Chicago: “Entertaining As S***”

Summary

Summary of "Chicago: ‘Entertaining As S*’” - The Dale Jr. Download**

Release Date: July 8, 2025
Host: Dale Earnhardt Jr. | Co-Hosts: TJ Majors, Travis Pastrana
Produced by: Dirty Mo Media, SiriusXM

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Introduction

In the "Chicago: ‘Entertaining As S***’” episode of The Dale Jr. Download, NASCAR’s beloved driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. dives deep into the recent Chicago race, exploring its thrills, challenges, and the intricate dynamics both on and off the track. Joined by co-hosts TJ Majors and Travis Pastrana, the trio delivers candid commentary, personal anecdotes, and insightful analysis, offering listeners an immersive experience into the world of NASCAR broadcasting and racing.

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Race Recap and Broadcast Challenges

Chicago Race Experience

Dale reflects on the Chicago race, emphasizing its entertainment value despite some unexpected outcomes. "Chicago was awesome. And I don't know. It was..." ([03:59]) he shares, highlighting the unpredictable nature of street courses compared to traditional tracks.

Broadcasting Difficulties

A significant portion of the discussion centers around the challenges faced during the race broadcast. Dale expresses frustration with their initial Chicago broadcast setup, stating, "I just want people to know that we are... getting this right" ([17:55]). He elaborates on the complexities of directing a street course race, where visibility is limited, making real-time decision-making arduous. "It's just hard to... I really wish that we would have prioritized it" ([04:43]).

Travis Pastrana adds, “Are going to throw the caution immediately every time. There will be some moments when people do not like that,” ([66:37]) emphasizing the delicate balance between race continuity and driver safety.

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Driver Dynamics and Rivalries

SVG and Joey's Incident

A focal point of the episode is the altercation between Ross Chastain (SVG) and Joey Menard. Dale recounts the intense moment when Joey wrecked Ross during the race. “[...] Will, you know, that was part of the bracket. Now, look, we were talking about the ...”, ([44:37]) Dale explains the complexity of owning multiple cars and maintaining integrity within the team. The hosts delve into the emotional and professional repercussions of such incidents, discussing the importance of sportsmanship and long-term relationships between drivers.

Ty Gibbs and Future Prospects

Dale and Travis discuss Ty Gibbs’ potential in the upcoming Sonoma race. “Ty Gibbs versus Zane Smith. I'm going to go with Ty Gibbs,” ([93:07]) Dale asserts, showcasing his confidence in Gibbs’ abilities. They speculate on Gibbs' growth and his impact on the NASCAR landscape, anticipating a promising future.

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Technological Insights and Safety Concerns

Safety Culture and Broadcast Technology

Dale underscores the importance of safety in racing, drawing parallels to the necessity of visibility in business operations. “Safety culture gives team members on the ground an easy way to call attention to things, fix issues fast and make sure nothing is missed” ([34:37]). He advocates for enhanced broadcasting technologies, such as additional spotters and comprehensive camera coverage, to improve real-time race monitoring and driver safety.

NASCAR’s Response to Incidents

The hosts critique NASCAR’s handling of emergencies during races, particularly the delayed caution flag during Ross Chastain’s crash. “My biggest problem with the 51 wreck is that none of us knew it was as bad as it was” ([67:06]) Dale laments the lack of immediate information and the resultant safety risks. They propose strategies for better incident management, emphasizing proactive measures over reactive ones.

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Personal Anecdotes and Behind-the-Scenes Stories

Road Trip Adventures

Travis shares a humorous and chaotic story about a 22-hour road trip to pick up Dale, highlighting the camaraderie and mishaps that often occur behind the scenes. “[...] It was an interesting trip,” ([82:10]) he recounts, illustrating the lighter side of the racing world and the strong bonds between team members.

Gaming and Simulation Insights

The conversation briefly touches on NASCAR-themed video games, with Russell describing NASCAR 25 as “the best NASCAR console game we had in the last 10 years” ([75:55]). This segment offers listeners a glimpse into the intersection of gaming and professional racing, underscoring the importance of realistic simulations for both fans and drivers.

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Upcoming Events and Final Thoughts

Looking Ahead to Sonoma

As the episode winds down, Dale, Travis, and TJ Majors discuss their strategies and predictions for the upcoming Sonoma race. They analyze driver performances, track specifics, and potential outcomes, providing listeners with expert insights and betting tips. “Reddick is our Toyota. Who's our forward? Is it going to be Busher?” ([92:43]) Dale muses, showcasing their collaborative approach to race forecasting.

Conclusion

Wrapping up the episode, Dale encourages listeners to tune into upcoming segments and emphasizes the continuous effort to enhance the broadcast quality. “We've got three races to work our ass off to try to end on a solid, solid note” ([17:55]) he concludes, reflecting the team's commitment to excellence and growth in NASCAR broadcasting.

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Notable Quotes

• Dale Earnhardt Jr.: “I just want people to know that we are... getting this right.” ([17:55])
• Travis Pastrana: “If you err on that, you're going to throw the caution immediately every time.” ([66:37])
• Dale Earnhardt Jr.: “Safety culture gives team members on the ground an easy way to call attention to things, fix issues fast and make sure nothing is missed.” ([34:37])
• Russell: “I think there's one screenshot of... I was driving as Justin Allgaier.” ([74:07])

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Closing Remarks

"The Dale Jr. Download" episode "Chicago: ‘Entertaining As S***” offers a comprehensive and engaging exploration of recent NASCAR events, broadcasting intricacies, and the personal experiences of its hosts. Through in-depth discussions and relatable anecdotes, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his co-hosts deliver content that resonates with both avid fans and casual listeners, encapsulating the dynamic and ever-evolving world of NASCAR.

Transcript

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Joey doesn't care if he gets fined, but Joey just wants us to know that Ross came up to him personally and admitted it. Somehow. That might make Joey feel better about 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.

[TJ Majors]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Can you not tell I'm mentally ready?

[Travis Pastrana]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Doesn't sound like you know what you're talking about.

[Travis Pastrana]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, what the do you want?

[TJ Majors]

I just think the last few laps 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? This ain't Burger King. Travis is like, wrap this up. They don't have no fun around here. Hey, Everybody, it's Dale Jr. Back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. And it is Dirty air. And it's Tuesday and co host TJ Majors is here. We're back in the studio. Yes, to be back here.

[Travis Pastrana]

Glad to be back. Had a good time. But the studio is always nice.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. You and I took our families to the beach.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I got to give it to you, brother. What I did. You hung in there beer for beer.

[Travis Pastrana]

Did I?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I thought you did pretty good.

[Travis Pastrana]

Oh, I didn't know we were keeping school.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Usually if you go on vacation with TJ trying to get him to have a few drinks is.

[Travis Pastrana]

I don't start till night a lot.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, it's like trying to feed. It's like trying to feed a five year old Brussels sprouts.

[Travis Pastrana]

It's not happening.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not happening.

[Travis Pastrana]

You're not going to feed me Brussels sprouts.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hey, tj, man, he was having fun having some beers at lunch.

[Travis Pastrana]

Oh, we were. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I felt you're doing good.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah, I felt like, yeah, maybe we're even. I don't know, dude.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Even.

[TJ Majors]

So you're eating. Kept up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You ran. You ran. You ran a good pace.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah, pace was good. That's all that matters.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. But yeah, good trip and man, kids got to do a lot, got to play.

[Travis Pastrana]

Oh, kids. That's all we did all day. Blow this, fix this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Tons of swimming.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But we then went to Chicago. I'm trying to think, gosh, what did I miss anything? Feels like I've been just going and going and going. I am tired today. I got up this morning and worked out. I'm a little Tired.

[Travis Pastrana]

Well, that's why you're tired today. That's a good habit though. What time did you get up?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I set the alarm for seven.

[Travis Pastrana]

Oh that. You got to get up early.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Amy said. Amy said, let's work out, let's get up in the morning. I said, all right. I set this alarm at seven. I said, amy, seven o' clock alarm, let's go. And we laid there in bed till about 7:20. We finally got up. Yeah, we did our 30 minutes, got in the shower and here I am.

[Travis Pastrana]

So I like a couple every once in a while. I'll get up like super early, like five. And that's like the house is so quiet at five o' clock in the morning. You can get like two hours of work in before anything moves. And it's nice.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I got home from Chicago Sunday, had a relatively good time. And you know why? Because they kind of started that race at a half ass decent freaking hour. Thank you. But it's also weird because it's getting dark at like 8:30, 9:00 clock now, you know, so you'll get home a little bit, you know, still light outside.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah. This is weird.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And you're like, dang, this is like old school, you know, getting home from a race. And it'd be five, six o' clock in the evening, but it's. It's later than that. College football comes out Monday, Right. So I play, I get in a bit. I played my game against Darren. Yeah. In our league in the morning now at night.

[Travis Pastrana]

Did you play it?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, we did play in the morning.

[Travis Pastrana]

I was going to say I got to score in the morning. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Dominated. I scored on him with under 2 minutes left. Kind of a move, but I needed to do it. And then College Football 26 comes out. Play with that a little bit.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah. Not sure it'll be all right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not sure about it.

[TJ Majors]

Just give it time. Well, like novocaine.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not that anybody listening to this right here gives a damn, but they adjusted the view a little bit. Like TJ's view or the standard sort of view. That's a little closer. I like to get. I like to be backed up so I can kind of see the receivers a little bit and I play from that angle.

[Travis Pastrana]

So they did change that. I don't know if you know that when you hold the trigger down and now widens out.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know, but when, if I play in your view and I hike the ball, I'm way too close. I'm too close to the players and I can't really see the holes and who's. Who's coming at who? And I'm too close and I'm too flat. I like to be up and looking almost kind of down.

[Travis Pastrana]

Like the codes of what that, that, that end zone camera way up.

[TJ Majors]

Kind of all 22.

[Travis Pastrana]

Well, exactly. What. That's what I know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's just before that.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah, it's a little bit closer.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, they've widened that out even more and it's too wide now. And when you hike the ball, you back up. Like when, when the ball is hiked, you, you almost. You, you. You zoom out a little bit. Even more. Yeah. Why'd they do that?

[Travis Pastrana]

I don't know. I didn't. My view hasn't really changed on it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think that those are the little things that don't. Don't make it better. That's the. That's the little stuff that's like, leave it alone. I'm so used to the point of view from the whole year we've been playing 25.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah, I know. You don't want it to really change.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Tinker that little. Because us guys that like to play on the wide cam don't want you.

[Travis Pastrana]

Every year we would get Madden. Every year we would get the new Madden. The view is always the same.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And it's like we went backwards on the play art for the play selection.

[Travis Pastrana]

It's definitely. It's just. It's crisper and cleaner, but it's definitely. I think it rotates. I do. I think next year it'll be back to. It just rotates.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I hear you. I just thought the play art was easier to look at in 25 when you're in your play selection. But.

[Travis Pastrana]

Hell, I agree a little bit, but we'll see. I'm not.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm still enough. No. We were talking about College Football 26 for the Xbox or PlayStation Now.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And it just came out. It's a big deal. They did a lot to make the.

[Travis Pastrana]

Game bring the game back too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, they brought it back last year and now they've. This is their real first. Like here's all the bells and whistles, you know.

[Travis Pastrana]

I agree.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, man. First off, you get done with these races and there's a. There's a lot of little avenues of thought, conversation, complaint. We're going to try to go through most of those. One of them that I didn't understand at all is. And help me if I'm. I saw a couple people in the media. I think Jeff Gluck and Jordan were talking about it a little bit and then Pete Pistoni was talking about it in a Twitter post about people complaining that we're going to Chicago or went to Chicago or in and Mexico. Like, I hadn't heard none of that. Who is complaining?

