← The Dale Jr. Download
The Dale Jr. Download
Dale Jr. Doesn't Think Cleetus McFarland Is Ready for Talladega
02:02:45
The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series was the star of the show this past weekend at Rockingham, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. is back in the studio to break down the action.
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- [00:00]
Dale Jr.
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TJ Majors
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- [01:52]
Russ
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TJ Majors
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- [02:03]
Dale Jr.
The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. This is the most fun I've had in this chair in the last hour and a half.
- [02:13]
TJ Majors
Yes, I don't know if we've ever argued. Did I piss you off over the
- [02:17]
Dale Jr.
weekend or I I'm still sour that I wasn't the best man at your wedding.
- [02:20]
Russ
Who was your best man, Dale?
- [02:21]
Dale Jr.
T.J. t.J. You don't need a cool vest for that race. What are you thinking? Get him, T.J. elway, to start the show.
- [02:33]
TJ Majors
All right then.
- [02:37]
Dale Jr.
Hey Everybody, it's Dale Jr. Back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download with my co host, TJ Majors. We're in the Arby's studio. This episode is presented to you by Arby's and they have the new meat in three box. You get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meats and we've got a great show for you today. We got a lot to talk about coming up. We're going to talk to Rodney Childers a little bit about his experience so far in the O'Reilly series and also talk to race winner William Swalets from Rockingham gaining his first race win.
- [03:07]
TJ Majors
Big win.
- [03:07]
Dale Jr.
Awesome. William's a great young kid that struggled last year. You know, there's a lot of hype coming in around him with his success in the Late Models and Super Late Models. And so, you know, he had a tough year last year trying to learn the ropes in O'Reilly series, but uncovered that first win in Rockingham and I think it's one of many more that will come down in the future.
- [03:30]
Russ
That's got to be tough because in racing, you're going to lose a whole lot more than you're going to win, even if you're one of the greatest drivers ever. So doing it at a young age and failing a lot, it's got to be a lot to learn.
- [03:39]
Dale Jr.
Well, I think that, you know, I. When he comes in and struggles, there's a couple things that I think you go, all right, you know, that's to be expected. Will he get the time to develop, you know, is the next thing. Yeah. And so, you know, we just. He's 19. He doesn't. I mean, he's raced a long time and got a lot of laps, but he doesn't have a lot of laps. Right. He's still very young. And golly, man, I was nowhere. I mean, this is the easiest thing for me to do, is to look back at myself when I was 19. Was I ready for that? No. Would I have failed? Yes. Not at that age. I was not prepared for anything like that. And we're putting these guys in these situations and really forcing them to, like, mature at a rapid rate.
- [04:33]
TJ Majors
Even way younger than you were, Right.
- [04:35]
Dale Jr.
Yeah. I mean, I really didn't get to going in in the Xfinity series Till I was 24, 25 years old.
- [04:40]
TJ Majors
Yeah. Which is way past. They are.
- [04:42]
Dale Jr.
Yeah, it feels like that anyways. I don't know. Yeah. I mean, 98, 99. I was 24, 25 years old.
- [04:51]
Russ
That's a big difference than 19, right?
- [04:53]
TJ Majors
That is way.
- [04:54]
Russ
Look at Brent Cruise out there. Like, these kids are young.
- [04:56]
Dale Jr.
Yeah. Yeah. I was just starting to race cars. I had a year of driving anything under my belt, you know, pretty much around 17, 18 years old. So it's pretty remarkable. I think we expect these guys to just go out there and do things, and they're not even. They're still living at home. You know, I mean, they're still. They're not even taking out their own trash yet. You know, I'm saying there, it's. They don't even have the responsibility of traditional, normal, everyday things that, you know, people. People handle responsibilities. I don't know.
- [05:29]
TJ Majors
So do you think that's a bad thing, though?
- [05:31]
Dale Jr.
I don't. I'm just saying we expect them to go win.
- [05:34]
TJ Majors
I know, but do you think. Do you think there is a more successful path with waiting before you push them into that position so young?
- [05:43]
Dale Jr.
I was just.
- [05:44]
Tim
What.
- [05:44]
Dale Jr.
I mean, it's a.
- [05:46]
TJ Majors
It's like you went in there and you pretty much won real early in your career. No, in the. I was 24 in the Xfinity series. You won, or Riley says you won pretty early.
- [05:55]
Dale Jr.
Yeah, but I was 24 years old.
- [05:56]
TJ Majors
I know. That's what I'm saying, though. Like, what.
- [05:58]
Dale Jr.
It's kind of like, you know what? It's a lot like these athletes in college, you know, that are going through, you know, getting that sixth, seventh year of eligibility. They're like 23, 24 years old, playing quarterback and super smart. Yeah, they're just. They're just better mentally for the tough moments and the. And the, you know. You know, man, I need to. If I can't get. If I can't get this, you know, it's a couple seconds left in the game, and I need to, you know, I need to get the ball out of bounds. I need to throw it incomplete if I can't find something quickly. So I have another, you know, the. Yeah, the game management type of stuff. And so, you know, you don't have that. I didn't have that at 19. I was going to get in the car and wreck the hell out of the thing at 19 years old. Destroy it. And I would have done that a lot, and I would probably have been canned before I was 23 years old. But luckily, you know, my path happened the way it happened, because I don't think I would have. I would have. I don't think I would have netted out. It'd be hard had I started at 19. The, the tough part is, is that these guys, you know, their, their opportunity, the funding and all the things that it, that they need and that has to be there for them to get chances is there now. Right. It might not be there. If they wanted to wait for themselves to get better at the lower ranks or at the grassroots ranks, which, well, this money that can afford them this opportunity in their rally series, it might not be there, you know, in three or four years when they're more mentally prepared for the moment. And so I just think about some, you know, there's a lot of drivers that are in a Cup series now that, you know, that didn't actually come into the series and win races out of the gate. It took a while for them to start to click and luckily there were people that were patient and waiting and, you know, I feel like that that's kind of the case with, with a guy like William, I mean, still 9, 19 years old, 20 years old and getting ready to try to go win a second Xfinity or o' Rally race after this weekend and. Yeah. But I don't know, I, I, if they can come in at 19 and win races, awesome. If they can't, I think we have to be patient. And I'm, I have to remind myself like, man, don't write, don't write this dude off.
- [08:17]
TJ Majors
You never know.
- [08:18]
Dale Jr.
He's 19. Golly. Don't write him off. Right. Still might have it. Because you can give up, we give up on him as an industry. Right. But if, maybe if we waited another year or two, he's a future cup champion. Who knows?
- [08:31]
TJ Majors
Do you think Connor Zillich could have used another year of O'Reilly?
- [08:36]
Dale Jr.
Connors every. The answer to that, to everyone is yes.
- [08:41]
TJ Majors
Yeah.
- [08:42]
Dale Jr.
Everyone can stand to benefit from more
- [08:46]
TJ Majors
time if the opportunity is still there.
- [08:49]
Dale Jr.
If you can afford to do it.
- [08:50]
TJ Majors
Yeah, that's. I've always been, I've always thought you got to run two full years of O'Reilly before you go to cup to be fully prepared.
- [08:56]
Dale Jr.
But you got guys, there's guys that, you know, when extended that opportunity to race cup, have to take it.
- [09:03]
TJ Majors
Oh, for sure.
- [09:04]
Dale Jr.
Even when they're not ready. Yeah.
- [09:05]
TJ Majors
That's the sucky part is like never get another one.
- [09:07]
Dale Jr.
Yeah. Yeah. You can't go now. I'm not ready. I'll run O'Reilly one more year and then that year ends and there's no cup opportunity in front of you.
- [09:14]
TJ Majors
Yeah. I've always, I've always been a two year old. A full, two full years. But you're right though. Sometimes you have such a great first year, the opportunities come up.
- [09:22]
Dale Jr.
Yeah.
- [09:23]
TJ Majors
Does you got to take them?
- [09:24]
Russ
Does that two year. Does it matter as much now with the next gen car where the O'Reilly car is not necessarily as the similar.
- [09:31]
TJ Majors
So it's not just the car similarities to me, it's just getting. Learning the mental thing like we talk
- [09:37]
Dale Jr.
about, like you gotta Racecraft decision making, judgment.
- [09:41]
TJ Majors
Yes. Like it's learning how to race around these. Learning just the things you see every week that he's not even going to be able to tell you. Everything that he learned at Rockingham. He learned way more than what we'll ever know. You know what I mean?
- [09:51]
Dale Jr.
Like speaking of Rockingham, we'll, we'll quickly touch on Cletus McFarlane. So that's a great example. So Cletus McFarlane gets loose getting down in the corner early in the race, gets a run off of turn four and goes three wide right. That is something that you'll, you know, he experiences and he learned in that moment, like, yep, don't need to do that again. You know, he, he, he's down at the bottom of the racetrack entering as shallow as possible into turn one and that spot. It is. And that's like. That's the thing, Travis, the racecraft, you said, you know. Well, does it matter? Should he just. The cars are so different. Should he just go on the cup? Well, he needs to learn not to do that. He needs to learn that in the Xfinity series, in the truck series. And there's a thousand things like that, you know, like driving down underneath two guys into the turn. One at Rockingham, there's a thousand other things like spinning out off a four in this weird arrow situation in Daytona. That only happens in Daytona and it only happens in that moment. Right. You gotta go through those things and that's where you do it. You do it in the truck, in the o' rally series and you go, okay, yeah, that's something I gotta pay attention to next time and I won't do that again. So yeah, every year, every race you can run in those series teaches you those things of what not to do and what to be careful with and what Arrow situations are bad. And I know the cars are different. Yes, but you're still learning precautions, being conservative, being smart, waiting, being patient, living the race, the next corner, those kind of things.
- [11:41]
TJ Majors
And you want to see guys go back through and look at the tools now that you know. Now there was SMT at Rockingham this time. So we can go back and look at moves people made. Like Cletus can now go back and look at his race on there and learn from that. And Sunday night, you know, me and Carson already went through the entire race. He had an in car camera too. So we went through the entire SMT clip and then we turned that off and went through the entire in car camera. Just what he was looking at. Why'd you do this? Why'd you do that?
- [12:09]
Dale Jr.
Yep.
- [12:09]
TJ Majors
In this position next time. This is, you know, like what do you, what's your mindset here? So he can learn from that. And there's like you said, there's a thousand other things that you learn throughout that race or you try to improve on that carry over to the next race and that's how you get better and better.
- [12:23]
Dale Jr.
Well, the, I think the Cletus McFarland experience was a good one.
- [12:30]
TJ Majors
He had a really good ARCA race. Like. Yeah, I mean, solid ARCA race, top five. Yeah.
- [12:35]
Dale Jr.
And he, you know, he did spin out, he did have a couple of goof ups in the O'Reilly race. But, you know, everybody survived it. Nobody, you know, didn't crash anybody. I think that, you know, the things that he did won't be front, you know, the mistakes that he made won't be front page news. And that was the goal is not to be the story from all, from everything else we know he was, you know, not in the way running his laps, learning, getting better. Does. What does he do next? You know that, that's the big question is where does he go from here and what does NASCAR do with this? Right. There's been some speculation, I think on, you know, what do you think, what do we think NASCAR's next move is? Because they have some of the puppet strings here in, in their hands. They, they, he's, he's gonna, he was. If I know, if I think I know. What I know about Cletus is he's like Daytona and Talladega are kind of the easiest. You hold it wide open, handling's not really as big of a deal. And you know, there's not, you know, I don't have to worry about shaping the corner or worried about an apex. An apex or anything like that. You know, he just hold it on the mat and, and, and work the draft and Dodge Rex. And so he, in his mind, he's like, man, I just want to do Daytona, I just want to do Talladega, ARCA trucks, whatever. Right. But at some point NASCAR's got to kind of step in the Way and go. Nah, man. You know, you can only go to this. You can only go this far.
- [14:10]
William Swalets
Yeah.
- [14:11]
Dale Jr.
Before we. We need you to do some other things. And I think that's kind of the point we're at now, which is.
- [14:16]
TJ Majors
Right, because a mistake at Talladega can take out 30 cars.
- [14:21]
Dale Jr.
Yeah. So I guess the question is, is now that he's done Rockingham, will. Will he then request the next race to be his next race, his next opportunity? Where is that going to be? Is he gonna, you know, is it gonna. Are they gonna take a stab at trying to go to Talladega or daytona in the O'Reilly series? Will NASCAR approve that? Will they say no?
- [14:43]
TJ Majors
Did you see enough.
- [14:45]
Dale Jr.
I saw enough to not approve him for Daytona or Talladega in the o' Rally Series, to be quite honest with you. I only saw what I didn't. I was not present and in person for any of this. But I watched the YouTube video from the truck test with Nice. I watched the YouTube video of his O' rally test with RCR, and then I watched the race. And in all three of those, he busted his ass. Now, he didn't hit anything except for the truck. He did wall the truck off of two. But in all three of those instances, he was, you know, he lost control of the car or the truck, I would say. And I told him this after the race, like, the Rockingham surface and tire is going to be one of the more trickier ones. It's a hard tire. It's a relatively repaved surface. So it's got a very small window before you bust your ass, and it's easy to bust your ass. So, I mean, I actually expected him to wreck in the rally series. I expected him to knock the damn tailgate, you know, the deck lid off the car. He didn't. So that. That was. That was a surprise, I guess. Not a surprise, but I just expected him to. But he got. Yeah, he got to the end. He finished the race.
- [15:56]
TJ Majors
So the race was fairly clean overall,
- [15:58]
Dale Jr.
but yes, but I think he definitely. I would say no. I need one, two, maybe three more events somewhere else before you're going to get this opportunity from. In the O'Reilly series to go to Daytona or Talladega. Now, by all means, arca. Arca. Arca. Run all you can. Like, if I were him, and if I were nascar, you know, I'd be trying to get him in more ARCA races every single opportunity to run all these little bull rings and short tracks.
- [16:28]
TJ Majors
If he keeps going, running four top five in arca, he's gonna look like he belongs.
- [16:32]
Dale Jr.
Well, he needs to not only look like it, but he needs to actually belong.
- [16:36]
TJ Majors
Yeah.
- [16:36]
Dale Jr.
You know what I mean? And you're kind of button up against, I think, the threshold of. All right, man, you don't, you know, you can, you can play in this pool, but you got to do a little bit more of this before you can get over into the deep end.
- [16:51]
TJ Majors
Yeah.
- [16:53]
Dale Jr.
And so I think, you know, we'll see what happens. It'd be interesting, I'm, I'd be curious, I guess, to what the conversation's like in the NASCAR building around, around Cletus and where they kind of think they,
- [17:06]
Russ
and I think you lose some of that when you're not racing weekend and week out and he just coming in, you're kind of, you, you have to reset and you're just not having that muscle memory.
- [17:15]
Dale Jr.
Look, I'm gonna tell you to do what he did this weekend and, and I, I, I, I know he busted his ass a couple times, but to do what he did was really, really phenomenal for a guy that has no racing background, didn't grow up in a racing family, didn't grow up around racetracks all his life. He understand, he, you know, do. I figured that this would be the, the, the, I figured that this would be the situation. So Jimmy Johnson raced motorcycles and stadium trucks before Jimmie Johnson, the seven time champion, that we all know that we, when we think about Jimmy Johnson, we think about stock cars, we think about nascar, we think about Jimmie Johnson came from outdoor stadium truck, West Coast California, drive the, out of it jumping jumps and you know, being a maniac and then decided, you know, to get into a stock car in the O'Reilly series. And Jimmy was able to be successful because I think that, you know, all the things that he was doing in those stadium trucks and motorcycles, like you're, you're doing a lot of things in that, in that type of vehicle off of, off of feel and precision. Even though it looks chaotic and wild and crazy, you're, you know, you're out of control. You're in control. You're driving, you know, you're in a slide at 90% of the lap.
- [18:56]
TJ Majors
There's a lot of variables.
- [18:58]
Dale Jr.
There is, there's just a lot of car control. There's a ton of car control that you develop that can absolutely be automatically applied to anything with four wheels. And I would, I think, you know, Cletus has done a lot of funny stunts and a lot of wild things, but at the same time, he has learned the limits of something with anything with four tires on it. Like, he can. He can get into pretty much any vehicle and take it out on the racetrack and put it to the limits of its capabilities. And really, you know, and he's done those things so many times in his videos and so forth, and I think he can apply the same sort of. It's understood physics, right, that his mind and his body. He can look at a car, look at it, drive it a little bit and go. I think I kind of understand where the window is here, where the. Where I can play without and still be in control. Right. And so he can get in the rally car and go out and test the four hours and pretty much get it up against the limit of the tire and the slip angle of the tire and get within a decent lap time quicker than most because of how much that he's driven to the limit of control and gone out of control multiple times. Right?
- [20:30]
TJ Majors
Yeah. You learn.
- [20:31]
Dale Jr.
Yeah. So I think he. It's just like he's taken all of that information and everything he's ever done and sort of, it's. He's just applies, for lack of a better way to describe it, he just takes the physics and everything that he's understood about inertia and momentum and grip and tire and rubber and pavement and contact patches and all the things that he didn't even know he was really cataloging and. And computing and processing into this little hard drive in his brain. He's got all that information and he's just applying that to this. Right. Because he doesn't know any better. He doesn't have anything else. And so he goes out on the racetrack and he goes, I know how to drive something with four tires on it fast and out of control and to the limit. And he finds he can kind of understand over the course of a couple hours where the limit is to this vehicle. Right. And then he takes all that, and then the information he gets from RCR and all the help that he gets from them and all the advice he gets from anybody that he calls. I know he calls me or texts me after he practices, tests, race, whatever. I don't know who else he's reaching out to, but I'm sure several people. And he's probably. And he's taking. He's listening. If you tell him, dude, go out there and look. He's used to going anywhere and being the story. He's used to going everywhere and making noise and making it great, gaining attention, like getting clicks, getting views like that's. His job. But we told him, in this moment, don't be the story. Do everything you can to be out of the story. And. Right. That's a complete. Working against everything he knows. And he did it. He listened. He. He. He took that to heart.
- [22:06]
TJ Majors
The amount of. The amount of Cletus shirts that I saw last weekend was incredible. Like.
- [22:13]
Dale Jr.
Yeah.
- [22:13]
TJ Majors
So the fans are grasping onto him.
- [22:16]
Dale Jr.
Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, we knew that would happen.
- [22:18]
TJ Majors
Yeah.
- [22:18]
Dale Jr.
That's why NASCAR loves this.
- [22:19]
TJ Majors
Yeah.
- [22:20]
Dale Jr.
So that's why NASCAR is trying to.
- [22:22]
Russ
That's a difficult spot, nascar.
- [22:23]
Dale Jr.
It is. It's a difficult spot.
- [22:24]
TJ Majors
It is.
- [22:25]
Dale Jr.
Right, Right. So how do. How do. They kind of can't. Will they. Can they properly, you know, like, nurture this?
- [22:32]
TJ Majors
They want them to succeed.
- [22:33]
Dale Jr.
Oh, they do. Who doesn't? So they. But they've got to do it the right way. If they throw his ass into the o' Rally Series at Talladega, I don't know. You know, that is definitely not the next step for him. His next step is another. Another race somewhere else. Right. He should. He should be racing Bristol. He should. He should be racing arca. Arca. Arca. And more truck races and everything from a mile and under. You know, go race. But I know.
- [23:02]
TJ Majors
So we got Bristol and Kansas coming up. Arca, Kansas race, sure. I'd definitely be running if I were him.
- [23:08]
Dale Jr.
You know, all those things take money, though. Every time he jumps in that arc of car, I imagine somebody spending $20,000, $25,000. At a minimum.
- [23:16]
TJ Majors
At a minimum.
- [23:17]
Dale Jr.
Right. I'm sure every time he goes and jumps in a truck, I'm sure That's costing somebody $75,000 more and more. More than that. Anytime he goes and races in a O'Reilly car, at minimum, that's costing somebody $120,550,000. Somebody. Now, I don't think that, you know, I don't think that Cletus is on the hook for all of that. And I don't think that his partners are funding that entirely, but somebody is. Right. And at some point, it might be a little bit of NASCAR's money going into this stuff, you know, so they just. It just needs to be a plan. There needs to be a plan. And the other thing that's interesting is, and we talked about it on the show with him and is he's got to come to a decision at some point of how much of this he wants to do and how much of his other life, because it's an entirely other thing going on over here.
- [24:10]
TJ Majors
And he's pausing that to do this.
- [24:12]
Dale Jr.
Yeah. His social media, which makes him millions of dollars, his YouTube page and all that and his merchandise and everything that he does with that, that's a thing that has to kind of keep going. That machine's got to keep going. Right? Can they, can they merge together?
- [24:28]
TJ Majors
That machine made this possible.
- [24:29]
Dale Jr.
Yeah, I'm just, you know, he said, like, if I do this more, I have to do less of that. Like, he sees it as one or the other, and I don't. He ain't going to come over. He's not going to come over to NASCAR and make the kind of money he's making on the YouTube side. Like, his YouTube brand is already a functioning. Well oiled.
- [24:52]
TJ Majors
Yeah. It's great.
- [24:53]
Dale Jr.
Profitable business. And he is not going to come over here and make that kind of
- [24:57]
Russ
money and probably doesn't have the stress you getting in these cars.
- [25:00]
Dale Jr.
And I just. Yeah, I just know he's just not going to come over here and make that kind of money. So even if things went well, I think that's a more lucrative thing. And he's got to decide, like, all right. And he's got a family, he's got kids, and he's got all those things, too, to juggle. Tough situation, but a good, good situation.
- [25:18]
TJ Majors
Yeah.
- [25:20]
Dale Jr.
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- [26:25]
Russ
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- [27:25]
TJ Majors
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- [27:58]
Dale Jr.
All right, so we got Rodney Childers at the desk and thought, you know, we didn't have a couple races past weekend. Be a good opportunity to highlight a little bit of the O'Reilly series. And one of the great additions to junior motorsports this year has been Rodney. And I know I've been, you know, seeing some of the, you know, media out in the past probably, I don't know, couple of months have been quizzing you a little bit about your experience so far. So yeah, just hard to do at this table with, with me and TJ sitting here. But can you give us an honest assessment of, you know, what, what did you think this was gonna be like? You, you know, what, what, what's been some surprises, what's been some good things? What are some things about our operation, I suppose that are different from what you're used to or.
- [28:50]
Rodney Childers
Yeah, I mean for me, you know, I was probably one of the odd ones that never bush raced or Xfinity race, you know, before I went cup racing. So you know, my whole experience has just been cup racing the whole time and so really I didn't know what it would be like to go run the O'Reilly series and what the schedules are like and you know, what, what's your week flow look like and all those things. And honestly, it's been great. And my experience here has been great, too. Yeah, I really love the atmosphere here. And a lot of the things for the last 25 years that you wish would happen, you know, at a race team and have some luncheons and have ice cream truck come by and have a beer, toast when you win races. I mean, we, we went through a spell there where we won like 12 cup races in one year, and we had one luncheon the whole, the whole year, you know, and it's like, you know, you always think about those things and, and the employees and stuff like that. And, you know, that that's the biggest thing that has stood out to me is just the family atmosphere and the way that the week flows and all those things. And really, it's just been perfect timing for me, you know, to be able to come home and be home on Sundays. And my mom's went through a few things and she's in a little nursing home type thing now, so I get to spend Sundays with her and my dad. So just everything's worked out really good.
- [30:15]
Dale Jr.
What about the racing or the garage? The culture in the O'Reilly series, how that's. I've always thought that the, the cup garage and the O'Reilly garage were completely different. And you know, the Cup Garage is very, very competitive and cutthroat just from one individual to the next. In the O'Reilly garage, it's very casual, more laid back. At least that's what it was like when I was there as a driver and competing. But, you know, what's the difference in the two series?
- [30:52]
Rodney Childers
A lot of what you just said, honestly, you know, a lot more smiles on faces walking around the garage, that's for sure. And, you know, the Cup Garage has changed a lot over the last 10 years. You know, the way that you go through tech and you don't have, you know, a big practice, you're not in the garages, beside each other, you know, kidding with each other and doing different things throughout the weekend. So that, that's changed that side of it. But, you know, that part's been a lot of fun for me, just getting to know everybody. And a lot of them are old cup officials anyway, so I've had good relationships with all of them for a long time. And, you know, in this series, it's still way competitive. You know, it's, it's hard as crap to win races. And, you know, we've definitely figured that out. We've had past Cars, but we need to get in victory lane, and I think once we knock one off the. Off the checklist, we'll knock a lot more off.
- [31:46]
Dale Jr.
One of the things that's new for you is working with, you know, young drivers and trying to help, you know, younger drivers, less experienced drivers, establish, you know, kind of some racecraft and all that and turning them into, you know, champions and winners. You know, of course, you. You did work with Josh Berry when he was. He was new to. To the Cup Series, but most of your career, you been with veterans. You've been with guys who you really didn't have to kind of check up on and hold their hand a little bit, so to speak. But. So this has been a bit of a different experience for you, or is it, you know, how is that. How's that worked out? You got. You kind of have maybe a different driver in the car every now and then. You don't have a, you know, the same guy every single week. What are the challenges with that or what are some of the things you enjoy about that?
- [32:37]
Rodney Childers
It's actually been a lot of fun. And, you know, me and TJ kind of have the same task of. Of, you know, letting. Letting Carson learn certain things every week, but also standing by his side and pointing things out that he could do better. And, you know, he spends a lot of time here at the. At the shop. And I mean, yesterday he was here from. From the beginning to the end of the day. Like, he. He spent all day here. And, you know, some. Some of those things remind me a lot of that year working with Josh. You know, you have, you know, just certain things that, you know, ways to communicate, ways to talk about the car. That's probably the things that we talk about the most is just trying to, you know, narrow down what you're saying, you know, try to pick out the one thing that's going to make you go faster instead of just, you know, 11 different things that are going on around the racetrack that confuse the crap out of everybody. You know, do we need to tighten it up or do we need to free it up? Uh, there's. There's only a lot. You know, there's only certain things you can do during the race, and sometimes unhooking the back is the only way to make it turn. That's not the fun part for a driver. But just learning those things and other things, just having confidence, right? Like, I feel like Carson's had just a ton of confidence this year, and he goes out there and he qualifies well, We've had fast cars in practice, fast cars in qualifying. We've been able to. To race really well and lead lead laps at Phoenix and had a dominant car there, and just all those things have been a lot of fun. And then the other side of it with Connor, you know, my first race with him is taking him Dakota, and he's just incredible on those road courses and sit on the pole and, you know, late in the race and then we broke a brake rotor and had to kind of ride around the whole second stage until we could replace that. But to watch him drive from 30th back to 4th, you know, before the end of it was crazy. So I haven't got to do a lot with Connor yet, you know, so hopefully we'll have some fun this weekend at Bristol and learn a little bit more about each other. And we have a lot of races coming up together over the next little bit, so hopefully we can kick that off this weekend on the right start.
- [34:55]
Dale Jr.
Yeah, it's quite a challenge, I think, for you, just as an individual crew chief, to, you know, if things go as as planned, you're going to try to race for a championship with Carson in the. In. In the playoffs and trying to figure out how to be successful with Connor, have Carson prepped and ready when the playoffs begin. So it's as if y' all had been together the entire season. That's going to be a challenge that I think is going to be interesting to see how that plays out. You as an individual. Last question. You as a. You as a crew chief, you as a mechanical mind coming into this series, working on these cars. None of this stuff is foreign to you, but you're learning the series, you're learning, you know, what makes these cars tick. You know, if you're. If. If you were filling up a bucket, right, trying to figure out, you know, trying to find your groove, how full is that bucket, how much more is. Do you get? How much more you think you're gonna pour into there before you feel like you've got. You got your master of, you know, trying to make the car work, trying to bring in all the years of experience that you have to. To. To prepping your car and going to the racetrack and having all the bells and whistles ready to go? So the car is really fast out of the gate. Yeah.
- [36:16]
Rodney Childers
You know, so far, I've been really fortunate. Like a lot of the sim tools and the things that I used to look at to, you know, you know, whether it's geometry or shocks or brakes or this or that, like all of it has worked very similar to everything that I was used to. And the things that I thought were good in the past have been good still. And so that's been good for me is, you know, just to, to do what you think is right, you know, and like, there's been a few times I've went to Bumi and said, you know, what do you think about this or that? And he's like, you just need to do what you think's right. And for me, that's, that's perfect, right, because if you ever go to the racetrack and I've been in situations where you go to the racetrack and right off the get go, you're unloading the car with something that you don't even believe in. You know, your whole weekend's messed up, your mind doesn't work right, you don't make good decisions. And so, so far I've been super fortunate that the things that I thought would work have worked. And it keeps my mind going and, you know, I keep, you know, thinking about things the right way and all that kind of stuff. And you know, we, we're going to have good weekends and bad weekends. Sometimes we're going to do something, it's not going to work right. But you know, so far it has and you know, we're going to continue that. But the rest of it just comes down to just little details, you know, over time, you know, making the cars a little bit better, a little bit lighter, trying to, to do all those little things, you know, that, that push you to, to be better. So, you know, it's, it's different racing in the, you know, in the O'Reilly series. I went for years with SHR with no budget, right. And like we had every gadget and more wind tunnel time than everybody. And that's, you know, one of the things on this side. We have hardly no wind tunnel time. So you're just kind of going off your gut on some things. But I'm still learning every week. I'm super fortunate. I've got a great race team and, you know, I think this group can, can go a long way together.
- [38:18]
Dale Jr.
Awesome, man. Well, thanks for giving us some time this morning. I know you're off to the sim to get better and looking forward to the race this weekend.
- [38:25]
Rodney Childers
Thank you. Appreciate it.
- [38:29]
Dale Jr.
So I got a. We're going to talk Cars Tour later. The Cars Tour suspended Doug Barnes for a race for rough driving, intentional crashing. We had an appeal. I guess we go ahead and go, go to that now. We're going to jump around a little bit. We set up an appeals panel because Doug was able to appeal this penalty and decided to do so. Now I want to explain to everybody how this works. So they know we've only had one previous appeal and that was a year or two ago at North Westboro. It was a technical penalty that came post race for the winter. It's a really tough spot for all of us to be in. So we, we don't often deal with appeals, you know, at grassroots racing or at the cars Tour level. We, we don't really want to be doing appeals that often and we try to, you know, officiate our races in such a way that they're, you know, we're not going to have to have an appeal every week because what happens when they, when, when, when a driver says, hey, I can't appeal this and I want to appeal this? They have to write a check to file the appeal. That's a payment they make to the series to, to make the appeal. They have to be willing to do that for one.
- [39:46]
TJ Majors
Dang. Yeah, you make them pay for that.
- [39:48]
Dale Jr.
Yeah, I'm right. I think it's.
- [39:49]
Russ
Every level has.
- [39:50]
TJ Majors
I mean, I'm just kidding.
- [39:51]
Dale Jr.
So be. What the ser. If you, if you write me that check, TJ and want me to, want me to. I gotta go outside of the series and put together the panel. And so nobody better than David Hoots who ran the NASCAR booth race control for many, many years, nobody better than him to orchestrate the appeal. He's not going to have voting power. He's just going to officiate the actual appeal. Right. So we get him and then what you do is you kind of look out over the landscape metaphorically of the, of the motorsports industry and you try to find people that you think have strong character and that really have no favorite in the game.
- [40:36]
TJ Majors
Right, but understand it.
- [40:37]
Dale Jr.
Yeah, but they understand it. So we, we got Bonsus who works in the late model, ranks on with pros and supers and has been around the garage and industry for a long time. Freddie Query, who was running tech and had a role with ASA and has been a driver for years, very accomplished, raced forever and has been around short track racing and cars for a long, long time. And Jefferson Hodges has actually worked here at Junior Motorsports before, but he's now with Penske Racing as a GM over there. But he comes from short track racing. He drove, you know, he worked on cars for us and for Rick Townsend and just a well respected individual throughout the industry. So those are the three people that we asked if they would and all we had a list and we asked them. They were the first three we asked. They said yes. And so I'm like, man, I called Doug and I said, doug, I'm glad you're getting to file this appeal. I think we put together a panel that you're going to really like and, you know, by all means, like, put your case together and come come forward with all the evidence that you think you got, and we'll see what they decide. And this is an interesting situation to be in. So when I watched the race going back to the actual penalty, in my mind, I thought, and I still think that Doug intentionally crashed another driver. Okay. And so the precedent from the past has always been a one race suspension. Minnie Tyrell was equally aggressive, but he didn't intentionally crash Doug. So I couldn't suspend many a full race. Maybe we could have. But what should have happened in the moment, Doug should have. Doug and Minnie, obviously, I think, should have been parked in the middle of the race, like after the incident. Guys go to the garage, don't come back. Yeah, that's what should have happened. It didn't. We didn't. We. We didn't do a good job there. That's where the series itself made a misstep post race. We decided, okay, this guy intentionally crashed somebody. What have we done in the past? Every time in the past, we have suspended the guy for a race. We're losing a little bit of control of our races. They're getting wilder, they're getting rougher. We're trying to cramp down on that, clamp down on that. We're trying to get the attention of the drivers. That's not going to be something that fixes itself overnight. So we felt like we had to react here. What had happened in the past, guys have been suspended a race. So that's what we did. We made the announcement that we're doing it. Got a lot of pushback. People don't understand it, but they're not running a series. They don't understand the integrity that we're trying to maintain and all those things. So Doug's upset, really mad, because he feels like he got into the deal, his car's destroyed, and he's the one getting suspended for a race while he thinks Minnie was just as guilty. Understood. So Doug wants to appeal. By all means, Doug, file your appeal. We're going to put together a panel. I trust this panel. Whatever they decide is good with me. And so Doug goes to the appeal. They they heard his point for about an hour. And then Kip goes in first for the series to explain the series point of view. Then. Then the driver or the team comes in, and then they may ask somebody to come back in. But eventually they deliberated for a couple hours and decided to change the penalty. Doug will not be allowed to go to the open practice on Thursday. He will not be allowed to practice on Friday, but he can show up Saturday. There's two 20 minute practices that morning. He can show up Saturday, practice and qualify and race at Nashville. So that was the change to the penalty that the appeals panel decided. And that's what they do. Man.
- [44:34]
TJ Majors
What do you think? You know, how did Doug. What do you think Doug seemed to.
- [44:38]
Dale Jr.
Doug? You know, I talked to Doug after the appeal. I said, hey, I said, I'm glad you got heard. I feel good about the panel's decision. I already did, but I didn't even know what their decision would be. But I knew we put the right people in there. This is what they came back with. And I asked Doug, I said, hey, is there anything we can do better? Did you like the process? We've only done a couple of appeals in our series. Is there something that was good, not good? And he's like, man, it was really professional. I enjoyed it. It was good deal.
- [45:07]
Russ
Did they say why they.
- [45:08]
Dale Jr.
They did not want to.
- [45:11]
TJ Majors
That's what I was wondering.
- [45:12]
Dale Jr.
So this is their. This is what I've been told through multiple people. I've not spoke directly to the appeals panel or any of the individuals. I did text them all and thank them for their time because they volunteered their time to do it and they got to do. But I was like, hey, thank you all for doing this. I really appreciate it. And what I was told from Kip after he was done and heard everything that he heard, they wanted the penalty to still have some teeth because they don't want the drivers driving that rough. But they didn't want to take away Doug's opportunity to run a marquee event like Nashville. And Doug is in the middle of a season long points battle. Doug wants to be a part of the cars tour. Doug wants to be a good representer of the, of the tour.
- [45:58]
TJ Majors
And he has been.
- [45:59]
Dale Jr.
Yeah. And so they, they did challenge Doug at the end of the day to be the veteran in the room, to be the guy that's, you know, setting a better example for the younger drivers. Not, you know, not a guy that's diving into the same shenanigans that we're seeing out of some of the other drivers in the field. And so I thought that was great. Good for Doug. I'm sure he learned a lot from this. We certainly do. Every opportunity we get as a series, we learn a lot. And wake was a big, you know, wake was as frustrating as wake was as a series. You know, we, we got to come out of there better. We got to look back and reflect and come out of there better. And I feel like we have Nashville be a good weekend. We're going in there Thursday and Friday to practice and then we'll have a little bit of practice on Saturday. And honestly, I told Doug this too. He's got enough connections in the series that I think that even though he's not going to get to practice on Thursday and Friday, there'll be some information that he can benefit from that guys are going to learn to be able to hit the ground on Saturday and be in the ballpark and still have a productive weekend, Even though he's not going to get to practice Friday and Thursday. So, yeah, that's kind of how all that went down. We live and learn and we move on.
- [47:09]
Russ
Do you as an owner want to know, though, why they changed the appeal so that you can adjudicate things better going forward?
- [47:18]
Dale Jr.
Well, I'll say this. If the, if the same. If I think a guy intentionally wrecks another car, I'm going to give him a one race suspension tomorrow. I'm not, I mean, the, my, my precedent for that type of deal is the one race suspension. And I feel like that with the way our guys are racing and how we're knocking the rocker panels and the noses and the tails off of these cars all through the field. At wake, if we had 30 cars on the racetrack, all 30 of them suffered some damage of some kind and that's unacceptable. So I think, yeah, we need to be tougher, we need to be tighter. We need to start drawing some attention to some of the rough driving and try to steer our series back in a better direction. And so if I think a guy intentionally crashes somebody, I'm going to give him a one race suspension.
- [48:20]
TJ Majors
Do you park them that race if you see it?
- [48:22]
Dale Jr.
If it happens in the middle of the race, yes. The ones that have. Sometimes it happens after the race, right? Sometimes like Carson kwapple was doored for third spot or second spot at tri county in turn three and four on the last lap and cross the finish line and wreck the kid in turn one and he got a one race suspension. We didn't even think about appealing it. Jack Called me, who owned the series at the time, and said, hey, man, I got to put you guy out for a week. I hate doing it, but I gotta. I'm like, you got it, man. No problem. And so we got. We. We set out. Josh Perry wrecked Bobby McCarty at ACE in the middle of the race. Bobby wrecked Josh in turn three, and Josh waited and turned us, turned him around on the front straightaway, and Josh pulled in and parked and said, all right, I'm done. And they called us that week and said, hey, you got to sit out a race. So we. Josh stopped his car after he wrecked Bobby and pulled him, you know, parked his car and then still got suspended a race. And we didn't appeal that. We're like, yep, understood. We know what we did, and we're going to sit there, we're going to pay the fine. So that's the. That's the precedent for me is if that happens tomorrow, I'm penalizing the guy a race. If they want to appeal it, by all means they can appeal it. We've got to figure out how to get our series to the race a little cleaner. And I'm not going to. Yeah, I think that's the way to do it is to keep the. Keep the penalties harsh and trying to keep drawing attention to this is what happens if you get in the middle of this stuff.
- [50:03]
Russ
Agree.
- [50:04]
Dale Jr.
So going back to. Going back to Rockingham, there's a, you know, after a great, successful weekend, a lot of questions around, should the Cup Series go to that racetrack? You know, I don't know. I think it would be a good race. I'd love to see the Cup Series back at Rockingham.
- [50:25]
TJ Majors
Yeah.
- [50:26]
Dale Jr.
I don't think any of us knew in 2004 that we were running our last cup race there.
- [50:31]
TJ Majors
I think you're packing the place if cup goes there, but I mean, it's. I think you're going to pack it. Yeah, like, no doubt. And I do think one thing I like about Rockingham, that is the entry of the corners is really tight. Like, when you're side by side with somebody, it makes racing. You're going into a funnel kind of, and I mean, there's going to be contact at times, especially when we got like, that's what. It's close racing. You got guys that are going to be really good on the bottom and you're going to have. You're going to have guys that are good up top. And I don't see how a cup car doesn't move around there with the right you know, Goodyear's been doing a great job bringing tires, so I don't see. I think the race would be pretty good. Yeah, I think it would be pretty fun.
- [51:10]
Dale Jr.
Yeah.
- [51:11]
TJ Majors
You know, you can go some places in the atmosphere just feels right. It tracks like you just that. It just. Yeah, it feels like that there.
- [51:18]
Dale Jr.
Okay.
- [51:19]
TJ Majors
Like, it just. You feel like you're supposed to be there. Well, I know that's weird, but.
- [51:25]
Dale Jr.
No, it isn't. It isn't. You know, I just feel like there's still part of me that's kind of annoyed that we left in the first place, you know, But I'm trying to, you know, get over that saying, you know, just like, it's kind of like this falls into the bucket with, like, full season points and all that, and I'm just so exhausted with.
- [51:46]
TJ Majors
Yeah, why would we ever leave there to begin with?
- [51:48]
Dale Jr.
I know. I don't want to kind of beat this dead horse or rehash all of the hurt feelings over all that, you know, but. Yeah, I mean, I would love for us to go back there and. But there seems to be a battle, I think, that NASCAR is kind of having within itself, as, you know, at the top, the executive level of man, you know, we got this core fan base that loves Rockingham, loves full season points, loves all these things that are very traditional and connected to the history of the sport. But we also have doors opening to us that weren't open before. Like, racing in San Diego is a great example. The Chicago street course, like, those were not doors that were open 15 years ago.
- [52:43]
TJ Majors
Oh, my gosh.
- [52:44]
Dale Jr.
But now there's all types of. There's all types of opportunities and cities that are like, hey, come on over here. Come do this. What? What, what can we. How can we have a NASCAR race? Where should we. You know, and so nobody's building any new racetracks, you know, and so they're like, well, let's figure this out. Let's race in a stadium. Let's race on the streets. Let's race here, let's race there. And so NASCAR has all these shiny new things and all these people that want to. Want to have conversations, and they look over here and go, yeah, Rockingham, that's cool. But, you know, we did that. So they're in a tough spot, you know, of deciding because there's not enough dates, there's not enough days in the year. There's not enough. There ain't enough calendar for all of it. And so something has to. Something has to go. Yeah.
- [53:44]
TJ Majors
You know, I mean, it's kind of a, I mean, that's kind of a good problem to have. At some point. You got a lot of places to go, right?
- [53:53]
Dale Jr.
That's good problem. Unless you're one of the places that gets left out.
- [53:55]
TJ Majors
Yeah.
- [53:57]
Russ
And you got these contracts where these tracks already have, probably have agreements for. So it's like, how do you remove.
- [54:02]
Dale Jr.
Yeah, well, I think that the agreements have shortened up to where they're, they're, they're one to three years. I don't know that they're. They're that adhered to, to like they were in the past. The schedule is much more malleable and changeable than it has ever been. And so, and NASCAR wants that. They want the opportunity to act fast. You know, if something, if an opportunity pops up, they want to be able to make that change and fit it in and shoehorn that in. You know, I think it's, it's a simple solution that actually might take some time, though, is to dial back some of the double dates. You know, that's what, that's what's kind of happened in the sport already is a lot of tracks that had two races has been dialed back to one. We've seen that be a success for a lot of racetracks. And so, you know, maybe there is another venue or two on the schedule that goes from two to one races a year to be able to add on, you know, tack on this new opportunity or this old Rockingham. NASCAR looks at the geographical footprint a lot, I'm sure, and says, where are we racing? Do we need to race another event in the state of North Carolina instead of going over here where we are nowhere, you know, where we have no race. Right. Not no races within a state or two. They're going to go for that new opportunity every time. But, you know, it. There's some racetracks that, you know, the O'Reilly series goes to that. I'm like, why? You know, I don't want to single anybody out, but there's a couple of racetracks that we go to. I'm like, what are we doing here? Why are we at this? You know, Cup's never going to come here. Why are we here? But that it's way out of the way.
- [55:53]
TJ Majors
There's definitely a couple of them.
- [55:55]
Dale Jr.
Yes. And, you know, I think it's, I think having the Xfinity series or, I'm sorry, the O'Reilly series and the Truck Series at Rockingham is a really great compromise. If we can't be there with cup, maybe we can get there One day, you know, and maybe it's an all star event just like North Wilsboro. Maybe it's the, maybe our way back is through that kind of an avenue of having an exhibition there of some sort.
- [56:21]
TJ Majors
Where would you, if you could pull a second race from somewhere and put it at Rock.
- [56:24]
Dale Jr.
I'd have to look at the schedule.
- [56:26]
TJ Majors
I mean, you got Phoenix, Vegas, Talladega, Bristol.
- [56:29]
Dale Jr.
I would pull a Phoenix Charlotte. Yeah, I'd put it. I'd pull a Phoenix. Do we need to go to Phoenix twice? Oh, I mean, yeah, but NASCAR is going to go. Whoa. We can't, we can't take one out of the market of the West Coast. What? We already lost Auto Club and.
- [56:47]
TJ Majors
Yeah, and then we do that. You kind of do the west coast swing together when you go to Vegas.
- [56:52]
Tim
But.
- [56:53]
Dale Jr.
Yeah, but I don't know. I mean, I'm not, I think Phoenix is evolving, but I'm not a big Phoenix was really great. Then they, then they changed the configuration. I'm not a big fan of, you know, how they drive across the apron. It was a really, really awesome, badass racetrack that didn't need to be changed. But we've seen that not only Phoenix have seen it other places as well. Yeah, I don't know. I, I don't want to do the what ifs or where, you know, I don't want to on any old racetracks.
- [57:27]
TJ Majors
I know I got. I like a lot all of them.
- [57:31]
Dale Jr.
Yeah, but. Well, I don't know how they're going to get it into the schedule, but maybe it's the same route that Wilkesboro took and I think fans would be perfectly fine with that. Corey Heim is leading the Truck Series points, but he is not eligible for the playoffs. So he's, he's got three starts in this series. The rest of the field, all the other regulars have five. He's got two wins, three top fives and three top tens. Kaden Honeycutt is second in points with three top fives, three top tens. Corey Heim is. He's actually tied with Caden in total points at 190 apiece. But he has a tiebreaker due to the winds. What's the problem?
- [58:25]
Russ
He's ineligible to for the truck the chase.
- [58:29]
Dale Jr.
So the question I think is should there be an eligibility for restriction now that we have the point system that we have, should we open it back up and be like, hey man, you know, you don't have to. You don't have. Right now. Drivers have to declare, declare for a series and maybe we don't do that anymore. Maybe we just say, yeah, you don't have to declare.
- [58:57]
TJ Majors
Just let them run if they want to run.
- [58:59]
Dale Jr.
Yeah. If you, if you have enough starts, you get enough points and you make the playoffs, you make the playoffs.
- [59:03]
Russ
If you're good enough to race, let's say half the races but have more points, I don't care.
- [59:06]
Dale Jr.
Yeah, fine.
- [59:07]
Russ
What do you think though? Should it be limited where like non cup guys like if a Cup driver drops down and dominates though. Do you have an issue with that?
- [59:18]
Dale Jr.
I do.
- [59:19]
Russ
So I think it should be non cup drivers are eligible for O'Reilly and trucks.
- [59:23]
Dale Jr.
I agree with you. I think that the, it doesn't have much.
- [59:28]
TJ Majors
Sorry, that doesn't happen much. When you say that to Travis.
- [59:31]
Dale Jr.
Yeah. Me agreeing with him.
- [59:33]
Russ
Did you hear that Twitter?
- [59:35]
Dale Jr.
Well, I think that you're, you know, this is definitely something that NASCAR could probably just do away with and nobody really care. And I don't know why it's really, I don't know why it's in place right now, but I don't mind the intermingling between the Truck and O'Reilly series at all. But I, I do love how we have divided the Cup Series driver from these two series. Like they're, they can take part, they can come play, but that's the extent of it. That is healthy. That restriction is healthy for our team. That, that restriction is healthy for all full time O'Reilly teams. We do love when the cup racers come run in the O'Reilly series because more people watch. But we do not love when a Cup guy can, can win the championship in their rally series because then he comes down and wins 12 races. 12 races that I need to win that other teams that run in the series full time need to win. That that eats into our budget and changes our business model so that, so I'll be flat out honestly, when NASCAR restricted the cup drivers and the Brad Keselowski's and Carl Edwards and all those drivers that were trying to win championships in O'Reilly season when they couldn't do that anymore, our business model improved significantly. Now our teams are winning more races, we're finishing higher on an average weekend because we're not finishing behind cup drivers. And so at the end of the day, our bottom line is better and we're a more profitable operation. And so I would love for that to not change. But I think that the O'Reilly and the trucks is a different beast altogether. Like, I don't, I don't mind a truck guy running with us every Week. He can run double duty. He can try to win the championship in both. Fine. Hell, we will employ a guy, drive one of our damn cars if it works out. Right. You know, because I think that both. I think that drivers are in the O'Reilly and the truck series for the same reasons. They're trying to get experience, they're trying to get racecraft and do the same thing. So I don't. I don't see them very vastly different. Whereas at the cup level, yeah, I don't want to. I don't want a major leaguer dropping down to the minors every night to pitch and try to help this minor league team win a title. Right. When he's overqualified and needs to stay in the major leagues. Right?
- [62:19]
TJ Majors
Yeah,
- [62:21]
Russ
yeah. Like if Connor went and raced a full. Like it's.
- [62:25]
Dale Jr.
Yeah, LeBron ain't playing in the G league, you know, and his off nights.
- [62:29]
Russ
Yeah. But yeah, I think they need to let Corey Heim.
- [62:33]
TJ Majors
What did he declare for? Is he for truck?
- [62:36]
Russ
I thought he declared. Yeah, but he's still not eligible.
- [62:42]
Dale Jr.
The. The other argument. There is another. There's another different of difference of opinion. There are some people out there that feel like that the O'Reilly series and the Chuck series are not feeder series. They're not minor league.
- [63:01]
Russ
Yes, they are.
- [63:02]
Dale Jr.
So that's a whole nother debate. So the truck.
- [63:09]
TJ Majors
What do you think, Travis?
- [63:10]
Dale Jr.
Here's the story. Here's the tr. Here's what I believe the truth is on that the truck series was developed for two. The truck series was developed for one single reason. To sell trucks, right? For the. For the truck manufacturers in the world would have an outlet to race their product and sell it.
- [63:33]
TJ Majors
That was perfect when it started, too.
- [63:35]
Dale Jr.
That was the reason. There's not another reason. It wasn't set up. It wasn't a series established for veterans like, you know, guys that had kind of on the tail end of their cup careers or whatever. Now that's who came in to race these trucks. But there was also a guy named Mike Skinner, right? Or Jay Salter or a couple other guys that were trying to get up to the top ranking. The truck series was developed to. To market and sell trucks and so that a Chevy or Ford could go, yeah, our truck's the best truck. Look at that truck race. It also presented opportunities for guys like Skinner, like Hornaday to race, right. To finally get opportunity in the NASCAR ranks to race. We also saw a lot of veterans like Musgrave come down and have success in the series. A lot of drivers Todd Bodine. Yeah, we saw a lot of veterans come down and race in the truck series, but that was not the reason the truck series was created. It wasn't created as a playground for veterans. Do you think it happened to be a great place where veterans did find an opportunity to make a living outside of the cup series? Because there was not any more cup opportunities, but they found opportunity to make a living racing full time. If, if the truck series didn't exist, if the O'Reilly series didn't exist and you were a cup racer that had lost his opportunity, you were, because you're, you have a, you've, you've got this house, you've got land, you've got this family, you've got all these things. And now you've got a downsize because, because your quality of your life and your lifestyle has tremendously been altered. But you were allowed to go down into the rally or the truck series and continue to make a living, continue, you know, the lifestyle that you had. And so that was great. Now, the O'Reilly series, let's talk about that. The O'Reilly series is born out of the sportsman car series that raced in the late 70s. They, they finally formed into a true series in 1982 with a championship schedule and a championship fund. And since then it has been called multiple names. The Busch series, the Nationwide series, the xfinity series. But that series was basically, I guess, what the cars tour is today. So in the 70s and early 80s, it's basically like taking the Karsh tour as it is today, and developing it further into a national series that would race on larger tracks, be at more companion events with the NASCAR big brother. And so they took it from the South Bostons, the Kingsports, the, the Caraways. They took that series that, those, you know, sportsman series that it was, they took it, it only ran at Daytona and Charlotte on big tracks, maybe Rockingham, but mostly they raced at all the local short tracks in the southeast. Well, it developed into a series that would race more companion events and become what it is today as, as we recognize it now. It was full of local now in the set. You know, in the 70s when the series was developed, it was full of Sam Ards, Jack Ingrams, and these were seasoned, weathered, short track, dominant aces. These were guys that could race at any of your local short tracks and be a, and come in and kick your ass. And they'd been doing it for years. But as it started to become more of a companion race for the cup guys on the weekends, you started seeing Some of the younger guys come in that were trying to get recognized and noticed for that cup opportunity. And so the original identity of both the Trucks and the O'Reilly series are far different from what we know today. But what they've transformed into is absolutely your minor league, your aaa, your double A, your single A. It is that. That is what those series, that is what they serve at this point in time. You can go down there as Justin Allgire. You can race in the O'Reilly series as a guy like that and make a living, and that's awesome. And I love that. And we need veterans at every level. We got veterans in the cars Tour that are career Cars Tour guys. There's guys that race South Boston on a weekly schedule that are veterans and been there forever. And you're going to have them and need them at every point, every level. But the truck series and the O'Reilly series are absolutely where our young guys are going to put the final polishes on that racecraft before they finally get up to the cup level. And it needs to serve that purpose. It needs to. It needs to be serving that purpose. It's healthy for the series to be looked at as a place where you got to drop in. You got to drop in and serve a couple of years. I support all that. Matthew Dillner, our great friend, is. Is not a believer. So, yeah, he feels like. Well, he feels like that the tr. The truck series and the I'm not singling out map. He is a person like many that feel like that. The rally series is its own thing.
- [69:28]
TJ Majors
Yeah.
- [69:29]
Dale Jr.
It's not less than it is. It is over here, Cups over here and trucks over here. It's not. It's not below. It's not this ladder. Yeah. Weird. I get his point, and it's a point that many people share. But I don't know. I feel like that over the course of. I mean, we're talking about all this. You know, the truck series started in the mid-90s. O'Reilly series kind of started officially in 82. That's a lot of years of. A lot of evolution and changing and molding and shifting, pivoting. You know, the identity has absolutely changed of those series from what they originally were. And so. But I love that, man. They've got Rockingham and Cup doesn't. So, you know, we. They've got a couple racetracks that they go to where they're the headliner.
- [70:24]
TJ Majors
Yeah, I would like to see them put IRP back on their orp.
- [70:28]
Dale Jr.
Freaking A. Right.
- [70:29]
TJ Majors
That'd Be awesome.
- [70:30]
Dale Jr.
I would love to see O'Reilly go to South Boston. Oh, yeah, dude. And South Boston is primed and ready for an O'Reilly race. Are you kidding me? Be great. It is a badass, racy little racetrack and they're doing some great things over there with their, with their, you know, regional racing. And that track has always had a solid, solid foundation. They've got a lot of great people over there right now that are getting the best out of it, as we all hope. And it's kind of the standard setter for what regional racing should be, can be around the southeast, at least for, you know, for a lot of our tracks that are, that are, that are still operating in this sort of mid Atlantic region. And so, you know, I think you'd see a pretty awesome race there if you took the O'Reilly series there. Maybe the trucks. I don't know. I'd rather see the O'Reilly series there myself.
- [71:29]
TJ Majors
I, I, I think you take them together.
- [71:31]
Russ
Yeah, I agree.
- [71:32]
Dale Jr.
Yeah, sure, why not?
- [71:33]
TJ Majors
Do you have live pit stops?
- [71:36]
Dale Jr.
You don't have to, I mean, I would for, I would be fine sacrificing something as trivial as pit stops for them to be there for actually racing there.
- [71:47]
Russ
Let these guys show who's truly the most driver.
- [71:49]
Dale Jr.
But they have a long pit road, tj.
- [71:51]
TJ Majors
They do? Oh, yeah. They have.
- [71:52]
Dale Jr.
Really.
- [71:52]
TJ Majors
They've two sides. Honestly. There's a front and a back.
- [71:55]
Dale Jr.
Yeah. They have enough stalls. Yeah, but it did, it would, it would probably be best to. No livestock.
- [72:00]
TJ Majors
I mean, you could do 150 and 150. Couldn't you just. That's what the trucks used to do all the time.
- [72:05]
Dale Jr.
Yeah. Line them up. Go.
- [72:06]
Russ
And then you'll find out who the true best driver is and not losing spots on pit road. And they're the best driver out there that day.
- [72:12]
TJ Majors
150 laps is a decent long run there. So I think that'd be great.
- [72:16]
Dale Jr.
A lot of laps. That'd be fun.
- [72:19]
TJ Majors
It would be.
- [72:19]
Dale Jr.
Wait a minute. Now you're talking about getting rid of the sages. It just did.
- [72:25]
TJ Majors
Yeah.
- [72:25]
Dale Jr.
Did you just get rid of some stages and actually, you know, make sense
- [72:30]
TJ Majors
you could get rid of the stage. I mean, you don't have to get
- [72:32]
Russ
rid of the stage, TJ Say it with chest.
- [72:34]
TJ Majors
You could, you could pay the stage points. Just keep on racing and don't stop.
- [72:38]
Dale Jr.
Have a halfway break at 150.
- [72:40]
TJ Majors
Yeah.
- [72:40]
Dale Jr.
You give you stage points.
- [72:42]
TJ Majors
I don't give stations at 100 and 200.
- [72:44]
Dale Jr.
But don't throw the yellow Got look.
- [72:46]
TJ Majors
Yeah, yeah, I'm fine with that.
- [72:48]
Dale Jr.
Look at that idea. What an idea.
- [72:49]
TJ Majors
Let's go start this weekend.
- [72:52]
Dale Jr.
Yeah. So me and TJ are. We're car collectors now. I'm. I would. I would.
- [73:00]
Russ
I would.
- [73:00]
Dale Jr.
I would put myself in the novice casual.
- [73:03]
TJ Majors
Oh, definitely category.
- [73:04]
Dale Jr.
Right. Okay. I was. I was in. I was collecting cards years ago. Didn't know about what I was doing, but I ended up keeping all my stuff and I got it all back out, and now I'm deep into this again and I don't know about it. And it is quite. It has changed.
- [73:25]
TJ Majors
Oh, it's big. Way different.
- [73:27]
Dale Jr.
They got a language. They got like. They got a whole glossary that you need to learn in the next couple of weeks. I want to get a car guy here to interview and see if we can, you know, learn some of the things that we need to know about doing this. Well, but what I wanted to talk about, I had this whole list of questions. We're going to try to get somebody in here today, but we're going to do it next week, I suppose, about, you know, just some unwritten rules about card collecting and when do you get your cards graded and all that bull. But one of the things I wanted to ask the guy is this. And you got some explaining to do me. Yeah. All right, so I. And look, I don't know the real answer here, so maybe there's something I learned near, you know, about this, but I said, I'm gonna bring a box of cards in here and open them up. And I sat down on table and I opened up this box of cards and I gave you eight packs. And I kept eight. We opened them and you took your eight packs home. And I took my eight packs home.
- [74:25]
TJ Majors
All right.
- [74:25]
Dale Jr.
I went over to your house. You're like, come on over, let's open some cards. I go over to your house and we opened up a box of football cards, and I had the cards in front of me and I said, hey, man, you want me to see what these are worth? And you go, I'm going to check the values on them later.
- [74:39]
TJ Majors
Oh, you could have taken them and looked at you.
- [74:41]
Dale Jr.
Why didn't you say? I wouldn't take them and looked at them.
- [74:45]
TJ Majors
Like, when I haven't looked at them again yet, the co.
- [74:48]
Dale Jr.
But what is the code? Like, if you're going to rip packs with your buddies and you toss your buddy a pack and he rips it, do you take the cards back?
- [74:58]
TJ Majors
Well, I mean, was it because there
- [75:00]
Dale Jr.
was a good Drake May in There.
- [75:01]
Russ
It's like a. It's like if you buy a scratch off for someone at Christmas and it hits. They get. They. If they want to share the kind of what it felt like, but they. It's those to keep. So if you. If you give one to tj, it's his. Vice versa, you know, I gave a
- [75:14]
Dale Jr.
scratch off to a very good friend of mine this weekend, and he won 350 bucks. So he keeps it. Yeah.
- [75:24]
TJ Majors
I mean, I would say I would probably give you right of refusal if you want. Or first of all, when you got your cars, that box also, didn't they give you that box?
- [75:34]
Dale Jr.
Does it matter where the box is?
- [75:35]
Russ
It doesn't matter how he.
- [75:36]
TJ Majors
Well, yeah, it does.
- [75:37]
Dale Jr.
No.
- [75:38]
TJ Majors
If a company sends me 10 boxes for free and I give him five, they're his. In my opinion, they're his.
- [75:43]
Russ
That's not his problem.
- [75:44]
Dale Jr.
I got one box.
- [75:45]
TJ Majors
Well, I would give. I would give it. If I had 10 boxes of cards, I would share and probably give you half. And whatever you get, you get.
- [75:51]
Dale Jr.
Number come from.
- [75:52]
TJ Majors
I'm just saying it could be five if I give you two boxes.
- [75:54]
Dale Jr.
It was one box. When I were making it 10 boxes, I had one box.
- [75:59]
TJ Majors
Well, I'm just saying, whatever. If someone gives you something and you're like, here you go, man. You can have half or whatever. I would give you half, and whatever you get, you get.
- [76:06]
Dale Jr.
Yeah.
- [76:07]
Tim
All right.
- [76:08]
Dale Jr.
Well, I wanted to ask this guy. I was like, what's the code? Because people sit down and they rip boxes together.
- [76:13]
TJ Majors
Yeah.
- [76:14]
Dale Jr.
And I go over, you know, I went over, get my hair cut at the barbershop the other day, and a guy was in there with a case of cards, and he was showing me what he had, and he just was like, here, here, you can have this. Cal Ripkin.
- [76:26]
Rodney Childers
Dang.
- [76:27]
Dale Jr.
I'm like, really? Just have it? He's like, yeah. I'm like, I feel like I don't have any. I didn't bring.
- [76:34]
TJ Majors
Oh, yeah? What do you give back?
- [76:35]
Dale Jr.
Yeah. What do you do? I'm. I'm learning.
- [76:37]
TJ Majors
Like, I don't really know. I don't really know what the etiquette is.
- [76:41]
Dale Jr.
I mean, there's a lot of like for like. Hey, you said, I. So I said, what are you looking for? You're like, Bills players. And, you know, I'm a commander's guy, right. And so I pull. I open all these base football cards, and I pull, like, eight or so Bills players and set them off to the side. Amy's like, what are you doing with them. I'm like, I'm gonna give them to TJ When I see him and I come over here. I can hear your bills face.
- [77:07]
TJ Majors
Yeah, well, I mean, well, that started. I gave, I mean, I gave you that Jaden. I didn't even think about. I'm like, I'm gonna give you that Jaden Daniels rookie because I'm not Jaden Daniels the guy you are. And I wanted you to have it.
- [77:17]
Dale Jr.
So.
- [77:17]
Russ
Yeah.
- [77:18]
TJ Majors
Which I thought was a pretty nice.
- [77:19]
Dale Jr.
That was very nice.
- [77:20]
TJ Majors
Like gift. Already graded and everything too.
- [77:22]
Dale Jr.
Already graded. I forgot about that. Yeah.
- [77:24]
Rodney Childers
Wow.
- [77:24]
TJ Majors
You're welcome.
- [77:26]
Dale Jr.
All right, so what we need to learn from our card guy that we're gonna get on here next week is like when you're ripping packs with friends. Is, is it. What's the packs they ripped is theirs to keep. Are they ripping packs for you?
- [77:40]
TJ Majors
I mean, I really don't know.
- [77:41]
Dale Jr.
I got a lot of questions.
- [77:42]
Russ
We'll find out.
- [77:45]
Dale Jr.
Hey, this is dale and Hart Jr and for all the latest Dale Jr download gear including the I'm old, drink some beer t shirt we've been talking about here around the office, head over to shop.dirtymomedia.com for all the latest merch.
- [78:01]
TJ Majors
America's best network just got bigger. Switch to t mobile today and get built in benefits the other guys leave out. Plus our five year price guarantee. And now t mobile is available in u. S Cellular stores. Best mobile network based on analysis by google of speed test intelligence data 2H 2025 bigger network. The combination of T mobiles and US Cellular's network footprints will enhance the t mobile network's coverage price guarantee on talk, text and data exclusions like taxes and fees apply CT mobile.com for details.
- [78:38]
Dale Jr.
All right, we got this race. Weekend's winner in the O'Reilly series at Rockingham, William Swallich. William, how's it going, man?
- [78:45]
William Swalets
Hey, man, I'm doing good.
- [78:46]
TJ Majors
How are you?
- [78:47]
Dale Jr.
Yeah, well, we're excited to talk to you because you know you've won this past weekend. A big deal winning your first race in the O'Reilly series. You've been working at this a long time, racing in super late models and pros and all types of stuff over the years and I've had the opportunity to watch you kind of progress through the ranks. Had a tough year last year, you know, I guess, first question out of the gate, you know, as you're going through this past season, you know how you've always been used to running. Well, getting in everything and going to the front and running up Front. How did last year teach you to be prepared, I guess, for the future and how to move forward?
- [79:32]
William Swalets
Yeah, it was definitely a bit of a change. Obviously, moving up to the O'Reilly series last year, the field is a lot denser. You know, there's a lot more opportunities for things to go wrong. And we just. I honestly couldn't get the little things right last year. So I think I learned that for this year and everything. Every little thing adds up in a race. And I would usually, you know, take a bad race with me to the next weekend. So I learned to, you know, forget that and just focus on this week and the positives. And it was really just a mindset thing, I think, and not that Rockingham was really any different heading in. We just had a good car in practice and that just boosted the confidence and I knew we had a race winning car, so we had to capitalize.
- [80:21]
Dale Jr.
Well, you certainly did. You know, as that race is or that the weekend's playing out, you talked about how you, you know, you felt about the car, you know, is that race is playing out, you know, where, where's your headspace? I know when I was younger and even later in my career, you know, we get in those situations where you feel like you got the race winning car and you're kind of wondering what's going to happen to take that out of your hands or what's going to change in the race out of your control. That's going to, you know, you're going to lose control of the race. Where was your mindset, you know, as you're running out those laps toward the finish?
- [80:58]
William Swalets
Yeah. So we led those last 60 laps to the finish. And almost every time I've led an ARCA race, there's always been a late race caution. So I was just praying for that to not happen. But once you take the white, it's just a sigh of relief and, you know, you got it. But honestly, it was pretty calm out front for me. I'm comfortable leading races and I'm able to get in a better rhythm. And we were so good on the short run that I could build such a big gap that all I had to do was match lap times with Brandon or Brent behind me, my teammates. So my guys definitely brought me a car good enough to make it easy on me. So all I had to do is really not mess up too bad and we had it.
- [81:41]
Dale Jr.
Yeah. The process of becoming a race car driver is not something that happens overnight. And you're very young, still 19 years old, and I think We, I think we get. So we've kind of normalized having somebody your age in the O'Reilly series, and we expect results right out of the gate. I think that, you know, there's been multiple examples of really great race car drivers that needed their time. Joe Logano, William Byron are two examples that stand out to me. And I feel like that, you know, we put a ton of pressure on guys like you, and you get these opportunities to start delivering results, you know, kind of. I'm sure you've had a lot of people in your ears. Helpful, you know, helpful support, supportive conversations around being patient and allowing your racecraft to come to you and allowing yourself to develop. Who have been the people, I guess, who, who's been in your corner teaching you patience, waiting on, you know, waiting on your, you know, your, your style and your, your racecraft in the O'Reilly series to develop?
- [82:56]
William Swalets
Yeah, for sure. I mean, obviously all my sponsors and everybody here at JGR coach my team, obviously my, my, my crew chief, Jeff Menering, everyone was just super supportive last year on just being patient and letting me learn. And it's just, it's tough as a young driver being compared to, you know, other drivers that find success really early. You know, I just kept reminding myself that I need time and I need to learn the hard way. And when you don't find success early, it's definitely easy to get down on yourself. And then, you know, winning last weekend in Rockingham, it's like, okay, I can do this. And I knew I could do this the whole time. So it's just a good little reminder of, I guess, why I'm here.
- [83:44]
Dale Jr.
Yeah, for sure. I think there's a lot of excitement around you. There was, you know, coming into the rally series, a lot of attention on you, and with this win, it sort of reignited everybody's, you know, expectations and hope for your future. What are you doing on the side in terms of physical fitness and things like that to try to develop, you know, is a driver driving longer races as you want to progress into the Cup Series, I'm sure one day trying to find, you know, how was that, I guess, out of the gate, getting into these races, running longer races. I know you've ran some different, you know, super late model races and so forth that are 300, 400 laps throughout the year. But how has the. How have you physically had to change or improve to get to where you can race today?
- [84:32]
William Swalets
Yeah, uh, so the longest race I've ran, I think, before an O'Reilly series race is the Winchester 400, the All American 400 Red Bud. So those are super late model races. Um, and when I was that young, I had no muscle, no fat, so I would just right through everything and sweat it out. Um, but now I've put on a lot more muscle. I've been weight training. You know, I run sometimes, but honestly I just do, like high rep weight training. And that. That honestly suits me really well. And I've got to put a weighted vest on. I put sweats on to simulate some of the heat. But once it starts to get, like, really hot out in the summer, you know, I'll do workouts outside.
- [85:18]
Dale Jr.
Yeah. So what are. What is. Is that something that you're. Is that direction you're getting and help you're getting through through Joe Gibbs Racing. Who's. Who's sort of, you know, who's responsible, I suppose, for making sure you're in the gym every day besides yourself?
- [85:36]
William Swalets
Yeah, well, definitely myself. I feel like physical preparation for me is something I focus on, like, heavily. I feel like it's super important. And Kevin Harvick, he's always told me, you know, if you're physically prepared, then you don't have to really worry about anything else. Like if your neck goes out in the car and that starts getting tired, then that's all you're thinking about. But I've got a trainer, his name's Chris. And, you know, we just go to the gym. You know, I tell him how I felt the past weekend in the car, and then if anything, if I was a little tired in some areas, then, you know, we'll go to work on it.
- [86:09]
Dale Jr.
Being a younger guy, how much SIM work do you rely on? How connected to the SIM you are? Every driver is a little bit different in terms of their opinion of the sim and how much they use it. What. How would you describe that as a tool for you?
- [86:23]
William Swalets
Yeah. So we do about five hours a week, two sessions, two and a half hours each. And I started off really liking the sim. I still really like the sim, but it's a little finicky at some times. You know, if we don't tune the tire correctly, and then you go into the weekend and it's completely off, then it kind of screws everything up. But we've been working really hard on tuning the tire correctly and getting that dialed in for the next race. We did a good job tuning the tires for last year, so every race this year has been really close. I think that's why, you know, we've had some more Speed out of the gate is because it's. It's more similar when we roll off in practice, but it's as close as you can get. I really wish we had testing, but obviously the sim is all we got, and we just have to rely on it.
- [87:17]
Dale Jr.
Yeah. Talk about your teammates at jgr. A lot of young guys, but you got Jones, the veteran, in there. How do you lean on them? Who do you get along with? How helpful are they throughout this process?
- [87:31]
William Swalets
Yeah, I mean, I can get along with anybody. I don't really have a lot of friends in the sport. Like, I don't, you know, go around, and I'm not searching for friends that I compete against.
- [87:44]
Dale Jr.
Pete.
- [87:44]
William Swalets
Compete against, because I don't. I don't really think there's a point because you're going to get into it with them at some time. But Brandon, I definitely rely on. He's a good veteran, obviously a great guy. You know, if I'm struggling with something in practice, I'll go talk to him. He usually is able to explain stuff to me better than the others. And my crew chief, Jeff Menering, has worked with Brandon for many years in the O'Reilly series, so we can always, you know, have a good connection through that.
- [88:17]
Dale Jr.
Awesome, man. Well, hey, we appreciate your time this morning. Congratulations on the win. I'm sure one of many, many more as you go through this process. Look forward to racing against you and with you throughout the season. I've enjoyed getting to know you over the years, and I kind of pull for your success, man. Even though you were, you know, you're running under the Toyota banner with jgr, and we're. We're. We're trying to win a championship and battle against you. Love seeing you do well out there, man.
- [88:42]
William Swalets
All right, thank you so much. Best of luck to you guys, too.
- [88:44]
Dale Jr.
You bet, buddy.
- [88:45]
TJ Majors
Congrats.
- [88:55]
Dale Jr.
Hey, Everybody, it's Dale Jr. And we are here for the Ash Jr segment of the show. And with me, as always, is my. My co host, TJ Majors. How you doing, tj?
- [89:07]
TJ Majors
Hey, how's it going?
- [89:07]
Russ
Yeah, out of breath there.
- [89:08]
Dale Jr.
I know. I just run outside to sign some autographs. Somebody brought a show car over here that I told him that I'd take care of. And so
- [89:18]
TJ Majors
sign the wing.
- [89:19]
Dale Jr.
I signed a dash. But we want everybody to know. Thank you for. For tuning in for one. And we also want you to know about Xfinity. They're waving the red flag on Internet price hikes and the green flag for savings. And you can get speed and the WI fi That you need all locked in one price for five years. No surprises, no late yellows. Just a straight shot to victory lane, just like we like it. We've got a winner in Xfinity. Imagine that. They are a great partner here. I've actually got the chat pulled up for the first time in a long time, so I'm kind of following along with everybody. So we'll. Yeah, we'll get right to it. So we've had a good show. We talked. We got Rodney Childers to come in and give us his rundown on how the season's going as part of Junior Motorsports. We talked to William Swalets, who won his first O'Reilly race this weekend. We talk a little clue to McFarlane. We talk about cup going to Rockingham. Corey Hine being ineligible as the leader in the. The points in the truck series. Ineligible for the playoffs. Yeah. So we had a lot of great conversation. I hope you'll tune in when the show is released later today, but let's get right to your questions.
- [90:38]
Russ
So we were talking about trading cards a little bit ago, and somebody wanted to know what is something you purchased? And a day later you said that was dumb. Have you had any purchases where you're
- [90:49]
Dale Jr.
like, yeah, oh, yeah. Well, the. I'm sure that there's been dumber things that I've done, for sure. But one of my regrets was an automobile. I bought a Callaway Corvette. And Callaway is a great brand that built. They take Corvettes and they would build a new Corvette every year and it would have ground effects and just kind of. They changed the whole body and style of the car. And I bought a used Callaway Corvette and, man, I. Didn't drive it a lot. And a buddy of mine laid his motorcycle on it. He had like a Suzuki or something, like a nice motorcycle. And he parked it in front of the car and laid it on. Accidentally laid it on the nose of the caliber Corvette. It is. He. He was a. He was also a body repair man. So he fixed it, but not that that really mattered, but I just remember that being part of the story of the car. Eventually I just was like, I don't love this car, don't like it. I don't want it, don't need it. This was dumb. I shouldn't have bought it. And I got nowhere near the money out of it that I put into it. And so lesson learned. Not. And I'll be quite honest, there's not a lot of things that I buy that they're gonna always appreciate, But I'VE gotten lay me a little more selective, I think. So, you know, there's always gonna be. We were talking about cards earlier and I think in the card game, like you want to be smart. If you're buying singles, you want to buy the card at a reasonable price for sure. But again, I think what an expert if we ask the question, right, hey, what should we pay for a card? Like, what is the, like, is it 20% over 20, you know, 10% below value? What do we pay comparable to the value of the card? And they're probably always going to say, how bad do you want it? You know, is it a favorite player, is it a favorite team? Is it a favorite moment? And that's really. Yeah, that's kind of the answer. If you like. I like specific players. Right. So I, I'm going to learn about a specific card that, that, that that player has. That's really a great, you know, sought after card. And I'm going to want it, right. And now what am I willing to pay to get it? And that's the value of the card. Because what I have learned is, and this is, I think this is probably true to anything, the value of it is what the last person paid for it. So if you look at the card apps, they're just basically pulling price, pulling purchases off of ebay. So the car has been sold six times in the last year on ebay and here's all the things and they've averaged that. That's it. It's. What is it?
- [93:55]
TJ Majors
It's pretty good though.
- [93:56]
Dale Jr.
Yeah, but the value is what you're, what you're willing to pay for it. That's what happens with land too. So like, you know, you, you got an acre of property down the road from you that's available and you think it, you know, you think price range, you know, the price range average of an acre of land around your and a half or, you know, 30,000, whatever. Right. Well, if somebody pays 45, now, that's what that's worth. It's a $45,000 piece of land. And, and so it, it raises a, you know, a little bit of the value of everything around you because somebody paid this much for that. Something very comparable down the road.
- [94:33]
Russ
So tj, you got any dumb purchases?
- [94:36]
TJ Majors
Yeah, all the time. Not like, not really bad though. I've probably overpaid for a couple Josh Allen cars, but like you said, how bad do you want them?
- [94:45]
Dale Jr.
You got a couple for free, though.
- [94:47]
TJ Majors
I did get a couple commons probably, but yeah, now they're.
- [94:52]
Dale Jr.
I Gave him some. Josh Allen's just come. This common card.
- [94:56]
Russ
He's just unthankful. You're talking about last week, the. The rocket launch. This person wants to know, if you had the opportunity, would you get in a rocket to go to the moon?
- [95:07]
Dale Jr.
So. Oh, man. I was. We were watching last night, them going around the backside of the moon.
- [95:14]
TJ Majors
Yeah.
- [95:15]
Dale Jr.
And I was trying to tell somebody. They were. I was like, man, this is the ultimate daredevil stunt. You know, like you. You see people do stunts and you're like, you know, man, I don't have the guts to do that. Um, but, like, this is the biggest. This is the biggest jump, right?
- [95:37]
TJ Majors
Yeah.
- [95:38]
Dale Jr.
So. Oh, man. I probably have to really consider it. You're my. To be quite transparent about this. Right. The first thing you're going to think about, and you might not understand this, Travis, but first thing you think you think about is like, am I. Well, when I'm leaving my family, I'm leaving behind everything I know. And if this doesn't go well, you know, it's gonna change everything. But. So you gotta weigh the risk. But I think it's. You have to do it. That's what I think. You have to do it
- [96:13]
Russ
just to be in that up there like this.
- [96:15]
Dale Jr.
You know, one other things that I thought about this was, you have to do it. But I wonder what. So all of us in this room, and I'm pretty. Pretty confident to say this, every single one of us in this room at some point in that trip are gonna have a nervous freaking breakdown.
- [96:36]
Russ
Probably early, right?
- [96:39]
Dale Jr.
At some point, you're gonna go, yeah. Okay, I'm ready for this ride to end.
- [96:43]
Russ
Get me out of here.
- [96:44]
Dale Jr.
And it's, It's. It doesn't end till it ends right? You ain't getting off.
- [96:48]
TJ Majors
How long are they gone?
- [96:50]
Dale Jr.
Ten days, but they're now four and a half. They're halfway through. So that. That would be the thing that I would probably be most worried about. And I wonder how. I mean, this is probably dumb question, but I wonder how they prayer. I wonder how they prepare them and how they mentally train, right. To stay top of mind, to stay plugged in, to stay, you know, almost robotic about the whole process. Because now listening to them describe what they're seeing, you can hear. You can see. They're, like, taken aback. They're like, man, I'm the guy last night, he's like, we're on the backside of the moon. He's like, I wish I could really find the words to tell y' all what this is like. But I don't have them.
- [97:36]
TJ Majors
That's pretty cool though.
- [97:37]
Dale Jr.
He's like, I do not have the ability. He's like, we are not equipped with the ability to describe to you what we are feeling and seeing, which was really compelling to hear. And so it makes me badly wish that I too could see that. Right. Or experience that. But do I have the. Would I lose my. At some point, you know? Right. Would we? Wouldn't we would. Might we all.
- [98:03]
TJ Majors
Probably. What do you do? What do they do all day? Like, what are they.
- [98:05]
Dale Jr.
I mean, they got tasks.
- [98:06]
Russ
I think they're working.
- [98:07]
Dale Jr.
Yeah.
- [98:08]
TJ Majors
Yeah. But I mean, what do you. What can you possibly work on?
- [98:09]
Dale Jr.
They're doing. I don't know, dude. They're just doing stuff. Yeah. I don't think they're up there. Just like there was one moment where they were like they changed the pressure inside the cabin. Just go, there's a test. They were like, they like, you know, did a few things just to be able to, you know, be able to control the atmosphere inside the cabin and make sure all those things work the way they're supposed to work. Because that's something that's going to have to happen as they go down into the atmosphere of the moon or whatever. Right. And they go land, you know, they got to have ability to change the pressure in the cabin and all that, I imagine. Yeah. So think about that. Right. That's probably what they're doing. They're doing all of these things that they know are going to have to work perfectly on the next flight and they're doing some things that aren't necessary today or necessary for this particular flight, but they know they're going to be needed and used when, when they take the next flight. Right. So they're, they're testing all of this capabilities of this capsule and so I think that would, you know, that would keep you busy. But the other thing too is the re. Entry right into the atmosphere. All of those things. Right. There's a lot of very challenging moments still ahead. How do they compartmentalize, right. And not, not worry or think forward. How are, you know, I don't know, man. I would, I'm a very emotional kind of person with that kind of stuff. So like, you know, I, I'm in racing and so forth. It's heavy. It's, it's, you know, it's, it's, you know, the pre race, the post race, all those things are, are really big moments, big emotional moments. And so, I don't know. I wouldn't I would. I would have a. I would need tons of training. Right. To be in just this robotic state of just doing my work, not getting caught up in the.
- [99:56]
TJ Majors
I wonder if it would be hard to quit watching out the window.
- [99:59]
Dale Jr.
That would be like. Yeah, they're. They're telling them. They're like, all right, y', all, don't forget to change. Don't forget to, like, let someone else get it. You know, don't forget to change windows. And then, you know, some. Some folks come away from the windows and they go to work, and the others swat. They swap out. Right. It's the way they're describing it. So. Yeah. Like, you would. If you're seeing something that you can't even describe. Right. You can't even, like, put words to it. You would. Wouldn't want to take your eyes off of it. They say they're seeing impacts on the moon. Like they're watching. That's wild stuff.
- [100:33]
TJ Majors
Hit it.
- [100:33]
Dale Jr.
Yeah.
- [100:33]
TJ Majors
Really?
- [100:34]
Dale Jr.
Yeah. They're sitting there like, hey, we're watching them. Flash impacts of things that are landing on the surface of the moon.
- [100:40]
TJ Majors
And I'm sure they've seen things like, what was that out there? Who knows?
- [100:44]
Dale Jr.
He. They. Did. They. The guy, they were like, you know, there's this burning red sort of orb, and they're like, well, that's probably Mars, and maybe you're seeing this and seeing that. And so I don't know, man. They. It's. I love it. It's fascinating and it's exciting. I can't wait to continue to follow their trip back.
- [101:08]
Russ
Yeah.
- [101:09]
Dale Jr.
And through.
- [101:10]
TJ Majors
Get their thoughts, too, when they come back.
- [101:11]
Dale Jr.
Yeah. The reentry into the atmosphere and all that stuff, how challenging that is for the spacecraft. This thing, one of the things that. I didn't get an answer for that. I was. So there's this. There's a camera that's on the outside of the capsule, and it's showing the capsule. Right. And there's all these things flying by. And it looks like moths, right? It looks like what moths might look like when they're flying around the light, but they're coming by this thing, and you're like, what the hell is that? You know, is that like debris, Space? What is it? Stuff? Just. What is that? It's flying by. And how is that not. You know, what. What is. What is that stuff? And what is it doing? I don't know. There's a bunch of stuff flying by the capsule in this one clip of one. One particular shot. Yeah. It's weird.
- [102:01]
Russ
Do you believe in aliens?
- [102:04]
Dale Jr.
That's a big question. I feel like that if. Look, if space is infinite and we
- [102:13]
TJ Majors
are here, surely there's others.
- [102:15]
Dale Jr.
Surely there is. Absolutely there. I would say, if, you know, if I was a betting man, I would bet 1000% that I put all the money on the fact that there's definitely other life forms out there. What they look like, what shape they take, all that. I don't know. You know, I mean, but there has. There. There has got to be multiple instances of scenarios where life could exist, right, in terms of temperature, water, and all the things that need to be in that sort of equation.
- [102:55]
TJ Majors
I mean, there might be a hundred more Earths that we don't even know about.
- [102:58]
Dale Jr.
Yeah, thousands.
- [102:59]
Russ
If the alien delegation sent someone here to Earth, who would you nominate from the human race to meet and be that to start?
- [103:07]
TJ Majors
Probably you.
- [103:09]
Dale Jr.
Oh, my gosh.
- [103:10]
TJ Majors
Probably Travis.
- [103:10]
Dale Jr.
Who would. Who would I. Yeah.
- [103:12]
Russ
Pick one.
- [103:12]
Dale Jr.
Nominate.
- [103:13]
Russ
Yeah. Oh, man, that's in like, Matthew McConaughey.
- [103:18]
Dale Jr.
Really? Matthew McConaughey?
- [103:19]
Russ
Yeah.
- [103:19]
Dale Jr.
Yeah.
- [103:20]
Russ
Can you imagine?
- [103:21]
Dale Jr.
Yeah, but, I mean, there's a potential that it could go wrong. Oh, that's what I was saying. So you don't want to lose somebody.
- [103:29]
Russ
That's why we're not sending you.
- [103:30]
Dale Jr.
You don't want to lose your first string, your apartment. You're a guy. So you kind of got to send somebody that's capable, but at the same time, if they were just to disappear
- [103:40]
TJ Majors
instantly, Someone in the chat said Ward Burton.
- [103:46]
Dale Jr.
Honestly, Ward would probably be on the council because he's. He's a man of the. Yeah, he knows. He knows what's up with the, you
- [103:55]
TJ Majors
know, snake catcher, aliens.
- [103:57]
Russ
Like, come again? What you say?
- [103:59]
Dale Jr.
Yeah, Ward would definitely be on my council as a head of agriculture.
- [104:08]
Russ
All right, next question comes from the chat. What's underrated? One underrated or overlooked paint scheme you'd like to see? A diecast of mine would be Schrader's Red Baron car.
- [104:20]
Dale Jr.
A car that needs to be a
- [104:21]
Russ
diecast or one that you don't have that you want.
- [104:24]
Dale Jr.
Yeah, I've got a little list. There's some. I will say this, man. There's some cars that are die casts that could have been better. There's the mold. Yeah, the Monte Carlo SS mold, dad, you know, there's a lot of customs, and there's a bunch of cars that they made for dad on the Monte Carlo SS, so, like, 86, 87. That mold is kind of strange to me. The nose turns down past the, you know, over the top of the front tires and nose bends over. I don't know, I, I, They've gotten so good these days at like scanning cars and making the actual car. Like the ones that sit here on this desk, they look to me like everything's in the right place. Right?
- [105:05]
TJ Majors
Everything's pretty accurate.
- [105:06]
Dale Jr.
Yeah. There's not, they're not out of proportion or disproportioned or something's funky. But it's a lot of the older stuff, like a lot of the buick, like the 81 Buick stuff, they got a Mark Martin, a Richard Petty. Those things were really high. Like these cars here, they're kind of all sitting pretty close to race heights, right? Yeah.
- [105:28]
TJ Majors
The rear is a little probably high,
- [105:30]
Dale Jr.
but they're a little high. But like the, some of the stuff they made in the past, just like I literally, I've got, I had The Mark Martin 1981 Buick Mark Martin car and then I had the people. I had a couple of the 1981ish Buicks. I have a Richard Petty and a Mark Martin and then the number two Stacy car. And I take the damn front. I take the front springs out of the front, I take them apart, it's a couple screws and I take the damn springs out so they'll sit lower so they're a little closer to ride height. I can't stand to look at them when they're like that. But there's stuff like that that I'm just kind of particular about.
- [106:09]
Russ
Will you get host of ours throwback from this year if they make it?
- [106:14]
Dale Jr.
Yeah, I would take that. You know, I'm biased, so I'm going to tell you a couple that are people are going to go, yeah, that's, that doesn't move the needle for me. But dad's BUICK from the 1979 Daytona 500, somebody had to make that in a custom because they don't actually have a mold for that actual car.
- [106:31]
Russ
Yeah,
- [106:34]
Dale Jr.
I would love a, a set of Donny Allison Kelly Arboro crashed versions from the 79 Daytona 500. The two Oldsmobiles, like, why don't they make that set and sell it? Of the two cars post race, A.J. foyt's 19, I think 84 Oldsmobile Cutlass. I don't know why. That was a beautiful car. All orange, kind of orange, poppy red, number 14. I don't know, man.
- [107:01]
Russ
I like this.
- [107:02]
Dale Jr.
I got a long list. There's a lot of dad cars that I don't have that I wish they made. Mostly the wrangler stuff like The Pontiac. So the car that host of our threw it Back to the 81 Pontiac Grand Prix, like the. The cars that are available or were produced in the past of that specific model. It's not a good rendition of the car. Ride height's way too high, and it's just a funky looking. Doesn't look like a cup car. It looks like an actual street version. Like they scanned the actual street car and put that body on there.
- [107:40]
Russ
All right, well, we have to wrap. Do you.
- [107:42]
Dale Jr.
Damn it.
- [107:42]
TJ Majors
Yeah. Really? All right.
- [107:44]
Dale Jr.
What happened?
- [107:44]
Russ
Well, we got Russ here waiting.
- [107:46]
Dale Jr.
Yeah, he waited another five minutes.
- [107:48]
Russ
Do you. Do you want to address the chat?
- [107:51]
Dale Jr.
About what?
- [107:53]
Russ
There's one thing they keep asking about.
- [107:54]
Dale Jr.
What is it?
- [107:56]
Russ
Figgy.
- [107:57]
Dale Jr.
Figgy? Who's Figgy?
- [107:59]
Russ
I don't get it. And I think it's dumb.
- [108:02]
Dale Jr.
Yeah. What? Damn. Elijah does not.
- [108:06]
TJ Majors
Yeah, he loves it.
- [108:08]
Dale Jr.
Yeah. So explain to everybody what's happened. I. I don't know how these things. I don't get it. Come out of nowhere.
- [108:14]
TJ Majors
I don't understand it.
- [108:15]
Dale Jr.
Literally, from what I could tell, it literally came from a single tweet or some Reddit post. Post on Reddit that there's the. This mythical son of dad.
- [108:29]
Russ
Yeah.
- [108:29]
Dale Jr.
Named Figgy. That exists that. I mean, the Internet. Just having fun, I guess, just being goofy.
- [108:37]
TJ Majors
The Internet's good. Internet.
- [108:39]
Russ
Like I asked Tim. So I'm like, am I old? Am I missing something?
- [108:42]
Dale Jr.
I don't want to ruin this thing for them because, I mean, they're having a good time with it.
- [108:47]
TJ Majors
I don't think you can ruin it. Can you?
- [108:49]
Dale Jr.
Well, if I just said it didn't exist and it was, and if I said, like, travis, this is dumb. It's done it. They'll be like, man, it doesn't. What an ass.
- [108:58]
TJ Majors
Did I get it? Yeah. Doesn't exist.
- [109:02]
Dale Jr.
Are you sure?
- [109:02]
TJ Majors
No. I mean, I'm assuming. Well, are you saying it does?
- [109:09]
Dale Jr.
No, I've done the genealogy. I know the answer.
- [109:12]
Russ
Is he a Hall of famer?
- [109:15]
Dale Jr.
He never raced. Right.
- [109:16]
Russ
I'd say no.
- [109:17]
Dale Jr.
Yeah. It's interesting how those things kind of pop up. Pop up and. Yeah. The Internet's undefeated. It's something you want, all you want. Like things. The things that you want to take off. Like this don't. And then.
- [109:36]
TJ Majors
Yeah, this does.
- [109:36]
Dale Jr.
This does.
- [109:37]
Russ
Yeah.
- [109:38]
Dale Jr.
Good Lord. We need more off weeks. No, no.
- [109:41]
Russ
Race on Easter.
- [109:42]
Dale Jr.
Yeah, that was one take that you had. Take next race on Easter. So you take next week.
- [109:46]
Russ
Yeah, I think Easter, it's.
- [109:48]
Dale Jr.
What's the.
- [109:49]
Russ
It's ripe for sports TV ratings. Yeah, Sports. You play on holidays.
- [109:54]
Dale Jr.
People are hanging out.
- [109:55]
Russ
I'm not against drivers.
- [109:57]
Dale Jr.
I'll say I was hanging out. I was at my fifth wheel in Texas with my family, Amy's family, and we took our fifth wheel up there and sitting outside on Sunday, and I'm like, I feel like I'm supposed to be watching a race. Like, what is. What am I supposed to do?
- [110:10]
TJ Majors
Even Saturday, you were sitting around there hanging out.
- [110:13]
Dale Jr.
Well, we had to. We got to watch the race.
- [110:15]
Russ
Race.
- [110:16]
Dale Jr.
And there was some basketball corners. Hornets are doing good.
- [110:20]
TJ Majors
I wanted you to make sure you fell.
- [110:21]
Dale Jr.
Hey, there. So that. That was something that was on the notes that didn't make the show.
- [110:26]
Russ
Next segment.
- [110:28]
Dale Jr.
What segment? All right.
- [110:29]
Russ
You talking about con?
- [110:30]
Dale Jr.
Yeah, yeah. Con for rookie year.
- [110:33]
Russ
We have a betting segment.
- [110:34]
Dale Jr.
Con for rookie of the Year. What is going on? Flag comes in and has a couple of good games, scores 51, 40, whatever. Scores like 85 points in two nights. And now they're like, yep, look at the year. There it is here. There's the guy, Flag. He's back. And Khan was like, cooper, Khan.
- [110:55]
Russ
Cooper, Khan.
- [110:56]
Dale Jr.
I mean, Khan Canuple. Sorry. Khan. Canupo. Was the, like, 80% chance of winning the Rookie of the Year just a week ago or two weeks ago. And was that. That was kind of the opinion for the most the past couple of months. And Cooper Flagg comes in and has a couple of solid games. I know he's done more than that this year, but he had these two monster games, and everybody's like, there it is. Now he's like, 75% chance of winning the Rookie of the Year. Man, they don't let Charlotte have nothing. They don't. They don't. Charlotte's gonna start. Gonna go make the playoffs this year. They might surprise somebody in that first round. You don't want to have to play them.
- [111:37]
TJ Majors
Hopefully they do.
- [111:39]
Dale Jr.
Yeah. They don't let us have nothing.
- [111:42]
Russ
I don't think that's it.
- [111:43]
Dale Jr.
You don't know. You ain't even a Charlotte fan.
- [111:46]
TJ Majors
He don't even care.
- [111:47]
Dale Jr.
I know he don't.
- [111:48]
Russ
My bet. Con to win Rookie of the Year.
- [111:50]
Dale Jr.
Khan should be the Rookie of the Year. Ain't but, like, three games left. Nothing that. I mean, nothing against Cooper Flag, but, you know, Khan should be rookie year. I don't know any other way to say it, but we got a real shot at, like, upsetting somebody in the first round of the playoffs, knocking off a high seat.
- [112:10]
TJ Majors
When did they vote for their rookie of the Year? Before the playoffs or.
- [112:13]
Dale Jr.
My wife asked me that question, and I didn't even know.
- [112:15]
TJ Majors
I don't know.
- [112:16]
Dale Jr.
I mean, imagine. I don't know. But it's frustrating because, like, Flag is finally healthy. He's playing amazing. He's doing everything that they all thought he would. Yes, he's an amazing player, and he's the number one option on their team, where Khan's kind of like in the middle of the. You know, Charlotte's got, you know, a different guy stepping up every night, and Khan's not had an incredible string of games of late. His last five games, I think, have just kind of been so. So. But he's, you know, they're playing games in such a way to win, to position themselves better in the playoffs and not just lighten up the scoreboard for him, you know?
- [113:02]
TJ Majors
Yeah.
- [113:03]
Dale Jr.
So I don't know, man. Look, I'm not a expert at NBA or basketball, but I've been following this this year, and damn, felt like Khan had Rookie of the Year wrapped up, and now it's a conversation or a debate, and they're going to take it away from us. It was ours. We're trying to get Conanople on the podcast. He said he's glad to come on
- [113:26]
Russ
after the season's over, so hopefully further down.
- [113:28]
Dale Jr.
Yeah, that'd be cool.
- [113:30]
TJ Majors
Yeah.
- [113:31]
Dale Jr.
Anyways, everybody, appreciate y' all tuning in. Glad we could address the Figgy Earnhardt speculation. And what a. What a time to be alive when something like that can come out of nowhere and be dominating discussion in our. In our Ask Junior segment. But hopefully you'll check out the rest of the show. We got a lot of great stuff for you, and thank you, Xfinity, for waving the. The red flag on Internet price hikes. You'll get great savings. Now you get the speed, reliable WI fi that you need, all at one price for five years. No yellows, no surprises. Straight to victory Lane Xfinity. Imagine that. We'll see you. Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Place your bets. Get your bets down, ladies and gentlemen. Get your bets. All right, everybody, it's time for the Dirty Mode segment, presented to you by FanDuel. FanDuel is. Is Premier gaming destination in the United United States. And also here in the studio with our group. We got Tim's on board today as well as Russ, and we had an off week in the cup series. Everybody got the time to place bets elsewhere? Did anybody put any money on Michigan to beat UConn last night?
- [115:40]
Tim
I did, but I got the spread, so I got. It was six and a half and they won by six.
- [115:44]
Russ
Yeah, it was a sweater there and then. Was it a day mar or whatever. The big dude for Michigan. I just needed two more points out of him and it was going to be a great night.
- [115:54]
TJ Majors
He almost had him at the end. Like he missed that little layup over inflated ball.
- [116:00]
Russ
I'm dead serious. Ask any of the teams they talked about like the one time he dribbled and it went above his head. Like the teams were talking about the basketballs in the tournament were over inflated.
- [116:12]
Tim
It is sketchy. That one.
- [116:13]
Dale Jr.
They were just trying to avoid deflate gate.
- [116:15]
Tim
Yeah, that one way. They only made one caution threes both teams. It was really weird.
- [116:20]
Dale Jr.
Yeah. I think that's probably why Khan has been shooting supportly here lately.
- [116:25]
TJ Majors
Over inflated.
- [116:26]
Tim
Over inflated.
- [116:27]
Dale Jr.
As they're being giving flag the deflated basketballs con is getting the over inflated basketballs.
- [116:34]
Tim
I think I'm gonna make a con plus 170 rookie of the year bet.
- [116:37]
Russ
I did.
- [116:39]
Tim
He's plus 170 now.
- [116:40]
Dale Jr.
Dude.
- [116:40]
Tim
It's so. It's ridiculous. I agree with you. It's so ridiculous.
- [116:43]
Dale Jr.
It is stupid. So he was. And the voting for that is after the regular season, not playoffs. Okay.
- [116:51]
TJ Majors
Okay. So it's coming up.
- [116:51]
Dale Jr.
So it's coming up. Yes, yes. End of the regular season. So. So look, you guys bet Corey Heim. We did not. I don't bet on nascar.
- [117:01]
TJ Majors
Same.
- [117:03]
Dale Jr.
I'm not allowed. I was talking to Tim's. I'm not. No, I wanna. I'm not allowed.
- [117:07]
Tim
Oh, of course. I've been on Corey Hye. It's the only bet I made all weekend.
- [117:09]
Dale Jr.
It's frustrating. I mean, I know I shouldn't be allowed to bet, but you guys get to talk about it and actually make the bets. It's fun. Thanks.
- [117:20]
Tim
It's a great time.
- [117:21]
Dale Jr.
Please tell me more.
- [117:23]
Tim
Yeah, I'll tell you what though. It wasn't fun when Honeycutt was running them down and you had a Corey Hind bet.
- [117:27]
TJ Majors
I'm like, dude, what a race at the end.
- [117:29]
Dale Jr.
Yeah. I was sitting there and I'm like, man, there's something going on. Do you have a flat or something? Got a right front tire going down.
- [117:35]
Tim
I don't know.
- [117:36]
Dale Jr.
He had an issue.
- [117:37]
TJ Majors
He definitely had some sort of issue.
- [117:38]
Tim
Yeah, it was crazy. I was like, oh God, this is how it ends. It's always when you have the surefire bet that's gonna happen. But he hung on.
- [117:45]
Dale Jr.
Well, not with me. Every time I make a surefire bit, it wins. Ridiculous. Yes. Well, we got the cup series back After a week off, and they're going to Bristol. Vegas has Kyle Larson as the favorite at plus 400. Denny at plus 550. Man, that's interesting. I would take Denny over everybody at Bristol. I mean, Denny, that's. Denny has won there time and time again. Ryan Blaney at +650, Christopher Bell, 700, and William Byron at a thousand. What's the predictor saying, Russ? We're very close. Larson, Hamlin, Bell, and then I have Blaney and Ty Gibbs. Ty Gibbs is really good there. Yeah. So he'd be your sleeper pick here. What's he at for odds?
- [118:34]
Tim
He's plus 900 to win.
- [118:37]
Dale Jr.
Not.
- [118:37]
Tim
Not the best.
- [118:38]
TJ Majors
It sucks.
- [118:38]
Dale Jr.
I know. Yeah. Well, it's better than Byron. Who's plus a thousand. Yeah.
- [118:42]
Tim
I would pick Gibbs over Byron.
- [118:44]
Dale Jr.
Yeah, me too. Tim's. Do you. Do you think it's. Do you take Denny over Larson here?
- [118:52]
Tim
I do. I'm not sure if it really matters, but I'm kind of nervous about Hendrick's performance so far this year. I know Chase just won Martinsville, but I think that. I think Denny and Gibbs are just running better, so I'll take Denny. Plus, he's not the overall favorite, so I like that a little bit better.
- [119:07]
Russ
Yeah.
- [119:08]
Dale Jr.
Though.
- [119:08]
Tim
And he dominates here.
- [119:09]
Russ
So.
- [119:09]
Dale Jr.
What do you think, tj?
- [119:11]
TJ Majors
Yeah, I don't know. It's hard to go against Denny at Bristol, and I think Larson's really fast as well. When, to me, if Denny can get his car working around the bottom more, he seems to find more success. I think when he can do that, Larson is a groove, move up, sling it around the high side. That's. He's really hard to beat when it turns into that. But that I definitely think. I don't know. Bell's been really good here recently as well, I think. But, I mean, all these guys, to me, are the top four. Larson, Denny, Blaney, and Bell would be. I think they're all about. Even to me.
- [119:49]
Dale Jr.
Yeah, I. You know, I think that Bristol adds some challenges for drivers. Just a very, very difficult racetrack. Tight. Anything can happen. A lot of opportunities for things out of their control, to take them out of the. Out of the. Out of the race, much less out of the lead. So, yeah, I mean, I feel like that in those type of situations, I trust Denny Hamlin, race manager. He's good at just kind of not making the little mistakes. One of the best at just sort of letting the race sort of come into, you know, come into his lap,
- [120:33]
TJ Majors
and it's very Consistent.
- [120:34]
Dale Jr.
Yeah. I mean, he's just. It's just gonna. I just feel like Larson is gonna be. I would give Larson the opportunity to be faster and to go out and actually outperformed any in parts of the races, but.
- [120:48]
TJ Majors
So they're gonna. I don't know. I think they're probably gonna spray the track too, so that.
- [120:53]
Dale Jr.
Well, they. Is that unique. I mean, they do that every year.
- [120:56]
TJ Majors
Yeah. But I mean, I think it makes the track goes through an evolution. You know, the grips on the bottom, grips up top, the bottom one and two, top three and four.
- [121:05]
Dale Jr.
Yeah, yeah. 1.
- [121:07]
TJ Majors
The sleeper to me would be like, I know it's been rough this year, but Stenhouse usually finds his way to be pretty decent here.
- [121:14]
Dale Jr.
Just awesome. Top 10 bet.
- [121:16]
TJ Majors
Yeah.
- [121:16]
Dale Jr.
Every time you go to this racetrack, 100% he's racing the truck race, he's gonna have a little idea of what track's doing, how it's changing. I know they might continue to treat it throughout the weekend, but what's Stenhouse top 10?
- [121:28]
Tim
I think it's like plus 550.
- [121:30]
TJ Majors
So that's.
- [121:32]
Russ
That's.
- [121:32]
Tim
That's a one that's automatic. Just put a little bit on it because he's.
- [121:35]
Dale Jr.
It's.
- [121:35]
Tim
It's one of the best track, probably.
- [121:38]
TJ Majors
Yeah. He just knows how to stay in it here.
- [121:40]
Dale Jr.
What about Josevar? Top 10 bet? I don't know, man. I feel like that is a very 50, 50 proposition, man. He's. It's a chaotic sort of racetrack, and sometimes that's perfect for him and sometimes that he falls into the chaos. Five there. He's. Yeah.
- [122:01]
TJ Majors
You know, I don't. I don't love monsters.
- [122:03]
Dale Jr.
Ran really well there last year. He's a short track guy.
- [122:06]
Tim
I know, but I feel like it's. It's an easy opportunity for guys to rough him up and.
- [122:10]
Dale Jr.
No, no, I'm not worried about.
- [122:14]
Tim
That's what I think about if he's. If he's 10th and the guy wants to move him for a 10th, he's moving him and my bet loses.
- [122:21]
TJ Majors
I mean, I see what Russell's saying. What'd you say? Three of the top three top tens in the last five races?
- [122:28]
Dale Jr.
11th or better. In three of the last five there.
- [122:30]
TJ Majors
11th or better. Why would he.
- [122:33]
Dale Jr.
Better than Stenhouse? Like one top ten there in the last.
- [122:38]
Russ
Let me see what it is.
- [122:40]
TJ Majors
But in the other ones, where would he. The other ones are probably really low.
- [122:44]
Dale Jr.
Stenhouse in the next gen at Bristol isn't as good as stenhouse in the Gen 6. Correct. But if you, if you look at
- [122:51]
Tim
betting odds though, Stenhouse being plus 550 versus host of our being plus 135, it's more, it's probably worth it. More to do Stenhouse and play the risk than most of our get 11th.
- [123:03]
TJ Majors
Yeah, I would roll it. I just feel like Stenhouse knows how to grind it out here and just stay in it all night. So.
- [123:13]
Dale Jr.
Yeah. Who else is, you know, that we haven't mentioned? Who's a sleeper?
- [123:18]
Tim
Oh, you guys gonna love mine. I like Brad and I like Barry.
- [123:23]
Dale Jr.
Oh, Barry I can see hanging around in the top 15.
- [123:29]
Tim
Top 10. He's plus 280, which I think is very, very like undervalued for him.
- [123:35]
Dale Jr.
Brad, like for sure.
- [123:36]
Tim
Brad for sure. Brad's plus 120 for a top 10.
- [123:39]
Rodney Childers
That's good.
- [123:39]
Dale Jr.
I'd take that. Yeah, I'd take Brad and Josevar and leave Stenhouse off.
- [123:44]
Russ
Okay. I talked them into it. Tj, don't screw us up if we bet Brad.
- [123:49]
TJ Majors
No promises.
- [123:51]
Russ
If you don't get top 10, don't come back.
- [123:56]
Dale Jr.
Well, what about the Masters? This weekend's getting ready to start up on Thursday.
- [124:00]
TJ Majors
Oh, man.
- [124:03]
Dale Jr.
Lots of bets. Really? What are so like I rarely bet golf.
- [124:07]
TJ Majors
I don't even know.
- [124:08]
Dale Jr.
Yeah, well, I, I had a little fun last year, I think in a tournament or two. Betting top 20s. But you know, what do you guys, what, what are your bets? What are some of the bets you like to make?
- [124:18]
Tim
You got to do the top countries.
- [124:21]
Russ
You can do top regions. So you can do like regions top Nordic, top Spaniard.
- [124:25]
Dale Jr.
I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that.
- [124:28]
Tim
There's like three. Some of the countries have like three people in it. It's super easy.
- [124:32]
TJ Majors
Oh, I don't even know where to start with that.
- [124:34]
Tim
Easy is definitely a loose term. But it's, it's fun.
- [124:37]
Dale Jr.
Yeah.
- [124:38]
Russ
I love to make or miss the cut to get like three or four golfers that you think are going to make it, obviously. But Fanduel has like a bet reset. So like on the. If you do a first round bet and he doesn't, the bet doesn't hit. It'll reset for you. Kind of like a. No sweat.
- [124:55]
Dale Jr.
That's nice.
- [124:56]
TJ Majors
Yeah, not bad.
- [124:58]
Russ
And I love, I love the. Just the matchups. Like in a. Once they put the pairings out.
- [125:04]
TJ Majors
I got you. So once the pairings come out, you can this guy versus that guy. Yeah. Kind of like what we used would do know we'd have some Pairings. Sometimes you just pick the guy.
- [125:12]
Russ
Yeah.
- [125:12]
TJ Majors
Okay.
- [125:14]
Russ
But, yeah, I'm with Tim, so, like. So Tim's. Russ Latart. Me will put together what we call the United nations parlay. We'll each of us will pick a top region player and put it together for a big parlay and hope it hits.
- [125:28]
Dale Jr.
Yep. Russ, what's your thoughts? I go. Hideki, top Asian.
- [125:34]
Russ
That's mine.
- [125:35]
Dale Jr.
You can't take it. He's good here, too. Yeah, it's great.
- [125:41]
Russ
But, like, Ludwig Oberg is gonna be one guy that I think is gonna. I could have a good week.
- [125:47]
Dale Jr.
Yeah.
- [125:47]
Tim
He's plus 17. Hundred to win.
- [125:49]
Russ
I like.
- [125:49]
Tim
I like Ludwig as well.
- [125:50]
Russ
I don't know if I'm gonna do to win just because the odds of me guessing the correct person, but he's just kind of like a machine, and I feel like that's kind of what you need to be at Augusta. Like, just stay focused. Not too high, not too low. And he's kind of one of those guys, but I'm worried that he hasn't played there enough. And so it's like, you need to really learn that course and know when to go for it, when. Where to, you know, avoid the mistakes.
- [126:15]
Dale Jr.
Yeah. Well, the Dirty Modo segment was brought to you by FanDuel. Thank you, Russ. Thank you, Tim, for coming through FanDuel, the premier gaming destination of the United States. All right, thank you all for joining us in the Arby studio. Tj, great job today. Don't forget about Arby's new meat in three box. Get more meal for your money at Arby's. Arby's. We have the meats. Check out DirtyMomedia on Instagram, Facebook X and TikTok.
- [126:47]
TJ Majors
Bank of America champions. Everyone who dares to ask, what would you like the power to do? It's a question I ask to remind myself what matters here you in Augusta, Georgia. Golf has connected people for generations. And as the patch project ambassador at Augusta Municipal Golf Course, I know where we build fairways, we build futures. From the connections people make here to the opportunities that help them grow. Bank of America is proud to be a champion partner of the Masters Tournament.
- [127:15]
Dale Jr.
Bank of America and a member fdica.