599 Waivers, Exemptions & TJ's Fear of Goats

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Dale Jr. Download – Episode 599: "Waivers, Exemptions & TJ's Fear of Goats"

Release Date: January 27, 2025
Host: Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Co-Host: TJ Majors
Guest: Tim Brown and Rick Ware

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1. Introduction and Co-Host Dynamics

The episode kicks off with Dale Earnhardt Jr. (DEJ) introducing his co-host, TJ Majors, marking his transition to a full-time role on the show. The initial banter revolves around TJ's tardiness to the recording session.

Notable Quote:

• DEJ [00:40]: "He's late."
• TJ Majors [00:49]: "It's not Tuesday."

2. Reflections on the NFL Season

DEJ shares his personal experiences with the Buffalo Bills' recent season, drawing parallels between football and NASCAR. He expresses his disappointment in not reaching the Super Bowl but emphasizes the excitement and competitiveness the Bills brought to the league.

Notable Quote:

• DEJ [04:40]: "I think it's the start of something cool and some kind of a sustained competitiveness that we hadn't had in a long time."
• TJ Majors [10:54]: "You might eat."

3. NASCAR Rule Changes: DVP Clock Adjustments

A significant portion of the episode delves into the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series rule changes. The main focus is on the elimination of the Damaged Vehicle Procedure (DVP) clock, allowing cars to return to the garage for repairs rather than being eliminated from the race. This shift aims to reduce the logistical burden on teams and enhance on-track competition.

Notable Quotes:

• DEJ [14:35]: "All of our haulers were overloaded. All of our haulers were to the limit in terms of legal limits on weights."
• TJ Majors [16:36]: "It's kind of like catching the back of the field, which I think's a good thing."

4. Debate on Waivers and Playoff Points

DEJ and TJ engage in a spirited discussion about the waiver system in NASCAR, particularly its impact on playoff points. They debate whether the system is fair, with DEJ advocating for its removal to ensure points are earned solely through participation and performance.

Notable Quotes:

• DEJ [18:23]: "I just don't love the waiver stuff."
• TJ Majors [25:06]: "Yeah, that doesn't make much sense."

5. NASCAR Clash and Track Upgrades

The conversation shifts to the NASCAR Clash event at Bowman Gray Stadium. DEJ introduces guests Tim Brown, a seasoned modified racer, and Rick Ware, a prominent team owner. They discuss the recent track upgrades, including safer barriers and improved lighting, and how these changes affect racing dynamics.

Notable Quotes:

• Tim Brown [50:10]: "The new lighting, the safer barrier, just all the updates that they've done is really, really cool."
• DEJ [43:20]: "How could you not pull for this?"

6. Open Exemptions and Guest Participation

DEJ addresses the introduction of open exemptions, allowing notable contributors from other racing series to participate in Cup Series races without affecting points or prize money. He uses the example of Helio Castroneves receiving an exemption for the Daytona 500, sparking discussions about fairness and tradition in NASCAR.

Notable Quotes:

• DEJ [33:38]: "I'm excited about it because... it's a unique opportunity."
• TJ Majors [35:18]: "It's a lot, it's a lot. It's a lot of time for the car."

7. Guest Interview: Tim Brown and Rick Ware

The latter half of the episode features an in-depth interview with Tim Brown and Rick Ware. Tim shares his illustrious career in modified racing and his deep connection to Bowman Gray Stadium. Rick discusses the strategic decisions behind bringing Tim into the Clash and the broader implications for NASCAR's future.

Notable Quotes:

• Tim Brown [46:07]: "I grew up going to Bowman Gray and watching my grandpa's cars race."
• Rick Ware [53:08]: "It's just so cool seeing somebody that has worked as hard and there's all kinds of people all over this country that worked as hard as he has to be able to be part of it."

8. NASCAR Traditions: The Decline of Rookie Stripes

Towards the end, DEJ and TJ reminisce about traditional NASCAR elements, specifically the rookie stripes. They express nostalgia for the symbol that once represented newcomers' entry into the sport, lamenting its discontinuation and the loss of a cherished rite of passage.

Notable Quotes:

• DEJ [105:24]: "I just forget what that was, but it was a cool tradition."
• TJ Majors [105:35]: "It's neat to get that rookie stripe off your car."

9. Betting Segment and Fan Interaction

The episode includes a segment where hosts discuss sportsbook win totals for 2025, offering insights and predictions on various NASCAR teams' performances. Additionally, fan questions from YouTube chat are addressed, ranging from personal anecdotes to opinions on racing traditions.

Notable Quotes:

• Connor Daly [77:40]: "Trackhouse racing's over three and a half wins. It's a plus 120."
• TJ Majors [80:03]: "Yeah. He gamed the system."

10. Closing Remarks and Upcoming Events

DEJ wraps up the episode by highlighting upcoming shows and events, including a charity racing event titled "Driven to Give 400." He emphasizes the show's excitement for the new season, the introduction of new segments, and future guest appearances.

Notable Quotes:

• DEJ [108:08]: "I'm getting up for it, man. I'm pumped."
• TJ Majors [110:38]: "We got you guys."

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Conclusion

Episode 599 of The Dale Jr. Download offers a comprehensive look into the evolving landscapes of both NASCAR and NFL, intertwined with personal stories and professional insights. DEJ, alongside co-host TJ Majors, navigates through rule changes, sporting parallels, and the importance of traditions, all while engaging with guests and listeners to deliver a rich and informative podcast experience.

Transcript

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. Back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download here in the DirtyMo Media studios. And man, I'm excited. We got a. A whole season out in front of us. Been waiting to get back into the studio and get back to work and. But let's just get right to it. Got a great co host joining me this year, TJ Majors. You, you know tj, everybody saw you a couple times on the show last year. You're gonna be here full time. Took you a minute to get to work today.

[TJ Majors]

I know. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's late.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. The wrong day on my calendar, so we'll be on Tuesdays most of the time. So that's what I had marked, but I did mess it up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know. We, you know, we're. I'm looking forward to, you know, us doing this show together and we had a lot of fun doing it together last year and hold on a second. What do we have to do to.

[Travis]

Get you to be on time and like. Because dbc, I think you showed up.

[TJ Majors]

So, like, I'm usually never late. Trust.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

So I'm the guy that's like always super.

[Travis]

That's my point is you're on time for DBC, but for the Dale Jr.

[TJ Majors]

Download, you're maybe planning on the day.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, Travis, just coming off the top rope here.

[TJ Majors]

I know. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I, you know, there's a lot we have. Well, we have a lot of text messages between you and me and Andrew and others in. In the Dirty Mo Media family about recording today. So.

[TJ Majors]

How about the Clash?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, just.

[Travis]

Hey, we just want a little accountability, right, Dale?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. Listen, we felt like, I mean, there's nothing. Yeah, I messed it up. I put Tuesday on the calendar and it's definitely not Tuesday.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's not Tuesday.

[Travis]

So it will be Tuesdays going forward.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So this was just an anomaly.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, yeah. I mean, why.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Why are we recording?

[Travis]

I think you picked it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Do I got something going on tomorrow?

[Travis]

I don't know your schedule you picked.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't even know.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, I hope not now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I'll look and find out in a minute. I'm. I'm looking forward to this year, man. It's gonna be a lot of fun we have. Giving each other a hard time and talking racing and. And, you know, having somebody at the table like you. That's, that's. It's so ingrained in everything going on throughout the race weekend and the knowledge that you Guys have obviously, you know, that we've experienced and heard from you over the years on dbc. Bringing some of that over to the show is going to be a lot of fun for me. So I'm looking forward to it, man. But let's see a full time every, every week for Dirty Air. TJ is going to be a big part of that. We're still going to do our guest segment that'll come out on Wednesdays. And then we got a, we got a, you know, have we talked about what, what said, what have we released on a Thursday side of things? Because we have a Thursday show. But I think we're just going to hang on to, you know, I think we're just going to hang on to some of the details around that. It's not quite. Quite ready to reveal.

[Travis]

Not just yet.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It is good, though. It's exciting.

[TJ Majors]

Really exciting.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not as good as you, tj. Well, it is good.

[Travis]

You might eat.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It is.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, boy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Now I'm telling you, man, we retooled a little bit this year and I am freaking here for it. It's going to be a lot of fun. And so, you know, we've. We actually did some shows during off season, which was kind of unique. I've always wanted to do shows in December and January, but, you know, we just haven't ever done that. We've always kind of ended our season when NASCAR is over and taking a break. But this year we kind of stayed a little bit in touch. So I was going to ask you how your season went. You've been. You've been kind of busy watching your bills climb through the playoffs and drop like normal. Yeah. Hey, you know what? I was gonna bet that he did not wear his bill's gear, but look at him.

[TJ Majors]

I'm not.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Did you take. Did you even sleep last night? Is this what she was wearing during the game?

[TJ Majors]

No, I did not wear this during the game.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Maybe you. Maybe you didn't even go to sleep. You just drank you about a sixer and I, I stared into the middle distance wondering.

[TJ Majors]

I'm used to this, this type of collapse. So this has like been four years or five years in a row. Maybe five.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Are you kidding me? Now this has been like 50, 60, 70 years.

[TJ Majors]

Well, no, that was 20 years of not making the playoffs. Now we've been there and now we just can't get over.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You don't remember the four years you went to the Super Bowl?

[TJ Majors]

I do. I cried those nights. I was in a. I was in school. It was. I was like a 12 years old.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I can't even imagine.

[TJ Majors]

Listen, it was bad.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Both of us. My commanders, your bills.

[TJ Majors]

You're probably pretty happy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I.

[TJ Majors]

Because you had a far higher than expected season than what you, you know, than what expectations probably were.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The team over delivered.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And absolutely. I mean, we won four games last year. I don't think anyone had us going to the playoffs this year. A lot of people had us winning eight games.

[TJ Majors]

They're fun.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They were fun, the team. You know, we won a lot of games in the last play. Well, I think there for like five weeks in a row, it was like we were just. We were sneaking away with wins that we. That, you know, could have been losses to be able to give ourselves the record that pushed us into the playoffs. And then we had some great games.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

One, two road games in the playoffs. I'll be honest with you, man, I was, I got caught up in. Man, we're almost there. You know, we're about to. We're about to. One more game and we're going to go to the Super Bowl. And so when we lost last night in spectacular fashion, you know, I think the score was, you know, terrible, but. And I'm biased, of course, but the score wasn't really reflective of how competitive I think our team was. We did fumble the ball. We gave them the ball. They scored on all of. They scored 21 points off of turnovers and mistakes and you know, we gave up the touchdown on the very first play. But otherwise, I mean, you know, there were the flashes of what our team is capable of and you know, they just, they just did everything right and they were smart and didn't make mistakes as far as the Eagles go. But I got caught up in the idea of going to the super bowl. And so when we lost, I was really upset about it and I think, you know, I, I was around when they won in 82. I was around for the win against the Bills and the Broncos and all of those years of being a playoff team and expecting to be a playoff team.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Um, but I'd lost. I forgot what it felt like. I guess I'd forgotten what it, you know, what it felt like to, to get close. And so it kind of hurt worse than. Than I expected it to. It took me, I sat there till about midnight last night just really fuming.

[TJ Majors]

Over how dang you were mad.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, yeah, I mean, I, you know.

[TJ Majors]

It'S like a bad race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, yeah, I mean, so I was watching, I watched all of the press conference, post game. I Watched our quarterback, Jaden. I watched a lot of clips of locker room interviews with Eckler and a bunch of other players and the things that they kept saying was, this locker room won't look the same next year. Yeah, all our, they all had a really cool message and it was, we're all going to go into the locker room. We're all going to really kind of try to enjoy this little bit of time that we have before we all take off and go in our different directions. Because when we come back, this team's on a rebuild. They're re, they're going to. They got 80, $90 million in cap. They got eager, eager owners and GM.

[TJ Majors]

Ready to older players too, that they.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Got, they got the, they got the money to spend and the, the people around in, in. You know, the GM is ready to fire away. And so that I think all the players realized like, hey, you know, this is a bit badass group. We bonded, we overachieved us together. Was, was, was, was, was working, but it ain't going to look the same next year. And I don't. Maybe that's the same for all teams. What is it? Is that what it's like for the Bills? I mean, do you, yeah. You know, do you walk away from this year going, well, you know, the team, does the team look different to you every season? Is there always kind of like, you know, that back third of the roster.

[TJ Majors]

I don't know, turning away third most time it's the guys that are at the end of their rookie contracts.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And y'all lost a big time receiver.

[TJ Majors]

Number one and number two receiver last year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep.

[TJ Majors]

So, yeah, you look at the guys that are up the end of their contracts, like there's probably some guys on your team that, that are going to get offers from a good team to go play and they're big and they can get, they can make a lot more money there, you know, but there's not really a lot you can do about it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[TJ Majors]

Hope you can hope your GM and coach have, which I'm sure they do have guys on our list that they want to look at and bring in and, and, but the biggest piece is, is your season. Your team's going to get better because you got, you got players now looking at Washington like, man, that's a fun place to go.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right.

[TJ Majors]

You're going to be an attractive place to go now because that's, it's fun just like Buffalo, which is crazy. Yeah, you got a great quarterback. Young, you know, players want to go play with Josh Allen and Jaden and them guys, they want to be a part of that atmosphere.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

So as many players you lose, you got other players coming in that are, that are going to replace them. But it is, it is sad and it is kind of. It's sad, but magic's gone.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I let myself get carried away thinking about the, the how close we got to the super bowl instead of, instead of what I should have been doing was being thankful that we had the run we had. Being thankful that for the first time in a long time, there was a sustained excitement. Each game was better than the last. More fun to, to watch, to be. We. We're in my living room. My, My wife, Amy, our kids. Amy is invested. She's cheering, she's. She's happy. Up standing up, jumping high five and every touchdown. Terry had. Terry. Terry had everybody in Terry. Yeah. And so, you know, those things weren't happening. Hadn't been happening. And so that's fun.

[TJ Majors]

Makes football fun for everyone.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It was fun. It was fun. And I'm, you know, like you say, man, I mean, I think it's, it's the start of something cool and some kind of a sustained competitiveness that we hadn't had in a long time. And I should be appreciative. I am appreciative of that and looking forward to, to the next season. And that's why, you know, we can sit here and wear our gear, right?

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, yeah, I'll be there. The, the. I'll tell you what the downside is, is if you become competitive for five, four, five years and you make it to the AFC championship. So all the, all the bills headlines now are people, oh, we need a new coach. And I'm just like, we just had a 13 win season. We've lost like five, seven games in like three years. And you got, you want to replace.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The coach like there, there is literally like only one or two little moments that, that make. That are the difference between you guys losing that game last night and going to the.

[TJ Majors]

I know it's not a lot.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It ain't much. You're, you know, when, when you can Compare it to NASCAR, I mean, it's like finishing third in the Daytona 500.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And, and all of the preparation and build up, it's. It, it was one, it was one decision the driver made on that restart or what? You know, it's nothing. It's not, it's. You don't need to go, you know.

[TJ Majors]

You don't need to clean house. No, you're right there. I Mean, if you hang out there long enough, it's like a race. You said you run third long enough, you're going to win.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

So I don't think they need to make a lot of changes. I know people are upset and want. Some people want heads to roll and don't, you know, but just pump the brakes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And what they're up against to get breakthrough. I mean, what they're up against, the Chiefs, I mean, and every and all of the narrative around that, in terms of how the Chiefs are getting all the calls and everything, they're. They're up against, you know, they not only got to play a great game. Right.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. You can't have any errors. You got it. You got to have a little lock, too, because you're kind of playing against that. You know, the other. The. The calls and. But the. The bad part about it is we came from, you know, Tom Brady, which was in our division. Now we got Patrick Mahomes in afc, too, so we can't really ever meet them in the Super Bowl. You have to get through them to get to that point.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Because if the Bills and Chiefs ever could play each other in a Super bowl, it'd probably be a great game, so. But we'll never get that opportunity right now. But you just got to keep adding pieces of the puzzle, man, Trying to make it work.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So the Eagles and Chiefs will go play in the Super Bowl. Clint Boyer's got to be pretty. Pretty happy about that. And they'll be the first team. The Chiefs will be the first team to try to win three in a row. No team has ever won three in a row. A few teams and no team that won two in a row made it back to the super bowl to try and defend that title. I was. I was hearing that stat last night during the game.

[TJ Majors]

I saw. I heard that, too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So, I mean, pretty. Pretty remarkable. And even though the Chiefs are annoying, as is anything that wins all the time, Andy Reid, that's just a cool story, man. Everything that he's been through.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. It's hard not to like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hard not to like Andy Reid. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But, yeah. Kind of a tough day or a tough night. Seeing your team. I just was like, man, I just want it to be close. And then when. When we had to, you know, when we had to do the things we had to do that allowed them to continue to open up the score and put 55 on us.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, I know. I mean, I'm fully seasoned to this from the. From the wide right field goal to the 13 second game and can't. Last year we missed a field goal in Buffalo playing the Chiefs to tie the game and, you know, have a shot at winning. I'm just used to it. So, I mean, it's been a good year of football. You got. We got a quarterback that scores over 40 touchdowns a year for five years straight. That's never been done. Football's fun whenever your team scores like that. So we can just try again.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, all right, man. We're going to move on to some NASCAR conversation, talking about some rule changes. For 2025 in the cup season, cars will no longer be eliminated from the DVP clock. You can now go back to the garage to fix damage and then return to the race. The same rule applies for cars with flat tires, which will now be towed back to the garage but will be allowed to re enter the race. Do you. One of the things that I was thinking about is like, does that mean, TJ that the teams need to start taking more things to the racetrack? So there's a lot of reasons why this DVP clock and you know, cars were eliminated in those scenarios in the past. Right. If you got taken back to the garage, your day was over. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

You're done.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There was a lot of reasons why they did that. But one of the reasons that I think about all the time as a car owner is all of our. All of our haulers were overloaded. All of our haulers were to the limit in terms of legal. Legal limits on weights, getting up and down the road. Yeah. And so when we. And we would have a $30,000 specially built crash cart.

[TJ Majors]

Yep. For sure.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That was just for. If we crashed. And it had. You had one that had all the suspension all over it. You had another one that had body. Two crash carts and you carried that damn thing everywhere. And if you didn't use it, it was like.

[TJ Majors]

And if you use it, you had to restock it too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. But if you didn't use it, you're like, damn. Hauling this thing around for nothing.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so. But does that reintroduce some of that? Right. Certainly not as to the. To the extreme as we used to have. What they are.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I, I don't think it's going to be to the extreme, but we've already got a lot of these parts already there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

You know, I. So I don't think. I don't know if it's going to add a lot to it because I really, I really think we have most of this stuff still on carts. There because going through tech and stuff, you never know when something's just going to go bad or you getting, you know, you get in a crash and practice or something. And so I think we have a lot of this stuff already, but not to the extent of like what those crash carts were. Like a huge off season project for most people. Like, they built them things and they were nice, too. Like they had all the suspension lined up. But it was built for efficiency, too, because when you did crash back then you went to the garage, you wanted to be able to change that right front suspension as quick as you could and all that stuff. Truck arms, all that stuff. So I don't think it's going to change a lot now. It's just gonna. The biggest change to me is gonna know now when you go to the garage, you're going to go out there and fix it. You're going to come out and be 60 laps down or now you're going to have. Are you going to have more cars out there that are off the pace and, and maybe potentially help? You know, it's kind of like catching the back of the field, you know, more lap traffic, which I think's a good thing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't hate that.

[TJ Majors]

I'd hate to. I hate to be in that position. But it's going to create more. It's like the leader catching the back of the field. When he catches the back of the field, things change. Stuff picks up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Create opportunities to pass. Yes, exactly. Yeah. You see a guy out there leading the race and you got, you know, the guy in seconds a little faster, but he just kind of hit that wall in terms of dirty air. Well, when the leader finally gets to the back of the field, that's when I start to start. That's when I, as a broadcaster in the booth start paying more attention and saying, all right, does this present an opportunity for second? You know, because now the leader's challenged in dirty air as well. And so, yeah, having more cars out on the racetrack, especially cars that are, you know, you know, for lack of a better word, moving chicanes, it won't.

[TJ Majors]

Be a problem most time because most of the guys, when you're, when you're that slow, you're going to be out of the way and those guys aren't going to, you know, impede that stuff. But you never know when they catch each other at the wrong spot. It's going to. It could. It's going to create some scenarios for passing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I like the rule, especially for cars that were just, you know, Getting towed back to the garage with flats.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Their day was done. That was some bad stuff happened to a couple drivers over the last, over the last several months. That was a bad look. So I'm glad that's been adjusted.

[TJ Majors]

This will save a lot of points on people's seasons this year. I mean, instead of getting that, you know, you have, you get towed out and you have something small broke.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Instead of that 36, I mean, you might come back out and get 10 more spots.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Heck, yeah.

[TJ Majors]

So this can save a lot of points.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I agree. If a driver needs a waiver for a non medical reason, they lose all of their playoff points for the entire season. This includes suspensions. And so basically, you know, that's a pretty. That one was met with a lot of confusion and you know, and it.

[Travis]

Was a. Jeff Gordon called it the Kyle Larson rule.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I was gonna say that's exactly what it is.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, it's. I mean, I hate putting that on. I hate putting a, putting that label on it. But look, I. So my. I don't like this waiver stuff. Like the original, like the whole idea of it. I just don't love it. And listen, I mean, I'm, I don't, I hate, I don't, I'm not, I'm trying not to use any examples, but man, I mean, if you, if you're injured and you're out, you're injured and you're out. And that's just how it is. I don't think there should be a medical waiver. I don't think there should be any waiver whatsoever. Yeah, like, you show up, you race, you get points. If you don't race, if you don't start to race, you don't get the points. You just don't. And so, you know, what is the argument against that?

[Travis]

Well, you're then going to potentially lose some of your top talent.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, but that's lose.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Quit racing.

[Travis]

But they would have got in the playoffs with. Even without the race. So they should still get in then.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, give me an example.

[Travis]

Kyle Larson. Yeah, he would have been in the playoffs. Even if he missed, he missed the 600.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Then what's the waiver?

[Travis]

So why did you need the waiver?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So don't give it, don't. Why do we need the waiver at all?

[TJ Majors]

If you've earned your way in, you're in.

[Travis]

Okay, I'm good with that then.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis]

Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like, I just don't, I don't love the optics of it. It's, it's so there's this. I don't, you know, I don't love the optics of it because it's, it's sort of taking. There was. This is my opinion. Right. I don't know this to be fact. But let's go back. Let's look at the Clash, for example, right? They finally found a bit of a happy medium middle ground. But back when the Clash was running at Daytona and they continued to expand the field. Expand the field. The idea was that there were partners, there were brands and sponsors going, why isn't my car in this race? I want my car in this race. And then there were moments when, like me or a big name person wasn't in the Clash. And so the rule would be. The rules of eligibility were continuously massaged and twisted to basically just to kind of include anything. We used to make the joke like, hey man, you got a valid driver's license, you're eligible for the Clash.

[TJ Majors]

I almost ran it one year. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so it was just. It become a joke. And it took a lot of the legitimacy or the uniqueness or the special specialness out of the Clash. The Clash, as we, as I've mentioned a million times, was, is about poll winners.

[TJ Majors]

I know we used to get a poll and be like, oh, we used to leave. We used to leave like getting the pole picture and be like, yeah, we're going to. We're in the class.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You would even hear drivers mention it in their, in their interviews as they won the poll.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, it was, we were in the Clash.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, it was a cool thing and you know, it took people. No, drivers no longer go, hell yeah, I'm in the Clash now. When you lost that, what have you done? What have you done? You've made a mistake. And so I guess what I'm, what I'm saying is like the, this, this, this feeling like it's necessary to make sure everybody's always a part of it takes away the challenge of, of, of achieving. Right. And so.

[Travis]

Well, are you worried that if you don't. If someone gets in the playoffs, they might skip out on a race? Because that's why the way.

[TJ Majors]

So that's. Yeah, that's what the thing is.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Never gonna do that.

[TJ Majors]

The charter agreement has like that you got to run all the races, right? I think the charter agreement says that you have to compete.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis]

Like to make the playoffs, you have to compete. And so that's why the wave is there. So, like, are you worried that's not.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What the waivers not. So the waiver is only in my Mind the waiver is only to make sure your big stars.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Are in the playoffs. And so if something were to happen, somebody gets hurt or, you know, they. Something. Some, you know, medical issue happens.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, they. I don't. I don't know that I feel that great. I don't know that I feel good about, like, the medical pass, you know, getting the free pass off of a. Off of an injury is what I'm saying. I mean, that. That. That was never, you know, I guess been. It had been this. It been a certain way for so many years, and then now you can miss races due to an injury and still, you know, still kind of run for a championship. Run for a championship. And I just never really, like, thought that was part of the deal. And so I guess when I was asking you what the argument against it is, you're. I was hoping you might say, well, NFL quarterback can get injured, come back, and then try take his team to the championship and say, okay, that's kind of what it's. What it's like is like, okay, we're. Which is, you know, you're like, I'm.

[Travis]

Okay with a person missing a race. But the problem is then, like, let's say Denny Hamlin does. He's got plenty of points. He's gonna be in, and he's like, you know what? I don't want to race this weekend.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not gonna do that.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, they can't do that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's not gonna do that.

[TJ Majors]

Actually, I don't think they can do that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There's all kinds of mechanisms in place without the waiver. It's not necessary. There's all kinds of mechanism he. That Denny Hamlin cannot turn the machine off and just say, yep, we're not gonna run this week. Car ain't going to the track. I'm not gonna be there. Yeah, that ain't happening.

[TJ Majors]

Even Larson with a. With a big lead. It's not going to miss it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And I mean, even. Yeah. It just ain't going to happen.

[Travis]

All right, let's get rid of the waiver, then.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I just think it's unnecessary and it. It's. It's. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

What have we used the waiver for? I think Kyle was the first one when he. We were in the Xfinity race at Daytona. Heard it broke his leg, right?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

And that. Then he got the waiver. But to me, that's just kind of the chance you take running that stuff, though, too. Like, when you run them lower series, like, things can happen.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I mean, that's that's the way I look at it, too, is like, it's. It's the risk you take.

[Travis]

And do you think this could be a deterrent for someone, Right. Hooking a driver and getting suspended and they would lose their playoff points like Chase did to Denny?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I do think that that did have a bad. That did feel incorrect. Right. That, you know, you didn't. Didn't a driver right hook somebody get suspended and then turn around and get a waiver?

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. That does not look right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Isn't that what the process was? It was like, I mean, that. That. So this could be a deterrent that may. That to me in. Regardless whether it's Chase or anybody. Doesn't make no sense. Right. And.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, that doesn't make much sense.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so I, you know that I, I do not like the optics of that, and I don't like NASCAR being the one being the pull, you know, pulling the puppet strings there on all of that. And it's manipulation in a way that I don't. And I don't. It's not. I don't think it's intentional. They're just trying to. To. They're trying to do the right thing, but I think they could just get out of that altogether.

[Travis]

But I think that this rule change does help that, because then you lose all your playoff points if this goes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

This. This is moving back in the right direction, but not all the way.

[Travis]

Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right. I just feel like the. Get rid of the waivers, get out of the waiver business. Don't worry about having to make that decision if you're nascar. If I was nascar, I'd be like, I don't want to. I'm not doing this. I'm not. I'm not being a part of the. That, you know, the waiver stuff's going away. You guys show up, race, get your points. Good luck.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Season starts in Daytona.

[TJ Majors]

Do the best you can.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. You know what happened to that? Why. Why did that. Why was that not okay? Right? Why was that not enough? Anybody?

[TJ Majors]

Well, it's because the.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You think it's.

[TJ Majors]

It's just like the clash. You didn't have enough. Well, we need that start. We need that. We need that driver in there. We need that one in there now, too. And you just don't. You lose all the prestige and. And of getting the. The polls and the award. Like when you heard. Yeah, you know, we literally. I. I remember leaving places being like, oh, we're in a clash now. Like it used to be. Even if there was 12 cars in a race. It was still like you're in, you're in that group.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Like you earned it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. There is a, there's a broader. There's a broader conversation, I think, or a thought around what's good for the short term is not always good for the long term. And then in the short term gains you have, you can't be blind to the long term repercussions by looking at just the short term gain of a decision. Right. Like, oh man, let's put this guy in. That'll be great. Awesome.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Clash is awesome now. Well, just this year. But what, what we've done, you know, is kind of, you know, the clash to me is while I love the fact they're going to Bowman Gray, I'm looking forward to seeing them race there.

[TJ Majors]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I wish it was, you know, I wish it was pole winners and I wish to.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I wish the criteria to get in was a little more exclusive and like, hey, these guys did this to earn it and it's not. I don't see that. I don't feel that anymore.

[Travis]

So how excited are you for the Clash? Like, what's your thoughts?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I am looking forward to it because.

[TJ Majors]

Of Bowman Gray and I'm sure the racing will be. It's going to be interesting. I mean we're all going to be glued to the. Glued watching it and seeing how it goes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

It's not the Clash to me. It's not. We got guys racing in that. Yeah. How.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, well, later in the show, Tim Brown Wick. Where they're going to come on and there's a lot of questions that I have that you know about. One of the things that I'm probably most curious about is the, you know, the changes to the track. Tim Brown.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. There's a lot of people that are like, yeah, safer barrier, no big deal. Well, Tim Brown will know. He's ran there his whole life.

[TJ Majors]

Our guys won't know a difference now, but he will.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Tim Brown know and who has to keep racing there once we. Once we're done and we leave, what's going to happen there the rest of the year? Right. That's the weekly.

[TJ Majors]

Are they removing the safer barrier after we run or leaving it?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Probably leaving it. I would assume.

[TJ Majors]

Place is narrow enough already.

[Travis]

Removing a safer safety barrier doesn't sound like a right good thing to do.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I don't know, maybe they'll alter it or adjust it, but either way, I mean, I think, I think since it's been implemented and installed, it's Very expensive to install.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't see them taking it away. But I'm curious and can't wait to hear what Tim thinks about the track. Not. But not the Clash weekend, but the. The Bowman Gray Stadium from this moment on is changed forever.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, yeah, right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Do they leave. You know, those. Those catch vents that they've added are. I don't believe they are permanent. Could that. Is that something that they take away?

[TJ Majors]

I mean, they build a racetrack at the Coliseum. I'm pretty sure they could take all this if they wanted.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, that'd be curious. I'd be curious if Tim knows anything about that, because, you know, that's something I'm curious about, is like, I'm pumped for the Clash. Clash gonna be great. It's gonna be interesting, entertaining.

[TJ Majors]

Somebody's getting spun.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah. There's gonna be all kinds of, you know, and hopefully. I honestly hope that there. There will be a little bit of that traditional madhouse happenstance. Right? Not. I don't know if I want them chasing each other through the infield and jumping out and fighting and getting the cops involved, but from the videos that we've seen at the Bowman Gray, it's entertaining, and I hope that that vibe is there to a. To an extent.

[Travis]

They will be taking some of the catch fence off.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay. So there you go. I mean, the track is going to kind of evolve beyond this weekend. It'll evolve back, I think, to its original state, but how much remains to be seen and how that'll affect how the Mods have raced there and will race there in the future.

[Travis]

Tj, are you expecting this to be. How much more exciting do you expect this to be compared to Coliseum Clash?

[TJ Majors]

I. I just think you. A little bit more. But kind of like going to the Coliseum for the first time, you're in a new area, you're in a new. You're in a new facility. For us, it's. This place has kind of been talked about and has the history of racing there. So I feel like this is a little bit more than the Coliseum. You know, we're gonna go there and. And we got guys in the field that are coming in to try to run that are. This is kind of how it. Kind of how it used to be. Back in the day, you had short track guys from that track that would try to make the race and be good there. And, you know, you went to South Boston and race in there. You had the locals that would run and be competitive. Yeah, I think it's going to be harder for these guys to be competitive in this field. But you know, I think it's going to be once these guys put the helmets on, man and once they figure out how to get around the place, it's just going to be the, the bumper cars and they're going to be, you know, using, you know, they, these cars. It's hard to do the bump and run with these things. You're gonna have guys getting hit and stopping in the middle of the corner, downshifting and digging again. But it's going to be interesting. I'm, I'm excited to see what it's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like and better have the padding in that headrest.

[TJ Majors]

Oh yeah, Good soft. Yeah, look, I don't need any padding where I'm standing so.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I, there was one more rule change I wanted to touch on the open exemption rule. A well known driver who is of significant contribute who is a significant contributor from another series, NASCAR drivers are not eligible is now automatically into a cup race. It'll be the 41st car in the race and they won't be eligible for points or prize money. And so basically Hillio announces that they are going to run for the Daytona 500 with Track House. But to, to, to request this, to request this open exemption provisional we'll call it, they have to do it 90 days before the event, which they did. So I kind of as much, I don't know if I like the, I don't know if I like the provisional just sort of just popping up out of nowhere. It was like NASCAR just kind of had this light bulb idea. It wasn't, that wasn't the case. They had this in written into the charter agreement. No one, really, no one in our little world as far as, you know, content creating and media really picked up on it, but is in there and Trackhouse goes, Hey, 90 days ago they went, man, we want to do this. We're going to, we're going to, we're going to request this. And so since it's that far out, it kind of makes it less cheesy to me because it's then not like this sort of last minute, oh, we want a free pass. This, this is something that they had planned out. Trackhouse was like, we're going to put this deal together. We're requesting this exemption. We're going to, we're going to spend the next several months preparing a car and getting ready. And so but it does raise a lot of questions and I asked some, some of the folks in NASCAR about this. So like okay, it would, it would Exclude. So if Helio gets, you know, is given this right, and it excludes the idea of that. So if Max Verstappen.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Got a ride or put something together. It's already Helios.

[TJ Majors]

I was gonna ask, like, what if there's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You don't know. It's one. So first come, first serve, I suppose.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. I don't. I don't like it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's. That what. That's kind of. I don't know. So, yeah, there's only one. And so if. If NASCAR were to approve a driver and then another, even more significantly famous contributor applied, they would be, hey, told, no way. But you're gonna. Well, you know, you'd got to be an open car, try to qualify your.

[TJ Majors]

Way in, but that's how it should just be anyway.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I mean, I am. I am a bit surprised, though, because I think Track house is competitive enough to qualify in and it's, you know, it's a lot of money to finish last if you're just looking at, hey, man, what's it cost to start the race? Right?

[TJ Majors]

It's a lot. It's a lot of money for 500. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And so to forego that possibility is pretty significant for a team, but it is.

[TJ Majors]

It's to be hard. Like, this racing's not. It's not like it's. It's hard now. Like, you got to be. You got to know how to. You got to know how to push, how to. How to be pushed. There's a lot more, you know, intricacies to this than what there used to be.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You.

[TJ Majors]

You could have a fast car and. And kind of get in the right lane and move now. It's just way different now. So I think. I think he would have. I'm not saying he couldn't do it, but it's. It's hard to race your way into these things.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So do you like the idea that. That a guy like Helio now can go to or whoever, you know, has this open exemption rule? Do you like the idea that he can now go there and try to qualify in as an open car, but have this sort of fallback plan so he get, you know, and imagine. I mean, I'm an open team, right. And so I got to go in there and try to. But if he, you know, it's like.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Has a little bit of an extra layer of safety. He's got a little safety net.

[Travis]

I love.

[TJ Majors]

Got a safety net.

[Travis]

I love this idea, though. You do, because now you're gonna get maybe next year, someone's like, max, we can get you in the Daytona 500. It can entice them knowing that they're gonna be in it.

[TJ Majors]

I will say, don't you want to earn it though?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I mean, look, with the way.

[Travis]

To get Max is Maxim like getting in a whole lot of time in the car. And yeah, you'd like to earn it, but so you can entice him. Guarantee you're going to be out there to sell to your sponsors, to Formula.

[TJ Majors]

One, gonna let him run.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I got thought, I got thought about this. So. All right, when this rule was probably written into, when this rule was probably developed in the minds of whoever at nascar, there's nothing. There's not eight or nine open cars trying to attempt to make the race. It really was only coming down to like a battle between one and two.

[TJ Majors]

Or two or three at most.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Two or three guys. So adding a, adding a 41st spot to the Daytona 500 and saying, look, you're not going to get any prize money, you won't get any points, you're just out there. Fine, I can get on board with that. But as we've now we have eight or nine open cars, so the optics of that is a little less comfortable or acceptable. Right. It's like, wow, this, you know, there's all these guys that are going to show up and try to make this race and. But there's this one that's also trying to show up and make the race that's got a free pass. And I think as you know, if. Imagine if the amount of open cars were to double next year, right? And you got 18 or 16 open cars trying to take, you know, hand four spots. Four spots. But this one guy has this exemption, then it becomes a little more hard to accept or swallow, especially if you're one of the open teams. But when this rule was, was probably created, they're like, hey, there's like that. Not that many people outside of 40 is 40 or 42 cars showing up trying to make 40, 40 car race. It's not a big, it doesn't feel like a big deal. It doesn't. But I feel like as the field got got larger for this race this year and potentially in the future, if the field is larger and more cars are trying to get in, is it feel fair to have one guy that's got a.

[Travis]

So we're worried about a problem that we don't have?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I guess so. But I mean it's like.

[Travis]

So next year. Yes. If, if Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton and, you know, Scott Dixon all then were then figured out. But right now that's not a problem. So give Elio the spot.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Sure.

[TJ Majors]

I still don't, I don't like it because this is our big. This is the biggest race of the year and this starts your season. You put a guy and not saying he can't do it, but he makes a mistake and.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, but that's, I mean, that's okay. I remember, I remember.

[TJ Majors]

I'm fine if he races his way into it, like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, she could.

[TJ Majors]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I like, I like provisionals. I miss a 43 car field. I wish you, I wish we had still had provisionals. I think, you know, I think that that would be a good thing. So I don't hate the provisional idea. Hey, they're not giving him points, prize money. It's, I don't know, a couple hundred thousand dollars to start that race. That's a pretty big deal. Them giving that up to be in the event is a bit of a sacrifice on their hands. I go back to. I forget what year it was, but maybe somewhere in the early 90s, 92 or so, it was Alistair Jr. Alistair Jr. Was going to drive for Rick Hendrick in the 46 car. And the excitement around Alistair Jr. Being in our field and trying to make the race, it was huge. Yeah, it was huge. It's. He stood out. The idea of, I mean, the idea of him making the race and even being in a really competitive car had the whole place buzzing, buzzing. Now he wrecked his car in the qualifier and they put him in Kenny Schrader's backup car for the, for the 500. I don't even remember how he did, but it was just really cool that he was there. He was. He had been running in the ARCA races, gaining a ton of respect amongst the other NASCAR drivers that were competing in those races in the IROC races. I'm sorry. And, and so there was some confidence in his, his potential and ability. He said, Alan Sir Freakin Jr. Yeah. And so. And he was just a great guy. You know, he had a great attitude about it, a good personality. And so I. Look, there's a lot of folks that love Helio. I think the dude's a good, great guy. He's got the credentials entertaining. Yep. And he'll be a good media story. He'll be a great interview all weekend. There'll be good buzz around what he's trying to accomplish or do. People of his, people that love IndyCar specifically will be tuning in and paying attention. There's a bunch of great things on, on that side of it. And so I'm. I'm. I'm kind of, you know, I'm kind of excited about it. And I like the idea of him coming in racing and, and I. And is this the exemption rule? The way it popped up in the media is kind of. What was you. What was odd? Because all of us were like, well, what's this? Weren't we? Yeah, I mean, are we all like, what the hell is this? But it's actually been in the. In the charter agreement for quite some time and they had to ask for it way out in front more than 90 days ago. And so that, to me, doesn't make it feel quite as slimy, I guess.

[TJ Majors]

No, apparently they knew about it. Yeah, it seemed like when. When it got tweeted, it was like, oh, oh.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So they just come up with this.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, it feels like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, so we got Tim Brown and Rick Ware. They are coming onto the show. They're out in the lobby right now. Going to come in here, talk about, you know, racing at Bowman Gray. Tim Brown is the winningest modified racer, I think, at Bowman Gray 101 feature wins and still going 12 championships, 12 track championships. But he's going to race in the Clash driving for Rick Ware, the team that he works for. He has built this car. How could you not pull for this?

[TJ Majors]

It's incredible story.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Well, let's hear more about it. Let's bring them on in. All right, so we got Tim Brown and Rick Ware here. Rick, thanks for coming. Tim, good to see you.

[Tim Brown]

You too, pal.

[Rick Ware]

Yeah, thanks for having us.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How are y'all?

[Tim Brown]

Man, I'm wide open.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Ready to go, I bet.

[Rick Ware]

Me too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So, man, you know the Bowman Gray stadium and the Madhouse, Member of the Madhouse on History Channel years ago, really kind of introduced me to you and a lot of people, I think in terms of your life, your career and what a racer looks like. Right. And just one of my favorite shows. I'm sure that was very impactful for you when you were going through that process. All of that seems to kind of have come full circle now as you, you know, have continued to race modifieds, continue to win races, continue to be a big time competitor at Bowman Gray and other tracks around the southeast. But all the while you've been, you know, working in at the cup level, in shops, all across, you know, all across the industry. And now with Rick and so you're going to get this opportunity to live a dream that a lot of Short track racers would love to live and that's to compete at the top level. But you're going to get to do that at your one of the tracks that you know the best. Which is a pretty unique opportunity.

[Tim Brown]

It is. And I couldn't be more proud that it's going to be at that track. Right. So not that it'll give me a huge advantage because the cars are so different from anything I've ever driven but. But just the history of the place and get to do it at what I call my home track and where I have had a lot of success. Just thankful for Rick giving me this opportunity.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So give me a quick background of all, you know, where your career has went as a mechanic and working in the industry.

[Tim Brown]

So started working for Cal Yarborough right out of high school.

[TJ Majors]

Damn.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Where?

[Tim Brown]

Down behind the airport.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Which car?

[Tim Brown]

It was Derek Cope driving it for Fingerhut and I worked there for several years through Jeremy Mayfield and Andretti and some of those guys driving. Wound up leaving there and going to MB2 where I worked with TJ and then that turned into gin and then you know, you guys bought us out at for DEI and worked there for a while. And then when Michael went and done the MWR deal I wound up working with Michael till it closed down. Left from there and went to Roush Fenway and now I'm with Rick. So that's been my cup tenure for mechanic.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Alright. Give me your racing career as a driver.

[Tim Brown]

So started and I modified at Bowman Gray. I grew up in my grandfather's race shop helping him build race cars. And I knew from a very young age that I wanted to race and he kind of guided me through and he's the one that helped me get end of the cup garage area. Right. He knew all the people and didn't come from a lot of money. So I had to work hard to have the money to buy the parts and pieces and go racing. And you know, grew up going to Bowman Gray and watching my grandpa's cars race and wound up knowing that's what I wanted to do. Bought a modified and went racing. And here we are today.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And so you know, you've. You've really enjoyed a lot of success at Bowman Gray. 101 wins, 12 track championships. And did you ever, you know, did you ever have opportunities that look like they might materialize into deals that were truck Xfinity, what have you?

[Tim Brown]

I did. I had had several phone calls. Right. And it all ended up with how much money can you bring? And man, you Know, I come from a little farm town and not a lot of money. And it always ended with that last comment, like, how much money can you bring? So once I got to be, you know, my late 20s and all that, I kind of figured, you know, I don't have the money to fund a truck team or what to buy me a ride. I just was content to keep racing at a high level in the modifieds and just really focused on being the best that I could at that level. Right. And with the partners I've had for. For so long, like Hayes Jeweler has been with me for 30 years, they've gave me the opportunity to have the equipment that we need to be successful. And I'm okay with that. I hate that I didn't get an opportunity to do it, but I understand it also.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, at the same time, when you didn't get that chance to see what that other side was like, you did succeed at the local level to the highest, you know, in terms of, you know, the career that you've had behind the wheel of a modified is. Is something that I think a lot of short track drivers would love to have, obviously talk about. And I've. I've reconnected with this in my own way over the past couple years. But talk about the, the uniqueness and how special the short track local weekly community is.

[Tim Brown]

So that's going to be touchy, right? Because I honestly feel like it's more intimate relationship than even with cup racing, right. Because your fans every Saturday night can come down and get an autograph and spend hours with you buying merchandise or just hanging out with you. Just Saturday we had a guy named Nick who came up from Fort Liberty and hung out in my shop with me all day, right? And he was like, man, this is so cool. And we just connected on Facebook and he was like, man, you know, I've served the military, been in for 16 years, watched you grow up racing and just love to come by and see your shop and hang out and man would just become instant friends, right? And that's things I don't think that you see at the cup level. Right. But that happens a lot in what I call grassroots racing. And that's what it's all about, right? Like, and to back to my career working for cup teams, right. We've had. I've had a lot of success in that, as you know, winning races and things like that. And I always knew to make it to there, it was special, right. There's so many racers that can do it with a talent but never has the opportunity to do it. So I've been okay with it. You know what I mean?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Talk about, tell me about Bowman Gray and what it means to you and what it means to the NASCAR ecosystem. I mean, it's got an incredible history, but I probably don't even understand exactly how incredibly special that place is.

[Tim Brown]

So to me, it's super special. I grew up going there with my grandpa racing and me and my brother and you know, the mare's kids and a lot of the kids from the racers would play in the pit area and you know, we had a little fire barrel. They had a barrel that they'd catch on fire and if it's cold out, we'd hang out and play around that. But then if you just read the history books of, you know, the Earnhardt's, the Petty's, the Bakers, Allisons, all those guys race there, you know what I mean? And now for the Cup Series to go back to where I feel like it all originated. Dude, that's super cool.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So Rick, I'm going to get to you in a second. I just. So many questions about this. So the racetracks, one of the things that we've been talking about a little bit on the show early was the racetrack and how the Cup Series going there has forced some upgrades, safety changes and so forth. The modifieds have basically the way the modifieds have ran there over the past multiple decades, they pretty much put the wall where it is right. And you can look at the old school retaining wall and see how the racing there had kind of shaped this racetrack and the exterior of the track as well. Well, that's kind of all been altered a little bit. I don't know if you've actually put boots on the ground and actually walked around the track or seen it firsthand. You've ran there your whole life. What, what do you think the changes to the track are going to do? Not just for this, you know, this, this clash. I'm thinking more actually long term, especially for the coming season for the modifieds and so forth.

[Tim Brown]

So I did get to see the racetrack for the first time Saturday and they have done an amazing job. The place looks top notch. From seeing it when I left there in August last year to seeing it Saturday, I was blown away. I mean, the new lighting, the safer barrier, just all the updates that they've done is really, really cool and that's things that I'm looking forward to enjoying for years to come. As far as the racing, it's definitely going to be different. Because the track's changed, right? So the safer barrier has taken away part of the groove that you race. And, you know, like coming off a turn four, you drive it straight to that juke out in the wall. Well, that's like two foot more now, so. So you're gonna have to change your line, but it's the same for everybody. So cosmetically, it's, it's amazing what they've done. And the lighting, I can, I can't wait to see how well the cars show up at night because the lighting was never great there, you know, and it's all good. It's good for everybody.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I'm glad to hear that. I mean, I think you'd have the best opinion about the, the track and the changes to the track which are necessary for the cup cars to be there. But how that does affect a weekly racer. Rick, why. What was the driving force behind this decision to run Tim?

[Rick Ware]

Well, it's twofold. It's, it's the event itself, being Bowman Gray and my relationship with Tim, so, you know, backstory. I moved here in 90 to pursue racing like, you know, hundreds of other wannabes, right. And my relationship through Clyde Vickers at CB Products was John Linville. So I came back to Cartersville and live with John Linville and got to meet Chip Lane, who was hanging bodies, I think, for the 21 at the time, and, but had it modified. And John Linville had his brother Dickie, who was running some stuff at Concord and got to meet Todd Barrier because he was the only guy that was working with me on some of John Lenville's cars. But when I moved here, all I heard was, man, you got to go to this Bowman Gray place. So come from the west coast.

[Tim Brown]

Go.

[Rick Ware]

To the first race. And I can't remember what he was driving with, but all I remember is some big guy who ended up being Chocolate Myers jumps out of his car, runs across the field and tries to pull somebody out. And, you know, I was just like, wow, this is just a different style of, of racing and, but the place was packed. I mean, you know, you could watch an ant race, if there's 10,000 people screaming, you're going to get excited. You're going to start screaming, too. So that whole concept of that track was just really cool to me. And I ended up living with John Linville for a while and kind of, you know, met Frank Fleming. And at that time, that was where the original modified Mafia, this whole Kernersville Mafia thing, there's a whole bunch of these modified guys and you know, modifieds are just, you know, they're kind of really bad to the bone anyway. Right. They sound really cool. They're fat tires. And so, you know, got to start to go do that. And then, you know, several, three or four, two or three years pass and got. My neighbor was Ken Glenn who ended up being a crew chief for Kelly Yarborough, Derek Cope and he said he'd introduced me to Tim. This is a 90, probably maybe even before 94, because you actually worked for me for a few years on I think with my late model or something or I think I bought a bush car or something, you know. And so got to know Tim and just a great guy, digging hard, working on everything. So as the relationship kind of grew, our path would cross on a regular basis and we actually got involved. As I was working on different marketing sponsor related scenarios, we were talking about this television deal that was coming about and I was trying to put together some sponsorship for my Xfinity cars with Circle K and this Thirst Buster deal. And I'm like, man, I don't, I don't really want to build a modified team or whatever. But so we kind of teamed up. I think it was 2008, which was I think your eighth championship. It was the madhouse scenario. So it was perfect timing. We had, I think, you know, Hayes was involved as always and we had that sponsor on the car and it was cool. I mean that television thing kind of changed motorsports in what I would call reality television. Right. And it's kind of. We haven't really produced the exact same emotions, I don't think since. And probably just because of politics, right. And being politically correct for sponsors and things that, you know, back then between you and Myers and Junior Miller, they were dropping F bombs and you know, it's just there, it was like watching Street Outlaws. There's more beeping the car sounds. So I mean I just, I just loved it. And so as I've grown for the needs of trying to have things to offer sponsors, etc, one of the ideas that I came about when the Modifieds had exited Martinsville for several years, they were going to come back. And I can't remember the year, I want to say it was 2000, maybe 15 or 16 or something like that, I'm not quite sure. But they were coming back and, and I told Tim, I said, you know, we need to get you approved for that because it would be great. And we were running a couple cars at the time and so I was going to run Tim and I was going to try to find the sponsorship for Burt and we were going to run him under the RWR banner. But both of these guys with the idea, you know, Clay at Martinsville would love the idea first to modify his coming back, but then, you know, the whole love hate relationship of, of the Myers and Tim Brown. So we ran a truck for Tim earlier to make sure he got approved. And that was an ill fated scenario and I was really wanting to be able to be part of that with Tim to get him to make his cup debut. So fast forward, you know, we're all pedaling as hard as we can. And there was a bunch of talk about this at the Clash last year. You know, were we going to come back for the third year? Was it even going to work? And then some of the rumors were Bowman Gray and, you know, Tim at that point had come to work for us and it was like, yeah, it'd be cool if we kind of did this or that or whatever. And when I heard from the background of, hey, this is probably going to happen, I think I reached out to Tim and said, hey, I'm willing to commit to doing it if you're committing to doing it and it doesn't matter. You know, hopefully we can find sponsorship, but if we don't, I'm going to do this because it is a cool once in a lifetime opportunity. It took a while to make sure we went through all the powers that be to make sure it didn't ruffle feathers because it's a little bit weird in that he's running an all star race but hadn't made a Cup debut yet. So my sales point was, hey, you guys own this track now. It's, it's Bowman gray. This is Mr. Bowman gray. The cars only go so fast. There's got to be a value to have a million laps there and to have the, you know, I think the winning is short track by championships in the country, regardless of modifiers or late models. I mean, I don't know there's anybody competing in 12 championships, so a little bit of long story, but that's the whole backstory of how this came about. And then it took on a life of its own and, and it's, it's just cool seeing somebody that has worked as hard and there's all kinds of people all over this country that worked as hard as he has to be able to be part of it, you know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So, you know, I hesitate to ask what the expectations are, but. And maybe it's not a performance thing. Maybe it's just, you know, in your own enjoyment or being able to relish opportunity or you know, standing there, you know, amongst the industry wearing that uniform and next to the car that you help build, you know what, where when this is all over with, you know, what's a happy ending? What's a satisfied result?

[Tim Brown]

Man, I'm not so sure it hadn't already happened for me to be honest with you. You know, being on shows like this with you walking into the shop this morning and seeing the cup car with my name on it that's wrapped. You know, being in the media for a solid month, what I really want is to represent Rickwell and, and to represent all the local racers in America that Hayden will never give up. Right. I could go win the thing and I'm not going to be a full time cup driver. You know what I mean? I know that. I just want to enjoy the moment like you said. I want my wife and kids. Cam and Marley are super excited for dad to get the opportunity to participate at the cup level. I just want to enjoy it. I mean like Rick, I keep thanking Rick for it and he's like, no man, thank you. It's just so cool this opportunity like and I'm trying to soak it all in and just enjoy it.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I'm excited, you know, knowing, knowing you for a long time and you know, there's, you know, Tim was always a lot of fun to work with. He was one of the guys that, that you could come in and get a straight answer from if you need it and get some advice if you need it as well. And, and also, you know, I don't think, I think I give Tim more of a hard time than probably anybody. There's not a weekend that, that if I, if I find any social media clip of Tim I, I make sure to, to because most of them, I mean, I mean you've been pretty quiet here lately. I'm kind of disappointed that, you know, you've been, you must be getting older. I mean, the last clip I saw was that spotter they had to pull off your neck.

[Tim Brown]

Yeah. So, you know, I've got kids now. Right. And, and with social media my, my son's old enough now that he can get on YouTube and scrolling like, dad, why are you beating this guy up? So it does change you. Right. And you know, we go to church now and I just don't want to be that rough guy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right.

[TJ Majors]

You've done your time.

[Tim Brown]

I have. And you have to be that way to race at Bowman Grave for the Years, right. To survive, you got to fight. You know, you fight your way in and fight your way out. But nowadays, man, there's. There's more to it, right? And I want to be a role model first and foremost for all the kids out there, and I just want to be a better person.

[TJ Majors]

Well, the opportunity there and Rick, you know, the story behind it's incredible. That's, you know, kind of similar to what you do with your late model guys. You bring guys up and in, like Josh and Carson and these guys that graduate from the series and get a shot. Like, I think it's really cool that we locals get a shot to do something like you and. And burn. I mean, it's cool. I really enjoy it. And it adds to the. It adds to it. Like, like, people are going to be watching you, you know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hey.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, yeah, it's going to be fun.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There's a, you know, and maybe it's not one of the roles you want to play, but there's a bit of an underdog aspect to it, and the local hero going up against, you know, the Goliaths, and I would embrace that. I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't. I wouldn't feel any type of way about that because that's absolutely going to have me plugged in, you know, wanting to see you do well, wanting to see you prove that, you know, you can. You can compete with those guys and hoping that, you know, you and both Bert have a great experience. And so, yeah, that's. That's gonna, you know, that's gonna add a nice twist to the race, and it needed a little seasoning and need a little spice. So. So this is kind of cool. What do you. And, you know, you've been to this racetrack your whole life. You've seen it at its peak. Packed nights, the big races that you guys have over, over the years. What. I mean, can you imagine what it might be like with the Cup Series on the property? How the. How that might is. Could you. Can you even get more people into this place? Where.

[Tim Brown]

Man, I've thought about that a lot. Right. Because, you know, like, our Haze 200 race for every season is sold out. Like, it's standing capacity only. I don't know how you put more people in there. Yeah, but then you bring in all the TV networks and all the officials and. And the safety equipment stuff that NASCAR is going to bring at this level. That. That's insane. Right. So it's a little bitty facility. Right. So they're Having people park all the way over to Winston Salem Coliseum and busing them to the racetrack. Right. Problem it is. And I'm just blessed to. I'm gonna get to witness it and be a part of it. Right. So that is so cool.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What about the. The. One of the things they're doing is taking the cars at Sharpener Speedway. Do you. You're. I'm sure you're 100% versed in all the processes in terms of what's going on this weekend. Being not only the driver, the car, but putting the car together and having. Having all that responsibility. That's unique to you. Only I don't think any of the drivers in the field will be as involved in their car as you will. But how do you feel about the integrity of that and is that comfortable for you, the cars being teched at Charlotte, taken to Bowman Gray and all of that?

[Tim Brown]

Yeah, I'm fine with that. Right. Because it's the same for everybody. So it's not like it's doing that for a reason to give someone an advantage or not. So. And I understand why they're doing it. Racing at the stadium every weekend, there's not a lot of room there to set up a Hawkeye tent or the stations that you have to roll through. So I understand that fully. And I think it'll make a better show for the fans that'll be able to have some room to come and walk around and see the cars and things. Because if you set all the stuff up that we go through on a weekly basis at a big racetrack, wouldn't be any room for anything else.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Gotcha. Do you think. And you maybe can't answer this till it's all over said and done. Is racing at Bowman Gray sustainable for the Cup Series? I mean, they're going. In my mind, it feels like they're going to have to really have a lot of grace. For example, the taking at Charlotte and so forth. There'll be a lot of exceptions, a lot of. A lot of things that'll be forgiven because of the uniqueness of the property and the size of the property. But if this is a good success, you can you see this continuing at Bowman Gray?

[Tim Brown]

I would like to see it continue at Bowman Gray. Maybe if it's not the clash, maybe it's just some other kind of race for the. For the cup cars, just for the history of the place. Right. And two, I'm partial to the stadium because I grew up there.

[Rick Ware]

Right.

[Tim Brown]

But I would love to see it come back a few more times.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. How does the. How does NASCAR's purchase of the speedway and acquiring speedway change anything at all?

[Tim Brown]

It really didn't last year for the simple fact that it happened so late. You know, it was only like a month before we started racing. So they didn't want to come in and drop the grenade and change everything. But I think rolling in there this year with all the changes, you know, just. I think some of this stuff was coming anyway, that NASCAR owned it. Not just for the clash to come. And it needed updating, right. It needed safer walls because we run pretty fast there. Even though it's a short track, a little small racetrack, but the lighting. It wouldn't be this way if it wasn't for nascar. Now I know that not just the class coming.

[Rick Ware]

One of the interesting byproducts of necessity, we're talking about having to take these cars in Charlotte, then come to the racetrack. There's been all kinds of discussions about even events like at Bristol that we have issues of getting haulers in and out. And it's been floated several times. Is there a way to keep the integrity but tech at the R D Center or some of these places and the necessities that have come over the last couple years. Back when you were racing, you know, you're there on Thursday and you're unloading and you're all day Friday, you're happy hours. And nobody ever thought that we could race without being on the track for three days. And then Covid comes and we go straight out to a 600 mile race and not a single car falls out. So people think about that. And now we don't have Covid. But that changed the way we do some things. I really believe if the integrity is there, which I believe can be policed, I think the next wave is that we may be testing some things and they're like, look, we don't need to take all of this room, which is room to take away from either hospitality people and. Or whatever. It wouldn't surprise me to test that again. You know, maybe. Maybe it'd be at North Wilkesboro that we test it, right? Because, you know, the people aren't coming to the garages and it's not typically, not a. An event like it used to be. You know, Kansas originally built the whole walkway where you can go through the tech and people watch. Well, that's because we were there all day Thursday, you know, or unloading part of Thursday. It was just crazy. So the byproduct of this. I think we'll have more conversations about the what ifs. And as soon as you can. As soon as you can do that and then go somewhere, I think it changes the opportunity to look at other venues. I personally don't see why we need to go through a whole day of tech at Mexico. Right. I mean, we're coming straight off of. I think Mexico's back to back with Sonoma, so you're not even going to be able to use the same car. Those are the kind of things that I think the conversations behind the scenes, we're going to see more of. So I think it's also going to be a learning process for the series.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's a great point because, you know, you have little infields like Martinsville and so forth that could probably benefit from, you know, changes in the processes like that. And like you say, if the integrity can be held, there's no reason why you couldn't. You couldn't make those kind of changes for some of the smaller racetracks.

[TJ Majors]

Does that open the door for other series to come in and race with you as well? More? Because, you know, like Martin's Cars Tour.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, if you don't have to use all the room all the time.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That'S the reason why. Yeah, I mean, that's one of the main reasons why the Cars Tour has to run on a Wednesday for the All Star Race weekend. Because Thursday, Friday, the infield is just to capacity with everything else going on with the trucks.

[Rick Ware]

And so look at Martinsville. They're, you know, the cars are parked on. On the hills and. And trucks are parked on the hills. And then it's a show just to get the trucks in and out before they can even bring the Xfinity cars to be in and out.

[TJ Majors]

So I like full weekends.

[Rick Ware]

Well, so, yeah, I think to be able to accommodate that. I think that's a byproduct of some of this. And it can work because again, Covid, man, Covid changed everything. And we all have to agree that the racing has been pretty fantastic since then. So, you know, practice still is practice. And I get the value. I get the television issue of it, I mean, completely. But this is something that I don't think it makes a difference to the end show. And that's ultimately what's going to make the decisions, is the end show. Can we. Can we now allow a handful of people to have Friday or Saturday passes in the pits that normally couldn't walk through there? Absolutely, we could. Now, I'm not saying that's what they want, but it just having opportunities is what's going to make. Continue to grow this series like it's growing and open up doors for. For other series to run. I mean, we used to run late models and modifieds right at Richmond, but now that it's so short, you can't do that. So, you know, I for sure would say going to New Hampshire, I mean, they're running modifieds there and they used to run, you know, the north cars back in the day, but you know.

[TJ Majors]

Even a late model class would run.

[Rick Ware]

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Some great stuff, man. Well, I appreciate it. Looking forward to the clash. Looking forward to seeing how you guys do. Tim, have fun. Enjoy it, and I know you will. Rick, thanks for everything that you do for. For people like Tim. But everything you've done as far as your impact on. On. On NASCAR and in the multiple series that you run as an owner, you're. You're leaving a legacy.

[Rick Ware]

I appreciate that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, you're doing awesome.

[Rick Ware]

Chipping away.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You are. You know, it's hard work what you're doing.

[Rick Ware]

Thank you for the invite.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You bet you, man. Thank you all and hope to have you back. Maybe after a great weekend, come back and tell us about it. Yeah.

[Tim Brown]

Be awesome. And thanks for having us. And it's so cool just to be a part of things like this.

[Rick Ware]

That's an honor to be asked.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So a great conversation with Tim Brown and Rick, where that was, that was. I got all the questions answered that I was curious about. I'm glad to hear what he said about the racetrack. It's not really going to be a huge thing, you know, because I know it. It's a tight, tight, little. It's facility.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And they had beaten the guardrails into this kind of big broad, you know, bend all the way down both straightaways. And so they kind of moved the guardrails to where they could use the exit of the corners and so forth the way they wanted to. All that kind of goes away and the drivers will have to make the adjustments. But he doesn't feel like it's going to be that big of a deal. I'm glad for that because not only do we want to have a great clash, we don't want to change really. What, what. What's been working there. Right.

[TJ Majors]

For sure.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Great story. Tim Brown, Rick Ware, just a good dude.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. Well, there's a lot of details leading up to this event that I did not know about.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So I'm thankful for them. And I was sitting here thinking, man, like, here we are championing and supporting and wishing them well, as they go to run in. In the Clash, a guy who's never ran a couple races in his life, but yet we all have sort of. Not entirely conflicting opinions, but we all have sort of. We. We all. We have these, you know, our thought about that 41st spot in the Daytona 502. The two opinions don't really jive. Like, if we can be okay with this, then we ought to be okay with that. No. Is that kind of. You know what I'm drawing from this?

[TJ Majors]

I do.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, if I can like Tim Brown in the Clash, why, you know, why can't. Why can't we all just.

[TJ Majors]

I guess I like. I guess it's just the way you get into it. Like when you. When you word it, like, it was worded like, this guy's in no matter what. It's like, wow. I mean, shouldn't he kind of have to earn that a little bit? Like, Tim still got to go and races race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He does.

[TJ Majors]

You know what I mean? Like, his.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

His in his inclusion. Pretty unique because he's never started a Cup race in his life, for sure. So, yeah, I think. Yeah, I think it's. I think it's exposed a little bit of hypocrisy. Maybe.

[Travis]

Maybe.

[TJ Majors]

Maybe a little bit. If you don't like this, I'm just looking inward, maybe.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Am I wrong?

[TJ Majors]

I don't know. It's my favorite saying.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, Tim's is now on. On the mic. We're gonna get into a dirty A Dose segment.

[TJ Majors]

Hey. Hey.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What do you think Tim's. Am I. Am I. Am I being a bit hypocritical? Kind of not. I don't. I don't oppose Helio. I'm just not like. I'm not all. I'm not embracing it like the Tim Brown. Right. So I don't.

[Connor Daly]

I just don't think that maybe the. The Ilio story doesn't, like, appeal to you as a true race fan. Yeah, that's what I think. I don't think you're being hypocritical. I just think you're. You're more excited for Tim Brown, for the opportunity for that than maybe Elio is more of like a fanfare type of thing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. You know, maybe Tim's is here to talk dirty Modeau. And before we jump into that, we're happy to have FanDuel back for us this season. FanDuel is a great partner. I'm certainly enjoying the app itself. Although my parlay crashed in magnificent fashion. Your bills. I. Yeah, I had. I had My homes going for over 30 attempts and he fell a little short of that. And Kelsey, I had Kelsey getting more. I had like a seven player parlay. The homes 30th passing attempts missed. And Kelsey, I think I had him at five receptions and that missed.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. Oh that had to be close. I think two. Oh you only had two? Oh I had four or whatever.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It was not enough. It.

[Connor Daly]

Yeah, yeah, he's tough. Predict one but I'm dead.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I got the other five but still that doesn't matter, right. And what the hell, you know, how come I couldn't. I wanted after my, you know, after my commanders didn't pull it out, I tried to save the night. Did not work. So we, we got the sportsbooks win totals for 2025. They've released those Tim's zero to analyze which bets are smart to take before the Daytona race. And so let's just run through them.

[Connor Daly]

Yeah, we got you know, a lot of teams. One is more that I'm interested in right now off the bat. Two I've already bet already. Trackhouse racing's over three and a half wins. It's a plus 120. Anything with a plus number next to it. I love the price. But if you look at Trackhouse now SVG joins full time and he can win any road course, every road course. To be honest, his, his number is only one and a half wins. Personally I think he can win two. He probably could have won two races last year. Got passed by Bush on the last lap at Watkins Glen, had the best car at Chicago before he got taken out. So there's your two wins right there. That covers his number and you're halfway there for Trackhouse in their win total. And I think Ross had a really down year last year. So if you're looking for positive, you know, a better year for Ross, I think he wins two races and there you go. Cover that number.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Wow. All right. I mean out of. You got Hendrick at 11 and a half wins. That's a lot dude.

[Connor Daly]

That's a lot. And I think they won, I think they only won 11 last year. Like doing the math I have to put back but that's, that's a lot of wins and that's with Larson having a really good year. Byron had a really good start. I, I go under on that one. It's even. The price is minus 115 both ways. So I think the books are even like not sure about that. Joe Gibbs racing at eight and a half wins. You might think that's low. I Thought it was low looking at it, but they only won six times.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Last year, so I feel like that number is high. And I would bet the under on Joe Gibbs. I just. Yeah, I mean, eight and a half win, the crew chief change with Denny and just everything going on there. I'm not sure exactly what to expect out of Denny coming into this year. And I think he has to go out there and win about three or four races for this eight and a half to.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Connor Daly]

And I personally think he. He won three last year. I think he maybe only wins two. I think there's a little bit of a step back. I think Christopher Bell wins close to five. Like, I think he's going to take the step up and maybe that offsets that. But then you need one or two from. From Briscoe and Gibbs and. Yeah, I mean, Gibbs just disappeared last year.

[TJ Majors]

Disappear.

[Connor Daly]

And that makes me nervous. And he is around that kind of 100 start period where, like, you know, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson all won their first race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But that'll be close, but I don't think it gets there.

[Connor Daly]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Team Penske five and a half.

[Connor Daly]

I think that goes over.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That sounds pretty good. It's.

[Connor Daly]

It's low, and I don't even think you need a center to win to hit that. I think.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right. Oh, man. 2311. Four and a half wins.

[Connor Daly]

It's. It's all dependent. If Bubba can win. Win a race. Yeah, I think Tyler can get you three or four, but I think that's under.

[TJ Majors]

I. I do, too.

[Rick Ware]

Yeah.

[Connor Daly]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

RFK 2 1/2 TD's not gonna like.

[Connor Daly]

This, but I like the under.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What do you think, tj?

[TJ Majors]

I mean, I don't agree with him because I feel like we were. We were in position to win other races last year other than just the plate races, which we were pretty much leading both the Talladegas off of turn four.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's another team. That's another operation with a crew chief change. Brad Zalowski will have a new crew.

[TJ Majors]

Chief this year, also bringing in Priest. So that's going to help our plate racing stuff, I believe, as well. When you have another. When you have another worker there, another car to add to the mix to compete. Compete with these guys. I think that helps as well. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Jeremy Bullens is no stranger to the pit box.

[TJ Majors]

He is not.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so, you know, it'll be interesting to see what, you know, what that does to Brad's performance.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I got a text from Jeremy first thing and said, hey, I don't go any shows, do I?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Honestly I think I'm going to be bullish on on RFK and go. I think they get the three. I would be really surprised if they exceeded that two and a half wins by lots but I think they can, they can exceed certainly win the bet.

[Connor Daly]

The betting price they're over two and a half at minus 180. I would not. I hope I'm wrong on this one. This one is kind of like I'm.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not positive on but Richard Childress racing at one and a half I got under.

[Connor Daly]

I really I mean holy moly. I mean I'm not a big Austin Dylan guy I think that's known but I, I think he, I don't think Austin wins and I think Kyle. I just, I don't know what to expect. Yeah I really don't but another one where I'm like I wouldn't be shocked if Kyle wins two races but dude.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They have Richard Childress Racing and Spire both one and a half.

[Connor Daly]

I don't get the Spire one. A lot of people are very high on Spire and I don't get it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't either.

[TJ Majors]

Well it's because of. They're adding pieces man. They got Rodney over there now see it first. I do too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There's not, there's not. I haven't seen anything that tells me they're like what driver's ready to winning a race?

[Connor Daly]

McDowell is, is definitely. He can win any road course. I think he can win a super speedway but it's. He's a brand new team.

[TJ Majors]

I don't like that road course racing's got a lot harder now that we're adding in. Yeah now you got Shane in there and you have. They have Zillich running.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's almost flipped where Spires at one and a half and front rows at point five.

[Connor Daly]

It should be, it should be flipped.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Connor Daly]

That shouldn't be how it is kind of backwards. Yeah. The price for the under is minus 250 though so it's almost done. It's unbetable but I think it hits anyway. I mean but yeah front row. I actually do like the under in front row. I, I mean it's a, it's a risk they got some speed but you have three drivers now without McDowell that really haven't come close to winning. Yeah and I'll take that bet.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah yeah I'd take the, I'd take the bet on the under on front row and Spire.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Richard Childress race. I just can't never count out Kyle Busch.

[TJ Majors]

You just can't he could win three in a row.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Dude. He has to be the most motivated guy out there. You know, he, he does not like losing and he certainly doesn't like breaking streaks, like that kind of stuff. Yeah, you can, you know, he'll, he'll, you'll hear the comments where he let, you can tell through what he's saying that those things matter, like to go, to go winless last year. And I think he feels like he's got to go out there and prove it all over again. Right. And so he's going to be super determined. I would think Richard Schroeder's racing gets the two wins needed.

[Connor Daly]

It could, I don't know. This is such a pivotal year. He could either this could be the start of like the decline or he can bounce right back. And if he bounces back, great. I just, it's all on him. It's a lot of pressure.

[TJ Majors]

There's a few drivers are in that boat right now.

[Rick Ware]

Upper third.

[Connor Daly]

Was he 38?

[TJ Majors]

That's close to 40 plus 40.

[Connor Daly]

That's, it's, it's, it's still.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's got two, he's got two to five years for the decline.

[Connor Daly]

You think so really is evident.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, you just never know though, because if it does go bad there and they don't have any speed, but they had speed at the end of last year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

So, yeah, I'd be optimistic. I think he can, I think he can do it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Pretty cool. Well, hey, Tim's appreciate it. These are pretty cool bets. A lot of fun. I think people can have a lot of fun with this stuff. All these futures are good to get on board with. The only problem is, man, is that stuff sticks around in your bet, in your, in your bets forever.

[Connor Daly]

Yeah. If you're new, if you're new to betting and you want to kind of dip your toe, this is a great way to win totals to do that because you have something on each race. It's just one bet throughout the whole year. But the downside is, you're right, it ties up your money the whole year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It ties up your money the whole year. And you're sitting there watching that bet and then.

[Connor Daly]

Yeah, so bet the overs, don't bet the unders.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I did a Caitlyn Clark average points scored for the year. And just sitting there watching that thing because it was losing all year. Yeah, yeah, I bet and I was like, I just, I just want to, you know, go ahead, take it.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, get it off.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Get it off my slip. Get it out of my Face.

[Connor Daly]

I know it lost.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Take it. Yeah, but. All right, man. Again, fanduel's back this year with us, supporting us here at Dirty Mo Media and for our Dirty Modo segment, Alex Tims, appreciate you coming on. Thanks, guys. Let's get on to Smash Jr.

[G]

Yes. We've got a lot of questions and I'm keeping it eye on the YouTube chat, as I know that you guys are as well. This is going to be a shot in the dark, this first one. It's from Rose and they wanted to know. So they were rewatching the 2012 Daytona 500, like the Juan Pablo rain delay. And there was an interview where they asked, what are you talking about? And you're like, nothing. Safe for tv. Do you remember any of the conversations on the back stretch as you're waiting for NASCAR to clean it up?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I. No.

[TJ Majors]

There's a lot of questions about what happened.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think a lot of us were. A lot of us were actually okay if they didn't. Because we were wondering if they were going to call the race.

[G]

Right. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And I think. Wasn't Dave Blaney lead.

[G]

He was leading landing castles up there, too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like, it's going to be an unbelievable time. There was a conversation of all of us going, is everybody cool if we just say, all right, man, Dave's the winner. And I think everybody was. Everybody. Maybe Carl Edwards wasn't okay with that, but I'm shocked. I can't remember who we were joking. Of course.

[G]

Carl did not think you were joking. Yeah, no.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm like, I want to race Dave.

[TJ Majors]

What do you mean, Dave?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Way to go. I could have walked out of there. I was fifth or 10th, whatever. I don't know.

[TJ Majors]

He said, Dave. Carl was like.

[G]

Like, no.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And then. And then, yeah, we had this race to the toilet.

[G]

Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Dude. So I didn't think Brad was gonna run as fast as he did.

[TJ Majors]

I didn't think either one of you could run that fast.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And he didn't. He was. He's like, I'm gonna go to the bathroom. I'm like, I kind of gotta go. And so I ran by him and I went, race ya. And he took. He took off. And I was like, of course, now I've gotta beat him. Because there was all the fans on the back straightaway still. We had this.

[TJ Majors]

The grandstands, they were cheering. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And I got in. I got to the bathroom first and I got in there and nearly freaking died. Cause I was out of breath. Oh.

[TJ Majors]

Oh.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, my God. I was so. I was like, that Was a dumb idea.

[G]

I thought that's cause you had to use the bathroom.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. I was like, did you get stage fright?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, that was stupid. All them people cheering just to take off. Sprinting as hard as you could for no reason. That was dumb.

[TJ Majors]

They need to get back in a race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. But we got. There's another Dre in here is asking, could we get Tim Brown on the show? He's a guest today. Tim comes in today. Tim came in with Rick Ware, sat down, talked to us about running the Bowman Gray race for the. For the Clash. So, yeah, you're going to get to hear from Tim, asked him to. One of the things, I mean, this is not nothing to do with the Clash. But I was like, hey, they changed the track. You know, you're racing the mods there all year long. Are you seen it? You've been out on. You've been to the track. Put your feet on it. Is it bad? You okay with the changes? You know, the SAFER barrier takes away about three foot of racetrack. They use every bit of that. That's the width, that's the size, width of the right side tire. So they're gonna have to change their line entirely all the way around the track. We talk about that.

[G]

Yes. And I was actually. I was at Bowman Gray. I was gonna add this, but I, you know, wasn't on a mic, but I was on Bowman Gray. I was there Wednesday, Thursday with Dillner, who knows that place like the back of his hand. He actually said they did a good job.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[G]

With everything.

[TJ Majors]

The wall's not cattywampus.

[G]

Yeah, but. But Tim Brown on the show earlier.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[G]

Next question.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, yeah, sure.

[G]

Oh, all right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I thought you had them.

[G]

Yeah, oh, yeah, no, I do. I'm just. I don't. Yeah, I don't know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You want me to get the next question? Here, let me scroll.

[TJ Majors]

Andrew, plug your network cable in. Give us a quick.

[G]

It's almost a weekend at least. This next question is coming from Ian and he wants to know what your dad's daily driver was.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Dad would get a Chevrolet pickup most times that he drove a Silverado extended cab. That's what he drove, you know, in probably the last five or ten years of his life. And before that, I remember now, he had some old cool square body trucks back in the 80s when I first moved in. That would be freaking awesome today. You know, when we were. When they were back then, it was like, it's just a truck. But square bodies are pretty big these days. But I remember Teresa always getting These or dad always having these big station wagons for Teresa to drive around. And they had the wood decal, wood paneling on the side like the.

[TJ Majors]

This Christmas movie.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What's that?

[TJ Majors]

Christmas. The lampoons like that?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Wow. Yeah. So we had a couple of those Chevrolets.

[TJ Majors]

Are those the first cars you remember riding in as a kid?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, I remember my first. The first thing I remember riding in was my mom's 78 Monte Carlo.

[TJ Majors]

Nice.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I remember laying. Dude, I. To think about it today, we drive around. We drive around in my truck, which is relatively safe. And I am like, making sure that the girls are buckled in perfectly. Five point harness. And Isla's all, you know, sit up straight. It does. You know, your restraint doesn't work if you're laying down, you know, because she'll be leaning over and playing with her sister. And I'm like, quit it. And ma'am, you know me, the guy that was riding around, laying down in the floorboard or the back seat of Mom. 78 Monte Carlo, just being a d. You know, being a complete imbecile.

[TJ Majors]

Cigarette lighters and stuff to play with. I mean, you don't even know anything about that probably. But what the cigarette lighters in the back. All the. Every car back then had, but.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah. I mean, you ever touch one. Yeah. You could burn yourself any minute. Car hell. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

You had this. The lighters in your car, the lighter.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

In the car, the push, push in the back, push in lighter. Really? Oh, my gosh.

[TJ Majors]

And when it popped out, it would be glowing. I touched it. I was stupid. I mean.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah. You burned yourself all the time. I did, but one time they left me and Kelly in the car and went inside and me and Kelly knocked. Kelly knocked a car in gear, and we ended up rolling down a hill. What? Yeah, me and Kelly, we told that story on here a long time ago, but we ended up rolling down a hill. This was in the 70s when mom and dad were still together. And we ended up rolling down a hill. Just kind of rolled to. Bumped into a building or rolled to a stop. Nothing crazy. But we were. They came, found run down there.

[TJ Majors]

What do you mean? I bumped into a building. Nothing crazy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm in the floorboards.

[G]

Rolled down a hill into a building.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I'm like. I'm like 2 or 3 years old, and I'm down in the floorboard, the car, and Kelly's.

[TJ Majors]

The lighter with the lighter.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Cigarette lighter, but nothing crazy.

[TJ Majors]

Just hit a building.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know what we hit. Damn it. Geez. My story I'm just saying that's what happened. Were you scared?

[G]

But today, did you guys realize, like, oh, crap.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We just. Like, I was. I don't remember this. I was two, three. Oh, I don't. You. I don't remember anything. I can.

[G]

Far back as I know this happened.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I just know this happened.

[G]

Oh, okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like, what's the earliest you can remember? I was asking. I was asking Isla this the other day. I was like, isla, what's the earliest you can remember? She goes, I remember meeting my babysitter for the first time when I was a baby. I'm like, no, you don't.

[TJ Majors]

There's no way.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[G]

You call her.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I'm like, no. I was like, do you remember what you wore for her Halloween when you were 2? And she's like, no.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. It doesn't go back as far as I would. I've done the same thing. And they don't. Like, they can remember detail of, like, things. Like, it's annoying, but then, like, they don't remember that stuff.

[G]

You ever think, like, what both of your guys is know children, like, oh, is this going to be a core memory for them?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like, we're doing this.

[G]

Like, is this something.

[TJ Majors]

Apparently he had one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Remember?

[G]

Yeah, you had a core.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't remember that. I just know I've heard about it. The one thing, the furthest back I can go is my fourth birthday. For some reason, I remember that. And I don't know whether it's actual and it's. I don't remember. I don't know whether it's an actual memory or it was something I was told and I now remember. Yeah. I mean, yeah.

[G]

It's like, you kind of can picture the, like, details, but it's very vague, really. Mine is a birthday, too, for some reason. Something about birthdays.

[TJ Majors]

I think I'm right around four, three. We had a. I'm not going to go. We had a goat when I was really little, and it would. I was, too. It would knock me out.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Wow. That's funny.

[G]

Wait, you had a goat?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

We're not going to talk a lot about that.

[G]

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. We got to talk about tv. Let's go.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, fine.

[G]

We'll go to the next question.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Question.

[TJ Majors]

I don't remember Andy's name.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Chat.

[G]

They want to know more about the goat.

[TJ Majors]

Tj I don't remember Annie's name. I mean, no, we. I remember that goat, and I hated that goat.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So why did you hate it?

[TJ Majors]

Because it would knock the. Out of Me so.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yes. Hey, guys will do that. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

He said, ghosts have done that.

[G]

Are you still afraid of the goats? We go to this day.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Do you remember when we had goats?

[TJ Majors]

Yes. They. I wouldn't get in that pen and climb with them rocks.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So we donated the million doll dollars to the Victory Junction, and they gave us two goats and that I had a little pin made for them. We put some big rocks in there, and they would hop up on them.

[TJ Majors]

Rocks, stand right next to you, and be like, look at you, dude.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It was hilarious. They would. They would just kind of be standing there doing completely nothing, and all of a sudden, one would just go, bam and hit the other one in the head. And you're like, holy crap. And they were just doing that for fun, you know?

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. That was much better than when you got the buffalo. We ran out to the barn, and we climbed up in the middle there, and then we're on the other side. If you went over there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

You took off running and left me in there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And then you're like, that was funny.

[TJ Majors]

No, it wasn't funny. Well, call Mitch to get over here and get these buffalo.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was like, yeah, yeah. I ran. So there's a barn in the middle of the field. I took. I said, tj, let's go to the barn. We get in there and go to the barn. And did we call the buffalo over?

[TJ Majors]

They come running over there. Because you're gonna feed them.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[G]

Oh, okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And then I ran out and jumped the fence, which is about 50, 60 yards away.

[G]

You left him.

[TJ Majors]

He just took off. We would go from one side in the middle there, and they would run.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Tj they would run around to the.

[TJ Majors]

Other side, and I was scared.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They will chase your ass.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. And probably will happen. Trample you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, they would just send you.

[G]

Like, what the goat did to tj.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They would sit. They would. They would. They would send you like a bull.

[TJ Majors]

Or just trample you with thousands of pounds they weigh.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You would hope that you get sent like a bull. I would rather get trampled.

[TJ Majors]

Yes. Yes. That was one of those experiences.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

One was really, really rude. One of the buffaloes. Really? Oh, really, really rude.

[G]

How so?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If you go up to the fence, it, like. It, like, flinches at you.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like, if you. Yeah, if you go. Yeah, if you go up to the fence, it'll be like, hey, yeah, I'll come through here, you know? Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

You want to day blame anyone, but it says it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It says it in, like, a female buffalo voice. Whichever. Whatever that sounds like. But it's not. They're all female.

[G]

Okay.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, but they're intimidating. The buffalo are very intimidating.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But you know what's interesting is the. The mean one's one of the younger girls. So we got two pair. We got this one pair a long, long time ago. And then another younger pair came. The rude one is one of the younger girls. And when she acts up, the older ones put them in line. Put her in check. Yeah, yeah. They don't like her being rude. We've seen them do it like, you know, it's. It's pretty cool, huh?

[G]

Yeah, that is pretty neat.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[G]

Travis wanted me to say tj Is that why you're so afraid of Patrick Mahomes?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Because he's so good? That's hilarious. Oh my God. I'm glad it ain't. Talking about my commanders.

[TJ Majors]

Who's Travis?

[G]

That's right.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, that team that lost to Michigan.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right? Yeah. All right.

[G]

You just don't bring that one back. This next question is coming from Dan. Does the college football league ever get out of hand?

[TJ Majors]

Not really.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's.

[TJ Majors]

It's rolling along normal. We were waiting on a. We're supposed to have a couple other members joining here pretty soon. If I don't wait, remember who? Oh, well, we. If. If Noah or Zillich will ever get an Xbox.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Noah and Zillich said that they were going to co own a team.

[G]

Yeah, co own or she can co own a team.

[TJ Majors]

Well, I mean, yeah, you could, but I wouldn't want to do that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But I wouldn't want to do it. But if you and Travis wanted to co own, he could play some of the games. You can play some of the games.

[G]

Wait, I might be interested now.

[Rick Ware]

Why?

[TJ Majors]

Just play the games, Travis.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's not interested.

[G]

Can me and my roommate join?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, Travis would hate the league because Michigan would dominate him.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[G]

Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It doesn't matter who plays your games.

[G]

Have you ever had to kick anyone out?

[TJ Majors]

No, not of the college league, but of what? Madden League. I did back in the day.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Who?

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I kicked Brad out.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Kicked Brad Keselowski out. Best man in his wedding.

[TJ Majors]

So Brad was. Yeah, I had to kick Brad out.

[G]

Your own best.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Why did you kick Brad out?

[TJ Majors]

Because he had it down. He like Brad and everything. He's so smart with everything. He knew exactly how many yards he needed with every player to get the bumps and all that stuff. Back in the day he would catch the kickoff and run out of bounds at the 2 yard line to have a 98 yard drive instead of a 80 yard drive and every player like he knew. He was like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He gamed the system.

[TJ Majors]

Yes, very much. Brad was. Yeah. Super smart at it.

[G]

So we actually had Brad in for business Motorsports. I heard and Brad has talked about it. We'll play the clip.

[Travis]

Are you in any of his Madden or NCAA leagues? Not anymore.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay.

[Travis]

No.

[Connor Daly]

You know, he made me mad one time.

[TJ Majors]

He kicked me out of his Madden league.

[Rick Ware]

I forgot about that one.

[Connor Daly]

Yeah, he kicked me out of his.

[Travis]

League for beating him too much.

[TJ Majors]

So that's that. Not true though. Haters gonna hate. That's not true. Actually. I'll leave it at this. The first time me and Brad played in the super bowl, we were in the third quarter and I just went down the field and scored. He did something and it was bad for him. And he gets two delay game penalties in a row. And we pa. I paused the game and I'm like, dude, if you get one more, it's going to kick you out. And he literally text back and says, sorry, I don't have any more remotes left. Because he was breaking all of his remotes and those pieces when he. When he lived out there by you. I went over there and there's pieces of Xbox remotes in, like all the corners of the rooms and stuff. Like, so mad. The Lions did win a couple Super Bowls. I think the Bills won five back then, so we had trophies and everything. Maybe we should do that for the college league.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, it's pretty fun.

[TJ Majors]

It is fun.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

It's entertaining. I hope they make the game better for next year and we can continue it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I could. I could get. I could get into my. I could get into my level of preparation for.

[G]

Let's hear it.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, you don't listen.

[G]

What is this a whole thing?

[Rick Ware]

No, no.

[G]

Dale wants to talk about it. Yeah, let's talk about it.

[TJ Majors]

It's in depth here.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I have a spirit spreadsheet on my phone right here of the plays and players. So I got a.

[G]

He's like Brad Kaczyrski.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, no, no. I got a spreadsheet of all of my run plays, their average yards per use, pass plays, RPOs, screens. Look at it. I have. There it is.

[G]

Oh, my God.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And it's. I have. It's like, okay, this plays these. These are the plays used on first down, second and short, third and short, fourth and short, second, second, medium and so forth. And then I have another spreadsheet that has my depth chart, all my offensive players and whether they are impact or not.

[TJ Majors]

Look at TJ Impact, star Elite.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And then. And then my. Then my scouting and commitments in terms of recruiting. Wow. Yeah.

[G]

So when you're at each play, are you just like scrolling through like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, no, no, no.

[TJ Majors]

He's got. He's got him set.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't have to scroll. I built my own playbook that suggests to me the play that I want suggested to me for that situation, for that moment.

[G]

Like, he's bringing that into the game.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

He's literally coach on the sideline holding that sheet that has all the scenarios ready to God.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So if I am at like a second medium, I have the plays suggested to me that I want for that scenario.

[G]

Wow.

[TJ Majors]

He's really gunning hard since he last lost national champions.

[G]

Yeah. Have you won any?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I made it to the championship game for the first time last season. We're in season five.

[TJ Majors]

I forget who won that one for tj. It was a good game, though. I actually. We had a good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm Charlotte. He's Michigan. I'm Charlotte. He's Michigan.

[TJ Majors]

He's built. But he's built this team up. They are not. They are not like Charlotte we know of. And he won't change conferences to play higher people. So he plays army and Navy every year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I like my conference. I'm gonna.

[TJ Majors]

I would too, if I want.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Every year. The American Coast Conference. An elite conference. Yeah. I'm not gonna jump out of another con to go to a different conference. You're gonna. I'm gonna get it to where Michigan's gonna go. I need to be in that America.

[TJ Majors]

I don't think so. I don't think so. I moved. I moved Wyoming. I have a. I have two teams. I have Wyoming as well. And I moved them into the SEC for a better. For a tougher schedule. And they are now playing in the. They're in the second round of the college playoffs.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, it's fun, though. It's good. It's his preparations.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I have to prepare like that to keep it fun. I am a data notes. Like when I was biking all the time and. And you know, I was competing, you know, I go run the same route on my bike. I would come home and like, spend an hour looking at the data to see how I did in each segment. Right?

[G]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How my watts, I got that. That's what makes me go do it. Right. Is the data and the. And yeah. Just sitting down and playing the game. That is gonna get old.

[TJ Majors]

I go biking with him, I come back and just try not to die.

[G]

You zwift, right?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[G]

You ever race Your ghost, right? Ghost person. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. I couldn't. I probably wouldn't enjoy that now because my 2017 self was about 2 mile an hour faster.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. He goes, come over. We'll go for a short bike ride. Like, I'm thinking like five miles at most. Cause I'm. We're going like 16 miles that day.

[G]

I'm like, that is a short bike ride.

[TJ Majors]

Not for your first time ever.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[G]

Oh, yeah.

[TJ Majors]

No. He's like, bring your mountain bike. It'll be good, too. I'm like, no.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

God. Yeah. But anyway, I gotta. I got to do the. I gotta do all of that to keep me motivated to keep doing it.

[G]

Nice. Well, that is a good place to rap.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Really?

[G]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I thought we were gonna talk.

[G]

I was told to rap.

[TJ Majors]

Why? I mean, we were. Time up in the beginning.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Talk.

[G]

Oh, okay. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Because we wanted to talk about. Okay, let me find the name here. Okay. I can't find the name, but it is about rookie stripes. Thoughts on rookie stripes?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Going away, I was surprised that I learned that the same way everybody else did through Ryan Williams, who is one of our designers here at Genie Motorsports. He busted that wide open on the Internet. Yeah, I was. You know, I don't. It shook me up there for a second because it's such a cool tradition, and a lot I saw, you know, of course, I listened to the conversation on social media, and a lot of people are going, well, it's not necessary now. You know, the drivers, they kind of know who everybody is. It's not for the drivers. It was for us. It was for me and you. And so when in today's. In today's nascar, where the fields are a bit smaller and the amount of cars that actually show up to try to qualify, qualify a race, or are kind of at the lowest marks that they've been in quite some time, we don't have much of a robust rookie battle. There's some that kind of come, come and go. And so I get why it's kind of not quite as necessary as it used to be. Am I. You know, is. Am I. Am I noticing that yellow stripe on the back of the cars like I used to. No. And so. But in this. In, like 1980, for example, when you went to the Daytona 500, there were probably 70 to 80 cars trying to qualify for the Daytona 500. Multiple 20, 25 rookies, maybe. Right. Lots of rookies. Right. Dozen or more. That was when it was necessary. Right. Not only for fans, but drivers as well. And it was extremely necessary back then. So it's kind of changed in terms of what purpose it served. But, man, I just, you know, and I hate. I don't. I don't hate to be that guy. Some traditions. What's wrong with them? Right? I mean, that. That was just a thing.

[G]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It didn't have to go away.

[G]

Yeah. If it ain't broke, like, it's not hurting anybody.

[TJ Majors]

I think it was more like you, You. If you lost your rookie stripe, it was because you earned. You earned that you weren't a rookie anymore. Like, hey, I've got that season under my belt now. Like, you kind of. I don't know, like we.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It was. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

I don't know. I kind of like kind of a.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Neat tradition that was a rite of passage or. Yeah, to your point, tj, it was kind of cool to get that rookie stripe off your ball.

[TJ Majors]

You earned it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And then there's this cool picture of AJ Foyt, I think in 1981, 82 or whatever, he went to Darlington to try to qualify for the Southern 500 and had to go through the rookie orientation. Or there was a story about that. There's a picture of his car with the rookie stripe on the back. I don't know, man. It's not a big deal. I'm totally going to forget about it. You know, five laps in the Daytona 500, I'm not going to give a crap.

[TJ Majors]

Is there even a Rookie of the Year much anymore?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There are some years where the battle is quite entertaining.

[G]

It's gonna be svg.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like, last year's was good.

[TJ Majors]

Last year's was, I think.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Host of our.

[G]

Yeah, yeah.

[TJ Majors]

You know, I kind of wish that got more.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Barry got out there into a lead and host of our kind of ran him down.

[TJ Majors]

I kind of wish we. That was. I mean.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Celebrated.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. Like. Yeah, because it was a big deal. Like, I mean, to me, I think.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That when people, not so much fans, but like when the industry execs and so forth get excited about a particular rookie, you got a guy like Chase Elliott or William Byron or somebody coming in, that's a big. That's already kind of an established name, then it's celebrated, then it's advertised, then it's. Then it's talked about. But last year's rookie crop wasn't very, you know, maybe not that much of an exciting one going into the year, but it turned out to be a pretty competitive to. Competitive race and a fun one to. To pay attention to. But, yeah, I just kind of thought it Was a good. Good. I mean, especially, like, at the Xfinity in the truck level.

[G]

Oh, it's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's. Yeah, kind of.

[G]

It's an identifier.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[G]

You know, and there's kind of a big deal when you rip those rookie stripes off.

[TJ Majors]

You go from trucks.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

If you go from trucks to Xfinity and your rookies there. To me, if you should carry it to the cup series. And then when you're there and you establish stuff, you lose it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[G]

Yeah. I mean, the word.

[TJ Majors]

You're.

[G]

Think you said it in the YouTube chat. Pamela. LD show. Peaceful. Tim. Are all saying it's tradition. You know, that's what's important. You know, you can't lose some of that identity.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I agree. And things like that. Yeah. Why do you. Yeah. Why do you. Didn't have to go away. Didn't have to go away.

[G]

Didn't have to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No. Yeah, it's fine.

[G]

Well, that's a good place. And I know the YouTube chat, they were. You know, they're like, oh, where are the questions? I screenshot a lot of the ones that I see in the YouTube chat. So if you didn't hear it today, just keep. Stay tuned for the next couple, because I put it in a big folder, but that's a good place to end as junior this week.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Appreciate everybody. Been fun watching the chat. I think I'm going to do this for every show.

[G]

We should all have it up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It is fun. All right, it's time for the white flag. Great show, tj. Appreciate you.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Good to be here, pal. Looking forward to this year, man. You ready?

[TJ Majors]

I'm ready, man. Today was a good kickoff. Thanks.

[Travis]

Tape it on Tuesday.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, we'll try Tuesdays from here on out. And I'll be on time.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Are you good?

[Travis]

Because you made fun of me.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I have whatever you had going on now. I've got it.

[Travis]

Oh, just cough, though. You're, like, trying to hold it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm not trying to get it out.

[Travis]

Just let it go. Like I'm gonna bring. You guys cough.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm afraid if I cough, I might fart instead. Same time.

[Travis]

Are you at that age where you don't know if it's a fart or.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You'Re going to yourself there? I just let it out. Farted. There you go. Farted on the show. You happy? This is not the first time. It's the only time I've ever told you I've done it. I was trying not to fart with TJ Sitting here.

[TJ Majors]

All right, wait, so you'll and we're live.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All the shows are coming back on February 2nd. Tear down door Bumper clear. Freddie Kraft, Tommy Baldwin, Carson Ellis. The new lineup for door bumper clear. Can't wait to see how that show does this year. Actions detrimental with Denny Hamlin is back again. We're excited about that. Thank you, Danny, for coming back for another year. I know you're having fun. Del Jr. Download with Dirty Air, me and TJ also, our guest show on Wednesday and Herman Schrader are going to be back. They're having a good time doing their show and I'm excited about that. And Speed street with, with, with Connor Daly and Chase Holden. So that's going to be. I wanted to say Carson Daly for some reason. Isn't that weird? I mean, isn't that weird?

[Travis]

Let's see if he can do a show.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I wonder if he. I bet he gets that a lot. Nah, Connor Daly is going to be running in the in car full time this year, which is really, really cool. When he's in the car, he brings so much insight to the show and he does not mind sort of talking about, you know, the ins and outs of, of the, you know, the drama going on in the Indy car world and there's a big excitement around IndyCar.

[Travis]

And he does a good job. He gets all the other drivers to join on.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He does, he does. And Fox putting out some promos.

[Travis]

Good ones.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So I'm saying. So there's some, some, some. There's gonna be some good content on Speed street this year. But there's more. We're dropping some big news on Wednesday that you'll want to keep an eye out for. It's about the Thursday show. That's all I can say.

[Travis]

This is killing you, isn't it?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, not really. I'm excited about it and I'm looking forward to this year. We've got a lot of great things. We did some retooling a little bit in off season. It happens from time to time. But I, you know, I'm getting up for it, man. I'm pumped. Today was fun. Everybody was involved. You know, I've really, really enjoyed the group that we got and like how we all have a lot of great chemistry and it seems like everybody enjoys each other. So this could be a really, really, really fun year for myself but for DirtyMome Media as a whole. And then January 29th at 7pm The Driven to give 400. All right.

[TJ Majors]

I'm pumped about that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's an online race. We're taking the mini stocks to Iowa. 400 laps. This championship event will feature drivers from junior motorsports, including 2024 Xfinity Series champion Justin Allgaier, Josh Berry, Tony Canaan. All kinds of other guys are going to be participating. Recognizable names. But basically we're taking, you know, 400 laps. We get four drivers per car. So me and UTJ are. Are sharing a car with Landon Huffman and Steven Stefan. And I'll. We're each going to run 100 laps and then switch drivers.

[TJ Majors]

It's good run the same team because I would wreck. Me and him would wreck with each other. Me and Landon would hit each other as well.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We're terrible. We are. It will be streamed exclusively on Twitch.

[Travis]

Is there pressure to win this?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No pressure. It's all for charity. I'm reckon we're raising some really, really good money. This is doing really, really good numbers in terms of the money it's gonna raise to just be having some fun on iracing.

[Travis]

This is the first annual. Right, that you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes. We've never done this, so, you know, drivers might go out and do golf tournaments and other things like that. We have a lot of events that we do it throughout the year. But this is the first time I didn't know we could actually raise money. This is cool because you can get people from around.

[Travis]

You don't have to get them to come out to an event.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think you pay 100 bucks as a driver to enter to be a part of a team. And yeah, we'll see how it does. And if we need to adjust that number or what have you to go forward, you can buy. Some people weren't quite understand how to take this part. You can buy a black flag and a caution. Like you can black flag somebody or have someone back. Black flag. Say somebody gets a really big lead. We can spit. We can. We can pay.

[TJ Majors]

I'm glad I'm on your team.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We can pay to have them black flag.

[Travis]

What's the pay?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

$500. Oh.

[G]

Oh.

[TJ Majors]

Everybody's black. It's really Steve to him.

[Travis]

I was in a black flag. Stephen, you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You need to get some. You know, you might want to get Tony Kanan to do that. He likes to do that. I was in another charity race with him last year where they were buying black flags and I bought a couple. I mean, it's just for. It's for charity. And so if we need a yellow, somebody needs yellow. At a certain point in the race to bunch of field back up. There may be a, you know, 500 donation coming across.

[TJ Majors]

You know, I'M wrecking Tony, though, because remember, he wrecked me in that race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Don't wreck, because then he's going to wreck one of us when we're driving the car.

[TJ Majors]

Well, that's fine.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No. So anyhow, it's gonna be a lot of fun. It is really. It is really gonna. Gonna be a good time. And I don't get too bent out of shape about the end result. We're just gonna have some fun. We've been testing the car. It's a good little combination between the mini stock and. And Iowa. And then obviously, before we go, I wanted to mention the Cars Tour. New River Valley All American Speedway is the first race of the year on March 1, 7pm on Flow. The car store west kicked off this past weekend with Harvick running second to his teammate Dawson Sutton. So the Cars Tour west and east are starting to get their seasons going. And March 1st for the cars tour series here on the east coast. Flow racing at 7pm I'll be tuning in. I'm not running in that one. I got about four races I'm going to run this year. We'll keep you abreast on everything going on there. The first one, I think is April 12th at Cordell. And. Yeah, that's. That's the show. We're good. Everybody good?

[Travis]

We're good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, we'll see you.

[TJ Majors]

See ya. Go, Bills.