The Dale Jr. Download - Brad Keselowski’s Best NASCAR Stories You’ve Never Heard

Episode Date: March 10, 2026

It’s a special edition of Dirty Air this week as Brad Keselowski fills in for Dale Earnhardt Jr. while he’s on vacation. He joins co-host TJ Majors to share some stories and break down the action from this past weekend in Phoenix: More horsepower equals more stress on tires Brad shares a story about young Ryan Blaney at Phoenix Getting called to the NASCAR hauler... Justin Marks deserves credit for what he saw in SVG Who is in points trouble so far in 2026? Brad is a big advocate for this new format Cleetus McFarland is making us look at NASCAR’s approval process, again... Plus, a "best-of" edition of Ask Jr.   And for more content, check out our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia Real fans wear Dirty Mo. Hit the link and join the crew.👇 https://shop.dirtymomedia.com/ 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.

That happens now. Like, holy shit. We're pissed. So let me ask you this. Like, I'm still mad at Riley Herbst over to Daytona because he cost me not only a shot at the win, but he cost me three points. Like, those three points might be really big.

The following is a production of Dirtymoe media. This is the most fun I've had in this chair in the last hour and a half. I don't know if we've ever argued. Did I piss you off over the weekend? I'm still sour. Did I want the best man at your wedding? Who was your best man, Dale?

T.J. DJ. You don't need a cool best for that race. What are you thinking? Get them, DJ. Hellway is starting a show. All right then. Welcome in to another episode of the Dale Jr.

Download. This episode is presented by Arby's. Don't forget about Arby's new meat and three box. Get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meats. All right. So obviously, I'm not Dale Jr. Dale Jr. is off on vacation.

Yeah, it's a second. vacation in like three weeks. It's been a long time. Yeah. Rough, rough in it. He's got a lot going on, but I'm glad to be here. You know, my career started. Way to go. Right off to get. Do you know where Dale is at on vacation? Somewhere in the central United States. Yeah. skiing. skiing. And any advice. Don't break a leg. We'll start with that one. Watch for ice. Watch for ice. Yeah. So, you know, I broke my leg.

gosh, it's been about two and a half months ago. But I was on a ski trip, but I was not skiing, which it makes the story way less cool. But I think everybody immediately says, so you were skiing like, not really. But it just goes to show you can get hurt like anyway possible. Be much cooler if you hit a jump or something. I know, I know.

But I do think people have, they know, like, because they say Brad skiing, and they probably immediately think of that basketball video from about 20 years ago or whatever that was. Yes. You probably shouldn't ski. No. But I think you're actually decent at skiing now, right?

I'm actually a pretty proficient skier. I'm not like Colorado Black Diamond. Well, apparently you're not Dill's, you know, either because he does like 16 miles in the last two days or 16 miles a day here skiing, which I call B.S. So that's what he's told you, 16 miles. He's told us, yeah, 16 miles each day. So. Do you know how far 16 miles is on a pair of skis? I mean, no.

I'm calling BS. I'm going to need some kind of evidence. Do they have like those Stravas or whatever? you wear when you ride a bike he needs uh i need to see the strava for skiing do you think he's actually done 16 miles a day Travis no I think he did 1.6 this whole time he just can't read forgot his glasses yeah there's no there's no way Dale I listen he may have 16 beers a day he's not here so we can talk all this we want he's not no way what you really need is a camera on Dale Jr. when he listens to this he's like a Dale cam because I'd like to see like his

eye rolls and his like man you know how he gives you those eyes those like FU eyes when you say something to him he pretty much has him on the entire time here he's with Nicole and Ila too it's not like he's got some teenagers that are going to go like if anything they did like some tubing can you even tube 16 miles

no well either way Dale Jr's not here so I'm in he's being 16 miles in Colorado enjoy it precious time with the family and I'm carrying the wait so you know TJ said I'm not a podcast guy. I've been asked to do a lot of podcasts. I generally say no to almost every podcast. And it's not because I'm a jerk, but I really only do podcasts for my friends. So, you know, Dale gave me a great start of my career.

TJ's obviously one of my closest friends for a long time. And they asked me to join in. So here I am. I'm going to do Dale Jr. Donald. I figured you're like the last thing I want to hear is T.J. my ear is another day. You know what's weird, though, even though he like wants more. info during the races and stuff. So I do, you know, when I'm in the race car, I like a lot of chatter. Well, usually, not always. On road courses, not so much. But on most races, like, I like a lot of chatter.

I want to hear what's going on. I want to be like almost like a fan in the stands. Like, oh, this guy passed really. Like, I want to know these things. Like, well, how do you do it? I was running on the outside. He drove down to the bottom. Like, I want to know those things.

So, yeah, I do like a lot of talk. But podcasts, you know, I casually listen to podcasts. I can't say like I'm an everyday podcast listener. But, you know, I'll do them for my friends. Like I'll call in or be a part of for my friends. And so this is kind of a rarity to get me on a podcast. In fact, Travis, you might appreciate this. Before there was actions detrimental,

Mike Davis called me and said, hey, I want you to do this podcast. And he pitched it to me. And I'm like, man, Mike, that sounds great. I'm not going to do it. I don't want to do any podcast. I have way too much going out of my life. And next thing I knew, Denny was doing a podcast. Like, you know what?

That's perfect. I could have been a Bradbro. Yes. Wow. Yeah. I think of it. Look, I'm totally cool with Denny doing it because Denny says all the stuff that I think in my head, but don't really say.

And I'm like, yeah, you can be the one to get in trouble. You know what I mean? You can get fined $50,000. Yes. I've already ran that part of my life of like, I feel like I had a weekly tab at NASCAR. You know, like a bar tab? Like, all right. you know, and you have to cash it in.

Here's 50K. Here's 75K. And I got tired of paying that. So no more. No more fines. Yeah. I don't think I've been fine now for like almost eight years, which is. Hmm.

Knock on woods. Pretty good. So way to go, Denny. Let's see what we can get Brad to say today. Then you did this episode. Then I did this episode. I'm going to get fined for talking about getting fined. But yeah, Dale Jr.

Download. It does great. I'm sure there's a lot of people that are tuned in listening. You're like, where's Dale? Well, you got me. We're going to try to make it a fun episode. And I think we got a lot of great stuff to talk about coming off the Phoenix race weekend.

A lot happened. It's kind of an action-packed race weekend. And I'd like to dive into it. What do you say? You want to dive into it? Just looking at Phoenix right off, obviously the heavy hitters were Blaney and Bell and they were up front all day. Kind of thought Denny Bro would be a little stronger.

But they just didn't bring them fast. car. They have like a six to seventh place car. obvious. Just saying. I mean, I don't know how you do it when you, November, you bring the best car. You don't bring it this time, but. That is interesting. How you'll see like comers and goers at a racetrack where it's only like two or three months away.

Like, how did you go to that racetrack and like clean house and then come back two or three months later? Like, yeah, fit to 10. And it happens. Like I've been on that too where you'll have a car like, oh, just bring that same car back. We're going to kill them. It's going to be great. And then you go back and you're like, nah. it never works yeah i really expected them to be a little bit stronger i thought he had the best car in the

fall last year and probably probably should have won that race but do you think like the same tire and everything do you think that the tire is evolving no honestly i think that horsepower probably played into it uh you know they NASCAR gave the the more horsepower and it's you know depending on what engine bill you talked to you know it's 30 to 50 horsepower then he's scared of more horsepower no i think it made the car drive different yeah Yeah, it definitely probably does. I mean, you would know. You add a little more entry speed to the corners and it's a little harder on the tires.

You know, a stock car weighs 4,000 pounds almost. You know, that's a lot of weight. And if it enters the corner going, say, five-mile-hour faster, like, that's a lot more stress on the tires. You know, it's every straightaway, so it's twice, you know, twice a lap. And I think that that does something to the tires. And I think that probably played into what you saw in the race where you saw a lot of blown tires. And I thought it was interesting. Most of them were right fronts. I think maybe Briscoe blew a right rear, but most of them are right fronts.

And the cars, like the performance window is right before the tire blows. So you're like, how do we get as close to this as we can? And when you have a field of, you know, 37 cars, I think we had on Sunday. Yeah. It kind of goes without saying that one guy is going to guess a little too close. And so, you know, that was me on Saturday. I blew out of a tire in practice. Knocked the wall down.

I watched. Yeah, you were right there. that wasn't any fun but then in the race there was there had to be like a dozen people at blue tires right yeah i don't i mean there's a lot of flat tires why do they blow like why do why do they blow when the couch comes out why did more tires go down that is baffling to me so somebody will blow a tire out yellow comes out then we get two more and then you'll be under yellow and it'd be like three other guys pulled to the left with a flat tire like did they all time it the same yeah i'm curious on why like i don't i couldn't the only thing that makes sense to me is that they've they've broke like

the sidewall the tire and it's got like a slow leak. And when the yellow comes out, it just... Were teams being less aggressive in the first stage? Because we didn't have a flat tire in the first stage. Yeah, I think so. I think most everybody in the first stage was just like, hey, let's just get through this. And that actually builds your confidence.

You're like, ah, we made it through that. Let's go a little more. And then by the end of the race, it's like, we couldn't go 20 laps. I was like, oh, somebody blew a tire. So I think for sure, you get more. There's a lot of speed in it. So you're going to do... you're going to try to get more as the race goes on.

And obviously it bites some people. But you get more aggressive with the short runs, too, because you probably can a little bit. Yeah. Because people are getting, I mean, there's just more yellow. So, and it happened in the fall too, right? Fall is the exact same way. It wasn't, it seemed like the fall race wasn't as bad as the spring race.

Maybe I'm not remembering that right, but. No, but that was the first race, I believe, with that tire too, wasn't it? Like that. So people probably weren't pushing it as much. Yeah. No, that makes sense. But that's what racing is. is right now on the short tracks.

You know, the teams are going to push the tires. They're going to push them too far. You're going to blow them out. And you have to almost have your race strategy around knowing that's going to happen. Yeah. And we've kind of asked for a little bit to put this back in the team's hands to manage it a little bit because now you get natural yellows. Yeah.

A little bit. Which is good. That's good. Like if I'm a fan of the sport, yeah, when it's not you, it's good. If I'm a fan of the sport and you're like Phoenix, you're like, oh my God, long green flag runs, 60 straight laps, very little. passing. And then you throw in all this tire stuff. You're like, oh, no, actually, that was a classic Phoenix race. And most of Phoenix races, you know, Canada are kind of like blah. That was not a

blah race. I think Phoenix is evolving into a pretty decent little racetrack. It's got multiple lanes, hard to pass. You can have side by side action. Restarts are insane. So I agree. It was, it was a great race. I wish that was like what the championship races were. Yeah. Some people would disagree with that. no, Phoenix is certainly evolved. And, you know, one of the things I look at is when I think of Phoenix, I look at Blaney. Like, God, dang. He runs up front there every time. Yeah.

And I got to tell you this story. So in 2012, right after I won the championship, we had a test at Phoenix. And when he was driving my truck at the time, I want to say it was a two. It might even been a three-day test. and we go to the track and Blaney comes with me and keep mind he's not running cup at that time

and I remember taking him and I'm like come with me man you need to get good at this track this is an important track for you and so I remember taking it he had to be like 18 maybe 19 at the time so it's your fault yeah and he went there

unless I'm really talking to Ryan's commitment he went with me to this test and he spent two days in the garage area in the stands like watching and learning the track and I don't know he's just been really good there ever since I would say it's his best track by a pretty long ways I'd say there in Martinsville I mean he's got two or three that are creeping

up Phoenix is probably his best Martinsville and Loudoun hour right there with close 21 starts in Phoenix two wins 11 top 5s 15 top 10s that's pretty strong right yeah 15 out of 21 times he's been in the top 10 yeah that's pretty good yeah it's pretty good um but my favorite part of that story of taking them to that Phoenix test was we get like to the end of the second day. And, you know, if you ever do tests, everybody knows like the end of the second day is like silly time. You get like when there's like two hours left in the test, the end of the second day, you're like, we've ran through this list of things we're going to try on the car.

