The Dale Jr. Download - Mid-Season Superlatives, And Is SMT Data A Good Thing For NASCAR?

Episode Date: June 6, 2024

Carla Gebhart is joined by The Athletic's Jordan Bianchi to break down a NASCAR hot topic: SMT data. Why do you keep hearing about it? What is it? Should SMT data be available to drivers and teams during a race? How does that impact competition?  Randall Burnett, crew chief of the No. 8 car at Richard Childress Racing, joins to offer his perspective on SMT data sharing and whether it helps or hurts in providing the best racing. Plus, it's time to announce our mid-season superlatives! Carla and Jordan give their selections, and we highlight the fan picks for each category. And, finally, the crew discusses which upsets you should look out for in Round 2 of the Denny Hamlin Bracket Challenge as the NASCAR Cup Series heads to Sonoma. 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.

Well, there is no playbook in NASCAR, but there is sports media technology, which you're probably thinking, okay, what the heck is that? Well, you best know it for its acronym, SMT data. And we hear drivers and teams talk about it all the time. But what is it? How is it used and should it be shared among other teams and drivers like it is right now? We heard from Dale earlier this week and on door bumper clear. They talked about this very thing. So we thought it would be maybe a pretty fun debate for us to bring up on DJD Relofer

I've got the tear downs Jordan Bianchi here. And we got the crew chief of the number eight, Randall Burnett, calling in. They're going to give us both sides to this argument. So that should be a lot of fun. And I can't believe we're already saying it. But we just have 11 races left in the regular season, which makes this a perfect time to hand out some midseason superlatives. We're talking best driver, biggest surprise, and even the best pit crew so far in 2024. We're also going to be diving deeper into the Denny Hamlin bracket challenge because what is a bracket

without upsets. We're going to be talking about those Cinderella teams that survived in advance last week and those that have a pretty good shot at doing it again after Sonoma. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media.

Welcome into another episode of DJD. Reloaded. I hate SMT. You shouldn't be able to relay to a driver how much more break somebody is or isn't using it. Harvick ran

part throttle through the turns at Charlotte. They were like, just do that. They're not traffic that way. It's not that simple. Welcome inside the Bojangles studio for another episode of DJD Reloaded. I'm Carla Gepphardt, joined by the Teardown and the Athletics, Jordan Bianchi, once again. We always appreciate you stopping by. And a lot to talk about as far as SMT data is concerned, a lot of fans out there just learned that this means sports media technology.

And it was actually a company. It's not just some term that these drivers and teams throw around all a time. Yeah, if I want to know how fast you're going into a corner, all I got to go do is look at the data. And if I want how hard you're breaking, all I got to go do is look at the data. It's a very different how NASCAR has done things previously, but this is very much part of the sport now, and it doesn't seem like it's going away. They have partnered with NASCAR back in 2001, but drivers and teams have had access since 2018. And all three series in NASCAR have had access since 2023. And I said earlier, you know, NASCAR doesn't have playbooks, but this is kind of a

driver's playbook. It's what makes them them. And I think if you're looking at any other sport, you're thinking, oh my gosh, that sounds like cheating just to have it all right in front of you. Like it's like an open book test. It is. It's a great analogy. Open book test and having someone else's playbook. And I think that's to me where I take umbrage with this. And I, and I maybe am not a fan of SMT data though. I understand it's not going away is the drivers have gotten to this point because of their ability and the skills that they've honed and they carry with them in the cup series. And now everyone else can see that. And so if you're good at a particular track, because you can run the bottom better,

or you carry throttle longer, are you break deeper into a corner, or you just tap the break a little bit, your competitors all see that now. And they can say, wait a second, that so-and-so is really good here. We need to replicate that. And it's almost like, wait a second, that's almost like my trademark. Why are you taking something that is mine that got me to this point? And now you can just take that and maybe try to apply it yourself. It does feel like cheating a little bit like you have.

but you have the, you know the secret ingredient to what is making that sauce so special. I don't know if that's a good thing or not, though. I don't think it is. Yeah, it's really hard to say, I think. And I think you look at it from a fan perspective. I mean, back in the day, you like drivers for their personalities on the track. Yes, their personalities off the track. But it was how they drove, were they blocking, were they aggressive, or were they going to go for it or not?

They knew what they were allowed to do. But now everybody does. And so now you're looking at the field currently in NASCAR and you're going, man, I really like these drivers. I like what they do, but you're wondering, is this a mixture of Kevin Harvick and a Dale Earnhardt? Is it a super speedway racing from Del Earnhardt Jr? or Denny Hamlin? It's a mosh pit a bit of personalities and the way that these drivers drive now. You made such a great point.

The drivers used to have distinct styles, and they still do, but now what makes that style so distinct is so known. And so if you're a hard charger, you can go and look at the data and say, well, this guy ran, X throttle through a corner at this track at this point and you're like well wait a second He won him the race or he was able to gain more positions this way We need to start doing that as well And it just it feels like in this era where everything is kind of equal The cars are more parts and pieces are the same

And the teams have less flexibility in how they build cars and crew chiefs The playbook is really narrow in what they can do in terms of adjustments It's also the same for the drivers Because if you become really good at a particular track for a particular reason everybody's going to now know why, and they know instantly. It's no longer something you keep in your back pocket. And we've heard drivers, whether it's a Kyle Busch or Danny Hamlin say, I used to be so good here and separate myself at a particular track.

But then everybody else was able to see why it was so good here, and it just negate your advantage. All right. So let's go ahead and welcome in the crew chief of the number eight for Kyle Bush at Richard Childus Racing. We have Randall Burnett joining us right now. And Randall, we are having a pretty deep discussion on S&T. data. It was brought up on Dell's show and door bumper clear earlier this week. But I guess just from a crew chief's perspective, because I'm sure you do have a different perspective than a lot of people out there. What do you remember about the use of SMT data and when that kind of got

introduced to NASCAR? Yeah, it's been a, gosh, I don't remember the exact year. We got it going, but it's obviously been a handful of years now. You know, it's sports media technology was a group. That's what SMT stands for. They're the ones that paired up with car and came in and started the service for us to start stream basically was it's almost like a live stream right where we can look at all the data coming in from not only our car but a lot of the other cars that's available to us so we have a whole plethora data that we're looking at throughout the race throughout the race weekend and even leading up to the race weekend I'm assuming it had to have been but when they introduced it to y'all it had to be pretty

eye opening to see all of that. Yeah, for sure. I mean, it's, you know, before you were always just going off of what the driver was saying, what you're visually seeing on the track. So it opened a whole new realm of ways to tune on the race car, what you're looking at, how to compare things, and really get the most out of your race car. So how do you use this on a week to week basis from before the race practice and during the as well. Can you kind of explain that a little bit?

Yeah. So leading up to the weekend, it saves all the data, right? So we can pull it up and go back and look at what we were doing at the last race at that particular track, see what our driver was struggling with, see where the guys say, if we run fifth, tenth, whatever, we can see what the guys that won the race with were doing to be better. Like, was their car better on entry? Was their car better through the middle of the corner on power down on exits? So we We can compare that live. We can also compare the driver techniques. We get speed and RPM traces.

We get with the next-gen car, we obviously do a lot of shifting. So we can look at what gear the guys are running in and where they're shifting and when they're shifting and how they're doing that. We can also look at brake traces, steering traces, compare times, all that. So it starts the week of the event. You're looking through all that. Okay, where did we get beat last time we're here? what do we got to work on in our car? The drivers are looking at it before the race weekend just to kind of remind themselves of their lift points,

you know, where they're turning into the corner, where they're getting back to the gas, all that. So everybody from the race engineers to the crew chiefs to the drivers are using it, even the spotter sometimes as well. So we know how Jordan Bianchi feels about this. And a lot of people, I think, at least fans maybe feel the same way that Jordan does, that, you know, it shouldn't be shared among drivers and teams. But how do drivers and crew chiefs and how do you feel about the sharing of this information? Well, I don't know. I'm a little bit of a purist. I kind of like the idea not having it. I like the old way of doing it is, you know, you're with your driver and you're going off what he's saying and all that. Now, on the other side of it,

there's a lot of days that I'm glad I have it because I need it, you know? So I don't know. I know my driver was very vocal about it when it first came out and he wasn't particularly excited about everybody seeing what he was what he was doing with the controls and how he was running his race car. So, you know, I think there's, it's definitely people on both sides of fence. Yeah, I think Kyle was probably one of the ones that said, hey, I'm a talented race car driver. I don't really want everybody else to know the secrets about this. Another question I have for you, Randall, I mean, we know drivers still have their own characteristics. right, their own personalities, even with the data.

But if, let's just say Kyle and Austin were, you know, studying at the same time and using the same amount of data, would that all still look the same or would you be able to tell the difference still? Yeah, I mean, I don't know. There's a lot of times where, you know, we'll be looking at each other's data or whatever. And one of them says, well, I can't do that with my car. So that's where it falls on us to try to, okay, well, this guy's beating you on corner entry, right? So if Kyle says, well, I can't do that with my car, I can't get in there

because I'm going to be too loose or I'm going to be too tight or whatever it may be. That helps us get a direction on what way we're going, you know? So a lot of times Austin and Kyle sit and hauler and they'll be looking at data and comparing things and talking about their cars. And, you know, there's just such a wide, broad range of what we use it for. It's kind of become a part of far away of racing now. You know, like we're, I'm constantly talking to Derek, our spotter on the radio about,

hey, this is what this guy's doing to try to help him feed information. Derek's really good at that anyways, of really looking. And a lot of times Derek's picked up on it before I have. But, you know, me and him are constantly communicating on the second channel about, hey, this is what this guy's doing or this is where we're getting beat.

You know, it just never ending. There really isn't a way to put the genie back in the bottle, though, right? I mean, now teams have this information. And even before SMT was kind of publicly accessible, teams were still getting this information. So it doesn't really feel like you can kind of go back, even though maybe we all want it to go back to how it was, you know, 10, 20 years ago. Because this information is out there.

You just have to figure out a way to get it. Yeah. So, you know, when when we first went to the EFI stuff, that's when we were able to get access to our own data to look at this, right? We didn't necessarily have anybody to compare to except for your teammates, right? and it wasn't a live feed. You'd have to plug in the car, get the data off the car, bring it in, put it through, you know, Pi Toolbox or Motek or whatever you're looking at it in and within that form. And you couldn't do it live, right? Now it's alive.

It's right at your fingertips. Anytime there's a car on the track, we're getting that data no matter what, you know, through qualifying, through practice, the whole deal. So, yeah, it's kind of a hard thing to put back in the box, right? unless you just pull the plug and end it and don't give it to anybody and just end the feed, right? So that's the only way to kind of put it back in the back in the bottle, as you'd say. So how do you think that it impacts the racing? Like what's the biggest part that you think it impacts on the track? Well, I mean, everything is so close right now, especially in the Cup series.

I mean, we're talking, you know, we go to the racetrack and we're a 15th place car. We're a 10th off the pace. You know what I mean? And so it's that tight. So everybody's got the same car right now. Everybody's got the same everything. Everybody's got the same access to all the data. So if you go to the racetrack and, you know, you're looking at somebody else's car.

You can tell where their car's better, like within seconds. Okay, I need to work on this portion of my car to make it better. Or the driver needs to work on his line to make his line better through here. And it gets to be, we always complain, well, there's no passing. Well, everybody's doing the same thing. and everybody has access to so much information that, you know, the difference between winning and a 20th place car is so minute these days that it just makes it hard. Is there a style track where SMT data really is useful?

I've heard short tracks is one area where drivers really feel like because of the heavy braking and everything is the one style track where it's really beneficial. Yeah, I would say, you know, the short tracks and the road courses, is where you probably get the most benefit from it. You know, the intermediate tracks, you're really close to wide open. So the drivers carry in the car to the very edge of the limit, right? There's not a whole lot of, I mean, there's a little bit of style involved in that of how you do it and how you move around on the track, you know.

So like if you, like on an intermediate track, you'll see guys start to move around, like maybe you're running a little bit higher on the track or run a little bit lower or whatever. That's the kind of information we're giving our. driver and it's kind of up to him to try to figure out how to make that work with his car. With the short tracks, there's so many different braking techniques, corner entry speed to mid-corner roll speed. Richmond's one of those places. It's extremely difficult.

Even Gateway this past weekend, you know, we were in practice and Kyle's like, man, I don't think my car's getting into the corner very good. Well, when I showed him on SMT, he was a car length better or car length deeper into the corner than other guys. And actually we were too tight across the middle to roll enough speed and that's where we were getting beat. So those are the things that me and him communicate about and look at to make sure we're working in the right area of our car to try to make it better every week.

Kind of going off of that too, is this also why we can see that racing can have the opportunity to get better even though we don't have as much practice as we used to? Well, yeah. I mean, certainly, you know, old days, you know, we would get three 50-minute practice sessions over the course of the weekend. And you could rebuild your car completely. I mean, I mean, you would change everything. Well, now we have less items to change.

We're not changing spindles or upper control arms or truck arms or things like this throughout the weekend, right? Like our car has built what it is. We can change, you know, for this weekend at Sonoma, we have a 50-minute practice session. So we're allowed to change springs and do some more things. when we have our normal, you know, kind of practice qualifying impound deal, we're not allowed to do those things. We don't change nose weight. We don't change springs. We don't change cambers, things like that.

So you're kind of locked in when you get to the racetrack. So there's a whole lot of homework you have to do to make sure that you've got everything the way you want it when you unload for that 20 minute practice session because that's really your only, you know, that's really what you're going to have for the weekend. And your adjustments are minimal compared to what we can do during the week before we get to the track. When you look at data, is there some data that's not available to the teams that you would love to get your hands on to see what other teams are doing? Me? No. I'm a data overload right now, honestly. There's so much coming in, right, that it's hard to keep track of it. Your engineers have to be on top of it. You know, we write all. of programs to kind of help break down a lot of that data. We get pit road data. We get, you know, we analyze pit stop data. We got, you know, all the driver data. We've got engine data that

we're coming across, you know, monitoring temperatures and everything else. So, I mean, it is a ton of information coming in that we got, you know. So where it's at now, I really don't think that we want to open it up to say having shock plots on the car and being able to monitor travels and all that, like say that the Indy cars and the Formula One cars are doing, you know. So I think I think where we're at now is probably about the, as far as I would like to see the availability of the data going, right? So I know there's other opinions on that and everybody's got to write to their own opinion. But that's kind of where I stand with it. I'm, you know, I kind of like it how it is. And maybe it's too much now as it is.

You mentioned the information overload. And then Jordan, I know you said we can't put the Jeannie back in the bottle, but hypothetical situation, if you could make any changes or put some of the data back, would you choose to do so, Randall? I mean, I think it would be fun for a year to see how it went. See how everybody did. See how the racing went. You know, I think we're so, we've had it for so long now and we're so used to having it and having that availability to our fingertips.

You know, it might be a little bit of a cultural shock to some guys that we're like, oh, no, what do we do now? You know, so yeah, I think it'd be interesting. I think it might be a fun game for a couple weeks just to, hey, we don't have it. You know what I mean? I think that sounds like a pretty fun idea. Maybe you can do that for the All-Star race or something. Yeah.

Right. Like, I think there was one place we went, I think the first year, maybe was it the first year we went to the Coliseum, we didn't have it or something. It was not too recently ago, and everybody's like, oh, no, what do we do now? We don't know what we're doing. Well, did you lose the Internet at Gateway a year ago and you lost all your data? Yeah. And so you weren't able to access it then. Somebody just cut the court. It was funny.

So the internet went down, but we still had some of our timing and score and stuff the way that our time and then scoring fed through. We had a live feed for that. But yeah, when it goes down the middle of the race, it's like everybody's like a deer in a headlight. It's like, what are we going to do? Oh, that's a pretty fun conversation. Well, Randall, we know you have to get out the door right now. You've got to get ready for Sonoma this weekend. So we'll let you go, but we really appreciate you joining us today.

Yeah, thanks for having me on. It's been a pleasure. I had fun talking with you guys. And I get to go get on a six-hour flight, head to Snow. Have fun. Yeah, we'll see. Are you coming, Jordan? No, Jeff Luckrace this weekend.

You're taking this week off. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I'll see you next week in Iowa, though. All right. Well, thank you guys so much. Man, that conversation got more fun, the more questions that we asked. But I think it's interesting to talk about that, because you just wonder where everybody's heads at in the garage,

like would they like less? Would they like more? I mean, there's going to be varying opinions on that. There is. I mean, drivers are pretty universal on this. They don't like the information.

Put it this way. The successful drivers don't want their information. The guys who are struggling want the information because they want to figure out ways to get better. But there really isn't a way

to get back, the genie back in the bottle. And I say this because even before SMT data, like I would hear stories about how teams would like hack into different systems. Or they had scanners

that were, you know, information that was available to fans and that kind of thing, and they would use that, and they would ascertain this data in various means. So they were still getting it. It was just much harder to obtain, and now it's, you know, it's just, it's there. I mean, it's just open to the public. And for me, it's a proprietary thing where, you know, what makes a driver so good? That's his skill set. And now other people are able to see this. And you talk about, you know, short tracks. Danny Hamlin's been very vocal

about this about, you know, on the short tracks, like, that's my bread and butter of when to break, when to get off the accelerator, how much speed do I carry through a quarter. And now everybody can see that. And the edge, the advantage I had through my ability, through the skills that I've honed through the years is just an open book. And I don't know, is that what you want or is that you want to make it more hidden? So that way you put more of it back into the driver's hands. Yeah, you've heard people talk about Denny Hamlin, the way he used braking and how drivers

when they first kind of saw that were really flabbergasted a little bit. Like, what is he doing? but he's actually getting an advantage for that. And yeah, all of that is known. I think about Michael McDowell. I was reading obviously an article about him using this data to get good at super speedways. And he is a good super speedway racer, but, you know, it did take kind of looking at what everybody else was doing and kind of capitalizing on that. And I thought Randall made a really good point.

Just because you have this data doesn't mean you're going to be able to 100% replicated. There are so many other factors involved. You have to have your car handling correctly. You've got to have the right arrow package. and horsepower and all of these things. And just because you know how someone's breaking into a corner doesn't mean you're able to exactly replicate it, but it does certainly help. It is an A that is unlike anything in previous areas of NASCAR, but that's just how

technology evolves. And they don't know how you put a lid on that. Yeah. And I think Dale Jr. actually kind of spoke to that a little bit earlier this week on the Dell Jr. download. We have a clip from him kind of explaining this from a driver perspective, what Jordan just said. But let's go ahead and take a listen.

We had a partnership with Stuart Haas Racing and we could see everything that Harvick was doing with Roddy Childers. They came onto the scene. They were hauling ass everywhere. And Harvick ran part throttle through the turns at Charlotte and other places. We could not figure out what he was doing, how he. They were like, just do that. Drive it that way. So I couldn't imagine being a driver today.

I've thought about this for you guys. And I don't envy having your crew having all the, your crew chief, engineers saying, here's your teammates' inputs. do that. That's faster. His car is faster. You have the same car. Go do what he's doing. And I'd be like, it's not that simple. Yeah. Talk about a little bit of added pressure. Some of the conversations that have probably gone on between teams. But it's not that easy. As you mentioned, to really just replicate what somebody else is doing because everybody still has their own personality, their own characteristic, like we mentioned with Randall. And it's harder too. Now, if you're a driver and your teammate, for example, or even someone from a different organization, you can see what they're doing.

And now the team is looking at you saying, why can't you do that? Why are you unable to do that? Well, the car isn't handling that. Yeah, but you're supposed to elevate this. You're supposed to be able to do this. And it does put more of a spotlight on a driver where your reasons for not being able to do something are getting less and less because you're seeing what the competitors are doing. We were talking about the hypothetical situation, but like, is there any chance that NASCAR would take some of it away?

I don't think so because part of what NASCAR is trying to do is it gears itself toward a younger audience. if you will, is making things available in terms of technology and data and showing how much speed is being carried into corner, how much brake force is being applied. If you look at other forms of motorsports, it's very open. And part of, you know, some of the pushback against NASCAR has been it's a little too slow to embrace technology. I think you have to. This is a very data-driven sport that I don't think is really appreciated. When we hear about other sports or other forms of racing. We hear a lot about engineers and a new wave of technology. Nescar's really on that cutting edge as well. We just don't hear about it enough. So I don't see how you're ever going to go

back to the old days of doing things. If not, I think it's even going to go further. Right. So maybe it is a good thing for the sport, though, to let fans kind of see what's going on. And obviously, the drivers and the teams, they've adapted to all of this because they can't to. Yeah. I don't have a choice on that. But that's a pretty fun debate and conversation to have anyway. But how about we get to some mid-season superlatives. We are going to be debating on that and talking about the best driver, biggest surprise, best crew chief, best pit crew, all of that coming up next. Well, as NASCAR Cup Series drivers head out to Sonoma this weekend, and we are now going to be talking about our mid-season superlatives, Jordan, and I am pretty excited about this. Again, this is your opinion and

my opinion on this mid-season superlatives. We're also going to get the fans' opinion incorporated into this segment as well. But really a lot to talk about, a lot different than maybe how we would have answered this at the beginning of the season. And so I guess we'll start with the most improved. And I'm going to give you mine first. Okay. All right. I'm going with Alex Bowman as the most improved. And I feel like I might get some push back on this because he is a Hendrick driver. That's like the top team in the sport. But I will say after last season, there was just a a different mojo around that team. Obviously, he had broken his back and got injured,

had to sit out a couple of races, but then the performance after that just really wasn't the same. Since the beginning of this season, though, we've seen a lot of improvement, I think, for him. He still is missing that win, but nine top tens, four top fives, pretty good. Yeah, the way they finished the year last year when Alex came back from injury,

and he will tell you, like, those kind of injuries, it's hard to overcome. And even if you may feel 100%, you can drive the race car, the feel in the race car is much different and his performance suffered absolutely and so there was some questions going into the year whether he's going to be able to bounce back

and show the form that led him he was at top of the point standing at one point last year and they've done a really good job slow start to the year they weren't qualifying well they weren't racing well they didn't have track position a lot of times qualifying much better starting to score now starting to string together some top 10 finishes and you're starting to see that

that first win really appears like it's around the corner any given week now yeah top 10 and points for the regular season right now so that is my pick. Who do you have? It has to be Stuart House Racing. You went into this year, everybody was talking about Stewart House Racing. It just was a bad vibe surrounding this team. Losing Kevin Harvick,

they're losing big sponsors. The team, there's a lot of whispers about the future of the team which were later answered, of course, and it just felt like this team was headed very much in the wrong direction. How was this team going to continue to be relevant? How are they going to continue to produce results? And it didn't feel like they were. Well, guess what they

are. They are surprising everybody this year. Chase Briscoe's in playoff contention. No, Gregson has had a tremendous year and without a points penalty he would be in playoff contention and you look at their lineup you know Ryan, Ryan Priest for example, he continues to do some great things and then rookie Josh Barry getting better each and every week as he gains experience across the board, Stuart House Racing despite uncertainty about you know employment and jobs and where they're going to go and that kind of thing. They continue to produce and grind out results week after week. Kudos to them for doing that. They deserve a lot of accolades. It should be

helpful too as they are looking for jobs the way that they're running and you mention how they're running but also with all the noise going on right now to continue if they're able to do that the rest of the season I think we'll speak really highly of a lot of those yeah and it's going to be tough I mean there's everything going to get sorted out now and everybody kind of keeps one eye on the future it's going to be interesting to see whether they can continue this but right now from where they're at today they deserve a lot of accolades well the fans I think agree with you because one of the three drivers that they mentioned was Noah Gregson, and I will say he has run pretty well. You mentioned that if he had not had the points penalty, he would be up there. Justin Haley,

Dale Earnhardt Jr. mentioned that on his show and just what he's been able to do with Rick Ware Racing. And then Chase Elliott, I mean, that's going to be a popular pick. I'm sure with the 40, what, 47 winless streak snapped, but. Not to disagree with fans, I'm just curious how they got to the point about, like, isn't this what we expect out of Elliot, though? I mean, this is what Chase Elliott should do. And the Just a just, And the first and Haley thing is spot on. Yes. In the fact that he delivered Rick Ware Racing its first ever top 10 finish on a non-super

Speedway track. He's had several great runs this year. That team only has two chassis and they kind of rotate him out every given week, every other week. Really remarkable what they're doing. And he knew it before we all knew it. So that is a nod to him for sure. All right.

Let's get to the best race of the season. How is it not cancer? Like from beginning to end, from Green Flag to Checkered Flag, that race, was everything you would want. You had great sizzling racing, three wide racing, drama, different guys in the mix. You even had pit strategy at different points. And of course you had the finish itself, which looked like something out of a movie with Kyle Larson and Chris Busher, you know, going door to door, banging coming to the start finish line and this remarkably historic NASCAR finish that you needed to go to the photo to see who won. Like that race literally had everything.

That to me is not just the best race of the year. It's an all-time classic. Yeah, it's definitely one that you want to go back and watch. We were talking about that earlier this season of just every stage was exciting and that's not always the case. Usually we're waiting for stage three to roll around at some of these tracks. I am, I kind of heard a birdie told me that you were probably going to pick Kansas. So I have to be devil's advocate. I have to give Atlanta some credit, right? The three wide finish. And here's also why I picked Atlanta because expectation going into that track versus reality of what we got was completely different because all we hear about Atlanta all the time is the repave was terrible. They need to tear it down, start over, all of this. And it put on

such an exciting finish. Everybody was, you know, standing out of their seats to watch the end of that one. And it truly was a, like, I'm looking forward to them going back to Atlanta. And that's something that you would not have said even last season. It's such a great point. And you are so right. when you look at Atlanta and what drivers were saying what fans thought about Atlanta Motor Speedway. It's like, why do we have this reconfiguration? We want old Atlanta back. And then you had that race and you're like, whoa,

Austin Cindrick going three, was it four, five wide going into turn one? That was the moment when it flipped and fans went, oh, I like this new version of Atlanta. And now it went from, oh, man, I don't like this new Atlanta to, what are we going back? We're going back for the playoffs? Hell yeah, let's go. We're excited.

Like Atlanta's reputation literally did a 180 because of that. race. And it's remarkable because no one liked it. No one did. No one was in favor of it. Only one who liked it was Marcus Smith. And now everybody's like, yes, this is great. And it's, yes, it's a super speedway type of venue and drivers don't like that per se. But the action on the track is remarkable. And so, yeah, kudos to Atlanta. And again, if we didn't have Kansas, that finish at Atlanta would be what we'd be talking about most weeks. It was incredible. Yeah, absolutely. Let's go ahead and see what the fans said about this one and they had a varying opinions i think kansas probably won atlanta was maybe second and darlington they said was a was another good one this season that was an old school finish

like long green flag run you had two guys battling there in redick and busher they get into it and brad snaps that long winless streak that was classic darlington if you like you know you're old school dascar fan you're like i like my racing a certain way that was what darlington did yeah all right let's move on to the biggest surprise is this season. And we're going to start with the fans and what they said. They said, Carson Hosevar, Justin Haley, and Austin Cendrick, obviously after the winning gateway over this weekend. I, though, before I even saw what the fan said, I said Carson Hosevar. And I think just looking at what he's done since he got to Spire Motorsports, to not only be running well, but to be really

kind of the lead car in that team right now, outperforming Corey LaJoy as well. And we saw what he was able to do with Legacy last year. And I think we were pleasantly surprised. But he also, a lot of people aren't talking about this, but he came in with this kind of preceded reputation. And that hasn't been the case of the Cup series, which I think is awesome to see and hasn't really taken away from anything of his skill on track. But I think he is my biggest surprise. He's delivering results on the racetrack. And he continually punching above his weight class. And this was, you know, coming into the year, there was a lot of questions about whether he was can be able to handle the rigors of Cup Series racing full-time and how he was going to adapt

and whether his aggressive nature and some of the issues he had in the truck series where he frankly didn't play well with others how that would transfer over and it hasn't been one there was he's delivering results he's getting top tens he's running well consistently now as a rookie to and a new team that's still kind of getting its legs underneath them and then he's also staying out of trouble he isn't having these maturity issues flare up or he's getting involved in on track incidents with other drivers he's been staying out of all of that and And he's showing why people have held him in such high regard for his talent. And he continued to deliver his results.

To the point, you start to wonder, like, when is maybe a bigger team going to try to snatch him up? Yeah, it's definitely a question worth asking. Who is your biggest surprise? To me, it's Austin Cindrick winning at Gateway. It's not that we don't believe in Austin's ability, but it hasn't been there. You know, last year was a trying year for him. And this year's been just kind of more the same. The guys who've won the last two cup championships have not won a point to this race this year.

year yet their teammate Austin Cinderick has and he did it in impressive fashion at Gateway. He is my surprise. Think about if you had said that at the beginning of the season. What a hot take that would have been that Cendrick would have won over Blaney and Ligano. Never would have happened. But it did. Yes. All right.

Best paint scheme. This is always fun to talk about and I am going to go first in this one. And it's pretty simple for me. Kyle Larson, the throwback Darlington to Terry Labani. I mean, you could. squint and it looked like his Kellogg car. It was done to perfection. I haven't seen a throwback in quite some time that was as good as that one.

There's so many things I loved about it. One, it's Hendrick Motorsports and it's in-house. And they do a really good job of keeping in-house and they go to these throwback paint schemes. It's the five team. And that's the team that, you know, won a championship back in 1996. So there's a really kind of a bridge there, if you will. And then just they embraced it. And the fact that pre-race, Terry Labani was walking.

up and down pit road wearing a driver's uniform. It just, it was very much quintessential throwback weekend in that respect. And I loved it. Yeah, I didn't know if throwback, a throwback scheme would be acceptable. So my current paint scheme too, also is Josh Barry's Mobile 1, the 150th Ford. I think he's actually running that at Sonoma this week. But I'm a fan of gold and so like to see that gold car. It's pretty sharp. It's really sharp. They do a good job. Mobile 1 has done some really cool paint schemes over the years. So I guess we're going to to your paint scheme. It's got to be Tyler Reddick. The MJ Jordan brand scheme that he ran at Tel Aviga was incredible, even before it hit the racetrack. It was just like, this is great. This

is sexy, right? And they've done a really good job with those paint schemes. Kurt Bush won with one at Kansas a year and a half ago. Remarkable. And then he goes and wins the race and MJ's there celebrating. It just kind of adds to it and everything. And those elephant schemes that they have that kind of incorporate that design really, really special. And it's just a great touch. And again, that MJ was there to celebrate it on top of it, just kind of was the cherry on top of the Sunday. Yeah, the current paint schemes, 2311 definitely knocks them out of the park. And also the Jordan brand is just so iconic and so recognizable. So when they do these, they do them well. And everybody, even if you're not a NASCAR fan, you're like, whoa, that car,

it looks good. It's instantly identifiable. All right. So the fans agreed with me, I guess, and said that it was, yeah, good job, fans. I appreciate that. Kyle Larson at Darlington. Again, that was just incredible to see that car back out on the track. Let's move now to most valuable driver. I feel like we're going to be pretty similar on this one. But you get to go first. Yeah, I think there's really only like two or three selections. And then this one, the obvious candidate for me is Denny Hamlin.

The year he's had, and one, he's got right now, he's got five straight, top five finishes. And he's really asserted himself as one of the championship favorites in a really short list. But really, I go back to Bristol. We know all the tires there were really wore, which was a great thing for the sport. We want to see races like that. That is a race where a driver's ability, and we talk about SMT data and what separates great drivers from that. We saw Hamlin's ability shine through at Bristol, saved his tires better than everybody. That was a win that the driver earned, and he was celebrating that win and rejoiced in that win.

And he knew it. He said, this is something I know I played a huge part in. And that to me is you can see Danny Hamlin's value in a race like that. And then, of course, of the entire season, he's the points leader for a reason. And it's his ability, week in and week out. He doesn't turn in a bad race. He doesn't make mistakes on the racetrack. Every week, he turns into your flawless wheel.

Yeah, I mean, as a media member, I think you have to look at, you have to look at the stats and the points. And that's usually how media members determine who is the most valuable. So at this point in the season, I think it has to be him. I mean, him calling a shot earlier this year. There's just a different, I don't know, there's just something different about him this season. confidence level that's that's I think always been there but it's just a little different this year it's the ability to even on their bad days let's use gateway as an example they didn't have a winning race car but they had a good race car and they still left their feelings the finishing

second and they left they're disappointed that tells you the expectations for this team and that tells you the ability of this team and even on their best days they still finish second yeah interesting though because I believe the fans disagree with us on this and they're going to go with Kyle Larson, and I can totally understand this, right? Because most talked about driver in the world right now. I mean, this guy can go race on anything. We've seen that, the ND 500 and just what he was able to do, even with a mistake that he made there. But most talented, pure talent driver, I would agree with the fans. But most valuable driver, if we're just talking NASCAR, what they've been able to do this season, I still think it's Hamlin. I mean, you look at the results. And I kind of hedge between Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson. You look at how many laps. Kyle Larson has won this year and frankly he's got two wins. He probably could have three or four others, but it's how he's executed in the late race situation that Kansas is a perfect example of that. He did everything perfect

on that last lap to get that win. To me, he is remarkable every single year and we're really seeing it this year on why he is such a special driver, but the difference to me was consistency. Hamlin hasn't really had a bad week this year. There has been a few times this year where Larson's had a mistake on the racetrack or something like that. That's the only difference. Right. And not been able to finish a race as well. All right, let's move on to the most valuable pit crew. Let's give a shout out to the teammates of the drivers right now. And the fans, they're going to say that the most valuable pit crew is Christopher Bell,

which is obviously definitely one of the top-ranking pit crews out there. What do you think about that? Yeah, they've done a really good job at Joe Gibbs Racing. They had some issues over the last few years on pit road where they haven't executed as flawlessly as they needed to, has cost them positions at times. They've really kind of gotten things really aligned there much better. and we're seeing it across the board, across Joe Gibbs racing, where all of their pit crews really now are executing at a very, very high level.

Yeah, I'm going to go with Denny Hamlin this year. Perfect. Yeah, our good friend, Bozzy, you know, you read all his stats about this, and the pit crew has just been dominant for most of this season, and I think the thing that sets them apart with where I think you're probably going to go with this, is that they're really, really young. And I know Hamlin has kind of mentioned this on his podcast, action is detrimental, but the fact that they are so young,

and they're really only like a tenth behind the top one, at least statistically, right now. And so for me, that kind of sets them apart. And the thing we talked about Denny Hammond and why that team is executing the way they are to the level they are, a lot of it is Pit Road as well. They used to have a lot of mistakes on Pit Road. I mean, you know, hung lug nuts, slow stops, whatever. It was costing them positions many, many times,

and it was something that it was hard to overcome. They're not having those issues on Pitt Road to the same volume that they once were. And that's having a lot of success in why the 11 team is so consistent week to week. All right, who do you have? It's got to be Chase Elliott's team. I crushed a lot of numbers.

I talked to a lot of people in the industry and it's Chase's L.A. team. They are regularly cranking out sub-9-second pit stops and they're doing it without mistakes. That to me, this is a no-brainer choice. There's a lot of great Cuis on Pit Road and the difference between being great

and just being average is minuscule. But what these guys are, are doing on the regular is just ridiculous. So kudos to them. Yeah, Bozzi said last year, being in the tens was pretty good and kind of keeping you at the top. And now it's that early, that nine, it's like you got to get to even keep your driver in the lead. And you're seeing them below nine sometimes. And you keep wondering, like, what is the threshold? At what point does it say you know, this is it? This is as fast as we can go. We can't go any faster. And I keep thinking like, oh, 10 seconds. Oh, it's nine seconds. Now we're in the eight. And it's like,

Seriously, like, I mean, at this point, you're basically a former than one pit crew, and they've got it a lot easier than you guys do. Yeah. All right. Let's move on to most valuable crew chief now, and I will give my answer first. I am going with Cliff Daniels. And the reason I am, obviously, just how intelligent he is when you're talking to him and just obviously everything that he and Kyle Larson have been able to do in that five car since joining forces. But the thing that sets him apart, you listen to the radio. and the way that he is able to communicate to Larson to keep him calm, to keep him focused is like a, this guy's got a psychology degree on top of an engineering. I mean, like he's so smart mentally and emotionally. He also did the same thing with Justin Allgaier and the Coca-Cola 600. You're listening to the radio and he's like, hey, just stay with it like in keeping them encouraged in those moments that are so stressful.

So that, to me, that's what sets him apart. Cliff does such a great job of building his driver up, inspiring confidence and pushing them to even beyond their heights. And it's really easy to say, well, you can be a great crew chief with Kyle Larson as your driver. Okay. But Cliff Daniels has really shaped Kyle Larson to being a well-rounded great race car driver at a variety of tracks. He's made Kyle Larson, who is already an elite talent, into fulfilling that potential, which really wasn't doing before he and Cliff got linked up. And it's the leadership. Cliff sets a tone there of, this is how we do it.

I'm first in, I'm last out. I'm going to work the hardest, and I expect everyone else to follow my lead. And it's remarkable. And you talk about the comments over the radio. There was a race at Charlotte Motor Speedway two years ago at the 600. The one he won. No, before that.

That was before. So this is 2022, 2023, excuse me. And everything was going wrong with this team, in 2022. And everything was going wrong with this team. And what, they had issues on pit road. Kyle was making mistakes. And he comes on the radio, basically half time. And he gives this great half-time speech of basically saying, hey, we screwed up like seven different ways.

We embarrassed ourselves. We still have a half of this race left. We're going to go out there and kick butt. And they did. And Kyle Darnier won that race until someone took him out. It's just the leadership. And Cliff does just such a great job with that. He is the tone setter with that team and everyone else falls in line.

Yeah, it definitely sets the temperature, like the thermostat of the team. All right, who do you have? It's Chris Gaphard. and if I'm going to laud the team for what they're doing on pit road and law the driver, I've got a lot of the crew chief. And Chris K. Bart, again, we talk about setting the tone. It's the same way. And it's over the radio.

He does a really good job of keeping Danny Hamlin in the game and building Danny up. And Danny can get down on himself sometimes when mistakes happen. Chris is like, no, we got you. We're going to pick you up. We're in this. Something will happen on the racetrack. He's like, no big deal, man. We got you.

And it's the strategy, too. You go back to Bristol. I talked about that with Hamlet. Chris gets a large part of that as well. Manage their tires exceptionally well. When to pit, how long to push, and that race went on and further on, he kept kind of adding laps to how long until they pit, and it put Danny, his driver, in position to win. And again, they haven't had a bad race this year. This team is a grinding team.

You don't think maybe of Danny Hamlin as a grinder. This team is a grinding team, and it starts with the driver and the crew chief. They set the tone, and you look at the results this year, it bears fruit. I love listening to their radio, too, because it's definitely different than, like, the five car, but they're, like, pushing each. other, but they're pushing each other to be better. And that's both for Hamlin and for Gabe Hart. And if you're going to have the most valuable driver, might as well be the most valuable crew chief. All right, let's now see what the fans said. And they actually went with Rodney Childers, which I think is absolutely a great choice, no matter where, what driver he's been with elevated

that whole team. And he's, you mentioned a tone setter. He definitely has been that for that four, that four car. Yeah, I mean, Josh Barry, for lack of a better term, was this handpicked driver for that team and we talked about the expectations for this year for Stuart Haas racing were low. Not many expected it. And no one's going to fill Kevin Harvick's shoes. But that team has done a great job of really maintaining the level of expectation and the performance has been really well as well. And Rodney has done a great job of molding a young rookie driver who doesn't have experience

and you look at their results. They've gotten better each and every week this year as they get that experience. So Rodney deserves a lot for that. Great choice by the fans. Absolutely. All right, most valuable spotter. And can I just say, I'm looking at this list right now. And you have set me up to fail incredibly well.

So go ahead and tell everybody. Yeah, I mean, listen, I just think Freddie and Brett and T.J., I mean, how can you, they set the gold standard. And so kudos to them for every week of just being everything a spotter should be. So thank you. And really, maybe an underhand attack. It is I'm tired of being called an idiot of the week. So hopefully they'll take this into consideration. Let's hope they're listening to this right now.

also the fans agree a very popular choice for tj majors the six car and now i'm gonna look like i hate all those guys but i don't so freddie t j brett i apologize i think you're a great choices so maybe this is like my my fourth choice right we'll put them at the top it's one one a one b c d okay so mine actually comes from earlier in the year but i'm going to go with tray pool and i know that that's that was kind of a talked about spotter going into the season because it was going to be new for chase Elliott had called a couple of races for him in the past. But there were a couple of instances early on in the season. Daytona, Talladega, and I can't remember if there was one more.

I can't remember if it was Atlanta or not. But you go back and watch those races. Now, some of it is probably driver skill. But there were several times where Chase Elliott escaped huge crashes. And you went back and watched the replay. And you go, how in the world? Again, that might be a little bit of driver instinct. But, hey, I'm going to give it to him also helping him snap that winless streak as well.

but just escaping those crashes. If he had anything to do with that, I mean, it was pretty incredible replays there. They haven't made many changes to the 9 team after a year where they were frustrated and disappointed with the results, but one of the changes they did make was the spotter. And it was probably it was time for a change, you could say, and the results bear fruit.

And I think it's been a welcomed addition for Chase, just having a different voice in your year, a different approach. And Chase has said that what Trey has brought to that team has given him a different outlook that allowed them to kind of get back on path a little bit. Yeah, very interesting. Okay, who has been a disappointment? And we did not ask the fans this, but we have our own take on this.

So who is your disappointment? I mean, listen, if you would have said before the year that Joe Ligano would not have a points win, it would be 16th in points, and outside of the playoffs, people will look at you like, you're crazy. That seems unfathomable, but that's the reality. And the expectation is that Joe Lugano is better than this, and he'll tell you he's better than this, and he'll tell you that he's disappointed. And they've had a lot of issues, some of it self-inflicted, some of it's with a new car, Some of it's just bad luck.

But the reality is, added all together, Lugano is 16th in points. And he starts the second half of the regular season. It goes into this key stretch here, you know, leading into the regular season finale at Darlington where you don't have a lot of wiggle room. He can still point his way into the playoffs, but he's probably going to need a win. And I don't think anybody foresaw this coming at the beginning of the year. I don't think they did either. And I would definitely agree with you on that.

You have a two-time Cup Series champ. I have a two-time Cub Series champ with the eight car of Kyle Bush. And listen, I know this has kind of been a disappointing stretch for him, even dating back to last season. But at the start of last year, we saw this team win three races fairly close together. And the fact that not only, you know, have they not done that, gotten back to Victory Lane. I mean, they were in that three wide finish at Atlanta. So they've been up front before. But they've, as of late, I mean, haven't even really been able to stay in the race.

And so I know that I know that's frustrating for fans. It's very frustrating for the 18. team, I'm sure, and for Kyle Bush as well. Yeah, the results haven't been there. And a lot of it's self-inflicted. Earlier this year, a lot of it was on pit road and they had issues and they did a lot of swapping out of crew guys trying to find the right combination and that seems to kind stabilize things a little bit. But then some of it's on the driver as well. Like Kyle is still not comfortable with his car. This is this car does not showcase his

skill set that well and he's struggling with it. And Gateway is a perfect example of that of, hey, you need to stay on the racetrack and get every point you can. When you're in a playoff battle and you are precariously, you know, on that line of whether you're going to get in or not, you need to finish races. You need every point you can get. You need stage points and you need race overall points. And instead he gets involved in a incident that was entirely preventable and doesn't finish the race on a day when they had top 10 speed. And so it's just been that year, though. There's a lot of mistakes. Some of it self-inflicted. Some of its bad luck and all these different things. But at the end of the day, this team should be better than they are. Yeah.

Next Gen Carr hasn't been around for a long time and then to switch teams in the mix of all of that too has definitely been difficult. So hopefully we'll see some changes for the 22 and the 8 moving forward. But I guess that's going to, I guess we made it all the way through. I don't know if that was long for fans, but it was sure fun to talk about. But up next we have the Denny Hamlin Bracket Challenge and we saw a lot of upsets last week. We're going to be talking about if we think there are going to be as many upsets this week after Sonoma. That's next. All right, so let's talk about this Denny Hamlin Bracket challenge, and my bracket is not terrible,

but it's not good because of all the dang upsets that we saw last week. I mean, right now, as it sits, we have over 31,000 brackets filled out. Mostly the fans out there are saying that they think Kyle Larson is going to be the driver that makes it all the way. But again, we mentioned five upsets in round one. I don't think any of us saw this coming, especially because a lot of them were really close, right? I mean, Martin Truex Jr., just barely. got beat out. The biggest upset, though, was 31 Austin Dillon over Truex, like I mentioned.

So that was definitely one that I would have never predicted. But how's your bracket looking? So, so. It's better than my colleague Jeff Gluck, who had Martin Trex Jr. winning his whole thing. You can't have the champ out in the first round. No, it's never sets up well. So it's okay.

It's like everyone, there were some upsets that kind of bit me a little bit, but I feel like I'm in decent shape. Okay. All right. Well, we got some more time. I still have, I think my final four still in. Yeah, same here. So that's always a good thing after you get out of round one,

or at least that's what I'm basing it off of when I do my NCAA bracket. So let's talk about upsets, though, and these kind of Cinderella matchups that we have, round two at Sonoma. We got Hamlin going up against Lugano. I'm going to just kind of run through these, and if there's anyone that you want to talk about. That seems really clear cut to me.

Yeah, I think that one's pretty clear cut. We've got Nemechek and Kozlowski. because Lowsky ranked higher. It seems clear cut, but I will say Brad Kesslowski's never won a Cup Series race on a road course before. Nemech is a good road course racer. Maybe something lurking there.

Okay, so maybe something to keep your eye out on. We've got Cindric and Elliot. I think that would be a surprise based off of history, but Cendrick is a road course racer. If you're looking for surprise and you want to get a little weird and go outside of chalk, if you will, Cindric is a good pick.

Great on the road courses. Elliott is fantastic too on road courses. But I'm just saying, it wouldn't be shocked if Sendrick won this race. Yeah, I definitely agree with that. That will be probably the one that I have circled to watch pretty intently. We also have Byron and Gregson. Pretty straightforward to me. William Byron is good on road courses running really well this year.

It's going to take a lot for Gregson to surpass Byron. Okay. Dylan survived in advance, but is he going to do the same with Chris Bisher? Chris Bisher's one of the underrated drivers in the garage. Really good on road courses. I think Chris cruises on. Yeah, he did pretty well. I think at Sonoma last year as well. We've got Ty Gibbs and Ross Chastain.

This, I guess, technically, is an upset because Chastain's a 10 seed. Right. But Chastain is really good. He won his first crew win, came on Dakota, which is a road course. Gibbs is still a sophomore driver. Doesn't have a lot of experience. Doesn't have a lot of laps, by the way, at Sonoma? I'm just saying.

I think last year, Ty Gibbs was 18th at Sonoma. Ross Chastain was 10th, I believe. So there you go. Some stats behind that one. And then Bush and Larson. Larson. This is a walk. I think Larson's going to...

Just with the struggles of the 18. Yeah, the struggle of the 18 right now. And plus, Larson's so good on road course. It's former winner here. A lot of success. Hendrik has really got the road course program elevated to a higher level. The way that team is running this year, yeah, Larson. All right.

Another interesting battle. This one circled big time outside of the Cendrick and Elliott is Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick. Who do you have? In my bracket, I definitely have Tyler Reddick. advancing because he's who's my winner for all of it. Great pick. He's my final four. Reddick is so good on road course as well. Former winner won at Rhode America, one at Indy Roadcourse. But Christopher Bell is one of those guys

just gets overlooked. That's just who he is. That's like part of his persona now. He was like overlooked Christopher Bell. Comes in two weeks in a row, let a lot of laps, led some stages, won some stages. One at Charlotte, obviously, probably would have won a week ago at Gateway if he didn't have the engine problem. But this is a road course and this is a different animal but Christopher did win his first career win came in the Daytona road course and shocked everybody so he's got this in him but I kind of like Reddick but this is a great bad who did you had you said you had Reddick in my final four I was feeling really good about that until last week on DJD Relo when I had the professor from Dirty Modo and he was like yeah I had

Christopher Vell advancing and I'm like shoot I don't know who to trust but they're so streaky though too like they have stretches and they're on the stretch now where they look so good and then they have other stretches where the 20 team can't stay out of their own way and they have the stake after mistake and mistake. So we just don't know what version of the 20 team we're going to get at Sonoma. It seems like they're on the other client right now, but it can also go the other way real quickly. Who do you think wins on Sunday? Or do you not want to say yet? Wins? Overall? Oh, man. We're not we're talking not bracket challenge. We're just talking to winning the race. I think I'm going to go Chase Elliott. I just I like that team right now. I feel like

Chase, the way they're performing, he's going to just start rolling off victories, I feel like. And it's going to be like two, three in a row. And it's going to look a lot like the version of Chase that we saw in 2020 and 2021 when he was doing all of these things. Yeah, we saw him. Was it 21 where he had a really good summer stretch? And usually there's one driver that usually gets hot in the summer. So we will certainly see with that. Well, Jordan, this was a fun show. We appreciate you for joining us. Absolutely. This is great. Well, that's going to do it for us on DJD Reloaded. But before we let you go. We got to go through all the content and all the podcasts that you can listen to that's put out by Dirty Mo Media. Obviously, the first one of the week is always the tear down with Jordan Bianchi and Jeff Gluck.

We've got Actions Determinal with Denny Hamlin. That was a really great episode this week. I'm talking about keeping their puppy or not outside of the race that they got in St. Louis. And then door bumper clear. Always great debates between those guys. We've got the Dell Jr. download also with Mark Martin and had a really great conversation. Obviously, we've got Speed Street. with Connor Daly and Chase Holden. And then Dirty Mode Doe. You got to get your bets placed on Sonoma this weekend on that road course, but not without first listening to those guys on what you should do.

So a lot of content, like we always say, to listen to on Dirty Mo Doe. And before we let you go, just also really want to make mention, too. Today is the 80th anniversary, if you didn't know, of D-Day, when they stormed the beaches of Normandy and obviously World War II. So we're just thinking really about that moment in history. the veterans and those that gave their life, obviously, for the freedoms that we have today. So just an important reminder for everyone out there. We'll see you next week on DJD Reloaded.

Thanks for joining us this week. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.