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Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Honestly, I was one of my best bets was going to be just bet Joe Gibbs to win.
TJ Majors
It's.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It's probably not going to be like crazy.
TJ Majors
Unfortunately, 88 years old doesn't drive a race car. Sorry.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Come on. But I mean Briscoe was out running all.
TJ Majors
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Dale Earnhardt Jr.
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TJ Majors
The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. I'm still sour, man that I wasn't your best man at your wedding.
Travis
When will you start mentally, like getting ready for the race?
TJ Majors
Can you not tell I'm mentally ready?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Travis has some dumb ideas, but I agree with him on this one.
TJ Majors
It doesn't sound like you know what you're talking about.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You haven't scratched the surface yet.
TJ Majors
I mean, what the do you want?
Travis
I. I just think the last few laps it was just like stop every time.
TJ Majors
You ain't. You're picky. This ain't walking in and have it your way, mother. All right. St Burger King. Travis is like, wrap this up. They don't have no fun around here. All right everybody, it's time again for another Dale Jr download. And I'm here with my co host TJ Majors. And yeah, we got a lot to talk about.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Big weekend in western New York or central New York, whatever you want to call it.
TJ Majors
Well, this past weekend in the Glen.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The Glen Finger Lake area.
TJ Majors
Yeah, Got a lot going on. Yeah, the Glen was something. And we're going to talk about it. One of the things a buddy of mine said, and this is, we'll start off on a high note, on a positive note. Travis, good to see you.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That the high note?
TJ Majors
No, no, but it's nice to see Travis, a friend of mine Tim Duggar, who was playing concert inside the racetrack. He has played concerts at all the tracks. And by the way, Tim's got some new music on the way. That's good.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He plays it. Them too, doesn't he? Some of it.
TJ Majors
Sorry, sir.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I think he plays some of the new music at these concerts.
TJ Majors
I would hope so. That's his.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, I mean, I didn't know.
TJ Majors
I didn't know if he was releasing his main profession.
Travis
He never puts out the new stuff.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I don't know if you wait to.
TJ Majors
Play new music discovers fans.
Travis
I got new music. Can't hear it today, though.
TJ Majors
Does me. It does me no good sometimes to sit here and bicker with you, buddy. But a lot of people know Tim plays a lot of. A lot of the racetracks. Lots of racetracks. Michigan, every year, Talladega, you've been out to a track. More likely, you probably. He was playing there Friday or Saturday night. He's played. So he's played all these tracks. And he's, he's a partier. He raised some hell. So he's a good judge of, you know, what tracks are the. Are the rowdiest. And he feels like the Glenn set a new rack, new standard.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I saw some images from his concert and it looked big.
TJ Majors
Yeah. Hey, I'll say this. I mean, you know, say what you will. Tim does play at a lot of different racetracks, but he's a great entertainer. If you haven't, if you haven't seen his show in person, keep your mouth shut. If you have, you know what I'm talking about. So it's. He's a good entertainer and puts on a good show. And when he goes, you know, all the people, like when his crowd at Michigan was incredible, he'll send me photos of him standing on stage and the crowd, you know, in the crowd out in front of him. And it's. It's freaking cool that those kind of things are going on at the racetrack. Kind of adds to the race weekend. But I, I know that Watkins Glen is rowdy. I know they have been for years. And I mean, I used to hear stories back in the day of, you know, on a Friday night before, you know, we're going to qualify on Saturday. Back in, you know, 2000s, Schrader, Sterling Marlin, maybe Dale Jarrett, a couple other guys would hop on golf carts and just ride through the infield and, you know, they were just goofing off a little bit, maybe having a couple of beers, but they'd ride through the infield. And when you, you Know, kind of the same way we might do at Talladega. Everybody on a Friday night would say, man, we're going to take a lap through the boulevard because you just got to go see it. Yeah, right. For sure. You hear about it, and you hear about how wild things get and crazy things get. You just got to go see it. And the campers, as in the people, they get creative on their builds and, you know, some guys will come in there with a lot of wood and lumber and build out a bar and the whole, you know, and all of the infield is welcome to, like, come hang out and belly up to that bar.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It's like a community.
TJ Majors
Yeah. And then they'll leave us some here. And, you know, the track has to take care of it, which is hilarious. But he says that the Glenn might be top of the heap now in terms of the rowdiest party. So there you go, Watkins Glenn. You know, always, when I was younger, I always thought that those. Those sort of polls, you see them in Maxim magazine and all those kind of guys. Magazines.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Hm.
TJ Majors
Yeah. The. The part. The biggest partying school, you know, and it. I remember being like, they said East Carolina was one of the wildest college schools. And I'm like, damn right, man. That's Carolina.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. Home folks.
TJ Majors
Yeah. Our team's winning, but so that's, you know, now it's racetracks. I'm 50, and now it's racetrack. Anyhow, the Glen is a place to raise some hell, and we got to celebrate that. Congratulations, Watkins Glenn.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
They love their race in there, man.
TJ Majors
Yeah. So just a quick conversation. We're going to go through a lot of things about this past weekend. Also challenge TJ and Travis to come up with five points of emphasis. Emphasis that. That are, you know, conversations that are going on around social media. What are the five sort of biggest storylines right now? What are the things people are talking about the most? And I've got some ideas myself, and we're going to see where everybody lands. One of the things that I did put in the notes was overtime finishes. You know, we had. I unfortunately did not see the finish to the truck race, but I heard about it. I guess it took an hour to run the last 10.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, it took forever.
TJ Majors
All right. I'm a truck. I'm a Xfinity series owner. And when you get an overtime finish, you're not sitting there going.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You're not safe.
TJ Majors
Oh, hell, yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
So, look, I know the fan. I can't see it from the fans perspective, so forgive me if I don't share the same opinion as a, as a core fan of the sport. And I'd be interested to really know how the fans really feel about it. I think in a lot of these little conversations we're going to have today, we're going to say, hey, if I was in charge, right? If I was in charge, I would this. If I, if I had the reins of the sport, I would do X or Y and Z. So we all have that opportunity today. Travis, TJ and so off overtime finishes. If I was in charge, I would not have overtime finishes in Xfinity or truck. I don't think it serves any real purpose other than presenting more opportunities to crash and tear up more. More stuff. The race cars and the trucks, those are 150 to $250,000 vehicles.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Expensive they are.
TJ Majors
And I think we lose sight of that from I think globally or just from a 40,000 foot view. I think we just become numb to. Well, you know, when you see crash you just see the entertainment aspect of it or the drama of it or the, you know, you just see the quick pop of emotion from the accident and either you're entertained, sad, happy, whatever that your guy made it through but no one really thinks anymore like damn, that was you know, business side. A couple million dollars worth of equipment got destroyed like in, you know. And so I think that for the long term good we may we I would get rid of overtime finishes in truck and Xfinity and sometimes races just end under caution. And I know that that's hard thing for a lot of fans to grasp. They've paid to come see the race, they want to see it. They feel entitled or deserving of seeing a race across the line and I understand that and I think we can have that in the cup series because those drivers make less mistakes, they are more elite. They're not going to in most cases destroy themselves or the whole field racing in overtime finishes.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Do you have something though if you do in the cup series because we've had some cup series races that have gotten pretty messy.
TJ Majors
I know there that is going to happen even without overtime finishes, brave wrecks and wrecks at the finish of these things. There's going to be big wrecks in the middle of these races. That's going to happen and I think there's a compromise. Me personally, I don't love overtime finishes at all. I loved a race to end at the design time.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Plenty of them like that.
TJ Majors
It's 400 miles, it ends at 400 miles. I'm very traditional, but I Understand, not everybody feels that way. I understand that the fans that are going to invest themselves into the entire weekend may deserve at least one attempt at an overtime finish. Right. So there's some middle ground there that we could all land on. I think everybody be happy with. But I believe just for the trucks and the Xfinity, they could remove them entirely. In most cases, the truck and Xfinity are a companion event to the cup series, and it's a proving ground, a learning process for young drivers, mechanics, engineers and all those. And it's not a place where we need to be piling up and destroying half of the field in the last handful of laps in the name of entertainment. And so, you know, this conversation pops up every couple of times a year, and I feel like we really need to move on it. I think that it's time to say, you know, maybe this is just not what we need to be doing at them at those lower series. Right. And I own a series, too. Right. And I'll say that, you know, I don't know that I love everything about the protocols or the way we do things in the short track arena. And there's always a way to do things better. There's always a next year to try to change something that maybe wasn't working as well as you thought it would during the previous year. Right. And so I'm open to being malleable as a series owner, and so I can see how, you know, and I just. That's what I would do. I would get rid of it altogether in the trucks in Xfinity, getting rid of overtime finishes in the Xfinity series. I couldn't. The savings for our team would be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I look at it to some of them guys that piled into that big wreck on the Bash rushing Xfinity series. That might have been some of them guys. Portland car and Roval car.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Now you got. And who knows what they got, what they got left in their shop now. And now they got to build another car if they don't even have one to go to these next two races like that. And I mean, this didn't need. It can be prevented.
Travis
I feel like also you're trying at that level to find out who the best drivers are and you're not. And if you are having all these cautions, the people that are winning aren't always going to be the best drivers. So if you allow it to end at the defined number, then you're going to get the drivers that are winning. That should Be winning and showcasing their talents more.
TJ Majors
Yeah. So I guess, I don't know. I mean, on paper, I agree with you. Like, if you show me the rundown, I'm going to, you know, it's going to look more like something you would expect as a, As a. In comparison to the rundown after you've destroyed all the trucks after several green white checkers. Right. Yeah. The rundown order changes and it, and it might not reflect, you know, the true competitiveness of the series, but I just feel like that in it. The. I don't believe that a young driver learns a good habit.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, it's terrible habits.
TJ Majors
I think that the young drivers actually.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Learn bad habits because they get away with stuff.
TJ Majors
Well, they learn, I think as a, I think I. As a young driver. Right. If I'm in the truck series or the Xfinity series and I'm trying to prove myself, I'm trying to stand out, it's chaos. The, you know, the, the green white checkered aren't about being professional and having racecraft. They're about chaos. They're about take. They're about really just throwing caution to the wind and destroy, you know, putting your car and everything else at risk and being okay that that car could get destroyed in this moment. And that's not. I don't, I don't know that we're learning. I don't know that young drivers are learning positive good habits out of green white checkers. And if anything, they're learning their, their racecraft is degrading by what they need and have to do and are forced to do in those scenarios.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And so in agreement, checking these Feny car, like I'm telling, like with Carson, I'm like, look, Carson, you're going to have to be aggressive here because if you go into that first corner and you lift someone behind you is not lifting and we're getting torn up. So you almost have to tell your guy to be more aggressive than what he should be because if you don't, you're going to get used up.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And it's not fun. It's not a good position to be in.
TJ Majors
Yeah. And I think that, that, that has a, that sort of mentality, has a place at the cup level. Once you are refined, once you're elite, once your racecraft is, is. Is top shelf, you can be trusted to be that aggressive, but also be smart and, you know, not destroy a $350,000 or $100,000 for 12 race car for 12th. Right. Yes. You're going to be smarter as opposed to how you may race in the truck series or have to race how you may have your. For how you're forced to race in the truck or Xfinity series. It's a, it's a show. And I don't, I just, you know, that's one topic, guys, you guys got opinions one way or another. I want to give you all an.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Opportunity to say that if you're say in the truck series, the truck race you're running, you're running 13th, just going to come out of a solid day. You, you pitilate, you got a little bit better tire, something like that, and you come down, you get a green white checker. Next thing you know you're ninth, you run another one. Next thing you know you're fifth. Now I've got a chance at winning my first truck race ever, or Xfinity race, whatever it is. And are you willing? You got the crew chief, everybody telling, hey, man, you got, you can win this race. Now what's, what am I going to do now? If I got a shot to win that I normally don't, I'm going to go down there and probably try to move a guy out of the way and maybe tear myself up even more. And I think a lot of that, when you do these things, they just get worse every time because you, like you said, you cycle the running order and there's guys in them positions that weren't in there and now they're like, oh, they see blood in the water and they feel like they got to attack and it just gets worse.
TJ Majors
I would compare this to boxing. So in the, let's say a title fight at the heavyweight level or any other, the other weight class is 12 rounds or whatever, right? 10, 12 rounds, you're going to agree to that length of a match. When you, you know, when you're coming up, there are three, four rounds. You know, when you're, when you're starting to fight as an amateur, the fights are much shorter. And I think it's the governing bodies do that to protect the boxer and to protect the integrity of the match. And you work your way into the opportunity to write to have those, those 1012 round opportunities at the higher level. And so, you know, I don't know that what's good for the cup series is always good for the Xfinity or the truck series due to the youth, inexperience and problematic issues that kind of come come with trying to have those green white checkers unlimited attempts, right?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
Travis
And a lot of times it hurts because then you have a great race, but then it's like, it's been an hour for the last 10 laps, and it's taken away what the race had.
TJ Majors
Yeah, the race could be a really good race. And then that, you know, that. That carnage at the end sort of does give you a bad taste. Yeah. I just feel like us as a society, all of us that are fans, have to sort of compromise with, look, you know, I want my races to end under green, but maybe that's not something that. That I have to have in this series. Right. Because again, man, I'm telling you.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So you're saying that you want them to earn the right to have that opportunity?
TJ Majors
I just think it's. Well, I just. I think nascar. Listen, I think we have green white checkers because the fans demand it. Fans will tell you, I bought the ticket. Give me a green finish. NASCAR has delivered that. But I think as fans, we need to realize, all right, maybe I don't have to have it at this level because it's really not serving the series any good. It's. It's not good for owners. It's not good for drivers. You know, nothing great is coming out of it other than fans that love the chaos. There are some fans that love that finish it at the truck race at the Glen. Those fans enjoyed it. Right. But maybe we all have to kind of compromise, and maybe we always don't need to be getting everything we want. And so I just feel like for the better of the series long term, that we could probably get rid of those at the truck in the xfinity level.
Travis
What do you think the drivers would say, like, if you went to Justin.
TJ Majors
And that's a good question. I think that they would probably all be more comfortable with one attempt. And that's even something to discuss, you know? You know, is like, do we just dial it back to, like, hey, it's one attempt, and if the one attempt fails, that's it.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Arca does they do a green checker? They don't do green, white checker. I mean, it's a green checker next time by.
TJ Majors
So I don't like that either.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And if a yellow comes out, it's over.
TJ Majors
Yeah, well, I mean, that's a one.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Attempt, but I mean. And also, if the yellow comes out, the race is still over. But does that tell you, like, hey, you know, I can't really get in here and wreck everybody because the yellow is going to come out.
TJ Majors
There was. I think there was a time when we had. When we did only one Attempt. But I, I just, you know, I think it's a conversation that we need to have and we need to take. We need. I think this is a conversation that is of importance.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You could tell me you're going to do it in all three series right now and I would be fine with it.
TJ Majors
I know you probably would. And. But a lot of fans, I think the Sunday ticket, I think you have to give them a chance. So, I mean, on the Sunday cup ticket and with the cup drivers and their elite talent and ability, I trust them to be able to do, to deliver, you know, to be able to orchestrate a green white checkered and give a great result. Now, the trucks and the Xfinity, those drivers are young and inexperienced in most cases, and the team owners in most cases aren't flush with a lot of cash. They're not really.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I mean, yes, they own race teams, but you can't afford to build new race cars every week.
TJ Majors
Your, your race teams are budgeted to spend every dollar coming in and you do budget for crash damage. But if you could know that, you know, hey, if, if I, if you went to me and said, ma', am, we're taking the overtime finishes out of Xfinity. And I knew year over year over year over year, I'm going to be 500 grand or $800,000 in a better spot financially, man, that really opens it up for me to accept this young driver to drive my car for less money. It opens up all kinds of opportunities to let me do things creatively, to have other drivers be involved in my program. It changes things financially for what it looks like to come in and drive our car. So it lets us do a lot of things that are neat and fun. So, you know, because that, I think honestly, if we didn't have overtime finishes, yes, I think a four car Xfinity team could, could save half a million dollars, minimum. I mean, when we wreck four cars at Daytona for, in the, in the first race of the year, that's probably 400 to $600,000 in the hole. We go immediately when that car, when that happens.
Travis
And you think about like this past, you know, any of these races, how many cars are in a wreck, how much money you're saving, that's employees, that's paying drivers, so many different things a team can do.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Just think about the lower teams though, man. You know what I mean? It really hurts them.
TJ Majors
Yeah, well, yeah, I mean, they bad. Yeah. They don't have body panels up on a shelf somewhere like BJ McLeod when he run his xfinity team. I would meet him coming in the front door at junior motorsports and he's over here looking at our stuff that we're going to scrap to see if it's any good for him to use body panels and pieces and stuff that maybe had a scuff or scratch and you know, and he would, he, would he. If he goes through a car, if he has a car, or to get destroyed in a green white checker, that's more boots on the ground. That's more labor intensive time in his. In his day that has to go out and seek out all this stuff to be able to repair what he needs to repair because he doesn't have all of those things laying in the shop floor to be able to put this thing back together immediately. He may need to do more effort and time in his week to be able to regroup. And I bet a lot of those smaller teams don't retool to the best of their ability to enter the next race at a hundred percent. A lot of times they'll have to scrap together some old stuff or pull out a car that they haven't ran in a while to get through that weekend until they can get their best car better and back together. The one they wrecked, you know, so it sets them back tremendously.
Travis
Hey, T.J. i like that phone. Is it new?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, I got this awesome new phone. I've recently joined the consumer cellular family and they hooked me up with a great phone and great service.
Travis
You're telling me that your phone actually works at the racetracks?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, my phone has been excellent at the racetracks. And honestly, you can't beat the consumer cellular service and the offers they have going right now.
Travis
I mean, that's cool. But I'm assuming that it's probably kind of expensive, right?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, that's funny. Consumers Hellier is a steal of a deal. I don't know why more people have not made this switch. Nationwide service, fraction of the price, the 2 for 60 plan, no long term contract. I mean, it's awesome.
Travis
All right, I'm in. So how do I get this deal?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
They basically have an elite pit crew on standby waiting for you to call and make the switch. It's 100% US based customer service takes around 20 minutes and it'll be one of the best decisions you ever make. And now it couldn't be a better time to switch a consumer Cellular and get $25 off with code DJD25. That's DJD25 for 25 off. When you switch consumer cellular. Go to consumercellular.com DJD and use promo code DJD25.
TJ Majors
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Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You mean that's not where you're supposed to be.
TJ Majors
Well we'll talk about that as well. We're going to talk about that later. So he's way wide on the runoff. SVG is still shading left or shading right pinning him. We're going into turn seven a right hander. The traditional line in the track is to be able to get left to be able to set yourself up for the entry. SVG has decided in that moment to shade to the right to have a very shallow entry to turn seven. And if, and if what his hope is is that Connor will pull in behind him. But Connor enters the track, there is a car and a quarter. There's enough room for Conner to get back on the track. Still be on the inside of svg.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He's not going to pass him, but.
TJ Majors
He'S not going to pass him. Well Connor comes back on the track with a full head of steam. Connor can see easily where the 9 car is.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He can see him.
TJ Majors
He can see him. And Connor clips the right recorder panel of SVG wrecks the out of the 9 car.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Hard wreck.
TJ Majors
Hard, hard wreck. Yes hard wreck. I would say that, that that wreck was a result of them, that them going lap corner after corner after corner and thing the getting a little more and more aggressive with. I wouldn't, I wouldn't call what SVG was doing is blocking. He was just really trying to take away. He's making a hard opportunity in line and he never threw like a Daytona Talladega block but he knows how to shade down the straightaway or be in the wrong be in a spot. That makes really Connor's options limited.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Not only is he really fast but he knows how to play defense exceptionally well.
TJ Majors
He is very good, savvy, very good. And the Connor coming back on the track and clipping him was avoidable. And you know I'm hope I'm. It's my hope that down the road is we're kind of seeing a replay of this right here. So Connor, they come out of the carousel. SVG stays left. He's like hey Connor, if you want it you're going to take the outside here. So Connor's going down.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
This isn't a bad spot for Connor.
TJ Majors
Connor's in a really good spot. He's in a really good spot. He's. He's half a car length ahead. He has to get out of gas through those rough bumps. And the clip, honestly the clip wasn't as hard as I remember it in my head. In my head is like wreck is just wrecked the out of him. But he Comes back on the track and clips him.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So to me, the thing starts. Connor, Connor messes up and overdrives the corner.
TJ Majors
Yep.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Because. And then SVG just drives off of him because Connor's got him halfway past.
TJ Majors
Like he's Connors a half a car length ahead into turn. Yes.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Which is dominant.
TJ Majors
You're.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You're the guy on the inside. Can only do what you let him do.
TJ Majors
What Connor. Listen, Connor and SVG are better road course racers than me. So go ahead and park your comments about why am I giving these guys advice.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I don't give you a lot of road course racing or erotic like. But you, you are not as bad at what you say.
TJ Majors
I ran some pretty good races at the Glen. What I would like to say is, you know, it's. It was good hard. It was good hard racing, but it was avoidable for sure.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Definitely avoidable.
TJ Majors
I thought in my mind, man, Connor just comes back on and wipes his ass.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, there's a head on camera that right there.
TJ Majors
It's like, man, you know, Connor really is only. Colin really did. Only did have like a car. And SVG is shading. SVG has some responsibility here because he is kind of shading hard right for a corner where you need to be hard left to be able to get into the entry.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But he can't see Connor at that point. He doesn't know where he's at.
TJ Majors
The 21 is where you need to be to be able to get into that corner.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Remember these words, please.
TJ Majors
Why?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Remember that position on the track for the next later on the show. What? That's where you're supposed to be to enter the corner. But yes, you're right. I mean, and so SVG is not cutting him any slides.
TJ Majors
No, he's not. He's shading left to make, you know, the entrance for turn seven and Connor's options into turn seven. He's doing that and he had been doing this for many laps. Right. To try to make it hard for Connor to get around. And he's doing it again. And Connor didn't cut him a break. Connor could have lifted. Connor could have got back behind. There's 15 laps in the race to go. This is like a last lap, last corner, move, move for sure, right?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yep.
TJ Majors
And there were so many laps left in the race and we would have been, we would have been gifted more laps of these two guys trying to.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Battle, which I think Connor gets him eventually.
TJ Majors
Oh, yeah, yeah. But my point is, is like. And I don't know, I don't expect I don't expect the drivers to know this, but if Connor says, all right, it ain't. It ain't going to happen this corner, I'm going to get behind him or, you know, I'm not going to. I'm not going to hit him here. If Conor were to give up the ghost on this moment, the sport, the industry, everyone else gets more of this incredible battle. Right. Which is what we all deserve. And so.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So let me ask a question. If they. If you switch cars right here.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Does SVG clip Connor? I don't think he does, no.
TJ Majors
And that's the difference in age. And look, Connor is incredibly fast, but he's still working on Racecraft. Yeah, you know, he's still working. He just, you know, when we started the season, he didn't know how to put a complete race together on the ovals. He figured that out. He. He adapted and evolved and he's now become a guy.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Last year he struggled.
TJ Majors
Yeah, well, he's now become a guy that. You don't worry about him getting the car to the end for that. You know, he's got a win. You start the race with a winning car and he's going to be there at the end with a winning car. You don't worry about that anymore. When we went into the first handful of races with him as an oval driver, you kind of worried that he's going to burn it off, overdrive it, make mistakes, trying too hard. Right now he's learned to dial it back and he's become a really complete driver.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Complete driver minus, minus instances like this. And it's learn. You learn from these.
TJ Majors
And there could be. There also could be a part of Connor. So we don't know everything about Connor. We don't know Connor's. We don't know how Connor keeps score right in his head. This may just be who Connor Zillich is. Right. This might not be a young guy, inexperienced, making a mistake. This may be you block Connor saying you block your pay. That might be. That also might be the case where we might. We might actually be realizing what he's willing. Where he's. How he's willing to stand his ground in moments like this, even against a teammate. I don't like it. Right. I don't like the 9 car getting destroyed. It's. I don't. I want SVG to have a great experience driving our cars. I want SVG to. To want to do it again, man. Any kind of. Any car owner would love to have this guy behind the wheel of your car at the road courses. And so I just don't.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I think if you run this over again, Connor just stays on the track right there and beats him into seven.
TJ Majors
And then listen, Connor's going to pass him at some point. I think Connor could have. Could have gave up the ghost in that corner and went back at it. But also Connor's getting some pressure from the 21. Connor lost a position to the 21 just a lap or two before this and had to pass him back. Connor is going to say, I don't know what else I could have done. I can accept that as well. But I could also tell him, look, man, you could have let him live the corner and he doesn't need to back into the wall and knock the damn deck lid off.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I don't think Connor sees teammates right here. Just so you know. I mean, this isn't the first time this year it's been a teammate.
TJ Majors
I agree. These two guys have a bit of a history that's already created through after Chicago. I walked up to Connor after Chicago. I said, I didn't think he raced you as well as he should have. He used him up into turn one. And I didn't. I didn't like that, you know. But then you got to go over to SVG and Victor Lane and say, hey, thanks for driving my car and winning the race today. This badass. When you look at the statistics and look at it on paper, it's going to say SVG Junior Motorsports.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
And so.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But SVG took really good care of him at Sonoma.
TJ Majors
Well, I think, yeah, they did race. Well, it's.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He didn't.
Travis
We don't know Connor's mind, though, if Connor's thinking he took care of me or Connor's still thinking, oh, he kind.
TJ Majors
Of owe him one.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He took care of Connor.
Travis
But does Connor Sonoma think that.
TJ Majors
Yeah, I think what. I think what my, My final opinion on this is. I think Connor could have let him live. We may be learning that Connor's not going to. Connor keeps. You know, Connor runs races with a. His own personal code of ethics and that he was. He, you know, he did what he needed to do. That'll be interesting to find out over the course of the next decade. You know, really is what. What type of driver Connor is in these situations. But, you know, I, I wish that they would have.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
What about svg? How does he view this? His interview? You can't tell from his interviews because his interviews are so nice about everything. But he can't be happy.
TJ Majors
No, I Mean, that's how hard, look.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
How high the car goes in the air, right about. Yeah. He's not real happy.
TJ Majors
No, I'm sure he isn't happy. No one would be happy about this. Tj, the SVG is not, not, not happy about, I mean that's, that's pretty clear that I don't think he's very pleased with getting turned around. But he was shading hard to the right so I mean he bears some responsibility. I would put it on both of them. The nine shading hard to the right. Connor could have gave him a break. None of that happened. And that's what we, this is what we're left with. The one thing I will say is these two guys are going to push each other. They are going to, they are going to race like this on the racetrack. But I don't know that in terms of road course racing there'll be two drivers that have more respect for each other in terms of ability. And I think the sport wins, I think fans win. Like if we're going to get this over the next, you know, handful of years, however, however long SVG wants to do it right, like this is going to be a lot of fun for us to watch now. Hopefully they don't all end this way.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Hopefully. It's only about three or four times a year.
TJ Majors
You know, you want less races, road courses. Yeah, man, you're trying to get ahead of us here.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Sorry, sorry.
TJ Majors
But anyways, I know this, this sucks. This sucks for me. This sucks to. It sucks to have one of your cars get wrecked by the other car and then you're going to, you know, you're assuming, well, 88 is going to win. We're going to go to Victor Lane and celebrate that.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I look at the people in the background, man, there's people jumping up and down on their seat. Watching this battle like this is incredible. Watching these guys race is incredible.
TJ Majors
Yeah, it is. And I think we're all going to enjoy watching them go at it for years to come. And that's going to be a lot of fun.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
At least they didn't take each other out right there in the third place car.
TJ Majors
Yeah, yeah, that's true. Well, it sucked. Not fun, not fun as an owner to be in a situation like that. But when I told, like I told Rick Hendrick after Indy, but when, when Larson and, and Justin crashed, when you build fast cars and put great drivers in them, sometimes they're going to hit each other. You'd rather em not do it. But it's just, they're competitive, and that's sometimes what happens. All right, Connor Zillich was on door bumper clear. He talked in. He talked about his experience in Victory Lane. That was super scary. I don't want to go into this too much. I think it's been well covered. It was a very, very scary moment and I couldn't be. I will say, you know, it was. I am amazed, honestly, when Connor come out of the hospital into the waiting room after getting released. I could not believe from what we saw in Victory Lane, that he was in. In such good shape now, you know, collarbone, you know, aside, that's not. That's not a great thing. But.
Travis
But what you thought it could have been.
TJ Majors
Good Lord. Yeah. So listen, I'm just going to say that we. The. The end result of this is as sucky as it is to have the broken collarbone. And yes, that's complicating things as he's closing in on the playoffs. He come out of that in a really, really good spot and, man, just what a freak, freak deal. And I hate it happen. And it's in. It's embarrassing. I'm sure he's embarrassed and, you know, he shouldn't be ashamed in any way. I mean, it was it. Every time I see a driver stand on the door top in Victory Lane, there's a little bit of me that gets just a little anxious and. And I've never really worried about a guy falling onto his head. I've always kind of worried about them kind of losing their balance and blowing their knee out or something by land, you know, landing on something wrong, you know, and tearing their ACL or something like that. I always kind of wondered about that. But, you know, that. That was a scary thing to see. And as scary as it was to see, I'm glad I was there. I was. I was. I'm glad I was not somewhere else and having to learn about that and worry and not know. Man, I felt lucky to be able to watch that, watch Connor and go. Go through that process and know that he's going to be fine.
Travis
Where were you when he fell?
TJ Majors
Standing six feet away. And I mean, I was. As soon as he was on the ground, I got down there with the paramedics and was standing there the whole time. And I. I was. I was with him in the ambulance, going in the infield care center and all that. And so, I mean, I. I wanted to make sure that, you know, I kind of knew what we were dealing with and what he might be dealing with and, you know, having, you Know, I just, I, it was a, it was a scary thing. But I'm glad that he's, you know, I'm glad that he's okay. I'm glad his head's good. They, I was, I would have beta, I would have bet a hundred bucks that he was going to spend an overnight in the hospital just for observation. And they said his scan was clear. That's crazy. He was, he was talking fine, acting fine, man. And they told him, yeah, we're not going to hold you. We have no reason to hold you because you're, you're fine. That amazes me that that can happen after you bounce your head off of alpha concrete floor and someone go. And then there's my experience where you, you have a crash in a car where you don't really, your head doesn't impact something directly, but you have this, you know, you have this two week, four week process where you know, you're not right. And it ain't all coming back and it don't, it ain't snapping back, right? And in some cases for people, it's six months, years where they're dealing with symptoms, right? These residual nagging things that won't allow them to be elite athletes or won't allow them to get all the way back. That to me is the, is the, is the puzzling thing, I suppose, about concussions, head injury. I had, I was. My dad had this video game. We used to have one in here, the Comet. And when the ball was getting ready to go past the paddles and he knew he wasn't going to be able to stop it, he would, he would tilt the machine, he would, he would shake it to make the ball where he could, he could save the ball from, from going out. But the game would go tilt. The game would say tilt on the screen and all the flippers and everything would die and everything in the game would stop. All the lights would go out and you'd hope that it would come back before the ball fell below into the hole. And he used to laugh. And that, to me, is what I saw with Connor. They go through that same sort of shutdown and reboot, right? That. And then they're, you know, and then in 15 minutes, they're, they're up bouncing around, going, hey, I'm fine. Nothing wrong with me. Y' all calm down. I'm fine. I'm all right. And then there's other people that suffer an injury, a head injury that, that doesn't seem to be in terms of the contact or the head contact or the. Doesn't seem to be as hard or as direct. That can have these long lasting issues. And it just tells you, I guess, the complexity of the brain. It's like a computer and all the wiring up there. And if one, if. And I always tell people if one little wire is disconnected, it affects all the symptoms, all the, all the systems, right. Ocular balance and all, you know, and everybody's different too. Dude, it's so frustrating or puzzling that it, that it, that it is that way. But man, he's okay. I'm thankful and relieved, so relieved that he has literally come out of this unscathed, you know.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And at the track the next day.
Travis
Yeah, I was shocked when I saw the track.
TJ Majors
Me too. So I had him, I told him, I said, man, you know, you're going to come off the pain meds, that, that shoulder is going to hurt so bad. And I had a friend with me that actually just coincidentally went to the racetrack. Bruce, he broke his collarbone, snowboard. And he's like, dude, that hurts. And you just move and you're not gonna be able to sleep. Any kind of small tiny movement. It feels like your collarbone is coming through your skin. He's on these pain meds and we're like, hey man, you know you're probably gonna be real uncomfortable. I'm gonna make my plane available to you anytime you want it. You can come home with us tonight whenever you're ready. Or you can, I'll send it back here to the glen to get you in the morning. And he was adamant to spend the night. Connor was to stay. And I thought, man, he's going to wake up in the middle of the night. He's going to be, he's going to be so uncomfortable. Regretting, regretting that he stayed, man, he's going to be, he's going to, he's going to want to get, he's going to want to get up in the morning and get home immediately. Get, get back somewhere comfortable. Nope. I'm like tuning in to social media and he's be bopping around on pit road doing interviews.
Travis
I would be 19 years old.
TJ Majors
Yeah. And then he comes in here on Monday and does the show. I mean, damn, dude, he's tough. Hey everybody, you want the latest Dale Jr. Download apparel? Visit shop.dirtymomedia.com we're always adding new stuff all the time. Especially like when we say something silly on this show. We'll put it on a T shirt again. Check it out at shop.dirtymomedia.com as summer.
Connor Zillich
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TJ Majors
To back crashes for Austin Hill. After a one week suspension, there's a massive crash. Austin Hill's involved. Honestly could look at this a lot of different ways. I think that did Austin Hill. It wasn't a, it wasn't a right hook.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
No, it wasn't a right at all.
TJ Majors
It wasn't a right hook. This is not the same thing that happened at Indy. Even though he still says that he didn't do it intentionally at Indy. I don't buy it. I don't think anybody does. But this was racing. Racing. And is it avoidable? Yes. But is Austin Hill that kind of driver that's going to give up that, that opportunity? In his mind he's going to get to turn six on the inside one.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Of the sides either way.
TJ Majors
Well, he's on the inside, he's on his right. He's on his left rear coming out of the carousel and he's thinking, I'm, this is, I'm making. We saw cars in the Cup Series, Brad even drive to the outside of guys coming out of the carousel. So I mean, I know that's like an unusual sort of, that's not something we're used to seeing. But now with all the runoff and the way the guys run the Corners on the exit of the carousel. That's now going to be something that we may see more of.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And he was driving a good race.
TJ Majors
He was. Do I think, look, this is. If, if there's anything to say about Austin Hill, it's this. Do we buy that he. Do we buy that Indy was unintentional? I don't know that he can even admit after all this that it was. And I don't know that he should or ever will. No, he doesn't need to. I think we know he doesn't. I think so. I'm not really all that surprised that he, that he didn't fess up to it this week. He's going to toe the line that he's going to stick with this story. Right?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Has to.
TJ Majors
He has to. So. But coming off of one of these suspension, this doesn't really look good. Doesn't look good. Doesn't look good. But Austin Hill I don't believe is the kind of guy that gives knees. And he's not, he's not going to back down. He's not going to cut. Cut the break.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And he probably shouldn't. I mean, that's how. That's who he is.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I mean, I don't know if Michael McDowell is in the same spot. He's going to do the same exact.
TJ Majors
You think McDowell's going to wreck out him?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I don't think he's going to. I think he's going to put his nose there and if they hit. I don't. I mean, McDowell makes it tough. He was making it hard.
TJ Majors
I agree. And I don't disagree with that. I don't disagree with that. I think the, the, the thing that's tough about this is all the cars that got involved and I know. And there's, there's a conversation here. Does NASCAR need to change where spotters stand?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, there is a spotter stand there, but the problem is, so from my side of things, you have to take. Most teams don't. The spotter. Sandbath. There's a spotter stand right to the right, right there.
TJ Majors
There's multiple stands, only limited spotters. Am I right?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yes. So that if you don't have. Which is hard to find a third guy. So you have four. I take four there, including me. And I put a guy right there for this.
TJ Majors
So you got four people and you'll have a guy there.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I did have a guy there and he called that wreck. That's why we got. Slow down. You know who didn't have it? The 16 because he came flying by us from 10 car lengths back because he didn't know that they were starting to wreck.
TJ Majors
But, yeah, NASCAR let his ass start in front of us.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And then they put it.
TJ Majors
NASCAR, it is we the 88 or the 1 1. The 1. Carson Kwapple slows down for the wreck. The 16 drives by us during the wreck, and he gets to restart in front of us. That's Bull.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Problem with me for this is now I have to tell my guy when there's a wreck.
TJ Majors
This is a whole nother conversation.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
All right. Yeah, we'll stop because I don't want to get into that.
TJ Majors
Yeah, it's just bull. It's all you got to say it is.
Travis
Just say it, tj.
TJ Majors
Say. Just say it's bull. Bull. All right.
Travis
Say with your chest.
TJ Majors
It's all right. Still not convinced. Look, man, I mean, I'm not. This isn't the right hook. This isn't a. Hey, Austin, Hill deserves to be parked. Deserves another suspension. This is, though. Hey, Austin, can you take it easy? Hey, Austin, could you could. Let's just not be in the middle, Austin. Let's not do something every race.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He had a week off. He was all wound up, I suppose, man.
TJ Majors
I mean, he run over the. He. He boots Connor out of the way in turn one, actually. Pretty clever move. Takes the lead, sends.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He's actually kind of thought that was pretty clever. Yeah, that's pretty good.
TJ Majors
He sends Connor to the back a few spots, and Connor drives up back through there. And when he. When Connor passed him, he didn't run into him. He didn't clip him. He didn't wreck him. They ran each other. They ran around each other even later. When. When. Before Connor wrecked svg, you know, they battled for that spot a little bit. No problem.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's good racing.
TJ Majors
Yeah, good racing. So, I mean, we know Hill can race. We know Hill can race good. If I was.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
We also know he can race bad.
TJ Majors
If I was with Hill, I would just say, hey, let's. Let's just take a couple of weeks where we just race.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Just quiet weeks.
TJ Majors
Get fancy. Just race. Yeah, let's just get out of the. Let's get out of the conversation.
Travis
And you think about it like, he's most likely not going to win. Even if you do win, it doesn't count for you. So it's like, how about go out there, get a solid race?
TJ Majors
Yeah. No, he. That ain't the way they're thinking. So Austin and them feel like they got did wrong. You not Austin Hill did not Come to the glen with his tail between his legs in remorse. Not RCR didn't. Richard, don't. They are.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
They never gave in.
TJ Majors
They're of the mind that y' all us over, man. And y' all took our points, and you've put us in this position. We're going. We're coming back swinging. Round two, mother. Here I come. So, you know, that's their attitude, right? And I mean, honestly, I'm battle with this internally because that's always been their attitude.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
New all the time.
TJ Majors
RCR has always been the scuffler, the aggressive, sort of, don't push us. We'll push back twice no matter what. They ain't going. They don't put up with now Richard has been more vocal. The NASCAR world is better when Richard and NASCAR are friendly. I don't love. I don't love the NASCAR world where, you know, Richard's mad at nascar. He was mad at him after Indy. Right. And they got him in the. They got him walking through the garage. Do you remember this? They got him walking through the garage and all that. So I don't love that visual because I grew up. RCR is like family for sure, that, you know, dad drove for them. They were the great people, too, though, huh?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Great people.
TJ Majors
They are great people. They are. Richard is still like family. Austin, we all talk, you know, from time to time. We stay in contact. We always will, because of our. We're bonded.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Like, Dawson and I are good dudes, man.
TJ Majors
That's just what it is. And so it's tough for me because I want. I want them to succeed, and I want. I want them to be well. I want them to be appreciated. Respected.
Travis
It's good for the sport when they do well.
TJ Majors
Yeah. And so, you know, this kind of. This has been a tough little stretch, you know, in terms of. Kind of how they handle things. But I don't know, you know, I don't know what the end result here is.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I don't either.
Travis
I think RCR and RC and NASCAR have kind of been fighting ever since last year with Richmond. Then you had this. So it's.
TJ Majors
Yes.
Travis
Now they've got this, like a year ago, you know.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Travis
Us against everybody.
TJ Majors
It is like. And I don't really. There were times in the 80s and 90s where there was a little bit of that where dad would get penalized for rough driving and, boy, you know, nas that Richard would be like, you know, nascar's wrong. They're. You know, they screwed us.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He always backs his drivers.
TJ Majors
Yeah. And so I'm not. What I'm seeing ain't nothing new, but it's just really aggravated I think in this instance because of that Richmond result and how they were hand, how that was handled. They didn't love. And it seems like ever since then Richard feels like that they, they're out to get him, they're out to get them. And I don't think that that's real.
Travis
And then, I mean you also, you've heard his comments about the charter, you know, the comments that he made. So it's, it's, it's a bunch of different things adding up.
TJ Majors
Yeah. But you know, I appreciate Richard being.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So involved in it still though they.
TJ Majors
Say he's hands on as hell.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I think that's something.
TJ Majors
And.
Travis
Yeah, I mean you look at what makes F1 so great and it's the team principals, they're these characters and you hear them on the radio week after week and you hear rc, you know.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, I talked to the guys. That's pretty badass.
TJ Majors
Yeah, I talked to some of the guys on Austin's car and they're, they're he in during the week and everything. He's, he's there, he's in it, he's, it's, it's his life, it's his livelihood. He has the, he has other businesses and all that stuff. But this is really how he's made a living getting back on base here. Austin Hill. Yeah, just, I don't, you know, racing hard. Austin Hill's not going to give an inch. And even after a one week suspension, he come back to let everybody know, this is how you're going to get it. And so you better give me my, you better give me my car length, you better give me my space or, or hell, there's gonna be hell to pay.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I'm here for it.
TJ Majors
And he is, man, the, the temperature on social media.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
If you're him, do you just embrace this and I'm the bad guy? You have to.
TJ Majors
I think you might need to, I think it. To make it work for you. Yeah, I think you could.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I mean, he almost has to at this point.
TJ Majors
Yeah, I mean, Denny's made it work for him. Because what, what happens is if you don't embrace it, then you don't eventually get respected. Right. People just think, man, you're just a individual, but if you're like, oh, you want me to be the villain, fine.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Mess with me, see what happens.
TJ Majors
Then you can at least go, man, I don't love what he does, but I got to respect the owning it. That's him wearing the hat. He ain't afraid to. Because, like, when Denny and Denny and him are not the same. But I referenced Denny because Denny was. Denny gets out of his car at Bristol and says, I beat your favorite driver. One of the greatest lines anyone has ever said immediately post race, the way that Denny was like, all right, you want me to play this role? I'll have some fun with this. He did that made me, you know, that made me really appreciate Denny more than I ever probably have because not only is he performing as a. As a. As a driver, but he's bringing some color, some. Some personality.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The pictures of the people flipping him off, I thought was actually putting your.
Travis
Levins up like that thing.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
We need that.
TJ Majors
Yes.
Travis
We just don't need you being a bulldozer every damn race you're in.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But Denny's embraced it and. And we've all appreciated because of that.
TJ Majors
Yeah. Well, I mean, when's Eric Almore. Eric Alma Roll the run in the next race? That's a good question. That's one. I'm going to tune in.
Travis
Oh, because he hooked him.
TJ Majors
Because it's possible that Eric has been known to get. I don't know that Eric's thinks the story's finished.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And Eric's been known to. I mean, we've all heard the stories.
TJ Majors
When Eric comes back, he might finish the story.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He might.
TJ Majors
WWE style.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. Eric's sneaky.
TJ Majors
Like it, dude. He ain't scared nobody.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
No.
Travis
And he's not racing full time, so he.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
What are you going to suspend him? He's sitting here going, I don't know. I got. I don't know how many years left I got it. Or how long I'm going to do this.
Travis
Come get you some.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I don't know if I can see Eric doing that, but, dude, it's got to be in his mind.
TJ Majors
Yeah, we've.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That was a hard hit.
TJ Majors
We've heard Eric. We've heard about Eric doing some things we didn't think we'd ever hear about him doing.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. Meetings coming across tables, whatever. Yeah.
TJ Majors
He ain't scared, so that'll be interesting. All right. Keselowski, host of our. What the hell happened, dude? Why was Brad running down pit road.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Trying to get his cardio in for the day?
TJ Majors
Why did Brad run down to his car and what. So what was the problem?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The sequence of events is we go out to make our qualifying run, host of ours on track, and you have the makeshift start finish line. A lot of guys Were doing, like, install laps on tires and running a lap before you take off. Well, we've done it many times. You see a car coming at speed, you get way out of the way. And I see the 77 coming.
TJ Majors
Yep.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I get Brad. I'm like, brad, pull way over to the right and slow down. Let him clear before the corner. Let him go here. So we do, and it's not. We've done the same thing like you've done that. You pulled way to the right out of six. You're over there where Zillich was coming back on the track. Not the preferred line. You're way out of the way. And then he finishes his lap. And then he waits instead of coming down pit road because the makeshift start finish lines on the back stretch there. He stays out a whole nother lap. Slows down, waits for us, makes us follow him up through the S's and then stop. Slows down in the groove into the bus stop. So we have to pass him into the bus stop to kill our. That was our qualifying lap. And then we come down pit road. Brad stops on pit road, waits for Carson to go by so we can see where his stall was, I'm guessing. And then Brad backs in. And I didn't know anything was. He didn't say anything on the radio. I didn't even know he was.
TJ Majors
Why was Brad mad?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Because he impeded our lap. That was our qualifying lap. Like, our best shot at a call.
TJ Majors
Did he not. Did he feel like y' all did the same thing?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
No, we were out of the way.
TJ Majors
I know you were, but did he feel like you bothered his lap?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
No, not at all. Oh, Carson felt like we bothered his lap.
TJ Majors
Right.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But from the video and I've shown you, he's wrecking, like, way out of the groove.
TJ Majors
Yeah. Yeah. You didn't bother his lap.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
We didn't bother his lap at all. And this is what, you know, Brad being and me as well, being around so long, I've never seen anybody get, especially somebody in his shoes, as much stuff as he's tore up and people he's pissed off over the last two years. That or even more than that. I don't see how you can just blame a guy and want to stay out there and screw somebody else's qualifying lap up for this. So you know, him waiting for Brad, and Brad getting so mad. I didn't know Brad was mad. He never said anything on the radio or nothing. And he just got out, and he got out. And I'm like, what's he doing. We're gonna have to run again. And he took off running. I'm like, go. Go get him. And I saw where he was going, and he just wanted to get on there and guess. Show he wasn't happy.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And then you hear the. You know, that just shows you what type of person Carson really is to me. Like, you want to like him so bad, but you can't. Then he goes and does stuff like this. I mean, he has made so many mistakes, and, you know, we made a conscious effort to get out of his way and make sure we didn't mess him up. And that's all you want back is, you know. And they put the makeshift start finish line there to try to prevent some of this stuff. But to be that petty, I guess, to wait another lap to go out there and screw somebody up on purpose. And honestly, I thought there was penalties involved for impeding laps on purpose like that. I thought NASCAR had things in place, but I'm unsure about it. But I don't know, man. I just think it was. You know, and it gets worse when they interview people the next day, and somebody. And people higher up there come on there and say that what we did to him was way worse than what he did to us. I don't agree with that. That's just. How do you say that? You know? How do you defend him like that?
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You're not helping him. You're not helping him grow to me. You're. You're. You're aiding him. So I don't know. It's. I just don't know why you'd even do it. There's not. There's no way.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Anybody from in. When you were even racing, you wouldn't do that. Like, you just wouldn't do that. Like, we've pulled out of the way of people many times. There are people who pulled out of your way. You don't think twice about it.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And for. I don't know, this kid has a switch that he flips and what needs to happen.
Travis
Because I feel like each week it's. It's something different. And, like, one week I can defend him, but then another week he does something else, like what needs to happen where he's not always at the center of drama.
TJ Majors
Yeah. So, I mean, I. We said this months and months ago. Everything's fine until he runs into one of Rick's cars or does something, you know, like that. And then when he has to go into the office to talk to Rick Hendrick, I think when he. And it might not be Rick, but it'll be a person like Rick that when he has to go in and have that conversation, that'll. That'll have an effect. Now, that might not fix it all, but that'll have a. That'll have an effect on the decision making behind the wheel. Yeah, I mean, and honestly, I. No, no disrespect, tj but I am entertained.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I'm sure you're. What would you have done if he did that to you on track?
TJ Majors
I'm entertained by Josevar. You know, until it becomes my problem. This week it was your problem and you don't like it and I get it. And that goes back to the same thing. Like, until he does. I think it's all fine until he does something to some, some. Until he does something that irks a Hendrick or somebody that's above, like, directly above his chain of command. Like, hey, in the cup race, him and McDowell racing each other to the finish, you know, that, that might get some things that might have some conversations going. You don't know that they're going to pin that on McDowell and say, you know, and let Carson off the hook. We don't really know how that competition meeting is going to go if there'll be a private conversation around, hey, how we need to race our teammates or race, you know, we need to, we don't need to draw attention to ourselves. That was really kind of unnecessary altogether between them two. And they don't need to be that competitive with each other. And, you know, that could start some conversations that are helpful for Carson. But yeah, I think, you know, when he, if he goes out there and impeded the lap for Larson. Right. And, you know, and the big, and the big man gets upset because the big man has some influence over Spire, for sure. And when you, you know, same, you know, the big man has influence over most things. Chevrolet, piss off a Ford or Toyota.
Travis
It doesn't have the same effect.
TJ Majors
Yeah. And so when you start messing with what his program's doing or what he's trying to accomplish or, you know, that's, that's when thing. That's when the vice gets a little tight and Carson will feel that. But until that happens, until Lambert or, I'm sorry, until his crew chief or his owners outright, go, Carson. Come on, man, stop it. You know, he's not going to make the adjustments because he doesn't have to or need to. Doesn't feel like he needs to. Not going to change, not going to, not going to alter his.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Wouldn't you want to help him grow, though. Like, is it. If you're his boss right there and you see this, like, you're like, I.
TJ Majors
Don'T know that they see a problem with messing with you.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I just. But come back down pit road, cool your car, make another run.
TJ Majors
I don't think they see a problem with it. I don't. Until they. Until I see evidence that they had. They don't like doing that. You know, I mean, did anyone.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Does it take. Does it take them guys rolling the car off the truck on casters for a month straight? You know what I mean? And then be like, hey, Carson, you need to stop doing this stuff.
Travis
Dale's point, like, last week was Zane Smith. They probably don't look at. He didn't do anything to Zane Smith.
TJ Majors
They probably look at Zane Smith and go, Zane Smith. They probably.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, they've said pretty much the rest of the field for about a year and a half now, and the list is growing.
TJ Majors
Well, what's happening?
Travis
We'll do something about it.
TJ Majors
Listen, you talk about. I'm saying, you talk about putting him on casters. I don't see anybody willing to do that. Now. Zane tried to.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, Zane was willing.
TJ Majors
Jane tried to put him on casters.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But, yeah, didn't work out. God, you got.
TJ Majors
Maybe next week.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You got to make that stick.
TJ Majors
Somebody will, you know, I don't know that that fixes it, but, you know.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I mean, I think we can all and say that we. We like watching him race and we.
TJ Majors
Enjoy seeing it's coming to something. Right? Something's got to building to something, and it's going to be worth watching. So I'm, I'm, I'm entertained, wondering, like, all right, how's this going to play out?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You know, do you think at the end of the race? Because I watched him come across the line, him McDowell beating on each other, and then they get across the line and Carson. Carson makes another attempt to swerve at me down, hit him. And he does. And like, he goes back after him after the line, and then he gets on the radio and is like, keep him away from me.
TJ Majors
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't want to talk to him.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, I mean, that's because you're scared of him. Let's be honest here. McDowell's a big dude.
TJ Majors
He's a big dude. Yeah. That was strange.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It's, you know, worst move.
TJ Majors
That was a strange.
Travis
I like the spicy dj.
TJ Majors
Yeah, I do, too.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It's what's move, man. I'm going to run into this guy, but help Me, guys defend me.
TJ Majors
Yeah, I don't want to see him. Yeah, I don't keep him away because he can kick. What are they going to.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, that's why he's going.
TJ Majors
What Crew guys gonna go. Sorry, Michael. He doesn't want to see you right now.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, sorry.
TJ Majors
We can't let you over here. He's requested no. No visitors.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I mean.
TJ Majors
Why.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I've never heard a driver say, keep him away from me after the race ever.
TJ Majors
Yeah. All right, so we have a little exercise we're going to do today, and I asked TJ and Travis to come up with some. This is what I asked. There'll be a quiz tomorrow on the show. Each of you name the top five storylines on social media. Post Glenn. These are the top five storylines on social media. Here's TJ's.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You want mine? Ready?
TJ Majors
Go.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I mean, I got a notepad here.
TJ Majors
Go.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I got Connor, Austin, Hill, Host, VAR and McDowell with Brad. Out of the whole. Host of our. In general, I have Ty Gibbs, which we didn't hit. And I have SVG at road courses. Those are too many.
TJ Majors
Okay, Ty Gibbs, what's your. What's your deal on Ty Gibbs? You saw some Ty Gibbs social media comments?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, there's a lot of videos. Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of Ty Gibbs.
TJ Majors
Tyrek21.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
No, about. He wrecked him and Gabe Hart.
TJ Majors
Get out of my buddy.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, well, that wasn't.
TJ Majors
Oh, I'm sorry. I'm talking about Todd Dillon.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, I don't.
Travis
Gabe Hart repping him a new one.
TJ Majors
I'm had to get my. Damn it. Todd Dillon. You wrecked Josh Berry in. And there it is.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, well, is that one of yours?
TJ Majors
Ty Gibbs and Gabe Hart on social media or on the radio? Yeah, I remember that. What do you all think about that? There's some props. So this is what. This is what Todd Gibbs needs. He needs a guy like Gabe Hart. Gabe Hart is there to help this kid and mentor this kid. And that was just some. That was a moment. Oh, man. I've been in those moments on the radio where you're the dry. I'm upset. I'm out there driving the car.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
We've never heard you upset on radio.
TJ Majors
The car isn't doing what I want. I'm in trouble. I know I'm in trouble. And I don't feel like anyone else realizes just how bad this is. And I've been in that. And you need the crew. You need a person on the radio that tells you we're all here to help you, man. We're not here to argue. And I don't know anyone better suited for that person to sort of get Ty back into the game than him, than Gabe Hart. So I thought it was refreshing.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, it's good to hear. Speak up.
TJ Majors
Yeah. Because I mean, listen, I've been. I used to race it. I used to race for my dad and when. And I had lean, I had lenience. Right. There were things that I could say do get away with. And if I was really allowed, I could have taken that to an extreme. That would have been detrimental to not only myself, but the rest of the company. And I was lucky that I had Tony Senior. Tony Junior. Tony Senior.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Mainly I was going to bring them.
TJ Majors
Up to keep my ass in line and not let me get away with running my mouth and being a little. And so, you know, not that Ty Gibbs was really going there. He was just desperate. He's like, man, I got no rear tires. We're in trouble. And Gabe Hart's like, need you to keep going as fast as you can. Go and do what I need you to do. Now if you want to throw the whole race and do your own strategy, by all means you can come on down pit road and we'll do whatever. But my suggestion would be this. Now Tony Senior was that guy for me to basically say, you know, shut the F up and do your job, buckle down, quit doing what you're doing. It's detrimental, it's not helping. And I'm thankful for that because had he not been the guardrail man, I would have, I would have abused all of the lenience. And you know, being the son of the. The team owner, even after dad had passed away, I still had this sort of ability or had leeway that, you know, no one else at the company possessed, you know, and benefited from.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So brought that here with Brad in the beginning too. Yeah, working with Brad.
TJ Majors
He was a Tony senior.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh yeah.
TJ Majors
Oh yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
Tony Senior would tell you you're a no drive, you're a dumb MF or you're a no driving MFer and you know, go win the race the next week and he's your best friend, but boy, he was chewing your ass when you stepped out of line. Now Gabe Hart's not that aggressive, but damn, man, he's honest. Ty Gibbs is extremely talented. He's got a chance to really get it going and do it in this, in this cup deal. And if it happens, it'll happen because of Gabe Hart sort of not so much making this cars fast, but getting his head right and so if it.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Doesn'T work with a gay bar, what happens, man?
TJ Majors
I mean, I don't know about that.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
This is decline. Does he eventually become his own worst enemy?
TJ Majors
No, I think. I don't know about that. That's a whole nother thing. But I think it works. I think it does work.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
What's the other thing? What's the last thing you had? Road courses. Svg.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Just how many we had.
TJ Majors
Yeah, that was one that I, that I keyed in on. So glad you brought that up. Jeff Gluck on, on the tear down was talking about there may be too many road courses. A lot of people responded to the social media posts. Don't get rid of road courses because SVG is dominating. Just go out there and get better. That's not what Jeff Gluck was saying.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
No, it's not.
TJ Majors
Nobody's mad. Nobody wants to get rid of. Listen to this. This is really important. Nobody wants to get rid of road courses because SVG is great. If, I mean, if I was trackhouse and anybody that worked there, I'd want more road courses. Nobody's wanting to get rid of road courses because SVG is great. I look forward to going to road courses to see if he can be beat. What I think is Gluck's point is, is that the car struggles at road courses. It has since it's came in. As I've said in, in, in the past, this is a, you know, this, this car has a lot of sports car and IMSA V8 supercar technology with, with the underbody arrow, independent rear suspension, all kinds of things. Bigger tire, big brakes. And it does all these, it does everything. Our old car did way better, stops better, just all these things better. But because mostly. Well, I think mostly because of the aero. The, the car just doesn't race very well on a road course. And it races like a sports car or like IndyCar. It races the way those cars race. But we expect those cars to race that way because that's how they have raced for decades. Sports car racing and, and Indy car racing. They had their style of event and what their races look like on the racetrack, what the product look like. That's fine. That's what it look. That's what it's. That's what it has tended to look like for years where you have, you know, you have some passing, but it's not, not battling all day long back and forth in nascar, you know, we, we expect more passing. We expect lots of passing, we expect lots of battles. We expect a faster Car to be able to overtake with no problem. We expect contact, we expect door to door. That's our expectation because of the last 75 years of what we've seen. And so when we come up on a road course now and we don't see what we expect, we're not willing to allow this type of product to be normalized or we hope that this won't be normalized. And, and so I think Jeff Gluck's just saying, you know, why don't we dial back the road courses? You know, same reason why maybe, you know, a lot of people are calling for the Roval to go away and the road, the oval at Charlotte to be back to two races. Well, the people are asking for that because the Charlotte race is one of the best races of the year. The car performs well on the mile and a half. So why not get rid of the Roval? We would. Rat would. If you're going to Charlotte, Charlotte at the end of the year, you pick A or B. What do you think people are picking? They're picking the oval. No, nobody's going, man, give me that Roval. They want the oval right now. Right now. That's what they want. The series and the schedule and everything can ebb and flow as according to how the supply and demand. Right. There was a demand for less Mile and a half's we went to more road courses. We steadily went away from short tracks. We got a short track back in North Wilkesboro.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Four road courses. Where are they for you? So we could run four road courses next year. What are we thinking?
TJ Majors
Well, I wanted to say that my opinion on how many road courses we should have is going to be in the minority. I know that the way I feel about it is probably only about what 10% of the fan base thinks. I like two road courses. I like Sonoma. I like Watkins Glen. Yep. I, I look, looking at this, looking at NASCAR, looking at NASCAR in, in the 75 year history. It was born out of the dirt tracks and the short track, half mile style facility. I'm not talking about NASCAR's heritage or its past. I'm only referencing, like when you think about, all right, what style of tracks, what type of racetrack was the sport born out of? It was a, it was an oval series. You know, we ended up going to Riverside once or twice a year for a long time and that was our one road course.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Was that, was that popular, do you think, amongst the series drivers? Like how? I don't know, how do they look?
TJ Majors
Yeah, I think it was Fine. We went to Riverside to be in California.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Okay.
TJ Majors
Nobody was building racetracks back then. And I suppose that, you know, we had Ontario and it failed, but we went to Riverside to be in California. We needed. We had really no footprint west of the Mississippi river. And so that was our way to become national. And so it was out of necessity that we went to Riverside. And then when Riverside went away and became residential and commercial shopping and all that bull, you know, we started looking at other places. We go to the Glen.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
A historic track already there.
TJ Majors
But our. In the. You know, in the. In all of those years, our identity was ovals. Our identity was short tracks. It was Daytona, it was Charlotte, Atlanta. That was what NASCAR was. And Richard Petty will tell you, you know, road sport, you know, road racing really, you know, road courses really wasn't what NASCAR was about. I think there's a clip I saw a couple weeks ago where Richard Petty's like, yeah, you know, road courses, they're fine, but that's not really what we are known for. It's not what we do. And. And so I'm fine with a couple. And now I know that that's the minority. So that's why I don't really talk about it too much, and I don't go on social media because I know that's. That's not realistic in the environment we have today. There's a ton. There's a whole generation or two of race fans below that have come into the sport since I've been around that may want something different, that make up a large majority of our fan base. I realize I'm 50 years old and there's a. You know, there's a lot of 40, 30, 20 teenage kids that are big fans of the sport now that make up a huge part of the fan base that may want something different. And they don't look at NASCAR the way I look at it. They look at it and they see in a different identity, they see a different history, they see a different sort of.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It's all they know.
TJ Majors
Yeah. And so that, you know, I'm understanding that, you know, my personal opinion may not be that popular, but I'm okay with four.
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TJ Majors
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Travis
Dominating NASCAR schedule slash Next gen car.
TJ Majors
Austin Hill and Josevar all right. Next gen car, everything else we talked about but next gen right?
Travis
Well it was with the schedule with the road courses.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
What about the car in general? There's a lot of traction with that here.
TJ Majors
There is. I mean. Yeah. I mean the car is obviously we've.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
All seen the clip with with Kyle saying the car is producing cars good.
TJ Majors
Which. Yeah, I don't know man. I mean Kyle's. Kyle has Kyle. I really, really respect Kyle think the world of him and I appreciate his opinion. But I would just disagree that the car doesn't produce what I expect. Again going back to 75 years I know Kyle's been long time. The car doesn't produce the kind of racing that I know we are capable of at road courses and short Tracks. The car does not produce the type of racing that I think should be our standard. And I know what we're capable of at road courses and short tracks. And I would not stop at trying to achieve amazing great racing at those style of tracks until we achieved it. I wouldn't stop trying to get there. And I don't think we're there. And I think it's mainly due to the race car.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Right, so in your opinion what is the ratio like? I don't think it's. I think it's more car dependent now than it's ever been. What like I think when we do have races where the driver means more, they're better. Races like the Bristol race with tire driver came into play more to me the racing got better because you had, there's, there was so much stuff going on.
TJ Majors
There's some racetracks where that underbody arrow is problematic. There's just some racetracks where the way this car is in dirty air creates problems for the drivers. They can't like to your point we go to Bristol, right? I want to see a guy. If I want to, if, if, if a driver wants to go down into the corner and run into the back of somebody in the middle of the corner and move them up track, I want them to be able to do that.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You can't now.
TJ Majors
They can't do it. And so in most cases when they try to drive down in there and get behind that guy and get to his rear bumper, they lose all that air and the underbody can't get the downforce and they lose all the grip and they just, they go up the racetrack and so they have to run offset and they can't run behind each other. I don't like that. I don't love it. I don't want it.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And I don't think like watching these guys like to me the car is majority of the problem. The car is majority of the equation on who runs really good. It's not, it's not that this guy is just a way better driver and then nothing again. These guys are all really good drivers.
TJ Majors
But at most of the, most of the tracks where we're having these challenges, all the passing happens on restarts. That's it. There's minimal passing after the field sort of organizes post restart. We get about two or three laps of good battles in action. And so a lot of people in our industry are like, well we just need more restarts. No, that's not the answer. We need a car that can overTake at lap 15. Lap 20 lap, 25. Not get Aerotite and so air deficient behind a slow car. All right, we got SVG calling in winner this weekend here at Watkins Glenn. Damn it. How many races have you won this year?
SVG
Four now.
TJ Majors
Yeah. Had to think for a second. So. Yeah. So pretty awesome to see you go out there. Look, I'll be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect because I feel like that, you know, when we go to the real technical road courses, I think you have a clear advantage because you're just badass at road course racing. But I always looked at the Glen as about. It's kind of like a super speedway for a road course. And there's a lot of straightaway turn, straightaway turn. There's not a lot of corners that are in succession where you kind of got to put them all together in a chain. You can up a corner, but then get the rest of them right and still do okay lap time wise. Right. But so our oval guys always seem to kind of go there and do all right, and they've ran pretty good against you in the last year at that racetrack, but you went there this weekend, man, and made it look pretty easy. How did the race. Did you feel like it was easy from behind the wheel? Did you think you had him covered?
SVG
Not really. I could see you're right. Ryan Blaney, who's not like, he's a decent road course driver, but, man, he was awesome on the weekend. His quali lap was impressive. And then in that first stint, I tried to get to him, but he was just too fast, you know, and then kind of worked out when we split on strategy, he was probably the best car and didn't work out. But I think for me, it's. It was great. Like from last year, we just built on the car we had and what I wanted from the car. So we're kind of building a notebook as well, which that's kind of helping us to keep ahead and keep developing.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That the biggest change this year because, I mean, honestly, I thought we would go back to some of these places like Sonoma and the Glen, and like he said you would be, our guys are more competitive, but, man, you just. The gap's bigger.
SVG
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Like, what's so different this year?
SVG
I think. I think last year, you know, I had a track house car, but it would sort of be the base car and then given to Korlig to run and, you know, it'd be a really good car. But this year we've sort of. When you're with the Same guys every year, every week, and you're driving the same car. It's. I've just been able to build on what setup, you know, and each week we've sort of been developing what we need from the car and. Yeah, and what I want, the guys have been able to give it to me rather than, you know, doing one race, waiting a month or two till the next one. And I think it's just that progression. And, you know, I'm learning that from the ovals, what feeling I want from the car, but on a road course, I can tell them exactly what I want in the car, and they can. They can know where to give it to me.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So, yeah, it shows.
SVG
Yeah, it's really been a good help this year. I think we've gotten better as a. As a car. You know, the car's gotten a lot better, and that's really helped.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
We're gonna have to bring McLaughlin over here to start competing with you, man.
SVG
Like, every week it's, you know, it's closer than you think. Like, we were good on strategy, and it just worked out, but there's a lot of fast guys here. It's just. I guess we've kind of executed the whole day.
TJ Majors
I got to ask you, man. Moving over to Saturday, driving, driving for Junior Motorsports, it's a real honor for us to have you behind the wheel of our cars. It's been awesome to be able to get to know you a little bit better. But there was an incident with Connor over in between turn six and seven. Have you. You know, I don't know if you want to kind of give us your point of view from that crash and how that might have been avoidable and what might have. What you or Connor might have been able to do differently. We watch it over and over, and it's. You know, I feel some like Connor has responsibility to not wreck you. Right. To get back on the racetrack without hitting you and wrecking you and turning you in the wall. He could have done a lot of things differently there. You were also shaded it a little bit to the right to sort of try to, you know, you were doing everything you could to kind of protect your position. Now that you've kind of had a chance to spend a couple nights on it, what is your. What is your feeling about how that all played out?
SVG
Yeah, firstly, sorry to junk one of your beautiful race cars. Yeah, it. Yeah, I had more time to reflect, and that's kind of. It's where the racing is different here. You know, like every other racing series in the world, if someone goes off the track, it's their problem. They have to get back on safely. Whereas here you're kind of on both of you to let, you know, let the racing continue and give racing room. So, yeah, the other thing was, he was catching me, he was way faster and I sort of thought to myself, I'll try and hold him off for three or four laps and maybe his tyres will heat up following me and then it'll equal out. And it was about the end of that third or fourth lap of the pressure, and I was probably, you know, within a lap or two of letting them go, but I was still fighting pretty hard. It was a good race. He was patient with me and then when he went around the outside, he went in way too deep and I, I knew I hadn't cleared him, but I gave him just one car width to get back on the track and I was going to pinch him narrow into seven. And I think he thought as well, I was going to shade all the way back to the left. It was just a misjudgment or racing incident, really, but catastrophic result. Yeah, but, yeah, I, you know, I was, I was defending pretty hard and I went back to the middle of the road, so then I'd know I'd pinch him and I'd get a good run on the front straight and I was going to clear him again. And, yeah, he just misjudged coming back on, but it was, it was both our faults, really.
TJ Majors
But I know that when you learned of his collarbone injury, you've had a similar experience and you've all. I believe that you, even within 24 hours of having that wreck together, where you got junked, you were already offering him insight into what to expect. Is that true?
SVG
Yeah, that's true. I went, you know, my injury was probably worse than him. I did like my AC and three ribs as well on a mountain bike accident. And then I raced. I had one week off and then raced the next week, which is exactly what he's got. He's got Richmond off than Daytona, so, you know, he should be fine. But, you know, when you plate your collarbone, it's probably the best bone you. Or best major bone you can break. You know, like it. You bolt it together and it's stronger than it was. Just have the damage in the scar and then the, the hardest thing is putting on the belts. You know, you feel the bolts and the collarbones through the belts and it's just irritating and annoying. But, yeah, he could, you know, if it's just the collarbone. He could race Daytona or this weekend even. You know, you see MotoGP guys do it all the time and jump on a bike the next week. It's amazing. So, yeah, I did that. Broke my collarbone, did the next race. And yeah, I raced for three or four months and then when we had a break, I took the, took the plate out again and it was, it's, it was brand new, you know, so, yeah, he, he can be fine. It was, that was horrible to see. Initially I thought he'd done his knee or his ankle.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, man, it's terrible.
SVG
It was horrible. So. But luckily, you know, collarbone is relatively an okay bone to break.
TJ Majors
I believe that with him, with you and him, I believe that the sport is going to be gifted a lot of amazing moments and watching you two sort of push each other, I think that he's an extremely talented road course racer and I think that he will only continue to improve, especially being.
SVG
Well, he just has to stop pushing me. Literally, huh?
TJ Majors
Yeah, Well, I think, I think it's going to be a lot of fun.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He'S going to benefit from.
TJ Majors
He is.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
From you being over there and getting the cars where they are.
TJ Majors
Yeah. And, you know, I don't, I guess. Are you anticipating that relationship as teammates? You've made a commitment yourself to stay long term and sign a new extension. The. I don't know if this is really a question, but it's more of a statement of excitement. That man, you know, you're a lot of fun to watch, but he is, he is as well. You're on one end of the spectrum in terms of your career, and he's on the other. And how those two, how those two worlds are going to meet and continue to battle and push each other over the next several years could be just phenomenal for the NASCAR world.
SVG
That's also where I'm going to be. Probably have to be a little careful. Like, that's probably to my detriment. I'm too open with teammates and, you know, anything they ask, I'm happy to give them an answer, you know, but he's going to be beating me pretty quick or at least matching me, you know, so we have to.
TJ Majors
Yeah, that's.
SVG
That's always a fine line, isn't it? But, you know, ultimately, if you're all doing well, you know, it helps the team and for the greater good of everyone. You want to be all winning, but yeah, he's going to be a real problem for everyone in a year or two, isn't he? So I don't know how much I want to help him, but he's a great kid and, you know, you see his mum and dad there every week by side, living it with him, and it's really cool, like, that atmosphere and the. The upbringing he's had, you know, so you don't mind helping someone like that because it's. It's always cool to. To see him do well, for sure.
TJ Majors
Your extension. How grateful and excited were you to know? So, listen, it's my belief that you're going to continue to evolve and eventually become the overall racer that you want to be now that you have that extension. You know there's a Runway in front of you, right? To continue that process. How comforting and excited were you to be able to get that out there in public?
SVG
Oh, it's just awesome. You know, we had sort of another year left anyway, but Justin wanted to do more, you know, he can. It's been amazing, the belief he's had in me and also the patience. Like, the start of the year was pretty rough, but you could see the glimpses, and now they're getting more and more, and I feel like I've had some really good races. Feel like I'm matching my teammates a lot of weeks and qualifying really well, and I can see. See it coming and feel it coming, you know, and we're still a long way from, you know, winning a race or. Or being complete, but, yeah, I can feel and see where the time is. You know, I'm having more moments where I have a couple of good sections of a race or feel the car doing something, and I'm like, oh, there it is. There's the limit. And I'm. I'm getting closer to that every week, you know, and I'm feeling it more often, so I can really feel the progression and. But the biggest thing is I enjoy it. Like, I've really had some cool races in oval, and I get to the end of the stage and I'm wore out, puffing. I'm like, man, that was really fun. And I'll be 10th or I'll be 20th or whatever. It doesn't matter. I just. I really enjoy the. The racing on the ovals. Like, it's a lot of fun. What you can get up to in these races.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Being from VA Supercars, do you. You're kind of opening the door to. For me, like, for more. You've got to have a lot of friends over there, driver stuff that probably want to follow in your footsteps. Do you see anyone coming up from the V8 supercars that you think could come over here and be as successful as you are right now.
SVG
Yeah, it's. It's hard. You know, you obviously got to have someone with commitment. You know, it's, you know, like what I've had in Justin extremely thankful for and, and how much he's committed and, you know, up uprooting me from home, getting me out of my contract, flying me over here, like it's a. It's a big thing to do. But there's a lot of young guys there. There's a guy who was my teammate, Brock Feeney. He is killing it, killing it in Viet supercars.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And yeah, I see the highlights.
SVG
Yeah, and he loves it. Like he's on the ovals all the time on iracing and watching all the ovals, texting me all the time. I think he would be really good and I've been trying to get him into a road course race with Corlig, you know, now that they got some spare seats. And yeah, I think he would be a really, really good guy to bring over. But, you know, you see Cam Waters, he come and did some truck races and you know, he's struggling, but he, with time, he would be good. He's. He's a massive talent as well. But yeah, you gotta. It's a big commitment to bring someone over and I hope someone else tries it too.
TJ Majors
Thank you, svg. Appreciate you giving some time today, man. Good luck this weekend coming up. You bet, man. And get that thing rolling for them playoffs. We'd love to see you go deep into the playoffs and have a great run.
SVG
Yeah, me too.
TJ Majors
I'll give it a crack.
Connor Zillich
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TJ Majors
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Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Nothing.
TJ Majors
What are you clearing your.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That was a great intro.
TJ Majors
I tried my ass off the other day to get the entire. Get the team to edit together just a clip of you clearing your throat every time you clear me yours.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You think you're worse than I am.
TJ Majors
You do. You think you're all the time.
Rick Allen
Tj, I used to have to count on.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I know, but I feel like I've gotten better. No, we first started. We first started. He was like, okay, okay.
TJ Majors
Well, look. Hi. Rock Vodka has decided that it no longer wants to make big bottles of vodka from now on. Only tiny little bottles. I'm just kidding. These are the little. What they call these airplane bottles. Airplane bottles. That's right. Airplane bottles. They don't even. They're perfect for airplanes. But if you don't have an airplane, this is the proper amount. If you're mixing like a, you know, a regular style size cup, this is exactly all you need to put in to your sundrop or whatever it is you might be mixing.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I mean, community coffee. Vodka.
TJ Majors
Yeah. Or community coffee. Oh, and here's some Jerky Boys. We're back in stock here at Junior Motorsports and Great Mix. We're back in stock on Amazon. You can buy Jerky Boys on Amazon or you can go to Jerky Boys online to the website and subscribe. I'm a subscriber.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You live the experience.
TJ Majors
I live the experience, brother. Hey, man, it's good stuff. Best jerk.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It is good.
TJ Majors
It is the best jerky in the world. On Earth.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
World.
TJ Majors
Yeah. There may be some other jerky out there in the universe that I haven't had, but on planet Earth, there's no better jerky.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You need a mascot.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You need a mascot.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Rick Allen
Well, let's get to some of the questions from the fans. And this first one is from Bobby Big cars Tour race this weekend in the Bud 8 car. How are you feeling?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Real good.
TJ Majors
Ready to go? Yeah. Feeling good.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Tested there. Short and sound. Did you test there?
TJ Majors
How am I feeling? I feel good.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You tested there or somewhere else?
TJ Majors
We did go test. We ran about three hours one morning. Got a good idea. Yeah. I mean, it's going to be with the way the new tire is this year. So the Hoosier tire that they have on it have us on is real durable. It doesn't fall off as much. It doesn't wear out. So you don't really. I like to go to the racetrack and try to manage the tire. This new tire this year, just too durable. And so it kind of. It's kind of going to be like where you qualify is. Is how good your chance is to. To win. I'm not a great qualifier.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I was going to say not a great qualifier.
TJ Majors
I did qualify mid pack. I qualified, like, 15th at Cordell, so I was real happy with that.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So 15th. You were happy?
TJ Majors
Dude, you haven't seen the qualifying efforts.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I mean, I know it's tight.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Like there.
TJ Majors
No, you haven't seen my qualifying efforts before that. They were terrible.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, they were terrible.
TJ Majors
Yeah. So it's a tough field. You don't show up and just, you know, qualify in the top five.
Rick Allen
Yeah, a lot of competition.
TJ Majors
It's tough. Yeah, it's all. All whole fields. Whole fields competitive, but that's what you want. It is. It's the series I've wanted to build. All right. And that to my detriment when I compete.
Rick Allen
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, darn it.
Rick Allen
I made too good of a series.
TJ Majors
Damn it. Oh, blast. The series has been kicking ass. I mean, it's been pretty fun. We've had. Yeah, we had it. We coming off of a big race at Hickory. 50,000 to win. Mother nature gave us a ton of problems, but we finally got it in and. Yeah. So pretty cool.
Rick Allen
My favorite part about it is it's like the new feeder series. You know, the cars tour is kind of like the place you want to be if you want to progress into stock car racing.
TJ Majors
Yeah. If you want to get noticed. If you want your talent to get noticed. Kaden Honeycutt, several drivers. Josh Berry. A lot of drivers have come through Butterbean. It's a place where you want to race if you want to. You want the right people to see what you're about and what you can do. And I would say, too, you know, judge, I think our car count for Anderson is a little higher than I expected, too. So that's pretty good. We got a pro series class. We got pros running and late model stock. Saturday night on flow Tune in support to support the stream. Flows a great value. They have dirt racing. They have high limit. All that stuff also is incredible. $14 a month or something.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, that's ridiculous. How much racing?
TJ Majors
If you buy the annual subscription, it's 1499 or something a month.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. Well worth it.
TJ Majors
I think so.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, my gosh.
TJ Majors
It's a great deal.
Rick Allen
This next question coming from Michelle on Twitter. There's a bunch of. It's Richmond week, so all the highlights of you and Kyle Busch's feud are coming up again. She wants to know, would you do anything differently from that 2008 race?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You'd fight him.
TJ Majors
We fired off on a restart. Kyle spun his tires, and I ran the top immediately. I should have ran the bottom for about two or three corners to see if I could, you know, make the bottom work.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Cool tires a little bit.
TJ Majors
Yeah. I mean, I should have ran the bottom. I gave him the bottom, and he drove right up to my back bumper. And maybe I. Yeah, I don't know, maybe a couple more laps go by, and I'm able to. I'm able to do something different.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But you know what would have helped? Denny? Not stopping on the racetrack.
TJ Majors
Well, he was leading.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I don't care.
TJ Majors
Like, if he doesn't stop, I know he. He's going to win the race.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He was going to win.
TJ Majors
Yeah, he's going to win the race.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Was.
TJ Majors
But so were we. Yeah, He. He had a flat stopped on the track. Total. No, no. He should have been.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
What a tool.
TJ Majors
Yeah. Total bull move. But I think if I could have ran the bottom for a couple corners, kept him in some dirty air, he would have had to move up then. I could have moved up. You know, I could have by. If. If we go maybe four or five more laps. I don't. I think, you know, he doesn't have so much speed comparable to me, and I'm able to do something because I was a little bit. I was in front of him. Right. I was a little bit better up until we got our tires cooled down on that restart. And I know that that wasn't intentional. There was a lot of animosity between me and Kyle back then. He feels like that I had taken his ride, which really wasn't exactly how that all played out. And I'll say this to Casey Mears. I mean, Casey's a great friend of mine. But when Rick came to me and asked me what he was planning to do, I said I would probably keep Kyle and not. You know, I would. I would. I would say I would keep Kyle. If I'm coming in, you know, and you're going to. You're going to get rid of somebody, I would. I would keep Kyle. Kyle had so much upside. Right. And I think we all kind of knew where Casey was. But Kyle had untapped potential and growth, as he would prove out right. In 2008, winning all those races for Gibbs. But it wasn't. He was mad that that had happened and. And it was just hard, short track racing. I ended up getting put in a fence. And that's how it goes still to this day.
Rick Allen
One of my favorite download episodes was when it was actually in this room, when you guys rehashed all that and the aftermath and what Kyle had to go through still to this day is pretty wild.
TJ Majors
All the security measures and, you know, pretty crazy. I think he, over. He may have overstated some of the security measures. He was.
Rick Allen
It was entertaining, though.
TJ Majors
Yeah. Yeah.
Rick Allen
Okay, this next question is from Danielle. She wants to know what is your new Buster book about, which I think is out today.
TJ Majors
Just so happened to have a. How can we. Right next to me. Yeah. So, Buster, if you don't know anything about Buster, I'm sure if you're on this YouTube with us, you do. But me and. Me and my wife and my kids have been doing a series of Buster books. And this is the third one, I believe. Buster and the race car graveyard. So this one obviously is a nod to the actual race car graveyard out there on my property. Buster is this little guy right here. He is Drew. He is drawn in in reference to my dad's dirt late model car that he ran in the 70s that was owned by my mother's father, my grandfather, Robert G. So this car has a very personal connection to me. Buster was dad's nickname when he was a little boy. My aunt Kathy can confirm that they called him Buster when he was 5, 6, 7 years old. And so there's a lot of, you know, a lot of sort of personal connection in here. We have, you know, some different characters in this book, and there is one in the storyline named Brenda after my mother. And she's a big player. And what happens in this particular episode, this is kind of, obviously by looking at this, this cover in the race car graveyard, this would be a good, you know, sort of book to read your kids kind of around the Halloween holiday and all that. It's a ref. It's, you know, got pumpkins and it's sort of the October ish. September. October ish sort of time of year. So good time for another episode of Buster. And we're having a lot of fun with those. And every. I'll say another thing too, about the Buster books. My involvement in the actual writing has gotten more and more intense because I will take this book and I will go read this to classrooms. And a lot of y' all don't know that, but I'll take this book and I'll do that right so I've got to. I'm going to read this book multiple times at some point throughout the next year to kids. And so when I started doing that with the first Buster book, like, I read the book alone when it first came out, and I'm like, yeah, great. It's good. Happy with it. Well, when I took it and had to read it out loud to people, I saw a lot of, like, clunky moments and problems and things that just felt hard to understand. And maybe I felt like I wanted to actually explain to the kids what I meant or what was happening in the story that we didn't do a good job of. And. And so now that I know what I. What. What experiences I'm going to have when reading the book, I've gotten more involved in reading and writing what happens so that it reads well. Like, if you're reading it to your child at night, hopefully you find each Buster book becoming easier for your child to understand as you're trying to read it to them at night. So I've enjoyed that process as well.
Rick Allen
Well, that's a good place.
TJ Majors
All right, man. Good stuff.
Rick Allen
Thanks to Xfinity.
TJ Majors
Thanks to Xfinity for bringing us today's Ash Jr segment. In racing and in real life, speed isn't optional. It's expected. As a driver and Xfinity series team owner, I rely on things that perform under pressure. That's why I go with Xfinity. WI fi. Fast, dependable Internet with one price locked in for five years. No contracts, no slowdowns, no nonsense. Xfinity, proud premier partner of nascar. Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Place your bets. All right, it's time for Dirty Modo. This segment of Dirtymodo is brought to you by FanDuel, our top manufacturer. Part parlay finally cashed. Celebrate.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Celebrate.
TJ Majors
TJ SVG Christopher Bell. Butcher. If you tailed this, congratulations.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
If you what?
TJ Majors
If you tailed it.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Tailed it. Oh, you mean followed it?
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
If you followed the bet.
Travis
We are in the positive now.
TJ Majors
Yeah, that's a winner now.
Travis
Plus money.
TJ Majors
Damn. Really?
Travis
For the year. Yep.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, that did it. Only takes one.
TJ Majors
Only takes one. Look, I saw a couple people sharing on social media how they tell the bet, and, man, that's a great feeling. You're welcome. Yeah, we. We have another parlay coming up for Richmond. Let's go ahead and just jump right on that. Let's get on there.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Let's do it.
TJ Majors
Let's do it. All right, so Russell is not here today.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He's busy.
TJ Majors
So we probably can figure this out. We don't need no damn predictor.
Travis
I've got the predictor.
TJ Majors
We don't need it.
Travis
Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, William Byron.
TJ Majors
That we can only have three.
Travis
Well, those are the top five.
TJ Majors
We can only have three in this. In. Okay, did you. So name it again.
Travis
Hamlin, Bell, Elliot Larson, Byron, and then Blaney's six.
TJ Majors
Blaney I don't know about. Yeah, I don't know.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It's become one of his better places.
TJ Majors
All right, so our. Our Toyota. Our Toyota manufacturer. I think we have to go with Denny. This is Denny's home track. He loves Richmond.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Goes here with an edge.
TJ Majors
Yeah, he does. So we'll say. Even though I. I can see a Christopher Bell or someone else beating him, this is a tough one. But I think we're gonna have to go with Denny on the Toyota. But if somebody says, hey, man, I'm putting Bell in, I can't argue that either.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Can't either.
TJ Majors
It's about. It's about even. Totally agree on the Chevrolet front, which I think you got to go with Larson here. I got a feeling Larson's my one.
Travis
Can I present a stat why you may not want to Average finish of 19.25 over the last 12 races.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, doesn't. Doesn't shake me. I'm starting to turn.
TJ Majors
What are the last 12 in the season average?
Travis
Yes, his last 12 races. It's his worst streaks.
TJ Majors
I know, it's awful. Yeah, it is, but he. Yeah, it's been a. It's been a rough run, man. But he.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
What about Byron?
TJ Majors
I.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You know, I have chase before Byron.
TJ Majors
Really?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, but, I mean, Byron just ran really well at Iowa. He is hot right now, which is good.
TJ Majors
But, yeah, he did run good.
Travis
What tracks do you compare Richmond to Iowa?
TJ Majors
Yeah, that's a good point, dude. That's a good point.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Damn.
TJ Majors
Damn.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But Larson was good at Iowa last year, wasn't he? Until he wrecked.
TJ Majors
Yeah, he did.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He was good last year, but he also tested last year.
TJ Majors
Where was. I forget how Larson ran at Iowa this year.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He was, what, average? Maybe top. Yeah, right around the top five. Ish. But Byron definitely flexed more than. Than Larson did. Yeah, Byron was really fast at Iowa.
TJ Majors
Let's go with.
Travis
Larson was 28. That.
TJ Majors
Let's go with Byron.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, the strategy at the end.
TJ Majors
Let's go with Byron.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, we'll go Byron.
TJ Majors
All right, so we got Hamlin, slash Bell, Byron clear out front. Chevrolet now with the Ford. Blaney is the top guy on the Predictor.
Travis
He is But Russ is also saying he would avoid.
TJ Majors
Yeah, I got it. Yeah. Who. Who would be the guy you'd slot in there? I mean, is it Logano?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I think it's Logano.
TJ Majors
Really?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I'm a little scared how he's run. That makes me nervous. But he was really good at Rich.
TJ Majors
Well, the Ford's tough, tj. I'm nervous picking any Ford.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Bush would be my second.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
Butcher coming up. Brad.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But I mean.
TJ Majors
Yeah, Brad's been strong. What do you think, tj? You. You with them Fords? What's up?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I mean, I still think. I still think it's hard to go against Blaine. I just feel like he has. I feel like Blaine has got the most momentum right now. I mean, secondly, I really feel like Brad's got. I mean, we ran good at Iowa. Ran really fast at Iowa.
TJ Majors
We could do Brad.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Just yell at TJ if he loses, I mean.
Travis
Oh, you could do that.
TJ Majors
Why don't we pick Brad?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
He was fast at Iowa, was he not?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It's probably the best car at Iowa. He was.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Travis
Neither hits or we blame tj.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So.
TJ Majors
Yeah, let's go for it. Cuz I bet the odds on that are. Are way better. Fourth or fifth? Yeah. Yeah. All right, Brad, Kelowski, Byron. Should we do just three Bs? Go bell.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Three Bs.
SVG
You know what?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I'm feeling a little.
TJ Majors
We won one. We got.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
We got money to play with. We're on a roll.
Travis
Also, you. You can do like two parlays and tweak a little bit.
TJ Majors
Yeah, yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But killer bees on this one.
TJ Majors
Brad and Byron.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I like it.
TJ Majors
Actually, the law firm. The firm's coming to Richmond back to back.
Travis
Can't wait till Danny wins.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, my gosh.
TJ Majors
Well, I would do. To your point, man, I'd do another one and just put Denny in there. Yeah, go for it. That's close.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
What about long shots?
TJ Majors
Put $5. Put $5 down on each and you still, you know, one hits. You're in good shape.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. What are Brad's odds? Do you have them? Brad's odds to win are 20 or 17 to 1. You think that's worth something?
TJ Majors
Oh, I.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Who are your long shots? My long shots? Kyle Busch is my long. Long shot at plus 3,000. I mean, but I don't think this is a long shot type of race. That's Kyle.
TJ Majors
The last time we were at Richmond. Who was oddly fast.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Austin.
TJ Majors
Austin Dillon. Yes.
Travis
And Kyle had a different setup, but if he takes Austin.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I'm just saying, if they go back There they have a chance to be.
TJ Majors
I would damn sure. I don't know. I would. I don't love betting winners because it's just. I don't see betting. I don't like it. I like betting locks and stuff like that. Yeah. Or parlays. But I would say opposite of a lock. Well, I would. I like parlays that are locks. I know. You know what I mean? Those kind of parlays. But I would say I would try. I would have a little fun putting a little on Kyle because Kyle's going to win. Kyle is going to win again. Kyle Busch will win again. Yeah. You need to be paying. You need to be getting that money.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
This is a place where it could happen.
TJ Majors
This is it.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yes. And I think Austin Dillon's +4000. I think if you're going to pick one, I'd rather pick +3000 on Kyle. I think there's more value there.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But Austin's got a little momentum. I thought he had a really good Watkins Glenn. He does. And I think I would bet him top 10.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But I'll tell you who my like my wild card is going to be. Chase Briscoe. Yeah. He's plus 1400.
Travis
That's Russ's sleeper.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That is that sleeper. That is going to be. He was also fast at Iowa.
TJ Majors
I don't think he can beat Bell or Hamlin. I mean, I love the fact I think he. I think in a can outrun anyone else in the field but beat him up his own teammates. Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Honestly, I was. One of my best bets was going to be just bet Joe Gibbs to win.
TJ Majors
It's.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It's probably not going to be like. But I mean crazy.
TJ Majors
Unfortunately. 88 years old, doesn't drive race cars. Sorry.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Come on. But I mean Briscoe was out running all.
TJ Majors
Dad had to say it.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Briscoe was out running all the other. All of his teammates at Iowa. Briscoe's found something and that Briscoe's on it. That car is fast.
TJ Majors
All right. We're going to. We're going to put a little money on Briscoe and we'll put a little on Bush. Dude, it's all the bees. These all the bees come a little.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Bit on Brad too. I mean, dang.
Travis
Can't wait for Brett. But Brad's first name. It's not the last name.
TJ Majors
It's different.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Does it matter? Yeah, why does it matter?
Travis
He's not a true killer.
TJ Majors
Be. I know. Count. I know the count on. On Sesame street was a numbers guy, but if he was a letters guy, he. The letter is B.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
There is B today.
TJ Majors
Did not have the Sesame street drop.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The letter is B. Cookie Monster was in Iowa. I never watched my Sesame Street Wild.
TJ Majors
Pull.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Wild.
TJ Majors
We used to. This is just some dumb. That me and Rick Allen used to do in the booth. Apparently is when we were. We were up there working a race or a practice or something and some ace it. It'd be like, you know, just some. You know, we'd be under break under. Under commercial and somebody goes out there and it's like, oh. Legato jumped up to eight. Eight. Ah, ah, ah, ah. What the. We would just. I don't know, man. Just some fun we used to do. It's a long race. It's a long weekend. Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Rick sounds like he would be a funny guy to do that stuff. His voice just doing it would be funny.
TJ Majors
He. We. He was. He's a. Rick has got some work.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, I saw that.
TJ Majors
Yeah, that's. Rick might be doing some football. College football. I know that he. He might. He might be doing a couple college football games and also. Which could. Could tumble into some more opportunities. And he's also doing the Panthers PA. Very cool. So when you go to Panthers game sitting in the stadium, you will hear Rick Allen tell you about what's going on.
Travis
Bryce Young interception.
TJ Majors
I don't know that he's doing play by play. I don't know he's doing play.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It's probably like first down or whatever.
TJ Majors
First down. I don't know what he's doing.
Travis
Interception. The Panthers move to Owen.
TJ Majors
Two. Two. Look, you guys are smiling. You know what I mean?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I don't know if I'm laughing with you.
TJ Majors
Don't say a number because I'll do it. All right. Anything else for Iowa for Dirty Mode, fellows? Richmond.
Travis
Nope.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
No, I'm good with Richmond. I think we're. I think the Bees are going to dominate.
TJ Majors
The Bees are going to dominate.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The Bees.
TJ Majors
All right. Just. I mean this is a little bit confusing, but just to summarize. All right, we got Bell Brad, Byron. That's our top manufacturer parlay. Yes. Race wins. We're going to bet Kyle Busch and we're going to bet Briscoe. Put a little air and let's see how it all nets out. Love it. Hell yeah, brother. The only problem is is we're betting against ourselves. So if Briscoe wins, he's up our parlay.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, but we'll win enough that he'll cover it.
Travis
It's like hedging.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I feel like, we're. All right. We got a good shot at it, though.
TJ Majors
Covered. All right.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
We're covering ourselves with only one has.
TJ Majors
To hit and we only want. All right, you're right. Got you. Hey, that's how we're doing it here at Dirty Modo. Thank you to everybody for listening. The segment is brought to you by FanDuel. FanDuel, the premier gaming destination in the United States. All right, it's time for the white flag. The tear down is live on YouTube and Twitter. Following the race, Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi, man, they are stirring this. If you guys been paying attention to the. The social media reaction to some of these guys takes, man, they go after them.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
They do. And they. I think Jordan and Jeff do a.
TJ Majors
Great job of creating Jordan. He's like. He's like defending all the. All the coming at him.
Travis
I don't know how he keeps track of the. Which take he's going to defend each time.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It looks like Keanu Reeves in the.
TJ Majors
Matrix or they have. They've been going around and around about road courses and also the points and the points. The playoff, how the playoff may or may not change and what's, you know, what's. What's this and what's that. It's been a lot of fun hearing them go back and forth and also the takes that they have. Actions detrimental. Dropped on Monday. Denny Hamlin covering a lot of things going on in the sport. He had his opinions about Austin Hill and different things. Love hearing Denny, you know, give his opinion on some of them. Some of them takes. It's, you know, he is a guy that's in the muck driving a race car. I think all drivers ought to have podcasts. I think all of them ought to be out there.
Travis
Only if they were 30 mil.
TJ Majors
Yeah. Well, I just believe. I love Denny's show because he is driven the car that Sunday and I can. I can trust I'm getting the real inside information.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He's been in a lot of these scenarios at some point in his career.
TJ Majors
Yeah. And he actually calls the in. You know, he talks about. He's pretty fair.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He is most of the time.
TJ Majors
Yeah. His. His. His opinions don't annoy me. I'll say.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. No.
TJ Majors
Even when I don't agree.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
When he says stuff, you're like, yeah, you know what? I can relate to that a little bit.
TJ Majors
Yeah. Door upper clear. Also dropped on Monday. Connor Zillich and Josh Williams both joined. Didn't Josh join? Yep.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, join.
TJ Majors
He's not listed here. Y' all got the Josh Williams disrespect. What? Because he. Josh Williams is a spotter for Connor.
Travis
Okay.
TJ Majors
Josh was the first one to raise his hand when they were online looking for guests. So I know you guys don't watch social media very much, but I sound. Yeah, well, I'm just saying, like he. He should be referenced here. I had to do that. My interview with Robin Pemberton will drop on Wednesday. It's gonna be great to see Robin. Hadn't talked to him in a while. Great friend of mine, Speed street and Herman Schrader are also coming out on Wednesday.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Speed street should be good.
TJ Majors
Speed street should be good. I wonder if Connor Daley will have anything to say. He's getting in all kinds of trouble.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He got Austin Hill, man.
TJ Majors
Another episode of bless your heart with Amy is out this Thursday. Man, we've had a good run. Last week was fun.
Travis
That was a good one.
TJ Majors
We've got some to talk about this week. Oh, boy. I can't spoil it.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You're making me nervous.
TJ Majors
And remember, I'm running in the cars tour this weekend at Anderson. If you want tickets, go to the track website at Anderson, South Carolina. There's a couple of Anderson racetracks out there. Don't get them confused. And also watch on Flow on Saturday night. Well, it looks like the weather's going to be pretty good.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Should erase it on Sunday.
TJ Majors
Nah, I want a Sunday off.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, that way you can get.
TJ Majors
I retired from Sundays.
Connor Zillich
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TJ Majors
One sausage McMuffin with eggpl.
Connor Zillich
Your total is.
TJ Majors
Wait. Let's negotiate. How's about you throw in hash browns for a dollar?
Connor Zillich
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TJ Majors
Take it or leave it. Take it, I guess.
Connor Zillich
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TJ Majors
On sausage McMuffin with egg, hash browns.
Connor Zillich
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TJ Majors
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Connor Zillich
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The Dale Jr. Download: "Are We All Road-Coursed Out Yet?"
Release Date: August 12, 2025
In this episode of The Dale Jr. Download, host Dale Earnhardt Jr., alongside co-hosts TJ Majors and Travis, delves deep into the current state of NASCAR road course racing, focusing on the rowdiness of Watkins Glen, the contentious topic of overtime finishes in the Xfinity and Truck Series, and analyzing recent high-profile crashes. The conversation is rich with insights, debates, and expert opinions, making it a must-listen for NASCAR enthusiasts.
The episode begins with a discussion about the vibrant and often chaotic atmosphere at Watkins Glen. TJ Majors reminisces about the infield parties and the community spirit that has long been associated with the track.
TJ Majors [02:20]: "The Glen is a place to raise some hell, and we got to celebrate that. Congratulations, Watkins Glen."
Dale Earnhardt Jr. echoes this sentiment, highlighting the track's evolution into one of the rowdiest party venues in NASCAR.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. [06:33]: "They love their race in there, man."
The hosts compare Watkins Glen to other historic college party schools, emphasizing its prominence in the NASCAR calendar.
A significant portion of the discussion centers around the implementation of overtime finishes in the Xfinity and Truck Series. TJ Majors articulates concerns about the safety and financial implications of these extended race finishes.
TJ Majors [07:20]: "If I was in charge, I would not have overtime finishes in Xfinity or Truck. I don't think it serves any real purpose other than presenting more opportunities to crash and tear up more stuff."
Dale Earnhardt Jr. concurs, pointing out the risks associated with high-value race vehicles.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. [08:34]: "The race cars and the trucks, those are 150 to $250,000 vehicles... And so we have to think about the business side."
The hosts debate whether overtime finishes lead to necessary excitement or simply result in costly accidents that hinder young drivers' development.
Travis [13:10]: "If you allow it to end at the defined number, then you're going to get the drivers that are winning should be winning and showcasing their talents more."
They explore the idea of eliminating overtime finishes in lower series to preserve equipment and foster better racing practices.
The conversation shifts to a recent crash involving Connor Zillich and SVG in the Xfinity Series. The hosts dissect the incident, examining the drivers' maneuvers and the resulting impact.
TJ Majors [28:32]: "He was really trying to protect his inside line to turn seven... And SVG shaded to the left a little bit."
Dale Earnhardt Jr. critiques both drivers' actions, suggesting that the wreck was avoidable and highlighting the competitive tension between the two.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. [30:35]: "You're the guy on the inside. Can only do what you let him do."
SVG provides his perspective, acknowledging both drivers' responsibilities in the incident.
SVG [32:01]: "It was a misjudgment or racing incident, really, but catastrophic result. Yeah, but, yeah, both our faults, really."
The hosts express concern over the physical and emotional toll such crashes take on drivers, especially younger ones like Zillich.
TJ Majors [45:56]: "I hate it happened. And it's in. It's embarrassing."
Austin Hill's recent crashes and aggressive driving style become a focal point. The hosts debate Hill's approach on the track and NASCAR's enforcement of rules.
TJ Majors [50:45]: "He has to. He doesn't need to. He doesn't feel like he needs to. Not going to change..."
Dale Earnhardt Jr. criticizes Hill's refusal to back down, emphasizing the negative repercussions of such behavior on the sport.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. [52:18]: "He has made so many mistakes, and we made a conscious effort to get out of his way and make sure we didn't mess him up."
They discuss the broader implications of Hill's actions, including potential penalties and the strain on relationships within teams.
TJ Majors [62:55]: "This is a whole nother conversation."
The episode touches upon the logistical challenges teams face with spotter placements, especially during chaotic race conditions.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. [51:17]: "So from my side of things, you have to take... There's a spotter stand right to the right, right there."
The hosts highlight specific incidents where inadequate spotter coverage contributed to on-track confusion and accidents.
TJ Majors [51:30]: "But you see the car coming at speed, you get way out of the way..."
They argue for improved spotter protocols to enhance driver safety and race integrity.
In a lighter segment, the hosts engage in a race prediction exercise, discussing potential winners and standout performances for upcoming events.
TJ Majors [69:55]: "Ty Gibbs, CFD, Austin Hill, Host, VAR, and McDowell with Brad."
Dale Earnhardt Jr. emphasizes strategic betting, reflecting on past races to inform future predictions.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. [119:29]: "But I think we can all and say that we like watching him race and we enjoy seeing it's coming to something."
The segment underscores the competitive spirit and camaraderie among NASCAR team owners and drivers.
The episode concludes with reflections on the evolving nature of NASCAR, the importance of safety, and the enduring passion for racing among drivers and fans alike. Dale Earnhardt Jr., TJ Majors, and Travis leave listeners with a balanced view of the sport's current challenges and its bright future.
Notable Quotes:
TJ Majors [07:20]: "If I was in charge, I would not have overtime finishes in Xfinity or Truck. I don't think it serves any real purpose other than presenting more opportunities to crash and tear up more stuff."
Dale Earnhardt Jr. [08:34]: "The race cars and the trucks, those are 150 to $250,000 vehicles... And so we have to think about the business side."
SVG [32:01]: "It was a misjudgment or racing incident, really, but catastrophic result. Yeah, but, yeah, both our faults, really."
TJ Majors [50:45]: "He has to. He doesn't need to. He doesn't feel like he needs to. Not going to change..."
Dale Earnhardt Jr. [52:18]: "He has made so many mistakes, and we made a conscious effort to get out of his way and make sure we didn't mess him up."
This episode offers a comprehensive look into the dynamics of NASCAR road course racing, the implications of race regulations, and the personal stories that shape the drivers' careers. Whether you're a die-hard fan or new to the sport, "Are We All Road-Coursed Out Yet?" provides valuable perspectives and engaging discussions that capture the essence of today's racing challenges and triumphs.