← The Dale Jr. Download
The Dale Jr. Download
Dale Jr Defends Throwback Weekend, DVP Impact & Highest Charter Sale Ever?
02:06:19
Dale Earnhardt Jr. returns to the studio after spending the weekend in Darlington for another edition of Dirty Air. He is joined by special co-host Jordan Bianchi to recap the action from Darlington and major stories around the NASCAR garage
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- [00:00]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
This is sacred. Hands off. Right? Nobody poo poos on throwback weekend, okay? But it was a honest conversation. It's starting to sound like spring, but it's not official till you've lit up the grill with Kingsford Original Charcoal. This time of year, as we break in the backyard with friends and family, everything tastes better cooked with authentic wood fired barbecue flavor. Thanks to Kingsford. Welcome spring. Visit kingsford.com for charcoal and more from America's grilling expert.
- [00:38]
Mike Davis
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- [00:59]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. I'm still sour, man, that I wasn't your best man at your wedding.
- [01:05]
Jordan Bianchi
When will you start mentally, like getting ready for the race?
- [01:07]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Can you not tell I'm mentally ready?
- [01:09]
Mike Davis
Travis has some dumb ideas, but I agree with him on this one.
- [01:14]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So doesn't sound like you know what you're talking about.
- [01:17]
Mike Davis
You haven't scratched the surface yet there, boy.
- [01:19]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I mean, what the do you want?
- [01:21]
Jordan Bianchi
I just think the last few laps it was just like stop every time.
- [01:25]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You ain't picky. This ain't walking in and have it your way, mother. All right? This ain't Burger King. Travis is like, wrap this up. They don't have no fun around here. Hey Everybody, it's Dale Jr. Back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download here. It's Tuesday, it's dirty air and TJ's not here. TJ's going to miss this show. We got Jordan Bianchi coming in to substitute for tj and I'll take that any day. I appreciate you dropping in and fiddling in for TJ today.
- [01:57]
TJ Majors
I appreciate you having me on. This is quite the call. I wasn't expecting this.
- [02:01]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, you know, hey, you're kind of part of the, you and Jeff are kind of part of the team here. So whenever we need to go to the bullpen, we got some really, really great pictures. So thankfully, you know, we're able to get in here and I'm kind of eager to hear your opinion on a couple of things. I know you guys do the tear down after the race. Great show and it's great reaction and kind of a not a real easy show to do because I, you know, Even after a couple days of sitting on this stuff and thinking about it. Yeah. You have. You know, you still might not have all the answers. Oh, yeah, right. But you got to make a call. You got to make a decision to go one way or another on some of the debates or some of the things that you see on. On. On the racetrack in the moment with. With kind of limited information or just whatever you've gathered.
- [02:54]
TJ Majors
The. The beauty of the show is it's instantaneous. It's right after the race, things are fresh, and you're digesting it. The beauty of the show, though, is also the. The problem of the show is sometimes you don't get the full story, whether you have conversations with people. Sometimes you have to go back and actually watch things multiple times. And I find myself will have opinion on something, and I'll go back and like, well, maybe I don't need to. I didn't need to be as hard on that. Or I was completely wrong.
- [03:17]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Do you correct it or just let.
- [03:18]
TJ Majors
It depends on what it is. If it's something major, I'll go back like, hey, we talked about this a week or two ago, and I was wrong about this, or maybe my opinion shifted and here's why. And other times, I'll dig in my heels even more, like, no, I was kind of soft on this, and I needed to be even harder on this. And there's times. And a couple weeks ago, the Xfinity series race at Martinsville is a great example of that. Like, I looked at that, and there was a lot of consternation in the industry about that race, and it was a terrible, you know, bad look for the sport. But I also don't think it was nearly as horrific as a lot of people made it out to be. And I was like, okay. And I wish I would have had that back a little bit, maybe being that that one person who said, listen, can we all just, like, calm down a little bit and take a step back? And this isn't like a. An Xfinity series problem. Overall, this is one race. Overall, that series is really pretty clean and good. They had a bad weekend.
- [04:03]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, I agree with that. I mean, I tried to. You know, I went into that race at Martinsville knowing, like, our guys can probably come here, run really good, have a great day. But I know the last 10% of that race is a show. It's a street fight. It's awful. Yeah. And awful. Probably depending on who you are, it might be great. But, you know, for a fan, they know what they're getting when they show up, and that might be worth the price of the ticket for them. So maybe they like, you know, the uncertainty or the chaos that might develop and. But I don't like going to a racetrack as an owner and knowing that that's what's going to go down. Knowing that you're going to have to dodge all of that carnage and hope for the best. Right. Instead of just saying, hey, man, we prepared the car. It drives good drivers good. He can navigate himself into a great result. You don't have that luxury at Martinsville, right. Because of what goes down late in the race. You just kind of got to get lucky and not be one of the guys, get swiped out. And so that's not always fun. And I knew that going in, and it definitely stepped over the line into, you know, severe ugliness. Right. But, yeah, we've seen it before there. And I was with you. I kind of was like, you know, I kind of want to overreact. Like, I. Like, we all have kind of 10. You know, we've all kind of got this habit of, right, Overreacting and just being like, ah, you know, fire and brimstone. And I was like, I'm not gonna do that. And it is. You know, it was Sammy. I didn't want to. I didn't want to come down on him too hard and then have to reel it back or dial it back, right. Or feel like maybe I'd, you know. Cause how you handle Sammy, I think is critical to his growth. Right. And that's such a dang fine line for me to walk, man. I've got a. You know, I'm going to come into the podcast and talk about it. I might. If I'm working a race, I'm in a booth talking about it, and I know it, man. Our drivers, my guys here at Junior Motorsports, my buddies that are racing in a Cup Series, they don't get it. They don't understand why. Why'd you say that about me? Why'd you have to go talk about me like that, you know? And I'm like, well, it's odd because I'm. I'm. I'm.
- [06:23]
TJ Majors
You have a lot of hats. You have a lot of roles. You have to balance.
- [06:25]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I was an owner yesterday. Today I'm. I'm in the media, right? I don't even know what you would call me, but I'm not a journalist, but I'm an analyst. Yeah, you're an analyst. So even in this podcast. So, yeah, it's. It's Tough. I will have a. I have another example of that later in the show. But the cup race this weekend, the Throwback weekend, frustrating to see, like, I guess the Friday or Saturday, as we're leading into this race weekend, the conversation sort of shifted toward the. The value of Throwback Weekend overall. Do you know how that conversation kind of cropped up? Was it the fact that there were only, you know, there were 19 teams that didn't participate?
- [07:08]
TJ Majors
Yeah, it was kind of an organic thing where throughout the week, as teams are putting out their paint schemes and everything, it was. They came to realization of 19 teams weren't going to be doing. And then it was like, wait a second. That's more than half the field. Right? Why are they not doing this? And we have seen this number incrementally kind of increase over the years. And so then. Then the question became, why aren't teams doing it? And maybe has the weekend lost its allure a little bit? And. And I think it's a conversation worth having because I think it's a conversation to say, okay, throwback weekend, I think, is important. You have to honor the sport. And there's no better place to do that, I think, than Darlington. But can you do it? Maybe in a way, can you expand it or continue, have it evolve in a way where it doesn't feel the same year after year? I think that's where the conversation ended up. It was just interesting how we got there.
- [07:52]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yes. Yeah. I have an instant reaction of, oh, man, how can you not love the history of the sport, but then when you dive deeper into it. So I was kind of not offended, but I was kind of taken aback that anyone wouldn't be on board with something like this. But when I walked into the media center, just because I told Jeff Gleck I would come by and say hello, and I wanted to do that. I.
- [08:21]
TJ Majors
Thanks for coming to say hi to me, by the way.
- [08:23]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I didn't know if you were in. You were there. Jeff was like, hey, I'm gonna be there, you know, and he's not always at every race, you know, So I was just like, hey, I'll come say hey. And I also wanted the opportunity to speak a little bit about the. The number eight debacle, if anybody was in the room wanting to talk, but. Which we'll get into here in a bit as well. But back to the Throwback Weekend conversation. I was initially like, how dare anybody be. You know, why are we having this conversation? You know, this is sacred. Hands off. Right? Nobody. Nobody. Poo. Poos. On throwback weekend.
- [09:05]
TJ Majors
Okay.
- [09:05]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And. But it was a, but it was a honest conversation. Right. I didn't think about some of the challenges that the landscape presented to the sponsors these days. Presents. It was lost on me, I guess that, you know, some of these partners might have just a couple of weekends a year where they're, you know, they're a three race sponsor or a five race sponsor and they're like, well, I don't want to change all my stuff up for this race. I mean, I want my logo as it appears with my colors on the car. And yeah, I don't really understand the throwback, you know, history and nature and I don't, you know, and so we're not going to participate, which I get, you know, and that's fair. Maybe there's a balance of, you know, look, I'm not, I don't get upset when somebody doesn't participate. Hell, Junior Motorsports didn't participate every year. You know, it was quite a while where the seven didn't run one. And when they do run one, it's. It's a throwback to something company related, not, not NASCAR or even motorsports related. And I never loved those deals. Like the 22 car for several years would do a throwback to something totally unrelated to nascar, you know, and Josh Berry. Yeah, Wood Brothers throws it back to Jim Clark. Yeah, right. It's like, yeah, right. You know, I wouldn't, I would keep it inside the net, inside the NASCAR box. Some people go outside that box and do things that don't make any sense to me whatsoever.
- [10:41]
TJ Majors
That's why to me, I look at this weekend is like, I think we need to get away from the paint schemes a little bit because this weekend is so about, oh, paint scheme, paint scheme, paint scheme, that's okay. But we need to move away from that. We've done that. And there's, it's kind of. It feels exhausted. Let's celebrate the history of the sport. And Raja Carruth, I think, had a really good idea, which is like, let's make this a retro weekend. And I think that's what you do, where you celebrate the history of the sport in various ways. Expand it, actually blow this out. And if teams want to do throwback paint schemes, they can, then they can. And if they want to do it to different errors, they can. And then even on the sponsorship side, there could be a company who maybe is only on the car for a handful of races that says, you know what, we're going to go back to our old school logo or you know, from our origins. And I think it just opens it up a little bit. And you can still have this weekend, which should be a celebration, and you bring in the hall of Famers and you do all of these things, but it's just not about the paint schemes. And then last week's conversation, and really the conversation throughout the race was paint scheme, paint scheme, paint scheme. Instead, let's talk about the history of the sport, and let's do that and blow that out.
- [11:41]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Throwback weekend can still remain, can still exist, can still be important to people. But, yeah, maybe there is a balance between, look, if you want to participate, if you want to come with a design of a paint scheme or a wrap that's got some history to it, that's embraced the Xfinity series, does a really good job. A lot of energy there. But also, to your point, maybe push, maybe shift in a little bit more of the focus on some of the vintage cars that show up some. You know, we've all. We got. We've got Richard Petty Pace in the field one year. This year, it's the Wood Brothers cars with. With. With Harvick and Clint. And there's a lot of, you know, they have the alumni deal where all the. You see drivers from. From the past on pit road during intros and meandering about the facility throughout the race weekend. So maybe there's a greater focus on. On it being a bit of a trip through the hall of Fame, if you will. Right. And not so much about, like, who did it the best in terms of the scheme and does it look exactly like it, you know, like the old cars. Kyle Busch had a comment, said, it's not for us, it's for the fans. I thought that was a great. It's great to hear you have drivers that say, you know, Chase, Elliot and Byron and even Bubba Wallace for saying that. It's overdone agreeing with you to. To. To a point that, you know, maybe it could be re. You know, rebranded or rethought and go in a new direction. Brad Keselowski was pretty adamant that he thinks the fans are excited about it and they're dressing up in the older gear, which would, you know, I think throwback weekend is evolving. Right. And everybody just kind of needs to get out of its way, even the track, even nascar. Right. I didn't like, years ago, the track in nascar. I guess the track probably more than anything would say this year, it's 90s. Yeah. And I'm like, why do we even have to do that?
- [13:46]
TJ Majors
You're putting people in a box.
- [13:47]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. Don't put guardrails on it.
- [13:48]
TJ Majors
Like let people do what they want to do. And I think if you allow that creativity to flow, you're going to see some really cool things instead of forcing something down someone's throat. And I think that's where this idea needs to continue to evolve to.
- [13:59]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Right. Can we all just agree? Darlington, when you go into that place, I was reading articles from 1980 where my dad's like, man, when you go into Darlington, it just feels like you're going back in time. And that's absolutely correct. And then let's, let's just let it be that. And if you want to, you know, have an interpretation or expression, go for it. If you don't, nobody's gonna care. Yeah, I didn't care. I didn't mind that the 19 guys were out there running around with their non throwback schemes and there was some really good looking stuff out there that, that, that was cool to see. But I think we just kind of all got to get out of the way and let Throwback Weekend be what it wants to be. And again, though, I do think that Darlington should, you know, outside of what we see on the racetrack, in terms of the design of the cars and stuff, I absolutely think that Darlington has to continue to lean into that vintage retro feel. So that when you go there on the weekend, you know, like the Darlington parade, I know that maybe a lot of people don't even know that happens. Right. The town certainly does. But a lot of our, you know, maybe a lot of our fans that are traveling out from in, out of town don't even know that's actually a thing that they can experience. Right. And it's a very, it has a very old throwback, small town feel to it. Right. I've actually been in that parade a couple of times with our NBC teammates riding on a float, throwing candy and yeah, it does have that. It does feel like you sort of step back in time a little bit or you're kind of part of a small town vibe. And I think they should absolutely, absolutely continue to lean into that. I'd hate to say it. Go away, I guess, or, you know, be, you know, be this thing that we're like, yeah, every other year we're going to do it or whatever. I don't even know how you do that. A lot of people want it to be the Southern 500. That's not possible. Can't happen.
- [15:57]
TJ Majors
You can't do it for a couple reasons. One, it's the Southern 500. I feel like it has its own identity. And this goes to a bigger thing to me is you have 38 races on the schedule and some of these races, the 600, the Daytona 500, you, they are what they are, right? Not every race has an identity, though. And the one thing that spring Darlington does have, which makes it unique from a lot of the others and separates it is its throwback weekend. Plus, the Southern 500 is generally the start of the playoffs and that's a really important time. And then we talk about sponsors and branding and everything like that. Sponsors don't want, they want their main branding on a car come the playoffs, period.
- [16:32]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, and yeah, there's, that's a premium for sponsors, those playoff races. And so, yeah, the Southern 500 is not an option. But yeah, we'll see what happens going forward. I hope that it's something that continues. And I think the drivers, you know, I think some of the drivers, you know, just don't have an affinity for the past or the history. You know, some of the younger guys certainly. It took me a while, I guess, to really kind of find a, I guess a passion for lack of a better word, for the history of the sport or really get into wanting to learn more about it, watching old races and stuff like that and learning about the pioneers of the sport. Hey everybody. You want the latest Dale Jr. Download apparel? Visit shop.dirtymomedia.com we're always adding new stuff all the time, especially like when we say something silly on this show. We'll put it on a T shirt again. Check it out at shop.dirtymomedia.com Nobody likes.
- [17:30]
Mike Davis
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- [18:47]
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- [19:09]
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- [19:36]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Moving on. Brad Keselowski's wheel nut comes off in the middle of the pit cycle. That was a pretty big deal. So do you know the question I would I would ask you, Jordan? Is that wheel nut that was down on the apron of the racetrack, is that the sole reason for that caution to come out that late into the cycle?
- [19:56]
TJ Majors
To the best of my knowledge, I mean I saw them pick it up and it was. I don't depends how far out of the groove it was. But it was a piece of debris on the racetrack and that's where the question is, is it worth throwing a caution for? And to me it warrants a caution. There's a piece of debris on the track. It's a caution. And it's unfortunate that it's in the middle of a pit cycle, but at the end of the day a caution is a caution. If it's caution here it has to be cautioned, then there it can't be changed and that it sucks for some of these guys and it helped Byron out a lot at that time. It also helped Hamlin, by the way, because it put Denny in a spot where he could recoup a lot of track position he had and let him put him in the spot to eventually win the race. I don't have a problem with it. It's unfortunate. And I don't know how big a lug nut you know is, but that or the wheel nut. But it didn't look small on tv.
- [20:41]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, I felt like it was. Personally, from what I could tell watching the race, I thought it was far enough out of the way that they could have waited for the end of the pit cycle. And I've seen them do that in the past. I've seen them understand, all right, we can't turn the field upside down. This situation, we have to handle it, but we can give it a few more laps. And I think that another thing that happens, too, is the spotters around the racetrack. NASCAR officials will have this chatter on the radio. And then the spotters for the teams are up on the radio, up on the top of the tower, talking back down to the crew chiefs and so forth, saying, hey, they're talking about this. Right? So is there a way for NASCAR inadvertently to encourage teams to get their cycle finished? Is there language or a temperament or a delivery or a tone in discussing that debris down on the apron that would get the team? Because some teams will go, what? We're not pitting. They're about to throw a yellow. We'll stay out. Right. Is there an ad. Is there an opposite effect that they could have?
- [21:42]
TJ Majors
Yeah, I mean, I get that, but I'm also. If I'm William Byron, if I'm that team, I'm like, no, the re is fine. Like, yeah. Or, you know, I want that in that, in instance, you want the caution come out. Like, no, no, that. That's a. That's right in the middle of the racetrack.
- [21:55]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
For sure.
- [21:55]
TJ Majors
We're going to cut a tire. Like, I'm screaming and hollering and there's a couple other teams in that same boat, so it's interesting. Now you get politicking, and I don't know if that's what you want in the middle of race, though. It'd be entertaining to me. That's where it comes down to, like, if you're gonna. If something warrants a caution, then throw the caution. And it sucks that it comes in the middle of a pit cycle.
- [22:13]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Those are the brakes right on. All right. Pretty awesome camera work from the guys at Fox to Catch that wheel nut flying off. I was really impressed by that watching the coverage. We actually, me and our TNT teammates got together at the NASCAR Productions facility, which is the first time I ever seen that, and we sat and watched a race Sunday.
- [22:36]
TJ Majors
Wow, Beautiful place.
- [22:38]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It was, it's awesome. NASCAR's put a lot of effort into it and a lot of money for, you know, content creation and all types of things. And so that's, we're, you know, we're going to see quite a, I think not a shift, but a, but a lot of improvement and growth in what NASCAR creates with their content going forward. And I think that's also where the CW does their races when they're not at track. When you walk in there and see all of the TVs and everything that that crew has to use and has, has available to them when they're doing those broadcasts, it's, it's extensive. It's everything you would need. It's more than you need. If you're an analyst standing there and you're like, okay, I'm gonna, I'm going to do this race off, off site. You got everything and then some to be able to do a good job with it. I know there's a bit of, you know, some opinions out there with fans in terms of, well, we need our announcers, analysts at track in the booth. It is amazing to be able to actually look out a window and see the race happening. That's a great vantage point. They say in broadcasting that, you know, they don't, they're kind of like, hey, don't look out the booth, don't look out the window, right? Don't do that, look at the screen, talk about what's on program. But I cheat and I go out there and I'm looking at the battles and I'm like, hey, you know, this is about to develop into a battle. Let's get the cameras there before it happens so we can talk about how this driver setting a pass up. And that's the one thing that you miss right when you're in a studio is just being able to look out the window, right, and get a different perspective, 40,000 foot view of what's happening. But, you know, I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I wouldn't be surprised. I mean to, if we're going, there's a great race, there's a great race at Chicago that's going to happen this year, right? Our booth that we're going to be in at Chicago, we ain't going to be able to See the racetrack, the.
- [24:36]
TJ Majors
Street course, there's no way.
- [24:37]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. We might as well be anywhere. Right? Doesn't really matter. I don't think it makes a difference or will affect the way we do the race. But, you know, when we're at an oval and we can literally look out a window and see the entire track, that's a different story. But so some of these races, it makes perfect sense to maybe not travel the booth because they can't see anything anyways. The first couple of Chicago races we did, they did from a shipping container sitting down in the paddock. They did? Yes. Wow. Yeah.
- [25:05]
TJ Majors
You're just sitting in a shipping container. Yes. Okay.
- [25:07]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Rick Allen and Steve were in a shipping container in the paddock, nowhere near a race car, going at full speed. And they were at ground level. Like it was like you couldn't see thing. You're just in a box. And so literally. Yes. I mean, that was it. They might as well been in Charlotte. It'd been more comfortable.
- [25:28]
TJ Majors
You slap a sticker on there, you ship back to Charlotte.
- [25:30]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's right. So people will be surprised.
- [25:33]
Amy Earnhardt
Is there still something to being at the racetrack and be able to communicate, walk through the garage? Is that still where the value is in going to the racetrack?
- [25:41]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, I think there's the garage time is limited, comparable to what it was like years ago or, you know, when there was practice and so forth. But there is still some time to get in there. And you get a lot of opportunity to see crew chiefs more often than anyone else. So, yeah, there is. There is a great opportunity when you're at track. And I'll say this too, man, like there's an energy that you feel just being on site. That's not something you can recreate anywhere else.
- [26:08]
TJ Majors
I can't do my job, do my job without having in person conversations. And I always say my favorite time of the week is actually from the time the garage opens on Sunday morning to when drivers get in their cars. Because everybody's around. Team owners, team executives, drivers, crew chiefs. You can have those conversations. Actually, when I'm at the race, I'm watching it off a monitor. I'm not up in a press box or anything. I'm watching it off tv. And that's goes back to our earlier conversation. Often I feel like I'm missing things because I'm not being able to take in everything or I'm forced to watch what the presentation on TV is being showing me. So I miss other things. Yeah, you do feel like you're playing catch up, but that's just the reality of. Because you can't do anything about it. A lot of these tracks don't have press boxes anymore. Darlington doesn't. And you go to a road course or street course, you again, you're. There is no vantage point where you can see everything. That's just the way it is.
- [26:55]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, I do, I am looking forward to, to our broadcasting with TNT and, and obviously Amazon on Prime. We're starting to gear up and prepare and talk and, and all that good stuff. We even went into a booth and mock broadcasted me and Adam and Latart with Marty. We all sat down and kind of did a mock broadcast for almost half of that race Sunday. Oh, wow. Yeah, that was fun.
- [27:26]
TJ Majors
That's a good opportunity to get some reps in.
- [27:29]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Dude, I ain't done it feels like 14, 16 months.
- [27:32]
TJ Majors
Did you feel like you have to knock some rust off?
- [27:33]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yes. Yeah, I mean, you know, you're apprehensive like, hey, how, how easy is this going to, how, how natural is this going to go?
- [27:41]
Amy Earnhardt
Did it feel natural? Did it feel good?
- [27:43]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
After. By the end, by the end of the race I was like, okay, I feel like this is going to work just fine. But when you first start out, you know, I've never worked with Adam and I've never really been in the same booth as Steve. So me and every race, 99% of the races that I did at NBC, I was in a booth by myself with Burton and Steve and Rick Allen were in their own booth maybe even out of sight. Right. So we couldn't even see each other. And so being in the same booth with Steve and Steve's, you know, with, with a four man booth, we all had to kind of be, we all had to kind of give each other a little room, right. And be a little more disciplined with our own comments because I mean, Steve, myself, Adam, I think we could all talk as long, you know, Steve talk. No. Yeah, right. No, we talk all day. But you gotta give the other guys a little time to jump in there and so. But it's interesting. It's gonna be fun. I think those, those races are gonna be great. By time we get through the Amazon stuff, Amazon's gonna be cool because they're gonna come in with all kinds of new bells and whistles. Right. I think that fans should pay attention to what they're seeing on the screen and some of the kind of cool gizmos or whatever widgets that they come up with because they're, they're kind of those, they're Kind of excited about those type of things. Right. So the presentation will be cool, and then by time we get to tnt, I think we'll be in a rhythm, having worked five races together at Amazon, and that should, you know, we should be probably really, really grinding it out by then. But I'm excited about that, and it's awesome to be preparing for it. Back to the race. Late in the race, there was a debate, a couple debates. Bubba spins Larson, and you can see clearly as they're exiting turn two, Larson just kind of powers down.
- [29:42]
TJ Majors
Yeah, right. Big time.
- [29:43]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Big time. Yeah. I wonder why he did that.
- [29:45]
TJ Majors
Reddick on the wall.
- [29:46]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Right? I know, but, I mean, even that was so far in front of me.
- [29:49]
TJ Majors
I don't know if he panicked or what. Are you in that situation? You don't want to. Maybe Reddick just got into the wall. It wasn't going to be a caution by itself, so. And I don't want to step in Larson's mindset here, but his thought is probably, I don't want to get into him and cause a caution because I don't want to create an incident.
- [30:05]
Amy Earnhardt
But is he over cautious?
- [30:06]
TJ Majors
He was over cautious, and by being over cautious, he created caution.
- [30:09]
Amy Earnhardt
Right, right. I know.
- [30:10]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I'm watching it, and I'm like, I've watched it over and over, and I'm like, hey, he's a long ways from Reddick. I wonder why he powered down so hard. He just, you know, middle one and two just kind of went by Bubba. So he knows Bubba's right on his right rear, full steam. So that was surprising. Everybody was like, oh, Bubba did it on purpose, but he did not. And the other conversation is, this is the first race directly affected by the new DVP policy. So with the new policy allowing Larson and his team to go repair the car, people are like, oh, well, look here now, is this a. I guess some people want to look at it and go, now we got a new problem. No, this is not a new problem. This is the way, actually it's been for 70 years, up until, you know, the DVP policy came into effect. Cars could get out there and do this all the time, and then if they weren't creating accidents like this, parts were falling off and cutting tires and all kinds of things were happening, or they were just flat getting in the way and slowing somebody down and creating a battle for a position that would not otherwise have developed. I love it.
- [31:21]
TJ Majors
I have no issue with. This is how NASCAR was for a long ways. And I do like the fact that Teams have an opportunity to make repairs. We saw a year ago with so many incidents where guys had minor damage and they could have been back on the racetrack, but they didn't have. They expired the seven minute allotment. Right. And so this is a change. It's unfortunate, but this is the way it is. And people are like, well, why is Carl Larson out there? Why is he running out there? He can't get any points. Well, no, he couldn't get any points. But that team has a mindset. And you know Cliff Daniels so well. His mindset is, listen, we don't know when we're going to be in this situation again. There may be a race down the road where we have a damaged race car and we can gain points, and we have to fine tune and use this as a practice session to make sure we get that car in pristine condition as much as we can and get it back on the racetrack as quickly as possible. That's part of it. This is real time opportunity to do that. That's why Kyle Larson was out there. It sucks that he caused a caution, but it is what it is, and that's racing.
- [32:16]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. I would say the number one thing, if I go back to the years that I raced where we had the ability to really fix the car, if it was repairable, we always did, there was no questioning, should we fix it? You know, even if we knew that there was nothing to gain, similar to Larson here, even if we knew there was not a position to gain, your ego and your pride wouldn't allow you to throw, to toss in the. To toss in the white flag.
- [32:51]
TJ Majors
You don't want a DNF on your resume.
- [32:52]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
No. So in my mind, you mentioned a lot of, a lot of great things about why they would want to get the car back out there. And I'm hope, you know, I'm wondering, I guess, if that, back in my time, that was the driving motivation. You didn't want a DNF and you didn't want to quit. You didn't want the team to quit. You're looking around, you got, you know, 812 guys that are working on this car, and you didn't want any one of them to see you give up. Right. You all held each other to the certain standard. It's like, man, if we can fix it, we're fixing it. We're getting out there. Driver, have your ass ready. You know, when a car's ready to go, we're going back out there, we're running laps, and there wasn't nothing there. Was no debate. And especially, I mean, that's how Tony Senior, Tony Junior were there is. I would wreck, destroy the car. And I'm like, you know, this is obviously going to be a 50, 70 lap repair. I'm not going to be surprised by them wanting to fix it. But in the. The fury and hustle in which they went back to repairing that car was always a bit of a surprise to me. They were fixing that car as fast as they could so that it got out there only 48 laps down instead of 55, or, you know, they were. As soon as the car came in, they're already jacking it up, throwing, throwing, you know, Jack stands under it and already starting to cut and cut and pull and. And unbolt bent stuff. And I'm like, wow, you know, like, our day is screwed. And we're. Yes, we're gonna fix it. Yes, we're gonna go back out there. But you guys are working like. Like it's a. Like it's a pit stop, you know? And that right there showed me that the teams would do anything in the world they could to avoid walking out of there feeling like they didn't try their hardest. Even in those scenarios, they weren't going to leave that racetrack thinking, yeah, we just kind of gave up, you know, wasn't nothing to gain, so we just kind of quit. And I wonder, you know, when the DVP policy came in, that was my concern. It's like, man, you're going to normalize, giving up. You're going to normalize.
- [35:17]
TJ Majors
Quitting.
- [35:17]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Quitting, yeah. And it's going to. It's okay to quit. And I'm like, I never did sit well with me. I did also like the idea of a team that didn't need to be out there, not being out there. Right, man, your destroyed. You're not going to gain any points. I get it. Let's just save everybody a little money and go home. But the mental aspect of it was what never set well with me, because it would normalize, guys just sort of saying, all right, yep, we're done. Let's just go on home. And the driver's home before the checkered flag falls. So I kind of like this, right? And maybe Larson doesn't. I'll tell you, a driver is not excited about driving a wrecked race car, especially at a place like Darlington, that Larson. You know, I could think of maybe one more track like Martinsville where you don't want to drive a car that's off the pace because you can't get out of the way, same thing at Darlington. You can't get out of the way. And that's what we saw at the end of the day, when he get. When he tries to slow down and not be a part of what's going on, he ends up being a part of what's going on. So that sucks for Larson to have to drive that car, but I promise you, that team being able to repair that car, put it back out on the racetrack, go back to their pit stall, finish the day, that probably is what they would prefer over loading it up and going home while the rest of the field still competing.
- [36:39]
TJ Majors
That's the mentality that Cliff Daniels carries in that team, and that is why they are who they are and they are as good as they are. And I will tell you, and I will bet you dollars to donuts, come later this year in a playoff race, they're going to have an incident and having this experience of having gone through this, of having to repair a car like that will serve them. And I will bet you they get a point or two in the playoffs at some point that will help their cause.
- [37:01]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. So the question then goes to William Byron. Leading 243 laps. The situation is Williams leading the race. He's got a pretty comfortable lead over most of the field. I think if I remember correctly, Redick is kind of held up by the 20 and Denny's kind of back there, but nobody's really catching William. And William and his team are going to do some math to understand that is that as these other teams short pit or come to pit road first, he knows, okay, I can be out here x amount of laps before I need to pit and come back out on pit road still in front of these guys.
- [37:49]
Amy Earnhardt
Right.
- [37:50]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And not only is that happening on the pit box, there's a war room back in Charlotte. Hendrick Motorsports, they got a big old. All these teams had these where there's a couple dudes sitting around 612 people and engineers and all kinds of people with laptops and big screens and calculating all of this information, double checking, verifying, and sending that back to Rudy and his team on the pit box going, yep, we got to do it this way. This is when if they pit now we got this many laps, we got to get to pit road then, you know, So, I mean, there was not a lack of information and it wasn't a guess. Like, Rudy had all of the details. Wouldn't you assume he did?
- [38:30]
TJ Majors
And he. I talked to him after the race, and he said, we. The way we calculated it was we were going to be, I think he said, a second ahead of Bell. They had about a three or four seconds.
- [38:38]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
How did they miss that?
- [38:39]
TJ Majors
And so there's a couple things, and I have to go back and look at the times, Mike, they. One, they may have had a slow pit stop. Two, Byron may have gotten on and off pit road a little bit slower. And so you combine that with the fact that Bell did pit before that, so he's going to eat into the time. Naturally, they ended up coming out a second behind. And so it can go quick there, as you know, on old tires. And it was not at all what they anticipated. And he was beaten up afterwards. I mean, he looked demoralized.
- [39:04]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I know. I mean, the other. Even though they allowed Bell to cycle in front of them, I think the one thing that was masked, the one thing that was sort of unknown or unrealized was how quick Redick was. So Redick had drove through the pack after being a victim of that cycle, right? Lost a lot of track position during that one caution during the middle of pit cycle. Him and Blaney both. It took Blaney no time to drive back through the field. It was a little tougher for Redick, but Redick and Blaney were two of the cars that I thought showed early in the race that they could run with Byron. Byron's car lost a little edge as the race went on. He lost a little pace. He still was pretty dominant, but he was vulnerable or beatable. And as we're watching Blaney kind of march through the field, everybody's, like, focused on Blaney, Blaney, Blainey. He's got the speed. He can do it. And nobody was really looking at Redick. And then when. And Redick was really fast. Drove up to the back of that 20 car and got stuck. And that's when I think they forgot about him, because when he pitted before the 20, he cycles in front of him now. He's not obstructed.
- [40:18]
TJ Majors
Clean air.
- [40:19]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Clean air. And. And he obviously, you know, put himself in a position that was absolutely concerning for Byron late in the race. And then when Byron gets up to the back of the 20, he kind of struggled there for a while.
- [40:32]
TJ Majors
It was such a change for Byron because he had clean air all day. He really controlled the race, literally 243 laps consecutively. He never had to get really in traffic, but you could see when you watch his in car, he would get in behind back markers. He couldn't blow by him. Like, he had to work on it. A little bit. At one point, he's trying to put Christopher Bell down a lap early in the race and he had to work and grind it out. It was hard to pass. And when you got back in traffic, it made a difference. That was what changed for William Byron. Whereas Redick and Blaney had that experience throughout the race, particularly Blaney, as he was able to really, really do well in long runs. And so it wasn't hard for him to come at the end there because they had a stretch there where once Byron got behind, it was like, whoa, this is a whole different game for us. And the car we had is no longer the car we have now.
- [41:20]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, I, that, to me, that. Those moments, like, you know, the, the, the caution in the middle of pit cycle, how that flipped the field, how those guys worked their way back through the pack, how were they able to get by particular cars? Then when William Byron is taken out of the lead and out of control of the race and put, you know, put behind some people, all of those things is what made this race entertaining to me. I, I know that the great, you know, the good race poll, they're very un. Unserious.
- [41:54]
TJ Majors
Oh, it's serious.
- [41:55]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It is serious.
- [41:55]
TJ Majors
Unscientific.
- [41:56]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It's unscientific. But, you know, there was a, There was a point where he was like, should I keep doing this? You know, I remember that. So that's why I say unserious. But Jeff, in general, yeah, we take it very seriously. I think it's a very good, you know, temperature on, you know, the fans opinion of the race and our, you know, our thoughts about it is. And my. I vote. I've always voted. And so. And I'm always curious. I was surprised that this one was as low as it was because. Really?
- [42:25]
TJ Majors
Yeah, I thought it was gonna be lower.
- [42:26]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Really?
- [42:26]
TJ Majors
Oh, yeah. I mean, so little passing.
- [42:28]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I know.
- [42:29]
TJ Majors
And I just, I like the strategy element and actually I was rooting for Byron to, like, have a perfect game because we've never seen that in this, in this car, in this era. But I, I thought it was actually going to be lower.
- [42:39]
Amy Earnhardt
Yeah, 45.9. Said it was a good race.
- [42:42]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I was in crazy. I was in a studio completely, like, locked on it, right. And paying attention to it and obviously doing the fake, you know, doing the mock or the fake broadcast for half of it. So, I mean, maybe that's why it was more entertaining to me, is because I was paying that close of attention to it. Now, if I was, I was, If I was at home right Watching from the couch, you know, got the kids here doing what they're doing and different things going on, taking the dogs out and, you know, in between different activities that somebody's doing, maybe I wouldn't have been able to really be that locked into the strategy, that aware, I guess, of everybody's situation. I'd have been like, yeah, okay, I've losing interest here. I've kind of got up, and now I've got back down. Why is Blaney back there? What's going on? You know? But to watch it the way I did, I was really entertained. And to what I think what makes a great race for me. There's a lot of things, obviously, that make a great race, but when you can back when you can factor in, like, an emotion or multiple different levels of emotion by the end of the day. So you're looking at Rudy. He's got to face the music, right, and take some responsibility. You feel terrible for this guy.
- [44:02]
TJ Majors
He felt horrible.
- [44:03]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He had a badass race car, and nobody's going to remember that. Blaney, another insanely, really, really good race.
- [44:11]
TJ Majors
Car, year of near misses for him, continues.
- [44:14]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, and so you. And so you have all of the emotions tied to those two performances. And then obviously, Denny sneaking in there and stealing one. His pit crew literally being the stars of the day, we only really see the crews. There's some. There's. There's a couple times during the season where this may happen, but mostly their. Their time comes during that final event, during championship weekend. Right. That's when we really go, okay, let's. Let's meet the crew. Let's see who these guys are. They're going to play a role today. Well, they did it. They won that race for Denny outright. And so you have all these cool little things going on. Larson wrecking out, first lap. You know, just a lot of things happening that brought a lot of emotion to that race and drama, theatrics. And I thought it was just a really good race.
- [45:10]
Amy Earnhardt
It was fun watching the tires play out exactly as you wanted them. You can jump people on pit stops, and then you comers and goers. That felt like a classic Darlington race at the end.
- [45:20]
TJ Majors
I will object to that, though. It didn't, though, because we didn't have a lot of passing again, like, this Darlington is supposed to be guys flying around, and when they manage their tires again, you have comers and goers. And Denny Hamlin said this afterwards because I asked him this question. I'm like, why do we not see a lot of Passing and stuff. He goes, one, the groove is much smaller at Darlington. It's not multi groove. You kind of. Everybody has to run in the same spot. And two, when the tires fall off, they fall off at the same point for everybody. So if everybody's losing tire wear at the same time, no one's really coming and going. And to me, I like the strategy element. I think this was a compelling race. Where I pushed back on this, though, was I want. This is supposed to be drivers, like pushing it and really wrestling around the car. This is where you see how good drivers are, and it just didn't feel like that way. And that was part of it. And maybe it was also part of, like, it felt like unless Byron somehow messes this up, it's a foregone conclusion he's going to win. Well, you know, that kind of sort of happened, but it's just in the. In the middle part of that race, really, it just kind of was like, this is not what I want to see out of, darling.
- [46:19]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [46:19]
Amy Earnhardt
Why is that the case? Because, like, last year, Southern 526 lead changes among 11 drivers. The fall race or the spring race. A year before, 16 lead changes among 10 drivers. Like, why was it harder to pass this time around? It almost seemed like, well, I think.
- [46:37]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
As we run this car and keep learning about this car, it's going to continue to get more competitive and more difficult to pass. So there's a little bit of that. To his point. The groove at Darlington, there's really like one or two options in one and two. You really only have one way to go around that corner. In three and four, there's a bit, you know, you can run the bottom and even the apron like Blaney was doing, and get away from the other cars and get away from the dirty air. This car, the next gen car, relies so much on the air that goes under the splitter and gets back to the diffuser. That's a driver is relying heavily on being able to get air under the nose of the car to the diffuser. And when you're on a track where that's literally only a lane and a half, two lanes wide, there's nowhere for you to really go to find the air. Right. And especially if you got two guys kind of running side by side in front of you, there's nowhere to go. You just don't have any grip. You can't go forward, you can't drive up to them. You have to wait for them to sort out what they're doing, and then you have to go find the clean air again. And drivers also are getting smarter about how to, how to defend that from in front. Right. Well, if I just try to take away his line, then he can't get the clean air under his car to be able to advance and pressure me. And when you're at a track like Darlington, you don't have a whole lot to have to block. You got a very narrow racetrack and you're like, hey, I'm just looking in the mirror and my spotter is going to tell me where he's been running. I can go try to attack that lane and make him go somewhere else. And so there's a lot of that happening. The. I like that. So we used to not defend. Guy caught you. He, he ran you down. You'd be like, hey, go ahead, you know, I'll see you later, maybe I'll run you down. You let me back by. There used to be not a lot of defending racing hard. But it's so, it's so important now that you know that you battle for every single position. And there's also sort of been this culture shift with guys like Chastain, who's sitting, whose car's sitting on this table right here that will defend every single spot, will race for every single spot all race long. And that's sort of permeated between through the whole field. Now nobody gives up a spot. Nobody says, hey, you can have this spot right now and I'll get it later. There ain't none of that no more. They race the out of each other because they don't want to be behind any more cars than they have to be because this car struggles in traffic because you have to have that air coming underneath that splitter to get to the diffuser.
- [49:24]
TJ Majors
It's a self fulfilling prophecy in a lot of way because guys have to defend more than ever before, which makes passing even harder. And then they're more and more inclined to be even more aggressive when they're defending, which again makes passing harder. So it's just, it's kind of in this vicious cycle. And I think the other thing to note about this as well, we haven't had any rule changes with this car in the, over the off season. So it's allowed the bigger teams, the Hendrick, the Pentagis, the Gibbs, even 23 Xi to really fine tune this a little bit and really hone in. And you're starting to see a little bit of separation between them and, and everybody else where you don't necessarily have the track houses or the rfk, they're running fine, but they're not running up front. They're not leading a ton of laps. Those four organizations have just kind of pulled away a little bit.
- [50:08]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I was really impressed. Speaking of rfk, how. How well they've been running, and particularly this weekend, again, a couple cars running up to top 10 for most of the race, they're over. They're outperforming. I think the expectations, I think the rest of the world has for them. Trackhouse, on the other side of it, is underperforming.
- [50:26]
TJ Majors
Yeah. I mean, Chastain finished top 10 this week, and he grinded it out. They do not have speed in the race cars right now. He's not qualifying well. And just in general, Trackhouse seems like they're searching right now. And that Chastain is having as good a year as he is is a testament to what Chastain is, and it's why he is defending so aggressively on the racetrack. Because when you don't have speed in your race car, what do you have to do?
- [50:46]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And that's interesting, too. Some drivers, when presented with the challenges that Track House is dealing with, will roll over, go, hey, man, this thing won't do what I needed to do. And Chastain, on the other hand, is the kind of guy that's like, well, I'll just race harder. I'll just defend harder. I'll just. I'll just try harder. And, you know, which is a rare quality in a guy.
- [51:08]
TJ Majors
It serves him so well, though, and it pisses everyone else off, but it does. It serves him well. At the end of the day, that's what you have to work out for yourself. And it puts him in good positions.
- [51:17]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, it does. Colleague, another team. I want to shout out colleague who's made some gains this. This offseason and seems to be improving their. Their performance on the cup side. We talked about Byron, you know, kind of giving the race away there late. Blaney, you mentioned his unlucky start to the 2025 season. Blown engine at Phoenix, Crash at Vegas, Blown engine at Homestead. Bad caution this weekend, but still was in position to win this race.
- [51:47]
TJ Majors
Yeah, but didn't. And that's the problem, is they have had all the speed. The Penske cars. Right. They have zero wins. You look at their season as a whole. Austin, Cindrick, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, they've let a lot of laps this season. They were in control at the Daytona 500. They led a lot of laps and led the most laps at Atlanta. Blaney should have probably won Homestead, you know, et cetera, et cetera, and they haven't been able to convert it. And that, to me, is the difference between a Joe Gibbs Racing, where, yes, Denny Hamlin was dominated at Martinsville, but he wasn't dominant at Darlington. They capitalized. Christopher Bell wasn't dominant at Cota, but he capitalized, and he pounced at the end and got Kyle Busch. Penske hasn't been able to close out. Joe Gibbs Racing has closed out. And I wonder, as we see these C shifts throughout the course of a season where teams have speed some weeks and then they don't, you wonder if Penske is going to look back at this stretch at the beginning of the year going, man, we left a lot of wins on the table, and it's going to get later in the year and when they don't necessarily have the speed in the race car and go, man, we're in trouble now, and we didn't capitalize on that opportunity. If I'm Penske, I'm really frustrated with where I'm at right now because Ryan Blaney should have won Darlington. Pit road cost him dearly. He should have won, probably Homestead, blown engine. Like, you just. You continue to let these go and you look at the number of laps led. They led 125 laps combined at the Daytona 500, 131 laps combined at Atlanta. That's an insane number of laps, zero wins.
- [53:11]
Amy Earnhardt
Jordan, to your point, lost 19 spots on pit road yesterday.
- [53:15]
TJ Majors
That's horrible.
- [53:16]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's where they need to probably be concerned, is if you're not. You know, I think pit road is such a critical, you know, part of being successful, and if you're consistently seeing some issues there, they absolutely should. Should be. Should be concerned, and there should be not. Not panic, but there should be some conversations, some hard conversations happening. I would say, though, that the speed on the racetrack should, you know, should allow them to. To have some confidence going forward. I know that they don't have the wins. They're leading all these laps. I would not. I would be resting on the fact that we've got speed, the speed and the cars are there. Let's just keep doing what we're doing. Let's not change anything. We may need to do some, you know, do some things different on pit road. We may need to move some people around on our crews so forth to try to find some balance, because I'm sure that, you know, while Blaney may be struggling on pit road, his teammates might all might not all be struggling. And I think, you know, I'm not sure about Josh Berry's team and how they're performing, but they seem to do a relatively decent job. So, I mean, maybe there's some. Some, you know, moving and mixing and matching of different people to find a little bit of a balance across all four cars, but. And the other thing, too, is I always look at Penske as the team that, you know, is sort of finding themselves throughout the season, and then they come on in the playoffs, and they have more speed, and they. When it counts, they're there, you know, and then they get the results. I'm. I'm a bit. I'm a bit happy, I guess, to see how quick they are now. And if they continue their typical trend of how they race throughout the year, they might be in really, really good shape by the time we come around the playoffs, but we'll have to see. I agree with you, though. They are leaving a lot of points, playoff points, things possibly on the table that could benefit them later in the year when they get into the playoffs. But Blaney running this well, running this quick early in the season is a good sign for that team.
- [55:25]
Amy Earnhardt
He's still seventh in points despite the blown engine crash. Blown engine caution. So, like, they have the speed. And to your point, I think speed is, like, the hardest thing to find these days. So it's like, if you can, this is almost a good problem to have, because the problems aren't what's on the racetrack. You need to clean pit road up. You need to clean some other thing. Like, at least is there a little bit of comfort in knowing that you have the speed of a win?
- [55:50]
TJ Majors
Okay, but you're not. Let me. Let me get an example. Let's go back a year ago. Martin Trix Jr. Started the year off very strong, right? Should have won. Richmond didn't. And they had all the speed early in the year, and they didn't win a race. Well, come later in the regular season, they didn't have a win. And we had all these surprise winners. Chase Briscoe, Austin Dillon. I know Austin went, but whatever. All of a sudden, Martin Truex Jr. Finds himself on the bubble because he's the one guy who doesn't have a win. And you're like, damn, we had a really good year. We could have won this race. You know, he missed the playoffs a few years ago, and he was top five in points. Ryan Blaney barely made it fourth in points. You need to win during the regular season because you cannot take it for granted if that you're going to get on the. In the playoffs on points, and that's why this is an issue.
- [56:31]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I hear you, but I think you will.
- [56:33]
TJ Majors
I think you will, too, but we don't know you. That's the. Just you don't know.
- [56:37]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I know if I was a betting man on nascar, I would put money on Blaney winning before the end of the regular season.
- [56:44]
TJ Majors
I would have said the same thing about Truex a year ago, though.
- [56:46]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I wouldn't have.
- [56:47]
TJ Majors
Oh, man, he. He's just. He had some wins last year that.
- [56:50]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I just felt like that they were. Yeah, I don't know. I don't feel as confident. I feel more confident about Blaney speed and their team's ability to, to keep, you know, keep digging it out every weekend showing up and showing up with these type of race cars than I did with Truex. But, you know, I, I hear you. They've some of this stuff they can't clean up. Two blown motors, a bad, bad luck on a crash, you know, I mean, a bad luck on a caution this past weekend. Some of that stuff's just not even their fault. And so now the pit road stuff's concerning, you know, that. That reared its head at the end of the race this past weekend. So, I mean, you could sit there and say the costume really wasn't what cost them the event. It was. They couldn't get off pit road fast enough.
- [57:36]
TJ Majors
Yeah, it's unfortunate, but you have to. Circumstances work against you. You have to find a way to overcome man.
- [57:43]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, let's move on to the Xfinity race. Great. Some people didn't think it was great. I thought it was a great cup race. Looking forward to this upcoming weekend. But Bristol should be a lot of fun. Yeah, don't you think? I love Bristol.
- [57:57]
TJ Majors
We'll see what the tires are like. Bristol, still Bristol. It's still one of those places you roll into.
- [58:01]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
They're going to treat the track.
- [58:02]
TJ Majors
They're going to treat the track, and it should be good.
- [58:05]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
All right, well, I'm looking forward to that. 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 die cast 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 longtime collector or a fan who's new to the sport, Lionel Racing diecasts bring the heart of racing to your shelf or man cave. With incredible detail, they're built with precision, with all the exact decals, logos and paint schemes you've seen on the actual cars. And trust me, these cars make you feel like you're right there in the middle of it. So head to lionel racing.com, your favorite racing team shop or any authorized retailer and start building your collection today. And don't forget, you can find a wide selection of die casts at the Lionel stores in Concord Mills, near Charlotte Motor Speedway and Opry Meals in Nashville. 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?
- [60:07]
Mike Davis
I'm glad they're there. If I were to build a website I'd have to have somewhere like that.
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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 make money. Yeah brand like ours, you know everything can be done from payment to fulfillment. All with Squarespace. Your business might be brand new, but that won't prevent you from doing business and making money. Head to squarespace.com dalejr for a free trial and when you're ready to launch, use offer code Dale Jr. D A L E J R to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Let's move on to Xfinity race. They had an all drivers Meeting before the, before the race. And I guess hopefully that those drivers have heard the message from NASCAR.
- [61:15]
TJ Majors
8Am by the way.
- [61:16]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
8Am, 8am boy, that's getting it.
- [61:18]
TJ Majors
There was a reason and you know.
- [61:19]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Why they had it at am Damn right.
- [61:21]
TJ Majors
Some of the drivers had to get up at 4am to get there.
- [61:24]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
To get there, drive down. That's so, so that's a power move. It is. Well, you know, I think that, I think that it's great for the series to have those kind of, you know, conversations with the, with the drivers. Do you know much about the tone of the conversation? I do, yeah. Well, let's hear it.
- [61:44]
TJ Majors
As one driver explained to me, it was an ass chewing.
- [61:47]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
All right.
- [61:47]
TJ Majors
NASCAR came in there and was very clear about what is acceptable and what is not. And they basically called out Sammy Smith and said how he drove at Martinsville is not acceptable. As I was told, it doesn't take talent to drive the way he did at Martinsville and that this needs to clean up. And a couple things out of this is one, NASCAR made it very known. We go back to Martinsville in the fall, if you guys drive like this and there's incidents, we're going to react and we're going to park people at Phoenix, championship be damned. And the other thing I think is this is how someone explained it to me is NASCAR said we don't want to be in the business of making balls and strikes calls, but if we have to make a call, we're going to call strikes. And that was kind of the tenor of the conversation. It was good though. Austin Hill and Justin Allgaier were the two drivers who spoke up. They're both veterans of the series. Austin kind of acknowledged his role in some of the things.
- [62:36]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, he did?
- [62:36]
TJ Majors
Yeah, he did. And he said that afterwards. He talked to the media and everything. And Justin, you know, said, hey, we need, you know, do a better job. So it's a good meeting, it's a good, clear of the air. But honestly, I don't know if it's warranted because this meeting needs to be held a couple of days before the fall Martinsville race.
- [62:50]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, they probably should as a reminder.
- [62:52]
TJ Majors
Of like, hey, let's not, let's knock that off. And we need to now be, you know, cleaner going into that.
- [62:59]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, that's for sure. I, I heard that Austin Hill had spoke up to offer his time to educate the younger drivers and had a little fun with that on social media. The truth of that is that Eric Peterson actually reached out to Austin and asked him to be vocal in the meeting.
- [63:15]
TJ Majors
Oh, all right.
- [63:16]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's what did.
- [63:17]
TJ Majors
I know that.
- [63:17]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, that's what Austin shared with me. But. So, yeah, interesting choice, Eric, but I'm just kidding.
- [63:24]
TJ Majors
Do as I say, not as I do.
- [63:26]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I'm just kidding. I. Austin Hill is one of the most aggressive guys in the series, and he had some moments during that Martinsville race that, you know, Sammy sort of, you know, ended up taking the spotlight from. And I race against him and he races hard and sometimes our cars running at each other and sometimes I blame him. But it. It'll be, you know, and I do think that, you know, the series is. The series is exciting. Fans love it. Fans love what they see there with the racing. They obviously don't love what they saw at Martinsville. And I hope that NASCAR and the drivers can figure out a balance of good, hard, aggressive racing that you wanted, a short track and still deliver a great finish, one that everybody wants to see. And I think it is a Martinsville problem. It's not a series issue, not a series at all. And so, you know, when. When we do go back to Martinsville, to your point, it might be worth NASCAR having another meeting and, you know, you know, another 8:00 meeting and saying, all right, guys, you know, this is what we expect today. I'm glad they did that. And it does have a very kind of old school feel to it. It's certainly what, you know, the guys that were running the series and the cup series and the Xfinity series back when I was driving, they were very open and honest and transparent and stern and strict when these situations would come about. But the race itself, I felt like that, you know, I got there and watched the race from the pit box of Sammy's team and enjoyed kind of seeing how they are. They were operating that day and thought the radio conversation with Sammy and everybody was good. The week before, I sat on top of the one pit box and I just kind of listened to the spotter communication, driver, communication tone, delivery, crew chief, how the pit crew seems to be feeling, Are they vibing with this crew? Is everybody good? Because we're using like Hendrick cup guys and. And their connection to the Xfinity team is literally just for that moment, that day. They don't. They're not over here to shop and stuff like that. So it's kind of a, you know, you got to work. You got to work as a driver and I think a crew chief to like, bond with those guys so that when they come down pit road they're going to want to do a good job for you. You got to treat them with like the. Like you value them and you appreciate them. They're not just plugged in for the day and they're your. You know, that's who you get. So I'm kind of paying attention to all that stuff throughout the race itself, but I felt like that Christopher Bell was going to be the guys to beat and everyone else would be racing for second. When the race started out, Christopher's car looked like he was struggling a little bit. Not really as comfortable as I thought he. He would be. Our guys had relatively decent speed, didn't qualify that good. I was kind of concerned with our. Our pace and qualifying. I thought that Justin Allgaier was his typical self. Giving him a reasonable car or a great car in this case, and he's going to do a great job. I feel like maybe nobody else has really picked up on it, but I feel like if we look back on over last year, I feel like that Justin is racing with more savvy and less. Less intensity. So Justin last year was making a few mistakes, and I think he just felt a lot of pressure to try to win a championship. He felt like the sand in an hourglass is running out. Now that he's got that locked in, I just feel like he's calmer, letting things come to him, not pushing the situation, not putting his car in the fence at Darlington and stuff like that. So he had a great day. Carson Quapo worked really hard to get good result. Sammy worked really hard to get a good result. We put five cars in the top 10. Chastain was fun to watch, but he ruffled some feathers, pissed off a few guys, Chase Elliott, and I know he pissed off Christopher Bell. Got squeezed into the fence there by Chastain late in the race, and I asked Chastain, I said, hey, when's the next one? Because debatable whether I'm coming to that one or not.
- [67:35]
TJ Majors
You might need a higher security for him.
- [67:38]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I might miss that one, but I'm just kidding.
- [67:41]
TJ Majors
It's entertaining.
- [67:42]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It is, yeah. I mean, when it. It's like Austin. It's like Austin Hill. You know, if he was driving my car right, dude, I would be all about what he's doing and how he drives, but I race against it, right? And so when I raced against Chastain in the Xfinity series, I did not like the way he drove. I did not like how he drove around my cars because he could easily lure Justin Allgaier into a damn fist to fist battle around Watkins Glen. And there we are duking it out for 15th, beating out of a race car. But when he's in your car, you're like, yeah, man, hell yeah. Slide them. Slide them. All right. Squeeze them in the wall. All right. Tough. Look, he was. That was Christopher Bell. He's pretty fast now. He's squeezed into the wall, you know.
- [68:24]
TJ Majors
You know, it's one less guy we.
- [68:26]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Got to worry about. Exactly. Yeah. I mean, I know it's, it's. But when you're the car owner of that guy, it's kind of like, hey.
- [68:32]
Amy Earnhardt
Yeah, so now that you. I was going to ask you that because, like, we talk about Chastain's aggressive driving style, but now that you're directly benefiting from it, like, are you.
- [68:41]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, the thing.
- [68:42]
Amy Earnhardt
Can you justify it more in the Cup Series now?
- [68:45]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I think since. So I've, I've got the luxury of seeing everything that he went through and everything that happened in the Cup Series and all of the, you know, the turmoil and dust that that stirred up how, how I would have handled that. I don't know if I would have handled it as well as Justin Marks did. But I feel like you got to stand by your guy. He's in your car and he's in the car and your sponsors and everybody's committed to him. Your team's committed to him. If you show any kind of like, doubt or, man, you know, I'm backing off or I'm gonna hold. I'm gonna keep you at arm's length. The team responds to that. The crew chief, the pit crew, everybody goes. The owner's putting some distance. And so I'm unsure about this as well. And so you gotta, gotta stand by that guy. Even if you're like, hey, I don't agree with what he did. We're gonna, you know, he made a mistake. We're gonna try to give him the tools to fix it, help him going forward. You still gotta, you know, you gotta show up and stand beside him and show them that you're still, you know, you're still hoping that they're going to turn out and win the race today and have a great season and all those things. And the crew needs to see that. They need to know the. Stand beside him and support him and we're moving forward and. But I, that's kind of a Sammy conversation. But with Chastain, man, it's fun. He qualified bad. I don't know why. I get. Yeah, he went out second, so that Was probably why he qualified so bad, man. Watching him work through the field. I walked up to the car. I love this. This is one of my favorite things. So I got four drivers that run full time. I talk to them when I'm at the racetrack, talk to them at the shop, see them all the time. When a cup guy drives our car for a one off or doing something like Chastain and walking up to their car or seeing them, you know, me and Chastain's been texting back and forth, joking about the race and for months, Right. Hey, man, finally driving your car. Never thought this day would come. And you know, we laugh about it. And then you see him on pit road and I was like, hey, man, the front's that way. Like, what are we doing back here? Just in case you need to know which direction it's up there.
- [70:58]
TJ Majors
Motivate him.
- [70:59]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yes. And just laughing, you know, as he's climbed in the car.
- [71:02]
Amy Earnhardt
I think someone got a video of that too.
- [71:03]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And he's sitting there smiling. He's like, man, this is gonna be fun. I was like, I hope they got it turning for you. I know you're tight in practice. So I mean, just having kind of a good, good fun conversation. He's in a. He's in a good frame of mind. He goes out there and drives through the field up front. Now he's racing for the win. If he wins, he wins. If he doesn't, he doesn't. But I would call it a success at this point. Right. We're sitting here late in the race with a shot at it, and that's all I want because I get nervous that these cup guys are going to get my car and the car ain't good. Right. You put a damn.
- [71:33]
Amy Earnhardt
Yeah, you wanted stuff.
- [71:34]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You put a talented elite cup level guy in your car and his car can't run no better than 10th. That's a feeling that's on you. That's on me. Yeah. And so that's what I'm worried about. But the car went out there and performed and all our cars run good anyways. I wanted to mention though, Brandon Jones. So he ends up being the guy that would take control of the race lake and drive away from the field and get the win. Brandon Jones raced here at Junior Motorsports for two years and went windless. And we struggled to find speed. We struggled to find comfort for him. There were races where we ran good but just not great. And I will say that through all of that, never once did he complain. Never once did he say anything Bad about our car. Never did he come to us and go, I don't like my crew chief. I need a change. He would have. He would have rode out any scenario that we put him in and been hopeful that that was the way that we were going to find success. And so I just want to commend him, man, because, look, you know, it did not feel good to see him get into Joe Gibbs car and go win, because we couldn't do that for him. We couldn't give him that. We couldn't provide that. Now I believe. I love our cars. We're good. We're a great team. We're going to win races and all that stuff. But we couldn't do it for him. We couldn't give him what he needed. And so we. We. Yeah, I mean, for lack of a better word, we failed. We failed him. And, you know, so it was tough to see him get in. Get in the Gibbs car and get to Victory Lane. But at the same time, I'm. I'm happy for him and I'm glad that he's, you know, I'm glad he's able to go to one of the toughest tracks, a driver's track, and go out there and put his foot down and get that win. And so especially because I know what kind of character he's got. He's a good guy. And, you know, we didn't. We did not have a good couple of years when he was here, and he never. You never would have known it. You know what I mean? So I appreciate that. And went to Victor Lane, shook his hand, told him I was happy for him and look forward to racing him the rest of the year, you know, seeing what else. What else he can do.
- [73:55]
TJ Majors
It was. It's nice to see. Have those moments where drivers who are really under the spotlight for a lot of different reasons and people like, why are you with this team? You're not having success, and then you get that win. It's like, he deserves that. He works hard. It's Riley Rhyme reminds me a lot of Riley Herbs in that sense of, like, why. You know, Riley had a period there where he wasn't having the success. It's like, what is Riley doing here? Why is he with this team? But then you see Riley break through and win at the Brickyard. You see Brandon Jones win at Darlington. Like, hey, man, he does have talent. Like, that's not like something like, he backs into it and that's like, this is why.
- [74:28]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's right. I. And those guys like Riley and like, Brandon, they are. When they're not running. Well, in that two year period we saw it, I mean I saw it, the criticism, the outside criticism of their, their, you know, do they belong that they deserve, you know, they, they catch some, some tough criticism and that makes it easy for them. I think you couldn't blame them for being vocal about what they're struggling with or putting the, you know, putting the blame somewhere else. But Brandon never did that, never did. And I don't think Riley did either. But Brandon never did say, man, I would do better if my pit crew this or my car this or my team that. You know, he doesn't point fingers. Doesn't point fingers, never.
- [75:22]
TJ Majors
He honestly, it's a lot of self reflection of I need to do better, I need to do this. You hear that a lot from Brandon Johnson.
- [75:27]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's right. Let's go ahead and talk about a couple things moving on from Darlington. The eight trademark situation with Lamar Jackson and I think it's kind of cleared up now at this point, but to kind of give a timeline, if you will. So we learned that the, the Budweiser number eight trademark is not going to be continued and renewed by Teresa. And we were a bit surprised by that because she kept the one trademark and. But, you know, haven't talked to Theresa. Don't know why that was her decision. But we saw an opportunity to pick up the number, see if we could get the trademark. Without the trademark we can run the number. Anyone can. We can use the number, no problem. Did we have a trademark for the current number eight junior motorsports number that we'd been running since 2019? No. There was no trademark for that number. So we filed for the Bud8 trademark. We have successfully succeeded in that process and we are near the finish line on that with the bud 8. We also as a backup plan filed for the trademark on the Junior Motorsports number eight that Josh Berry and all those guys have been running for the last couple years. That was sort of a plan B because we assumed that this bud8 thing might get murky or might not even happen at all. And so we filed for the other number when we, when we're, we're like, as I said, we're sort of right on top of the finish line in closing out the trademark rights for the Bud 8. And in doing that at some point we would probably abandoned the application for the Junior Motorsports 8. We just hadn't done that. Well, I learned on social media about the same time as everybody else did that Lamar was contesting our trademark application. He wasn't suing me. He's just contesting it. And there's a part of the trademark process where if you believe somebody's applying for a trademark and it's going to hurt your brand, you can oppose it, right. And say, hey, I need this. I need you all to look at this first. And what happens is our application for our trademark would stop and the board would check out what Lamar is concerned about and agree or disagree, and then the process would then pick up and continue. Well, when I learned about it, I thought for sure it was over the buddy. But when I dug into it, I learned that it was that Junior Motorsports font and we weren't ever going to use that again, ever. And so after some conversations with Kelly and our team, they're like, yeah, we're going to abandon that. And so, yeah, it's not. Not an issue. It's a non issue.
- [78:23]
TJ Majors
And so much to do about nothing.
- [78:24]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Much to do about nothing. So, yeah, in a few minutes, you know, we. In the next day, actually, we filed the paperwork to abandon the acquisition of that trademark for the Junior Motorsports 8. And yeah, we got what we wanted and we're down the road. I was not going to argue with Lamar over something that I didn't plan on using, and I wasn't going to spend, you know, thousands of dollars with my lawyers to fight for something that I didn't need. But I did find it interesting when I went to Lamar's website where he has this Era 8 clothing company, there's like three or four different fonts of the number 8 just on the front page. And so I don't think that he has a trademark to a stylized 8, but he's. His trademark is for era 8. And so it's funny because he's, you know, they're arguing that our, you know, our seeking for this trademark of the Junior Motorsports eight would be problematic for them. And. Yeah, but we'll never get to the bottom of it. But I thought it was. It was interesting. A lot of people were worried. A lot of people thought it was obviously the. But 8. I did too, initially, till I dove into it. And so social media got all riled up and. And pissed off for a bit and I was.
- [79:43]
TJ Majors
That never happens.
- [79:44]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I know. And that's one thing that I was most worried about is like, okay, this isn't a big thing. It's going to be gone tomorrow morning. And I know what's going on and I'm good. And I, you know, Larson's or Lamar, Lamar's folks can can carry on with what their plan is going forward and all as well. But the Internet was going to get nasty. Yeah, they're going to get a little nasty about it. And I didn't. I didn't want nothing to do with that. But. And that's unfortunate. But, you know, I don't know Lamar's team and him and never met the guy. And I didn't want to see this get nasty for no reason. Yeah. So toward either side. And so, yeah, all that got sorted out. The other thing, too is this Legacy Motor Club and Rick Ware Racing charter dispute.
- [80:30]
TJ Majors
Do you know the backstory on this?
- [80:32]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So go ahead.
- [80:33]
TJ Majors
Yeah, Legacy and Rick Ware had an agreement to. Legacy was going to purchase a charter from Rickware Racing. Rick Ware contends that it was for the 2027 season. Legacy says no, it was for the 2026 season. And that is the contract that Rick Ware signed. And so now Legacy is suing Rick Ware, saying, no, we have to. We're enforcing this contract for the 2026 season and purchasing the charter that we agreed to purchase. Rick is saying no, the deal was for 2027, and that's where they're at. And we'll see how this all shakes out. I do have a piece of information for you that I think you're going to find interesting. I've talked to a lot of people involved in this. Do you know how much Legacy paid Rick Ware for the charter?
- [81:12]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
$50 million.
- [81:14]
TJ Majors
45 is what I was thinking. $45 million, which would be a new high in this sport. The previous high was Spire Motorsports paying 40 million to BJ McLeod a few years ago. And we saw last year with Gene Haas when he was selling his Chargers, a fire sale. He basically just wanted to get rid of them. That number went down to the mid-20s. Now 45, it seems like that's going to be the new floor for. If you want to charter in this game, you're going to have to pay probably more than that.
- [81:40]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And that'll go up in a month.
- [81:42]
Amy Earnhardt
Yeah, this one's not going to be cheaper than that.
- [81:46]
TJ Majors
No, because this is the bare minimum. I mean, this is theoretically the. One of the worst charters if you look at performance. So, yeah, it's. If you're going to be in this game, in the charter business business, you're bring. Bring some money.
- [81:56]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, I think I would say that the charters are probably increasing in value anywhere from. I'd say anywhere between two to four million dollars every month. And they're going to continue to do that. So to get two charters. You don't even have a race car yet. You don't have a shop, a part, an employee. You spend $90 million, $100 million to get two charters, and then you got to build a race team if you want to go racing, which is another probably $100 million investment all in. And so it's pretty shocking, honestly. I'm torn in two about this, because part of me is very happy that a race team can. You can start a business, and then you have some value to sell prior to the charters. And literally in the Xfinity series today, if I wanted to sell this company and these four cars and everything we got here, you're selling it for pennies on the dollar, and you're getting no real true value except for the land and the building you own. You're getting no real value out of everything in it. All the parts and pieces, the equipment, all the machines and all the fabrication. All that stuff is going to be sold at a very big discount. But now. And so that was the problem. You get into racing, and when you want to get out, you've got nothing to show for it, because you can't. None of this stuff every. You know, none of this stuff is that valuable to anyone outside of this building. And so now teams have a charter that they can sell and sell equity in even part, you know, 30% or whatever equity in the charter. And you got real value. If you get into the sports, you might sell one day, and that charter may be 3, 4, 5 times what it's worth, what you paid for it. That's awesome. I love that. But it has created a very, very challenging barrier of entry for anyone that's not a billionaire, you know, and that it was. It was possible for millionaires to go racing just a bit, couple years ago, but now it's a billionaire that needs to be involved. You're not going to have, you know, you see it with all these teams bringing in the private equity. That's massive money.
- [84:21]
TJ Majors
And that was behind what legacy was able to do in purchasing this charter. Yeah, because they had that. They had investment group come in.
- [84:28]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's right. And that investment group's, you know, a couple of hundreds of millions of dollars that they have the opportunity to invest into the sport. So it's wild, man. And what I think will happen, and this is good, is so I believe the value of the charters is well north of $150 million. That ceiling, I don't think anybody can predict. Would you have ever said 20 years ago that NFL teams will be selling for $6 billion. Like Washington sold for Dan Snyder, bought them in the 90s or late 80s for 700, 800 million and sold them for 6 billion 20 years later. So in my mind that's a very. That's similar to the model that we're seeing with these charters. If I was a billionaire, I would buy charters right now. Every day that you don't buy a charter, it's getting more and more valuable. If I was a billionaire, right, that had no ties to racing, I would buy all these charters and then turn around and flip them five, ten years from now.
- [85:38]
TJ Majors
And we've seen that and it's going to be interesting. If you look at it going forward now, kind of the state of the garage, I think it's fair to say there probably isn't really a charter that's readily available. We've kind of seen the charters that you think would maybe be available, whether it was of BJ McLeod, Rick Ware. They seem kind of spoken for at the moment where. So that means if you're going to come in and you want a charter, you're going to have to make an offer to your point that's going to push this up to astronomical numbers that years ago you would never imagined. 100 million sounds extreme. It's not like people have been saying this for a while. Work to that point now. Because if you want a charter, you look at the charters that are out there, these teams and the value for them, they're not one, they're not looking to sell and two, the numbers attached to them, you're going to have to come in and blow them out of the water.
- [86:27]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's right. And I think Rick Ware's in the best seat because that guy could take the money and just turn around and walk. I mean, he's a racer.
- [86:36]
TJ Majors
Yeah. And I don't want to say this about Rick. He does. He wants to be involved in the sport and that's what the basis of this kind of thing is, is that he doesn't want to leave. And he. The way it's situated now is he's looking at it. If this deal with Legacy goes through as is, he would have to run as an Open team for 20, 26, which is a money losing proposition. And he wants to be in this sport and he wants to continue on. And that's where he's at right now, saying, I don't want to lose my charter. I have two of them. I want to keep them because RFK has got the Elise on the other.
- [87:07]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
One, but I don't know, man. Somebody walked up and gave you $100.
- [87:10]
TJ Majors
Million for two, I'm on the beach the next day.
- [87:12]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I know, right? Or you could wait about two years and you're getting 300 million.
- [87:17]
TJ Majors
That, too.
- [87:18]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I don't know. I. I feel like that when the litigation with 2311 and NASCAR gets settled. This is a hunch. I have zero real knowledge about what's going on with this, but I feel like there'll be some compromise made. I don't think it's going to be a landslide. For a landslide win. Everybody, you know, one side gets everything they want. I think there'll be a compromise, but I think it leans heavily toward the teams. I think if I'm 23 11, a win for me would be that I get permanent charters, right? Yeah, I think if. I think if they say, hey, man, your charters are permanent, they're yours for the rest of your life. I'd go, oh, great, we're done. I'm finished.
- [88:00]
TJ Majors
Now, NASCAR will tell you that we didn't offer permanent charters, but we offered. I think it was 14 years is the number I heard. So we were able to go long, and then we heard from some teams, no, no, no, we don't want that because we don't want to go past the next media rights deal. So it's. It's like you want permanent, and we're willing to give you closer to that, but you're not. So now we're back at 7.
- [88:19]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. Well, I wonder if you. If the par. If the charter is permanent, does that not almost nearly double the value of that charter potentially?
- [88:28]
TJ Majors
Because, you know, and that's what 2311 is arguing is like. We know that in seven years, we're not going to go down this road again. Where nascar, for whatever reason, says, hey, this charter thing is working out for us, we're getting rid of the system, and then all of a sudden, we're screwed. And so. But if we know that this system is in place permanently, we know we have value, and we can turn around to the market then, or to our sponsors or whomever and say, it ain't going anywhere. We're here to stay, invest in us.
- [88:53]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But is there a world that even exists where a team sitting on a $50 million asset and there's not a world that exists where NASCAR would say, yeah, charters don't exist. I mean, and a team's going to go, I had a $50 million asset today and tomorrow, it doesn't even exist. There's no world where that's possible.
- [89:19]
TJ Majors
Well, without.
- [89:20]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Without massive legal. Sure. Ramifications.
- [89:24]
TJ Majors
There are legal ramifications.
- [89:25]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I don't think that's a winnable case for nascar.
- [89:28]
TJ Majors
Well, I get to be very careful. I say this because you don't know how these things play out. But if you have a contract and that contract for the charter system is for seven years and you get to the end of the contract, you're not forced to renew the contract. There isn't a gun to NASCAR's head saying we have to continue the charter system forever. And that was part of the last negotiations where they were like, listen, this deal is going to end at the end of the 2024 season. We don't have to resign this. And that was essentially how they compelled the teams to sign the charter agreement. Because the teams were worried. Why? Wait a second. Hell, if this thing gets to the end of the deal and we don't resign, there's no obligation for this system to continue. That was the hammer that NASCAR had in negotiations.
- [90:09]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Pretty wild. It'd be interesting to see what happens with this Legacy Motor Club and Rick Ware situation, I guess. Rick Ware said they agreed to sell it for 2027, but the contract that was sent had the different years on it. I mean, it's literally that simple.
- [90:27]
TJ Majors
I gotta be careful how I say this. As it has been explained to me by people involved and particularly on the that side of the equation. There was language changed in the contract. Not to their knowledge.
- [90:38]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, the one charter, one of Rick's charters, he has to. One is least to RFK Ryan Priest in the 60 car and the other one they are fielding on the racetrack with their own car. So pretty interesting. Man, it's gonna be a wild week. Bristol upcoming this weekend. Do you got any favorites? We're going to talk about our, you know, our gambling habits, our terrible gambling habits and dirty Modeau later. But I kind of wanted to get your take on who you think the favorites are.
- [91:06]
TJ Majors
I don't know how you go against Denny Hamlin. I mean, he's won what, two? The last three.
- [91:10]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Can he win three in a row?
- [91:11]
TJ Majors
He's never done it in his career before, but he's won two the last three races at Bristol. And if it's going to be a tire management race, who's better than saving their tires than Denny Hamlin? Be really hard to bet against them right now. Momentum is a huge thing in this sport.
- [91:23]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So give me two dark horses and they don't have to win. Give me two guys that are going to get a top 10 this weekend. Those are my kind of bets I like to make.
- [91:32]
TJ Majors
Chris Buscher, former Bristol winner a few years ago, I wouldn't be shocked if he wins, Had a lot of speed in that race car they've been feeling. We talked about how RFK has been really well, and Bubba Wallace, like Bristol has been a good place for him over the years. You know, to go back to the Richard Petty days, that team has got some mojo right now. I know the Darlington didn't go how they wanted it to. Don't be shocked that Bubba has a really, really strong day.
- [91:54]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Is this a weekend where we finally see Kabush in the 8 car, up in the top 10, battling? I mean, I mean, it's kind of a track that I see where he can actually make a difference.
- [92:03]
TJ Majors
Yeah, I mean, it's like Darlington. They got a top 10 there and they ran well. It's a driver's track. I mean, if he's going to get one of the, you know, win and snap this streak, Bristle certainly would be a good place for it.
- [92:11]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
All right, man. Hey, Jordan, we're going to cut you loose, man. I appreciate you coming in today, giving us some time, all your insight. Thanks for what you guys do for Dirty Mo media. You and Jeff, you're all great teammates and yeah, I'll see you at the racetrack.
- [92:22]
TJ Majors
Appreciate the opportunity. Thanks.
- [92:23]
Mike Davis
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Jordan Bianchi
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Mike Davis
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- [92:50]
Jordan Bianchi
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- [94:00]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Foreign on the Del. Jr. Download man, where I guess you're at home, I'm assuming. This looks homey. When did you win that trophy up there on your. Over your right shoulder? That's an interesting one. You're right. Sorry. Yeah, yeah. That's a good trip.
- [94:21]
Denny Hamlin
That's, that's no trophy day.
- [94:23]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, it's not.
- [94:23]
Denny Hamlin
I don't know what you can see.
- [94:25]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Okay. The, the.
- [94:26]
Denny Hamlin
I'm in, I'm in.
- [94:27]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I'm in the dancing. When did you win? Dancer. Best dancer.
- [94:32]
Denny Hamlin
Yeah, that's just, that's just an art piece.
- [94:35]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's not art.
- [94:37]
Denny Hamlin
I'm not in my office. I'm in Jordan's office. So she. This is her.
- [94:41]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, well, hey. Yeah, it's a good looking room. How, how's the last couple days been, man? You were on a tear. Two wins in a row. You gotta love being able to capitalize late in a race like that. You're sitting there thinking, hey man, we're gonna have a reasonable day here. And then things go down and you're, you know, you have to drive the car, you have to win the race. But. And I want to get to your pit crew here in a second, but you gotta love the races that kind of fall into your lap like that, for lack of a better word. Because it doesn't happen often. Usually us drivers. I was just talking about this. I feel like that all those late yellows always screwed me over. I can't remember a race where a late yellow benefited me. I'm sure there were plenty, but we don't remember those.
- [95:28]
Denny Hamlin
Well, no, no. Well, I, I remember a lot of races and the ratio is still like 6 to 1. I mean, you know, that's why when the caution came out, I came over the radio, I was like, ah, come on, Kyle. Like, I was like, you know, because at that time, I'M just thinking about, oh, how are we going to lose this good finish? Not, you know, how are we going to come out of pit road first and win this race? You know, so I thought there were too many lap cars in between us, all this other stuff. So I'm like, you know, I'm sitting here just grieving over knowing what's inevitably going to happen, which is, you know, I'm going to get knocked around on the restart and have a bad day. But, man, yeah, it's, it's. They don't happen often. It definitely seems as though, you know, if you, if you play this game long enough that the tail, the, you know, the scales will tip a little bit. But, you know, I still don't think it's even. That's, that's the guy who's pretty selfish about it.
- [96:25]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So the crew, usually, I'll say this, usually we, we do try to introduce the teams and the crews to the fans. Fox does a really good job of this, of highlighting them as individuals. They actually get to speak into the camera and tell you who they are, where they came from. I love that. But we really, really don't shine a light on them till Phoenix in that championship race because we know they're going to play a role there and it's not often that we see them shine as brightly as they did this past Sunday at Darlington. I know that you realize how much they played a role in the finish, and I'm curious as to what you do about that. Do you. Is there something post race or something that happens in the next couple of weeks where you're going to let those guys know how much you appreciate their effort on Sunday?
- [97:19]
Denny Hamlin
Yeah, absolutely. The first is making sure that each and every one of them gets that same trophy.
- [97:26]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, hell, yeah. Yeah.
- [97:27]
Denny Hamlin
I mean, that's, you know, that's, that's an important one. No doubt about it. It's, you know, it should go in each one of their houses. And so, you know, getting replicates for all those guys for that is going to be very important. And obviously, you know, we have a group there that is very, very young. They've come together. You know, I went through my pit crew struggles between 2019 and 2021. The record, the tally actually on the, you know, the pit crew, you know, possibly kept us from winning was, you know, up in the 80s to 10 range. It was pretty high. But, you know, this group has come together now and it's just, they're just doing an amazing job of, you know, keeping me up front and Getting me up front. And, you know, you mentioned, like, you know, this is a great way to. For them to shine. You know, it's a. It's a unique situation because most racetracks that you go to, the money stop is just somewhere inside the last fuel window. Right. So it could be with 50 to go, 60 to go, and the driver still has an opportunity to screw it up at that point. And so for them, when it comes down to a green, white checkered, at a place like a Richmond where you know everyone's pitting, or Darlington, where, you know everyone's pitting, that is their opportunity to say, if I get my guy out first, we're winning this race. We can win the race right here simply because there's just not enough laps for someone to kind of overtake you. So this would. Was the perfect super bowl type scenario for a team like that. And, you know, the crew chief, Chris Gale, said that as soon as Akasha came out, these guys were pumping their fists, couldn't wait to get the car on pit road.
- [99:02]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Damn, that's awesome. All right, well, we're going to Bristol. You're going to have a shot at winning three in a row for the first time in your career. Does that matter? I mean, I know it'd be nice, but does it add any kind of extra little layer of excitement or pressure or anything?
- [99:19]
Denny Hamlin
I mean, sure it does. I don't know about pressure. I mean, you know, we're certainly. It'd be a great accomplishment to have. It makes no difference if we don't. But. But yeah, it'd be cool. I never had three in a row in my career. I didn't realize that I'd gone back to back twice before this. Again, it was eight decades ago when that happened, but it's still, you know, it's a cool thing to talk about and certainly three in a row. My teammate just did it earlier this year, so, you know, he's only in, like, his, you know, feels like fifth year of cup racing. So I don't know, just. It would certainly be special. And Bristol is a track that, you know, you want to win at anyway, but this one would be extra special.
- [100:01]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. One of the things that I think is interesting about your situation, you guys, Joe Giz Racing's kicking ass right now. One of the best teams in the garage. Going out there, running well, closing races, you're at. You're at a unique point in your career where you need to start thinking about how you kind of finish this up. Right? We've seen guys, I'VE always said, I guess that, you know, around the age of 43 is when we see drivers lose their, their, their performance. And it's for various reasons, some out of their own control. You're in a really great spot to keep winning races. You're winning races. You're in a really good spot to do this, I believe, as long as you want. And we've had guys like Bobby Allison, Harry Gantt, thinking way back into the, in NASCAR that could win races into their late 40s and 50s. I mean, I could honestly see you being capable of doing that even. It's a young man's game. It takes a nerve and edge and perfection and sharp, sharp skills. You got to be freaking elite with your reaction and what you're thinking about. But I think that you're one of the anomalies, you know, that's going to be competitive and be a winner is probably as long as he wants to run. So that's the question I have for you, is are you shelving that, that thought of how do I kind of want to finish my, my career? It's an incredible career due to the success you're having. Do you, do you put that on the shelf for. For now?
- [101:40]
Denny Hamlin
Not right now. I mean, you always have to plan for it and, and you want to give the team proper time to come up with their next plan as well. And, and so, you know, I, I think that, you know, running some at 23:11 is something that I'd like to do. You know, Joe Gibbs Racing has been amazing to me over the 20 years that I've been with them. Just fantastic. Couldn't be any better, Joe. And that whole group's just been amazing. But, you know, there's certain. There's things that are different. Right. I do have a race team. You know, I really would like to just, you know, even if I phased out in. Ran some there, that would be a cool goal of mine. You know, just, you know, whatever it is, if it's five races, 25, whatever it might be, it'd be a cool way to phase out versus just stopping. I think I would have a tough time, you know, just stopping. But I want to be competitive when I do it. I don't, I don't want to do it when I'm already past my prime of winning. And so, you know, it's, it's however that timing works, it. That's how I would like for it to work. But it don't. You don't always get to decide. I mean, that's, that's the thing is sometimes, you know that the people that employ you, they got a business to run, and sometimes it just doesn't make sense that for them anymore.
- [103:07]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Right.
- [103:08]
Denny Hamlin
And they bank on your decline, not necessarily what you're doing.
- [103:12]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So.
- [103:16]
Denny Hamlin
We never know how this thing's gonna end up, but certainly you always have to look towards the end and how you want it to go.
- [103:24]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Absolutely, man. Well, you're winning races, and we're wishing you the best this coming weekend in Bristol. I know it's a racetrack you look forward to. Hope you go down there and have fun, man. Thanks for giving us some time today. Of course.
- [103:33]
Denny Hamlin
Thank you.
- [103:34]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
We'll see.
- [103:41]
Amy Earnhardt
And we are live.
- [103:44]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Hey, Everybody, it's Dale Jr. And this is the Ask Jr. Portion brought to you by Xfinity. Want to make sure that you all know about Xfinity mobile and customers there now get exclusive access to wi fi speeds of up to a gig in millions of locations nationwide. And with its coverage, you know it'll always come through for you in a clutch. Take NASCAR everywhere you want to go with Xfinity mobile. They're a proud premier partner of nascar. Let's get right to the questions. I'm excited about this. Andrew, what you got?
- [104:17]
Amy Earnhardt
Yes. YouTube chat's popping off already. Dean is commenting from Canada, so that's the furthest away.
- [104:24]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Wonderful. East or west?
- [104:26]
Amy Earnhardt
Yeah.
- [104:26]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, Dan, I've been to Vancouver and Ontario. I've never been to. Where's the racetrack up there?
- [104:35]
Amy Earnhardt
Montreal.
- [104:35]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Montreal. Never been there. I'm hoping we get to get to go to Montreal, and I hope that's a race that I get to broadcast. Could it be my first trip? So pretty cool.
- [104:45]
Amy Earnhardt
I've never been. Yeah, Sounds pretty awesome. Yeah.
- [104:48]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Good folks up there.
- [104:49]
Amy Earnhardt
Absolutely. This first question come from Twitter. Tyler is asking what was the favorite generation car that you got to drive?
- [104:59]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, I mean, I. I would say tomorrow, right? Probably, I would say. I mean, that car from 2004, that was my best year. I think in terms of how the car felt drove. I just like that car. It had a lot of downforce, a lot of grip, but it was all in the body. And we had the bodies twisted up in a certain way that in traffic, it was still relatively decent. And so, you know, you kind of. If you. If you needed a little bit of downforce on the front, all you had to kind of do was get the headlight out. You could still kind of be directly behind a guy, but just kind of show the left front fender or the right front fender and get some turn and so that was a great race car. A lot of fun, good looking, so probably my favorite. I have always wondered what it was like. I watched these old races especially. Let's just pick 1979 for example. 79 or 80. And I've got, I've got a car right here from 1979, 1980 that dad raced. And I am so tempted to like get this car outfitted and take it somewhere where I could go 150 to 160 miles an hour and see how that fits. Felt. Now would it feel exactly like what dad was driving? Maybe not, but it could. I just would love to know like what, what trying to drive one of them big boats around Michigan felt like, right? Or Bristol even. And were they comfortable? Were they hard to drive? Were they. You know, what, what was that feeling like from those cars in the 70s? Any, any year in the 70s, I would love to have driven something like that in competition.
- [106:44]
Amy Earnhardt
What's the hesitation? Is it like the fact that you could crash it?
- [106:48]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Crash it right in my mind.
- [106:50]
Amy Earnhardt
Right.
- [106:50]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I mean, I don't know what you would. If I took this car, if I got the, if I've got the engine and the engines over in another room at Junior Motorsports here and if I got the drivetrain in it and got it running and actually had it out, out driving around and then took it to Barrett Jackson, I don't know what it'd sell for, but I'd say it'd get near a million mark.
- [107:11]
Amy Earnhardt
Yeah. You know, that time that dad type.
- [107:14]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Of car, the car that he crossed the finish line with at Ontario and won his championship in 1980. David Pearson won in the car at Darlington. Dad won in it at Atlanta in 1980. Pearson drove it in 79 when dad had his collarbones broke. And so it's got some really, really cool history. They only had probably four or five cars back then. And this one ran most of the Michigan's, Charlotte's, Atlanta's, the big tracks and so pretty cool race car with some real known history. And I think it would. Its value is tough to predict. So I don't think I'd take it out on the track and run it hard. I rebuilt that Nova, right. And we put it on social media how we took it out and drove it around Charlotte.
- [107:55]
Amy Earnhardt
Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [107:56]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And I was nervous about that. I mean this, it's not. I just watched this car get, you know, fixed and rebuilt over the course of a year. Right. And then you got to jump in and go out and drive it around Charlotte, which I wanted to do, but it's like, how fast do you go? Right. If you bust your ass, man, you're going to be sad.
- [108:15]
Amy Earnhardt
They do that before the Indy 500. They bring out all the old cars and have all the legends, and I just can't imagine the pressure there must.
- [108:22]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Be to drive that. Old stuff's problematic. Right? Yeah. Back when it raced, there was a team of six guys or so that made sure every nut and bolt was perfect.
- [108:31]
Amy Earnhardt
Yeah.
- [108:32]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Right. And now you're, you know, it's like there's a little attention, there's a little bit of attention to detail, but it's nothing like when it competed. Right. So you can't go out there and confidently mash the gas going, hey, is the right rear shot going to fly off? I don't know.
- [108:45]
Amy Earnhardt
Right. And they haven't run in a while. Yeah, yeah. No, that's a good point. I'm seeing a lot of gen fours are people's favorite in the YouTube chat.
- [108:52]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So I'm so damn confused these days. I guess gen 4 is the 040304 cars, so.
- [108:57]
Amy Earnhardt
Yeah, yeah. Because we're at.
- [108:58]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I'm almost. Yeah, I know.
- [108:59]
Amy Earnhardt
Right now it's next gen. Yeah. So what comes after that?
- [109:03]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I think they're just trying to confuse Gen 8.
- [109:05]
Amy Earnhardt
Right?
- [109:06]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. Right.
- [109:06]
Amy Earnhardt
It's like, how many iPhones are there these days?
- [109:08]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
They didn't know Gen 8 or Gen whatever. Next gen.
- [109:11]
Amy Earnhardt
Right. Gen X.
- [109:12]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Now they're.
- [109:12]
Amy Earnhardt
Now we're driving the Gen Z's.
- [109:14]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Now they've lost count. Yeah, we got them.
- [109:17]
Amy Earnhardt
This next question is from All Out NASCAR on Twitter, and they're looking for some advice. So this guy. My hair and beard are starting to gray. Should I dye my hair to stay young or should I let nature take its course?
- [109:33]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I'd let it go, man.
- [109:36]
Amy Earnhardt
Let it run.
- [109:37]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. I mean, you have your hair. I'm assuming you have a. Let's just assume this person has a reasonably decent hairline. I would be happy about that and just let the rest go, you know, you. I've got buddies that aren't as fortunate, and some of them, you know, I've had a few friends where they get to that point in their life where they're like, yep, just gonna have to shave it all off at this point. And then they. Yeah, they go from. From what little hair they had to totally bald. And that's the rest of the day. Like, they're. They're getting really no choice in this matter. Right. So to have some hair, I feel lucky. I'm not gonna color it and be vain or. Yeah. Is that the right word? Yeah. Be vain about it. Yeah.
- [110:19]
Amy Earnhardt
I don't know.
- [110:19]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Sure.
- [110:20]
Amy Earnhardt
Yeah.
- [110:21]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So, Carly Simon, you're so vain. Yep, yep.
- [110:25]
Amy Earnhardt
Yeah.
- [110:26]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. You don't know. You're too young. That's the problem.
- [110:28]
Amy Earnhardt
I don't know. Yeah.
- [110:29]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I mean, you gotta listen that song, man. Apparently, she wrote this song you're so vain about. Who's the guy that played Dick Tracy? What was he? Gosh, Somebody in this chat will know. He was an actor. But anyways, somebody in this chat will know. Keep your eye on that. But she wrote a song about this dude and it slaps. I mean, she goes after him. But we're getting off on a tangent.
- [110:57]
Amy Earnhardt
Warren Beatty.
- [110:58]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, Beatty. Beatty. So, yeah, she wrote a song about him and them dating, and, boy, she was not. She didn't have a good experience, apparently. Oh, yeah. My hair is getting real gray and my beard's gray, and I don't care. I kind of like it because when I shave my beard off, like, I. It's like I get younger.
- [111:20]
Amy Earnhardt
Yeah, right.
- [111:21]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So you can throw that curveball when you let it gray out. Yeah.
- [111:24]
Amy Earnhardt
And just shave your beard altogether.
- [111:26]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Let it gray out. Then all of a sudden show up one day, clean shave, and people go, hey, whoa.
- [111:31]
Amy Earnhardt
You did that, like, look real good today. You did that like, a year ago. And it threw me off.
- [111:37]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Like, who is coloring your beard? Let me tell you this too, man. If you're coloring your hair, it's usually noticeable.
- [111:44]
Amy Earnhardt
Right? Right. So it's like, it's. You gotta. If you color it, you gotta catch it at, like, the first sight of.
- [111:50]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Gray if it's noticeable. Are you really doing yourself any favors or are you just walking around with paint in your hair? Right. And people are gonna be like, yeah, it's not his real hair color. Like, if you're not fooling everybody, what's the point?
- [112:05]
Amy Earnhardt
That's true. That's true. Whatever makes you feel yourself, I guess. This next question is coming from Nancy, and they were listening to the Casey Mirrors episode, which is awesome. If you have not listened to that, go check it out from last week. And they said you said there are races that you're proud of, that nobody remembers that you didn't win, but were, like, big moments to you. So do you have any examples of that? I know you talked about the third place finish at Sonoma being a big deal on Bless your heart, but, like, what are some of the runs that meant a lot to you that maybe don't get as much Appreciation.
- [112:39]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I. Well, the Martinsville race we've talked about a terrible amount of times here, so people are going to recognize that race right away where the cars tore all to hell. But I, I mean, you know, shoot, man, I don't know. I think most of the time when you come close, you're disappointed, but there's, there's only like one or two where you're like, you know, we got lucky today or. Yeah. I mean, most of the time I felt like late race yellows screwed me over. Never do I remember a late yellow. And I'm sure if we've got some really die hard fans in the chat, they might remember some races where late yellow helped us. Now, I would like to remember those races because I don't. But, you know, usually the late yellows came out and I'd be like kicking the floorboard so pissed off about it. If you're sitting there running, you know, I was always thinking about it like this 500 mile race, you really literally are busting your ass to try to work hard every corner for 500 miles and then Koch comes out, you're sitting there in fourth place, fifth place, and you're like, I had a fourth or fifth in my hand and now I don't know what I'm gonna get. And if I get a tenth or an eighth out of this, because this late restart, I'm gonna be pissed, you know, And I hated that feeling. So now other guys might look at it like, hell yeah. Running fourth, fifth, late yellow, chance to get third, chance to get second, but that's not how my brain worked. Right or wrong, probably. I would say that's the. I always thought the wrong way, but some guys will be like, you know, like a Ross Chastain will be like, hell yeah, here's my chance, you know, whoo. And I wish I had that trait, but I don't know, I. Yeah, I don't know. I. We ran second or third at Michigan in a rain shortened race. I think Carl Edwards runs second and Casey Kane won. And it was in that beige number eight Ralph Earnhardt throwback.
- [114:48]
Amy Earnhardt
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [114:50]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I was happy about that. I think that car was a little. It was fast enough to see what that, you know, I would have. The car was fast enough to like, hey, this been interesting to see that race play out. But Michigan had kind of been a tough track for me off and on. And so to come out of there with a good run, I don't know why that one kind of sticks in my gut, but I was, was kind of like, hey, man, I wonder what would happen if we'd have let the race play out. But it was awesome to walk out of there with a good result driving that paint scheme, that car, because it was cool looking car.
- [115:19]
Amy Earnhardt
Yeah. We got time for one more question because Denny Hamlin will be calling in here shortly. But this one's from Kevin. What's the next concert you have tickets for? If you know, I don't. You don't know. Weren't you just. You posted on Twitter that you were hanging out with. Was it Red Clay Strays over the week past week?
- [115:38]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
No.
- [115:38]
Amy Earnhardt
No. Who you got GoPro with?
- [115:41]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Band AmberLynn.
- [115:43]
Amy Earnhardt
Oh, okay. How was that?
- [115:45]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, so the Danger Summer is a band that I'm a big fan of and got to become friends with those guys. And they are touring with Amberlynn. And I like Amberlynn songs, too. There's some Great songs from 070809 that I listen to from them. But. So they're touring around. They're kind of finishing up right now down in Florida, but they were coming through. Charlotte went to go pro on their off day and off day. AJ Perdomo and the guys from Danger Summer, like, hey, man, we're going to meet you at GoPro. Come out. I was like, all right. I get done with everything I'm supposed to. I'll see you out there. So I go over there. I didn't call or anything, but I go over there. Apparently, AJ and the guys were too hungover to get out of bed that day. They ran a little hard the night before, but the rest of the, you know, the rest of the. The group was there. Amberlynn and the rest of the. The tour was there. And so I got to meet them. And we took a picture and sent it to AJ and those guys voicing our displeasure about them not showing up and. Nah. But it was cool. I don't know when I'm gonna go to a concert. It's always kind of like last minute. We saw the Red Clay Strays in Charleston, and, man, it was awesome. If you hadn't seen them out, I'd go see them. I'd like to see Steven Wilson Jr.
- [117:09]
Amy Earnhardt
Oh, I'm seeing him in July.
- [117:10]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I know.
- [117:11]
Amy Earnhardt
I'm pumped.
- [117:12]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Got a buddy of mine supposed to see him soon, and it's like a 7-800-person venue.
- [117:16]
Amy Earnhardt
Oh, and that's where you want to see him, too. The small freaking rooms.
- [117:19]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
His. So the funny thing about Steve Wilson Jr. Man, is I started listening to him because Tim Duggar sent me his song 1994.
- [117:28]
Amy Earnhardt
Yes.
- [117:30]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Probably two and a half, three years ago.
- [117:31]
Amy Earnhardt
Yeah.
- [117:32]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He sent me this song. I'm like, yeah, awesome song. I listen to it a lot.
- [117:35]
Amy Earnhardt
Yeah.
- [117:35]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Didn't listen to anything else. And I checked out the record, and I didn't really vibe with anything right away, but now I'm listening to all of the records. Like, he's got so many songs on that record that are really good.
- [117:49]
Amy Earnhardt
Yeah.
- [117:50]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And so it's interesting because, I don't know, I love music, so I do this all the time. But you'll. I have some friends, right. In several bands, and they'll send me their songs or this demo or this. This album they're working on, and I'll be like, I don't know, but give me a year. Right. And I'm in love with the whole thing. Right, Right. Sometimes. Sometimes you hear a song, and immediately, the moment you hear it, you're like, I love that. Give me all that all day. I want to listen to this over and over. Right. You love the song. Right. And you'll play the. Out of it, and then you'll hear other stuff from bands you like, and maybe right away you don't love it. And it takes several listens to sort of like, for it to click in your head. I've always kind of thought that was an interesting phenomenon, but that's kind of the way it was with. With. With Steven Wilson Jr. Yeah. So his stuff so good.
- [118:41]
Amy Earnhardt
Oh, man. I, like. I had the same exact discovery as you. I'm like, I listen to a song like, all right. Yeah, it's okay. Then you really dive into it like, he's a freaking genius.
- [118:50]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He's good.
- [118:50]
Amy Earnhardt
Yeah. Well, awesome. That's a good place to end, Ash Jr. Today. And thanks to our friends at Xfinity.
- [118:55]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. Appreciate it. Thanks for tuning in, everybody. This was a little bit of a quick one, but Denny is getting ready to call in, so we won't want to keep him waiting. Thank you. Xfinity Mobile customers, you get access to the most powerful WI FI network network on the go with speeds up to a gig. NASCAR fans, this means faster downloads for turn by turn action, smooth live streaming with fewer pit stops and a strong connection from the parking lot to the grandstands for more laps and less lag. Stay connected with Xfinity Mobile. They're a proud premier partner of nascar and absolutely essential to being able to do what we do these days with our. With our smartphones and our iPads and everything else everywhere we go. Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen.
- [119:38]
TJ Majors
Place Your bets.
- [119:42]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
All right, it's time for Dirty Modo. And coming into the studio to tell us all about who we need to be betting on this weekend at Bristol is Tampa Tim's. How you doing, Tampa Tim's?
- [119:54]
Tampa Tim
Hey, what's up, guys?
- [119:55]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Hey. This segment of Dirty Modo is brought to you by. And we love this fanduel. It's a great app.
- [120:04]
Tampa Tim
Great app.
- [120:05]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Great app. Phenomenal. First off, Final Four recap. We got to talk about. Do we have to. Yes. So I had. Let's recap. I had a really good run.
- [120:18]
Tampa Tim
You did?
- [120:18]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I did. I had a really good run. I had a lot of fun during the. During the tournament, and. But when we got up into the, like, the Elite Eight in the Final Four, man, things really slowed down for me. A lot of really. Not a lot of bets that I really would. Would make.
- [120:36]
Tampa Tim
Yeah.
- [120:36]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I don't really. I don't. I don't. I don't make gambles.
- [120:39]
Tampa Tim
Yeah.
- [120:40]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But I kind of go for the sure thing. But so when all that kind of went away with the final, you know, few games, things got tight. Duke, we had a parlay, me and you both. Yeah. Where we had Duke in Florida, and Duke let us down.
- [120:55]
Tampa Tim
Yeah. Collapse. Absolute collapse.
- [120:57]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You know, I think about that, and I'm like, those guys, like, how many of those kids are going to be able to get a chance to try to fight their way back next year? It was very similar to maybe, like, I hate to bring this up, and Elliot Saddler's gonna hate it, but his loss to Xfinity, Series championship. Right. He comes so close to winning the series championship and racing his whole life. He just wants this one thing. He doesn't get it. He comes down pit road, and you could see it in his face. You're like, I don't know if he's going to recover from this.
- [121:21]
Tampa Tim
Yeah.
- [121:22]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But a lot of these kids, like, for Duke, they had this game in hand. Right. And some of them might not get that chance to go back and try to redeem themselves.
- [121:29]
Tampa Tim
No.
- [121:29]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Their careers for all. I mean, they may go on overseas. Some will go to the NBA maybe, but not all of them.
- [121:35]
Tampa Tim
It's going to be a completely different.
- [121:36]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Team next year, and they may go play ball somewhere else and maybe be able to have success, but this has got to stick in their gut, man.
- [121:43]
Tampa Tim
Oh, yeah.
- [121:44]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
To be on that main stage like that, in front of the world and have that go down so close to. I don't envy. No. That situation. But that's why sports are so great.
- [121:54]
Tampa Tim
Yeah.
- [121:55]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
People are willing to get up in front of the world and put it on the line, win or lose. And some of them have to lose in, in spectacular fashion.
- [122:02]
Tampa Tim
Yeah.
- [122:03]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Houston moved on and so last night a couple of us did a couple different things. You went and bet Houston?
- [122:12]
Tampa Tim
Yes.
- [122:13]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
To win?
- [122:13]
Tampa Tim
Yes.
- [122:14]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I waited until the game got going and I felt pretty good about Florida winning overall, but I wanted to. Their line wasn't all that great before the game. So I waited till maybe Houston got up in the game for a better, some better odds. That's what happened.
- [122:29]
Tampa Tim
You did a. That was a great strategy too. I didn't want to admit it because I had Houston, but it was a great strategy.
- [122:35]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So when they, I was sitting there with Amy and I was like, they're down. Before I was like, I could get in right now at about 100 plus 110, but I might wait and see if they can get like down 8, down 10. And so I got them at. I forget what it was, but they got down eight or 10 points and I made a moneyline bet on Florida. They come back, man, barely, like in the last minute and a half. Kind of gotten themselves in position to, to make things difficult for Houston.
- [122:58]
Tampa Tim
Yeah, that's how they've done all tournament though. They had that graphic that every round they've had like a huge, like up to like six point, you know, deficit. They had overcome almost 13. So actually very smart bet by you, dude.
- [123:09]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I wasn't much of a live better until, you know, you've got to talking about it quite a bit over the last year.
- [123:14]
Tampa Tim
Yeah.
- [123:14]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And I've been really enjoying the live bets, especially when there's not a lot going on. So when this basketball tournament ends, there's, you know, people like me, they're casual with this, really don't know where to go next. Right. Where's the next kind of fun, easy, low risk, kind of casual place to play. And what I found is going to Major League baseball, oddly. And playing the half innings.
- [123:42]
Tampa Tim
Yes.
- [123:43]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
No runs.
- [123:43]
Tampa Tim
Yes.
- [123:44]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So, you know, I don't even like, I don't even know much about the pitchers. I guess I could do a little homework and find some more information to kind of have a better, more more confident decision on who's, who's this team pitching against. But to sit there and look at some of the teams that are just not having good years and going up against a strong team and say it's, you know, the, you know, the fourth inning, fifth inning, middle of the game, chances are, you know, they're probably going to struggle to get anybody home.
- [124:12]
Tampa Tim
Yeah.
- [124:13]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And I love those bets.
- [124:14]
Tampa Tim
Yeah. You pick some bad teams like the Rockies, White Sox, you just put two or three of those teams together in a parlay that's, you know, you get some plus money odds, and there you go, you're home happy. It's a, it's, it's. This is what's called like the dead zone for betters, you know, no more college football. College basketball is over. It's really just baseball.
- [124:29]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, well, I'm enjoying that. I won't even parlay them. I'll just sit there and put, you know, a dollar or some real small change on a no run inning and just to be doing something, just to be kind of enjoying the thrill of it.
- [124:41]
TJ Majors
Yeah.
- [124:41]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Amy laughs because she's like, you're not even winning money. I'm like, yeah, but it's like the winner, the lose, it's not really how much I'm winning.
- [124:46]
Tampa Tim
You're invested in the game.
- [124:47]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. I'm like sitting there going, come on. Yeah, get him out.
- [124:51]
Tampa Tim
Strike him out.
- [124:52]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Strike out the Mariners, throw the curve. I don't even care. Otherwise, right here I am carrying exactly right. Well, there is some great options and good gambling to be had in the NASCAR space.
- [125:05]
Tampa Tim
Yes.
- [125:06]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
We got a race coming up. All right, first off, before we talk Bristol, I want to see how things went for Darlington. We, we talked about that a little bit, but not great.
- [125:13]
Tampa Tim
Not great, not great, not great. It was tough to pass. You know, I mean, that, that kind of really in the track position was tough to have any value betting wise. So I did. Not a great week. But I'm excited for Bristol.
- [125:24]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. So with Bristol coming up, what are some of the best bets in your mind?
- [125:27]
Tampa Tim
Well, the top five average finish. Best average finishes are the guys you expect. Larson, Hamlin, Chase Bell. But the fifth guy, Chris Buescher, he's being super undervalued to win. He's plus 3200 to win.
- [125:41]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's interesting you mentioned him because that is exactly what Jordan Bianchi said. Yeah, Chris Bush was a great pick.
- [125:47]
Tampa Tim
Yeah, I think he's a great pick this week. That's, that's a definite. I've already bet him to win. If you can find a good top 10 odds when they come out, definitely do that. A couple other guys I like for top tens, Ryan Priest, I mean, RFK is really good there, so I think he's a, he's a lock. And Michael McDowell has a really good average finish. 9.8 in the next gen car. On the concrete surface, that's seventh best. So I think he could sneak in there. Spire has had some speed, so not, not terrible there. His win odds, though are plus 11,000. So maybe a little, little sprinkle. Small.
- [126:18]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Small.
- [126:18]
Tampa Tim
Maybe 50 cents a dollar. See, you know, what about, you know.
- [126:22]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
This, this is a guy that maybe you would have considered five, 10 years ago, but Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Bristol's always been a track where he just sort of shows up.
- [126:33]
Tampa Tim
That's a track where he can get it done. That's definitely a driver's type of track. Also, like the tire situation.
- [126:40]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [126:40]
Tampa Tim
It could help them.
- [126:41]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. Can you get. I know we can get top tens. What's far? Like what, what are some bets where you think you might could put Ricky Stenhouse in?
- [126:49]
Tampa Tim
So I'm not sure if they don't offer it every week, but the finishing position, over or under, they usually set his in like the mid-20s. This is a week where I would, I would go, yeah, exactly. Or it would be under, but yeah, definitely.
- [127:01]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
All right.
- [127:01]
Amy Earnhardt
I was thinking Stenhouse. My only worry is his last couple of finishes at Bristol. 27th, 33rd. He got a 10th in 20, 23, 33rd, 20th, 40th. So like his last, I mean, like two top 10 since July.
- [127:17]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Sounds like to me he's due.
- [127:18]
Amy Earnhardt
Yeah, yeah, sure. I don't know.
- [127:21]
Tampa Tim
Sounds like the bucks are going to.
- [127:22]
Amy Earnhardt
Have a lot of stupid. Then I started looking up his stats. When you guys were talking about that.
- [127:25]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Earlier, I'm like, no, that's great. But you know me, like when I think about gambling, I'm. I love the underdog and trying to find, you know, somebody who's going to be the dark horse. Bubba is relatively good. Jordan thinks that he's a guy that you'd want to look at maybe as a top 10 or a top five for Bristol.
- [127:46]
Tampa Tim
Yeah.
- [127:47]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Grew up racing on the short tracks. They're very competitive this year. He's very consistent this year. Can he continue that streak and get a good result?
- [127:57]
Tampa Tim
Yeah, I agree with that.
- [127:58]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. So I wonder what the value might be for Bushier just in top 10. Probably not good, you know, because he's.
- [128:05]
Tampa Tim
Plus 3200 to win. I would say he's. He's probably going to get a plus money, maybe plus 120 when it comes out, which I, I would hop on now because I, I think he'll qualify. Well, he'll be up front, like parlay.
- [128:16]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Him and Bubba for top tens.
- [128:17]
Tampa Tim
Oh, yeah, that'd be.
- [128:18]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Try to pick a winner.
- [128:19]
Tampa Tim
Yeah.
- [128:20]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Add to that parlay and, well, you'd have something.
- [128:22]
Tampa Tim
I would have something. I'll be honest. I think it's going to be a Larson or Denny win. But, you know, you take some risks. Risks. But top 10 is where I'm going to try to.
- [128:30]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The way things are going for Denny this year, this feels like another race that he's going to be telling everybody beat their favorite driver. Yep, exactly. We got the Masters as well.
- [128:39]
Tampa Tim
Yes.
- [128:40]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So what do you, what do you, you know, I've got a little note here on my phone of just kind of fun bets to make. You know, stuff that's just kind of enjoyable to do, that's relatively quick and easy. I've got nothing for golf, so give. I don't necessarily want to hear who you think are some good bets, but give me some. Some way to approach golf as a casual better.
- [129:03]
Tampa Tim
So for me, I don't really mess with the outright winners or the longer, you know, you gotta wait all the whole tournament to figure it out. I like going round by round and my favorite bet is round score, over under, where they might place at what the par is like 71, 72. And I pick a good golfer that normally goes under that, under par usually and bet that. And I bet it every day. I'll bet a head to head matchup where it's just two golfers in the same group going head to head. See what they see, what they go after. Yeah, that's. And you could do round leaders and stuff like that. I don't mess with that. I really, I'll really just stick with those two head to heads and the round score. I love playing those day to day.
- [129:41]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Man, that sounds like a lot of fun. We may, you know, do you have, you have any ideas on some of the bets you might make?
- [129:47]
Tampa Tim
Well, I do have. I do like playing the top live golfer because I think it's fun. And Bryson Dechambeau is so fun to watch. I just bet him, but I'll probably have that. They don't have any round scores out yet, but there's a couple of guys I'm watching. You know, like a lot of people think Colin Morikawa is going to have a good week, so that's a guy.
- [130:06]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
All right, man, that'll be a lot of fun. All right. This Dirty Mo do segment is brought to you by FanDuel, the premier gaming destination in the United States. Thank you, Tampa Tennis, for coming through and. Yeah, we'll see how it goes.
- [130:17]
Tampa Tim
Yeah, let's do it.
- [130:23]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
All right. It's Time for the white flag. As Jordan and I were talking, the teardown came out post race darlington. You'll want to listen to that, hear about everything that Jordan and Jeff Gluck were talking about and thinking about post race. Always a great listen. Action's detrimental. Denny Hamlin, the winner of the race, telling us about everything that he went through on Sunday and everything else going on in the sport door Bumper Clear also came out Monday. Great show with those guys this week and Wednesday our guest show as we have Tony Kanan and Kyle Larson coming in to talk about Kyle's double. That's going to be a lot of fun. Herm and Trader Drop as well along with a new episode of Speed Street. It's a busy day on Wednesday. Thursday, Amy and I will drop a new episode of Bless yous Heart. And then also Dirty Moe has launched a new e commerce line. We want you to check out our awesome Dell Junior Download merch on the site. Plus a lot more. There's, you know, shirts, hats, T shirts, all that stuff for all of our, all of our shows, bless your heart gear and everything else that Amy's helping design. So shop.dirtymomedia.com that's the website. Shop.dirtymomedia.com check it out. Also want to say we're thinking of Shige Hattori and his whole family. He passed away over the weekend. Truck series owner, Truck series owner and champion. He, he did invest a ton into this sport and kind of did it all the hard way and had a lot of success and helped a lot of drivers, crew chiefs, mechanics. Tons of people come through his organization and move up the ladder through the NASCAR ecosystem. And so we're thinking about him and just a tragic loss and seeing a lot of great comments on social media. I did not know him all that well, but there was a lot of people that he directly affected in a positive way that are speaking some great things about him as we remember him today. Check out Dirty Mode Media, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram. You've got a little pep in your step today. I do. My new doctor really helped. That's great. I'm so glad you saw a kidney doctor. Me too. We went over my treatment options and got me set up with a home dialysis advocate from Fresenius Kidney Care to learn about home dialysis. I feel good now. Keep up. Will you connect with a home dialysis advocate from Fresenius Kidney Care to learn.
- [133:03]
TJ Majors
About home dialysis options.
- [133:05]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Visit YourHomeDialysis.com to learn more.
- [133:08]
TJ Majors
That's YourHomeDialysis.com.
- [133:12]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
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