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah, I haven't heard her.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Who's complaining so much that Gluck and Jordan needed to address, like, hey, guys, if we're, you know, growing the sport, we need to go to these places. You've gotten Wilkesboro back, you got the Rockingham back, you got this net and other. We still can do those great things that you love and nostalgic about and we can go grow the sport in Mexico City and Chicago. Stop complaining. But I ain't heard anybody complain.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, there's some out there, but I don't think it's a loud base.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That was the case for Mexico City. A lot of people complained about that. People are still. Honestly, there's some people still say that they're, you know, they got a little illness or got not feeling so well. Svg, one of them, you know, that came back and a lot of the drivers. SVG got out of the car after the race Saturday and had to get a little medical attention because he was smoked, but said, you know, he had gotten a bug, a stomach bug in Mexico City and said he was still like, trying to get hydrated and get his body right. And so. But Chicago, man, was awesome. And I don't know. It was.

[Travis Pastrana]

Chicago has been the biggest turnaround from before we went. Before we went, people were like, oh, I can't believe we're going to Chicago. And then once we go there, it the industry, like, honestly, I think the industry loves going there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They do. Who are these people saying we don't need to go there.

[Travis Pastrana]

There's a. There's the odd one out of always gonna people, though.

[TJ Majors]

That is like, I heard it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The world that we're in, I'm in. I'm in them. I got social media apps I'm reading now. I'm all over the place looking at, you know, people's about everything.

[Travis Pastrana]

Well, I mean, you're not going to find industry people tweeting much about it because that doesn't work.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm not talking about it.

[TJ Majors]

I think he's saying he's on Reddit. He's watching what fans tweet.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How am I not making sense to y'? All?

[TJ Majors]

I know. I get what you're saying, but I just disagree that there are. There's nobody saying that there's fans out there that don't want to go To Chicago.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Where did you see that?

[TJ Majors]

On social media.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Which app?

[TJ Majors]

Twitter.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Really? Yes.

[TJ Majors]

I'm not saying it's a. It's a. I believe you. Loud majority, but there's fans out there. You're always going to have.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There's always people. What was their problem?

[TJ Majors]

They don't. We don't want. I don't want a street course. I want to race on a novel.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, well, I feel that way, but, I mean, I'm not complaining about it because I don't get to choose. I mean, I. If I have. If I had my way, our asses will be racing South Boston and all kinds of fun little racetracks, but it ain't happening. So I don't sit. I don't sit on social media and about it and say, this is where we need to go to South Boston.

[Travis Pastrana]

Is an entertainment value. I don't know how you don't watch that race and you're not entertained. Like, there's so many things. Elements to that race. You're. I don't. There's guys getting in, missing corners. There's. There's natural things.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

My opinion, I guess, is. Is like Gluck Jordan. I don't see the reason why they had to address it. It wasn't allowed enough. It wasn't a big enough group of people, you know, to address it. For Pete Pistoni to tweet about. It just adds credibility to the people that are saying that.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah, I think I know what you mean.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's a pointless thing. So I just didn't understand that. I love to pick this apart. Like, we go, we race, and then we come home and everybody complains about what they want to complain about. And then I love to read all that and go, well, this is. I disagree or I agree. And so that's what we're doing right this minute.

[Travis Pastrana]

To me, this is like Blaney, whether it was after Atlanta, wherever it was, we ran a race and they tweeted the ratings and Blaney called them out like, so we're actually better than this and we're still doing good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. That 1.6, man. Need to be a little bit better than that for this week. Or Atlanta.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But, I mean, you know, you'd love it to be 3 million people or 2.6 or 2.2. You know, you'd love it to be up there. It wasn't. It is what it is. Everybody says it's a Saturday night thing. I don't know. Like, you know, we used to race only the only night race we had, I guess, was Bristol for, for a long time in the 80s. And people think that. I talked to some people in the industry up in the very top and they're like, you know, we got a lot of that. We got too many Saturday night races now. It's not a thing anymore. And. But I don't know, man, if it was, you know, something's good, you seek it out.

[Travis Pastrana]

That's what I'm saying. If you want to watch, you're going to watch no matter when it is.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know, but it's, it's. Atlanta was great, so why was a number 1.6? I mean, Atlanta was a great race and we knew it was going to be a great race. We all knew it was going to be a great race. Why didn't more people watch it? I don't know. It didn't make any sense because you got options. You got options on Sunday too. You still can get a 2 or a 1.9 or 2.2, but do you.

[Travis Pastrana]

Think the, the average fan's gonna be more available on a Sunday at 1:00 clock or a Saturday at 7? You know what I mean? Like that to me, they're like he.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Said, if you, I think if it's good and you like it and you seek it, you'll seek it out.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Why? You know, I, you can't sit here and say, man, we need to start at 1 o' clock on Sunday and go up against the NFL, but we don't need to be racing on Saturday night at 7. That's crazy, man. It's not.

[Travis Pastrana]

Nobody you can't pull them Saturday night against because there's no more basketball.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm just saying you can't.

[Travis Pastrana]

We're not really competing against much on Saturday night.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't, I mean, if it's good, people will seek it out. I've always felt that way.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah. I mean, I always find, I always find time to find. Like, yeah, if something is on that I want to watch, you're going to watch it now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I get that there's better. You know, we know this about social media too. There's better hours to post. There's more. You know, there's prime time, there's, there's, there's time when people will have more freedom to either read your content or watch your video or watch your race. And so I understand we can't have it happening, you know, 5 o' clock in the morning on Thursday, but Saturday night versus Sunday shouldn't be that big of A shift, I don't think. Second race with tnt, the prime stuff was amazing. Great group, had a lot of fun. A lot of help from NBC to sort of get them going. Tons of help. The TNT group is all tnt. Some people have been in the broadcast booth before. Some people have broadcast and been part of a race production before. Not everyone, but there are some people in the TNT truck that have some really awesome experience. I will also say that from the booth to the truck, to my bosses there at tnt, everyone is busting ass, and everybody's a hard worker, and everybody has the best intentions. There's nothing about it that feels like we're cutting a corner. And I feel like that we got probably two of the toughest races to direct and produce for a new group that hadn't done it in, you know, some hadn't done it in years. We got two of the toughest racetracks between Atlanta. So Atlanta uses the original camera locations, but now you're broadcasting that same race that you broadcasted years ago. You're broadcasting it and fast forward now. So, like, the way the cars get around that track and how quickly you have to cut the race is. It's a. It's a challenge. So for any new team coming in that hadn't cut a race in years, if not ever, you know, it's one that can. You're chasing the race the whole time instead of being out in front of it. That's understandable. I thought we did okay job at Atlanta, and I felt like going into Chicago. I told anybody that would listen. I was like, man, we're gonna. Won't make some big gains here because we've got one under our belt. But I really underestimated the. The challenge of doing a street course. We couldn't use aerial because there's a ton of blockage, trees and stuff like that. Aerial. Sort of a saving grace, if you will. When you're kind of having a tough time getting to where you want to go, It's a good way to sort of bust out of the action ground level and get everything that you want on the screen and sort of find yourself back where you want to go on the track with. With the location you want to be at.

[Travis Pastrana]

But is that a common thing, you know, during a broadcast?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So if you go to. If. If. I don't know. I'm not a director and a producer. I could not do any other job. I could not go into that TV compound and do a different job. I couldn't. And I don't pretend to know the Business. I know how to be an analyst. And, and I love play by play. I grew up listening to Play by Play and admiring Barney Hall.

[Travis Pastrana]

Oh, it's great.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Those guys. So I love getting the chance to sort of do some play by play during the race. And that's just what I want. And if you're. If fans are happy with me in the booth, they're going to get that. If they don't like what I do, they can voice their opinion and the people that are the network gods will decide somebody else can go do it. But getting back to our broadcast, you know, there were some moments where we stumbled and, you know, looking back on it, I certainly wish that we would have left there with, you know, with a better, you know, reaction or a little bit better temperature on social media and everything that I've read about on social media, you know, we miss the Bubba spin out of turn two, the 51 wreck, all of those things. Everyone in our team are hyper aware that we, we all have had conversations even in the last 48 hours of. Yep, I wish that would have went differently. Yep. We should have done X, Y and Z instead of what we did. Sure.

[Travis Pastrana]

You always go back and look at that. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so. Well, I just want people to know, like, you know, we are. I think we as a team are aware of some of the things that we could have done differently in that. In the, in some moments, some things we wish have. Would have went better. And there, There is a massive want to. There is nothing but all hands on deck. Everybody is ready to go to Sonoma, work even harder. I mean, the things that we'll do to try to make sure that we shore up and really hit the mark in our broadcast. We're going to spend every minute of the week trying to prepare ourselves for. For this upcoming event so that we don't have a misstep. Yeah.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so, you know, I just want people to know that it's a, It's a really good group of people. It's a great team and they want to do this and get this right. And they can and will. And, you know, I don't. I will say this. It'll never be harder. It'll never be harder than it was in Chicago to broadcast a race for, For a team. I mean, there's no booth that's very challenging to be on property, but not really be able to help the truck, the. So the production truck. You have the producer who's, you know, deciding on what's coming next. Not really the camera that you're going to look at. But he's deciding, all right, we got to pay off this. This in car camera, we got a. We're going to read this promo card. And, you know, when the racing action's happening, he kind of lays out a little bit, but he's the one that's sort of steering the whole path of the broadcast. The director is the one sitting there deciding what exactly is on the camera at all times. He had. He is freaking busy, busy. And then there's a guy sitting next to him with a gigantic board with buttons for all those cameras. And that guy's sitting there hitting all those buttons as the director's telling him, camera four, camera 11, camera 19, camera man. And it's just bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. And so it's freaking impossible. I don't know how they do it.

[Travis Pastrana]

I don't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I really don't.

[Travis Pastrana]

I don't know how they would do it either. Sounds really difficult.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, when we're looking, when I'm not able to be in the booth and look out across the racetrack, that's why I said, you know, in the off season, I would not be into doing a booth that was in Charlotte. Right. For a race that was somewhere else. I wouldn't want to do that because I need to be. Not only feel the energy of the actual event, like, be. Be at the event to feel like the. The crowd and the energy, because it's the environment there.

[Travis Pastrana]

You want to be immersed in it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. The environment really makes a difference in how you feel and how excited you are about what's happening. But when I can look out the window and see the 51 hit the tire barrier, I can obviously go, wow, that's a freaking awesome, nasty hit. We've got a. That goes up my priority list of things that have to be talked about and has to be shown. And, you know, when we saw him in the tire barrier, at first we were like, oh, yep, he missed. He locked the brakes up and slid into the wall. And it. We still should have prioritized it, but we didn't realize that it was as severe as nobody would then. Yeah. And that. And. And that's on the booth to a point. Like, that's. So those are the things that when I can see the track, I can help point the producer to or the director to. And that's something I learned from Jeff Burton. When he's working in a booth, he's on talkback, which is the button that you will be able to talk directly to the producer. He's on that button all the time. Hey, battle for seventh is going to be a good one in a few laps. Hey, this guy's.

[Travis Pastrana]

You know, he sees it coming.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He sees it, you know, and I do that a little bit, but when I can't freaking. You know, when you're not able to look out and see. We were in a trailer about a block from the track, and, you know, we had all the cameras on a big screen. But I can't look at those cameras and go, okay, is anybody spinning out? Is anybody hit a wall? You know, I've got to look at the. The production and talk about what's on the, you know, the camera or what's on tv. So it's, like, hard to. I even had a friend of mine, you know, Stephen Stephan. I had him sit in the booth, and all he did was watch those cameras. And I said, look, if somebody spins out, somebody hits a wall, slaps a wall, bends a toe, link, whatever, I don't care what it is. He had a whiteboard in his hand, and I was like, write it down on that whiteboard and put it. Put it out in front of us where we can see it so we could tell our director or producer. Somebody's backwards in turn six. We got to get the camera there, you know, not that they wouldn't be able to do that. Usually they're going to see that as well in their truck. But we were just trying our hardest to, like, be ahead of it.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah, there's so many corners and so happening.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

When you're. Well, when you're doing a race from a studio, you can't stay ahead of it. You're just reacting to what everyone else is seeing. And I've read all the comments all. Any time there's ever been a race where they do it from a studio, you can. The fans don't love it. They don't want to. They don't love it as much. And I was. We were, you know, we were working our hardest trying to avoid some of the things that were just unavoidable. And, you know. So anyways, you know, I think that, you know, going into Sonoma, I've never broadcast a race there, but we do have a booth. We do have a relatively decent view of most of the racetrack. I do think I know exactly what we're walking into in terms of the race.

[Travis Pastrana]

Where are you located there. Do you know?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The booth, I'm assuming, is on the front straightaway behind the pits, so we'll be able to see 11 maybe coming down the S's a little bit watch them kind of going back up the hill. We won't see them down in turn four. But, you know, I know I got in my mind really what all the cameras shots look like, because I've watched enough races there. And so I was saying, like, the things that we're going to do to, like, help try to prepare ourselves and our team to broadcast the race. We'll watch back Chicago together, and we'll have the honest conversations about things that we thought should be better. And this could happen in any broadcast, even the ones that people go, damn, that was a great one. We could still. We still watch back and go, hey, here's where we should have been better.

[Travis Pastrana]

You have to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, we'll do that with Chicago and then we'll watch all of the Xfinity action practice. We'll. We'll all. We're all going to get in the truck and watch all this together and sit down and go, man, that's a great shot. I think that's a great cut. I think they could have gotten there quicker. I think we should do this one. I think we should avoid this camera because it really is. It's just eye candy. It's not really helping us. And so, you know, that, that. And we'll watch the entire Xfinity race. I should have done that. So this weekend I'm pissed at myself because I went and sat on Carson Quappel's box during the Xfinity race. My ass should have been in the production truck watching with the director and getting ourselves ready for tomorrow, you know, for Sunday. And so, you know, that was.

[Travis Pastrana]

Do you feel like Sonoma will be easier, though?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes. Well, I'm just saying for you course is so hard.

[Travis Pastrana]

You're familiar with Sonoma, too, so, you know, some of the ins and outs of the track to street.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The street. The Sonoma track. I'm hoping that, you know, the Sonoma track, with its years of experience, having had races there forever. All the camera locations are already known, built in. All of the things that they'll have to go out there and set up and wire and fiber and all of that is already known. And there's an outline for it. It's understood. Chicago. I mean, even though we've been there three years, everything's moved and everything's in a little different location.

[Travis Pastrana]

It's a little hard, and it's still finding its way.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And you're having to wire that place every time you go there. The great thing about tnt, man, again, they are. They Are people that want to get this right and they want to kick ass. And we've got three races to work our ass off to try to frickin end on a solid, solid note. So we can go into preparing for the next season and continue to grow. Chicago, you know Chicago, the racetrack, the street course. I enjoyed the hell out of it the first year. I didn't do last year. The first year we stayed in a different hotel. It was a pretty good experience but I really didn't move around very much. I was my, my hotel was literally in turn six. I came out of the hotel and I'm on the racetrack and I would go to the TV compound and I never really went anywhere else. We did have a dinner somewhere but I bet on Saturday we did the track walk at 7 o' clock in the morning, 2.2 miles. I walked back and forth to the hotel, another two miles and I bet during the day going up and down pit road into the TV compound and every damn where else. I bet, I bet, I bet I did about six, six and a half miles Saturday. Just walking your phone will tell you.

[Travis Pastrana]

Okay, you can look it up. Probably did. I mean it's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know.

[Travis Pastrana]

There is a lot of walk in there, but it's fine, it's good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, I'm just saying I enjoyed it.

[Travis Pastrana]

Me too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I did not do that much moving around. I mean I didn't, I didn't do that much moving around the first trip. This trip we had dinners at different restaurants every night. Thanks to lathart because he's like, He's a dinner guy. Yeah, I mean we're going. Dude, he does. We're going to Sonoma Thursday. We've got dinner Thursday, Friday, Saturday. And he sets all that and he.

[TJ Majors]

Orders what you're gonna eat too, right? Half the time.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, which is fine. He took us to Italian Joint the first night in Chicago and it was excellent. And yeah, so it. Then we had a dinner with NASCAR and TNT at another restaurant the night before the race, which was cool. Talking to Hilton and Jim France and all those guys sit across from Jim France for dinner. That was awesome. I can't even imagine how much of a spider web the agreement or any future agreement or how to even get down that path is for NASCAR in the city and all that. And you don't know really who's telling the truth about whether they, you know, they really want to do this again or not. But if they said tomorrow, yeah, there's a new two year deal or a new three Year. Deal. I wouldn't be mad about it.

[Travis Pastrana]

Me neither.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The race itself is entertaining.

[Travis Pastrana]

Absolutely.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The guys, they have. They have a really challenging time with that racetrack. And I feel like, honestly, it's not like the more they run, the better, the less trouble they have. What I thought I saw. So when we. When we went there for the first time, yeah, they all had a lot of trouble because they were running into corners and learning that, you know, they couldn't get into those corners that deep or they were making mistakes. We had a lot of weather, rain, guys are spinning out and sliding in water and wrecking. We got there this weekend, and everybody had. Had a lot, you know, had a couple races under their belt at this racetrack. They'd done a lot of sim work. We had a dry racetrack, and then we started seeing people, like, make mistakes because they were pushing too hard.

[Travis Pastrana]

Exactly.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right. And now they got. They were confident. Like the 24 crash in practice. Right. He's like, you know what? I'm hauling ass. I'm gonna shape this corner just a little different. Oh, I can't do that.

[Travis Pastrana]

It's a bunch of them that.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, the track was hotter than they were expecting. So then it got.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Mess.

[Travis Pastrana]

Well, they're just going to push harder, and when they overstep, it hurts.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So this place. So, you know, what we usually do when we go to any other racetrack is. Yes, we push harder. You run a lap, Great lap. I'm going to go in the corner a little deeper. I'm going to try a little. I'm going to try to do a little. I'm going to try to back it up and get in the gas sooner. You know, you. You adjust to try to go faster. As a driver, that's. That's. That's what you do your entire life. One lap after the next is you change a little something, trying to make it faster, trying to do it better. You can't do it there because you.

[Travis Pastrana]

Can just bites you.

[TJ Majors]

The margin of error is really small.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's zero.

[Travis Pastrana]

I love it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so I do, too. And that's the. That's the thing that a street course provides, that no other real. Not the track really provides that. And so, you know, in most scenarios at other racetracks, there's still no margin for error, but there's a little opportunity to survive. There's a runoff even in an oval racetrack. There's room to sort of gather it up. Right. And so. But here there ain't. And as they get more confident and as they say, oh, you know, I'M going to get a little cute, I'm going to change my line, but. And then they bust their ass. So that's what I thought we saw this weekend. Now they cleaned it up in the race a little bit. Qualifying and practice. Boy, there was some mistakes in the race.

[Travis Pastrana]

I mean, I'm not.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So I'm entertained by the race itself. We. We had a good race and I think, I think, you know, SVG is going to be hard to beat there.

[Travis Pastrana]

Absolutely.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's kind of the only thing, honestly, that I see as not a, you know, kind of a drawback is that there's a guy that's really good comparable to the rest of the field. And that could be a bit of a bummer for some people that want to tune in, go, oh, well, we're just going to watch SVG kick everybody's ass. But I mean, the rest of the racing, throughout the rest of the pack and the strategies, you had like three different strategies.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah. He didn't lead the entire race. There was caution was crushing it. There was cautions that guys jumped that pit. I mean, and that was perfect.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's.

[Travis Pastrana]

But he did a great job navigating that and making it through it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I agree. I'm just.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah, no, it had everything.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It did. It really did. So I don't know if they'll go back. I hear that, you know, San Diego is going to take its place. There'll be a street course in San Diego of some type. Of some type. And that is what will take Chicago's place.

[Travis Pastrana]

But I read an article that there was a two year option.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. It doesn't mean that Chicago can't still exist. Maybe, you know, Mexico City goes away and Chicago shifts to a different part of the schedule. I don't know, you know, but I think there's a potential where you could see us racing at Chicago and San Diego. For sure. There's a world where that exists.

[Travis Pastrana]

I wouldn't be mad at that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't think that they're adding another road course. I think it's like, all right, yeah, there's a, you know, we're limited. How many we got? Six?

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah, I think five or six.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, they six right now. So whatever the number is today, that'll be the number next year. But I just don't know which racetracks it's going to be. But I'm feeling like the San Diego deal's done. People will say it's not done, but I feel like it's done. And then it's like 5050 between going back to Chicago or going back to Mexico City. And then you always have the, the hope that we get to Montreal again. And I think that's NASCAR's intention to get there. Now that might not happen next year, but yeah, that's kind of how I hear things going down. What about you?

[Travis Pastrana]

Same boat? Yeah, same boat. I think.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Anything different than what I'm hearing?

[Travis Pastrana]

No, I think everybody's in the same boat on that. I think we don't know how it's going to shake out. I think we know the tracks, we just don't know the order and you know if one's not going to make it or not. But I wouldn't be mad with, with the Chicago and a San Diego I wouldn't be mad at. I mean they're exciting. I think they're good races.

[TJ Majors]

Hey tj I like that phone. Is it new?

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah, I got got this awesome new phone. I've recently joined the consumer cellular family and they hooked me up with a great phone and great service.

[TJ Majors]

You're telling me that your phone actually works at the racetracks?

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah, my phone has been excellent at the racetracks. And honestly you can't beat the consumer cellular service and the offers they have going right now.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, that's cool, but I'm assuming that it's probably kind of expensive, right?

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah, that's funny. Consumers earlier is a steal of a deal. I don't know why more people have not made this switch. Nationwide service, fraction of the price, the 2 for 60 plan, no long term contract. I mean it's awesome.

[TJ Majors]

All right, I'm in. So how do I get this deal?

[Travis Pastrana]

They basically have an elite pit crew on standby waiting for you to call and make the switch. It's 100 US based. Customer service takes around 20 minutes and it'll be one of the best decisions you ever make. And now it couldn't be a better time to switch to consumer Cellular and get $25 off with code DJD25. That's DJD25 for 25 off. When you switch consumer cellular, go to consumercellular.com DJD and use promo code DJD25.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Running a business without visibility, that's like racing without a spotter. You might think everything's fine until it's not. That's why safety culture exists to help teams see what's really going on in real time. Safety culture gives team members on the ground an easy way to call attention to things, fix issues fast and make sure nothing is missed. It doesn't matter if you're on a job site, in a warehouse or running deliveries. If you're on a fast paced team, you need tools that help everybody see clearly. Just look at our friends over at trackhouse Racing. They are competing at the highest level of NASCAR and using safety culture to track every detail from car checklist to how each chassis runs at different racetracks. I always loved when I knew I was getting in a car that had been fast for me in the past and I was able to take it to victory lane. That's how much drivers pay attention to the details, and those details are more important than ever. When your whole crew can see what's happening, they make better calls, waste less time, and avoid costly surprises. That's how you stay ahead, not just in racing, but in every business. You want to run your business like a NASCAR team? Head to safetyculture.com SVG and check it out. I sat on top of the pit box with Carson watching the Xfinity race and had SVG and Connor Zillich battling there at the end. And this is always tough because I don't know what you guys think. Like, everybody, I'm sure, has really, you know, has the perfect opinion about how they would handle this. All right, man, let me ask. Let me ask you. And you got to be quick and brief, okay? You don't get to do. You don't.

[Travis Pastrana]

Your first action, your first instinct.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You. You. You're gonna. I'm gonna walk you through this, and then you gotta answer. You own the. You own the car for svg. SVG and Zillich. You watch them go down in the corner, and you watch what happens in turn one. And then you get off the pit box and you're walking down pit road, and you're gonna walk. You're gonna see Zilich first. He's there. And then you're gonna go to Victory Lane. You get to Zilich. What do you say? You got to say it.

[TJ Majors]

We got to learn.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What? What?

[TJ Majors]

Need to learn.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're terrible. He needs to learn. What?

[TJ Majors]

He left an opening there for svg.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, Don't.

[TJ Majors]

Don't. Don't assume that a guy's gonna give it to you just because he's your teammate and friend.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right? And then you go to svg. Victor Lane. Take a picture. What's the first thing you say?

[TJ Majors]

Thanks for the W. There you go.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, T.J. you walk up to Connor on pit road. He's dejected. What do you say?

[Travis Pastrana]

I mean, first I pick him up, tell him, great job today, man. That you did everything you could do, you know, without, without tearing up two race cars. You guys raced hard. You know, would I be mad at you? You race him, how he raised you, everyone finished. I mean, I think Connor, I think he did a great job today. He did everything he could do and he got beat by the best road course racer that we have in the series right now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. All right.

[Travis Pastrana]

I mean I, I pick him up and let, he's going to go back and he's already going to replay this race in his head a thousand times. So he's already good enough.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right. Well, I, he, he said I understand he's racing for the win but yeah, I didn't have a chance there. He stuffed me in the wall. Definitely frustrating, but still really cool to get Red Bull and weather. Take a one, two. I'll, I'll definitely remember the way he raced me. I didn't expect him to do that. But I get it. We're racing for the win. I thought that, that, you know, his comments were good. This is a critical moment for Connor. Connor Zillich has the opportunity to be a multi time, you know, four or five time champion in NASCAR. He has an opportunity to have a, you know, 50 plus win career. All that stuff is, is really I think, realistic and he's just, you know, he's just one of those guys. It sort of feels like he's got not only the talent to do all those things but the, but the pathway and a ton of people in the industry that believe it. And so it, it's important, I think that when he gets in these scenarios and these situations, it's important what he says, how he acts, how he, how he responds. Because we're all believing from what we've seen from him that there's this path forward. But we also haven't experienced a lot of how, you know, his personal reactions to things. How does he handle stuff? Is he a punk? Is he generous? Is he forgiving? Is he respectful? Respectful? Is he jealous? What is, what is it? Right? What's his, what's his emotion in these type of moments? And I honestly feel like I was, I'm not, I guess I'm, you know, I felt like he's really mature beyond his years and these comments are, are good comments to come from an 18 year old after that situation. Right? Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

If you read these comments you'd think that it was a 28 year old.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Most 18 year olds. Right. It's great. It's exactly right. Most 18 year olds are going to say they're going to speak more from the frustration of it. Right. And not know how to filter it so they don't sound like a punk. Right.

[Travis Pastrana]

See, I do think he, I would have liked to see, you know, I needed to, I needed to execute a little bit better on the restart and get away from and clear him. Because all I see right here is he is the exact same way because he did the exact same thing SVG did at Coda.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I, yeah, I mean, Connor did.

[Travis Pastrana]

The exact same thing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Connor's aggressive. He did say in his post race press conference it wasn't dirty. We're racing for the win on the last restart. I just didn't expect it kind of caught me by surprise. I wouldn't consider it dirty at all. I could have done a better job at keeping leverage, but I let him get a nose ahead of me at that point. It's his corner and you can't do that.

[Travis Pastrana]

That's really good.

[TJ Majors]

Well, so that's the thing. You gotta remember, the first one was right after the race probably. So he hasn't really thought about it and he's just speaking and so then he's able to craft what he wants to say a little better.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. He said by no means does he have to leave me room. I expected it, but I won't expect it next time. Not mad about it. Wish I could do it again. I'd do it differently.

[Travis Pastrana]

If we do it again, he gets a better resort and he doesn't even have a chance, dude.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I just feel like he's doing a good job here, managing the frustration of it. So that's important because I pay, I.

[Travis Pastrana]

Think, you know, you can see a lot from this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And you can go, all right. Fans can go. You know, I can get behind this guy. He's not going to make an ass out of himself in these scenarios. Not make me, you know, cringe when he doesn't get his way on the racetrack. Right. And so, but I walk up to Zillich on Victory on a pit Road as SVGs doing his burnout and I say, hey, I said, man, I, I, he, he ran you pretty dirty there. I, I didn't expect that from him. There was a, I was on the radio a little bit, just a tiny bit with all the drivers or at least talking on Channel 2 to some crew chiefs throughout the entire race. And I almost came over the radio before the last little run there to the finish to tell Connor, you know, I don't think SVG is going to put the bumper to you. I Think SVG wants to pass you clean, that he will. You know, that's his M.O. he's going to try to work his way around you cleanly. And so I want to let you know that I believe you can be patient and not overdrive your entries and just concentrate on good straight, hard corner, exit. Because if you're. If you feel like the guy's going to push you into the corner, you overdrive the corner, and then you miss the exit and they drive by you. And so I was like. And, you know, Connor's a better road racer than I'll. Than I was ever in my life and ever. And could. You know, he's a. He's an excellent road racer, no question. And I don't. I'm not sitting here thinking I need to give him advice on that. I was just wanting to let him know I don't believe SVG is, you know, the guy that's going to put the bumper to you. Boy, I'm glad I didn't say it, because he did. Right? And so I walked up to Connor after the race. I was like, man, I didn't expect that. And, you know, I think he should have treated you a little better there. He. He basically said, you know, either hit the wall or lift coming out of two. And I, too, agree. I didn't. I expected him. I expected SVG to do something differently.

[TJ Majors]

Than what he did because he's driving.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

A junior motorsports car just because it's svg. When SVG was racing the first Chicago race, I got people in Australia that know him, that raced with him, that are texting me going, hey, watch this. Because he was trying to pass for the lead. They're. They're going, watch this. He won't put a bumper on the guy because we don't, you know, SVG is going to pass him without even touching him. Watch this. And so it imprinted on my mind, like, man, you know, there's a. There's the. There's a code and an ethics to how they race in the V8 Supercars. It's physical, but there is also, like, a respect level. Like, you, You. You. You can be. You can. You know, you can pass the guy without pushing him through the corner.

[Travis Pastrana]

You know, different.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Maybe in the three years since SVG has been in nascar, he's learned to push three, you know, push people through the corner because he's tired of, you know, getting it.

[Travis Pastrana]

Remember the race he got out? I think it might have been actually Martin. So he got a bay. Oh, they were rather rude There.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

So you. You said dirty to Conner. Do you still believe that, or was that just here the moment you're talking to your driver?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, I went up to. So that's the. That's the crux of the situation. You had two cars. You own them both. You go, you're gonna go to Victor Lane, you're gonna high five the shit out of SVG and say, hell yeah, brother, great win, but you got to go up to the other guy, and you can't lie to him and say, boy, you got what you deserve there. Or, yeah, now what SVG did was all fair. You got to go up to him and tell him what you really believe. And I. And if I'm in his car and I'm owning that car standing right there, I'm wearing the owner's hat for this car. I've got to go. I didn't expect him to run in the wall over there. That was pretty crummy.

[Travis Pastrana]

You have to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, because that's exactly what happened. And that's exactly how I feel about this car. And then when I walked away from that car to the other car that's in victory lane, I'm gonna tell him the truth about how I feel about his car sitting in victory lane. And, man, I don't. I know that there's owners that find themselves in those scenarios in the cup level, Mr. Gibbs and Rick, and. But it's not.

[Travis Pastrana]

It's not easy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's not easy at all.

[TJ Majors]

Does it change when one driver is full time and points on the line and the other one isn't?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't, you know, I don't know. I don't even think about it. I didn't think about that at all. Connor. I don't look at Connor like, man, the points, the, you know, the cut, you know, the damage to today or anything like that. I'm looking at Connor going, I don't. I don't really don't care what happens this year. I want him to win a championship. If he win a championship with us, great. But I'm looking at Cotter like, Dude, you got 20 badass years in front of you.

[Travis Pastrana]

Exactly.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What are we doing today and what are we telling him today that's going to make sure that his 20 year career is as good as it can be? And so I'm not really going, oh, darn. You know, we. We needed that win. That would have been helpful to the pro, you know, to the playoff point and all this bull. I'm just sitting there going, all right, what Do I go say to this kid so that, you know, he's a better driver tomorrow? And so that was. But that was a pretty interesting experience, to be honest with you.

[Travis Pastrana]

Do you feel like this type of situation between. Because those guys are obviously are going to be.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There's another. Yeah, that's. That's true. I think those two guys that, you know, SVG is not frustrated, but Connor's a little disappointed. Right. At the end of that race. They will be the best of friends. They will push the out of each other in terms of, like, trying to get better and besting each other. Connor will get better and better as a road racer, believe it or not. Could he?

[Travis Pastrana]

Well, you know, I mean, there's a lot to learn from SVG too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, it's going to be insane.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like, and, you know, SVG won't be here for 20 years, and when he moves on, the. Connor Zillich will be the svg, the SVG of the cup series. So, I mean, if all those things work, if everything works out like it.

[TJ Majors]

Should, I think it's gonna be like this big brother, little brother relationship.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes, exactly. And SVG is a great guy.

[Travis Pastrana]

He is.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's a great guy's. A good, good guy, too. Right. And so they. They'll find some common ground. Right. But they will. They will be very. It'll be a lot like Gordon and Johnson. You know, when they were. When they were at hms, they had those races at Martinsville where they get out and go, man, you know.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, a little dirty. They were going. They're going to have those because they're both good and they're both going to be up front.

[TJ Majors]

And you think about it, SVG and Connor basically are on the same, like, what they need to improve. Like, they're both road course. They can. So they can help each other there, but then we're both trying to get better at the oval.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You were right on. You were right on. And so I feel like, again, like, I think that that's going to endear them to each other as they are both. They both have some things that they're trying to accomplish together. And so while that was a while, that was a profound moment on Saturday. It was a. It was a bit of a look into the future, which was kind of fun. Logano Chastain incident. Ross Chestn. Ross Chastain wrecked, I guess destroyed. Yeah. Logano and Stenhouse. And now I bet Ross feels pretty crummy having seen a replay of the. Of how that all went down. Hilarious. The two. The two of Syndrick. Dude, this guy's. I love this guy. Funny guy, but he totally stepped on his right there. And you. And we. We played the replay and the cars. He's hauling ass into turn one. And the rear tires are locked up.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yes, they are.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And he's. It's just like. It was just like Kyle Busch at the wet in Mexico. Mexico. Yeah. But there was no excuse. And it's like that car's going. He's like, oh. And no one in front has any idea what's coming.

[Travis Pastrana]

They're gonna.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah. And so, you know, Ross is the one at the domino at the end of the line. They get knocked into the wall. He's mad, you know, and it all happened so fast. And I was like, oh, Ross is wrecked.

[Travis Pastrana]

And then they all saved it. Like, they made it to the corner.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know I didn't pick up on. He bounces off the wall and just grabs the gear and keeps going and goes down to the corner, dumps the 22. I saw the 22 wreck and I saw Ross wreck him and. But it was just. I don't know, man. I don't know how to. I was sitting there watching this, and I'm going. And then when it all got finished and we get another half a lap into the race, I'm like, Cross is seventh. Like, Ross is still got so fine. He. He came out of that completely fine. The Ross. The most Ross chest thing, Ross Chastain thing ever, right, Is for him to go down into turn one and get bold, you know, get. Get bold into. Into the barrier, bounce off, wreck a couple guys come out of turn to still in the top 10, that is. And Joey being Joey, he's all pissed off.

[TJ Majors]

He just. Ross just randomly. Just short circuits.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Dude, Ross is the kind. Yeah, yeah. I mean, he does. But when Ross went. What I think's interesting is Ross did not for one second go. I wonder if it was him.

[Travis Pastrana]

Oh, he made his mind up right away. Or he just said, that's the.

[TJ Majors]

On a road course, you should be thinking that. Like, you know that the wreck start three back.

[Travis Pastrana]

But you don't know. You don't know that. Like, he instantly just.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He did.

[TJ Majors]

He didn't wait 200ft. His spotter didn't say who it was. He just reacted.

[Travis Pastrana]

He made his mind up right there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And Joey's just kind of like. Joey's just kind of be bopping along.

[Travis Pastrana]

Like he got hit through there a little bit.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Joey's like, hey, okay, everybody, we made it through there. Oh, what the. You know, and so I, I find that pretty interesting. Ross was just like.

[Travis Pastrana]

That was definitely unfair.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's your ass, Joey. I mean, immediately. Yeah, I'm getting your ass.

[Travis Pastrana]

That was it.

[TJ Majors]

Joey then claims that Ross admitted it afterwards and then wants him. Wants him find. Where do you stand on that?

[Travis Pastrana]

Come on.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's kind of like the tree falling in the woods.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. It makes a sound but nobody. If nobody's there to hear it. Does it make a sound? Is that. Was that the question?

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. The only person that's claims that he admitted is Joey.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Ross would have to do that publicly.

[Travis Pastrana]

Joey, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Joey knows that. But Joey Judson, though Joey doesn't really want him find. Joey just needed a reason. He was mad publicly say he admitted wrecking me.

[TJ Majors]

So then when I get him back later, it's like I'm not being the bad guy.

[Travis Pastrana]

I don't think there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Joey just wants you to know. Joey just wants us to know that Ross admitted to doing it. Josh. Joey doesn't care if he gets fined, but Joey just wants us to know that Ross came up to him personally and admitted it. And somehow that might make Joey feel better about it.

[Travis Pastrana]

Do you think Joey feels like he needs to get Ross back?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Joey will probably get Ross back at some point. It might be a year from now. It might be, you know, at some point and we might not even notice or recognize it. But Joey will, you know, something will happen somewhere at a racetrack and it might just be, you know, it might him just be Joey air blocking Ross and cost him a few spots on a restart.

[Travis Pastrana]

Might not be a wreck. It might just be. I'm going to run you hard.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Pastrana]

Dirty a little bit.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Cost Ross a bunch of spots that we don't even recognize. We don't even connect back to this. And Joey will be like if got your way.

[Travis Pastrana]

Does it happen like Denny and Ross at Pocono where Denny puts Ross in a position where, look, I'm not going to wreck you, but I'm going to put you in a spot where if you. They're going to lift, hit the wall and Ross hit the wall.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If we're that. I hope we're that lucky that they. They are in that sort of scenario in the next couple of weeks.

[TJ Majors]

That's. I love when this Ross pops up every 10 races. Like continue this.

[Travis Pastrana]

I miss old Ross. Yeah, Ross used to really stir the pot up pretty good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Travis Pastrana]

He was more aggressive than I thought he was gonna be.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's what I'm saying.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah, well.

[TJ Majors]

And he was on fresher tires too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, yeah, but I'm just saying, like did.

[Travis Pastrana]

It was the first contact in 11 some.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like if Bowman gets, you know, knocked out of shape in a, in a corner, what do you think is. What do you. Every driver, you have a idea in your mind how every driver is going to react to that scenario. And I'm just. I'm a tj. I thought, you know, I wasn't. I saw a little more out of Bowman than I expected in terms of reacting. I liked it. Yeah, it's fine. I liked it too.

[TJ Majors]

I think the build up all week about. With these two kind of probably it's already in his mind and it happens. He's ready. He's ready to go. They interviewed Him.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They interviewed him before, before the race.

[TJ Majors]

Walking to get like there was this whole. The bracket. They were going head to head. So like they talking about this little rivalry they have. So, like it's fresh in his mind and then he does that like. So Alex probably like, you know what?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I, I could only hear that interview pre race, and it sounded friendly, but Marty, who was there, said it was. Said it was, you know, it was not rude or anything, but he said there was still. He said there was still some underlying, underlying unsettled differences because we were listening in our headsets as we're getting ready for our, you know, whatever we're gonna do in the pre race. And it sounded great. They all were like, oh, they're just, they're just, they're just being goofy. But Marty said he could feel some.

[TJ Majors]

Tension and they put the helmets on too, and just changes.

[Travis Pastrana]

So was the first contact an 11 with Alex trying to pass going on?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, from what I know, they were beating on each other, I think through 7, 8, 9.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, for a while.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Pastrana]

Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so, yeah, it'd been back and forth for almost, Almost a full lap and then ended in turn two. Yeah, I think, you know, Bubba, apparently, you know, there's this video of them post race back slapping and, and it looks like it could be a little, you know, if you buddy. If you buddy. But it could be friendly. You don't know. But Bowman says that Bubba came up to him, said, look, man, I thought you were going to cross me over in two. I didn't know you were out there. And I'm not. You know, basically Bubba's saying, hey, it was my. I stuff you in the wall. I get it.

[Travis Pastrana]

It had that look. It had that look of what Bubba was saying. Right? If that's what he said. Yeah, yeah, it did look like. Because he just. It looked like their bumpers crossed and Bubba got to trying to, you know, tank slapping a little bit and.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, well, it was a. Listen, I don't, I don't think that it's. I thought it was good, good hard, hard, hard racing, like as physical as you could get without going over the line of being ridiculous or, or, or foolish. But if Bubba wants to own. Hey, I didn't know you were out there and I thought you were crossing me over and that's how this went down. I wasn't trying to park you in the fence. I thought you were trying to get underneath me. Off of two.

[Travis Pastrana]

I don't think Alex went off that corner, said, I'm wrecking Bubba Right here. I think it just worked out. He said, I'm not cutting any breaks.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. He. Yeah. Alex just decided my nose is in there. I'm going to leave it. Yeah.

[Travis Pastrana]

At this point, nothing wrong with that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Either I want to stay on this rivalry or this pairing because it was part of the bracket. Now, look, we were talking about the. I was talking about the fans that, you know, we were. I was like, I was asked quizzing you guys about, you know, who are these people that are complaining about us going to Chicago? Now I want to quiz you about the people that are complaining about the bracket. Why are you complaining about this bracket? They're the worst. I know. Who. Just don't.

[Travis Pastrana]

Just don't do it. Like, you don't have anything to do with it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, they're. They're people saying that there's too much talk about the bracket, but it's like literally these two guys, Bubba and Bowman, are in this thing for a freaking million dollars. So what all they.

[Travis Pastrana]

Adds to it, they.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They are battling on the racetrack, spinning each other out. And whoever wins that battle is going to advance into the next round. And it's eight drivers, then it's four, then it's. Then it's two for a million bucks. Why and would we not talk about this all week?

[Travis Pastrana]

The PR department's pushing this. Hey, you're up against this guy this week. It's something for them to push. They hear it all.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Listening. We were listening to drivers after the big pile up on in turn between 10 and 11.

[Travis Pastrana]

I know that one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And they were all going, oh, man, there's your guy. There's your bracket buddy. He's. He's. He's all up in this one. And so they're taught, even though they are. They're gonna. Even though the drivers and the teams are gonna, like, you know, hey, okay, it's not priority. It's not the most important thing today. They're still thinking about it. They're still concerned about it. And when they're, you know, when they're sitting there and they're in. The guy they're going up against in the brackets wrecked out of the race, and they're talking about it on the radio. You know, we. We're gonna talk about it ourselves.

[TJ Majors]

It goes back to what your first thing. There's always gonna be a group of people complaining about something.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know, but it don't make any sense to complain about this.

[Travis Pastrana]

Who cares?

[TJ Majors]

Welcome to social media, Dale.

[Travis Pastrana]

It's not changing anything with. It's not changing anything with Their complaining.

[TJ Majors]

About complainers doesn't make sense.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I love to complain. It's a great. It's a good. I mean, complaining about and moaning sometimes feels really good.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, just a, you know, just a. Just to pound the desk and just go off.

[Travis Pastrana]

Ty Dylan wins. Is saying by default. I'm going to complain.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Why, that's perfect.

[Travis Pastrana]

Oh, my gosh. It'll go off the rails.

[TJ Majors]

Ty Dillon has been the best part about the bracket.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's pretty entertaining.

[TJ Majors]

He had another line set up about Brad. Beaten Brad, like kudos to him.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's pretty entertaining. Are you.

[TJ Majors]

Are you just sour?

[Travis Pastrana]

I didn't even see his line. What did he say.

[TJ Majors]

About game of knockout?

[Travis Pastrana]

I didn't. Must have been. Not been that good. You're just sour from the one before.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Sounds like Ty Dillon's got a new fan.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

I'm celebrating Ty Dillon.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So. Yeah, like when. When you get your ass kicked in the playoffs, you root for that. You root for the team that beat your ass to go forward. Because if he wins, it's almost like he finished second. You know what I mean? Like. Well, you know, they knocked us out and they went on and won it. We probably beat all those other teams, too.

[TJ Majors]

Exactly.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. We would have beat Brad.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. There you go.

[Travis Pastrana]

I don't. Before. Did you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Huh.

[Travis Pastrana]

Never got the chance.

[TJ Majors]

Did you still P4.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Okay. Well, I like this bracket.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Even though my guy Buscher got knocked out. What the hell? I told him to pit. They had a chance to come down pit road. Zane Smith comes down, gets his new tires, drives right by us. And then who?

[Travis Pastrana]

Chris?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Pastrana]

Well, Chris had a motor issue, but.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Did you watch the last 20 laps? Zane was.

[Travis Pastrana]

You see what happened when Josevar deleted a bunch of cars in the beginning. I was one of them cars.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know so. Well. Okay, well, toward the end of the race, we pass Zane. I say we. Look, I, I'm. I'm invested in the bracket. That's. We. Yes.

[Travis Pastrana]

I mean, if you're saying we. He's into the bracket.

[TJ Majors]

Bill's on the radio.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And so, you know, we're sitting there with. I don't know, it's like 11 laps to go and. And there was opportunity to pit. Insane Smith and his guys come down pit road, put on tires lined up about eight spots back, and there was a. There was the wreck into one with Chastain and all that bull, and we ran like a lap and a half and the 47 gets off the racetrack and I think the two parked and probably did yeah. The two parks and brings out another yellow. I look at the damn rundown and Zane Smith has went by. We had passed him on the run before this because Zane was struggling for some reason and even with the engine.

[Travis Pastrana]

So there was hope.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, there was hope that.

[Russell]

Well, that's.

[Travis Pastrana]

That's awesome.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That it was butcher and the boys didn't even come down and put tires on it.

[Travis Pastrana]

Maybe they didn't have any.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Damn. Hey, everybody, it's Dale junior And we're live for another episode of Ask junior. You know booming speeds when you see it. Xfinity wi fi is booming like the roar of a NASCAR engine on race day. It gives you the power and the speed of NASCAR in your home. Choose the right plan for you, and you're off to the races. The best streaming experience for all your favorite sports. They don't just raise the bar. They stream in overdrive. Xfinity is a proud premier partner of nascar, and we're off and running. So Andrew's here. Bring in the questions, pal.

[Russell]

Absolutely. This first question, it was probably the most asked question I saw this week, so I can't pinpoint it to a name, but what were your guys's opinion on the caution at the end of the race, the Cody Ware crash?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What was our opinion?

[Russell]

Yeah, like, should NASCAR have thrown the caution earlier? They wait too long.

[Travis Pastrana]

Absolutely.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So there was a wreck earlier in the race where Josh Berry was sitting down in turn seven. Should have been a yellow. He's sitting there, his car's broke.

[Travis Pastrana]

He hit the wall hard.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We waited. We waited for in the entire field to pass the entry to pit road or. I don't exactly know what we were waiting for, but it was a minute, minute and a half that the caution should have been thrown. Some people, like I think bub Wallace, maybe Reddick and a few others duck down the pit road. Is that 21 was sitting there and. And that. You know, that you got to throw the yellow when you know that car is not moving. And so that was like the. That. That right there had everybody sensitive to what happened at the end of the race, at least me. And so when we talk about it earlier in the show, the 51 is in the tire barrier. We cut to see him in the tire barrier. We had cars in the tire barrier last year and the year before. And I thought he locked the brakes up and slid in there. I didn't know he hit the Damn thing at 100 miles an hour. I didn't hear the in car audio either. I'm not sure what information NASCAR had, but I'm assuming they had spotters down there.

[TJ Majors]

They knew. They didn't know how he went in. They just knew that he was under.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, yeah. I think it's a, you know, you got SVG, what, in the middle of 11 and 12. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think it was like.

[Travis Pastrana]

15 seconds or something from knowing everything we know now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, it's easy to say an hour, two hours later, when we watch all those videos of the 51 hitting the wall at 100 mile an hour, you look like a missile going into the corner. You couldn't even make it out that it was a car. He's going so fast. Absolutely. It's easy to say, you're damn right. You got to throw the yellow. The guys, you know.

[Travis Pastrana]

We have seen cars hit it and bounce off and kind of keep going, though, before.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I mean, we. We didn't know he hit it.

[Travis Pastrana]

I know. Exactly. That's what I'm saying.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

When you look at that, you, you. He was stuffed in the tires pretty good. But so was, you know, Larson last year. Right.

[Russell]

And that was the thing. I talked to NASCAR about this after the race, and they referenced that they gave Larson the same opportunity to attempt to back out, but didn't. So they were giving him the chance. Obviously, they hadn't seen him back out, but that was one thing that they did buy from last year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

My biggest problem with the 51 wreck is that none of us knew it was as bad as it was.

[Travis Pastrana]

Absolutely.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's my biggest problem, is that none of us knew NASCAR didn't know. I didn't know. And that's. That's where we don't have enough bodies in place or, you know, their need there. That part of the racetrack where you have the turn one coming and driving, you have turn one and turn six, like they're. They're right there together. You know, that. That would be a very easy place to have someone.

[Travis Pastrana]

Sure.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Standing. That's a spotter for debris or wrecks or anything else. A car stuck in a barrier. Right. You could have one person able to basically look at almost 20% of the racetrack and cover all of the spaces. If that had been. And maybe there was a person there and they didn't see it. But I just. My problem isn't. You know, my problem is we absolutely should have known the minute he hit that wall that he hit it at 100 mile an hour. And it's violent, and it was scary, and it was. It was. It was a matter of how quick can that Person get on the. But the button to nascar, to the tower and say hard wreck. Hard wreck. Like he's not moving. Yeah, yeah. Out of this barrier. And then. Then that quickly, you know, gives them the opportunity to throw the yellow. The yellow comes out and get to him. Yeah, we get to him. And if we got to have a green white checker, we got to have a green white checker. If the rain this. I guess there's this little conversation that NASCAR didn't want to throw it because there was weather coming and they didn't want the race ruined or whatever. I don't believe that.

[Travis Pastrana]

I don't either.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Now, NASCAR's not. Not thinking all of those variables, right? They're just trying to let the race finish as they would any other way.

[Travis Pastrana]

If they throw the O and he backs out, but yeah, and SVG gets punted into the first corner, then that's not a good ending.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The thing with NASCAR is, is they try. They will listen to. They've. They react off of fan reaction. And so there'll be a race somewhere where they throw the caution early. Right. Or throw the immediately. And they shouldn't have. Or they could have let it play out. Right. Why didn't you let them run on around? That was fine. The wreck was on the back straight away, they're coming to the checkered, you know, and then they'll go, okay, all right, well, next time we're going to let it play out. And so they try to let it play out, and then they get, you know, they get, you know, their toe stepped on here because the guy hit the Damn wall at 100 mile an hour and they should have thrown the yellow because he was needing some assistance, you know. And so I. That what people are asking for is consistency, but they're not always going to love that call, you know. And so I would say that NASCAR needs to err on the side of safety and get. To get to the driver. Right. We don't know if he hit the wall at 10 mile an hour, 100 mile an hour, but he's wrecked, and let's get to him. Okay? And so if you err on that, if you err on that extreme right, you're going to throw the caution immediately every time. And there will be some moments when people do not like that because they want the race to continue because they saw that it's not a very serious accident. And they believe, you know, by. By judgment and just optics that the guy is probably fine, you know, and.

[Travis Pastrana]

So especially if it changes the outcome of the race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Like you. NASCAR tries to like, give it a sh. Give it a chance. Right.

[Russell]

Yeah. You know, to try and get. Especially on a road course or green flag.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Finish and so. But in this situation, that was not the right choice. Yeah. You know, and so they're. They're going to get scolded for that. And I believe it's, you know, it's kind of warranted because of the severity of the wreck. But I'm more bothered that we didn't know the wreck was severe. That's frustrating. And that's just because we didn't have either enough bodies on the ground out there to. To spot that right.

[Travis Pastrana]

When it happens.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

When it happens.

[Travis Pastrana]

Sure.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And it's a street course. There's no booth. I can't see it.

[Russell]

Like the visibility is probably.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Visibility is the worst. That is the worst scenario of all.

[TJ Majors]

Track NASCAR should have a per. A body watching camera, a TV for every turn or something.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Maybe it's not that hard.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Pastrana]

I mean, it's probably a little more difficult than what you think, but I.

[TJ Majors]

Mean, how many 10 are there?

[Travis Pastrana]

You think the track should be 100% covered.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, with some eyes, but it's not. Dude. TJ spotting in the front straightaway. And I just know this because of Xfinity race. TJ's on the front straightaway spotting. He's on top of the grandstands and he can look out in front of him and see the racetrack, but he can see nothing that way and nothing that way.

[TJ Majors]

But they literally put out a video right before the race about race control and how they have cameras at every turn and they can see everything. Well then have somebody watching all of those. So that happens.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I feel like that that is where the ball. That's where the ball got dropped. Or that's where the problem is, is not so much. Should they have thrown the yellow? It's not that. It's like we. We should have known the crash was bad immediately. Right. Like we should know the severity of the wreck first. Right. Right. When it happens to all to. To common sense applies then that. Yes. Throw the yellow. And so that was what was missing on Sunday.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah, we had. We had decent coverage spotter wise. The wreck we were in with host of our. The spotter that I had over there on the symphony hall, he saw the wreck right when I been. And called it. But with street racing like any. Like you see every now and then track gets blocked a little bit and it just happened. That happened. So I feel pretty good about the coverage there Are spots that you want to see a little bit better. But for safety like that to get to guys when they need help, I think there should be complete coverage.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Russell]

Let's go to the next question. It's from Mike, but not.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not our mic. A different mic.

[Russell]

He wants to know there were a bunch of drivers that posted that they tried the NASCAR 25 game last week. Did you get a chance to play it?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No. No, I wasn't here.

[Travis Pastrana]

We heard you did.

[Russell]

I did.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was working.

[Travis Pastrana]

So tell us about it.

[TJ Majors]

He should have been working, too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was not playing. Now, I was wanting to ask you about this. So I saw the social media of the drivers that came through, and they were. This was at Junior Motorsports. Yeah, right.

[Travis Pastrana]

We were jealous.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I guess Byron's tried it. Raja, Sammy Smith. Sammy Smith, Noah. No. A handful of drivers. Right. So nobody has any race footage, Game footage.

[Russell]

I think there's one screenshot of.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

When you. When you were here. What did you see?

[Russell]

I saw Stephen was practicing when I walked up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Stephen who?

[Russell]

Stefan.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay.

[Russell]

He was. He was practicing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's running practice during work hours.

[TJ Majors]

I'm glad a lot of work was getting done last week.

[Russell]

Hey, this is. This is work because we're talking about it now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay. Loving this so far. Keep going.

[Russell]

So he was practicing. He gave me the remote. I ran like a practice lap. And then we were at Charlotte. I was racing as Justin Allgaier.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay.

[Russell]

And the.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The AI Justin, or real life Justin.

[Travis Pastrana]

Just driving his car like.

[Russell]

Yeah, I was driving the seven.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You said you were racing with as. Oh, as. Yeah.

[Russell]

So then the iracing guys are like, okay, go to the race. So I got to see the, like, pre race menu screen. I got to see like the garage stall. Even, like when the race started, I got to see like the car up on pit road. And it felt good. It felt good. The difficulty, I think, was on the easier setting. So I had to like, well, it is you.

[Travis Pastrana]

So I suspect.

[Russell]

Yeah, yeah.

[Travis Pastrana]

Well, all right.

[Russell]

I had to, like, let off the gas, but I wanted to race in the field. The damage was really good. I like, rear ended Brandon Jones and you could see the back end of his car was dented in. You could feel the dirty air. Tires got worse as it went on. So, I mean, all the things you'd want in the game.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Were you here with the Noah's and Rob Rajas were trying it.

[Russell]

I was here when Noah tried it. I didn't see Raja.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All the drivers got off of this deal and got on social media and were like, Raving, about how great it was. Do you think that they embellished?

[Russell]

I would say it's the best NASCAR console game we had in the last 10 years.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Have you played them? Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, I've played.

[Russell]

I mean I, I, my favorite game was NASCAR 15.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

And this is the best one I've.

[TJ Majors]

Played since the word he used that I thought, I think is the best way for non racers is it didn't feel arcade curling. I think that is a good way to explain it for non racing people like you guys.

[Russell]

I was able to run the top, the bottom but it didn't feel like I was exactly to Travis's point. I was playing on an arcade game which I think unfortunately some of the older games like the NASCAR Heat games felt that way. This did not feel like that you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Weren'T just going to go bowling through the field and win.

[Russell]

No. I mean yeah, you had to earn it. You had to let off the gas in the, in the corners which again these are the things you want. But I feel like in the NASCAR Heat games it didn't, that that kind of stuff didn't really matter. So I think, I think this is going to be a good game for people who are beginners because you could put assists on and all that. But if you're a diehard fan, someone who's been iracing, I think you're going to like it too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Well I'm excited about it. I think it's going to be a great game. And me and TJ were talking about college football 25 and 26. The 26 just came out. 26 has a ton of new developments. Right. They released 25 and it was like the comeback but it had, you know, but it was sort of more of a basic version of a very good game. Right. And had some things.

[Travis Pastrana]

They did a good job.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But they did a great job. We've played it for a whole year and we're still playing it in this dynasty.

[Travis Pastrana]

Absolutely.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

26 is coming out and there's a ton of new additions and real.

[Travis Pastrana]

They went way deeper, fine tuned it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And I believe that that will be the same path that 25 NASCAR 25 takes is the rebirth of the console. The good console game out of the NASCAR genre is going to be a solid number, you know, a solid first chapter. And then as they, you know there's a ten year plan. Right. Next year a lot of new additional accessories and so forth will be added and things will get more immersive. But I'm excited about it too. I Think it's going to. I think it'll please a lot of people.

[Russell]

Yeah, no, that, that, that is actually exactly the case. I've already talked to some of the iracing people and they're telling me there's things they can't get in this game, but they want to get in the next one. So to your point exactly. That, that I think some mentality. This next question coming from Jay, you know, we had Josh Snyder on the show last week and you told that great story of picking TJ up from Buffalo. So tj, this guy Jay wants to know what was your perspective of Dale and Josh Snyder and everyone picking you up from Buffalo?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, they were down here.

[Travis Pastrana]

I don't. I didn't hear all the details of it, but I. They were supposed to be there about at 8 o' clock at night and ended up being like 8 o' clock in the morning in the middle of a Snowstorm.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So, yeah, 12 hour trip turned into a 22 hour trip.

[Travis Pastrana]

Well, and they didn't. There was no. Look at your phone for a map. It was literally an atlas that you had.

[Russell]

Follow the compass.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah. And I'm on there. They were calling me, hey, if we get on this road, will it lead. Lead us? Lead. Lead us to you or whatever. And I'm getting on the computer and trying to look up where. I'm like, where are you at again? And there's. It's really hard.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hard.

[Travis Pastrana]

But it was.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We would tell him where we were. Yeah.

[Russell]

In dc, Right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It would be like no delay. And he'd go, why are y' all on that road?

[Travis Pastrana]

Like, get in the car and drive north. That's all you have to do. You end up on the East Coast.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And we're like. He's like, he's like, okay, okay, okay. Y' all gotta turn right up here. Y' all gotta turn. You gotta turn on this road.

[Travis Pastrana]

It went from.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And we're in the truck. We're in the truck and we're just like, we're not turning right. We're just.

[Travis Pastrana]

It went from. It was like KMER San Diego. Like, where's Karma? San Diego?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like, you gotta get on. You gotta get on 85, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, dude, I'm like, yo, is that. Is that a four lane? Yes, T. I'm tj. Is that a four lane? Yeah, we're not getting on that.

[Russell]

Yeah, because you were taking interstate too.

[Travis Pastrana]

It was like, all right. It. They would say, well, we're in Washington D.C. now. I'm like, okay, I Don't know how you get there on the way here. And then it went from that to like, all right, so they're moving along now. They're going to be all right. You should be crossing. Where are you at now? Gettysburg. I'm like, oh, my God. Oh, my gosh. Are you serious?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like, in the middle of the night? Not like.

[Travis Pastrana]

No, that's the thing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not like psychseeing in the afternoon, like, rolling up.

[Russell]

Oh, I think we're at Gettysburg.

[Travis Pastrana]

What was the direction. What was the direction thing everyone used to use?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, it's the eternal flame. Oh, my gosh.

[Travis Pastrana]

What was the computer direction thing everyone used to use? It. It wasn't Google Maps back then. It was MapQuest. Well, compass.

[Russell]

I mean, yeah, the stars.

[Travis Pastrana]

So they get there in the middle of a snowstorm. We get back, and we ended up just taking.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I want to ask you a question.

[Travis Pastrana]

Oh, I don't know if I want to answer this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You knew we're driving for 22 hours to get you.

[Travis Pastrana]

No, I knew you were driving about 22 is not what I was expecting. So you earned what you get.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But we drove for 22 hours while you watched us. You know, on your little. On your map, you knew weeks ahead of time we were coming up there. Yeah. We get to your house and you didn't have a thing packed. First of all. You didn't have one thing.

[Travis Pastrana]

First of all, it's the middle of a snowstorm. It's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What does it have to do with me?

[Travis Pastrana]

It's 20 degrees outside. The amount of stuff that I brought back could probably fit in this table, so whatever.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Exactly.

[Russell]

And it didn't take much to pack it up.

[Travis Pastrana]

Exactly. So there shouldn't. Shouldn't have been hard.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We got there, he's got this little trailer. We're going to hook up the. To the back of the dually. And I peek in there and I'm like, where's your.

[Travis Pastrana]

I mean, this is.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I haven't put it in there yet. We go upstairs to his room, and his room is like, he ain't moving. He's not moving. Everything's where it's supposed to be. I'm like, you not even got your clothes out of your closet?

[Travis Pastrana]

No, I had all that. I had all that ready. He's exaggerated. I had all that ready.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's like, oh, I ain't bringing none of that stuff. I'm like, where. How are you going to live? Like, what do you think's going to happen?

[Travis Pastrana]

I was moving into a place that had the only thing I Brought like, you're gonna move.

[Russell]

I brought all my Fully furnished.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's what he thought fully furnished meant. He didn't have clothes, underwear.

[Russell]

Where's my toothbrush, Dale? You're like, I'll give you the clothes off my back. I'll help you.

[Travis Pastrana]

The only. Literally, the only thing I really cared about and I wasn't gonna put in there was my computer, and I wasn't putting that thing out there in. In, you know, 15 degree temperatures. So. Yeah, but. Yeah, it was an interesting trip.

[Russell]

My favorite part about that story that you told last week was you stop at a hotel and you leave the trailer in the parking lot, and TJ Was worried about leaving it there, and you're like.

[Travis Pastrana]

That was my. I had a computer in there. That was my life.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You had a computer?

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah. You could take my clothes, man. I don't care about them.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

This is like 2001 computer. Not like.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah, I mean, it's like, yeah, but we had. Remember, we got them.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It had racing on it, iracing.

[Travis Pastrana]

Not even eye racing at that point, but it had. Yeah. I mean, that was everything, though, to me. So I know.

[Russell]

Did you. Did you race the luggage carts? Were you part of that on the way back? So that was the first cops.

[Travis Pastrana]

That was the first time that I was like, what am. What have I gotten into here?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Because. Because it wasn't when we were at the bar that had opened the half bar, half strip club earlier and the fight was going on. Yeah. That wasn't when you thought, what if I got myself into it was racing.

[Travis Pastrana]

The luggage carts with the police that whole night, when. How we got there, how we got back. The holes in the wall, the hotel hall. I don't know if you said anything about that, but they're putting holes in the wall.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

In the hotel.

[Travis Pastrana]

Because the corner of the luggage cars.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The luggage carts went through the wall in the hall of the hotel.

[Travis Pastrana]

And I'm like. I'm like, yeah, you're right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah. This. That's. That whole night was like, this is the rest of my life. This is gonna be good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Wow. What a hangover. That next day.

[Travis Pastrana]

That was a bad day. That was hard.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That next day, waking up in a random hotel in Ohio.

[Travis Pastrana]

It was West Virginia.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

West Virginia. And going, God, we got, what, 12 hours to get. 10 hours to get home or whatever.

[Travis Pastrana]

I don't even know what it was. Yeah, it was. That was. That was a long time.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You were like, okay.

[Travis Pastrana]

I think it took longer to just get this over. It took longer to get from there back to North Carolina than it did for them to drive all the way up. Like, that trip home from there down North Carolina was long.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Pastrana]

And painful, but it was an exciting. I mean, we'll never forget it.

[TJ Majors]

Did you ever get a brand?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No.

[Travis Pastrana]

I would always do the Irish goodbyes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Whenever they could see the brand coming.

[Travis Pastrana]

I'm out.

[Russell]

You could smell it, like, when they.

[Travis Pastrana]

Redid Josh's like, oh, that wasn't going to do it again. And I'm like, you could smell it? And I was like, yeah, I'm getting out of here.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay. Yeah. Wow.

[Travis Pastrana]

It was.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. TJ would. Where's tj? Yeah, your name's got. Where's he at?

[Russell]

And yours is on your arm, right?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Everybody got it on their arm. 1 of 1.

[Travis Pastrana]

Could you imagine doing it twice in a row, like, right after one another? You just did it and like, oh, let's do that again.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I mean, the flame of the torch cleans it up. Yeah. But for the next guy.

[Russell]

Yeah, that sounds.

[Travis Pastrana]

No, I'm talking about Josh doing it back to back. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Doing back to back for Josh is crazy.

[Travis Pastrana]

Oh, my gosh. When I saw that, I'm like, josh.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Now, Let me. Let me get. Let me tell you all about Josh. All right. We didn't tell this part before the brand. The reason why the brand came about is because Josh, some, at some point in his life, had taken a bottle cap, like a. Just a bottle cap and did the Olympic rings.

[Travis Pastrana]

What?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes, with a bottle cap. Oh, he got. You know, he's feeling very patriotic during the Olympics one year and heated up a damn bottle cap and did the Olympic rings.

[Travis Pastrana]

I mean, I wanted them to ask.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so we. He. And he used to. We'd be like. We'd be somewhere, and we're like, josh, show him your Olympic ring. Oh, yeah.

[Russell]

He played.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah. He'd be like.

[Russell]

He competed.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And we're like. Then, you know, because it looked hideous and we're. And so that's what really kind of got the gears turning in our head. But I was like, man, I got a brander for a steak. It's dmp. We're all.

[Travis Pastrana]

It was for steak.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It was for stake. We're all boys here. Let's do this, man. Let's get branded.

[Travis Pastrana]

Do you. Do you remember the time that I wasn't there for this, but Josh told me about it when I. When we lived together for a little bit. Do you. You and Josh were taking some trash out and Josh is in the back here as ten.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

God almost killed him. Oh, My God.

[Travis Pastrana]

He pops the clutch and takes off.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And Josh was in the back. So we were. We had had a party. Get up. The next morning, we're taking the trash, all the beer cans and bottles to the trash to the dump. So right across the street from my house was dei. And we're going over there, their big dumpster, to throw our cans in. And so we drive over there and we're. We. We dump the cans in the trash can, and we dump the cans in the. In the dumpster. And I'm in my little S10 pickup truck. And it's a. It's a. It wasn't. It was a automatic.

[Travis Pastrana]

You took off. Whatever.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It was an automatic. And so we pull up to the gate and wait for the gate to open up to let us out. We're driving back across the street. Josh is standing in the bed holding the trash can. Instead of, like, sitting down, he's standing in the bed of this truck. And I have forgotten that he is even there. And his tj. And of course, you know, we're at a start. We're at a standing start. I'm gonna freaking do a burnout. And I put it in drive and I damn ran that thing up and let off the gas. And Josh cartwheels out of the back of this truck and lands on his back. Wow. Oh, my gosh. I'm glad. And he popped right up.

[Travis Pastrana]

Hey.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Wow.

[Travis Pastrana]

He said. He laid there and you're like, josh, you hurt? And he just said, well, just let me lay here for a little bit.

[Russell]

Oh, my God. That is hilarious. Thanks to Xfinity for sponsoring this segment.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Thank y'. All. I appreciate everybody for. For joining us here. I've been watching the live chat, and I appreciate everybody. Some folks have said some great things about the Becoming Earnhardt series. The sixth and final episode comes out Sunday, and I've listened to them. This is. This series. I love the first one that, you know, Alex tens. And the team's done an incredible job on season two. It's even better than season one. So hopefully y' all will check it out. And they're really bri. You know, they're really short, consumable, 30, 40 minute episodes. So anyways, awesome stuff there. Anyways, thank you to Xfinity WI Fi for bringing us today's Ask Junior segment. In racing and in life, speed isn't optional. It's expected. As a driver in an Xfinity series, team owner, I rely on things that perform under pressure, and that's why we use Xfinity WI fi. Fast, dependable Internet. One price locked in for five years. No contracts, no slowdowns, no nonsense. Xfinity, proud premier partner of nascar. Lace your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Place your bets. All right, it's time for Dirty Mode. Oh, without Tampa Tim's. Boo. Tampa Tim's is in Mexico. And what part of Mexico do you go to?

[TJ Majors]

Cancun.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Travis. He went to Cancun. But we do have Russell, and since Russell's here, I mean, that's probably the most important part. Anyways, Tampa Tim's. Does it do nothing but win and lose bets? Doesn't really offer any really good insight.

[TJ Majors]

Came close to hitting our manufacturer parlay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We came close. God almighty. More disappointment.

[TJ Majors]

Your favorite driver screwed it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Bush. You ruined it.

[Unknown]

Yeah, I didn't want to say anything.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's so frustrating. Well, SVG and Ty Gibbs did a good job, but two out of three does not win us any money. So we're headed to Sonoma. We won't talk about Chicago since we lost our manufacturer parlay. Did anybody win anymore? Did you bet?

[TJ Majors]

So I do know. Somebody tweeted at us. They put pre or I forget who they put the Ford in. They actually hit their parlay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Congratulations.

[TJ Majors]

So people are listening. Maybe they're just tweaking.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm great. You know what? You don't have to tell ours. Just make a parlay and see if you can win. Yeah, I'm proud. I'm happy for you.

[Travis Pastrana]

Great job on that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. SVG is a betting favorite going into Sonoma. He's never raced there in the cup car, as he mentioned, but he has some Xfinity experience. I wonder if the field. I wonder if it'll be similar to, you know, other road courses like Watkins Glen, where the field is more closer. You'd have to guess and assume that it's not a clear cut. And as. As maybe Chicago was. But what's the predictor say there? Russell?

[Unknown]

Yeah, I agree. The predictor has him third, but it's only because he didn't race there. So it's Larson and Bell ahead of him, and then Chase, Elliott, Redick, and Almonding are behind him.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Larson?

[Unknown]

Yeah, he won there last year. He's got two wins there. You don't like Larson there?

[Travis Pastrana]

I actually really struggle.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What is his average? Yeah, what is his average finish since the Indy 500? It feels like, if I had to guess, it's like eighth. And I don't know that, you know, how many. How many top fives has he had since Indy?

[Unknown]

He only has one top five. It's Way worse than eight.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Eight. Oh, it's way worse than.

[Travis Pastrana]

Oh, I wouldn't have guessed that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So, yeah, I'm not betting on that. The, you know, so that's a tough one. So Sonoma, I would say that I like Byron better. I know Byron, who had a lot of speed and practice at Chicago before he wrecked. He had great speed at Pocono. The team seems to be peaking and he, you know, I remember him driving away winning a stage there a couple of years ago when I think Chad Canals was his crew chief. But. So I think it can go there and be fast. They pitted that car and called that race to lose because they, they wanted the stage points and the stage wins. But. So I don't look, I don't. I wouldn't look at Byron's results and go, you know. Yeah, that's a, that's kind of what I think. You look at his results with a grain of salt because of the way they may have called the races.

[Unknown]

Yeah, but that was a long time ago. That was like 2019.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know, man.

[Unknown]

Like, since then he still, he hasn't been good there, though. This is, this is not a good track.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not a good track for him.

[Unknown]

And he's, he's in the worst three race streak of his career.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't love the Larson bet. Like, give me some more. Give me something to feel good about.

[Unknown]

What about Michael McDowell?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Michael McDowell has got a chip on his shoulder coming out of Chicago.

[Unknown]

Yeah, Runner up there last year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Runner up NASCAR at Sonoma.

[Unknown]

Sonoma, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Runner up there last year. All right.

[Travis Pastrana]

Ward McDowell run at CODA.

[Unknown]

He was 11th at CODA. He ran outside the top 10. Like he was almost 20th running all day.

[Travis Pastrana]

See that, that, that. I'm be hesitant to take him at a place like Sonoma then, but I don't know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're going to have one. I don't know that you can pick a driver that you're going to feel amazing about. You have to. All of this is going to be a little bit of a risk.

[TJ Majors]

What about Ty Gibbs?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I love Ty Gibbs, dude. He's been crushing it at the road courses this year. Ty gives. Would probably be my Ty Giz. Would. Might be our Toyota parlay.

[Travis Pastrana]

Probably. Yeah. Maybe Bell.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I don't know. C. Bell's been off a little bit.

[Unknown]

Yeah. I would still go with C. Bell, though.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Really? Okay. Yeah.

[Unknown]

Gibbs has not run particularly well here either. This has not been one of his better road courses.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So strange because he's been great at the road courses over the Last handful of weeks, but you think he'll just go to this one and just not run well, usually when like, it's. So you had Busher win here or run second to Suarez and, you know, I don't look at this track and go, man, is a great track for Suarez. They were just on something that day and that's the way I look at Gibbs now. They're just on something now. He's good at road courses, but they've also given him something that the rest of the series doesn't have. And so I think they carry that into Sonoma and I think he still runs, you know, top five.

[Travis Pastrana]

Maybe.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And I feel like whatever Christopher Bill had at the start of the year, he's just not got right now.

[Travis Pastrana]

I think if you win somewhere like at Sonoma, Daniel's looking forward to going back here, so he has a little extra motivation here, too. So I think it's Suarez.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, I was just using him as an example.

[Travis Pastrana]

I'm just saying I think he could run good here.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, no, I don't know. They ain't really that fast and they've made it aware that he's not coming back. And it's kind of a lame duck situation where I don't think that they'll have the energy and the, the, you know, the focus and the preparation and all that stuff will be just a little off. And it's such a fine line here if you just, if you don't bring all of it, you know, 20th all day to get exposed. Yeah. What about Reddick? Yeah, I like Reddick a lot, especially after how he ran this past weekend. Maybe I put Reddick as my top. What is that what the predictors telling you?

[Unknown]

Well, it would, it would be Bell according to the predictor. Yeah. So the next one would be Reddick. And, you know, looking at the scores, you can intertwine them. Either. Either.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Reddick is our Toyota. Who's our forward? Is it going to be Butcher?

[Unknown]

The problem with Ford is on the predictor. I only have like, Busher's the only forward in the top 11.

[Travis Pastrana]

I feel like. I feel like Busher was going to be very competitive at Chicago, so it'd be hard for not to. And maybe he's got a little more motivation this week, too, just to rebound.

[TJ Majors]

So a little more motivation. I think that's a dumb thing. Like, can you be more motivated to win?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think I'll try harder.

[Travis Pastrana]

I'm going to really try this week. It's just different when I. I don't know, I just think it's different. You get, you go. You look forward to, like, getting back there, and you got a little edge to yourself. I don't know. But motivation.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm just gonna make a decision. We're going Bucher, Reddick.

[Travis Pastrana]

SVG, McDowell. Oh, my gosh.

[TJ Majors]

I like this from a betting standpoint, too, A little better.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Number two. Yeah. Yeah. SVG's odds won't really help us.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, SVG to win is plus 140. Next best is Larson at 500. McDowell's plus 1100.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. McDowell, Redick, and Busher. Which is the better. Which is the tougher odds, I think. Gibbs, reddick.

[TJ Majors]

Gibbs is 1100. Redick is 1400. Bell's 1400.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Wow. We'll take Reddick. All right, Reddick.

[Travis Pastrana]

Pretty good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Reddick, Busher, McDowell. That's the parlay for the manufacturer. Let's look at the bracket challenge. Alex Bowman versus Ty Dillon. Do you dare go against Ty Dillon?

[Unknown]

I mean, I think. I think they're. The numbers say absolutely not, but I think when you look at what happened with him and Bubba this weekend, you know, is there going to be any retaliation or is going to be a clean slate for them?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I'm going to take Bowman. Ty Gibbs versus Zane Smith. I'm going to go with Ty Gibbs. Tyler Reddick versus Ryan Priest. This might not be as clear a cut as you think. Priest has had some good strength on the road courses. Was able to put it all together this past weekend, but I still think Reddick can, Can. Can just have the pace necessary at the end. John Undernecheck and Erik Jones, two teammates going at it out of Legacy Motor Club.

[Unknown]

Man, this is a really close one. Yeah, I think has. Has the edge, but. But I think it's. It's pretty close.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah, I. I think I'm leaning towards Jones.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm gonna go Jones.

[Travis Pastrana]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Speaking of Eric Jones, he was on the door. Bumper clear. Yeah. Did he address why he wrecked Josh Barry?

[Travis Pastrana]

I heard he did.

[TJ Majors]

Dalton, did he address?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What do you say?

[TJ Majors]

Come over here.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Was there some contact that pre meditated or pre whatever? I don't think it was premeditated. I think he. He admitted to slipping up a little bit and just diving too, too much to the inside and catching him. That's all. Yeah, damn right, my buddy.

[TJ Majors]

Careful. Don't admit too much. It'll get fine for talking on a podcast.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, Russell, thank you for coming in and helping us out today.

[Unknown]

No problem.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. That Dirty Modo segment was brought to you by Fanduel the premier gaming destination in the United States of America. It's time for the white flag. The teardown was live on YouTube and Twitter following the race and door bumper. Clear. Dropped on Monday as usual with Erik Jones as our guest. And he's still alive in that bracket. Challenge for a million bucks and going up against his teammate this weekend. Nonetheless, nonetheless, actions detrimental. Dropped on Monday as well. Denny gave us his dishonest opinion about what happened between Bubba and Alex Bowman.

[TJ Majors]

Not true.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

True. My guest interview will drop tomorrow. This week's guest is Carson Josevar. Really looking forward to asking Carson why he crashed at Chicago. He crashed hard.

[Travis Pastrana]

Big crash, right, tj Yep. Crashed really hard.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He created a log jam.

[TJ Majors]

Traffic jam.

[Travis Pastrana]

Traffic jam in the streets of Chicago.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Also dropping on Wednesday is Speed street and Herman Schrader. And Thursday, another episode of Bless yous Heart where I complain about people who park in the pickup. Reserved pickup spots at the grocery store and walk in.

[TJ Majors]

Back in studio, right? Is Amy back in the studio with Amy?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And Sunday, the final episode of becoming Earnhardt. The 1980 season. As we celebrate Dad's first championship, we will be releasing episode six, the final episode of a six episode series. And it's amazing. Everyone should listen.