The Dale Jr. Download - “We Race, We’re Racers.”

Episode Date: November 17, 2025

The NASCAR season may be over, but Dale Earnhardt Jr. still has plenty to chat about before the end of 2025. He joins co-host TJ Majors for a brand-new edition of Dirty Air:JR Motorsports returns to the Daytona 500 in 2026How will Denny Hamlin perform after his loss at Phoenix?Ryan Preece joins the show to discuss his recent short track package test at BristolOver and underperformers of 2025During the Ask Jr. portion of the episode, listeners wrote in questions regarding:Dale cooked a brisketTerrible Christmas giftsGift exchange with your spouse Proper time for a Thanksgiving dinnerTurkey preferencesWearing athletic jerseys And for more content check out our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMediaReal fans wear Dirty Mo. Hit the link and join the crew.👇https://shop.dirtymomedia.com/FanDuel: Must be 21+ and present in select states (for Kansas, in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino) or 18+ and present in D.C. First online real money wager only. $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets which expire 7 days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut, or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit GamblingHelpLineMA.org or call [phone] for 24/7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPENY in New York. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Oh, this will be hilarious. Truex won a race or a pole or something, but they've delivered a lawnmower to our property. And we covered it in paintball. We shot it like 300 times with paintball guns. And he was not happy with us. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media. This is the most fun I've had in this chair in the last hour and a half.

I don't know if we've ever argued. Did I piss you off over the weekend? I'm still sour Did I want the best man at your wedding? Who was your best man, Dale? T.J. T.J. You don't need a cool best for that race?

What are you thinking? Get them, T.J. Hellway is starting a show. All right then. Hey, everybody. It's time again for another Dale Jr. download. And I'm Dale Jr. with me as my co-hosts, T.J. How's it going, T.

It's going good. Glad to be back for some Christmas cheer, I guess. I recommend, man. When does this? there this week? Today. So we're wearing Christmas, ugly Christmas sweater. It's early. Before Thanksgiving.

It feels weird. But the merch, our merch stuff will come on sale on Tuesday. All right, so let's tell everybody what we got here. I have, who came up with this? Evan maybe? I don't know. C-O-T. Ugly as shit. I love it. This is mine. I'm going to wear this

every day in December. I don't know what's not. on Amazon Prime Broadcast. Dude, I'm wearing the hell out of this. This is my favorite ugly Christmas sweater I've ever had. It's pretty good. I like the sleeves. I would have done the cuss different.

I don't know if that's all about. The cuss in this ring. I don't know if they stand out. It stands out. It's supposed to be ugly. It is supposed to. I don't know. You know, I got to keep that in mine.

That's the point of it. Yeah. I wanted to be actually a good-looking shirt. If it didn't have the ring, I'd be like, this is actually a great sweater I'd wear it any day. It's a great, ugly Christmas sweater. Dale's going to get in a hoodie and a t-shirt, every kind.

TJ's got one on. The Dale Jr. download. Got the beer mug. Christmas lights. Yep. That the headset on. Yeah. And you're wearing a, bless your heart. Yeah, with the chairs.

Anyone else? Everybody else is good? Yep. All right. So yeah, tomorrow was when it will go live for people to shop. Yeah, yeah. Well, Prime priest calling in later. He's going to talk to us about the test at Bristol. There was a goal to determine a tire set up, maybe learn a little bit more about the tires at Bristol.

Do a big test there in the cold temperatures. Understanding what creates fall off, what creates where. We're going to talk about that. There was a bump in horsepower to 750. We'll see what you thought about that as well. We saw the car without the diffuser. There's a whole new short track package coming to Bristol, Darlington, Dover, Nashville, Gateway. called the short track package.

They ran the intermediate package last year at those racetracks. Now it's going to have its own sort of package. So we'll see what he thinks about all of that. I'm looking forward to hearing it. He's had some comments out there about the test. And there's another test coming up even after this one at Wilkesboro. A little bit newer asphalt. But they're going to go test there as well.

Also, Junior Murder Sports in the Daytona 500, we're going to go back again. We're basically going to rerun and re-rack the whole thing we did last year. The car will look a little bit different. You'll notice a little different font on the numbers and some different. It's a good-looking race car. I had some influence on the car. I would hope.

I checked the – well, I didn't pick everything, but listen, if you'd like it, I'm glad. If you don't like it, everybody in the building here liked it. So we're looking forward to going to the race. track and trying to compete again, it'll be nerve wracking all over, trying to, you know, run the lap to qualify in and then probably having to race your way through the duel. I don't think, will it be any less nervous you think for you? I'm nervous because we're going to have a new body, right? And what does that mean to, like typically anytime a manufacturer gets a new body,

they don't really go to Daytona and perform better. you know you're you're you're figuring out kind of what makes that body perform at a track like that and and their their intention anytime anytime any of the manufacturers i don't know i don't know details or i just shoot it straight but every time a manufacturer changes the body they're trying their best in every way with a new when a new body style is coming in to make their cars more competitive at the tracks that we race the most. And so they're always trying to like put a character line in there or fudge this little, you know, the quarter panel or whatever, the nose.

In such a way, they're working with the teams to go, hey, man, this is what we need. This would make us better. Well, let's see if we can get it passed through. When NASCAR accept it, NASCAR is going to run it through some tests. and arrow and stuff like that to make sure it's not like this massive advantage comparable to the other manufacturers. When they change the body style,

their hope in the attempt is that they will make the car more competitive at all of the tracks that they run the most, like the intermediates and the short tracks. And so it's whatever's good there is bad at Dayton and Talladega, right? Because it's going to have a little more downforce or a little more drag or whatever. So you would, and that's why I think that, you know, Chevrolet, or let's not just pick Chevrolet out. That's why I think some of the manufacturers might go to Daytona and Talladegh and say,

guys, you're going to kind of be, you're going to have, you're going to be a little handicapped here because this body's going to be great everywhere else we go, but it's going to be tough here, right? It's going to be a struggle here. Whereas other manufacturers have really, you know,

have a lot of success at Daytona and Talladega, whereas, and maybe they're, they're missing a little bit here at some of the other tracks, like the intermediates and the, the short track. So I'm just saying anytime we have a manufacturer change of body, there's a learning period. There's a year or half a year or three quarters of a year where they're trying to figure it out. And what really, what's the platform? How does this thing really perform the

best? How do we need to have the car set up to really be able to get the most out of this body? Numbers are different on the whole body compared to what they're used to. Back to the 500 though. Why do it again after a storybook way it was last year? Well, Kelly will tell you that we race. So we get a chance to go race, we race. I mean, I love the idea. I was just curious what? We just won't race.

We can, the Daytona 500 is the most important race of the season. And I would say that it, for an open team, like any open team or anybody that wants to enter the race, that probably is the best opportunity financially to do it and not lose money. So, you know, it costs as much, maybe, it costs probably more to go to Daytona for the 500 for sure, but it costs significantly, it costs a significant amount of money to run any race, like Talladega or whatever, right, if you want to go run in the middle of year, run a couple races throughout the year. It's harder to make the financial money work in the mother of event.

this one, we're just presented with opportunity to go do it. We have some partners that want to go help us fund it. And, yeah. So it doesn't touch this at all. It just adds to it. I mean, we pull people, resources. There'll be people that you'll see on the team and on the car that'll be recognizable. And our shop gets excited about it. They feel like it's their effort, right? You see Rodney Childers chiming in on. on social media and you see just, you know, how our employees get pumped about the idea. Because it's their car. Yeah, like when...

It's their flagship, right? It's our, it's our, it's our, it's our, it's our, it's, it's a big deal. It's a day. It's a 500. Yeah. But I will say this, more than likely, I don't know for sure 100%, but if I had my way, we would go with exactly the same components and people and personnel as we did last year. Justin's going to drive the car.

Last year we had great guys as a crew chief. We had B. Hoover come out of retirement, my old cart cheek guy. I mean, we, I would have everything as it was. It was a great fun group of people. They all wanted to be there. They all cared about it. So that hopefully comes together. So you would like Greg to do it again if you can.

Oh, yeah. Greg was great. I trust Greg and I know he knows what's going on. He's been involved a lot still too. Yeah, yeah. Last year you got a top 10. But I assume going into it, that wasn't your expectations. Not all.

Do you reset to, like, how? No, no, no, no, you don't reset. You say, I mean, yeah, you do. Yeah, you kind of reset. Making the race. It's still the goal. All the way back. Yeah, you got to re, you got to reign all the expectations back in to, man, we just got to get in the show.

Let's get in the show. So we're not locked in. Like I said, new body. Don't know how the car will qualify. We thought we were going to do all right last. year and we didn't in qualifying. So, you know, if we can, I'll be, you know, apprehensive about our opportunity and just pure speed on qualifying.

So we may have to go back and race our way in again. The top 10 gives you, you know, that if you're in the show that anything can happen and you can run up there. Oh, yeah. I mean, you just want to get there and roll the car out for Sunday morning and put it on the grid. That's like a proud moment. It is. pushing a car out onto the grid.

and standing there watching your driver. I mean, it's a proud moment. It's kind of like a driver. You know how the drivers say that, man, it's just awesome to make it to Phoenix. You know, they are going to race for a championship, but getting to Phoenix being there and being one of the four is a very proud thing. And you feel that that race morning of like, all right, man, I've made it.

Here I am. I'm going to go for this championship. There's only four of us. I'm one of those. That's kind of the way it feels in the morning of the Daytona 500 when you push to... I know there's only a couple people that missed the race. It ain't like a whole bunch of people go home. But, I mean, it's nerve-wracking as hell.

And you've worked all your life, right, to try to find the opportunity to get there. We got the experience that last year. We got more than we ever dreamed of in terms of results and success. Hopefully we can go back. I will... It'll be hard to recreate... You know, the experience and the success we had last year, so everybody will have to be, you know, realistic. I mean, it could have less pressure because you made it last year or more pressure because you made it.

Less pressure. Last year was hard in terms of pressure because we really were nervous. I mean, with two or three laps to go in the duel, we weren't in. So, you know, we kind of barely got ourselves in and Justin had to hustle at the end there to get what he needed in track position to do it. that was emotional and then we run the race and had all kinds of things going on in the race with the car and Justin survived and got a great result which was we're sitting there wondering if we're going to come down the front

straightaway the checker flags waving and we're like hmm are we in it or what I mean are we not oh there he is hey yeah and then you look down at the scoring monitor and it populates and he popped into eighth or ninth and you're like holy shit top ten you know I mean you're literally living, you know, that's how it went down. Just the unknowns. Yeah. I mean, the wrecks happened on the back straight away.

You don't have a clue whether you're in or not. No, yeah. Yeah. Can't see crap. But it's fun. Hopefully we'll just have some fun, you know. We race. We race.

You know, what did we talk, if I repeat myself, speaking of we race, so Kevin Harvick was, I don't know if he's talking on his podcast or something, a couple weeks ago. But he said that. He goes, we race. He was talking about the sport.

That's the tagline that I think they should use. I think, I think the, remember the hell yeah campaign, right? Did we talk about this last show? We talked about the hell yeah.

I feel like a long time ago. Yeah. Well, you remember there was a campaign, there's some possible rumblings that there was this thing. And Tim Clark shut it, shut it down,

said it's not real or, or what it's not exactly what everybody thought it was but um yeah so there was you know we were thinking we when i saw it we were thinking man we're gonna have this is our this is going to be our next day you know they're gonna we're gonna have this hell yeah campaign commercials and all this stuff leading up to the Daytona 500 and a lot of people weren't really that excited about it um Tim Clark said no tagline has been finalized no spot has been created now this was September. Kevin Harvick was on his show, and he was talking about the sport, and he said, we race.

And I thought, and a lot of other people I saw as well commented, there's your tagline. And Kelly says that. You know, why do we do what we do? We race. We're racers. We want to race. And so, and it's, I'm kind of rambling a little bit, but that kind of, that's, that mentality has always, been the leading mindset when you look at the books.

You know, when you look at the money spent, everybody's always said you want to, you want to make a fortune in, you want to make a small fortune in racing, start with a large one. And for my entire life, you know, I haven't looked at racing as a very, my entire life, like when I was a kid, when my dad, I mean, my dad made money as a driver, but as an owner in the sport, I don't know that you looked at it and went, you know, I'm going to profit here. When he ran his own cars, drove his own bush cars, you know, those were passion projects. He was going to spend, you know, $80,000 and race for 20, you know.

And so that was just, that's how it was, you know, and you were lucky back then to be able to find the funding and partnerships and sponsors that could make up for the deficit. Well, that, you know, those, that has all gone away. You know, corporate America has withdrawn a little bit of their financial support comparable to years ago, and so it's much harder for the teams to sort of find the way to cover that deficit. But we race. We want to go because we want to race.

And we're realistic about, you know, I think we're realistic. that the Daytona 500 gives us an opportunity to go race and not lose money, right? We're not going to, you know, if it costs you $750,000 to go run a Daytona 500, right? If you can find a partner that wants to help you with that, and you know you can check a few other boxes to be able to compile that money and be able to go do it, you go do it. You know? Does the top 10 end up in the positive?

Yeah, I think so. I think if you run in top 10, you're going to have some profit, you know. but that's uh yeah that's that's that's we race i like that that should be the spot called tim clark what's good going i mean it doesn't have to be his i mean i know it sounds like completely simple it doesn't have to be complicated denny hamlin finally got got around to doing his podcast last friday took a while um go go listen if you hadn't taking in the last episode of action is detrimental.

He's going to race next year. Right now, it's the last thing on his mind. He needs a break. These are some comments and thoughts from the show. Travis, you're pretty close to Denny, and how do you feel like he was

when he came around to do the show? Was he ready to do the show? Did he want to do the podcast? I don't think, I mean, he's, you watch it, and it's still wrong. He's like,

I don't even want to think about racing. He's like, I need a break. Doing the podcast, he doesn't give him much. of a choice. That's where I commend him for doing it. I know it waited two weeks, but I mean, it's probably the most emotional race he's ever had. Oh, yeah. And so I don't blame him, but my question is, we talk about at what point in your age does a driver kind of fall off. Does how the season ended for him concerned you with him going forward if he's going to have

that drive to continue being great? Denny has bucked the trend up to this point. Denny is an anomaly in terms of, you know, what you traditionally see in drivers. Competitiveness? He's competitive. He's focused. He's still just as talented as ever.

sharp. Like, I mean, when you're behind the wheel, it's 130, 40 degrees in the car. You're 200 laps in, and you've got to be able to make the right decision and right move in the right moment. You've got to be quick and precise. He's still got it. In the toughest of moments behind the wheel of a race car, Denny is as good or better than anybody. He's one of the smartest race car drivers. Now, there's guys out there that he'll even tell you.

There's guys out there that might have more. raw like ability um he may tell you and he said that before he's like i got to work harder to be the best there's guys like jimmy or larsen or jeff gordon maybe that had like just a whatever that core nucleus of of talent um but he's smart then he could win you know three to six races for the next handful of years at least looks like that right now does yeah i mean the way the team's running, the way he is, if he just wants to keep stacking wins, he can do that for quite a few more years, I'd say. And the only thing that I see that might alter that from happening is the heart,

the love for it. And that's what, you know, I know he had that conversation with Carl, which is probably pretty smart. man, what happened with Carl ripped his heart out. You know, and he, he, even all these years later still can articulate how that made him feel. He's, you know, he's, he may have gotten over it,

gotten past it, but it's still very, it's very, he remembers it. Oh, he's very aware of what that day and what that night felt like. While there's some technical differences between Carl's night and Denny's afternoon in Phoenix. The end result and how all that culminated to what we saw is exactly the same. You know, Carl had worked his entire life to be sitting there in that moment with a few laps to go in what looked like his race and championship to win, and it unraveled spectacularly,

and he crashed and crashed hard. You know, Carl decided to quit and never looked back. He showed up and did that press conference. And there was, and then, and then disappeared, you know, and totally. And you didn't hear from him. You didn't hear about him talking bad about the sport or complaining about it or he never did anything publicly. You know, he just left. You hear a story here and there of, hey, Carl, just farming out.

Whatever he's doing. At his house, yeah. It was like a mythical person. I know. So, I mean, it really altered him in a big way. And that would be the only thing that I could see happening here is, I mean, I don't know, there is no way. Like, Denny loves racing and loves driving and loves the pure part of it. And he's all, I mean, he's coming from short tracks around here and doing it as long as he's done it.

that passion is still down in there in the you know what of what of that has been damaged right and so does he I mean when he comes to the Daytona you know is he going to be able to

be in love with it enough to do what he did this past year right to put it all back out there and put himself back out there I think you will yeah because I think if he won hasn't race his entire career with Joe Gibbs and on 2311 I think you could see him walk away

Well he's not walking away I'm just saying you're asking me can he show up and do it again I just wonder that would be the only thing that I think would be difficult to measure is how much how much of his heart got broken over this and how much has how much is that tainted that goal

to him, right? Is he looking at it? Does the new playoff format? Does the format change help him a little bit? Well, I asked him if the format was staying the same would have been harder to return and he said yes. So the format is helping him, will help him have that drive.

And he said himself, he's the most competitive person he's met. So the format change is going to help. And maybe that gives him some renewed having the passion for it and a love for it to go out there and put yourself in those situations and do the work needed. That's, he knows. I mean, he's, he's a, look, I want to compliment the guy.

He's elite. He puts, he's, he's doing it better than anybody else in terms of the mental side of it. He's figured that out. And that's, and, you know, he's, he's just got some, he's got an air of confidence around him. And he knows when everything's right, he's, he can, he can do it better than anybody else. We all know that this time of year is perfect for good food, good friends, and great moments, whether you're tailgating at the game or gathering around the table for the holidays. No matter of the occasion, there's one kitchen staple that always delivers.

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All right, so we got Ryan Priest here for the Dale Jr. download. Ryan, thanks for giving us a few minutes today. How you doing? I'm doing good. What about you? Why am I? Where are you at? I'm at my race shop. I'm at my race shop. I, uh, getting ready for the derby, so it's been quite a fun. Is the race shop on, is it on your home property or is it somewhere else? No, yeah, it's right. I can walk, you know, right to the house. Huh.

So what all we got in there, Ryan? We got a, what car we got behind you? I have a super late model. It's a Fury car. And then I have a TQ midget that my wife's been trying to get me to sell for the past six months. So you're running this year or whenever it starts? The super I am, but the TQ. It will not be, I mean, unless.

Isn't it 49 days until that season starts, isn't it? Yeah, pretty much. I haven't been doing any downtown tier, TJ. What's the super going to do? She's going to run the snowball derby. Who helps you with that? It's a lot of it's been kind of on me, but I do have a couple friends. My engineer from the cup car and my engine tuner has come over a couple times.

So between them and a couple other friends here and there, been nice when I can get an extra hand. Man, that's cool. Well, look, we wanted you to come on the show because you did this test at Bristol. There's a ton of anticipation around next year, and NASCAR's willingness and openness to do some testing. There's a Wilkesboro test coming up. They've added a little horsepower. A lot of the drivers, you know, were kind of apprehensive or tampering down expectations.

on the horsepower, but it is a bump. You got to go to Bristol and run quite a few laps. We saw the car drive off pit road without a diffuser on the back. So what all did we test? What all did we test? What all did we like? How did you walk away from it feeling about next year? Yeah, so we went, we tested between all of it.

It was the new package. It was taking the diffuser off. It was a bump in, you know, horsepower, like you said, 750. and then various different tire options. As you've seen at Bristol, we've kind of had both sides. We've had races where tires haven't really worn entirely, and then we've had races where it's kind of tire survival. So for us initially, you know, I'll be honest with you,

a 750 horsepower, that little bump, you're not going to feel it initially on stickers. So I think it's really going to take the combination of going softer on tire, with the bump in horsepower. Everything we did is going to help for sure. And I think what we're all asking for, as well as the fans, is to see, you know, not get stuck when you get behind a guy where the arrow side of things just outweighs the grip that you have in your race car.

And, you know, at Bristol, that place is really tough. It's really tough because it's super fast, and it really just depends. It really just depends on what we end up bringing. So what I did learn is I probably didn't go long enough into the run to feel the horsepower kind of to where I had to really manage it, so to speak. I did learn that we could cord left side tires at Bristol. That did happen, even with only three cars and with it being 55 degrees.

We did have different ones where we could cord right fronts. we could make them last. So ultimately, I think it was just, you know, Goodyear gathered a lot of data. We gathered data for NASCAR on the package side, and whatever we go back with is going to be what's going to be putting on the best show for the fan. What does the car feel like when you drive it without the diffuser?

I don't notice any difference. Really? Yeah, really. I think, you know, if you look at a wind tunnel data and they'll tell you how many pounds of downforce you have less, I don't feel that. What I can tell you is I went 14.7 seconds around Bristol Motor Speedway, which is hauling the mail, in my opinion.

And depending on the tire that we had, I can go 1470s to 15 O's for a 30-lap run, where there was also some other tires where I'd be only able to go a 1550 and drop off to a 1620. And a lot of it is just combination. and I think actually you and I have had this conversation because initially when this car came out, a lot of drivers were saying that there's too much tire.

You know, it's too big of a tire. Well, I've driven, you know, wide tires all my life. And what I thought, you know, in my opinion was is the tires were very durable. And we needed to soften them up and have them go through a transition. And, you know, as this year progressed, I think everybody saw, you know, Martinsville,

I'll use that as an example. There was massive falloff and guys were struggling. So I think there's definitely a balance. We don't want to be blowing tires like crazy, which a lot of that is on cambers, air pressures and things of that nature, trying to get the most performance out of the tire. So there's a delicate balance, but I think as we go down this path, it's really good racing.

Yeah, I kind of think you're right on that. I was surprised that me and you did have a conversation a while back, and you were telling me, man, you know, the tire width isn't a big a deal, as you think. I've run Modifieds, and the Modifides have produced some really amazing racing. And I was really surprised that Good Year has been able to make the gains they've made. They ought to be celebrated for going, you know, being as aggressive as they can because it doesn't really do them any good to create a tire that falls apart or falls off or wears out or cords. It doesn't do them any good in the marketplace.

as much, you know, to make a tire that's not that great, right? You want to, you know, they want to sell tires on the street that are going to last thousands of miles. So building a tire in racing that's not great and going to fall apart after 50 or 80 laps is not really in their best interest. But it's what we need, and I'm glad they've recognized that. And they've achieved more than I thought they were, that was possible with this particular tire, the size of the tire in the contact patch. I got to ask you one more question about the diffuser. If you, when you get behind somebody, right? And that's when we're finding the most, that's where I see personally watching these races.

The most frustrating moment is when a guy can be much faster and drive up behind somebody and just totally lose the car. What do you believe is in your mind the best combination or the changes we could make to improve that as much as possible with what we have? Well, you know, my opinion might be different from many drivers or many people that even work on these race cars, but I, you know, I drive them, right? So, and I've formulated this opinion based off all the different types of race cars I've raced. And one thing I would say is when I got into, so I tested a USAC sprint car, an asphalt sprint car at Stafford. And when I throttled up in that car, which had 900 horsepower, but it was probably 1,800 pounds, I've never failed. felt something like that. And it made you have to tip really easy to the point that on stickers, if I throttled up as hard as I would in my modified, I would have tire shake. And you'd just be

absolutely killing the tire. So to me, you know, over time, and as we continue to go down this path, I'd like to see an increase in horsepower. But this is just generally my opinion, because all we've done, all we do, and like I said, it's my opinion, is when we take the rear diffuser off, you're just lowering the car, you're lowering the nose, I don't know all the things that are happening, but you're still going to fight the same problem. It's no different than when you watch a World Outlaw Sprint car. They are really cool to watch, but you see the leader as soon as he catches the back of the pack, if the guy in front of him is running his lane, he's in trouble. And the only way he can get around them is by searching around finding cleaner air or moisture and and that's how they

pass the difference that we have with what we've had in the past of a really durable tire is we can't make grip going other places because typically the top groove becomes the dominant lane and when somebody's running that lane you can't make enough grip in the bottom lane to get around him so as we've gone down this path of softening the tire it allows you to have options when you catch, you know, somebody in the pack. But that's just my opinion. So I'd like to keep, you know, there will be a point of where we can't probably go any softer because we'll, you know, to your point, you'll just, we're going to damage the tires. We're going to blow apart and that's going to be on us, but we're trying to get the performance

that we can. So what's another avenue that we can keep beating down? And that's, that's the horsepower side. But like I said, I don't, I don't know all the details. I'm just a race car driver and, you know, I want to, I want to drive a race car that's going to make me say, wow, that's a lot more powerful. Well, I think your opinion is critical, super valuable. Appreciate you being willing to share that opinion. And, you know, I feel like that the more we all, I don't have all the answers either, but I love the conversation.

And I think the more we have conversations, hell, I learn, you know, about some of the, maybe the opinions that I have aren't entirely true or 100 percent. So having these kind of conversations, I think, moves everything forward a little bit at a time. So this offseason, you will obviously have the holidays. You have responsibilities with all of that and your family. You've got the race cars behind you. I kind of want to, you know, I guess you're going to run the snowball. What other events do you think you'll get yourself into before you have to go back to Daytona in February?

That's, I'm not entirely sure. I mean, I'm probably going to run Speedweeks with my modified a couple times, just because I feel like that's a great way to get your, you know, the racing mindset of attack get going. But outside of that, I mean, that's all I planned on short track racing. And, you know, once we're done with Pensacola and five flags, it's trying to decompress. It's trying to relax because, you know, as a racer that, you know,

I've been nonstop racing, always thinking about racing. for so many years. And for me, it's hard to shut that switch off because it's been turned on for however many years. But for me, it'll be visiting family and going up to Connecticut and seeing everybody in New England, but also spending time home. My daughter's too. My son is, you know, he's going to be two months when Christmas comes. So really, it's going to be enjoying the different side of life and trying to, you know, create great memories with my family. Awesome, man. Well, I think that's a great decision. Thanks for giving us some time today. Are you going to kind of keep your ear to the ground around this test at North Wiltsboro that's coming up?

Yeah, you know, Dale, and to be honest, I'm a huge short track guy. So there was even conversations I was having with some of the Goodyear guys, you know, with some of the tires that we did run at Bristol that I felt, you know, hey, I'd love to see this at North Wilkesboro. and even in probably the colder conditions, I'm interested to see what it does. So ultimately what I learned from the test is everybody between NASCAR, good year, we all want to put the best product on, and we're working towards that.

And so, yeah, I mean, I'm excited about 2026 and in the direction that we're going. And, you know, as a race car driver, everybody's open ears. So that's great. Awesome, ma'am. Thanks a lot. We'll see you, Ryan. have a good holidays, bud.

All right, so a great conversation with Ryan there. And as I expected, I guess the 750 bump in horsepower is really not going to be a big deal. But he did leave the door open to that. Creating some challenges when driving the car deep into the tire run, you might start to see some more. You know, the drivers had to pedal the gas a little bit more at some of the racetracks when you get to a certain point on the tires, but he couldn't really tell the difference. And that's fine.

That's what we heard from Larson and a bunch of other people would be like, hey, man, it's not going to be a huge thing. I imagine Goodyear learned quite a bit with the tire while they were testing there. There's a lot of, they've seen all kinds of things happen at Bristol with the tire and to go there and actually do a test. And like he said, they could cord this tire, that tire. It was like they found a way to figure out why it was doing what it was doing

and how they could change something and get what they expect in terms of where. which is a good thing, I believe. And so we'll just have to see. I'm just surprised when he talks about the diffuser that it's not a bigger deal. I was anticipating him saying, oh, yeah, take the diffuser off. And something's it. You would think, like when we watch them go down in the corner behind each other and wash up the racetrack,

my mind says, well, you know, it shut the air off to the diffuser. so that's where a car relies on a ton of downforce, and when that's gone, the car guy chases it up the racetrack. But I don't know, maybe it's not as strong as I'm thinking it is because when he's like, hey, I'd take it off. I can't tell, I can't feel it.

I guess we won't know until they're in a group, you know. I need him to drive down in the corner right on somebody's ass with the diffuser off of it and then tell me. Yeah, back to back. What's the difference between those two things? But that's a great conversation, anticipating another tire test or a test NASCAR test, short track test, package test at Wilkesboro coming up soon. And between those two, NASCAR and everybody's making all the best effort they can to try to put together what we can expect would be a good package for the short tracks. And this will bleed over maybe into the road courses, whatever they learn here.

Still feel like the road courses and short track to me are together in the fact that they need to it. we need to get better. So the NASCAR season is over with. You wanted to sit down, Travis, and talk about who over-performed, who under-performed. Yeah, some questions for you guys. And favorite race,

biggest surprise, drivers will get their first cup career win next season. I mean, there was a ton of drivers who out-over-performed and a ton of drivers who underperformed. You can give a, you don't have to name just one then. I made a little list. You did?

Yeah, I got a list. My overperformers are John Hunter, Nemechek. I thought he had a pretty successful year. I thought Austin Dillon quietly had a good year. John Hunter was an overperformer? Yeah, I thought from the season before he overperformed where... I understand, yep. I thought Austin Dillon had a pretty good year considering.

The 19, I thought 38, 60 and 97. all overperformed. I mean, SVG, I mean, he's probably on par, but... You can't say on par, TJ, early in the year,

he's not going to win by 13 seconds. I'm not looking at his road course stuff. I'm looking at his oval stuff at the end of the year there. I thought he started getting it and started figuring it out,

so I feel like he overperformed where people thought he might have been. Chase Elliott. I know Chase didn't really net out where he wanted to, but, you know, 19 top tens, dude was super consistent all year long

a couple wins three DNFs there you know Chase Elliott is a champion and before Larson he was the guy at Hendrick and I'm just

I still got I'm still holding out you know hope that he regains sort of the you know he gets himself back to the top and they made some, they got some work done in that regard this year. I saw some consistency and performance in that team that I think that they've been looking for. I think this and format change could really help that team.

Yeah, yeah. Chase Elliott is now, if you go into a 10 race format, no matter whether it's 3-3-4 or just straight 10, it's all the same to me. I think that, you know, Chase is definitely a guy that you could look at as some of the, who could put together the 10 races needed to be right in the mix going into Homestead. Chase Briscoe. Yeah, he's on. Now, Chase, yeah, Chase Briscoe. And it's not, we're not just being big Chase guys here. Chase just happens to be a good name for a race car driver, I guess.

Risky, briskey. So right around the 600, everything started to click for them. and he's been a completely different, they've been a completely different team ever since. So I put Chase, Chase Briscoe not only did a really good job positioning himself in the playoffs, but when the playoffs started, they continued to run. You know, a lot of people wondered what they would do in the playoffs and how strong they would be.

And, you know, it just seemed like that once they got into the playoffs, they continued that performance. So I'd say Chase Briscoe. Both the chases did really solid. I know you want to do overperform, but underperform for me, I think it's got to be Redick in the 45 team. 2311 as a whole,

I mean, Bubba. Bubba had a pretty good. Bubba did step up. Yeah. But I think 2311 as a whole, they're looking at themselves, and I would too. They look at each year like,

man, we want to make a chunk, a big gain. Let's make a gain, gain, year over year. And it just, To your point, it just didn't happen for Redick, and I don't know what that's all about. I mean, he won the regular season last year and went to the champ four, and then it just...

My biggest thing there is zero wins for Tyler Reddick. Do you think it's because of last year that we had such high expectations for him? No, because I think him... I mean, he didn't win a race this year. No, we didn't. So it's like... Yeah.

But, I mean, did he win? How many did he win last year? He probably overperformed the year before, so maybe that helps a little, but the fact that you couldn't get one win, And, like, he just never could put together a complete race. Bubba overperformed this year for me. Me too, a little bit, yeah.

And you think about they had a bad race at New Hampshire, and then he almost won, and then he got into him, like, he was really close to making the champ for. He was. Bubba, Bubba got married and growing family. Yeah. All of those things have seemed to, and I know there's more to it, you know, because, I mean, I'm not getting this from, I'm not, I don't have any information.

But when you watch Bubba, you just see this guy, you see him being able to handle the mental side of it so much better. And he'll, I think he'd admit that that was something that he struggled with for a long time. And, yeah, start, you know, 14, top tens, dude had a solid year. Josh Barry with a solid year Yeah Josh did all right I was You know the wind's pretty big Dude I know

Josh did great But I mean they were either Amazing Or on the hook Yeah they were either Josh was like I feel like That Josh was like

You know Top 12 car Top 15 car Every week But just weird things would happen Or you know They just make a mistake 90 NFs

Yeah D&S, yeah. Like that part is the part he's got to clean up. You think about where he's at if he just knocks it down to four. Yeah, he's doing really well. That car was way more noticeable this year. Yeah. Big jump for them.

Yeah. Great, great. They're a great combo. It is, yeah. I think that if they can just get where they're not so hot and cold. Yeah. You know, the 30th need to be 15th. I think it's cool that him and Priese have come from like the Stuart Haas deal

and got into new cars and actually elevated. you know what I mean, kept rising. It's good to see that. Ty Gibbs still seems to be struggling, underperforming a little bit. But there were some moments in the back half of the year where you're starting to see like, oh, there it is. You know, just had some real good speed at some places.

And I think Ty Gibbs, as a person, as a man, as a driver, just going to get better and better and better. You wonder how much Gabe Hart helping out that? To me, he's still, to me, there's tons of potential still there. You can see it. For tie, yeah. Pretty surprised, I think, at times about how bad RCR was or Kyle Bush. You know, Austin Dillon was actually the better car at a lot of races.

I know they're making a change. Jim Pulliam's going over there next year, so Jim Pullman, I'm sorry. I think about Lee Pulliam running our late model this coming weekend Can't take it out of him Yeah Carson Hosevar

Midway through the season Almost looking like he's going to win It's a race Charlotte Nashville Remember? Oh yeah He's going to win soon

He's going to win soon Yeah And then then he started having a lot of problems Don't y'all think that you saw that 77 car backwards and on all kinds of issues

and yeah a lot of stuff to me was self-inflicted with him but still a problem like it was kind of catching up with him risks that he was taking were biting him then his stats are very similar to Josh Barry's nine top tens 8D and F's average start 16

average finish 21 I think Barry was basically the same well he's definitely I mean Carson was shining pretty bright there for a while once Carson figures out the and I think with I think with this

the shift in the shift in the playoffs and how we crown our champion going forward is actually really going to be good for a lot of these guys because Hosevar could you know he's in a car

that if you know if they win a race they're going to get in the championship playoffs right if they don't win a race they're probably not going to point their way in, right? So he can race like a maniac. Mm-hmm. Right. And, you know, if he ends up backwards and crashed out at the end of the day, hey, we'll go back and try to win next week because winning is the only way we're getting into playoffs, and that's really all we're worried about. With the new format, he's going to have to make sure that those days when he wants to crash out,

he's going to have to get at 15th, 20th, you've got to get a result. You've got to put together a result. And so maybe we see a lot of these guys, maybe the format changes the attitude and how guys are racing and how they'll start putting together better races, I think. You're going to have to. You're going to have to for sure. You've got to be consistent. Yeah.

And so, I mean, that's a mentality that I'm all about for change. Hey everybody, it's Dale Jr. and T.J. Majors for the Dell Jr. download. And it's an Ask Junior segment for the show today. Presented by Xfinity. So, are we going to do some questions today? Travis, I'll get to it. Travis says we can't do questions until I talk to you about Xfinity. Correct.

Yeah. I already missing Andrew. Yeah, sometimes we just get to it when we get to it. Well, I'd like you to get to at the top of the second. Y'all are so demanding. They're very uniform. Xfinity is so great to us,

I want to make sure that they get their shine. They will. They're going to. More. It's nice when it happens naturally. Not forced. You want me to read this verbatim in a robot voice? No.

I will. Mayasers get AI. I might as well just have it, say it for me here, I just read this and tell it. Yeah. He's ignoring us. not having fun now. No, he's not.

Just seeing what our fans are saying. What are they saying? They're saying they'd like to hear the read. No, uh, they're saying, man, I like that sweater. They are saying that. Yeah. That's probably being said for sure. Ask Junior is presented to you by Xfinity.

And, um, Exfinity, you know, they have dependable internet, TJ. Hmm. You're going off script. I am. Yeah.

Because I can, I can do that. You know why? I'm a customer. right if I didn't if I didn't use this stuff I'd probably have to read this script but I'm a customer

I have Exfinity internet and ever since I've had it I've never had one single issue and I've had so the only problem that I ever had somebody backed into the telephone pole

and cut the line I walked out there and fixed it but the pole the line. So they backed into the telephone pole because there's a parking space right next to it and they pinched the line. And I walked out there and fixed it

because I can do that kind of. So you can perform under pressure, like Xfinity. Did you get done fast? Yeah. He needs his internet. And I move the line around to the backside of the pole so they're back in that pole all they want now. But my Xfinity internet is kick ass and it works great.

One time I got an email where they said they were going to bump the speed up without any charge. And so, you know, that's happening out there. One price locked in for five years. So your price is locked for five years. Speeds are going to increase. More than likely, you're going to get a bump in speed a couple times over that course. But they're not going to charge you more. There's no contract.

So if you want to quit, you know, if you're just going off the grid completely, or you're moving or whatever, you know, no slowdowns. None of that nonsense. So I'm honest, man. I mean, I've got about 50-some devices connected to this thing between baby monitors. That's crazy. Yeah, and thermostats on a wall. Everything connects to your Wi-Fi.

Everything does. The microwave gets on Wi-Fi. Does it? No, probably not yet. They probably do, but we don't need that. Yeah. Do you feel like me, like if it will connect to the Wi-Fi that you need to make it connect to the Wi-Fi? Even like thermostats.

Like, I don't, I'm not controlling my thermostats from the phone. I can. I've got the app. I can turn it on and change it right now. But I got to, I'm usually just going to go over to the wall and do it. But you don't check like when you're away, just make sure, like. Yeah, I use my, I use the app on my phone. Yeah.

I use the app on my phone to change the thermostat. What if you're laying in bed and you're just like, you know what? Uh-uh. You're going to get up? Getting up. I'm old school. There are things like washer and dryers that I've seen that can connect now. But if it connects to the Wi-Fi and I own it and I'm using,

I've got to connect it. Why connect it if you're not going to use it? Because I like technology. That's like one of the selling points. If it says it has Wi-Fi connectivity, you're like, I need that. Oh, it connects the Wi-Fi. Great. All the smokers nowadays, wow, connect.

Do you look at your... Oh, the meat smoker? Yeah. I cooked a brisket. brisket yesterday. Did you connect it to Wi-Fi? No. Oh.

I cooked it. It was good. That's actually perfect. One of the questions is propane, charcoal, or pellet? Yeah. Pellet. Yeah. Pellet.

But it don't matter. I mean, I cook an oven. I don't care. Sometimes you don't want to do the work. You know, sometimes you just want to, you know, put it in oven and set it on 275 for eight hours and let it go. A pellet smoker is no more work than a propane. But I don't like propane or charcoal. Yeah.

Charcoal's good. It takes time to do it. I'm only going to do charcoal when I'm hunting. We go hunting and we have a shitty old charcoal grill. And we drag it damn thing out in the middle of the driveway and light it and get some cheap old crappy stakes. Is it the girl that has like two wheels? It's rough. It's rough.

Probably. You know, you're dragging it across the ground and the colds, all the burnt coal. are coming out of the bottom of it. Yeah. Well, you can close that up on the bottom. Who cares? Yeah, I know. It's just a lot of work.

Do charcoal. Pellet smokers are easy. Pellets are great because it's set it and forget it. You don't have to, you know, when we first got it, when the first smoker we got, we had to, we had to control. It was a wood smoker and we had to sit there and manage the temperature and up and down, hot and cold. And, you know, which I mean, that's the most realist. That's the most real pure weight. to smoke

and stuff barbecue and stuff yeah but dang it's easy because there's no flame hitting it doesn't burn it I want to sit down

let's some music drink some beer yeah I worry about the temperature going wacko yeah and not pay that much attention to it so the pellet stuff

is pretty cool I love the technology with that how'd the brisket turn out good enough Nicole Nicole ate some it was I wasn't trying

to make a kick ass brisket I was just trying to make one just feed the It hadn't made one in a while. I'm probably going to share with the neighborhood. Nicole ate some. She loved it.

Amy tried it. I'll try it. I'll eat a little bit. It's good. I'll eat some today, probably. Should have brought some in for us. I should have. Yeah.

How? I didn't. I forget his name, but someone said, have you ever tried to smoke? Here it is, Tim. Have you ever smoked cheese? Yeah. No.

No. Not interested. I've never done myself, but I've lot some and it is pretty good. How do you smoke cheese without it melting? Tim, respond, please. Doesn't it seem like it would melt? Yeah, I don't know.

I like doing one of my favorite things that I made on my smoker was wings. And so you get a charcoal grill and you serum. and then you put them into smoker. And then you would take some Frank's red hot wing sauce a little tiny bit of ghost pepper and toss them. Now they're hotter and shit, but I like them that way.

Open up the nostrils. That ghost pepper's tough. We used to have, so this was back, this was what we used to do when we was raising hail. So back when, And I remember Regan being around there a lot. But say like when Regan was driving our affinity car,

we used to hang out all the time, like on Sundays or during the week on a Monday or Tuesday, we'd have pool parties at the house and everybody'd come over, friends and everybody. And T.J. And around midnight, we'd get a toothpick in the ghost pepper and see who was willing to do some ghost pepper. And there was always one person. You always had to have one person that would do it. And they'd be like, I can do it, I can do it. Man.

Shue. You instantly regret it. Oh. Would you try that chip? What's that thing called? I've never tried that. I would do that. I would try it?

Yeah. Oh, somebody send us some. Yeah. Next episode. I will do it if you'll do it. I don't mind. I don't like hot. I like stuff that's hot.

I don't. I like buffalo hot, but not like hot, peppery. Yeah. So you would try one too? I would do it, yeah. I'm not saying, I might not handle it well, but I would try it. The ghost peppers, the difference is with those ghost peppers, it's going to get you, the chips, it's like it may, like. I remember watching Jack try one, and he was like, oh, I can do it.

