The Dale Jr. Download - I’m ROVAL’d Out

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

The Round of 8 is set, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. is back for more Dirty Air. He joins co-host TJ Majors to react to the chaotic finish at the ROVAL and the updated Playoffs picture:We aren’t focusing on the right storylinesDale is experiencing Playoff fatigueNASCAR is missing the weekly storyline build-upRoss Chastain’s latest “Hail Mary”How would the old points system look in this year’s battle?The latest on the 23XI/Front Row Motorsports/NASCAR lawsuitRace winner Shane Van Gisbergen calls into the showDuring the Ask Jr. portion of the episode, listeners submitted questions regarding:Dale’s recent CARS Tour race at Tri-CountyHow Dale is enjoying his new truckThe story behind Neil Bonnett and Dale Sr.’s deer PistolSome recent photos taken at Dale Earnhardt Inc.Dale’s run-in with Mark Martin at MichiganAnd for more content check out our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMediaReal fans wear Dirty Mo. Hit the link and join the crew.👇https://shop.dirtymomedia.com/FanDuel: Must be 21+ and present in select states (for Kansas, in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino) or 18+ and present in D.C. First online real money wager only. $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets which expire 7 days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut, or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit GamblingHelpLineMA.org or call [phone] for 24/7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPENY in New York.Consumer Cellular: New customers get a $5 credit on first five monthly invoices. Visit https://savings.consumercellular.com/DJD for details. 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.

There was Neil Bonnet standing equal to him going, he pissed me off, so I went and shot it. The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. This is the most fun I've had in this chair in the last hour and a half. I don't know if we've ever argued. Did I piss you off over the weekend? I'm still sour. Did I want the best man at your wedding? Who was your best man, Dale?

T.J. DJ. You don't need a cool best for that race? What are you thinking? Get them, T.J. Hellway to start the show. All right then. Hey, everybody.

It's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. download. It's Tuesday. It's dirty air. My co-host, T.J. Majors, how's it going, TJ? It's going good. How are you doing? Pretty good, man. I'm all right. I mean, we're in a fucking mood, actually. I can tell. You just jumped the start here.

You can tell? A little bit. Well, you had to jump the start. I mean, you started talking before they were ready to record. They said 3, 2, 1, and I started to go. I thought that was the 3-2-1. Jump the start, yeah. I mean, I felt like that was the Q2-go, 3-2-1.

Could be. I could see where you could be misled by that. Man, I played, we're in the conference championships of our Xbox Dynasty League. You said you had a close one. I played Duke, who I beat easily just a couple games ago in the end of the regular season. And I tied it up 14 all at halftime, and I was frustrated. and then me and him couldn't score it all, and I finally, oh, he was going in on the one yard line, and I held him.

Go line stand, fourth down. Really? Yeah. Dang. He tried a couple runs, a couple passes, didn't work. Finally, he lines up. Looks like it's going to be a QB sneak. I never did this before, but I picked fucking Phil Gold Block.

I said, I don't know what to pick all here, because the QB sneak usually is always good for that yard and a half. Yeah. I don't know what to do. So I pick field goal block And it It stopped it Perfect That's what's great coaching

And then Now I am Here I am literally like on the half yard line And I'm like What do I call? And so I came out in a zone Run up the gut And yeah

Just kind of drove down the field End up kicking a field goal And I was so mad You ever won a game and been mad At the end of it Because it was like Didn't go as good as it should have Oh all the time

God damn Yeah How can we not just be happy? This new game, I've been like that almost every game. I'm just not happy at the end of them. Even when you win them? Yeah, this has been my year. So I woke up today.

I bet a little bit on the Monday night football game. Great game. Jags beat the cheese. Yeah, we love that. But a team, I guess that's his name, a team. Got 49 yards running back for the Jags. I need a 50. Oh, ETN?

ETN, sorry. I just, yeah, sounds about it right. Either way, I needed 50 yards, you got 49. I think they were going to hand it off to him on that final play that they scored on to win the game. Oh, when they fell? And he fell, yep, and that would have been the yard I needed. Yeah, I mean, Chris Jones wasn't going to tackle him, that's for sure. You know, I bet, I don't bet, I'm betting like five, ten bucks on these stupid little parlays,

and I'm so mad when I lose. I just don't like losing. Well, I wouldn't want to lose like that on a busted play, and he's going to get it. So I woke up today in a really mood. Sorry. I'm trying to talk it out. I like it.

This is like your therapy. Keep going. I'm trying to talk it out. All right. So I'm promise. I'm sorry if this sucks to listen to, but by the end of the show, I'll feel better. And that's really what's important. Yeah.

Right. All the listeners. Dale's in a better mood, which makes Amy happy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, or Amy is, yeah, that's all good. We got one kid really sick, good, Nicole. Do y'all, I'm just saying, that was a summary for everyone,

things are good at home, except for Nicole, she's a little sick. When the season changes, doesn't everybody just get sick? You just feel it. I feel like that I only get sick when we go from hot to cold, cold to hot, right? So I'm going to get sick sometime around this little pivot toward the fall. And then I'm going to get sick sometime right before spring. Yeah. The clockwork.

The problem, though, is you get these random, like, a couple cold days. Yeah. And it pops back up hot too, so you might get it there. Oh, yeah. Yeah, and your body's like, I was going to get sick, but no, they're still. Especially if you go over to friends, you're outside, you know, a bonfire cold. So you kind of have some of these little sinus things that are, They kind of pop in for a couple days and then the weather turns and you don't really have the cold, the real, you know, the big cold.

Do you get the seasonal allergies where you just start sneezing? No, I don't do allergies. Oof, you're lucky. I don't do them. I get allergies here more than anything. I don't let allergies come in. I don't let them bother me. I don't have allergies.

I think that's falling off. So far, I've been allergy free. Lucky man. I just don't, I just don't let it happen. What? Not today, allergies. Just not going to happen. I say, not today allergies.

Yep, not today. So every morning I should just wake up and say that. All right, I'm going to try that. Won't you change your air filter in your house? It's probably dirty. No, they do because I live in an apartment. They come through. I wouldn't trust it.

You should talk to the people with the department. I'd still check. If I lived in an apartment and they were doing that for me, I'd still look. Man, y'all doing this or what? Maybe I'll get my own subscription and then just change it myself. Filter time. Yeah. Maybe you can talk the apartment complex and they use and filter time for the whole place.

Oh. That'd be really good for me. Filter time, too. Travel set of cleaning filters. We can work out a deal, Dale. I'm just annoyed. I don't know why. I want a parlay.

I want a parley. You are part of the biggest parlay of the weekend. Oh, yeah. I want a plus 5,000 parlay. Yeah, I was going to say how you're not happy about that. But I only bet $5. That's okay. I'm so mad.

Well, I'm seeing all these other people that tailed this same bet that bet $60 and they're like, oh, $3,000. I'm rich and I've got 280 bucks over here. Hey. I mean It's like yes I won but now I get to see how this is for me and great for

everyone else. Yeah but I mean it's not bad, you're still in the plus. I know. I know my head is not right. My head ain't right guys. Stop comparing other people on social media. We're going to talk this out. Comparisons the thief of Joydale. It is. I can't compare to others on social media. You bet big, you win big.

This is a very I'm admittedly, this is a flaw in my personality and I'm exposing it here today. I think it's a lot of people, not just you. That happens a lot. You were happy until you saw someone else win more. Yes. And I was like, why didn't I bet more?

Yeah. Well, because you could have lost more too. That's right. And it was a big risk. That's right. I bet small, just for fun. And that's the way it should be. And it is what it is.

Right? Okay. Yeah, 100%. All right. Try to keep that in mind. All right. I'm sorry for complaining. The roval.

Man. Man. What? Not a fan? I don't know, man. I'm rovaled out. I'm with you. I am rovaled the hell out.

But it's exciting. Is it? I mean, at the points race, you're not going to have, I don't know if you're going to have that. I don't know. Race for 20th was entertaining. So everybody knows that I like. a season long format and I'm absolutely if you know whatever they go to if it's the four race final round or if they go to like a the original chase of a 10 race I don't know what they're

going to do all that'll be great you know I'm not going to be oh darn it pounding the table if the full season thing comes doesn't come back because I really don't think that they're that's where NASCAR is going to go but so I'm I'm ready for that mentally But man, I am exhausted. Something about this particular year's playoff is just not doing it for me. Well, what's been the highlight of this playoff so far? Well, I don't know. And I don't want to discredit.

There's a lot of people with very good points about this year. You know, what happens at the end of the race with Chastain and Denny? but you know I saw that I watched it and I'm like me I didn't I I didn't go oh damn wow you know Manchester chastain back backwards I wasn't that blown away by it you know I saw a guy making a zero freaking percent shot you know it's like it's like a full court can heave that wasn't going in yeah might have Yeah, I mean, it was, oh. And so it wasn't like, oh, wow, you know, without, you know, if we don't have the playoffs, we don't have that.

Well, I didn't want that. I didn't need that. Did that really change anything? That didn't make me go, damn, I'm glad we got the playoffs so I could see that. Yeah. You know? Yeah, I mean. And I'll tell you this, too.

The more Joe Lugano gets out of his car and talks about the playoffs, the more I don't like the playoffs. Oh my gosh. Yeah. The more he talks about, and I know he's defending it, and I know he believes what he believes, and I'm good with that for him. But the more he tells me why I should like the playoffs, the less I like them.

Does that make sense? It makes perfect sense. Yeah. But I do feel that, like, this whole playoff talk to him is this, like, personal attack of him. And so I get his side of things. But when you come out and say you had a championship performance and you finished 20th, like it just doesn't sit right with me.

Yeah, he called their teams, they called their performance a championship performance on Sunday. Oh. Just like, man. It doesn't settle. Brad Gislauski comes on social media and says it's clear as day. We had a guy dominate the road courses this year, win by a mile. I mean, literally if they had went green, the entire race, he would have won by over a mile. Gone.

He did the same thing at Mexico. And we end the race with a, oh, ho-hum. Yep, he did it again. And we're Uber-focused on the 22 and the one, the one, which is a battle for eighth in points, roughly. Yeah, the last transfer. And so, that's Brad's take. Like, man, it's obvious.

Like, that's problematic or that's not really what we ought to be doing. And I kind of feel similar. maybe I see his point. I see what he's saying. I see what he's saying. Like, is there another universe where everyone's going, holy shit, SVG, golly.

That's what we should be saying right now. Right. Is there another universe where they're loving what SVG is doing and just in all of the performance and the ability and how he smoked them? Again. Yeah. And again.

And are they happier over there in that universe? Well, I think last year, the championship, the championship winner left in this race in eighth place or ninth place and then got put in because of a disqualification. And that's why it's probably such a big deal right now too is because this was the champ last year. Same position. You know what I mean?

But I agree with you. We should have the focus on the guy that's kicking everyone's ass right now. Yeah. Not the eighth place. So, yeah, that's another conversation. So one, I know that I'm getting some fatigue, which I think a lot of people are around this conversation of the playoffs versus the full season points versus this.

Yeah, playoff fatigue. Everybody's kind of, well, I don't know that people are fatigued on what's currently happening on the racetrack in the end this season, right? But I think they're fatigued with the conversation around, what we're going to end up having. And I think I am too a little bit. Is it the fact that, is it fatigue because we know a guy that it's possible for a car that hasn't run up front most of the year and been really that strong all year?

Now it's still eligible to win the championship and we're going to some of their best tracks. You know what I mean? Like, could that be part of it? Like, are we fearful of that a little bit? No, I think that, you know, I think, are we worried about that again? I mean, could it be? I think everybody's just tired of the conversation.

And it's a conversation that really doesn't need to be happening during this playoff. Sorry if I'm rambling. But people talked about whether we should announce a new format before the end of this season. And everybody was like, oh, yeah, we can't do that in this committee. We were like, we can't do that. That would totally discredit this year. Everybody would go, all right, well, we're moving on. Everybody would move on emotionally toward the next season.

And this year's champion would have been really a dud or a lame duck kind of thing. We were like, don't announce the new format for the future before you crown this year's champion. And I agree, we all agree. That's probably the best decision. I feel like that just even the conversation alone, us debating even right the second or even talking about it is doing just that. it's making this year feel like, man, it can't get over fast enough. It can't get over fast enough. And can we just can't get to the next thing, can't get to the new format,

can't get to what next year looks like. We're hearing all these things about, you know, a little more horsepower. Whether that makes, you know, whether the drivers really do, they want more, is that, you know, are they getting more, they getting enough? there's potential for a new playoff system. I think there's all these things that, and I'm very guilty of this, looking forward to something, looking beyond now and what I'm doing today to be, because there's this thing in a week I'm excited about and I'm wishing time away.

Are we sitting here going, oh man, can this just hurry up and end so we can get on with it? And I feel like that's where I'm at. and I don't love that. I don't like that. I want to enjoy this one. I've been there for about a month. I want to enjoy this year. This playoff, I want to be excited,

but I'm having a hard time. And I wonder if everybody is because we're seeing it in viewership. We're seeing it, you know, in just general conversation, you know, the general discussion. But the playoff committee and those constant talk about it, then why make, why does it? did we make that pop? We all know that the change is coming,

so is it going to do anything? It's not going to make it. We already think this is like a lame duck year anyways. Yeah. I mean, so come on announce it. At least fans then have some excitement. Well, I don't want them to announce it because it's, for lack of a better words,

like disrespectful to whoever might win this year. Exactly, because they're going to go back and say, well, if it was the other format, this guy would have won. We're going to do that anyways. Oh, man. Yeah, but don't take away from it now. Do it later. I don't like that. Look, I don't want to, I do want to talk about the sport. I do want to talk about like hot button topics. I want to talk about this. But I do not want it to make a Joey Legano or a Blaney or anybody, Larson, Chase Elliott. I don't want them to ever feel like that that means that that championship that they won under whatever format is less than.

Yeah. Maybe can I say this and it makes sense, this is the hardest way to win a championship. The way we do it today is the hardest, most difficult way to win a championship. To put four guys on the track and you only have one race and it has to go right is the odds, odds are against you in this format more so than any other. my opinion. And so I say that to help those guys feel like they achieved something difficult.

Is it my favorite way? No. Do I prefer another way? Yes. But it doesn't mean that this, that championship that they've got and that trophy they got in their house isn't as valuable or as need or as cool or as appreciated as any trophy or championship that was won in the first 50 years of the sport. And so I can appreciate Joe Lugano.

He is a Hall of Famer. He's a multi-time champion, a true badass, clutch driver, give him the car, he gets the job done. I've seen him do things that just really set him apart for most of the race car drivers on the racetrack. But yeah, I'm just, I'm having a hard time watching. this year's playoff play out i don't know what i don't know why you guys feel that same sort of i do like me because i just feel like it's you're going to see another Penske driver that

hasn't done a whole lot and then phoenix sets up for him perfectly and while yes winning that one race is harder but getting there with this format is easier because of the win and you advance and different like points three setting yeah yeah I mean, yeah, I think the final race is the most difficult way to do it. The most like potluck kind of random. Hope it all goes well. Hope you get the caution at the right time. Yeah.

What could change like right now that would make you more interested? Like right now, what could, what would you change? Like, other than just a full points deal? Yeah. Like, what would get your interest? I do like the tire, the fall off. There's a lot. There's a lot. That's like one little thing.

But there's so many little things that. I wish we're different. The tire has been great. The tire has been great. Again. That tire this weekend, great. Love it.

So good. Yep. Well done. Good year. More of that, please. I'll be honest. Like, this car, you know, I've talked in length about this car on this show. Things about the car physically that I just don't think belongs on the car, right?

And so the underbody. and all of that stuff. Camera. Dude, I would really tear this car apart and strip it down. Do you need this? Do you need that? Yeah, get rid of some shit. Especially, maybe I would not touch it in its current form for like the mile and a halfs and stuff.

Maybe a couple things could change as you go forward. But like for the car I'm going to take to Martinsville, it would be like the unplugged version. you know, instead of the full band, it'd be the unplugged version of the next gen. Oh, yeah. Here you go. You don't need all this extra stuff on there. It'd be,

and it'd be so basic and dull, you know, it'd be, and you beat the shit out of it. Go out there and beat the shit out of this thing. It could look the same to you on TV. Yes. But underneath all the shell, yeah.

We'll be a much, much simpler, leaner, lighter. Yeah, leaner. Yeah, leaner. leaner version yeah you're on you it doesn't i agree i mean yeah you don't need all that stuff yeah and so would that be beneficial to look at that car and be like hey or you know like a real racing these like now you can take a road course car and a you know you can basically take these cars almost anywhere remember how we used to have you go over here your short track cars you did yes i mean could

you go over here and be like hey man there's two short track cars they're just cut way back they don't have all this extra stuff on them and that's your road course car that's short track yeah so you You got a mile and a half super speedway car, two of those, and then you got a couple of, yeah. I mean, I just, there's, you're just asking me questions. I, you know, people say that, you know, where we, where we are on television is a big deal. You know, so that's a conversation to have. How do we find our, how do we make it simpler, right, to find us? What was, I mean, it was, Vascar took money over.

That's the position, right? That's the message on social media from fans is that we're kind of starting to see that, you know, we took the best deal financially, but maybe there's some detriment to that, you know. But then you'll hear, you know, and I hear people say, well, we need to be on big network. You know, the CW is doing really well with the Xfinity series. It's easy to find. It's in a lot of households and it's all in the same channel. And I think another thing that helps is it's right next to NBC, Fox, CBS, ABC.

And so some people will tell you, man, we need to be on the big networks. But then there's other people say, well, you got to go to, you got to be going to streaming. We relate to the party there. We relate to that. You know, so you have people that do think, my, yep, if you were on big Fox every day, you know, every week, you know, just as, an example. If you were on that channel all the time, that would, that would be better. And then you have other people saying, well, you got to the streaming side late, you know, if you would have done that sooner or if you would embrace that as quicker. Yeah, both sides. Yeah. And so,

it's like, what's real, right? What, what do, can, can you put your set, can you, can you, can you, can you go back and put yourself on big network and stay there and succeed while everyone else is going to streaming? You could, or this, I think both could be right, but I think what It's practice qualifyings on one channel, then the race on another channel. It's just too disjointed. That's another part. I think that we're missing is the buildup weekly shows, you know, tuning in on a, you know, get home from work, turn on the television and watch 30 minutes to an hour of talk,

conversation around the sport. This, you know, this podcast is fun to do. But we need more, we need like a, we need like that pillar show, like RPM tonight, you know. Yeah, that was a. Yeah, we need that one show that's like the all catch all. And we also, to your point, need practice and qualifying to be, um, I don't know. Storylines. Storylines.

Yeah, we need a little more. This guy was fast. This guy wasn't fast. I know the drivers don't care for more practice. practice. Yeah. Some do. Some do. But it just, uh, it gives you an opportunity to like understand what, what to expect on the race day. And it gives you an opportunity to talk and tell stories and stuff about what, what you could see. I think it's great. I mean, for storylines. You see who's fast. You talk about a little bit. You see you struggle and you talk about that. And that's every

week. Yeah. You have storylines every week from that. Yeah. For sure. Well, um, I don't know. I just was a, I had a, I can't say it out loud, but I had a really, I had to sit my ass down and turn the TV on, and that took a little more effort. That's what Gluck said. It took a little bit more effort to do it. And I didn't like that feeling. And I don't know what that is.

And I'm hoping it's just, you know, I'm just looking forward to anticipating next year and what things may look like and how things may be somewhat different. And that's made me feel like having to put a little more effort into sitting down and getting myself in front of the TV to watch the race and follow along.

I will say in person, the Roval is entertaining. I'm not going to lie. I was entertained by how the 22 and the one we're sorting that out. And I think only because it's Joey. and I'm like, God dang Joey's going to do it again. If it had been anybody else

Reddick or whatever in that position, I would have not been giving a shit who went through. So I guess that answers a question for me. Without the playoffs, we don't have that little moment of excitement. But if it was anybody with Joey,

I wouldn't have cared. I would not have cared. I'd be like, okay, whatever. Get on into the round debate, whoever that driver is. But it was Joey. And Joey's a star, right? And stars make you care if you like or dislike the star. Oh, for sure, right?

