The Dale Jr. Download - What Iowa Needs to Become a Legendary Race Track

Episode Date: August 11, 2026

What’s the true definition of a short track? Is Iowa a short track? Why is everyone rearranging Dale’s furniture!? Dale’s coming out of the gates hot today with a passionate opinion on what classifies a track as a ‘short track’ compared to an ‘intermediate,’ debating TJ  for a good ten minutes straight. The three talk about what Iowa should do with the repave, how Ty Gibbs kept Christopher Bell from victory lane, and that the complaints about the racing aren’t a Next Gen problem. The gang also discusses how the Chase standings have shifted after contenders and pretenders continue to be separated, including Ty Gibbs catapulting to second in points after his victory. Dale gives his perspective on why reducing the number of cars in The Chase field would help the storylines around the fight to get in, and talks about how NASCAR’s rule about changing brake pads is something that needs to be rethought. He also touches on Carson Kvapil’s second straight O’Reilly Series victory, and why they can be contenders for the championship.  Ty Gibbs also joins to talk about his breakout season, his mom’s impact on his life, and why he believes taking away the digital mirror would take drivers out of the Cup Series. Dirty Mo Dough and Ask Jr wrap up another exciting episode of Dirty Air.  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.

Honestly, I think if you took the digital camera out of the car, I think it would be a mix of drivers that probably wouldn't be in the Cubs series anymore, honestly. Like, I mean, I think they don't can probably speak on that, but I swear sometimes, like, man, if there was no digital cameras in here, like, some of these guys definitely would not be in CUP. 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 pitch 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. You don't need a cool best for that race?

What are you thinking? Get them, T.J. Hallway is starting a show. All right then. Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. download. This is Post-Iowa. Episode 734.

I hope everybody's been doing good out there. We had a pretty fun week. pretty fun weekend. Me and Amy shot down to the beach house last weekend before the kids go to school and tuned in to the Iowa races, tuned in to, well, tried to tune into the Cars Tour event. I'm going to talk about that later. This episode is being presented by Arby's. Don't forget about Arby's new meat in three box.

You get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meats, and we're going to jump right into it. Iowa is a pretty cool little racetrack, not a short track. You know, in the, I guess, in the rules of, you know, the 75 plus years of NASCAR, a short track is half mile or under. Richmond is a short track grandfathered in because it was a half mile before the reconfiguration.

But rich short tracks are a half mile or under. And then you had the one mile. racetracks that's Dover and New Hampshire and I think Phoenix kind of falls into that bucket. And so does this racetrack. I think I was seven-eighths of a mile. It's a short track to me. Then you have the intermediates that are, you know, one and a half mile racetracks. And then you have the super speedways or speedways that are two mile, super speedways, two and a half mile.

that's really how it's always been and I don't and there's these there's these people that come into the sport like TJ that want to start calling different things oh well it races like a short track but I think Iowa was a short track yeah it's Richmond

Rusty Wallace might have designed it somewhat like after Richmond because it was inspired by Richmond doesn't mean that it's a short track it's seven-eighths of a mile I mean everything Seven-eighths of a mile, TJ.

What other fucking short track out there is that large? So, I mean, so we just categorize tracks by size? Yes, absolutely like, no difference. The word in the fucking short track, short, short, short is a sort of an identifier of... Well, I mean, who decides the length of the short track? People that were here long before you and I. But I mean, things change.

Things evolve over. Over time. No, not this. Okay. Not this, buddy. You don't just start, what are we going to call Taledago short track one day? I mean, Iowa reminds me of the Glenn.

I don't understand why people want to do this. People want to just start changing shit. You know, I love Russell. I fucking think Russell is a bad motherfucker. But he calls tracks drafting tracks now. I mean, that's like it's a new term to just come up because they couldn't think of anything else to call racing tracks where we ran.

restricted plates forever just because well we don't have restricted plates no more we can't call them why can't we they've been restricted plate tracks forever this is a richmond 2.0 to me just a few different banking changes and stuff it's it I mean it races like richmond oh well then it's called richmond too I don't know me just call it richmond that's fine we'll have two richmond's I mean you go to there you have the same tendencies you have the same tendencies of I mean how the how the place races, how it looks, everything is a short track to me. It's a long track, though. It's not short.

What are you measuring out by the wall or on the white line? If I know, man, I'm just telling you what the people way before us do. What? That argument is thin. I don't know how it's not a short track. Because it's seven-eighths of a mile? And Richmond is... Was a half mile now it's five-eighths.

So five-eighths to seven-eighthers, there's a cutoff between them, too. Well, anything over a half is not a short-tenth. track. So, but Richmond's still just because his grandfathered in. That's right. But the length, it's still longer, but it can't be a short track. I don't make these rules. But you're enforcing them. I know.

I know. Somebody needs to. Somebody needs to say something. Because it's fucking ridiculous. I agree with the drafting track. So that's dumb, but I know. That was a short track. Hey, this is like, this generation, you, you

what do you mean me? Y'all, listen. This generation, y'all come in. Y'all, it's like somebody walking into your house and start moving your furniture around. I move some things in the studio today. It's like, yeah. It's like somebody coming in your house and saying,

man, man, I fucking moved the couch. I didn't like it over there. That's the way I feel about it. But we're not moving anything. We're just changing terminology. It's my fucking terminology you're changing. Yeah, well, my grandma used to call the couch the Davenport, but nobody calls it that anymore.

I've never heard of that. I've never heard of that either. It's called the couch. What the hell? What the hell? That's, uh, don't, I don't like it.

Sorry. Ain't gonna change. Put up on a pool. Call me, call me what you want. Like, what's Gateway? One mile.

Oh. It falls in the one mile bucket. That's damn near drafting track. Yeah. I mean, Gateway is a short track. Oh. Okay.

But how long is it? It's like one point. Oh my God, it's longer than a mile. Gateway Motorsports Park is a 1.25 mile oval. What? And you're going to call it a short track? You think it's a short track? Just because it has a long straightaway and it has tight end, tight corners.

I mean, you put short track. Are you really serious? You put short track brakes on it for there. Look, man, like TJ. What is it? Well, it's not a short track. What is it then? It's a one mile.

There's, so. I don't think we need a different category for the two tracks that don't exist at the 5-8s to 1.25. I mean, it's not a, it's not a Kansas by any means. So if you go up on Wikipedia, not that that's going to help my argument any, but if you go on Wikipedia, Wikipedia, Wikipedia has it ranked, the traditional thought behind track sizes. Yeah. and they'll tell you that a short track is considered anything under a half mile or smaller. Because you have quarter miles, you have three-eight miles.

I just don't think we need a category for like the two tracks that are short tracks, but just have a little bit more. Well, wait about, you got Iowa and Gateway are short tracks to me. Wait, those two tracks. Or what else is there? New Hampshire track you're getting ready to go to. Yeah. Dover.

Shoot, maybe one more. I'm missing, but you've got... Hey, I mean, I just think Gateway and Iowa

short tracks, but... Well, Jeff Burton thinks Phoenix is a short track. The whole Phoenix was a short track to me,

but this track's not. This track's way bigger than a short track. If we can't all agree, I mean, we just can't go forward. I think they should grind the entire sport

to a screeching halt. We need, need to stop. We probably shouldn't this weekend until we know what kind of track. We're running. We need a committee. We got to fucking get to the bottom of this. Is Iowa a short track? Yes or no? Yes. Is Iowa a short track? James. James, come talk some sense into him. I don't know. Is there a such thing as a medium track? No, James. Don't be, don't be dumb, James. New Hampshire is only an eighth mile larger. So are you going by the idea that any anything under a mile is a short track.

If it's not a mile, it's a short track. It is. What is? They go just as fast at Iowa. To me, it's closer to a short track than it is a mile and a half. They actually go slower in the corners at New Hampshire. Which is great. I bet it's about the same, if not a little faster, at the front stretch.

I don't just say. Yeah, probably similar. I mean, Loudon's fast. All right. anyhow. The question of the day is, should Iowa be repaved? It's getting repaved.

No. There's not a, I mean, why are we at? Should we repave Iowa? What do they go? If we all sit here and say they shouldn't, they're going to dial it back, not do it. Why, what's the reason for the repave? I guess.

So if you go, if you look at the racetrack surface, the gaps are starting to widen between the new, asphalt and the old asphalt there's little you know people say well i can almost put my whole cell phone in between the cracks but i mean dude we're going to loudon where that's been the case for 20 years we've ran other tracks dude the cracks at loudon you can drop kind of all kinds of down in there there's racetracks that have big gaps in it too it's no big deal i think they should leave it alone i do too maybe though that they need to repave it for uh i don't know any car

or there's other races. So I've noticed this race too. The cup race, we're getting, we're still getting higher and higher in the corner still. So like that's, I'm telling you, dude, if I owned Iowa,

so if anybody has, you know, their phone, their tablet, go to YouTube, go back to, you can open up YouTube and go and look at, let's say,

hmm, I'm, I'm thinking when did they put the grip strip in at Pocono? 2008, 9. Same year they did Michigan, too. 12 was the repay for Michigan. It's the same year. Yeah.

