The Dale Jr. Download - North Wilkesboro Was Dale Jr.’s Way Back to Memories of His Dad

Episode Date: July 21, 2026

After NASCAR’s first points race at North Wilkesboro since 1996, Dale, TJ and Travis are back in studio to break down all of the weekend’s headlines – including some Joey Logano domination. After word that NASCAR will be extending practice time for the Cup Series, Dale explains just how crucial it is for drivers like Connor Zilisch to utilize that track time and get laps to help dial in their season. Dale also talks about why North Wilkesboro hasn’t been all about the racing for him, including what he confessed to Marty Smith before going on air with TNT. The group also dives into Josh Berry’s abysmal season, and why the results don’t represent the talent level that Josh possesses. Is there enough time left in the season for Josh to prove himself for a Cup ride in 2027 and beyond? Plus, Ask Jr gets into Logano’s comments about tandem drafting, what cars Dale has added to his graveyard, meeting Sonny Styles, and drinking whiskey (or not) on the post-race show. All this and more on another episode of The Dale Jr Download presented by ARBYYYYYY’SSSSSS. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. This is the most fun I've had in this chair in the last hour and a half. I don't know if we've ever argued. Did I piss you off over the weekend? I'm still sour. Did I want the best man at your wedding? Who was your best man, Dale? T.J.

You don't need a cool best for that race? What are you thinking? Get them, T.J. Hellway to start the show. All right then. Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. back again for another. episode of the Deljutor download coming in from the beach in south carolina tj's in the studio how

you doing tj i'm i'm pretty good how you doing i'm all right um you know still still excited about uh this past weekend at northwoodsboro um so we're going to talk a lot about that Travis is with us as well Travis uh you watched the race i'm assuming i did yeah see your boy almost get it done yeah I saw your tweets. Yep, trying to reel him. Couldn't do it. Travis was tweeting during a race? No way.

Really? Joey just, the car was unbeatable. This episode is presented by Arby's. Don't forget about Arby's new meat in three box. You get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meats. That's their slogan. Everybody knows that.

Let's dive into it, man. We got, we got Marcus calling in later. We got Dirty Mo Doe. we got asked junior winner we're coming off yeah we're coming well we're not going to win the winter oh i thought we were no told the winner to take a hike okay yeah yeah yeah um he beat denny and i said not on this show so all right so let's dive into it um there's a there's a lot here we had a lot of we had practice um i guess that's one thing i wanted to talk about um we had practice um

we had practice during the race weekend, and that is a massive debate, I think, in the industry of whether we should practice or whether we should not practice, especially coming off of the news that we're going to Daytona with a new package, and there will be no practice. So, you know, NASCAR said that decision was made because the teams and the teams and NASCAR got together and they're like, you know, with the changes we're making, it doesn't warrant the need and the teams don't want it. They're not going to go out there and draft in big packs

and learn what we think they would typically learn, you know, 20 years ago. So I don't disagree with that. If the teams are fine with that, that's fine. That's good. Yeah, but I agree too. Yeah. I will tell you, though, you know, the practice conversations is a very interesting one for me because everybody's right.

Both sides are right about this. The teams will tell you that practice makes the racing, I don't know, I don't want to say the word worse. Practice makes the cars more close together. Everybody finds a little more speed. Everybody gets a little, you know, the cars already show up to the racetrack, the racetrack tj and run really really close don't they uh yes really competitive very close i watch the board as practice is happening and you can look at every car i don't care if they've ran 20 laps 30 laps

they're all running the same lap time okay and if you give them an hour of practice they're going to dial that in even tighter so that's true but even with all that said somebody's got to be the fastest somebody's got to be the slowest and as we're watching practice happen I can see that Bell's got the best car I can see that Larson yeah I can see that Larson

is the second best car I can see that Byron Hamlin Ligano are the next group I can see the rest of the fast cars or Blaney Bowman Zillich is actually pretty good Gibbs is fast. I can see all these things. It's telling me a story.

Practice is teeing me up for the race on Sunday. And so I'll just say as a broadcaster and a fan, practice is important to me. Might it hurt the product on the racetrack? Yes. Might the teams all have a good point about, you know, we don't need to practice Daytona and Talladega. We're not going to go out there and get packs and draft like we used to. Would it hurt them to have 10, 15 minutes?

So some team that doesn't race every week, you know, doesn't show up and go out and qualify on the ground, hitting the racetrack or bouncing all over the place. Like, what was it, Connor Daly? Did they tell me that one time? Yeah. The cars are bouncing. Yeah.

I mean, yeah, that would be nice. Give them 15, 20 minutes, just a couple, one key run, you know, a little practice key run. But anyhow, you know, I'm sitting here looking at all my notes from practice, and it helped me as a broadcaster and as a fan. I'm imagining, I don't broadcast every race, but I would watch and look at practice times regardless and go, man, man, it looks like Bell's going to be good. And so when we turn on our, you know, we turn the cameras on on on Sunday, and they say, all right, broadcaster, what are we going to see today?

Well, I can look at practice and go, man, you know, I think Bell and Larson were the two best cars. And here's a couple of the guys I think might have good runs today. It's hard to tell that story without any practice. I think one part that the guy left out a little bit is that we're all on the track at the same time too. Like everyone has the same opportunity to run. You don't have like, well, this guy was faster 30 minutes later than what this guy. You know what I mean?

The different groups make a difference. I do not like the groups. I didn't like them either. Yeah. I like them all out there. I like them qualifying together, racing together, practicing together. We don't race in groups. Yeah, I don't understand the group.

But that's not for me to decide. That's just one thing I want to talk about with practice. I know that there's an ongoing conversation. And NASCAR said, even as early as the end of this, year we'll see more practice at racetracks. You know, going into next year, they're going to double the amount of practice that we have. And I'm, I'm liking that.

I know even at the risk that it might make everybody a little more similar in times and speeds on Sunday. I mean, that's kind of what practice. Like, we're already super close. Like, it's not making that big of difference to me. What it does help is what you said. It helps the Connor Daley. Like, we weren't very good.

We made a lot of changes in practice. And if we didn't have that longer practice together right there, we're probably not, our car was pretty good in the race, but we had that practice to figure it out. I'm sure other guys made their cars better too. And I mean... Is there a concern, though, that, like with JGR and Hendrik, the bigger ones, the more practice time,

they're going to be able to gain a bigger advantage too? Who cares? Who fucking cares about that? They already unloads super fast to me. I don't mean to dismiss that point. That's rude to me. But I'll take it back to Zillich, right? He goes out there and he practices.

And I put him in my best of the rest kind of category because he was sixth on the board in 10 lap averages. And he had a lap time, I think his best lap time overall. Well, that was early, yeah, he was sixth on the board, seventh on the board, seventh on the board, and ten lap averages. And his best lap was 13th. This dude, if you go back and look at Zillich over the summer, I bet he ain't ran 400 laps total. Right? He was wrecking out all them races or having problems, having goofie shit happen.

Had more goofs shit happen on Pit Road on Sunday. But that driver, that guy that come off of the Xfinity series with 10 wins or whatever last year. Ridicrous. Yeah, going into a rookie year needs practice. Guys like him need practice. I can't say that strongly enough. And so at the risk that, yeah, Gibbs gets better, Hendrick gets better, everybody that's smart gets smarter. I think it's so necessary for the back half of the field as well, Travis,

to be able to, like, front row and all these teams, they don't get to try. They just got to, they can show up and take some risks and some gambles on their race day setup. But can they really learn anything and try to really dial in some stuff on their car? I mean, it helps everybody a little bit, but I think it's. The team that it could really help is they're not. young but colleague because they don't have the sim and stuff. You get AJ out there on the track and let him just get more track time. Yeah. I think like the Gibbs and the Hendrick cars might make a

small percentage gain. Of course they're going to, Danny is going to be able to dial his car and just a little bit more about all them guys. But the back half like you said, Danny might make his car two percent better. But the back half's gaining 70, 10 percent. Yeah. Yeah. They're big chunks. And that's like, I mean, I think it's a good. I think it's a good. move. The expense or the cost conversation is a wash for me. They're spending that money somewhere else. They're spending it at the sim. They're spending it somewhere. So, yeah, that's bullshit. So anyhow, I just wanted to have that conversation. Let's dive into North Wilkesboro. And Wilkesboro, to me, is a fan-tastic race weekend ticket for a fan. You get some

this weekend to me is a showcase of stock car racing. You get some grassroots racing with the cars tour. You get Trucks. You may get Exfinity or Riley. I'm sorry. You may get O'Reilly in the future. And you get the cup stuff. So to me, I mean, it is just if you're going to,

if you're a fan and you're like, man, I want to get to go to a couple of races a year, I would absolutely put Wilkesboro on the map for me as a place I need to go to because of everything that you get to experience in those three or four days, plus the concerts and there's so much stuff out around or outside of the racetrack, you know, in terms of food and entertainment for the fans. So it's a really, really fun weekend. Great environment, great vibe. You can't. It does have a good vibe. It has a good vibe. you can't get a lot of people aren't going to get that or understand that watching on TV

they're not going to get it but if you if you just got to go I don't know you just got to go there and be there to understand what I mean when I'm when we're talking about the vibe and the feeling it's very nostalgic super it's like a museum it's really really cool you can probably feel the ghost of the past drivers there where like if you go to another speedway like you just don't have that feel yeah I said that on the pre-race show. So I show up about 30 minutes early every pre-race. I get to the desk.

Marty is sitting there practicing his lines and reading, and he's prepping. He works hard, Marty Smith. And I get there early because I like to get my mind wrapped around what we're about to do. and he says, what's going on? And I'm like, man. And he started talking about the track and all that. And he's like, what's you thinking?

What's you think about this? And I said, ma'am, I'll tell you, I was driving into the racetrack. We did a nine-minute produced piece on the track that everybody saw in segment three. during the pre-race, fantastic piece that T&T put together. And I did a big long-form interview for that. I did another interview with Jordan Bianchi about the racetrack. I did dozens of interviews around this track. And every one of them asked me, what is it about North Wilsonboro?

And why do I love it and want it back so badly? and I had to confess to Marty when he asked me that question before the show Sunday that it isn't about North Wiltsboro. North Wiltsboro was just another stop in a long season when I was a kid. And I begged Daddy to let me go to all the races, and Wilkesboro was one that I often got a yes because of its proximity to our house. so I would get to go up there with him on Fridays for practice or Saturday for practice and then obviously Sunday for the race and I just had so many cool memories of going to the track

with Dad and it wasn't Wilkesboro that I wanted to get back it was getting closer to those memories you know you you're going to lose people in your life I don't want to get all serious here, but you're going to lose your family members. You're going to lose things that you love, that you don't even know you love, and those things are going to go away somehow, someday. Things change in life, and it's just a way it is. But Wilkesboro, getting Wilkesboro back, and the reason why I guess I was part of that process or emphatic about it coming back or trying to to get it back, wasn't about North Wilkesboro the track. It was about getting closer to those things we had lost.

And I pulled into that racetrack the other yesterday or Sunday. And I immediately recognized that it wasn't Wilkesboro that I was wanting to bring back. It was all of those memories and all, and my dad and my friends, Jimmy Means, son, Brad, and all the fun we used to have running around that racetrack when we were kids. it was getting closer to those memories, trying to turn the clock back and get that feeling in your heart again that you had when you were there as a kid.

That's what it was about. And so Marty goes, man, you got to say that on the show. And I was like, I think that's a little bit too serious for the show. He's like, no, no, no, that's perfect. He's like, I was going to go to you anyways right off the bat.

Say that. So that's kind of how we started the show. And as soon as I got done talking, McMurray looks across the table and goes, man, I thought Marty's Open was good, but that was pretty serious and solid, which you just said. So I was pretty happy about it. But Wilkesboro is just a really neat place. And I think you get a really good amount of racing and a good experience for your ticket, for your purchase, your investment.

all of the uh you know i just i just like it i and you know they're uh they're all they're always kind of making the place better too um they are yeah it's a little bit upgraded this time a little bits and pieces here they're learning with every with every trip that we make up their race they learn little things that need to do they need to get better right yeah i'm sure some guys like the crossover without a tunnel i don't even mind it Yeah, I'm not, I don't have to worry about that because I don't really get inside there too much. Yeah, I like to go in the garage. I'm sure people that get out of the race earlier, like, eh, they probably don't like it too much.

I like, yeah, I like to get in the garage and try to just hear a few things from some people, just to see, see what the vibe is or the conversation is in the garage. But, yeah, I didn't really mind it. I kind of like that inconvenience, if you will. I kind of like it because it throws back to, that's how it was a lot of racetrack. is kind of like, I know it does throw it back. I mean, you've got to cross the track to get into the place. And it does have that nostalgic feel to it still.

And honestly, I think the experience is good overall. I like going there. Hey, everybody, the 2026 season is in full swing. And we've already had some really incredible moments why we love this sport. And when it comes to capturing those historical NASCAR moments, nobody does it better than Lionel Racing, the official diecast of NASCAR. Their race-win diecasts are some of my absolute favorites in my collection. The scuffs, scrapes, confetti, the damage, every detail that tells the story of that win.

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golly, this is a bit of an ass-wooping. And I was expecting that to be a possibility. Like, I don't, I'm not going to pretend that, you know, all the races that I saw as a kid there were just thrillers. I went, there was one particular race that Brett Bedime won. They ran so many damn green flag laps in that race. Nobody knew who was first, second, or third by the end of it. It was a big, big debate about who actually won the race. The scores.

Yeah, man, it was just like you, it lulled everybody into a, you know, a zombieish, state that, you know, the scoring was a bit a bit debatable by the end of it. But, I mean, Brett won the race, not to, not to, not to creating controversy there. He won the race. But it was just a, you know, 400 laps of just green flag racing. And by the end of it, there were one or two cars on the lead lap. So, I mean, I knew that that was a real possibility with our race. You know, we'd seen some all-star races, had some of that as well.

And so, yeah, was that really what I wanted to see? No, I didn't really want to tune in and see Joey lead 300-something laps, but I knew it was a possibility. We have, and I'm not going to, you know, blame the short track package or anything like that. You know, that is what I had seen. That's the kind of race that I had seen, regardless of the generation of race car. And so. It was fast, man.

I mean, well, when we go, you had Gibbs with a penalty, you had a bad time caution that put some people lap down. So like it was a lot of things that, you mean,

Lugano was the best, but a lot of things helped him too. That was the one, that was actually absolutely correct. So like the race starts out. Um, you got, you know, the 12 going to the rear,

which was unfortunate for him, but gave us a, gave us something to pay attention to is he's kind of climbing through the field. Yeah. But there were some, He doesn't have back too, yeah. Yeah, you did. But Ty Gibbs is up there.

Their race, you know, him and SVG have a hell of a battle for the stage win at the end of stage one. And it's shaping up to be quite a pretty interesting race. Well, all, you know, I can see Joey back there, fourth, fifth, sixth, whatever, third, kind of climbing slowly through the field, just, you know. Yeah. Yeah. And I was, you know, to your point, Travis, these guys f***ed it up and gave him control of the race. And that was that, you know, had Gibbs, you know, not sped on pit road or, you know, I think SVG, he's sitting there running the bottom of the racetrack, glued to the freaking bottom of the racetrack.

I guess, you know, he found that groove in the truck race and really loved it so damn much that he wouldn't get off the bottom when the 20. 22's coming. And Joey gets on his outside, and it's like, dude, you got to get up off the bottom. And, like, make him go on the inside, try to pass you low. Yeah, earn it. Earn it. Yeah. And so, but, I mean, nothing against SVG.

He had a good, good result. But I was like, I was just like, damn, don't, if you give 22 the lead, we are, this is not going to go well. And that's kind of what happened. thankfully you know if anything we can thank denny for kind of keeping it close i was pretty surprised honestly in that last stage that he just held on to that you know yeah it was about half a second to a second back the whole time um which is pretty interesting um so i guess joey you know they joey said at the end of the race that denny's team probably did a better job actually keeping up with the racetrack and they did a better job making their car

faster. And by the end of the race, whoever had been in front of the other would have probably ended up winning. Yeah. Lap traffic was fun, though, when they got the lap traffic and were dicing through there.

Yeah, the problem with that was, is that what Denny was struggling with was made much worse by the lap traffic, whereas Joey's car, just, Joey's car had more turn. And so when he would catch lap traffic, he wasn't quite as affected by it as badly as Denny.

and Denny, you could tell Denny didn't have as much turn as he needed. And when he would catch lap cars, it was harder for him to get even harder. Get through them. But I was sitting there like, oh, man, this lap traffic probably going to create an opportunity for a pass here. And it just didn't happen, actually. It almost did. It got close. Yeah, a couple of times.

But, I mean, all in all, though, I purposely didn't go on social media after the race. I was afraid that some people might poo-poo the race itself. I haven't looked at Gluck's good race pole. I wanted to make a guess. Don't tell me what the answer is. But I was thinking it was probably in the 60s, maybe a 62 to a 68. I didn't look at it.

Do you want me tell you? Yeah. You're wrong. It is 71%. It's a little better. I mean 71 with six cars on the lead lap I said I thought 64 Yeah me too

You know I've Like people are all People do don't like that But like those all them people didn't have to pit When they did To get caught a lap down Like this is It's racing

It's that's part of the strategy If you pit then you're like Man I shrope the caution don't come out Also if you run long I was so frustrated that they all pitted yeah a lot of them did well everyone saw sees the time the times and they're like okay

well the fall off so it's faster to split it how much was there's that there's that I don't know what it yeah I don't know what exactly it was yeah um god dang tj you're spotter tj aren't you the spotter they're supposed to know these numbers well I think it's like I mean it was at least

probably gonna love this part I don't mean there was so many different well the track got faster the lap times were going up as the as the race went on they were getting faster as the race one on too, but, um, I mean, the fall off was a decent amount to me, but like, there's the, the thought of being trapped a lap down, the thought of, you know, two laps down for some. Yeah. But isn't it worth it though that if you can go early and you can

get like, Danny's trying to short pit. So isn't that, doesn't that work the same in early in the race? So too? Yeah, it works at all the times. Like Ty Gibbs jumped us at the end. Yeah. So like, but I mean, yeah, it backfired on, but I can see why a team would pit early as they're trying to come out. Yeah. I know that's just the risk you take. Yeah, I understand why they pitted. I was just like, when the wreck happened on the backstretch, I'm like, how about Bowman coming from the top of the racetrack? Yeah.

So as a spotter at that point in time, we can't see the bottom of one and two when they leave pit road. So I think there was another car. Yeah, but wouldn't you run the bottom? If you're like, hey, man, I'm coming to pit road. So I'm going to go down into turn one and run the bottom. I mean, I'm not. not if no one's all over it and it's faster. You know what I mean?

You're going to run the fastest line until you got to hit. I know, I know exactly what you mean. If you're coming to pit, let me just say this, not to you, TJ, but if you're coming to pit road at Bristol, are you going to go into the corner against the fence and drive down across the racetrack on the pit road?

No, I mean, I'm not, but it's more cutthroat now than what it was, you know. Yeah, I get it. It's way more cutthroat. The bottom was fast than one and two. So like, why wouldn't you just run it? I mean, not everybody, he was committed to the top. Bowman was.

Whenever we were near him earlier, he was committed to the top. And I don't know if he could run the bar. I'm just giving him a hard time. It was a perfect storm, in my opinion, of car coming off pit road. Yeah. You know, him trying to get down. Yeah. The bad, no good, sorry, awful season for the 21 car continues.

Oh my gosh. Yeah. Man, it's awful. Josh was running good, too. He drove up to like 13th. Yeah, he had a good speed. You know, and yeah, no one will ever give a shit that, you know, they were actually running pretty good. I know.

I know. I'll just see the statistics. I felt for him when you saw his quote, like you could just feel just the pain and frustration. What was his quote? He goes, I've worked my whole life to get to this position. and now I feel people view me completely different after this compared to what I've done up till this point. Yeah. Yeah, this year's out.

I mean, it's heartbreaking for me because I think of Josh as a family member. Josh is, you know, Josh Barry moved here from Nashville, moved in with my mom and Willie, ate their dinners, worked at the shop. We got him racing. I mean, the whole story, he raced with us for 10 years. We won hundreds of races, track championships, national championship. We won Xfinity O'Reilly races. And I tried, I was, we did everything we could to give him, everything we could give him.

And he was presented this opportunity to race at Hoss for following Harvick into the four car at Harvick's retirement. There was this big announcement. I mean, it was emotional. It was cool. And he ends up winning his first race for the Wood Brothers. And I'm thinking, I'm hearing that, you know, Penske was very high on Josh. Blaney and all the guys were saying that he was great as a teammate and a big addition to the operation.

They had this really solid first year. He wins a race at Vegas. qualifies, runs well at a lot of different racetracks. And it looked like that, you know, things are going to be, it looked like it was going to be positive. And I don't know, I do not know what has happened. I really don't. I don't know what's happened.

I haven't, I don't bug Josh too much about it. I don't bother. I think the world of the Wood Brothers, I think the world of them. they're idol I mean I idolize Leonard and them it's a great group yeah but I don't know what it's happened but it's unfortunate because I don't know where this goes for Josh I don't

and the landscape right now is crappy for guys like him there I don't know what opportunities even exist pick a series, truck, a Riley, Cup. Where is there a car or a truck that is looking for a driver? I don't know. It's just a bad time.

RCR could use him and O'Reilly. Well, yeah, I guess. I mean, I don't, I heard, I hear rumblings about different people going there, and I think they've already might have their guys. But, you know, Josh doesn't have a bucket of money. to take anywhere. He might have some partners that he has created relationships with that could that could go with him.

I'm not sure. But, yeah. It's heartbreaking because, man, he's, he has worked his ass off to get to this point. And I think he's proven good enough.

And, but it's frustrating. Because there for a while, they're like, like when he won that Vegas race, they were, they were top 10-ish almost every week there for a while and I was like, dang, I mean,

they've got it turned around here. Yep. So, but yeah, definitely the right pieces are there. Josh is definitely talented enough to win races and do really well. Yeah. I know. I worry how this is going to shake out.

But the, yeah, so that was tough to see. I'm hopeful that, you know, there's still some racing left for Josh and them to do some things this year that will bolster Josh's opportunities. You know, I know it's a long shot, but hopefully there's some races where he can get some results. I think the other thing we should talk about is the points coming out of this race. It's particularly because of Joey's results. Joey was not in the chase a couple weeks ago. there was the predictor had Joey making the chase at 70-some percent is a pretty high number when he was not

I didn't think he had a shot at it really honestly but I didn't think about Northwell Spurl but now he is 15th and he is I don't know 40 some 39 40 some 49 points ahead of the cut line Eric Jones is now in 7 So a couple things happened here. SVG continues to get the results. There's, there's, when I look at the points, the points to me is a fun conversation. The points to me is very interesting. And it makes me, makes me a weekly fan of the sport, which is important. last year I didn't give you about the points.

I didn't care about the points. I just waited until the end of the year to see who the four were, and we crowned a champion at the end of that race. But now I'm invested week after week after week because I can't wait to see what happens each and every week around the points. Ty Gibbs, so there's a couple conversations here. Ryan Blaney has climbed into the top three conversation. At first, it was Denny and Tyler Redick.

We were talking about how Denny and Tyler Redick were going to battle to try to win the regular season. Well, now, Ryan Blaney is in this conversation as well. Didn't think he was going to be there. Thought he was going to do his best just to keep third. But now he's 87 points. Yep, he has. 19 back of Reddick.

That's crazy. That's right. It is. It's wild. That shows you the inconsistencies how much it pays off. DNFs and those hurts. DNFs and the wins, right? If you go out like Joey and have a win, oh, it's huge.

We really, I mean, they did a bunch of simulations of points and how these things would shake out. And Christopher Bell said it best on the pre-race. We all, everyone, everyone in the industry looked at these simulations and said, all right, the champion's going to come out of the top six in the chase. but as we've watched this season kind of play out in real time Chris Rebell says man that door opened up a little wider

it might be eighth you might actually have a shot at it even if you're eighth seventh get off the right time that's right you go out he's like you know we see these 100 point swings in just a ham you know four or five races so if you got a win maybe two wins in the first two races of the chase coming in is maybe the eighth ninth tenth seed you're in it you're in it. You're battling for a championship.

So that's interesting, but Blaney has climbed into this conversation with Hamlin and Reddick. The other thing is, Ty Gibbs has cleared himself comfortably of any kind of a battle with Chase Elliott and Larson in third. Chase Elliott and Larson

has somewhat slipped into an uncomfortable position of fending off a hosovar, a briscoe, who's climbed through the ranks here. last several weeks. Chase has been very good lately. Yep. Busher unfortunately stubbed his toe at Wilkesboro. He was in this battle as well.

He's fell to ninth. And then you got Christopher Bell. So it's 60 points from 5th to 10th. And those positions are all up for grabs right there. And those guys are all, if you're Christopher Bell in 10th, you absolutely have a shot at trying to claw your way to 5th. That's a great conversation. All right. And then we're going to slip back to the bubble.

You have bubble Wallace, who is coming up on indie where he won last year. He's got some good tracks coming up. Yep, he's got some good tracks coming up. You got Bubba Wallace trying to not put himself in a bad situation. Because he's lived at this bubble, the majority of his career. And he's talked about that. He's like, man, I hate living at the bubble. I want to be comfortably ahead of that.

it's much nicer, you know, when you don't have that stress. Right now he's in a pretty decent spot, but he could quickly, he's one bad race. Yeah, he's 69 points ahead of Eric Jones. SVG is sitting there and we're all hoping that he can, you know, put the points together to stay in, which I think, you know, judging off of how he ran this past weekend, he's got a real good shot at it. Yeah, did a great job. Joey's climbed in to take a spot that I don't think that Joey is going to give up. So now that Joey's in the chase, don't think you get that spot back if you're knocked out.

Austin Cendrick in 16th is super vulnerable, right, obviously. That whole conversation there is going to get really heated up as we get closer and closer to the end of the regular season. when you look at, TJ, if you got the points in front of you, when you look at the 17th place driver, Eric Jones, Ryan Priest, Brad Kiselowsky, McDowell, Chastain, I mean, who in this group? I can't, my mind kind of tricks me every now and then because I'll look at, let's look at William Byron through Cindrick,

12th through 16th. And I sit there and I look at them and I go, all right, man, who's going to fall out? Well, it ain't really so much about who might fall out. That's who can come up. Yeah, is there anybody not in the chase right now that you think is good enough to get there? And I'll be honest.

I don't know that I can make a really, really great argument. Maybe, maybe for Eric Jones. Priest should have had a great weekend. I don't know where the speed was in the car. He's a short track badass. and we're at Wilkesboro. He got caught. Yeah.

Well, I mean, it wasn't fast. He was okay. I don't. Didn't that wasn't, wasn't, you know, what I would expect. Brad could put it together. I don't know. But it only takes, you know, it's not, I think Eric Jones is fully capable of being consistent and good enough.

I don't know. I could see SVG having a couple bad races. I could see SVG going to Indy and struggling really bad. and losing a bunch of points and Eric Jones finishing fourth or, you know, heck, even Priest or Brad finished an eighth or ninth, and this gap even gets closer here. Yes. That's, I think all these guys are capable of doing it. It's just going to come down to who can be the most consistent and not lose the big chunks.

You can't afford a big loss right now, in my opinion. We went through a month and a half of losing big chunks, and that's why we went from single digit points to 19th right here. So, but it can be done. Yep. You can't afford pit road incidents. You can't afford speeding penalties. You can't afford just getting caught in somebody else's wreck, which could happen, you know, to any of these guys.

But like you said, I don't, you know, I feel like if it's tough, Joey's going to be tough. But I also, I also know that don't let he was really, he's really good at Wilkesboro. It's probably become one of Joey's better tracks. Yeah. And he's been fast there ever since. we've went there so but we go to indy and i don't know if i see joey a top single digit car there right off the bat yeah you know and yeah you got to really think about the tracks now and what cars what manufacturer runs good or what we were you know the you got penske that runs good

at all the tracks that are under a mile or mile under a mile or shorter right wouldn't you say yeah and we get we get off the industry gets caught up in this thing and who's fast this week and it's different. Like we get, we get baited into these, man, Joey's going to be tough to beat now the rest of the season.

No, he's not. Just the short tracks. Yeah, but I'm saying we get, we get so baited into the, who's fast right now. I mean,

Tyler Redick wasn't going to be, we thought Tyler was going to win every race, and now, yeah. You know what I mean? Now Denny's already called him, past him, and now he's got Blaney all over him.

Yeah. I wouldn't guess that. Well, yeah, I mean, I would have guessed it. I didn't think Plano could catch him. I didn't want to disrespect Tyler Redick,

but a lot of his wins were, I mean, one Atlanta and Daytona. Timed right. Timing, yep, just leading the right lap. He was, Denny has led a lot of laps when he wins races. He is fast and up front.

The 45, just like Joey. Just like Joe is. The 45 won races by execution, perfect execution strategy, all the things and a little bit of luck too. They've also had a lot of bad luck recently

like things that aren't out of their control. They have. But I mean that to me, I don't, they're the kind of team that has that kind of luck sometimes where I don't, you know, Denny, Denny, Denny's,

Denny don't have that kind of. Yeah, he doesn't have the peaks and valleys. It's going to be interesting. I think another driver that's going to get hot is Christopher Bell. I mean, he's kind of hot already. We've been waiting. But, yeah, we have. I think that he's going to start chewing into some of the competition here as we move forward.

He's got the car to do it too. The cast is removed, right? The cast is removed. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think that cast is really slowing him down. much though. It didn't seem like it. No. What do we have coming up? We have Indy off and then

You've got Indy, Iowa, Richmond, New Hampshire, Daytona. Damn. We're out of them off. Yeah. I mean, but if you, yeah, that's some good tracks for us. When we go to, yeah, when we go to Indianapolis, I would expect that a Toyota is going to win that race. Tough to be. Maybe a, yep, maybe a Gibbs Toyota. Be hard to pass. We go to, yeah, I mean, whoever's leading the race. for the last run to the checker is the winner. It's just impossible to pass there.

Iowa was a great opportunity for Penske to have another good solid day. Yeah, I look forward to going back there. I feel like we gave that race away last year. We didn't really get away, but all the cautions. I'll throw RFK in there. And I think you go to Richmond with the same feeling like RFK or Penske. Not that the Toyotas won't be strong, but it's just an opportunity for them to be better.

New Hampshire is sort of similar. I think it's a place where the Toyotas will be minimized. Their advantage will be a little minimized. So three weeks in a row, Iowa, Richmond, and New Hampshire. A Toyota can absolutely win those races, but I'm just saying it's a chance, like at Wilkesboro for a Ligano, a Blaney, or RFK or somebody to fill out the, you know,

if not win, running the top five, top ten. And that was probably the... Let me ask you this real quick. That's probably the most validated win from just ass kicking that, you know, we've seen, honestly from Joey in a while, right? I agree. That was a great, like they, like, you don't normally see cars like that, and they did a great job.

Nailing that. When we go back to a mile and a half, though, I mean, I still feel like they're going to be... Yeah, we're back to... Back to 10th, back to 14th, you know. Well, just, it's going to be hard. What's your concern level with HMS right now with their drivers? I've been with HMS when they sort of get into these ruts or these little phases. What happens, I'm not concerned because what happens is they'll have a competition meeting,

which they'll have one this week. They'll have one every week. Rick is in a lot of those and Jeff Gordon is now in this position as well which I haven't experienced this but I haven't experienced Jeff Gordon

as an part owner sort of that type of personality in the competition meetings but man when they're not doing what they want to be doing those meetings get really serious and Rick

would basically say to everybody in the room, y'all better freaking figure it out. It's a whole other level. Yeah, it's pretty damn serious. And when Rick rarely ever gets stern, but when he does, it gets your attention because you don't see it often

and you know that he means like fix it or else or, you know, there's going to be some consequences. And so what happens is, when everybody hears that they're all tasked with finding solutions they leave the room

they go off to their part of the business and they dial up the freaking everybody finds a little bit yep it's a motor room finds something

and everybody and what happens is is everybody wants to be the one that runs back to Rick with the token what look what I found We got, hey, we, we, we worked hard and we got this.

All right, boss. So, every, the motor shop, they want to go, hey, you said work, we worked, we found three horsepower. We're taking, we're taking some bad ass to the next race, buddy. And, you know, so when everybody's doing that and everybody brings a little bit of something back to the table, you go to the racetrack and you see it. You see the results start, start happening. And every, I don't know, every, if not, once a year, but it might be once a year, but it's every couple of years, Rick, Rick says, all right, guys, y'all better get your ass in gear or start figuring some stuff out.

And they do it like any good company does, you know, they just, they do it. They find, they, everybody needs, you know, you sort of, you work, work, work, work, you show up, you keep doing the same thing every day. And every now and then you need somebody to smack you around a little bit and say, hey, let's try to get a little better. You know, I love what you're producing. I love what you're making. I love what you've got going on.

But let's, let's have we stopped creating. We stopped getting better. We stopped, you know, innovative kind of in a way. Yeah, innovation,

yeah. Was he always in your meetings? Or if not, what was it like when he did show up and you weren't expecting him? Was it just like, oh, no, Rick was in every one of them.

Oh, okay. I mean, that I, it felt like he was. I, you know, It felt like Rick was in every one of them.

And when things weren't good enough, he was the first one to talk. When you go into the competition meeting and Rick talked first, Rick spoke first, you knew talking about last week's race wasn't a fucking important thing on the table that day. Bigger pitcher. Yeah. I don't worry much about Hendrick. They're going to, they've got everybody they need there to, gear it out and a lot of smart people over there they've got great drivers across the board

william byron they do but they're i mean they're underperforming but i mean this is racing's a big circle you can't live on top the entire time i mean there's there's times where you just go through a lull a little bit and then i mean it's just you can't getting on top is hard but staying there's even harder in yeah i don't i don't worry about it everything in the sport cycles and And it just everything, I think everything in life is in rotation. In a way, yeah. But they'll figure it out. And, you know, they might figure it out this year.

It might be next year or whatever. But I think Jeff Gordon, when I think about his personality, I feel like he could be convincing as well. You know, I think if Rick isn't in those meetings as much, I would be, I would probably. imagine that Jeff can carry this similar weight when things need to get better. And he's super involved. He is super involved.

Yeah. Jeff Andrews. Yeah, the great people. Jeff Andrews is very quiet. He's so quiet. Yeah. Yeah, very quiet. But hard to tell when he's happy or mad.

Yeah, it is. But he's a great, great dude though. I wouldn't want to get on Jeff Gordon's bad side if I was working for him. No. I wouldn't want to be on Jeff Andrews' bad side either. I've never seen him mad, but that makes me not want to see him. Yeah. But they'll figure it out.

Yeah, I agree. But I guess, you know, the thing is, is like, can, can, I don't know that Byron is in a position to even worry about championship this year. I think that they just need to get better. Momentum. They need some momentum. But Chase and Larson, they are in a position to think championship. They just need to be careful over the next handful of weeks to not have that. You know, you talked about that one bad race.

They just don't need to have that one bad race. They need to get what they can get while the company is trying to find more speed. Just don't stub your toe. Yeah. And wait. What do you make of the Larson incident this weekend? like, you know, as a driver, you obviously saw it happen on the TV side of things. As a driver, they got, you know, Conner's already turning into a stall before the five releases.

To me, if that car's already turning in and he's three away, you got to wait for that guy, in my opinion. No, I think that's right. I don't think Connor can stop. Connor has to come on into his stall. Yes. So, yeah, yeah, you don't see guys like stopping and waiting for someone to exit. Yeah. You got to hold Larson in his stall.

You got to bite the bullet on that. You do, you do. And I think they know that. You know, one of the things that was interesting is, like, we, they all came down pit road for the first caution, first stage pit stop at the end of stage one. And I was like, I looked at Steve and I said, damn, the pit road is treacherous and busy.

There's a lot going on. It was. Yeah. It was more so than most racetracks because the pit stops are so fast. Some guys were taking just two tires. So some guys were pulling out of their stalls while some of the field was still coming on to pit road. And I was like, damn, Steve, I didn't have this on my notes. Like, I didn't have in my notes like pit road mistakes because I just, you know,

I was thinking so much about everything else about this weekend. and pit road was like a really, really problematic situation if you weren't curf, you know. If you're up front, you pitted near the beginning of pit road and turn three and four. Yeah. You're coming out and there's a lot of cars coming around. It did get easier when some guys got trapped or lap down. Pit road, you know, there's only a handful of cars pitting, but that's part of short track racing. And that's part of the excitement of it.

That's part of qualifying good, getting your good, picking the good pit, who you're around, getting an opening. Yeah, that leads into all that. I recommend it to the fans. Bozzi posted a video and it was Bubba's in car with the audio and the math and the conversations they were having because they were worried about Legano coming out when they were coming in. Oh, yeah. And they're doing the math on what they think he's going to be coming out

and telling Bubba what to do. And just the choreograph that these teams have to do and like engineers doing the numbers on when a pit, a car's going to be leaving pit road was, I thought, fascinating. Yeah, we've all, everyone's got software that predicts where you're going to come back. out. I also saw Bozzi's tweet about the Larson thing, and I think he was saying it was more on Zillich's fault than, I don't know if you saw that. I didn't see that one now. I felt like he was

blaming Zillich more, which I think is completely wrong. Yeah, trying to stop that fast. It's just not going to happen. No, and a lot of times, and you know, you've done this before, if you're waiting, you kind of have, you go down there and work with the other, the crew chiefs work together and be like, hey, if you're close, I got to wait, you know, or hey, if you're running the back, and you know that guy's up front. A lot of times you'll be like, hey, you're up front, we're coming in late, we're going to work on a little bit, we're going to stop and let you go before we pull out here. A lot of times there's prearranged situations that we go through and coordinate like that. But if there's a guy, you know, Zillich has every right to be turning into his stall right there.

You know, this is part of that metric deal thing, though. Like Larson had a bad week in Atlanta. So now he doesn't have a good, you know, but rained out qualifying, didn't get a chance to prove the speed that he could have probably had and do things like that, which is another reason why I don't like that whole system like that. You don't get a chance to dig yourself out. SVG loves the metric when it gets rained out because it benefits. 100%. Yeah. Well, and it helped that the road course is there when it rained a few times too. So, but yeah. Yeah. All right, everybody. Dirty Mo Media is in search for the most legendary NASCAR memorabilia collectors and collections. You want to be our

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head over to shop.dirtymomedia.com for all the latest merch. All right, we got Marcus Smith, joining us here on the Dell Jr. Download, owner of Speedway Motorsports, and more importantly, are pertinent to today's conversation, North Wiltsboro. Marcus, you're coming off your points weekend,

your first points race in 30 years at Wilkesboro. We've been talking about the race. You had a great crowd. I imagine all the metrics were really good in terms of you know, in terms of the business side of your weekend. What would you, you know, when you come out of the weekend, what are some of the things that you loved?

What are some of the things that you saw you need to improve? What can fans expect going forward? Well, you know, I think it's something that we're all proud of, you know. I mean, from the time that everybody talks about when we were out there, weed eating and getting the place cleaned up to, you know, You know, like my brothers and I texting about it over the weekend, just how excited we are as a family business to be able to do something this special. So a lot of things to celebrate.

But, you know, if I had to write the story, I would have had a little passing shower go over the track so that we could get some rain tires. That would have been fun, maybe about a 15, 20 minute. light shower at some point during the third stage. What else? A little bit cooler, you know, so it wasn't so hot. But those are all things out of our control. But I think the delivery for the fans was awesome.

I love the post-race show that you guys did over in turn three was phenomenal. Fans loved it. It was cool to see that, you know, live and on TV. just the, you know, the sunset that we had was phenomenal. All those little details. And traffic was really well managed. I'm sure some people were stuck here or there, but overall we had great traffic management.

Our team just did a good job of caring for our fans. Yeah, I was pretty surprised when we got out of there how easy it was to get down the highway. we stayed, you know, a good hour after the finish. But when we pulled out of there, there was no traffic. It was nothing, no waiting at all. The, what is the future for Wilkesboro? You know, you've got a, you got a dilemma with Dover, All-Star Race, all these different things. What's the plan?

Everybody wants to know. What are we going to do? Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, I always kind of. think about, well, what's good about the way we schedule things this year. And I always, I always like to think about, you know, what if, could we just repeat what we have? Of course, everybody likes to change a little bit. So there's a lot of debate internally and in our, in our discussions with the NASCAR team about what the schedule is going to be. You know, the Easter

weekend always kind of moves and changes the schedule in the spring. So we're working on the schedule for next year and thinking about the years out. But I mean, I think that there's certainly a future for North Wilkesboro. And it's going to be, you know, around NASCAR and cars and who knows what else we can we can do there you think am i am i am i am i going to be broadcasting another race there next year you know i work for tmc and amazon and i'm working in june and july all right yeah so every year so am i going to be broadcasting a race next year at wicksboro i sure hope so oh come on i think uh i don't know the schedule yet but you know got to have you there questions are you going to be racing at north wokesborough next year

Man, I don't know. Come on. Oh, boy. I don't know. Yeah, and a Riley car. It'll be cool. No one's going to be, no one's going to commit to anything today. Marcus or me.

I'll back, I'll back off. What if Marcus commits, if Marcus commits, Dale, you'll commit. I was just going to say, if one commits, if he commits, why don't you commit to drive and a race there? I mean, there you go. Man, I don't know. They're both bagging up. Yeah.

I like the idea of racing in North Wilkesboro in the summer. And if you broadcasts, I think summertime in Wilkesburg is a beautiful time of year. You get to see the mountains. And it seems like a great time to be there. Yeah, I agree. What's next up for you? I know that one of the things that I think about is the Charlotte Oval race coming back in the second half of the year. It's been a really, really great.

a race the next gen does pretty solid on the mile and a halfs and the race at Charlotte's been one of the more entertaining ones. And so you have the Oval Race at Charlotte coming up. What else? What else is on your schedule throughout the rest of this season? Yep, we've got New Hampshire coming up. We've got Bristol. We've got another Vegas race.

I think I'm missing something. But we've got events at Sonoma and, Charlotte with the 10-10s and all sorts of things kind of on the side of NASCAR. We had a busy weekend this weekend. Our teams were busy doing IndyCar in Nashville and NHRA and Sonoma. It's trying to make people have fun. Yeah. Yeah, y'all got a lot more going on than just NASCAR.

I always kind of just assumed that your whole world revolves around the cup schedule and what's going on there, but I forget that it does. It does for the most part. It keeps us busy. But we got an amazing team, thankfully, that can really juggle a lot and make sure people have a good time. When you sail out North Westboro, how many people is that? It's north of 25,000. Did you have more demand than that?

We did. We did. And, you know, that's always a good thing. I think it's a great size crowd because it's very manageable. You know, and the facility is small enough that you can walk around and you're not going to wear yourself out. It's just really nice, easy to walk it and enjoy everything. And the fans own, the souvenirs and at the track, getting to the campgrounds.

It's, and then the traffic in and out. I think we've, the first year we had massive traffic backups. And we went to work on solving that with shuttle systems. And the state helped us with a bridge across 421. Yeah. Yeah, great bridge. That's nice. Yeah.

So do you add more stands? You know, y'all took some stands down when you renovated a racetrack. Do you think there's a consideration would you ever add more back? It's a possibility. We'd have to figure out parking. You know, that's always a balance. You know, adding more stands is, doesn't just stop with a grand. You've got to figure out the parking and the bathrooms and food and beverage and everything.

Is there a formula that you use for adding 10,000 seats? How many, do you know how much parking that? Like, what do you expect? If you add 10,000 seats, what do you expect for parking? Like, what do you add for that? So, you know, if you build a grandstand, you are, when you build a grandstand year over, as far as cost, goes $1,500, $1,500 a seat in construction. And think about how you pay that back and then how you not only build a grandstand and the

concessions and the bathrooms, but then the parking infrastructure. So we don't have a lot of extra room around the North Wilkesboro Speedway property. But the neighbors help with parking and long. on that, yeah. Yeah, their own farm area and whatnot. So, yeah, yeah, if we have consistent increased demand, then I'm sure we would want to figure that out. But, you know, right now I think it's okay that it's that it's a smaller venue, a smaller crowd, and people have a chance to get there Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and really enjoy, you know, great kind of. historical experience. What's the reaction from the neighbors? You know, are they happy that NASCAR's back in the area there? Like, what's, uh, yeah. Because I love it. I see all them people in their house is up there and it like, like, it looks like they're excited. They are. It is an amazing, uh, feeling just to see the, the joy on faces of everybody in Wilkes County. They're, um, they're so happy to have us back. They told us they wanted us, you know, to come back. And, um, and we wouldn't be there if it weren't.

for that community saying we really want you back. So, yeah. So there was an announcement this past weekend of SMI and you personally joining the ownership group in the Cars Tour. There was a lot of speculation on what that meant. And I thought a lot of people had some pretty interesting opinions on what this meant for the Cars Tour. I wanted to give you an opportunity to just, you know, speak to why you thought it was a good opportunity or why it was something that you wanted to do. First off, I mean,

we are friends, me and you and Harvick, we go hunting together. We spend a lot of time, you know, giving each other a hard time and but also talking about what we have going on in our lives professionally and personally and you have been promoting and supporting the Cars Tour through your ZMAX products as a primary sponsor for the series so you've seen

what the tour has been doing so what was the what do you hope that you can gain from joining the group and being a part of this yeah well what were the good uh what was speculation Anything good?

Well, people just assumed that, well, they're going to go race Bristol. You know, they're going to go to Rock. You know, they're going to go to do all these different things. They're going to go to all your racetracks and start racing. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. But.

Well, I think, you know, being able to do things that help the sport of auto racing and NASCAR is, I guess it's just kind of second nature for us because, you know, growing up in the sport and then you look back in what we've done with the Legends cars and Vandaleros for the last 30 years, that's all about growing the kind of the base, the grassroots base. I always call it the backyard football of NASCAR. You can't just go and get a race car out of your garage and go, you know, race it in your backyard like you can, a football or a basketball, baseball. So we've got to provide opportunities for people to get started in racing. And, you know, I think it's a really daunting task to figure out how to get started.

And we're providing an opportunity. And that's Van der Lerros, the Legends cars, and the late model. stock cars, kind of that ladder system to show people like, how do I get started? How can I, there's the two factors. It's one of can I be the next Dale Earnhardt Jr. or Jeff Gordon? Or can I just have this as a hobby? Would this be something that I can enjoy as a fun hobby? And a lot of people know about that.

Obviously, the longtime racers, if you grow up in it, you kind of know people that help you get involved, but we're making it more accessible. Yeah. And I think that's important for the future of the sport. Yeah, I agree. I think when I, when we talked about you coming on board, initially, man, it was really just, hey, buddy, we're doing this fun thing together. Why don't you, why don't you do it with us?

And the identity, that cars tour initially, was our late model stock and our pro class in the east that we just raced with at Wiltsboro. That was what Cars Tour was. But now you have Harvick doing what he's doing on the West Coast. Cars Tour is becoming and trying to become more of a national footprint. And we want to be tiered, to your point, down into the very initial beginnings of someone's racing career, whether it be Bandolero's Legends cars. So the Cars Tour is becoming a bigger entity than just what we ran this past weekend with our late Mall Stock program on the East and the pros as well.

But so that what that is when a lot of people hear Cars Tour, they think about the two classes that we just ran, that's never going to, that's going to be what it is. that's not going to change. We're not going to different racetracks. We're not changing how that operates. You joining us just allows us to have a little larger footprint in the career aspect, right? And so you've done incredible work with Legends cars. They're sold all over the world, bandoleros as well.

And we want people, kids, families, to think, all right, well, well, I've done everything I wanted to do at the Bandolero level, at the Legends car level, what do I do next? And we want them to consider a Cars Tour late model stock or a

pro or, you know, if you're out west racing with Harvich's Cars Tour West programs. And so that's kind of the idea here is Yeah. It also has racetracks. What's that?

It helps racetracks Because, you know, our, if you think about all the short tracks around the country, they need, they need to have people show up. And it's, we call it the front gate and the back gate. Yes. And having a strong participation at the short tracks around the country is super important to keep racing alive at the short tracks around the country. Yeah. So us partnering together, I think helps that. and just gives more reason for all those owners to say,

we're going to stay with this. We're not going to sell our land to a developer. We're going to stick with hosting a racetrack. Yeah, absolutely. Hopefully, the long-term results are more race car drivers trying to get to the truck series, to the Xfinity series, and eventually the Cup series, becoming Cup champions and having their story, be a part of our story

or our story be a part of theirs, you know, the cars, tours, legends, whatever. I love when a guy like Caden Honeycutt Riggs or any of them guys, Josh Berry, I love when they go into the trucks or a rally

or even the Cup Series and win races. Because I can say you know why they win races and why they have such great racecraft is because they were in the Cars Tour. That's where they gained that experience. And so, you know, that's a fun thing to be able, that's a great way to be able to promote our business

and be appealing. And Honeycutt. He is tough. He is. Winning both races and, I mean. Yep. He swept the Cars Tour east, the last two events at Ace and at Wilkesboro.

So pretty. pretty incredible. Yeah, he's fast. Passing out after that first race. He looked rough. He looked. He did. He did.

He did. A good thing you got some I-B fluid to get in charge. That's right, man. Well, I appreciate you becoming part of the team. I love grassroots racing. I know you do, too, and excited about Wilkesboro. I think we had a really great weekend there. I wish I would have loved a little bit more fireworks in the, in the,

last stage, but that's the way it goes sometimes. Next time we have to seed the clouds, get some rain. Oh, gosh. Oh, hell. All right, buddy. I appreciate you coming in. Thank you, Marcus. Yeah, appreciate you guys.

Thank you. All right, everybody. It's time to do some ass. Junior Xfinity is waving the red flag on internet price hikes and raising the green flag for savings. You can get the speed and reliable Wi-Fi that you need locked in at one price for five years. No surprises.

No late yellow. and no stoppage, no downtime. We're on our Xfinity Wi-Fi as we speak. This is the service that I'm using in this house. And I'm very thankful for it. And it's done us a pretty solid job ever since we've become customers. So pretty excited about that. Let's get to some questions here.

It helped me win some whatnot auctions down there. Did it? Yeah, it did. It did. is TJ hooked oh my god it's stupid I'm hooked on what not now like what not everybody always says don't do it

and I think by saying don't do it you're like making people want to do it it like should I tell like real quick I was in one Sunday morning or uh yeah it was Sunday morning before I left for the racetrack and I won this this is bad I was I want a Patrick Mahomes card like oh TJ's idol

like I don't have any I want to want and like the guy that's running a thing like, oh, this guy, oh, that's the NASCAR spotter. And I'm like, how does this guy even know? Because I use my name. And I'm like, and everyone's like, good luck tonight. Dude, I'm like, I just want, of all the cards, they're going to recognize me for buying. It's a bedroom home's card.

I felt so bad. I feel like I disregarded the bills. Do you hear that, Josh? Oh, it's terrible. I'm sorry. I'll sell it. Speaking of football players, fans want to know what was it like meeting Sunny Stiles the other weekend, Dale at the track?

Sunny Stiles is awesome, man. He's buttoned up. He's a star in the making. I think he'll be a pretty awesome player for Washington. And can't wait to see him out. Yeah, he does. Can't wait to see him out on the field. Making plays, man, number 52.

Making plays in style. You forget until you see them just how big football players are. Oh, yeah. Gigantic. Yeah, I mean, I'm pretty excited about the season. I'm just ready to see some football. Let's go to a preseason game, TJ. Yeah, I'm ready to go.

Let's do it. Next question. So Joey Lugano was on DBC and people wanted your reaction to what Joey had to say. So we're just going to let you hear it first. Let's let a rip. A quick vote on what did everyone think

about the two car tango thing that we used to do years ago? Oh, I loved it. Yeah. It was the most, I never got to spot it, but it was the most exciting form of playdressing. I thought it was awesome.

Yeah, I liked it. And I was like 14 years old. And we're in his building right now. is that the clip he's not wrong no um I didn't like it because

if you're the pusher you're running second so yeah I didn't like it either you couldn't yeah it didn't you had to rely on another car

to run good and I don't like that's not the point I wouldn't I'd I'd I think that it was

was exciting, but I believe as if it was allowed to continue, we would have made it very robotic and predictable. Oh, yeah. And, you know, just like they've done with fuel at the speedways, right? I mean, it's, it's so annoying how predictable it is for everybody to go out there and run 60% throttle and nobody's really trying to do anything, just saving fuel. It doesn't matter where you're running. You don't care where you're running.

You don't care. I hate that about racing. And that's, and I don't want to be, I don't want to watch a guy push another guy and not care that he's pushing him to the win. I don't want to watch people do that. And I don't want to be out there doing it. Like Joey loves it if he's the guy getting pushed to the win.

Yeah. But does he love it if he's, you know, constantly the guy that's having to push his teammate to victories? You know, it's weird. I feel like Joey is stronger by himself. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean?

Like you put guys like that, he's harder to be straight up. Yeah. I mean, you know, I'm not out there doing it anymore. So I don't, if they go back to doing it, I don't, yeah. I'm not out there doing it anymore, but I don't think I would want to watch that as a fan or a broadcaster. It wouldn't be, I don't love what I'm watching now at Daytona and Talladega, but hopefully we're making some changes. to improve it. So if we were still doing that,

I feel like going into them races, we would have a game plan of what car we're going to push, who's going to push. It would be so planned out. Yeah, wouldn't be fun. It wouldn't be fun. Yeah, no good to know what's coming.

We would, everyone, like, it was fun. It was kind of different the first few times because you didn't really know who you were going to line up with and you could switch radios and talk to that driver. And it was kind of weird, but fun and goofy at the same time. But like right now, we would have everything so planned out.

We would have everything so planned out to run the most efficient, smartest, fuel-saving, fast when we need to race, it probably would not be fun. You know what would be interesting, though, is they don't let you put tape on the grill anymore. But...

So in in eye racing, there was a Daytona 500. And if you, these two guys had figured out they were going to tandem. And the one guy was going to push the entire race and the other guy was going to lead. And so the lead guy taped up the grill. Because he was never going to be in traffic. He was always going to be out front, and they tandemed the entire race and kicked our ass. Because he had that extra tape.

Nobody thought, man, I'll just add a little tape. I'll always lead. You run behind me. You always push. That's commitment. You always push, and I'll be the leader. I can run more tape. We'll go even faster.

No one will do that. No one else in the race will think to do that. They're going to swap. One's going to lead. I'll lead some. You lead some, whatever. But they'll always be slower because they're not as taped up as the lead car. So, you know, once you start science and shit out like that,

it's just going to get really predictable if it were allowed to continue, I believe. Yes. Yeah. Next much of people just want to know, what was your reaction to Chase and Noah last week, filling in? I thought it was awesome. I hope they had a lot of fun. And I'm looking forward to, you know, McMurray's going to do it next week. who else should do it.

I'm not looking to quit hosting the show, but it's just fun every now and then to see somebody else's perspective or approach to the show's approach to the show. Yeah, right, exactly. You get to see the personalities the guys you might not see in a different setting.

That's right, yeah. Which is kind of cool because Noah, obviously, everyone knows Noah's personality. People are getting to learn Chase a little bit now. But Chase was a different, like you see, Noah brings a little more out personality out of him. He does.

Yeah. I like it. Yeah. No, it's good. It's a good combo. They were fun to work with. It was. Next question.

People would know, when are you adding the poop mobile to the graveyard? They saw you and Alfredo tweeting about his car. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know when it gets put in there. But I'm hoping, you know, Sunny, so this is what happens. Sunny gets the car. Sonny puts it in there and doesn't tell me where he put it. You got to find it.

So I can go find it. Yeah. It's like 80 or so acres. Full leaf. It's 80 acres of forest with trails through it. There's no, it's all woods. Yeah. And so he's, and there's trails.

There's eight miles of trails. I mean, it's a lot of trails back there. Have you ever been down a trail? Have I been to the graveyard? Have you been out there at all? Yeah. So when we did our summer Olympics, we had to run through the graveyard to find some things. That was very, that was my first time ever out there was competing and running.

Yeah. That was interesting. The graveyard has got a little bit of everything, too. Like, you've seen some Indy car parts, like wedge in a tree at some point. Yeah. There's all kinds of all forms of motorsport. Maybe we can get that sprint car that broke from El Dora with the push truck. Did you see that?

I did it. Did you see that? Uh-uh. Push truck climbed over the back, like the left rear tire of the car who was pushing off in it, snapped the chassis, and the guy was done for it. It was Cole Macito. Oh, I saw the chassis broke. Yeah.

Maybe we didn't get that for the graveyard. What's the most recent thing you've added to the graveyard? I can't remember. I mean, it's been slowing down a little bit because the next-gen car. Nobody wants to put a next-gen in there. Yeah. Yeah, it's just going to not be as cool. Last question.

You can't get like a, like, they won't be. The next-gen cars. I heard you won't let them in the gate. What? The next-gen car. I would. but it but they don't they comes with it's just like there's you got what are you going to get a center section i know it's not the same like you just don't get the whole wrecked car they have a bolt on they

bolt on rear clip bolt on front foot the car the body they when you get a car that's destroyed it's just going to be the center section you're going to know what you're looking at most of them tell a story that you can look at the car from the crash because the sheet metal's still on it yeah body like you you see brad's fontana car that he crashed at one time and it has a story there and you know there's I don't know. I feel like a lot of them have stories behind them. I don't think we'll ever get an X-JAN in there. Not a whole one.

Next question, people will know how was the whiskey on the set after the race? It seemed like you were the only one actually drinking it. Jamie gave something away. I pretended to drink it. Oh, you didn't? It looked like you did. I had to drive a home. Wow.

Yeah. That's kind of, I mean, I get being safe at this point. At least I'm admitting it. I had to drive home. and I don't like moonshine. And so, I mean, I literally walked off the set, got in my truck and was on the highway in five minutes. So I was like pretending to drink it.

But you didn't, I thought, didn't you also? So you pretended the whiskey also? I mean, I tasted it, but like I didn't, I didn't drink it. Yeah. Jimmy was, Jimmy was drinking it because he was staying at the track. So Jimmy drank his. I told him, I was like, you must. be spending a night.

He's like, oh, yeah. Jimmy Jam was starting to come out. Jimmy Jam. They were chanting. They were chanting Jimmy Jam. Oh, my gosh. Seriously? Yes.

That's awesome. And you know what? He looks at me and goes, this is your fault. And I'm like, I got the idea of Jimmy Jam from you. Yeah. You're the one that told me about Jimmy Jam. Also, he should be thinking you. He acts like I made, Jimmy acts like I made this up.

no he told me about jimmy jane like 20 years or 10 years ago oh it's probably 20 yeah yeah yeah it's probably 20 years yeah yeah i love i think i love the post race show more than the pre race because the just the fans right there and everyone's kind of you know yeah i love that they're getting into it i love the fans get into the post race show yeah and they want to go there like you got to give a shout out to TNT, man. They really improved over last year. Oh, yeah. Well, they improved everything. Everything's gotten better. I think our race broadcasts are better. Our

pre and post is way better. The set's badass. It's, I mean, we hated being in that booth to start the pre because of the lightning hold. We couldn't be out on our set. But it still was good. And, you know, they don't have to bring that rain set

there. They don't have to spend that money, but they do. They don't have to spend a big, you know, a big budget on this set that we used in post, but they do. They want to make it good. And so I know we caught a lot of hell last year with TNT, you know, when compared to other broadcasts. And they stepped up to the plate this year. Yeah, they had. It's awesome. That's stage deals nice. Kudos to you guys also, after Atlanta, like, easily could have been like, it's late. We're packing up and doing the post show and nobody would have cared or, you know, but you guys went and did the post show, which I thought was, you know, awesome.

Well, we don't get many reps, you know. We only get the five weeks. So I think if it was 20 races and you're at race 15, yeah, we probably cut it a short, cut a little shorter. But we get five weeks and we're all so excited to be there and to be working. Like this weekend will be emotional. I know it's, you know, people don't get that. or won't understand that, but not for Steve, he continues, right? He goes into the USA and continues to work, and Adam will do CW,

but there's a lot of us that won't work anymore after this weekend. T&T, a lot of the folks with our director-producer stuff, they'll go on to other projects or other jobs. They've got other sports and events they do. But it'll be a little bit of emotional because this group won't be together going forward. Yeah. Yeah, well, I think that's a good spot to stop As Junior this week.

All right, y'all. Thanks a lot for tuning in. Thank you, Xfinity, for waving the red flag on internet price hikes and raising the green flag for savings. You get the speed and reliable Wi-Fi that you need locked in at one price for five years. No surprises, no late yellows, straight to Victory Lane.

I'm on my Xfinity Wi-Fi right now. That's the service I have in this house, and it kicks ass, as you can tell. Thank you, Exfinity. Lace your bet. Ladies and gentlemen, place your bets. All right, everybody, it's time for some dirty-modo here. This segment is brought to you by Fan Duel,

and Russell is in the building. How you doing, Russell? Good, buddy. How are you? Man, pretty solid. We're headed to Indy for the brickyard this weekend. The lines are not out yet, but I think we know who some of the favorites might be.

What's the, yeah? Oh, yeah, I could tell it. What's your predictor got for us, Russell? I'm a Denny bro, Denny bro this week. I do it. I was going to say. Is it going to be? Denny at the top.

But I like Larson and Blaney and Reddick as well. Oh, wow. Larson and Blaney going on. What do you want? Bubba's next. It's funny that the lines just came out and it's what Russ has. I think Russ and the lines come up. I must Travis pay you to say that every week.

So I wait to put the lines out until we start taping this. Just see you where I figured. I think Travis pays you every week. so how clear how far out is denny he's not that far out but you know this oh never mind he's really far out he's like 20 points out sorry yeah he's really far out oh man so what are the lines trabb is like three to one

denny's 450 reddick 550 blaney 700 larcen 700 byron 900 No briscoe or bell? Bell and Briscoe are plus a thousand. Did you say Bubba? Bubba is $1,500. That's the best one. You like that bet? I do like that bet.

Bubba, you could get a top 10 at minus 120. Yep. Finish top 10 in the last four brickyards. Yeah. I do like that. Here we go. Now we're talking. All right.

So I'm going to do a top 10 parlay. How many drivers are we putting in it? let's do two all right Bubba's one who's the other tell me Russell can we put Larson in

yeah are these long shots or we like trying to win some money now let's just win some money we're just winning money Larson and Bubba Wallace yeah

that's plus 144 right there I love it to me Redick to me Redick all right hard to beat that guy there 218 now I'd stop there

stop there Yeah. Can we do a long shot one? I love Todd Gilwin as a long shot. Dang. Todd had a good run this last weekend, by the way. I think we didn't mention earlier, but I thought Todd had a really good run, didn't he? Yeah, well, he's finished sixth in both Brickhundred, brick yard 400 stars. That's his best track then. Todd by himself for top 10. Plus 800.

I wonder if anybody had Gillen as their winner for the bracket. Too. I don't even think Todd's wife has I actually think Riley Take Riley Eric Jones and Todd Gillen for the crazy throw I ain't even doing that Yeah but I'd do them separate by themselves

Yeah separate A dollar would win you 120 Yeah because Riley's one there in the O'Reilly series You know 2311's really good at Indy Riley's actually Been pretty solid All right, so we'll do a Gilling top 10 bet by himself.

We'll do a rally by himself. Who was the other? Oh, Eric Jones? Yeah. I probably won't do that one, but... He hasn't been great at Indy. Nothing against Eric. Nothing against Eric.

I just had speed lately. I just, it's not nothing against Eric. It's just I like the other two or a little more juicy for the excitement you get from trying to make the bet. I've just seen Eric. I've seen he's had he's had a little more lately than what you know before and I've I mean I've seen it. Oh he absolutely do it. I just I just probably wouldn't worry about it. And our parlay is going to be it was Bubba and Larson and Reddick. Yeah. That's too many. Let's pick one between Larson and Reddick. Pick one. Just one of the other. I go with Reddick. I go with Reddick. All right redick. The 2311 top 10.

2311 top 10 parley go Jordan Michael Jordan We think about these other matchups that are featured this week What are the matchups? Bubba versus Bell

Oh Christopher Bell I think I take Christopher Bell here I just feel like he's on I'm going to Bell Bell's heating up Yeah I just got a feeling

He's got an edge to me on that What do you think What's the predictor say? My predictor says Bell I'd go with Bell too Joe Legano versus Chase Briscoe I'm going to take Briscoe I think Briscoe I think Briscoe could have a really

solid weekend I think he could be a I think Briscoe could be a real threat this weekend to win All right the last one this is a tough one actually Brad Kislauski versus Carson Hosevar Hosevar all day. All right. You hear that, T.J?

That's fine. I love proving the predictor wrong. Hosevar has been good here. You had to said that last week, too. Yeah. You would have. I get lost. I think we'll see.

Yeah, I think we'll see. All right, man. Appreciate you coming in, Russell. Hey, if you have, if you want to win a little bit of money, I think we've got some pretty good bets for you this weekend. Don't you guys? I think so. Yeah.

I think so. I like them. Mine is Russell's last one, but I mean. The Dirty Modo's segments brought to you by Fan Duel, the premier gaming destination in the United States. All right, everybody, thanks for tuning in. Next week on the show, it's going to be Jamie McMurray hosting with T.J. majors.

TJ, you look forward to that? Yeah, man. I think Jamie's awesome. I'm really forward to it. Yeah, Jamie is too. So thanks for joining us here in the Arby's studio. Don't forget about Arby's new meat in three box. You get more meal for your money at Arby's.

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