Dover: What If It Was Asphalt?

Summary

The Dale Jr. Download: Dover – What If It Was Asphalt? Release Date: July 22, 2025

---

Introduction

In this episode of The Dale Jr. Download, hosts Dale Earnhardt Jr., TJ Majors, and Travis dive deep into the recent NASCAR race at Dover, exploring the technical intricacies of the track's concrete surface and pondering the potential impact if it were paved with asphalt. The discussion encompasses tire performance, vehicle dynamics in dirty air conditions, driver strategies, and the challenges posed by the Next Gen cars. Additionally, NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin joins the conversation, providing firsthand insights into racing strategies and team dynamics.

---

Dover Track Analysis

Dale Earnhardt Jr. kicks off the discussion by reflecting on the unique challenges presented by Dover's concrete surface.

“Dover's always been this way. Being a concrete racetrack, it rarely puts the drivers in a situation where they can do things differently...” [03:12]

Concrete vs. Asphalt: Grip and Performance

Dale delves into the fundamental differences between concrete and asphalt surfaces, emphasizing grip levels and how they affect racing dynamics.

“Pavement handles dirty air better than concrete now. Concrete is so slick and hard to get a hold of...” [04:35]

Tire Dynamics and Heat Influence

The conversation shifts to tire performance, particularly how heat affects rubber adhesion to the track.

“With the heat, the track rubbered up really quickly, which slowed down the rubber leaving the tire physically...” [08:54]

Next Gen Cars and Dirty Air

A significant portion of the discussion centers on the challenges posed by the Next Gen cars, especially concerning dirty air and passing maneuvers.

“The Next Gen car is really good when you get offset. Now, when you get off to the right or to the left of the following or the lead car...” [04:35]

---

Driver Performance and Strategy

Dale Jr. analyzes the performance of drivers like Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson, focusing on their strategies to cope with Dover's demanding conditions.

“I was impressed with Denny's ability to do what he needed to do on the restarts, stave off cars with better tires...” [14:36]

Fuel Management and Race Endurance

The hosts discuss the importance of fuel management and how it plays a pivotal role in race outcomes at tracks like Dover.

“They had speed, the, you know, it was a weird finish. They didn't, you know, you can't really look at...” [07:51]

---

Guest Interview: Denny Hamlin

NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin joins the podcast, sharing his perspectives on competitiveness, team dynamics, and personal racing philosophies.

Maintaining Competitiveness at 44

Denny reflects on his longevity in racing and his drive to achieve milestones.

“I'm just a goals-driven person... I just want to finish my career in the top 10 of winners list.” [49:55]

Team Swap and Crew Chief Dynamics

He discusses a pivotal moment involving a proposed team swap with Mark Martin and how shifting teams influenced his performance.

“Steve was a true modern crew chief, that the setup was left to Kevin... We took a top-ten team and transformed it...” [85:40]

Handling Pressure and Last Opportunities

Denny elaborates on the high-pressure decisions made by crew chiefs and the importance of trust within the team.

“Once you learn that there's even one negative word said about you on the other channel, that's the end of the relationship.” [73:29]

Race Strategies and Future Goals

He shares insights into race strategies, especially concerning pit stops and tire management, and outlines his future goals within NASCAR.

“I don't do much. I usually try to wait till midweek and then me and the boys will go have dinner...” [55:27]

---

Technical Insights and Race Mechanics

The hosts break down various technical aspects of racing at Dover, including pit strategies, tire choices, and the impact of weather conditions.

Pit Crew Performance and Strategy Calls

Insights into how pit crew decisions can make or break a race outcome, with a focus on the recent Dover race.

“They have been trying to, yeah. I mean, and I don't know that they brought that tire in an effort to gain something...” [07:51]

Impact of Weather and Track Conditions

Discussion on how weather elements like rain and temperature influence race strategies and track conditions.

“We saw a pretty neat ending I thought with the, with the weather and I'm glad NASCAR allowed them to get going again...” [04:35]

---

Emerging Drivers and Playoff Implications

The conversation shifts to emerging drivers like Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, and Christopher Bell, analyzing their performances and potential impact on the NASCAR playoffs.

Chase Elliott's Consistency and Pit Crew Synergy

Evaluation of Chase Elliott's performance metrics and the crucial role of his pit crew in maintaining race positions.

“We have the nine of Chase Elliott. And Chase was in a spot to win the race late...” [28:51]

Kyle Larson's Resurgence

Analysis of Kyle Larson's recent performances and his trajectory towards reclaiming top form.

“Larson's passing, like I say, his average season average drop dropped to 12 throughout the summer...” [95:00]

Christopher Bell and Team Dynamics

Insights into Christopher Bell's performance and his potential as a playoff contender.

“I think Christopher Bell there because I think we...” [103:17]

---

Final Thoughts and Future Outlook

As the episode wraps up, hosts reflect on the key takeaways from the Dover race and discuss upcoming races, emphasizing the continuous evolution of strategies in NASCAR.

“I'm just gonna go, I'm not gonna bet on the Larson Hamlin. I don't think I could pick one if I had to.” [94:31]

---

Conclusion

This episode of The Dale Jr. Download offers an in-depth analysis of the Dover race, highlighting the technical challenges of the concrete track, the adaptability required by drivers, and the strategic decisions made by teams. With expert insights from both the hosts and a seasoned driver like Denny Hamlin, listeners gain a comprehensive understanding of the nuances that make NASCAR racing both challenging and exhilarating.

---

Note: All quotes are taken verbatim from the podcast transcript and are attributed with their respective timestamps for reference.

Transcript

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know if we were arguing before I got in the car or right after I got in the car. He said something smart assy pissed me off and so I just shut up and I ran the car out of gas. Ran like we were. It was like happy hour. And I was like, I'm just gonna run this some to this some runs out again. I ran like 44 laps or something.

[TJ Majors]

It was a long way.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

I'm like, I don't know what we're doing. I was keeping lap times.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And I finally ran out of gas.

[Travis]

Hey, Dale.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yo.

[Travis]

What are we doing for lunch today? I'm getting kind of hungry.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I'm already on it. It's actually going to be delivered soon. Arby's Angus cheesesteak with a side of curly fries is on the way. It's the ultimate meat and cheese combination for steak lovers like you and me. It's actually the perfect balance of quarter pound of Angus steak, melted American cheese fire roasted peppers and onions with a nice garlic spread top to tie it all together. It's a must try. That's going to be our lunch sandwich.

[Travis]

Sounds delicious. But there's one thing I've learned is if you're talking about food, I got to trust you on this. You've never failed me yet.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I have not?

[Travis]

No.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You've nailed it. Well, there you go, man. This sandwich has it all. When I first tried this, I was at the shop checking on the race cars and stuff, seeing if the guys need anything. We ordered up some Arby's and when this Angus cheesesteak arrived, I was blown away by how much steak is actually on this thing. Definitely big enough to satisfy your hunger to tastes like a true American classic. Everybody check out your nearest Arby's today to try this Angus cheesesteak. And if you want it delivered like we do, use code dale for $0 delivery when you order through the Arby's app. That's code D A L E on the app available for a limited time at participating U.S. locations. While supplies last.

[TJ Majors]

Get the most out of your vehicle with GM genuine parts and Acdelco original equipment. The only parts designed, engineered, tested and backed by General Motors. Whether or not you drive a GM vehicle, you can find your perfect fit for most makes and models and choose from three tiers of parts including GM OE or gold and silver aftermarket parts. Visit gmparts.com for more information.

[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.

[Travis]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Can you not tell I'm mentally ready?

[TJ Majors]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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

[TJ Majors]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, what the do you want?

[Travis]

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? This ain't burger King. Travis is like, wrap this up. They don't have no fun around here. Hey, Everybody, it's Dale Jr. Back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. It's Tuesday. It's Dirty air and I'm here with my co host TJ Majors. Travis is here as well. And we're finally off and running. It's been, it's been a great week already. Getting ready for Indianapolis. It's the last race of the TNT block, the five race block that TNT has this summer and then it'll be the last race. I'll be in the broadcast booth until next year. Till next summer. So let's cover Dover. T.J. how was your experience?

[TJ Majors]

Dover was a tough weekend, Del. Tough. It's tough racetrack, man. Like, it's. If you're either. You're either really good there and it's hard to hide when you're not good. So. But the cup race was a trying race. We stuck with it and ended up with the top 10. So I'll take it out of the.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Out of the gate here. Look, I'll say this, man. Dover has always been this way. You know, being a concrete racetrack, it rarely puts the drivers in a situation where they can. They can do things differently to be able to give you a different style of event or a different style of race than what we saw this past Sunday. Dover's always lacked grip and on the concrete, the tires are always kind of skating and chattering across that concrete and anytime you dial the downforce down just a notch, you're not going to go anywhere. And it's so pronounced at Dover. So that's already a problem going into that racetrack. I wish. I know they don't bleed my ass but. And they won't do it. They won't do it. But I think if they paved the racetrack, we'd see a lot different race there. But they don't. They'll never do it. Now that they got Miles the monster and all that, all that going on. They're Never going to change the, you know, the gimmick that Dover is.

[TJ Majors]

How do you think it would race if it was asphalt?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Pavement to me handles dirty air better than concrete now. It's just a little, it's, it's, it's a bit better than concrete. Concrete is so slick and hard to get a hold of. And when you get a car in dirty air there, you, you have zero grip. And so pavement to me doesn't suffer quite as bad as concrete. When we have dirty air, we're always going to have dirty air. I mean anytime a car follows another car, it's going to have a loss of downforce and grip. There's no way around that fact. The lead car creates some, some turbulence and we're going to have that. The next gen car is the worst car in terms of dirty air. I think it might be, it might be comparable to the cot. The cot was big, giant box, huge greenhouse. Really knocked a bad hole in the, in the air and was bad for the following car. The next gen car. You have to have that air going underneath and when gets shut off, you have zero grip and zero downforce. We see it time and time again. It's pretty dramatic. The, the next gen car is really good when you get offset now when you get off to the right or to the left of the following or the lead car, you, you gain a bunch of the grip back. But I just feel like that at Dover. The chance of seeing a very compelling 400 laps are tough at Dover because of the surface and how tough that is to get a hold of at a, you know, a one mile concrete track. And because of the next gen in dirty air. It's just a bad combination that I hate, I hate to have to bring this up or mention this but I, you know, it is what it is and so it produced what we saw. Now we got a pretty neat ending I thought with the, with the weather and I'm glad NASCAR allowed them to get going again and tried to get the race going again. So we saw, you know, kind of some, some theatrics at the end with the 20 spinning out underneath Denny and late race restarts. But yeah, you know, and those save the day in these moments when we go to a race and man, it just wasn't a compelling, very compelling race. Those can kind of come in and, and, and, and save the day so to speak. But I don't know man. I'm not a fan of the concrete surfaces because I just don't feel like that our tire is going to do as good of a job to give the driver some. Some different options and things he can do. That track does widen out. They do rubber up all the way to the top of the racetrack, which does allow the drivers to get out from behind each other and create runs. And. And we saw that, and that was. That was. That was really cool. And maybe, you know, maybe they could adjust the tire in some way. I wouldn't really know what to do, but maybe they could adjust the tire in some way that when you did get that run and you got underneath somebody, you had a little bit of grip to work with to be able to complete the pass. But, man, if you wanted to, you could make it really, really impossible for somebody to get around you. We saw Daniel Suarez holding off the leader there to try to stay on the lead lap.

[Travis]

Didn't they have a new tire this week, this weekend?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, yeah, they've been trying to, yeah. I mean, and I don't know that they brought that tire in an effort to gain something or change anything in terms of, like, improve. It wasn't like a change to improve the product, but it was just something that they've been using for this year at a lot of different tracks that they like. And, you know, Goodyear's always working to try to make the tire better, and they've worked really hard to get. Go in a direction to try to improve the product on the racetrack. But I think they're fighting, you know, fighting against the surface and concrete and how difficult it is for the drivers to really get grip at that racetrack and how bad that grip nose dives when you get behind another car. It's really horrific. It on. On a concrete surface, it's just worse than pavement.

[Travis]

How much did the heat bother or make it even harder to pass and everything because of the tire rubbering in.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think that was probably a good thing.

[TJ Majors]

It was definitely. I think it helped.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I mean, that was probably help. It would have probably been much, much worse to. To pass had it been cooler, and tire wear would have been even worse of a problem. Because we talked about at the top of the race when the. With the heat, the track rubbered up really quickly, and that. That slowed down the trend of the rubber leaving the tire physically. So it. You know, we. We sort of. There's no scientific, factual evidence, but you remember the problem we had at Bristol a couple years ago where tires kept wearing out. It was really chilly, and everybody was like, that's weird. You know, it's cold. Why. Why is this happening? And then we went back and it didn't happen again, and we really didn't know why. And, and I believe that the way the tire. So they've changed the. The. They've changed the ingredients in the tire and removed some chemicals and oils and things in an effort to get a safer, greener tire. Maybe these chemicals were bad for the environment, maybe they. They were bad for humans may. Who knows, right? But they've changed the tires to, To. To sort of make the tire safer or greener. And when they removed those oils and ingredients, it certainly made the tire race differently and not in a good way. And so in the cold temperatures, the tire, the rubber leaves the tire and it balls up into either little balls or dust or whatever and goes to the top of the racetrack and doesn't adhere to the surface. And so if you don't have rubber adhering to the surface, you're just kind of continually continuing to wear the rubber off the tire. It's just a cheese grater lap corner after corner after corner after corner. But if it's hot smears that rubber into the surface, you see the track get dark and black, and that slows down that cheese grater effect on the tire itself so the tire doesn't wear out before, you know, you get to lap 30 or 40. And so it, you know, I think the heat was helpful, but I don't know, man. The things that I think I would do at Dover if I could just snap my finger aren't realistic. They're not going to re. They're on a pavement with asphalt. They've got this miles the monster sort of identity and a lot of branding behind that. And that's, you know, this concrete surface and being unique. And, you know, they're never going to move away from that and they're never going to think. They're never going to believe or. Or think for a minute that, oh, man, we might have a little better of a product on an asphalt surface. And look, I'm not saying it would get a whole lot better if you paved it. I just think it would be just a little bit better in dirty air, just slightly. And then you could. Then I think Goodyear could really hone the tire in on the asphalt, probably better than the concrete, but there's just a small sample size of concrete know knowledge and data for. For Goodyear to really work with. Whereas on the asphalt side, they know how to get a little more aggressive and braver on how they're set. You know, how they're going with the tire. But look, that's the way Dover's always kind of been is what we saw Sunday. I know a lot of people thought the race wasn't all that great and the Jeff Cluck pole was kind of 50, 50. So either way, let's get into it, man. I was impressed with Denny's ability to do what he needed to do on the restarts, stave off cars with better tires. And people can say, well, you know, that speaks to the next gen car and your inability to pass and how bad the dirty air is. And I agree that that was something Denny could use and utilize late in the race to win. But, but T.J. you'll remember Jimmy Johnson was unbeatable at Dover, but we late in the race had a tire advantage on Jimmy, a significant one and run second to him. I think it's 2014 or so, but we couldn't get. I could, Couldn't get to him. It was just the dirty air. Even in the, in the, in that car around 2014. I just couldn't. Denny or Jimmy ran tidy clean laps right around the bottom and, and, and we couldn't, we couldn't get to him. That's a Dover thing. That's a concrete thing more so than anything. But Denny good. Denny did a good job and everybody was smart to think. And you heard the drivers mention this in the break. The water and the rain is going to cool this surface down. It's going to clean it off. Clean it off. This and it's. It is the perfect time of the day where you're going to run your fastest laps at any racetrack in the country. So all of those things lined up to, to tell you, hey, no need to come down pit road. Just fire off and haul ass on these tires and you should be able to. You should be able to survive. And that's what Denny did. Denny didn't have the fastest car. I didn't think he had the best car chase. Elliot. Maybe. Maybe one or two times. There was a couple others that had a little bit better race car than Denny. The 48 was great on the long run, but Denny was smart. And that's, that's kind of where he's always been, is the calculative clever driver that's always going to be mentally in the best place and he took it.

[TJ Majors]

He's won a lot of races just by being there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And being, being clever. Being.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, he's smart.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Smart. And me. He manipulates a little bit. You know, he does. He just. And he's got that in his own. He's kind of Got that ability and thought process. And he's smart, so it's one of his strengths. It is.

[TJ Majors]

You know, at the end of the race, if it comes down to the end and he's involved in it, he gets stronger even with a weaker car.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Dude, you got to be. You got to always have your eye on him. If he's in the picture late, how much.

[Travis]

Also, he, being one of the older drivers, knows about tire wear and not using those tires up early in these runs. So that at the end, his tires, while used, may not been used as much as, like, some other drivers would have used up their tires.

[TJ Majors]

I think he's one of the smartest at doing that. Look at the Bristol race where the tires were falling apart there he was one of the top three, race for the win. But Denny, I think, also knows if I'm not going to win this race by speed, how can I build myself an advantage when I'm running third or whatever and save it for the end? I think he's good at that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I agree. He talks about studying Jimmy and even Truex and having a little bit of data off of Truex. Dover's one of them tracks where they'll tell you, hey, man, start saving some fuel. You know, backing off early and doing things like that to sort of save some fuel. And you anticipate, you know, running a couple tenths slower, if not even more. And they'll say, man, you're. You're running as quick as you were before. Can you. Can you slow it down? Can you save us some fuel? And you're like, man, I am. I am lifting. I'm doing it. I'm saving fuel. And they're like, well, your lap times haven't changed. And so again, I mean, it speaks to the lack of grip on this. On this concrete surface. You, you. You can run 85% or 90% and you can run 100, you can run 110%, and all of those will probably produce the same lap time. And so Denny knows, all right, if I go down in the corner and I ease off the. Ease off the gas and don't stress the tire on entry, get into the center, stay tidy against the apron. There's a little extra grip down there for the left front tire. The left front. The left side tires don't rubber the track in. If you look at the racetrack when it gets dark, the very bottom, about 3 foot from the apron, is still not rubbered in. So it's literally still clean track. And so Denny tries to keep the left front down There in that, keep a car turning, rotate around the middle and get up off the bottom. And he can run the, he can run the lap time he needs to keep the track position he needs in the first 10 or 20 laps of the run. And then middle part of the run, he's got a little more in reserve. To your point, Travis, I was talking about it like a savings account. Like you're just kind of putting a little bit more, a little bit of tire at a time in that savings account for the end of the run. And then say it lap, say you got 30 laps to go before everybody's going to pit. You've got a lot more saved up, a little bit more tire on the, you know, on the wheel than a lot of the guys that have been running 100, 110% and they're, they're sliding around for dear life and you just kind of keeping that same pace. And then eventually, you know, at the end of the run, you can go like hell and burn up everything you got left. But Denny's really been smart about he know he will say I'm not the best race car driver, so I have to work twice as hard at it to be as good as some of these other guys. And I think he's, you know, comparing himself to like a Jimmy Johnson or somebody like that. He's like, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't think I was as good a talented as Denny, so, or Jimmy. And so I had to work harder to be at his level. And I think he's just really perfected that at this point in his life. At 44 years old, he's just, he's, he's maximizing all the tan intangibles, you know, all the, all the, all the things, man, and it's pretty impressive. Kyle Larson this past weekend looked like he was kind of on his way back to the standard that I believe he sets for himself. Been a rough summer, and they've had some things that have kind of knocked him out of decent results. And then when they do finish a race, they just kind of don't look like themselves. And this weekend I thought was a great time for Larson to kind of get back to doing what he does best. Looked like for a while, I mean, he, he struggled like everybody else with dirty air, trying to work his way through the field, but eventually he car had pretty decent speed. His NASCAR Insights has these, has these averages that we look at and it's passing. There's, there's, there's a couple Parameters, passing, defense, speed, restarts, pit crew. And we get these insights spit out to us after every race. And it's, you'll get a season average after that race or you'll. And you'll also get the insights for that specific event. But for passing Larson's season average, he was in the top five and it is dropped down to 12th overall. And I think in the summer, that's kind of when this has happened. At Dover, he was number one. And I feel like that, that's a sign to me that they are, they're regrouping and getting back to the basics. And Indy might be the race where he goes out there and jams the flag at this, at the, in the logo, in the middle of the field and says, hey, I'm back and I'm ready to win this championship.

[TJ Majors]

So is this summer really, is this summer really a good look at that, though, with the last month and a half of races? Because it's been kind of a weird summer. The stretch of races that we go through this year are, are a little odd to me. Yeah, you know, like with as many road courses as we had and stuff, and you can get in trouble at a road course with restarts and stuff.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Now pretty quickly, I feel like trying to do the double this year and the struggle that he had with that and the logistics and travel and, and the, you know, all of the interviews, photo shoots, all the, all the off track responsibilities required by sponsors and extra partners that are, you know, involved in that, all of those things didn't go as well or as easy or as smooth as he had, you know, hoped. And I think that that kind of knocked him off his perch. And to your point, TJ the schedule wouldn't allow him to find some consistency to be able to gain the confidence and get the team back to where it needs to be. Everybody feeling good about everything. So over the last handful of weeks, I'm sure that they've all kind of been questioning, are we doing everything we need to do whatever. What should we do? Should we change this? Should we flip this over? Should we. What, what, what can I do? Everybody's looking inward and talking to the team and, and kind of understanding their mindset. They've decided not to, not to panic, get back to the basics, get back to running, you know, get into, get into part of the schedule where they might confine some, some peace of mind or some, some, some, you know, like Dover's pretty straightforward. Indy will be too. I mean, back to the ovals. Let's get back to where we know we can be more in control of our destiny. And I think, you know, if the rate, if the summer was full of ovals, they would have probably regained their form quicker. But to your point, it's clunky, weird schedules, bad. You know, it's different.

[Travis]

Are we blaming the Indy five? Like he did this last year though? He raced at Indy and then raced in the summer and didn't have this.

[TJ Majors]

But it didn't go as smooth.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And he went this year horrible this year. Wrecked two cars, lost a little, you know, probably lost a little bit of confidence. Got it, you know, got a little, yeah, got a little mud on his face. But the other thing too is, is he's had some success in the dirt car, especially recently winning the big, big race he won over the last week. And those things right there too. When he starts doing good in that, it's like everything starts getting better. Like his, his cup stuff starts getting better as well. He needs to be on, he needs to be behind the wheel of a race car and he needs to be winning for him to like get up on plane. Right. And, and be where he wants to be mentally. And he's no different than anybody else in terms of when you don't have the results and things just are harder to, you know, the results are harder to come by. He's just as human as the rest of us and he's going to have some self doubt or, or what, what am I doing differently? What could I, what should I maybe do? Do differently or New Orleans, you know, they're going to have those internal conversations as a team and you know, so. But I feel like that that's all in the review mirror now. I think this weekend was a great sort of baseline to, you know, to establish moving forward. They had speed, the, you know, it was a weird finish. They didn't, you know, you know, it, you know, you can't really look at.

[TJ Majors]

The end result, but it was a weird finish. It wasn't like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But I mean all day they had good speed methodically, way up toward the front. Yeah. And so he a decent race car by the end of it. But that was a, you know, I may I say that because I feel like that had he not ran the way he did it over, everybody was watching going, all right now, damn it. You know, this weekend we need to kind of see that old Larson because if not we're going to, we're going to say, well, okay, maybe it's not the clunky schedule that's creating some issues Here. And they. They've really, truly got some things to figure out, but I think they're on their way back. Whether you've got one shelf or a whole wall dedicated to NASCAR die cast, there's always room for more. And nobody brings the excitement to the track and to your collection like Lionel Racing, the official die cast of nascar. From the legendary rides like the number three good wrench car to the paint schemes of today's hottest stars like Kyle Larson and Ross Chastain, Lionel Racing Diecast are built for true fans. Every car is authentically detailed, and most are available in both 124 and 164 scales. Whether you're after race wins, special finishes, autographed pieces, or the elite premier editions, Lionel has you covered. And right now, for a limited time, fans of the Dale Jr. Download can get free US shipping on their next order at Lionel Racing.com just use the promo code DJD25. That's promo code D J D25@lionel racing.com. hey, Dale.

[Travis]

I know Tuesdays are busy for you with the Dale Jr. Download. You also got your production meeting, so I took the liberty to order you some lunch. I hope you're okay with that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You bought me lunch?

[Travis]

Well, yeah, of course. And ever since you got us Arby's the other day, I've been craving it, so I went and ordered it again for us.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I was. I was thinking about the Arby's Angus cheesesteak all weekend, so I hope that's what's in the back.

[Travis]

Bingo. It's exactly what I got you. Side of curly fries, too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There we go. Oh, you were serious.

[Travis]

Yeah. I got you some curly fries.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And this is the ultimate meat and cheese combination for steak lovers like you and me. Thank you, man. I appreciate it. It's the perfect balance of Angus steak, all American cheese, melted fire, roasted peppers and onions. Thank you, buddy. I appreciate it.

[Travis]

No problem. The sandwich is delicious. Flavor in every bite. And the curly fries are good, too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If you want one of these cheesesteaks, you can check out your nearest Arby's today. And you can try the Angus cheesesteak for yourself. You can actually have it delivered like us. And you can use the Code dale for a $0 delivery when you order through the Arby's app. That's the code D, A L E on the app, available for a limited time at participating U.S. locations while supplies last. Another driver that I think we're all impressed with is. Is Briscoe. Another great result. He benefited from a lot of Things that happened late in the race to be able to gain a little bit of track position. But he did have a great car, running a top 10, top five throughout the day, and I think, you know, six since I guess, you know, sometime around the 600. He's been qualifying really good, and he seems to have figured out how to take advantage of the tools that this 19 car has. And the. And the other thing that I like about Briscoe is he always seems to come on late, and especially in the playoffs, he overachieves. And so I'm not sure that anyone else is really ready to make this claim, but I'm feeling like Briscoe, to me, might be the. Be pretty. He's pretty dangerous in terms of, you know, there's. We always kind of. You know, we used to have the big three, and there's always going to be, like, these drivers as we get closer to the playoffs that we pinpoint as the guys that are the favorites and. And this comes. This championship comes down to. To these couple of drivers, and we never. We're not always right. You know, Joe Logano sneaks in and wins a championship. Nobody thought that was going to happen, but if. If one guy. If a new guy pops into that equation, it usually shoves somebody out. Right. And I think Briscoe is the kind of guy that could get in there and cause some. Cause some headaches for some of the drivers that we feel like will be the contenders in this playoff system.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, he's definitely. That car's got speed, and it's always been fast at Dover. And for him to put together the race shows that he's making. Things are. Things are clicking.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, for sure.

[TJ Majors]

In my opinion, with that team, another.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Car that I thought was, you know, amazing, maybe the best car in the whole race was the nine of Chase Elliott. And Chase was in a spot to win the race late, sitting in front of Denny and. And had a. I think a little bit better tire than Denny had possibly. But either way, he was sitting in a position that he had. He stayed out, they might have been able to do what Denny did and won and win the race. I know that everybody's gonna raise hell at Allen for bringing him to pit road, but I think that Chase has told us in the past that him and Allen are tied at the hip. They win together, they lose together, and they'll probably leave this race. Not that bothered by that decision. Late in the day and more happy with how that car performed. They had an issue on pit road with the Jack lost about Five spots on pit road, quickly gained all that track position back and was back in the lead of the race. Back in control of the race when it mattered late. So that's, we've seen a very consistent, you know, hey, I'll finish in the top 20 every week, get you that top 10 kind of chase Elliott all year long.

[Travis]

Why aren't they leaving bothered though?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They're not leaving bother because they're, they're, they're the best car there, which they haven't been the best car anywhere. They've just been a 5th to 10th place car every week.

[Travis]

So wouldn't that make you bothered?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Nope.

[TJ Majors]

Not with an ending. Not with an ending where there's a yellow and there's a, there's some late calls because you're one, you're one lane, you're one guy in front of you not going on a restart from ruining, ruining that call.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Does Allen wish he would have chose differently? Absolutely. Sure. Has Allen said to Chase, hey, I wish I would have chose differently? Probably, yeah. Are they going to leave there pissed off? No, they're gonna now, you know, look, Allen internally is dealing, is gonna handle this however he does. He's probably pissed off at himself.

[TJ Majors]

But this has happened before, I'm sure.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean this ain't. This is just how racing goes sometimes. You don't always make the best choice.

[Travis]

This choice though is. This isn't like a hindsight. I feel like everybody unanimously was like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What are they doing? Yeah, I was pretty surprised that they chose to pit, you know, but I wasn't, you know, I wasn't 100% sure how much tires mattered.

[TJ Majors]

So was Chase going to win the race with. Without pitting, Was he going to win the race?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He would have been where Denny was. Yeah, he would have been ahead of Denny.

[Travis]

He would have been Denny.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He would have been.

[TJ Majors]

So he would have been leading.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis]

He gave up the lead to pit in a race where track position is king.

[TJ Majors]

I mean that's definitely.

[Travis]

They dropped the ball.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. But I mean, still, what if they would. They thought pitting was going to be the best position and they probably were planning on more cars pitting too. And well, you never know what happens. Like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I mean, look, it wasn't the right choice. Obviously in hindsight it's easy to say that, but I just telling you, man, Chase Elliott has not. I'm old. Chase Elliott to me has not been the Chase that I think he could be since the leg injury when he was snowboarding, you know, and then. And so he had the Injury, they come back. He missed some time. You know, anytime a driver misses a lot of time, there's this chance the team sort of has a hard time, like, getting the traction back and getting going again. And then came the next gen. And now he's had some moments where there's been success, but, you know, he. He wins that championship early, and. And he wants to contend for championships every single year, and he wants to contend for more wins. Right? And they just have had a hard time really getting the next gen to where he wants. He wants it or feels comfortable driving it. Kyle Busch talked about that, how the next gym was difficult for him to really wrap his mind around because how you have to drive it and how it's. How you need to drive it and what he loves and what he's used to. And so I think for the. For Chase, it was so somewhat similar. And, you know, for him to go out there and take the lead and be the best car, I think they got to leave there thinking, man, let's not. Let's not get too caught up in this. This choice to pit and how that might have altered our opportunity to win. Let's not get. Let's not get derailed. Let's think about how great this car was and how awesome, you know, we ran all day long. Carry that forward. Carry that thought process forward into Indy. Go win Indy. Right? And so you know that this is.

[TJ Majors]

A much better problem to leave with. I can promise you that. I'd much rather leave with a. We made a bad pit call and have a fast car all day. Then, man, how do we get our car?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, they've been going to every race, leaving there, going. How come we keep running 8th? How come we keep running 7th? How come we keep running 10th? What is. What do we. What are we missing? You know, for sure. So that. That. That had to feel pretty good to be able to. To be, you know, that good from all day long.

[Travis]

I have a question, though. So Alan Guston was asking Chase before, like, what your thoughts are on pitting. How much input did you. Did you want or did you have when you were driving? Or is it basically crew chief makes those calls and I ride with whatever your call is.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think it's the crew chief's job to make the choice, make the decision. Driver can give feedback. Chase gives some feedback. In this instance, I'm good either way. I feel like the tracks tightened up. It'll tick something to think about. If we do pit, here's. You know, maybe we could free the car up whatever he's trying to give that information. Seven laps, front row. Track's gonna be clean for a little bit. You know, he's trying to give Allen information from what he's thinking, but I think he's wanting Allen to choose. And that's what the pit crew chief, that's what the crew chiefs for, is because he's sitting. He's sitting in front of all of this information, and he sees the race from a different point of view. You're a driver. You're in this car, you're in this. You're. You're down in this hole, and you can't see the whole grand scheme. And so while you think you might have if you had to make the decision on your own, you could. But the crew chief's there with all this data, all this ability to see and know, and there's war rooms back in Charlotte with a lot of information coming from there to the crew chief, the driver can't. Can't worry about or deal with or process. And so that's. That's a decision that I'm 100% confident leaving with my crew chief to make. And so, you know, if he makes the wrong decision, it's. It just. What happened that day. He's a great crew chief. He gave me a car that ran in first place all day long.

[TJ Majors]

I hope he'll get an opportunity to win.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I hope he'll do that again next week. He's my guy. I'm going to. I'm going to Indy with him.

[TJ Majors]

You know, if those yellows don't come out, that Denny, those tires might. Might come up there and get him. So you can't plan on having yellows either. So I don't know. You know, that definitely adds into it as well.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I agree. Moving, you know, moving on to Bowman. I Talked about the 48 car being pretty good. He was. He was awesome on the long run. They missed a little speed on the short run, and that might have been intentional. Alex might have just been, you know, kind of baby in the tires for the first 10 or 20 laps. But, man, that 48 was fast from the midway on in a run, it was pretty incredible. And Alex has always been really good at Dover.

[TJ Majors]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What I'm looking at with Alex and why that matters is, so right now, the cut line is plus 16 with Bubba Wallace over Ryan Preece. Kyle Busch is minus 39. And it's fun to talk about Kyle Busch being in the mix because he's. He's a fighter and fiery kind of guy. And he is.

[TJ Majors]

He's going to be gouging kind of like this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, you kind of like to see him backed in a corner like this and what he might do. But that cut line every year has moved. Every single year, someone below the line has won their way in. And that's going to move the cut line above Bubba Wallace, which is right now, Christopher Busher. So Chris Busher is at plus 44 and he is, let's say he's 19 points, I believe, behind Alex Bowman, who is at plus 63. So if the, if there is a new winner in the next couple of weeks from below the cut line, that sets Christopher, that's. It's Chris Busher on the cut line. And then Alex Bowman has to really, truly understand, you know, what his role is every single week. So he goes into, you know, so what I guess I'm looking at and looked at this past weekend and we'll look at it, Indy, is how does Bowman separate himself from Bucher? Because if I'm Bowman, I'm expecting a new winner. Maybe two, possibly. You always could have that threat. I think maybe last year we had three guys that were above the cut line at this point that did not make the playoffs. 3. So, you know, you're never safe.

[Travis]

The races you have left are Indy, Iowa, Watkins, Glen, Richmond and Daytona.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, and so, I mean, there's true. That's tough.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Watkins Glenn makes me nervous and Daytona certainly makes me nervous. There's two races where you absolutely could have someone below the cut line and you just know. You just never know. You go to Richmond. Does RCR have that same speed at Richmond they had last year? You know, does Kyle Busch go there and sneak out a win? You just don't know, man. It's going to be a. It's going to be a hell of a little run to the end of. To the end of the regular season. And I would be paying attention less to what Bubba Wallace and Priests are doing. And I know that Kyle Busch conversation is fun and I've been, I've been pointing it out here a little bit, but honestly, I'm looking more now at Busher, Bowman. Reddick, I feel, is pretty safe at 1156 above the cut line. I still, I think that, you know, I think it's aggressive to think we'd get two new winners. We'd probably get one for sure.

[TJ Majors]

At two. I think two is possible, though. We are one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Two's possible, but. Two's possible.

[TJ Majors]

But I feel like SVG doesn't have A great Watkins Glenn, you know, and, and someone like, you know, say Bush or does Butcher beat him there before? You know, I, it's just when Daytona there as well, I mean, you're going to have guys be very aggressive at places like Daytona. You're going to have people that are locked in maybe not be quite as aggressive as them guys. And it's set up to be really exciting. And I definitely, I think two is really possible. I do think we get to. I think we get two.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'd say that'd be the most I would expect with how I just looking at how everybody's running, I mean, I'm, you know, you would, you can go, you can think about Watkins Glenn and say, well, you know, Ty Gibbs, he could be somebody that could go to Watkins Glen and be really, really fast. He's been great at the road courses. McDowell has been good, but I don't know if his stuff says good as what he was in before. I felt like that they were able to get the front row car, you know, in a better situation at places like the road courses than the Spire car for whatever reason. Now Michael McDowell. Michael McDowell will take that car and run top 10. But I don't know if he's got winning speed on the road courses this year.

[TJ Majors]

Does Indy, Does Indy, like, let me ask you this, does Indy give. Is Indy an opportunity for somebody to catch a caution at the right time and get track position?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

And hold them off.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I mean, Paul Menard won on fuel.

[TJ Majors]

Mileage there, so, I mean, that's what I was thinking.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's possible at any race.

[TJ Majors]

Well, I mean, especially ones where you could pit and not, and not get, not get left, you know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. You run, it'd be like a road course for sure because of that. Lastly, before we, we move on svg, so we, we, we're coming out of the road courses where there was a ton of SVG talk. We've now got back to the ovals where SVG told us last week he's looking forward to going to Dover. He goes out there flat right, flat right front tire right away. Ruined any opportunity for him to really truly gauge himself against the competition at the ovals and try to carry forward that learning curve. But looking at his speed metric in the NASCAR insights, he was 31st overall on speed. I don't think you can look at passing and defense, restart, stuff like that because he had lost all those laps and those metrics are highly skewed, but I believe the speed is a pretty fair metric. 31st on speed. You know, to. I think he's going to have to. You know, I, I don't know. I, I feel like that he's probably wishing or hoping that that might have been a little bit of a better weekend in terms of just overall pace. We saw it Charlotte. He was a maybe 20th place car.

[TJ Majors]

Teammates struggled there. Ross was okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Ross was 16th on speed.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So he.

[TJ Majors]

And I was no way higher than.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Ross is very good at Dover and was not good. Right. Ross runs really good. And so to take that car and make it 16th on speed. To your point, TJ, I think that the trackhouse stuff just wasn't very good this weekend. They're going to have to improve their cars a lot to give SVG the chance because I think, you know, for svg, he's always. Even at the end of the year or say what I'm trying to. What I'm worried about SVG is this. How loud is the noise going to be? If he goes in and misses and gets eliminated in the first round with 20, with 17 or more playoff points, that would be pretty unprecedented, I believe, to be eliminated in the very first round with that, with that bit of an advantage in the playoff points. And so I would be frantically trying to, you know, put myself in a position at least trying to have a fighting chance of moving beyond the first round. And if he's. I think even by the end of this year, he's still not going to be one of the best oval racers in the series. Right. So if that's the case, Track house has to have very, very good race cars to help him. He can't wheel a 15th place car into a 10th place finish.

[TJ Majors]

It's hard for anybody to do that, honestly.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, give him a. If you give. If you give him a 15th place car on an oval, he'll be damn good to run 20th with it.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I was gonna say give him a fifth place car and hope he runs top 15.

[Travis]

And how often has he been getting a top 15 car this year?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, you give him a. At best. They gave him a 20th place car this weekend because Ross is 15th on speed and he's one of the best at Dover. He's one of the best. And so, you know, I think track house has to work a little bit to try to help SVG over these next couple of weeks. Kind of dial it in a little bit.

[Travis]

I mean, he's 29th on speed for the year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I know, but I mean, he's. Let's. Look, I would rather know. I Think that's, that's an important note. I'd rather know what his metric is in the last four oval races versus the very, the first four oval races. Right. And you would probably see that metric be like from. He was probably 35th, let's just say 35th on speed the first four oval races. I bet now he's like 27th, 26th at best.

[Travis]

And I'll text Russell and see if we can have it by a dough for you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay. But that, you know, he's, we gotta watch, you know, we gotta measure these little rungs on the ladder as he's trying to, you know, get himself into, into peak form as best, you know, the best possible form he could have.

[TJ Majors]

Do you think he gets knocked out in the first round?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If he doesn't get better, he's going to get knocked out.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. I just don't see with the way.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They ran this weekend, a guy, a guy who's still, you know, learning the ovals and a really mediocre race car, I think they're going to have to.

[TJ Majors]

It'S going to be tough improve.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's got to improve, but the car's got to get better too, man.

[TJ Majors]

He needs to be top 20 around to survive that first round. He needs to be inside the top 20 consistently. To me.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. To have a chance.

[TJ Majors]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And he's going to count on some other guys having some really tough luck.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, it's still going to be hard.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But yes, in racing, good enough is never good enough. You can always improve. And our teams here at Junior Motorsports haven't slowed down one bit. One tool that can help with business operations is safety culture. Trackhouse Racing uses safety culture to ensure every detail is tracked. Safety culture is purpose built for 80% of the blue collar workforce. The people that are out there working hard each and every day. From factories to stores and even race shops like Track House, every detail is tracked and everyone has full visibility to make sure nothing gets missed. Because the workers on the ground, they know what is happening the best. Safety culture makes it easy to share those insights. Giving visibility to other departments all in real time. This means that you and your team get the job done faster. Making better decisions and constantly finding more ways to improve so you can spend your time where it counts. You want to see how it could help put your business in the pole position? Head over to safetyculture.com SVG hey TJ.

[Travis]

I like that phone. Is it new?

[TJ Majors]

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

[Travis]

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

[TJ Majors]

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

[Travis]

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

[TJ Majors]

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

[Travis]

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

[TJ Majors]

They basically have an elite pit crew on standby waiting for you to call and make the switch. It's 100 US based. Customer service takes around 20 minutes and it'll be one of the best decisions you ever make. And now it couldn't be a better time to switch to consumer Cellular and get 25 off with code DJD25. That's DJD25 for 25 off. When you switch consumer cellular, go to consumercellular.com DJD and use promo code DJD25.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, it's time for you guys out there to send us your pics and videos of your ultimate racing collection. We love our Lionel diecast and it doesn't have to be just diecast though. If you got a great diecast collection, awesome. But if it's everything else, you know, uniforms, sheet metal, I don't care what it is. You got an awesome man cave with some NASCAR stuff in it, send it to us. We'll be posting on Twitter and Facebook. Respond to those posts with your picks, your videos, and if you've already submitted in the past months and didn't win, don't matter. Try again. Keep sending us all this great stuff. It's fun to see funded. I'm a collector. I love seeing other people have that same passion. And there's some people out there that are hardcore and really go after it. And it's good to see. Makes us feel great about our sport. So be make sure you follow all the dirty mo media social handles to see those posts about the Lionel ultimate racing collector. All right, Denny Hamlin, the winner at Dover, is here and we're excited to talk to you. I gotta, I gotta tell you, man, I'm pretty impressed with your ability to look as good as you've ever looked on the racetrack at 44 years old. Not a lot of drivers in our history have been able to maintain the consistent week in and week out performance. Now there's drivers that still won races at this age, but the, the consistent week to week performance was hard to come by. But you have talked about how, you know, you are the details guy. You do all the little things and you have to work extra hard to, to be the total package. So how do you still want to do that at 44 years old? I mean, you've been doing this 20 years.

[Denny Hamlin]

I'm just goal driven. I know, such a cliche answer, right? It's, but it's, I'm just a goals driven person, right? I, I'm setting out, you know, I said, I said I want to win 60 races. Well, if I, if I get to 60, then, then I'm going to tell you I want to get to 70. Like I just want to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Damn, you going to jump 10. I just go to 60.

[TJ Majors]

Might want to pull it back a little bit.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, 44 years old, you might want to just dial that back to number 65.

[Denny Hamlin]

I mean, for a year, for the next, you know, couple years, I, you know, finish this year off a couple more. I don't know, who knows? I don't know. I mean, if you don't have goals, if they're, you know, if they're just so easily attainable, is it really a goal? It's more like a, you know, a want at that point. I don't know, just feel like, you know, I want to win as many races as I possibly, possibly can. I gotta, I really want to finish my career in the top 10 of winners list. I gotta plan on a few guys coming up that, that will beat that one day, right? And so you gotta, can't just be 10th. You're gonna end up being 11th or 13th when this thing's all said and done. So I gotta get myself well inside that top 10. And certainly I think today it's harder to win than ever. I think that the winds get spread out more. The winds get spread out more than, than other years past. So I don't know, as long as I can keep winning and keep guys like Kyle Larson from winning, it'll keep them from passing me in a quicker fashion.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

When you go to the Brickyard, a race that you've yet to win, we moved away from it onto the road course there for a couple of years, so it kind of didn't allow you the opportunity to win on the oval, which is a pretty special place. I want to know what tracks that you look at to determine, you know, where you think you need to be what you need to work on. Maybe Pocono falls in that. That category. And I'm asking this question because I asked Steve Latart or Steve Latart puts Michigan in this group of tracks. I would comparable racetracks to Indy. What are those tracks for you?

[Denny Hamlin]

Gosh, it's so hard to say. I mean, Pocono is the one that. That to me. And. And it's been that way for decades. People always draw conclusions and. And you used to just kind of book it. Whoever won Pocono, they're going to show up to Indy and be the top guys, right? I know it was Bill Elliot towards the end of his career and Rusty Wallace and whatnot. It's a little different nowadays, you know, with. With passing just being so difficult, with all the cars being so close in speed. But it's just. It is a combination of everything at that track, right? You got to have the driver, obviously, to execute, but you have to have the car, you have to have the engine, you have to have the aero. You have to have the right strategy. All those things are factors in, you know, who wins that race. And so I certainly think that it's. It's kind of a. It's a good display of our. Of our series best. And putting us on the oval, no doubt added, you know, put the major back on the map for us and. And feel like, you know, it's. It's certainly more prestigious than running around the parking lot in the infield.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I agree. One last thing I wanted to ask you before we let you go. I feel like that Chase Briscoe is going to be in a lot of conversation that we have as a broadcast team and as the sport talks about, you know, what. What's going on throughout the playoffs. I feel like Briscoe is, like, slowly sort of creating this opportunity for himself. We've always seen him do really good things in the playoffs and overachieve, but now he's in a team and with a car that can do that anyways, and so he's certainly sort of found his stride since May, with qualifying and with race performance. How. How is that, you know, you're seeing all of this from behind closed doors, you know, behind the curtain. What do you think about, you know, about Chase so far and what kind of teammate is he?

[Denny Hamlin]

I think at the beginning, it was a struggle. I think it's. He struggled with understanding how differently our cars drove now. You know, that direction got sent. You know, the way our cars drive got sent through meetings that we had competition Meetings that we had had where, you know, us drivers are sending our engineers down a path of this is what we want out of our cars. This is what we need out of our cars. This is how we need them, how to feel to make speed. And it was different than what he had had over at Stewart Haas and the other places that he was. And so I think he struggled with. Holy crap, man. These things are loose in and they're, you know, there are all kinds of things. This is not what I'm used to. And I think he's finally understanding now kind of how to drive our cars. And I think he's also understanding the feedback that he needs to give the team and to make his cars better and drive better for him. I think that just took a little bit of time and now we're starting to see it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, pretty impressive, man. And I think he's going to. If he continues this trend, he'll be a handful for a lot of guys in the playoffs, man. Looking forward to. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

I got a quick question for you. I want to know the difference.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, TJ's got.

[TJ Majors]

I want to know difference between Denny now what it's like after a win compared to Denny 15 years ago.

[Denny Hamlin]

I don't have a headache the next day.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, I mean, we all know when you used to win, we knew that your neighbor.

[Denny Hamlin]

I was fun. I get it. I used to be fun. But I can tell you, the kids and certainly the baby don't give two whether you're hungover or not. And when you're feeling horrible and all you want is damn a power rating, a grilled cheese sandwich like it just. They don't care. And so I just. I don't do much. I usually try to wait till midweek and then me and the boys will go have dinner and then we'll go like Saeeds or something like that's. That's kind of our win parties nowadays.

[TJ Majors]

Not bad. Still good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

About right. 40. He is 40.

[TJ Majors]

I know. That's what I was wanting. I mean, we're all getting older, we're moving slower and it's harder for sure.

[Travis]

Denny, I've got a question for you. I forgot to bring this up. In your post race press conference, you said you're really competitive and there might be someone more competitive on this earth, but you don't know them.

[Denny Hamlin]

I don't.

[Travis]

So you're saying Michael Jordan's not as competitive as you?

[Denny Hamlin]

Not in today's world, no. The difference is, is when you saw Michael's competitiveness during that documentary, he was, he was in the middle of his game. He was actively competing. I think Michael Jordan At 60 years old or 50, I don't hate to mess this up, but at whatever age he is, it's different. He doesn't have to compete each and every week. So when you're in season or you're in, in your job of being a professional sports athlete, your mentality absolutely is different than what it is after you retire. So, no, I don't. I never had known Michael Jordan during that most intense time of his career. I know him as retired Michael. I know him as family Michael. I know him as my golfing buddy Michael. So it's a little bit different. Yeah, he still trash talks quite a bit when we go play golf, but so do I. So, like it's, you know, we're very, very similar in that, in that stance. But I never, unfortunately, never got to see that intense, intense side of him because I think he is a little different now that he's, you know, got a bunch of kids and married and just life's different.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, buddy, we appreciate your time today. We'll see you in Indy and have a good weekend.

[Denny Hamlin]

Thank you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hey, everybody. You want the latest Dale Jr. Download apparel? Visit shop.dirtymomedia.com we're always adding new stuff all the time. Especially like when we say something silly on this show. We'll put it on a T shirt again. Check it out at shop.dirtymomedia.com hey, Dale. Yo.

[Travis]

What are we doing for lunch today? I'm getting kind of hungry.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I'm already on it. It's actually going to be delivered soon. Arby's Angus cheesesteak with a side of curly fries is on the way. It's the ultimate meat and cheese combination for steak lovers like you and me. It's actually the perfect balance of quarter pound of Angus steak, melted American cheese fire roasted peppers and onions with a nice garlic spread to tie it all together. It's a must try. That's gonna be our lunch sandwich.

[Travis]

Sounds delicious. But there's one thing I've learned is if you're talking about food, I gotta trust you on this. You've never failed me yet.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I have not?

[Travis]

No.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You've nailed it. Well, there you go. Man, this sandwich has it all. When I first tried this, I was at the shop checking on the race cars and stuff, seeing if the guys needed anything. We ordered up some Arby's and when this Angus cheesesteak arrived, I was blown away by how much steak is actually on this thing. Definitely big enough to satisfy your hunger. Tastes like a true American classic. Everybody check out your nearest Arby's today to try this Angus Cheesesteak. And if you want it delivered like we do, use code dale for $0delivery when you order through the Arby's app. That's Code D A L E on the app, available for a limited time at participating U.S. locations while supplies last.

[Russell]

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

[Travis]

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

[Russell]

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

[Travis]

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

[Russell]

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

[Travis]

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

[Russell]

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

[Travis]

Just go to indeed.com dalejr right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.comdalejr Terms and conditions apply. Hiring and Deed is all you need.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We're live here for Xfinity Ass Junior at dirtymo Media with my good friend TJ Majors. Andrew's here as well. Appreciate all y' all tuning in and thank you. Xfinity. We know booming speeds when we see it and Xfinity Wi Fi is booming like the roar of a NASCAR engine. It's the power and speed of NASCAR in your home. Choose the right plan for you and you're off to the races with the best streaming experience for all your favorite sports. Because Xfinity Wi FI is truly booming. They don't just raise the bar, they stream in overdrive. And they're a proud premier partner of NASCAR and a great partner here of ours at dirtymo Media. So let's get right to the questions.

[Russell]

Yeah, absolutely. This is the, I think, most popular question of the week. You, Dale, certainly stirred up a lot of interest, curiosity with the picture from Luke Combs's new music video. So what was it like? What can you tell us from that?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, basically, Luke text me and said, hey, man, I'm going to do this music video for this song. He sent me the song. He said, would you want to be in it? I said, yes, absolutely. And so we started talking about the, you know, what we would do, where we would do it. They thought, man, you know, let's get a next gen car and go to Charlotte, my speedway. And so we. We looked around and there weren't really any next gen cars available for us to use. And so I said, I said to Luke, I was like, why don't we, you know, the song's about getting back in the saddle and getting, you know, kind of a little bit of a comeback story or, you know, kind of like a veteran going back to his roots even. And so I thought, man, let's go to a short track and let's take one of the late model stock cars. This will be great. To shine a light on grassroots racing. To shine a light on late models. And so we went to Tri County Motor Speedway, which is about an hour and 15 minutes from the house. We wrapped two of our late mall cars identically, so we'd have one car with all the windows out of it and a bunch of cameras mounted all over it. And then another car that looked, you know, clean and you could film the car from a distance. Luke gets up in the grandstands and walks around the track, and they filmed us in the tunnel and doing all kinds of other stuff. And then he's up in the flag stand and I'm making laps and I'm racing at Tri county later this year. So I thought, I want to go somewhere where I can get some laps. And yeah, so we. So I ran, you know, we ran and I followed a camera car around the track a little bit. We got some shots that way. And then I ran some relatively hard laps in the car with the cameras mounted all over it. And then, then I put on, you know, I got my. I got my car ready and set up, put on a set of tires and went out there and ran probably 25 really hard laps. So that. And then they filmed Luke up in the stands. And Richard Petty's in this as well. He kind of comes in at the end and he's like, hey, my turn. I want to run. I want to drive. And so pretty neat, man. I was. I was honored to be asked to do it. And I'm thankful that they, you know, that Luke and his team thought of me and Richard and included us in this project. So pretty cool. Pretty awesome opportunity. Look, think it's out Friday. I look forward to what people's reaction is to it.

[TJ Majors]

And yeah, it's not your first music video, though. You've been in a few more, right?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, but it feels like it's been a while since I've been involved in one. You.

[Russell]

You said originally they wanted a next gen car. You're going to Charlotte. So, like, how much creative freedom was it? Like you and Luke kind of planning this music video where there was like, did he have a director? Like, no, this is how I want to do it. Like, how much creative freedom did you guys have?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's pretty much whatever he and I wanted to do. It felt like, wow, that's cool, Luke. Luke's like, hey, whatever Dale wants is great. I'm glad he's doing it. And so, you know, I've never driven a next gen, and I never will be racing in a next gen car in my life. And so having me in the next gen running around a racetrack in Charlotte talking about back in the saddle, people are gonna go, well, that's bullshit. They're gonna go. Yeah, they're gonna go, man, this. This is bull.

[TJ Majors]

You want to run the roval, don't you?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You do What? What is.

[Russell]

Is this an announcement?

[TJ Majors]

He wants to run the roval.

[Denny Hamlin]

I knew it.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They're gonna go, oh, is he? Is he really? Is this bullshit? You know, they're gonna be disappointed more than anything. And so I thought, well, let's do something realistic. Cause I do run four or five late model races.

[TJ Majors]

I like the rumors of you going to cup racing better. Those are more fun.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not for me, but I enjoy it. Yeah, well, it doesn't seem to make people happy when they find out it's not true. So.

[TJ Majors]

The ride's fun.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. TJ likes to make people miserable.

[TJ Majors]

I guess just you sometimes it makes it. I mean, it's equal. I mean, you do your fair share, so.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, you're right.

[Travis]

Title of today's podcast is gonna be Dale's Back in the saddle.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Already. Already. Yeah. Yeah.

[Russell]

Big announcement.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So that. Anyways, I'm excited for people to see it. It's out Friday.

[Russell]

Someone saw on Twitter, dale, after Connor's win, the rain shortened win, you already had beer and pickles in your hand. And they wanted to know, is this going to be the new standard for victory lane? Are you going to be double fisting with a beer and pickles moving forward?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There's an orchard about two hours from Dover that I get pickles from. They do not ship, so it's hard to get them. You have to either know somebody who's passing through or you got to go get them yourself. A race fan knows that I like these, and they brought them to the racetrack, and she was behind our pit during the race. I was on top of the one box during the race listening to Carson kwapple and his team. And she's like, hey, she's tweeted at me. I brought pickles to the track. I was like, well, I'd love to meet you. And. And she. So she come to the Pitts and she's like, hey, pickle guy, pickle lady here. So I got. I got the pickles and I just hung on to them and, you know, we won the race. I'm the one box and the eight box are side by side on pit road, and in between them is victory lane. Oh, and so easy. Yeah. I'm standing down on pit road with Marty Lindley, the crew Chief of the 88 for Connor Zillich. And we're talking about what we're going to do if we go back to green. You know, do we pit for tires? Do we wait and save our tires? Well, they called the race, and so I just walked right into victory lane because that's where everybody's going. Well, the guys, they had all this bush, like, bush light stacked up perfectly in these pyramids. Right. So it'd be a nice backdrop for the driver getting out of the car. There's these guys in there, and they're. They're unstacking all this beer and putting it in these big beer coolers. And I'm like, all right. They're moving victory lane to. To another location, which would be the cup garage. And they're putting all this beer in these coolers and will them over there. But I just grabbed a beer. I was like, I'm gonna just take one now. And so I grab a beer and I walk. I'm walking down pit road to get to the cup garage to victory lane where they're going to have it. And I had the pickles and the beer, and so that's how that happened.

[Russell]

Speaking of Connors, when you guys at JRM are closing in on 100 company wins, what would it mean to get to that big 100 milestone?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I hope we can do it at Indy, but I just read yesterday that Larson's driving the 17, so that just. That job got a little tougher. But I'll.

[Travis]

I thought you guys wanted another shot at him.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We do, but I just. I will admit that he is a very good race car driver and a good race car. The, you know, the next handful of races, there's. There's a couple obligations that I've got that aren't. That would make it tough to get there. So, like, let me see.

[TJ Majors]

So you're going to St. Elmo's over the Xfinity race. I got you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, no, I'm saying I'll be at Indy.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, the toast. I got you. Or the race? Which one you talk about, the toast or the race? The race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'll be. I'm talking about the race to be there, to be in victory lane, to enjoy this moment. And I've got to figure out what to do about this, but we had a. We have a family trip planned on one particular weekend in the coming future that is not just my family, but it's multiple families together. So I've got the Budweiser cars Tour race coming up. There's a Bass Pro Shop Cars Tour race coming up. Yeah. So I don't know. No, I hope that. I don't.

[Russell]

Wow.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Travis]

Carson Copple's gonna win this weekend. Damn it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I hope somebody wins this weekend just because I'm there. We can do it. And Indy, I. You know, Indy. Holy.

[TJ Majors]

Be big.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know if they let us. I don't know if they let us kiss the bricks in the Xfinity series.

[TJ Majors]

They do.

[Travis]

Is anybody gonna stop?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So, yeah, I think I remember one year when Justin won and they. We weren't. They didn't let us do it.

[Russell]

I thought at least the indie Xfinity races I've been to, they've kissed.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think maybe they've.

[Russell]

I think it stopped with that tradition.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, no, I think it might. Might be something that happens with just the driver after all the media is over with and everything else. But it's not like, you know, get the team out there like the cup deal.

[TJ Majors]

It should be, though.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It should be. Hell, yeah, it should be. Especially if It's a company's 100th win. We'll see.

[Russell]

Well, maybe you can make an exception.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know. I can't just do what I want.

[TJ Majors]

You know, a guy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay.

[Travis]

What would this win mean for you and Kelly, though, and the family in the organization?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I just, you know, you never thought you would be. You never thought you'd win 100 races. You just wanted to win one. And so it's pretty. Pretty emotional, honestly, to think about not only the. The number of wins, but the names on that list, the drivers that were part of that list. Pretty epic list of drivers to. To have driven our cars and won races in them over the years. That's problem that the. The number's awesome. I love the names on that list because there's some badasses on there.

[Russell]

This next question is for tj, but Dale, I am curious to hear your opinion on this. It's from Danny. Tj, how much do you talk about the driver on channel two no.

[TJ Majors]

Nowadays or back in the day?

[Russell]

Yeah, right, exactly. That's what I want to know.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, there's no proof of that. There is no proof of them digitals back in the day.

[Russell]

Did you. Did you talk about dale on Channel.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

2 back in the day?

[TJ Majors]

Not bad. Just not really. Not as bad as, like, what he would do on channel one. But I just. I'd just be like, I'm done talking to him. Like, I'd just be like, you know, this. I was pretty nice about. I said a lot of stuff, but I didn't use any channel. I would just not push the button and say what I wanted to say. Yeah, you gotta. You gotta get it out at some point. But I never really use channel two, you know, not like, what an idiot. He missed that corner. You know what I mean? Like, there was just like. I mean, it was just mostly when he get done yelling, I just be like, I'm done talking to him. Like, he's your.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You.

[TJ Majors]

He's yours now. You can. You can talk to him. I'm done.

[Russell]

Dale. Now, the question for you is how much talking do you think happened on Channel 2 when you were driver?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, once I learned that it was going on a little bit with a particular crew chief, it made me very concerned, you know, that it was consistently like, how long had this been going on? Right. And then now, like, I'm like, oh, I don't know. It just really. What. Once you learn. I'll say this as a driver, when you learn that there's even one negative word said about you on the other channel, that's the end of the relationship. You know, it just. If you hear. If you hear in the. And TJ as a spotter has to be careful. And. And this crew chief also has to be careful when they communicate to the driver outside of the car, because they can't give that. You know, you can't slip up and give that impression that somebody's talking, you know, on the other channel. Yeah, for sure, man. Because it really phrased that relationship and trust. So if I think, man, you know, when things are. When things aren't going well, my crew chief's talking about me or complaining about me or, like, why is. Why is he doing that? Why'd he do that? Why is he running there? Tell him this.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, yeah, There's. There was a lot I had. I actually had his back one time that we had stayed out, and we. We were on old tires, and everybody blew by us at Fontana, and. And, I mean, it was one lap. We went from the outside front row to 20th, and the crew chief was like, why don't you tell them. Let everybody go by. And I'm like, really? I mean, we're just trying not to get wrecked right here. So I'm. I just told him, like, why don't you keep up? Tell them yourself? And I. I never heard anything after that. But, I mean, we're out there, like, trying literally not to get wrecked. And, like, I did not. It didn't sit well with me.

[Travis]

How long did you go, Dale, before you found out about Channel 2?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How.

[Travis]

Like, how. How long was that?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think I went about. I think it probably may have been almost a half a year.

[TJ Majors]

He would make comments during the race when something would go. He'd do something or it was not great, and he'd be like, I bet you're talking about that on channel two. Like, yeah.

[Travis]

How did you find out about it?

[TJ Majors]

I don't even remember.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, you. I think TJ Told me eventually, I might have.

[TJ Majors]

We would talk about it and. And on the rides home and stuff, and.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

And, you know, things like that. So.

[Russell]

One more question. Tj, you said when he would. When Dale would really piss you off, you would just go quiet. Is. Is that what you would do? Like.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, yeah. You ask him how the quiet. I got one time.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What.

[Russell]

What was it?

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I was so pissed. I was so mad. He kept. He couldn't make his mind up. And I'm trying to adjust to what he would like at the time. And he's like, don't. Don't clear me. Because as soon as you say, you know, I'm coming up, and I'm. So we were passing a car, and. And he didn't clear him. So I didn't say anything. And he's like, well, you're not gonna tell me he's there. I'm like, you just told me not to tell you, you know, if he was still there or not. And so I got, I got, I got so mad. I'm. I quit talking. And he passed another car and I didn't say anything. He's like, oh, I see how it's going to be now. And I'm like, you damn right. You're going to be clearing yourself for a while. And I, I got Tony Jr. Down there texting me. He's. Are you still up there? I'm like, yeah, I'm here, but I'm not talking. And that was, that was probably the time I got the most mad.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

What race was Michigan? Do you guys remember cot car? I think at Michigan whenever. I mean, I don't feel like we were running that bad. He just had his hands full and he's like. He kept changing his mind and I.

[Travis]

Got pissed and how many laps you think it lasted for?

[TJ Majors]

Half a run. I finally cooled off. It was a little while. It will. Same type of run where he, he went out and he was so mad and practiced that he would. You run a full, A full fuel run?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, me, me and Tony Jr. Oh man. Me and me. And that was it. Tony junior oh yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So. And me and Tony junior. I don't know if we were arguing before I got in the car or right after I got in the car, but he, he said something smart assy pissed me off. And so I just shut up and I ran the car out of gas. Ran like we were. It was like happy hour. It was like an hour practice or something.

[TJ Majors]

Oh yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And I was like, I'm just gonna run this some to this some runs out again. I ran like 44 laps or something.

[TJ Majors]

It was a long way.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

I'm like, I don't know what we're doing. I was keeping lap times.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And I finally ran out of gas.

[TJ Majors]

That might have been the same weekend. That might have been the same weekend that. That it all happened. Yeah, it might have been the same.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're just in a bad mood. Driving a cot will put your ass in a bad mood, I'll tell you that.

[TJ Majors]

It was. He was so angry in the cot.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What a piece of juice. A piece of junk. Race car.

[TJ Majors]

We're leading Atlanta.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

People complain about the next gen every now and then. That's the OT was a piece of crap everywhere.

[TJ Majors]

We were leading Atlanta and he's like screaming on the radio and I'm like, we're leading the race. What's so bad? Like, he was still mad.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Thing was joke. Wow. Yeah.

[Russell]

I love these stories. Let's see this next question coming from Michael. They want to know, how did you initially get connected with Steve Latart? And they heard there was a team swap that was pitched to you to swap teams with Mark Martin.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

Is that true?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So Mark. Yeah. So Mark. Mark had one year left. Mark was doing great. Him and Alan were together and Mark was doing great. I thought the world of Mark Martin. I'd known Mark Martin since I was a little, little six, five year old boy. And Mark was a great teammate and very supportive. And so I'd had some tough, tough years and we were trying to figure it out. And I was thankful, right, that Rick was gonna keep trying to figure it out and not. Not fire me. And so, I mean, I'd ran bad enough to be fired for sure, no question. But I had a lot of support financially through partnerships and sponsors and popularity and all those things that was kind of keeping me hanging on. Right. And I felt like that, you know, in the right situation, we could, I could, I should be able to win, but we just couldn't figure out what that. What that person was the person I needed on the pit box. And so he was like, well, Mark's got one more year with us and then we're gonna do bring in Casey Kane. He's like, I could. I'm gonna swap you and Mark. And I was like, man, I don't. I don't think I want to go a whole year looking across the shop at Mark in the same building, driving his race cars while he's driving mine. And I didn't like the situation I was in. And I didn't think it was fair to take Mark out of something that he was very happy with and put him with something that he saw wasn't really working that well. I just felt like that, that that was going to be bad all around. And not, not that I didn't want to work with Alan. I did. But I very much wanted to work with Alan, honestly, because I'd seen him do what he did with. With Mark right there in the shop I was in. So. But I didn't. So I was like, you know, I told Rick, I said, man, I. I really don't feel comfortable about this, this opportunity, this change. And so what happened was Jeff Gordon heard about what Rick wanted to do, and I think Rick went to Jeff and said, what do you think? Jeff was like, I'll go drive for Allen. So Rick came back. Rick come back to me just a couple days later. And he goes, hey, Jeff was gonna go drive for Allen. I'm gonna put you in the 48, 48, 24 shop with Latartte. And I was like, now you're talking. I was like, you know, I think in my mo. In my. In my mind, you know, getting out of that shop and into that environment with Chad Knouse, Jimmy Johnson, they're winning races. Like, get me close to that. Put me right up next to that. I want to. I want to see what they're doing, look at what they're doing, learn, you know, lean on what they're doing. The two shops, you know, the 48 and the 8 and the 24 shop and act, they operated so differently than. Than where I was with. With the 88 and the 5. They just weren't the same culture. And. And. And I was like, well, this. This team's winning. I want to be in that shop with that team, and maybe that'll help me. And. And I don't. I'm not feeling the guilt of putting Mark in a bad spot. And so that's what ended up happening. I felt like, you know, it took the. It took. It took the responsibility off of me. And it was like, hey, this is Jeff Gordon's decision to come over here to Allen, and then that's going to put me there, and, you know, Mark's going to shift over. And it all. That made more sense. And I was still nervous about Latart because him and Jeff had struggled. But I quickly learned immediately, Latart said, I'm coming to your house. He called me. He goes, hey, I learned that me and you working together, I'm coming to your house. We weren't. We didn't know each other hardly. I mean, I knew who he was, but we didn't talk. We weren't friends even.

[TJ Majors]

Like you said in the shops, it was such a difference between the two. You didn't cross paths a ton.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I barely knew the tart. He come to my house and he's like. I mean, this is like all. Within a couple days, all this happening. He come to my house and he's like. He's like, you're on your last opportunity. If this doesn't work, I think that that'll be the end of your opportunity at Hendrick Motorsports, which I agreed with. He said, nobody believes in me either. He goes, jeff Gordon moved from me to Allen, because he doesn't think that this is working. So I feel also like this might be my last chance to get something right. So me and you both are in the same boat. And he's like, we're going to bust our ass. I'm going to ask you to do all kinds of. And you're going to do it. And so, you know, it was awesome. I think it changed Latart as a person and as a crew chief to have, have that, that, that big change happen. And he, he, he was one of the first crew chiefs ever, after a race to tell me he needed to give me a better car. I mean, I'd never heard that before. Tony Senior and Tony Jr. Built me some bad ass race cars, but they took every car to the track thinking that that car is, is, is a winning car. They did. And I love that about them. But Latart would say, hey, you know, I saw you out there today. I got to make the car better to give you what you need. And I love, I love that because it didn't, it was, everything wasn't hanging on my shoulders. And anyhow, I could talk about it for days, man. It was awesome. He, he told, he said, hey, you're gonna, you're, you know, this is your last shot, man. I'm going to give you all this you're gonna have to do, and you're gonna do it. And I said, all right, it's my last shot. I'm gonna do all this. Everything you tell me to do. I don't care what you tell me to do, I'm gonna do it. And, and he was all in. And we took off from there. We ended up taking our car from like being a. We were like, hey, we're gonna, we're gonna run this first year. And our goal, because we were that bad, we'd been running 20th every week. So we got our cars to where we were finishing the top in top 15, you know, 12th.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, we led the points for the first half of the year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was going to get there.

[TJ Majors]

Sorry.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Then he, then he says, he says, not the first year together. Then he says, all right, man, We're a top 15 car now. Top tens are our goal. So we did that for a while. Eight or ten races. We're running top ten every week. All right, man, we're a top ten car. Top five is our goal. So we turned our car in like a year and a half, we became a top five team. We showed up to the track and ran in the top five and finished in the top five. And to TJ's point, we're leading the damn regular season points. I remember that one year we're neck and neck with Greg Biffle, and so all the way through the summer, you know, so it was really cool because Latart was like, we got this. We're going to have a methodical approach, and we're going to just shoot for this and then we nail that. We're going to nail. Shoot for this and nail that. And we kept setting these goals and reaching them, and it worked. And I was like, all right. It was awesome. So. But that was. If we hadn't made that change, man, I don't think I would have ever won another race. I just, you know, it was gonna. It was gonna be an ugly grind to the very end.

[Travis]

Was Latart the first person to tell you that this is your last shot, or was that the first time you've heard it from somebody else?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think, man, I think he was the only one that ever said that to me, and I think he was.

[Travis]

What was it like when you heard it?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, he said it. He didn't say it like, you think. I mean, he said it in such a way of like, hey, look, I think both of us are kind of on our last opportunity here, or both of us got a. Got to make this work. It could be our last chance at, you know, being a driver and a crew chief for this. For this company, you know? And I think he. He made. He said it in such a way. It wasn't like, oh, you know, the world's. The sky's fallen. It was more like, look, I. I'm. He's basically saying to me, I'm in the same situation you're in, and I'm willing to do everything to make this work with you, and I'm going to believe in your ass. Like, I think you're the best driver out there on the track. And he did. And he was a cheerleader. Incredible.

[TJ Majors]

That team was also really. The team that he built was pretty.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He built to TJ's point. He put all the right people. And he. He was talking about this. This past weekend. I know we're kind of running long, but he was talking about this this past weekend. People would come up to him and say, what's the right. What's your right rear spring rate on the Raider? And he would look at them and go, I don't know. That's a question for Kevin, my engineer. I don't know. And they're like. And they're and people would be like, but you're the crew chief. Just tell me. And he's like, I would, but I don't have that answer. Kevin has that answer. And so, like, Steve was a true modern crew chief, that the setup was left to Kevin meandering, the engineer, who was incredible. And Kevin set the car up. I talked to Kevin about the balance. I talked to Kevin about what changes I agreed with or what. What I. What. What. We. Me and Kevin discussed the details around the race car. Steve built the team. Steve improved positions that need to be improved. Strategy. Steve did strategy when we were going to pit, how we're going to do tires, how we're going to do fuel. And Steve was responsible for the team morale and all those things. And it was great at. Yeah, it was the perfect build of a race team. Anybody, in my opinion, could have gotten in that situation and succeeded. And I was lucky to have to finally found the. The package that I needed to be good. Yeah, that's a long, long answer there for that. But.

[Russell]

No, but it was great. It was. It was fantastic because I knew you and Steve worked well together, but I didn't know what it was specifically. So I. I really.

[TJ Majors]

We still have a 2014 group chat, remember? I mean, they still. Every once in a while, TMAC or somebody chimes in.

[Russell]

Yeah, you got a text. Yeah, got a text in it again, but that was awesome. Great stories today on Ash Jr. And that's where we're going to wrap it up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, well, I appreciate it, everybody. Thanks for all the great questions. Thank you, TJ and Andrew. And thank you, Xfinity, for bringing us today's Ask Junior segment. In racing and in life, speed is critical. We all know how important speed is, and we. We always rely on Xfinity Wi fi for. For the best speeds and dependable Internet and prices locked in for five years. No contracts, no slowdowns, no nonsense. Xfinity is a proud premier partner of nascar. Thank you, guys. Thank you, Xfinity.

[Tim]

Chasing trends is one thing, but finding pieces that fit right, feel good, and actually last, That's a game changer. And that's where Quince comes in. Quint's has the kind of stuff that you'll actually wear on repeat, like breathable flow knit polos, crisp cotton shirts, and comfortable, lightweight pants that somehow work for both weekend hangs and dressed up dinners. And the best part, everything with Quince is half the cost of similar brands. By working directly with top artisans and cutting out the middlemen, Quince gives you luxury pieces without the markups. I love my pieces from Quince because I can wear them together. I can layer them or just wear them on their own. And the best part about it, besides how comfortable and quality they are, is the price. They really are affordable and great staples to have in your closet. I stick to staples at last with elevated essentials from quince. Go to quince.comdalejr for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's quince q u I n c e.com dalejr to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.comdalejr this is an ad by BetterHelp.

[Travis]

Workplace stress is one of the top causes of declining mental health. With 61% of the global workforce experiencing high stress, most of us can't wave goodbye to work. But we can start small with the focus on wellness. Therapy can help you navigate whatever challenges the workday or any day might bring. With over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform, having served over 5 million people globally. And it works with an App store rating of 4.9 out of 5 based on over 1.7 million client reviews. It's convenient, too. You can join a session with the click of a button, helping you fit therapy into your busy life, plus switch therapists at any time. As the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com dalejr that's betterhelp.com dalejR.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Place your bets. All right, it's time for Dirty Motion with Tampa Tim's and Russell and tj. This segment of Dirty Modo is brought to you by Fan duel. We like FanDuel. I've got an account. Who else has an account here? Raise your hand. I do.

[Andrew]

I do.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All righty, tj. Alrighty. Everybody's got one. We lost another manufacturer parlay this weekend, but we got so close.

[TJ Majors]

We did.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. So we went with our, you know, we went without emotion and just went by the pure statistics and we got damn close, fellas. So let's stay on this path, all right? Let's not give up.

[Travis]

Well, hold on a second. Didn't Tim's kind of me and Russ.

[Bob]

Did say Bowman, but it's okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, look, team, that's the great thing about this. If you don't believe in all three, only bet the two that you like or you can change any of these around to the driver that you believe will win the parlay for you, or you can only bet one singular, you know, manufacturer and leg, and not even do a parlay. But, you guys, if you. If you thought it was Bowman, you should have been a little bit louder, spoke up a little more forceful. You know, I'm. I'm. I know that I'm a dominant personality and tough. Tough to sway me, but you guys can do it. I. You have the ability.

[Bob]

I would have probably bet Chase more than Bowman, so I wouldn't. I wouldn't be too.

[TJ Majors]

There's no way Russell's coming out and saying Bowman. He'd like that. That aggressive.

[Andrew]

There's not.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But.

[Andrew]

But I was on the Bowman train last week for sure.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You were, but you. We. We didn't trust you because you've not been a Bowman guy all year. And so we were like, you know, okay, he's back in the Bowman. On the Bowman train. Is this 10% back?

[Travis]

That should say something, though, if he's back in Bowman, like, that's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Is it 10%? Is it 40%, 90%? We couldn't tell.

[Andrew]

It was high. It was pretty high. That's his best.

[TJ Majors]

We didn't get that reading.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's good.

[TJ Majors]

I never got that reading.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No. Now what? I'm serious. Like, God dang, y'. All. Hey. All right, so I. I think. I think this week, looking at the odds, so Hamlin's 450, Larson 550, Byron 800. Blaney, Elliott at 850. I'm going Blaney and Denny for sure. You guys feel good about that as far as Toyota, Ford?

[Andrew]

Absolutely.

[TJ Majors]

I do feel good about Blaney.

[Andrew]

I think the Chevy one's the hard one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's right. So I was going to hold off on that. We're good. We're confident. Denny, Blaney, hold on.

[Travis]

I think TJ was only confident in one of those.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, but I mean, it's still hard to go against Denny right now. It's. He's got speed and momentum, so he's going to start well.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Well, okay. So the Chevy one is the tough one. Larson, Chase, Byron, I think are the three that. We got a debate. Do you throw anybody else in there?

[TJ Majors]

I don't think right now, I don't.

[Andrew]

Think you can do that. But I think Byron's really on the struggle bus, so I would kind of eliminate him.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I agree. Let's eliminate Byron. Byron's gonna be hearing this. He's gonna be ready to make us Regret them words.

[TJ Majors]

That's kind of the way I feel like he's ready to pounce anytime now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So I like Byron. Honestly though, looking at, looking at our little chart here, his pit crew not quite as strong as that five team. And yeah, Chase and Kyle both look better. It's a really cool algorithm or whatever you may call that. And I've been trying to. So we, we see those in video games and that's kind of like technology that you, when you're looking at like prospects or players in sports, you can kind of use those style of graphs. And I really like those. And I thought we might be able to. Me and Russell been working on trying to figure out how to make that understandable and easy for a fan to look at and go, oh, that's cool. I like that. That tells me something. So look, Larson's passing, like I say, his average season average drop dropped to 12 throughout the summer. Now he was number one this weekend and I think that bodes well for, for his Indy because you're going to need to be great at passing cars if you can't pass cars in this. It's a one lane racetrack, dirty air, impossible to get around anybody.

[TJ Majors]

Well, that's exactly what he did last year. He passed a lot of cars to get back to the front. He had tires, but he did the same thing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I feel like I love what I saw out of Chase Elliott this weekend, but I'm just not ready to, to put money on that, you know.

[TJ Majors]

Where was Larson on the speed chart last week? Was he, was he very good over like raw speed?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Larson was, let's see, at Dover, Larson was six on speed.

[TJ Majors]

Where was Chase?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Chase on speed. First was first.

[TJ Majors]

I was just saying if Larson starts top five, does he run with Chase all day? You know what I mean? Like, does that help his, does he, did he have the car to run with Chase if he was there with him to begin with?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I don't think he did. Larson's third on speed overall for the season. Chase is seventh.

[TJ Majors]

I'm not ready to jump on the nine, the nine train.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I just think he. Listen, they are going to be Nick and freaking Nick. It's not easy.

[TJ Majors]

The nine runs good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I do too. I think they go. I think the nine. I think, listen, we're talking about Byron not being in the argument. I literally think them, some could be sitting there running in the top five, all three of them at some point in the race. But I just feel like Larson's going to be the one that'll Be in front of them.

[Bob]

The nine's going to make some. The team's going to make some sort of mistake or something like a bad call and push him back to like sixth or seventh. Seems like to happen every time he has a good car. So I think Larson is a safer bet.

[TJ Majors]

I've got to roll with Larson.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What do you think, Russell?

[Andrew]

I can't go against Larson. It's like what you said last week. You can't miss that Larson train when it gets back.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, Larson, Denny Blaney, let's talk about some head to heads. Obviously we have the bracket challenge, the two ties going at it. Everything in the world would tell you that Ty Gibbs should win the bracket challenge and the $1 million will go to Joe. Unfortunately for Ty, as you'll learn later in the show, we all learn. I feel like that, you know, again, Todd Dillon. Todd Dillon has been able to take this car and get the results that this car can get. You know, he finished 20th this past weekend and that, that, that result is really his season in a, in a nutshell. Grind it out, grind it out, grind it out and get, you know, get an 18th, 16th, 20th, 20, 22nd place finish. And he's tenacious. I'm talking about Ty Dillon. He's gonna fight, fight, fight, and he's gonna, you know, if he gets lapped or for whatever reason, probably won't get lapped at this particular race because of the size of the track. But he fights and finds his way back on the lead lap like he did at Dover this past weekend. But I just think that Ty Gibbs is in a very good position. They've made some changes on the pit box. They've sort of gotten him refocused re, you know, back on track mentally and emotionally. And I think he'll be, you know, he'll run a good race and do what do, do what he needs to do to, to win this matchup.

[TJ Majors]

He's got the edge for sure, just speed wise. If he, if he just gets singled out in line, he should run anywhere from 7th to 12th. Pretty, pretty legit straight up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'll be curious as to how much the $1 million bracket challenge matters to these two teams and what Ty Dillon or Ty Gibbs, if anything, would be willing to do to make sure they win that.

[TJ Majors]

I think Ty Dillon, Ty Dillon would be definitely willing to probably do more.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know Ty Dillon. I guess my question is, is Ty Gibbs watching Ty Dillon at all? I would argue he might not give a.

[TJ Majors]

Maybe not yet. But if it comes down to it in the race and he has a bad stop or some sort of, you know, adversity and he ends up near Ty Dillon, he will probably know where he's at at that point. Ty Dillon know where he's at, that's for sure.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Ty Dylan's gonna know where Gibbs is, absolutely complain. He's gonna know where his ass is staying, what room is what room, you know what I mean. But Ty Gibbs probably won't. What are. Let's look at some other head to heads. I believe we'll see this weekend from nascar, Hamlin versus Larson.

[Bob]

If Hamlin's the underdog, I would take Hamlin, but this is very, very close.

[Andrew]

I like Hamlin for sure. Hamlin is all green when you look at them head to head.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I agree. Especially at Indy, Pocono, Michigan style, racetracks, Denny's. Denny looks better on restarts, on defense, on every metric. Only thing only area where Larson has a bit of an edge is the pit crew, oddly enough, because you always think about the Gibbs guys as being the best. That's a tough one. I probably would skip that one. Bell versus Reddick. I think Christopher Bale's back on his game.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I don't. We don't. I haven't seen Reddick just kind of been there. You don't really see him a lot lately and you know, we went to a lot of road courses where you thought maybe he'd be more competitive than what he was as well from the last couple years of his road course stuff and just haven't really seen a lot of Tyler.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I agree.

[Andrew]

I like Reddick on this style of track though. Over Bell like in the next gen car like Reddick, six to three better finishes than them on. On this style of track.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's better on speed, he's better on long runs, much better on passing. Reddick is. His defense is way better.

[Andrew]

2311 was so good at Indy last year. One like Reddick won the poll. They led a bunch of laps.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, Reddick was last year though. This like, to TJ's point, they haven't been the same this year. It doesn't seem like.

[TJ Majors]

I don't think they have been.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You wouldn't. You wouldn't think. I mean you. You wouldn't think that what's going on with them in the lawsuit and open team and all this, that and the other would be any kind of a distraction is turn. Once you get to the track, you think you can put all that behind you, but it just feels like they can't. Get. They can't get over this hump there. There's a barrier in front of them in terms of performance. I think I'm going with Christopher Bell there because I think we.

[TJ Majors]

I think I'm leaning back question marks.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

With Reddick, but Russell will remind us if we're wrong. Bubba versus Blaney, this seemed. I can't. Is this matchup. They really have this matchup? Because I feel like Blaney. I know the Fords kind of struggled this past weekend, but I feel like Blaney would be the heavy favorite there.

[Bob]

Yeah, I feel like Penske at India, not gonna let that thing be a dud.

[TJ Majors]

He was fast last year. Blaney was there, so I don't see why he wouldn't. He just. He. Blaney, he just correlates well to some of these tracks, and I feel like it's one he does.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Bob]

This is Blaney all day for me.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I. I agree. Does. Is there anything. I mean, the. The odds would, you know to. To make money on this? The odds would be in your favor to bet Bubba. Is there anything about Bubba going into this race? I mean, when I look at the charts, Bubba's pit crew is far more superior. And Bubba matches the passing, but that's. You know, he matches it passing, maybe on long run speed is about the.

[Andrew]

Yeah, the last five. At this style of track, it's been four to one for Blaney, so.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Just.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right. Well, I'd say Bubba's got an advantage on restarts, but Blaney's restart metric looks pretty good, too, so Bubba's always kind of been one of the better restarts. This past weekend, he was jumping to the top, gaining a bunch of spots when he could on. On the. The high side of Dover, but, yeah, I think Blaney is a pick here, too, so. Blaney Bale. I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna bet on the Larson Hamlin. I don't think I could pick one if I had to.

[Travis]

Tim's. Who are some top 10 bets that you might have your eyes on Bubba.

[Bob]

Cause he's just consistent. Like, I don't think he's gonna Dover anybody finished seventh last week, so I think they're just trying to points their way to this, to the playoffs as much as they can. I like him. And Erik Jones, I don't know. He kind of standed out to me because he's good at Pocono, so maybe. Maybe this will be a good track for him. But he has struggled because of this road course month we've had, so, you know, it's tough. This is. I feel like you guys tell me wrong. I feel like this is a very much like straight up race kind of like last week too. Like if you. If you're qualified front, you're. This is probably where.

[TJ Majors]

But the only thing that could flip this race is a timely caution in the middle of a pit cycle or something. Somebody could get it right, somebody could pit and the cost come out and. Well, that'd flip it around.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

This will be a very frustrating event because the, the lack of a second groove and to Yalls point, wherever you qualify, man, you can hang on to that track position all day long as long as you don't make any mistakes on pit road or like TJ says, have an untimely caution, flip the field upside down.

[Travis]

So we were talking about SVG and his oval speed last four races versus first of the season. Russ, do you happen to have those numbers for us?

[Andrew]

Yeah, I don't think that there's not a huge improvement over those last like the last four versus the first four. But like his long run speed is where it's really improved. Like not the overall speed, but his long run speed went from 35th to 28th. You know, it's not like it's a huge jump.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, that's about what I was expecting. Yeah. And.

[Andrew]

And that like Charlotte, Nashville, Michigan, he was like 24th. 26th. 28th. And then he. He did struggle at. At Pocono in Dover, you know, Dover, obviously he had that issue early, but.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So let me ask you this on the NASCAR insights metrics, right? So he has the flat tire and I would assume that that flat tire and how that put him behind several laps would skew the passing defense. Restarts. I would just, I would just ignore them because of the issue that he had early in the day. The restarts for sure.

[Andrew]

The speed you can take into account.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The speed you can still take into.

[Andrew]

Account and the pit crew, you can still take into account the. The defense and passing. I would say that the numbers are still going to be used, but I don't think he. He races the same way. So I don't. I don't think it's fair to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's a good point. I didn't think about it racing differently because of the situation you're in.

[Andrew]

He's seven laps down. So like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, well, he had. We talked about 31st place speed at Dover and Ty Dillon run 20th with 28, 28th place speed. So I mean that, you know, You Ty Dillon doesn't have a fast car. He just is a bulldog. Don't give up, keep, keep on nagging and keep on nagging and keep on nipping kind of guy. I think that's what you know for, for Shane to have any kind of opportunity to make it out of round one. He's going to have to take on a pretty shellfish, selfish, selfish personality. But he's also got to gain, continue to gain on, on overall speed. Not just the long run speed but the overall speed he's got to hit the ground running. Got a couple weeks to figure it out just to get a little bit better. He gets knocked out around one with 17 or more playoff points. Russell.

[Andrew]

Yeah, yeah, but that's 17 positions he's got like, you know what I mean on some, some guys. That's going to be 17 positions he's got on some guys.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What's the tracks in the first round?

[Travis]

Darlington.

[TJ Majors]

There's half of them.

[Travis]

Gateway in Bristol.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. Okay. It could be made up. He better bank some more. Watkins Glenn.

[Andrew]

Well, you say that but it's, it's like somebody can lose a bunch at, at Bristol that he's up against, you know.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, for sure there could be a wreck but I mean Bristol's been pretty clean.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'll say this. So when, when we watched AJ Almendinger and a couple other guys, even, even Scott Speed and just these guys that would come out of all these different disciplines and come into NASCAR and race, they did seem to pick up the Martinsville, the Bristol, the, the small short track stuff, quicker svg. What ovals has he sort of popped? I remember North, North Wilkesboro, Bowman Gray. So I mean if you're looking for some silver lining or, or a little glimmer of hope, you could say that he might could go to Bristol and somewhat maintain.

[TJ Majors]

Where did he run in the spring?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know. Probably not great.

[Andrew]

Let's not talk about that one. He had a suspension issue but like at, at darlington he finished 20th in the spring.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There we go. He's going to need to average a 20th place finish to even have a shot. Right. So he's got to 17 or more playoff points and so he's got to go into. Go in. He's got to get a 20th out of, out of Darlington. He's got to. And then he might.

[TJ Majors]

How many do you think he gets at the Glen Russell?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Six. You think he wins?

[Andrew]

Oh yeah. And he wins stage one and two.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

One of them. He wins one of them. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

So we're looking at a 23, 24 point buffer. Maybe. Maybe 22, 22 or 24 point buffer. So, man, still tough tracks, man.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I know.

[Andrew]

It's really tough tracks.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm, I'm going to be entertained seeing if he can do it. Seeing if he can make it into round two and then what tracks are in round two.

[Travis]

Roval's in there too, right?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He wins. Say he goes and wins the Roval. Now he's in the third round, Kansas.

[Andrew]

And New Hampshire as well.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, but if he wins the Roval, it doesn't matter.

[TJ Majors]

It doesn't matter.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And then he gets the round three. Then he's in round three. Svg.

[Bob]

And you got Talladega, round three, right?

[Andrew]

No, yeah, yeah, Talladega, Vegas and Martin.

[TJ Majors]

But he's got. I mean, that's banking on him winning the Roval. He's. The only way he can advance is at that point.

[Travis]

Are you betting against him on a road course right now, tj?

[TJ Majors]

No, not right now. I mean, how can you.

[Travis]

Right, yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like if he gets to the round two, he's winning Roval.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. All right. This 30 Bodeaux segment was brought to you by FanDuel, the premier gaming destination in the United States. Thanks, Russell. Thanks, Tim.

[Russell]

Folks, right now the headlines are chock full of data breaches and regulatory rollbacks, making us all vulnerable. But you can do something about it. Deleteme is here to make it easy, quick and safe to remove your personal data online. Travis, Deleteme is an easier way to deal with data breaches.

[Travis]

It does all the hard work of removing your personal online data. And Deleteme isn't just a one time service. They're constantly working to ensure your personal info stays off the webs. Because you don't want that stuff just out there for everybody. I kid you not. These websites, it's kind of scary because I once matched with this girl online dating app. She asked if I was married. I told her no. Why? Why are you asking? Well, she had searched my name and a website pulled up and said that I was married. And I'm like, no, never been married, never engaged. But it's scary that these websites kind of have information, some of it real, some of it not. And it's just out there for everybody.

[Russell]

Well, I think that's Travis's way of saying that he's single. But back to delete me, all you got to do is provide them with exactly the information you want deleted. Then they're experts. All the hard Work wiping you and your family's personal information from data broker websites. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for delete me now at a special discount for our listeners today. Get 20% off your Delete Me plan by texting DALE to 64000. The only way to get 20% off is to text DALE to 64000. That's DALE to 64000. Message and data rates may apply.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, it's time for the white flag. The teardown was live on YouTube and Twitter following the Dover race and actions detrimental dropped on Monday. Denny had a great breakdown of those final few laps and letting us know how he kind of held off everybody to win. Ty Dillon was the guest on door bumper clear this week. Cinderella run continues for ties. He goes into Indy to try to win the ultimate bracket challenge and a million dollars. And apparently as I've read on social media, that 1 million bucks goes right to the driver. So no Bob said the driver yesterday.

[Travis]

I believe when the in season tournament was first announced, understanding of many in the garage was the 1 million would go to the driver directly. But NASCAR says it will be paid to the owner just like the purse.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Holy man. Well, you know, let me tell you this. That's probably why the drivers have downplayed it and don't understand it and don't know much about it. I guess when we started, when we started the bracket challenge, you know, drivers were like, I don't know nothing about it or what a surprise. Blah, blah, blah. Well, you know, I'm an owner and I've, I've dealt with owners in my cup career and if you send them the check, they're going to take their cut and I'll be surprised if Ty dillon gets all 1 million bucks or if he were to win it. No wonder I saw after Ty made it through the next round, no wonder Chris Rice was so damn happy.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, that's. Yeah. No kidding.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I would think that they should make this. So there was this debate. I guess I heard about all this because I was reading social media and some tweets from Bob about the lawsuit and how, how, how maybe the teams feel, the team side feels like this incentives program for appearances and so forth like Joey Loganu is doing is making things difficult for them and their partners and sponsors and, and it's because there's a million bucks that goes to the driver who does it the best and Joey Organo is going to get that million bucks. Right. So that's the Way they should have done this bracket challenge is, look, owners, you know, they've already. Everything without the bracket challenge, nothing changes. Right. Everybody gets what they're get there. You're getting your share. You're getting your share. Everybody's getting their share that they're. They're contracted to get. Then NASCAR comes out with the bracket challenge. They should have had a briefcase with 1 million bucks sitting there and said every. Whoever wins this gets this box with all this money in it.

[TJ Majors]

That'd be interesting.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Then the drivers would have absolutely gave.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, you think, God, if they would.

[Travis]

Have a briefcase of money at the track, oh my God, great marketing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Why didn't they do it? You could have a briefcase with $5,101 bills in it and told me it was a million bucks. It didn't have to be a million, but you know, you could just have the optics right of here's the money, it's in this box. The driver and they could do it this weekend. The driver that wins the bracket is getting this handed to them on pit road when they stop their car and get out and it is theirs. Right. It doesn't go to the owner. And so, you know, if you're. I could tell you if I'm a driver and they said, yeah, that 1 million bucks is going to the owner first and he'll give you what he wants. I'd be like, well, I don't care about the bracket anymore. You know, it doesn't matter. I mean, I don't. I care about. I care about it way less, you know, but I'm sure there's some legal reasons why it had to happen this way. But damn it, you know, it had been fun if they were just like, here's your million bucks, Ty. Anyways, moving on, I got a guest interview tomorrow and it's Boo Weekly. He's an old friend of mine, won some, won some big time golf tournaments, played in the pga. And he's out there still kicking it playing golf these days. And I can't wait to catch up with Boo. He's a big, big NASCAR fan. Came to several races back in the day, even in the Bud days. And so we got a lot of catching up to do. I hadn't seen him in a long time. Funny ass guy, so should be fun talking to him. Herman Schrader and Speed street will also drop Wednesday and then on Thursday, another episode of Bless yous Heart with my wife Amy. Looking forward to seeing what we've been up to. We got a lot of things to talk about there too, so it should be a lot of fun.

[TJ Majors]

Businesses that are selling through the roof like Untuck it make selling and for shoppers buying simple with Shopify, home of the number one checkout on the planet, and with Shop Pay you can boost conversions up to 50%. Businesses that sell more sell on Shopify. Upgrade your business and get the same checkout Untuck it uses. Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com podcast free. All lowercase go to shopify.com podcastfree to upgrade your selling today.