Darlington's Old School Feeling & A Hall-Of-Fame Debate

Summary

The Dale Jr. Download

Episode: Darlington’s Old School Feeling & A Hall-of-Fame Debate

Date: March 24, 2026
Host: Dale Earnhardt Jr., with regulars TJ Majors, Russell, and special guest appearances
Network: Dirty Mo Media, SiriusXM

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EPISODE OVERVIEW

This milestone 700th episode finds Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the crew fresh off Darlington, celebrating the vintage vibes of NASCAR’s throwback weekend and diving headfirst into the nuances that make Darlington races special, both on and off the track. The episode features a lively debate around the NASCAR Hall of Fame—who belongs, what achievements matter, and whether the Hall should be Cup-only. The crew also breaks down key Darlington race moments, touches on the evolving CARS Tour, recaps the weekend in the Xfinity/O’Reilly Series, and features a victory-lap interview with Darlington Cup winner Tyler Reddick.

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KEY DISCUSSION POINTS & INSIGHTS

1. Props, Nostalgia, and the Meaning of Darlington

Dale Jr. starts the show by opening collectible cards and telling stories about racing memorabilia, leading to reflections on the old-school nature of Darlington weekend.

• [03:00] Dale Jr.: Shares the story of the infamous "Look Who Ran Into Me" T-shirt from the 1987 Winston All-Star Race, his youthful efforts to change its meaning, and his father’s heated response.

  “I thought I would fix the shirt … Dad did not think so … He used a lot of curse words, and so the shirt disappeared. But now I have another... I'm gonna wear it, and Dad ain't here to tell me to take it the f*** off, right?” (06:20)

• The panel reflects on how different times were for NASCAR kids in the '80s, wandering racetrack grounds without parental supervision.
• Nostalgia is a key theme, tying into how Darlington’s setting—bumpy, unchanged, “vintage” lighting—creates a time-capsule atmosphere.

  “When they turn the lights on … that is probably as close as I've ever felt to time traveling back in time.” (10:42)

2. Modern Racing and the Value of Nostalgia

• Discussion about NASCAR’s alumni program at Darlington, which brought legends like Lake Speed, Mark Martin, Darrell Waltrip, and Bobby Labonte into race-weekend activities.
• The throwback weekend brings tradition and innovation together, but it’s also a magnet for opinions about the “old way” versus the modern format—especially from alumni.

  “Throwback weekend lends itself to some throwback opinions… NASCAR has made some really, really good changes … but you’re always going to have somebody say ‘I miss this, or that’.” (21:03)

• Notably, Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Labonte criticized stage racing, stirring debate about the place of nostalgia-driven opinions in today’s racing.

  “DW is not a big fan of stage racing … And I’m like, me too, kind of, you know.” (21:30)

• Darlington is described as the weekend where “old wounds” and traditions always come back to the fore, sparking healthy debate and critical reflection.

3. Throwback Paint Schemes & Standout Performances

• The group congratulates the Hostevaar team’s 1981 Wrangler throwback, noting the attention to detail—social media campaigns, bringing a matching Pontiac Grand Prix to the track.

  “They wrapped a Grand Prix … they really went all out.” (28:04)

• The flexibility of sponsors is discussed: smaller teams and series can pull off better visual throwbacks since Cup-level sponsorship often resists significant design changes.

4. Xfinity (O’Reilly) Review: Justin Allgaier’s Masterclass

• [31:18] Breakdown of the O’Reilly race at Darlington: Justin Allgaier’s late-race restarts make the difference, showing veteran patience and aggression.

  “That is him to a T. That is what makes him great … On late race restarts, he’s a dog.” (32:28)

• Allgaier’s two wins (Phoenix and Darlington) highlight his sustained prowess; the series' turnover and opportunity for young talent are celebrated.

5. Cup Race Recap & Technical Evolution

• The hosts analyze the new underbody/downforce package’s effect at Darlington: subtle, but a step in the right direction.
• Clever team strategy: Tyler Reddick’s 23XI squad expertly manages a battery issue mid-race—adding a larger battery, coaching Reddick on conserving power, and innovating under pressure.

  “They were smart enough to know exactly what Tyler could run inside the car… smart on their part … a lot of teams may not fully prepare for that challenge.” (44:18)

• On-track drama: The pit-entry incident between Tyler Reddick and Chris Buescher triggers debate about communication and evolving etiquette—are fewer drivers signaling now because of gamesmanship?

  “Are we not waving anymore? I’m asking a serious question.” (45:23)

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FEATURE INTERVIEW: Tyler Reddick (Darlington Cup Winner)

[52:27-66:31]

• Reddick reflects on managing the unexpected battery/cooling issue, running with his helmet visor up, draining his cooling suit, and utilizing a sports-car-style hands-free hydration system.

  “I was hot… but I was so locked in on what I had to do and what I needed to do.” (55:05)

• The mental approach of the 23XI team: honest offseason conversations after a disappointing 2025, focusing on resilience and maximizing every opportunity under the new points format.
• The points situation encourages a “maximize every week” mentality.

  “We understood that we’re not going to let these bumps in the road…set us off onto a different path. … On four of them, they’ve turned out to be wins, which is pretty remarkable.” (59:16)

• Light-hearted moments—smoking a victory cigar with his dad and doing a “shoe-y” beer celebration in victory lane.

  “That was one of the best tasting beers I've ever had, that's for sure.” *(65:45)

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6. Hall of Fame Debate: What Really Counts?

[73:14-101:12] — A passionate segment with pronounced differences in opinion.

Main Arguments:

• Who should be in the NASCAR Hall of Fame?

  • Should drivers from Xfinity, Trucks, or Modifieds be eligible, or should induction be Cup-only?
  • If you never had a real Cup opportunity, or weren’t a winner there, do achievements in other series really count?

• Notable Quotes:

  • “Is AJ Foyt a NASCAR Hall of Famer? … I'm not sure that he's a NASCAR Hall of Famer.” (82:08)
  • “Statistics are a big part, but not all of my vote.” (85:35) — Russell
  • “That’s my opinion … it’s the hall of fame, not the hall of really good.” (88:22) — TJ Majors opposing non-Cup consideration.
  • “It is literally not the Cup Series Hall of Fame…” (88:00) — Russell, reemphasizing inclusivity.

• Debated figures:

  • AJ Foyt (great driver but limited Cup focus)
  • Justin Allgaier (Xfinity ace, possible HOF credentials)
  • Mike Stefanik (Modifieds legend), Matt Crafton (Truck champion), Larry Phillips (short-track standout)

• Spectrum of perspectives:

  • Russell and Dale Jr.: Hall should reflect all of NASCAR.
  • TJ Majors and Alex Timms: Cup should dominate, with little recognition for non-Cup careers.

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7. Other Notable Moments & Segments

Notable Performances & Quips:

• Austin Cindric: Quiet but impressive top-5 at Darlington; crew gives him props for resilience and sense of humor.
• Eric Jones: Climbed back into contention after early struggles.
• Ty Gibbs: Four consecutive top-10s; quietly building a strong campaign.

Discussion on NASCAR Fan Experience:

• [70:13] Ben Kennedy, high-ranking NASCAR official, went undercover as a fan at Darlington to audit the race-day experience—buying tickets, parking, renting radios, sitting in the grandstands.

  “He cared enough to do this … not rocket science … but it’s just cool.”

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TIMESTAMPS FOR MAJOR SEGMENTS

| Segment | Timestamp | |------------------------------------------------|--------------------| | Nostalgia & Props | 03:00 – 10:00 | | Darlington Atmosphere & Changes | 10:00 – 13:00 | | NASCAR Alumni Program and Throwback Opinions | 15:37 – 26:00 | | Throwback Paint Schemes | 28:03 – 30:10 | | Xfinity/O’Reilly Race Recap | 31:18 – 37:10 | | Cup Race Debrief & Pit Strategy | 37:49 – 49:41 | | Feature: Tyler Reddick Interview | 52:27 – 66:31 | | Hall of Fame Debate | 73:14 – 101:12 | | Ask Junior Segment & Listener Q&A | 101:12 – 113:13 | | Martinsville/Bets Segment | 115:01 – 124:58 |

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NOTABLE QUOTES

• Dale Jr. (on Darlington):

  “That is probably as close as I've ever felt to time traveling back in time.” (10:42)

• On Tradition vs. Progress:

  “Darlington is always going to be the weekend that stirs up some of these discussions about what used to be, and how that was better.” (23:40)

• On Hall of Fame Standards:

  “This isn’t the Racing Hall of Fame, it’s the NASCAR Hall of Fame.” — TJ Majors (82:39)
  “If you make the ballot, you are a Hall of Famer in my mind.” — Russell (81:23)

• On Allgaier’s Xfinity Success:

  "He just knows where to be and almost knows what’s going to happen before it happens." — Dale Jr. (32:54)

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TONE & STYLE

The episode is classic Dale Jr. Download: candid, self-deprecating, nostalgic for “the way it used to be,” yet appreciative of growth and change. The discussions are passionate but respectful, with lots of storytelling, playful banter, and honest debate. Dale Jr. is sentimental about history, the crew isn’t afraid of conflict, and there’s a steady undercurrent of humor—whether poking fun at each other or making light of racing culture.

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SUMMARY — IN A NUTSHELL

The Dale Jr. Download’s 700th episode combines stories of NASCAR’s roots and modern transformation, channeling the unique energy of Darlington’s throwback weekend. The hosts celebrate what makes racing special—community, tradition, and raw competition—while wrestling with what defines greatness in NASCAR’s Hall of Fame. Tyler Reddick’s gritty Darlington victory tests the boundaries of driver endurance and team adaptability, while ongoing debates about the Hall reflect a sport still very much linked to its past, even as it races toward the future.

For fans who missed the episode, this summary brings all the major storylines and spirited debates right to your pit box.

Transcript

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Russell]

Not to brag or anything, But Arby's new $7.99 meat in three box is kind of a big deal. The other guys give you just one side. We give you three sides. Not to brag. You get a meaty sandwich, curly fries, mott sticks, a sweet treat and a drink. All for just $7.99.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's more meal for your money. More meal for your money.

[Russell]

More meal for your money. Oh, where'd that come from? Arby's. We have the meats and participating Arby's for a limited time. The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. This is the most fun I've had in this chair in the last hour and a half. Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know if we've ever argued. Did I piss you off over the

[Russell]

weekend or I'm still sour that I wasn't the best man at your wedding.

[TJ Majors]

Who was your best man, Dale?

[Russell]

Tj. Tj? You don't need a cool vest for that race. What are you thinking? Get him, DJ Hell. Way to start the show.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, then.

[Russell]

Hey, Everybody, it's Dale Jr. Back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. This is Post Darlington. What episode is this?

[TJ Majors]

700.

[Russell]

Really?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Why'd you quit putting it on here?

[TJ Majors]

Because I don't care about the number.

[Russell]

We do. We care about it.

[TJ Majors]

Too much work.

[Russell]

700 episodes. Jeez. Feels like 7,000 working with you.

[TJ Majors]

It does.

[Russell]

That's right. Well, dang. This episode number 700 is presented by Arby's. Don't forget about Arby's new meet in three box. You get more meal for your money. At Arby's we have the meats, so let's get right into it. But we got a lot to talk about on the table. I've got some props. I have a box of NFL paninis. I thought we I. We could open those.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We should.

[Russell]

I got a Dale Earnhardt.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Nice car.

[Russell]

This is 2000. Dad signed this? More than likely he signed this at DEI in his autograph room. The Person sent it off and got a PSA authenticated autograph. It is certified. And a friend of mine that brings me the. He brings me stuff from Canada. He's Canada.

[TJ Majors]

The high five guy.

[Russell]

Yep. Five alive.

[TJ Majors]

Five alive.

[Russell]

Five alive. He brings five alive. And ketchup flavored chips. Potato chips.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yum.

[Russell]

Which is hard to say for some reason. He gave me this. This slabbed. I love that word. He gave me this slabbed, autographed Dylan Hart card for the studio. And also we talk about this shirt. Now, I don't like promoting and making other people money, but, you know, we like to promote things that make dirty mo media money. But this shirt is the shirt. Guess who ran into me today at the track. So this shirt, after the 1987 All Star race, the Winston, where dad and Bill Elliot tangled, Jeff and I got in that little mix up as well. It was maybe, in my opinion, I'm biased. The. The most dramatic and exciting 10 laps in NASCAR history. Okay? The last 10 laps of the Winston in 1987. The next couple of weeks, you start going to the racetrack and you start seeing these bootlegged T shirts being sold all around the racetracks. And I bought one at Talladega, all right? Now, in 1987, I was 13 years old and I bought one of these T shirts. Dad would give me 100 bucks and I'd run all over the property. No chaperone, no supervision. 13 years old. Me and my buddies, they were 13, 14, 12, whatever, were running all over the footprint of Talladega Superspeedway property. We're over at the hall of Fame by ourselves. We go over to the dirt track at night and watch the dirt trackers run. No parents, nothing. Man, I don't know what the hell. Such a different world, right? You never do that now. Well, I bought one of these with some of the money dad gave me to spend. And I got a guy. So I see it, right? And I'm like, yeah, it's got a lot of yellow and blue paint on it, meaning that this person that made the shirt must have been a Bill Elliot fan. And they're saying, look who ran into me. All the yellow and blue marks on it. Earnhardt ran into me. Well, I thought I would fix the shirt. And I got a guy to spray on a number three, like this is the door of dad's car and put a little bit of red and gold on there, too. And I was like, hey, dad will see it and not think this is an anti Earnhardt shirt. He'll think it's a I'm wearing. I'm like, hey, look who ran into me, Bill Elliot. You know what I'm saying? I changed the narrative. Well, nah, dad did not think so. And he saw it and he told me to take it off immediately. And he used a lot of curse words. And so the shirt disappeared. But now I have another. I bought it on Internet, I think. I think our old friend NASCAR man has sort of a pop up T shirt kind of print sale by print. You know, print by, you know, you order it, it gets made. I'm glad to have one of these and I'm gonna wear it. And dad ain't here to tell me to take it the of f off, Right?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So it's creative.

[Russell]

I love.

[Tyler Reddick]

Very creative.

[TJ Majors]

You go to a football game, whatever, and there's the people selling bootleg illegal T shirts outside the stadium, you know.

[Russell]

You know, this ain't got nobody's name on it. There's no trademark violations. This one to me, kind of clears the books. Yeah. All right. Anywho, So I brought some props today. I guess we could put this in here. I don't know. I kind of want to put it. I want to. Kind of want to take it home. Could leave it here.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'd probably take it home.

[Russell]

Okay. TJ Made the call. Well, me and you will open some cards here after a while.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right.

[Russell]

Went to. We got a big race this weekend in the CARS tour. I'm leading into something, so don't get nervous about me talking about the CARS tour, but our producer, Travis likes us to stay on the NASCAR content.

[TJ Majors]

That's not true.

[Russell]

He does. He is not excited about anything non cup. Little Xfinity, anything, mostly cup. He likes a lot of cup. He likes a lot of cup in our show. A little bit xfinity, but I. O'Reilly. Oh, Riley O'Reilly. Sorry. I. Yeah, this is what it's going to be. It's going to be. That's the way it's going to be for a while. So there's 175 lap brace this weekend at Wake County. Wake county is a really tiny track, and usually all of our late model stock races are 125 laps. We talked to the teams and we said, hey, let's add some laps to this one. So it's 175 laps at wake county after the Xfinity race. The Xfinity race in Martinsville will run and you can lead right into the broadcast on flow for the cars tour. Please tune in. There's also $10,000 up for grabs in the floating program between six drivers in this race. So not only can teams, you know, win their money, win the race and win that money, but there's also another $10,000 up for grabs in the floating program. Thank you, Flo Racing. Flo's awesome. So anyhow, we're going to run that race this weekend. We have like 33 cars going for 26 spots. There's going to be some good teams that more than likely going to not qualify for this race in the CARS Tour. This is a very tiny racetrack and when the caution comes out with 26 cars on the track, we are nose to tail all the way. You know, the freaking pace car is right up somebody's ass. So it's a tight little spot. But anyways, yeah, I'm excited about it this weekend. I say that because this past week I went to Nashville to test, went to the fairgrounds and ran some laps and in preparation for the Cars Tour race on the April 11th in Nashville. And so that was a ton of fun. We, we went out there. You, you. Nashville is interesting because of the, the mufflers. You got to run mufflers, you got to have. Your car can't be over like a hundred decibels, so you have to run mufflers. And we were testing some mufflers and we got a little work to do there. You can't be on the track before 3 o' clock in the afternoon. You can only practice from 3 to 7 on Thursday and Tuesday. Same thing on Friday, Saturday. I think it's, it's a bit different, but I'm excited to go out there. They what? It's very bumpy. There's some patches, some issues, character, whatever you want to call it with the racetrack, which is fine.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Sounds fun.

[Russell]

Big bump off of turn two, which is fine.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's where the tunnel is, right?

[Russell]

Yep, yep. One of the funny things is we got done testing around 7 o' clock and they started putting these jersey barriers out on the racetrack. And it is because the joyriders tend to show up if you don't do that. Some two and three in the morning, some folks try to break, you know, cut the lock and drive into the racetrack and cut a couple laps.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Dang.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How about that odd item there?

[Russell]

They at a set at around 6:30, 6:00 clock, they turn the lights on. Now, I haven't been there since 1999 to drive a race car. I haven't run a lap on that racetrack since 1999 and it was not changed a bit. Which is, in my opinion, a good thing. I mean it needs a little fluff. And Buff and Marcus Smith and Bristol Motor Speedway are trying to work with the local government. They have been for the past, I don't know, five years trying to work a deal. There is a deal in place. Everybody just needs to agree. And should that deal get done, they will fix the racetrack up, clean it up, repave it, more than likely put a new wall and safer barrier around it. But also, most importantly, put a sound barrier around the racetrack for all the folks that live in that area that are upset about sound and racing and noise. This man wants to spend thousands, a couple hundred thousand dollars to improve the situation with a sound barrier around the racetrack. But that doesn't get done if the deal doesn't get done. And I think racing is protected there as far as, you know, short track racing. The 12 or 15 events they have annually will continue with no sound barrier. So anyhow, they turned the lights on around six o', clock, man. And I'm gonna tell you what, that is probably as close as I've ever felt to going to time, traveling back in time. When they turn the lights on, the lights are good enough, but they're imperfect and they're vintage. And I'll tell you, I seen some. I've watched a lot of races. Like I've watched the 1984, the one of the last races they had there in the Cup Series. The races there at night, it was not well lit. It was just, you know, very vintage. Has a very vintage feel when you watch it on YouTube and it looked exactly like that. It was so freaking cool. So I cannot wait to go back There with the Cars tour April 11 for Nashville Fairgrounds. We will have a lot going on to make sure that event's a lot of fun. If you were out there for xrs, you, you, you'll. You got an idea what you might get when you come back for the CARS Tour. Because I heard the XRS deal was really cool. So I'm excited to go to, to, to Nashville. One small note. Jerky Boys, which is Nashville made, they'll be out at the fairgrounds. I'll probably over sign an autograph at the Jerky Boys booth trying to, you know, move some jerky.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And saw you sent Corey Heim some jerky.

[Russell]

We did. I didn't know anything about that. I guess our boys sent Corey some jerky and he posted about it on social media thanking Corey Hine.

[TJ Majors]

Maybe that's what got in the woods.

[Russell]

I like Corey Heim. And I like him a lot more now. That little thing right there. Yeah. He was like, hey, this is actually pretty good. I believe I'll let everybody know. Thank you, Corey Heim. That's how social media works. Hey everybody, it's Mike Davis here. I have a question for you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Now be honest, how many drill bits

[Russell]

have you snapped just trying to finish a single job?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Listen, I've been there. Nothing will kill the momentum faster than when that happens. That's why I want to talk to you about can cut drill bits and cutting drills.

[Russell]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[TJ Majors]

And once you use them, you will know why.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And here's the good news. Right now you can save 25% off

[TJ Majors]

your entire order with the code Dirty Mo.

[Russell]

My drill bits from Cancut came in handy just a couple weeks ago. So I bought an old yard used metal trailer.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I already had a hitch pin for

[Russell]

it, but of course the pinhole wasn't

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

the same size as the hitch pin. Isn't that how it always happens?

[Russell]

So yes, I needed to drill a hole.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I had my can cut drill bits

[Russell]

there for the job. And it was so easy. I wish you could have seen the way this thing bites through that steel.

[TJ Majors]

It was so effortless.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And man, the durability, the precision of this thing. It was incredible.

[Russell]

And yet I was off to my next project.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

These drill bits are made from pretty

[Russell]

premium high speed steel with high vanadium content.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Then salt nitride treated that hardness. It's not just on the surface, it's built all the way through the bit.

[Russell]

That means they will drill into stainless

[TJ Majors]

steel, even titanium alloy without giving up on you.

[Russell]

And that 135 degree split point, no center punch, no pilot holes.

[TJ Majors]

You just pull the trigger and go.

[Russell]

Here's the deal. It costs less because you're finishing the job, not replacing tools. The best bang for your buck. Check out cancut.com and use code dirty mo for 25% off your order.

[TJ Majors]

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[Russell]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

with USA made can cut drill bits and cutting tools.

[Russell]

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All right, so let's talk about. Let's talk about Darlington. So NASCAR had the alumni program come out to Darlington and some teams did throwback paint schemes, which was great, and there were some really good ones. And I want to talk about them in a minute. But NASCAR has this new alumni program that they've developed where they're encouraging a lot of the drivers from NASCAR's past and a lot of historic names to come back out to the racetrack. And it's working really well. You saw a lot of those guys on social media this weekend. They incorporated them into the race weekend experience with green throwing, waving the green flag, Lake speed, saying the prayer and, you know, Dave Marcus handing the trophy over in Victor Lane. And you had a lot of guys in the media center and a lot of great quotes and comments from, you know, Mark Martin and Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Lobani and all these different people. Right? And I love it. The, you know, the alumni program is really cool. NASCAR sends you a box. It's got a hat and all this stuff in it. We've been taking that stuff and putting it, signing it and putting it on our foundation website for people to buy, but which I'm, I'm very thankful to be in the alumni program. I just feel like, you know, I'm not gonna walk around with an alumni hat on. Not that I'm not glad to be part of it, but it's just a little weird. It's just for some people it works and some people don't. It's like, you know, it's kind of like the Jersey conversation. You know, how old do you, how old do you stop wearing them or whatever. But anyways, they, the, the program is working really well with it, with having those guys at the racetrack, though. You know, they come with their opinions, you know, and they come to the race. Bobby Lobani, Darrell Waltrip were asked about Stage cautions and there's some clips on social media about their opinions about it and they don't like it. It's funny because DW as he's in the booth, and I know this very well, you know, he's a broadcaster in the booth. You, you keep your damn opinions to yourself in terms of state of the sport. And I've, you know, the only time I really ever weighed into any of that is when we're on this podcast and I'm careful about, you know, kind of how far I want to go down some of these roads when we're talking about things in the sport. But now that DW is not working the booth, he's quite a bit more, you know, free, I suppose, or apt to give his opinion on things. And he said that he, he's not a big fan of the stage racing. Bob the Bonnie chimed in on social media to, to agree with that as well. The teardown went on to debate number placement at Darlington. Specifically Jeff Gluck said that he would be for them allowing the numbers to be moved back for some of the vintage scheme or, you know, some of the throwback schemes or whatever. And why would you say no? Why would you, why would anyone say no? They shouldn't move the numbers back for Darlington. I mean, it's just, why can't. What, what is this? Why the restrictions? Why the, why are we shackling ourselves to tethering ourselves to some, you know, out of, for brand consistency or what are we talking about? But I thought I was like, man, if they move the frickin number back for one race and everybody sees how good it looks, just gonna open a big can of worms. Just saying. But anyhow, throwback weekend lends itself to some throwback opinions. And I guess what I was wanting to say about that is NASCAR has made some really, really good changes to the sport, namely the point system. We had a lot of, you know, we had a lot of great conversations, a lot of Kumbaya, everybody in the same room happy and a lot of, you know, announcements and meetings and every, and just a lot of positive comments. And this season has been great. We got off on a, got off to a great start and everything is, everything is good. But I guess that doesn't mean that, you know, every, I guess that doesn't mean that you're not going to have somebody every now and then come up and go, yeah, I miss this. Or I think this is, this should be different.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean I had some moments that were great. What just anything that like has Its moments, like.

[Russell]

Well, I'm just saying, like, here's. I guess the conversation I'm trying to have, tj, is like, listen, NASCAR made some good changes this offseason. We're all very happy about it. There are still some people that feel like, you know, number placement, stage racing things. There's still some format, championship. Yeah. There's still some people that still aren't in love with a couple of those things.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's always going to be that way.

[Russell]

And I feel like it's okay to still have those conversations, 100%. Yeah, I know. But I'll say this like, you know, nascar, in all the progress, you know, we'll call it progress, all the progress they made this off season to make good changes and really, really great change for the points format, they would hope that everybody would just shut the hell up and be happy, right? Just, hey, be happy for what you got. And I agree with that a little bit. But at the same time, when Darrell Waltrip or Bobby Lobani says, you know what, I love all the changes, but I also think they should not have stage racing. And I'm like, me too, kind of, you know, but not. Not that I'm going to go on social media and start a, you know, kind of a crusade to try to bend that back in the other direction.

[TJ Majors]

But every sport has where people are critiquing it.

[Russell]

Well, Darlington, we. I'm going to. I think what we're going to find is that Darlington weekend is going to be the moment in every season when those nostalgic sort of comments and conversations flare. The number placement. Right. We don't really. I mean, there's a ton of us out there that absolutely despise the current number placement. We keep our mouth shut. It ain't changing. Nobody's talking about it changing. Nobody that matters. And so we're not thinking it's going to change. So there's no argument to have. Right. Why complain if it's not going to do anything? But when Darlington comes around and then. And the throwback schemes come around, oh, what are we talking about? We're talking about number placement, you know, and so I just find that interesting. It's like, you know, we. We did a lot of great things this all season and everything is good and we are happy and we're moving down the right, right direction. And Darlington. Darlington's going to always be this weekend. That stirs up some of these discussions and conversations about what used to be and how it used to be and how that was better. And, yeah, and not that there's not. I'm not saying there's a right or wrong.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Kind of always does that.

[Russell]

Darlington's gonna do it. Yeah. So. And I think nascar, I guess, is just gonna have to, you know, know that's just how it's gonna go, you know, every time we bring these old hats around. Like, for example, Kirk Shelmerdeen, I love him. Awesome guy. Right. One of the things that I wish he hadn't done and he didn't have to do it. He gets up in his. He gets up during his speech for the hall of Fame. He's getting inducted into the hall of Fame. He is on the stage in front of the entire industry, and he got so freaking mad about the next gen car that he cussed it on stage during his speech. You know, he said something along the lines of, you know, whatever the this thing is y' all have now, you know, when talking about race cars. And I was like, kurt, you didn't have to do that, you know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

Just, you know, just be happy about your career, you know, and this is the hall of Fame, and not the time or the place, but when you bring those guys around, you know, they're gonna tell you what they think. And they don't ha. They're not. They don't have filters on them. And so I love the alumni program, you know, because you get the. You get Darrell Waltrip telling you what he's really been thinking.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

You know what I'm saying?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Just to have them personalities that crack. Like, I saw a handful of them. I saw Bobby a little bit, you

[Russell]

know, Bobby is the nicest guy ever. I was so surprised to see him chime in on the stage racing conversation on social media. I even looked at this, the handle, to make sure it was really him. I was like, this is bull. I was like, nate, no, Bobby, don't. Bobby don't never, you know, wade into the. You know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, he just kind of.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

In the shadows a little bit.

[Russell]

Daryl. I think Daryl said something and it floated around and. Because there was some. There was some media at the alumni tent, like, kind of problem these guys about. Hey, man, what do you think about stage racing? You know?

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, they know. They haven't been talking for some months and let them go.

[Russell]

Yeah. But I don't know. I always. I only wanted to mention that because I found it interesting to me and. Yeah, Darlington's going to be the weekend where kind of like picks at some of those old wounds.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Sure.

[Russell]

But the alumni program is great. Great job in nascar. I love seeing all of the historic names out there. You know, having Lake Speed a guy they. There was some opportunity for me to be there to do a couple things and I was like, man, there's guys that have won races at this racetrack that need to be doing these things. You know, having Lake speed saying the prayer. Guy won his only speedway race at Darlington. Always ran good at Darlington. Kurt Busch, all these great guys that are, you know, part of the story, you know Kurt, part of that crazy finish with, with, with Craven.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, the picture he took.

[Russell]

I love the picture he took where he's standing on the front straightaway at the start finish line. Kurt Busch is like I missed it by that much. I mean just it was, that was a lot of fun and that added to a regular normal, good solid race weekend. It added some seasoning and some flavor to it and so I was, I was very happy about that. Talking about throwbacks, not much of an argument here. I think a lot of people would say that host of our group knocked it out of the park again. I'm biased that we talked about it on the show last week. That, that particular scheme from 1981. It's a lost year for dad because it was so, so, you know, so bad for the most part. Not a good year for him. But that's my favorite design of, of wrangler car that he ever raced for. Sure. And host of our and his team did a lot of great stuff on social media with content. They wrapped a Grand Prix where, you know where in the hell is that car been and where is it going? Yeah, I mean I think the wrangler you know wrapped Grand Prix ought to, you know be who's. Whose is that? Where is it? I want to see it going down the street. I might want to drive it. What's it like on the inside? We never saw the inside.

[TJ Majors]

Host Fire probably has it now.

[Russell]

Who has it?

[TJ Majors]

We'll find out.

[Russell]

I need to know. I mean that's a pretty badass looking car now. You know, I don't know what it looked like before they wrapped it, but kind of like it so they and they bring the Pontiac Grand Prix to the racetrack and take a picture of it as he's making a couple of practice. I mean they really went all out. They went all out. They put some good effort into this. I mean. Yeah, I just don't see a lot of folks putting that kind of effort into certain campaigns, even non throwback campaigns.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

Hell of a job.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It reminds me of the first one of the first throwback weekends we did when the pit crew started wearing one of the teams had them white uniform. Might have been the Wood brothers.

[Russell]

The glory days of throwback weekend back in my day.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, a lot of throwback stuff.

[Russell]

Well, it helps that he goes out there and has a great performance on the racetrack, you know, but it's a good looking race car. Good looking job. Any other throwbacks stand out to you guys?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I thought the, the, the O'Reilly race, I thought Austin Green's car stood out a little bit.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Slim Jim car, I think.

[Russell]

Trucks and the O'Reilly guys always have done solid work. They have a lot more flexibility with partners to be able to do things that they want to do with the cars. Whereas the cup guys, you know, nothing wrong with it, I suppose, but corporate America is not always that excited to change their logo or the colors of their car. Yeah. You know, when I ran the Nationwide car, the hood had to be blue. You know, you had to design the car around a blue hood all the time, you know, no matter what. So you couldn't, you couldn't talk them into, into any, you know, the Budweiser guys, they did not want to run anything but a red car. The exact same car every single week when, when they would do a baseball car or something like that. It had to really be something that was their idea, you know.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Russell]

I brought the idea one day of running a Bud Light car and the all Star race to them, and you'd have thought that I had pissed on their grave. I mean, it was. They were like, what the hell? Help them guys. They're already outselling us. You know, it was very competitive inside the building at Anheuser Busch. But, yeah, I would say that the throwback weekend was a success. The alumni weekend was a success. The Xfinity race was a lot of fun. O'Reilly. Yeah. Did you guys watch the O'Reilly race?

[TJ Majors]

I did not.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I didn't.

[Russell]

Boy, you didn't watch it? I was drinking now. That one. Well, it's fun to do while you're drinking. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I didn't.

[Russell]

Okay. Do you watch? What would you watch? College basketball. Mm. I had a lot going on with that, too. We'll talk about that later in the show. But the O'Reilly race was surprising to me. So Larson looked like he was, you know, definitely gonna be tough to beat. And they had, you know, maybe not the best pit stop late in the race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

But one of the things that I, you know, was impressed with but not surprised by at all is Justin Allgaier on restarts. You know, just twice he schooled Brandon Jones. So, you know, earlier in the race, every time Larson was launching, dude, he was clear before turn one. Getting some really, really great launches on that inside line. Not even challenged off into the corner. But both times that Brandon and Justin were lined in the out, you know, in the front row on those final couple of restarts, Jones just could not get launched and clear of the seven before term one. And, man, you give Justin any sort of a chance on a restart. That's why they call him the Gator. I mean, he is tenacious. I will never forget a race at Chicago many, many years ago. Late restart. I think we're restarting fourth or somewhere along those lines. And he just took it from those guys. I thought, man, we've been running good all day. Top five here. Be great. Fired off on a restart, and he went and won the race in the final couple of laps. And I was just blown away. But that is him to a T. That is what makes him great.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's twice this year that I feel like he is. He's done that.

[Russell]

Phoenix as well, like Justin Allgaier is in the twilight of his career, and there is still not many people as aggressive and successful. He's not aggressive reckless, but he's aggressive. He's a dog. On the late race restarts.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, he's so good. He just knows where to be and what's. He almost knows what's going to happen before it happens.

[Russell]

Yeah. And the confidence that he has that he. That the race ain't over. You know, that is rare in certain individuals. Where you're sitting, you've ran. So if you're sitting there racing all day long, right, and you're driving this car and you're running fifth, fourth, third, fifth, you know it. You. You write, you're. You're running as hard as you can, working as hard as you can, and it's, and it's, it's. It's sort of drilled into your mind.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, this is where I'm at.

[Russell]

This is me. This is what we got today. This is all right. I just need to protect this. I need to take care of this and deliver this result right? Not screw this up. Not him. Kosh comes out late in the race. He's like the, we're going for win, you know, and he does. He, you know, oftentimes will go steal the win away and take it from those guys who have had it all day long. Now, again this weekend, he had some help with Larson having a little bit Of a struggle late in the race and losing some track position on those restarts. But on pit road. But yeah, the end of the race,

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

you know, the end of the race, I think, I mean, Larson wasn't quite

[Russell]

as good in traffic.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No. And but Justin, he had two really good pit stops near the end and his restarts restart like he was probably a fourth to sixth place car. I know speed wise. But pit stops and restarts for just. So that's. I mean, same thing he did at Phoenix, man. Just hung around, then he goes and takes it at the end.

[Russell]

So that's. Yeah, that's a. That's a couple wins for Justin and crew chief Andrew Overstreet. Andrew was on Carson Kwaples car last year and so they had a tough year together. After really coming out of the box with a five race schedule the year before, it looked like, you know, Carson was going to win at Dover and man, Andrew, you know, those guys had some momentum. But last year was a struggle. So it's good to see Andrew having success with Justin Allgaier this year. Right now, top of the points, 52 ahead of Jesse Love. Carson Kwapo hanging around right there in third. Carson had a great run this weekend with Rodney Childers and their team. Sheldon Creed, Austin Hill, Sammy Smith, Corey Day, Brandon Jones, Parker, Rhett Slaff doing an awesome job right there in ninth. And then Raja Carruth in 10th in points, also doing an awesome job. Raja back in the 88 this weekend, which he's excited about. He's splitting time between different cars and doing a great job there. Sam Mayer all the way back in 11. Sam's had a tough couple of races. And Taylor Gray in 12th. The O' Rally Series to me, man, I'm biased because of I got cars in it, but I really enjoy, you know, kind of the turnover in this series and the comers and goers and who can be smart, who can be without mistakes because these drivers are prone to make mistakes and get over their heads a little bit. And it sort of always keeps this point situation interesting. But Justin, the veteran that he is, is putting together a really great start to the year and that bodes well for him moving forward as we get closer and closer throughout the season, into the end of the summer, going towards the playoffs. But anyhow, Austin Hill, man come out of the gate strong. Couple of wins. Well, one win, but a couple of great finishes. And now sits fifth in points. 96 out. He looked really, really strong out of the gate. Corey Day doing a great, really great job on Very limited experience.

[TJ Majors]

He's starting to. I think starting in the year people were bashing him in his racing. I think he's now studying the couple

[Russell]

of weeks of just getting in there and getting the job done. Darlington's one of those racetracks where, you know, you gotta mind your business and be smart and yes, he's had some, you know, he's had a couple of good races to sort of start to build on some, you know, that might

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

be the best race that I've seen Corey have yet.

[Russell]

I agree. Corey's listened to everything everybody's trying to tell him about.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Where did he end up in that race? He ended up like up near the top five, didn't he? Like decent six. Yeah. Like that's a great day for Corey.

[Russell]

Top ten at Darlington is hard to do.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Quiet. A quiet six place finish is awesome.

[Russell]

Yeah. Yeah. Parker, Red Slap is doing an awesome job. I want to. I know he did him a moment ago, but had a hell of a race going all weekend and I think that team's going to get better and better and he's going to, he's going to. He's going to be a problem for some folks if. If that team does improve throughout the season. Moving on to the cup race just. There's a handful of things that I would love to talk about. Brad had an awesome run. I know a couple of folks in the dirty mo media team didn't. Were betting against Brad. Wanna talk about that?

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Russell]

So that was a. I think it was.

[TJ Majors]

What was the matchup?

[Russell]

Matchup. What was it? I had Briscoe, there was two.

[TJ Majors]

And Ty Gibbs.

[Russell]

Yep. Two matchups. You had Briscoe over Brad and Ty Gibbs over Brad. Were you sweating it there while Brad was driving?

[TJ Majors]

I wasn't sweating. Pretty early on I knew I was like, these bets probably aren't gonna cash unless something bad like. Yeah. I mean his. He had the second best car.

[Russell]

Yeah. Yeah. Good job or spotter.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. It was all me now. It was. What do you think of the package?

[Russell]

You know, I, I was, I was good with it. I don't. I'm fine with it. I think they can move forward with this. It didn't do anything bad. It didn't produce anything extraordinary. But I think it's Darlington and in my opinion, taking away downforce from underneath the car, stripping away from the diffuser and all of that is a great direction. Our race cars are not sports cars. They should not have sports car parts and pieces. This is. We are nascar. We are not road racing. And so they should, yeah, they should continue to go in that direction. I'm a believer in that. The, you know, Goodyear's done some great work on the tire. We had guys, I watched a lot of guys in the middle of the pack, you know, take off a little conservatively to be able to preserve the tire and come on later in the run and make up a lot of positions. Late in the race. We had guys that were, you know, able to pass, able to make moves. And I, I feel like I watched a traditional Darlington race that, you know, I would tune in again next year to see and hope to see something similar.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, it looked from the roof, it looked a little bit easier to make moves happen. Not a lot, but you could definitely.

[Russell]

I would say, T.J. that the, this pack, the changes that they made, would probably produce something minimal on, on the product. You know, that place is slick already. It's already kind of treacherous, and if they take a little, you know, if they take a lot away, it's probably just going to look like a little where to the, to the trained eye or to the fan's eye even, you're going to see whatever you're going to see is going to be subtle. Um, and we've heard a little bit, and that's okay. And I, I, I don't think I expected it. I know that we talked about, oh, four seconds of fall off and I saw social media posts and comments about, hey, where was this, you know, where was this wild, crazy race that we were predicted to have? I don't know that anybody ever really said that the race was going to be something that you'd never seen before.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I mean, there was. I mean, anytime you have 4 seconds fall off right now, that's, well, I

[Russell]

mean, where did we get to two and a half, three?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, maybe, Maybe just over two.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

At most. I think, like, I think I, when I was texting, like I saw it in practice a little bit, you'd fall off about two seconds and you kind of stayed in that area. You didn't really keep going.

[Russell]

So on the, on an, on the greener surface, the fall off is absolutely going to be more. But as they rubber that track in and we had three series there, that rubber on the track helps the tire. So, yeah, I'm not surprised that the fall off was less than we predicted. If you have a tire that does wear a lot, it's putting that rubber down into this trace track, into all the crevices and things, sort of making that surface a little better on the tire and So I. I don't. I liked it. I thought was fine. I don't. I mean, listen, I would keep going in that direction. I would go. Yeah. I'd go even further next time they go to Darlington. Why not?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I would, too.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It doesn't have to be darling.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It doesn't have to be Darlington, does it? It could be. I mean, a mile and a half, like.

[Russell]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like, it could be any of them now.

[Russell]

I agree. Yeah, I agree.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

I feel like it's a good decision. You know, Reddick had an incredible car. Obviously had a little trouble early in the race. Harvick smartly told us not to sleep on him. Kept telling us throughout the broadcast, hey, that 45, still fast. 45, still the best car. 45 still got a shot. He was right. They had a little bit, you know, a little bit of a different. Not a really not uncommon, but a little bit different of a strategy. With the speed, they were able to stay on the racetrack a little longer, you know, and pit, you know, you know, five or so laps later than most people. And, man, that would pay off late in the run. But it was because his car was so good. If your car's not fast, that's not a strategy to be able to employ. But, you know, he just was. He was better. His car was faster.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They learned from the first stage how far they could really go further than

[Russell]

the others, how aggressive they could be with it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Because they lost the first stage going a little bit too far.

[Russell]

Well, they had a bad pit stop.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

That slowed him down, cost him a lot of time on pit road. That was another thing, too. I mean, we're. We're. You know, we're seeing teams, Even in the O'Reilly series, we're seeing teams, you know, not be perfect on pit road. It's creating story lines. It's creating things. Comers and goers and people having to overcome, you know, challenges on pit road, speeding penalties and so forth. That race had it all.

[TJ Majors]

Well, that mean they had to replace a battery?

[Russell]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, and the other thing, too, is I was surprised that they put a better. They put another battery in there. I was told it was a better, larger battery. Knowing that they had an issue that they may not be able to fix, they added a battery that would be able to maybe take them a little bit further. How smart of them to be ready to do that, ready to tack that problem. And they were smart enough to also to know exactly what Tyler could run inside the car. They were like well, you can. You can have the fan. This fan you can turn. You got to. If you do this, you have to have this. If you do this, you have to turn this off. They had him, you know, and he's like, all right, I got it. I got. I got the back fan on the head, helmet fan barely on.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, they showed him draining the liquid, the fluid out of his cool suit while driving under caution. And then they asked you, we can change the battery again, but we're gonna lose your position. He's like, no, I'll just tough it out, like.

[Russell]

And, hey, he did a great job. That's just smart on their part. A lot of teams may not fully prepare for that challenge and know exactly what their options are. Right. So smart on them to kind of know, okay, man, well, we can. This is. This is how much battery life we're going to have. This is what we can use and do to keep the car competitive. This is what the driver's going to have to do without.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

And he was honest about it and cool, gutsy performance.

[TJ Majors]

What do you make of him? And Busher?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, I can see both sides of it. I can see a late pit. Tyler's patented move all day was the dive into three, because he could drive so far in a three and come up so late and make the extra the 7.

[Tyler Reddick]

Still.

[Russell]

The 17 didn't wave. Is the. Is the. The 45 says 17 didn't wave. Is. Are we not waving anymore? I'm asking a serious question.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not as it's becoming less and less even from the roof. Guys don't tell you when they're pitting even more and more. Like. Like, they just don't. Because they don't want, you know, when they're pitting.

[TJ Majors]

Is it worth that, though?

[Russell]

I mean, that's what I don't understand. It's like, all right, man, if we're coming.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So the lap before, Tyler runs the wall as well. And I think I. You just gotta know, like, I have in my notes before, like, why know when. What we can possibly do? And you. As the race goes on, you have a feel for pit stops. So, you know, like, I know just from if. When you run this guy down, if this guy's like, I don't care what car it is, if you run that guy down leading, you're going. His only play to win the race is to pit then, because if he waits, he's. He's losing seconds a lap from this point on. So. And Chris, they're always an aggressive pit strategy. People. Right. He's won a lot of races doing that type of stuff. So you kind of have to be prepared for it.

[Tyler Reddick]

I'm.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm not saying was it was the

[Russell]

17 coming to pit road. Yeah, this is. Steve Latart will probably agree with me here. This is where me, me and him and some other folks are annoyed by the, the code words. And you know, somebody comes down pit road and they, they have a mistake on pit road and because somebody said a code word and they misunderstood what the code word was supposed to do and whether that meant two or four and they pull out of the pit stall and have a loose wheel, whatever, and it's like what the we doing with these codes? You know? Yeah, they're cool. And then, you know your. It's very clever and you're trying to be sneaky and all that, but you know, in the end, you know, you have a little mistake here and there. And it's similar to this. Like we're not waving anymore to guys that are behind us because we don't want to give away. And maybe Chris would sit here and say, hey, look, I got. But I got to keep my hands on the wheel. I'm, you know, some's a handful. I don't, I don't know. I don't know, you know what Chris would. Would say. But if, if, if a wave so like he lets brag go. And if I'm coming to pit road, I don't know whether it's possible in this car, but I always sometimes would if I'm going to come to pit road under green, we come off of two. I sometimes would change lanes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I don't think he knew until end of the back stretch like it was.

[Russell]

He didn't even know he was coming to pit road.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He didn't know he was pitting until at least halfway down the back.

[Russell]

Jesus Christ.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But the only thing like to against you, Travis, like, is it worth this? You break for pit road at the same spot. You break to make the corner. Like if you're. If he's running the bottom, he's breaking at the same spot. So if Chris decides to run the bottom right there, just like Denny. And you said Denny admitted that he was at fault for that. What's the difference right here?

[Russell]

Yeah, I don't think that there's a fault. I think it's just racing and we have a, you know, a tire with a ton of fall off. You got guys on tires that have more speed. We have seen this at Darlington so many times. I go back to, I think it was Andy Hillenburg got destroyed by Jeff Gordon there one year. And I mean there's been, you could go back through all of the Darlington races through the 80s, 90s and 2000s and find instances. Where were we when I think it was Newman and Clint Boyer in turn three and four, not five, six, eight years ago. Yeah, that a big fricking crash. So it, you know, it's a product of this worn out track, very narrow racetrack and if he doesn't know, you know, that he doesn't even know he's pitting until turn three. I mean it looked like he, you know, his lane change when riding on board with his car from the top of the back straightaway to the bottom of three was unique to me. Looked, looked, it looked, it did not look like. It almost looked like he was being called late. Like he just found out.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, he definitely got called late. Yeah.

[Russell]

And so that must have been, you know, it's just a product of the racing there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Russell]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[TJ Majors]

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[Russell]

We had the winner, Tyler Reddick, on the line again. We've had Tyler on this show over and over and over. He just keeps winning.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Problem to have.

[Russell]

That's a great problem, man. So, man, thanks for calling in. I appreciate you giving us some time today as always. I know you got a lot going on and so how does it feel, man, to. You know, we've talked about you, we've talked to you multiple times this year about your success, but you continue to win. You continue to find ways to win. Y' all continue to bring incredible race cars to the racetrack. You gotta be freaking fired up about how good that car was this past Sunday.

[Tyler Reddick]

Yeah, I mean, you nailed it. That's the key.

[Russell]

It's.

[Tyler Reddick]

It's really, really fast Toyota Camrys. And I, I think for us, you know, we were, I don't know, I think everyone was uncertain of what, what the race and the speed and long run was going to look like going into the weekend. But, yeah, like, you know, in practice, you know, running behind Brad, I could tell he was really strong. I felt like we were strong, you know, and, you know, I just remember Saturday after qualifying and everything, kind of looking through it and being like, all right, the RFK cars are strong. All right, Blaney's strong. It's you know, for the most part, a lot of the guys that were strong, you know, the last couple spring races were pretty strong. Again, I know there was some hit and miss, you know, amongst some of the. The bigger teams like HMS and jgr. But when I saw that, you know, I was like, okay, like, you know, it's. I'm gonna have to figure out how to. How to manage this race well, and before I can even really get the first lap complete, you know, it's. It's like. It was like the Southern 500 last fall, but different. And it's. Something has happened on the first lap and how do we manage it? How do we figure this out? And I just. I kind of took the approach of just chill and, you know, all right, let's settle in here and let's see how long we can get this battery to last. And I was just proud of the guys for coming up with that game plan that they did and being honest with me about, hey, you know, if you want to make this thing live, you know, we're have to cut some stuff off. And then obviously that last stage, Billy left it up to me. Do you think you can make it without anything on that last stage? And I was like, sure. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, I've been wanting to win a Darlington so bad for, for pretty much my entire cup career. And so, yeah, I was gonna have to be on fire to come down pit road and swap batteries or whatever. You know what I mean?

[Russell]

What was the. What was the comfort level those last, you know, 50 laps?

[Tyler Reddick]

You know, I, I don't really remember it. Like, I remember the racing part, but I just felt like I was so locked in on what I had to do and what I needed to do. That, yeah, I was hot. And, you know, I never like running with my visor up, especially, you know, wearing contacts and trying to keep stuff out of my eyes. But, like, I had to run my visor up to get some, some amount of circulation, whether it's the air coming in through the window net or the, the naca duck off the. Off the front windshield, but it was still really, really hot. But, you know, we got all the, all the fluid out of the shirt, which was huge, really. I remember at Coda, the shirt just never connected. Like, we're on pit Road in 20, 23 cars rolling off grid, and we couldn't get the connection to go through. And at the time, we really didn't have a way or it didn't want to give up the time to like, cut the shirt or hand me a pair of scissors. So I had to, like, bake with that hot fluid in the shirt all day. And yeah, getting all of the. Getting the fluid out of the shirt so it just doesn't sit there and get hot was huge. It wasn't. That part of. It wasn't too bad. I expected to be a lot warmer, core temp wise, but yeah, I was just. Just a lot of sweating. But I run a fluid logic system in the car. It allows me to drink, you know, without having to grab the bottle or whatever. It runs through the. Through the helmet hose and right, right onto my microphone. So I was able to hydrate, which I think was a huge part of why I was okay. Without being able to hydrate, I definitely think the heat would have really started to get to me.

[Russell]

Is that button on the wheel?

[Tyler Reddick]

Yeah, yeah, on the opposite side of where the mic button is.

[Russell]

You know, I'd always thought that, you know, you know, the, The, The. The. The electric fed or, or, you know, whatever you want to call the system always was like, oh, you know, that's a sports car thing and not necessary, and I'll just use the old tube and tape it to my. Tape it to my belt. But, man, it really came in. It came in handy this weekend, being able to keep your hands on.

[Tyler Reddick]

Well, I mean, so the idea behind it, you know, I saw the. I saw it more in the off road, you know, Baja 1000, like the. The trophy truck off road racing. Those guys use it a lot there. And yeah, those, Those vehicles get hot, but not as hot as ours, as our vehicles do.

[Russell]

So, yeah, there was a lot of

[Tyler Reddick]

trial and error trying to, like, over the years, whether I was at RCR or now here, just like, making sure that we're not running the hose like, along alongside, like metal and things like that, because it will get really hot. But yeah, I think it was 20, 23, maybe. Yeah, I think it was 2023 when they did away with the stage breaks. There's just a big emphasis, you know, to make sure we had something like that in there, because if we truly got a caution, there's not time to, like, grab and swap a bottle. There's not time caution to hydrate. So that's when I was really dead set on making it work, and I've just kind of stuck with it ever since.

[Russell]

Yeah, when you, you know, you come off a season like you had last year where, you know, you were trying to find the success you're looking for and weren't able to really get it going. Y' all fire off this year. You look like a completely different organization. I'm looking at the shop behind you. What's. What's the. What's the attitude on the floor of the shop today? Comparable to the end of the last season?

[Tyler Reddick]

Yeah, I felt like, you know, we got to the end of last year, obviously, everyone was dis. I mean, some, you know, Bubba. Bubba won the annapolis, the brickyard 400. So, I mean, we. You know, we still were able to. To at least win a big race, obviously, for, like, our side of things, you know, we didn't find victory lane. We. We fell out of the playoffs earlier than we really wanted to or should have. And so, yeah, for, like, us, you know, we were faced with a lot of disappointment. And, you know, certainly I feel like our guys were, you know, mentally where they needed to be to go in the off season to, like, figure this out. But. But, yeah, at the same time, you know, I don't think anyone was shy about how disappointed they were. So we had those honest conversations, you know, in the off season, and just, okay, how do we address this? Where do we start? You know, what do we look at? And I feel like a lot of good things were gone through, gone over. But, you know, for me, I just remember we had all these talks, right? And it's like, look, I get it. We've talked about it, and I like how this offseason has went, but we got to go out there and do it. And so, you know, these. Out of these first six weeks, when we've gone out there and done it, we've done a good job with it. You know, I'd say the things that. That added to our struggles in 2025, that kept us from winning races, some of those things have still occurred this year. But I feel like just our mindset of not giving up through those moments last year, even without getting the win, really set ourselves up to. On the days like. Like on Sunday with the alternator issues or Atlanta getting in the wreck or Daytona, the strategy not working out, it just. We. We understood that we're not going to let, like, these bumps in the road, these low points in the race just set us off onto a different path. We're just gonna get the best finish possible on those days, and on four of them, they've turned out to be wins, which is. Which is pretty remarkable. But it all goes back to the start, having really fast Toyota Camrys, and we've done a really good job of that here to start the year how

[Russell]

does the current points format factor into the mindset of, you know, we gotta cat, we got to. You know, even if we are throwing some adversity, we have to maximize today. We have. We can't. We can't just wait, you know, we can't just punt and then try to go win next week. We have to make sure that we're getting every single opportunity to score the points every single week. How does. I know you're sitting in a really, really good spot and. And, you know, you're able to put a little bit of a pad on your points lead. But this new system, I think, has teams, like, looking at these each weekend a little differently than in the past.

[Tyler Reddick]

I don't know. Truly, I feel like for me and TJ can probably relate to our time together. When I was in trucks, as crazy as it may sound coming from me, I felt like when I ran trucks my second year and it was the full season points format, I feel like aside from when I made, just couldn't get through the gears, I felt like that approach, that style of racing, like, fits how I want to go and approach week in and week out. Yes, I like to push my car hard and, like, when I was younger, take more risks than I probably should. And I feel like I've gotten better about managing that as I've gotten older. But, yeah, for me, I feel like whether it was 2024 and it worked in our favor or 2025 when we just struggled, you know what I mean? I feel like my mindset hasn't shifted much over the last couple of years. You know, we're talking about points and. And how do we run our races and how do we fight through things? So I feel like, just for me, the points format, where it's at, is just rewards how I like to race the most. And I don't know I say all that, but funny enough, like, whether it was, I guess, I guess Atlanta more. More than anything, or even, I guess the decision late, you know, starting State street at Darlington, you know, I. I say all these things and then, you know, I went out there, you know, lap one with the wreck card, Atlanta, and I'm pushing it too hard, but it. I got away with it. And, you know, we. We take the gamble of not changing the battery in stage three. And I mean, I guess it wasn't a gamble at that point. We kind of knew what the drain was on the battery. But I guess it's risky in some sense, right? Like, I'm banking on myself that I'll Be able to stay in the race car and make. Make good decisions for the rest of the race. And for the most part, I did.

[Russell]

Yeah. Coming up on Martinsville, that's a track that you admittedly have. Have had some tough, tough moments that. Right? Yeah. Well, I believe that you just haven't had the car that you need. When you get the car that does the things it's supposed to do, you fall in love with any racetrack. Right. You could go there this weekend and go, holy crap. Now, this is what I'm looking at. This is awesome. But say you go there and how do you manage the weekend if it tends to, you know, to be a bit of a difficult one?

[Tyler Reddick]

Just. Just find. Just find the high moments, find your strengths and look forward to those moments. And I think, you know, for me, I remember again, I'm going to go back to my truck days. I remember when the. The tires were a little softer, the runs would go longer before we, you know, before, I mean, there was a couple years there where we'd run. No stage breaks, no caution clock, no nonsense, and we get, you know, 100 laps on tires, and it's like, oh, this all makes sense. Like, everyone's burning stuff up. I'm gonna march forward now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tyler Reddick]

And so I feel like even with the old car, the Gen 6 car, I started to figure that out in the cup side of things and started to have, like, really good long run speed. And sometimes it would get us into the top 10. Sometimes, you know, we would have a caution late and kind of be kind of back to where we were before the long run. So I feel like, for me, the more that you have to manage the car instead of just go, go, go the entire race.

[Russell]

Yep.

[Tyler Reddick]

Especially a place like Martinsville is more like how, again, I'm the. I'm the guy that likes. That looks like it likes to drive aggressively. Right. But more times than not, we get a long run at Martinsville. Any car, anything I've raced there, I tend to go forward more so than backwards. So I feel like the more power and the downforce staying where it's at should just set me up for more success.

[Russell]

Well, we hope so, man. We'll hopefully get to those. Hopefully you get those long runs you're looking for on Sunday. Tyler, congratulations on all the success, man. It's fun to watch.

[TJ Majors]

I have one question for Tyler. Tyler, what's the shoey taste like?

[Tyler Reddick]

Oh, it tastes amazing. You know, I feel like at some point I. I did one before. I don't know when it was But. But, yeah, I mean, I was soaked in champagne, sweat, beer, and, I mean, my shoes were already destroyed, so I'm like, might as well. I've. My dad found us. Found someone that had some cigars, and so I had a cigar in victory Lane. Smoking a cigar.

[Russell]

Cigar was probably worse than the shoe.

[Tyler Reddick]

Yeah, dude, I never got smoked cigar in victory lane before. And, I mean, I love smoking them, you know, when I'm having a drink of bourbon or whatever at the house or just, you know, watching a race, watching sports. So to have that moment with my dad was cool. And then, I don't know, I was just. Maybe I was delirious from the heat. I was like, might as well. If we have one beer left, I might as well do a shoe because I'm already soaked, like I said. So. That was one of the best tasting beers I've ever had, that's for sure.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Your dad. Cigar.

[Tyler Reddick]

I know my dad, like, well, I swear. How it went is, I think. I think I started smoking cigars, and my dad found out, you know, I had like, I don't know, like 20 or 30 in the humidor. And then he just went, like, all in. He got the big, fancy humidor. He's got all the gadgets. And for a while, there was like, an arms race where I was trying to keep up with what had and vice versa.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I think the next time you do an interview, you should bring your dad with you and we'll do have both you at the same time.

[Tyler Reddick]

Yeah, we are a lot alike. If I shaved my beard and left my mustache, there wouldn't be a lot of differences.

[Russell]

Y' all really are the same.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They are.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I saw your dad in the garage or Sunday. He's always a good conversation.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Tyler Reddick]

Well, thank you, guys.

[Russell]

Appreciate you, Tyler.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, man. Congrats again.

[Russell]

Have fun this weekend.

[Tyler Reddick]

Oh, yeah.

[Russell]

It's Tyler Reddick on the Dale Jr. Download. That was a lot of fun talking to him and give him. Give him a hard time for. For winning all the time and coming on the show. But we love it when the winners stop by. And I was. I forgot about the shoe. Yeah, good. Good catch on you.

[TJ Majors]

That's what I'm here for.

[Russell]

Yeah. Well. Yeah. What should we do now?

[TJ Majors]

Do you want to get into any other notable performances or anything?

[Russell]

Or. Let's see. Austin Cindrick had a great race. I think we ought to shout out Austin Cindric host var. Austin Centric is a good sport. We give him a lot of. I give him a hard time. Told him he looked like Bluey. Blimpy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Blimpy. Yeah.

[Russell]

And he actually. So he actually takes a picture with him at the. At the intros in Vegas. Even had the orange glasses on, so. What a good sport.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

Goes out there. Has him a great run this past weekend at Darlington. One of the toughest tracks. Probably one of the most underappreciated. He's actually drivers out there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Funny. Like.

[Russell]

He's very funny. But I mean, you know, he does have his good runs from time to time.

[TJ Majors]

What a quiet top five he had. He just.

[Russell]

Every run. Every good run he has is very quiet. He wasn't that way in the O'Reilly series.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, he won Gateway. He won Gateway and was strong that weekend. Yeah, that was a. Blaney ran out of gas, but Austin won that race.

[Russell]

No one remembers. I mean, his. You know, he's very unassuming, goes about his work. Eric Jones was able to climb back into a good result. It didn't look like things were going that good for Eric in the first stage or so the race, but he

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

was able to hear, boy, Denny wrecked it.

[TJ Majors]

Then he kind of screwed his.

[Russell]

Well, I mean, he wasn't even. He's kind of struggling back there. But he got the track position and continued to prove, you know, perform and move forward throughout the final stage.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Way to go, Danny.

[TJ Majors]

Ty Gibbs another.

[Russell]

Yep. Ty Gibbs was good.

[TJ Majors]

Four consecutive top tens.

[Russell]

Yeah. Yeah. Nobody's talking about Ty Gibbs.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's the right people.

[Russell]

Yeah. You know, not. At least not on the racetrack. They're not talking about him. But I think, you know, obviously we talked about RFK and how great they were.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You see the font? I thought the. The Biff font on all the cars. Cool looking.

[TJ Majors]

It was like 1, 3, and 4 there up there at the front.

[Russell]

I thought the. Of all the cars. My favorite of the Biffle font was Chris Busher, 17. I don't know, it's just kind of tilted. It's kind of cool. I don't like the number Ford, but it looked okay on that car.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, it was good to honor him.

[Russell]

Yeah. The Larson's late issues. Did he. He gets in the wall. What happened? He had a right front tire go down.

[TJ Majors]

Being too aggressive at the end.

[Russell]

I don't know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He didn't have a right front. Go down the back, hit first.

[Russell]

Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Into one.

[Russell]

So he busted his ass.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He must have because I went back and watched his in car and he goes into one and I maybe just gets a little bit too high in the back, hits and it swings the front so, so he hit.

[Russell]

But he had the right front tire flat. Did he. He kind of pit road late because of the flat tire?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, I don't, I don't think he came to pit road. I think he rode around the road. Around slow.

[Russell]

No, he did go to pit road. Then he come back off.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, he came back out and rode around.

[Russell]

Came back, rode around and he had a bit toe link. What else? It's gonna be a Daniel Suarez.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes, Suarez. And so it's been running pretty good. Svg solid, I thought was pretty good. And a quiet solid day. I know he turned Riley earlier, but for Zillich. Yeah, I think he was like 17th.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Which is pretty solid day.

[Russell]

Right behind Josh Berry.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, Josh. Much better than spring race last year.

[Russell]

Yep. So, yeah, it's a lot of fun to, to watch. Great race for NASCAR and for the series. Did you guys. Cj, Go ahead. This is your story.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, I just say I saw on social that Ben Kennedy came as a race fan.

[Russell]

Yeah. Legit. So I talked to Ben this morning. I said, I heard you did a little bit of an undercover boss kind of deal where you go the racetrack and just enjoy the experience. And he got his team together, his group of folks that work in, in the, in the organization with him, and they all, this is what they did. So they all went a different route on how to buy tickets. Some went online, some called up the call center. They all did it differently. And then they, you know, were. They locate their pit, their parking lots and all that stuff, and they go to the pre race, they go into the fan zone. They did it. They did everything. They experienced everything, all while taking a lot of mental notes. And then after the race, they had a two hour meeting to debrief about all of this stuff and all of the things they experienced and what they didn't like, what they, what was difficult, what was hard to do, what was fun, what was good. And, you know, he said to me, he's like, you know, there's, there's a lot we can do to make it easier to buy a ticket. There's a lot we can do to make it easier to find where you're supposed to park. All of those things he thinks need to be improved. And I think it's a may. It's really, really cool that he himself tasked him, you know, him and his team to go, go through this experience in this process. They sit in the grandstands and watch the race

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

and listen to radios.

[Russell]

Yeah, they, they rented radios. They did all those things just like you would do. They basically, you know, got a, you know, got kind of a, you know, a spreadsheet of. Of what fans traditionally do and tasked each and every one of them to sort of go about it a little differently, but all of them experienced the same thing. And he said there's a lot of little things from after you buy the ticket and get parked, which he said they could absolutely focus on improving that quite a bit. He said from that moment on, it was a lot of little things along the way that he was just thinking needed or could be different or better, and even some good things that they liked that they could take to other racetracks. But I told him, I said, man, this is the kind of stuff that makes me proud as a race fan. This is the kind of stuff that I think his family was very, very good at. Bill Jr. Bill Senior, you know, think, you know, going through, you know, doing something like this, this is not rocket science. This is not hero. The dude, you know, but it's just cool that he goes. He cared enough fans see this. He cared enough to do this. This wasn't a. This ain't a. This ain't a front Saint Bull.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How about that seat and turn four? Yeah, look at that.

[Russell]

It's pretty good. But I mean, he genuinely wanted to go through this process. And I believe Ben Kennedy truly has a heart for, for what's going on here. And he's a good dude. I've talked to him a lot over the years and yeah, so this is the kind of stuff that you love to see, you know, if you're. If you're a fan and a proud fan of the sport. So that was pretty cool. Yeah. So one of the things that happened over the past week was so the hall of fame is starting to vote. They're coming. They're putting together the ballot for the 2027 nominees. The modern era ballot is. It's a great list of folks. One person that used to be on there that isn't on it currently, that I think we. We should consider voting to get back to the ballot. Right. To have the opportunity to be nominated is Ray Elder. Ray, also Butch Lindley. Two names there. Ray and Butch. Butch is very synonymous with short track racing. Won a ton one, like 500 races in the late 70s. Racing around the sportsman series and so forth. That's a lot of races, tons of race. Dude, he was so good. And so Butch Lindley was one name that I, that I brought up in conversation with the, with the committee. Another one was Ray Elder. Ray Elder raced On the west coast in the Winston west in the 70s he's a six time champion. So I mean he, we have a six time champion of anything. I mean that's hall of Fame.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Is he. Does he like. I don't know a lot about Ray Elder. Does he similar to like a Mike Stefanik of the East Coast?

[Russell]

So I don't think so. I would say that. So in the, in the late 70s and even on into the early 80s they, the West coast cup series was very much like a sister series somewhere in between the O'Reilly and the Cup. It ranked pretty high. It ranked high, yeah. Today, today they have, they have placed it under the umbrella of the K N or the arca. Right. And it's now relegated almost to something less significant.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Definitely less.

[Russell]

Years ago it was very much a copy, a western copy of the cup series. They ran the same cars and when the cup cars went to Riverside to race or Ontario to race, the west coast guys would run in that race. They would qualify and race in. Ray Elder beat the cup regulars at Riverside twice.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It wasn't a fluke.

[Russell]

Nope. I believe in 71 and 72 he won the, he won the literal cup race at Riverside.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Dang.

[Russell]

He beat it. Beat all the. They all, you know, they go out there to run is the first race of the year and he was the guy to beat. Well he just, he wasn't just, you know the west coast guys when they would race against the cup guys weren't going to beat them. They would run maybe in the backside of the top 10 if their cars didn't break. But for the most part your Richard Petty's, David Pearson's Kel Yarburls were going to be faster. The Wood Brothers, they were just not. The west coast guys just didn't have the speed. Ray Elder beat him a couple times. Ray Elder came out to Daytona and ran in the top five and so he had it. He was. And he's a, it's, it's a NASCAR west coast series that he is a multi time champion of. And so like that's an automatic in my mind for a hall of fame.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right.

[Russell]

Five or six. It's still a lot but it's a lot. And so I always get it confused between the two but in my mind like I know that people are going to say well you know, the West Coast NASCAR didn't have the competition. They didn't, they didn't have all the cars. They didn't, they weren't as fast, they weren't as technology savvy. They weren't, you know, they just, you know, when, when the cup guys would ever compete against them, they didn't, they didn't hold up Ray. Ray did, but the rest of them didn't. And so the series doesn't get as much, I think, appreciation for what it really was in the 70s. Yeah, we don't, I believe that, you know, it made, it made being successful Nationwide for NASCAR cup series. It made being successful Nationwide easier because of what the work that Ray and those guys were doing on the West Coast. You know, going out to the west coast and racing Riverside once or twice a year, Ontario, till it failed. Yeah, anything west of the Mississippi was a bit of a, bit of a stretch, a bit of a struggle, bit of a tough lift for nascar. But it was not as tough because of what Ray and those guys were doing out there. They were a stock car cup NASCAR series running up and down the west coast and all these little short tracks and sort of, you know, teasing folks for what would come down the road into the 2000s and so forth as the sport, you know, started becoming more of a Nationwide sport. Dude, in the, in the 70s, NASCAR was, was considered a very southeastern minute, mid Atlantic race. We didn't have many races west of the Mississippi. And I think not only was Ray a champion and a consistent winner, but he was also doing a lot of work laying the foundation for our sport to become Nationwide. And, and so I made a big push for him. I want to discuss though, more, more so the Pioneer ballot. So there's a lot of names that are up for grabs. I believe if you're going to make the Pioneer ballot, you have, you must, you're. There's a, there's a year like 1966 or something like that where the bulk of your career happened before that year. Right. And so the modern day guys are all on the ballot from 1960. Oh, it's a 60 year. All right. Significant impacts. Over 60. Over 60 years ago. Right. So I think last year was Ray Hendrick, a modified standout who definitely had been on the ballot for many, many years. So it says right here, there's along, there's legends like Banjo Matthews, Jake Elder, other nominees. Nominees include Larry Phillips, Bob Welborne and Ralph Moody. So Ray Hendrick got the, got the vote last year. The Pioneer ballot again is celebrating individuals who were part of the sport beyond 60 years ago. And so my grandfather Ralph Earnhardt's on this list. I voted him onto the ballot. I felt like he's sitting there, I'm like, I Can't not cast a vote for Ralph Earnhardt. I don't know that many folks will cast. You know, there's other names that are mentioned before Ralph, but I had to do it. I voted Wellburn. Harry Hyde. Love Harry Hyde. Harry was successful as a crew chief. Are there other crew chiefs on this list that are maybe possibly more successful? Yes. But I loved what he did. He was so. He was so interesting as a character. Successful, a winning crew chief, but he's also, you know, someone that they actually wrote a character for in the movie Days of Thunder, Harry Hogg. And so, you know, in my mind, I don't know, I like. I like putting Harry Hyde on that list. Herb Nab, who was another successful crew chief, and then Larry Phillips was the five guys that. That I. That I put on my ballot.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Man, there's some. It's hard to pick.

[Russell]

It is hard to pick. You know, every time that I've been part of this conversation and part of the committee, one of the first things anybody says is, let's just put them all in there. Because if you make the ballot, you're. You are a Hall of Famer, in my mind. I mean, there are a couple. There's a couple rare instances where who. Someone has made the actual ballot, and you're like, man, they're not a Hall of Famer. There is this really big conversation around the name AJ Foyt, and I would. I think it'd be a good conversation to have in this room. Is AJ Foyt a NASCAR hall of Famer? I mean, you would need to. You would, first off, bring up the stats. First off, you would need to know what he's done in the sport. Yeah, I need to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I need to know all his stats here. NASCAR stats.

[Russell]

The conversation. This conversation has come up a couple of times in the past several years. I mean, and there's some people that believe that AJ Foyt belongs in the NASCAR hall of Fame.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And then there's some because of his name.

[Russell]

There's some folks that believe that he doesn't. Is A.J. foyt one of the greatest race car drivers ever?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes, absolutely.

[Russell]

Every. I think most people would absolutely agree.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know how. You cannot agree with that.

[Russell]

I'm not sure that he's a NASCAR hall of Famer.

[TJ Majors]

That's thing is, this isn't the Racing hall of Fame, it's the NASCAR hall of Fame.

[Russell]

That's. That's true. And that's a common comment. AJ ran 100. It says here 128 starts seven wins, nine polls. Daytona 500 winner with the Wood Brothers. He won the Firecracker 400 in 1964.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, so let me ask you this. If. Is William Byron a hall of Famer right now?

[Russell]

No.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Because he's more accomplished than this.

[Russell]

The thing is, is like, aj, AJ Foy. I think that a lot of people, you know, just say, hey, he's, he's one of the greatest drivers ever. And yeah, and he raced with us. He's a, he's automatic. He's automatic. And I'm not, I'm not sure I agree with that.

[TJ Majors]

I don't think he's in.

[Russell]

He should, in my opinion, man, there's some people that believe he belongs in there.

[TJ Majors]

To TJ's point. Then there's a lot of drivers that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, William Byron's got two Daytona.

[Russell]

I know. And I don't do, I don't, I don't go with the comparison. Aj Tyler X got four wins. I'll say this like, AJ came and had success and won, but there are also times when he came and he was cantankerous and difficult, you know, and problematic, you know, And I don't know.

[TJ Majors]

I don't think that should impact how you, how you are as a. If you're difficult, shouldn't.

[Russell]

Well, I mean, if he, I think that it would matter if he say he has 128start, seven wins. But he was a champion. Not literally, but he championed our sport. He, he, he lifted it up. He, he raised, you know, you know, he, he never cared about that. He was just there to try to win. He ran four or five races a year, and he came, showed up and he raced and tried to win races. Yeah, he had some badass freaking race cars like that. His little Oldsmobile 1981, 82, beautiful car, the Cutlass. He brought.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, no, but you have to put a line somewhere.

[Russell]

So I do weigh that. I do weigh whether. Look, it's not, I don't weigh it don't weigh it doesn't weigh a ton into my decision. But I do weigh. Were they problematic? Were they, did they create issues? Were they in trouble? Were they, you know, did they bring us, did they tear us down? Did they lift us up? Did they, did they go around talking about how, how, how much fricking, how bad ass it is to race nascar? Did they go, you know, were they, Were they a person that, that promoted, talked, you know, talked positively about it? Were they a person that got them, you know, again, got themselves in trouble and did that, that that's going to be a little bit of a factor of my vote.

[TJ Majors]

I'm more of a stats guy because it's not the hall of Good, it's the hall of Fame. Like, you need to go out there and win and be legendary.

[Russell]

Statistics were. The stats were a big part, but not all of my vote. Here's a question for you. Is Justin Allgaier hall of Famer also?

[TJ Majors]

I.

[Russell]

No, not yet. What if he wins another championship?

[TJ Majors]

I mean, I have a controversial take, though, with this one.

[Russell]

Well, you got, you know, there's guys in the conversation like Sam Ard, Jack Ingram, Larry Phillips, for example. I mean, there's some guy, Larry Phillips, albeit didn't run in the bush or Xfinity O'Reilly series. But there are guys that are very successful outside of the Cup Series that get considered. There's truck series champions that are considered for the hall of Fame. Make the ballot for the hall of Fame. I think he should make the ballot.

[TJ Majors]

I have a country's take that I don't think.

[Russell]

Oh, you don't want to tell it here.

[TJ Majors]

Xfinity, O'Reilly, Bush nationwide should count. That should be.

[Russell]

Are you serious?

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Why would it.

[Russell]

It's the NASCAR hall of Fame, not the nascar.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The NASCAR banner.

[Russell]

It's not the NASCAR cup hall of Fame.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, if you look at some of the accomplishments, it's none of them Cup.

[Russell]

That is a pretty.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That is really take.

[Russell]

That's actually a lot of nodding in here, too. A lot of other people agree.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Kind of dumb to me.

[TJ Majors]

Xfinity's like aaa and do we go look at AAA stats for a baseball player?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, but not everything works out perfect for everybody to get to the Cup Series. And there's still some great race car drivers that didn't get great cup rides to show what they could really do.

[TJ Majors]

And I don't disagree with that.

[Russell]

So you're thinking like this, this pioneer.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I'm like looking at half these guys on here.

[Russell]

You think, yeah, Ray Hendrick, those guys that got voted in as modified champions shouldn't get in there.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, Well, I don't know the history of.

[Russell]

Wait. If they, if you want to be honest about it, that's quite. That's another rung race. That's another rung or two down the ladder.

[TJ Majors]

If it was before, like the NASCAR was created, then we can have a discussion. But if NASCAR Cup Series was there, then I think that's when it should start.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But it doesn't say NASCAR Cup Series hall of Fame. This is NASCAR hall of Fame.

[Russell]

Yeah. It is literally not the Cup Series

[TJ Majors]

hall of Fame, but Major League Baseball.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

This isn't baseball.

[TJ Majors]

It's everything.

[Russell]

I know. Well, that's Major League Baseball. They are literally saying this is Major League Baseball, mlb, the top. So the NASCAR hall of Fame is. Is cup and more. I don't know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There's a lot of guys that have really great accomplishments that just didn't.

[TJ Majors]

That's the hall of. In my opinion, it's the hall of fam. Not the hall of really good.

[Russell]

Yeah, but it's not cup only. They've. They're not. No one ever came in and said, hey, y', all, this is just cup only. And you're saying that. Yeah. Well, it's not. It's not the hall of Fame.

[TJ Majors]

That's my opinion.

[Russell]

But you're. You got. I know you're changing literally what the hall of Fame is. It's not.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

You're asking me if I would vote someone in. I'm saying no, I wouldn't.

[Russell]

All right. Bam. I hope you're never on the committee.

[TJ Majors]

I don't think I will be.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I don't think we have to worry about that.

[Russell]

It's scary what people think, isn't it, tj?

[TJ Majors]

I don't. I think there's more people that will agree with me than you realize.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I disagree with you. I think you're gonna be on an island here, man.

[TJ Majors]

I'm not on it. I'm not saying you're gonna be a majority, but I don't think I'm alone.

[Russell]

Tim's. We got into Alex. Tim's just showed up. We got on a conversation around the hall of Fame and how the voting

[TJ Majors]

and I'm just gonna go live works.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Go ahead, just click it.

[Russell]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Russell]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Russell]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Russell]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Do that with Acrobat learn [e-mail] do that with Acrobat.

[TJ Majors]

All right, and we are live.

[Russell]

Hey everybody, you're live for another episode of Ask Junior here. Me and TJ recording the Dale junior download here in the RV studio. Thank you, Xfinity, for waving the red flag on Internet price hikes and raising the green flag on savings. You get more speed and reliable WI fi and you're locked in for one price for five years. That's pretty darn good. No surprises, no late yellows, just a straight shot to victory lane. And just like that, we've got a winner, folks. Xfinity. Imagine that. We're sitting here having a debate, everybody, as you're all rolling into this show. We've talked about the cup race and all that fun stuff. We had our buddy Tyler Reddick on

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

here again, again and again.

[TJ Majors]

He's in the Xfinity car this weekend.

[Russell]

We talked about the cars tour upcoming race this weekend at Wake county and testing at Nashville Fairgrounds. We had a lot of conversation, but right now we're in the middle of a debate around the hall of Fame. The committee has gotten together to get the ballot ready for the modern and the Pioneers. I told everybody who I voted for for the Pioneer ballot, and I was told by the committee that I could share my vote, and I have. And we got into a debate around AJ Foyt. Should AJ Foyt be nominated or voted in to the hall of Fame? That's a.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The NASCAR hall of Fame?

[Russell]

Yeah, the NASCAR hall of Fame. Should AJ Foyt be in the NASCAR hall of Fame? I'd be curious to see a poll on this because there is a pretty split opinion on it and that further furthered the conversation to A hot take that our guy Travis has hot take. And so Travis says that he doesn't believe anyone that competed in. In anything outside of cup should be in the NASCAR hall of Fame. Like, no Xfinity. Because I asked the next question. Okay, if A.J. foyt is a good conversation, what about Justin Allgarh? Justin's got a little career left. I don't know, several more wins, possibly. Possibly. Maybe adding another championship. Is he a Hall of Famer? And that spurned. You know, the comment from you, Travis, that you don't believe your hot take is that you don't think that pure truckers, pure Xfinity guys, or guys from modifieds, Larry, the. Larry Phillips, all those. You don't think any of those guys should be elected into the NASCAR hall of Fame? You think it should be specifically off

[TJ Majors]

of cup performance since NASCAR was official? Yeah, since NASCAR was created. Anybody that didn't race Cup, I don't think it.

[Russell]

And our argument, I think, is that it's not the NASCAR cup hall of Fame, it's the NASCAR hall of Fame. And we are recognizing anyone who's had real success in, not only on the racetrack, but obviously, you know, anybody who's been an asset to the industry. You have, you know, crew chiefs and all types of people nominated from time to time. Yes, that's interesting. I'm surprised by that take because we have said over and over at this table that it's not the NASCAR cup hall of Fame, it's the NASCAR hall of Fame. It embodies all nascar. But you refuse to budge off of your take. And you think there's a lot of people that would share your opinion.

[TJ Majors]

I think I'm in the minority, but I don't think I'm like Tim's.

[Russell]

You sat down in this conversation just now. Tim's walked into this, into this. What do you think about that opinion? I agree with Travis. Are you serious? You're a liar. Oh, my.

[Tyler Reddick]

It doesn't get the same amount of coverage.

[Russell]

Hey, don't get offended when I call you a liar. T.J. doesn't like that. He texts me after every show, and I call him that, and he's like, stop calling me a liar.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That was after just one other.

[Russell]

One problem There so. Isolated incident.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It was an isolated.

[Russell]

I don't believe you. I think he's pinching you under the table or something.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, I totally agree.

[Tyler Reddick]

I mean, I agree with both sides.

[Russell]

I'll say that because the hall of Fame is a museum.

[Tyler Reddick]

We celebrate the sport, but we celebrate the cup guys way More than the other guys.

[Russell]

We do.

[Tyler Reddick]

So that should take higher precedent when

[Russell]

you're hall of Fame class. He's saying no one out of the outside of the cup should ever be elected. We do. Cup success absolutely weighs more into your opportunity to make the ballot. You'll look at the ballot every year and the names that are. That are discussed by the committee and see predominantly cup guys, you know, dominating the list, which is right. Which is fair. That's. That's fine. He's saying that a guy like Justin Allgaier shouldn't even be considered.

[Tyler Reddick]

It's a conversation. But if so not just an all guy. But if someone has failed at the cup level and went back and they were more successful in the lower series, which has happened.

[Russell]

I know, but I don't.

[Tyler Reddick]

I don't feel like that should count. I mean, if they've never gotten to

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

a certain level, like a short, why shouldn't it count though? Maybe they didn't work out right and get into a. Get into a Cup part.

[Russell]

That's another great conversation. What if. What if Pinsky, you know, had hung. Hung in there a little bit with Justin.

[TJ Majors]

Sorry about it. That's in every sport. Like, what if the dude's offensive lineman would have blocked better for him.

[Russell]

I know, but just Justin didn't fail

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

doesn't mean he's a worse driver.

[Russell]

Justin didn't like.

[Tyler Reddick]

That's why if you didn't get the

[Russell]

opportunity, he never did. He raised Xfinity for Penske.

[Tyler Reddick]

He's a good. He's a good argument. But if there's other drivers that failed

[Russell]

at the top, he did get. He did actually get the cut, but he never really got that kind of solid opportunity.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, he'd never gotten to a top like top 10 cup car.

[Russell]

No, I'm just saying, you know, Justin. I believe. I'm hoping that Justin tacks on a few more things to create the conversation around him being a nominee one day. But I wonder how folks in the.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, he's only going to tell us.

[Russell]

I wonder how folks in the comments feel that if you didn't raise cup, you don't get a chance to even make the conversation.

[TJ Majors]

I think most are disagreeing with me, though. One person says A.J. foyt should not be in. He's IndyCar.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Matt Crafton is a name coming up.

[Russell]

That did me.

[Tyler Reddick]

A lot of cup starts that sorry time.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Truck champion.

[Russell]

Matt will probably be on the ballot because of what he's done in the trucks. But in Travis's eyes, again, I'm just reminding Folks online, he wouldn't even be. He wouldn't even get a chance to be in the discussion.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But like, Mike Stefanik, like, that guy. I'm looking.

[Tyler Reddick]

See, that's where I disagree with Travis.

[Russell]

He. He never got to that level.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Maybe he didn't want to go to that level.

[Russell]

That's true. But he. But no, no. He should be saying. He's saying he would vote Stefanic in, but not a truck racer. Yes, basically. I know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm also in the minority. What is your basis?

[Russell]

Because, like, the grassroots guy that does all sorts of badass gets your vote. But the guy that wins three Truck Series championships does not.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Show me.

[Russell]

Show me the stats.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Stefanics. What does he want to show me?

[Russell]

Championships. You can't top that. That's incredible. Why?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It deserves to be.

[Russell]

Like, he's saying. He's saying it deserved to be in there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How can you say that? It's flawed.

[Russell]

I know, but that's how the brain works.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, my gosh. Nine. Just nine chances. 74 modified wins, deserving. But at what level do you think those were easy to win?

[TJ Majors]

Easier than a Cup?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Are you.

[Russell]

I mean, I don't know that you can say that. I mean, honest.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know. I mean, I don't know you can say that either.

[Russell]

Yeah. I mean, some of those were harder to win than a Cup race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Nine champions.

[Russell]

I would. I would absolutely guess that some of the races that he won, ran on a modified, were tougher to win than a Cup race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If he was in a Hendrick car.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

During these years, could he have won a championship in the Cup Series?

[Russell]

Oh, I mean, how. Now what are we doing? Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm just saying, like.

[TJ Majors]

Wait, so then are we going to create some drivers on a scale? They had this many wins, but it was in a lesser car, so we're going to boost it. I don't care what car you were in. What did you do when you were in the Cup Series?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I just don't think that's a fair.

[TJ Majors]

Like, we don't look at, like, a quarterback. Like, oh, he was good. If he only had a better team, you know, his stats would have been better. Like, so let's put him in the hall of Fame.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I. I mean, look at Sam Darnold. Everyone wrote him off after going to the Jets. Now he's a Super bowl champion, but

[TJ Majors]

he's not a Hall of Famer.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm not saying he is, but it matters, like, what you get.

[TJ Majors]

No, I agree it matters, but what I'm saying, though, is when it comes time of your career is over. You don't get bonus points for you are in a bad car.

[Tyler Reddick]

Sorry.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm just saying timing works out.

[Russell]

Y' all are now having an entirely different conversation.

[TJ Majors]

No, no, I'm not.

[Russell]

I'm just saying I want to let y' all talk, but y' all always do this. We end up going way over here. Nobody even wants to have this conversation.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We started off way over here with this conversation.

[TJ Majors]

I'm just saying, like, you don't get bonus points because you were in a lesser car.

[Russell]

Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

I mean, no one's arguing that. No one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not really arguing that.

[Russell]

So. All right, never mind. It's known to the world that you're. You're. You're. You're out there. You're out there on an island. I know.

[TJ Majors]

I am. I'm with you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm on that island.

[Russell]

Okay.

[TJ Majors]

I was hesitant to even say it to begin with.

[Russell]

I'm glad he said it. Brave of you to share such a crazy idea.

[TJ Majors]

One person says, travis and Alex just need to stop talking. They sound stupid.

[Russell]

I love comments like that. Oh, man. Wait, this. This reminded me that we. Did we do this on the. Bless your heart. Remember we were talking about Sean's. The Sean's need to get together and decide how they're gonna spell their name.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, man.

[Russell]

And we never. Oh, I got so, so many freaking hilarious comments on my timeline from that. And they were from Sean's. All arguing their. For their name, their spelling. Right. Of the actual name. So it's pretty good.

[TJ Majors]

Figure it out.

[Russell]

God dang. Social media can be really good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Some days can be entertaining.

[Russell]

So good. So, all right, we're at. We're doing Ask Junior. Let's get some questions going.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Let's go to first question.

[Russell]

Oh, let's. Let's go with the layup here.

[TJ Majors]

If you can make one change to NCAA 27, what would it be? One change.

[Russell]

It needs a companion app.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, my gosh. You have no idea.

[Russell]

I mean, seriously, if EA and anybody's listening, the game needs a companion app. So we can do some, you know, some recruiting and all that fun stuff.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't even know if it's recording iPads.

[Russell]

I'm just saying. So we can do on our iPads, change our depth chart, whatever we want to do. All right.

[TJ Majors]

That'd be really nice.

[Russell]

It needs an app. I'll pay money. I'll give you $1.99.

[TJ Majors]

I would.

[Russell]

I don't want no in App purchases and no subscription, though. Let me recruit. Yeah, I'm Just kidding, tj.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That would be very beneficial as a person.

[TJ Majors]

That's Dale's. What's yours?

[Tyler Reddick]

Oh, sorry.

[TJ Majors]

I'm making him pick one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So, I mean, that probably would have been mine to start with from the commissioner side of things, because you can just control so many more things. Not having to be at the Xbox a lot, you can just do a lot more like that. But I think there's a lot of little things that Madden has that they'll eventually put in there, like play call limits for certain for offense and defense separate, not just overall in the game.

[Russell]

Why do you care about that?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Because I think defenses are a lot more common than, you know, regular cheap plays. But there's just a lot of little things. But the companion app would probably be mine as well.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Next question was how hard was it to run two different cars when the COT came in to the scene?

[Russell]

You're just trying to get me to talk about cot.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think it's not hard to do.

[TJ Majors]

Someone literally sent this question in.

[Russell]

Well, At the time that the, you know, around the time the cot came, we were still running the Gen 4 first, you know, the kind of Gen 4ish version of it, of the Xfinity car, which was a great race car, the Gen 4 Cup car and that, you know, that style of Xfinity car was great. So, you know, it was. You'd go. You drive the Xfinity car and go, damn, it's badass. A lot of, you know, left front down, nose pinned, rotates, rotate, turn, ass in the air. Holland, you know, getting after it. And the. The cot, honestly, you know, was just so bad from the start. I'll harp a little. We went to cots getting built. NASCAR's got one built, and Brett Badine's driving it at tracks. And we heard. We heard about it. And now in my life at this point, I had never heard of NASCAR building a car and taking it to the track themselves. And I was pretty naive. And I thought, damn, NASCAR is going to the racetrack with a cot. And they've been. They've built this car. They designed it. They're going to the racetrack, and they're driving it and running it. Man, I bet they're. I bet they got that thing going, right? We got. We build our first cot and we take it to Rockingham. Me and Tony junior Tony Senior, and we unload it. And I'm thinking, man, I hope I can run as fast as NASCAR with their cot. They've ran, you know, they've been testing this thing for months. And they. They can. They've got to have it dialed in. We're going to run a car with a splitter for the first time in our lives, and it's some big old stupid shoebox, you know, with a wing on the back and ugly car. And it looked. It drove as bad as it looked. And I'm thinking, I'm climbing in this thing, and I'm hoping it's okay, you know, and we're going to be way off, and it's going to take us all day to figure this thing out and learn. We're going to learn a ton, but it's going to be a handful, I'm going to promise you. We were over 1 1/2 seconds faster than NASCAR cot right out of the gate. And I was. They were on the other end of the racetrack, really. We go out there and run, and I come in and. And I was like, all right, how do we compare? I asked Tony Jr. How we compared to NASCAR COT, and he's like, they're struggling. He's like, we're not too bad, I guess. I don't know. You know, we didn't know how fast we were. I don't think anybody else was there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Brett wouldn't have got approved.

[Russell]

We ran. We ran and ran and ran, trying to make that thing better. And they were way off over there with their car, just running laps. I'm sure. I mean, that maybe they had a. They had a reason or what, whatever. They were trying and testing. But I was like, man, how could they be so slow? This is nascar. This is their car. They made this car. And, you know, then we go out there and rent it in a race. And I'll be honest, you know, it was. I had some times when I was. I had some fun races in the cot.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Really.

[Russell]

I had a couple fun races driving Tony Jr. Cot, you know, and me and Tony Jr. Would figure out some things that we kind of liked.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And I had some moments, the clash and the duel.

[Russell]

I'm just saying, we ran in the bud car for a couple races and also with. With hms, but, you know, it was just the. The problem with the cot and every other car after that was the splitter. And I mean, I've talked about it at length on this show. When you put a splitter on a car and there's a rule where it has to be, like, it has to absolutely be exactly in the same spot on every single race car, and everybody knows that getting that car to go fast means putting the splitter right against the ground. You literally have every car going around the racetrack exactly the same way, set up the same way, Air platform and everything identical. When we didn't have a splitter, we had these valences on the car. And you could travel the car differently than the guy beside you, and you might find a way to get it to stay lower down the straightaway and travel more in the corner. And you traveled it until the right front tire or the left front tire rubbed the fender. Right. And then you beat the fender up. Then you traveled it more, and then you beat the fender up and traveled it more. You know, you kept do that a lot. Yeah. And then, you know, now you're bottoming out. Now you're trying to cut the bottom of the car to get it to travel more. And everybody didn't live in the same place. Everybody didn't go down in the corner and land and end up in the exact same travel. So you had guys that were better entering the corner, guys that couldn't enter as hard, guys that got through the middle better, guys that got off the corner better, guys that were lower off the corner, guys that cars were carrying the nose off the corner. Everybody's car traveled and ran differently. And so, you know, you had guys that were faster early, slower, late, guys that were just junk, guys that were super good. You had all kinds of things happening in the field in terms of speed. When everybody got the splitter and had to race with a splitter, we all ran the splitter on the ground, and we all ran the same. And that really sucked. And if you tried to drive a car deeper into the corner, say you're out there running, and you're like, all right, we got a good lap time. We got a good handling car. I'm gonna go in there carlink deeper. What happened when you drove in deeper with the splitter is it tapped the ground with the splitter and pushed up the racetrack. Well, all right, I can't go in further. I'm gonna have to go back to where I was on throttle, and that's all I can do. And you ran exactly that. I mean, that's how you raced with the car that had the valence. Like, if you wanted to drive it in a little further, you were gonna drag a little valence off. But you could do it. You drive in there a little further, and maybe it pushed, maybe it turned, whatever, Right? But you. You could change a lot of how you drove the car a lot with the. With the car with the. With the valence on it. And so that was the Heart. And I could not get over that. I hated that cot because I knew when I got to this, when I got. When I figured out how fast I could go with the car, that was that I couldn't do anything as a driver to change the car much and how. How I drove the lap because if I did anything more, it was just going to get on the ground and push. And so every time you. Every racetrack you went to, you knew that that was something you were gonna have to, you know, struggle with, I suppose, every single weekend. And. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Awesome.

[Russell]

The old splitter.

[TJ Majors]

We got one more question before we have to run. Rank these three.

[Russell]

Pool.

[TJ Majors]

Ocean.

[Russell]

Lake.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Pool. Ocean.

[Russell]

Lake. Yeah. Pool, Ocean. Lake. I would say ocean. Pool, Lake. Really put the ocean first. Yeah. Because ocean means beach. Yeah. And beach. There's usually some pretty fun spots to eat, all kinds of great. Wow. Yeah. If I'm near the ocean, then I think I'm probably on a vacation.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. You're happier.

[Russell]

Yeah, a little happier. If I'm by the pool, I could be at home.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Sometimes the beach is just a lot of work.

[Russell]

I don't mind. You don't like toting out there and setting it up and putting it, taking it back down.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Most time. Most time we do that, we just go out there and set up about three other people's. The wavy.

[Russell]

We're helping people next to us.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's usually what we do.

[Russell]

Yeah. Well, you're trying to be a good, Good Samaritan.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

I'm looking forward to the beach.

[TJ Majors]

I'm with you.

[Russell]

Yeah. All right, everybody. Thank you all for tuning in on this segment of Ask Junior. It was a. It was one for the record books. All right, thank you, Xfinity. Also for waving the red flag on Internet price hikes and raising the green flag on savings. You get rival. You get wi fi that you need reliable service, reliable speed locked in one price five years. Yeah, it's hard to believe. No surprises, no late yellows, just straight shot to victory lane. Just like that, folks, we got a winner. And I've got some baseball cards. I want to open these, but I won't do it right now. Hey, this is dale and Hart Jr. And for all the latest Dale Jr. Download gear, including the I'm will drink some beer T shirt we've been talking about here around the office. Head over to shop.dirtymomedia.com for all the latest merch. We're on the search for the most legendary NASCAR memorabilia collections for our ultimate racing collector. Presented by Lionel Racing, the official diecast of NASCAR Lionel Racing is your go to source for all your racing Die cast needs. Check out the latest pre orders@lionel racing.com. you know, die cast, sheet metal, trophies, shirts, a mix of everything. That's what we want to see with our collectors. And you'll have the opportunity to submit photos videos through DirtyMome Media's social posts for a chance to be selected. We have, we have a post later this week and then you respond to it. Videos obviously are really good. That's going to give you the best shot to win. And then next week we'll select the winner. Looking forward to seeing what everybody brings at a table this year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, there's usually some really good stuff and some of the videos are amazing.

[Russell]

All right, well, thank you, Lionel, and can't wait to see who is going to be the next ultimate racing collector. Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Place your bets. Get your bets down, ladies and gentlemen. Get your bed.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Russ. Is A.J. floyd a hall of Famer?

[Russell]

Russ. Is he hall of Famer? He's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes or no, NASCAR hall of Famer. Is AJ Floyd a NASCAR hall of Fame?

[TJ Majors]

No. Is Justin Allgire a NASCAR hall of Fame? No.

[Russell]

Ooh. Do you think Justin ever makes a ballot? No, man. What if Justin wins one more championship? Does he ever make a ballot? No. Welcome to the team. Do you believe that, if you, do you believe that the NASCAR hall of Fame ballot should be cup only? I don't think it should be cup only, but I think it should have a major focus.

[TJ Majors]

So.

[Russell]

So along those lines. So you're saying if you're an all guy. Yes. Hall of fame with two championships. What about Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Two championships, Daytona 500 wins.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, solid point.

[Russell]

I think there's a legitimate conversation. Depending, I mean, depending on where I would say, okay, we get down the road 15 years. I mean, there's a lot of guys that are competing in the cup series right now that I think are hall of Famers. And I don't think that Ricky will ever get the opportunity to be in the conversation because there's just too many people that are better. We've had a lot of fun with that conversation. Time for dirty mode. Oh, let's bring up the bet sheet here. This segment brought to you by fanduel. Got to get on Fan Duel, start making some bets. Now that the. I'm, I'm out of the game with the, with the, with the college basketball tournament lost. Well, the, the, the bets are harder to make for me at this point because it's tighter and so I'm. I'm not. I'm not. As I've done what I needed to do. Round one was my round. I had good success.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, the heavy favorites are gone.

[Russell]

Yeah, heavy favorites are gone. I don't know. I might. I might make a few more bets.

[TJ Majors]

But also when Dale gives out his bets, if he says moneyline, people, he's saying he's just taking the team to win. He's not betting the spread. We had a couple people that were tailing your bets, but took the spread. So just want to remind people, money

[Russell]

line bet that I put. The bet that I brought to you guys this past week paid out, so I made some good, good headway there. Speaking of headway, we're going to Martinsville. The favorites according to the Vegas are Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin at plus 500. Larson at plus 550. Byron 700, Christopher Bell, 800. Russ, what does the model say? I think you missed Chase Elliott.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, there we go. Chase needs to be in that conversation,

[Russell]

really, for the last four at Martinsville. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I agree.

[Russell]

You worried about the Chevrolet after this past weekend or. No, I think this is the place. If. If they don't do well here, then I think we can start really having that conversation. Yeah. Yeah. This is a Hendrick track as well. So I. I think this is. This is Chase Elliott's weekend for me. All right. Chase Elliott would be at, what, plus 900? Yeah, he's just off the. The list here.

[TJ Majors]

You bet that Tim's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes, yes, yes.

[Tyler Reddick]

I'll take the risk.

[Russell]

Which is Chevy.

[Tyler Reddick]

It's a concern, but it. Short track.

[Russell]

It. I think it could be different. Reddick. Where's Reddick on the board?

[Tyler Reddick]

He's.

[Russell]

He's right.

[TJ Majors]

I think he's plus 1400.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

What's the predictor say for Reddick? He's in a void for me this week. He's actually out of the top 10 in the predictor. Never finished top five at Martinsville. Only two top tens there. He only finished on the lead lap. I think only seven of his last 12 Martinsville starts. Fascinating. Led only once there. Yeah. So I pass on him. Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I like Ty Gibbs here again. I like Briscoe here. I like Ryan Preece.

[Russell]

Reece is a sleeper for me here, too.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. And.

[Russell]

And I give TJ credit. That RFK stuff's been very consistent this year There. There's five guys. That's what we've been looking for.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You don't give me much credit for that.

[Russell]

Well, that's what we've been looking for from rfk and Chris Buescher showing up every week. I love it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, maybe. What about Zane Smith? I know Austin Cindrick. Could he shine a little bit this weekend? Maybe Josh Berry.

[Russell]

Cindrick surprised me last week, so. He did.

[TJ Majors]

I'll give you. You know, he.

[Russell]

He said he was fast. He was fast in practice, and I. I totally didn't believe it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But Zane wasn't bad at Vegas either. He just got caught on pit road.

[Russell]

And Barry led a lot of laps here last year, but had some sort of issue. I can't go in on Zane until I see practice for.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, Zane's been quietly strong this year, I think, though, don't you think?

[Russell]

Yeah, he. He has. He has for sure. I. I like Barry. He's led a bunch of laps in this race last year and then finished 10th in the fall. Barry, I know a lot of people are not paying much attention to him because he's had a really, really difficult start to the season. Obviously, me being connected to him in his career. I watched him this past weekend at Darlington and liked what I saw. I know he didn't finish. He just finished just inside the top 20. But it was a bit of a grinder day and kind of a. Kind of a finish. That team needs to be able to go into a Martinsville race and genuinely have an attitude that they can go up there and try to compete in the top 10. I would say Josh Berry would be a fun bet for top 10. You know, parlay a couple of these guys together and. And see what kind of fun you can have.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What's Ty Gibbs odds?

[TJ Majors]

Ty Gibbs is 2200 to win plus 110 for top 10.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I feel like he's. I feel like he can be a factor.

[TJ Majors]

I like the top 10.

[Tyler Reddick]

Yeah. Top 10.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I like that, too. I feel like he's gaining confidence again now.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I do. But is Ty Gibbs a person that until he wins, you're not going to bet him to win?

[Tyler Reddick]

I wouldn't say that. I don't think his, his previous stats at Martinsville make me want to bet

[Russell]

him this week, but.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I definitely think one of these

[Russell]

upcoming races, I will definitely have him on my win card.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What about, you know, a Ross or even a host of our. Here, you know, what's his. What kind of track record does he have here?

[Russell]

Ross is good here, but I, I just. I don't know if I trust them this year. Like lately.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know.

[Russell]

Yeah, the last three here.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Suarez has been hot lately.

[Russell]

Sure. Has this. This is the kind of track where I think Suarez can continue that run. I. Suarez to me is an interesting guy and I've always kind of watched where he runs good at and those tracks seem to have a pattern and I feel like this fits right into his. His sort of wheelhouse.

[TJ Majors]

Plus 450 for top 10

[Russell]

for. Yeah. His last top 10 here was 2019 plus 450. I wish that was higher. You would think it would be higher.

[Tyler Reddick]

This guy you're not thinking about for top 10 too. He's got three top tens here.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Todd Gilliland, I would just saw his name on here. Yeah.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's actually really good here.

[Russell]

Plus 450 as well.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Wasn't a colleague car really strong here last year? Wasn't AJ Fast or something?

[Russell]

These lines are terrible. They should be like 1100 or something for top 10 closer to race day.

[TJ Majors]

You can.

[Russell]

Yeah, they'll be that. I'd wait then. Jeez. Plus 450 is not a lot.

[Tyler Reddick]

See how I like to see how he. Those guys see how they practice.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Kyle Busch factor at all.

[Russell]

They haven't had a top 10 all year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Austin Dillon, he's been.

[Russell]

If you were doing a head to head. Austin Dillon. Kyle Busch, who you picking?

[Tyler Reddick]

Austin Dillon.

[Russell]

Tim said that. Yep. Yeah.

[Tyler Reddick]

Austin Dillon.

[Russell]

No way. He's ran better than him this year. He has. He's more. He seems to. I don't know. He has his moments.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If Kyle can get through the first like half of the race and still be like in the top run the top 10, he always. He makes up a lot of ground in the second half of the race. But something always happens in the beginning or first half of the race where he has to overcome like a first pit stop.

[Russell]

His car just wasn't that. I watched his. I watched his car this weekend. They were struggling on the long run of the race.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Russell]

All night, all day.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Were you surprised that some of the guys like the eight, you know, struggle in the 22 was pretty far off?

[Russell]

I was surprised at the 22. The 22 is the one that surprised me the most. Do you think that they tried something out out there in left field? Just took a gamble. They had to because Blaney and Cindrick were both really good. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I feel like it's been that way quite a bit this year so far. Seems like the 12 has been the. The consistent car. The two kind of. The two's not been bad, honestly. He's been probably. Is he the second best car there now this year?

[Russell]

He is. Well, kind of close.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right.

[Russell]

Right there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

Like, the gap's not what it used to be. Yeah, but. But we can say Blaney's like. Could be. If Redick wasn't on this terror, it would be Blaney we'd be talking about.

[TJ Majors]

Logano's only 30 points better than Cedric right now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Which is surprising to me.

[Russell]

Yeah. His best finish since the five hundreds. Fifteenth.

[TJ Majors]

What about Toyota? Plus 155. They've won five of six.

[Russell]

I mean, Denny, you know, Denny was. Denny's got a good shot. He's on.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Bell's been.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Man. It's just so hard. Watch. Visually watching these guys for 500 laps or Brian Blaney drives this track like he's just the best guy at this track right now, in my opinion. He doesn't miss like the curb. You watch him. And he's so consistent and so precise with how he runs his track, and he's gotten so good at it. So, I mean, he's by far stands out more than anyone else to me at Martin Zone right now.

[TJ Majors]

To your point, TJ, for top forward, Blaney's even money. Logano is plus 340 at the next best.

[Russell]

Yeah. The thing you have to worry about with. With Blaney is that pit crew. His pit crew is. I have him ranked, like, outside the top 25 as a pit crew. Three wheels in the last. In the last three weeks.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, it's hard. It's hard to overcome that.

[Russell]

They've lost 75 positions on PIT road. Damn, man. That's a problem.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Wow.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Is that including, like, getting caught on pit road under green? Does that include that stuff?

[Russell]

No, that's okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I wasn't sure, stakes and all that. Yeah, I gotcha.

[Russell]

Well, they'll have to clean that up to have a shot on Sunday. All right, bud. I appreciate you tuning in. Thanks for coming through, Russell. Thanks for having me. You betcha. Man. Y' all be. Y' all be smart when you're making your bets on FanDuel. FanDuel, the premier gaming destination in the United States, bringing you another segment of Dirty Mode. Oh, thank you, Tim's. Thank you. Thanks for joining us in the Arby's studio. Don't forget about Arby's. New meet in three box. Get more meal for your money at Arby's, we had the meats. That's the Dale Jr. Download with TJ Majors. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you next week.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

See you.

[Russell]

Check out Dirty Mo Media on Instagram Facebook X and TikTok. Not to brag or anything, but Arby's new 7.99 meat and three box is kind of a big deal. The other guys give you just one side. We give you three sides. Not to brag. You get a meaty sandwich, curly fries, Mott sticks, a sweet treat, and a drink. All for just 7.99.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's more meal for your money. More meal for your money. More meal for your money.

[Russell]

Where'd that come from? Arby's. We have the meats and participating Arby's for a limited time. Hey, y', all, it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if? Like, what if it doesn't fit? A little to the left? Wait.

[Tyler Reddick]

Yep.

[Russell]

Should have gone with Wayfair. Or what if it doesn't hold up? Up. That sofa was four days old. Should have ordered from Wayfair. Or what if it's that material that makes that noise? It was a sofa. I swear. With Wayfair, there's no what if.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Just style you love, quality you can

[Russell]

trust, and furniture that actually fits your life.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Visit wayfair.

[Russell]

Com or download the Wayfair app. Wayfair. Every style, every home.