So sometime around 2000 or close around there. 10, 11, 12, they put a grip strip. They just had a big problem up at the top of the corner in turn three at Pocono. And they just went over there and put down a one lane piece of asphalt. Barely one lane. on top it was fully one lane tj you can fit your whole car on it they put it on top of the f***in asphalt so if you drove up on it it was like a it was like to do you know your car just you drove up onto it wasn't flat with the surface they thought you know what it's way up there

nobody runs up there they'll never with it guess what we ran we went there for a test and i think it was an organ uh uh uh a lot of cars were there i There was everybody there, I think. And it didn't take long for all of us to find that grip strip up there. And holy shit, it was fast. Way faster, right? And I'm going to tell you right now, Pocono's pretty damn fun. But that right there was just some cool.

Dude, because you could put the left front or the left rear on the old asphalt and the rights on the new shit. and the car would handle differently. If you needed more turn, you could drop the left rear off of that new asphalt, and the car would kind of slide sideways. And the whole field ran up there, and you could drive right, you know, if you could drive right up into a guy's left for a quarter panel

and get right to their ass, man. And it was so damn cool. And so I promise you, if Iowa, sorry, if Iowa wanted, if Iowa wanted, to become fucking legendary. They would only pave

the old the old asphalt that they didn't get the first time which was basically the third and the fourth lane the last two lanes way up there.

Yeah. You want to see some fucking awesome racing at a racetrack. I mean you've got two new grooves on the bottom. They're only a couple of years

old leave it alone to only repave the older maybe they should do in years like do another strip for two years and add another layer you could you could just put a brand new strip in in the third groove and leave the fourth alone but i would just go ahead and just pave the very top two grooves of both turns and you would see some of the most epic racing that you've seen in a really long time I would guarantee it. I would guarantee it. But they're not going to do that. They're going to pave the entire track,

and it's just going to suck. Yeah, it scares me to go. I actually think the racings... It will suck for a couple of years. Yeah, it's going to... I mean, every repave does. It does, yeah. And so it's inevitable that the product going to suffer

just a little bit. But man, if they were smart enough just to pave those top two lanes. Holy shit. Would that be cool? I remember a truck race there not too long ago. I think Briscoe was in the trucks. And Johnny Sawdor was kind of running the bottom or lane up

and Chase started running the fence and ran Johnny down like quick. And then Johnny moved up. It's a great racetrack. Now, once they repave it entirely, it's going to degrade. It's going to the product on the racetrack probably will, will suffer a little bit to the repave. But then if we can get three years, four years down the road,

it'll be a great track as it is. I think it's put on some really good races. I think, you know, the truck and the Riley races that have happened there years over the last couple of decades. To your point, T.J., they were chasing the groove way up the racetrack, using the top of the racetrack. As long as they can keep the bumps out of it, that's some bids got some bumps.

It's got some bumps. that developed some real bad ones into term one. And, you know, that was the point of repaving it. And I think the repave was more for IndyCar, as you would, you know, as those cars would probably not handle that much content as well as, like, the NASCAR guys. But that's my opinion, man. But I believe it doesn't matter because they're going to just pave the whole damn thing. So is there not a way to, and I probably, I know we've had this discussion like this before,

But like to, does it have to be, when they repaid, does it have to be the asphalt that's going to last 30 years? No. So, you know what I mean? North Wholesboro has already proved that with the asphalt, they put down asphalt that they knew would age quickly and provide multiple grooves of racing. So they, they, the asphalt in the bottom groove versus the next groove and the next

groove has different aggregate in it that's going to provide different grip levels. They did that intentionally. And it's also not the type of asphalt that they may be paved Michigan or Charlotte with that they wanted to last forever. So they paved Michigan in 2012, I believe. They paved Charlotte back then as well. They paved it with the best technology possible. And it was a mistake. And they realized that.

Charlotte suffered for a long time. A long time. Terrible fucking races. Right around the bottom. Nobody moving up off the bottom of the racetrack. And so they learned that putting down the best possible product that would last the longest is not the way to do it. And so when they repaved Wilkesboro, they used some ideas and some technology not only to make the asphalt. age quickly.

They may have to repave it sooner than they would prefer, but they're going to have a better racing product over the years while it's on there. And also, it's my belief that each lane of asphalt as you get up higher up the racetrack has more grip. And so I think the way that they do that is years ago in the 70s when they were paving racetracks T.J. Dependent upon the geographical location, you use an aggregate.

It may be granite, depending on where you are in the country, it may be crust, maybe sea shells or that. Yeah, like southeast. Yeah. So that would fill up, be a big part of the ratio of the mixture.

Which is a mixture. Well, yeah, well, I'm just saying, like, years ago they used almost not, waste materials, but like easily accessible, granite, gravel, whatever. Stuff that wasn't really being used either. They'd get it out of a quarry and they'd crush it up and they'd mix that into the asphalt and that was what you poured down onto the floor.

And when they went and paved Charlotte, the technology had changed to where they were using rubber polymers. So they were recycling tires and all types of stuff that they can't find real use. for. It's waste products that they, and so this rubber is actually in the, in the asphalt. And so we went out on that racetrack and it's like, holy shit, this thing's got a ton of grip. Well, it's rubber on rubber. You're racing on it.

Yeah, so it sticks. Yeah, so grippy. And that's why it didn't develop a middle groove or a top groove. They had to go up there and spray it and try to figure out how to get people to move off the bottom. And that's why the racing at Charlotte and the Oval sucked for so long. and so they went to I think they went to Wilkesboro

and they can adjust how much of that polymer goes into each each lane changing therefore the grip level I think Wilkesboro raced great I mean the leader could run kind of anywhere there was cars running against the fence

all over the place yeah so could not Iowa could they not do something like that and make the racing good well they're going to repay the whole track we'll see we'll see if they call up marcus and those guys uh whoever paved wilkesboro that's who i would call 100% that track's great it is it was one of everybody all the cut go don't take my word for it go look at all the comments of all the drivers this is the best repave i've ever seen this track races better than any repave i've ever seen those are comments from drivers there's just so many different techniques and honestly even with the bump out

before they bought them out. The character or two, it's fine. I mean, it's still great. Unintended. Yeah, but it's fine. Yeah, it is. That's great. Bumps are good at racetracks, not too big.

Yeah. You don't want them big old tunnel, you know, Chicago tunnel bump. That's a big one. Or Kentucky. Kentucky. Yeah. Kentucky, the front of the stretch. Jesus.

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So head over to LinnellRacing.com, grab your favorite diecast and make this NASCAR season, one to remember. Ty Gibbs knocks off his second win. Yeah, big win. Holds off Christopher Bell. From the back, too, from a penalty. Yeah, he sure did.

Had a penalty. He was a slow pit stop. Was it? Oh, okay. Well, he still wasn't the very back. So. Hey, he did a good job, man, race smart. What could Christopher Bell have done differently?

Did you see Kyle Petty's comments? I didn't. He was saying that he needed to do something different. He kept trying the same move over and over again, like switch it up. I don't know. So one, there was one time down. So there was one time down in turns one and two that Christopher Bell almost got to his outside. Yeah, he's close.

I saw that. So that was, yeah, he almost got there. They go down in the turn three and four, and I think he went to the bottom. For whatever reason, whatever he did in three and four had Gibbs questioning whether Seabell was going to completely change it up into one and two the next lap. And Ty Gibbs, I felt like

the next time they go through turns one and two gave Christopher Bell even more opportunity on the outside and Christopher Bell had already committed to running the bottom or so. Yeah. It's like, dude, you just almost got there to the quarter panel

the lap before. And he went back into one and two and didn't try that again. I think if he had, if we watched that, if we were to see that lap, man, it was right there. I think if he would have ran that, tried that same move the second time. Yeah, I don't know.

I think Ty's blocks it. I do. Ty was lower on this particular entry to one than the lap before. I mean, he'd have to run him, he would have just have to run him out of the racetrack. I saw what you're talking about. The thing that I think he was scared of is getting too high. I get it, yeah.

And then Bell with the tires getting low. and just keeping position on him down the back and kind of out, you know, if he can shoot down into the three or four and keep position on him, he can move him up. Yeah. I think that's what he was worried about. Well, he wasn't going to pass him on the bottom, I don't think.

Oh, not without using him up. Yeah. So. Well, it was, uh, I don't know what the hell else he could have done. I thought Ty did a good job of defending. Ty wasn't slow, I mean, wasn't like Ty was in a fucking slow car. He was in a pretty fast race car.

No, his car was fast. Bell was just a tiny bit quicker. Yeah. And it wasn't enough to just get up there and drive by him. Yeah. And Ty, every time I looked, Ty was positioned right. There's this big, I don't really, there's this conversation on social media after the race about,

damn, this car can't pass. Christopher Bell faster couldn't do, week after week after week. I mean, I don't know if I buy into that entirely. I'm not buying it either We saw Blaney go up there Or Bell go up there and pass Blaney I think this was different

Yeah Like to me the tires were just too good Yeah In my opinion this week They were just too good That was the thing I mean you got teams taking two tires And staying in the top three

You got staying at Guys staying out That's to me That to me is You know Yeah Tires are a little too good Yeah

And I would agree with that The two tires Four tires couldn't run a month When Chase Elliott went from literally... Not being able to pass anybody back in the back of the pack. He was 25th. Struggling. 20th to 30th.

