The Dale Jr. Download - "I Don't Want Carson to Change"

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the Download crew are back for another edition of Dirty Air. After NASCAR invaded Music City this past weekend, there were plenty of Playoff picture shake-ups and storylines from the garage to unpack:Ryan Blaney dominates NashvilleCarson Hocevar might need to watch out for Ricky Stenhouse Jr.Erik Jones and Christopher Bell’s dust-upXfinity Series winner Justin Allgaier joins the showWill 750 horsepower make a difference on short tracks?The Jim France/Spire Motorsports fiascoDuring the Ask Jr. portion of the episode, listeners sent in questions about:Not having to wear a tie on the Prime broadcastGo-to broadcast booth snacksHopping back in a sports car for the Rolex 24Dale Sr.’s favorite sports teams Dirty 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 stuff.And for more content check out our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMediaFanDuel disclaimer: Must be 21+ and present in select states (for Kansas, in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino) or 18+ and present in D.C. First online real money wager only. $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets which expire 7 days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut, or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit GamblingHelpLineMA.org or call [phone] for 24/7 support in Massachusetts, or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPENY in New York. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

If I'm Ricky Stenhouse, it's absolutely personal. Ricky Stenhouse can go forward, and if he doesn't make the playoffs, he can blame it on this moment. That's a serious situation for him, so I'm sure he's pretty determined to either get himself into the playoffs or get redemption. The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. I'm still sour, man, that I wasn't your best man at your wedding.

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. Doesn't sound like you know what you're talking about. You haven't scratched the surface yet. There, boy. 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, motherfucker. All right? This ain't Burger King. Travis is like, fucking wrapped us up. They all have no fun around here. Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download.

It's Tuesday. It's dirty air. And I am not in the studio. summertime, so taking a little opportunity to skip down to the beach and, you know, just enjoy a couple days down here. It'd be a little bit different than in years past, working every weekend during the summer. So I won't get down here and do a bunch of remote shows at this location. But our remote shows, I think last year we did a ton. I was here for, I think, eight straight weeks or something like that.

But anyhow, TJ's still out, but doing great. He should be back next week. I know everybody's probably worried about where he's been. He had a little medical issue he took care of. Something been bugging him, and he's going to be great. We're looking forward to getting him back. I'm sure he's looking forward to getting back to the racetrack and on top of the spotter stand.

I came out of the Nashville race with a bit of a head cold, so kind of dealing with that. yesterday was rough and taken a bunch of pain medicine and just trying to figure it out man you ever uh Travis is here so we could talk a little bit Travis Travis you ever done that novage thing i can't i've seen it i can't bring myself to be shooting water at my nose and stuff coming out the other nostril or whatever it is or it ain't it ain't like that buddy well what is it you can barely tell anything's happening it's got a little reservoir water on top and it cycles that through your nose and then it fills up this thing on the bottom.

So you can see with your eyes that level of water going down. And so you know it's going through your nose. I don't know how far up in there it's doing. But I'm going to tell you, man. I got to give him a little credit, man. It's thing clean you out. Does it? Yeah, it kind of breaks it up a little bit.

It keeps it from. So I think the worst thing about getting sinus infection is, so when you blow your nose, a lot of times you'll blow your nose. you'll blow your nose and you'll kind of pinch your nostrils and actually create pressure, back pressure. And so you're kind of blowing your nose, but you're also putting a bunch of that stuff further up in your sinuses.

And then that stuff gets real hard. And boy, that's when the headaches get unbearable late in the game. Oh, you get those frontal migraines. Oh, my God. Kill you. So that's what, it's all that goo getting up in there and getting up in there and getting and solid, you know, and just becoming difficult, and it's hard for that stuff to kind of come out.

But I don't know, man, I use one. Amy and I like that thing. It works pretty good. We got to get you better. We got eight more races for you. Yeah, it's odd to get head cold in the middle of the summer. Usually that's kind of like, for me, I get the colds when seasons change. So like when we go into fall, I'll get sick, or when we come out of the winter and go

into spring, like that abrupt sort of change. there's always kind of like a lot of but there seems like there's stuff going around all year now but uh i'm down here at the beach and also down here at the beach is a pickle guy and so y'all know we talked we talked about these bad boys so i got me a whole case i haven't even opened the lid yet if amy were able to be in my body for a day she'd love opening this jar remember she said that all she'd do is open jars do you remember that i'll bless your heart yeah What the hell? Hey, that's a struggle sometimes.

You got to take the knife on the butt and hit the jar. You ever do that? Oh, yeah, yeah. I take the jar. This is my trick to open in a jar that's a little tough. And so I take, say, my hands to the counter, I take the jar and turn and tap. Yep. Tap, tap, tap, turn, tap, tap, tap.

And that just kind of busts that seal loose a little bit. Yeah. I'll open it up every time. I guess I should formally issue you a congratulations. Yeah. We don't have to talk. about this you don't want to. No, I think you beat me in Xbox, an NCAA in the ACC Championship game.

Next year's games crossplay. I'm sure you're excited about that. You can go back to your PlayStation. I am, but I can't blame that on the reason for me losing, no, unfortunately. Well, the buttons are all a little different. Yeah, but I mean, none of the buttons were the reasons that I lost. I just got beat by a better team. Charlotte is a great team.

I thought I had a chance. You did. You're running back. was you had the ball with a tie game. I think in the third quarter. No, fourth quarter. Fourth quarter. No.

Yeah. I was a head in. And you got to stop. It was 2828. I thought that was the end of the third. No. Anyhow. All right, so our friend Russell is joined us here today.

The professor, Russell, appreciate you coming by. You're going to kind of fiddling for TJ. You feel okay about that? Yeah, I think I can take his job. No problem. Yeah. So. So Russell, a lot of people might not know who Russell is or what he does,

but Russell owns or co-owns Racing Insights, and they are the sort of the stat gurus, the know-it-alls of NASCAR. Like ESPN had stumped the swab. That's kind of what these guys are to NASCAR. They are in the booth with us every week, helping us out to bring great information to the broadcast. So they live this.

I mean, I don't know anyone that probably goes over the statistics and the ever-changing evolution of statistics because drivers, you know, everything as they go through race but race averages change. Everything evolves and change. Drivers progress and regress. And they're on top of all of that. So it's kind of great to have you as part of the show.

We're going to have an Al-Gyar call-in winner. the Xfinity race this past weekend. So we'll have him here in a bit. Dale, I want to know you've made complaints about Russell's won sheets and notes and stuff. Are they up to par this year? Where are we at with those? I'll just give Russell a hard time because,

so I'm going to use this. So for qualifying, for example, I might use this. There'll be a sheet with each driver's name and a little bullet out to the right. about that driver and it's useful really it's probably the most maybe the most unique kind of stat or probably the most important stat for that moment it's really every driver has like a stat that's probably the most important one or something really neat so it's a really it's a one-pageer

and i have that in my hand in the booth and maybe during qualifying or even during the race or even during driver intros you're going to use those bullets but he but he writes them out in such a way that you can't just say it exactly as it is on the paper in the broadcast. Because that's absolutely, how it's written down is absolutely not how you would deliver the information to somebody if you were saying it. And so that's my only gripe. You could take, basically most of them, you could take the phrase or whatever the stat is and just flip the words almost the opposite. Kind of almost say it backwards, if you will. Read it backwards. and I could literally look at the page and read it right off the page

and use it that way. It would be more convenient. But I have to read, like, we have to be so fast because we're on this car. We cut to a car. He's, you know, all right, there is. Ryan Blaine. He's driving around the racetrack. I don't know how long we're going to be on him.

It's a great stat right here. I've got to be wanting to use. I look at it, read it. Now I've got to decide how I want to say it. And so there's about a, there's a couple, you know, seconds or so that are wasted. are you done yeah okay let me explain so so that's there for you to formulate your own opinion and your own way to say that oh so everybody talks different like you talk way different than stevie than adam than marie schneider i think i talk the right way you i'm not debating that i'm just telling

you you talk differently yeah yeah yeah i wish here um we could pull one up we've done we try to do this on the show here we go i don't have it printed but But how convenient. Yeah, good for you. I'm giving you hard. I give Russell a hard time. I'll say this, man, the great thing about our booth and all the people that I work with in the broadcasting is they all have a great sense of humor. And they don't mind getting a little shit every now and then.

Because really, honestly, we're all there trying to make each other laugh and trying to make sure everybody's having a good time. And so nobody ever says any. My complaints about the one sheet. or the one-liners is just to have something to give Russell a hard time about. So here is Ryan Blaney's from the one sheet. Four top fives and two DNFs in the last six races. Five DNFs this season is tied for most. Best Nashville finish third, 2022.

So that's three different things you can get from that. You can pull three different ideas from that. Yeah. I mean, the information is good. I would just, you're just so close to writing it out as someone might actually say it on a broadcast. Why don't you just kind of go to the extra little bit, a little bit there? I hope you notice this week. I'm going to write it all out for you. Bull.

Exactly how I think you would say it. Really? Every single one. Is this going to be available to here? No, this is a Dale sheet. I have one Dale sheet already that I do for you. I don't want this, this is Dale sheet number two. I don't want you doing any extra work.

Uh-uh. No, it's not. I feel so bad. No. You better read it. That's all I'll tell you. I will feel so bad. I don't like you doing extra word.

It makes me feel guilty. No. Like I'm doing it. Like I'm a pain in the ass. No, you're not as bad as the one that stands to the right of you, for sure. That guy. That guy. The tart?

Yeah. Yeah. You know how he's... He has a lot to say, so I'm sure he keeps you pretty busy. I've talked to him three times this morning. Oh, golly. Well, we're going to get right into the to the race the cup race

Ryan Blaney was super fast in practice I told all my friends that I thought he was the guy that's going to win use some unique strategy so last year in the race guys were pitting around lap 38 and at first stage there was a little bit maybe a little bit more tire fall off and and this particular weekend there was hardly none Blaney stayed out continued to run top 10 or top lap times all the way until the point he came to pit road so he he that strategy kind of smoked

them and I mean his car the reason why he could do that is because his car was so good everyone else didn't have that option because they didn't have that type of long run speed and so you know it's just a math it's not so much that I'm that impressed with the strategy he had the best car just clearly had a very fast car so he could almost run whatever strategy he wanted he could dictate the race that's my opinion But, yeah, they took two tires a couple times to gain the track position, and just tires really didn't matter, which was kind of a surprise to me. They did change the left side tire a little bit.

They were expecting it to have a little more wear, a little more grip. But I think they're so nervous about that asphalt or that concrete. The concrete's brushed, so it's almost like a sandpaper. I think they were just, you know, good years so worried about that. Concrete, you know, what happened at Richmond a couple years ago. they just don't want to get a big surprise and the unknown of what might happen if they go there with a softer tire.

And so that tire is very conservative. And we had kind of a perfect storm. We race late into the evening. It was much cooler than it was last year. And a lot of people, our pre-race group, everyone was predicting that this race would eventually gravitate to the bottom of racetrack, and that's where everybody would finish the race.

And that's what happened. And that's why nobody moved up to pass or make time because it was just slower to go that further distance around the racetrack at the end of the night. Two of the things that I wanted to get into real quick is a big deal. Carson Hosevar and Ricky Stenhouse. There's a lot of people with a lot of different opinions about this. And it was even interesting to hear from the team owners at Spire. We had Jeff Dickerson on the door bumper clear yesterday,

and he took somewhat of a similar opinion that I had, that Carson could have avoided it and not wrecked Ricky. That doesn't mean that Ricky was completely clean or absolved of any fault. I don't really know whose fault it was for them, you know, was Ricky coming down, you know, does Carson feel like that he had the spot or he had the lane? Ricky comes down, you know, in a way it's a bit similar to the 20 and the 43, Eric Jones and C. Bell, and I want to talk about that one as well. They're similar, but a little, little different as well. Carson, I even said it in a clip on Dirtymo Media. I think that the guy reminds me of like a

1979 Dale Earnhardt, 1980 Dale and Hart, fast, not scared to use the front. doesn't care if somebody gets mad about it and on the verge of becoming a star that's exactly how i saw dad around that time frame in his career off the track what they like to do on monday tuesday and wednesday they could be completely different people but on the racetrack that's what i see out of carson and i say that to maybe encourage carson to continue what he's doing because dylan hard ended up becoming a seven-time champion and that aggressive style was something that endeared him to a lot of people. And you can see that a lot of people enjoy that as well out of Carson.

All right. So I don't know who was wrong about that thing down in turn three between Ricky and Carson, but I do know Carson had time to save Ricky's ass there and not wrecking. The other thing, too, is Ricky, you got the stats, Russell, on Ricky's performance. this year in terms of just how he compares to the rest of the field in speed, pick crew passing defense, all those things. He's way down the list. Yeah, way down the list.

But his finishes are good. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So Ricky is doing a lot with a lot less. It's a one car team. I don't know what their association or alliance might be with any other programs that actually benefits them and how they benefit from that.

But look, I do know this. the car the car finishes better than it should Ricky has maximized basically almost every race this year to put himself above the cut line going in in Nashville I mean this guy's got a legit shot at making the playoffs on points

with a team that should not be there yeah he's like outside the top 30 in speed this year yeah so he should be 25th in points with no shot at making the playoffs but here he was coming in ahead of the If you like an underdog story, that's a perfect one for you. So he goes into this race and he's out there. And maybe the reason, you know, maybe the reason why he's having this type of a year is because he crowds guys on the entry to three or whatever, right?

If you want to look at it that way. Well, he crowded the wrong guy. We know how Carson Hosevar is going to handle that. And that's what happened. I hated to see Ricky, who is a, that's a, I'm a broadcaster. I need that storyline. That story about Ricky, you know, being that underdog team that's succeeding that's up there above the bubble line, I need that. And I like that as a fan to have some kind of an underdog story among others to talk about.

Now, now that's gone. Now he's below the cut line and his odds of making it are much more difficult. So that's kind of how I felt about that. like man Carson but Carson you know Carson is also

one of those drivers around that cut line that doesn't care that that Ricky Stenhouse lost a tons of tons of points there

that's that's one more guy that's one more guy he's trying to beat into that playoff position so why do you think we you know you talked about your dad and everyone

you know celebrates his racing style but the second that Ross Chastain or Carson does it they get crucified is it because they're just they're not winning

or why is Dude, I'm not seeing that. I'm not seeing Carson get crucified. I think, I would say, if anything, I'm seeing more people disagree with my point that he should have gave Ricky the benefit of the outer cut Ricky a break in that moment. We're not, no one is crucifying Carson. Everybody's saying F. Stenhouse, go Carson. Keep doing it. Don't change the thing. That's what the fans are saying to me. That's what I see on social media on Reddit is this sort of, hey man, I don't want Carson to change. I like what he's doing.

I don't think he did anything wrong at Nashville. I don't think he needs to cut Ricky a break. I need my drive. I need, you know, they're all, all these people are starting to gravitate toward him. It's really fascinating because not two years ago, maybe inside of two years, he was, you know, he was a, he was a poster child for what not to do. You know, and there's been a lot of scenarios where he's made some choices that were not great choices. and he's, you know, he's heard all about those. And he continues to hang on to this style or this character or this type of, you know, decision-making.

And I believe that that's always going to be sort of part of his DNA. But I think that people like it. The majority of people don't have no problem with what happened in Nashville. and at least that's how I felt about it. Did you guys see a different temperature on the comments and reaction? I think from the inside the industry, I think people were more upset with Carson Hosebar. I think outside the industry, fans love it, love it.

And it's just like your dad, right? Like they criticized your dad a little bit for his direction. The industry wasn't a big guy. But the fans loved them. You're right. I think it's a great analogy. If you go back to 79 all the way up to about 87, most of the guys in the garage had a very frustrated disposition with that about the things he did on the racetrack and how he chose to drive.

And you didn't know when he was coming around you or near you whether you were going to get some of that or not on the racetrack. And that unknown of what this guy might do or might not do was difficult and made your day harder. So yeah, there's some similarities there. was just and I said it on the post race I was like man I don't I like the I like the contact I like the aggression I just wish you wouldn't spin out the good guy and everybody's opinion of who the good guy is is different I've had some I've had a great friendship with Ricky Stenhouse and um you know there's a Ricky Stenhouse the race car driver is one person rickie stenthouse the individual that I know is a really good dude.

And, you know, what he does on the racetrack is another conversation because Ricky's made some questionable decisions as well and done some things that are kind of goofy. Yeah, but he's been much better lately, right? Like, I feel like the last couple of years he's changed. Yeah, he's putting together a hell of a year. And think about it too, man. The things that Ricky has done on the track,

I mean, he's having to overdrive the shit out of that thing to get anything out of it. He is probably racing harder than it. anyone else on the racetrack. And, you know, if you took it over an average, what he's having to do to try to get something out of that program he's with is pretty impressive. So I think we just kind of got to look at the whole big picture here.

And I don't want, I don't expect Carson to really change. I text him after the race. I said, hey, man, I got a little hard on you, you know, about the, you know, the Stenhouse deal, just got a job to do. And I've decided in this go-round with my broadcasting to be, more decisive, even if I feel like I'm taking a risk of being wrong, I'm going to try to be more decisive in that moment of saying, I think this, I think that instead of sort of dancing around the bush, you know.

I love that. I love that. I've noticed that too. Well, I think that when I was working with NBC, that was kind of one of the consistent critiques from our bosses was everybody needs to be more decisive and choose what they're. believe is happening or happened. And so, you know, it's nice to be able to get a lot of looks at a replay, but in that booth during the broadcast, we only get one or two looks at it. We got to make a decision. Who's at fault? Who do we feel, what we feel like should have

happened or could have happened. And then you go home, you read all the shit, everybody else says about it. Not so much critiquing your own opinion, but just you hear all the other opinions, right? Jeff Dickerson had one. Everybody else has got an opinion about it. And then you get a is to look at the replay several more times. And you might change or soften up your stance a little bit. But the big difference is they have time to think about that. You don't have that time. Like your opinion's right then, right then, and that's it.

You called Carson Williams in the truck series about his racing. Do you think his truck style racing is being grouped together with some of the stuff now and it maybe should be, that stuff shouldn't be grouped together when he does make a mistake? Oh, yeah. So should we hold him accountable because of his past transgressions? Because I don't think it's the same. Do you? Is that the right word? Right word? It is. It is. Russell loves it when I use big words for the first time. You had one during the broadcast. I can't remember what it was. But Stevie pressed the cough button. He goes, did he just say that? And I wish I remember what it was. I should have wrote it down.

Oh, did I say it right? No, it was perfectly used. I think he was super-imprud. He's like, I would never use that, but I can't believe he used to use that. Oh, well, hey, I'm growing. That's a great question, Travis, about should we let bygones be bygones? I don't think you can because, listen, now you can say, hey, this guy's changed, which I believe he's evolved a little bit. He was very problematic in the truck series. quite problematic. That's the best way I can,

nicest way I can put it. I think he's improved some. He knows that some of that stuff he's just not going to get away with in the Cups series. And this car is harder to drive into the back of somebody with it because it needs all that clean air on the nose. But so, you know, but I do think you have to always kind of look at it from a, you know, look at it and say, hey man, yep, you. you're still kind of making some of these same errors and or you know that's a i don't think you can forget or forgive the past entirely it's part of the conversation now i'm not going to hold him i'm not

he's he's served his he's served his punishment for those things he's done in the past but it still has to be talked about when you're when you're discussing what's happening today so do you think this week is different because he came back to finish second. Like if he would have finished 25th, we'd be having a different conversation. Sure. Yeah. That's the thing. Like, you know, that's where you can feel more comfortable comparing him to dad because he got the result. You know, he's got the aggression and the results to back it up. Yeah, what he's doing, what he's done in just the last two weeks. But when he got in this car at St. Louis, that Spire car was 25th to 30th, and he got

in that car and ran in the top, I think he's running 16th when the brake failed in the turn 1. I mean, I don't know what you, I don't know what everybody else is sitting there thinking, but I'm sitting there going, holy shit, man, he's improved this car

about at least 10 positions. And that's very Kurt Bush-like. Carson may be, at least in this short period of time, from what we've seen in the trucks, Exfinity or the cup car,

I think that he does race above the potential of the car all the time. There are very few drivers in the entire history of the sport that do that. The really great drivers take a car that can run second, and they run second, and they might win a few races, but they run where that car should run. That's what great drivers do. There's some that are elite like a Kurt Busch that could get in a car and make that car much better than it was capable of running.

And just all the time, just faster. Every time you went to a different team, Kurt Busch would make that team better immediately. They'd start running better and they'd start progressing and getting even better week in and week out until he moved on to a new program. But just, yeah, Carson's going to be fun to figure out. It's like still kind of the Rubik's Cube that we're not quite finished with yet.

And it's looking like we know how to get this thing all lined up, and we can sort of see what we think he might be and become. But the jury's still out on a couple things. But, I mean, he is on his way. I told him after the race. I said, you're going to win a ton of races. I was like, you know, I think the world of you and your talent, you know, but there be times in that booth when, you know, I'm just going to have to say,

you know, call it like I think I say. see it and some drivers do not like that my buddy martin trix junior just get so annoyed with me um i couldn't really tell though because he hardly communicated either way but um it was uh you know we would have some conversations he's like man why'd you say that and i'm like well i got a you know that's kind of what's happening right now with you but some guys don't mind it and some guys do but carson's response to all of that was i'm just glad you're talking about me and i kind of wanted to use that reference that dad said many years ago they need to either be cheering you

or booing you. When you get up there and they don't do anything, you're in big trouble. And so you've got to be a driver that's getting a reaction for fans to have real value to the sport

and the industry and your partners. I'll be curious to see if Ricky repays the favor at some point because Denny said it's going to take self-policing to that's what's going to have to, you know, fix Carson. I love that. You know, this isn't any fun at all if it's all one-sided.

And so, yeah, we'll pay attention a little bit to what's going on over the next couple of races with Ricky and how he might make things a little difficult for Carson. It'll be great because in the booth, if you see them next to each other, you're going to show them and now the fans are going to want to see. Absolutely. And the other thing is they're running, they're 18th and 19th in the playoff standings. Yeah. Like two points apart. Oh, yeah. And the reason why is because of what happened in Nashville.

So it's real personal now. If I'm Ricky Stenhouse, it's absolutely personal. Because I had, in my eyes, I had really been fortunate. And if you, you know, Ricky Stenhouse can go forward. And if he doesn't make the playoffs, he can blame it on this moment. And so that's a serious, that's a serious situation for him. so I'm sure he's pretty determined to either get himself into the playoffs or get redemption on the reason or the person that caused him to miss it.

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Head to safetyculture.com slash SVG and check it out. Hey, TJ, so recently been having some issues with my phone, and I don't know what to do. I'm trying to figure out a solution for my problem. Do you got any ideas? Recently I switched to consumer cellular network, man, and I could not be happier. Super easy to do, 100% U.S.-based customer service representatives, and switching's a breeze, man. You should give it a shot. So my one concern, though, is I do a lot of traveling, though.

How's it going to do on the road for me? You know, obviously, I go to the track every week with the RFK-6 team, and, man, am I impressed? I super surprised at the – how just reliable it's been, man. It's been really cool, and super glad that I made the – the switch. Okay, so then can you stop keeping this to yourself and let me know how I can get this cell phone? So making the switch is really easy, Travis. They're 100% U.S.-based customer service representatives and only took about 20 minutes. I chose the two-for-60 plan, no long-term contracts either. Switch to consumer cellular now and get 25 hours off with their code DJD-25. That's DJD-25 for 25

is off when you switch a consumer cellular. Go to consumer cellular.com slash DJD and use promo code at DJD25. New customers get a $5 credit on their first five monthly invoices. Visit consumer cellular.com slash DJD for details. The other crash that a lot of people were comparing this to, that's awesome comments from people going, well, you know, you had that opinion about Carson,

but you didn't have the same opinion about Eric Jones. And they go down in the corner. It was just after a restart, cars are all bunched together. There's absolutely no passing at that racetrack after about four or five laps of a restart. So the drivers know that. And they know that the only opportunity they're ever going to have to get some track position is in those probably five or six corners after a restart. So it's a frenzy.

So Eric Jones is like sitting there with a, you know, having one of the better nights that he's had all year. and he's running really good. He gets a run off a turn four, goes to the inside of the 20 at the flag stand. He's on the inside of the 20 car somewhere around that area on the racetrack. Seabell blocks him all the way to the apron.

And what car is Seabell driving in this scenario? That's his old car. That's Eric's old car. You don't think that Eric's still a little, still stings a little bit. And Eric Jones is probably sitting there going, hey man, you're driving my old car. I don't get to run up here that often.

You ain't blocking me into this corner. That's bullshit. And so Eric stayed in the gas and entered turn one, super duper shallow because he was forced down there, but he's not going to give up that position he has on the quarter panel of the 20. And they go down in there,

and Eric may have missed the corner. But anyway, either way, Eric gets up the track, 20 gets wrecked. I'm going to tell you right now, man, the 20, Chris Rebell, if I, so there was a couple times in my career where I got wrecked in my mind and I'd see Tony Sr. Race is still going. We're in the garage, cars tore her out all the hell. I'd go to Tony Singer and I'm thinking I'm going to walk up to him and go, and he's going to go, F that guy for wrecking you. And I walk up to him and he goes, what the hell are you thinking?

running on the door of that guy or running so tight on him or, you know, he was like, you could have avoided that. You know, you should have known better. And I think that's what I would do in this case is I would go, if I had them both sitting here, I'd look at, instead of Eric Jones,

I'd look at C-Bone and go, damn, dude, what'd you expect me to do? You're driving his old car. He's still a little pissed off about that. And you blocked him to the apron. What do you want him to do? He's not, he ain't the top, he's running the top five once every 15 races.

I saw that as more of a racing deal than the host of our one. I didn't. You didn't? Well, the host of our deal was more racing to me. Jones is on the inside, got blocked the apron, and we had a lot of time to sit there and watch him decide not to let the 20 live. Like Jones had more time in my mind milliseconds, but more time to make a different decision, right?

Is it different racing for fifth than it is for 17th? So that's the Jones was racing for fifth. Not really. No, not anymore. It's a, the racing in the back half of the field's harder than it is in the front. In my mind, there's more give and take, I think, in the top ten

because they all know they need to live to finish. Guys in the back are just trying to survive. They're starving. But it was, that's the difference between those two accidents. To a fan, similar? Why wouldn't you, you know, why would you say, hey, Carson, you could have cut him a break and not Jones? You know, that's the reason. There's a long history between Jones and that 20 car. That all plays in it, kind of plays into a little bit. Jones won't admit that. Of course,

he won't, he's not going to come out publicly and go, you know, I'm still a little annoyed by that. He's, you know, that was years ago, but I'd have to imagine if I was driving down the front straightaway and my old race car tried to run me down in the apron. I'd have a hard time to be restrained about that. Hey, it's Dale Jr. Did you know that we've got brand new merch from our Star Stripes and Bears Collection available now? We've got tanks, teas, beach towels, and more

just in time for summer. Check it all out at shop.dirtymomedia.com. All right, so we have been joined by the winner of the Xfinity race this past weekend. Justin Algeyer, obviously, you know, driving for junior motor sports. It's awesome to have you as part of the team and I got to ask you,

I get this question, we've had some success this year, we've had a lot of success actually since you won your championship. I've got to ask the question that I have to seemingly answer after every one of those wins because I've been talking for you but you can tell me here.

Now that you got a championship in your pocket, it's yours. You're not chasing that anymore. Do you feel like that it's made it easier for you to put races together? And because you are the king of winning both stages and then something happening in the final stage. Like you'll win more damn stages than anybody. You'll go down in history of the Xfinity series is a, winning more stages than anyone. But it seems like now you don't have those issues anymore. You don't have those problematic, you know, mishaps or, you know,

bad luck or whatever you want to chalk it up to in the third stage. And it just seems like it's just more, it's not effortless because racing is hard, but I just kind of wanted you to talk to that a little bit. I still screwed it up in Charlotte because I chose to make a different Pist strategy, but I don't feel like that was making a mistake, like what you're talking about, right? Like it wasn't a, I put myself in a bad position and got myself wrecked or some along those lines. But so to answer your question, yes, you know, the championship, definitely made a big difference as far as, you know, just how I feel in the race car, you know,

what I'm trying to accomplish in the race car. But probably more than anything, the championship race last year, right? Like, we're down almost two laps, like, backs against the wall. You just, you're over it, right? Like, I wanted no part of the rest of that race. I just wanted to get out of the car and get to the rental car and get to the airport and just, you know, at that point, you know, Ashley and the kids are there and like they're excited. You know, you got a shout of their championship and you just, you're like, man, I'm a failure all the way through, right? Like, there's nothing about this week that is going right.

And then when we win the championship and I look back on it and I go, man, I don't know that I could ask for it to be scripted any better of how you come back and win a championship. The only way it maybe is a little bit better as if I win the race, right? Like, that's the only thing that maybe makes it better. I don't even remember that we didn't win a race. race. My wife didn't either.

She asked me where the checker flag was. I know. In my mind, we did win the race. I just kept you, every time somebody tells me, oh, yeah, y'all didn't win that race. I'm like, well, we didn't. No. But I think just in my mind. It's got to be weird for the guy that did win it.

Who won? Riley. Who? Oh. Yeah. See? See, that's the thing, right? But I will say, like, I just, I'm in a different place, right?

I just, I think I'm able to relax a lot more. these races. Oddly enough, my heart rate, so like, you know, I track, not on this watch, but I track my heart rate during the races. My heart rate as a whole this year has just been lower, especially at the third stage. And I think that that's just adding to that, just calmness, you know, and being able to execute. I feel like it makes you even more dangerous to the rest of the field because, yeah, you, you've raced your entire career almost a bit, almost a bit over your skis all the time, right? And you're just such a hustler and a pusher and, Gator is a great nickname for you.

But now it seems like you're perfectly positioned on those skis. You don't drive over what you're capable of doing or what the car's capable of doing quite as often. You still hustle. You still do great on restarts and get, you know, you're aggressive, but your confidence is higher. The one thing, I guess we do need to go back to Charlotte. So we can laugh about it now.

decision to stay out was yours. You made it. Yep. And what was the conversation like after the race with Jim, your crew chief? Well, you know Jim, right? Jim is probably the most passionate person I've ever been a part of in the sport. I mean, I'm like, there are probably not many more people that I think, I don't think people realize how passionate he is about the sport and effort and money puts into it. And it did not go at all the way that I thought that the conversation was going to go, yes. He and Eddie and I, Eddie DeHot my spotter, we all sat down and had a conversation, and they're like, look, obviously we wanted the call to work out, right? But don't be afraid to make calls or decisions in the driver's seat because you're driving it. You're seeing everything that's going on. And I think the Charlotte decision was a little bit of a lot of things that kind of merged into one, right?

I had a little bit of a misunderstanding on how many laps were to go. I was under the impression we were going to have 12 or 13 to go when the Green Fly came out, not 20. So that would have probably swayed my decision a little bit more. But the biggest thing is I saw some cars hedging to stay out. I knew some guys were out of tires. And I just felt like as the leader, we were a sitting duck, right? The other cars were going to do the opposite of what we did. And actually, Taylor Gray and I had this conversation on the,

on the stand this week at driver introductions. And he's like, man, we were just doing opposite of you, right? Whatever you did, we were doing the opposite of us. So he's like, thank you for making my decision easy because it won't happen for us. Right? But I just think, you know, in the Xfinity series especially, a cup side, I think it's, you're going to see a lot of two tires. You're going to see, you know, you're going to see everybody's going to come to pit red, though. On the Xfinity series side, I feel like you get a handful of cars that are maybe having a really good day.

feel like maybe they can hold off, you know, and net a better finish. And we saw that, too, right? I think Jeb stayed out. There were a few guys that were not, you know, not at the back of the pack, but they were, you know, middle of that top 10, top 15 range that stayed out. It just wasn't enough, right? If I had a few more and we don't get all those cautions, I think it works. But, you know, I'll own it, right?

I think as drivers, we all make decisions sometimes to make mistakes that don't work. And that was definitely one of them that I'm going to live with. What's the gut feeling as the season rolls on toward the playoffs? Where do you guys need to get better? And what are you looking forward to? You got Mexico coming up, a bunch of different things happening throughout the year. Yeah, I'm looking forward to the summer months.

I feel like it's not nearly as hot as what we're used to at this time of the year. You jinxed it. Yeah, I know. I feel like that's where we've been the best, like, as a good. group. We're the best when tracks are hot and it's slick and, you know, guys are falling out of the seat. So I'm a little bit sad that the weather's been cool, and I know that sounds crazy because I know Nashville was like the perfect weather for the fans, so I don't want the phase to have a bad experience. But, you know, I think I'm going to definitely lean on our teammates a lot for

these coming up races. We got some road courses coming up. Obviously, Connor's had a lot of success in the road courses. But I look at Kota. Carson was right there with him and in arguably, but if they don't get the flat tire, they're battling it out for the win. So, you know, I'm going to lean on my teammates a lot for these upcoming road courses. And then I just feel like we got a lot of really good tracks. You know, we need to get more bonus points in the bank for playoffs. And we do all those things. I think we're on the right plan.

While we have you here, I guess you might be able to actually add a little bit to this conversation, if you got a minute. Yeah. There's a, you know, there's a conversation. And I'm asking you because you do test for Chevrolet with the next-gen car. Yep. You have for years. So you do have some insight on that car. Talking about 750 horsepower coming to short tracks.

I don't want people to think that this is an all-encompassing decision to go everywhere. But Elton Sawyer said on Tuesday on Sirius XM NASCAR radio that it's on the table. They're working closely with the industry. to consider how they might be able to get there. Drivers have been begging for more horsepower. They want as much as, you know, 8, 5,900 horsepower back in the cars. Take me to Martinsville.

Let's just think about Martinsville. In my opinion, the Martinsville product should be always insanely entertaining. And there was a little run there if we go back to, say the race where Hamlin and Chase Elliott got into it. I left that race, I left the broadcast booth thinking that if we could bottle that up

every weekend and sell it, that we'd be exactly where we want to be as a sport because it was fascinating. And so that's what the potential is for Martinsville. Does this get us closer? I hope so. I think that there's a lot of things that play into the horsepower conversation.

You know, look, the era that you're talking about, right, Chase and Denny getting into it, they weren't able to go to fourth gear, right, or to third gear at that racetrack. They weren't able to downshift and get that torque off to bottom of the corner. They weren't able to use that as a tool throughout the course of their runs. Now, my hope is, is when you add horsepower, you take the ability to downshift away, right? If that next lower gear spins the tires because you have all this horsepower, now you're going to question like, okay, short run maybe for a few laps and the tires are good, I can click that thing down in the third gear and I can accelerate off the corner.

But when I get to 40, 50, 60 laps into a run, which we see at Martinsville a lot, now I might need to stay in fourth gear so that it doesn't spin the tires off the corner. And how much did I burn the tires up on the short run versus on the long run? But I believe in my mind, and I've had this conversation with Goodyear a lot, and it's not just as easy as putting a soft tire on the Cup Series car, right? The wider tire with the shorter sidewall, there are bigger constraints for them as to making a tire that's not just going to fail, right? I mean, when we see some of these tire failures, they're big failures, right? And it's team-induced. We know lower air pressure works.

I mean, we always laugh because lower air and more camber always makes the car feel better. But that doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to live. And I think that I'm at least applauding that we're trying something. I feel like we've sat in this box for a long time now with this next-gen car. And we've been unwilling to waver from the box because that's the product that we made and we're going to stick with it. And I think sometimes we need to make these changes that will hopefully open up the dialogue for what's next. If we go to 750 and we have no engine issues

in the OEs and the engine builders say, hey, we could go to 800 pretty easily. Now we're having more fruitful conversations, right? And to your point, I've heard Doug's conversation, Scotty Maxim was on Sirius from Hendrick Engine Shop. And he said the same, right?

750 is no issue. We can do this and it's not going to be a problem. So I'm all for it. As a driver, I'm secretly hoping that that 750 trickles over to the Xfinity side as well. Like, I'm kind of begging for it as well. But either way, it's going to be great for the sport, I think. What I like to see 900, yes, I would. But at this point, the cars are too good, the drivers are too good, and the teams are too good to not make some kind of a change to try to make the racing better.

Because if you don't change it, we're going to have – it's just going to degrade over time more. and more because the teams are just going to figure out of how to capitalize on it. I think that Michael McDowell is correct in that horsepower isn't the prop horsepower isn't what's wrong with this race car. And this is a very small change and it might visually look exactly the same is what we see today in terms if we just go to Martinsville and do. this. I know there's a couple of the short tracks. Well, let's just focus on one thing, right? The, it may not, it may be very marginal what this does.

But here's, here's what horsepower I know can do. All right. It'll be a little tougher on the tires. There's a hope that that would make things a little bit more difficult for the drivers, to your point, maybe be able to, you know, have a little bit more of an opportunity to get to work around each other and get up underneath each other off the corner or stuff like that if somebody's struggling. It'll lengthen the braking zone a little bit. So you'll be going a little bit faster at the end of the straightaway. You need to break a little

sooner, longer breaking zone. This car's brakes and this tire in the contact patch have really shortened up the braking zone. So the driver's ability to attack another driver and do something creative on the entry of the corner is gone. And so I just feel like that, the short track racing, it's worth the gamble or worth the risk to make the change. Well, I'm going to inverse you a little bit. Let's go to Phoenix, right? Let's take the opposite into the short track spectrum and go to Phoenix. Think about all the things you just said, right? Longer braking zones at Phoenix. Tire spin off of the corners at Phoenix. I think it elevates a track like that more than it does Martinsville, which is interesting because,

Because you would think adding horsepower, a place like Martinsville is going to be the place that is going to fix first. And I almost think it's going to be the other way. I think we're going to steadily have to back it down, you know, over, you know, the bigger the short track is, the more it's going to affect it and back down. But one other thing to add to your point here, and you just brought up a good point that I thought about, think about when you started your NASCAR journey. You had to save breaks.

if you just max break every time you got into the corner about lap 75 the rotors were glowing and you were like I got no brakes break problem right the body if you run right in the guy in front of you and plow on the back of him the fenders are all smashed in it and you got nothing right you're you're just hanging on we don't have any of that now there's no fall off the parts are efficient like there's no way to the only way you got to be able to pass the guys to run into them and then you don't damage your car, so as long as you don't wreck them, it's fair play, right?

Yeah. I feel like that, you know, the change in horsepower would be minimal. It would make some small differences that maybe the eye, it would, the eye wouldn't, you know, the optics won't look really that different, but the drivers will have, have probably a more entertaining experience in the car. And I don't think it's going to hurt anything at all to do it. so it's definitely worth risk man I appreciate you giving us a little extra time today

I have one question for Justin we saw him get out of the Helmand's car through the roof hatch not a week after Dale says if you get out of the roof hatch he assumes you're cheating did you know that he said that Justin did you are you trolling him

I did not and the best part was I've been getting out of the roof for like the last three or four years and Dale sent the clip from the The podcast to Jim Pullman and I. And I don't remember. Jim said something back. And I was like, man, I'm making out.

And he said, I said what I said. And I just laughed, right? I don't know. I don't know that you could cheat up in Xfinity series. Oh, hey, just stop right there. Oh, I really don't. Right there. No, sir.

No, the way that they have them now on the Xfinity. I'm going to tell you, there's ways to cheat up any. thing. Well, I don't, I don't, we are not, I can assure you. I agree. Hey, I don't think you, I'm, listen, anytime anybody comes out the roof hatch and I will, I will fine tune it a little bit, particularly a speedway. Yes.

Okay, I'll give you that one. Oh, boy. I get pretty, uh, my, but if I went a speedway this year, I'm going to have to change my celebration. Please don't come out of the roof at the Halliday. If I went on a streetway, I will not come out of the roof. roof. I might have to call you out. My response, my response

as to why I get out of the roof is because my old knees, it's way easy to go straight up and out that it is to stand on the doortop. I wouldn't even know how to open one of them damn things up. They're so easy now. Literally, you just grab the front little latch and it just pops right straight up. Spring loaded.

It's spring loaded. I'll be damn. So I mean, you're good to go. Cheaters. Cheaters. I'm suspicious. even a bus all right well then I'm gonna go win a race to not get out of the roof hats and be like I told you to hell we weren't cheating

do it all right all right buddy I appreciate you coming on today thanks a lot thank you guys appreciate it you know that feeling you get when you're watching drivers fight it out on the racetrack giving it everything they've got for the checker flag well you can capture that feeling forever with cars from line L racing

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Think about that. Well, and you're not far from 100. Sars? Oh, what, Junior Motorsports? How many do Junior Motorsports have? Yeah. Damn. Let's get through this year.

Yeah, no. That'll be a big deal. Kelly will want to feed us some barbecue for that one. We got a beer toast today, Dale, you're missing out on. Oh, dang. You're going to have to get them to speak. Guys, give me the mic here. Speak on behalf of Dale.

So do we want to talk about the Jim France Spire situation? Let's do it. Apparently France was set to financially support an entry to be operated by Spire Motorsports. There was a 29-year-old road course specialist Jack Aitken. I'm assuming that's how I say that. I've never heard of that guy. He drives for a France, a Jim France owned, not the country. Action Express.

Yes, I've heard of Action Express. on the International Motorsports Association, EMSA, on the sports car series. He was tapped to be the driver of this car that Spire Motorsports would operate. Originally, Jim France went to Hendrick, but they have four charters, so they couldn't do it, I suppose.

Well, you know, I... I think there needs to be a separation of church and state. Well, the Junior Motorsports owns the car that's in the car store and I own half of the part of the car store. So at what level is it okay and what level is it not okay? I guess at the highest level, like I could understand your point that Jim France or NASCAR shouldn't be involved in owning a car that's competing. Like we're seeing this over in Indy car, the issues that they're dealing with.

Well, I would think that Jim France, so this all probably came, think about this too. this all was this idea of Jim France getting inspired to do this deal so he could run this driver

all of this has been probably worked on for a month two months maybe more and so they were probably

planning this maybe they saw what went down at Indy and had second thoughts I'm certain I'm certain that they saw

what went down at Indy and thought hmm let's rethink this should we do this should we not and I agree I mean it's problematic at Indy

at that level right it's problematic it's a tough it's a tough thing to navigate where Penske is competing but also owner of the series so the thing about Roger Penske is is that he has so much respect

amongst the industry and this is this is not a great time in the industry for Jim with the lawsuit. Let me ask you this. Is this a problem for the sport at all? Or is this an issue if everybody, the industry leaders and the charter owners all thought everything was going perfectly? Would they mind then if Jim ran an open car with this guy through Spire? Probably not.

probably not and i think that's why that's why roger pinsky's been able to get to this point at least without issue now indy they've you know at the 500 they had a lot of problems and now it doesn't look like it's such a um you know now now it's created a lot of tough conversations for for that but i think also for the Toyota and ford teams you had naskar team up with hendrick and chevi for the garage 56 project yeah and now you have him doing this and so So Toyota and Ford are probably going, what the hell? Oh, yeah. I mean, Toyota and Ford are always going to be looking for something to complain about.

But they probably would have done the deal had he gone to them, too. So it's, you know. Yeah, they should have. Yeah. Do you think they were going to, oh, so you're telling me that, you know, I guess what you're saying to me is that if Jim France had went to another Toyota team or another four team, they would have accepted that opportunity.

Yeah, if you've gone to legacy, legacy, probably would have said yes. Why are they complaining? Because it's not for them. So you can. I'm not saying they're right or wrong, but I'm just... Yeah.

I don't know. I mean, I think it's kind of... I wouldn't necessarily think it's a good thing to... I think it's... That's a type of thing for me that needs to be grandfathered in. That's one of those things. It's kind of like the four charters

versus teams now can only have three. had Jim France and his family owned cars for all of these decades of NASCAR, then it would, you know, your grandfathered that in, and if that ever ended, we would just be done with it. But at this point, it just doesn't seem like it's very productive to do it now. And Jim doesn't need to do it. Right? It's not a, it's not a, it's not like a viable business proposition or opportunity that I think that's necessary for him as a, as a businessman to do it, right?

It's like, here's this fun thing on the side. Yeah, we'll get my guy, he'll race. He's also my lucky. He's in my, he's in my, he's in my, emce car. This is cool. It's kind of one of them fun things that you kind of want to do with your buddies. But it's not necessary because dude owns a sport. You know, so what he might have could have done was shield his involvement.

He could probably because he still got Jack Aitkins in the Spire car, still got him on the racetrack at Sonoma, and shielded his involvement or even his connection to Jack and the partners that would support this program. So, yeah, I don't know. know how this all leaked out or how it was discovered, but it certainly could have been done differently where it would have still happened, not bothered anybody. Jim's not out here trying to, like, you know, fool anybody or trick the sport or trick the other, you know, owners.

Doesn't sound like that to me. Sounds like you just wanted to run Jack in a race. Thought it'd be cool, but he probably doesn't need to be in the same conversation around ownership of an actual physical car on the racetrack as the owner of NASCAR. I think that would probably be my preference. I'm not upset about it. I could, because I do it in the guards tour. I mean, you bring him a valid point that, but I don't know. I think it's different because, I don't know.

Yeah. Your family doesn't. It's, it's. Well, I'll say this, like, it's a fine line to walk. He's just going to, you know, Jim's just trying to run this one-off deal in open car at Sonoma with a road course ringer. And it's not got legs to become anything probably more than that, right? I run a full-time car in a series that I own, and it can. does and oftentimes makes things difficult.

Roger Penske, full-time car, multiple cars competing. That's a whole different animal and absolutely treacherous and tough to navigate. Wouldn't be a bad thing that if a couple times each year NASCAR just had an open car that you could get some other people and to get some new names and faces? that's not a yeah i mean that's a fun conversation there um just as long as there's no nefarious reasoning behind it right you just the france family could say hey this year we're racing with legacy and we're racing with spire and the next year and so we're getting these new young faces in that we want to see them in nascar there's a big difference i think between the france family

owning a charter and them just fielding a car every now and then for for a cool um you know kind of a cool connection. Promotion for the sport? Promotion for the sport, yeah. I mean, do they, you know, series owners, promoters, they've been doing this forever. Humpy Wheeler, how many times has he put people in cars throughout the 70s and 80s at Charlotte to drum up support?

And he's the one out there finding the partner, the sponsor to send a will. He gets the sponsor, calls Will Cronkite, says, Will, buy this car. I got the month. money. Will buys the car and poof now Will's going to have a race team on the racetrack. I mean, that to me is kind of somewhat similar to what a promoter does. And Jim, as the owner of NASCAR, has promoter tendencies. As the owner of MSSA has promoter tendencies, he's trying to do everything

he can to make the sport better. And maybe that was his idea to try to cross-pollinate between the two, right? How to get MSSA and NASSA. car a pop. So I don't really see it like as him trying to do anything egregious or wrong. And I'm not bothered by it, but I do think that's a fine line to walk and definitely create some discourse in the garage. Would that be correct? I agree with you.

And if the lawsuit wasn't going underway, it would probably be even less. Yeah. I think it's different because it's through Spire. It's not like it's their own team. Yeah. The Cars Tour had a great weekend at Langley this past Saturday night. Chase Burroughs is going to get to victory. He's a weekly racer up at Langley.

Not a consistent weekly racer or a full-time race with a Cars Tour. And that's unique because rarely do we get the weekly racers participating with us when we come to their racetrack. We encourage that. We won't that. And when they beat us, it's actually a good thing, I think, for our series. So I was happy to see that outcome. If our car can't be successful, there's always good outcomes.

And Chase Burrow getting the victory, he had a strong car. We had a little bit of a fight, Connor Jones and Parker Eatman after the race. I think Connor's probably going to get a little monetary fine and probation. Connors had some mixups over the past several years, had a little truck. truck thing at Homestead and several altercations or arguments in short track racing. And I hope to have a conversation with him. He's a heck of a little driver, just needs to try to control himself outside the race car and inside the car at times.

But he's been doing better. He's gotten some support around some people in the industry that have tried to help him kind of control those decisions, but it's still a little work to do. But pretty exciting race for us. We're going to Dominion. I think it's the 14th of June. So we got a week off. Then we go to Dominion for another race in the series is doing great.

Also, on the West Coast, the Cars Tour had a big race at Kern County. And Kevin and Keelan Harvick raced against each other. And Keelan come out on top in that victory. Kevin got wiped out in a crash. But Kevin is doing some really great stuff with that western portion of the Cars Tour. A lot of growth in the cars. tour a lot of great conversations being had some new announcements coming down the line but

so far it's been a solid season for us as a business but yeah let's go let's get some ass junior going hey nascar fans you know booming speeds when you see it at exfinity Wi-Fi there's booming speeds like the roar of a NASCAR engine on race day it's as fast as a V8 motor and reliable as a great pit crew Xfinity Wi-Fi gives you the power and speed

of NASCAR in your home choose the right plan for you and you're off to the races. It's the best streaming experience for NASCAR and all your favorite sports because Xfinity Wi-Fi is booming. They don't just raise the bar, they stream an overdrive. They're a proud premier partner of NASCAR. Thank you, Xfinity for everything you do here for us at Junior Motorsports. Looking forward to some great questions here, Andrew.

Yes, this first one is coming from Tony on Twitter. How nice is it to not have to wear a tie at the racetrack? I got good at tying them, so I was kind of sad that we stopped wearing them. What? Yeah. I know. I mean, look, five, six years ago, I didn't want to wear no tie. But then once you learn how to tie one and you got all these cool colors and stuff,

I don't know, it was kind of a fun form of expression. I'm all right with it, though. We're definitely more casual, and I think we're going to continue that going into the TNT portion of the broadcast over the next handful of races. So I'm not complaining at all. I'm glad we don't have to wear sports coats. Those are uncomfortable. I don't like sports coats.

They're uncomfortable. They're heavy, thick, especially during the summer. I just don't find them comfortable at all. So if I get a sports coat that's comfortable, it looks like because it's too big or I'm wearing it too big. So I'm like a 40, 42 regular. Yeah, they're all up in your pits. Just not comfortable.

Are you into, like, ties as much as, like, your sock game? Like, is that something like you've got a big collection? I got to pick it up on the socks, man. Oh, really? Yeah. You've been slacking. My sock game hasn't changed in the last five years, so it might be time for, like, a sock audit. I did a sock.

I did a, I talked about this on Bless Your Heart. I did a sock audit on the ankle sock, right? got rid of all the stuff I had brought in all new stuff it might be time for a sock audit on the long stuff the dress sock Russell where are you on socks um I'm a pretty basic sock guy more of like an athletic sock guy how how long do you wear your socks for like how many wares do you get of them we talked about that you know I don't really have a number I just keep wearing them till they look like they need to go in the Trash. Latar tries to tell us he does like three,

three wares and throws him away. He told me he doesn't wear the same pair twice. He does, he totally does. Yeah. So three wears and he throws them away. Yeah. That's what he says. Like the ankles,

the cheap ankle socks, you know, that you buy in bulk, that's possible because they kind of wear out. And I wear them outside. I wear, I wear them out in the garage or out on the front porch or something, you know.

Because I know they're, you know, they're just, you know, dime a dozen. So I don't mind that. But my, yeah, hang on to, I could talk for in length about socks, to be honest with you. But I don't know. Do you have a particular brand?

Do you have a particular brand? I don't. No, I don't. I'll say this. When it comes to long dress socks, if it's tough to get over my heel, you know, some of them are kind of small. It's like hard to get them on right in the freaking trash. right in the trash.

They don't stay. They don't stay in my house. I don't care if a brand new. I don't care how cool they are, what they got on them. If they don't go on with ease, junk. Get them out of here.

Russell, you are obviously in the booth with Dale. And Dale, Rick Allen was talking on the podcast about a month ago, you know, that you're going to have it different with three guys in the booth. Have you noticed it's different, interacting with everyone in the booth just in the immediate one versus doing like four people in two booths? It is different. And the other, we used to have two and two. You'd have a chance to talk to like

Dale and Burton back in the days would talk for like a whole segment. And so we could talk to, I could talk to Rick and Steve all about like what we're going to say next and that kind of thing. But still having three people is not a bad thing because you can talk to individuals while the other person's going. It takes it's a it's talent to be able to talk when other people are talking to somebody else and it does not affect what you're saying I think that's the hardest thing to do and people don't understand how hard that is and how talented people are that on TV Have you noticed a difference stale like is it easier just seeing everyone in front of you like in the same room? It's more chaotic it feels like yeah It's just it's to to Russell's point so

when we were had when we were in split booths we would each booth would have a little bit of a break here and there you know and you'd have a minute to sort of gather your thoughts maybe prepare like your chain you know just sort of take a take a screenshot of where you're at where the day is and maybe what how you're what you thought the most important things were at the start of the race how those have changed or what's really important now and to make sure your conversation and the information you're giving, the viewer is valuable and dated, right? And so, I don't know, we don't really have that chance now. Now it's like, as soon as the green flag drops, man, you're just, it's a sprint,

but it's a long, you know, it's a, you're sprinting at sprinting speed, but you've got a long way to go all the way to the finish line. It's fun as hell, though. Most fun thing I've done at the racetrack besides driving a race car. Well, that's good. Sometimes it's funer than drive a race car. Yeah, because you can just enjoy the chaos that's going on in front of you. You don't have to answer anything.

Okay, we got a question from the YouTube chat. Michael wants to know, I guess this is for both of you guys because you're broadcasting for so long, especially some of these cup races. What are your go-to booth snacks? Well, I eat kind of the same snacks at home, so I bring a couple in my bag. there are snacks in the booth there's this little trail mix pack it's about 230 calories

I might have one of those at the night races they'll bring a sandwich in there so like during the 600 and during the Nashville race I ate a dang sandwich during the broadcast so you got to do it quick

I grab a couple bites during each break try to have your mouth clean and ready to to speak clearly, you know, before you come back on air. Russ, have you made Steve mad with your food orders yet this year? No, but this past weekend he reminded me that was Nashville last year where I added the jelly to the peanut butter sandwiches. So, yeah, I'm more of a protein bar guy and cashews kind of thing go-to.

Interesting. Yeah. Do you agree, Dale or not? No. The cashews, man. Cachews are interesting. choice. You don't like I like

not so much a cashew guy. I've always I like the I like the other kind. What pistachios? Coustachios, yeah, I like those. This next question

coming from our good friend Bozzi on Twitter, what would it take to see you hop in a car at the Rolex 24 again? Well, all right, so here, that's a great, we had this you know, we had the the podcast last week with some of the team from the 2001 Corvette team.

And I went to broadcast the 24-hour race over the last handful of years for NBC. And I really got a firsthand update on how those guys race and what that series is like. So when I ran the Corvette during testing in 2001 and 2004, during the race in 01, during the race in 2004 with the prototype. There wasn't, it was okay. And to be expected, if you were a couple tenths or so off of the A driver. We had, you know, the guys that are driving in this series every single week, driving this car every single week, you'd get in there and you'd be three-tenths off,

a half a second off, maybe. And that was kind of to be expected. You weren't going to find it. You could try your ass off. You weren't going to find it. But it was okay because when the race started, everybody dialed it way back. The cars were too breakable. You had to be really careful.

And you didn't want to hit anybody. You'd have to repair anything. And so you really kind of just drove way down like 80 or 90 percent. And so then the elite drivers of the pros would drive down to our level. Now, I kept trying to race hard. to be able to say, hey, look, I'm running the same lap time as you guys now. But I still, when they wanted to turn it on, I still wasn't going to be as fast as they were. And neither was dad.

And that's kind of what you see in a lot of the cup drivers that go over there and run. You know, they're good, and there's guys that get really close, but they're just a touch off of, like, the best drivers in the field. Well, now those cars are much tougher. the drivers have all gotten better. They've gotten smarter. They got more tools. And every car has elite drivers in it.

There's some program guys. There's some rich CEOs out there. But they're mostly really, really, really fast drivers. And they run that entire 24-hour race like they're qualifying. It's like insane. They just push, push, push, push, push. And so I wouldn't be, I wouldn't see myself at this age as a very valuable part of any kind of a combination of drivers to be able to go out there and compete. It's fun as hell.

But you're going to find my ass probably at a 24 hour of lemons before I go back to Daytona and run that race. That's kind of my speed these days. The lemons remind me what those are. Those are like just the. You got a car that I think. you've got a limit of what you can spend on it. Everybody's out there to have fun. Yeah.

You're going to be fixing this thing a lot more and you're actually going to be driving it. Is this the one where you can like trick the car up to like design it and make it look like whatever you want? There's a creative element. Yeah, okay. People do. But like all us sitting right here, us four,

could go race and have a great time. Okay, this next question is from racing with Tim. And he wants to know. Did your dad support any professional or college teams? Yeah, Atlanta Braves, big Atlanta Braves fan, knew a lot of the players, knew Bobby Cox, manager at a time, would text back and forth with them or communicate back and forth with them to the dugout, to the racetrack. He was a massive Atlanta Braves fan.

Trying to think otherwise. Not so much. He didn't really have a team. in the NFL. I remember when Washington was playing Oakland in the Super Bowl and 1983 or 84 and Washington were the defending champions in the NFL and Oakland destroyed them. Thaisman threw a pick six inside the 15-yard line. The guy just jogged into the end zone.

It was so, oh, Marcus Allen just destroyed Washington, giant gaps, big runs. It was awful. I cried, I think. And Dad sitting over there cheering like hell. And he didn't even have a, you know, he started the day in game. We were watching it in living room together. He wasn't a freaking Oakland Raiders fan. But he thought it was, he was just cheering for them because they were winning, I guess.

But that pissed me off. College, I can't say that I remember him being particular about a team in college either. Yeah, but he loved the Braves. They were very a team and dad. They were on top of exactly everything the Braves were doing. He had multiple players that he was friends with. Jody Davis was one of the players that he would hunt with. And that's how he became a big fan of the Braves.

Joey was a catcher. Jody was a catcher. and Jody would come to the NASCAR races and I think Jeff Bouser and several of the players they have become friends with over the time. That's cool. We're seeing, we asked the chat

who is your favorite sports team. I'm seeing Bill's, commanders, Patriots, so I appreciate everyone chiming in. Yeah, go ahead. I like, obviously, I'm a big commanders fan. And in college, Amy's a wildcat,

so she wants me to pull for Kentucky. We haven't really, I haven't really been asked to do a bunch of that, but I know that that's always on the table. I played, I pulled for the gamecocks for years because Spurrier was there. Steve Spurrier, when I was really young, sent me, he sent me some autographed footballs when he was coaching for Florida, just out of the blue. And I always thought he was cool, made him a couple times.

He's actually been a guest on this show. And we went to him down in South Carolina. Carolina to interview him for a Dale Jr. download. But or it was maybe I was back when I was on XM radio. But either way, so I kind of pulled for anything he did. And so I kind of became a Gamecox fan there for a while. I still want them to do well. Actually, Lou Holtz used to coach for the Gamecox,

and I asked Lou to come to DEI and speak to our company right after Dad passed away. Lou was a great speaker in his time, and hard to understand, but he had great messages. But that was a lot of fun. So anyways, I pulled for the game. We actually had a kid that played running back for the Mooresville Blue Devils, our home team that I went to high school, actually got accepted as Sacramento. And when he was on the field, we were always watching to see what he could do. He rarely played.

But it was pretty cool to have somebody from our school playing on the field. for the game cock so at my core thank you appreciate you Travis at my core I am a tar hill no question like if you said hey what's your what's the A team for you I'm a North Carolina tar hill I think that everyone whatever state you're from it's like an obligation for you to have to pull for that particular team and I know there's a lot of teams in North Carolina but no team is like the North Carolina tar hills. They are the North Carolina team.

All the other ones are like that. They're the B, C, D, but the Tar Hills are it. And the Carolina blue, man, it's beautiful. Can't be beat. You said that Lou, you asked Lou to come speak. So did he end up come speaking? What was it like? I donated some money to his charity.

He came to speak to us, told us some great stories. I was just trying to find ways to help us morale-wise go into the next season. I don't remember exactly when he came. It might have been immediately after Dad passed away. Maybe it's in the middle of the season. Maybe it was going into 2002. I can't really remember, but I felt I'd heard somewhere that, you know, something sprung into my mind from something I'd heard about him speaking

and I should get him to come talk to us. So that was good. That's cool. I like the Braves too because Dad did. So I'm a Braves fan. Yeah, that's like the closest team we have here to North Carolina anyways. Yeah, yeah. Well, and back then it was one of the main teams that were on network TV.

Them are the Cubs. Yeah, I like, I remember watching, I remember exactly where I was when I saw them lose the World Series. I think it was to Detroit. Who could Kirby Puckett play for? Minnesota. I'm sorry, it was Minnesota. And Herbic. they lost to them.

I remember being at the beach on North Carolina coast with a friend of mine and watching them lose. We thought for sure they were going to win the series. But, yeah, it's been fun being a Braves fan. I'm not Chase Elliott level of Braves fandom, but I know that's a massive deal for him. Well, that is a good place to wrap Ash Jr. this week. Thanks to Xfinity for supporting us here at Dirty

media and at the Dale Jr. Download and bringing us the Ask Junior segment every single week. They're a great partner. I'm using all of this technology right here with Xfinity Wi-Fi. I'm a customer and very happy with my service. The speeds are incredible. And their Wi-Fi is fast. And the NASCAR fans, we know what fast is all about.

And we want it as good as it could possibly be. and Exfinity Wi-Fi, is it just fast? It's booming. And you can choose the right plan for you, and you're off and running, and you'll have the best streaming experience for NASCAR and all your favorite sports. Just they don't raise the bar. They stream and overdrive. Xfinity is a proud premier partner of NASCAR. And they may email you out of the blue one day and say,

hey, for no extra charge, we're going to bump your speeds up. Because I know a couple of myself and several other customers around this area have gotten those. so that's always nice. So thank you, Xfinity. Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Place your bets. Well, it's time to do the Dirty Modo segment with you, Tampa Tens. And Russell's been here for the whole show,

so we're going to dive right in. This segment on Dirty Modo is brought to you by Fanduel. We were going to do a parlay last week of the top manufacturer. So, like, you know, we picked Priests for Ford, Hamlin for Toyota. Larson for Chevy, obviously, that did not hit. Blaney was the top Ford. I guess Hamlin was the top Toyota,

and Larson surely wasn't the top Chevy. That was Carson Hosevar. So if anybody hit that parlay on manufacturers, that's pretty impressive. We'll do it again this week as we lead into Michigan. But before we move on to next week, Tim, can you give us a quick recap of how your bet's paid out? Yeah, went four for four on matchups.

Damn, boy. So I was happy about that. Everything else was... So we actually ended up a small, small loss. But I was proud of the matchups. Four for four. It's tough to do. What was our favorite matchup?

Oh, Cody Ware over J.J. Ealy. That was a heated battle for 35th. All right. Tims was counting his money. JJ Ealy started the race in the garage. Yeah, exactly. Somehow got back to the lead lap, right? And then he got back on the lead lap.

And then Cody Ware had a flat tire, and then Tim's was not happy. No, it was not. And then somehow they were on the same lap at the end, but Cody Ware pulled it off. Yeah, good for Cody Ware. He needed it. Well, let's move on to Michigan. We've talked about this predictor model on the show before, and Russ, can you give us a dummies 101 explanation of what the model is? So it's an advance to... Calm down, calm down.

Slow down there. Advanced statistical model, which basically takes it. We track every lap of every race, and so it takes into account like recent races, recent races at the track, track type. We do how fast they are over the runs. It takes into considerate pit crews. It takes all this into consideration and then puts it into, basically predicts a finishing order. That's how we do it.

All right. Well, what does the predictor have for us this week? what are some of the bets that you think are good ones to make? I think Denny Hamlin is a runaway favorite this week in the predictor. And then it goes, Larson and Byron are like the top tier, I would say. And then we would go Chase Blaney. This one, whereas the model scares me a little bit as. Ty Gibbs up in the top in the second.

I know, I know, but I can explain that. And then Busher, Bell, Reddick, Legano, Bubble Wallace, kind of. So why does the predictor have Ty Gibbs up there? Is that a flaw in the predict? predictor? Is that a glitch in the predictor? Is the predictor not perfect? So his average... Guy's is awaiting your answer. So his average finish at Michigan is the best of all drivers, like, that have more than three

starts. He's finished 10th, 11th, and 3rd there. So, like, it takes Michigan, because we don't have a lot of other comp contracts to Michigan. So Michigan is very highly weighted. So with him doing so well at Michigan, it pumps them up, and then, but 2025 is kind of a disaster for him. So I say that with that as a caveat, but that's why it's so good. And he just runs so, like he was fast at Michigan, so it takes all, all those laps into consideration. So you can't be that, that thrilled to have to use the word caveat when describing your predictor. That's true. I don't, I had to.

I have to. You can get plus 195 odds for Ty Gibbs top 10 then if you believe Russ. I don't believe me. That's what the predictor says. I don't have a great feeling about it, but. Let's put together the parlay for the manufacturers. We're going to stick with Hamlin. I think we'll go Larson over Byron because Larson has had past success here.

and I just feel like that he's due for a rebound. Now the Ford will be the tough call there. I just got a feeling that it's a Penske Ford, but which one between Ligano and Blaney? I had a feeling about Ligano. If we didn't go Penske, I was going to say Brad. I have a good feeling about Brad this week, too. What about Buescher?

Busher's been the fastest car of anybody. long run speed at Michigan in the next gen era. It's one there. I just don't feel it this year. I think he's struggle a little bit. So who's your best Ford pick? I've got to go Lagano. I think that the guy is just,

he's just a kind of guy that will manipulate. He'll, between lane choice, between how you have to race in the restarts through one and two, he's just really good at not getting, not being on the wrong end of. of that whole deal and he'll find his way toward the front. Even maybe he's not the fastest forward. He won't be the fastest forward during the race.

He won't. But I just think that his ability to get the end result that the other guys struggle to always get is gonna put him in position to win this prop. The only thing that I worry about is just Blaney having another weekend like he had this past weekend in Nashville where he showed up super fast and he just you know legano never gets within a couple car links of that car that's the only

problem i see but let's go legano hamlin and larsson last week if you would have done it one dollar would have paid you like 77 dollars holy yeah so that people for this if you're making this bet this is a fun one we know it's a long uh yeah you know underdog betts betting anywhere for between one and five dollars is probably where i'm going to be so if i was to place the bet i wouldn't be betting more than that. It's just a fun bet. Something that we can all come back here the next week and go, damn it, what hell are you all thinking? Or we can all celebrate that we all won. It really doesn't matter how much you win.

It's the fact that you either won or lost. So yeah, be responsible. What are some of the other things we need to pay attention to? You know, I'm always going to ask you about the underdog or the... So I'll start with, like, the guys I'm scared of is Bowman, average finish at Michigan to 24th. I'd stay away from him. Bell has never finished top 10 at Michigan.

And he's been, he's two DNFs in the last three races there at Michigan. So that's the surprising ones for me. I like Hosevar again. He's been really fast this year. Lately, as we talked about earlier, he was 10th at Michigan last year. It's a home race for him. Damn. So.

Can't believe we're talking about that. And then. And then Eric Jones is another Michigan guy. He's been top 10 and two of the last four races this year, we talked about earlier. And then he's been top 10, two of the last three at Michigan. I can't see. I mean, the 77 is going to win someday. Are you all seeing the odds reflect that, or is it still good money?

Yeah, he's like plus 2100 right now to win, which I think he's, he has the Ty Gibbs treatment. When Ty Gibbs was running well a year and a half ago, you know, they were not going to get beat by Hosevar. That's what they're done. They're not doing this year. I mean, it's minus money for a top 10 for Hosevar. Yeah. Well, you guys got any more to add? Any of the Beth Tims?

No. No. Professor of me, pretty much a line. No outright winner? I don't love the odds right now. I mean, Larson and Danny are the favorites, and they're pretty much top two for me. You'll wait for qualifying.

Yeah, that's what I'm going to do. All right. Well, appreciate you, Tim, for coming through. Thank you. The Dirty Modo segment was brought to you by a fan duel. They are the premier. gaming destination in the United States. Time for the white flag.

The teardown was live on Twitter and YouTube following Ryan Blaney's dominant performance at Nashville. And door bumper clear dropped on Monday. They were joined, as we mentioned by Jeff Dickerson. Jeff had a lot to say about Carson Hosevar, his driver. Action is detrimental with Denny Hamlin. Also came out on Monday. Denny didn't have to fly home for the birth of his son during the race.

and do we have any news about that? Baby watch as far as I know. Maybe watch is still underway. All right. Well, he had a great run coming home third. Denny has been solid at Nashville. One of these days I think he's going to get the win. But my interview tomorrow for the Dale Jr. download will be with none other than Ron Howard.

Ron's going to give us a chunk of time to talk to him about obviously his, His team doing such a great job on the Earnhardt documentary that's came out last Thursday. The final two episodes came out last Thursday. And we'll talk to Ron just about his life and some of things we're curious about. So very thankful for that opportunity. Herman Schrader and Speed Street also have new episodes on Wednesday. And rounding out the week is another episode of Bless Your Heart. Amy and I will be giving another episode.

We've got some great content already drummed up for that Thursday show. saving the best for last. Becoming Earnhardt is returning. I talked about this a little bit with some folks. So it's not exactly news, but I'm very excited about it. The series is going to focus on the 1980 Cup season. This dad's first championship. We went to the studio last week.

We knocked everything out. We've been working on this for a while. First episode, June 15th. I hope you'll listen to Becoming Earnhardt. If y'all respond well to these, hey, we'll keep doing them. We'll grind through 81, 82, 83. We'll just have a blast. I'm looking forward to it just because after watching the documentary

and the first episode really diving into how his career started, so now getting a more in-depth look on just that season. Doing becoming Earnhardt, 1979, which is still available out there if you wanted to go back and listen to that, was one of the most rewarding things I've ever done in podcast form. how it motivated me to to dig for the stories and nuggets, the process of it coming together and what I learned from that and just the new things that I discovered about dad

and it almost, it really helped. One of the toughest things I think about when you lose a parent is our, when we think about them, we typically think about who they were in those. final few years, their temperament, personality. Dad was a completely different person in 1979 and 1980. And I wasn't really even well introduced to that particular person, right? As a kid and all the, I just didn't know what was going on in his mind and his life. I didn't know his day to day things he was challenged with, dealing with. So gosh, this has been so fun to sort of look behind

the curtain, peel back to layers. So rewarding. So hopefully you'll entertain, listen to the 79 season of Becoming Earnhardt if you haven't already, the first season, and then we'll have this new one for you on June 15th. So thank you all for today. See you tomorrow with Ron Howard. Should be a blast. Take care.