The Bloody Nose That Saved Dale From Being Cussed Out

Summary

The Dale Jr. Download

Draft for Publish | May 12, 2026 Host: Dale Earnhardt Jr. & Dirty Mo Media Team
Guest: Shane Van Gisbergen
Episode Focus: Post-Watkins Glen Debrief, SVG’s Road Course Dominance, Cup Series Technical Deep Dive, All-Star Race at Dover Preview, and Fan Q&A

---

Episode Overview

This episode recaps a memorable NASCAR Cup Series weekend at Watkins Glen, with a major focus on Shane Van Gisbergen’s (SVG) domination and the unique driving technique that separates him from the field. Dale Jr., TJ Majors, and Travis Geisler take listeners inside the race, explore road course racing craft, discuss ongoing technical evolutions in NASCAR, and preview the upcoming All-Star race at Dover. Special segments with SVG himself and fan Q&A round out a deep-dive show packed with technical analysis, storytelling, and playful banter.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. SVG’s Watkins Glen Dominance (Starts ~02:00)

• Team marvels at SVG’s run: He excelled in every speed metric and still overcame an "18th-ranked pit crew."
• Quote – Travis: “Maybe it was that ass kicking SVG put on them Sunday. But I am, I mean little melancholy.” (02:01)
• SVG’s crew joked they could have slowed pit stops on purpose as a challenge (05:45).

SVG’s Race Statistics

• First in short, long run, and overall speed; only “second” on restarts and defense—leading to jokes about the stat’s meaning (04:06, 126:18).
• Discussion on the quirky nature of defense stats when a driver is never challenged for position.

2. The Clutch Technique: Why SVG’s So Good (12:00–21:20, 70:01–77:30)

• In-depth explanation: SVG uses the clutch in the braking zone, modulating engine braking and rear tire load—a technique learned in V8 Supercars, rare or unknown in Cup.
  • Dale Jr.: “No other NASCAR driver is using the clutch pedal like this. No one.” (15:25)
• SVG’s margin comes from brake modulation and tire preservation, especially important for sustained speed at the end of runs.
• Quote – Travis (on SVG): “This is a technique that you need to be doing from the day you start driving race cars. It ain’t something you can start picking up and learning...Not a single driver in the Cup field today could apply and adopt this technique and do it well…” (18:12)
• Attempts to film SVG’s feet are foiled—he’ll literally move or kick foot cameras out of the way.

SVG’s Take (Interview at 70:01)

• SVG plays down the advantage but admits it’s the only way to be fast in V8 Supercars and not easily transferable.
  • SVG: “I also think people overthink it… I used to do it because you had to in V8 Supercar… but in this, you don’t need to.” (72:50)
  • “The older guys… I would struggle to left foot brake. It’d be hard for me to do the opposite.” (73:47)

---

3. Road Course Development & Trans Am Series (24:15–29:36)

• Trans Am TA2 series praised for developing elite road course talent in NASCAR (Brent Crews, Connor Zillich, others).
• Dale Jr. advocates a hybrid schedule for young drivers: Cars Tour, ARCA, Trans Am to maximize skills.
  • Dale Jr.: “Seems like the guys doing the Trans Am series and coming into trucks or rally are damn good road course racers right out of the gate.” (29:35)

---

4. Notable Race Weekend Stories

Kaden Honeycutt’s Four-Win Weekend (32:12–33:23)

• Won four races across ARCA, Trucks, Pro, and Late Model divisions in 36 hours.
• Brings raw emotion and swagger in victory lane: “Nobody’s better than me.” (32:19)

Watkins Glen Incidents & Race Management (34:50–42:47)

• Deep dive into Cody Ware’s huge crash and lack of caution, the chaos in the closing laps, and Josh Berry’s spin—eventually blaming Cole Custer, not hostilities with Host ofar.
• NASCAR’s caution policies and the contrast with road courses in past eras are discussed.

Track Evolution & Technical Changes (49:38–57:00)

• Heated debate on paved runoffs, missing sand traps, and cut curbs at Watkins Glen—impacting passing and race dynamics.
  • Dale Jr.: “Put sand there… I want the damn sand traps back.” (50:08)
• Acknowledges changes made for safety and convenience, but express nostalgia for “old school” risk and variety.

---

5. All-Star Race at Dover – Preview & Predictions (114:08–135:33)

• Explanation of new All-Star Race format: multi-segment, segmentation/inversion, and qualifying rules.
  • Pit stops will be a bigger factor; strategy and positioning may upset favorites.
• Early odds tab Denny Hamlin as the favorite, but hosts debate surprise picks like Ross Chastain (try-hard mentality), Alex Bowman, and Ty Gibbs.
  • Dale Jr.: “Something weird’s gonna happen. Part of the try-hard Travis group.” (129:06)
• Playful debate on whether some drivers will “try harder” in the All-Star event.

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Dale Jr.: “Concrete’s for sidewalks, people. Okay?” (03:14)
• On SVG’s secret: “He could talk about this all day long. These guys aren’t going to figure this out.” (19:58)
• SVG (deflecting): “I also think people overthink it… but of course I’m going to say that.” (72:52)
• On All-Star Race motivation:
  • Travis: “Are you trying to tell me a guy’s gonna try harder in this race?” (117:49)
  • TJ: “Ross... yeah.” (117:56)

---

Interview with Shane Van Gisbergen (70:01–82:15)

• Discusses his driving technique, adapting to Cup, and how much impact “the clutch trick” has in Next Gen cars.
  • Admits influence on car setup is growing, which benefits teammates too: “Ross is awesome… he just sucks it up and learns how to drive it. That’s a pretty cool attitude.” (77:27)
• Shares thoughts on new course limits, prefers “Astroturf” to tire packs to penalize track limit excursions more naturally.
  • “Those tire bundles, they’re a race-ender… I’d add a strip of Astroturf and say, you gotta stay within the track limits…” (79:32)
• Addresses points battle: wants to “point in” via strong oval performance too.

---

Fan Q&A Highlights (83:24–102:32)

• Stories about Cole Swindell attending and supporting the Cars Tour unannounced.
• Reflections on Casey Kane’s first World of Outlaws win and Boo Weekly’s golf comeback.
• Playful hypothetical: Would Dale Jr. skydive or cage-dive with sharks? (“Probably not.”)
• Commentary on Greenville-Pickens Speedway situation – cautious optimism over efforts to save the track.
• Innovative ideas for future All-Star races – including multi-class formats and mixing Cup with O’Reilly and trucks in one field to create spectacle.

---

Dirty Mo Doe Betting Segment (113:41–135:33)

• Detailed rundown of All-Star Race format, pit stop factors, and top betting lines. Most hosts lean toward value bets (Chastain/Bowman), Russell (the “Predictor”) sticks with Hamlin.
• “Try-hard” debate crescendos; frequent ribbing about who gives more effort.
• Discussion on wager timing for O’Reilly Series title; Justin Allgaier’s Vegas odds.
• Closing with more betting tips and spontaneous predictions.

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

• SVG Domination & Clutch Technique: 02:00–21:20 (w/ more at 70:01–77:30)
• Trans Am & Road Course Development: 24:15–29:36
• Kaden Honeycutt Discussion: 32:12–33:23
• Major Incidents & Race Recap: 34:50–42:47
• Track/Technical Debate: 49:38–57:00
• SVG Interview: 70:01–82:15
• All-Star Preview & Betting: 114:08–135:33

---

Host Tone & Final Takeaways

Conversational and witty, with deep technical insight, plenty of storytelling, and the right mix of nostalgia and forward-looking commentary. The hosts genuinely celebrate competitors’ achievements while critiquing the sport in a well-rounded, knowledgeable, and entertaining manner.

Fans, competitors, and those interested in the evolution of stock car technique will find this episode especially valuable for its breakdown of race craft, setup decisions, and the real-world challenges of mastering NASCAR’s new road course paradigm.

Transcript

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

At Marathon gas stations. Every stop is the start of fun,

[TJ Majors]

like the awesome fuel savings you can

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

get with Marathon rewards. Join Marathon Rewards today and start earning rewards on every gallon of gas. You can redeem your rewards at any time, saving up to $1 per gallon. And don't forget, Marathon stations are packed with all the conveniences you need to

[TJ Majors]

stock up and live life on the Go Marathon, where fun runs on full available at participating marathon locations.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Terms and conditions apply. See marathonrewards.com for details. 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 GMOE or gold and silver aftermarket parts. Visit gmparts.com for more information.

[Travis Geisler]

The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. This is the most fun I've had in this chair in the last hour and a half. Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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

[Travis Geisler]

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

[TJ Majors]

Who was your best man, Dale?

[Travis Geisler]

Tj.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Tj.

[Travis Geisler]

You don't need a cool vest for that race. What are you thinking? Get him, tj. Hell. Wait. It's starting to show.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right then.

[Travis Geisler]

Hey Everybody. It's Dale Jr. Back again for another episode of the Dale and or Download. It is post Watkins Glenn and this episode is presented to you by Arby's. Don't forget about Arby's. New meat in three box. Get more meal with your money. Get more meal for your money at Arby's. This episode is presented by Arby's. Don't forget about the Arby's new meat and three box. Get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meats and we have co host TJ Majors here. How's it going, tj?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's going. How you doing?

[Travis Geisler]

I'm doing all right, man. Gotta be honest,

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

feeling.

[Travis Geisler]

Feeling a little strange today. I don't know. Don't know why. Maybe it was that ass kicking SVG put on them Sunday. But I am.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That was an ass.

[Travis Geisler]

I am. I mean little melancholy.

[TJ Majors]

Maybe it's that. Plus then we have Dover for the All Star race. So it's just kind of like eh.

[Travis Geisler]

That's me bashing Dover. It feels weird. Over didn't deserve this. God dang. You see what I said the other day?

[Russell]

No.

[Travis Geisler]

I Said asphalt. Dover would still have a points race. That's got a riled up.

[TJ Majors]

Do you just fire that tweet off and then put the phone down and walk away?

[Travis Geisler]

Oh, yeah. Because I'm right. Yeah. You're not wrong there. There's people like. I don't know, man. There's some pretty bomb races on the old concrete with the Gen 6 like me up. I gotta check the birth date. They weren't. They haven't been alive when it was asphalt. Well, it was asphalt, man. They used to smoke the tires going around that thing. Guys would go around the corner and tires would smoke.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I feel like ARCA cars still look like that sometimes. Used to look like that. With that bias.

[Travis Geisler]

How would you be able to see it?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, you probably wouldn't against the concrete, but they're sideways at least.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah, concrete. Look, concrete for sidewalks, people. Okay. I mean, that's the way it is. Yeah. SVG just kicked a bunch of ass, but it wasn't a perfect race for SVG. His pit crew was ranked 18th.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's terrible.

[TJ Majors]

Imagine if his pit crew was good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's so bad.

[Travis Geisler]

Hey, he's only. He's only ranked second. Restarts. Come on, svg.

[TJ Majors]

What a hack.

[Travis Geisler]

Hey, he's second. Defense. What the hell? Svg.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Did anybody.

[Travis Geisler]

Briscoe out there beating him on the defensive?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Did anybody pass statistics like Tyler Reddick

[Travis Geisler]

was better on restarts? Hey, hang your hat on that, Tyler.

[TJ Majors]

What was SVG on? Speed.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh my God.

[Travis Geisler]

111-11-1111 on everything. Anything to do with going fast. He was first. Short speed, rank, Long run, rank. And yeah, just regular speed.

[TJ Majors]

23:11 is going to have a beer toast for Tyler Reddick being one on restarts.

[Travis Geisler]

I would. Yeah. And how. How much of a pain in the ass must Briscoe be if he's. If he beat SVG on defense at a road course? What a damn. That's like Newman esque.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How does that even happen?

[Travis Geisler]

I don't know. I mean, you can't win defense if you're just out there running by yourself with like 7 second lead. Ain't much defense to be had.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Sounds like it was good offense.

[Travis Geisler]

Ain't much defense to be doing now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's what. I don't know if anybody passed him all day is what I'm saying. So how could he play?

[Travis Geisler]

I. I don't see how they could even come up with a stat for svg. He needed to be on defense.

[TJ Majors]

We got a question to Russell.

[Travis Geisler]

Yes, Russell.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Dale, Was that the race? Chris Past it should.

[Travis Geisler]

On the, on the ranking. On the ranking for svg on defense, it should say na.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, it's no data, not applicable.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah, but how about that 18th ranked pit crew? Well, they just were probably taking it easy, you know, I mean, they were like, you know what? This guy's down it, 1-1-1111.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We're good.

[Travis Geisler]

Let's just get the lugs on. Let's get them off, let's get them on.

[TJ Majors]

No loose tires, no miss fuel.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, literally, that was the only thing that was gonna beat him was something like that.

[Travis Geisler]

Knowing this pit crew and how funny the trackhouse guys are, they might have been slow on purpose just to see if he could still do it. They're walking around the car, they're like, hey, 19 second stop coming up, boys. All right, let's see if he can overcome this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

By this. He probably would have been real close.

[Travis Geisler]

Damn.

[TJ Majors]

You overcame a 28 second deficit and

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

one by 7.28 seconds over.

[Travis Geisler]

I am surprised a little bit because when we, you know, you're trying to, as an analyst, you're trying to. I think we all, not just analysts, but all of us are kind of watching SVG going, all right, we got a little sample size of what this guy's been able to do since he came into the sport a very short time ago at the Chicago street course. And he died. You know, he. He put it on him at Chicago street course, but we had rain, all kinds of things happening that day. But otherwise, I mean, he just, he just, he did it shocked the world. And we went and ran some other races and he won. And then he was like, we went to Watkins Glen, I think his first time there. And he ran all right. He wasn't strong.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, it wasn't this.

[Travis Geisler]

Oh, it was like top 10. It's really weird. And we all got to thinking, you know, what the narrative was out of that was like, oh, man, you know, he's going to be great at these places. We don't run at like, you know, this Chicago street course, a new track. We go to Mexico, he dominates. But hey, when we go to Sonoma or we go to Watkins Glen, where our guys got a lot of time,

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

they know the track, they go run with him.

[Travis Geisler]

But now that's wrong too. We thought we had it. We thought we had him figured out. Like, man, we keep up with him at some of these places now the gap's widening. It's widening. Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Something happened, but I don't like what happened here.

[Travis Geisler]

He must have had a real Real car. That one time at Watkins Glenn when he ran eight.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What about Coda, though? I mean, Koda, he couldn't catch.

[Travis Geisler]

Where did he finish? Where was it? Sorry, T.J. what's his. Where was that? Right?

[TJ Majors]

Was it 24? Watkins Glenn. He finished second.

[Travis Geisler]

No, no, no, go back. Well, when did he win? He was running some one off stuff. His first race, Chicago was.

[TJ Majors]

The year before that it was Indy.

[Travis Geisler]

Okay.

[TJ Majors]

What a hack. 10th.

[Travis Geisler]

10th and Indy. Good gosh.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Almost didn't get a top 10.

[Travis Geisler]

What in the world?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Unacceptable.

[Travis Geisler]

Hey, Justin Marks. What in the world, Justin. Mark. How race car did you give the poor guy?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

10th.

[Travis Geisler]

Make a soldier to a. That must have been like a 40th place car. I mean, really the worst car in the field. Picker was 32nd and he brought it. He brought it to 10th. I don't know, man. Hey, another thing, SVG, I saw some cameras on his feet. Do you see that?

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

Guy don't like his. God. He don't like cameras on his feet. Do you know that?

[TJ Majors]

Because it gives away. Could give away what he's doing.

[Travis Geisler]

Listen, let me tell you something. Svg, and he. Is he coming. Calling in later? Okay, Let me talk to him about this. So I don't. I don't want to repeat myself. So I'm gonna say that conversation. But I'll just say it so he. When I'm. I'm sitting. They tried to discuss. They tried to talk about this during the race. I think it was Jamie Little tried to explain what was going on, and she did a good job. But we were at the Chicago race. I think this is pretty interesting. Now, some people may hear this and go, what's a big deal? Ain't a big deal. But I'm. I'm at the Chicago race. We are in the middle of the race. The race is happening. I'm down on top of a scissor lift because we're doing it radio style for NBC, which I hated, except for at the Glen. It was fun. I didn't like it anywhere else. But we're doing our old radio style. We're on the scissor lift down there, and I'm. I'm way on one end of the racetrack and middle of the race. SVG is looking like he might win this fricking thing, right? So the broadcast is getting. Going ape. All the people at home are going ape. And I start getting text messages from my friends in Australia. So SVGs New Zealander, but he raced in V8 supercar. I went to Australia in. Oh, six, with help from Marcus Ambrose. I met some folks like Crusher. Crusher is kind of like this agent kind of guy for a lot of the. He's like a go between for a lot of the guys over there. And, and we had, you know, we had an incredible time. Tj, you went on that trip?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, we met some really cool people.

[Travis Geisler]

We did. We got to drive some V8 supercars at a driving school.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so we basically did everything you could do over there.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah, it was pretty cool. So I'm getting some text messages and one of the people that's texting me is a guy by the name of Paul Morris. And Paul Morris is a V8 supercar driver from years ago. And Paul has served like the V8 supercar committee. This dude, he's a racer and you can, you can follow Paul on social media. He's talking about racing and dudes, he's in it. And he knows SVG and all these guys really well. They all know each other. They all raced against each other, grew up around each other. And so Paul's a bit of an old head, my age, kind of little bit a generation above SVG. So he watched SVG go through V8 supercar. So I'm standing on the scissor lift, we're watching SVG dominate this race. And Paul comes on the radio and go. Or comes on my text message on my phone, he starts telling me, he's like, dude, he's like. He said he's kicking these guys ass because of how he uses the clutch on, on in the breaking zone. And so traditionally, now this is, this is something I think those guys in Australia do really well with the V8 supercar. And I'm sure it happens. It's well done. Probably in Europe as well. F1 drivers, whatever.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right?

[Travis Geisler]

I mean, this isn't like a.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's their craft.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah, this ain't NASCAR guys do. But when we use the clutch, if we do, it's change of gear. We don't use the clutch to, to, to control wheel hop or any of that bull. We don't use the clutch to, to try to improve tire life over the duration of a run. And we're watching him, we're watching his feet during this race or we, you know, there was some opportunity to, I think, to look at his feet during some of this stuff. I'm not sure if we had a foot camera on him or not, but Paul was like, hey, when he goes down into the breaking zone, you know, he lifts off the gas, mashes the Brake pedal. But you'll watch him. He'll modulate the clutch and he's. So when you, when you at a road course, if you're driving wide ass open into a deep braking zone, you lift off the gas, you pop the revs to downshift like one. Whoa. And as soon as you put the car into the lower gear, it tries to drag the rear tires. The rear. It's called engine braking. And so you're, you're desailing in a high RPM and it's. And it sometimes, in bad cases can induce wheel hop. The rear tires just start bouncing across the racetrack. And you see guys wreck.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

When you were racing, you were left foot braking in these zones, right? Yeah. You would left foot brake and then pop the gas pedal. He is right foot breaking, I suppose. Yeah, yeah, he's right foot breaking and

[Travis Geisler]

he's got his foot on the clutch.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[Travis Geisler]

And so what he, what he's, what he's doing is he's, he kind of, when he starts to feel the rear tires trying to get tight, like the engine braking, trying to drag the rear tire or even induce some wheel hop, he, he will modulate the clutch just slightly to dampen the load on the drivetrain. The effect. Yeah, yeah, the effect on the drive shaft. They have different components in the next gen car then they don't have drive shafts anymore, like a rally car. But he's trying to dampen the load that the drivetrain is trying to put on the rear tires so the tire isn't being. Getting his ass kicked. The rear tires aren't getting their ass kicked into the braking zone in a downshift under engine braking. And so another thing that he does is he will modulate the clutch and pitch the car in the middle of the corner, down deep in the braking zone. He kind of, he kind of will release the clutch a little bit or use the clutch pedal in a way to help the car pitch and turn. And so. And he kind of, he's doing that. Have you ever seen, you ever seen a MotoGP motorcycle racing on asphalt road courses? Right. Every now and then. A lot of times you'll see those guys go in a braking zone and they're almost sliding.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

Gliding in there, kind of like in a broad slide. That's very similar to what he's creating with the clutch pedal or controlling with the clutch pedal. No other, no other NASCAR driver is using the clutch pedal like this. No one. And so they talked about it during the broadcast. Kevin Harvick mentioned it. But it allows him to brake much deeper. And he's using a lot of more. He's using more brake caliper, brake clamp. He's using a lot more brake force to slow the car down. A lot of guys, myself included, we use the engine braking to slow the car down. But that's bad on the rear tire. That makes the rear tire mad because the rear tires literally kind of trying to get drug into the corner.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

And so I like when we would go to even Pocono turn one, when we were downshifting. I'm downshifting early. Using the engine braking. No, I'm using less brake pedal, brake brake pressure, and using engine braking to slow the car down. I did that at road courses too. That ain't the way to do it. That ain't the best way to do it. The best way to do it is to use less engine braking, use brake pedal, use the actual braking system, and use the clutch to modulate wheel, hop deep into the braking zone. And so that is. I mean, the dude's just really great at road courses, but that's one of the reasons why he's not only great, but that also makes him fast on the back end of the run. I've. Everyone else out there has pissed their tires off, slid front tires, made the rear tires mad, doing all those things I just talked about. And he. He is out there driving fast, but also keeping his tires happy. And so halfway into the run, or at the very end of the run, this guy's still smoking off big time lapse. And no one else can get even close seconds. Yes, that is the difference. And so after we. And so I'm on the scissor lift at Chicago during the middle of the race, Paul's telling me all of these things, which I understand clearly. Paul described it perfectly. And I tried to work that into the broadcast and say, hey, here's what this guy can do that no one else here can do, and it is massive. And so we went to the next couple of races, and he did not want foot cameras. And if they put a foot camera in there, he kicked it out of the way. I would too, but no, I would tell him, hey, I get it. This is a thing that you can do that these other guys don't know how to do, but their ass ain't gonna learn it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not this. I don't think so.

[Travis Geisler]

This is a technique that you need to be doing from the day that you start driving race cars. It ain't some you can start picking up and learning and understanding. There ain't no chance. No way in hell there is a single driver in the NASCAR cup field today that could apply and adopt this technique and do it. Well, they just, it's just not possible.

[TJ Majors]

What if like Connor wanted to at his age?

[Travis Geisler]

Connor may be able to do it because he's also, because he's young and

[TJ Majors]

he's working with him and he's super young.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah, he's, he's still, he's 19, but I'm talking about, you know, these guys that are 30, 35, 40 years old.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. You're not learning that.

[Travis Geisler]

Ain't going to learn this. What was it? What? Joe Logano out there trying to change his breaking foot and all this bullshit, you know, in practice trying, trying to do something. I don't know now I heard about it. They talked about it. They said he ran a bunch of laps using it. Using, you know, he's either, he's, he's either left front braking or right front brake. He switched in practice trying to do something different and he's like, I can't, you know, it's not working.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We, it's, we've tried it on the sim. It's pure possible.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah, it's weird when you learn something and you have something you're doing the same way driving a car, breaking with your. If you're a left foot breaker and you've your left foot broke your entire life.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

Trying to switch and be a right foot breaker in the middle of your career or toward the end of your career is not going to be very productive. But this is a very, very precise, detailed technique that he has. How he uses the clutch pedal and in the braking zone and downshifting. And when I asked him about it publicly, he downs, plays it. Oh, that's not that big of a deal. And then he kicks the camera out of the way. But I'm telling you, he got to worry about, he could talk about this all day long. These guys aren't going to figure this out.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's. And you're talking about.

[Travis Geisler]

They still, I mean listen, they can, they could still on a good day compete and beat him, race with him. But this is just something that he

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

can do that just gives him an edge.

[Travis Geisler]

Gives him an edge.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're also talking about doing this by yourself. Imagine in a pack of cars like trying to do this as well. You know what I mean? That would be even.

[Travis Geisler]

It's, it is a, it's something that is, is natural to him like breathing because it's way, it's the way he's drove cars his whole life. It's the way all of the guys in the V8 supercar drive. This is a technique. Paul told me. He said this is what they teach at school. They teach that clutch is a, that clutch is a tool. It's not just to get the car in and out of gear and using the transmission. It is a tool to turn the race car. It is a tool for braking deeper, breaking, more, you know, performance and braking zones.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There's reason they do it.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah. And they teach these guys in Australia and New Zealand to race this way. And so it's super common for him. He. He wouldn't know how to not do it. He wouldn't know how to stop doing it. And so it's a habit right of and, and it's in, it's woven into the DNA of his, his road course racing. But I'll be honest, I feel like that you give him a decent car. That technique is what sets him apart.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

This car also him out of the V8 supercars, they're NASCAR. Our cars and their cars are very similar now. Right. So him getting out of that car and getting into a couple car with the sequential shifting now like it wasn't, you know, it was almost.

[Travis Geisler]

I think there was a narrative or even some media content articles, all this stuff. To your point, TJ that way back when the next gen was being, you know, I remember it when next gen was just a vision. A lot of the, A lot of the, the genesis of, of the, of the ideology around the next gen came from V8 supercars and the type. You know, I don't know how that connection happened. I don't know that was it NASCAR maybe taking a trip to Australia, you know, to, to a race and seeing what was going on. I don't know. But I do remember there being some conversation around how a lot of the components. A lot of. Yeah, a lot, a lot of things that there was some conversations around. Yeah. How they, there was a. There was a direct correlation to supercars and the next gen car and its development.

[TJ Majors]

Question for you.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

With like the younger drivers coming up and what they're driving in the cars that they're currently in, whether late model, whatever. Are they able to work on this craft of how he's doing it? If so that when they get up there they're ready or is this something you can only really do once you get to the next gen car?

[Travis Geisler]

I have no idea. I imagine that it's something that I do have an idea. So over in Australia, New Zealand they run formula Ford and all kinds of little, you know, the V's. They run like a, it's kind of like a open wheel, wingless, you know. What do you, would you call those things?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, it's a school car.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah. Kind of like training barber.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Like a school car.

[Travis Geisler]

And they would learn these techniques driving all of those things. Right. Because they don't, they don't just drive like the V8 supercar is a, is like a stock car. It's fenders and bumpers and all that. But they don't, they don't drive those. They don't drive stock cars from inception to V8 supercar. Right. They go through all types of open wheels, all types of little different series before they land where they land. They had the Utes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was going to say the trucks.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah. Little trucks. Pretty cool.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I wonder what the Utes look like nowadays.

[Travis Geisler]

I don't know, but they have, they have like an O'Reilly series where it's outdated or older V8 supercars racing in like an O' rally series companion race day before. But they, they have like smaller school style open wheel classes and all. They have all types of stuff, you know. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

I'm just wondering if like a guy that's in the O'Reilly or truck can practice his craft now and get to cup and be able to do what Shane's gonna do is this kind of like unless someone comes over as well.

[Travis Geisler]

In Australia, every race you're gonna run is a road course.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

In America.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

It's not much in a rally truck short, you know, grassroots racing, you're not running road courses.

[TJ Majors]

So that's the thing is like as long as he's here, like. But look, he's not gonna have much people doing this.

[Travis Geisler]

I'm gonna tell you something that's impressive that people need to be aware of or need to need to keep in the mind. The Trans Am series has had a, you know, kind of been renovated. Right. The Trans AM, the TA2. You have the Trans Am series. They out there all over the country. Paul Menard has been the champion in the Trans Am series the last two years. You wouldn't even know it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, right. Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

Unless you ran into Paul and he told you, but they don't talk about it. It's very, the series is operational, it's out there doing great, but we don't really hear about it too much. Remember, the Trans Am series used to be pretty sexy and it was awesome. It still is. Yeah. I think if you're Going to call any kind of motorsport sexy. I would say that's the Trans Am series just in the name alone.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, they used to run like the Glenn they did. You had some really big name like Scott Sharp and the Rain X car.

[Travis Geisler]

Tommy Kendall.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

Badass racers and they sounded awesome. Yeah. Good looking cars.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep.

[Travis Geisler]

Mustangs and Camaros and, and, and they raced like, they raced a little bit like NASCAR in the sense that there was contact. You know, they raced hard, was a little rougher. Yeah, it was a little bit aggressive at times. It was fun. So. But the Trans Am series is back and it's doing great things. And you see on during the O'Reilly series race, right. Brent Cruz is out there kicking ass, right? Look it up. Did Brent Cruz run in the Trans Am series?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He ran in there a lot.

[Travis Geisler]

That's right. So Brent Cruz is out there, Matt, you know, kicking ass in the O'Reilly series race. You got SVG, you got, you know, all these guys out there, Zillich, all this competition, all these great race cars and Cruise is out there, you know, putting a six second lead on them in the stage one. It's because of their, it's because of time they're spending in Trans Am. There is a series. Look, I love the cars tour. I want everybody to come run it. I want Brent Cruise, all the next Brick Cruises. I want all those guys to come run the cars tour, get some short track oval racecraft. But you got to value what the Trans AM series, the TA2 series is doing for guys like Brent Cruise. It is giving them a platform to go out and really become frickin damn good road course racers. And yes, that's where they can learn techniques like this if they want, you know. And so where Connor Zillich comes in. So Connor, so this is my theory, my, this is my idea. Connor Zillich comes into the O'Reilly series and has a badass year last year in our cars. But what he would do on the road course was probably what we were most impressed by. Right. He would, he ran, he goes and gets in the Spire truck at coda and out, you know, kicks everybody's ass by seconds in practice. And everybody's like, holy, who's this kid? And you know, every time he gets in a car to road course he runs with SVG and wins. And he's the one guy that can kind of hold a candle to SVG on a road course. I think you're going to see a lot more of that from a lot of the guys that are Coming up through, like Brent Cruz, Tristan McKee, Tristram. McKee's been. Is a, is a name in the Spire Pipeline.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's been in there too.

[Travis Geisler]

He's been in the Trans Am cursing Carson Ransom. Tat Carson. Yep, Carson did too. Carson. So how does Carson, Carson, Kwapo, who ran Millbridge and the cars tour, can go out and be a top 10 guy at Watkins Glam because of his Trans Am experience.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So he was battling with Zillich last year at code.

[Travis Geisler]

That's right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Back and forth.

[Travis Geisler]

So nose to nose.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah. The. Can these guys learn it? Yes, they can. And they can learn it in the Trans Am series. And if I like the Trans Ams, dude, if I had, if I had a young kid that I thought was worth the, the focus, you know, worth worth tutoring, I'd have him racing in Trans Am. I'd have him racing in the car store, and I'd sprinkle in some marker races. You know, I like the ARCA series, but I don't love all their races. Some of their races are, you know, some of their race, you know, their races are great and the series has an identity and I love what it is. But I would probably run them in a few select events in the ARCA series to get some big track like Charlotte, that kind of stuff. Then I'd race some cars tour full time, and I'd run a bunch of Trans Am races just to get them as much road course racing experience as I can. Because it seems like the guys that are doing the Trans Am series and then they coming into the trucks or rally, they're damn good road course racers right out of the gate. And that is an acquired skill.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Man, it's tough.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

When you run ovals, your whole.

[Travis Geisler]

If you don't, if you just run ovals and don't go do some Trans Am pro course, you can be officially struggling. When you get in a truck in O'Reilly series full time and go to a road course, you're going to get handled.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. You learn the basics and you apply it. Trucks and arc, even arc at the Glen was there this weekend too.

[Travis Geisler]

Hey, everybody. The 2026 season is in full swing and we've already had some really incredible moments. Why we love this sport. And when it comes to capturing those historical NASCAR moments, nobody does it better than Lionel Racing, the official diecast of nascar. Their race win diecasts are some of my absolute favorites in my collection. The scuffs, scrapes, confetti, the damage, every detail that tells the story of that win, it's in these die casts. These things look like they were pulled straight out of victory lane. And right now, Lionel Racing is offering free domestic shipping just for Dale Jr. Download listeners, you can use this promo code. Download 26 at checkout. Head over to Lionel Racing.com to lock in your favorite NASCAR moments into your collection today.

[Quince Brand Representative]

If you're trying to be more intentional about what you wear day to day, Quince can help with that. They've got pieces that feel easy, comfortable and still put together. Quince uses premium materials like 100% European linen, organic cotton and ultra soft denim. Their lightweight linen pants, dresses and tops start at $30 and are effortless, breathable and easy to wear on repeat. Everything at quince is priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. They work directly with ethical factories to cut out the middlemen. So you're paying for quality and craftsmanship, not a brand markup. Dale and I just recently went on a trip and Quint's was perfect. I gathered a few of their mix and match tops and bottoms and had the most comfortable wardrobe I have ever taken on vacation. They have so many options and the best part is the price. I was shocked at how affordable everything is and considered the quality to be top notch. I loved the tanks that I packed. I had so many compliments. And you guys will love these too. Refresh your everyday with luxury you'll actually use. Head to Quince.com Dell Jr. For free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E.com DaleJr for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com DaleJr.

[Travis Geisler]

KADEN Honeycutt won four races.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

In a period of about 36 hours.

[TJ Majors]

Not a bad weekend. Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

He, he wins the ARCA race, the truck race, and then he went to Ace and ran the cars tour and won pro and late model stock convincingly. He was, he was challenged a little bit by Treyton Lapsevich and a few others, but he had, he led like, you know, I don't know, 90% of the lapse. I was there. He gets out of the car at Ace. He gets out of the car at Ace and he stands on the roof and he says, nobody's better than me. I love it. I did too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, yeah, why not?

[Travis Geisler]

One of the other drivers in the cars tour sent that video to me and they're, they're like, holy. How about this guy? Get a load of him. And I'm like, wow. Yeah, that's something. How about that? I messaged Kaden. You had a hell of a day.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

You got out, you said what you felt and it was raw. Real genuine emotion. Even if it was cocky. It's okay. Every now and then it's okay to cross the line, especially if you won. Four races in three. Two days.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Two national series.

[Travis Geisler]

There's a time to ever say that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's it.

[Travis Geisler]

That's the time.

[TJ Majors]

Anybody with common sense understands, like he was in the moment. Like he's not saying he's the best.

[Travis Geisler]

So look, don't worry about Kaden. You're good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I think it's fine.

[Travis Geisler]

But man, I can't wait to see if you know, is he going to run with us again? I don't know. When he. I saw him after the. At the Ace races and I said, hey man, appreciate you running with us. Hell of a job. He goes, I'm going to be it. I'll be at all of them. So I guess he plans to run all.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Most I would do if I.

[Travis Geisler]

Our next race is Langley at the end of the month. Like the 20 something. 22nd. Something like that. Saturday. And then we only race once in June and once in July. How about that? The cars tour has one race in June and one race in July. On purpose?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Why is it like that?

[Travis Geisler]

Car store is the fun league. We want you to go have vacation. We want you to go see your family. Go take. Go go the beach. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Car store. We care about your family.

[Travis Geisler]

Car store. Take. Hey cars door. Take a vacation. That's our slogan.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Take a vacation and run second decade.

[Travis Geisler]

Take a hike. No, really, a real hike. All right, let's get close to dad jokes. We better slow it down. Getting back to the cup race. Did you guys see the guardrail that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, he killed it.

[Travis Geisler]

Cody Ware destroyed.

[TJ Majors]

NASCAR did it.

[Travis Geisler]

Damn.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, that was.

[Travis Geisler]

That was a game, dude. He hit the damn wall so hard.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, you've wrecked and turned 10 there before.

[Travis Geisler]

I start just watching that, it looks like it's painful. And then his ass is like, all right, we're going to finish it out. He got it going again. He's driving around the track. His ass was like kind of wandering aimlessly out there around the racetrack with that tore up race car.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, he hit so hard it bounced him almost.

[Travis Geisler]

My question is, is. Look, here he is. Gosh, T.J. he is wrecked. Yeah, he is wrecked. 150, 200ft from pit entrance and he fired the son of a Up and drove it right by pit entrance. Down the front stretch.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I saw it go by.

[Travis Geisler]

What was he doing?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know.

[Travis Geisler]

Go to the garage.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Maybe he thought he was in the bus stop.

[TJ Majors]

He said, I didn't bring out a caution. I must stay out. So I did hear caution.

[Travis Geisler]

Did he know. Did he remember that he hit the wall?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What the hell does he remember that he does not. They don't throw cautions for him.

[Travis Geisler]

Oh, my gosh.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Wasn't him at Kansas.

[TJ Majors]

But why wasn't this a caution?

[Travis Geisler]

I. I don't know.

[TJ Majors]

Look at these cars coming by.

[Travis Geisler]

Golly.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, last week, Jo John Hunter was spinning.

[Travis Geisler]

Where was. So during this period of time. You'll see it right in the camera there, the 21 car. Barry goes by.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

He did a damn 360 right behind this.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

What happened there? Did the 77 dump him?

[TJ Majors]

That was. That was like on the last lap, wasn't it?

[Travis Geisler]

I know where you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Josh, like right there.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah. So during this, Josh Berry is spinning around behind this. And here he comes. Boom, there goes Josh. He did a 360 and then kept going without. Without stopping.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know.

[Travis Geisler]

He did. And so they show Josh. They show Josh external from the external camera spinning, but we never see how he got spun or how he. If he got run over or whatever. And I'm only going to assume that he got ran over by Josevar. As Josh was slowing for this crash, Joseph Our must have punted him. And so last lap, Josh is like, I'm off you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Because it's not like Josh.

[Travis Geisler]

No. So Josh tried to send Joseph our. If we can get into Josh's car,

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

that was a fail.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah. Josh tried to send Josevar into turn one and didn't do it. And he let Host of our getting back. Oh, my God. Host of our.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, Josh.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah. Tough, tough. Josh bowled through one of the tire barriers. So, yeah, Josh is like you. Host of our. And he's sending him into one. And I think it's because Jose Vars, who spun Josh when the. When the Cody Ware crash happened. I'm just making guesses.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, it'd been nice if we've seen it or also, like, I just. I don't know how NASCAR doesn't.

[Travis Geisler]

There's a lot.

[TJ Majors]

This is twice now. Cody Wears had a massive wreck and. No. Remember last year at Chicago with Cody?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, he was so far under the barrier, you couldn't see him.

[Travis Geisler]

We're riding on board with a 22 Lugano right there. What broke on his car.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He caught a tire and then he had to go to the garage to fix it.

[Travis Geisler]

I saw his tire come off.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I'm not sure.

[Travis Geisler]

So he cut the tire. Did he slide it and flat spot it or something? Because he went all. He went straight into turn one, remember, and goes around the barriers and then he's up, coming up through the S's and he's wobbling back and forth.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, the tire comes apart.

[Travis Geisler]

All right. There's a lot going on in that race. If you were, you know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How many laps to go was that?

[TJ Majors]

Which one?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The Josh Barry deal.

[TJ Majors]

Well, it was nine to go. Was Cody Ware.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay, nine to go.

[Travis Geisler]

You got it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm just gonna go look at Josh.

[TJ Majors]

That's the one. Nice thing now is with HP, I would actually.

[Travis Geisler]

TJ look at the 77 and see if he punched Josh during that incident. Can you go find him? You can just get in any car, huh? Yeah, that's nice. We're going, look, we're going to do it. I don't think this has been investigated. I think we're actually going to be the lead.

[TJ Majors]

Let's do some hard hitting journalism here.

[Travis Geisler]

I think we're going to be, you know, because that, that's the fun part about. I don't know if you guys experience this like I do, but when the race is over there's like about two hours of, of like, you know, social media investigation work where all these accounts start posting in car cameras and showing you. You didn't see like, oh, check this out. Look at this wreck. Look at this wreck. Look at these guys arguing. Look at these two idiots. And you're like, damn, I didn't know that was going on.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So that was it about lap 90 or 91. Travis.

[Travis Geisler]

Oh, what's this?

[TJ Majors]

Nine to go.

[Travis Geisler]

What's this? What's that? That's the, that's it. So there's a 51. This is. Josh and them are behind this. This is the 51 about to get wrecked. I wish we could see a video. That's not a video, but that's on the five car, I believe of Larson. And the 47 is going to put the 51 over the berm and make him overcorrect into the wall. Behind this is Barry because Larson had just passed Josh Berry a couple laps before this.

[TJ Majors]

This post says that Barry was tagged by intern by Cole Custer.

[Travis Geisler]

Well, there you go. Well, man, I guess if that happened

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

it was definitely the 41.

[Travis Geisler]

Okay. Oh, look, dam Cole. Damn Cole. I wish we could see a video.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Cole Custer TJ Yeah, it was definitely. I mean, I can. I'm looking at him here. Cole definitely did it.

[Travis Geisler]

Damn it, Cole.

[TJ Majors]

You heard it here first, folks.

[Travis Geisler]

I was wondering how Josh got turned around there.

[TJ Majors]

I wonder what Josh was mad at host fire then for.

[Travis Geisler]

I guess something. Something had to have happened.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

But during the lap or two before

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

that, I'm pretty sure everyone's mad at host of our stills for something throughout the.

[Travis Geisler]

Is it just, hey, if I can hit your ass. If I can hit host of our. I'm gonna do it. Is that what it is?

[TJ Majors]

You're gonna do it?

[Travis Geisler]

You don't even need a reason. You don't even need a reason or two years you're just like, yeah, I'm sure somebody in the field is mad at him. Let me. Let me knock this summit out.

[TJ Majors]

I'll take one for the team here.

[Travis Geisler]

Knock him up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Racetrack didn't stop Cole.

[TJ Majors]

And we get high fives in the garage.

[Travis Geisler]

I think cold just doesn't know what's going on out there sometimes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

Breaking my guy. Josh acting dang. I'm mad now. Mad at Cole. Goddamn. I like cold. How can you get mad at Cold?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's similar situation. Just trying to finish races and just digging. Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

Hey, it's kind of. I remember that end of that race. Kind of remind. Seeing all that. Seeing all those videos after the race reminded me of some of the races we used to run at Sonoma. If you had a. If you had a late caution.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, my gosh.

[Travis Geisler]

At Sonoma, say you're running 21st caution comes out, you're going to have like a five lap sprint to the end,

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

get you some tires.

[Travis Geisler]

You're going to. You're going to finish 10th.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah. They're going to wreck this.

[Travis Geisler]

Oh, God, it was so fun. You would drive. You know, you're back there running, you know, in the middle of field, ain't got a shot in hell getting a top 10. And you'd have a late caution, green flag and you. Every two or three corners, you'd come up on a guy in a sand trap and it'd be like, oh, man, he'd run a fifth all day.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

Turn him. Oh, there's a guy was running good who turned his ass.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, we were going to be top 10 one time there and we got wrecked.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Carl sent David Reagan into five. We were just protect. He sent him into us.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And there we are sitting. Somebody went by us saying that stuff.

[Travis Geisler]

That's right. Look at that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There's eight.

[Travis Geisler]

Oh, and I Know I'm bouncing around here, but there was that. There was that picture of John Hunter Nervichek. Looked like he'd been in a fight after Texas.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

They said it was a bloody nose. Yeah. And so I had a bloody nose once in a race car. Like, I get. I get bloody noses still, you know, when I go somewhere dry. Yep. If I go to Vegas.

[TJ Majors]

Phoenix.

[Travis Geisler]

Phoenix, Yeah. I don't. I get bloody nose weird. Or if I'm having. If I've been blown. I blow my nose a lot. Blow it every day when I get out of the shower in the morning. Amy doesn't like that because I blow it into the towel. But. Yeah. Hey, it's there. But.

[TJ Majors]

So what do you do with that towel afterwards?

[Travis Geisler]

I put in a dirty hamper.

[TJ Majors]

Okay.

[Travis Geisler]

Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's the good. That's the right answer. If you would have said hang it back up, I would be.

[Travis Geisler]

I don't blow it into the towel. There's tissues I use on the counter. All right.

[TJ Majors]

Bloody noses.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah. So anyways, I still get bloody. Boy. When I was 12, 11 years old, I had him every day, it felt like every day. Bloody noses all the time. I got all kinds of remedies and tricks and stuff to stop bloody noses. And so he had that bloody nose. And it reminded me of a time we were at Sonoma. And I'm running. I'm running in the back with Stacy Compton and Stacy, the 9 car.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep.

[Travis Geisler]

And we're running and, like, had, like, an eight lap run to the finish. And everybody's getting run over there. There's guys getting sent into the sand traps left and right. And you're like, leave the green out. Nascar, don't throw the caution. Let's just let it play. Let's go. Let's get home. There's a spot. There's a spot. And I'm 18th. I'm 16th. I'm 14th. I'm 12. Hell, yeah. And we got to the, like, last lap, and we get over. We are at the top of the racetrack, turn seven, I guess. Up the hill. No, up until five.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Two or three.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah. No, wait, the four. Yeah, four or five. So we get up there and I park. Stacy, I just. I'm like, I don't. Here's. I'm gonna get another spot. And I dumped him for no reason. No reason whatsoever. And we crossed the finish line, like, 12th or 11th. And I was like, all right. And I pull into the garage. Chat Canals was the crew chief for Stacy Compton. And I pull into the garage, and Chad Can House is walking up to the car like, what the was that? And he gets about two feet away and I pull my helmet off and I turn to look at him and he stops and he has this real funny puzzled look on his face. He doesn't even say anything to me. He's not said a word. He stops and just turns around, walks off. And I got out of the car and I walked into the hauler and I had. My nose had been bleeding during the race and it was my whole. I look like Ric Flair. I had blood all over my face. And he was like. And I talked to him after, like years later. I was like, hey, man, you remember that? And he's like, yeah. I was like, you just. You were coming over there to raise hell at me for part. For running over Stacy. And he said, he said, yeah. I thought somebody beat me to it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's like, saved you?

[Travis Geisler]

He's like, I thought somebody had already come up and pump punched you in the nose for something else. So I just like, I'm not even going to mess with this.

[TJ Majors]

How awful was that driving with the bloody nose?

[Travis Geisler]

I didn't know it.

[TJ Majors]

Wow.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah. I mean, it's just, you're racing, you're not. You're sweating. I mean, how do you know? And I'm. It's down in your mustache. I don't know. I didn't. I don't know. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Geez, I wonder what would have happened had you not had the bloody nose. If you would have actually fought you.

[Travis Geisler]

He would have probably just cussed me out.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, Chad's a. Had a. Cussed you.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah, he just said, man, what in the was that? And I'd have been like, man, I don't know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I would have been more worried about Stacy Compton.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That was a big dude, wasn't he?

[Travis Geisler]

I don't know what I was thinking. I just, I rarely parked. I've only wrecked pur. I've only wrecked people on purpose. I could count it on one hand. I've done it but not many times.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Stacy Compton, Kyle Bush, Kyle Busch. Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

Richmond. I wrecked Stanton Barrett at Pikes Peak. Dang. Yeah. In the 40 channel lock car.

[TJ Majors]

Why?

[Travis Geisler]

So we're at Pikes Peak Racing for the championship. We're in a battle with Matt Kenseth. NASCAR had relic. You know, NASCAR had tire limitations or tire rules for the rally series back then, the bush series. We had saved a set of tires and no one else did. So we are, we're running like 15th. We got a really, really good car, but we had been out on. We ran on old tires long and we lost a lot of track position. But we knew, man, we're gonna have a set of tires with 80, 60 laps to go. No one else is gonna have a set of tires left. The rest of the field was.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That was a high tire wear track.

[Travis Geisler]

I don't know what happened that day, but we were in a fricking badass spot and. And NASCAR decided to give everybody in the field another set of tires with like 80 laps to go in the race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's a little late.

[Travis Geisler]

Just over, big time. Yeah, that's just over. So we, you know, we're scrambling now trying to claw back our way forward and I don't know, it was like 20 laps to go. I don't remember exactly. Somebody's going to pull this up and prove me wrong.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But you giving up your track position already.

[Travis Geisler]

I'm trying to get back forward in the race. And I called him and I needed a yellow to. To trigger the gains I needed to make. And I got on the inside of him and turned him. That was the same race that I got in a fight with Tony Stewart's crew chief in the NASCAR hauler. So the NASCAR people say, go to the. Go to the NASCAR hauler. So I go to the NASCAR hauler and I'm standing there waiting on Tony Stewart and his crew chief. And while whatever's going to go on here. Well, while I'm standing there, the guy that owns the 40 channel lock car, who I'd never seen in my life, walks up and says, what did you do that for? And I'm like, dude, I don't know what you're talking about. And I really didn't. I was like, man, I don't know what the hell you're talking about. But it dawned on me after he walked away. I was like, damn, he must have been talking about Stanton. But yeah, I mean, I've wrecked a few guys, but not, not too many.

[TJ Majors]

That's good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What did you. From the cup race, what did you guys think of the track limits? I mean, or whatever you. The bears they put up.

[Travis Geisler]

I didn't care.

[TJ Majors]

They're fine.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah, I don't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I kind of wish one was just a wall, like leaving the. Leaving the carousel there.

[Travis Geisler]

You liked what they did down in the carousel and you want that in turn one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think it might be what I. So I. Well, I think this created more passing.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Off of one. Because you couldn't run. I mean, okay, I'd put sand there. That's fine.

[Travis Geisler]

I want the damn sand traps back.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, put sand there. I'm fine with that.

[Travis Geisler]

Why did we do. Why did we get away from that?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know.

[TJ Majors]

Stopping the race and having to throw a caution.

[Travis Geisler]

So the reason why we got away from that is you'd be. You'd be halfway into an o' rally or a truck race or whatever.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

And some dummy running 28th would get spun around in the bus stop and end up stuck in the sand after a Reese on a restart, like, not even a lap completed. And now we got another yellow.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, that's true.

[Travis Geisler]

And. And it just kind of. It was like. And I think people saw that and went, there's got to be a better way. And so they just started paving all the runoffs, and maybe they didn't need to pave all of them. The bus stop. Sure. Pave the bus stop. There's a lot of guys getting dumped, getting in there. But maybe turn one, turn six, you know, the. The runoff of the carousel.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But if you. Like you said, though, if you pave one, that's where they're going to start running. That's why they started running wide, though.

[Travis Geisler]

No, no, no. I'm saying in the bus stop. You're not going to run wide. Bus stop.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No bus stop. Yes, but turn one.

[Travis Geisler]

Pave that one. But. But the rest probably didn't need to be paved. They paved them all. They just said, pave them all. And maybe that was just a. A lot of the decisions by racetracks. They need a. They need to take a beat. I'm being honest. Like, a lot of the racetracks that are thinking about reconfiguring, I just heard about a short track that I love dearly, that this guy. That this guy thinks it needs to get reconfigured. It's like, what stop? Like, I could name Texas term one Phoenix. It's a long list of tracks that had things changed, that didn't necessarily result in any big benefit, and it was unnecessary. And so I think that this is. This falls in line with that for me. I would even go back to concrete and Bristol. Concrete and Dover. I mean, I know that asphalt technology wasn't that great back then, and the cars and the tires were a lot grippier, and they're pulling asphalt up on these hot days, and you couldn't go there. I get it. I get it. Bristol in 94 through 96, they had bad problems with the asphalt. It was, you know, you can't have that. You can't show up, try to have A race and the track come apart. I get it. But you know, I feel like that. I know I'm on a rant. Not, not everybody's going to feel this way. And I don't care. I don't care. Being the minority in this. But they, you know, they were trying to fix an issue, but they just went too far. It wasn't necessary. And it's okay to have a car in a gravel trap and turn one and have to have a caution and have to have a restart. Why?

[TJ Majors]

What.

[Travis Geisler]

What does NASCAR love more than anything? What does NASCAR brass love more than anything? Restarts. Restarts. So much so that they have put stage breaks in the race where we have two built in restarts. So the, you know, the idea that we kind of took ourselves out of the ballpark a little bit or out of the opportunity to have some natural

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

cautions and we've also moved to the restart zones to help on the restarts as well.

[Travis Geisler]

Help the restarts be cleaner. Yeah, I mean, I don't know that it's necessary there. We race there forever without any issue. And you know, I get why we might move the restart zone at Cota at Indy road course and those type of tracks where you have that silly ass turn one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

Like Portland and so forth.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The Glen could get bad at times.

[Travis Geisler]

I mean, I don't think so. They made that turn one so fast. They've cut the curbs down. You can run wide, you can get on the curb on the outside. I mean, there's plenty of, you know, if you're.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's more forgiving.

[Travis Geisler]

It is. So I don't think, I don't think they need the restart zone back there. I really don't. But it does. It's not a deal breaker for me. But the runoffs all being paved and now having to put in tire packs. Like, I don't mind the packs because the pavement is there, but honestly, I just assume they had never paved it and they had. I wish we still had sand traps. Yeah, I think sand trap in turn one because it's a important corner. It's the first turn after a restart. It's, you know, it's a downhill. A lot of opportunities to have some cool moments there. I think a sand trap in that corner is the way to go. I would say that same thing for the exit of the carousel. I don't care about really much else about that track. Even turn six, like that runoff in turn six, they don't use it. They're not going out there to get an Advantage. They still run turn six, seven, the final two turns of the track.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Some of them missed the corner, but there's not an advantage.

[Travis Geisler]

No, it's not an advantage. The other thing that I thought I would say is I'm not that big of a fan of how they've cut all the curbs down. They've made the bus stop.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know.

[Travis Geisler]

Super fast.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's so fast.

[Travis Geisler]

So fast. And I get it, dude. The next gen car, they were going through there and the curves were big and the guys were like, I can't race like this. It's too violent. You know, the G forces that were going through their heads, they had these mouthpieces in and they were seeing some stupid numbers on these G forces hitting them curbs. And I get it. But you know, we've. We've taken all the curbs out of the track and now we fly through the bus stop. That braking zone. Getting down into the bus stop isn't as much of a passing zone as it used to be.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, it used to be a really

[Travis Geisler]

good, very good passing zone.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's. Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

All of the passing zone, all of the braking zones got shorter with the next gen. Like a bunch. A bunch. That's a passing opportunity. And you're, you've, you've, you've lessened the opportunity for a pass by shortening up the braking zone because the performance in the braking is so good. And then they knocked all the curbs down. And now mid corner speed and all of the turns is higher, which hurts passing. So yeah, all those things are kind of working against that track. It's just super, super fast now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It is, it's. It's way.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's why I liked turn one. Now guys couldn't. If you could, if you got inside somebody there, they still had to make the extra. The corner. And you didn't have. Now that you kind of know how far they're going to go to the left and you can drive off them easier instead of them driving way out here and trying to chase them. Now we had guys coming to me. We had more racing off of turn one, which led to more racing up through the S's, which, you know, which was just better overall for me. I thought it was a gain.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah. Putting the packs out there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Just. It tightened everything.

[Travis Geisler]

I agree.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, that was good. Really good.

[Travis Geisler]

I also like the, that, that was a good move that tightened up the track. That took some speed away from the racetrack in those two areas. And we did see some passing presented from that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You were able to hold on to a guy easier there. So help.

[TJ Majors]

But there wasn't like, a ton of, like, no passing.

[Travis Geisler]

No. It's so fast. The racetrack's super quick and no curbs and they're just flying everywhere.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, if Lugano doesn't have that caution, it's, It's.

[Travis Geisler]

It's, you know, this. It's. You sort of getting to the point now where you're going around that track with so much speed that the arrows going to be a challenge, you know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, that's what I was. They come off turn one so fast out by that wall. It made. Honestly, it made the S's. If you run it on the sim, when you go all the way to the left out by that wall, your angle into the first S is so much better because you're out here. It's just less of a turn. So you're going faster up through the S's.

[Travis Geisler]

That's right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And it makes it harder for the car behind you to stay with you. So.

[Travis Geisler]

I agree. Well, the packs were a good thing, I think. I know they were a good thing, but. Yeah, I don't know if they want to put a full wall down there, because you do have.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I thought the wallet leaving the carousel was pretty good.

[Travis Geisler]

It was. It was. But you're flying down that front stretch going downhill. If you had a brake failure or any kind of a, you know, issue you do, you want to pancake in. You want to pound a tire barrier head on.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But, I mean, I think that you're

[Travis Geisler]

going to hit that one. You're going to hit the one out at the fence eventually.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But the bear, it didn't start until a good little ways into the corner, though. Like, you'd have to actually turn. You got to turn in.

[Travis Geisler]

Well, some guys will. Some guy. Like, when guys have failures, if you look at Jimmy Johnson, you know, he cut the corner and so, like, your instincts are to cut the corner, then worry about what happens next.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And I, I thought the last failure I saw there was it. Was it bubba in the 1. Do you remember that, like. Or somebody had a failure and went. They hung a left into the wall.

[Travis Geisler]

They did.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And use that Bubba.

[Travis Geisler]

The other thing is, is, like, if you do have a crash fixing the full. How quickly can you fix that full wall? Right. Put that wall back where you're supposed to be if they move it. Right. Whereas the tire packs are easy to move. Relocate. So I think that's the thought process behind that, I'm sure.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I thought they weren't an issue to me, I thought it was actually good, but.

[Travis Geisler]

Well, they're moving the race back to the. To the chase next year and I think that's fine. I mean, everybody there. I feel like there needs to be a road course in the chase now that we have a 10 race chase. A true 10 race block. Having a road course in there is a good idea.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The Glenn's very deserving of it, in my opinion.

[Travis Geisler]

It's our.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's our original and those.

[Travis Geisler]

I mean, I know there's other road course races like Riverside and so forth, but the Glenn's our. Our. That's our tent pole staple. It's road course. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And it's a. I mean, honestly, man, that place sells out the amount of people that go to that race every year.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like, is incredible.

[Travis Geisler]

I mean, great crowd.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, it's a great area. Great crowd.

[Travis Geisler]

How was it this weekend? We saw a lot of stuff on social media with the inner. With the. The weather and the. The mud and getting, you know, everybody getting stuck.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I've never. I had to go Thursday morning and I went up, actually when I sent a picture of the group, I went to my high school and saw my picture on the wall there. So that was fun. But I went to the track and. Oh my gosh, I've never seen. I've never seen the track look like this in all my years ago on there with the fields ruddered up, people. The crowd, I thought was actually really good all weekend still minus the weather. Thought that. Pete. I thought the crowd was really good. People were parking inside of the parking lot, just along the roads, like getting into the place, like up the Bronson hill. Like they're just parking along the roads and walking to their cars and. And stuff. I thought, I mean, there was tractors working. You could look off the roof there and look and see tractors pulling people out all weekend and, and doing that. But. And it didn't help that every single night it rained again. And in the morning, I mean, we did. We did practices on Friday in the rain and got some qualifying canceled stuff. But yeah, it was. I've never seen it like that, but I thought. I thought the crowd was still really good.

[Travis Geisler]

Yep. Well, couple of highs and lows throughout the field. Michael McDowell had a great weekend. He needed it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He wouldn't even know it, though.

[Travis Geisler]

Michael McDowell, dude, I'll be honest. I hope Michael's not insulted, but I thought this dude might be on the hot seat. There's all this speculation about Kyle Busch, where he could go if he leaves rcr, if he Stays with rcr. I always thought that this seat was one that Kyle could potentially vie for or, you know, work his way into if Michael didn't figure something out. But to hear Michael talk, you know, he's. He's got us. In Michael's mind, he's got a plan that he's going to drive this car until he retires. And Tristan McKee.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[Travis Geisler]

What he said is the guy that's going to take over this ride, you know, Christian's coming up through the truck series and so forth. He's got a little. He's got another year or two. But Michael in his mind has a plan. And I mean, sure, this is something that he's discussed with the spire management.

[TJ Majors]

I don't think he's just saying this.

[Travis Geisler]

No, he's not just saying this. So maybe the 71 is not an option for anyone until Michael McDowell says so. But he definitely needed a run like this to be able to, you know, to be able to, you know, kind of stake his claim to his opportunity here.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And it's good to see him get it.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah. Get a good run. Toyotas were solid. You got Gibbs, Briscoe, Redick right there in the top five. RCR, Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch run in the top 10 all day. Both looked very fast, very competitive. Kyle Busch, what a, what a difference the last couple of weeks has made. He's run in the top 10 at Texas most of the day. Had a. Had a bad result, but the, you know, the speed was there and look

[TJ Majors]

where they qualified at. It's not like they start up there and just stayed like they had to earn that.

[Travis Geisler]

It's not like they started up there and stayed up there. That's kind of what they did.

[TJ Majors]

No, I'm saying no. Austin Dillon started 25th.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like he actually.

[TJ Majors]

Kyle Busch 21st.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah, Austin. I saw him pit way before everybody else one time and he got some track position by it, then he kept it. Yeah, he did a really good job all day. Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

Let's see here. Austin was six long run speed, four short run speed.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

Kyle Busch was five long run, eight short run. So I mean, they did qualify poorly, but they didn't just steal track position and, you know, an air block all day. Yeah, they had a real pace in their car.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They had good cars.

[Travis Geisler]

I didn't think. I'm not saying you guys weren't saying that, but I just want to compliment them even more that they had real speed this weekend at a road course.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Austin definitely, he definitely. Boswell did something. I saw him Pit before. But he wasn't like you said, though. He wasn't holding people up when he got there.

[Travis Geisler]

Yep. AJ Almendinger with a top 10 finish. I think we might have talked about some of these guys.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

John Hunter had a really good day, I thought, as well.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah. John Hunter, he. He pissed some people off at the end of the race. Who did he wreck?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He didn't. That wasn't really.

[Travis Geisler]

Oh, somebody got something.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It was Bubba.

[Travis Geisler]

It was Bubba.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, but I mean, Bubba. Bubba tried to fill the hole. There was a guy passing Bubba and he tried to turn in behind him, and John Hunter was filling the hole and Bubba tried to cross over. In my. In my opinion.

[Travis Geisler]

Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Bubba's trying to come down and fill that gap.

[Travis Geisler]

He is. But is the 42 not dive bombing, too? That's a dive bomb, Tommy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're going to fill the gap. Everybody does. If John Hunter lifts early, somebody's going to dive on him or run into him.

[Travis Geisler]

Who?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know what's behind him.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah, but look, John Hunter's missing the apex. I just watch his car.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's definitely going up, but, like, there

[Travis Geisler]

he's missing the corner.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, I don't know.

[Travis Geisler]

I think it was aggressive on both. To your point. Like Bubba. Bubba's turning and cutting across the racetrack.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[Travis Geisler]

To. To kind of, you know, get it. Get into, you know, stop the bleeding, so to. So to speak.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So with this, what I was talking

[Travis Geisler]

about, John Hunter was a bit aggressive

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

there with them tire packs there. You could actually cross guys that we're driving in. So I watched Bubba and a couple other guys turn back underneath the guy. And they were inside of them. Yeah, exactly. And we couldn't do that before.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Going back to your point, I just think this is. That's just racing to me. Two guys trying to go for the spot.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah, you. It is racing if that happens in the first half of the race. But, man, when you've been busting ass all day long.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

And you got yourself a. You know, you're sitting there going, what fucking spot were they in? 10th, 11th.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

If you're sitting there going back pretty far.

[TJ Majors]

19th and 18th.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

At that point.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. 19th, I see on the screen.

[Travis Geisler]

All right, so you're sitting there and what have last were left Because John Hunter ended up 10th overall. Bubba ends up 29th, and John Hunter runs 10. So John Hunter had tires, he pitted late, and he's coming back through the field.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

With the. With those new tires. And you just want to be taken more. You want to be taken better care of. You do.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I agree.

[Travis Geisler]

Look, John Hunter is going to get by the 23 and Bubba's like, Man, I'm trying to run 20th here. Now I'm 29th. You know that pisses you off.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I agree 100%. I would be pissed if I was Bubba as well. But you also got John Hunter's box is probably like, get everything you can get. Go hard as you can. You know what I mean? Like they're trying to get everything they can. I I see both sides of it.

[Travis Geisler]

Hey, this is Dale Hart Jr. And for all the latest Dale Jr. Download gear, including the I'm old, Drink some beer T shirt we've been talking about here around the office, head over to shop.dirtymomedia.com for all the latest merch. Right now, new FanDuel customers can bet $5 and get 150 in bonus bets if your first bet wins. That's right, turn $5 into 150 in bonus bets just for getting started and when every possession matters in the playoffs, FanDuel makes it easy to get closer to the action. From player props on your favorite stars to all the tools you need to back them up, FanDuel puts player research right at your fingertips. You can check stats, trends, matchups all in one place to make your picks with confidence. It's everything you need all in one app, so don't miss your shot. I myself personally enjoy FanDuel. It's a great app. Again, all the information you need to be able to make confident bets is right there within the app. It's a ton of fun and you can run the gamut. If you're able to bet it, it's on FanDuel. They got a lot of different sports, a lot of different props, so many different things you can do and so many fun, cool, quirky bets to make. I'm a huge fan. Head over to fanduel.com dirtymo to get started. Fanduel play your game must be 21/in

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

present in select states. For Kansas, an affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 in present in D.C. first online real money wager only $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as non withdrawable bonus bets which expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See [e-mail] gambling problem. Call 1-800- gambler or visit fanduel.com rg call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-55 for 24. 7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE NY or text HOPE NY in New York.

[TJ Majors]

When you're looking to hire somebody, it's not just about finding someone to fill the void. It's about finding someone with the right background, experience, skills to get the job done. Because you don't want to have to go through the hiring process again. You want to do it once and get it right. Indeed Sponsored Jobs help you match with candidates who can move your business forward. Target candidates by skills, certifications, or location. Join the 3.3 million employers worldwide that use Indeed to connect with quality talent that fits their needs. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results. Now with Indeed Sponsored Jobs and listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help you get your job the premium status it deserves@ Indeed.com podcast, terms and conditions apply. Hiring do it the Right Way with Indeed.

[Travis Geisler]

We got Shane Van Gisbergen calling in right here, joining the Dale Jr. Download. Shane, thanks for giving us some time today. We're gonna.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, we need a foot camera.

[Travis Geisler]

So, yeah, we need a foot cam. See what you're doing. So kind of see what kind of technique you're using during this call. Hey, I wanted to talk to you about that. And you. I ain't gonna let you off the hook.

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

What's that?

[Travis Geisler]

So you, when we put the foot camera in there, you kept telling, you kept telling us. I work with the network, so I know the dialogue. You kept telling us, man, I don't want that foot camera down there. And then we'd put one down there and you kick it out of the way. What's the deal?

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

I just, I have big feet. I'm a big fella. And when I got, when I got in there.

[Travis Geisler]

Are you serious? The camera was in your way? Oh. So one of the things, you know, we talked about earlier in the show, we were talking about your technique. And, and I know I've went over this with you before, but when you were racing at Chicagoland, I was working one of the broadcasts and I was down the corner and Paul Morris was texting me all this information about how you were using the clutch uniquely. And it was, and Paul did a really good job describing it to me and made, made it make perfect sense. And he told me that, you know, this is, this is just normal. This is just this is how all guys in. In. In New Zealand and Australia race. And this is like a technique that you're. You. You're taught early in your life. Yeah. And so. And you use the clutch in a way to sort of. It. It's a pervert. Preserves the tire. It's easier on the rear tire in the braking zone. There's all kinds of things that you're doing to try to, you know, allow the car to get down in the corner deeper and not beat the tire up. And you really see the. The benefit of that on the end of the run, whereas your car is still making a lot of pace, whereas other guys have pissed their tires off throughout the run and their tires are unhappy. But, you know, I think that, you know, your. Your concern. I think you have genuine concern that, you know, you don't want a lot of people to really, truly see that technique or understand that technique. But I gotta tell you, no one's gonna be able to learn that. Like, our guys that are 30, 35, 40 years old, they're not gonna be able to, like, tack this, put this in their, you know, their. Their repertoire. They're not gonna be able to, like, start trying this technique and. And do it, do it.

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

Well, I think Logano and Cindric have started to.

[Travis Geisler]

They're trying.

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

Right.

[Travis Geisler]

I learned. I heard them talking like, Logano was trying to do it in practice, but they're not. They may be trying to, like, put their feet where your feet are, but they really don't know what they're trying to do with the. With the clutch.

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

You know what I mean? And I don't know.

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

I also think people overthink it as well. Like, I don't think it is a big advantage, but of course I'm gonna say that.

[Travis Geisler]

But yeah.

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

Yeah. It's all of. All I've known. But I used to do it because you had to in a V8 supercar, you know, with the lock diff.

[Travis Geisler]

Why did you have to.

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

Because they would have a lock diff, and you'd have to run so much rear brake to make it turn so you could control the rear lock in the brake zone. And then as you got to the brake zone, you'd. The clutch would be out as you turned in, and it would help the car to turn.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah.

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

But in this, you don't need to because the diff is open. So it. You don't really have rear locking because you can run so much more front brake bars.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right.

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

I don't.

[Travis Geisler]

You don't know that the advantage is what it used to be for you in the previous cars you drove.

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

Yeah, like it obviously probably is some but it's nowhere near like you couldn't, you couldn't drive a via supercar fast and left or break, you know, maybe really the laps. But yeah, no, you couldn't do it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That was your problem.

[Travis Geisler]

That was my problem.

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

Yeah. But, but here, you know, I don't, I don't think it's a advantage at all. But as you said, the older guys, I would struggle to left foot break. You know, it would be exactly be hard for me to go and do the opposite.

[Travis Geisler]

So when you go race at an oval and I probably asked you this before, you're, you know, do you think that you're at a disadvantage because of the braking? Because I've seen you, you run really great at even the short tracks, you know.

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

Yeah. So Martinsville took me a little bit to do because that's one where you really down change every lap.

[Travis Geisler]

Yep.

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

But now I'm sort of used to it and I can sync up the timing and look after the rare tires now. But at first it was difficult, but I just put a big knee knocker in there and separated my pedals as much as I could. And then that may be not right foot break. The first Martinsville, I was still doing that. So yeah, now I just transition to two foot.

[Travis Geisler]

Yep. So we were talking earlier in the show about how this was just a dominant performance. We're picking a little bit with your pit crew because they were ranked 18th, but they were probably just taking it easy. You gave them a day off with the speed you had on the racetrack. But the, you know, how do you, how do you explain, you know, there's been some moments like we, we looked at, you know, you ran 10th in Indy, the second race you ran in the Cup Series. You came back to the, you know, you came back next year and there were a couple, you know, so, so decent runs. But we all had this narrative that, you know, he's going to kick our ass on these tracks that we don't know well. But when we go to the Glen, when we go to Sonoma, we should be able to run with him. And we think our guys could kind of match match his pace. But that narrative kind of got blown out of the water over the last probably, I don't know, six to 12 months. And this weekend was, was, what was it about this car? What was it about the weekend? What was it about what you were feeling that was even more exceptional compared to what we've seen over the last couple of years.

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

I think it's just being consistent with my people, you know, working with the same guys all the time now. And, you know, at first. The first years, I just turn up and race. And then even when I was with Korlig in 20. 24, was it? Yeah, 24. I would just turn up and not have much influence in the setup. And last year, really, from Mexico, was really the first time we got outside our setup window of what we normally run. And I kind of was able to guide the team a little bit. And they. They listened and got dangerous. Yeah. Got the feeling I wanted from the car. And once you worked out poorly, Worked

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

out poorly for everybody else.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah. So you're starting. So what, you know, that's pretty dangerous and scary for, I think, the rest of the competition to hear is that you're starting to understand some of the. Some of the, you know, nuts and bolts to turn on this car to get what you're looking for. Yeah.

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

Especially when we go back like Watkins Glenn for the second time, you just refine what you. What you learned. I think so. Yeah. It's been awesome trying to develop the car and get it better.

[Travis Geisler]

And that seems to be absolutely true because we saw pace in your teammates that maybe we hadn't seen before. Ross was really quick at times during the race, so everyone's seeming to benefit from, you know, because I basically would. Ross told us or said to the media, he's like, I just told him to set it up just like SVGs. I'll figure it out. You know, what. What's. You know, which I think is brilliant, you know, knowing what you know about the car and what you're looking for. And if you got real influence on the setup, I would do the exact same thing. And it seemed to be helping everyone in the. In the. In the shop.

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

Yeah, I think so too. And Ross is awesome and amazing how he can do that. Just, you know, you can be easily be too proud. I guess he just sucks it up and deals with it and learns how to drive it. And that's a pretty cool attitude to have, I think.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah.

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

Yeah. And then when we're all up front, it helps. Like, it was a pretty special thing. Three of us in the top five, and qualifying was boost our team needed.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I got a couple quick questions for you. A, how do you get through the bus stop so damn fast? And B, you've got. You've run a lot of road courses, obviously. What do you think about the tire packs and, like, what it did and what you could do to turn one to kind of keep the effect they have. Maybe, maybe you've. You've got some different ideas.

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

Yeah, I don't know about the bus stop. Everyone says Marcus was really quick there too. So to me it's kind of like the surfers paradise back straight where you're one way to the other and yeah, got to be so accurate there. So maybe it's a bit of that experience. I'm not sure.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You drive in so deep like I, it's so even. Watch it on like smt. It's like, good Lord, like how do you even make the corner?

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

Oh, tell Brad to break later.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We'll follow you.

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

Yeah, I, I think turn one, I think it worked really well. Like the restarts were a lot tougher. You really had to break a bit. I think it did a good job of making more of a passing zone. Turn one and you couldn't just roll off the brake and stay around the outside of someone. And I thought it made the racetrack a bit racier, which was cool. I put forward in the driver's chat this week, you know, when I've raced in the Middle east, they have like a car width strip of Astroturf on the exit of the corner and if you go out there, there's a bit less grip but you can still get away with it. So. And it looks, looks decent as well, you know, but those, yeah, better than a tire pack. Those tire bundles, they're a race ender and we saw that a couple of people hit them and yeah, I would, I would add, you know, a strip of Astroturf and say, that's interesting. Yeah, you got to stay within the track limits but if you use it, you know, you're not going to gain anything. So.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, that would, There was a penalty for getting over it.

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah, that's brilliant. Well, I, I guess, you know, looking forward, this is a opportunity for you to, to grab a ton of points and it launched you back into the top 16. How much are you, how much are you looking at the points? We got a, you know, it's a different system this year. How much are you kind of paying attention to that? Are you plotting out your strategy going forward every week?

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

Yeah, it's. We got a sort of gap to the cut line and a predicted cut line and our debriefs and it's a focus every week to maximize what we're doing and I think it's been cool. I think we were on the edge of the cut line without the road Courses and, you know, it's obviously a shot in the arm for us to get those points, but I want to point my way in, you know, by being good on the. On the ovals. And the last month has been a little difficult, but the start of the year was great. So, yeah, we got to get back to that. There's some good tracks coming up for us, but, yeah, I think it's been. Been a good challenge, you know, trying to manage risk versus reward and maximize the days. It's been a. Been a cool focus point this year.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah, for sure. Well, it's gonna be a lot of fun seeing how that goes forward.

[TJ Majors]

I got one question. Yeah, go ahead, Shane. When you crew chief decided to keep you out and then you pitted later, did you think that that deficit was too much, or were you not concerned?

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

Yeah, the first lap, and I come out of turn one and I looked at the big screen, and I seen Gibbs going into the carousel. I went, oh, that's way too fast. And then he started giving me the countdown of the laps. You know what. How many laps to go? How many seconds? Josh would tell me out of turn one every lap. And when the seconds started to match the laps and go the other way, I thought we were fine. So.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

Were you. Were you 10? 10? Were you freaking?

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

Is that all you had before the pit stop? I was, yeah. I tried. That was probably the moment, but, yeah, once I came back out, I. You know, you're just managing. It was still 25 laps. So the tires, you still had to look after them. Yeah, it was. It was a pretty cool moment, seeing that gap and hearing it close down.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, you. I looked at the gap, and I'm like, nah, that. There's, like. It's gonna be hard to make that up. And then I started. Then you. It, like, was almost seamless. That as fast as you caught him, and then you were gone. So is it more fun as a driver just being out front, or did you enjoy the chase right there at the end?

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

Boring is good when you're the leader, I guess.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

When you're out front, you never complain about that, but, yeah, that's one of the best things. When you're at the end and you're on better tires and you're hunting people down.

[Travis Geisler]

That's.

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

That's so much fun, you know, that's what I.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You can kind of see. And I was wondering.

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

Yeah, Yeah, I was loving that.

[Travis Geisler]

Well, man, hey, we appreciate your time today. You're a good sport. I know you got a lot going on and. And headed to Dover for the All Star event and all that. And we'll see you in Charlotte for our Amazon races and our little stretch of the summer. Looking forward to being around and. And catching up. But thanks for. Thanks for coming to see us today and congratulations on such a. Such a great performance in Watkins Glen.

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

Appreciate you guys. Thanks for having me.

[Travis Geisler]

Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Congrats.

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

See ya.

[Travis Geisler]

See ya. Hey, Everybody, it's Dale Jr. And we are back for another segment of Ask Junior for this, this day's episode of the Dale Jr. Download. Co host TJ Majors here. We want to thank Xfinity for waving the red flag on Internet price hikes and waving the green flag on savings. You get the speed and reliable, reliable wi fi that you need. You get that for five years, same price, no surprises, no late yellows, straight to victory lane. Just like we like it. Xfinity. Imagine that. It's a great service and a great product and we're thankful for all they do for our sport. Let's get to some questions.

[TJ Majors]

First question is a couple people want to know did. Were you aware that Cole Swindell was going to show up at the Cars Tour or was that planned or text.

[Travis Geisler]

So Cole and I have been talking baseball cards. He lives nearby. And we ran. We ran to a couple. We ran to a shop and, and. And we've hung out a little bit here lately. He's got a young. He got a little one that he's raising and so he's doing some dadding but had a day off. Had a friend of his that was like, hey man, that the car store race ain't far away. So they drove over. He's like, we might come. So I said, just text me if you get close. He said, We're 30 minutes away. So we sat out there on the back gate and waited for him to get in, parked him in the parking lot and got him in there and he watched the pro and late mile stocks. He's become good friends with Lee Pulliam after he saw Lee's podcast here. And so he had a lot of people to hang out with and talk to and saw some great racing. So it was pretty awesome.

[TJ Majors]

I think it's pretty cool because it's, you know, he doesn't post about it. And so like his fans start to see the Cars Tour and maybe it

[Travis Geisler]

gains some car stores where it's at, man.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's always good.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

What'd you think? I saw you tweeted that the Trucks tour had about seven former Cars Tour drivers.

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

Truck.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah. The truck race results from Watkins Glen. Yeah. Had about seven cars. Tour competitors. And then Honeycutt leaves the. Leaves the Glenn and comes and wins both races at Ace Saturday night. So pretty. Pretty incredible.

[TJ Majors]

Next question. Speaking of winners, Casey Kane.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

What'd you think of that?

[Travis Geisler]

I was so happy for him.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That was awesome.

[Travis Geisler]

Yep. I sent him a little message. Casey Kane wins World of Outlaw, his first ever World Outlaw race. And Boo Weekly. Oh, yeah, won the PGA Champions Tournament, which is pretty incredible. So, yeah, Boo Weekly is so. He was on the tour. PGA Tour back in the 2000s. He's a NASCAR fan. Came to Talladega. We met. He would. We would have the charity event here or we would, you know, during Charlotte race weekend. He'd come stay around. He'd come stay at the house with Sonny and them and hang out. We'd drink. And so he gave me a set of clubs that he played with in a tournament he won a tournament with in Charlotte. Gave me the set of clubs he won with. Just an awesome guy. And we've been friends for a long time. And he was on our podcast last year. Right. We did one of our remote shows.

[TJ Majors]

I think Casey Kane was too.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Just a bunch of winners, right?

[Travis Geisler]

So Boo has been dealing with a lot of injuries and he quit golfing professionally for a little while. But he says, man, I'm feeling. Feeling better. I'm getting back to healthy. And he's got everything in order in his personal life. And he. He's been playing some tournaments and doing pretty well over, like the last four or five years. He's been playing on this Champions Tour a little bit. And from his statistics, it looks like, you know, he's doing 8, 9, 10, 12 tournaments a year. But he finally won this weekend. He beat Ernie Ells in the last round by a few. By a few holes. It was kind of tight, but he hadn't won a tournament since 2013 of any kind.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Now look at him.

[Travis Geisler]

So pretty incredible, man. He was emotional and just awesome to see.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So he's a really cool dude.

[Travis Geisler]

I love seeing that, man. You know, I love seeing people that are doing these type of things, things at this point in our lives, like Casey Kane. I don't know how old Casey is. Mid 40s, late 40s. So he's probably a little bit younger than me. 46. I mean, you know, 46 year old. Boo Weekly. 52 years old, going out there competing. I just seen a post this morning. Kenny Wallace is driving a super late model Outlaw, super late model, like super silly fast asphalt car. Somewhere at 60, some 62, whatever he is.

[TJ Majors]

That's the hard thing with athletes is you retire at a young age and,

[Travis Geisler]

well, the racing is a little different. You know, you can race as long as you want. You know, your ability to be competitive is determined on your willingness to take risks and.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Which does go down.

[Travis Geisler]

It does go down.

[TJ Majors]

Next question came from, I think on Facebook. They wanted to know, are you excited for the new Hell at Loose game coming out this year?

[Travis Geisler]

Vietnam? Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Tj, you got on a beta.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I didn't try. No. We got on the list but didn't get it yet.

[Travis Geisler]

Oh, gotcha. Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But I would love to. I think Carson did okay.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah, we've. We played hell at Loose a lot over the last six years or so. I think when the next installment, which is Vietnam, when it comes out, we'll probably jump on there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Trailer looks really good. You watch trailer? No, it's really good.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Will you guys play the new Grand Theft if it ever comes out?

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah, sure.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, we'll probably.

[Travis Geisler]

Oh, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Run around behind Stefan.

[Travis Geisler]

Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Officer Stefan.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

He said he's just pulling people over in it now. Whatever the version he's playing.

[Travis Geisler]

He's Steven Stefan has a YouTube and he streams.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, I didn't know he streams.

[Travis Geisler]

Oh, yeah, you gotta watch. They're still on there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So funny.

[Travis Geisler]

Stephen Stefan has a YouTube or a Twitch and he streamed years ago.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He did, yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

And he would just be. He was just an officer and he had all the lingo.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He would pull people over and talk to him.

[Travis Geisler]

He'd pull over people and he's just pulling over the AI.

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Resisting and stuff.

[Travis Geisler]

Yelling at him and calling in back up and all this mess. He.

[TJ Majors]

He came in last week for. Bless your heart. He's like asking about. He goes, now that AI like they're able to answer your questions.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, he's pumped about this.

[TJ Majors]

So he's stoked.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Maybe he'll post when he's going to stream.

[Travis Geisler]

We can now wait. I think when he was doing all this, he didn't have a girlfriend.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah. He's got screen time.

[Travis Geisler]

It'd be interesting to see these streams.

[TJ Majors]

It's well knowing she's on the top.

[Travis Geisler]

I can't wait to play that though. I think all of us are going to probably be in. In a lobby together and doing all at some point.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, that'll be fun.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Another question, they people saw you tweeting about the 1999 Lysol 200 Bush Series race.

[Travis Geisler]

Oh, yeah. With at The Glenn.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. What exactly was that like at the. In heaven to. You talked about your transmission.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah. So let's see. Ron Fellows was driving Nemechek car super fast. Ron's a super awesome guy. Ron taught me as well as, like, I mean, there was a lot of guys. I don't want to leave it. Andy Pilgrim, bor. Said Ron Fellows, Bob Bondurant, some of the.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He was like your first real, like, instructor, wasn't he? Like, hands on, like, that was a.

[Travis Geisler]

There was a guy named Cooper at Bob Bondurant that was one of the first guys I really learned a lot from. But I. I would. When, yeah, I. I started. I raced that Corvette in oh one with dad. And we learned a ton from Ron and Pilgrim and all those guys, so. And then I went back to try to race the Corvette again in 04 when we caught fire. Well, we went to a test somewhere. Willow Springs or somewhere. We went to a test out west with Ron. It was me and Ron, and we were both driving the car and trying to match what he was doing and everything. So. Ron is the nicest guy. Super cool. Yeah. And even back then racing with him, like, he was a clean racer, like you see in that replay. I cook it down into turn one to get by him. He gets kind of back. A nose back underneath me, and I just. I just crossed. I just ran right across the right front or the left front of his car. And he could have turned me right there, but he didn't. But I. I was like, man, I ain't. You know, we're not going in this. We're not going in the S side by side here. But yeah, that was a weird deal. We. I wasn't. We had that H pattern shifter, and I had a real bad habit of. I would da. I would go into the bus stop and downshift and I wouldn't put my hands back on the wheel. I would hold on, I would downshift. And then I drive through the bus stop and then I would be ready to, you know, shift into, say, you know, grab a gear. You know, grab a gear and come around the carousel and grab another gear. And all the while, you know, I drive. I drove some of the race holding onto the shifter. And I beat the. I wore out the dog. The dog rings. There's these things in the shifter that called dog rings. And they are the ones. They keep tension to hold. They keep tension to hold the transmission in gear. And so when you beat those up and wear those out, you could be going down the. I was Going down the long back straightaway in fourth gear, and it just popped out of gear. Like, it just went into neutral, and it wouldn't stay even full throttle wouldn't stay in gear. And so probably around 14 or 15 laps to go, I just had to start driving the whole lap to make sure it stayed in gear and just holding it in whatever gear I wanted to be in. But Ron was having some fuel pickup issues, and he was. He was sputtering down the straightaways. And, you know, you could tell when I get the move off of turn seven. Coming to the white flag. Like, we throttle up, and his car just doesn't accelerate as well as mine. I mean, we were better. Our car was a little better at that point in the race, but he was struggling with that. And, yeah, I just had to make sure I held it in gear and. Or it would. Because if you let go of it, literally, like anywhere on the racetrack, if you let go of it, it popped out of gear because I had been. My bad habit of holding onto the transmission stick while we're driving around the racetrack. And I'm. I'm like, not knowingly. I don't know I'm doing this, but I'm kind of, like, holding myself up in the car, holding on to the transmission as I'm driving, you know, and not. And I wore this damn thing out, but I. And so I would go home and I race back. This is like, you know, 99. So we'd get on, you know, you know, we get on NASCAR racing or whatever. Papyrus and that. I started practicing, like, shift, put your hand on the wheel. Shift, put your hand on every shift. Like, get your hands back on the steering wheel. Don't hold on to the shifter, because that's easy and lazy. So it was just a bad habit I had to break.

[TJ Majors]

Someone wants to know, would you ever cage dive? Like, with sharks?

[Travis Geisler]

No, I got no need to do that, tj.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, I. Yeah, probably try it.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, you're in a cage. What could go wrong?

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah, I don't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Jaws.

[Travis Geisler]

I don't need to go see it. All right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Would you skydive?

[Travis Geisler]

I kind of do want to do that.

[TJ Majors]

I would go skydiving today.

[Travis Geisler]

I don't want to. I kind of.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't think I'd skydive.

[Travis Geisler]

I do think I would want to try that, but I'm not. Don't send me any invitations. Don't tell me you got a buddy. I'm not ever going to do it.

[TJ Majors]

I'm definitely not bungee jumping.

[Travis Geisler]

Though I think, you know, all those things were a possibility until I had a family and kids and a few things when I got. When I became a dad crossed them off. A couple things just had to get off the list. Yeah, well, you didn't do it when you had the chance. You're not doing it now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I do wish we ziplined down there.

[Travis Geisler]

I kept hearing about the people getting cuts and like getting scrapes and stuff on the zip lines and having the flesh eating bacteria get them.

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

No, I did.

[TJ Majors]

I went through a zipline, through a forest and like cut Cozumel and our.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Was a blast.

[Travis Geisler]

I mean, I don't, I don't know, man.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think, I mean. Yeah, I don't know. We were in Costa Rica. Well, we were. There was like. We could have. We could have ziplined in Costa Rica, but. Oh, that's where the jungle. I mean, that would have been kind of fun.

[Travis Geisler]

But yeah, I reckon I don't need the zipline.

[TJ Majors]

That one's. I feel like the safest one though.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know. I feel like that's pretty.

[Travis Geisler]

I will. I only want a zip line if I need to get to where I'm going. Like if you're.

[TJ Majors]

If there's like a bar.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah. Like if.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If I'm a tree house, you want to get down.

[Travis Geisler]

If I'm up in the tower or the booth and I could zip line down into the garage, then I would zipline because I'd be like, you know what, it's easier going down these stairs, whatever. But the zip line just to be zipline and don't make a bunch of sense.

[TJ Majors]

Can we get a zip line from the Dirty Mo building to the.

[Travis Geisler]

Junior, I'm not ziplining for the.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, you don't think a jungle. The scenery, I mean, I'm just missing. Yeah, I mean I think I get the zip. I mean. Yeah. I don't know.

[Travis Geisler]

I don't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I wouldn't skydive, but I'd zipline.

[TJ Majors]

What about parasailing?

[Travis Geisler]

Is that now when you're like up

[TJ Majors]

in the air and.

[Travis Geisler]

I don't want to do that. I've seen too many times where they.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, I saw a video of that recently.

[Travis Geisler]

They let them down into the sharks.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, I saw one where.

[Travis Geisler]

Then one broke and come loose and they.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The storm came in and they couldn't get the guy down and it blew. He ended up just landing wherever he landed. You know what I'm talking about?

[Travis Geisler]

He turned into a parachute. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And he just went, I ain't doing it.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah, I Ain't doing it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not happening.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, you just fall in the water, right?

[Travis Geisler]

All right, go do it. Look, go do it. If you don't do it, I feel

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

like, what do you want to do it?

[TJ Majors]

If you do it with me, tj, what if.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, I'm not doing that. What if you did see a shark and they're like, oh, we're going to bring in and drop you down?

[Travis Geisler]

They don't know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I will tell you. Do you remember? It's when you are in the water and you see a shark. It's way different.

[Travis Geisler]

Hear this guy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, I'm saying clear water when you're shark.

[Travis Geisler]

That's way different.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We saw them, like, when we were. When we went to the Great Barrier Reef and we were.

[Travis Geisler]

As opposed to standing on land when

[TJ Majors]

I'm on the ground.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm just saying that if you're in the water without. In a cage and you see something, like, it'd be like walking down a path, seeing a bear, I guess. Well, no, like, you're not. Like, it's. It's ner. Like you're nervous.

[Travis Geisler]

Dude, have you seen this YouTube video? I don't know how I. How stumbled across it in my algorithm, but there's a guy that survived a bear attack. Yeah, it's pretty incredible. I wish I could remember the name of.

[TJ Majors]

Did he have, like, spray? No, he just.

[Travis Geisler]

He was attacked by a bear, the same bear multiple times over the course of several hours and survived it, didn't he?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He played dead, I think, didn't he?

[Travis Geisler]

He probably didn't have to play dead. He probably was near death.

[TJ Majors]

Get them on the podcast, dude.

[Travis Geisler]

He did. That's what I. It was on a podcast. It was like a video podcast. It was. It's incredible.

[TJ Majors]

It's one question they want to know. Someone wants. They keep asking us every week, so I'm finally going to ask it. Do you have more hats or die cast hats?

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah, I probably have, like, this jerky boys hat. So there's a guy that. I get these patches. So we make a patch, right? We'll make this patch ourselves upstairs, and then I'll take this patch and I'll send it to a guy in Nashville and he puts it on these Richardsons, and he'll make 30 or 40 of these different colors, you know, same patch, different color hat, and send them to me, and I get them in a box and I really. I'm glad he brought this up because I've got a bunch of these that I'm probably just never gonna wear. Because I don't need 20 Jerky Boys hats. I'm just gonna wear, you know, over the next five years, probably wear about six of them. And I'm going to take a lot of these. I've got Jerky Boys. We've got Junior Motorsports ones with a patch. We've got cars, tour cars, Tour ones. I'm going to take a bunch of these hats that I'm probably not going to wear, and it's probably going to be about 15 of them, and I'm going to put them in the Wendell Juniors Ride Suburban or Tahoe. So we got. We did this Tahoe where we give the car away on the foundation, the Dale Junior Foundation. So that's happening. The raffle's getting ready to start, or maybe it's already started. But I'm gonna. We throw all kinds of stuff in the back of this Tahoe that we love and use that we like in our everyday lives and stuff that we take on vacation or whatever. And so I'm gonna put a ton of these hats in there for somebody.

[TJ Majors]

I love that you guys kind of stock it with, like, just things that you would like.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah, it's got, like. I've got this Bluetooth speaker. It's about this big around. It's the lightest Bluetooth speaker I could find. And you'll get one of those, but you also get a big, giant Bluetooth speaker, like a ridiculous size one, because I love those, too. We just walk around all day just going, let's throw one of them in there. Let's put one of them in there. I love this. Let's just put one of them in there, you know? Yeah, all kinds of stuff.

[TJ Majors]

Next question. Someone wanted to ask, what's your thoughts on Greenville Pick and Speedway?

[Travis Geisler]

I don't know where everything stands. I know they've been having a lot of meetings. The council's been getting together, and they're kind of dragging this out in terms of, like, I guess they've delayed the demolition of the racetrack, which is a good thing. And the track still has some sort of opportunity to. To survive, although a slim one. And I believe there is an individual that's ready to buy the piece of land and maintain it as a racetrack.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Nice. Did you race there?

[Travis Geisler]

No, we did go test there. We test there for Martinsville.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

But if we do get to see the track survive, the Cars Tour will go there and the Cars Tour race there before. It's not a big revelation, but KNS

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

went there before some series went there.

[Travis Geisler]

So. Yeah, I'm Not, I'm just saying, like, we will take advantage of, of that track success if it continues. We'll be a part of it, but as a tour. But I don't know, man. It's. There's a developer that's building a bunch of warehouses and so forth all around it, and I think that that guy would like to see the track go away, and he's made that, made that statement. So they got some opposition, and if the track survives, they've got some challenges.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

Not only just the track needs renovation, massive renovation needs about, you know, two, three million dollars put into it. Parking is going to be more of an issue now because of the warehouses that have been built around it. But we'll see. Matthew Dillner is all over this. And so, you know, it'd be good to maybe get a clip of Matthew and see kind of what if he can give you an update. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Next question. What do you think of the idea of having some sort of joint all star race with O'Reilly and you find a.

[Travis Geisler]

That's my idea. You think? What do you mean?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What?

[Travis Geisler]

I think that's my idea.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We've talked about this before.

[TJ Majors]

Okay.

[Travis Geisler]

This was the idea that I gave to Marcus. And this came from, this came from when we started, when we went and ran the road course at Daytona. You know, we were, we were just messing around, trying some different stuff, and it was pretty neat. And I got to, you know, when I was out there running, when I was out there broadcasting with NBC at the 24 Hours of Daytona, I thought, man, why can't NASCAR have a class in the 24 hours of Daytona? And we got, we got Doug Yates on the, on the pit box during the broadcast. And I said, doug, could you, could you, could you get a car out here and get it to go 24 hours? He's like, yeah, you know, and they end up doing this right in the Le Mans race with a modified version of the, of the next gen car. But imagine, you know, if we did Daytona as a series or as an organization, nascar, and instead of having like a truck race, I don't want this to replace the 500. So don't get me wrong, but like, maybe it would be cool if we went to a road course like Daytona or somewhere and they had, instead of truck on Friday, o' Rally on Saturday and cup on Sunday, they some, they somehow ran them together. And now that's not realistic with the field sizes that we have. But when they, when they said that they were going to take the All Star race, To Dover. Listen, no bullshit. Everybody said Dover. What, what, what? Why are we doing that? You know, you know, there's been this debate over the last, you know, I don't know how many years of what to do with the All Star race. Some people even think that it should maybe go away entirely. So there's been this sort of urgency to figure out, like what, how do we, how do we get the All Star race back, you know, to prominence? And when they said, hey man, we're going to, we're going to go to Dover, I thought, well, that's, that's going to be a challenge because of how Dover races. Right. Dover's a 400 mile race and it needs 400 miles to have some happen. How are you going to go over there and run an All Star race and make it spectacular? The way you do that is, you know, you put, you have an All Star weekend for all three series and you could have, you could tighten up the restrictions on how you get into the All Star race, which would make the field size smaller and somehow find a way to either have, you know, you could even have all three truck, O'Reilly and Cup in the same event. You know, if you could start 42, 43, maybe a couple more and you know, you'd have, I don't know, roughly, I don't know, 12, 12 cars from each series. If you didn't want to do that, then you could do Next gen and the O'Reilly series and split it in half. Right. But have one race where they're all on the track together and you got a, you got two classes. Now that would be interesting because a, it makes getting into the All Star race a real challenge. It's an invitation only. Real reward. Real reward only a small, you know, few featured drivers would get there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Prestigious.

[Travis Geisler]

Yep. So you raise the prestige of making it. Right. And you've got the moving chicane of slower cars. That creates some unique situations and challenges for everybody involved. Right. Which, which, you know, could present some moments. Yeah. You know, and it's an exhibition. It's worth a try. They showed, they were testing it Chicagoland and they showed the O'Reilly and the next Gen on the racetrack together at the same time. It's wild how big the O'Reilly car is compared to the Next Gen. Do you see that? Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, it was fun to see.

[Travis Geisler]

Weird.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

But the, Yeah, I think that would be fun to try to see if you could have multi class racing in NASCAR in an exhibition like the All Star race.

[TJ Majors]

You know, it's worth a try.

[Travis Geisler]

I thought that would really. You would absolutely. What are you trying to do if you're Marcus and nascar, if you're take, you know, you're, you're moving around, you're kind of robbing Peter to pay Paul in this getting Wilkesboro the points race and having the all star race and Dover not having something and going okay, well all star Dover, not really what we thought we were going to end up with, but here we are. Well, how do you get people to like go freaking A. I'm not going to miss that. Well, if you in if you told them you were going to put the rally cars out on the car out on the track with the next gen and everybody was going to be competing for a win between the two class, I would not miss that. Yeah, you wouldn't miss that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That would be automatic tune in.

[Travis Geisler]

Automatic tune in. So I don't know why they didn't really take advantage of that opportunity to try, but could be I watch it happen in about three or four years, if not sooner.

[TJ Majors]

Well, I think that's it for today.

[Travis Geisler]

All right. Thank you Xfinity for waving the red flag on Internet price hikes and raising the green flag for savings. You get more speed, more reliability in the WI fi that you expect locked in one price five years. No surprises, no late yellows. Everything we we want in a service from Xfinity. Imagine that. We'll see ya.

[TJ Majors]

Kubota Orange days is here, which means so are the best deals of the year on compact tractors. So race on over to your local Kubota dealer to shop a wide selection of equipment, including the number one selling compact tractor in the U.S. it's time to start turning your dream projects into reality with these great offers now through June 30th. Get select compact tractors with 0% financing available or save up to $5,500. Sail in soon. Learn more at Kubota orangedays.com this show is sponsored by Better Help. If you've been feeling overwhelmed, stuck, anxious or unsure, that's okay. Those feelings are more common than we think. May is Mental Health Awareness Month. A good reminder you don't have to go through those feelings alone. Having someone with you to listen, to understand, and to support you can make all the difference. Whatever is keeping you up at night, Therapy with Better Help can help you check in with yourself and gain support from experienced professionals. BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform. Just take a short questionnaire to identify your needs and preferences and BetterHelp will handle initial therapist matching work for. For you feel confident knowing. BetterHelp therapists work according to a strict code of conduct and are fully licensed in the United States. You don't have to be on this journey alone. Find support and have someone with you in therapy. Sign up and get 10% [e-mail] DaleJR that's betterhelp.com DaleJR.

[Travis Geisler]

Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Place your bet. Get your bets down, ladies and gentlemen. Get your bet. All right, it's time for the Dirty Modeau segment, brought to you by FanDuel. FanDuel. They're the premier gaming destination in the United States of America, the home of the red, white, and blue. Hell, yeah. Russell, how's it going? Dale, what's up, man?

[Russell]

Not much.

[Travis Geisler]

All right.

[Russell]

Ready for some All Star race?

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah. We got a lot to talk about for this All Star event, but first off, let's talk about Watkins. Glenn, how did the predictor do? T.J. does not want to. T.J. you want to put your earmuffs on.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I told him you're going to be tough to deal with on this one predictor. And ended up well.

[Russell]

Well, it was pretty spot on, I would say.

[Travis Geisler]

Overall, it did well.

[Russell]

Well, we had a miss with the Hendrick guys. I don't know what happened there with the Hendrick guys.

[Travis Geisler]

Guys. But you know what? I think we didn't talk about that earlier in the show, but you're right. Hendrick struggled all weekend. I'm going to chalk that up to all of them went off on, you know, the. The company as a whole, which we're seeing a lot of that in this sport where companies ebb and flow more together than they ever have.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They do.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

You know, teams go down routes together as a group. Unified, more engineered than it used to be. It used to be more individualistic because you had crew chiefs that made a lot of these decisions. And now the crew chiefs, they just get the setups, engineers come up with something, and the whole company buys in, and the crew chiefs just go run the weekend. Right. And it looks like they just kind of. They. They. They. They picked the wrong idea. Yeah.

[Russell]

And hats off to rcr, too.

[Travis Geisler]

So we did.

[TJ Majors]

We.

[Travis Geisler]

We.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We.

[Travis Geisler]

We covered that. We covered that. Thanks, Russell. Yeah, we covered that.

[Russell]

Just making sure you're picking up the pieces.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah. Here for you. Yeah, picking up pieces here.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Our predictor had that.

[Travis Geisler]

When we did our. Did our guesses on top tens or in that pan out. Did we do any good on our. The advice that we're Giving people. Was it work for.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We were high on Christopher Bell, and he did not do well.

[Travis Geisler]

Not do well. He was one of the. One of the few Toyotas that didn't pan out.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, he was too nice. He let Bubba go right by the Strat. I thought the strategy he did was weird, too. Never worked out for any of those guys.

[TJ Majors]

I don't feel like.

[Travis Geisler]

So. No. Our strategy or our ideas that we.

[TJ Majors]

Almond, I think we had.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, Almond, we did have.

[TJ Majors]

We had a couple coming back.

[Travis Geisler]

We're on the back.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Bucher missed it by a couple, I think. Yeah, he was disappointing, too, but, yeah,

[Travis Geisler]

All Star, we got the format here.

[TJ Majors]

Buckle in.

[Travis Geisler]

Segment 1, 75 laps. Segment 2, 75 laps. The lineup.

[TJ Majors]

The lineup for segment 2 for segment

[Travis Geisler]

2 will be inverted from segment 1's

[TJ Majors]

finish for the top 26. The rest are fielded by their finishing.

[Travis Geisler]

All right, what if you. All right. If you finish in the top 26, you're getting inverted.

[TJ Majors]

Yes.

[Travis Geisler]

So 26 is going to be put first.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes. And then you got to hang on the best you can to get the best average.

[Travis Geisler]

Segment three is 200 laps,

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

long time.

[Travis Geisler]

And that will just be 26 drivers.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, that's your champions, your former Cup 20, 25.

[Travis Geisler]

2026 Cup Series winners. Former Cup Series champions, fan vote winner. And the remaining drivers will be added to the field based on their lowest average finishing position from segments one and two. So you go out and segment one and two, and you just do your best.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep.

[Travis Geisler]

Good luck. Yeah, it's pretty straightforward. It's not very complicated. I don't find it. I don't find it being a lot of math.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's a lot of math to do.

[Travis Geisler]

I don't. So here's kind of how I feel. There's a handful of guys already locked in right past win race 19 locked in. So I'll. The winner is more than likely going to come from those guys that are locked in. So by all means, do the math if you want. For your buddy that's going to run 18th. Okay, that's true. I'm not going to do the math. That's true. All right, so it's gonna be fun, man. We're gonna see a couple of segments, 75 laps apiece. There'll be an invert of the top 26 after segment one, the final segment. Yeah, I mean, I guess they're just gonna start on how they finish segment two in terms of the top, you know, 19. That was locked in, guys.

[Russell]

They'll start based on their average finish.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, that's what I was saying, everyone.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

A top 26.

[Russell]

Yes. So even the fan vote winner could technically start seventh.

[Travis Geisler]

Okay. Okay. Well.

[Russell]

And there's a competition caution in that last one too. 75 laps in.

[Travis Geisler]

Okay. So there'll be 125 laps.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're telling me the things four stages.

[Russell]

Kinda kind of the way you're looking at it. Yes. But it not.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, is it not. I mean it's. It's gonna be a break.

[Travis Geisler]

There's.

[Russell]

There's a scheduled break. Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So it's different.

[TJ Majors]

We do have lines out now. They have been released.

[Travis Geisler]

All right.

[TJ Majors]

Would you like to hear them?

[Travis Geisler]

Well, there's a number one.

[TJ Majors]

Who's number one?

[Russell]

Denny Hamlin.

[Travis Geisler]

Okay.

[TJ Majors]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's why he was talking about.

[Travis Geisler]

There's a list of drivers that are locked in 19. I don't want to name all of them. The lines are out. And yeah, Denny's the favorite.

[TJ Majors]

Denny is the favorite.

[Travis Geisler]

Okay.

[TJ Majors]

Larson, Elliott, Blaine, whoever.

[Travis Geisler]

These people are just so lazy. Just keep picking the same guys every week.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't think it's going to be any of those guys.

[Travis Geisler]

You know who I think it's going to be?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Your predictors. Lazy Russ. Because your predictors are going to say the same thing. I don't.

[Russell]

You know, it would change with the road course. I don't know what to tell you.

[TJ Majors]

Tim's. Who do you like?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I like Ross Chastain.

[Travis Geisler]

Whoa. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think it's gonna be weird. Plus it is weird.

[TJ Majors]

2800. It makes sense though. Like Ross is kind of a try hard guy. So some of these guys may be like it's also race. I'm not really like I get a Dover.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Why?

[Travis Geisler]

What.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What are you talking about? Ross tries hard every time. They all try hard.

[TJ Majors]

No, but Ross is definitely like wait a minute.

[Travis Geisler]

Are you trying to tell me that guy. That a guy's going to try harder in this race because it's a All Star Race?

[TJ Majors]

Ross. Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

Oh, man. Hey, I want to call Ross right now and ask him, are you going

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

to try it harder this week Races.

[Travis Geisler]

Are you taking off, man? Are you just not trying at all until the All Star race?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hey, buddy, I'd appreciate if you try this weekend.

[Travis Geisler]

Could you.

[TJ Majors]

I think he's going to be a bigger on the track.

[Travis Geisler]

I'm going to say what R. I've got it. I've got it. The answer to your performance. Try hard in all of them.

[TJ Majors]

And yeah, and Justin Mark said they've tried doing that. They found speed recently. So they're going to Have a better.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, if he would have tried harder, they would need to find the speed.

[Travis Geisler]

Look. Wait, where did they find. They found. They found speed. Plus he's going to try harder. If you don't bet on this guy, you're losing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Russ. Russ has like where's the speed at?

[Travis Geisler]

Right.

[TJ Majors]

Justin Marks find speed quoted said they found speed at Texas.

[Travis Geisler]

That's great. But saying a guy's gonna try harder and he's gonna run better because he's gonna try harder is ridiculous stuff.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We got try hard. Travis over here.

[Travis Geisler]

Everybody goes into every race and tries

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

their hardest, but he's gonna try a little bit harder this race.

[Travis Geisler]

Who's not trying.

[TJ Majors]

I just think apparently.

[Travis Geisler]

Who is not trying their hardest? Apparently Ross.

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

I just.

[Travis Geisler]

I mean even the 51 was trying his hardest. He was.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He tried to go through that wall for you, Travis. He kept digging after that wall.

[Travis Geisler]

He is doing all he can do. That's all it's got. I'm giving it all I've got. Captain. I think some drivers seen that guy on Star Trek. I think sometimes we need to go a little faster. Warp speed ain't fast enough. I'm giving it all she's got.

[TJ Majors]

Captain, do you think every driver this week is locked into this race? Because I don't 19.

[Travis Geisler]

19. Apparently

[TJ Majors]

not that locked in. Like, are they focusing on this race?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[TJ Majors]

I don't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They're all having meetings about how to win this race.

[TJ Majors]

But is every driver truly like putting in the time? I don't. I don't know if every driver is.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah, I'd fire. I'd be like, what the are we doing, buddy?

[TJ Majors]

Or do you think some drivers. Like I'm gonna.

[Travis Geisler]

There's like, there's about. There's a hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of sponsorship all over this race car. There's $350,000 of money invested into the damn thing. Somebody. When somebody busted their ass putting that engine together and getting it on a dyno for you. I don't get out there and fucking drive it.

[TJ Majors]

And what is the outcome of that race? If some drivers. I'm going to focus on Charlotte. I'm going to do some other stuff.

[Russell]

Million dollars.

[Travis Geisler]

Drive a million for the driver. A million dollars.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I will say if you're running 20th and in the LA in the last 75 laps of this race, you're probably not going to move, wreck the out of somebody or do something dumb to tear up a race car. I don't think that Travis there does.

[Travis Geisler]

There is a moment in every single race Even for Ross Chastain, where he goes, my ass is kicked. And that's just how it goes. That's not new. I mean, that's. If you want to. If you want to point to a moment where somebody says, this is all I'm gonna get, and if you want to call that not trying, then you can. But that happens, you know, that'll happen with, I don't know, 50 to go.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis Geisler]

In this race, in every race, the last run, there's some guys, though, even. Even though they're sitting there running 12th and it looks like they ain't got a shot in hell. And it's 50 laps to go. They're sitting there going, I need a yellow. I need yellow. They're like, they're jonesing for, like, some opportunity to, like, turn this around because they still think they've got a chance.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Jones and you foreshadowing could be better try hard this weekend. Jones.

[TJ Majors]

Jones, I don't think is going to make it.

[Travis Geisler]

If he gets put in first place at the end of this race, I think he could win it. Yeah. Who? This is a hard track to pass on. It is. Oh, I.

[TJ Majors]

If you got track, Stephen, just Texas. Ross was in the building, so.

[Travis Geisler]

He's still here.

[TJ Majors]

Stephen, go get him.

[Travis Geisler]

I wonder if he's trying hard. Wherever he's at. He's just half assing it today,

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

but he's plus 2800. That's really good value. He's really good at Dover. He's good at Nashville on the concrete track. I don't know.

[Travis Geisler]

All right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Looks pretty good.

[Travis Geisler]

Look, I don't know how to. I don't know how to feel about this. I think the. You know, the. This isn't straightforward. This isn't like, hey, man, we're going to drop the green flag and you're going to run 400 laps and the fastest guy is going to get to the front and they're going to figure it out. And this is a Denny Hamlin esque. You know, if he's the favorite, you know, there you go. You know, that's the guy that more than likely has a chance to win. I think with the inversion, the averaging of finishes between the two segments, you could have. I mean, this is all a ploy to keep the obvious favorite from having an easy route to the finish line. Right. They want. Now, they don't mind if Denny wins, but they want him driving through the field to do it. Right. They want him to at least have to try a few cars.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Try hard.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah. Don't be A try hard. And that. Wasn't that a saying? Yeah, somewhere. Yeah. So they want him to drive through the field or drive through a few cars. So they're going to try to say, hey, okay, Denny, if you're going to go out there, let's just use Denny as an example. If he's the fastest guy and the best car there by far, they'd love it if he could start fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth in this last stage and have to work his way into the position.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I get the idea of it.

[Travis Geisler]

Yep. Yep. That's what's up. Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's kind of fun.

[Travis Geisler]

We'll see. It's all right. It's an exhibition.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I don't know if this track fits like that, but we'll see.

[TJ Majors]

Can somebody come from the back of

[Travis Geisler]

this track and this is either going to go really bad or really good. Just in general, the inverting is going

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

to make it interesting.

[Travis Geisler]

I'm just saying, like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I agree.

[Travis Geisler]

An all star race at Dover, that idea is going to go, eh. Or really good. What do you think? What's. What do you guys think? It's going to be exciting and entertaining.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What's predictors say, Russ? It's going to be passing.

[Travis Geisler]

It's going to be. Does the predictor predict excitement?

[Russell]

The predictor has no emotion. But remember, the pit crews are going to play a major role this week too. So during qualifying there's a pit stop and then the fastest pit stop is pits, picks pits as well.

[TJ Majors]

So.

[Travis Geisler]

Yep. So like you look at pit road is very challenging there. That's a great point.

[Russell]

The pit crews, like Bubba Wallace has the best four tire stop this year. So he, he's, he's a player. Denny Hamlin's the 8th best four tire stop this year. So.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So, so we write him off.

[Travis Geisler]

I mean, damn, eight's pretty good. There's 40.

[Russell]

I get it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But you're acting like he's out of the.

[Travis Geisler]

If I owned a cup team and we had the eighth best crew, I'd be like, hell yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I'm pretty happy.

[Russell]

Well, I actually have him ranked as the third best crew overall, but he's got the eighth best stop for the year. So.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hey, so what's the issue here? We're looking good.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, well, what do you mean we're looking good?

[Travis Geisler]

You're not looking.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm just saying if you're him, you're. You're looking good. Like if you're owning that deal, you're feeling pretty conf. Confident.

[Russell]

But like, like where blaney's crew has. Has had some mistakes early in the year. They cleaned them up lately. So, like, is this a.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How were they at the Glen? Backward stops, Pretty good.

[Russell]

Standby.

[TJ Majors]

I feel like that's the wrong track to use to compare though, for Dover.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Why? We. I mean, I'm just asking how they were.

[Travis Geisler]

No, they were.

[TJ Majors]

It's a backwards stop.

[Travis Geisler]

I think they were eighth.

[Russell]

There you go.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's pretty good.

[Travis Geisler]

They were good. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Solid.

[TJ Majors]

Russ, speaking of your post race reports with the grades, we had a couple questions about SVG's. What was the one.

[Travis Geisler]

So SVG dominated in every category, as predicted. Like, would you call that race win by SVG just. Just pure domination. Nobody could do much of anything, right.

[Russell]

Yes, yes and no.

[Travis Geisler]

What was. Could you guess. Could you guess one area where maybe he wasn't quite the best?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's looking up stats. Get off there.

[Travis Geisler]

And how is that crew? Okay, well, obviously the pit crew is just. They kind of fall where they fall and That's. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Roughly 18.

[Travis Geisler]

He was only second best on restarts and second best in defensive.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. What are we doing?

[Travis Geisler]

How did he get beat? We should have it because he didn't.

[Russell]

He didn't have to defend anybody.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Shouldn't he be the best?

[Travis Geisler]

Right. If he doesn't have to defend, then we need an NA right there. We need a non applicable.

[Russell]

But he still had to defend at

[Travis Geisler]

some point and he didn't. When did he not defend better than someone else?

[Russell]

When he was getting past.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

When, When.

[Shane Van Gisbergen]

Who.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Who passed?

[TJ Majors]

Wait, when he. When he didn't pit.

[Travis Geisler]

Did he not. Yeah. Did he get penalized in your algorithm by pitting.

[Russell]

No.

[Travis Geisler]

And giving up positions.

[Russell]

That's not how he gets penalized.

[Travis Geisler]

How did Chase Briscoe win the defensive battle?

[Russell]

Because he. He held more people often.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Are you kidding me? He just won by seven something seconds. That's pretty good defense.

[Travis Geisler]

There's some. There's something not quite adding up here. No, he.

[Russell]

He did. He did get past.

[Travis Geisler]

Oh, we're.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's stumbling.

[Travis Geisler]

He got past.

[Russell]

No, he didn't.

[Travis Geisler]

No, no, never.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But he sucks. He's terrible.

[Travis Geisler]

But he's not the best at defense.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Chase Briscoe had better not gotten past one time this entire race. And he did, didn't he?

[Travis Geisler]

But look at

[Russell]

Briscoe. Did not. He got past here. Right here.

[Travis Geisler]

One time. Two times.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, well, we're adding to it. Three, four.

[Travis Geisler]

So. All right. It's possible that Shane was the best prepared for this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, you.

[Travis Geisler]

You need to be prepared now that I'm looking At the notes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We can't trust you anymore.

[Travis Geisler]

It is possible that Shane was the best at defense. It's not there like a not.

[Russell]

It's the number

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

he never got past. I respect it.

[Travis Geisler]

I respect. Is there a tolerance? Is there like a one or two spot tolerance in this whole thing?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If he never got past, how are you not the best at defense?

[Russell]

Because he was not in a defensive position long enough.

[Travis Geisler]

Huh.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's okay, though. I mean, because his offense, that should

[Travis Geisler]

be beneficial toward the staff.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

That's where.

[Russell]

That's where speed comes in. He was by far the best in speed.

[Travis Geisler]

Now you're deflecting.

[TJ Majors]

We just want you to introduce the N. A. That's all we want.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, yeah. Like, not applicable. Something, no data. Something, no data. I'm wrong. Something like that.

[Russell]

I liked it better when this was on Travis.

[Travis Geisler]

All right, so we feel like, can we make any gambles here? Can we make some bets? Who do we want to bet on?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We're going to second.

[TJ Majors]

I'm betting on Ross Chastain.

[Travis Geisler]

You're betting Ross Chastain to win the All Star Race?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I am. Something weird's gonna happen. Part of the try hard Travis group. Try hard drive.

[Travis Geisler]

I love that. I like there. I do agree that there are some environments that play into certain drivers instincts and attitudes and personalities. The All Star Race, free for all. Sort of, you know, wild sort of. You know, this whole format, it is a kind of a. It is a race where a Ross Chastain won't check out. Yeah. And he'll go for it.

[Russell]

What's Bowman's line?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Bowman's like, plus 1,000. He was another one on my list, but I don't like +1000.

[Russell]

Yeah, that's pretty strong.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, it's strong.

[TJ Majors]

Reddick at 1400. Yeah.

[Russell]

This is not a Reddick track, though. This is a Bowman track for sure, though.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It is, man.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah. But it's just. What is it? Top tens and top fives.

[Russell]

He's one there.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah, you're right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But let me ask you this. Does, like, Bowman's success there, does it come in long run? You know what I mean? Like, where is his speed at? Like, where does he get the success, like, overall, like, his highest points? Does this format hurt him at all?

[Travis Geisler]

These are near fuel runs.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I mean, I'm.

[Russell]

You know, you're gonna have long.

[Travis Geisler]

These are long runs. To end it, you're gonna need to be good on the long run on all these. I mean, 75 laps of Dover's a long run.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

And then 120 to end. 120 to end it. You're gonna have to pit in there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Definitely at the pit.

[TJ Majors]

I have a non. I have a O'Reilly question for Tim's. I know you don't typically like to bet champion right now, but Allgaier's plus 225 to win the championship. Would you act on that? He's. I got 155 points ahead.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, I wouldn't. I'd wait till he's kind of on a slump.

[Travis Geisler]

If he ever gets on a slump.

[TJ Majors]

That's the thing is I don't know if he's gonna like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, well, I mean, then you've lost it. I mean, if you wait till it's gone, the price is gone. I feel like he's in a bit of a slump now compared to how it started.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Then I. If that's the lowest it's gonna get, then no, you missed. Definitely hurting his hall of fame.

[TJ Majors]

So don't bet 225. Don't bet 225. I'm gonna do it.

[Travis Geisler]

I would do it. I feel like. I honestly don't think so. I was looking at the points.

[TJ Majors]

Steady Eddie.

[Travis Geisler]

I was looking at the point, say, like Reddick finished fifth. Justin had a decent finish, but both of them gained chunks of points on everybody around the top 10, even when they just had a decent day. They gained teens and sometimes in some cases 20s over everybody else around them.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So Tyler's bad days now are probably the most impressive to me. It's not even the wins. It's his bad days aren't bad days.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah. I just don't see them. I don't see the gap closing, man. I see if anything, it kind of probably stays pretty similar all the way to the end of the end of the regular season before the chase begins. I don't know that that number improves. No. In terms of the bet.

[TJ Majors]

No, probably not.

[Travis Geisler]

I like that bet. I mean, look, I don't want to jinx myself. I'm superstitious to a point, but 10 race or how the O'Reilly is an eight race chase or is it 10?

[TJ Majors]

I think it's eight.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah. Like usual. Right. So they got two less races, but it's still. It's still a block of races where I feel like, you know, Justin's been able to put together chunks like that do really good, do a job. Nine races. That's right. The trucks is eight, I think. But I don't know. I don't know.

[TJ Majors]

I feel I want to bet on the Future hall of Fame.

[Travis Geisler]

I feel like you're going to have some pressure for some guys that are going to develop. Brent Cruz is coming. Brent Cruz is getting better and better every week. He will be primed and ready for a run toward the end of the year. You know that the two and those guys are going to get it together. Jesse Love. So it just. I don't know.

[TJ Majors]

I'm gonna do it.

[Travis Geisler]

I think Justin can do it, should do it. But it. It's gonna get a little tougher toward the end of the year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Were you surprised Rush this weekend at a little bit of the. The speed. I mean, I know Noman saw Hendrick being like that and. But it didn't seem like once some of the guys up front, like once, like Joey took stage points. We never really saw Blaney counters hung around the top 10 all day. Right. Like 8th to 12th ish in that area most of the day. Were you kind of surprised at that? Cindrick performed pretty well again. He's having a quietly a really good year.

[Russell]

Yeah, I just think that was a Ford. Ford struggled again this week. Overall, we saw different Chevys be really good this week. You know, it's been a Chevy discussion, but, you know, you had track house and spire and RCR were all pretty good this week.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

Busher's the one that surprised me.

[Travis Geisler]

You're going Ross Chest St. Tims. Yep. I think I'll. I'll. I'll back that. Anybody else want to make any predictions on a winner for the All Star race before we cut all y' all loose?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Man, I'm. I'm gonna go with Briscoe.

[Travis Geisler]

Yeah, he was fast there last year.

[TJ Majors]

Ty Gibbs throwing a blind.

[Travis Geisler]

Ty Gibbs throwing a blind out.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I just think the 19 car has been good there.

[Travis Geisler]

I think those are two wise decisions. Two wise choices.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

An All Star. Go for it.

[Travis Geisler]

Russell.

[Russell]

The Predictor has number 11, Denny Hamlin.

[Travis Geisler]

So you're just going to go with the Predictor every week?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Do you ever have. Do you ever go.

[Travis Geisler]

Do you have. I have no. Has no emotion. Predictor has no emotion. Neither do you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know you have emotions. You got kid things in the background here. So where. Where's emotional Russ at?

[Travis Geisler]

I. I've worked with take a look

[Russell]

too long to have emotions.

[Travis Geisler]

Turn around, look at your Emmy, then rethink your decision.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep, that. Look at that. Tell us your decision.

[Travis Geisler]

Look, look at that Emmy. Get a tear in your eye and then tell us who you think is going to win. Alex Bowman. Okay, there we go.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Finally.

[Travis Geisler]

There we go.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Finally.

[Travis Geisler]

All right, man.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There we go.

[Travis Geisler]

Thank you, Russell. Looking forward to Charlotte in a couple weeks. So we'll be in the booth together. Ready to go. Yeah, me too, buddy. Dirty mode doe segment is brought to you by fanduel, the premier gaming destination in the United States. All right, everybody, don't forget on Fan Day, May 21, Junior Motorsports Dirty Mo media is going to have live shows starting at 9am going through 2pm at 9am right off the get Sirius XM on track with Daniel Trotta, Larry McReynolds from 11 to 12, Dirty Mo Live, Mike Davis and Kenny Wallace and friends 12 to 1. Bless your heart with Amy and myself. One to two door bumper clear. If you can't make it out to fan day, you can tune in on Sirius XM or we'll obviously be posting the shows like normal. Thanks for joining us in the Arby's studios. Don't forget about Arby's new meat and three box. Get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meats. We'll see you tomorrow. Check out dirty mo media on Instagram, Facebook x and TikTok.