The Dale Jr. Download - NASCAR's Biggest Anomaly

Episode Date: September 9, 2025

As the NASCAR Cup Series continues to roll in round one of the Playoffs, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is back in the studio for a new episode of Dirty Air. He joins co-host TJ Majors to discuss the major happenings from the weekend in St. Louis, and how the Playoffs picture looks going into Bristol:Connor Zilisch is on his way to making Xfinity Series historyWhat can we expect from Connor’s rookie Cup season?Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney have an on-track dust-upWho is doomed to be eliminated in round one?Will the new tire produce different results at Bristol?Once again, this is Denny Hamlin’s best shot at a championshipDuring the Ask Jr. portion of the episode, listeners sent in questions regarding:Does Dale feel like he’s missing out not racing Bristol this weekend?Favorite Bristol Night Race memoriesAdvice for Cleetus McFarland at BristolWasp nest updatesAnd for more content check out our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMediaDirty Mo Media is launching a new e-commerce merch line! They’ve got some awesome Dale Jr. Download merch on the site. Visit shop.dirtymomedia.com to check out all the new stuffFanDuel: Must be 21+ and present in select states (for Kansas, in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino) or 18+ and present in D.C. First online real money wager only. $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets which expire 7 days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut, or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit GamblingHelpLineMA.org or call [phone] for 24/7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPENY in New York.Consumer Cellular: New customers get a $5 credit on first five monthly invoices. Visit https://savings.consumercellular.com/DJD for details. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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? DJ.

DJ. You don't need a cool vest for that race? What are you thinking? Get them, DJ. Hellway is starting to show. All right then. Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. back again for another.

episode of the Dale Jr. Download. It's Tuesday and it's dirty air. And I'm here with my great friend, one of my best friends, T.J. Majors. How's it going? Why are you being so nice today? I don't know. Maybe I should be nicer. And then Travis. Travis, how you doing? Heard you're not feeling well. I'm not. We hope you feel better real soon. Yep, we do. We hope you get well. Yeah, second half of the show, you should probably take off. Did you take some Advil this morning? I took some Sudafed. They say that'll help. Took some Sudafed. My wife's like, I got sick, head cold last Saturday, and I'm still kind of messing with that. And my wife's like, take some Advil.

I'm like, I'm not in pain. And she said, well, you know, it helps with inflammation. I didn't know that. That's one of the key things that it says it does. I thought Advil was only for aches and pains and pains. Well, now you know. Huh. Who knew?

Well, they don't they don't promote themselves. I'm sorry. I got to stop cussing. They don't promote themselves. the way they should. I mean, they should promote that, because I don't know that. I think they do. I've always, I mean, I am very aware of their ability to help with aches and pains.

But it is not common knowledge about the inflammation. Would anybody else agree? I mean, I kind of knew. Andrew would just walk in. We got a little backup in here because we know. Go ahead and get sick. Travis is struggling. Go ahead and get sick, Andrew.

Travis is struggling to to get through the day and a gigantic Eric church fan walked into the door to save the day. Yeah. All right. Travis said it doesn't feel good, but I ain't seen to some not smile since he's been in here.

See you later, sick boy. Where are you going? Going home? You look fine. I do want to make it known that Travis will get credit for the podcast even though I'm filling in. People on Reddit were saying that I've been an asshole this year.

But this is the kind of stuff that they don't see. Travis is sick, cold sweats, got a fever. He's going to come in here, sit down for three minutes, start the show, then get up and let you sit there and talk into that same microphone in that same room. Yeah, yeah, this is good luck. Yeah, thank you. Good luck. You're living dangerously.

James is also in there. James has been in here for longer. Yeah, everyone is at risk. And they wonder why Dale's an ass-a-old this year. I don't see. I mean, I don't notice the difference. Well. I think it has been normal.

I'm not saying you're. No, no, no. Let's somehow compliment Dalton and Andrew in all this. Because the year before, they were sitting in here, right? Or has it been two years? How long was it? Yeah, yeah. Last year, right?

So you got, I mean, it's all. blur. You guys are sitting here last year and I was, I never, I never, ever complained that I was an ass. Put T.J. and Travis in here and my whole disposition has changed for the worst. I think most of it's Travis. You bring the worst out in me is what I'm hearing, T.J. It is, it is good to push your buttons, get you going. I find it successful and I can get you either call me or Travis. That's right. That's all he does is sit down in here and try to goad me into being a jerk and they do it. Not all the time.

Travis does it naturally without like, you know. They sit in here and they go, So Dale, how you like that next gen? Yeah, right, right, right. I'm like, man, no, we're not going to do that today. What do you think of the car of tomorrow?

Yeah. We're not doing that. Not again. If we're having like a ho-hum show. Right. TJ is. We got to get this started. Yeah, we got to listen.

I know how to get a party. Going. Yeah, that is one. I ain't saying it. I was going to say it right there. I know. We don't have to talk about it. A whole show if you don't want.

Oh, well, anywho, the Cars Tour is closing in on the end of their season. This weekend, September the 13th, South Boston Speedway, the auto by Nelson Race Night. Nelson is one of the team owners, the Red and White No. 22. been in the Cars Tour for a long time. He is sponsoring this weekend's race. And yeah, the Cars Tour, motoring into the finish of their season with only three events left. South Boston up this weekend. And then we'll go to Tri County in October and then we'll finish up at North Willsboro.

Yeah. And we've got a tight little battle for the championship from Landon Lewis. I believe it's a point. Landon Lewis and Connor Hall. And there's a couple of other drivers still. mathematically alive, but I think it's going to come down to two. How many stage wins does he have? Man, no stage wins.

No playoff points. But there is a couple points for the poll, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's cool, though. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Moving on into the St. Louis race weekend.

Connor Zillich. Another great run for Connor. Yeah, I mean, look, man. He's driving my car. Oh, he is? I didn't know. It's weird. Yeah.

It's weird for me. I don't know if anybody ever knows this, but I do not like to talk about my own success or it's hard for me to kind of sit on this show and talk about junior motor sports success. I'm in a position in my mind on this show to try to be somewhat neutral. I know we do, you know, move away from that, you know, middle ground from time to time when we're promoting. what we got going on. But, you know, and I've talked about Connor at length about his ability and now everyone else. You know, we said it in here many, many weeks ago that we're kind of getting to hear the cool music before the rest of the world does.

Like we're getting to hear that, you know, man, damn, dude. And now the rest of the world's hearing that song and you're hearing it in their car. They're in the parking lot or they're like, hey, bud, have you heard this? And you're like, yeah, months ago, I was a big fan of that song. ago. He's on a roll. He's on a roll, man. And it's just working out, man.

Like, he, you know, like, he's just in that weird kind of state where everything just kind of go works. You know what I mean? You don't even do anything different. And you win seven of eight or whatever he is. And then, I mean, he's just not riding the wave. Yeah. Connor Hall just texts me, by the way.

If anybody's listening to this show and you can make a one-off die cast, go to Twitter and respond to Connor Hall because he's asking me if I know anyone that can make a one-off die casts, I don't. I don't know-no anyone. There are people out there. Oh, there's people out there for sure. And you're listening and get a hold of Connor Hall. He's looking for somebody to help him out.

There's a lot of guys that make models and stuff. Speaking of Connor Hall, Connor is going to move on from the Cars Tour next year. his plan is to move out of our car and try to put himself in an opportunity to drive a truck. Wow. Yeah. Pretty cool. That's awesome. Yeah.

So this stepping stone is working. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. Yeah. Pretty exciting for the cars tour to see drivers, you know, find and land opportunity at the next level. Connor Hall, one of those drivers out there who's trying to make it happen. And so.

There's two. or there's more, there's more than three or three. I'm sure there'll be a couple that'll come out of the series this year. The next two or three years are going to be, you're going to have a lot of graduates from the car store moving up. Thank you right. Um, so what were we talking about? Connor Zilich. Yeah, Connor Zillich. So. That new song. Yeah. Dude, I'm the, the, it's a, my gut feeling, I'm just going to let you inside my brain, which is a weird place. Um, I wish that, you know, obviously I think my initial, I want to see our other cars winning races. He's winning them all.

I'd love to see, you know, Carson Quaple will realize his potential. I think that he's had an off year. That deal hadn't worked out like I'd hoped. I'd love to see him get to Victor Lane. I think Carson Quaple has all the ability to do it. but the seven cars struggled with just bad luck and odd, weird things happening. Yeah. He started off pretty strong, though, didn't he?

He's his speed. Jim Pullman. Great speed. Jim Pullman has one of the fastest cars in the garage every week. And I'm hoping that the bug or whatever it is that's got them, you know, goes away here when it counts for the playoffs. because I'd love to have four cars in the finals, right? That's like, it's probably unrealistic, but... They will.

Justin Jimmer, they're going to be fine. They're going to be fine. Sammy has done a really good job this year. We talked about it on the show a couple weeks ago or last week about him working to improve, not only himself, but on the racetrack. And I'm pretty happy, honestly, that he's made some good progress just as a driver, gotten faster, gotten smarter, gotten better racecraft. I don't think normal people are going to see it.

But Sammy has done a really good job. But what Conner's doing, man, is just unprecedented. And when you look back in the history of the Xfinity series or back when it was the Bush series, there are really not a lot of guys that were doing this. Kyle Bush was doing this, but he had already become a cup winner, a regular cup winner. I was going to say him and Brad, but they were already kind of cup guys.

Yeah, I don't even know that Brad was winning. races like this. I mean, two championships in a row. Yeah, I know, but I mean, the... I don't know how many won a row, but... Dude, this... What's Connor done? Like, eight wins out of the last 10 or 11?

Yeah. He hasn't finished outside of the top five since Texas. Yeah. Which is an insane staff. It is. I feel like Brad and Kyle would have been in that ballpark. Boy, you're pumping Brad pretty hard here. I'm just saying Kyle and Brad both.

It was them two every week. I don't agree. I think what... I think Brad... Brad was absolutely dominant. Yes. But I don't think he, he, I only think one other person

has really done what Connor's doing and that was, that was Kyle Bush. Kyle could get in that car and I think Gibbs won 20 races one year. It was like every time Kyle showed up, he won. Yeah.

He didn't run every race, but every race he did run, he won. And that's kind of where, that's what Conner's village is right now. Do you think it's, a little bit easier now, though, because you're not racing against the cup guys

every single week, like those guys had to. You know what I mean? Like when Kyle won, he beat, what, three, four other cup guys pretty easily? Or, you know, that many guys, not easily, not using wins, but like, does that make it easier? And for this to be achievable?

Yeah, yeah. I'm not saying nothing against Conner, he's kicking ass and doing great. You are. You are, you're tarnishing his, I'm just saying, It's hard to compare what some of these other guys could have probably done that. I'm not comparing it.

I'm just saying, look, all I'm saying is I think that what Conner's doing, the only thing that I could say is similar is the Kyle Bush run when Kyle could run all the races. And Carl Edwards was close, Brad was close, but I don't really remember them being as annoying as Kyle Bush was. So I was an owner in the series during all of them. those times. And when Kyle was winning all his races and he would come and run, we knew we weren't going to race for wins, you know. And his race had to go bad for you to get away.

I, that impacted me because I only remember this. And I only put Kyle Bush up there by himself is because I look at the bottom dollar and go well at the end of the season. That's a $400,000 swing or a $200,000 swing from, you know, winning races to run in second or third or battling for top fives. And Kyle Bush, man, he just was like such a nuisance, you know. And I mean that in the most complimentary way. Even when they move to the races all across the country when a couple somewhere else, Kyle still flying out there.

He would find a way to get there. Yeah, starting to back or whatever. Oh, you're running road to America? We're over here? He's not going to run. No, he's still running. I think when you talk about the way the, when you talk about the way the, the car has finished all these races, you also got to give a lot of credit to Marty, Lindley, and his team,

their ability to build the car that doesn't, you know, doesn't have issues. And you got a rookie driver that kind of hits a few things, you know, he's kind of beats bangs and got, had to get physical at Portland. and Mexico City, the car was destroyed. It wouldn't even driving straight. But, you know, they build a good little race car, that 88 crew. So, you know, I'm just, I'm on pins and needles because I don't know how long they can keep this going. I mean, yeah, maybe all the way to the end of the year.

But, and, you know, you. You've got all of this success. I think we're kind of out there looking in front of that record of most wins in a season for organization. I think Joe Gibbs has it at 19 or 20. I don't know exactly what it is. But that's a goal. And then obviously trying to get as many cars into the finals is a goal. And then when you get to the finals, going to win it.

Not, you know, having somebody sneak up in there and take it away from you. Like, you know, that happens from time to time. Denny talked about this on his podcast this week. He's like, man, I got a feeling that that 88 is going to win 10 races and lose the championship. And just because of the format. Because he's done that. Because it could absolutely. It would happen.

Yes. And hey, but the good news is, is it might, most likely, we're going to move away from this format. Right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, most likely, I would say the likelihood of us changing the format is very high. And especially if a Connor Zilich wins 10.

races and doesn't win the championship, right? I don't know. I think that there's already the momentum there and conversation around changing the platform and should something again happen this year that would bolster that argument. Yeah. I think you push it over the finish line. None of this really changes. It changes stuff for you, obviously, as an owner, but for Connor Zillich's path forward,

it doesn't, his path has already paved. And whether he wins the championship or not, he's going to be a couple. guy for a long time. Yeah. How do you think he fares in his first cup season? You know, he compared him to the domination that Kyle Busch had, but I mean, you look at a lot of these guys who do well in the Xfinity series, but then it takes a little while to get going just because the Cup series is so competitive.

Yeah. It's going to take time. I mean, I would say if he finished his top 20 in points, that'd be a success. Next year. Yeah. I think, I think it's going to be tough to go in there. And these guys have a lot of experience, and these cars are much, harder to drive.

They're way different. They're not, not that they're, they're harder in a different way. Like, everyone's so good. And these guys are so accurate with where they place the cars

and how they manipulate air. And he's got to learn all that still in a mile and a half. He's got to go learn all that. So I think it would be, I think obviously Connor's really good and he'll figure it out. But it's going to be tough in the beginning. And he just needs to be a sponge and learn as he goes. And there's going to be some mistakes and

go and capitalize at places like the road. courses and get good runs and keep building momentum and I think he has all the world and ability all the billion world to do that. Last question before we move to the cup race too. Like a lot of people can view this as a quick move to the cup series even though Connor is more than proven that he is an exceptional race car driver is only one year in Xfinity not enough. What do you guys think? I think he's proven that he can move and I wouldn't leave him in it any longer if you've got a seat to put him in and you know, funding and stuff for it, I would, I would move him because I don't, I think these cars are so different that he just needs to get in these cars and start learning them. You know, you're just, you're just delaying his learning how to drive a cup car longer and longer.

So I wouldn't keep him in something now when he's already proven that he can win in it, that he can move and be successful, I think already. Yeah, I think that I agree with TJ I think that I think you know when he's when you're that successful it's perfectly fine

to go ahead and head on up but most most people you'd like to see a couple years right in Exfinity I don't know why but like you know

if you're going to go into the trucks give me a couple there I think if you go if you're if you're going to seek out Arca I think one year in the ARCA series is good Mixed with some other stuff If you can Yeah because it's a short

It's a short schedule You can do all kinds of other things Cars Tour and other things If you want Let's predict A Connor Zilich Rookie Year in Cup

Yeah All right Let's predict it You guys think about like What you You know Give me Kind of a

Not like a You know Not like full statistical Rundown But What do you think the vibe of his season's going to look like? I think

I do think he'll struggle in the beginning just because the Cup series is such a big leap in terms of competition and car. I kind of agree with what TJ was saying, kind of like a 20th in points. I can see him maybe being one of those guys fighting for the last fringe playoff spot on points. But really the big question is

how good is he going to be on road courses? Is that going to be what makes him different than all the other drivers that have come through the Xfinity series at a fast rate? Can he win a road course early or can he find a way to do it? So I think maybe a win, but I think he can possibly points his way into the playoffs. I do. I think he'll be, I think he'll split the road course. I think he'll be real fast on some and he'll have some, the competition is going to be way harder.

But I do think he's already really good at. And once he figures his car out, SVG has got that car. dialed in over there for road courses. So I think that he's going to have a fast car already. He just needs to learn how to race with these guys. But I think the ovals are going to be challenging for a bit. And I think top 20 in points is, I know it sounds crazy, but I think that's going to be, I think it could be hard at times for him because these ovals are so hard. And I don't, you don't see, you know, the other cars don't really light it on fire right now. and Conner's coming in with not much experience at him,

but he definitely has the ability to go out and just have a solid Daytona come out decent in the points out of the first couple races, if just being smart, and that'll really help his season if he can finish the first two races without incident. If you come out of Daytona and Atlanta, Atlanta second, I think you just got to survive those.

And if he does, I think he can have a good year. Yeah. I think that I think he will be, I think he'll be mid-pack a lot. Mostly, you know, mostly due, that'll be due to two things. Trackhouse has this sort of hot and cold vibe, right? They run the 600 fastest car there by far. And then disappear for a while.

We'll see in a month. Yeah. Now, they obviously have good speed at the road courses, and I think that since SVG is there and kind of understands and is getting better at making the next-gen car what it needs to be, actually, he would get in the next-gen car in year one and not really know how to tell, not really know what the car needed to be better, but he just was good enough, right, to go out there and be quite. quick because of his own pure ability. But now he's drove the car long enough to go, yeah, this is what the car needs, and then I'll be even better. And Connor's going to benefit from all of that knowledge coming in straight away. Big time. And then he'll have his own ability, plus a reasonably solid race car.

And then Connor then too can start to improve on the car. So wouldn't be surprised if Connor battles for a win at a row course. I think that's not stepping out of bounds. But everywhere else, he's learning an entirely new car. The short sidewall, the way this car feels, the way the car reacts and steps out, and all of those things will be very unique and different than what he's experienced in the Xfinity car. Wouldn't you agree? 100%.

So he's got to build up this sort of data point or build up. New notebook. Yep, build up an entirely new notebook internally about what the, the car is capable of doing and how to push the car, go to Brisco, going just from one team to another, it took him half the year or the third of the year to really understand what the car's capable of doing. And I think that the margin of era in wrecking the car is so tight that he had to work his way up to that, right, without making a ton of mistakes. And he finally found this limit and now he's, you know, doing great things behind the wheel of an 19 car at the cup level.

Conor Zilis has got to learn entirely new car. And so I think that you got to be, you got to be ready for that first year to sort of be rough. Yeah. So DNFs will happen. Yeah. He's going to, he's going to break a toe link every now and then, things like that. Yeah. You'll be like, oh, yeah, I mean, there'll be races where he's running 20th.

We got to fix what? We got to fix what? and the camera, you know, he'll be running 20th, and then we'll see him on pit road fixing a toe link because we missed it. He hit the wall off of two a couple laps ago, right? You know what I mean? Struggling in bad air that he didn't know who's bad air, right? Because the air, the way you race around other cars with the next gen is so different

than the Xfinity car, right? He drives that Xfinity car down in the corner and drives right in behind somebody and it gets a little dirty air. but in this next gen he's going to drive across the wake of another car on corner exit and slap the wall, right? Because he's not going to know. And, I mean, to be honest, Marty's got it figured out too right now. So he's unloading the car to almost beat every single week right now. And that's going to change next year.

And now I want to see my, I want to see how Connor reacts when he is in, you know, 18th place car. And I want to see where he finishes with it. Does he finish 15th with an 18th place car? Yeah. Or does he make the mistake and finish 25th? You know, but he's so young, man. And he's got, he's so young that this is the right time for him. And he, he just needs to get through next year, build that notebook up.

And he's going to win a lot of races. Yeah. Well, let's move on to the Cupside. Larson racing aggressive. What, what was that all about? He spins, he spins Blaney out. He did. Still trying to figure out what.

I know. I've watched this replay. and I can't figure it out. Like, what, I mean, he came from five car links back. Yeah, that was, he had been working, like Kyle had been working on Blaney a lot. And he had started to figure out ways to do it. And this is like, and I'm talking like, we're talking, they got to be in a window of a foot and a half of like where they place that car for the air and stuff.

And the guy in front of you moves a little bit different than he did to let before. And you misjudge it. It's hard. Yeah. And I saw, I saw him start to make success. He was starting to have success. getting right inside Blaney in the middle of three and four and just not turning down the track,

staying right on his left side. That affects Blaney's car error-wise? I think it packs air on the, and he was able to stay there more and more, but it was still super hard. But I think he was just throwing everything he could at it, man, trying to make a pass, trying to do it. And I mean, I don't, I'm, he definitely misjudged it.

It was a fairly big misjudge, but from the top rope there. Yo, TJ, I see you've been walking around with the new phone. Where did you get that new phone? Yeah, man, I love this phone. I recently joined a consumer cellar family, and they hooked me up, man. I got a great new phone, and the service is awesome. That's great, but, like, how's it, Iowa or Richmond and some of the other tracks?

Because it's great when you're at home, but, like, when I'm on the road, my phone is crap. You know, I travel a lot with the RFK-6 team, and I have had nothing but success with this phone. I've actually, it has bailed me out numerous times now. I was able to flip the hot spot on and use some internet on it, text calls, everything, man. I'm, I could not be happier with this phone. All right, so, but how do I go about to get this? Because I don't have time. I'm not trying to go stay in line at a store. Wait, grab a number, wait 30 minutes. Like, I just don't have time for that. That's the easiest part, man. Just call their 100% U.S. based customer service representatives. And in about 20 minutes, you'll be good to go. I chose the two for $60 plan. It's not a

prepaid option. They helped me decide which one was best for me, and I know exactly what I'm paying each month. Everything is easy to understand with no long-term contract. Switch to consumer cellar now and get 25 hours off with the code DJD 25. That's DJD 25 for 25 hours off when you switch to consumer cellular. Go to consumer cellular.com slash DJD and use promo code DJD 25. Well, let's listen to Larsson's comments here. I wasn't meeting all this. to go in there and hit him the lap before I had gotten in there and gotten inside of him, slid up, got to his door, got him tight. So when you get to the left recorder panel, it tightens up the outside car so that Blaney then can't finish the throttle. And it got to where I could

race him down the front stretch. I was trying to do that again. I was a little further back this lap than I was the lap before. So misjudged the point to where I wasn't going to get next to him and tuck in. And I just clipped him. It's all on me. you know, this kind of thing happens. It sucks for Blaney. You know, but even some of the, you know, that's just, I think you're right, T.J. It's kind of the, you know, the best drivers in the world having to be perfectly precise and be aggressive, you know, overly aggressive and trying to learn how to make this car, you know, pass at a track where it was difficult to pass. He had found a tool and he was trying to use it.

Yeah. I think is incredibly interesting. Yeah. Right? That he's like, man, if I can get, if I can drive it down in there and by mid-corner, right, when he's trying to throttle up, make him tight. Like get the left rear quarter panel and really tighten his car up, then he'll struggle on throttle and maybe I can be able to side draft down.

I'll be in position for a side draft and position to maybe take the spot into term one. And that's, you know, unfortunate that it spun Blaney around. Blaney was able to recover. He did recover well. He did. He just slid sideways and he kept going. So, you know, it could have been a lot worse. Yeah.

Blaney is one of those few drivers out there that when you make them mad, they go faster. Yeah. I like it. You know, I used to worry about, we used to talk about it quite a bit on this show. Yeah. About Blaney's temper and how maybe that had been problematic for him. But now I believe that it, you know, in a short period of time, it's kind of he's transitioned to being able to use that as determination as a tool as

as a motivator. Yeah. I think there's a level that you can get to where it does turn bad still, but I don't think that was. Had you crashed right there? It probably would have been pretty bad. I mean, you know, really wrecked and tore a toe link off or something. Yeah, I think all drivers have that point to where, you know, they get that angry. It's not good for anybody.

You ever been there? No, I was kidding. Josh Barry. had another he's had the two worst weeks you could possibly have. Terrible. Like the worst start of the plow.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know, man. I know that Chase dove down into the corner underneath him and got up the track a little bit, either got loose or whatever, but did get up the track

and just got into the left rear quarter panel of the 21 car. And that's unfortunate, man. Josh needed to have a rebound day. to be able to try to find a way forward in the playoffs. And I feel like that track would, I think Josh being the short tracker, I think Josh probably had a good shot of having a good run there. I felt like if there was a racetrack where he felt more confident to get a good run.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I do. Yeah. Well, looking at the playoffs standings right now, we have Austin, Dillon, SVG, and Alex Bowman and Josh, On the outside looking in, I thought I saved it. I know, I was looking for it. I thought I kept it over here.

But somewhere we all made our predictions. Sick boys probably got it. But I believe yours are the, these are the four that you. I think I might have swapped one with, no, you're right. Maybe I did. Yeah. I think this is T.J.'s four. I had Cendrick in place of Barry.

I might have one off. I can't remember what I did. Yeah. Well, right now, Dalton, Dalton just handed it to me. Yours was Cendrick Chastain, Austin Dillon, SVG. Yeah. Chee-J, yours was Josh Barry, Chastain, Austin Dillon, SVG. Okay.

Well, we both had Bowman in. Am I right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. But to our credit, Ross and Cindrick are 11th and 12th, plus 11 and plus 19. going to where are we going this weekend Bristol? Oh, yeah. So what do you think happens at Bristol, TJ, around the cut line?

You know, I think SVG is doomed. Yeah, that's incredible, though. We all thought that he's minus 15 with a race to go still. Like that's... Yeah. Josh ran top 12 at Bristol earlier this year, but I don't see him going in there and winning the race. Of course the Wood Brothers do have a win there. in an underdog win

with our good friend Ellie Sattler. Alex Bowman. He's got speed at Bristol. I want to say he's won the last two polls there. Austin Dylan is the kind of guy that I could see top ten, you know, getting a top ten, but don't really see him competing for the win

or being fast enough to do so. And last week they were just, they weren't not nearly in the ballpark at Worldwide Technology Raceway. They were nine in the ballpark. I could see Cendrick and Ross doing just enough, right? Yeah, just average race is all I need. And I feel like they're running good enough. Cendrick's been quietly fine.

Ross has been the same thing. Everyone else above that should be in pretty good shape to be able to get through this first round. I did hear, I guess, Denny said that they took, they are, you know, the tire that were taken to Bristol is different. It may be interesting. Different. Different. It's a different tire. Oh, yeah.

Right sides, I think. Oh, really? Yeah, I'm not, I think it's right sides. It's right sides. Yeah. So they had it, you know, let's kind of recap real quick. The tire that we've ran there, I think, has been consistent over the last couple of races. We had that wild little, you know, tire issue race.

Real cold weekend. Real cold weekend. And that was the first race of last year. And then we had the exact same tire in a completely, normal experience at this race last year, the second race at Bristol. And then we came back to the first race this year. And again, no problem. Yeah.

They had a little wear in practice, but otherwise it was fine. Now we gave good year the confidence, I suppose, in the last two races at Bristol to make a change. Yeah. Good for them. I guess expecting not to be super cold. now if we were to get, you know, what is the weather? 75 degrees and sunny every day, mid-50s at night. So, oh, mid-50s at night.

Yeah, but I don't know if that's... Cold enough? I don't think, I don't know if that's cold enough yet. Well, that's like... It's like right on the line. But that's the low and middle of the night. You know what I mean? Okay.

Like probably 3 o'clock in the morning or something like that. Let's see. Let's look at the weather right now. So in the spring of 2024, is 63 degrees high. That was the crazy race. Yeah, that's... So in the middle of the day,

it was 60. Right. Yeah. So, I mean, we could be right around that line, but I think there's just a big question mark going into Bristol. That's at least what they were saying on DBC is like nobody really knows what you expect. Well, I'm here for it. I am too.

It's a Saturday night race. When's it start? 637, somewhere there. It's going to start, the race will start around 70 degrees and it should end around 60 degrees. So I think they're going to be in good shape. Yeah, I think we're not going to have like a cool, a cool tireware situation. But it'll be interesting to watch the right side tire and see how, see how it does. I'm glad they're trying it.

Oh, yeah. I like it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, the tire was one of the great things about this weekend at St. Louis. They changed the tire. Tires mattered in the race at St. Louis the year before, putting on. tires did not matter at all.

So there was no real strategy with that. So I love what Goodyear's doing. We go to New Hampshire, I think, with the same tire we brand at Richmond, this new soft tire. So we'll be... That could be a cold one. Well, the thing about New Hampshire that has me excited is, is how they run the fricking top.

Like they go way up the track into the old sealer, way higher than the mods run. And the mods get up there. And we're going to have the softer tires. So you're going to be chasing. It's just going to be interesting, I think, to see the lines that they choose to run. Yeah, it opens the door for the track. That track has many different, like, seams and different layers of... New asphalt, old asphalt, sealer, all kinds of different.

The banking kind of goes up. Yeah, and you can put the left on the apron and turn, like short track tricks, stuff like that. It's got a ton of that stuff there. Yeah. So I'm looking forward to new. I am too, actually. Yeah. You were talking about how tires mattered at Gateway. You know, Brad Kozlowski stayed out on old tires trying to make some sort of strategy call.

TJ, what was your perspective of that? Like, did you think it was going to work out? I thought we could net out better than where we were running, which was around, I think we were 12th, somewhere 11, 12th, we were going to be in that area. And in Iowa, you know, we were just hoping, since there was guys with new tires in the back, or, you know, in the back a little bit. bit kind of trying to come up through and that you just get more yellows and more yellows and maybe only have you know last 25 last maybe only have 10 12 green flag laps actually have to race because you got a lot of yellows um but they didn't they decided not to wreck and i'm surprised more didn't stay out and do this strategy but just something different i mean we're in the position

where we can do that stuff right now to try to try to go for that and who knows if we get a lot of cautions and you come out of there with a top five or you know even a shot to win if they keep wrecking enough so just like william did i mean we'll William was 30 laps shorter so at Iowa and ended up winning the race. So just something to try. And I think we ended up two or three spots behind where maybe a couple more from where we probably were going to run. But it was worth, I mean, we can risk it right now. So why not?

So the Toyota's coming to the playoffs win two races and two poles. I think there is a little bit of truth to the fact that the Toyotas maybe are the best right now. We saw it early in the season. Penske had a lot of speed. At one point in the season, Hendrick and the Chevroletes had speed or were some of the best cars in the garage. And it seems at this point in the season, the Toyotas are that. It also, I think, matters, you know, exactly kind of what tracks we're talking about that we've raced at because it seems like some manufacturers tend to be better at other, you know, certain racetracks than others.

you know how do you see it tj in terms of who's got the upper hand right now and can Toyota if Toyota is the dominant team if Joe Gibbs and Toyota are the dominant teams right now how long can they sustain that going forward you know I feel like gateway was a worldwide technology raceway was a shot for you know blaney and them that was their strength before and weren't quite as strong this time I'm going to Bristol with the tire deal. I don't know if I see one manufacturer better than another right now, because if it comes down to a tire wear race or something like that,

you know, that's going to kind of be out the window a little bit. But then we go to Kansas, I think, right? Kansas is going to be, it's been noticeably strong for the Toyotas. So I kind of agree with you. They look strong right now. They do look really strong. I thought Larson, I picked Larson to win, and I feel like Larson in the beginning of the race

had the best car. Like, me, he was flying in the beginning of the race. And just couldn't have some issues and stuff. But I think, yeah, I mean, I kind of agree with you that, you know, they're definitely probably the strongest right now. Yeah. I mean, I think we say this. I don't know if we've said,

so Denny Hamlin, right, is there's something that we say every year, it feels like. But it's been true. Like, it's not, the statement hasn't been incorrect. Every year we say, man, this is his best shot. What Denny's been able to do over the last handful of seasons to be, I think, a favorite, one of the favorites, one of the contenders, year after year,

after year, and literally every single year, it seems like he's even better. You've got to give the guy a ton of credit. Right now, I think we can say maybe for the first time that he's the best car in the field at this point. It's most consistent. Yeah. I mean, when we go to the racetrack and we've got to do this manufacturer parlay or we've got to think about who's going to be good, Denny's always one of the top three drivers. He's always the top Toyota.

And it's just impressive. He's definitely the most consistent right now. Yeah. So can he sustain this? And can they finally get to Phoenix and get the job done? It really does feel like that he's in the best position he's ever been in. And we say it every year. but they have literally found a way to continue to improve

and find just a couple more percentage points. And Denny will tell you he doesn't believe that he's the best race car driver and he has to work hard to like get to be able to take it to those guys that are maybe just a little more talented and pure raw ability. He said that in the past. I don't know if he feels that way now. he may feel like he's the best guy out there now, but his work ethic and his preparation

at 44 years old to be able to go out there and compete against those guys that are 8, 10, 12, 14 years younger than you, he has raced a variety, he's raced a variety of generations of race cars. Oh, tons of them.

And while that experience is valuable, there's also a lot of bad, I won't call them habits, but there's a lot of things that you, there's a lot of things that you learn, experience, that you might not should hang on to, right? And I think when I've been trying to think about, you know, I've always kind of wondered why a really great race car driver falls off at some point, right? They age out. They just can't make the speed anymore. There's a lot of

reasons why that happens. There's not, it's not one solid, there's not just one singular answer that covers everybody, right? Everybody experiences this differently. He's at that age at 44 years old to where anybody with some sense would look at him and go, all right, let's, when, when are we going to start to see it? right? When are we going to start to see the that follow the time catching up with him? It ain't happening. He's getting better. And he's an anomaly. You know, there's guys in NASCAR in the history of this sport

that are like that. Harry Gantz and Bobby Allison's and that can win races well into their 40s. and I think it's a sharpness of the mind, the ability to evolve, you know, get in this car, he's gotten in this car. We've seen some of the best drivers in the series struggle to understand how it needs to be driven.

He went through a little bit of a dry patch in the beginning of this car, I thought, for a little bit. But not like... Well, nobody's. been immune, I don't believe, but to struggles with the next gen. But I'm just saying, I want to, I got to, you know, want to give him all the credit because his ability and, you know, he's, you can think what you want about him, but his, he's changed crew chiefs. He's changed race cars. He's went through different generations of race cars.

And he's always been able to find, he's always been able to succeed. And whatever that is, whether it, whatever crew chief car, you know, generation of car, whatever that package is,

he finds, he gets it to, he gets it to the top or he gets it, he makes it successful. It's just really impressive to. me. Do you give some credit to the, you know, coach and JGR for, you know, continually putting the pieces around him and giving him fast cars? You know, I know Denny gets a lot of credit for maintaining it and driving the races, but that piece, that is a lot easier to do when you're in those cars

like that that are winning, you know, how many what races is winning here? I will say that, you know, when I look at Joe Gibbs racing, there's one constant. There's a lot of, there's a lot of drivers that have came and went through that organization. There are some that have won championships that would eventually be let go. And I'm not talking about just Kyle Bush. Bobby Labani won a championship with them. And then just a few years later, they wanted to move on, you know. One thing that's been a constant is Denny Hamlin.

And he's... It's definitely had the longest, feel like the longest term there. Man, yeah, he's like the R.E. of NASCAR. Just making music. Yeah. I think it's so impressive. And, you know,

he deserves to win a championship. He deserves to, to know what that feels like. Yeah. All the things that he, all the wins, all the trophies in the house, all the things that he has in his memory of his career.

He, he deserves to have a trophy. and so man would he would would would he be a unicorn if he were to have all of this and end it all without that title um by far i think he'd be one of the one there's no no real comparison maybe mark martin right that's the guy i think of yeah that's denny's guy yeah i mean he's won everything you can win And I'll say this. Mark Martin was, he's one of the best, he's, Mark Martin was one of the greatest drivers of all time that rarely gets mentioned on the Mount Rushmore. You know, people put Dad and Pearson and Jimmy Johnson and Richard Petty up there. But I'll be honest.

There's a couple of those guys on that little short list that I think Mark Martin had a little more talent than when it really came down to it. Just didn't fall the right way at the right time. He was in a situation that maybe just wasn't quite enough to get it over the hump, you know? Do you think the current points situation or the current format? I don't think this format is... You saw what Mark Martin could do with Rick Hendrick at the age of, what, 50? Yeah. Towards of his career.

Oh, I know, yeah. Imagine Mark Martin at 35 driving. Yeah. Jeff Gordon's car. Yeah. Right. I mean, Jeff Gordon's elite. I just think this format goes against Denny for the championship.

This format goes against everybody. Yeah. Well, I mean, Denny is a consistent. He's a consistent. If you have Denny four races, he's going to be a threat because he knows how to put all four them together. This format doesn't favor or lend itself to anybody. Now, Joe's been able to.

I disagree. I think it definitely fits Lugano better. He loves this type of format. He loves being the underdog. He loves coming in there and ruining these things for guys. I know, but you've got to have the car and the ability on that given day to be able to go do it. Yeah. Where is that during the regular season when you need to win races and be great?

This format is more about being great on one singular day. You know, the rest of the season be damned. Well, that's what I'm saying. I'm looking at these points right here. Well, he happened to have the good car that day at Phoenix. Yeah, when Joey's only 21 above the cut line. I mean, Denny, you know what I mean? What about that?

But if you put him... Where was he before this weekend? Where was he when the playoffs when the regular season ended? Not very high. Yeah, probably 200 out? Yeah, way back. Yeah, so he just got handed 150 points. I know that, but this is where he starts to thrive in this situation.

Well, it's easy to thrive when somebody gives you 150 points. I'm not disagree with that, but this system aids, it definitely aids guys like that. I think you got to credit Joey's crew chief. Oh, strategy. And what Joey, he's putting situations that he has to step up and make it work too. Yeah. And he does. Well, yeah.

I mean, they do fuel mileage things and different, you know, but they did the fuel mileage. I don't want to be wrong here, but this year? I risk it. Or last year. They did, remember Vegas they won at Vegas? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Pushing him. Was he even good that day? I think it was mostly. a strategy. Yeah. He was running so average that he just could

do the fuel mileage. It was Bell's race to win. Yeah. To lose, really. And so, I mean, it's like, I don't know, man. It's tough, I know.

It is. To TJ's point, I think, where Lugano, and I think Pensky favors in the format, and again, it's kind of the big top point

after Roval. Was that his plan? Was that his plan? To, get back into the playoffs through a DQ? Obviously not. I mean, but he still got in. Oh, well, man, he's so good at this.

Well, what are we talking about? But hold on. That guy won the championship, the guy that was out. I know, but he was out before the 48 guy got disqualified. That doesn't matter, though. So, I mean, you can't tell me that, man, he's the one that knows how to do this better than anybody else because he was out. If the 48 doesn't fail tech, five pounds lighter.

or what the hell it was because he run over the curb and threw the shit off his car. Yeah. You know, I don't disagree. Yeah, I mean, I... I think what favors Joey is the format and the schedule.

No, it's like... I can't say it. Look, I... Dude, he's a champion. Joe Lugano is a champion. He is a badass race car driver. But literally, this... You can't tell me that this...

You can't tell me that this... You can't tell me that there's a strategy to... No, this is not your strategy. No. You don't hope a guy gets thrown out.

Nobody, yeah. And nobody's going into Vegas going, we're going to run 14th all day and then I'm on fuel mileage. You know? Right. Didn't Denny make...

Did I see a clip where Denny said he was a better driver than the three-time champion? Did he, well, did I see that? It's not a chance. Yeah, which I thought. I'm surprised that wasn't in the show.

She's a little big. Couldn't you say Lugano and Penske could be better than other teams when given the circumstance, like he wins at Vegas, they have the tools? They weren't better than other teams. They just happened to be running poor enough to do the fuel mileage. If he was really good, let me say this. If he was great, right, and running in the top three or top two all day, they would have never considered the fuel mileage, possibly, right? It's possible they would have never considered the fuel mileage and someone else would have leapfrogged or beat them with that same. same strategy. That's a back half top 10 move probably to try to win a race.