No problem. He was put it in here. Like five seconds later, he starts coughing real bad. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I might do that, but I'm saying I would try it. The ghost peppers, I don't know. All right. Tim says super low temps, long run time.

I'm telling you, fix that up with some mustard. Listered and crackers and you got it. Damn, all right. All right. I'm ready for Thanksgiving. I'm Christmas shopping. Y'all started Christmas shopping? No.

I did. I'm going to assume you're just an online Christmas shopper? I am, yeah, as opposed to, like, physically going to do it. If I can get it online, it's way more convenient. Yeah. What about you, T.J., you start Christmas shopping? No. It's too early.

you don't you don't start getting stockings stuffers now no yeah yeah I know is that what you got can you can you can you say what you got why would I want my boss spoil it why didn't know if it's for like the girls you can say it like they're not gonna you can't use this in a clip okay okay Dalton you hear that yeah it's now not my problem so all right so I I get Amy real gifts like things that she actually does won't but I also glad you confirmed real gifts I also get her things that she does not want. And that's the fun part. That is the stock.

Yeah. And so I saw on the internet yesterday. Oh my gosh. They got these little pins. So if you got a chip in the baseboard, a little paint chip writer or on a door jam, they got these pins and you put the house paint in it in the pen and you can use it as a touch up. So I bought her. So those.

Oh, no. I actually have some. I could have them. I didn't use them. I bought them already. Yeah, they look good. Yeah, I'm going to put those. So I'll see. You're trying to get her to fix the house?

No. Dude, listen. I know it's the best of you. I've already got them. I'm entertaining you guys. Don't like, you know, don't poopoo on this. This is exactly what it is. She's going to love them.

Yeah, she's going to, so she ain't going to love them. No. Go what the hell is this in my talking for? But there's, if you. if you go on Instagram and you get, get into those reels where it's those, you know, those influencers are like,

oh man, check out this paint pen, you know, I fix the house with this. I fix the house with that. Or I got this new, new contraption, this new thing,

this new invention. And so if it's small and like, oh, another one I got was they, they've got these dice where it's like, what do you want to eat? And it's like Chinese, pizza,

you know, and so you can roll the dice. and say, all right, guys, that's where we're going to, you know, we're going to this restaurant tonight as a family. And then there's, they have the same dice for date night. You know, we're going to go to bed early, you're going to lay around, watch TV, we're going to go out and do this. We're going to, you know, so I got her a couple of dice. She won't use them. She probably won't.

No. They'll probably just be a little giggle once we, once she pulls them out of the stocking and then they'll disappear. You're going to find them in six months and do it once. You're going to end up. She's going to be like, well, do you want for dinner? You're going to come out, you're going to end up finding the dice.

I'm like, where's the dice? Yeah, where's the dice? We're not. Yeah, why? Yeah. What's the worst thing you've ever got for a stalking? Oh, well, in my life? Yeah, like in the last five years or so.

Oh, well, I was going to say, Dad and Teresa were terrible at Christmas. Terrible. Like, terrible. So, you know, we never got, you always wanted, like, garbage-ass toys or. Just knick-knacks. I would get like a new bedroom suit or a leaf.

Oh, wow. Yeah. I got a leaf blower once because I had a chore to sweep the garage every day. And they're like, look, your tour got easier. They went to Japan. They went to Japan to race in Japan the first year, I guess it was 96 or so. And Kelly and I got all kinds of stuff in our stockings from Japan like chopsticks. We literally had chopsticks in our stocking.

and it was so that was like they went to the gift shop at the hotel and got everything for the stocking you know that really good stocking stuff for you yeah it's understandable i um yeah yeah yeah i don't know i don't want to complain it was it was just underwhelming what you want my mom on the other hand was overboard yeah like what is is underwhelming is that Christmas were, moms were made up for it. Opposite. Way too much.

You would feel terrible because you knew the salary that she had. She was a secretary and receptionist at an auto repair shop in Norfolk, Virginia. And she bought, I mean, she had to spend a months worth of paycheck. on our Christmas. It was crazy. I'd go to Norfolk.

I'd see her, you know, we're going to see her and drive home. She'd get basketball goals in her house. All put together. I'm like,

mom, what are we doing? Just so much stuff. But it was the right stuff. It was all the right stuff. Yeah. Oh, man. Couldn't wait for it.

Yeah. Makes it awesome. Mom's Christmas is the best. And when I would go to moms, she'd have all the bad or good cereal, like fruity pebbles, Lucky Charms.

You go into the kitchen, you get the biggest damn bowl you could find, you'd pour yourself a half a box of a damn Lucky Charms and milk, and you'd go and sit down in front of the TV, watching MTV, and eat that damn bowl of cereal, and she'd never say a word. She'd come over and get the bowl when it was empty.

You go, you go to my dad's house, you're going to have, you're going to have Popeyes, which was in a bag. It was cereal in a bag. It was like, you remember the cat. I hated, you go to the friend sauce that have that.

Oh, it didn't have any sugar, zero. Territory. No color. You'd have to put two packs of equal in there because that's all you had was equal. Jeez. And then, and what was, sorry, what was the milk that tasted like it was bad?

I think there was just milk that went bad. No, no, no, no. It wasn't 2%... Skim. Yeah. So we had skim milk. In no sugar, cereal, yuck. Yeah. And no, no, you, boy, you got a big bowl out.

You got your ass chewed. You weren't, you're supposed to get the big bowls out. But you weren't doing that anyways, because you weren't going to... You eat cereal with skim milk. No way. It was awful. The, the differences between the two experiences were dramatic. Mm.

Yeah. But anyhow, I don't, I've gotten, my Christmases here in the past five years have been, been just fantastic. You know, I, I, I don't know how you guys feel. Travis, you're not married, T.J. You are. I'm at the point where I don't want to, I just wish we would agree to not do anything and just buy the kids Christmas and not get. Kids make it. Kids are.

Like, I don't, I don't need anything. And I don't, I mean, I'll get. get Amy something that she really wants that experience. She loves the tradition, I guess, of having a gift on Christmas. She's not very particular or demanding about it, but it'd be all right with me if we didn't do any Christmas, but I don't know. The kids are by far the best thing that you get to do. But what about you and Tamla?

Do y'all do you all do a Christmas gift? A little bit, yeah. Do you all ever talk about shutting that down and just saying that? No, not really. How do you all decide what you're going to get? Just going to wing it. I'm usually pretty bad at it. So it's not one of my strengths.

You just wing it. Yeah. You don't call her friends? No, not really. I mean, Amy sends me some stuff once in a while. Like, hey, these are cool. You should check these out. I mean, there was years where, I mean, me and you used to go Christmas shopping on New Year's or Christmas Eve.

Don't you remember that? Oh, yeah. I mean, that's when we would go. I still, like, do this. I'll do some stocking stuffers now, and then I'll do it. it right up at the last minute. Just go to the drugstore and get a bunch of junk. Yeah.

But I haven't gotten, I don't know what I'm going to get Amy for Christmas this year. I like to try to, I like to try to get one item. That's, that's something she really, really loves, and that's pretty much it. I've told her what I wanted and she's going to get it. I'm going to order it. I went hunting and while I have what I need to go hunting, it's pheasant hunting in South Dakota. And I don't really have exactly what I need for pheasant hunting. So I'm going to get that taken care of.

More fun than deer hunting? Deer hunting with a bow in Ohio is by far fun, the funest hunting that I do. Don't you pheasant hunting as a group? Yes. It's pretty fun. See, that's why it would be more fun for me. It is. Fesson hunting is a blast.

You know, you just, you get these fields. There'll be corn or whatever you're walking through, and it's pretty wide, and you'll get about five to ten feet away from each other, and you'll just walk in a parallel line all the way down through this field, and there'll be some dogs. They're working. Then they just take off, and you shoot.

The bird hops up in there. You know, you take it. You decide whether you want to shoot at it or not. It's like duck on. You kind of do. You shoot at some. Some you don't shoot at. Do we do that out there on your lane?

I was using a shotgun that I had won in the 2002 bud shootout. So when you won the bud shootout back in the early 2000s, you got a Remington shotgun, 1187. I won two shootouts, so I got two of those and they're engraved. And that's the gun that I had that would be the best for the upland birds or fess hunting or whatever. But there's better options and the people that I went hunting with had the better options. And so I was like, you know, I've been on this hunt two years in a row. It's a lot of fun. I'm going to, I'm going to ask Amy to get me a different.

But pretty cool to use something you won. I know. Dude, they used to give away for Pol awards. You used to get all sorts of stuff back. Lawmowers. Lawmowers. Like, the Polo Award was a big deal.

You'd win. I know I've said this before, but if you won the last race of the year at Atlanta, Atlanta used to be the last race of the year in the 90s, you got a boat. A nice ski naltique. Like a really badass boat.

Today it would be super cool. A ski naltique, it's that kind of a, It's like a ski boat with the motor in the middle. Oh, yeah. And it's like a 454 big block or a 350 Chevrolet. Big motor. Yes, it's a big motor.

And dad has like seven of those because he won Atlanta nine times. Oh my gosh. Yeah, he won Atlanta nine times, I think. And he has like seven ski nautiques and six of them never seen the water. That's wild. Homestead used to give away a boat for the champion, didn't it? Yeah, they did. One of a fishing boat, though.

We got to start a tracker or something. Yeah. Yeah. Pole Wars used to be cool. Tim Richmond won the pole at Charlotte Motor Speedway in like 83, and they gave him a car. But the car, he was mad because the car had been driven around town by a track representative for a few weeks,

and there were cigarette burns in the door. Oh, I mean, in the upholstery. That's fair. He was upset. Oh, he was mad. He was like, what the hell? You give me this car? Somebody's been driving it for a couple weeks.

So one of the PR people or somebody from the track had been out there, you know, riding around, having fun. Did you get the poll at Texas one time with Tony Jr.? You gave him a gun and he had to pay the tax? Like they sent him a bill for the taxes on it. Yeah, probably. I think you did. They gave you like some sort of shotgun or something. Imagine you win the Polte-Dadey get like a jet ski.

It'd be a cool little prize. I mean, they used to be really creative with it. I would like a jet ski. Yeah. If I were to win a race or a pole now and I got a jet ski, I'd be like, because sometimes it would be a thing you wouldn't want. Like there were lawnmowers, you know, oh, riding lawnmower. You're like, I don't know if I, I don't really.

I don't use that. It's still cool, though. Oh, Truex. You remember this? Truex won. Oh, this would be hilarious. Truex won a riding lawnmower for a pole or something in an Finity race

back when he was racing for chance to I believe Yes True X was a chance to he won a race or a pole or something but they delivered a lawnmour to our property

and we covered it in paintball we shot it like 300 times with paintball guns and he was not happy with us I'm not. I think you might have won some lawnmowers at some point. Yeah.

I don't remember. I mean, there was just so much random stuff like that. But yeah, there was some cool stuff that you used to get. Yeah. I do remember the lawnmower because Martin didn't mow on. No.

We didn't think he'd care, man, but he was upset when we... That's weird. Martin doesn't... He wouldn't get upset either. Purple paintball all over it. He's probably going to give it to somebody.

Now it's... Wash his right off. It's not a big deal. I know. Still. Yeah. I love paintballing. He's still a time.

Paintball is fun. It was, yeah. Yeah, it was. How many years did you do it? We had a pretty strong run there for a while, doing some paintballing. Yeah, went out and that was the Night Vision Goggle story is where we were playing paintball at night. We took Night Vision goggles down there where the Western Town is now. That field that used to be there was the first place we played out there, I think.

We used to, we had golf carts, just traditional crappy golf carts. not gas power, battery powered, they were quiet. We had two sets of very good night vision goggles. And we used to ride around on the golf carts in the trails of the woods and hide from each other. You weren't allowed to use a flashlight or any kind of light. You had to find, you had to hunt each other down with night vision only. And it was pitch black, it's like two in the morning. Bunch of want to be Navy SEALs.

It was fun as hell. Oh, yeah. It was so fun. some of the ideas random stuff yeah this is what happens when there's no racing

we sat at the back of Big Red at the top of the hill we're biffo landed at that helicopter and we before the shop where the late model shop is we sat there with the distress calls remember we were trying to call animals

we didn't see anything we there's one of us we went around the property and shot about six squirrels and we threw them at the bottom of this tree and then we put out a distress call and we sit there all night waiting for the coyote to come out there.

He never did. Never did, yeah. Yeah. Good thing. He was going to get lit up. He was going to have a bad day. We might not even hit him. We would have got him.

I don't know. Move on to another question here. What is the proper time for a Thanksgiving dinner? That's tough because a lot of people have to go to multiple in the same day. You know, if you've got a girlfriend or a wife and y'all's families live close, you've got to do one in the lunch and one in the evening, so you've got to kind of split it up. But I would say that my favorite time would be late afternoon. Everybody show up around four.

You're in the middle of football games. You're going to watch the second game, hang out. You know, you get a couple people in your family that like to have a few drinks. you know they get a little sauced up a little loose a little fun a little set around

the kitchen table Mammall's house I think early afternoon is a good time because then by the time the late games are on you have a little leftovers and we're still football on

see I want a little earlier though because like what I don't want to like have to eat lunch yeah you're hungry you want to wait until that time so like if I can get like a 132

I can have a late breakfast then that and that meal can hold me over for most of the day and then like around six, you know, little leftovers. Well, okay. That's me. I think a one o'clock's probably pretty standard a lot of times,

at least for the first gathering. Yeah. If you have multiple. Do you like to host or just show up? I don't like the host. Yeah, I wouldn't either. You got to clean and. God, I,

hosting is not the way to go. We do host quite a bit. You guarantee, though, that the team. TV is going to have what you want on. The drinks are there. So my family, we will gather. The Earnhardt's will get together. And so we'll do something probably at a neutral location.

But Amy and I don't do anything. I mean, we're going to cook and we're going to have the turkey and our kids are going to have a traditional Thanksgiving, but it's just us. and Tim and Tara Dugger often come and hang out with us because they too don't have like a traditional family gathering where they got to be where they got to be. So they're great friends of ours. So we'll get together and cook a turkey and make sure our girls have a good experience.

But it's funny, man, because most of my life, especially when I was young in my teenage years, there was a big gathering, a big Earnhardt gathering. That's calmed down a little bit. We still do it. We definitely get together around Christmas, but. I felt like you did that. Even when I first moved down here in like early 2001, 2002, I remember, I think I went with you.

Kelly and LW and all them, they go to Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania. Right? So we don't, there's, it's just, it's quieter than it used to be. It's kind of nice when you have a slower hallway. Yeah, I'm all right with it. Yeah, it was good. I didn't go home, so it was fun to go.

And Tim going, you know. slip off to the bar and drink some beer and have fun. Just watch TV. Yeah, watch TV. One thing I can't get behind is these people that run 5Ks on Thanksgiving morning. Can't be doing that. That's just, they're, oh. Whatever.

Hey, if they like it, do it. I can't support it. All right, so one last question with a, you got football games on Thanksgiving. What's your opinion on adults wearing jerseys? I'm good with it. Yeah, if you want, wear it. What? There's a big group that think that if you're an adult you shouldn't be wearing a football jersey.

It's crazy. Why? They say how dare you wear someone else's name on you? What? Yeah. You're just supporting your team. What nonsense is it? This is a big thing.

Really? It sounds silly. I'm wearing a jersey. I went to the Pittsburgh game last year for Washington, and I wore my Reagan's jersey in the owner's suite, sitting with, you know, all the biggest richest people in the building and I'm like

you know in my in in my mind I was thinking I probably should wear a sports coat and then I thought to myself man I go to one game a year

I'm going to wear what the hell I want to wear I'm going to put on a damn hoodie and I'm going to put my Reagan's jersey on be a fan and I'm going to crank up that diesel I support it look I think I'm sure

you do you seem like a kind of person that has common sense like what are we talking about at times what are we talking about i've never seen this before you never who gets mad at somebody wearing a jersey i'm serious that part that part whatever whatever corner of the internet where that's happening they need to just shut the damn lights off turn to pull the power did you look at this the look at the stadium even when the commanders played overseas there's tons of people in jerseys oh yeah over in spain every other person's wearing a jersey Like this is not a crazy thing Like there's

Oh what's crazy No grown men shouldn't Not wear jerseys It's on Barstall's website Like this is a common thing that people debate I'm all for it Wear a jersey have fun Maybe they're just having a fun

Are they debating for the sake of debating? No it's like So if you're going to a game What do you wear? At what age should you stop This is a question At what age should you stop wearing sports? jerseys? Never.

I mean, here's a video. I don't want to watch it. Bustin with the boys are talking about it though. Really? What do they say? They should not. It looks like that's what the title says. They should not wear jerseys? This is only quick. Let's listen to it. This is an ad here. And we are live. I'm surprised that that's even a conversation.

Are you in, is anybody in the chat feeling like they, you know, shouldn't wear jerseys at a certain age? Larry says he doesn't, but doesn't have a problem with it. I'm very, I mean, I'm very, I'm not going to, hey, I'm not going to throw a jersey on on a regular day, like a Wednesday. I'm not just going to jersey. That's so funny you go to Target on a Tuesday. Yeah, I'm not wearing a jersey.

But if you're. Like when we're at home, man, my girls, my girls might put a jersey on. I might have a jersey. I might wear a hoodie. I don't know, but, I mean, I've never even thought, hmm, I shouldn't wear a jersey. If we were getting to go to watch football and I walked in, I would not even think twice if you had a jersey on. I know.

Like, wouldn't even. Yeah. I'd almost expect it. I know. If I went to your house and we were all there for the Super Bowl or something and people had jerseys on. And your team was playing as well. I wouldn't go, eh, jersey.

That's weird. Yeah. It's football. You're there for that. I know. But you can't wear a jersey to an event where your team's not playing. I'd almost look at the person wearing the jersey and go, that's a real fan.

Yeah. I'd almost have more. confidence or trust in that person. Oh, yeah. Right? I'm looking at them going, all right, they're into the shit.

You know? But I hate the, like, if I go in Ohio State Purdue game and there's a Michigan fan wearing a Michigan jersey or Michigan State or... I guess there may be... That's weird. I guess there may be an age,

like, you know, 65, 70 or so. You get up there, maybe jerseys are a little bit too. So now you're an ageist? What does that mean? Why can't a 65-year-old wear a jersey? It's not the first time I've ever heard that word.

Why can't a 65-year-old wear a jersey? I'm getting so old. I'm hearing new terms all the time now. My kids are saying shit. I'm like, what? So I'm just saying, like, if I saw an 80-year-old man wearing a jersey, I might go, that's something you don't see every day. Yeah, maybe.

I can kind of see this argument. But, I mean, to talk. TJ's point. They went and played in Madrid this weekend and everybody there or every other person had a jersey. What would it have looked like if all of the adults at the stadium

none were wearing jerseys? I mean, you could still have a t-shirt on of your team. What would it have looked like if you went to Madrid and the entire stadium adult people weren't wearing jerseys at all?

It all. I mean, it would look weird. It would. It would. Terrible. Yeah. But yeah. I almost wore Josh Ellinger

to do a Lions game one time. You can't do that. Why? They're not playing. You'd look like an idiot. It don't matter. I'm supporting my team. I'm supporting the sport in general.

I mean. I've got an issue with that. Like I would, yeah. Yeah. Interesting. I did wear a hat. No. I did wear a Bill's hat.

game got called out a few times by it, but everyone was like... What you're asking for? But no, they were actually very friendly. They were like, oh, yeah, they actually liked the bills. Like, they were actually, I mean... It was actually pretty good. I'm on your side here. At least the bills won this weekend.

I want to ask, what's the next question? That was it. Oh, come on. We've been going for 42 minutes. What else we got to do? It's the off season. There's no racing. What topic do you want to get into?

How's everybody doing? Like who we, what do you mean? How's everybody in the chat? How's everybody doing? How's everybody doing? I don't know racing. See, I think a lot of our fans don't want racing. They want racing.

I don't know. Fans, do you want racing? Of course they want racing. Yeah, see, they want racing. How are they doing without racing? They miss it. They do, yeah. Do y'all know that this weekend, the South Carolina 400 is going off?

We got a couple of cars. Junior Motorsports has a couple of, we have one car in it. That would be a good race to watch. Went to Hickory. Oh, yeah. We did. So I'll talk about that in a second. South Carolina 400,

Florence Motor Speedway, Flow Racing. I'll be tuning in. I'm not racing in it this year. The week after that, the Thanksgiving classic, it's Southern National. And Lee Pulliams driving for junior motorsports. Lee's one of the most decorated

late model stock racers next to Josh Berry. And going to be awesome to have Lee behind the wheel of our car. We've always raced against Lee and some mutual respect there and something fun to do. He's been a fixture for a long time. Yeah. So we just threw this idea together. You know, it goes back to what I was saying earlier in the show.

We race. Why are y'all doing this? Because we race. Why not? Why not? I think people were talking about Cletus had a big race this last weekend. The Mullets. Hemahosa R1.

Greg Biffel finished second. and we did go to Hickory. Hickory had to fall brawl. Wyatt was running in the limited portion of the event, a hundred-lap race. Wyatt was running second. Qualified on the pole. Yeah, qualified good.

Running second in the race and destroyed the leader. They had a restart and things just got a little wild, but he ended up going down there and wrecking the leader. They both went to the back. and we had a little bit too much damage, gotten some more crashes. He ended up having a pretty rough night. Oh, he wrecked himself down in turn three and four.

That's right. He got loose into the corner and knocked a rear clip off of it. But I will say this, Wyatt Miller, the kid, was in the shop Monday helping the guys tear that car apart. And I love that. And he was begging his mom and dad to skip school that particular day so he could,

continue to work on the car. He got in there and got in the groove and was really liking it. So we'll prioritize the school. Don't worry. But I love the attitude of, hey, you know, I want to get in there and fix it. I want to tear this thing apart. And I asked him, I texted him. I said, hey, man, how's it coming? He's like, we've got the rear end now. We're going to get it checked. We've got a rear clip on the, we got to put a rear clip on the car. We got this. We got that. He's a kid. He's like 12 or so. He's going to. He's figuring it out. So good for him. don't mind him crashing tearing up things i hate that he wrecked the leader he wrecked the leader they weren't happy about it but they should have been unhappy they ended up winning the race they did go uh yeah

so that made it better yeah and um but if you're gonna wreck it you're gonna fix it and he did he got in there and got right after it so we're making sure that while he's having fun racing he's also learning how the cars work and boo boo boo's car i'm not fighting boo boo boo no boo boo boo boo boo don't was the guy that on the car that we wrecked, and he's been around this deal a long time. Great racer. Good dude. And they were upset,

but they ended up winning a race, which they should have. Yeah, it makes it feel better. Yeah. Fans are missing racing, poor Dewey said he tore his Achilles playing pickleball, so he's not doing well. Oh, pickleball, that'll get you.

You know, if you're going to tell your Achilles. Do it playing pickleball. Don't do it playing pickleball. Don't do it playing pickleball. I ain't doing it then. If I'm going to tear my Achilles, I want it to be a better story than that. You can't, you got a lie. Have you played pickleball?

No. That's better than tennis. Sure. Tennis is pretty bad, though. Tennis is way down to the bottom of the list. It's just better than tennis. It's not. Pickle ball is actually not.

It's not bad. It's actually kind of fun. Not interesting. But if you're tearing ACLs, I'm out. That's why I'm careful about going for balls running up because you don't want to, if you step and, go boom we blow one you're done for i mean mike davis did in the basketball league that one time yeah blew his knee out

blue is acal right i feel like everybody blew their knee out in that league though right uh no oh that's another thing the court for the original dmbL has been torn up and has gone forever no more hardwood there more hardwood got rid of it it's been it's been in the way because i've been trying to move some cars around and yeah it is right in the way right there Anyway, gone forever. D&BL, rest and peace. Katie says her husband

tore his Achilles playing dodgeball on a work event. Damn. But if you get working comp, it's like, Karen and Achilles just sounds It does.

Like, it just sounds so bad. It does. I mean, of course, any injury is bad, but yikes. All right. That's it? That's it.

Appreciate everybody tuning in today. It's been a lot of fun. Again, the ugly sweaters for you guys are at shop. Dirtymo Media.com.

The ugly is C-O-T sweater is my favorite. Sorry for the language, but it's what the shirt says. The shirt actually doesn't say that. It does say that. I want to thank Xfinity

Wi-Fi for all that they've done to support our podcast. Fast, dependable internet. One locked in price for five years, no contracts, no slowdowns, no nonsense. that's Xfinity. White flag.

All right, it's time for the white flag. Our offseason schedule is going to be a little bit different. We'll still be posting all kinds of content. One thing you're going to be seeing is old interviews that we'll be posting in their entirety for the first time on YouTube. Last week we posted my conversation with Stone Cold Steve Austin and Mike Hilton. People are loving to be able to see the whole thing on YouTube. Tomorrow we'll be posting my interview with Rusty Wallace.

Amy and I will be back in the studio on Thursday for another episode of Bless Your Heart. Herman Strader will have a new episode on Wednesday. And if you haven't already, go to Actions Detrimental. It dropped Friday. Denny discusses what it was like coming up just a little short in Phoenix. His thoughts as well in the next 2026 season. Also, make sure you head over to the Dirtymo Media's online store. All kinds of stuff for sale right now, so check that out.

Shop.dirtymomedia.com. As we said at the top of the show, our holiday merch goes on on Tuesday. Have fun. We'll see you soon.