The Dale Jr. Download - Old School Bristol, Smoke & Rico’s Team Up, & Sugar Britches

Episode Date: September 19, 2025

The Dirty 30 brings you the best 30 minutes from Dirty Mo Media every Friday — the funniest, wildest, and most jaw-dropping highlights from your favorite shows. This week, Dale Jr. and TJ Majors discuss the chaotic Bristol race, where Dale talks about the tire wear and how it compares to the Bristol of old. Dale welcomes in NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart and Sprint Car driver Rico Abreu to announce Rico's addition to Tony Stewart Racing's Sprint Car program. Plus, Tony details his life in NHRA with his wife and son on the road with him.Finally, Dale and Amy Earnhardt cut it up in an entertaining game of Family Feud on this week's Bless Your Hardt.  And 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 stuff.FanDuel: Must be 21+ and present in select states (for Kansas, in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino) or 18+ and present in D.C. First online real money wager only. $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets which expire 7 days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut, or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit GamblingHelpLineMA.org or call [phone] for 24/7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPENY in New York. 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.

Hey everybody, I'm Dellen Hart Jr. And this is the Dirty 30. The best highlights from all of our podcast this week, 30 minutes every single Friday, the Dirty 30 coming at you. Let's get right to it. There's been this really long, you know, sort of debate conversation around Bristol and how to, you know, man, I miss this Bristol. I miss that Bristol. And this is what I want out of Bristol. And this is what I wish Bristol was like.

And it seems like that this. This weekend, we kind of got as close as we've been in a long time to the traditional idea of Bristol and the product that Bristol had delivered at its peak. And that's not a nostalgia quote. That's, you know, this isn't about nostalgia. Basically, you know, back in a certain time frame, the ticket for Bristol was by far the hottest ticket on the, on the sun. circuit and you had it was it was it was almost difficult to get an opportunity to get that ticket there was a waiting list and all of that stuff so uh you know it's changed quite a bit since then it's no longer selling out and they've had to uh you know and it's no secret or everybody

listening to this show ought to probably know most of the history of how the track changed it was asphalt for years. Tracks actually been configured multiple times when they first built Bristol back in the, I think the early, or late 60s. It was much flatter. And you can see some old races on YouTube or maybe on NASCAR's website where Bristol used to be quite a bit flatter. And they eventually, I mean, after only about three or four years, they came in and then built the track, the banking up, because cars were running all over the racetrack. You had guys running on the apron, like there was 30 foot of apron before you got to the bank. Use it, huh?

Part of the race. Yeah, guys were everywhere all over the place. It was just the strangest looking track. And after several years, they did the same thing at Rockingham. When they first built Rockingham, it was flat. And this was all right around the same time frame. uniquely or coincidentally when they built Bristol and Rockingham they built them within years of each other and they built them both flat and then within four or five years they reconfigured them

to have more banking both the same tray. So they reconfigured it then. Then we had this asphalt version that was highly popular and, um, We went into around the mid-90s they had resurfaced the racetrack. And I will say that that version, that concrete version, the initial concrete version of Bristol, was still very similar, and the racing looked quite similar to what we saw with the asphalt racetrack. You can go back, though, and look at some of the asphalt races at Bristol, and man, they ran way up the track.

The groove would move around in the corners. It wasn't all on the bottom. What made the groove move around in that time? Was it the tire? I mean, who knows? I mean, I would be guessing if I was trying to tell you what made the groove move around back then because I thought I knew a lot about, I thought I knew a lot about things till this past a couple. The last couple weeks, a month or so.

So, anyway, it's like, you know, I want to say that a lot of people talk about Bristol is the best, you know, Bristol is a bottom groove, beating bang. Well, back when it was asphalt, they ran. all over the corner. There was races where they'd run the top of one and two or the bottom of one and two depending on the temperature, the day, the tire, whatever, right? So, I mean, they moved all over this racetrack. When they concreted it the first time, that's when it truly became a bottom-only racetrack. There was no second or third groove ever at those races with the first rendition of concrete. And there was this funky little sort of dip off a turn two where you kind of had to hook

the old concrete or the old asphalt apron. Yes. And it was so much fun. And you had to really, you had to hit this little spot every time. And there was, you know,

it was a fun little racetrack. And I don't, you know, I'd have to, you know, to go back and relive all of that. But for some reason, you know,

they wanted to reconfigure it again. And they put the varial banking in there. And that's what we have today. And, you know, I've always, I have, about them, you know, man, they should pave it with asphalt.

I truly would do it if I had all the money to, if I could afford to pay for them to pave it asphalt, I would do it. If you could just snap your fingers and have it. But honestly, you know, the variable banking has kind of went through these good and bad times. I've had, there's, I remember one of the first races that we ran on the variable banking, version of Bristol we have today. We were in the COT, middle way through the race.

I ended up running fifth in this race, but middle way through the race. Casey Cain's leading. Edwards, Carl Edwards is second, and I'm third. And we're all within 10 car lengths of each other or closer, battling for the lead. And everyone was running on a different part of the racetrack. And I was thinking,

in that moment. I'll never forget it. I thought in that moment, I was like, this is badass. Like, I didn't think that is. How does it get any better? Yeah.

Like, everybody's, he's on the bottom, he's in the middle, I'm on the top, we're all racing the shit out of each other. I mean, I don't know what else, what more you could want.

Yeah. This is pretty cool. And what ended up, uh, what ended up happening though is as we, you know, that's what happens anytime we like introduce something completely new. It looks amazing the very first time we try it, whether it's a car, a track, or what have you,

because it's, no one knows how to work it, how to use it. Where's the advantages? Well, we all learned eventually how to run the top of this racetrack, and that's where the steepest banking was. And so that's where a lot of the racing started to go. And it was impossible to pass. Everybody would go run the top, and boy, you try to go to the inside of somebody, and you couldn't you get trained by all the people on the outside line couldn't run fast enough down there so

bruton ground the top groove to try to make it where it was unusable well that made it actually better the rubber would stick to it even better and we ran the top even more and and and so i remember all these little moments where they were trying to figure out a way to get us to the bottom of the racetrack and eventually they found the pj1 and i got in marcus's ear and i told marcus I said, all right, everybody wants this particular type of Bristol, right? And if you want to know how to get it, I'll tell you. And so I told him, I said, go back and watch the 2004 race at Bristol. That's the one that I was fortunate enough to win.

And there's four, anywhere around that time frame, 02, 0, 04, 05. And if you look at a, if you just look at still images of cars in the corners, at Bristol and there's something you'll recognize. So you still had the asphalt apron and they sealed it. They would seal, they would put sealer down on that apron

and it looked, they looked good, you know, they paint their logos and shit all over it. And the actual line, there's always this yellow or white painted line on the bottom of these racetracks to separate and differentiate the apron from the, the racetrack. Well, the line at Bristol is actually around 2004,

was painted on top of the banking of the racetrack, almost a foot up from the real true seam between the concrete and asphalt. And they would seal all the way up to that line. So what you had was about a foot of sealer, asphalt sealer on top of this concrete for the left front tire. And man, if you were smart enough to be patient enough to connect the left front tire to that sealer the entire corner, there was a ton of grip and a ton of turn there. And so when your car is great, that's what you try to do.

And I told them, I said, man, they were putting that PJ1 the entire bottom width of the car, like a full car length of PJ1. It's too much. I was like, all you need is to really like saturate the bottom foot and a half, two foot, three foot of the corners with this PJ1. All you need is for the guy on the bottom groove to be able to use it and get his left side tires in it. And so that's what they started doing. They narrowed up this, you know, this application of PJ1 so that you can only get the left side tires in it. So you would have to be so perfect to be able to put the tire in it. It was hard to run that one.

And if you missed it, right, you saw what happened to guys that came out of it. Oh, man. They checked up. You got your ass right over. Yeah. And so make that even more narrow. And you have that opportunity for guys to miss it even more so. You have even more passers and action.

More passengers, more checking up, bumping and banging. Anyhow. That's kind of where we are. We're almost all the way back. It's probably as close as we're ever going to be to the Bristol that a lot of people love. All three races. four races were actually pretty good. The truck race actually moved up.

You had guys that could run the top, guys that could run the bottom. That's such a great point, T.J. If you, no matter what version of Bristol you love, you got that version in one of the three events. So all series got what you wanted. No matter what version of Bristol you like, I think you got it. We have two guests coming on the show. Rico Abreu and Tony Stewart are going to come in here and talk about some announcement that have. I bet you can imagine what this may entail. So Rico is going to join Tony Stewart Racing.

Yep. And you, so Rico drives, you drive for your family team, right, in high limit. Very successful. You're leading the points, winning races. Tony, you've had a winged car for your entire life. You've owned a team with Donnie, been very successful. You decided to make a change. And so I want to know, this is pretty incredible. news. I think it's going to energize a lot of people. You got a massive fan base. High Limits got a great thing going. This guy's Tony Stewart, right? Putting all that together is a win for everybody. So Rico, what does all this mean physically for your team, his team? How does all this happen? You know, I just, it's a mega opportunity for me to race for a top tier team. That's a championship molded team. I felt like probably over the last decade, I've invested my entire life into

sprint car racing. I got the opportunity to race some stock car stuff in 15 and 16 and just realized that it takes an army of people to get a driver to the next level in this industry. And I started to really understand the process of the sport and where you need to be to be in position to be a successful race car driver. And I kept pushing back to sprint car racing and how much I love sprint car racing and the people and the control I had with, you know, the three employees that I have working on my car, no matter what year it was. And just the parts and pieces of how you dissect a sprint car team to be, operate at a professional level. And thinking about all this TSR stuff over the last few years and just my relationship with Tony. I think it's, you know, I felt like it was very

fitting for me to have a conversation with Tony about it and just see if there was potential thought there. And I thought that the way, originally, when I sat down and approaches to them, it got kind of complicated on how we would, you know, blend partnerships and everybody, you know, was continued to stay invested into the programs. And then I just thought, I kept thinking about it kept thinking about it. And then I called Tony one day and I just said like, why don't we just simplify this and we, you know, we just bring, figure out how to get me over to your race team to continue to have it operate at a high level. And it's always operated at a high level, but to get the infrastructure to where, you know, I feel I could bring that positive energy

into an establishment that was exciting. And I was ready to take. take that next step in my career. And I just feel that, you know, to align myself with a brand as big as Tony Stewart's is quite amazing for me to have that chance to just allow our partners to to be a part of that. I think that when you look at this thing, it's, you know, I've built these partners, these amazing partnerships with Ricoabrew Racing. And now they're going to get the opportunity to come be a part of Tony Stewart Racing and the partnerships Tony Stewart's has built is going to get the opportunity to be a part of Ricoabrew. What did you know and think about drag racing?

Did you ever think you would ever find yourself this? Absolutely not. I was a casual fan. I enjoyed watching it on TV if it was on, but I didn't search for it and didn't plan my day around watching a broadcast of it or go to the races. I mean, I had the opportunity when we started Stuart Haas Racing through the U.S. Army, who sponsored Ryan Newman with our program, got invited to go to the U.S. Nationals and hang out with Don Schumacher and Tony Schumacher, who were sponsored by the Army as well. So that was the first time I really got to be around it and, you know, got invited to the U.S. Nationals. Well, that's our Daytona 500. So as much as they're inviting you to come in the trailers and look at all the stuff, I'm just wanting to be outside. I'm like, this is your biggest race of the year. I don't want to be in a distraction. So I'm standing out. But at the same time, like, man, this is crazy looking from the outside looking in. And then years later, meet Leah, and especially during COVID and get the opportunity.

Thanks to Don again, Don invites me to be with Leah at the races and had permission to be around the team where during COVID, if you didn't work on those cars, you weren't allowed to be in the pit area. So I got a really neat opportunity from Don Schumacher to do that and really started seeing it from the inside out. And that really sparked the fire. But to get a chance to do it with someone you love and care about and is your life partner. Right. And to get to see her passion. and drive and it's a saint. I tell everybody she is me 17 years earlier.

Right. With a lot of aspects of it. But to see how excited she is and then it just, that draws you into it even deeper. But to get to go to the racetrack each weekend, get to do it with my wife, to now have our son there. And because of what our schedule looks like at the racetrack, our hospitality is in between our two race teams with Matt Hagen's funny car team and our top field team. He's 30 feet away from me. me at all times. All times. I can go running that trailer anytime, hug him, kiss him all I want,

play with him when I have time. And that's something we didn't have that luxury of doing. I mean, when it was, when we had an hour of practice, we were solid hour of practice. We weren't getting away from that. So it's variables like that in the equation that are so unique in this situation that is, that passion's never went away. I mean, I even think about not only going to the sprint car races, my dad's 87 years old now. We race three quarter midgets together. And so, getting to race with my dad occasionally. That's something that I haven't had the opportunity to do before. And I think once you're a racer, you're just always a racer. I mean, that's, and I'm sure there's going to be that day that something's going to change in the equation. And I'm going to go, you know what?

I don't know that I want to take this risk anymore. I mean, our crash the other day happened at 240 miles an hour. You know, and I never thought about that. You just don't see a lot of crashes in NHRA. But even when that happened, all I cared about was, all right, well, what do we got to do to get ready for next? weekend which is Charlotte coming up and so the great thing is we had a backup car we got we had the opportunity to test with Leo on Monday she got to make the hits in the car I'm banged up a little bit and doctor's orders did not get in the car so have my wife get in my car and shake the backup car down that's pretty cool deal for me so I think there's just variables that are just way different than what a normal what we would call traditional racing family you know one of

one person's driving the race car or the family supporting him. We are just truly a racing family like what you grew up in. She's going to get back behind the wheel next year. Yep. And so what I heard is that she's, you borrowed her seat while she wanted to become a mother and that you're stepping back out of the way, getting out of her way to get back in her ride. What does that mean for you? Yeah, I think it's, I think it's an element of my life where you kind of realize, and to a lot of people, they won't realize that you've known me long enough to know it's one more step in the growing up process. This wasn't about me. You know, me driving her car was about her and her decision for us to start a family together. And,

and she got to dictate the timing of it and all that because I felt like that was really important. You know, she's giving up what she loves to do the most of driving that race car. But somebody had to drive it in the meantime. So because of the time and the alcohol draxter that I drove the year before, I felt like that was a logical step. But ultimately, it was still her. decision, her and the crew chief made the call of two of us that were on on the card of who to pick. And I told him, I said, pick who you think is going to give us the best opportunity to have the best results at the end of the day. And so to be able to step in and fill in for her, I feel pride in that as her husband,

but love the opportunity as a race car driver to go to another form of motorsports, get in another type of race car that people are going to say, ah, he's not going to figure the sound, he's going to get his ass kicked, and be able to sit there and perform. and get up to speed and win a couple races and now we're in contention for a world championship and won a regular season championship. So that's what I take pride in as a driver. But at the end of the day, it was bittersweet when we had to do her announcement. And it's like there were a couple small moments where I had to bite my tongue, you know,

because I'm like, I really don't want to get out of this race car. But I do because I'm doing it for the person I love and I know how much she loves being in it. And it was the first time that I actually stepped back and said, I can't believe I'm actually doing this. I can't believe I'm okay with. I went on the race team and just getting out of the car. But it was the plan all along. And I have this very sneaking suspicion. I'll find something to do to where I can still be involved myself at the same time.

Do you know what that is? I do. I do. And this week we'll all know what it is. But yeah, let's just say it's next year's going to be a lot of fun. Oh, man. I, you know, if racing with Rico is not fun enough, it's, you know, this just encompasses all of it. And the season we're going to have next year and the things that I'm going to get to do and to have Rico in our shop.

I mean, literally, our funny car team, our top fuel team and Rico's sprint car team, we're all in the same building. Are you far from being done competing? I don't see an end any time in your future. That's good enough for me. We've had a lot of our friends that have sat there and said, you know, when's enough going to be enough? And I'm like, I don't know, but my brain doesn't say that this is it yet.

So we're going to play a game called Family Feud. It's just like Family Feud, too. Oh, yeah. I've got a bunch of questions surveyed from the online audience. And you guys are going to try to answer these as a team together. Are we ready?

I'm ready. You guys are a team. So you guys are trying to find, for this first question, the top seven answers on the board. Holy crap. What'd you just say? Top seven answers, just like family feud.

Just like family feud. Name something in a bakery that a baker might call his wife. That a baker might call his wife? Yes. Honey bun? Number one answer. Number one answer, honey bun. Number one answer.

Are you going to guess? Biscuit. Does he call her a biscuit? Oh, man. I mean. Cupcake. Topcake. Number four answer. Ooh.

Sweet cakes. Sweetie. I'll give you sweetie. Sweetie. Oh, I get sweetie. You got a sweetcakes. Don't give him points just for playing. How about this close enough?

Sugar bridges. Sugar bridges. Do they sell that at a bakery? That's what I like to call Amy. I mean, this is stretched. I need Amy to giggle. Yeah. Sugar is a number six answer, so I'll give it to you.

I go right to sugar bridges. He goes deep for sugar britches. I don't know why that's as funny. Everybody in here's smiling now. Look at that. The power of sugar bridges. Never heard of that. You've got three answers left.

Three answers left. How about, um, do they, do we call her cookie? Oh, wow. Two strikes. That was a good one. Junebug can steal. I don't have a clue. How about sweetie pie?

Sweetie, he already said sweetie, so we'll give you a, all right. I'm trying to think of the bakery items, visualizing. You have the number two answer, five answer, and seven answer. What's that? You have the number two answer, five answer, and seven answer left. Two, five and seven. Yeah. What is the second one?

Cinnamon roll? Cinnamon something? No, no. You start calling me cinnamon. All right. I'm just trying to think of things that are in there. How about cream puff? Cream puff?

All right. We have efficiently reached we don't know. That's a no. Just tell us. All right. Number two answer was his oven. What? Yeah. Stop.

Who says that? No one says that. It's bull-ass. There's no way the number two answer. Is that what you're calling you new girlfriend? Hey, oven. No, no, definitely not. Like bun in the oven?

No, definitely not. No, I was just saying in general. He said it's number two. Number two. Number five is muffin. Oh, muffin. Number seven was donut, which I don't know. You're not calling a girlfriend of donut.

Or are your wife for that. All right. question. Top eight answers on the board. Wide range here. Name a place where if her husband took her there for her anniversary, a wife would be mad. Race track. Is it on there? Well, sporting event. I'll give it to you. Number three. Okay. We're going that broad. Yep. His mom's house. Number six answer. Yes. On anniversary trip, don't take me here. The hospital. The hospital is not on there. Not on there. No, maybe you need some tuning up.

That's actually a good answer now. What about a cruise? That should be mad? I don't know. That's just me. That's the same is. No. Maybe it would be disappointed.

That's not on me. Don't take me on a big old vote. Let's see, wow, but this is hard. There's a big one on here. That's the number two answer. I think you guys could get. Concert? Concert?

Not on there, actually. Where are we? I mean, that's a lot of options, too, to be mad at. You have six more if you want me to tell you some of these. Let me give one more good guess. Where are you, where is somebody taking me that I'm mad about on my anniversary? That would be, besides my mother-in-laws. Right.

As an option. I think that's the point. Like, what would you like to do that you, your wife would probably... Well, he said... A video game? A video game contest? No. An arcade?

No. Chuckie cheese. Kind of. Number one answer is a tacky themed restaurant. There you go. Chuckie cheese. Yeah. I think you got to give that to me.

There you go. You got one. You want me to tell you the rest? Yeah. Number two answer was strip club. Oh, I mean, duh. Duh. Bar and club, which I disagree with, number four.

Yeah, that's. That's what you end up doing. Yeah. Number five was Bowling Alley. Seven was the movies and eight was a car show. Oh, car show. Yeah. All right.

You guys want to do one more? Yeah. All right. Let's do top six answers on the board. Give me another word people say for rear end. Bottom. Ass. Bottom is correct.

Number five answer. Ass is not on there, but there's a... Arse. That is a correct. Number two answer. Bum. Bum is not on there. Donka don't.

Donk. Donk. Donk. Donk. Donk. Donk. No donkey. No donkey.

I think there's a... Boodie. Trunk. Not booty, not trunk. Not trunk. What about caboose? No, caboose is not on there. Boote.

Boutte is not on there. These are a little bit more... These are the answers. These are the answers. It's a little bit more mainstream, I think. You mean for the use? We need to go into our. I think you got to go back a little bit.

Oh, back. Yeah. Oh. I actually think you guys are too hip for this. Two hip for this. Yeah. Two hip for this one. Where did you ask this question?

This is just straight online. Caboose would have been number one answer. That was great. Buns? Buns not on there either. What the heck? Oh, wait. You're missing a huge one.

That's just very simple. Straightforward. Almost scientific. But. But. Yes. Oh, I thought that was what we started with. Rear end.

Oh, but, oh, rear end. But, arse. Bottom. Bottom. Backside. Backside. Number three answer. Oh, I got one.

Heaney. Hiney. Number six answer. One more. Now you're cooking. Our heritage. Got your grandma brain on. I'm gray and even more just talking about this.

So there's one more? One more. Yeah. Number four answers. Tush. Not Tush. No. That's a good one.

We could have made our own top. We should. Yeah. What is it? Derry Air. No. Dairy air. We would have not got that one.

I declare. That was, yeah, that one, we should have got that one. Let's do number five. You wanted to number five? Okay. This was pretty fun. This is dicey. These are unlimited, too.

All right. Six answers on the board. Name something that grows faster than you want it to. Nose hairs. All right. I'll give you it. Number one, hair, unibrow. Yeah.

Oh, hair unibrow. I was going to say ear hairs also. I think that all kind of. Compsies. Weeds. Weeds. Yep. Number two answer.

Your kids. Yeah. Just say children. Number three answer. Oh, we're just going down a list now. Goes faster. Now we're getting to the answer. Yeah.

Now we're getting. No nails. Finger nails. Finger nails. Number five. No strikes. We found Tim. I'm scared to say anything.

We found Tim. You guys. Yeah. Game show host. No wammies. No wham. Shazam. Oh, man.

Something else grows faster than you want it to. Grass? The grass. Well, you said lawn and weeds. Oh, okay. Yeah. Hmm. Come on, Dale.

We're on a no strike zone. I know, but I feel pretty good. I'm confident. He wants to pass. He's passing now. Is there just one more? No, there's two. There's two.

Give us one. I'll give you the number six answer. Debt and expenses. That's a boring one. Oh, debt and expenses. Yeah. Of course. All right.

This one. You guys. should get this. We should? Yeah, you should. Something that grows faster than you want it to. I don't know. I don't know either.

I give up. Belly. Your belly? Yes. Yeah. Your belly. Yeah. Your buddy.

Number four. All right. That was fun. That was fun. Thanks, Tim's. Good job.