The Dale Jr. Download - The One That Got Away: Closest Finishes in NASCAR History

Episode Date: May 9, 2024

So close, yet so far from victory. With Kansas providing the closest finish in the NASCAR Cup series history at 0.001 seconds, the DJD Reloaded crew decided to revisit iconic photo finishes throughout all eras of the sport. NASCAR historian Buz McKim calls in to look back at memorable finishes – plus tell us of a TIE on the record books – before he gets put to the test with photo-finish trivia. Plus, the driver of the No. 1 for JR Motorsports, Sam Mayer, stops by to share the emotions of the close win at Texas from earlier this season and how he deals with the heartbreak of being runner-up. Plus, we hear from the fans in our weekly Dale Call segment about their favorite photo finishes of all time. And lastly, we get a "surprise" visit from the only person who can give us insight into the crooked start-finish line. 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.

Heartbreak, regret, the one that got away. And no, we're not talking about the love of your life. It's much worse if you are a NASCAR driver. We're talking about the wins that almost but never were. 0.001 seconds is all that it took to decide the race at Kansas over the weekend. It was one for the history books, right? Which has us wanting to go a little bit further back in time to the photo finishes of the past. And boy, do we have the best guest to do that with today, a former NASCAR,

A legend of the sport. Buzz McKim is joining DJD Reloaded. Plus we got Andrew Curlin here in studio. Sam Mayer, driver of the number one for junior motorsports. He's going to come in, call in, and offers a little driver perspective of those photo finish moments. And we have a special surprise guest that's either going to offer us a really great explanation or maybe a really great excuse for that.

Crooked Start Finish Line at Kansas. The following is a production. of Dirty Mo Media. Welcome into another episode of DJD, Reloaded. Is this a loss, I guess, that might stick in your gut for quite a while? Yes. If we've gone across the line and from the get-go, thought we finished second, you would have been upset about it,

but it would have been okay. I thought it was going to throw up on the way that you're going to have to be. Welcome into DJD Reloaded. I'm Carla Gepphard, and here in the Bojangles studio with me is Andrew Curlin. Back from London. I saw you were at a soccer match over there. I was. Yeah, it was Chelsea versus Tottenham.

I'm a Tottenham fan. And, you know, speaking of heartbreak. Yeah. It was a heartbreaking loss. I mean, that's pretty cool and everything. But one thing soccer does not have is photo finishes like the one that we saw at Kansas over the weekend. I mean, yeah, one for the history books.

0.001 second determining that Kyle Larson was the winner. I think the biggest thing in all of this that everybody's talked about all week is the fact that we thought it was Chris Busher. And then NASCAR had to take a second, look back at the photo and realize that Larson was actually the one that crossed the start, finish line first. It was an unbelievable

moment just to be able to witness that. And I honestly did not think we were going to get that type of finish when the white flag flew, but you know, here we are and we're talking about it. It's pretty exciting. TV coverage always gets the elation of Victory Lane. I know. Larson, pretty

excited. You kind of saw his in-car camera of like, you know, he thought he lost. And he was like, oh, man, good job, everybody, great effort. Then he found out he won. And it was just like a total switch of emotions. But on the other end, you had Chris Busher who thought he won. And then he didn't win. And that was a whole other roller coaster of emotions, which is something that he talked about with Dell Jr.

on the Dell Jr. download earlier this week. Is this a loss, I guess it might stick in your gut for quite a while? Yes. I thought I was going to throw up on the way the airport afterwards. You know, if we had gone to go and. across the line and from the get-go thought we finished second, you would have been upset about it. You'd have been heard about it, but it would have been okay. Transponders and time and score and everything are in our favor. It's comical right now to talk about, but to see it all play out

the way it did, it just hurts. I haven't been in this situation, but when he said I just felt like throwing up on the, you know, playing right back. I can understand where he's coming from because gosh, you come so close. And you are 0.001 seconds away from getting something that you very well deserved. That's the biggest thing. Whenever you see these type finishes, it's like, you know, both of these drivers deserve to go in Victory Lane, but only one can. I guess that's what's so heartbreaking about finishing second in those situations.

