The Dale Jr. Download - What’s Going on With Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez?

Episode Date: March 17, 2026

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is back from vacation and into the studio for a new edition of Dirty Air. He joins co-host TJ Majors to unpack all the action from NASCAR’s visit to the desert in Las Vegas: Daniel Suarez and Ross Chastain have an altercation Denny Hamlin is looking like a championship favorite again Who is emerging as a powerhouse team? Where is the points cutoff for championship contenders? During the Ask Jr. portion of the episode, listeners wrote in questions regarding: Sheldon Creed and Taylor Gray’s dust-up at Las Vegas Carson Hocevar’s throwback paint scheme for Darlington Dale’s NCAA bracket Sausage links or patties? How long do you give someone until you beep when the light turns green? Arby’s Meat & 3 box is available for a limited time at participating locations while supplies last. Prices may vary. Get your Meat & 3 box at an Arby's near you today. Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia Check out our merch collection: https://shop.dirtymomedia.com/ 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.

This is my favorite Dale Earnhardt Payneke. The following is a production of Dirtymoe 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?

DJ. DJ. You don't need a cool best for that race? What are you thinking? Get them, DJ. Hellway is starting to show. All right then. Hey, everybody's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. download.

It is, oh, man, what episode is it? It's not on here. 698? 698. Usually that's on the sheet. Yeah, I don't like it. You know, you look at the sheet, you might see something different every week. We're coming off of Las Vegas.

Hey, I printed you standings and results. You did. You presented standings, results, which I'm thankful for. And we're recording this. Can I tell everybody Record it on Monday? Record it on Monday because I'm going to test tires tomorrow

for the cars tour And so Getting some follow off I'm excited to get behind the wheel of a race car tomorrow Wednesday's guest I hinted on social media About how excited I was about this guest

It is none other than This figuring on the table Right here, Magnum TA Magnum TIA Magnum TIA was a wrestler in the 80s Tag team partner with Dusty Roads and soon to be world champion before an auto accident

ended his career. And I've never met him. I've been a big fan of his. I was a massive fan when I was a little boy, 10, 12 years old. And so Magnum will be in here for the interview and that'll be out Wednesday. He's going to tell us his story about, you know, his career and overcoming the tragedy and all that good stuff.

And also we talked about getting into trading cards. Right, T.J. So I brought. We did. I brought this Randy Johnson autographed rookie card and I'm going to keep it here in the studio until we get Randy on the show. Randy's a guest that I want on the show. I love Randy.

Yeah, Randy Johnson. Randy Johnson is also a photographer on the side and he's been to NASCAR races. We got to get him. Randy, come on, man, get on this show. I'm a huge fan, a big unit. I want to talk about him hitting that bird. Stephen, go book him. That's hilarious.

Of all the things. I want to talk. This man was a machine. He was. Let's go. Randy, we want you on the show. I'm going to set it back here with you. All right.

There we go. Randy's up there. So when Randy comes, well, no, we'll probably still leave it up there. But I'm hoping that's, like,

all these things in here are like manifest. Good, yeah, yeah. Good energy. So, anyhow, good to see you, TJ.

Yeah, welcome back. You have a good. We are in the Arby's studio. We got to make sure people hear about the new Arby's meat and three box. You got one sitting right there in front of it. I do. And I'm getting text from people that are saying your advertisements are working because they're going and getting this thing.

I love it. Well, you get more meal for your money at Arby's with that meat and three box. A lot of meat. Yeah, we have the meats in Arby's. I have enjoyed this relationship. And it's kind of reconnected me with a brand that I was a big fan of years and years ago. So it is. And there's some things on their menu that I didn't know they had that are very good.

Their buffalo chicken sliders are amazing. Too late now. Yeah, anyhow. Jenny Hamlin winning his 61st win in the Cup series overcoming a speeding penalty, which he seems to do every other race. Yeah. We're going to get back to talking NASCAR in a minute. You brought a case.

Yeah, I did bring his case. So I told you I was going through all of my. old baseball cards. Yeah. So I've, you send me that list. I found them. And,

and these are the ones that actually have some value. So here's my little case I present. Oh, wow. I present to you. When did you get your case? I bought it off of Amazon. After you saw mine?

I don't know. That's, that's yours. Yes, I did see your case. Yeah. So I've been putting them all in these nice little, so I've had these in storage

and they're in perfect condition. And I've been pricing each one looking up the value of each one in raw condition and putting the ones that have any real value in this case.

Yeah, it's a good idea because you can have so many of them things. I'll let you look to it. Yeah, take a look a little bit. Nice. Let's talk about a little confrontation that happened on the pit road. Suarez and Chastain got into it.

Right? There's a little bit of a, I don't know what happened on the racetrack. I went back and watched both of them, and I can't really find a lot, like, other than just racing each other hard. What was going on? Oh, so you didn't see anything. So, I mean, this is. Yeah, they were doing a lot of air blocking. Yeah.

Well, Chastain is the man at air blocking. Like, that's what he's known for. I mean, Swares is not bad, is not far from him. He's pretty good at it. Chavez is trying to go to the high side here and turn three and four. He doesn't have a run. He might create a run off this right here. run off the corner. This will get a run.

All right. He's getting right up on his bumper here. Now it's the game of where you going? Yeah. And Suarez doesn't go to the bottom. He's just working up right there. I mean, that's... Ross is trying to get his right rear rear quarter panel. He gets there. So there's a big lift right here. You can't hear it, but there's a huge lift. All right. So that was it? I mean...

He didn't like him... So far, that's any... That's all anybody's ever seen from the race. Oh. I think there's one other instance where they're around each other. Well, look. So when discussing this, uh, reporters, asked Chastain and he said not a chance for a comment. Sores did offer this saying our relationship has always been a little weird, almost like a little bit of a two-faced on his part.

Which, I mean, I think that a guy can be one way off the track and a guy can be a completely different way on the track. That happens. Legano. Great example of that. Super good guy. Nice. You don't want to race. Hang out with him. On the racetrack, you wouldn't recognize him. Completely different person.

I just hate that Ross is going to not even talk about it. Look, we don't, I don't know. He never really does. I know. I hate, like, well, that kind of stopped after the Darlington incident, all that. Yeah, that's true. That all got put. Yeah, Ross did change after Darlington.

He did. He is, he still races hard, but he's not as much of, uh, some cars. Some cars. Certain cars. Oh, I'm just saying he's not. Yeah, no. He's not going to get out of the car and get in the, talk to the, talk on the microphone too much.

Yeah, you know, Daniel's a Daniel's a guy who has a bit of a chip on his shoulder. You know, he's looking for the opportunity he feels like he deserves. You know, and he's... He was fast.

He has been fast this year. He was fast yesterday. He's been a great fire car all year long. So my question is, if we saw the video of Daniel moving Ross up the racetrack, and then and Daniel is the one going over to Ross. Is that just because of after the race stuff?

And that really wasn't much either, though. I don't know what happened. You know what prompts Daniel to go over there? I didn't see anything on the racetrack that would. And Ross pulled up to him after the race and kind of swerved at him a little bit, but is that really a, I don't know. This was the straw, like, this was just like the excuse to have this happen. There seems to be, there seems to be some bad blood between the two drivers that,

that exists from the past. Or is it the company? Because, I mean, I'm not going to lie. You go back to Cota a couple weeks ago, and I'm pretty sure Suarez took out Zilich in a turn one. I don't know. That's how Zillich got spawned, right? Yeah.

Well, I don't think that Ross is going to fight Zilich's battles. No, but I'm just saying, like... These guys were teammates last year. Yeah, for sure. And years before that. So there's got to be something that has been brewing between them since years ago as teammates, right? And so,

I mean, apparently if the lip reading is correct, there probably is some bad blood. Oh, yeah. So, I mean. Well, I don't know. They were teammates and they must, oh, I see it, that post-race swerved. Yeah, he swerved at them.

He did. Oh, I mean, Ross made contact with them. Yeah. I didn't see that. Yeah, I see it now. You know, I think that if you do that to, Daniel, Daniel's coming over. to ask you about it.

And we've seen that with Daniel before. He goes up to guys, he confronts them. He says, hey, you know, what was that about? Why did you do that? Like Ross right here is just saying, I don't appreciate you running me up and almost into the fence right there. When did he run up into the fence?

Well, that lift was big. They were getting ready to wreck right there. But he jumped to his outside and kind of was on his door a little bit. I mean, I just think, look. Daniel was moving up as they went through the corner. I see what happened in one and two is just racing. and I'm not, I don't, I mean, I'm not saying it's not, but the guys don't like to be, like, you can't keep working up the track if a guy's there.

I'm not, let's watch it again, but I'm just saying, don't forget you were wrong about Atlanta, so you don't want you to lose two. I was Ross gaining the spot. I don't care what the hell happens to dang. You know, so I'm not going to go, I'm not going to go, I'm not going to gain the spot and be mad. Yeah, no, I get it. Like, I'm not sure that, like, there's stuff.

I feel like there's something else going on because just, you got the spot, It wasn't a big of a deal. There was no contact. You actually didn't hit, but like, I didn't see much before that. I watched a handful of laps, too, and I couldn't find anything. So there's probably just some bad blood here. Yeah. Well, after this, they both walked away in the same direction independently.

Yeah. It wasn't like, hey, you know, I want to fight. So, I mean, it was some words said, and I don't know. I don't feel like this is that big of a deal, but... I mean, they're right there talking. Yeah, and Daniel kind of grabs onto him, and that's when Ross is, like, grabbing back, I believe. See how...

They just put his hand in his chest. Yeah, but I... The fucking hands off me. Last time somebody did it to Ross, he swung. He did. I mean, I don't want to mess with either one, them boys. Daniel will fight you. He swung on Big MacDow at Phoenix.

Right? Yeah. Put him in a headlock. I think... Ross. ain't going to put up no shit. Maybe we should just let them let them go right there.

I don't think it's over. Oh, far from it. They're not letting each other go when they catch each other. And you know they're going to be racing around each other a lot. Like, it's, they're going to be. There are two guys that ain't scared to go at it in or out of the car.

And so I don't see it, I don't see it going away. Nope. It's going to be fun to watch. Yeah. But I think, so Daniel, you got to think about it too, man. He's, he got. you know, he didn't get retained by a track house,

so he's in this fire car trying to prove they were wrong to let him go, right? And he's making a pretty damn good case of that. He's had it good. Yeah, I mean, he ran, I thought he ran pretty good. Yeah. So it would be interesting to see how it goes. I definitely have been watching them because of that fact. Anytime you get let go of a car, you've got a chip on your shoulder,

you want to go out there and prove that they made a mistake, that the problem wasn't you. So I've been watching Daniel this year. So Suarez posted a vlog online, a long description. Yes, Suarez says that he came over to Ross after the race in order to apologize for their run-in in turn to TJ and explained what happened. And he felt like what happened between them was just racing,

which I would agree. But he says, you know, he was upset and disappointed with what happened afterwards with Ross and what Ross said to him on pit road. And here it is. Quote, I have known Ross for a long time, and I've always known that he and I were very different kinds of people. But that's okay. I have a lot of respect for him, but the kind of words that he said after the race is just completely unacceptable.

That's chicken stuff. That's not good. I lost a lot of respect for him as a person because it's just not good. It's not a good look for him and not a good look for the kind of person that he is, I think. And it was just a little bit sad, to be honest. I really wanted to. I was getting fired up to fight, but what I was, what was I going to gain?

There's nothing to gain with that. He's not the kind of person I really want to fight, but just disappointed. The Suarez mentioned that he took issue with Ross hitting him on the cool down lap, saying that was unacceptable, giving that the drivers were loosening belts and so forth at the time and that Ross apparently denied doing this.

I said to him, Hey, you hit me on the back straight away. He said, no, I did. didn't. I said, you hit me on the back straight away. You turned right into me and hit me. He said, oh, you were next to me? I said, yeah, I was giving you the hand. I apologize for what happened a few laps before, and obviously he completely forgot about what happened off of turn two. Lap two. Oh. Suarez said that he had an issue with his left front on the last run of the race that affected the way his car drove, which influenced him crowding Ross off of turn two.

He said he understood Ross was mad, but he thought it was a little unnecessary for Ross giving him the finger for a lap and a half. And based off of Sores's own board, it looked like Chastain flipped him off as he completed the pass all the way until he got to turn three. Daniel stated by re-referencing the contract between him and Ross on lap two, which he said wasn't a big deal and didn't influence the way that he raced Ross the rest of the day. I'm pretty sure that he didn't mean to do that. It's part of racing. Suarez overall thought that Ross crossed the line with what he said to him, based on lip reading, enhanced audio that's gotten posted around. It seemed like Ross made some comments about the end of Swarice's time at trackhouse,

like you got fired. Incidentally, Suarez also addressed the idea that he's been out to get trackhouse cars and has been racing them especially aggressively, which he denied, saying, I'm not even thinking about that. So that's all pretty interesting to hear from Daniel. I wonder if Ross will have a rebuttal of sorts. I'm sure there's two sides to every story. Yeah, just, I don't know.

I wish maybe the only thing I guess is I wish Daniel would have went into more detail about what Ross said that bothered him so badly. He might have. We're just also taking off what Stephen Taranto had to his reporting of it. Yeah. So there's a blog that Suarez has written. But that at least lets us know why sports went up to him. And this is Stephen's sort of summary of said block. Yeah.

I mean, from what I saw with the racing stuff, that's what I saw. I mean, I, Daniel definitely went to the corner to airblock Ross. He was taking his air going up the racetrack and he got to a certain point, knew that he had to live because Ross was there. And I mean, you know how many times I saw that happened throughout that day? Numerous, like tons of times. That's how it is. So I'm not like, I think it was just racing.

Is this a story? is this a case of guys just kind of hanging on too tight? Like, man, why are we Why are we? Why are we so spun out? Are we wound a bit tight? Both of them?

Are they wound a bit too tight? Maybe. I think they're both hard racers right now too. Yes, but also like if we take Swarza's where he's going to apologize and like, why is Ross like immediately getting so defensive? Yeah, I don't know. Yeah.

I guess Ross was bothered by how he got, raced off a turn two. Mm-hmm. But Ross completes the path, right? I mean, I'm thinking in my mind, look, I'm... Then flips him off? He probably, to your point, T.J. thinks that Daniel's coming up to track intentionally,

but Daniel's talking about how his car wasn't driving good, and he was having some trouble with keeping his car low. I don't know, man. I think they're wound a bit too tight. Well, you think, you know, Swar's just got fired. He's trying to hold on. And then Ross all of a sudden,

he was the face of a trackhouse, but now there's SVG and then... And they went in... And they went into Vegas expecting better results because Ross ran really good there last year. It was just, you know, he's a moment. Yeah. I like it. It's racing.

I hope it continues. The thing is, is, man, Daniel's a good dude and Ross is a good guy. I like them both. And while I can definitely see why there might be some friction between the two because, you know, they were teammates and now they're not. And that was a contentious sort of split there for a while between track house and Daniel. Yeah. I don't know. I like them both.

I don't see this being anything. I would expect these guys to race like this, no matter, every lap of every race. All right. We'll see. I think it continues. Hey, everybody. The 2026 NASCAR season is underway,

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NASCAR season one to remember let's move on to Denny 61 wins that's a big number JGR goes first fourth fifth and eight you know what do we make of uh you know Hendrick was right up there as well They both have led all of the laps in the last two races at Vegas for the most part. Hendrick Chevrolet with the new body. That's got to be promising to see it a mile and a half. But Denny was able to, you know, look, Chase was faster at the end of the race. The laps ran out. That track goes through a swing.

Yep. Late in the afternoon there with the shade one and two. So the laps ran out. The nine car was faster. But also, we know that even if he had 10, 15 more laps with the arrow disadvantage you have as a second car following in the next gen. I think Danny was pretty comfortable out there. Yeah, but I feel like, and I would like more of it, you could hurt the tires yesterday. You could hurt them.

And some guys, there's a, there's a, the one caution saved a couple of these guys. like Ty Gibbs right before the yellow for Connor was going back. He was like quick. Like in Reddick at the end of the race, like the last lap, Redick almost wrecked by himself off a turn two. I don't know if the TV saw that or not. But he, um, he almost wrecked because he was fading that quick. So there was a,

there was a fine line that you had to walk. And I think the track was going through a change, getting cooler and one and two. Wind was dying down maybe a little bit as well. Yeah. So I don't know. It was, it was interesting on that side of things. I think I would like to see more of it.

I feel like the tires fell off, and then they kind of plateaued a little bit. Laptime-wise, it would be cool if they would keep falling some. Yeah. Well, I think that's been the, you know, they have been able to build a tire that does fall off more, but it does seem like, you know, when it does reach that limit,

it does plateau and stop. You know, it just falls off to a certain degree. And the drivers have talked about how, like at Martinsville and some other places where they've tried to, you know, bring that short track tire in. And they're all like, yeah, we love to fall off, but we all fall off the same and then we all stop, you know. And so trying to find out how to make a tire that punishes someone who runs too hard early is the tricky part, right?

We're getting to where we can really do a good job of building a tire that does fall off. But now trying to figure out how to reward certain drivers for driving the car straight is going to be another tricky deal. Which I feel like they're getting closer to for sure. Sure. Yeah, I think this is great for Denny, obviously, to get out of here with a win, create momentum going into Darlington with a great opportunity to go in there and grab another win. Denny knows how to set himself up early in this system, talking about the point system that we

had this year. Denny knows he's had to kind of, you know, he's had to kind of climb out of a hole that he started putting himself in early. But, you know, now that we look at the points, let's see here, Denny's all the way up to fourth in points, only 78 out. He was minus 126 after Cota. Right. So he's done a really, really good job. And he's going into a racetrack where he can make even more, you know, more hay and try to continue to close that gap.

You know, we talked about. Does he really have any bad tracks coming up? You know what I mean? No, but I'm just saying, like, he's, he is now. you know, he was such a favorite last year and looked like, you know, just laps away from winning a championship. How does he come into this year new system? I think this system...

I think it's better for him. It's better for him, I do. I think this system will reward a driver like him that can be consistent and win periodically throughout the year. And all he needs to do is find his way into that top three, which I think he will do without question and give himself a very, very good chance of going out there and winning the championship this year.

So I'm going to go ahead. I think you got to give a lot of credit to Chris Gale on them on this car because you go to the back like that and you pass the entire field pretty much. I've seen enough. Denny Hamlin is my pick for the championship this year. Okay, then. What do you make of his ability to win as he gets older? His success rate after 700th career start.

He talks about how hard he works. and look, this is the thing that, so Denny gets out of his car, and I've heard him say this before. He gets out of the car and he says, I'm not as good as all those guys. I got to work harder. I work really hard.

I am not, I don't believe he's correct. I don't think he's out working some of these guys. I don't think he's out working them guys. he's got too much shit to do. He says he's working hard. I believe he is working hard. I believe he's working hard. I do too.

But everybody else is working hard. I do believe he's as good as some of them guys. I do believe he's better than some of them guys. I think that he's better than quite possibly a Kale Yarbril, some of those big names that he's looked up to, right? I don't know. A couple more years, you might put him on the Mount Rushmore. Right?

You might. I do believe talent-wise. he ranks way higher than he wants to admit. He probably deep down inside believes that he ranks higher, but he's just not going to say it. And so he says, well, you know, I'm not as good as some of them guys, but I work harder, and that's how I do this.

There are, I said this before, there are anomalies in our history of drivers who didn't fall off. There are guys that won races in their late 40s, into their 50s. they just didn't fall off for whatever reason. A lot of guys tend to fall off around the same time frame in those early 40s, mid-40s, they're toast. And he's not doing that.

He's an anomaly. He's a unicorn. He's one of those guys that mentally is as sharp as he can be and still has the passion and the motivation to go out there and do it. And put risk. You've got to take risks. You've got to put yourself in situations that are uncomfortable. Well, when you get older, you start not doing that.

You quit taking risks. You quit going into the uncomfortable places. You get comfortable. You get complacent. You're, you know, for the most part, you're well off financially, and you no longer start to do the things that you were doing, right? That got you there. Well, he still has that passion and that work ethic to do what's necessary.

but I think he's an extremely, extremely talented driver. Just by the seat of the pants, the feel of the car and the steering wheel in his hands. I mean, he just really, really understands how to get that car around the racetrack. Better than a lot of people. And so... I will say a lot of that I do believe is being with Gibbs as long as he has, because that keeps that door open. Because Kyle Busch, if he was still at Gibbs, could he still be winning?

Hell yes. Sky would still be winning races. That's what I'm saying, though. There's that the equipment is a big part of Deny's equation, and he's done a good job keeping that. Yeah, no. Yeah, for sure. He started 2311.

They're running good enough that, you know, one of the first three races. I'm just, no, I'm just saying, they're running good enough for him to genuinely think about, like, could I go there? Could I be there? I don't know if the financials work. I don't know if he can, you know, the sponsorships.

And I'm sure they could figure it out. But he's not done it. He's staying where he's at because he knows. That's his home. That's his home. And that's where, you know, if he wants to truly, finally secure that championship, why step out of a cycle that's really productive

into something that you think could work, but you really not sure, right? That championship's going to get a lot harder at 2311. I agree. So, you know, I think this is his year. I think this point system and this success early, the momentum going into Darlington, I just got a feeling that he's going to be one of those guys

that puts himself toward the top of this thing as we get out of the regular season. I think getting this win early too is important for him because he talked about how at Bowman Gray, he was racing, but he really was in the car and wanting to get back into it. I think now you get that victory, and it's like, all right, let's go, and now you're ready to take on the season. The personal motivation, the passion and all that stuff, he talked about that in his post-race as well, how that's all come back to him. you know, you have something tragic in your life happen or whatever.

You fall out of love, priorities shift. You know, you question really where you want to be in your life and what you really want to be putting your energy into. Priorities definitely shift. Yeah. And so it's good to see him sort of, you know, understanding, man. He's got to understand, like, the things are too good right now. And these are the, these are, this won't be like this forever.

And he's closer to the end than he is the beginning, right? Oh, for sure. And so like, I, and hopefully, like, I think he's recognizing that. Like, I'm going to make the most of what's left here. I'll be honest, man. The season starts so weird now compared to what we're used to. All the years, you kind of, you didn't have two plate races to start the year and then followed by a road course. That's not really a, like, that's not really a traditional or fair shape.

to see how it's really going to how the season's going to take shape in my opinion you you could have two guys dnf those plate races that are really championship contenders yeah and and they were not not even their fault right so i definitely think it shakes the point system up quite a bit and but i now you're getting into the into where this is what most of the schedule is now is you know the vagus the phoenix now we're going darn it and then we're going to hit a short track and two short tracks coming up so i really feel like you're getting ready to see the guys that are going to shine. Yeah. We talked about it. Hendrick having a pretty solid day.

Good to see, I guess, in their eyes, if you're a Chevrolet fan, a Hendrik fan, good to see the car just perform well. It's a brand new nose. You just never know something even so subtle is the, it's very subtle changes in that car, but even that can make, you know, play havoc on the balance of the car and the teams trying to figure out how to get speed in that. But it's good to see, you know, them go up there and run well. Chase Elliott almost being of a pull off a win late in the race.

Byron driving up, leading some laps, Larson running well as he was. It's got to be pretty difficult. I think, you know, you got the fourth car there. You got Bowman, who's out. They had Justin in the car this weekend. The weekend before that, they had Anthony Alfredo. and so it's you know I think it's not surprising I guess to see hindr running so good I feel like they're on par yeah but I don't feel like it's anything different but I think the bigger

question I think there is you know Bowman how does he get well um hopefully he's doing better yeah he you know there was some vertigo that he's dealing with and I guess Mike joy said on the broadcast they they don't believe this to be concussion related I didn't read that. Yep. And so, you know, just how do you, I'm sure he's seeing doctors, I'm sure he's trying everything he can to get this to go away. I've never experienced vertigo.

I've heard stories of different people that have dealt with it in the past and how at times it's challenging to get rid of. And other times it's as easy as a doctor doing a reset. I think that Rick Hendrick loves to tell this story back when Terry Labani was driving his race cars Terry had a vertigo incident and they sent Terry

Terry's doctor sent him to the amusement park and he rode roller coasters all day and that that fixed it and so you know it's the maneuver that they'll do for you is very, you know, it's just twisting and turning your head in certain motions. Yeah.

And so, you know, I guess that's not working for Alex. Well, more hopefully it gets better, man. If you don't have your health, you don't have anything. So I hope Alex starts getting better and can get back into a race car. Yeah. It presents opportunity. So it'll be, I'll be curious, you know, as to how Hendrick navigates the next couple of weeks with the 48. who goes in there.

Does Anthony get another shot? Anthony does a ton of SIM for that program, and that's, I believe, why he was, you know, given the opportunity at Phoenix. But... Needs a little more SIM in the O'Reilly car. Well, I gave him shit on social media about that. Yeah, we had a hot...

Me and him had a little... I like Anthony. We had a conversation. I was, you know, he spun out LeVar at Phoenix. Pointless. It brought out a yellow. The one was likely going to win the race. is going to win the race.

Luckily, the seven got up there and won it. But I was sitting there thinking, man, we didn't need that yellow. You know me both. I was pissed off about that for a couple days, and Mark Martin opened the door for me to say something. But I talked to Anthony. It's a, you know, it's going to be interesting to see how that plays out and what this means for Alex long term.

I don't know, you know. I'm not going to speculate, but let's move over to the Ford's coming out of Las Vegas. Penske, 2311. Well, Pinsky and Roush, Keselowski, got a top 10. But, I mean, the Ford's, I was expecting a bit more, I think. Yeah, not the strongest weekend for sure. What's the deal? Why?

I don't know. I was really surprised by the Penske cars. Like, that's just not like them. Yeah. To be, especially. Yeah. RFK, you know, you could say, had a pretty solid day. I'm sure y'all have higher standards for yourself.

Yeah, I would have liked to qualify better with Brad, but But I mean, priests ran up in the top ten. All of y'all were right there around each other. Priest and Busher ran top ten pretty much all that. Are y'all happy with that? Do you all expect more? Do you? I think you always want more, right?

But I feel like it was a good building block now that we... Well, if Ford's a disadvantage as a organization, is Ford the automobile at a disadvantage at a Vegas? I don't know. Because you really didn't see any of the Ford's really get up there. No, but I don't. I mean, it's, like, I feel like RFK was probably the third best company there that day. I feel like, you know, as a whole.

Yeah. I got you understand. It's hard to compete, though, when you have the big two. Yeah, I mean, yeah, you're right. I mean, you got Joe Gibbs and Hendrick kind of filling out. There's seven spots right there. Yeah, at least there. So, but, I mean, yeah, I definitely feel like there's, I think there's room to improve there. I thought the week before, Blaney shined when he was supposed to, and he did.

He stepped up. So, you know, the sheet here says you have more confidence in Penskear, or 2311. I mean, I don't really, and I know Tyler won the first three races, but Daytona things lined up for him. That could have been anybody. Atlanta kind of could have been the same thing. Those are kind of wild cards, in my opinion.

Tyler did a great job at Cota. That was, Tyler did an awesome job at Cota. But looking at Vegas, you know, Phoenix. Blaney was the pick pretty much to win. And he did. So I don't know. I feel like they're pretty neck and neck right now. I like some of the tracks that we're going to coming up.

I like, I think Darlington plays into our hands a little bit more when this pace slows down and stuff like that. And it's more driver and finesse. I feel like we got a lot of that there with Joey Blaney. One of the things that I think is really fascinating is so we, for the past, I don't know how many years, four or five years.

we've always assumed that Penske was going to have a shot. If they get a car in the Final Four, they got a shot, right? Because Penske and Phoenix are, as they are still today, married with one another. But now that we don't really, now that that is completely upended, where do we view Penske as an organization? Are they part of the big three? Are they, if you're looking at, you know, the top teams as the A and then you got the B's and then you got the C's and these,

do you have Hendrick Gibbs and then the B teams? And Pinsky's part of that group? Do you see Pinsky and RFK in the same vein? Do you see them as similar organizations? I feel like it's getting closer. Yeah, the gap. I feel like it's getting closer. Does Penske need to do more to put themselves back up in there in the A?

I think so. I think right now it's Hendrick and Joe Gibbs 1A1B separation. Really? Penske and then you have 2311 knocking on the door of Penske and then RFK right below 2311. So during the season, who's the main Penske car like during the season, Ben, that wins race is? Just Blaney. I mean, that's kind of what I see there too. But then, but Joey's, I mean, Joey's, he's good at. Joey can pop off anymore.

He can, man. He can. The consistency. Yeah. But this isn't good. going to this new system doesn't doesn't provide doesn't pay that doesn't no it doesn't reward what style of racing has been doing yes doesn't reward a lot of mediocrity yeah yeah I hear you man we got a good they have a lot of strong races in the playoffs still I mean Blaney's are Blaney's the best of Martinsville

they are going to have a lot of strong races in the playoffs but they're going to need to be yeah a top three top four top five team in the regular season yeah Yeah. To have a real shot at it. So. It's definitely more challenging now. Yeah, you got right now Blaney and third in points. And then the only other Ford in the top tens, busher,

Joey's 11th. You got a bunch of them between 9th and 12th. I mean, right in that area, there's a bunch, right? Yeah. Cendrick's, man, he's 30th. He's out of it. T.J., where would you like to see Brad? Like these next three races, if I told you Brad is in 8th and points.

What would you like to see these next? I would like to gain. I would like to be between six and probably tenth in points, something like that. Because I feel like you can, I just want to, I mean, I feel like we're starting to chip away at it. We just got to qualify good and start getting some stage points. Yeah. But it's just tough, man. I mean, I would like to be in the single digits.

At least now, like last year you guys had the bad start. So you're qualifying going out first and it's just hard to qualify well. It's very hard. Well, Phoenix was tough too because, you know, going to this weekend, we didn't have a, it was tough. But we have some good races coming up. So I think if we can just go and, we normally get good during the summer. Like, normally when the race tracks get hot and slick, we normally make up ground on the summer. Like, we've left Daytona and Atlanta before, 35th in points. And I think we got to like seventh in the points, like just straight up. So I feel like we can have a really strong summer. And, I mean, you're going to have to have a strong summer to be in the chase. the playoffs now. Yeah. Well, they asked Kyle Larson in the media center whether the drivers were looking at points every week

like the media is or the fans. Larson said he's not looking at points yet. Yeah. I feel like we're all looking at points because we're just curious as to how this is going to play out. But I think we also realize like the times now. Like every week you need to be stash. backing these things up. I look more now than I did.

I'm fascinated by it. Brisco and SVG told Gluck on the Gluck says that the teams have like projections and are telling the drivers this is what we need from you each week. I mean, we've always kind of had that. You know, but there was always the wild card. If you win, you're in. So it didn't matter if you finish 35th.

You're like, you know what? I'll go win next week. Oh man. I'm glued to the points. Fan and media, whatever you want to call me. Look at one bad race, though. Look at SVG. Dude, I know it. One bad race. I'm not glad that happened to him, but I love that it's got that effect.

And I've saw, I've saw, you know, I'm looking in social media, I hear people, you know, there'll be a fan or two saying, my guy's already out of it. What am I, why am I supposed to like this? And that's not really true. No, no. It's not true. You just got to get hot. You got to stay consistent. There are some people, dude, that are out of it.

Well, and we know who they are. Yes. They were never in it to begin with. Let me ask you this. That was my reply. The guy said, my driver's out of it. Why am I supposed to like this? And I said, your driver was never in it.

I don't even know who he is and I can tell your ass. He had never had a shot. Where's your cutoff line right now? My cutoff line? Where do you think you're cutoff line? Well, all right. My cutoff line right. Is Kyle Busch out of it?

Yes. Yes. My cutoff line is probably, I am going to say that my cutoff line. line is 8th place William Byron damn yeah

do more more shade on busher he's ninth I know he's just right there he's right there he's not 30th

he's gonna kick your ass man he's about over you well time to win what where's your cutoff line who do you I mean I don't know man

I gotta tell me who you believe can roll their way into a championship below 8th well he's got to say 12th I don't know I mean, I still, I hate, that's kind of sound crazy, but Ty Gibbs, can he stay hot? Can he win the championship?

No. Can he run top? He's been pretty consistent so far. Mine in a sprint car racing. I mean, he'll talk, he could top 10 himself into the points, but I don't see him as a champion. What if he wins Darlington? Do I think he can win the championship? Yeah, he wins Arlington.

Is he in, do you think, okay. Well, I mean, he would probably launch himself into that top eight. If he shows me that he can win, then I'm like, okay, I'd, believe that he won championship. But until he can get that win. If he won Darlington, he would be above my cutoff. I'm just saying, I feel like a William Byron or even, what if Chris Busher wins two, three in a row like he did.

You know what I mean? He would then move into above my cutoff line. But then say he follows that up with a few, can a guy get hot enough during the summer to bring himself into there? What I want you to visualize is this, okay? And this, I'm being genuine. people are going to look at my cutoff and if I say eighth place you're going to go wow how could you say that so early any of these guys could do stuff to move forward you're not wrong I'm only telling you that I don't think that anyone can win from outside of the top eight in the playoffs yeah in the chase so you need to be preferably in a top three but I could see in a rare occasion a guy from 8th

winning the championship. So you're not really looking at any names. I'm not looking at names. You're just going by a number. I just think, man, if you're not in the top eight, I feel like you don't have much of a shot. I think NASCAR mocked it. If you're outside the top six,

you wouldn't have won it. Sorry? If you were outside the top six when NASCAR did their mocks, you wouldn't win the championship? No, no. Doing past seasons, they mocked on this format. NASCAR using this current points

system ran through however many past years and no one out of the top six one. Yeah. So, so Dale's eight. Yeah. My eight's conservative. Yeah. So yeah,

I think if you really want your drive, if you're really a fan and you want to be serious about your guy having a chance, you need to be rooting that he's finding himself in that top eight. Yeah. I think that's a fair number. And so I just look at that instead of really looking at names and potential, I just look at, hey, man, all right, who's eighth? All right.

All right, I can believe that, you know, that get any of those, William Byron, Larson, yes, I can believe they could get up there and get something going. Yeah. The points are definitely starting to take shape to how. Busher, Gibbs, Lugano, Kislauski Priest, they're going to have to start knocking down some points here soon. Yeah, I agree.

They're going to find themselves further and further and further behind. Yeah, you've got to start getting good stage points and good finishes. That's right. On the screen is stage points. This is where you're seeing people separating themselves. Yeah. So stage points are telling us they're very critical this year. They're very important.

Brad's got two. Yeah, well, I mean, he's still 12th in point. But that's what I'm saying, though. Like, if you can start stacking up their stage points. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Bubba is second in points right now. And he's got more stage points than anybody.

53. A lot. The next person has 37. Yeah. That's how you do it. I like how it's... So if Bubba had, you know, 15 less points, where is he at in regular points?

He would be... Well, it'd be fourth. One point in front of Denny. Yeah, one point in front of Denny. I mean... But it'd be close. It'd be close. I mean, it is very close from...

From second to, you know, To 15th. It's very tight. You got one guy way out there in front. Tyler Redick dude is three in a row, but they're closing in on him. I know. It's a little bit every week.

That's a fun thing to watch too. Yeah. Is that, can he stop that from eroding away? Are we going to get to July and him sit there going, man, they're on my heels? We are live. Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. here to Dale Jr. download inside the RB Studio for another segment, Ask Jr.

with my good friend T.J. Majors, we have been talking about Vegas and doing our show and looking forward to this segment and how many great questions y'all might have. First off, I want to let you know that Xfinity is waving the red flag on Internet prices and raising the green flag for savings. You can get more speed, reliable, Wi-Fi that you need. Locked in one price for five years, no surprises, no late yellows. it's a straight shot to victory lane with Xfinity

and yeah just like that we've got a winner Xfinity imagine that it's great service great product thank you Xfinity for everything you do not only for us here but everything you do in the sport but let's get right to it all right so first question a lot of people have been tweeting in Facebook asking what did you think about Sheldon Creed and Sam

and Taylor Gray? Taylor Gray that's right well I was watching the race obviously pulling for our junior sports drivers to do well. And so going down the back straightaway, Sheldon goes low. Taylor Gray goes low as well. Taylor Gray is not really trying to go under Larson, or I think it's the 17 of day.

He does have a run, but he kind of moved down there early. and then so Sheldon Cree goes even lower and Gray makes a second move. Don't you see it that way, T.J. where he kind of, he made a move down to go under day into three, but then he made us, you know, like another half block. Yeah, and I think this has been going on. I think this was going on for a couple laps. Like I kind of...

I saw that as well. That was one thing that the broadcast didn't tell us. The lap before was almost identical. Yeah. Didn't you see that? Yeah, I mean, he was definitely to the point where it's, getting kind of, if you keep doing this, he's only going to take it. So when Creed says, you know, you can only block so many times,

I think that's what he was talking. He's also referring to the lap before where almost the same identical thing went down. Yeah. I agree. Yeah. I mean, I don't, the great kid, he's, you got to cover it earlier than that, in my opinion, because Sheldon obviously looked like he was going to go to the bottom. The only way to change that is to, I mean, you got to go away earlier than that.

You can't chop him at the last second. and give Sheldon a chance to move up, I guess. Yeah. At that point, Sheldon's already committed to the bottom, too, and you're just coming down and taking all the air in front of him. And that's what happens. Yeah, I was kind of surprised, though, that Sheldon fenced him.

Yeah. I know you can, Sheldon maybe wanted to send a message, but didn't expect him to actually get into the fence. What do you think? Sent him down in the wall there. Did he have any interview after the race? Taylor Gray?

Yeah. I know he's pretty disappointed. I didn't really see a post-race interview or anything, but here we go. I don't know he says, though. It's a video. He just says, in quotes here, Sheldon had the mentality to go into turn three and wreck me. Did he say, can you take me higher?

I just feel like that, you know, I don't think either one of these guys are looking too good right now. I know that I like the mentality of if you block you, you pay. You know, blocking, there's some limitations to it. And I do feel like that Taylor Gray blocked the same block two laps in a row. And at least in the video that we got to see from the one where he gets wrecked, he made two moves.

Like he moved below the 17, then moved another half a car when the double zero creed makes his move. And I don't know, man. I feel like you can block a lane, but you can't block the whole race track. He doesn't even go all the way to the bottom right here. You see what I mean? Like, you got to cover it earlier than that. So Sheldon Creed definitely... Sheldon Creed did not have to put him in the wall, though, for that.

He definitely didn't enter three with arms. I don't know that there's many things that justify getting put in the fence. No. No, that's probably a little too far. But you could have worked him up a little bit. I don't think he was trying to wreck him. I don't know. Yeah, maybe Sheldon Creed just thought he was going to slide up the track and lose a spot.

That's kind of what I... Sheldon probably was like, holy shit. I mean, he's not really hitting him that. hard right there. I think Shelton was like, oh, damn, why didn't expect that to happen? Oops. So is that a move in 54's eyes where if he doesn't try to save it right there that much? Because it kind of overcorrects, right?

If he just slides. I mean, yeah, but like, is that one of the ones where you just commit to spinning out? Oh, man, how can you? I don't know if you can. I don't know. I'm just saying, like. I don't think you can. I think you would end up, there's a good chance if you turn left and stood in the throttle,

you'd still back in. I mean, that wasn't. It would come around, hit left front. It wasn't like he hit him and instantly spun. It was like... Well, the thing is, Sheldon sent him and the... Sheldon hit him and then continued to drive. He just stayed on him.

Yeah. Like, here, you're going. You know, honestly, the shame we don't see more of that on Sunday. It's usually J.R.M. cars. It's better. Stop it. We're working on that.

It was a good race. They were good this week. Yeah, it was good race. Yeah. Junior Motorsports guys, we kind of had some that were decent and some that weren't so good. But it's, I guess it's good when you're, frustrated running 8th night. Next question.

People will know your reaction. Have you seen Carson Hosevar's Darlington car? I saw us like the unofficial poster photo from inside the garage. Oh, so yeah, I haven't seen this. Check this. That's hilarious. So, look, this is

my favorite Dale Earnhardt, Painsky. It's the 19th 1881 car and it gets no love because 81 was a lost year. Dad started the season driving for Rod Austerlund. Rod would sell the team to J.D. Stacey, which dad would race for four races before leaving to go to RCR and then at the end of the year leaving there to go to Budmore for two years. So the 81 year is forgotten, lost, unappreciated, but the car is underrated.

that yellow nose with those old vintage stripes is just in my opinion straight badass vintage It stands out Yeah And so I've ran that scheme A time or two You ran a Daytona?

Yeah we did And so we ran it on Martin Tricks's car At Darlington when he won the championship In the Chance 2 deal I was so pissed off We had, I'm like I got Martin Trix Jr. In the car that is my dad

My favorite scheme of my dad's right We're going to Darlington with a chance to clinch. And I'm on the pit box. And I must have been practicing or something because I didn't see the car before they put it on the grid. But he pulls out on the racetrack to do his pace laps and they've got blue tape on the valence. And so it's a yellow nose.

And I'm like, I don't know why. That's hilarious to me today that I was so annoyed by that. But I was maddened hell that both. that Bono Manion had put blue tape on the valence of the yellow-nosed race car. I wanted yellow. Yeah. Right?

And I was like, they did a poster for this car too. Did you see that? They remade the poster for like the race. Yeah. And they actually like it's, I thought the detail was actually really good because I think they changed.

Back then it was the backstretch was the front stretch, right? And they actually changed and made the poster. There it is. Yeah. So if you look at. Dude. Yeah. So that's how it looks now.

Yeah. in the old they have a comparison of the old one somewhere it's right here buddy it's right here poster's right on the wall we see the I like to see the grandstands you can't see it but you can't see in the camera shot but yeah um I thought the detail was dude that's awesome so this is awesome I love this design I love this paint scheme they had to obviously slide the 77 back a little bit um which getting that number back to the center doors where it belongs is awesome um Mark Martin shout out I uh the other thing that I love is, and I said this on social media.

So some fans out there believe that throwbacks are gone. Like the idea of running throwbacks are gone. And so I'm reading on social media. And as Bob Pockris and some other people were talking about how they're going to celebrate some of the, you know, the, you know, the, the, the, the, the past champions and legends of the sport at Darlington, fans are like, well,

I wish the, I wish throwback weekend was still a thing. And I don't know why they got rid of throwback weekend. And, man, a throw, and then there's other people that are saying, that throwback ran its course.

The car, nobody could do a throwback anymore or any good. So I just find it, I don't know where people got the idea. Why not? That anyone said you can't do throwbacks or we're not doing throwbacks. NASCAR basically, I don't know if their messaging wasn't good enough or whatever,

but what probably should have been said was we're shifting our focus away from the idea of focusing on the throwback paint schemes. We're shifting the focus actually to the physical people in legends that had drove those cars. They have had a lot of people come into Darlington in the past, So this is not nothing new. They celebrated the 75 greatest drivers of the sport on stage on the front straightaway there last year or the year before. And so, you know, they've had a lot of, you know, historic guys come to this particular race for years. Yeah.

Every time I say that. Yeah. So that's what they're going to shift the focus toward that. No one ever, ever, ever said we're no longer doing throwbacks. And I think that that was something that kind of got lost in the whole conversation. Teams are still doing them, obviously. A lot of truck teams, Xfinity teams, Cup teams. It's just no longer going to feel like this sort of forced campaign that you're kind of scorned if you don't

and you're criticized if you do. Now if teams want to do them, they can do them. The teams that don't want to do them don't have to do them, you don't even have to do it to Darlington. I know that we'll likely see a throwback somewhere else during the season, and that'll be for some reason, some connection to that date or race or whatever, which is fine. 2311 this past week on with Reddix was Kurt Busch's winning, like, you can do it wherever. So for everybody out there, NASCAR's not shunned the idea of a throwback paint scheme.

There is just a new renewed focus, I think, and it's more of a track thing, the track itself. is like, hey man, the track would come to me in the past and go, let's throwback weekend. What decades should we focus on? And I'm like, why do you want to focus on a decade? Who cares? Why put everybody in this box? Yeah, I agree.

And they were like, oh, it needs a purpose. It needs a reason. It needs something. I'm like, just let people do whatever the hell they want. Just let it be throwback weekend. And that's what you do. That's who you are. but they were like, no, we've got to do the 70s.

Next year we'll do the 90s and we'll do the 80s. I'm like, why do you got, because you're forcing yourself down this runway that's going to come to an end. And so in my mind, Darlington is our vintage retro track. And it should be where, if you want to do something unique and kick it back to something old school, you can do it there. And it will be accepted. It will be appreciated. It will be expected. when teams, you know,

Juniper Motorsports hasn't done it all the time. We would go to Darlington and not have them. I would grind my teeth and go upstairs and go, hey, why aren't we running throwbacks? What the hell? You know, everybody's doing them. I'm talking about them. I'm in the booth and my cars don't even have them.

But sometimes we just, our, you know, sponsors don't want to do it or whatever. So now it's sort of a no pressure thing. Do it if you want. Do it if you want. And I think, you know, that's, I'm great. I'd rather be that way. If you want it, now if you do it, it's a bigger deal. Now, it's not expected.

And when it happens, people go, oh, look at that. That's neat. Yeah. Yeah. This weekend's so hard to spot. And we should be celebrating the physical people that have, you know, we're standing on the shoulders of these giants, right? I love that saying.

That's who's going to be at the racetrack. That's who we should be celebrating. Yeah, that's why that's why the scheme is out here. Yeah, that's why, that's what we should be thinking, looking at, talking about, you know. and so yeah the cars on track are kind of neat and it's fun to see some good throwbacks out there and we'll have our share in the truck and in o'rilly and the cup series yep next question is we have the NCAA tournament coming up this week how many brackets will you fill out just one I respect that why do you need to fill out multiple brackets

that's kind of like I didn't think there was like even a play because then it's like I'm rooting for this game here but then it screws up my bracket over here just I know I don't know I mean if you're betting. If you're betting for money, maybe you're throwing casting more lines out into the lake, right? Yeah. But I'm not. And so I'll probably find one to fill out somewhere.

And that'll be the one I hope works out. Just one. Like some people will put multiple brackets in the same pool. I don't think that should be allowed. Well, I mean, that's for the people that are trying to win money. They're no longer, they no longer are investing emotionally into a bracket. They're just like trying to win. Just playing the odds.

I personally want to just fill out a bracket and then come in here one day and go, I was right on every freaking one, Travis. That's not going to happen. Look at here. I was not wrong once. If he is, though, man, that bracket's going to be on the wall for the rest of the show. Right? Actually, I hope it happens because most likely will tell your bets that I'll be celebrating.

So, listen, I usually wait for somebody to come to me and say, this sponsor wants you to join this thing and fill out a bracket. But why don't we just do a dirty moe media group? Right? Yeah. I'm sure everyone in the office is listening now. Yeah. And we could all join a group.

Fill out our brackets. And that's that. Yeah. Steven Steffen. Let's see. Yeah. Let's see who does the best. I'm all for it.

I want to do it, but I only like doing one. Yeah, you can only do one. I agree. Yeah. Yeah. All right, we got time for one more. Awesome. This one is, which do you prefer? Sausage patties or links?

Well, I like a biscuit, so I'm going to go with patties. Sauses and cheese and egg. If it's not on a biscuit, what are you picking? Sorry? If you don't have any biscuit, what do you pick? Yeah, no sandwich. I'll still go patty. Patty.

I'll put syrup on it or something. See, that's the move right there. Yeah, syrup is. Whoops, it got off of my waffles. onto my sausage. It's the, I mean, it just makes everything better. I do like a sausage link though

if I'm not on a sandwich. Yeah. Okay. I agree. I actually kind of agree with Travis on that. They're all right. I don't like them. You can't eat a link on a sandwich.

I don't like them. I actually had a sandwich once where they took the link and cut it in half. I don't need that. I'm like, that's no. I can't do that. Let's add one more quick. We can't end on this question. I mean, we can't if we want to.

We can't, we can't be the end of the last year's segment. Okay. The next one is, how long should you wait until hitting your horn when you're behind someone at a light that turns green if they're just sitting there. Oh, like two seconds. Yeah, right away. Yeah.

A pregnant pause. There's an obvious moment where you realize they're not seeing the light. As soon as you recognize that that is the case, little tap. It's seconds. Little peep. Yep. I don't lay on it. That's obnoxious.

But I'll do a little... The double tap move is the way to go. A little doop. I don't know, man. If you hit a little bit... If you lay on the horn, you're just... Right? Oh, yeah.

You can't lay on it. No. No, I'm just saying if it's like, one, two, three, even. That's too much. Like a tap is like, excuse me. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. It's like a tap on the shoulder.

Like, hey, man. I'm a... I'm the kind of person. This ain't a... Like, when I drive down the road, I wave. Do you wait? When's the last time you waved at somebody? Oh, if they're letting me in or...

No. Homecoming traffic. Come on, bud. I'm a waiver. Just a car. Damn, random person just coming at you. Maybe if my window's down and my arms out. When's the last time somebody's waved at you?

Not often. Do you remember? What did you think? They're crazy. Oh, you thought they were a psychopath? Yeah. Really? Why are they?

Not just the, hey, man. I'm wondering, did they know who I was? Yeah, that's what I was. Did I know them? Do I recognize that car? That's not a terrible thing. Am I supposed to know that person? I don't think, oh man, psychopath.

I think, damn, that's nice. Do you know that back in the 60s and 70s, literally everyone waved at everyone driving down the road? Is this facts? Yeah, facts.

I don't think that's a fact. It's a facts. I don't think that's a fact. It's a fact. Everyone waved at everybody in town. riding around. I mean, let's say 80%. Now, no one waives.

I wish you would come back. I feel like if we all waved at each other, driving down the road, where it would be a better point? I must start by waving at least to one car a day. But do you wait? So somebody said they wave to if it's the same car as them, they'll wave.

Good enough reason. I mean, I just feel like... Is there a Tesla wave? There's not a Tesla. club like the Jeep. Most people that have Teslas don't even look at each other so you don't really wave. Jesus, Tesla's or snobs?

I guess. They don't even like, reckon. You're just an anomaly? I did try that. You're just one of the non-snob Tesla owners? Well, I probably had, I don't be seen. I probably had mine in kind of one before. You did get yours first. I mean, I wasn't, I was in the early days of it. So when you saw one, it was like,

what's up? You know how many out there? Now it's like, now they're all over and they got the blinders on. So you can't. I just feel like, everybody waved more often at each other driving down the road, it would be good for all of us. Do you ever flash your lights to let people know there's cops back there? Oh, yeah. I do that.

Give a little tap there. Yeah. I flash lights to trucks if they want in or cars that are trying to blend over. I look around, though, to make sure there's not a cop around because you're not supposed to do that. Yeah, you're not supposed to do that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's a, I know, no.

Not sure, but it could be against the law. Like letting other people. I there's a road 8-01 there's always a state trooper sitting out there and um so yeah if i if i were to drive by and see the see the trooper i'm going up the road a little bit and i'll be like hey y'all careful cover now slow down a little bright light flicker careful at this business park they got cops everywhere looking for speeders and i got it rolling stops i got a shout out my um my friend garret barger just retired from north carolina highway highway state patrol nice yeah yeah Garrett used to go with me every weekend to Myrtle Beach Speedway to race late models.

Like he was part of my volunteer crew. Donnie Reeves is his uncle who Donnie Reeves is one of my dad's best friends been on this show. Donnie has. And so Garrett's related to Donnie and that's how we met. And we've been friends since we were 16. and he was kind of going to be one of those guys that kind of like worked on my crew,

my team, my entire life, as I drove up through the ranks, right? Yeah. Like me and you become friends and you spotted my race car for most of my career. And so, but he decided one day, he come up to me,

he's like, I'm going to join the Highway Patrol. I'm going to go do that. I was like, all right. And he just retired. I watched him do this whole career path. Yeah, pretty neat. So, uh,

according to AI in the United States Federal courts have generally ruled that flashing your headlights to warn other drivers of police activities protected under the First Amendment as free speech. There we go. I can do it. First Amendment, let's go. I know the troopers out there probably don't appreciate me. No. Alerting me of the drivers. Well, don't be hiding trying to... I don't know

how that's a bad thing. I mean, if I'm saying somebody, yo, slow down. We're helping out. Probably in everybody's best interest, right, that they obey the law, right? But if somebody is being, they're going a hundred mile an hour, you're not going to help mile you're just trying to have out the casual driver yeah but garrett like i don't know if you remember this remember that time we were coming back from virginia norfolk or whatever when i ran that that little that little car we were going out 85 and that car they were hanging out the window swinging a bat around

and we called garret yeah i don't know if you remember that or not yeah and garret went and they tracked him down oh wow we saw some crazy yeah they were it was like two three o'clock in the morning and they were they were we were on eight 85 south and they drove by us. We were in the escalade. Oh, Lord. Back in the escalade days. They were swinging a bat out the window.

I don't remember that. Yeah. I do remember I found Garrett on the highway. And I'm following him. He's in his little Camaro trooper car. And we're going, we're near DEI. And I'm following him down the road. and there's a car in front of him.

And so I had somebody with me and I was like, watch this. I was like, I know this trooper in front of us. You better hope. And I was like, watch this. And we get down, we're going down this straightaway and I pull out and pass Garrett

and the car in front of me. And I was like, watch. I bet the person driving the car was like, holy crap. That guy's brave. Why did the, yeah, what, what, couldn't add it up. Somebody brought up, Briscoe could have used somebody flashing

some lights at him yesterday. he got a speeding penalty he got pulled over on the way as did Denny yes did Denny no in real life no Briscoe got pulled over oh really track dang you didn't see him tweet about it no no because everyone was like oh this was

foreshadowing yeah he got a speeding ticket on the way to the race all right everybody we send some love to Xfinity they're waving the red flag on internet price hikes and waving the green flag on savings now you get the speed the reliability that you need from Wi-Fi

locked in one price five years no surprises no late yellows, a straight shot to victory lane. Just like that, folks. We've got a winner, Xfinity. Imagine that. Appreciate y'all tuning in. We have Magnum T.A. is our guest this week.

I was a big fan of his when I was a little boy, and I have never met him, and I'm thrilled to get this opportunity to talk to him. Hopefully you'll tune in and listen. He's got a lot of great stories from the wrestling days back in the 80s with Dusty Roads and going against the four horsemen. in the NWA and so and just a great story. So I'm looking forward to that. And yeah, we'll see y'all tomorrow.

Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Place your bets. Hey, everybody. It's time for the Dirty Modo segment of the show brought to you by Fanduel. We got Russell here, Alex. Hey, everybody's here. We're heading to Darlington. The drivers have been talking about.

Hold on. Before we go to Darlington, I have one little gripe with Russ. Oh, I've reached out and just said Chase Elliott top 10 plus money for Vegas. I like that one, yeah. Nah, he's not good there. Well, he only almost won. Yeah. He was fastest at the end should have beat Denny and brought the, you know, Denny bros to tears.

But Russ, what the hell? He was able to hang on there. Speak for yourself. We said he was going to finish 7 to 13. He finished second. Okay. Fail. He got lucky.

I don't know, man. Maybe we're seeing Chase Elliott turn the corner this year. I mean, he had some good runs last year. He's having a great year. Yeah. I mean, I'd say he led the points from Jones. On the comeback. On the comeback trail.

Drivers have been talking about lots of tire fall off at Darlington. You know, we could all sit here and speculate on what might happen, but we'll have to kind of wait and see. None of us have been able to really predict what the tires can do at any of these racetracks, and we've seen all sorts of things happen. But there's less arrow underneath the car, more horsepower. Those things absolutely should lend toward more falloff. The drivers are talking about some extreme numbers, like three, four seconds. That's what I'm hearing.

Yeah. I mean, four seconds, a fall off. You know what's going to happen? They're going to go slower. Well, if we have green flag pit stops, you're going to see some guys run over some guys. You know, you're going to see that's a one-lane race. track. I mean, it's not very wide. And if you think back to like the 90s and the 2000s, the 80s even, guys have gotten themselves in wrecks being out there on old tires versus new tires when there's

that big of a difference between the closing rate. You just, you know, you come out there on your new tires, you feel awesome and you don't expect the guy in front of you on old tires to lift as soon as he does. And there's nowhere to go sometimes, either in the back of that car or into the wall. Could be some misjudging. Could be some misjudging going on. Russell, what are you hearing about tire wear, falloff, and all that good stuff? I'm hearing the same thing, the same thing. Like, are we going to see it like the old Atlanta, though? Like, that's what I worry about.

What you mean? I mean, like where it's less entertaining, I would say, than a normal television race. Don't bring us down? We're excited about fall off. I am excited about it. We're excited about the down force getting stripped away from the bottom of the race car. We're excited about horsepower. And we're excited about tires that wear out.

So what makes old Atlanta less exciting? That's the funny thing, man. It wasn't as exciting as the new Atlanta. That's why. Oh, my gosh. That's not a great comparison. No. I can't even do that.

You made one track a plate. I mean, should they just make it so you don't have to lift around Martinsville? I mean, I loved old Atlanta. Yeah, I did too because it was like a driver's track. Like it mattered. Way better. Way better now. Well, it is better now.

but I like the old one as well. But I like the new one. Both can be true. Yeah, in different forms. They're in their own regard. Yeah. Well, the lines are out. So who's the favorite? You got Denny Hamlet.

Oh, my God. Plus 500. Denny plus 500. That's actually pretty solid. Yeah. Kyle Larson plus 600. Byron, Reddick, and then Bell, that's your top five. Do we think Larson can end this win this streak he's got going?

Was it 29 races? Really? That's a lot. Yeah, I mean, I think they were in good shape this weekend to get it done. Darlington is definitely a driver's track, and certainly if there's more slipping and sliding, and, you know, the guys that are, you know, better on older tires, the guys that can kind of handle and finesse the car around there when the tires are going away, he's, Larson's at the top of the list. Denny is going to be, that absolutely plays into Denny's style, and he's going to, and he's

coming off a win, a lot of momentum, loves Darlington. He loves to win at racetracks where he feels like he matters. The more falloff, the more competitive, I think, Denny. And we've seen them too, guys, battling into the final corner, running each other into the fence, racing as hard as they can for wins. I think we may get that very same thing again. Yeah, I'm on Jimmy this week, too. He's the top of the board for me.

What about some other names, rest on your model? The only other ones that you didn't mention would be Briscoe. He's won two of the last three there. He's always good there. He's also good at where the tires fall off as well. So I like him, even though he's struggled this year. He's still on my list. Where do you run in those Bristol races that the tires fell off a bunch?

Do you have, do you know? Briscoe? Yeah. Because I don't, he doesn't strike me as being one of the guys that I see rise when this, when there's a ton of fall off. But I'm going to pause on Briscoe for now. We saw last year it took them a while to sort of find their groove. Once they find it, they're rock solid.

Seems like golf season wasn't as favorable to them. They've sort of, you know, back into some old habits and just having a hard time, right, putting races together. Even in the Xfinity race on Saturday, the O'Reilly race on Saturday, really, really fast race car and just a lot of clunkiness, right, in how his race played out. but, you know, I think if there's, if they're off right now, it won't take them as long as it did last year to get back in the groove, but I'm going to pause myself on Briscoe, not that I don't think he can go out there and do it. Absolutely can. He's won races there in the Rowley series. What used to be the Xfinity series, people get mad.

If you don't, like people won it called what it was called when it happened, right? They don't like you to say, man, you remember that guy that won the 1980s? O'Reilly Series championship? They don't like it. I hate that when they're like, Connor Zulch won 10 races in the O'Reilly series. No, he did. Nope.

Well. So Briscoe was 13th in that race, T.J. Okay. So who are some of the drivers we need to keep in our eye on outside of the ones that you've mentioned? Obviously, Denny, Larson, you talked about Reddick. Do you think? I'm a big Bubba Wallace fan this weekend. He's running great this year.

He's been top 10 and five of the last seven at Darlington. His worst finish this year is 11. The other one that is going to surprise you, like when you look at season results, is Eric Jones. Two-time Darlington winner. He was third there, I think, last fall. Not a surprise to me. This is his track. He's plus 4,500 to win.

And if he's won twice here in the next gen, that's an auto place for a bet. Just a little bit. Didn't John Hunter qualify really good here? Yeah, he ran well here last year. I think he was four, I believe. Yeah, I think that's his best race of the year. Yeah. All right.

Well, that's high gives. I feel like he's good here, too. Yeah, he's good here too. But I just wonder, you know, this fall off if there's, like, I do think that adds into the equation of some of these guys that may have some experience and some more with the old car like Busher. I think a busher, you know, every time we've had. What about Kyle Bush? Man, I just, there's. They're struggling.

I know, man. It's not even just his speed. It's not just that. He's not even the best RCR car this weekend. Yeah, it's just... Yeah. But do you think that falloff helps him this week? I think that this style of racetrack,

all of those things absolutely play into Kyle Busch's hands. But I'm just, I'm hesitant because new crew chief, I haven't seen... They just don't have it yet. Yeah, I haven't seen that start to turn the corner just yet. So, you know, again, you know, you're naming guys that absolutely could go out there and run top 10. that can happen but from what I've seen in the first couple of weeks

looking at just basically Phoenix in this past weekend at Vegas I'm holding on to my money there TJ I got a question for you on a track we have all this tire fall off for you as a spotter are you having to do more work looking at lap times and stuff what's it like for you with a track like this yeah probably you definitely probably have a number you look for and you don't like Bristol we had a number when the tie tires were falling off. We had a number we wanted to run every lap, and if we knew if we went much

faster than that, we might, we're going to hurt tires pretty bad. There's also a number that you want to, you know, once you dip below, you're coming to pit road, or are you thinking about, you know, is there a pace where you're like, we can't afford to stay out on the racetrack, we're bleeding too much time? Yeah, I think it's a little bit of everything. You don't know, but some of them guys are going to come so early that, you know, this is going to open up to strategies, like, two-stop. I mean, probably, what, easily two-stopping, a lot of them, right? So.

Denny and them boys, they like to run long. Yeah, and there's a lot of guys. I think that's a good strategy this weekend. And if there's a handful of cautions, though, I mean, I honestly feel like there could be a lot of cautions. We can run out of tires. That's what I'm saying. I feel like maybe going long in a first segment or two,

you might lose a few spots on track. Sounds like must-see TV. Right. Sounds like it's just going to be awesome. Russell. I agree. I'm now nervous about my tire allotment. You've gotten me nervous.

Well, I just think you're going to have to manage them differently. I was excited about tire fall off, excited about horsepower, excited about less downforce, anxious about tire allotment. This sounds like a great recipe for awesome race. The tire allotment can bite you. Yeah. Like pretty bad. Especially if there's like back-to-back yellows. You're like, I don't, I got, you know, four, three, four laps on them.

I can't come down pit road. I don't know if you know the rule on this too, but like if you have a, say, a guy cuts tire and practice doesn't get to qualify, he is down that set of scuffs that he would have qualified on. So you're actually down like another set because you don't make a lap and qualifying. You don't get nothing for it. Interesting. Which could happen as well. Some guys are having problems in practice or somebody knocks the wall down a little bit. Can he buy tires?

Yeah. Rick, where, line one? You can't get any more than a lot of. But it used to be a – I mean, back in the day, you know it was. You used to – as soon as somebody was out, you bought their tires and you had more than you needed, but sometimes. Yeah. But you had them. It's going to be interesting, man.

You know, anything else we need to cover as far as maybe who might slip in there for a top 10? Give me about two or three names. Maybe you've already mentioned one or two. You know, what's the odds for, you know, Eric Jones on top 10? They're not out right now, but based off his win odds, I would definitely place that as soon as it comes out. All right. So Eric Jones and who else? I like Ryan Preece.

He's right back there with Jones and odds. Yeah, she has worse win odds than Eric Jones. What do you think, Russell, Preyce? Yeah, I don't mind Preyce. He's running way better than he ever has this year. Actually, all those RFK cars are running really well, and they're running all together. Like, all the cars are running well together. Russell, you like college basketball?

I do. Yeah. Who you got winning it all this year? Duke. Duke? I'm on the Duke train. How are you? Well, a lot of great games in the first round,

a lot of opportunity to do what I love to do, parlay all the heavy favorites, which I have done. I am loaded. It's a very favorite loaded first couple rounds. Last year, dude, there were hardly any, if at all, any upsets. I think it would be very similar.

There's a lot of chalk. Dude, I parlayed. anything that was like plus, anything that was like a spread of eight and a half points, like I parlayed the favorites all together, and I never, it did not fail me last year. It didn't fail me. It was good to us.

Yeah, it was good to us. So I'm going back same method this year, and I'm loaded ready. I like those kind of bets because I watch, it's one bet for, and I'm going to watch a whole day's worth of basketball. Right, and I'm like pulling for every box to get checked, and that's fun for me. That's how I like to do it.

I'm going to do some research and give you some player props. If you're having fun, it's all the matter. That's right, T.J. Thank you for that, TJ. If you're winning, it's just a bonus. When T.J. speaks, it's rare. But when he speaks, it's knowledge, man. Put it on a T-Code in.

All right, man. The Dirty Mo Doe segment is brought to you by Fanduel, the premier gaming destination in the United States. The only place you need to be putting your bets down for the tournament this year. Thanks, everybody, for joining us today here in the Arby's studio. Don't forget about Arby's new meat in three bucks. Get more meal with your money at Arby's. Arby's, they have the meats. Thank y'all for tuning in.

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