Dale's Dream, Fuel Saving & Fixing Overtime

Summary

Summary of "Dale's Dream, Fuel Saving & Fixing Overtime" Episode of The Dale Jr. Download

In the June 10, 2025 release of The Dale Jr. Download podcast hosted by NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr., alongside co-hosts TJ Majors and Travis Mack, listeners are treated to an engaging discussion blending personal anecdotes, strategic insights, and technical analyses of current NASCAR dynamics. The episode delves into Dale's unsettling dream, explores fuel-saving strategies within the sport, and proposes thoughtful modifications to overtime rules to enhance competitive integrity.

---

1. Dale's Dream: Navigating the Unconscious in Racing

Timestamp: [00:00 – 08:22]

The episode opens with Dale Earnhardt Jr. sharing a vivid and frightening dream that intertwines personal fears with professional concerns. In the dream, Dale envisions a catastrophic accident involving Travis Mack, one of his co-hosts, highlighting the ever-present dangers in motorsports.

Key Points:

• Emotional Impact: Dale discusses how such dreams, though not predictive, reflect underlying anxieties about race safety and the well-being of peers.
• Influence on Racing Strategy: The dream underscores the importance of mental preparedness and focus, emphasizing that off-track stressors can subconsciously influence on-track decisions.
• Team Dynamics: The conversation hints at the deep camaraderie and mutual concern among racing teams, reinforcing the tight-knit nature of the NASCAR community.

Notable Quotes:

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. [03:33]:
  “It's terrifying, but I'm glad it was just a dream.”

• Travis Mack [07:34]:
  “You just heard about me. Everyone’s got a little bit of information.”

---

2. Fuel Saving Strategies: The New Frontier in NASCAR

Timestamp: [08:23 – 20:37]

Transitioning from personal narratives, Dale and his co-hosts delve into the technical aspects of racing, particularly focusing on fuel-saving strategies that have become pivotal in recent NASCAR seasons.

Key Points:

• Single Lug Wheel Impact: The introduction of single lug wheels has revolutionized pit stop efficiencies, making tire changes faster and fueling less time-consuming.
• Fuel Mileage Races: Due to quicker fueling mechanisms, races have increasingly become battles of fuel conservation rather than sheer speed, necessitating strategic planning regarding pit stops and fuel usage.
• Next Gen Car Dynamics: The discussion highlights how advancements in car design, especially aerodynamics, have made fuel management more complex and crucial for race outcomes.

Notable Quotes:

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. [08:46]:
  “We've reached a world where every race is a fuel mileage race because fueling takes longer than tire changes.”

• Travis Mack [16:45]:
  “Defending position through air blocking is now a fundamental skill with the Next Gen cars.”

---

3. Fixing Overtime: Proposing a Fairer Approach

Timestamp: [50:01 – 57:08]

One of the standout segments of the episode is Dale's proposal to refine NASCAR's overtime rules to ensure that race conclusions remain competitive and fair.

Key Points:

• Contested Leads: Dale suggests that overtime attempts should only be triggered if the race lead is contested, specifically if the leader is within one second of the second-place driver when a caution is called.
• Reducing Unnecessary Overlaps: By defining a clear threshold for what constitutes a contested lead, the sport can minimize extended racing periods that often lead to increased risks of accidents and equipment damage.
• Financial Implications: Excessive overtime can strain team budgets, especially for smaller teams competing in the Truck and Xfinity series, making this adjustment not just a safety measure but also an economic consideration.

Notable Quotes:

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. [50:58]:
  “Maybe we should decide what a contested lead is, and if it's not contested, the caution comes out. Fans and us as an industry should embrace that the race was over.”

• Travis Mack [57:09]:
  “It's unnecessary. Too many overtimes are costing us cars and rankings.”

---

4. Technical Insights: Aerodynamics and Racing Ethics

Timestamp: [20:38 – 50:00]

The conversation shifts to the technical nuances of the Next Gen cars, focusing on aerodynamics and the evolving strategies drivers must employ to maintain competitive edge.

Key Points:

• Air Blocking and Defense: Drivers must adeptly manage their positioning to defend their lead while contending with denser, more disruptive air currents behind them.
• Skill Development: Emphasizes the necessity for drivers to develop new skill sets tailored to the Next Gen car's aerodynamics, including precise mirror-checking and strategic lane management.
• Ethical Considerations: Addresses how some modern racing tactics may clash with traditional racing ethics, prompting discussions on sportsmanship and strategic competitiveness.

Notable Quotes:

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. [14:14]:
  “Defending has become a strategy and a skill… It’s something you need to do to sustain track position.”

• TJ Majors [35:16]:
  “Michael McDowell is playing a massive role in building out the front row team to be able to go and win races.”

---

5. Driver Performance and Team Strategies

Timestamp: [50:01 – 75:10]

The hosts analyze recent performances of various drivers, examining the interplay between driver skill and team strategy in achieving race victories.

Key Points:

• Car Performance: Detailed assessment of how specific cars, like the 77 car of Hosavar, showcase consistent speed but sometimes falter due to strategic gambles like fuel mileage.
• Driver Development: Discusses the growth trajectories of drivers like Carson Hosavar and Justin Haley, highlighting the challenges and potentials in their current racing approaches.
• Team Dynamics and Litigation: Explores the recent legal battles Front Row Motorsports and 2311 Racing have engaged in regarding NASCAR's charter system, stressing the financial and competitive implications for the teams involved.

Notable Quotes:

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. [66:22]:
  “Is the 77 car running in the top five or even the top ten every week what we ought to expect going forward?”

• Travis Mack [75:04]:
  “They chose not to sign it and to take NASCAR to court… it’s a big win for NASCAR.”

---

6. Listener Interaction and Future Outlook

Timestamp: [75:25 – 114:05]

Concluding the episode, Dale engages with listeners' questions, offering insights into personal racing philosophies and upcoming projects.

Key Points:

• Becoming Earnhardt Series: Dale introduces his new series, Becoming Earnhardt, which explores his father's racing legacy through intimate scrapbooks and archived interviews, providing fans with a deeper understanding of NASCAR history.
• Personal Reflections: Dale shares his approach to balancing team ownership, broadcasting, and personal life, emphasizing the importance of mental focus and compartmentalization in maintaining competitive performance.
• Future of NASCAR: The discussion touches upon the potential return of manufacturers like Ram to the Truck series and speculates on the evolution of the Xfinity series amidst changing team dynamics and regulations.

Notable Quotes:

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. [89:25]:
  “Becoming Earnhardt is just a show that I started to detail what's in those scrapbooks and the things that we learned.”

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. [84:38]:
  “I've never interrupted the process in which I prepare each and every weekend to ensure my on-track performance remains uncompromised.”

---

Conclusion

"Dale's Dream, Fuel Saving & Fixing Overtime" offers a comprehensive blend of personal storytelling and technical discourse, encapsulating the multifaceted nature of NASCAR racing. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his co-hosts provide listeners with not only engaging narratives but also actionable insights into the strategic elements that drive race outcomes. The episode underscores the delicate balance between driver psychology, team strategy, and evolving technical standards, painting a vivid picture of the current state and future directions of the sport.

Listeners gain a nuanced understanding of how dreams and personal experiences intersect with professional racing strategies, the complexities introduced by new car technologies, and the ongoing discussions aimed at refining racing rules to preserve the sport's competitive integrity.

---

This summary captures the essence of the episode, highlighting key discussions and providing contextual insights for listeners who may not have tuned in.

Transcript

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Should we only have an overtime attempt if the lead was contested? Maybe. We all decided that, man. When the caution came out, if the lead was within one second, that would draw an overtime. If the lead was maybe more than that, by any means. A second and a half to 20 seconds, the race is over. The leader was in clear control on the final lap.

[TJ Majors]

Summer's heating up and so is the.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Action with Trumba Casino and 2311 Racing.

[TJ Majors]

Whether you're trackside with Bubba, Riley and.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Tyler or cooling off at home, the fun never stops at Chumba Casino, the.

[TJ Majors]

Online social casino packed with free to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Play games like slots, bingo, and more. Jump into [e-mail] and score your free welcome bonus.

[TJ Majors]

2 million free gold coins and 2 free sweeps coins.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No purchase necessary.

[TJ Majors]

VGW Group voidware prohibited by law.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

CT&C's 21+ sponsored by Chumba Casino. Still getting around to that fix on your car? You got this on ebay.

[Travis Mack]

You'll find millions of parts guaranteed to fit.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Doesn't matter if it's a major engine repair or your first time swapping your windshield wipers. Ebay has that part you need ready.

[Travis Mack]

To click perfectly into place for changes big and small, loud or quiet. Find all the parts you need at prices you'll love. Guaranteed to fit every time. But you already know that. Ebay things people love. Eligible items only.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Exclusion Supply the following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. I'm still sour, man, that I wasn't your best man at your wedding.

[TJ Majors]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Can you not tell I'm mentally ready?

[Travis Mack]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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

[Travis Mack]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, what the do you want?

[TJ Majors]

I. I just think the last few laps it was just like, stop.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Every time. You ain't picky. This ain't walking in and have it your way, mother. All right. St. Burger King. Travis is like, wrap this up. They don't have no fun around here. Hey, Everybody, it's Dale Jr. Back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. And we're in the Dirty Mo Media studio. And I'm with my. My buddy, my. My. My co host, TJ Majors. Yeah.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah, I'm back.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's back.

[Travis Mack]

It's been a while, man.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You don't know what a pain in the ass it is when you take a break because everybody's wondering what's up, what you Doing. Where you at?

[Travis Mack]

I know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Is he okay? Everybody thought she was dying, but we all knew that you'd be back. I'm glad you're back.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah, it's been a. It's hard being away. You don't realize that until. Yeah, you've went through some of it, I'm sure, but.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, you've had. You've had to take breaks in the past, so.

[Travis Mack]

But it's just hard to be away from whenever you do it every week, to. To not be there and listen to things and see things when you're normally there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So. I don't. I don't like it. Because when you're not busy spotting, you're telling me all that needs to be going on.

[Travis Mack]

I've only told you a little bit. I. I should have told you way more. I could have.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Why? Why do you think I want to hear that?

[Travis Mack]

Well, I need to tell somebody. Oh, so you're the. You're the lucky one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm a lucky one. All right, well, listen, dude, me and Amy were talking on the bless your heart podcast about not remembering dreams. Some people can remember all their dreams, right?

[Travis Mack]

They wake up. I don't remember.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't either. I'm not a person that can really remember dreams. And I was like, yeah, I remember maybe about six dreams a year. Right.

[Travis Mack]

It's a lot, really.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So, yeah, I wake up maybe every couple months and go, oh, man, what a wild dream. And. And. But usually the majority of the year, I don't wake up in the morning and remember the dream I had. But apparently you dream every night, right? That's what they say.

[Travis Mack]

I don't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I had a dream last night.

[Travis Mack]

Oh, did you remember it? Did you write it down?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes. It was scary.

[Travis Mack]

Oh, no, no.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You were in it.

[TJ Majors]

TJ was back.

[Travis Mack]

Oh, gosh.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Do you want to know what happened in this dream? It's pretty freaking scary.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah. I mean, if you remembered it, it must be pretty good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There's bad news for you.

[Travis Mack]

Sounds like it's bad news for you if it's giving you bad dreams.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, it was bad news for me. I woke up brokenhearted, man. I was sad. Oh, man. So this is what happened. I'm telling you, I don't know what this all means, but I was sitting here. Steve Latart just texted me that he's filing a complaint to the racing insights game guys, and I am, too. I was just going to talk to Russell about it, but when he gets on the show, Adam Alexander says he co signs the complaint. Oh.

[TJ Majors]

So the Booth is coming after Russell.

[Travis Mack]

A. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We don't like change and things getting more difficult.

[TJ Majors]

But I've been told that Russell made your life easier, though.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He did. But then turned right around and undid it all. Anyhow. Dream that I had with TJ So this dream was like a movie. And there's parts of it that I don't remember, but the one part that I do remember. Oh, man, it's gonna sound like I'm gonna ramble, because it was just a. You know how dreams are there. It's not like you don't have this. Like, it's not like you watched the movie. Yes. I tell you the whole thing. Yeah. It's not clear. Apparently, on the property. I live on this property, kind of like we do now. But apparently on this property, there was a. There was a dam. And it had steep banks down both sides. Like, steep.

[Travis Mack]

Like a dam.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like eight to ten stories down.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. But usually on one side, it's full of water. So if you went off the side of the dam into the lake, you go into the water. If you go down the other side.

[Travis Mack]

You go all the way around.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And my dad's farm had a dam like this.

[Travis Mack]

Oh, really?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And I owned. I was riding on four wheelers. One day, this really happened, and I bumped my buddy, and he lost control, went down that. Down that. Oh, no, he. Luckily, he did not get hurt. That was stupidest thing ever. But his name is Walter Boston, and nickname is Monroe. And his uncle is Rick Bost. Yeah, it was my dad's first employee. Yeah. So Monroe will hear this, and he'll remember. That scared the. Out of me. And every time I think about it, even today, it's terrifying. But anyways, I dreamed in my dream that for some reason, there was a car that somebody's car broke. Somebody in our inner circle's car was broken and stuck on the property somewhere. I assumed, you know, Sonny or somebody was going to get it. I'm in the house with Amy, and somebody comes in the house, and they're like, I told you Sonny should have gotten them toe chains. I told you Sonny should have gotten them toe chains. And I'm like, what. Who are you? What are you talking about? Shut up. Sonny's my dude. What's happened? Right. And apparently you had tried to hook your car or truck or something that you had up to this car to pull it.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know what the hell for, but you towed this thing across the. The. The dam and. Dam and. And the. Something. The chain broke. Or whatever. And it pulled you and the car tumbling down that hill.

[Travis Mack]

Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You were gone. Not dead.

[Travis Mack]

But that's bad.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I. Everybody that I talked to. So, like, now the next. So that has. I don't see you. I don't. I don't see you in the dream.

[Travis Mack]

So I just. You just heard about me.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Everybody's. Everybody starts showing up. Everybody that we've ever known in our lives is showing up on the property, and they're all going, you know, everybody's got a little bit of information. Oh, he's. He might be paralyzed. They don't know. He might be this, he might be that. And. And. Yeah. So, like, I. I woke up and was like, holy, that was intense. And I was glad it was not true.

[Travis Mack]

Well, I will refrain from towing cars just to be safe.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You. Yeah, so that's something, too. Like, I woke up this morning, and my instinct was to call your wife and tell her, hey. Tells you to be careful out there. I don't know what that means. I don't know if it's like. I need to warn you.

[Travis Mack]

It's like a final destination.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Type thing, you know? I guess because. I don't know. I don't know why I had that kind of. Why?

[Travis Mack]

You know what's really weird is, is I was driving to the doctor yesterday, and for some reason, I passed a tow truck, and I was like, oh, man. Wonder if I could do it. Wonder if I could drive a tow truck one day. I really thought that yesterday morning.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Really don't.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah. So I'll just.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That was especially across any bridges.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah. Dams.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Any kind of dams or anything that you could go over the side. Don't.

[Travis Mack]

Okay. Wow. That's off the list. No tow trucks.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't like. I don't believe. I've never had an. I've never dreamed a dream. And then later that, you know, that dream makes sense because of something to happen in real life. Right. So I don't, like, think that you're in danger, but if you told me.

[Travis Mack]

This was Hovis, I'd be like, yeah, probably could happen.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Mack]

I don't know, because Hovis has done a lot of stuff.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's a freaky dream. Not the one. I mean, I usually. I like waking up and going, badass dream. I just rather. I like to go back to sleep. Let that one keep going. I never remember you ever had a dream and you've woken up enough to realize that you are awake and it was a dream. And then you're. But you're still Asleep enough to go right back to sleep and the dream continue.

[Travis Mack]

I did that about a month ago. Yeah, I did that.

[TJ Majors]

You ever sleepwalk?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Probably years ago.

[Travis Mack]

I've never.

[TJ Majors]

Still do sometimes. Still do, yeah. Like, I'll get up, walk onto my living room, and then, like, it'll hit me like I'm awake, like, what am I doing? And then go back to bed.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Our little girls will get up and go downstairs and get a blanket and bring it back up to their bed. And they are like, I didn't go downstairs. I don't remember that. You know, it's like. I think it's a lot of. It's very common for kids to, I think, have night terrors or walk around. They call night terrors. Some of them are. Are very scary. Like they're upset, so they don't even.

[Travis Mack]

Know what they're doing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Some night terrors aren't. I guess some people say some night terrors, they're just kind of wandering around. You don't wake them up, man, they'll freak out.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah. You can tell when they're half asleep still, and they're not really. They're not like, really comprehending what you. It's scary, but hilarious.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It is.

[TJ Majors]

Do you ever get confused on where you're sleeping? Like, if you've been traveling or vacationing somewhere and you go back home.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. You wake up in the morning, you're like, oh, I don't remember. Like, last night. Yeah, it's kind of had that a little bit. This morning I. After Michigan, I went straight to where the girls were there on vacation at the coast of Carolina. And then last night, I flew home and I went to bed, and I woke up this morning, I was like, oh, you know, I'm home, you know, all alone, and I had a bad dream.

[Travis Mack]

It is really weird when it's super quiet at your house.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Couldn't. Couldn't get a hug from amy. It's okay. TJ's okay. That's not real.

[Travis Mack]

It is. Like, is it not weird waking up in your house being real quiet?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Tj, I'll be okay. Why didn't you just call.

[Travis Mack]

Should just called me.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, it's kind of one of them weird things. You're 50 years old, you call your buddy and go, man, I had a bad dream. You got.

[TJ Majors]

Wait, but you're going to call his wife?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I was going to call her and tell her to just. Hey, man, tell TJ to be cool out there.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, drive safe then.

[Travis Mack]

Hey, no dams, no tow trucks today, okay?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

A woman would have empathy and say, all right, I get it. You had a bad dream. You worried about your buddy?

[Travis Mack]

Yeah, I would have. I would have been.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If you'd asked, it would have been.

[Travis Mack]

Like, yeah, yeah, see? All right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Today.

[Travis Mack]

I mean, that's probably weird.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

This is a weird way to throw me off my game because we're gonna have to play the national championship.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah, this. This is an odd way to. To get me.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

This is an odd way to confuse me.

[Travis Mack]

This is an odd way to confuse me. That is definitely, definitely would have been odd, man.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

TJ play in the National Championship again. You. The Charlotte 49ers versus the Michigan Wolverines.

[Travis Mack]

Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, looking forward to y' all.

[Travis Mack]

I want to talk about the race, man.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Let's talk about racing. Michigan. The, The Michigan race was awesome. Michigan race had all the things, really solid racing, a lot of great battles, fuel, strategy. That was even exciting. Where do you even start the Michigan? I see in here in your notes what makes Michigan an underrated track. It's not really an underrated track. Michigan is a track you go to and you're like, I don't have a clue what we're going to get here. You might get the race that we had this weekend, or you might get one where a guy runs away and, man, there's not much action.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah, that's happened many times before.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It can turn into a fuel mileage race that is extremely tough to. To. To make interesting. It's my belief, as it's my belief that every race is interesting. You just got to work at it more than, you know, with some, more than others. There are some tough ones. Martin Triggs Jr. At Kentucky, 17 second lead or something. Just kill all night. It was so. It was like, holy crap, Charlotte. My first year as a broadcaster and I'm like, damn, this is a tough one. But we, you know, luckily we had a really, really strong race right from the get go. The restarts at Michigan are always going to be fun. You're always going to have somebody taking it three wide down into turn one. You're always going to have somebody having a problem off of turn two. They're. They're in the wrong. They get bottled up. You're always going to have that same person defending down the back straightaway. Somebody's going to go into three and get in bad air and make a mistake and slip up the track. There's just always a ton of, you know, things to talk about, and that's.

[Travis Mack]

Always going to happen.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And the racing and the cars, like, you know, talking to A driver or two after the race, they're like, yeah, it's pretty fun. You can still see them. They're miserable in traffic.

[Travis Mack]

They are, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And when we go back to, like, 20th to 30th, you're. They're just trying to not get in somebody's wake. They're not really like, oh, I'm gonna.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah, I'm gonna attack a move.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm gonna make a move. I'll attack this corner. I'm gonna run high here. I'm gonna create some speed and pass this guy on us. They're just like, I'm going in the corner, and I'm gonna try to find the one lanes everybody's not using.

[Travis Mack]

That's exactly what it is.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's it.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And, you know, and there'll be one or two guys that end up making the bat, making the wrong decision and. And being in there in the wake of the car in front of them.

[Travis Mack]

And they might have been the right decision to start with. Somebody pulls in front of them, too. That happens.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You beat. You just sit there and you're ready for it. You. You're like, all right, here he goes in the corner. He's gonna follow that car. He's gonna lose all kinds of speed. He's gonna lose a couple spots. And that's what's. You know, that's the battle. Something I've decided to lean into as a broadcaster and as a fan. The racing at the mile and a half, the racing at Michigan, you're going to leave that race, and is everything perfect? Maybe, maybe, maybe not. But we're not changing anything about. You're not going to walk out of that racetrack after that race and go, gosh, I can't wait till they're going to change this. And NASCAR is not leaving that racetrack going, oh, we're going to. We've got to work on it. So what I've decided to do is embrace a couple of things about the next gen car that might not be my favorite thing about it, but it's here to stay, right? And that is how defending has become a strategy and a skill. We even rate the defense of a driver every week and average it to that driver's ability throughout the season. It is something that you have to be good at in this car. And what that is, basically, is driving and looking through. Looking at that mirror. And as you go into the corner, if you're leading the race or whatever, you want to control your position, you look in the mirror, you see where the other car chose to run and you try to get in front of that car or a little bit and you try to dirty the air up in front of that competitor behind you. That's defending, that's blocking, air blocking, arrow blocking. There's a lot of names for it, but it is a skill and it is part of the strategy to being good at this race, at this style of racing. It is something you need to do to sustain track position throughout the day to give yourself the best opportunity at the best result at the end of the day. And it's something that we're going to talk about and we're going to celebrate it when somebody's good at it. And so I don't, I don't. You know, there's, there's two things that I've learned about the next gen car in terms of dirty air and the dirt. The air that goes around the next gen car goes around it and stays tied to it really tight. Okay, so the wake of the older car was like a boat wake and came off in a V. And so if you were behind it, it was dirtier for a wider portion of the racetrack. Okay. And that's that. So that was worse than what we have today. The next gen car's wake is really narrow and it's, it's more concentrated behind the car instead of coming off in a V or a wake. So if you offset one lane, you're in pretty good shape. You can get clean air to your car if you offset one lane either left or right of the car in front of you. The only thing, the thing that's bad about that is that column of air that is behind the lead car is much dirtier than the old car. It's denser and dirtier. And so directly behind somebody is far worse than it's ever been in the history of the sport.

[Travis Mack]

Bad.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Now, if you go to a single lane racetrack, the racing is not as good because of that very thing. Martinsville, one lane road courses, one lane. You know, all that starts to make really good sense. Wherever we're going to go somewhere and have a single lane racetrack, you're not going to be able to pass the car in front of you.

[Travis Mack]

Bad air.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're not, you will not pass the car in front of you because the air is just too nasty. Wherever we go where you can offset, run a different groove and still be, still run a somewhat competitive time, we're going to have awesome racing like we had this weekend. So that's not changing. I don't think that that's something NASCAR is Looking to adjust or change or make anything different. So if it's here, if it's here, we love the sport we're hanging around. We're going to do this job. We're going to be a part of this. I'm going to lean into that. I'm going to talk about that. I'm going to talk about, man, you know, that's. This driver's trying. You know, this is what the drivers are trying to do. This is why it's frustrating. This is why, you know, for the. For the guy out front, it's awesome. I got this. I got a really good defense to everything going on behind me. We had. So that was. That was something that we're. You know, we obviously have talked a lot about over the last several. Several years with this car. And it's something that we're going to. You know, we're going to see more and more because all the drivers are knowing that, you know, that's got to be a tool in their toolbox. And some. You know, it's. It's also. It also goes a bit. It also kind of goes a bit against the ethics or the code that several of them grew up on. You don't really do. You don't really drive this way in the trucks or Xfinity. You can, to a point, you can aeroblock a little bit, but you kind of got to run the line that you need to run to make the best lap time. So when you get into this car to learn, you've got to really go to school to learn the aero big thing.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah, for sure.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right. So, like, TJ when you're tutoring or not tutoring, but when you're working throughout the week with an Xfinity driver, veteran or rookie, it doesn't matter. You're telling them y' all are going over different tools than you are with the cup car because of how different the arrow is. Right. The Xfinity car is. Is. Has the dirty air and the wake similar to the old car. Right. Comes off in a V, it's kind of wide, and you got to get really kind of way up the track or way down the track to really get that clean air. But you can't kind of follow them because it's not too terribly nasty behind somebody. And so this. The defending there. We won't really. I won't really talk about. Oh, man. You know, that Xfinity driver, great defending. Because the dirt. Yeah, the dirt.

[Travis Mack]

You can use the. You can get to another. The back of another Xfinity car. And get them loose.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, you can.

[Travis Mack]

So that's a tool, an offensive tool.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, so we won't, you know, that's something that we see a lot and we're seeing more and more become more important. That was very evident during the race at Michigan when somebody would drive down, you know, the following car would go down in the bottom of the corner and the guy out front would change his lane in the middle of the corner and drive across his nose and just kill the guy. The guy would have, as soon as the guy driving behind seas that person driving down the track and they're like, damn, he's going to try to block me. He's going to air block me. He's going to drive in, he's going to put his wake in front of me. They, they already know they got to lift before they ever feel that dirty air. They're already preparing and lifting because if not, they might bust their ass like, like literally wreck. Whether you're on the track or the job, wherever you are, things can go wrong. All right. Mistakes and mishaps happen. It's just part of it. What matters is how fast you see them and what you do next. That's where safety culture comes in. You might recognize safety culture from being one of the trackhouse racing sponsors. But what you may not know is that safety culture is an app that gives your team a simple way to flag issues, assign tasks and schedule maintenance all right there in real time. You see a problem, you take a photo, tag somebody done. This allows things to get fixed with no waiting or back and forth. And the best part, everybody sees it. From the crews on the ground to the head office making key decisions, no one is guessing. Everyone is on the same page. Keeping your business running smoothly. In motorsports, work is fast paced and we have no time for second guessing. If crew chiefs, drivers and pit crews aren't on the same page, it could cost you the race. Safety culture helps your business operate like a well oiled race team, keeping everything running smoothly and in sync. When everyone's on the same page, from the floor to the front office, things run smoother. Your team gets better every day. That is what safety culture is all about. Want to see how it could work for your crew? Head to safetyculture.com SVG whether you've got one shelf or a whole wall dedicated to NASCAR diecast, there's always room for more. And nobody brings the excitement to the track and to your collection like Lionel Racing, the official die cast of NASCAR from the legendary rides like the number three good wrench car to the paint schemes of today's hottest stars like Kyle Larson and Ross Chastain. Lionel Racing diecast are built for true fans. Every car is authentically detailed and most are available in both 124 and 164 scales. Whether you're after race wins, special finishes, autographed pieces or the elite premier editions, Lionel has you covered. And right now, for a limited time, fans of the Dale Jr. Download can get free US shipping on their next order at Lionel Racing.com just use the promo code DJD25. That's promo code DJD25LIONEL Racing.com pretty exciting race though. A lot of different players up front. Chase Elliott led some laps for all the Chase Elliott fans out there that are hoping that he'll get himself back Back to victory Lane Sub Team the the the fuel strategy ended up turning the field and churning the field.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah, a couple times.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, several times. So there's a couple things here. The 77 car of Hosavara, he. He had more speed again. Three weeks in a row. They had race winning, race winning speed. I would say, I don't know if.

[Travis Mack]

He had race winning speed.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Top three car.

[Travis Mack]

I would say definitely a top ten car because he never really drove to the front in my opinion.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But not a lot of people.

[Travis Mack]

A good car, really good car.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They had another week where they had a chance to win the race. I would, I can't really say though, he had a chance to win.

[Travis Mack]

That's what I'm saying.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They didn't have the fuel.

[Travis Mack]

No, that's what I'm. That was my argument in our, in our group chat. Like I'm like, everyone's like, oh, host, far out. A shot of win. He did not have a shot at winning. That's, that's my point.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If they ran long enough and the caution comes out and everybody's like, gosh, we can't, you know, enough laps left. We all got to come get tires. Then maybe he's got the track position and there's a chance to win. But if the race goes green, he.

[Travis Mack]

Didn'T have the fuel and he wasn't driving like he had the, like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, he knew it.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. He was super aggressive leading the race because he. That was his play.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Do you like that strategy for them?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, no, I don't because I can't get to the finish.

[Travis Mack]

No, they were top 10 almost all day. You're throwing away a top 10 big points day. A big points day. And if you get A late yellow and you're running seventh and you get a good restart and there's a wreck in front of. You're running top three. You have a shot of winning.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, how's of our loss? 14 points to the bubble. That's a tough one to. Yeah, I mean I'm not sure where would they have. Where they might have ended up if they didn't make that gamble, but he's 18 out of the playoffs. 18 points out of the playoffs. Currently lost 14 to the bubble. So. Yeah, I mean if they just kind of, you know, if they take the 10th or the 12th or the 8th.

[Travis Mack]

Place finish, I think he's 5th to 10th easily. On a normal day, he didn't have.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The fuel to get to the finish. Anybody with a top 15 or top 20 car could have tried that strategy and led the race and looked just like him.

[Travis Mack]

That's what I'm saying. I would expect somebody from 20th to do that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Mack]

And shoot for the.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, I'm just saying like he, he has speed.

[Travis Mack]

You don't need to do that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Mack]

In my opinion. But yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But hey made it exciting. He didn't hit a solid day. He did have solid day and you didn't turn anybody.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah. We should celebrate that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

One week.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

One week.

[TJ Majors]

We need a board.

[Travis Mack]

We need a board.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

One week without incident.

[Travis Mack]

Would you like to buy a square?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm just kidding. We're just, we're just joking. Listen, hey, I got a question.

[Travis Mack]

When he had the flat tire, was there not like, were you not thinking like, oh, is he going to spin out here like coming up?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Dude.

[Travis Mack]

I thought so. I was like, is he going to do it?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I would if you. So that's, that's a great point. TJ Carson Hosavar has a flat tire going down the back straightaway leading the.

[Travis Mack]

Race, which I believe was self inflicted.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm standing air pressure or swerving as.

[Travis Mack]

Much as he was with the. Because he was swerving every straightaway.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yes. Yeah. I didn't think about that. He did, he did a lot of. Yeah, he did try to break the draft a lot. You never know how that might have affected the tire, but I know they're.

[Travis Mack]

Pretty fragile and if you're close on air, that can't help it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Mack]

But yeah. Coming to pit road though, I was.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like, he has the flat tire going down the back straight away and I'm standing in the booth and I'm like, he's gonna spin this same thing. I thought he's gonna spin it out.

[TJ Majors]

Swore he's gonna do that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I did, too. I thought he would get down toward the entrance to pit road and just do a little fun loop and get, you know, get back. Get backwards on pit road.

[Travis Mack]

Hit the edge of the grass or something. I don't know. Just something.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. And then they throw the yellow. Carson Hosavar. I would have bet. I would have bet. I would have felt like that. That was a lock bet.

[TJ Majors]

Minus 500.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes. Carson Hosavar drives it to pit road. I mean, straight up. Got to give him some credit.

[Travis Mack]

Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's growth.

[Travis Mack]

It is. I will give him. I'll say the same thing. It's a sign of growth and maturity.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. This is the same kid. You know, you think back to the things that, you know, he's decided to do on the racetrack back in the day or back in the last probably 24 months. Yeah. I was really surprised that he didn't try to sell spin on the pit road.

[Travis Mack]

Those are the things that he needs to do, though, that to continue building everyone's trust in him to do the right thing.

[TJ Majors]

Does the garage. Does that move gain respect with the drivers?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't think the drivers will take note.

[Travis Mack]

It doesn't hurt. But if he did do it on purpose, it would hurt his reputation with the drivers.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, if he. If he had spun it out, it would have been like, yeah, go figure. Go figure. But he brings it to pit road and. Yeah, that was a smart move. Smart move. I agree. I don't know. I mean, who. I think a lot of guys in the field will spun thing out. Don't you? I mean, maybe. Maybe just a couple.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah. Now it's less and less now. I mean, I don't see it. I don't think about it as much anymore.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Mack]

So.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, so host of our. Continues to be competitive and will that continue? Is this what we. You know, I'm. I don't have the answer for this today. I'm not asking you to answer it, but I'm saying I'm asking it. Out into the middle distance. Is the 77 car running in the top five or even the top ten every week what we ought to expect going forward? Because, I mean, I wasn't paying that much attention. I don't know whether. I mean, I thought I was kind of watching Carson, but it just feels like these last three weeks, they've kind of lurched forward about 10 spots on average.

[Travis Mack]

I just think he's found a way to finish some.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I don't Remember him running up in the top three.

[Travis Mack]

They're definitely probably a tier above where they would normally run.

[TJ Majors]

Does he win this year?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, I feel like it could happen at any track.

[Travis Mack]

I don't, I don't, I don't know yet. I, I feel like he has the speed, but I don't know if he has the, the, the, just the, the brain, the, the skill to put the whole race together yet.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, well, so I, yeah, he needs.

[Travis Mack]

To keep doing it. And he, you know, he kind of.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Proved to me at Nashville that he kind of can't. He can put a race together. He's sitting there.

[Travis Mack]

That's a tough place.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It is. And he ended up bringing it home. Getting the result right didn't wreck the car. Trying too hard. I just feel like he's maturing, hopefully. I'm hopeful that he's maturing rapidly right here in front of us.

[Travis Mack]

Yes. He was also competitive in the truck race. Well, yeah, well, I'm saying, like I'm saying. And he was fast in a late mile.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Whatever he gets in, he gets in and goes. And he's a, he's a special.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like, whatever. He gets in just fast.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's a special talent. Yeah, that's for sure. I mean, there's not that many drivers that can do that, that get in a car that. And make it go better. So all of these drivers, if I put a car on pit road and I say, yep, I think, you know, I think Joe Logano can get in this car and he's going to run a 29 flat. I could put the top 25 drivers in the series in that car and they'll go out there and run a 29 flat. All of them, they'll run that car as good as Joey. They can run that, that lap. All of them can do it. I'll put Larson in it and he'll run a 90 or an 89 or something like that and you'll go, yep, that's Larson. He's a worldly talent. And you could put Josevar in it and he might run that, you know, that 95. He's just that he's that kind of guy that can get in a car and get just a tick more and there's not many. They can do it.

[Travis Mack]

No.

[TJ Majors]

And that's what you need with these next gen cars.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, like Kyle Busch, you know, he used to be. He may still be that guy. We don't really know how this equipment might be masking what Kyle's talent is today. But like Kyle Busch was one of those guys if you, you know, the field can run a flat, he's going to get in the same exact car and go out on the track and run an 85 nothing against the rest of the field. They're all elite. They are all, you know, if you put all the Xfinity guys in that car, they're going to run a 29:15.

[Travis Mack]

So why does, why does McDowell not in Haley not run, you know, where host far is? Because I thought McDowell was going to go over there and be really competitive.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Honestly, I feel like what you see is what you get. I think. What do you think if you put McDowell in any other car that you get different results?

[Travis Mack]

I mean, I look at last year and we went. McDowell was on the front row of what, three, four, five races last year maybe and led a lot. And, and this year I just don't quite see that. I don't quite see him leading the laps that he did. It just wonders, it just makes me wonder if was like front row a better fit for McDowell.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, well, McDowell, I, I would say that you could make the argument that McDowell got out of the A car at front row into the B car at Spire. But you know, I'm having some conversations with some people in the know. Mike McDowell is somebody that at front row and now at Spire is hiring and picking out and hand picking and building not only his program but the other programs. He's the one that's, he's in the, he's in the conversations and the meetings around salaries and mechanic and this, this engineer and he's out there looking for this guy and that guy and this team needs a hold of field and we got to improve in this spot. And he's actively playing a role in helping the entire team, not just his do that.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah, he's smart too, right?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so apparently, yeah, Michael McDowell apparently was a massive role, played a massive role in building out that front row team to be able to get it as good as they did to where they could go and win a race at Indy on the road course. Right. And be competitive and make the playoffs. And we, I remember writing notes in my, in my, in my phone about it's no longer like a, it's no longer a surprise or shouldn't, should no longer act surprise when Michael McDowell runs in the top 10 because they got to where they were doing it quite regularly with a front row car. But he's gotten out of, he's got out of that program. He got into a Spire program that continues to change and evolve. Spire was a team that ran it as a business. And what I mean is they didn't go to the racetrack and say, man, we're going to, we're going to go put everything we can in this car and try to go win. They build a race car. They knew what they spent to get to the track. They knew exactly where they needed to run to be able to break even. And they would, they did it.

[Travis Mack]

They tried to do it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, they're like, hey man, we need to. And they would, they would put Chastain or other people in that car in the, in the spire 77 and they'd say, hey man, our goal today is to run 25th to 30th, so don't that up. Right. And don't try harder and up. Like our goal is to, is to run in that window. Now if everybody crashes out in front of us and we ended up third, awesome. But look, we've got to finish better than 30th because that if we don't, we're losing money today. And so they ran it as a business. And you, you know, you had, you didn't have great engines, you didn't have great race cars. Everything was, you know, secondhand. Hand me down everything. Well, some of that's probably still a little true at Spire. Now the next gen changes things a little bit, but these teams at Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Giz Racing are science ing out these next gen cars and like every single body panel is hand selected. Like we've looked at this body panel and it is just a tick better than this one. This is the one you're gonna get. And so you gotta imagine that as all that stuff trickles down the Michael McDowell's of the world, or we're going to the racetrack with a little bit here and a little bit there, a thousandth here, a thousandth there. That's just a little bit off, right. That he's racing, he's got, he's kind of racing.

[Travis Mack]

And that matters.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It matters today when you stack all that stuff up with this car. Yeah, you have to have it. So Michael McDowell, I think, can he get this program better? Hell yeah.

[Travis Mack]

Sure.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right. Are they where they want to be? Probably not. Their host of ours, pushing them, motivating them. He's out there running better and that's a good motivator. I don't know how much better though that Michael McDowell can be.

[Travis Mack]

What about Justin Haley? Like last year around this time, he was becoming a pretty Hot commodity because he had some time. He was inside the top 10, you know, when it. With cars that maybe shouldn't have been there. And, you know, I feel like at this time last year, he was kind of getting.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Mack]

You know, his. Everyone's like, oh, Justin A is running nice.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Justin Haley was a good free agent in this sport. You know, people were like, you know, I guess, you know, he drove for Rick Ware and did some pretty solid.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah, really solid runs.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Some pretty curious solid runs in that car. And. And he has leveraged that into this opportunity at Spire. But since he's been there, it's. It's been awful.

[Travis Mack]

It has been.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, it has been bad.

[Travis Mack]

I thought it was going to be better than I did too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, they got Rodney Childers in there and ever. And I'm sitting there thinking, damn, that's an awesome. I felt like that that had the potential to be the best buyer car.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And it's been the opposite. Rodney, you know, got out of there. We'll never really know Rodney's going to tell his side of the story. Never really. Yeah. He's never going to say anything negative about anybody.

[Travis Mack]

No.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And the Spire guys aren't going to say anything bad about Rodney. We'll never know what really happened there. But it. I think that that derailed Haley a little bit. Anytime you have a crew chief change mid season, it's not awesome, but. And it hasn't seemed to have made Haley's deal much different. I saw him flash a little bit at Michigan. You got some track position, but, you know, he just.

[Travis Mack]

Just didn't have that. Doesn't have that same edge down.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

His cars don't seem like they can do what he needs them to do.

[Travis Mack]

Do you think they're putting all the emphasis on the 77?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I. What? That goes back to something I was kind of saying just a moment ago. Spire has been this team that's evolved and changed. They went from just running it as a business to now, at least with the 77, we're fast racing to win. Right. All right, man. Go out there, run as hard as you won't take all the chances you need to take. Michael McDowell, it seems, has a little bit of that freedom as well. And I don't think that Justin Haley is being told not to go for it. But how much discrepancy, I guess, is it between that 77 and the 7? How similar are the parts and pieces?

[Travis Mack]

Sure.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, the cars are very much the same. Everybody gets the same. But I'm telling you, these These, These top teams, man, they're. They. They got a. They got a. They got a favorite part, right? If you buy 10A frames or 10 right rear quarter panels or 10 rockers.

[Travis Mack]

Everything, all of them, they're going to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Look at all of them and go, yeah, I think this is the best one out of the bunch, you know, and this is my least favorite one because it's got this, you know, it's not quite. Exactly.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah, for sure.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No shapes, just a little different. And the teams will tell you, you stack all that. That tiny stuff up and you. You're. You've got a. You got a small advantage, you know, you got a small advantage. Denny Hamlin ends up winning the race on fuel mileage. I mean, he had the best. One of the best cars, if not the best car he did ever. Yeah, it wasn't like he, you know, just the 24. Ran as hard as he could. You know, if the 24 has enough fuel, can he run harder? Can he be faster? Can he. Is he better than the 11? 11 was good all weekend. Had great speed in practice.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah, he was good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And when he needed to turn it on at the end, it was pretty impressive. They.

[Travis Mack]

He did everything right. The strategy was right. The calls at the end, what the position he was in.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was kind of surprised, though, that their fuel mileage was as good as it was comparable to the rest of the field.

[TJ Majors]

I think they got lucky.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Why is that?

[TJ Majors]

So on their last pit stop, Joel, their tire changer, he missed it on the first try on the left rear. Had to readjust the tire and then make sure they got more field. So it gave him an extra beat to stay in. So I wonder if that helped them because they. I think their final pit stop was 11, 8, 4.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, they came out, oh, that's slow.

[Travis Mack]

Something that's slow for, uh.

[TJ Majors]

It was almost a second more than Byron. And Gibbs was like a 9.18.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, there you go.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah. Well, still made it work.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It did.

[Travis Mack]

And he. Like I was. If you had told me at the halfway point, oh, Denny Helm is going to win the race and he wins, I would not have been surprised. Yeah, like, he was that fast. You could have said Byron, Denny, or you could have told me Chris Bush once. And I would not have been surprised if One of those three guys won the race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

RFK had all their cars in the top 10. TJ I had a guy on. So we had. We had the post race show, and toward the end of the post race show, they ran the busher interview. Who Ran second. And some people complain that we should have ran that interview earlier in the post race.

[TJ Majors]

Fans are finding they've got to complain about something. We've reached that point already.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, it is great. It is great. It is great broadcasting or it is good coverage. But, yeah, I would have loved that bush or interview. There was one guy on social media that tried to tell me that there wasn't a busher interview in the post race.

[Travis Mack]

Really?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Y' all didn't interview second like we did?

[Travis Mack]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Butcher's interview was just so busher that the guy didn't even remember it.

[TJ Majors]

You guys made it two weeks. Now you got complaints.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Butcher. Tell Butcher to.

[Travis Mack]

You know, you can't. He's. That's. That's Chris.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know, dude.

[Travis Mack]

Just Chris.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Come on. Can he not have a little emotion?

[Travis Mack]

I mean, some guys.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's got it in there.

[Travis Mack]

Chris is just a quiet guy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He is.

[Travis Mack]

But he's just.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I like that about him. Except for when he's given a post race interview after he ran second.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Can you give us a little bit more?

[TJ Majors]

What did you want to be happy?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't want him to be happy. I just want him to say more and, like, have some. Give me some emotion of some sort.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah, I mean, that's just. That's just. That's just.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Was just a little too busher.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah. Which I think that's great. That's. That's. That's him, man. Well, it's not great, but you know what it does. It makes the other guys.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I like him.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah. No, he's a great dude.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's a great dude.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah. Yeah, he's a great dude. And honestly, he.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But he. He's also a race car driver. Sometimes he gets out and he. It's like. He just. He just puts. He just painted somebody's living room. It's like, yeah, we got that wall done and we got.

[Travis Mack]

Fed the chickens.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Fed the chickens and. Yeah. Picked out a color and painted the room, and we're good. We're done.

[Travis Mack]

That's definitely things Danny's not gonna say.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm like, dude, you just drove a damn car. Run second and you're 20 points above the cut line. And give me some emotion. Give me. Just tell me something. Just anything.

[Travis Mack]

Oh, man. We'll have to ask him.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's like he just got done mowing the lawn. Yep.

[Travis Mack]

Another day. Finished second. Go get a glass of sweet tea and feed the. Feed the chickens.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Exactly. That's what I mean.

[Travis Mack]

I like it. I think it's cool. It's just Chris though. I mean, that's just him. And.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I know he's, he's one of a kind.

[Travis Mack]

He is. And honestly, seeing him the last three, four years win how many races? He won five, six races in the last four, three, four years.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's a talent.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah, he's come a long way.

[TJ Majors]

Hey, tj. I like that phone. Is it new?

[Travis Mack]

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

[TJ Majors]

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

[Travis Mack]

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

[TJ Majors]

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

[Travis Mack]

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

[TJ Majors]

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

[Travis Mack]

They basically have an elite pit crew on standby waiting for you to call and make the switch. It's 100% US based customer service. Takes around 20 minutes and it'll be one of the best decisions you ever make. And now it couldn't be a better time to switch a consumer Cellular and get $25 off with code DJD25. That's DJD25 for 25 off. When you switch consumer cellular, go to consumercellular.com DJD and use promo code DJD25. Make money moves easy with Cash app. It's fast, safe and all the tools are right there to help you cash in. Personalize your payments with custom text, stamps and backgrounds. Plus, if Cash app sees you might be sending money to potential scammer, they'll warn you before you hit send. I've used Cash app. It's real easy. Super easy to use when somebody needs to send you money or you need to pay somebody for a dinner tab or even any, you know, going out on the town for a night. Super easy to use. You know, with Cash app you can now customize text with stamps and backgrounds as well. So check out Cash App, send your friends some money or have them send you some money for a limited time. Only new Cash app users can use our exclusive code to earn some additional cash. For real. There's no catch. Just download Cash app and sign up. Use our exclusive referral code Del Junior in your profile. Send $5 to a friend within 14 days and you'll get $10 dropped right into your account. Terms apply. That's money. That's cash app.

[TJ Majors]

There's nothing better than when it's sunny five and sunny out. You call up your friends to meet at your favorite restaurant. Even better if you can sit outside with a cold drink and good food. Now imagine not being able to enjoy this perfect day because of your own body odor. It's starting to get warm out, so the last thing you want to have happen is sweat. Nobody wants to have pit stains and now you're worried about lifting your arm so others see it. Dove Men plus Care Whole Body Deal helps keep your BO from ruining the good days. From pits to privates to feet, you can feel confident with 72 hour protection in all your odor zones. Dove Men Whole Body Dio goes on instantly dry with an aluminum free vitamin E infused formula for whole body freshness and care. Dove Men plus Care Whole Body Deal get everywhere. Everywhere care even down there. Find it on Amazon or at Target today.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The biggest issue in the cup series today is the that every race is going to be a fuel mileage race. So like which is great for Steve and strategy talk and it was a broadcaster. It's a lot of meat on the bone. But the reason why every race is a fuel mileage race is because the single lug wheel, it's quicker by far to put four tires on the car than it is to fill it full of fuel. So if it takes long to fill the car up full of fuel, you're going to try to do that as least as possible or spread that out over the many stops you're going to make during the day. So you don't need to take the entire full tank on several stops. You can come down pit road and just get what you need. And at the end of the race, you know, you, you finish the race really on very little if any gas at all. And so yeah, I think that that's the world we are in now because of the single luggage wheel and also the fact that the tires.

[Travis Mack]

That's what I was going to bring.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

A lot of places don't necessarily need to be changed.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah, the tires last too long.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Tires are too good.

[Travis Mack]

They're not as important.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So if you, at some, at some tracks, yeah, they're trying to. Nat Goodyear said that they are. They can get more aggressive and they want to get more aggressive on the soft tire. They just have reached the limit in and how to get that tire softer with the physical technology they have. Like, they're gonna have to build new molds, new technology to be able to get that tire even softer. They're going to, but like, I haven't.

[Travis Mack]

Been here, so I was really disappointed.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

After Nashville, they reached the limit on how soft they can make the tires with the tools they have.

[TJ Majors]

I don't think fans can complain with what good Goodyear right now because they've been trying it. Yeah, they're trying.

[Travis Mack]

They're always trying.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm just saying until they can what they. Until they can figure out a way to fuel the car faster than changing the tires, we're going to have lots of conversation around fuel.

[Travis Mack]

So what would you change?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I mean, you've made the tire changing part last what, nine seconds roughly?

[Travis Mack]

Yeah. Average. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So how can you get the car to fuel faster?

[TJ Majors]

The fueling mechanisms got to change.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And is that asking for. Could get dangerous. Could become dangerous having pressure, a pressurized fuel system or something on pit road that is going to get that stuff in there quicker. I don't know. Right now it's just gravity fed, right?

[Travis Mack]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so that would be a way. But you know, that's, that's probably something that NASCAR and the teams don't want to travel down that road. Think about like in, you know, IndyCar has those crazy systems.

[TJ Majors]

I wonder if you could somehow change just the fuel can itself.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

So that it flows faster.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Maybe. Yeah, maybe.

[Travis Mack]

I mean, if. Could you make the fuel can the. The filler part half inch bigger?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know if that would make a difference.

[Travis Mack]

Well, I'm just saying, like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I don't know.

[Travis Mack]

You know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Mack]

Not change the weight of the can, but change. I guess it wouldn't matter though. I mean, you'd have to change the fuel, the neck and all that. But.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, that's just, you know, that's what we're up against. And this, you know, the single lug wheel as a driver, it's nice.

[Travis Mack]

Well, what's wrong with fuel mileage race? Is it mile and a half? So there's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know, I mean, you don't want every single one to be a fuel sometimes, but.

[Travis Mack]

So, I mean, what about do the stages mess that up? Do the stages make it a fuel mileage race? Because if you just go to a natural caution.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I don't know.

[Travis Mack]

You know, I'm just saying, like, do the fuel. Do the stages, the set to the.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Aid, do they aid in it? Yeah, probably, maybe. But I still feel like that you're going to run the race as a. As you would run road courses, right? You're. If you. When we took the stages away from the road courses a couple years back, it. Everybody just, you know, it got boring and dumb because everybody just ran the races traditionally backwards, right? They do the fuel mileage backwards, and they start coming to pit road as soon as they can make it, right? And they're going to be. Try to spend as little time as possible on pit road putting fuel in the car. So if we did. If we took the stages away at Michigan, as soon as you can get in the window to get home and make it, you're coming to pit road and you're taking just as much fuel as you need. Nobody's gonna pit in the last, you know, I don't know, 40 laps or so. So the fuel mileage conversation is now dominating almost every single event, except for, you know, like a Martinsville or a Rich or a Bristol. But even the big, you know, the big mile and a half like Charlotte and all them places, it's. The fuel is, you know, working that fuel and make making sure you're on pit road huge part of the strategy, especially at the end of the race.

[TJ Majors]

Could you change the fuel cell to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Make it bigger, to take longer, to put more fuel in it so you.

[TJ Majors]

Have more to start and.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, you're only going to start with what you need? I don't know. I mean, you wouldn't want a bigger fuel cell, I don't think.

[Travis Mack]

Really. They just gotten too good at changing the tires.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That.

[Travis Mack]

That's what it's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, tires.

[Travis Mack]

It's not. It's not the. What you're saying.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Also something that I saw on social media, the overtime rule now, not so much in. This is not so much a cup thing, but in the Xfinity and the trucks. And I feel this as an Xfinity owner, I think it might be time to have a conversation around overtime in those two classes, the trucks and Xfinity. And I saw this, and I wish I would have tagged the person that brought this up, but it was really, really well articulated, and I had never thought about it like this. So in other sports, overtime is used to help decide a game that is that the ending is in question, Right? Both teams have ended regulation with the same score. Should we apply a more specific, similar framework to NASCAR races? Should we only have an overtime attempt if the lead was contested and we could all sit down, have a long conversation around what a contested lead is? Maybe you Say, maybe we all decided that, man, when the caution came out, if the lead was within one second, that would draw an overtime. Because we would then say, well, it was a contested lead, there was a chance for second to do something in the final lap. If the lead was maybe more than that, by any means, a second and a half to 20 seconds, the race is over. The leader was in clear control on the final lap, and there should be no overtime because he or she was going to win the race. And so that's something that I thought was a really healthy idea. And the reason why is because we, as you know, the trucks, the truck teams and the Xfinity teams, we go to some of these racetracks, Daytona and Talladega specifically, and destroy 80% of the field. And a lot of times we have unnecessary overtimes that cost us a lot of race cars. And all of these teams, ours included, is working on a budget. And those type of events where you'll, you know, you'll have. You're sitting there, you got a clean truck or a clean Xfinity car, you're running 12th, you've had a long day, you've worked hard to get there, and then you have three or four overtimes for no damn reason or, you know, because somebody's. And you end up getting the damn body ripped off your car. You come home with an 18th or 20th place finish and all panels are destroyed.

[Travis Mack]

It's unnecessary.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's frustrating. I think we need to, at least at those two levels, it's not necessarily something that we have to do in cup because you're hoping that they're the elite best drivers in the world. They wouldn't need this safety net. But maybe down in those two other series, we decide what is a contested lead, and if it's not contested, the caution comes out. Fans and us as an industry should embrace the idea that that race was over. Right. I'm sorry that the caution flag is waving as the winner crosses the finish line, but he. He or she was in clear control when that caution falls. Now, if it's, you know, if it's a tight battle for the front, then we would. It would trigger an overtime. Right. And. And then we would. Man, we could, you know, you could just carry on as the rules are today in that scenario. And if you tear up a bunch, that's risky. Take. I suppose. I don't love unlimited overtimes. I don't know what. You know. Yeah, but the. Yeah, I would just love. Because sometimes, man, these races are pretty much decided and over with and we'll have a, you know, a late yellow or something. That draws an overtime. I don't know. Worth the conversation. Did you watch the truck race?

[Travis Mack]

Oh, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. What were your thoughts about that?

[Travis Mack]

Truck race was. It was exciting.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Mack]

I thought the truck race was. It looked fun. I was highly entertained watching it. Those guys could get runs. They could get. I mean, it was just. The trucks are. It was. It was wild. I mean, I thought it was. I thought it was exciting. Those guys can manipulate air a lot of the other ways than cup cars, and they do it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So Ram is back in the truck series. Ram announced that it's going to return to the truck series competing. It competed from 1995 to 2016. That's a long run. It is, yeah. They had three manufactured championships from 01, 03 and 04. Two driver championships. They did not reveal which teams will support their program next year, but they should have multiple entries on the track in 2026. Yeah.

[Travis Mack]

That's exciting.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, it is. They're going. They want to go cup racing. They're not coming to the truck series just to be there, just to run trucks.

[Travis Mack]

Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. Be curious to see what, if anything, they do in the Xfinity series. I think the Xfinity series is going through an evolution anyways. They may pause on that to see kind of where. Where the. Where the xfinity series is in five years. Right. What's its identity? What even type of vehicles are we racing?

[Travis Mack]

So you're saying they could go from truck to car?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They might just do trucks and cup only. I would. I don't know.

[Travis Mack]

Who knows? It's exciting. I think it's cool they come back.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I saw this note in here about Denny Hamlin, three wins away from 60. And I don't. I'm not hating that conversation. He's got 57 wins at age 44. What other driver might get to that 60 win? Mark Logano's 35 years old and has 37 wins. Logano, in my opinion, is the only one that could probably get there. Larson.

[Travis Mack]

It's gonna be tough.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Larson. Larson can do it. The only thing is, is like, Larson and Joey have to stay in championship winning cars to get to that number.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah, have to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's the problem. Right. If. If something happens and there's all kinds of. There's new drivers coming in, there's always the next best thing and the next greatest guy, and as long as you don't become the B or the C driver at the great. Even the great team. Right. As long as Joey is in championship cars and Kyle Larson is in championship cars, which that sounds crazy to think they would never be, but you just never know what happens in five years or ten years. And so. And you know, Larson might not even want to race that long. I don't. You don't know. He might race till he's 60. Who knows? He might win 80 races. But on that list, I don't know. It's hard to. Hard to see.

[Travis Mack]

Denny had the perfect scenario to do this. I mean, he's been in one of.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The best cars with a great team since the beginning.

[Travis Mack]

And Larson came in his hand. I mean, he gave away.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Missed some years for sure. Yeah. Driving to 42.

[Travis Mack]

Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The other conversation that I like around Denning is how many more, Travis? How many more will he win? So I saw this and we talked about this in the, in the pre race, post race, during the race. I don't know. But another thing I saw on social media that I was like, damn, that's a cool stat. After 700 starts. After 700 starts, Jeff Gordon won six races. After 700 starts, Harvick won seven.

[Travis Mack]

Those are big names.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's that take Richard Petty off the list because he won 22 after 700 starts. But he was 38 or 39 when he made his 700 start. So, hell, I mean, you know, he in the, you know, take him off the list. At the top of this list, Most wins after 700 starts, it's Harvick with seven, Jeff Gordon with six, and then it's like threes and twos and ones. Denny just won. So he's got one after 700. How many more does he win? Before that race at Michigan, I thought his the over under was six. The line was six wins. Like, could you imagine going into Michigan thinking Denny Hamlin is going to win only six races the rest of his life at the cup level? That's crazy. But that's what the, that's what the odds would say. Now he's made. He's maybe move that line to maybe eight or nine wins, maybe 10 wins. I guess the guess is since he won this weekend, how many years do you think he races the win? The years don't matter. The years do not matter.

[TJ Majors]

I think they do.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, they don't.

[TJ Majors]

Well, if he only races for one more year, he ain't going to get eight.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, that's easy to say, but you know he's going to run for another year. So he may, ran. I mean, the guy may be looking at two years. But if he still wins three races, is he going to really retire? If he's still winning, you don't think he'll be lured to go drive for his own team for a little while?

[Travis Mack]

I think that's. I think that's more of a chance.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. He's just going to be like, oh, hell.

[Travis Mack]

And winning is going to become harder for myself.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's going to be harder one year from us. You know, he's going to. I think he has a plan in his mind when he thinks he's going to retire, but I think that he's going to find out when he gets to that doorstep, it's going to be harder to do than he thinks. And. But if Jeff Gordon won six and Harvick won seven, and they were on the higher end of the range. Right. They are the ones that won more than anyone else outside of Richard Petty. How many. Denny exceeded the race to 60. Right. Because he was in a great car. He's still in a great car. He still got. Got an opportunity to overachieve in these final years. He's. He feels like he's at the top of his game, driving better than ever. But could you imagine if he only wins five or six more races in his career? That sounds wild. Improbable. Right. But that's what the math would tell you. That's what the history would tell you. There's. There's anomalies, there's people that break trends. He's certainly one of those guys. I mean, you had back in the day, Bobby Allison, Harry Gantt, guys winning races in their 50s. You know, Denny's got a lot of years left.

[Travis Mack]

If he goes to another drought, though, I mean, he went through a drought. What. When was it? Last year?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's had a couple droughts.

[TJ Majors]

He didn't win after April. Was it.

[Travis Mack]

I don't know. It was a long time.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Mack]

But if he goes through another drought like that, does that number go to five?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I don't know.

[TJ Majors]

He still won three last year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, he's averaging, you know, roughly three or three a year. Right.

[TJ Majors]

He's got three now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, but he's averaging around three a year.

[TJ Majors]

I think he can get to 63.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Six more wins.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So you think? Yeah. Okay. So, like, seriously, though, if he knew now, right this minute, that he has six wins left, he's raced his whole life. He's won 60 races, you know, 57 race. And he's sitting here right now, right out in front of him is only six more Trips to Victory Lane doesn't.

[Travis Mack]

Seem like a lot.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Damn. That's a cold, hard truth. The end is near and is near, brother.

[TJ Majors]

But I think he's aware of. I don't. Maybe it's. I don't. I look at six more wins like you're. People are averaging only three or four like a season anyways.

[Travis Mack]

Well, not many are averaging three or four a season.

[TJ Majors]

That's what I'm saying. So why is that cold?

[Travis Mack]

Because he's got 57 wins right now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Because you don't.

[Travis Mack]

And he only has six more, roughly.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Do you not know. Name an athlete that you were enamored with and you watched their whole career play out in your lifetime.

[Travis Mack]

Denny Hamlin.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Think about guys like. I think I go right to football players like Joe Montana, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning. You were, you were. You remember when they played as a rookie and you remember their final game, right? And you had. You didn't have like an emotion when they were finally getting to that finish line and you're like, damn, man, I can't believe I've seen this whole person's career. And now it's over.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I have that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's the thing I'm talking about.

[TJ Majors]

But I don't see why this reaction that, oh, he only has six more like. I don't look at it that way. I look at. As he's got six more like, that's a. That's a. That's good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know. I think it.

[Travis Mack]

I don't think it'd be tough.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's tough emotionally for him.

[Travis Mack]

That's what I was saying.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He would never admit it. But if, I mean, anybody, anybody that's a competitor that's done this their whole life that know nothing else, to know that you're coming to the very few final moments like that.

[Travis Mack]

6 of 57 is not a lot.

[TJ Majors]

Well, I guess it depends. If he only races this year and next year, I think that's a good way to end your career. Right.

[Travis Mack]

I don't feel like then he would be. I feel like Denny wants 10.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, what he did say that he's more bothered now by the races that get away because he knows they're. They're few and far between.

[Travis Mack]

Like, he's harder to come by.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's more upset because I'm. I was thinking about it the other day. He had a race somewhere where he. He should have won. He ran second or third Nashville last year. No, it was recent. It was in the last year. It was the last four weeks or something. And he said, oh, I'm really more bothered by that today than I would have been when I was in my 20s or 30s. And I was thinking, man, you've done so much, you've won all these races. Why would you get so bothered by having a race slip out of your fingertips and running third? And at this point in your career, you should be satisfied, you know? But he's, he's, he's like already, he's like. He knows that, like the chances, his chances of going to racetrack and literally having the race right there for the taking. He knows that. That Runway short. Boy, when you know you're getting toward the end, you do celebrate those last couple. Like, it's your. Like you're like a person that would have just won their first sure. Race. Yeah, you do, because you don't know.

[Travis Mack]

It's definitely something to think about.

[TJ Majors]

Do you think Denny races full time for 2311? You mentioned him wanting to race for his own team. Do you think full time or like retiring part time?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I don't know.

[TJ Majors]

I think he finishes with Joe Gibbs.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I don't know.

[Travis Mack]

I think he wants to drive for himself.

[TJ Majors]

Well, I think he could do like a 500 or. I don't think he has full time.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think a lot change. A lot can change in 12, 24 months.

[TJ Majors]

We also don't, I mean, hell, we don't know the status of 2311 going forward too well.

[Travis Mack]

I mean, if he has an all star lineup with three guys or three, three teams and there's no room, but if there is a spot that opens up at the right time, I could see Danny doing it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, that's a, that's the other thing I think that we need to chat about just quickly is the, the ruling for the injunction. The 2311 and front row Motorsports have taken NASCAR to court over the language and talks around the charters. And there's a lot of reasons why they wanted to do that. We won't dive into that right here. So they did not sign the charter agreement. All the other teams, I think 30 other charters are signed for, but they chose not to sign it and to take NASCAR to court. While they were going to go to court, which this could last a year or two or so, they asked the courts to have NASCAR allow them to race as if they were chartered. So to still reap the benefits of the charter system. They wanted to be considered chartered teams during the litigation of the trial. During the trial. And so that was granted to them earlier in the year. And then recently A court of three judges, I guess the judges said that NASCAR didn't need to consider them as chartered teams. And so they were now. They've now lost that ability to race as if they were chartered. This year, they can appeal it. If they don't appeal, I think going into the Atlanta race, which is the first race of the TNT broadcasting portion of the year, and the first race of the new in season tournament, they're no longer chartered, they're open. So why is, why that matters is, is a chartered. A chartered team will get a lot more prize money over the course of the year, and it amounts to tens of millions of dollars. And so it's a big deal. If you have a, if you have a charter, you're guaranteed a portion of the TV money from nascar. And in Denny's case, each charter is probably getting anywhere from 10 to 15 million bucks. Just guessing. I'm probably high there, but, yeah, if they would assign the new agreement, they would be getting this money. They didn't want to sign it. They're suing nascar. They wanted to race as a chartered team through the courts. That was allowed. Now that's been pulled back. NASCAR doesn't have to pay them any money as if they were chartered for the rest of the year unless they win an appeal. That's fascinating as hell. I did not. That's a. In my opinion, it's a, it's a, it's a, It's a big win for nascar. Denny takes the approach that it's just a small part of the bigger picture in terms of the lawsuit, which he's. He's correct. The lawsuit is about the charter system. They want to. They want a lot of things different than NASCAR does and how the charters are handled. I would be guessing at what those things were, but that's really what this is all about. It's not so much trying to race as a chartered team this year. They would love that luxury. It's still up in there whether they'll get it or not. But NASCAR seemed to have won a small battle right there. I'm more worried, I think, that the financial burden that this places on the team, they were, you know, they race, they have a budget at the start of the year, anticipating that money that the charter brings in. And now that, that's why they wanted to race as a charter team. They need that money. Right. And so while they will be able to survive it, it's going to be difficult financially. And they're taking that risk. Right. They're going to take that financial Risk to. Because they believe in their case at.

[TJ Majors]

The end of the year, they could survive the year. But if they lose the case, then it's there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. What happens? The question then is what happens? I wonder what the chances are that they, there's a, there's a settlement before the trial. I wonder what the chances are of NASCAR allowing them to come back. Like, what happens to these charters.

[TJ Majors]

I'm curious if they'll talk. You know, they've said mediation is really not a thing, but when you go to court, things change. It's easy to say things now. You haven't gone to court and you haven't seen where you're. Yeah, you're, you're standing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know. Well, it's so fascinating and I honestly did not feel, I was surprised that, that I was surprised that NASCAR got that win, this, that small win with the injunction.

[TJ Majors]

I listened to the hearing and after, when listening, I wasn't then shocked because the way the judges were responding, it just seemed like the judges basically said to front row in 2311, you can't have your cake and eat it too. If you want to sue them, sue them.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But you can't be, you can't sue them for the charter system that you're wanting to benefit from.

[TJ Majors]

Correct?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. All right, well, I'm sure I'll get a text from Denny when this comes out. He's gonna be like, this is what's going on. All right, wanna, what do you wanna do next?

[TJ Majors]

He's a minute out from calling in.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh yeah, Denny's on the show. I forgot. Hey, it's Dale Jr. Did you know that we've got brand new merch from our star stripes and beers collection available now? We've got tanks, teas, beach towels and more. Just in time for summer. Check it all [e-mail] this podcast is sponsored by Squarespace. Squarespace is the all in one website platform to help you stand out and succeed online. Whether you're just starting out or growing your business, it has everything you need to create a professional site, manage your brand, and get paid all in one place. We all know in NASCAR how important the paint scheme is and how it looks on the car. And well, the same thing when you're building a website and Squarespace has that for you. With their industry leading website templates, designer fonts and color palettes, it's all important. Get paid quickly with branded invoices and streamline your workflow with built in scheduling and email tools. No matter where you start your website is flexible to what you need. I was talking to a friend the other day, tj who says building a new website in Squarespace has been perfect for him. You believe that?

[Travis Mack]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Sounds pretty good. I like building websites. My buddy's new company, they're looking to get people's attention and get people to visit their website. And with the built in SEO tools that Squarespace has, they are able to maximize their reach and grow their business faster. Pretty neat. The other feature they really like is Squarespace has everything you need to run an e commerce business, which is important especially for a brand like ours. You know, everything can be done from payment to fulfillment. All with Squarespace. Your business might be brand new, but that won't prevent you from doing business and making money. Head to squarespace.com dalejr for a free trial and when you're ready to launch, use offer code DALEJR D A L E J R to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

[Russell]

Travis, you and me, we work in racing. Everything needs to be quick. We need that social video quick. We need to get the podcast out quick. Well, guess what? The same thing is important when hiring quality candidates.

[TJ Majors]

The last thing you want to be doing is sitting there waiting to try to find candidates. Jobs aren't getting done because you don't know who to hire.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You.

[TJ Majors]

You don't even know who to interview for your job.

[Russell]

Yeah, that's right, Travis. You realize you needed to hire somebody not today, but yesterday. And how can you find amazing candidates.

[TJ Majors]

Fast with Indeed sponsored jobs? Your post jumps to the top of the page for your relevant candidates so you can stand out and reach the people you want faster.

[Russell]

There are no monthly subscriptions, no long term contracts, and you only pay for results. That's right. I want to see results. And Indeed can get you there.

[TJ Majors]

And that's the thing is you don't want to just spend all this money. You want to pay for something and get it done fast so you can get everything done.

[Russell]

When it comes to hiring, Indeed is all you need need. Join the 3.5 million employers worldwide that use Indeed to hire great talent fast. And there is no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed and listeners of this show will get $75 sponsored job credits to get your jobs more [e-mail] dalejr just go.

[TJ Majors]

To indeed.com dalejr right now and and support our show. By saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast, Indeed.com Dale Jr. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring Indeed is all you need.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, Denny Hamlin joins the Dale Jr. Download. This week's winner at Michigan. Denny, your Denny bro in here is super happy. Oh, my gosh, dude, Travis is so happy he's wearing your hat. So the. I, I have to ask you, man, when you got out and you did the Ohio State, and then you do that on the front straightaway, and then you say afterwards in the media center, that was for my buddy Travis. I didn't, you know, I don't want any trouble from the Michigan fans. You, you can't do that on the front straightaway and then ask. And then like, you know, ask for a reprieve.

[E]

That's fair.

[Travis Mack]

It's enemy territory.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Have you heard any blowback from that or any pushback?

[E]

Well, Michael's publicist is a Michigan grad and she does not appreciate it, I can tell you that. Actually, some of our legal team is Michigan grads as well. And so, you know, I don't know. I'm definitely pressing some buttons over there. No doubt.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Sure. So I thought it was interesting, somebody asked you a question about all the things that you got going on and how do you strap into the car and do that job that you did this this past Sunday? You do, you know, when it, it is pretty impressive, man, that you, you're, you're 44 years. How old are you? 44. Yeah. You're 44 years old. Not many race car drivers win races beyond that 43 year mark, but you're 44, still at the top of your game. Get in a car, drive great, do all those things. But you're also a team owner. You're out there actually racing against your cars, passing them throughout the day Sunday. But you have, you know, you have the litigation going on with nascar. You just have a lot of happening. And I don't understand how you have, number one, how do you have time in the day to sit down and do five minutes with us or anybody else in the media and how you can compartmentalize everything and, you know, talk to us about a race when you have some serious going on in your life.

[E]

Yeah, I mean, every, I feel like every 15 minutes is just filled up in my days. I mean, you know, I'm, I'm late to this interview because I'm going to the doctor with Jordan. Right. It's just, you know, it's just, it's part of my life and it's, you know, it's my own fault because I, I put all this stuff on my plate. But it's, you know, it is what I choose also, right. I mean, you know, you had a choice when you're, when you retired, well, do you want to just go, you know, hang out with the kids and the wife and go, do, you know, hang out, go to Key west and that's where you look like. Or you're going to continue working, stay in the booth, do your podcast like it's, it's the life we choose. Right. And so I feel as though it's where I'm most happy. So I just, I really enjoy it. I enjoy being part of it. I enjoy, you know, giving back to the sport. And so, yeah, I just can't imagine myself not being busy. And someone actually asked in the media center post race, like, if you had one hour open in the afternoon, what would you do? And I was like, man, that might be one of the best questions I've gotten in a while. And I said, truthfully, I would schedule what I'm going to do next. That's what I would do. I swear. I would say, okay, what have I put off? Okay, I need to do that real quick. And then let me prioritize, you know, the next things in line that I need to work on or do. But the one thing to go back to just your question to answer it, is that I've never interrupted the process in which it, I go through each and every weekend to prepare. That has not changed since I owned a team before. It's the same process. So I never take on anything that jeopardizes my on track performance and I think that's why it stayed the same.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, it's pretty fascinating. I'm, I love the history of the sport. I love diving into the numbers and you know, how, how, how some people have really long careers can win races well beyond a certain age, while others don't. There's a lot of factors that play a role in that, man. But you seem set up for success for many more years. The, you know, the challenges of you, you're out there, I wonder about this. You're out there on the racetrack. You don't let anything disrupt what you need to do to win the race on Sunday. How hard is it, I guess, to not have your focus go anywhere near, you know, what your team is doing 23:11, they're out on the racetrack, they're trying to compete. There's times when they're, they're, they're successful. There's Times when they're struggling. I wonder when you're out there battling Reddick, for example, you and him going side by side down the back straightaway, I wonder how you. You know, how you handle. I had. I had a tough time with that, being out on the racetrack with my own car, you know, and part of me wanted to do what I could to help that car.

[E]

Right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, and not. And then I wasn't thinking about exactly what I needed to do to help myself. And I wonder how you. How you deal with that.

[E]

Well, there was a moment at the end of the race, not. Not the end, but it was probably right before the last pit stop. I passed Redick, and then at that point, I made a run at the top two, and I kind of was just getting stalled behind him. I really wasn't making much progress, and if anything, kind of dropping back from them, really, to just kind of let me cool my stuff off, and I'm gonna make another run at this. But during that time, Redick was coming on really strong, and at that point, I made a move up high and 3 and 4. He now gets to the inside of me, and at that point, I'm like, I got a decision to make. Do I fight him tooth and nail, knowing every spot matters, especially inside this 60, 70 lap to go window, or do I. And potentially compromise both our chances to win? Or do I just let him go, and then if I let him go continue his run towards the front, then that's another opportunity for me to win? And at that time, I didn't think I was good enough to go past those two. Now the question comes not long after, and. And I think, you know, I just gave up one spot that I potentially could have came off pit road first here. Well, he had a bad stop. I had a bad stop. Didn't matter. But at that point, I'm always going to prioritize me winning first, but I feel like I'll never do anything to compromise both of us not having a chance to win. And it really happened throughout the race, too. Anytime me and Redick were around each other, we did not spend any time side by side. We tried to get it back in line as quick as possible because it's just one of those tracks where you cannot run side by side. So I just. I'm always gonna root for me first, selfishly, because I'm. I've got a much shorter window at winning than what he does, and that team does. So I, on Sundays, totally concentrate on me, unless I'm out of it, because I got damage or something like that. And I really start downloading how their day is going and how their weekend went. When I get in the plane on the ride home, that's when I start working on, okay, how can they be better? What did they do? How'd their race go? What was going on? I'm more inquisitive post race than I am during.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, we have started talking about the Runway to the finish line for you. The ultimate finish line. And I don't know that you know, when that is. You might have some ideas on how you want to wrap it up. We have debated whether you would drive for your own team. I think that there's a day where you race a race at least. But would you ever consider racing full time for yourself?

[E]

Yeah, I would consider it. No question. I mean, you know, the problem is, will I be limited by the charter agreement ultimately? I mean, you know, it, the new rules, we can only have three. And so I personally think that makes it very, very challenging when you have to go up against teams that are Grandfathered in at 4. Like, how is that not an advantage? But I don't know it. If I was forced to be an open fourth car full time, I just, I don't see how the whole thing doesn't make financial sense to me anyway, much less when you get tens of millions of dollars less money than, than you're scheduled to get.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, man, I know you got a lot going on and I know you. You're about to have a baby boy born any minute. Excited about that for you. I can't imagine how that's going to feel and how that's going to change your life. But good luck with everything going on, man. We'll see you at the racetrack.

[E]

Thanks. Appreciate it, guys.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hey, NASCAR fans, you know booming speeds when you see it. Xfinity WI Fi, they are booming this year with the roar, like the roar of a NASCAR engine on race day. It's reliable as one of the best picked crews in the garage and as fast as V8 engine. Xfinity WI Fi gives you the power and speed of NASCAR right there in your home. And just choose the right plan for you and you're on your way. You're off to the races. The best streaming experience for NASCAR and all your favorite sports. Xfinity WI Fi is booming. They don't just raise the bar. They stream in overdrive. Xfinity, proud premier partner of nascar. Let's get right to the questions.

[Russell]

Let's do it. This first one is coming from Nicholas. They Saw Becoming Earnhardt is coming soon. So what can we expect? Can you give us a teaser as to what is coming for becoming Earnhardt? 1980?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Becoming Earnhardt is just a show that I started. I got these two scrapbooks from my aunt. When my grandmother passed away, we went to her house. We're kind of looking through some of the things and, you know, photos and all kinds of stuff. And there's these two scrapbooks that my aunt made, and they are literally, one is from the 79 year and one's from the 80 cup season. And she cut out every article and everything. And so right there in front of me, man, is basically this kind of like a book of like, here's what happened to dad. And, you know, I just never really dove into that real deeply to get details about that particular couple of years when he drove for Rod Osterlin and landed his first full time ride, nascar. So we decided to make a series becoming Iron Heart to detail what's in those scrapbooks and the things that we learned now. It's pretty interesting. 1980 is what this particular season of Becoming Earnhardt will be focusing on. And there is a high profile split with crew chief Jake Elder. How Jake handles that in the media is wild. Like, Jake goes off the rails, Jake comes back on the rails. It's just wild. And dad and Kale get nippy in the media late in the year. Cale actually is real critical of dad on the racetrack. And, you know, just watching that whole, you know, kind of living, reliving, you know, putting yourself in the moment of going back through that particular year, I think it's really fun for me. I'm a nostalgia freak. I love the history of the sport. So just, it was a great time for me. Good reason, good excuse for me to sort of dive more into learning more about that particular part of dad's life. And so I lived a lot of the late 80s and the 90s. I wasn't even in dad's life in 1980. I was not living with him yet. So in the car that he won the championship with, the car that he finished the last lap at Ontario and clinched the title is that car sitting right here in front of us. That's the freaking car that was there that day that he drove. It's just wild to me. So, you know, the aura off of the thing is just insane and so pretty cool. Should be a lot of fun for people to listen to. They'll be very. It's a little. It's. It's a bit similar to the first series, if you listen to Becoming Earnhardt, the first series episodes are really detailed and long. There was a lot of stuff in there that I wanted to force into each episode and there was a lot that didn't get added that I wanted to talk about. But these will be much easier to consume. This will be a more friendly, nicer appetite of a show.

[Russell]

That has to be such a challenge to figure out what to include, what not to. Because all these details are like, oh, this is so good, but it could be so niche.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And what you'll hear is we'll have some special guests. Deb Woods Williams, who's been a reporter and writing about NASCAR forever. She lived through all of this. She's part of it. Doug Richard is the crew chief on the car is in the show. We did some interviews with him, some new stuff and then we used a lot of original calls from MRN and there was also an alternate broadcasting network that is now property of App State, the college. And so we went to their archives to pull out some of the original calls from those radio broadcasts. And so hearing all that stuff's a lot of fun.

[Russell]

That is super cool. And Tim's has, he's entered the room. He's worked very hard on that. Can't wait to. Can't wait to listen to it. I haven't had a chance to listen to it. I want to listen to it when everyone else does. But this next question coming from Brian Twitter, what's the story on this decal from this late model? And he's referring to the Calvin decal. And I might be able to show the screen.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, yeah.

[Russell]

So what's the story behind this?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I've talked about this before, but I'll, you know, some people may not know. JW was another late model racer. Jerry Williams, he was. He might have been. I know he was a mid Atlantic champion one year. He might have been a national champion, I can't remember. But he, he was a really solid racer around Myrtle beach and Florence and in that area, Somerville I suppose. But I come. That was like my third or fourth, my second or third year maybe at Myrtle beach. And I was racing with him. We were running 150 lapper one night at the beach and I didn't have a lot of racecraft so I'd make mistakes. I get underneath him down the front straightaway or coming down into turn one and I overdrive the entry and I got a slid up track and I hit him in the left rear tire pretty hard. It spun us both out it bent the drag link on my car. I was out of the race. I think he was also out. It probably knocked the left rear tire off his car. But we just. We hit hard, spun out. I didn't think it was that big of a deal. I was. I made a mistake, you know, and screwed up my race. Well, we come back like two or three weeks later for a regular 100 lap feature, and I am freaking half a lap ahead, cruising to a victory. Car's hauling ass and I'm flying. And, man, the race is just going by and going by. There's not a whole lot going on. Everybody's super spread out. I'm lapping up to, like, fourth place. Well, I come up on him to put him a lap down, and he pulled really low down the back straightaway. And I thought, that's odd. I think he's gonna try to get me down here. And turn three and four. We go down into turn three and four, and I see him, he's coming up the track. And I'm driving up the track toward the wall in the middle of the corner, trying to run away from him. And he finally gets up to me and hits me in the left. Retire. Spins me out. I ended up running fourth that night or something, but I was, no question gonna win the feature that night. And so we come. That was at the very end of the year. That particular race was The All American 400. All the probably about 112, 115, late model stocks. There were a lot of all pro cars there. Big, big race. And that was the Calvin pissing on JW pissing on Jerry Williams. We put that on there because we were so mad.

[Russell]

It's aggressive.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We got spun out.

[Russell]

Did he see it?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure it might not if you didn't see it that day. We've talked about it on this show several times.

[Russell]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well.

[Russell]

Yeah, that's a good way to get back at somebody.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I don't know. I. I would have loved to have just won the feature. Right.

[Russell]

But instead you made a sticker.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

Yeah. We got time for one more quick question, and it's from Vicky. What's one item of your dad's that you don't have, but wish you did?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, man. I mean, there's. I mean, I don't know that there's something that stands out. I really don't know that there's something that stands out. You know, I guess if there was a rifle or a shotgun that Ralph had given him might be cool. Something that had been given to him by Ralph.

[Russell]

Yeah. Like that is any kind of item.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That would be kind of neat, I'm sure. So there's a. He had this closet where nobody's been in this closet since the day he passed away. And so there's a lot of stuff in there that. That's probably. If I could go to a space to take a look at what is physically there, that there's there that. That's absolutely no question where I'd go. But yeah, there's all kinds of stuff in that room that, you know, old racing uniforms and. And his gun collection, all types of stuff like that.

[Russell]

Well, that's a good place, too. I know. It was quick. I saw some great questions. I wrote them down. So if you didn't hear your question, tune in.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

Week.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I appreciate it, everybody. Yeah, we had to kind of shorten this one up just a little bit because we went really long on our show and we got an interview and all kinds of other things going on today. I got to go to an appearance. It's a full day. Thank you, Xfinity, for bringing the Ask Junior segment to us again this week. Be sure to check out Xfinity WI Fi. The experience, the booming speeds for yourself. Their WI Fi service is fast. And as NASCAR fans, we all know what fast is. And choose the right plan for you. You're off to the races. Best streaming experience in nascar. And for all your favorite sports, Xfinity WI Fi is booming. They don't just raise the bar. They stream in overdrive. Xfinity is a proud premier partner of nascar. We thank them.

[Travis Mack]

Kubota Orange Days delivers the savings you need for the life you love. Shop a wide selection of equipment at your local dealer, including America's number one selling compact tractor, and get your perfect match delivered to your door.

[TJ Majors]

Designed for comfort and built for performance. Now through June 30, get 0 down 0% APR for 84 months or up to $3,000 off select compact tractors.

[Travis Mack]

Sales ending soon. See the details@kubota orangedays.com.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Lace your bets. All right, everybody, it's time for Dirty Modo here with Tampa Tims. TJ is going to stick around. We also have Russell the Professor joining us. Thank you, Russell, for coming.

[F]

Thanks for having me.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. This segment of Dirty Modeau is brought to you by FanDuel, the premier gaming destination in the United States. Our manufacturer parlay from this past weekend did not hit. I think we had Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and who else?

[Travis Mack]

I believe William Byron.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Byron? Yeah. Yeah. Well, we, we with big time on Joe Logano. Yeah, but Byron's close. Hey, how'd your day go, Tims?

[Travis Mack]

Not great. I was, I didn't bet a lot, but I, I liked Chris Busher a lot and bet him and Ford.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So. Over two. Yeah. Somebody. I thought on social media I saw they, they, they had success with a top 10 bet. We encouraged but not a great week overall. Except I guess, Russell, you picked the winner. Yeah.

[F]

The predictor of the winner.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. There you go. There you go. Yo, you're proud of that, aren't you?

[F]

I am, yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, we head to Mexico City.

[TJ Majors]

Well, hold on a second. How were the notes, Dale?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What notes?

[TJ Majors]

The Russell notes for you, the one liners.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, good. They were good.

[TJ Majors]

No complaints?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No.

[TJ Majors]

That's it?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. They were good. I mean I, I don't know how to. I don't know if this is that compelling, but he wrote, he wrote them in a way that you would say it. And I thought to myself, this should be the way they always should be done. I don't know why this is easier for me but not easier for him.

[TJ Majors]

I suppose no other complaints then we're good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't suppose.

[TJ Majors]

Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Now the only problem is, is that Steve Latart liked them and he wants them that way as well. Russell told me not to show them to Steve because he knew that would happen. Yeah.

[F]

And instead of having to do them that way for 10 weeks, I have to do them that way for 24 weeks, so.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, now you don't have to do them the other way.

[F]

That's true.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's true. Yeah. I got a lot of.

[F]

A lot of problems from your. Your boothmates this morning too, about Mexico City notes. I don't know what the problem was.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Maybe the fact that the head. The header for the email was in Spanish.

[Travis Mack]

Oh, you know, he knows the ish.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They might not know what those words mean.

[F]

I, I heard the best way to learn a new language is to immerse yourself in it, so.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay. Yep. Well, not everybody wants to get on that boat with you. Is that what their complaint was? Yeah, the whole.

[F]

All the notes were in Spanish, so.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, from top every note. You had fun doing that, didn't you? I took a little extra time out of your day.

[F]

The Marv, our producer was the best part of it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. What'd he say?

[F]

Yeah, he thought he hit some button on the screen trying to figure out what button did turn it back To English.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's hilarious. Well, I mean, I guess you could just totally translate it.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah, I'm sure you could these days.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. All right, well, we head to Mexico City this week. So who are the drivers that have competed there?

[F]

So Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Keselowski. But then also Suarez has competed there in NASCAR Mexico, and then it actually won there, and then Michael McDowell's one there in a Grand Am car as well.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Did Keselowski run there the final year?

[Travis Mack]

I saw a video on Instagram yesterday of, of him, of the rundown, and he was in the 88 car.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, he finished eighth. There you go. All right. So I think that that's, that's an important thing to consider, that Denny and these other drivers have ran laps there. Most of the field will acclimate themselves over the course of the weekend, and there are parts of the racetrack that are new, particularly in the stadium area toward the finish, toward the finish line. But I just knowing watching those races back this week, knowing the, the, the technical side of turn of the first three turns and then the final back side of the racetrack through the esses. Denny was really strong there in 07, won the race before in oh six. And so I don't look at Denny and go, man, great road racer. But for whatever reason, I just feel like that they're. As soon as they go to that racetrack and as soon as they pull out there and start making laps, it's just going to really feel natural and comfortable. It'll come right back to them. And I feel like that they'll have an advantage at least as the, as the weekend kicks off.

[Travis Mack]

There's a lot of long practices.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There is a lot of practices. This won't be a traditional weekend where there will be a good amount of time for the drivers to go out there and get, get used to the racetrack. But again, I still feel like that, that advantage of having been there and ran laps there is going to be a pretty, pretty sizable one that, that will start to really erode away maybe even midway through the race. So with all that said, who are the drivers that, that we're looking at as favorites?

[F]

Kyle Busch, Christopher Bell, SVG William Byron, and I'd say Tyler Redick. You can also include Chase Elliott in there. I'd say that, that those are your top six. I'd say your winner comes from there with an outside chance of, of like Chris Buscher or Kyle Busch. Michael McDowell. Those would be my three. Three like sleepers, if you will.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay. Cobus, Christopher Bell, Byron, Chase Elliott, who are the other two?

[F]

Reddick of the the guys that I.

[TJ Majors]

Think are going to win.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, Reddick.

[F]

Top of the predictor is Larson Bell svg William Byron and Tyler Reddick and.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Then Bub or I'm sorry Busher McDowell.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I, I, I love Buscher.

[F]

He, he's, he has the best average finish in the next gen car on road courses. One at Watkins Glen. Just, just really well on the road courses but under underappreciated in my opinion.

[Travis Mack]

What about Alex winning Chicago?

[F]

That was a fluke. I don't like talking about that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh my goodness. You don't like talking about that. Cost Russ a lot of money. Yeah, I did.

[TJ Majors]

That was dinner.

[Travis Mack]

Pay for two steaks.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That was dinner Phoenix. Yeah.

[F]

I had to pay for my two steaks and then whatever else Stevie thought was we could put on the table fit on the table at the time.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh man. All right, so let's talk about who we want to. Who we want to bet for our out outright winner.

[Travis Mack]

I like Kyle Busch plus 1600.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Damn.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah. What's Chase Elliott plus 1100. I like Chase like Chase.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Really I do. Yeah.

[Travis Mack]

AJ Almendinger wasn't mentioned either and he's plus 1500. I like that too. I think AJ this is what they're circled on the calendar.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I agree. Because of the, the, it's not a, you know, AJ svg. The guys that are right. Road course ringers. They're not ringers anymore because all these other drivers have ran Watkins Glen a thousand times. Right. They've ran Sonoma a thousand times. But we're. This is exactly like going to Chicago. This is, you know, there's only a select few drivers that have actually been on this circuit. So I think it gives SVG and AJ you got to bump them a little bit.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah. Their natural ability.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Natural ability and a. To charge and exceed all the braking zones to do all the things right. Gives them at least five spots. Right. So.

[TJ Majors]

But does this course isn't a very like it's very flat and not as.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's technical as hell. So.

[TJ Majors]

Because I don't. I've been told from drivers that this isn't one that like SVG can just roll in like he did Chicago and dominate.

[Travis Mack]

I feel like the more technical the better he is.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I listen, I don't. I think Chicago was, was a perfect storm.

[Travis Mack]

Oh absolutely.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But I still do think that they're to your point tj Their God given ability to run better at road courses. There are better road course racers. They are.

[Travis Mack]

Oh yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They're better road course races. So if you send everybody to a course they've never been to, who do you think is going to be good? Those two guys.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Now you're going to also have the list that Russell mentioned. They'll all be competitive. Larson, they'll all run AJ And SVG for everything they're worth. And then you'll have Hamlin and Kyle Busch, Keselowski, that have had. Kezzy's pretty bad at road courses. But Suarez, his experience here, McDowell, those guys that actually have laps on the track, that gives them an advantage. But yeah, I wouldn't be surprised to see SVG and A.J. s. You know, the. The colleague stuff is better this year.

[Travis Mack]

It has been better.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Quite a bit better.

[Travis Mack]

That's why I'm surprised. He's. He's plus 1500. That's like eighth, ninth best. And I think he should be way up there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Mack]

So that's. That's good right now. Good value.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, this is. This will be a fun one. To.

[F]

To Tim's point, though, Kyle Busch's best run this year was at COTA. Led 42 laps there. You know, he's one of those winners at Mexico City, too, so I think he's. He's probably the best bet, really.

[Travis Mack]

I do like him, too. Odds.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Mack]

They didn't like him the day he won there, though, because he wrecked that Adrian Fernandez to win that race. And they did not like Kyle that day.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't think that has been bearing on this weekend.

[Travis Mack]

No, not at all.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You just wanted us to be impressed with your knowledge.

[Travis Mack]

I was there. I watched it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay.

[Travis Mack]

It was. It's fun. It was fun. That racetrack definitely presents a lot of opportunity for things like that, so.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I like that, man. What are we gonna. Let's. Let's. Let's pick some. Let's do a manufacturer parlay.

[TJ Majors]

I think Reddick for Toyota. Maybe.

[Travis Mack]

I would win Bell, but I.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Could live with Reddick.

[TJ Majors]

He's the gambler.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Mack]

Reddick will probably have better odds, but I like Bell. Bell is really strong coda. I think that will translate. Yeah. I'm leaning more towards Bell right now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Bella does C. Bell. All right, we're going with. Do we think that Buescher backs it up for Ford?

[Travis Mack]

I think he could, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[F]

I just don't know who else you're going to put in there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, Butcher. It is where we should have. We're going to be a week late to the busher parade.

[Travis Mack]

Yeah, this is the tough one. Chevy's the tough one. Yeah, I still like aj.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know if between SVG and aj, who do you take?

[Travis Mack]

I'm leaning SVG right now.

[TJ Majors]

If I'm gonna lose a spin, I'm losing. With SVG on the card, it'll be fun to watch.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Let's put SVG up there.

[Travis Mack]

And he's actually. I mean, he's improving on his oval stuff this year as well. I don't know if many people notice it, but he's. He's getting more comfortable with the cars and stuff.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Mack]

Go back to back top 20.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know. I don't know, man. Well, you sure, sure we shouldn't put Kyle Bush there?

[Travis Mack]

I'm fine with either one of those three. He's gonna spin out, doesn't he, Kyle, at some point.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right.

[Travis Mack]

Does the predictor put spin outs in there?

[F]

The predictor has either Larson or SVG for this one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay. Svg.

[Travis Mack]

Svg. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right. Svg. Bucher and Bell. Bell. All right.

[Travis Mack]

Sounds good to me.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Let's go with it. Lock it in. All right, Russell, thanks for calling in today.

[F]

Thanks for having me.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Appreciate you helping us out. Thanks. Tim's.

[Travis Mack]

Thank you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, Dirty Mode segment brought to you by FanDuel, the premier gaming destination of the United States States. All right, it's time for the White Flag. The teardown was live after the race on Sunday on YouTube and Twitter. If you haven't, make sure to subscribe to Dirty Mo Media on YouTube. You'll get notifications when the tear down goes live. Post race. You can listen to the Amazon post race and then bam, tear down. You're going to get more post race than you know what to do with. Actions Detrimental was taped on Monday. It's always fun hearing the episodes after Denny has a victory. I'm sure the drivers love it. I know the drivers listen to Denny's show. Do they listen after he wins? I bet they. They might skip those.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, you might want to avoid that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

One door bumper clear. Dropped on Monday. Ricky Stenhouse Jr joined them this week. Wonder what they talked about. TJ.

[Travis Mack]

Oh, probably nothing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay.

[Travis Mack]

Probably not. Hosvar.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And then I have an interview with David Green, one of the Green brothers. Jeff Green race for dad and David raced in the Xfinity series and the Cup Series. And now he works in NASCAR as a technical inspector.

[Travis Mack]

1995 champion.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's right. Herman Schrader and Speed street also will come out Wednesday as well. Thursday for Bless yous Heart. There'll be a special guest on that show. I'm off to Mexico, but Amy is gonna have a big surprise for you. All right, that's the show. Hope you guys enjoyed it. Thank y' all for tuning in. My name is Lily and I've had hydradenitis suprativa HS for years. I finally found some relief since taking Cosentyx. Relief means I can show up more. Cosenty Secukinumab is prescribed for adults with moderate to severe hidradenitis suppurativa. Don't use if you're allergic to Cosentyx before starting.

[TJ Majors]

Get checked for tuberculosis.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

An increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur like.

[TJ Majors]

Tuberculosis or other serious bacterial, fungal or viral infections.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Some some are fatal. Tell your doctor if you have an.

[TJ Majors]

Infection or symptoms like fevers, sweats, chills.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Muscle aches or cough had a vaccine or planned to, or if inflammatory bowel disease symptoms develop or worsen, serious allergic reactions and severe eczema like skin reactions may occur. Learn more at 1-844-cosentix or cosentyx.com Ask your dermatologist about cosenty.