And so I don't disagree there. Yeah. And he runs poorly enough to be actually eliminated at De Roval. So I mean, what are we, what are y'all? I'm saying when Penske is given the circumstance of like, okay, he happens to win at Vegas by luck or skill, whatever, are they better than other teams when it comes to, okay, we can ignore the next three races. We can focus on Phoenix. I would say that his, Penske does a good job of like playing the game of the playoffs. I don't think it's. It's a Penske. I mean, I give Penske all the credit. It's Paul.

Okay. It's Mr. Wolf. Making them strategy goals. You know him. Oh, Paul's great. Yeah. He is, yeah, Paul's great. He used to be Brad's crew chief when he won a championship.

Yeah. I worked with him with Joey as well. Yeah. Paul's great. Yeah. You always have a shot with Paul. Yeah. Like off the wall, you know, kind of.

And sometimes it works. Sometimes it don't. I'm sure at the Roval. I don't remember how the race went. I'm sure at the roval, tried something at some point to get some track position, you know what I mean? He wasn't just,

we're going to run here all day. Like, he tried. Like, Paul's really good. He's really creative. But I think that fits with Joey's driving style in these situations because he can put Joey in a great race car driver. And if you tell, if Paul says, Joey, I'm going to put you out here in front of these guys on old tires

and our only shot is to hold him off. Joey is going to give it all he's got. Is Denny better than Joey? Yeah. Depends on the track, the race, the day. Car. I mean, I honestly feel like they're equal. They're pretty equal.

I mean, you're splitting hairs at that point between who's better than who. Yeah. So. But Joey's won the big race three times. Yeah, he has. Yeah. And the most of this current format, too, right? well two in the current format

one in the other old unless you won all three in this current well yeah yeah yeah it was all three yeah the format hadn't changed a bit not in tiny bit I mean playoff points probably could have changed was he ever a favorite in the championship race ever

I don't think he was that was his plan yeah the strategy that was really that was yeah that was a strategy had him all food just like he wanted yeah Hey, fun conversation. And Joey, he's sitting there this past Sunday running freaking good.

And it's like, well, Denny stuck behind him. I know, but I'm just sitting there. I'm watching the 22, and I'm like, all right, here we freaking go again. And that's what I'm getting at too. Is like, what is it with the teams that can all of a sudden flip that switch when the playouts starts? He didn't even qualify that great. Yeah. And then he's up there?

track position and could hold it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, what do you say we do someass Jr.? Let's do it. The NASCAR playoffs are here and so is your chance to bring the intensity home. Celebrate every pass, pit stop, and photo finish with a collectible car from Lionel Racing, the official diecast of NASCAR.

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of a NASCAR playoff driver. Just go to LionelRacing.com and use promo code playoffs. That's promo code playoffs at linelracing.com. Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. This is the ass junior portion of the show for the Tuesday show.

I have a little frog in my throat from head cold of heads at Saturday. You sound so, so like Morgan Freeman. Really? I'll take that. But I was just answering a text message from my wife, Amy, who has found us a faucet. All right.

Yeah. I have a faucet in my house that kicked the bucket. So we're going to get that tuned up. Didn't have any others? No spare faucets. I was, I got, it's the sink in a bathroom, and I went in there to use it, and there's not a lot of water pressure. Oh. And I've had some issues in the past with some pipes, some in my whole house.

Some of the teas and the elbows and stuff were by this company that made them out of bad material. And they got sued and went out of business. But we ended up having to go through the whole house and replace every single elbow, every single tea in all of the water lines. And we missed a few, of course. You know, you're going to. Not by the kitchen, though, right? And so those would break. and we would find, you know, we'd have a catastrophe.

Bad. But I thought that maybe I had one of those that we didn't find break in the wall, but it's actually the faucet itself. So I took it apart yesterday. And Amy's got me a new one. You know what they reminded me of, which I thought was kind of creepy? You know the hands that hold the towels?

You don't like this? No, because I'm always scared that I'm going to put the towel on it and it's just going to squeeze. It's going to squeeze. And, whoa, who's weird. Yeah, in our bathroom, I guess bathroom. or the bathroom in the house that everybody uses, community bathroom, our towels are their hands that come out of the wall.

It's a hand that goes like this. And I'm like... It's like a thing, you know, like the, in Adam's family. It's a hand and you hang the towel on the hand. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. Well, it's pretty sweet. We've had a fun show.

It's been good. Yeah. Everybody's been very polite. Yeah, Dale, you look great. Thanks. You too, man. Andrew. Travis is sick, and we're so worried about him.

We hope he gets well. Yes. He did start the show, though. He did start the show. Three minutes. We did a driver swap. He gets credit for the producers. He gets the points.

I'm nowhere to be found on racing reference. Yeah. He looked fine. I want to remind everybody this weekend. Tune in right here. Just listen just for a second. The Cars Tour, they're coming in on the close of their season, and they race this weekend at South Boston.

We have a great battle for the championship between. Landon Lewis and Conor Hall. Lennon Lewis drives Kevin Hartwick's car and Connor Hall drives mine and they're battling out for the championship. There's some other drivers that are still alive in the points, but it looks like it probably come down between them too. You never know, though, anything can happen at South Boston, and that'll be live on flow on Saturday night.

So make sure you set your clocks to be able to tune in and support the cars tour and everything we're doing there. Asht Jr. is brought to you by Xfinity Wi-Fi. Trying to think if I've had anything happen here lately with my Wi-Fi, but it's been so dependable. Yeah. No news is good news. It's good news. I did. So there's this, there's an addition at this house where I have my Xfinity Wi-Fi pumping away, right?

And the guy that came and wired my the addition, he put everywhere he put a receptacle for internet, he put two. So he put two data ports in each receptacle. But in the

closet where the utility box is where all this cable stuff runs, he only put one splitter. And so only one of the data ports works on all of the, all of the receptacles. And I went in there this past weekend and added a additional splitter just like the one he had in there. And now I got more ports, right? Because I got so, I mean, my speeds are booming. You know that. Oh, absolutely. W-Fi. It's like having a NASCAR engine in your house, literally, just running wide open. That'd be pretty noisy, actually. It doesn't make any noise.

Wi-Fi, Xfinity Wi-Fi is silent. One of the more quieter Wi-Fi's. DJ's looking at me like, what the hell? Choose the right plan for you and you're off to the races with the best streaming experience for NASCAR and all your favorite sports. NFL's back at it. so yeah you can watch you everything they don't just raise the bar they stream and overdrive

and we're a customer and very happy but yeah let's get to the questions I suppose let's do it yeah the YouTube chat is popping off having a birthday to Josh Evans so he's in the area he's gonna be checking out some race shops which is awesome but this first question is from Ben do you have FOMO fear of not missing out

on not racing this weekend at Bristol. I enjoyed doing those one-offs of the last couple of years. Had some pretty good cars. Might have been able to battle for the win once our one night where the battery cable caught on fire. But went back, I think a year later and ended up running seventh or so. So that was pretty fun. But, you know, I'll be honest. in those races, like driving that car, I'd be running along about, you know, stage two halfway

through the race and I'm sitting there thinking to myself, I wanted to do this. I'm here and I got in the car and I drove it and I'm good, you know. And so nothing about it was, I guess, you know, sitting there running around and going, man, you know, I've had fun. I'm pretty content and I could pull over and get out and not care about the end result. Was that while the radio's worked or didn't work? Yeah. Did the radios not work at some point? Last year, you had to do a helmet swap.

I remember last year was like. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that was chaotic. It was very chaotic. Hey, yeah, we had to come down, I remember now. We had to come down pit road multiple times, give up tons of track position. Yes. And drove back to seventh.

I know. Yeah. That's, yeah. Yeah. That's impressive. I don't know. You know what? I do miss it. Now I do.

Oh. But I'm, I have no plans to come back and do it. I'll probably regret not running one or two. But, you know, when it's all said and done, I'll probably go, if you say, you know, if you, if you were to find me at 65 years old, right? I say 15 years from now, I'm, I'm absolutely say to you, you know, I should have ran a couple more. because they are fun and I am competitive. We got a reasonably good setup there and I love the racetrack and I get up for it and I get excited about it when I was a kid going to Bristol. The night race was my favorite weekend.

I loved it. And I still do today, even though the tracks changed and things are different. And maybe Bristol that the Bristol that I loved in, say, 1987 doesn't exist anymore. But I still go there and I know that it's still Bristol, right? Right. I just love the vibe. It's not, you got to go. You got to go feel the vibe.

You got to see the track when you walk through them tunnels and stuff. When they get going at night in that cup race, it's a deal, man. You got to check it out. You got to feel it. And I'm going this weekend. Oh, yeah? I'm going to the Xfinity race. All right.

I think I'm taking my girls. So we might hop up in a suite and hang out a little bit. But see how our boys do. Yeah, but I probably should run one or two more, but I don't know if and when I'll do that. Wilkesboro? I don't really want to run Wilkesboro with a new pavement, but there's a chance that by time I'm 55 or 58 years old,

maybe that pavement's kind of worn out a little bit, and I can just hop out there and do it. I don't have any problem with getting in my experience, car in eight years and running a one-off. I don't. You'd do that. I would. What the hell?

Why the hell not? Yeah. You know? The roval. Yeah. No. Not running the roval. I'd run Bristol again.

I'd run Wilkesboro once the pavement wears out. If they ever did go to Nashville. I'd probably contemplate going and running that one as well. So, I mean, there's, there's, and I really do want to do a truck race, but I just can't figure out where to run one that it'd be fun for me, right? I have certain things that I think are fun. And like Martinsville, my kind of track, but I don't like the race in there. Not your type of ending. It's a little short, you don't even get into the bad side of the tire, right, to where the tire's messing around.

That's the problem with the truck races. That's the, yeah, the infinity, I went to run an expensive. race at Martinsville is miserable because the tire the stages are too short and you don't get to where you can take advantage of being better at driving a race car I agree because the tie once the tire starts to fail and you lose rear drive and and and different things the brakes get mad and the tires blow up with air pressure because of tire you got the tire you got the brakes mad like if you're smart you know you can do good things early in the run that'll make your car really great at lap 80 and 100.

Which is so much fun. So much fun. But they never get to that point. They never do. The race is already, the stage is over and there ain't enough power too in the Xfinity cars at Martinsville. You're standing in the gas and it's like stepping in a bucket of water. Yeah. You've never run a truck race before, right?

Never. Dang. Yeah. I could have sworn you ran at least a few, but yeah. Never stepped foot in a truck. Maybe I'll run that truck race at. 58 years old at Wiltsburgh. Yeah. All right.

Don't pencil it in. Don't hold me to it, people. This is just... This clip is going to pop up in eight years. We're just shooting crap here. You know what I mean? All right, well, this next question ties right into Bristol, which is great. Sam wants to know, what's your favorite memory of the Bristol night race? Whether that be driving

or going as a kid, I guess. Yeah. My favorite memory have a lot, dude. I talked about this one during the documentary. I don't remember if this made the cut on the documentary or not, but 1984, I think Dad's leading the race. This is, I'm 10, so forgive me if I got some of the statistics wrong. But I think Dad's leading the race.

This is very early. This is only like year two or three of living with Dad and really, really knowing, like, what my dad does, right? And going to these races and going, holy crap, right? This is a big deal. And so we're at the Bristol night race. Dad's leading. He's in the blue goose, the blue wrangler car with the yellow hood. And he spins down the front of the straightway.

And all four tires are flat. And he's kind of stuck, right, trying to get going. And he gets slapped. And he ended up losing the race. I think Terry Labani won. He's in a battle for the championship with Terry. Neck and neck for the most part up until right that point. in the season.

And I remember even at 10 years old, being aware enough that, you know, dad's spinning out of the lead and having four flat tires and losing a lap, all that was bad. But also, the 44 car, Terry Labonte, was consistent every single week and running top five, top four, top three. And I'm like, we can have races like this. Ice man. Yeah. And I was, I cried.

I was sitting up on, I was sitting on top of a comfort coach van, dead center. the infield. I remember looking across toward the flag stand and being able to barely kind of see dad's car between dad and pit crew and other vans and other obstacles and buildings and so forth and just there you go sliding backwards. And I'm like, crap. And I remember, you know, crying because it was heartbreaking. Why, I was just one race. Still in the playoffs. You're a kid, man. I was just kidding. Yeah, you're still in the playoffs. I guess you're jokes.

You know, we didn't care. We were steering the playoffs. Yeah, you're like then. It was devastating, man. And that was why racing was amazing. That's what we were. Yeah, man, right. That's one.

I remember going, I remember watching a cup. I don't think they had a tunnel. But me, and I believe Brad Means, Jimmy's son, he's been on the show, we decided we were going to go watch the race outside the track in turn two up on the grassy hill. Yeah, you told the story on the guy show. And the greatest thing about that was we were like our perfect, we had the perfect angle to,

literally see as the guys were coming around the corner, we could see so perfectly into the car and see them driving. And I remember Michael, this was the year, this was right around Michael Waltrip's driving a 30 pencil car. And at the, in the, you know, that, I'm thinking about that Pontiac nose and it's all, that whole Pontiac nose was like a mold. the whole nose of the car was a mold. When the race was over,

the nose on Michael's car, and he'll laugh, the nose on Michael's car looked like a jigsaw puzzle. Like it was busted entirely all the way across the front, the bottom, everything, in these perfectly tiny, you know, two inch by two inch pieces.

The whole nose would look like a jigsaw puzzle and I'm like, damn, you know, a whole 500 laps and just beating and banging. One year, they dad and, uh, one year dad and Teresa parked the van in turn one. And a couple other, so like the, the Bush race ran and then they all left and got out of the track. And everybody moved their vans to wherever they wanted, right, to be able to get out of the racetrack quicker. So dad put his van over in turn one on the interior of turn one.

And there was really this rinky dink kind of guardrail guarding us from, but we were 30 yards from the apron. It was a ways. The cars couldn't get there. They were going to go down the front straightaway and go by us before they got to the apex of the corner, so we were fine. But me and Brad Means and all our other friends, crew chiefs and driver's sons,

we all pile up on top of this van. And we're watching the cars, we're literally like 50 feet away from the cars as they buried into, you know, coming down. down into turn one. Bah, and bounce into the corner and land into that banking and up the track they go and back in the gas and back down the track, double apexing off of two, just over and over and over. And we could watch a lot of things that TV misses, even back then, you'd see guys in 30th,

like knock each other sideways in the corner. Next lap through, the guy retaliates. Next lap through another retaliation. And we're seeing it. We're like, watch him. Here they come. Oh, he hits him again, you know. And you're only seeing that because you're there.

I remember at one particular point, I think Brett Bedine was driving either the 15 for Budmore or the 26 car. But he got into a bit of a back and forth retaliation that lasted multiple laps and eventually drew out of yellow in turn one, one night. And we were just like, holy crap, wow, you know, they're all mad at each other. Which is great. Yeah. I remember being there when I remember sitting in that same spot when Sterling back that 22 Maxwell house car into term one. And the thing burst into flames. So we were sitting in the same spot in term one right where it happened.

And earlier in the race, Sterling spun out back to his car into the wall. They come down pit road And the deck lid and everything was mashed down The team thought It was to be able to get the deck lid back up Andrew To be able to get the deck lid back up They set the they set two jackstands on the on the fuel cell Dropped it

No Oh just set it on it on They put two jackstands inside yeah in the trunk And and bungee corded them down To the fuel cell rack. and that held the deck lid up. Oh my God. And then he went in there and backed it into the wall again.

Those two jackstands went through the top of the fuel cell. When if you look at pictures of this 22 Maxwell house car, you can see the jack stands tumbling down to banking in the fire. I never knew that. Yeah. That's why that car burst into flames like it did because it shoved those jack stands through the top of the fuel cell. Wow.

Just crazy. Oh, my God. Yeah, buddy. Bristol, you've got to see it in person, too, the banking there until you see the... They're incredible. I know that, I know people think that I'm just trolling when I'm posting all these pictures about asphalt Bristol and telling Marcus to pave it. When they, when, when that place, if you went to that race track in 1987 and, and, or just

anywhere around that time and sat down in the corner and watch them go into the, the turn, man, it was magic. So, so, so cool. And while there, the next iteration of the racetrack was a lot of fun as well, the concrete version that we had before this, you had to kind of clip this little spot and turn to on corner exit. It was just a little quirks about it, the racetrack that were cool back then. And we had exciting, wild, dramatic finishes on the concrete.

surface. While that's true, the magic of that asphalt, man, was just special. And the way the cars had to run the corner when it was asphalt, there's just, it's just, it's just incredible. And, uh, yeah. So, the way you talk about it, I wish I could experience Bristol, even back when it was like, like, like the grass, you know, like the grassy on the, oh yeah, yeah, on the, uh, exterior of the track instead of grandsons. Like I wish I could just go back and just witness a race. So they didn't sell tickets out on the hill. And mostly, mostly, uh, when the bush race was going to run, if they were, if they were going to be a bush race at night or even in the afternoon,

um, a lot of times when they were going to run that bush race at night, they'd already had happy hour. So happy hours is the final practice. And so on Saturday, before the Sunday, or I guess this would be Friday. So on Friday, right, the cup. guys would have their happy hour and then they would be done and they had to get out of the track there's no tunnel no walk under no no pedestrian walk under tunnel or nothing so when they opened the gate before the bush race you had to leave if you wanted to get out and you did right and so everybody that was in the industry the garage mechanics crew chiefs other cup drivers that weren't running in the bush race would usually go up and sit on that grassy hill and then they'd close the

Bush race happens, right? And you either sit there on the grassy hill and watch the race or you go to the hotel, whatever you're going to do. And so it was a lot of mechanics and crew members and different people sitting on that hill right next to the grandstands in turn two. Yeah.

It was pretty fun. That's cool. I saw just someone mentioned the YouTube chat. Damon mentioned Cletus and he's racing the Arca Race at Bristol this weekend, I guess Thursday, I think, a few days. Do you have any advice for Cletus? us.

Just race the track. Don't try to force anything that's not there. That's good advice. It's easy to get in trouble at Bristol by putting yourself in a bad spot. Like, it's easy to find trouble. Yeah. I think that he's actually ran there at Bristol. So he's seen the track before.

It was when it was dirt. So I don't know if that he's ran it on asphalt, but I know he did some Crown Vic stuff on dirt there and some different things. So that, and I know that, you know, that's like, oh, man, well, that doesn't matter. It does. The optics of it, like, you, when you go to a racetrack you've never been to and you drive out there for the very first time, you're lost for a little bit, right? And you've got to learn the whole track.

So at least he's seen it, pulled out on the banking, and even if it was dirty, pulled out on the track, and he knows kind of what it looks like and what's coming, right? And so I would lean into that. It's going to have a lot of grip with that tire and that car. But for the most part, you know, I would just, yeah, I would just take the easy spots. Don't get yourself in trouble trying to race somebody for a spot that's difficult to get. Because he's in a situation too where he has to, he has the damage clause. You know, if he crashed the car, he's got to repair it.

I've talked to him about all this. And so he has concerns, right, about, like, expenditure and, you know, I want to go, I want to race. I want to have fun. I'm spending a lot of money to do this. And in my mind, I've spent this chunk to go and be here. I don't want to end the race and have to write a whole other check, right, for all the damage. Yeah. And if you wreck there, you're going to have a lot of...

For something that's preventable at least. So let's just go out there and not have to write another check when it's all said and done. Yes. Yeah. That's good. We got time for a few more questions. This one's from Kevin. He wants to know, did you ever solve your WASP problem?

I'm working on it. I did. It is that time of year where they're not on the nests anymore. It's cool, temperatures down. So that's the time where you want to get rid of those old nests. And I have had some luck, honestly, with those paper machines. They're kind of like paper machet, but they're these expandable paper waspests, and they're the big kind. They look like a, you know, wasst, an old traditional giant waspest.

But it's paper mashay. But it's fake. It's fake. You buy them. Yeah. They look, they're supposed to, they're like a decoy. So what happens? You've no clue what I'm talking about.

Never seen one. What happens if we have that? Yeah. Well, apparently they don't, they see that and they don't, they were, they're territorial. And they're like, well, there's already a nest here. I don't want to get my ass kicked. so I'm going to go somewhere else. Wow.

Yeah. Oh, dang. I never heard that before, but sounds right. That's why they sell them, I believe, because they probably work. So I have had some success. I put one of those, so I got a boat, I got a houseboat, the Gibson. Yeah. And I keep it at a dock.

And there's wasp's the wasp nest and all kinds of stuff happening around the dock, you know. And I put one of those in the, uh, the bimity top of the of the boat in the up in the steerage and no wasps. I've been all, there was not one wasst nest built in that boat this side. Wow. Yeah. So, I mean, I think it works. Who knows?

Because usually the wasps will get up underneath the fiberglass and build nests up in there and hiding there. And your ass will be sitting right next to them and not even know it. And so until they want, you know, until they want to come after you. So I put that thing in there. and ain't not a one, not a, not a, not a, not a, not a, not a, not a, not a lot of those outside around my, around my pool area. And, uh, this past weekend, I was there for two days and didn't see much activities. Wow. I'm seeing, I'm seeing, I'm seeing some people backing you up

in YouTube chat. Bobby said those fake nests do in fact work. The tur. Yeah. So that's great. Yeah. Have you been stung by bees a lot? I got stung by wasp once. Just recently. Oh. Well, I've been stung by bees and, well, I've been stung by bees and was when I was a kid. Yeah. But, you know, as you age, you tend to do a pretty good job of avoidance. Yeah. But there was a was a was nest in my kids' play set outside, and I went up there, and I had

one of these long retractable wands that kind of, it's a duster for like, oh, I guess fans and stuff. That sounds like a good idea. I went up there and I was going to knock that something going down, and I hit it, and then I ran away, like 20 feet, right? I back up. And I'm like, oh, man, now I can watch them. You know, they're like, well, they're all mad.

They're pissed. I'm standing there. I'll never forget it. I'm standing there watching them. And I'm, they're 20 feet away. I'd pay to see this. I see you know. In slow motion.

There's a wasp. And it's like, he's like flying and he goes and he goes, he did it. And he turns, and I'm looking. And he turns and he flies right. at me wide open, like right in between my eyes and right into my nose. And it was like a kamikaze move. Like he was like, he was like, I'm not surviving this. I'm ready to lose my life for the crew. Oh my gosh. He flew into me wide open and ran into my nose, instantly stinging

me right on the nose. Oh my gosh. and I suppose he died. I don't know. In my mind, that was his last heroic move. It forgot in country. Yes. What if he lived? He's a hero.

I got stuck in it. I feel the sting and I see him coming, right? And so I'm like walking backwards and I fall, right? He knocked you over? I fell. Like in the, trying to maneuver, right? I'm like trying to get away. This is happening.

I can't do anything about it. And I fall down. And then, yeah, and then I got up and I remember like thinking I was walking back to the house and I'm like, that hurt. This hurts so bad. I mean, it's right, right on the end of my nose. And Amy and everybody was standing outside the house saw it. And the funniest part is probably like the wasp are small to seas. So like, if you're far enough away, you're just like falling.

over freaking out for no reason. Dude, he comes flying at me and I'm like, damn. He's like, he's aiming right at me. You know, you're just kind of in this, and it was a second. It was like a boop. But it felt like, I was like, I was like, wow, man, I was impressed by him. He was like, I'm coming here. You did not save this on the camera or something.

No, there's no cameras. Oh, gosh. We'll just have to recreate it. I mean, I go back to the beginning of it, a duster and a wasp nest. That sounds like... I was just gonna knock it down. Yeah, because that sounds like a great idea. I hit it and it didn't even fall and...

Oh, you see, you got them mad first and then you knocked it down. No, I didn't knock it down. Just made a mad. It didn't, it didn't, I hit it and I ran. It didn't fall. They got mad. This sounds like something you would do at like 12, like not at the age you're at now. Like, I don't know.

Hey, there's a watchman. I know. Thinking about it right now, it's absolutely not something I would do. I don't know what was going on that day. I would maybe hungover. or I was in some sort of state of mine where I wasn't thinking clearly. I've taken this thing down right now. But usually me, I wouldn't mess with it.

But on that day you chose war. That day, I was like, I'm doing it. I'm feeling good about it. Chose violence that day. So the wasp. TJ, you look like you've been stung a lot. I've been, not a lot. I've probably had some similar instances, not like trying to make them mad.

Yeah, just walking into bad situations, yeah. Wasp look mean. Yeah. The way they're... They look. They look like trouble, man. You don't never look at a wasp and go, man, he's cute. That's a cool wasp.

I look at a wasp and I'm like, that's painful. That's going to hurt. Yeah, he means business. Can we kill this? Yeah. Can they kill these was. Bumblebees are just kind of like, oh, look a bumblebee. Yeah.

Wasp are like... There's a few that hang out by the picnic table right out here. And every now and then, they go for my lunch. I have to like, is there a nest? Is there a nest? Is there a nest? Because I know if there's a nest.

Because I know a guy. I think they just know people. Yeah, seriously. Can we borrow that and bring it outside? Wood carvers. Well, they're a nuisance, but don't sting.

That's true. Apparently. Does anybody in chat know if that's true? I've heard that wood carving bees cannot sting or will not sting. I find that hard to believe. They look like they'd sting you. I'll look it up.

Carpenter bees. Carpenter bees, yeah. Yes, they can stink. Oh, really? The female ones can stay. Oh, my gosh. I've been whacking the hell out of them things. So, you know what I like to do?

Thinking you're good. Well, they've been putting holes in my, they've been putting holes in the door jam around my garage doors. And so it's every spring I'm out there with a tennis racket, just going to town. Well, that's your problem. You didn't have the duster. no no no the racket gets boy you can go out there and get 12

at a time just swinging away here's the best part is that they are generally docile but will only sting if provoked which is what you're doing oh man they're standing there and like hey how's it going for them they'll be flying you know they don't even move they're just like right above you

like two feet above you going hey well it's what's what's what's the rack oh you're going to get stung again I'm an ass you're going to get stung again Because, I mean, they're not, they don't think anything bad is going to happen, right? They're just, they're just, they're, I saw it.

Yeah. I feel like a jerk now. But they're, they're putting holes in my, my house. Yeah. You built the house in their area. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, this is your fault building the house around there. Yeah.

I should have known. There was a race track there before I moved into town. Right. Yeah. It's not, it's not their fault. Yeah. It's a track's fault. That's funny. It says the males have a white spot on their head.

and the females having all blackheads. That's when you know if you're going to get stung. Hey, I thought more about your Portland comment with the track because it's, you know, the track's fault. You know, next time there's a big wreck at Talladega, I'm coming on here and be like, you know what? That track is just terrible. Nobody agreed with me.

So they all thought your idea was better. That's weird. They thought my idea of, well, just get rid of the turn was a bad idea. But I mean, it would have solved the problem. By the way, I got lots of, what's up, General, at the track this weekend. Oh, that's amazing. Priest walked by me.

What's up, General? Damn, priest. Yeah, priest chimed out on it. Nice. Keep it going. Keep it going. Well, that's a good place to wrap up Asch Jr.

This week. That was a lot of fun. But thanks to Xfinity. Yeah. All right. Thank you, Xfinity for bringing us today's Ash Jr. segment

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on this show. We'll put it on a t-shirt. Again, check it out at shop.dotritymomedia.com. All right, it's time for Dirtymodeau with Tampa Tim. This segment is brought to you by Fan Duel. Let's get started. Let's go ahead and get to it. Our top manufacturer parlay. did not work

the top manufacturer parley winner would have been Hamlin Blaney Elliott not a bad combo right there why did not one of us go that route we all went Larson

that's weird yep somebody should have went off somebody should have went off well Russell was two for three with Hamlin and Blaney but Larson yeah

where did Larson finish comparable to Blaney or Elliot Larson had some issues yeah he he struggled in that last run, but he was, he was running like top five all day. Wasn't he having a shifter issues or something there at one point? I saw him come down pit road to work on some stuff once or twice.

Like, Larsen finished 12th. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I had Bell, Lugano and Larson. Like, Bell just won't snap back. You know, he was the top Toyota early in the season. One of, you know, but Denny's sort of taking the helm.

And I'm just thinking, man, I'm going to be smart. I'm going to look smart. when Bell comes out and gets it done, but he's just not snapping back. And he's mad after this race. Oh, he's mad now, yeah. But they took the best car and need to be better with it. He knows what's at stake.

And he knows that his chance that went in the championship every year, you know, this is his time. Yeah. You know? I feel like we say that every year as well with him. Him and Danny, I feel like we say it almost every year. And what was I thinking, picking Ligano?

I mean, I... He was fast early. He was. But, I mean, I don't, I want, I want to, I want my argument or debate about the, you know, I'm on one side of this debate about Lugano and this playoff situation and, you know, according to this year not. His ability to be great in a certain scenario. And here you are. But here I am, betting that he's going to be the best forward. Yeah, you can't be.

You can't be backing that. No. You can't support that anyway. I'm done. Okay. I'm off the Ligano train. betting favorites according to Vegas

Larson at 425 What do you think about that Russell I agree one in the last two races there led nearly 900 laps in those two wins I think it's hard to go against him or Denny this week

All right I'm pop two and three The last four With two I am going to put Larson and Denny in my parley right out of the gate

TJ Russ I see you nodding Russ, you go all that as well? I totally agree on that. What about you, Tim? I agree with that as well. TJ? I do like that a lot.

Just to be different. It's okay if you want to just do something different. I mean, I feel like you can't stay on top. And I don't know, is this the weekend Larsson bounces back? I thought it was going to be last weekend. He had a, I mean, he was real fast and practicing. Beginning of the race, his lap time is ridiculous. But just like Bell, something just keeps biting him.

You know what I mean? So, I don't know, man. I'm kind of feeling... I do like Denny. Denny just figures it out there. And if it turns into a tire wear race, I do like Denny a lot. I feel like Briscoe might sneak in here again.

Yeah. I feel like Briscoe's got a lot of momentum. I think... So we're just going to go ahead and get right to our manufacturer parlay. And so I think the rest of the crew's going to go with Larson Hamlin for the Chevy. Toyota? What do you want to do Chevy Toyota? I want to do I want to do Briscoe and Toyota and I want to do I'm kind of leaning I'm feeling like Chase Elliott's going to have a good

run out. Oh wow. Totally different. So what makes the Chevrolet one so hard is the last eight races we've had a different Chevrolet driver finish the best Chevrolet driver. Wow. Wait. So you it's so hard to predict this. Yeah. No, I get it. Yeah, I agree. It's been only the best in one of the last 12. Give us, what about the last two bristols, though? I mean, Larson, who's, where have the other

Chevroletes finished? We know Larson's won the last two here. So then the next, like in the spring, it was Byron finished 6th. And then last year in this race, Chase Elliott was runner up to Larson. Gotcha. Yeah. All right. Well, let's move on down the line with the betting favorites. We mentioned Larson at 425. Hamlin at 450. Blaney at 500.

Byron at 600, Bell at 700. So Blaney seems to kind of be the popular choice for the forward camp week after week, really. do you feel pretty confident about that this weekend, Russ? I do. I just don't think there's anybody else that, you know, shows up like he does. Yeah. Like, and he's been the best forward three of the last four weeks. Damn. I'll throw out Brad just at a track with high tire wear.

I like my chance with Brad. Really? Yeah. I think this is one of Brad's best tracks. You're going with Brad Tim's. I'm going with Brad. All right, Brad, it is. I was going to do the same thing.

Russ, where are you going? I'm sticking with Blaney. I'm not kissing. and T.J's ass like everybody else. All right, so me and Russ have, me and Russ for the Parlay have the 5-11 and 12. T.J. is going to go with the 19-9

and the 6. Tim's 5-11 and 6. All right. So, Tim's on the betting side. Does anything really change for you for this particular race? I do like Larson Hamman to win. I'm going to go with the favorites. I would throw

a little bit on Brad, but I don't love it. And I'll throw with Josh Barry top 10 in there. You know, he's, the last two weeks have sucked, but I mean, if he's going to, they're going to go for it. What's Brad's odds? Uh, plus 2,500. Oh, you don't. That's worth something. That's worth something. That's worth something. That's why I have to put something on it.

Yeah. We haven't had a non-playoff driver win yet in the first two rounds, obviously, or first two races. And I think this is, you know, this is a race that something can happen. What are Ty gives his odds? Uh, plus 1,800 to win. Okay. So he was third in the spring. He's led more laps here than any other track than top 10

and three of the last four here. Like, I think that's your outside guy. And then also, Hosevar was really fast here in the spring. With average running position better than seventh. Wow. Plus 2,800 to win. I honestly thought Hosevar would be a little faster at Gateway, though, too.

Didn't you? Now, the guys I would stay away from are the guys that, like, five, 10 years ago he would think would be the no-brainers would be Kyle Bush and Lugano. Yeah. Ligano's got no top tens there in the last nine races. He struggled. Yeah. struggled there.

Kyle Bush has been 24th or worse in the last 6th. Well, that's pretty fascinating. So let's talk about some drivers for some top tens. You mentioned Hosevar as a possible candidate for that. Josh Barry, Ty Gibbs. Who are some, not necessarily dark horses for top tens, but who are some guys where you can get some pretty good money, pretty good odds?

I feel like, I don't know, I don't know why it's a feeling. I feel like Ricky Stenhouse is good here. Yeah, he is. Yeah, I feel like that's a great top ten bet. It's real. Yeah, every time you come here, Ricky Stenhouse pops to my mind. I think that's a really good top ten bet.

If the night gets really physical, you know, if we have a lot of long ring flag runs, I don't think he can do it. But if the night gets really physical, and we have a lot of strategy and a lot of guys with some, you know, some problems, some of the heavy hitters get kind of,

some of the traditional top tenors get knocked out. Yeah. With some, you know, with some damage or toe links. Yeah, that's a kind of race where he can find his way up in there. Yeah, and I like Magic Mike Kelly. He rolls a dice of strategy. Yeah. And that's a good guy to have when you have a long shot top 10 bet.

What do you guys think of A.J. Almondinger? Finish 9th earlier this year, had a good run in Darlington. Like, is he someone to watch? I think so. I think so. He's been good there next to Fienic car as well. Yeah. What about a Suarez or Ross?

Man, I would stay clear as Suarez. Yeah. And, I mean, Ross is weird. Like, they qualify really well. And then it's just kind of the speed, I feel like just still isn't quite there for me. I just stay away from them. What about a Cindrick? Cendrick's tough.

Cindric's weird because you kind of has to run a points scenario type of race. You know, it's not sexy or exciting. It's not sexy. That's kind of a great way to put it. It's not sexy. So the surprise of the playoffs so far, the non-playoff guy is Nemechek. He's been back-to-back top tens. what do you think about him there?

I think it could absolutely continue it. And he's a short track guy. He grew up on the short tracks. He's, you know, if they really, if they really do have the parts and pieces together to be able to kind of keep this string going, I think he could absolutely deliver from behind the wheel. I think it's his teammate.

Eric Jones. Oh, Eric Jones is really good at personal. I think it's his teammate. That's a solid. I like that better than John Hunter. I do, too. Well, there's a lot of options there. Let's look at the featured matchups.

Chase Elliott, Legano. I think I'm going to go with Elliot. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Russell? Yes. Cendric SVG. I'm going to take Cendric all day.

Yeah. Yeah. I think SVG will do fine, but I just feel like Cendric will. He did struggle there in the spring. SVG. Yeah. What do you think, Russell? No brainer.

No brainer. I'm against. that's VG this week. Chastain Bowman. I lean Chastain in this, actually. I think Bowman's had a tough two weeks. I think that continues. I like Bowman.

Really? Do you think they bounce back? I don't know if it's a bounce back. I just think he needs to beat Chastain. He does it. Okay. I'm going Chastain. Russell.

The numbers say Bowman, but I just don't think his... The number say Bowman. I'm just going to stick. Leave it there. Austin Dillon and Josh Barry. That's a tough one. It is. This is another scenario where similar to, similar to Stenhouse, if it's a stop-and-go, you know, multiple cautions, kind of an event, that's the race where, you know, Austin Dillon, you know, can avoid the drama, can stay on the lead lap, can find a way to, you know, finish eighth, ninth, tenth.

Um, Barry was top 12th. I think you finished 12th earlier this year. Yeah, but Dylan finished 10th. So I know. Numbers say Dylan. Yeah, I agree. This is probably the, for some reason, I'm just not leaning towards Josh on this one. And I think Josh has had a great year regardless.

But Austin, Austin's the type of guy that's going to get, he's going to get a free pass with 75 to go. And he's getting it up like 10th, 12, 13, somewhere in there. And he just, he's done it over time and time again to me. you guys flipped me i think i'm on austin now too wow yeah i hate to say that too that's big tim's that's big for me but you're right i think austin's really well like the past

yeah i mean he wasn't great at gateway no but he's always had flashes of speed at these like now for last like month i feel like this race is a it's a long and you got to you got to really pick and choose your battles at this place and i think austin has a lot more experience with that right now one thing about austin dillin you know there's races where he's, you know, non-existent. They'll have the, you know, the pop-off runs every now and then.

I don't see him as a guy who makes mistakes, wrecks himself, even when they don't run good, right? Yeah. When they don't run good and they run bad, he doesn't take a car and do dumb shit with it. It just finishes. Yeah, he just finishes. Not a great day, not a great car, couldn't do anything with it. I got what I got. That's the kind of guy that can grind out a tenth at Bristol.

due to a lot of guys who can't do just what I talked about. Like, they'll run themselves into the wall. They'll run themselves into the other competitors. They'll do things that are going to create issues. They'll have to, you know, they'll have to get down pit road and fix. And he takes advantage of the free spots. He will take advantage of those spots. Yeah.

Hey, what's Ty Dillon's odds? I don't know. I only have a win. I don't have top tens right now. I just think if Carla goes there, I think Ty Dillon could have a quiet, solid run. Ty Dillon is plus 40,000 to win. So his top 10 mods will be very, very juicy right now.

I mean, if the collard cars are good, that's somewhere where I think Ty could pull one of them off. What do you think, Ross? No. I mean, long shot. You don't give him a long shot chance at it? No. Who's the longest shot of long shots

that you'd be comfortable putting money on? for just to give me a top 10 like a Zane Smith all right wow okay I'll say what if you like John Hunter

or Eric Jones they're plus 15,000 yeah I like them way better to win oh for sure if you're gonna throw a little bit of a

wind sprinkle on that I ain't sprinkling no win on that but I'm just saying hey you know sneaking into the top tens a lot easier

winning a race yeah well they'll I think those are good top 10 bets but yeah from this whole conversation. The only thing that I've gathered is that everyone can pretty much run top 10 here if they just added trouble. But only Larsson and Hammond can win the race. I mean, we haven't mentioned

Priests or Busher. Bushers won there. I mean, Priest has snuck into the top 10 almost all year year out of nowhere. That's the damn Ford that could ruin our our Blaney bet. Exactly. Busher. For sure. Me and teacher on Team Brad, so. Yeah. I do think Chris and I think Priest, he surprises me every week, man. He comes through. So he could ruin it too. Mm-hmm. Well, the Dirtymoe Doe segment is brought to you by Fanduel, the premier gaming destination of the United States. Thank you, Tampa Timms.

Thank you, Russell, for coming through. White flag. All right, it's time for the white flag here. The tear down was live on YouTube and Twitter following the race. If you haven't already heard, go over to Dirtymo Media's YouTube page. Hit subscribe, turn on your notifications, and you won't miss anything. Action's detrimental dropped on Monday following Denny's 59th win. A great breakdown of how the race went.

Doorb bumper clear also dropped Monday. Austin Cendrick was the guest. Wednesday, my interview with David Ruderman Dr. Dr. Roodman drops. Herman Strader, Speed Street, also drop on Wednesday and Thursday. Another episode of Bless Your Heart. Remember Friday, the new Dirty30 will come out. All-new 30-minute recap show called Dirty-30.

We know everyone doesn't have time to listen to all the shows, so we're putting you in some highlights into a 30-minute segment called Dirty-30 every Friday. We'll see you. Check out Dirtymoe Media on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok.