"I Don't Want Carson to Change"

Summary

The Dale Jr. Download Episode: "I Don't Want Carson to Change" Release Date: June 3, 2025

Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s latest episode of The Dale Jr. Download dives deep into the intricacies of NASCAR racing, team dynamics, and the evolving strategies on the track. Hosted by Dale Jr. alongside co-hosts Tim and Russell from Racing Insights, this episode offers a comprehensive analysis of recent races, driver performances, and the passionate discourse surrounding aggressive racing styles.

Opening Remarks and Team Dynamics

The episode kicks off with Dale Jr. sharing personal updates, notably his current battle with a sinus infection after the Nashville race. This candid introduction sets the tone for a relaxed but insightful discussion. Dale Jr. provides an overview of the show's schedule, mentioning the absence of TJ due to a medical issue and emphasizing the collaborative environment of the broadcast booth.

Dale Jr. (00:43): "Our remote shows, I think last year we did A ton. I was here for, I think, eight straight weeks or some. Something like that."

Broadcast Insights: Russell’s One-Sheets

A significant portion of the conversation revolves around Russell’s role as the statistic guru from Racing Insights. Dale Jr. expresses both appreciation and mild frustration with the one-page driver sheets Russell provides. These sheets contain crucial stats and notes intended to aid in race commentary.

Dale Jr. (07:57): "He writes them out in such a way that you can't just say it exactly as it is on the paper in the broadcast... There's a couple, you know, seconds or so that are wasted."

Russell (09:56): "That's three different things you can get from that. You can pull three different ideas from that."

Despite the slight grumble, Dale Jr. underscores the value Russell brings to the broadcast, highlighting the importance of personalized commentary over direct reading from the sheets.

Race Analysis: Nashville Showdown

The heart of the episode centers on the contentious moment between Carson Hochevar and Ricky Stenhouse during the Nashville race. Dale Jr. delves into the implications of Carson's aggressive driving style, drawing parallels to his late father’s racing persona.

Dale Jr. (15:22): "Carson is like, wrap this up... aggressive style was something that endeared him to a lot of people and you can see that a lot of people enjoy that as well out of Carson."

Dale Jr. debates who was at fault in the rivalry, emphasizing Carson’s consistent aggressive tactics and Ricky Stenhouse’s underdog position within the playoffs. He appreciates Carson's persistence but acknowledges the challenges Ricky faces in maintaining playoff eligibility.

Russell (16:42): "He's way down the list. But his finishes are good. Exactly that."

Justin Allgaier Interview: Champion’s Perspective

The episode features an in-depth interview with Justin Allgaier, the winner of the recent Xfinity race. Justin reflects on his championship experience and how it has reshaped his approach to racing. He discusses his improved performance metrics, particularly his lower heart rate during races, signifying increased calmness and execution.

Justin Allgaier (39:13): "The championship definitely made a big difference as far as, you know, just how I feel in the race car."

Dale Jr. probes Justin about his recent decision to exit the race through the roof hatch, leading to a lighthearted exchange about racing etiquette and safety.

Dale Jr. (54:35): "Please don't come out of the roof."

Technical Talk: Horsepower in NASCAR

A substantial discussion unfolds around the potential increase in horsepower for short tracks, particularly Martinsville. Dale Jr. and Justin Allgaier explore the ramifications of boosting horsepower from the current 750 to potentially 850 or 900, debating its impact on racing dynamics and driver safety.

Dale Jr. (50:24): "I think that the change in horsepower would be minimal. It would make some small differences... probably a more entertaining experience in the car."

Justin Allgaier (51:59): "I believe in my mind, and I've had this conversation with Goodyear a lot... we have to make some changes that will, you know, hopefully open up the dialogue for what's next."

Both hosts agree that while the change is modest, it could enhance competitiveness and strategic maneuvers on the track, making races more thrilling for both drivers and fans.

Dirty Modo: Betting and Predictions

In the Dirty Modo segment, co-hosts Tim and Russell introduce their predictive model for upcoming races, focusing on Michigan International Speedway. They break down their predictions, highlighting favorite drivers and potential underdogs based on statistical analyses.

Russell (97:07): "So it's an advanced statistical model, which basically takes. We track every lap of every race... predicts a finishing order is how we do it."

Dale Jr. emphasizes responsible betting, framing their predictions as fun bets rather than financial strategies.

Dale Jr. (101:16): "If I was to place the bet, I wouldn't be betting more than that. It's just a fun bet."

