
After a chaotic weekend at the famed "Paperclip" of Martinsville Raceway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is back in the studio for more Dirty Air.
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Dale Jr.
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TJ Majors
I don't know if we've ever argued. Did I piss you off over the
Dale Jr.
weekend or I'm still sour that I wasn't the best man at your wedding.
Travis
Who was your best man, Dale?
Quince Advertiser
What?
Dale Jr.
Tj. Tj. You don't need a cool vest for that race. What are you thinking? Get him, tj. Hell. Way to start the show.
TJ Majors
All right then.
Dale Jr.
Hey, Everybody, it's Dale Jr. Back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. It's Tuesday and I'm. I'm here with my co host, DJ Majors.
TJ Majors
Oh, hey.
Dale Jr.
If this intro Sucks. And it's because we've had to do it a couple times or three. Yep. Because Travis back there around and hitting wrong buttons and stuff. Y' all know Travis,
TJ Majors
hall of fame producer.
Dale Jr.
That's right. Hey. This episode is presented by Arby's. Don't forget about Arby's. New meat and three box. You get more meal for your money at Arby's. Of course you do. We have the meats, and now we have the show started. Do we have the record button? Mashed. Yep. All right. Mashed. A lot of people think mashed is a funny word. Yeah. Pressed or whatever. I don't know what the.
Travis
The only other time you use it is with mashed potatoes.
Dale Jr.
Yeah, it's really. I mean, what, are they mashing a button?
Travis
Yeah.
Dale Jr.
I know some people, I say, when I started, when I was talking, you know, me and Amy were dating early, and I said, man, you got to mash it. She's like, what? She was a little taken aback. I'm like, all right.
TJ Majors
I think it's a perfectly fine word.
Dale Jr.
I do, too. I've used it a lot in my life, but it's. It's not universal, I don't think. Hey, T.J. i got you a gift.
TJ Majors
Hey, how's it going?
Dale Jr.
I got you a gift, pal. So I've been going through some boxes of. Of cards. Got some paninis here and football stuff, and I. All of the Buffalo Bills cards, I put in a little stack, man.
TJ Majors
Here they are.
Dale Jr.
Those are yours. Thank you. You got it. There's one. There's one. Allen. That's pretty good. That one on the top. Nothing special, though. I didn't give you any.
TJ Majors
I've been looking for this Sean McDermott.
Dale Jr.
Yep. I figured you could. You could use a shot. You won't see him in that uniform next year.
TJ Majors
No, no, probably not.
Dale Jr.
Anyhow, I appreciate it.
TJ Majors
Thank you.
Dale Jr.
Yeah, and I got a box, too. That panini gave to me 20. 25 NASCAR trading cards, Penny Prism. 12 cards per pack. Yeah, we're gonna. Might rip into this before the end of the show and see what you got. See who pulls what I might let everybody in here can pull.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Jr.
See what we get out, see what's going on.
TJ Majors
Minus Travis.
Dale Jr.
I've been going on. I've been going on ebay and sniping some of the older stuff. I like to. I. I've opened some new boxes, and I've opened, you know, a lot of old boxes. When I say old, I'm talking about junk wax from, like, the late 80s.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Jr.
And you can find like some of the retail boxes and stuff from, from the late 80s for 15 bucks. Just 20 bucks. And so I bought, I've been buying a bunch of those. I'm bring them in here, we'll rip them up.
TJ Majors
Let's do it.
Dale Jr.
See if we can find some Bo Jackson.
TJ Majors
Bo Jackson. Be a good card.
Dale Jr.
Bo Jackson. King Griffith Jr. That was Jose. There was a lot of Barry Bonds, a lot of, you know, a lot of decent cards.
TJ Majors
Apparently Griffey card was like a hot item.
Dale Jr.
There's a lot of decent cards even in the junk wax era. And you had, you had Michael Jordan in some of the upper decks stuff in the 90, 91, 94 and 94 upper deck stuff.
Chase Elliott
Yeah.
Dale Jr.
If you pulled a Griffey or a
TJ Majors
Jordan, you did good.
Travis
And Jordan very limited. A lot of the things that they could use his name on and stuff. So it's even harder.
Dale Jr.
Cards are pretty, his cars are pretty valuable. I'm sniping a few boxes. I'll bring them on here. And we need a new segment. I, like I was going to say that I've opened, You know, if you threw down in front of me, and I know people are not going to agree with this at all, but I'm always on the wrong end of things. If, if you threw down in front of me like a 1989 tops or a 91 tops, a box of those and then a, a brand new box of like 20, 25, you know, panini or Tops, I would probably have more fun opening the old box. And it's more likely because I recognize all those names.
Travis
Nostalgia.
Dale Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
The new box would be kind of. Because the new cars that are coming out are bad.
Dale Jr.
When I open all this, all this new. Even on the football side, I mean, I recognize a lot of the football players because I watch NFL, I don't watch a ton of major league baseball. So I only know like Aaron Judge and Freeman. Yeah. So I don't know any of the new hot rookies coming in to, to the Major League Baseball. And even on the NFL side, there's some rookies that I'm like, damn, he's good. His card's good. Really? I've never heard of this guy like Jack. I know who Jackson Dart is.
Travis
Right.
Dale Jr.
You do too. I watched him, I watched him play a lot last year with the Giants. He had some injury issues, got a couple concussions. He played good though. But his cards are hot right now. And I'm like, man, I don't know, you know, he's not.
Travis
Let me see what you can do for another year.
Dale Jr.
He's okay.
TJ Majors
Well, he's in the news for dating.
Dale Jr.
Well, his cards are not. Because of who he's dating.
TJ Majors
I don't know. My help?
Dale Jr.
I don't think so. That, you know. Anyway, I. It's a lot of. It's more work, like looking the card, looking the new cards up and trying to figure out it is what's worth what. I can open up a pack of early 90s or late 80s baseball and I can tell you about the price or the, you know, value of each card. You don't have to look it up, but there's a couple cool apps. They got apps on your phone. You can actually scan the card with your camera quickly. It's like, this is the card. That's what it's worth. Done. It struggles with some of the variants, you know, the variant cards, and it struggles with the reflective cards, which all of them are these days, right? All of them are chrome.
Travis
Oh, yeah.
Dale Jr.
And their phones don't do that very well. Man. We're still in this card game still. You can't tell. It's been all day yesterday, sniping old school boxes and I got a couple of die casts lately. One diecast that I secured off of ebay is the diecast of Ray Elder, guy we talked about.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Travis
Nice.
Dale Jr.
Yeah. He's on the ballot. They announced. They announced the ballot. I heard Kevin Harvick is on the ballot. I think Kevin Harvick is a lock. Yeah, lock, right. Lock it in. All right. You're locking Kevin in.
Travis
Don't even vote him. Just.
Dale Jr.
Well, I know. So, Kevin, we were on the show the other day talking about how the new guys that come in on the ballot jump right to the front of the line. Happened with me. Happened. Happened with, you know, I mean, and Harvick's a lock. He's going in. But he, he.
Travis
But I've had fans tell me that he can, he can wait. Other people have waited long, like.
TJ Majors
Yeah, no, I know what you're saying.
Dale Jr.
Yeah. I'll tell you this. I. They shouldn't have put me in when they did. I think I could have waited. I would have preferred to have waited. And the Ray Elders, the Randy Dorton's, I'm just looking at this list, you know, all those guys that were here a long time ago, they should get in. But guy, you know, a guy like me pops on to the damn ballot and goes right to the front of the line. It's. It's like, you know, it's like when you're going, you know, when you're checking in to get your flight, getting your flight ticket or whatever, you know, you're checking your luggage, you're bagging, you know, getting your luggage tag, you got to wait your turn.
Travis
I understand your reason now.
Dale Jr.
There are the, there are the, the one guy. There are the Jimmy Johnson's, there are the, the Dale Earnhardts and the Richard Petty's that you don't wait, you don't make them wait. Guys that have won, you know, multiple championships, like Kyle Busch, right? When he's, when he's, he's, he's, he's going in. Yeah, we put him in right away.
Travis
Yeah.
Dale Jr.
But there's a few people and I would say, I would be comfortable saying that I'm one of them that could have. I'm healthy, I'm young, I feel young. You know, I get, I get your
Travis
reasoning, but it's for me, it's like, then maybe there's a flaw in like how they needed like to get rid of some of the old, to get the older people in, like, figure out a way for voting for a few years where it's more baseball style, where it's 75% like, I know, I don't
Dale Jr.
know how you do this. I don't know how you do it, but got Randy LaJoy, two time NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series champion. He was the, also the 1985 NASCAR Tour North Tour champion. So he's got more than just those two. And you know what Randall Joy reminds me of? You know who he reminds me of?
TJ Majors
Who?
Dale Jr.
Justin Allgire.
TJ Majors
Oh, man.
Dale Jr.
And Randy's on there, man. I'm telling you, one more championship. I think Justin finds his way onto the ballot.
Travis
Can we not use Justin's name? I feel so bad that he's been the.
Dale Jr.
Justin was very thankful to be recognized and to be considered hall of Fame worthy.
TJ Majors
No, it's not a bad conversation to be a compliment.
Travis
No, I know, but like, I didn't know if he took it like before his races.
Dale Jr.
I just know that on the other side of that glass right there, there were a few people that you probably be glad you didn't run into in the last few days.
Travis
So there's a beer toast for Justin's previous when, not this past weekend.
Dale Jr.
Thanks for reminding me today.
Travis
Am I invited to that?
Dale Jr.
Oh, are you invited? I think you should speak.
Travis
Okay.
Dale Jr.
I might actually call you.
TJ Majors
What would you say?
Dale Jr.
I don't know, I might actually call you on up front. Say, man, you gotta say you got a few words for our guy Justin here. That'd be funny. I won't do that. Travis, please come to the toast.
Travis
All right, I will.
Dale Jr.
Yeah. But I'm thrilled to see Ray Elder on there. So Ray Elder is a six time NASCAR Winston west champion. He is a six time NASCAR Winston west champion. Now I'm looking on the NASCAR website at the modern era ballot and next to Ray Elder's name, it says six time Arkham Menard series West champion. That is absolutely incorrect. That is, that is, that is misleading information.
TJ Majors
It is. It downgrades it.
Dale Jr.
It absolutely downgrades it. The. When Ray Elder was racing in the 70s, it was the NASCAR Winston west championship and they were cup cars. He bought cars from Richard Petty. And when the NASCAR cup series would come out to Ontario or Riverside, Ray Elder and the other west competitors would race in that race with the cup cars. It was a Cup series. It was a Cup level series.
Chase Elliott
1.
Dale Jr.
And he won six championships in that series. To call it the ARCA Menards Series west is a huge disgrace.
TJ Majors
And he won that. He won against him.
Dale Jr.
Guys, I promise you this is no disrespect to the ARCA series.
Travis
Yeah.
Dale Jr.
But back in the 70s, NASCAR didn't even own ARCA.
TJ Majors
Oh. It was his own deal first.
Dale Jr.
Oh. I mean, it wasn't even the NASCAR owned property. Ray Elder was, was basically the west cup series champion.
Travis
I think they need to. I get when you're. You pay to be the sponsor, but I think we need to leave it as whatever it was when they want it.
Dale Jr.
Yeah. Because this is so confusing and misleading.
TJ Majors
It is. Yeah. That should say Winston West.
Dale Jr.
Yeah. And now even. I mean, because I'm afraid this hurts not only raise Ray. This, this, this, this hurts Ray's reputation, you know, to fans 100 because they, they read it and go, oh, he's ARCA champion. Oh, but he wasn't. He was a Cup series champion. On the cup series. NASCAR had two divisions. They had, they had the regular cup which was on the east coast, and then they had a West Cup. West. West coast cup series. They were cup cars. And of course, you know, the, the, the, the, the competition was a little thinner for sure. No question. But when, when we would go out to Riverside and run and Ray would enter the race, he won it twice. He won Riverside twice. Beat Richard Petty, Kel Yarbrough, David Pearson beat him.
TJ Majors
Big names.
Dale Jr.
Yeah. And he came to Daytona, run in the top five in Daytona and at the 500 running, running the top five in the, in the jewels. I mean, he would come out to daytona for the 500 and hang in there. But I think, yeah, I was looking at this list. Let's look at it, tj let's look at it. Travis. You got Kevin Harvick, who is a sure thing. All right. Got a couple of new names, I think, relatively new name. Ernie Elliott, who was part of the, the Elliott crew when, when Bill was kicking ass. Oh, yeah. Cup Series winning crew chief, victories in the Daytona 500. Two of those, two Southern 500s as well. You had Dan Elliott, who was part of that crew as well. There was Ernie, Dan and Bill. Brothers, man, they were, they were dominant.
TJ Majors
They were.
Dale Jr.
Randy Lajoy, Jack Sprague's been there three time Craftsman's Truck Series champion. I mentioned Ray Elder, Randy Dorton, who is an engine builder, won a ton of championships, tons of wins.
TJ Majors
Yes.
Dale Jr.
Jeff Burton, 21 time Cup Series winner, including Southern 500s, Coca Cola 621 cup
TJ Majors
wins is a lot of wins.
Dale Jr.
A lot of wins. Hard to win cup races. Tim Brewer, who was a badass crew chief, two time championship crew chief in the Cup Series. Neil Bonnet, Everybody knows Neil, 18 time Cup Series winner. He won consecutive Coke 600 wins. And then Greg Biffle, who was a Craftsman Truck Series champion in 2000, O'Reilly Auto Parts Series champion as well, 2002.
TJ Majors
How many wins does Biffle have in the Cup Series, do you know?
Dale Jr.
16. I don't know why
TJ Majors
I was thinking about this the other night.
Travis
We got 19.
TJ Majors
Like there's not a lot of drivers that I can sit there and I'm
Dale Jr.
surprised that they didn't put that in the list.
Travis
That's another. Yeah, like they're not helping.
Dale Jr.
Yeah, you got Neil Bonnet, 18 time winner, and then you got a 19 time winner they don't even mention.
TJ Majors
Yeah, like 19 of wins is a lot.
Dale Jr.
I know they got to keep it short. But listen, there's a, there's a. Everybody in this list. Everybody in this list, in my opinion is a Hall of Fame, is a Hall of Famer. They are. It's strange, ain't it? Because we, we have a ballot full of guys that I think we all would be perfectly comfortable letting into the hall. But we only picked two off of this particular ballot. I'm going to pick Kevin Harvick and Ray Elder, but I struggle not to pick Jeff Burton. I mean, I think Jeff Burton belongs in there. Not only because Jeff Burton has won races in the Cup Series and done a lot of great things, but he's been an incredible broadcaster for us for over a decade. He stuck around and he's done a lot of things. He does so many things with the driver council and he's just, he plays a lot of different roles, wears a lot of different hats, cares about the sport. So he works behind the scenes with safety, innovation and all types of things. He was very dedicated to moving safety forward. You know, we had a big push for safety after dad passed away and we lost Adam Petty and a few other drivers. There was a big push with safer barriers and all that stuff. Well, once we kind of got to a certain extent, not that, not that people quit trying, but you know, the safety quest, the quest for safety sort of seemed almost complete. Well, Jeff continued to push it forward knowing that we continue to further that. And I don't know, man, I think Jeff Burton will get a ton of votes is what I'm going to say. I just feel like Ray Elder should have been in years ago because he is a six time champion in the cup series on, in what was the west cup series and doing those things in the seventies in an area in the country. Think about this, okay? In the 1970s, NASCAR in general was a very southeastern limited sport. Not a lot of didn't get a lot of credibility, didn't get a lot of respect, didn't get a lot of attention from the nation as a whole outside of the Southeast. But you know, when we decided to push east or west of the Mississippi, when we decided to push farther west of the Mississippi and have, you know, build Fontana and go out and try to be successful with Texas Motor Speedway. I know we had Texas world in the 70s and 80s and all kinds. Those were, those were relatively successful quests, but they failed ultimately. Ontario failed. Riverside went away. Ray Elder was the guy that was out there digging the ditch. And so when we came out there to finally really push west and make this a more national sport, it was successful. On, on the work that Ray Elder and others had done. We're, you know, I love that phrase that we're standing on the shoulders of giants. Ray Elder is one of those guys. We're standing on his shoulders because of the efforts and work that, that they did. They did. They're just racing. They didn't know what they were, you know, they didn't know what the foundation that they were building for nascar, but they were just out there racing. And he's not just a, you know, I mean, he's a six time champion in a property that NASCAR has owned forever. Yeah, he is Not a six time ARCA Menards series champion. He is not. That is incorrect. But I just got to say that I need that to be a video. All right. Can we flag that?
Travis
Yes. I. I appreciate that.
Dale Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
I would vote Neil and I would vote Neil and Ray.
Dale Jr.
Neil and Ray. You're not going to put Kevin in?
TJ Majors
He's going to get in.
Dale Jr.
Well, he's got. You get two.
TJ Majors
I know. That's why I said I would put Neil and Ray and now because as time goes on, I feel like it fades more.
Dale Jr.
I know, dude, but I think Kevin.
TJ Majors
Kevin's a lock. But if we keep pushing these other guys away, it's going to be.
Dale Jr.
I don't understand your. I don't understand your. What am I trying to say?
TJ Majors
There's always going to be somebody on this list that's newer and. And has. You know what I mean? There's always going to be somebody that
Travis
comes onto this list, but we can't be.
Dale Jr.
So you're going to cast a vote for the other two guys even though you know Kevin's going in.
TJ Majors
I know he's going to go in because I feel like.
Travis
So who goes in next year is Kevin? I get in next year because. Are you going to say someone else?
TJ Majors
Like.
Dale Jr.
No, no, no. I'm just. Let's listen.
TJ Majors
I'm saying the more the time goes on, the more we forget about Ray,
Dale Jr.
the more we forget about. I agree, but I'm. I know Ray left the ballot and I and me and several other people in the room got him back on the ballot, but because, I mean, Jammy's a six time champion. Yeah. In what amounted to the. In the 70s, the cup series in the West.
TJ Majors
Well, that's what I mean. We're going to.
Dale Jr.
He belongs in the hall of fame, in my opinion. Now, it might not be everyone's opinion.
TJ Majors
It's easier to push him away than Harvick. You can't look at Harvest and be like, I got.
Dale Jr.
I know, but Kevin's going to get the vote. So I'm going to cast my vote for Kevin because he's in. He. I'm not going to waste a vote on some somebody. I'm going to pick two guys that I think should be in there and Kevin's one of them. So why would you vote if you know. All right, Kevin's going in. So I'm going to put two other names down. You're all right.
TJ Majors
Because I feel.
Dale Jr.
I want to know. I want to understand the.
TJ Majors
Because I feel like down the road, like if you put, if you take, you start eliminating some of the guys that you know are going to be in, like, there you feel like should be in.
Dale Jr.
If you think Kevin's going in, why don't you put your vote for him?
TJ Majors
Because I still feel like it's so fresh and new and there's guys that have been doing this for a long time that are, they're losing their opportunity here. And I feel like.
Dale Jr.
But you're not going to change the Kevin vote.
TJ Majors
But it might not. Like, I feel like there's less hall of Famers coming up here in the next handful.
Dale Jr.
Are you kidding me? There's way more.
TJ Majors
Well, I mean, recent guys, like every
Dale Jr.
year, I think for the next six years, there's going to be a lock. A new lock like Truex is next.
Travis
They need to delay how long before you can get in.
TJ Majors
I think that's, I think that's when I kind of.
Travis
NFL's what, five years?
Dale Jr.
I think it's something like that for us, isn't it? For something like that?
TJ Majors
Maybe.
Dale Jr.
But I mean, that's, that's a, That's a worthy conversation. But I, I'm asking. I wonder, I often wonder when I'm sitting in the room with other people voting their, their, the method to their madness. Right. And you have a unique opinion that I'm not going to put a vote for Kevin because he's locked in. I think he gets in. So I'm going to put a vote for two other guys that I think belong in there. And you're hoping that both of those votes, one way or another, get one of those, One of those guys in.
TJ Majors
Yeah, probably.
Dale Jr.
But you're. If. What if everyone had that idea and then Kevin doesn't get in, who. We all believe, you, you included, is a lock.
TJ Majors
I mean, Kevin's going to get in.
Dale Jr.
I know, but if everybody applied your plan, then he doesn't ever get to vote.
TJ Majors
Well, I mean, he's not like he's going off the ballot. He'll get the night. He'll get a chance again and again and again.
Travis
He shouldn't have to wait.
Dale Jr.
Shouldn't have to wait.
TJ Majors
If he had career, I mean, that
Dale Jr.
would, that would be a big mistake. I think if the, if he doesn't get voted in this round, I think it's a misstep, Right?
Travis
Yeah.
TJ Majors
I mean. Yeah, I wish there was a way that you could.
Dale Jr.
I wonder how, I wonder how our listeners would vote. Right? Because, I mean, there's. If you're given that opportunity, right. You're gonna, you're gonna cast your vote for two of these drivers to or two of these individuals. And they're not all drivers. It'd be fun to. To see what other people's mentality toward it is. Right. Because everybody. Everybody thinks differently. Right. You have your approach, which I'm not saying is wrong. Your. Everybody has a different approach. We're seeing a lot of Biffle, Bonnet, Harvick. Harvick. Harvick.
Travis
I don't think TJ Stance on making Harvick way is.
Dale Jr.
He's not making him. Wait. I hear TJ don't get this wrong, Travis. You done? You don't. Had a rough week. I think what TJ Saying is he believes that Harvick is going in.
TJ Majors
Absolutely.
Dale Jr.
So he's going to put two other names.
Travis
Yeah, I think, but TJ Is not. There's a lot of people. We posted something on Dirty Most Twitter account yesterday. Ask people who their picks would be, and there's more people, you would think that are saying, I'm okay voting someone else other than Harvard.
Dale Jr.
You're messing up. Harvick's going in.
Travis
I'm not.
Dale Jr.
Let's not. I don't even want to have this debate.
Travis
I'm just saying I don't think TJ Is out on it.
Dale Jr.
He's not saying what you're saying. That's what I'm trying to tell you. TJ Said he believes that Harvick is going in, so he. If given the chance to vote, he would put two other names that he thinks should also go in. He's not voting against Harvick. He's just.
TJ Majors
I feel like harvest a lock.
Dale Jr.
He. He thinks the rest of the people in the room are going to put Harvick in, so he's going to put two other names and hope that one of those lands.
Travis
Okay.
Dale Jr.
That's what he's saying. Am I right?
TJ Majors
Yeah. I mean, I think Harvick's a lock.
Dale Jr.
He thinks. He thinks you're saying Harvick should wait necessary.
TJ Majors
Well, I know what he's. I get what he's saying. Like. Like any. I. I see what he means.
Dale Jr.
Protect you, Travis. You don't need two rough weeks in a row.
TJ Majors
Well, you're not like. I know what you're saying. Like, yes. You're kind of both saying we're splitting hairs here. Yeah. Like.
Travis
But I don't need the.
Dale Jr.
I want to be completely freaking clear on what's being said.
Travis
Dale just doesn't want to be attached
TJ Majors
to My name, Harvick is absolutely a lock. He needs to be a lock. I mean, absolutely.
Dale Jr.
Looking at this social media post that Dirty Mo media had putting up a lot of Harvick's. A lot of the other names that we're seeing are Biffle, Jeff, Burton, Dorton, I mean Bonnet. You got a lot of dang names there. It's, it's really going to be a toss up. I think for the second that that's
Travis
the consensus, I think is who knows who the second one is.
Dale Jr.
That's right. That'll be a big surprise. I believe that they all deserve it.
TJ Majors
Yeah, there's a lot of great names on that list. Man.
Dale Jr.
I would love to see Jeff Burton get in because I love what Jeff has done with his time outside the race car and I believe that he's impacted the sport positively and continues to do so. I also would love to see Ray Elder get in. And I've been a big Ray fan since way back when. I was doing the show back in the day, I learned a ton about his career and his life and I was like, what? This Winston west dude beat the cup guys at the cut at the cup race at Riverside. Who is he? What do I need to know about this guy?
TJ Majors
So sometimes I feel like some of the names in that list don't get as much recognition because they weren't the drivers.
Dale Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
You know, like crew chiefs and stuff and, and stuff like that. They don't get as much recognition sometimes because they're not, you know, they didn't get.
Dale Jr.
But. Well, we're going to, we're going to talk about Lee Pulliam, Raja, Jesse Love, Bubba Wallace, Denny Hamlin, Chase, Elliot. A lot to talk about. Dirty Mo Media Junior Motorsports. And I have a new partner this year and we couldn't be more excited about this. A lot of y' all may have heard Arby's has come on board and we're loving every second of it. And Arby's has entered the chat with a meal deal that raises the bar for value. Introducing the new ME3 box for $7.99 that's filled with Arby's quality favorites. Each meat and three box includes your choice of one sandwich. The classic roast beef that is hand sliced and slow roasted, the crispy chicken sandwich, or you can go with the crispy fish sandwich. All this comes with the melty mozzarella sticks, some crispy curly fries, Everybody loves those. And a peach cobbler roll for dessert. Guys, you gotta try that dessert. It's really good. And you get a small drink, it's called Meat and Three, but you're actually getting five items all for only $7.99. Nobody out there this much value for your money. This is a value meal that won't leave you hungry. You know you don't have to settle for less when you get more from Arby's. Available for a limited time at participating locations. While supplies last, prices may vary. Get your meat in three box at an Arby's near you today.
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Dale Jr.
We we had the let's get to xfinity series, the O'Reilly series race, right? Let's get into that. Is that good? Trav, you good with that? Love it. Let's get into it. Tomorrow's guest for the Dale Jr. Download will be Lee Pulliam. We're going to learn more about Lee and Lee was racing for Junior Motorsports in the number nine car this weekend. Had a really good race. Missed, missed a shift or made a mistake on a restart and piled up a ton of race cars on the front straightaway. And he was super embarrassed about that. It took it took our very own Carson Kwapo out of the race Entirely, which was a disappointment, but we'll talk about that with Lee tomorrow. Overall, though, just, you know, that race played out. Aside from the big pile up on the front straightaway, that race played out very, very cleanly, comparable to most, most of the Martinsville races. You know, there's a lot of Martinsville races that are complete shows. And, you know, speaking of shows, Cars Tour had a bit of one, which we'll talk about a little bit later in the show. I know I'm not. Hey, we're not. We can take it just as well as we can dish it out and, and we took it on the chin this week with, with the car store. But usually the races at the Martins, at Martinsville for O'Reilly are wild and rough and ugly at the end. This one, outside of that big mistake with the restart where Lee tore the field up. It was, it was, it was the, it was the respectable or the expected amount of rough.
TJ Majors
Yeah, there was some rough driving, but not like, okay, you bumped me, I'm going to go destroy you. Not nobody like Austin.
Travis
Did you talk to your drivers about making sure they're not the one doing anything like, is it just.
Dale Jr.
We started that conversation at the beginning of the year. I said, look, this new points deal is going to catch a lot of guys off guard. They're going to, they're going to continue to race the way they have been for the last couple of years, where they take all the chances going for wins, wins, wins. And they are willing to throw away races because winning matters. And now that's not the case anymore. Winning is good, but finishing and getting points also, and doing well throughout the entire season, race after race after race is very important.
Travis
It felt like the drivers understood that.
Dale Jr.
It seemed like that maybe that had a bit of an influence on the race. That's my hope is that the drivers were like, oh, I got to get to the finish line here. We can't, you know, we can't run.
TJ Majors
I mean, mine. There was a couple of races earlier this year where there was some run ins, but I think overall the drivers at JRM have been. Been much better working with each other and better teammates.
Dale Jr.
Yep. Yeah, it was a, it was a good, good race.
TJ Majors
Different strategies played out. That 30 to go, caution in the first stage separated it out. Yeah, guys that didn't have track position, pit cycle to the front.
Dale Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
So that made it interesting.
Dale Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
I mean, that's how Lee, Lee got his track position like that and was doing a great job maintaining it.
Dale Jr.
Yeah. So, yeah, Lee, I don't Lee missed a shift. He was going. He was going from second to third and made a mistake. And twice. Well, the first time he got into
TJ Majors
the chip, I think he got a neutral or something and something happened there because he definitely checked up.
Dale Jr.
Yeah, I mean, the big wreck. Yeah, he obviously.
TJ Majors
Oh, that one. That one was big. Yeah. There was one before where he's on the bottom row.
Dale Jr.
He just spun the tires on that one and didn't get a good launch. But. But there we go. Yeah. There you are, T.J. good time. I know.
TJ Majors
Mashed in hood.
Dale Jr.
What's this? What's this Austin Green comment?
Travis
Did you not see it?
Dale Jr.
I'm. I never saw it.
TJ Majors
I never saw it either. Until now.
Dale Jr.
Where'd you see this? I don't want to. I don't want to. I don't want to. You know, I don't want to go after Austin Green unless I know what's going on here.
TJ Majors
I mean, I understand Austin's frustration. He was having a good run, so it's understandable that he was pretty frustrated. Yeah, it just happens, man. I do agree with. I did see a tweet from, From Joel Edmonds that said if this was. If he was in Jordan Anderson's car, would. I'll be hammering Lee.
Dale Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
Which is probably true. If he did that in a different
Dale Jr.
car, I must be biased because I, I mean, we would be saying. Yeah, we would be.
TJ Majors
We would be hammering him.
Dale Jr.
I don't know. I mean, we're hammering him here. We're saying he knows he up. It's all right there in front of us. There's no denying it. There's no hiding from it. I don't know what else we would do to Lee.
TJ Majors
I just think people brush it off
Dale Jr.
quicker because he's in a junior motorsports car.
TJ Majors
Absolutely.
Dale Jr.
Okay, look, I would say this. I, I. If I'm a driver and a guy misses a shift, I go over to his car and I say, hey, bud, what was that? And maybe I offer him some advice about what I do to try not to miss shifts. I'm not going to go out and publicly go, damn, that dummy missed a shift, because I might be the dummy next week that misses a shift. I believe in that. I believe that, you know, that things, that karma thing. So. And I mean, Austin Green is a hell of a race car driver. He's doing a lot in this.
TJ Majors
He does a lot with little.
Dale Jr.
He's doing a lot in this car. He's impressing people. And I do think I would walk that back just a little Bit.
Travis
We also do have to remember that
Dale Jr.
because I think Austin Green don't have any business talking about Lee Pulliam with you. Line the statistics up in the accomplishments.
TJ Majors
Oh, the. Lee's list of accomplishments is ridiculous.
Dale Jr.
What are we, what are we doing?
Travis
Can we give the drivers a little grace of the. How quickly after the wreck was this interview that like, I think you're heated,
TJ Majors
but you gotta remember this guy. I mean, he's racing, he's racing for his job.
Dale Jr.
Yeah, so is Lee. Lee's trying to find an opportunity to turn this into a little, a little mini career at 37 years old. But he's not a guy who ain't trying. I mean, that's in my office yesterday asking me how in the hell can I get more opportunities? What do I need to do?
TJ Majors
That's not how this was portrayed all before. It was a one off, one time. You're in this opportunity.
Dale Jr.
Only reason why I'm just trying. Look, we, we only said this is a one off, one off because we didn't want Lee to think, damn mood. I'm gonna pour my entire existence into this. And man, it might present opportunity. I didn't want him to set himself up for massive disappointment. I mean, I get that if nothing else happens and you know why. Went to Richmond many, many years ago with Josh Barry in that yellow and blue 88 and LED laps and ran up front and finished in the top five. And not one mother called us the next week. So saying, hey, can Josh come drive my truck? Hey, can Josh come drive our Xfinity car? Hey, we want to sponsor Josh in your car. Nobody. Now, Josh eventually panned out. We kept working, we kept chiseling away at it. He did drive some truck races for some different people, but it was disappointing. And after all of that, it was disappointing that it didn't matter. And so I knew that Lee doesn't. So I'm going into it going, all right, Lee, Lee, this is just, you know, let's just focus on this. Don't give up everything you got going on back home. Don't give up your late model program you got running. Don't.
TJ Majors
He's got a great deal.
Dale Jr.
Don't throw away all the livelihood that's happening in your life. But I just, you know, and I get it, Austin Green's a great kid. I love his family. I think Austin Green deserves this opportunity to further himself and I think he's good enough. But I take exception to the comment because Lee is a multi time track champion, national champion, you know, Martinsville 300 winner. He's done all. And while that was very embarrassing and to see all his cars destroyed on the front straightaway is his very first O'Reilly race. And he's just, you know, running up front, trying to win the race up.
TJ Majors
Yeah, I don't mean. I don't. I don't really hold this against Austin, though, because he's.
Dale Jr.
I look, I may be. I'm absolutely biased. Look.
TJ Majors
Well, you're definitely biased.
Dale Jr.
I'm biased. I get it. I'm biased.
TJ Majors
I mean, I'm still pissed off. I'm kind of Austin green size.
Dale Jr.
If I'm.
Travis
What do you tell?
Dale Jr.
Like, if I'm Austin green, I probably say the same thing. I probably do. All right. I probably do. I'll just.
TJ Majors
I will say, though, like, from the
Dale Jr.
other side, though, I hate being biased. I hate it because I try really
TJ Majors
hard not to be, like, from the other side. Like, you know, we got. It takes Carson out of the race, which kind of sucks because we're. That's like, I know you're driver, and
Dale Jr.
I'm sitting on the pit box watching Carson, who. I want to win so badly.
TJ Majors
I know.
Dale Jr.
Yeah. With a destroyer. He's out. And I've got to get on the radio to Lee and go, shake it off, man. Keep digging that. Keep going. Don't let that bother you. You know how hard it is to say. To have those two things going on inside your at the same time, wearing hats. I don't mean this in the wrong way. You don't really give a. What happens to Lee. You're worried about the one car. You want the one car to win. You're working your ass off.
TJ Majors
I don't want Lee's car to get. I don't want to get destroyed.
Dale Jr.
But I'm just saying, you don't care about the rest of Lee's day. You're wanting that one car to win. Like, I've got five of them out there. I'm being ripped into pieces emotionally.
TJ Majors
I love it.
Dale Jr.
You got the seven just driving through the field. He's dominating. You're trying to tell Lee, hey, man, you really ain't got a shot at this. Just kind of get her home here. Let's get a top five and be happy about it. Nobody's going to beat the 7 today. But Lee believes in his heart, if I get, you know, if I do this just right, I can hold him off, you know, and then you got the seven with the radiator or the one with the radiator knocked out of it. Who's, you know, with Rodney Childers, literal legend on the pit box.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Travis
You got Raja going at Jesse.
Dale Jr.
Yeah. You got Raja getting turned around in the corner off of Brent Cruz. You ain't got Brent Cruz here. You got Jesse Love and Raja.
TJ Majors
Brent Cruz. What's Cruz doing?
Dale Jr.
Well, Love and Jesse loves Brent cruiser
TJ Majors
pals, so he's fighting his fights for him.
Dale Jr.
He's fighting his fights for him, I suppose.
TJ Majors
And Jesse. I went back and watched the race. Me and Carson back and watched the whole race. Jesse was a little rough on some guys early, too.
Dale Jr.
Jesse doesn't realize there's. Here's the thing about Jesse. Jesse drives the way he doesn't like to get driven.
TJ Majors
Exactly. But any. And I mean, I love Jesse. He's great.
Dale Jr.
I like Jesse, too. And I don't want it to be. I don't want to. You know, I don't want to give him the wrong idea, but, yeah, dude. And honestly, Jesse races hard, and there's nothing wrong with it, but when it comes back around, he don't like it. And especially Martinsville, like, damn, you're supposed to get run into West. I would go to Martinsville, and I want Jesse and everybody to hear this. I would go to Martinsville looking forward to getting run into. We go to all these other racetracks. When I was driving, we had steel bodies, right? You go to. You go to. You go to Kansas and Chicago and road courses and all these tracks. You can't touch no body. And if you barely bend the quarter panel, you're. Yeah, you couldn't touch nothing. So I couldn't wait to go to Martinsville. And I'm like, please, door me. Somebody put some donuts on this mother. Let's go.
TJ Majors
That explains a lot.
Dale Jr.
Yes. I mean, we'd get 100 laps in the race and Latart would come on the radio and go, dude, you got 400 laps to go. Can we save some race car? Because I'd have both sides lit up.
TJ Majors
Nothing like flooding the sheet metal market here.
Travis
They feel alive.
Dale Jr.
I. I loved it. And when a guy came. When a guy got loose under me and knocked me, you know, hit me in the left side door, you know, it was. I want. It's what I went to Martinsville to
TJ Majors
expect at the time. It did not make you happy.
Dale Jr.
Yeah, but I mean, you want it. You're. I know you're looking forward to grinding your teeth. You're like.
TJ Majors
You're looking forward to being the guy. You're looking forward to dirtying the right side up. Not the left side.
Dale Jr.
Yeah. But, I mean, you know, are you looking forward?
Travis
You want to get hit first, so then it gives you. You the freedom to go back.
Dale Jr.
Adam, I just went to those races going, I'm ready to trade some sheet metal. I'm not going to knock. I'm not going to spin a guy out. I'm not going to, you know, ruin somebody's day. But if I knock your ass, if I run into the inside of your car, take it like, man, let's go. You know, you want to give it back to me in the next corner, fine. But it's a. You know, it's eye for an eye. Don't be. Don't be a idiot and take me out. I'm not going to take you out now. I don't want it to escalate.
TJ Majors
That's when it gets carried out.
Dale Jr.
It doesn't need to escalate. But do I want to hit? Do I want to hit? Do I want to trade bumpers? Do I want to get out of my car and see the story of the race written all over the sheet metal? Yes. Yes, I do. And I want it on both sides. It was fun. And now these guys get all bent out of shape when somebody gives them a little donut off the corner. Hit me.
Chase Elliott
Yeah.
TJ Majors
Honestly, I didn't really see a lot. I mean, Raj definitely sent Jesse up the track one time.
Dale Jr.
But listen, I told Raja at the end of the day that he should have handled that better. He knows he should. And I loved how him and Jesse Love hashed it out. They talked it out. They got away from the crew chiefs and handled it right. Good deal. I told Raja, I said, man, you know, you. We talk. This is. This is what we talked about at the start of the season. Let's not go. Let's not go into these races and throw away chunks of points over in emotion. Right? And so that's kind of what Raja did, is he let it get the best of him, and he. He got over his skis a little bit in the last couple of corners, and he ended up getting himself spun out. And here's. Here's a Drives down into turn three.
TJ Majors
Deep.
Dale Jr.
Yeah. Way over his head.
TJ Majors
That's too much.
Dale Jr.
It is. He's way over his head. The 2. I would be absolutely furious because the 2 now 3 wide, the 2 is losing several spots.
TJ Majors
How do you handle Brent Cruz if you're Raj? You know what I mean? Like, how do you handle that?
Dale Jr.
What do you mean?
TJ Majors
Like, the guy. Oh.
Dale Jr.
How do you handle Brent Cruz if You're. I think you got to go have a conversation about that because that's pretty cheap. Well, I mean, Brent Cruises. Brent Cruz. I know what Brent Cruz saw. He said he just saw Raja do that to the two in the corner before. And I've seen this. I've actually maybe done this. You'll see a driver do something foolish. And that's what Raja did going down into turn three. He got in there too hot, way up the racetrack. You see that? And you go, that's a. That's like a free pass to drive, to do something, you know, do something egregious to that driver. You're like, hey, man, if you're going to be a wild man, you better be able to take it, right? And so I think Brent went down in the corner and went, I just seen what you did. So how about how you like this? You know, how you like. How's this?
TJ Majors
He one upped it.
Dale Jr.
He did. I don't know if he meant to spin the 88 around. He probably hoped maybe he just knocks the 88 up the track and he's just grabbing another spot because he watched the 88 knock somebody up to track the lap before the corner before. So, I mean, that's just. That's the mentality I think a driver has. And you're at the end of the race. This has been a long race. You've seen a lot of. You've been in a lot of, like, you're up to here with all the shenanigans. And that's the time. I think that's the vulnerable time in the race where you as a driver, if you're. If you're Rajai, you gotta. You can't get at. You can't get. It's easy to overstep out of control because guys are. Guys are. Guys are. Guys have had it. And it's now. Gloves are off. Last couple of corners. You remember. You remember we used to go to. I don't know if you were spotting for me back. Back in the bud days. You weren't.
TJ Majors
But I did the last 10.
Dale Jr.
We went to Sonoma, and we would go to Sonoma and if there was a late yellow and. And there was going to be three or four laps to go. Oh, you would see half a dozen guys, eight, maybe ten tires are huge, get spun the out just. Just blatantly just dumped in the corners. I'm sitting there running 20th in a race at Sonoma, and you would just pick up multiple spots in the last couple of. Couple of laps because Everybody's just, like, had it. And they're like, I'm done with this. I'm done with you. I didn't like how you drove me in the last corner. Guess what. Your ass is going in the tires.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Jr.
Guess what? You're going in the sand trap. And, man, you're just driving around there. Free spot, free spot, free spot.
TJ Majors
The number is good because it slide off the racetrack, too.
Dale Jr.
Yeah. Try not to be the guy that got dumped. Right? And I dumped Stacy Compton, I was like, hell, yeah, I'll take a spot. Here's one more knock Stacy Compton out of the way. Stacy Compton didn't do. And, hey, dude. Well, I didn't have to worry about him. He's over in the sand trap. He's a half a mile away. By the time I got to the garage area, Chad Canals was crew chief in his car. And Chad come up to the car after the race and was like, what the. And I'm like, hey, man, everybody was doing it. You know, what am I gonna say?
Travis
Do you have any issues with crew chiefs going up to drivers like, we saw?
Dale Jr.
No, not really. I mean, he just. Danny.
Travis
Yeah.
Dale Jr.
Yeah. Not really. No. I don't. I don't. I don't, and I don't. And, you know, look, I'm glad Jesse Love was like, hey, let's just say. Let's just sell this over here. This ain't going anywhere. That. That was.
TJ Majors
That's actually a very, very mature.
Dale Jr.
Very mature. And so. And they were able to talk it out. And I really hope that. That Jesse and Raja can race each other well the rest of the season. I'm sure. I'm sure they can. And I don't mind a crew chief coming up in that context. They're in the garage. They're not in somebody's pit box. They're not at somebody's holler. This is a neutral site. Danny can come up and say whatever he wants to say. If Danny wants to say things, then, you know, he's. He's. Danny's gonna live with whatever that, you know, the repercussions from that are. And it is what it is. I didn't understand what he was. He was saying something about tighten the belts.
Travis
Yeah, yeah. My only thing is, then, like, what
Dale Jr.
do you think he was trying to convey there? What was his line? You better tighten them belts.
Travis
They're going to come after him.
TJ Majors
Oh, he's a big safety advocate.
Travis
My issue was that, like, you're going to come over.
Dale Jr.
He just was like, first, by the way, Before I had this argument with you, I just want to remind you, man, to keep those belts tight. Now what are you doing now? I'm very upset about.
TJ Majors
Big safety guy.
Travis
My favorite part is Raja can't hear anything, so he just keeps saying, huh. So he has to keep saying it over and over again. That's the great defense mechanism.
TJ Majors
I thought it was a good Jesse.
Dale Jr.
I was love. I love my man Pat on our car.
Travis
That's I had an issue with. You're telling him to walk away. He's by his car, Danny. You walked over there. Pat has every right to stay.
Dale Jr.
Danny doesn't even know where he's at. Danny's so mad, he don't even know where he's at. Yeah.
Travis
What are you doing here?
Dale Jr.
Why are you. Why are you beside your car? Get out of here. Get away from your car.
TJ Majors
I need to make sure them belts are up to date.
Dale Jr.
Yeah, that would have been hilarious. Walk up to him. Make sure your belts are up to date, buddy. Make sure.
TJ Majors
Belt inspector.
Dale Jr.
Yeah. That tickled me. I don't know why that's so funny. I don't know, man. I thought it was pretty silly. But I love my guy Pat sticking up for his driver.
TJ Majors
He's, you know, I like the emotion, though, after the race.
Dale Jr.
So Pat is a. Pat's a future crew chief. Super duper leader. Love that. He didn't care. He. I mean, Pat is disappointed. The thing I loved about it is this, and Raja should appreciate this. Raja just tossed 10. Let's say 10 minimum, 10 points in the trash can, Right? Something we don't want to do, something we can't do for this.
TJ Majors
Yeah. It's preventable.
Dale Jr.
Pat knows that. But still, in that moment, Pat's like, this is my driver. You know, I'm gonna be here.
Travis
Yeah.
Dale Jr.
And so that was pretty cool, because your team, it's. That's when you know you got good culture in your team, is when you up and they still like, hey, we know you up, but we got you. And that's the way the. You know that instantly. That's how I remember Kirk Shelmerdine. All those guys talking about dad. They were like, yeah, we know sometimes he actually had this guy. But we were gonna fight, you know, we were gonna fight for him if it came to blows, you know? And so that's good culture.
TJ Majors
Like, we've had a couple bad weeks. Like, Atlanta got wrecked and then got kind of taken out here. But I will say that, like, having Rodney is a great example on how to lead the team, because everyone Kind of feeds off the crew chief and driver a lot, you know what I mean? The rest of the team and the way Rodney handles these situations helps the team a lot as well.
Dale Jr.
Well, we went around and around on this O'Reilly's race. Let's move on to the Cup. Big wreck in the cup series.
TJ Majors
That's what it says here. Massive wreck.
Dale Jr.
All right. Massive crash. You know what? I watched the cup race, but I'll be honest. Let's get a video of this crash up on the board. I want to see a little bit better. I didn't really look at this too much. I know that Freddie was trying to blame Bubba for what happened. So Bubba's up the track right here, coming off turn two, back down on the bottom behind Jose Var.
TJ Majors
People have been making that move on restarts especially.
Dale Jr.
Wow.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Jr.
Send host of our clothes.
TJ Majors
Hang on.
Dale Jr.
Damn. Bam, Bam, Bam, bam, bam. He just drove through him. What did Bubba say? I mean, just looking at that particular replay, looks like Bubba just drove through him. Was Bubba getting shoved from behind?
Travis
No, I think the previous. I think most of our had gotten into him.
TJ Majors
There ain't nobody.
Dale Jr.
That shot right there was. I didn't like what you.
TJ Majors
Bubba is not getting. Oh, we're so close to getting rector.
Travis
It's very similar to, like, we're talking about Raja. Like, with Bubba, you're not having a great day, but, like, you let your emotions get the best of you, and you just took a bad day. Made it worse.
Dale Jr.
Yeah. I think he owned it, though, didn't he?
Travis
Yeah, he owned it.
Dale Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
Yeah. I mean, I saw his frustration because most of the day, all the cup guys were playing pretty good down into one. Nobody was really making that move because when somebody goes to the bottom three wide, a lot of times somebody gets turned on the outside, and it's kind of preventable. But I'm not surprised to see when I saw the 77 jump down there, you can't. You kind of know when people like that are lining up behind you that that's an option.
Dale Jr.
Yes. Well, yeah.
Travis
He said he didn't mean to turn host of our.
Dale Jr.
Which, I mean, yeah, he. Sure. I agree. I mean, he wrecked him.
TJ Majors
It's kind of hard not to say. Didn't mean to turn him.
Dale Jr.
He wrecked him. He didn't. He. He. He. I think what he's trying maybe to say is that he realized he. He up.
Travis
Yeah.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Jr.
This is the problem. So if we looked at the points, I think coming out of Atlanta or some somewhere along the line, Bubba was second to his teammate, he dropped eight spots. Yeah, he is.
TJ Majors
Two races, two last places. Right.
Dale Jr.
I don't have it printed out here.
Travis
I forgot.
TJ Majors
This week, I think he's got two last places in a row.
Dale Jr.
So Bubba is now eighth or somewhere in that area.
Travis
He dropped eight spots, down to 11th.
Dale Jr.
Yeah, he's in 11th, dude. So there it is. So Bubba has. Bubba was behind his teammate in second at one point, maybe 70, 80 points out. And now he is 147 points out. But now he is tied with Brad in eighth. Kyle Larson, Chris Buescher. So this 11th looks a little bit worse than it really is. He's actually tied for eighth, wouldn't you say?
TJ Majors
Yeah, worse than second.
Travis
Seventh is 141.
Dale Jr.
He's six points out of seventh, but still, you know, he's gave up, let's say, roughly 60, 70 points to Tyler over the last handful of races. So just. That, to me, is a great example of why this points system is going to be so much fun. Because if your driver, you know, burns out a fuse or short circuits in a moment like that, this is what. This is what it can lead to. And, you know, Bubba can claw him his way back into this with some great work, and he's capable of doing that. But I love, you know, I love being able to watch that points week after week. I love that now at the end of every broadcast, it's important for us to put the points on the board and see what's changed.
Travis
Yeah.
Dale Jr.
And that is a. That is a fun thing that we used to have. That went away and now it's back.
TJ Majors
So this is this point system that shows you that, like, consistency pays off. Like, to me, like, you can't. Like you said, you can't afford them.
Dale Jr.
Low consistency should matter, and it's. It's a big part of what's going on. Denny lost the race. Had it one.
TJ Majors
Yeah. He was going to have a dominating big points day. He still got more points than Chase, though, didn't he?
Travis
Yeah, but one bad restart, you know,
Dale Jr.
and this is one of the races where, watching it back, I'm okay with the winner not getting the most points. Chase didn't get any stage points that I recall. He didn't know 55 if you ain't. And so at the end of the day, then he gets more points and walks out of there. I could care less.
TJ Majors
Yeah. I promise you, Chase is still pretty happy.
Dale Jr.
Yeah. I mean, I'm just saying, as a fan. Fan, it changes nothing for me.
Travis
I mean, it could have been with
Dale Jr.
Everything that Denny did all day and everything that Chase didn't do in the. In. In terms of the. Of the. Of the. The. The points, it weighed out the way it should have. You think Denny spun his tires on the restart? You say so.
Travis
He said he did. Yeah.
Dale Jr.
And that was the difference maker because
Travis
then the caution comes out for Bubba's wreck, and Chase had just been scored at second place. So then on the next restart, Chase is starting next to Ross and the rest is history.
Dale Jr.
Yeah. So the. I know he spun his tires and all that good stuff, but Chase's. The story of Chase's win is the. Is the strategy from his team and Allen, uh, they just, you know. Well, not really a Hail Mary. Honestly, it wasn't. If it didn't pan out, I think it still was a net positive for Chase.
TJ Majors
I don't think we'll know, honestly, but I don't. If it was going to be. If it was supposed to be the better strategy and that was like the last run of the day, then I feel like there would have been more people.
Dale Jr.
Why don't we ask him? He's right here. The driver of the number nine, the winner this weekend at Martinsville, the new owner of a grandfather clock. Another grandfather.
TJ Majors
Another one, yeah.
Dale Jr.
Thanks for joining us today, man. I know you're busy and out there in Georgia. It is a beautiful, beautiful state. Love your area. Been out there to visit a time or two and know you got a lot of cool things to do this week before you get back at it, but me and TJ Were just having a conversation about the choice to come to pit road so early. Let's just hypothetically wonder what happens if that race continues to play out and we don't. And, you know, you get this yellow that. That, like, makes that move really, really great. Right now you're in the top three, top two, and you got a shot with some great pit work to get out here and win the race. Maybe if that race continues to go green. Do you think it's still a net positive to come early?
Chase Elliott
I think so. And I think that it was getting better, too, because everyone ended up shorting themselves even more than they were intending. They're going to have to run 100 and some odd laps. If I'm not mistaken, there was still about 100 something to go in. Everybody pit. You know, everybody else pit. So that would have been the longest run of the day. Right. And who knows where that would have netted out? I mean, I think at the end of the day, the odds of the Odds of the race going green at Martinsville completely in the last stage or next to none. So I think that's why no one was doing the two stop strategy, because, you know at some point in time you are going to be exposed. Right. So I think you try and avoid that exposure throughout the course of that second stop because, you know, who knows, you can go lap down, you're going to go two laps down, you're going to have a bunch of time to make back up, and there's certainly exposure involved in that, so. But I felt like the way it was trending, man, I thought it was going to work out really good either way, but I could be totally wrong on that.
Dale Jr.
Yeah. Do you, do you think you guys improve the race car? I know that clean air is really important, but it just. Denny had been so good all day long when he was out front. He was pretty comfortable in terms of putting some distance between him and the rest of the field. But, man, once you got the lead, you were just a faster race car. Had y' all improved the car some throughout the day?
Chase Elliott
I, you know, I, I do think that, that we had gotten better, you know, throughout the course of the day. And, you know, I think, and I had, I had told Alan probably sometime around halfway, I was like, man, I, I really don't, I don't hate my balance. I actually feel like we've made it a lot better, especially for the traffic that we were in. I was just kept telling him, I'm like, man, I wish I could just control my run. I wish I could just have the opportunity to get into a spot where I'm not, you know, running super hard at the beginning or, you know, I can kind of do what I want for just a little while to, to kind of make it, make it live a little better. And sure enough, he, he gave that to me. So, man, I don't know how many times I've asked for that, not gotten that given to me, but, boy, it was great to, to have that given to us. So. So fortunately, yes, we had gotten our car better. We'd been working on it in pretty big swings throughout the early portion of the race and yeah, got it into a really respectable spot where when he did give me my wish list item that I never get given, it was good enough to be able to manage that run the way we needed to and just have enough.
Dale Jr.
How do you work on the relationship driver to crew chief? This is a long one and you guys had a ton of success. It's noisy out there. I Know, you're not too aware of all the things that go on in the Internet and the social media world, but, you know, it's tough, I think, to keep relationships like this productive over the course of a long period of time. And it gets harder and harder as things change in society and so forth. But you guys seem to have a belief in each other that's steadfast, and it doesn't seem to waver one bit, man.
Chase Elliott
It really hasn't. And, you know, I wish I could tell you what the special formula was for that. I don't know that there is really any one thing. I think that truthfully, I think it all kind of started with just a lot of respect. And you know, this like, you know, when you come into the sport and you're a young guy and you don't know nothing and you don't deserve any respect, but somebody that has been there for a long time in a lot of different cases would very easily look down on someone who doesn't have any experience, that doesn't have all the answers or doesn't, you know, have any idea what they're getting themselves into. Right. And I think for me, it was the exact opposite from him. It was a lot of respect. It was, you know, we're not going to do this my way. We're going to do this our way. How can we figure out how to make this the best for us? And I sensed just a large amount of respect from a guy who had really put in a lot of time before me that I didn't feel like he had to give me at that time. And to me, that just set us up for success from the beginning, from just a relationship standpoint. Not saying we were going to light the world on fire, but just that I thought, man, this can work, because as soon as a young guy receives that type of respect, well, what do you want to do back? I want to give him all the respect in the world that I have to give because, you know, that's how he's treated me, and that's really how it's been since the beginning. So our working relationship is super simple. And I think that that's a lot of it. Is. It just started off on the right foot.
Dale Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
So let me ask a question. So at the end of the race, Chase, I got a question for you. Were you at all, like, I. I thought Denny. I actually thought Denny had the best car all day. Dominated. Was going to be able to kind of hassle you a little bit. And honestly, man, like, he couldn't even really get close to you. And I kept looking. I'm like, dang. Chase is now starting to pull away a little bit here. Did it kind of surprise you that he couldn't really hassle you at all or. Or get to you?
Chase Elliott
Yeah, I mean, I knew he had been good. I mean, honestly, I hadn't been around him. You know, I knew he had led a bunch of the race, but I had not seen him firsthand until, you know, the cycle started happening. He had just passed me back, you know, before that caution came out. We were way different on tires at that point.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Chase Elliott
You know, so I really wasn't sure what to expect out of him late in the run. I was thinking that he was going to make a charge at some point, and I was trying to manage my run accordingly. And fortunately, yeah, it was just, you know, just good enough. I do think we had room to be better, too. Like, my car did different things out front that it had not done all day because we hadn't seen a lick clean air. So, you know, I do think there was room to be better. But yeah, I was, honestly, I was really proud of the way we managed that last run. Like, yes, the call was great and all those things, but I thought the way we executed the final pit stop, the final restart, said earn. Yeah. And executed that last run, I really thought was something to be proud of and, you know, to do it against him. And he sets the standard there of the people that are still in the series, in my opinion. So really cool to be able to out duel him when the opportunity presented itself and, you know, enjoyed racing him. And he kept me honest and had to be. Had to be as perfect as I could be for, you know, those last. Especially the last 20. And I thought it was all managed really well, so was proud of that effort.
TJ Majors
Yeah. How's Victory Lane at Martinsville, man?
Chase Elliott
It's good. They got a new clock. You hear about the new. The new clock manufacturer?
Dale Jr.
Yes.
Chase Elliott
Dale knows.
Dale Jr.
Yeah, I know.
TJ Majors
I saw a display. I didn't know it was for a new clock.
Dale Jr.
It looks pretty good.
Chase Elliott
I thought it looked really cool, too, honestly. So I'm that. Evidently that was the first one. So they changed clock manufacturers over the winter and that was the first one of the. The new manufacturer. So I thought that's kind of cool.
TJ Majors
Why not win that one?
Dale Jr.
Do you eat the hot. Do you eat the hot dog?
Chase Elliott
No, I don't. I don't. I don't partake in that.
Dale Jr.
Have you ever.
Chase Elliott
I think I tried one when I was a kid and that was enough for. For me. So. Yeah, I'm not in on that.
Dale Jr.
I was there Saturday. I think I had six. God damn, they're so good.
TJ Majors
I don't know how you do it.
Chase Elliott
I was pretty dang hungry after that race, though. I honestly thought about it and that's saying something.
Dale Jr.
Damn. All right. Hey.
TJ Majors
Considered a hot dog.
Dale Jr.
So. I love the new point system. I love talking about it and I love looking at the points and seeing how, you know, certain days are affecting certain drivers and how this thing's playing out. It's really checking all the boxes for me and what I really loved about the sport back in the day, and I know you were part of, you know, part of that conversation, especially when the announcement was made. It's early in the season. I don't think you're probably staring at points too much, but with your consistency that you guys have and have shown over the past couple of years, you got to be feeling pretty happy or confident in your ability to, to, you know, to make this point system work in your favor.
Chase Elliott
Yeah, I think so. I mean, I think it's. I think it's a great format. I really do. And I've been. It's been super interesting. I think the biggest difference in this version of the Chase versus the one I remember, like in 2011, you know, Tony Stewart won 50% of the last 10 races that year. He beat Carl on a tiebreaker at Homestead. And what blew. What blows my mind about that is, you know, Carl ran consistent enough that that was. He still tied him. You know, he tied him at the end but didn't have the wins. Man, if a guy wins 50% of the final 10 races in this deal, he's going to have 100 point lead like Tyler has right now. So it's pretty different now. Like, it's similar, but it's different in a lot of ways. And you better be running good, you better be winning. You know, you're going to have to. You're going to have to be lights out for those last 10 because a win is. Is worth an awful lot amount of points and, you know, so I'm curious to see how all that plays out. But from our standpoint, I'm just excited to have a win this early. Like, I know that seems like really silly, but, man, we've never won a race this early in the year.
Dale Jr.
Yeah, you got out of the car and said that. Had that been something y' all talk about that morning? Why was that so top of mind?
Chase Elliott
No, I know it just. It dawned on me, you know, pretty quickly. I was like, man, I'm usually miserable through this part of the year, you know, like, man, this is great. We gotta. You know, we gotta win early.
Dale Jr.
So.
Chase Elliott
Yeah, I guess it's just something that I've wanted to accomplish personally. Like, it's not something we have prioritized. Like, we always want to win, but it just hadn't worked out that way, so.
TJ Majors
It helps, though.
Chase Elliott
Yeah. Really cool, because it gives you a. It's not like, oh, the pressure's off. Like, not at all. It's. It's actually the opposite. I look at it like, man, we have a great Runway now to build on this. Like, you have way more time to make this better, you know, and to keep trucking. So that part's really cool and not a place that we've been in. So I'm excited for that. That chance to try and build on it and make it better.
Dale Jr.
You're going to go play a round of golf today?
Chase Elliott
I am. I'm fired up, too. I can't wait.
Dale Jr.
What is the handicap?
Chase Elliott
Oh, it's not good. It's not. I mean, I suck. Don't get me wrong. I'm like a. I don't know, 12, 13, somewhere in there.
Dale Jr.
That's pretty good. I wouldn't call that. I wouldn't call that bad. You haven't seen me play.
Chase Elliott
Yeah, well, it's just bad. Like, if you go play with Blaney and some of those guys.
TJ Majors
Blaney's that good?
Chase Elliott
He's pretty good. And the one. I'll tell you, I was gonna say the one. The one that I'm not sure if you've heard about or not, but Scotty is.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Chase Elliott
I mean, he. He is, like, really good. So when you go play with those guys, they make you feel really dumb. So I'm trying to. I'm trying to work on my. My game a little bit so I can at least, you know, go. And.
Dale Jr.
Willie B. Was asking me. Willie B. Was asking me if he should buy a simulator for his house.
Chase Elliott
I think he should.
Dale Jr.
That's what I told him. Yeah. What are you gonna do? Sit on this money? Go ahead.
Chase Elliott
Go ahead and buy it. Be good, healthy, and. Yeah, I think he should. He didn't ask me my opinion, so I'm glad he asked you.
Dale Jr.
I told him I bought a simulator, like, 10 years ago, and I. And we talked about prices and stuff. I said, if you wait, it's just getting more expensive every year.
Chase Elliott
Oh, yeah.
Dale Jr.
Now.
TJ Majors
True story.
Chase Elliott
Nothing's Gotten cheaper, that's for certain.
Dale Jr.
Yeah. Well, have fun. Thanks for your time.
TJ Majors
Yeah, man.
Dale Jr.
We always really appreciate it because we know we're asking you guys to step out of your. Your normal lives and give us a little bit of time this morning. Have fun on the course today, and maybe we'll see you back here next week.
Chase Elliott
Yeah, man. No, I enjoyed it. Appreciate it. Always enjoy hanging out. So thanks for having me.
Dale Jr.
Well, we got some insight there on the race, and good insight. As much as I want to give Denny Bros And Travis a hard time, Denny ran a hell of a race. Man. I felt almost bad for Denny having been, you know, just because he's been so dominant.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Jr.
And just can't the whole race. That's. But he's.
Travis
Dude, I mean, he almost swept the weekend pole.
Dale Jr.
Look, we know.
TJ Majors
We get it, Travis. Good Lord. You also wrecked Ryan Blaney. Jesus.
Dale Jr.
But he's got a ton of freaking clocks. He ain't got nothing to worry about.
Travis
I mean, you could always get another one, though.
Dale Jr.
I know, but.
Travis
Yeah, maybe you would have given it to me.
Dale Jr.
Oh, God, you wish.
Travis
I'm choking.
Dale Jr.
Yeah, you're just putting fuel on the fire, aren't you?
Travis
No.
Dale Jr.
Jeez. You're fanning the flames.
TJ Majors
I got two of them, Travis.
Dale Jr.
Fanning the flames of the haters.
Travis
Hey, whatever it takes.
Dale Jr.
All right. I think you like it. Oh, there was a comment, speaking of Denny Hamlin, he. He had a comment, I guess, after the race with Jeff Gluck, or maybe it was on his podcast yesterday about the caution laps. Yeah. Oh, yeah, it was on the podcast, on the podcast. Yep. He was. You know, he was talking about a conversation around the cautions for the caution laps, I think, for the stage breaks, but it could have been just any caution. And listen, I own a series, and I understand, like, we are in a rush, trying to get back to Green flag as quick as possible. There's a lot of scoring things that have to happen throughout the caution. So I guess I understand NASCAR's position on trying to get back to green. And I know they're trying. I know they're not, you know, dragging their feet, but I replied to this comment. I think Jeff Gluck made the post, and I replied to the comment, and I don't really have a. I don't really have a problem with the length of cautions in a general part of the race where it's a natural yellow right now. You know, some natural yellows are longer than others, and they're frustrating. I'll be in the Race car, you know, what the. Are we doing? You know, and they'll bring you to the hauler and say, well, there was everywhere. And you didn't know that. You know, we were fixing this and fixing that, and you didn't know that. So that's why we were taking so long. And so NASCAR's usually got a good reason why a caution is what it is. My comment, and I think some of Denny's points, too, was the length of the stage brake cautions. And I know fans are going to easily jump right on this and say, just get rid of them, but let's all talk about the realistic possibilities of that. It's just. That is not a solution. NASCAR's. Let's just assume, you know, NASCAR is not just going to get rid of stage cautions. They're just not.
TJ Majors
No.
Dale Jr.
Yeah. So let's not even have that conversation because it's just wasting, I think, time. So. But what can we do to shorten them up? And what could we do? So my problem really is that it eats into the next stage. So stage one caution comes out, and we'll be at some of these races with trucks in Xfinity or O'Reilly, we'll be at some of these races with them, and they'll be having, like, 40 lap stages. Yeah.
TJ Majors
Pocono trucks run almost just over 10 laps.
Dale Jr.
Poconos, the perfect example, they eat into, like, 20% of the stage with the caution and that. To me, I just don't know why that doesn't signal real concern. Right. Of like, no, we shouldn't be doing that. Right. We can't. Look, the stage cautions are manufactured yellows. They are. They are what they are. They're not a real caution. They're brought out because it's, you know, it's implemented by the sanctioning body. And that yellow, since it's their responsibility and they are the reason why we're having it. Right. They're putting it on us as a fan. Right. Watching the race. All right, we got a caution. Okay. We understand what you're doing. It shouldn't eat into some of the other, you know, the remaining part of the race. Right. It shouldn't.
TJ Majors
I just.
Dale Jr.
I made the comment it's like taking product off the shelf, you know, I mean, it is.
TJ Majors
That's a good way to look at it.
Dale Jr.
Yeah. And so I don't know. I think. I think we gotta.
TJ Majors
Do we just not, not count.
Dale Jr.
Not, not count the yellows. Then. I don't know what you do, because you got teams. Teams Are gonna say, well, you know, we got all this data that we got all these computers. We're running all these programs to do fuel mileage. NASCAR has scoring systems that would probably go eight if you were to be scoring this caution lap and not this caution lap. And I don't know. I don't know what the. I don't know what the technical challenges are with that. I don't. And maybe there are none. But I don't like the idea that the stage break caution takes 20% off of the next stage, and Pocono is the perfect example of that. Because the stages are so short in the truck race or an O'Reilly race at some of these events, they do use up a good chunk of stage two or stage three.
TJ Majors
Well, the cup race is 80 laps of stage in the beginning of that race, and the second one starts at 70. Yeah, close to 70.
Travis
There was 96 caution laps in the O'Reilly race.
Dale Jr.
That's a lot for.
TJ Majors
It was even a red flag at the end.
Dale Jr.
But dang. Yeah. I mean, I. Look, I. I don't. I have the series, the cars tour race. We have. We had a. We had a very similar issue this weekend with a lot of cautions. Drivers were driving like maniacs running over each other. We had yellow after yellow after yellow, and we had a lot of yellows. And so I understand the series is not in an easy spot, but there. There are. The stage break. Yellows for sure are too long. We're waiting on the caution comes out. You know, we're making sure that we're on TV to see the pit stops. We're making sure that, you know, we're. We're opening pit road and doing this and all these. There's just added laps that are. That's got. And I'm. I have to. I have to assume that NASCAR has had this conversation internally, and they just can't come to a solution that's better than what we have.
Travis
What's in it? Do you want to get rid of. Do you want commercials during green flag? Would be the.
Dale Jr.
If you. I've never had a problem with commercials during green flag. I have it.
TJ Majors
So in the cup race, the cost came out before the end of the stage at 77. We went.
Dale Jr.
So you had to. So that's. That presents an entirely new problem, TJ that we need to point out. The caution sometimes comes out a couple laps, four laps or so before the stage break. And so we just roll through it.
Travis
They should just call it there and let's go to pit Road and let's.
Dale Jr.
Yeah, it's. It's just so, it's so strange to me that we go, well, we can't go back to green because it's so close to the stage. So this is the official end of the stage. But we're just going to run the caution lapse to the stage drip now. We're going to go through the whole process.
TJ Majors
What lap? We went back green on what lap? 96.
Dale Jr.
So how many laps is that?
TJ Majors
19.
Dale Jr.
19 caution laps.
TJ Majors
I mean, went yellow on lap 77, green on 96.
Travis
I would like if they listen, what race was this? Cup race Sunday.
Dale Jr.
Yeah, like you go, so that is not okay.
Travis
The stage ends early start the second stage. Make these teams adapt.
TJ Majors
Well, I mean, I'm okay if there's two left. 77, you're going to run two laps to get to the end of stage. I'm fine, but like, what are you doing after?
Travis
No, I'm saying, like, if you're going to call a caution, but two last before the end of the stage, end it there. Yeah, let's open up. Let's not drive around for two laps. And if that means stage two starts two laps sooner.
TJ Majors
So ARCA adapt. ARCA does a halfway break. These tracks where there's no caution. If, if it's 100 lap race and the cost comes out at like 45, they say, all right, this is the halfway break. Right? Now you're saying do that with the stages. Like if it's within five at the end of the stage, that's the end
Travis
of, boom, there it is. And let's get pit road ready and let's go.
Dale Jr.
I mean, all I can say is Denny's right.
TJ Majors
Oh, easy now. Travis is going to.
Dale Jr.
All I can say is, look, I don't want to pile on nascar. Denny's right. That is absolutely not acceptable. And, and we gotta have some serious. I'm my, my opinion is that I'm sure NASCAR has had. I mean, this isn't a new issue. Yeah, this ain't a new issue. And I'm sure NASCAR's had some internal conversations and I'm just assuming that they haven't been able to find an alternative solution. And there again, if they were sitting here, they would probably tell us very good reason why they have it the way they have it. Even though we don't love it, we don't love 19 laps of yellow. There's probably really, really good reason why it went that way or it happens that way and their stick to it. Iveness to adhere to their protocols and it's, you know, that it's. But it's still frustrating. Yeah, you know, to have to sit there and I'm, I just, you know, want them to go back racing.
Travis
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kids from Pre K to 12th grade.
Dale Jr.
Listeners can get an exclusive 20% off IXL membership when they sign up today@ixl.com 20. Visit ixl.com 20 to get most effective learning program out there at the best price. All right, so the I mentioned the car store. We, we're we had a ruffle man. I don't want to spend a whole time, a whole lot of time on this, but I'm doing a recap that I'm going to put give to flow here later and I am not looking forward to doing this. I do recaps for flowing for all the cars to a race and this is just one race where I don't really want to do it. We start. We went to Wake. Wake is a bullring tiny. We've had good races there. No question. No reason why we couldn't go back and have another one. It's short. We talked, we. We thought long and hard about adding laps. And so we decided instead of 125, we'd run 175. You know, we had. We've stopped for fuel before if we thought we needed to to save the teams. And so it, you know, it was probably something, absolutely something that we needed to do in this particular race, but we didn't. And cars began to run out of gas. More yellows. It just struck out. It was a lot of, a lot of rough, rough moments in that race.
TJ Majors
Were the teams that ran out, were they full to start the race?
Dale Jr.
That's, you know, you would like to think that they were because it's 175 lap race. All of them ran out for the most part in about the same amount of time, you know, within a lap or two of each other. So you're more than likely. Everyone's pretty packed up. Here's the way it goes. So here's, here's the. Here's a somewhat of a recap. The race was rough. The drivers were out of control. We've got a bit of a problem with respect on the racetrack. That's putting it lightly. We need to race down in the corner and not drive up underneath everybody's rear bumper bar and shove them up the racetrack at every opportunity because it escalates. More and more people see it. More and more people start doing it. The next thing you know, you got the whole field driving that way.
TJ Majors
It's a standard.
Dale Jr.
And then we have what escalated into an intentional wreck by Doug Barnes on Mini Tyrell. Now, Minnie was just as guilty because of his role in escalating it. They ran over each other for four or five corners and it became something that was entertaining, became ugly and unfortunate for both guys. Then we had all of the fuel issues. The cars tour should have brought all the teams down pit road when they started to recognize we got to a certain number of laps that's on us. We got to get them on pit road, put fuel in them to avoid what ended up happening, which was cars running out of gas every now and then and having. We probably Had, I don't know, half a dozen yellows that could have been avoided. Yeah, there were some, you know, there was just some. There was just some things that the Tour didn't do well from an. From a race control standpoint, it wasn't our best night at all. Wasn't the best night for the drivers at all, either. I think we all equally, as a series, share responsibility on what type of event we have every single week.
TJ Majors
It was entertaining.
Dale Jr.
Still, seeing that we had. Thank you. We have one, maybe two races that seem to go this way every year. I believe in the people that we have in place in the Tour to make sure the Tour can be great. I believe in those folks, and I think that they can get it right. We want to get that one or two race down to zero. We don't, you know, in terms of the show that we had Saturday, we kind of want to get that, you know, get those out of the series entirely. But it's an all in kind of thing. It takes all of us. And if the drivers are out there running over each other and creating unnecessary yellows and destroying bumper bars and rocker panels and race cars, and our veterans that are in the series are destroying their cars because of these mistakes or these miscues and getting frustrated, you know, it's. It's gonna. It's going to add caution lapse. It's going to put us in a window where we're now having to force ourselves down pit road to add fuel. It's going to force the series to have to do things and decisions like that that they don't want to make, that they don't normally make.
TJ Majors
Does adding fuel make a real hard scenario for you guys?
Dale Jr.
Adding fuel doesn't make. Adding coming down and stopping the cars and putting fuel in is not a real issue in terms. It doesn't really change much now. You got to do it early because you can't. You can't do it late because some guys are. Have already come to pit road fueled up. They see the. They see the issue that's coming.
Chase Elliott
Yeah.
Dale Jr.
And they're prepared for it. And now you've taken their advantage away. So you got to bring them down. You've got to know the lap number. Like at Wake, we should have said, all right, if we get to lap, if we get to 200 laps, cautions and greens. Right. Or whatever that number may be, we're coming. We're not even going to chance it. We're going to. If we get to this number, we're going to bring them to pit road. What. The reason why you don't want to do that is twofold. Right? Fueling cars on fueling cars is dangerous.
TJ Majors
Feeling cars dangerous.
Dale Jr.
These are hot race cars. You're going to have guys, nobody's got any protection. You're going to have guys trying to rush to put fuel in cars and it's dangerous. Their car. You know that, that is a scary thing for me. We don't want the liability and, and guys are all packed on pit road, nose to tail. You know, it just, it's, it could be a potential hazard.
TJ Majors
Could be.
Dale Jr.
I don't love guys putting fuel in even when they're coming down pit road by themselves. Right?
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Jr.
We just don't want to add fuel during the race because we don't have, we're not fueling cars like cup cars. They have a, you know, we don't have quick connects and all that stuff. You, you, you, you pour it into a funnel out of a five gallon jug and it just hopefully gets all in there, right?
TJ Majors
Yeah. Late models shouldn't be refueling during the race.
Dale Jr.
It's dangerous. The second part is, and this isn't that this is important, but it shouldn't affect our integrity and how we call the race. And I've, I've, I've gave our team that information. The br. We're watching a broad. We have a broadcast. We gotta package it neatly. If we pull the cars down pit road and stop for 20 minutes, then we lose our audience. They change to the next thing. We had modifieds at Martinsville, we had Nash, we had a hickory arca going on. We had a lot of, a lot of competition going on that night. But that shouldn't really make us, that shouldn't really affect our decisions. And I've told our team, I've shared with them in the past, like, hey, man, we need to have a good show. We need to think about the streaming audience. That's maybe some bad advice. Our guys in the booth, Danny, everybody in the booth just needs to call a race of integrity with no regard to what it might look like on tv. Right? Just call it a race of integrity for all of our competitors who are there and, and everything else should take care of itself. So we have a race like this every, every year and it is so disappointing. But, you know, all we can do is try to tell our competitors that we expect more out of ourselves. We expect more out of them and we hope on our end that we're going to show up next week and get it right. Connor Jones won the race. He's worked in the series for a long time, worked really hard. Carroll team celebrated a win. They've been a big supporter of the series for a long time. It was great to see that that group have success. Going to Nashville in a couple of weeks, April 11th for the next race. And I'll be there trying to compete and you know, hopefully we have a much smoother event than we had at wake. All right, it's time for this month's selection of our ultimate racing collector, presented by Lionel racing. They're the official diecast of nascar. They're your go to source for all your racing diecast needs. Check out the latest pre orders@lionel racing.com. this month's winner is Chester. Chester Chester Junior. Let's take a look. We're going. We're downstairs. It appears in. In his man cave. There's a lot of standups on the wall. Headed down there. David Alice. Davey. Allison. David Allison. A lot of tail pieces. Oh, a whole side of Newman's car
TJ Majors
with a Newman stand.
Dale Jr.
Oh, a rookie Earnhardt bumper. There's a whole side of Dale Earnhardt's car with a stand up of Dale Earnhardt. This is insane.
Travis
It's got some shuffleboards, shuffleboard, bumper pool.
Dale Jr.
Just a bunch of body panels, tons of rear bumpers.
TJ Majors
Is that a 33 pit size?
Dale Jr.
My gosh. The rear bumpers this guy has. And he's got his nice. His TV with the damn 1979 Daytona 500 playing. Got your little kitchenette right there. That's awesome, man.
TJ Majors
Is that an official?
Dale Jr.
Got a few bathrooms, a couple of jackets.
Travis
I don't think he has a few bathrooms. I think this is one.
Dale Jr.
That might be two. That's all three doors. Might be a man's man. Man and female bathroom. You don't know. Oh, the old school STP uniform is super cool. Let's take another run through.
TJ Majors
It's got lighting going down the stairs to make it safe.
Dale Jr.
Let's take another run through. Let's take another drive. Got the Bobby Allison emblem up top. A lot of flags hanging from the ceiling. That's cool. The yellow caution light. Nice touch.
TJ Majors
There's a butt, eight rookie stripes.
Dale Jr.
Oh, a little racing on the TV there. Got the Rusty Wallace number two light over the. Oh, there's a bathroom.
TJ Majors
There it is.
Dale Jr.
There's race cars in the bathroom. All right. Got your little table right here. You have your couple beers.
Chase Elliott
Dang.
TJ Majors
A Dave Laney 93 car.
Dale Jr.
And there's some bumpers. There are a lot of bumpers on here again. Got the toolbox. I wonder if the toolbox has got. It's kind of like the pantry spree. How about that, huh?
TJ Majors
Nice. Yeah. Yeah.
Dale Jr.
There's the Richard Petty uniform. Crew uniform. Very cool.
TJ Majors
The whole thing.
Dale Jr.
What's on the floor right there? I don't know.
TJ Majors
Back up just a little bit. Trash.
Dale Jr.
What was that on the floor right next to the uniform?
TJ Majors
Right.
Dale Jr.
Right there.
TJ Majors
Oh, catch cans.
Dale Jr.
Okay. Got some catch cans. I think so.
TJ Majors
Anyway.
Dale Jr.
I think you're right. That's super cool, man. There's the uniform, the official uniform on the stand up. Pretty awesome, Chester. He is the winner of this month's selection of the Ultimate Racing Collector, presented by Lionel Racing. We'll do this every month. It's. You know, if you want to win, send in your videos. We'll tell you next time.
Travis
We'll let you know when.
Dale Jr.
Yeah, we'll let you know when. We're gonna post on social media and how to get a. Get attached to that. But good job, Lester. That was Chester. Chester. Chester. That was a great job by him. Great video. Thank you very much. Hey, Everybody, it's Dale Jr. Back again for another episode of Ask Junior. We want to thank Xfinity for waving the red flag on Internet price hikes and raising the green flag for savings. You get the speed and reliability in your WI fi that you need locked in at one point price for five years. Pretty incredible. No surprises, no late yellows, just straight to victory lane. We like that. We've got a winner in Xfinity. Imagine that. So let's get right to it.
Travis
First question is, how the hell did you sign Chris Buchard cards?
Dale Jr.
I was leaving the racetrack Saturday, walking out of the racetrack after the race, and there's a bunch of autographs seekers, for lack of a better word, standing around the tunnel in turn four, and they've got Diecast. You know, they're. You know, you're going to sign a few, and you're walking and talking. The guy hands me a book. It's got a bunch of blue and white cards. I'm in my blue stuff. So is busher. And I didn't even look down. I'm talking to the guy. I'm like, yeah, man. How's it going? Oh, man, awesome. Awesome. And then I noticed I signed Chris, and I didn't notice I'd signed two. I just noticed I'd signed one. I was like, oh, darn. I'm so sorry. And he goes, oh, it's okay.
Travis
Blah, blah, blah.
Dale Jr.
And then we walked away. And then I stopped, and I Said, hey, let me take a picture of that. So I walked back over and took a picture of it because I thought I'd have some fun because Chris Buescher is an awesome dude. I know I give him a little every now and then on the show, but it's because he has such a great personality. I really enjoy Chris and so I thought he'd think that was funny, which he did. Reply, he said, man, it's, it happens. I imagine, you know, you got the beard, the blue, the, the this that
Travis
I can see you just, you're just signing and you just never know. Next question is this weekend cups off. But O'Reilly is out there at Rockingham and Cletus will be racing. Have you given any advice or what would you advice would you give him if he asked for racing this weekend?
Dale Jr.
I told Cletus to stay out of the news, right? Go race, have fun. Don't try to be, I mean he's, he listen, if my expectation, and I mean this in the best possible way, my expectation is for him to, to not be fast, right.
TJ Majors
He's not gonna be a top 10 car, right.
Dale Jr.
Don't try to do any hero, just go out there, run the laps, learn. He's like, man, I talked to him the other night, he's like, man, I don't want to embarrass myself. I hope I'm, hope I can be good. Like, don't even worry about being good. You don't be good in race one. You go out, you need, you go think about the long game like you gonna need a bunch of races for this starts to work. Click. Make sense. This is just about going out there running the lapse and he's getting thrown into the game, right? He's the, you know, he's the backup quarterback or third string guy that didn't get any reps with the one team and he's getting thrown into the game in third quarter. Just go out there and don't make a fool yourself. Don't force a pass and throw that interception on the first throw. Yeah, you turn the whole damn stadium against you. Damn it, T.J. i'm just messing with, don't miss a shift.
Travis
Yeah, I just hope he goes out
TJ Majors
there and just go have fun, go be, just finish the race, right? If he finishes the race, he'll probably come out of there with the top 20ish, maybe and that's a success.
Dale Jr.
I think I would say that if he doesn't wreck, doesn't crash his car, doesn't crash other cars. If that's one thing. The other thing is, is when he's getting lapped, which is possible, he needs to be very clear on where he wants to be on the racetrack so that he is not part of the story. Doesn't impede anybody or get in anybody's way. If he can do that, that's great. Right? And that's it. I mean, that's really it. Come on. And all pit road, have some pit stops. Do everything conservatively. Learn what you can learn. Go through the. Go through the process. Get out and go. All right, I'm ready for the next one.
TJ Majors
Yeah, I agree.
Dale Jr.
That's it. I don't care where he finishes.
TJ Majors
Yeah, just get reps.
Dale Jr.
There should be nobody saying, all right, man. I think a top 25 is doable. That shouldn't even be in the conversation. Just go out there and run all the laps.
Travis
Next question comes from the chat here. Skater Nate wants to know what's up with the green flag behind you.
Dale Jr.
Oh, this is the green flag. I was told, and I really kind of believe it to be true, but this is the green flag. This is the green flag that was waved at the 1998 Daytona 500. The dad won, and it's signed by Dan Marino, who waved. Now, the reason why I believe this to be the green flag is because of the material. This is like, if it's very, very thin, it is not a production piece. It's not like a produced, hey, man, we're gonna make a bunch of flags and have some guy sign them. How it's. How it's pinned right here is. Is intentional and important. Typically, production flags are just put on. On the stick and then. And they're not pinned. Yeah. Glued or whatever.
Travis
Yeah.
Dale Jr.
And there's some writing here. There's a lot of little numbers and stuff written down here that I think has something to do with the flagman. The length of the stick beyond the flag itself tells me that this is a race used flag. A flag that's going to be used. Usually produced pieces usually make stick longer. And the length of the flag. Right. Usually produced flags are square. This flag is rectangular in length because that is the preference of the flag man. And years and years of flagging, he's like, that's how I want to do it. That's how I want. And so, yeah, I think this is actually the flag that was waved at the 1998. The person that gave it to me says it was.
TJ Majors
That's pretty cool.
Dale Jr.
I trust the person that gave it to me. Pretty cool to have Stuff like that. I, you know, I spent my whole life not really an active collector of things, and I haven't really been. I wasn't like, oh, I want some more. I want dad stuff. I want suits. I didn't think. I, you know, I thought that stuff was out there, and it was no way I was ever going to get any of my hands on things like that. But for whatever reason, as I got older people, some of that stuff's starting to come back in my direction. And it's not an. It's not something I'm seeking out. But every now and then, there's a person that's like, I've had this and I've had it forever, and now it's yours. And, yeah, it's pretty cool. So I've gotten, like, Iraq uniforms. I've gotten some really cool uniforms of dads. I have. Off top of my head, you know, I've got a couple of good wrench uniforms. And he ran that car for many, many years. So there's a lot of years when. When he would have been in the white uniform. But I have a 19,7980 rookie uniform. I have the uniform that he won his first cup race in at Bristol, and he also wore that uniform in 1980 at a few events. I have an 81 uniform. I have an 84 uniform. So I have some. I have a Bush series uniform that he. That he wore around 84, 85. So I've got some pretty cool stuff from way back in the day that harder, obviously, to find the older things, and I'm thankful that some of that stuff's found its way into my possession. So. Yeah, that's pretty neat.
Travis
This next question came from. On Facebook. I saw. Have you had the nerds jelly beans yet?
TJ Majors
I've not. They looked good, though. I saw them.
Dale Jr.
I don't like jelly beans. Controversial take.
Travis
I know, but have you had the. But I feel like nerds. I feel like you might like.
Dale Jr.
No, I do, but I don't like jelly beans. Can't get past it.
Travis
I don't know, man.
Dale Jr.
I don't like jelly beans. They're kind of like in the licorice vein to me.
TJ Majors
They are.
Dale Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
The new nerd things they come out with a year or two ago or
Dale Jr.
the rope and the.
TJ Majors
No, the clusters. The clusters are awesome.
Dale Jr.
Clusters are good.
TJ Majors
Clusters are very good.
Dale Jr.
Yeah, they are.
Travis
Any other Easter candy that you got? You guys like to get anything specific? I know you love your candy or is it just general? Doesn't matter.
Dale Jr.
I'm I'm in a non candy kind of.
TJ Majors
That's weird phase.
Dale Jr.
I know.
Travis
Are you feeling okay?
TJ Majors
Yeah. I mean, you see.
Dale Jr.
Well, I mean, I got that giant bag from Key West.
Travis
Yeah.
Dale Jr.
Like a week ago. So I'm like, all right, time to take a little break.
TJ Majors
But have you bought the girl some Peeps yet?
Dale Jr.
No. No.
Travis
Do you like Peeps?
Dale Jr.
No. Not a marshmallow kind of guy.
TJ Majors
So there's so many different flavors they're coming out with now. Like, you go to the grocery store and look at the wall, there are some. So many different flavors. Have you seen it?
Travis
Yeah, but I'm just not so many. I feel like as a kid, I would eat a couple. But now as an adult, like, just eating a marshmallows.
Dale Jr.
Not in my. Yeah, not on my list.
Travis
Yeah.
Dale Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
Kids love them.
Dale Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
Kids tear them up.
Dale Jr.
I know. I don't. Yeah, they. My girls love to eat marshmallows. I don't.
TJ Majors
Yeah, they do.
Dale Jr.
Yeah.
Travis
I think it's just a kid thing maybe.
Dale Jr.
Yeah. I don't know.
Travis
Oh, so now they're having a debate on. Somebody said they're a big Pop Tart guy. Another guy said that they love toastered strudels. Either of those.
TJ Majors
I saw something get advertised. Was there like a. I guess they're making Pop Tart ice cream now. Like, literally, there's like. It's like a Pop Tart on it. Like an ice cream stick. I don't know if it's true or not, but I saw something about it,
Travis
like, grind, Smashing the pot up.
TJ Majors
Type it in. I don't know. I don't really think you're. I don't know if I've ever even see you eat a Pop Tart. Have you ever eaten a Pop Tart?
Dale Jr.
Oh, yeah.
TJ Majors
Really? Strawberry.
Dale Jr.
I've ate a Pop Tart. But then I look at the. How many calories?
TJ Majors
Oh, it's bad.
Dale Jr.
It's so bad.
TJ Majors
It's like 700 or something.
Dale Jr.
It's a lot. It is a lot.
TJ Majors
Yeah, it is a lot.
Dale Jr.
That made me think about it.
TJ Majors
Did you see. No. There's no way.
Travis
Per serving.
TJ Majors
Yeah, but there's like 12 servings in
Dale Jr.
a box, so if I'm gonna eat 400 calories, I'm gonna eat more than just a one single Pop Tartar.
Travis
That's not gonna fill you.
Dale Jr.
No. It's crazy that there's that many calories in that size of a meal. Right. I mean, I could ra. I'd rather get a. You know. I don't know.
TJ Majors
Is there an ice cream. Oh, there it is right there.
Dale Jr.
Ice ice cream. Pop tarts.
TJ Majors
Pop Tart ice cream. Oh, my gosh.
Dale Jr.
Oh. So that the Good Humor? Yeah. Yeah, dude, Good Humor. That's some really good stuff.
Travis
I've never.
Dale Jr.
Dude, they're so good, it's funny. Not. Not so much the pop Tart ones, they're fine. I'm sure. But the regular Good Humor bars, yeah, they got. I think I got strawberry and they got chocolate. They got Oreo.
Travis
Oh, I've had cookies and cream.
TJ Majors
Yeah, it's good chocolate before. It's really good.
Dale Jr.
Good. Yep. The Good Humor bars, that Good Humor, Creamsicle, and Good Humor, you know, now
TJ Majors
that's worth the calories.
Dale Jr.
Yeah. Creamsicle ice cream.
TJ Majors
Oh, man.
Dale Jr.
Is. Is top three.
TJ Majors
Not nowadays, but I agree.
Dale Jr.
What are your top three ice cream flavors? Creamsicle, lime sherbet, mint, chocolate chip, vanilla,
TJ Majors
orange sherbet, and birthday cake cake batter.
Dale Jr.
Vanilla.
TJ Majors
Yeah, I like vanilla, man. It's good.
Travis
I'm with Teach. Like, I get a vanilla.
Dale Jr.
It's good. I know it's good, but it's top three. I mean, vanilla is good, but it's like you've got all the world in front of you, all the flavors.
TJ Majors
But I want one like that. I can always go back to good. Classic. Classic.
Dale Jr.
Flavor's important, but, like, vanilla is, like, five, six. Vanilla is a staple. It's locked into the top ten.
TJ Majors
Okay. Harvick.
Dale Jr.
What?
TJ Majors
Locked in.
Travis
We got some rocky Road, fans.
Dale Jr.
Rocky Road.
TJ Majors
Yeah. I can't go wrong.
Dale Jr.
You got anybody saying vanilla? Is anybody in there got vanilla in their top three?
Travis
It wouldn't be my top three, but a good, like, vanilla, like, milkshake is.
Dale Jr.
Yeah, we're talking about top three threes. I need to hear other people saying vanilla.
Travis
Somebody says cake batter tastes like straight sugar.
Dale Jr.
What is everybody in there's opinion about TJ picking vanilla?
Travis
Lone Wolf is liking the vanilla.
Dale Jr.
He's aptly named Lone Wolf.
Travis
MTG Place, Cookies and Cream, Mint Mint Chip, and Vanilla 58 Music. I rock with vanilla. Brett Caney. Vanilla is great.
TJ Majors
Have you had enough yet?
Dale Jr.
I like vanilla. It's in my top 10.
TJ Majors
You're gonna like it more now.
Dale Jr.
No, I won't. You can go.
Travis
Tell me what French Vanilla Mitchell says vanilla's the goat.
Dale Jr.
All right.
TJ Majors
And I'm.
Dale Jr.
Anybody saying TJ's crazy. TJ's a crazy man. Get him out of here. Just.
Travis
Nope.
TJ Majors
Lone Wolf would have been it.
Dale Jr.
Vanilla in the top three.
Travis
I can't put it in my top three. TJ did I could do, like, my top five.
TJ Majors
It's hard. If you said, you got ice cream, you got a melody. Yeah, that's fine. You're always going to take it.
Dale Jr.
TJ's like, hey, man, my favorite numbers. 0 double 01 and 10 and. And 99. Yeah.
TJ Majors
The people are proving you wrong here.
Dale Jr.
I don't agree. I don't. We don't know the whole story.
Travis
We got a. TJ's crazy. Oh, well, it's not top three, but top 10 for sure.
Dale Jr.
Leaning back the other way.
Travis
No, it's not one world says no, we love tj.
TJ Majors
There you go. Back to the other way.
Dale Jr.
Some are all these people, TJ's family members. What is going on here? Is that what happens when we do these lives? It's just TJ's family watching some TJ.
TJ Majors
We barely have Internet.
Dale Jr.
Yeah.
Travis
TJ should be in jail. Send TJ home for the day. What do you think about Neapolitan? Someone put that in there.
Dale Jr.
Yeah, I know.
Travis
I can't get. My grandma would always have it. It was like, that's the ice cream she'd have.
Dale Jr.
Like, no, I. I will say I. I do like the idea that I don't have to change. I don't have to go to the. I do like not having to go to the freezer to get the other bucket out. I just gotta move the spoon over an inch to get something different.
Travis
Somebody said TJ's favorite color is beige.
Dale Jr.
Neapolitans are really lazy people. They're like, man, just put it all in one bucket.
Travis
Who put the poll up for us? Is vanilla top 10? We're not debating if it's top 10. Is that you, Elijah?
Dale Jr.
Go, Elijah.
Travis
No, he said top 10, though. We want to know if it's top three.
Dale Jr.
Making his a dude. Absolutely top 10. He's over here. He's over here living his life. Let's let him do his thing. He doesn't need any direction. Yeah. How about the ice cream sandwich? Let's. Let's move on from flavors to. Now we're going to do top three ice cream treats. All right, now, the ice cream sandwich is an. Is an oldie and a goodie.
Travis
Yes.
Dale Jr.
But it. It'd be like putting, you know, TJ putting vanilla in the top three. I can't go ice cream sandwich in my top three.
TJ Majors
Did you get them in school a lot? They scream. Yeah, and like, little cups.
Dale Jr.
Simple, good, served a purpose. But not my favorite.
Travis
Did you guys ever have the schwann man?
TJ Majors
Oh, yeah.
Travis
There's A lot of they drive around and you just deliver ice cream and.
TJ Majors
Yeah, it's awesome.
Dale Jr.
You know the Klondike bars?
Travis
Oh, yeah.
Dale Jr.
Used to have those as a sponsor. We had Klondike.
TJ Majors
Klondikes are awesome.
Dale Jr.
They are awesome, but damn, are they messy.
TJ Majors
They are. They break up, but it's good.
Dale Jr.
How come they can't figure out a better way for those things to be, to be consumed? Because you take, you get the Klondike bar and you take a bite and now it's just, it's busted and it's, it's just gonna melt into pieces.
TJ Majors
I won't eat ice cream sandwiches anymore because Stella left the freezer open one time and I had a box of them in there, so they don't even melt. And I'm like, I'm not eating that.
Travis
Oh, well, have you tried the Snickers or Twix ice cream bar?
TJ Majors
I wanna, Is there a Biscoff ice
Travis
cream that'll change your life? If the other Snickers.
Dale Jr.
Pretty good ice cream bar.
Travis
It'll change your life.
Dale Jr.
I, I, I got a complex, though, about things that are like, I, I, I cannot put a brand name candy that's now turned ice cream in my top three.
TJ Majors
Like a Reese's ice cream. You're not doing that.
Dale Jr.
I can't. Because it was candy first.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Jr.
And it doesn't, it, it don't, it don't, you know, it don't have the, it ain't paid the dues, so it's
Travis
like racing in the O'Reilly series. It just can't.
TJ Majors
I'm surprised you didn't say, I'm surprised Reese's wasn't on your list somewhere because you like.
Dale Jr.
I like, I like Reese's. But Reese's. Reese's is good.
Travis
Somebody just had a classic. They mentioned the Choco Taco.
Dale Jr.
Those are good. Yeah. So I would say a Good Humor bar. The chocolate eclair is in my top three of ice cream treats. I would also say.
TJ Majors
Klondike.
Dale Jr.
No. Raw.
TJ Majors
Really?
Dale Jr.
No, because they're too messy. You got it. You're, you're almost in a race against the clock to eat.
TJ Majors
Oh, they melt so fast.
Dale Jr.
I don't like that.
TJ Majors
Yeah, You're in a race against the clock with it.
Dale Jr.
You are.
Travis
I always did like when you had that.
Dale Jr.
Let's look at some treats. What's that? Hit the red one. The big red square right there in the middle. Boom. Hit that. Bring that up. Okay. Yeah. What do we got there?
TJ Majors
Oh, the cookie sandwich. The cookie Ice cream.
Dale Jr.
I do like that.
TJ Majors
Yeah, I do, too. Oh, the classic. Whatever that thing. The middle, top row is.
Dale Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
What is it, like a.
Dale Jr.
No, top, top, middle.
Travis
The drumstick.
TJ Majors
Yeah, like those.
Dale Jr.
I'm doing the drumstick.
Travis
Yeah.
Dale Jr.
Drumsticks in my top three.
TJ Majors
Yeah, me, too.
Dale Jr.
And I know I said creamsicle flavor is in my three, but it. The Creamsicle, you know, frozen ice cream.
Travis
Can we find a way to get the Sugarlands Creamsicle into a adult Popsicle?
Dale Jr.
I don't know. Yeah, I'm sure.
TJ Majors
I'm sure that'd be amazing.
Dale Jr.
The chocolate chip cookie sandwich is a. Is a. It's a good one.
Travis
And that's a good way to keep the ice cream together. I feel like it's not as messy much.
Dale Jr.
It's just too much.
Travis
It is heavy.
Dale Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
And they start putting chocolate chips, like, from back in the day. I don't remember them putting chocolate chips.
Dale Jr.
What are some of the ones we're missing? I'm sure there's some badass chocolate ice cream treats out there that we're not even thinking about.
Chase Elliott
Yeah.
Dale Jr.
What are they saying in the chat? The drumsticks definitely on our top. My top three skull images.
TJ Majors
All right.
Dale Jr.
Oh, a lot of cookies.
TJ Majors
A lot of cookies.
Dale Jr.
Damn, I love that drumstick.
Travis
What about the bomb pop? It's not ice cream, but.
TJ Majors
What's the bomb pop? The. The Popsicle.
Dale Jr.
The red, white, blue thing. Now, I mean, it's a stable, but it ain't.
Travis
Oh, somebody in the chat. The Flintstone Push pops.
Dale Jr.
You remember those? Yeah, they were good. Another. Another race against.
TJ Majors
That's what I was thinking. That thing starts dripping out the bottom of it.
Dale Jr.
That's pretty messy.
Travis
Yeah, it is. That's Streania for the day.
Dale Jr.
All right, everybody, I appreciate y' all tuning in. This was a fun one. We just sit here and shot and had a lot of fun. Hope y' all enjoyed joining us. Thank you, Xfinity, for waving the red flag on Internet price hikes and waving the green flag on savings. Get the WI FI service that, you know, the speed, the reliability. One price, five years. No surprises. No late yellows. It's all there. Get right to victory Lane. No surprises with. With Xfinity. Imagine that. We'll see you tomorrow. Hey, this is Dale Hart Jr. And for all the latest Dale Jr. Download gear, including the I'm will 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. Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen, place your bets. Get your bets down, ladies and gentlemen. Get your bed. Time for another episode of Dirty Modo. This segment brought to you by fanduel. And Russ's called in. Good to see Russ and yeah, pretty good. Buddy. Tim's is here. Travis, TJ Majors right off the top. Man, you did a good job this past weekend teeing up the. You gave out the name Chase. Elliot is somebody for us to be paying attention to. And he pulls through with the wins. Tim, you had a bet on him at plus 900 to win.
TJ Majors
Yes, I did. Thank you, Russ.
Dale Jr.
Yes. Welcome. That's two and a job.
Travis
Predictor. Two in a row for the Predictor.
Dale Jr.
You told us to avoid Redick. I don't think that was a big surprise. Redick has struggled there. He admitted that he wasn't, you know, too excited about that event. But shout out to the predictor. We give the predictor a hard time.
Travis
TJ does.
TJ Majors
TJ does think everybody does.
Dale Jr.
I respect mostly TJ mostly. But Predictor got lucky. The Predictor is pretty badass. No cup racing this weekend. Just trucks. No rally at Rockingham. Sammy Smith won there last year after I think Love was disqualified.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Jr.
Who's the favorite this weekend? Oh, it's got to be your guy Allgaier. Damn.
Travis
Two in a row.
Dale Jr.
You know, he was caught up in a wreck there last year. I think he was running top five towards the end. You know, he's going for three in a row. Junior Motorsports going for six in a row. It's got to be a Junior Motorsports car. I know Jesse Love was really fast there last year, but you guys got it going on this year. Well, right.
TJ Majors
This win streak the JRM has ever had.
Dale Jr.
This one. Five in a row, is it?
Travis
Yeah.
Dale Jr.
The longest all time is Gibbs at 6. So going to tie.
TJ Majors
Oh, wow.
Dale Jr.
Yeah, man.
TJ Majors
You coming?
Dale Jr.
I will not be there. I'm going to Texas for.
TJ Majors
Oh, that's right.
Dale Jr.
Yep. Gotta go do the family thing. But I'll be watching and pulling for our group. You know, there's a. There's no lines out right now. No. It's tough. What do we do?
TJ Majors
Just gotta pick names out of a hat here.
Travis
Who are some other names?
Dale Jr.
One that's not going to be towards the very top. But we got to look at Brent Cruz this weekend. He won an ARCA east race there last year. He's. He's in Gibbs equipment. I think he's. He's one we have to really seriously look at for a long shot is Parker.
TJ Majors
Red Slaw finished second last Year, Russ. Do you see he's had a good year so far. Good top 10 bed or.
Dale Jr.
I don't know, man. He. I cannot bet Parker. I can't bet Parker because he lost to the computer in our Xbox college football dynasty. Oh, that's tough.
Travis
That's bad luck.
Dale Jr.
That is very.
TJ Majors
Odds makers are not very suspect.
Dale Jr.
Does the predictor know about this?
Travis
Yeah, maybe he's more focused on the race.
TJ Majors
N. You can't recover from that.
Chase Elliott
Yeah.
TJ Majors
You know, these two weeks. You don't.
Dale Jr.
He's probably going to kick her ass tonight in our league race.
TJ Majors
Oh, God. Yeah. The predictor would say that at Rockingham.
Dale Jr.
By the way.
TJ Majors
It's at. No, it's. It.
Dale Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
Chicago.
Dale Jr.
Oh, it's at Chicago.
TJ Majors
Still going to win. It doesn't matter if it was Rockingham or Chicago or.
Dale Jr.
Yep.
TJ Majors
Wherever.
Dale Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
He's having a good year though, so.
Dale Jr.
Oh, dude, that team is doing a hell of a job.
TJ Majors
They are.
Dale Jr.
Yep. They really are. For trucks, Corey Heim, he'll be driving the number one for tricon. Do we feel as confident about Corey Heim in a part time schedule as you know, he was pretty automatic last year. Where's your guts?
Travis
Yeah.
Dale Jr.
Yes. Oh, really? No doubt. No doubt.
TJ Majors
You can't. You can't be as confident him because there's no way.
Dale Jr.
Why not?
TJ Majors
Because you're not.
Dale Jr.
Well, he might be with a different crew chief.
TJ Majors
He is. He's with a different.
Dale Jr.
It might be completely. He might be. He wanted Darlington in the five truck he's never been with before. Okay. And he's been with the 22 already this year.
TJ Majors
I'm just saying it's not as easy to. That continuity is not as easy when you.
Dale Jr.
Josevar is going to be racing in the 77 for Spire.
TJ Majors
I feel like Jose var could have a really good weekend there.
Dale Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
I really do. I feel like Carson could have a really good weekend.
Dale Jr.
I would take the field. I. I really would.
TJ Majors
I like.
Dale Jr.
I think it's a better bet.
TJ Majors
Yeah, I like Lane too. Truck race could be really good.
Travis
What's a number that you wouldn't bet Corey Heim at? Like, what would you need to see
TJ Majors
if it's got a plus next to it? I'm probably betting Corey Heim too.
Dale Jr.
What do you think the odds are on the field if you took the field?
TJ Majors
I actually think it'll be. So it'd probably be Heim than Hosvar. Heim will probably be like plus 150. Host of our. Probably be around plus 300. I actually think Lane Riggs would be
Dale Jr.
like plus 900 and I would take that.
TJ Majors
What about Honeycutt? Honeycutt's on there too.
Dale Jr.
I think he's around like +800 plus.
TJ Majors
I feel like this could be the weekend that he breaks through. Yeah.
Chase Elliott
For sure.
Dale Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
Those four. I think it's between those four.
Dale Jr.
It's gonna be pretty interesting. I. Who are some of the dark horses maybe or some of the. Somebody that could surprise us in the o' rally race. I know we mentioned Parker, but it's pretty interesting field of cars and drivers. And you're gonna have Cletus out there. Where do you think Cletus ends up? What's the pretty good predictor? Tell us about that. I'll take the over.
Travis
Do they interview him during the race?
Dale Jr.
That's a very valid question. I'd say the odds are high. But I love that he's in the race. Like he tested there. Did well in the test. Right. So I watched the video. He busted his ass in turn three and saved it. But still like he. I know. But he's been there twice in a truck and a rally car and lost control of the car and the truck each time at some point. And that's on the racetrack all alone. I just. I know that he can stay in his lane or in his box, but he doesn't. He. He's not. He's not familiar with a lot of the arrow situations he's going to find himself in. And he might drive into a situation aerodynamically that could be problematic and turn to just like. Just like at Daytona. Right. That was an arrow thing, how he spun that truck out off the four and he didn't realize that was a bad spot. Right. Or that that could happen. And it kind of jumped up and bit him.
TJ Majors
I really feel like turn two is a tough spot at Rockingham. It sneaks up on people. It's a really tight exit late.
Dale Jr.
Yep. So, yeah, I agree. The odds are high that he's maybe getting interviewed before the end of the race. And, you know, obviously I think we're all happy that he's trying to go do this, but it's. It's going to be a real challenge.
Travis
I'm curious how much sim time he's had.
Dale Jr.
Probably tons. I think that he's gotten all the prep that would be necessary and possible.
TJ Majors
So I feel like at time doesn't.
Dale Jr.
Doesn't sometimes missing a tons of bells and whistles.
TJ Majors
I'm with Russ on the JRM cars too. I feel like they're going to be really good there.
Dale Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
As well. I know. I know. Carson likes that place a lot too. And Sammy got the win.
Dale Jr.
What about Corey Day? Corey Day starting to show some, you know, get closer and closer, inching further and further up that grid.
TJ Majors
Corey Day has put together probably a couple solid races. The best two race streak that I've seen him do at tough places.
Dale Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
Arguably two of the toughest places that we go.
Travis
He's gonna have a fast car.
TJ Majors
Yeah. Honestly, I like, I like the direction Corey Day is heading in right now as well. Like, he's not making the big mistakes now. He's hanging out racing with guys. Like he's doing good.
Dale Jr.
Well, that's the Dirty Modo segment brought to you by FanDuel, the premier gaming destination in the United States. Russell, thank you for chiming in. Thanks for joining us from the Arby studio. It's been a fun one today. Don't forget about Arby's new meet and three box. You get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meats. We'll see you tomorrow. Check out DirtyMomedia on Instagram, Facebook X and TikTok.
Chase Elliott
I need to start off the new
Dale Jr.
year right by getting the most for my money.
Chase Elliott
I just opened a goto bank account
Travis
and it's paying off out the gate.
Dale Jr.
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TJ Majors
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Host: Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Co-Hosts/Guests: TJ Majors, Travis, Chase Elliott (guest interview)
Podcast by: Dirty Mo Media, SiriusXM
This episode offers a deep dive into NASCAR’s Hall of Fame ballot debates, the nuances of racing etiquette and retaliation (“Rules of Retaliation”), life behind the scenes at Junior Motorsports, and a detailed breakdown of the recent Martinsville NASCAR race weekends. It features guest Chase Elliott, fresh off his Martinsville win, discussing race strategy, his team dynamic, and the iconic grandfather clock trophy.
Dale Jr. and his co-hosts blend behind-the-scenes stories with candid opinions on current NASCAR issues, such as Hall of Fame voting philosophies, chaos and responsibility during short-track races, and evolving points systems.
Time: 08:20 – 27:11
Time: 03:15 – 08:20
Time: 30:29 – 42:57
Xfinity/O’Reilly Race:
Changing Points System:
Time: 42:57 – 47:03
Time: 51:36 – 56:15
Time: 57:27 – 71:18
Time: 72:08 – 80:34
Time: 81:47 – 88:58
Time: 91:18 – 113:33
The episode blends spirited, sometimes nostalgic bench-racing with sharp insight into how racing’s “unwritten rules” and official mechanisms collide. Dal Jr.’s casual, candid, Southern-fried delivery helps listeners feel embedded in the world he’s describing—whether it’s Hall of Fame politics, a pit-road mishap, or a heated post-race exchange. Banter over pop culture snacks and vintage memorabilia rounds things out with humor and warmth.
For NASCAR fans, this episode encapsulates why Dale Jr. Download remains beloved: unfiltered opinions, reverence for history, “inside baseball” perspectives on the sport’s structure and evolving culture, and access to the drivers and decision-makers who shape it. Whether debating the Hall of Fame, defending a battered rookie, or squabbling over vanilla ice cream, Dale Jr. and company keep it real, relatable, and fun for die-hards and casual fans alike.