Brad Keselowski’s Best NASCAR Stories You’ve Never Heard

Summary

---

The Dale Jr. Download

Guest Host: Brad Keselowski
Title: Brad Keselowski’s Best NASCAR Stories You’ve Never Heard
Date: March 10, 2026
Host: Dirty Mo Media, SiriusXM

---

Episode Overview

This episode of The Dale Jr. Download features Cup champion and team owner Brad Keselowski as the guest host, sitting in for Dale Earnhardt Jr., who is on vacation. Joined by regulars TJ Majors, Travis, and others, the crew dives into Keselowski's storied NASCAR career, reflects on the recent Phoenix race, debates the evolving state of NASCAR, and shares never-before-heard tales from the garage and penalty haulers. The tone is candid, playful, and insightful—true to the show’s established style—offering a deep look into competition, NASCAR politics, and life beyond the track.

---

Highlights and Key Discussion Points

1. Where's Dale? (01:20-05:10)

• Dale Jr. Vacation Banter: The crew jokes about Dale Jr. being on another ski vacation.
  • Brad Keselowski: "Don't break a leg."
  • Brad shares his own story about breaking his leg while not skiing, highlighting how injuries can happen anywhere.
• Skepticism Over Dale’s Ski Mileage: Doubt is cast on Dale's claim of skiing 16 miles per day.
  • Travis: "No, I think he did 1.6 this whole time."
  • Brad: "He may have 16 beers a day." (04:03)

Notable Moment:
Brad admits he rarely does podcasts—only for friends:

"I really only do podcasts for my friends. So Dale gave me a great start in my career. TJ's obviously one of my closest friends." (04:37)

---

2. Race Weekend Recap: Phoenix Analysis (07:12-13:03)

• Phoenix Race Takeaways:
  • Focus on tire failures and tire strategy; blown right-front tires were rampant.
  • The effect of increased horsepower—specifically how more horsepower increases tire wear and creates more passing opportunities.
• Notable Insights:
  • Brad explains how drivers and teams “push the limit” on tire pressures and car setup:

    "The performance window is right before the tire blows. So you're like, how do we get as close to this as we can?" (09:39)

  • Adds that first stage is typically conservative; aggression ramps up later.
• Blaney's Dominance at Phoenix:
  • Brad shares a backstory about mentoring Ryan Blaney at a Cup test when Blaney was 18, suggesting that Blaney’s study at Phoenix has paid off—citing stats: 21 starts, 2 wins, 15 top-10s (13:32).

Timestamped Story:

"We get like, to the end of the second day... Blaney's sitting there... 'Hey, Blaney, you want to run a few laps?'... NASCAR had to approve. We walked over to ask NASCAR... They were so pissed at us..." (13:43-15:56)

---

3. Classic NASCAR Stories & Penalty Box Tales (15:56-21:27)

• Brad details the time he and Denny Hamlin feuded in 2009 (Xfinity at Phoenix), leading to a memorable hauler visit:

  "He nudges me a little bit, like muscles by me. And I go to the next corner and I dumped him." (17:19)

  • Mike Helton started to lecture Brad, only for Brian France (then NASCAR boss) to walk in mid-butt-chewing, grab a Kit Kat, and declare, "Don't yell at him. What he's doing is awesome." (19:19-20:09)
  • Brad’s takeaway: “That’s my favorite Brian France story. No, he did be a real solid. I was really appreciative of that.” (20:16)

---

4. Phoenix & Changing Tech: The Horsepower Debate (24:39-28:42)

• Brad deep-dives on why more horsepower can paradoxically slow cars over a run—greater tire wear leads to more falloff and passing.

  "If you just build an engine with less horsepower?... You get ran over... But with more horsepower, you wear the tires more..." (25:28)

• Goodyear’s Efforts:
  • Praises Goodyear for creating tires drivers want (aggressive, wears out), and the informal "pact" between drivers and Goodyear:

    "We want a tire that falls off more. Goodyear said, ‘It makes us look like crap,’ and the drivers made a pact. ‘We won't say bad things about you if you build us an aggressive tire and it blows out.'" (28:53)

---

5. SVG at Trackhouse: Analyzing Shane van Gisbergen's Arc (30:30-40:36)

• Brad’s inside view on Shane van Gisbergen (SVG):
  • Details SVG’s rise—expectations, doubts, how owner Justin Marks took a risk.
  • Candidly admits his own misreading: “I was wrong. Now SVG is almost becoming the face of Trackhouse.” (35:00)
  • Emphasizes SVG’s rapid oval-learning curve:

    "Happy Gilmore if he could learn how to putt... If he could just be 10th on the ovals... He's gonna run really high in the points." (35:11-36:18)

• Trackhouse/Roster Decisions:
  • Deliberates on why Zane Smith was cut for SVG, and how that gamble is paying off early in the 2026 season (SVG 5th in points).
• Jack Roush 'Spin-out Test' Story:
  • Brad shares how Roush would promote drivers based on who could spin out without hitting anything—a lesson SVG now exemplifies.

---

6. State of the Field & Points Format Debate (43:10-53:32)

• Surprising tough starts for Chastain, Briscoe, Kyle Busch, etc.
  • Briscoe: “He has started off this year not the guy... Can he work his way in the top 16? Absolutely... top two or three? I don't think so.” (45:13)
• Return to season-long points:
  • Brad is a vocal supporter, arguing the old playoff system made non-playoff races meaningless:

    "It felt like Weekend at Bernie's. Like, what the hell am I doing here?" (48:16)

  • Praises the new format for ensuring every race matters:

    “What I want as a fan is to know, if I spend three hours watching a race, that it mattered. That it meant something to the championship, and it does now. It didn't with the playoff format.” (51:04)

• How the new system heightens drama:

  "Now, this format, like, yeah, I'm pissed. I'm like next level pissed. And I think that's what this format brings. The race matters more every week and I like that." (53:17)

---

7. Inside NASCAR: Talent Pipeline & Series Structure (59:19-72:19)

• Cletus McFarland's entry into NASCAR’s lower series prompts a debate on the approval process and the changing “ladder” system.
  • Brad argues for stronger developmental requirements (an age floor, minimum race starts before Trucks/Xfinity/O’Reilly Auto Parts).
  • Laments the dilution of ARCA, Trucks, Xfinity:

    "The problem... is the constant push to make the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series ARCA... We used to have four very distinct series. The pecking order has been, like, thrown away." (61:14-62:26)

  • On Cup drivers in lower series:

    "I think that was a big miss for the sport." (68:39)

---

8. Personal Reflections / Life Stories (55:09-58:22)

• Brad reveals he doesn’t display trophies at home—prefers to focus forward, not on past accomplishments—even if “they kind of hurt a little bit.”

  "I don't have a single trophy in my house... when I'm at home, I want to be with my family... I want to go to Talladega feeling like I've never won there before." (56:05-58:01)

---

9. Ask Junior: NASCAR Movie Memories & Dale Jr.’s School Days (73:51-99:52)

• Dale Jr. recounts stories from the set of Talladega Nights (hanging out with Will Ferrell), the authenticity of early racing movies, and growing up obsessed with Six Pack and Stroker Ace.
• Dale candidly shares getting nearly expelled from Christian school—eight write-ups, including bringing in a Playboy magazine, much to his panel’s amusement.
  • Dale Jr.: “I knew dad had that stash in his bathroom. I’ll take one of them to class. My buddies are going to love this!” (95:18)

---

10. Legendary Dale Sr. Stories (99:04-109:52)

• Wild tales of Dale Sr.:
  • Throwing a fishing buddy into chum-filled, shark-infested waters as a prank.
  • Shooting a hole through a Ford stock car’s fuel cell as a lesson in safety.
  • Relates stories about scuffling through junkyards for car parts as he and his siblings learned to race.

---

11. Dirty Mo Dough / Vegas Race Preview & Betting Angles (112:26-125:43)

• Betting Preview:
  • Kyle Larson as Vegas favorite (+500)
  • Debates on risers like Tyler Reddick, Chastain. SVG’s potential discussed but uncertainty remains around his mile-and-a-half performance.
  • Emphasis on race craft at Vegas: lane selection and risk-taking.
• Brad’s Leg Injury Update: Grinds through the pain; most discomfort is after the race, not while driving.

---

Memorable Quotes

• Brad Keselowski: “I was really appreciative of [Brian France]. Mike and I got over it, but I think Mike was really mad. I think that made Mike Helton madder at me.” (20:16)

• On SVG:

  • “He’s got this massive drive... if he could just learn how to putt, which is the ovals... He becomes the guy at Trackhouse.” (35:25)

• On New Points System:

  • “Every race is a game seven moment… If I was a fan at Phoenix and I saw the 2 and the 21 car crash. Yeah, that might have been their season.” (51:53)

• On Trophy Philosophy:

  • "I want to go to Talladega feeling like I've never won there before and I have something to prove." (58:05)

---

Timestamps for Notable Segments

• Dale Jr. Ski Vacation Banter: 01:20-05:10
• Phoenix Recap: Tire Drama & Horsepower: 07:12-13:03
• Stories from the NASCAR Hauler: 15:56-21:27
• The SVG Era at Trackhouse: 30:30-40:36
• Points Format Debate: 46:01-53:32
• Series/Development Debate: 59:19-72:19
• Dale Jr.'s Schoolhouse Confessions: 88:04-98:47
• Dirty Mo Dough: Vegas Preview: 112:26-125:43

---

Final Thoughts

Brad Keselowski’s guest-hosted episode delivers a rare, unguarded look at both the business and culture of NASCAR, full of laughs, strong opinions, and locker room-style tales. For insiders and long-time fans, it’s a goldmine of context on how the sport is evolving—from rules to personalities to the delicate balance between development and entertainment.

Brad’s sign-off:

"This is my 1 podcast for the year... Hope people liked it. I think it was good." (126:19-126:23)

---

Transcript

[Brad Keselowski]

At Marathon gas stations, every stop is the start of fun, like the awesome fuel savings you can get with Marathon rewards. Join Marathon Rewards today and start earning rewards on every gallon of gas. You can redeem your rewards at any time, saving up to $1 per gallon. And don't forget, Marathon stations are packed with all the conveniences you need to stock up and live life on the Go Marathon, where fun runs on full available at participating marathon locations. Terms and conditions apply. See marathonrewards.com for details.

[Travis]

When you're looking to hire somebody, it's not just about finding someone to fill the void. It's about finding someone with the right background, experience, skills to get the job done. Because you don't want to have to go through the hiring process again. You want to do it once and get it right. Indeed. Sponsored Jobs help you match with candidates who can move your business forward. Target candidates by skills, certifications, or location. Join the 3.3 million employers worldwide that use Indeed to connect with quality talent that fits their needs. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results. Now with Indeed Sponsored Jobs and listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help you get your job the premium status it deserves@ Indeed.com podcast, terms and conditions apply. Hiring do it the right way with Indeed.

[Brad Keselowski]

That happens now. Like, holy, we're pissed.

[TJ]

So let me ask you this.

[Brad Keselowski]

Like, I'm still mad at Raoulie Herbstover Daytona because he cost me not only a shot at the wind, but he cost me three points. Like, those three points might be really big.

[Andrew]

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

[Brad Keselowski]

Yes.

[TJ]

I don't know if we've ever argued, did I piss you off over the

[Andrew]

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

[Travis]

Who was your best man, Dale?

[Andrew]

Tj.

[Brad Keselowski]

Tj.

[Andrew]

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

[TJ]

All right, then.

[Brad Keselowski]

Welcome in to another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. This episode is presented by Arby's. Don't forget about Arby's New meat and three box. Get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meats. All right, so obviously I'm not Dale Jr. Dale Jr. Is off on vacation.

[TJ]

Yeah, it's second vacation in, like three weeks. It's been a long time.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yeah.

[TJ]

Rough. Rough in it.

[Brad Keselowski]

He's got a lot going on. But I'm glad to be here. You know, Mike started. Way to go. Right off the game.

[Travis]

Do you know where. Where Dale is at on vacation?

[Brad Keselowski]

Somewhere in the central United States.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Travis]

Skiing.

[TJ]

Skiing.

[Travis]

And any advice?

[Brad Keselowski]

Don't break a leg. We'll start with that one.

[TJ]

Watch rice.

[Brad Keselowski]

Watch rice. Yeah, I. So, you know, I broke my leg. Gosh, it's been about two and a half months ago, but I was on a ski trip, but I was not skiing, which it makes the story way less cool, but I think everybody immediately says, so you were skiing, like, well, not. Not really. But it just goes to show, you can get hurt, like, any way possible.

[TJ]

Be much cooler if you hit a jump or something.

[Brad Keselowski]

I know, I know.

[TJ]

But I do think people have. They know, like, because they say, brad skiing, and they probably immediately think of that basketball video from about 20 years ago or whatever that was. And, like, yes, you probably shouldn't ski.

[Brad Keselowski]

No.

[TJ]

But I think you're actually decent at skiing now, right?

[Brad Keselowski]

I'm actually a pretty proficient skier. I'm not, like, Colorado Black Diamond. I think.

[TJ]

Apparently you're not Dale Jr either, because he does, like, 16 miles in the last two days, or 16 miles a day here skiing, which I call just so you know.

[Brad Keselowski]

So that's what he's told you? 16.

[TJ]

He's told us. Yeah, 16 miles each day.

[Brad Keselowski]

So you know how far 16 miles is on a pair of skis?

[TJ]

I mean.

[Brad Keselowski]

No, I'm calling bs. I'm gonna need some. Some kind of evidence. Do they have, like, those Stravas or whatever you wear when you ride a bike? He needs. I need to see the Strava for skiing.

[TJ]

Do you think he's actually done 16 miles a day, Travis?

[Travis]

No, I think he did 1.6 this whole time.

[TJ]

He just can't read. Forgot his glasses.

[Travis]

Yeah, there's no.

[Brad Keselowski]

There's no way.

[Travis]

Dale, listen, he may have 16 beers a day.

[TJ]

He's not here, so we can talk all the we want.

[Travis]

He's not.

[Brad Keselowski]

I know. No way. What you really need is a can camera on Dale Jr. When he listens to this, he's like a Dale cam. Because I'd like to see, like, his eye rolls and his, like, man, you know, he gives you those eyes, those, like, fuis. When you say, oh, yeah.

[TJ]

I mean, he pretty much has them on the entire time here.

[Travis]

He's with Nicole and Isla, too. It's not like he's with, like, he's got some teenagers that are going to

[Brad Keselowski]

Go like a point.

[Travis]

If anything, they did, like, some tubing.

[TJ]

Can you even tube 16 miles?

[Travis]

No.

[Brad Keselowski]

Well, either way, Dale Jr's not here, so I'm in 16 miles in Colorado. Enjoy it. Precious time with the family and I'm carrying the weight, so. You know, TJ said I'm not a podcast guy. I've been asked to do a lot of podcasts. I generally say no to almost every podcast and it's not cause I'm a jerk. But I really only do podcasts for my friends. So Dale gave me a great start in my career. TJ's obviously one of my closest friends for a long time, and they asked me to join in. So here I am with Dale Jr. Download.

[Travis]

I figured you're like, the last thing I want to hear is tj. My ears. Another day with him.

[Andrew]

Right.

[TJ]

You know what's weird though, is that even though he, like, wants more info during the races and stuff, so I do.

[Brad Keselowski]

You know, when I'm in the race car, I like a lot of chatter. Well, usually not always on road courses, not so much. But on most races, like, I like a lot of chatter. I want to hear what's going on. I want to be like, almost like a fan in the stands. Like, oh, this guy passed through lead. Like, I want to know these things. Like, well, how'd he do it? I was running on the outside. He drove down to the bottom. Like, I want to know those things. So, yeah, I do like a lot of talk, but podcasts, you know, I casually listen to podcasts. I can't say, like, I'm an everyday podcast listener, but, you know, I'll do them for my friends. Like, I'll call in or be a part of for my friends. And so this is kind of a rarity. Get me on a podcast. In fact, Travis, you might appreciate this. Before there was actions detrimental, Mike Davis called me and said, hey, I want you to do this podcast. And he pitched it to me and I'm like, man, Mike, that sounds great. I'm not going to do it. I don't want to do any podcasts. I have way too much going on in my life. And next thing I knew, Denny was doing a podcast. Like, you know what? That's perfect.

[Travis]

I could have been a Brad bro.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yes. But look, I'm totally cool with Denny doing it because then he says all the stuff that I think in my head but don't really say, and I'm like, yeah, you can be the one to get in trouble. You know what I mean?

[Travis]

You can get fined $50,000.

[Brad Keselowski]

I've already ran that part of my life of like, I feel like I had a weekly tab at nascar, you know, like a bar tab, like, all right, you know, and you have to cash it in. Here's 50k. Here's 75k. And I got tired of paying that. So no more.

[TJ]

No more fines.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yeah, I don't think I've been fine now for like almost eight years, which is actually pretty good. So way to go, Denny.

[Travis]

Let's see what we can get Brad to say today.

[TJ]

Then you did this episode.

[Brad Keselowski]

Then I did this episode. I'm going to get fined for talking about getting fined. But yeah, Dale Jr. Download. It does great. I'm sure there's a lot of people that are tuned in, listening, are like, where's Dale? Well, you got me. We're going to try to make it a fun episode and I think we got a lot of great stuff to talk about. Coming off the Phoenix race weekend, a lot happened. It's kind of an action packed race weekend and I'd like to dive into it. What do you say? You want to dive into it?

[TJ]

Just looking at Phoenix right off, obviously the heavy hitters were Blaney and Bell, and they were up front all day. Kind of thought Danny Bro would be a little stronger, but they just didn't

[Travis]

bring a fast car. They had like a 6, 6 to 7th place car.

[TJ]

Obvious.

[Travis]

Just saying. I mean, I don't know how you do it when you November, you bring the best car. You don't bring it this time.

[Brad Keselowski]

But that is interesting how you'll see like comers and goers at a racetrack when it's only like two or three months away. Like, how did you go to that racetrack in like clean house and then come back two or three months later, like, yeah, fifth to tenth. And it happens, like, I've been on that too, where you'll have a car like, oh, just bring that same car back. We're gonna kill him. It's gonna be great. And then you go back, you're like, nah, it never works.

[TJ]

Yeah, I really expected them to be a little bit stronger. I thought he had the best car in the fall last year and probably, probably should have won that race. But do you think like the same tire and everything? Do you think that the tire is evolving?

[Brad Keselowski]

No, honestly, I think that horsepower probably poor into it. You know, they NASCAR gave the more horsepower and it's, you know, depending on what engine builder you talk to, you know, it's 30 to 50 horsepower.

[TJ]

Denny's scared of more horsepower?

[Brad Keselowski]

No, I think it made the cars drive different.

[TJ]

Yeah, it definitely probably does. I mean, you would know.

[Brad Keselowski]

You add a little more entry speed to the corners, and it's a little harder on the tires. You know, a stock car weighs 4,000 pounds almost. You know, that's a lot of weight. And if it enters the corner going, say five mile an hour faster, like, that's a lot more stress on the tires. You know, it's every straightaway, so it's twice, you know, twice a lap. And I think that that does something to the tires. And I think that probably played into what you saw in the race where you saw a lot of blown tires. And I thought it was interesting. Most of them were right fronts. I think maybe Briscoe blew a right rear, but most of them are right fronts. And the cars, like, the performance window is right before the tire blows. So you're like, how do we get as close to this as we can? And when you have a field of, you know, 37 cars, I think we had on Sunday.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Brad Keselowski]

It kind of goes without saying that one guy's going to guess a little too close. And so, you know, that was me on Saturday. I blew out a tire in practice, knocked the wall down.

[TJ]

Oh, I watched.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yeah, you were right there. That wasn't any fun. But then in the race, there was. There had to be like a dozen people that blew tires, right?

[TJ]

Yeah, I don't. I mean, there's a lot of flat tires. Why do they blow? Like, why do. Why do they blow? When the Koch comes out, why do more tires go down?

[Brad Keselowski]

That is baffling to me. So somebody will blow a tire out, yellow comes out, then we get. And then you'll be under yellow, and it'll be like three other guys pulled to the left with a flat tire. Like, did they all time it the same?

[TJ]

Yeah. I'm curious on why. Like, I don't. I couldn't.

[Brad Keselowski]

The only thing that makes sense to me is that they've. They've broke, like, the sidewall of the tire, and it's got, like a slow leak. And when the yellow comes out, it just.

[Travis]

Were teams being less aggressive in the first stage? Cause we didn't have a flat tire in the first stage.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yeah, I think so. I think most everybody in the first stage was just like, hey, let's just get through this. And that actually builds your confidence. You're like, ah, we made it through that. Let's go a little more. And then by the end of the race, it's like, we couldn't go 20 laps. It was like, oh, somebody blew a tire. So I think for sure you get more.

[TJ]

There's a lot of speed in it, so you're gonna do. You're gonna try to get more as the race goes on, and obviously it bites some people, but you get. You get more aggressive with the short runs, too, because you probably can a little bit because people are getting. I mean, there's just more yellows, so. And it happened in the fall, too, right? Falls very. It's the exact same way.

[Brad Keselowski]

It wasn't. It seemed like the fall race wasn't as bad as the spring race. Maybe I'm not remembering that. Right.

[TJ]

But no, but that was the first race, I believe, with that tire, too.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yes, it was like that.

[TJ]

So people probably weren't pushing it as much.

[Brad Keselowski]

So. Yeah, that makes sense. But that's what racing is right now on the short tracks. You know, the teams are going to push the tires, they're going to push them too far, you're going to blow them out, and you have to almost have your race strategy around knowing that's going to happen.

[TJ]

Yeah. And we've kind of asked for a little bit to put this back in the team's hands, to manage it a little bit. Because now you get natural yellows. Yeah, a little bit.

[Brad Keselowski]

Which is good.

[TJ]

Yeah, it's good.

[Brad Keselowski]

Like, if I'm a fan of the sport. Yeah, when it's not you, it's good. But if I'm a fan of the sport and you're like, Phoenix, you're like, oh, my God. Long green flag runs, 60 straight laps, very little pass, and then you throw in all this tire stuff, you're like, oh, no. Actually, that was a classic Phoenix race. And most of Phoenix races, you know, Canada are kind of like, blah. That was not a blah race.

[TJ]

I think Phoenix is evolving into a pretty decent little racetrack. It's got multiple lanes, hard to pass. You can have side by side action. Restarts are insane.

[Brad Keselowski]

So I agree. It was a great race. I wish that was like, what the championship races were. Yeah. Some people disagree with that, but no, Phoenix has certainly evolved. And, you know, one of the things I look at is when I think of Phoenix, I look at Blaney, like, God dang, he runs up front there every time. And I got to tell you this story. So in 2012, right after I won the championship, we had a test at Phoenix, and Bueny was driving my truck at the time, I want to say it was a two, it might even been a three. Day test, and we go to the track, and Blaney comes with me. Now, keep in mind, he's not running cup at that time. And I remember taking him. I'm like, come with me, man. You need to get good at this track. This is an important track for you. And so I remember taking. He had to be, like, 18, maybe 19 at the time.

[TJ]

So it's your fault.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yeah. And he went there, and I'm really talking to Ryan's commitment. He went with me to this test, and he spent two days in the garage area, in the stands, like, watching and learning the track. And I don't know, he's just been really good there ever since. I would say it's his best track by a pretty long ways.

[TJ]

I'd say there Martinsville, I mean, he's got two or three that are creeping up. Phoenix is probably his best. Martinsville and Loudoun now are right there with or close.

[Travis]

21 starts in Phoenix, 2 wins, 11 top fives, 15 top tens.

[Brad Keselowski]

That's pretty strong, right? 15 out of 21 times he's been in the top ten. Yeah, that's pretty good.

[TJ]

Yeah, that's pretty good.

[Brad Keselowski]

But my favorite part of that story of taking him to that Phoenix test was we get, like, to the end of the second day, and, you know, if you ever do tests, everybody knows, like, the end of the second day is, like, silly time. You get, like, when there's, like, two hours left in the test. The end of the second day, you're like, we've ran through this list of things we're going to try on the car, and we have more data than we know what to do with. We're down to, like, our worst ideas. Cause, you know, like, you prioritize your best ideas while you're there, and you're just like, I don't know what to do. Well, let's throw this at it. All right, so we get to, like, the end of the second day. We're, like, done. We're out of ideas. Blaney's sitting there. We're like, hey, Blaney, you want to run a few laps? And now, keep in mind, he's 18. He's never drove a Cup car before.

[TJ]

Yeah, he's like, back then, that's a

[Brad Keselowski]

like Ricky Bobby, Talladega Nights. I want to go fast, you know, and, like, all right, let's go ask NASCAR if you can get it. Because NASCAR had to prove, of course, letting someone drive the car. So we walked over to ask nascar.

[TJ]

Well, that's not too hard.

[Travis]

The Parole process. Easy.

[Brad Keselowski]

And. Well, we thought it would be pretty easy. And they were so pissed at us. Like, what do you mean? You want Ryan Blaine a driver? He's not a Cup driver. Only cup drivers can drive these cars. You guys know that. You shouldn't even ask us that. They were so mad at us that, like, four months later. I want to say it was exactly four months later. We got a penalty at Texas for the rear end kind of moving on the car, and we get this penalty at Texas, and in the penalty process, they brought it up. They're like, you guys are always doing stuff you shouldn't be doing. Like, when you asked about putting Ryan Blaney in the car at the test at Phoenix, they were like, what? What does that have to do with anything? Like, we asked. Are you saying that we're in trouble again for asking? Like, this is the. Anyway, so that was my Ryan Blaney Phoenix story. I don't even know if Ryan knows that story. So we're in the penalty meeting, and they're yelling at us about Ryan Blaney not even getting in the car, but just asking about him driving the car. Anyway, that's bizarre world. But I got a lot of weird stories like that.

[TJ]

I mean, if you want to tell them about. I don't know if you want to tell them about the time. Speaking of weird penalty meetings that you got called into the holler.

[Brad Keselowski]

You got.

[TJ]

What would you get in trouble for that? You got called in there. Was that when you were messing around with Denny?

[Brad Keselowski]

Like, kept running mad? You got to be more specific. I got called the holler a lot of times early in my career.

[TJ]

It was. Oh, no, it was from Phoenix. That's what it was from.

[Brad Keselowski]

Oh, yeah. When he never got wrecked. Each other.

[TJ]

Yes.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[TJ]

Denny went down on turn one, shipped you up the track. You go through three and four, and you spin Denny out. So you go into the hauler, and. And they want to meet with you. You think you're going to get in a lot? Well, you do.

[Brad Keselowski]

All right, so you want me to tell this whole story? Okay, so this is Phoenix 2009. We're beefing. Denny and I are beefing, you know, pretty hard. I'm not even in the Cup Series at the time. I'm in the Xfinity series, trying to make my way to the Cup Series. Denny and I are beefing. I'm in my last races with Junior Motorsports, and we're, like, third in points, pretty much locked in third points. That's about where we're going to finish. So it's kind of like end of the school year, like, you're not going to get a better grade, you're not going to get a worse grade, but you still have to show up for the last two or three days.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Brad Keselowski]

And so we go to Phoenix, which is the next to last race, and I think we're running like fifth or sixth, and Denny's running right behind me. And he goes into the corner and he like, it was a restart. It's like a restart. He nudges me a little bit, like muscles by me. And I go to the next corner and I dumped him.

[Tampa Tims]

Him.

[Brad Keselowski]

I did. I dumped him. He didn't, like, hit the wall, but he just spun out.

[TJ]

He spun out old Phoenix.

[Brad Keselowski]

And we had been trading kind of barbs for like a year. He would say stuff, I would do stuff, you know, and so when the race was over, he went to NASCAR and basically said something like to Helton, you guys got to do something about. That's ridiculous. He spun me out. And so I get a call from NASCAR and they say, hey, Sunday morning, our hauler be there. So I show up to the NASCAR hauler Sunday morning. It's the cup day. I'm running, I'm driving the car for Roger Penske. That day is one of my first starts for him. And I go to the hauler, and I'm going to go get my butt ripped. And I walk in the hauler, and it's Mike Helton. And I want to say, John Darby was in there.

[TJ]

Yeah, probably Darby.

[Brad Keselowski]

And I don't remember if it was Robin Pemberton or Steve o'. Donnell. That part escapes me. So I go sit down, and Mr. Helton starts talking, and he's working his way into the butt chewing. He doesn't just start with it. He starts with the, hey, do you want to be here? Do you like this sport? And you're like, I know where we're going. I just. You're just like, putting in your time. And so he's like, warming up this conversation to a full butt chewing, right? And I could feel exactly where it's going. And about that time where he's warmed up into the, you know, get your straight part of the conversation. Brian France opens the door and walks in. Now, keep in mind, this is a hauler. Probably like the small. The size of this table is this lounge. So there's like three or four people in here. It's pretty full. And there's a small refrigerator on the end. So Brian walks in, he stands in the middle of all of us. And we're all kind of staring at him. It's Brian France, kind of runs the sport. And there's a little bit of a pause. Then Mike Helton starts talking again. And Brian's kind of standing right in the middle. And he turns around and goes in the refrigerator. He looks through there. He's like, oh, bottle of water. I want to say he grabbed a small KitKat or something. And he turns around and just kind of stares at Mike. Stares at me as Mike's talking to me. And then he just looks at Mike and says, whoa, whoa, whoa. Are we yelling at Brad right now? And I'm like, oh, oh, what's going on? And Brian looks at Mike and he's like, no, no, no. Don't yell at him. What he's doing is awesome. And I'm like, now I feel like I'm in a mom and dad fight.

[Travis]

It's good cop, bad cop.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yeah. Like, I don't know what's going on here. And Mike is. You know, Mike's kind of like, this isn't how I wanted this to go. And, like, basically just like, kicks me out of the room. Like, just go. Just go.

[TJ]

Like, get out of here before it gets worse.

[Brad Keselowski]

Get out of here before it gets worse. And I'm like, did I just get out of that one? Did Brian just do me a solid? What happened here?

[TJ]

So that was the end of getting in trouble?

[Brad Keselowski]

That was the end of that. That's my favorite Brian France story. No, he did be a real solid. I'm. I was really appreciative of that. Mike and I got over. I think Mike was really mad. I think that made Mike Helton matter at me. You know what I mean?

[TJ]

Scared of being mad. France, Brian Franson, or Mike Helton?

[Brad Keselowski]

Oh, definitely help.

[TJ]

I know he, like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Brad Keselowski]

You know, to some degree, Mike and I have a good relationship now. I probably call him once a month.

[TJ]

He's a great dude.

[Brad Keselowski]

Different things. He's a great dude. But at that time, it was like, I was 23, 24 years old. Mike Helton ruled the sport with an iron fist. And I was like, oh, if you

[TJ]

had a meeting with Helton in bat, like, you didn't want to go.

[Andrew]

No.

[TJ]

Like, it was bad.

[Travis]

Did this help prompt the have at it, boys?

[Brad Keselowski]

It was right before that. Yes, yes. So I'm pretty sure it was Pemberton, now that you say that. It had to be like, another month later, where have at it, boys came out. You know, I always wonder about that I've always wanted to ask Mike now that it's, you know, 15, 16 years later, like, how did that actually went down when I left the room?

[TJ]

Yeah, I'm curious to know. It probably didn't go as well as Mike wanted it to go.

[Brad Keselowski]

No, no. But anyway, that's. That's my horror story. My Denny Hamlin horror story. Denny and I, we had a lot of exchanges at that time.

[Andrew]

Hey, everybody. The 2026 NASCAR season is underway, and it's already shaping up to be another year of hard racing. Great storylines, winning moments that remind us why we love this amazing sport. And when it comes to capturing all of that on track action in collectible form, nobody does it better than Lionel Racing, the official diecast of nascar. Their race win diecasts are some of my favorite cars in my own collection. That's because the detail, they look exactly like the car does in victory lane. The confetti, scuffs, marks, tire marks, damage, all of it. It's like freezing that winning moment in time and having it right there in your own home and your own collection. Lionel Racing Diecast. They're the real deal. And right now, Lionel is offering a free domestic shipping. When you use promo code, download 26. That's free domestic shipping. When you use the promo code, download 26. So head over to Lionel Racing.com grab your favorite diecast and make this NASCAR season one to remember.

[Travis]

Winter job sites don't mess around freezing mornings, wet conditions, wind that cuts right through your cheap gear. You need workwear that performs when it's brutal out there. True Work builds performance workwear like it matters, because it does. Founded by a trade professional who is done with soaking wet, heavy gear slowing him down, True Work set out to make workwear that keeps pros comfortable, capable, and ready for whatever the day throws at them. TrueWerk uses advanced performance fabrics originally developed for extreme outdoor conditions. Now engineered specifically for trade work. Designed with moisture wicking, wind resistant and insulated fabrics that keep you comfortable and mobile all day long, even in the harshest winter conditions. True Work came in clutch for me when we had the winter storm come through North Carolina. The S4 Tower Parka was perfect for what I needed. Driveway is covered with snow. Needed to get out there and get it cleaned off. The tower parka got the job done. Fully weatherproof and insulated, built for the coldest and wettest job sites. As the snow's coming down, I stayed dry. I stayed warm. I was happy. There's nothing worse than when you have a jacket that's Just absorbing all the water. And underneath I had the tech flannel work shirt on. This thing is perfect. Warmth without the bulk, that's what I love. You can move around in it, stay mobile. The other thing I love about the flannel work shirt, it's not just for the job site. You can wear this thing to work, going out to get drinks with the boys, throw that flannel work shirt on and go out there. It's perfect. It's versatile. You definitely need to have that. And you can't forget about the pants too. And true work has you covered with the T2 work pants. When I was out there shoveling, had these things on. They are perfect. They're durable, they're flexible. Best part, water resistant. Normally I would just have jeans on. Those things are just going to get wet, weigh you down, make you cold. The T2 work pants stop all of that. They are perfect. Don't let cheap gear slow you down. This winter, upgrade your day with work wear. Built like it matters. Get 15% off your first order at trueork.com for with code Dale Jr. That's T R U-E-R K.com let's get back to.

[Brad Keselowski]

Oh, back to Phoenix.

[Travis]

Well, did you notice the horsepower? So you had it at Bowman Gray and now you've had it at Phoenix.

[TJ]

Are you run Bowman Gray?

[Brad Keselowski]

Oh, that's Bowman Gray. Yeah.

[Travis]

Are you happy with the horsepower this past weekend?

[Brad Keselowski]

Hey, horsepower is great. You know, the crazy thing about the adding more horsepower at Phoenix is cars really don't go faster. In fact, there's an argument to be made they go slower with more horsepower. And we were talking about this yesterday when we had all of our meetings kind of capturing the Phoenix race. If you look at it like the cars are maybe a tenth or two faster at most at the beginning of brand new tires with more horsepower. But at the end of the run, like let's say we're talking 60 plus laps, they're like three to four tenths slower with more horsepower.

[TJ]

There's definitely more fall off. Yes, way more.

[Brad Keselowski]

And I think that's part of what the drivers were trying to say to NASCAR and to the key stakeholders of sport. When they're like, more horsepower, like when you have a discrepancy where the cars are a little bit faster at the start of the run and slower at the longer run, that just opens up opportunities for more passing. At least in my eyes. I think you saw more passing at Phoenix than you've seen in a long time because of that. And I think that's really the argument for more horsepower. But it's super counterintuitive because, like, if I just said, run the 60 fastest laps, you can run all by yourself. Like, there's an argument to be made that having more horsepower, you actually go slower because you wear the tires more. You do all kinds of things, and by the end of the run, that really hurts you. But then you're like. So if you're listening to this, you're probably like, well, man, why wouldn't you just build an engine with less horsepower? Well, because you get ran over. Like, you can't race around other people. Like, when you have a restart or things like that, if you don't have horsepower, it'll just destroy your car. You'll get ran over, passed, and then you can't pass those guys back. But you know what? It reminds me, when I ran late models and I had a couple times where we'd run at tracks where the engine rules were fairly open, and guys would show up with like 750, 800 horsepower to late model race. And then they'd put a restrictor plate voluntarily on their car. Like, I have too much horsepower. I'm going to put a restrictor plate on because it'll go faster. So it's really interesting to see. It's kind of like reverse logic.

[TJ]

So that's similar to, like, sometimes there's big dirt races where you can bring a. Like a dirt modified. You can bring a 358 modified run with the big blocks. Because the track slicks off so much, you can't use the. You don't have any use for all the horsepower. So you can do that. Do you think? I mean, to me, it's also, with this tire, the tire obviously has to be one you can wear out. And I feel like Goodyear has been doing a good job the last. They've been getting better and better at just letting you guys bring tires where, hey, you can wear this thing out. So don't, you know, take care of it a little bit. And I think when you put those things together, you have better racing.

[Brad Keselowski]

Absolutely. I think Goodyear deserves a lot of credit. I hate it for him because when you have tire blowouts, I feel like the fans sometimes point the finger at Goodyear. Like, you screwed my driver over with your tires. And you're like, no. Goodyear's doing their part to try to make the racing the best it can be. And that means kind of designing tires that are right at the limit so the racing can be better. And I hate that. They get kind of like, well, they're

[TJ]

in the business of selling tires. They're selling tires that are blowing out. That doesn't look right.

[Travis]

Yeah, but if you're a fan that thinks that, because I know it doesn't. Chase Briscoe blew a tire that my. You know, my Ford truck's gonna blow a tire. That's on you.

[TJ]

The problem is when they write the headlines, they're like, tire issues, and you know what I mean at this race. And it goes right back to them when it's not really their fault.

[Travis]

Did you see their tweet that they put out?

[Brad Keselowski]

I did, yes.

[Travis]

Before we go racing, remember, the recommended tire pressures weren't guesses.

[TJ]

That's actually really good.

[Brad Keselowski]

I can promise you. Nobody ran the recommended pressures at Phoenix. Like, whatever they run, there's always kind of like this inside joke in the garage area. Like, just subtract two, and you're like, that's probably still safe. So. Yeah, but, I mean, nobody ran those.

[TJ]

Why do we. I mean, why do teams do that? Because there's speed in it.

[Brad Keselowski]

Absolutely.

[TJ]

Just like back in the day.

[Brad Keselowski]

We want to win.

[TJ]

You could over camber it.

[Tampa Tims]

You could.

[TJ]

You put too much camber in it. But, you know, camber was speed if you ran it.

[Brad Keselowski]

So I'll give Goodyear a lot of credit. You know, the drivers went to them and said, we want a tire that falls off more. We want you to be more aggressive. They fired back like, well, it makes this look like crap. And the drivers went back to Goodyear and said, kind of made, like, a pact, like, we won't say bad things about you if you build us an aggressive tire and it blows out. And so I feel like the sports. Like, that's good.

[TJ]

Has Kyle Busch tweeted yet? Just making sure.

[Brad Keselowski]

No, I don't think he has.

[TJ]

They were good. Good pack.

[Brad Keselowski]

I mean, the pact is stuck together so far.

[TJ]

Yeah. That's good.

[Brad Keselowski]

If it comes apart, then, like, everybody loses.

[TJ]

So did you know, like, what else? Any surprises at Phoenix that you saw? Like, I know Blaney and Bell were fast. Denny was decent.

[Brad Keselowski]

Any.

[TJ]

Any cars you thought, you know, did you see anything when you were out there?

[Brad Keselowski]

I. You know, the thing that really stood out to me more than anything else was svg.

[TJ]

Yeah. Spinning out. Spinning out twice, too.

[Brad Keselowski]

And he still finished, like, 11th. Yeah.

[TJ]

How did. How did he do that?

[Brad Keselowski]

I don't know.

[TJ]

I. I see that. Travis.

[Brad Keselowski]

Feel like I need to go back and watch this entire race on in car camera, but, like, how did you do this.

[TJ]

I mean, I remember looking down and seeing him spinning twice in three and four. And I'm like, ah, he's having a bad day.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yeah. And then he rebounded.

[TJ]

Yeah, he rebounded really well. And I thought one person that gets. Doesn't, you know, get a credit a lot. I thought that had a really good race was Riley. I thought Riley had a really strong race. He ran. Did he run up top 15, Travis a lot?

[Travis]

He was running well until the kind of crash, right?

[TJ]

Yeah, he was, actually.

[Brad Keselowski]

That was one of his better races.

[TJ]

It was probably one of the better races that I don't think people probably noticed. But I think Riley drove a really good race.

[Brad Keselowski]

But I want to go back and talk more about svg. I got a lot of thoughts on svg.

[TJ]

More road courses?

[Brad Keselowski]

No, not more road courses. But, yeah, I guess when I think about svg, I want to rewind, like three years ago. So he shows up in Chicago, kicks everyone's ass. I had no idea who this guy was. I gotta be honest. I did the track walk right next to him, and I thought he was a fan. I really did. At Chicago. I'll never forget this. Like, I'm walking. I'm like, I don't know who this guy is. He's either a fan or a PR guy. And then the next day, he gets in one of the cars. I'm like, oh, he's one of those guys from, like, a ringer. Yeah. You know, honestly, most times, like, the industry doesn't pay any attention to them because they show up, they run one race. Usually doesn't go very well. You never see them again. You're like. Like a substitute teacher, you know, like, you don't really think about that person. So he shows up, Chicago wins the race, and we're all like, huh? Well, you know, he's a V8 supercar guy. It was raining, it was a track nobody's ever ran again. Track house has great cars, street courses where he. Yeah, absolutely. All those things.

[TJ]

Everything worked perfect for him.

[Brad Keselowski]

Everything worked perfect for him. And I think for me personally, and I don't know if I speak for a number of people in the garage, but I assume I do. Everybody's kind of like, fluke one off, whatever, move on. But then Justin Marks is like, no, I don't think so. Let's do something more with this guy. And this is as much about Justin as is about SVG. And I kind of look through that timeline of 20, 23. He wants to race in Chicago. Justin Mark says, hey, why don't I get you a full time deal in xfinity?

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Brad Keselowski]

Now O'Reilly Auto Parts. O'Reilly with Kaulik. And he does that. And honestly, I didn't think it went that well. He average. He went average.

[TJ]

Did okay.

[Brad Keselowski]

He didn't run as well on the road courses as I thought he would with colog and not that he didn't win, but he just didn't run as dominant as I thought as he would run. And the ovals were just kind of blah. Right. And so Justin Marks, like in the summer of 24, has to make a decision of what to do with svg. Now, keep in mind at that time, he has Suarez, Chastain, Zane Smith. He's got Zane Smith kind of like on a loaner deal.

[TJ]

Yeah, Zane was a truck championship and then was.

[Brad Keselowski]

But Zane was kind of like an up and coming star.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Brad Keselowski]

He's like, I got to make a decision. I want SVG to be a part of my deal. I got to cut one of these three. It's not going to be Chastain like Ross. Chastain is in my eyes, like the face of trackhouse. You know, he's got bush as a sponsor. He's won races, almost won the championship in 22.

[TJ]

Yeah, Ross is the. He's the solid guy.

[Brad Keselowski]

So he had to make a decision, all right, between Daniel or Zane. It's like, okay, Daniel had been with the company since the beginning. He keeps Daniel. He cuts Zane. All right, so this happens really in the summer of 24. Now, personally, I'm thinking to myself, Zane hasn't gotten a fair shot. He's been in like a third team that wasn't even a track house team. It was a spire team. And by the second half of the season, he actually started running pretty well.

[TJ]

And his first cup start, I think was with rfk, wasn't it?

[Brad Keselowski]

Yes, it was. Yeah.

[TJ]

And he ran gateway really well.

[Brad Keselowski]

So I was surprised when they cut Zane for Shane. And I'm going to just go ahead and say right here I was wrong. I like Zane. I think Zane's really good. But I thought putting Shane in like, all right, so you're going to win some road courses. This is really just a hack to get a car. And not Shane's not a hack. This is a team ownership hack to get a car. Locked in the playoffs, you're now guaranteed top 16 in points. Your charter value goes up. You're winning races, your company value goes up. It almost felt like SVG was a prop for the company that brought in More sponsorship revenue, more talent to help make Daniel and Ross run better. Like, that was the way I kind of saw it. But I got to tell you, like, now that 2026 has come around and he's had such a great start of the year, like, I feel like I was wrong. Now he's like, SVG is almost becoming the face of Trackhouse. Like, he's the guy that's going to win probably three to five races this year. And he's their. I think he's their highest car in points.

[TJ]

Oh, he has to be.

[Brad Keselowski]

He started the year out being competitive in all four races.

[Travis]

Yeah, he's fifth in points right now.

[TJ]

So where is their next car?

[Travis]

Ross in 23rd.

[Andrew]

Wow.

[Brad Keselowski]

So, you know, I know we only have like a four race sample size, but it's pretty good. And he like, SVG was kind of like Happy Gilmore if he could learn how to putt. You know what I mean?

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Brad Keselowski]

Like, he's got this massive drive. He could get into the green, like, if he could just learn how to putt, which is like the ovals.

[Travis]

Oh, SVG learned how to race on an oval.

[Andrew]

Yes.

[Brad Keselowski]

So he's gotten exactly what's going through my mind.

[TJ]

I think this is where the experience in like he, he, he had was getting better and better in the rally car at mile and a halfs as well. Like he was growing in them too. So. And now he's got the cup car figured out, obviously.

[Brad Keselowski]

So I mean, it's dangerous if, if he gets to where he's just competitive. Like, I don't mean dominant ovals, but just competitive on the ovals. Yeah. And then keeps up his road course kind of like dominance. He's going to score a ton of points.

[TJ]

He's never going to be terrible to road course.

[Brad Keselowski]

No.

[TJ]

At worst he's going to be fourth or fifth. At worst.

[Brad Keselowski]

As long as he doesn't, you know, blow an engine or get.

[TJ]

Yeah, but I'm saying minus mechanical difficulties, he's going to be in top five regardless.

[Brad Keselowski]

But if he can just be like 10th on the ovals.

[TJ]

Oh, he run 10th on the ovals. He's going to run really high in the points.

[Travis]

Yes.

[Brad Keselowski]

Like, and he becomes like the guy

[TJ]

at track house and starting the year off at Daytona and Atlanta getting through those super speedway plate races. And he's already, I mean, another thing,

[Brad Keselowski]

top 10 in points.

[TJ]

How many times he spun out this year? He spun out at Atlanta a couple. He's. That's three times this year and he's still top five in the Points.

[Travis]

Yeah. If you would have told SVG at the beginning of the year in trackhouse, you're going to be fifth in points after Phoenix.

[Brad Keselowski]

So they're.

[Travis]

They're saying, we'll take it. We don't. We won't even race. Give us that.

[Brad Keselowski]

All right, I got to tell you a story, because you just made me think so. So he spun out three times this year and still hasn't, you know, still getting good finishes. I got to tell you, that Jack Ralph story. I was sitting with him. This is only a few months ago, so this is a fresh story. And we were actually talking about Greg Biffle because Greg had just passed away, and we were kind of reminiscing about Craig and what he meant to the company. And Jack said something to me in a story that I think this audience would really appreciate, because if you circle back to, like, the year 2000, Greg Biffle had won the truck championship. Kurt Busch was his teammate. Kurt got pushed into cup, and Greg got a year or two of the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series.

[TJ]

Yeah, did really well, though.

[Brad Keselowski]

And there were a lot of people like, why did Kurt get elevated. He didn't win the truck championship. Why did Kurt get elevated and not Greg? And this was something that kind of, like, followed Greg's career for a long time. And then Greg makes it to cup, has a great career in Cup. So this isn't a dig on Craig, but nobody ever really understood, why did you promote Kurt and not Greg the way you did? And so I asked Jack, like, so what was the reason for it? He goes, oh, that was simple. I'll tell you why I promoted Greg.

[Andrew]

Oh, boy.

[Brad Keselowski]

And not Kurt. And you have to understand what Jack's like to talk to, to really appreciate his mannerism. So we'd go to the racetracks and, you know, we would practice and test, and we would do all that. And Greg was like, drive this thing as hard as you can, Kurt. Drive this thing as hard as you can. And these guys would. Would go to test sessions, and they'd spin out all the time, both of them, and they'd tear my stuff up. And I'd get back, and I'd yell at them and tell them, stop wrecking my stuff. Like, you know, in. In a way that only Jack could do. And so. And so what ended up happening is we'd start going to test, and they would still spin out, but Kurt would spin out, and he wouldn't hit anything. And Greg would spin out, and he'd hit something. And so I just told Greg, like, all right, Kurt spins out and he doesn't hit anything. You spin out and you wreck and you hit things. So Kurt's getting the cup car, and that's where it came from. Like, that's Jack's story on why Kurt got the cup car in 2001 and Greg didn't. Because when they'd go to practice and test sessions and Kurt would spin out, he wouldn't hit the wall, and Greg would spin out and he'd hit the wall.

[Travis]

Unreal.

[Brad Keselowski]

Accurate. So, anyway, back to svg. Yeah, he's had, like, three spin outs this year, at least. Yeah, I mean, I know it hasn't hit anything.

[TJ]

Two is two. I mean, two of them were at Phoenix, and he had more impressive.

[Brad Keselowski]

So. Yeah, and, like, if Jack Roush was sitting here in the room, he'd be like, that's the guy. I want, the guy who spins out, and when he does, he doesn't hit the wall.

[TJ]

Fifth in points. Way to go.

[Brad Keselowski]

So, anyway, somehow I got a Jack Roush story in there. But I want to bring this back to Justin Marks, because I think sometimes he gets more credit than he deserves on things he's brought to the sport, and other times, I feel like he gets less credit. I don't think Justin gets enough credit for the vision he had with svg. He pulled a guy out of another country in a series that most of us know very little about, took a chance on him in a Cup car, then made the investment in him to run, you know, an O'Reilly Auto Parts Series. The sample size was not outstanding, and then decide, you know what? I'm gonna go buy another charter, and I'm gonna find a way to get this guy in a Cup car full time. Like, that's pretty gutsy. And it wasn't just, like, an accident. He went out and found this guy, took a risk on him. And I really respect that about Justin. I don't think he gets enough credit for that.

[TJ]

Yeah, I think. I think Roger laid the groundwork for it a little bit with McLaughlin to some degree.

[Brad Keselowski]

But that's not at the cup level, right? No, at the IndyCar level, yes.

[TJ]

Yeah. And I think.

[Brad Keselowski]

But nobody was taking a chance on a guy like that.

[Travis]

Yeah, we didn't know how to pronounce his last name when he was in Chicago.

[TJ]

Yeah, I think, you know, I've watched a lot of the V8 races before. I actually kind of followed that. That's how we went to that Australia trip, because we were following the V8 supercars in, like, 07. We were watching them pretty heavily, but nobody ever thought about, let's bring this guy over here and let him race.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yes.

[TJ]

And those guys and them supercars, man, they get so good at. Like, we've all seen his footwork. We've all seen the things that they can do in them cars. That's what they grow up doing and learning. But learning the oval, the air side of stuff, is now was next challenge. And obviously he's learning. He's learning that now. And they've evolved their road course program even better.

[Brad Keselowski]

So, yeah, that series is perfect for. For developing road course drivers because, you know, their cars drive a lot like ours. Yeah, but they get testing in practice. So if you're a young driver over in Australia, New Zealand, those areas, like, you get in those cars and you learn how to do it properly. And when you come over here, everybody you're competing against isn't allowed to practice or really learn how to do it properly. Like, we just get in the car and go race. You have a small practice session. That's it. There's no testing, there's no anything. Those guys are like two races a weekend. A couple hours of practice, test sessions.

[TJ]

It's kind of like how we used

[Brad Keselowski]

to really develop their skills, kind of

[TJ]

how we used to be.

[Brad Keselowski]

Absolutely. It's exactly what cup used to be. It used to be the opposite. It used to be those guys had no chance of competing with the cup series drivers because we practiced and tested every day of every week.

[TJ]

Yeah, we tested so much.

[Brad Keselowski]

And so if you tried to come from another series to go to cup, you couldn't touch us. There's no way. This is like secondhand now. It's the opposite. Where the cup series is like, you get stagnant as a race car driver because you can't practice and test. And it's kind of like what you are when you get there, for the most part, is about what you're going to be.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Brad Keselowski]

So it's a different, different world.

[TJ]

Those cars over there now are much more similar to a Cup car, too, with the sequential shifting, the.

[Brad Keselowski]

Well, when NASCAR designed the next gen car, they basically went to Australia and said, we like that. And they went to Dallara and said, make it look like that. And the V8 supercar was the template for building the next gen car.

[Travis]

So we've seen SVG with his performances, start of the season. What's your take on where things stand right now with the start of the season with performance and people not just focus on points and not winning you're

[Brad Keselowski]

in the top 16. You know, there's some surprises in there for sure, but more surprised at people that aren't in it. We talked about Ross Chastain and you work your way down. Like Kyle Busch buried. Chastain buried.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Brad Keselowski]

Cindric's 30th centric.

[Travis]

Yeah. Wow.

[Brad Keselowski]

I didn't realize he was that far back. There's a lot of guys that have had super tough starts this season. Where's the 19 car chase? Briscoe. I don't even know where he's at on here. He's had a terrible start to the year. 33rd. 30. That one's probably the biggest surprise.

[TJ]

Zillich is kind of a surprise, too. I didn't.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yeah. Which is a little bit of surprise. Yes and no.

[TJ]

I know he's a rookie, but like

[Brad Keselowski]

Bowman, but obviously he's had a welcome to cup start to the season. Right. You know, where you leave a series that you dominate, come to cup, and you're like, oh, my God, this is really freaking hard. So he's going through that right now. But Briscoe, this is a guy that ended the year last year, and I don't know if there was anybody better. I know Denny dominated Phoenix. I know Larson ended up winning the championship, but if you sample size the last 15, 16 races of 2025, Chase Briscoe was the guy.

[TJ]

Yeah. He wasn't a surprise anymore at the end.

[Brad Keselowski]

And he has started off this year not the guy. Things have not gone his way. It's not necessarily been his fault. I mean, he's broke down two races. Yeah.

[TJ]

He doesn't read the map. Sorry, Jason.

[Brad Keselowski]

You just. If you just read the map, you'd be okay. The DVP map.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Brad Keselowski]

You know, so he didn't have a great. He hasn't had a great start to the season. What's going to be really interesting is with this points format, can he work his way in the top 16? Absolutely no doubt in my mind. Can he work his way in the top two or three after having this start to the season? I don't think so. I. No, I don't. I don't think he can.

[TJ]

I don't. It's going to. Well, we're going to find out. There's definitely some comers and goers in this point system right here. Like, you're going to have guys that aren't going to be as good. We're going to some real racetracks now, per se, and they're going to start having tougher weekends. And you're going to have guys like Briscoe is going to probably really fast at Vegas.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yep.

[TJ]

So he's going to start his climb, and you're going to have guys in the top five or top 10 that are going to struggle. And now, like, I do think this

[Brad Keselowski]

point system, well, the big thing is the win bonus is so much.

[TJ]

The win bonus is big.

[Brad Keselowski]

So if you win a race, like, you're going to climb 5, 10 spots in the points.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Travis]

Do you find yourself checking the points more than you would in previous years?

[Brad Keselowski]

100%. Yes. Because it's more relevant now. You know, before it was just, well, it doesn't really matter because you win and you're in.

[TJ]

Yeah, you just aim for the fence. I mean, you try to hit home runs.

[Brad Keselowski]

So I flew back with Ryan Blaney, Joey logano, Clint Boyer, D.J. you were on the plane. And it's interesting, the different perspectives that just our small group has on the points format. Probably not a surprise. Joey Logano wishes we stayed with the old system.

[Travis]

Shocker.

[Brad Keselowski]

I know.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Brad Keselowski]

Very shocking. And Clint and I spent the majority of two different plane rides back and forth to Phoenix arguing with Joey on why we like this new format. And, you know, I am a staunch supporter of the new format. I did not like the playoffs. I made my point to NASCAR in different settings, mostly privately, over the last probably seven or eight years, about how I thought this, the playoff format was a mistake. I remember meeting with them. I met with Steve O'.

[TJ]

Donnell.

[Brad Keselowski]

Gosh, this would have been like 2018, 2019. And I told him, dude, the playoff format's killing the sport.

[TJ]

I liked it in 18.

[Brad Keselowski]

I'm sure you did. And I remember he said to me, what do you mean he's killing the sport? Well, I had won two or three races earlier in the year, and I'm like, I'm in the middle of the season. I want to say we were in the dead middle of the season when I met with them. And I said, I'm in the middle of the season. I go to the racetrack and I'm asking myself, what am I doing here? I have a practice session where I'm 10th or 15th, and I'm like, I'm not really a threat to win the race. We just don't have it this week. For whatever reason. I sit in meetings and they're like, all right, Brad, you don't get the good engine or the good car this week because someone else in the company isn't locked in the playoffs. So they get all the good stuff. For this week. And you're like, oh, okay. I guess that kind of makes sense. But don't worry, when you get in the playoffs, you'll get the good stuff because you were the first car to lock in. So you found yourself, like, in the middle of the season, and you'd be showing up at, like, Pocono or whatever, and you'd be like, all right, so I got, like, the engine with less power. I got the body with less downforce. I'm 15th in practice. Like, I'm probably going to run 10th today if I do everything right. I'm already locked in the playoffs. Like, it felt like Weekend at Bernie's. Like, what the hell am I doing here?

[TJ]

You know?

[Brad Keselowski]

Like, it didn't make any sense. Like, I'm just running the race, like, and that's the deal. And you couldn't even really be mad at the team. You know, think of putting yourself in their shoes. You're like, man, we got to get our other cars in the playoffs, so you know, this guy's going to have to eat dirt this week. And you're like, so you couldn't really be mad at them. You just felt, like, trapped by the format, and that was a lot of what was happening. So I didn't like it as a racer, and I didn't like when you got to the playoffs, particularly the last race, like, if you had a bad pit stop, like, that was your season. That didn't feel right to me. Or like, Harvick had that bad race in 2020. I think it was Martinsville.

[TJ]

Yeah. I mean, it cost you at Phoenix, right?

[Brad Keselowski]

Yeah, it cost. I lost the championship at Phoenix with bad pit stops. You're like, that didn't feel right to me. And that's not a dig on, like, Chase Elliott, who want to on to win it, but it just didn't. It didn't feel great. So I like this format because I'll go back to what I was saying earlier. There's no race where the team's like, hey, you don't get the good engine, you don't get the good car with this format. And I really appreciate that because I don't feel like we're, quote, unquote, skipping races. So I appreciate that about the format. There's some arguments of, does it provide enough action later in the season? Yeah, I think it does. Everything feels right to me with a format like this. I love how they gave, you know, more points to the winner with this

[TJ]

format, because I think I want to win.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yeah, because you still Want to win? Yeah. So, you know, like, a good points day, like, you'll still have those, but you don't finish second and say good points day because the gap is too big to winning. So it feels right to me. That's my take on it. Now, if Joey Logano was sitting here next to me, he and I would be, like, arguing over this. He'd probably be shouting at this point in the conversation.

[TJ]

What is Joey's. What is Joey's side of it? What does he see?

[Brad Keselowski]

Joey's side of it is, you know, the playoffs were awesome because of eliminations.

[TJ]

The game seven moments.

[Brad Keselowski]

The game type seven moments, which I respond back by saying, yeah, but that sounded great, but fans didn't really tune in for that.

[TJ]

Like, now it seems like every race is a game seven moment.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yes, That's. That's exactly like, to me, NASCAR lives and dies by the ability to make every event a big event, which means you can't have races in the middle of the season where your race teams are like, yeah, we're just punching in on the clock. Yeah, that doesn't work.

[TJ]

And it does seem like that at times.

[Brad Keselowski]

It did seem like that's what was happening.

[Travis]

Like, right now, the hires are higher and the lowers are lower, and that's what you want. You want drivers mad and you want them excited. You don't want drivers getting on the car going, yep, it was okay. And on to.

[Brad Keselowski]

You know what I want Travis, as a fan of the sport, I want to know that if I spent three hours watching a race at Kansas in, you know, the start of the season and I saw somebody win the race or I saw somebody wreck out and finish last, that that mattered. You know what I mean?

[Travis]

Yeah. Because the fans are invested.

[Brad Keselowski]

So I want to know that if I didn't watch that race, I missed out on somebody winning and getting 10 extra points that might have propelled him to the championship, or I missed out on somebody making a bonehead move that cost him a shot at the championship.

[TJ]

Yeah. Like, scroll down right here on your point list.

[Brad Keselowski]

I want to know, like, when I go to a race in the middle of the year, that the three plus hours I invested in it meant something to the championship, and it does now. It didn't with the playoff format, the

[TJ]

2 and the 21 right here, that meant something at Phoenix.

[Brad Keselowski]

Oh, hell yeah. If I was a fan at Phoenix and I saw the 2 and the 21 car crash. Yeah, that might have been their season.

[Travis]

And also, like, NASCAR's not going to say this, but there's a chance you get more drama with the drivers after a race. If a guy, if someone wrecks you and you just potentially ruin their season, you're going to get some confrontation.

[Brad Keselowski]

Well, that goes back to what I was saying earlier. If, if I had a race before where I was like, I got a 15th place car with the playoff format. I'm not even in the playoffs out of the middle season, somebody wrecks me doing something stupid and I finished 30th. You're like, whatever. Onto the next week. If that happens now, like, holy, we're pissed.

[TJ]

So let me ask you this.

[Brad Keselowski]

I'm still mad at Rally Herbstover Daytona because he cost me not only a shot at the wind, but he cost me three points. Like those three points might be really big.

[TJ]

So does this system now change your as a driver? Does it change the way you look at things if a guy like Josevar messes with you?

[Brad Keselowski]

Oh, yeah, 100%.

[TJ]

Like I remember there was.

[Brad Keselowski]

Because it's a bigger neon. Like if Josevar. You get in a wreck with Josevar,

[TJ]

he does something dumb, whatever.

[Brad Keselowski]

He tends to rack in like 10th to 15th, which is that kind of no man's land where you're like just

[TJ]

trying to salvage a day.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yeah. Which is your. I need to just get through here.

[TJ]

And you're fighting your ass off to do it.

[Brad Keselowski]

Exactly in the old format. No, you're like, whatever, I'm still mad at the guy, but I can't really look at him and say he affected

[TJ]

my season because, you know, but the old mentality was what? Because you know you can win next week and this doesn't matter.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yep. But now this format, like, yeah, I'm pissed. I'm like next level pissed. And I think that's what this format brings. It brings an energy of the race matters more every week and I like that.

[TJ]

It should.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yes, it should. I think that's where it should be. Yes. Yeah, 100%. Anyway, I just ranted.

[Travis]

No, I love it. You may have heard about a serious but rare heart condition called attr cardiac amyloidosis, or ATTR cm. Because symptoms can look like other heart conditions, a diagnosis may take a long time. But learning more about ATTR CM and a treatment called atruby, also known as acharamadis, could be vital for you or a loved one. A truby is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with ATTR CM to reduce death and hospitalization due to heart issues. In a study, Auby helped slow the progression of ATTR CM and reduce heart related hospitalizations by 50% when compared to people not receiving a truby. Tell your doctor if you are pregnant, plan to become pregnant, or breastfeeding, and about the medications you take. The most common side effects were mild and include diarrhea and abdominal pain. If you have attr cm, talk to your cardiologist about a truby or visit a truby.com that's a T T R U B Y.com to learn more. Brought to you by Bridge Bio.

[Narrator]

Welcome to the ultimate fan zone at the NASCAR hall of Fame. You'll get the inside stories from the racing legends who live them. Take on the competition in our racing simulators or enter the greatest victory lane of all in our hall of honor. With over 850 artifacts and 50 interactive exhibits, if you didn't walk through our doors as a lifelong fan, you're bound to leave as one. Plan a trip to the NASCAR hall of Fame in Charlotte. [e-mail] NASCAR hall of Fame. This is our sport. This is our house.

[Brad Keselowski]

I feel like. You ever watch Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain?

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Brad Keselowski]

Remember they used to have that thing where they'd rant. They'd had that little character guy bobbling his head?

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Brad Keselowski]

Well, you remember, I felt like I was on that.

[TJ]

You went on there a few times, right?

[Brad Keselowski]

Oh, yeah. I used to love wind tunnel.

[TJ]

So he went on wind tunnel with Data Spain. They would always give you a bobblehead when you did of Dave.

[Brad Keselowski]

And my.

[TJ]

My oldest, you know, I'm. You know what she did.

[Brad Keselowski]

It's your story. Go ahead, tell your story.

[TJ]

She came over and this is when you lived in a house that Dale owned? Yeah.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yeah.

[TJ]

And we're hanging out there, and my oldest takes the Dave Dispain thing and, like, throws it down the stairs and, like, busts.

[Brad Keselowski]

She spiked him.

[TJ]

Yeah. She threw Dave for.

[Brad Keselowski]

I gotta tell you, I don't think I told you that. That was, like, one of my prized possessions, too.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Travis]

Way to go, teacher.

[Brad Keselowski]

You have to understand, like, I'm a guy who doesn't even keep a trophy at his house. Like, what? No. I don't have a single trophy in my house. I don't out. I have a Martinsville wind clock, which is technically a trophy.

[Travis]

Yes. Yeah.

[Brad Keselowski]

But it's not, like, a trophy trophy.

[Travis]

So what do you hold all year?

[Brad Keselowski]

I keep them in my family office.

[Travis]

Okay.

[Brad Keselowski]

Like, I. I don't like trophies in my house. I don't want to live that kind of life. I just want to. When I'm at home, I want to Be with my family. I want to be with my kids, and I don't want to stare at my past accomplishments. That said, when I went on Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain, I'm a Dave Despain fan, and he gave me a bobblehead, and I'm sure It was, like, $20 made from China, but whatever. He gave me a bobblehead, signed it, and I put it in my house like it was one of my prized possessions. And TJ's daughter comes over like, oh, this is cool.

[TJ]

She wasn't, like, destructive. She didn't like. She wasn't like, I hate this thing.

[Brad Keselowski]

Bam.

[TJ]

It was, like, kind of an accident, but.

[Brad Keselowski]

And so I got another one from Dave, so we're cool. But. Yeah, Dave, the Spain Wind Tunnel. One of my favorite shows.

[Travis]

Do you think when you retire, will you move some trophies into the house?

[Tampa Tims]

No.

[Travis]

No. Okay.

[Brad Keselowski]

I don't know. I just don't want to come home. Trophy. You know what gets really awkward about trophies that nobody tells you about until you have them is after a while, like, not only do they become less meaningful, but they actually kind of hurt a little bit. I don't know how to explain it, but you're like, when I'll see a trophy that I won, like, 10 years ago, you're like, I remember that day. I wish I was winning like that. You know? You know what I mean? Like, I kind of like staying a little.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[TJ]

But I think that's just natural.

[Brad Keselowski]

I mean, like, I remember my dad's trophies. Like, he had trophies from, like, 1986, and I remember being, like, 10 years old, and by then, those trophies were seven or eight years old, and you're like, yeah, so you used to be good, you know, like. And people would say stuff like that. You're like, man, I don't want that hanging around me. Yeah.

[TJ]

But I don't know, man. I think it's good to look back and know that. I think it's good to look back and know that some of the accomplishments that you do have, like,

[Host/Interviewer]

in doses.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yeah, in doses.

[TJ]

But I mean, I mean, as a

[Brad Keselowski]

kid, I'm on to the next race. Man, you went. It's great you won. Like.

[TJ]

Yeah, but as a kid, you would have. I mean, you're. You're all. Your dream is to win all these things.

[Brad Keselowski]

Sure. So, like, I'll probably appreciate them more when I'm done racing, but I don't want to look at. You know, I've won Talladega six times. Yeah. I don't want to look at, tell a trophy. Like, I want to go to Talladega feeling like I've never won there before and I have something to prove. And I feel like when you stare at the trophies, you're like, yeah, I've already done this.

[Travis]

I can. I can see that. I'm pretty sure that, like, you're wanting to.

[Brad Keselowski]

I don't. I want to enter races and be like, hungry, and I don't want any. Because I can tell you when you get to the racetrack, nobody there cares what you've done before. They don't. They're like, once you get there, it's a fresh start, blank slate. Like, you got to go prove it.

[TJ]

But sometimes I think it can be the other way, too. Like, I look at, you know, Daytona 500. Like, I've been fortunate enough to be a part of that. I want. I feel like I almost want to win it more now, again, because of that first one. Like, that's kind of the way I

[Brad Keselowski]

have their different motivations. Right. Yeah.

[TJ]

I mean, I look at it like I remember that night. I want to win every Daytona 500 from now until I'm done spotting.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yeah.

[TJ]

So big one to win so that

[Travis]

I know maybe one time, maybe one day. So off the track, we had a little news brought up again with Cletus going to be racing with RCR for three races, I believe, one this year and then two next year in the

[Brad Keselowski]

O'Reilly Auto Part Series. I'm just going to keep saying that.

[Travis]

You just got to keep saying it

[Brad Keselowski]

over and over again. The better I'm getting at.

[Travis]

I mean, there's still people that call it the Bush Series, so it's just like Grand National. Yeah, but what do you guys think of the approval process? I think that's kind of the bigger topic. It has nothing to do with, like, Cletus as a person or whatever it's about.

[TJ]

No. It's never a personal attack against him. Like, I know, I know Freddie's been hammering it pretty hard, but Freddie doesn't have anything. It's nothing against Cletus. It could be. It could be you trying to come up through here correct. You know what I mean? It could be me. It could be, you know, anybody. And, like, just the pro. The approval process is. Do you think it's broken?

[Brad Keselowski]

It's, you know, it's got its challenges. Here's what I'll tell you. This is my bigger point view.

[TJ]

You're running nascar. What are you doing?

[Brad Keselowski]

Those two series are meant for guys like Cleaves. Like, that's what they're for. Arca really should be thrown into that. As long as it doesn't affect Sundays, I think it's probably fine. Like, do I think police McFarlane should be running a cup car? No, I don't. And I would be really pissed if he got approved to run a cup car, but he didn't. He got approved to run an o'reilly auto parts series car. Those are supposed to be developmental series. I don't like the fact that, you know, if there's four series, top at the top, O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, Truck Series and ARC. Okay. What I don't like is this constant push to make the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series ARCA. Like we used to have four very distinct series with four very distinct identities. The truck series was like if you were 35, 40 year old driver who was pretty good but weren't quite cup level good. That was your home. It was your truck series and you were good at it. Yeah, and you were good at it. And they went to short tracks and they were, you know, kind of like arm wrestling matches.

[TJ]

It was hard to be the most hard nosed series when you raced against Hornaday, Corelli and the.

[Brad Keselowski]

It was the hard nosed 35 to 45 year old series.

[TJ]

Hundreds of wins of short tracks. Yes, thousands altogether.

[Brad Keselowski]

That was the place where you went if you were a badass but just didn't get through cup for whatever reason.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[TJ]

It wasn't the, it wasn't where you went to move up.

[Brad Keselowski]

Now it's the place you're like, now this guy's 17, he ran two races in Arco. Let's give him a shot. Like, yeah, okay. I don't know if I really like that. All right, Same thing for the o'reilly auto parts series. That used to be the place where you're like, you're pretty good.

[TJ]

You went from arco to o'reilly most of the time.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yeah, you're pretty good. But we're not sure you're ready for cup. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to put you in a race on the same tracks. The cup cars go with cars that drive kind of similar to a cup car but not the same. And we're going to put like half a dozen cup drivers in the field against you and see what you can do. That was the o'reilly auto parts series. And by the way, if you do really well, the whole cup garage is here watching. You're going to get a cup ride very quickly and then arco was a series where like, hey, maybe that guy could drive, maybe he can't. Let's go see, put him on the racetrack. It was the series for people like Cletus. The problem that we have this is NASCAR's industry as a whole is for whatever reason, we completely abandoned the identity of those four series. Not necessarily the cup series, but those four series. Kind of like the pecking order has been like thrown away. And it started with removing the cup drivers from the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series. You can argue it might have started even before that. Now I think about it with the truck series kind of turning into this mixed identity of older drivers, younger drivers, and then ARCA kind of just changing. And I don't even know what caused ARCA to change to where. You know, these guys that are 17 or 18 years old that used to run, you know, two, three seasons, like now they run like two or three races. Yeah, do.

[TJ]

The car is getting further apart. To me, it's the cars getting further apart.

[Brad Keselowski]

That's probably a big part of it. Yes.

[TJ]

Because you could take a cup car and run an ARCA race with it. Yeah, majority of the time.

[Brad Keselowski]

So is the approval process broken? Look, yes and no. It's not broken at the cup level. Is it broken at those other three levels? Yes. Personally, I think that the three series should have three different approval criteria. Being the truck series, what makes a guy approved? So here's my opinion. Like Brad's running NASCAR today. If you want to run arca and you're 18, great, go 17, 18 years old. That should be your spot to live. If you want to run ARCA and you know, you have less than 100 starts in any major form or even minor league form of racing. Okay, cool. ARCA is your place. You in my mind should not be allowed to run the truck series unless you're like, I have a hundred plus starts across the country.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Brad Keselowski]

Late model, late model, anything, whatever it might be. And then the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series, this is my personal opinion. It should be like you need to be 20, 21 years old before you can run that series. Like that should be the age limit.

[TJ]

Mature level. Yeah.

[Brad Keselowski]

Maturity level a little bit higher. I mean you're on national TV every week. Like that's a lot to put on an 18 year old shoulders. And I'm not saying that no one can do it, but most everyone can't do it.

[TJ]

Do you think?

[Brad Keselowski]

And I really dislike, and I've been vocal about this because I remember what it was like when I was 18. I really dislike the idea of 18 year old race car drivers being in a national series the size of the Cup Series or Railway Auto Part Series because it just means you have to skip things in your life that are super important, whether it be your high school graduation or some of those things that you do in your late teens that are really important to your development as a person. And you get thrown in the fire, quite literally in the fire of competition, of fans that immediately are going to judge you. Social media, that's immediately going to just pile on the pressure and it messes with people. And I don't like that. That doesn't feel right to me. And what for? So that you can have, you know, one or two years added to your career. Like, no, just wait till these people are, you know, 20, 21 years old before they go in the cup in O'Reilly Auto Part Series.

[Travis]

Anyway, I think another flaw in the whole system, it's a bigger discussion, is that these teams need to make money. And so if someone can come in there and offer sponsors or whatever, where if the money wasn't as such a high demand that the teams, then they're gonna get the talented driver first, not the one that's bringing in more money and sponsors.

[Brad Keselowski]

So at the ARCA level, I don't think it's broken. Yeah, the problem is the truck series and Xfinity series are way too open. And yeah, if I'm one of these guys, I'm gonna come in, I'm gonna bring a million dollar check, maybe three or five million dollar check. I'm gonna get myself a ride in the truck series, Xfinity series. I'm going to skip the ARCA series.

[TJ]

You're going O'Reilly.

[Brad Keselowski]

At that point, I can be on TV, I'm on national TV. I mean, the CW is a great deal for these guys. The ratings are through the roof. They're having a great start. Yeah, I want to be on the cw. I don't want to be on, you know, maybe I'm not even on tv. Maybe I'm tape delayed. I want to be like part of the show. So I don't blame a guy like Cletus. No, I'd do the exact same thing if I was him. But yes, I think the approval process as a whole is actually hurting the sport. And if I was president of NASCAR for a day, I'm not. If I was, I would rip that thing up and start over. So why like not for the Cup Series?

[TJ]

What should be his path from now, minus src, Ourself what should he be? He ran some ARCA last year.

[Brad Keselowski]

Ran.

[TJ]

Okay. Should he have to prove himself more in arca?

[Brad Keselowski]

Yeah. I mean, I would like to see someone like that. This isn't just Cletus. Yeah.

[TJ]

This is for anybody coming.

[Brad Keselowski]

You should have 100 starts before you make it to the truck series or the O'Reilly Auto Parts. And you're talking models, legends, cars, whatever.

[TJ]

So the approval here. He's supposed to run coming up here, but he goes to Rockingham, crashes in the test, hits the wall in the test, gets approved to run Daytona in the truck race, crashes in the truck race.

[Brad Keselowski]

You know, the two races honestly don't bother me. You know, both of those I look at as a race car driver and be like, yeah, I've gone the test and brushed the wall. That's not a huge deal.

[TJ]

But I mean, how do they. How do you take the truck?

[Brad Keselowski]

Is everybody rushed six laps in? Yes. I mean, by himself. Yeah. I mean, it doesn't feel right. And again, not a dig on Cletus. No.

[TJ]

I'm just. This could be anybody.

[Brad Keselowski]

But I also put myself in NASCAR shoes. And you're like, how do we tell people no?

[TJ]

Yeah, because he does. I mean, I.

[Brad Keselowski]

He's gonna bring an audience.

[TJ]

Like, I hope he is successful because he's a great story to. I mean, I love watching his clips. And he's very. He's a cool dude. Yeah. And he's done a lot. Like, I want to see him come in here and be successful, but to me, he is jumping really fast.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yep.

[TJ]

And I've. I've done a lot of the ARCA races. And he's in. He's definitely learning and growing, but I feel like this is a big, big jump. So. Yeah. Do you think they should go back to allowing cup guys to make more starts or run full seasons in.

[Brad Keselowski]

I think that was. That's a big miss for the sport.

[Travis]

But how many of those drivers are actually even reaching the cap? I think, like two drivers last year even reach. Reach the max.

[Brad Keselowski]

It's not very many.

[Travis]

I think a lot of these.

[TJ]

I mean, what would make you start on a Riley team if a Cup

[Brad Keselowski]

driver could run full time? That's about it.

[TJ]

Gotcha.

[Brad Keselowski]

There's no justification outside of that. Do you think you can't raise enough money to pay?

[TJ]

Well, that's what I'm saying. If you could raise. Do you think you could.

[Brad Keselowski]

With a Cup driver? I could raise enough sponsorship to actually pay for it. To be competitive in the Riley Auto Parts series, you have to Beat Gibbs and you have to beat Junior Motorsports. Maybe Haas children.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Travis]

RCR children.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yes. Thank you. All right. If I'm going to compete with them, I need three, maybe four cars. I need to raise probably 15 to 20 million dollars. That's what it's going to take.

[TJ]

Yeah. It's going to take a lease out to run three or four cars.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yep. So 15, $20 million, that's a lot of money to raise. I need a cup driver to do it, you know, or I need a paid driver.

[TJ]

So what would you do with your. If you had three cars, what would you put in them?

[Brad Keselowski]

You mean like drivers or.

[TJ]

Yeah, like, who would you put in them? Would you put one cup guy full time and two up and coming guys or what would you put in them?

[Brad Keselowski]

Yeah, I'd probably put one cup guy in a full time and two up. That's probably about right. Yeah.

[TJ]

Does that open the door for more instead of buying rises that open the door for more talent coming up?

[Brad Keselowski]

Yeah. Oh, it should, absolutely. You know, right now you have, like I said, those three or four organizations in that series that have quality cars and.

[TJ]

But if you have a good cup guy in there and he's running a full season, it makes you can sell sponsorship easier, which allows you to go hire more.

[Brad Keselowski]

Absolutely.

[TJ]

It allows you to hire drivers coming up.

[Brad Keselowski]

Like, I look at a guy, like someone I think a lot of in the Railway Auto Parts series is Parker Retzlaff from the outside, you look at it and say 10 years ago, before NASCAR had the starts rules, would he be in the series? He'd be like, he probably wouldn't make as many starts. He probably wouldn't be a full time guy, but he would be the guy that raced whenever there wasn't a companion event and he would get a good ride. Then, like, he would have been the guy that we were like, ah, they're in Iowa. Wow. Cup is in Pocono. Who are we going to put in the car this week?

[TJ]

This is the guy.

[Brad Keselowski]

This is the guy.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Brad Keselowski]

And he would get a shot in like top level equipment. I mean, top level equipment. And we'd know, like, what he's really got.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Brad Keselowski]

And if he did really well, it would open the door to a full season ride in that series or something in the cup series. That's how I made it like the standalone events and kind of like crack through and instead those guys are stuck in like C level equipment and they'll never have a chance and they never get a chance. Yeah. Which sucks because I think guys like, that are really good, and they just haven't had an opportunity. The question will be like, Jesse Love is one of those that I question what kind of cup ride he's going to get, but I think he's going to get one.

[TJ]

Yeah. Yeah, we'll. I mean, but the problem is, is there's only so many seats, so.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yeah, but again, I look back at a guy like, I'm wearing this guy's name out, Parker Retzlaff, and be like, I want a guy like that to get a shot in a level equipment, even if it means he doesn't run a full season. I'd rather like if I was Parker, I'd rather run like 12 races in A level equipment than 36 races in sea level equipment. Yeah.

[TJ]

Similar to what Ryan Priest did.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yep, exactly. And not having the cup owners in the sport kind of kills that.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Brad Keselowski]

My take, you asked it.

[Narrator]

At our house, family feuds are settled at 200 miles per hour. Visit the NASCAR hall of Fame and relive the iconic racing moments that made Petty, Earnhardt, and Allison household names. Make new memories in our realistic racing simulators in interactive pit crew challenge. Or get up close with the cars along Glory Road that span generations. Plan a trip to the NASCAR hall of Fame in Charlotte. [e-mail] NASCAR hall of Fame. This is our sport. This is our house.

[Andrew]

NASCAR fans, listen up. Expectations. Infinity's waving the red flag on Internet price hikes and they're raising the green for savings. It's time to get the speed and the reliability that you want out of your wifi. You're locked in at one price for five years. That's insane. No surprises, no late yellows. Straight to victory lane. Just like that, folks. We have a winner. And the winner is Xfinity. Xfinity. Imagine that. Hey, everybody. I hope you're enjoying Brad Keselowski as the host for the Dale Jr. Download. I really appreciate Brad being available and willing to come in here and do this. I'm always excited about this idea of having drivers host the show. I'll be back next week, and Ask Junior will be live once again. But we wanted to give you some. Some questions.

[Host/Interviewer]

Here.

[Andrew]

Here's some montage. Here's a montage, so to speak, of some of the best moments that we've had doing Ask Junior. So here you go.

[Host/Interviewer]

Okay. This one's from Kathy wanting to know about the Talladega Knights cameo where you asked Will Ferrell for an autograph.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[TJ]

How did that go about.

[Host/Interviewer]

And then people even wanted to know do you still have the page that he actually signed? Like the paper he signed?

[Andrew]

Oh, no, he scribbled. It wasn't like a real autograph.

[Brad Keselowski]

Oh, really?

[Andrew]

But so great.

[TJ]

Movies ruined.

[Andrew]

I thought we. I feel, I feel. I feel like I told this story really recently. Oh, really? Yeah. So we were. We filmed. They asked me to come. They asked me to be a part of it. Of course. I was like, absolutely. Thanks for asking. Where do I go? When are we going to do this? We did it at Charlotte Murray Speedway. There was not a race happening that weekend. And we went. I drove over to the racetrack, completely comfortable driving in there. Been going there my whole life, even when there's not a race going on, you know, so drive into the racetrack and over toward turn four, the old, old cup garage. And all of these campers and little rental campers and stuff are piled into this little blacktop. And there was a little. They were like, just go in there and park, sit around, somehow catch you somehow grab you, get you going. Hair, makeup, whatever it is. And there was a little table with about four chairs, nobody sitting there. I just sit down, started thumbing on my phone or something. And I got my head down and somebody sits down at the table. And I look up and it's Will Ferrell. And he was like, hey, man, how's it going? Thanks for coming today. And we sat there and just bull for about five, 10 minutes. And then he's like, I'm gonna get going. I'm gonna get ready and do this. That they want me over here. So I was like. I was like. He's like, they'll come get you in a minute. And I was like, all right. So we got ready. They drugged me over to the, you know, in the infield of the Chartmer Speedway, where it's kind of like a. Crosswalks, the crossroads of everything.

[Host/Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

All the roads sort of converge.

[Host/Interviewer]

Yeah, yeah. They made it into a roundabout now.

[Andrew]

Yeah, maybe. I don't know. It is now, like right outside the entrance to the cup garage.

[Host/Interviewer]

Oh, yeah, yeah, that's where.

[Andrew]

I know that's where we were standing when we filmed that little. Little sign my forehead thing or whatever, baby. So they got it. They had about you know, 20 or 30 extras and we were kind of gonna run, walk through the crowd and meet. And we had our lines that was scripted. He was a little bit of an ad libber and he could be free with whatever he wanted to say. So we took. We did probably three or four takes and they were like, that's good. It was very quick. And that was that. I said, hey, man, appreciate it, thanks. He said, thanks. And I went on home. And then there's. If you watch the credits, you'll see more of the drivers and Will doing some stuff. And we did that at Talladega and that was during the race weekend. They were like, hey, Will's going to come in, they want to film just some stuff. Y' all talking. He's going to be in his suit, you're going to be in the garage and we'll. I don't know if they were planning to use it or just see how it worked, but they didn't end up using it in the, in the movie. And I think it just rolls in the credits.

[Host/Interviewer]

Yeah, kind of like, I know what you're talking about.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yep.

[Andrew]

That was a little more tense or nerve wracking because they didn't have a script. They said, will's going to just start talking. You just react. What? And that was really tough because, I mean, look, man, he's a professional comedian and I felt like, am I supposed to be funny, right? Or do I try to be funny? Because I'm not never going to be as funny as him.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

And what the hell do you do, you know? And I didn't want to be a fool, right? And so I was going to try to be a smart ass back, but I was never going to be as good as him, so what the hell, you know? So it was just tough, but it was really fun. Really fun. You know, they just basically had us kind of walking from two different directions. We're going to bounce into each other. He said something about like, hey, man, you know, one and one. I think he's like, dude, you still got that? You got that 20 you owe me. Just, you know, he just would come,

[Host/Interviewer]

he was just coming up with things.

[Andrew]

He would just randomly say something and you're just like, oh, this is where we're headed.

[Host/Interviewer]

And did you like, respond like, yeah,

[Andrew]

you're supposed to say something so you say something. Right. I don't remember what I said, but it's probably not very funny, but. And we did that three or four times. And then he's like, they're like, all right, good. We're good, man. That's good. Appreciate it. Wow, that's neat. Yeah, it's pretty neat.

[Host/Interviewer]

But to your point earlier of saying like the, the second part of having to do those, it's hard to be like funny on command. And I think that's what he's really good at.

[Andrew]

Yeah, I will Say this, man, it makes me think about that movie. And I told the story about watching that movie for the first time at Skywalker Ranch with George Lucas.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yes.

[Host/Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

And I've seen the movie a couple times. Obviously I always felt like. And I wonder if there's any real truth to this, but that movie, to me, the first half of that movie was full of really, really good moments. Humorous, quirky, smart comedy. Right. And then the second half of the movie felt like a completely different movie. Still funny, but like, it really feels like to me, and it's probably really unlikely, but it feels like there was an entirely different director versus on the first half, versus the second half. Like the whole movie felt like it just had this one vibe. And then right at the middle point,

[Host/Interviewer]

it's like we found a plot halfway through.

[Andrew]

Yeah. And then it had a completely different vibe. Not bad, not good. Not.

[Host/Interviewer]

It's different.

[Andrew]

It just. Totally different. Like. Like the whole production crew quit at halfway and they had to bring in this other one. And it just seems different, but the whole different. The vibe. Like the story. Like, to your point, the plot sort of just got introduced in the middle of the show, you know, but like the first part of the movie is a lot of just jokes about nascar. Right. You know, the what do I do with my hands and. And all of that stuff. And it's all the just quick, quick witty jokes about our sport, which was really fun to, To. To sort of the self deprecation of nascar. And. But then, yeah, the second half, the plot comes in and you're like, yeah, I kind of like the first half better. I was more entertained, I guess, by that. But yeah, anyway, still a good movie. And even though it was a. It was a joke, we can definitely, we could definitely handle being the butt of the joke.

[Host/Interviewer]

I was curious what your thoughts were on that.

[Andrew]

I didn't mind it. I thought it was good for nascar. I thought it put us in front of a new audience. Yeah. And yes, it poked fun at us, but I don't know that, you know, I don't. I don't know. It was not detrimental to NASCAR in any way. Yeah, I don't think. And so if anything, it kind of carry improved our popularity outside of our. Our own bubble. Right.

[Host/Interviewer]

Sure.

[Andrew]

All the people that are already in the tent. But best favorite, Strictly nascar favorite NASCAR movie.

[Host/Interviewer]

What's yours? You go first.

[Andrew]

Last American Hero.

[Brad Keselowski]

Okay.

[Andrew]

Last American Hero is Jeff Bridges is the star. It's about Junior Johnson, roughly, loosely, and Junior Johnson story as a, As a moonshiner. And a driver. And I don't know why. I think the reason why I like it is because they. It was. It was before it was done in 71 or 72, 73. And it's before Hollywood eventually, right. Is going to sensationalize, you know, in the night. As, you know, we know. You know, when we see movies made about people that we know the story, you see some of the. Some of the Hollywood sensationalism creep into the story and they embellish. Right. In parts because they gotta make it right. It's a movie. But this was made about racing, about NASCAR before that was really a thing, I believe. And so it's authentic. It's really authentic. And so, you know, his. When they're filming at the short tracks and filming his sort of rise to the big time, it's a really authentic feel. And staying in boring, lonely old hotel rooms and getting in disagreements with, you know, these punks at these local racetracks and, you know, and there's some footage of Ralph Earnhardt in there driving at Metrolina. That's really neat. But I don't know, I just thought it was a really. It didn't feel like they stretched any truths in that movie.

[Host/Interviewer]

Authentic.

[Andrew]

Yeah, it's really authentic. But some cool actors in it, too. Jeff Bridges, badass.

[Host/Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

I mean, back before Jeff Bridges was super, super famous, he played in a. You know, played Junior Johnson in a NASCAR movie. How damn cool is that?

[TJ]

You know, how many movies do you know of, Andrew? Racing movies?

[Host/Interviewer]

Good question. I mean, well, I will kind of cheat and use the YouTube chat. And I did want to give them a shout out, but I'm seeing a lot of Struck erase. There's a Days of Thunder.

[Andrew]

Gary. Obviously, Gary in here said struck race. I love Struck Race. And that reminds me, too. Gary Busey was in Last American Hero. He's. He's Jeff Bridges brother. Gary Busey.

[Host/Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

But I love Stroker Ace. I thought Stroker Ace was awesome when I was a kid, and it came out, I thought it was amazing. And it's still one of my favorites.

[Host/Interviewer]

Six pack sauce. Yeah.

[Andrew]

Love six pack as a kid.

[Host/Interviewer]

Yeah. And Lane Jake just said six pack with about 10 exclamation points.

[Andrew]

Six pack was. Six pack was badass because of the dirt car. That dirt car that Brewster Baker drove was freaking insane. Cool. That Camaro and the paint scheme on that thing, it was neat as hell. Brewster Baker is a badass racing name. I mean, just cool. And I mean, when you watch those movies. Oh, and love will turn you around. The song the theme song that Kenny Rogers had for six pack, that's in my rotation. I listened to that today. The opening guitar on love will turn you around. Freaking awesome.

[Host/Interviewer]

You listen to that?

[Andrew]

Yes. It's one. It is my favorite Kenny Rogers song, and I have many.

[Host/Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

But I thought it was cool that Burt Reynolds. I mean, in. In when Burt makes struck a race. He's coming off of all of those badass movies that he's making Cannonball runs and all of that stuff and smoking the band. He's coming right off of that and could have probably done anything he wanted. And he made a racing movie.

[Host/Interviewer]

It's awesome. It is a big deal. That's a big compliment.

[Andrew]

It was. It was big. It was really, really big for us to be. You know, I mean, if you're. If you're a fan. I always looked at it like, yeah, man, they're celebrating this niche thing that's happening in this little, small corner of the country, and they're, you know, they're. You know, they're shining a light on us.

[Host/Interviewer]

It's awesome.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

And so I loved all those movies. I don't think that there was. I love days of thunder. Thought it was cool, the rumors around that.

[Host/Interviewer]

Number two.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Having a number two. I'm down.

[Host/Interviewer]

You're down?

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Brad Keselowski]

Heck, yeah.

[Host/Interviewer]

Be so cool.

[Andrew]

Yeah. We ran the duel, and we got ourselves locked in. Go and do media and all kinds of crazy stuff. We're having a great time. And the second duel is running, and that's me. Huh?

[TJ]

I'm in the second one.

[Andrew]

Yeah. And I'm walking through the bus lot and somebody goes, hey, Erik Jones won. And I sent Jimmy Johnson a text. Congratulations. And I mean, literally, they're probably just still coming around the cool down lap. So I know that. I know that Jimmy's not got his phone. And then they were like, oh, nope, Austin Cindrick is the winner. And I was like, shoot. I grabbed my phone and I went to that text and I held it down and I said, unsend, and it goes poof. So Jimmy saw that I haven't have an unsent text message to him, but he has no idea what it was.

[TJ]

So does he respond to it yet? Well, now you could text him. I mean, finished third. So now you got a reason to text him again.

[Andrew]

Yeah. That's funny.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

I was like, thanks for this feature. This is nice.

[TJ]

It should take it completely out of their list. You know what I mean?

[Andrew]

Notification that you haven't.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yeah.

[TJ]

Like, it should be gone because it

[Travis]

depends on when you. How fast you remove it?

[TJ]

Maybe.

[Andrew]

I don't know.

[Travis]

Here, do you want me to send you a text and then.

[TJ]

No, I think it's going to show up as an unsent message though.

[Host/Interviewer]

It says unsent.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yeah.

[TJ]

No matter what. Which is sketchy.

[Andrew]

You unsent the message at 10:10pm Thursday.

[Travis]

Dude, you have the YouTube chat open.

[Andrew]

Oh, I don't.

[Travis]

Oh yeah, you had one job.

[Host/Interviewer]

You know what's terrifying about the unsent. Yes, we are live. What's terrifying about the unsent text messages? If. If they haven't updated like say their computer.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Host/Interviewer]

It still will go through. So there's a chance you still congratulation Jimmy on one of his other devices.

[Andrew]

Yeah, that's probably true.

[TJ]

Good to know, Andrew.

[Andrew]

Well, thanks, Andrew.

[TJ]

You definitely haven't been in any sketchy situations.

[Travis]

Yeah, it sounds like Andrew had an incident recently where he sent a message.

[Host/Interviewer]

Yeah, I want to give a shout out to. Hold on. I wrote their name down. Blythe. And they're watching this at school right now. I think they're watching it in class. So Blythe was their name.

[Andrew]

What grade are we in?

[Host/Interviewer]

I don't know.

[Andrew]

We better watch her.

[Host/Interviewer]

You're in the YouTube chat, but better watch your mouth.

[Andrew]

Yeah, I'm not sure what grades.

[Host/Interviewer]

I feel like if you're watching Ash Jr. At school, you have access to a complete. A computer, an iPad.

[Andrew]

You got to be old. Okay, good teacher. School's different these days.

[TJ]

It is.

[Host/Interviewer]

I, I used to, gosh, when there were rain outs and it was a Monday race, I remember having to sneak either like listening to the radio with some headphones or watching it on my phone or computer.

[TJ]

I don't know, I just, I got you guys. I got busted for it. And so yeah, social studies class. My teacher busted me. Listen to the Duels.

[Andrew]

Oh my God.

[TJ]

I was listening to the Duels.

[Andrew]

Oh my God. I don't know if I should share this live.

[TJ]

Oh, did you get busted?

[Andrew]

No, I did in school. So listen, I'm gonna tell it so. Dang, man, I can't believe this. So this we. You were asking me about that. That shoot. This will be the best thing we do today. We, we were prime shoot. That prime shoot.

[Host/Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

So I'm at this Amazon prime shoot Friday and when I was in this, this young guy walks up to me that's working on the shoot and he goes, hey man, you went to school my dad. I was like, really? He goes. I was like, what's his name? Because I Probably if I. It might ring a bell. He mentioned his dad's name and I was like, yeah, can't say I can remember or even put a face with that. He goes, Southview Christian School. And I was like, damn. So I went to a lot of schools, right. And right around I'm gonna say this was seventh grade. At the very beginning of my seventh grade year, there's a Southview Christian School that's on the way to the Statesville airport. I passed by this school twice a week at a minimum. I pass by it all the time. Dad and Teresa sent me to that school with Kelly beginning my seventh grade year. And I had been going to another school in Statesville for a couple years and I don't know why that ended, but probably something I did. But Southview Christian School, I believe that's the name of it. So I drive by it all the time. And I only went there six months

[Brad Keselowski]

and.

[Andrew]

But I remember and I've. I've said this to Amy. I'm like, that school in that six month period was my favorite experience as a kid in school because every other school that I went to kind of had little pop. Little groups. Yep. You were part of this clique and you weren't part of that. And these, this was the popular kids and the preps and the jocks and the, you know, and everybody had their little space and, you know, you just wanted to get in one. Right.

[Host/Interviewer]

Especially moving around from school to school, that has to be really tough.

[Andrew]

Yep. So you just wanted to be in some group. Right. And. And have your little group of friends that you saw every day and hung out with every day. Not in this school. In this school there was probably, I don't know, it felt like There were about 18 to 25 of us in a class. In our class, everybody felt like they had the exact same level wow. Of stature. And as soon as I got in there, man, everybody was fun, friendly. We all goofed around and joked around and got in trouble and talked in class and you know, but it was like I was, I was brought in and accepted immediately. And it was just a really great class. Yeah. And I remember where our classroom was up in the top of the gym and I remember having immediately connecting and making like 10, 12 friends right away and just having a great time. And I got, I was going to get expelled because if you get rope, if you.

[Host/Interviewer]

That just took a turn.

[Andrew]

It was going really good and I was having so much, I was having so much fun and making so many good friends, like easily and I was probably trying too hard and being too much acting out, too much talking in class. If you got rowed up eight times before the. The winter break, that would you. That was it. That was it. You'd have to leave. I get rode up just right before the break. It wouldn't process till we got back. My thought was I was going to be expelled when we returned from Christmas.

[Host/Interviewer]

You got your eighth right up right before break.

[Andrew]

And in my mind, I'm going, I'm. I'm going on Christmas break. My parents have no idea that when I go back, I'm getting expelled. And so my gut is, I'm getting ultra worrying about this, right? Well, little did I know that they had already planned to send me to military school. So when I get home, they're already going, going through pamphlets for military school on the floor, and they're. And I'm like. I'm kind of like, well, I can. I can embrace this military school idea and not have to ever tell them about getting in trouble, about getting expelled. They'll just pull me out. I'll go to military school, not expelled. No problem. Don't love military school. Don't love that idea.

[Host/Interviewer]

But it wasn't expelled.

[Andrew]

What is it? Yeah, well, so I remember the last time, the last thing I got wrote up for was a simple. I was having a conversation with a guy in the chair behind me, and the teacher wrote me up. And I was like, gosh, this is so trivial, but this is number eight. I'm going to get kicked out. And he's like, I don't care. I was like, come on, man, this is going to be. Expel me. This is such a small thing. I remember making a case for myself. You fought it and. But this, this gentleman, this young guy that I met at the shoot, he goes, yeah, your. My dad knew. And two other guys, he named these two other kids. He's like, y' all were. Y' all hung out every day. Y' all were friends, and y' all spent a lot of time around you. He's like. I was like, yeah, man. I was telling him the story about getting rode up and getting in trouble. And he's like, you got. My dad told me one of the times that you got in big trouble, you'd brought a place Playboy magazine to the classroom now. And I was like, all right, there it is. Jaw hit the floor. I was like, no wonder you were so cool. I was like, yeah, I don't remember that. And he's like, yep, that's what dad said. Dad Said you brought it to.

[Travis]

Who was.

[Andrew]

Who's on the COVID He's like. He's like, you brought it to the classroom centerfold. You whipped it out. And we're looking at it. You whipped it out. The Playboy? Yes. Okay, stop it. Sorry. So you pull. You pull the plate. I'm like, I don't. I can't believe that this is even possible.

[Travis]

Brought it to the reading material.

[Andrew]

That I would do this in a Christian school. I can't believe I forgot about this. Remember? I can't believe it is.

[TJ]

No wonder you had all that friends.

[Travis]

What do you think the other six write ups were for then? One was for talking to somebody. One was for a Playboy. What were the others six?

[Andrew]

I don't know.

[Travis]

I believe smoking cigarettes.

[Andrew]

I know.

[TJ]

That's what I was saying, dude.

[Host/Interviewer]

That's. No wonder you had so many friends.

[Andrew]

Chat.

[Travis]

What do you think Dale got in trouble for? Give us the six reasons. Chat.

[TJ]

Oh, my gosh.

[Andrew]

I just can't believe that. I can't. I forgot what a wild menace I was.

[TJ]

When you said I got. I was going to get expelled. I was like, man, what could you have done Now I. It's fully understandable.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

So that's what I meant. Like, I was. Things are going so well. I was having so much fun and I was in. So I was trying too hard.

[Host/Interviewer]

Sure.

[Andrew]

And I knew dad had that stash in his bathroom. And I'm like, man, I'll take one of them to class.

[TJ]

I was going to ask you, did you like, talk about it beforehand?

[Andrew]

No. I'm like, my buddies are going to love this.

[TJ]

They did.

[Andrew]

And so I'm assuming if it really did happen. That's. What? That's.

[Travis]

What do you mean, if it really did happen?

[Andrew]

I'm not. I don't remember this.

[TJ]

Did this.

[Andrew]

I don't recall it.

[TJ]

Do you remember your dad's dash?

[Tampa Tims]

Yeah.

[TJ]

It happened.

[Brad Keselowski]

It happened.

[Andrew]

Kelly.

[TJ]

It definitely happened.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Kelly says it might have happened, but I couldn't believe that, man. So I don't. I'm pretty sure that that was not the eighth and final punishment.

[Travis]

That was probably like number two.

[Andrew]

That was probably in the middle. That was four through eight.

[Host/Interviewer]

Yeah.

[TJ]

That counted as a bunch every time

[Travis]

we showed it to you.

[Andrew]

I really messed up. I really messed up.

[Host/Interviewer]

So I appreciate you owning up to it.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Travis]

Did they ever find out, though, that you were going to get expelled so that they never found that out?

[Andrew]

I don't believe so.

[Travis]

Well, that's good. That's a win.

[Andrew]

Yeah. My. My whole reason for like sharing this story and continuing the conversation with the young man at the photo shoot. I was like, hey, for. So I bought some. I bought some. I bought some yearbooks from my dad's high school days because I don't have. I mean, it's just cool to have an old yearbook from his fourth grade class. And there's dad in his little fourth grade classroom. You know, it's funny to see Dale Earnhardt dressed up as a little, you know, 10 year old school kid. And I found some of his yearbooks from his high school, from his elementary school, because he quit school in eighth grade. But I found some of his yearbooks from like fifth, sixth and seventh grade. And I bought them on ebay and kept them. And I've been looking for the yearbook for this school, Southview elementary or Southview Christian Academy, from my seventh grade year, whenever that might have been half of it. I do know that Living on a Prayer had just came out. Oh, like we were all singing that song up and down the road, going to school back. So like Bon Jovi had just blown up with Living on a Prayer. I do remember that.

[Host/Interviewer]

That's, that's cool.

[Andrew]

So, hey, you know, we had Bon Jovi living on a prayer. We were taking Playboys to school.

[TJ]

I just realized I was living on prayer.

[Host/Interviewer]

I'm jealous.

[TJ]

Brought a Playboy to a Christian school.

[Tampa Tims]

Boy.

[TJ]

It's not just like regular school.

[Host/Interviewer]

That's rock and roll right there, dude.

[TJ]

You were at the most popular, kid.

[Andrew]

What I want is to be able to get the yearbook from the school. Relatively around the time I was there. I left the school before we did class photos. So I'm not in it. But I do want to see my class. Yes.

[Host/Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Because I drive by this school twice a week at the minimum. And every day since I was a seventh grader, I've thought about this school and those kids in that class that I was with. Wow. And how great my experience was in a very brief time I was there. And I just want to see their faces because I remember. I know when I see them, I'll go, that, that was one of my friends. That was one of my friends. I remember those two. They were great.

[Host/Interviewer]

And then. Do you ever, like, what are they up to now?

[Andrew]

Of course.

[Host/Interviewer]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[TJ]

Too bad you're not in the picture though, because they'd be like, that's the guy that brought the Playboy.

[Host/Interviewer]

Dale took the picture.

[Andrew]

I did reconnect with some. I got my, I got my yearbooks from my, my, you know, 10th, 11th, 12th grade. Senior high school days, and I did reach out and reconnect with some of those. That's awesome. And I'm, you know, hey, man, let's meet for lunch. Wow.

[Travis]

You think you got in trouble for the playboy in 86? You said maybe. Do you want.

[Host/Interviewer]

The 86 was when living on a Prayer came out.

[Andrew]

Okay, good. Yes.

[Travis]

Sherry Arnett could have been one of them. Julian McCullough.

[Andrew]

I mean, I don't. Awesome. So you can go look at it. I mean. And most people that are watching this probably may have already seen it, but Brooks, I think Marty McGee. Yeah. Had a conversation with Brooks and Dunn and Kicks Brooks. Both of them, I think, are on the boat. They're fishing out in the ocean. They got their wives. It's a big deal. Dad had probably about a 50 foot boat or something that he takes out there. And they're fishing and they're. He's. Kicks. Brooks is telling the story about how Kicks is tired of fishing. They've caught a lot of fish. He's just like, I'm ready to drink some beer. I'm done. But they. They hooked a sailfish. And Dad's like, get your ass out here. And they reel it in and Dad's all excited. It's a pretty cool story. And then they bring the fish in, take photos, do all the stuff. And then for some reason, they're throwing a bunch of chum. Yeah. They were chumming the water into the water. And Dad's like, kicks, come over here. Look at these turtles. The kicks is like, oh, yeah, I do want to see the turtles. And gets over to the rail, and dad grabs him by his pants and throws him into the chum. And then tells the captain Terry, who. I remember Captain Terry. All right. Drive away. And they drove away with his. With Kicks. His wife going, what do we do? And Kicks is in there, like, trying not to splash. He's just like, don't move because there's

[Host/Interviewer]

blood in the water. I think he said it was shark infested.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Host/Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

And they drove away. They drove away.

[Host/Interviewer]

I know, right?

[TJ]

Oh, my gosh.

[Andrew]

Like, what if something really did happen? Yeah.

[TJ]

Done.

[Andrew]

Damn. Like, that's some. That's.

[TJ]

That's serious.

[Travis]

That's not a prank.

[Host/Interviewer]

That's just a bull meme.

[Andrew]

That is a bull, Dad. I mean, if that story is absolutely true as told, I would be furious.

[Travis]

James goes. Attempted murder.

[Andrew]

Yes.

[TJ]

Yeah, we haven't went that far. That's pretty.

[Host/Interviewer]

And he said, harsh. He said the boat got far enough away to where like, you could barely See it. And then it became funny to turn around.

[Andrew]

He's embellishing the fishing stories.

[Brad Keselowski]

Getting old.

[Andrew]

Yes. Right. I mean, let's be serious here. It's still a criminal offense. But, you know, I, I remember, I remember one time there was a. There was an individual that was a tire. He was the tire changer. He was a very good tire changer. Dad's team had just hired him to change tires on the Xfinity car. This was in the early 90s. And his nickname was Yankee. His Scott Kaluka was his name. Awesome guy. And he would eventually become a chart, a tire changer on the cup car. But I remember his, like, path to like, becoming the changer on the Xfinity car, earning everybody's respect, getting called up, you know, like a, like a major league baseball guy to the cup team and how big a deal that was and how much better dad's team got on pit road because of it. But when he first came, he was really a smart ass and young guy around Tony, Senior, dad, all these gruffy old veterans that knew everything. And he come in there running his mouth and being. Being a smart ass. And I remember, I don't know how. How this happened, but dad had. Dad was in the parking lot shooting his bow and arrow, his compound bow for deer hunting. And. And at some point some Scott showed, Kaluka showed up and he's being his smart ass self and said something and Dad's like, whatever dad said or did. Scott turned and took off running across the parking lot and dad fired an arrow about 8 foot over his head.

[Host/Interviewer]

Oh my God.

[Andrew]

And. Yeah, and dad told him he was gonna shoot at him.

[Travis]

It's okay then.

[Andrew]

Yeah, that, that's. Look, the details are sketchy, a little fuzzy. And then there was another time where there was a guy. There was a guy as a carpenter. His name's Todd and Todd's an amazing carpenter. Longtime employee, Dylan Hunt incorporated. Dad loved him and. And Todd built dad's log cabin single handedly. I went in there and helped him a little bit with some stuff in some of the closets and did some, did a little work. But that guy was down there his own.

[TJ]

He had a woodworking shop there, didn't he?

[Andrew]

Eventually would end up getting a woodworking shop in dei and like he was a main figure and dad leaned on him and he's still around. I still talk to him. He loved Fords. Dad didn't love Fords. We were Chevy people. But Scott or Todd wanted to street stock race. He had raced some street Stock stuff in his past. And we just coincidentally, me and Carrie are building a street stock. And so right out at the deerhead shop, that was really the only thing around in the property back then was the deer head shop. The garage mahal wasn't built yet. We would get our street stocks out of the barn. Todd had a ford Thunderbird, big box, 83, 84 Ford Thunderbird. And I had. Me and carrie had a Little Monte Carlo, 78 Monte Carlo. And we pulled them street stocks over there, and we'd start working on them. We're getting them ready. We're building them. We're not racing them yet. Todd's in the. In his car, tacking in the firewall for the back. So big old sheet of tin, he's tacking it into the back of this car, Covering up all the. The holes in the back of the car. And he's in the. In the interior. And dad had been out on his farm, and he walked around with a six shooter on his hip. So he had a shot. He had a pistol on his hip at all times when he was out on his farm. And so it's probably five o'. Clock. Everybody's starting to converge on the deer head shop. There's going to be beer drinking and pizza and bull. Tony senior and them been working on the xfinity cars for jeff green or somebody, Whoever was driving the cars at the time. And so we get our street stocks out. It's after 5 o', clock, and we can work on them. And todd's working on his, and I'm working on mine with carrie. And dad walks by, and we had. We're building the cars. Dad walks by, pulls his gun, shoots a hole through the quarter panel of this ford. The bullet goes through the quarter panel and through the fuel cell, and it scares out of all of us. And dad says, you need to get a. You got to get a racing fuel cell. So now you can't. He's like. He's like, it's dangerous to run this stock fuel cell. And I've. I've now fired a hole in it so you can't use it. I want you to put a good fuel cell in these cars so you guys don't get burned up, you know, and.

[Travis]

Safety first.

[Andrew]

Yeah, safety first. Brilliant. It was loud.

[Brad Keselowski]

Oh, yeah.

[Andrew]

It's a gunshot.

[TJ]

Just shot at it.

[Andrew]

Just shot a hole right through the quarter panel. And so Todd raced that car with a bullet hole in the quarter panel. It was awesome.

[Host/Interviewer]

That is badass.

[Andrew]

I raced that ford once.

[Host/Interviewer]

Oh, yeah?

[Andrew]

Yeah. I Was a year after this, I moved on and was racing my late model stock car with Gary Hargett down in Myrtle Beach. We had an off weekend. I was up at the farm shop on, like, a Friday, and Todd's messing around, and I'm like, you going street shock racing this weekend? He's like, nah, I don't feel like it's. I'm like, can I take your car? He's like. I was like, I can't believe you're not going to go. He's like, yeah, you can take it. And so I loaded it up and I take it, and I'm practicing, and this thing's pretty simple to drive. And we all drew for position. We didn't even qualify. And Kelly's in the race. Kelly's in our old car. She's driving this old tour up Monte Carlo. Me and Carrie's destroyed Kevin Pinel to be. He's in the race. He starts in front of me. Two beer.

[Host/Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Two Beer drove a purple Nova number four. Purple with a white four on it. Green flag. Two Beer missed a shift. And I knocked the radiator out of this Ford first. Damn thing. Like, I didn't even get to run the race. Todd ran really good in it. Todd would run top three. And it drove.

[TJ]

You were looking forward to it.

[Andrew]

It drove really good. Yeah. And I'm like, hell, yeah. Here we go. And Damn. Got the green flag and two beer didn't go. And I just drove through him. You just weren't meant to drive a Ford, right? Two beer had that damn shifting problem we sometimes see in the cars tour on a restart.

[Host/Interviewer]

What was Todd's reaction to you busting up the radiator?

[Andrew]

He was kind of over it at that point. Yeah, he was kind of.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Moving.

[TJ]

Fix it.

[Andrew]

I don't know if we probably did. Yeah. Yeah.

[Host/Interviewer]

Wow. I love those stories.

[Andrew]

We were putting a radiator. We were taking our radiators to Alton Boyd's.

[TJ]

Out and.

[Andrew]

Yeah, out. Boyd's.

[TJ]

Yep.

[Andrew]

Whose tab is his son, the spider. That was recently in the news. Well, his dad owned a radiator shop in Kannapolis, and that's where we always take our radiators. Back in the 90s that we raced our street stock cars. Dude, we had the radiator. Me and Carrie would take the radiator out of our Monte Carlo every week. Having to fix a hole in that son because we knocked the damn nose off of that car every race. Me and Carrie tore that Monte Carlo all to hell. And then. I mean, the front Horns on it were bent left and right so many times and pulled straight. And then, you know, the radiator was all gobbled up with like, welding and glue and all kinds of patchwork from. We're like, you know, Alton's like, I can fix it. All right. Keep fixing it. You know, all right, I can fix it. I mean, we're waiting on him to tell us, like, all right, you need a new one. Yeah, you need a new one. And then Kelly was forced to drive this thing. Like, when she wanted to start racing, they were like, all right, you get to drive the Monte Carlo. And there's pictures of her driving her first race. And this thing looks like it has been through a war zone. That Monte Carlo is still sitting on the property over at dei. Wow. Out by a farm, out by a shop, I believe. I wonder if some Google Earth shots or something of it sitting beside.

[Host/Interviewer]

Oh, so it's like outside.

[Andrew]

It's outside, yeah.

[Host/Interviewer]

Dang.

[Andrew]

Yeah. I'd love to have that car, but. Yeah. What kind of condition do you think it's. Oh, it's terrible.

[Host/Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Host/Interviewer]

Already to begin with and then.

[Andrew]

But I mean, it's in the. It's in the. Because it's in the condition it deserves.

[Host/Interviewer]

Right.

[Andrew]

You wouldn't restore it or anything. You just love to have it. Because it's like me and Carrie learned everything about trying to get. Get around a corner in that very car. That was like the real first race car we raced. Man, we would burn up the. We took that car. We built it. We didn't know what the hell we were doing. And we rebuilt the. It had like a 283, not even a really great motor in it. We rebuilt that motor. Blew that motor up the first race and had to get it. Had to build another motor. We would burn the wheel bearings up every week. We didn't know why dad wouldn't say, hey, you might want to get a spindle off of a Cadillac or something else that was a little beefier for the right front. And we would burn up the wheel bearings and go to the damn junkyard and climb under some old rat infested, snake infested car that had been sitting in this graveyard forever with our little tiny toolbox and get a damn spindle off of the car. We'd pull springs and we had a junkyard sponsorship.

[Host/Interviewer]

Oh, perfect. Yeah.

[Andrew]

And we'd get all this stuff and we'd get ball joints or lowers and uppers because we're bending all this every week. And we'd go to the junkyard and get a replacement part and get another part. And we'd come back and, you know, we'd fix it and put it together, and dad was never there going, you might want to think about doing it this way or might want to do it this way. You know, he wanted us to just screw up, right? And figure it out, right? And, man, it was fun. NASCAR fans, listen up. Xfinity is waving the red flag on Internet price hikes, and they're raising the green for savings. It's time to get the speed and the reliability that you want out of your wifi. You're locked in at one price for five years. That's insane. No surprises, no late yellows. Straight to victory lane. Just like that, folks. We have a winner. And the winner is Xfinity. Xfinity. Imagine that. Thank you very much.

[Narrator]

Welcome to the ultimate fan zone at the NASCAR hall of Fame. You'll get the inside stories from the racing legends who live take on the competition in our racing simulators or enter the greatest victory lane of all in our hall of honor. With over 850 artifacts and 50 interactive exhibits. If you didn't walk through our doors as a lifelong fan, you're bound to leave as one. Plan a trip to the NASCAR hall of Fame in Charlotte. [e-mail] NASCAR hall of Fame. This is our sport. This is our house.

[Andrew]

Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen.

[Brad Keselowski]

Place your bets. This segment of Dirty Mo Dough is brought to you by FanDuel and reminder. Like Dale and TJ, I can't bet, but I can help give you some advice. So Travis is still with us, and joining us is now Tampa Tims.

[Tampa Tims]

Hey, what's up?

[Brad Keselowski]

What's up, Tampa Tims?

[Travis]

He's our resident degenerate gambler.

[Brad Keselowski]

We all have one of those in our family. We now head to Las Vegas, and the betting favorites are Kyle Larson at +500, Denny Hamlin and Chris Revelle at +700, William Byron at +850, and Tyler Reddick at +900. Tampa Timbs. What do you see? What stands out?

[Tampa Tims]

I actually like Larson. I hate betting. The favorite, obviously, say this every week.

[Brad Keselowski]

Shut up.

[Tampa Tims]

No, I never say Larson.

[TJ]

I don't know. I feel like you're always.

[Tampa Tims]

Well, listen, the favorites win most of the time, so plus 500 in betting is a very good number.

[Brad Keselowski]

Still.

[Tampa Tims]

That's always been my stance. But he has, like, the best average finish here. But my best bet is not to take him to win. It's top three. It's plus 150. And of his six top tens at Las Vegas, five of them have been top threes.

[TJ]

So if he's a wreck.

[Tampa Tims]

If he's. Yeah, he's. He's a winner of a wrecker.

[Travis]

Are you guys worried at all about the Chevy body and their performance, or is that just typical Phoenix?

[Brad Keselowski]

I don't think the body has anything to do with, you know, not running as well at Phoenix. I think they're going to be great. I think the Toyotas look really strong to me. As a whole, they finished out last year, Vegas really well, so there'll be a big threat. I think you're looking at a Toyota Chevrolet Duel.

[Travis]

Tj, what's your thoughts?

[TJ]

Yeah, you know, I don't. It's. This place is kind of weird. It's got a couple of guys that seem to always find their way to the front here as well. And I, I know Blaney and Joey seem to be really good here as well. And then, I mean, last year, Josh Berry, you know, so I don't. Is that, that could be a long shot, so.

[Tampa Tims]

Yeah, I actually think the guy who almost won, Daniel Suarez, is a better long shot. My problem is Expire has speed every week. They don't really finish it off, though, which is like the one caveat to betting any of their cars is they're seen to always have a problem during the race.

[TJ]

But this is. I don't know, man. Do you. Do you see any change with the points, how it is now? Does it change any of the way these guys are racing?

[Tampa Tims]

I mean, like, if you look at their three drivers, I think McDowell is the most consistent.

[Brad Keselowski]

Right.

[Tampa Tims]

Jose Var. Yes, he's got the most speed, but either he runs into somebody or somebody's going to run him over him, basically. And Suarez, I feel like it's more mistakes where he kind of gets put back in a bad situation, then he's involved in the wreck. That happens.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Tampa Tims]

So I feel like the point system doesn't really matter with them. It's more like they're kind of their own, you know, self deprecating factor.

[TJ]

Yeah, I do think Bubba could be pretty decent here and. And Briscoe as well, like you have on here. I think that's. That car is always fast here, so. And Briscoe's proven, like we talked about

[Brad Keselowski]

earlier in the show, Briscoe's due for a big rebound.

[TJ]

Yeah, he's just, he hasn't. The car hasn't lost speed. Putting him in there. He's held up to his end of the deal, obviously. Making the final four last year as well.

[Tampa Tims]

So, yeah, I think most of this has just been car problems. Not necessarily a speed problem, you know, with Briscoe. So it's, I don't think that hurts it. Bubba actually has averages like a 22nd place finish at Vegas. So I, I, I would go Briscoe, except in the gambling terms if Larson

[TJ]

would quit wrecking it.

[Tampa Tims]

I know.

[Brad Keselowski]

I'm really interested about Tyler Redick. I feel like he's had a couple really good races at Vegas lately. He's been really strong. He hasn't really necessarily got the finish. Had that big wreck. Remember that we were in with him, TJ a few years ago where he almost flipped down the front stretch.

[TJ]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Brad Keselowski]

But he was like the fastest car that race. Yeah, he had another race where I think it might have been last year. He was running second and was faster and just couldn't get by Larson for the lead to win at the end.

[TJ]

Yeah, this is going to be, this is a big race for Redick in my eyes, just to see how he handles it. If he has the speed, does he push it too far and have the accident or does Tyler take the, you know, if he's running fourth. Did he just take his fourth?

[Travis]

Yeah, he's got 12 starts, two top five, six top tens.

[Brad Keselowski]

But I, I feel like that doesn't really tell the picture of how good he's ran the last few times at Las Vegas, I think.

[Tampa Tims]

So I, I'm interested to see what you guys think. Obviously, with the three wins and the new points format, he's, he's way out there. Do you think that gives him the most confidence to go into a track like Vegas? And he's just, there's absolutely no pressure with him now.

[Brad Keselowski]

I think his cars are super fast. That gives him a lot of confidence.

[Tampa Tims]

Okay. Yeah, that'll do it.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yeah, I mean, crazy fast.

[TJ]

If Tyler can drive at a 8 or 9 out of 10 for the next 30, you know, whatever races, he's going to be really hard to beat.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yeah, he's like 10 cup right now. Yeah, he's got like a three hole lead, you know. Yeah, he lay up, put it on the green.

[Tampa Tims]

He doesn't have to push it. Yeah, he could just kind of just

[Brad Keselowski]

put it on the green. Dude.

[TJ]

I'm not 100% sure when, I'm sure it got ran when they the models for this format, but not many times did the winner of the first three races be the same, you know, so this, I don't, I'm not sure this will ever happen again either.

[Brad Keselowski]

No.

[TJ]

You know, so he has a huge lead.

[Brad Keselowski]

Like.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Brad Keselowski]

Put a couple pars on the board

[TJ]

and then he can do that. But Tyler's had a problem in the past, and I've seen it. I've worked with him. Tyler sometimes just, you know, like when he runs the fence, sometimes he just overdoes it and takes himself out of the race.

[Brad Keselowski]

So Phoenix is one of those places where, you know, you get too aggressive and you're in trouble quick.

[TJ]

Phoenix or Vegas?

[Brad Keselowski]

I'm sorry? Vegas.

[Travis]

Yeah, what about that? What's the hard part? Or what's the part that, like, where. Where they'll separate a good driver from a great driver on that track.

[Brad Keselowski]

So when I think of what separates a great driver at Vegas from a not so great driver, it's the ability to move lanes. Like you're going to get stuck behind somebody in traffic at Vegas. And this is part of what I like about Tyler is he's really good at moving on the racetrack, and so he'll find a way to move and get some grip and go. The problem with that is usually when I say you have to move on the racetrack, that means you have to run like a dangerous line, like up against the wall in three and four. And if you miss that by a little bit, you're on the fence, the

[TJ]

link bent, track position gone.

[Travis]

What's your thoughts about your ability on Sunday to go out there and.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yeah, I'm really curious. You know, we've made a lot of changes from where we were last year at Vegas. Like, we have whole new car specs. Should be some big upgrades. I guess we'll see when we get to the racetrack. But I felt like last year the Toyotas in particular were like lights out fast, like three to four tenths faster than the Fords. So we have a big gap there.

[Travis]

Is there something in practice fans can watch for when deciding on who they're going to in their fantasy leagues or whatever to like, oh, this driver's got it.

[Brad Keselowski]

So Vegas might be the single worst track outside of, like a plate track to judge practice speeds off of and the groups the way. There's a couple of reasons for the way the groups settle out, I think is what TJ was about to get to. And also, like, if you put air in the tires at Vegas and practice, the car will go faster. It's kind of the opposite of what we just talked about with Phoenix. If you don't put air in the tires, the cars are terribly slow. But that's what you're going to need to race and practice. So I feel like every year we go to Vegas for practice, Somebody is, like, crazy fast and does not show up in the race. And I think you'll see that again. It'll be like carson hosavar or somebody like that will go out and set the fastest lap in practice.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Brad Keselowski]

And then the race, they'll be run like 15th the whole time.

[TJ]

And he's got that edge right now, too, where he. He. His natural right off the truck. He's going to be fast.

[Brad Keselowski]

That team is notorious for hot lap, hot lapping practice.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Brad Keselowski]

Where you're like, oh, okay. This doesn't really mean anything.

[TJ]

What's your favorite favorite Vegas moment?

[Brad Keselowski]

My favorite Vegas moment.

[TJ]

And let you win.

[Brad Keselowski]

No, honestly, that was not my favorite Vegas moment.

[TJ]

We ran out of gas one time. I don't know.

[Brad Keselowski]

And I. Yeah, I won the race.

[TJ]

We ran out of gas off of two with latart.

[Brad Keselowski]

You know, actually, that was my favorite Vegas moment because I swept the weekend. You know how that was pretty cool

[TJ]

what you could have done for the sport if you pushed him. You didn't even want the trophy. It's probably that big race.

[Brad Keselowski]

I remember after the race, I went and talked to Dale Jr. For just a brief second, and I was like, the way you feel right now is the way I felt at daytona. Because the 500. Dale won the 500 that year.

[TJ]

14.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yep, 14. And it was only like two weeks earlier. And I led a bunch of the race. We came down pit road at a terrible pit stop, Came off of pit Road, like, 15th, and I drove all the way up to Second, and I couldn't pass him for the cause.

[TJ]

You should have went to the bottom in front of Denny.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yes. I don't know if that would have won me the race, but it would have got you close. It would have got me closer.

[TJ]

We still would have blocked you.

[Brad Keselowski]

So the way I felt was like, I told him and I said, so if you want to trade, like, I'll give you my Vegas trophy if you give me the 500.

[TJ]

He won't even give me a 500 trophy. It pisses me off.

[Brad Keselowski]

I don't think you can. That's one of the few trophies you can't buy a replica for Tim's.

[Travis]

Is there any other bets for Vegas that you like?

[Brad Keselowski]

I kind of.

[Tampa Tims]

I kind of like Ross chastain to sprinkle a little bit on a win bet. He's plus 1600. It's pretty good odds. I was kind of disappointed.

[Brad Keselowski]

He runs good There.

[Tampa Tims]

He does run good there. Very second best average finish, I think, in next gen there, so. But I'm so confused on where to go with the track house cars in general, with their speed.

[TJ]

What about svg? How's he gonna do?

[Tampa Tims]

I see. I don't know the. The mile and a half, so I'm still kind of. I mean, he's been great, but the mile and a half. So I don't know.

[TJ]

Are we sleeping.

[Brad Keselowski]

I want to see. I want to see.

[TJ]

Are we sleeping on Ty Gibbs now he's with the right people. I mean, what do we.

[Tampa Tims]

He doesn't have. It's a great quote. He doesn't have really good numbers here, so I'm just. I'm just not gonna back it. But he's. I mean, obviously, Gibbs car that could run top 10, top 5, top 3 any week.

[Brad Keselowski]

So this spring Vegas race is known for surprise winners, so that's good.

[Tampa Tims]

I like to hear that.

[Travis]

Anybody else? Any top tens or anything?

[Tampa Tims]

AJ Almond thing would be a little bit of a sprinkle, too.

[TJ]

Just quietly.

[Tampa Tims]

Yeah, Quietly good here.

[TJ]

Where was he at points? He was up there.

[Brad Keselowski]

Well, I think he's the top 10.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Tampa Tims]

Yeah.

[TJ]

That's not something I would have had

[Brad Keselowski]

on my other points. Pull him back up here. I'm curious, too. I'm pretty sure he's, like, right in front of us.

[TJ]

You should open another tab.

[Tampa Tims]

If I'm not mistaken, AJ won 13th.

[Brad Keselowski]

13th.

[Tampa Tims]

He won an O'Reilly race here, if I'm not mistaken.

[Brad Keselowski]

I'm pretty sure did.

[Tampa Tims]

Yeah.

[Brad Keselowski]

So few years ago.

[Tampa Tims]

Yeah.

[Travis]

So one thing I realized we didn't talk about, though, is how are you feeling getting out of these cars and getting back in with the injury?

[Brad Keselowski]

Yeah. So, you know, racing with an injury is not fun. I'll tell you. I'm the most comfortable in the car, just the way the seat is, and everything's done. Walking to and from the car sucks, particularly after the race. Like, getting out of the car and taking those steps, like, even when you're not hurt after you run a race, you get out of the car, and the first few steps, you're like a baby deer. Like, walking. What's this like, because you just got out of a race car where you're pulling, like, two and a half GS. Like, you're sitting. So standing up is not, like, natural right now. And you're usually a little dehydrated, usually a little tired, hot, sweaty, et cetera. But then adding on top of that, like, my leg, I get out and I Have all those. Like, okay, this is what it's like to stand again. And then my leg sore hurts a little bit. Like, that's, like, when it hits you because the adrenaline starts to wear off. So the worst part is after the race, but in the car, like, I don't even know. I really don't. I can't even feel it. And I'm getting to the spot now where another month or two, I should be over it anyway. So it's just been part of my journey now. You get in a car, run the race, it hurts a little bit. After everything, all the adrenaline's worn off. Then you go do the rehab. And my high every week is higher than the high last week of things I can do.

[TJ]

So how was Coda? Coda? The most trying one so far.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yeah. Koda was definitely the hardest because the curbs. Yeah, the curbs bounce the curbs so much. And when you shift a cup car, you, like, you do this quick movement with your foot where you blip the gas, and it's kind of aggressive and, like, it puts, like, a shock through your leg, and I can feel those.

[TJ]

I think that's what Joey did to Ross in the trial, the dog leg when he was on the restart.

[Brad Keselowski]

No blip shift.

[Travis]

So you're 16 in points, though, is, like, content, happy.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yes and no. Like, I was disappointed in Phoenix. I thought we'd be better than we were at Phoenix.

[TJ]

Well, we kind of, you know, we had it.

[Brad Keselowski]

We dug a hole on Saturday with a crash. But I wanted to go out to Phoenix and, you know, have a solid top five outing or better, and we didn't have that. If we just ran, like, fifth at Phoenix and said we ran 15th, we'd score 10 more points, plus the stage points, we would be legitimately fifth in points right now.

[Travis]

Like, that's how close it is.

[Brad Keselowski]

Yes. Instead, we're 16. So looking ahead to Vegas, like, if we just run, like, top five the whole race, like, we'll leave Vegas in the top 10 in points, maybe even the top five points.

[Travis]

Gotcha. Anything else?

[Brad Keselowski]

No, not remain. That dirty Mo do segment was brought to you by FanDuel, the premier gaming destination in the United States. So thanks for joining us in the Arby's studio. Don't forget about Arby's. New meet in three box. Get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meats, so it was fun filling in today, guys. Thanks for having me, Dale Jr. Hope you're enjoying the ski session. Don't break a leg. All 16 miles of riding you've done a day. A day. Hope everybody's having a great time with the girls, you and Amy, but appreciate everybody listening. This is my 1 podcast for the year.

[TJ]

I'm sure Mike will want to meet with you after this about starting something.

[Brad Keselowski]

We'll see. I hope people liked it. I think it was good.

[Travis]

I had fun.

[Brad Keselowski]

Thanks for having me. Tj. Travis yeah Kemp. Tim's great insights. That's it. Peace out.

[Andrew]

Check out Dirty Mo Media on Instagram, Facebook X and TikTok.

[Brad Keselowski]

You won't see the engineer that slams the Nissan Rogue's door 13,920 times. Or the corrosive chamber that simulates 15 years of life in five months. Or the Rogue heat baked for over 300 combined hours. What you will see is a vehicle that can take punch after punch and keep rolling. Nissan number one in new vehicle quality among mainstream brands by J.D.

[Andrew]

power.

[Brad Keselowski]

We put it through the worst so you get its Best for J.D. power 2025 U.S. initial Quality Study Award information, visit jdpower.com awards Awards based on 2025 model year. Newer models may be shown.

[Andrew]

Oh joy. Another day, another bus delayed.

[Brad Keselowski]

Look on the bright side, you can finally catch up on podcasts. You don't mind running late.

[TJ]

What's your deal?

[Brad Keselowski]

What's my deal? I saved at Metro with no activation fees. I got one line of 5G for just $25 a month. Kept the phone I love and a 5 year price guarantee for my talk text and data. Only $25. I'm going to Metro when we hop off. Get that more for your money feeling only a Metro by T Mobile.

[Andrew]

Just bring your number.

[Brad Keselowski]

$30 first month and $25 after with auto pay price guarantee exceptions apply. See site for details.