The Dale Jr. Download - DJD Reloaded - All About Cheaters

Episode Date: February 29, 2024

Andrew and Carla recap all the cheating news across NASCAR this week, welcome Kip Childress, Executive Director of CARS Tour, to the Bojangles studio, and driver Bubba Pollard joins to announce his Xfinity Series opportunity at JR Motorsports. 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.

The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. I love it, yeah. Does anybody get caught cheating and not win as often as Stewart House? Listen, it's no doubt difficult to win a cup race. I'm going to regret this. I do see Brett's point. So you mentioned the crash on the backstretch that you started? Yeah.

Welcome to the Bojangles studio. Andrew Curlin here, supervising producer of the Dale Jr. download. I'm all alone this. week. Everyone left. They're traveling. They're seeing the world. But we've got Carla on Zoom. Carla, where are you? Why'd you leave me? I know. I feel like I need to apologize that we left you all alone. It's going to be okay, though. We're going to be back in studio next week. But yeah, right now I'm in Indianapolis for the NFL Combine here with Fox Charlotte. Of course, we cover the Panthers, some of the local guys in Charlotte. But it's so weird, right? Like,

I get so focused on NASCAR one week. And then now I'm so focused on the NFL. So I apologize in advance if I start talking about, you know, coaches and players instead of drivers and crew chiefs. Like my brain is just kind of firing on all cylinders right now. Listen, it's a weird day. It's leap day. It's February 29th. I'm the only one here. You know, it's just one of those days, I think, right? Yeah, absolutely. But the NFL Combine is kind of crazy, right? It's called like the NFL spring break. So it's, yeah, it's even more than just about these guys kind of running. their times and all of that. But we've got to talk about all the cheating that's happened in NASCAR lately. I mean, this is the topic of conversation this week, right?

Absolutely, it is. And I want to ask you, like, you cover all these different sports, right? And we've got some cheating news that, again, this is the great part about this Thursday show is we're going to hit the news topics that have since broken from the Tuesday show. And a lot of penalties that came out this week, I want to know you've covered a lot of sports. Is this sports, is this sport the hardest one to keep track of? I don't know if it's the hardest one to keep track of. Like if you're not familiar with the sport, then maybe still that way. If you're immersed into it, though, like you're, you kind of know the schedule, right?

You know when the penalties are coming down and when that late news is going to break during the week. But as far as cheating is concerned, I feel like it's the only sport where we like applaud when cheating happens, right? Or we like fascinated by the decisions that went into it, I think, you know, back to the college football season, he had Michigan sign stealing and everybody was like, oh, man, that's terrible of Michigan, John Harbaugh, all of that. You think about deflategate. You think about the Astros banging on the trash cans. All of those things.

And you're like, man, I can't stand that team because they're such cheaters. But in NASCAR, we're like, that's awesome. I wish they could do more of it. It's such a, yeah, kind of a conundrum there. Does this make me, maybe this is the NASCAR fan in me, but you mentioned some of those, you know, cheating stories in other sports and scandals that happen. I look at that. I'm like, good for them. Smart. You know, is that wrong for me to think that? Well, I mean, I guess when they get, you know, championships and all that take away from them, maybe it

seems like the arbitrary line has been crossed a little bit. Like, I honestly, like when that stuff with the Astros happen, I'm a Braves fan. I'm like, they will forever be the cheaters for me. I don't know if I will ever get over the fact that they went to like those links for a baseball game. But again, I'm fascinated by NASCAR and just the creativity that these guys kind of go through. And I think it's more so because like we don't understand it, right? Like I can understand the trash can banging and maybe deflating the ball so you get a bigger advantage. But these cars, I mean, like the minds behind that is just so, so different. And I just, yeah, love talking about it.

And I think other like race fans love this too. It kind of blew up all week talking about, you know, Joey's gloves. You're talking about SHR, all of those things, the penalties. Fans love talking about this. Well, we ask the fans what their favorite cheating story is. I'm just going to tease it, all right? So as you watch this, I want you to think of what your favorite NASCAR cheating, or I guess we'll use the word innovation, right?

We'll be nice about it. Story that it is. We're going to share that at the end of the show. We use that hashtag, don't hold me to it. But you mentioned Stuart Hoss Racing. I want to start there this week. he was announced two L1 level penalties for improper roof and air deflectors for the number 10 and number 41 car. This was a big topic, especially on DBC.

They talked about it this week. Let's hear what they had to say. Does anybody get caught cheating and not win as often as Stuart Haas? Like, that sounds a bitch, have been caught a couple times a year. It seems like since we went to this new car. And what was it, roof rails this week? They, like, two cars got caught. Like, I get, like, Hendrick got hammered last year or two years ago for them louvers,

but they were hauling ass when they did it. Like, this is the third or fourth time Stuart Haas has got a penalty, and they haven't been that good in two years. Oh, poor Stuart Haas racing. They're trying, right? You got to at least admire the efforts. Yeah, you definitely do. It's almost funnier the second time that I heard Freddie say that.

I listened to DBC earlier this week and literally laughed out loud when he said that. Because, yeah, you're talking about cheating, getting the advantage. Like, let's at least win some races. Let's be at front. Let's be a contender in these races. Now they've got docked 35 points. And you're like, wow, they might not ever see just the middle of the field as far as the

point standings go. You've got all four drivers. I think the highest ranking one is maybe like 22nd. And they're all below that. So you're like, you kind of feel bad for them. But you're like, guys, we got to we got to reassess like, you know, risk versus reward when it comes to cheating. Like how are we really making a big enough difference here? It's all the risk and none of the reward right now. T.J. goes, yeah, well, what, what?

TJ expand on that. I want to know with T.J. Maybe we got to ask him next week. Hey, what did you actually think of this? But so you talked to all the drivers preseason, right? Stuart Haas racing. They didn't have a great season last year. We're losing Kevin Harvick. Now these penalties are laid on them. Like, what's this? What were the spirits, among the Stewart-Hoss racing drivers. Yeah, I talked to all four of these guys within the day, and it was kind of interesting to hear kind of them repeat, not repeat, but like, you know,

they had the same story. Like we've all talked to the off season. And then certainly after I talked to them, hearing, you know, Tony Stewart's comments about, hey, we need to win races or we're going to start making changes. I think there's definitely that pressure there. They had this big rebrand, right? You want to set like kind of a different identity for this team,

but you've also got to have the results to really back that up and that's what we haven't seen yet. So I think spirits are high. They always are, I think, for teams at the beginning of the season when you haven't even really raced many races. So that makes sense. But I think there's definitely pressure there. And these are all really young guys, right? Stuart Haas has had some of the veterans in the sport. And now that's not the case. And you just kind of wonder what the emotional tie is to some of these drivers. Ryan Preece, I think, feels, you know, he has a good relationship with Tony Stewart. Tony Stewart has always been high on priests,

but even he feels like I've got to win this year. I mean, it's like win and end. You have to do that to prove that you belong with this team. But again, you just wonder, what are the resources like for SHR right now? Do they have enough to help these guys get into victory lane? I mean, it's early in the season, right? We can't make any speculations about that.

They could certainly do that as we get further into the season. but it's definitely questions that that you have when you look at that team. I don't know about you, but I would be fascinated to sit in on one of these competition meetings as they're discussing the ideas like, hey, what if we did this and that? And that leads actually to the big cheating story of the week. Joey Lugano and the gloves, the webbed gloves. Everyone's been talking about it. And Denny Hamlin this week on Action's Determental explained exactly what type of advantage

Joey Lugano was getting. Let's like to listen. Because this is likely considered an aerodynamic device. So, you know, what's the difference in that and me putting something in my pocket and grabbing it and then holding it out there?

You know what I mean? To deflect air. Again, I think with the Stuart Haas racing penalties that came out, Carla, I admire the efforts. And we were talking about it on the download with this next-gen car, the box to work in is so much smaller.

So it's like people are looking at different places to see if they could find an advantage. What was your reaction when you saw the gloves? Excuse me. I thought he was about to go take the cookies out of the oven after he got out of the car, right? I mean, it just seemed like maybe they should have just had an oven met with him driving. It was that awkward, right? To see that from the end camera car, you're like, what is this? Like, so confusing.

But then to think, wow, that's, I mean, I mean, they're looking at every, you know, every angle to try and get an advantage. And, you know, you've always seen drivers kind of lift their hand to block the air in the car. But this was definitely creative. And honestly, I don't think I even realized that there was a regulation on gloves. So, you know, I think we're all aware of that now. But you just wonder, you wonder where the starting point for that conversation was, right? hey let's add some you know some extra material right to the i want to know who who actually started

that that's that's the conversation that i want to have we uh we had a tweet go out dale tweeted this on sunday morning and he's like wrong answers only what was joey lagano using the gloves for and we read some of the best ones on the download someone said joey lagano actually just has web fingers so it was just fitting his hand that was my favorite one i think yeah man wow and i think saw you were like, are you a swimmer? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. You could put those on your hands and get even a bigger advantage with, yeah, the flippers. Right. Yeah. See, there's like these hand paddles that you can wear while swimming. And Dale's like, you're cheating using that. I'm like, this is during practice, man. I'm not competing in using these. So that's, I think, where we

disagreed. Also, you mentioned the oven mitts. I think if he actually used oven mitts, would that be SFI approved? Potentially. Maybe not. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. But another, like, more material for them to use. And again, that kind of goes back to the conversation. He could have pulled anything out of his pocket or up in the car, not pulled it up. Like, what would they have done then? Does it have to be something that a driver wears or that's already regulated? You certainly got to think that NASCAR is going to take that into consideration in the future.

With all this talk about creativity, we have the perfect person to come in studio to talk about it. I cannot wait for this. I want to pick his brain. I don't know about you. Executive director of the Cars Tour. Kip Childress is here. Welcome to the show. Wow, this is awesome.

I've only been in the studio one other time with the doorbomper clear guys a number of years ago. I'm in the building almost every day, but to not be in here. So I love coming in here. If nothing else is taking a look around the history. Yeah, come on in, steal something from the cooler. That's why it's stashed right there. It's easy access right from the door. But Kit, welcome in.

We're so excited to talk to you about all of this. The Joey Lugano gloves. We were just talking about that. The web gloves, that's the newest kind of innovation that we've seen out of the Cup Series this year. What was your initial reaction when you saw that? So, not surprised, right? I mean, these guys, drivers, crew chiefs, engineers,

they're all thinking, like you guys have been talking about, they're trying to find that little extra, right, to try to see what they can do to just get that tenth of a second or even less than that in some cases. So, you know, it's, again, not surprised, but at the same time, too, really not surprised that NASCAR was on top of that and took swift action on it. Is it hard to catch these guys? I mean, like, what are you looking for? I mean, I guess with the Joey and the glove situation, these in-car cameras help in that case, right? but like how difficult is it to catch these guys?

Well, it's, it is a challenge. And, you know, I know that a number of folks have said that there was, you know, talk amongst the other competitors that this may be happening. And so, you know, I don't know specifically if that was the case. But I know that, you know, drivers do, not just driver, crew members. And I think the crew members, as they're pushing the cars up pit road and the drivers are getting ready, they're getting, especially for qualifying. It's at a speedway where it's one car at a time. And so I think there is a little more of an opportunity to see everything that goes on. And I know that there are crew members that specifically have the duty of watching other cars.

They watch them as they come through inspection. They watch them. They'll make trips to the garage and take a look. And, you know, everybody's trying to keep tabs on everyone else. And that's, you know. part of it's been that way in racing for as long as I've been around that that's 40 some years. The most important eyes maybe are just the ones the competitors themselves. They're everywhere. Yeah they are. I've talked to a handful of crew chiefs in the

garage over the years and many have told me that they will have lawyers take a look at the rulebook before each season. Try to find the different gray areas. From a comp from the you know from your side the official side do you guys have lawyers looking at the rule book? Like when you're looking at a rulebook, are you almost trying to figure out where could they get the advantage type of thing? Yeah, you know, on the NASCAR side of thing, and that's why you see so many officials that work for NASCAR now who have a past in the garage area, whether it be an engineer or a former crew chief or former drivers that are a part of the sport now. So they have a pretty good idea of what their counterparts have been thinking of, what they've been thinking of. And so I don't

know that I know that there is a legal team that whether it's at the NASCAR side or or even on the car store side we we have someone you take a look at things that we that we say that we do to make sure that that we don't overlook something or maybe that we don't say something that might back us into a corner so as I know that happens I would say though that when it comes to the technical rules that not a not a lawyer per se but there is enough um there's enough history within those rulebook meetings that they are able to cover. And look, that rule book is ever evolving, right? So you will read something in any of the rule books one time and it will say something to you in one way.

You may read it the very next day and read it totally differently. So it is, it is an ever-evolving document. I know the list has to be really long, right? Fans love talking about this. But what's the craziest thing that you have ever seen? I mean, there has to be many, but there's got to be one that really stands out, right? Yeah, so I'll go back to my very early days. I was a truck official back in when it was in its inception in, you know, 95, 96.

And I can remember being at Louisville Motor Speedway and crawling up underneath the truck. I was the under truck inspector and taking a look at various items under there. And I'll never forget. I ran across a part that had holes drilled in it. That shouldn't have had holes drilled in it. Well, the way that it was set up, these holes were so big that anyone would have found it, right? So I was brand new. I was the new guy on the block.

I found this, had the crew chief take it off, and I took it back up into our hauler. Wayne Alton was our director at the time. And he asked me, said, how long it take you to find this? Man, 20 seconds. I was in and out. And he said, get your creeper, get back over there because they wanted you. to find this. This was bait. To find this early and quick so they could, you know, hopefully get you out from under there

and not find something else. Wow. Listen, on top of, you know, the penalties that we were talking about this week, sometimes you got to find the rules of fighting, right? There would be certain ones that come with that. J.J. Ili's crew chief, Jason Miller, had an altercation with Kyle Weatherman on pit road after the race this past weekend. So how do you approach that as now the executive director of the cars tour in terms of people getting into it off of the track?

Yeah, so I was, I guess, in the job with the cars tour just a couple of months. And we had a similar situation happen at one of our races where we had an altercation on pit road. Then involved a lot of crew members, a big crowd of folks after a couple of drivers got tangled up on the racetrack. And so, yeah, that's tough. And it's an area where I think collectively as not just cars tour, not just NASCAR, I think we all are wanting to work together. And I'll say this specifically for us at our level of racing, right?

So on the NASCAR side, that would be all the weekly tracks and the regional racing, ARCA and the modified tour. So I think that the one thing that we are all wanting to take a real solid stance on is that we're not going to tolerate it. You know, we set some people out. we were very aggressive with some of our penalties. And the one thing that we did make an effort to do was stay consistent with the penalties that it got us to that point. But I said very clearly in the release that went out that this would be the last time we were going to be consistent. From this point forward, if behavior like that continued to happen, that we would just ramp the penalties up until we found out what that threshold was to make them not want to do it. So hopefully as we kick off our season, hopefully we don't have to go down that avenue, but we're ready if we are.

Yeah. Going back to when you were with NASCAR as an official there, I mean, you have great relationships with all of these crew members, all of these guys and teams, your friends with these guys. Did you ever get mad at them for like trying to pull one over you, right? When they're trying to cheat and did you ever kind of get into it with them? Yeah, I don't know that I would say that I got mad. We all have the understanding in the garage. And I say we all. Every one of us handles that a little differently, right?

So I know that in working with crew chiefs, you do develop that relationship, those relationships with those guys. And, you know, you see each other in and out of the garage area. But we also have the understanding that, you know, as an official, we know that the race teams are trying to do everything they can to gain every possible advantage that they can find. And sometimes that does, you know, tiptoe into the gray and maybe into the lack. They also understand that we have a job to do as well. And so, you know, while, you know, in the heat of the moment, you're probably upset, you know, when you do find something that,

you know, you, they're, it's not so, you, you have to separate how you feel personally about it versus professionally, right? So in the heat of the moment, you, you might get hit with it, you know, right up front that it does upset you that, hey, you tried to get this over on me. Yeah, right. But at the same time, too, you've got to realize. that they're just trying to be just a little bit better than their neighbor. And so, you know, I've always taken the, and my dad instill this to me when he was an official when I was growing up, you know, things that happen at the racetrack, you know, no matter how how the emotion is, once you step away from that, once you back away from that situation,

then it's gone. You may not forget it completely, but it's gone. It's always in your mind. That's right. I have a quick follow up to this, too, because just putting myself in this, position if I were an official. Is it kind of like a cat and mouse game? Like I think of like Tom and Jerry where you're like you actually enjoy, you enjoy a little bit like trying to find this, right? And trying to kind of pull this out of teams. Is there like an adrenaline rush when you do find

something big and you're like, gotcha? I'll be honest. Me personally, I don't. I hate it when I find something, right? I hate it because of the fact that you know that coming on the backside of are going to be penalties and there's going to be consequences for that. I'm okay with that. I understand that that's part of what we do. Even seeing, you know, hearing the penalties from Atlanta from this week, you know, I hated hearing of, you know, number one, guys, you know, flexing a rule and then getting called on the back end.

I'm proud of our officiating family that they were able to catch this, right? but as officials we would rather head this off at the past we would rather them know that you know it's the risk is not or the reward is not worth the risk you know having to say that backwards but you know I would rather I would rather be on the front end of making sure that they understand where we are and that they don't try to tiptoe across that line and and as you trickle down to the cars tour especially at that level because you know so many of those teams are you know, grassroots teams, shoe string budgets, just barely getting to the racetrack. So, you know, it is really, really tough when they cross that line and we have to impose a

penalty. Absolutely. We want to get to more of this conversation. We have our weekly Dale call. We have people call in, and the question this week was, how would you feel if your favorite driver cheated and, I guess, got caught with it. So let's hear what our fans had to say. Hey, Fire Captain Dale here.

Innovation, sneakiness, whatever you want to call it. You know, that's the key to, I think, great racing, seen it in the 70s, the 80s, and 90s, and even well before. Drivers, teams, mechanics, coming up with these little tricks to make their car just a little bit quicker. Driving cookie cutter race cars around the track where everybody's got the same stamped-out car, Boring, boring. We need a little innovation. We need some guys to be creative.

The glove? Brilliant. Maybe not a Michael Jackson move, but great. Love to see it. Keep on doing it. Keep being sneaky. I think that makes it fun and makes it entertaining. Fire captain Dale, see you later.

What do you think? Is it more entertaining when this happens? I don't know. I think that, you know, of course, my version of entertainment is seeing them across three wide at the start finish line coming to the checker, right? And so that's that's that's that's the level of excitement that I have, right? And and I don't know that you that you need to have, you know, the innovation that goes on or the perceived innovation innovation that goes on. I don't know that you have to have that level of racing at the end. So that's where my excitement lies.

You know, I think it is, you know, to some degree, it's, it's cool to see what they come up with it sometimes, right? But at the same time, too, you know, we all have to do our jobs and make sure that we keep, keep everything under wraps. Carla, what do you think? I mean, yeah, I think, again, it just kind of goes back to our conversation of, like, you have to appreciate the creativity, the fact that their minds went there. Like, you understand that their minds just don't work the way at least my mind works when you're thinking about ways to get that advantage.

Just some really smart people in the room, and you have to kind of tip your hat at that. Listen, this whole discussion of creativity, innovation, it's nothing new. We've done this for beginning of auto racing. It seems like this week on the Dale Jr. download, it was so awesome to have Waddell Wilson in the studio to discuss everything from his career to old stories. And one thing he was very clear on is he has not cheated in his career. We've got a clip from Waddell. the fact that bottles nitrogen kind of had this little spell in the 70s that must have been

fascinating I guess as a you know as a mechanic and an engine guy back then to have all that going on around you well you know I remember that era that that was going on and I was not going to do that the next thing is you know that is as blat cheating as you can get was it as easy as just hooking a bottle up and mashing a button? You know, I never did bring it in the shop. I never wanted to mess with it. I was afraid of ever messed with I love it. And I

wouldn't do it. I never had a whole of it. Not at any one time. I wouldn't do it. I got accused of it, but I never done it. Okay, so I saw you laugh there when I said he has a firm stance that he has not cheated. Do you believe that?

I won't say, I won't say cheated and using that term, right? I will say, you know, Wadell, he was, you know, obviously a Hall of Famer, right? Absolutely. He was able to do a lot of great things in our sport because of how smart he is, how smart he was. And so I don't know that, you know, I want to, if he says he didn't cheat, I'm not going to accuse him of being a cheater. But I will guarantee you that there was some innovation that was going on within his race shop, within the engine shop that were building engines. he didn't get to be when you knew, especially like he was saying back at what Dale was talking about in the 70s, in the 60s and 70s where a lot of it was going on, a lot of folks have admitted it was going on.

Yeah. You know, if you weren't doing something, you probably weren't keeping up. So where's the line? Because as a just sports fan in general, you know, I feel like it's easy to tell where the line is with football, with baseball. and even golf and some other sports out there, where is the line in NASCAR? Is it any advantage or is it just when they take it a little bit too far? Like for you, where is that line? Yeah, the rulebook's supposed to be the line.

I mean, it's just supposed to be, right? So, you know, but, you know, there are folks within each shop. There are folks, you know, all throughout the sport that go to great links to find gray areas that they can work within. there are tolerances for just about every measurement that we have whether it's at the cup level all way down to the grassroots level in the car store there are and the teams if there is a tolerance you can believe that they're working to the tolerance they're not they're not working if it's supposed to be two inches give or take half an inch they're working to two and a half right um but the rule book is supposed to be the line the one thing that you have to you really have to get yourself

separated from is asking yourself the question is a is it a is it a a competitive advantage because at the end of the day it doesn't matter. If it breaks the rule, then it breaks the rule and you know, you have to take the subjectivity out of it. I got a quick question before we go to our next clip. You talked about that gray area and I think what made Waddell so brilliant was figuring out things that weren't in the rule book and that he was able to just create and do and then there's a rule being made. Yeah. So we talk about that at the cars tool level right now. We enjoy the fact that our rulebook is not a thousand pages. Sure. Yeah. But at the same time, we stress to our teams that in order to make sure that we don't get to a thousand pages, don't try to get so creative that we have to create rules to counter another rule. Don't make us have to keep adding to the rule book.

and to your point back in the 60s and 70s, the rulebook was extremely thin. The rule book at the cup level now is to a point where it is not a printed book anymore, or if it is, it's in a three-ring binder that's super thick, and now it's electronic. So, you know, the rule book has gotten to where it is because of folks trying to work inside the gray. I want to touch on, you were talking about sometimes the best eyes in the garage or the competitors themselves. And Denny Hamlin this week on Action's Determintel spoke to that. and we've got a clip. Let's check a listen. Yeah, these teams tell on each other, for sure.

Those of you don't know. I mean, the teams, they call it a self-policing sport because that's, you know, when we're sitting next to each other, we're watching video of other cars. I mean, the NASCAR Cup series is full of snitches. I mean, all over the place. They tattletail. If they see something that someone's doing that is illegal or skirting the rule,

oh, they'll tell the tower right away. They'll send that to John Probes or they'll send, it to Elton Sawyer and be like, hey, look, look at that. And they'll say, oh, well, we'll look into that. How often do you get people coming up to you? As the season gets started, I'll get a couple phone calls a week. I would have made. Yeah, I mean, so it's not so much to that it's not so much that they're really snitching.

They're basically in a roundabout way that maybe they're asking for permission if they can do that. But they want to come at it from the angle of, hey, if I ask this, then. I'm not going to get in trouble. But I'm asking this to let you know that it's already going on. And that's at our level. Denny is exactly right. And so, you know, when you see teams as fans make their way through the garage

and they ask ourselves the question of, you know, the difference between the NASCAR garages versus, say, you know, the garage is at the IndyCar level where they build walls and the F1 where they have, you know, compartments for what they do. So no one else can really see what's going on. The NASCAR garage is let me. left open purposely. You know, at the cars tour, we work behind our haulers most everywhere we go, and it's open

purposely. So, you know, you do rely on crew members and drivers and drivers to come to you with things that they may see. Yeah, because at the end of the day, with, you know, just a handful of inspectors, whether, no matter what level of the sports you're at, you can't be everywhere at one time. Now, I will say this, too. there are teams that will come to you and get you looking in a direction so maybe you're not looking at something that they may be doing. So you have to kind of, you know, when Denny said that

Elton would make the statement that, hey, we'll look into that. That's a true statement because you have to take every story that you get. You have to, you know, have to kind of filter through what you believe and that's right. You do to some degree investigate everything that you hear, but you have to also realize that someone may be trying to steer you down a path to get you away from something else. Yeah. Can I just say I was complete, this really just helped open my eyes because I feel like every time we about self-policing, you think of the younger driver on the track, right? And then all the drivers coming up to him like, hey, this is not acceptable, you know, that kind of code of conduct that drivers live by. To picture this almost is like a playground and driver and like the kids.

kids coming up to tell the teacher on each other. Like, that's just what I picture when it comes to, like, self-policing of all of them coming to you to tell on each other. Does it ever feel that way? Does it ever feel like you're hurting cats almost in a sense of, like, trying to get them all to abide by the same rule and also, like, hearing the complaints from each team, too, right? Yeah, so it can be overwhelming it sometimes. And especially as, you know, the statements that you hear a lot of times is they're doing this and because of that they have they have an unfair advantage over what we're doing and that's just within the tech rules in the garage um you know we so we talked about the self policing on the racetrack we we don't hear about that part of it a whole lot because

that generally takes care of itself yeah um right and so but you know in the garage area you're you're right it's uh sometimes it can be very overwhelming when you have them all coming at you and then then they're all coming at you with different stories. So you're having to kind of weigh out, you know, what they're talking about. Yeah, absolutely. Kip, uh, thank you so much for taking the time to come in, discuss this. The Cars Tour is an excellent show. I've been to a handful of weekends. Uh, what, what can we tell everyone about what the Cars Tour has going on, not just this weekend, but this season. Yeah. So, uh, a big season underway. Of course, you know, Z-Max coming on board as our, uh, as our title sponsor, uh, Sound Gear coming on as our presenting sponsor. Um, we, we, we've, we've, we've,

finished putting all of our wheel and lights on our pace car the other day from Hendoncarters.com. So, you know, a lot of things have really come together here in the last couple of weeks to get us on the road for our first race, which is this weekend at Southern National. They're doing something really kind of cool, too, with it being the first part of the year, they're having a speed week of their own. So our pro late models will kick off the speed week this Saturday at their place. They will race throughout the week with a lot of their local divisions, and then we'll book-ended with our late model stocks to round out the week.

And man, from there, we've hit the ground running. So lots of big races coming up at, obviously we talked about earlier about our show coming up at North Wilkesboro on an all-star weekend for NASCAR. We'll also crown our champion at North Wilkesboro in October. So that and all the tracks that we do get to visit, it's going to be a heck of a sea. A lot of interest from some, you know,

I know the announcement came out about Bubba Pollard driving. Yes. One of the JRM cars in the XFINN series, at Richmond. We hear that he's going to come and run with us some too, along with Steve and Nassie. And then you factor in the quapples and the butter beans and all of our guys who have made the cars who are so great, it's going to be one heck of a season. So many great names, the action on track.

Fantastic, too. Kip, thanks so much for joining us. My pleasure. Anytime. Well, Kip Childress, that was fantastic. Right there at the end, Carla, he alluded to Bubba Pollard, making a big announcement. It was announced earlier today, and guess what? We've got him on the line right now.

Bubba, thanks so much for joining us. Oh, yeah, I appreciate you having me on. And you've got some exciting news, so what is it? Yeah, so I got the call a few months ago from everyone at Ream and Junior Motorsports to give us an opportunity to go to Richmond here in a couple weeks. So we're excited about it and just very thankful, looking forward to it. And hopefully we can go out there and show everyone what we got. How excited are you to go to Richmond? Like what is it about this track that makes this a good fit and a good race for you to take part in?

Well, growing up, that was always one of my favorite racetracks because it was still a short track, but it was still big enough to where you could race. When we started talking about this deal, I was a little nervous that I was going to get Martinsville. And, you know, Martinsville is a great racetrack. Don't get me wrong. But, you know, there's so much that can happen there. and so much, you know, you're so close. You're running so close together, and everyone else,

your day can get dictated off of someone getting upset with or something like that, which you can happen to Richmond, but I feel like Richmond is just more what I'm accustomed to, what I race throughout the short tracks and travel up and down the road racing each and every weekend. So I'm excited to go to Richmond. When they said it was there, it's, you know, it's, you know, a great thing for me. You know, these Xfinity cars, they're heavy. This is maybe not the heavy type of car that you're used to driving. What kind of preparation goes into getting ready for Richmond?

Yeah, well, it's really going to be tough. We ran some harker races and things back years ago, but it's been quite some time. And the cars just drive so much different. They are heavier. The tire is so much different than what I'm used to. So, you know, we're going to try to get some STEM time here in the next couple of weeks. We're also going to run the Arker race at Five Flags, Speedway, here just the 24th the week before Richmond, to get used to the breaking and things like that. So the places are a little

bit similar. So I'm hoping to take a lot away from Five Flags with what I can learn there and take to Richmond. So I'm a little nervous with the pit stops in the way that thing, what way it goes on with pit and hopefully I don't have to pit under green. It's just not something we're used to anymore. A lot our races that went back to the breaks and having a five-minute break and things like that. So we'll see. Hopefully we can just, you know, study as much information with the team and the crew chiefs and things like that. And talking to a lot of the drivers like Josh, Noah, Chase Elliott, a lot of those guys

have reached out and, you know, been supportive and anything they can do to help me out. So I know a lot of those guys from racing our short track deal with those guys. So, yeah, just gather all the emotion, as much information as I can and apply it to that Saturday. Have you always wanted to do this? Like, did you see this pathway for your racing career? Well, I've always wanted to have the opportunity. You know, growing up, that's what we've all, you know, our goal. But, you know, I always said, and I don't know if it's in God's plans that, you know, whatever may happen.

Mine just seems like it's taken a little longer. But, you know, I always wanted teams to want me. I didn't, I wasn't the type of person to go out and ask for anything. I still don't like asking for anything to this day. That's just not the person I am and how I was raised. But I always wanted someone to come to me and ask me to drive the race car. And it makes you feel good, makes you feel wanted. It makes you feel like all the hard work you put into it, you know, is deserving.

So for them to call me, it really, feels good to get this opportunity. You know, and nothing may ever come from it, or it may. We never know. But I'm going to go out there and give 100% do the best I can. Have fun and see what it's all about. So we'll see. I'll tell you what.

The fans are sure excited. They're already asking if there's going to be merch available. Can you answer that for them? Yeah. So there's merch available already. They got online. We're also going to do some dad-cast cars of not only the ring. Chevrolet, but also of my Super Late Mall as well.

So it's pretty neat to already have all that established and ready to go. So they can go online at Junior Motorsports, check it out, and get their merch and be prepared for March 30. That die cast car is going to be awesome. I saw the preview when the announcement was made. The car looks fantastic. You mentioned like you want to go there and have fun. And, you know, obviously a big opportunity. Maybe there could be something that comes from this.

How do you balance, you know, the nerves, the opportunity, the expectations, while also remembering, man, racing's supposed to be fun. I'm supposed to have fun doing this. How do you manage the balance of that? Well, it is going to be tough. It's something, I don't have to kind of figure it out when I get there. But it is, it's all going to be new to me. So I think going into it, as long as I can have that mindset, just having fun.

I feel like I'm capable of getting a job done. And I know over the years, it's time to have fun. There's time to zone in and get serious and get down to work and get the job done. So it's going to be tough. Hopefully, you know, a lot of the fans come out and enjoy it. But, yeah, we'll see. Hopefully I can have a lot of people to lean on that have helped me out to get me through this. I got one more question before we let you go.

this whole episode has been talking about, you know, racing creativity, innovation, you know, and a little bit of a nicer word for cheating, right? Some have even said the competitors are the best eyes on what the rest of the competition is doing. Do you have a good, and like you don't have to, you know, name any names or you throw anybody on the bus, but any good innovation stories? Or you could, too, if you want. Any good innovation stories you've seen over the years?

Well, I've heard, you know, back in the, I've always heard stories growing up, like the nitrous deal. I've heard that back in the 70s and 80s, like from Ronnie Sanders when I was driving for him. And then one thing that was big was Mercury, that guys would move Mercury around in a race car, which is super, you know, illegal. Anything else. But, I mean, that's, that's, it's terrible. You can't get on your skin or anything. So, but they would move this Mercury back and forth to get left side weight and things like that. but a lot of the old timers and stuff would do that.

I don't know if it's true or not, but man, there's so many rules now. It seems like back in a day, I've been racing late models for 25 years now, and things have changed a lot. Racing has changed. People have changed. It seems like the guys nowadays are a little scared to take that. I think they're afraid to take that risk. Yeah.

You know, not like they was back then, but Preston, I don't know how they say the name, Peltier, He used to work at Hendrick. I think he does a lot of the body stuff there. He's very innovative when it comes to body work and downforce and arrow and things like that. But he brought a car to Berlin up there last year. Man, it was tricked all out with diffusers underneath it. And us late mall guys don't even know what that is. You know what I mean?

So we're all looking at it and pointing. Like they said earlier, I mean, the racers tell on each other. Right. first thing. So, I mean, I try to push the issue. That's our job is to try to get an edge over everyone we can. And just that little bit, I mean, people, we're trying to, we're, we're not trying to find tents and half a seconds now. We're trying to find hundreds of thousands. And that little bit, it makes, every little bit adds up. And the more you can get the, the faster you're going to be. So we try to get every advantage that we can. I've really not cheated, but I've done a little bit of the innovation myself along the way. I love it. I love the honesty there. That's fantastic. Well, Bubba, thanks so much for taking the time. We're so excited to watch you. Get on the track. That 88 car, like I said, looks fantastic. And we can't wait for Richmond. So best of luck to you. Thanks for joining today. Yeah, I appreciate you guys having me on. Thank you.

Awesome. That was Bubba Pollard. He'll be driving that number 88 car in the Xfinity series. Carla, it's going to be fantastic to watch him race. But, you know, we covered the innovation stories. He had some good ones, I thought. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. We asked the fans, what's your favorite innovation story from NASCAR? And I think we're going to pull some of the best ones up on the screen for us to read. Let's see.

Kim, Andy Petrie telling the story about the hydraulic deck lid was pretty good on. That was everything Chad can oust did. Poor Chad, just being thrown into the whole category there. All of it. Everything he did. All of Chad Canouse's career. The story DW told about lead being shot and released from the frame rails at the Jackposts freaking legendary.

Yes, that was a good one. Let me just say Darrell Waltrip's name got thrown in a lot on this conversation, obviously, right? But I feel like he was one of the main drivers that people kind of put out there. All the Waltrip. So here's another Waltrip. It's the Waltrip family. Michael Waltrip and the Jet Fuel, the first year of Toyota. Yes, that was crazy. I don't know if that's crazier than Mercury or not, but it's up there for sure.

This one's from Nikki, Smokey's car when NASCAR was inspecting his car and said there were 16 rule infractions after a few minutes of arguing. Smokey jumps in the car and he says, make that 17. He fired it up and drove away NASCAR holding the fuel tank. Apparently, it was a really long fuel line. Good for him. Love it from Smokey. And Scott, I'm pretty sure the story that has not been told yet. Yes, I think that's, the big one. So many untold stories I think that are still left on the table, Carla. Yeah, those are the ones that you really, really want to know. Do you have a favorite one, by the way? I feel like mine is going to be like anything to do with a spoiler, hydraulic spoiler. Like, I always feel like that's just a memorable one. But these little changes that

can happen as you move the car or drive the car, things that they're not going to catch, right, in that pre-race inspection. I always heard one of someone putting in like the actual frame rail of the chassis, there was like oil with like a magnet or something like that and as the car burned fuel the oil would then displaced towards the back of the car making the balance of the car

more even as a fuel run went on. Freaking genius. Totally illegal. They got caught with it. That's always one that stuck out to me. Yeah, those are just, again, I just don't understand the mindset that you have to have for that.

But yeah, very, very illegal. That's what Buba said, right? I totally agree. Well, what a great show. This is my favorite topic, I think, of NASCAR. It's just talking about these cheating stories. Yeah, it definitely is. And definitely a fun one. I think fans will enjoy this one and hopefully maybe add to the conversation on Twitter as well as they always do every week. And Andrew, I promise I will be back in studio next week. He will not be alone next week. Yes, yes. It's quite lonely here if we cut to this. Yes, look, we've got a bunch of empty chairs. I Missing everybody. But Carla, thanks so much for taking time from Indianapolis and calling in.

We've got a bunch of Dirty Moe Media shows that are already out this week. The Tear Down with Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi. They recapped Atlanta. What a crazy finish that was. Their reaction to it's fantastic. Action's detrimental. Denny Hamlin tells, I think, one of the funniest stories that I've heard Denny tell from that show. Please listen to it if you haven't.

It's probably story number one. That was a pun. You'll have to do the rest. You'll figure it out. Door bumper clear was back. They were in full swing. Freddie said, he tweeted it out. I think that was one of the most fun races he's ever spotted. So their perspective of Atlanta is going to be a good one to listen to. Two DJD shows already in the books, Dirty air, and a fantastic interview with Waddell Wilson and Speed Street. They recorded yesterday. Connor and Chase bringing their A game. It was fun to watch. Plus, Dirty Mo Doe. is out today. They are previewing everything you need to know from Las Vegas. If you're going to gamble on any race, might as well be the Las Vegas race, right?

And of course, the Dale call, make sure you call our number 704-584-9703. We want to hear from you, the fans. Continue to tweet. The hashtag, don't hold me to it. Y'all brought your A game for that this week. And that's going to do it for this week, Carla. That's going to do it.

Yeah, we'll see you next week. We'll sign off. You better be here on DJD Reloaded. Thanks everyone for listening. Check out Dirtymo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.