They put him up front and... Boom. And kind of held on. He did, yeah. Because his tires were not as bad as they should have been. Yeah, he should have been eat up. Yeah. I mean, clean air definitely makes a huge difference.

Oh, for sure. And is the car perfect? No, it's not perfect. Does the, you know, does the car? suffer in traffic more than it should. Yeah, I think there's some work to do. I feel like it was better this week, though, a little bit. What I would like to have seen is for Christopher Riverbill to be able to get a little bit

closer to him without having to be offset so much. So you can't, because of the underbelly of the car, you can't follow directly behind Ty Gibbs. You have to go high, you have to go low. You can't follow directly behind him. You can't. You're going to lose gobs of fucking car lengths. And so, yeah, and that's what I don't like.

And that's what I'd like to see worked on and improved. I want to see the guy go down into the corner right on his ass, run right on his bumper through the entire corner. Like O'Reilly cars. I want to see that. We could do it in O'Reilly on entry and exit. You could get up underneath somebody from the center off, and they couldn't get in the throttle because they don't have the grit.

Okay. And like I want to see the guy behind have some offensive plays to make moves. Yeah. So, a rally car is habit. Yeah. Well,

I don't, you know, I think the car took a little bit, took a little bit more abuse than it probably deserved at the end of the day, but it's still, there's still some work to be done. I do see guys fighting,

handling a little bit more than I probably have in the past. There was a lot of guys having a hard time getting drive up off the corner. Even on entry, they would wiggle and shoot up the truck. track. And that's fun. Yeah, no,

I think that's great. We need more of that. Yeah. We need that. On old tires. No grit. We need that on older tires. We need tires that wear,

they need to get the tires there to wear out a little more. Yeah. To be, to what, you don't need guys taking two tires at, yeah, at that place. Yeah,

I agree. That, that ought not be a strategy. You ought to have guys begging for fucking four tires at 40 laps. Oh my gosh. That's what I want that every week. Yes. yes yeah i want that every week thinking damn i got to go another you know i don't know 40 laps

yeah i'm gonna wreck i need to pet yeah christ all right so um the uh chase standings changed quite a bit after this race reddick dropped to fourth i mean this guy i don't know what the hell they need to do but um it's been it's been incredible just a hell of a storyline to watch Reddick dominate, get out to such a large lead, a lot of conversation about whether he would even be caught in the regular season. I know they don't like us using that verbiage, but before the chase, they wondered if he would be caught. Now he's fourth, and he's 120 behind.

He's lost 200 points. He was caught by three people. Yeah. So, Ty Gibbs, and this is the other thing that I'm. I think is fascinating. Ty Gibbs shows us what a win can do. You know, he's launched two positions forward into second place and points. His, you know, if he starts there versus fourth, his chance to win the championship,

the percentage goes up, you know, probably double digits. So I'm a little surprised by what a win can do. I think we're all learning. We knew that wins were weighed heavily. Yes, they're going to be more points for wins, all that bullshed. But man, to see it in real time happening, you know, watching guys launch themselves forward after one event is pretty interesting. So wins are still massively important. Massively important.

Like Bell even said, did seven seconds? places if he had a couple of those worth the 15 points where he'd be absolutely so i like that because we need guys doing everything they can to win races we don't need guys settling for second we don't need guy and that no one is i'm just saying you know that that when you look at dissecting if this system's working well i would say they did a tremendous job making sure that winning is important and winning still matters um the other thing that I found incredible has been the climb for Chase Briscoe, now fifth in points. Christopher Bell, now sixth in points.

Chumped four spots. Yep. Just incredible. Of course, yes, Christopher Bell, if you would have won a couple of them races, it would be a completely different scenario, a really incredible scenario. But now, Chase Briscoe, Christopher Bell, taking over fifth and sixth, two very coveted positions in the Chase format. speaking of chases chase elliott is now dropped to seventh very concerning that team needs to turn it around

hosovar still sort of hovering there around the backside of the top ten as is busher and then kyle larsen has dropped to tenth in points i am you know if i'm kyle and if i'm that team with just a handful of races i'm scrambling trying to figure out how to grab a couple of positions Well, and he's lucky that that that bunch right there is so tight that one good race and he can. Listen, that we go back to the start of the year, all the simulations said 85% chance that the champion comes out of the top six. Christopher Bell says midway through the year, yep, guys, I think that might be more of the top eight. Like, you still got a chance. And he's right.

So Kyle Larson sitting back there in 10th, even William Byron, they've got to be thinking, man, we just need, you know, I don't, I'm still in it. 10th thing, 10th is not a death sentence. But, God, 8th, 7th, those would be better. You know, over the next couple of weeks, it's going to be really, really interesting to see who can do what and who can sustain, who can maintain, who can maybe launch themselves forward. that those some couple of guys. I don't love Larson's chances starting 10th in the chase. Your deficit to first versus starting 10th versus starting 6th. Oh, yeah, the odds are just low.

Yeah. So, you know, then you go on back, William Byron, Svarez, all these guys. I mean, there's an argument to be said that we need to cut this chase field down to 10, down to 12. Yeah, I can see that. Yeah. But, I mean, yeah. It doesn't really. matter. It doesn't really matter.

I mean, yeah, it doesn't really. I mean, you know, does it, is it hurt anybody that Austin Cendrick's 16th and going to be in the chase? No. Yeah. No. It's not going to hurt anybody. But if we want the cut line to be a conversation worth having at this point in the season,

you're going to have to move that cut line to 12th or 10th, because I'm going to tell you right now, if the cut line was 10th, and you got Kyle Larson sitting on top of that, the fucking broadcast is going to be on it. What's a much bigger... Oh, yeah. Much bigger deal.

It's a bigger deal. And that's why, that's the argument for maybe there should be 10, 12 drivers going into the chase instead of 16. Yeah, because right now 16th, You don't. You're not talking about it. Yeah, they don't really have a chance. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I agree.

No. And, you know, we discussed, we had internal conversations ourselves about this during June and July with T&T and Amazon. And, you know, now you're starting to see it like, go, lay man, if that, if that cut line was 10th, what that fucking conversation, that would be. Even if, even if, you know, Priests or Ross or Brad would say we get to 16th, is it really, you know, is it really changed the. Well, this is the other thing. The, is there a, in there a monetary bonus to making it? I remember last year and years and in years, in years, in years past, when the Wood Brothers or RCR, they would say that, you know, don't get rid of win in your end because if we happen to bust off a win and lock ourselves in, it was like a $2 million swing.

I do actually remember some of that too. Yeah. So that would be the one thing. that would hold up the change. The teams might fight for their being the larger field because if there's a monetary reward to making the chase, then they don't want to give that up. No.

But, man, it would be wild if we were sitting there trying to talk about, you know, Kyle Larson's 10th. Could he fucking miss the chase? Oh, my God. I mean, William Byroner would be out. Right. Like, wild. Two years ago, he was a regular season champion.

Mm-hmm. well you got guys that are fading towards that line in the you know eighth ninth i mean when we were doing the committee i was voting for however many races we have in this chase that's however many drivers we should have i mean it would be it'd be ramped of 10 drivers 10 races like it would be so good yeah i think so to me it should be the numbers of drivers in the at the end should be what's really messes mathematically possible. Yeah.

You know what I mean? Like you should have, you should. You know, obviously 10th place is a stretch. Contenders only. Is that what you're kind of saying? Yeah, like you got to earn your spot. Yeah. Yeah.

Like if you're in that 10, you've earned it. I'll tell you, man, if you take a picture, if you take, there's a photo of the 10 of us on the stage at Richmond back around 04. After the race. After the race. It was fucking like some wild, wild west. Some Clint Eastwood shit. All of us standing up there. We just ran 400 laps and we've all kind of cooled off.

And everybody's standing up there in their uniforms, taking a picture of the first chase group, you know. And you look at that. And I know we get stuck in nostalgia and all that bullshit. But it's just, you look at each driver in that group. And you're like, dude, legend. You know, and then now, you know, at the end of this, right before this chase,

end of the regular season or whatever we'll call it. They're going to have 16 guys. Take a picture. Take that picture. What are you going to think? Are you going to have the same reaction internally when you see it versus that 10? No, you got some extras. Yeah, a couple extra guys in there.

That's what I was saying. Somebody. Somebody these guys. Yeah, such as an or plus one. But if you were in that 10, it was like, you earned it. You did it. I know. That's what I'm just saying.

Yeah. No, that's the same way. So there's some things going on with brakes, brake pads. Should NASCAR let teams change brake pads? I guess, you know, when you show up to the racetrack and you might go out there and practice and you might realize we don't have the right shit. I guess this was the. So Jenny Hamlin, JGR. JGR also, if you look over the course of the last couple of years, right, break issues, break.

problems have kind of followed one particular organization, or actually two particular organizations, more than, more than most. And it's Joe Gibbs Racing and 2311. And so, you know, whatever, they have a different approach. They come to the racetrack, and we talked about it at Nashville, for example. Some teams were wide open on the front, and some teams were shut off. Everybody's got different. They can run different calipers, pads.

there's a whole sort of method or idea to what you need to bring to the racetrack. And some teams get it right and some teams get it really, really wrong, even so much so that they will have failures on the racetrack during the race itself. Or they lose their brakes entirely, such as what I guess Denny had happened during his race on Sunday. And so if you're at the racetrack and you're maybe realizing I'm not in the right spot after practice, the question is, should NASCAR allow the teams to change the brake pads before the race? Is that the question? Correct.

Of course they should. What is the, what, when did that become something we didn't? NASCAR says because it's not a single source part, it's something that you brought, you decided on. That's an issue that you've created. It's not like the brake rotor cracked and that's a part that was provided to you. Yeah. You made your bed sleep in it. Uh-huh.

And so. And I honestly think that. That's what it should be. Yeah, I'm okay with that. You think NASCAR should not allow the brake pad to be changed. You want to fix it, fix it. When we go green, fix it. Oh.

But let me ask this question. So let me just put this scenario forth. We show up to the racetrack. I practice my car and I say, these brakes are a little too sticky. Can we change the brake pad to a brake pad that's not quite as grippy? You don't want me to be able to do that. I mean, I feel like you're adding a lot if you can because what I'll be changed every week would be doing a lot of that, I think.

So I'm fine with what Travis said. You show up and you run. You know, you took gamble on your setup and there's a lot of dialing in on breaks now. And there was a test there. Redick, I think, tested. Yeah. And he had break issues too. So I think some people choose to be more aggressive with it.

And like Travis said, you chose. you chose to go that route. Like, I know we used to change breaks all the time. We did. But it's just, now it's... I mean, look, not all the time. I think that I probably can count on both hands how many times I changed to something different in my career.

Now, you know, we might go to the road courses and put in new pads for the race or we might come with an old set of pads and start the next practice with a new set. All right, bud, there's some new break pads, break them in, you know, whatever. But I can't say that in, you know, I can't say that in all, in the 20 years I raced, that at some point in the weekend, I switched to something different. I didn't do that more than a dozen times in my entire career. So I don't believe that if you open this option up,

it's going to be this crazy guys are going to start carrying 2,000 pounds of fucking break equipment on the haulers. Because that's what you got to worry about. You know, qualifying brake pads. Yeah, that's what you got to worry about. Where, what are you, in Iowa? What kind of brake pad are you going to put in to qualify faster? Well, it's not necessarily maybe faster,

but it's like, hey, let's try something here in practice that we might want to run for the chase. If it doesn't work, we're in a good spot, we'll go to the bat, we'll fix the, change the brake pads to what we know, we'll go to the back and then we're good. What's wrong with that? Now you're just like gaming the system.

Are you okay with that? That's racing. That's like going to racetrack and changing a spring or changing the rear gear or changing the fucking foam in your headrests. I mean, it's just an adjustment. It's not, it's never been this taboo. fucking weird thing.

So the other argument for on Denny's side is if a correct break rotor is a safety issue, how is if the pad is, they said the pad is like defective. How is that not a safety issue? They were willing to go to the back and fix it for safety. Do you think that that's a legitimate claim? I think you'd just be able to change them. It's just, it's hard for me to stomach. that we are where we are in such a short period of time

in the way we look the way we do things today we would go to the racetrack and if we wanted to change the pads or change the rotors or put new shit in we just did it and in such a short period of time we have gotten to a place where nobody wants to to fucking do shit nobody wants nobody to be able

to do shit why are we so rigid it's a lot different now though compared to what we had three practices an hour each what does that got to do with fucking break pads

though well we ran a lot more laps yeah but what so did it was point though saying the length of practice doesn't matter if a guy wants to change

the fucking break pads well I mean if you're trying to keep cost down people are going to do it every week you're not keep a cost down the cost we're going to be changing breaks every week.

You won't. You won't. I've never, this wasn't a thing. I just think the team's old. When was changing breaks every week a thing? Ever? I just think the way it is now.

People are, they're going to find a way. They're going to start mixing. I mean like, oh man, I got to change my brakes. What's for? Well,

everybody's changing their brakes. I got to change my brakes. I do feel like there will be different. I do feel like Travis is right. We will, teams will find ways to find a qualifying break package and then a race. and then a race break package

because it's so different. Great. What if you make it, though, that if you want to change your brake pads, you're going to the back. I don't, okay. I'm just. Yeah, that's fine too.

Trying to find a... I think that's fine. If you change your brake pads before the race, sure, go to the rear. Because then how many teams are going to be trying this if they know, we're going to have to move to the back

if we do this, so is it really worth it? But I don't mind them. Qualifying on one pad and racing on a different pad, damn, the team. needs something to do besides pushing cars around through tech all

fucking day. Yeah, I mean, I'm for more changes. All of our road guys go to the racetrack and they eager they are eager to have a mechanical fucking job to do. Something to change.

Something to fucking work on. And, you know, a lot of our road guys that used to be on the road years ago have left because they've left the road because they don't want to go to the racetrack and sit around and hold a fucking umbrella. and push a car through tech and then go race.

Yeah. They want to go to the racetrack, do a little practice, change a spring, fucking change something and go faster and work on it. Yeah. Change an upper, change this, do that. Something. Track bar. Yeah.

Truck arm, something. I don't think this break thing's a big deal. Should NASCAR let teams change brake pads? I believe they should. I believe there should be some reasonable understanding common sense. If you need to send them to the back, if it's a change before the race and everybody agrees,

hey, okay, you can do it, but you've got to go to the back, fine. I think if it happens before qualifying, maybe you leave it alone. I think if you change anything on your car, I guess after qualifying, if we're doing it that way, you know, you may go to the rear.

I like that. But since we're going to add a little practice, I think you've got to open it up a little bit. I'd be fine with, if you change it, you've got to take a little bit of a penalty for it. Sure. Because that would slow down the whole different packages and stuff. Yeah. Carson Quaple got his second win at Iowa, second win in a row.

Pretty awesome deal. Just some good strategy. It was odd how everybody kind of started, usually with the O'Reilly series. The strategy is really straightforward. Everybody does pretty much the exact same thing. Every now and then you get a couple guys that would jump off the strategy, but those are more hellmeries. But all the guys that are genuinely in the, contention to win the race followed the same sort of path. But for whatever reason, this weekend, the field got cut in half in terms of what they wanted to do. Probably something to do with the durability of the tire itself. But Carson Quaple and his crew.

The deal was that was fuel. Yeah, fuel. People were trying to, like, we were real close to the window and so. Yeah. Well, Carson and Rodney and those guys did a great job of putting themselves in position to have the track position. to have the track position necessary to pull it off and a couple late restarts and got the job done. That launches Carson into a great position.

Let's see, all 30-ish points clear of Sheldon Creed in second place is Mr. Quappell. Jesse Love drops to fourth after a tough race in Iowa. Corey Day is still fifth in points. Then you got Brandon Jones, Austin Hill. Sammy Smith back in eighth place for junior motor sports. Parker Ritzlaff having an awesome season just ahead of Sam Mary in 10th. It's, you know, Justin had a pretty solid car. Look like he might have a chance to win it.

Got knocked around there late in the race, which kind of happens sometimes if you get, if you lose that track position, you know, and things get desperate late in the race. It's hard to get through that. Yeah, tough to get through it. He almost did. It's, you know, I think we can, we can, you know, looking forward, I don't want to look, I don't want to get too far into this, but Carson, Quoppel and Rodney Childers there together through the rest of the year, everybody wondered, you know, what the fuck are they doing at the start of the season?

Carson's not in the one car all year. Why, why, why? Well, as we're sort of positioning ourselves for the chase, you know, if I take Carson out of that car, when Conner Zillich comes here to run and stick him in that one car, Connor Zillich, in that one car, and go to Justin Marks and say, hey, Justin, when Connor's in the one,

we're going to get the pit crew. They were one of the better crews on pit road last year with the 88 team. We're going to get that pit crew on the one car. I would like you to commit them to the car the entire season so that when Carson gets in it, he's in the chase with this pit crew. Last year, pit crew was a little bit of a weak spot for Carson and his team. And I wanted to fix that issue. And so this is lined up perfectly.

We got a pretty solid crew on Pit Road, Rodney on the box. So it's going to be quite interesting to see Justin Carson and whomever else may join this battle to try to win the championship in the O'Reilly series. And I think that, you know, Creed, Jesse Love defending his title, Corey Day could get hot. He's had a little bit of a slump here, struggling just a little bit, but they could pop off some wins any time. Austin Hill is always a threat. I never count him out.

Yeah, he's solid all the time. So it's going to be interesting to see how this whole thing plays out. The last couple of weeks have been really good for Carson in terms of his career. Things are looking positive on trying to put together his full season next year. And so pretty excited about that. Also, great run by Rajah to be able to bring it home in second. Massive resorts at the end for Raj. Yeah, he just did a great job.

And those are the kind of days that he needs to have. If he can't, he thinks, you know, man, got to win, got to win. What do I do to win? But I'm like, man, you know, when you're not going to be able to win every single race, when you're not winning, you need to be able to bring it home in those seconds, in those thirds. Top fives. Top five, yes.

You've got to get those when you can get them. He's back in 14th position. The cutoff is 12. Twelve teams get into the play or the chase for the O'Rle series. And Raja right now is 15 points out. Yep. So doable. Right in front of him, Taylor Gray, Brent Cruz, and Swalach, all JGR cars.

So tough job for Raja, but he's still got a shot at it. TJ, have you noticed anything different in Carson these past few weeks? You know, he's been knocked on the door. He finally gets to win off week. And now another one, have you just to see anything? No, Carson just continues to grow every week. I know it's a little difference. Yeah, he's definitely, his confidence is up.

No, no, no. I think it's the consistency of being in the one car. 100%. Him and Rodney kind of feel like their season is just beginning. And they've got to quickly establish a momentum that the teams that have been doing this for half a year have established. Going in and out of that car has not been ideal.

It's tough. It's what we needed to do so that he would be in a good spot across the board in terms of crew and everything else for the chase. But it wasn't ideal. And he wasn't able to establish, I guess, the rapport with Rodney that he would have otherwise. So they're having to play a little catch-up, but they're doing a really, really good job. But Rajah did an awesome job this weekend. also looking really promising for his deal to come together for next year.

And, you know, a lot of work to do to figure out where we're going to line up and end up for 2027. But excited to see how this chase plays out and whether we're going to be going to the banquet or not. Is this the position you thought, is this the screen that you thought you would see coming to this point? I don't know. We're looking at the points on the screen. Yeah. I mean, I don't know.

I didn't know what expect from Justin's team because of the. the change in Overstreet and Overstreet and Coopple struggled last year to get the results. So I wasn't sure why that was the case because the year before when Overstreet and Quaple ran those five races together, they almost won a couple of them. Yeah. So I wasn't sure what was going on with that. But Justin and Overstreet's really overachieved and they've got a lot of confidence. Hopefully, you know, with six wins, that's an incredible season and a chance to get more. So they, the banquet.

So we end the season in Homestead. All right. And we have the intention of going into Key West and having a sort of rap party podcast with Dirty Mo Media. We're going to do like a two-hour show and we're going to get all the personalities on a little bit of DBC action. Amy's going to jump on for a while. We're just going to have a big catch-all review of the year. End of season. And we're doing that on Monday after the Sunday Cup race, championship race.

And we're doing it around lunchtime, okay, in town in Key West. And so Tuesday night is the O'Reilly banquet back in Homestead. Oh, perfect. Yeah. Celebrate, go to Homestead, celebrate some more. Go back to Key West. We'll have a good bar crawl on Monday in Key West. And then we'll go to, we'll go back up the road to Homestead, hopefully, to celebrate a championship.

That'd be fun. Oh, yeah. And then go back to Key West? No, we'll be heading on home. I do miss the. That's no fun. Well, that's what I got to do. I mean, I do miss the Phoenix to Key West.

Or Phina, yeah, we did that a couple times. That was always fun. Yeah, it was. So we got Ty Gibbs' race winner from Iowa on the Dale Jr. download. First off, Ty, I know you got a lot going on, man. So I appreciate you giving us some time today and coming on the show. Yes, sir. I appreciate you having me back on.

It's been a minute. Where are you at? I'm in my house right now. Right on. Got some helmets. Got some helmets. All right. What was that helmet on the end?

What was that a football helmet? Yeah, it's my brother's football helmet. Oh, nice. Yeah. That's pretty damn cool. I know, dude, he gave me the, I took, I was like, because I want to start having the helmet collection. Yes.

And so I just was like, hey, let me take it and just keep the gloves on it too. And he was like, all right. And that was it. Yeah. Where, what are some helmets that, so I have a helmet collection. I have a football helmet collection. A lot of college, a lot of NFL, probably maybe roughly 120 helmets in total. What are some helmets that you would love to add to that collection?

How are you going to get it started? Man, I don't know. I think, I mean, I think, you know, trading helmets with people is cool. But I think a helmet obviously is like, it's like an art piece, right? But also there's like a whole story and picture that's brought with a helmet too because it's seen a lot in racing. And so I don't know. I mean, for me, I think it'd be cool. Like both my brothers are big baseball.

So one of them is a catcher. You know, if he makes it all the way, which he has a good shot. And I think it'd be cool to have a catcher summit and everything. I think that would be super cool. and I've got some great motorcross helmets. I'd like to get some more. But yeah, I've got a lot of my dad's old motorcross stuff from the shop. And so I've- Which motorcross helmets you got?

I mean, I have so many from Justin Barshaw, Justin Brayton. I've got stuff from, man, Josh Grant. Like, it's just so much. He had so much stuff. I've got a Stanford football helmet, too. That's pretty cool. Yeah, that's pretty sweet. Yeah, actually, I think my mom has it.

I think they hung it up in her office or something. I don't know. But they got a lot of stuff jumping around here. But when you're younger, you don't think of it, like, you don't think of it being like that special. Then you get older. Like, that's pretty sick. I agree. I agree.

All right, man. So great run this past weekend. Really good job holding on to the lead late in the race. Just good smart driving. You know, when you're, I guess, in the last couple of laps, how much are you really driving in the mirror? How much are you looking out the windshield? I always felt like that there was this sort of part of me where I was splitting half and kind of doing both at the same time almost.

I was about to say that. I would say probably that because you're kind of like my mirror, like the digital mirrors, mine's like on the left so I can kind of like I'm like turned and I'm like looking at out the left front, you know, a mirror or window and then I'm like the mirrors below. So I can kind of split both lanes and then yeah, just like wash on that. Kind of honestly like don't really remember much just because you're racing and you're kind of just like. in like La La Land, basically. But then whenever you, I don't know if you've had this,

but then whenever you start to realize what's going on, then your heart rate gets up and you kind of got to wind back down a little bit. So it's about, but I was like 40 laps of that. So it was fun. I honestly had a blast. And it was cool watching like the onboard from Christopher because I felt so loose. And then to watch it, I was like, okay, that solidifies.

Like I look, that's what I look like. So it's good. It is fun watching on boards of the cars behind you. because, you know, we never get the vantage point of looking at our car and seeing what our car looks like on the racetracking. It's certainly not fun to watch someone else drive your car. But if you get on boards and see, you know, what your car, what your, you know, how hard you're working. To your point, you know, it kind of adds some credibility to the effort that you put behind the wheel because you felt like, you know, you're on the ragged edge there at the end of the race. did you realize early in the race that you had that good a race car?

I mean, how do you quantify the value of what your car can do early in the race? Are you like, man, this thing can win if I can get to the front? Are you unsure? I mean, honestly, I don't know. I feel like I've never really felt like maybe a couple times, but not like it didn't feel like great. You know, because you're in fourth place. Like the traffic is still pretty bad. But I just picture like if you're in the top six and everything goes good,

you can make some spots up in pit road, good green flag cycle. Like, you got a shot in the top six. That's just the way I look at it. And so I just was like, I'm just going to stick with it. And then we came down and we had a little bit of a cluster on pit road and then had the digger way back. So it was cool. But man, that second stage, dude, that second stage felt longer than the first stage and the third stage combined. I don't know.

Maybe just because I had come from the back or that's just how long it took. But I was like, man, we got another stage left. Yeah. Yeah, the end went quick. Yeah. The end of the race, the last part of the race went fast. Yeah. So it was like all over.

Yeah. You got, I just, before T.J.'s got a question for you. I wanted to ask you one more thing. You mentioned about you are, you know, genuinely in your mind, you're thinking, I'm a contender for this championship. I think the rest of the industry feels that as well. You're obviously in a great position being second points and winning races at a great time in the year. when do you really truly start to I mean how does the driver get ready for that 10 race run you've been doing you've been doing the you know you've been racing under a certain system

for so long and I think that you know the mindset's a little bit different with this system how do you and the team I guess approach the chase and generally and really give yourself that ideal shot to win, win at all. Yeah, I mean, I think going back to the first point, like, you know, thinking, like going as a contender, right? Like, I really appreciate that coming from you. But I just, I don't know. I just, I think why not show up and not want to, like, win the championship?

And so I just look at it like that and I'm just like, well, I mean, I got a shot, but also, like, you know, even last year when we were not good, I'm still like I'm going for it. Like, I can still do it, you know what I mean, until the playoffs. start right you don't make it but like I'm all in and um I just I'm like we're gonna hammer down and try to go win it my guys are pretty really good uh solid group of guys around me really laid back so we kind of just take a week by week and you know day by day honestly like you know and so it's not like you know it's this huge style like okay the playoff start here we got have this many points like we just

take a week by week try to try to hammer down every weekend and take it like that I don't think it's like I think it's pretty like simple from our standpoint you know so I don't know that's just the way we do it yeah uh so the end of the race you know the 20s running you down getting closer and closer he was running higher than pretty much anybody on the racetrack he was up against the edge of the black and one of the pioneers kind of that line what move were you most worried about him pulling on you if he got close were you worried about him getting to the bottom or were you just full protecting the right rear um honestly i just he was so strong getting in the turn three and it would kind of slide himself and I was so loose in the corner so I'm getting in there and

I'm like holding the wheel straight and I'm puckered up and he could just bomb it in there and then slide up and then I could get pointed and get a good run off so like I was just like I have to cover somewhat of the bottom and turn in turn three and four I'm like I have to cover somewhat of the bottom to like keep him behind me because he's so fast at the time at the whole time so I'd say that probably at the bottom three and four like he just drive it so he could I noticed that in practice I noticed in practice he could drive it in. Yeah. And some guys run, he was running, him and Larson would kind of run a like a slider line in three and four where they would just drive in real hard and let it wash up off of four.

But, you know, into one, it looked like you were dead set. I'm not letting him get to the right rear because obviously if he gets outside you in the middle one and two, it's going to be tough to hold him off there. Yeah, I would say for sure. And I mean, it's so easy to take people's air away. Like if you just move up a half of car link. So it's just like, might as well. I got to keep behind me so fast. So all as I heard you say is need to take the camera out of the car and make Hirschman work harder.

Honestly, I think if he took the digital camera out of the car, I think it would be a mix of drivers that probably wouldn't be in the cup series anymore, honestly. Like, I mean, I think Dale could probably speak on that, but I swear sometimes, like, man, if there was no digital cameras in here, like, some of these guys definitely would not be in Cup. Man. Well, yeah, that's interesting. I think that it's... Dude, I saw that we had the same mirror in a train, like a bus. like a transit bus. Yeah.

I was in the transit box in L.A. and I was like, dude, I think that's the same mirror I run in my cup car. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a fun fact. That was surprising. Yeah, I would be for going back to the regular mirror we used to run years ago. Would you before that? I would 100% before that.

I think it would, I mean, you know, obviously we'd want to have a car that race is a little better and dirty air, but for the time being, like, I think if you took this out, like it would be, I think it'd make the racing a little bit better because you can't just sit there and like look at your iPad and just blow up and just screw-those somebody on their line. It is. Yeah. The mirror is so clear and provide so much information.

Yeah. A couple years ago, my radio broke with like 45 laps ago. No, it was probably like 25 at a row course. And I just didn't have any communication the whole time. And thank goodness it went green to the end after we pitted. So I just spotted for myself in here. I could see everything from the mirror. Yeah.

Yeah. I was just solo. I got one last question for you. Over this year, your mother has been more in the spotlight. We've, I think we, I say we, the media, hear us to podcast and Amazon and so forth, have talked and showcased a bit about her, her, sort of shift into this very critical role at Joe Gives Racing. What is what does that feel like for you as you watch her sort of get some of this credit becoming this leader? I've been on some calls with her

as we start to navigate the future of the O'Reilly series and so forth. And it's just really impressive to listen to her talk and her position and strength. How does that feel for you? Because We're all being, you know her, you know her, she's your mother. You've known her your whole life. We're all being introduced to her, many of us for the very first time over the course of this past year, in terms of her professional position in the sport. What's your take on that? How's that made you feel?

How proud, I guess, are you? Yeah, I'm very proud. You know, my mom had to step in the big role coming from, you know, kind of what my dad was doing. And my dad, you know, was doing a lot, and she's taking on a lot, obviously. she's been doing a great job. So I just think she, you know, I'm very proud of her, obviously. And I just think, you know, she takes it as she wants so she can have a lot of spotlight or she doesn't have to have a lot.

She's, you know, kind of, you know, pretty humble and doesn't want a ton. So for them to do the pieces on the prime, I think we're really important and kind of the show her background. And I think that's important that, you know, obviously, like, to have women in sports and big business, I think it's super important, especially for like the younger crowd too. so um but it's been cool you know she's uh very she's like the most competitive person i probably know honestly uh because like i'll be sitting there watching next family race and somebody makes a mistake in one of our cars she just calls me she's like what the hell is he doing she's just she's

after it so but it's been really cool you know and then i got to watch uh you know kelly and her you know on on your guys's podcast and i thought that was a great podcast and i thought you know it was a super fun to listen to. So it's been cool seeing that. And I just think you can relate to me. Like, you know, people like this has been your environment for so long and now you have family members coming in and they kind of get to see how it is. I think that's super special. Yes. Yeah. Absolutely, man. Way, good job this past weekend. Good luck going forward. You're in a great spot to make a run for that championship and you know how to win championships because you've done it before. Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. We're live here at the Dirty Moe Media Studios and we got at, um, we got at

Junior. And it's time for Xfinity to wave the red flag on Internet price hikes and the green flag for savings. You get speed, reliable Wi-Fi that you need, locked in at one price for five years. No surprises, no late yellows right to victory lane, just like we like it. That's Xfinity. Imagine that. Let's go right into the questions.

I think before we get to the questions, we're just going to ask the chat. is Iowa short track, right? That's what we want to know? Straight up, right to the beginning. Yeah, let's just, while we're talking, they can think about that. It's been quite the debate. Yep.

I believe it is not. I think anything under a mile is a, it falls into its own bucket, and then anything under a half mile is a short track. Minus Richmond. Minus Richmond, yeah. Does it make sense to me? I was not a short track.

Seven-eighths of a mile. It's big. It's the same as Richmond almost. It's a quarter of a mile larger. Before we get to the questions, we actually have gifts for both of you guys. Gifts. Since you created, you coined this term. Oh, gosh.

We wanted to, on behalf of... Oh, Jesus. Gosh, dang. What the fuck is this? But TJ, we have a different gift for you. Yes. Who? Can't just have Dennybroo.

have the Brad Boys. Oh, that's good. I like it. It's perfect. We got a Bradboy shirt for T.J. Denny. Yeah. Denny has D.H.R. T-shirts? Yeah, he's got his own.

Go to his website and get all sorts of stuff. Denny bros. Thanks for the gifts. That's nice. We have a song that goes along. Yeah, Brad Boys. What are you going to do when you finish P-32? Oh, good boy.

27. Okay. Dale, might as well just start. What are you opening? Oh, somebody gave me a box of Max race cars from 1991.

Whoa. I'll give you a PACTJ. Thanks. I need to go. When I was back, I went through some cards and one of the cards I found, my dad is one of Rick Hendrick.

Yes, sir. You open him one? I will. Yeah. All right. Go ahead and. Well, speaking of cards, fans want to know,

what's a card that you have on? your list that's like you kind of want but you're like I don't know if I want to spend oh that kind like not like just one not absorbed like a crazy number but just like right now I got my list right here um first one I pull the Winston 1990 your dad let's see yeah let's see the chipper Jones 91 Desert Shield 1991 Desert Shield is a card I'd like to have but it's a little pricey the Frank Thomas 1990 tops with the no name Hank Aaron 1954 tops

number 128 Jackie Robinson 1956 tops number 30 let's see Nolan Ryan 1968 tops number 177

and those are the ones that I've looked at and I've looked at the prices and I was like holy crap yeah there's yeah and I mean you know there's all kinds of that there any you know that that that those are the ones that just on my own the list yeah

that I made for myself that I wanted to get my main card is probably the tech mobile josh allen card he badly wants that one I do yeah so um there was some dudes that showed up last week um and had a bunch of cards in their car yeah tons of cards and we bought the cards and I've been going through them and so that's been fun I've always been interested in like buying a bolt collection on a whim, right? And just like

there's some, there's a adrenaline of like, man, what are we going to find? Hopefully we don't, you know, hopefully it will least break even. And I feel like I'm doing pretty good with this little packet I bought. I'm having to like, the cards

were stored in a really bad space. They're in good shape, but they're dirty, dusty. So I'm having to, having to like take these little cloths that you clean glasses with and clean every card front and back one at a time. The bin he's talking about. It's like a bin you would store a Christmas ornament, like a huge bin. And the cards were all just kind of tossed in there.

There were a, there's probably 50 or so King Griffey Jr. is in there. And there's some really cool 90s, early 90s football. there's some top's finest um Dan Marino uh just a lot of there's a lot of decent cards in there nothing crazy

there was a couple of the Billy Ripkin uh the error card but it's the black box so it's like the not the best not the most valuable one but it's still a four or five dollar card yeah there's a lot of there's this was a big collection oh yeah um

This one fan says Jeff Jr. 82, his card that he wants is a Baker-Mayfield downtown 2018. There you get. Yeah, the downtown cards are always nice. Downtowns are cool. I'm more into the vintage stuff. I like, you know, I like Nolan Ryan, Griffey Jr., uh, um, Bo Jackson, um, anything from, you know, all Pete Rose, all the greats from the 60s, 70s, even the 50s.

I just, it's just expensive. obviously if you further you go back i've got a couple of mantles that i bought but i mean i'm buying you know mid grade yeah not no but even like a three or two or three or four is super i just think it's cool to have the card yeah um owning a mannals just neat you know i know um my brother one's got two of them that i think you should randy johnson is one of my favorite players to collect he's awesome in his car he's just a i don't know i like Randy John. There's just a bunch of players that, you know, Greg Maddox, Smolts, Glam.

Yeah, that's a brazed guy. So, yeah, there's something about like a wise back coming is going through my dad's stuff. Like, the older players, like going through like a present, present day pack. Like, yeah, it might be like the cards look cooler, but like that. Well, it's fun going through the old stuff because you know what the value of it is. It's realized. Yeah. It's already done.

Yeah. You're 30 years removed. so it is what it is. Yeah. Now it might go up a little bit. It does over time a little, yeah. But you know, like, you don't have to guess, man, is this going to be worth anything in two years? Is this guy going to tank?

Like, I got a really bad ass Bo Nix. And I'm like, man, I don't even know whether they keep it or not. I know. Should I get rid of it? Should I keep it? Am I going to regret keeping it? It's like crap. It's like the Jackson Darts.

Everyone wants the Jackson Darts. Who knows? You don't have to do that with the older stuff. Donnie Wingo, crew chief. Dick Beatty. H.B. Bailey, one of the independents, Charlie Glott's Back. Old Charlie. You know, it was wild.

Charlie raced in Junior Johnson's Chevrolet back in, like, the early 70s, late 60s at Charlotte Merger Speedway. Like, this guy was running Cup in like the late 60s and early 70s. And then he just disappeared. He resurfaces running Arca cars in a Richard Childress black, you know, Chevrolet, Monte Carlo, or whatever at Talladega and shit. They'd show up and run Talladega at the Arca race and just kick everybody's ass. Leo Jackson, race number three from 1990,

Kyle Petty in the Peak Antifreeze colors, beautiful race car. That was a good race car. The peak Pontiac. Kyle did the tire test. this was back when the radio was relatively new in 1990. The radio came in in 89. Kyle did some of the testing for the radial tire. His crew chief, Gary Nelson at the time was on the show talking about that,

and they kicked everybody's ass at some of those racetracks due to their knowledge of the tire and Kyle's ability to take care of it. This is race 22 in 1990, dad, at Richmond, which is where we're going this weekend. Another race, race 26, race for seven, D.K. O'Ritch.

And then memorable moments is just a, nothing crazy, a couple cars going. A lot of black marks. Tracy Leslie. While you. Travis Carter, another memorable moments

at Martinsville. And then Andy Petrie. I mean, this is a, this is a very underwhelming pack. While you keep going through that, people want to know, what was your thoughts on the cars tour?

this past weekend. Yeah, it's great. I was going to talk about the car store. So we go to Richmond, which is our throwback race. We got a lot of great throwback schemes. We're all excited. We're posting social media clips, and I'm engaging with all this all week long.

Man, it's going to be a great weekend. This is a big weekend for us. We get a lot of people that watch the throwback race at Hickory. And they usually get a really great crowd at Hickory Motor Speedway as well. Weather screwed us over. So we had some rain on race day, and it pushed everything back. We worked really hard to get the race in, as opposed to making everybody turn around and go home,

then come back again, tried not to cost the teams another night in a hotel, things like that. And everybody wants to be home on Sunday if they can. So we start the pro race pretty late. I think it was, I don't know, 10 o'clock or so. And the pro race was a bit of a disaster. a lot of crashing. We had a guy mischiefs twice,

which is rare in the pros. The pro is basically a two-speed, so they don't have a lot of miss shifts. Well, this guy missed shifts twice destroyed the field. Yeah, initial start was rough. Oh, well, it was. And there's a lot of other wrecks in that particular race, for whatever reason.

Usually the pros don't do that. They did this particular weekend. Hickory can be a little bit of a bullring. Potential with wreck cars, theirs goes up a little bit. Anyways, the pros could have done better, but it was a rough race. The complete opposite for the late model stocks, epic race, but no one saw it. It happened at 1 o'clock in the morning.

Ended at 2.30. One of our best races of the year that no one saw. Corey Heim qualified up front with Honeycutt. Those two guys don't love each other. They duked it out. That ended in drama. Lee Pulliam ends up racing his own car because his current driver was in Iowa, racing the O'Reilly Series.

And so he gets up there racing for the lead with Honeycut. Drama ensues. And so just a lot of really big moments. And, you know, so it was a great race, but no one really saw it. I was sitting there in the bed, had the iPad propped up, had it turned on trying my hardest to stay awake. And I did see the finish of the Lameau Stock race. Yeah, it's tough like he said.

It is what it is. I mean, I'm sorry, man. It ain't like we want to put a race on it. It's scheduled with that. Yeah, we didn't schedule it for midnight or 1 o'clock in the morning. But we, we, we, it's better for us to get the race in and get everybody out of that. and get everybody home. And so I saw a lot of the pro race and the shit they tore up.

I fell asleep, woke back up with like 15 laps to go in the late mile stock race. And I'm like, I grabbed the iPad. I'm like, damn, 15 to go. And I'm watching them run. And I'm looking at the field. And I'm like, well, it looks like there's a lot of cars, not a lot of damage. Maybe they didn't have a show like the pros.

All right, man, this must have been a, oh, it didn't look like they can pass really well. But then I went back and looked at the highlights. And I'm like, damn, what a run. race. A lot of big moments in that particular event. So I was really happy, you know, with them getting it in. And, man, we feel terrible when we have to ask our teams to do an extra thing, like stay another night at a hotel or come in and, you know, run on a Sunday morning.

So we didn't have to do that. That was nice to avoid. Yeah. Going to Anderson next. I believe in a couple of weeks. The season slows down in the summer, and now we'll start to turn the corner and ramp it back up and running twice a month

until we get to the end of the year. Gotcha. Saw some controversy last night with Kyle Larson. Oh, I saw that. Oh, yeah, in the Knoxville race. Yeah, it was a different speedway. What was it? It wasn't Knoxville.

What was it? I forget. I'd have to, maybe the chat knows. Oskillusa. Yeah, that sounds very. That's where it was. I guess I just like Well, they were in Knoxville

Over the weekend they were. I saw the clip this morning It just looks similar. It does. He, Look, man, I don't know whether it was a good, clean move or not,

but apparently the guy said after the race that Larsen was a shit or something. Yeah, piece of shit. Yeah. Sounds like the car owner didn't say some kind things

that Larson either. I'm here for it, man. Drama. Yeah. That's what makes motorsports good is when there's a little controversy. You don't want it to be, you want it to be on the track. You want it to be, you know.

And nobody got up, got upside down or anything. I mean, it was the guy, I think, I still finished third. Yeah. So. Like I don't, even in the car store race, I think Honeycutt got taken out, Lee spun out, Heim spun out. You don't want that to happen. But it's drama.

It's, it's, it adds to it, man. It does. Yeah, it was compelling. I love, though, that Himes coming down and doing some of these. races like I want more of that stuff yeah I mean the cars tour is getting that kind of a reputation like you can you can get down in the cars tour if you still if you like grassroots racing if you come from that form of motorsports and you want to come back and you know honeymoon or or whatever they call that um going to come down there and have a little fun well also get some

these people that maybe don't have the opportunity to go to a cup race or whatever a chance to see some of their favorite drivers or even a driver they don't like but it's really good. That's right. Another question for the guy's name, want to know, how many pairs of A6 do you own? Too many. I used to buy those things like crazy. I haven't bought a pair of A6 in a long time, but I still wear them. I still have, I'm not wearing them right now, but I've got a bunch in storage that I'm not wearing. Once you find that one shoe that fits perfect, it's like, let me get it in every color and you just know it fits perfectly. Yeah. Yeah. Elliot Tracer 35 wants to know

How much of a threat do you think Corey Hyman will be next year for the chase? Oh, he'll make it. Corey Hyme should make the chase next year if it's 16 drivers. I don't know if you think he might have. You mean championship or chase? Chase.

Yeah, he should make it. 16 drivers, he makes it. Do you think there'll be a little... We've seen him win a couple races, but he's had like three weeks off to prepare for it. Do you think racing weekend and week out? Makes him better. Hey, shout out to whoever sent me chopsticks.

Wait, what? Yeah. Somebody mailed. Oh, they listened. I thought I brought it. Oh, they're right behind your iPad. In front of your iPad. Yeah, they're on the backside here.

Somebody listened to the Bless Your Heart show. Bless Your Heart is not a racing podcast, everybody. It's just me and my wife. So, you know, if you're not into, you know, just lifestyle podcast, you know, no worries. But me and Amy talk about, you know, just regular life. And I was talking about how when I went to South Korea and I sat down at this restaurant to eat and they plop down in front of me this piece, this Tupperware full of metal chopsticks. And I was like, oh, where's the wooden, you know, throwaways? Somebody mailed me a pack of chopsticks.

So I think I just might like for one week Eat with chopsticks only It's a lot How that's what I'm going to use these? Yeah Arby's Yeah We have the meats

I'll bet you could pick up a buffalo Chicken slider with that Yeah I don't know how you're a lot of things you're playing I'm going to build these chopsticks for I'll figure it out Please give it a try Yeah I keep them in the truck

Yeah I keep them in my pickup truck Yeah so your fingers don't get dirty meat chips. That would be hilarious. Driving around, see somebody in the car next to you, eating the chopsticks. It's like, all right, man.

Now. You're going to stab yourself. Now, oh, calm down. I don't know how to use chopsticks. I'm the best in my family at using them. While driving, though. Also, you're going up against Amy Island, Nicole. Congrats.

I don't need how to use them. All right. I don't use, I just use a fork when I get sushi. Yeah. So O'Reilly is off this weekend. And next weekend. I'll until Daytona. Yeah.

And I probably won't go to Richmond. And then New Hampshire, I'm probably not going to go to that one. You could go to Richmond with your Dennybro's T-shirt. And then I'm probably going to go to Daytona. That's my plans. Why? Why Daytona? Because we might, you know, cut off. Yeah, I don't know.

Just because Daytona. It's Daytona, man. We either win or wreck them all, right? I know. I mean, I feel like we have a good shot. Yeah. Thank you, Xfinity, for raving the red flag on internet price hikes and raising the green flag for savings. Now you get the speed and reliable Wi-Fi that you need all at one price for five years.

No surprises or late yellows. Right to Victor Lane, just like we like it. Hey, this is Dellenhart Jr. And for all the latest Dale Jr. download gear, including the Imo drink some beer t-shirt that we've been talking about here around the office, head over to shop. Dot dirty-mobedia.com for all the latest merch. Place your betts, ladies and gentlemen. Place your bets. All right, let's crank it up.

It's time for Dirty Mo Doe. This segment is brought to you by a fan duel, the premier gaming destination of the United States. We head to Richmond and Vegas has Hamlin, Bell, Lugano, Blaney, and Larson is the top five. I feel like that that's the top five from every week, at least last week, for Iowa. And T.J. thinks that Iowa and Richmond are the same racetrack, so that makes sense from Las Vegas. Is this, and I'll tell you this, too, the Penske cars always seem to have ran well at Richmond. they have always just seem to go there and be sneaky. But I'm not sure it's just a JGR Penske race.

Russell, you join us. Thank you for being here. What's your thoughts? I have it as a Penske, JGR race. Sorry, sorry to disagree with you. He shoots you right now. What about our guy, Austin Dillon? Ran pretty solid this past weekend at Richmond.

point two or Richmond 2.0 So he is my sleeper when are the last two races there? Man, you're calling the motherfucker that won the last two races there a sleeper. Well, he is because

what else have you said his name this year? It doesn't matter. He's still fat. When did you say your name? When did you say his name the years before? You didn't. Then he was right there. I said his name last year. We went to Richmond. Yeah. But before that, did you say it? You didn't. Did you have him as a sleeper last year?

Probably. Do you have last year's model? I guess if he gets three in a row, is he a sleeper in 2027? He's going to be a sleeper as long as he doesn't run well every week. He just ran top 10 or 11 here. Yeah, because it's Richmond 2.0, Iowa. Is Iowa a short track? But then he can't be a sleeper anymore.

So, okay. So what do you want to call him then? a favorite. He's not a thing. Look at the books. Where is he in the books? He's just not a sleeper. You were kind of expecting him to run good.

That's not a sleeper. I expect him to run good here. Okay. Would you be shocked if he won, Russ? I would be shocked if he won. But I would not be shocked if he finished top 10. Okay. Well, that's not really a sleeper.

The guy that's won here before, she isn't a sleeper to me. All right. Okay. Well, look, I'm trying to get him to change his mind about it being a Joe Ging. Gibbs Racing Penske race. No, I think one of those two are going to win the race.

Do you think Austin Dillon's going to win the race? You got, I mean, Josh Barry is more of a sleeper. He's a sleeper too. He's one of my two sleepers this week. Jeez. Okay. Oh, Bubba Wallace is a sleeper. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm reading. You're reading your notes. Yeah. Okay. He's using Russ's words against him. He is. He is. Because go up further.

Who's the first hot person there, the first hot driver is Austin Dillon. I think I'm busted. You got him ahead of Denny Hamlin. Yeah. Oh, you won the last two races there. Let's talk about this. Our guy, Kyle Larson, sitting 10th in points.

Where's your confidence in a Kyle Larson this weekend? It's not good. It's not good. Man. Because this really hasn't been a great track for Hendrick anyway. You know, it has been, I'll tell you, man,

Richmond is a strange damn track. It has always been a race track that's super hit or miss for teams. It is, you know, most short tracks are pretty much, you know, like Martinsville, for example. You have a lot of teams that are really solid there, but it's more driver-based. And you would assume Richmond would be really,

you know, driver oriented. And that might be the case for Austin Dillon. Whatever they have. Sure. At that race track, it just, you know,

they just clicks with him. Flicks. And they can't replicate it anywhere else, which, you know, Richmond's just always been a track. You could take the same exact setup, one year set on the pole, running the top three,

go back with the exact same thing in the second Richmond race and B-20th. And not know what the hell's going on. I agree. And all the years I drove the bud car there, we had great runs, we had bad runs. We were all over the place in Rear Spring chasing this racetrack. And it's an annoying thing trying to figure out how to get to drive up off its turn four and get the car to turn in the middle.

So it's just, you know, interesting to me. I always, to your point, like Hendrick's not been great there in the past, but it's just one of those tracks where they just could show up and have it dialed in. Yeah, it'd be really good. You just, I wouldn't be surprised if they showed up and ran well. To like the 39 at Iowa. He showed up in the O'Reilly race and was really fat. I mean, he had a really good shot to win that race, too.

So Chase Elliott, you have him as cold on here as well. Only two top ten finishes in the last nine short track races. What tracks are you including in those nine? Well, I'm including all tracks under a mile for a short track. Okay. We go there. But really, when you look at it, he hasn't finished the top ten in the last nine races, period. But he had a win at Martinsville this year.

Okay. So that's short track. Yeah. That was one of the two. Okay. Is Gateway not a short track? It's not. No.

Dang. TJ thinks it's a short track. Yeah, it's pretty long, TJ. Yeah, it is. That's okay. It's got tight corners,

slow corners. Tight corners. I guess if you make, if you make a two and a half mile paper clip, it's a short track because the corners are tight. Five miles tight. That's a short track. Not far from it.

Gateway. Austin, Austin, Dillon is plus. 1200, I think it's a hell of a bet to make. What's Josh Barry? Josh Barry to win is 4,500. Not terrible. I'd rather bet Josh Barry at New Hampshire.

He almost won that race last year. Yeah. I don't know. I just think Josh Berry top 10 plus 190. Josh has got a little momentum right now and I feel like they're going to be, I feel like Josh could have a good weekend. I do too. I would take, let's bet Austin and Josh Barry top.

10 together. I like that. Plus 3.71. I love it. Let's do it. Josh was fast all race in Iowa, too. Let's put $5. Tim's cashed in last weekend.

Let's put one unit. Tim's did? He had Gibbs to win. Good for him. Plus 1,000. What a gambler. He didn't tell me, though, beforehand. What a gambler.

What a risk taker. What other drivers of us? Ty Gibbs. I got Ty Gibbs. What is he? What do you think about Ty Gibbs? I love Ty Gibbs. He's not in the Vegas top five.

Yeah, but he won at Richmond 2.0. So I don't know how it was last week. You know? Well, to Vegas, he's sixth. So it's not like, wake up Vegas. Where's Jerry Lagano? He's third.

Oh, thanks for listening. He was all right at Vegas. He was all right at Richmond 2.0. He was, he was all right. He was up there and then he fell back. Oh, they had that bad pit stop. Yeah. Yeah.

I think Ryan Blaney is the guy to beat this weekend. Hmm. What's Blaney's Richmond race has been like? It was not good until last year. Yeah. Last year was his first top five. But he's been really fast, hasn't he? Like last year he was.

He's had some good races, but I would say this is definitely a track where he struggles. I would not say he's been super fast here. I think he's going to be good. You know, he's led under 200 laps here. It's like, it's not good for him when you look at that. But it's trending. It's trending better, yes. He was third here last year.

That's pretty good. Russ, what about Briscoe, the other JGR driver that we haven't? I don't like him at Richmond. He doesn't have a top 10 there. I would stay away from him of the, JGR drivers. What about Bowman? I feel like he always creeps into the top 10 here.

I think when you look at this, he reminds me of the best Hendrick driver there, like when I think back of Richmond. To me, it's probably maybe his second best track to Kansas. Yeah. Man, I think I love the run that Josh Berry's on. I'm more, I feel good about an Austin Dillon Josh Berry top 10 parlay.

If you guys think it's interesting enough to put, what is Bowman top 10? I don't want anything to do with Bowman, but I'll go check it for you. Bowman top 10. He's plus 300 on his own. Damn. You don't need a parlay at him.

Yeah, you could just bet that by itself. Yeah. Solid. Yeah. I would not a bad bet. No. I'm telling you, he runs good there. Yeah. what if you

I don't I want to I know what you're going to don't no parleyes with Bowman I won't I won't all right the best average finish on short tracks this year goes to Ty Gibbs 2.5

but you're counting Iowa which isn't a short track so I don't know what that does to his average all right the sturdy modos segment is brought to you by Fandul the premier gaming destination of the United States great show tj thanks for coming in today yeah it was a good show yep uh again we got ken reagan

tomorrow for our uh interview and then bless your heart on thursday it's going to be a lot of fun and then obviously look forward to the cup race this weekend at richmond we're all going to be tuned in to see how good richmond races uh this come weekend one of my favorite racetracks um that i used to race at uh thanks for joining us at arby studio don't forget about arby's new meat in three box we get more meal for our money at arby's we had the meets 30-mo Media on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok.