The Dale Jr. Download - Would Hocevar's Driving Style Be Accepted By Older Generations of NASCAR?

Episode Date: September 22, 2026

Fists flew and tempers flared at Bristol this past weekend, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. is back with some strong opinions on this week’s Dirty Air. He joins co-host TJ Majors to discuss the fight, the points and more:Drivers cutting each other a break on trackCarson Hocevar is racing by his own codeThe NASCAR garage became friendlier in the 90sThere is a fine line with Carson HocevarThis new format is bringing out aggression in driversThe schedule has allowed other drivers to track down Denny HamlinSheldon Creed is having a career best run right nowDuring the show, Bristol race winner Joey Logano called in for an interview:Joey didn’t think he’d get this high in the points this fastDoes Carson Hocevar remind Joey of his younger self getting into Cup?How the intermediates stack up for the 22 teamWhat Joey was thinking when Ty Gibbs and Carson Hocevar made contactFor more content, head over to our YouTube page https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. This is the most fun I've had in this chair in the last hour and a half. I don't know if we've ever argued. Did I piss you off over the weekend? I'm still sour. Did I want the best man at your wedding? Who was your best man, Dale? T.J.

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

We are in the Arby's studio, and this episode is presented by Arby's, and their new meat in three bucks. You get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meats. We have a great show for you today. A lot. I got a lot to tell you.

All right. So my buddy Sean, Brawley, if you remember the old nationwide commercial with Sonny and Sean, my best buds, Sean has a chicken coop, gives me some eggs.

When they tell you, or when you hear that they're better. Those eggs are better than storebought. They ain't lined. This egg sandwich that I had this morning was fantastic. What was on it? Egg and mayonnaise.

I didn't have time to cooking bacon. So, Amy did it. I was five minutes from leaving the house to take the kids. We had a very small window. Egg, a little mayo, toast. That was my sandwich. You know the egg's good if that's all it's on it and it was a good sandwich. And it was, it's like, this egg was like, hey man, don't even add any salt.

No pepper needed. But you better put some mayonnaise on me. I have lots of flavor. But I need mayonnaise. I thought maybe. You need that for the bread. I know. I thought maybe bread egg was just a little too plain.

Yeah, you need a little something. Amy's got to step up or bread game. These were decisions that were made at split second. Made of the executive level. Yeah. This wasn't Dale's call. Split second decisions. Kind of like being in the same.

the draft at Daytona. Open up the door with the refrigerator. Grab something. Mayo. Okay, we're out of here. Let's get the toast. Into the toaster. Quick.

Bam, bam. It was fast. Yeah, it's like a pit stop. You ain't got time to think. The next thing you know, we've let a lap. We're leading the field. That's nice to Amy to make you that sandwich. Oh, yeah.

Tamila don't make you sandwiches. Can she make three next week and bring them into us? Tamila don't do it? No, I'm not getting an egg and mayonnaise sandwich now. All right. Amy is amazing. She was awesome this morning. She gave me some advice.

I had some, I had a little, I had a little thing. I was trying to figure out with work. And she gave me some advice that made me feel confident in my decision. Love mornings like this. Let's go, Amy. Yeah. Yeah. Ask Amy coming up tomorrow. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Nope. Well, Thursday. So anyhow, also, I busted the shit out of my elbow. I did. It hurts. It was funny. Not just now.

Oh. I did this at home. So, Amy, if you're a dad, T.J., you have experienced this. I get, we have a routine at night where we put the kids down to bed. I put Nicole to bed. Nicole always wants to read about. book and most nights we do. If we're getting

to bed on time, we read a book. So I go to sit in her bed to open up and read this book. Amy has changed the end tables. They're taller and I knock the f*** out of my left elbow

on this thing. I sat down in that bed like jumped into it and landed on my elbow on this end table and holy fricking a it hurts. It's really sore. I already had tennis elbow in this elbow. Now it hurts twice.

Now I got two things happening. Speaking of elbows, did you guys see my man, Jaden Daniels dislocated the left elbow? Thankfully, I have not seen the video, and I don't hang on it. It happened last year, and it looked exactly the same.

So Jaden Daniels, the quarterback for the Washington commanders. He dislocated his elbow. He fell on it, losing his balance, last year. So he tried to he tried to catch his fall

and his elbow dislocated. And it was like, what the hell? And he missed four weeks, came back wearing a brace and landed on it and re-injured it. He didn't relocated it a second time, but he had too much pain. Aggravated it.

He left the game. And we're like, what the hell? So you didn't, there's no, you can get surgery for this? I've just, this is all, I have learned a lot of medical knowledge on X. Yep.

In the last 24th. And we know that's where all the doctors are. I am very, I could almost perform the surgery at this point. Easily. I guess. Do you need it? For a dislocated shoulder, you can get surgery to make the tendons a little more,

make the joint more stable. But for, what he does to catch a 210-pound body falling down on the ground the next time, surgery is not going to keep the elbow from dislocating again. It's just, it's one of those things where once it happens, it's kind of like the potential for that to happen. Yeah. And so here we are, week two,

I think the left guard stood on his foot at the hike of the ball under center. and fourth down, three seconds left in the first half. Should have been kicking the field goal there. Should have done it. I think it's cool that coach had confidence in them to score. I agree. Listen, hindsight is nice. But anyways, that's not why he got hurt.

He stumbles backwards, puts his arm in the dirt, and it freaking dislocates. again, identical. Here we are. Two weeks into the season, we're going to lose our quarterback for about four weeks minimum. And when he comes back,

is he going to really play the rest of the year? Nope, season's over. Season's over, but what about his career? I mean, how... Can he not wear just a brace or something to help strengthen it?

He's going to have to wear a brace the rest of his career. And it needs to be one bad f*** race. Yeah, it looks like Robocop or something. It needs to be super badass. But he needs to have to be a brace. to wear the brace if he wants to play.

He's a badass quarterback, and he was really, really good in that game up into that point. They left so many points on the field. They came so close to scoring on a couple trick plays. They had a touchdown that was a touchdown that the NFL said wasn't a touchdown. That was bull-h. But there was about 21 to 28 points laying right there for them, and they could have made this a really close game with Dallas. but what's interesting is Caleb Williams goes out with Chicago

we now learn that it's a very mild hamstring injury and he felt like it was much more severe God, I thought he was done for the year I thought they're going to amputate his leg I know He caught, he catches a lot of shit that he is But you know sometimes you just don't know Yeah, and only he knows how much pain that was in the moment And then Jackson Dart last night with the knee

That looked really bad, but Apparently, you know, he's back out on the sidelines, wanting to get back in the game. So maybe after, you know, it's an ML, MCL, MCL, one or two level strain, whatever. Could have been worse. Could have been worse. So, but, you know, what's going on? What is going on? Like, it's a hard hitting sport.

Yeah. I feel like it's like this every year with you. Yeah. I'm going to tell y'all, man. Listen, I, somebody show me some statistics that. that would conflict with this statement. But I feel like when I watch football in the 80s, your damn starting quarterback usually made it all year long without issue.

Now, I know my guy thighs and broke his leg. The players are bigger, faster, stronger. And ligaments haven't gotten better. That's it. I agree. That's it. Yeah. I remember when I was a kid.

Back on my day. I know. I hate to say this, but it's true. I feel like, you know, know, players were less likely to go out of games injured. You had receivers. Yeah. I remember just, you know, I remember Washington had a group of receivers like Art

Monk and Sanders and Clark that they were just on the field all the time. Every play. Yeah. They didn't, you know, they didn't have these mild, you know, injuries that seemed to be nagging. And they did, you know, players do injure and players did injure back then. but it was just way more rare. And I think that's a great point. Players have gotten faster.

