The Dale Jr. Download - Longer Green Flag Runs Would’ve Made Charlotte Incredible

Episode Date: October 13, 2026

After a hometown NASCAR weekend in Charlotte, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is back behind the microphone for a new episode of Dirty Air. He joins co-host TJ Majors to break down the thrilling finishes and points standings:The CARS Tour finale at South BostonAsphalt short trackers are showing out in the Truck SeriesCorey Day makes the O’Reilly points race interestingKyle Larson’s points lead isn’t as big as it seemsThe next three races are the fields’ chance to close the gapRace winner Chase Briscoe calls into the showDuring the Ask Jr. portion of the episode, listeners sent in questions regarding:Sam Mayer’s throwback scheme at CharlotteHow Dale Jr.’s autograph has changed over the yearsBrexton Busch’s burnoutDale and TJ had a close one in fantasy footballFor more check out our YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. 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.

You don't need a cool best for that race? What are you thinking? Get them, T.J. Hellway to start a show. All right then. Hey, everybody. Stale Jr. back again for another. episode of the Dale Junior download and this episode is brought to you by Arby's.

Arby's has the new meat in three box. You get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meats. Got one of those right over there on my, over my shoulder. And we got Chase Briscoe calling in here in a bit to talk about his big win. TJ's here. Travis is here. And I am remote today. My kids are on their fall break. so we got out of town for a day or two. So I get on the podcast about how early the kids start school these days. But the benefits are that there is a fall break that didn't exist for me back when I was going to school in the 80s. So, yeah, it's kind of neat.

You know, they go to school. They probably start maybe a couple weeks earlier than normal. and because in my life, summer was defined by the end of the school year and the beginning of the next school year. And the three months that you did not go to school were June, July, and August. But my kids now start back in the middle of August. and I'm like, you know, having kids that go to school, I'm only about a year or two into this. I was in the third grade. I'm like, when the hell did this happen?

When did we start going to school in the middle of the summer? You know, the summer is June, July, and August. When did they start taking some of the summer away from the kids? That's BS. August is definitely a summer month. It sucks, but it might be nice, though, because you think about it. about it, you're getting these breaks in between so you're not just going all time. And then from a school perspective, you're less likely to forget all the stuff if your summer is shorten.

I'd rather have a longer summer. Well, here we are, you know, middle of October, and we have a week off where we can go do something while the weather's still decent in some parts of the country. So I think it's fantastic. I don't love starting early, but I do love these little breaks we get. quite a bit is going on outside of the NASCAR world for us. Number one, want to give a shout out. We got the car store coming up this weekend. The final race of the season at South Boston. South Boston is a badass racetrack.

One of the premier short tracks in the southeast, if not in the country. And I have been seeing all over social media all of the South Boston regulars. because South Boston has a really solid weekly show with a lot of really, really tough competitors that race there. Peyton Sellers, obviously National Champion many years over. But there's a handful of these regulars that are going to compete with us. This is unheard of.

Peyton Sellers, very few times as he ever came out and raced with the cars tour. And one of the, it's a couple of reasons why, we don't see a lot of the regulars from South Boston. We had a little bit different of a shock rule where we allow, we're a little looser on our shock rule. So there's a couple of parts and pieces that we allow that they don't run or don't even probably own that they would need to go purchase, right,

to come race with us. That's a couple, that's a little bit of an expense. And they also are racing for national championships and track titles at South Boston and Kent. You know, it's one or the other. race with the cars tour, you're going to go race at your local track for the track title. You can dip every now and then into the cars tour when the South Boston might have an off weekend, but you're not going to risk tearing up this awesome car that you have that's primed

and ready to go to the next race at South Boston. Yeah, try to be a champion. So it's rare that they race with us, and our rules are just slightly different than NASCARs. And so they feel like that maybe when they come compete with us, they're at a bit of a disadvantage. But they're going to do it. They're coming for it. So if you see, I've seen it on,

I'm seeing it online and I love it. South Boston is, South Boston is kind of prepping this as the car stores coming into our territory. Yeah. Our regulars are going to compete and try to beat them. It's going to be a pretty cool show to see what happens there. And so I love that.

Also, um, the late model stock championship has decided. our own Caden Quaple with the jerky boys Chevrolet has won that championship. But the pro is not. This pro battle is wide open. So big implications for that. A lot of money on the line, the floatium.

I think for the pro, you win the championship, the floatium, and the race purse. You know, that's in the $35,000 to $40,000 range for the weekend. So a lot going on there. this is what everybody, I hope, remembers from this conversation. You guys remember Trayton Lapsovich. He was the driver that was gotten that little mix up of Corey Hymn down at Martinsville. Crew gets into a little bit of a fight over Top Dog Stand. Since then, Trayton and the team, they went to Newport and ran the last race,

but decided after that event that they were going to part ways. my car that I ran at Newport survived. Got out of there one piece, and we invited Trayton to come over and get it ready and go race it at South Boston. So Trayton Lapsovich is going to be racing for Junior Murder Sports in the second car with filter time on the quarter panels. So I've been texting with Trayton this morning,

getting him up to speed on what filter time is. and how he can help us promote that business and hope he goes to South Boston with Brian and the guys and has a great weekend to finish out the Car Store Strong. So Trayton and Connor Jones are battling for second place in the late-mile stock points. Caden Cople's won the championship,

but the second still, they're dead even. So I'm going to get Trayton an opportunity to go there and have a good run. I'm not sure if Chad Bright and his team with the 77 will field the car with another driver because they are going for second in the owner's points. And the owner's points is what really pays. So it'll be a, it's going to be quite the field of cars.

You know, we're going to have our regulars and then, man, it looks like four or five South Boston regulars. That's a lot. When we go to these other racetracks, we get two or three of their guys that want to race with us. So it's, it's, I'm excited. And I believe that, I want to, shout out South Boston

and their management because I believe that they are encouraging the you know, the drivers there to compete. I really, I really think that's cool. So, because they're really pushing it on social media.

Yeah, their social has been good. Yeah, I had a birthday this past weekend. I got a lot of great gifts. I got these two boxes of Topps, 2006, or actually, sorry, you, Bowman. Bowman is owned by Top.

So you got the Bowman, which is a traditional brand, and then the tops wrapping got me a little confused. But NFL got me two boxes, two autographs per box, hopefully. It's two autographs I'm excited about. But another great gift that I got was a retail box from Jerky Boys. Jerky Boys, Beef Jerky, the best beef jerky made in the world. If you haven't had it yet, you're one of the few who hasn't tried it, who listens to this show. But it's the best beet jerky in the world, best flavor, texture, all of that.

And they sent me a retail box, like it's, I don't know, 20 or 30 bags of jerky. It was amazing. I'm a customer of my own business. I'm a customer. I pay, we have a subscription with jerky boys where you get mailed. jerky and you can get as much as you want. And so I pay to have jerky boys send me a subscription so I can have the customer experience and I eat it before my next shipment comes.

But I'm afraid to buy more than I'm getting because I just, I mean, if I, if I had an unlimited supply of jerky boys, I'd probably eat one bag per day. It's just that good. Yeah, I would. I think you might be even a little bit more than that. More, maybe more, maybe more than that. But I go through a bag a day, easy. If there's, if it's in the house, it's a bag of day.

If you sit down and watch TV, it's easy to, it's easy to have a bag. Yeah. I know it. So, but there's only a hundred and, I think, 180 calories or 160 calories per bag. It's like 60 calories per serving, three serving in a bag. So it's pretty nice. So I feel like I'm eating healthy, getting some protein. not eating a bunch of junk could be worse so it could be worse

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Download listeners. You can use this promo code, download 26 at checkout. Head over to Lionel Racing.com to lock in your favorite NASCAR moments into your collection today. Everybody knows that Virginia is for racing lovers, and there aren't many places that prove that better than the historic Martinsville Speedway. We're headed back there on November the 1st for the Xfinity 500, and this is a big one. It's the final race before the championship race, so there's no saving anything if you're still

fighting for a shot at the title. This is your last chance to get it done, and Martinsville is the perfect place for that kind of pressure. It's tight, physical, guys are beating and banging all race long, and you just know somebody's feelings are probably going to get hurt before it's all over. I've got a lot of great memories at Martinsville winning there in 2014. That's a race I'll never forget. And of course, nothing beats winning that Martinsville clock.

The hot dogs, the grandfather clock, the fans, this place is just special all the way around. So come see for yourself, November 1st, the Xfinity 500. Get your tickets at Martinsville Speedway.com or call 877 race tics. That's 87-R-A-C-E-T-I-X. going to have a great time. All right, so we're going to talk about the racing this weekend. Kind of a weird weekend with the weather, kind of had that hurricane coming through and, you know, ruined everything.

But we ended up getting the races in. In the truck series, Lane Riggs had a great night gaining 20 points on Caden Honeycutt. And as we go into the final handful of races for them this season, Caden Honeycutt is 17. points ahead of Lane Riggs. And the reason why we're talking trucks right now is because Caden and Lane both racing the Cars Tour.

Caden runs late models and pros still does, still did this year. Lane Riggs was a national, Lane Riggs was a national champion in late model stocks in the NASCAR national champion,

but also raced in the cars tour against Josh Berry. Fourth place, Sheenekys race for junior motorsports and late mall stop program and cars tour as well. Daniel Hammack comes out of pros and super's out, you know, asphalt short track racing. So, Ty Majesky as well. Just a lot of them. Pretty cool.

Yeah, pretty cool to see, you know, a lot of guys that come out of asphalt short track racing. You know, there's a million different ways to get to the NASCAR level or any level you want to get to. and we know that dirt plays a big factor in that as well. But it's good to see some of our asphalt guys showing out at the front of the field. But I'm interested in the championship battle with the trucks because Lane and Caden are both dynamic personalities. Like they're two guys that don't, they give you a great interview. they don't you know we look at we look a lot of these young guys coming in and boy do they need some work they need to go to train they need to go to media training they some boys that

just ain't ain't got it and there's like there's a personality in there but they got to figure out they got to get i mean i took media training when i was young it was a real big help and um i was thankful for it but even with that media training i was pretty atrocious there for them first handful of years. But Caden, Honeycutt, and Lane Riggs, they are going to tell you what they think. And so this is going to get more interesting, more fun, more compelling for fans as this truck series, truck series championship battle kind of winds down. And it's really between these two guys.

They got Chandler Smith 77 points back. I don't know if he can make that. Right. And they're the first two. it'll be the first championship for either one of them, right? Yeah. I believe so. He's never won a truck championship.

I don't think Lane has either. Yeah. Yeah, but you're right, though. Those two guys, when they do an interview, you get the raw emotion from whatever just happened quite a bit with them guys. I feel like they're very good at doing that. And it's got, they're a good interview. You're fun to watch.

Yeah. In the Raleigh series, they race Sunday night. That felt weird. I drove up to Charlotte Murder Speedway as the cup race was ending. That was stupid. Weird. Oh, traffic had to be bad.

Oh, man. Traffic was at a standstill leaving, much less going in. It wasn't, you'd think it'd be easy to get in there if everybody's trying to get out, but it was impossible. But I got out of the truck at an intersection near the track and talked to a couple of local state trooper and what we're trying to do, and they gave us a help.

They gave us a hand to skip across some traffic. So we got inside the track. It felt weird being there after the cup race. And we got a weird, as far as I was concerned, as far as Junior Motors was concerned, and we got a weird race. Just now, Geyer, looked like the car to beat late in the race.

There was a yellow that came out that kind of changed the way The race ended up playing out, but I thought Justin had the car to beat, especially on the long run, really, really fast. Caution comes out. We come down pit road, put on our last set of tires, and that set of tires was really, really tight. And Justin just couldn't, you know, just didn't have the pace or the speed of the car. He didn't have the race car to hold him off. But Corey Day ends up winning the race, and this was a big deal because if Jesse Love wins the race,

Justin leaves the racetrack, I think, with a 32-point deficit to Jesse Love. But since Corey Day beat Jesse Love and he wins the race, Justin is only 15 points out. And so that feels, that was one thing. That's when I walk up to Justin at the car at the end of the night, that's what we talked about. I said, hey, man, I know we don't love this, but, you know, we had to, Pretty solid night, and we're leaving here 15 points out instead of 30 some points out.

So, you know, we got a really good shot going to Phoenix, one of his best racetracks. And so I'm pretty happy with Justin. I know he dominated the season, but I mean, it's no different than in the cup level with Denny having such a great regular season. and even read it to an extent. But, you know, it's just, it's a long year. And the team's ebb and flow. And, you know, everybody brings their best stuff to the chase. And, you know, you don't have many mulligans.

You don't have opportunities to make many mistakes. And so we just not had a very clean chase. And it shows in the points, but we still got a really good shot with Justin. Carson Quaple had a suspension failure in the rear. Really, you know, is running at night, a lot of high loads. That track has gotten really, really bumpy. All the stuff that we've ran all year long and had no issues with, we had problems with at Charlotte.

So 88 cars, well, had the same issues. So that was problematic and troublesome, but we just got to go home with some gusts. it's in and not have that problem anymore. And so that cost Carson 21 points to the point lead. He's 40 out, but still got a great shot at it.

I think he almost won Phoenix earlier in the year. We should have won that race. Yep, should have won Phoenix early in the year. So if Carson were to go win out at Phoenix, have a couple of good stages. He's right back in the middle of this deal. He's got some good tracks coming up. Yeah, Phoenix, Martin.

Martinsville, Talladega, some good tracks for Carson. Yep. I agree. Sammy Smith had a pretty solid night. It did. Points had some really good speed, worked really hard. I watched Sammy all night long, push real hard, running up against the fence, trying to get everything he could. Rajah, we talked about the issues that he had, and it's just a miserable night.

This has been a tough chase for Rajah. But I'm just hoping that, you know, he's gaining something out of it. he's learning something out of it. But it's been a really difficult chase for him. But we move on. Sheldon Creed still hangs on to the points lead. He's only two points ahead of Jesse Love. And Corey Day has jumped in the middle of this thing.

He's seven points out with a couple of wins. Corey Day is going to be tough to beat this year. And next year. I mean, think about this guy once he gets this year under his belt. He may win the championship this year. But then think about next year. what a handful he's going to be. Good grief.

So I think that regardless of what happens this year, I think you look at next year, he's going to be quite difficult to steal some wins from. So anyhow, you guys ready to move on to the cup stuff? What do you make of Sam Mayer's comments? Everyone in this series sucks. There's nobody worth. anything past 10th place.

Why does everyone in a series suck? I don't understand. I don't know. He's mad. Sam's a good driver, but, man, he's made his own mistakes. I think in those moments, you can be mad and say, God dang, I'm mad at this person. Whatever happened, I don't really remember exactly how he got into it,

but he could say, you know, he could call somebody out and say, this guy, squeeze me or whatever. Yeah. But you can't throw a blanket on the field and say, whole field sucks because now you've basically got the whole field hating you yeah if they kind of right i agree with you there just yeah you had a bad race then go there you want you don't need to go through the entire field he just made things harder for him yeah because now you know if anybody was going to cut him a break they're less likely to yeah now yeah he's got he said a one

guy racing him party he's going to have 15 of them racing him hard now yeah yeah media training neat. Yeah, media training. I mean, you can't say you can't say the whole field sucks, you just can't. Yeah, I didn't think that was very good. Especially when you were clawing

to make the chase. So like, it's just not like, even if you're the best, Justin Algarat wouldn't say that. Even if he takes it. So are you saying, so you saying that Sammy's the worst of the best since he barely made it?

His words, not mine. Hey, we can give him a hard time. he's coming to junior motorsports next year so we can get him some can we get that training started dale what will you are you sure you want to fix it might be some good sound bites this year i don't want to fix it but on behalf of coming next year uh dale the owner might want to deal the podcast says don't change let's get him into this let's get him in the studio

put his feet to the fire there we go i wonder what to tell us about what do what happened on track i don't know you know what i mean like i'm sure he got no word but those guys i mean there was incidents there's things that happened and sometimes it works out sometimes I don't like Corey and Carson could a one of them could have got a flat tire Vegas off of turn four and there was plenty of times these guys slid up into each other it's frustration with four races going the season and you're just yeah you've had enough and you're just mad and I get it let it out instead of keeping it in yeah so what did you make of um them race on the oval though just general thoughts of the race

what's wrong with it not I didn't say anything's wrong with them just asking like 10 times better than the other one than the other part there I agree I'm just yeah no I thought I thought the racing was good trucks were great on Friday night O'Reilly race always puts on a good show there them guys come off the corner side by side

I thought the racing was good Cup cars honestly I thought the cup cars I don't know if you saw this but the comers and goers in the long run we kind of had perfectly timed cautions so we never really got into a super long run, which you didn't really get to see a lot of people fading, but you could kind of see

it start and then the caution would come out. But I thought the tire wear was good, you know, as far as fall off. I thought the racing was good. You could run multiple lanes. Should we go 500 though? It felt like it was just missing something. What? What was it missing? Like a big wreck. No, it just felt like there was never like you can just, it just need to be a little longer to create a little more decisions on when to pit and stuff. I mean, them do, but that's what I'm saying. Like, untimely cautions for that, mess that up naturally, though. Like that last

caution was perfect. Because then there was three of them that were like perfect, you know, at the end of the stages or at times when we were getting ready to pit. So, and actually a couple of cars had started to pit because somebody got, a couple of them got caught a lap down. Yeah. But I'm saying that last one was a perfect storm where it made

them like, they were, you know, Briscoe was on the verge of. Yeah, I thought it was great how it was. You had two guys racing for the win one you know you had i mean i thought it was perfect sign me up for that again twice this year marcus smith texts me around saturday and said that we should be running the roval with the weather threatening i said i knew you were going to say that yeah i'm glad that we ran the oval and right now the oval's good and more entertaining to me than the roval and so they should run the Oval. They can always, as Jeff

Burton said so well during the broadcast, they can always go back to the Roval. It's not going anywhere. But also, as SVG said, during the race weekend, the Roval is a road course, and that

he likes the Oval better. I thought I really appreciated his honesty. That's like a death nail for the roval then. Yeah, and he ran good. Like, SVG ran competitively around I'd say what, around 10th almost all night like yeah solid he's finished he's he's up in yeah he's uh it's impressive what he can do because you look at some of these mile and a halfs and you know he was around pretty far back in

the field and he knows how to claw away at it and not take himself out of races like he's done a really solid job yeah all right so uh Kyle Larson comes out of Charlotte gaining nine points over Denny Hamlin. Now, 49 points ahead. Geez. I don't think it's a big deal. I mean, you know, you got Denny Hamlet at 49, Christopher Bell at 51, Briscoe 65 back, and then Ryan Blaney is 85 back, Lagano 92 back. You're coming up on, we talked about this last week, you're coming up on, theme, Phoenix, Talladega, and Martinsville. That is a, that's a chance for Ryan Blaney and Joey Legano to throw their final Harold Mary.

You know, this is it. Yeah, this is it. Their three-race stretch. Most important three-race stretch of the season for those three, for those two drivers, Blaney and Ligano. I mean, even Cedric, I mean, I know Cendrick's way back, but I mean. Well, I just feel like that Blaney and Lugano have a, you know, they have a shot at running will at those three racetracks and stringing three solid races together to get themselves at least numerically, you know, maybe 15 or 20 points out going into Homestead. That's a real possibility. Denny, Christopher Bell, and Briscoe, sitting there 49 to 65 out.

They're right back in it one more in one week. You know, if Larson just has. as a bad stop, you know, takes himself that we've seen this, you know, right now they're perfect. Right now their pit stops are great, everything's great, car's great. But we've seen other drivers in this chase field have, you know, have to come back down pit road to fix this or or have a slow stop or whatever takes them out of the top 10 in a stage where they don't get stage points. And one of these other drivers, Danny, Christopher Bell, or Briscoe, gets a great stage. that's 10 points, a big chunk right there.

Those stage points are more important than we ever realized. And so, you know, a couple of those bad stages for Larson, even if he still gets a great result at the end of the day, allows these guys to slip right back into this deal pretty quickly. So it's a very compelling. It looks like it's a runaway for Larson, but it's still, to me, when I look at these numbers, is a tight race to me.

It looks like a lot. This is still. It looks like a lot. It's still anybody's. I agree with you, though. That just looks bad right now, but because we're not, like we've seen guys make big gains in two races. So that's right. I mean.

Yeah. If I would have, if I, to your point, T.J. If I would have looked at this point lead three or four races into the year, I'd go, wow. You know, because Redic had a hundred point lead. And we're like, damn, ain't nobody going to catch him. He's going to win the regular season. and no one will catch him. And then he tracked him down in five weeks.

So this is a 49 point lead. At the beginning of the year, we would have said this is a massive lead to have, but honestly knowing everything we've known and experience and everything we've experienced as fans this year, we know that that 49 points can be cut substantially in one weekend. So if you're... Larson just...

If you're the JGR guys, what's the number that you want to gain on Larson this weekend going... leaving Phoenix. What's the number where you're like, all right, 40? Successful weekend. Yeah, dang, anything? Yeah, I mean, any. If you gain two points, that ain't a successful weekend.

I think you just need to not let him gain anymore. I think you need to be in the positive and not let him gain on you. Obviously. I think you need to have a better attitude, Travis. Yeah. If you can get out of Phoenix without losing more points to him, you've done a good job. He clinched the championship last year. He's got a lot of confidence going into Phoenix.

That's a racetrack where I feel like that, They think they can go and run well, run top five. He should, yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, you just want to get out of Phoenix. At worst, not losing points to him. Yeah. Because you have Talladega.

And so, listen, Larson, Larson does not love the idea of racing for the championship and a bucket of points at a Daytona or a Talladega. He's just, now he could, Damn will go win. He could. But he doesn't have a great track record at those two racetracks. He doesn't particularly enjoy that style of racing.

He has gotten better at it. Results over the last several trips to Daytona, Talladeghis, his average running positions likely improved over what it was the first half of his career. So he's gotten better at it, but he's still not fully embracing it. And so like Briscoe, C. Bell, they have nothing to lose. They just get to go and give it hell. I know Larson's happy to have this 49 point lead or whatever it is, so that's all great. But if he does, if he can extend, he wants to go to Phoenix and extend that because Dega is a problem.

And so if he loses, if he, if he's still flat at 49 or. loses a little bit to one of these guys. The pressure at Daga is even more immense for Larson, just because he just doesn't have such a great track record at that particular racetrack. I agree. He'll feel a lot better when he leaves Talladega if he's still a 30 to 40 up.

Yeah. Yep. I think that's the question, Travis, is what lead does Larson hope to have after Daga. Because I mean, is Martinsville a track where he's,

do you think Martinsville is a great track for him? I mean, it's not terrible. He's getting, he's getting better there. Yeah,

but it's on and off. It's not, you know, it's Blaney, Denny, you know, all those guys. He could give up 15,

20 points pretty easily at Martin'sville. When I think about Martin'sville, I think about Christopher Bell, I think about Denny Hamlin. Yeah, I don't think about Larson.

I mean, he could run well there, but I think those other guys just traditionally outrun him with that racetrack. So Larson's going to have to be careful. I think this weekend he's got a shot at staying flat, but at Talladega and Martinsville, that's where those guys can attack, and that's where they need to think we can go

and grab some points. Would that be fair? Yeah, it's fair. I think you just, I think you've got to be under 20 going out. into Martins or not going into Homestead. If you're outside of Twelfth. Oh, yeah.

So that's why I'm saying like, I agree with you. That's why I'm saying like you got to find a way to get, if you can get five to 10 this weekend. And then like instead of trying to go into Martinsville knowing that you've got to swing for the fences because you're, you know. I, I agree. I think, I mean, I hate to make a prediction because we've been, we haven't been entirely correct all year about what can happen in these races in terms of point swings. but like so briscoe let's look at this like briscoe goes and wins this weekend Larson has a nice day and briscoe gained 19 points all right so if you're 20 points out at homestead and Larson goes in fifth places the whole day you're going to have to win to

have a shot you're going to have to have you're going to also have to have decent stages but win the race, right? So that's a good way to look at it. All right. Chase Briscoe gains 19 or so points on Larson when Larson had about a fifth place day all day at Charlotte. So to your point, you need to be 15 to 20 out at the most to feel like you can really go in there and have a shot. Yeah, I agree with that. So if you don't, I don't know if they can get many of those points at Phoenix. But maybe they can get 15 at... Maybe they can get a big chunk.

Maybe more than 15 at Talladega. Maybe it's 20. I mean, it could happen. And then maybe they... Yeah. And then maybe they go to Martinsville and get another 10 or another 15. You know, then that number looks realistic.

I just wouldn't rely on Larson messing up. You need to go get it. Well, you have to always go get it. Well, if he's running... You can... can't get it if he's running fifth or better. I just worry like, okay, I'm not worried about it, but like I look at them numbers and I'm like, okay, at some point, same thing with Redick.

We were saying at the beginning of the year, saying to go, Danny in the middle of the year, okay, these numbers he's putting up are awesome right now, but it's just not, it's not sustainable in our sport. It's so hard to keep putting them up every week. Like you're, you know, and after five great weeks, there's always that next week that just kicks you back down. So will that happen to Larson? That's right.

That's why I think you've got to, when you see, if you see them take themselves out of stage points for whatever reason, that is a big moment. Like if you're, you know, think if you're a fan and you're watching these races, you're tuning in and you're trying to be entertained, if they have a mistake on pit road or something happens where he gets shuffled and loses that track. and doesn't get the stage points, that is a big deal.

That's not something to kind of be glossed over because, you know, one of these guys, Briscoe, Bell, Hamlin, they're going to be there to grab a chunk when that happens and try to climb back in here. Who makes you the most nervous out of the three between Hamlin, Bell, and Briscoe? Right now, to me it's Bell. Yeah. Same here. He's got the most speed lately.

And I think me and Russ called it this. I mean, we almost won it, but we picked him to be the guy to beat at Charlotte. He just has that edge right now. It's just rotated to Bell. And he just seems to be doing everything right. Came off pit road, I think, behind Briscoe right? And just never, and honestly, he was a, he got there at the end and made it a great race. But he just seems to have that little bit of edge that same thing Denny had middle of the year there.

Just whatever he did, it just worked. And it's just, that's how racing is. And it's been working for Larson for a little over a month now. And is it going to switch to Bell and make these last few races really interesting? Or, you know, what happens next? Yeah, I think Bell's the guy. Like Larson or Denny right now, I need to see a clean race from the 11 team before I think that they can put it together. Even Briscoe.

I mean, Briscoe, we'll see, he's two in a row. Does he go three in a row? And even, I mean, he could. I mean, and that pick crew for him is just firing him off every time, perfect. So it's all about timing, and you just got to have, it's got to fall in the right place the right time. Well, going into Phoenix, the next gen average finish for drivers at Phoenix, Larson's, or I'm sorry, Larson is second at 8.6. Blaney's way out in front at a 5.2.

Yeah. But Larson is second at an 8.6, Denny with a 9.7. The last three races for Larson, third, third. And third. The last three races for Denny, second, sixth, and fifth. I know that, you know, you got to look at 2025 number two, the last race of the year. You got to look that a little different because everything kind of gets, you know,

weird with the point, you know, racing for the championship and all that stuff. We're going to go back to Christopher Bell. 6th, 33rd, and 7th. He must, you know, must have sort of a failure. I think it was a break failure or something in 2025. But he's sitting there as the sixth ranked driver and average finish at Phoenix. Chase Briscoe, who's calling in here in a bid is 18th.

His finishes in the last four races at Phoenix have been awful. And we should get practicing qualifying. Yeah. Just throwing a wrench into this chase. So what else? I mean, Phoenix opens the door for what happened to Bubba got caught up in that deal. Something like that could very easily. happen to Larson.

We talk about Lugano and them needing to make this run and Phoenix being a track where that starts or has to start. His last three results at Phoenix are 13th, 4th, and 31st. It's not the best. No, not really.

But, you know, I think out of those two, Blaney's the guy I'm looking at if he wins this weekend, he can go to Talladega and be awesome. he's great at Talladega he can go to Martinville and be awesome if Blaney's got a shot at this championship he's going to have to top two

top two maybe top three all of the stages and win and win at least two of these races and he could he's going to have to have a hell of a little stretch Blaney could have a great and he still to me has the most speed out of them cars as well in general like he still just seems to have a little bit more

but you know another good weekend for jobs Josh, Josh drove up into the top 10, 21 car. Josh Barry. Top five. There you go. Top five for Josh Barry.

What a little run he's had this second half of the year. I wonder where he's at, like, where he could be at in points if it didn't, you know what I mean? Like,

where would it be possible for him to get to? 17th to 20th, probably. Yeah. I don't know, man. He's been ripping off some good finishes

and you know how good stayed they had up quick. I know. Hey, this is Dellenhart Jr. And for all the latest Dale Jr. Download gear

including the I'm old drink some beer t-shirt that we've been talking about here around the office, head over to shop.dirtymomedia.com for all the latest merch. We got Chase Briscoe calling in here. Let's go ahead and get to Chase. The Winter Circle interview is brought to you by payday. Payday candy bar. I've got one.

TJ's got some payday candy bars right there on the desk. TJ wants to share with the crew. All right, we got payday's everywhere. I feel like the go-to snack now. Peanut Caramel Bar. straight up delicious. Now, let's talk to the week's, last week's winter. Chase Briscoe. Chase Briscoe has taken control of the mile and a halfs over the past, I don't know, half of the season. Teammate Denny Hamlin was strong at these racetracks,

but, you know, Chase, much like last year, bud, you've kind of made this mid-season turn of the corner. Kind of happened last year around Pocono. Do you see similarities in your season compared to last year? I would say there's definitely a few similarities for sure. I mean, I feel like we're a totally different team than what we were, you know, last year at this point or in the midpoint of the season. Last year, we were still trying to learn what our identity was. We were still just learning so much about each other and, you know,

what we were even capable of. You know, I think the playoffs last year, you know, being able to kind of have that run that we had of just being. being a contender for all 10 weeks was like the first time we kind of realized that we could do that and be like a consistent contender up there. And then, you know, this year, that was the goal and the expectation kind of from week one and just have had a lot of just circumstances, whether it's myself doing it or, you know, mechanical failures or just getting in wrecks that were totally out of our control. And I feel like these last couple weeks, like we've just

finally executed and had things go our way. So typically when we can do that, We are in the mix to win the races But yeah, certainly the mile and a halfs have been great for us this year And we've been strong at a lot of other racetracks too But the mile and a half has definitely been kind of I would say our bread and butter for this season In the last couple of races I mean, it's not like you're winning all the mile and a half races you are But it ain't it has to come easy

In those final runs that you know you start to get some pressure from competition And you're kind of tasked to save the day or do everything you can in your power to be as aggressive as possible. And sometimes it's against a teammate. Like how challenging is that? Because I think there's a lot of worse nightmares for race car drivers, but one of them is having the lead late and somebody tracking you down with a faster race car.

Help us understand kind of the mental toughness or the stress going on inside the car there in those final laps. Yeah, I mean, it's definitely, you know, the most intense moments of the race, obviously, are those last, you know, 10, 15, 20 last, but certainly as you get down to 5, 4, 3, 2, and one laps, it's just, you know, it's where everything's on the line, right? And whenever you are in the lead and there's that guy behind you that's faster, it is a lot more stressful just because you're trying to hold them off. And, I mean, obviously, you want to win the race, right?

So you're doing everything in your power to try to just, you know, hold them off. And that's hard to do, especially when they have a faster car. And typically at the end of the race is when you're, you know, at the end of a run on tires, your car's not handling good. And, you know, their car is better. It's just because they have more grip. So it's hard to hold them off a lot of the time. But, yeah, it's definitely been interesting to tell all these wins have been,

you know, these crazy, you know, finishes where you're holding off multiple guys or one guy. It just, I would much rather just win by two or three seconds, I can assure you. but it's made for good, good TV, and it's definitely been entertaining for sure. So, yeah, hopefully I can start winning by, you know, like I said, a couple seconds, because I don't have very much hair to begin with, and I'm losing pretty quickly with all these close finishes.

The mile and a halfs are off the schedule. You know, you do have Homestead, which is a similar-style racetrack. But we have, you know, Talladega, Phoenix and Martinsville. You're in a great position. man to you have to you have to realize after this weekend I remember I always think about my dad in some these situations and I remember hearing him talk about in 1980 he's going through the year he's after a great year he's doing well in the points but it never really registered until a certain

moment that he's like I could I could win this championship like it's this this massive like realization of this is, I really could do this, you know, and you're there. I don't know if you might have had that feeling or that realization sooner, but I would say after this weekend, you're probably looking like, wow, four to go, and I could become the champion of NASCAR. And that's, that's a massive life-changing event. You know, have you, have you allowed yourself to, you know, I don't don't know if you'd even admit it. Have you allowed yourself to daydream just a little bit about making that reality? And what are these next four races, particularly the racetracks we're going to? Where is your confidence with each racetrack that you have to go tackle?

Yeah, I would say that, you know, truthfully, I haven't had that feeling quite yet. You know, last year, like, you know, when we won Talladega and locked into the final four, like that, I'd certainly had that feeling of, man, you're going to have a one and four chance to be the champion. And at this point, I don't have that feeling yet. I think just because the way I look at it is it's still very much uphill climb. Yeah, there's four races left. And, yeah, I am in a great position to at least have a chance to do it. But I just know, you know, the five keeps up what he's been able to do.

Like, I'm going to have to still win three out of the next four. And that fourth race, I'm going to have to run, you know, top three or five. So it's just still going to be really, really challenging. and I think that's probably some of the reason why I haven't thought about it a little bit more is I just I just see this huge mountain still to climb. But yeah, certainly I know that if I can go perform, I give myself a great chance. So that's the big thing. And I feel great about these next kind of four weeks that we have.

You know, Phoenix is a place where, you know, I've been able to win in the past. And I feel like on the 19 group, you know, results-wise, like if you just look at the stat sheet, we've been horrendous. I think we've finished outside of the top 30 in probably every round. run, but we've blown like five right rear tires and two races there. So just know that if we can get the tires to say on it, I feel really, really good about it. And then obviously we were able to win Talladega last year. You know, Martinsville is the one I would say I'm the most worried about.

We've just been a seventh to tenth place car and we've got to be better. And then Homestead is one of my favorite racetracks. And it is a mile and a half, but it's just slick and you got to run the fence. And I just feel really good about going there. So, yeah, really looking forward to these next four, too. I want to know one quick question of your chase because I know you're pretty probably if you can get to the homestead race and have a shot, I feel like your confidence is going to go way up because I know obviously I think we want a truck race there, didn't we? Yeah. Yeah, that's right.

So I feel like if you can get through the Martinsville and Talladega and have a shot, I feel like your confidence has got to go through the roof at that point, especially if you going to Homestead, you know, would you rather be, do you like having Homestead as that last race? I mean, it's got to be better for your tool set, right? Oh, yeah, absolutely. If I'm within 15, 20 points going to Homestead, I'm going to be feeling really good about it. I just, I feel like it's a track where I've always been able to, you know, find speed. It's a place I just, I mean, I look forward to going to Homestead more than any of the racetracks. So, yeah, and even, you know, when I look at the 19 group as a whole, right, that I think was our third or fourth or fifth race ever together. And we were able to go there and run third.

and I had no idea what I was doing at that point in my JGR career. So, yeah, I feel super strong about going to Homestead. Yeah, I just hope I'm within 15 or 20 or maybe even leading the points. That would be obviously the best. Chase, how do you grade Brooks' ability to hype up the crowd after the race? I saw you trying to get him going. Yeah, it's nuts. I mean, that kid lives for just being a showman.

It's wild because myself, I'm not like that. Marissa is definitely not like that either but he just loves it I mean like going out on the driver intro stage he's always trying to hype him up you know obviously on the front straightaway he's throwing his hands up and getting the crowd going nuts like he just

lives for it and even like last night he has a baseball game and he's like you know walking to the plate and he's doing the gritty and all this stuff like oh my gosh no way just walk to the plate like we don't have to you don't have to be hyping the crowd up

or doing the gritty, like just walk up there, hit the baseball. Yeah, he just loves it. It's like, I don't know where it comes from, but he certainly is all about the show. So you're not going to do the gritty before you get in the car? I mean, you're not going to say to do it. Nobody needs to, nobody needs to see that. Nobody wants to see that. Yeah, I'm just not comfortable enough to do that. It's crazy. Like, my mom and I were talking about that just last night, like how Brooks is not scared. Like, If I was that age, there's no way I would want to be in front of a big crowd and be doing all that stuff. But, yeah, he loves it.

Do they do a walkout song? Or does he just, he just naturally. Yeah, they do, they do a walkout song. So that really gets in the game. I think Chase, if you win three in a row, a few win Phoenix. I think you have to gritty after the race. Yeah, I mean, you get the gritty on top of the car. I can barely bend over in tie my shoes.

So the gritty is a little tough for me. You got to kind of be flexible to do that. He's walking to the plate dancing. hilarious. Yeah, it would be one thing if you can gritty to the plate and hit a home run, but he's barely even hitting it to the shortstop. So I don't know if he needs to be crazy. It don't matter, dude.

It's all the show counts. I'm going to let you go, Chase. I'm going to have me a payday, finish my Red Bull, and I'm going to open up these two boxes of tops football. Oh, man. I wish you the jealous of luck. I do. I wish you the best of luck.

That's my birthday. present from my wife. She's finally on board. Oh, yeah. I forgot it was your birthday. I have birthday, by the way. Mass card canceled the races on Saturday for his birthday. Yeah, they did.

They canceled all track activity on, on, on, uh, was it, Saturday. I texted on. I'm like, hey, man, can you make a call so we can hang out today for your birthday and just done? That's what Marka Smith. Marka Smith takes me that. He goes, we've canceled all track activity today in your honor. I was like, thanks, bud.

All right, that was today's winter circle interview sponsored by payday candy bar, no freels. No elaborate maneuvers, no distractions, no overcomplicated ingredients, and no unnecessary extras in this candy bar. Keep on moving with a payday bar, payday, peanut, caramel, bar. These things are amazing. I love getting sponsors and partners that we like, don't you? Yeah, they're the best.

Like, we're pretty lucky. Like, we get Arby's and Payday and Red Bull. I mean, we're spoiled. Yeah, the ones you actually use. Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Place your bets. Time for the Dirty Mo Doe segment, brought to you by Fanjul. Hell yes.

I got to tell y'all, just before we get started here. I took Nebraska at plus seven and a half, USC over Penn State, Georgia over Alabama. that was my parlay for this weekend that I had great success on. I love when you win one of those helps you come out even. It's even worse than that bet's given to you, you don't tell it. You don't tell it.

I shared it with my guy. He did not. He did not tell it. It's on me. All right. Last week, let's see, we had the 20 of the 11 and the 5 and the 19 at plus 200. So if you picked Briscoe, you came out looking pretty good.

We took, I can't tell who we took. So it just says Larson Hamlin, lost for Dale, win for Russ. I don't know who took what, because we didn't write that down. Well, it's a matchup. It's a matchup. So if you took Larson, you lost. If you took Hamlin, you won. Yeah, but I.

If you took Briscoe, you won versus Bell. Yep. Briscoe versus Bell. We took Briscoe to win, didn't we? Me and Russ took the 20. I took Briscoe. Real close. I thought, Travis, did you take Briscoe? You had Briscoe.

Yeah, but to win, who did we have? Me and. You had Larson to win. Yeah, you had Larson. Oh, we did. We did have Larson. Yeah, me and Russ had 20. All right.

And Reddick versus Blaney, win for me and T.J. lost for Russ. Byron versus Gibbs, a win for me, and a loss for T. And Russ. Damn, I did all right. I was three out of four. on the picks. And you guys, y'all's records were terrible.

I mean, in fairness, Byron and Gibbs book, that wasn't really a fair shot. Well, guess what? The bank account doesn't care about fair. Just saying. In fairness, I won and you lost is what it says. Hime for a top 10 just missed. He ran right outside the top 10 all day long.

And Cendrick, for a top 10 missed. Cendrick did not back up his recent performance. We should have went with old John. Josh Barry. And fairness, he tried. Running the top five. He did try. He did try.

And now we're headed off to Phoenix where Ryan Blaney has dominated over the last couple of trips. Honestly, look at this stretch of results for Ryan Blaney in the next gen era. All right. Since the next gen. Fourth, second, second, second, fifth, second, 28th, first and first. I mean that 28th was an engine failure so like that's not even fair to him yeah I think I thought in that race he actually drove backwards the entire time wasn't at that race where he just drove backwards still beat a few guys

probably could uh yeah so Ryan Blaney is probably everybody's favorite it's the chase everybody's bringing all their good stuff everybody's doing everything they can and I think that I think we see Penske, Ryan Blaney, possibly Ligano, kind of pick up where they usually leave off at this racetrack. What do you think there, Russell?

I like, I'm sticking with my horse from last week. I'm going back to the well with Bell. He's the top of the predictor and I know Blaney's won the last two races, but Bell's won two of the last five at Phoenix and been top five and four of the last five.

So I think it was 11, than the other one. So the predictor has Bell again. All right. I think I'll take, I'll stick with Blaney. Anybody else going, Bell? T.J., you come in, you join me again? No, I got to go Blaney, man. He just, something about Phoenix, uh, that car. Blaney just drives Phoenix and Martinsville. Honestly, he's probably the best right now at those two tracks, in my opinion, uh, just straight up. They won there earlier this year when they weren't worth a shit. And now they're actually, you know, they got their shit together. Blaney at Phoenix and Martinsville is really hard to beat, man.

I got it roll Blaney. You know, Bell was right there too. Bell was second. He led the most laps. It's likely he'll be there again. But I just feel like that Blaney will outrun him. What do you think? Where do you finish, Russ?

Bell was second. Oh, I'm sorry. What do you think, you know, in terms of pit crew, does Blaney have everything sorted out there to be able to go out there and get the win? Or is the pit crew going to be the challenge? I believe two of their fastest pits stops this year were last week. So I think they're clicking now. All right.

So Vegas has Larson tied for fourth best odds. Is this a race where other drivers getting to take advantage of gaining some points for Larson? I just don't think so. I think he's going to sit right there around. the top three all day. He's going to get just enough points to even, if not continue to gain, come out of here flat to the rest of the competition. Yeah, I totally agree. He's been, he's been fourth or better in six of the last seven. He'd rather Blaney win than Bell, I suppose. Yes. Yep. That helps points wise for him. Yeah. I got a question about how they're going to,

like, does the intensity now, like we've talked about how it's just different than the winning or anything, like with the amount of races to go now like it's coming down to it these restarts are going to get even more chaotic um does does you know being a little cautious or conservative you know in a guy like um Kyle Larson spot does that could that lead him to trouble on a restart you know what I mean like okay it's fourth fifth fourth or six somewhere in there perfectly fine respectable but man those guys are going to be gouged even hard And like we talk about the intensity picking up, guys having being more aggressive, guys going, you know, more likely to take chances, you know, does that lead to maybe some

disaster? Man, I don't know. I think, I don't know if I had that feeling, T.J., but I just feel like that he could get more, he could get careful where he gives up small pieces of his. points lead, you know, because, you know, maybe he wasn't taking that typical risk through, you know, because you know how the restarts are at Phoenix, they're five, six, ten wide. You know, what, what does he do in those scenarios on this weekend's race versus what he might have done at the first of the year?

I think that's a good point, T.J., because it's much easier to be the hunter. That's what I'm saying. And that is best when Larson's... We saw last week with Denny on that restart. Yeah. That's my point about... That's my point about Talladega is he's going in there being the hunted at Talladega

where he's not really got the greatest track record. And now he could go out there and do it. It's just, you know, it's going to take some balls to go out there and compete and push and get the stage points that he's going to be needing to get. but that's you'd love that i mean briscoe all these guys there they'd love to have a comfortable lead like larshan does but it's not all bad being the guy that's got nothing to lose yeah larston needs to be in the front two rows of these restarts otherwise there's going to be a lot

of opportunity to be in something he doesn't want to be in in my opinion because if you get any further back than that and somebody has a slip up or he lifts hey i'm going to take it easy here you know if you lift in the middle one and two, you're going from fourth or fifth to 12th pretty quickly. And then you're out of the stage points. Then a guy like Denny or who in second, he's getting eight points,

seven, eight points on you pretty quickly at that point. So I just think Phoenix leads, Phoenix gives us some opportunities like that. All right. Let's go to our matchups real quick. Rattle off your thoughts. Blaney versus Bell, I think we've all picked our guys there.

Got a couple of bells and a couple of Blanies. Hamlin versus Lugano. I like Denny better in this one. I know Lugano's in a Penske Ford and they should be competitive, but I just, I feel like, Denny ran really well there at this race last year. Yeah, he should have won. But remember a different horsepower package.

Yeah, I don't care. Yeah. He was sixth last year at this race and he was fifth this year. The car is still going to turn. I just feel like he can... Yeah, we're talking about... We're not talking about whether he can win a race Travis. Yeah.

Can he beat Legano? I think so. I think so, too. Russ, where the numbers are... Larson versus... The numbers are real even, but I would say they favor Hamlin. Yeah. Like, barely.

Barely. Barely. Wow. Larson versus Briscoe. This was a tough one for me. So Briscoe struggled here recently. Yeah, I know. He's had some flat tires.

It's run good, but he's blown some right rear tires. This is a tough one because I feel like Briscoe has the speed right now and confidence to get up there and really do it. And I also think that Larson is driving a tiny bit, like, I don't know, cautious a little bit, like protecting. And it's either going to really work out for Briscoe or really bite him. my opinion. Is this a track though that if you're being too aggressive that it can I mean it can bite you being too aggressive anywhere but I feel like if you're not aggressive here the sharks on restarts the sharks see it they see blood in the water and they attack so

I think and briscoe's been really good on restarts and his pick crew is way better than everybody else right now he brisco's going to attack this is a briscoe's going to be attacking the entire time Russ, what's his restart ranking? I believe it's first. And his picker's first too, right? Depending on how you look at it, I would put them first. They have the five fastest stops in the chase. Oh, yeah.

I mean, that's pretty good. It's pretty fast. I would say that's pretty good. All right, drop it down to some other guys in the field. Byron versus Reddick. I don't love this one. I'd probably stay away from it. Yeah.

What's the predictor say? The predictor says Byron. Yeah. We're going to go back to Cendrick and Gibbs. That's another one I'm not in love with, but I'd be inclined to take Gibbs. And he's actually not the favorite here. Cunders at minus 120, Gibbs, minus 110.

But Cindricks really struggled here in the cup car. Yeah. Yeah, I would take, I would take Gibbs here. I think that's some good money. Elliot versus Bubba. Chase Elliott versus Bubba. Bubba is not the favorite Chase Elliott at minus 120 bubble, minus 110.

What do you guys think? I got to go with Chase. The head-to-head tool actually has Bubba as better. Like, what's the numbers? Finishing better than him five versus eight times in this car. Or five versus three. sorry. Yeah.

Yeah, I don't know. I feel. He was six. Bubble was sixth here in this race earlier this year. Had a couple of disastrous results last year in this race. And Chase was 23rd. Yeah. Chase doesn't have a...

Yeah. Last three races, 10th, 10th, 23rd. Yeah, Chase doesn't have a top five here in this car. Yeah. Whoa. Yeah. I'd stay away from that one. Yeah, I'm staying away from that.

Hostvar versus Barry. Oh, Barry's got himself into the matchups. Wow. Finally. I like Barry here. Josh is 12th on average finish in the next gen at Phoenix. In 2025, he had top tens, a fourth and a seventh. Was running pretty good, I thought, earlier this year, gotten a crash.

Yeah, he was running top 15 earlier this year and got when he was in that crash. If he's top 15 earlier this year, that's a top 15 earlier this year. way different now. To me, that's, that's fifth to seventh material right now compared to how they're flip things around. Yeah, qualified top 10. So. Yeah. Hosevar's passed, you know, he's ran here six

times, but his last three results, 36, 28th, and 20th. Yeah. So Hosevar is the favorite at minus 125. Berries at minus 105. I like Barry better. I bet the predictor does too. It's worth

putting some money on. We like Barry better. Yeah. Could you parley these? Yeah. Do you want a couple? Yeah, I would parlay. I'd take Gibbs, Barry.

Gibbs versus Cendrick. Yep. And then Barry be 272 plus. Love it. Go for it. Let's see if that pans out. I like it. All right.

Hi, Russ. I appreciate you. you. Thanks Dale. Hey, buddy. I'll see you soon. I hope. All right. I'll see you, TJ, this weekend. There you have, man. The Dirtymoe Doe segment is brought to you by Fandul, the premier gaming destination in the United States. 30Mode Media is on the search for the most legendary NASCAR memorabilia collections to be

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We'll have a post up later this week. You respond to it. Videos are best, but photos are fine as well. And then next week, we'll let you know who the winner is. All right, y'all's time for the Ask Junior segment of the show. Xfinity is raving the red flag on internet price hikes and raising the green flag for savings. Now you get the speed and reliable Wi-Fi that you need locked in one price for five years. No surprises, no late yellow is just a straight shock to victory lane.

And just like that, folks, we've got a winner, Exfinity. Imagine that. Let's get to the questions and get going. First question, I want to know. What did you think of Sam Mayer's throwback car on Sunday? I thought it was cool looking. It stood out. I thought it was great.

Yeah. I love throwbacks, and that's kind of the way to do them. Everybody's got this weird opinion about throwback weekend and all that good stuff. But if you want to do a throwback, it doesn't matter. Do it whenever you want to do it. Yeah, whatever makes sense. I thought it's pretty cool. Yeah, make it make sense.

And I thought that was a great tribute to Dad and the pink car. And shout out to Cardiac's card store in Canapolis. Downtown Canapolis is blowing up. Awesome little area right there around the statue. If you ever get down to Canapolis, to see the statue or what have you. You'll love that sort of small community right there around that,

the ballpark for the cannon ballers and everything. It's just a neat little space, some great restaurants and places to go ice cream shop. Yeah. Good brewery there. Tons of fun. What's that?

Good brewery there too. Is there? I never been there. Oh, yeah. It's a really cool little area for sure. Do people give you a heads up when they're doing these throwbacks schemes deal or are you just like you find out

when it's out on the track? Yeah. gave me a heads up and they were having an event over at Cardiacs. And I wanted to go and be there for the car unveiling. But we hadn't announced that he was coming back to Junior Motorsports. So I didn't want to sort of make things weird because that rumor was floating out there. I like it when they, like you said, you don't have to do it on throwback weekend. Like you can do it any time.

I think it's almost cooler that way. Yeah. Yeah. I think it is too. I do too. I just wish all the rally drivers didn't suck. What did you just think of Ricky Stenhouse and Michael McDowell after the race? Oh, I saw it happen.

It was awesome. Ricky said, Ricky seemed to think that, you know, hey, he hit me, I hit him, and it's over. It's like, you know, two brothers punching each other in the shoulder. Yeah. It didn't get as exciting as I thought it was going to be. Seemed to be a non-issue. Yeah, seem to be a no big deal. Nah.

That's my thing is like. They're too hard heads. It is smart, though. If you, after the race, if you have an issue, but you. you're not trying to get into a fight. Ricky went over and talked to him while Michael's still in the car. Michael can't swing on you. So if you're not trying to fight and you want to go over and have a conversation,

you know that that's going to just stay a conversation then. Yeah, he stole that helmet on. That was big. Yeah. But I know it was after the race, but like NASCAR doesn't like you using your cars. But like if both parties are fine with it. Yeah.

Yeah. As long as Ricky's not standing behind the hall are waiting for you, you're probably all right. I mean. Yeah. another question someone know did you ever uh how does your autograph change have you like did you work on it when you were younger i used to put i don't sign the name earnhart because it's hard to write and i'm terrible at writing it and i don't think it looks very good so i shortened it to dale junior i

used to sign thinking going back to like the peak days of 2004 i was signing thousands of autographs at the racetrack a weekend. And so it was just quicker and easier for me to write Dale Jr. There was also sort of a little bit of a, that was, if you go, I don't really remember all the details, but I was working with Teresa to establish the rights to my name and take the ownership of the rights to my name. and I think, you know, there was a window where Earnhardt was a little, legally it was a little touchy.

And so we took it off the roof of the car. You know, it was in the name rail of my car, and I just went with Dale Jr. And felt like, you know, even if I did acquire the legal rights to my name, you know, just Dale Jr. is easy. everybody would, that's what I want you to call me. You know, that was, I don't know, Dale Earnhardt Jr., just a long, just a long name, you know. And so, yeah, that affected the autograph.

So people will ask me sometimes, will you put your full name on there? And I'm like, begrudgingly, honestly, if you want me to be truthful, it's not one of, I don't love sign of my full name. but I do it every now and then when somebody wants me to do it. I just find it interesting. Some, you know, their numbers and sports are like if they can doctor the Hall of Fame, then they'll start adding that into their signature.

So it's interesting to see how signatures evolve. Also, I mean, since you asked, the junior, if you look at the name rail, the junior, the R in junior, just kind of is an R, right? And at some point, many years ago, I took that R and I draw a line through the name. Not for any reason, but as I come off of the JR, I swoop around and draw a line back through

the entire name. And I went to Kelly one day and I said, I want to change the name rail to what my signature looks like today because the name rail is my signature from 1990. just roughly back then. And she's like, it's trademarked. We're not changing the name real. And everywhere you see my signature on any merchandise, it uses that original trademarked signature from 25 years ago,

whereas today I don't sign it that way. I have a little different style. Gotcha. Next question, people will know. What was your thoughts on Brexton Bush's burnout? That was awesome, man. That kid, yeah, Brexton's done an amazing job, just handling the challenges of what he's going through.

And he must have a very incredible support system around him. Obviously, his mother is doing a tremendous job, you know, keeping things going and keeping those kids spirits up. So I don't have real intimate details of all that, but just from the perspective that we all have, they're doing a hell of a job, and he's doing a great job. And I think it's cool that he wants to go do these things.

He could obviously be scared to do it or worried about doing it or not wanting to be in front of everybody. You know, everybody acts different or handles these things differently. But I think it's really cool that he's out and wants to be, you know, involved in these deals. And it helps everyone else who's dealing with this loss to see Brexton thriving and doing so well. Yeah, I agree. It's actually,

it's really refreshing to see and it's fun to watch him mold into that. And it's, he's, he's, it's incredible what he's doing. Yeah, I opened the app up on Saturday morning and I thought, I mean, it was just so cool and also just the ability for him to go out there and do what he's been doing. Like you said, no one would have begrudge or whatever. He's like, I don't want to be out front right now. Like for him to go out there and do that, though, I thought it was pretty cool. Yeah. All right.

One last question, Dale, do you just want to go ahead and talk about Washington versus New York this past weekend? I don't know how you could escape not seeing what happened to the commanders this weekend. I mean, I didn't see a lot. Just in case. I just ran out of time to watch that game. There you go. That's funny. just in case you didn't see this.

We were playing the Giants. They are injured. They've got backup quarterback. James and Winston. This is a winnable game. We're up two touchdowns in the second half. Got it. Got it.

Got it won. We let James and Winston and look like James, whatever the hell his name is. How do you even know that? Because that's his name.

We let this guy look like Joe Montana and he throws a couple touchdowns and now they're tied up. They're driving to kick the field goal. They got it won. They're going to win it.

They're driving to kick the field goal. Our guys who don't get any turnovers, if we go back to last year, we were terrible at turnovers. This year, we're a great at. it. I mean, every, all last year I watched commanders play, not one time are they punching the ball. Now, we're getting turnovers, interceptions, fumbles, it's awesome. But this game's over. Cam's scatiboo, scatibou, he's got the rock and he's just trying to grind a few more yards

out before they're going to kick his field goal. And one of our guys knocks the ball out. And we get a, I mean, it was, it don't happen to us. Here we are with a chance. Same thing that happened, we'll talk about in a second with the bills, but we get the ball back and we drive down the field and we're sitting there on the 24-yard line, maybe the 27, with 30-something seconds left, and what we need to do is clock the ball and kick the field goal. Walk up the line scrimmage, hike, spike the ball, ground, stop the clock, get the field goal kicker out there, and kick the field goal. It's an 83% chance, I think, that it goes through from that distance. And so we hike the ball. We think for a second about throwing the ball, and then we tuck the ball, and we run around dodging a couple of

defensive linemen, and then we fall on the ground, and the clock runs out. We didn't have any timeouts. So do they, the freaking games a tie. It's over. Yeah. That had to be that was like a loss. Yeah. That was that was like just like a loss. It might as well been a loss. I mean, we're one in freaking three. I'd rather have the loss at that point. Yeah. What's a what that now we got this now we got this tie on our record that's going to remind us every time we look at it. How foolish. And when it comes draft time, that tie puts you in front of somebody else that You know what I mean? Like you could be.

Yeah. For drafting. So that went, you went from the highest highs of seeing that fumble to driving down the field to. Yeah. Walking out mad. Yeah. The only thing that, the only thing that salvaged the NFL weekend for me was beating T.J. And fantasy football.

Yeah. It got close, though. It sure did. Like, I was up 40 points. I was up 40 points going into the Monday night game. I didn't have anyone left. T.J. had Josh Allen and Kincaid tied in for the bills, and Josh Allen and Kincaid proceed to score about 35 points

and gave it, made it a nail bite. It made it a nail biteer. I was watching until the last second. But you guys had a hell of overtime back and forth as well where there was a turnover that sort of flipped the script. Yeah, I didn't like that. I was really mad at that point when I saw it. Because the bills, like, honestly, I thought I was watching

the fantasy football stuff too. And when he threw that pass and the guy, running down the sideline and I'm like, oh, this is going to be the touchdown that I need to beat you. And the guy makes a shoot string tackle. And I'm like, you know, damn it, okay, I'm going to lose this game probably now, but at least I'm going to win the real game. And then the fumble is the very next play. And I'm like, Matthew Stafford, you don't ever want to give Matthew Stafford the ball and a chance to win a game because I feel like he's one of the guys that when he gets in them scenarios, he thrives. So somehow we ended up blocking a field goal, which almost never happens. I don't

know, I don't feel like that's very common to see and, and, uh, going down the field and getting the field goal. So I thought it was a weird. Did you wash till the very end? I did. Did you think it was weird to kick the field goal on like first down or second down right away? Like I was like, what are we doing? They had, well, they had time on the clock. If they miss it, they give them, yeah, if they missed the field goal, they give the other team chance, chance to run down the field and score. They should have, and they had, they had the opportunity to just, you know, run the ball, just get back to the line of screen and fall down.

That's what I thought. The Rams didn't have any time out, so they could have ran the clock out. Yeah, a couple of players and be way down. Yeah. Should they miss this field goal, the Rams had two minutes to drive down the field and kick their own field goal. Yeah, that was, that was gutsy, crazy. I, you know, I'm glad they had confidence in doing it because the kicker walk out there and

nailed it, but I was nervous. He did. You know, I don't know if anyone saw this, me and Amy laughed. The field goal kicker for the Rams. The thicker kicker? Number 92. Thicker kicker. He looks like he, this guy looks like he is dressed to play a part in a movie about the NFL

in the 60s. Like he doesn't look like he's actually playing the game you're watching. he looks like he is an actor wearing a costume about an NFL or a football film around the 60s. He looks like he's from a different time. He does not look like. He does it. He looks like he's traveled into the future.

You're not standing in the stands, be like, oh, you see that guy. You're not like, that's the kicker. That's definitely not. You've got to see this guy. Number 92, whoever he is. Mavis or something. He's awesome.

he is awesome big boy he gave us a damn laugh it was hilarious all right well we're this is a quick ass junior this week so that's about we're gonna wrap it up so before we wrap up the show and ass junior i want to tell you guys a quick story um on october the 11th 2006 edison ray junior passed away also better known as ed ray ray i raced against ed at Myrtle Beach back in the mid-90s. Ed drove in Orange number 71. And Ed was born in 1948. He was drafted in the Army in 67.

He was a mechanic, worked on military helicopters. But he ended up racing as well. and raced the majority of his life. And so when I go to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, I don't know nothing, don't know how to race, don't know how to pass cars, don't know how to do too much at all.

And Ed would run pretty solid. We would have anywhere from, you know, 18 to 20 car fields on average. And he would run third, fourth, fifth, sixth, pretty much every weekend and this orange number 71. Ed had a habit

that was really unique to only Ed and his family and everybody that raced with Ed, Ed Ray will appreciate this. If you got underneath Ed Ray, he's coming down

no matter what. You needed to be damn near door to door for him to give you the groove. And I'm out there racing. It's one of my first races, probably about my fifth or so race into my first season at Myrtle Beach. And I get underneath it off of turn four going down the front straightaway, and I've got probably about three or four feet on him up on his left for a quarter panel, and we get down the corner, and he comes on down, like I'm not even there.

And I tense up and we hit and I spin out. I go home. My dad says, how'd you do this weekend? I said, well, I was running, passing Ed Ray for fourth, and I spun out underneath him. And dad's like, spun out, what to hell? And I'm like, well, he came down on me. And he's like, oh, man, you got to hold the wheel straight, hit the brakes. You got to hit the brakes and hold the wheel straight.

when he's coming down, you straighten the wheel, hit the brakes. I was like, oh. So, sure enough, next weekend, I feel like I'm passing Ed Ray for fourth place up off a term four. I get under him. I mean, it's literally carbon copy of the exact same situation. And here he comes. And I'm ready.

I know he's coming down. And I held the wheels straight, lock up the brakes, and Ed goes around. Ed spins out. And so I learned really important, you know, one of thousands and thousands of racing lessons through Ed Ray and my dad in that little moment. And we, Ed was a nice guy.

You could have these little moments on the racetrack with him and out of the car, he was a nice guy. and I enjoyed racing with him as I did all the other competitors back then in those days when I was just a punk kid. And so I wanted to shout out Ed Edison Ray Jr. Who passed away on October 11th this year and just a couple of days ago. So enjoyed racing him. I hope his family's doing well. He lived to 78 years old.

Wow. Yeah. Pretty dang awesome. So he was a lot of fun to race with. Edward Jordan, another friend that I raced with at Myrtle Beach. You remember Edward Jordan, T.J. Oh, yeah. Check him out.

Edward. Edward gave me this information about Ed Ray passing away. So I just want to give him a shout out for you in the show. Xfinity is waving the red flag on internet price hikes and raising the green flag on savings. You get the speed and the reliable Wi-Fi that you need locked in at one price for five years. No surprises and no late yellows right to Victor Lane with Xfinity. Imagine that. That's the end of the Asch Junior segment and thus the end of the show.

I hope you guys appreciate everything we're doing here at Dirtymo Media. We got part two of the Shane Meal interview coming out tomorrow. It is, if you like part one, you're going to love part two. It is good. And Shane did a hell of the job when he came into the studio to sit down and talk to us. I'm excited about the reaction to Part 2. And then another bless you hard on Thursday with me and Amy. Thanks for joining us in the Arby's studio today.

Don't forget about Arby's new meat in three blocks right here over my shoulder. You get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meets. Check out Dirtymo Media on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok.