The Dale Jr. Download - SVG and Connor Zilisch on What to Expect in San Diego

Episode Date: June 17, 2026

As Dale Earnhardt Jr. prepares for the Prime Video broadcast of NASCAR’s inaugural trip to San Diego, he sits down with road racing experts Shane Van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch. The guys visit the studio on the heels of the announcement that Red Bull will sponsor both of their cars at Naval Base Coronado. The deal also includes special edition cans of Red Bull featuring Shane and Connor. The guy’s chat about the impact Red Bull has had on motorsports and the importance of their return to NASCAR specifically.  Speaking of San Diego, the guys chat about the seemingly daunting course that has been laid out over Naval Base Coronado. Both Shane and Connor have spent time on the simulator to prepare, and they’ve both paid visits to the site as the course has been under construction. With a length of nearly three-and-a-half miles, the track will be the longest that Cup has competed on since their visit to Road America in 2022. Dale Jr. ponders what NASCAR’s protocol on caution periods will be, as laps under yellow will take nearly six minutes to complete. The interview also discusses growing pains in the Cup Series, what each driver learned during their time in the O’Reilly Series, and what is on the horizon for Trackhouse Racing. 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 Dirtymoe Media. You're Dale Jr. Should I say it? It's Dale Jr. podcast, I've got to say it. Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. download. And we got two guests coming on the show today.

Connor Zill at Shane Van Gisberg. They're going to come out here. Team mates running two Red Bull cars. We've got a little bit of an announcement about a very cool can that Red Bull has developed for these two drivers. We're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about their seasons. We're going to San Diego. There's a lot of information there.

We're racing with these two guys out of the Junior Motorsports shop in Sonoma. So a lot to talk about. Can't wait to get to it. Let's bring them in the room and get started. Don't forget here in the Arby studio. We want to talk to you about this new meat and three box. You get more meal for your money at Arby's. With this new meeting three box, we have the meets.

And let's get this show started. So Shane Van Gisbergen and Connor Zillich teammates track house Connor 19 years old 13 time O'Reilly series winner 24 hours a Daytona winner in the LMP2 class Shane 37 years old seven time cup winner 25 NASCAR Cup rookie of the year three-time Supercar Champion so thanks for coming appreciate both y'all you both you dudes are two good guys and we get to race together here at June Motor Sports. I have to remind myself because I see you guys as Sunday guys, right? I'm watching you guys out of the booth and I'm kind of Uber focused on our cup stuff

and everything that's going on there. Sometimes I forget how much fun we get to have on Saturdays sometimes. But we're here today. Red Bulls brought us all together. There's a new NASCAR edition can coming out June 29th. and you two guys are on the can. So y'all each have one of these cans? What do you think?

I mean, have you ever been on a can of anything? Yeah, yeah, twice on a Red Bull. But it's still pretty awesome. Yeah, it's a Red Bull can. That's pretty... I've never been on a can. So this is new for me. I'm, I don't know, I think a year and a half

into this Red Bull relationship. And yeah, this is really cool. Yeah, wait until you go to a petrol station and you pick one out. It's a weird feeling. Yeah. It's pretty... You go to the checkout stand.

It's pretty awesome. Hell yeah. Well, yeah, you'll be getting pictures from friends. They'll see it in the store and send you photos of it. That's when it's really cool. Yeah, the new Red Bull can with Shane and I is available at Circle K, starting on June 29th. You guys are both running also at San Diego this weekend. You're running some special Red Bull cars.

It's the first time since 2011 that Red Bull's been on two race cars in the same race in NASCAR. Yours is going to be silver SVG. Conners will be blue. Two great look at race cars. I think the Red Bull cars always look the best. They're just great schemes. We're looking at SVGs on the screen right there. That's a good-looking damn car, dude.

There's the blue version for Connor. You know, it's an iconic brand. I guess I could ask you guys, you know, I don't know how y'all think about this. I've always had this feeling about partners and sponsors. Man, when you get to carry a big brand, I don't know, man, it feels, you feel a little bit better than everybody else. You feel like you're a little more special than everybody else out there. You see some guys, you look across the garage or look at the starting grid, and you look at some of the sponsors on some of the cars, and you go, I don't know what hell that is.

I don't even know how I'd sell that or how I'd promote that. And when you get partnered up with somebody like Red Bull that everybody in the world knows what that is, right? it makes your job so much easier outside of the race car yeah no doubt yeah i agree it's it's definitely i didn't realize it when i first started even when i became an athlete in 2024 like what the relationship would grow to um you know obviously we all wanted them to be a sponsor for our team and um yeah i mean it's it's it's grown to a pretty big substantial amount now and and it's really cool yeah like you said it's it's just fun to be able to work with them and um you know you see all the cool stuff they do away from racing and getting to be a small part of that.

And having the opportunity to do cool stuff like that is a lot of fun. Yeah. Oh, yeah, second that. How long have you been, well? Since 2016, when I joined the team in Australia. Yep. You just having fans be excited to have the sponsor back in the sport was awesome when I first came back. That's right.

Yeah, and then even this week, seeing the car get released, people posting pictures of that 2011 car. I think it was Scott Speed driving at the silver and blue. It was epic. But it's cool how excited they are to be back in the sport. They got the big energy station set up this weekend and they're having a big crack. It's pretty cool to have them back. Yeah, they came in years and years ago basically kind of almost self-funding their own operation and we were, we were freaking pumped. It was kind of similar to when like Juan Pablo came. It's like, wow, he chose us over F1 or It's kind of failed, made us, kind of raised us a little bit when Red Bull came in to create their own team. And, you know, it could have worked.

It didn't work. It had some opportunities to work, but it didn't end up panning out, and they left. And so I think you're, you know, you're dead on that when they talked about coming back into the sport, there was a bunch of excitement around it because we all wanted them to succeed. Yeah, I don't think it went too well, did it? It didn't. And there's reasons for that. It's hard to cover. Cup Series is hard.

You guys know that. Trying to manage and run a, come in and create a startup team out of thin air is difficult to do. But they made a go at it and found some success, had some good runs and had some good weekends. But I think we were sad to see them go. And personally, you know, is somebody who is NASCAR to the core, it felt like we failed a bit.

You know, like how could they not come in here and, you know, make this work? What did we, what it is about us that isn't good enough or right or correct for Red Bull to succeed? And so when they decided to come back, man, it was awesome because we knew they could, they could succeed here and with the right situation. And so got a couple of drivers right here at this table that, you know, that have had a lot of success and, and you guys take the, you know, relationship really. seriously. You're very proud to be a Red Bull athlete. And so it's good to have them back and good to see them having success. We're going to San Diego to race these cars that we're looking at.

And the racetrack itself is pretty daunting. But you two guys are probably the only two guys. There may be a few more that aren't that intimidated by such a project. but every time that we go to anything like this, it's chaos. Our, you know, for all our series, the trucks, a rally for Cup, it's going to be chaos. And I want to talk about that a little bit. We, you know, what, first off, kind of what's, what's been the preparation? I've heard some different things about drivers spending a lot of time in the SIM.

I know if you go do a SIM session for, for this racetrack. for two hours, you're lucky to get 20 laps because it takes so long to get around there. And, you know, for a driver, I've heard Honeycutt in the trucks has run almost 400 laps on the SIM, which is insane. I don't know, that's what I heard

from a Toyota official this past weekend. So, you know, and you have our racing at home where it's available to you. How much time are each of you guys spending on SIM? Is that going to be beneficial to you? Do you see it as beneficial to other guys? How do you guys prepare?

Yeah, I did some R racing actually last night. That's probably the only sim I've done and an MX5 out of things. And actually Kyle got on last night and we were racing each other. But I went through a few virtual cars. That's for sure. It's tough, man. Oh, I like that. Even the first corner is on the edge, that right.

And then you come down that hill and it's bumpy and then head on as a wall. like so i've crashed there many times yeah yeah same it's difficult i've destroyed some virtual chevies unfortunately but um yeah it's it's challenging it's so technical and and i've been spending most of my time on i racing um i racing's done a really good job keeping the track updated and um you know even better than what the oEMs can do with with um the simulator that we have at the GM tech center so um yeah i racing has been really good and and honestly i prefer i racing over the big sim for this week just because of that. So yeah, it's, you know, whenever the track changes, you want to be driving the most updated track possible. And

I racing's done a good job of that. So it's, uh, it's, it's, it's cool. I mean, it's, it's definitely tough. Like Chicago was tough, but I feel like this track is even more technical than what that was. I feel like that was a lot of 90 degree corners and just kind of stop and goes. And a lot of the corners were the same. And, um, I feel like this track's got some more character to it. So, um, I'm excited for it. What about the, you know, there's a couple of corners where you're coming, you know, around and there'll be a tire pack right in your, right, I mean, dead in front of you.

Like where, I guess the broader question is, it's like, you know, every time we go to one of these tracks or every time we do something new, anything new, it's just a lot of chaos and problematic. issues and people finding different ways to hit things and new ways to hit things. And I just, you know, there's some areas that are kind of questionable that I'm a bit concerned about when we start racing through them, right? It's one thing to go out there and run by yourself. The whole track, right?

So every corner I see on the track is different, unique, bumpy, challenging, like I can see. Yeah. What is? carnage at every corner almost. Yes. And so with the next-gen car and how that car ride, the ride quality of that car and how unique it is to anything else that we do, there are some really, really rough spots.

I think you saw that at Chicago, like the first year, a lot of cars were high and soft, like the 91 car, and then everyone's gotten greedy, like it's gotten lower and lower and stiffer because that's how the car makes grip. But there's a huge compromise between getting the floor on the ground and, ride quality. So luckily it's an open practice so we get to try some things, but I think it's a huge compromise. You're going to see some bad handling cars. Yeah. People getting greedy and running too low and yeah, yeah, slamming the track. I went out there last week and I think it's, I mean, I lose count at five, but that back straight. Oh my gosh. It's so rough. Even driving the road car,

it was rough. So it's going to be interesting to see how the cars go. Yeah. Yeah. So you've been out there? Yeah, last week we did a bit of promotion stuff. You got to run around the track itself. Well, no, half it's not even built. Yeah, half of it's on a runway. They can't be there until Thursday. Have you been out there personally? I went out there two or three months ago.

How much of the, how much did you get to learn? Well, I didn't learn a ton, honestly. I saw like three corners, but I didn't even get to drive on it or anything. I was there just last week, and it's amazing that we're going to race there next week like because there's not much yeah would build tracks in australia it would be done months before they'd be building here it's a week out yeah they're doing it all the week of and that's the thing like they couldn't because it's on an active runway they didn't get access to that until i think at some yeah it's like some point this week so yeah um you know they get five days to build it and

you know you've been practicing on this irasing thing that you're relying on and and treating you know like it's the truth and and, you know, a guy with a forklift decides he's going to put the wall there instead of there. Yeah, and all of a sudden. A couple feet can mean. Yeah. What you just spent for what Caden Honeycutt just did 400 laps of is useless. So it's kind of one of those things where you can't really rely on the simulator too much.

You just got to go there and walk the track and see what it's like. How do you think NASCAR handles cautions there? Because, you know, when we have a, if, you know, on the road courses, that's the toughest part about this whole deal is when the caution comes out, particularly raise. at the end of stage breaks. It takes so long to run a caution lap at most of these road courses, and this one's the longest one that we've got.

That's the one thing I'm kind of curious as to how NASCAR might call this race, would they maybe be less likely to throw yellows in certain instances? Sit there and wait and hope and pray this guy can get a shit together and get moving or whatever, right? Do they hold that flag a little bit longer? I mean, I get so bored

to some of these races we run out of the yellow. The cautions can be so bad. I hope they. It's TV, Tom. I mean, NASCAR knows it too. Like, yeah, they'll be the first to admit that, yeah, the cautions are too long, but whether it's TV or, you know, if when I exploded a brake rotor at Nashville,

they had to go out and find every single piece of brake rotor because if not, someone was going to run it over and get a flat tire. So, yeah, I mean, They always have a reason, I guess, but, man, when you're in the car driving around under caution for 20 minutes, it's like... I mean, it's going to be a three and a half miles. It's going to be a six-minute lap on the cold. I know. And that's the thing they...

At stage breaks, we always do like a full lap and then one time by, two, like, it's going to be a long caution. I wonder, I'm surprised. I hope they just opened the piss right away. Right. I'm surprised that they haven't... I would be surprised, I suppose, if they don't change some of their protocol a little bit around. And then do the choose after the second lap open or something, hopefully. It should be two laps of caution max.

Like open the pits right away, unless there's a crash right there. But you should be able to open the pits right away. The stages are only 20 laps, so we'll get eaten up pretty quickly. Yeah. Jesus. Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. Guess what?

We are coming to San Diego. We got two live shows for you. Friday the 19th. There's Dirty Mo Live, presented by the U.S. Navy. We will be on the NASCAR experience stage. at 1045 local time. Ryan Blaney will be the headliner. So that should be a lot of fun.

Then on Saturday the 20th, we're doing a live broadcast of the Dale Jr. Download presented by Arbyes and the U.S. Navy. Right there in Victory Lane at 5.30 p.m. local. Come hang out. Hope to see you there. We'll be having a blast. If you aren't going to San Diego,

you can check all of this out on our Dirtymo Media YouTube channel or wherever you get your podcast. We also have some new merch for you at shop.durtymodea.com. Here's a new t-shirt. This is for the San Diego weekend. The Dale Jr. Download got your little airplane right there.

It's time for a pit stop, naval base Coronado. And then for all you Arby's fans, beef! I just think that's fun. Beef! And then this one's pretty cool. The Dale Jr. Download shirt, the official Dale Junior Downloads shirt. The official Dale Junior Download Arby shirt, we have the meets. You've got the airplane, the Navy.

represented naval base Coronado, San Diego. Just a neat shirt. Check them out on shop.durtymo Media.com. What's your O'Reilly schedule for the rest of the season? You got me at Sonoma and Chicagoland. I've never been to Chicago land, so I thought that would be a good one to go to. A lot of fun.

What about you, SVG? Just Sonoma for me. Yeah, you don't let him race on ovals. Yeah. I'd love to. Yeah. Hey, we've got some inventory. Yeah.

Just money talks, buddy. anyone so you guys get to go to Sonoma and compete against each other y'all have done that at a couple different racetracks and it can get contentious but you guys are in two really good race cars always say this

so you know if you put fast race cars on the racetrack sometimes you know as a teammate sometimes they're going to run into each other and so I don't get too worried about it as long as somebody wins the race you know but how you know y'all weren't teammates last you know like when y'all first kind of started racing against each other in a rally series and really trying to um you know really being each other's toughest competition uh but now you've had some time together as teammates you've shared competition meetings together you've done functions together you've gotten to know each other a whole lot better i'm sure and um how is that relationship changed how what are we what are we going to see on the racetrack when we go to sonoma

if you two are still up front duking it out. I mean, I feel like I have a lot of respect for Shane and what he does, and he's always raced me really cleanly. So for me, I have no reason to not be that way. You know, if I'm racing against someone else, I'd probably race a little rougher. But I know Shane, I mean, Sonoma last year in the X-Finity race or whatever it was, you know,

he could have just shipped me out of the way like anybody else would have in the last corner and he didn't. So, you know, there's things. that other people would do that maybe we wouldn't do to each other. Maybe if it's for a cup win, it might be a little different than a Saturday win. But, yeah, I mean, I feel like we both respect each other. And Watkins-Glen, like in stage two, we were both just checked out and weren't really racing each other, just chugging along.

So, yeah, I feel like we both know what the standard is. Yeah. Yeah, I agree with that. It's easy to forget that the team is bigger than you sometimes. So I feel like we've gotten definitely better. We've had some pretty awesome races. And watching Sonoma last year, that was an epic race. But you're right.

If it was anyone else, we probably would have fenced each other for the wind, like the way you were blocking and the way I could have done it. But I look back on it. It was an epic race. So, yeah. Hopefully it's the other way around this year. So, yeah, I enjoy it. How about the cup stuff?

I know Connor last several weeks has been tough for you, man. It's just been a difficult year. Rookie seasons are all, you know, can go this way. and you've getting your getting an education in patience for sure. And I was going to joke with you if SVG has been giving you any tips on the ovals because he seems to have found some common ground, some speed there. And so, you know, taking that program, you know, first off, I guess going from a rally to cup, Everybody talks about how big a jump that is.

I don't think it's easy to like see it for a fan watching at home. Like, you know, the racing all kind of, it's stock cars, four tires, steering wheel. Just a race car. It looks like, yeah, but the, so talk to us about how, how different, say, racing for 20th on the Cup's idea is versus racing for 20th on the O'Reilly series. Yeah, it's a whole different ballgame. I, you know, everybody talks about it, right? and all my friends who race in the Cup series joke with me, you know, you just wait, buddy, just wait.

And it's like, ah, you know, I feel like it won't be that bad. And, you know, I knew coming into this year that it was going to be tough, especially after the, just even the three races I did last year, I was like, okay, yeah, this stuff's no joke. And, yeah, I mean, it's just a whole different level. The teams, the drivers, everything is times 10 and just way more challenging. So I love it, honestly.

As much as, you know, sometimes I hate my life inside of the car and, you know, just want to get out and be done with the race because we're running so bad. I just, I love the challenge of it. I appreciate how good all the teams and drivers are. And it just makes me better as a driver and pushes me as a human to want to be better. So, yeah, as frustrating as it gets at times, it's a fun challenge for me. And I know that there's light at the end of the tunnel. I just got to get there and work to get there sooner than later. Yeah.

Shane, the Oval stuff starting to click. We saw some, I mean, I know we've seen it before, but like Charlotte was a great example of, you know, your potential and your improvement. You know, do you've, and you've had a couple of runs in the last month, so it wasn't like this one-off pop. For whatever reason, just couldn't really get things going at Pocono. know it was a clunky race all together for a lot of you guys back there with the strategies and just how rough the racing was in the back half of the field.

But talk about that progress figuring these ovals out. Yeah, it's just more and more light bulb moments, I guess, more and more glimpses of knowing how to feel what's happening and how to do things right, I guess. And then also developing the car. Like we're going back to these tracks second, third, fourth time now and sort of getting a setup I like in a direction. My driving style's pretty different what I want from the car, I guess. But yeah. And then once you get up there, the car is completely different. Like the air is so good up the front and you just get so much more grip. And if you start up front, you can kind of

keep it there. Yeah. And you can develop your car all day. Whereas if you're at the back, it's you're just trying to get turn all day and you finally get up there and your car's hitting the ground and you're loose. So it's hard to know what to ask for. Like at Pocono, I started at the back, did a pretty average job in qualifying and I got to a decent spot. And then next restart, my car was bad because my feedback wasn't right. So there's still things I'm learning. But yeah, like I feel like the potential's there and I'm still learning a lot, but I'm definitely getting better. Yeah.

But yeah, it's hard. Like we're obviously struggling as a team. So you've got to kind of temper your expectations. I know my teammates are awesome. So I just kind of gauge myself off them when I'm struggling. but yeah it's been good to be matching Ross more often than not this year because he's a pretty good yardstick for us I guess yeah yeah we're also here to to give his version of events but I've known him a really long time and um good hard racer the um the the team as a whole so when you know

looking at it from from my 40,000 foot view that the next gen comes it's a level playing field trackhouse seemed to benefit from no one knowing nothing, right? And they had a lot of good success out of the gate with the next-gen car, but as other teams have developed and improved, it seems that trackhouse hasn't been able to keep that same pace. And there has been moments this year where you kind of start to see some gains. Where do you guys feel like you are as a company, how far along you've come since February?

what are the you know where where do you find I guess the the the hope or the positive mentality that progress is going to continue and you know you guys are going to get to where you want to be I think we had a bit of a lull I guess April and then we've been like experimenting a lot with setups I guess what was before Dover dover Texas then Dover yeah Texas we had a better run and then I feel like we've got potential in our cars. We've kind of gone outside our window to try and find some stuff. But we're a lot of hit and miss at the moment. Yeah, you'll have one week where I run top five and, you know,

have a chance to race the JGR cars. And then, you know, the next week we try something new and go to the downforce package and all of a sudden we're 30th again. And it's like, man, I was just, I just had this glimmer of hope last week and now I'm running 30th again. So, yeah, it's a lot of up and now. Like we're sort of trying and spreading stuff. Yeah, and that's the thing. I mean, you're not going to get better if you don't try stuff.

So, you know, it's definitely trial and error, and you're going to have bad weeks in those attempts. But, you know, you just got to learn from the good weeks. And it's tough with the packages as well, right? You have these different packages. So, you know, one week you might be good on the, you know, the high-down force package. And then, you know, you try and apply those same things to the low-down force package.

And it's like, well, that didn't work. And you're like, man, well, so you got to learn for, two different packages as well and, you know, that makes it challenging too. Yeah, plus you got a new car, new arrow map with this car. It's a lot, got a lot more nose downforce on the front. And when we go to the low downforce package, I mean, you kind of got two whamies there with, you didn't expect, I guess, when they were developing this new car that you were going to be running this package that's going to give you what you were actually looking for with

this car. So now you got two shifts towards front down. trying to lock the back of the car in. And I talked to Cliff Daniels, who works with the five car over at HMS. And they were really, they really hit it, hit it from a lot of different angles and had multiple, say, let's just say he had multiple things that he was doing to try to get the car comfortable. And they weren't having any success with that.

And then probably right before Chicago or right before Charlotte, they went, they hit the reset button. and just went back to zero and started chipping away, you know, at trying to get the car comfortable with one adjustment, like nose weight or just cross or just this, right? And we've seen the Chevrolet start to close the gap a little bit on the Toyota's. I know you as a company, y'all as a company, want to get better. A lot of companies out there want to get better.

But what do you guys make of where Chevrolet is and compare, to Toyota because the Toyotas across the board seem to have an advantage. They do have an advantage. It's not a rumor. It's true. And we rarely see that in the sport for this long of a period of time. It's been a whole half a season where the Toyotas have kind of had their fun. But it looks like Chevrolet's closing the gap,

and I'm just kind of, you know, wonder what you guys think about. When you're out there racing or you feel like you're handicapped, you feel like you're racing with one arm behind your back with how good a lot of Toyotas are. You're seeing Legacy up there running top 10. I know they've made gains as a company, but still, you know, you used to be beating them guys, you know, four or five, six months ago. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, the sport ebbs and flows a lot. And certainly they have something figured out with, you know, also us getting this new body and having to learn. learn it. I feel like we've definitely regressed a little bit more than we would like and haven't quite figured it out as soon as expected. You know, you put the body in the wind tunnel and it shows that it's going to be way better and you're like, okay, cool, well, this should be, this should be an easy win. And then all of a sudden, you know, a small aeroship balance and or an arrow balance shift and you're, you know, having to learn that and apply that to your own car. So, yeah, we definitely

still have room to grow and improve. I know that there's more potential in the body that we have and in the direction we're going, but it's cool to see all the Chevy teams working together to try and find that solution and get better. So yeah, it just takes time. I mean, it's kind of one of those things that it's just you got a trial and error until you find your way to success again. And I know that we'll get there as an organization and as an OEM, but, you know, you know, Yeah, the Toyotas are really fast right now. I mean, there's no hiding the fact that they're the class of the field. So, yeah, we got some room to grow and improve.

How do you find the speed? Like, you know, I don't think that, Shane, you're too crazy about the manufacturer sim. You don't spend a ton of time in there. No. I mean, some guys do. Denny spends, Denny will have a light bulb moment in the middle of the night and go jump in the sim the next morning, you know, and run for a couple hours. How do you find the speed outside?

You don't get a lot of practice. You don't get a lot of time to try it in real life. It's hard. Like some weeks the sim is good, but other weeks I find it isn't really beneficial. You're kind of just, when you're driving it, you're trying to say words to keep people happy, but really you're just going around in a circle. So, yeah, I find it's just hard work and all in the preparation and debriefs trying to give the right details. but it's hard to find speed in a straight line sometimes, if that makes sense.

Like, Coda was a surprise. I thought my car was pretty decent, but you're losing five car lengths on the straight makes it difficult too. So it's hard to make that up. You feel like power-wise, you got some gains to make? I think so. And I think we've made some upgrades already. Like, we're not just sitting still.

I think ECR are doing a good job and paired with Hendricks. So there's gains coming. But, yeah, I think the start of the season was a shock. Oh, yeah, it was bad. It was bad. Like Coda. Cota was a shock. It was really bad. And we've definitely gotten better since. Yeah. I mean, that's the first I've kind of heard of, you know, I know that the Toyota's go through the corner a little bit better, but that's the first I really heard that you feel like. And it could be an arrow thing. You know, I mean, they could have less drag and, you know, they're able, they have so much more down force. They're able to take drag out of it.

And, you know, I don't know what if it's actually the engine that's doing it or if it all adds up. Yeah, I mean, I think it's all a combination. But, yeah, you know, they haven't figured out. That's for sure. Hey, this is Jerome and Tiffany Davis. Jerome Davis, home strawberry line. Most people know me from the dirt, eight seconds at a time. So there's a lot more to laugh than the rides.

We've never really stopped to tell our story. That changes June 24th. This cowboy life is our new podcast. on Dirty Moe Media. Subscribe wherever you get your podcast and come see what this cowboy life is all about. I know you guys are excited to race some O'Reilly stuff for us. I'm taking my two girls.

They got to go last year to Pocono when Connor won. That was their very first ever experience of what Victory Lane was. They'd never been there in their life. Well, that was a crew chief weekend, wasn't it? We got to go again this past weekend with Justin. Yeah, they got to ride in the car. Yeah, little Nicole did, which was a shock.

But they'll be in Sonoma. All right. Pressure's on. We'll try not to make you sweat too much again. Does Ila want to ride in the car? That is, so if you ever have kids, you don't know which one's going to be happy on what day and which one's going to be mad. They're never both happy, right? And so like, so when me and you won at Pocono, Nicole was mad.

in hell, didn't want to get any in the pictures, didn't want to stand up there and hold the flag, nothing. She stood off over to the side of the mountain. So we are going to Pocono, and I'm talking to him. I'm like, hey, we got five cars. We're going, we might win, you know, come on. And they're like, okay, yeah, I want to go to Victor Lane. It's going to be fun.

Yay. We win the race. We're running toward the flag stand, right? Justin's out there doing burnouts. halfway there, I like to smoke. And from that moment on, she wasn't,

we were 50 yards in the car. From that moment on, she was madder and hell the rest of the day, stood over in the corner of Victor Lane, didn't want to get any pictures, nothing. Maybe it was a me thing. Maybe she just enjoyed being in Victory Lane with me. Maybe so, maybe so.

But they'll be there in Sonoma. That's going to be a fun trip. Yeah. And hopefully one of us is in, all of us are in Victor Lane when it's all said and done. What are some of the racetracks outside of San Diego You know

I guess I'll start with you Shane Looking at the rest of the year What are outside of San Diego All the road courses and stuff like that What are some of the racetracks you're looking forward to I've started to enjoy the mile and a half small Like getting more comfortable at them like the Kansas And Vegas I had a bad race

But practicing qualifying were decent Chicago is back on and that's a fun-ass racetrack. That looks fun. Have you all had? I've seen some on board from the test a couple weeks ago. Looks rough. So the bump in the tunnel of turn three and four? There's a big one into turn one now.

There's a re-sealed it after. It's like driving off a set of stairs. The first corner? Yeah. You just, you kind of, it's like, yeah, it's like driving. It's like driving off a set of stairs. It's just like a land and that's it. I didn't think it was too bad.

No, I think it's been resealed since they're... Oh, yeah. So I think it's a new bump. New bump. But all the test footage, they're on the inside, but when you see racing from there, like you're all over the track. Yeah.

The bump in the middle of three and four to me is the worst because you drive into it. Like it's, you drive into it. It's like, wham! Yeah, you can see on the on boards they're straightening the wheel as they're about to hit it going over and then... It's kind of similar to three and four at Texas,

but maybe even a little worse. Oh, yeah. That bump isn't fun. No. No, that one's rough. Yeah. War out track, though, man. And I mean, it was war out when we were racing there.

And now that it's set. Seven years ago. Yeah. Now that it's set with nothing, it's going to be like, it's accelerated the abrasiveness of that. It's going to be wild. Yeah, I'm curious to see what it's like. The other one's probably Atlanta. That's coming up soon.

We had a fun race. Atlanta? Yeah, we were quite good there. I'm not sure whether I would like racing there. It's chaotic. that's for sure. I think 30-year-old me would, but not 50-year-old. I finish that race, and it's like nothing else for me.

Like, mentally I'm just dead. I think I have the worst super speedway record of all time. Like, I've, from Xfinity to Cup, I have finished, I've run full-time last year, six speedways, and then I've gotten three this year, and I have finished on the lead lap in one race. Yeah. I had the same last year.

I had the exact same record, my first year. six plate races in a rally. Yeah. I mean, it's just... Oh my gosh. I'm horrible. And I feel like I, all the time, I'm like, oh, that was just bad luck. And I look at my, like, I go back and look at the stats.

I'm like, it's got to be me. Like, I, there's no way. I'm just... So, I don't know. Maybe I need to find a way to stay out of these wrecks a little bit. It'll click. You got 10th at Atlanta last year, didn't you? I guess I got 11th last year.

Yeah. Yeah. So I finished 11. Well, I forgot I did a cup race last year. So yes, I have two out of 10. Yep. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, the racing, the way the, the way the racing is at Daytona and Talladega is, I mean, your results are really out of your hands. You're not even, you know, you don't get to decide what's happening to you in those races. You're just along for the ride. You're just kind of sitting in line doing nothing. I thought that's changing for Daytona.

We'll see. The athlete. Well, we're going testing to see if we can change. You excited about that? I am. You driving? I mean, you're not racing. No, but, I mean, I mean, if they change the race, I'm. I might entertain the idea of going back and running Daytona, but not doing it. I ain't doing it the way y'all are doing it now.

I'm not going out there to run. The thing is, though, 10th in line and not be able to pull out and do that thing. The thing is, though, I don't think once the teams know about this fuel saving thing. You don't think should change, yeah, I understand. But I also think that... It might not.

It might not never change. In the O'Reilly cars, like these cars, if you are running 15th in line and the leader's going wide open, you're going to be pretty close to wide open. Like, I feel like you, just, I don't know, you race the O'Reilly car, so you would know too, but I feel like you're not able, like the bubble of the hole from the field is not as big as Cup. Like, Cup, I feel like when

you're in the back, you can just like coast and you're just like dragged along. Yeah. But it's not like that on Saturdays. No, but like if you're, you know, if, if you're, if the field's up there running a second, two seconds slower, the lead cars are, you know, running 60% throttle. like Justin in the Daytona race, I'm like, you know, that morning I went up to Rick Hendrick and Gordon and I said, hey, I know y'all got a plan and Hendrik cars are going to do this

and y'all know how your race, you got your race mapped on what you're going to do. We're in this one race. We're not running any more races. I want to, we're going to run wide open. We're going to run hard as we can run. If we're leading and run out of a ass with 40 to go, I don't care how short on fuel we are.

Like, I'm just, we're just going to go like hell. So there was an Indy 500, Pajon-O-1 in the yellow pencil car, and he ran wide-ass open all day. And they were screaming on the radio to him like, dude, we can't, this isn't a plan. He's like, I don't care. I'm leading. And they're like, but we're not going to make it on our strategy. And he's like, I don't get a-and-and-the-cone. And the cautions fell perfectly.

He ends up winning. Yeah. And they were fine. And so I'm like, you know, we're just going to go run. like hell. Like it seems like... We get told off if we did that. Yeah. Right. I know. Like I don't, that's why I wouldn't want to go do it. It's because like you'd... Hey, you're the one driving it. Why you got to listen? Well, I know. I mean, I could just do whatever hell I wanted, but that, do you see how that worked out for us.

Yeah. Yeah. You got wrecked. Yeah. Thanks for that. Yeah. Yes. So, I mean, that, I don't see how they can... I don't know what you do to put the the genie back in the bottle. The only thing is, though, I don't, man, those cars, Maybe it's just mine and my car was driving bad, but I would be scared to take more down force and, you know, take drag out of them things because I was a handful. Oh my, I was out of control. Like I-Dakona and Talladega? Daytona and Talladega is not as bad. Yeah, the Daytona 500, when it, when the sun was still out and it was hot outside, I mean, I was hanging on. Really?

When? To what end? Like in the middle of three and four, I was loose. Oh my gosh. And then the exit of four when you get in the back, I was literally like all the way out of the throttle plowing tight. Yes, that's what it used to be in the middle of the 2000s? Yeah.

Like way back and they, dude, like in 2004, pick a year, it doesn't matter. We'd go in, you know, you get 30 laps in or 20 laps into a run. You'd drive off into turn one and be up to the wall, plowing. Like out of the gas to keep him hitting the wall. And then you get up there, it's stopped, and you go, Mm, gas it again. And hope as you come around two, you didn't get tight and have to lift because it would sometimes get tight off too,

and you'd almost hit the wall and have to come out of the gas. I mean, you were out of the f***as all the way out of the throttle, and then two or 15 down the straightaway. Yeah, and row down the next straightaway running over, guys. It's pretty different now. Yeah, we're just, burr, 175 on. Yeah. Man.

Well, I don't know how, I know they're going to go test in, a winter time to try to figure some things out. And I'm sure they got a nice long list of things. Denny's the lead guy on it. So. Well, if anybody can figure it out, I trust Denny. Yeah, that's kind of my thought process. So they were like, oh, if you guys have anything to say, I was like, he's been doing this long enough. I think he can probably tell them what we need. Yeah. I feel like he can make it good. I didn't think I'd ever be saying that, you know, 15 years ago. What are you not a Denny bro? I see the sticker back there. Yeah. I'm not a Denny bro, but I won't Denny bros to be successful.

Let's talk about Denny. He's on, he's been dominating. He's taking advantage of the success of the Toyota's this year. But on top of that, and I'm going to talk to Chris Gale. I talk, this is our Wednesday show. So I talked to Chris Gale yesterday. And I feel like that even though the Toyotas are all hard to beat, Denny's even better than all the Toyotas.

you guys are out there on the racetrack with him and y'all y'all have you know you've probably had a lot of conversations with denny um i think chris gale needs to be celebrated a little bit because he's obviously found a way to extract more comfort and speed out of the car than the other crew chiefs that are having you know have to have to yodonts in their garage but what is it about denny too i mean you know you talk about how your feedback wasn't right to get you know once you got your car forward and gotten this you know better air and you didn't have you you're like oh i don't have the car the way i need it

Denny seems to have landed in a good spot on what he needs. And we listen to him talk. And since I've been in the booth over the last four or five weeks, he's not fast off right from the get his first or second, third, fourth, fifth lap. He's like, you know, top ten for sure, top five. But like the 45 or somebody will go out there and run a f***leap two tenths faster. But lap 11, lap 15, lap 20, lap 30, like Denny is. is way better than anybody else.

He's having to work way less than everyone else. He has figured out something about this car where he just lights out when we get on old tires. And, you know, at least that's what I've been seeing over the last several weeks. He's not had great restarts. He's gotten a little bit better over the last several weeks, but all year long his restarts haven't been bad. And he'll tell you his car is just not. not all that great in the first handful of laps, but it's not what he's focused on.

What's that all about? I know you guys are watching, emulating, trying to figure out what. I don't know. I never see him on the track unless he's laughing me, so I don't have an answer for you, but it's impressive.

I mean, I have no doubt. And I mean, he would have a better answer. Do you guys have, do you guys study SMT? Do you try to see what's going on there? Yeah,

his line's just above mine the whole time. And I'm like, I don't know if I could do that. Yeah. It looks fast. Luckily got to race him at the 600 and the Nashville a bit. And I mean, he's not the fastest, but there's no mistakes. His precision is unreal.

Like, he's hitting the marks every lap. And when you overlairs the SMT, the consistency is just insane. It's really impressive. And then it's the execution, putting himself in the right spots. Like, I think Bell's faster. I think Reddick's faster. Like Bell's his teammate in Nashville at the end of that race, he did nothing special but just sit on the bottom and let the other guys make the mistakes.

And it was epic to watch. I shouldn't say he did nothing special. That was special. But it was really cool to watch how he goes about it and just like methodical. And then it's pretty impressive how he just executes every week. He's obviously got good team around him, good car. But how he does that, it's pretty cool to see. He's definitely, I don't know, you know, he's always been that kind of.

of racer. I've always, when he first came into NASCAR, he had a very thinking man's approach to it and a very mental, sort of steady, repetitive, really, you know, really clean approach to his driving. He was never really a guy that made a bunch of mistakes, never a guy that was, you know, up in the marbles, sending it, you know, being a wild ass, you know, race car driver. He was always kind of very clean. And he came out of the late model stocks where they didn't have a lot of power and is all about, you know, is all about momentum,

you know, and he races like that. Yep. And, yeah, I feel like that maybe I don't know the next-gen car as well as you guys for sure, but I feel like maybe this car also plays into it a little bit.

How difficult has been for the teams and the drivers to adapt a lot. Like you've raced the rally cars, so you kind of understand what a stock car has been for the last 30 years. but this car racing in a cup series with the pan and a low profile tire and all that stuff some guys just didn't transition to it like some guys just couldn't couldn't get comfortable with it and figure it out but denny has yeah he's impressive i mean it's whenever i watch races and smt he's one of the guys that i always watched just to i don't know he's always doing the right thing he puts himself in the right spot in races and, you know, he feels the car very well.

Like I've heard so many cool stories of just how, like, how he elevates programs with his feedback and his ability to make the cars better. And, you know, that's what makes him so good is because he knows what he needs. And, you know, I probably took everybody a little bit of time to learn what we needed out of this car. but once you get a few race-winning cars and understand what it takes, you're like, okay, I know what feel I'm looking for. So, yeah, I mean, he's, I don't know how I could be him and retire at the end of next year with the success he's having. I actually asked him last week. I was like, man, how do you retire when you're this successful and having this much fun?

And, you know, I guess you get to a point where you feel like there's nothing left to achieve. And, you know, I hope he can win a championship before he gets out of it. but yeah he's uh yeah someone i think we all look up to as as a race car driver hey this is delinhart junior and for all the latest dale junior download gear including the i'm old drink some beer t-shirt we've been talking about here around the office head over to shop dot dirtymo media dot com for all the latest merch you know when you're talking about the the next gen car and what when it feels when you have when the car's right what is it doing differently than when it's not handling good?

Like, I've, I can, you can tell me kind of how one of these cars drive and I can understand, I can put myself right in there and know exactly what I'm, what you're talking about in terms of feel. But, you know, what, what is, when you drive the next gen car, what are, what are the challenges that you're facing in the seat of your, and you see your pants versus driving a rally car, for example? Well, I struggle when I get in these or in the, truck. Like the first, I drove the truck for the first time at Charlotte and it was a surprise. Like,

it got rained out until Sunday. Like, I've left pit road. I've set my wheel. You got no laps. Yeah. And I normally like my wheel set straight or just to the right. And I've set it a little bit to the right. And like the race is going green and gone through the gears. I've gone on it to turn one and I've gone, oh, like you forget how much you have to turn those things with the bus and I've got my hands all crossed up and like I don't drive like you and do the weird thing. And so I'm all crossed up. I'm going to have to move here. And like, and then I spun out. Like embarrassing on lap five, I went under someone and like beside them. And it just, I forgot about like the side force. It just spun me out. And I just, what I don't know.

I didn't even know that. I just, yeah, I don't know why. You know, and then I had to relearn like how the car sits in the corner and these, these things are just so funky. You know, and then the cup car feels kind of normal to me. My gosh. You know, and then I'm like going through it opposite to what everyone else has. Yeah. Would you say that the, I mean, probably dumb question, but would you say that the cup car is obviously closer to what you've driven your whole life? The cup car is like every other car in the world.

Like when the car's sliding, the car's sliding. You know, like if you're having a moment, it's a moment. Whereas I always struggle to distinguish. in an Xfinity or truck, when it's sliding, are you actually sliding? Or is that just the rear end flexing and the yore going? Like, I never, I never know what's happening in those cars because everything's just floating in the back. Yeah. It's, it's so different. So I find I'm more in tune with a cup car because it's like everything else. But that's interesting. Yeah. What about you? Yeah, I mean, I feel similar. Like, I didn't race a stock car until 2022. Actually, I got a memory like

last week, four years ago today, my first stock car race. And that was kind of funny. So, yeah, I mean, I feel similar. I feel like the cup car is very hard to get to the edge and be comfortable. I think that's the hardest part about it. It's just the rear end is very on edge with the tire. And it's very sketchy to drive it to the limit, at least with the cars that we've had, But with this new body, I feel like we just struggle to get rear grip in it and still have

front turn in traffic. I think that's been our biggest struggle. You know, whenever we have good rear grip in practice and feel like we're locked down, you get to the race and you're like, oh, my gosh, we're plowing tight in traffic. And then, you know, vice versa, if you feel like you're turning well and feel decent about how you're, you know, you're going to be in traffic. And then you get to the race and you have no rear grip. and you're starting to get tight in traffic,

and it's the worst of both worlds. So, yeah, it's finding that balance for me has been tough of, you know, how much rear grip do I need to be able to, you know, be comfortable, but also still have the front positive. And I feel like Dover was like the first race where I had good rear grip, not great, but I could drive through the field and had front turn

and was able to, you know, be comfortable entering the corner and not feel like I was going to wreck on entry. So, yeah, I think just trying to chase that feeling for me is what's important. But, yeah, it's very hard to drive. I feel like the X-Finity car, you can just drive it at 105%, and, you know, you don't really have to worry about the tire falling off too much. And, you know, you just drive the shit out of it. And whereas the cup car, I feel like I'm always on a fine line.

With the cup car, is when I watch the race and I'm watching all the, I'm looking out and I'm able to see the entire field and all y'all go off into the corner. And every single one of y'all has to wait on the car in front of them to just figure out where they're going to go. It's a game of chess. Yeah. So you can figure out where you're going to go. You look like three cars in front of you and you're like, all right, if he's going bottom, the next car's going top. Exactly.

And then the next car's going bottom. Yeah. And you're like, you're just trying to play out. You look four cars in front of you to see. where everybody's going and you're just like, okay, if he's going bottom, he's going top, he's going top, so I'm going to be top. And that kind of like, it's crazy. It's so different.

Every freaking corner. Restarts as well. Like if someone misses it and goes wide, you're like, oh, thank you. And you get the clean air, you can drop through. Because if you're stuck behind someone, you just have these blowouts and you just, and it's all front loss. Well, you sometimes get rare, but it's pretty much all front. It's front until you get your right front out and it's

As soon as the right front headlight hits the, hits the clean air. It's like a dead zone. And then it's just your, that's how I wrecked at Michigan the first time. Like I pulled out to the right and just like, you know, I was loose. It was my fault. Like I was already loose and I put myself in that aerospot trying to be in clean air. And, you know, that's like the danger zone. You don't want to be right side out and trail in a car because whatever, for whatever reason, that's the worst position.

That's the worst spot. Yeah. Yeah. At least in when you follow someone directly into the corner. or like you're just going to get tight. But when you get offset right and you're behind them. You feel like the car raise up. Yeah, the whole car raises.

Yeah. It's a huge snap moment. Damn. Yeah, that's the one thing that I think for like Austin Hill, for example, he's run, you know, eight years, 10 years driving trucks in O'Reilly, and it's relatively all kind of the same mentality about error and where you want to put your car. and it's not as critical.

You know, you can't really, you can make a couple bad decisions, but nothing super serious. And now he's thrown into this cup car, and I know he's run a couple cup races in the past year or two, but he's kind of running this thing every week now. And he's having all of these moments where he's like putting, you know, he's in the wrong spot. He's decided incorrectly.

And you see some guys that are in the back of the pack that continue to do it, that have driven the next-gen car for years. and they just continue to, they don't seem to like have picked up on the concept of what the arrow is like with this car. I mean, I hate, sorry to interrupt me, I hate to say I wasted a year is a better way to word it,

but doing that learning year in Xfinity was not really. Like it was good to see the layer of the land, learn the tracks in the country the way it worked, but I almost should have been thrown in the deep end and cup and learn that car. Really? They're just so different. Yeah.

Like everything I learned. Yeah, that's kind of the same thing. for me. Like I, you know, people always tag me in social media posts and they're like, oh, he needs to go back and do another year about Riley. And I'm like, it's too different. It's like you learn nothing. Like it's, it's so different. And on restarts, like, it's a completely opposite mentality. Like in Xfinity, you drive it into the corner with the guy in front of you and try and get as close to their like left rear as you can. And in Cup, you're lifting at the flag stand to give yourself air on entry so that way you can get a run.

off the corner and, you know, get a run and go through wide bottom, whatever it is. But I mean, it's just, it's so polar opposite that I, like, I run the Xfinity races or whatever, the O'Reilly races to have fun and enjoy it. But, you know, it's almost like I have to just clear my mind before I go into that race because, you know, everything I learn on Sundays is opposite. It's funny. I love the cup racing, though. I find it pretty cool. Like, yeah, having a search for air and push and move around. It's, it's different. It makes it challenging for sure. And, and like, you know, you started to see people find ways to manipulate the car in front of them. Like, if you are in the middle of the corner and, you know, you can get to the guys left rear and pack air on exit, like it's a big blowout moment.

When you think about what is happening in that moment. So, I see that all the time. I saw it off a turn to it, Michigan, a bunch. Guys will get to the left rear and this guy, the front car gets tight. Why? What is happening to the air that makes the lead car? lose front. You feel the left rear drop.

Like it packs air on the spoiler and drops the weight on the left rear. And it kind of drives off the left rear. And you feel that like if someone comes beside you on the straight, you feel the cargo like that. So it just pushes you out. Whereas in the Xfinity car, it's the opposite. It lifts you up and kind of sludge you. You pack the air and it moves them.

Whereas this gives you. So it's dumping air on the left rear spoiler and just kind of picks the nose up. That's how it feels to me. Unload the right front. Yeah. Yeah. I always feel like I feel the left for you go down and then like the front of the car like it just picks like you literally feel the car start to float like it just it completely takes off it's the weirdest I mean you completely it just like the front is numb yeah when someone gets to that guys were having have to dump all out of the throttle oh my gosh it's huge blowout moments yeah it's huge blowout moments it's scary like whenever I see someone in my mirror like I will almost drive

away from them just to not let them get to that spot because it's awesome it's so it's funny how it's opposite to the to this kind of comment yeah I know you get loose whenever someone gets to that spot yeah are there other you talked about being offset to the right on the on the on the behind somebody would be in a bad spot and then that moment they're getting to somebody's left for a quarter pedal trying to get them tight are there other um other things you can you're trying to do or could do to make it difficult on the cars around you besides just trying to you know yeah I'm driving your mirror I mean that's the biggest one is just driving in your mirror.

You know, I feel like you're in a spot every week where you're, someone's a little faster than you behind you and you just, you can't let the spot go and you've got to do it. But, you know, I mean, you're just always searching for clean air. But yeah, I would say the offset right, one car back is the sketchiest spot to be in. The new Chevy body's actually made that a lot better, though. It was worse last year. Yes, really. And the new body has helped make that a lot better, that spot.

So that's about it though. I mean, you just don't want to be behind the guy in front of you and you don't want to be offset right. It would make me laugh. I had Ty Gibbs behind me at Nashville and he was much faster. And my line was kind of a late arc. I couldn't turn in the rubber. So I'd enter high and exit low.

And he was kind of shooting the bottom trying to get the air and I'd do the late apex cut his nose off and I'd see him just plow wide. Sorry, man. It's the only thing I could do. I could just see him plow in wine. You always feel bad and you're like, Yeah, he'd do the same thing to me, so I don't feel bad, but yeah, whenever you see the guy,

whenever you see when you shut the guy off and you just see them take off, it's like, sorry, sorry, man. We'll see that a lot in Indianapolis. We see it in Pocono as well quite a bit because of how narrow the group is there. Does any of that matter when you go to San Diego? You get a lot of heat soak, yeah, especially with these tires. If you're following someone for a few laps, you don't lose down. force really you just get more heat entire temp just you just lose grip yeah that's how it was like

walkins glenn when i just followed them in stage two like by the end of the stage it was definitely like yeah you want to you want to get to someone and pass them straight away yeah yeah really yeah yeah yeah the brakes everything just heats up so quick yeah in traffic right behind you know yeah especially track like that way there's no there's no street courses or the worst you're 90 degree corners there's only one line you're following the guy the whole thing you're following the time. Yeah, especially because,

you know, you're in between two concrete walls. There's no air circulation. It's just the air gets hot inside the walls and it's got nowhere to go.

So what, when will you guys go to San Diego? Thursday morning. Yep. What will you do Thursday and Friday? We've got some stuff with the all whites, the soccer team for New Zealand.

And then I think Thursday night we got track ball. Yeah, track walk and Red Bull appearance. The track walk, I know you, guys have done that at some road courses and stuff like that but how how much time how critical will that be for you will that be like is that I'm imagining like uh the pitcher that's throwing a no

hitter sits down at the end of the dugout and the teammates stay away from him when he's getting into the later innings because they don't want to with him and get him out of his mentality when you're going to this place three and a half miles very technical a lot of things to really kind of pick up on before you actually go out there and drive the lap how important will be where your opportunity to download, you know, the track walk. That'll be pretty critical. Yeah, I mean, it gives you just a heads up for those first couple of laps, I guess. I feel like you see more on the trackwalk than you do when you're driving. Like you just, I don't know, you're walking it at a very slow pace and you see every pot hole or bump. And as you said,

where's the forklift guy? Put the barriers down like Chicago every year. The barriers were in a different spot. So you're trying to see where he's put it, where the bundles are, the bundles might move and how far they're going to move. So, yeah. All right. Well, so when is that? Thursday night?

Thursday night. Yeah. Actually, we have a request for you. Are you doing any like pace car rides or anything? Yeah. When? Thursday night, right? Yeah, that's after track walk, yeah.

Yeah, you want to take us? Is that legal? I don't see why not. Is it safe? Have you seen them on a road course? No. Hey, I'm all right. A couple good runs.

Yeah, well, if you've got an open seat in your car, we'd be happy to join you. I don't need to give you any tips at Sonoma, but I was all right to Glenn. Yeah, I mean, I don't, yeah, I'm going to do the track walk with you guys. Really? Yeah, if I can do the track walk and bug the shit out of y'all while you're walking with questions. I don't see why not. Y'all can hop in the pace. All right, that's a fair trade.

Yeah, good deal. Yeah, I like that. But somebody's going to complain about this. You know that, right? Oh, yeah. They always complain. especially when y'all run good, which is going to happen anyways.

No pace car rides or not, but I have to drive. Okay. Yeah. You can't drive because then we really would get in trouble. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can drive. All right, man.

Well, thanks for coming through. Connor Zillich, Shane Van Gisbergin. I appreciate these guys coming through. I appreciate Conor Zillich, Svig, joining us here in the R.B. studio. Pretty awesome for those guys to come through. talk about the San Diego course.

And a couple things that stood out to me was the heat soak conversation around, you know, as we go to San Diego, let's watch these races, let's sit there and think about as, you know, as we see another car kind of dogging the guy ahead of him, how urgent. he is mentally to try to make this pass before he starts to you know piss off the tires the brakes and everything else and it just gets near it gets next to impossible to make the make the make the position to take the position away so um SVG said hey man you got to when you get there you got to make quick work of it when we're watching the race this weekend let's think about as we're seeing this race play out that's what's going on in the driver's mind.

So he's not patiently sitting there waiting for a mistake. He's anxious trying to make a pass knowing that time's running out. The sand and hourglass is running out quickly before this car starts to lose performance, his own car, right? That's interesting to me because we don't really think, as we're watching the race, We don't really think that one guy's, you know, at an advantage and another guy's performance is degrading rapidly because of the disadvantage of being the following car. So that was interesting. The other thing that I thought I don't love to hear, but it's, they both said it was that their time in the O'Reilly series was,

maybe not as, um, not as helpful. Now, I would slightly disagree with Connor, but maybe not SVG. So SVG comes to us with a decade or more of racecraft. He is developed. He's a racer. He's, he doesn't need to really learn a lot of rookie mistakes and go through all of that, right? So he's already complete. Connor's 19 years old.

As he said, he ran his first asphalt race four years ago. And while the cars are completely different, and he is correct in saying he's learning nothing about racing the next gen, if he's in an O'Reilly car, he's not learning anything that's going to help him on Sunday in terms of how the tire feels, how the car works, how the arrow works. None of that matters. None of it transitions.

He said it. He's got to get out of that O'Reilly car and just almost do a men in black zap his brain and forget everything because none of that stuff that the O'Reilly car did is going to be helpful.

But what I would say he did gain while he's in the O'Reilly series and he will continue to gain while he races O'Reilly cars is racecraft. And so while he's very talented and he has less racecraft,

to learn than other 19-year-olds. I do think the O'Reilly series, the season there, was helpful for him. He won a ton of races, gained a ton of confidence in himself. That would have not happened in the Cup Series. If you threw him into the Cup Series without that O'Reilly season and he had this struggle, it's a very good chance that the entire industry would have rode him off as a bust. But he's leaning, you know, he's got that O'Reilly season from last year that he can sit

there and hang on the wall and say, I know I'm not doing everything I need to be doing this year and I know we're struggling, but that right there says that I belong here. And I'm going to get a longer runway, some grace over the struggles he's having as a rookie in the Cup Series. He's going to get a longer runway because of what he accomplished in the, O'Reilly series this past year. So, you know, I think it's a benefit to him. Maybe a second year in the O'Reilly series

wouldn't have been as important and as helpful. But 19-year-old Connor Zilich, there's probably still a little bit of racecraft there to be gained and learned, and he's learning it now at the cup level. Those are some interesting things to hear. I think the O'Reilly series has a purpose and serves a lot of young drivers,

but yeah, the way that NASCAR has made the two vehicles so vastly unique, complete opposites from each other, not only in just the parts and pieces, but arrow, everything that they do on the racetrack, how they react around each other, it's all different. It's made it, you know, it's, the route to get to the Cup series is a lot different.

these days because of that. So as an owner in the rally series, I wish the cars were more similar. And they reacted to each other and around each other more similarly. So that was interesting to hear from those guys. There was a lot of great conversation there. I loved all of it. And I think y'all probably enjoyed it as well.

And we'll have them back, man. They gave us a lot of great information. So appreciate you. them coming through. Don't forget about Arby's new meat and three box. You get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meats. And also, don't forget, we've got a big weekend coming up. We talked about it, San Diego. We'd love to have everybody that's going to be there to come out

and meet us. We've got two live shows during the race weekend for Dirty Mo Live, Dirty Mo Media. On Friday, we've got two live shows during the race weekend for Dirty Mo Media. On Friday the 19th, Dirty Mo Live, presented by the U.S. Navy, will be on the NASCAR experience stage. So at the NASCAR experience stage at 1045 in the morning on Friday, Ryan Blaney will be headlining that show. So go check it out.

Support Ryan's a, hey, dude is freaking doing this out of the kindness of his heart. So go, hey, go support Ryan, go support Dirtymo Live, go to the NASCAR experience stage at 1045 on Friday and check it out. And then on Saturday the 20th, I'll be doing a live broadcast of the download presented by Arby's in the U.S. Navy right at the Victory Lane stage at 5.30. This is going to be right after the O'Reilly Series race, 5.30 p.m. at the Victory Lain stage.

lane stage. So we'll have a few guests on that show as well. We hope to see you out there. Two live shows. If you're in San Diego, come see us. And if you can't, check it out from home on Dirty Mo Media's YouTube channel or wherever you get your podcast. All right, we'll see you tomorrow. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok.