The Dale Jr. Download - Speedweek Left Us With A Lot To Unpack...

Episode Date: February 20, 2026

The post-Daytona 500 blues can hit you hard if you aren't careful, and a little dose of Dirty Mo Media will clear that right up. Welcome back to Dirty Thirty, also known as the most action-packed half hour of your week, and this week is loaded with content from FIVE of our DMM shows - so here we go! We start off with Dale Jr. discussing one of his favorite topics - how to reduce drag at Daytona. Get them guys back to having to worry about handlin', man! He and TJ discuss the relationship between off-throttle time and seconds saved on pit road. Dale describes exactly what he wants to see happen with cars at plate tracks, but his fix might not be exactly what you'd expect. Following that, Denny Hamlin discusses the wreck heard round the racing world this weekend, where Justin Allgaier took 100% of the blame. Denny describes how it went down and owns up to being responsible in some sense. Denny masterfully breaks down the moments leading up to The Big One, like only he can. You know we can't have a week full of hot takes without hearing from the gang at Door Bumper Clear. They tee up and tee off on the approval process for the top-3 series of stock car racing after watching what seemed to be Cleetus McFarland & Natalie Decker get caught up in avoidable wrecks over the weekend. If you like a fired-up Tommy Baldwin, this part is a must listen. We come out of turn 4 and head to the finish line, where the most viral moment of the week had to be addressed ... did Amy really tell Dale Jr. he should run the Daytona 500 next year? In Bless Your 'Hardt, Dale & Amy talk about how that comment came about, how it caught fire on social, and what the reality really is about Dale making a return to the Great American Race. That's it for this week, but there's no telling where we might find ourselves next time on Dirty Thirty. See you next time! 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 Dillon 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. This episode of The Dirty 30 is presented by Arby's new Meat in Three Box. Get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meats.

We got the whole field sitting there running 60, 40, 50% probably. Even the guy leading. Even the guy leading the race is running 60%, right? If there's a person that's running, you know, in the middle of the pack and they're like, man, I'm going to run wide open. If they go and pull out of line and mash the gas to 100%, they cannot drive away from the field. The car has so much drag on it and such a large spoiler that even running wide open, the pack running 60% throttle will hang right on to them.

and so I discussed this with Denny and I believe he agrees that if we were to take enough drag off the cars so what are you gaining right let's just go back and say all right what's the advantage you're gaining right by saving this fuel it's you know for every

it's a second or two on pit road right yeah it cycles you to the front of the group yeah so when you come down pit road, you're on pit road less. You come down pit road 30th in a big pack and you pull off pit road first, fifth, tenth, whatever, right? Mm-hmm. So it's a couple of seconds.

At most. If I took enough, I need to know exactly what NASCAR, I think, what I propose to NASCAR is find out how much drag to pull off the car so that if I'm in a pack of cars that are running 60, 70 percent throttle and I mash the gas, 100% I drive away from them. I break the draft and pull away. And if I'm running wide open and I'm driving away from that pack, then I'm negating their advantage.

And they're going to have to chase me down. Because then if I get so far ahead, now I have the advantage. If I drive out to four, five, six seconds away from the pack, then I'll just, you know, I'm going to be adding more fuel when I come to pit road. That's how many seconds of fuel I'll be taking, right? Yeah, I mean, yeah, theoretically, if you get that far in front, you're in, so it should come out. If you can, what would probably happen is you might get four, five, six cars pre-race that go, hey, man, when we get a chance, we're all going to link up, mash for wide open, we're going to drive away from these guys.

Remember when the hoss cars drove away from the field at Talladega by themselves? Yeah. I'm not saying that was what was going on. I'm just saying if you got four or five guys that teamed up and said, hey, let's jump off this strategy of Sabin and let's run wide open together, drive away from the field. Yeah, they were fast. Well, the car currently can't do that because it has so much drag. So there's no point for anyone to go wide open because they can't gain an advantage by driving away from the field.

because the car has too much drag. So therein lies the issue. And that, I would love to hear from a crew chief to tell me why that wouldn't steer us back in the right direction. I'm not saying it fixes the problem, but why wouldn't taking the drag off the car fix it? I know that, you know, if I'm running why, so okay, they might tell you this.

They might say this. Okay, Dale, you know, you're taking the drag off the car. Now I can pull away from this pack. But the pack just runs 80% throttle instead of 60. They're still saving gas. They'll run 80% to keep up with the 100%. Right. The guy that's full throttle.

The pack's just going to sit behind him and still save. Still beat him off pit road. Yeah, you're still going to have. You're still going to have people. I mean, I drove race cars with all types of packages at Daytona. different splitters, wings, spoilers, restricted plates. And yes, if you're second, third, fourth, fifth, you're not wide open.

We weren't saving gas. We were just trying not to hit the guy in front of us. But you're not always wide open. But we weren't thinking, hey, we're saving gas. We were just driving in a draft, you know. So what does that race like, though, in a pack? Yeah. That's going to be the tough part.

NASCAR is terrified, I believe, that we're all going to end up on the top in a big string, like we were at, you know, the end of 2016 or so. You know, we were, you know, Jimmy won the Daytona 500. I think I finished second. And we ran around the top of the racetrack for a majority of that race. It was relatively uneventful. They're worried, I think NASCAR is, that we mash a button. figuratively we change some things

and they go from running three wide and the casual fan thinks that's amazing the fan that doesn't really know about the fuel savings thinks this is amazing and they go from that to running single file from first to last and then they're going to be NASCAR will be so disappointed

that that's what we end up with and I agree that's a risk you take and I wouldn't be comfortable throwing something out there to see how it works without a real understanding of what we might get. Algeyer took 100% of blame. I'll take 20. I'll take 20 of it because it was an aggressive move. But it's coming to the end stage. He's got to know I'm going to be like I'm going to take every run I'm going to get at the end of a stage because stage points do matter to me.

I established very early. I wanted to be in the top. You know, it's why once I cleared the bottom, in the bottom lane, I moved right to the top. That's where I wanted to be to end the stage. And so,

and I was coming with such a massive run. I figured as well that, so I made up my mind probably, you know, a hundred yards or so before I actually went high. I said, I'm going to the outside. no matter what, because I knew where he had run on the top before that. So I knew there would be enough space, but it just was not quite.

It was enough space. I mean, obviously, if he didn't move up, I would have, you know, I had outside position. But it probably happened so quickly that it caught him off guard. And so for me, I think my 20% is that he probably didn't have a whole lot of time to react or see that that was coming, therefore was late to react to it. I get points or stage points are more important this year. But on your end, why be so aggressive for someone that always says like you just got to get to the end?

Like you're in a good spot like keep pushing him and that run's going to keep going. Yeah. That's what I would have done differently. Had I had to do it all over again, I certainly would have just, you know, stayed on the 40 what I was saying though is that we were running like 10 miles an hour faster than him at that time because of the push that I got. So I just, if I go into the tri-oval and then check up for him, I mean, does the 12 just plow into the back of me? I don't know. Probably not because he's got a good spot or he's a good driver. So they can know and plan for that kind of stuff.

but it would have caused a huge domino effect had I just checked up and not taking it or I could have just gone to the bottom and probably cleared them with the speed differential that I had. I probably just could have passed them then gotten right back up to the top. But yeah, I agree that again, doing it all over again, had I known what the result was going to be, I would have just stayed in line there for a few more laps. All right, last one. The NASCAR approval system is broken.

Spot on, spot off. Tommy. What do you mean? Just get 5 million followers and a bunch of friends and they'll let you in. Yeah. I mean, that's all you got to do. Case closed. Case close.

I mean, that's what I was saying earlier. Like, this is not going to be, this is going to be very unpopular and I'm sorry. But what are we doing? Are we trying to get the best race car drivers on the racetrack or are we trying to get the biggest social media following? Yeah. Let's just get, I'm going to buy five million tick tax, tick tox. And I'm going to make a bunch of friends and, you know, do some street stock racing. And next thing you know, I'm going to be driving a top five truck.

I mean, there was two glaring examples of this weekend. One, Cletus, obviously, in the truck race. You know, what has he done? Like, for me, I get it. There's a system in place that you have to run certain races to get approved for other races. to get approved for other races. This a system should not be based on participation. It needs to be based on results.

This guy run two plate races last year, wrecked in both of them, wrecked half the field in one of them from trying to do a restart, talking about Cletus. And then we're just lucky the other night that he didn't wipe out half the truck field because when he spun,

he went down instead of up and running, I mean, he was running in the top 10 when it happened. And I told Gio, I said, this guy's never been in this position before, Arrow, bottom. He's on the bottom of three wide. he's never been in this position before, he's going to wreck.

And it was, I said, the next five laps probably. And it was two laps later, he just loses the nose and, you know, gets loose off a four and wrecks. And it was just dumb luck that he didn't wipe out half the field. We'll talk about safety. The guys, I'm sure he's a great guy. He seems like a phenomenal person. It's got great car control, the videos that I watch. He drives anything in the world.

He's not ready for what he's doing. So you cannot approve these people to go out there. Natalie Decker. Well, another one. How did she, first of all, how did she ever get approved? Now that she is approved, she's run 13 races and average the 29th place finish. Piling in the wrecks on top of that. Like, at what point do you look and say, all right, we made a mistake approving this person.

Now we need to take it back. Because you put these people in positions where this is not Cletus's fault, by the way. Is there a system for that? Like, can you revoke your? There's a committee. There's a committee. And like I want to make it clear that Cletus is not Cletus's fault, but it's NASCAR's fault for letting him race. we talked about with Catherine Legg.

Like, it's the system not, and if, and if you had a problem with how she did and what she did, but don't have a problem with Cletus, then there's your example. Yeah, but Catherine had, has way, way more race experience. Totally. Right? But not necessarily in, you know, what we're talking about. It doesn't matter. At the end of the day, honestly, neither one of them should have been approved. There's the system, like I said, should not be about,

Connor, what was your approval process like? I mean, you're the perfect one to ask. Yeah, I mean, it took a while, right? I had to, you know, I had to race at an ARCA at a mile and a half before. But, I mean, I don't, look, it would be really bad if NASCAR said no to Cletus. Like, you know, he's going to probably go out and be mad at NASCAR, but I don't know. It's a tough spot. I'm glad I'm not the ones making those decisions because at the end of the day you've got this guy

with a ton of followers that you're trying to. He can bring a lot to the sport from a marketing perspective. Yeah, but go through the system like we all have. Like you have, like Luke has. He should be racing more. Run modifies, run late models, run. No doubt. Go through the system, learn how to race. Do all the things that we all have to do to get to the places. Spend the money like we all had to get to certain spots. It feels like a movie. You just don't show up. and okay because it pisses me off

it feels like impractical jokers where like there's somebody in a room somewhere being like okay now wreck half the field okay now now spin out like it's like what the fuck is going on your real name's Kenny Cox everybody knows you as Civ or Civil yes sir

you had success I would say publicly as a as a mad gamer years ago and we're going to talk about your story a little bit about how you know how it's just kind of shifted to where you are today. And one of the things that you did recently was you went public with your faith. Yeah. And, you know, I was, I was following you already and just sort of, you know,

skimming some ideas off of your information on trying to how to beat my buddies. And, and, and, and you have a dynamic personality on, on your content, you know, you're very personable, easy to watch, good energy, all of those things. I'm not sure if you even have to try, but it comes across really, really well. How do you remain fresh and sustainable? I think it comes back to the Lord. I mean, like, what a blessing, like, dude, what a freaking blessing it is to be able to do what I do for a living. Like, who am I to be like, oh, I don't know, like, what a freaking blessing it is. And to take that for granted, it's like, it's crazy to me. Before I ever came to the Lord, it was very obvious to him like, I have no

idea why I'm having some of the material successes I'm having like this makes for a logical stand but this makes no sense like I'm not I was never the smartest in the room I was never like this or that or whatever and I'm like like we are we are objectively materially killing it in this I don't know why yeah um and then be able to see like okay these these like different material things that I'm having here for me can be can be used to like bless it's way bigger than than civil or way bigger than Kenny um from the up from the standpoint one like of like being able to provide like jobs for people Like that's, I think one of the coolest things you could possibly do. But then be able to give back to community, be able to buy my parents a house,

be able to do other things like that's like, dude, like, that's freaking awesome. Like, how could it, what more do you want? So you were having all this success and you, you know, you felt empty and you were like, you know, you went out party, but had, you know, tried different things to try to find, you know, find ways to make life feel more full. I dropped out of college. My goal when I was 18 was to take care of my parents. Like figure out how do you do it? How do you do it? How do you do it?

And then in December 2024, Christmas, my brother and I are able to come together by my parents' house. It's like, what more? Like, they are set financially barring some disaster. And then afterwards, I'm like, that was cool. I'm like, dang, that actually is not like, because if you told me before that, I could die the next day and like, we're good. Like, who cares? And I'm like, this is not it, dude. And then for the past seven years or so. What are you looking for? What do you mean?

There's just more, there's just more to it. You felt, you just, you needed to feel, um, it wasn't enough. It was never enough. It was never enough. Even the money thing. It's like, I would see go from like making no money where I was eating ramen every single day for months and months and months and months. I upgraded to ramen and raviolis for a few months too. I'm like, then I'm eating like actual food. And I'm like, okay, do I get more, do I get better food? Like, that's not making much of a difference on my happiness. Like the money is, why were you not happy? It wasn't fulfilling. Like it wasn't, it felt like it was never enough and there was always something I was trying to chase after. It became very

obvious, very quickly that no matter what next goal I hit, whether it was a dollar amount, whether it was like a subscriber count, whatever it was, was not going to be like, oh, Kenny's satisfied now. Yeah. And so I just went looking. I looked for like partying. I looked in like relationships. I looked in every which way that you could possibly look trying to find like, okay, maybe I need to be around like other YouTubers. My friends just don't get it. Yeah. No, that's not it. Maybe other entrepreneurs like, no, that's not it. Like, whatever, whatever. And, And I remember one time I was getting like, I was kind of being like cocky to myself walking around where I was like, man, like, Kenny, you've done some like cool things. Like, heck yeah.

And I'm like, dude, for some reason, I remember thinking this so clearly like, dude, like you are about to crash, you idiot. And I'm like, I don't know what that means at all, but like whatever. And I remember thinking like I should look into like another place called church. Like I don't know what that really looks like. I called one of my good friends who's my girlfriend now actually. I called her up and she, um, I said, she went to church. I had never done anything with it. I was like, hey, do you know any church is my area? Like, she's way up north Austin, out of South Austin. And she's like, I don't really know any around your area, but like in the morning I'm actually

getting baptized. You want to come like see that. And I was like, oh, like, sure, I'll just go there. And I went, that was the first time going to church, January 5th of 2025. Um, I remember like walking in like, shaking people's hands. And like, they were like talking to me. Like I was like, a human who like they cared about. I was like, this is weird. Like, okay, let's go. Um, and I got to see the baptism. Didn't really understand what that was at all, but I was like, cool. Like, people are cheering for her. So like, let's go. Um, was there for a couple weeks, all the guys who come up to me be like, hey man, like, you're so happy you're here. Like, by the way, this like, this Christ thing, this is Jesus thing changed my life. Jesus changed my. I'm like, what are you talking about,

dude? Like, you're full. Like, I don't know what you're full of, but like, it ain't. But I know people said it, and I'm like, I'm not smarter than you, so there might be something here. Yeah, and so a couple of weeks I decided to read, get a Bible. One of the people of the church named Shane gave me a Bible, started with the gospel of Matthew, and the end of it, I'm like, dude, if this is, if this is true, this is a really big deal. Tell me about that. So I had a friend of mine talk about picking up the Bible and read the Bible, and how reading the Bible and the stories within it had this massive impact on them. And so I've not read the Bible thoroughly.

I've not read an entire, you know, I've not read an entire three, four pages, you know. But so like tell me, like if I would just sit down and literally dive into the story, right? What would my experience be? I think it'd become very, very clear of like what we're doing? doing here on earth, there's so much more, it's so much bigger than everything here. It's bigger than our jobs. It's bigger than even our immediate family. There's something bigger going out there. And there's a a creator above who loves us more than we can possibly imagine. I'll say, I think one of the things that I would ask you, Dale, like, what do you think about like Jesus, for example?

Like, you just had to say, what do you think about Jesus? What would you say? That he died for our, for our sins. So, like, that's a big deal. Yeah. So, like, if that is true, that's a massive deal, right? It's like objectively. Because like if that's true, if he died for our sin and the wages of sin, it reads in the Bible is death, and he died for it to give it us forgiven and with the chance for eternal life in heaven, it's like, well, these are objectively big claims. Like, there's no way around it. Right. And so it's like, well, I want to research these claims and like, see, are these like, is this just a load of crap? Because if it's a little crap, I want nothing to do with it. Yeah. And so reading, in reading the Bible, you gain confidence in those claims.

Yes. Yes. I get. gained confidence in the claims that Jesus was the son of God, that Jesus was God, is God, that his word is true, his word is reliable. And if that's a case, you know, like, I think it's like a father figure, but like to the ultimate extreme where it's like, you know, you may not understand your father always when he's telling you things, but you can have confidence that he's telling you things in good faith and he has what your best interest in mind, right? You don't see the big picture, but like, you know that like, okay, like I'll listen to dad because he's saying this and whatever. Or maybe you might even be like, yeah, whatever.

dad. But so like take that idea and like put at times infinity because there's a father in heaven who knows what we need, who knows our deepest and our smallest desires and is telling us how to achieve these things. And it's just like by putting faith into him and him alone, we're like, we're able to come closer to him and come closer to those things. Yeah. And so this has given you peace. Yeah. It's given me fulfillment. It's giving me drive towards like something way bigger. It's like a lot of the thing, I remember reading the gospel of Matthew and consistently throughout, I'd be like these like, It were like different I thought ideas that I would have. And it's like articulated right here, like so well articulated here, so well articulated here, so well articulated here.

I'm like, man, like what a, what a freaking great, like it was so, so, so cool. And so many things that would like challenge me. And it's like, okay, I look at like the idea of like forgiveness. Like we can all agree that like it's good to forgive people. Like you should forgive people. At the same time, like someone really wrongs you. It's like really hard to forgive. But Jesus says we should forgive even the people who have wronged us the most.

And it's like objectively, even though it's hard for us emotionally to do that, I think we can all be like, yeah, we should. Like, that's probably a better way to live life than like not forgiving at all. Yeah. Yeah. It is, yeah. It has been an incredible, incredible life change for me. All right. So let's address the elephant in the room.

I wanted to keep it going for a little longer. What? The elephant in the room? A total 500. Listen. Listen. Explain yourself, Amy. I was in a weekend state.

You had me trapped in a bus with the kids, and I have a short shelf life. I have a short shelf life in environments like that. I thought she was going to say I was laying back next to my handsome husband in bed, and I was in a weekend state. Well, you know, it's not trapped in a camper with him. I'm a fluffer. I'm trying to make you smile and make you happy, and you lay down and you were talking about the race. I was like, you just should run it yourself next year. And he looks at me like, what the hell?

Who has abducted my wife and put this chick here? I mean, I was kind of serious, but it's, listen, it is up to you. Yeah. It's always up to you. It's just so much work. Oh, my God. It's so much work. You have no clue.

I don't. You're right. I don't. So, listen. But I feel like it would be worth the extra, whatever. It ain't. Like, all right, look, if I could, if I could put a suit on and walk out and climbing the car and start it up and drive it off and race like hell, hell you.

Yes. But you've got sim. You're going to photo shoots. You've got to take picture. You know, you've got to get fitted in the suit and do all. It's just, there's months of lead up to. And there'll be so many, you know, people that are partners and think you'll be a lot of media. There'll be just a bunch of asks.

You can't just go race. You'll be, you'll feel bad saying, no, I don't want to do all that. Why do you have to feel bad? Because I feel bad. It's a privilege to be able to do it. Yeah. And you feel like it's your job and your obligation to say yes to all of the things that allow it to happen, right? Well, this is part of the reason you've always felt so much pressure is because you feel that way.

Yeah. Instead of just enjoying the racing and separating those things for yourself, you know what I mean? Yeah. Like I just know that if I said, yeah, I'll do that. It will turn into a just a circus. and standing out there on the grid, getting ready to get in the car, there's just to be a circus.

I mean, I don't feel like that's a reason to say no. I mean, the other reasons make more sense. We go, we went to the Daytona 500. We stood out on the grid. Yeah. And it's not a circus in this, in my current role. And I like watching, I like watching the circus. Not being the, in the ring.

Yeah. So, I don't know. I do love driving. I do watch. them go around the track and go, man, I'd love to be out there and feeling that and doing that. I would love that. But what if they created, I guess, wait, hey, okay. So the other part is, I got that big fat hand.

I have never raced the next gen. Oh, that's true. I've never been in that car. I don't know where this is, it is racing at the cup level, and I will always feel this way. It is an elite level. You have to be freaking badass to be there. to be there and know where all every square inch of that car is as you're traveling around the track. Yeah.

I don't know where the corners are. I don't know. I don't know. You don't know the car. That when we get into the very finite moments of adjustment and driving and decision making an instant like bam, bam, bam, bam. I don't know that I still, I don't think you can just jump in and all that comes right back. Really? I think you need to be doing it every week.

Okay. To be able to be as sharp as you're going to want to be. And so if I go out there and those guys are moving reacting quicker because their minds are where my mind used to be, you know, and they're quicker reacting, they're sharper. I'm going to notice that. And I'm going to go, I don't want to do this unless I can be as good as I remember being. I understand. Right?

Yeah. And so while it's fun and I do enjoy it, I only want to do it if I feel like I am absolutely 100% as good as I can possibly be. How are you going to know? How do you know? I only can be that good if I'm doing it every single week. I think any cup guy, like even Blaney, a friend of ours would come in here and say, hey, man, yeah. Are you sure?

You're going to have your hands full. Yeah. You know, but I feel like I would really be over my head. I hear you. And as much as it would be fun, it would be fun. But I would end it, no matter what the, result would be going, man, I realize I don't, I'm not there anymore, you know. So are you worried a little bit too, putting all that aside, like how it would affect your

ego? Not so much of your ego. I don't mean that in a negative way, but like. Yeah, I know what you mean. I wouldn't say ego. I wouldn't say ego, but yeah, it might, it might, it might drive home the, the truth that, you know, you're, you're, you're not as, you're not going to be as sharp because you don't do it every week.

It's like golf. Like, if you want to be great at golf and truly. doing a great job hitting the ball and putting it where you're supposed to do it. You need to do it all the time. You can't just, and another example, and I'll end here. Casey Kane came in the studio probably six years ago. Yeah. And he was back and forth about driving his dirt cars.

And I'm like, why don't you drive them? Why don't you drive them more? He goes, man, I get mad because I do it every now and then and I'm, and I get my ass kicked. and I can only do it well if I'm doing it every week, and I can't do it every week. And so it's frustrating. I want to do it. It's fun,

but I can't be as good as I won't because I can't do it all the time. And I'm like, yep, totally understand that. So. All right. Well, we settle it. Thank you for bringing up. I was taking aback when I saw that come up on my phone yesterday.

I was like, holy shit. I can't believe you said that. I didn't want him to come out and acknowledge. I wanted to sit there for a little longer. I thought it was just going to be in the camper and that was that. we're going to leave it there. Well, I said that. I said that selfishly maybe because one of the things that bothered me when I retired was people were blaming Amy. And so people, I saw people on social media and I know you're not supposed to read that. I mean, I'm an easy target. That's,

that's like, I bet Amy told him to quit. It's Amy. It's her. She told him to stop. Amy's, told him not to do it anymore. And that's not accurate at all. And so when you said that the other that. I was like, man, people would not believe that she just said that. They wouldn't, you know, they wouldn't believe your, your point of view. And so, oh, I, you know, I shared that. I shared a conversation. I shared that, you know, with everybody. And, um, I made the choice to stop. And Amy and I, Amy supported my choice, but she wasn't sitting there going, man, you need to stop. No, I was very careful with what I said to you. Of course, I wanted you to be healthy and safe and all the things. But also, you have to be healthy.

happy and your choice has to be yours or you have to because you have to live with it. All right. That was another episode of the Dirty30. Presented by Arby's new Meat and Three Box. Get more meal for your money at Arby's. We had the meets.