Does Charlotte Deserve the Championship Race?

Summary

Summary of "Does Charlotte Deserve the Championship Race?" Episode of The Dale Jr. Download

Release Date: May 27, 2025
Host: Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Guests: Jordan Bianchi and Adam Alexander
Platform: Dirty Mo Media, SiriusXM
Episode Focus: Evaluating Charlotte Motor Speedway as a potential Championship Race venue in NASCAR.

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1. Introduction and Welcome

Dale Earnhardt Jr. kicks off the episode with his characteristic humor, sharing a light-hearted moment about enjoying shrimp cocktails without gaining weight (00:00), before seamlessly transitioning into the main discussion. He welcomes guest co-host Jordan Bianchi and returning guest Adam Alexander, setting the stage for an in-depth analysis of the Charlotte race weekend.

2. The Bustling Nature of Charlotte Race Weekend

Dale emphasizes the significance of Charlotte Motor Speedway as a pivotal event in the motorsports calendar. He describes it as "the busiest day in motorsports, the greatest day in motorsports" (02:24) encompassing major series like NASCAR, Formula 1, and IndyCar. Adam Alexander echoes this sentiment, highlighting the intense workload for media covering multiple racing disciplines simultaneously (02:46).

3. Broadcast Coverage and Performance

A significant portion of the discussion centers on the broadcast quality and team performance during the Charlotte race. Adam praises the broadcast team's handling of critical moments, especially the intense showdown between William Byron and Ross Chastain, commending their ability to maintain composure and deliver engaging content (05:00).

Dale reflects on his experience transitioning from NBC's extensive 20-week broadcasting period to a shorter, more intense schedule with Amazon Prime. He expresses satisfaction with the positive fan reactions and the energetic atmosphere created during the pre-race and race segments (06:24). Dale also acknowledges areas for improvement but remains optimistic about the broadcast's momentum (07:30).

4. Driver and Team Performances

a. Penske Racing's Struggles

Dale delves into the underperformance of Penske Racing, particularly focusing on Ryan Blaney's difficulties despite extensive tire testing specific to Charlotte's conditions (31:59). He notes that Blaney's team struggled to find the right balance during qualifying and the race, leading to a disappointing outcome.

b. AJ Allmendinger and Legacy Motor Club

The conversation shifts to AJ Allmendinger, who emerges as a potential dark horse in the playoffs. Dale commends Legacy Motor Club for their organizational improvements under Jimmy Johnson's leadership, which have translated into better on-track performances (40:36). Adam Alexander adds that Allmendinger's versatility across various track types and his consistent performance make him a formidable contender (40:36).

c. Kyle Larson's Performance and Mental State

A pivotal topic is Kyle Larson's performance post-Indy 500. Dale contemplates whether Larson's struggles in Charlotte were influenced by burnout from attempting the Indy-NASCAR double (56:00). Adam argues that Larson's resilience and ability to reset mentally are key strengths, but Dale remains skeptical, attributing Larson's Charlotte woes to mental fatigue from his extensive schedule (56:32).

5. Track Conditions and Their Impact

Dale and Adam explore the technical challenges posed by Charlotte Motor Speedway, particularly the notorious turns three and four. They discuss rumors about the infield being a landfill, causing persistent bumps and uneven terrain that disrupt racing dynamics (59:00). Dale shares firsthand observations from driving pace car laps, emphasizing how these conditions affect driver performance and car handling (59:09).

6. Playoff Implications and Championship Race Considerations

a. Current Standings and Stakes

The discussion highlights the high stakes of the Charlotte race in determining playoff standings. Dale points out Brad Keselowski's precarious position at 33rd, just outside the playoff cutoff (38:21), and the challenges drivers face in securing their spots amidst fierce competition.

b. Potential Shift of Championship Race Venue

A significant debate ensues over whether Charlotte should remain a Championship Race venue. Adam Alexander suggests that moving the race back to the oval might better serve its purpose due to superior racing conditions and historical significance (63:38). Dale agrees, proposing that for Charlotte to maintain its status, NASCAR would need to enhance the track's conditions and ensure it delivers an entertaining race (65:06).

7. Future of Charlotte Motor Speedway as a Championship Venue

Dale and Adam ponder the future of Charlotte within NASCAR's race calendar. Dale envisions NASCAR possibly relocating the Championship Race back to the Charlotte oval to capitalize on its robust racing product (65:22). Adam supports this idea, arguing that the oval offers a more compelling and consistent racing experience compared to the Roval setup (63:39).

8. Celebrations, Fans, and Interactive Segments

The episode also touches on post-race celebrations and fan interactions. Dale shares anecdotes about team celebrations and the importance of authentic, heartfelt victories, contrasting them with less genuine displays. The segment underscores the emotional connection between drivers, teams, and fans, enhancing the overall racing experience.

9. Conclusion and Looking Ahead

Wrapping up, Dale expresses enthusiasm for future broadcasts and upcoming races, highlighting the continuous evolution of NASCAR's race formats and the importance of selecting the right venues for championship deciders. He reiterates the need for tracks like Charlotte to adapt and improve to remain central to NASCAR's championship narrative.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. [02:24]: "Charlotte was always tough because for the drivers, Charlotte was tough. All the race teams are here and you're racing in your backyard."

• Adam Alexander [05:00]: "You guys deserve all the praise. You guys did a great job in the booth... handling the William Byron Ross Chastain kind of showdown."

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. [38:04]: "Championship race at Charlotte on the oval... Which races better than Kansas right now."

• Adam Alexander [63:42]: "The novelty is gone."

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. [56:00]: "That corner is constantly settling, creating bad, bad bumps down in turn three and four."

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. [40:36]: "Legacy Motor Club has made a massive gain... Jimmy is spread thin as a human right, but he's put the right people in the right places."

Key Takeaways

• Charlotte Motor Speedway is a central focus for its potential role as a Championship Race venue, with current improvements and track conditions under scrutiny.

• Broadcast Excellence: The episode highlights the importance of high-quality broadcast coverage in enhancing fan experience and maintaining the sport's integrity.

• Driver Dynamics: Performances of key drivers like Ryan Blaney, AJ Allmendinger, and Kyle Larson are critically analyzed, with emphasis on their impact on playoff standings.

• Future Considerations: There is significant debate on whether Charlotte's oval should be the focal point for future Championship Races, emphasizing the need for tracks to adapt for optimal racing experiences.

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This summary captures the essence of the episode, focusing on the critical evaluation of Charlotte Motor Speedway's suitability as a NASCAR Championship Race venue, while omitting advertisements and non-essential segments as per the user’s instructions.

Transcript

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I love a shrimp cocktail. It's like free calories, man. Shrimp don't even have calories. So you get. You could literally, you could eat like a, you know, 500 pounds of shrimp cocktail and not gain a pound.

[Travis]

That plus beer.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, you are. That's the way my mind was. Yeah, I could drink a six pack and a pound of shrimp and not gain any weight. It's weird.

[Jordan Bianchi]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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

[TJ Majors]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Can you not tell I'm mentally ready?

[Jordan Bianchi]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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

[Jordan Bianchi]

You haven't scratched the surface yet, boy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, what the do you want?

[TJ Majors]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You ain't picky. This ain't walking in and have it your way, mother. All right. St Burger King Travis is like, wrap this up. They don't have no fun right here. Hey, Everybody, it's Dale Jr. Back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. And it is Tuesday, so it's dirty air. And my usual co host, TJ Majors isn't here this week. He'll be back in a week or two. And joining me today is Jordan Bianchi. Jordan, thanks for coming in.

[Adam Alexander]

Thanks for having me. A lot of fun. Had a good time last time. I can't believe you asked me back.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm glad you said yes because we. We need somebody in here. Good, that helps. Do the show and you were awesome last time, so I'm thankful that you're here. The Charlotte race weekend, the busiest day in motorsports, the greatest day in motorsports. F1 IndyCar. What's that like for a media member?

[Adam Alexander]

For me it's pretty straightforward. I mean I pretty much focus exclusively on NASCAR, so my focus is on the 600 and everything going on in this world. My colleague Jeff Gluck is up in Indianapolis covering that. And then at the Athletic, we have two other reporters coming. Formula One. So me pretty straightforward and. But there's a lot going on over here. It's that time of the year. Silly season's ramping up schedule starting to come together for next year. There's a lot of things going on so a lot of news and stuff. So busy. Busy stretch.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Charlotte was always tough because for the drivers, Charlotte was tough. And I don't know if it's. It's the same. It feels like it is. All the race teams are here and the, you know, you're racing in your backyard. There's a lot of. A lot of requests come in. You'll see teams make announcements around extensions. You'll have. Marcus Smith's going to have events all throughout the week. You know, whether they're the charity events with Speedway children's or whatever. There's all kinds of things happening all week long. A lot of requests piling up to. To. To be here and be there. And all of your partners are super excited to come in and activate. So a lot of meet and greets at the racetrack. Your race day morning is slam full all the way from the time you get to the racetrack through drivers meeting into the car. It was just really busy. It happens again exactly the same way later in the season around October when we come back to Charlotte. There's two Charlotte race weekends. Spike.

[Adam Alexander]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

In time in terms of like how busy the drivers are during the. During the weekdays, the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and then it would settle back down in the summer and you get back into typical routine, come back towards Charlotte, get close to Charlotte and the request and things you needed to do. Every team has a fan day. They get all the drivers out to the shops, the fans come through, get autographs. There's just stuff for the drivers to do. So as a driver, it was a very hectic week, but we had a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun preparing for our broadcast for prime this.

[Adam Alexander]

You guys were phenomenal. I don't know what you've heard in terms of the. I've heard a lot it's been really, really. You guys deserve all the praise. You guys did a great job in the booth, the studio team, the camera, the production side. I mean, it was really incredible. And I, and I said this on, on the tear down and I'm going to say it here. I thought you and Steve over the last 20, 30 laps handling the William Byron Ross Chastain kind of showdown and how that all materialized from every perspective. You guys were so good and so on top of it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I appreciate that. I will say I got a lot to say about it. The, the fan reaction was what you would hope, really good, positive reaction around the first race. We got to keep our foot on the gas. We got to keep going to Nashville and beyond and keep that same energy. Now, I'm not aware of, I wasn't really that aware of what we had in store for our fans in terms of the build up, the pre race. I knew what a pre race typically looked like and our, you know, we had our table, Danielle and Corey and Carl and that was what you would hope it would be. It was like a, almost like a college game day. We had some great energy with fans around the table. Our guys were pumping them up. Our camera guys and our producers and directors and so forth on the ground were like, all right, we're coming back. Everybody get excited. But they, I saw and talked to a lot of those people that were behind that table, the fans in the infield, and they were really that happy to be there and they could, they were feeling this like, man, this is neat, right? This is, this is the, is different. This feels like a real pre race. Feels like this is an important event about to happen here. And you could feel that building and the excitement in just those, just that little pocket of fans that was right down there by that stage in the 30 or 45 minutes leading up to the race.

[Adam Alexander]

I, it felt like a college football environment. I went back and watched it yesterday and it really did feel. You had that energy and the vibe. And I think it helped too. This was a, this was a major. Right. This is the world 600 and everything matters here. And it just felt important. It gave it a gravitas. There wasn't this silliness or anything like that. It was like, no, this is an important professional sports event. We're going to treat it as such. Here you go. And rarely do NASCAR fans agree on anything, but I will tell you, I would say 99 of NASCAR fans really enjoyed the coverage.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, there's some things we can, we can improve on. Always you'll never, you're never going to have a perfect broadcast. But I felt like the first one we prepared really hard when we were doing. When I was working with NBC over a 20 week period, we had a long Runway of those 20 weeks to sort of get better and better and better and better. And I didn't feel like I was really hitting on all cylinders till the last five or eight races. And then as you get to the final few races, you're like, man, we are really making great content, great tv. This broadcast is on it and then the season's over. And so I was worried going into this smaller sample size of five races with prime and five with TNT that, you know, man, we're going to finish and still not quite feel like we've hit our potential. So I'm thankful actually that we hit the ground with such momentum. We had such a great show. So we're further ahead, I think, in the. After the first show than I expected. And hopefully we can continue to improve week after week. And they told me they wanted me to bring us on air, which I was like, oh, man, you know, pretty. I didn't know how many people would be really watching in that moment. It's an hour before the race, so it's a little smaller audience than the actual race itself. But that was a proud moment for me to be able to. They. So there's a lot. Forgive me because I'm going to talk. Talk about this broadcast more than I probably should. No.

[Adam Alexander]

Can we talk about Adam Alexander too?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Adam Alexander]

I want to make sure he gets some praise.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We have a race to discuss. That was really incredible. But. So I get up on top of the, on top of the building, on the frustrated way over the top of the suites. We. Up on top of the suites is our TV booth. And it's, it's an old fashioned booth, been around for a long time, which is fine. I love the nostalgia anyways. But they said, hey, you got. You and Adam are going to stand right against this rail. We're going to track behind you. And I thought, this is exactly like I saw Ken Squire and David Hobbs do all of the 81, 82, 83, 84 Daytona 500s. Every time they came on air with, I think it was CBS back in the day. That was the vantage point. They had the guys on top of the tower, on top of the suites, highest point they could get. And they'd have them outside and the track in the background. I thought, man, this is so old school. This is gonna be so much fun. And I started watching clips, I started watching those opens that Ken Squire was doing and listening to what he was saying and listening to what was, you know, what were the key thing where we are who we are, why we're here and trying to think about how I can concise. You know it's a silly very I got the card in my card right here.

[Adam Alexander]

I think what you guys would really stood out to me was you guys didn't try to reinvent the wheel but you fine tuned the wheel and elevated it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

My it's very basic and simple. There's no, there's not it's not rocket science on what I said but. Welcome to nascar. Prime is the greatest day in motorsports continues with flag of flag coverage of Today's Coca Cola 600 at Sharma Speedway. For flag to flag coverage was something they used to say always back in the day. So I tried to work I wanted to have that in there. And so in true test of man and machine that was something they would always say often in races back in the it's test of man and machine. Well I heard drivers talk about that in the comments that you know some of the media members like yourself had pulled out of the drivers over the over the days before the race was this is a real test of ourselves mentally and the cars. This does this does this race does stress the equipment which we really don't see races do. And so the stuff's just so tough these days. But so I really wanted to you know kind of hit on those two things. The that was a very proud moment for me to be able to do that. Adam Alexander, I've never worked with him before. He has been he's so much fun. He has a very similar sense of humor to me and Steve. So we're already like mid season for him in terms of dad jokes and just picking with each other.

[Adam Alexander]

Dating yourself.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And so all of us are I'll say this one thing that really got me to appreciate Adam. I knew Adam and had never really spent a lot of time trying to get to know him. But the they'll doc or the Earnhardt documentary that Prime's doing is come out and there's been a lot of talk about dad and a lot of conversation around dad in my life over the last several several months. And Adam's son was had his prom and very important night for for someone a senior in school. I didn't go but to mine. But it's a big night for seniors. Right. And what what else what are the important things that are they want to do that night to sort of mark the occasion. Well, he took his buddies. This guy that's never seen my dad Race doesn't know everything about Earnhardt or dad, and he took him to the statue. They wanted a picture at the statue in Kannapolis before they did anything else that night.

[Adam Alexander]

Oh, wow.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was like, man, that's pretty cool. I don't know how far out of their way they went to do that, but Adam sends me this picture. He goes, look where my boy is before prom tonight. They're all dressed up in their suits. He's like, they wanted a picture with the man. And. And I was like, you know, that really made me appreciate Adam, I think, a lot. And getting to work with him, I'll say again, he's got a great sense of humor. I was curious as to how much of the play by play he would want to share with me. I like to analyze and play by play at the same time. I do that because I grew up listening to Barney hall and Ken Squire and those guys, and I admired their work of play by play between the flags. I don't. I will never be able to bring us on air or send us to commercial or bring us back or read a promo or read a card or. Or promo football or a hockey game or all those little nuggets that sponsor reads and stuff that get done. Adam's got the voice, he's got the delivery. That's the man that needs to be doing those things. And I don't want that. But I. When the race is happening and two cars are trying to figure out how to. How to get to the next corner before the other, I love talking about that, and I can tell you why they're doing what they're doing, but also just want to say, you know, I also just want to call the play by play of the battle between two cars or what, you know, it's just fun for me to do because I hear I admired Barney's delivery and Ken Squire's ability to use adjectives and descriptions that were things that all of us could understand. And so that's fun for me. And that's kind of not really my job in the booth. It's not really what they hired me to do or want me to do, but I like to do it. And working with Rick, Rick Allen in the past, Rick was always fine if I wanted to join him, so to speak, in the play by play at times during the race. But there's also a known that when the cars get toward that Final lap that you let Adam do. Adam's job.

[Adam Alexander]

Have the call, if you will.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, he's got to have that call. And this was an interesting experience because I'd never worked with Adam before and didn't know what he. He was going to be comfortable with what he wanted. He was like, it's. We all. We're in the booth, and we know we have specific roles, and we all are aggressive doing our job. Steve. When Steve sees something that needs to be said about the strategy or he.

[Adam Alexander]

Says it, he's a talker.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He puts his hand up. He's like, I'm coming in, guys. And Adam's the same way. And that's the way you have to be. But we were coming down to those last few laps, and I was, you know, I was going to find out just how much, you know, play by play, I was going to really get to do in that moment, because that's kind of most important moment of the race. Of course, we had a great battle going on. There were some things that I needed to tell you about the air and what each driver was trying to accomplish and what drivers were. What each driver was trying to think about while they were driving, where they were on the track and so forth. And we got. We got inside of five laps to go, and Adam was kind of really stepped back a bit.

[Adam Alexander]

I noticed that, and that was the thing for me. And this speaks to Adam being a total pro and one lack of ego, like. And you talk to so many drivers who have worked with him. Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, they really point to him as someone who really helped them get better. He doesn't want the credit. He lets the other people be the stars. And I noticed that over the final 10, 15 laps, he just, like, there was times I'm like, is Adam even in the booth? And I don't mean that in a negative way. Like, you guys were just doing your thing and doing it so well. And he recognized just like, I'm gonna let these guys cook here. These guys are on fire. And he would chime in, you know, hey, there's X number of laps to go or whatever. But he just stood back. And that is very unlike a lot of play by play guys, because that's kind of quote unquote, their moment.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Adam Alexander]

And he was just like, you guys handle this. You guys know what you're doing. And it made such for an authentic broadcast. And you spoke earlier about how you kind of, you know, five to seven races towards the end. It takes you a While to get kind of ramped up. I will tell you this. There was no notice there in the booth. It felt like you guys had chemistry from the drop. It felt like you guys have been doing this for a while, and if you didn't know any better, you wouldn't have known that this was your first race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, it was. It went well. It went so well. I'm thankful that it did. I wanted it to be a big success. I wanted people to be happy with it. I was. I was. I was a little surprised, I guess, that Adam. Adam did sort of, you know, let that happen there at the end of the race. I was kind of like, come on, Adam. I'm running out of wind. And then, you know, there, you know, I understand that. And we'll do the hand signals sometimes, but, like, as we're coming toward that, you know, say the. The cars are going down the back straightaway, coming to the white. I'm ready to, like, for him to start firing off, right? And he's got a plan in his head of. He's already thinking about that probably. He's probably thought about it for days, about how he wants to call the final lap. And then as he's seeing who the players are, he's probably shaping, molding that. That call in his mind as those laps are unraveling in the final, final, you know, 20 or 15 laps. And so I'm ready to. I'm ready. I'm expecting him to start picking up steam and start getting momentum as a call, as a broadcaster. And he called him across the start finish line to get the white off into turn one. And then he. He paused off a two, and he was. It was like, hey, man, come on in here. I was like, okay. So I said something. I don't know what it was, but, like, he wanted me to join him in that final lap, which was a. I was fine. If he didn't. If he wanted to. If he had a mouthful to say and just call the whole final lap, that's fine. But there was a. He paused and was like, yeah, one of the other boys getting here. This is pretty fun.

[Adam Alexander]

He has no ego. Like, he wants everyone in the booth to be the star, and he wants to elevate them, and it's really great to see.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

One of the other things I thought that was really fun was we got to mention every driver in the starting lineup. So if you. I think it's. As I was watching all of those show opens from the early 80s that I'm fond of, I also caught I think it's the 86 Daytona 500 on YouTube. I think it fires off right away with the driver lineup, the starting lineup, and it's a. And Ken Squire would read the starting lineup with this. With this urgency. And he made it sound like each one of these drivers barely made it into this field, Right? Like, this guy. It's incredible. He's in this race, this guy. It's also incredible that he's in this race, you know, and he's just going driver by driver. And he would. He had these great nuggets for each one. He would either this driver from this town, this driver, the 2020 winner of this race, this driver, last year's champion, he had one single nugget that would tell. That would give you something to like, okay, I know this.

[Adam Alexander]

It wouldn't just be a name and be like, okay, this person, an identifiable characteristic. And I remember I watch a lot of old races myself because I have nothing but time on my hands, apparently. And I always noticed that, though a lot of the old coverage, you would get the hometown, and it always worked out, and you're like, okay, so and so driver, or so and so is a champion from this series. It was great. And I loved how you guys did it because, again, it felt like an old school broadcast in a new form.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We each rehearsed it, and then when we did the real thing, me and Steve. So Adam reads his five rows and then tosses it down to pit road for. For a. For a word on a driver down there. And Adam does a great job because we knew he would. And then I did mine, and I was real happy, and I high five Steve, and Steve does his. And he does a real good job. We fist bump, and then Adam reads the final five rows or final rows. And Adam's like, I don't get any high fives or nothing.

[Adam Alexander]

Where's the love?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know. I'm like, dude, you're like the pro. We. We. We're lucky to be here. And it was just a fun moment. And I really. I was so anxious to hear it back to see how it sounded, because it felt pretty. Pretty good. I know that that's such a small, tiny thing in the whole day, but literally, we, you know, I don't know how the other. I'm sure, like, Corey and Carl and everyone else that's kind of a competitor or have a competitor spirit. Like, I look at every little thing that we're going to do, and I want to crush it, right? And. And I'm not gonna. But I Wanna crush everything that we're gonna do, everything I'm gonna be a part of, you know, calling up CBL on the, on the radio. I want to ask the best question I could possibly ask. What is the best question in that moment? And, and I don't want to flub a word or step on a, you know, or stumble or anything, but it was a, it was a lot of fun. The other thing I want to note, there's a couple more things quickly before we get to the actual action of the race. Danielle and Carl and Corey. Danielle is awesome. I'd never worked with her before. Yep, she was, she is, she's doing, she did an awesome job.

[Adam Alexander]

She's phenomenal.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. She had, she had a unique challenge with Corey and Carl being so green and she, so she had a quarterback a little more than, than maybe a typical host in that situation. But Corey was great, Carl was great. They're so unique, different and they're going to be, you know, they're going to, they're going to contrast a bit in ideas and thoughts and opinions and so forth, which is awesome. What you have to have, even debate at times will be nice and you know, so the, the pre race was great. The post race was even better. I got a lot of comments on the post race so good. People are so thankful just to have a post race.

[Adam Alexander]

That was the big thing is, you know, fans have been craving for a post race show, a pre race show to some degree and, but the post race show to bring William Byron over fresh off the stomach punch of finishing second and having him sit there and I thought Carl Edwards interaction with him was really good because Edwards doesn't really know William that well. He's, you know, they didn't really cross paths too much and, and it was like Carl was learning this in real time and you could see that. And William handled it really well. And to actually have that and to pull that out of William was, was really a huge win for the sport.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I had a high, I had a high standard for our pre race show because I always thought the one Marty did when I worked with NBC was awesome. Marty has such great, Marty Snyder has such great energy and knowledge of the sport that I was like, man, that's, that's a great pre race show. He always got me amped up and. But I was really happy with our pre race and our post race was really awesome. And the great thing about the post race, there's a couple, couple things. There's something that we call, there's something that happens Before I tweeted about this, before we come on air with the pre race show, they basically just turn the cameras on and turn the stream on and just capture ambient sounds and video. And so that may. I don't know when that starts. It might be 10, 15, 30 minutes before the actual show is going to begin. But the stream is up and you can click. You can go on Amazon prime and you can click the thumbnail and it puts you in the. It puts you in the racetrack, it puts you wherever. And they're showing you the garage. They got cameras roaming around and they're just showing you what's going on. Right. And it's just. You're just. You're just about, you know, seeing everything's happening. That's cool. Yeah. And I love that because there's no, like, dedicated time. Like, all right, man. The pre race is going to start at 10:30. So I'm going to. I'm going to. I'm going to sit down at 10:25 and then click the thumbnail and wait. Like, you can turn it on and you'll have the ambient sound and noises and video of the track and walk away. Go to your kitchen, get your stuff, and you'll hear when the pre race begins. You'll hear. You know, it's just a. I think it's a real fun, comfortable way to launch the day. And that's the luxury, I think, of streaming. The other luxury of streaming is our post race is fluid. Yeah, it might. If we feel like we've got everything done and everything that we could possibly share in 30 minutes, that's how long. That's when it'll end. If it needs to go longer, it'll go longer. We don't have an out. And if it's an if we're. If we're. If there was just so much going on that we need to be on there for an hour and a half, they will. That's the great thing about the post race.

[Adam Alexander]

And you got beer, too, in the post race show.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We did. We did. That was fun. Of course, you know, the beer guy. One Ross with the bush light. But. So that was fun. And there were some. There was a F bomb or two that dropped during.

[Adam Alexander]

They apologized for it. Like, no, this is streaming. Let that go, man. We need, like, an alternative.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I didn't hear that apology.

[Adam Alexander]

I thought there was. I thought I heard that somewhere.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Adam Alexander]

And it was great.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It didn't happen. We didn't apologize in the booth. I was standing there. I was wondering if Adam was going to do it because they'll. If there's something that the great. The producer might just talk to one person and I won't hear it. They might give Adam a cue or an instruction, and it doesn't come to me. So I was sitting there waiting for Adam and no apology. Okay, all right.

[Adam Alexander]

We like that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And I, I said hell one time. That's a hell of a pass or a hell of a job. I almost said my complete. I almost said son of a at the top of the show. So we were our very first on camera and I was, I was, it was. I was talking about how difficult the race is mentally. And I was about to say, and the son of a. That wins it. But if you want to watch it back. I might have been son of a gun, but it probably would have likely been a son of a.

[Adam Alexander]

That's what we need, though. Fans would love that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, that would not have been good. Top of the show, first show sets the tone. No, no, that's probably a little strong. But the. I'll say like on. I do this podcast and we cuss like sailors on here. And my cussing has ramped up since I was a broadcaster a year and a half ago. And so I need to chill because I'm gonna walk into something almost. I'm gonna step on some. I'll step on my, you know what in that booth if I ain't careful. But just a lot of great, great effort. Can't say enough about how great a team it is. And again, a lot of, a lot of familiar faces, but some new ones as well that are a pleasure to work with and everybody is getting along really good. Hey, it's Dale Jr. Did you know that we've got brand new merch from our star stripes and beers collection available now? We've got tanks, tees, beach towels, and more. Just in time for summer. Check it all [e-mail] this podcast is sponsored by Squarespace. Squarespace is the all in one website platform to help you stand out and succeed online. Whether you're just starting out or growing your business, it has everything you need to create a professional site, manage your brand, and get paid all in one place. We all know in NASCAR how important the paint scheme is and how it looks on the car. And, well, the same thing when you're building a website in. Squarespace has that for you. With their industry leading website templates, designer fonts and color palettes, it's all important. Get paid quickly with branded invoices and streamline your workflow with built in scheduling and email tools. No matter where you start, your website is flexible to what you need. I was talking to a friend the other day, TJ who says building a new website and Squarespace has been perfect for him. You believe that?

[Jordan Bianchi]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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

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[TJ Majors]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The race itself 600 miles lie happened. I was kind of going into the event. My, my, my notes. You know, there's certain drivers that you're paying attention to for sure. But the thing that I was probably the thing that I've noticed with the next gen car, it's something that I believe is developing into a storyline and it's because of this car and how similar it is for everyone. It's the organizational performance. Now, you know, we've talked about organizations for decades and that's not new. But we, we had, we kind of had like the big three in driver form and now we have it in organizational form.

[Adam Alexander]

I'd say big three or four, depending on how you feel about 2311.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right. Well, I don't feel that awesome about them now. Right. This min in it. But yeah, you could. I think there, if there's a big three and there's a like a fourth, it's either 2311 or track. It's somebody different every week.

[Adam Alexander]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But basically Penske, Hendrick and Joe Giz racing. I, I am seeing sort of this, the storyline develop of. All right, which one's the one with the strength and that. That. Why does that. Why do I care about that? Well, that's. I'm trying to learn during this entire process, as anyone should, who's going to win this championship. And so we're looking for any kind of a clue. Right. And that's. There's a clue in that. And so going into this race last year, the Penske cars struggled. The best Fords I thought were RFK Fords in last year's race and maybe even the last two years at Charlotte. And man and the 12 car of Blaney actually tested the tire. They had a new left side tire for Charlotte and he was one of the three cars that tested. I was floored at how they all struggled.

[Adam Alexander]

They didn't have speed.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Adam Alexander]

And I throw Josh Berry in there too. Depending on how you feel about the Wood brothers.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I throw Josh Berry in the Penske.

[Adam Alexander]

Before Penske forged did not have much speed and I thought Steve Latard had a really interesting push point in the booth. And I don't know how much credence there is to this. I have to check into this. But he said what was going on with Indy with the Penske cars and there was an organizational meeting and everything that maybe Penske on the cup side dialed it back a little bit just because, hey, like, we just.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We can't.

[Adam Alexander]

We. Yeah. We just can't be towing the line this week.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You can't even have a failure by mistake. You know, it is so common to have cars fail once or twice as they go through that tech. And we. We. We. You know, we don't even bat an eye at it, really, because we know the teams are trying to push the limits on everything, and they just. Teams are going to, you know, go beyond those limits. There's nothing like, Grossly. Yeah.

[Adam Alexander]

Nothing egregious.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes. And, man, they could. They knew that they couldn't even have that happen.

[TJ Majors]

And remember, Lugana has already been popped once this year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Well, I just, you know, the. They. They had to get in and out of there with zero noise. So there's some of. I agree that there's some of that, but I've Talking to some of the drivers, you know, they took what they learned from the Test when the 12 car was there working on the tire, which is, you know, they're there trying to fix the Goodyear tire and not really testing for themselves, but the data that they gained, they got aggressive in terms of travel and different things. And when they got to the racetrack, unloaded, and went out and practiced, they weren't where they thought they would be in travel. And they hit the racetrack, and now they're scrambling to get their cars to where they'll just get off the track and try to fix the balance a little bit. So when they went into qualifying, they were still scrambling a bit in terms of, all right, we got the platform, right. Do we got the car? You know, heights exactly how they need to be. How's the balance? They're still working. And as the race starts, they were still behind and adjusting now. Blaney had worked his way kind of mid pack. He was kind of coming out from the bottom. Yeah.

[Adam Alexander]

As the race evolved, kind of went from day to night. He seemed like he was getting better.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right as he got crashed out. You know, I thought he was making a run to maybe find him away, find himself into the top 15 by the end of the day. Josh Berry, who was horrid at the start of the race, ends up getting a top 15 finish, grinding it out, and they got his car where he was reasonable at the end. But I was really, really surprised again, like, and it's not like this. I don't think it's like a. A season or A summer long thing. It's just Charlotte for some reason. Penske and Charlotte just, they just haven't been able to get it the last couple of trips.

[Adam Alexander]

No, I mean, you look at this year and mile and half racetracks, Penske's been so good. Blaney's been fast everywhere. Josh Berry one at Vegas, Laguna, one at Kansas. Ryan Blaney won at Charlotte two, three years ago at the 600. But other than that, this has not been their best track.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, RFK was much faster, much more consistent throughout the night. All of their cars were good. I thought when the race, before the race started, I thought Keselowski had a really good shot at a great run. He made that as difficult as he possibly could throughout the night.

[Adam Alexander]

That's been the story of his year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. But at the end of the day, he ends up with the result he's looking for. Particularly because just a few races to go before we decide the 32 drivers that will be in the in season bracket and they may downplay that. I wouldn't let in your talking to the drivers all the time. I would not let them get away with it. No, they're, they're full of. If they don't think that they want to accidentally win a million dollars, they're.

[Adam Alexander]

Thinking about it because a lot of the drivers have already said, oh no.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Really, it's not changing or well, it won't change. It might not change exactly how they strategize to win races or approach the races, but they are thinking about it.

[Adam Alexander]

It's going to change how they race people, though.

[TJ Majors]

I know Denny is, he asked if when they start worrying, doing the seating because he was worried about his bad performances lately, if that was going to affect his seat. The drivers are thinking.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They are, they're lying if they're saying otherwise because every one of them would love to pocket that money. And so. And it's like the easiest $1 million to win of the, you know, of anything else in the season. It won't be easy to accomplish it. But honestly, man, you could just really get lucky on the seating. You could have some guys just really have some really nice rounds to find their way into those final few few races to. And somebody has a failure or mistake or just a terrible race, you might have a really kind of a, for lack of a better word, a fluke winner of this whole thing. That would be fantastic.

[TJ Majors]

So Nashville doesn't count and then the next three races, what they use to seed it, Right?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Correct. But he needs to be in the 30 top 32 in points. He came in. Brad Keselowski came into Charlotte 33rd. So I mean, there's some, some real risk that he might, might not make it. But if he performs like he did this past weekend, he should be in good shape.

[Adam Alexander]

It's gonna be interesting to see how this plays out too, because if you look at the tournament tracks, you've got starts at Atlanta, drafting track.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Adam Alexander]

Chicago, in that mix.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like it's a lot of, like it's.

[Adam Alexander]

Not going to be easy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not.

[Adam Alexander]

You talk about upsets and I don't think, I think, I don't want to say this is an upset, but AJ Elmendinger is a guy we don't talk about a lot. He could make some noise in this thing and be a guy who wins this thing. And for a driver and team like that million dollars goes a long way.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's a great way to segue to colleague because they were awful last year. They've made a massive gain in times in terms of speed. It's, it's, it's actually maybe one if not the most impressive story in terms of a team improving over last year. They. AJ was up front all night, strong all night, really good in practice. You see those practice times for AJ and he was in, he was second in 5, 10 and 15 lap averages and you're like, is that real? You know, is that real? Is, will he, will he run good in this race? Because sometimes you'll have people that'll do those things in practice and you're like, that's a fast car. I mean, it's right there second and all those second 15 lap averages. I'd be pretty damn happy if I was that driver. But the race starts and they just drop to the back over the course of the race. But he, he stayed up in the top 10 and raced even in the top five at times and had a really, really solid night. To your point, if he comes out of, you know, in that, in that bracket, if he gets, if he survives Atlanta, he's got a great shot there at Sonoma to keep alive. And the speed they're having at these other racetracks, you know, they're really good.

[Adam Alexander]

A mile and a half racetracks, AJ particular people kind of have this preconceived notion about AJ's road course ringer. You only good at certain number track. AJ is an all around driver. People don't realize how good of a driver he is in cup because I don't think he's been with a big team in a long time. But on the cup side, he elevates colleague to a higher level. He did it two years ago. He had him on the cusp of the playoffs. He's doing it again this year. It's consistency, it's professionalism. They'd made some behind the scenes changes and they found some speed. AJ is a driver who will get the most out of his car.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Adam Alexander]

And the thing that keep with AJ is you have to keep him focused and not sure that, you know, he gets too excited or it gets really down on himself really easily. You have to keep him up and if you can do that, he's going to deliver results and that's what he's doing this year.

[TJ Majors]

He's currently 13 points out of the playoffs.

[Adam Alexander]

It's incredible. That's for that team and organization. That is incredible.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, that's very doable too to climb there. I know 13 points is actually a lot coming into Charlotte. No driver had ever overcome more than a 20, 20 point deficit to point their way into the playoffs. Right. So I would have never thought that was a big deal. 20 points. Only twice had drivers climb their way back into the point, into the playoffs. 20 points out going into Charlotte. That's wild because there's. Feels like there's a ton of racing left.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, Right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But that's how competitive even racing around that bubble is.

[Adam Alexander]

Just real quick on AJ Real quick. And I think it's important to note as we talk about his playoff chances, there's four road courses left in the regular season. He's going to have an opportunity not to just get points, but he is going to have a chance to get away. And that point big thing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Some other drivers had really good nights throughout the, throughout the race. Noah Gragson ran up front with Front Row Motorsports and John Hunter Nimichek was pretty impressive.

[Adam Alexander]

He's had a good year. He's another driver too. I would throw Ricky Stenhouse Jr. In this mix of guys we don't talk about regularly, but they're just grinding out good finishes. John Hert, Nemechek issues last year was qualifying. They did not qualify well. They're qualifying much better this year and they're putting themselves in position on race day where they don't have to dig out of a hole.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I would compare, I would, I would say similar to colleague. Legacy Motor Club has made a massive gain and I think that gain has happened throughout this season. Not so much during, over the off season. Jimmy Johnson now the majority owner of that team. We saw a ton of interesting hires over there. Over the last six months, Jimmy's retooling that whole organization. And, you know, you. You don't know whether some of those re. Some of those hires were retreads, people that had been in other organizations and, you know, had success. But, you know, why aren't. If they're not at this other organization anymore, why would you want to put them here? But he's made it work, and it's really impressive because Jimmy is spread thin as a. As a human right.

[Adam Alexander]

And he's globetrotting the world, apparently.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, he is. He's all over the place, but he's. He's plugged in enough to understand to put the right people in the right places to be able to succeed and get each department going in the. In the right direction. And it's starting to show up on the racetrack. It's fascinating. Incredible job. I would have bet against it. I would have. And you know, it's. It's for them to go and run as well as they did this past weekend. Jimmy had a great qualifying effort, struggled in the race. He finds himself in. In bad situations because he doesn't really understand, you know, he doesn't drive the car enough. He just doesn't.

[Adam Alexander]

Life experience.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. I know it's crazy to say that, but this next gen car and the way the air works and how it goes under the car and how you, you know, you can't be. Drivers know as they're going through the corner, all right, I got to do this or that and other to avoid the bad air situation I could find myself in on exit. They know, they know that because they've done that enough and he's not, you know, and so he'll find himself in some situations. And he said it flat out. He's like, yep, I put myself in a bad spot. He ended up busting his ass. Not that anybody else didn't bust their ass. All night long. There was some cars just really out of shape and getting into the wall. But anyhow, Nemechek's run was solid. They didn't finish the night like they wanted to, but Travis Mack has John Hunter and those guys hauling. Even Eric Jones had a pretty competitive night. As his teammate, I mentioned Gragson, Josevar, Josevar. I don't know if he had enough to win the race. Maybe he was getting stronger as the night was going, as was Chastain and Denny as well. I always felt like you got to lose a few before you win one.

[Adam Alexander]

That's where I'm at with this team, they've had a lot of speed, they have performance but they do not have his results. They have a hard time putting race together. From green flag to checkered flag. Go back to Bristol this year host Var was really fast. I think they had an issue on pit road, lost track position. It was a struggle to come up even. I would even extend this to like Michael McDowell for example. Like they've been at that Spire Motorsports has had fast race cars this year. They just have not been able to lock in and put together a whole race. It's coming. And host of our specifically yeah, he's lost a few but it feel like he's going to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He.

[Adam Alexander]

He could pop off a win here and I don't think anybody would be shocked.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, not at all. He has something special. There's race, there's good race car drivers, there's great race car drivers. Then there's drivers who have some supernatural knack for just being fast. There's a, there's some guys out there that have this raw speed that most can't compete with. He has to get the rest of it kind of tied together. His attitude, personality is a bit, is energetic. It's kind of all over the place. And once he hones that in right the the field better look out because his ability to really just be quick and run fast is very rare. There's not many people in the sport and there's. There's honestly feel like that he could, he could really, really shine over the next several years when he puts it all together.

[TJ Majors]

Hey tj. I've been having issues with my current cell phone. Do you know any good providers that I could look into?

[Jordan Bianchi]

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[TJ Majors]

That's awesome man. But how's the phone at the track? Because I know a lot of times fans are going to the racetrack and they really don't have great service.

[Jordan Bianchi]

You know obviously I go to the racetrack every week and with the number six RFK team and the consumer network has been awesome. I am really surprised. It's been awesome. No complaints man. I'm really glad I made the switch.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I.

[Jordan Bianchi]

It just could not have been easier. Super happy I made that switch.

[TJ Majors]

So I have one simple question. How can I get this?

[Jordan Bianchi]

Yeah. Well, so if you want to switch consumer cellular, it's super easy, man. It's 100 US based customer service and only took about 20 minutes. I also chose the 2 for 60 plan and there's no long term contracts. Switch to Consumer Cellular now and get 25 off with code DJD25. That's DJD25 for 25 off. When you switch consumer cellular, go to consumer cellular.com DJD and use promo code DJD25. New customers get a five dollar credit on their first five monthly invoices. Visit consumercellular.com DJD for details.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Larson struggled in the, you know, return from Indy. Indy was tough. Yeah, I just, I talked about this a little bit on social media and on the post race show, too. I do not. I mean, we would all probably be impressed if we got a physical shot of his calendar of May. If you could put his calendar on a sheet of paper or on a tablet in front of you and look at it, I bet you wouldn't believe this kid had to do. And the responsibilities. Traveling back and forth, meet and greets, photo shoots, more photo shoots, media requests.

[Adam Alexander]

Qualify. I mean, there's so many practice sessions. He actually is back up in Indianapolis yesterday because they had the award ceremony. I know it wasn't like, it ended Sunday night.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I can't believe he went, yeah. Like, I would have been like, man, I'm tired. I'm tired.

[Adam Alexander]

Can I zoom in?

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I'm going to bed.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm done. I'm done. Y' all. Y' all have it. But he went up there and got on stage and spoke in front of all those people. I felt all the way up until the start of the Indy 500, there was a. There was a positive vibe around it. Like, man, all right, it's gonna be cool doing the double. We got a guy to watch that's gonna do the double. And he goes out there and he struggled and had a bad run at Indy. And there was some pop shots, you know, in terms of public opinion about it. Even McLaughlin, or did you see his social media post? You didn't.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, Scott. You're talking about Scott, about the best driver.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, yeah. Like, there's some, you know, it's a banter back and forth, even amongst drivers. Right. And so. And then he comes to, you know, Larson comes to Charlotte and, And hit the wall, and his day spiraled from there. But. And so there's this interesting sort of conversation in social media around like, you know, damn, you know, there's people that want to see him do it again. Obviously, there's people that are big Larson fans that, hey, you have bad days. Then there's the other side that are like, well, I guess he's not as.

[TJ Majors]

He'S not Max Verstappen.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not as good as you say?

[Adam Alexander]

Well, Max Verstappen doesn't also put himself in situations, in unfamiliar situations that would make him uncomfortable. And that's the difference between those two drivers.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I will say this. I admire Larson's ability. I admire Larson and anyone who's willing to be humbled. And it takes more balls to be humbled than it does to get in something comfortable and fast. Like, it doesn't impress me for a guy to get in something that he's familiar with and go out and kick everybody's ass. That doesn't impress me as much as seeing someone get in something they don't know well. And even if they fail. So think about, like, Chase Elliott or the multiple drivers that have went and ran the Chili bowl, that have never ran much dirt at all in their lives. They're going to one of the toughest races of the calendar year, and they know they're going to get their ass kicked, and they go do it anyways. Even another, you know, William Byron or Chase Elliot, maybe not William, because he. Because he kicks ass every time he does it. But, like, when those guys step down into a super late model and go race a snowball, right, they're racing against the best in the country, and they know that it's going to be a tough task to be competitive. And sometimes, most times, they're not right. And so I'm more impressed by that than anything else. I'm still impressed by the guy that kicks ass and something he's good at. But to know, like. And it all. It's just we. I think we expected Larson to do better at Indy, but you could see the signs that it was a struggle this year.

[TJ Majors]

And, I mean, a lot of people struggled out there, too. Like, the best in the world and weird week, and he owned it. He didn't shy away from the media afterwards. Like, yeah, it's a hard race.

[Adam Alexander]

I mean, he almost made it too easy last year. He made it look too easy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Think about Kurt Busch too many years ago, what, 12 years ago, goes up there and runs six. I don't think we really appreciated. No, just what Kurt had done. We're like, it was just. He made it look too easy.

[Adam Alexander]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, and now we all think, well, yeah, our cup guys should jump in those cars and run top five, Right? Yeah.

[Adam Alexander]

It ain't that easy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It ain't that easy.

[Adam Alexander]

No. It requires a lot. And people don't realize what Kyle Larson's program behind the Scenes was. It was testing him. He went to Texas, you know, he's. I think it was Phoenix was on that list. There's a lot of sim. It's not just hopping in the race car and going. And to your point, the one thing I think needs to be said about Kyle Larson again and again is he's not afraid to fail.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Adam Alexander]

Like he is. He is not afraid to hop in something and look bad.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Adam Alexander]

And there's a lot of.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's my, that's my favorite thing about it right there is that, yeah, I love somebody who's not afraid to fail and that I'm an underdog lover. Because underdogs aren't afraid to fail. Right. And they're the tradition. The expectation almost is that they will fail. Right. And when they succeed, we're. We're enamored with that. And so rarely do we get to see someone that we know is great put themselves in that situation. Right.

[Adam Alexander]

It's a vulnerability.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[Adam Alexander]

And he is okay with that. You know, he goes to Indy thrux 3 times, goes to the 600 and.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Has a. I don't want him to do it again, though. Do you?

[Adam Alexander]

I don't see the point. Yeah, I guess I, at this point, like, it can be done. We know the double can be done. We've seen the double. Like, to me, the novelty is gone. And if you look at. I'm a big.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Why is the novelty gone? I don't think the novelty's gone. I just think logistically it is.

[TJ Majors]

If he does it again next year.

[Adam Alexander]

He'S done it twice.

[TJ Majors]

I think you need a little.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, no, no. He hasn't done it.

[TJ Majors]

Well, he attempted it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He attempted it. He didn't do it. Like, to me. And I'm sure he feels exactly the same way. He hasn't done the double. Sure he hasn't. He's not going to be satisfied until he can get to the finish line with great results in both races. And I'm sure that he feels like that he didn't even get close to accomplishing. You know, he fell far short. And so there's, there's probably something in there. His competitiveness is probably saying, I'm not satisfied, I'm going to do it again. But the pure logistics of it, it has gotten. It's really hard to tech. To physically do it.

[TJ Majors]

They said like 45 minute buffer is what he had.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Like, but that, that, that's not. That's just one.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Part of the logistical nightmare.

[Adam Alexander]

It's hard. It's hard.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The Whole month is a pain in the ass between both Indy and nascar. He's still racing in other cup races during that first part of the month. Right. He's still got his real job to do. And the, you know, he, and he has to answer to the questions which is more important, what matters more? What happens if this, what happens if that? And it's like, man, it's just not worth it. And the, the, the, the cool factor of the do of, of the double is there for me. I still think it's a cool thing that if you want to give it a shot, give it a shot. But he. In my mind, I don't, I don't. In my mind as from a fan standpoint, I won't be that excited about an announcement for him to do it again. I'll be more as a fan, like, come on, man, just let's, let's go win the 600. Does he win the 600 if you don't with that Indy 500?

[Adam Alexander]

No, I don't. I don't think.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think he does what he had.

[Adam Alexander]

You think what happened in Indianapolis carried over to Charlotte? I don't see it that way. I felt like, why.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I felt like dude got there and was smoked mentally. Yeah, listen, he's. His average finish in the four mile and a half leading into Charlotte was 3.75. The next best drivers at 10. And that's Logano at 10. He's so far clear of the field at the mile and a half. This is the home track two miles away for Hendrick. He was absolutely flying in in that car. And I think the, you know, if he's not at Indy, right. He busted his ass at the top of three and four of the bumps. If he's not at Indy, I think he's more plugged in, tuned in, more sharp and self aware of all of the things he needs to be careful of and avoid to be able to win a 600 mile race at Charlotte.

[Adam Alexander]

I look at this as one of the great things about Kyle Larson. What makes him so good is he's able to forget about things. He can be in an accident, in a cup car one day, that and the next day, it doesn't matter. To me personally, I don't think what happened at Indianapolis had any effect because he is, he's good at moving past that. And you look at the 600, I.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Don'T think that the record Indy was what bothered him. I just think that the month of work and travel and the grind. Yeah, like he came into Charlotte, he Came into Charlotte with that mental hangover.

[Adam Alexander]

And to me, okay, I saw a race in the 600 from the five team or from Kyle Larson that I've seen before. I saw it at Homestead last year. I've seen it in another race. I saw it at Iowa last year. Our Michigan. He is a driver who runs that line, runs that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And then he's going to bust his.

[Adam Alexander]

Ass every now and then maybe a little bit, you know, and he. That's just who he is. That's what makes him so great. And I think in that moment, you know, he just. He overstepped. And we have seen that before.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Looking at the stats of what he's done this year at the mile and a half, I felt like that if he had no distractions, no Indy 500 stuff going on, he walks into 600 and smokes the field. And I feel like that he didn't give himself that chance. He'll probably tell me, I'm full of that. I was, you know, had no. It had no effect much to your point, Jordan. But I mean, if I'm a Larson fan, which part of me is, I'm sitting there going, damn it, man, that was a. We should have walked in there and won that shit easy. Sure, right? And my guy's car was good enough. He's out front. He's. He's kicking ass. But hey, he wasn't the only one who's snake bit by that corner turn three and four was. So we drove pace car around the racetrack early in Friday morning and turns three and four has always been bumpy. The rumor is, is that. That part of the racetracks over a landfill. And there's, you know, when they. There used to be a giant hole in the infield because they dug out all the dirt to make the banks, especially in three and four. And they just left that hole there in the infield. And they didn't really fill that in until the mid-70s. They filled it in with a contract. There's. There's two different stories. They called. They called a company that was teaching people how to move heavy machinery or something or work heavy machinery, and they allowed them to come in there and play. And they said all you got to do to train your workers on how to drive all this heavy machinery, we. You can do it for free. We just need this place to be flat when you're done. The other rumor is, is that it became used as part of the landfill. So there's a giant hill on the back of turn three, and that's several billions of Metric cubic tons of trash from the surrounding counties. Right. And they've been putting it there for years.

[Adam Alexander]

I had no idea.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Really?

[Adam Alexander]

No.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All of that. That big mountain behind turn, that's just.

[Adam Alexander]

Not a natural hill. That's garbage.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes. It's a landfill.

[Adam Alexander]

No way.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Been there. Been in a landfill forever.

[Adam Alexander]

I didn't know there's landfill back there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And so there's. There. I believe that part of the infield and Charlotte is a landfill. And that's why that land might have been a little bit. It could. 3 and 1 and 2 is really smooth. It rarely gets over the course of like three or four decades, it rarely gets rough and bumpy. Three and four is a complete. Is the complete opposite. You know, they'll pave the track. It's smooth. And then over the next 20 to 30 years, it gets incredibly bumpy because the ground under it is settling. I don't know whether it's because of the rot of the. The landfill in the. In the car in that corner at that end of the track. Maybe there is no landfill there. I know that that's possible, or there's natural springs or something underneath there, because there are some creeks in the area right around the racetrack. But for whatever reason, that corner is constantly settling, right. And creating bad, bad bumps down in turn three and four. So we driving around in a pace car, and all tracks have bumps, right? And so usually the bumps form over tunnels, which there is one going into turn three. But down in the bottom of the corner, there's a few bumps. And you would always. At these tracks that had. Those would move up and the track would be smooth because there's no bumps at the top of the racetrack. But it's Charlotte actually worse. So off into turn three, right against the wall, there's a lot of bumps, and it's like running over a series of train tracks. It's like. And the car chatters and bounces the rear tires or the fronts out from under the car. And then you get through the center of the corner and there's a couple swells that are pretty big. And then there's big, sharp hammer bumps in the middle of. Or the exit of turn three and four at the top of the racetrack, where Larson got loose and a couple other cars busted their ass over there as well. So I was. I was blown away. And I hope that Marcus and his team, you know, I don't see any reason why they would need to work on the racetrack at all. I don't. I've not heard they are I'm not saying they are. I'm not saying they shouldn't.

[Adam Alexander]

It's perfect. It is absolutely perfect.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No one has mentioned it, but I would try. So this racetrack, it's so weird. It looks dark. Usually it's. The last time it was paved, I think was 08 or 12 or some. It was a long time ago, but it's. It's not changed in color. Usually tracks fade and bleach out over time, and the asphalt turns to gray and lighter and lighter with each year. Well, this asphalt was actually made with rubber polymers, so there's actual recycled rubber in the mix. And that's why it had. That's why it raced, like, for so long. That's why we moved to the Roval, is because the oval had so much grip. It was rubber on rubber, and they ran right around the bottom, and we did everything we could to figure out how to make them run somewhere else, but they pinned themselves on the bottom of the racetrack, and it sucked. The oval race there was awful. But now the oval is arguably the best oval race. It's the best in the season. All right, so there's been some. There's been some calls for them to move the Roval race back to the oval.

[Adam Alexander]

Absolutely.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Now, one would argue that what we've learned in the last. Probably last decade or so is that tracks don't need two dates. There's a lot of, you know, a lot of racetracks that have scaled back to a single date, and they found success there. They've. They've. They're selling more tickets. And so you, you know, Charlotte may have fear that, well, if we go back to the oval at that, you know, in that back half of the year, one. One or both will suffer a bit in ticket sales because people won't go to both races. They'll pick one and, well, they'll pick the most important one. But I still feel like that the. Much like Daytona with the Daytona 500, the 600 being. The 600 will always be a draw, no matter what they're doing in the back half of the year. So I believe they could go to this oval temporarily even.

[Adam Alexander]

You need to try it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Adam Alexander]

I mean, because, let's just be honest, the role has kind of. The novelty is gone.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm over.

[Adam Alexander]

Everybody's over. And I agree with your point. You have to be worried about diluting the attendance for the 600, which, by the way, was a sellout again, and they've done a great job with that. But the racing is too good to ignore, and at the end of the day, you have to have it more than anything else, more than ticket sales is the on track product. You have to have an entertaining on track product. And the product is much better on the oval than the Roval. That's indisputable. And you look at the fact a playoff race at Charlotte on the oval. Give me that.

[TJ Majors]

This would be the cutoff race too, in the playoffs.

[Adam Alexander]

Well, let's, let's also extend this too really quick. Could also potentially be a championship race because you met. Because we got the rotation coming.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Adam Alexander]

And Charlotte should be in the conversation for that. A championship race at Charlotte on this oval. Which races better than Kansas right now. Yes. Inject that into my veins.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm with you. So I would be. I think that that conversation is going to get louder. I don't know that Marcus can make the move in the calendar year to switch it mid season. Well, I know NASCAR would probably tell him that they don't want to remove a road course from the playoffs.

[Adam Alexander]

I don't want to speak on behalf of nascar.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm just thinking of the things if.

[Adam Alexander]

I'm Steve Phelps or Steve o' Donnell and I'm getting a call from Marcus. Hey, you know, I'm thinking about.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't think Marcus is going to do that.

[Adam Alexander]

I don't think Marcus would either.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think it would have to say. I think what would.

[Adam Alexander]

So NASCAR is going to have to lean on Marcus to make it happen.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Marcus is going to sit idle.

[Adam Alexander]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

On the Roval because he loves it. He's put a lot into the Roval. He's built this thing out. He's like, man, now the rolls great. You know, you got to convince me otherwise. He knows that the, the 600 was amazing and knows the oval is great. In his mind, he's got two great things. Right.

[TJ Majors]

So you need to get NASCAR on a phone call and then call Marcus.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So he needs to listen to podcasts and someone else from NASCAR needs to lean on him a little bit so the right people start talking to him. He goes, oh, okay.

[Adam Alexander]

To quote my favorite movie of all time, they need to make him an offer he can't refuse.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's right.

[Adam Alexander]

So whatever that is, Marcus, you want a championship race. Let's, let's, let's oval.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's not a bad idea. So you think that his to further supplant that idea in the minds that matter. Marcus's. Marcus's route to becoming a championship race might be getting rid of the Roval to show people what a Playoff oval Charlotte race looks like hypothetically and to.

[Adam Alexander]

Travis's point, this is a cutoff. This race this year, if that was an oval and we go there in the fall of our cutoff race, we've got all of this drama and this energy. What is the conversation leaving there going to be? Oh my God. Amazing. Imagine if this was a chance.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Put it in the. Yeah. Put it in the group.

[Adam Alexander]

Yeah. Done. And that. So, yeah, if I Marcus, I'm trying to get a championship race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's the truth.

[Adam Alexander]

I'm gonna wait, I'm gonna wave that carrot out there and be like, hey, imagine a championship race here and imagine all of the people in the industry going to be here for this. We're going to create an energy and excitement. Yeah. That's what I'm doing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If I'm Marcus, you're not going to have that kind of feeling and emotion around the Roval.

[Adam Alexander]

No, no, no. The novelty is gone.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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Sales ending soon. See the details@kubota orangedays.com do we mention the winner?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Ross Chesting. Sure.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, we've talked about, we haven't talked about, I mean for most of the year we've Track house has kind of been an afterthought, right?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They have.

[TJ Majors]

And his performance, I think was solid.

[Adam Alexander]

Well, Chastain, all year his performance has been solid and he hasn't got enough credit for this. And if you look at the stats, what he does on restarts, you look at his average starting position, it's incredible. I mean, his average starting position is 25.0. It is seventh worst among full time drivers this year. Seventh worst. His finish position is fifth best. In an era where we hear so much about track position and how hard it is to pass. Yep, every single week Chastain's figuring it out. He is on top of his game and I kid you not, I know people are going to get on me for this. If you had to make a list of the most valuable driver this year who drive the driver who did the most. Chastain deserves consideration, if not the award.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think the guy's a great race car driver and when you give him the car, he goes out there and he makes, you know, he makes some noise. What they did this weekend was phenomenal. Taking a backup car from the back of the pack and winning from last doesn't happen, hasn't happened in decades. And his, his excitement and pure emotion around any success he has is fun and infectious. It's what you want to see out of your winners when they get out of the car. And so all of those things are great. I think the one thing is, is like, I guess if there is one thing about his situation or him or what, I just need to see it a little more frequently. And that's not a Ross thing as much as I think it might be a track house thing. It's fast. This car is so fascinating because typically in all of the years that I've watched the cup series, when a team struggles, they struggle. They don't show up on weekend and win and then go back to struggling. But with this race car, you don't know, we might get one weekend where, you know, the idea of Jose Var winning a race is real. You know, the idea of even John Hunter Nemechek finding his way to victory lane is somehow become real. AJ Allmendinger and I think that that would be possible for any of those teams this year. And then the track house is the best example of that. They'll go in my mind, you know, they'll go half a dozen races where they're just not in the conversation. They're just another, you know, team out there grinding it out in the middle of the pack and then show up and be the best car and win and then idly go back to where they were for the next six weeks. And that to me is more a next gen thing. It's a bit of an organizational thing and it, and it's a detriment, I think, to Ross a bit because I feel like that he is an all around full package type of driver that, you know, he can win anywhere.

[Adam Alexander]

He's one on a road course, he's one on a short oval, he's one of intermediate track, he's one on a super speedway. He's a good driver. He's a great driver everywhere. And Trackhouse just has not had a lot of speed in the race cars this year. That is a fact. You look at Daniel Suarez, 30th in the standings, that tells you organizationally kind of where they're at to some degree. Track house, if they can give Ross good, consistent equipment, he's going to go and do Ross things.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Adam Alexander]

And I think it needs to be said too is he is not making mistakes on the racetrack for so long. The conversation about Ross was he crashes too much, he runs well, he's too impatient Those kind of things. We're not saying that anymore.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Now.

[Adam Alexander]

This is a guy who gets better at the end of races.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. He certainly has improved on his racecraft and. But I still love his style, man. And we need him. Like, it's good when he runs good because he pushes. He pushes things around. He ruffles some feathers. He might, you know, he's tough to pass and he doesn't give a damn. He doesn't.

[Adam Alexander]

He doesn't. It's good. And he's got a personality. And it's great to see a driver win the 600 and recognize, like, how it's a major. And sometimes I don't. I feel like that sometimes gets lost a little bit. He was like. The first thing over the radio is like, we won the 600. As he's sitting there screaming.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Kept saying, World 600. World 600. I love that I told him that. I was like, man, I wish they would go back to calling it that. Like the Coca Cola. The Coca Cola World 600.

[TJ Majors]

I think you had a good. Yeah. How you could phrase it to get both in there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know. I've tried to tell Marcus. I don't know why they won't just do it. Because the World 600 makes it feel like it. The World 600 sounds like it felt.

[Adam Alexander]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right.

[Adam Alexander]

We kept the Southern 500. I mean, they have a sponsors and stuff for the Southern 500. There's a way to keep these names that mean something in the title. Brickyard 400 is another one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Coca Cola presents.

[Adam Alexander]

Absolutely.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They did call it. There was. Somebody reminded me on social media. They did call it the Coca Cola World 600 there for a little, like, chunk of time. That's fine. Just get the world back in there because that's important.

[TJ Majors]

Simple request from Dale.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Want to move on to the. The xfinity race. Let's do it. Yeah. So a little disappointing the. The leaders in a tough spot at the end of the race. That's what Justin Algar said as he decided not to come to pit road and take tires at the end of the race on a lake yellow. And he stayed out and a lot of guys came down pit road and got got, you know, got tires, and that's what ended up winning the race. You know, Justin, I think, is a veteran and a champion now. Has earned that opportunity to make those type of decisions. You don't. You know, every decision you make is always not going to be the right one or the correct one. He took a gamble. I'm fine with him doing that. If we don't get, you know, a couple of those yellows late, maybe he pulls it off. But William Byron was able to take the tire advantage and a fast race car and get to, you know, get the win. I was just thankful that our guys crossed the finish line and didn't, you know, didn't self destruct on those last couple of corners because of, you know, how difficult it was to see somebody go by.

[TJ Majors]

Did you ever call an audible with your crew chief when.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, I don't think so.

[TJ Majors]

See, that's what I'm kind of shocked by is that, you know, Denny said he doesn't remember. Like, feels like this is something that doesn't happen.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It doesn't happen often. And I'm sure Jim will. Maybe Jim will tell him, don't ever do it again. I don't know.

[Adam Alexander]

You know, this is your one and done.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, yeah. Next time, you know, from here on out, let me handle it. You know, I think again, like, Justin's earned the right to. Justin's earned the right to do that. But, yeah, there needs. There might need to be a. There will be a conversation. I don't have to guess that him and Jim will talk about. All right, you know, what do we do going forward? Sammy Smith's car was disqualified. That failed to meet the minimum weight requirement, and he had a solid run. Carson Koppel was running, headed toward the top five. Busted his ass and cost himself a ton of points there. So that was unfortunate, but. And Zillich with the broke back. Yeah, come back and ran good.

[Adam Alexander]

Yeah, ran good. Really in the mix there at the end, and good race for him. And this is what you want to see from him on the ovals is we've seen spurts this year where he's not so much his fault, but he just has good runs and then gets caught up in something outside of his own doing. This was a race, though, where he was in the mix at the end, battling for the lead, and that's what you want to see out of him as he continues to progress.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I always want to go into Charlotte and try to get the win. Man, we came close. But, yeah, going to Nashville. Nashville has been a great track for junior merch sports, especially Justin. Maybe they can rebound and get a win. Also be interested to see going back to trackhouse how they do because that's kind of their home track. They've had some good runs there.

[Adam Alexander]

Ross has won there before.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He has.

[TJ Majors]

Well, and if they found speed this past week, and at least Ross has similar track and he replicate the performance.

[Adam Alexander]

They got to qualify better. Yeah, they have to qualify. That was the thing with the crash for him was it looked like they had speed off the truck, which is not something they had. If they can go there and qualify and he doesn't have to do Yeoman's work in the race. Yeah, that will help a lot.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. All right. It's time for this month's selection of our ultimate racing collector, presented by Lionel Racing. The official diecast of nascar. Man, we've had some fun with this over the last couple of months. I've got some pictures here, no video, but Sean Cotton sent in some great pictures. He has. It looks like his. His basement of his house is built out. Nice flooring there. He's got a ton of sheet metal on the wall. I see a nose off of a Jimmy Means owned Xfinity car. And a lot of scoring pylon too. Yeah, the scoring pylon around the post in the middle. And you know, you knew exactly.

[Adam Alexander]

1995 brickyard 400 because your dad is atop the pylon. Rusty Wallace is second and that was the finishing order for that race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So pretty cool. He's got a suit over there with a mannequin and a couple video games. Got it all, man. Pretty impressive. Looks like he's got a projector.

[Adam Alexander]

Dang.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, he's got TVs, projectors, all kinds.

[TJ Majors]

He's got a bumper pull down there.

[Adam Alexander]

Golden tea machine too.

[TJ Majors]

Some foosballs.

[Adam Alexander]

Kind of need a new best friend because I would totally be be friends with this guy.

[TJ Majors]

So anyway, Sundrop hanging there too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I see that. The struck race poster on the wall.

[Adam Alexander]

That's nice.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Got his diecast collection hanging around. So, Sean Cotton, man, your deserving winner of this month's ultimate racing collector. Thank you, Lionel Racing. They are your go to source for all your racing diecast needs. Check out their latest pre orders@lionel racing.com. i already have the. The new Bud baseball car for the late models, late model stock. I have the. I have the. The sample of that one. Yeah. So they make the diecast. Collectors will. Will know what I'm talking about. But the prototypes, they'll make one or two prototypes. And they had a sticker on them on the windshield that's kind of the signifier of the prototype. And those are pretty valuable because those come to us or to the race teams for approval. And so they've been here in the shop. And if you got a prototype out there that's been in the hands of the team owner or the crew chief or driver and all the people in the. In the shop going through there to approve it. It's pretty neat. That's pretty cool. Yeah. So. All right, let's move on to Xfinity Ass Junior. I know a lot of y' all are talking about the Earnhardt documentary and appreciate all the kind words about that, and I'm glad you're enjoying it. The next two or final two episodes come out Thursday and buckle up for that one. They're gonna be. They're pretty strong. We obviously know what. What. What might. What might be the context of those two episodes, and they're pretty tough to watch, but I'm glad everybody's enjoyed the first two, and I feel like that I'm feeling pretty comfortable and happy about the response to it and certainly want to tell dad's story, but don't. But to continue to celebrate who he was and his impact on the sport, and I think this does a good job. Anyhow, we got Ask Junior presented by Xfinity NASCAR fans. You know booming speeds when you see it, and Xfinity WI Fi, well, it's booming as well. It's like the roar of a NASCAR engine on race day. Fast as a V8 engine, reliable as an elite pit crew. It gives you the power and speed of NASCAR right in your home. Choose the right plan for you, and you're off to the races. It's the best streaming experience for NASCAR and all your favorite sports. Xfinity WI Fi is booming, and they'll raise the bar, and the stream goes into overdrive. Xfinity is a proud premier partner of nascar. They've been a great partner here for us at the Dell Jr. Download. They do some good things in this sport, and we're very thankful for them that they want to spend their marketing dollars with nascar, and we should all support that. So. And it's a good product. Anyhow, we got. We're up to almost 500 people in here.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. Andrew's with us. Andrew, you got some questions.

[Travis]

Which There are a bunch of different directions. We can take this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I want to go in the good one.

[Travis]

Okay. This is from Lisa. What the hell, Dale? Why didn't you cheers, everyone on the Amazon prime set after the race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Why didn't I cheers.

[Travis]

You didn't cheers, everyone.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I did. Did you not see the video? I did. I cheered.

[Travis]

Oh, everybody.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm not doing that. What?

[Adam Alexander]

There's beer to drink. I don't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What?

[Travis]

It's a group thing. Did you just not see it or you purposely. You're like, screw it. I'm just drinking.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I. Cheers. The winner. He gave me the beer. I don't know. I mean, you know, it's all right. The one that won the race got. Cheers.

[Adam Alexander]

I respect the fact that you were the only guy on there who really seemed interested maybe besides Ross, in drinking the beer.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I don't know. I. I was. It was. It was fun drinking a beer on the post race show.

[Adam Alexander]

Maybe this should be a thing. Every post race show, you have a beer toast with the winner.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I. We do it here at Junior motor sports.

[Adam Alexander]

That's what I'm saying. So incorporate into the broadcast.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I mean, it's part of what we. We've done for years, so it's not that foreign or unique to me because we've been doing it here at Junior motorsports after every win and we win a lot of races. You're welcome. Prime.

[Travis]

To your point there, Xfinity racing actually sent us a tweet and said, can we get you to drink a margarita post Mexico?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[Travis]

All right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, I'm going to have one off camera if you want to just. All you're going to have to do is like, turn the camera. I'll be drinking one. I'll you tell. Promise you. I don't think we get to leave till Monday. So I'm a couple margaritas after that one. You know what? I'm not even the post show. That's Corey, that's Carl, that's Danielle. And I just happened to be plugged in. I felt like I was a guest as much as the winner of the race was in that moment. So it wasn't a big deal for me because I wasn't. I wasn't on like, they were. They were. That's their. That's their house. That's their house. Right? Because we're sitting there between segments, and the guy, the director's like. He's in his. He's listening. He's got his headphones on. He's like, is Dale part of the next segment? Steve's not. Okay, Steve, you're out. You're in. You're in. Stay there, Dale. But Dell. Scooter. Scooter. Justin. Justin's coming. Justin's here. Winner. Next segment. Dale. Dale, you're out. I mean, that's how it goes. You're just like, all right, man. See y' all later. I'm done.

[Adam Alexander]

Just do what you're told.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, no, no. Dale, you're still in. Okay, okay, okay. We're still here.

[Travis]

This next question is from John Nevilles on Twitter, and he wants to know, do you agree or disagree that A1 steak sauce is for people who can't grill a proper steak?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We have talked about this. I feel like you're asking this question like you've. We've never had this conversation on this show.

[Travis]

Oh, well, he, he, he. But, well, Jordan, what do you think?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, no, no.

[Adam Alexander]

I'm a stakeout. Okay?

[TJ Majors]

I've known this question, and I haven't even. On the show last year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Andrew.

[Travis]

All right.

[Adam Alexander]

Did you not do your job this week?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Huh?

[Adam Alexander]

Did you not do your job this week?

[Travis]

What do you mean?

[Adam Alexander]

You're supposed to, like, come up with good questions, and apparently you're just recycling.

[Travis]

These are fan questions.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. How dare you. He's just trying to. No, no, no. We're not moving on. I love A one sauce a whole lot, and I put it on every steak. Good ones, bad ones, middle of the road steaks. Even if you. Even if you brought me the best steak in town, I'm going to want to put a one on it. And if that makes me a psycho, I'm a psycho. Are we clear?

[TJ Majors]

Enjoy your. Enjoy your steak however you want.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Are we clear on that? There you go. Yeah, I. I will eat a steak without it, but it's like every time. I'll be in the. I don't go the steakhouses that often, but sometimes you go to. There's some. There's some kind of famous ones. Like when you go to Indianapolis. What's the one? St. Elmo's. Right? So you go to Indy. You got to go to St. Elmo's, right? Everybody goes. You got to get the. The. The shrimp. Shrimp cocktail and. Which I do. I love it. I love a shrimp cocktail. It's like, free calories, man. Shrimp don't even have calories. So you get. You could literally. You could eat like a, you know, 500 pounds of shrimp cocktail and not gain a pound.

[Travis]

That, plus beer, and you are.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's the way my mind works. Yeah. I could drink a six pack and a pound of shrimp and not gain any weight. It's weird.

[Adam Alexander]

That's a great diet. Dale's diet plan.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know that's not true. But. But that's what I believe. The. But, you know, I'll go to those places where you have these amazing, you know, supposed to be this best steak they got, you know, And I'm like, it's gonna be good. I'm. I don't even want that house. I don't even want that house sauce. It ain't a one. Don't even bring it. I'm just gonna eat it plain. You ain't got a one. I don't even want the house sauce. I'm smart enough to know that if I'm at the best steakhouse in town or they think they're the best steakhouse in town, you don't ask them for a one. But, like, if you go to, like, the, you know, the western steer or the Quincy's or, you know, you're like, hey, man, bring out a one out. I know you got it back here. I know you have it back. Dude, I get the big jar. You know, they have. You know, they have the different sizes. Boy, I get to get. Big guy.

[Travis]

You're gonna go through all of it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis]

More spend, more you save.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I. I do a lot of probably not. Probably not entirely good, but A1 sauce, Buffalo sauce, and soy sauce. Dude, I learned. I learned a little hat on. So I eat. I eat. I get these meals sent to me. And so there's this. So the meals traditionally will have. Often they'll have green beans in them. And I mean, green beans are. You put a little salt on them, they're okay, but they're kind of like a bland side. Right? Dude, you put a little soy sauce on your green beans. Oh, that's like a Never.

[Travis]

I never would have thought of that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know.

[Adam Alexander]

You cook them, though. Cook them in soy sauce.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's.

[Adam Alexander]

That's the way to do it. With a little bit of seasoning, a little bit of pepper.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Adam Alexander]

Red pepper. That's the way to do it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I. That's. I like your idea, but I also put a little soy on them on the plate, and it's like, now I'm eating these things. Now I'm liking them. Wow.

[Travis]

Yeah, I know. All right, I'm gonna have to go try that. Jordan, are you a good cook?

[Adam Alexander]

I'm a great cook.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, really?

[Adam Alexander]

I will cook. I cook the best Italian food and seafood around.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There he goes. He just. He didn't even.

[Adam Alexander]

Italians.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hey, speaking of food, look here what I got. Jerky, boys. It's jerky. No, man, it is good. It is very good. Well, honestly, I'm holding a bag of the best beef jerky made in the entire world, likely in the universe. We don't really have knowledge of that, but it's possible I would put it up against any alien jerky. It is the best. So y' all know I gotta say this real quick. So y' all know that I partnered with Blake Cook about Filter Time, right. Our subscription air filter business for your home. And we've got a lot of customers probably in this chat that are Filter Time subscribers. And I met Blake's brother. Blake's brother's been making this jerky for about two years, and it's small batch, and he's a very small company, and he lives in Nashville and makes it. Nashville. And it's their grandfather's recipe. And I've been trying it, and it's the best jerky I've ever had. It really is. And so we started selling it in the gift shop here at Junior Motorsports right over here. And just trying to help him get his business going. And it's so good. And me and I was like, blake, I kind of want to invest like we did with Filter Time together. And so me and Blake came together and offered to buy a big chunk of the business to be partners with Blake's brother Christian. So jerky boys, I am an investor in this business. I love it. I eat it. I got six bags here down beside my six. Six bags I'm gonna take home. Holy moly. And I get them out of my store, our store right here, almost a couple times a week. But I'll open this bag. It's 60 calories per serving. There's three servings per bag. So 180 calories in a bag. And ma' am, Dude, I'll open this thing up and have it for lunch sometimes. Check it out, man. I think we're going to do some. I think we're going to kick some ass with this. I really do. Because I think it's that good. And so that's why I bought in.

[Travis]

Hell, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis]

Let's see. Got time for a few more questions? This is coming from Troy. You know, Ross has seen as the watermelon smash. Stuart has, like the fence climb. Edwards has the backflip. What's in your opinion, the best celebration out there in nascar?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I mean, the straightaway long burnouts are cool. Oh, yeah. I do appreciate a no burnout. I like a good burnout. Also like a no burnout. You know, I can. I like the flat. I like the variety.

[TJ Majors]

What was the pressure like to do a burnout and make it's a good one when you won None. None.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're happy. You don't give a shit. You're like, I'm there. You're doing the burnout. Like, I'm going to get judged on this one. You're doing the burnout. Like, you know how when you get Pissed off. You got to go outside and scream or yell. That's the burnout.

[TJ Majors]

Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Your burnt. Your burnt. The burnout is you. You know, it's letting all this happiness out. And so now there's some guys that get creative with it. Steering wheel out. I know they're trying to. They're posturing. They're trying to, you know, do something cool and fun. And I like that. I want. I like a variety.

[TJ Majors]

I like when they get out through the. The roof hood instead of out. I don't know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, because that makes me. That gets me in my conspiracy theories where I think that they got some kind of cheat that they're trying to like. Hey, man.

[Travis]

When they stand on the roof of the car.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Nope. He said when they open the hatch.

[Travis]

Right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And come out the hatch. That's what we're talking about.

[Travis]

How are they cheating there?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, the hatch could be rigged in a certain way to aerodynamics. Aerodynamically. And if he opens it, then they're. They're. They're as. Car can't take it because it's been opened and it's not sealed and not sealed anymore in its original position.

[Adam Alexander]

It's why drivers for. There was a time and you know this. There was a time when drivers were not allowed to stand on the roof of their cars.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So anytime a driver opens the hatch, I'm going to consider you were cheating. I'm sorry. I mean, every time. Not any. There's no exceptions in my book.

[Travis]

I'm assuming every car that wins is cheating.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Every car that wins is illegal. That is true. But if you open the hatch, that's where extra. That's where it was. That's where the cheat was. Sorry. I mean, it may be. Maybe I might be wrong in many cases, but I'm just going to assume.

[Travis]

Okay, Jordan, what do you think's the best victory celebration out there?

[Adam Alexander]

When Kyle Busch does something aggressive on the track to win a race and he does the bow and it's kind of like a. Kind of middle. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis]

That's a good one.

[Adam Alexander]

But the watermelon smash is pretty cool because the fans get into it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I want to see drivers start mocking each other's celebrations.

[Travis]

Oh, man. Could you imagine, like, if someone raced Kyle Busch real hard and then went out Chase.

[Adam Alexander]

Elliot didn't remember chase Elliott in 2020. They had the kerfuffle at Darlington and Kyle crashed Chase. And then Chase won a truck race and then he did the bow.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah. That's what I like. Who are the drivers that get out of the car and have the most emotion. Like Ross. Yeah. I asked that question because he got out and we saw, like, how much that meant to him. C. Bell.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I mean that. I love drivers that get out and are like, I could not be happier in this moment. And I. You can sense it. It drives me crazy when guys get out and they act so nonchalant about it. Like, it.

[Travis]

Yeah, I agree.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Awesome.

[Adam Alexander]

Briscoe at Darlington last year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Adam Alexander]

Because it meant something. Like, it was one of the Southern 500, and it was a surprise and everything else that carried with it. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

I feel like Reddick's pretty good about celebrating.

[Adam Alexander]

Reddick's good. Blaney's good. Blaney at Martinsville last year was really good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

True. Yeah, I agree. Denny's are pretty good because he's, like.

[Travis]

He's playing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's happy. He will. He's happy. 1. But he also plays the crowd, which is good. I just drives me crazy when they get out and they don't. You want to race. They just don't have anything to deliver.

[Travis]

Even if it's. Even if it's a. Doesn't have to be a crown jewel like the Southern 500. Like, it could be just any race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hard, dude.

[Travis]

Right. Exactly.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis]

Yeah, I agree. We got time for one more question.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I said Gregson. Gregson's a good one yet. Yeah.

[Travis]

Oh, yeah. Throwing up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I don't think that some people are saying Almondinger. What is. He says he screams.

[Adam Alexander]

He screams.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, he screams the same thing over and over and over. Let's go. It's like, over and over. Like, from the minute he crosses. Listen. From the minute AJ Crosses the finish line, he glitches, and he. He just says. He just screams every time, like. Like he's. He's. In his mind, he's like, I wanna. I wanna say something else. And he opens his mouth and let's go. Comes out. So, like, in his head, he's like, all right, guys, good job, but let's go. Keeps coming out over and over again because he's like. He's. He's glitched to reboot. Yeah. Somebody needs to hit control, alt, delete. Control, alt, delete. Bring up the task manager in that service.

[Travis]

Yeah, it's a hard reset.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Shut down. Let's shut down. Let's go. Restart it.

[Adam Alexander]

The thing with AJ Though, and I think with some of these drivers, though, is when you don't do it all the time and when you have the struggles.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know that's why he's his is he's only got one. One. He's got one default thing and it's let's go. And he just keeps saying it until he gets finally to. To home, I guess. He finally drives into his driveway and gets out of his car and it just ends. He just stops saying it. I'm in my head. He's screaming it all the way home. Right. Would you. Yeah. Even.

[Travis]

What'd you think of this?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He finally gets in the house and can can mash that button. Oh gosh. Finally. Finally.

[Travis]

What just happened the last three hours? Doesn't remember it. Okay, last question from Troy. He was at fan day. He saw the buddy car, the baseball car, was very excited. How did it feel to finally reveal that to the fans?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh man. Feel good. Yeah. Pretty impressive looking car. Pretty. I was a pretty car.

[Travis]

I heard Ryan who designed the car came in the studio and counted every single stitch to match the exact match it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I could see him doing that.

[Travis]

Like I love the detail.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I believe that. Yeah. Now it's sometimes man, when you'll put, you'll put a throwback or a you know, throwback on some a different body or a different chassis. It looks kind of funky. So but this one looks really, I'm happy because it looks real good on that body style. But the late model stock's just a sexy, sexy race car. You know, everything's gonna look good on it. But yeah, we're going to Anderson, South Carolina in August to race the cars tour with that. So I'm looking forward to get back behind the wheel having some fun. Never been Anderson before and it's tough little racetrack it looks like. Watch the race on Flow this past Saturday and Kade Brown won a late mall stock race up there. But yeah, looking forward to racing some more. I miss it. Well, we appreciate it everybody. It. It's always fun talking to everybody on on here and and we're thankful we got a thousand folks that hopefully are going to go check out jerkyboys.com but also check out Xfinity WI fi. Thank you Xfinity for bringing us the Ask Junior segment. Be sure to check out our Xfinity WI Fi and experience the booming speeds for yourself. It's fast and as race as NASCAR fans we know fast when we see it. Xfinity WI Fi isn't just fast, it's booming. Choose the right plan for you. You're off to the races. The best streaming experience for NASCAR and all your favorite sports. Xfinity WI Fi. They don't just raise the bar. They put Streaming and overdrive, and they're a proud premier partner of NASCAR and a great friend here with us at DirtyMome Media. So thank you, Xfinity, and we'll see y' all later. Still getting around to that fix on your car. You got this. On ebay, you'll find millions of parts guaranteed to fit. Doesn't matter if it's a major engine repair or your first time swapping your windshield wipers. Ebay has that part you need ready to click perfectly into place for changes big and small, loud or quiet. Find all the parts you need at prices you'll love. Guaranteed to fit every time. But you already know that Ebay things people love. Eligible items only exclusions apply. Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Place your bet. All right, it's time for the Dirty Mode do segment, brought to you by fanduel. We do have the odds for the race this weekend in Nashville, and we have Russell on the phone. We also have Tim's in the booth joining us today, so. All right, let's just go ahead and get after the 600 here. Did anybody have a good night?

[Russ]

I had a solid night. I wouldn't say great.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You make any money?

[Russ]

I made some money.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's a good.

[Russ]

Very minor.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I had Byron. That's a good night.

[Russ]

Or it would have been really, really good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But that's a good night.

[Russ]

But no Fade Larson. That was my goal.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Is that right?

[Russ]

Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I played some baseball bets yesterday, and it came out. I came out ahead. When it's all said and done.

[Russ]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But it was stressful.

[TJ Majors]

Turn a profit.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, it was very stressful. Fun was not had. Even winning a little money. I just was very stressful. Yeah.

[Russ]

You start asking yourself, why am I doing this?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. I. I did. I did something we're not supposed to do.

[Russ]

Oh, no.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I chased the loss.

[Russ]

Oh, no.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But I want it back. I hate that. That is stressful. I hate to admit it. Yeah. I went down and I placed another bet, won back my losses and then some and said, I'm in. I'm gonna leave it alone. But. All right, back to racing. Back to the 600. What did you. What bets did you cash?

[Russ]

I cashed a matchup at Christopher Bell over Kyle Larson. Nice price. Plus 145.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russ]

Yeah. So that was really happy about that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Man. I was not taking that gamble. But you did.

[Russ]

Yeah, I just. I didn't like Larson's. After crashing at Indy, I was like, I think he's going to have a tough night.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Somebody might say that that wouldn't affect Him? Apparently it might have.

[Russ]

I think so.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. You just had a hunch.

[Russ]

You know, I think he was so. The emotions were so high. I mean, at Indy, why not?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, man. No way.

[Adam Alexander]

Excuse me for thinking that he could push.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He forgets everything. He's Jimmy Spencer. No, Jimmy Spencer will never forget. He's the opposite of Jimmy Spencer. Yeah. Come on. He got to Charlotte. Hit the reset button. He was good as new.

[Adam Alexander]

That's what I thought.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There was no hangover. Oh, you thought he was hungover? Yeah.

[Russ]

I wouldn't be that juice to run that race after that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No way, dude.

[Adam Alexander]

I was wrong.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know. You could still be right.

[Adam Alexander]

Look at Kyle. I'll ask Kyle this week.

[TJ Majors]

Well, he's not going to admit.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They were going to admit it.

[TJ Majors]

No athlete is going to admit that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I was mentally drained, tired, and busted my ass. That was my fault. Well, that was the only bet you cashed.

[Russ]

I didn't bet that much. I bet Byron to win in that one, so.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Yeah. Damn. Well, you lost that bet. Yeah. That was very disappointing. He lost in fantastic fashion.

[Russ]

Yeah. Damn it, Danny.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I wouldn't say. I would try to use a different adjective, but that's the one that came to my mind immediately.

[Russ]

It's tough when you leave, what, 280 laps and you don't win.

[Adam Alexander]

Win all three stages.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Russ]

Dominant.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You just like, six laps to go. That money just flew away. Well, you thought, man, maybe he'll rally, didn't you? Because everybody else did when anyone lost the lead. Yeah. They didn't drive away. And you're probably sitting there thinking, oh, come on, he's still got a shot.

[Russ]

Oh, prime. You guys were pissing me off with the overhead camera because I could just see Ross catching him and I'm like, I don't want to see this. And there's too many laps to go. And I'm like, oh, my God. Yeah, that was painful to watch.

[Adam Alexander]

So Ross caught Byron at one point, but then fell back. Did you think then. Okay, I'm.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know what makes me feel good about when I lose?

[Russ]

What?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

To text a buddy. That little. The money emoji with the wings. Did you text somebody that emoji after that?

[Russ]

No, I was at the bar.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You might have felt better.

[Russ]

I was at the bar, just got myself a drink. I'm like, we're doing this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Next time you lose or have a bad beat, text me that emoji.

[Russ]

Okay, I will.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I bet you'll feel better.

[Russ]

I might.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You'll be like, it's Just money flying away. It's just an emoji. Nothing.

[Russ]

I'll do that. This how my night's going.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Russell, did everything that you thought would happen at the 600 happen? Did your predictor. Is all your software still in good standing with the community?

[Gluck]

We had a lot of. A lot of upsets. I feel like in this. In the 6.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Did the predictor predict the upsets?

[Gluck]

No, not really. But I would say, overall, like, we had Ross Chastain a little higher than I thought he. He should have been. Yeah, I like that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We had.

[Gluck]

Byron was going to be second even after.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah. What is the.

[Gluck]

So had Larson. It doesn't know that Larson.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What?

[Gluck]

That Larson crashed.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It doesn't know that he was mentally hungover. Yeah. So.

[Gluck]

So the computer can't. Can't do that, man.

[TJ Majors]

I have to stick up for tj. He wasn't there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But you haven't even mentioned his name. You.

[TJ Majors]

You bashed Brad Keselowski last week. Russ.

[Gluck]

Well, I didn't know TJ wasn't going to be the spotter.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He didn't do that. Oh, top five. I said Brad was gonna do it.

[TJ Majors]

I know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And Russ said I had Brad in the top 10 finish.

[TJ Majors]

Well, you would have paid.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What was the other top tens? I had Josh Berry. Yeah, he run 12.

[TJ Majors]

You missed. The couple were right outside.

[Gluck]

No, Stenhouse.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We had. Yeah.

[Russ]

11Th. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Damn it. Well, hey, we got a new thing that we're going to do this week. All right. So we think we're going to be parlo. Parlaying the best manufacturer, best finishing, Ford, Chevrolet, Toyota. So let's think about that. We're going in Nashville. We can talk favorites. What are the. We got the odds now. So what are the. What are the odds on. Give us top five or so top five.

[Russ]

Kyle Larson plus 500. Hamlin plus 550. Bell plus 600. Byron plus 650. And Chest Blaney plus 850. Chastain is seventh at plus 1200.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What do you think? Where's the value?

[Russ]

Ah, man, I'm.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I would put money back on Ross.

[Russ]

Yeah, well, he is one of my favorites this week that I like, and + 1200 is nice, but I think he. Because he won.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Because he won. What?

[Russ]

It jumps up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Feels their place.

[Russ]

I know, but it jumps up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He could be.

[Russ]

He was probably going to be plus 20. Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay.

[TJ Majors]

Russ, what's the model say?

[Gluck]

It's very, very similar. Larson, Hamlin, Bell, Chase, Elliott, Byron, then I have Ross, and then Blaney's seventh.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Gotcha. All Right. So let's, let's. Let's try to think about best finishing forward.

[Russ]

I'll give you Ryan Priest.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Whoa.

[Gluck]

Yeah, I like Ryan Priest, too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's fourth there last year.

[Gluck]

He's won trucks there twice. Career year for him.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right.

[Russ]

Could be a good price on that, too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes. Best finishing Chevy.

[Russ]

Oh, this one's tough to meet.

[Gluck]

Larson bounce back week.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right.

[TJ Majors]

That hangover is gone.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep.

[Russ]

I could see Larson, Byron, or Chastain.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right. Best finishing Toyota.

[Russ]

Denny Hamlin.

[Gluck]

Denny Hamlin.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Agree. No c bail?

[Russ]

I don't think so.

[TJ Majors]

What's the number say?

[Gluck]

Well, it's not that he's not good there, but Denny's just been so good there, he's led at least 70 laps.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right.

[Gluck]

Should have won last year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We'll parlay those three together. Priest, Larson, Denny. Best finishing in that manufacturer Ford Chevy and the Toyota. That ought to be a pretty solid.

[Russ]

It will be payout. Yeah. With Priest in there, that thing shoots up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I like Priest a lot. I've been. I've been messing with him every time I see him, and he doesn't know what the hell to think.

[Russ]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I saw him at Wilkesboro, and when I was walking towards. He's a modified guy, short track guy. Right. So I'm walking up toward him and I'm like, I. I, like, start shaking my fists and, like, getting all excited, like I can hardly contain myself. And he's like, what's going on? I was like, short track racing, man. Like, this is. It gets me pumped. I bet it does. You, too, right? You're pumped too, right? And he's like, you're. You're acting weird and didn't know what to do. So we've been texting each other back and forth. Short track racing, Exclamation points.

[TJ Majors]

Russ, is there a driver that is low that you think should be high or vice versa?

[Gluck]

Well, I still am off the Keselowski train, too. He's never top 10 there. Bowman's another one that I don't like.

[TJ Majors]

He is perhaps a personal vendetta against him, I think.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Gluck]

But he's never finished better than 14th there, so. And, yeah, I'd say that's that. Those are your. Your big ones that stick out to me.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Where do you think of. Ross Chestain would have been placed had he not won this? How much does a win affect the next week or something like that?

[Gluck]

Well, so he's been really good at Nashville, so I think he would have been high anyway. So, like, I. He was top Three top fives there. And then the other one was last year where it was a disaster in overtime. He was second. Overtime.

[Adam Alexander]

They got wrecked.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Dang. Any dark horses?

[Gluck]

I like Josevar as our dark, dark horse. He's got a truck race win there. He's been really fast lately. He was. How much do you relate concrete here, Dale? So he was good at Bristol earlier this year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, Yeah, I do a lot. So, like, yeah, there are drivers that just love the. So concrete drivers are sensation driven. You run, you run good on a specific tire versus another one. You run good on specific surfaces. And so, you know, he may be a guy that's just like, I, I'm. I don't know why, but I'm just always going to run good on concrete because of the ability that he has feeling the car and driving the car to that limit. He understands what he's feeling that the concrete gives him where other drivers don't, don't like concrete. They don't like the sensation that it gives them and they prefer a different type of surface. So he may be a guy that's just always going to, you know, succeed or have good runs on those type of racetracks. So. Yeah, I could buy into that. Yeah.

[Gluck]

And I also like Almondinger again, too.

[Russ]

I like almonding or do.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, let's go.

[Russ]

That was mine.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, man. Well, hey, these are some, some good information. I like that. I like that parlay. Thank you, Russ, for giving us some time today. The Dirty Mode segment brought to you by fanduel. They're the premier gaming destination in the United States. All right, it's time for the white flag, the tear down with our friend Jordan here. And Jeff Gluck dropped on Monday. Great show. Jordan was at the 600. Jeff was at the Indy 500 and they had a lot to talk about. Both seeing each race from a different perspective. Always a great show. Actions detrimental with Denny Hamlin dropped on Monday as well. Great to hear Denny's take from behind the wheel. He was part of that race battling for the lead throughout the entire night. So great information on his, his experience and their struggle there to get the car full of fuel late in the race. Door Bumper clear. Will drop later today. They are joined by Larry McReynolds. So it should be a great episode to check out. Speed street comes out Wednesday. We can't wait to hear what Connor Daley has to say about his race. Awesome to see him leading and again close to grabbing the win at Indy. And Herman Schrader is also going to drop on Wednesday. Our guest segment will be out tomorrow as well here at the Dale Jr. Download. And Thursday, another episode of Bless yous Heart. Amy and I had a lot of fun doing this show. So looking forward to another episode on Thursday and this Sunday. This is a special announcement. We're gonna do a live show at 1:30 Central from the Fan Zone in Nashville. It'll be a half hour show presented by Hellman's Mayonnaise. I'll be joined by my boothmates Steve Latart and Adam Alexander again in the Fan Zone Sunday at the racetrack. 1:30 central time. A live 30 minute episode of our Dirty Mo media content. Just previewing the race coming up that day. So it should be a lot of fun. Thanks for tuning in. Jordan. Thanks for being here.

[Adam Alexander]

Thanks for having me. A lot of fun.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes sir. Awesome man. We'll see everybody tomorrow. Our state has changed a lot in the last 140 years. We know because Multicare has been here guided by a single making our communities healthier. That comes from making courageous decisions, partnering with local communities to grow programs and services, and expanding healthcare access to those who need it most. Together, we're building a healthier future. Learn [e-mail].