The game has gotten faster. The hits, the cuts, the things they're asking their bodies to do just in non-contact play is a lot tougher. And you're right. Ligaments haven't changed. And so it just sucks because, you know, you invest in these players emotionally and mentally. and you you watch I mean not every team's like this

I'm sure with Josh Allen you don't feel this way T.J but when I watch Washington play I am nervous any I'm nervous for a I'm nervous every play I'm nervous every play that I'm going to lose a key individual on the team

even even a guard or a tackle or anybody oh God yeah like anybody we lost our left tackle, a badass, in the training camp. He tore his peck muscle. He's out for the year. I do remember, though. The most important player on our offensive line. Yeah, you need him. There's so many issues. Do you remember whenever, like, there actually was a decent amount of injuries because, like, the Giants had Jeff Hossettler come in for Phil Sims. He did. Bills had Frank Wright come in.

and play in Super Bowl. Yeah. So it just wasn't, I don't know, maybe I didn't look at it as hard as a kid, but now I'm watching every play. I'm like, oh, who's down? Something about it feels more common, more. Dude, we had at the end, like at the,

it's, it feels like it's not like this for every team. Every team's a little different, but like the frequency of injuries, it feels like for Washington at least, we'll play a game, and we got five dudes that have, that have got some pretty, you know, concerning injuries.

And there are five guys that, you know, we need on the field. Every game, we have, like, a pretty important, you know, person go down. And it feels like I don't really watch other teams as closely, obviously, not being as big a fan, but it feels like that, you know, you guys get, you guys get through games without really losing a key player. Yeah, I feel like we're always. You feel like it's saying to you. Oh, yeah.

I'm looking at the injury report before. I mean, we were out a couple players for the game. Yeah. Ed Oliver went out before the game in warm-ups. He got hurt in practice before the game. It's like our best defensive line. Yeah. It does feel like injuries in the NFL are rapidly increasing in frequency.

Do you think it's because of, I was thinking about this because we are more in tune because we actually play some of. We're paying more attention? Well, we play fantasy football so we know probably a lot more players. That's true. And also the social media stuff during the week, we never really heard about injuries during a week before. And now if a player leaves on anything, if a player leave, we know right away from a reporter. It's a different time, man. For sure. I enjoy being a fan and I like our, you know,

fans football. I'm having a terrible. I'm o' and two. I scored 118 points last night. Josh, my buddy Josh Snyder still beat me 128 to 118. I got a decent team that I drafted with AI. You all remember that conversation we had? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, I, AI told me who to draft, and I did the opposite. And your team still sucks. My team still sucks, yeah.

I couldn't bring myself to do what AI said to do because then if I sucked, I would really be an idiot. Like, man, you didn't even draft your team. AI did. 129 to 97 over Sean Broly. You won? Oh, took Sean down. He ain't going to give you no eggs.

Two and O. All right. I, uh, I've been spending. some time this week working on my late model stock car. We're getting it ready for Newport. That is the next Cars Tour race in Newport, Tennessee on October the 3rd. The final race of the season for the Cars Tour is South Boston on the 17th of October. So two events left this coming month.

And this weekend, a huge race to Martinsville 300. There's like 87. I think there's a few more entries that have yet to confirm. So we could get around 90 cars. for the 300 at Martinsville for this weekend. It's on Saturday. And so, yeah, there's 87 cars for 40 spots, $32,000 to win. There's heat races.

Cars will advance into the field from the heat races. This is must watch television. So I believe it's on flow. What a list. Yeah. I mean, it's all the late model stock drivers in the country. That's your late model stock owners. There's all your late model stock cars.

Now, that's, I would say there's about 40% of the late model stock guys not on that list. Yeah. Late model stock, the car, the footprint of the car, it's not very big. It's really small. And so that's why I think, you know, the cars tour is fun and unique, racing in short tracks around the mid-Atlantic area of the country is unique to limited and late model stock cars. But here you go. The best of the best this weekend at Martinsville for the 300.

Somebody's going to win a clock. It's a life-changing experience. Either you see these guys win these races and it propels them into new opportunities, or you see an old veteran that's ran late-model stocks at his local track and his whole life finally win the biggest race of his career. I'll be tuned in Saturday. Yeah. Oh, that's a good list. This is what I wanted to tell you.

So we've been, you remember back in the NASCAR, 2003 days when we would run some AI races every now and then. Yeah, maybe. We'd throw some trucks on IRP and just race the shit. Trucks, yeah, turn them way up. I've been wanting to do like a 1987 500-mileer at Talladego with our little group against the AI. But we all have to use like the 1987 cars. Like we have to pick a car from that decade.

And we're racing against the 1987 field. I guess we could have our own customs in the field, but we're racing against the other, you know. We've single file on it and lapers on the inside and stuff. Oh, yeah. Okay. The real deal. Yeah.

But their needs, I only want to do this with people who really want to finish the race. Like, no, I don't want to call out any names, but like, there's a couple guys in our group that would like, you know, just wreck guys and be like, oh, yeah, man, if I cut down on me or, you know.

There is, yeah. We don't need a lot. You know, we don't need a lot of... We're not necessary cautions. Yeah. Let's just run it. That would take a while. I know it.

We should stream it. I think it might get a little boring at times. Yeah. Because we're probably going to get strong out a little bit. I get some good announcers. I kind of like that. I want to experience that, DJ. Yeah.

I mean... Yeah. I think it'd be fun if we had about six to ten of us. And we jumped in and ran a full field AI Talladega, turn him some up where they're tough. They're hard to beat. Yeah. It'd have to be up. Yeah. Because driving around them

wouldn't be fun easily. Yeah. They got to be like tough passes. Yeah. Well, I mean, I'm more interested to see how the strategy and the race itself played out. Not so much the I'm not really... Yeah, you want to see. Does it go green for a run? Does it? That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Do you wear your right

rear out? Yeah. You're probably going to... You're probably going to kill the right front. Then the right rear to follow. Yeah. And then the AI drives back by you. And you're like, shit. Yeah.

Yeah, let's figure that out, man. We need to see if the 500 miles. AI is, AI can do it. Yeah. Yeah. This week's 30 air segment is brought to you by Bass Pro Shops, North America's premier outdoor and conservation company.

Plan your next adventure at a Bass Pro Shops near you or online at bashproshops.com. Diving into Bristol. We're going to go right into the cup action and right into the big conversation of the week. Blaney and Hosevar. Anything else even happened in that race? I know. Well, you don't get moments like that too often. Who won?

Yeah, that's right. We're going to talk to the winner later today. Joe Ligano is going to call in later in the show, and we're going to obviously ask him a little bit about this. But the, you know, the whole, I guess first off, the on-track stuff, I saw a video where Lugano was talking about a moment during the race with him and Christopher Bell. That was absolutely 1,000% identical to what happened with Blaney. And it's identical.

They come up off the corner. Joey's got a little bit of a run to the inside. And Bell, Bell just kind of closes the door and Ligano lifts and gets out of it. There's a little contact, but, but. Everyone carries on. Ligano lifts and Ligano's like, man, that was me not wanting to make an enemy right there.

And living to run the next corner. And I've raced him a lot. He's raced me a lot. And I give, you know, me and him have some give and take, and it just, you know, and it was identical. I mean, if you painted the car, you could, you know, it looked just the same. Yeah. In the situation with, with Hosevar and Blaney, now Blaney comes up off the corner and comes down to racetrack.

He clears him. No, he didn't. Well, he did clear him on the exit. It wasn't clear when he come down. No. So. Slightly. Yeah.