And I think that leans more towards Brad's point of what we're doing is distracting ourselves from creating stars, focusing on stars. you know, when you have a different format, you're looking forward toward the front of the field talking about those people and that develops the stars. You know? And that's an interesting point. I'm not sure what's right. But if you have a season-long format,

you basically start the season with everybody in the bucket at Daytona. And after about 10 races, you are talking. only about five or six guys. And then that whittles down to four, three, two. By the time you get into the season, you'd maybe talking about two guys, three guys, four guys going for it with a few races left. And that is how you basically are putting the focus

on specific individuals for a sustained period of time throughout the year. And those guys typically tend to be the same ones year after year after year. And that does, in turn, create a star. And so that may not be happening quite as prolifically or quite as easily or as, as, as, as, as, uh, regularly as it used to with the original system we used to have.

Um, interesting. Oh, I think there's a, uh, university somewhere that's, and some psychology majors that would be able to help us understand this instead of an ad agency coming up with, hashtags. We should probably invest some money. Yeah. We should maybe invest some money in some studies

that would help you to understand like it's not numbers and statistics. We worry too much about playoff points and numbers and how it would work with this number and that number. And we need to really focus more on the fan experience,

the emotional ride. And that is not found in a statistical study. But let's get back to the freaking race. The NASCAR playoffs are here and so is your chance to bring the intensity home. Celebrate every pass, pit stop, and photo finish with a collectible car from Lionel Racing, the official diecast of NASCAR. Built for fans who live for the chase, Lionel Racing diecast are the ultimate trophy. Each car is precision crafted, featuring authentic paint schemes and hand-applied decals.

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Yo, TJ, see you've been walking around with the new phone. Where'd you get that new phone? Yeah, man, I love this phone. I recently joined a consumer seller family, and they hooked me up, man. I got a great new phone, and the service is awesome. That's great, but how's it in Iowa or Richmond

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Like, I just don't have time for that. That's easiest part, man. Just call their 100% U.S.-based customer service representatives, and in about 20 minutes, you'll be good to go. I chose the two-for-60 plan. It's not a prepaid option. They helped me decide which one was best for me, and I know exactly what I'm paying each month. Everything is easy to understand with no long-term contract. Switch to consumers' cellular now and get 25 hours off with the code DJD-25. That's DJD-25 for 25 hours off when you switch to consumer cellular. Go to consumer cellular.com slash DJD and use promo code DJD 25.

So Denny was unaware of the point situation. He passes Ross. This helps Legano. Gail, his crew chief, told Denny afterwards that the team was sensitive because at Martinsville last year, they had, you know, the race manipulation. So they were careful in what they were saying on the radio. And I've heard, I guess, on DBC, they said

that Zilich during the Xfinity race, his team got warned for merely mentioning what the point situation was during the race NASCAR was like no no no TJ is that are you guys are you allowed to give I don't haven't

never been said you can't exactly do that but I don't it's just somewhere you just don't let the others I haven't I'm not saying I have zero problem I have zero problem with any spotter saying here's a point situation let's freaking especially for a

playoff driver and honestly you know there's this conversation there's all these videos was col custer not trying to pass the 22 was was was bowman not trying to race the one who cares at this point who cares let whatever i mean is i guess as long as it ain't like super egregious when you have cars holding up a car and i mean or guys coming down pit road like just blowing their whole race just to get off the track. Yeah. Or a guy spinning out on purpose, right? And some obvious, you know, spin gate from back in the day.

That was an obvious thing. They did the detective work, the CSI, got the radio calls and all that. And they added it up and said, yeah, that's bullshit. And I think everybody would agree. This stuff here is just what happens. Like, Denny should be allowed to make the decision. He should. Give me the information.

Let me choose. Yeah. Yeah, I agree with that. But I don't, you just don't mess with it because you don't want to get in trouble. so I don't anyway. Well, then you got... You're not gonna... You can't police it

because there's conversations that happen during the week. I don't know that this happened, but let's just imagine every... All the guys in the Chevrolet world probably had some conversation at some point

about what the situation was with each Chevrolet driver in the playoffs and, you know, you can't police this stuff, so it doesn't bother me. It doesn't bother me. I mean, I mean, as long as it don't get to that egregious point where, you know, it's obvious.

And they're just like, hey, don't pass this guy. Get behind this guy. Hey, come on down pit road. Why? Just come down pit road. You know. So it was last year the 12 pushing the 22 at Vegas. Is that obvious?

That doesn't bother me. Yeah. Harry Gant ran out of gas at Talladega. One lap to go. For like, he was going to run out. For like the last five laps at a. about, you know, probably a second or two slower a lap. Rick Masked pushed Harry Gane around the track.

Pushing. You know, it probably, you know, a decreased speed of maybe 10, 15, 20 mile an hour. And Harry wins a race. No way, I cared. Now, do you think, though, some people might say, that's to prevent what happened at Martinsville, though, you have to police it the way they are now because how do you judge that line and if someone went too far.

It is a judgment. There's no line. There won't be a line in this situation. It's just got to, if it feels like it's shit, you know, if it feels awful, it's awful. So I mean, it's like, all right, was that too much? No, it didn't bother me. And honestly, this is one of those deals where I think people are going to have to just lay back and let the, whatever, the person that's in charge of this. or it's probably a group conversation at NASCAR when they get back on Monday and they read all the script and see what every spotter said.

They all kind of probably get together with about a handful of people in the room and go, do we hate this or don't we? And we just got to live with their interpretation of was it too much? And I'm okay with that. I'm all right with it. There's no clear way to make sure this is cut and dried and black and white. And that's fine. That's one of them's situation. It's kind of like balls and strikes.

Every umpire sees it differently. This will be the same way for me. Maybe sometimes they may rule too leniently or maybe sometimes they may rule too aggressively. And it is what it is. I watched the game Monday night football game last night. There was a bunch of past interference calls. Don't get made.

Oh, I know. Well, that's the chiefs, buddy. I know. Well, it happens. The game carries on and you accept the result at the end of the day. Ross Rex Denning. there's a question here I've got to read it should NASCAR have penalized Ross for that move

is that really a question well this is because it was Danny and no no I'm being no is that who because if that move works who would who would have thought of such a thing well if so if the move works what's wrong with it no no no who is out there asking this question besides this piece of paper I haven't heard it Denny said that

Jared asked Denny if that move worked to Jared Should NASCAR have penalized Ross He's going in there and just Wrecking I mean What's that different from

Austin Dillon and Richland In the cars tour That's a That gets penalized So Only if the other comes out Nope A guy

Connor Hall got wrecked Oh that's right Yeah it had him Because if not Then you're basically telling A driver To just send it in there if he needs that point.

Well, that's no different, that corner is no different than any other corner on the circuit earlier in the year. That one point, like if you get moved or wrecked for a point. Ricky Rudd got, Ricky Rudd, Redd-David Allison at Sonoma. I think there's a difference between going in there and racing aggressive,

and Ross was saying, yeah, fuck it, I'm going in there. If that had, it was a zero chance. But if that had worked, and he did get through, I bet NASCAR would have penalized him. So why not make a statement or penalize Ross on Sunday? For what?

For that move anyways. Should the result matter? If we're saying if it worked... Denny did the same thing at Kansas. If it worked and you're saying he'll penalize him, then why not penalize him for it still not working? He still did it. I think NASCAR's trying to avoid being the bad guy there.

This is the perfect time to do it, though. No, it ain't. There ain't no world aside from Denny Bros. and I don't mean, I'm serious. There's nobody that would appreciate NASCAR doing that except for the Denny Bros. There's nobody. If NASCAR penalized him for trying to go for it

and even in a failed attempt, they would catch so much. Why, they have the playoffs. They want situations like this, right? They want these drama-filled. They would catch hell. Then why are we penalizing him if it works? I'm assuming they would.

We don't know they will. But you said you would penalize it. So then why don't we penalize it for it anyway? Because I don't want to. I don't think they penalize him. I mean, that's the only way I can answer that question is if I'm NASCAR and he did that and it worked, I'd penalize him. If he did it and it failed, I wouldn't penalize him. That's sorry.

See, I think this is the perfect time for NASCAR to do it because Ross didn't advance. I don't think it would be popular. And I think NASCAR needs to try to understand how to avoid doing unpopular things. Why are you penalizing him again? Because he's going for it? Because he's just going... What's the difference between this and Austin Dillon wrecking? Well, Austin Dillon right hooked a guy.

No, no, no, no. That's true. I think NASCAR did say they were fine with the first move. Yeah, he right. You're just opening your... I think you're opening yourself up for future stuff like this. I don't think you should change it. I think part of the suspense and drama is the situation like this.

I think there's a measured approach to these type of things. NASCAR won't really step in there unless it's truly over the line. And, you know, think of the hell, Melon. That's what I was thinking about. At Martinsville, right? Exciting, awesome. Once in a lifetime, kind of like, holy cow, I can't believe he did that. What kind of guts did it take to do it?

NASCAR didn't love having to step in and say, hey, we're going to make this illegal, but we probably should because it was dangerous for him. to put himself in that situation. He even talked about how painful it was to run the wall like that. Do we need drivers, like putting themselves in physical harm, trying to do whatever it might take? There's some limitations. And I look at this the same way.

Hey, I think, you know, it was a move that only Ross Chastain is going to probably try to make. Maybe Josevar or some other guys maybe do this, but most guys aren't. Most guys are going to go, hey, I'm too far behind. I'm not going to go. If I plow in there, I'm taking us both. out. I'm going to miss the corner and probably get penalized some, you know, 30 seconds or whatever that penalty is. So I'm not doing it. I don't think it's worth messing with. Yeah, a lot of guys,

yeah. And so I think, I guess if it had worked, then NASCAR would say, oh, we don't need to encourage it. You know, we believe that, you know, 90% of our drivers wouldn't have tried this. If it fails, then we can look the other way. don't think you mess with it. Yeah, I don't think you penalized me either. So the playoff standings going into the next race. Vegas, Talladega-Martinsville, the final round before the final race. Hamlin, Blaney, Larson, Byron, all above the cut line at plus eight to plus four.

And then Bell, Chase Elliott, Briscoe, and this is interesting. Bell's minus four. And I think early in the season we had him as a favorite. Chase Elliott's minus 14. Briscoe also minus 14 They got a little work to do And Lugano minus 24 I think any of these guys could do it

What kind of finishes do you need to like average To give yourself a chance you think Depends on I mean Joey is going to need to average Way better than the other guys But let's say like Denny and Danny and Blaney Are just going to go out there And take stage points in the first two stages And see where they end up in the final stage

They're not really probably going to throw a Hail Mary for a win I would say those guys are looking anywhere from, you know, fifth to tenth if they could get, I'd say fifth to seventh in that area. If you can get anything better than that's great. But Joey's going to have to do some creative things. And Paul's going to be doing, he's going to be doing the opposite probably at some point to try to get a win. You know, he's going to put Joey up there in the top five, just like he did at Kansas. Yeah. He's going to put Joey up there in the top five at some point on a disson. advantage and say Joey, I need you to hang on here.

And Joey's going to get the caution 15 laps later, and they're all going to get up hit road. And next thing you know. Be it up on tires. Well, he's just going to do something different. He's got to at this point, I think. I mean, anybody could get in there, any of these eight. And then we'll go to Phoenix.

I see some of your notes here, TJ, you're talking about the cup old school points. William Byron would be leading with the original point format. Blaney would be minus 27, Larson minus 35, and Christopher Bell minus 46. Chase Elliott at minus 64 and Denny minus 78. 100 points out and 7th will be Chase Briscoe. I'd say that still is alive, you know, 100 out.

I do too. Pretty tight little battle. Hey everybody, you want the latest Dale Jr. download apparel? Visit shop.orgimomedia.com. We're always adding new stuff all the time, especially like when we say something silly on this show. We'll put it on a t-shirt. Again, check it out at shop.dardimomedia.com.

You know, there's a lot of people that want to get rid of the stage cautions, but they don't mind you, I don't think a large majority of people mind them giving them points. Love it. Yeah. But I don't mind that. I guess if you don't have the cautions. So the only thing that I, the only thing that I really like about the stages, I don't give the shit about the points.

I don't care if they give them or don't give them. it makes no difference to me. What I like is that guys will flip stages. Yeah, it recycles the order a little bit. Yeah, it puts maybe a fast guy is going to go, all right, I'm taking the chance to win this race, and I'm going to go back in the field for a little bit, and then you get to see him try to work through the field, right?

Trying to get back toward the front and all this sort of, all this playing out, right? That's what I like about the stages. And if you take the yellows out, that goes away. And if you take any, like you have to pay something for it, because if you don't have a reward for the stages, everyone's going to do the same strategy. We're all going to pit at the same lap.

You know what I mean? I think in most... But don't you think, though, T.J., that if you took the stage cautions out, then at a lot of these tracks, you can't afford to flip the stage. You're putting yourself a lap down, hoping for a yellow that might not come.

Well, if you take the cautions out completely, yeah. I mean, you're going to... It's going to make it a little bit different. I think you should take it off from plate races. Well, no one's... That's fine, but no one's going to... If they take the cautions out, then just... Just pay the stage points.

Yeah, but why do you need to do that? Because nobody's going to... You pay the stage points now, right? And you have the caution, and it does have this opportunity to sort of flip the field a little bit. At some tracks. Not everywhere, but yes. And you get the restart, which gives you action.

So if you take the caution out, then don't... What's the point of giving the point? I don't even see how that matters anymore. I don't know. If you... Yeah. I mean, you can still give points, but it's like, yeah, okay.

I guess. I mean, I don't... I have just more math for me to do as a fan. I think if you're doing stages, you've got to do some points because that gives a... That does cycle thing. It gives more incentive to try to do that

and be off the wall a little bit, and it does cycle... Oh, but if you take the cautions away. Just let it run out. All right. So people are saying, And, you know, I don't like the cautions. I don't like the stages.

And basically, taking the cautions out basically ends the stage era as we know it. Yep. You're just going to be giving some points at certain points in the race. And it's similar to, like, you know, they used to have a halfway challenge, but it was cash. Yeah, yeah, you're racing for some money. Yeah. But, yeah, I don't know. I just don't know if the points, if you need the points, if you take the causes out, do you really need to leave the points?

and have them points available and does it, would it make people race differently? Probably not, because they can't come. You can't flip a stage anymore. Knowing the caution's coming

allows you the chance to do some things. Say you get a yellow, everybody's coming down pit road, you know what I mean? Hopefully. Yeah, I mean. You're not going to stay out to win the stage points

for a yellow that's not coming. Yeah. So it changes everything. The points really become. obsolete yeah um yeah so i don't know what happens with that that's one conversation that's not really happening is what what if anything happens to stages right yeah i haven't heard anything about it i don't mind the stages honestly yeah it there's multiple strategies there's a lot of people that don't like them you know that we're in in the conversation around of where's our

where's our viewers went and what will bring them back you think stages is up there? A lot of people don't like them. I don't know. I don't know. Stages don't really bother me that bad. They don't bother me. Nothing really, nothing really,

nothing is just outright awful. Just a lot of little stuff. I'll tell you too, man. I think the lawsuit is wearing on some folks. And then I think a lot of fans are just frustrated. And then the reports are coming out and you're like, can a reporter just put this in dummy terms for them? Well, that's easy.

Just ask your AI. But yeah, it's just, I think all fans want it to be done. There's somebody in the comments that is going to go, hey, tell me what this means, AI and whatever, you know, whatever AI tool you're using. And I go read that. And it's like, okay. But do you think that possibly the lawsuit and it dragging on his turns to people off, I would say, yeah. It's getting old, I guess. Yeah. So with that said, there was a group of owners wrote letters in not so much in NASCAR's defense,

but I think NASCAR was hoping these would be in NASCAR's defense. Like, and maybe NASCAR, you know, I think there was an intent by NASCAR to get the team owners to sort of say we're kind of on their side, right, with this whole deal. But a lot of teams avoided that in the wording of their letters that they wrote. And they basically just said, hey, we want the charter system to stick around. It's very important. I now have this entity I can sell that I didn't have before. And so it opened up the door, I guess, for 2311 and front road to say, hey, these letters

say everything that we've already said. Nine of the 13 charter teams submitted signed declarations. And basically both sides argued that that was positive for each one. NASCAR thought it was good for the teams to come out and say that the charter system is good. but no one I don't believe would step in and actually say you know where with NASCAR on this no and I think NASCAR was kind of hoping that might be the end messaging you know summary

the message basically says like can you guys please figure this out because we don't want our business screwed up yeah and I think there's real fear so if I had to guess if I had to guess I think there is some concern that this is actively, as we speak, been detrimental to the success of NASCAR. It's turned a bunch of people off. I think it's turning a bunch of people away. It is not done NASCAR or it's not done either side any favors.

It's kind of gotten a little ugly and personal at times. It's not been a great look at certain times for both sides. and I'm on the boat that absolutely wishes this would get settled soon. It just, I'm, everybody's tired of this. And I don't know what, I don't know what it would take to get both sides happy. I think everybody's got their heels dug in and there's some pride and some ego involved. and I don't know. You know, I just feel like there's also, in the past 24 hours, there's been,

NASCAR kind of came out and said that they are absolutely willing to settle and that they would like for there to be a judge appointed to some sort of, you know, a judge that would help both sides come to some sort of agreement. Meet in the middle. Yeah, a mediator. I'm not sure, though. So apparently they've had, as recent as August, they've had conversations about settling, but the mediator has been someone that 2311 is very favorable of.

And that's been their response to this. So NASCAR came out and said, we're open to a settlement. We'd like to have a judge appointed mediator. 2311 responded saying, we also are open to a settlement, but we already have a mediator. We don't want a different one. And having a judge come in

would need to have to relearn this entire case would likely not result in an agreement. And so... Well, it doesn't sound like this is going to reach an agreement either. Yeah, this doesn't sound like it's going anywhere. And I'm wondering, too, if NASCAR didn't just remind... Was this... Was this...

Was this really nothing more than NASCAR going? By the way, we do want a settlement if that, you know, not that we think one's going to happen, but we just want people to know that we're not against the settlement. I think that's a big thing is public perception. Public perception. For sure. Yeah. And so, you know, it's just a reminder, I think more than anything of, by the way, like, you know,

we're not over here. We will settle under the right terms, right? we're totally down with that. Not even expecting it to happen, but just so that the public knows. And that maybe could be what this is. We're going to have a chance to know more here in a couple days. But I thought that was pretty interesting.

Initially, right out of the gate, my hopes got up that it could be a good move in the right direction. Like, oh, man, maybe finally we can get this over with. But the more, then you see 2311s. response and it doesn't sound like that they can even agree on how to come to terms with a conversation to settle. Right. Not only can we not agree on the lawsuit and a settlement, we can't agree on how to

have that conversation. But I can't, you can't, like I kind of agree with NASCAR. I don't, you want to have someone that's in the middle completely, right? If you're having a mediator, you're supposed to be in the middle, not one side of it. That's NASCAR saying that the mediator is not in the middle, though. Well, where's the response? from 2311. If they say they already have a mediator,

that tells me that, you know, could that not, if it does favor them already, that's not really a mediator to me. Well, so how do we know, though, that the mediator's favoring one side

versus the other? I mean, I don't... Pull up the response, please. I think you do, but... They had previous settlement conversations in August with former chief legal officer

of the NBA. serving as the appointed mediator. And the NBA, that's definitely not going to be one side there a little bit. And so despite, and this is from 2311, I believe, despite the best efforts of that mediator, they were unable to resolve the matter. And they met continuously numerous times. It appears that if they continue any mediator,

mediation efforts 2311 wants that MBA appointed mediator to stay on I hope it comes to a settlement as same. I don't see how it's going to do that but I don't know how

I don't see how I don't see how and I think as long as it keeps going I think it's you know it's definitely not helping it feels a lot

like what a work stoppage or something like that would be like, you know, for like Major League Baseball or Strike. This feels like it's doing the detrimental things that something like that does to a sport. This feels like it's doing the same thing. Does that make sense? Yeah. I mean, I know what you mean. Just a cloud that needs to go away.

Yeah. All right. well as unfun as that is to talk about it's definitely what's happening in the sport today all right so joining us today on the call-in is race winner SVG coming out of the roval another big win in what's been an incredible season for you this far but i honestly want to talk more about the performance on the ovals over the last couple of weeks or the last couple oval trips, man. Things seem to be really starting to come together. I know that's got you excited, especially going into Vegas. Talk about how the past couple of weeks, what's been the difference

maker for you to be able to get the car more comfortable and you'd understand what you need? Yeah, well, hey guys. Yeah, it's been an awesome few weeks turning it around, getting better, and we had a pretty rough playoff run for whatever reason. And then, yeah, got to New Hampshire and I don't know, it just started clicking again and had some speed and we were running inside the top 10, which is awesome, and before we spun out. And then Kansas just seemed to keep building on it. And yeah, confidence was there and had some good battling and coming back through the field was a lot of fun, had some good racing, and just, yeah, amazing to be competitive and to be

confident to move around. And yeah, and then the roval obviously capped off a pretty good three weeks for us. Yeah, for sure. You know, I think I don't know when everybody expected you to start to figure out the ovals, but I thought, you know, if you're given the time that you would eventually, you know, have some moments where we'd start to see the progress, you know, is this a situation of where you almost wish the season would continue, or are you ready for, you know, for the end and an opportunity to sort of hit the reset button and get ready for 2026?

six? Yeah, I guess you know, it's a long grueling year. Like you see all the team guys, it's obviously good this week. Everyone's pretty upbeat still, but it's a long year for these teams, so they're ready for a holiday, but for us drivers, I love it. I'll race every week if I could, but

yeah, I think it's it's just been good to get some momentum and, yeah, I feel like I'm really still learning a lot every week, so a break will be good, but I could keep going too. It's a lot of fun. What do you do with the that allows you the opportunity to sort of, you know, be able to continue to seamlessly

improve and get to where you want to go going into next year. What will you do this off season? Just keep studying as much as I can. We got good continuity with our team and crew chief spotter. Everyone's staying on. So that's really going to help. And, yeah, I'll have a good little holiday in New Zealand, do some racing over there and some old cars and stuff.

And then, yeah, come back here, start getting ready. The season will come around pretty quick. again, I bet. Sprint car? Doing any sprint car? No, no, no, we're no sprint cars this year, unfortunately. It's, uh, just, I'm only going for two weeks or so and, yeah, it'll be time off.

What are you going to drive over there? Uh, we're doing our big paddock race you do with our friends, so that's probably the big race building. We build up old cars and go racing and spend a couple of days in a paddock. Is this a fish? Is this official or just, like, you know, just run with you. We think it. We think it is, but it's not. So I know you've been on eye racing a lot, and I'm a big fan of eye racing,

and kind of wonder how much you might attribute your growth and progress to racing online, even at home. Yeah, so I do quite a lot. I've always done it for years, and yeah, race with some friends on there, and I kind of stopped for a while. And, yeah, but I find it really good. I find the team Sims are really good, but you don't get to race anyone, getting to race on i racing and you can race um joe racing in an underwear on the other side of the

country and he'll be smoking here or whatever you know like it's crazy the talent that's on i racing and but the battling is awesome and yeah i find i find it's a really good tool i raceing and i try and do it a you know once a week or something on a night and it's pretty fun yeah the um the round coming up we have Vegas and then um martinsville and talladega um you know we know we what is your, I guess, of those three tracks, which is the one you're looking forward to the most? I don't know. It's a pretty big contrast to tracks, isn't it? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Probably the mile and a halfs are the ones I'm still not the most comfortable with. So hopefully we keep building on Kansas at Vegas this week and keep learning there. But yeah, I enjoy the Super Speedways, but I haven't

got a good result there yet. So hopefully I go good at Talladega and get a finish, you know. Yeah. I thought, yeah, I thought your approach. to speedway racing was really good when you were in the first year in the Xfinity series. You weren't a guy that you just kind of sit there and let everybody make moves, and you kind of took ownership of what you had and took what came easy, and you'd end up with a relatively good result. Now, when you go to Martinsville, I've seen some guys with, I'll just, you know, AJ Almondinger comes to mind, but guys that have a ton of talent on road courses

tend to not find a Martinsville to be that foreign to them. Explain that to me why you feel like maybe Martinsville might have been one of the ovals, I suppose, that came more natural. Yeah, I guess because you've got more of a downshift and, you know, you've got a bit more technique with your braking and how you can use your tools with the brake bias, the gear change, and how you get the car into the corner.

So you can kind of influence it a little more as a driver, unlike a big oval. But yeah, it's still pretty difficult. You still see the regular oval drivers that are amazing there. And, you know, it's a tough track. I got a decent result there last year. I think I got a 12th with some strategy. And we did our pace last year, but then a wheel fell off.

Sorry, the start of the year. Yeah, no fun. That wasn't good. That wasn't good. But, yeah, it's a crazy race. I enjoy racing there until the end of the stages or the end of the race when everyone just loses their minds. but in the normal racing, I find it a really fun track.

Is it different than Xfinity when you, is the Cup race a little bit different than Xfinney racer? Because I remember an interview you did after the Xfinny race, you were like, you know, that was kind of rude of that guy, how they kind of get at the end. Oh, man, I didn't even need brakes in that last cream like kicker in Xfinity. I was one of my first, first oval, short track oval here that last year and just the disrespect people had for their equipment was pretty eye-opening.

That's a good thing. way to put it. I mean, that's a very good way to put it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it's fun. I feel like the cup guys race with a lot more respect, you know, and there's a bit of towing and throwing with the tire wearing stuff now. So, yeah, I think it's, I think it's a bit better racing there. Yeah, talk about that. I know that, you know, in, you, the V8 supercar stuff, there's definitely degradation, and if you don't take care of the tire, you can suffer on drive and all those things on the long run. You've got to be pretty smart, but you still drove the shit out of those things from what it looked like on television. The tire that we've been able to sort of develop and bring along this year,

particularly this past weekend, tons of fall off, tons of wear, you had to be really careful. How serious, I suppose, was your own concerns late in the race with tire degradation and trying to keep the rear tires on the car? Yeah, it's funny, you know, you're driving and would start a stint doing a 28, 128, you know, and you could do it 26 if you wanted, but you'd be in the 30s pretty quick. I don't think everybody could do that. There's a few fast cars, but, you know, it's odd. Obviously, it makes good racing cars coming and going,

but you don't want to make it too much of a tire conservation where everyone's just, you know, moping around at half speed trying to save tires. So I think the amount of tires we had and how much fall off there was, there was two stoppers, three stoppers and stuff like that. I think that keeps it interesting, but I felt like you could still push and make moves and, you know, the start of stage three, those guys went way harder and passed me, and then they paid the price for it later. Yeah, that was a question for me.

When the 5 and 20 got a little aggressive there, kind of got by you and 2 there, and you kind of let them go. What was your mindset right there? Did you know you had them back? Oh, that was later on. No, Kyle. Kyle did a pretty good move and put me in the marbles, so. Yeah, and 2.

Between 1 and 2, he just went half throttle to try and put the, the 20 in between us. And it was actually a really good move by him and pushed me into the marble. So quite smart racing, yeah. Does the, I guess, you know, now that you're, how much, how physical would the racing be in New Zealand and Australian comparable?

So is, you know, I know when you came over here, you were kind of taken aback by how ridiculous things could get at some of the end of these races, particularly like your first Cota experience in turn one on late restart, things like that. But what happened with Kyle at the at the at the at the roble that to me is like I love seeing that. I like contact a little you know just with him respect right and I think Kyle really enjoyed that little exchange. What are you thinking when that's going down and you know

are you having as much fun as we think he is? Yeah. Oh I loved it and I started it by giving a little tap at seven by accident and he just swirmed right down onto me and then it was on you know. Yeah. I passed him and he kept bumping me wide and I'm all for that. You know, I bought it on by starting it accidentally but then it got rough and then once I caught him later, I passed him

but yeah, like some of the other stuff you see going on in the field like the Hoseva thing or Daniel even at the last corner, you'd get crucified for that at home. Really? I like it here because you kind of with Kyle and I, it sorts itself out

and it's respectful afterwards and you know you had a hard race and it's between you guys. There's nothing. and, you know, he wasn't going to grandstand me or I wasn't going to do the same to him, but you race hard and fair because it's for a race win. So, yeah, I really enjoy the style of racing here. And there's obviously a line that can be crossed sometimes, but I feel like everyone I've been against is race me hard but fair.

What is that line getting spun out virtually or breaking, you know, breaking a toe link or something or, you know, damaging the car where they can't continue? Yeah, like, you could, you know, Kyle could easily put me in the wall. after we, you know, I passed on me, and he just gave me those little bumps, you know. Yeah. There's some guys you know that would do silly things, and they have no questions about it. But yeah, most guys in the field I race there, you know, to race clean around them and they'll give you the same back. Yeah, for sure.

Well, man, it's a lot of fun to see. I know just four weeks and the season will be over with and we'll all be having to wait for the next one to start. But have a lot of fun over the next four weeks and enjoying the remainder of this year, bud, and thanks for giving us some time today. Thanks, guys. This episode of Ask Junior's brought you by Xfinity. A new read from Xfinity today. This is important, so we'll all listen.

Over the past 11 years, the Xfinity series has grown into something very special. Xfinity has backed young drivers helping tell their stories and giving them a shot at making it to the Cup series. And they've brought you, the fan, along for the ride, through amazing content, giveaways and access,

you just don't get anywhere else. Now the series name might be changing, but Xfinity, they're not going anywhere. 11 years, one incredible ride, and the next lap's going to be just as good. So I love to hear it. Kind of wondering what Xfinity may be doing next

or where they may start to focus some of their marketing in the sport. We'll all be eager to see what that looks like going forward. But yeah, the, I had a, really unique opportunity to work in hand-in-hand with a series sponsor, ironically, Nationwide that sponsored the series before Xfinity did.

Nationwide would, you know, they shepherd the series, basically, in a way, and they make it their own. And we, in turn, like, call it the Xfinity series, and that gets ingrained in your head. right so this change will be abrupt but you know we'll move forward and and have that same experience with with the new sponsor of rally so but you know they they are uh you know they are a they sponsor race cars they sponsor here they do they do other things to sort of ingrain themselves into the sport but the partners the big partners like like infinity that support um as a series sponsor are to really be appreciated because they're spinning a big check.

They're writing a big check for that opportunity to be the title sponsor of a series. And as a series owner knowing what that does and what good that does for the series, I can really appreciate Xfinity. And all of our past sponsors that have been title sponsors for the Cup series, Xfinity, the trucks, got to have them, you know. And it was concerning, I think, when we went to Cup and they started, you know, we went, we went away from that one, one big model to like all these different ones.

You have like four or five different partners doing it. It's a little nervous about that. But anyhow, very thankful for Xfinity and what they've done for the series that we race in. And, yeah, it'll be just like it was with Bush nationwide and now Xfinity. It'll be tough getting used to a new sound and a new way of saying it or describing the series. But you love to have partners like this that are long-term. Yeah, they did a good job. A lot of great people over at Xfinity, too.

We've gotten to know over the years. But let's get to some of the questions from Xfinity AX Jr. The most common one I saw was people wanted to know how did your race go at Tri-County this past weekend. We had really good speed in practice and like really good speed. I'd never race there before and it's got really good asphalt, a lot of grip. So I don't typically like to go to those racetracks or I like the old war out slow tracks. But I was like, all right, we're going to go do this. And man, I thought we were really good.

And then we put on our tires for qualifying and they did not feel like the same tires that I practiced on. And that's kind of a theme, I guess, in going on right now in short track racing is just, you know, kind of is a bit of some consistency issues at times with the tires. But, you know, I've drove race cars all my life and no two sets of tires ever acted exactly the same. You know, even back in the day when we were racing cup full time. Gosh, every set you put on changed the balance of the car some way somehow. But when the race began, I was really loose. We were so good in practice. And when the race started, we were way too loose.

And this tire, the way this tire works, it doesn't really wear out, but it gets hot. It gets mad. That right rear got pissed off after about 10 laps. And then I was kind of limited to only being able to do what I could do. And I moved forward. We started 24th or something like that. And we got up around 15th or so. But I just got too loose and couldn't really make more progress.

We got caught up in an accident. we had the left front suspension fall off the car. I think we've been a few things also in that crash. But we worked on it, worked on it, worked on it, come up now and pit road a bunch. And finally got the balance reasonable at the end, finished 12th. Not awesome, not terrible, just kind of okay.

But I had a blast. I had a lot of fun. And I'm kind of, I kind of wish I could do another one this year. But I don't have a race on the schedule, but I wish I could go run one more. Looking at some of the YouTube comments, we want to thank Tina. She wanted to let you know that she's buying a sunrise orange truck from your dealership. Wow. Awesome.

Yeah, we have a Chevrolet. Yeah, we have a Chevrolet and a Cadillac Buick GMC store in Tallahassee. It's actually two stores. They're about five miles apart. We have a great, we have a great crew down there rocking and rolling. We've been rocking and rolling on those stores for a couple years now. They have, that's been a lot of fun. So, yeah.

If you're looking for a new car or a used car, you can go to hinderkars.com, and they will find exactly what you're looking for, and they will bring it to you. That's a thing, you know, I don't, people probably think, you know, what's a big deal? I remember, I worked at dealerships for all of my life and men around them all my life, and I remember when you didn't get cars delivered, you go, you go to the dealership and you bought it and you drove it off the lot. Whatever colors they had there, that's what you were stuck with. You couldn't get the color you were. Yeah, you can't, they didn't search around in their inventory all over the

country like hendritkars.com does and oh well we got what so this this new truck i bought i said i bought it from my store it actually come from charleston oh yeah so there's the the idea when you listen i think i think this is how works i really don't know like a trade don't they no no basically rick owns there's chevalet stores it's not just rick there's chevalet stores all over the country but when you're going on to hendertcars.com they'll sell you the truck, you're the car, whatever you want, and they'll find it from wherever store it is,

and they'll have it sent. Right, yeah. And so you're buying it from your store, but it actually might have physically been at a different place, right? And so... Just gives people more options and stuff. Yeah, that's not how they worked for years. You know, stores were independently owned.

There was no internet. There was no, like, sort of web of being able to like, hey, you know, if the Chevrolet store in the other town had the vehicle you wanted, you had to go over to him to buy it. You had to call over there and ask the guy. They weren't going to send it to the other store and be like, here. It's the enemy. Yeah, they're the enemy.

So it's kind of neat how it works now. This next question is from Patty. She heard, there's a story where I guess your dad's pet deer named Apple almost killed Neil Bonnet once. Not Apple. Pistol. Not Apple? Pistol.

Okay. What's the story behind that? I guess I was about 22 years old, 20. Neil Bonnet was dad's best friend. Best friend. And when Neil come around, he talked to you, but he didn't talk to me much. You know, nobody really talked to me all that much. That generation, they weren't back slappers. They didn't come in the room and go, hey, Dale, Jr., what you've been doing, man?

Hey, good to see you. He just was, he'd say, hey, that. how you been good, okay, and that was that. That was about all he's going to get on that visit. But he was in town, and he was going to fish in Dad's Lake while he waited on Dad to finish up something. Dad was busy up in the office. And so Neil goes down, grabs fishing rod, goes down to Lake and's fishing. And he's down there, and Dad had this, dad had a lot of deer on his property, but he had this one called Pistol.

that had been hit by car and raised by humans. Yep. And it was now an adult deer, and it had this, its nose was broken, like severely bent. And one side of its rack was all messed up from the accident from years ago.

But this deer, and I had played with this deer, like when it was a smaller deer and just had a little spike rack, you know, he'd come up and rub on your leg and you could pet him, and he'd come right around you like a dog.

But as he got, older and he started to mature, he got a little more physical. He'd get rougher, harder, pushing, hitting on you and stuff. And eventually, Dad, you know, kind of shoot him away from the house so much, you know, and was like, get out there in the property. Dad had 390 acres. And he's like, get out there and just be a deer, you know. So Neil's on this bank fishing. And pistol come up behind Neil and nudged him in the back of the leg like I want to play. And Neil's like, Neil's like, shoo, get on. Neil's casting.

That deer ran at him wide ass open and hit him at the knee and took him out, took him out, and then jumped on top of it. And the deer, deer, uh, punctured, punctured his chest. Damn. Yeah, deer's attacking him. So it's rut, it's rut and the deer get really aggressive around that time. And so now this deer's attacking him. Neil was able to grab the rack and get out from under the deer and get in between the deer and a tree.

And he grabbed a log. This is Neil's story. He grabbed a log and swung and hit the deer in the head and stunned it and was able to get out of there. And so Neil, no one knows any of this is going on. And I'm in the deerhead shop working. on my late model car. And Neil comes in to the office. He comes into the shop.

And his shirt is, his shirt's like kind of unbuttoned and torn. But I didn't, I mean, he's not bleeding all over the place or anything, but he's mad as hell. And he says, where's your daddy shotgun? And I was like, it's, he keeps it in,

there's one in the office right behind the door. He had a shotgun sitting right behind the door. I was like, it's right there in that office, or a rifle, not a shotgun. Like, where's your daddy's rifle? And Daddy had like a two seven deer or 30-alt-6 or something, right, sitting in the office. Was he mad? Like, was he in it? Yeah, he's very angry.

Very angry, okay. So he said, all right, he grabs that gun, he goes, come on. And I'm like, to you. Yeah, you're going with him now. So we get in the truck and he's in the pasture seat and he's like, take me down to the pond. So we're driving down into the property, down the hill, through the gate. Dad had a 10-foot fence around this property. We drive through there, and it ain't far to get to the pond.

But we're coming toward the pond and out in front of us on this sort of big grassy hill is pistol. And he said, stop the truck. And he got out and laid the gun across the hood of the truck and shot the deer. And I don't know why. At this point, yeah, you have no idea. I have no clue. and he gets back in the truck, drive me over there. We drive over there and we pull up on this deer

and he gets out and he beat the deer with that damn gun. Cussing at it. Oh my God. And we get back in the truck. He's like, take you back up to the shop. We drive back up the shop. He walked in there, put the gun behind the thing. And that's when he starts looking.

looking, you know, at his chest and stuff. And I was like, and I'm starting to put it together. I'm like, what happened? He goes, man, that deer attacked the shit out of me. I was fishing on the, fishing on the bank, and he jumped on top of me, and he poked, and he poked holes in him. And, uh, and I was like, golly. And I'd never, ever seen Neil Bonnet mad at anything.

Never. Right. and he didn't he didn't like call dad and go hey man I'm going to take care of this deer he just did it took care of business and that was

that was the other dynamic of this whole thing like the process of all that playing out is big enough right that's a wow enough story but he shot one of dad's deer and then and they were that close of friends

so that later on on like two hours later, dad comes in and I got to watch dad learn what happened. And I got to watch dad not say to Neil Bonnet shooting his deer

without saying, hey, I'm going to go. Wow. Right? And so that's, that Neil and dad were so equal.

You know, it always looked at dad is like bigger, better, stronger, tougher, more man, more common sense

than anyone in the world. He was just the man's man, no one was better than him, and no one was more of a badass than my dad. But there was Neil Bonnet standing equal to him going, he pissed me off, so I went and shot it. And that you're going, you know, only, only option you have, Dale are hardest to thank me or not say anything at all, right? And dad's like, well, all right, I guess that's what happened. I guess that's, you know, that's, that's what happened. And so, you know, that's that's that.

That is wild. Yeah. It was, I feel like I've told that story. I've never heard that story before. The chat saying they've never heard the story either. Yeah. Why was the deer named Pistol? I don't know really for sure.

But he was, when we got him, he was relatively young and not a threat at all. No, not a threat whatsoever. Now, he matured, it's, you know, three or four years. He's a buck with one side's a really big rack. And he had gotten too aggressive. Like, at that point, I knew not to mess with him because he didn't know how painful the rack was. Because he won't, when we had taught him to push, you know, and we taught him to, like, wrestle and play. And, you know, he was a deer without a rack.

At one point, you know, you could play and wrestle with him. And he had, you know, and in his mind, he's still animalistic in his mind. He don't know. He's not a pet. He's not, like, he's not. He's still wild. Yeah, he's still wild in there. And so as he got to grow in this rack, I was like, you know, now this is not comfortable

anymore and he could hurt me and I'm going to be careful and I don't want to be around him anymore. It was cool to see him and it was cool to be able to get that close to a deer that that was, you know, that was the mature, but you didn't want to play with him anymore physically. And, yeah, I guess he wanted to play and Neil didn't want to play and then he got mad. I don't know. And then Neil got mad. That was something.

That certainly is something. Oh my gosh. The chat's like, wow, what a great story that was. So I don't know where we go from. Well, I just want to say, Neil, dad and, you know, dad and Neil were so close. Right.

Yeah. Yeah. And Neil Bonnet, man, I hate that I didn't know him better, you know. And I hate that I hate that he, you know, I hate we can't talk about that today. You know what I mean? I'd love to be able to. be able to sit down with Neil right now and have him tell you that story.

Dude, for him to go and do that, tells you a lot about him already. Yes. Well, some people won't like it, but, you know, hey, that's what happened. That's what happened. Here's a follow-up, actually, from, remember the question a few weeks ago? Did y'all see?

This reminds me. something I saw on the internet. NASCAR man. Yeah. Put up a quote that Tim Richmond had. And I, usually when I see quotes from drivers from back in the day, I don't, I just like, take it with a grain of salt like, I don't know if that really happened. Did he really say that?

There's a lot of quotes that people say, dad said that I'm like, I don't remember him saying that. I'm not sure about that. They're just like, I can remember when he used to drive over at two, three in the morning, spinning tires, doing donuts in the driveway, shooting off that shotgun. Tim Richmond on Dallernhardt. Isn't that crazy?

It's wild. They were all like that. You know? Why would he do that? Why not? Why not? Just to go mess with Tim. That's crazy.

It was a different time. Tim lived on the lake. And, you know, they'd be, raising some hail I can't even you can't imagine doing that today no right

you get arrested even if you were trying to mess with your buddy Dale Jr. drives over to Jeff Gordon's house back in the outfit I mean it was it was a different time then

but like we like you're you have similar stories maybe not that wild but like it kind of somewhat happened this weekend something similar to that that was really like,

okay, this is what's going on. We were at Tri-County for the race, the late model race, and I had a meet and greet with 20 people from Sundrop, and so my campers right up against this, this fence,

the property line. So we're sitting there having a conversation with 20 people from Sundrop, and literally the neighbor, next, right next to us, like 30, 40 feet away, is shooting a gun. Oh, my God.

You're shooting a target. I imagine. I just hear a gun going off And I'm like Yeah I mean we're in You know up in the mountains Sure

Yeah you know it's Saturday Why not? Great data What the hell Yeah great Great day to cite that thing in Why not? And I'm like

And I'm standing there And I'm like So where are you guys from? This isn't that strange to me But maybe some of y'all Are uncomfortable I don't know Wife's like honey

Don't you think you should wait On another day When there's not people there Nope I do it every Saturday I'm doing it And I'm thinking some of the people in this group I'm doing this meet-greet with are like, I really want to move back. I like to put my little distance between me and that noise. How long did it go on for?

Ten minutes? Oh, my God. Just to, you know, shoot a few rounds, reload. Check your aim. Yeah, take a minute. We had a buddy shoot a TV with a shotgun one time. Why? Remember that?

Who did that? Tofer. Oh, yeah. Christopher Yeah We used to blow stuff up A dynamite for fun What?

We did We did We gotta unpack this TJ was When TJ used to work With a certain race card Right Wow what the hell

You started this TG Sterlin Marlin Starlin Marlin used to give TJ Dynamite What? Yes Little tiny sticks

Oh yeah No There used to be this little Tiny sticks There used to be this little Outbuilding Or this shit on my property We blew that thing

All to hell What? Yes We took that dynamite Stuck it in there We'd throw it in the pond Just watch it blow water in the air Did you ever have a potato gun?

Yeah And nothing It's nothing like dynamite Yeah Yeah, I know We used to go to the grocery And buy every watermelon they had And come back and blow up

Oh yeah We blew them all up in your yard Your yard was covered with watermelon One time Yeah He opened T.J up man He just goes and goes What else can you tell us

T.J.? Oh, nothing Rambuncious days Well I mean, like He's got I mean, everyone knows the flower stories and things like that, but yeah. Yeah. Who's your dynamite guy?

Yeah, Sterling Marlin. Sterling. Firecrackers. That's what he called. They were just big giant firecrackers, but they would do some damage. It sounds like they would. I'm glad that we had fun. I'm also thankful that no one got hurt.

It is a miracle. It is a miracle. James Taylor in the chat, not the singer, I'm assuming. He said I might have thrown a TV off a penthouse in Port Canaveral. Don't do that, folks. When I go to Texas with Amy's family, they shoot household objects and TVs and things like that.

Just down in the woods. Just for fun. I mean, I feel like that'd be awesome to do. There's a little on their farm, There's a little sort of trash pile, and they go down in there and just shoot stuff. Shoot what's there. Yeah. I mean, that's, yeah, nothing wrong.

I shot, I've shot, you know, all those, some of the cars on the race car graveyard. Oh, we shoot that. Oh, really? We've shot the shit out of the cars. Yeah, they've got holes. So the Gossamer car, the Gossamer car, the Xfinity Gossamer car, the Shale that I have is off the backup. It's not the primary. The primary car is in DEI.

We saw some photos leaking. Yes. of the E.I and the primary gossamer cars there. But I got the shell off the backup. And that car and we'd go back in there and shoot the hell out of them things. Just. Yeah. Wow.

Oh my God. That car was in a crate. What happened to that car? Well, just as good as a target. When I first moved to Northern Carolina, he used to get the stickers, the bullet hole stickers and put him on his car. That got old.

So we just started you doing the real thing. I did. You did. I had a red truck and had the bullet hole. People thought those were so cool. Oh, we did. They were, yeah. Oh, where'd you get that mat?

You had to put them on right because they had a shadow, and you had to make sure where you put it on there, the shadow wasn't facing the wrong way. Yeah, so it looked wrong. Yeah, because you'd see some people riding around. You're like, dude, your bullet holes upside down. You're a dummy. What an idiot.

What an idiot. Poser. He's a poser. He's a poser. He's a poser. He's going to be right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Wow. What an ass junior. Yeah, this is one off the rails. This one really did go off the rails, but I think that's a good place to wrap it up. Just when we're starting to have fun. Way to blow it up, Andrew. I know. I got the wrap-up signal.

We've got four minutes. You mentioned seeing those photos leak from DEI. What was like, what was that like seeing what was in there? I was just glad to know that stuff's still well taken care of. It actually made me feel good that. some of my cars are still there, like in the front, like when you go and you look and you're looking back there, that they still celebrate all of the history.

I didn't know. You know, I haven't talked to anybody on that side in so long. I haven't talked to Teresa in so long that I don't know really where they are emotionally about the relationship or the lack of a relationship. And so I was happy to see that some of my cars are still in there. gives me some hope that there's a chance of reconciliation somewhere down the road. Maybe, yeah.

Even though it's unlikely, I just, yeah. Yeah. What a shoot to make the fake one instead, so the real one coming? Yeah, yeah, the backup. Yeah. Yeah, well, that's cool. I did see those photos, and it was neat to see what was inside. I've never been.

For sure. Just a lot of curiosity. But thanks to Xfinity for this Ash Jr. It went off the rails, but it was a fun one. Well, it's still got three minutes. three, you want another? No. I do have a follow-up then.

Just a follow-up. Another follow-up for the follow-up. No, no, no. So, remember when you were like, I can't remember the maddest I've ever been in a teammate? This was a few weeks ago. Oh, good. Someone.

Oh, you and Mark Martin in 2011. Oh, I was mad at Martin. Yeah, Mark Martin. You fenced him off of two at Michigan. Yeah. And then you gave an interview that someone said was funny as hell. I was so mad. Yeah, I remember that.

What happened exactly? No, like, this happened with Mark and also another year in the bud car happened with Matt. And it was almost identical. Michigan turned to probably a late restart. We're all, you know, I'm trying to, you know, run eighth or something. I've been running, you know, seventh or eighth all day long. And you're busting your ass trying to like just get that finish. You know, you've been running there all day.

and in your mind you're like, well, at least I want that. I've been there all day. And you get run into the wall by your teammate off a two, and you finish 12th or 14th. Yeah. And you're like, come on, man. And I remember that. I was mad too.

You race all day and then that happens. You're like, really? Yeah. Yeah. I yelled at Brickhouse for that. The spotter. Yeah, I did yell at him that time. And it was unusual because Mark typically, you know,

he wasn't that kind of guy. And I don't know that he meant to do it. But, you know, he's, I've been that guy, too, on the inside when you're like, I need to throttle up. And there's a car out there. And I need to throttle up. And I can't, you can't get in the gas because you're going, you're going to hit him. But you're at some point, you're just like, I'm coming up. This is it. Yeah, it's like the giving take is over. Yeah. Did you end up talking to Mark about that? You said it was not a normal running.

No, it's not something I think we have to discuss or, you know, we might have had a five minute conversation about it. After as I saw, I talked to Matt and, you know, you have a conversation and they're like, I'm sorry to happen, man, but we're going, we're just going. We're all going. I had to go. Yeah. So I did the same thing to Denny off of four at Michigan. Michigan, for some reason, is very prolific with this type of move.

And we were, we were, I finished fourth or something like that. And, but coming up off of term four, I just gassed it and made Denny have to lift. If I didn't do that, he would have sidrafted me down the straightaway, and cars would have went by to lost a few spots. So I had to do it. I had to, and that's probably the way Matt and Mark were. And we finished the race and we get out, and Denny and me are in bumper-to-bubper on pit road, getting out of our cars.

And he's like, dude, what the hell? And I was like, I had to do it, man. You would have, I couldn't be sidrafted by you down the straightaway. I had to go. You would have cost me a spot or two. and I said I did it because I kind of thought you about it

you would have done it to me and he was like what? You don't know me that well Well apparently he knew him well enough because he did it two weeks ago I know he learned it from down I remember saying that

I was like Travis he's not smiling at all I remember like you'd have done it and he goes I mean he was so taken aback he would have done it you don't know me that well then I guess I was like

I don't know He tore up enough Your Exfany cars. He'd have done it. Did he? Yeah, he tore up some of your Xanity cars. Okay. He'd have done it.

I forgot about that. Well, shout out to Elite Precision on Twitter for bringing that up. Yeah. That's a good one. All right, in racing and in life, speed isn't optional as expected. And as an Xfinity Series team owner, I rely on things that perform under pressure. And that's why we like Xfinity Wi-Fi, fast, dependable, internet, one price, locked in, five years, no contracts, no slowdowns. and no nonsense.

Xfinity, they're a proud premier partner of NASCAR. Thank you all for joining us today. It's a lot of fun. Best part of the show. I say it every time, but it truly is. Thank you all. Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Place your best.

All right, it's time for some dirty mo' dough. And today we don't have Tampa Tims who's taking yet another vacation. Zero dedication to the job. Just off on vacation all the time. But we got this. We have Russell in the house. How's it going to Russell? Good, good.

Yep. This segment of Dirtymodeau is brought to you by Fanjul. And let's go ahead and go over our... I'm looking at this and I'm like, all right, I'm looking at our parlays. Where's the Ford? We never set up. We never picked the Ford. No, but the two names that we talked about were the top two Ford.

Yeah, if you listened to us, we would have hit. Yeah. One of us would have hit it. Mine hit. What was my Ford? I had the 17. But Busher was who you were talking about. And then Russ mentioned another name would be Priest.

Who was the top Ford? Bush. Bush. I'm basically calling it's a win. Yeah, it's a win. And if you didn't bet it, then that's on you. Yeah. Damn right, guys.

Way to go. All right. Good job, Dale. Good job, Me. Tim's also had SVG and Bell. Russ had SVG and Bell T.J. went Reddick. Travis went Reddick.

Didn't pan out, but we all had good purpose and reason why we made those decisions. Let's see. The favorites this week going into Vegas are Larson at plus 500, Bell at plus 550, Hamlin at 600, Bayron 900, Ligano, 1,000?

Legano. Yeah? I wouldn't put much on that. Why not? It's just not, I mean... It's one of his best tracks. Yeah. He won there last year, didn't he?

He's won there a lot. What's the number saying, Lugano? I understand why Dale says it, but he's won this race twice before and went on to winning the championship. I think the odds, they're giving him two good odds. I would want that at 1,500. They're just not running that well to do that.

No. Vegas knows, though, that people are going to think that, so that's why they're... Well, I don't know. It's a trap. So you're saying avoid it? I mean, I think Blaney could beat him. Man, Blaney is fast.

I'm just saying of the Fords, I think Blaney could outrun him. He could. Should outrun him. What does the predictor say on the Ford side? Best Ford for the prediction. Blaney. Blaney. Yeah.

You know, he struggled there in the spring, like on paper, but he had like the third best car, I would say. Speed-wise, yeah. Yeah. The disrespect for Josh Barry. Geez. Well, I think Barry in that race did win, but he was, you know, fourth to six.

Yeah, I'm not, I agree. I don't have... He wasn't a dominant car. I don't have a perfect memory of that event, but yeah, I think it cycled to where he got an opportunity to get the track position

and was able to hold it and have the fastest car at the end of the race. I've definitely got Barry as a top ten, but I'm sure the odds are not going to be much. If Blandy can get through practice and that with no issues, because hasn't he, he's had practice issues the last two or three times or two of the last three or something, right?

It crashes early in practice and was in a backup car or something. Yep. So that's definitely something. Well, let's go, what's everybody? Barry's plus 3,500. So you might top 10, you might get a good number. Dang, right. I'd do that.

Barry finished 16th this weekend. He's, you know, admittedly not that great on the, road courses started near the back, almost dead last. John Wood, the pessimist that he is, said that he was going to, you know, have a bad day. They ended up with a good result, top 20. Yeah, he was solid, just quiet. Yeah. All day.

That's all you got to do. And I think, you know, coming off of some momentum, they go into this weekend, a track that, you know, Barry's won the Xfinity race there. He's won cup race there. Definitely can get in there and get a top 10. I think they go there expecting a top 10. So that might be good money. Yeah.

So what's everybody else's for? Everybody going Blaney? Yeah. It's hard to go against Blaney. I know Joey got the one there last year. Let's not all do the same thing here. Let's not all do it different. Let's all come to consensus of one particular parlay for this weekend.

All right. So Blaney's the Ford. All right. Let's go to Chevrolet. Larson is at plus 500. What's the predictor tell us? I have him at the top three wins. He's been domino mile and a halfs this year.

Like, number of lines. All right. And Byron's struggling. So is Larson back? Are we back on the Larson train? Is he back or are we still down on him? Where are we at?

I never worked on like he's back. I never left him. He's been top 10 the last three races. Like that's his best stretch since like before, you know, the whole indie Charlotte. Yeah. I really don't. Has there been a Chevrolet that's been a standout? like in speed?

Not really. Yeah, they've been kind of... They've been sitting right behind those Toyota's last couple weeks, right? Wouldn't you say? All playoffs, really. Yeah. Well, it's interesting to see if they can shift forward. Is this not a strong track for Byron?

He struggled, though, last several weeks. And he doesn't seem to have an understanding of what's going on. I feel like Byron's strong at Vegas. Yeah, so he's been top 10 to last five races here, fourth lap two. That's pretty good. Pretty good. I know, but I'm with Dale. They're just struggled lately.

Like, big time struggles. Like, same tire as Kansas. They were not good at Kansas. Yeah, didn't they have something happened, though, and they got back in the pack and had to work their way back up through? I thought he actually made it back up into the top 10 pretty good from being. Massive adjustments on one of those stops. Yeah.

Came back to finish ninth. But they were, you know, they ran 17, like, their average running position at Kansas was 17th. What's Chase at Vegas? Because my theory is like, I feel like he got a playoff win and whether he got lucky or not, I feel like you see a driver get one win and it just kind of loosens him up in the playoffs

and then they can find that next one. He's just, it's not, this is not his best track, especially in the next gen car. Never mind. But it's the same tire as Kansas and we just, he just won at Kansas. I don't, you know. It's hard to go against Lars.

And if Lars is going to have a clean day, I think he's the favorite, in my opinion. But he's got a, he just has them moments at times. He had that wreck off of two. He got into the wall off of two by himself, wrecked with Bub on the front stretch. I mean, he just, if he doesn't take himself out, he's the top, in my opinion, for the Chevy.

Larson, agreement. Larson, it is. Let's go to Toyota. Is it going to be Bell, Hamlin? I'm going with Bell. I like it. He's been top, he finished second in the last two playoff races here. should have won this race last year,

let 155 laps. Feels like it's time for him to do something, right? He always kind of shows up. And he's on the best streak of late 2. What about the 19? Chase has won here before, and now he's in a much, you know, I feel like he's in a competitive car this week too,

so you don't feel like he could surprise some people because I do. I think the 19's been faster. I just had something, kind of derail their races, but I feel like it's been fast. Chase is pretty good there, too. Yeah, and he has the most top fives on mile and a half tracks this year, two of all drivers. But he wasn't, it was early for them this year. He was 17th during the spring. Yeah. Like, they didn't get going until later in the year.

I feel like he got, I feel like he got a lot better stuff. So, I mean, I wouldn't be afraid to take, I wouldn't be afraid to take Briscoe, but. Let's go with Bell for this particular week. And so that's your parlay for this week. and Bell, Larson Blaney. A couple featured matchups will go through real quickly, guys. Kyle Larson, William Byron. I think we all agree, Larson. Yeah.

Christopher Bell, Lugano, I'm definitely going Bell there. And Briscoe, Chase Elliott. That's a tough one, but maybe Briscoe edges out. Chase? Elliot? Two chases. I think he can. And then Blaney and Hamlin.

I don't know. That's also very difficult. I don't feel like Denny's been great here. Yeah. He's okay. I go, Denny. He was great at Kansas. Yeah.

All right. We'll go with Denny Hamlin. And that'll be the Dirty Mo Doe segment brought to you by Fan Duel, the premier gaming destination in the United States. All right, it's time for the white flag. We're going to wrap this show up. The tear down was live on YouTube and Twitter following the race. If you hadn't already, go over to Dirtymo Media's YouTube page.

Hit the subscribe button, turn on notifications. You won't miss any. anything to tear down. Always fun to catch up with those guys. Man, join Bianchi. He's got his heels dug in. Yeah. He does.

Got everybody spun out. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And actions detrimental dropped on Monday. Once again, Denny found himself in the center of the drama, as he does every week. Back to back to back weeks. Willingly or not. And Doorbumpur Clear also dropped on Monday.

They were joined by Lee Diffy. Thank you, Lee, for coming through. Yeah. And my guest interview. with Steve O'Donnell drops tomorrow. We're going to have Steve on the show, talk about things. And Herm and Schrader and Speed Street also drop an episode on Wednesday. Thursday, another episode of Bless Your Heart, and then on Friday, Dirty 30.

And also, Dirty Mo Media is there having a merch contest for the fans. It is called Dirty Mo Making merch, Bless Your Heart Fan Edition. That's a lot. But hey, get the point. Head on over to shop.durdymodea.com and click the Making Mo merch contest. click that tab for all the information and the cutoff for this is October the 13th and you need to know that first place

is going to win 500 bucks all right so that's a lot of money that is all right that's the show thank y'all we'll see you tomorrow