Bristol: We’re Talking About The Wrong Thing

Summary

The Dale Jr. Download: Episode Summary - "Bristol: We’re Talking About The Wrong Thing"

Podcast Information:

• Title: The Dale Jr. Download
• Host/Author: Dirty Mo Media, SiriusXM
• Episode: Bristol: We’re Talking About The Wrong Thing
• Release Date: April 15, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of The Dale Jr. Download, NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. hosts a solo show due to co-host T.J. Majors's absence. Dale dives deep into recent racing events, team performances, and broader discussions about the state of NASCAR, all while engaging with his studio team and special guest Kyle Larson.

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CARS Tour Race at Cordele, Georgia

Overview of the Weekend: Dale recounts his experience racing in Cordele, Georgia, participating in both Pro and Late Model Stock races. Despite enjoying the improved quality of the races compared to previous weekends, Dale expresses frustration with certain aspects of the event.

Track and Facility Insights: "The facility itself… was amazing. They have put so much money into it. Everything was top notch from the bathrooms to the fence to everything." [02:10]

Practice Rates and Team Challenges: An unexpected high testing rate of $125-$150 per hour posed financial strains on teams accustomed to daily practice fees. This change, coupled with the extended distance to Cordele, led to logistical challenges and limited practice time.

Race Performance: Dale qualified 15th, a personal improvement, but faced issues with tire wear and car balance as the track tightened up, ultimately leading to a finale where a radiator collision with another car ended his race prematurely.

Conclusion: Despite the challenges, feedback from other drivers and fans was positive, highlighting the potential for future races at Cordele.

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Announcement: Hickory's Throwback Classic Prize Money

Dale announces a groundbreaking increase in prize money for Hickory's Throwback Classic:

• Late Model Stocks: $50,000 for the winner
• Pro Series: $30,000 for the winner

Significance: "There is probably no other $50,000 paying late model stock race in the country in the calendar year." [09:41]

Goals: Aiming for 120 entries (60 per class), Dale emphasizes the importance of high car counts to sustain the financial viability of such events.

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Junior Motorsports' Xfinity Series Performance

Season Start: Junior Motorsports has started the season strong, showcasing consistent speed and competitive performances across multiple races.

Driver Highlights:

• Connor Hall: Secured victories and solid performances, praised for his addition to the team.
• Landon Huffman: Finished third, commended for recognizing the effort despite race frustrations.

Team Dynamics: Dale expresses pride in his drivers' performances and their potential to advance within NASCAR, highlighting the team's dedication and resilience.

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Discussion on NASCAR's Current State with Kyle Larson

Kyle Larson's Perspective: Dale engages in an in-depth conversation with Kyle Larson about the challenges facing NASCAR, particularly focusing on the dominance of certain drivers and the lack of competitive diversity.

Key Points:

• Dominance vs. Competition: "We all love to see that in sports… but what we see in the middle of the pack is mind boggling in terms of the lack of drama and action." [31:09]
• Short Track Package Issues: Both Dale and Kyle agree that the current car design hampers competitive racing, especially on short tracks like Bristol.
• Recommendations for Improvement: Kyle echoes Dale's sentiments on the need for NASCAR to implement changes that enhance competitiveness without imposing significant financial burdens on teams.

Notable Quote from Kyle Larson: "I feel like the way he describes things and explained his recommended changes I think would in my head anyways make a difference." [73:03]

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Driver Performance Analysis

Chase Elliott:

• Current Standing: 5th in points with mixed race results.
• Dale's Take: "Chase is Chase to me, like whatever. This tells you how tough the cup series is." [56:05]

Bubba Wallace:

• Current Standing: 8th in points.
• Dale's Observation: The statistics don't fully capture Bubba's improved performance this season, noting consistent competitiveness.

Chase Briscoe:

• Current Standing: 13th in points.
• Dale's Insight: Despite talent, Briscoe and his team are still finding their groove, warranting patience before judgment.

Justin Haley:

• Current Standing: 23rd in points.
• Dale's Commentary: Haley is pressured to match his teammate's performance, highlighting internal team dynamics affecting his results.

Chris Buescher & Ryan Blaney:

• Chris Buescher: 12th in points with inconsistent performances.
• Ryan Blaney: 6th in points, showing resilience despite setbacks.

Michael McDowell:

• Current Standing: 19th in points.
• Dale's View: McDowell faces challenges in matching teammate performances, likely leading to introspection within his team.

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Personal Stories and Fan Interaction

Memorable Moments: Dale shares humorous and relatable anecdotes, including a failed attempt to float a homemade raft and a surprise ketchup packet incident at a race event.

Fan Engagement: He highlights positive feedback from listeners, noting an unexpected surge in male fans enjoying the show, alongside international listeners from places like Australia and Canada.

Notable Story: "I had this brand new ketchup packet land on my suit, and it was just hilarious and embarrassing all at once." [102:51]

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Closing Remarks and Upcoming Content

Future Episodes: Dale previews upcoming interviews with notable personalities like Edwin McCain and Herman Schrader, promising more insights and stories from the racing world.

Community Tributes: He extends heartfelt condolences to families affected by recent losses in the NASCAR community, honoring the contributions of John Edwards and Al Pierce.

Merchandise Promotion: Listeners are encouraged to visit shop.dirtymomedia.com for the latest The Dale Jr. Download apparel, including exclusive designs inspired by the show.

Final Thoughts: Dale remains optimistic about the future of short track racing, believing that ongoing discussions and feedback will drive necessary changes within NASCAR.

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Notable Quotes:

• Dale Earnhardt Jr.: "Chase Elliott would not be happy with that. Neither would his crew chief, Allen. But I am." [56:05]

• Kyle Larson: "The way he describes things and explained his recommended changes I think would in my head anyways make a difference." [73:03]

• Dale Earnhardt Jr.: "We all love to see that in sports, but what we see in the middle of the pack is mind boggling." [31:09]

• Dale Earnhardt Jr.: "If you’re not there and the rest of the teams are, you feel like you’re getting behind." [04:44]

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This episode of The Dale Jr. Download offers a comprehensive look into recent NASCAR events, team dynamics, and the ongoing conversation about improving competitive racing. Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s candid commentary and insightful discussions with Kyle Larson provide valuable perspectives for both avid fans and newcomers to the sport.

Transcript

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hey Everybody, it's Dale Jr. Back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. It's Tuesday and it's Dirty Air and I'm gonna be doing this one by myself. T.J. is out of the office today and he's recovering from a little illness. We're wishing him well to get better fast. He'll be back soon. Travis is in the studio. Everybody else is here and we're gonna get started. So let's get to it. The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. I'm still sour, man, that I wasn't your best man at your wedding.

[T.J. Majors]

When will you start mentally, like getting ready for the race?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Can you not tell mentally ready?

[Travis Mack]

Travis has some dumb ideas, but I agree with him on this one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So doesn't sound like you know what you're talking about.

[Travis Mack]

You haven't scratched the surface yet there, boy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, what the do you want?

[T.J. Majors]

I, I just think the last few laughs it was just like stop every time.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You ain't picky. This ain't walking in and have it your way, mother. All right. St. Burger King. Travis is like, wrap this up. They don't have no fun around here. Alright, so a lot to talk about. And Kyle Larson will be calling in later in the show and we'll have Ass junior As well. First off, I guess we should get to the CARS Tour. I raced in Georgia at Cordeal this past weekend with the Cars Tour. We had the pro and the late model stocks. It was a full weekend and there was a lot going on. And Flo did a great job of covering all the things happening throughout the weekend and during the races. I thought the races actually were better. Once I went back and kind of looked at the weekend as a whole, I was really frustrated at the end of the night, to be honest with you. And we'll get to that. But we had a little surprise I would say pop up on the radar earlier in the week. There would be an expensive, rather expensive testing rate. It was hourly at around 125, $150 a car. A lot of the tracks that we go to charge you that same price for maybe the entire day. And so that was a bit of a surprise for our teams and me as well. I wasn't really crazy about that. But when you look around the facility itself, I mean this place was amazing. They have put so much money into it. Everything was top notch from the bathrooms to the, to the fence to everything. I mean it was just really a good facility. And our teams, I believe most of them Walked away going, man, I'd love to come back here. This was great. It's an extra hour or two or more for some of our teams to drive, and they're not excited about putting a lot of miles on the road and driving that far to some of the races. The late model stock car, the pro car, runs all over the country. Our pro series could migrate probably further out, and maybe that's what we do with the pros. But our late model stock has a geographical footprint that it stubbornly adheres to, and that's maybe a little eastern Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. We had never raced in Georgia until this weekend. So that was kind of a cool thing to take them down to Cordele. So it opens up the idea of what, what we can do going forward maybe one year or, I'm sorry, maybe one race per season. We try to take our cars just a little further down the road to a new facility we've never been to. But I've got to be realistic about that and not really stress our teams. All these people are Bruce blue collar. They have jobs. And we were not required. But we were kind of encouraged to be there as early as Thursday to practice. So if you. And you feel like if you're not there and the other teams are, you're behind and. Right. There's a lot of practice Friday and there's a lot of practice Saturday, and that's a whole nother conversation. We need to shorten practice up. There's too much practice. We all know the payment guys love practicing. Um, but if you're not there and the rest of the teams are, you feel like you're getting behind. And then when you go run, you know, even second, third, or worse in the race, you chalk it up to not having as much time to prepare and be on the racetrack as the other teams. But we all got there Thursday. There was an expensive rate to practice that day. Some people only practiced a few. There was a minimum of three hours. Like you had to rent three hours at minimum if you showed up. So some teams just did that three hour minimum. And then we had an open practice on, on Friday as well. That was four hours. And honestly, we worked in circles. My team, my team, we worked in circles. All the setups that we run at these racetracks are very close. We'll take pretty much the same thing everywhere we go. Little, little difference on the front stops. Maybe, maybe the track bar is a little different. It's all very simple, though. There's no big swing changes that are happening. In the late model stock world, at least. I can't speak for the pros because I don't really work on those cars or drive them. But I guess I say all that to say that from Thursday to Friday, we worked in a circle, changing a lot of things and changing it back. So it was really unnecessary to have that much practice. But anyhow, you know, we got through Thursday practice Friday. At the end of the day Friday, I felt like I had a top three car. I was really happy with the speed. The car was turning good. Everything was great. And then on Saturday, the track really got greasy. Took a ton of rubber by that point, and we just lost the balance. My car started getting real tight. Talking to Bubba Pollard and a few people that race there on a regular, they'll tell you that the track does tighten up and I underestimated that. I got that advice that it would tighten it up, tighten up, but didn't know that it was going to change as much as it did. Qualified 15th, which I was actually really happy with. I'm a terrible qualifier, especially in the late model stock car. Awful. And it's something that certainly I got to get better at if I'm going to have a shot at winning any of these races. But qualify 15th? Absolutely. I'd love to be faster, but that was probably an improvement for me over the course of the last couple of years. And started the race and built tight throughout the race. At one point, probably 80 laps in, we were junk. I'd pissed the right front tire off and was struggling really to get turned and wasn't going anywhere. We had a couple of red flags that allowed my right front tire to cool off and the car turned and fired off. And I think we were going to end up. I think the last restart, we were running fifth, and I think we'd have finished fourth or fifth. And so that would have been a decent end to the night. But unfortunately, the car in front of me on that restart missed a shift and I knocked the radiator out of my car. So, you know, it's. That was very frustrating. We've. We've had a couple cars miss shifts we had. I thought Tristan McKee missed a shift in a late mall stock race, but he actually was running out of gas and stumbling on that restart. And so we just had a lot of kind of not freak things going on, but some unfortunate situations on those restarts that destroyed a lot of cars and tore up a lot of equipment and it delayed the show. We had red flags and we ran late and the Local classes kind of in the normal typical feet dragging of the day, pushed the whole show about a half hour late. And then our pro race, which is 100 laps, took a two hours to run. So, you know, it was just a tough night. Optic optics wise for our viewers at home and for the folks in the grandstands. But. So I walked away from it a bit frustrated overall about everything. Wishing we could be neater in a tighter consumable product. But then I, I heard some really good positive things from drivers about, you know, making that extra trip or running going that further distance to race there. They thought, man, you know, I'd love for this place to stay on the schedule. I was kind of surprised by that. I thought they would be more like, yeah, that was fun. Not sure I want to do it next year, but that was cool. But it seemed like they, they really did enjoy racing there. And some of the comments that I've seen, I haven't seen a ton, but some of the stuff I've seen on social media as far as viewership and people that were actually at the racetrack, they really had a good time. So it was a late night though for a lot of our fans and supporters and we're working on that. We really want to be done by 10:30, so. Or sometime no later than that, I suppose. But it's tough. It's not as easy as it sounds. It's not as easy as just start earlier. We've got to consider some possible changes to our formats and stuff, you know, to really get these races to fit into a small consumable box. And we've got two very important weekends coming up. We made an announcement on Friday. I think I would call this the biggest announcement today in pavement short track racing. No question. We're paying $50,000 for the late model stocks to win at Hickory in the Throwback Classic. And we're paying $30,000 for the pros to win on that same weekend. I don't think that there is another $50,000 paying late model stock race in the country in the calendar year. And I don't think there's another $30,000 Pro late model race paying that in the calendar year.

[T.J. Majors]

What did the winner get this past weekend?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

10. So. And the pros got less. So it might be seven, might be 7,000 to win. I'm. I don't know. You asked me a question, I didn't have an answer. So I work. I think that we did. I know that we paid 2,500 to start, which is almost twice what we normally pay because they were going to further distance to Cordeal. I tried to get the bottom of the purse up. We're paying 2,500 to start at Hickory too. So not only is it the highest paying first place prize, but we're paying really, really good money to start the race. People aren't paying that to win at the local level. In some instances, $2,500. So, man, that announcement for Hickory is as big as it gets. And we'll see how this, how the industry supports it. I'm hoping that we get 120 cars, you know, roughly 60 cars per class, pro and late model, stock. I don't think that's ambitious, but I'll be disappointed if it's short of that. There will be no, there will be no support classes at Hickory, so there's like, you know, no other local classes running that particular weekend. So we'll have the entire property. We're going to need it, I feel like, to fit everybody in there. And I encourage anybody that has a car to come try to run this race. And we're not going to have a big gimmicky heat race format or anything that's going to tear a bunch of stuff up. There'll be a last chance race, more than likely to give those guys a real opportunity at a good sizable handful of spots to fill out the back of the field. And we're still kind of working on that format a little bit, but it's going to be relatively basic because I don't like, you know, a lot of heat races and the potential to destroy a lot of cars for guys that don't end up racing in the main event. But either way, I just encourage all our car owners to try to come out and make the trip support races like this. If we get a low car count, the people that are making this possible are not going to want to do it again. So, you know, I'm anxious to see. I know the fans are going to come out, we're going to sell a lot of tickets, we're going to do a good job. That'll all work and do well. And I think the streaming number will do well, so those boxes will get checked. But it really comes down to, like, we talk about high limit and the amazing job that High limit is doing and the amazing job that they're doing all throughout dirt from Millbridge to everywhere, right? Running all these little micros and all these races all over the country that Wyatt goes to. They have awesome Tulsa Shootout, they have awesome car counts, they have A lot of people that those owners and those cars, that's what makes that work. And so that's why they're able to have success in the dirt worlds because there's a lot of people showing up do it. And so those entry fees and all that stuff adds up, you know, so that's how the promoters are able to continue to have these incredible events on that, in that, in that form of racing. And that's what it's going to take for us to kind of get over the next hurdle in pavement short track racing is to get our car counts up and you know, so paying more money in an already challenging economical format or ecosystem. The late model stock is relatively expensive to run. Now as you get to pro and super late models it gets even tougher. But that's a big deal. Plus we have Wilkesboro coming up where we're going to have the Wilkesboro late model stock race on FS1 during the All Star weekend. It's on Friday night and I'm going to be in the booth with Kevin Harvick to simulcast that on Flow and FS1. So a couple big things going on in the cars tour. Connor hall won the race. He'll be disappointed if I don't mention that. So our team at Junior Motorsports has gotten off to a great start. We are a strong team. We've always competed well in the CARS tour ever since we've been involved in it over a decade ago. But Connor's been a great addition. He's a two time national champion. So no shocker there that they were competitive. Mini Tyrell had a great race, sat on the pole again and put pushed Connor to and tested Connor throughout the race. So it was a tough earned victory there. Yeah. But again like I went back and Landon Huffman run third. Landon and I were texting last night and he's like, listen man, the racing was great. I know you were disappointed about this and that and other, but the race itself was awesome and the series put on a great show. And he's right. We had a, we had a. You know, I think, I think the racing, the entertainment was there. Some of the, I mean it's some of the best racing on asphalt right now. When as far as just turning, tuning in, watching guys battle it out and pass and carry on, you won't find anything as good, I don't think on the payment stuff. Hey everybody, you want the latest Dell Jr. Download apparel? Visit shop.dirtymomedia.com we're always adding new stuff all the time, especially like when we say something silly on this show, we'll put it on a T shirt again. Check it [e-mail] youm just realized your.

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Moving on to the Xfinity Series, Junior Motorsports had a really solid weekend. We have just really started off on the right foot this year. Normally, you know, we've had, you know, it's not, you know, having speed like this isn't a, isn't a new thing for us or anything unusual. But usually we don't really start the year with it. It's kind of something we develop or something that we produce midway through the season. But we started off this season strong and fast pretty much everywhere. Went out there and qualified really, really good and ran second, third, fourth and 12th in the race. And Kyle Larson ended up winning at Bristol. He dominated for the most part and, and he had some interesting words on Kevin Harvick's show yesterday that we'll talk to him about later in the show when Larson calls in.

[T.J. Majors]

I think the one thing too with Junior Motorsports is it's all four of your drivers are right there every week. I think Sammy Smith is 10th in points and that's the lowest spot that you guys have right now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know we're excited and we have SVG and Chastain and other things going on with the fifth car. So we go to the racetrack and man, you know, over the last couple of years we went to the racetrack and you know, it was a bit of a struggle getting all four cars to be competitive and this year I knew it. I told them at the start of the year at the company meeting, I said I'm more excited about this driver lineup than I've been in a long time. I think we've got a real shot at all running very competitively. And Connor and Carson. Connor Zillich and Carson Kwapple are young. They're going to have these flashes, like, for example, like Connor had. Like they both had at Cota and Connor and Carson had this past weekend at Bristol. They're going to have these flashes where you see it. You see the talent. You know, we've. There'll be other races, too, where they struggle or have. Have an issue. I think Connor got ran into, had some car, had some damage and didn't have. I talked to his crew chief this morning. He didn't have a, you know, a top three car. But it. It's fun. It's fun and exciting. Going to the track with, I think, you know, you know, Justin's going to do what Justin does. He's going to be dependable, going to be there every weekend, and then you got three other young guys that I think have real, true opportunity to advance far into this. This NASCAR world and industry. So it's pretty fun. I'm proud of Sammy Smith. You know, he said he's had to overcome some pretty tough adversity since Martinsville. That was. That was a really rough week. And, yeah, he's kind of trying to build back that respect and earn back that trust from his competitors and fans. And he had a great result at Bristol, really solid race with the Xfinity race and Larson winning. In his comments on Kevin Harvick's show yesterday, say he wanted to embarrass the field. Want to embarrass the field, but I.

[T.J. Majors]

Want to embarrass them.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, he wants to embarrass them. Wants to embarrass nascar. And the first thing he said I didn't like, he said he wanted to embarrass the field, then he wanted to embarrass nascar. And he was mad or, you know, he was. Wish he was not happy that they limit the races that the cup guys can run. And the rest of the point he made was valid. And he's basically saying that these kids that are in there think they're better than they are. And I like to go in there and show them where the. Where the standard is or what they might be up against if they were to ever get to the cup level. And they need to know that now. Right? They need to know how much harder they need to work. I get that. Mark Martin was that guy for years. He was the guy that would show up and you were like, you know, nearly impossible to beat in the 60 car, Winn Dixie. And damn, he pushed you. He pushed us all to try harder. We would not have raised our game had he not showed up. Kyle Busch did that. Kyle Busch would show up and take the money. And it was frustrating because as an owner, you're racing against Kyle Busch and Joe Gibbs racing. You're racing against not only an elite driver, arguably one of the best of that era, and elite equipment that's still elite today. I mean, damn, Joe Gibbs shows up and they're. They're hard to beat, no matter who's driving their race cars. But Kyle would just run and run and run year after year and win half or more of the races that he competed in. And when he showed up and was going to run first, he knocked everybody in the field down, down a notch, you know, and that's. And when you do that a lot throughout the year, that. That adds up financially for those teams. Right? And so. But he was determined and. And there was nothing saying he couldn't do it, and nobody. You know, then NASCAR stepped in and said, we're going to limit the cup drivers to five races a year. And I think that that has served a good purpose. I do. Now, is it the right number? Is it. Is five the right number? I don't know about that. Kyle Larson's complaining that it's not, but he's only running two, and he only run the two tracks that he's really, really freaking good at. Bristol and Homestead. He ran. He ran. He picked Homestead and Bristol because he knew. He knew those two would be a great shot at winning. And he wanted to win the triple. He wanted to win two triples this year so he could tie Kyle Busch, who's done that twice, and then he. He doesn't have another race on the schedule, and he gets out and goes, I embarrassed him. I want to embarrass him every time I drive. You know, I wish he would sign up for some more races now, because I know one race team and one owner and 160 employees that will love another shot. And so, you know, I. I know that he. Well, I don't know. I don't know that he wasn't trying to. To get under somebody's skin or brag. And he has the right to brag, but it's gonna. He can. He can expect that to absolutely nerf the other teams and our team, you know, we have a relationship with them. We share setup information. They come, they're in our Meetings, and they take all the information that we have and then they put it in his car and he goes out there and runs good. Right. It was just odd. Does.

[T.J. Majors]

I don't think he has a right to brag. Your cup driver, you should be better.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That was the other argument, is I don't know why he didn't lap the field. Said he was going out there Saturday in the Xfinity race to lap the field, and he should have. And the fact that he only won by a couple seconds, you know, right there at the end, I think Carson was relatively similar in lap time. They ran into a bunch of traffic, and it allowed the lead to close up a little bit. Maybe Larson wasn't pushing, but look, he had the field covered, but he should. And. And he should run the way he ran. And you know, that. That is. That's the. That's the end of it. I understand the point he was trying to make, but how he presented it only made me wish he would sign up for a few more races this year so we would have a chance.

[T.J. Majors]

You got three more, Kyle.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, yeah. And, hey, he'll tell us. Well, the Hendrick car's full. They got Day Raja Finch. They got a season full. Well, these other Chevrolets out there, he won't be in that sweet, sweet Hendrick equipment carrying him around that racetrack. But, hey, he's the difference maker, right? Yeah. So I and the Cars Tour would love for him. That's one box he ain't checked. He went to the car store and raced our car, a good car at Caraway and ran seventh or so. So there's some mountains he ain't climbed yet. I. I think he's incredible, obviously. And. And he's gaining a ton of confidence. And. And I. I like when he runs in the Xfinity Series, and I like when the cup guys do come down. There I was Kevin Harvick, and I talked to Justin Allgaier as well, and I was thinking about back when Harvick came into the Xfinity series, and even when I came into the Xfinity Series, you'd go to Charlotte and there'd be 25 cup guys, 60 cars trying to qualify for the race. It was insane. There's still 36 to 40 Xfinity regulars, you know, and if they were to open up the floodgates and say, hey, Xfinity guys, run as much as you want, you know, we might have. We might get back to 15, 20 guys showing up for some of the marquee events throughout the Year, Charlotte and so forth, Indy. I don't know if that's better for. That's probably better for the drivers, the young drivers to Larson's point, to be able to race against more cup guys on a regular basis. But the business, you know, I would, I would, I would also argue that it's not a good business model for the teams that are trying to compete in the series and make a living doing it.

[T.J. Majors]

Yeah, that's my thing is like what's best for the, the sport as a whole. And I don't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, if, if Hendrick, Joe Gibbs, Penske, any of those top cup teams filled one or two Xfinity cars with a Cup driver in it on a very regular basis, you're talking about on average maybe six to six, five or six spots less of purse money that all of the other regular teams are going to have to. Have to miss. Right. And have to find, you know, and that's. That really adds up. He just didn't have to say what he said.

[T.J. Majors]

I will say though, I'm kind of glad he did because then you think about it, when he won, he, to the crowd, he said, I, you know, made sure Denny didn't win this. So like, maybe starting to come out of his shell a little bit and like that's a good thing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, we need the sport to have personality. You know, we talk about how we don't want to, you know, we don't have enough personality. We don't have enough superstars. That's what superstars do. My dad said if they ain't cheering, you better hope they're booing. If they're not doing anything, that's the problem. And so yeah, I'm. Yeah, I'm that part. It's starting to sound like spring, but it's not official till you've lit up the grill with Kingsford Original Charcoal. This time of year, as we break in the backyard with friends and family, everything tastes better cooked with authentic wood fired barbecue flavor. Thanks to Kingsford. Welcome spring. Visit kingsford.com for charcoal and more from America's grilling expert.

[Travis Mack]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Part of me says, hell yeah, say what you want to say. Say whatever it is you believe. But the other side of me says, I want you to sign up for more races.

[T.J. Majors]

The podcaster says, say it. And the owner says, come race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, now I want him to come race because I want some more shots. I know the rest of these people in this shop, too. They want some more opportunities. They don't want him. He's. It's like. He's kind of like the guy where they're breaking the fight up and his buddies are holding him back. And he's like, yeah, you better be glad my buddies are holding me back. Better be glad NASCAR's limited me to kicking your ass. Right.

[T.J. Majors]

Carson wants another shot at him.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, they do. After he said that. I promise you, all of them do, but. And that's a good thing. Yeah, fire them up. Fire my guys up. We'll see how they do. Moving on to the cup race, and we're going to talk a little bit more about cup and just season at large. The first thing I want to do is say, if you hadn't listened to Denny's show, Denny Hamlin's actions detrimental. He's been. He's got a brief podcasting career, doing a great job. This bast show, I think, was his best. He really dove into a very diplomatic explanation of the challenges for the next gen car at a short Trek, and I thought he did a good job of being clean about it and not just, you know, dumping on nascar. He was very, very smart about his opinions. So if you haven't heard Denny's show, man, I would suggest y'all go back and check that out. You can pick any decade in, let's just say Bristol history. Pick any decade. There have been bad races, all right? At Bristol, we talked about Larson leading all those laps and compared him to Cale Yarborough, who also led a ton of laps at one particular point in his career at Bristol. Cale led every lap in the 73 race, and they didn't have any cautions. And that was when cars fell apart, fell off, broke, blew motors. All kinds of crazy going on in the race, and they still didn't have a yellow. And he ran all day. Imagine how boring that one was. He probably won by a couple laps. I'm sure he did. And then Darrell Waltrip went on a string of, like, nine straight wins there. You'd show up, and he win in Junior Johnson's car. Over and over and over. I think it was 7. 7 or 9. He ended up winning maybe 12 total. So, I mean, there's been dominance, sustained dominance this was, you know, Larson going in there one. I mean Larson's won a few races there, but you know, when he, he hasn't won like six straight, there's been worse cases I guess of, of of what we saw. And I don't mind the dominance. I think we're talking about the wrong thing. Cars are going to go to races and sometimes dominate. That's okay. You know that night that Truex beat everybody by 13, 20 some seconds or something at Kentucky, Remember that night? Just destroyed the field. He went to Charlotte same year I think and led all but like six laps or something just killed him. That don't bother me. I like to see that sometimes.

[T.J. Majors]

You see it in all sports.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I love to see a real ass kicking. We're talking about the wrong thing. What stood out to me was the lack of excitement and drama throughout the field. Everybody knows I'm a Josh Berry fan. I ain't gonna hide that. So I'm watching Josh, right, kind of paying attention to where he's at the whole race. He roughly, he ran roughly from 12th to 16th all day. I think his average running position was 14th. And for long stretches he and no one else made any passes. They would be just. I'm sitting there, you know, they weren't really showing Josh on tv. So I'm looking at the NASCAR app and the intervals and looking on TV and I mean just. They just sit there stuck behind the guy they were stuck behind and the guy behind them was stuck behind them. It was like nobody could go anywhere. And that was the problem for this race. The car has a lot of physical characteristics that make that will make a majority of the short track races look a lot like what we saw on Sunday. And Denny dives into that on his show.

[T.J. Majors]

They said that the speed from the first place driver to last place is 1 10th.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, the whole race. Dude, you could watch that NASCAR app and look through the entire field from first to last and it'd be like he's a half 10th faster, half 10th slower, half 10th faster, 10th slower, 10th faster. Everybody's just running the same damn lap time throughout the whole field. NASCAR's in a tough spot as they, you know, as any change that could happen would take unanimous collaboration with the owners. And the owners are already tapped out on spending and likely don't want to spend further on experiments. Unfortunately, I feel like we, we've got what we got. And Denny even said that as well where he says, man, I've been in these rooms and these conversations with people and there's really no, no talk about any big change coming down the line. When it comes to racetracks under a mile in length, this is kind of what we're all going to deal with. Denny did say that he knows of about a half a dozen things that they could change easily that would have a positive impact on short track racing. One of these things that he pointed out was removing and altering parts that forced this car to rely on the underbody for the downforce that it creates. He also mentioned tires and obviously horsepower during his show. But without question, dirty air is his number one issue. And I find this really interesting. He discussed how he had to run every lap at Bristol. It's really telling. This was an explanation from him on how to run the most efficient lap. He has to watch the car in front of him, and as they approach every single corner, he has to quickly try and guess what lane that car is going to run so that he can then choose to run in a different lane. He has to run a different lane to have the most efficient lap, to be able to allow that car that he's driving to gain the most downforce. All the air that he's gaining, all the downforce he's gaining is going underneath the splitter, back to the diffuser. And if he follows the car in front of him, he doesn't get any of that air. Following the lead car presents massive aero disadvantages, and he desperately needs clean air. And that clean air is his absolute number one focus during every single turn. So it's zero surprise that this car struggles at a short track where there is minimal room to find that clean air and drivers are in a different corner every few seconds passing is a perpetual improbability and will remain that way until the aerophysics are different than what we have today. You know, what we do from this point? I don't know. I don't know that NASCAR would need to want to make a massive change and then the owners would have to also be on board with that direction. Getting all of those. It's very complicated. It is not as easy as calling your buddy and say, hey, man, y'all want to do this? Everybody's got to get together and agree and understand the financial risk involved. Is everybody okay with that? Denny talked about that as well. So again, great show by Denny, because I feel like he spelled it out for all of us, what we all, most of us already knew.

[T.J. Majors]

How worried are you, though, with short tracks, if it continues to have race like this, that we might lose some of these races?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Listen, I'll tell you right now, Marcus Smith can't keep going down this road. You look at the grandstand Sunday, you see the way the race went. What do you think his ticket sales are going to be like? You think they're going to go up? Awful. That's a. I mean, everybody has their opinion about promoters, track owners. Some love some. Some disagree, some don't. Like whatever. I know there, there. It's a. It's a polarizing conversation around Marcus, around nascar, around drivers, around everything. Everything's very, very edgy. But we do know that we love Bristol. We want Bristol to be Bristol. Right. Whatever that is for you. You know, we all want to go to Bristol and go, hell yeah, man. Awesome. We want to watch it on TV and go, damn right. Love that. Entertained. What happened this past Sunday isn't sustainable for Marcus, for the. For the track. Right. Long term, that is not a. Not a survivable scenario. And so I would say that he can't. You know, they can't. That's not a successful pathway forward. So. And that might be the one thing that actually creates change, right? Drivers, we can listen, we can sit here and complain and say, we think we know what needs to happen. We may be right, we may be wrong. Any given day, sitting here in this room, drivers, owners, fans, even right, can say what they want to say and get all up in a roar. And it might not really move the needle in terms of real change. It might not really get NASCAR's attention. But when they see the business model struggling, then they'll have. They'll have to make a change. They'll want to make a change because they own tracks too, right?

[T.J. Majors]

Yeah. I think attendance and ratings are the two things that are really going to drive a change.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think you're right. And to Denny's point, hopefully it drives a change to improve. Where we need to improve, which would be the short track package. It has needed to improve for quite a while. There's no real debate there. Hopefully we make changes to fix that because it was once our golden egg, man. Can't wait to go to Martinsville. We're always going to see something. Can't wait to go to Bristol. We're always going to see something. Always going to get something fun out of that. Hopefully they make the change to improve short track racing and not just move away from it. I don't have a gloom and doom feeling about this. It's. Yes, it's. I don't have. I think it'll figure itself out. I think it will. I believe that they'll. They'll get it figured out or something will happen or it'll cycle back to where, man, the short tracks are the best thing on the series. We need more. I know we'll be saying that again someday. The other thing that's interesting after the race and I love this, I don't really know that there's an end game conversation here, but I'm just interested in Yalls take is there's two conversations on social media. Social media. The rubber band back and forth on social media is so funny to me. There's a battle between obviously post race between the that was terrible crowd and it's not that bad crowd. A lot of the industry insiders, particularly people that had good days Sunday were part of the it's not that bad. Then you had fans literally going, I don't know that I've seen anything worse. So that was pretty. Just interesting to me to see. So my algorithm's feeding me both of those and it's interesting to see like the. The contrast between both. Now, the good race pole from Gluck was an 80 to 20 and one of the worst ones, I think at Bristol in a long while.

[T.J. Majors]

Well, that's what Gluck put one out before the race. What they wanted from tire wear like last spring, fall or somewhere in the middle and it's like 50% and somewhere in the middle and it's like to try to nail like to Goodyear's defense. How do you nail polish?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I would have.

[T.J. Majors]

You can't please everybody.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I would have liked to have seen a race where you got to manage the tire. I don't want that every week, but I do want some races where tire management's a part of it. That's part of being a great driver is going, all right, man, I can push this tire and it's going to suffer. Just like in Days of Thunder where they're like, all right, here's my way and here's your way. You had two tires there. One tore all to hell and one was still good. I mean, that's. That's part of becoming a great driver is managing the tire and being smart with it. And if the tire can take it all the abuse and it can just. And you just go out there and run qualifying laps every lap. That's. That to me is not compelling, but to some people it is. So some races that's fine. But I think in some races I do want some tire management. I don't know that we really. I don't know that we Produce tires that you really have to be smart that the tire is going to give up on you before the end of the run if you're not careful. But again, going back to the social media, the other battle is the nostalgia posting. What is going on? You can't post nostalgia posts anymore. People are, yeah, like, if you want, if you post something like, man, look at this is so cool. People are like, yeah, man, get over it. It's never gonna be like that again. It's like, wait, no, wait. I'm just saying this is cool. I just like this era or what I'm watching here is neat.

[T.J. Majors]

Well, I think there's a lot of people that post like this and like, why can't we have racing like this?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah, I know they'll post the, you know, the good old days.

[T.J. Majors]

They post the one good race but forget the following week. There was, I know, a blowout.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know I do that. I don't see anything wrong with it.

[T.J. Majors]

Well, I think you have to remember though, one, Twitter is a small percentage of the actual fan base of any sport. But also a lot of fans are probably younger and don't even like, yeah, they're not like, love the sport like you do and like, remember these races. So I think they're this young crowd that it's also just. You have to have a take on Twitter. You can't just post something. I just want to enjoy it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Thanks for posting that.

[T.J. Majors]

I want everyone to enjoy it with me.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, yeah. I guess when you do post something, everybody's compelled to have one of two reactions. I like that. I don't like that. There's no, oh, thanks. That's neat. Nice post. I do that though. I posted there's one race that I loved post. My Achilles heel of nostalgia posting is the 1980 World 600. Darrell Walter. Benny Parsons are racing for the lead bumper to bumper. I think in the last 20 laps they changed the lead about 15 times. In the last four laps, they changed. Or even in the last lap, they changed it two or three times. It was just wild, really cool. You thought, man, this guy's got the better car and he would get ahead. And when he took the lead, the lift that that created. Mark Martin talks about this on social media. Back then, the cars created lift. He's car. Once he gets the lead, his car comes out of the track and he's sliding around. And Benny Parsons would go back by. Then Darrell would go back by and they kept doing this over and over and it's like, holy. Now the rest of the field was seven laps down. And the reason why I love posting that is not because I think that the best racing NASCAR ever had was 1980. What I find interesting about that is how those two cars reacted to each other. And my belief, and I will. I will die on this hill. If you look at the downforce numbers or the lift numbers and how whatever those were for that particular car. Now you also have to think about the motor and the dry and the power band and the torque and the tire and what type of rubber it had, because all of those things play a role in what we're seeing in this particular race. But I just think that if you had 40 cars on the track that were all relatively competitive, that that equation of power versus downforce versus lift versus drag, that model of whatever's happening right there between those two cars was elite. And so I don't even know if it's. I don't know if you can even replicate it with what we have today. I posted it a long time ago, and Kevin Harvick responded to the post. He goes. I was like, man, this is epic. This is as good as it gets. And he goes, the third place was three laps down that day. And I'm like, no, no, no. What I mean is how these two cars are working together and engaged and how they're affected by each other is what I think is amazing about this that we just don't have. And then he talked about that in his show. He's like, man, you can't disrupt the car in front of you. You drive up to them, and they don't lose air. They don't suffer any kind of aero deficiency.

[T.J. Majors]

And he said when they were building the car, there was at one point, if the car got out in the lead, it was too squirrely.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, really loose. Which, honestly, sounds great. I mean, that's kind of what you're talking about. I remember a race. Oh, man. Me and. Me and Matt Kenseth. This happened a couple times. So in 1999, 1998, racing in the xfinity series, that was a really good arrow package. Now, the cars weren't sealed. We've learned that you can't unlearn that. That's another thing. There's a lot of things we've learned that you can't unlearn, and so you'll always be fighting against that. But me and Matt would race together, and, man, you would. I'd be faster than him, I thought. But it was actually. He was just too loose leading, and I'm like, man, I'm better than you. I'm gonna go by. And then I would get the lead and go, oh, I don't want the lead. I'm too loose. Holy cow. You go back by, I'm gonna ride behind you. And he's like, I don't want to lead, you know, and we both were, would get, we were, you know, driving away from the guys behind us, but we would both get out in front of each other and not be able to comfortably stay there. You could try, but, God, you were heating the right rear up and getting looser and looser and you'd have to just go, hey, man, you go for a little bit and then you get behind them and get tight and get comfortable and then cool your car down and then up there skating around. It was awesome. And yeah, we kind of, that's what needs to be going on. Like the lead car needs to be at a disadvantage. And there is a way to, there is a way to find that. There's a way toward that. The cup race. Yeah, I mean, it wasn't, it wasn't all that great. And Kyle Larson pretty much, you know, had a pretty easy drive to the, to the win. I thought Denny got close a couple times, but I knew with the, you know, the way the air works and stuff, Denny wasn't going to be able to get by him. You know that feeling you get when you're watching drivers fight it out on the racetrack, giving it everything they've got for the checkered flag? Well, you can capture that feeling forever with cars from Lionel Racing, the official diecast of nascar. The ultimate way to celebrate the biggest moments in racing. These diecasts aren't toys. They're authentic, high quality replicas of your favorite rides from the sport's biggest stars, including myself and the guys on my race team. Whether you're a longtime collector or a fan who's new to the sport, Lionel Racing diecasts bring the heart of racing to your shelf or man cave. With incredible detail, they're built with precision, with all the exact decals, logos and paint schemes you've seen on the actual cars. And trust me, these cars make you feel like you're right there in the middle of it. So head to lionel racing.com, your favorite racing team shop, or any authorized retailer, and start building your collection today. And don't forget, you can find a wide selection of die casts at the Lionel stores in Concord Mills, near Charlotte Motor Speedway and Opry meals in Nashville.

[Travis Mack]

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[T.J. Majors]

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[Travis Mack]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

This podcast is sponsored by Squarespace. Squarespace is the all in one website platform to help you stand out and succeed online. Whether you're just starting out or growing your business, it has everything you need to create a professional site, manage your brand and get paid all in one place. We all know in NASCAR how important the paint scheme is and how it looks on the car and well the same thing when you're building a website. And Squarespace has that for you. With their industry leading website templates, designer fonts and color palettes. It's all important. Get paid quickly with branded invoices and streamline your workflow with built in scheduling and email tools. No matter where you start, your website is flexible to what you need. I was talking to a friend the other day, tj, who says building a new website in Squarespace has been perfect for him. You believe that?

[Travis Mack]

I'm glad they're there. If I were to build a website, I'd have to have somewhere like that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Sounds pretty good. I like building websites. My buddy's new company. They're looking to get people's attention and get people to visit their website. And with the the built in SEO tools that Squarespace has, they are able to maximize their reach and grow their business faster. Pretty neat. The other feature they really like is Squarespace has everything you need to run an e commerce business which is important especially for make money. Yeah, brand like ours, you know, everything can be done from payment to fulfillment. All with Squarespace. Your business might be brand new, but that won't prevent you from doing business and making money. Head to squarespace.com dalejr for a free trial and when you're ready to launch, use offer code DALEJR D A L E J R to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Let's move on and talk about overperforming, underperforming, meeting expectations. Let's go through the list of a few drivers and I wanted to kick this off first off by shouting out and I did this last week. I think colleague racing, I give them a hard time. We race against them all the time in the Xfinity series and at times, man, especially like at Daytona, Talladega over the years they kind of been a thorn in our side. They've been tough competitors and we love to race and beat them and they love to beat us. But last year they were abysmal, awful. I was even under the impression that they were maybe looking for the exit ramp as an organization in the cup world. Fast forward to right now. They re, you know, they bring AJ back into the cup car. They hired Ty Dillon, which I didn't know how that was going to work out because Ty's kind of been MIA for a while and just kind of piecing things together and struggling. But both cars have overachieved in my opinion. I mean, just basically looking at the statistics, you can see a huge improvement. But AJ has been running great.

[T.J. Majors]

I mean, Ty's ahead of Brad Keselowski, Noah Gregson, svg, Riley Harp like Ty.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Is, I'll say this about Ty. The number one trait that he has in his mind and on the racetrack is determination. No matter what has happened to him throughout his career, he has not lost the idea in his head that he believes he can do it.

[T.J. Majors]

How important is that mental side?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, it's stubborn. He's stubborn like because most people who have had the career he's had would go, yeah, guess I don't got it. Guess that I'm just, you know, guess this just isn't for me or you know they would beat themselves down. And I'm sure he's had some tough days. I'm sure he has. But when he's behind the wheel of that car, he's a damn stubborn ass. I'm not, you know, I'm going to run my drive my ass off and I belong here kind of guy. And it's starting to prove out. I'm seeing some comments on social media. People are taking notice. Their cars are running better this year and they should be recognized. Damn, it is hard to be. Is so hard. And for an organization like theirs that's much, much smaller and they have an alliance with a larger team, they're not supposed to do this. They're not supposed to turn things around like that. And so it is just hard to run competitive. And as competitive as they're running, they're right up behind these bigger teams. They're right up their ass, man. And it's impressive to see AJ I didn't know if AJ still had the drive. Dudes getting up there, he's done it. What's he got to prove? And he seemed almost annoyed to be in the cup series a couple years ago. Like he's just ready to drop back down. Xfinity series has some fun, get back to racing. Running up front. He was frustrated. And then I was surprised when he took the role to go back when they. Because cup racing garage is. Is. They ain't smiling. It ain't roses and sunshine over there. That garage is tough. It's cutthroat.

[T.J. Majors]

Maybe realize once he left, he's like, realize what he missed, what he had.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But I mean, the. But the. The Xfinity garage is funner, less pressure, few people. Few more people smiling. He can go over there and be more competitive, probably make the same amount of money. I don't know. Probably not a big difference. But he goes back to the cup Series where everybody's grumpy, everybody's mad, and he's over there making it work. It's tough. I am impressed. But let's get to some more drivers, man. Let's see our opinions on a couple of drivers season so far.

[T.J. Majors]

Chase Elliott. He currently sits fifth in points, two top fives, five top tens, one finish, 20 or worse.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Chase Elliott would not be happy with that. Neither would his crew chief, Allen. But I am. Chase is Chase to me, like whatever. You know, this tells you how tough the cup series is. He got injured snowboarding deal. I know that's a while ago, but that little, that little disruption sort of set him back and It. The team just couldn't really ever find their groove or find some speed or consistency and get him comfortable for a while. It was really, you know, it was really a struggle. Now this year, I'm starting to see that car run like you might expect it to. And now they still have some tough days. I think Bristol, they were probably disappointed for sure to be, you know, not be up in the top 10. And it was just a track position thing, more than likely. But I think that there's a glimmer of what, you know, can be for that team. I know he's probably disappointed, but I think they've improved and they're starting to head in the right direction.

[T.J. Majors]

Bubba Wallace, he's eighth in points. He's got two top fives, three top tens. Five times he's been 20th or worse.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I know. I. The statistics don't do it justice. The eye test, to me, says that Bubba's having a better year.

[T.J. Majors]

I agree. He's been up there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[T.J. Majors]

Maybe he doesn't always get the finish.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, Bubba always in my mind, before this year, Bubba had those, you know, handful of tracks where you're like, okay, he could have a good run here. He does have some history of running good at Kansas, Talladega, Daytona. You know, he has certain places where you're like, all right, not surprised to see him win or run in the top five. Now. He's doing it almost every week now. He's competitive and matching, if not beating his teammate Redick, at times, it was more consistently Redick outrunning him week after week. And now I think Bubba's sort of. They had a crew chief change, maybe some new ideas, new energy, new excitement around what might be, might could be. Sometimes you can change the crew chief, not even be putting a better, smarter guy in there, but it's just a change. You just need a reason to be excited.

[T.J. Majors]

You know, you got the fatherhood aspect of it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I don't think that really matters.

[T.J. Majors]

No. Don't think it changes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Fatherhood slows you down. If anything, becoming a father take. Takes a lot of your risk assessment away. You start thinking about, man, I don't need to shoot for that gap. Fatherhood being common father does not make you two tenths quicker.

[T.J. Majors]

Chase Briscoe, 13th in points, three top fives, four top tens, three times outside top disappointed.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, I think we. We looked at Chase and how he performed in the. In the Stewart Haas stuff, and we're like, man, they were struggling. The other cars were struggling, but he was the bright Spot maybe, you know, seeing what he did in the Xfinity car, then he moved on to the cup car and he would be the one car there that would get the win, pop off here and get a win here and win there. Just show up some someday. He had that really fierce sort of battle into the playoffs last year, and we're all sitting there thinking, oh, damn, he's going to get in this Gibbs car and light it up. And Gibbs has been great this year. Denny, Christopher Bell, I got five wins and it's just not happened for, for Briscoe. Is Briscoe talented? Yes, very talented. Will they get it figured out? Will he run like Denny and Christopher Bell? I believe so. I just think that for whatever reason and he probably could tell you right now, they just haven't gotten it figured out yet. And I mean, you know, Ty Gibbs is a talented driver. They're struggling too, so he's starting to find it. Well, he had one weekend. They said, okay, a couple.

[T.J. Majors]

Two.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Two weekends. All right, so, hey, but I'm just saying it's not, it's not like all, you know, he's the only teammate running bad or struggling. So I'll give him a little, I'll give him a pause, a 90 day pause. I'll give him a, you got that joke? I'll give him a, a little more time, you know, before I start getting real critical like, hey, what's going on? I mean, if we're sitting here three quarters of the way through the year and he's still not improved statistically, I think there'd be like, hey, what's, what, what is it? It's not him. But what, what could it be that he needs that's missing in that team?

[T.J. Majors]

Justin Haley, 23rd in points, five top 20s, one top 10.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, I think Josevar makes it difficult for his teammates because Josevar somehow, as goofy and crazy as the kid is, has speed. Now, Haley had a great weekend at Bristol. They qualified well and they ran up front in the, you know, in the top 15 all weekend and got a reasonable result. I think they overachieved this weekend. I know they probably were like, oh, we're supposed to run up there. That's how we want to run. But from my seat, this weekend was a big bright spot for them as an organization for Spire. But Haley is going to, Haley is going to always look at his teammates and say, man, you know, because they're all kind of. So the reason with, with Spire, I think we're all a little uncertain is exactly how good they are, how good they can be. And there's been some steady improvements in that organization in the last 48 months or so. And so we're always having to reevaluate our perception of them. And so he doesn't really truly know how good they should run. And he can only look at his teammates and go, where are they? And he's always probably looking at Josevar and going, all right, that's my mark. I need to at least run as good as him. When he goes out and runs a lap time and puts his car. Joseph Our puts his car up in the top 15, you damn well better know that. Haley's looking at that and going, my turn. I'm going to go do that. I better go do that. My car should do that. Because he has really no other. No other gauge to judge his performance than his own teammate. And so I think he'd probably say. My answer to that would be. He'd be slightly disappointed. Rodney Childers comes on board, they make a bunch of changes, big splash in the off season. And I would. He would probably not sit here and say they're satisfied.

[T.J. Majors]

Chris Buescher, 12th in points, one top five, five top tens.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's a bit off. Yeah, but that's the kind of guy and the kind of team that could show up and run top three the next couple of weeks and not surprise you. But right now, I would say that they're probably off. This past weekend, they were. They were oddly slow. Right. Not competitive. And again, Bristol was a big track position nobody could pass, but, I mean, some people did. He just didn't have a good car. He didn't have a very good car. So I would say it's odd because Brad's kind of shifted to become the better car of the group, where Buescher was that guy for a couple years. Right. And Dan Buscher ran really good there probably 12, 18 months ago.

[T.J. Majors]

Ryan Blaney, six and points, one top five, five top tens.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But I said this a couple weeks ago, Blaney's had some rough luck. They're fast. He was fast this weekend. They're fine.

[T.J. Majors]

That's why I think it's like, you know, that you're competing and when he's had the bad finishes, it's nothing that he can do.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They're fine. They're. They're, you know, they're an elite team. They're a top three team that's just had weird things happen to them, and as long as they don't get distracted by that, they'll go out and they'll start, you know, when the races come together and the luck comes their way, they'll be there to capitalize on it.

[T.J. Majors]

Less driver Michael McDowell, 19th in points.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If Haley's disappointed, Michael's even more disappointed. I could be wrong, but looking at the way the Spire cars run, Michael's always a bit off his teammates, especially.

[T.J. Majors]

Considering he's going over there. He probably had higher expectations than what he's been doing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I'd say he's very disappointed. And they're probably trying. They're probably trying right now, you know, to figure out, like, what's missing. Why aren't we even, like, able to match what our teammates are doing, you know? And it's probably a couple small adjustments. I think a lot of his team and his crew chief and feel like that they'll figure it out. But right now, I think he's probably very disappointed. 19th in points, though, consider. I mean, I don't. You know, I'm not. I don't have his statistics laying in front of me, but just watching him race and seeing where he is throughout the races, I'd say he's very fortunate to be in the top 20 in points. All right, we're joined by Kyle Larson, the winner this past weekend in the Xfinity series and the Cup Series at Bristol. Awesome weekend for you. I know you came up short again on the triple. You'll have to. You'll have to give that a go, I guess. Maybe next year. I know that you have ran two Xfinity races this year. You could probably run a few more trucks if you wanted to. Spire would probably love that. But I know the Xfinity car over at the Hendrick shop is relatively full with. With day, and a couple of things they have planned. Were. Is Homestead and Bristol the only two races you run in this year?

[Kyle Larson]

Yeah, those were the only two that I had scheduled. So, yeah, the. It's a small team, really, the 17. And, you know, they don't. They don't have much equipment, so I think, you know, they got to kind of pick and choose their races wisely and. And then, yeah, Corey's got his races that they're committed to, and I think there's a few other guys maybe getting in it. Yeah, too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I wasn't sure.

[Kyle Larson]

Yeah, I had a lot of fun, though, with it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I was. You know, you picked two of your best tracks, Homestead and Bristol, and then you got out and went on Harvick's podcast yesterday and dropped a bomb. Maybe you weren't intending to do that, but you had a point to make about how you feel like that. The Xfinity Series drivers and some of the young guys need to know where that benchmark is and need to understand kind of what. What the level of competition might be like at the cup level. And. And I tend to agree with the point for sure. I raced against Mark Martin, man, and he pushed us all to try to even get. Get near what he was able to do on the racetrack. And Kyle Busch did that for years. Would come in and race races and just dominate and. And you knew you were running for second when he showed up. And. And you're. You're that guy, too, when you show up and run these races. But you. I think you know what the rest of the field. I'm an owner in the series, and I feel this way as well. I think we'd love for you to try to sign up for more races this year so we could have a few shots at you to come out of the car and say those kind of things. Man, it kind of puts a target on you, and I'd love to see you sign up for some more races this year so we could try to see if we could even the score.

[Kyle Larson]

No, I mean, obviously, I would love to race more if I could, but. Yeah, I mean, touching on that point a little bit more, too. Like, I think, like you mentioned, you know, Kyle Busch was kind of that guy, and there was more than Kyle Busch, too. I mean, I remember it was. It'd be like Kyle, Brad or Joey. God, who else? Matt Kenseth even ran a handful of them. You know, all. There was a lot of cup guys that ran and really good equipment and, you know, although I didn't beat them as often as they beat me, I definitely feel like they helped elevate my skill set and, you know, pushed me to get better because, you know, you're only as good as your competition. And, you know, NASCAR is limited cup guys from running Xfinity now and trucks. So, you know, like I said, you're only as good as your competition. And when you don't allow the great competition to come compete with them, you're just, you know, limiting the. The Runway of those kids getting better.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So.

[Kyle Larson]

Which in turn, I feel like only hurts the premier, you know, series down the road when those guys aren't fully capable and fully ready for the cup series once they get there. So I don't know if it can ever get back to what it was, you know, now that, you know, Penske doesn't have a team and you know, JGR doesn't have, you know, they, they have a lot of cars, but they don't have, you know, the All Star car deal. Yeah. Full time cup guys. I just don't know if it'll ever get back to there because of, you know, the limitations that they put on it. But I like to take advantage of the couple that I get to run a year and try to smash the field.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, well, you did that at Homestead and Bristol. I'd love to you if, if you would. I know you don't love the track, but you should go to Martinsville because they certainly could learn a thing from you there.

[Kyle Larson]

Well, I would probably get smashed there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Everybody gets smashed at Martinsville. You know, the, the, the triple that you were. I was. I'm going to assume that you signed up to do this to try to knock that out in one year to try to tie Kyle Busch in that record. And I find that if that's true, I find that really interesting that, that, that clues me in to like, what motivates a guy like you. Right. As you look at these little nuggets out there and you're like, that's a cool accomplishment. I want to go do that. Is there, you know, I guess since you're, you know, still on that quest, is that something that you'll continue to focus on going into the next year or two?

[Kyle Larson]

I don't know. I mean, honestly, it wasn't like the triple is not or wasn't like the main motivating factor to me picking, running all three at those races. You know, it's on my mind when I select, you know, my two favorite and best tracks. But I really just love racing those tracks is why I wanted to, you know, stack them on each other. And you know, if I was to win the triple and be able to tie Kyle Busch, I think that would be a neat feat. But, you know, it's not the main motivating factor. Maybe now that I've gotten close a couple times, you know, maybe that will motivate me even more to try it in the future. But it's really tough and you know, it makes you realize like how extremely good Kyle Busch is because he's done it twice and he's won two out of three, you know, many more times also. So it's, it's pretty amazing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, it is. Yeah. Had a great run on Sunday and I think that the, you know, there's a big conversation around the short track package. It's been a Struggle. Denny had a really, really solid podcast yesterday where he outlined his, his opinions around the car. I think that no one in their right mind has an issue with a guy coming into a race and dominating. We all love to see that in sports, but what I think we look at is the racing in the middle of the pack. I watched, I'm a big fan of Josh Berry and I sit there and watch him race in 14th all day long, literally behind the same car and in front of the same car the entire race. And I'm like, yeah, okay, Kyle is great. He's going to go out there and Denny and all those guys are going to race at the front of the field. But what we see in the middle of the pack is mind boggling in terms of the lack of drama and action. And Denny spelled it out like he races every lap, basically going in each corner trying to guess where the car in front of him is going to go so he can go somewhere else. And I know that, you know, you had success and you probably were in a cocoon throughout the race just driving in your own little world, but do you think that they will ever, you know, be a way to get this car to where it might produce a little more of a dynamic event for, you know, the, the fan who's watching the field from, you know, from fifth on back? So they're not all kind of, you know, just kind of running in line.

[Kyle Larson]

Yeah, you know, I listened to that as well and I, I agreed with everything he said. And you know, I'm also not an engineer, but I feel like the way he describes things and explained it and explained his recommended changes I think would in my head anyways make a difference. So yeah, I would love to see NASCAR try like, you know, I think, you know, for a long time when I was in cup, like we had different rule packages every year and it was fun, like it was a fun challenge, you know, every year. And I don't know, I feel like with the next gen car it's become pretty stale. Like for me, you know, like it's the same thing every year. It's the same guys up front every week. It's, you know, it's, you can kind of predict the race before the race and what it's look like and that kind of makes me less excited about racing next gen cars. So yeah, I would love to see some more small changes, maybe some large ones, as long as they're not going to cost the teams a bunch of money. But yeah, and then, and then touching on like Bristol in particular, and the tire aspect side of it. As long as I've been racing at Bristol, there's never been, like, tire wear. Except for the spring race last year, which was odd, but I feel like since we've gone to the next gen car, it just doesn't. Like, the track doesn't get as black as it used to. Like, the rubber doesn't stick to the track, so the pace kind of stays fast. And it's just. It doesn't get as greasy feeling as it does an Xfinity. Like, Xfinity gets really, really greasy. And like, when you used to race there, you know, the top fast, but then it would start to slow down because it gets really hot and slick and greasy. So I don't think we necessarily need to search for a. Where a tire that's going to wear, but I think, you know, trying to continue to, you know, build a tire that can, like, stick the rubber to the track, allow the rubber to stack. Like, I feel like tires on top of rubber that's stuck to a track. It just doesn't grip that well. And then we're sliding around more and we're having to slow down more and be more precise on our corners and making more mistakes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So.

[Kyle Larson]

Which is what you see in Xfinity.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's.

[Kyle Larson]

It's much harder to hit your line every lap in Xfinity. So, yeah, I don't know. I think there's definitely room to improve. But Bristol's still fun. No doubt. No. No doubt about it. But, yeah, I could definitely use something to try to fix it. I think the car side of it, and then, you know, maybe a tire that could just get the track black.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's some awesome, awesome insight. Just really good information, man, that I think NASCAR and Goodyear can take and use, and I know that they're trying. Goodyear's really worked hard to try to make some gains, and we appreciate the effort there. But I know you guys got the off weekend. You're going to race in Knoxville for a couple nights and then go to WrestleMania, which should be pretty awesome. Appreciate you giving us some time today. I hope you have a great weekend. Good luck racing and have fun with your family.

[Kyle Larson]

Yeah, I appreciate it. You, too. Thanks.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You bet, man. We got an off weekend coming up. A lot of teams are going to do a lot of different things during the Easter break, but the Xfinity series will be going to Rockingham.

[T.J. Majors]

How good is that for you to see NASCAR back there?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm glad. I didn't think Rockingham had a Shot. I really didn't. It's been, you know, they've. They've. A new group has purchased the track several years ago and they turned it into a multi use venue. A lot of concerts and different things going on out there and they've, they've put some of this money that they're making in. Into the track itself. Was it Ben Kennedy said that there's a, you know, there's. The door is open for cup to go back to Rockingham. I thought that was good to hear.

[T.J. Majors]

Do you have any fun memory of racing at Rockingham or anything?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I hated that place until the very last race and now I'm almost sad that I didn't get more shots at running there. It was hard. We went there. I went there in the xfinity series in 97 and drove the Wrangler car. My track bar was dropping on the right side as we ran the race but I ended up running like 14th or something and struggled but not too bad. Went back in 98 and 99 and I don't think anything great happened. And I remember Harvick missing the show there in his Xfinity debut and, and that, you know, it just made me have a hard time appreciating the track because of how brutal it could be. Went there as a rookie in the cup series and literally ran dead last the whole day. Busting my ass not knowing what in the hell was what I needed to be doing different. But I ran in the fricking back and then in 01 wreck there embarrassed the hell out of me. Dad was killed at Daytona and then I go there and wreck in a very similar looking accident. I was so embarrassed. I just wanted to be under the radar that day and just race my race. And then I couldn't have been more in front of the frickin spotlight because of all that. And that sucked. And it was just a racetrack that I just didn't appreciate. It was hard, slick. Finally, whatever the last year was.04, maybe 03 or 04 we went back there and oh, I forgot I got wrecked by Kurt Bush off of turn two and then went out there and chased him around in the John Deere car. And Tony Senior's like stop with him, damn it. I was like I don't hear you. I can't hear your radio's messed up. He's like don't, don't tell me that. He was so pissed off at me. I was like damn. I thought Tony Sr. Would be glad that I was messing with Kurt, but he Was not because I think the official was in his ass about it on pit road. But I just had a lot of rough days there. And then the last race I ran fifth and I had a good car and I felt like I'd figured it out and I was like man, that was pretty fun. And then we quit going. Now it's got new asphalt. I don't want to do that new. I don't like new asphalt. Give me the oldest asphalt you got. That's the kind of track I like and I hated those. When I was, when I was young and started racing in Xfinity cup I hated Darlington, hated Rockingham, hated all the wore out places. And I ran great at the high grip pay, you know, repays. And even in later in my cup career we go to Pocono. Once they repave that place, man, we were hooked up. Michigan repaved it, hooked up, loved it. But now I like the old war out tracks.

[T.J. Majors]

Is it just because you understand it now?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Just because I feel like I got a shot. I'm 50 years old, I'm not going to go out there. If you put me and Connor hall for example in the same two late mile stock cars, he's probably going to be a half a tenth to a tenth better. And I feel like I can do better job taking care of my tires. Tire conservation on those wore out tracks is important and that gives me a shot to kind of have an even opportunity at the end of the day. Makes sense he can go out there and he can hot lap and beat me in hot laps. But lap 125, I think we're going to be about the same. If I do everything right.

[T.J. Majors]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hey everybody, it's Dale Jr. And we're here for the Ask Jr portion of the show. TJ is out this week and it's just me and the guys and Xfinity Mobile NASCAR fans. Now you get speeds that you need. Owner off the track with Xfinity Mobile access to WI fi speeds up to a gig in millions of locations nationwide. And with its nationwide coverage, it's always going to come through in a clutch. So you take NASCAR on the go with Xfinity Mobile or anything else you want to do. I've got, I've got that stuff. I've got that Xfinity Mobile. I like it. I have a. This ain't no joke. So I know y'all think, you know, we just read these commercials and we just read these, you know, they give me this sheet, I'm like, yeah, yada yada yada. But I and I've told you all this before. So I got this house that we have a vacation home. I'm very proud of it and I didn't own a vacation or any type of home like that till 08. I was. But so that was kind of. Anyways, another story. But it's got Xfinity Internet and it is way out on the end of this street. And I'm looking at the lines. I know which line is the Internet line, the fiber line, and I'm looking at the telephone poles. These some guns been up there these 1945 telephone poles. This stuff's old, rickety. And my Internet only went out once. And that was because somebody backed into the telephone pole right where the line comes down to go into the ground and cut the line in half. And I had to go out there and put two new coax ends on it and fasten it back together and move it around the backside so when they back into that pole again, they don't. They don't cut the line. But it is way out on the very fringes of their service. And I've. And I. And my cams and all my stuff always works. I can open my app right now and look and see the front porch, the garage door always working. So it's good stuff. I got my little SIM rig out there. I'm racing online, playing video games, whatever. Ain't got no problems, no lag, nothing. But I appreciate Xfinity Mobile. I love that they. I love that I get to talk about a partner, that I actually use the stuff, you know, because it makes me really happy to say what I gotta say. Anyways, we're gonna move on before y'all start giving me hell in the chat, talking about Xfinity Internet for an hour.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Yeah, we got a lot of people in the chat, including our good friend, Master of Light. They're big DBC fan. So it's good to see you sitting.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Here with my ears tucked into my hat, my sunglasses on the back of my neck with my jewelry on, watching as Junior Michael. You're funny. That's hilarious.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Do you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hey, I gotta tell y'all. So I know we get a lot of people that watch or. And listen to the Dale Jr. Download, but the amount of people in the last month, especially in the last like two weeks, that have come up to me and said nothing but stuff about bless your heart, has been really surprising. I was at Cordele Racing the late Model this weekend, and like grown men my age coming up, going, talking about it. And I think the show. The show's fun. We have fun doing it. But I was going to be okay if it wasn't everybody's cup of tea, particularly our male NASCAR demographic. I thought it'd be great for female demographic. We have a lot of females watch, but really surprised at the dudes, you know, our good hardcore race fans that are. That are enjoying it and always. And they crack up and they'll crack a joke. And I. Man, it's fun. So I've been enjoying that. We got Wilmington, Oregon, Dallas, Australia, Indonesia. Good.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Wow.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Edmonton, Alberta. Have you Been to Canada? Yes. I went and shot y'all. Remember there was a fuel additive that I was. There's a fuel additive that I had on the quarter panel of my rookie or. Yeah, 2000 cup car. I've got a bottle of it still. But it was this fuel additive. And I went to Ontario to shoot the commercial for that. I was in this industrial park. It was an old closed down industrial facility. And I'd take this Camaro.

[T.J. Majors]

The outlaw.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes, the outlaw. I take this Chevy Camaro and do some donuts in this little. And I did it. I did all that work driving the car. I was.

[Amy Earnhardt]

You were the professional driver on a closed course.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes. So I drive it through these little tight corridors and they were like, drive up here and spin do donuts. And it was like a room this size and I'm like, I'm gonna hit every thing. I'm gonna hit everything in here. I'm gonna hit everything. Oh yeah. I'm not a. I could do donuts, but I'm going all over. I can't like do a donut and be like, you know, precise with my donuts. But I didn't do any damage. We had a lot of fun.

[Amy Earnhardt]

That is impressive.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It was cool. They went up there to shoot it because it was cheaper and I guess they could circumvent some, some sort of shooting laws and so forth to shoot it outside the United States. And I've been to Vancouver and you know, one place I want to go now that we're talking about this, there is a road that you can take on the western side of the, of Canada that goes all the way up to Alaska. And driving up that. Yeah, driving up that road, you pass by all of these old, old western sort of vintage like 17, 1600 saloons and towns. And they're just like four blocks, you know, eight, six blocks wide and tiny little towns on the side of these rivers.

[T.J. Majors]

The Alcon Highway.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes, I want to drive that. I've tried to tell Amy. I'm like, amy, I want to do that. And she's like, yeah, take a buddy.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Oh, she won't go with you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm like, no, it'd be fun. Like just drive up there and stop a couple of little towns, you know, and they've got these old saloons and stuff that have just not. It's like a time capsule inside. Yeah, yeah, I've got this story. It's a funny ass story. I'll tell it. So I was watching a show where there's a thing that people do there's a river maybe up toward Alaska or around, in and around that road. We're talking about coming down through Canada. People, this happens annually. People will, well, they'll get, there'll be some dudes and they'll get their buddies and they'll, they'll, they'll go up north or wherever or. And they'll buy a bunch of timber and lumber and they'll build a giant float raft, like you know, 20 by 20 and they'll actually pitch tents on it. And they're going to float this river for as far as they can. And they just sit on this float and they just kind of work their way down this river for days and days. And I was watching this documentary of these guys that were doing it and, and they cook and you know, they're hanging out, drinking, laughing, having fun and they'll stop, get off and whatever for a little bit or, and get back on their little raft. And it's just a raft with a standard old school two man tent and they'll have a couple tents on there. And it looks amazing because it's just being outdoors and cooking and in the wild.

[T.J. Majors]

The Copper River.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes. And so. And they are, they're floating down this river and there'll be rafts that are abandoned on the side of the road. People are just like, yep, had enough. We're just getting off. Leave your raft right there. And. And I was like, damn, that sounds awesome. So. And this was around 2002, 2001. Me and my buddies, we. We pinpointed a river in western North Carolina. We were going to build a raft and we were going to float just.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Like these guys on the show.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So we went, we drove around Mooresville and we snuck into a couple marinas and we stole some, some pier floats that go under piers, that hold piers up out of the water. There'd be some big, big, big giant plastic square things that go under piers, laying over on the side and we'd be like, oh man, pull over, just throw it in the back of the truck. We haul ass, right. So we stole a few things and then we went and bought a bunch of lumber at Lowe's. And then we built this raft on the back of a flatbed trailer that was hooked up to my truck. We filled the back of this truck with all the gear. Sleeping bags, tents, grilling equipment, food, just like the show, coolers full of beer. We had everything in the back of the truck ready to go. The damn, the damn float is on the back of this trailer. Built ready.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And there's four of us, and it's me, David Neal, David Hovis, and Josh Schneider, I think. And we called. We called Jimmy Elledge, and I was like, jimmy Elledge is Carson's dad. Carson, my niece. And we called Jimmy Elledge. We're like, hey, Jimmy, man, I need you to do me a favor. Need you to drive me to western North Carolina about three hours from here. You're gonna drop us off, we're gonna throw this raft in the creek, and we'll call you a couple days from now, come pick us up.

[Amy Earnhardt]

A couple days from now?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And he's like, all right, he'll do it. It's like midnight.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Did he question this at all? He's like, all right, yeah, tell me.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What I'm about to get there.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Sorry, sir.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's about midnight. When I caught him, I was like, you're gonna drive us. We're gonna unload this thing. You can take off, go home, and we'll. We'll call you when we need you. We. He gets to the house, and he's like, hey, man, have you tested this thing out? I'm like, no, we ain't. I mean, I just assumed it would float. He's like, you might want to test this thing out. And so we take this big float, right? All five of us pick this thing up, and it was heavy as hell. Is everything we could do to put it in the pool, we put it in my swimming pool, and it. And then I got on it, and it was like two inches above the water. And so, like, with all of our stuff and all of our. All four of us, it was not gonna float. And so we aborted. I'm glad we didn't drive all the way there to learn that.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Yeah, me too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's a real story. We just had to. We got two by twelves, and we just had wet. The wood we put on this thing was far, far too heavy. That was not scienced out properly.

[T.J. Majors]

Shocker.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, this was back in the bud days, if that explains anything.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Yeah, I think that does help explain a lot. That's hilarious. Wow. What a story.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Fan day info, please. Jim Wood, got any fan day info? I think there's somebody look that up for you. We'll get it for you here. Jim, before we get offline, there is a fan day here happening at Junior Motorsports.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Yeah, absolutely. Speaking of outdoors, this is a question from a few weeks ago, but Jeremy wants to know how often do you go camping or do you go camping at all?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Do we count in a fifth wheel From Camping World? Sure. Really? Well, I camped this weekend at Cordillera Speedway.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Oh, okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Then maybe.

[Amy Earnhardt]

I don't know if that counts. Like, like in the woods camping. Oh, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I'm into that.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Building fire.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm into that. I'm into it going, Getting some cedar kindling and. Yeah, really, I'm into that. I like to. So on the lake here, Lake Norman is a, is a man made lake right here in Mooresville. And around this area, there's some islands out there that's owned by Duke Power and you can go out on those islands and there's places where people camp on them. Oh. And so they're cleared out in the centers of these islands. These islands only be like an acre at the most, a couple acres. But you can park your pontoon, unload all your stuff and hang out on the shoreline and then build your tent, you know, 20, 30 foot into the woods. There'll be some clearings and people have been out there. Right. And so we used to do that, me and Hank Parker Jr. Or all my buddies when we had an off weekend in the Busch Series in 98, 99, we'd fill up two boats, slam full of people and stuff and beer, and go out and park on that island. And the deal was we got there on Friday and your ass wasn't leaving until Sunday. You bring a bar of soap, washing the lake and all. That's the life. Yeah, it was so fun. And I mean, you know, you just drink beer all night and then lay around all day nursing the hangover and then go back at it. But man, it was, it was awesome. And I would, I mean, I like that, I like that kind of stuff.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Is that island still, like, can you still do that?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There's a bunch of them. There's bunches of islands on the lake that have that. And so it's, it's, it's pretty cool. I would do that again and I kind of like that minimalist, but I really like my fifth wheel. We got rid of the bus and I got a fifth wheel from Camping World.

[Amy Earnhardt]

This one's from Twitter this week. Travis Hill wants to know, like, in 2012, Tony Stewart was like making fun of a reporter. And you're sitting right next to him just trying to hold back.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

David Newton.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Yeah. Do you remember how difficult it was?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

David Newton?

[Amy Earnhardt]

I think it was, it was an ESPN reporter.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I want to say Tony Stewart.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Do you remember how difficult it was to yourself?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not difficult. Every time you knew, every time you're around Tony, he was giving somebody a Hard time. And sometimes he was doing it in a playful way because he liked the person, but sometimes he was doing it because he was just sick of their. And, and he, he had a couple, you know, he had a long, decade long era there where he was mad at everybody at one point, then he was just mad at Joey and then he was just mad at one person or this person. Then a few. Then he's mad at a couple media people for a while. But that's the one thing. That's what I'll. That's what I like about Tony is you always kind of knew where you stood. And he, if he popped off, he was also the kind of guy that would come over later and go, hey, I'm sorry about that. You're awesome. You know, so he's got. The one thing about Tony Stewart that a lot of people don't know is he's a teddy bear. He's got. He's very sensitive and, and in behind closed doors, he, you know, he has regrets and sometimes his actions. Right. That he's had in the past. He's had some. I've learned that he's had some pretty tough times dealing with some of those regrets over some of his actions. Right. But. So he's a good dude. Oh, coincidentally just won this weekend.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Pretty big deal.

[Amy Earnhardt]

We were talking about that on DBC yesterday. He's won basically every form of motorsports outside of F1. I hate it because he hasn't started in F1.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think the world of that guy. And I'm so happy for him being a dad and how that's changed or how he's enjoying that.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And happy for Leah. I wish he was driving in circles. You know, I love that he's found, you know, I love that he's into this drag racing and I love that he's, he's, he's, he's, he's in it. Yeah, he's, he's beyond the no return. But I miss him at, at the, you know, at the NASCAR tracks as a competitor.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Would he do a car store race?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know. Probably not. Probably not.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Well, maybe this is our formal invitation. Come to a car.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I want to see him come. I want to see him do one or two Xfinity races year. It was always cool when he was in the race in the field. I'd love to see him race in Xfinity race. Go back to Daytona or something.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Absolutely. We have the fan day date. It is May 22nd. I believe that's a Thursday there you go here Junior Motorsports. So come check it out. Get here early. Last year was crazy parking. That was.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Oh, we're speaking of fan day, I think me and Amy are doing a live bless your heart on fan day. She might not even know that we're discussing it. Yeah, that'd be fun.

[Amy Earnhardt]

That will be awesome. Let's see this next one. Also from Twitter this week. Let me see if I. JGRip3899 wants to know. Kyle Larson brought his wing panel in for you last week on the show. What was the story behind it? Because it sounded like he. He was meaning to get that to you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He had, I guess so we. I don't know when that conversation started, but I was telling him that I had an old Steve Kinzer side board off of one of his wings. And I. He's like, I can give you one off of one of our cars. I was like, hell, yeah, I want one. So it's been sitting over his shop for almost a year and I just haven't gotten over there to get it. And so I was kind of surprised that he remembered because me and him kept forgetting to like connect on that. But he's had that for a while to. To hand over. And apparently there it's got some real history because he blew the hole in the side of it and taped. They taped the clipboard to cover the hole like it was a rush job. All we got all. All I got is a clipboard. Duct tape the clipboard. And he still guess that's the owner's clipboard of the guy that owned the race car. And he still uses that very clipboard today is badass. Very cool.

[Amy Earnhardt]

That is really.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And you can see where the clipboard. It's the shape of a clipboard. How the tape goo is still there. Just neat. And Kyle Larson, you know, you can collect cup sheet metal. It's relatively plentiful these days because it's become a market where teams will. When they mileage out. We got piles of this stuff around here from our cars for sale for people to buy little bits and noses and stuff. And I even sell some of my late. The late model car that I knocked a nose off of it this weekend, all that stuff will be in here for sale. But to get something unique like a, like his dirt car, you know, signboard, that's not. That's not something that's, you know, you're going to commonly see out there. So I'm kind of pumped about that.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Yeah. Yeah, 100%. This kind of like reminds Me of, like, the helmet swaps. I don't see a whole lot of those anymore, dude.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was at Cordeal, and this little kid was like, I want your helmet. After the race, I was like, man, it's a $5,000 helmet. I mean, I don't even. I don't. I don't love that it costs that much, but I don't have.

[Amy Earnhardt]

And do you get a whole lot of helmets?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, I. That was the other thing, too. I would get guys calling me up, like, guys in other forms of motorsport want to do a helmet swap. And I'm like, I can't. I'm like, that helmet is the one I use every week. Like Tony Stewart and those guys, like, Tony Stewart in his final season, used a different helmet every week. I would have loved to have done that. But they don't fit. I'm very particular about the forehead and everything.

[T.J. Majors]

What do you mean they don't fit?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like, you'll put one on and each one different. Halfway through the race, you got a headache because its pressure points are different. Back then, they didn't mold them to your head. Now they scan your head and they put an insert in there that fits you perfectly. But back then, I'd get a helmet that I liked. I was using the Simpson stuff back there or impact helmets, and, man, I'd get a helmet that I liked, and I used the same one every single practice, every race. Yeah. So, like, I mean, at the end of the year, I'd have one helmet to give to a golf tournament or a charity or something. Yeah. And so when I'd give it away, I'd be like, now I gotta get a new one, Find one that I love that I'll just keep using. Because I didn't like. I didn't like to change shoes. I use the same shoes, same gloves. I use the same everything till it would wear out.

[T.J. Majors]

Dale, what happened with your ketchup packet?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, we were at Cordeal this weekend, and. God dang, man. We were at Cordeal this weekend. We had a great time with the cars tour, frustrating into the race. But we talk about that earlier in the show. My car's parked in the garage behind our hauler, and there was nothing to the left side of it. And they had this railing. It was temporary railing. You could move around. And the folks that wanted to be waiting for an autograph or a diecast would walk up and rest on that railing. Probably from here, from me to you. Right. And I. I, you know, would get in my car and practice and pull in and pull out and get my. You know, and then come over and sign some die cast and, you know, try to take care of those 20 or so people kind of meandering around this fence. Finally, I'm standing over there signing the last couple of autographs. Middle of the afternoon, and there was really only about two or three people still standing there with a couple die casts. And I heard this boom noise behind me. It was down pit road, but something got hot, and it didn't explode would be the wrong word, but it popped, burst. And so I just heard a boom. Exactly in the same very moment that that noise was made, I felt something fly onto me like a wet substance. And it. Like, it hit me in the. I had on my driver's uniform, brand new white. Brand new white bass pro shops fire suit. And I felt it land on the fire suit. Little. Little. Little specks, like dime. Dime size dots. And it was red. I'm head in the. So initially, like, my very first, like, this is all in fractions of a second. I thought, I'm not turning around to see what that was and why there's red on me now. Red fluid. Like, I'm. Somebody is injured. I don't know what happened, what the explosion was. Did it hurt somebody? I was really like, initially, this is in a very. Like a half a second. I had that thought because in the next half a second, I smelled ketchup. And I was like, that's ketchup. And it was on my neck. And I was like, where in the hell did ketchup come from? So I'm looking around to my left because that was the direction in which it came. And I'm like, there's nothing there. Stefan's standing there, and he's like, what's going on? And I'm like, what in the world? Where'd this ketchup come from? And there's little dots on my brand new uniform. And I looked down, and it was a brand new ketchup packet laying on the ground about a foot from me. And the person that I just autographed, their diecast walked by and stepped on it, and it shot it straight up in the air all over me. And I. And Stefan comes walking up with, like, a handful of, like, fast food napkins. Little napkins. He was doing fast food napkins.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And he's like. And he's like, right in the middle of the pits. And I was like, stefan, we're going into the. We're going into the trailer to fix this. We're not Doing this out here. I was like, no one noticed. Let's just go into the holler. And so we. We just walk into the holler like, not like nothing happened. And in my little gooseneck trailer, I got a little curtain I can go behind because we can run the air conditioner in there and try to keep the cool air in there. I go in there, I got some. Got some of those. We had some of those Lysol towels and the little plastic cylinder. You pull one out of time. We got all the stuff off of me. Cleaned up the driver's uniform perfectly. No problem. But, man, it was just like, right at the same time I heard this boom.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Was that related to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No. Unrelated. Perfectly timed. And so for this real split second, I was like, somebody's hurt. There's been something. Something's just happened.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Like, cat.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes. Catastrophic.

[Amy Earnhardt]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And then I was like. And I look down. I was like, damn it. Who dropped a brand new packet down? And it just stepped on it? Just perfectly shot on my suit and all over my face. It was embarrassing, but, wow. There you have it. All right. I hope everybody enjoyed it. Feels like this was a long one. My favorite part. It's my favorite part of the show because we get to. We get to talk about all this stuff in front of y'all, and y'all get to comment, and so, yeah, it's a lot of fun, but I. I want to thank Xfinity Mobile. I'm looking at some of the final, final comments, but I. I appreciate Xfinity Mobile and everything that they're doing for us here at Dirty Mo Media and everything they do for the Dell Junior Download and everything they're doing for me down that long road at the end of the power line where it doesn't look like service should work, but it always does. They come in clutch for us NASCAR fans. We can take this Xfinity Mobile on the go and always have great service and be able to catch the tail ends of these races. I was in Cordeal. Couldn't. Couldn't really sit down in front of a TV and watch the Xfinity race and watch Kyle Larson beat up on the Junior Motorsports guys. But I was able to follow along on my social on my phone because of Xfinity Mobile, so appreciate it. And yeah, we'll see y'all next week. Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Place your bets. All right, it's time for Nerdy Modo. And coming into the studio to help us with. With this is our degenerate gambler, Tampa Tims. This segment of Dirty Modo is brought to you by FanDuel. FanDuel. It's a great partner here at the Dell Junior Download.

[T.J. Majors]

Another sponsor we use.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It is another sponsor that we use and enjoy. I'm trying to log in so I can talk to you guys about what I've been up to cuz I had a fun couple of days. Thank you, fanduel. I am officially logged on and we're going to talk about the bets that Tampa Tim's proposed for this past weekend at Bristol and if everybody should be happy or mad. And then going into the off weekend, we have Rockingham with the Xfinity series. What are we going to do with ourselves? What will we do?

[Tampa Tim]

Hockey playoff starts this hockey playoffs.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I don't know. I ain't really ever bet much on hockey.

[T.J. Majors]

Careful.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Betting when I did it did not go well.

[T.J. Majors]

Yeah, shots on goal is a tricky one because it's like one person deciding if it's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm out. Yeah, I'm out. Shots on go, folks. Don't do it.

[Tampa Tim]

Don't do it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's some great advice.

[Tampa Tim]

Save. Saves. Saves.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Saves.

[Tampa Tim]

Saves. Okay, that's the goal.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I want to shout out. Jason Kubler came in clutch last night, picked him for Moneyline Live bet.

[Tampa Tim]

What sport is that?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Tennis.

[Tampa Tim]

Tennis. Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He won in two sets, so he put us into the plus.

[T.J. Majors]

Oh, I've been on a bad swing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Put us into the plus money. Dude. I have been going up, up since the beginning of March Madness.

[Tampa Tim]

He's on a run.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And I'll. I'll. I'll lose. I'll lose a little. But the next bet comes through. And so we're just kind of. Yeah, it's like a little ladder. A little. Little step.

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Up and up to the top.

[Tampa Tim]

But we're going up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, we're going up.

[Tampa Tim]

I'm the other way. I haven't. I've been doing well recently.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I had three losses in a row before Jason Kubler came through. I was. I was doing some live betting for the Rockies last night. Damn it. They just kept scoring.

[Tampa Tim]

The Rockies.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Stubborn Rockies.

[T.J. Majors]

What was it, a home game?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They were at the Dodgers.

[Tampa Tim]

Okay. Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And, yeah, they weren't doing me many favors, but as we'll talk about on the. On the. I'm sure we'll talk about this on Bless yous Heart. I did win 83 cents when they did not score in the third.

[Tampa Tim]

Okay, awesome. Thank you, Rockies.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Travis is so annoyed.

[T.J. Majors]

I can't wait to hear this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, Tams, what were the Bets last week. We did this last week and I've already forgotten.

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah, we took some shots on Chris Buescher and I took a shot on Michael McDowell's. That obviously didn't work out because Larson dominated. I also had a bet, Ryan Priest in a group bet, which I never do, against three other drivers, and he did not have the weekend.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I thought I, I think I was on maybe a top 10 for Stenhouse, which was good qualifying. Yeah.

[Tampa Tim]

Look great.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And A.J. almendinger, maybe.

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah. I can't remember, but I think we talked about it. Yeah, but Stenhouse was our main point last week. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Didn't come through.

[Tampa Tim]

No, I mean, honestly, if we're not taking shots on these guys like Stenhouse, McDowell, Buescher. The books have Larson's, the Hamlins, all the top guys unbettable. So.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, well, we got an off weekend coming up with. With the cup series, but the Xfinity series goes to Rockingham, So, you know, I'm sure you'll probably have some, some interesting bets. A brand new track. Nobody's been there.

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

In a long time. Rockingham, we don't know what to expect. Repave relatively narrow groove. Could open up a little bit. But yeah, you got Casey Kane out there. He may have some odd, interesting odds. Pun intended.

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah, they're not out yet, but I would assume he's wouldn't be a favorite. But he'll be in the top. Top echelon. A good car. I'll probably have something on him just because, you know that's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's a top 10 bet for me. Yeah, I mean, I would, I know that I would get in the car and go to Bristol and I felt pretty confident if I didn't do anything dumb, I could run seventh or eighth.

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right. Or just on the fringe of the top 10. And I think he'll do even. I think he's in a better spot to do even better than that. So I would feel real comfortable with a top 10 bet for him. It's probably not great money there, but if you parlayed it together with a few other things.

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Maybe you get lucky.

[Tampa Tim]

Who do you think will be like the, the favorite for this. This type of. This brand new track? Like you said, not a lot of.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know who's driving the Joe Gibbs cars.

[Tampa Tim]

Justin Boston, yours in the 19, and then Brandon Jones and William Sawalich.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think. Yeah, I probably wouldn't put any money on those guys now. Sawalitzer or Jones could surprise.

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Brandon Jones. I might put A top five on but the money with him is probably not very good because he just come off of a win at Darlington.

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah, he might be so I don't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Think I would probably even bet those guys.

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know it's. Maybe it's, it's. I know this is my guys but like Connor Zillich and Carson, you know and even Sammy to an extent. I'd give Sammy a top 10 and maybe Connor Zillich a top 10. Carson might be a guy take a flyer on for a win.

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah, I don't hate that Carson came to mind for the. My short list of guys. I think it could do well here. Even though it's repaved, I still think it's a. He can do really well.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I mean the team's fast and they're coming off of a great weekend at Bristol. A lot of momentum. They did have a test there, you know, so you can look at the speeds at the test.

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

See who you thought was quick.

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah, that's. I should look at that. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right. Outside of that we. Have you talked about the NHL playoffs? Anything else lingering around in the sport sports world that I think we ought to pay attention to this weekend? We're coming off the Masters.

[Tampa Tim]

Coming off masters. I did not have a good master.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I had a great masters. Did you? Yeah. Yeah, go ahead.

[T.J. Majors]

NBA play in is about to start so like I think that's when we can start betting these player props with the stars because you know they're going to play and they're not going to be, you know, resting in load management.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's awesome. Awesome information.

[Tampa Tim]

Great take.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Because betting the. Betting the NBA is not a lot of fun during the, during the regular season I had for the, for the Masters I had Morikawa. How you say that?

[Tampa Tim]

Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I had him a Berg and Bryson for top 20s at plus 438. That one. I also had a 10 pick parlay where I had eight people making the cut. Two players not making the cut at plus 341 and that also won.

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And I was real happy. I put four units total down on all that.

[Tampa Tim]

Nice. Good weekend then.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, solid for me. I like hey, I'm gonna put a couple, you know, bets in and I felt like those are real conservative. Didn't really want to play an all out, go for an all out win or anything like that. That's not my style.

[Tampa Tim]

Tough. That's tough.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, but it was fun, man. And I was glued to the coverage, right?

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Otherwise I would have not paid any attention until that very final few moments when Rory had to try to win in the playoff.

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Which was so interesting to watch that happen. Not only him handed. Almost handed away and then win it outright, but his reaction to winning it.

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah. Was. Was awesome.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Pretty damn cool.

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Even if. Yeah. I'm. I like Roy. I'm not a massive golf fan. I don't know much about. I just am super casual.

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And that was emotional to watch. I can't imagine anybody watching that. Not feeling something.

[Tampa Tim]

Oh, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tampa Tim]

Just the amount of time it took him to win that Expedia.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tampa Tim]

The relief.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But that long walk, we just got to really see him trying to process it, and he just could not realize. Could not believe that he was living that moment.

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Pretty neat to see. Well, all right, man. Appreciate you, Alex. Of course. I. I enjoy this segment, and I'm just gonna. I might ask you guys some questions about the NHL playoff or what, the playoffs.

[Tampa Tim]

Yep. Stanley cup playoffs.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I might ask you some questions about that to see about some bets that I might be interested in. I'm definitely tuned up for the NBA play in games in the very beginning of the playoffs. There might be some decent money line stuff on some of the first rounds of the playoffs. NBA. And I'm just going to keep on having fun, betting my nickels and quarters on no runs in the innings of these live bets for the Major League Baseball. That's so much fun. Me and Amy sitting on the couch watching this show we're streaming. We're binge watching this particular show. It's. I think it's called on the Spectrum or.

[Tampa Tim]

Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, yeah. And I'm sitting there and that, you know, that baseball game's going on, and I'm just like, yeah, Rockies.

[Tampa Tim]

Rockies didn't score.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No score. Rockies. Yeah, them Rockies scored. Yeah. Too many times.

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, we'll see you. Dirty Modo is brought to you by FanDuel, the premier gaming destination in the United States. White flags. All right, it's time for the White Flag as we're starting to wrap this show up. Actions detrimental dropped on Monday. We talked about how great that show was. Denny's quest for three wins fell short, but he kicked ass as a podcaster this week tells us everything that he thinks can improve on the next gen cars. Add those to those great comments from Kyle Larson, and I think we've got a great direction to search for. Door bumper clear also dropped Monday. They were joined by the great Steve Park. Our good friend came in and gave us some great insight, told some awesome stories and just a bunch of modified guys hanging out. My interview with Edwin McCain will drop tomorrow. Edwin's going to tell us all about his story, all the tough trials and tribulations he had as a rock star and the fame that he had many, many years ago. And now trying to sort of have a rebirth of sorts. He's got some new music out, which is really good, and he's still touring today. Just a great guy and a friend in the NASCAR community. You won't want to miss that. Also on Wednesday is Herman Schrader and Speed Street. Herman Strader having a good run here. Kenny called me the other day and we talked a little bit about how much, how much fun he's having doing this with Kenny Wallace. And it's always great to hear from Connor at Speed street and everything they got going on in the IndyCar world. Bless yous Heart is back Thursday with Amy. We're having fun with that. Thanks for all the great feedback from fans. I'm hearing about it almost every day. And don't forget to head over to shop.dirtymomedia.com to check out all the new merch. This hoodie that I have on Dale Jr. Download hoodie. Amy's got some amazing shirts, sweaters and hats for Bless yous Heart. So even for the ladies, there's some really cool stuff there and we got some really fun, fun merch coming out. Want to end this episode by saying that our hearts and our prayers go out to the families of John Edwards and Al Pierce? We have suffered some loss in the NASCAR community over the last couple of weeks, and that was some really tough news to learn between the two of those guys that have put so much into this sport and been such a good friend to so, so many people in the garage area and in the media center. So, yeah, so the sport will remember them fondly. And yeah, we'll see you tomorrow.