Hosevar's got a small. run to the inside. Off the top, yeah. Off the top, the momentum. And Blaney comes down, shades down the racetrack, and Hosevar doesn't cut him a break, whereas Ligano does with Christopher Bill. Now, Ligano, Hosevar does not have to. Doesn't have to cut him a break. This was short track racing. You know, Blaney comes down. Carson didn't have a whole lot of time to really consider cutting him a break even in that moment sometimes you know she happens so fast at bristol your mind's in a blender they've been running for you know lap after lap after lap whipping around the racetrack um see i i disagree with uh to me

this wreck happened because blaney came from kind of a a school of racing where if you run me down and pass me i'm not crossing you over at that that point because you're faster me you ran me down you pass me go on yeah you know i'm you've been fast with me all night i'm not i'm done we're just going to cost ourselves more time we're going to bring the fourth place car closer leader's going to get further away i don't agree with i mean yes carson can make that move and absolutely whatever i'm trying to win the race well that's not how you do it and like joey big brains it joey's going to live to fight another corner like you said and probably not have an enemy now bell probably

made that move. Joey might have had a great extra to something and Bell might not know when he was there. Yeah. But to me, I mean, I, like, even like if me and you were doing it, I'm not, you passed me, I messed up. That's why you're in front of me anyway. I messed up. You're fastered me. Why pull this move? Like, that's where I'm at with it. Yes, he can make the move and, but it's not. I, listen, this, so I, you know, the, the Ward Burton throw in the booties video that we see most times we come around to Bristol. They always show it, yeah. If you watch the in-car camera,

I get a little bit of a run up off the bottom. I've been behind him for a couple of laps, and I'm barely, barely better than him. And it just so happened on the corner exit of two. I get a little bit better drive up off the corner behind Ward, and I dive to the inside. And we don't even get to the corner, and I can tell that he's coming down.

And I actually straighten the wheel, and don't make, I do not try to attempt to turn in the corner and I clip him, spin him out. I did not have the intention of wrecking Ward Burton when I got in the throttle to exit turn two. If I could undo that, I would definitely not wreck Ward Burton. I know that down, I bet you down, I bet you that Hosevar feels the same way. I bet you Hosevar feels like, yeah, I really didn't have to do that. I do. I know he probably doesn't, he probably doesn't act that way, he doesn't portray that.

But there's no way that he goes to that whole thing and says, no, I shouldn't have done nothing different. But then why does he keep doing stuff? I know. Two weeks ago we were talking about the same scenario. Now, I'm sure that surely somewhere in his head, he's thinking, yeah, I could have done differently there. I could have probably let him go. Surely. I don't.

You can't continue to do these things. And then honestly, at home, say, man, I shouldn't have done that. He's got to be learning from it somehow. But he's not learning from it. Have you had a conversation with him? I don't think conversations matter with him. Have you talked to him? I don't care what your words are.

Your actions tell me. No, I'm just saying, like, do you know, do you talk to him? Do you guys ever talk to him? Do you ever have conversations with him? I watch. I'll just read what you read on the internet. So are your words that you're saying, is it because you've talked to him? Yeah.

And he's told you this? Have you not watched his interviews after the races when he's like, doesn't care? He, he, that's, doesn't care? That's a bit of an act. That's fine. Yeah. But then your actions need to be different then. And if he truly cared his actions would be different.

They would at least be getting better, but it's still the same. I don't normally agree with Travis, but there's no sign of. I'm not disagreeing with. all. I just told you that I, you know, I f***ed up and wrecked Ward. He f*** up and, you know, he could have cut him a break. He doesn't have to cut him a break, though. He gets, he gets the run.

He makes the move. He's a race car driver. He's racing. Now, is it smarter, is it smarter to, you know, do what Joey did? Joey, yeah, Joey won the race. That was a great smart move by Joey, not to fuck to wreck the 20. And he goes on when. and wins the race. But

Hosevar had a run. Goes to the inside. 12 blocks. It spun him out. He rove over the right front of the 77. I disagree with that. Well, then what's your problem? My thing is,

I'm disagree with you saying that I don't think Hosevar goes at home and it's like, man, I could have, I don't think he thinks that he should have done differently or cares. He puts himself, he puts other guys in positions. He does. He just doesn't like. Yeah. Brad Kislaski did the same thing at his start of his career.

So did I. so did a lot of and I mean he's he's either going to have to learn he can't sustain this activity throughout his career he can't and he won't

he'll grow up and mature and be you know make different choices as he gets older so let me ask you this and when you did that to Ward when you went home did you tell to yourself I shouldn't have done that or were you kind of stubborn saying like I was right

if I I'm trying to put you yourself back. I know. I am. If you interviewed me at the race, I'm probably like, man, I was underneath him. I mean, in the moment I'm sitting there going, dude, I was under you. You come down, you wrecked yourself, Ward Burton. You know, I'm, I hate that fucking happened to you, but I have no responsibility in that. You were coming, I got to run. You can't, at Bristol, if you get an inch, you got to keep it. You can't give the inch back. Nobody's going to let you have a f*** inch somewhere down the road. That's

the way racing works. And so at that racetrack, like you scrap for that f*** inch, and when you gain it and you get it on the guy and you get that much, even that tiny little bit of a position underneath somebody, you kind of got to stick with it. You got to go for it. Now,

but that wasn't a scenario. If I go 12 hours, 24 hours, 36, 72 hours down the road, I might go, man, I didn't need to f*** it. I didn't need that spot that bad. I damn sure don't want Ward mad at me. I like board. I bet, you know,

Hosevar probably thinks Blaney's a cool guy, even though, you know, they have this dust up and they fight and all that shit, I think before that, you know, earlier in the day, he probably didn't think it was an enemy. But I'm sure, I would be surprised, I suppose, if if I, if Hosevar doesn't have a change of regret over reckoning. Because he certainly

had a choice in a very second of not to turn him or not to, you know, to back out or do something different, but he didn't do that. And he didn't have to do that. And Blaney even admitted it is like, you know, he takes a little responsibility

for wrecking himself. And he should. What do you want Hosevar to do? I agree with when you're hounding somebody and you're faster and he gives you a foot, you take it. You have to, Bristol. Especially whenever your race there because you're literally behind a guy waiting for him to slip so you can get a nose in there.

Hussvar just got ran down and passed. Yeah, I know. And the guy was better than you all night and then you just stuff it in there. That's his, that's his youth. And he has every right to do that, but like. That's the difference between, that's the difference between Joe Ligano today and Joe Ligano 15 years ago. You know, that's the difference.

I guess we don't see any change in it. Like last two weeks ago. He's only been doing this for. couple years. But, I mean, he has a whole track record of spinning himself out for cautions. You know, there is a long list. Now, that's a whole other conversation in my opinion. My thing is, it seems like it's, we can't go two weeks without a host of our on track incident. No, we're two for three. Like, two for three. If we had like a, I'm sorry, two for four. If we had, ask racing insights, how many people have been in incidents?

Well, I'm saying recently. It's a lot, I know. If we had a racist since host of our cause an incident, on the studio. It would never get past two weeks. And that's my thing. It's like he might think that he should have done it differently or whatever, but at some point I just got to go off your actions. Yeah. Well, I would say this.

I came in here with a with a point to make and I'd like to make it. And I don't want, I don't want the narrative to be, I don't want my narrative. I don't want the narrative around my opinion to be confused by you two, Yehous. So I feel like that we all agree that Blaney, you know, Blaney was aggressive on the move to come down in front of him and got himself spun out there. The, you know, Blaney went over there to argue with him or, and I think we're all surprised that Hoservar, through his punch. The whole thing,

the whole fight thing went way different than I would have expected. And NASCAR is probably over the moon with all of that. Right?

You know, O'Donnell goes on Harvick's show to tell everybody we're not going to find guys for what happened. I honestly didn't have a

problem. I don't have a problem with anything that went down. And it is absolutely a case-by-case scenario. I don't know if that's really hard. I don't know if people can really understand what that means, but you might not find guys for what happened this weekend and turn around the next week and find somebody for something even less egregious the following weekend. and as a series owner in the cars tour I have to kind of be careful sitting in this chair condoning what we saw at the racetrack in Bristol and then what we don't want to see at our own races

you know in the pits we don't have you know 25 security guys we don't have you know all that ability to kind of control something from getting out of hand And so, you know, I think you kind of like blindside punches, crew members throwing fists, things that feel unethical, things that when it feels bad, it typically is something that you want to look into. Does it deserve a fine? Does it deserve some sort of a punishment? You usually can just watch it and tell. I know.

I mean, in this instance, I think both parties would agree that none were necessary. And I'll defend Carson. Yeah. Blaney put his hands on him. Yeah, I don't blame him. Carson, I would have swung too. Yeah. I mean, I agree that Carson has a,

I agree that Carson has like a a reputation. None of the drivers are very happy with him right now. I don't know that he, I don't know that that matters to him at all. that he doesn't go to the racetrack to make his friends. But it's unique because we've been in this sport where we all were in the bus lot together.

You know, arguments got squashed and cured or blown over or whatever. Everything would get taken care of in a couple of days. you'd call somebody or, you know, you'd see them at the racetrack or you'd see them at the bus lot or, I don't know, you know, it was, back in the, back in the 80s, none of the drivers stayed at the racetrack. Everybody stayed in hotel rooms. None of the drivers did that much mingling outside of the racetrack. And so if you didn't, you got it, if you got underneath somebody's skin or they got under your skin, you stayed pretty mad at them. and those those you know you stayed pretty mad at that guy pretty much for you know that was a that was a mark on that driver that you just hung on to every every time you're around him you raced him different you raced him like a jerk you tried to make it hard on him and I grew up watching all of the guys be that way.

Now, as I started driving race cars, things were starting to change. The garage was a little friendlier. The drivers all were a little friendlier. They spent more time around each other. We had these driver owner lots inside of every racetrack where all the drivers literally camped all weekend side by side. you know if you had a problem with the guy you went to his camper you talked to him now that was probably good but at the same time it took a lot of the

it took a lot of the anger and it took a lot of the rivalry out of the sport now there were still some good good rivals good there was still some couple of dudes that hated each other here and there but um i don't know this is you know you know hosovar would not be that wild of an anomaly if you threw him into the 70s or 80s. Now, he'd get his ass kicked by a couple of these guys, and they'd get after him. But he sticks out like a sore thumb in this group of guys because everybody in this sport otherwise has ran, has a code that they all race by that's really similar. and he doesn't really go by that code.

Not that his code is wrong. It's just he doesn't go by it. It's different. It's different. And I don't know that they're going to, whereas, you know, Chastain, for example, had a little bit of a different code as well. And would we all agree that he's sort of changed

and polished his ways or cleaned up his act, however you want to say it, right? he's not quite as much of a lightning rod anymore. And he doesn't right now have the speed to be up front racing with these guys and doing these things. He's not going to be a jackass in a slow car. Yeah. Nobody, everybody, he's smart enough, I think, to not be that way, right? Not be a problem running 30th.

Yeah. Well, I just don't know that, I just don't know that the Denny Hamlins of the world or whoever is going to try to, you know, know, talk some sense into this guy. I don't think they're going to get very far. I think another issue is that host of our, it seems to be, I could be wrong, seems to be content, he's happy he made the chase. He's good for this year. It's been a great year. Ryan Blaney could have been the points leader leaving Bristol and is now like 50 back. This is his career. This is a championship he's going for and you just wrecked him. And so he's pissed off. And so how drivers are operating with the chase is different.

Does Carson race by his own code? Yeah. Is he okay being raced with his own code? I think he wants you to do that. Okay. Well, when that happened, didn't it happen in the trucks when he took the guy? I think you. Yeah.

Oh, I mean, listen, I'm going to tell you, if you pile it all up here, he definitely is unique. And whether I mean, some of the, I've told him when he was wrecking guys in the truck series, I told him, I said, man, you'd come here to drive my car, you can't do that. That's not, you cannot do that. And so I'd rather him, you know, I would just not let him drive my car if I felt like he couldn't make the adjustment. And so he, you know, if Spire, you know, if Spire wants to make some, you know, ask him to do some things differently, they're going to try to do that. But I feel like that, so I feel like that he goes off a fan reaction. and if the fans are happy

and if he's getting the reaction that he wants out of that engagement with fans, then he feels like that he has done his job well. And so... I'm just saying, I don't know. I think he has his own code, but when he gets raced

by his own code, he doesn't like it. No, that's not... I don't know if that's true, though, because Corey He shipped him and he did not have, he did not complain about it. But he didn't he do it in the trucks? No, we got to focus on what he's doing

right now in the Cup series though, TJ. That doesn't matter. Corey Heim raced him, moved him out of the way, and did we see host of our complaint? I don't know if we had a straight shot yet. I mean, Corey doesn't run full time. Going back to the truck series, I'll say this. There was a few mistakes of not holding him accountable as a series.

Like the IRP deal, like they did not hold him. The Phoenix deal was bad. As a series, they didn't hold him accountable and let him off the hook. Right. And they, you know. I agree. I'm just saying like he doesn't, when. you say he has his own code.

But I think what I think I am saying and what I think Travis agrees with is that if you say Hosevar what's important to you? Of course I mean he's going to want to win races and stuff but he's going to say man

I want to be in the highlight reel. I want fans to be I want to do things that other drivers aren't doing in terms of energizing fans getting fans excited and he says if someone says

hey man do you want to sit down with Hymann and sort of figure this out? Nope. No, yeah. Don't want to. I want the rivalry. He doesn't, I don't even think he hates Hymn.

I think he just wants to f***es it up with these guys. Yep. And if, you know, Blaney wants to come over and have a confrontation or if somebody wants to come at him, him on the racetrack. I mean, he's like,

hell, you know, he's like, this is what I'm here for. He wants kids in 20 years to go, I remember watching Carson Hoseva race, and that's how, like he wants to be what these drivers were to him.

And like, he wants to be in the highlight rails, as Dale said. And I believe that he wants you to bring it to him. Mm-hmm. When, at the end of that race, when Gibbs is nipping at his heels

and tapping him in the quarter panel and racing the dog shit out of him, he is probably, probably on cloud 9. Knowing good and well that he doesn't have the car to win the race

and likely won't win this race but he's in the middle of the muck getting it diced up getting a little bit Yeah, it's great to watch entertaining. I know, but he's getting

a little bit of what he dishes out and he's probably enjoying that as much as anything. Yeah, Ty cost himself maybe the victory but we don't see Carson complaining about how Ty raced him.

No. He probably liked it. Yeah. I don't get chubbed around. He probably goes, he's probably watched that replay more than anything that happened with Blaney. Yeah. You know? He finds, I think he sees a sign of respect if you're going to come at him.

Yeah. You might be right. I don't know, but I just feel like that he wants to, he wants to create, I don't, I think drama is the wrong word. I think he wants to create moments. And so that's what he's trying, you know, he's just into, he's wanting to create moments. And the reaction the fans give him. is telling his brain, I did my job well today. And when NASCAR is going to come up and say,

man, no fines, all that, you know, hey man, that put us up on a sports center, all those things. Hosevar sees that as I made O'Donnell happy. I did my job today. I'm doing what NASCAR prefers me to do, right? and so right or wrong i mean that's what's going down if the the tide turns and some of these guys start you know what i'm going to race him like he race me now for the next month he'll probably enjoy that

i mean you think dn fing for four straight weeks or something he doesn't seem to carry i mean at some point you got to start carrying i mean at some point maybe i think there's a you know as he gets older his priorities and his wishes and what he enjoys about his life is going to evolve and change. And, you know, he'll start making different decisions. But in this time frame now, this guy, this guy texts me months ago about wanting to buy a bunch of old retired mail trucks. And I'm like, what do you want a mail truck for? He's like, I want 12 of them. I'm like, why?

He's like to race them. I'm like, why? He's like, nobody's ever done that. I'm going to do it on my property. Then I'm probably going to set them all on fire or blow them up. And so, I mean, this is, this. Uniqueness. I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't know how to say this other than this is a, this is, this is, he's a, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's in a unique generation that lives on, on, they're more free will.

They're more by, you know, spur, you know, they're spontaneous and you know who he is. He's, he's Bryson. of NASCAR. Yeah, he's TikToky and all these things. I'm not. You know, so I don't, I'm not sitting here. I'm not going to sit here and go, I don't understand it. So, right?

So, sh** on it. I'm just going to say, hey, man, okay, you do you. That's what you're into. You go do you, man. I don't, I don't, I don't, I, that's not what I enjoy. That's not what I'm going to do with my time. But I'm old. I'm 522.

So I get it. And I, you know, he's a, he's in a, he's in a, He's in a world of social media platforms that didn't exist for us 20 years ago, streaming and Twitch and all these ways to communicate, engage and gather, and all these areas to find affirmation and support in things you're doing, decisions you're making, actions and things you're saying. And so that's what's driving him, right, in this direction. So I just think that, you know, there's, there are.

some things about his racing though that i really think he's going to need to to clean up and i would not i would set this one aside i don't disagree with you t j that 12 ran him down past him he should have said any most people would have said i you got me you know go on yep but i would take this one aside now and set it off to the side is not quite as problematic as some of the other things we've seen in the past the stuff from the trucks right is that is that cleared up is that gone is that out of his system if he if he were pushed to the brink would he would he would he right hook somebody on the racetrack today i don't know that answer i don't know either i don't know that answer um you know taking himself out of races for no reason at all doing things to you know doing things to hurt his

ability to have a good result. That seems to be in his system. That's happened this year. Those are the things that I think like, hey, man, come on. I mean, I've had conversations with people in his circle about these very things and how that, you know, that part needs to kind of, you know, get tuned up, right? And show, you know, show him a little bit more of the detail of what goes into getting his stuff to the racetrack every single weekend.

So he might, you know, have a better decision. Though a lot of these incidents, it's his car the one being damaged. Yeah, no. Is Spire really, like, until someone gives him four D&Fs in a row, I'm just talking about, like, right now with how Spire operates. And until it starts to be a detriment for their business, I think it is. You don't see it yet, though they don't act like it. I think they do.

I mean, do you? As of now, it doesn't look like I think they're fine with how he's operating. I don't think so. I'm just telling you what I know. Okay. Okay. What Hosevar says on camera, or what Dickerson says on camera, is one thing. And not untrue or lie, but what happens on Monday is they have, they have honest conversations about, hey, man, some of this stuff, you know, we don't, we need to, they don't sit down and go, well, okay, man, let's get her ready for the next one.

you know, they sit down and go, should we, should this have happened differently? Yeah. How about this? How about that? What do you see differently that we don't? You know what I mean? Are you just going by? No, they have conversations on, you know, they have conversations on Monday and go, hey, you know, this, you know, what happened this weekend doesn't need to happen again.

Not necessarily about Bristol, but I guess. Are y'all not like, are y'all just hearing what I'm saying? I'm hearing what you're saying. Is it going in one ear and out the other? But I mean, we're not in the meetings. We don't hear it from the interviews. I'm not either. From the interviews and stuff we see.

I can't, I don't have a recording here for you. From the interviews we see and the data and info that we get from social, it doesn't act like it. They just support what he does at Darlington. Well, Brad was holding him up for five laps. He should have wrecked him. Like saying stuff like that, that's racing. You're not going to just pull up to a guy with seven laps or eight laps to go on a stage and him wave you by. Yeah.

Like they're justifying his actions. That's not reprimanding him. What it feels like is the person that goes and gets drunk the next day is like, man, I'm never drinking again. I don't think that they are... And the next night rolls around and they do it again. I don't think that they're upset that he wrecked Brad at Arlington. I know you are.

I mean, I disagree with the... I think they want him to behave better than he did when he was driving the truck. I think they want him not not just, you know, not do anything detrimental to his own car or his own equipment. during the race to hurt his actions. They're not going to say, oh, man, you don't run into that guy like that. They're not going to do that.

I mean, but that's one of the steps that you talked about is not putting yourself in situations. I never talk about that. I talked about like learning and growing. Right looking guys in the trucks. Yes. You know, there's things that he does that he doesn't need to do anymore, and there's other things on the racetrack that I think,

just like this thing at Bristol. I look at Bristol, that was a short track racing. That was, could he done something differently? FI.A. could have done something differently, but he didn't. It's also Bristol. What about at Bristol? Frizzed at Bristol. Guys, there's a lot of contact at Bristol.

Darlington, same way. Tight little f***ed racetrack, two grooves, two and a half grooves wide. Brad was holding him up. He lost his patience. Should he have done it? Probably not. But does it happen at racetracks? Yes.

It does. But it's just repetitive. And you started this conversation off with complimenting Joey on how Joey I agree made a big brain decision and I believe that Carson will one day

become that veteran that makes those type of calls but I think it's going to be a slower process than most because he seems very he seems very happy and good with the way things are going yeah I agree

I mean I agree with that but at what point does it break I don't know what's going to break it I don't know people putting them in the wall and ruin his days. But, I mean, it doesn't look like it's going to happen.

That's not going to happen. No, I would say what would break it is if the fans turned on it. If he lost the fans, then he might sit there and go, I don't like this. I'm getting the reaction I don't want to get. But right now, fans are like, I mean, even if it's 50-50, because, you know, you go, if you look on, if you look on social media, I know it's a tough space. to go get real statistics from. But I would, you know, it's 50-50 of what happened this past weekend, you know.

Mm-hmm. But he doesn't, that's all he needs. He just needs a good, a good, reasonable majority to feel good by what happened. And so maybe when he loses that, if that were ever to happen, for whatever reason, then he might change what he's, what he's doing and how he does things. Yeah. But he feels like that he's checking boxes, man. He's driving the sport and creating some fireworks.

And so I think it continues. Yeah, I agree. Unfortunately, for T.J. I think it's exciting. Yeah. It definitely gives us talking points. Hey, everybody. The 2026 season is in full swing,

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did I walk away from Bristol feeling disappointed nope did I walk away from Bristol feeling embarrassed I didn't did I hated my buddy Blaney got his ass kicked but I'm glad Blaney went on the Denny's show and talked about it and shared his experience

I'm looking forward to hearing more from Hosevar on what he's thought about it since the couple days of past does all of this happen with the old format that's a we talk talked about this last week a little bit. And honestly, with everything, with all that we just discussed, that's all great.

I think the greatest thing happening right now, the most exciting thing that's happening right now in the sport is this chase and how drivers are approaching these events. And we're seeing it as well in trucks, a Riley Cup. We had been in this playoff format for so long that we had totally forgotten, you know, what the chase could actually deliver. And now will all of them be like this? I'm not sure. But I was talking to coincidentally, Ryan Blaney last week.

And we were just going over about how wild St. Louis was. why in the hell did everybody lose their shit in that cup race at St. Louis? And he's like, man, I don't freaking know. He's like, I've been thinking about this and I don't know. But he told me, he said, man, we wouldn't be racing this hard in the first round of a playoffs. He's like, if I'm a top five guy, I'm just trying not to screw it up. Because I'm going to make the next round if I just don't fuck up. and so I'm not driving 110%

I'm not taking big risks I'm not dicing it up I'm just trying to get home and he's like you know what honestly it's almost the same in the next round he's like I know in the next round if I just kind of don't f*** this up I'm going to beat these guys

and now think about that now of course the guys that are in the back of the playoffs are racing their guts out right because they're trying to climb this mountain. But you got half of the field, and they're your best drivers in the field, going out there just to try to make sure they get home without any real bad deficit on the day. They don't get to do that in the chase.

No. They do not get to do it. And the old playoff form let them off the hook, especially if you want a race. I mean, a couple years ago, Denny said he won a chance. 20 points out of Atlanta. Yeah. Right now you've got driver's saying, I need 40. Yeah.

So, great point. I remember when Denny said that. I want to go to Atlanta and get 20 points. It's like, I ain't, hey, that's like finishing mid-pack. Yeah. So the chase has delivered more than I could have even imagined when we heard that this was coming back. I knew that it was good. I knew that it was the right thing.

I was optimistic that it would be better, more entertaining. But I didn't know why or how. And here it is right here in front of us. We are seeing, in at least the last two weeks, drivers are racing frantically, and they don't all seem to really understand what the right mentality is. is for this long game and throw in on top of that the fact that Denny has looked relatively

normal. Now, if Denny was to start the chase with the same performance that he had all year long, he's sitting out there 50 points ahead at this point, three races in, and we're having a little bit different of a conversation. But Denny has fell back into the clutches of the rest of the field here. And you got Ligano, who's came. from 20th in points at one point. I did not think the racing insight guys were telling me when he wasn't even in the top 16. Well, our predictor says he's got a 70% chance of making it.

I'm like, that thing's wrong. He ain't going to fucking make the chase. Not only did he make the chase, but he's clawed his way all the way back up into the top five in points. It's really miraculous that this happened. And so I got to tell you, that if you enjoyed the fight, if you enjoyed the drama, the passion,

it's the chase you need to be thanking. And so it's pretty fantastic. I don't know, you know, I don't know what to expect over the next three weeks going to these three mile and a half. She got Kansas, Vegas, Charlotte, all back to back. Then we go to Phoenix, Talladega, Martinsville. I love the way these tracks are lined up,

especially for a guy like Joey Lugano. I didn't think we'd be talking about Joey, but here we are. You know, you've got three mile and a halfs. Where are the, where are the fuck Toyota's? On the mile and a halfs. When we go to Kansas, is 2311 going to go out there and win

like we've seen them do many, many times at this racetrack? Are they going to have their hands full with HMS Chevrolese or Penskees? Ford's? I don't know. I felt really sure and confident maybe back mid-season that we were going to see five Toyotas racing for the top

five every single week when we go to tracks like Kansas, Las Vegas and Charlotte. But I don't know right now. So, the other thing that I love is the schedule. And I know this wasn't

intentional, at least I'd be very freaking impressed if it was but the way the schedule was laid out it painted this picture of Toyota Dominance they were fast everywhere but we did have a lot of mile and a halfs where they shined

right around Wilkesboro the entire complexion of the schedule changes we go to all these funky tracks and do all these kind of quirky little things even all the way up to this point, we really haven't ran on many mile and a half since the middle of the summer.

It's been a while. It has. And so it's sort of, it sort of confused me on who I feel like is the favorite. I had such a confident opinion of Denny Hamlin midway through the season. Now he could definitely turn it back up in these next three weeks.

But I don't know anymore. I love that it wasn't predictable, you know, and I didn't even look at the start of the season. I didn't look at the schedule and go, man, we're going to get this sort of, we're going to run these races, run at these racetracks, and we're going to get this understanding. And then right in the middle of the season, they're going to yank the rug out from under us. And we're going to go through about five or eight weeks of, you know, different winners, people that we didn't think had competitive cars, people we didn't think had a shot in hell. get back into this thing. And so it's been a great, great season. And so I'm looking forward.

It's got me, again, like I've said this before, on the show, it's got me here every single week. I cannot wait to tune in on Sunday and see what goes down. The swings and points has been crazy. Yeah, I agree. You know, it's pretty impressive. Lugano has averaged better than a five, better than a fifth place finish in these three races.

Ninth, third, and first, Kyle Larson, who we were sitting at Charlotte with Kyle Larson, and he's like, I'm driving my ass off to run top five, driving my ass off. And we've got to execute and have a great day to get that top five finish. He's sitting there with a 2.6 average finish in three races. Now, he's the only Hendrick car that's been able to be competitive this chase. as, you know, Chase Elliott and Byron have struggled.

But so is so of a lot of people. Denny. Denny is behind Bubba Wallace and Austin Cendrick an average finish over the three races. Reddick is even worse. Chase Briscoe and Ryan Blaney, they're outside of the top 10 in average finish in the chase. Briscoe with a 21.6 and Blaney with a 24.

Blaney run 4, 35th, and 33rd. I know it's out of his control a little bit for the most part. Briscoe 6th, 32nd, 27th. Incredible. Hosevar is third at a 7.3, 11, 8, and 3rd. Now, when he looks at that, does he think he's doing anything wrong? Exactly.

That's why they're... Probably not. So it's been compelling. Christopher Bell's hanging around, averaging an eighth place finish, and Ty Gibbs with also an 8.3, Bubba Wallace with a 9.6. It's been a hell of a couple of races.

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Jeremy Bullins is stepping down amicably, amicably, partying ways. He's going to take a similar opportunity with a different organization

so he's going to go crew chief somewhere else. Apparently. That's where I read it. And Mike Scarbowski. Yep. So you got Kozalowski and

Skarbowski. I mean, that's a match made in heaven. TJ, you got to change your name. Yeah. Yeah. Majorski.

Yeah. Majorowski. He's an engineer with the team and he's going to be the interim crew chief for Brad in the remaining races this year. Wishing Scarbowski the best,

just because he's now Kiselowski's crew chief. So he got Skarbowski and Kiselowski. Interesting to make that with what? That sounds like a lineup for a baseball game. So it's a law firm. I don't think it's that. I mean, if we're at points. Law drive or Senatorfield,

Scarbowski with a catch. Teach you what your thoughts. I don't know if I have much say about it now. I mean, you said it's a little... Have y'all seen that... What? Have y'all seen that thing on social media where that guy does the...

Oh, God, you got to look it up. Yes! Oh, my God, it's hilarious. Get it. I want to hear it. Martinez, will a flow bow... What is it? A flow bow.

Yes. You got to watch it. Scarabowski. Up the bat. T.J. What? back to what I was asking you. I mean, I don't think it's, you know, obviously the results haven't been as what everybody,

or what, you know, what we expected. So I don't think it's a, I mean, we're not in the chase. So if you're going to make changes. So you're like, let him get some reps basically and see if he's, if he's good to be the full time for championship? I'm guessing that's probably what they're thinking. Yeah. I mean, we made a change like that.

At the butt eight, right, at the last races, didn't Tony Jr. leave early? Tony Jr. left to go to HMS early. Early, yeah. Yep. That was weird time. It was weird time. A weird time. Yeah.

Yeah. Were you doing the bud car back then? I did the last 10. You did the last 10? Mm-hmm. Hmm. I'll be damn. Yep.

That's a trivia question. Yeah, yeah. Could be. I didn't know you got to spot the bud car. That must have been amazing. That was probably not the most amazing time. of that car. What?

I mean, the last 10. We ran good till the motors blew up. We ran, we ran good. Yeah, I mean,

at times, we ran pretty solid. It was like hit or miss in them 10 races. I think we ran really good. And I think we had, like you spun out of Phoenix off a turn two and

crashed it, which wasn't fun. Really? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Bust your ass. We were tire off at Atlanta. We were running good at Martinsville,

top 10, till the motor blue. Tire came off at Atlanta. Oh, that hurt. Yeah. You have flashbacks? That hurt.

That was a big one. Me and that was that when, me and Murray. I don't remember who was all. I know that's the, I remember. Yeah, I remember it well. Well, so let's cover the O'Reilly series really quick. Junior Motorsports had a little bit of everything happening. Sammy Smith in the 8 was just a little loose all night long.

Raja had some pretty decent speed early on, but burned through the right front tire in stage one. A lot of drivers had this issue. on a green racetrack. I think this is a good example of why sometimes they do have competition yellows at some races, although I don't blame NASCAR for not making that adjustment.

Most of the field didn't have issues. The one car with Carson, Koppel was the fastest car there. They had a loose wheel late, and that wheel would help spit out the brake bleeder on the right rear and ended up with a bad result. But the stage finishes for Carson have kind of saved

him and save the night from being a total loss. Justin Algar had a great car damaged the nose heavily at the end of stage one. Lots of debate on what to do about that. Decided to stay out and get a solid second place finish in stage two and was sitting there with a chance to win the race late when that was spoiled by a low percentage moved by Jesse Love. Jesse drove down into term one, sends himself and Justin into the wall. Jesse immediately apologized to me later after he got out of the car.

And I hope that we'll be able to race well against him going forward. His move ultimately cost him a lot more than it cost us. And, you know, I'm sure he would love to have that one back to do over again. Algar obviously was a little confused as to how, you know, why Jesse would make that move. It was not going to work. I was surprised. Justin for the most part.

I mean, I know that some of these guys may have a little bit of a different opinion, but I think Justin is one of the most respected guys in the garage. I can say that confidently. And I think he races these guys relatively clean for the most part. Wouldn't certainly make that kind of a move. But anyways, it's hopefully something that Jesse wouldn't do again, given the same opportunity. Justin was still able to get a great result.

Sheldon Creed is on a career run that I'm hoping he can't keep up as we go forward. Sheldon's a great dude, always great to see him have success. And it's good to see that, especially after all the times he's had to move around from different organizations to try to find a good combination that's working for him. So I know that it's nice, probably very gratifying for him to be able to go to Victor Lane and win races after, you know, it seemed like years and years of him just kind of coming close and running second

and just almost getting there, but not quite getting it done. And I know he wants to win this title, so we're going to race him hard. So anyways, pretty fun night at the racetrack on Friday, but I wish it would have went a little bit better and ended up with a JRM car in Victor Lane. Yeah.

Does a driver come up to say my bad, like, as an owner, though, like does that do anything for you like do you appreciate it do like well i think that i mean it doesn't really change anything because it was a it doesn't change the the result it doesn't change the um you know it's just disappointing it's just disappointing but i mean doesn't not look better like down the road like you think like okay well i made i made a lot of dumb moves i made a lot of dumb moves that's what you think about you're like man did i make that move would it was there a point in my life where I would have tried that move,

even if it wasn't the right move to make, probably. So, um, but I think you can expect Jesse to race you cleaner or Justin, like that, you know. Yeah, well, that's what I'm saying. Well, I hope. It's respectful for him to reach out. That's the thing. You're,

it is respectful that he reaches out. But he has to live by it now. What I think now is, all right, he said he was sorry. He said he regrets it. Let's see. Yeah, exactly. Right. Now we go, if we go to.

You know, if we're sitting there at Phoenix, right, and battling him for the lead late in the race, is he going to door us into the fence? You know, hopefully not. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. He's got to, if he's going to do that and reach out to you and say that, he has to live by it now. Now, at the same time now, I got a couple guys in my cars that,

they're not perfect gentleman. They're not like, you know, they're not all just an hour guy or these seasoned veterans. They're guys that I'm not sure what they're capable of. when put in those same scenarios. Now, I would like to think that they wouldn't race that way, and I hope that they would know what I expect. And so, you know, it will just have to see how the season shakes out.

But I told Jesse, I was thankful for him reaching out. And I was disappointed and angry at him, but hopefully, you know, we don't have to do that again. I don't, you know, and there's so many years that have come and gone, but there is a, there's a bond between maybe not J.R.M and RCR, but me and RCR, like Bummy in our shop, those guys at RCR love him. they RCR guys have great relationships with JRM guys

but even beyond that my relationship with Richard with Austin with Mike Dillon I would think now we're going to compete we're going to race hard and they're going to race you hard you better you better show up and

know that you're going to get raced really freaking hard but you know I think that When Jesse does that, you're like, dang, dude, you know, you don't know all the... History. You don't know all the history in the layers and shit.

And so that shouldn't happen between our teams. You know what I mean? Yeah. My team shouldn't be doing that. You know, that team, they shouldn't be doing that. And I'm hopeful that we won't have to worry about that. Yeah. I want to make sure everybody understand that Denny Hamlin still,

after a tough week in Bristol, has a chance to be coming. the oldest Cup champion at 46 years old. Bobby Allison in 1983 was 45 years old in 11 months in 17 days and I think

Danny will be older by three or four days should he win the championship this year. Still has that shot. What's your concern with the 11 team? Well, I I'll be concerned if he's like you know,

fifth place car at Kansas. If he doesn't go to Kansas and run in the top two or three in stage one, I'm going to be like, hmm,

what's going on? Yeah, because I mean, it just seems like they just... We got to remember, man, they were pretty lights out. Yeah.

I just need to get the feeling at some point in the race that Denny has the car to win the race at some point. Whether he get, you know, who knows what happens, but you need to have that feeling of like,

okay, this car can win the race. Yeah. Yeah, I think it'll be interesting. So when we're watching Kansas this weekend, is Denny in the top three? How many Toyotas are in the top five? Those are a couple quick questions. I won't answer in stage one.

Yeah. Where are the Fords? At this point, when we were at Kansas earlier this year, you had Blaney run an eighth or ninth, and he was, for the most part, one of the better fords. The rest of the fords were behind him. Everybody else in front of Blaney was a Toyota or maybe a couple of Chevroletes. So are the Ford still right there in the running order in this race?

Where is Larson? Is Larson busting his ass driving as hard as he can to run fifth or sixth all day? Or is he a little bit better than that? Is he neck and neck with whomever's running in the top five, top two, top three? And I believe, you know, that things are not, I believe the things are different than they were this point, you know, at the third, you know, third mark of the season or the midpoint of the season. I think that the Toyota advantage might not quite be there anymore. Yeah, whatever that rule change was. Yeah.

I feel like. Kansas is going to tell the tell. I feel like it's maybe not quite a significant, but I still feel like it's there. Yeah. Both Kansas and Vegas and Charlotte will definitely let us know. And this is also the time where teams can usually put more, a lot of the teams can put more focus on cars that are, you know, continuing on. But you know what I mean?

Like your strongest cars usually get. JGR can't do that though. No, not all them can, but some of them can, you know. Because, I mean, they got four. I mean, they can't. Yeah. Yeah. It's tough.

Kyle Larson is leading the chase, the third driver to lead the point standings this season following Bristol and the first non-Toyota driver to lead it all year. then he was the points leader starting back in San Diego in June the 11 race stretch is the leader of the points after clawing back to be able to come back and pass Tyler Redick who now sits seventh in points

after all this I don't know the last time Redick had a complete race I know it's been a rough I was like this is like I talked about this earlier in the year like it's almost it's almost bad to get hot that early in the year. Because it's hard to keep it.

It's hard to keep it all year. Lugano gained the most points on the leader at Bristol, 35 points. And he has the most points gained on the leader over the last two races. 56 total points. Yeah. From 72 back to 16 back. Pretty incredible. And I think Russell said Joey wasn't going to have a very strong Bristol, too.

too. Who said that? I think Russell said that. Yeah, I mean, we didn't have much, I mean, we're telling us otherwise. We still thought top 10 at worst. Yeah. Yeah, but Russell said he just, I think he threw out a stat of like two top tens and a ton of races there or something. Yeah.

I don't remember what it was, but. All right, so that's dirty air today. Yarnhart family has always relied on Bass Pro Shops for our outdoor adventures. And that tradition continues today. I grew up shopping there. Now it's a place that I love sharing with my own family. gearing up together for everything we do outdoors, whether it's fishing in the pond or weekend getaways.

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Photos, though, have won at times. And next week, we'll select a winner. The Ultimate Racing Collector Presented by Lionel Racing. All right, we got Joey Ligano calling in on the Dale Junior download. Joey, thanks for giving us some time today. I know winning races, everybody wants to talk to you. Especially with everything you've done

over the course of the second half this season, I think at one point you were 20th or so in points or somewhere back there. And Russell, with Racing Insights, told me you had a 70% chance of making the chase. and I said, there's no way that could be correct. Not only have you made the chase, but you're sitting just a couple of points out of the points lead.

And I don't think that there was anyone in the world who thought this was possible. I thought that they had made a point system that would make that impossible. But you have done the rarest of things, man. You've basically taken a spot in the backside of this chase, and you've driven your way all the way up into the front of this thing. with a real, real shot of winning the championship. And I know that you are very proud of that. But honestly, aren't you even a little surprised?

I thought we can get there. I did not think we get there this quickly. Right. I mean, when the chase started, I thought, okay, we can win the championship. It's going to be very, very hard to make up 70 points on these guys. And I thought, gosh, if we do that, it's going to take all the races to do it. And the facts are, man, you can score so many points with, you know, the stages now and then the race one being 20 more than anybody else. You stack up a few of those days.

You're right there. So, yeah, you can still make it up. You can get there. And as easily as, I say easily as quickly as we got there, we equally, someone else can do the same thing. Yeah. All we did is stack together a 10th place day at Darlington, a good stage points day, and a third place finish at Gateway, and a first and a third on the stage is in a win at Bristol. Like, it's all, like, that's achievable stuff for a lot of teams to do.

So, you know, we're there, and that's great. But long, long ways to go. But, yeah, definitely further ahead than I expected to be at this point. Yeah, I'm really captivated by the chase. I'm captivated by the points. I thought that we all kind of had an understanding of how the points may go, how they may work. What we've learned is we underestimated stage points and the value of stage points. They were important.

They always have been, but they're even more so important now. And I think NASCAR did an incredible job working with a lot of people to create a point system that's entertaining. And it's also rewarding for the drivers who go out there and get the job done. So pretty impressive stuff. You know, when you're, when you look back at what went on with Blaney and Hosevar, I've got to ask you, man, I don't think that you and Hosevar are in any way similar. But early in your career, you were kind of poked and prodded by some of the veterans in the sport. You were kind of targeted at times.

and so you know a little bit about like what it is what it's like to unwillingly or willingly be drug into some of those scrums and be a part of the media conversation and be a bit of a lightning rod in a sport. So when you see what Hosevar has going on, does it kind of bring back some of those memories of what it was like to be, you know, kind of pissing off a veteran here and there every other week or every few weeks and trying to figure out and how to navigate yourself into a better space in the sport and finding your lane?

Yes and no, like a little bit, right? I mean, I think Carson and I are quite a bit different people and go about things quite a bit differently. And sure, I had some run-ins earlier in my career, but they still were far less in much different ways too. But the world was different too then, right? Like the things that I did then are 100% acceptable to go do today. Like, it's normal.

You know, you know how much the racing has changed. Especially when it's his next gen car, the aggression level is crazy, right? Tony Stewart wanted to whip my ass because I blocked them. Yeah. Like that's all it took, right? Like today blocking is like, that's part of the game. It happens all the time. It doesn't even make it even mad.

It's just like, oh, that's part of it. So it's just the game has changed a lot. And yeah, I mean, I look at it and like it just like, There is moments of some things that I remember, right, of gosh, like I look at it and go, I lost a championship because I didn't handle things correctly off track. And that forever eats me up inside more than anything. And I think you've got to eventually choose a lane and decide what are you here to do? Are you here to?

And I had to do this, right? am I here to be fiery and build a brand and do all this stuff, or am I here to win championships? Which one do I want? And I would trade popularity all day long for championships because that's all I'm here. That's all I want to do, right? Like I wanted to be a race car driver to win. That's it. Like cool cars, sure, but really just want to win.

And sometimes you have to adjust the way you go about things to make sure you have a chance to win. And like I said, I didn't, the whole thing, like if I go back to Kansas, right, that's, that's the scenario I'm talking about when, when that all happened in Kansas, I could have handled everything post race so much better to where I could be sitting here possibly with a, with four championships right now, shooting for a fifth. But instead, I'm here with three going for four because I didn't handle things correctly. And it still pisses me off because it's my own fault.

There's no one else to blame but myself. And I'll never get over it. but it is what it is at this point. Do you think that we're trying, you know, we're all sitting here today kind of talking about where does this go? Where does this go? What, where, what is the end result for Carson? What is his objectives?

What drives him? What motivates him? And it's, it's, I get this feeling or this sense that, so in most cases, all through the decades of racing, you know, the veteran drivers would grab the guy around the next. neck and have a conversation with him. And he'd have a hand, you know, get a handful of those conversations. You start making different decisions.

You start kind of falling in and trying to do things differently. But it doesn't seem like that that's what motivates Carson. It doesn't seem like that that's what he's after. He's not after to gain the respect of his peers or to the other drivers on the racetrack. And so how do you, how do you guys coexist? You know, if he's going to stay in this lane and kind of be this way, how does how do you guys race on the racetrack with him?

I mean, I don't know. I don't know. That's up to him, right? Like, it's, it's all fixable, right? Like, I feel like for me, you know, sure, early in my career was I known as the aggressive guy, sure. But over time, like, you start to kind of figure out where you want to be. and the whole like in the garage right the people you're racing against that narrative changes over time depending on how you race people and over the last 10 years I don't really really been in the middle much at all right and then I feel like I'm one of the most respected drivers on the racetrack like I feel that around me I feel like I have a lot of respect when I'm racing against other cars and I've treated fairly right like if I race someone hard yeah sure I get it back but in

general, I have a lot of respect on the racetrack. And that's earned over a long, long time, right? I'm almost 20 years into it. It takes a long time. And I had to make up for some stuff in the beginning. But it's all reversible. And it's just kind of, again, though, what's your goals? Like, what are you trying to do? Everyone can have different goals. You can win in different ways, right? Like, whatever you're trying to do. But for me, it was always, I want to win the championship. Yeah. What do you think about, you know, when we, at the middle of the season, we had Toyota, and they were really dominant. There's been a lot of change in the sport, not only to the cars, a little structure

change on the front of the cars, but the racetracks that we started going to completely change the narrative and the way this championship's shaping up. Now we're going to go back to what I think are the first mile and a half we've been to in quite a while. And the first, are you as eager, I suppose, to get out there on the racetrack and kind of see where you stack up, where are the Toyotas, where are the Sharps, where are the Chevroletes, where is Penske at? Or do you have an idea of where you feel like you guys will be? You never know, right, until you get there. And so many things have changed since the last time

we were at a mile and a half, especially the last time we're at Kansas, whether it's, you know, some of the rules things that have changed, our car updates, our setups have changed drastically. Like, all these things have, are quite a bit different. So am I curious? Yes, I'm very curious to see like where we're at. But, you know, just kind of is when we get there, we'll get there and we'll see how it all works out. But it's, uh, you know, again, it's one of those tracks where down force is going to be king, horsepower is king.

Um, and it's a good measurement of where you truly stack up on, on big tracks like this. So we'll see where it is. All right. I got a question for you. What were your thoughts end of that race inside the helmet when you're watching what's going on in front of you? Because you've been on the other side of that where you've, you know, made the pass and had a, you know, had kind of a win taken away.

And now, like, what's going through your mind when you saw them guys start to do that to each other? Were you surprised that it was carrying to the lengths that it did? I was so happy. That's all. You know, for 20 years, I've been telling these drivers to just get out of my way, you know? And they finally just got out of my way for me. Up the door and around I went. So it's just kind of a, honestly, it was a bit of a gift.

But, hey, man, there is nothing like, the coolest moment of the whole thing, really, it's like you're standing at the start, finish line is 100,000 people there or whatever, and they're all screaming and yelling and, like, there's just so much energy, right? And all the eyes were at that moment before the fight started. Everyone was looking at me, and you get the microphone to say whatever you want. Like, that is a cool experience that's very unique, but a lot of fun. And then obviously the fight broke out and everything. went over there but it was a fun you know a couple 30 seconds or so that was pretty neat were you

surprised that tie carried the carson so high when he kind of thought maybe he could just drive by him on the bottom are you surprised that he kind of went in there and did that in turn three you're talking about yeah well i was there so he couldn't really get to the bottom so he was kind of committed so yeah you know when he went in there and rooted him up you know um at that point you know that allowed me to get three wide bottom. And, you know, when you're three wide into three, you got to check it up quite a bit, especially to hit the grip strip on the bottom. Yeah.

And I checked up, and those two shipped it in there. Oh, yeah, you can see it. And I was like, I don't think. I looked to the right, middle of the corner, looked up there, like, they're going to spin and come down the racetrack. There's no way they don't wreck here. I was surprised they didn't wreck. But they went in there so hard because Ty couldn't get to the bottom.

I was still at his left rear, so he couldn't get there. but yeah it was uh yeah it's pretty extreme well hey man we appreciate you giving us some time no's a busy day for you uh and good luck when you go to kansas it's gonna be a lot of fun for all of us we can't wait to tune in and see what happens next in this incredible chase that nascar's got hopefully you're in the mix all the way to the finish line man hope so we're gonna get shot right now we'll just keep it rolling keep the momentum thank me yeah thank you buddy see you guys all all right y'all thanks for joining us here on the dale junior download for our tuesday show This is from the Arby's studio.

Don't forget about Arby's new Meat and Three Box. You get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the Meats, and we'll see you tomorrow. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok.