The Dale Jr. Download - Chicago: “Entertaining As S***”

Episode Date: July 8, 2025

Dale Earnhardt Jr. returns from the Windy City for another fresh edition of Dirty Air. He joins co-host TJ Majors to discuss NASCAR’s latest trip to the streets of Chicago and all the latest storylines in the world of stock car racing:Who is actually complaining about racing in Chicago?TNT broadcasting strugglesWhat does the future hold for the Chicago Street Race?Shane Van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch’s last lap battleJoey Logano and Ross Chastain’s on-track incidentBubba Wallace vs. Alex BowmanDuring the Ask Jr. portion of the episode, listeners wrote in questions regarding:NASCAR’s delayed response in throwing the caution for Cody WareThe upcoming NASCAR 25 console gameTJ’s perspective of the Dale Jr./Josh Snider Buffalo pick-up story And for more content check out our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMediaDirty Mo Media is launching a new e-commerce merch line! They’ve got some awesome Dale Jr. Download merch on the site. Visit shop.dirtymomedia.com to check out all the new stuffFanDuel: Must be 21+ and present in select states (for Kansas, in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino) or 18+ and present in D.C. First online real money wager only. $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets which expire 7 days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut, or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit GamblingHelpLineMA.org or call [phone] for 24/7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPENY in New York.Consumer Cellular: New customers get a $5 credit on first five monthly invoices. Visit ConsumerCellular.com/DJD for details.Arby’s: Arby’s Cheesesteak is Here! Use code DALE to redeem $0 Delivery on any order in the Arby’s app.   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.

Joey doesn't care if he gets fine. But Joey just wants us to know that Ross came up to him personally and admitted it. Somehow that might make Joey feel better about it. The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. I'm still sour, man, that I wasn't your best man at your wet. When will you start mentally, like, getting ready for the race? Can you not tell I'm mentally ready? Travis has some dumb ideas, but I agree with him on this one.

You don't sound like you know what you're talking about. You haven't scratched the surface. I mean, what the fuck do you won't? I just think the last few laps It was just like stop every time You're picky This ain't walking in and have it your way

Motherf**e All right This ain't Burger King Travis is like Wrapped us up They all have no fun around you Hey everybody It's Dale Jr. back again

For another episode of the Dale Jr. Download back here. Glad to be back. Had a good time, but the studio is always nice. Yeah, you and I took our families to the beach. Yeah. I got a gift to you, brother.

What I do? You hung in there. Beer for beer. Did I? Yeah, I didn't even. I thought you did pretty good. Oh, I didn't know we were keeping school. Usually, if you go on vacation with TJ, trying to get him to have a few drinks is,

I don't start until night a lot. Yeah. It's like trying to feed a five-year-old Brussels sprouts. It's not. happening. Not happening. You're not going to feed me Brussels Brussels pros now.

Hey, TJ, man, he was having some beers at lunch. Oh, we were, yeah, I felt. You were doing good. Yeah,

I felt like, yeah, maybe we were even. I don't know. Dude. Even so you're eating. You kept up. You ran a good pace.

Yeah, my pace was good. That's all the matters. Yeah. But, yeah, good trip. And, man,

kids got to do a lot, got to play. Oh, kids. That's all we did all day. below this fix this, dude. Tons of swimming. Yeah.

But we then went to Chicago. I'm trying to think. Gosh, what, did I miss anything? Feels like I've been just going and going and going. I am tired today. I got it this morning and worked out. I'm a little tired. Well, that's why you're tired today.

That's a good habit, though. What times do you get up? Well, I set the alarm for seven. Oh, that? You got to get up earlier to work. Amy said, Amy said, let's work out.

Let's get up in the morning. I said, all right, as I set this alarm at seven. I said, Amy, seven o'clock, alarm,

let's go. And we laid there in bed until about seven, 20. We finally got up. Yeah. We did our 30 minutes. Got to shower and here I am.

So I, like, every once in I'll get up like super early, like five. And that's like, the house is so quiet at five o'clock in the morning. You can get like two hours of working before anything moves.

And it's, It's nice. I got home from Chicago Sunday had a relatively good time. And you know why? Because they kind of started that race at a half-ass decent freaking hour. Thank you. But it's also weird because it's getting dark at like 8.39 o'clock at now. You know, so you'll get home a little bit of still light outside.

Yeah. It is weird. And you're like, dang, this is like old school. I know. Getting home from a race and it'd be 5, 6 o'clock in the evening. But it's later than that college. football comes out Monday, right? So I played my game against Darren in our league.

In the morning. Now at night. Did you play it last night? No, we did play in the morning. I was going to say I got to score in the morning. Played a Monday morning. Yeah. Dominated.

I scored on him with under two minutes left. Kind of a d-a-moved. But I needed to do it. And then college football 26 comes out, play with that a little bit. Yeah. I'm not sure. It'll be all right. I'm not sure about it.

Just give it time. Well, it's like Novakane. Not that anybody listen to this shit right here. Give it a damn. But they adjusted the view a little bit. Like, TJ's view or the standard sort of view that's a little closer. I like to be backed up so I can kind of see the receivers a little bit. And I play from that angle.

So they did change that. I don't know if you know that when you hold the trigger down and now it widens out. I know. but if I play in your view and I hike the ball, I'm way too close. I'm too close to the players and I can't really see the holes and who's coming at who. And I'm too close and I'm too flat. I like to be up and looking almost kind of down. I like the coach that what of that end zone camera way up kind of.

Yeah, you do play from way up. Exactly. That's what I mean. No, it's just before that. Yeah, it's a little bit closer. Well, they've widened that out even more and it's too wide now. and when you hike the ball, you back up. Like when the ball is hiked,

you zoom out a little bit even more. Why'd they do that? I don't know. My view hasn't really changed on it. I think that... Those are the little things that don't make it better. That's the little stuff that's like, leave that shit alone. I'm so used to the point of view from the whole year we've been playing 25.

Yeah, I know. You don't want it to really change. Don't tinker that little shit because us guys, that like to play on the wide cam don't want you. Every year we would get Madden. Every year we would get the new Madden, the view is always the same. And it's like we went backwards on the play art

for the play selection. It's definitely, it's just, it's crisper and cleaner, but it's definitely, I think it rotates. I do. I think next year it'll be back to, it just rotates. I hear you.

I just thought the play art was easier to look at in 25 when you're in the play selection. I agree a little bit. But we'll see. I'm not, I'm still. We were talking about college football 26 for the Xbox or PlayStation. Now, yeah.

And it just came out. It's a big deal. They did a lot to make the game better. To bring the game back too. Well, they brought it back last year. And now they've, this is their real first. Like, here's all the bells and whistles, you know. I agree.

Oh, man. First off, you get done with these races. And there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a, a lot of little avenues of thought, conversation, complaint. We're going to try to go through most of those. One of them that I didn't understand at all is, and help me if I'm, I saw a couple people in the media. I think Jeff Gluck and Jordan were talking about it a little bit.

And then Pete Pistone was talking about it in a Twitter post. about people complaining that we're going to Chicago or went to Chicago or in Mexico. Like, I hadn't heard none of it. Who is complaining? Yeah, I haven't heard her. Who is complaining so much that Gluck and Jordan needed to address, like, hey, guys, if we're, you know, growing the sport, we need to go to these places. you've gotten Wilkesboro back,

you got the Rockingham back, you got this and that and other. We still can do those great things that you love and nostalgic about and we can go grow the sport in Mexico City and Chicago. Stop complaining, but I ain't heard anybody complain. I mean, there's some out there,

but I don't think it's a loud base. There was the case for Mexico City. A lot of people complained about that. People are still, honestly, there's some people still say that they got a little illness or God not feeling so well. SVG one of them.

you know, that came back and... A lot of the drivers. SVG got out of the car after the race Saturday and had to get a little medical attention because he was smoked. But said, you know, he had gotten a bug, the stomach bug in Mexico City and said he was still like trying to get hydrated and get his body right. And so, but Chicago, man, was awesome.

And I don't know. Chicago's been the biggest turnaround from before we went. Before we went, people were like, oh, I can't believe we're going to Chicago. And then once we go there, the industry, like, honestly, I think the industry loves going there. They do. Who are these people saying we don't need to go there? There's the odd one out of 15 here and there. I haven't heard it.

The world that we're in. I'm in the damn, I got social media apps. I'm freaking reading out. I'm all over the place looking at, you know, people's opinions about everything. Wow. I mean, you're not going to find industry people tweeting much about it because that doesn't work out well. I think he's saying he's on Reddit. that he's watching what fans tweet.

How am I not making sense to y'all? I know what you're saying. But I just disagree that there are, there's nobody saying that there's fans out there that don't want to go to Chicago. Where did you see that? On social media. Which app? Twitter.

Really? Yes. I'm not saying it's a, it's a. I believe you. I'm a majority, but there's fans out there. You're always going to have, there's always negative people. What was their problem? They don't,

I don't want a street course. I want to race on a novel. Oh, well, I feel that way. But, I mean, I'm not complaining about it because I don't get to choose. I mean, I, If I have my way, our asses will be racing South Boston and all kinds of fun little race tracks. But it ain't happening.

So I don't sit on social media and bitch about it and say this is where we need to go to South Boston. It's an entertainment value. I don't know how you don't watch that race and you're not entertained. Like there's so many things, elements to that race. I don't, there's guys getting in missing corners. There's natural.

I just think my opinion, I guess, is, is like, Gluck, Jordan. I don't see the reason why they had to address it. It wasn't allowed enough. It wasn't a big enough group of people, you know, to address it for Pete Pistone to tweet about it. Just adds credibility to the people that are saying that. Yeah. I know what you mean.

It's the pointless thing. So I just didn't understand that. I love to pick this part. Like we go, we race, and then we come home and everybody complains about what they want to complain about. And then I love to read all that. I disagree. or I agree. And so that's what we're doing right this minute.

