Cleetus McFarland’s Gift & Return to Rockingham

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Dale Jr. Download – Episode: "Cleetus McFarland’s Gift & Return to Rockingham"

Release Date: April 22, 2025

In this engaging episode of The Dale Jr. Download, host Dale Earnhardt Jr. delves into personal anecdotes, racing strategies, and reflections on recent events in the NASCAR world. The episode prominently features conversations with co-hosts TJ Majors and Travis, exploring themes of gratitude, track performance, and the evolving landscape of racing. Below is a detailed summary structured into key sections, complete with notable quotes and timestamps for reference.

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1. Cleetus McFarland’s Gift

Dale Earnhardt Jr. (DJ) begins the episode by sharing a heartfelt story about his collaboration with Cleetus McFarland, a well-known figure in the racing community.

• DJ discusses their joint project at Talladega:

  • "I was like, hey man, let's go to Talladega. And he went. So he, he went and raced at Daytona, had a good time, all that stuff crashed out and I liked that he's, he's trying to do it..." (00:29)

• Gift of Swans:

  • DJ reveals that Cleetus gifted him two swans for his pond in Florida, emphasizing the thoughtfulness behind the present.
  • "Cletus got a present from some friends or somehow he got some swans, he's got a pond out of his house down where he lives in Florida..." (14:34)
  • The swans, named Cleo and George, are described as a beautiful and lasting addition to DJ's home.

2. Return to Rockingham

The discussion shifts to the recent race at Rockingham, where DJ and his team participated in the Cars Tour.

• Track Conditions and Performance:

  • DJ praises the condition of the Rockingham racetrack, noting improvements and the positive atmosphere despite financial uncertainties.
  • "That Rock, you know, it looked like the racetrack was in really great shape... It checked all the boxes." (25:57)

• Race Reflections:

  • DJ expresses mixed feelings about the race's outcome, highlighting both strategic successes and frustrating incidents.
  • "I thought Rockingham was great. I thought there were points where the race was entertaining, but how the race came down and ended... it was ugly." (46:47)

• Fuel Management Issues:

  • A significant portion of the conversation revolves around fuel management challenges that led to multiple car wrecks.
  • "There was one moment in that race where I was very proud of the job Sammy did... but I also felt like the end was a bit ugly." (56:33)

3. Racing Strategies and Challenges

The co-hosts delve into the intricacies of racing strategies, particularly focusing on fuel management and car performance on specific tracks.

• Next Gen Cars at Rockingham:

  • DJ critiques the compatibility of Next Gen cars with Rockingham's layout, suggesting that the track may not showcase the cars' potential effectively.
  • "You can't chase it there. There's nowhere to go... that being able to run different lines is going to be all but impossible." (30:26)

• Tire Performance on New Surfaces:

  • The discussion touches on tire durability and safety concerns on newly repaved tracks.
  • "They have to build a tire that's safe, and they have to err on the side of safety more so than they would at a place that's got some age on it." (32:57)

4. Hall of Fame Nominations

A segment is dedicated to the NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2026, where DJ and his co-hosts review the nominees and share their perspectives on deserving candidates.

• Nominees Overview:

  • "They added former champion Kurt Busch and Randy Lajoy to the ballot for the first time... Jake Elder, Ray Hendrick, Banjo Matthews, Larry Phillips, Bob Welburn." (75:11)

• Candidate Discussions:

  • Harry Gant is highlighted for his charismatic presence and significant impact on the sport.
    • "Harry Gant would be one of the guys that I would pick... he established a reputation that exceeded the boundaries of our sport." (79:28)
  • Ray Hendrick and Larry Phillips are also discussed as strong contenders due to their championship records and contributions to racing.

• Debate on Criteria:

  • The co-hosts debate the criteria for selection, emphasizing the importance of championships versus overall influence and legacy.
    • "If you win a championship, your lockdown like Kurt Busch is going to go in the Hall of Fame... but there's a lot of guys on here that have won a lot of races and have been championship careers." (75:57)

5. Personal Anecdotes and Experiences

DJ shares personal stories from his racing career, illustrating the lessons learned and the importance of perseverance.

• Missed Shifts and Learning Moments:

  • Reflecting on past mistakes, DJ underscores the necessity of practice and mental preparation.
    • "I missed a shift at my very first race back in the late model stock car at Wilkesboro... it made me go, man, I better practice at every restart going down the back straightaway." (58:38)

• Sim Racing Benefits:

  • The conversation explores how sim racing can aid in developing racecraft and decision-making skills.
    • "I think that the sim can help you cipher through like choices that you shouldn't make and things you shouldn't do so that you don't take those to the racetrack and actually do them in a real race." (98:57)

6. Upcoming Events and Guest Announcements

Towards the end of the episode, DJ announces upcoming guest Rick Allen and promotes future content related to NASCAR insights and personal stories.

• Guest Introduction:

  • "We'll all be back next week reacting to Talladega... Rick Allen is going to be our guest for tomorrow on The Dale Jr. Download." (120:00)

• Farewell and Final Thoughts:

  • DJ closes the episode by encouraging listeners to engage with the show's content and merchandise.
    • "Don't forget to head over to shop.dirtymomedia.com to check out all our new merch... Enjoy the show." (119:00)

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Notable Quotes

• Dale Earnhardt Jr.:

  • "I didn't expect such a cool gift." (14:34)
  • "Sometimes you get suspended or you get hurt or whatever it is, and you're going to miss some races. It sucks." (02:58)
  • "I'm too consumed by trying to make it perfect and having a great, you know, having the Cars Tour kick ass." (56:45)

• Travis:

  • "This is definitely the most relaxed that I have been." (03:19)
  • "I think it's fair." (39:32)

• TJ Majors:

  • "We need to think about that, right?" (16:25)
  • "You're not wrong. But a fan just wants to be entertained." (51:34)

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Insights and Conclusions

• Gratitude and Teamwork:

  • The episode emphasizes the importance of appreciating team efforts and thoughtful gestures, exemplified by Cleetus McFarland’s gift of swans.

• Track Performance and Car Compatibility:

  • Discussions highlight the challenges of aligning car performance with specific track characteristics, particularly concerning the Next Gen cars at Rockingham.

• Fuel Management as a Critical Strategy:

  • Effective fuel management emerges as a pivotal factor in race outcomes, with inadequate strategies leading to frustrating and avoidable wrecks.

• Evolving Hall of Fame Criteria:

  • The debate around Hall of Fame nominations underscores the balance between championship success and broader contributions to the sport.

• Personal Growth Through Mistakes:

  • DJ’s personal stories illustrate the value of learning from mistakes, practicing diligently, and leveraging tools like sim racing for skill development.

• Community and Legacy:

  • The episode reinforces the significance of community support and the enduring legacy of influential figures within NASCAR.

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This episode of The Dale Jr. Download offers a blend of personal narratives, strategic discussions, and reflective insights, catering to both avid racing fans and those interested in the behind-the-scenes aspects of the sport. Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s candid commentary provides listeners with a deeper understanding of the complexities and emotional facets of racing.

Transcript

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I don't know what we should send him as a thank you, but it's absolutely got to happen. And also, it has to be something that pleases the wife, as the swans have done, because this was, like, a cool gift, but it ain't like a dude's gift.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It ain't like, oh, man, appreciate the shotgun, or thanks for the side by side. 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]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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

[Travis]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, what the do you want?

[TJ Majors]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You ain't picky. This ain't walking in and have it your way, mother. All right, Burger King. Travis is like, wrap this up. They don't have no fun. Ragger. Hey, Everybody, it's Dale Jr. Back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. And looky what we have here. TJ Majors.

[Travis]

Yeah. Glad to be back.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Where you been?

[Travis]

Recovering, I guess.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis]

Yeah, it's getting recovered right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

From what? Did you fall?

[Travis]

Almost.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Did you? Yep.

[Travis]

Yeah. Yeah. So Darlington turned into a weekend that I didn't really want to. Don't really want to go back to. So a good little ER trip visit on Saturday night got you had a.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Little illness in Darlington.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And you're on your way back. You look fine.

[Travis]

Yeah, I'm fine.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis]

Yeah, I'm fine. All right, so a couple more things to handle down the road with it, but then I'll be done with it for good, so. But yeah, And Florence, South Carolina, they took good care of me. Wasn't my favorite place to be in in the middle of the night, but took good care of me.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

True that. When you were in the hospital that you asked your wife to come to Florence and bring your Xbox.

[Travis]

So she actually sent it down with Paige on Sunday, and Brad came and saw me Sunday night and brought it over to me, so I had something to do, so.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, of course.

[Travis]

Yeah. So.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis]

So not. I didn't ask her to bring it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. But she made it happen.

[Travis]

Well, she. I was getting some clothes and stuff because I had a day or so longer stay than I wanted to be there. So. Yeah, why not play some Xbox if you get a chance at It.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. What else you been doing laying around?

[Travis]

I've been watching these races.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah.

[Travis]

And it's really painful to watch them when. And not be there. But, you know, I think had Brad's brother fill in for me. Did a good job with Carson and Matt over the weekend and he had obviously a Brad at Bristol, so had him fill in for me and. But just staying tuned in, watching these races, it's not my favorite way to watch a race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. See, I mean, you know, this is the thing about it. Sometimes you get suspended or. Or you get hurt or whatever it is, and you're going to miss some races. It sucks. You hate seeing somebody else drive your race car. Yeah. You hate someone else having to do the job you want to be doing. But at the same time, man, I mean, you don't really got much of a choice. You might as well just relax and enjoy it.

[Travis]

Yeah. This is definitely the most relaxed that I have been.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Kind of nice being at home on a weekend with your kids running around.

[Travis]

Yeah, no, it was definitely. It was definitely nice being at home. Not the circumstances that I wanted to be there, but you don't have to say that part.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, it's already assumed.

[Travis]

Wow. Yes. But just making sure.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. You got to spend a couple weekends at the house. Man. It's a long season. We literally just went through. We literally just went through the weekend. The one and only off weekend of the whole year for the Cup Series.

[Travis]

Yeah. There's a long stretch coming up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So long they got shortened of schedule.

[TJ Majors]

It is ridiculously long when you think about, like, the other sports.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Nobody's saying that. Nobody's saying that part.

[TJ Majors]

Say it one more time.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Just make sure it is bull. That this is the only off weekend for the Cup Series. God. I mean.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It ain't like we're playing, you know. Hey, there are other sports, right. That have more, you know, more of a grueling season than we do.

[TJ Majors]

Is there?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know. Baseball sounds pretty grueling. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

But they, like, have off days in between and like, they're new, but so do we.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, we don't race, but every seven days. Hello.

[Travis]

I think baseball would be pretty.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Baseball is pretty grueling.

[Travis]

Basketball, 84 games season or so.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Traveling, they're in a. In an airplane or in a. In a hotel every other day.

[Travis]

Yeah. Hockey's probably similar.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So, I mean, I'm. I'm not. I'm not going to complain too loudly, but this bull.

[Travis]

We just need the Olympics every year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We. We used to have a 28 race schedule back in the 80s and lots of off weekends, lots of fun days at the house with dad around the lake learning how to ski.

[Travis]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Lake parties where the teams would come over and other drivers even.

[Travis]

Yeah, that's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Could you imagine?

[Travis]

It's not a thing nowadays.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Could you imagine?

[TJ Majors]

Now the fans would have lost it if they hadn't known that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Wait, no, they would love it because we'd be capturing content around it.

[TJ Majors]

But fans would hate if they knew that their driver was hanging, like, hey.

[Travis]

I don't think so.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes. Hey, live stream, lake party.

[TJ Majors]

I don't know if you want to watch.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hey, you want to know? That's something. Couple things before we jump into this, you know, this show. I've been, I did, I've been doing some work with Cletus McFarland, right. He came on the show as a guest and we just did something in Talladega the other day. It's my idea. I was like, hey man, let's go to Talladega. And he went. So he, he went and raced at Daytona, had a good time, all that stuff crashed out and I liked that he was, I think it's great that he's, he's trying to do it and you know, hey, you know, dark series, maybe that's kind of where you do this kind of thing. I don't know. But he's going to Talladega, gonna race. And I was like, hey, maybe outta, maybe oughta, maybe ought to go down there with me and let me take you around that place and not so much to like help him race better, but like at least help him understand like where he's racing, right? Like what Talladega is. Nobody probably gave him a Daytona 101 course.

[Travis]

He probably has no idea in the history of Talladega either.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so if I thought, you know, knowing a little bit more about the track and the history and all that stuff might make the whole thing even more enjoyable personally for him. Now he's probably not going to take this information and start.

[Travis]

How far did you go back?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I was just like, not all this is going to make our show because it was a little bit of a boring history class. But talking about, I guess, trying to help him understand, like first off, we kind of did. There's always been this rumor that Talladega was built on a Indian Indian barrel, ground some story, right, with some sort of Indian land. Right? Well, we kind of uncovered some. I've never heard like real facts about that before. I guess we didn't uncover it. But we just Googled.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so we didn't discover something new, but we. I learned something new where apparently this did belong to a certain nation or tribe. And. And they. They were. It was part of the. I forget the. The Trail of Tears. They basically were displaced, told to leave and sent somewhere else. And as they were being ran, you know, as they were being removed from their land, the. I guess they. The medicine man turned back and looked back and cursed it out. You know, who knows for sure.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If that's really how that all went down. But apparently they built a military air base. This part I kind of forgot to tell him. But they built this mill. You can see it. You're. When you land there, it's an old airport, right. And if you look way high above the racetrack, you can see the old landing strips that used to crisscross the boulevard. Right. Is a landing strip from military air base. Right. So the. The track itself is right on top of the runways, the old runways from the old military airport. And all of the original buildings, most of the original buildings, hangers and so forth are still there. So, you know, the. And, you know, I was telling him how, I guess the town or the area, the location local government sold the track to, to Mr. France for a buck or something with the promise of building the racetrack and providing all that opportunity for the area. So there was kind of a. Interesting deal where it was like he got the land for literally nothing. And then, you know, they build the track. And I've got this great article in a stock car magazine that I've been wanting to bring onto the show to read because it's probably the most in depth, play by play of the whole first race where the drivers boycotted, you know, then we had all these nasty, you know, the big one, the big crashes. The big crashes that we see just about every time we go to Talladega and Daytona have been happening at Talladega at least since the early 70s. Nasty wrecks. There was one at Talladega, I believe, in 73, where they crashed the field, drove around the track and back into the wreck again. And more cars, like two miles later, they came back upon the crash seen and piled more cars into it. This was before the spotter tech. This is probably making you cringe, T.J. hearing about that as a spotter, you.

[Travis]

Don'T want to be that guy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

This is before the spotters were really.

[Travis]

Doing, long before spotters.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know that they even had spotters doing anything back then, but some injuries Deaths. People have been killed on that racetrack. And hurt people have died in the free camping. I mean it's just a dangerous place if you let it.

[Travis]

Dangerous all the way around.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You don't know how to keep it under control. Right. It's on the track and off the track. I meant to bring this up because of something completely different. Anyways, I drove Cletus's Dale truck. Everybody we know it's a. It's. You know, Mike Skinner drove the good wrench truck. Everybody's aware of that. This is kind of a. This was decal as the number three good wrench truck. Which was probably a. More of a Mike Skinner tribute when. When he. When Cletus buys it. But Cletus buys it and now Cletus to Cletus. It's the Dale truck, right?

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so he has taken this thing. I remember.

[Travis]

Even know who Mike Skinner is. Probably not.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, let's not disrespect that man.

[Travis]

No, I'm just saying he put some.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Respect probably that name.

[Travis]

He probably doesn't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Shout out. Shout him out.

[Travis]

I think Mike Skinner is awesome.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There you go.

[Travis]

I mean, I think of my Skinner when I look at that truck, but he probably does.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We don't want no disrespect to Mike Skinner. He'll come. He'll bring his ass in here, cowboy.

[Travis]

Boots and all his. To Covis.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So Mr. Skinner. He's awesome.

[Travis]

So he's awesome. He's always so nice and friendly.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, here we go. Dj. Good job.

[Travis]

He really is.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was racing at Myrtle beach in 1998. Mike Skinner was in the field in the late model stocks. He was like just starting to leave the late model short track stuff and become, you know, racing trucks for Richard children. But he was running one of his vinyl. One of his last few. I don't think he knew it at the time. Late model stock races. And we were parked in the infield. In the sandy infield of Myrtle beach with our plywood out and our.

[Travis]

Everyone took wood there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Everybody took wood there. So your jack stands didn't sink down the ground. And there he was about 10 cars down. Mike Skinner, man. Truck racer. Oh yeah.

[Travis]

He won a lot.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He won a lot. But also we're like not getting anywhere near what I'm trying to bring up. So me and me. So I drove that truck. Totally. Tons of fun. Awesome. You can watch the video on Cletus's handles on his YouTube. And I went 140ish and an eighth mile. That was a lot of fun then. But. And then DirtyMode Media put out a video as well that we'd love all y'all to check out. That where we kind of give Cletus the 101 on Talladega. We take him through the museum, which is fun. The museum's kind of gotten a little facelift. If you hadn't been to the museum in about three or four years, you might want to go through there. And they're always changing stuff. And you can see a bunch of cool crashes in there, too. They got Harmon's wreck from Bristol. Michael Watts wreck from Bristol. They got a couple wrecks from Talladega.

[Travis]

Yeah, it's a really cool museum. It actually really is.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They. There was a wreck from that. There was a wreck that I didn't see. I forgot they moved. I don't know where it is, but Phil Parsons crash from, like, 84, flipped into turn one. Yeah, that wreck wasn't in there. Wonder where it went, But I need to find out. So I want that car. They're not messing with it. The. The other thing I wanted to tell you was I got a visit from Cletus yesterday. That's where this is going. So clean by. And I'm sure he's going to put it out on his. On his. He's got it on a little clip in his video. But he brought me a gift. He bought me two swans. So Cletus got a present from some friends or somehow he got some swans. He's got a pond out of his house down where he lives in Florida, and somebody brought him two beautiful swans. White. They're exactly what you're picturing in your head. And I was watching that video and I was texting him, and I was like, dang, man, that's pretty cool. And, you know, I'm asking him how they're. How the swans after a couple days, because I'm like, how are the swans? Are they good pets to have? I don't know. Right. Um. And so he brings two swans over to the house yesterday, and we turned them loose in the pond.

[TJ Majors]

Do we have names?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Cleo and George. That's the names that they had. And here you go, tj.

[Travis]

So they're not going to leave?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, they can't fly. They won't leave that pond, that ponds.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Being in the waters where they're the safest and no predators can get to them, like a coyote or anything. And they'll. They'll always. Yeah, they'll always be together about five feet apart at all times. Me and Isla, they're Isla's. Isla's and Nicole's. And we got. We're gonna feed them every day and. Oh, man, it's awesome. Swans.

[TJ Majors]

What do you feed swans?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You feed them little chicken feed, but there's enough breadcrumbs, there's enough algae and stuff in this pond apparently that they're pretty self sufficient. The guy's like, look, there's nothing to do. You don't have to worry about nothing. He's like, they should be fine here. There's nothing going to get them. They'll. They'll live here for 30 years.

[Travis]

I'm like, I didn't realize they would stay for that long.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They're 30. They'll live for around 30 years. These are five years old. They're really not aggressive, but they're kind of tough, hissing at you and stuff. And they'll get better. I think they'll get more accustomed to us seeing my truck. You know, we'll take the same vehicle over there. When we go down there, they'll see that vehicle. Know that's a trusted vehicle area.

[Travis]

Yeah, I'm sure it's a new area. Once they don't think you're a threat, you'll be fine.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They'll get to know what's going on, but. So that was pretty neat. I didn't expect to get such a cool gift.

[Travis]

Yeah, that's interesting.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Please. Now the challenge is to send him a gift. Like, what do we give him? What do I give him? Swan. What's like a swan?

[TJ Majors]

We need to think about that, right? Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I want to send him some Omaha steak.

[Travis]

Time to send him buffalo.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I guess I could see if I could send him a buffalo.

[Travis]

But why not?

[TJ Majors]

I mean, but does he have the proper.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The buffalo farm that I know of is down in the same state as his. So I don't know. He has enough property for buffalo.

[Travis]

Got to get at least two of them. They got to run together. So.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Well, I don't know what we should send him as a thank you, but it's absolutely got to happen. And also it has to be something that pleases the wife, as the swans have done, because this was like a cool gift, but it ain't like a dude's gift.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It ain't like, oh, man. Appreciate the shotgun or. Thanks for the. You know, thanks for the. Thanks for the side by side. This is like something that the kids love, the wife loves. So you gotta. You gotta find the gift that kind of does that. And there was one other thing that I wanted to talk About. How was your Easter?

[Travis]

Easter was good. My mom's in town, so that was good. And just quiet. Yeah, pretty quiet. Kind of.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay. I went to Texas with Amy's family. It was awesome. We did Easter egg hunts. Did y'all do that?

[Travis]

No, they.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Dude, you got two little girls.

[Travis]

What they actually got back from. They were in Disney. Oh, they got back.

[TJ Majors]

When did they get back?

[Travis]

Saturday evening.

[TJ Majors]

Easter's on Sunday.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, but you didn't have Easter egg hunt ready for them when they got home.

[Travis]

No, no. Easter egg hunt ready.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Jesus, dude.

[Travis]

I know, man. I mean, you guys around on your.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Ass doing nothing but playing Xbox.

[Travis]

I don't have a good yard for an Easter egg. Are you kidding?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Are you kidding?

[Travis]

Are you kidding me?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'll. They. Dude, we throw the eggs out. Just lay them in the grass. Like you can put them by a post up in a tree limb or just on the ground in front of you.

[Travis]

Well, let me tell you, I just want to run.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You put them in the house? No, they just want to run through the yard and pick them up.

[Travis]

Madeline's 14. Do you think she wants to pick up Easter eggs? Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[Travis]

No.

[TJ Majors]

Junior Motorsports had an Easter egg hunt out here. We were all excited.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And we did not just thrown across the ground. Wasn't that just fine?

[TJ Majors]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Who all.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, person in this building.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What a sorry ass this guy is.

[Travis]

I'm telling you, there is. Oh, 14 year olds are not in Easter egg hunt.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes, it's. Sorry.

[Travis]

If somebody puts candy and stuff in.

[TJ Majors]

Them, they'll be excited.

[Travis]

No, first of all, they don't want candy. And put some nerds clusters.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. God, you suck.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, we went to Texas. We had a good time. Easter egg hunt. We had an Easter egg hunt at the farm. We had another one at the church.

[Travis]

Did you fill the eggs? No, no.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What the eggs already? You had a pre filled.

[Travis]

You had a pre made Easter egg hunt now?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes, I had to put them out in the yard. Still did a hunt. So you're not gonna win. We had. We took photos. Lots of photos. Photos you'll never see, you know, isn't that how that goes? Like with me and the other guys? We were sitting there at the. At the. At the farm talking about this. When you get together with your family and there's one or two people in the family that are running around like, gotta get a photo. Let's get a photo. Hey, let's get a photo. Photo with your family. Photo with all the kids. Photos with all the aunts. Photos with everybody born in October photos with, you know, it's photos on photos on photos. Right? Let's get all the guys together. Let's get all the girls together. Let's get the sisters, let's get the cousins. Here's the picture of cousins and, and, and you're standing there, you're like, we never see any of these. Like, these are.

[TJ Majors]

You could do like a. On Instagram, put a bunch on one post.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, that's probably where they go.

[TJ Majors]

Like, Amy posted some girls and you guys.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

She did.

[Travis]

But all of them don't show up though.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There's some pictures.

[TJ Majors]

You're just like, they just live in your phone.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, they don't get to my phone.

[Travis]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If you've been having your McDonald's sausage McMuffin with an iced coffee from somewhere else, now is a great time to reconsider. In the Pacific Northwest, it's never too.

[Travis]

Cold for an iced coffee in the morning.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Travis]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Prices and participation may vary.

[Travis]

Cannot be combined with any other offer or combo meal.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They're living on that person. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Travis]

The person that takes them says, oh, I'm gonna send them to y'all. Then you never get them.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Or they just don't. They don't send them, they don't post them, they just have them collect. Yeah.

[Travis]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hey, everybody. You want the latest Dale Jr. Download apparel? Visit shop.dirtymomedia.com we're always adding new stuff all the time, especially like when we say something silly on this show. We'll put it on a t shirt again. Check it out@shop dirtymomedia.com this weekend, the car store goes to orange county. You. You. The. There is a highly. There's a high likelihood that Ryan newman may make his first start in the cars tour. Why is that funny?

[TJ Majors]

Because if it doesn't happen, are we gonna know by the time I have to edit this thing?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, hell, if it don't happen, I'm sorry. Disclaimer. Sorry. If it don't happen. So I've been talking. I was talking to a guy that owns a couple cars, and I was like, you know, he's like, hey, I got a little inventory if you. If you, you know, just some dates where I got a couple cars that I need, you know, drivers for. And I was like, well, I got a couple drivers that I, that I need cars for. There's, you know, I'd love to get Newman and kenseth, Clint boyer, Casey kane, Casey mears. There's a. There's a list of kind of semi retired, retired cup guys that I would love to come race in our series once, right? Just to say they did it to tell us what they thought, what, you know, what they think is good or bad about it. And Newman's been running the modifieds, Came off a win at orange county. So I called him up and I said, hey, it's short notice, but I got this race car. It's good, and I can help, you know, I can help find the, you know, the things that we're going to need to get you in it and get you entered. And so, yeah, I'm going to try to go out there and help them on Saturday with the tour and just kind of watch and observe the. From the competition booth and all that during the race and all that. But it'll be cool to see how. How Newman does.

[Travis]

Gonna practice your black flagon if I.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Know if I need to, I may hit a button, put it out.

[Travis]

Yeah. I mean, I need to see. I'm gonna be watching and I want to see.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis]

You touched him.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. If there's one miss to the back.

[Travis]

You got to get ready for your Martinsville debut. And in xfinity or truck or car, Jill, you know you want to go to the booth with Denny and call.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah, I can do that. No problem. So Cars tour orange county this weekend on flow. Tune in. Brian Newman in the field. I think he took his seat over there either yesterday or today to put it in this race car. So it's kind of one of them deals. It's last minute. Toss it together, go have some fun.

[Travis]

Sounds fun. If he took a seat over there, he's looking forward to it. He's been racing off and on quite a bit.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Who else would you like to see in the cars tour? Comment below. I don't know if they can even comment below.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, we post the video and they can comment below.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hey, comment below. What should we get Cletus as a thank you? Within reason.

[Travis]

That's a good one. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And also, who do you want to see in the cars tour? Within reason. I'll try to make some of that happen. So let's get to talking about Rockingham. Did you watch all that?

[Travis]

I did.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, me too. That rock, you know, it looked like the racetrack was in really great shape. I'm sure there's some things about it that are need updating, and it's races like this that will allow them to gather the funding and so forth to really start really fixing all the bells and whistles. So give them grace. I'm giving them grace. The stands were packed. It didn't matter whether it was 20,000 or 80,000. It just looked great, right?

[Travis]

It did. Looked awesome.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I really don't give a. If it's just 20, 30,000 people and it's sold out, it looks great, right? I'm happy with that. And so I don't know how the track feels genuinely, whether, you know, it was a success all the way around. I don't know what their books look like after all of that, but from what. From an optic standpoint, it was good. It checked all the boxes. I loved how, you know, they tore down the old grandstands down the back straight away, and, yeah, it looked like.

[Travis]

That looked weird, kind of.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They have some campers up there to sort of, you know, feel the void, if you will, which I thought was great.

[Travis]

Kind of like Martinsville.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's great. So there they. You know, they did a really good job. The. The. I watched the ARCA race. I did not get to see a lot of the truck race, but I did watch all of the Xfinity race. Track really raced way better than I thought it would be. In a recent repave, obviously the bottom was dominant, and if your car was handling, you know, you weren't going to get past on the outside. But if you had to go up there, you could. And it wasn't just, you know, awful in the second, third groove. And I think over time, of course, as the track ages, which it will quickly in that environment down there in the sand hills or that area is pretty sandy and rugged.

[Travis]

Just get higher.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I think the groove is going to widen out. It's going to be so awesome. So I hope. My hope is that the truck and Xfinity continue to go. My thought is that this might not need to be a cup race. I'm sure people are clamoring to see cup go back there, but the way the cup car races, isn't it funny? Like, we're sitting here going, there's. This is the first time I've ever experienced this. People are saying, man, I don't know if cup needs to go there. It might not race. Well. Like, where, When. When have you ever heard that don't take the cup cars there. It might not be a good race. Like, have you ever heard such a thing?

[TJ Majors]

Not since. Well, since the next gen a few times, but yeah, it's not. Not often.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What does that say?

[TJ Majors]

Says the car sucks.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So that's problematic.

[Travis]

We said that after another.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That is problematic.

[Travis]

We said that after the most recent track that got redone and.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, which one?

[Travis]

Wilkesboro.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Honestly, man, Wilkesboro race pretty damn good. I think people need to go back and watch the last race we ran there. I know that there wasn't much of a battle for the win, but the repave provided multi grooves. They run right up against the wall in one and two. And so I thought Wilkesboro looked pretty good, considering. And then. But I guess what, you know, it's not a track issue, you know, And I think that just for that comment to be said, TJ don't take that car there. It won't race good at that track. You can't have that. You can't have that. You can't have that be reality. And that's. But that is reality.

[Travis]

Yeah. You just don't watch an extended race. Those guys were out of control at times. Like off a Turn too. Like, he used to be like, oh, my gosh. Like, and moving around and I mean, the handling issues were big.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There's nowhere to go at that racetrack. There's really nowhere to go to get clean air because you need, you know, the. The entrance into 1 is a bit narrow and odd. The exit of 2 is tight. Tight wall jumps out at you.

[Travis]

Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so you can't chase it there. Yeah, you really can't. So you know, there's. In the next gen car, you really can't run behind another car. You can't. You can't be fast and running. You can't be fast and run behind another car.

[Travis]

They have so much grip.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so, yeah, the lead car's got a lot of grip, but also you need that air going underneath your car to get to the diffuser and so you can't follow another car. And how are you going to do that and go around the racetrack at Rockingham? So to people's. People's concerns about the next gen, probably not racing. Well, there are valid, Matt. Yeah, very valid. I don't think the next gen would be. I would. I'm excited for the Xfinity and the trucks to go there Again. I'm. I'm not that eager to see a cup race there. The track, on the other hand, track ownership, they absolutely want a cup race. Hey, hell yeah. So we sitting here poo poo and on a cup race going there is probably not the best thing for me to be doing, but. Because the track wants it and. But dang, man, I hope that they can.

[Travis]

You think after the track weather some and like a few years from now and it moves up to the wall, the cup cars would be a better show.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I mean, the cup. Yeah. I think if the track were a little bit worn, it might be a little better. I don't. I don't know that it actually improves a whole lot. Honestly, I think a driver like Denny or somebody sitting here would tell you it probably wouldn't be much of a. Much of a different race. Just the way that track is, the way the line is around that track, you do have the option, I think if 3 and 4 gets weathered and you can run in there across the bottom or run across the top, there's enough separation there that that corner might be an okay corner with the next gen, but when you get back to turn one and two, there's just not a lot of diverse lines that you can really kind of take around that corner particularly. You're all going to end up in the same place pretty much entering the corner and definitely exiting, too. And so that being able to run different lines and try to take advantage of some clean air is going to be all but impossible down at that end of the racetrack. And so I don't know, you know, I.

[Travis]

If the tires wore out a bunch, I think it could be good. They would have to be able to hurt.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They don't make a tire that wears out.

[Travis]

I'm just saying they would have to make a tire that you could hurt.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We got that yet?

[Travis]

Yeah. So that would be part of the factoring for me.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, it's a new surface, so there's never. Not. Not.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not in all the history that I know. There's never been a track that had a relatively new surface that had a tire that wore out.

[Travis]

No.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, at a new track, it builds so much heat and there's so much corner speed that they have to build the tire so durable to keep it from blistering or whatever.

[Travis]

I was watching lap times. Those Xfinity cars were flying at the end still of a run, like digging.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, there's. Yeah. So that's a tough spot for. For Goodyear to be in. When you go to a brand new surface is to build a tire that wears out but also doesn't fail. That's a. That's like a. You're such a tiny box because so much heat created by that corner speed and the grip that the new asphalt has. That Goodyear, it's too. It's dangerous. It's dangerous. Yeah. And so they have to build a tire that's safe, and they have to err on the side of safety more so than they would at a place that's got some age on it.

[Travis]

That's understandable, too, though.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. They don't want to have anything catastrophic happen, and that's. That's fair, so. But that track should age relatively quickly anyhow. It was. It was a good weekend. Casey Kane returned to drive for Richard Childress in the Xfinity series. Casey had really good speed. I felt like he was going to finish in the top 10. I thought that the moment he said he was going to do this, I thought, this guy can go there. He can be fast. It's a good car. He'll be smart. His racecraft will be better than most of the people in the field, and he will, at worst, soldier to a seventh or eighth or ninth place finish. Looked like it was going to be a little bit better than that. He had great speed in practice end up getting wiped out in a crash. And the race was one by Jesse Love, but then he was disqualified for some stuff in the back of the car.

[Travis]

Yeah, he had a fat. He had the fastest car all day.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah, he drove a great race. I like Jesse Love.

[Travis]

Yeah, he did a good job.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think he's gonna surprise a lot of people, too, because he's got some personality.

[Travis]

Just.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He just. That's it. He just got some person. He's got personality. He's on social media, goofing around and. Which, you know, a lot of guys don't do it, and it's. It's a. It's a detriment to them.

[TJ Majors]

He's making light of losing the DQ on Twitter's like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I mean, it's a. That's a fine line to walk, I think when you, you know, you want to be taken seriously, so. But at the same time, you're. You. You kind of want to show everybody, look, man, this ain't getting under my skin. It is what it is. But I think that it's good that he shows a lot of personality on social media. I think that'll help him going forward. I think he's a hell of a race car driver and just going to get better. And so, yeah, they ended up getting. I don't know, NASCAR saw something that they didn't like about how the rear end marries to the trailing arm on the. On the back of the car. Everybody knows for years that we've, you know, with the trailing arm type of setup in the back of the car, we've been learning for decades now that skew is speed. And so skew, basically getting the car to go through the corner in y'all puts side force on the side of the car. And the more you can make the car do that without slipping the tire, the better, and it's more comfortable and faster for the driver. And so if you have all that stuff or some of that stuff in the back of the car loose, you can make it work in a way where it moves into a position that skews the car. And usually just years ago, initially we. The throttle itself would do that. So you would keep all the stuff on the left side loose. And when you would mash the gas, the actual force of the tire trying to turn inside the rear end housing would drive the housing forward and push the left rear forward, skewing the housing in the car. And then the car would then dog track the way you wanted it to.

[Travis]

With the side force.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's right. And so then we started Changing how the left side trailing arm mount worked in the center of the car where it mounts to the, to the chassis. We would. We had these rubber.

[Travis]

Yeah, the bushings.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Bushings that we were drilling holes in to allow it to. To drive itself forward but not return in the, in the rearward position. And so that was a way to move the whole rear end housing without, you know, the running all the. In the back loose. You could. You. Basically we had. We went away from the rubber bushing to a steel kind of a slop slider bushing in that front mount for the left side trailing arm. And when we really had this science doubt, like, really good, we had a rear sway bar on the car. And so with the bushing that we had in the, in the left side trailing arm and a little bit of, you know, loose going on in the mounting point of the U bolt at the rear end housing, we had a sway bar. And as the car compressed the. The sway bar arm would just drive. You had the sway bar arm chained to the rear end housing and it would just pull the rear end housing forward. And so as the car was setting at ride height on the racetrack, it was always tugging on that left rear. And so now the car's skewed the entire lap and not just when you're mashing the gas, but it was a. It was an expensive, difficult time because we all knew where we had to work to get faster. And every team was improving the idea every handful of weeks or months. And you would, you couldn't really hide what you were doing in the garage because it was so confined in the garage area. And everybody could kind of see and look and go, well, he's got a rear sway bar on. Nobody's been running a rear sway bar for 10 years. Why? That's on there for a reason.

[Travis]

Look up that rear bar.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's not on there for the traditional sense of a sweet rear sway bar. That's doing something right now. What now? Let me go home, put a rear sway bar on my car, climb underneath it and try to look at it and see how that, that could help me achieve what I'm trying to do. And you know, I can't. I can't imagine the number of iter of. Of iterations or variations. Front, the left front bushing that was in the trailing arm or, you know, all the different things they did with shims and so forth in the, in the. At the rear housing where it marries to the trailing arm.

[Travis]

The rulebook was fairly open on for a lot of that too. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And we would, you know, we, the industry, we would make new parts.

[Travis]

Homemade.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Homemade parts.

[Travis]

Homemade parts.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And then NASCAR would take the parts.

[Travis]

Put them on that table, and then.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We would make new parts, you know, different. We, NASCAR would make a rule and we'd work around that rule. NASCAR make another rule is like a, like a trying to dam up a, you know, a creek. And we just kind of. We were the water that would find a new pathway around the damage. And it was, it was an amazing.

[Travis]

The engineers didn't come up with some of that stuff time.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But it wasn't, it wasn't fun when somebody had it figured out better than you did. No, that was frustrating. And that Brad Keselowski, right, he wins a championship during that era. Hendrick, I think, had peaked in how we had it going and how we had it working right as the playoffs come around. And then Penske and Brad and them took the mousetrap and made it better and went through the playoffs and had more speed. And, you know, it just, it was a fascinating time. But listen, what's tough about what happened with Jesse Love and I've been in this situation, we had a car, I think we won the race at Darlington with Gregson, I believe, and exact, I would say pretty much the exact same description where the, where the rear end housing and the, and the trailing arm marry together. That there. They didn't love. Something about how them parts didn't quite seat perfectly together and we were able to get ours overturned somehow. I don't know. We got lucky with the people they put on the panel. Usually that kind of thing doesn't get overturned because it's so complicated and complex of an issue. I think most people, you know, the people they have on these panels, they'll be like the appeals panels. They'll be like old, you know, old drivers that don't really know a ton about what's going on with the cars today. Or some guy that owns a short track, you know, that's been in the NASCAR industry forever, but he's just an old head guy from, from some, some short track. Sometimes they have some pretty up to date individuals, but sometimes, man, you know, you just got to bring your case and argue your point. And sometimes you can convince them and it has to be unanimous. I believe the last one we lost, we had two of the panelists that were on our side and like, yep, we, we, we like your argument, but the one, the one other guy was like, nope, I don't buy it. And so we didn't win. And so it. I think they have a shot at overturning it. And it's I know I own the car that runs second or is today the winner? But I think if I know everything about what that, you know, what we went through with this. And they'll try to take their best argument forward and try to convince these panelists that, you know, all this stuff was good to go and we'll see. You know that feeling you get when you're watching drivers fight it out on the racetrack, giving it everything they've got for the checkered flag? Well, you can capture that feeling forever with cars From Lionel Racing, the official diecast of nascar. The ultimate way to celebrate the biggest moments in racing These die casts aren't toys. They're authentic, high quality replicas of your favorite rides from the sport's biggest stars, including myself and the guys on my race team. Whether you're a long time collector or a fan who's new to the sport, Lionel Racing die casts bring the heart of racing to your shelf or man cave with incredible detail. They're built with precision, with all the exact decals, logos and paint schemes you've seen on the actual cars. And trust me, these cars make you feel like you're right there in the middle of it. So head to lionel racing.com, your favorite racing team shop or any authorized retailer and start building your collection today. And don't forget, you can find a wide selection of die casts at the Lionel stores and Concord Mills near Charlotte Motor Speedway and Opry Mills in Nashville.

[Travis]

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[TJ Majors]

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[Travis]

There's no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed and listeners to this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit. To get your jobs more visibility@ Indeed.com Del Jr just go to Indeed.com Del Jr right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com del junior terms and conditions apply. Hiring Indeed is all you need.

[TJ Majors]

Were you able to did you celebrate at all on Saturday night?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Or was it like knowing that I was already celebrating? Brother I was with my family in Texas, and it was Easter, so we were in the gas.

[Travis]

He's filling eggs.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I mean, I was actually. So I watched that race, right? Race ends, two wins. And everybody was like, oh, man, awesome race. And I was like, was it like, you know, cars running out of gas, the damn field getting destroyed on the front straightaway, cars wrecking off into turn one, and just. I was like, you know, the car. This happens in the cars tour on a week, any given weekend, and we got. We got. We got to fix, right? We got to get better. We got to figure out our. You know, we had. We have guys that'll miss a shift or. Or we had a guy run out of gas and stumble and cause a crash on. On our last race. And when that happens, I get out and I go, man, we can do better than that. We don't need to be doing that. You know, like. Like, let's figure out how to shift so we don't miss shifts and destroy cars. It's not. You know, let's not put ourselves. Let's not put our competitors tight on fuel. Let's try to figure out how we can tighten our show up so our guys aren't even close to running out of gas.

[Travis]

Good luck.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis]

Spinning race isn't going to change on that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That race at the. I mean, I thought Rockingham was great. I thought there was points where the race was entertaining, but how the race came down and ended. And maybe I'm biased because some of my boys got destroyed, but I thought the end was ugly.

[TJ Majors]

Well, I think if you take that one wreck where it was a fuel pickup issue, if you don't have that, then I think it's probably better. You also get four, and your driver's all in the top 10, most likely. So it's a better feeling, right?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I guess I just felt like. Yeah, like the. The car, like, eckies and those guys.

[Travis]

Couple of them are a long way.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Way off from making it. Right. And.

[Travis]

But then the guy that almost won.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis]

I mean, they were.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Didn't he pit 10 laps before?

[Travis]

I believe so. He might have been. The 39 was the one that was like, holy cow, this dude's way out of the way.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He came to pit road.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know. I mean, that kind of stuff. Look, things like that are going to happen in racing, but I still can say. Sit here and say, yeah, I thought the end was a bit ugly.

[Travis]

It was.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It was messy cars all. Yeah, it's messy cars destroyed all across the Front straight away, wrecking off into turn one and wrecking and missing each other and spinning. Yeah.

[Travis]

I could have everyone. They wreck in the back for 20th for. At the end.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like, didn't that happen coming off two?

[Travis]

Yeah, there was a couple cars that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Wrecked, like, oh, the 41 ran out of gas, and then they, you know, they all junked each other off turn two. That was like.

[Travis]

I get aggravated when I get back there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. What did that have to happen?

[Travis]

I understand a guy going for the win and trying to make it if he's close and he thinks he saved enough, but for 20th, I mean, why are you even in that position?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So the 41 stumbled on a restart, right?

[Travis]

He did stumble. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And they wrecked him. They recommended each other off a turn to. In the back half of the field.

[Travis]

Yeah. That was the one Carson got in, I believe.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes, he did.

[Travis]

He got hit right in there. They. He was missing it, and they came and got him.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. So there were two kind of ugly. You know, they were avoidable situations, I think.

[Travis]

But, yeah, the racing was great otherwise.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I thought it was.

[Travis]

The guys had their hands full.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I guess I'm just biased because I thought because, yeah, all my got tore up.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. If you would have had your guys finish where they were, I think you would have been happy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, I would have felt relieved. Happy.

[TJ Majors]

Four in the top ten. I think you'll.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I would have been like, phew, that was ugly. Glad our guys are okay. Yeah. But now in. I was just. Still felt like it was just a little ugly, a little messy. I don't know. Maybe. Is that just normal now?

[Travis]

I think an Xfinity series.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Travis]

Because you don't have.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's not the way I looked at it. Like, I saw that, how that went down at Martinsville. That was.

[Travis]

That. Yeah. That was bad.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And now we're. We're. We're accepting a form of that.

[Travis]

I mean, Rockingham guys aren't intentionally wrecking each other. They're out of fuel. I mean, I think running out of fuel and intentionally driving and hitting somebody are two different things.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You think? Yes, of course they are. Ass.

[Travis]

Well, I mean, that's what happened at Rockingham. You didn't have people shipping each other.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm just saying what happened didn't need to happen. It was avoidable.

[Travis]

Okay. So if you're leading the race and you're close on fuel, you're gonna, like. Are you gonna pit? And you're.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If I'm like, that freaking short. I think so.

[Travis]

Like. Like 39 eventually. Did but the mother guys thought they could make it, obviously.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So why didn't they run on the flat, keep it in the pickup?

[Travis]

That. I don't know. I saw some guys doing that after.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The fact, after the dang. Yeah. Field got destroyed. They all were like, oh, get on a apron.

[Travis]

There was a lot of guys that ran the apron the entire time at the end. Like, I think Sammy was down there the whole time. But, yeah, I mean, you're never going to get guys to pit that have a shot at winning unless they're way short.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

16 wasn't restarting first.

[Travis]

Yeah. And then you get to. If you're the 16, the 39 was way shorter than him, and he's, like, leading the race and holding off challengers. Like, nobody can pass him, and you're third and you're better than him on fuel. You're not going to pit, at least until he does, which happened. But, I mean, these guys aren't going to pit, like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, that's what. And what did we get?

[Travis]

I mean, we got some wrecks because.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, man, a lot of cars got destroyed.

[Travis]

I mean, I just think it's how the first caution kind of set that all up. If it runs green till the end, guys run out, get on the apron. There's no wrecks and stuff. But, you know, the cautions near the end, you know, cautions, precautions. So as soon as one starts, you know, they're all. It's going to be ugly from there. There's not really a lot you can do about. I don't think you can do anything to fix it.

[TJ Majors]

And I don't think most fans, they. Don't. You have a financial interest in these wrecks where the fans watching it don't have that. So they're not as bothered by it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, I'll entertain this. So I. What I saw in my mind was. Was not like a good. A good representation of the xfinity series. The drivers, like Kristen Ekes is a great driver, and he was put in a tough spot, and a lot of cars end up getting torn up. And, you know, I just felt like that it was avoidable, and it was a bad. It just didn't need to go down that way. And we're too cavalier over, you know, destroying a bunch of race cars like. Like that should be. That should bother you.

[TJ Majors]

You're not wrong. But a fan just wants to be entertained.

[Travis]

I don't think you have to tear up race cars to be entertained. I think that race, if it would have played out, I would have been Perfectly happy with the 39 and the 2 racing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We're going to go to Rockingham or we're going to leave Rockingham and go to another track. We're probably going to, you know, 80% chance coming home with tail. Tail in the front. Knocked off of it.

[Travis]

Yep, pretty much.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And like, I can, I can maybe stomach, you know, the Daytona and Talladegas, but it doesn't need to happen on the other weekends.

[Travis]

I don't think it'll happen every weekend.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think it's just how.

[Travis]

Just how it played out. And I agree with you. I don't like I wasn't entertained by the wrecking part. I was entertained by the strategies and guys trying to do it, but not entertained by the, you know, 10 cars getting tore up in Iraq.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I didn't expect to see a big uproar. And I'm just judging by the feedback I read around on social media, I wasn't expecting like a bunch of, oh, man, that sucked. That was awful. But I was surprised that it was not mentioned much at all, really. That the finish was a bit muddy.

[Travis]

Yeah, I just don't think you can prevent it, man.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I thought when a car, you know. Yeah.

[Travis]

A narrow track.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

When I see that. I guess when it was, it was, you know, when the, When Christian doesn't go, he's out of gas. Right. The 41. Same thing with Sam. I just came off of a weekend where we dealt with this at Cordell with, with mischiefs and fuel issues as well. And I'm so mad that it happened there because I want our cars, I want our guys to race hard. I want people to say the cars Tour is a great series. Love the racing. And we had a couple incidents where I'm like, man, if we just change, if we just turn a couple of these knobs metaphorically, we can avoid having those problems. Our drivers don't tear their up. Our teams leave with a car in one piece and they're. They're happy, all right. To come back the next race instead of dragging their home. Tore up. And what I saw at Rockingham just felt the same. It was like, oh, that didn't have to happen. Why all my tore up. Everybody else tore up. And nobody seems to think that that was avoidable or didn't have to go down that way. And I don't know what you. I don't know that there's a fix per se. Like, yeah, we're not going to shorten the race up so they don't have fuel issues. That's not going to fix it. There's no, there's nothing you can do about Ecky's running short on gas and the field getting destroyed other than bringing Eckies to pit road. And his team chose not to do that. That's their obligation. I'm not going to argue with that. But damn, you know, if there was a way for them to get out of the way or, you know, I don't know. You know, I don't know what the answer is.

[Travis]

Like when he doesn't go, yeah, oh, it's stacking up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh man, it was bad.

[Travis]

And yeah, just like a missed shift at the late mile race. I mean, I know I just hate.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It had I hate it happen and I didn't want to. I don't. I, I would have rather it not happen. And.

[Travis]

There was a lot of mischiefs in that late.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was just a little surprised that I didn't see much. People think the same, feel the same as me.

[TJ Majors]

But like the mischief and I'm not, I've never raced before. But isn't that. It's a human error that happens in all sports that you have human error. But they're now in racing there's a wreck that happens because of it. But like that's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

This is. Yeah, I know the running out of gas is not a mistake. It's just a, you know, a misjudgment more so.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, but like the mischief you. It seems like you're mad about that. But like isn't that just.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, no, no. Miss shifts shouldn't happen.

[TJ Majors]

Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like they shouldn't. They will. And I may miss a shift if I keep on racing. I mean everything's. Anything is possible and I'll make. Yeah, if I'm going to race, I'm definitely going to make more mistakes. But so I'm not immune or sitting here on a high horse saying, you know, everybody needs to fix what they're. What they're doing wrong. I just, I guess I'm still carrying a bit of the frustration over the cordeal race that we had at Cars tour. It was a great race, great racing, good event.

[Travis]

It was good racing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm too consumed by trying to make it perfect and having a great, you know, having the cars tour kick ass. And I am too consumed by like I want, I want Carson Kwapple to, to win a freaking race now. Like the kids that good. And I don't know why we're kind of not able to finish the job on Saturday. But you know, and all this goes down to where it just seems like every caution we get some of it. And that was pissing me off. The 88 Zillich is fast as. But we can't finish a race. That is pissing me off. Justin, you know, is doing what Justin does, running great and having good speed. Got caught up in some that, you know, we just trying to get home and finish.

[Travis]

He's having a great day.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That pissed me off. And, you know, Sammy's Sammy, the guy that was in such the other week over the Martinsville deals, the saving grace of the week, of the weekend for us at Rockingham. And so there, maybe that's where all my frustration lies. I'm glad this is therapy.

[Travis]

You know, maybe those missed shifts, those guys, they have to have those to learn from.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, well, the missed shift is more. More of a car store thing. And I'll tell those kids. And I told the kid that missed the shift the other night, I was like, I even do this, I'm like going down the back straightaway, I move that shifter from third to fourth. We restart in third gear in the cars tour in the late mile stocks. And as we're going down the back straightaway, coming to the green, I go from third to fourth over and over, just practicing that movement and then getting some muscle memory there because that throw from that old transmission is super long and something you'll never deal with in another car the rest of your life.

[Travis]

They try to rush it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep, they try. They. They're not used to the throw being that long and you having to be that deliberate. And I it up. I missed a shift at my very first race back in the late mall stock car at Wilkesboro. I missed a shift on the last restart. Yeah, I was lucky enough to get it in there and realize what I did before I destroyed the field. And so it's. I can. I know. And that made me go, man, I better practice at every restart going down the back straightaway. I don't want to be that guy.

[Travis]

Well, maybe that's, you know, like you said, maybe this is a cue for you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And I really just aren't, you know, the kid one or, you know, the kids that I was talking to just aren't thinking, man, you know, I could probably just do this a couple times down the back and make sure I got that right and cruise on around 3 and 4 and fire off and have a good restart. But the. The first at the end of that Rockingham race was frustrating, and maybe it all stems from the ownership side because all our guys kind of got junked, except for Sammy. So let's talk about Sammy. I was really. Listen, do you want to win races this way? Of course not. You want to win races the way Jesse Love won the race. You want to pass everybody and cross finish line first. That's the way you want to win races. But sometimes, you know, races are cut short with rain. There's disqualifications, which are rare. I was even surprised, you know, they DQ'd him. I was surprised that they took the win away. You know, that's a bit. That's a bit different than what we've seen years past. But either way, what are you going to do? Refuse it? To hand it over to the third place guy? Is he going to refuse it? Keep on passing it down line until it gets all the way back to Jesse Love? Now we're going to say, all right, that's the way it is. We'll take the win, we'll take the statistic, and how that's going to benefit us going forward. We'll see how this appeal goes. But either way, there was one moment in that race where I was very proud of the job Sammy did. And so Sammy is. We talked about it on this show. Sammy's under a ton of pressure. Everybody thinks that, you know, he doesn't have the right attitude or doesn't make the best choices on the racetrack. Stemming all this. Stemming from Martinsville. Right. Don't want to drag. Don't want to drag him one corner. Yep. Don't want to drag him back through all that. But he, He. He put himself in a. In a tough spot for criticism, and it was justified. And, boy, did everybody unload. And he weathered the storm. Right. You know, what he did during the week, that was the most. One of the more impressive things is he called other race car drivers like Mark Martin, and he had conversations with these people about how to be better, how to move forward, how to handle situations like that going forward. So, listen, all I'm trying to say is that Sammy took. Took everything seriously. He didn't brush it off. He didn't think that the criticism was unwarranted. He didn't try to just, you know, be a snot and dry and force his way through it. He took it serious and did a little bit of homework. Did a lot of homework on himself. I was really happy with that.

[TJ Majors]

Well, you think. I mean, how old is Sammy?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't.

[TJ Majors]

He's like, think about the mistakes we made as kid, like. But he's just not held to a different standard because he's, you know, driving. But the people judging him and the media and stuff would have done the same stupid things at that age.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I know that's the thing that I, I say I think all the time is like, man, we're. We put. I was mad at Sammy for what happened at Martinsville and then thinking, God dang, though, man. Like, what did I, what did I demand of myself at that age? Right. What was I capable of at that age? Not. I don't know. Right. And so I certainly wasn't in this. I wasn't racing in Xfinity series at that age, and I probably shouldn't have been. And we're putting these, where we're putting these kids in these cars at such a young age. You know, these guys, these kids are going out to Millbridge and racing at 5 years old and, you know, we're putting, we're putting them on the main stage, racing the trucks in Xfinity and NASCAR in front of the world and expecting them to race like veterans. And they're not gonna. Not always. And, and so while that was a deal at Martinsville, you gotta give the kid a little grace because he's a kid, and for him to survive, it takes grace. Not taking him out to the city square and stoning him to death, you just gotta be a teaching moment. Since then, he's been head down, working, focusing, gonna figure this out. Going to. He couldn't wait to go to the racetrack and, and, and have a good day. Right? And watching him, knowing what I know about what he's been dealing with and doing and trying over the last couple of weeks since Martinsville, I watched him run that race, and he raced every corner, every position, every restart with determination and intention. And there was one. There was one moment, I think. So we all kind of knew that the top was a bit. As the, the top was okay, but it was a bit of a disadvantage to the bottom. He restarts, I believe, second, Jesse Loves on the inside, and they fire off. And I think Carson Quopbles on the. In the third position, and he, he hustled the car on the outside around Carson to take second spot. And I don't remember the lap, I don't remember the restart. It was probably like 30, you know, 20 to go, 18 to go, something like that. But I saw that, you know, I saw that. I saw determination and I saw commitment that I hadn't seen from Sammy in, In. In a while, at least. And he was just, you know, that was a moment where I was like, oh, hell, yeah, you know, I know. Look, it's a teammate. I know it's Carson, but I mean, this is up there in the front for the win. You got to race the hell out of, you know, for every spot. And it turned out to be a moment where had he not succeeded and been able to take the position, had he not committed and hung that car out there on the outside line, maybe he probably doesn't win the race because he loses the track position that he would need to be in second place eventually to win by dq. So. And I told him that after the race, I said, man, there was one specific corner, one restart where I was like, yes, hell of a job. And, you know, no one will remember it. No one will. He might not even remember it. But I watched it and I saw, I saw what I want to see out of my drivers in that, in that moment. And I was really happy with that. And so, you know, I think that he's got a little chip on his shoulder and I think hopefully he can, you can take that and use it to benefit you like he did this past weekend. And he ran hard and ran second, had a great weekend. That's what he needs to do every single week, is go have good weekends. That's what we really need out of all our drivers is like, look, man, we're going to give you like we did at Rockingham, we're going to give all of you top five cars. Get me a top freaking five, you know, and so a little frustrating how it ended up for the other boys and, you know, we'll have to go to Talladega and see what happens there. Not really sure what to expect at Talladega. You never know. I mean, the, the 2 and the 21 will be fast as hell. And this is a Jesse. This is a moment for Jesse to have some redemption. I'd be saying he might be a pretty good bet as we move on into the dirty modo here later in the show. If you, if you can get in that little Xfinity action, I wouldn't hesitate to put some on the 2.

[Travis]

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[TJ Majors]

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[Travis]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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

[Travis]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Sounds pretty good. I like building websites. My buddy's new company, they're looking to get people's attention and get people to visit their website and with the built in SEO tools that Squarespace has, they are able to maximize their reach and grow their business faster. Pretty neat. The other feature they really like is Squarespace has everything you need to run and e commerce business which is important especially for a brand like ours. You know everything can be done from payment to fulfillment. All with Squarespace your business might be brand new but that won't prevent you from doing business and making money. Head to squarespace.com dalejr for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use offer code DALEJR D A L E J R to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. All right. According to Jordan Bianchi, the championship race for the 2026 season is moving to Homestead. Saw a lot of conversation around this on social media. Everybody was very excited because everybody thinks Homestead needs to be the championship race. It was a lot of fun when it was. If you were there in person, it felt like a great way to end a very long, tough season. Great weather, you know, Florida breeze, good little racetrack, puts on a pretty solid race. And so that's where we'll be going to crown our champion in 2026. Another track, though, will be selected for 2027, beginning a rotation in which a different venue is chosen each year. And Phoenix is expected to be included in this rotation. And I wonder what that list looks like. Or is it a list? Is it even a list? But I guess the argument now is like the whole conversation is going to be, where after Homestead, where are they going? Where should they go for the championship?

[TJ Majors]

About Vegas as another option.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Vegas will be great. I think that racetrack's pretty good, and I think you could almost have this, have the race and the banquet in the same week. Knock it out, you know? Yeah.

[Travis]

Fun party time.

[TJ Majors]

You could do that for Homestead, too, right? You find a good place down there?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I guess. You could.

[Travis]

You could.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I don't know if there's a venue around there that would, I guess Miami somewhere. There's probably something badass in Miami. You could. You could have it.

[Travis]

We did it in. In 18. Miami was fun to go after the champ after the race and then easy.

[TJ Majors]

To vacation right after that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Just.

[Travis]

That's the thing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, that's why I liked it, be in the championship race, because we would leave there and go straight to Key west and straight to. Straight to vacation mode. Immediate.

[TJ Majors]

Don't call me.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It was awesome.

[Travis]

I think a lot of guys in the industry, a lot of crew guys, everything would do that now, even no matter what, just as a break.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

But do you like the idea that they're going to bounce around and it's going to be the rotation and not the same place?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I like it better. Yeah. Than what we're doing. Yeah. I mean, I. Look, Phoenix is a great facility.

[Travis]

It's awesome.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But I. Man, I mean, over and over and over, it's like change the record, change. Just change the station. Let's move to a different genre so that you know. And this will. Listen. Homestead will be good. I'm okay with it going back there. I'm not as excited probably as most people because we've done it before. It is a. For me, it's better than Phoenix. But. Yeah, I think now we can start up the conversation about where it should go. Vegas would be good. I honestly don't know about the weather, but Charlotte I wouldn't hate because, man, this, the oval race at Charlotte has been one of the best in the last couple of years and it's right here in our home hub, if you will.

[Travis]

It wouldn't be much different than October.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I mean. Yeah. And you could again, like have the race and the championship at the hall of Fame within several days of each other to keep the sort of energy that the championship race, carry that energy on into the banquet itself.

[Travis]

And there's so much here as well.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis]

With the hall of Fame, like you said. And so much to do here as well.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep.

[TJ Majors]

Average weather's lows, 40s, highs like mid-60s.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, I just looking. I'm just trying to think about what tracks are putting on the best races today. And it's, you know, a lot of mile and a half's are going to dominate that list.

[Travis]

Yeah, it's Kansas, Charlotte, Vegas is pretty good.

[TJ Majors]

Problem is you can't do Kansas in November.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No.

[Travis]

That'd be cool.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So, yeah, maybe it's not as easy of a. Maybe the list is short.

[TJ Majors]

I think it's a very short list.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

NASCAR hall of fame revealed the 15 nominees for its Class of 2026 on Monday. They added former champion Kurt Bush and Randy Lajoy to the ballot for the first time. The modern and era ballot. Two of these drivers will get in is Greg Biffle, Neil Bonnet, Tim Brewer, Jeff Burton, Kurt Busch, Randy Dorton, Harry Gantt, Harry Hyde, Randy Lajoy. Jack Sprague. The pioneer ballot or the pioneer era? Only one gets in. Jake Elder, Ray Hendrick, Banjo Matthews, Larry Phillips, Bob Welburn. So looking at this list as it is, who would you vote in?

[Travis]

Man, it's tough.

[TJ Majors]

I like that. It's only two.

[Travis]

Yeah. Out of that list. The modern era.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

When you go to the. The banquet, you like that it's just two.

[Travis]

I feel like Neil Bonnet would be one that I would want in there, but man, there's a. There's a lot of guys on here that have won a lot of races and like man, I used to go to Daytona, think Randall the Joy was going to win that, that bush race. Eric, any race for every year. It seemed like he won that thing for a while, didn't it?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He had a couple. Yeah.

[Travis]

I don't know. I would probably go.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Randy is interesting because of not only what he's done behind the wheel, but what he's done with safety wise safety and seat stuff and so forth.

[Travis]

Yeah, he stands out to me. But then I see some of these. They all have things you can, you can argue for.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's tough. I would put Harry Gantt.

[Travis]

Yeah, Harry was my next one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's the Bandit. He did. He had some great success on the short track ranks. Racing sportsman and modified and all kinds of things back in the 70s. So you almost got to remember or, or you got to remind yourself there's more to Harry than just the cup stats. And he was one of the first drivers or not one of the first, but he was one of the earlier drivers to really have a, a Persona. You know, Harry again, handsome Harry the Bandit, all of those things. He was one of the guys that established a reputation that exceed. Sort of exceeded the boundaries of our sport. Yeah, to an extent. And had that relationship with his car owner Hal Needham who would end up creating the movie Strucker Ace which would kind of, you know, with, with. You have to. You can't understate. Burt Reynolds was one of the biggest stars back then with the success of Smoking the Bandit. And you know they do this movie and Harry was featured in that quite a bit. And so there was a lot of great energy and stuff going on around Harry back in the early 80s. And then he goes on to have this really, really cool, well respected career in the cup series and in Xfinity series. Won a lot of races driving for Ed Whitaker in the, in the Bush series Xfinity series. There's other drivers that won more races and had, you know, had championship careers. But I think he stood out. Yeah. And you. That's the thing that I fight with when I look at the lists and look at and think about the hall of fame is like there are drivers that pop on and that's going to happen a lot here in the future that have champ. Like I feel like if you win a championship, your lockdown like Kurt Busch is going to go in the hall of fame. He's a champion cup driver. That should be enough to automatically put you right in. There's no like fluke champions and uncelebrated undecorated champions in our sport. They're going to go into the hall of Fame. The thing is, is we're about to have in the next probably 15 years, a lot of champions that are going to retire. And so they're going to be the people that you'll have to say, well, does he get in or does this Neil Bonnet or Harry Gant get in? Right.

[Travis]

It's tough call.

[TJ Majors]

That's why I want more than two.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No. So what you got to do in my mind is say, listen, Kurt Busch, you're, you're, you're young in terms of the grand scheme of things, you're going to get your opportunity. You might not get in this year because this Harry Gantt thing or this Neil Bonnet thing or this, you know, Greg Biffle or Jeff Burton, you shouldn't have to wait.

[TJ Majors]

If you're a Hall of Fame, that if you are up for it and you are a Hall of Famer, you should get in.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know, but it's not his fault.

[TJ Majors]

There's, like, people that are deserving of it. If he's the most deserving, it shouldn't be.

[Travis]

Well, Kirk, I see what he's saying.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I definitely can buy your argument. And there'll be people like you on the panel.

[TJ Majors]

That's why I say there'll be people.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like you on the panel that'll vote.

[TJ Majors]

So shorten how much the banquet time stuff is and get the people in that should be in the hall of Fame.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I, I don't. We're not doing that. That's not going to happen. That's a totally different argument. So what we have to do is look at the parameters we have today and say, who are the ones we're going to choose? And so I feel like Harry Gant would be one of the guys that I would pick and I would probably go with, well, that's a tough one. After that. I mean, you, I think Jeff Burton. Jeff Burton, Kurt Bush, Greg Biffle would be. I would be thinking about one of those three. In the pioneer era, you have Jake Elder, Ray Hendrick, Banjo Matthews, Larry Phillips and Bob Welburn. I, listen, I'm not. I think Banjo Matthews, he built a lot of amazing race cars. He was an owner, but also chassis builder. And just what, what he did, I don't know that we can all understand in terms of what he, how he made the sport better from, from that perspective. Perspective. Ray Hendrick won every race in every race below the cup level. Like all the short track, modified sportsman stuff, like dominant, same With Larry Phillips. Larry Phillips was like the greatest. Like he's Josh Berry times 10.

[Travis]

Dang.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, Larry Phillips just crazy short tracker that just, you know, everywhere he went he won.

[Travis]

It's good he's getting recognized here.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I think it's between Ray Hendrick and Larry Phillips for me. And I think you could go to guys like Mark Martin and so forth and some, some of these other people to tell you why that Larry Phillips would be the call. Right. Or why Ray Hendrick would be the call. Some of these people that are even older than you and I that would truly understand no more how much of an impact they had on the sport. I think that one of the guys I was disappointed not to see on the Pioneer era was Ray, Ray Elder. So Ray raced in the west series. He was in the NASCAR west series and he was a seven time champion of that series. And so this guy raced from, you know, the 60s into the 70s. Now listen, I know the, the NASCAR west was nothing, nowhere near as competitive as even NASCAR on the East Coast. I mean I know there's this, you know, this. Well, was what was the west, was it really some heavy hitters really that serious? Yeah, I mean there's gonna. But Ray, I'm sorry, Ray won six NASCAR series championships, not seven.

[Travis]

Oh, that ain't nothing. Yeah, easy to do.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He was a six time champion. 69, 70, 71, 72, 74 and 73.

[Travis]

Got away from him, huh?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, 75 as well. But the reason why I think Ray Elder is somebody that I think and I hear that his name comes up in conversation during this, during the nomination for the nominee or the voting for these nominees. So he's definitely in the conversation. He's a west coast guy that raced in the NASCAR West. Right. And forgive me for not being able to articulate this better, but the idea was that when we would go, when if they ever came to the east coast and race with us, they couldn't compete. They weren't competitive and they weren't strong. And if we. And the two, the two times a year that I think that NASCAR went out to Riverside, they combined the east and the west in the same race and they, they would not keep compete for wins there. They could survive and soldier own and get a top 10 multiple laps down, but they weren't going to go race door to door with Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, David Pearson and all the greats of the NASCAR world or the NASCAR east world. Ray Elder could do that. So when, so twice in 71 and 72 when NASCAR went to Riverside. He won the race, beat Richard Petty, beat Bobby Allison, beat Bobby Isaac, or you know, Buddy Baker, Kel Yarbrough. They were all in the field and he beat them twice. And then he went to, he went to Daytona and ran in the top five in the, in his qualifying race and ended up in the top 10 in the Daytona 500.

[Travis]

So he had it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He had it. Yeah. And so six time champion of the west coast, two time winner at Riverside against the big boys and he would, when he would come to Daytona, he was, he was competitive, strong. And so that's a great racing career. Yeah, I mean, I feel like, definitely a pioneer. All right, it's time to send us pics and videos of your ultimate racing collection. We love our Lionel die cast, but it doesn't have to be just diecast. Send us whatever you got, your whole collection. It doesn't have to be Earnhardt stuff. That's not part of the deal. If you've got a big collection, we want to see it. We'll be posting on Twitter and Facebook about the Lionel Ultimate Racing Collector. Respond to those posts from Dirty Mo Media with your picks and or videos. If you submitted last month but you didn't get picked as the winner, you can resubmit. You can keep trying it since we've.

[TJ Majors]

Said some good stuff. Yeah, fan caves or whatever you got. I love when people have like an old school cooler or something like that. Yep, that's one of one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You bet. All right, it's time for Ask Junior.

[TJ Majors]

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[Travis]

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[TJ Majors]

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[Travis]

Check out the full lineup and get 50 off your first order at truework.com dalejr that's 15 off at t r u w e-r k.com Del Junior.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We want to get this ass Junior kicked off with a thank you to Xfinity Mobile. You know that the speeds these days are booming with Xfinity Wi Fi. As fast as a V8 engine and as reliable as an elite pit crew. A lot of racing puns.

[Travis]

Booming.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Xfinity WI Fi gives you the power and speed of NASCAR in your home. Choose the right plan for you and you're off to the races with the best streaming experience for NASCAR and all your favorite sports or video games or anything else. Music, man, I've got this Xfinity Internet at my house and it's working pretty awesome.

[Travis]

Booming.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, booming. I've had all kinds. I've talked about this every time, man. But I got to just do it because it's my own personal experience.

[Travis]

Well, that's good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I've got my ring cams and the, the cams for the girls. Bed bedrooms or baby cams. We still use those, which I'm kind of in the. I'm debating on, like, are we time. Time to take them out.

[Travis]

Might be Nicole sneaky. I don't know if I think hers.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, keep Nicole's in there. But we have like probably, I don't know, 30 pieces, 30 different connections to the Wi Fi between TVs and all the different stuff.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And not only is it strong enough to handle all of the bandwidth, but it never drops. It never goes down. And I mean, we are in the. We're at the end of the line.

[Travis]

So you're saying it's very reliable.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, it's very reliable. Xfinity WI Fi don't just raise the bar. Their streaming service is in overdrive Xfinity. They're a proud premier partner of nascar.

[TJ Majors]

First question, you mentioned going after Kurt Busch at Rockingham last week. Was there ever a time you wrecked someone who knew they were coming for you?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, not that I can remember. Let me think about that. Yeah, well, I was a bit surprised by this one. I think the only one I can remember. This probably never happened in my Xfinity career or my cup career, but I was racing late models and there was a guy named Jerry Williams that won the mid Atlantic championship one year. So he was a. He was a good racer and had had some good years and won a lot of races around the, you know, South Carolina area. Anyways, we was running about 100, 150 lapper at Myrtle beach one night and I'm pretty green still. Only got about a maybe a year late model racing under my belt. It's actually my first year, honestly. We get down in the corner, down into turn one and I just got in there a little too deep and hit him in the left rear and spun us both out. It bit my drag link. So that's how hard I hit him. So I'm out of the race and I don't know what happened to him. Maybe he's out as well. But he was mad. I didn't really realize how mad he was. Went down there a couple weeks later and I am a half a lap ahead of second place. I've got 10 laps to go. I'm going to win this feature. It's a hundred lap feature at the beach and I catch him going down the back straightaway and he pulls to the inside. We go down into turn three and I see him like not making the corner and I see him in the. I drove all the way up to the wall to get away from him and he still ran into me and spun me out. And I ended up running fourth I think in that race. But I was going to win that feature that night. And Jerry turned me in turn three and four and so remember those the Calvin piss on stuff stickers?

[TJ Majors]

Oh yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like pissing on. Oh yeah. You know, Ford emblem or whatever. So I got. I had. There's pictures of this out there. The ne. The last race of the year was the next race in November. All American 400 used to happen down at the beach, South Carolina 400 that they call it today. And we would go down there and late model stocks ran a 200 lapper maybe and then the all pros also ran a 200 lap race or and it. So it's a big event. A lot of, lot of late mile stocks would show up and I had that Calvin pissing on JW his initials on the, on the seat post of my car for that race. I was such a.

[TJ Majors]

That's a good one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Drafts coming up this week. Washington had a good season. Excited for the draft. You can do anything. Or is there like a player that you'd hope they get.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The Commanders are like picking 29th or something like that 28th something way back position for you.

[Travis]

That's what happens when you're decent.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So yeah, so I don't really, I'm not going to put a lot of. I'm not going to get all excited about it like you when you got a, you know, it's not like you're.

[Travis]

Getting the first round.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You get a top 15 pick or a top 10 pick, you're like all right, we to nail this one, this guy we can't miss. We can't miss here. But I don't know, we may, we may trade back and get some more picks because we don't have many picks. I think we only got five picks this year. So.

[TJ Majors]

TJ what about the Bills?

[Travis]

You know I, I don't know. They've drafted really well over the last handful years with, with Brandon Bean and, and they've got like 10 picks I think. Damn, they've got a lot of picks and a lot. They got like two seconds, two thirds and they got a lot of doubles of the mid round pick. So I don't know if they'll trade. I think they'll start filling holes here on the defense and maybe look for some more weapons if something, something falls in their lap later in, you know, late in the first or sometimes you can get some teams that want to trade into the first round and you can get quite a good, you know, repay repayment for it. So you trade back. But I like what they do. I'm always kind of surprised what they do. They never really do what I think they're going to do. So I'm excited to watch and see.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

JBC says the Commanders need a defensive end.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We do. We need an edge rusher. We need an edge rusher. And defenses. Yeah, we need some defense.

[Travis]

I think the Eagles showed why the defensive line and Ed Rushers are so important in the super bowl. Getting after Mahomes as much as they did. And how about A.J. brown's car getting so one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Did he get it back? Because I mean he basically told the guy he's like, hey, if I find you, it is what it is.

[TJ Majors]

I was like, it's gotta be hard to move like a really nice car.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know, but I bet, I bet that thing was already in pieces, cut to pieces when he sent that tweet.

[Travis]

Yeah, I don't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis]

I don't know if you think he's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Gonna get that back.

[Travis]

I don't think so either.

[TJ Majors]

Not a good way to wake up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I will tell you. I had a car stolen once and I got this hunting land and out in the Midwest and next to the hunting land was this, this home for troubled boys. Right. And it's just like a. It's a place for, you know, for them to try to get their lives back on track. And I think the story is that one of the counselors there had, had, had decided that he needed. He wanted to go home. Not one of the boys that was staying there, but one of the counselors, I believe. And he decided that he wanted to go home. And so he went over to where our farm was and took my truck. So I got a little Chevrolet farm truck, 200,000 miles on it. Just an old beat up truck that we drive around, drove it to. Drove it three states away and left it in an advanced auto parts parking lot. And then what happened was, is I bought it back from the auction. So it went into. It went to a car auction, like a dealer, where a dealer would go and buy used cars. And so we, we learned about where the truck was, but we had, I believe already and collected our insurance. And so the insurance company's gonna send it to auction. And so we tracked, we tracked it to that auction and ended up buying it back.

[TJ Majors]

Did you make money off of the deal? Think statute of limitations are up maybe. Speaking of cars, I think you said on bus with the boys that you only keep like 12 now, and if you're gonna get one, you have to get rid of. Is there a car that you regret getting rid of?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, not really. I don't like cars sitting around and not driving them and. Because the tires get square.

[Travis]

Yeah, a lot of things.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, you jump, right? I got a. I got in a. I got in a car one time to drive it to Martinsville and man, I got out on. I was fine. And then I got to the interstate and when I got up to like 70 miles an hour, that thing started shaking and bouncing the steering wheel. And I'm so mad and, you know, not at nobody but myself, and I'm like, I got. I can't. If this can't drive good and I'm not driving it enough. I need to get rid of it. And so that's why I kind of keep it to a limit of a certain amount of cars. I just have stuff laying around that you don't use. Kind of gives me anxiety and. But I, I think the one car that I, the one car that I want that I hope to get one day is probably a Buick grand national or maybe a Monte Carlo SS like the 87 arrow coupe.

[Travis]

Good looking car.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

People are putting in what they'd want. 68 Barracuda, 56 Chevy, Bel Air.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All good.

[TJ Majors]

Awesome. Good ones.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep.

[TJ Majors]

What's one thing that translates from sim racing to actual racing? The best?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, a lot.

[TJ Majors]

Well, what's one that like, is like the most?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I would say what I love, what I think sim racing can do for a young driver is develop racecraft. And when I say racecraft that can mean a lot of things. But what I think, like I'm going to put you in, I'm going to put you in any race at Daytona, Talladega, on the simulator and just turn you loose and let's let you just make all kinds of bad decisions, right. About getting in this line, pushing this person, getting this run, using this run, whatever. And we can sit there and kind of, I can sit there and let you run because that race, racing online on the sim will put you in all of the same situations that you're going to face in the real car. And you're going to have to make these decisions and choices of what to do all the way, you know, throughout the entire lap. And I think that the sim can help you cipher through like choices that you shouldn't make and things you shouldn't do so that you don't take those to the racetrack and actually do them in a real race. And so it'll teach you patience on your choices. It'll teach you to relax and not have to, you know, not, not have to feel like you need to be doing, doing, doing all the time. Creating opportunity for yourself sometimes, man, at those racetracks like Daytona, Talladega, the opportunities present themselves. Right. If you just sit there and be patient, the opportunities is like obviously like right in front of you.

[Travis]

Yeah, it just shows up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And so that's what happens too in sim racing. And, and so I, I think that the, the sim racing and racing online with iracing can help you develop some of the early stages and the very cornerstone basics of, of what, what great racecraft is. And specifically at Daytona and Talladega now, when you go to race another race at a bigger track like Charlotte or even some of the smaller tracks, there's a patience required to be fast in iracing, and it's more related to the tire and temperature and how to. How to. How to make a quick lap while also taking the best care of the tire you possibly can. So you have longevity and speed. And so there's, There's a lot of basic patience and judgment and smarts that are developed in the sim. On the sim. And so, And I feel confident, like year, like 20 years ago, I would never think I can take this kid that's really fast and put him in a race car and in a couple of days, have a pretty decent little, you know, have a pretty decent. Have a kid doing some pretty decent laps. Right. I would never think that in the past because I just. I just didn't think that the sim was creating the opportunity for the racecraft to be learned, but today it is, because I think the kids that are on the sim are paying such close attention to the real thing. They try to emulate it. Right. And then they also see. They see a lot of mistakes getting made on the sim and in the real world, and they try to emulate and they know more. They just, they're more savvy. And so it's. And it's impressive, man. I will. I could get on. I could get on the sim 10 years ago and drive right to the front at Talladega and Daytona and, and get on there and have fun and do well. It's tough and competitive in any field these days. When you get on the sim, when you get on the rig, it is, man. You hop in a race at Talladega Daytona, you better be ready. And it's not as easy as it used to be. It's because everybody just gotten smarter, you know?

[TJ Majors]

Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But, yeah, I think the, the sim is really good at developing good judgment and choices and trying to get to the finish, trying to, Trying to avoid all the mistakes and bad choices to, to get to see the finish line.

[TJ Majors]

Tj, what's something like you work with Carson?

[Travis]

I mean, there's other kids that I've worked with, a couple kids in the Cars Tour that have ran there, and you just work on passing and how to set up passes, and you don't have to run over a guy in the middle of the corner to pass them. You don't have, you know, you don't have to drive in there and be all over them. You can roll in there and start Your pass on the exit and things like that. It's like patience. Like, you don't have to win the race every single corner.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And it's so funny, man. I will now. I will watch. There are some kids that. I say kids. There are some guys that have raced online. That's not like how they, you know, learn to race cars, but they spend a ton of time racing online, and they don't seem to become better at choices and judgment if there. You know, so there's like, you can learn your racecraft, but there's also people that. It's just an innate. They just have an innate personality.

[Travis]

You have to apply it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right. And like, I'll see. I see some guys that'll get on the sim. They're regulars in either the truck or the Xfinity series, right? And they'll get on the sim and they drive. They drive a little carelessly, and then when they get in the real car, they drive the same way, and they don't seem to like. It hadn't, like, clicked in there. Yeah, yeah.

[Travis]

I mean, I agree with you. There's a couple real fast kids. Yeah, we say kids, but they're not kids really.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But, yeah, they're fast, but, like, the. They're. They didn't. The.

[Travis]

It's not fine. It's like. It's not.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis]

Tuned all the way up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's hard to explain. It really is. But then there's people that learn to be smooth and. And really sharp on the rig, and then that. That's also the way they are on the real racetrack. And I don't. I don't know if they learn that on the rig and take it to the real racetrack, but. Or it's just. Sometimes it's just a personality trait. Some people just drive a certain way, and that's just who they are in inside, and there's nothing you can do about that. Nothing. You can't change it. And they think there's nothing wrong with it. They think that that's just how they. They're supposed to do it.

[Travis]

Yeah. For a guy like Carson, he. He's very young. He. He's really fast on iracing. He knows where to be. And so the only thing you really do on there is is try to create the scenarios that he might see in real life. You know, put cars around him in areas, so when he's in that scenario, he already has an idea on what it's like. So they don't get a lot of practice time nowadays. So you try to put him in situations that might come up. So when that situation happens, he makes the best decision. You already know. You already have a notebook for it instead of having to learn it right then, so. But Carson's really fast on there, and he's super smooth, too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The road courses are perfect. So if you're. If you're. I mean, that makes perfect sense to me. So I don't know if I'm telling you something that's. It's completely obvious, but it might not be obvious to you if you've never been to road America or road Atlanta or the Chicago street course, or, you know, if you're going to go run these racetracks, that time on the. On your sim at home and iracing is insanely valuable. Yeah, insane. And so I. I've told this story before, but we were back when I was teammates with Jimmy. We were testing at road Atlanta and doing some road course stuff, and I'd never raced there. And Jimmy had to do something on the second day, and Chad called me and asked me if I would test their car. And I was like, hell, yes. And then I was like, oh, man, I'm gonna jump in Jimmy's car, you know, and I need. I've never run this track. I need to get up to speed. I don't want to waste half. You know, usually when you go test, you waste the first half of the day just learning track. And so I ran on the simulator for hours and hours the day before, and when I got there, I was within, you know, three or four tenths right off the track, right off the trailer with Jimmy. And so by noon, we were running identical time. They were like, you've never been here. You can't. They couldn't believe that I'd never ran there. I was like, no, man. But I was like. I ran on the simulator, and it's like deja vu. As soon as you pull out on the track, you're like, yep, I've been here before. And all the shift points were within 50ft of each other. So I kind of knew where I needed to be with the shifter and the gears to be in for every corner. And so it was easy to get right up to it. And so I. That if you're going to go race at a road course, which, you know, I think, you know, if you're looking at the totality of the world, like, 85 or 90% of the tracks are road courses. So, I mean, it's very applicable for all types of motorsports and drivers that are racing in motorsports in the world to utilize Iracing to get themselves more familiar with those type of tracks. But for ovals, there's not much learning the track. It's just the track's pretty straightforward. So I think the racecraft is where you can improve better judgment, better choices, so you don't go out there and just do a bunch of bad things.

[TJ Majors]

All right, well, we'll wrap it up for Ask Junior. That's it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Thank you all for tuning in. Show be out later today. Thank you. Xfinity Mobile and Xfinity WI Fi customers will get exclusive access with Xfinity Mobile up to. With the most powerful WI FI network on the go. Speeds up to a gig, fast downloads for turn by turn action, smooth live streaming for fewer pit stops and a strong connection from the parking lot to the grandstand. So for more laps and less lag, stay connected with Xfinity Mobile. Thank you, Xfinity. All right, it's time for Dirty Modo. This segment is brought to you by fanduel. Man, I was in Texas. Not a lot of gambling in Texas. Tim's. We have to talk. I mean, I was just talking about this with. With Travis earlier. What do you think the odds will be on Jesse Love?

[D]

Jesse Love? Austin Hill. I put him in the same category. They'll probably be like, plus 300, plus 400 to win.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[D]

Which I would bet. I heard what you guys were talking about, and I think if. If he's anything plus money, I'd take either one of those guys because unless somebody stops them and beats them, they're so good there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And it's years.

[D]

Yeah, it's years and years that they've.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Been doing about this. Yeah.

[Travis]

I have a feeling if he doesn't. If they do take. If they do keep the win from him at Rockingham, I don't think we'll.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Learn about that until next week.

[Travis]

Wow. Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The appeal process won't be expedited, tj.

[Travis]

Okay. But then we won't know.

[TJ Majors]

But can you beat, like. So you're going to try to say that he'd be more motivated?

[Travis]

That's what I'm saying. I feel like he's going to be.

[TJ Majors]

But this is like, can you. If you're extra motivated, is there anything more that you're going to do and.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes. What?

[Travis]

Yeah, I mean, you're going to make moves.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You just got to have it in your head that it's yours to win. It's a weird thing. I know. Probably something you wouldn't understand.

[TJ Majors]

Well, that's why I'm asking, like, it's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Probably something you wouldn't understand to be able to comprehend confidence.

[TJ Majors]

I've got confidence, but I'm not a race. But to me, like, it's not like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You can, like, confidence is half of the battle.

[Travis]

You'll see it when he's controlling the race. Like, he's going to show that I'm going to control this race, and you're going to see that in his driving.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm not letting you buy. I'm not. I'm not letting you hit the run. So the, The. The only challenge I see in front of the two cars is teammate.

[D]

Yeah. 100%.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's the only thing in the way of them going in and. And winning this race.

[D]

And the thing about Jesse Love, he'll probably be. He'll have better odds than Austin. Hill will.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[D]

So you'll get more value on him and Hill, So I would definitely place that bet, man.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Let's move on into the Cup Series. I'm looking at some of your favorites here. Blaney, Keselowski and Logano all sit at plus 1,000. And the Fords are awesome. The Penske Fords are probably the best Fords. When we go to Talladega and Daytona, what do you. Tj, I know you might want to argue that, but I, I like. I mean, Blaney, Keselowski. Yeah, Joey, to a point. I mean, Joey's. I'm not as high on Joey, I guess, for some reason.

[D]

I would agree. It's really just the aggression.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right.

[D]

We talk about after. After every, you know, play race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's.

[D]

It's who gets the bad push that causes the big wreck. And Blaney, that's. I like Blaney because he never is the guy that caused it. He's just a victim.

[Travis]

He's always the guy riding second, third, or fourth. That's like. Like you said, them guys that are there, and he's like, oh, you guys are. Got all jammed up. Here's my goal, here's my window, and I'm going to go in.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis]

So he's really good at doing that. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I think the Fords are. You got to go in thinking the Fords had the upper hand.

[D]

Yeah. And William Byron actually has the best average finish of active guys, which is. And he's only finished in the next Genera once outside the top 10. Is that Talladega only at Talladega only.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[D]

So, yeah.

[Travis]

It's so circumstantial to big wrecks and stuff, too.

[D]

It is, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You have to make a bet, tj.

[Travis]

Yeah, I mean, to me, I look.

[TJ Majors]

For a guy, have to, for the record.

[Travis]

I mean, my underdog. My underdog right now would be Ryan Priest.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. We can debate the, the unpredictability of it all day long, but this is a betting portion of the show. This is where we make bets.

[Travis]

I think this is where you go for Ryan Priest.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Ryan Priest, oh, my goodness.

[Travis]

He's been good at plate races.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He has.

[Travis]

And now he's with a. To me, he's got better teammates, better.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Group, and he's in a Ford.

[D]

If he finishes with all, all four wheels on the ground, he's definitely up front. Yeah, I like Erik Jones, actually. He's, he's got like the tied for the third best average finish dude. And you don't think so? No, he's, it's, it's all stats, statistical.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's. Yeah, I've got a. I will, I will tell. I will. Top 10.

[D]

Top 10. Yes, that's a definite bet. But he's 48 to wins outright wins. I'd still place a little bit. Why not?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I would bet he almost won a race.

[D]

What, last year and the Reddick won. It might have been two years ago.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But I think he's very smart. I don't think he has enough car to win, but I think that he's very smart and can get you that top 10.

[D]

Yeah, yeah. Top. Top 10.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What about this parlay, Priest, Byron?

[D]

No, I wouldn't parlay anything at all.

[Travis]

Hang on.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, no, Priests, this is why, this is. No, that's why you got to do it. Oh, you're doing.

[D]

Not a Talladega. I'm not doing this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Eric Jones, Byron, all top tens or top 15s, they probably don't get.

[D]

They don't have it now. I thought maybe top 20, those three.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're going to finish in the top 10.

[D]

I like Byron, but I don't know, man.

[Travis]

I don't know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm usually the conservative one here.

[D]

I wouldn't place a top, a parlay in this race because it's too unpredictable.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I guess it's a camp bed. It's easy for me to be aggressive.

[D]

Yeah, exactly.

[TJ Majors]

Preach. You're going to get plus money for a top 10 anyways, right?

[D]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

So why. You don't need to parlay that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I want to. I want to win a lot of money with my 1 5. With my little five bucks.

[Travis]

And you can't sleep on busher either.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You can't.

[Travis]

Now he's a good one to throw in there.

[D]

It's so hard to pick an outright winner. Tracks like this. I actually have a couple of prop bets that I found that I really like. All right, drivers to finish on the lead lap. It's over 25 and a half. That's the number it has hit in four of the last six races, so I'm betting that over. It's risky. If there's a big wreck, obviously, this is it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But, dude, with the way they're riding around, saving fuel, you got a great shot at it.

[D]

Exactly. And then the other one is average running position of the winner. It's over 13. That has hit three last six races, but by, like, a position or two. Yeah, it's tough to figure that out, too, but I like that. That's cool.

[Travis]

Little prop up with the new damage deal, I think you got an opportunity for more guys to be on the lead lap as well, because you can fix more stuff.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's a brilliant pj. Doing better. Put a ton of money on there.

[Travis]

I like 10 units, 20, 25 cars.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

10 years.

[D]

This was like 28, 30. I mean, the last couple races. Yeah. This is.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's your bet.

[D]

That's the best bet.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What's the odds?

[D]

It's minus 120, but it's. That's. That's a really good bet for the last six races that play track. That's pretty good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I love it. Yeah. Well, we're going to see them four wide, half throttle, but on tv, it's gonna look phenomenal. Oh, yeah. The Europeans are gonna love it.

[D]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right. That's pretty cool, man. We got some. We got some good stuff out there. Yeah, that's pretty good. Jesse Love and Jesse Love and Blaney are now right. Winners. I'd probably put a little money on Keselowski, too. And I told you, my parlay for top tens. I would bet that.

[D]

I'll tell you what, if you want to play with parlay, parlay. Jesse Love to win on Saturday. Ryan Bland went on Sunday.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Boom.

[D]

Might be a little fun.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I do like that. All right, the Dirty Mo do segments brought to you by FanDuel, the premier gaming destination in the United States. Before we move on to the white flag of the show, I just want to take a moment to recognize the passing of Dr. Jerry Petty. Dr. Jerry Petty is, for decades worked in the NASCAR industry, helping a lot of drivers as a neurosurgeon and offering tons of advice and support for injured drivers in all sorts of situations. I know that he certainly helped my dad through a lot of different injuries in his life, and he also assisted me in some of the situations that I found myself in, specifically in 2012 with the concussion and also again later in 2016. He was very critical in being able to get me in front of the right people to be able to get the care that I needed. But he was an incredibly, incredibly kind man, well, well respected in his industry and appreciated and loved by a lot of people. And I've known him for so many years and I'm saddened to hear that he has passed. But man, he's done so many great things and his friends and family should certainly be proud and celebrate what an incredible life he lived. Thank you, Dr. Jerry Petty, and we're going to miss you. All right, it's time for the white flag. There was no cup race, so don't worry though. Actions detrimental, doorbomber clear and the tear down. We'll all be back next week reacting to Talladega. So again, no actions detrimental, no door bumper clear and no tear down. But you get me a tj. And also you're going to get Rick Allen. Rick Allen is going to be our guest for tomorrow on the Dale Jr. Download. You don't want to miss that. We're going to talk about all our experiences together working in the NASCAR NBC booth and yeah, what Rick's up to today, right? Where, where has he been and what, what was that transition like, I guess to go from working the booth to whatever it is he's doing. He's going to come on here and tell us. Herman Schrader and Speed street both have episodes dropping Wednesday. Then Amy and I will be back taping, bless your heart, on Thursday. We had a great Easter weekend. Should be some great stories from our Texas trip to talk about. Be sure to check out Dirty Mo's YouTube. I was in Talladega last week with Cletus. That was a lot of fun. We got a great video up there on Dirty Moe's YouTube page all about that. Don't forget to head over to shop.dirtymomedia.com to check out all our new merch. TJ's wearing one of the Delgener download sweaters and I've got one of the Dirty Mo media sweaters on. There's a lot of great merch. We'll keep updating that site as well. So check it out for all the new stuff's gonna be popping up on there. And the Dale Junior Foundation's annual When Del Junior's Ride raffle is underway, head over to the Dell Junior Foundation.org you can purchase a raffle ticket. It's a Chevy Tahoe, high country, four wheel drive. We also are going at Me and Amy added a bunch of extras to this raffle. And I'm going to cut a video about that really soon. And I think that's really what you're going to be wanting to win. All right. So you want to check that out. All right. Enjoyed the show. Thank you, T.J. glad to have you back.

[Travis]

Yeah. Appreciate it. Glad to be back.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We'll see you all tomorrow with Rick Allen.