping that he can defuse it by then.
Ross is hoping that he can diffuse it before there's real, you know, there's a very,
before he has to pay a price on the racetrack like Chase had to pay.
You know, you could say, well, Chase got back to the top five,
but he might have had a chance to win that race or race for the win had he not gotten spun out on that first corner.
So, Chase is very good at Cota.
But, yeah, I think you, I don't know.
I mean, Chase might not even have wrecked him.
I am, of course I'd rather Ross not had pulled over.
I wanted to be freaking entertained.
And Ross pulling over basically took away my chance as a viewer to be entertained.
So I didn't love it because of, you know, in that aspect.
That's not the Ross.
that we know either.
And he ain't been the Ross that we know
for a long time.
And you'll say Darlington, I don't know.
You know.
I mean, Ross didn't move over at Gateway.
Ross did move over at Pocono.
And, I mean...
Well, yeah.
I don't know.
I mean, he's...
Yeah.
Chase, after that incident, you know,
they're talking about wrecking him.
And so the one team heard it and then they let him go.
So is it worth on the radio?
Should he not have threatened it?
No, I'm saying, is it smart to threaten a driver
on the radio knowing that they might...
then be scared and move us away from you and let you go.
I think Ross already knew the consequences before anybody told him.
Perfect scenario is the driver says nothing and the crew chiefs tells the driver
instruction to do something, right, or we know that spotters aren't supposed to do that,
so they probably shouldn't.
But I liked what Allen said.
If the driver says it, then NASCAR can react if something actually goes down.
just like a driver's you know a driver can't admit or preemptively say he's going to wreck somebody or spin himself out on purpose we've seen that in the past i think chase chase the kind of guy that if alan doesn't say anything if chase catches him chase is probably going to race it out of him but pass him right yeah i agree and in chase his mind he's like i showed his ass i just passed him you know i showed him either chase my
think I showed him that you don't
gotta rough people up or wreck him.
I showed him how to pass somebody
because you don't know how to pass people.
You know, Chase is going to think
the way to get this guy back
is to pass him, you know,
and beat him in the race. Look, I already caught you
and now I'm passing you again. Yeah. Yeah.
Alan's like, I think Allen's more
like knowing Chase. Alan's kind of like,
look, I know Chase's
thought process here.
I need another level. I need another level.
so chase
not today buddy
this is what I need from you
and Chase is like all right
got it
Chase doesn't need to be more pissed off
because he gets pissed off pretty good
but Chase won't do it dirty
he won't
probably not anymore
Chase is not to well he did
right hook didn't he yeah he's probably not going to do that again
I'll take that back but um you know
speaking of right hooks
we had
had another one
I had another one in the race.
What y'all think about that?
Austin-centric,
tie down for those people,
but not.
Yeah, I don't know how the tone,
the bar has been set for this,
so I'm interested in seeing how this plays out.
If it happens in the back of the pack,
you know,
does NASCAR turn a blind eye?
Yeah.
Or, I don't know.
I mean, dude, if that's the racing for the lead,
absolutely they can't ignore it.
You can't ignore it wherever.
if it's on the track.
It doesn't matter where you're at.
I mean, that guy's race still matters.
I'm just saying what,
I'm not saying what's right or,
I'm not asking y'all.
I know what you're saying.
Is it right up here or right back here?
No, no, no.
I'm not asking you that.
I'm asking you, does NASCAR react to this one?
I think so.
You think so?
I do.
I mean, a right hook's a right hook.
It doesn't matter where it's at on the track,
what position you're running in,
or right hooks or right hook
The speed of
that they're on a road course
and not going as fast as
If you'd move multiple lanes
To hit a guy
We've heard them say though
That's true
That's a good point Travis
We have heard them say
That the severity of the crash
Sort of plays into their
Their reaction right
That's one thing I think shouldn't
Is just because
Well right
The wreck didn't happen
Like
If there's intent
I'm just trying to guess
So what do you think
NASCAR will do
I'm asking you though
People don't want my
opinion. They want yours. I'm trying to get my opinion based off of yours.
Jeez, man. I think, I mean, I think they have to. I think they will. I like Austin's
entry. I know. It's a big punishment too if they, if they suspended. Austin, I got to hang out
with him over the offseason at Blaney's wedding. And man, he is so funny.
Yeah, yeah. And he's a good, he's a good dude. Is he, my perception of him just,
from on TV is he's like a bit of like a oddball
kind of goofy. Is he like that in person or what's he like?
He's not oddball goofy. He's actually
smart smart. Very smart.
Very smart. Smart.
Smart clever.
Yeah. Way smarter than what you're probably
like he's very clever. Witty
on things.
I always looked at him and thought
he's book smart.
Awkward
but probably
harmless.
and probably cool
to hang out with whatever
we go and hung out this
at the Blaney deal
and he's actually
he is book smart but
he's actually pretty clever
about what self-aware he's
what's going on around him in the room
and he can
he can
see things going on in the room
and make a snide remark
or a witty comment
about what he's seeing and you're like
that's hilarious because I see that too.
He is pretty funny.
Yeah.
And I got to give him credit, man.
And he hung in there, partied.
Hell yeah.
That's important.
I've never seen him do that, but I've never hung out of him like that.
I mean, we're still going at one, two in the morning.
And here he's right there with us.
Yeah, good.
I would never have guessed that one.
Right.
I wouldn't either.
I mean, he was in good form.
He was, you know, calm and being respectful about his level of part.
But he was there and he wanted to be there.
And I just, I just really, my appreciation for him and all that went way up.
We were with him last year calling him blippy and all that when he got them, when he started wearing the glasses.
Like I got room to talk.
But he's actually really funny.
He's funny.
And you know what?
In those moments when we've given him a hard time, like he read, he, he spun out at now.
Nashville, Super Sveed way last year.
And we were like, we were like, Austin,
you couldn't finish two more laps yet.
To ruin the race for everybody.
Remember all that, you know, cow bush up in the wall and all that.
Oh, yeah.
We're like, that's your fault, Austin.
He had fun with it.
He's like, hey, he's had a flat tire.
You know, he's got such humor.
He can take it.
He does, yeah.
So is it maybe fine worthy, but not a suspension?
We'll see, man.
I think NASCAR is in a situation where they'll
have to have to handle it somehow or some way and austin i mean honestly if i'm sorry if i'm sitting
here talking to him if he's at this table i'd be like dude you got it you can't do that yeah you got to
be smart i know i know but i'm really very smart i'd be like look we're going to sit here
we're going to hold host of our feet to the fire right yeah and and and tell everybody that you know
he needs to you know clean up his you can't you that's austin who's been in the series for
quite three four years or four years now um you know he's got to set the example for these guys so
if you guys both agree to right hook why are you hoping that it's not a severe punishment when
a right hook has been we don't want it to be a severe punishment because we like austin and i don't think
it was very i don't think it was like a dog like a like a dogleg scenario like Charlotte like that was
bad you know that there's always opportunity this is this is on a straightaway right off a
corner exit, a big wide straightaway.
You know, I'm sure the tank car probably thinks it was really severe, but, you know.
Yeah, I'm not going to, I'm not going to debate the severity of the speed, space, part of the track, whatever.
I think it's all bad because you just, we always say like, you know, cars will crash and hit anything.
You know, don't think a car can't end up here because it will.
So I'm never going to go, well, you know, that wasn't that bad of a deal or that was, that was in a very,
non-dangerous area of the track because that doesn't exist every part of the track is potentially
dangerous right and that you know when he gets turned he could get hit in the door broad you know wide
open by somebody not paying attention somebody yeah they were in the they were like all the way in the back
but still i know but there could have been a guy long way yeah it could have happened yeah and so
you know we won't i won't i won't debate that type of stuff but i would if i was
NASCAR, I would have to probably say if I was NASCAR, and I've done this, and NASCAR's done this to me.
They'll sit you down and they go, we like you.
And we don't want to, we don't want to do this, but we have to.
You know, there's been like the, when I said, I got a call from Hilton.
He's like, dude, with the world the way it is now, because they had that thing with the Super Bowl with Janet Jackson and all that.
and Johnny Sauter said the word shit on TV the week before
and they penalized him.
He's like, I can't not do it because there's this, this, this,
and I can't not do it.
The bar has been set.
And dude, me and Hilton are tight.
And he's like, you're getting a penalty, okay?
That's what's going to be.
And so I think that's what they'll do with Austin.
What did you make of the ending?
Kyle Busch trying to get a win.
He had to battle SVG there for a while.
I'll race, great battle.
Dude, I was so surprised at SVG's car and how it just sort of failed him.
Like he had no speed.
He didn't like drive back.
You know, he lost, you know, he was bad on new tires.
I don't know whether they were on air pressure or whatever, but he could not go.
But in stage three, usually he was able to rebound, right?
In stage three, he wasn't.
He faded.
Fated and faded and faded.
Yep.
I think he said that last set of tires he didn't like.
Yeah.
which can happen as well.
And I noticed that throughout the race.
Some cars got better later in the race.
And I don't know if that was maybe the track conditions changing a little bit.
And the sun was kind of setting some, and maybe some guys cars got better.
Yep.
Yep.
Well, I, anyways, back to the finish.
I love the fact that we had those moments in the race where the leader,
Kyle Busch in most instances, was being tested.
and challenged.
And then late in the race,
I'll be honest,
we were watching,
watching the 20 cars stay out.
And I'm thinking, man,
how much time are they losing
before they came down pit road
for their last set of tires?
Like, how much time are they losing?
They're losing too much time
to be able to make this back up.
And when he gets back out on the racetrack,
he's four-tenths, five-tenths, nine-tenths.
He's way faster than Kyle Busch.
He's definitely going to run him down.
I was a little bit surprised by that.
He was going to get to Kyle Busch and be able to, you know, and have the newer tires.
The question was, is, would that equalize?
Would the tires equalize in terms of how they were falling off?
Because Kyle was going to push his car a long ways on tires.
Would his car just drop off a cliff in lap time and fall off, which it did, ultimately?
So, I mean, that was the difference maker.
and we saw
you know
we saw a lot of people
get up into the battle
at the end of this race that I never would have guessed
would have driven up
in there
Byron and Reddick and I mean we got a
four car battle for the win there next thing you know
was four cars raised a fucking was wild
exciting and they
did a good job of not
wrecking each on each other right
and dicking each other over so
quality racing
made me a very proud fan
we're live
really yeah now we're live
let me see
this is the ASJ junior portion of the show
and thank y'all for tuning in
to that
want to thank Xfinity for being
a great partner here
the ASS junior portion is presented
by Xfinity today as you see right there
a nice little mobile Xfinity mobile
nice little graphic there guys
And we've got some great questions.
Andrew has come into the studio, Travis.
We've been talking about Cota.
We've been talking about right hooks and all kinds of stuff.
Everything.
The Cars Tour, everything else going on in the world.
But hopefully we've got some great questions today.
Yes, Todd Bob on the YouTube chat is asking, is this live or pre-recorded?
And Todd, we're happy to tell you that this is live.
Todd Bob?
Todd Bob is his name.
I don't know if that's a cool name.
He's got two first names.
Yeah.
He's got two first names.
This first one's from Kevin.
He saw your tweet, I think it was over the weekend, about the Panini cards that you would just write random things on there.
And he wants to know what's the most random thing you remember writing or what were some of the things that you would write on some of these cards.
I'd have shared that in the tweet, because I would have just told the whole story there.
But I, you know, I'll be sitting there.
and Nicole does this now.
They come climbing my lap.
I'm sitting at the kitchen table
and I'm signing these cars
and I got all this stuff laid everywhere
and I'm signing cars
and Nicole clums climbs in my lap
and she's like, I want to color.
And I'm like, well, I'm not color
and I'm signing my name.
Why? Why are you signing my name?
Well, these cars are going to go.
And so, well, I won't do it.
That's what she'll say.
Well, I want to do it.
And I'm, and I like,
I always used to do that too.
And I'd be like,
all right, here, write your name.
And they'll write their name on a card and draw and doodle and color.
And I'm like, all right, you're good.
You got, you did one.
And I'll sign my name on it, throw it in a pack.
And I've always wondered, like, I wonder what Panini does when they get them.
Because I know when some are ruined or smudged, they'll throw them out.
Or they'll send me another one say, hey, we need you to do five because five were messed up.
And, um, but some of these are like,
So the pack, they'll pack, the Panini pack will come and say they got a card, right?
Some kind of specific style of card.
And they'll be the bronze version, the silver version.
And then they'll be like one gold and that's like a one of one.
And so it's pretty neat.
And I think card collecting is kind of like die cast.
It cycles.
It has its moments, it's eras.
And I don't know for whatever reason it feels like card, diecasts and card
collecting and just memorabilia in a in general feels like it's um fun again i don't know but uh i've
been collecting cards a little bit lately have you yeah i've heard that from football baseball i've
heard that from a few different people yeah um but i've got i've got some old stuff from way back
in the day uh early 80s uh baseball and football cards yeah oh we're gonna have to we're
have to come here soon where do you keep them like in a booklet you know um the ones that i've
That's how I did it.
I have some stuff.
Some of my best cards are in books.
I never had the hard cases on my own stuff.
If you got a full set,
I got an 81 dinners or something like that,
you got that in a box,
a sleeve.
Okay.
Yeah.
I went back home and I was cleaning some stuff out.
I have a lot of starting lineups.
Did you ever collect those?
Yeah.
The stand-up guys?
Yeah.
The football players?
I remember them.
Yeah, I had boxes of those.
I got a lot of stuff like that.
That's some old stuff.
Yeah.
I mean, yeah.
Roberto Quente and early 70s and late 70s stuff.
I got a BoJackson Topps baseball card.
Don't you turn it on today?
I had a lot of Bojj.
So I was getting into baseball cards probably in the early 90s.
And a lot of the popular stuff that people were messing with was like the 83 tops.
83 tops was a pretty good year.
Yeah.
There was a Bo Jackson there.
I think it was a rookie card.
All right.
This next question is from Katie.
She wants to know how is the production day.
I think he was at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Oh, Steve?
Yeah, and Chase was there too, was he?
He was there a couple days before me.
Oh, okay.
I was supposed to go work this production for Amazon.
We're shooting commercials kind of to promote our little five race summer stretch.
And I was supposed to go Wednesday and Thursday,
but I was so sick.
Like I was so...
I've never...
Borderline, like deadly.
I was sick.
I get a traditional head cold or something once, twice a year,
maybe a sore throat, just a standard old thing.
And, you know, it's annoying as hell,
especially sore throat, nothing worse than that.
But, um, ah, it's no big deal.
I don't ever get the flu.
I don't ever get fevers.
I ain't ever in the bed.
I mean, it's been 10 years since I've been so sick I crawled in bed for the day.
It's been a long time.
And so, Nicole was really sick, and I was like, you know, you're a little concerned as a parent.
But most of the time, they kind of weathered the storm and worked through it.
But she got pretty quiet and like a, you know, not wanting to walk or go.
or get up,
want to lay.
Yeah.
Want you to carry her everywhere.
That's scary.
Yeah, we took her to the hospital Saturday.
And luckily everything's okay.
Got her some meds.
And she's fine.
But I got whatever she had.
And it knocked me on my ass, man.
I was feeling I had about 103 and a half temperature.
Yeah, it was spiking to that.
It was like 100 steady for three days.
I could not kick it.
And, yeah, I was in the bed.
I was awful, awful.
Just firing off bets.
So, yeah, I would have these moments where I'd feel good enough to text.
Yeah, yeah.
I was in such.
I could lift a few fingers up.
I was in such a bad, bad, shave at points.
It hurt to text.
Oh, my goodness.
Yeah.
How did you communicate?
I mean, it hurt to move.
The whole body was in such pain.
When your body aches, it's the worst.
And so I had to cancel the shoot.
And I called Amazon, and I'm like, y'all, I'm bad.
and I'm like, I'm like, if you want me to come in and do this, I will.
But I don't think you do.
And everybody's like, stay home.
Yeah.
Get away from me.
And so they kept, they worked Chase.
He was booked on Thursday.
So he came in and done his stuff.
And then they moved me and Steve to Friday.
And I think, yeah, so we knocked it out Friday.
I was good by the end.
Are you mentally prepared for the call races?
We've been sitting in a room for the past two days
We watched Cota as a team
Oh really?
Yeah, all of my Amazon, my producer,
and all of our folks are Adam Alexander
How's the flow?
Steve
We just sat there and we're like, yeah, that's cool, we like that, we like this,
thinking about this, thinking about that, just different things.
And we did that Sunday, and then yesterday
we sat in the same room and watched an old race that we did at Road Atlanta.
And we're thinking, like, you know, we're kind of focusing on Mexico City
and, like, how we're going to present that race and how we're going to do it.
Why?
Just because it's going to be a big...
New track.
All eyes on it.
Yep.
Want to do a good job?
Oh, you.
Road America.
What I say, Rhode Atlanta?
Yeah.
Yeah, Road America.
Oh, okay.
Sorry.
So we watched last, you know, probably 22,
two or something.
Yes, that you did.
Yeah, that we did it.
Right.
Okay.
And so we've been,
that's, we're prepping,
we're getting ready.
Let's see.
Next question is from Twitter.
Ryan wants to know
what's maybe your
least appreciated victory,
most forgotten one,
like one where you kind of
flew under the radar
where you're like, damn.
That's a big win.
That's a question for some,
that's a question for the people
that are watching.
Watching.
have a least, I don't have one that I least appreciate.
Any that, like, maybe you shouldn't have one, but you kind of snuck in.
Well, I mean, you might be able to help too.
Yeah, there's probably one I, the first one I could think of is when it rained in Phoenix.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
We were going to run second.
We were going to run good in that race still.
Yeah.
Yeah, we were running.
We were second to Harvick, and we cycled in front of him under a green flag pit stop.
Yeah, and then it rained.
The caution came out.
Or the rain, yeah.
Okay, yeah.
It was, I remember it was something weird to do with.
pit road.
Harvick was faster.
We were going to run second.
There was a fuel mileage at Michigan in 2008.
Yeah.
So anytime you win a fuel mileage kind of deal where you weren't the best car and,
you mean, hey, you like you.
You don't give a shit.
You're going to Victory Lane.
But you know that you're like, you know, lucky.
More lucky than good.
I'd still take, there's, man, we ran out of gas at Charlotte that one time.
That was bad.
Yeah, that was a haunting.
Vegas.
That one haunts me.
Vegas.
Vegas is bothersome, but I would have...
Oh, Charlotte.
Which one are you talking?
Which Vegas are you talking about?
I don't remember.
Braddon't know.
What happened?
We ran out of gas, damn it.
Off a turn two.
Oh.
Well, it's...
I mean, you know, you really shouldn't...
T.J. brought it up.
Do that.
I would rather...
Out of those two, I would rather have...
I would rather have...
Oh, Charlotte.
We're going.
Charlotte.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, that's the thing about athletes
As you always hear about the ones that they didn't get
Don't, like they don't remember the wins as much
Yeah, that's true
You know, we're always
I think we're human.
Where do you sit there?
It's a human nature thing
Do you sit on more of the ones that got away
Or do you like remember the good moments?
I remember the good moments
More so than anything else
Yeah, for sure
Man
Yeah
I mean, I'm sitting here right now
trying to think of like a least appreciated win but um yeah i don't take them all yeah uh tj this next
question's for you uh in jim wants to know just how is brad doing i know he had to go to the infield
care center i saw r f k put an update out then he's doing a lot better but have you spoken yeah no
brad's good yeah just just a long day with um these cars are super hot inside still and when these guys
stuff fails. It's hard to keep them cool. And there's no real, the only break at Coda is down the
front stretch for, what, eight seconds maybe from the time you leave 20 to the turn one and the rest
of the track, you're working really hard. So tough day to have that, you know, something malfunctioned like
that. But yeah, no, I've eased. There's so many things you can do now to recover and the medical
team being there as quick as they were and getting fluids. But no, he's all good.
when did it happen during the race
it was from before the
pace laps oh really
and he knew he was in for a long day
yeah
dang yeah the broadcasts I don't think
touched on that
yeah it was all day yeah
it was all day yeah that's miserable
yeah it was
Dale have you had anything like that
or just
after a race just completely beat
had to go to the infield care center
just I will tell you
the one time
I think the one time where
I was toast after a race that I can remember is the IROC Michigan race.
Really?
I know, man.
So.
I want to pick that one.
I know it.
So, I mean, I ran, this is a 50, 50 lap race.
Yeah, lap race, something like that.
And the only thing that I can, I got out of the car, went to Victory Lane, saw Dad.
and then I got
I had to go to the infill care center
like immediately
and they gave me a couple bags of IVE
I don't know if I'd been partying too much that week
but honestly
odds are that it was a
No no no honestly
What do you mean now?
Well I'm I'm
I don't
I mean because I partied all the time
And I never really had any problem
To the 50 lap race
Right.
Especially in Michigan.
Long tradeaways.
I know.
I ran the expensive.
It was not a hard car to drive.
I believe that since we mean, I was running behind dad the whole race.
And then I came down to this sort of last lap little shuffle where I almost beat him.
And I really believe that I was holding my breath to, yeah.
So drivers will hold their breath for like qualifying runs.
You don't even realize it either.
You don't even realize you're doing it.
Yeah.
And, yeah, so, like, you'll, you'll, like, you're hauling at, so you're driving, so you're driving a car, let's say you're in Atlanta where you're, it's white knuckle.
And you know, you're like, you're, you're excited, you're wanting to do it, but you're also at the same time fearful because you're going to have to drive this thing right to the edge of the limit.
And it's not easy.
No.
And so you're going down the straightaway, right?
And you're hanging on the steering wheel.
and you start to turn off in the corner,
you might go,
and you're holding your breath
all the way through the corner.
And you'll hold it down in the back straight away.
You might breathe a little bit,
but then you'll keep doing that
in corner after corner after corner.
And I think that, you know,
that would happen quite a bit in qualifying,
and you'd get across the finish line,
and you'd be like, out of breath.
You'd like, holy crap.
One lap killed me.
I'm like going to do 300 years.
Yes, you would.
You'd go,
man, I've got to relax.
In the race, you'd be fine because you just kind of would.
And the pace slows down, too, in the race.
But I, I would say that that day I was probably holding my breath for a lot of the last few laps because we're getting inside 10 to go.
The thing about it, too, is in the I rock car, you don't have a radio, you don't have a spotter, you don't have anything.
You're by yourself.
You're alone.
Yeah.
Oh, man.
And so you're doing everything that you're getting, you know, you're doing everything by yourself.
And I'm trying to beat my dad, just me.
I'm in this car with nobody giving me information.
No crew chief.
Nothing.
Just trying to beat them straight up.
Yeah.
And it's just a straight up battle.
And I think for the last probably 10 laps, I wasn't breathing enough.
I was probably breathing enough to stay alive.
Oh, my God.
And so we get done, and I get out of the car, and I run over to Victor Lane, and adrenaline gets me there.
And I wanted to see Dad and go, I wanted him to see me immediately and go,
You almost had me because I did.
But he was like, yeah, good run today.
You're out here dying.
I know.
But I'm like, I'm like, well, he ain't good run.
You almost whooped your ass.
What do you mean?
He, I know, he's just like, oh, hey, good job.
Good job.
Good job.
Good second.
And I'm like.
That's so classic.
And so.
Did that piss you off?
Yes.
But immediately.
Can you tell?
Immediately.
I'm just, I know.
Immediately after that, I'm like, oh.
I feel a little dizzy.
Oh, goodness.
So I go to the Info Care Center and got a couple of bags of IVs and was rocking and rolling.
Man, 30 minutes later, I was fine.
Those IVs will change, like, it's...
I've never had one.
I drove a 10-lap race at a dirt track with Schrader messing around the match race stuff or something silly.
And I was so damn tired after 10 laps on a dirt track.
I'm going to tell you right now, dirt track racing is serious.
Freaking seriously physical.
and it that was another like I wasn't breathing I was like you know driving this dirt car and I'm like holy crap um dirt racing is I've wondered like man wonder why the dirt guys don't run like really long races dude you can't like you know these short races they run is is physically tough yeah especially like them outlaws and stuff that is game on yeah so where do you feel it at in your body like is it's
just everywhere or is there
certain spots where you feel it
it's just your whole being
your whole yeah you're just
overall exhausted
I think now that you mentioned the hold
in the breath isn't that
like Noah Gregson would get sick
after his like truck series wins
that's probably part of it because of that
because he get you get out of the car
and adrenaline and you're you've won
so your mind is saying
hell yeah this is awesome
I'm excited I'm happy
and all of a sudden, it's like all the blood just falls, you know, rushes to your feet.
You just go like...
It just like hits you like a truck.
Yeah, tingly and numb and you just...
And you just know you're not feeling it.
Damn.
Wow.
It's fast.
Yeah, that's that actually...
It's not a fun feeling.
When he was sitting there throwing up, he was miserable.
Yeah.
Till it would finally calm down and he'd get his breath.
Even if you're...
even if you're not holding your breath,
is that still common after every race
to feel that adrenaline fall?
No, that's not common.
That's not common.
It's only if you're really just tense
and white knuckling it at the end.
19 out of 20 races, you're going to,
more than that, you,
that would happen once a year, somewhere.
Yeah.
But no.
Yeah.
I mean, you'd be racing your ass off somewhere
and you weren't doing it.
You weren't holding your breath.
Well, some of them tracks
were intense qualifying, man, where you're on the edge.
Qualifying Atlanta, man, was always wild.
And Texas, like 2008 at Texas, you knew, like, all right, my car's good.
I think, I'm going to have to run, I know I'm going to have to run wide open in three and four.
Yeah.
I know it.
For a good lap.
To run a good lap, I'm going to have to.
And so you go down in there and you're like, oh, you're like, oh, something is going to
happen where you're going to go, you know, jump out of the gas a little bit.
But you can't.
But you can't.
I mean, you will and save the car, right?
But you'll run 10th or 15th.
Even Bristol.
You're driving it down in there.
Full throttle, 8,000 RPMs, you know, 180 miles an hour, maybe 185.
And you're like, we're going to load this damn thing in the track and it's going to lock
in and I'm going to stay in this throttle and just wrap this corner.
But you don't know.
it might not do that, you know.
Yeah.
I mean, even people hold their breath of Bristol qualifying because it used to be you're on edge there.
Oh, yeah.
And how long is that lap again, just time-wise?
28 seconds at Texas?
Yeah.
Probably 26, 28.
Yeah, same.
Real close to Atlanta as well.
But people hold their breath for qualifying for two laps in row at Bristol.
I mean, it's tense there.
I remember when Ryan Newman ran in the 14s at Bristol.
The very first time anybody ran in the 14s.
And that 12.
Oh, my God.
All of us were standing there in the infield, watching him run that lap,
and that damn car flew through the corner.
Yeah.
And they said, 1492 or something.
And I was like, unbelievable.
I mean, he already had the reputation as being the Rocket Man.
But that was the moment where you're like, yep, you can't, you can't, it's not a, you know, it's not a gimmick.
He really did something that a lot of people didn't think it was possible to run that kind
of a lap. Is there, Charlotte, Atlanta, and Texas where he was just like, okay, let's go watch
Newman and get the pole. Yeah. Like, they had something figured out. They had something figured out
in that car. They did. What was this, Creef? Matt. Borland? Borland? Yeah. They were,
they had something going on, and it worked everywhere. There was, like, big right rear springs or something
back then. I don't remember what it was. You were asking me about that, that shoot. This will be the
best thing we do today. We, we were. That prime shoot. That prime shoots. Yeah. So I, I,
I'm at this Amazon Prime shoot Friday.
And when I was, and this young guy walks up to me,
this working on the shoot, and he goes, hey man, you went to school with my dad.
I was like, really?
He goes, I was like, what's his name?
Because I probably, it might ring a bill.
He mentioned his dad's name, and I was like, yeah, can't say I can remember or even put a face with that.
he goes, Southview Christian school.
And I was like, damn.
So I went to a lot of schools, right?
And right around, I'm going to say this was seventh grade.
At the very beginning of my seventh grade year,
there's a Southview Christian school that's on the way to the Statesville Airport.
I pass by this school twice a week at a minimum.
I pass by it all the time.
dad and
Teresa sent me to that school with Kelly
beginning my seventh grade year
and
I had been
going to another school in Statesville
for a couple years
and I don't know why that ended
but
probably something I did
but
Southview Christian school
I believe that's the name of it
so I drive by it all the time
and I only went there
six months
but I remember, and I've said this to Amy, I'm like,
that school in that six-month period was my favorite experience as a kid in school
because every other school that I went to kind of had little groups.
No clicks.
Yep, you were part of this clique and you weren't part of that,
and this was the popular kids and the preps and the jocks and everybody had their little space.
and you know you just wanted to get in one you right especially moving around from school to school
that has to be really tough yeah so you just wanted to be in some group right and and have your
little group of friends that you saw every day and hung out with every day not in this school in
this school there was probably i don't know it felt like there were about 18 to 25 of us in a class
in our class everybody felt like they had the exact same level wow of stature or
And as soon as I got in there, man, everybody was fun, friendly.
We all goofed around and joked around and got in trouble and talked in class.
And, you know, but it was like I was brought in and accepted immediately.
And it was just a really great class.
Yeah.
And I remember where our classroom was up in the top of the gym.
And I remember having, immediately connecting and making like,
10, 12 friends right away
and just having a great
time.
And
I got
I was going to get expelled because
if you get wrote,
that just took a turn.
It was going really good
and I was having so much,
I was having so much fun
and making so many good friends
like easily.
Yeah. And I was probably
trying too hard and being too much
acting out too much, talking
in class. If you got road up
eight times before
the winter break
that would
you'd have to leave. That was it. That was it.
You'd have to leave. I get rowed up
just right before the break.
It wouldn't process till we got back.
My thought was I was going to be
expelled when we returned from Christmas
break. She got your eighth right up.
Right before break. And in my mind, I'm going
on Christmas break. My parents have no idea
that when I go back, I'm getting expelled.
And so my gut is, I'm getting an ulcer, worrying about this, right?
Well, little did I know that they had already planned to send me to military school.
So when I get home, they're already going through pamphlets for military school on the floor.
And I'm like, I'm kind of like, well, I can embrace this military school idea and not have to ever get in trouble about getting expelled.
they'll just pull me out. I'll go to military school.
Not expelled. No problem.
Don't love military school. Don't love that idea.
But it wasn't expelled.
What is it? Yeah.
Well, so, I remember the last time, the last thing I got wrote up for was a simple,
I was having a conversation with a guy in a chair behind me and the teacher wrote me up.
And I was like, gosh, this is so trivial.
But this is number eight. I'm going to get kicked out.
And he's like, I don't care.
I was like, come on, man. This is going to expel me.
This is such a small thing.
I remember making a case for myself.
You fought it.
But this gentleman, this young guy that I met at the shoot, he goes, yeah, my dad and you and two other guys, he named these two other kids.
He's like, y'all hung out every day.
Y'all are friends and y'all spent a lot of time.
He's like, I was like, yeah, man, I was telling him the story about getting rode up and getting in trouble.
And he's like, you got, my dad told me one of the times that you got in big trouble, you brought a Playboy magazine to the classroom.
Now, oh,
And I was like,
Oh, right, there it is.
Jall hit the floor.
I was like.
And what are you, you were so cool?
I was like, yeah, I don't remember that.
And he's like, yep, that's what dad said.
Dad said you brought it to it.
Who was on the cover?
He's like, he's like, you brought it to the classroom.
He was a centerfold.
You whipped it out and we're looking at it.
You whipped it out?
Whoa, whoa.
The Playboy?
Yes.
Okay.
Stop it.
Sorry.
So you pull the plate.
I'm like, I don't, I can't believe that this is even possible.
Brought it for the reading material.
That I would do this in a Christian school.
I can't believe you forgot about this.
I can't believe.
I can't believe it is.
No, what are you at all that friends?
What do you think the other six write-ups were for then?
One was for talking to somebody.
One was for a playboy.
What were the other six?
I don't know.
I believe.
I know.
That's what I was saying, dude.
Jay, that's, no wonder you had so many friends.
Chat, what do you think Dale got in trouble for?
Give us the six reasons, chat.
Oh, my gosh.
I just can't believe that.
I can't.
I forgot what a wild menace I was.
When you said I got, I was going to get expelled.
I was like, man, what could you have done?
Now it's fully understandable.
Yeah.
So that's what I meant.
Like, I was, things were going so well.
I was having so much fun.
And I was, and so I was trying too hard.
And I knew dad had that stash in his bathroom.
And I'm like, man, I'll take one of them to class.
I was going to ask you, did you like talk about it beforehand?
No, I'm like, my buddies are going to love this.
They did.
And so, I mean, I'm assuming if it really did happen, that's what that's how.
What do you mean if it really did happen?
I'm not, I don't remember this.
I don't recall it.
Do you remember your dad's stash?
Yeah.
It happened.
It happened.
Kelly.
It definitely happened.
Yeah.
Kelly says it might have happened.
But I couldn't believe that, man.
So I'm pretty sure that that was not the eighth and final punishment.
That was probably number two.
That was probably in the middle of somewhere.
That was four through eight.
That counted as a bunch of more than one.
I really messed up.
I really messed up.
I appreciate you owning up to it.
Did they ever find out, though, that you were going to get expelled so that they never found that out?
I don't believe so.
Well, that's good.
That's a win.
Yeah.
My whole reason for, like, sharing this story and continuing the conversation with the young man at the photo shoot, I was like, hey, for, so I bought some, I bought some, I bought some yearbooks from my dad's high school days.
Because I don't have, I mean, it's just cool to have an old yearbook from his fourth grade class and there's dad in his little fourth grade classroom.
You know, it's funny to see Dale Earnhardt dressed up as a little, you know, 10-year-old school kid.
And I found some of his yearbooks from his high school, from his elementary school, because he quit school in eighth grade.
But I found some of his yearbooks from like fifth, sixth, and seventh grade, and I bought them on eBay and kept them.
And I've been looking for the yearbook for this school, Southview Elementary or Southview Christian Academy.
from my seventh grade year,
whenever that might have been.
Half of it?
I do know that Living on a Prayer just came out.
Oh.
Like, we were all singing that song,
up and down the road,
going to school back.
So, like, Bon Jovi had just blown up
with Living on a Prayer.
I do remember that.
That's cool.
So, hey, you know,
we had Bon Jovi living on a prayer.
We were taking Playboys to school.
I just realized.
What a time.
That was their feeling.
Oh, my God, I'm jealous.
Brought a Playboy to a Christian school.
It's not just like regular school.
That's rock and roll right there.
Dude, you read to be the most popular kid.
What I want is to be able to get the yearbook from the school relatively around the time I was there.
I was, I left the school before we did class photos, so I'm not in it.
But I do want to see my class.
Yes.
Yeah.
Because I'm, I drive by this school twice.
a week at the minimum and every day since I was a seventh grader I've thought about this school
and those kids in that class that I was with.
Wow.
And how great my experience was in a very brief time I was there.
And I just want to see their faces because I remember, I know when I see them, I'll go,
that was one of my friends.
That was one of my friends.
I remember those two.
They were great.
And then do you ever like, what are they up to now?
Of course.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Too bad you're not in the picture, though, because it'd be like,
like, that's the guy
that's the guy that brought the playboy.
Yeah, yeah, Dale took the picture.
I did reconnect with some,
I got my, I got my yearbooks from my, you know,
10th, 11th, 12th grade senior high school days.
And I did reach out and reconnect with some of those.
That's awesome.
And I'm, you know, hey, man, let's meet for lunch.
All right, so here we are on Dale Jr.
Downlow.
We got this week's winner and last week's winner.
Christopher Bell.
Thank you, Christopher for joining us today.
I know you busy.
Back-to-back wins, man.
I mean, this is this is the way you want to start the year.
It's hard to get much better than this, that's for sure.
So doing it at two different racetracks, two different completely unique styles of racing has to be something you're proud of.
I think knowing you and I believe you want to be a guy who's a master of a lot of different disciplines
and you're getting to run your dirt stuff again a lot more this year.
but I'm sure you look up to guys like AJ Floyd and Andretti for their ability to jump in about anything and be incredible like Tony Stewart and even Larson to an extent.
So, you know, is that kind of come into mind when you go out there and you win in Atlanta and then you go to Cota the next week and do the same thing?
Yeah, absolutely, Jr.
As a driver coming up, I felt like the way that you separate yourself from the young guys,
coming up in the sport is being able to win across multiple disciplines.
And, you know, I growing up dirt track racing and specifically open wheel racing, like I remember
you had wing smart car guys, non-wing smart car guys, and they didn't really go back and forth.
And, you know, I was just like, I wanted to be able to be good in both of them and be able to
win wing, be able to win non-wing, be able to go run a midget car or whatever.
And that, the NASCAR Cup series, one thing that I love about the Cup series is,
the schedule is so diverse and you have different styles of racing that are completely different than one another.
You have the intermediates, the short tracks, which are kind of in one bucket.
You have speedway racing, which is another one, and then road course racing as well.
So the fact that I've been able to win and all of them is something that I take a lot of pride in.
So as you're battling late in the race, I kind of need to know we were watching the broadcast.
and Harvick and those guys are doing such a great job
trying to help us understand what your challenges were
when you were behind the eight car.
You had an advantage on tires to an extent that was really big.
Were you worried about that neutralizing itself at some point?
As you're following Kyle so closely,
is there a clock that's running in your head?
Is there the hourglass, the sands and an hourglass?
Not so much to the end of the race,
but your car's ability, your ability really kind of get around,
Kyle is, are you thinking that that's a that's something that's clicking away that you need to get more
more urgency in you to get it done? You know, honestly, I never really thought about my car deteriorating.
I certainly, whenever we started stage three, I had that a little bit where I was behind Kyle
and pressuring him there for a while and then he started to gap me a little bit. But then after
the pit cycle happened and he pitted a couple laps before me, I felt like I had the upper
hand as far as car speed and tire life. And I was just trying to be respectful of making my move on
him. And I didn't want to, you know, get overzealous and push the issue too quickly. And Coda,
it's shorter now, but it's still super, super long laps. And I remember Adam did a great job
on the radio just saying, hey, man, there's plenty of time. There's still eight laps left,
six laps left. And I'm like, eight laps, six lap at Bristol, you don't have much time. But at Cota,
you got an eternity. And honestly, I felt a little bit more comfortable being, you know, the
chaser than I, you know, getting out front and having to defend. So I was just buying my time.
I had a couple runs down the front straightaway where I felt like I could potentially outbreak him.
I was able to outbreak a lot of other guys early in the race. And turn one was my preferred passing off
But Kyle was the strongest car that I had gone up against as far as outbreaking them getting in the corner. He was pushing his entries so hard. You know, we saw me have to bail out getting into one once because I was going to clean him out if I attempted to, you know, get it in there. So yeah, I just, I wanted to make sure that I, I didn't rough him up. He was racing. He probably had the most hunger out of all of us with, you know, being Kyle Busch, his one-le-
the streak he's on. I know he wanted to win really hard or really bad and it was not going to be
an easy pass by any stretch of the imagination. So speaking of road courses, you were in Mexico City
last week with NASCAR? Yes, sir. What were you doing there? We got to check out the racetrack
there and it was a phenomenal facility. I don't, I had never been to a road course that the venue,
the, you know, the amount of the size of it.
Like, Coda is a world-class facility, but the grandstands at Mexico just put Cota,
like it made Cota look like a middle schooler.
Like the place is set up to hold so many people, and that stadium section is just
immaculate.
Like, I can't imagine, you know, having the race that we had at Cota at Mexico City coming
down to the closing laps in that stadium section with the place just packed out.
Like, you know, Bristol is the closest thing.
thing that we have to it, but having a road course with grandstands around there in that section
of the track, I think it's going to be an amazing atmosphere.
Yeah, we were, that's one of the Amazon prime races, and we're starting to sort of prepare for,
you know, how we're going to cover that race.
Do you, you know, were you able to really look at the track enough to kind of be able to
compare it to anything else, or what would you say that that track may remind us like?
I mean, it's hard to not compare it to Cota.
You know, there are similar tendencies.
There's no elevation change, so it's really flat.
The whole course is.
We got a little mixture of a super, super, super long front straightaway.
I imagine it's going to be top of fifth gear all the way to close to bottom of first gear.
So massive amounts of decel getting into turn one.
You have a little chicane there.
and there's a mixture of, you know, good breaking zones, really hard breaking zones,
and then you have a section of S's that lead into the stadium section as well.
So no elevation, but you got a little bit of high-speed corners and slow-speed corners
and plenty of opportunity to root and gouge.
Well, one thing I wanted to ask you before we let you go, and again, I want to appreciate
you your time here.
you've gotten the green light to go back racing outside of your regular responsibilities on your
NASCAR Cup schedule. What does that mean for you? What does that mean in terms of your schedule?
How much of that do you want to incorporate into what you're already doing?
Yeah, I am just so incredibly thankful to have the opportunity to go run some sprint cars,
some midget cars and uh i really look forward to you know getting back on the dirt it's been a lot
of fun so far throughout the off season and uh i i'm going to try and be really respectful and make
sure that i you know make don't take anything away from you know my my my responsibilities as a
nascar cup series driver for the number 20 car at joe gives racing and um just uh it's i'm not
going to be making a schedule i'm not going to be making a schedule for you know races
way out there, but I am committed to, you know, the Las Vegas high limit race, and I'll be picking
and choosing some midweek stuff that doesn't interfere. Some would say, based off of this year's
performance, it's made a difference. Do you think that racing that way or in those type of cars
does make you any different in any way for your cup stuff? Well, Junior, it, you know that we don't have,
Our sport is so unique because we don't have a lot of practice time.
And even in practice, you're not in racing situations where you're making split-second decisions.
So just being able to race more has certainly, you know, it's made me feel more comfortable in my decision-making and probably made me feel sharper.
So I think the more you race, the better you get.
And, you know, having those events during the off-season, certainly I think has made my decision-making.
a little bit better whenever we got to Daytona and Atlanta and now, you know, starting into the
meeting of the schedule. Everyone, the Cup Series drivers are too good to have an advantage over
them for all the time, but certainly going into the early part of the year, I don't think it hurt me.
I have a quick question. How cool is it winning at Volusia earlier this year?
I mean, look, that'd be pretty cool.
Oh, dude, Volusia, it's one of my favorite racetracks in the world.
And it has one of the coolest trophies, too.
You get like a little gator.
Yeah, the gators.
I wanted one of those so bad whenever I was a full-time dirt track racer,
and I finally got one.
So that was freaking awesome.
Car was fast.
It drove amazing.
Driving sprint cars, it's so, so most sprint cars drive good whenever you show up,
the track's wet, and the thing turns left.
But the hard part whenever you go sprint car racing is whenever the track starts to dry out,
you have to tighten the car up to have grip in the car.
Well, whenever you start tightening it up, some cars stop turning left,
and they get really evil to drive because they don't want to turn left.
You have to turn the car left, and then the wing catches the air,
and it starts sliding, and you're still loose.
But Don Kreitz is an amazing crew chief,
and he did a great job of just applying grip to the car.
Whenever the track started to slick off, he was able to apply grip to the car
without changing the balance, which was amazing.
Yeah, it was a great race too.
Thank you.
We appreciate your time, man.
Thanks for giving us a few minutes today.
Congratulations on the early success this year
and your quest to go out there and win a championship.
It's going to be fun watching you this year,
and hopefully we'll have you back on the show soon.
Christopher, thank you, buddy.
Thank you, guys.
We'll see you.
Man, that was a pretty cool insight on his dirt racing.
Yeah, I was watching that race earlier this year.
It was so cool.
to watch.
I think that
him being able to share
how being behind the wheel
of any car and any
being able to race
helps him be more confident
and feel sharper
and feel more mentally tuned up
makes tons of sense.
I'm not going to lie, when he first came in
I didn't peg him as being a road course guy
and he's gotten really good at it.
Yeah, he's doing a good job, got a great race car.
Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen.
Place your bed.
All right, it's time for Dirty Modo.
And Tampa Tins is here.
This segment of Dirty Modeau is brought to you by Fanduel.
We're thankful for Fanduil and everything they do.
And Tampa Tims, I saw that you had a tweet during the race
that made it sound like things weren't going as well for you.
And what was going on?
I posted a gif of a guy just sitting on pile of trash.
So, because all my bets were trash.
Oh?
Yeah, I just bet, you know, bad betting practices, basically.
I got guys at their absolute high, and then, so the value was all gone.
It didn't work out, so in this value.
You had some scheduling conflicts, right?
It weren't allowing you to bet except for live bets.
Yeah, I had some things come up, so it was really just live betting, but I bet them at the absolute worst time.
Should have just bailed over the day.
Yeah, should just washed as a fan more, but, you know, it's okay.
I bet Christopher Bell live and that kind of, uh,
stop the bleeding, I would say.
Awesome.
Well, so that saved your day.
We head to Phoenix now this weekend.
I know it's only Tuesday.
But what, I mean, obviously, you've got to look at Penske.
Of course.
Christopher Bell on his hot street.
Yep.
Who else stands out?
I think Byron?
Byron in the favorites category, yeah.
He's the third option.
Chris Busher, he's always overlooked, I think.
I like the forwards.
You finish third there in the fall.
somewhere, didn't he?
Yeah, I mean, Pennsky.
His quietest third place finish ever.
I know.
But that's good, though, embedding.
I like when they're quiet.
I guess.
Good point.
The books don't have them on their radar.
Yeah, I mean, Chase Briscoe's another guy, too.
I think the books are, he's in a great equipment, but I like Briscoe at Phoenix, too.
Yeah, I do too.
I think he's a guy that had the odds caught.
I mean, do they favor him the way as if, say, Trerix was in that car?
Yeah, they're starting to.
They're starting to.
Yeah.
But I think, like, it really just depends.
if he qualifies well. I think he goes, if he doesn't qualify well, he goes back to where
we've seen him typically. But if he qualifies well, it's like that. It's a JGR car.
All right. What's the bets you're going to make today? Well, I've got a question for you,
make your bets. What's your thoughts on Reddick?
You know, I don't know. It's like hit or miss with Reddick for me.
It's either he's going to really, he's going to qualify up front, it's going to be good,
or it's going to be a mediocre day. And I don't think the price for him dictates that kind of
fluctuation. What bet are you going to make?
for NASCAR today?
Yeah, for this weekend.
Give me some bets to me.
Well, I think Chris Busher
at plus 2,600 to win is a good bet.
Yeah.
There's a guy also, if you want a real, real long shot,
it's kind of like, I don't think the price
really matches what he is, Daniel Suarez.
It's not really running that great,
but his average finish at Phoenix
is better than Kyle Busch, Bubba Wallace,
and Chase Elliott,
and they are miles ahead of him in the books.
So, I mean, if you're looking for a guy
a real long shot with some value,
it might be something.
At Phoenix.
At Phoenix, yeah.
man, I don't know about none of that.
I think you're sitting on trash bags again.
Okay, Dale, like, obviously you can't bet anything,
but who are some drivers that you would have your eyes on
that you think are going to perform well?
Well, I mean, it's obvious to me,
looking at the statistics, you can go by,
the Penske cars look good to me,
but Blaney is probably the only one out of that group
I'd probably be willing to bet on.
and I like the Toyotas
and I also think
Chase Elliott and Larson to an extent
I just feel
I feel like that the Penske
dominance at Phoenix
has to normalize at some point
right and who is the ones that then rise to the top
I do like Briscoe,
I think Briscoe is going to outperform his past history, right?
And if the books are looking at him the way they always have,
then that's a good value because I think he's, you know,
I think he's the kind of guy that's going to go out there now that we're kind of going to some more traditional style.
And he's got great success at Phoenix.
Good track record at Phoenix.
So Brisco would be a bet I'd be willing to make.
My long shot would be Josh Barry.
Yeah, it's not a bad one, too.
Why is that?
He's in a Penske-style car.
Good, you know, it's not a short track, but it's close enough.
Yeah, they should have good speed, and I think Josh adapts well to a track like that.
Yep.
That's not a bad call for a, it gives you a top 10.
I think a top 10, Josh Barry, that's the way to go.
He needs a good run, too, so this is a good weekend to capitalize.
I'd do that.
I'd make that top 10 bet for him.
I'd do Briscoe in the top 5 or if they let you do the top 3 bet.
Did they let you do that?
Yeah, of course.
Probably good odds on that.
Yeah.
Long shot, speaking of Noah, Noah last week.
Really good.
Yeah.
Surprising.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He did run good.
And it's not like he lucked into his spot either.
Like that was just a good race.
No, he earned it.
I mean, he missed turn one completely one time and still rebounded from that.
And, I mean, good run for him.
Yeah, so I think that's a good, that'd be kind of some fun bets to make.
I had a lot of success over the past week with the NCAA basketball and lacrosse even.
lacrosse.
Yeah, lacrosse.
Crank,
lacrosse is cranking up.
Sorry, I failed you guys on my lacrosse parlay.
You're too aggressive.
What do you mean too aggressive?
I don't know.
Are you saying like my odds were too small,
like you like to go of the minus 500?
Yeah.
I had a good,
I had a good night last night.
So,
let's see, Duke,
North Alabama,
McNeese,
Lipscomb,
Texas A&M,
Corpus Christi,
Jackson State.
Portland State, South Carolina,
State, Montana, Colorado State,
I got Colorado State in Arizona tonight.
Okay, okay.
But I had all of those in one parlay
and Colorado State
in Arizona tonight to finish it off.
It's not a bad one.
But I had four parlays win last night.
You're on a heater.
Dude, you are getting...
Well, I'm not betting like you.
It's hard to win when you bet like you win.
Or when you bet like you bet.
But, you know, when you win, you win a lot.
And that's what you've been doing lately.
Well, I'm betting pretty easy.
even odds.
Hey,
if you wait,
it doesn't matter.
That means he's supposed
to hit.
He sings a different tune
when we're like,
we're on.
What do you mean?
In the
mic chat.
Yeah.
When we're talking
in the hallway,
you're like,
yeah,
that's,
what kind of bed is that?
I've tailed all of your bets.
What are you talking about?
You're just trying to be nice.
What do you mean?
All right.
Do I not tell your bets?
You do.
I think there's some that are crazy.
You chuckled.
You chuckle when you see them.
Of course I'm going to chuckle.
He always suckles at him.
What's funny?
What's funny about this?
Oh, is it funny?
Because you're like McNeese and it's not, it's, you notice you how you pause.
You're like Texas A&M.
There's a pause in Corpus Criot.
No, those are, that's one school.
Oh, I know it's one school.
No, but you like, there was like a pause like you're, no, it's Texas A name Corpus Christi.
That's what I said.
I know, but it was like, oh, I laugh when I see 16 leg, like, I know, I know.
I know.
I'm like, oh my God.
When he says those screenshots, like, you got to scroll down and I'll see all of them.
I got to open up my computer to get the full of like.
at my phone. I have to scroll to see it.
Well, I can't wait until the NCAA tournament
comes around, though. It has to be fun. A couple
weeks. We need to do a parlay for every
game on that Thursday, every game on that Friday.
We've got conference tournaments coming up now.
A week's. It's going to be fun.
Get some player props going.
College sports
is fun. It is.
Yeah. College basketball, I think
would be pretty good. I mean, I just like
you know, I just like
stacking a bunch of legs of
big-time favorites into one part.
related for even money. It's like
It's fun. It's like 90% full proof.
I think, I think.
For folks listening, bet responsibly.
Yeah, but doing that, it brings the fun back into it.
Don't bet it. I'm a novice.
Well, we put some bet out a couple weeks ago and someone's like, I'm following it.
And they put down a, what I consider a substantial amount of money, we're like,
oh Lord.
Like, we're having fun with these beds, people. So don't.
Yeah, betting is for fun. Yeah.
Don't be put down. I think they put down like a hundred.
hundred dollars.
We're like, no, no, no.
That's too much.
That's too much.
All right, Dirty Modeau, the segment's brought to you by Fandul.
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, we love making some
NBA bets and telling each other.
Right now, we're heavily in the NCAA basketball stuff, at least I am.
And check out the boost bets and all the different things that Fandul offers.
That's the best part, too, is you can make that bet a little plus money action.
Yeah, yeah.
Sometimes I forget about that.
Just hit, just, of course, claim them all.
Yeah, I should.
50% boost on Fandul today.
I know, I saw that.
Nice.
White flag.
All right, it's time for the white flag.
The teardown was live on YouTube following the awesome race at Kota.
Yeah, and on Monday, DBC was joined by Connor Zillis to discuss his first win of the season.
Action is detrimental also dropped on Monday.
Herman Schrader and Speed Street will drop tomorrow.
Can't wait to hear what Connor has to say about the first race of the Indycar season.
Bless your heart.
will drop on Thursdays with me and Amy.
Thanks again to Jamie for filling in for me last week.
And also a reminder to check out our merch store.
Head on over to shop.
Dot dirtymodea.com to check it out.
Hope you all enjoy the show.
Thanks Christopher Bell for coming in.
Thank you, T.J.
Everybody here at Dirtymo Media and all you fans out there
that listen and joined us today on our S-Jriner segment.
It's a great show.
And Jack Sprague is the...
Jack Sprague is the guest for tomorrow.
Oh, Jack Sprague truck guy.
Truck chain.
Concord guy.
Concord guy.
One track jack.
He had a nickname called One Track Jack and now look at him.
He's being, he's a nominee or being talked about in the circles for the Hall of Fame.
It's incredible.
Quite a career.
Yeah.
We'll talk to him tomorrow.