To me, this is like Blaney, whether it was after Atlanta, wherever it was, we ran a race and they tweeted the ratings and Blaney called them out. Like, so we're actually better than this and we're still doing good. Yeah. And that 1.6, man. Need to be a little bit better than that. For this week? For Atlanta. Yeah.

I was thinking the same thing. I mean, you know, you'd love it to be three million people or 2.6 or 2.2. you'd love it to be up there. It wasn't, it is what it is. Everybody says it's a Saturday night thing. I don't know. Like, you know, we used to race only, the only night race we had, I guess,

was Bristol for a long time in the 80s. And people think that I talked to some people in the industry up in the very top and they're like, you know, we got a lot of, we got too many Saturday night races now. It's not a thing anymore. And, but I don't know, man, if it was, you know, if something's good, you seek it out. That's what I'm saying.

If you want to watch, you're going to watch no matter when it is. I know, but it's, it's, Atlanta was great. So why was the fucking number 1.6? I mean, Atlanta was a great race and we knew it was going to be a great race. We all knew it was going to be great race. Why didn't more people watch it? I don't know. It didn't make any sense.

Because you got options. You got options on Sunday, too. You still can get a two or a 1.9 or 2.2. But do you think the, the, the, the, average fans going to be more available on a Sunday at 1 o'clock or a Saturday at 7. You know what I mean? Like that, to me, like he says. I think if it's good and you like it and you'll seek it out.

Yeah. You know, you can't sit here and say, man, we need to start at 1 o'clock on Sunday and go up against the NFL. But we don't need to be racing on Saturday night at 7. That's crazy, man. It's not nobody going to watch that. If you can't pull them Saturday night against because there's no more basketball. Well, I'm just saying, you can't. We're not really competing against much on.

Saturday night. I don't, I mean, if it's good people will seek it out. I've always felt that way. Yeah, I mean, I always find, I would always find time to find, like, if something is on that I want to watch, you're going to watch it. Now, so I get that there's better, you know, we know this about social media, too. There's better hours to post. There's more, you know, there's prime time.

There's, there's time when people will have more freedom to either read your content or watch your video or watch your race. And so I understand. We can't have the shit happening at 5 o'clock in the morning on Thursday. But Saturday night versus Sunday shouldn't be that big of a shift, I don't think. Second race with TNT. The prime stuff was amazing, great group, had a lot of fun, a lot of help from NBC to sort of get them going. Tons of help.

The TNT group is all TNT. Some people have been in the broadcast booth before. some people have broadcast and been part of a race production before. Not everyone, but there are some people in the TNT truck that has some really awesome experience. I will also say that from the booth to the truck to my boss is there at TNT, everyone is busting ass and everybody's a hard worker and everybody has the best intentions. There's nothing about it that feels like we're cutting a course. corner.

And I feel like that we got probably two of the toughest races to direct and produce for a new group that hadn't done it in, you know, some hadn't done it in years. We got two of the toughest racetracks between Atlanta. So Atlanta uses the original camera locations, but now you're broadcasting that same race that you broadcasted years ago. you're broadcasting it and fast forward now. It's like the way the cars get around that track and how quickly you have to cut the race is,

it's a challenge. So for any new team coming in that hadn't cut a race in years, if not ever, you know, it's one that can, you're chasing the race the whole time instead of being out in front of it. That's understandable.

I thought we did okay job at Atlanta and I felt like going into Chicago, I told anybody that would listen. I was like, man, we're going to, we'll make some big gains here because we've got one under our belt. But I really underestimated the challenge of doing a street course. We couldn't use aerial because there's a ton of blockage, trees and stuff like that. Ariel's sort of a saving grace, if you will, when you're kind of having a tough time

getting to where you want to go. It's a good way to sort of bust out of the action, ground level, and get everything that you one on the screen and sort of find yourself back where you want to go on the track with the location you want to be at. Is that a common thing? You know, during a broadcast? So if you go to, if, I don't know, I'm not a director and a producer. I could not do any other.

I could, I could not go into that TV compound and do a different job. I couldn't. And I don't pretend to know the business. I know how to be an analyst. and I love play-by-play. I grew up listening to play-by-play and admiring Barney Hall. Oh, that's great.

And those guys. So I love getting the chance to sort of do some play-by-play during the race. And that's just what I want. And if fans are happy with me in the booth, they're going to get that. If they don't like what I do, they can voice their opinion

and the people that are the network gods will decide somebody else can go do it. but getting back to our broadcast, you know, there were some moments where we stumbled. And, you know, looking back on it, I certainly wish that we would have left there with, you know, with a better, you know, reaction or a little bit better temperature on social media. And everything that I've read about on social media, you know, we miss the Bubba spin out of turn two. the 51 rec all of those things

everyone in our team are hyper aware that we we all have had conversations even in the last 48 hours of yep I wish that would have went differently yep we should have done

X Y and Z instead of what we did sure you always go back and look at that yeah and so well I just want people to know like you know we are I think we as a team are aware of some of the things that we could have done differently in that, in some moments, some things we wish would have went better.

And there is a massive want to. There is nothing but all hands on deck. Everybody is ready to go to Sonoma, work even harder. I mean, the things that we'll do to try to make sure that we shore up and really hit the mark in our broadcast. We're going to spend every minute of the week trying to prepare ourselves for this upcoming event so that we don't have a misstep in a big moment.

Yeah. Yeah. And so, you know, I just want people to know that it's a really good group of people. It's a great team. And they want to do this and get this right, and they can and will. And, you know, I will say this.

It'll never be harder. It'll never be harder than it was at Chicago to broadcast a race for a team. I mean, there's no booth. That's very challenging to be on property, but not really be able to help the truck. So the production truck, you have the producer who's, you know, deciding on what's coming next. Not really the camera that you're going to look at, but he's deciding, all right, we've got to pay off this in-car camera. We're going to read this promo card. And, you know, when the racing action is happening, he kind of lays out a little bit.

But he's the one that's sort of steering the whole path of the broadcast. The director's the one sitting there deciding what exactly is on the camera at all times. He is freaking busy. Busy. And then there's a guy sitting next to him with a gigantic board with. buttons for all those cameras and that guy's sitting there hitting all those buttons as the director's telling him camera four camera 11 camera 19 camera 13 and it's just bam bam bam bam bam bam and so it's freaking impossible i don't know how they do it i don't i don't know how they would do it either

sounds really difficult well when we're looking when i'm able to be in the booth and look out across the racetrack that's why i said you know in the offseason i would not be into doing a booth that was in charlotte right for a race it was somewhere else. I wouldn't want to do that because I need to be, not only feel the energy of the actual event, like be at the event to feel like the crowd and the energy because it's the environment there.

You want to be immersed in it. Yep. The environment really makes a difference in how you feel and how excited you are about what's happening. But when I can look out the window and see the 51 hit the tire barrier, I can obviously go, wow, that's a freaking awesome nasty hit. We've got a, that goes up. my priority list of things that has to be talked about and has to be shown and you know when we saw

him in the tire barrier at first we were like oh yep he missed he locked the brakes up and slid into the wall and um it we still should have prioritized it but we didn't realize that it was as severe as a crash nobody would then yeah and and that and and that's on the booth to a point like that's So those are the things that when I can see the track, I can help point the producer to or the director to. And that's something I learned from Jeff Burton. When he's working in a booth, he's on Talkback, which is the button that you will be able to talk directly to the producer.

He's on that button all the time. Hey, battle for seventh is going to be a good one in a few laps. Hey, this guy's, you know. He sees it coming. He sees it, you know, and I do that a little bit, But when I can't freaking, you know, when you're not able to look out and see, we were in a trailer about a block from the track. And, you know, we had all the cameras on a big screen, but I can't look at those cameras and go, okay, is anybody spinning out? Does anybody hit a wall?

You know, I've got to look at the production and talk about what's on the camera or what's on TV. So it's like hard to I even had a friend of mine, you know, Stephen, I had him sit in the booth and all he did was watch those cameras and I said, look, if somebody spins out, somebody hits a wall, slaps a wall, bends a toe link, whatever, I don't care

what it is. He had a whiteboard in his hand and I was like, write it down on that whiteboard and put it out in front of us where we can see it. So we could tell our director or producer somebody's backwards in turn six. We've got to get the camera there. You know, not that they wouldn't

be able to do that. Usually they're going to see that as well in their truck. But we were just trying our hardest to like be ahead of it. Yeah, there's so many corners and so much happening. When you're, well, when you're doing a race from a studio, you can't stay ahead of it. You're just reacting to what everyone else is seeing. And I've read all the comments all, anytime there's ever been a race where they do it from a studio, you can, the fans don't love it. They don't love as much. And we were, you know, we were working our hardest trying to avoid some of the things that were just unavoidable. And, you know, so anyways, you know, I think that, you know, going into Sonoma, I've never broadcast a race there, but we do have a booth. We do have a relatively decent view of most of the racetrack.

I do think I know exactly what we're walking into in terms of the race. Where are you located there? Do you know? The booth, I'm assuming, is on the front straightway behind pits. so we'll be able to see 11 maybe coming down the S's a little bit watch them kind of going back up the hill

we won't see them down in turn 4 but you know I know I got in my mind really what all the cameras shots look like because I've watched enough races there and so I was saying like the things that we're going to do to help try to prepare ourselves

and our team to broadcast the race we'll watch back Chicago together and we'll have the honest conversations about things that we thought should be better. And this could happen in any broadcast. Even the ones that people go, damn, that was a great one. We still watch back and go, hey, here's where we should have been better. You have to.

Well, we'll do that with Chicago. And then we'll watch all of the Xfinity action practice. We're all going to get in the truck and watch all this shit together and sit down and go, man, that's a great shot. I think that's a great cut. I think they could have gotten there quicker. I think we should do this one. I think we should avoid this camera because it really is, it's just eye candy.

It's not really helping us. And so, you know, that, and we'll watch the entire Xfinity race. I should have done that. So this weekend, I'm pissed at myself because I went and sat on Carson, Quoppel's box during the Xfinity race. My ass should have been in a fucking production truck, watching with the director and getting ourselves ready for tomorrow, you know, for Sunday. and so, you know, that was...

Do you feel like Sonoma will be easier, though? Yes. Well, I'm just saying for you... The street course is so hard. You're familiar with Sonoma, too, so you know some of the ins and outs of the track, too. The street, the Sonoma track, I'm hoping that, you know, the Sonoma track, with its years of experience, having had races there forever, all the camera locations are already known, built in, all of the things that they'll have to go and, out there and set up and wire and fiber and all of that is already known and and and and it's understood.

Chicago, I mean, even though we've been there three years, everything's moved and everything's in a little different location. It's a little hard and it's still finding its way. Yeah. And you're having to wire that place every time you go there. The great thing about T&T man, again, they are they are people that want to get this right and they want to kick ass, and we've got three races to work our ass off to try to freaking end on a solid, solid note so we can go into preparing for the next season and

continue to grow. Chicago, you know, Chicago, the racetrack, the street course, I enjoyed the hell out of it. The first year, I didn't do last year, the first year we stayed in a different hotel. It was a pretty good experience, but I really didn't move around very much. My hotel was literally in turn six. I came out of the hotel, and I'm on the racetrack. And I would go to the TV compound, and I never really went anywhere else. We did have a dinner somewhere.

But I bet on Saturday we did the track walk at 7 o'clock in the morning, 2.2 miles. I walked back and forth to the hotel, another two miles. and I bet during the day going up and down pit road into the TV compound and every damn where else, I bet I did about six, six and a half miles Saturday just walking. Your phone will tell you. Okay. You can look it up.

Probably did. I mean, there is a lot of walking there, but it's fine. It's good. No, I'm just saying I enjoyed it. Me too. I did not do that much moving around. I mean, I didn't. I didn't do that much moving around the first trip.

This trip, we had dinners at different restaurants every night. thanks to Lathartre because he's like he's a dinner guy yeah i mean we're going to dude he does we're going to sonoma Thursday we've got dinner Thursday Friday Saturday and he sets all it and he orders what you're going to eat too right half the time yeah which is fine he took us to an Italian joint the first night in Chicago and it was excellent and yeah so it then we had a dinner with NASCAR and T&T at another restaurant the night before the race, which was cool talking to Helton and Jim France and all those guys, sit across them doing Jim France for dinner. That was awesome.

I can't even imagine how much of a spider web, the agreement or any future agreement or how to even get down that path is for NASCAR and the city and all that. And you don't know really who's telling the truth about whether they, you know, they really want to do this again or not. But if they said tomorrow, yeah, there's a new two-year deal or a new three-year deal, I wouldn't be mad about it. Me neither.

The race itself is entertaining as shit. Absolutely. The guys, they have a really challenging time with that racetrack. And I feel like, honestly, it's not like the more they run, the better, the less trouble they have. have what I thought I saw so when we when we went there for the first time yeah they all had a lot of trouble because they were running into corners and learning that you know they couldn't get

into those corners that deep or they were making mistakes we had a lot of weather rain guys are spinning out and sliding in water and wrecking we got there this weekend and everybody had a lot you know had a couple races under their belt at this racetrack they'd done a lot of sim work we had a dry racetrack and then we started seeing people like make mistakes because they were pushing too hard exactly right and now they got they were confident like the 24 crash in practice right he's like you know what i'm i'm gonna i'm gonna hauling ass i'm gonna shape this corner just a little different oh i can't do that it's a bunch of them that yeah the track the track was hotter than they were expecting so then it got yeah messes well they're just gonna push harder and when they

overstep it hurts so this place so you know what we usually do when we go to any other racetrack is, yes, we push harder. You run a lap, great lap. I'm going to go in the corner a little deeper. I'm going to try to do a little, I'm going to try to back it up and get in the gas sooner. You know, you adjust to try to go faster as a driver. That's what you do your entire life. One lap after the next is you change a little something, trying to make it faster, trying to do it better.

You can't do it there. Because. Well, you can. It just bites you. The walls in. The air is really small. It's zero. I love it.

And so that I do too. And that's the thing that a street course provides that no other real, another track really provides that. And so, you know, in most scenarios at other racetracks, there's still no margin for error, but there's a little opportunity to survive. There's a runoff. Even in an oval racetrack, there's room to sort of gather it up, right? And so, but here there ain't.

And as they get more confident, and as they say, oh, you know, I'm a little, I'm going to get a little cute. I'm going to change my line. And then they bust their ass. So that's what I thought we saw this weekend. Now, they cleaned it up in the race a little bit. Qualifying and practice, boy, that was some mistakes. A little bit in the race.

I mean, I'm not. Yeah. So I'm entertained by the race itself. We had a good race. and I think, you know, SVG is going to be hard to beat there. Absolutely. That's kind of the only thing, honestly,

that I see as not a, you know, kind of a drawback is that there's a guy that's really good comparable to the rest of the field. And that could be a bit of a bummer for some people that want to tune in and go, oh, well, we're just going to watch SVG kick everybody's ass. But, I mean, the racing throughout the rest of the pack and the strategies, you had like three different,

different strategies. Yeah, he didn't lead the entire race. No, there was cautions. That was crushing it. Yeah. There was cautions that guys jumped that pit. I mean, and that was perfect. But he did a great job navigating that and making it through it. I agree. I'm just, yeah, no, it had everything. It did. It did. It really did. So I don't know if they'll go back. I hear that, you know, San Diego is going to take its place. There'll be a street course in San Diego of some type, of some type. And that is, what will take Chicago's place. I read an article that there was a two-year option.

It doesn't mean that Chicago can't still exist. Maybe, you know, Mexico City goes away and Chicago shifts to a different part of the schedule. I don't know, you know, but I think there's a potential where you could see us racing at Chicago and San Diego, for sure. There's a world where that exists. I wouldn't be mad at that. I don't think that they're adding another rope.

course. I think it's like, all right. Yeah. We're limited. How many do we got six? Yeah, I think five or six. Yeah, I think six right now. So whatever the number is today, that'll be the number next year. But I just don't know which race tracks it's going to be.

But I'm feeling like the San Diego deal is done. People will say it's not done, but I feel like it's done. And then it's like 50-50 between going back to Chicago or going back to Mexico City. And then you always have the hope that, we get to Montreal again. And I think that NASCAR's intention to get there. Now, that might not happen next year. But, yeah, that's kind of how I hear things going down.

What about you? Same boat. Same boat. I think. Anything different than what I'm here? No, I think everybody's in the same boat on that. I think we don't know how it's going to shake out. I think we know the tracks.

We just don't know the order and, you know, if one's not going to make it or not. But I wouldn't be mad with the Chicago and a San Diego. I wouldn't be mad at. I mean, they're exciting. I think they're good races. Hey, TJ, I like that phone. Is it new? Yeah, I got this awesome new phone. I've recently joined the consumer cellular family, and they hooked me up with a great phone and a great service. You're telling me that your phone actually works at the racetracks? Yeah, my phone has been excellent at the racetracks, and honestly, you can't beat the consumer cellular service and the offers they have going right now. I mean, that's cool, but I'm assuming that it's probably kind of expensive, right?

Yeah, that's funny. Consumer Cellular is a steal of a deal. I don't know why more people have not made this switch. Nationwide service, fraction of the price, the two for 60 plan, no long-term contract. I mean, it's awesome. All right, I'm in. So how do I get this deal? They basically have an elite pit crew on standby waiting for you to call and make the switch. It's 100% U.S.-based customer service. Takes around 20 minutes, and it'll be one of the best decisions you ever make. And now it couldn't be a better time to switch to consumer cellular and get $25 off. with code DJD-25. That's DJD-25 for $25 for $25. when you switch your consumer cellular. Go to consumer cellular.com slash DJD and use promo code DJD-25. Running a business without visibility, that's like racing without a spotter.

You might think everything's fine until it's not. That's why safety culture exists to help teams see what's really going on in real time. Safety culture gives team members on the ground an easy way to call a team. attention to things, fix issues fast, and make sure nothing is missed. It doesn't matter if you're on a job site in a warehouse or running deliveries. If you're on a fast-paced team, you need tools that help everybody see clearly. Just look at our friends over at trackhouse racing. They are competing at the highest level of NASCAR and using safety culture to track every detail from car checklists to how each chassis runs at different racetracks. I always loved when I knew I was getting

in a car that had been fast for me in the past and I was able to take it to victory. lane. That's how much drivers pay attention to the details, and those details are more important than ever. When your whole crew can see what's happening, they make better calls, waste less time, and avoid costly surprises. That's how you stay ahead, not just in racing, but in every business. You want to run your business like a NASCAR team? Head to safetyculture.com slash SVG and check it out. I sat on top of the pit box with Carson watching the Xfinity race and had SVG and Connor Zillich battling there at the end. And this is always tough because I don't know what you guys think. Like everybody I'm sure has really, you know, has the perfect opinion about how they would handle this.

All right, man, let me ask, let me ask you. And you got to be quick and brief, okay? You don't get to do, you don't. Your first reaction, your first instinct. you're gonna I'm gonna walk you through this and then you got to answer you own the car for SVG

and Zillich you watch them go down in the corner and you watch what happens in term one and then you get off the pit box and you're walking down pit road and you're going to walk you're going to see Zillich first he's there and then you're going to go to Victor Lane you get to Zillich what do you say

you got to say it we got to learn what? What? Me to learn You're terrible He needs to learn what? He left an opening there for SVG. All right. Don't assume that a guy's going to give it to you just because he's your teammate and friend.

All right. And then you go to SVG, Victor Lane, take a picture. What's the first thing you say? Thanks for the W. There you go. All right, TJ. You walk up to Connor on pit road. He's dejected.

What do you say? I mean, first I pick him out. Tell him, great job today, man, that you did everything you could do. you know, without tearing up two race cars, you guys raced hard, you know, would I be mad at you, you race him, how he raced you, everyone finished. I mean, I think, Conor,

I think he did a great job today. He did everything he could do, and he got beat by the best road course racer that we have in a series right now. Yeah. All right. I mean, I pick him up, and he's going to go back,

and he's already going to replay this race in his head a thousand times. Oh, okay. He's already good enough. All right. well I he said I understand he's racing for the win but yeah I didn't have a chance

there he stuffed me in the wall definitely frustrating but still really cool to get Red Bull and weather take a one to um I'll definitely remember the way he race me I didn't expect him to do that but I get it we're racing for the win I thought that that

you know his comments were good this is a critical moment for Connor uh Connor Zillich uh has the opportunity to be a multi-time, you know, four, five-time champion in NASCAR. He has an opportunity to have a, you know, 50-plus win career. All that stuff is really, I think, realistic.

And he's just, you know, he's just one of those guys. It sort of feels like he's got not only the talent to do all those things, but the pathway and a ton of people in the industry that believe it. And so it's important, I think, that when he gets in these scenarios and these situations, it's important what he says, how he acts, how he responds, because we're all believing from what we've seen from him that there's this path forward. but we also haven't experienced a lot of how, you know, his personal reactions to things. How does he handle stuff?

Is he a punk? Is he generous? Is he forgiving? Is he respectful? Respectful? Is he jealous? What is it, right? What's his, what's his emotion in these type of moments?

And I honestly feel like I was, I'm not, I guess I'm, you know, I've felt like he's really mature beyond his years. and these comments are good comments to come from an 18-year-old after that situation, right? Yeah, if you read these comments, you'd think that it was a 28-year-old. Most 18-year-olds, right. It's exactly right. Most 18-year-olds are going to say, they're going to speak more from the frustration of it, right, and not know how to filter it so they don't sound like a punk, right? See, I do think I would have liked to see, you know, I needed to execute a little bit better on the restart and get away from and clear him because all I see right here is he is the exact same way because he did the exact same thing SVG did at Cota.

Well, yeah, I mean, Conner's. He did the exact same thing. Conner's aggressive. He did say in his post-race press conference, it wasn't dirty. We're racing for the win on the last restart. I just didn't expect it. Kind of caught me by surprise. I wouldn't consider it dirty at all. I could have done a better job at keeping leverage, but I let him get a nose ahead of me at that point. It's his corner, and you can't do that. That's really good. Well, see, that's you think you had to remember. The first one was right after the race probably,

so he hasn't really thought about it, and he's just speaking. And so then he's able to craft what he wants to say a little better. Yeah, he said, by no means does he have to leave me room? I expected it, but I won't expect it next time. Not mad about it. I wish I could do it again. I'd do it differently. If he do it again, he gets a better restart

and he doesn't even have a chance. Dude, I just feel like he's doing a good job here, managing the frustration of it. So that's important because I think, you know. You can see a lot from this. Yeah, and you can go, all right, fans can go, you know, I can get behind this guy. He's not going to make an ass out of himself in these scenarios,

not make me, you know, cringe when he doesn't get his way on the racetrack, right? And so, but I walk up to Zillich. on victory on a pit road as SVGs doing his burnout and I say hey I say man I he he ran you pretty dirty there I didn't expect that from him there was a I was on the radio a little bit just a tiny bit with all the drivers um or at least talking on channel two to some crew chiefs throughout the entire race and I almost came over the radio before the last little run there to the finish to tell Connor, you know, I don't think

SVG is going to put the bumper to you. I think SVG wants to pass you clean, that he will, you know, that's his MO. He's going to try to work his way around you cleanly. And so I want to let you know that I believe you can be patient and not overdrive your entries and just concentrate on good, straight, hard corner exit.

Because if you feel like the guy is going to push you into the corner, you overdrive the corner and then you missed the exit and they drive by you and so i was like and you know Connor's a better road racer than i'll than i was ever in my life and ever and could you know he's a he's an excellent road racer no question and i don't i'm not sitting here thinking i need to give me advice on that i was just wanting to let him know i don't believe SVG is you know the guy that's going to put the bumper to you boy i'm glad i didn't say it because he did right and so i walked up to connor after race. I was like, man, I didn't expect that.

And, you know, I think he should have treated you a little better there. He basically said, you know, either hit the wall or lift, coming out of two. And I, too, agree. I didn't, I expected him to do, I expected SVG to do something differently than what he did. Because he's driving a junior

motor sports car? Just because it's SVG. When SVG was racing the first Chicago race, I got people in Australia that that know him, that raced with him, that are texting me going, hey, watch this. Because he was trying to pass for the lead. They're going, watch this. He won't put a bumper on the guy. Because we don't, you know, SVG is going to pass him without even touching him.

Watch this. And so imprinted on my mind, like, man, you know, there's a, there's a code and an ethics to how they race in the V8 supercars. It's physical, but there is also like a respect level. like you you can be you can you know you can pass the guy without pushing him through the corner you know it is different maybe in the three years since SVG's been in NASCAR he's learned push through you know push people through the corner because he's tired and you know getting it remember the race he got out i think it might have been actually martin's well he got to be oh they

were rather rude there yeah so you you said dirty to connor do you still believe that or was that just hear the moment you're talking to your driver no i went up to so that's the that's the that's the crux of the situation. You had two cars. You own them both. You're going to go to Victor Lane. You're going to high-five the shit out of SVG and say, hell yeah, brother, great win.

But you've got to go up to the other guy and you can't lie to him and say, boy, you got what you deserve there or, yeah, no, what SVG did was all fair. You got to go up to him and tell him what you really believe. And I, and if I'm in his car and I'm owning that car, standing right there, I'm wearing the owner's hat for this car. I've got to go. I didn't expect him to run you in the wall over there. That was pretty crummy.

You have to. Yeah. Because that's exactly what happened. And that's exactly how I feel about this car. And then when I walked away from that car to the other car that's in Victor Lane, I'm going to tell him the truth about how I feel about his car sitting in Victory Lane. And, man, I don't, I know that there's owners that find themselves in those scenarios in the cup level, Mr. Gibbs and Rick and

but it's not it's not easy it's not easy at all does it change when one driver is full time and points on the line and the other one isn't? I don't know you know I don't know I don't even think about it I didn't even think about that at all Connor I don't look at Connor like man the points

the you know the the cut the damage to today or anything like that I'm looking at Connor going I don't really don't care what happens this year. I want him to win a championship. If he win a championship with us, great. But I'm looking at Connor like, dude, you got, you got fucking 20 badass years in front of you.

Yeah, exactly. What are we doing today and what are we telling him today that's going to make sure that his 20-year career is as good as it can be? And so I'm not really going, oh, darn, you know, we needed that win. That would have been helpful to the playoff point, all this bullshit. I'm just sitting there going, all right,

what do I go say to this kid so that, you know, he's a better driver tomorrow. And so that was, but that was a pretty interesting experience, to be honest with you. Do you feel like this type of situation between, because those guys are obviously

are going to be future teammates. Yeah, that's true. I think those two guys that, you know, SVG is not frustrated, but Conner's a little disappointed right at the end of that race, they will be the best of friends. They will push these shit out of each other

in terms of like trying to get better and besting each other. Connor will get better and better as a road racer. Believe it or not, could he will? There's a lot to learn from SVD too. Oh, it's going to be insane. Yeah. And, you know, SVG won't be here for 20 years.

And when he moves on, the Connor Zilich will be... The SVG. The SVG of the Cup series. So, I mean, if all those things work, if everything works out like it should. I think it's going to be like this big brother, little brother relationship. Yes, yes, exactly.

And SVG is a great guy. He is. He's a great leader. And Connor's a good, good guy too. Right. And so they'll find some common ground, right? But they will be very, it'll be a lot like Gordon and Johnson. You know, when they were at HMS, they had those races at Martinsville where they get out and go, man, you know, you know, fuck a little dirty. They were going to, they're going to have those because they're both. good and they're both going to be up front.

And you think about it, SVG and Connor basically are on the same, like, what they need to improve. Like, they're both road course, they can, so they can help each other there, but then we're both trying to get better at the Oval. You were right on. You were right on. And so, I feel like, again, like, I think that that's going to

endear them to each other, as they are both, they both have some things that they're trying to accomplish together. And so, while that was a while that was a profound moment on Saturday, it was a bit of a look into the future,

which was kind of fun. Legano, Chastain incident, Ross Chastain. Ross Chastain, wrecked, I guess, destroyed, yeah, Ligano and Stenhouse. And now I bet Ross feels pretty crummy, having seen a replay of the,

of how that all went down. fucking hilarious. The two of Cendrick. Dude, this guy's, I love this guy. It's a funny guy. But he totally stepped on his right there. And we played the replay, and the cars,

he's hauling ass into turn one, and the rear tires are locked up. Yes, they are. And he's, it's just like, it was just like Kyle Bush at the wet in Mexico. Mexico. Yeah.

But there wasn't no excuse. And it's like, that car's going, da, that, that, da, da, da, da. And he's like, oh, shit. and no one in front has any idea what's coming. They're going to. Oh, yeah. And so, you know, Ross is the one at the domino at the end of the line that gets knocked into the wall.

He's mad. You know, and it all happened so fast. And I was like, oh, Ross is wrecked. And then. They all saved it. Like, they made it through the corner. I didn't pick up on, he bounces off the wall and just grabs the gear and keeps going. And it goes down in the corner, dumps the 22.

I saw the 22 wreck and I saw Ross wreck him. But it was just, I don't know, man. I don't know how to. I was sitting there watching this and I'm going. And then when it all got finished and we get another half a lap into the race, I'm like, Ross is seventh. Like Ross is still got. So fine.

He came out of that completely fine. The most Ross Chastain thing ever, right, is for him to go down into turn one and get bold. get bold into the barrier, bounce off, wreck a couple guys, come out of turn two, still in the top ten. That is.

And Joey, being Joey, he's all pissed off. Ross just randomly just short circuits. Dude. Ross is the kind, yeah.

Yeah. I mean, he does. But when Ross went, what I think's interesting is Ross did not for one second go I wonder if it was him

Oh he made his mind up right away Or he just said that's the car hitting On a road course you should be thinking that You know that the wrecks start 3 back But you don't know you don't know that You think he instantly just He didn't wait 200 feet

His spotter didn't say who it was He just reacted He made his mind up right there And Joey's just kind of like Joey's just kind of beep bopping along He got hit through there a little bit too He was like, hey, okay, everybody, we made it through there. Oh, what the f.

You know. And so I find that pretty interesting. Ross was just like. That was definitely unfair. It's your ass, Joey. Yeah, it's you. Yeah, I'm getting your ass. That was it.

Joey then claims that Ross admitted it afterwards. And then once him find, where do you stand on that? Come on. It's kind of like the tree falling in the woods. Yep. It makes a sound But nobody If nobody's there to hear it

Does it make a sound? Was that a question? Yeah, the only person that claims that he admitted is Joey Ross would have to do that publicly, Joey. Yeah. And Joey knows that. But Joey doesn't really want him find. Joey just needed a reason

To publicly say he admitted reckoning. So then when I get him back later, it's like I'm not being the bad guy. I don't think there's- Joey just wants you to know. Joey just wants us to know that Ross admitted to doing it. Joey doesn't care if he gets fine. But Joey just wants us to know that Ross came up to him personally and admitted it.

And somehow that might make Joey feel better about it. Do you think Joey feels like he needs to get Ross back? Joey will probably get Ross back. At some point, it might be a year from now. It might be, you know, at some point, and we might not even notice or recognize it. But Joey will, you know, something will happen somewhere at a racetrack and it might just be, you know, it might him just be Joey airblocking Ross and cost him a few spots on a restart. Might not be a rack. It might just be, I'm going to run you hard.

Yeah. It might be something that costs Ross a bunch of spots that we don't even connect back to this. And Joey will be like, yeah, I've got your way. Does it happen like Denny and Ross at Pocono where Denny puts Ross in a position where, look, I'm not going to wreck you, but I'm going to put you in a spot where if you're going to lift hit the wall and Ross hit the wall. If we're that, I hope we're that lucky that they are in that sort of scenario

in the next couple of weeks. I love when this Ross pops up every 10 races. Like, continue this place. I miss old Ross. Yeah. Ross used to really stir the pot up pretty good. Whether you've got one shelf or a whole wall dedicated to NASCAR diecast, there's always room for more.

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on their next order at Lionelracing.com. Just use the promo code DJD25. That's promo code DJD25 at Lionel Racing.com. Hey everybody, you want the latest Dale Jr. download apparel? Visit shop.dirtymomedia.com. We're always adding new stuff all the time, especially like when we say something silly

on this show. We'll put it on a t-shirt. Again, check it out at shop.dirtymodea.com. Bubba Wallace and Bowman got into it. This was an interesting one because, you know, we followed that up until the spin, and we kind of stumbled and missed the spin. But the battle was physical. pretty very pretty crazy um and you kind of saw you know i guess what i was uh i was like oh man

bowman's like no man you know where this is uh you know bubba took a couple swipes in in the race car you know bubble was pretty aggressive and they banged off each other and bubba pushed him through 12 right um and i was like oh man you know i don't know how bowman's going to respond to this is Bowman going to bow up? He was more aggressive than I thought he was going to be. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. And he was on fresher tires too. Well, yeah, but I'm just saying like,

did it? Was the first contact in 11? Some, like if Bowman gets, you know, knocked out of shape in a corner, what do you think is, what do you, every driver, you have a idea in your mind how every driver's going to react to that scenario. And I'm just, I'm with TJ.

I thought, you know, I wasn't, I saw a little, more out of Bowman than I expected in terms of reacting. I liked it. Yeah, it's fine. I liked it too. I think the buildup all week about with these two kind of probably, it's already in his mind and it happens. He's ready. He's ready to go. They interviewed him. They interviewed them before the race walking.

There was this whole, the bracket they were going head to head. So like they were talking about this little rivalry they have. So like it's fresh in his mind. And then he does that. So Alex is probably like, you know what? I could only hear that interview pre-race and it sounded friendly. But

Marty who was there said it was said it was not rude or anything but he said there was still there was still some underlying unsettled differences because we were listening in our headsets as we're getting ready for our

whatever we're going to do in the pre-race and it sounded great we're like oh they're just they're just being goofy but Marty said he could feel some tension. And they put the helmets on too. It just changes.

So was the first contact in 11 with Alex trying to pass? I was some of the shit going on? No. No, they were beating on each other, I think, through 7, 8, 9. Oh, before. I think one for a while. Yeah. Okay.

And so, yeah, it'd been back and forth for almost a full lap and then ended in turn two. Yeah, I think, you know, Bubba, apparently, you know, there's this video of them post-race, backslaping, and it looks. It looks like it could be a little, you know, if you buddy, if you buddy, but it could be friendly. You don't know. But Bowman says that, Bubba came up to him and said, look, man, I thought you were going to cross me over and two. I didn't know you were out there. And I'm not, you know, basically Bubba saying, hey, it was my, I stuffed you in the wall.

I get it. It had that look. It had that look of what Bubba was saying, right? If that's what he said. Yeah, yeah, it did look like, because it looked like their bumpers crossed and Bubba got to trying to, you know, Tank slapping a little bit. Yeah. Well, it was a, listen, I don't, I don't think that it's, I thought it was good, good, hard, hard, hard racing.

Like, as physical as you could get without going over the line of being ridiculous or, or foolish. If Bubble wants to own, hey, I didn't know you were out there and I thought you were crossing me over. And that's how this went down. I wasn't trying to park you in the fence. I thought you were trying to get underneath me off of two. I don't think Alex went off that corner said I'm wrecking bubber right here I think it just worked out

and he said I'm not cutting any brakes yeah he yeah Alex just decided my nose is in there I'm gonna leave it yeah at this point nothing wrong with that either I want to stay on this rivalry or this pairing because it was part of the bracket

now look we were talking about the I was talking about the fans that you know we were I was like I was asking you guys about you know, who are these people that are complaining about us going to Chicago. Now I want to quiz you about the people that are complaining about the bracket.

Why are you fucking complaining about this bracket? They're the worst. I know. Who, why? Just don't do it. Like, you don't have anything to do with you. Well, they're people saying that there's too much talk about it to bracket. But it's like literally these two guys, Bubba and Bowman, are in this thing for a freaking

million dollars. So why? All they have. It adds to it. They, they. they are battling on the racetrack, spending each other out, and whoever wins that battle

is going to advance into the next round, and it's eight drivers, then it's four, then it's two. For a million bucks, why would we not talk about this? All week, the PR department's pushing this. Hey, you're up against this guy this. We get something for them to push.

They hear it all week. We're listening to drivers after the big pile up in turn between 10 and 11. I know that one. And they were all going, oh, man, there's your guy. There's your bracket, buddy. He's all fucked up in this one. And so they're taught, even though they are going to,

even though the drivers and the teams are going to like, you know, hey, okay, it's not priority. It's not the most important thing today. They're still thinking about it. They're still concerned about it. And when they're, you know, when they're sitting there and the guy they're going up against in the brackets wrecked out of the race and they're talking about it on the radio, you know, we're going to talk about it ourselves. It goes back to your first thing. There's always going to be a group of people complaining about something.

I know, but it don't make any sense to complain about this. Who cares? Welcome to social media, Dale. It's not changing anything with, it's not changing anything with their. Complaining about complainers doesn't make sense. I love to complain. It's a great. It's a good, I mean, complaining about

and bishing and moaning sometimes feels really good. Yeah, it does. You know, just to, you know, just to pound the desk and just go off. I love it. And Ty Dillon wins this thing. By default, I'm going to

complain. Why? That's perfect. Oh my gosh. It'll go off the rails. Ty Dillon has been the best part about the bracket. It's pretty entertaining. He had another line set up about beating Brad, like, tutus to him.

It's pretty entertaining. Are you just sour? I didn't even see his line. What did he say? About game of knockout. I didn't see it either. I didn't. Must have been not been that good.

You're just sour from the one before. What do you mean sour? Sounds like Ty Dillon's got a new fan. Yeah. Yeah. I'm celebrating Ty Dillon. So, yeah, like when you get your ass kicked in the playoffs, you root for that.

You root for the team that beat your ass to go forward because if he wins, it's almost like you finish second. You know what I mean? I'm like, well, you know, they knocked us out. And they went on and won it. We'd probably beat all those other teams too. Exactly. Yeah.

Yeah, we would have beat Brad. Yeah. There you go. I don't. Before. Never got the chance, did you? Huh? Never got the chance, did you?

I mean, still P4. Yeah. Okay. Well, I like this bracket. Yeah. Even though my guy, Buster, got knocked out. What the hell? I told them to Pitt.

They had a chance to come down pit road. Zane Smith. myth comes down. Gets his new tires drives right by us. And then... Who? Chris? Yeah.

Well, Chris had a motor issue. But did you watch the last 20 lap? Zane was slowly shit. Did you see what happened when Osovar deleted a bunch of cars in the beginning? I was one of them cars. I know. So, well, okay.

Well, toward the end of the race, we passed Zane. I say we. I was going to say, I was going to say, I was looking. I'm investing. it in the bracket. That's we. I mean, if you're saying we, he's

into the bracket. Diels on the radio. Yeah. And so, you know, we're sitting there with I don't know, it's like 11 laps to go and there was an opportunity to pit and St. Smith and his guys come down pit road, put on tires

lined up about eight spots back. And there was a there was the wreck into one with chastain and all that bullshit. And we ran like a lap and a half. And the 47 gets off the racetrack and I think the two parked. He probably did. Yeah, the two parks and brings out another yellow.

I look at the damn run down. Zane Smith has went by. We had passed him on the run before this because Zane was struggling for some reason. And even with the engine. So there was hope. Yeah, there was hope. Well, that's awesome. But Busher and the boys didn't even come down and put the tires on it.

Maybe they didn't have any. I'm just kidding. Damn. Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. and we're live for another episode of Ask Junior. You know booming speeds when you see it. Xfinity Wi-Fi is booming.

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Absolutely. This first question, it was probably the most asked question I saw this week, so I can't pinpoint it to a name, but what were your guys's opinion on the caution at the end of the race, the Cody Ware crash? What was our opinion? Yeah, like should NASCAR have thrown the caution earlier? Absolutely.

Absolutely. Yeah, so there was a wreck earlier in the race where Josh Barry was sitting down in turn seven, should have been a yellow. He's sitting there. His car's broke. He had to walk hard. We waited for in the entire field to pass the entry to pit road. I don't exactly know what we were waiting for.

But it was a minute, minute and a half that the caution should have been thrown. Some people, like I think Bubba Wallace, maybe Reddick and a few others, ducked down to pit road as that 21 was sitting there. And that, you know, you got to throw the yellow. when you know that car is not moving. And so that was like the, that, that right there had everybody sensitive to what happened at the end of the race, at least me. And so when we talked about it earlier in the show, the 51 is in the tire barrier. We cut to see him in the tire barrier. We had cars in the tire barrier last year and the year before.

And I thought he locked a brakes up and slid in there. I didn't know he hit the damn thing at 100 miles an hour. I didn't hear the in-car audio either. I'm not sure what information NASCAR had, but I'm assuming they had spotters down there. They didn't know how he went into it. They just knew that he was under. Yeah.

Yeah, I think it's a, you know, you got SVG, what, in the middle of 11 and 12? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think. It was like 15 seconds or something from until it's our finish. Everything we know now, I mean, it's easy to say an hour or two hours later when we watch all those videos of the 51 hitting the wall at a hundred mile an hour. You look like a missile going into the corner.

You couldn't even make it out that it was a car. He was going so fast. Absolutely. It's easy to say you're damn right. You got to throw the yellow. The guy is, you know. We have seen cars hit it and bounce off and kind of keep going, though, before. Well, I mean, we didn't know he hit it in a mile an hour.

That's what I'm saying. When you look at that, he was stuffed into time. is pretty good, but so was, you know, Larson last year. Right. And that was the thing. I talked to NASCAR about this after the race, and they referenced that they gave Larson the same opportunity to attempt to back out, but didn't. So they were giving him the chance.

Obviously, they hadn't seen him back out, but that was one thing that they did reference from last year. My biggest problem with the 51 wreck is that none of us knew it was as bad as it was. Absolutely. That's my biggest problem, is that none of us knew. NASCAR didn't know, I didn't know, and that's where we don't have enough bodies in place. Or, you know, that part of the racetrack where you have the turn one coming and driving, you have turn one and turn six, like they're right there together.

You know, that would be a very easy place to have someone standing. that's a spotter for debris or wrecks or anything else. A car stuck in a barrier, right? You can have one person able to basically look at almost 20% of the racetrack and cover all those spaces. If that had been, and maybe there was a person there and they didn't see it. But I just, my problem isn't, you know, my problem is we absolutely should. have known the minute he hit that wall that he hit it at a hundred mile an hour and it's

violent and it was scary and it was it was it was a matter of how quick can that person get on the button to NASCAR to the tower and say hard wreck hard wreck hard wreck like he's not moving yeah yeah out of this um and then then that quickly you know gives them the opportunity to to throw the yellow the yellow comes out and get to him yeah we get to him and if we got to have a green white checker we got to have a green white checker. If the rain, this, I guess there's this little conversation

that NASCAR didn't want to throw it because there was weather coming and they didn't want the race ruined or whatever. I don't believe that. I don't either. No, NASCAR's not thinking all of those variables, right? They're just trying to let the race finish as they would any other way.

If they throw the L and he backs out. But. Yeah. And SVG gets punted into the first corner, then that's not a good ending. The thing with NASCAR, car is is they try, they will listen to, they react off of fan reaction. And so they'll be a race somewhere where they throw the caution early, right, or throw the immediately, and they shouldn't

have, or they could have let it play out, right? Why didn't you let them run on around? That was fine. The wreck was on the back straight away. They're coming to the checkered, you know, and then they'll go, okay, all right, no, next time we're going to let it play out. and so they try to let it play out and then they get you know they're you know their toe stepped on here because the guy hit the damn wallet

a hundred mile an hour and they should have thrown to yell it because he was needing some assistance you know and so I that what people are asking for is consistency but they're not always going to love that call you know

and so I would say that NASCAR needs to err on the side of safety and get to get to the driver right? We don't know if you hit the wall at 10 mile an hour, a hundred a mile an hour, but he's wrecked, and let's get to him. Okay? And so if you err on that, if you err on that extreme, right, you're going to throw the caution immediately every time. And there will be some moments when people do not like that because they want the race to continue. Because they saw

that it's not a very serious accident and they believe, you know, by judgment and just optics, that the guy's probably fine. You know? And so... Especially if it changes the outcome of the race. Yeah. Like, you... NASCAR tries to, like,

give it a chance, right? Yeah. You know? To try and get, especially on a road course or green flags. Yeah. Finish.

And so, but in this situation, that was not the right choice. Yeah. You know? And so they're, they're going to get scolded for that.

And I believe it's, you know, it's kind of warranted because of the severity of the wreck. but I'm more bothered that we didn't know the wreck was severe. That's frustrating. And that's just because we didn't have either enough bodies on the ground out there to spot that. Right when it happens.

When it happens. Sure. And it's a street course. There's no booth. I can't see it. Like the visibility is probably the worst. Yeah. Visibility is the worst.

That is the worst scenario of all track. Yeah. NASCO should have a body watching a camera, a TV for every turn. or something. Yeah, maybe. It's not that hard. Yeah. I mean, it's probably a little more difficult than what you think.

I mean, how many turns are there? You'd think the track should be 100% covered. Yeah, you think it should, but it's not. Dude, T.J. is spotting in the front straightaway, and I just know this because of the Xfinity race. TJ's on the front straightaway spotting. He's on top of the grandstands, and he can look out in front of him and see the racetrack,

but he can see nothing that way and nothing that way. But they literally put out a video right before the race. about race control and how they have cameras at every turn and they can see everything, well then have somebody watching all of those so that when something happens. I'm with you. I feel like that that is where the ball, that's where the ball got dropped or that's where the problem is, is not so much should they have thrown the yellow. It's not bad. It's like we should have known the crash was bad immediately, right? Like we should know the severity of the wreck first, right, right when it happens to all, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to,

Common sense applies then that, yes, throw the yellow. And so that was what was missing on Sunday. Yeah, we had decent coverage spotter-wise. The wreck we were in with host of our, the spotter that I had over there on the Symphony Hall, he saw the wreck right when I happened and called it. But with street racing, like any, like you see every now and then, track gets blocked a little bit, and it's just happy, that happens. So I feel pretty good about the coverage.

There's spots that you want to see a little bit better, but for safety like that, to get to guys when they need help, I think they're. should be a complete coverage. Yeah. Yeah. Let's go to the next question. It's from Mike, but not our Mike, a different mic. Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike.

He wants to know there were a bunch of drivers that posted that they tried the NASCAR 25 game last week. Did you get a chance to play it? No. No. I wasn't here. We heard you did. I did. I was in Chicago.

I was working. So tell us about it. He should have been working too. I was not playing. No, I was wanting to ask you about this. I saw the social media of the drivers that came through, and this was at Junior Motorsports. Yeah. Right?

We were jealous. So I guess Byron's tried it. Raja. Sammy Smith. Noah. Noah. A handful of drivers, right? So nobody has any race footage, game footage.

I think there's one screenshot of. Yeah. I've seen that. When you were here. what did you see i saw um stephen was practicing when i walked up stephen he was he was practicing he was running practice lap during work hours i'm glad a lot of work was getting done last week

hey this is this is work because we're talking about it now in the show okay i was doing not loving this so far keep going um so he was practicing he gave me the remote i ran like a practice lap what track uh we were at charlotte i was racing as just an all guyer Okay. And the AI Justin or real life Justin? Just driving his car. Like, yeah, I was driving the 7.

You said you were racing with. As. Oh, as. Yeah. So then the irasing guys are like, okay, go to the race. So I got to see the like pre-race menu screen. I got to see like the garage stall. Even like when the race started, I got to see like the car firing up on pit road.

And it felt good. It felt good. The difficulty I think was on the easier setting. So I had to like. is you, so I was expected. Yeah. I had to let off the gas, but I wanted to race in the field. The damage was really really sick. I, like, you normally do. I, like, re-rounded Brandon Jones, and you could see the back end of his car was done it in.

You could feel the dirty air. Tires got worse as it went on. So, I mean, all the things you'd want in the game were there. Were you here when the Noah's and Rajas were trying it? I was here when Noah tried it. I didn't see Rajah. So all the drivers got off of this deal and got on social media. and we're like raving about how great it was. Do you think that they embellished? I would say it's the best NASCAR console game we had in the last 10 years. Have you played them?

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I've played, I mean, I've, my favorite game was NASCAR 15. Yeah. And this is, this is the best one I've played since. The word he used that I thought, I think, is the best way for non-racers is it didn't feel arcade, Curlent Tony.

I mean, I think that is a good way to explain it for non-racing people. Like, I was able to run the top, the bottom, but it didn't feel like I was exactly. To Travis's point, I was playing on an arcade game, which I think unfortunately some of the older games, like the NASCAR Heat games felt that way. This did not feel like that. You weren't just going to go bowling through the field and win?

No. I mean, yeah, you had to earn it. You had to let off the gas in the corners, which again, these are the things you want, but I feel like in the NASCAR heat games, it didn't, that kind of stuff, didn't really matter. So I think this is going to be a good game for people who are beginners

because you could put assists on and all that. But if you're a diehard fan, someone who's been ir racing, I think you're going to like it too. Yeah. Well, I'm excited about it. I think it's going to be a great game. And me and TJ were talking about college football 25 and 26. So 26 just came out. 26 has a ton of new developments, right?

They released 25, and it was like the conference. comeback, but it had, you know, but it was sort of more of a basic version of a very good game, right? And it had some things. They did a good job. They did a great job. We've played it for a whole year. We're still playing it in this dynasty. Absolutely. 26 is coming out and there's a ton of new additions and real, they went way deep. Fine-tuned it. Yeah. And I believe that that will be the same path that NASCAR 25 takes is the

rebirth of the console the good console game out of the NASCAR genre is going to be a solid number you know a solid first chapter and then as they you know there's a 10 year plan right

next year a lot of new additional accessories and so forth will be added and things will get more immersive. But I'm excited about it too. I think it's going to, I think it'll please a lot of people. Yeah. No, that is actually exactly the case. I've already talked to some of the irasing people and they're telling me there's things they can't get in this game, but they want to get in the next one. So to your point exactly, that I think is the mentality. This next question coming from Jay,

you know, we had Josh Snyder on the show last week and you told that great story of picking TJ up from Buffalo. So TJ, this guy, Jay wants to know what was your perspective of Dale and Josh Snyder and everyone picking you up from Buffalo? Well, they were down here. I don't, I didn't, I didn't hear all the details of it, but I think they were supposed to be there about at 8 o'clock at night and it ended up being like 8 o'clock in the morning in the middle of the snowstorm. So, yeah. The 12 hour trip turned into a 22 hour trip. Well, and they didn't, there was no look at your phone for a map. It was literally an Atlas that you had. Follow the compass door. Yeah. And I'll on. They were calling me, hey, if we get on this road, will it lead us to you or whatever?

And I'm getting on the computer and trying to look up where I'm like, where are you at again? And it's really hard. But it was, um, we would tell him where we were. Yeah, in D.C. It made no sense. And he'd go, why are y'all on that road? Like, you get in the car and drive north. That's all you have to do. You end up on the East Coast. And we're like, he's like, he's like, he's like he's like okay okay y'all got to turn right up here y'all got to turn you got to turn on this right it went from and we're in the truck we're in the truck and we're just like we're not turning right it went from it was like karma san diego like where's karma san dieg's like you got to get on you got to get on 85 blah right and i'm like dude i'm like y'all is that is that a four lane yes

tj i'm tj is that a four lane yeah we're not getting on that yeah yeah because you were taking interstate no four it was like all right right. They would say we're in Washington, D.C. now. I'm like, okay, I don't know how you get there on the way here. And then it went from that to like, all right, so they're moving along. Now they're going to be, all right, you should be crossing.

Where are you at? Now, Gettysburg. I'm like, oh my gosh. Are you serious? In the middle of the night. Not like, that's the thing. Not like Sykes-seeing in the afternoon. You're like rolling up, oh, I think we're at Gettysburg. What was that? What is that? What was the direction? What was the direction thing everyone used to use. Oh, oh, it's the thing.

Eternal Flame. Oh my gosh. What was the computer direction thing everyone used to use? It wasn't Google Maps back then. It was MapQuest? Compass? I mean. Yeah, the stars. So they get there in the middle of a snowstorm and we get back and we ended up just taking... I want to ask you a question. I don't know if I want to answer this. You knew we're driving for 22 hours to get you.

No, I know you were driving about... 22 is not what I was expecting. So you earned what you get. But we drove for 22 hours while you watched us You know, on your little, on your map, you knew weeks ahead of time we were coming up there. Yeah. We get to your house and you didn't have a fucking thing packed. First of all. You didn't have one thing packed.

First of all, it's the middle of a snowstorm. What does that got to do with me? It's 20 degrees outside. The amount of stuff that I brought back could probably fit in this table. So whatever. Exactly. And it didn't take much to pack it up. Exactly.

So there shouldn't have been hard. We got there. He's got this little trailer. We're going to hook up to the back of the Dooley. and I peek in there and I'm like, where's your shit? I mean, this is. Oh, I haven't put it in there yet. We go upstairs to his room and his room is like he ain't moving.

He's not moving. Everything is where it's supposed to be. I'm like, you're not even got your clothes out of your closet. No, I had all that. I had all that ready. He's exaggerated out of that. And he's like, oh, I ain't bringing none of that stuff. I'm like, where are you going to live?

Like, what do you think's going to happen? I was moving into a place that had, the only thing I brought. Has clothes? Like, you're going to move into it? I brought all my clothes. That's what he thought fully furnished. fully furnishment. You're going to have clothes, underwear.

Where's my toothbrush? Dale, you're like, I'll give you the clothes off my back. I'll help you move here. The only thing I really cared about and I wasn't going to put in there was my computer. And I wasn't putting that thing out there in, you know, 15 degree temperatures. So. But, yeah, it was an interesting trip. My favorite part about that story that you told last week was you stop at a hotel and you leave the trailer in the parking lot.

And T.J. was worried about leaving up there. And you're like, TJ, there is in there. That was my. I had a computer in there. That was my life. He had a computer. Yeah, you could take my clothes, man. I don't care about them.

This is like 2001 computer. Not like, yeah, I mean, it's like. Yeah, but we had, remember we got them. It had racing on it, eye racing. Not even irising at that point. But it had, yeah. I mean, that was everything, though, to me. I know.

Did you race the luggage carts? Were you part of that on the way back? So that was the first, that was the first time that I was like, what have I gotten into here because it wasn't when we were at the bar that was half bar half strip club earlier and the fight was going on that wasn't when you thought what if I got myself

and too it was racing the luggage carts with the police that whole night how we got there how we got back the holes in the wall the hotel hall I don't know if you said anything about that but they're putting holes in the wall in the hotel because the corner of the luggage carts went through the wall and the hall of the hotel and I'm like

I'm like oh man yeah yeah this that's that whole night was like this is the rest of my life this is gonna be good wow god what a hangover that next day that was a bad day that was hard that next day waking up in a random hotel in oh hi it was west virginia west virginia and going god we got what 12 hours to get 10 hours to get home or whatever i don't know what it was yeah it was uh that was that was that was the longest right that was the moment you were like okay let's i think it took longer Let's get this oh with. It took longer to get from there back North Carolina than it did for them to drive all the way up.

Like that trip home from there down in North Carolina was long. And painful. But it was an exciting. I mean, we'll never forget it. Did you ever get a brand? No, I would always do the Irish goodbyes whenever. T.J. could see the brand coming? I'm out.

You could smell it. When they redid Josh's, and I like, oh, that wasn't going to. I was do it again. And I'm like, you could smell it. I was like, yeah, I'm getting out of here. Okay. Yeah. Wow.

It was, uh... Where's TJ? Yep. Your next guy. Where's he at? And yours is on your arm, right? Yeah. Everybody got it on their arm.

Could you imagine doing it twice in a row? Like, right after one another. You just did it. And like, oh, let's do that again. Well, I mean, the flame of the torch cleans it up. Yeah, but the... For the next guy. Yeah, that sounds...

No, I'm talking about Josh doing it back-to-back. Yeah, doing it back-to-back for Josh is crazy. Oh, my gosh. I saw that I'm like, Josh, now, let me tell you all about Josh. All right,

we didn't tell this part. Before the brand, the reason why the brand came about is because Josh, at some point in his life, had taken a bottle cap, like just a bottle cap and did the Olympic rings.

What? Yes, with a bottle cap. Oh, he got, he's feeling very patriotic during the Olympics one year. and heated up a damn bottle cap and did the Olympic rings. That's great.

I mean. I wanted them to ask. And so we, he and he used to, we'd be like, we'd be somewhere and we're like, Josh, show him your Olympic rings.

Yeah, he played. Oh yeah. He'd be like, he competed. And we're like, you know, because it looked hideous.

And we're, uh, and so that's what really kind of got the gears turning in our hand. I was like, man, I got a brander for a stake. We should, it's DMP.

We're all. It was for steak. We're all boys here. Let's do this, man. Let's get branded. Do you remember the time that I wasn't there for this, but Josh told me about it when we lived together for a little bit. You and Josh were taking some trash out,

and Josh was in the back here, S-10. Oh, my God. Almost killed him. Oh, my God. He pops the clutch and takes off and do-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-do-d-d- I forgot. Josh was in the back. So we had had a party.

Get up the next morning. We're taking the trash. all the beer cans and bottles to the trash to the dump. So right across the street from my house was DEI, and we're going over there big dumpster to throw our cans in. And so we drive over there, and we dump the cans in the trash can, and we dump the cans in the dumpster.

And I'm in my little S-10 pickup truck, and it was an automatic. You took off, you know, whatever it was. It was an automatic. And so we pull up to the, gate and wait for the gate to open up to let us out. We're driving back across street. Josh is standing in the bed holding the trash can instead of like sitting down.

He's standing in the bed of this truck. And I have forgot that he is even there. And it's TJ. And of course, you know, we're at a start. We're at a standing start. I'm going to freaking do a burnout. And I put it in drive and I damn read that thing up and let off the gas. and Josh cartwheels out of the back of this truck and lands on his back.

Wow. Oh, my gosh. I'm glad. And he popped right up. Wow. He said he laid there and you're like, Josh, you hurt. And he just said, well, just let me lay here for a little bit. Oh, my God.

That is hilarious. Thanks to Xfinity for sponsoring this segment. Thank you all. I appreciate everybody for joining us here. I've been watching the live chat and I appreciate everybody. Some folks who said some great things about the Becoming Earnhardt series. The sixth and final episode comes out. Sunday and I've listened to them.

This series, I love the first one that, you know, Alex Tens and the team's done an incredible job on season two. It's even better than season one. So hopefully y'all will check it out. And they're really brief, you know, they're really short consumable 30, 40 minute episodes. So anyways, awesome stuff there. Anyways, thank you to Xfinity Wi-Fi

for bringing us today's Asch Junior segment in racing and in life speed isn't optional. It's expected. As a driver in an Xfinity series team owner, I rely on things that perform under pressure, and that's why we use Xfinity, Wi-Fi, fast, dependable internet, one price locked in for five years,

no contracts, no slowdowns, no nonsense. Xfinity proud premier partner of NASCAR. Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Place your bets. All right, it's time for Dirty Mo Doe. Without Tampa Tims. Tampa Tims is in Mexico. And what part of Mexico do you go to?

Travis. Travis, he went to Cancun. But we do have Russell. And since Russell's here, I mean, that's probably the most important part anyways. Tampa Tim's doesn't do nothing but win and lose bets. It's really offering any really good insight. Came close to hitting our manufacturer parlay. We came close?

God Almighty. More disappointment. Your favorite driver. Screwed it. Busher ruined it. I didn't want to sing. That's so frustrating. Well, SVG and Ty Gibbs did a good job, but two out of three does not win us any money.

So we're headed to Sonoma. We won't talk about Chicago since we lost our manufacturer parlay. Did anybody win any money? You bet? So I do know somebody tweeted out of us. They put pre or I forget who they put the Ford in. They actually hit their factory parlay. Congratulations.

So people are listening, maybe they're just tweaking it? You know what? You don't have to tell ours. Just make a parlay and see if you can win. Yeah. I'm proud. I'm happy for you. Great job on that.

SVG is a betting favorite going into Sonoma. He's never raced there in the cup cars, as he mentioned. But he has some Xfinity experience. I wonder if the field, I wonder if it'll be similar to, you know, other road courses like Watkins Glen where the field is more closer. You'd have to guess and assume that it's, not a clear cut as maybe Chicago was. But what's the predictor say there, Russell?

Yeah, I agree. The predictor has him third, but it's only because he didn't race there. So it's Larson and Bell ahead of him, and then Chase Elliott, Reddick, and Almondinger behind him. Larson? Yeah, he won there last year. He's got two wins there. You don't like Larson there?

He's really struggled. What is his average finish since the ND500? I mean, it feels like if I had to guess it's like eighth. And I don't know that, you know, how many top fives has he had since Indy? He only has one top five. It's way worse than eight. Eight. Oh, it's way worse than that.

Oh, I wouldn't have guessed that. So, yeah, I'm not betting on that. The, you know, so that's a tough one. So Sonoma, I would say that I like Byron better. I know Byron had a lot of speed in practice at Chicago before he wrecked. He had great speed at Pocono. The team seems to be peaking. And he, you know, I remember him driving away, went in a stage there a couple years ago when I think Chad Canouse was his crew chief.

But so I think he can go there and be fast. They pitted that car and called that race to live. lose because they they wanted the stage points and the stage wins. But, um, so I don't look, I don't, I wouldn't look at Byron's results and go, you know, yeah, that's a, um, that's kind of what I think you look at his results with a grain of salt because of the way they may have called the races. Yeah, but that was a long time ago. It was like 2019.

I know, man. Like since then, he still, he hasn't been good there, though. This is, this is not a good track for it. Not a good track for it. And he's, he's, he's a, he's in. the worst three-race streak of his career. I don't love the Larson bet. Like, give me some more, give me something to feel good about. What about Michael McDowell? Michael McDow has got a chip on his shoulder coming out of Chicago. Yeah, runner up there last year. Runner up where? According to NASCAR.

At Sonoma. Sonoma, yeah, runner up there last time. Where'd McDow run at Coda? He was 11th at Cota. He ran outside the top 10. He was almost 20th running all day. See, that, that, I'm, be hesitant to take him at a place like Sonoma then, but I don't know that you're going to have one, I don't know that you can pick a driver that you're going to feel amazing about. You have to, all of this is going to be a little bit of a risk. What about Ty Gibbs? I love Ty Gibbs. He's been crushing it at the road courses this year. Ty Gibbs would probably be my, Ty Gibbs would, might be our Toyota parley driver. Probably, yeah. Maybe Bell. Yeah. I don't know.

C. Bell's been off a little bit. Yeah, I would still go with C Bell, though. Really? Okay. Yeah, Gibbs has not run particularly well here either. This has not been one of his better road forces. So strange, because he's been great at the road courses over the last handful of weeks. But you think he'll just go to this one and just not run well. Usually when, like, it's, so you had Busser win here or run second to Sores.

And, you know, I don't look at this track and go, man. It's a great track for Suarez. They were just on something that day. And that's the way I look at Gibbs now. They're just on something. Now, he's good at road courses, but they've also given him something that the rest of the series doesn't have.

And so I think they carry that into Sonoma. And I think he still runs, you know, top five. Maybe. And I feel like whatever Christopher Bell had at the start of year, just not got right now. I think if you win somewhere like at Sonoma, Daniel's looking forward to going back here. So he has a little extra motivation here too.

So I think it's Suarez. Oh, I was just using him as an example. I'm just saying I think he could run good here. Oh. I don't know. They ain't really that fast. And they've made it aware that he's not coming back and it's kind of a lame duck situation

where I don't think that they'll have the energy and the focus and the preparation and all that stuff will be just a little. off and it's such a fine line here. If you just, if you don't bring all of it, you know, it's easy to get exposed. Yeah. What about Reddick? Yeah, I like Reddick a lot, especially after Howie ran this past weekend. Maybe I put Reddick as my top. Is that what the predictor's telling you? Well, it would be Bell, according to the predictor. I don't like Bell. Yeah, so the next one would be Reddick. And, you know, look,

going to have the scores, you can intertwine them either one. Reddick is our Toyota. Who's our Ford? Is it going to be? Busher? The problem with Ford is, on the predictor, I only have, like, Busher's the only Ford in the

top 11. I feel like Busher was going to be very competitive at Chicago. So it'd be hard for not to, and maybe he's got a little more motivation this week, too, just to rebound. So. A little more I think that's a dumb thing.

Can you be more motivated to win? Yes. He's going to try harder. I'm going to really try this to me. It's just different. I don't know. I just think it's different. You look forward to getting back there and you got a little edge to yourself.

I don't know. But it's motivation. I'm just going to make a decision. We're going busher. Redick. S. V.G. McDowell. Oh, my gosh.

I like this from a betting standpoint, too. A little better number. Yeah. Yeah, SVG's odds won't really help us. I mean, SVG to win is plus 140. Next best is Larson at 500. McDowell's plus 1,100. Yeah, McDow, Reddick, and Busher.

Which is the better, which is the tougher odds? I think Gibbs or Reddick? Gibbs is 1,100. Reddick is 1,400, Bell's 1400. Wow, we'll take Reddick. All right, Reddick. Pretty good. Reddick, Busher, McDowell.

That's the parlay for the manufacturer. Let's look at the bracket challenge. Alex Bowman versus Ty Dillon, do you dare go against Ty Dillon? I mean. I think the numbers say absolutely not, but I think when you look at what happened with him and Bubba this weekend, is there going to be any retaliation or is there going to be a clean slate for them? Yeah, I'm going to take Bowman.

Ty Gibbs versus Zane Smith. I'm going to go with Ty Gibbs. Tyler Reddick versus Ryan Priest. This might not be as clear a cut as you think. Priest has had some good strength on the road courses. I was able to put it all together this past weekend, but I still think Reddit can just have the pace necessary at the end. John Hunter Nimichick and Eric Jones, two teammates going out of Legacy Motor Club.

Man, this is a really close one. I think Nugichick has the edge. But I think it's pretty close. I think I'm leaning towards Jones. I'm going to go Jones. Yeah. Speaking of Eric Jones, he was on the door bumper clear. Yeah.

Did he address why he wrecked Josh Barry? I already did. Dalton, did he address it? What did he say? Come over here. Was there some contact that premeditated or pre-whatever? I don't think it was premeditated. I think he admitted to slipping up a little bit and just diving too much to the inside.

catching him, that's all. Yeah. Damn. Break my buddy. Careful. Don't admit too much. It'll get fine for talking on a podcast. All right, Russell,

thank you for coming in and helping us out today. No problem. That Dirty Modo segment was brought to you by Fanduil, the premier gaming destination in the United States of America. White flag.

Highest time for the white flag. The tear down was live on YouTube and Twitter following the race and door bumper clear dropped on Monday as usual with Eric Jones as our guest and he's still alive in that bracket challenge

for a million bucks and going up against his teammate this weekend nonetheless actions detrimental dropped on Monday as well Denny gave us

his dishonest opinion about what happened between Bubba and Alex Bowman. Not true. True. My guest interview will drop tomorrow

this week's guest is Carson Hosevar really looking forward to asking Carson why he crashed at Chicago. He crashed Hard. Big crash. Right, TJ?

Yep, crash really hard. He created a log jam. Traffic jam. Traffic jam. Traffic jam. In the streets of Chicago. Also, dropping on Wednesday is Speed Street and Herman Schrader. And Thursday, another episode of Bless Your Heart, where I complain about people who park in the pickup, reserved pickup spots at the grocery store and walk in. Back in studio, right? Is Amy? Back in studio with Amy? Yeah. And Sunday, the final episode of Becoming Earnhardt, the 19-day. season as we celebrate

Dad's first championship. We will be releasing episode six, the final episode of a six episode series. And it's amazing. Everyone should listen.