And we have more data than we know what to do with. We're down to like our worst ideas because you know, like you prioritize your best ideas while you're there. and you're just like, I don't know what to do. Well, let's throw this at it. All right. So we get to like the end of the second day. We're like done. We're out of ideas.

Blaney's sitting there. We're like, hey, Blaney, you want to run a few laps? And now, do you mind, he's 18. He's never drove a cup car before. Yeah. Back then, that's a. He's like Ricky Bobby, Teledega and I. I want to go fast, you know.

And they're like, all right, let's go ask NASCAR if you can get it because NASCAR had to prove of course, letting someone drive the car. So we walked over to ask NASCAR Well, that's not too hard The payroll process is easy And well, we thought it would be pretty easy And they were so pissed at us Like, what do you mean?

You went Ryan Blaine to drive it? He's not a cup driver. Only cup drivers can drive these cars. You guys know that. You shouldn't even ask us that. They were so mad at us That like four months later I want to see it was exactly four months later.

We got a penalty that Texas for the rear end kind of moving on the car and we get this penalty at Texas and in the penalty process, they brought it up. They're like, you guys are always doing stuff you shouldn't be doing.

Like when you asked about putting Ryan Blaney in the car at the test at Phoenix, and we're like, what does that have to do with anything? Like we asked, are you saying that we're in trouble again for asking? Like this is the, anyway, that was my Ryan Blaney,

Phoenix story. I don't even know if Ryan knows that story. So we're in the penalty meeting and they're yelling at us about Ryan Blaney, not even getting in the car, but just asking about him driving the car. Anyway, that's a bizarre world. But I've got a lot of weird stories like that. I mean, if you want to tell them about, I don't know if you want to tell them about the time, speaking of weird penalty meetings that you got called into the hauler.

What would you get in trouble for that you got called in there? Was that when you were messing out with Denny? Like kept running? I got to be more specific. I got called the hospital. hauler a lot of times really in my career it was uh oh no it was from phoenix that's what it was from oh yeah when he never got wrecked each other yes yeah denny went down on turn one shipped you up the track you go through three and four and you spin denny out so you go into the holler and and uh they

want to meet with you you think you're going to get in a lot what you do all right so you'll me tell this whole story okay so this is phoenix 2009 we're beefing denny and i are beefing you know pretty hard i'm not even in the cup series at the time i'm in the xfinney series trying to make my way the Cup series. Denny and I are beefing. I'm in my last races with Junior Motorsports. And we're like third and points, pretty much locked in third points. That's about what we're going to finish. So it's kind of like end of the school year. Like you're not going to get a better grade. You're not going to get a worst grade, but you still have to show up for the last two or three days. Yeah. And so we go to Phoenix, which is the next to last race. And I think we're

running like fifth or sixth. And Denny's running right behind me. And he goes in the corner and he like it's a restart it's like a restart it was not just me a little bit like muscles by me and i go to the next corner and i dumped him i did i dumped him he didn't like hit the wall but he just spun out he spun out old phoenix and uh we had been trading kind of barbs for like a year he would say stuff i would do stuff you know and so when the race was over he went to nasker and basically he said something like to help him you guys got to do something about that's He spun me out. And so I get a call from NASCAR and they say, hey, Sunday morning, our hauler, be there.

So I show up to the NASCAR hauler Sunday morning. It's the cup day. I'm running. I'm driving the car for Roger Penske that day is one of my first starts for him. I go to the hauler and I'm going to go get my, you know, butt ripped. And I walk in the hauler and it's, it's Mike Elton. And I want to say John Darry. was in there.

Yeah, probably Derby. And I don't remember if it was Robin Pemberton or Steve O'Donnell. That part escapes me. So I go sit down and, and, you know, Mr. Helton starts talking and he's like working his way into the butt too. Like he doesn't just start with it. He starts with like the, you know, hey, you know, do you want to be here? You know, do you like this sport?

And you're like, I know where we're going. I just, you're just like putting in your time. And so he's like warming up this. conversation to a full butt chewing, right? And I can feel exactly where it's going. And about that time where he's warmed up into the, you know, get your straight part of the conversation, Brian France opens door and walks in. Now, keep my mind, this is a hauler, probably like the size of this table is this lounge. So there's like three or four people in here. It's pretty full. Yeah. Yeah. And there's a small refrigerator in the end. So Brian walks in.

he like stands in the middle of all of us and we're all kind of like staring at him you know Brian france kind of runs the sport and there's a little bit of a pause then Mike helton starts talking again and Brian's kind of like standing right in the middle and he turns around and goes in the refrigerator he like looks through there he's like a bottle of water I want to say he grabbed like a small cat or something and he turns around and just kind of stares at Mike stares at Mike as Mike's talking to me and then he just looks at Mike and says whoa whoa are we yelling at Brad right now And I'm like, uh-oh, oh, what's going on? And Brian looks at Mike and he's like, no, no, don't yell at him.

What he's doing is awesome. And I'm like, now I feel like I'm in a mom and dad fight. Good cop, bad cop. Yeah, like, I don't know what's going on here. And Mike is, you know, Mike's kind of like, like, this isn't how I wanted this to go. And like, basically just like kicks me out of the room. Like, just go. Just go.

Like, get out of here before he gets worse. Get out of here before it gets worse. And I'm like, did I just get out of that one? Did Brian just do me a solid? What happened here? So that was the end of getting in trouble. That was the end of that.

That's my favorite Brian France story. No, he did be a real solid. And I was really appreciative of that. Mike and I got over. I think Mike was really mad. I think that made Mike Helton matter at me. You know what I mean? He would be more scared of being mad?

Brian Franzenor or Mike Elton? Oh, definitely. I know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, to some degree, Mike and I have a good relationship now. I'd probably call him once a month. He's a great dude. He's a great dude. But at that time, it was like, I was 23, 24 years old. Mike Helton ruled the sport with an iron fist. And I was like, oh, if you had a meeting with Helton and bad, like, you didn't want to go. No. Like, it was bad. Did this help prompt to have at it boys? It was right before that. Yes. Yeah. So I'm pretty sure it was. was Pemberton. Now don't you say that. It had to be like another month later where have at it boys came out. You know, I always wondered about that. I've always wanted to ask Mike now that it's you know, 15, 16 years later. Like, how do that actually went down when I left the room? Yeah. I'm curious and I probably didn't go as well as Mike wanted it to go. No. No. But anyway,

that's that's my horror story. My Denny Hamlin horror story. Denny and I, we had a lot of exchanges at that time. Hey everybody. The 2026 NASCAR season is underway and it's already shaping up to be another year of hard racing, great storylines, winning moments that remind us why we love this amazing sport. And when it comes to capturing all of that own track action in collectible form, nobody does it better than Lionel Racing, the official diecast of NASCAR. Their race win die casts are some of my favorite cars in my own collection. That's because the detail, they look exactly like the car does in Victory Lane, the confetti, scuffs, marks, tire marks, damage, all of it. It's like freezing that winning moment and time and having it right there in your own home and your own collection.

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Oh, back to Phoenix? Well, did you notice the horsepower? So you had it at Bowman Gray, and now you've had it at Phoenix. Are you happy? He didn't run Bowman Gray. Oh, that's right. Are you happy with the horsepower this past weekend?

Hey, horsepower is great. You know, the crazy thing about the adding more horsepower at Phoenix is cars really don't go faster. In fact, there's an argument to be made that go slower with more horsepower. And we were talking about this yesterday when we had all of our meetings kind of capturing the Phoenix race. If you look at it, like the cars are maybe a tenth or two faster at most at the beginning of like brand new tires with more horsepower. But like the end of the run, like let's say we're talking 60 plus laps. they're like three to four tenths slower with more horseback.

There's definitely more fall off. Yes. Way more. And I think that's part of what the drivers were trying to say to NASCAR and to the key stakeholders of sport where they're like more horsepower. Like when you have a discrepancy where the cars are a little bit faster at the start of the run and slower at the longer run, that just opens up opportunities for more passing. Yeah.

At least in my eyes. And I think you saw more passing at Phoenix than you've seen in a long time because of that. And I think that's really the argument for more horsepower. But it's super counterintuitive because like if I just said run the 60 fastest laps you can run all by yourself. Like there's an argument to be made that having more horsepower, you actually go slower because you wear the tires more. You do all kinds of things. And by the end of the run, that really hurts you. But then you're like, so if you're listening to this, you're probably like, well, man, why wouldn't you just build an engine with less horsepower?

Well, because you get ran over. Like you can't race around other people. Like when you have a restart or things like that, if you don't have horsepower, it'll just destroy your car. You'll get ran over, passed, and then you can't pass those guys back. But, you know, it reminds me when I ran late models, and I had a couple times where we'd run at tracks where, you know, the engine rules were fairly open. And guys would show up with like 750, 800 horsepower to late model race. And then they'd put a restrictor plate voluntarily on their car. Like, I have too much horsepower.

I'm going to put a restrictor plate on because it'll go faster. So it's really interesting to see it's kind of like reverse logic. So that's similar to like sometimes there's big dirt races where you can bring a like a dirt modified. You can bring a 358 modified run with the big blocks because the tracks slicks off so much. You can't use the you don't have any use for all the horsepower. So you can do that. Do you think, I mean to me it's also with this tire, the tire obviously has to be one you can wear out. I feel like Goodyear's been doing a good job the last.

They've been getting better and better at just letting you guys bring tires where, hey, you can wear this thing out. So don't, you know, take care of it a little bit. And I think when you put those things together, you have better racing. Absolutely. I think Goodyear deserves a lot of credit. I hate it for them because when you have tire blowouts, like I feel like the fans sometimes point the finger at Goodyear like, you screwed my driver over with your tires.

And you're like, no, Goodyear's doing their part to try to make the racing the best it can be. and that means kind of designing tires that are right at the limit so the racing can be better. And I hate that they get kind of like... Well, they're in the business of selling tires. They're selling tires that are blowing out that doesn't look right. Yeah, but if you're a fan that thinks that because... I know, it doesn't...

Chase Briscoe blew a tire that my... You know, my Ford truck's going to blow a tire. That's on you. The problem is when they write the headlines. They're like tire issues and, you know what I mean at this race and it goes right back to them when it's not really their fault. Did you see their tweet that they put out? No.

I did. Yeah. Before we go racing, remember, the recommended tire pressures weren't guesses. That's actually really good. I can promise you, nobody ran the recommended pressures at Phoenix. Like, whatever they run, there's always kind of like this inside joke in the garage area, like, just subtract two. And you're like, that's probably still safe. So, yeah.

But I mean, nobody ran those. Why do we, I mean, why do teams do that? Because you're a speed in it. Absolutely. Just like back in the day. we want to win. You could over camber it. You put too much camera in it, but you can know camber with speed if you ran it.

So. I'll give Goodyear a lot of credit. You know, the drivers went to them and said, we want a tire that falls off more. We want you to be more aggressive. They fired back like, well, it makes this look like crap. And the drivers went back to Goodyear and said, kind of made like a pact. Like, we won't say bad things about you if you build us an aggressive tire and it blows out. and I feel like the sports like that's good has Kyle Bush tweeted yet

just making sure no I don't think he has oh then we're good good pack I mean the pact is stuck together so far yeah that's good if it comes apart then like everybody loses so does you know like what else um any surprises of Phoenix that you saw like um I know Blaney and Bell were fast. Denny was decent. Any cars you thought, you know, do you see anything when you were out there? You know, the thing that really stood out to me more than anything else was SVG. Spitting out twice, too. And he still finished like 11th? Yeah. How did he do that? I don't know. See that, Travis? I feel like I need to go back and watch his entire race on in-car camera, be like, how did you do this? I mean, I remember looking down and seeing him spinning twice and three

and four, and I'm like, ah, he's having a bad day. Yeah. And then. He rebounded. Yeah, it re-bended really well. And I thought one person that doesn't, you know, get a credit a lot, I thought that had a really good race was Riley. I thought Riley had a really strong race. He ran, did he run up top 15, Travis, a lot? He was running well until the... He got a crash. Yeah, right.

Yeah, he was actually... That was one of his better races. It was probably one of the better races that I don't think people probably noticed, but I think Riley drove a really good race. But I want to go back and talk more about SVG. I got a lot of thoughts on SVG. And more road course? No, not more road courses. But yeah, I guess when I think about SVG,

I want to rewind like three years ago. So he shows up in Chicago. Kicks everyone's ass. I had no idea who this guy was. I got to be honest. I did the track walk right next to him, and I thought he was a fan. I really did at Chicago.

I'll never forget this. Like I'm walking. I'm like, I don't know who this guy is. He's either a fan or a PR guy. and then the next day he gets in one of the cars and like, oh, he's one of those guys from somewhere else, like a ringer.

You know, honestly, most times like the industry doesn't pay any attention to them because they show up, they run one race, usually doesn't go very well, you never see him again, you're like, like a substitute teacher. You know, like, you don't really think about that person. So he shows up Chicago,

wins the race, and we're all like, Huh. Well, you know, he's a V8 supercar guy. It was raining. It was a track nobody's ever ran again. Track house has great cars. Street courses where he come from. Yeah, absolutely. All those things. Everything worked perfect for. Everything worked perfect for. I'm like, and I think for me personally, and I don't know if I speak for a number of people in the garage, but I assume I do. Everybody's kind of like, fluke, one off, whatever, move on. But then Justin Marks is like, no, I don't think so. Let's let's do something more with this guy. And this is as much about Justinus is about SVG. And I kind of look through that timeline of like 2023. He wins the race in Chicago. Justin Mark says, hey, why don't I get you a full-time deal in Xfinity? Yeah. Now O'Reilly Auto Parts.

O'Reilly. With Colleg. And he does that. And honestly, I didn't think it went that well. He, uh, average. He went average. Did okay. He didn't run as well on the road courses as I thought he would with Colleg.

Um, and not that he didn't win, but he just didn't run as dominant. as I thought he would run. And the ovals were just kind of blah, right? And so Justin Marks, like in the summer of 24, has to make a decision of what to do with SVG. Now, keep mind at that time, he has Suarez, Chastain, Zane Smith. He's got Zane Smith kind of like on a loner deal.

Yeah, Zayn won the truck championship. But Zane was kind of like an up-and-coming star. Yeah. He's like, I got to make a decision. I want SVG to be a part of my deal. I got to cut one of these three. It's not going to be Chastain. Like, no.

Ross Chastain is, in my eyes, like the face of trackouts. You know, he's got Bush as a sponsor. He's one race, he's won the championship in 22. Yeah, Ross is the, he's a solid guy. So he had to make a decision, all right, between Daniel or Zane. It's like, okay. Daniel had been with the company since the beginning. He keeps Daniel.

He cuts him. All right. So this happens. in the summer of 24. Now, personally, I'm thinking to myself, Zane hasn't gotten a fair shot. He's been in like a third team that wasn't even a crack house team.

It was a spire team. And by the second half of the season, he actually started running pretty well. And his first cup start, I think it was with RFK, wasn't it? Yes, it was. Yeah. And he ran the Gateway really well. So I was surprised when they cut Zane for Shane.

And I'm going to just go ahead and say it right here, I was wrong. I like Zane. I think Zane's really good. But I thought putting Shane in, like, all right, so you're going to win some road courses. This is really just a hack to get a car and not, Shane's not a hack. This is a team ownership hack to get a car locked in the playoffs. You're now guaranteed top 16 in points.

Your charter value goes up. Your winning races. Your company value goes up. It almost felt like SVG was a prop for the company that brought in, more sponsorship revenue, more talent to help make Daniel and Ross run better. Like that was the way I kind of saw it. But I got to tell you, like, now that 2026 has come wrong and he's had such a great start of the year, like I feel like I was wrong.

Now he's like SVG is almost becoming the face of trackhouse. Like he's the guy that's going to win probably three to five races this year. And he's their, I think he's their highest car in points. Oh, he has to be. He's started the year out being competitive at all four races. Yeah, he's fifth in points right now. So where is their next car? Ross in 23rd.

Wow. So, you know, I know we only have like a four race sample size. But it's pretty good. And like SVG was kind of like Happy Gilmore if he could learn how to put. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like he's got this massive drive. He could get into the green.

Like if he could just learn how to put, which is like the ovals. Uh-oh. SVG learned how to race on an oval. Yes. So he's gotten. Exactly what's going through my mind. I think this is where the experience in like he, he was getting better and better in the rally car at mile and a half as well.

Like he was growing in them too. So. And now he's got the cup car figured out, obviously. So. I mean, it's dangerous. If he gets to where he's just competitive. Like I don't mean dominant on ovals, but just competitive on the ovals. Yeah.

And it keeps up his road course kind of like dominance. he's going to score a ton of points. He's never going to be terrible to road course. No. At worst, he's going to be fourth or fifth. At worst. As long as he doesn't, you know, blow an engine or get cracked, right? Yeah, but I'm saying minus mechanical difficulties, he's going to be in top five regardless.

But if he can just be like 10th on the ovals. Oh, if he run 10th on the Oval's, he's going to run really high into points. Yes. Like, and he becomes like the guy at track house. And starting the year off at Daytona and Atlanta getting through those super speedway plate races, and he's already, I mean, another thing. Top 10 in point. How many times he spun out this year?

He spun out at Atlanta. A couple. That's three times this year and he's still top five in the points. Yeah, if you would have told SVG the beginning of the year in track house, you're going to be fifth in points after Phoenix. So they're saying, we'll take it. We won't even race. Give us that.

All right. I got to tell you his story. He just made me think so. So he spun out three times this year and still hasn't, you know, still getting good finishes. I got to tell you that Jack Rouch story. I was sitting with him. This is only a few months ago.

So this is a fresh story. And we were actually talking about Greg Biffle. Because Greg had just passed away and we were kind of reminiscent about Greg and what he meant to the company. And Jack said something to me in a story that I think this audience would really appreciate. Because if you circle back to like the year 2000, Greg Biffel had won the truck championship. Kurt Bush was his teammate. Kurt got pushed into Cup and Greg got, you know, a year or two of the NASCAR

O'Reilly Auto Parts series. Yeah, did really well, though. And there were a lot of people like, why did Kurt get elevated? He didn't win the truck championship. Why did Kurt get elevated and not Greg? And this was something that kind of like followed Greg's career for a long time. And then Greg makes it the cup, has a great career in Cup. So this isn't a dig on Greg.

But nobody ever really understands. understood why did you promote Kurt and not Greg the way you did. And so I asked Jack, like, so what was the reason for you? He goes, oh, that was simple. I'll tell you why I promoted Greg. Oh, boy. And not Kurt. And you have to understand what Jack's like to talk to to really appreciate his manner.

So we'd go to the racetracks. And, you know, we would practice and test and we would do all that. And Greg was like, drive this thing as hard as you can. Kurt, drive this thing as hard as you can. And these guys would go to test sessions. and they'd spend out all the time, both of them. And they'd tear my stuff up. And I'd get back and I'd yell at them and tell them, stop wrecking my stuff, like, you know, in a way that only Jack could do.

And so what ended up happening is we'd start going to test and they would still spin out. But Kurt would spin out and he wouldn't hit anything. And Greg would spin out and he'd hit something. And so I just told Greg like, all right, Kurt spins out and he doesn't. doesn't hit anything. You spin out and you wreck and you hit things. So Kurt's getting the cup car. And that's where it came from. Like that's, that's Jack's story on why Kurt got the cup car in 2001 and Greg didn't. Because when they'd go to practice and test sessions and Kurt would spin out, he wouldn't hit the wall. And Greg would spin out and he hit the wall. Unreal. Accurate. So anyway, back to SVG.

Yeah. He's had like three spin outs this year at least. Yeah. I mean, I know it hasn't hit anything to us to it. I mean, two of them were at Phoenix. And he had one of the land. So, yeah. And like if Jack Roush was sitting here in the room, he'd be like, that's the guy I want. The guy who spins out. And when he does, he doesn't hit the wall. Fifth in points.

Way to go. So anyway, somehow I got a Jack Rouse story in there. But I want to bring this back to Justin Marks because I think sometimes he gets more credit than he deserves on things he's brought to the sport. And other times I feel like he gets less credit. I don't think Justin gets enough credit for the vision. he had with SVG. He pulled a guy out of another country in a series that most of us know very little about took a chance on him in a cup car, then made the investment in him to run, you know,

in a Ryeway Auto Part series. The sample size was not outstanding and then decided, you know, I'm going to go buy another charter and I'm going to find a way to get this guy in a cup car full time. Like, that's pretty gutsy. And it wasn't just like an accident. He went out and found this guy, took a risk on him. And I really respect that about Justin. I don't think he gets enough credit for that.

Yeah. I think Roger laid the groundwork for it a little bit with McLaughlin. To some degree, but that's not at the cup level, right? No. At the Indy car level, yes. Yeah. And I think. But nobody was taking a chance on a guy like that.

Yeah. We didn't know how to pronounce his last name when he went to Chicago. Yeah. I think, you know, I've watched a lot of the V8 races before. I actually kind of followed that. That's how we went to that Australia trip because we were following the V8 supercars in like 07. We were watching them pretty heavily,

but nobody ever thought about, let's bring this guy over here and let him race. Yes. And those guys and them supercars, man, they get so good at, like we've all seen his footwork. We've all seen the things that they can do in them cars. That's what they grow up doing.

And learning, but learning the oval, the air side of stuff is now was his next challenge. And obviously he's learning, he's learning that now. And they've evolved their road course program. even better. So. Yeah, that series is perfect for developing road course. Oh, yeah. Drivers because, you know, their cars drive a lot like ours. Yeah. But they get testing and

practice. So if you're a young driver over in Australia, New Zealand, in those areas, like you get in those cars and you learn how to do it properly. And when you come over here, everybody you're competing against isn't allowed to practice or really learn how to do it properly. Like we just get in the car and go race. You have a small practice session. That's it. There's no testing. There's no anything. Those guys are like two races a weekend, a couple hours of practice, test sessions. They really develop their skills. Kind of how we used to be. Absolutely. It's exactly what Cup used to be. It used to be the opposite. It used to be those guys had no chance of competing with the Cup series drivers because we practiced and tested every day of every.

tested so much. And so if you tried to come from another series to go to Cup, you couldn't touch us. There's no way. This is like secondhand. Now it's the opposite where the Cup series is like you get stagnant as a race car driver because you can't practice and test. And it's kind of like what you are when you get there for the most part is about what you're going to be. Yeah. So it's a different, different world. Those cars over there now are much more similar to a cup car too with the sequential shifting. Well, when NASCAR designed the next-gen car, they basically went to Australia and said, we like that. And they want to DeLara and said, make it look like that. And the V8 supercar was the template for building the next-gen car. So we've seen SVG with his performance at the start

of the season. What's your take on where things stand right now with the start of the season, with performance and people not, they're just focus on points and not when in your end? The top 16. You know, there's some surprises in there for sure. I'm more surprised at people that aren't in it. We talked about Ross Chastain. And you work your way down like Howe Bush buried. Chestain, buried. Yeah. Syndrick's 30. Yeah. Wow. I didn't realize he was that far back. There's a lot of guys that have had super tough starts this season. Where's the 19 car? Chase Briscoe. I don't even know where he's at on here. He's had a terrible start to the year. 33rd.

30. That one's probably the biggest surprise. Zillich is kind of a surprise to you. I didn't. Yeah. Zilich is a little bit of surprise. Yes and no. I know he's a rookie,

but like Bowman, but he's had a welcome to cup start to the season, right? You know, where you leave a series that you dominate. Yeah. Come to cup and you're like, oh my God. This is really freaking hard.

So he's going through that right now. But Briscoe, this is a guy that ended the year last year. I don't know if there was anybody better. I know Denny dominated Phoenix. I know Larson ended up winning the championship. But if you sample size the last 15, 16 races of 2025, Chase Briscoe was the guy.

Yeah, he wasn't a surprise anymore at the end. And he has started off this year, not the guy. Things have not gone his way. It's not necessarily been his fault. I mean, he's broke down two races. Yeah, he doesn't read the map. I'm sorry, Chase. You just, if you just read the map, you'd be okay, the DVP map.

Yeah. You know, so he didn't have a great, he hasn't had a great start to the season. What's going to be really interesting is with this points format, can he work his way in the top 16? Absolutely. No doubt in my mind. Can he work his way in the top two or three after having this start to the season? It's true. I don't think so.

No, I don't, I don't think he can. Yeah, I don't. It's going to, well, we're going to find out. There's definitely some comers and goers in this point system right here. Yes. You're going to have guys that aren't going to be as good at the work. going to some real racetracks now per se and they're going to start having tougher weekends and you're going to have guys like briscoe is going to probably really fast at Vegas.

So he's going to start his climb and you're going to have guys in the top five or top 10 that are going to struggle and now like I do think this point system. Well, the big thing is the win bonus is so much. The wind bonus is big. If you win a race, like you're going to climb five, ten spots in the points. Yeah. Do you find yourself checking the points more than you would in previous years? that. Yes. Because it's more relevant now. You know, before it was just, well, it doesn't really matter

because you win and you're in. Yeah, you just aim for the fence. You should, I mean, you try to hit home runs. So, um, I flew back with Ryan Blaney, Joey Legano, Clint Boyer. TJ, you were on the plane. And it's interesting the different perspectives that just our small group has on the points format. Probably not a surprise. Joey Legano wishes we stay. with the old system. Shocker. I know. Very shocking.

And Clinton and I spent the majority of two different plane rides back and forth to Phoenix arguing with Joey on why we like this new format. And, you know, I am a staunch supporter of the new format. I did not like the playoffs. I made my point to NASCAR in different settings, mostly privately, over the last probably seven or eight years about how I thought this the playoff format was a mistake. I remember meeting with them.

I met with Steve O'Donnell. Gosh, this would have been like 2018, 2019. And I told him, dude, the playoff format's killing the sport. I liked it, 18. I'm sure you did. And I remember he said to me, what do you mean? He's killing a sport.

Well, I had won two or three races earlier in the year. And I'm like, I'm in the middle of the season. I don't want to say we were like in the dead. middle of the season when I met with that when I said I'm in the middle of season I go the racetrack and I'm asking myself what am I doing here like I have a practice session where I'm like 10th or 15th and I'm like I'm not really a threat to win the race we just don't have it this week for whatever reason I sit in meetings and they're like all right Brad you don't get the good engine or the good car this week because someone else in the company isn't locked in the playoffs so they get all the

good stuff for this week and you're like oh okay I guess that kind of makes sense but don't worry when you get in the playoffs, you'll get the good stuff because you were the first car to lock in. So you found yourself like in the middle of the season and you'd be showing up at like Pocono or whatever and you'd be like, all right. So I got like the engine with less power. I got the body with less down force. I'm 15th in practice. Like I'm probably going to run 10th today if I do everything right. I'm already locked in the playoffs.

Like it felt like weekend at Bernie's like what the hell am I doing here? You know, like it didn't make any. sense. Like I'm just running the race. Like, and that's the deal. And you could even really be mad at the team. You know, think putting yourself in their shoes. They're like, man, we got to get our other cars in the playoffs. So, you know, this guy is going to have to eat dirt this week. And you're like, she couldn't really be mad at them. You just felt like trapped by the format. And that was a lot of what was happening. Uh, so I didn't like it as a racer. And I didn't like when you got to the playoffs, particularly the last race. Like, if you,

you had a bad pit stop, like that was your season. That didn't feel right to me. Or like Harvick had that bad race in 2020. I think it was Martinsville. Yeah. I mean, it costs you at Phoenix, right? Yeah, it costs. I lost the championship at Phoenix with bad pit stops.

You're like, that didn't feel right to me. And that's not a dig. I like Chase out who went to win it. But you're like, it just didn't, it didn't feel great. So I like this format because I'll go back to what I was saying earlier. like there's no race where the team's like, hey, you don't get the good engine. You don't get the good car with this format. And I really appreciate that because I don't feel like we're quote unquote skipping races.

So I appreciate that about the format. You know, there's some arguments of does it provide enough action later in the season? Yeah, I think it does. Everything feels right to me with a format like this. I love how they gave, you know, more points to the winner with this format. You still want to win. Yeah, because you still want to win. Yeah.

So, you know, like a good points day, like you'll still have those. But you don't finish second and say good points day because the gap is too big to winning. So it feels right to me. That's my take on it. Now, if Joey Lugano was sitting here next to me, he and I would be like arguing over this. He'd probably be shouting at this point in the conversation. What is Joey's? what is Joey's side of it?

What does he see? Joey's side of it is, you know, the playoffs were awesome because of eliminations. The game seven moments. The game type seven moments, which I respond back by saying, yeah, but that sounded great, but fans didn't really tune in for that. Like now it seems like every race is a game seven moment. Yes, that's exactly. Like, to me, NASCAR lives and dies by the ability to make every event a big event.

Mm-hmm. Which means you can't have races. in the middle of the season where your race teams are like, yeah, we're just punching in on the clock. Yeah. That doesn't work. And it does seem like that at times. Oh, 100% that's what was happening.

Like right now, the hires are higher and the lowers are lower. And that's what you want. You want drivers mad and you want them excited. You don't want drivers getting on the car going. Yep, it was okay. And on to over. You know what I want, Travis, as a fan of the sport, I want to know that if I spent three hours watching a race at Kansas

in, you know, the start of the season. And I saw somebody win the race or I saw somebody wreck out and finish last, that that mattered. You know what I mean? Yeah, because the fans are invested. Yeah, I want to know that if I didn't watch that race, I missed out on somebody winning and getting 10 extra points

that might have propelled them to the championship or I missed out on somebody making a bonehead move that cost them a shot at the championship. Yeah, like scroll down right here on your point list. I want to know like when I go to a race in the middle of the year that the three plus hours I invested in it meant something to the championship. And it does now. It didn't with the playoff form. The two and the 21 right here.

That meant something at Phoenix. Oh, hell yeah. If I was a fan at Phoenix and I saw the two and the 21 car crash. Yeah. That might have been their season. And also like NASCAR's not going to say this, but there's a change to get more drama with the drivers after a race. If a guy, if someone wrecks you and you just potentially ruin their season, you're going to get some confrontation. Well, that goes back to what I was saying earlier.

If I had a race before where I was like, I got a 15th place car with the playoff format, I'm not even in the playoffs out of the middle season. Somebody wrecks me doing something stupid. I finished 30th. You're like, whatever. On to the next week. Yeah.

If that happens now, like, holy shit, we're pissed. So let me ask you this. Like, I'm still mad at Riley Herps over Daytona because he cost me not only a shot at the win, but he cost me three points. Like, those three points might be really big. So does this system now change your, As a driver, does it change the way you look at things if a guy like Hosevar messes with you?

Oh, yeah, 100%. Like, I remember there was some running. Because it's a bigger Nio-Nat. Like if Hosevar, you get to wreck with Hosevar. He does something dumb, whatever. He tends to wreck in like 10th to 15th, which is that kind of no man's land where you're like. Just trying to salvage a day. Yeah, which is your, I need to just get through here.

And you're fighting your ass off to do it. Exactly. And the old format? No. You're like, whatever. I'm still mad at the guy. But I can't really look at him and say he affected my season. Because you know, but the old mentality was what?

Because you know you can win next week and this doesn't matter. Yep. But now this format. Like, yeah, I'm pissed. I'm like next level pissed. And I think that's what this format brings. It brings an energy of the race matters more every week. And I like that.

It should. It should matter every week. Yes. Yeah. 100%. Anyway, I just ran it. No, I love it. I feel like you ever watch Wind Tunnel with Dave to Spain?

Yeah. Remember they used to have that thing where they'd rant? They'd had that little character guy, bobbling his head. Yeah, well, you remember. I felt like I was on that. You went on there a few times, right? Oh, yeah, I used to love Wind Tunnel. So he went on Wind Tunnel with Day to Spain.

They would always give you a bobblehead when you did of Dave. I know what she did? It's your store. Go ahead. Tell your story, TJ. She came over, and this is when you lived in a house that Dale owned. Yeah, yeah. And we're hanging out there, and my oldest takes the Dave to Spain thing and, like,

throws it down the story. downstairs and like busts his head off. Yeah. She, uh, she, she threw Dave for a ride. I gotta tell you, uh, I don't think I thought you said, that was like one of my prized possessions too. Yeah. Way to go, TJ.

You have to understand like, I'm a guy who doesn't even keep a trophy at his house. Like I, I, what? No, I don't have a single trophy in my house. Like I don't, I have a Martensville win clock, which is technically a trophy. Yes. Yeah. But it's not like a trophy trophy. So where do you hold all your?

I keep him in my family office. Okay. Like I, I don't like. trophies in my house. Like, I don't want to live that kind of life. Like, I just want to, when I'm at home, I want to be with my family. I want to be with my kids. Like, I don't.

And I don't want to like stare at my past accomplishment. That said, when I went on the wind tunnel with Dave to Spain, I'm a Dave to Spain fan. And he gave me a bobblehead. Yeah. And I'm sure it was like $20 made from China. But whatever, he gave me a bobblehead, signed it. And I put it in my house. Like, it was one of my prize possessions.

and TJ's daughter comes over like, oh, this is cool. She wasn't like destructive. She didn't like, wasn't like, I hate this thing. Bam, it was like kind of an accident. And so I got another one from Dave. So we're cool. But yeah, Dave to Spain, wind tunnel, one of my favorite shows. Do you think when you retire, will you move some trophies into the house?

No. No. Okay. I don't know. I just don't want to come home and stare at a trophy. You know what gets really awkward about trophies that nobody tells you about until you have them? is after a while, like, not only do they become less meaningful, but they actually kind of hurt a little bit.

Like, I don't know how to explain it, but you're like, when I'll see a trophy that I won like 10 years ago, you're like, I remember that day. I wish I was winning like that. You know what I mean? Like, you're like, I kind of like staying a little. Yeah, but I think that's just natural. I mean, like I remember my dad's trophies.

Like he had trophies from like 1986. And I remember being like 10 years old. And by then those trophies were. seven or eight years old and you're like, yeah, so you used to be good, you know, like, and people would say stuff like that. You're like, man, I don't want that hang around me. Yeah, but I don't know, man. I think it's good to look back and know that I think it's good to look back and know that

some of the accomplishments that you do have, like, um, and doses. Yeah, and doses. But I mean, I mean, as a kid, I'm on to the next race, man. You went, it's great. You won like, yeah, but as a kid, you would have, I mean, you're, your, all's your, your dream is to win all these things. Like I'll probably appreciate them more when I'm done racing But I don't want to look at

I want to Tel-Degga six times I don't want to look at a Tel-Dadega Tegah. Like I want to go to Tel-Aidio. Feeling like I've never won there before And I have something to prove And I feel like when you stare at the trophies You're like, yeah, I've already done this. I can see that.

I appreciate that like you're wanting to I want to enter races and be like hungry And I don't want any Because I can tell you when you get to the racetrack Nobody there cares what you've done before. They don't. They're like, once you get there, it's a fresh start, blank slate.

Like, you got to go prove it. But sometimes I think it can be the other way, too. Like, I look at, you know, Daytona 500. Like, I've been fortunate enough to be a part of that. I feel like I almost want to win it more now again because of that first one. Like, that's kind of the way I see. Everybody has your different motivations, right? Yeah.

I mean, I look at it like, I remember that night, I want to win every Daytona 500 from now until I'm done spotting. Yeah. So. Big one to win. Not that I know. Maybe one time. Maybe one day. So off the track, we had a little news brought up again with Cletus going to be racing with RCR for three races, I believe one this year and then two next year.

In the O'Reilly Auto Park series. I'm just going to keep saying that. You just got to keep saying it over and over again. The more I say it, the better I'm getting it. I mean, there's still people that call it the Bush series. So it's just like. Grand National. Yeah.

But what do you guys think of the approval process? Because I think that's kind of the bigger topic. It's nothing to do with like Cletus as a person or whatever. It's never a personal attack against him. I know Freddie's been hammering it pretty hard, but Freddie doesn't have anything. It's nothing against Cleetus. It could be you trying to come up through here. Correct.

You know what I mean? It could be me. It could be, you know, anybody. And like, just the approval process is, do you think it's broken? It's, you know, it's got its challenges. Here's what I'll tell you. This is my bigger point for you. You're running NASCAR.

What are you doing? Those two series are meant for guys. guys like Cleese. Like that's what they're for. Arka really should be thrown into that. As long as it doesn't affect Sundays, I think it's probably fine. Like, do I think Julius McFarwin should be running a cup car? No, I don't. And I would be really pissed if he got to prove to run a cup car. But he didn't.

He got approved to run an O'Reilly Auto Part series car. Those are supposed to be developmental series. I don't like the fact that, you know, if there's four series, Top at the top, O'Reilly Auto Part Series, Truck Series, and ARCA. Okay. What I don't like is this constant push to make the O'Reilly Auto Part Series ARCA. Like, we used to have four very distinct series with four very distinct identities.

The truck series was like, if you were 35, 40-year-old driver who was pretty good, but weren't quite cup level good that was your home it was your truck series I love that yeah and you were good at it and they want to short tracks and they were you know kind of like arm wrestling match

it was hard to be the most hard nose series because you race and he raced against Hornaday Corelli and it was the hard nose 35 to 45 year old series hundreds of wins of short tracks yes thousands of all together that was the place where you went if you were a badass but just didn't get through cup

for whatever reason it wasn't the it wasn't where you went to move up. Now it's the place you're like, oh, this guy's 17, he ran two races in ARCA, let's give him a shot. Like, yeah, okay, I don't know if I really like that. All right, same thing for the O'Reilly Auto Part series. That used to be the place where you're like,

you're pretty good. You went from Archer to O'Reilly most of the time. Yeah, you're pretty good, but we're not sure you're ready for Cup. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to put you in a race on the same tracks, the Cup cars go with cars that drive kind of similar to a cup car, but not the same. Yeah. And we're going to put like half a dozen cup drivers in the field against you and see

what you can do. That was the Oroi Auto Part series. And by the way, if you do really well, the whole cup garage is here watching, you're going to get a cup ride very quickly. And then ARCA was a series where were like, hey, maybe that guy can drive. Maybe you can't. Let's go see. Put them on a racetrack. It was the series for people like Cletus. the problem that we have, this is NASCAR's industry as a whole, is for whatever reason we completely abandoned the identity of those four series, not necessarily the cup series, but those four series, kind of like the pecking order, has been like thrown away.

And it started with removing the cup drivers from the O'Reilly Auto Parts series. You can argue it might have started even before that, and I don't think about it, with the truck series kind of turning into this mixed identity. of older drivers, younger drivers. And then ARCA kind of just changing, and I don't even know what caused ARCA to change, to where, you know, these guys that are 17 or 18 years old that used to run, you know, two, three seasons.

Like now they run like two or three races. Yeah. That doesn't feel right to me. To me, it's the car is getting further apart. That's probably a big part of it, yes. Because you could take a cup car and run an ARCA race with it. Yeah. majority of time.

So is the approval process broken? Look, yes and no. It's not broken at the cup level. Is it broken at those other three levels? Yes. Personally, I think that the three series should have three different approval criteria being the truck series.

What makes a guy approved? So here's my opinion. Brad's running NASCAR today. If you want to run ARCA and you're 18, great. Go. 17, 18 years old. That should be your spot. to live. If you want to run ARCA and you know, you have less than 100 starts in any

major form or even minor league form of racing. Okay. Cool. Arc is your place. You in my mind should not be allowed to run the truck series unless you're like, I have a hundred plus starts across the country. Yeah, late model. Late model. Anything. Whatever it might be. And then the O'Reilly Auto Part series, this is my personal opinion. It should be like you need to be 20, 21 years old. before you can run that series. Like that should be the age limit. Mature level, a little bit higher. Yeah, maturity level a little bit higher.

I mean, you're on national TV every week. Like, that's a lot to put on an 18-year-old shoulders. And I'm not saying that no one can do it, but most everyone can't do it. Do you think that would keep? And I really dislike, and I've been vocal about this, because I remember what it was like when I was 18. I really disliked the idea of 18-year-old race car drivers

being in a national series, the size of the Cup series or O'Reilly Autopart Series because it just means you have to skip things in your life that are super important, whether it be your high school graduation or some of those things that you do in your late teens that are really important to your development as a person. And you get thrown in the fire,

I'm quite literally in the fire of competition, of fans that immediately are going to judge you, social media that's immediately going to just pile on the pressure. And it messes with people. And I don't like that. That doesn't feel right to me. And what for? So that you can have, you know, one or two years added to your career.

Like, no, just wait to these people who are, you know, 20, 21 years old before they go in the cup in a Riley all or a part series. Anyway. I think another flaw in the whole system, it's a bigger discussion, is that these teams need to make money. And so if someone can come in there and offer sponsors or whatever, where if the money wasn't as such a high demand. that the teams, then they're going to get the talented driver first, not the one that's bringing in more money and sponsors. So at the ARCA level, I don't think it's broken. Yeah.

The problem is the truck series and the Xfinity series are way too open. And yeah, if I'm one of these guys, I'm going to come in. I'm going to bring a million dollar check, maybe three or five million dollar check. I'm going to get myself a ride in the truck series, Xfinity series. I'm going to skip the arc of series. You're going to Riley at that point. I can be on TV. I'm on national TV.

I mean, the CW is a great deal for these guys. The ratings are through the roof. They're having a great start. Yeah, I want to be on the CW. I don't want to be on, you know, maybe I'm not even on TV. Maybe I'm taped delayed. I want to be like part of the show. So I don't blame a guy like Cletus.

No. I'd do the exact same thing if I was him. But yes, I think the approval process as a whole is actually hurting the sport. And if I was president of NASCAR for a day, I'm not. If I was, I would rip that thing up and start over. So why, like, not for the Cup series. What should be his path from now? Minus, Sars here, should he be, he ran some ARCA last year, ran okay.

Should he have to prove himself more in ARCA? Yeah, I mean, I would like to see someone like that. This isn't just Cleetus. Yeah, this is for anybody coming on. You should have 100 starts before you make it to the truck series or the Raleigh Auto Parts. And you're talking light models, everything. Legends cars, whatever So the approval here

He's supposed to run coming up here But he goes to Rockingham Crashes in the test Hiss the wall in the test Gets approved to run Dayton on the truck race Crashes in the truck race You know the two races

Honestly don't bother me You know both of those I look at As a race car driver and be like Yeah I've gone the test And brushed the wall That's not a huge deal But I mean how do they How do you take a statement

And the truck is Everybody rests Six laps in Yes I mean by himself. Yeah, I mean, it's, it doesn't feel right. And again, not a dig on Cletus. No, I'm just, this could be anybody.

But I also put myself in NASCAR shoes and you're like, how do we tell people no? Yeah, because he does. I mean, I, I, I hope he is successful because he's a great story. I mean, I love watching his clips and he's very, he's a cool dude. Yeah, and he's done a lot. Like, I want to see him come in here and be successful. to me he is jumping really fast. Yep.

And I've done a lot of the Arca races that he's in. He's definitely learning and growing, but I feel like this is a big jump. So do you think they should go back to allowing cup guys to make more starts or run full seasons in Ohio? Yeah, I think that's a big miss for the sport. But how many of those drivers are actually even reaching the cap? I think like two drivers last year even reached the max? It's not very many. I think a lot of these, I mean.

What would make you start? O'Reilly team. If a cup driver could run full time. That's about it. Gotcha. There's no justification outside of that. Do you think you can't raise enough money to pay for it? Well, that's what I'm saying.

If you could raise, do you think you could... With a cup driver, I could raise enough sponsorship to actually pay for it. To be competitive in the Raleigh-A-Wart series, you have to beat Gibbs and you have to beat Junior Motorsports, maybe Hoss. Chiltern. Yeah. RCR. Chilers, yes. Thank you.

All right. If I'm going to compete with them, I need three, maybe four cars. I need to raise probably $15 to $20 million. That's what's going to take. Yeah, it's going to take a lease that to run three or four cars. Yep. So $15, $20 million, that's a lot of money to raise. I need a cup driver to do it.

You know, or I need a paid driver. So what would you do with your, if you had three cars, what would you put in them? You mean like drivers? Yeah, like who would you put in them? Would you put one cup guy full time and two up and coming guys? or what would you put in it? I'd probably put one cup guy

in a full time and two up and covers. That's probably about right, yeah. Does that open the door for more instead of buying rise? Is that open the door for more talent coming up?

Yeah, oh, it should, absolutely. You know, right now you have, like I said, those three or four organizations in that series that have quality cars. But if you have a good cup guy in there and he's running a full season,

it makes you can sell sponsorship easily, which allows you to go higher more. Absolutely. It allows you to hire drivers coming up. Like I look at a guy like Someone I think a lot of in the Royal Art Apart series is Parker Retzla.

From the outside You look at it and say 10 years ago before NASCAR had the starts rules Would he be in the series? He probably wouldn't make as many starts He probably wouldn't be a full-time guy But he would be the guy that raced Whenever there wasn't a companion event

And he would get a good ride then Like he would have been the guy that we were like they're in Iowa. Well, Cup is in Pocono. Who are we going to put in the car this weekend? This is the guy. This is the guy. Yeah.

And he would get a shot in like top level equipment. I mean top level equipment. And we'd know like what he's really got. Yeah. And if he did really well, it would open the door to a full season ride in that series or something in the Cup series. That's how I made it. Yeah. Like the standalone events and kind of like crack through.

And instead those guys are stuck in like seal. level equipment and they'll never have a chance and they never get a chance yeah which sucks because i think guys like that are really good and they just haven't had an opportunity the question will be like jesse love is is one of those that i question what kind of cup ride he's going to get i think he's going to get one yeah yeah well i mean but the problem is is there's only so many seats so yeah but i i get again i look back at a guy like i'm i'm wearing this guy's name out parker retz laugh and be like i want a guy like that to get a shot in a level equipment. Even if it means he doesn't run a full season.

I'd rather, like if I was Parker, I'd rather run like 12 races and A level equipment than 36 races and C level equipment. Yeah, similar to what Ryan Priest did. Yep, exactly. And not having the cup owners in the sport kind of equals that. Yeah.

My take. You asked it. NASCAR fans listen up. Exfinities raving the red flag on internet price. hikes and they're raising the green for savings. It's time to get the speed and the reliability that you won't out of your Wi-Fi. You're locked in at one price for five years. That's insane. No surprises, no late yellow straight to victory lane. Just like that, folks. We have a winner, and the winner is Xfinity. Xfinity, imagine that. Hey, everybody. I hope you're enjoying Brad

Kazlowski as the host for the Dale Jr. download. I really appreciate Brad being available. and willing to come in here and do this. I'm always excited about this idea of having drivers, host the show. I'll be back next week, and Asch Jr. will be live once again, but we wanted to give you some questions here. Here's some montage,

here's a montage, so to speak, of some of the best moments that we've had doing Asch Jr. So here you go. Okay, this one's from Kathy, wanting to know about the Talladega Knights cameo, where you asked Will Ferrell for an autograph. How did that go about?

And then people even want to know, know, do you still have the page that he actually signed? Like the paper he signed. Oh, no. He scribbled. It wasn't like a real autograph. Oh, really? But, so.

Great. Movies ruined. I feel like I told this story really recently. Oh, really? Yeah. So we filmed, they asked me to be a part of it. Of course, I was like, absolutely, thanks for asking, where do I go? When are we going to do this?

We did it at Charlotte, Merge Speedway. It was not a race happening. that weekend and we went I drove over to the racetrack completely comfortable driving in there been going there my whole life even when there's not a race going on

you know so drive into the racetrack and over toward turn four the old old cup garage and all of these campers and little rental campers are piled into this little blacktop

and there was a little they were like just go in there and park and sit around somehow catch you somehow grab you get you going hair, makeup, whatever it is. And there was a little table with about four chairs, nobody's sitting there.

I just sit down and started thumbing on my phone or something. And I got my head down, and somebody sits down at the table, and I look up, and it's Will Ferrell. And he was like, hey, man, how's going? Thanks for coming today. And we sat there and just bullshit for about five, ten minutes. And then he's like, I'm going.

I'm going to get ready and do this. That they want me over here. So I was like, he's like, they'll come get you in a minute. And I was like, all right. So we got ready. They drug me over to the, you know, in the infield of the Charlotte Merseme Speedway where it's kind of like the crosswalks, the crossroads of everything. Yeah.

All the roads sort of converge. Yeah. Yeah. I think they made it into a roundabout now. Yeah, maybe. I don't know. It is. It's like right outside the entrance to the cup garage.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's where we were standing when we filmed that little sign of my forehead thing or whatever, the baby. So they got it. They had about, you know, 20 or 30 extras. And we were kind of going to run, walk through the crowd and meet. And we had our lines that was scripted.

He was a little bit of an ad liber and he could be free with whatever he wanted to say. So we took, we did probably three or four takes. And they were like, that's good. He was very quick. And that was that. I said, I said, hey, man, appreciate it. Thanks. He said, thanks.

And I went on, home. And then there's, if you watch the credits, you'll see more of the drivers and Will doing some stuff. And we did that at Talladega. And that was during the race weekend. They were like, hey, Will's going to come in. They want to film just some stuff. Y'all talking.

He's going to be in his suit. You're going to be in the garage. And we'll, I don't know if they were planning to use it or just see how it worked. But they didn't end up using it in the movie. and I think it just rolls and the credits is kind of like a little bit of real. Yep. That was a little more tense or nerve-wracking

because they didn't have a script. They said, Will's going to just start talking. You just react. What? And that was really tough because, I mean, look, man,

he's a professional comedian. And I felt like, am I supposed to be funny? Right. Or do I try to be funny? Because I'm never going to be as funny as him. Yeah. And what the hell do you do?

You know? And I didn't want to be a fool. right and so I was going to try to be a smart ass back but I was never going to be as good as him so what the hell you know so it was just tough but it was really fun really fun you know they just basically had us kind of walking from two different directions we're going to bounce in each other he said something about like hey man you know one in one I think he's like dude you still got that you got that 20 you owe me just you know he just would come he was just coming up with things he would just randomly say something and you're just like oh this is where we're headed and did you like respond like yeah you're supposed to to say something. So you say something, right? I don't remember what I said, but it was probably not very funny. And we did that three or four times. And then he's like, they're like, all right, good.

We're good, man. That's good. That's good. Appreciate it. Wow. That's neat. Yeah, it's pretty neat. But to your point earlier of saying like the second part of having to do those,

it's hard to be like funny on command. And I think that's what he's really good at. Yeah. I will say this, man. It makes me think about that movie. And I told the story. about watching that movie for the first time at Skywalker Ranch with

George Lucas. Yes, yeah. And I've seen the movie a couple times, obviously. I always felt like, and I wonder if there's any real truth to this, but that movie to me, the first half of that movie was full of really, really good

moments, humorous, quirky, smart comedy, right? and then the second half of the movie felt like a completely different movie. Still funny, but like it really feels like to me and it's probably really unlikely but it feels like there was an entirely

different director on the first half versus the second half. Like the whole movie felt like it just had this one vibe and then right at the middle point. It's like we found a plot halfway through. Yeah. And then it had a completely different vibe

not bad, not good, not It's different. It's just totally different. Like the whole production crew quit at halfway, and they had to bring in this other one. And it just seems different. But the whole different, the vibe, like the story, like to your point,

the plot sort of just got introduced in the middle of the show. But like the first part of the movie is a lot of just jokes about NASCAR, right? You know, what do I do with my hands? and all of that stuff. And it's all the just quick, quick, witty jokes about our sport, which was really fun to sort of the self-deprecation of NASCAR.

But then, yeah, the second half, the plot comes in, and you're like, yeah, I kind of like the first half better. I was more entertained, I guess, by that. But anyway, still a good movie. And even though it was a joke, we can definitely handle being, The butt of the joke. I was curious what your thoughts were on that.

I didn't mind it. I thought it was good for NASCAR. I thought it put us in front of a new audience. Yeah. And yes, it poked fun at us. But I don't know that, you know, I don't know, it was not detrimental to NASCAR in any way. Yeah.

I don't think. And so if anything, it kind of carried, it improved our popularity outside of our own bubble, right? Sure. All the people that are already in the tent. but best favorite strictly NASCAR favorite NASCAR movie

What's yours? You go first Last American Hero Okay Last American Hero is Jeff Bridges is the star It's about Junior Johnson roughly, loosely

and Junior Johnson's story as a moonshiner and a driver And I don't know why I think the reason why I like it is because they, it was, it was before, it was done in 71 or 72, 73. And it's before Hollywood eventually, right,

is going to sensationalize, you know, in the, as, you know, we know, we know, you know, when we see movies made about people that we know the story, you see some of the, some of the Hollywood sensationalism creep into the story, and they embellish, right, in parts, because they got to make it, right? It's a movie. But this was made about racing about NASCAR before that was really a thing, I believe. And so it's authentic. It's really authentic.

And so, you know, his, when they're filming at the short tracks and filming his sort of rise to the big time, it's a really authentic feel. And staying in boring, lonely old hotel rooms and getting in disagreements with, you know, these punks at these local racetracks. And, you know, and there's some footage of Ralph Earnhardt in there driving at Metro Lina that's really neat. But I don't know. I just thought that it was a really,

it didn't feel like they stretched any truths in that movie. Authentic. Yeah, it's really authentic. But some cool actors in it too. Jeff Bridges, badass. I mean, back before Jeff Bridges was super, super famous, he played in a, you know, played Junior Johnson in a NASCAR movie.

How a damn cool is that? You know? How many movies do you know of Andrew racing movies? Good question. I mean, well, I will kind of cheat and use the YouTube chat, and I did want to give them a shout out, but I'm seeing a lot of strokeer race. There's a Days of Thunder, obviously.

Gary in here said Strucker Race. I love Struck Race, and that reminds me, too, Gary Busey was in Last American He wrote. He's Jeff Bridges' brother, Gary Bucy. Yeah. But I love Stroker Race. I thought Strug Race was awesome. When I was a kid and it came out, I thought it was amazing.

And it's still one of my favorites. Sixpack. I think I saw, yeah. Love Sixpack as a kid. Diane Lane. Jake just said six pack with about ten exclamation points. Sixpack was badass because of the dirt car. That dirt car that Brewster Baker drove was freaking insane cool.

That Camaro in the paint scheme on that thing? neat as hell. Brewster Baker is a badass racing name. I mean, just cool. And, I mean, when you watch those movies, oh, and Love will turn you around the song, the theme song that Kenny Rogers had for Six-Pack, I sh-h-h-h-h-h-h-in-my rotation.

I'll listen to that today. The opening guitar on Love will turn you around. Freaking awesome. You listen to that today. Yes. It is my favorite Kenny Rogers song, and I have many. Yeah. But I thought it was cool that Bert Reynolds

I mean when Bert makes Strucker Race he's coming off of all of those badass movies that he's making Cannonball runs and all of that stuff and smoking to Bennett He's coming right off of that And could have probably done anything he wanted And he made a racing movie It's awesome

It is! It's a big compliment It was big, it was really really big for us to be, you know, I mean, if you're, if you're a fan, I always looked at it like, yeah, man, they're celebrating this niche thing that's happening in this little small corner of the country. And they're, you know, they're, you know, they're shining a light on us. It's awesome. Yeah.

And so I loved all those movies. I don't think that there was, I love Days of Thunder, thought it was cool. The rumors around that. Number two. Yeah, having a number two. I'm down. You're down? Yeah.

Heck yeah. Be so cool. Yeah. We ran the duel and we got ourselves locked in, go and do media and all kinds of crazy stuff. We're having a great time and the second duel is running. That's me. I'm in the second one.

Yeah. And I'm walking through the bus lot and somebody goes, hey, Eric Jones won. And I sent Jimmy Johnson a text. Congratulations. And I mean, literally they're probably just still coming around a cool down lap. So I know that,

I know that Jimmy's not got his phone. And then, uh, they were like, oh, nope. Austin Cendrick is the winner. And I was like,

shoot, I grabbed my phone and I went to that text and I held it down and I said, unsend. And it goes, poof. So Jimmy saw that I haven't, have an unsent text message to him, but he has no idea what it was.

So does he respond to it yet? Well, now you can text them. I mean, finish Thursday. Now you got a reason to text. him again. Yeah, that's funny. I was like, thanks for this feature. This is nice.

It should take it completely out of their list. Oh, you know, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? You know what I mean? Notification that you have an unscent message. Yeah, like it should be gone because... I think it depends on when you, how fast you remove it. I don't know. Here, do you want me to send you a text and then... No. I think it's going to show up as an unsent message still.

It says unsent. Yeah, no matter what, which is sketchy. You unsent the message at 10.10 p.m. Thursday. Did you have the YouTube chat open? Oh, I don't. You had one job. You know what's terrifying about the unsent? I know we're live.

Yes, we are live. What's terrifying about the unsent text messages, if they haven't updated, like, say, their computer, it still will go through. So there's a chance you still congratulate Jimmy on one of his other devices. Yeah, that's probably two. Good to know, Andrew. Well, thanks, Andrew. You definitely haven't been any sketchy situations.

It sounds like Andrew had an incident recently. where he's unsent a message. I want to give a shout out to, hold on, I wrote their name down. Blythe, and they're watching this at school right now. I think they're watching it in class. Who? Blythe was their name? What grade are we in?

I don't know. We better watch your- You're in the YouTube chat, but- Better watch our mouth. Yeah. Any cuss words. I don't know. I feel like if you're watching Ness Jr.

At school, you have access to a computer and iPad. You got to be old enough, right? It's a good teacher. School's different these days. It is. I used to, gosh, when there were rainouts and it was a Monday race, I remember having to sneak either listening to the radio

with some headphones or watching it on my phone or computer. I don't know. You guys ever do that? I got busted for it. You did? Yeah, social studies class. My teacher busting me. Listen to the duels.

Oh, my God. I was listening to the duels. Oh, my God. I don't know if I should share this live. Oh. Did you get busted? No, I did in school. Yeah.

So, listen, I'm going to tell it. So, uh, dang. man, I can't believe this. So, you were asking me about that shoot. This will be the best thing we do today. We were, that prime shoot.

That prime shoot. Yes. Yeah. So 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 bell. He mentioned his dad's name, and I was like, I 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 that 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 months period was my favorite experience as a kid in school because every other school that I went to kind of had little groups. And you were part of this click 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 know, especially moving around from school to school. That has to be really tough. Yep.

So you just wanted to be in some group, right? 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 our class. Everybody felt like they had the exact same level of stature. 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 road if you that's just that just it was going really good and I was having so 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 rode up eight times before the winter break that would you'd

that was it that was it you'd have to leave I get rode 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, 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 over going through pamphlets for military school on the floor and they're and i'm like i'm kind of like well i can i can embrace this military school idea and not have to ever tell them about 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 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 are, y'all hung out every day. Y'all are friends, and y'all spent a lot of time, right you? 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, all right. That is. Jall hit the floor. I was like,

and wonder you were so cool. I was like, yeah. 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? The playboy? Yes. Okay. Stop it. Sorry. So you pull the play. I'm like, 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 it. I can't believe it. No wonder you had 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. Smoking, I know. That's what I was saying, dude. Oh,

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 was going to get expelled.

I was like, man, what could you have done? Now it's fully understandable. So that's what I meant. Things were going so well. I was having so much fun. And so I was trying too hard. Sure. 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 what do you mean if it really did happen I'm not I don't remember this this I don't recall it you remember your dad's dash yeah that happened it happened Kelly it definitely happened yeah Kelly says it might have happened but um I couldn't believe that man so I don't I'm pretty sure that that was not

the eighth and final punishment that was probably number two that was probably in the middle summer. That was four through eight. Yeah. That counted as a bunch of... Every time we showed it to... I really messed up. I really messed up. I really messed up. I appreciate you owning up to it. Yeah. Yeah. 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... 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, 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 now. eighth grade. But I found some of his yearbooks from like fifth, sixth, 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 had 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 I was living on a prayer. What a time. That was their name.

That was their motto. 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 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 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 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 yeah too bad you're not in the picture though because they'd be 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 going, hey man, let's meet for lunch. Wow. You think you got in trouble for the Playboy in 86,

you said? Maybe. 86 was one living on a prayer came out. Okay, good. Sherry, our neck could have been one of them, Julian McCalla. I mean,

I don't. Awesome. So you can go look at it. I mean, and most people that are watching this probably may have already seen it. But Brooks, I think Marty McGee

had a conversation with Brooks and Dunn. And Kicks Brooks, both of them, I think, are on the boat. They're fishing out in the ocean. They got their wives. It's a big deal. Dad had probably about a 50-foot boat or something that he takes out there and they're fishing.

And they're – Kicks-Brooks is telling the story about how Kicks is tired of fishing. They've caught a lot of fish. He's just like, I'm ready to drink some beer. I'm done. But they hooked a sailfish, and Dad's like, get your ass out of here. And they reel it in. and dad's all excited. It's a pretty cool story.

And then they bring the fish in, take photos, do all the stuff. And then for some reason, they're throwing a bunch of chum. Yeah, they were chumming the water. Into the water. And Dad's like, Kicks, come over here, look at these turtles.

And kicks is like, oh, yeah, I do want to see the turtles. And gets over to the rail. And dad grabs him by his pants and throws him into the chum and then tells the Captain Terry, who I remember Captain Terry, all right, drive away. And they drove away.

with Kix's wife going What do we do? And Kix is in there like trying not to splash He's just like Don't move Because there's blood in the water I think he said he was shark infested

Yeah Yeah And they drove away I know right Oh my gosh Like what if something really did happen Holy shit Brooks and done

Yeah Brickson done Damn Like that's That's serious That's not a prank. That's just...

That's a bull's mean. That is a bull's a... Dad. I mean, if that story is absolutely true as told, I would be furious. James goes attempted murder. Yes! Yeah, we haven't went that far.

That's pretty... And he said... He said the boat got far enough away to where you can barely see it. And then it became funny to turn around. He's embellishing some. The fishing story's getting a little... Yes, right.

I mean, let's be serious here. It's still a criminal offense. But, you know, I remember, I remember one time there was a, there was an individual that was a tire. He was the tire changer. He was a very good tire changer. Dad's team had just hired him to change tires on the Xfinity car. This was in the early 90s. And his nickname.

was Yankee. Scott Caluca was his name. Awesome guy. And he would eventually become a tire changer on the cup car. But I remember his like path to like becoming the changer on the Xfinity car, earning everybody's respect, getting called up, you know, like a like a major league baseball guy to the cup team and how big a deal that was and how much better dad's team got on pit road because of it.

But when he first came, he was really, uh, a smart ass. And young guy around Tony's senior dad, all these gruffy old veterans that knew everything and he come in there running his mouth and being a smart ass. And I remember, I don't know how this happened, but dad had,

dad was in the parking lot shooting his bow and arrow, his compound bow for deer hunting. And at some point, Scott showed, Calucaa showed up and he's being his smart-ass self and said something and dad dad's like whatever dad said or did Scott turned and took off running across the parking lot and dad fired an arrow about eight foot over his head. Oh my God.

And yeah. And dad told him he was going to shoot at him. Jeez. Well, it's okay then. Yeah. That's, look, the details are sketchy a little. little fuzzy. And then there was another time where there was a guy that was a guy as a carpenter, his name's Todd. And Todd's an amazing carpenter, long time employee, Dillenhunt Corpenter. Dad loved

him. And Todd built Dad's log cabin single-handedly. I went in there and helped him a little bit with some stuff in some of the closets and did some, did a little work. But that guy was down there every day building that thing on his own. He had a woodworking shop there. He eventually would end up getting a woodworking shop in DEI. And like he was a main figure. And dad leaned on him and he's still around. I still talked to him. He loved Ford's.

Dad didn't love Ford's. We were Chevy people. But Todd wanted to streetstock race. He had raced some street stock stuff in his past. And we, I mean, just coincidentally, me and carrier building a street stock. and so right out at the deerhead shop that was really the only thing around in the property back then was the deerhead shop the garage mahal wasn't built yet we would get our street stocks out of the barn Todd had a Ford Thunderbird big box the 83 84 3rd Thunderbird and I had me and Kerry had a little Monte Carlo 708 Monte Carlo and we pulled them street stocks over there and we'd start working on them we're getting them ready we're building them we're not racing them yet Todd's in the in his car tacking in the firewall for the back. So big old sheet of tin, he's tacking it into the back of this car,

covering up all the holes in the back of the car. And he's in the interior. And dad had been out on his farm, and he walked around with a six-shooter on his hip. So he had a shot, he had a pistol on his hip at all times when he was out on his farm. And so it's probably five o'clock.

Everybody's starting to converge on the deerhead shop. There's going to be beer drinking and pizza and bull's the Tony senior and them been working on the Xfinity cars

for Jeff Green or somebody whoever was driving the cars at the time and so

we get our street stocks out it's after five o'clock and we can work on them and Todd's working on his and I'm working on mine with Kerry

and dad walks by and we had we're building the cars dad walks by pulls his gun shoots a hole through

the quarter panel of this Ford the bullet goes through the quarter panel and through the fuel cell and it scares the shit out of all of us and dad says you need to get a

you gotta get a racing fuel cell so now you can't he's like he's like it's dangerous to run this stock fuel cell and I've now fired a hole in it so you can't use it I want you to put a good fuel cell

in these cars so you guys don't get burned up you know and safety first Yeah, safety first. Brilliant. It was loud. Well, yeah, that's a gunshot. Just shot at it.

Just shot a hole right through the quarter panel. And so Todd raced that car with a bullet hole in the quarter panel. That's badass. It was awesome. That is badass. I raced that Ford once. Oh, yeah? Yeah.

I was a year after this, I moved on and was racing my late model stock car with Gary Hargett down in Myrtle Beach. We had an off weekend. I was up at the farm shop. Oh, like a Friday. And Todd's messing around, and I'm like, you're going on street strike racing this weekend? He's like, nah, I don't feel like it.

I'm like, can I take your car? He's like, I was like, you can't believe you're not going to go. He's like, yeah, you can take it. And so I loaded it up. And I take it. And I'm practicing and this thing's pretty simple to drive. And we all drew for position. We didn't even qualify.

And Kelly's in the race. Kelly's in our old car. She's driving this old tour up Monte Carlo, me and Carrie's destroyed. Kevin Pennell, two beer. He's in the race. He starts in front of me, two beer.

Yeah. Two beer drove a purple. Nova, number four. Purple with a white four on it. Green flag, two beer missed a shift, and I knocked the radiator out of this Ford. Oh, no.

First damn thing. Like, I didn't even get to run the race. Todd ran really good in it. Todd would run top three. And it drove. You were looking forward to it. It drove really good, yeah. Yeah.

And I'm like, hell, yeah, here we go. And damn, got the green flag. and Two Beard didn't go. And I just drove through him. You just weren't meant to drive a Ford. Yeah. Right.

Two Bear had that damn shifting problem we sometimes see in the cars tour. Oh, I want to restarting. What was Todd's reaction to you busting up the radiator? He was kind of over it at that point in term. Yeah, he was kind of moving on. Did you fix it? I don't know if we probably did. Yeah.

Wow. I love those stories. We were putting a radiator. We were taking our radiators to Alton Boyd's. Outton, yeah. Outton Boyd's, uh, who's tab is his son,

the spotter that was recently in the news. Um, well, his dad owned a radiator shop in Canapolis. And that's where we always take our radiators back in the 90s that we race our street stock cars. Dude, we had the radiator.

Me and Carrie would take the radiator out of our Monte Carlo every week having to fix a hole in that son, because we knocked a damn nose off of that car every race. Me and Carrie tore that Monte Carlo all to hell. And then, I mean, the front horns on it were bent left and right so many times and pulled straight. And then, you know, the radiator was all gobbled up with like welding and glue and all kinds of patchwork. We're like, you know, Alton's like, I can fix it. All right, keep fixing it, you know.

All right, I can fix it. I mean, we're waiting on him to tell us like, all right. You need a new one. Yeah, you need a new one. And then Kelly was forced to drive this thing. Like when she wanted to start racing, they were like, all right, you get to. to drive the Monte Carlo. And there's pictures of her

driving her first race and this thing looks like it has been through a war zone. That Monte Carlo is still sitting on the property over at DEI. Wow. Out by a farm, out by a shop. I believe, I wonder if there's some Google or shots or something of it sitting beside the... Oh, so it's like outside?

It's outside, yeah. Dang. Yeah. I'd love to have that car, but, you know, what kind of condition you think it's... Oh, it's terrible. Yeah. All ready to begin with. And then you leave outside. But I mean, it's into, it's into, It's in the condition it deserves to be in. You wouldn't restore it or anything. You'd just love to have it because it's like me and Kerry learned everything about trying to get around a corner in that very car.

That was like the real first race car we raced. Man, we would burn up the – we took that car, we built it. We didn't know what the hell we were doing. And we rebuilt the – it had like a 283, not even a really great motor in it. We rebuilt that motor, blew that motor up in the first race, and had to get it – had to build another motor. We would burn the wheelbarons up every week.

We didn't know why. Dad wouldn't say, hey, you might want to get a spindle off of a Cadillac or something else that was a little beefier for the right front. And we would burn up the wheelbarons and go to the damn junkyard and climb under some old rat infested, snake infested car that had been sitting in this graveyard forever with our little tiny toolbox and get a damn spindle off of the car. Oh, my God. We'd pull springs.

and we had a junkyard sponsorship. Oh, perfect. Yeah. And we'd get all this stuff and we'd get ball joints or lowers and uppers because we're bending all this shit every week. And we'd go to the junkyard and get a replacement part and get another part. And we'd come back and, you know, we'd fix it and put it together. And dad was never there going, you might want to think about doing it this way or might

want to do it this way. You know, he'd wanted us to just screw up, right? and figure it out. And, man, it was fun. NASCAR fans, listen up. Exfinity's waving the red flag on Internet price hikes, and they're raising the green for savings. It's time to get the speed and the reliability that you won't out of your Wi-Fi.

You're locked in at one price for five years. That's insane. No surprises. No late yellow straight to victory lane. Just like that, folks. We have a winner, and the winner is Xfinity. it's infinity imagine that. Thank you very much.

Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Place your bets. This segment of Dirty Modeau is brought you by Fandu. A reminder, like Dale and T.J, I can't bet. But I can help give you some advice. So Travis is still with us and joining us is now Tampa Tim. Hey, what's up? He's our resident degenerate gambler.

We all have one of those in our family. We now head to Las Vegas. The betting favorites are Kyle Larson at plus 500, Denny Hamlin and Chris Ravelle at plus 700, William Byron at plus 850, and Tyler Redick at plus 900. Campa Thames, what do you see? What stands out? I actually like Larson. I hate betting the favorite, obviously.

Say this every week. No, I never say Larson. I don't know. I feel like you're always fan-boy in it. The favorites win most of the time. So plus 500 in betting is a very good number still. That's always been my stance. But he has like the best average finish here.

but my best bet is not to take him to win it's top three it's plus 150 uh and of his six top tens at las Vegas five of them have been top threes so if he wins a wrecks if he's yeah he's he's winner or a wrecker are you guys worried at all about the Chevy body and their performance or is that just typical phoenix i don't think the body has anything to do with you know not running as well at phoenix i think they're going to be great i think uh the toyotas look really strong to me as a whole. They finished out last year of Vegas really well. So there'll be a big threat. I think you're looking at a Toyota Chevrolet duel. T.J., what's your thoughts? Yeah, you know, I don't, it's, this place is kind of weird. It's got a couple of guys that seem to always find their way to the front here as well.

And I, I know, Blaney and Joey seem to be really good here as well. And then, I mean, last year, Josh Barry, you know, so I don't, is that, that could be a long shot. so yeah i actually think the guy who almost won daniel swore is a better long shot my problem is expire has speed every week they don't really finish it off though which is like the one caveat to betting any of their cars

is they've seen always have a problem during the race but this is i don't know man do you do you see any change with the points how it is now does it change any of the way these guys are racing i mean like if you look at their three drivers i think mcdowl's the most consistent right hosovar yes he's got the most speed but either he runs into somebody or somebody's going to run him over him basically. And Swar is I feel like it's more mistakes where he kind of gets put back in a bad situation than he's involved in the wreck that happens.

Yeah. So I feel like the point system doesn't really matter with them. It's more like they're kind of their own, you know, self-deprecating factor. Yeah. I do think Bubba could be pretty decent here and Briscoe as well like you have on here. I think that's, um, that car is always fast. here. So and Briscoe's proven like we talked about earlier in the show. Brisco's due for a big rebound. He's just, he hasn't, the car hasn't lost speed putting him in there. He's held up to his

end of the deal, obviously making the final four last year as well. So yeah, I think most of this has just been car problems. It's not necessarily a speed problem, you know, with Brisco. So it's, I don't think that hurts it. Bubba actually has an average as like a 20 second place finish at Vegas. So I, I, I would go brisco except in the gambling terms i'll larsan would quit wrecking it i know i'm really interested about tyler reddick i feel like he's had a couple really good races at bagis lately um he's been really strong he hasn't really nice so he got the finish had that big wreck remember that we were in with him tj years ago where you like almost flipped down the front stretch oh yeah yeah but he was like the fastest car of that race

yeah another race where i think might have been last year he was running second and was faster and just couldn't get by Larson for the lead to win at the end. Yeah, this is going to be, this is a big race for Reddick in my eyes just to see how he handles it. If he has the speed, does he push it too far and have the accident or does Tyler take the, you know, if he's running fourth? Did he just take his fourth? Yeah. He's got 12 starts, two top five, six top tens. But I feel like that doesn't really tell the picture of how good he's ran the last few times at Las Vegas. I think, so I'm interested to see what you guys think. Obviously with the three wins and the new points format, he's, he's, he's, he's,

way out there. Do you think that gives him the most confidence to go into a track like Vegas and he's just, there's absolutely no pressure with him now? I think his cars are super fast. That gives him a lot of confidence. Yeah, okay. That'll do it. Yeah. I mean, like crazy fast. If Tyler can drive at a eight or nine out of ten for the next 30, you know, whatever races, he's going to be really hard to be. Yeah, he's like 10 cup right now. Yeah. He's got like a three whole lead, you know? Yeah. He just lay up, put it on the green. He doesn't have to push it. Yeah. He could just put it on the green, dude. I'm not 100% sure when, I'm sure it got ran when they, the models for this format,

but not many times did the winner of the first three races be the same, you know, so this, I don't, I'm not sure this will ever happen again either. No. You know, so this is a huge lead. Yeah. Put a couple of pars on the board and. But he can do that, but Tyler's had a problem in the past and I've seen it. I've worked with him.

Tyler had sometimes just. You know, like when he runs the fence, sometimes he just overdoes it and takes himself out of the race. Phoenix is one of those places where, you know, you get too aggressive and you're in trouble quick. Phoenix for Vegas. I'm sorry, Vegas. What about that? What's the hard part? What's the part that like where they'll separate a good driver from a great driver on that track?

So when I think of what separates a great driver at Vegas from a not so great driver, it's the ability to move lanes. Like, you're going to get stuck behind somebody. in traffic at Vegas. And it was part of what I like about Tyler is he's really good at moving on the racetrack. And so he'll find a way to move and get some grip and go. The problem with that is usually when I say you have to move on the racetrack, that means you have to run like a dangerous line, like up against the wall in three and four.

And if you miss that by a little bit, you're on the fence. So link. Bent. track position. Yeah. Gone. What's your thoughts about your ability on Sunday? to go out there.

Yeah, I'm really curious. You know, we've made a lot of changes from where we were last year at Vegas. Like, we have full new car specs. It should be some big upgrades. I guess we'll see when we get to the racetrack. But I felt like last year, the Toyotas in particular were like lights out fast,

like three to four tenths faster than the Ford's. So we have a big gap to close. Is there something in practice fans can watch for when deciding on who they're going to, in their fantasy leagues or whatever, to like, oh, this driver's got it. So Vegas might be the single worst track outside of like a plate track

to judge practice speeds off. And the groups. The way, there's a couple reasons for the way the groups settle out. I think is what TJ was about to get to. And also, like, if you put air in the tires at Vegas and practice, the car will go faster. It's kind of the opposite. What we just talked about with Phoenix.

If you don't put air in the tires, the cars are terribly slow, but that's what you're going to need to race. and practice. So I feel like every year we go to Vegas for practice, somebody is like crazy fast and does not show up in the race. And I think you'll see that again. It'll be like Carson Hosevar or somebody like that.

We'll go out and set the fastest lap and practice. Yeah. And then the race, they'll run like 15th the whole time. And he's got that edge right now too where he, his hit natural right off the truck, he's going to be fast. That team is notorious for hot lap. Hot lapping practice. Yeah.

Where you're like, oh, okay, this doesn't really mean anything. What's your favorite, favorite Vegas moment? My favorite Vegas moment? When we lift and let you win? No, honestly, that was not my favorite Vegas moment. We ran out of gas one time. I don't know if you remember. Yeah, I won the race.

We ran out of gas off at two with LaTart. You know, actually that was my favorite Vegas moment because I swept the weekend. You know how what you could have done for the sport if you pushed him? You didn't even want the trophy. I remember after the race, I went and talked to Dale Jr. for just a brief second. I was like, the way you feel right now is the way I felt at Daytona. Because the 500, Dale won the 500 that year. 14?

Yeah, 14. And it was only like two weeks earlier. And I led a bunch of the race. We came down pit road at a terrible pit stop. Came off at pit road like 15th. And I drove all the way up to second. And I couldn't pass him for the week. Because you should have went to the bottom in front of Denny.

Yes. I don't know if that would have won me the race, but it would have got you close. It would have got me closer. We still would have blocked you. So the way I felt was like, I told him. And I said, so if you want to trade, like I'll give you my Vegas trophy if you give me the 500. He won't even give me a 500 trophy. It pisses me off. I don't think you can.

That's one of the few trophies you can't buy a replica for. Tims, is there any other bets for Vegas that you like? I kind of like Ross Chastain to sprinkle a little bit on a win bet. He's plus 1600. It's pretty good odds. I was kind of disappointed. He runs good there. He does run good there.

He's second best average finish, I think, in next gen there. But I'm so confused on where to go with the track house cars in general with their speed. What about SVG? How's he going to do? See, I don't know. The mile and a half, so I'm still kind of, I mean, he's been great. But the mile and a half's, I don't know. Are we sleeping on?

Are we sleeping on Ty Gibbs? Now these are the right people? I mean, what are we? He doesn't have. It's a great quote. He doesn't have really good numbers here. So I'm just not going to back it. But he's, I mean, obviously, Gips car that could run top 10, top 5, top 3 any week.

This spring Vegas race is known for surprise winners. That's good. I like to hear that. Anybody else, any top tens or anything? AJ Almonding would be a little bit of a sprinkle too. He's quietly. Yeah, quietly good here. Where was the at points?

He was up there. He's the top 10. Yeah. Yeah. That's not something I would have had. Where are the points? Pull him back up here. I'm curious too.

I'm pretty sure he's like right in front of us. You should open another tab. If I'm not mistaken, AJ won. 13. He won an O'Reilly race here, if I'm not mistaken. He did. He did. Yeah. A few years ago.

Yeah. So the one thing I realized we didn't talk about, though, is how are you feeling getting out of these cars and getting back in with the injury? Yeah. So, you know, racing with an injury is not fun. I'll tell you, I'm the most comfortable in the car. Just the way the seat is and everything's done. Walking to and from the car is suck. particularly after the race, like getting out of the car and like taking those steps.

Like even when you're not hurt after you run a race, like you get out of the car in the first few steps, you're like a baby deer. Like, uh, walking, what's this like? Because you just got out of a race car where, you know, you're pulling like two and a half Gs. Like you're sitting. So standing up is not like natural right now. And you're usually a little dehydrated, usually a little tired, hot sweaty, etc. But then adding on top of the.

that like my leg like I get out and I have like all those like okay this is what's like to stand again and then my leg sore hurts a little bit like that's like when it hits you because the adrenaline starts to wear off so the worst part is after the race but in the car like I don't even know I really don't like I can't even feel it and I'm getting to the spot now where you know another month or two I should be like over it anyway so it's it's just been like part of my journey now like you get in a car run the race like it hurts a little bit after everything all the adrenaline's worn off then you go do the rehab and like my high every week is higher than the high last week of like things i can do so so how was coda coda the most trying one so far yeah coda was definitely the hardest uh because the curbs yeah the curves you bounce the curbs so much and when you shift a cup car you like you do this quick movement with your foot where you blip the gas and it's kind of aggressive and like it puts like a shock through your leg and I can feel those.

I think that's what Joey did to Ross and the trial, the dog leg, when he was on the restart. No blip shift. So your 16 points, though, is like content, happy? Yes and no. Like, I was disappointed in Phoenix. I thought we'd be better than we were at Phoenix. Wow, we kind of. You know, we dug a hole on Saturday with a crash.

But I wanted to go out to Phoenix and, you know, have a solid top five outing or better and we didn't have that. If we just ran like fifth at Phoenix and said we ran 15th, we'd score 10 more points plus the stage points. We would be legitimately fifth in points right now. That's how close it is. Yes. Instead we're 16.

So looking ahead to Vegas, like if we just run like top five the whole race, like we'll leave Vegas in the top 10 in points, maybe even the top five. Gotcha. Anything else? No, no, not the name. That dirty-modeau segment was brought to you by Fandul,

the premier gaming destination in the United States. So thanks for joining us in the Arby Studio. Don't forget about Arby's new meat and three box. Get more a meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meats. So it's fun filling in today, guys. Thanks for having me. Dale Jr.

Hope you're enjoying the ski session. Don't break a leg. All 16 miles of riding you've done. A day. I hope everybody's having a great time with the girls. You and Amy. But appreciate everybody. listening. This is my one podcast for the year. I'm sure Michael want to meet me with you after this

about starting something. We'll see. I hope people liked it. I think it was good. I had fun. Thanks for having me, TJ, Travis. Yeah. Camp Timms. Great insights. That's it. Peace out. Check out Dirtymo Media on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok.