ANOTHER Brad Keselowski Wreck that Dale and TJ Disagree On

Summary

The Dale Jr. Download – "ANOTHER Brad Keselowski Wreck that Dale and TJ Disagree On"

Date: June 16, 2026
Host: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (Dale Jr.), with TJ Majors and Freddie, featuring guest Chris Gale (Crew Chief, Denny Hamlin)

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Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the aftermath of the recent race at Pocono and looks ahead to NASCAR’s first-ever race at the Coronado Naval Base in San Diego—a unique, challenging new road course. The show features lively debates about a controversial wreck involving Brad Keselowski, big-picture discussions about caution protocols for lengthy road courses, NASCAR’s current points system, the business of Cup Series charters, and the latest Silly Season rumors. Crew chief Chris Gale dials in to give insights on Denny Hamlin’s strong performances. The episode rounds out with betting advice, O’Reilly Series previews, fan Q&As, and storytelling that blends humor, perspective, and technical analysis.

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Main Themes & Segments

• Pocono recap and San Diego preview
• Dale Jr. and TJ fiercely debate the Brad Keselowski wreck
• Race management and officiating challenges for the Naval Base road course
• Interview: Chris Gale on building long-run speed with Denny Hamlin
• Discussion: Cup Series points chase, Silly Season updates, driver and charter moves
• Preview and picks: San Diego road course ringers and Xfinity (O’Reilly) Series
• Listener Q&A, including “Who is Jimmy Jam?” and racing broadcast behind-the-scenes

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Pocono Recap and Points Battle

• Denny Hamlin’s Hot Streak: Dale Jr. praises Denny and the 11 team’s ability to manage tire wear and long-run speed, noting “He is not the fastest car at the racetrack when the race begins…but by lap 10, 11, 12, all the way through the rest of the run, he just gets better and better.” (Dale Jr., 02:44)
• Performance Management: Discussion on how experienced drivers like Hamlin focus on car feel and long-term balance, rather than headline times in practice (Dale Jr., 04:26; Freddie chimes in with Latart’s chef analogy, 03:27).
• Points System Intrigue: The panel reflects on how the head-to-head battle between Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick is keeping the points system exciting late in the season (Dale Jr., 16:36).

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2. San Diego: Naval Base Road Course Preview

• Unique Track Challenges: The San Diego course is noted for its elevation changes, bumps, and lack of run-off—“If we have a car that has contact with a wall and can’t continue, they’re going to have to throw a caution…a caution lap around that racetrack is going to take, let’s just say six minutes.” (Dale Jr., 07:32)
• Potential for Chaos: Warnings of “a madhouse” event with high attrition, blocked track scenarios, and what may become “a 40-minute caution” if handled poorly (Dale Jr., 12:17).

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3. NASCAR Caution Strategy – Local Yellows & Procedure Debate

• Long Cautions = TV Catastrophe: The hosts argue for NASCAR to adapt road course cautions so breakdowns and minor incidents outside the racing line don’t require full-course cautions (08:44–14:00).
• Rational Officiating Needed: “If a guy goes way off to the right…he’s not in a compromising position, do you just leave him over there? I would.” (Dale Jr., 10:56)
• Stage Yellow Rule: The group revisits why NASCAR resists ending stages early when cautions arise near stage breaks, agreeing this new course is the perfect scenario to change policy (12:55–13:56).

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4. The Brad Keselowski Wreck: The Great Debate

Timestamps: 23:11–30:00

• Incident Recap: A chaotic wreck involving Brad Keselowski, Austin Hill, Bubba Wallace, Joey Logano, and others at Pocono’s Turn 3.
• Who’s to Blame? Dale Jr. and TJ Majors argue heatedly about whether Bubba Wallace should have slowed for the wreck (“I just don’t like that people don’t lift for wrecks.” – TJ Majors, 26:13) or was simply caught in the chaos (“He sees the wreck happening down low...Joey spinning up in front of him is something he didn’t anticipate.” – Dale Jr., 30:05).
• Memorable Back-and-Forth:
  • “You have a right to your opinion, TJ Majors.” (Dale Jr., 28:15)
  • “Freddie says you’re wrong.” (Freddie, 28:19)
  • “You’re an idiot!” (Dale Jr., 28:02 – in playful, heated exchange)
• Broader Point: The guys use the wreck to highlight how unpredictable multi-car mayhem is and how split-second decisions look different on in-car vs. TV replay.

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5. Silly Season & Charter Market Moves

• Wood Brothers & Josh Berry: Confirmation that Josh Berry will depart at year-end; speculation on Jesse Love or Austin Cindric filling the No. 21 seat.
• Charter Value Discussion: “It’s still like...the business model for motorsports...is not super profitable.” (Dale Jr., 34:08) Detailed, candid talk about whether charters will see explosive growth or plateau until teams can profit by 5 to 10+ million dollars per year.
• No Guarantees: Even winning a Cup race “used to guarantee a 20-year career”; now, options are limited and “the silly season’s not all that silly anymore.” (Dale Jr., 40:19)

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6. Crew Chief Chris Gale: On Denny Hamlin’s Success

Timestamps: 58:18–75:50

• Crafting Long-Run Speed: Gale explains how the 11 team found a base setup last year at Vegas, then iterated for long-run advantage. “We’ve exploited a few things that, you know, we didn’t think were going to necessarily work out well...we’ve been able to just bring it to more and more racetracks.” (Chris Gale, 60:34)
• Collaboration Key: Gale credits Toyota’s “one team” philosophy and info-sharing across organizations for their edge: “The rising tide helps all boats float higher...if we pull the rope in one direction, even if not 100% right, you get there faster.” (65:55)
• Approach to Playoffs: No drastic changes—“I take it one race at a time…how do we just optimize the next one? How do we do that better?” (Chris Gale, 68:03)
• San Diego Prep & Chaos Prediction: Both host and guest expect unpredictability and “blocked track” scenarios; emphasis on survival and not bleeding points (70:32–73:43).

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7. Road Course Specialists & Betting Segment

• SVG as Favorite: All agree Shane van Gisbergen is the overwhelming favorite—“Anytime we go to a road course that no one has been on, it exaggerates his advantage...miles better than all these other drivers.” (Dale Jr., 77:36)
• Other Picks: Tyler Reddick, Ty Gibbs, Michael McDowell, AJ Allmendinger, and Daniel Suarez as strong road course bets (“Let’s talk about our top 10 parlay...those four, why not?” – Dale Jr., 81:45).
• Prediction: “There’ll be cars that absolutely nail the setup and there’ll be guys that run good that shouldn’t.” (Dale Jr., 83:14)
• O’Reilly Series Picks: Brent Cruz highlighted as road course favorite; Sam Mayer, Carson Kwapple, Justin Allgaier, and Austin Hill as top threats (85:57–87:29).

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8. Inside NASCAR – Practice, Qualifying, and Competition

• Practice Format Frustrations: The group dislikes the current split-group practice sessions and qualifying formula, advocating for single-session open practice and qualifying order based on points, not last week’s results (“They should just start practicing...get rid of the two groups practice.” – Dale Jr., 49:02).
• Track Conditions & Pit Picks: Discussion on how early qualifying runs are disadvantaged by “dirty” track surface, suggesting NASCAR use pace trucks or special equipment to “pick up” rubber before timed laps (52:01).

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9. Listener Q&A & Behind the Scenes Stories

• Who is Jimmy Jam? Dale Jr. shares the real off-track, hard-partying persona of Jimmy Johnson, revealing stories of golf course antics and good times, lamenting that “if you could have shown that side of yourself back when you were winning all those damn races…you would have won [Most Popular Driver].” (Dale Jr., 95:17)
• Broadcasting from the Carrier: Insight into the excitement and logistical hurdles of calling a NASCAR race from the control tower of an active aircraft carrier (98:43).
• Drivers as Crew Chiefs: Dale explains why most don’t make the jump in modern NASCAR—“They’re not engineers. But a lot of crew chiefs started as drivers at lower levels. They just had to change course.” (104:26; 105:31).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "You have a right to your opinion, TJ Majors." – Dale Jr. (28:15, during the heated wreck debate)
• "He’s not going to go out there and guarantee something. He wants to underpromise, overdeliver." – Freddie on Denny Hamlin (17:25)
• "I don’t care what the points separation is after Sonoma. Eight’s enough." – Dale Jr. (20:09)
• "If a guy’s sitting there off to the side and he’s not in a bad spot, you might consider holding onto the flag just a little while." – Dale Jr. (11:35)
• "It’s just a wreck." – Dale Jr., summarizing carnage at Pocono (26:26)
• "We race because we like to race, but...the business model of racing hasn’t improved...that’s why I say $100–$150 million is probably where [charter value] will sit." – Dale Jr. (36:03)
• "If you have a bad day somewhere, that shouldn’t affect where you qualify the next week." – Dale Jr. (48:12)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• Opening Banter/Pocono Recap: 01:01–16:36
• San Diego Road Course Preview & Caution Debate: 05:23–14:39
• Keselowski Wreck Disagreement: 23:11–30:00
• Silly Season/Charter Discussion: 32:14–38:10
• Practice & Qualifying Format Frustration: 46:32–54:17
• Chris Gale Interview: 58:18–75:50
• Road Course Ringers & Betting Parlay: 77:05–83:49
• O’Reilly Series Favorites: 85:16–87:49
• Q&A – Jimmy Jam & Broadcasting Stories: 92:36–103:12

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Language & Tone

True to the Dirty Mo brand, this episode is energetic, irreverent, and deeply inside the sport—blending honest, technical commentary with playful, sometimes heated, arguments and personal anecdotes. The show maintains the direct, candid voices of the hosts while making high-level strategy and behind-the-scenes stories accessible to longtime fans and newcomers alike.

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For Listeners

This episode is a blueprint for how modern NASCAR insiders view the sport: part business, part strategy, part chaotic spectacle—but always personal, passionate, and informed. Whether you missed the latest race, want betting tips, or are following the drama of Silly Season, this episode offers candid insight, unfiltered debate, and expert interviews.

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Ad reads, merchandise plugs, and outro segments were intentionally omitted for brevity and focus on core content.

Transcript

[Chris Gale]

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[TJ Majors]

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[Dale Jr.]

The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. This is the most fun I've had in this chair in the last hour and a half.

[TJ Majors]

Yes. I don't know if we've ever argued. Did I piss you off over the weekend?

[Dale Jr.]

Or I'm still sour that I wasn't the best man at your wedding.

[Freddie]

Who was your best man, Dale?

[Dale Jr.]

Tj. Tj, you don't need a cool vest for that race. What are you thinking? Get him, tj. Hell. Way to start the show.

[TJ Majors]

All right, then.

[Dale Jr.]

Hey, Everybody, it's Dale Jr. Back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. It's Tuesday. This is Post Pocono heading into San Diego. First time we've ever raced at the Coronado Naval Base. Naval base.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. TJ Majors here with me in the Arby's studio. This episode is presented by Arby's. Don't forget about Arby's. New meat and three box. You get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meats. Let's get the show started. We will have Chris Gale calling in in a bit, the crew chief for Denny Hamlin, who is on our heater here with three straight wins. And I'm on a heater.

[TJ Majors]

Are you three DNFs? I don't know.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, you're on a heater. All right,

[Freddie]

we'll get into that.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, we will. Denny, Denny's been doing awesome and so great opportunity for us to talk to the man behind the rent, you know, behind the toolbox wrenching on this car, getting her dialed in every week. He's done an amazing job because, frankly, you know, the Toyotas are riding in a bit of an Advantage right now. But Denny's Toyota seems to be the best Toyota. I have marveled at the way this car runs on the long run. He is not the fastest car at the racetrack when the race begins or in practice.

[TJ Majors]

I don't know. He starts on the pole a lot.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, lap, let's qualify and that's not

[TJ Majors]

practice lap on the track. Listen, I know what you mean.

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Lap one in practice, the 45 goes out there, blisters off. Lap, he was first out on the racetrack. That helps. But when the race begins, you know, five jumps out there, grabs the lead, runs pretty good. Stage one till then, he comes down there and run passes him. Denny's car doesn't fire off good. He talks about it on restarts and. But at lap 10, 11, 12, all the way through the rest of the run, he just gets better and better. Everyone else falls off more. Their balance gets tighter, looser, whatever. They're just not handling well. And his car just kind of runs the same.

[TJ Majors]

He's. It's no secret. Denny's a great race manager, though. He's always been that good. Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Yep, he is.

[TJ Majors]

Tire wear at Bristol. Denny's one of the guys that can make them tires last.

[Freddie]

I thought Latart brought up a good point the other week. Like, no, he's like the chef that doesn't measure things. So he's out in practice. He's not really focused on times, but he's more on the feel and stuff. So, like, he's not trying to get the fastest time on practice.

[Dale Jr.]

He's not.

[TJ Majors]

No.

[Dale Jr.]

He knows.

[TJ Majors]

He's looking for.

[Dale Jr.]

He knows his cars. His car's not set up for that. Right. And so he says it. I'm looking for a feel. And so he goes out there and runs and runs. Runs. Hey, even in practice at Pocono, he was like, I don't like the balance. And they're like, well, we need you to run longer. Because they needed to run as much fuel out of the car as they could so they could qualify with low fuel. And so, I mean, he's. He's working on that balance late. Late into the run and.

[TJ Majors]

But he knows what he's looking for.

[Dale Jr.]

He does.

[TJ Majors]

That's the. That's the experience.

[Dale Jr.]

He knows better than the other guys.

[TJ Majors]

He does.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

So rookies, they come in there, they don't. They're literally looking at lap times and be like, they're going to look at smt. I need to do that. They don't know what the feel is.

[Dale Jr.]

Like, that is hard to Do. I spent my whole career looking at that monitor on the pit box during practice.

[Freddie]

Damn.

[Dale Jr.]

He's trying to figure out how to get myself high, high up that line. And that's not what you need to do. But it's hard. You. You go out 40 cars, go out onto the racetrack in practice, and you look at that monitor and go, damn, 12th man, I want to be first. What do I need to do to be first? And you're going. You're trying to think in your mind, what do I need to change to go out there and run the fastest lap on the racetrack. And that is the absolute wrong thing to be doing in that moment.

[TJ Majors]

It is.

[Dale Jr.]

And it's hard not to do that. You need to go out there and go, what did it do at lap five? And what do I need it to do at lap five? What's it not doing? And what adjustment could I give my car to make it, you know, do the things I needed to do at lap 10?

[TJ Majors]

Sometimes I wish that board didn't exist.

[Dale Jr.]

You'd be better off.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

If you didn't look at it. But it's. It's.

[TJ Majors]

It's hard not to.

[Dale Jr.]

Hard because you want to be first. You want to be on the top of the board with the fastest lap, and you want to have the best car.

[TJ Majors]

It used to be the left side. Right. Because you go in there and it split the column. There's two columns. If you run the left side, you're pretty good.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. Well, Denny's pretty good right now, and we're going to a couple of road courses, though, where he's not been. You know, he publicly says it's just not his forte, but it'd be interesting to see if he can just survive at San Diego and.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

And come out with a decent result. I think that this is going to be chaos. If you've watched, there's a lot of videos now on social media of some iracing laps of cars going around the racetrack. There's a lot of elevation changes. There's a lot of hard downhill landings.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, those guys are making it look easy, too. By the way, some of them guys driving. Holy cow, are they making it look easy.

[Dale Jr.]

If you look at. You remember the downhill at Road America.

[TJ Majors]

That's. Yes. That I compared.

[Dale Jr.]

There's a couple of those there. Yeah, they're very similar. And those are. Those are inviting potential hazards. And at this particular racetrack, unlike Road America, there's no runoff. It's a tire barrier.

[TJ Majors]

Chicago.

[Dale Jr.]

That's right. You're going to hit so There's. There's a couple of downhills into some braking zones that I think are going to be problematic of some guys.

[TJ Majors]

Downhill by the carrier.

[Dale Jr.]

That's right.

[TJ Majors]

Yep.

[Dale Jr.]

And they're. And down at the bottom of those there's some bumps and so forth in. There's. There's all kinds of bumps and problematic issues.

[TJ Majors]

Two is a big, like when you're breaking down the hill, there's like a dip.

[Dale Jr.]

Yes.

[TJ Majors]

And it's like kind of.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, I think that's gonna bite some folks. There's a lot of bumps going around the track that are just going to

[TJ Majors]

throw cars off because that place is lined with those, like, I don't know what them shipping, how they do them. It's got them tracks.

[Dale Jr.]

Yes.

[TJ Majors]

And we are going over them. We're not going straight with them.

[Dale Jr.]

You're cross crossing them. Laterally loaded. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

And it bounces across them and.

[Dale Jr.]

Oh, man.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, I like it. I mean, it gives a track.

[Dale Jr.]

I love it too. Oh, I love it too. The only problem is TJ is it's a 3 1/2 mile course. 3.4 to be exact.

[TJ Majors]

Road America.

[Dale Jr.]

And if we have a car that has contact with a wall and can't continue, they're going to have to throw a caution.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Caution laps. There are going to be five minutes, five minimum.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

A caution lap around that racetrack is going to take, let's just say six minutes. And if we can't get, you know, if you have four caution laps. So you got to come by, open up pit road, 20 minutes. Oh, man. You have 20 minute cautions.

[Freddie]

Could you have cautions where it's just

[TJ Majors]

for that area or like local yellow.

[Freddie]

Local yellows.

[Dale Jr.]

That's something that I think NASCAR is going to have to ask themselves if

[TJ Majors]

we're going to run these big tracks like this. I think it's.

[Dale Jr.]

But if you can't move the car, if the guy's wrecked and he's in the tire barrier. Right. And he's stuck, you know, you what, you can't race around, race around it. So my. I would say this. Like, if I have a guy that goes. That gets in trouble and his car's out, not in a dangerous spot. I'm sorry, pal. You know, I mean, if there's a way for him to exit the vehicle and get off the racetrack and the car is not in a dangerous spot, I don't know if that even exists at this racetrack. But that might be the end of your day right there. And I'm not going to throw the caution to allow you to retrieve your vehicle and try to salvage something out of the day. I just don't know if I can do it.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I agree.

[Dale Jr.]

Listen, if the stages are 20 laps, the first two. You know what the stages are?

[TJ Majors]

20, 27, 20, 40, 75.

[Dale Jr.]

Okay. 20, 40, 75. So if you have a caution, I think.

[Freddie]

Right.

[Dale Jr.]

If you have a caution in stage one, half the stage is going to be ran under caution.

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

And you're going to have one. There's no way that they're going to run stage one. That ought to be a. That ought to be a bet.

[Freddie]

Yeah. What lap is the first caution?

[Dale Jr.]

No. Will there be a caution in stage one? That ought to be a bet.

[Freddie]

I think the bet should be what?

[TJ Majors]

Like there's a host of our. In the race

[Dale Jr.]

that's taking a step further. But they're going to have a caution in stage one. They're going to have one. You're going to run one third of that stage under caution, minimum. Stage two, same thing. They're going to have one or two yellows there. You're going to have a lot of caution.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I agree.

[Dale Jr.]

Unless NASCAR can be really stingy with the yellow flag. But that would mean basically, you know, leaving a guy out there on the racetrack if he's not in a compromising situation and not allowing him to be able to, you know, get himself to the garage or to the pits to repair his vehicle to be able to continue the race.

[Freddie]

I don't see NASCAR doing that.

[Dale Jr.]

I don't either.

[TJ Majors]

Do you think.

[Dale Jr.]

But they do that sometimes in sports car. If a guy miss. If a guy gets to a runoff area and parks, man, the race is going.

[Freddie]

Sorry about your luck.

[Dale Jr.]

Yep.

[TJ Majors]

So I'm interested in looking. Cause they tell us where all the cutouts are. They give us a map and say, hey, if you're in trouble, you can turn off here.

[Dale Jr.]

But rarely drivers use them.

[TJ Majors]

We. We don't. We only use them if we know you've blown up, blown the engine. Yes. You're not going to make it back.

[Dale Jr.]

No. Yeah. No driver is going to pull off in any of those areas because he's going to get his ass chewed.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

By his team.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. You should have stayed out there. Got quit. Yep. And you're losing laps.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

So I wonder if. If you're going to set the tone, you almost have to do it. Like, hey, you know, like you.

[Dale Jr.]

And tell them.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. I mean, hey, we're not. We're not just going to throw cautious because you're creeping around here or something. We're going to, you know, like you said, if guy goes way off to the right and whatever turn, whatever number that is, and he's not in a compromising position.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Do you just leave him over there?

[Dale Jr.]

I would.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, I think I would too, rather than bring another. You're not racing. Yeah, I don't want to pace.

[Dale Jr.]

No. So I think under this circumstance, you might. I think under this circumstance, if I was nascar, I would definitely change my protocols slightly. I don't know that I would really change any rules per se, but I would just be more stingier, I'd be more patient, I suppose, with.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

With throwing the yellow. Now, there are some scenarios where, you know, it's a wreck or spin around mid pack. You know, you don't want anybody piling in there wide ass open.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

So, I mean, you got to. You got to err on the side of safety, but if a guy's sitting there off to the side and he's not in a bad spot, you might consider holding onto the flag just a little while.

[Freddie]

Call for triple A, buddy. We ain't coming.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

So three to go in the stage. Do you let it run out? You know what I mean? Like, obviously, depending on.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, depending on where the guy's sitting,

[TJ Majors]

but I mean, does that make a difference if it's three to go in the stage or three laps into the stage?

[Dale Jr.]

They do. Hey, we've talked about it on this show.

[TJ Majors]

I know it's.

[Dale Jr.]

They call the race differently depending on what time, what moment in the race it is.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

And if they can. If they can allow it to finish the stage, they will. They're not going to. You know, you don't. The worst thing that could happen.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, man.

[Dale Jr.]

Is if we had a caution with

[TJ Majors]

three last stage, even four to go.

[Dale Jr.]

Oh, they're going to. They're going to then therefore have to pace to the end of the stage and then we're going to have the stage cautions. Oh, my God. Dude. It would be a 40 minute caution.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, man.

[Dale Jr.]

So NASCAR's got to be careful, and I would think that they would need to. I would hope that they're having some conversations internally about how they will officiate this event uniquely due to the length of the racetrack. I would just. I think that's a great way to put it.

[TJ Majors]

Let me ask you a question. If the kasha comes out, they're on 18. Caution comes out. Could they not say, this could end this?

[Dale Jr.]

We've talked about this.

[TJ Majors]

This can. This is the End of the stage, we're going to go ahead and do the cycle and carry on.

[Dale Jr.]

Right. We've talked about that. They haven't done that yet. And we've wondered why they wouldn't. They say that it. Well, they say that the crew chiefs on the pit box and the engineers, it throws all of their calculations on fuel. I know, who cares? But I don't know. I don't know why NASCAR wants to.

[TJ Majors]

If it's a natural yellow.

[Dale Jr.]

I know, I know.

[TJ Majors]

I don't.

[Dale Jr.]

I don't understand that. Maybe there's more reasons than I'm thinking. But you're asking basically, if the caution were to come out three laps before the end of the stage, why not throw the stage green checker, green checker right there and say, hey, the stage is ending early and now we're going to start that cycle so we can get back gracing. This would be a perfect example of that. I could think of, of where you would want to do that if you're forced into that situation. But they, they've had that chance multiple times over the last several years and they haven't used, they haven't changed that protocol yet. For whatever reason.

[Freddie]

This is their chance to do it and then carried over.

[Dale Jr.]

That's right.

[TJ Majors]

Another thing with that too, things changed. Could you not use.

[Dale Jr.]

We're forced into some change sometimes and we find out that it's actually a

[Freddie]

good thing and then use it for every race. I don't agree.

[Dale Jr.]

I understand what you're saying. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

What about using. And I know this is probably far fetched, but what about using alter? Like instead of running an extra lap to cross the line, you let them use the alternate start, finish line. That way you can open pit road.

[Dale Jr.]

Hell no.

[TJ Majors]

Can't mess with that.

[Dale Jr.]

I don't want them.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I'm just saying use that one.

[Dale Jr.]

I'm sorry.

[TJ Majors]

So you don't have to run a whole nother line.

[Dale Jr.]

I understand, T.J. but I'm sorry, I can't. The alternate start, finish line bugs me as it is even in practice and qualifying or in qualifying at Pocono, for example, putting it on the back straightaway over there. I don't love it.

[TJ Majors]

It's weird.

[Dale Jr.]

I don't love it. I know why we do it, but I'm like, I know why we do it, but I think it's unnecessary that we do it that way at this road course. We're going to do it and I'll be glad we're doing it at qualifying. Having an alternate start, finish line. Yeah, but truly it's. It's not.

[TJ Majors]

To me it works good at road courses.

[Dale Jr.]

It does work great at road courses. Does. But it's just not my. The, the purest in me. I struggle.

[Freddie]

I'm with you.

[Dale Jr.]

I wouldn't want to do it in race conditions ever. I wouldn't want to. Hey. Okay. This lap, it's.

[Freddie]

And it's also too confusing for.

[Dale Jr.]

It is.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, that's. That's what I would worry about.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, Denny Hamlin closed the gap again on Tyler reddick, now within 19 points if you look at the win. So you get 15 extra points for wins, bonus points. That's right. And Tyler has five, Denny has four. Now they're separated by 19 points. That's basically the difference between the one, the win bonus and the points difference between first and second. So, um, this point system is a blast. I love it. I love it, I love it. I was sitting there about five weeks ago thinking, man, I'm wondering what everybody's thinking. We got Justin allgaier with a 200 some point lead. And now. Yep. Well, he didn't have that five weeks ago, but he had a big lead. Tyler Reddick had a huge lead. And I'm sitting here thinking, man, is everybody going to start to turn on this point system? Are they going to start to say maybe this wasn't the right way because now we've got two runaways? Is this what's going to happen in the chase? Is this going to be decided with three races to go? You know, But Denny has saved the day. He has ran the man down. Tyler Reddick, King, Denny, and he's, he's done it in the last three weeks. We're coming up on two road courses where Denny isn't exactly the greatest. And so now we get to see Superman with some adversity.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, he's coming back out of the total.

[Dale Jr.]

Can he, can he take the cap get through these two weeks and keep that 19 point buffer? Or does it expand again? Does he have to regroup and rebuild and come back running back down?

[Freddie]

What do you think it will expand? The question is how?

[Dale Jr.]

Why are you doing.

[Freddie]

No, no, hold on, hold on. Let me finish. Because I'm going to. I'm going to you and. No, no, hold on, hold on, hold on.

[TJ Majors]

You're already giving up.

[Dale Jr.]

Hold on.

[Freddie]

On. I said it's going to expand. By how much? I don't know. But I will say. And you've said this, and I think you're right. I think Denny is kind of sandbagging the same way they saying, oh, I can't catch Reddick and I can't get to Dale seniors numbers. That's kind of how Denny operates. Is he never. He's never going to go out there and guarantee something he wants to under promise over deliver.

[Dale Jr.]

I agree with you there. That's absolutely what he's doing. He want, he wants to and absolutely believes that. That he should and will beat Ty Dillon as Sonoma in his bracket. Yeah, he does. He's not going to say that publicly. He's going to go, he's going to make a joke. There's my crypt.

[Freddie]

He said, I'm cooked, I'm cooked.

[Dale Jr.]

But behind, privately to himself, he's going, ain't no way I'm getting beat by Kai Dylan at Sonoma. I'm not, you know, I'm going to go out.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. How's the Denny Bros behind the scenes here?

[Freddie]

They're confident he won't say that in the Danny Bros, though.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, no, he's. But to himself.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, no, I.

[Dale Jr.]

To himself. Does he think he can catch my dad's win total? He does and he's probably considering it. You know, he's got to make that decision for himself of whether he wants to run long enough to do it. If he wants to, he absolutely can and probably will.

[Freddie]

Yeah. He says he's the most competitive person, therefore, like so I don't believe that he doesn't think that. It's just how he vocalizes it.

[Dale Jr.]

So I think, I believe and you know, just take this a step further. I think that Denny Hamlin is underselling to your point because he doesn't have to be braggadocious. He doesn't have to come out of there.

[TJ Majors]

No reason for it.

[Dale Jr.]

No, but he is. I believe what happens is he keeps, he keeps racing as long as he's winning. And I think that the new point system lengthens his Runway. And I also think that that number trying to match my dad's wins is a. Is another goal of his. And I think the closer he gets to it, the more motivated to. To beat it he will become. And so, you know, because it was the same way with 60. Right. And here we go, sprints right past 60. Right. And so, you know, he'll do that with 70 and then it'll be, wow, I can pass Dale Earnhardt in total wins. Let's go do that. And so I actually think he ends up racing to 48.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I don't feel like he's that close.

[Dale Jr.]

48. Around maybe 49.

[Freddie]

Interesting.

[Dale Jr.]

I think he could even be doing a one off here or there all the way through the 50?

[Freddie]

Yes. I mean, especially since you own your own team. Like it's very easy. He's gonna get in a car.

[Dale Jr.]

That's right. Yeah.

[Freddie]

How many points do you think leaving Sonoma? He needs to be in within to truly have a shot.

[TJ Majors]

How many are after sonoma?

[Freddie]

There'll be eight after Sonoma.

[Dale Jr.]

Eight more races.

[Freddie]

I think there's 10 left in the regular season, right?

[TJ Majors]

I think so.

[Dale Jr.]

He's. It don't. It don't matter.

[Freddie]

Hey, you got two super speedways in there.

[Dale Jr.]

I don't care what the points separation is after Sonoma. Eight's enough.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

The way he's running, eight is enough.

[Freddie]

Even if two are super speedways where

[Dale Jr.]

Tyler is the eight is enough. But anytime I get at those two,

[TJ Majors]

Tyler, I know he's not lucky.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Like he has been.

[Dale Jr.]

It doesn't matter to eight is enough. And I Even if it get balloons back to 100 points in two weeks, which it probably won't. Hey, everybody. The 2026 season is in full swing. And we've already had some really incredible moments. Why we love this sport. And when it comes to capturing those historical NASCAR moments, nobody does it better than Lionel Racing, the official diecast of nascar. Their race win diecasts are some of my absolute favorites in my collection. The scuffs, scrapes, confetti, the damage, every detail that tells the story of that win, it's in these die casts. These things look like they were pulled straight out of victory lane. And right now, Lionel Racing is offering free domestic shipping just for Dale Jr. Download listeners, you can use this promo code download26 at checkout. Head over to Lionel Racing.com to lock in your favorite NASCAR moments into your collection. Today, the biggest stage in world soccer is here. And every goal changes everything. And now FanDuel is giving you a reason to root for every single one. Introducing every goal bet on a match and get bonus bets for every goal scored in that match. That's right. More goals means more bonus bets. Everybody loves bonus bets. And all you have to do is turn on your token. You know how much we love throwing down some bets on FanDuel. We love it even more when there's a bonus bet offered. From the opening whistle to the final kick. Let there be goals on FanDuel. Visit FanDuel.com DirtyMo to get started now

[Chris Gale]

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[Freddie]

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[TJ Majors]

I mean, I know who's to blame,

[Dale Jr.]

but who's to blame for what?

[TJ Majors]

The wreck.

[Freddie]

The wreck.

[Dale Jr.]

The one that Brad was called in.

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

All right. So they get down into turn three and SVG missed the corner running the side of the 21.

[Chris Gale]

Yep.

[Dale Jr.]

That could have ended it. Right. That could have been the end of it right there. Right. The 33 goes to the inside and Austin Hill just doesn't give them enough room. They come off, off the corner and there's enough room for one car on outside of Austin Hill. Not, not two. And Austin Hill doesn't race a ton in the next gen. I don't know if he got tight right there or whatever, but I don't know, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that maybe there's just a ton of stuff happening and he's getting a lot of information about being clear. Not clear. Three wide, two wide clear the 20. Blah blah blah.

[TJ Majors]

We listen to it and you want up to.

[Dale Jr.]

Huh?

[TJ Majors]

And you want up right there and you want to.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, you're trying to finish the throttle.

[TJ Majors]

Yep.

[Dale Jr.]

So I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, but I don't know. You know, there's a lot of things that could happen to have avoided that brat. You know, the 21 doesn't want to lift, doesn't want to give up the spot. But he could have. In the middle of the corner, he could have said, hey, I'm beat.

[TJ Majors]

I think what the bad part is, is, like, so Brad checks up and Bubba goes actually back full throttle and tries to clear the wreck on the outside. And in doing so, he's going to make. He's probably going to run into the back of Christopher Bell. That's what people don't realize. Like, Chris rebels up against the wall, and he's going to. He's going to run into the back of him. Like, Brad hits the brakes and a guy comes flying by him, and it goes up there, and that's the guy that isn't coming down the track and hits us. I can see the frustration there. Bubba didn't cause the wreck.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, Bubba gets clipped by the 22.

[TJ Majors]

Yes.

[Dale Jr.]

And so, I mean, he gets. He's. He can't help that.

[TJ Majors]

Well, he could have slowed down and not been there, but, I mean, you

[Dale Jr.]

know, he saw a gap.

[TJ Majors]

Well, Freddie's telling him top hard, top hard. I mean, lift for wrecks. Sorry to cuss, but, like, there's a wreck lift.

[Dale Jr.]

I don't know.

[TJ Majors]

Hit the brake.

[Dale Jr.]

I don't know. I think that's ridiculous.

[TJ Majors]

Well, hit breaks for wreck, breaking for Rex.

[Dale Jr.]

Slowing down for Rex. Yeah, but he sees an option. He says he sees all the crashing happening down low, right?

[TJ Majors]

No, it doesn't open up. They're all up high like, they're up against the wall. Freddie tells him, one squeeze into the fence on the outside up here.

[Dale Jr.]

Like, there.

[TJ Majors]

Look at the 20. They're all about that 20.

[Freddie]

But he didn't hit Logano camp and hit him.

[Dale Jr.]

I know.

[TJ Majors]

If Lugano doesn't like, if Logano doesn't hit him, what happens?

[Dale Jr.]

This is the way TJ thinks, man.

[TJ Majors]

If Lugano doesn't hit him, what happens?

[Freddie]

Nothing. He keeps racing.

[TJ Majors]

He runs into the back of the 20 car. No, he doesn't. No. Oh, okay, okay. Have you looked at it?

[Dale Jr.]

I'm watching it right here.

[TJ Majors]

What's the gap?

[Dale Jr.]

Let's see.

[Chris Gale]

Watch.

[TJ Majors]

Here he comes. Bam. He's swerving to miss him.

[Dale Jr.]

He's going to. Yeah, he's probably not going to.

[TJ Majors]

He was swerving to miss the 20 car and the 22 hits him.

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

So if he lifts and follows us through, it doesn't happen. But he did. I don't think he has to.

[TJ Majors]

I just don't like that people don't lift for wrecks. Like, and I Like, I think it's

[Freddie]

dumb not to, but I don't think that you can like, I'm okay if a driver doesn't like.

[Dale Jr.]

I mean, the 22 just spun his old himself out.

[TJ Majors]

Well, he got, he kind of got hit a little bit. Like he ran into it.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's not like.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, no, it wasn't.

[Dale Jr.]

What the hell, Joey? I'm just saying, like, I'm just watching this over and over. I'm like, it was a wreck. It's just a wreck. 2022 just loses it trying to, you know, trying to not be in the wreck. He gets clipped or something, but you know, he does coming by and just gets like the 20 slow. Cause he's in the wall, right?

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, no, they're. They're all slow up. That's what I'm saying. He's slow against the wall. Why are you going top hard? That's what I'm saying, like.

[Dale Jr.]

But I mean, he could see in front of him. I don't think he runs into the 20i.

[TJ Majors]

He's going way faster. He's swerving to miss him. When Joey hits him.

[Dale Jr.]

He is.

[Freddie]

If Bubba lets up, he probably gets

[TJ Majors]

hit more by point to really follow. Brad drives right through the middle with no nothing near us right there.

[Freddie]

No, no, I'm saying the 22 probably hits him still.

[Dale Jr.]

He gets clipped in the left rear. If he slowed down, he probably runs. He probably doors the 22.

[Freddie]

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

[TJ Majors]

If he lifts and follows us through, Joey's up against the wall and he goes through the middle.

[Dale Jr.]

Oh, you want him to follow you?

[TJ Majors]

Well, I would just follow. I mean, even if he's off staggered, Joey's up against the wall.

[Dale Jr.]

I agree.

[TJ Majors]

Like, Joey's not coming down. He's not going fast enough.

[Dale Jr.]

I'm just saying if you're wanting to

[TJ Majors]

23 to slow down, I just think there's a wreck.

[Dale Jr.]

He ends up probably hitting the 22 in the passenger side door.

[TJ Majors]

I don't think.

[Dale Jr.]

No, because the 22 therefore then slides across the track in front of him.

[TJ Majors]

So the car that follows us through the wreck. Look, I'm just, I'm just saying watch, watch.

[Dale Jr.]

I just, I'm just saying it to tj. I'm watching the same. You're watching.

[TJ Majors]

There's a car behind us. The black hood right here. Follows us right through them that have been Bubba right there, right through the middle.

[Dale Jr.]

But Bubba's on the outside.

[TJ Majors]

He's not on the outside. He was behind us, watches in car. He's 2,3 car lengths behind us.

[Dale Jr.]

In car.

[TJ Majors]

I've. I went and watched it.

[Dale Jr.]

He gets the outside wall right there. You're an idiot.

[TJ Majors]

How my. Like watches in car. He throttles up and goes around the outside into a wreck. They're wrecking. Slow down.

[Dale Jr.]

All right, you're right. You have a right to your opinion, TJ Majors.

[Freddie]

Freddie says you're wrong.

[Dale Jr.]

Of course he does.

[TJ Majors]

Well, Freddy's off to top hard. How'd that work out for him? Looks pretty good right here.

[Dale Jr.]

Why didn't you slow down?

[TJ Majors]

We did.

[Dale Jr.]

Why didn't you slow down more? The 23 sliding across your nose. You run right into it.

[TJ Majors]

Well, I can't control the fireball.

[Dale Jr.]

Why don't you slow down a little bit more than that? There's a wreck happening.

[TJ Majors]

Well, you can't slow down. The guys that want to stay in the fog stop.

[Dale Jr.]

You missed it.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, until the guy comes around us and enters the wreck.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, you better. You should have slowed down.

[TJ Majors]

We did. You know who didn't?

[Dale Jr.]

The 23 is exiting. Oh, man.

[TJ Majors]

Exiting what?

[Dale Jr.]

Exiting the corner. Normally up against the wall and talk.

[TJ Majors]

We all are. And then they start.

[Dale Jr.]

He said he was behind you.

[TJ Majors]

He was behind us.

[Dale Jr.]

I know, dude. I'm watching it. He was behind you, but he comes up off the corner, out to the wall. You. You go left. He goes right.

[TJ Majors]

Go left. Because there's a wreck.

[Dale Jr.]

I know, but the wrecks going down

[TJ Majors]

the track, the problem is, instead of lifting, it's fine. If there's a wreck, you stagger. You're not gonna follow the guy through the wreck. You're not gonna try to. The problem is this. With the right foot. Yeah, that's the problem.

[Dale Jr.]

All right.

[TJ Majors]

Do you not think so?

[Dale Jr.]

I don't. I. I don't know, man. I don't. If he's wide open, he goes back

[TJ Majors]

to, like, 98, 95% throttle. Yeah. And then hard brake.

[Dale Jr.]

You've never gassed it up to try to get through a crash. If you saw a hole, I don't

[TJ Majors]

think you gas it up. Well, there's not really a hole there. There's truck cars in front of him, no matter what.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, but he sees the wreck happening down. He might not be looking at the 20.

[TJ Majors]

I think you look the. The only time.

[Dale Jr.]

That was a great look at it right there.

[TJ Majors]

The only time I try to throttle is when you see cars, you're already

[Dale Jr.]

kind of throw back a little bit right there.

[TJ Majors]

You throttle up. When you try to miss cars coming

[Dale Jr.]

back down Right this Is a great look at it right here.

[TJ Majors]

What's the great look right here? This is a good look. All right, so he fades behind us. We see the wreck. They're wrecking. We go low, he's full throttle. Then bam.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, he's just trying to go through it.

[TJ Majors]

I just.

[Dale Jr.]

He sees the wreck down low and doesn't he. Joey spinning up in front of him is something he didn't anticipate.

[TJ Majors]

No, I don't think. Well, nobody saw Joey coming back up there. I just wish people would slow down more, that's all.

[Dale Jr.]

All right. Well, big wreck, though. Yeah, it was. Did you think that what could have been done for the wreck to have not happened at all?

[TJ Majors]

I mean. Yeah, you always think about that, like, yeah, SVG could have made the corner.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Like he used Josh up pretty hard.

[Dale Jr.]

He damn sure did.

[TJ Majors]

So. And then Austin Hill just came along at the wrong time. He probably.

[Dale Jr.]

If Austin Hill is. Is. Even if Austin Hill isn't there, do they. Don't they still run into the wall?

[TJ Majors]

I don't think so. Yeah, I don't think so. Just when I went back and looked at all the incomes down, I think

[Dale Jr.]

they make gets down because I think

[TJ Majors]

he gives them enough room. I think Austin Hill probably drives both of them. Drives by both of them off the corner.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Freddie]

Well. What Brothers tweeted out and said that the SVG had been kind of going at Josh for a couple laps.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Really?

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Here I thought I read that too. Like, he's in him.

[Dale Jr.]

Like, oh, there's. Oh, this is on board.

[TJ Majors]

But they're three wide. I.

[Dale Jr.]

Door Z right there. Go back. Top one. Go back.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. Let's see this. I need to see who's. Was somebody trying to dive on Josh right there, though?

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. I don't know. But there was some contact that happened just before that, so.

[TJ Majors]

But SVG gets by here.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, he runs Josh up right here, too. Watch, he hangs like a right. Right here. Look at him.

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Bam. That's. You're not making. You're not getting high side here.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Which. I mean, that happened and they went

[Freddie]

after Ty there it looks like the 97 is.

[TJ Majors]

He's got all the lanes covered, don't he?

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Freddie]

I think apparently he's been listening to Ross.

[Dale Jr.]

I didn't see all this Great.

[TJ Majors]

And that. That little swerve into three where Josh was going to get out there was

[Dale Jr.]

like just the wall contact. Interesting.

[TJ Majors]

Hated it for Josh, though, too.

[Dale Jr.]

Old Wood brothers keeping receipts there.

[TJ Majors]

Speaking of Wood brothers.

[Chris Gale]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

What about it?

[TJ Majors]

It's on our sheet.

[Freddie]

Josh. Barry.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, Josh. Oh, well, yeah, that. That is kind of old news. Josh Berry and the Wood brothers will part after the end of the season. There's speculation about who might go into the 21. Jesse Love is one of the names that gets tossed around.

[TJ Majors]

What do you think, T.J. no, I've heard that. You don't know. You've heard different things from. From Jesse Love to. I've also heard that Jesse, you know, might get in one of them other cars, teammate cars as well.

[Dale Jr.]

So.

[TJ Majors]

But I don't think that's happening.

[Dale Jr.]

Oh.

[TJ Majors]

Like switching them.

[Dale Jr.]

But like put, you know, somebody from the Penske camp goes down to the 21 and.

[TJ Majors]

Yes.

[Freddie]

So Cedric.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. Wow.

[Dale Jr.]

Oh, you're just making assumptions. Yeah.

[Freddie]

Lainey has an extension. Who else is.

[TJ Majors]

You shouldn't assume.

[Dale Jr.]

Damn. You just said making assumptions.

[TJ Majors]

Shouldn't assume.

[Freddie]

Well, you're the one.

[Dale Jr.]

Like send your fans your thoughts.

[Freddie]

Let's say the name.

[TJ Majors]

Hey, it's been. I think it's been pretty common now

[Dale Jr.]

that I would say Jesse. I've heard that too. That it's Cinder could be put down to the 21 and Jesse Love could go in the two. I just don't think that's what happens. I think Jesse Love goes to the 21. He has probably a year, two years there. If he's produces, then he gets. He gets to go.

[Freddie]

This won't happen. And I know they wouldn't, but if I was the Wood brothers, I'd be calling RFK right now. How much do you want the charter for? But I mean, they're. They're not going to. But man.

[Dale Jr.]

Man, you could sell one for 100 right now away.

[Freddie]

100 million easily.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. Yeah, I would be considering that. Yep. I think that their peak value is probably 150. I'd be. I would be a little surprised if they go to, you know, in the 300, 400, 500 value range for.

[Freddie]

Not yet.

[Dale Jr.]

They're just the business model for. For motorsports in general. It's. It's not.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Super profitable.

[Freddie]

I'm curious to see what the first like now that the. After the lawsuit, what the first charter goes for post.

[Dale Jr.]

It's still like if this is the deal. So running a race car in. At the cup level is not a mega profitable business. You can do it. You can. You can do it and break even. You can do it and make a little bit of money. In some. Some years, there's a 2, $3 million profit, but there's just as easily a 2 or 3 million dollar loss the following season, depending upon how much you tear up and all that and where you finish in points. You're literally out there racing for the owners points purse and the race purse. And your success or lack of success will determine your final, you know, profit or loss. And so running a business where you're spending tens of millions of dollars to operate, it needs to be more profitable than just a couple million bucks for the charter itself, the actual val, the actual franchise, to truly gain that 300, $500 million value they can get there. It's going to take a lot of work to get to where race teams are more profitable. And then once that happens, everybody's going to want in.

[Freddie]

Right.

[Dale Jr.]

And then when you have a lot of buyers, then the value of that charter goes up. Right now you only have the people. The only people that really wanting charters are the people that are already here.

[Freddie]

Yeah, it's a handful of people.

[Chris Gale]

Yeah.

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

You don't have a bunch of new people.

[Dale Jr.]

No. And so the business model of racing hasn't improved over the last decades. It's always been this way. And that's okay. You know, it would be nice if it was super profitable. Hell, I'd love to be making a ton of money racing in O'Reilly series, but it's just not. Not the way it works. But we knew that. But we race anyways. You know, we race because we like to race, but. So that's why I say that 100 to $150 million value is probably where it'll sit for a while until these teams can find a way to profit the, you know, the 10. The 5 to 10, $15 million annually. I get. What I guess I'm saying is, is like if the Wood brothers did want to get out, I have not heard they do, and I don't think they do, and I don't think they will. I don't believe that they would be regretting that sale if they sold for 100 and, you know, maybe five years from now they could sell it for 150 million. Does that really matter?

[Freddie]

No.

[Dale Jr.]

They're going to hold out for five years and they're probably going to waste or spend that 50 million.

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

That they're going to probably make in waiting. But I don't believe 10 years from now we're going to go. They should have held onto it because now they're half a billion.

[Freddie]

Yeah, that's. That's not making that jump.

[Dale Jr.]

Not at all. But I could be wrong. I mean, NFL teams like Washington in the 90s sold for 800 million and then recently just sold for 6 billion. You know, I know NFL teams like the Panthers sold for 2 1/2 billion.

[Freddie]

Yeah. It's just not apples to apples, though,

[Dale Jr.]

comparing now, you know, but you're. I'm just saying they have increased in value, but those companies make hundreds of millions of dollars being NFL teams.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, they make money.

[Dale Jr.]

They make money.

[Freddie]

Yeah. Each year they're guaranteed.

[Dale Jr.]

Car teams are not showing that. We've seen the. We saw through the lawsuit what these teams lose and make.

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

It's not this big profit system.

[Dale Jr.]

No. And until it's a big profitable business, the values of the charters are going to stall at 100 to 150, I would guess.

[TJ Majors]

Wasn't the lawsuit to fix some of that, though?

[Dale Jr.]

Yes, the lawsuit was to get the charters permanent.

[TJ Majors]

Permanent.

[Freddie]

And the TV revenue, I think, is changing so a little bit. But you're still not guaranteed to make $10 million a year.

[Dale Jr.]

The one thing that they wanted, they weren't trying to fix that. I mean, they would have liked to have. They were basically. They were more apt to lose money than they were to make money. And so they did go after some more TV money to make their opportunity to break even or profit somewhat.

[TJ Majors]

Better.

[Dale Jr.]

Better. But the most important thing was the permanent charter. Because if you're, you know, there was this threat, though I knew it would probably never happen, that the charters could just disappear. And there were. There's this thing that you. You can't hold in your hand. I guess you could if it was a, you know, you've got a charter.

[TJ Majors]

What is a charter? Is that it? Is that your charter?

[Dale Jr.]

Here's a chart on a piece of paper.

[Freddie]

It's a piece of paper said, I own a charter.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. It's 25 to $50 million, but if you give it to me permanently now, it's immediately $100 million. Now, every team wanted that. Hell, yes.

[TJ Majors]

Right.

[Dale Jr.]

So they got it. And that was really, really good that they. They were able to obtain that because, you know, the charters there was. I don't think it would have happened, but they absolutely could have lost. The chartered system itself could have been thrown in the trash one day for a different idea or a different approach.

[TJ Majors]

That'd be rough.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. That would have been hard. Hard to turn. That would have been hard to reverse and get back out of. But.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I don't know if they're coming.

[Dale Jr.]

The teams felt that threat for sure. Well, I. I don't know what happens to Josh Barry. I don't, you know, the one thing that I was talking to somebody about this week is like in the Cup Series, you know, there's the silly seasons. Not all that silly anymore.

[Freddie]

Yeah. Because it has to happen so, you know, in advance.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. And there's not a ton of options.

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Ain't a ton of rides out there.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. There's just not open. Open stuff.

[Dale Jr.]

No. And so, man, I thought if you want a Cup race, dude, you were going to have. You were years, you were at least guaranteed the career.

[Freddie]

Right.

[Dale Jr.]

A 20 year career. Boy, you, you could run, you could milk that single win. Like, you know, no disrespect. No disrespect, but a lot of guys did in, in the 80s and 90s and so forth, they win a race. And Derek Cope, guys like that, man, dude, they. Greg Sacks, man, they find rides. They'd find something. Every year they'd be in something. Right. And it's just not that way anymore, guys. There's not a lot of turnover. There's not a lot of churn. And so when you look at it, let's talk about it. The 33 is open. There's not a guarantee that it's an Austin Hill.

[TJ Majors]

It doesn't sound like it's Jesse.

[Dale Jr.]

Doesn't sound like it's going to be Jesse.

[TJ Majors]

But there's other reasons for that too, though. It's not just that. It's like, I think the sponsors, I don't think Jesse. I think Jesse's age is part of that.

[Dale Jr.]

I feel like that there's. I haven't. I don't think this is real and I don't even know that this is being contemplated.

[TJ Majors]

Can't wait for this.

[Dale Jr.]

But Noah GRAGSON to the 33, I've heard that rumor. Because of the Bass Pro Shop connection. They love him.

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

They always have. And if that relationship is still as strong today with Bass Pro Shop and Noah, because way back when bass pro, the 19 was open, bass Pro Shop was like, hey, what about Noah? And JGR was like, no, no, we're going to, we're going to go. We're going to do Briscoe. And they were like, oh, all right, I guess we're doing Briscoe. But so, I mean, there's that connection with Bass Pro Shop and Noah and you could bring Noah in there to the 33 and he would be a good fit for that, that company.

[TJ Majors]

I feel like him.

[Dale Jr.]

And also personality wise. Yeah, I think he does. But I don't know that RCR wants this. That would open up the four where There's a potential that Josh goes there. I know that before Josh got the Wood Brothers ride, there was, you know, there was an. There was some conversation around front row as an option for him before.

[TJ Majors]

A couple places that.

[Dale Jr.]

Couple places he's looking at, like the 33. There's no. There's no real opportunity. Like, we're like, come on, guys. What other cars are. Are going to be available and open on the cup side?

[Freddie]

I mean, we think McDowell sticking around until Tristan. Yeah. JGR is not opening up. Potentially Bowman, but if that's Bowman, it's Corey Day or Zillich.

[Dale Jr.]

Not. That's not going to be available.

[Freddie]

Yeah. I mean, it's.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. So if maybe. I mean, this is getting down in the weeds, but if Zillish does depart, does that open that. There could be a seat there. But, I mean, there's still not a ton. I mean, it's. You're getting pretty far down the line.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. I think whatever Josh ends up doing, it's going to be a surprise because I don't think any of us have a. Got a good idea of on something that, like, makes sense. I was surprised that he ended up at the Wood Brothers last year. That was a. That was a bit of a surprise, to be honest with you. I wouldn't have guessed that, but. Or not last year, the year before.

[TJ Majors]

Year before. Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

But, you know, so it'll be interesting to see where he lands. And maybe it could be on Saturday. Maybe he could be racing back in the O'Reilly series.

[Freddie]

Be great to have him back.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Freddie]

I mean, I hate it for him,

[Dale Jr.]

but God just wants to make a living driving race car.

[Freddie]

He's really good at it, and, you know, I think you need some. Some veterans in the sport.

[TJ Majors]

You know, it's weird, though, because it looked like when Josh won that Vegas race, they were.

[Dale Jr.]

They had a run. They were fast all year.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, they were like him and the crew chief, I think it was. Miles were clicking.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, they were fast all year this year.

[Freddie]

I mean, Penske's not crushing it either.

[Dale Jr.]

This year it's been not good, but he's been. The Fords are not good. They've all kind of struggled. He's kind of been back there with his teammates at Penske. You know, Blaney's ran good at times. Cindrick's, you know, done decent. But, I mean, Josh isn't, like, way out here on an island in terms of performance.

[TJ Majors]

Like, what are you going to put in that car that's going to make it like, automatically, like, I don't know.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, that's the other thing. I don't think that they. I don't think they. I don't think there's anybody they put in that car where it runs better.

[TJ Majors]

That's. Yeah, that's kind of what I was saying right there. Like, I think Josh. I think Josh is doing all he can do. And I don't think you put something else in there, you're not going to gain 15 spots.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. We. The cup series versus other series o' rally truck or anything else is just. It's a huge jump.

[TJ Majors]

Big jump.

[Dale Jr.]

I mean, look at Zillich this year. I just don't think that the chain. I don't. That's not. You know, Wood brothers have every right to run their program however they want to run it. If they want to move on, try and try something different. Absolutely. I just don't know that. And I don't know that they're. Look, I don't know that they expect performance to, like, flip immediately with a driver change. I don't think it does. But, hey, I will say this, too. It was a hell of an opportunity for Josh to. To race for them. They got a win in Vegas. They had some moments where they showed speed and potential that the Wood brothers had never shown. Remember last year, all the laps led, all that. There were these statistics with them and Josh that they hadn't had in decades. So, I mean, there was some. Some real good stuff there. It's been a tough, tough year this year for a lot of different reasons. But when they paired up with Josh last year, they were doing things they hadn't done in a really, really long

[TJ Majors]

time at tracks you didn't expect.

[Dale Jr.]

That's right. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

And so.

[TJ Majors]

And this goes to, like. I know I talked to you a little bit earlier, like, once you get in a hole right now, the way this system is with the metric deal, like, cloth bothers me. Yeah. It bothers me a lot that you can't. You don't get a chance to get out of it. You don't get a chance. You're in the. You're in the crappy practice group.

[Dale Jr.]

I don't know why they do that. Like, why don't they have just one practice that.

[TJ Majors]

And why. I don't know.

[Dale Jr.]

What do they have two groups for?

[TJ Majors]

I don't know. I really don't know. Like, I think you just don't get a chance. You don't get that little shot in the arm. Like, you have a couple of bad races. It might not even be your fault. You're caught up in other people's stuff and then now you got to go out and run and you know this week will be a little bit different, but it's a road course. But like normally you go to another track, you're in the bad group, you gotta. You're gonna settle for hopefully a top, maybe top 15, depending on where you go out. I mean, that's just how bad the, the track changes and the groups are and stuff. And you don't really get a chance to dig back out and.

[Freddie]

Yeah, you do.

[TJ Majors]

It's not easy. No.

[Dale Jr.]

Diddy talked about it on his.

[Freddie]

Zane Smith's doing a pretty good job, isn't he?

[TJ Majors]

Is he?

[Dale Jr.]

Then he said himself, it's hard to climb out.

[Freddie]

It's hard. I know it's not easy, but it's like not impossible.

[TJ Majors]

It's not impossible, but when you're in, you're not. Not Everybody drives the 11 car.

[Freddie]

Okay, but we've seen legacy getting out. Like drivers can go out there and get a good result.

[TJ Majors]

I'm not saying you can't go get a good result, get a good result, but you can't. It's harder for someone that's not a Hendrick car.

[Freddie]

Professional sports, it's hard. Like, so we're going to.

[Dale Jr.]

But you're.

[TJ Majors]

But you don't have to.

[Dale Jr.]

I.

[TJ Majors]

You don't have to make it easier for qualifying.

[Dale Jr.]

Look, qualifying is going to be the way it is. Everybody has to go out there, everybody has to run one lap, no problem. And they could probably change the equation of how, how it weighs to where, you know, wherever you go out is more indicative of your points position, not so much how you ran last week because if you have a bad. If you're a great car and a great team and you have a night or a shitty day somewhere, that shouldn't affect where you qualify the next week. It should be more of a body of work where if, you know, maybe it's more weighed toward where you are in the point system, you know, in overall points as to how you qualify. I do. I don't know why we run double two groups for practice. I think they should just start practicing.

[TJ Majors]

Everybody go out, 50 minutes, two sets of tires.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, yeah. Go practice. And that would alleviate some of this, you know, some of the. I think that that makes it really difficult on teams that go out in that first session and then the next group goes out on a, on a racetrack. That's a lot more similar to how you're going to race, like, the first session really is just rubbering the thing in it is. And they get their track, their track, their track changes so much because they start green and they rubber d. Rub it in, or they start on the O'Reilly rubber, the truck rubber, and they got to wear all that off because it's a different tire. And then they put, you know, they get the track kind of prepped for group B. Group B gets to go out there and go, okay, this is pretty close to how Sunday will be. And they just run and get to work on their car better.

[TJ Majors]

And the qualifying to race adjustments are a lot easier when, you know 100%, you know.

[Dale Jr.]

So that to me is something that could change is get rid of the two groups practice, because it. I don't know what other reason it has to be there, but. And qualifying could be more weighed toward your overall points position. And that'll be what it is. It is what it is, right?

[Freddie]

I'm okay tweaking the formula. I just don't think a random draw should be done.

[Dale Jr.]

Random is not a good idea.

[TJ Majors]

I think random is better than we do now. Random is not the right way.

[Dale Jr.]

Random is not good because that. That sucked, man. You would.

[TJ Majors]

Well, yeah, but it also helped you at times, too.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, but I mean, you want it to be more consistent.

[Freddie]

Like, hey, there's enough luck in the sport. We don't need to add another piece of luck.

[Dale Jr.]

I don't know that random. Random would be fun for a fan or broadcaster.

[Freddie]

Yes.

[Dale Jr.]

But when we're talking about, like, purity and performance and racers and how should it. How should it probably truly be done? It should be weighed more toward, like, your points position.

[TJ Majors]

Like, you go out around cars that you're near.

[Dale Jr.]

That's right. You're going to qualify around cars that your. Your points, you're competing with in points.

[TJ Majors]

And I agree with that. More than what we're doing now by far.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, like, you know, it's going to the, The. It's going to be tougher for the guys that are way down in points, but that you're down there because you're not fast. You got to try to work on your.

[TJ Majors]

But if you put together a couple

[Dale Jr.]

solid races, your climb, several points, you know, you.

[TJ Majors]

I just think. I just think a DNF kicks you so far down, like you're in that

[Dale Jr.]

the jump, the first in qualifying. So the other thing too is, is that we qualify right after we practice. And I've done this in the O'Reilly series. The racetrack is awful. So you've practiced for an hour between the two groups. Tracks got a ton of rubber on it. The first five, six cars, all they do is go out there and slide all over the place, pulling up all this rubber.

[TJ Majors]

Yep.

[Dale Jr.]

And they make the track really nice and green for the 15th car, the 10th car. And as the practice, the qualifying goes, the car, the track improves because it gets cleaner and cleaner and cleaner. So it's just. It's just an advantage for naturally getting faster. Yeah, it's an advantage to go later. I don't know how. You know, one thing they did at Bristol is right after practice, they sent pace trucks out there that ran around that racetrack like, 10, 20 laps, picked up some stuff, and nobody was like. I was like, holy, that's nice. And I was watching them. I'm sitting there, one of the first cars to go out and qualify, and I'm in my car, and I'm watching the rubber get picked up by the pace trucks, and I'm like, yeah, tell them keep going. Keep going. That's nice. Yeah, go faster.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

And so the track was actually improved by that.

[TJ Majors]

And you can see it, like, the track changes color.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. And I ended up going out there. I can't qualify for, and I qualified 15th.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I remember that.

[Dale Jr.]

Going third or something. It was awesome.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I remember that.

[Dale Jr.]

Had the pace trucks not done that, I'd have qualified 25th or worse.

[TJ Majors]

There's just. There's just so much compounded on it. Like, you go out. You go out in the top five, you have a, you know, bad run because the tracks bad. Then guess what? You pick. You pick your pit. So you have a terrible pit. You got. You can't bail out. Get bailed out that way at all. There's just so much stuff that they need. Stacks up.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. They need to come up with. I wonder if they could come up with an apparatus that they could take around the racetrack for a couple of laps that could try to pick up a majority of the rubber that they've laid down.

[TJ Majors]

Like track packers, kind of.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. So if they have. Yeah, if they had, like, this thing that had, like, two or three rows, and it was like, maybe 10 tires wide.

[TJ Majors]

10 tires? Yeah, just old tires.

[Dale Jr.]

Just old tires. And it's like 10 tires, three rows deep, and it's this long trailer of just tires, and you go out there, and this thing just runs around the track about three or four times in the groove. Right. And just tries to get as much of that rubber up as it can. Yeah, that might. Cause I'm telling you, that's made a big difference at Bristol. And I don't see them doing that everywhere, especially the larger tracks. They don't even do it. They just in practice and send the first guy for qualifying out minutes later. Yeah, 10 minutes and he's out there on that old rubbered up track. No grip.

[TJ Majors]

And it doesn't drive anything like what he last remembers it either.

[Dale Jr.]

No, because he wasn't. Track was green when he was out there.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, that's what. That's what I mean. I just think there's too many things. It's too big of a gap.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

But.

[Dale Jr.]

All right, shout out to Legacy for their improvement over the last couple of weeks. Two top 10 finishes this weekend at Pocono. They've been gaining on it. Jimmy and his team went the long way to get the get to where they're going, but they're making it.

[TJ Majors]

Why do you say the long way?

[Dale Jr.]

Well, the rumor is, is that when Jimmy got a hold of this race team, they could take all of the tools that Toyota has, SIM and all of these things, and use it basically, all the same stuff that JGR has. But I think Jimmy and his groups decided to build their own SIM and build their own programs and build their own tools. They get a lot of information from Toyota around aero mapping and bodies and all of the down. All of the wind tunnel stuff. They get all of this great. They get same information, but the tools they use in house, they wanted to build them themselves. And that took a while for them to get up to speed.

[Freddie]

I believe they're also paying JGR now for some information.

[Dale Jr.]

They may be they're doing it the right way. It took a while to get here, but I believe this is sustainable.

[TJ Majors]

You're saying there's a wrong way?

[Dale Jr.]

I think it's sustainable what they're doing.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, it's good to see them up there.

[Dale Jr.]

This isn't a pop and a flash just because they've done that in the past. No, they'll show up and just be good for no damn reason.

[TJ Majors]

43. Dude, I'm in Michigan. The 43 drove through the field.

[Dale Jr.]

Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. Guess what? We are coming to San Diego. We got two live shows for you. Friday the 19th, there's Dirty Mo Live, presented by the U.S. navy. We will be on the NASCAR experience stage at 10:45 local time. Ryan Blaney will be the headliner, so that should be a lot of fun. Then on Saturday the 20th, we're doing a live broadcast of the Dale JR download presented by Arby's and the US Navy right there in Victory Lane at 5:30pm local. Come hang out. Hope to see you there. We'll be having a blast. If you aren't going to San Diego, you can check all of this out on our Dirty Mo Media YouTube channel or wherever you get your podcast. We also have some new merch for you at shop.dirtymomedia.com this is for the San Diego weekend. The Dale Jr. Download. Got you a little airplane right there. It's time for a pit stop. Naval Base Coronado for all you Arby's fans. Beef. I just think that's fun.

[Freddie]

Beef.

[Dale Jr.]

And then this one's pretty cool. The Dale junior Download shirt, the official Dale junior Down Download Arby shirt. We have the meets. You've got the airplane. The Navy represented, Naval Base Coronado, San Diego. Just a neat shirt. Check them out on shop.dirtymomedia.com

[Freddie]

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[Dale Jr.]

All right, so we got Chris Gale calling in to the Dale Jr. Download today. Chris Creechi for Denny Hamlin. And we have celebrated Denny for a lot over the last several weeks and we'll celebrate him some more for another win at Pocono. But a guy that I don't know that's getting a lot of credit and maybe he doesn't care, doesn't mind either way. But is Chris Gale crew chief for Denny and he's here today. So thank you, Chris, for coming on. Congratulations on a hell of a run. And you know, there's, there's a lot here. But one of the things that I find really interesting, having been so close to the sport over the last several weeks. Obviously, I've tried to watch it and stay plugged in best I can, but, man, being on the broadcast team, you kind of get behind some. Get behind some closed doors and some conversations, and you really get to hear about details. The Toyota has done a great job. The Toyota Co. Group, all of them have done a good job of coming together and developing an incredible car and a great engine package. It's whatever the roadmap's been over the last couple of years, it's been a smart one because y' all are above and beyond the other manufacturers. But aside from that, you have extracted more speed out of your particular Toyota than the other teams, or you found something between you and your driver that seems to really, really match well with what this car needs, particularly late in the race. I'm fascinated by that. Denny has talked about, man, my restarts need to get better. We watch the times, we watch practice, we see he doesn't really fire off and throw a lap down. The 45 is faster most often. The 20 might be faster. His either. Even competitors will say that Diddy ain't the quickest car on the racetrack, but, man, at lap 10, 20, 30, he is. He's the best car on the racetrack in the long run. I know you're. You know, you.

[Chris Gale]

You're.

[Dale Jr.]

You're keeping all this close to your vest, but how are you guys able to. To. To do this? I know Denny's a big part of that, and he works really hard at his craft, but speak to the way that you've been able to stand out amongst your peers in the Toyota camp.

[Chris Gale]

Well, I think that you're spot on with. With that. Right? So, like, I think it was around Vegas last year, right, where Denny hadn't quite run well at Vegas, and we kind of, I don't want to say stumbled across something. We. We were doing something at some other racetracks, at intermediates, that we thought this might not apply to Vegas. You know, it's a little rough. There are a lot of things going on here that are different than other racetracks, and we kind of took a chance on exploiting some of that there. And honestly, it worked better than we thought. Right. We were really strong at the end of that race, and we've kind of just taken that base package and explored that at more and more racetracks with the intermediate package. And I think that, you know, Denny already had the natural strength to where he was better on the long run. Right. Than the short run. He knows to take care of his tires. He tries not to push it on the front side side with anything that's going to hurt him on the back side of the run. So if anything like you alluded to, we've, we've almost over the last few weeks needed to work on restarts. And I think you've seen a little bit of that here lately. Now some of that is maybe there's a very small contribution to car balance. You know, if you want to be really good in the long run. It's no secret that the next gen cars wind up going loose, right? Air pressures build, diffuser comes up higher at the end of the runs. So we could affect that a little bit. But I think some of it's a conscious effort on Denny's part on the restarts with car placement and what he's doing there and then aggression level. But definitely we've exploited a few things that, you know, we didn't think were going to necessarily work out well or we were skeptical about it and it's turned out better than we thought and we've been able to just bring it to more and more racetracks.

[Dale Jr.]

The Chevrolets have a new body that they've been working on. They seem to be extracting a little more pace out of their cars. They still, you know, they still struggle over the course of the run, but they are getting there. You know, that's, that's the thing about this sport that's so fascinating is the ebb and flow of, of competition and organizations. You know, how do you guys continue to drive yourself to, to keep that advantage? You know that this is a long play here and you have the chase coming up. You're in a really, really good spot, points wise. But you know, when it comes down to those final 10 races, that gap's closing a little bit with the Chevrolets. How do you motivate your team to continue to build performance?

[Chris Gale]

Yeah, I mean, I personally, I think it's simple, right? Like we've. Those guys are really coming in with a new car and having to do a lot more experimenting and trying to find things. Right. We have had the same body for a while now, right to where we've really refined and know what we're kind of going after. I think for us we've got to not get complacent in that, not get happy with where we are. But I think we have a group of people around us, the 11 team, Toyota JGR as a whole who still are willing to try things that might be on the fringes. I just alluded to a, you know, a Vegas setup thing that we tried last year when we were running pretty well. We could have not done that. But you're trying to think forward, right? Okay, what's the next step? How do we still continue to get better? And with the next gen car, right, you're not going to typically find the one trick that you're going to be able to get away with anymore. Right. I think those days are gone. I mean, it's, it's making the wheel a little rounder in every area. Right. And I, I think that's the, the part when you're so you, you know the car so well, you know the system so well that now you can just keep implementing those little changes to like, okay, now we can get a couple percent better here, a couple percent better in this area, and you just stack them. And I think that's what this racing is all about now with next gen, with spec cars, with, you know, all these things that are parts that aren't in your control anymore. It's. How can I take these parts and how can I collectively put them together to get the most out of them?

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, that's very fascinating. You mentioned how the racing has changed and how the, how the, how NASCAR at the cup level has changed. And I don't want to use F1 as a comparison or, or, or, you know, say that I don't want to speak too much F1 around our sport, but it really is trending in that direction. I think that Toyota's done this amazing job of collaboration among teams. I know that legacy went the long way around to get what they needed and they wanted to create some of their own tools. But I also know, speaking with some representatives from Toyota, that the collaboration is in the Toyota group among all cars is better. It's just better than what Chevrolet and what Ford's doing. And that's hard to get everyone to buy in. Right. It's hard to get all crew chiefs, car owners, everyone, engineers, everyone to sort of be on the same page, even in the same building, much less other organizations trying to stay on the same page together. How, how important is that to the success y' all are having and that you're seeing legacies find their speed finally. That's a real thing. That's not like a pop off, you know, one off. And how, how are you? How. What's the messaging to sell to all of the Toyota teams that we all need to continue to collaborate so that we, you know, we're the ones out there winning these races and not allowing the other manufacturers to figure this out and catch us.

[Chris Gale]

Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, it's hard for me to speak to what other teams are doing. Right. I've grown up in the Toyota family. I've grown up here at jgr since 2002. So as soon as Toyota was involved in the sport, you know, I've pretty much only seen that side. I've seen a small, you know, sample size of how Chevrolet was at that time when we were kind of the third tier team and how those tiers kind of worked. But when Toyota came over, right, it was always going to be this one team approach across all of their cars, which started off as jgr, then Michael Waltrip, and I think as that ended and as Toyota gotten more and more involved with bringing teams, other teams back in, it's always been about, you know, the rising tide helps all boats float higher. And then we've kind of taken that approach where if we, you know, put aside some of our individual preferences and say, what's better for the collective group? How do we communicate amongst all of us so that we're not wasting time, you know, arrow program wise, we're not splitting in different directions, doing totally different things with one group versus another. And there's more of a unified approach. You know, I think that that's what helps everything. And if you just do that from the car side, from the engine side, from the arrow side, where you don't get off on these tangents that maybe don't make sense to the direction you're going, eventually, you know, maybe there's a good idea out there on a tangent somewhere, but it's so different than the direction we were already going that it doesn't, it doesn't help you get to the end goal faster. Right. So I think it's, it's kind of like pulling the rope in one direction. If you get everybody on board and we're pulling this direction, even if it's not 100% right, you get so many people on board that eventually you get there faster. Right. And I think that that's exactly what happens with a Toyota approach here.

[TJ Majors]

I got a question for you. So I feel like every time we get to this part of the year, Denny's usually pretty strong and we're all kind of thinking, you know, is this the year? Is this Denny's year? Finally, is he going to get the championship? Is there a different approach that, you know, that you think plan on taking or will take or Think Denny needs to take to, you know, for this to be the year to get the championship.

[Chris Gale]

You know, I, I think that this playoff format, this point system fits him well.

[TJ Majors]

I agree.

[Chris Gale]

I don't think that there needs to be a different approach. I'm of the opinion, you know, we can look forward and talk about all kinds of possibilities and how we should do this. I. I take it one race at a time. You know, I mean, that is what has got us to this point. One win at a time, one race at a time, one practice session. Okay. How do we just optimize the next one? How do we do that better? I think that, you know, that has served us well in the short span that I've been as crew chief, and I don't see a reason to change that to this point now. And I think that just knowing, you know, he's had. Right. I think I saw a stat. He's one of three drivers who has more wins than DNFs. You know, I think that he's very aware of how to race and how to be, you know, race savvy. And I think that all that. If we just worry about bringing good cars, the strategy about the race in front of us and don't get ahead of our skis, that that's what's going to get us there.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, you can only control what you control.

[Chris Gale]

Correct.

[Dale Jr.]

You're. You guys done a great job over the last couple of weeks, closing the gap to Tyler Reddick for the points lead. And it's really that one win difference. Tyler with five, you guys with four. That separates you at 19 points for the most part. You go into a couple road courses, Denny will publicly downplay his excitement around those events, but I know behind closed doors he's probably very, very devoted and working extremely hard to try to perform as well as he can. Redick is pretty solid at the road course races. This is such a unique event that we're going into at San Diego. And if we look back at anything that we've ever done that's new, particularly Chicago street course, anytime we try anything new, it's chaos. It is. It's. And it's going to be just. There is so many things waiting for us at San Diego that we're not even aware of that are going to be problematic. And Denny will be an advantage to you guys because of his approach and his, His. His sturdy and steady approach to things. You know, how do you. How. How's your confidence level? I suppose, going into these next two events? He's Actually had a couple of solid days out at Sonoma where he's. Where he showed speed and been capable of winning that race. How do you guys continue to, to carry this momentum forward going into a couple road courses, knowing how important, trying to be able to, you know, claim that points lead is?

[Chris Gale]

Yeah, I agree with you on the San Diego thing. I don't think any of us know exactly what, what to fully expect. Right. We, we can run all the simulator laps we want to run, which is a guess on grip level and everything that's going to happen. It's, it's your. It's a simulation, and it's probably as far off as it's ever been. When you don't have a actual racetrack to correlate it to. I, I think it's going to be complete chaos. I think the track's going to get blocked. I think there's going to be a lot of stuff like that, and I think that Denny is very aware of. Okay, I probably don't have the outright speed to go beat Tyler Redick here, but what I can do is avoid trouble all day. I can, you know, not get myself into some situation where I'm putting toe links on this thing because I'm getting myself above driving, above my capabilities, you know, at this. And I think that that's what we're really focused on, these next two is just trying to not bleed points, get the best finish. We can maximize our day, you know, which I know sounds cliche, but, you know, at a place where it's not necessarily your strength, I don't know what else to do. Specifically when you're going into a, an unknown weekend and a chaotic weekend, you know, I think that it's going to be that simple for us. You know, Sonoma, I feel like we haven't brought the best car. And to be quite honest with you, we've had cars that have run good there, right. Like the 20 and the 19 were really strong last year. And we'll probably lean on those two guys and, and, you know, pickpocket their setup a little more and then just kind of tune on it for Denny and take that approach at a place like Sonoma. But I don't know that, you know, San Diego is necessarily anybody's going to know for sure. You just adapt after practice. Once we can kind of tune in things a little better.

[Dale Jr.]

Denny has, you know, a habit of having a light bulb moment in the middle of the night and jumping on sim in the morning or, you know, and he's not afraid to try to apply this sim. I was just talking to some svg, for example. He's not a big, he's not a big sim guy. He'll race on iracing at home, but he doesn't really get to the manufacturer sim too often. So everybody, we've seen it every, every driver's across the board, unique on how they trust or apply the sim. But it seems to be Denny's very open minded to having it be a benefit to him. How much SIM time has you, have you been spending with him in preparing for San Diego? I know running a lap there, just doing two hours, you might get 15 laps. But how much work have you guys done in the sim?

[Chris Gale]

Yeah, I mean we're, we're probably two sessions in, which is about a. Call it three hours total. Just over three hours total, which like you said, we're Only just over 100 laps right around that to this point. We'll have a big session Wednesday where we'll probably do at least another 100 laps. More like hour and a half, three hours. Right. But you kind of take it in steps, particularly with a new track, right. Where you know, maybe grip levels up and he's, he's just learning the track. Right. How does he get his rhythm? It takes a lot longer in a road course to kind of get where he's good enough, where he's kind of conditioned enough to where now I can throw changes at and he can actually tell something other than he's just getting better with reps each lap. So I think that's the harder part on road course. And then you alluded to it, right? We're going to be, we think just over two minute laps or whatever. I mean a 50 minute practice session. We get cautions in it. What are these guys going to get? 12 to 15 laps max?

[TJ Majors]

Maybe. Maybe. Probably. You know, we got way more tires too. Yeah, way more tires, right?

[Chris Gale]

Yeah, yeah, we got three sets of tires. I don't know why. Well, there's no way you're going to have time to put three sets of tires on this thing. Yeah, yeah, they're going to be learning at the start of the race still. And so, I mean, sim is kind of what you got. And to be quite honest with you, Denny's done a great job of embracing SIM for what it is. Right. It's not perfect. It's for sure imperfection. You know, it's not perfect and it's tires. It's all these things that you tweak to make the sim better that make it Useful. And so really, it's the process of how you use it and what can you glean out of it? It's not going to be 100%, but there's going to be something you pick out of it that does apply. And how do you do that? And I think Denny's been very open to doing that, you know, and it just shows his leadership, you know, at jgr, you know, with some of the other drivers, and how he's been willing to adapt and do things differently. That keeps giving him an advantage.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, I agree with that, man. I appreciate you talking about that a little bit, and. Because I do, I. I feel like that some guys just write the sim off, and I know it's. I know that they feel like, man, I get in the sim and I.

[Freddie]

And I.

[Dale Jr.]

And I feel like I'm hurting myself. I feel like I'm taking myself backwards. But to your point, if you. If you apply a certain approach to the sim, there's some things to be learned.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, you're. He's spot on.

[Dale Jr.]

He's. And Denny.

[Chris Gale]

Right. Denny should help. You know, part of this is the driver should help you get better at doing it.

[TJ Majors]

What.

[Chris Gale]

What does.

[TJ Majors]

He knows the field.

[Chris Gale]

Make it better? Yeah. Correct. So his feedback drives the development path that we make with the sim.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Fantastic.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. I thought Chicago was hard to learn on the sim. Then I went and ran this place.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Chris Gale]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, my gosh.

[Dale Jr.]

I know.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

It's gonna be something.

[TJ Majors]

It's going to be.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, good luck. I really appreciate your time today. You know, we've had a lot of opportunities to talk to Denny, and I've been thinking a lot about you over the last couple of weeks and how much of a role you've played in the success of this race team. And great to get you on here and to talk to you a little bit about that, and we'll see you out in San Diego. It's going to be a lot of fun chaos, but it should be a good time.

[Chris Gale]

Absolutely. It'll be something new. It'll be enjoyable, right?

[Dale Jr.]

Absolutely. All right, buddy. We'll see you. Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Place your bets. Sam, get your bets down. Ladies and gentlemen. Get your bet. All right, it's time for dirty mode. Doe we are on our own today. Russell is busy. I suppose he can't predict the road course. Yeah, he doesn't want to come around.

[TJ Majors]

No, he doesn't want to get shown up this week.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, this segment's brought to you by fanduel Fan Jewel the Premier gaming destination of the United States. There's no lines yet, but SVG is the favorite. And that's the question. It's like, you know, just how badly is SVG going to beat these guys? Anytime we go to a road course that no one has been on it since, you're exaggerates his advantage. Like, he's just going to be miles better than all these other drivers.

[Freddie]

It takes me back to Chicago.

[Dale Jr.]

Oh, man. He's just going to destroy the field. They're just going to have to hope that something about that car fails. Something I don't see making mistakes, crashing or doing anything like that. There's going to have to be a failure of some sort.

[TJ Majors]

He can run to nine out of ten at this place.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

And still be.

[Freddie]

Oh, yeah.

[TJ Majors]

I misses his. This is his back. Yeah. I miss what he does.

[Freddie]

A name that I didn't put on here, just remembered is Project 91, which is where SVG started, is back with Kevin Magnuson, the F1 driver.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, but I don't.

[Freddie]

Do we think that he's going to be like what the typical ringers used to do, coming in, kind of be good, but. Or do we think that he can actually, like, top 10?

[Dale Jr.]

Top 10.

[TJ Majors]

I think you can top 10 it. I think SVG's got them cars dialed in really good now. He's just got to figure the car out. But he's a race car driver. He'll figure it out.

[Freddie]

Yeah, because I just wonder also, you've got all of SVG's information, so his setup's probably going to.

[TJ Majors]

You know, it's definitely shown his input and how he's learned this car and what he needs, and it's definitely shown. I mean, we've seen it. So SCG isn't a great job of picking that program up. I think on the road course stuff.

[Freddie]

Who else do we think could.

[TJ Majors]

Honestly, I think Zillich, but I mean, he's gonna. He's gonna be against the odds to begin with, but he should have enough raw speed. I think it starts showing at Coda and stuff. You saw some. You know, you could see some speed out of him. I think he could ever. I think Connor could really have a good run. He could have a good west coast trip. If he runs good at San Diego, he'll carry that momentum into Sonoma.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, I got some average finishes over the road courses with the next gen. Shane obviously stands out among the field with 14 starts with an average vintage of 6.7. Busher is next, just barely edging out. Tyler Redick. So I like Tyler Redick a lot to go out there and perform. I think he's under a little bit of pressure having his points lead dwindle down to 19 over his, over Denny. And I think he sees this as an opportunity for two weeks in a row at San Diego and Sonoma to build back on that points lead. He knows he's probably going to have to, to be able to keep it for the remainder of the regular season. I know we're not supposed to say regular season. That's what it is, but it is what it is. Bucher, I mean, I think he'll have a top ten. He's a top ten guy. Let's put Bucher down for a top ten on our parlay.

[Freddie]

The driver I thought would have had a top 10, but I'm not so sure now is Christopher Bell.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, well, it'll be tough for him. He's going to be very uncomfortable. The other driver that I like and he's down this list of ways is Ty Gibbs. Just really impressed with his speed at the road courses. He had a good run last year at a couple of road courses, and so I, you know, we went to Mexico City, for example, which was kind of a course that not a lot of us had a ton of experience at, not a lot of our guys have had many, many miles at. And he went out there and ran really well. So I like Reddick, I like Ty

[TJ Majors]

Gibbs, I like Ty Gibbs, And I

[Dale Jr.]

like McDowell, you know, and AJ when you think about, you know, why SVG is going to be at a huge advantage over the field, because none of these guys have seen this place. And if you take him and the rest of the field to a track they've never seen, he's going to hit it and adapt to it quickly and just be faster all weekend. You're never going to be able to match him. We have other road course specialists in the field that I also believe will have that same advantage, and that's guys like McDowell and A.J. i know we talk about A.J. a lot, but McDowell's road course racer.

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

And so. And he had a great run at Watkins. Glenn Spires on the uptick. Wouldn't be surprised to see.

[TJ Majors]

I like Suarez.

[Dale Jr.]

You like Suarez, too.

[Freddie]

I agree.

[TJ Majors]

I do. I like Suarez there.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Well, he's good at. He just, he. He's just good at these types.

[Dale Jr.]

Good at grinding them out like this.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Let's talk about our top 10 parlay. So I want to put Tyler Reddick. I want to put Ty Gibbs, McDowell and Almondinger all in the same parlay to top 10. This man. Let's do it.

[TJ Majors]

All right.

[Freddie]

We ain't working next week if.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, we know svg. We know SVG is going to be.

[Freddie]

Might as well throw them in there. Probably won't move the line much, but

[Dale Jr.]

we are predicting half of the top 10 if you bet this.

[Freddie]

Oh, thank that.

[TJ Majors]

You bet this in a win and

[Freddie]

it hits that Vacation is going to be sweet.

[Dale Jr.]

So let's go. Tyler Reddick, ty Gibbs, Almondinger, McDowell. Those four, why not?

[Freddie]

No, I'm saying I like it. That's why

[TJ Majors]

I like Suarez over McDowell. But I still roll with it.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, you know, I'm with. I'm good with that, too, if you want to pull McDowell and slide Suarez in there. But I'm going to. I'm going to go with McDowell because of what I saw at the Glen.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, there's. He did run good there. I agree.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. I just feel like we're, you know, I feel like at this place there's going to be some. There'll be some anomalies. There'll be some cars that absolutely nail the setup and there'll be guys that run good that shouldn't. I think back to the first race at the Chicago street course, and it was homeboy in the seven. Or no, he was right. He was racing for colleague Justin Haley. Justin Haley, remember SVG got to pass his ass for the lead.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. He was running good.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. So, I mean, they'll be one of those guys.

[Freddie]

A weird caution.

[Dale Jr.]

Also this. The. The. To nail the setup. Somebody's going to like, accidentally set up.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, accidentally.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, you're right.

[Dale Jr.]

And it'll be. There'll be a name in that top 10 and you'll be like, dang. Like a tie. A tie. Dylan or something.

[TJ Majors]

Chicago did have that because you had Joey Hand.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Was up there as well. Like, dang. Where's he. Where'd he come from?

[Dale Jr.]

And to. Yeah. The strategy will vary, I think. You know, I think the length of the track. There'll be some fun things that might happen.

[TJ Majors]

Weird time cautions.

[Dale Jr.]

We might end up learning that the. They just absolutely can't pass and so. And there'll be a bunch of people getting junked, like getting down into turn two and like that. There'll be some junked ass race cars that may happen to one of our guys that were betting for the top 10. But I think they'll. I think there'll be a larger amount of attrition, you know, bent toe Links like that car slapped up against the concrete. And I think that the. You know, there'll be more problems with that going, but, you know, we'll just have to see the. In the O'Reilly series, we got to talk about this one, because there's no Connor Zillich and there's no svg. All right, so we've got a little driver list printed. So let's look at this list and talk about who could come out here and surprise, because SVG and Connor's not in the race, they're going to both be racing at Sonoma next weekend for junior Motorsports or the weekend after. I'm sorry. So who is your favorite to. To. To go into San Diego out of the O'Reilly series? A guy that I think I want to put on my list. I don't know if it's Sam Mayer. Sam Mayer's a tenacious little road course racer.

[TJ Majors]

Yep.

[Dale Jr.]

Coming off of some good momentum from Pocono. Carson Kwapple.

[TJ Majors]

He's a good road course, is a

[Dale Jr.]

solid little road course racer as well. Going on down the list here. Yeah, Justin will be. Justin will be tough, as usual. Brent Cruz will be very tough. Brett Cruz is probably maybe my favorite because this guy's run a lot of Trans Am. I believe he has a lot of road course training, experience, laps. I feel like that he'll be a tough one to compete with.

[TJ Majors]

Let's see, I'd say Austin Green.

[Dale Jr.]

Austin green will top 10 it with that car.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I like Austin Green.

[Dale Jr.]

He'll just make no mistakes and go out there and do it. All right, so I'm going to probably put. I'm going to probably put Brent Cruz at the top of the list to go out there and be the favorite to win the race. And behind him is going to be Justin Allgaier, Sam Mayer, maybe Carson Kwapple, and also late in the race, Austin Hill. Austin Hill. This guy, he'll qualify 8th, 10th, some like that. But he is a grinder.

[TJ Majors]

He is.

[Dale Jr.]

And you're going to have that late stage caution restart with, you know, five to go, and he'll be lined up in row two, and you'll be like, where's his ass been all day? You know, because he'll be running seventh and eighth all day long. And.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, and he's usually not the one getting pushed out of the way.

[Dale Jr.]

He's the one doing the pushing.

[TJ Majors]

He's the bowl.

[Dale Jr.]

He is the bowling ball late in the race, not the bowling pin. And that's. It's either. It's either yeah, yeah. Like you're.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

It's either be the bowling ball or be the bowling pins. There's no middle ground late in those races. So that race is going to be chaos. I think the truck race will as well. Honestly, I think the o' rally race will probably be the one with the most chaos, don't you? For whatever reason, the truckers, I don't know that they're. I mean, they'll have their share of mistakes.

[TJ Majors]

I feel like they get spread out a little bit. They get a little more distance between the rally cars.

[Dale Jr.]

There's a little more, there's a little less parody in the truck series.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I agree. The rally cars, you'll have a. A good little.

[Dale Jr.]

There's a lot of good road course racers in. Okay. Decent cars in the O'Reilly series. That's going to make that top 15 tight.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Brent Cruz is our favorite.

[Freddie]

I agree.

[Dale Jr.]

All right, that's it for Dirty Mo. Go. Thank you guys. And thank you, fanduel. For the premier gaming destination in the United States.

[TJ Majors]

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[Freddie]

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[TJ Majors]

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[Freddie]

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[Dale Jr.]

Hey everybody, check it out, man. I got some jerky boys here. I've been eating on that this morning. Jerky boys. Hey, by the way, if you're in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, it's a great place to go take your family. They have a huge aquarium. Massive. It's badass. But they all, they got a lot of stuff to do in Gatlinburg. One of the. It is the biggest attraction on the strip in Gatlinburg, Sugarlands. They have the most foot traffic. Yeah, no one, no one has more foot traffic than Sugar Lands. We are now selling jerky boys in the Sugar Lands building.

[Freddie]

I saw that.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. So when you go in there and you're doing some, some, some sips and, and tasting some stuff, get some jerky and maybe getting some high rock vodka. Pick up some jerky boys.

[Freddie]

You make a bloody bear with high rock, dip some jerky boys.

[TJ Majors]

Dude, stir it.

[Dale Jr.]

Jerky boys is killing it. So anyhow, what's it. How's everybody doing? Let's bring everybody over here. Everybody. Hi. From central New York. Is there, is there any jerky boys in the Tahoe? Yeah, I'm sure there'll be some jerky boys in the Tahoe. I can confirm about Wendell Jr's ride. Well, we'll definitely put some in there. If you're looking for jerky boys, you can buy it on our website or you can buy it on Amazon as well. And we're starting to get it in some stores. Good question here. Do you stay in touch with the Urie family? Absolutely. Me and Tony Jr. Talk all the time. I'll reach out to Pops every now and then, see how he's doing. They still go to the racetrack? Tony Jr still building race cars? Still racing like hell. Let's get to it. We got some questions. First off, I want to thank Xfinity for raving the red flag on Internet price hikes and raising the green flag for savings. You get the speed and reliable WI fi that you need locked in. One price, five years. No surprises, no late yellows. Thank you, Xfinity, for being a badass partner here at Dirty Mo. And let's get to the questions.

[Freddie]

So I think there's two popular questions. Number one is, who is Jimmy Jam?

[Dale Jr.]

Jimmy Jam. So Jimmy Johnson for when, you know, I've known Jimmy since he started racing in the O' Rally series. He drove the Kingsford number 59 at St. Louis. And he. We've been friends all through the years, and he always got accused of being too vanilla. And he raced for Rick Hendrick, and there they were, buttoned up and proper and polished. And Jimmy would never really show his personality, or people thought that his personality was super vanilla, but I knew it wasn't. I've been around him. He's a wild man. Like to party, like to raise hell, but he just didn't like to share. Share that with people. And I don't know that Lowe's appreciated him doing that either. I'm not really sure what his reasoning behind kind of keeping his personal life or his true personality so suppressed, but we used to. We used to joke and he would tell. He told me this. He goes, man, when I go party and raise hell, that's Jimmy Jam. You know, otherwise I'm this. I'm Jimmy Johnson. And so we would joke with him like, hey, man, let's go. We're going to go do this thing. Are we going to see Jimmy Jam? And he's like, yeah, Jimmy Jam's going to come out. So. And he's. We. I went golfing with him one time, and we're on the golf course and we. We're. We're playing through a couple holes, and we get toward the end, and he's like, hey, man, if you want a mulligan, all you got to do is shotgun a beer. And so, you know, three holes later, we're all, you know, we're all in bad shape because we kept on, you know, shotgun and beers from Mulligan and that. And he broke his arms, you know, way back in the day because he was on top of a golf cart, surfing. I mean, this guy's a. This guy's a ton of fun when we. Yeah, he. I could go on and on. Well, he had this viral moment just recently. A couple days ago, he was at the 24 hours of Lamont. He was having a great time, and apparently, you know, got roped into an interview that he did while he was on another planet. My man was raising hell. And so he must have been going all day to, you know, that's. That's. That's. That. That Jimmy sounded like the Jimmy that had been going all day.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Freddie]

That wasn't just a couple pops.

[Dale Jr.]

Now, that wasn't just an evening. No, but good for him, man.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, it was awesome.

[Dale Jr.]

And I was telling. I'm like, dude. And he's so. Like, I'll. I'll be honest. Like, he doesn't mind us talking about that. He doesn't prefer it. And he wished that it wouldn't have happened. And he doesn't. Like, you won't get him. Like, you won't catch him sort of like laughing about it. You know what I'm saying? But I've told him a thousand times, I'm like, dude, I told him in. In the text message, I said, if you'd have done that in 2002, I would have never won a Most Popular Driver award. You would have won it. I was like, if you could have shown that so side of yourself back when you were winning all those damn races, and people would have known this dude's a good time and not stiff, things would have been a whole lot different. But, you know, that's who. That's who he is. That guy's. That's. That's Jimmy. That's the Jimmy I know. He's. He's a. He's a lot of fun, and it's

[Freddie]

kind of like Derek Jeter with the Yankees.

[Dale Jr.]

Is that right?

[Freddie]

Like, he had this image he upheld and, you know that's Right. You didn't really see him doing anything wild, but you knew that he had fun.

[TJ Majors]

I remember the first time that you took me to Jimmy's house because he lived next to Jimmy Ellis.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. We went over there and do super fun.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. Like.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, you're. You're right. If people would have saw that side of Jimmy, then, yeah, he's awesome.

[Dale Jr.]

And you Know, and I know these days, he's got a company to run and an image to uphold. And I don't think that he did anything to. To. To, you know, to change anybody's opinion about him. If anything, people just say he's a human being and having a good time while he's out there.

[Freddie]

So.

[Dale Jr.]

All good. And, yeah, we're going. We're going to work together a little bit on the TNT side of things. We got our TNT5 races coming up, starting in Sonoma. So we're in this text message, and we've been giving Jimmy a hard time over there over the last couple of days. And that conversation or that video, it might come up during our five race series with tnt. We might have to ask Jimmy's, you know, on air exactly what was going on. But anyways, good stuff. Everybody appreciates Jimmy just being a badass race car driver and a good dude. I know that he. He's introduced me to a whole bunch of. I probably would never would have done or took in the time to do. I learned how to ski through his. Through. He encouraged me to, you know, go out to Aspen, and I'm like, man, I don't want to ski. I don't care about that. I don't want to blow my knee out. I'm not all into that. Y' all going and do it. And he's like, nope, nope, you're coming. You're doing it. And it's been. And now, you know, you know, we go skiing once a year, me and my family, and so riding bikes and trying to, you know, trying to get into shape and do. Do better there. I rode 2400 miles in 2017 because of Jimmy. I never would have rode one mile if it hadn't been for that guy.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

And, you know, so he's just a great dude. He's always in. He. Last year, he took me the mirrors the Kansas on this trip to Ireland and London, and just. He's like, hey, all set up. We got it. You know, y' all just come on, have fun. And just a good dude. Yep.

[Freddie]

Next question is, people want to know how excited are you to be calling the race from an aircraft carrier?

[Dale Jr.]

That's real deal, man.

[Freddie]

That's badass.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. We're gonna get on this aircraft carrier, and we're going up in the tower, and we're calling the race from the control tower, and we can see some of the race track from where we're at, so we'll be able to get the vibe.

[TJ Majors]

I would hope so.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, I'm just saying, like, when we're. I don't like not being able to see the damn racetrack. I don't like that.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. Flat. Too hard to see.

[Dale Jr.]

And so there's.

[Chris Gale]

And.

[Dale Jr.]

And I just. Not so much. And I know we. There's been this conversation on for a long time now about being at the studio or at the track and all that. I'm just saying I want to be there to feel the energy of the event happening right. In real time.

[TJ Majors]

Yep.

[Dale Jr.]

And that feeds into the, like, Chicago good time. Yeah, well, Chicago wasn't because we were in a radio stuff.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, that's right.

[Dale Jr.]

I was in a.

[TJ Majors]

No, the fuel event was good last year.

[Dale Jr.]

I was in a rented. It was a shipping container, and we were two blocks from the racetrack looking at monitors. Oh, that's right.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

And I got, you know, Stefan. Yeah. So I told Stefan. I was like, stefan, come and sit in this shipping container with us. And there's a monitor over here on our right. So we got the production in front of us, the real what you're seeing on tv. And over to our right, we had a big wall of, like, 12 monitors. And they were just fixed monitors on all the turns. And I was like, stefan, you stare at those, and if you see a car stopped or if you see anybody hit anything, I don't give a what you see. You slap me in the arm and you tell me what it was. And so I had. And I think I'm gonna try to get Stefan up in that. Up in that aircraft carrier, but I don't know if I'm going to be able to get him the access we need. Might be a little tougher because I like to miss. You know, I don't like to. I don't like there for a car to be sitting there for 15 seconds and us not know it.

[TJ Majors]

Did you do a corner at Chicago the first year?

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. Radio style.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, radio style. That's right.

[Dale Jr.]

Not my favorite. We did radio style at Pocono. I felt so terrible. Like, I felt like there's no way this can be good to listen to.

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Oh, my God. I'm not a radio guy. I'm just not cut out for it. No. Yeah.

[Freddie]

But next question. I forget who it was in the chat. They want to know, why don't we see more drivers become crew chiefs?

[Dale Jr.]

You want to know a funny story about radio style from Pocono?

[Freddie]

Let's hear it.

[Dale Jr.]

So I'm in the tunnel at Pocono, and I'm up on this perch just outside the Turn, and we're doing radio style. Here they come, coming at me four wide. Whoa. This guy's in the lead. There they go. And middle. When the. I had my bus there. And at the. When the race gets about halfway, my bus driver's like, all right, I'm out of here. Complete race. You're not spending the night. I'm going home. I'm gonna leave early. Bye. My bus is pulling out of the racetrack, and we're calling the race. I'm like, here they come down the straightaway, two by two. Oh three wide into the tunnel. Such and such takes the lead. My bus driver drives out the tunnel, and he had one of the. There's Underneath the. Underneath the bus at the bottom, there's these doors, and there's these storage areas. One of those doors was open, and he went through the tunnel and ripped the door off. Oh, no. And so I'm calling the race, and I turn around and watch him drive out with the door. The door dragging the ground behind him, hanging on by one hinge.

[TJ Majors]

Did you commentate that?

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. No. But he pulls over, stops, gets out, walks around it. And I'm sitting there calling the race, watching him looking at all that. I'm like, God dang.

[TJ Majors]

No.

[Dale Jr.]

And he was. He was so embarrassed, I bet. But I'm like, what's he going to do? How's he going? He can't drive. I mean, there's. In the storage unit. Now that it's exposed, he's trying to leave. He's got to figure out. So he got a piece of plywood, cut it, screwed it in there, and drove on to the next racetrack. Like, it had to go straight from there to the next race. But I'm sitting there in the middle of calling that radio style while that's happening, trying not to, like, lose it. Lose it? Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Was that the camper or the motorhome?

[Dale Jr.]

Motorhome. Oh, that was a nice one.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

The fifth wheel's nice, but that camper was. That was tough. I was like, not right now. Like, we're in the middle of this.

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Freddie]

Back to the question. Why don't we see drivers become crew chiefs?

[TJ Majors]

Because they're not engineers.

[Dale Jr.]

What are you talking about? They do. I mean, you're literally talking to one.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, I meant to ask you that last week, too. Like, man, what's it like going back to your. Your Pocono win?

[Dale Jr.]

Is that a real question?

[Freddie]

Someone in the chat wanted to know.

[Dale Jr.]

Huh?

[Freddie]

Well, I think TJ Answered it, though.

[Dale Jr.]

Wow.

[Freddie]

They're not Denny's admitted Kyle Larson. Like, they don't know the. They don't know how to get the car set up and stuff. They just know how to drive it. Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, there's a lot of drivers. There's a lot of drivers that do become crew chiefs. You just never heard about them because they were drivers at their local racetrack, and they didn't. They weren't given or provided the opportunity to. To advance their career, and they had to make a decision to become an engineer, an eventual crew chief. So there's a lot of examples of guys, if you went through the cup garage or the O'Reilly garage, I bet you would find 40% of the crew chiefs have driven race cars.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, maybe more, right? An arca. You go to ARCA level?

[Dale Jr.]

Oh, yeah. A lot of them, yes. So Boswell, on the three car, raced pro cup for junior Motorsports. And I remember vividly where, I mean, this guy's thinking, race car driver. I want to become a race car driver. I'm driving for pro. I'm driving pro cup for junior Motorsports. What's the next thing I need to do to get to the next opportunity? He raced an xfinity race at Memphis for junior motorsports in the number 5 and did pretty solid. Qualified top 10, would have run top 10, got spun out underneath somebody, got turned around on a late restart. But I remember the day where he. Me and him had to sit down, and I said. I said, man, I said, I think you got to make a choice here to change your path. And it was the hardest decision he ever had to make in his professional mind to. To, like, give up on this dream. But, dude, look at him now. He's a cup crew chief.

[TJ Majors]

He became an engineer here.

[Dale Jr.]

He did. I said, dude, I think that's what you need to do. It's like you're going to take yourself out of this race car over here that you're not going to ever drive again. And you're going to go over there in an engineer room and try to find your way toward the top as an engineer. And he's, like, heartbroken to have to give up on his dream. But there's. And that is a similar story for a lot of guys that are in. In that garage. You just didn't know they drove. You know what I mean?

[Freddie]

Yeah, that's good. This one goes to bluegrass boy. Donated $5. He said he's gonna go see ACDC this summer. He wants to know what's one of your go to ACDC songs.

[Dale Jr.]

Oh, man. Thunderstruck.

[Freddie]

Once you hear that yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

I was a big Arturo Gotti fan boxing. Arturo was a blood and guts, easily cut. A lot of times look like he's out on his feet and. And pun. Hit a guy with a punch out of nowhere and win the fight. He got his ass kicked a bunch as well.

[TJ Majors]

He took a lot of.

[Dale Jr.]

He did. But his walkout was thunderstruck, and so that's probably why that's my favorite.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, it's not bad. They got so many good ones, though. It's hard to.

[Dale Jr.]

The beginning of. Thunderstruck's just cool.

[Freddie]

No, it's the best.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Freddie]

Speaking of boxing, did. How big did you have, like, a favorite fight that you grew up watching? Is there anyone that like, stuck out or.

[Dale Jr.]

Ali and Foreman is a great match that probably influenced my. My fandom, even though I was too young to see that in real time. You know, Tyson. So I was a. I was really young when Tyson was doing what he was doing. That was like the next Tyson fight was the most anticipated thing going. Like, it was you. You couldn't wait to figure out when the next Tyson fight was going to be. Who was it going to be against and how fast was he going to knock this guy out.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

And there was a. There was a moment where, yeah, the. The next Tyson fight was the biggest thing happening.

[Freddie]

It was like. Must see everyone. You want to know what they were doing.

[Dale Jr.]

Biggest thing in sports.

[TJ Majors]

I think it got like that with Mayweather too. Like, we. We couldn't wait to see who was going to fight him next a little.

[Freddie]

But it wasn't like.

[Dale Jr.]

The only thing with him was we wanted him to lose. Well because he was wanting Mike to keep winning.

[Freddie]

Mike was like going to go box. Floyd was like a technician. Avoid. Avoid the hits and stuff and just win.

[TJ Majors]

He literally just avoided the hits. Let the other guy wear him.

[Freddie]

Listen, that's.

[Dale Jr.]

He was a counter. He's. I mean, Floyd was amazing, but it wasn't as fun to like. The Tyson run was insane. And so. But I don't know that there's a Tyson fight that stands out to me.

[TJ Majors]

I was too young to really remember the Tyson stuff.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. But if I fast forward to becoming a Gotti fan. So I would just happen to be watching this boxing match and I think Gotti's was not even the Gotti.

[Freddie]

This was. Gotti was undercard.

[Dale Jr.]

Undercard, not well known. But this one guy just whooping his ass six rounds, seven rounds in, caught his cut.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, he always. He always got beat up bad.

[Dale Jr.]

And this guy's just controlling the Fight. And out of nowhere, Gotti called him and laid him out. And I was like, holy, I like that guy. All right, write him down. Who is he? Where does he fight next? And so I started watching Gotti and then Gotti became a headliner or he was the undercard on a heavyweight. And he started becoming. And they were, you know, they were talking about him like, this is the guy. He's blood and guts. He's the fighter. You know, he comes from behind and you never know when he's. When he's never out of it, you know.

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

And he would continue to win fights that way. He would get. He's just standing there just getting destroyed, and all of a sudden, you know, he just nails the guy with a right hook or something.

[TJ Majors]

He didn't get. Get destroyed in your ring.

[Dale Jr.]

No, he did some destroy. Yeah. And so Arturo's trilogy with Mickey Ward is insane. He won one, he won a few of those. He lost a few of those. But in one of those matches, he breaks his hand. So he hit. I think he's. His left hook, which was one of his. He used his left hook most. Whichever side it was, it was like a big detriment. But he hits him on the, on his, on his hip bone and broke his hand. And he had broke that bone multiple times in fights. So he breaks this bone in like round five, finishes the fight one handed and wins it. And he got, he sat there for about two rounds not throwing this hand. And after a while, the adrenaline and the pain and all of that kind of goes away. And he started fighting with the broken hand and throwing punches with it.

[Freddie]

Students are nuts.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. He's. Dude, I'm telling you, when he, when those guys hit too, you don't realize how strong they are until you hear him hit in person.

[Freddie]

If they hit you once, we would be on the ground.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, we've seen it.

[Freddie]

Like, it's.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, yeah.

[Freddie]

I mean, just a body blow and you're. Yeah. Killed over. Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

So anyways, I've. I was a Triple G fan. The thing about that is, is I'm all, you know him once live, you don't want to. So the Triple G deal, I'm, I'm frustrated with it because I learned about him too late. And that's the trick is like, you got to. You got to stumble. I love these guys.

[Freddie]

The band that was nobody.

[Dale Jr.]

I like the guys that are knockout artists. I want to watch a fight and I want the fighter I'm pulling for to be the guy that can lay him out And. And I came on to Triple G too late. He was toward the end of his career. He was such a knockout artist that no one would fight him. So he didn't really ever get his shots till he was, like, mid-30s, and then he was kind of starting to lose a little bit of his. His abilities.

[Freddie]

I didn't watch him.

[Dale Jr.]

I fought Canelo multiple times, and there was one Canelo fight that he arguably won. But. And that's another thing, man. The freaking judges, like, you got it. You're going into some of these matches knowing that they're not going to call it straight. And if your guy's going to win, he's going to have to knock him out because they're not going to give him a decision.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I agree.

[Dale Jr.]

Not going to do it.

[Freddie]

I never watched him live, but I've gone down rabbit holes of Roy Jones Jr. Yeah, with his knockout.

[Dale Jr.]

I remember him. Yeah, his. He was.

[Freddie]

He was. He had charisma.

[Dale Jr.]

He did. His fights were anticipated as well. Not on Tyson's level, but the Roy Jones run was really fun because everybody was talking about him, you know, when you were in school and stuff.

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Freddie]

All right. Well, I think that's a good place to stop for today.

[Dale Jr.]

Heck, yeah, man. That's a lot of fun. Appreciate everybody tuning in. We. We have a pretty good show for you today. A real good show. Instead of Denny calling in, as we usually have, the winner of the race, we had Chris Gale, his crew chief, talk to us and give us a little bit of insight into the success that they've been having. And I wanted to celebrate Chris because, you know, we've been promoting Denny and how much he's been doing. Yeah, but there's a. There's always a crew chief on top of the pit box, responsible for the speed in the car as well, so. And I'm sure Denny appreciates that. But great show, and hopefully y' all will tune in when it comes out later today. We got a great guest or two guests on tomorrow's guest segment that you don't want to miss. And don't forget San Diego coming up this weekend. San Diego. I predict chaos. I just think it's just going to be a mad house. Problematic issues left and right, cars stuck in barriers, all kinds of chaos going on at this racetrack. If you haven't checked out any of the online clips, there's a lot of iracing clips online of cars running laps around this track. We've never done anything like this. Three and a half miles, it's treacherous. It's imperfect and we're just going to be pulling cars out of barriers all weekend, so I don't think it's something you want to miss if you can't be there in person. Thank you Xfinity for waving the red flag on Internet price hikes and waving the green flag on savings. You get the wi fi and reliability you need. One price, five years. No surprises, no late yellows. Thank you Xfinity. Imagine that. Thank you for joining us in the Arby's studio here. Don't forget about Arby's new meat in three box. You get more meal for your money at Arby's we have the meat two. We'll see you tomorrow. Check out DirtyMomedia on Instagram, Facebook X and TikTok.

[Freddie]

When racing through life, staying informed helps you stay on track. And as a leader in the GLP1 space, Ozempic is making moves with the bold way forward the ozempic pill. Call 1-833-OZEMPIC or visit ozempic.com to view the medication guide. And before the next turn in your treatment journey, ask your doctor If Ozempic semaglutide tablets 4 and 9 milligrams are right for you.

[Dale Jr.]

NASCAR on prime is making history in San Diego as the Cup Series roars on a naval base Coronado. It's the first race on an active military base and it's all to celebrate the Navy honor, courage, commitment and horsepower. There he goes on the track. Don't miss the end. Kendra 250 Sunday at 3pm Eastern only on Prime. Not a Prime member? Not a problem. Simply sign up for a 30 day free trial. Restrictions apply. See Amazon.com Amazon prime for details.