It really is. And I almost was a little bit more surprised that he said he felt like thrown up after the plane. Because for me, I mean, again, we've not been in a race car at the end of these types of races. obviously. But I would think, you know, right away, you would just be heartbroken, kind of walking back, getting, you know, getting ready to leave the track and all of those emotions hitting you then. But then I feel like maybe it would trickle off a little bit, but that's just not the case. And if you talk to any NASCAR driver out there, they always remember the ones that they lost, the ones that got away, they can recall every second of it. And that's going to be the case for

Chris Busher moving forward. And think about Chris Busher's position. This is a playoff berth on the line. FK, Ford looking for win. There were a lot of things that were going their way when they thought they won that race. And then to have the situation change and the circumstances around that be different. Now, all this work, I thought we were in. Now we've got right back at square one. That is a tough feeling. And I think that's what plays the most into the emotion after, right?

Because you saw Kyle Larson. He was like, oh, man, good try, everybody. then he saw that he had won. And I mean, he was excited, but like not, I don't think he was more excited than Chris Busher was disappointed when he found out that he lost. But I think it's because Kyle Larson already locked into the playoffs. Chris Bisher, like you said, Moore was on the line, but I just thought it was interesting to kind of watch that range of emotion.

And you talked to Kyle Larson this week, didn't you? I did. Yeah. And he was, yeah, I mean, super excited about it. And, you know, like when Cliff Daniels came on and told him that they had won, he was like, oh, really? Wow. I mean, I think everybody needed a little bit more explanation after that.

But yeah, and then you look back at the one in the history books from 2003 in Darlington, 0.002 seconds of Ricky Craven, Kurt Bush. And if you look at any video from that or any of the interviews, it's very interesting to me that Ricky Craven won that, but he was almost not as excited as you thought he would be, but Kurt Bush, who lost it, came up to Ricky and was like, That was awesome. That was the coolest thing I've ever been a part of. And that spoke such volumes to Craven. Right. But that's totally different circumstances than the Larson-Busher race. I think it's because of how Bush thinking he won. You know, at least Kurt Bush.

Knew he lost. He knew he lost. You know, it's almost they broke the news early to him. You know, I don't know. I think, I definitely think Bushers is way more heartbreaking than Kurt Bush. But hopefully he can look back at this moment as, wow, what a great race. Well, he said, hey, let's get a win at Darlington so we can make it all better. And I have to think about it for too much longer. All right. So let's go ahead and get a little driver perspective in on these photo finishes and on the topic. So let's bring in the driver of the number one for junior motorsports. Sam, Mayor, he's joining us right now. And Sam, I know you've had been a part of a lot of close finishes before, but you were recently

on the good side of this at Texas just a couple of weeks ago. So let's start with the good perspective of this. of how much fun it is to win a photo finish. Yeah, it's a blast, obviously, to win anything. But to win a close finish that gets a lot of media attention, a lot of people are talking about it, it makes it more special, especially like Texas for us. Like, I was almost prepared to finish second anyway,

just try to get the dash for cash money at that point. And obviously, like, we were able to rally up and get a chance to go for the win. But I was kind of in defense mode because, seven was right behind me and then all of a sudden the cards fell the right way and we were able to go attack for the win. You know, this show is kind of about, you know, the ones that got away. Obviously, that one didn't get away for you. It was a good result. What is a heartbreaker that has stood out, you know, put yourself in Ryan Sieg's shoes. I'm sure you've been there.

Is there anything that comes to mind of like, dang, I wish I could get that one back? Yeah, Talladega is the first one that comes to my mind at the end of 2022, the fall race there. I led the whole last lap and a half, and literally up until the last like 20 feet of the race, I was the leader. So I was on the bad end of the stick there, unfortunately, and that was, I mean, two years ago now. So getting a win on the good side of it definitely kind of makes up for it, especially in dramatic fashion like that. So that was two years ago, but do you ever truly get over the emotions of letting one slip away like that? No, of course not. I mean, like, you're always thinking about it.

It's always on the back of your head, man. That'd be one extra W I'd have on my plate on my resume. So you always think about it, the what-ifs and how could it be, but you've got to take the good with the bad, I guess, with racing, because you're going to be on the good side and the bad side at times. You know, I'm sure when Ryan Sieg replayed that final lap, he probably, you know, hit the replay button a lot more times than you did, at least to try and like analyze your Monday morning quarterback it.

do you think you learn more from the ones that got away versus the ones that you ended up winning? I don't know, that's tough to say. I think no matter what the result is, you're always going to learn something from it, good or bad. I learned something about myself at Texas that I can't give up as quick as I did. Kevin, Hamlin on top of the roof for me, my spotter.

He's kind of the one that helps guided me to have that opportunity to go for the win. and I just had to go out there and do it. But, yeah, I got to stay in the game, and you can never give up because you literally never know what it can happen. The 39 could have a flat tire there at the last lap, and I pass them anyway. So you never know what's going to happen.

You always got to keep your head in the game. And obviously, the 39, he had the rough side of it because you don't know how to lead races like that if you've never done it before. You don't know what you don't know. And obviously there's a couple things he could have done different to defend a little better, but part of learning as well. You mentioned, like, that was something you learned, like, oh, I can't give up very quickly.

Is that something that you've had to work at? Has that cost you before? It hasn't. Thank goodness. But this was the first opportunity where I was kind of in, like, the middle ground of, yeah, I'm second place. I technically could win the race. There's four to go.

But I also had the dash for cash $100,000 right behind. me with the seven. So I was kind of in that middle ground of playing defense and offense, and I think I was playing more defense at the time. But with three to go, when we really started turning the wicker up to try to go for it, that's when I knew I had to go on the offensive and there was a chance. Now, any of the photo finishes that you have lost before, Sam, maybe there was a pause, a moment, but then you were told on the radio, you know, hey, we came up short in this one. Put yourself in Chris Bushers' shoes from last weekend to think that you won and then moments later realized that you did not win, what do you think your

emotions would have been like? I can't even fathom how awful that is. I think that is probably the worst thing that a race car driver could ever go through. Yeah, you can have a bad wreck or anything like that, but you can recover from that. I don't know if you can ever really recover from having one literally taken away from you. Yeah, I, feel for them. Obviously, that's a cool organization. And I'm a Chris Bisher fan ever since he's been a part of RFK and that whole crew over there. Like, they're really fun to watch on the racetrack.

So seeing one slip away there sucks, but obviously Team Chevy right here, it's really good for our side. Kyle Larson, I look up to him. I work out with him every now and then. And it's really cool talking with him. And it's really cool to see all of his success and try to try to be like, him actually. I mentioned, I've mentioned earlier that, man, poor Chris Busher has to, you know, anytime you get a close finish, right? It's historic. It's a big moment. You're going to see a lot of replays of it. Does that make you so thankful that you

ended up winning the Texas race? You know, anytime you see a replay, it's a happy memory, you know? Yeah, I'm definitely grateful for that. Obviously, I'm also grateful for that opportunity to give all the guys on the TV side of things a good something to talk about for a couple weeks. up until obviously Kyle and Chris did it again. So we're definitely making the content and the media pretty good this year. We're doing a good job keeping everyone on their toes and keeping them watching. So it's cool to be a part of that this year. Seeing a little social media posts and everything like that is obviously a really proud moment and happy memory.

Obviously, if I was in the other shoes, it would be like, man, I'm not going on social media for at least the next six months because that's all you're going to see. I know I wouldn't. Yeah, it's a good deal for me. Well, Sam, we appreciate you joining us. Of course, we wish you all the best and all your future photo finishes. Hopefully you'll be on the good side of things, on the winning side, and we really appreciate you joining us. Thank you guys so much.

More ones for Jerry. I'm coming soon. I know they're excited to hear that. Absolutely. Yeah, but Chris Bush, the worst thing that could possibly happen to a driver, I haven't heard that one yet. Yeah. I mean, I really do feel for Bushers, especially like, you know, the emotions that came from it.

Yeah, it's not easy. Yeah, well, we've talked about the disappointment and the elation, but we haven't talked about this close finish in the context of the history of the sport. We're going to do that with Buzz McKim joining us coming up here in a little bit. We're also going to be talking about your perspective, get your perspective on this from the Dale's calls and the don't hold me to it. That's coming up next. What was the closest finish in NASCAR history this weekend at Kansas,

between Kyle Larson and Chris Buescher. We've already talked about it a little bit. But what does it mean in the context of the sport and the history of the sport? We had to get a former NASCAR historian used to work at the Hall of Fame here. He was a director of statistical services. He's been a part of NASCAR, his whole entire life. And now he is a part of DJD Reloaded. Let's go ahead and welcome in Buzz McKim and Buzz.

I want to know when you watch the finish on Sunday from Kansas between Larson and Busher, Did you realize the enormity of that moment and what it would mean for the sport? Yeah, they never had an 0-0-0-1. That was incredible. That was definitely the closest finish ever. And it kind of blew me away. I figured out, here's another one for the history books. You know, Carla, you said, you know, former NASCAR historian.

But Buzz, do you ever stop being a historian? Like, what did it mean? At least like for me, when I saw that finish, my holy cow, like that moment just happened. What did that moment mean for you knowing that, oh, like, I'm back in work mode, you know, that this is significant in terms of NASCAR history. Oh, yeah, yeah. It's definitely a major milestone, and I knew I'd be getting calls on it, and I'm delighted to reach it out to me. I thank you so much. But, you know, there was a tie in NASCAR history, believe it or not.

And it happened in the 1974 Firecracker 400 at Daytona, Tale Yarborough, and Buddy Baker. tied for third place and in the actual race report it has tie on third there. Wow. So the tie that I know of that happens. Yeah, that's interesting. I didn't know that. I did not know that either.

And honestly, I mean, we saw the photo finish at Kansas, but we've seen a lot of photo finishes in 2024. What do you make of that with the next gen car? Obviously, you think about Atlanta earlier this season. Also on the Xfinity series side too. But yeah, what do you make of all these photo finishes? Yeah, it just shows the incredible competition that NASCAR has going for it now. And the quality of drivers, too.

It's just, I think it speaks volumes on how NASCAR is dealing with the competition. And I think it's just a great era in NASCAR history. You know, I already learned something from Buzz, and we haven't even started the game yet. I think we should put him to the test, really see what he's made of. Ready to do that? I think we should see if we can stop you. Buzz, are you ready for this? I know that they've tried to stump you before,

but we're going to try our best today. Easy on me. I'm kind of old, okay? Okay, all right. So we do have some softball questions, at least to get us going. So flashback to 2011, Talladega Speedway,

the errands 499, was decided by 0.002 between Jimmy Johnson and who? Clint Boyer. Correct. That was an easy one. I knew that one right away. All right, Buzz, I got the next one for you.

Who is the only driver to have multiple appearances in the top 10 closest finishes list? And this is only including cup points races, just for context. And how many appearances does he have? Oh, that's good. That's good. I'm thinking, could it be, well, I was thinking Jimmy Johnson? No, I don't know. I think he got me on that one.

How about to have? No, not Harvard. Yeah, I say Jimmy Johnson. I think he's got two. It is Jimmy, I think, I don't know if Jimmy has two, but it is actually, he's still racing so he can continue to make history. Yeah.

Oh, well. I'm drawing a blank here. Sorry about that. It's Ryan Blaney with three. Yep. Those Daytona 500 finishes, they've got them good. Yeah. He's been unlucky in terms of that race.

Yeah, a lot of close ones at Talladega, too. How many finishes and Nassau? Car Cup Series history have been decided by less than one one hundredth of a second. Oh my gosh. I'm going to say about 15 or 20 somewhere around there. It's less. It's actually 10. But that's still quite a bit.

You know, you mentioned that Daytona 500, probably the most famous photo finish was the 59 Daytona 500, where Lee Petty and Johnny Boe across the line. And if you look real close to that famous picture, you'll see somebody. standing under the flag stand, and that was Bill France, Sr. And he had no idea that they were going to have a photo finish. He didn't even set a photo camera up there at the start finish line. He figured what was after 500 miles. But what happened was Joe Weatherly was one lap down, and he was on the outside,

and he blocked Bill France's view. So Bill put an ATP out for anybody who had film or video of that finish, and after 61 hours, it turned out. to be three days actually. Race was run on Sunday. They finally decided on Tuesday that the boat champ did race. The boat champ went to victory lane, kissed the trophy girl and all that. And Lee Petty said, heck, I knew I won by about two feet. You think Chris Bisher had it hard? He had maybe like a half of a cool-down lap of thinking he won. I mean, this is three days, two to three days. That's tough. I love these stories, though. And you've heard them before,

but yeah, to get a little bit more context from Buzz. Yeah, absolutely. Let's see. Should we go to the next one here? In 2000 and 2001, which track had back-to-back spring race finishes measuring inside the 0.01 of a second finish margin. Man, you guys are tough.

You've been up late, haven't you? I will say the 2001 race at this track is a pretty famous photo finish, if that helps. Oh, okay, that'd be Atlanta. probably with Harvey. The closest finish at a short track came in 1998 at Richmond Raceway, and the two drivers involved shared the same first name. Who are they?

1998, huh? At Richmond. At Richmond, Richmond, Richmond. That was pretty tough. Well, you guys are good. First name is Jeff. Oh, gee, let's see. Godine.

But Jeff. Yes, Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton, and it was Burton that won. You know, the closest finish up till this past week was the 2003 Carolina Dealers 400 of Darlington between Ricky Craven and Kurt Bush. That was two, one-thous-of-a-second. You remember that was probably the most thrilling final lap that I've ever seen, and they came across the line. go side by side to one thousandths of a second. I think that that whole final lap I still think is higher in my book than the Kansas, but watching Larson run that high groove and just holding it not hitting the wall,

that was pretty thrilling. But I would say, Buzz, like, you know, how would you compare the Darlington finish versus the one we saw this past weekend in Kansas? Oh my gosh. Well, of course, you had that last lap leading up to the Darlington finish. but you're right about Larsen he's got he's got guts

I mean nobody will put the the car anywhere he can put it that's for sure so I'll meet personally I'll probably go back to the 2003 Darlington race just for the final laugh that was leading up to it

and then you know they kind of got together and if I'm not mistaken Burton went up into the wall going into one and they have a little tussle there how about a couple more

should we try I think so All right, which track is represented the most in the top 10 closest finishes in NASCAR Cup series history? I'm going to say probably Daytona. It is a super speedway, not Daytona. Oh, then it has to be Talladega. Talladega with four. I think that extra, you know, extra distance from the Trival start finish line, that's definitely stirred some things up in terms of our start finish.

It definitely has. Yeah. In terms of our photo finishes. Let's see here. We were talking about points races. These are non-points races, unless you know you go to recently. They've been awarding points for these. How many dual finishes were decided by less than one one-hundredth of a second? Oh, gosh.

Well, I know Skinner in 2001, he beat Dale Jr. He did. By 4,000ths of a second. Also, the shootout was 13,000th of a second. In 2012, that was Kyle Bush. and Tony Stewart. Oh, and then we had another one that we had the Gatorade duel in 2010, Casey Kane and Tony Stewart, by 14,100s of 1,000s of a second.

So that's been another hotbed. Another topic of conversation at Kansas was the transponder system. So one of our questions is when was the currently used transponder system implemented in the Cup series? This one's tough. This one's definitely tough. No, I was with NASCAR when that. came about. I've been racking my brain figuring that was going to be a question. And I'm

thinking about 98. It's earlier. Close. In the decade. 1993 was the year. I'll be darn. Okay. Before then it was win by a half a car length or two feet or one foot or something like that. They really had no way of, you know, making the 0.1.1 better. sort of thing. They had no way of doing that. To think about how far we've come of the, we need to find someone who ended up taking a photo of that 59,

Daytona 500, and now we've got transponders, we've got the high-speed cameras. It is pretty fascinating to watch that. Yeah, it is. Buzz, we are also going to be talking to, are bringing in some of the fans' perspective on this show today of close NASCAR finishes. We asked them what they would want to see as a tiebreaker in the sport.

Obviously, we know it's whoever. if it is a tie, whoever led the most laps would win the race. But I want to get your opinion on this. What would you think would make for a good tiebreaker? Yeah, I think that NASCAR's got it right. Whoever led the most laps, and now if it turns out where that's a tie, then they go to whoever finished in the runner-up position in the laps. So I think that would be a real good way of putting it there.

the fact that you know if they tied to bring the side whoever lived the most laps which Kyle would have won anyway I guess you know Ball don't lie you know Larsson

Larson would have gotten it either way yeah absolutely so you know we talk about the tiebreaker system Bisher really needed more than 0.001 because Larson would have had the tiebreaker so he you know he was already at that disadvantage coming to the start finish line

Yeah, I guess it's good that the photo finish was caught on film. Yes. Well, Buzz, we appreciate it so much. We appreciate your time today. And, of course, we heard from Buzz that he likes the way that NASCAR has it, but we've got to hear from the fans, Andrew. We've got to hear what they want to see as a possible tiebreaker in the sport. Plus, how about the crooked finish line at Kansas?

We have a very special guest joining us. It's going to offer some explanation behind that coming up. So we know the finish between Larson and Bisher over the weekend at Kansas was the closest, but was it the best? That was something that we kind of teed up to you, the fans at home, to weigh in on on this week's Dale calls. And if it wasn't this weekend between Larson and Boucher, then who has had the best finish in NASCAR history? Let's go ahead and take a listen. It's hard to put a defining answer on what our greatest NASCAR finishes. For my lifetime, it spans from the 70s, the 8th.

the 90s, there's so many to mention. There was a good one with David Pearson, Richard Petty, last lap of the 500. They tangle up in the infield. Dale Seniors win at the 500. You know, there's another historical one. The one with Junior Johnson, if we can narrow it down to the 70s, the 80s, or the 90s,

I think it would probably help. I can't relate to it. As I was listening to that call, I was trying to think of which ones would be mine. And I just, I can't relate to the, you know, those are obviously amazing historical finishes. I think we've had some really good photo finishes within the recent, recent last decade. Yeah, I do think so as well. I think it is interesting, though, thinking about those clips that you watch. Oh, absolutely.

Like, to me, they mean more because of the nostalgia of them, right? Also, they had control of their own cars and how they were made. This next-gen car, yeah. maybe to me produces closer finishes because they are the same. So more creativity, the nostalgia of the clips. I'm not discrediting this weekend at all. I thought it was amazing. It's so much fun to watch all of the photo finishes of 2024.

But yeah, I do like the historical finishes a little bit better. I'll say 79 Day 2 in 500. The Kent Squire call and this, you know, beaten and banging here. They were angry. They know if they have lost. I obviously was not alive for that. That is one of the best finishes. NASCAR history.

No, just by a little bit. Got some good anti-aging cream. All right. So I'm saying that Atlanta this year beats out Kansas because three cars is better than two. Not just because I was there, but three cars is better to two. What I can tell, the line in Atlanta was straight. So we know what was going on. I don't know about all this crooked line stuff happening in Kansas.

They got to get that straightened out. Nicely done. They do need to get that straightened out. that one was great the one at Atlanta was I mean you were watching at home I was watching at home I was in Atlanta like the viewer was a little jealous of that by the way but watching yeah three cars going to the finish and not knowing who won at that moment yeah that that was pretty great amazing I don't I don't think Kansas was the greatest race of all time I know some people might think that some of the younger folks hey whatever closest finish ever It makes a good case. I think Atlanta this year was a better race overall. And 2001 Cracker Barrel 500 and Pepsi 400. Those definitely the greatest finishes of all time, no matter what.

I would have to, I think I would disagree with him in terms of I really enjoyed Kansas start to finish. Gosh, you was so refreshing to see that type of racing and you get a historic finish. I think Kansas had it all. Now, that's not to discount Atlanta, but I think I would rank Kansas green flag to checkered flag a better race in Atlanta. Wasn't Jeff Gluck's poll? Wasn't it the best race? Oh, potentially.

Yeah. I'm pretty sure that it was. But I think, yeah, I mean, there's not many races where I'm going to point out how good stage one was. Exactly. Right. But Kansas did stand out quite a bit. And, yeah, I would have to disagree a little bit as well.

The way Kyle Larson did that run coming off of turn two was unbelievable. He had the momentum all the way at Chris Bush's incident of God-dain-10 chance. He went up into turn three. I swear to God, he had Robert Duvall from days of thunder in his ear up on the spotter stand. Say, you can hold. If he goes in it outside, you can make it cold. And by God, Kyle Larson went on the outside. He held the whole damn prize, son.

He come off and turn four, and he said, you know what? I'm going to pretend to side draft. I'm going to flam the hell in the Chris Bush's door. And you know what? I'm not going to do it once. I'm going to do it twice. And then I'm going to take the trophy home. And that's why it's the best damn photo finish you'll ever see on this side of the Mississippi.

I think he just took us through a lap. We need to get this guy in the booth. I was just saying I love the energy. All of the calls this week have been great. So keep those coming because these were very highly entertaining. I feel like if I close my eye and listen to that last caller, I could picture the, I could see it. I could visualize the lap. That was good.

I think for me, I'll be biased. I'm going to go with one that I witnessed in person. The 2016 photo finish in the Daytona 500 to me is one of the craziest finishes I've ever seen. The stakes, everything that was on the line for it to come that close. And I feel like I'm a little bit of part of history. I interviewed Denny in Victory Lane. I was first person to show him the photo of the photo. to finish and got his reaction. So that was pretty neat.

How old were you back then? It was probably like 13 or 14 years old. Yeah. No, that's awesome. And I do think, I do think being at the track, some of those is going to sway how you feel about it. I mean, even for the small post race reaction that we got to see from Kansas, you saw the crowd hanging around. Oh, yeah. That doesn't really happen a lot. To be a part of that. And yeah, now you are a part of history when you're there. I love watching all the videos on. media, seeing the different angles of like people sitting in turn four, people sitting at the start finish line from the infield, I could watch the replay that race a million times.

All right. So we also asked you on X this week of if there was a tie breaker in NASCAR, which now we know that there is that if you, whoever wins or, you know, if there is a tie, it's whoever leads the most laps, that is who wins. But what would fans want to see? What's your solution? I mean, I don't really have a solution, but I don't really have a solution, I know the fans got really creative with this. So let's go ahead and look at what they had to say about what they would like to see a tie in NASCAR look like. Let's see. From Track Sweeper 2, both NASCAR sweepers have the same setup.

Wow. Put them in for one lap starting from a still position at the start finish line. Wow. So they get out of their cars. That would take a lot of time. That would take a lot of time. I'm all for a fair playing field, though. Tricia Taylor says.

only allow them fuel and tires a 25-lap shootout if they wreck each other third place wins so this is this is the tiebreaker we're going to rack them up again yeah dang and then okay so if they wreck each other you guys could not keep it in order we're just going to give the third place yeah okay Alexander sudden death oh both drivers race till the first one runs out of fuel or tireware and get before the fuel and tireware gets to them the one who survives is the winner wow so that is going to be a really slow race. And we're going to have 1% throttle to save tires and fuel. Wow.

And it's going to last the rest of the night. You thought Talladega was tough, Alexander. I want to see that idea put into play. I want to see, I want to see them race at Talladega Night's style. That's your solution. Yeah, yeah. Just like they, both drivers get out of their cars and you physically on foot race the start, finish line.

Listen, one, one person out there on X says, that height should determine it. What? Oh, man. Poor Justin Allgaier. That's brutal. Joey Lugano, Carson Hosevar. They're probably all for that.

Todd Gillen. You got a shot if you're at a tie. Somebody also said a drag race on Pit Road. That's interesting. Somebody said both win and both get the points and both advance into the playoffs, I guess. What if we, both drivers get out of their car, you set up podiums and they have to convince you why they should be the winner? Oh, you know, give me, yeah, yeah, give me like your, give me your two minute pitch.

You know, Chris Bisher, oh, like, we need to win for Ford. Like, this is going to get us in the playoffs. Larson already won one this year. You know, he would have had my vote. Whoever cheers the loudest, is that? Maybe that's it. Yeah. Yeah.

A lot of shootouts, rock paper, scissors. Yes, okay. I saw a lot of this. I mean, that sounds a lot of fun. I don't think NASCAR would necessarily think of that. But a pit crew challenge, somebody also said that. That would make it a little bit more team-oriented. but I like the height.

I like the height thing. But you know, you got to make sure these guys aren't wearing lifts. Like they got to go through inspection after that, right? I think that's important. Take your hat off. I even think you got to have a haircut, okay? You can't have your hair sticking up. Slick your hair back.

Yeah, or else you will get penalized in the post-race tear down and the wind will go to second place because you were using lifts in your shoes. I think drivers would do whatever it takes to get a win. I don't doubt you on that. All right. Well, the other thing that we've talked about, we've teased a little bit, is this crooked start, finish line at Kansas that we've all been talking about. Jeff Gluck, Jordan Bianchi on the tear down earlier this week, explained why it was what NASCAR actually used. But still, I mean, why was it so crooked?

And I'm not, yeah, we're going to have an answer for this. But a lot of people had some interesting thoughts about this, including Denny Hamlin on Actions Detrimental. This is the start finish line. It's going to be, if you painted it. It looks like Molly painted it. Why is Molly taking strays over here? That was a little unfair to call Molly out. I think, I mean, they're just saying I think she could have done a better job.

She could have done a better job. Dirty Mo Media has found the guy that is responsible for painting the crooked line. And we'll work on that. We'll work on that. Okay. Yeah, here he is. We're going to leave his name out. Yeah, you know.

Peter Picasso. Peter Picasso. No relation. I believe that. So, yeah, I just want to know how did you get this job to paint the start-finish line? Well, you know, I was in the area, first of all. That worked pretty cheap. But listen, so I actually did the three-point line at the women's basketball tournament.

A lot of people were talking about it, so I guess I did a pretty good job. You nailed that one. You really did a good job. Thank you. Yeah, talk about level playing field. There's no one you're waving to over there. No one over there. Peter Picasso.

Okay. That is fantastic. I'm so, so happy for you. Like, what did you think of the job you did at Kansas? Are you proud of it? Absolutely. I think I killed it. What, you didn't think so?

Yeah, first of all, crooked. What you thought? No one's a fan of abstract art anymore. What's next for Peter Picasso? Yeah, well, you know, I think I've been getting a lot of phone calls. I think they're going to fly me out to France for the Olympics. They're commissioning me to do a piece called Lane 4 for. Tracker field.

Did anyone ask you to paint the surface client? Because I'm really not believing. Did you see in? How did you get in here? How did you get in here? All right, I'll come clean. I'll come clean. I just walked in and there was just a bucket of white paint.

No brush, though. So I had to finger paint it. You can't do what I do. You can't be Peter Picasso, you know? It's not easy. It's not easy being me. You know, there's a lot of critics, right? First, it was the NBA three point line, or not the NBA.

The NCAA, NCAA, three point line. Yeah, what was wrong with that? Now it's, now it's Kansas. where do you draw the line? How do you draw the line? I told you, I finger painting it. What do you have against Chris Bisher? Nothing.

Hey, I... He's got something against you. I didn't tell him to take the inside lane and get on the apron. It just so happened that I got halfway through finger painting, and then they came with a brush. So what was I going to do? We can do the whole thing?

You sound pretty lazy, actually. I was I supposed to know it's going to be the closest finish in NASGOG up here. What are you doing? Did you do? Did you design Darlington? No, that wasn't me.

That is actually a cousin of mine. Yeah, there's one heck of an oval over there. Yeah, your cousin did it? Yeah, I do straight lines. My cousin, he does the circle. I'm sure, yeah. When you're flying to France, you must be connecting. You're not going straight there?

Yeah, no, definitely not. Yeah, I didn't think so. I'm not sure if he's going to get more work or less work after being on this podcast. So, yeah, that's very interesting. Peter Picasso, we appreciate you explaining everything for us. Where are you from? What is that accent? Yeah, I don't know.

That Peter Picasso. Okay. Hey, thanks for having me. I've never been on camera before. It's excited. Yeah, this is never making it. Sorry, but I was a little nervous. That is going to do it for us on DJD Reloaded.

Lots of good stuff to listen to this week. Besides this podcast, you've got to tear down, like we mentioned with Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi. Actions Detrimental with Denny Hamlin, door bumper clear. That was an interesting one this week. It sure was. Anytime Joel Edmonds is on the show, you're going to get an interesting product. It was fantastic, though. Yeah.

Also, the Dell Jr. download, Elton Sawyer, back on. And this one was really great. I've already listened to it and just learning a little bit more about him, his past, his racing history, and how he got to where he is right now. That was a good one. Yeah, absolutely. Revealing some things about the future. You know, interesting comments on hybrids, tires, you know, the next-shend era.

It's definitely worth a listen. Yeah, Dell Jr., also on Speed Street this week. It's been all over. Dirty Mo Doe. I know. Very busy man. But yeah, that will do it for us on DJD Reloaded. Hope you enjoyed the show.

We'll see you next week. Check out Dirtymo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.