EP 600 – Can’t Have It Both Ways

Summary

Episode Summary: The Dale Jr. Download – EP 600: "Can’t Have It Both Ways"

In the landmark 600th episode of The Dale Jr. Download, hosts Dale Earnhardt Jr., TJ Majors, and Denny Hamlin delve deep into the nuances of NASCAR's evolving landscape, particularly focusing on the recent Clash at Bowman Gray. Released on February 4, 2025, this episode offers a comprehensive analysis of the race, driver behaviors, format debates, and engaging listener interactions.

---

I. Introduction

Dale Earnhardt Jr. kicks off the episode with a lively exchange, setting the stage for an in-depth discussion about the recent Clash at Bowman Gray. The camaraderie among the hosts is evident as they greet each other and segue into the main topic.

[00:47] Dale Earnhardt Jr.: "We had the clash this past weekend. We're going to jump right into the reaction overall, what we thought about the Bowman Gray Experience."

---

II. Reaction to the Clash at Bowman Gray

A. Co-Hosts’ Experiences and Observations

Denny Hamlin shares his firsthand experience from attending the race in person, contrasting it with Dale's remote viewing from Florida. He highlights the seamless logistics and the palpable enthusiasm of the race fans on-site.

[01:25] Denny Hamlin: "Just rolling up there, you could feel... these people are full of race fans that could not wait to see a race there."

B. Driver Conduct Compared to Bowman Gray's Reputation

Dale discusses the unique environment of Bowman Gray, known as the "Madhouse," where driver antics and on-track drama are embraced by passionate fans. He contrasts this with the typically cleaner racing style of current Cup drivers, emphasizing how the track's atmosphere brings out more aggressive behaviors.

[05:17] Dale Earnhardt Jr.: "The driver mentality over the last several decades has shifted toward racing a lot more clean... but when they go to Bowman Gray, that track brings it out."

C. Historical Context and Evolution of NASCAR Racing

The conversation transitions to the historical significance of short track racing in the '80s and '90s, where tight schedules and steel-bodied cars fostered intense rivalries and aggressive maneuvers. Dale reminisces about how such environments contributed to the sport's gritty appeal.

[07:10] Dale Earnhardt Jr.: "They did a really fantastic job on the racetrack. They wiped it up, cleaned it up... It ended up being a really entertaining weekend."

---

III. Discussion on Race Formats

A. Current Format’s Strengths and Weaknesses

The hosts evaluate the effectiveness of the current race format, particularly the heat races, last chance qualifying (LCQ), and the main event. While acknowledging the excitement generated by the physicality in the LCQ, Dale expresses disappointment with the predominantly green-flag laps in the main event.

[10:15] Dale Earnhardt Jr.: "This was like the perfect example of, oh, I don't like that. And then that's, you know, like the two extremes happened in the very same weekend."

B. Suggestions for Improvement and Future Formats

Debating potential improvements, Dale and Denny suggest returning to more aggressive racing styles reminiscent of Bowman Gray's tradition. They contemplate schedules that incorporate multiple short tracks to rekindle rivalries and enhance on-track drama, which could, in turn, boost fan engagement and television ratings.

[22:55] Denny Hamlin: "If you're going to run that track, to me, I feel like that's what I feel like that format was really good."

[31:21] TJ Majors: "It's why they use a lot of the racetrack down there at Wilkesboro..."

---

IV. Listener Interaction and Audience Questions

A. Xfinity Fastest Lap Award

Listener Charles inquires about Xfinity Series' new "Fastest Lap" point, and Dale enthusiastically supports the initiative, recalling similar past incentives like the MCI Fastest Lap Award from the late '90s. They discuss its potential impact on driver strategies and season standings.

[42:51] Dale Earnhardt Jr.: "I love this. I think this is Perfect."

Denny raises concerns about the award's implementation, particularly at superspeedways like Talladega, suggesting it might encourage gimmicky racing behaviors.

[47:34] Dale Earnhardt Jr.: "I almost feel like that this only should matter to the car that's leading the race."

B. Super Bowl Betting Parlay

The conversation shifts to a segment where listeners asked about eBay purchases and Super Bowl betting. The hosts share personal anecdotes about questionable online buys and discuss their Super Bowl parlay bets, blending NASCAR insights with mainstream sports enthusiasm.

[82:07] Alex Timms: "I think it's shifting to now. We're gonna have like a Kyle Busch, a Kyle Larson, maybe a Ryan Blaney, somebody who hasn't won before that's going to sneak through and win again this year."

---

V. Additional Conversations

A. Diecast Collections

Dale delves into his passion for diecast collections, highlighting partnerships with Lionel Racing. He shares stories of custom diecasts featuring his father's legacy, emphasizing the sentimental and collectible value these items hold.

[52:03] Denny Hamlin: "Don't even know how." [52:04] Dale Earnhardt Jr.: "Strictly this."

B. Upcoming Live Shows and Guests

Excitement builds as Dale announces upcoming live shows at the Daytona fan zone, featuring guests like Jeff Gluck, Jordan Bianchi, Denny Hamlin, and special appearances from drivers like Justin Allgire and Helio Castroneves. They tease future interviews, including one with Richard Childress, promising insightful discussions on current NASCAR events.

[76:01] Dale Earnhardt Jr.: "We'll have a great conversation with Richard to start the year off."

C. "Dirty Modeau" Content and Will Ferrell Cameo Story

The hosts recount the behind-the-scenes experience of filming a cameo with Will Ferrell, adding a humorous and personal touch to the episode. Dale shares the challenges of improvising on camera with the comedian, reflecting on the authenticity and promotional benefits of such collaborations.

[62:44] Dale Earnhardt Jr.: "...We did it at Charlotte Mer Speedway... And I felt like, am I supposed to be funny, right?"

D. Favorite NASCAR Movies

Dale and the hosts engage in a nostalgic discussion about their favorite NASCAR-themed movies, citing classics like "Last American Hero", "Stroker Ace", and "Six Pack". They highlight the authenticity and cultural impact these films have had on the sport's image.

[69:25] Dale Earnhardt Jr.: "Last American Hero is. Jeff Bridges is the star."

---

VI. Conclusion and Teasers for Next Episodes

As the episode wraps up, Dale expresses gratitude to listeners and previews upcoming content, including interviews with racing legends and deeper dives into current season dynamics. He emphasizes the importance of engaging with the fan community and hints at innovative segments like "Immaculate Grid" to enhance listener interaction.

[93:30] TJ Majors: "I'm looking forward to know what they are now."

[94:14] Dale Earnhardt Jr.: "Tomorrow, guest interview, coming out with Richard Childress and bless your heart."

---

Notable Quotes:

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. [05:17]: "The track brings it out."
• Denny Hamlin [22:55]: "That's what I feel like that format was really good."
• TJ Majors [31:21]: "It's why they use a lot of the racetrack down there at Wilkesboro."
• Dale Earnhardt Jr. [42:51]: "I love this. I think this is Perfect."

This episode of The Dale Jr. Download masterfully balances race analysis, historical context, listener engagement, and personal anecdotes, offering both seasoned NASCAR fans and newcomers a rich and insightful listening experience. The hosts' chemistry and deep knowledge of the sport shine through, making EP600 a memorable milestone in the podcast's history.

Transcript

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Then you got what you wanted, I guess in the main event because it was, you know, the majority of the back half of the main event was nothing but just green flag laps and cars just.

[TJ Majors]

Well, I didn't want that either though.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I mean, what the do you want?

[TJ Majors]

I just think the last few laps it was just like, stop every time you're picky.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

This ain't walking in and have it your way, mother. All right? This ain't Burger King. The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Hey everybody, it's Del junior Back again for another episode of the Del junior Download here Dirty Air with my friend and co host TJ Majors. How's it going, tj?

[Denny Hamlin]

It's going good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Welcome. Yeah. How was your weekend?

[Denny Hamlin]

Entertaining.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Awesome.

[Denny Hamlin]

It was good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Denny Hamlin]

I enjoyed it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So we had the clash this past weekend. We're going to jump right into the reaction overall, what we thought about the Bulma Gray Experience. I watched it on tv. I was on a trip working for a new partner in Florida and. But you were there in person and we probably had two different experiences, but I thought from my vantage point, man, the energy and the excitement, the atmosphere that you experienced firsthand came through in flying colors. I, I thought it was awesome.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah, I've never been there before, so rolling in there Saturday was the first time like even rolling up to the racetrack and honestly it was fairly simple getting there. The, the path they had getting in and out for everybody seemed to work really well. But just rolling up there, you could feel like, man, there was cup haulers parked at this little racetrack, you know what I mean? Like, you roll up there and you see the haulers and you start seeing some pit boxes and stuff and it is a little stadium. Like it's tiny for a stadium, but man, the atmosphere there and, and the people like it, it's real. Like, not like you can kind of see it when you watch their Saturday night shows and stuff. But man, these people are, it's, it's full of race fans that, that are. They could not wait to see a race there. And I can see why they're so passionate about their drivers that race there locally and, and it had that, it had absolutely had that feel that we talked about of, you know, a couple of their guys, whether you liked them or hated them, with, with Tim and Bert running too, like they were all, I think kind of, they were all united pulling for both, you know what I mean? Like, that was their guys racing against the big guys. And it was cool, man, the atmosphere just in, in Such a, it's packed in such a tight little arena and the racetrack itself is way, way better racing wise than kind of what I, what I was expecting it to be with the safer bears and everything in it made for some handling, you know, handling issues on throttle down on exits and stuff like that. And you can still get to a guy if you wanted to on entry, which is going to happen in short tracks. But overall experience of walking in there was really good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So the, you know, heat races ran and for the most part, you know, they were just kind of ho hum, but it was, it was good. The last chance race got really physical, got really goofy at times and wild. But, but to be expected.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah, for sure.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I didn't, I didn't think, I didn't think any point, at any point in the weekend did I see anything that I thought, man, that's embarrassing or God dang, man, that's unfortunate. You know, everything that happened on the track, even when the drivers were kind of, you know, being goofballs with each other, is exactly what I was kind of hoping I would see. So if, you know, if you don't know, Bowman Gray, he's got this reputation. They call it the Madhouse. There's all kinds of YouTube videos you can go look at online. Drivers chasing each other through the infield with their cars, running over each other after accidents, pushing and plowing in each other into the guardrail. The cops are often involved comically chasing drivers around in the infield. Even drivers chasing each other on foot. I mean, there's a little bit of everything and the crowd loves it and it's theirs, they own it. And you know, they embrace that type of drama. Now, that's not what happens every single weekend at that racetrack. I don't want to give a bad impression, but if, you know, you might see that when you go to Beaumont Gray for a weekly show, that's who they are and they're unapologetic about it and I think I enjoy it. They used to have a show, they had a one season show called the Madhouse on a history channel and they did a really good job with that show, sort of highlighting the atmosphere and the reputation that is Beau McGray. And so when we went there with the cup cars, my hope was that is, you know, is our, our cup drivers really don't have a tendency to run over each other. They would rather not get into drama with each other.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Even over a win.

[Denny Hamlin]

It's more rare now than it has. Yeah, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And which I'm Not a big fan of that part. But of course, when I was a driver, I absolutely wanted nothing to do with drama, because the problem with it is when you get into, you know, get into some. With somebody, the media talks about it all week, and then the next time you're in front of a microphone, that's the questions they're asking you about. And they just can't let it play out right. And it's. It's bugs out of you because you just want to. You just want it to play out on the racetrack. Rivalries will continue week after week, but the insistent questioning and conversation around the rivalry or the new rivalry during the week by the media really makes it difficult for the driver to want to put up with it. So we avoid it at all costs. We avoid running into each other, running over each other, because we just don't want to put up with the. The noise off the racetrack that it creates. And so a lot of our drivers don't get into that kind of stuff on a regular race weekend. Now, it happens sometimes at Martinsville and so forth, but it doesn't happen as often. And so I was hoping that when they go to Beauman Gray that it would be inadvertently sort of. They would just kind of lose their minds a little bit. They did. Right. So you saw all of the drivers that have those tendencies within them. You saw that track bring it out.

[Denny Hamlin]

You definitely saw it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And now if you. If you look, if you take this. So imagine TJ in 19. Let's just. Any. Any. Any year during the 80s. Let's just go to that decade, there were a lot more trips to short tracks. There might be four short tracks in a row.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know what I mean? The cars were made of steel. They ran into each other every corner.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah. And race same car the next week.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Beat the. Out of each other. And sometimes that would develop into a feud that might last a couple weeks. And. But you were. You. You couldn't. You couldn't get away from it because you were at a short track, beating at each other one week, then you're going to another short track the next week. Keep that going. You know, you just kept going. And that the schedule that we used to have back in the 80s was really conducive to the type of racing and the type of, you know, chaos that we saw at Bowman Gray. And so it was really, really cool. That was my favorite part is I saw racing that absolutely reminded me of what I loved in the 80s and the 90s before we sort of Moved toward the mile and a half and more road courses and short tracks fell away.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so, you know, they. They did a really fantastic job. NASCAR did a really, really good job on the racetrack. They put, you know, they. They wiped it up, cleaned it up. Now, there was nothing wrong with it. It was certainly serving its purpose. But to take the cars there, they shined it up a little bit, and they, you know, the cars and the package. In terms of the package of the cars and the tire, like you say, allowed for the drivers to have some handling issues. Have to be smart. And it ended up being a really entertaining weekend. Now, the, you know, so the race is happening. I've got me. And you were in a group text with some friends, right? Yeah, These are friends that have been race fans for years.

[Denny Hamlin]

Years.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Years.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And I was really surprised by the reaction that they had. And I tend to take these little. These little examples and assume that this is not just isolated to this text message. Like, maybe there's a lot of people that feel this way Now. I know there are a lot of people that love what they saw, but I know there are some people that were a little bit shocked and they were saying that it was too rough, too, too, you know, too rough, too, too. Too much, you know, cars, too many, Too many laps. It took too long to run the last chance race.

[Denny Hamlin]

It did take a long run, right? That race was long.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

They're not wrong. At the end. It did get a little silly there. The lcq.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah. Well, I mean, that's gonna.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What are you. What. What. What did. Well, then you got what you wanted, I guess, in the main event because it was, you know, the majority of the back half of the main event was nothing but just green flag laps and cars. Just.

[TJ Majors]

I didn't want that either, though.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I mean, what the do you want?

[TJ Majors]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You ain't.

[Denny Hamlin]

You're picky.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

This ain't walking in and have it your way, mother. All right? This ain't Burger King.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, they could have raced a little sooner.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I've never, you know, so, you know, this has been. This was like the perfect example of, oh, I don't like that. And then that's, you know, like the two extremes happened in the very same weekend.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And. And both the same group of people complained about how silly the last chance race was and how boring the back half of the feature was.

[Denny Hamlin]

So which one do you want?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm like, ah, man, can't win now.

[TJ Majors]

I just want what the beginning of the LCQ was, where there was the bumping and there was some spinning out, but I thought they were just.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You got to take the good with the bad.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, you know, and look, I'd.

[TJ Majors]

Rather have the LCQ than the main.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I will say so. Let's be like me. All right? Be like me. Let me tell you. Be like me. I didn't love the main event. I want them to be more physical. Yeah, I wanted that. They weren't all right, But I'm not going to poo poo on the whole thing because, oh, I didn't get exactly what I wanted in the main event. You know, Chase didn't get. You know, I didn't want Chase to get spun out, but Chase didn't get roughed up for the win. I mean, Denny. Chase kind of leaned on him a little bit, and then Denny just fell in behind him, next corner, never touched him. I'm like, what are we doing? Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Denny said on his podcast that he thought he could pass him straight up. I'm like, denny, that's not you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's not what.

[TJ Majors]

That's not racing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That ain't the Clash.

[Denny Hamlin]

Come on.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's not what anybody that bought a ticket to that place wanted.

[TJ Majors]

And Blaney, too, said he didn't want to like Bulldog.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know. So that, to me, is nothing we can really do about. We can't really fix that. That's just how that was kind of my point earlier. The driver mentality over the last several decades has shifted toward racing a lot more clean, and I think it's due to the size of the tracks we go to and the speed that we typically run these cars. So they're not at Bowman Grace. They're not at tracks racing the way you race at Bowman Gray. Now, if we were doing that more often, if we. If there were multiple Bowman Grays in the schedule, there would be lots more bumping and banging that would carry over into other weekends, and there'd be a lot more drama and feuding. There would be really, really good ratings.

[TJ Majors]

Now, let me ask you guys this. Denny said that it didn't matter that it was. I asked him, was it people trying to be polite early on? He said, no. But do you think that maybe some of the veteran drivers were like, I don't really want to cause some beef.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The veteran drivers definitely race smarter, cleaner, and they take less. All right. Like, you know, I mean, put a guy. Put a guy who's. Put a guy like Priest in Denny's car in that moment. What is Priest gonna do, ship him?

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah, he's gonna move him back.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, you know why? I mean, there's probably many reasons why, but one of the reasons why is because Priest is trying to win a frickin race and trying to prove himself, you know, and Denny. And Denny and Blaney and these guys, I mean, they've got. Denny's got 50 freaking wins. He's on the back end of his career. He's freaking. He's. He's completely content with everything that he's accomplished. So that, like, that really, like, killer instinct to go win a clash, like, like, win this race right now.

[Denny Hamlin]

I think he's won four of them already in his career.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right.

[Denny Hamlin]

So I liked Chase's aggression when he got there. I looked into one, we were fifth or sixth, and I look into one, and I see Denny's left front locked up with Chase, pushing him in there. And I'm like, oh, this is gonna be. This is pretty cool. We're gonna see some. They're gonna move each other a little bit and never really saw Danny give it back. I kind of wish that, you know, that he did.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I wanted him to. I was watching that.

[Denny Hamlin]

And he's good enough to not wreck him.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's good, right in that moment. I know. I don't know, you know, maybe you saw a couple guys spin off the nose of a few cars and you're like, wow, I didn't think that was that much of a hit. And it really just, you know, just turns them around. This car, I will say, like, once this car sort of. Once you get a guy sort of loose and bust traction.

[Denny Hamlin]

Oh, it slides.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It slides.

[Denny Hamlin]

It slides.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, it's like. It's really kind of weird.

[Denny Hamlin]

It's this lazy spin.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Denny Hamlin]

If they're already loose and you bump them a little bit, it's gone. It's like they're drifting.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Denny Hamlin]

And, yeah, I noticed that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hard for them to correct, like the old car.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so maybe he was worried about that. You know, you certainly don't want to spin a guy completely out of the lead, but it would have been kind of fun to see him trade some wraps. Yeah. It was paint.

[Denny Hamlin]

I was enjoying the battle with them bumping into each other. I was. I was, like, entertained completely there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So anyhow, I, you know, I was. I was. I was. I found it humorous, I guess, that my buddies were complaining about the last chance race, and then they were complaining about the feature as well, for two different reasons. But, you know, What I'd like to.

[Denny Hamlin]

See with the second half, I don't why. I think we should just not put tires on.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was wondering that. So I was sitting in this. I was sitting in a sports bar watching the race on this really giant tv and I didn't know whether the rule would allow them to change tires. I was like, man, I hope they don't put tires on because. Yes, you know, it took. If you watch the feature, it seemed like it started getting really interesting in terms of how cars handled and how.

[Denny Hamlin]

Badly there was comers and goers.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. In the last 30 laps of the first 100, the cars really started moving around a lot. Guys were missing corners and overdrive in the middle. And then when they got tires back on, they all got comfortable again for. For the next 50 laps of the second half. So to your point, I mean, I think I'd have made their ass run the whole thing on 200.

[Denny Hamlin]

I would do. I mean, then you really got to. Man, there was like, there was actually quite a bit of tire fall off and you could hurt them. You really could hurt them if you drove them too hard. So it was going to be interesting to see the guys that maybe rode in that mid pack area, you know, 8th, 10th, and just didn't really push anything. And then maybe if they could make a run at the end, you know, And I would have liked to have seen something like that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I agree. Josh Berry, I was watching him. He did a really good job in the last chance race. I know he runs some people over, but I think that's kind of what you got to do at Bowman Gray, especially if you're trying to get into the main event. I mean, you can't. Oh, yeah, yeah. You know, you got to do what you got to do.

[Denny Hamlin]

That race was kind of messy. Those are. There's guys that were. Like you said, you start that race, you know, the guys that are going to be aggressive and. And I knew, I knew the car numbers that were in that race. It's like, okay, this is going to be pretty entertaining. And it was right from the beginning.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was texting back and forth with John Wood and Leonard Wood about, about Josh. I was kind of just checking, making.

[Denny Hamlin]

Sure John was okay because, oh, he's probably loving it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, the, the Wood brothers are very proper and they are. And respected and, and they're classy and, and, you know, vintage. And I was like, all right, man, you good with all this with John. But they were having fun, I guess. You know, there were a lot of Drivers that were pretty upset with one another.

[Denny Hamlin]

Oh, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, so imagine, you know, now, you know, imagine if we were going to Martinsville next weekend.

[Denny Hamlin]

Oh, this is carrying over. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So that's the way the schedule used to be.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, that was the, that was the benefit, I guess, of having more short track racing in the series. If you're a die cast collector like me, then you're excited about the start of a new race season. That's because now is the time when race teams are unveiling their new paint schemes. There's a lot of new die casts on order, and it's also when new cars start to deliver from Lionel Racing, the official diecast of nascar. Whether you have Junior Motorsports First Cup Series die cast already on pre order, or you're excited about Noah Gragson's move to Front Row Motorsports, or maybe Chase Elliott's new sponsor, Amazon prime, there are a ton of exciting things happening in NASCAR this season. And what's so great about a die cast collection is that it can tell the story of it all like no other collectible can. To help kickstart your 2025 die cast collection, Lionel Racing has a special offer for Dale Jr. Download listeners get free US shipping on your next order. When you use the promo code, download 25@lionel racing.com that's free shipping with the promo code. Download 25. That's download with the number 25@lionel racing.Com Kyle Larson won the LCQ and then drove through the field in the, in the main.

[Denny Hamlin]

No, I don't know how far he.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Got up there to second or so.

[Denny Hamlin]

No, I don't think I got up that far. Kyle only got me.

[TJ Majors]

Blaney was the one that drove.

[Denny Hamlin]

Kyle got mid pack. Yeah, he drove through the LCQ field.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, I thought Blaney got up there pretty decent and then his car kind of went away. Yeah, but that was really fascinating to see. Guys would change tires and their cars didn't drive as well the second half of the race or drink.

[Denny Hamlin]

We all. You can make adjustments too, though. So it wasn't like we just put tires on everybody. You could make quite a few adjustments.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I heard a couple drivers talk about their cars just changing when they. They just didn't. They got tighter on that next set of tires.

[Denny Hamlin]

But yeah, I mean, you could make a lot. I mean, there was people you making all sorts of adjustments, so who knows?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And to your point, Blaney drove through the field and Blaney, to my knowledge, didn't really turn anybody around. To get through the field. Like, he passed pretty much everybody plan.

[Denny Hamlin]

Drove a smart race.

[TJ Majors]

He got into Denny a little bit, and that's about it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. But, you know, he didn't drive over the field.

[Denny Hamlin]

I thought he was going to get lapped in the beginning. Like, he was literally just chilling in the back, not even trying anything.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Really.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah. He just took advantage of whenever people started turning each other a little bit, and there wasn't a lot of it, but there's five or six that probably got spun around a little bit, and that's. He just slowly took advantage of two guys going to try. He scoots by, like. Real smart drive by Blaney.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

What'd you make of Ty Gibbs in the lcq?

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah, he got some good air time, literally.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I was listening to Door Bumper Clear, and Blaney talked about how that probably wasn't very comfortable for him when he landed.

[Denny Hamlin]

Oh, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Because the cars have those rub blocks and it probably set and slammed down on the ground and it probably wasn't very comfortable. But, yeah, I mean, I thought. I think he was just trying to.

[Denny Hamlin]

Swerve and voice displeasure.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Bang, bang doors. Which is fine. I don't care. I guess if it was after the checkered, it would be a different story, but I'll be. So I'll be curious, I guess, if NASCAR thinks they.

[Denny Hamlin]

I mean, is that much different than. I don't think it's a big deal than Chicago.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Chicago's. After the race was over. I guess it's a little different.

[Denny Hamlin]

I mean, I didn't. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But I don't know. It's. If you want to be Tick.

[Denny Hamlin]

I don't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think you want to be Nick Picky.

[Denny Hamlin]

I mean, I would adore the guy, too, if he spun me out. I mean, I'm expecting it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That was the thing we were talking about, leading in the race. You don't want to deter.

[Denny Hamlin]

Deter for sure.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You don't want to deter that now it can get over the. Can go too far. But I don't think he took it too far.

[Denny Hamlin]

I heard the crowd whenever he did that. You could hear the crowd, like, start cheering.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You gotta allow some of that to happen in that environment.

[Denny Hamlin]

They were into it, like, it was entertaining. I mean, he wasn't happy and he showed it. And. Yeah, the last chance qualifying race is always going to be like that. I think the guys are desperate to get in. It's the first race of the year. They've been waiting all offseason, and you got to try to get into this race. So they're going to do things they probably wouldn't do in. In the. A main. You know what I mean? Like.

[TJ Majors]

So do you think that we should keep. We talk about the format for the Clash and, you know, should it be just be poll winners? Should we keep the format what it is? Because we get the heats and the. The LCQ and we get the drama and excitement.

[Denny Hamlin]

I was thinking about that. And if you're going to run that track, to me, I feel like that's what I feel like that format was really good. If you're going to a Daytona or somewhere like that, I only want the poll winners. I want the guys that qualify the way in. But if you're going to a short track, to me, I think heat races with that sort of action, really, you almost have to. I don't think that was the show, man, them guys desperate to get in. But if you go to Daytona and you run them, you have all the poll winners, then to me, that's a. There's less beating and banging there. You don't take as many risks. But it is. It is the fastest. The fastest. You know what I mean?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So we've debated formats for a long time and I'm kind of tired. And so I was entertained with this one. I would keep it the way it is. It was a pure race, no gimmicks, no inverting and silliness and, you know, none of the, you know, it was no gimmicks. You know, show up, run your heat, run the last chance race if you have to. Here's the main. Do your best. And I think with the choose rule, it gives you a real shot to get through the field. It's up to you whether you want the inside or the outside at this track. And the outside groove surprised the out of me.

[Denny Hamlin]

Me too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was really happy to see that. So, you know, if a guy got. If a guy did a really good job in the middle of the corner and got pointed and got in a throttle, he could beat the guy on the inside and clear himself.

[Denny Hamlin]

And it was hard.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It was very hard, but it was you. What was great about it is, is once he got cleared, he had to make that choice. Am I gonna. Am I gonna drive down in the bottom, risking the fact that I might get punted or run into the guy in front of me charging the corner? I mean, and there was a lot of contact because of those moments, for sure. And so those, Those were always very entertaining. And I mean, honestly, it's a quarter mile racetrack the heat races had 10 cars on the racetrack. You could sit there and put all 10 cars on the screen and be entertained the entire heat race. And then in the last chance race, you know, you're watching one battle where there's a bunch of contact, but you knew there was another one happening off screen where there's a lot of contact as well. Cars three and four wide. I mean, you couldn't. You couldn't get enough for sure, which is exactly what you want to feel when you're watching the race. And, you know, I think this make you want to.

[Denny Hamlin]

Does action like that make you be like, man, I'm going to this race next year, you know, knowing there's more action that you can see in person. You know, like, there was, like you said the leaders might have been beaten to Bangladesh. There was somebody in fifth or sixth that was really leaning on each other.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I mean, there was probably a lot going on that we didn't see if you're watching it at home, but that's every weekend. Yeah, there's all kinds of things happening around the racetrack that. That just, you know, you just can't get cameras. But, yeah, I think I would definitely. If they go back and I'm not working, I'm definitely gonna go. It's right in our backyard. And I think the, you know, I think TV did a really good job of. Of helping you understand the atmosphere.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah, it was awesome.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

At least I could imagine myself watching it. What it must be like to be there. And that's a hard thing for TV to do, but I'd probably go see it in person. I really enjoyed watching it. I enjoyed the, you know, sitting there and just, you know, they did a good job, I guess. Intros was really cool, and they didn't show that, but I heard some people.

[Denny Hamlin]

It was. I took some video of it. I'll send it to you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I heard some people complaining about that, but, you know, maybe now that they know intros was gonna be that damn cool, because intros is usually like a afterthought, afterthought at every could.

[Denny Hamlin]

You didn't see intros at all, like, anything about some video. So they. They rolled a mile right at start, finish line, and they introduced the driver, that start, finish line, and the crew and the driver, all. They just all watch blister and push the car around to the rest of the track. But the people. I mean, you literally, they're.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They're right there.

[Denny Hamlin]

The fans are right here, and it's. It's completely awesome because most of the people don't get that close.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I think maybe TV didn't expect that, you know, the driver intros to be a thing. Because most races outside of, I guess, Bristol with the, you know, the Walk.

[Denny Hamlin]

Out, Walk out songs, it's relative.

[TJ Majors]

It's a throwaway. It's like, oh, they booed dating. Let's show that they cheered for this. And that's very bland.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It is a very bland it. Most races. So either way, I guess we could just quickly debate or conversate about what we think happens going forward. For me, this was a success, massive success. And I don't love. I don't always do a really good job of saying, talking about something I like without something else. And so, you know, I'm trying. I'm trying to. The, you know, the Clash at the Coliseum I thought was really cool. The first year, I didn't love it. The second year certainly hated it. You know, didn't hate it, but didn't like it. The third year, the only problem is, is like, you can't, you can't. The NASCAR can't do exactly what we want and go race at the Clash once. If you're going to nascar to be able to work with the city and all of the Coliseum and all the things, it's got to be this kind of three, two, three year contract, right? Same thing with street course at Chicago. I'm sure that wasn't a one off and hey, we'll see how it goes. There had to been some commitment for multiple years there that everyone would have to adhere to so that everybody's in the same, taking the same risk. So, you know, I'm not gonna say. I think there's probably a social media tweet somewhere where I thought, you know, I said, hey, man, they should go to Beaumont Gray, not the Coliseum. I'm not mad they went to the Coliseum. I think it was cool. The first year, the track was forced, the radius of the corners was bad. It didn't race good at all. As you saw at Bowman Gray, the radius of the corner matters just that little bit more of a wider radius allowed the cars to race and go around a turn. That race track at. At the Coliseum and I drove it in a next gen car. I. It's not a track, it's not a racetrack. It's not. It's not a proper racetrack at all. No one ever would ever take that and build it to replicate it anywhere else.

[Denny Hamlin]

You can't race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You can't. And so, you know, you wouldn't say, hey, Man, I'm gonna build a. I want, I got, you know, I got a. Somebody gives you some money, Travis says, hey man, go build you a short track in your hometown. That ain't fucking layout. You're gonna build, right? No, so the, you know, I'm not mad about the Coliseum, but you know, I know that they had to fulfill the agreement and get, you know, and, and when they were done, they decided, hey man, let's try this at the Bowman Gray Stadium. And I'm glad they did. It's likely that they have the same sort of commitment long term at Bowman Gray. This is, this. We may not know that. There's already ink on paper for this to already go forward next year and even a third, who knows? So I'm not going to get too upset about what, what the future holds. I hope that they go back next year.

[Denny Hamlin]

I don't see how they don't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I hope they do.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know that they need to do it three years in a row. I don't know that it needs to, you know, I don't, I don't know that. Oh, man, we've, you know, this needs to be the Clash for the next decade. I'd go back next year and I would even consider moving this, the All Star Race to, to the Bowman Grace Stadium beyond the Clash. Right. Think about, think about how good it raced. Think about how cool it was. Imagine with that track with some temp in it with those tires wearing the way they are and a million dollars on the line. Right? Maybe that would get Denny to get a little more aggressive.

[TJ Majors]

I don't want to speak for him, but I think he's shipping him then.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, then he might not say it out loud, but, you know, I think everybody would be a little bit more aggressive, which is exactly what you're going to have to expect when you go to Bowen Gray. And so I think, and I've seen some folks, I'm not. This ain't a new idea. I've seen a lot of people on social media over the last 24 to 48 hours talking about what they believe is the best foot forward for the Clash and a few other puzzle pieces in the schedule. I think you go back to Bowman Gray and do this again next year to start the year off is a great way to get everybody excited about Daytona. Yeah, we got some fireworks now. We're going to go to Daytona and see the 500. But maybe to continue racing at Bowman Gray, they can have the All Star Race there and see how that Works and then what does that mean for Wilkesboro? I was, I was hoping that would mean that Wilkesboro would get a points race.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Bring back the first Union 400 or.

[Denny Hamlin]

I was gonna say a good 400 lapper there. Something would be fun.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So I think that, you know, the All Star, the, you know, bump, Wilkesboro's been cool, but I don't think we've really untapped the potential of what Wilkesboro can really be because the races, the race there isn't long enough. And you know, I think it'd be.

[Denny Hamlin]

A great long run track.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I do too. And so the way they're using the top of one and two, it's, it.

[Denny Hamlin]

Looks, it's going to create some really good, some really good racing and it's going to create some contact too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's why they, they use a lot of the racetrack down there at Wilkesboro. So, you know, I think that that would, and then the, so the Clash. What does that mean for the Clash? Beyond, you know, beyond Bowman Gray, you know, there's this, they absolutely want to race in front of new audiences. They, NASCAR would love to race in Europe or, you know, you see Brazil in the conversation on social media. And if that's what they, if they, if that's how, if that's something that, that we absolutely are going to see in the future. Like, I don't know if I. Look, I don't care. I don't really, I don't care if my cup racing goes overseas. I'm not ex, I'm not forward or against it. You know, it's not something, it doesn't excite me, you know, but I watch it. But I'm not gonna be sad if it doesn't happen. Does that make sense? But if they take the Clash overseas, I think that one track that they absolutely should look at is Brands Hatch. The, the Indy course at Brands Hatch is, is. It's like a short track road course. I don't think, you know, they're wanting to take the Clash maybe overseas or to some different countries. I think you have to kind of keep it on that short short circuit format, you know, that you can't go to these long mile and a half or two and a half mile or three mile road courses and have a clash. That is not going to be a lot of fun.

[Denny Hamlin]

No, it'd be boring.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So, you know, they, they may have some tracks that exist, some ovals, some small ovals that exist in some of these countries that they could try to, try to run at they may have, but I think Brands Hatch, while it is a road course, this, the Indy circuit, which I think the Euro cars run on that, they've ran some races there. It's like a. I don't even know the distance, but it's like a mile.

[Denny Hamlin]

It's probably just over a mile.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right. And it's.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah, the short track is very.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes, it's. It's a couple corners and there's some tricky corners. I mean, yeah, we've ran it online, we ran on social, we've ran it on our sim rigs forever.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So, yeah, I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of tracks out there that they could consider.

[TJ Majors]

What do you think about people that want it to be more grassroots and go to these other tracks nearby?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I would. I love that idea a lot, but I just don't know if NASCAR would do it. You know, Bowman Gray is an anomaly because they seat 10,000, 17,000 people.

[Denny Hamlin]

17.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

17,000. So Bowman Gray's infrastructure, while minimal in terms of like, you know, a Charlotte Motor Speedway, it still seats 17,000 people. How many does Hickory sit? You know, they're not going to come in there and, yeah, that'd be. Build grandstands at these places. I mean, they may could. They may could put in some temporary grandstands that are going to get you another three or five thousand maybe. But I just don't know that that's, you know, I just don't know that. While it would be amazing for them to go to like, Hickory or some of these other short tracks to do what they did at Bowman Gray, I don't know that NASCAR will look at it like. It's like that's a realistic direction. And, you know, you could say South Boston. South Boston's got really nice facility and that might be one of the places you could probably consider taking the race. But I don't know, man. The location of Beauman Gray, it's kind of in this very dense area, which I think I, you know, you'd have to think about why that matters. I don't, you know, if they take it to South Boston, that's three and a half. We'll have two and a half hours.

[Denny Hamlin]

Up the road and it's a good hike from here. I think. To me, I think the clash in this format has found a home because I feel like you're always going to have a few oddball cars enter here because you're going to have some. There's guys that are going to want to run this race and Going all the way to California, you know, for the Coliseum. It was awesome being at the Coliseum, but missing that race the first two years and not even been. Not even be able to be a part of it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not making it through in the last chances.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Denny Hamlin]

And that's. I feel like if you're gonna.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You went all the way out there to get your teeth kicked in, and.

[Denny Hamlin]

We literally just got punted in one of them because the guy wanted in and needed a caution, so he just wrecks you. And here. Not saying that's any. Not acceptable here, but at least you're an hour away. And I know, you know, I'm.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm of the. I'm of the mind. Like, look, man, I mean, I, I. To be able to go out and attract new fans, yes, you got to travel. You got to get outside of your comfort zone, but you don't have to. You don't have to spend a ton of energy doing that. Be such an entertaining draw that they come to you. Somebody said 60% of the tickets for Bowman Gray were from outside of the state. 44. 44 states. But. So, like, I. I'm. I'm of the opinion that. Yes. Okay, take. If you want to go to Brazil, you want to race in front of a different audience here and there in California and so forth, absolutely. Go do those things, but don't, like, exhaust yourself.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah, you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You've got a really good look at. Look at the excitement around the Bowman Gray race. There's. There's great energy around Wilkesboro. The Rockingham Speedway is kind of coming back into the fold, and those racetracks are the racetracks we were running. When the sport boomed out of control in the 2000s, we didn't. We didn't explode in 2004 or around that time because we were in Brazil or going to the Coliseum.

[Denny Hamlin]

We had everything we needed.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We had everything we needed. Everybody. Everybody came to us.

[TJ Majors]

And when the product is great on track for people to watch on tv, you're gonna draw more viewers.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. If you're watching on tv, why do you care where it is?

[Denny Hamlin]

It's going to be hard to get a ticket to Beaumont Gray next year if they run there. Yeah, I think so, anyway.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I've always been. I've always felt that way is like, you know, be you in terms of nascar, you have a lane. Stay in that lane. Be you. And. And fans will come to that. Fans will draw to that. And. But I'm again, like, yes, you got to go to. You got to do the Chicago street course. You Got to do that. You got the Coliseum. Good idea. Go. If you want to go to Brazil. Good.

[Denny Hamlin]

I would love to race Brands Hatch, but I would make it to me, I'd make it a points race, do.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All of those things, but not at the expense of losing Rockingham and Wilkesboro. Not at the expense of losing the tracks that actually were the ones that helped you become this mammoth sport. Right. And so I feel like that right now we're trying to be that. We're trying to be that sport that has bringing back some of the older tracks also still going and showcasing ourselves in front of new audiences. And hopefully that continues. You know, I'm glad the Rockingham Speedway's back. It looked like the test there was a success. The new payment's really fast. It's probably not going to be. It's probably going to be single file bottle a little bit. Yeah. It's probably not going to widen out. A lot of people are really optimistic that it might. I don't think it will. At least not the first race.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah, it's going to take a little bit.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And hopefully that doesn't deter people from. Or deter NASCAR from keeping it on the schedule. Give it a few years and Rockingham will be Rockingham.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But just let it age. Yeah. So anyways, we'll see how it all plays out. This is Ask Junior Live and we are on our YouTube page. Thank you guys for. For liking. Make sure you like. I'm gonna hit that button right now. I'm gonna like it. And I'm already subscribed, so I'm sure everybody here's already subscribed. Make sure you hit that. See, only 21 of you have liked it.

[TJ Majors]

It.

[Denny Hamlin]

I liked it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Let's watch it go up. Come on. It's not. It's not going up in real time. I guess I have to refresh. But anyways, I'm glad you're here. We had a conversation, me and TJ around the Bowman Gray race. I think the general consensus is that it was fun, everybody had fun, and we hope to do it again. So we'll see what goes. What goes down in the future, but hopefully you'll tune in and listen to some of our critiques or opinions about what we experienced this past weekend. I was working in Florida, so I didn't get to go to Bowman Gray, but TJ was boots on the ground. And so we both had two unique perspectives, I think consuming the race in person versus on. On a tv. But we got some great questions. Andrew's here. Going to get some great questions for us today for ask Junior. So let's get started.

[Andrew]

Yeah. This is fresh off the presser here, and Charles wants to know. So xfinity just announced the xfinity fastest lap, which will be awarded one point to the driver and team in each series who runs the fastest lap the race. So just, I guess, initial thoughts, reactions, what do you guys think of that?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So if I'm hearing this right, Xfinity will have a fastest lap award in xfinity series and truck. And truck and whatever driver runs that lap.

[Andrew]

Like the fastest lap of the race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Very fastest lap of the race. You get a point.

[Andrew]

It's pretty cool.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think it's amazing. You know, I miss. I do miss, like, most laps led. Bonus. Even leading a lap. Bonus. I miss that because I remember. I remember being a kid and just, you know, dad was going to race for championships. You knew that. That was kind of. We were. We were. We were certainly spoiled in that regard. We knew when we went to the racetrack, dad was racing for a championship. So every day was an important day to get as many points as possible. And so you were. You were, you know, you were literally willing dad into the lead in these races back in the 80s and the 90s going, yeah, we got a lead lap. All right, we did it. We led that lap. We got that point. We got that five points, you know, and if he was having a really great day, that was a conversation you were having before even the race ended. Did we just lock that up? Did we lock up leading the most laps right there? Yeah, we did. Okay. No one can. No one can get that point, that five points from us. And those were. Those were things that entertained you. Those were ingredients and little. Little nuggets about NASCAR that. That entertained fans. So I love this. I think this is Perfect. In the 1998 and 1999 Xfinity Series seasons, MCI, I think, is the brand or the company. There was a company that had a $10,000 bonus to whoever ran the fastest lap in the race. You had to be leading the race for this lap to count. But Tony Jr. And our whole team, that was really important. They wanted. They didn't. You know, it wasn't that they got the share in the $10,000 check, but they wanted to be the team that got that every week. It was being. Being the fastest was a point of pride to Tony Jr. And Tony Sr. And I have every single. They would give you so that, you know, if you won the mci fastest lap award at the xfinity race the next weekend during driver's intros, when you were introduced, whatever award you won the week before or, or multiple, they would bring that onto the stage. So you would, you would go up, get introduced, pause, stand there and they would say, winning last week's MCI Fastest Lap Award, Galen Hart Jr. And they'd bring this big giant check up there and MCI or whoever the person was with the company or the plasticoat crew chief of the race, you know, they would, they would have the crew chief that won that award the last week at the, at the stage and he would go up and get introduced and accept his award in this big cardboard check. I have all of those MCI fastest lap awards hanging in my garage at home right now. That's how much those.

[Andrew]

Big deal.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes, it's in. It's. It wasn't. Might not be significant today because it's a very small award and it served. It didn't, you know, it didn't give points toward the season total or anything like. But it was just if they, it was just another carrot out there for Tony Jr. And the team to chase. And they wanted all the carrots. They didn't want anyone else to win anything. And so I love this. I think these type of little things that drive competition or push our competitors to achieve is really cool. And as we know, and I know the fans joke about this when we say in our broadcast every point matters. They joke about that because we say it over and over like they know every point matters. Right. We don't have to keep saying it, but we do. We do say it. There may be a new fan tuned in that doesn't know that every point matters and we need to tell them, guess what?

[Andrew]

It does.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so this is a point that's out there for these guys to try to strive to accumulate. And you could win multiple of these. Right. And that could really make a difference in, you know, seeding for the playoffs or even making the playoffs.

[Andrew]

Imagine being on the cut line and just you're one point out and you run a heater of a lap and now all of a sudden you're in or you're watching. Can someone else beat that lap? Like it's something that's another storyline to follow during a race.

[Denny Hamlin]

So where this is probably going to take most place is Talladega in the playoffs.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I would love for this. I'm not sure about the details. I'm not sure about the. What are you laughing at?

[Andrew]

Dalton just commented in the YouTube chat, hey, guys, just letting you know Every point matters. In case you didn't hear, I'm not.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Sure about the details of this particular bonus point. It would really, really be great if it was only tracking the leader of the race and not just anyone. I mean, and I guess it really doesn't matter at every other racetrack except for to your point, tj, Daytona and.

[Denny Hamlin]

Talladega, we do this already, but we just don't get points for it because we're. Your fastest lap of the race is already weighed in.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So going, keep going. Tell us why.

[Denny Hamlin]

Because if it all matters in your qualifying position next week, and sometimes if you in the lower series too, sometimes if you don't, it matters how well your pit stall is going to be and things like that. So we're already doing this every week, if you can.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So the fastest lap that you run in the race affects your qualifying, your pit stall, all of those, when you get to choose and when you get to decide the next weekend. Right. It is part of the equation that decides the qualifying order.

[Denny Hamlin]

Like if. Oh, the order.

[Andrew]

Oh, got it, got it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Stall selection.

[Andrew]

Right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so there to TJ's point, they're already all out there, especially doing that Atlanta, you know, if you're, if you're not up in the top 10, you're not going to drive up in there and get your ass wrecked. You're going to go to the back and get these big toes and try to try to be the guy that puts this insurmountable lap up. To be able to know that that's going to help you next week in qualifying order and so forth. Which is, which may mean something, may mean nothing, depending on how the weather and all the dynamic track is for qualifying the next weekend, but they, they're doing this.

[Denny Hamlin]

I have a screen, I have a screen in front of me that I can go to and look at the fastest lapse so I can see where we stack up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so for Talladega, Daytona, Atlanta and some of those tracks, I almost feel like that this only should matter to the car that's leading the race. This bonus point, right, for the fastest lap should only go to. The fastest lap should only be tracked by the lead car.

[Andrew]

If you're leading when you run that lap.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, if you're fifth and you run the fastest lap, sorry, great. But you got to be leading the race to acquire this award. I don't know, maybe it's like that.

[Andrew]

I like that the whole field is involved.

[Denny Hamlin]

I will tell you this, from what.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I see in Daytona though, it's gimmicky.

[Denny Hamlin]

Oh, it's going to be gimmicky. That's what I was telling you.

[Andrew]

Yeah, no, I understand. I mean, hell, let it be gimmicky.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, sorry. I mean, at Daytona Talladega, let nothing, nothing be gimmicky. Nothing.

[Andrew]

Listen, I don't like the gimmicks, but, like, if it's part of the game you play at Daytona Talladega, it's part of the.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Stop.

[Denny Hamlin]

I don't like the gimmicks, but let it be gimmicky.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, okay.

[Andrew]

All right, then. I. I don't want to use the word gimmicky.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We are. We are roasting you in front of a live audience. That's not very.

[Denny Hamlin]

I'm sorry, Andrew.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's not very nice.

[Andrew]

619 viewers. Let's see. Because I want to get to There. People were asking some great questions last week, too, and I see a lot of good questions in the YouTube chat as well. But Matt was asking last week, I think he was on Twitter. What's your favorite or least favorite ebay purchase that you've made? My favorite or least, I guess what's like an ebay purchase maybe you regret.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, shoot.

[Andrew]

Like, you're like, I didn't really need this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I mean, that probably happened more often on Amazon.

[Denny Hamlin]

That's probably most things.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, I mean, if I'm buying something on ebay, I know that I really want this. Right. I'm bidding for. For it. It's. It's not like a frivolous. Oh, that looks cool. Let's see if this is neat.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah, Amazon will get you Amazon.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That happens too many times. I'll buy something on Amazon and it comes in and it's like, ah, damn. The quality's not as good.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah, sometimes I buy stuff and forget I bought it, and then it shows up and be like, what did I order?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I think Amy does that too. We've had a couple of things come in, and it's like. She's like, I don't remember ordering this. And I'm like, so it's a mistake. And she goes, yeah, I don't think. I don't need that.

[Denny Hamlin]

I like when she does that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm like.

[Denny Hamlin]

Because I've got most time when I come over, she's like, I orders. We don't need it. You want it? Yeah, sure.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, geez. We had a. We had. We had a set of tail lights come in. It looks like it's for, like, a golf cart, right?

[Denny Hamlin]

Damn it, Amy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Little plastic brake lights. And it Looks like it's. They're very cheap and looks like it's probably for like a very low end golf cart and, or something like that. And so it's her name on the box. I don't, I didn't order it because I don't need tail lights for something and she certainly didn't order it. Where's coming from? Who, who, who sent it and was it. Yeah, it's. It's sometimes like once a year a package will come. That makes no sense whatsoever.

[Andrew]

I'm going to start sending you these.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So weird. You want to get in on ghost packages?

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it could be. Don't they like that Christmas thing where it's like random gifts or whatever?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I am, yeah, I'm basic if I am on ebay, strictly to buy custom die casts.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Oh really?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Strictly? Yeah. If I'm on ebay and buying something, it's a custom die cast. There's a couple guys I probably follow about six or seven sellers that make customs and they typically make a custom post it, sell it and then maybe three or four weeks later they'll make the next custom post it and sell it. And oftentimes it's a custom of my dad's. And you know, he's got all. Dad has all these random. I got a photo album in my phone of all these random one off cars that he drove for people. Like he'd get a, he'd get hired to go to this racetrack. Paid $6,000 to go up north somewhere. I was gonna say he started a.

[Denny Hamlin]

Lot of that, didn't he?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. On a Friday night before the cup race and he'd go drive some local guy's car and run the feature or match race with another cup driver like Mark Martin or Schrader. And people are now into making customs of some of these random cars that dad had driven. And so, you know, there. I don't know that. Yeah, I mean if I find one and I'm like, that's a real quality job this guy's done. We've got the new towers coming in, the new display cases coming in that, that Lionel has now made available again. So I got two of those ordered. And so I'm. I'm still into like, you know, increasing my die cast collection. But it's mostly customs now. You know, I have all of the late model cars that we've created like this sundrop cherry lemon sundrop car. So I mean if Lionel made any of the late model stuff, I'm gonna have all that. We've Had a couple of drivers come in here and autograph theirs. And I've taken those home. So I got like a Chastain autograph, a Logano autograph. Lionel and Scott Bloomquist brought us an autographed die cast of his. So that's all. That kind of stuff's in my collection. I'm hoping to get you guys over there one day with a camera and put all this stuff on film and push out a. Push out a little social media clip about my personal collection. Right. What's in it and why do I like this and why do I want this? And so I've got a little case dedicated to Ralph Earnhardt that would have been one of them cheap cases that I bought on Amazon that I thought was way better than it ended up being, but it's still pretty cool. So anyhow, we're getting in the weeds. But regrettable purchases would probably fall under. Yeah, buying something that you thought would be, oh, this isn't really regrettable, but it was kind of a waste. So cars today. My truck, for example, don't have CD players. Right.

[Andrew]

Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I still. I've got some old music that I. That, like, maybe it's a local band from Charlotte, right. That didn't make it big. But I've got that CD, right. From 25, 30 years ago. And I'm not gonna rip it onto, you know, my phone.

[Andrew]

Digital.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Why not?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know. Just not. I'm just like. I got the cd, so I bought a CD player that'd plug into my USB in my truck to play.

[Denny Hamlin]

Didn't even know you could do that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, to play old CDs. And I rode around in my truck for about two weeks listening to this old CD. And then, you know, that was two months ago. And now that CD player, that little external CD player has been sitting on the shelf. And because. And I walk, I walk by and I go, I really need that. I mean, that didn't really need that, but, yeah, that's a good one.

[Andrew]

I'm always curious about, like, who's actually reviewing these things? Because, like, I look at the reviews because you were saying, like, oh, this was not a good quality item. I was curious, like, who's leaving these reviews?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I check the reviews.

[Andrew]

I do, too. But I'm like, who actually writes a review? I would never write a review on? But I don't know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Have you never wrote a review? I've never wrote a review on Amazon.

[Andrew]

But I've no, I've written a review on, like, I've written About restaurants or something.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I wrote a review on. On Apple with music like when somebody released a new record.

[Andrew]

Really?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Wow. I've written probably about two or three apps.

[Andrew]

Good or bad Apple reviews?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Good.

[Andrew]

Oh, really?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, yeah.

[Andrew]

I'm not gonna write a review to some people.

[Denny Hamlin]

Maybe you should go back.

[Andrew]

By the way, you can do this podcast as well. Go do that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not impressed with this album. Let me write a review real quick. Let me take 15min. In my day. No, it's like, you know, one of your favorite bands releases a new record, you listen to it and you're like, hell, yeah, they still got it. I freaking love this new record. I gotta tell somebody. And you go in there and you fill it on out. Damn right, buddy. I'm normal with.

[Denny Hamlin]

Well, maybe I should review the. Maybe you should review the CD player and just write, you know, in the review, just write, do you really need this?

[Andrew]

Yeah. Think twice used it for. I need to write that review.

[Denny Hamlin]

That's what I'm saying.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I really like. Like this, but damn it, do you really need this? In two weeks? In two weeks, you're going to regret buying this.

[Andrew]

This is an honest review. You got to look up the. It's like the hair, bro. Sugar free gummy bears on Amazon.

[Denny Hamlin]

Wait, how's that go again? What are they.

[Andrew]

They're like these sugar free gummy bears on Amazon, I believe. Yeah, the hair, bro. Or I don't know.

[Denny Hamlin]

Hair bow.

[Andrew]

Yeah, just look it up after this and it's hilarious. I just. I want to see some comments in the YouTube YouTube chapter after this, but. All right, we got time for one more quick one. Let's see. I know, I know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Wait, we just started.

[Andrew]

Yeah. This one's from Cole. This was from last week's YouTube chat. I took a screenshot of it because it was good. He says, I'm doing my bachelor party in Daytona. What are some good bars to go to to raise hell?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There aren't any more. Yeah, they're the bars that we used to raise hell at. Don't exist anymore.

[Denny Hamlin]

No.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not 20 years ago.

[Andrew]

I don't know. There could be some good stuff.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, I have no clue. If I was to.

[Denny Hamlin]

It's not like there's a ton of, like, you're gonna. I know where they're gonna end up, but I mean, there's not. I mean, there's a lot of good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What is it? Ocean deck or.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah, Deck down under. Ocean deck. There's both of them, I think.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I don't know. I mean, you know, if I was Thinking about this, because I'm gonna go to Daytona, and there may be a little bit of downtime, and since I'm not driving a race car, I might actually go out to the. Out to the beach and just kind of hang out at some of the beach bars.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Have a few beers, try to. Try to catch up with. Because a lot of industry people go to, like. I think there is an ocean deck. They.

[Andrew]

Sounds very familiar.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I should, like, completely know the names of these places, but.

[Andrew]

Well, that's changed too, you know?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I haven't been. I haven't been to the beach. Beach part of Daytona in a very long time.

[Denny Hamlin]

But there's only, like, one club, and I think that was Razzles.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Denny Hamlin]

I think it's actually still there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Still digging.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah. And then there's the. The other establishments across the street that you'll end up at, but is the Deck down under and the ocean deck. I do think both exist.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So I would. I would just, you know, go to them little beach bars and get you a bucket of beer and hang out and see who walks in. You might recognize some people. You might recognize some. Because a lot of the industry folks.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

End up there.

[Denny Hamlin]

Mm.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Might see us.

[Denny Hamlin]

And it's a long week.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Denny Hamlin]

Like Tuesday or Wednesday on. So you'll see some people.

[Andrew]

I'm seeing some places in the YouTube chat. North turns. Another good one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Oyster Pub.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oyster Pub. Yep. I recognize that.

[Andrew]

The Brickyard.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Brickyard. I don't know about that one. You can go to New Smyrna. There's some pretty cool spots in New Smyrna.

[Andrew]

Morgan Overstreet just texted me, said Yayas, which is Hole in the wall. Karaoke bar.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah, it's Yaya.

[Andrew]

Yaya's. Sorry. I think she's typing to correct me too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There's. There's another town. Clearly there's another town right next to Daytona that starts with a D. What is it?

[Andrew]

Daytona Delta. Yeah, I think it's Deltona.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

No, no, seriously, it's not.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, it's like. It starts with a D, but I can't remember the name.

[Denny Hamlin]

It is. It's right west of where it's at. Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But it's got, like, vintage record store and a cup. Probably a couple cool bars and stuff there.

[Andrew]

Okay. There is Delta.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It is Deltona.

[Denny Hamlin]

It is.

[Andrew]

I'm pretty sure Deltona, Florida does exist. It's on a map.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

This place is literally 10 miles away from Daytona.

[Denny Hamlin]

It's like, it's not far.

[Andrew]

Is it inland?

[Denny Hamlin]

Deland?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Deland. Deland Dummies. Daletona.

[Andrew]

No, it does exist.

[Denny Hamlin]

I mean, there's. There's.

[Andrew]

I will not back down.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Destined to land, to land, to land.

[Denny Hamlin]

We got all these holidays, too.

[Andrew]

Okay, Travis.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Wait, wait. Was the Shark Lounge. What is that?

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah, I. I think it's close.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Is it?

[Denny Hamlin]

I wouldn't know. Yeah, I think it is. I do think it's closed.

[Andrew]

Okay. Travis gave me the. We can ask one more question.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hey, thanks, Travis.

[Andrew]

Thank you, Travis, everybody.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, put a. What should we put in the chat for celebrating Travis?

[Denny Hamlin]

Give us the fun.

[Andrew]

Give us a beer emoji.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Beer emoji.

[Andrew]

That's pretty. That's pretty. Good sign for Travis. I saw a few of these, but this one's from Kathy wanting to know about the Talladega Knights cameo where you asked Will Ferrell for an autograph.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

How did that go about. And then people even wanted to know, do you still have the page that he actually signed? Like the paper he signed?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, no, he scribbled. It wasn't like a real autograph.

[Andrew]

Oh, really?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But so great.

[Denny Hamlin]

Movies ruined.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I thought we. I feel. I feel. I feel like I told this story really recently.

[Andrew]

Oh, really?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So we were. We filmed. They asked me to come. They asked me to be a part of it, of course. I was like, absolutely. Thanks for asking. Where do I go? When are we going to do this? We did it at Charlotte Mer Speedway. There was not a race happening that weekend. And we went. I drove over to the racetrack, completely comfortable driving in there. Been going there my whole life, even when there's not a race going on, you know, so drive into the racetrack and over toward turn four, the old. Old cup garage. And all of these campers and little rental campers and stuff are piled into this little blacktop. And there was a little. They were like, just go in there and park, sit around, somehow catch you, somehow grab you, get you going. Hair, makeup, whatever it is. And there was a little table with about four chairs. Nobody sitting there, I thought. I just sit down, started thumbing on my phone or something. And I got my head down and somebody sits down at the table. And I look up and it's Will Ferrell. And he was like, hey, man, how's it going? Thanks for coming today. And we sat there and just for about five, ten minutes. And then he's like, I'm gonna get going. I'm gonna get ready and do this. That they want me over here. So I was like. He's like, they'll come get you in a minute. And I was like, all right, so we got ready. They drug me over to the, you know, in the infield of the Sharpener Speedway where it's kind of like crosswalks, the crossroads of everything.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All the roads sort of converge.

[Andrew]

Yeah, yeah. They made it into a roundabout now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, maybe. I don't know. It is now, like right outside the entrance to the cup garage.

[Andrew]

Oh, yeah, yeah, that's where we're talking.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's where we were standing when we filmed that little, little sign my forehead thing or whatever, baby. So they got it. They had about you know, 20 or 30 extras and we were kind of gonna run, walk through the crowd and meet. And they had our. We had our lines. That was scripted. He was a little bit of an ad libber and he could be free with whatever he wanted to say. So we took, we did probably three or four takes and they were like, that's good. It was very quick. And, and that was that. I said, hey, man, appreciate it, thanks. He said, thanks. And I went on home. And then there's. If you watch the credits, you'll see more of the drivers and Will doing some stuff. And we did that at Talladega and that was during the race weekend. They were like, hey, they. Will's going to come in, they want to film just some stuff. Y'all talking. He's going to be in his suit, you're going to be in the garage and we'll. I don't know if they were planning to use it or just see how it worked, but they didn't end up using it in, in the movie. And I think it just rolls in the credits.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Kind of like, I know what you're talking about. Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That was a little more tense or nerve wracking because they didn't have a script. They said, will's gonna just start talking. You just react. What? And that was really tough because, I mean, look, man, he's a professional comedian. And I felt like, am I supposed to be funny, right? Or do I try to be funny? Because I'm not never gonna be as funny as him.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And what the hell do you do, you know? And I didn't want to be a fool, right? And so I was gonna try to be a smart ass back, but I was never gonna be as good as him, so what the hell, you know? So it was just tough, but it was really fun. Really fun. You know, they just basically had us kind of walking from two different directions. We're gonna bounce into each other. He said something about like, hey, man, you know, one and one. I think he's like, dude, you still got that. You got that 20 you owe me. You know, he just would.

[Andrew]

He was just coming up with things.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He would just randomly say something and you're just like, oh, this is where we're headed.

[Andrew]

And did you like, respond like, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You'Re supposed to say something so you say something. Right. I don't remember what I said, but it's probably not very funny. But. And we did that three or four times. And. And then he's like. They're like, all right, good. We're good, man. That's good. Appreciate it.

[Andrew]

Wow, that's neat.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, it's pretty neat.

[Andrew]

But to your point earlier of saying like the. The second part of having to do those, it's hard to be like, funny on command. And I think that's what he's really good at.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I will say this, man. It makes me think about that movie. And I told the story about watching that movie for the first time at Skywalker. Skywalker Ranch with George Lucas.

[Andrew]

Yes. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And I've seen the movie a couple times. Obviously, I always felt like. And I wonder if there's any real truth to this, but that movie, to me, the first half of that movie was full of really, really good moments. Humorous, quirky, smart comedy. Right. And then the second half of the movie felt like a completely different movie. Still funny, but like, it really feels like to me, and it's probably really unlikely, but it feels like there was an entirely different director versus on the first half, versus the second half. Like the whole movie felt like it just had this one vibe. And then right at the middle point.

[Andrew]

It'S like we found a plot halfway through.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And then it had a completely different vibe. Not bad, not good, not.

[Andrew]

It's different.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It just. Totally different. Like. Like the whole production crew quit at halfway and they had to bring in this other one. And it just seems different. But the whole, like the story, like, to your point, the plot sort of just got introduced in the middle of the show, you know, but like the first part of the movie is a lot of just jokes about nascar. Right. You know, the what do I do with my hands and. And all of that stuff. And it's all the just quick, quick, witty jokes about our sport, which was really fun to sort of the self deprecation of nascar. And. But then, yeah, the second half, the plot comes in and you're like, man, I kind of like the first half better. I was more entertained, I guess, by that. But yeah, anyway, Still a good movie. And even though it was a. It was a joke, we can definitely. We could definitely handle being the butt of the joke.

[Andrew]

I was curious what your thoughts were on that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I didn't mind it. I thought it was good for nascar. I thought it put us in front of a new audience.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And yes, it poked fun at us, but I don't know that, you know, I don't. I don't know. It was not detrimental to NASCAR in any way.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't think. And so, if anything, it kind of carry improved our popularity outside of our. Our own bubble. Right. Sure. All the people that are already in the tent, but best favorite, Strictly nascar. Favorite NASCAR movie.

[Andrew]

Oh, what's yours? You go first.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Last American Hero.

[Andrew]

Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Last American Hero is. Jeff Bridges is the star. It's about Junior Johnson, roughly, loosely, and Junior Johnson's story as a. As a moonshiner and a driver. And I don't know why. I think the reason why I like it is because they. It was. It was before it was done in 71 or 72, 73. And it's before Hollywood eventually. Right. Is going to sensationalize, you know, in the night as, you know, we know, you know, when we see movies made about people that we know the story, you see some of the. Some of the Hollywood sensationalism creep into the story and they embellish. Right. In parts because they got to make it right. It's a movie. But this was made about racing, about NASCAR before that was really a thing, I believe. And so it's authentic. It's really authentic. And so, you know, his. When they're filming at the short tracks and filming his sort of rise to the big time. It's a really authentic feel. And staying in boring, lonely old hotel rooms and getting in disagreements with, you know, these punks at these local racetracks and, you know, and there's some footage of Ralph Earnhardt in there driving at Metrolina. That's really neat. But I don't know, I just thought there was a really. It didn't feel like they stretched any truths in that movie.

[Andrew]

Authentic.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, it's really authentic. But some cool actors in it, too. Jeff Bridges, badass. Yeah. I mean, back before Jeff Bridges was super, super fast famous. He played in a. You know, played Junior Johnson in a NASCAR movie. How damn cool is that?

[Denny Hamlin]

You know, how many movies do you know of Andrew? Racing movies?

[Andrew]

Good question. I mean, well, I will kind of cheat and use the YouTube chat and I did want to give them a shout out, but I'm Seeing a lot of Struck Erase. There's a days of Thunder.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Gary. Obviously, Gary in here said struck race. I love Struck Race. And that reminds me, too. Gary Busey was in Last American Hero. He's. He's Jeff Bridges brother. Gary Busey.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But I love Stroker Ace. I thought stroker Ace was awesome when I was a kid, and it came out. I thought it was amazing. And it's still one of my favorites.

[Andrew]

Six Pack sauce. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Love Six pack as a kid.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Diane Lane.

[Andrew]

Jake just said six pack with about 10 exclamation points.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Six pack was. Six Pack was badass because of the dirt car. That dirt car that Brewster Baker drove was freaking insane. Cool. That Camaro and the paint scheme on that thing. It was neat as hell. Brewster Baker is a badass racing name. I mean, just cool. And I mean, when you watch those movies. Oh, and Love will turn you around, the song, the theme song that Kenny Rogers had for Six Pack, that's in my rotation. I listened to that today. The opening guitar on Love will turn you around. Freaking awesome.

[Andrew]

You listen to that?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes. It is my favorite Kenny Rogers song, and I have many.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But I thought it was cool that Burt Reynolds, I mean, in. In When Burt makes struck a race. He's coming off of all of those badass movies that he's making Cannonball Runs and all of that stuff and smoking the band. He's coming right off of that and could have probably done anything he wanted. And he made a racing movie.

[Andrew]

It's awesome. It is a big deal. That's a big compliment.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It was.

[Denny Hamlin]

It was big.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It was really, really big for us to be, you know, I mean, if you're. If you're a fan. I always looked at it like, yeah, man. They're celebrating this niche thing that's happening in this little small corner of the country, and they're, you know, they're. You know, they're shining a light on us.

[Andrew]

It's awesome.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And so I loved all those movies. I don't think that there was. I love Days of Thunder. Thought it was cool, the rumors around that number two. Yeah. Having a number two. Mmm. I'm down.

[Andrew]

You down?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Denny Hamlin]

Heck, yeah.

[Andrew]

Be so cool.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Yeah. We'll see.

[Andrew]

I wonder what the plot would be for, like, Days of Thunder two, you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Know, I don't know. Yeah.

[Andrew]

And Tom Cruise looks like he hasn't even aged, so.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I'm curious. It would have him. I'm curious if he's still driving in days of.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Is he the owner now?

[Andrew]

He's like Casey Kane just doesn't age. Yeah. All right, well, that is a good place. And Ash Jr. By the way. 1100 live viewers.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Damn.

[Andrew]

So thank you, everyone, for tuning in.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Way to go, y'all. Hey, and I'm seeing those likes. Y'all finally got them up into the three hundreds there. Good stuff. Hey, I appreciate y'all. Thanks so much for supporting us here. We're having a lot of fun. This year has gotten off to a great start. I'm loving having TJ here, and I'm loving that I found the chat because it does feel like y'all are sitting in this room.

[Denny Hamlin]

Makes it different.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It does. Yeah, it is. Cool. So we had a great talk with Richard Childers. For tomorrow's guest segment, you're gonna want to tune in. Richard was on the show in 2019, and we went through that interview and kind of picked a bunch of stuff that we didn't get to. And obviously talking to him about current stuff going on in the sport with the lawsuit and the penalty at Richmond and all kinds of other things. And he. He. He was really mad at me and told me. Told me as such at Phoenix before we went to race for a championship with each other. And we talk about that. So you'll want to tune in. Great conversation with Richard to start the year off. We got some great guests coming down the pipe. We're already booking weeks out in advance. It's gonna be a good year. So thanks for tuning in. Can't wait to do this next week. All right, so we got some news about a live show that's coming today. Tony, we want to give you all of the particulars here. Obviously, we got some amazing partners at Sirius xm, and Dirty Moe and Sirius XM are going to team up and host a live show in the fan zone in the Daytona infield. This is Thursday, February 13th, from 3 to 4:30pm I'm going to be hosting the show from 3 to 4, the Dale Jr. Download. I'm gonna be joined by Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi from the Tear down and Andrew as well. So I. I was hoping. I requested that we get Gluck and Bianchi.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Because I've never really got to sit down with those guys in that kind of a format. And they're excited, and I'm too. I'm too. And they got their. They've got their opinions about things going on, and. And so that'll be a fun, fun hour. So from three to four, again, I'll be hosting the Dale Jr. Download live on February 13th. On Thursday, in the fan zone of the Daytona infield, we'll have some special guests dropping by. And then from 4 to 4:30, there'll be a crossover show with some of the SiriusXM NASCAR radio host. We'll have Denny Hamlin from Actions Detrimental and Andrew is going to be sticking around as well for that. We're gonna have some fun giveaways. We'll take some questions from the crowd, obviously. So if you're in Daytona, this is something you're going to want to check out and be a part of. There's a lot of room down there in the fan zone, a lot of fun stuff to interact with, so you'll be able to enjoy the show and have some fun. All you need to watch the show live is a ticket to the Daytona fan zone for Thursday and you can go to Daytonainternationalspeedway.com hardrockbet- minus sign that is fan zone. That's pretty cool. Hard Rock Bet is is promoting the fans on some good folks. We'll also be posting the Dale Jr download portion right here on the podcast feed and on YouTube afterwards for anyone who can't be there live in person. But for the Dale Jr. Download with me, Gluck Bianchi and Andrew, Justin Allgire is going to drop by. Helio Castroneves is coming by, Martin Tricks Jr. And Cole Burn.

[Andrew]

It's so exciting.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So that'll be a great conversation with all of those. Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Place your bets. All right, it's time for the Dirty Modeau segment and we're gonna bring in Alex Timms. We're going to talk about the Super Bowl. One thing I gotta say, man, I'm seeing this all over the place. People think Dirty Modo disappeared.

[Alex Timms]

I know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's right here. What in the hell?

[Alex Timms]

No, it's right here. We're doing content throughout the year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I've been seeing you and Travis. You guys are creating all kinds of content around Dirty Modo and still putting out a lot of great advice. So, folks, if you were to say, hey, man, if I was. If I was a listener and I was like, alex, Dirty Mode is gone. You didn't tell me. I didn't see it. What about. Wait, wait, wait, wait. No, you're still doing some stuff. Where do I find it?

[Alex Timms]

You find it right here in the Dells, your download. You'll find it on Dirty Modeau's YouTube channel. We'll have. We'll have videos throughout the year dirty mode.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Doe's YouTube channel's still here.

[TJ Majors]

Still active.

[Alex Timms]

Still active. We're gonna post stuff on there. I'll be. I'm always active on Twitter. If you got a question, you subscribe to it? Yeah, subscribe to it. Message me on Twitter. I mean, you could find it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Geez. All right. He's already. Modeau is one and, oh.

[TJ Majors]

On his picks for NASCAR this year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Dirty. Dirty Mode is alive and well. Y'all. Come on. We got big plans. All right?

[Denny Hamlin]

Big wins.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We got. We got big plans. So, anyways, we got it. Did you do anything for the Clash? I know you were. You were saying on Dirty Mode, Doe's content, you were saying that you're not, like, not likely to put anything down on the Clash.

[Alex Timms]

I wasn't, but I bet Chase Elliott to win.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, of course you did.

[Alex Timms]

You know what it was this year? I kind of was simplifying it. I'm like, you know what? If I like a guy to win, I'm just gonna bet him. And I like Chase. He was fast. I think he could pass on a short track unless they dumped him, so. Well, he did the dumping.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So big win there for you. Let's go on into the Daytona 500. I imagine there's all kinds of things that you could partake in coming up. You know, you got the duels, you got qualifying. You messing with any of that before you actually start the Daytona 500?

[Alex Timms]

You know, I don't think so. I think this drafting track is really, like, the only one I wouldn't, because I see a lot of people ask about McDowell, because he won about every drafting track poll last year, but he switched teams, and I think there's a lot of Chevrolet. Yeah. He's a brand new team.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not driving a Ford no more. That makes a massive difference.

[Alex Timms]

And also, like, year to year, like, Hendrick had their dominance. Now it's Fords. You don't know when that shift's gonna happen. I feel like you need a race to kind of see how it plays. Plays out, and then you kind of can go for it at, you know, Atlanta or Talladega, whatever you want. So.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So your. What is your approach to Daytona this year?

[Alex Timms]

You know, it's very similar to Bowman Gray. Have fun. I bet the long conservative. Yeah, I mean, listen, it's. It's fun to have the Ricky Stenhouse, you know, bet. It's fun to have the guy that underdog, you know, it's just. It's such a crapshoot. We say it every year, but it really is.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It is. So, I guess where does. Where does the betting community feel? Where do they line up right now with the. You know, a couple years ago, this guy made an insane amount of money placing, you know, Rick Ware and a few other, you know, Aspire and a few other teams in the top five. I forget the teams, but he had this really just stroke of luck where three or four teams finish in the top five.

[Alex Timms]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Ended up, like, making a million bucks or something. Where does the community sit on stuff like that? Is that still. Still a thing? Are you going to put a parlay together or are you going to bet a couple of those teams to have that kind of stroke of luck?

[Alex Timms]

I mean, if you're going to. This is the race to do it. I don't see why you won't throw a dollar or something small on it, because what if it does hit you and all that money? But I wouldn't go too crazy with those, because they are long shots for a reason, and you're getting that payout and that price for a reason. But, I mean, hey, it's the first race of the year. Why not have some fun and you might get lucky.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How smart are the books? Getting pretty smart.

[Alex Timms]

I mean, Chase Briscoe was the favorite for the clash in his first race with the 19 car.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Wow.

[Alex Timms]

Early in the week. Yeah. And I thought that was really surprising.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Which, you know, I mean, nothing against Chase, but.

[Alex Timms]

No, but it's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They don't. Yeah. You gotta wait and see.

[Alex Timms]

Yeah. I mean, and they're always very, very high on Ty Gibbs to get that first win, so you're not gonna beat with that. So they adjusted pretty well this year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was surprised. I got you. All right. So. Yeah. No, you're gonna give me a bet you're gonna make for the 500. Like, hey.

[Alex Timms]

Well, I will say it's. I still got a week to prepare here, but I will say I do think it's. It's going to be a. Like, a big name gonna win. Like, you know, we had William Byron when last year. I think we're gonna go on a run here. You know, he had that run with like, Cedric McDowell. Stenhouse.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Alex Timms]

I think it's shifting to now. We're gonna have like, a Kyle Busch, a Kyle Larson, maybe a Ryan Blaney, somebody who hasn't won before that's going to sneak through and win again this year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, well, we'll have another chance, I think, to talk about this, but we wanted to put down a parlay for the Super Bowl. And I've been thinking about this. I was working with some friends this past weekend who are in this type of thing and they asked me to put together a parlay. And you can do three or four, but I ended up with four that I feel pretty good about. But we're going to sit down and do our own four player parlay for the super bowl between tj, myself, you and Travis.

[TJ Majors]

Is TJ gonna watch? I know it's a Super bowl, it's a big event, but are you, can you bring yourself to watch the super bowl with the Chiefs?

[Denny Hamlin]

Tj, I don't want. I'm sure I'll watch part of it, but I'm not sure I'll sit there and watch the whole game this time. I'm just.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I wouldn't be able to.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah, I don't know. I mean I watched some of it, but this is probably the least most excited I've been for a Super bowl in a long time.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, if your ass will put this parlay in, you'll be watching it.

[Denny Hamlin]

I'm going to. I got, I got a leg. I've got a leg here. This will be the incentive to want to watch this game. So I'm going to go with the Saquon Barkley anytime. Touchdown.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Damn, he jumped right in there. All right, anybody else? I'll go. I got a leg.

[Alex Timms]

I got a juju. Smith Schuster over 16 and a half receiving yards seems pretty low.

[TJ Majors]

Sorry TJ. I got Patrick Mahomes over 1 and a half passing touchdowns.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hey, that's a good one.

[Denny Hamlin]

I'm not surprised with you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, so I looked at a couple trends, I guess is a way to put it. Jake Elliott kicking points over six and a half. I think he's done this, cleared this in the last seven games. And, and I, you know the one thing about that is. Don't y'all. I felt like as the playoffs begin things tighten up. Everybody plays a little tighter, a little more a little smarter, a little closer to the vest. And it's particularly in the super bowl. The, the overs are not, I think teams don't underplay or downplay. But the, you know those touch, those guaranteed touchdown drives often sometimes may end up just being three points. Yeah, right.

[Alex Timms]

Little more conservative. They just want points on the board. Yeah, Yep.

[Denny Hamlin]

That's a, that's good for this game. I'll tell you why as well is because the Eagles are going to get close to scoring and they don't like when the team score on the Chiefs. So there's going to be a lot of holding calls on third downs. They're going to have to kick field goals.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh is that. I think Jake Elliott clears six and a half on kicking points and so I'll take that one. So Juju over 16 and a half yards receiving. Jake Elliott over six and a half kicking points. TJ's going with Barkley for anytime touchdown And Travis has Patrick Mahomes for over one and a half passing touchdowns. There was another prop that I was looking at. Just kind of curious what you guys opinion is so Barkley. He is I think his lines at 110 yards which is crazy. That's a lot super bowl. That's. But I mean dude he's. He's insane.

[Alex Timms]

He really is.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think I read somewhere that the Chiefs haven't allowed 100 yard rusher in the playoffs during this whole run. Yeah. You know what do you think Barkley does in terms overall yardage? I feel like an outline of 80 is a good line that or if.

[TJ Majors]

You could find one where it's like receiving and rushing yards combined or something.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Because I could see him getting like a screen or two going.

[Alex Timms]

Yeah. Honestly I think, I think he's going to be game planned against. They're going to have to find a way they're going to make Jalen hurts throw the ball. He's tough to stop like planning to and actually stopping him. Two different things. But I mean this is the Chiefs, right?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Denny Hamlin]

Because I'm sure the other teams they played didn't game plan for Saquon.

[Alex Timms]

Yeah, exactly.

[Denny Hamlin]

I'm sure they didn't.

[Alex Timms]

This is the Chiefs.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I don't. I think that I wanted to go for. For Barkley's rushing but you know his lines for me that 110 is pretty high.

[Alex Timms]

There is. There is a new feature on FanDuel I'm seeing for the super bowl. They're laying out it's called your way where you can actually set a player props line to like the exact yard you want. So say you want like 72. You can set that now the odds will change when if you know what the yards you want. But yeah to throw in your parlay. It's pretty interesting.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Barkley at +75 yards is 750.

[Alex Timms]

They don't want to get beat with him. They really don't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Denny Hamlin]

If he has 100 yards I think they win.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think they can still. I think Chiefs can still beat him. Oh yeah. I mean you know because he's. The thing about it is is like he's, he's bad to break off that 60 or 80 yard run and that'd be the bulk of his work. Right. Or, and I think he had a, against Washington, he had a little calf or a little, you know, kind of a lower leg concern, we'll say. And of course, when they get the big lead against Washington, he didn't play as much, but so it'll be interesting to see, I guess, how, how, how healthy he is.

[Denny Hamlin]

He does have long runs.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes, he does. And while that's awesome, if you're betting his line.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think Chiefs, I think, you know, even if he busts off a long.

[Denny Hamlin]

Run here, that's not healthy for the, the, the, you know, Eagles, they need a long drive, like steady.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The Eagles needs him to be like, you know, 7 here, 8 there, 9 there, 6 there, 10 there.

[Denny Hamlin]

Good news is he does that like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

To build his hunter, get his 110 yards that way.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

To keep their light, their drives alive. It's weird. He's so dominant and. But there'll be times when they don't just seem to utilize him as much as like you would lean on him as much as you'd think. But I'm curious, I'll be curious to see how the Chiefs game plan against him and, but I'm hesitant to like 80 yards. It seems like he should be able to get that, but totally be.

[Alex Timms]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Won't really be moving your overall parlay.

[Alex Timms]

Line on the counterpart. It's hard to imagine he's, he's not a big part of Philly's offensive game plan. I mean, you're not going to go against that. So, I mean, 80 is a good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Number, I think, but it's all right. All right, so I like our parlay, man. We're going to go with Juju over 16 and a half yards and then Jake Elliott over six and a half kicking points. Patrick Mahomes one and a half passing touchdowns over that. And then Barkley in the end zone. Even if Barkley doesn't get his 80, I see him scoring a touchdown one way or another. That man is not. He's been on a mission all year. Yeah, he's going to find the end zone. All right. Hey, Tim's, thanks for showing up, man. Appreciate you great information again. We'll dive more into Daytona in next week, I suppose. Yep. Gonna be a good year. All right. All right. It's time for the white flag. The teardown was live on YouTube from Bowman Gray after the clash. Breaking down the race, Gluck and Bianchi, man, they do such a great job. Love listening to their show, getting the instant reaction from, from what, you know, we watched as fans. And then on Monday, actions, detrimental drop. Denny had a good race going until eventually, you know, Chase and Ryan drove by. We're looking forward to how his 2025 season goes. New crew chief, a lot of things going on with him, obviously the, you know, the involvement that he has with his own team as an owner. It's gonna be fun to see how that season plays out. But the new look door bumper clear also dropped Monday, and Ryan Blaney joined the show. I actually sat on my couch last night with Amy and watched the entire show. Lot of fun. Really happy with this first show and I know they'll get their sea legs. And I thanked Ryan. I sent him a text for coming in and being our first guest for the new look door bumper clear. But I was. I thought. I thought the show was a lot of fun. Yeah, there's some good chemistry there. And again, I think they'll just continue to get better. Tommy was awesome.

[Denny Hamlin]

He's. Hey, he's wild.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. But he does. I mean, he's. He's got some great opinions and he's measured when he needs to be, but he's also very honest. But so I'm excited to have him as part of our team. I've always had a lot of respect for that guy. I've never really had a lot of time around him. So I'm thankful that maybe this partnership and him being part of the family, we'll get to get to know Tommy better. Tomorrow, my interview with Richard Childress drops. That was a great conversation I think you're going to want to listen to. And then Herman Schrader and the Speed Street Boys, they're at it again. That's also dropping Wednesday, and then Thursday we can finally talk about it. Bless your heart. Comes out. Amy joined me last season once a month. Well, we're tuning it up a little bit and we're turning it up. We got a brand new show every Thursday. You know, I'll be straight up, man. I'm not going to be asking Amy's opinion on who she. Who she thinks going to win this race or what she thought of the clash. We may talk racing because it's what my life is, but for the most part, I'm gonna tell. I'm kind of wanting to let her take the lead on this, and I want to spend the whole year, like, helping her or seeing her develop into the host that. That Brings us on air and it should be a lot of fun. So, you know, hopefully you'll. You'll give it a listen. I know we'll have a lot of people that'll tune in just because they've had a lot of fun listening to me and Amy over the past year. But it should also reach maybe a unique crowd that doesn't quite. Doesn't really listen to some of our other content. There's no race this weekend, but don't worry, we're going to have a full Dirty Air show on Tuesday as we dive deeper into the season and the upcoming Daytona 500. Can't wait to lay out our playoff predictions next Tuesday. Let's get all the predictions ready, Travis.

[TJ Majors]

Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Let's do a final four. You know, one thing I enjoyed the other day was doing the, you know, talking with Tim's about the over under on their own. The wind tunnels. Win. Win totals. Yeah, the win totals for some of the teams. And so that should be a lot of fun. Another thing that I would love to bring back is the immaculate grid.

[TJ Majors]

Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I know that that probably was a pain in the ass for Tim's to come up with back in the day, but those are pretty fun. And now that TJ's here, I think we could have some good times. I would probably take. I think I would probably take TJ to school, some of that stuff.

[TJ Majors]

Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The test is knowledge. But what do you think, tj? You ever done an immaculate grid, tj?

[Denny Hamlin]

No.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's freaking fun.

[Denny Hamlin]

I'm looking forward to know what they are now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Basically, there'll be like four teams here and. Or three teams or four and then four teams here. And you got to match the driver that drove for each team.

[Denny Hamlin]

How far are you going back?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, it's back.

[Denny Hamlin]

Oh, yeah. I mean, you get real far back, you're going to be.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

At least you'll get educated. You might not win, but you will get educated.

[Denny Hamlin]

It'll be a lesson.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. Anyways, we got. We're going to have a good year. Dirty Air, tj. I'm looking forward to it.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah, me too. Good. Hopefully the races are. I know they're going to be exciting and give us lots to talk about.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, for sure. All right, man. Have a good weekend, everybody. Enjoy the Super Bowl. And again tomorrow, guest interview, coming out with Richard Trillers and bless your heart. And then, yeah, we're going to check out the super bowl, see if our parlay wins. See y'all later.