Fan Engagement and Q&A

The episode also features listener interactions, where Dale Jr. answers questions about his favorite sports teams and reflects on his father’s athletic affiliations. He shares personal anecdotes about his family's support for the Atlanta Braves and his own favorites like the North Carolina Tar Heels.

Dale Jr. (84:28): "Obviously, I'm a big Commanders fan. And in college, Amy's a Wildcat, so she wants me to pull for Kentucky."

Upcoming Features and Closing Thoughts

As the episode wraps up, Dale Jr. previews upcoming segments, including an interview with filmmaker Ron Howard about the Becoming Earnhardt documentary series. He also hints at future episodes focusing on his father's early career, promising deeper insights into the legendary driver’s formative years.

Dale Jr. (105:40): "Becoming Earnhardt is returning... focusing on the 1980 cup season, it's Dad's first championship."

Notable Quotes

• Dale Jr. (00:00): "If I'm Ricky Stenhouse, it's absolutely personal... determined to either get himself into the playoffs or get redemption."

• Russell (11:00): "That's three different things you can get from that. You can pull three different ideas from that."

• Justin Allgaier (39:27): "Well, if I had a few more and we don't get all those cautions, I think it works..."

• Justin Allgaier (51:59): "Some of these tire failures are big failures... we need to make some changes to make the racing better."

• Dale Jr. (83:47): "I wouldn't see myself at this age as a very valuable part of any kind of a combination of drivers to be able to go out there and compete."

Conclusion

In this episode of The Dale Jr. Download, Dale Earnhardt Jr. effectively balances technical analysis with personal stories, creating a multifaceted narrative that resonates with both hardcore NASCAR fans and casual listeners. By addressing team strategies, driver dynamics, and engaging in thoughtful discussions about the sport’s future, Dale Jr. continues to provide valuable insights and entertaining commentary that keeps listeners coming back for more.

Transcript

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If I'm Ricky Stenhouse, it's absolutely personal. Ricky Stenhouse can go forward and if he doesn't make the playoffs, he can blame it on this moment. That's a serious situation for him, so I'm sure he's pretty determined to either get himself into the playoffs or get redemption.

[Commercial Voiceover]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Russell]

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[Travis]

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[Commercial Voiceover]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Your best man at your wedding.

[Tim]

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

[Commercial Voiceover]

Can you not tell I'm mentally ready?

[Travis]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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

[Travis]

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

[Commercial Voiceover]

I mean, what the do you want?

[Tim]

I I just think the last few laps it was just like stop every time you ain't.

[Travis]

You're picky.

[Commercial Voiceover]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

St Burger King. Travis is like, wrap this up.

[Commercial Voiceover]

They don't have no fun around here.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hey Everybody, it's Dale Jr. Back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. It's Tuesday, it's Dirty Air and I am not in the studio. Summertime, so taking a little opportunity to to skip down to the beach and you know, just enjoy a couple days down here. Be a little bit different than in years past. Working every weekend during the summer so I won't get down here and do a bunch of remote shows at this location. But our remote shows, I think last year we did A ton. I was here for, I think, eight straight weeks or some. Something like that. But anyhow, TJ's still out, but doing great. He should be back next week. I know everybody's probably worried about where he's been. He had a little medical issue. He took care of something, been bugging him and he's. He's gonna be great. We'll look forward to getting him back. I'm sure he's looking forward to getting back to the racetrack. And on top of the spotter stand. I came out of the Mission or came out of the Nashville race with a bit of a head cold. So kind of dealing with that yesterday was rough. Been taking a bunch of pain medicine and just trying to figure it out, man. You ever. Travis is here so we could talk a little bit. Travis. Travis. You ever done that? No. Vage thing?

[Tim]

I can't. I've seen it. I. I can't bring myself to be shooting water at my nose and stuff coming out the other nostril or whatever it is or.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It ain't. It ain't like that, buddy.

[Tim]

Well, what is it?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You can barely tell anything's happening. It's got a little reservoir of water on top. Then it cycles that through your nose and then it fills up this thing on the bottom, but so you can see where their eyes. That level of water going down. And so you know it's going through your nose. I don't know how far up in there it's doing, but I'm gonna tell you, man, I gotta give him a little credit, man. This thing clean you out, does it? Yeah, it kind of breaks it up a little bit. Keeps it from. So I think the worst thing about getting a sinus infection is so when you blow your nose, a lot of times you'll blow your nose and you'll kind of pinch the. The. Your nostrils and actually put. Create pressure. Back pressure. And so you kind of. You're getting. You're kind of blowing your nose, but you're also putting a bunch of that stuff further up in your sinuses. And then that stuff gets real hard and. And boy, that's when the headaches get unbearable. Late in the game.

[Tim]

Oh, you get those frontal migraines kill you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So that's what. It's all that goo getting up in there and getting solid, you know, and just becoming. Becoming difficult. And it's hard for that stuff to kind of come out. But I don't know, man. I use one. Amy. Amy and I like that thing. It works pretty good.

[Tim]

We gotta get you Gotta get you better. We. We got eight more races for you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I don't. It's odd to get a head cold in the middle of the summer. Usually that's kind of like a. For me, I get the colds when seasons change. So, like, when we go into fall, I'll get sick. Or when we come out of the winter and go into spring, like that abrupt sort of change. There's always kind of like a lot of. But there seems like there's stuff going around all year now. But I'm down here at the beach, and also down here at the beach is my pickle guy. And so y' all know, we talked. We talked about these bad boys. So I got me a whole case. I haven't even opened the lid yet. If Amy were able to be in my body for a day, she'd love opening this jar. Remember, she said that all she'd do is open jars. You remember that on. Bless your heart.

[Tim]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What the hell?

[Tim]

Hey, that's a struggle. Sometimes you gotta take, like, the knife on the butt and hit the jar. You ever do that?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Commercial Voiceover]

I got.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I take the jar. This is my trick to opening a jar. That's a little tough. And so I take, say, my hands, the counter. I take the jar and turn and tap.

[Tim]

Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Turn, tap, tap. Turn, tap, tap. And that just kind of busts that seal loose a little bit.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't open it up every time.

[Tim]

I guess I should formally issue you a. Congratulations.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, we don't have to talk about this. You don't want to?

[Tim]

Oh, no. I think you beat me in Xbox, ncaa, and the ACC championship game.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Next year's games, crossplay. I'm sure you're excited about that. You can go back to your PlayStation.

[Tim]

I am, but I can't blame that on the reason for me losing, though.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Unfortunately, the buttons are all a little different.

[Tim]

Yeah, but, I mean, none of the buttons were the reasons that I. I lost.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I just.

[Tim]

I got beat by a better team.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Charlotte is a great team.

[Tim]

I thought I had a chance.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You did. Your running back was. You had the ball with a tie game, I think. Two minutes.

[Tim]

No, fourth quarter.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Fourth quarter now.

[Tim]

Yeah. I was ahead, and you got to stop. It was 28. 28.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I thought that was the end of the third.

[Tim]

No.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Anyhow. All right, so our friend Russell is joined us here today. The Professor. Russell, appreciate you coming by. You're going to kind of fill in for tj. You feel okay about that?

[Russell]

Yeah, I think I can take his job.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No problem. So so Russell. A lot of people might not know who Russell is or what he does, but Russell owns or co owns Racing Insights and they are the sort of the. The stat gurus, the know the know it alls of of nascar. Like ESPN had stumped the Schwab. That's kind of what these guys are to nascar. They are in the booth with us every week helping us out to bring great information to the broadcast. So they live this. I mean, I don't know anyone that probably goes over the statistics and the ever changing evolution of statistics because drivers, you know, everything as they go through race by race, averages change, everything evolves and change. Drivers progress and regress and they're on top of all of that. So it's kind of great to have you as part of the show. We're going to have an allgaier call in winner of the Xfinity race this past weekend. So we'll have him here in a bit.

[Tim]

But Dale, I want to know you've. You've made complaints about Russell's 1 sheets and notes and stuff. Are they up to par this year? Where are we at with those?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'll just give Russell a hard time because. So I'm going to use this. So for qualifying, for example, I might use this. There'll be a sheet with each driver's name and a little bullet out to the right about that driver. And it's useful, really. It's probably the most. Maybe the most unique kind of stat or probably the most important stat for that moment. It's really. Every driver has like a stat that's probably the most important one or something really neat. So it's a really. It's a one pager and I have that in my hand in the booth. And maybe during qualifying or even during the race or even during driver intros, you're going to use those bullets. But he. But he writes them out in such a way that you can't just say it exactly as it is on the paper in the broadcast because that's absolutely how it's written down, is absolutely not how you would deliver the information to somebody if you were saying it. And so that's my only gripe. You could take basically most of them. You could take the phrase or whatever the stat is and just flip the words. Almost the opposite, kind of almost say the. Say it backwards, if you will. Read it backwards. And. And I could literally look at the page and read it right off the page and use it that way and be more convenient. But I have to read like we have to be so fast, because we're on this, you know, we cut to a car. He's, you know, all right, there he is. Ryan Blaney's driving around the racetrack. I don't know how long we're going to be on him. It's a great stat right here. I got. I've been wanting to use. I look at it, read it now I got to decide how I want to say it. And so there's about a. There's a couple, you know, seconds or so that are wasted.

[Russell]

Are you done?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

Okay, let me explain. So. So that's there for you to formulate your own opinion and your own way to say that. Oh, so everybody talks different. Like, you talk way different than Stevie, than Adam. Thank you, Marty Snyder.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think I talked the right way.

[Russell]

I'm not debating that. I'm just telling you differently.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, Yeah. I wish here we could pull one up. We tried to do this on the show.

[Russell]

Here we go.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't have it printed, but how convenient. Yeah, good for you. I'm giving you heart. I give Russell a hard time. I'll say this, man. The great thing about our booth and all the people that I work with in the broadcasting is they all have a great sense of humor and they don't mind getting a little every now and then because really, honestly, we're all there trying to make each other laugh and trying to make sure everybody's having a good time. And so nobody ever says any. My complaints about the. The one sheet or the one liners is just to. Just to have something to give Russell a hard time about. But.

[Tim]

So here is Ryan Blaney's from the one sheet, four top, four top fives and two DNFs in the last six races. Five DNFs this season is tied for most best. Nashville finish third, 2022.

[Russell]

So that's three different. Three different things you can get from that. You can pull three different ideas from that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I mean, the information is good. I would just. You're just so close to writing it out as someone might actually say it on a broadcast. Why don't you just kind of go the extra little bit? Little bit there?

[Russell]

I hope you notice this week I'm going to write it all out for you, Bull. Exactly how I think you would say it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Really? Everybody, is this going to be available?

[Russell]

No, this is a Dale sheet. I have one Dale sheet already that I do for you. This is going to be Dale sheet number two. This is Dale sheet.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Are you doing any extra Work.

[Russell]

No, it's not.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'll feel so bad.

[Russell]

No, you better read it. That's all I'll tell you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I will feel so bad. I don't like you doing extra word. Make me feel guilty.

[Russell]

No.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like I'm hard. Like I'm a pain in the ass.

[Russell]

No, you're not as bad as the one that stands to the right of you. For sure. That guy. That guy, the tart.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's good.

[Russell]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know how he has a lot to say, so I'm sure he keeps you pretty busy, to say the least.

[Russell]

I've talked to him three times this morning.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, golly. Well, we're going to get right into the. To the race, the cup race. Ryan Blaney was super fast in practice. I told all my friends that I thought he was the guy that's going to win. Use some unique strategies. So last year in the race, guys were pitting around lap 38. In that first stage, there was a little bit, maybe a little bit more tire fall off. And this particular weekend, there was hardly none. Blaney stayed out, continued to run top 10 or top 5 lap times all the way until the point he came to pit road. So he, he. That strategy kind of smoked him. And I mean, his car, the reason why he could do that is because his car was so good, everyone else didn't have that option because they didn't have that type of long run speed. And so, you know, it was just a matter. It's not so much that I'm that impressed with the strategy. He had the best car, just clearly had a very fast car, so he could almost run whatever strategy he wanted. He could dictate the race. That's my opinion. But, yeah, they took two tires a couple times to gain the track position, and, and just tires really didn't matter, which was kind of a surprise to me. They did change the left side tire a little bit. They were expecting it to have a little more wear, a little more grip, but I think they're so nervous about that asphalt or that concrete. The concrete's brushed, so it's almost like a sandpaper. I think they were just, you know, Goodyear so worried about that concrete every, you know, what happened at Richmond a couple of years ago, they just don't want to get a big surprise. And the unknown of what might happen if they go there with a softer tire. And so that tire is very conservative. And we had kind of a perfect storm. We raced late into the evening. It was much cooler than it was last year, and A lot of people, our pre race group, everyone was predicting that this race would eventually gravitate to the bottom of the racetrack and that's where everybody would finish the race. And that's what happened. And that's why nobody moved up to pass or make time because it was just slower to go that further distance around the racetrack. At the end of the night, two of the things that I wanted to get into real quick is a big deal. Carson Hochevar and Ricky Stenhouse. There's a lot of people with a lot of different opinions about this and it was even interesting to hear from the team owners at Spire. We had Jeff Dickerson on the door bumper clear yesterday and he, he took somewhat of a similar opinion that I had that Carson could have avoided it and not wrecked Ricky. That doesn't mean that Ricky was completely clean or absolved of any fault. I don't really know whose fault it was for them. You know, for. Was Ricky coming down to, you know, does, does Carson feel like that he had the spot or he had the lane and Ricky comes down, you know, it in a, in a way it's a bit similar to the 20 and the, and the 43. Erik Jones and C. Bell and I want to, I want to talk about that one as well. They're similar, but a little, little different as well. Carson, I even said it in a clip on Dirty Mo Media. I think that the guy reminds me of like a 1979 Dale Earnhardt. 1980 Dale Earnhardt fast, not scared to use a front bumper, doesn't care if somebody gets mad about it and on the verge of becoming a star. That's exactly how I saw dad around that time frame in his career. Off the track, what they like to do on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, they could be completely different people. But on the racetrack that's what I see out of Carson. And I say that to maybe encourage Carson to continue what he's doing because Dale Earnhardt ended up becoming a seven time champion and that aggressive style was something that endeared him to a lot of people and you can see that a lot of people enjoy that as well out of Carson. All right, so I don't know who was wrong about that thing down in turn three between Ricky and Carson, but I do know Carson had time to save Ricky's ass there and not wreck him. The other thing too is Ricky. You got the stats, Russell, on Ricky's performance this year in terms of just how he compares to the rest of the field in speed, pit crew, passing defense, all those Things. He's way down the list.

[Russell]

Yeah. Way down the list. But his, his finishes are good. Like, exactly that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Yeah. So Ricky is doing a lot with a lot less. It's a one car team. I don't know what their association or alliance might be with any other programs that actually benefits them and how they benefit from that. But look, I do know this. The car. The car finishes better than it should. Ricky has maxed them, maximized basically almost every race this year to put himself above the cut line going in in Nashville. I mean, this guy's got a legit shot at making the playoffs on points with a team that should not be there.

[Justin Allgaier]

Yeah.

[Russell]

He's like outside the top 30 in speed this year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So he should be 25th in points with no shot at making the playoffs. But here he was coming in ahead of the cut line. If you like an underdog story, that's a perfect one for you. So he goes into this race and he's out there and maybe the reason, you know, maybe the reason why he's having this type of a year is because he crowds guys on entry to three or whatever. Right. If you want to look at it at it that way. Well, he crowded the wrong guy. We know how Carson Hosvar is going to handle that, and that's what happened. I hated to see Ricky, who is a. That's a. I'm a broadcaster. I need that storyline, that story about Ricky, you know, being that underdog team that's succeeding, that's up there above the bubble line, that need that and I like that as a fan, to have some kind of an underdog story among others to talk about. Now that's gone. Now he's below the cut line and his odds of making it are much more difficult. So that's kind of how I felt about that. Like, man, Carson, but car, you know, Carson is also one of those drivers around that cut line that doesn't care that that Ricky Stenhouse lost a ton, tons of, ton of points there. That's. That's one more guy. That's one more guy he's trying to beat into that playoff position.

[Tim]

So why do you think we, you know, you talked about your dad and everyone, you know, celebrates his racing style, but the second that Ross Chestnor Carson does it, they get crucified. Is it because they're just. They're not winning or why is it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Dude, I'm not seeing that. I'm not seeing Carson get crucified. If anything, I would say if anything, I'm seeing More people disagree with my point that he should have gave Ricky the benefit of the doubt or cut Ricky a break in that moment. We're not. No one is crucifying Carson. Everybody's saying, F. Stenhouse, go, Carson, keep doing it. Don't change the thing. That's what the fans are saying. To me, that's what I see on social media, on Reddit, is this sort of, hey, man, I don't want Carson to change. I like what he's doing. I don't think he did anything wrong at Nashville. I don't think he needs to cut Ricky a break. I need my drive. I need, you know, they're all, all these people are starting to gravitate toward him. It's really fascinating because not two years ago, maybe inside of two years, he was, you know, he was a. He was a poster child for what not to do, you know, and there's been a lot of scenarios where he's made some choices that were not great choices. And source, he's, you know, he's heard all about those and he continues to hang on to this style or this character or this type of, you know, decision making. And I believe that that's always going to be sort of part of his DNA. But I think that people like it. The majority of people don't have no problem with what happened in Nashville, and at least that's how I felt about it. Did you guys see a different temperature on the, on the comments and reaction?

[Russell]

I think from the, the inside the industry, I think people were more upset with Carson Hosovar. I think outside the industry, fans love it, love it. So. And it's just like your dad, right? Like, they criticized your dad a little.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Bit for his industry. Wasn't a big.

[Russell]

Yeah, but the fans loved him.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're right. So if you.

[Russell]

I think it's a great analogy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If you go back to 79, all the way up to about 87 ever. Most of the guys in the garage had a very frustrated disposition with dad about, you know, the things he did on the racetrack and how he choose to. Drove. Choose to drive. And you didn't know when he was coming around you or near you, whether you were going to get some of that or not on the racetrack. And you. That, that, that unknown of what this guy might do or might not do was. Was difficult and made your day harder. So, yeah, there's some similarities there. And I was just, and I said it on the post race, I was like, man, I don't. I like the, I like the contact I like the aggression. I just wish you wouldn't spin out the good guy. And everybody's opinion of who the good guy is is different. I've had some. I've had a great friendship with Ricky Stenhouse, and, you know, there's a Ricky Stenhouse, the race car driver is one person. Ricky Stenhouse, the individual that I know is a really good dude. And, you know, what he does on the racetrack is another conversation because Ricky's made some questionable decisions as well and done some things that are kind of goofy, but.

[Russell]

Yeah, but he's been much better lately. Right? Like, I feel like the last couple of years, he's changed.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, he's put together a hell of a year and think about it, too, man, the things that Ricky has done on the track, I mean, he's having to overdrive the out of that thing to get anything out of it. He is. He's probably racing harder than anyone else on the racetrack. And, you know, if you took it over an average, what he's having to do to try to get something out of that program he's with is pretty. Pretty impressive. So I think we just kind of got to look at the whole big picture here, and I don't want. I don't expect Carson to really change. I text him after the race. I said, hey, man, I got a little hard on you, you know, about the, you know, the Stenhouse deal. Just got a job to do. And I've decided in this go round with my broadcasting to be more decisive. Even if I feel like I'm taking a risk of being wrong, I'm gonna try to be more decisive in that moment of saying I think this, I think that instead of sort of dancing around the bush, you know, And I love that.

[Russell]

I love that. I've noticed that, too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I think that when I was working with NBC, that was kind of one of the consistent critiques from our bosses, was everybody needs to be more decisive and choose what they believe is. Is happening or happened. And so, you know, it's nice to be able to get a lot of looks at a replay. But in that booth during the broadcast, we only get one or two looks at it. We got to make a decision who's at fault? Who do we feel, what we feel like should have happened or could have happened. And then you go home, you read all everybody else says about it. Not so much critiquing your own opinion, but just you hear all the other opinions. Right. Jeff Dickerson had one. Everybody else has got an opinion about it and then you get a chance to look at the replay several more times and you might change or soften up your stance a little bit. But.

[Russell]

Yeah, but the big difference is they have time to think about that. You don't have that time. Like your opinion's right then. Right then. And that's it.

[Tim]

You. You called Carson when he's in the truck series about his racing. Do you think his truck style racing is being grouped together with some of the stuff now? And it maybe should be. He shouldn't be. That stuff shouldn't be grouped together when he does make a mistake.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah. So should we hold him accountable because of his past trends?

[Tim]

Because I don't think it's the same. Do you?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Is that the right word? It is.

[Russell]

It is.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Russell loves it when I use big words for the first time.

[Russell]

You had one during the broadcast. I can't remember what it was. But Stevie, Stevie pressed the cough button and he goes, did he just say that? And I wish I remember what it was. I should have wrote it down.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, did I say it right? But it was.

[Russell]

No, it was perfectly used. I think he was super impressed. He's like, I would never use that, but I can't believe he used to use that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, well, hey, I'm growing. That's a great question, Travis, about should we let bygones be bygones? I don't think you can. Because listen, now you can say, hey, this guy's changed, which I believe he's evolved a little bit. He was very problematic in the truck series. Quite problematic. That's the best way I can. Nicest way I can put it. I think he's improved some. He knows that some of that stuff he's just not going to get away with in the cup series. And this car is harder to drive into the back of somebody with it because it needs all that clean air on the nose. But. So I, you know, but I do think you have to always kind of look at it from a career, you know, look at it and say, hey, man. Yep. You. You're still kind of making some of these same errors and. Or, you know, that's. I don't think you can forget or forgive the past entirely. It's part of the conversation now. I'm not going to hold him. I'm not. He's. He's served his. He's served his punishment for those things he's done in the past. But it still has to be talked about when you're. When you're discussing what's happening Today.

[Russell]

So do you think this week is different because he came back to finish second? Like, if he would have finished 25th, we'd be having a different conversation.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Sure. Yeah. That's the thing. Like, you know, that's. That's where you can feel more comfortable comparing him to dad because he got the result. You know, he's got the aggression and the results to back it up. Yeah, what he's doing, what he's done in just the last two weeks. But, you know, we. When he got in this car at St. Louis, that spire car was 25th to 30th, and he got. Got in that car and ran in the top. I think he's running 16th when the brake failed into turn one. I mean, I don't know what you. I don't know what everybody else is sitting there thinking, but I'm sitting there going, holy, man. He's improved this car by at least 10 positions, and that's very Kurt Busch. Like Carson, maybe, at least in this short period of time from what we've seen in the trucks, Xfinity, or the cup car. I think that he does race above the potential of the car all the time. There are very few drivers in the entire history of the sport that do that. The really great drivers take a car that can run second, and they run second, and they might win a few races, but they run where that car should run. That's what great drivers do. There's some that are elite, like Kurt Busch, that. That could get in a car and make that car much better than it was capable of running and just all the time, just faster. Every time you went to a different team, Kurt Busch would make that team better immediately. They'd start running better, and they'd start progressing and getting even better week in and week out until he moved on to a new program. But just Carson's going to be fun to figure out. It's still kind of the Rubik's cube that we're not quite finished with yet, and it's looking like we know how to get this thing all lined up, and we can sort of see what we think he might be and become. But there's. The jury's still out on a couple things, but, I mean, he is on his way. I told him after the race, I said, you're gonna win a ton of races. I was like, you know, I think the world of you and your talent, you know, but there'll be times in that booth when, you know, I'm just gonna have to say, you know, call it Like I think I see it and some drivers do not like that. My buddy Martin Truex Jr. Just gets so annoyed with me. I couldn't really tell though because he hardly communicated either way. But it was, you know, we would have some conversations. He's like, man, why'd you say that? I'm like, well I gotta, you know, that's kind of what's happening right now with you. But some guys don't mind it and some guys do. But Carson's response to all of that was I'm just glad you're talking about me. And I kind of wanted to use that reference that dad said many years ago. They need to either be cheering you or booing you. When they don't, when they, when you get up there and they don't do anything, you're in big trouble. And so you got to be a driver that's making a, getting a reaction from fans to have real connect, real value to the sport and the industry and your partners.

[Tim]

I'll be curious to see if Ricky repays the favor at some point because Denny said it's going to take self policing to. That's what's going to have to, you know, take fix Carson.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I love that you know it. This isn't any fun at all if it's all one sided. And so yeah, we'll, we'll pay attention a little bit to what, what's going on over the next couple of races with Ricky and how he might make things a little difficult for Carson.

[Tim]

It'll be great because in the booth if you see them next to each other, you're going to show them and now the fans are going to want to see.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Absolutely.

[Russell]

And the other thing is they're running. They're 18th and 19th in the playoff standings. Yeah, like two points apart.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh yeah. And the reason why is because of what happened in Nashville. So it's real personal now if I'm Ricky Stenhouse, it's absolutely personal because I had, in my eyes I had really been fortunate. And if you, you know, Ricky Stenhouse can go forward and if he doesn't make the playoffs he can blame it on this moment. And so that's, that's serious, that's a serious situation for him. So I'm sure he's pretty determined to, to either get himself into the playoffs or, or get redemption on the reason or the person that caused him to miss it.

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[Tim]

Hey TJ so recently been having some issues with my phone and I don't know what to do. I'm trying to figure out a solution for my problem. Do you got any ideas?

[Travis]

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[Tim]

So my one concern though is I do a lot of traveling though. How's it going to do on the road for me?

[Travis]

You know obviously I go to the track every week with the RFK6 team and man am I impressed. I super surprised at the how just reliable it's been man. It's been really cool and super glad that I made the switch.

[Tim]

Okay, so then can you stop keeping this to yourself and let me know how I can get the cell phone.

[Travis]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The other crash that a lot of people were comparing this to, I saw some comments from people who wanted, you know, you had that opinion about Carson, but you didn't have the same opinion about Erik Jones. And they go down in the corner. It was just after a restart. Cars are all bunched together. There's absolutely no passing at that racetrack after about four or five laps of. Of a restart. So the drivers know that and they know that the only opportunity they're ever going to have to get some track position is in those probably five or six corners after a restart. So it's a frenzy. So Erik Jones is like sitting there with a, you know, having one of the better nights that he's had all year. And he's running really good. Got a. He's gets a run off a turn for. Goes to the inside of the 20 and the. @ the flag stand, he's on the inside of the 20 car. Somewhere around that area on the racetrack, Seabel blocks him all the way to the apron. And what car is C. Bell driving in this scenario? That's his old car. That's Eric's old car. You don't think that Eric's still a little. That still stings a little bit. And Erik Jones is probably sitting there going, hey, man, you're driving my old car. I don't get to run up here that often. You ain't blocking me into this corner. That's bull. And so Eric stayed in the gas and entered turn one super duper shallow because he was forced down there. But he's not going to give up that position he has on the quarter panel of the 20. And they go down in there and you know, Eric may have missed the corner and. But anyway, either way, Eric gets up the track, 20 gets wrecked. But I'm gonna tell you right now, man, the 20. Chris Rebel. If I. So there was a couple times in my career where I got wrecked in my mind. And I'd see Tony Senior, race is still going. We're in the garage, cars tore out. All the hell I'd go over Tony Senior and I'm thinking I'm going to walk up to him and go. And he's going to go, f that guy for wrecking you. And I walk up to him and he goes, what the hell are you thinking running on the door of that guy or running so. Running so tight on him? Or, you know, he was like, you could have avoided that, you know, you should have known better. And I think that's what I would do. In this case is. I would go. If I had them both sitting here, I'd look at. Instead of Erik Jones, I'd look at cbel and go, damn, dude, what'd you expect me to do? You're driving his old car. He's still a little pissed off about that. And you blocked him to the apron. What. What do you want him to do? He's not. He ain't in the top. He's running the top five once every 15 races.

[Russell]

Yeah, I saw that as more of a racing deal than the host of our one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I didn't. So. Well, the hosts of our deal was more racing to me. This Jones is on the inside. Got blocked the apron and we had a lot of time to sit there and watch him decide not to let the 20 live. Jones had more time in my mind, milliseconds, but more time to make a Make. Make a different decision. Right.

[Russell]

Is it different racing for fifth than it is for 17th? So that's the. Jones was racing for fifth.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not really. And no, not anymore. There it's. It's the racing in the back half of the field's harder than it is in the front. In my mind, there's more give and take, I think, in the top 10 because they all know they need to live to finish. Guys in the back are just trying to survive. They're starving. But it was. That's the difference between those two accidents. To a fan, they look similar. Why wouldn't you, you know, why would you say, hey, Carson, you could have cut him a break and not Jones? You know, that's the reason. There's a long history between Jones and that 20 car that all plays in. Kind of plays into a little bit. Jones won't admit that. Of course he won't. He didn't. He's not going to come out publicly and go, you know, I'm still a little annoyed by that. He's, you know, that was years ago, but I'd have to imagine if I was driving down the front straightaway and my old race car tried to run me down into the apron, I'd be. I'd have a hard time to be restrained about that.

[Commercial Voiceover]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, so we have been joined by the winner of the xfinity race this past weekend, Justin Allgire. Obviously, you know, driving for junior motorsports, it's awesome to have you as part of the team. And I gotta ask you. I get this question. We've had some success this year. We've had a lot of success, actually, since you won your championship. I've got to ask the question that I have to seem seemingly answer after every one of those wins, because I've been talking for you. But you can tell me here. Now that you got a championship in your pocket, it's yours. You're not chasing that anymore. Do you feel like that it's made it easier for you to put races together because you are the king of winning both stages and then something happening in the final stage, like, you. You'll win more damn stages than anybody. You'll go down in history. And the xfinity series is a winning more stage stages than anyone. But it seems like now you don't have those issues anymore. You don't have those problematic, you know, mishaps or bad luck or whatever you want to chalk it up to in the third stage. And it just seems like it's just more. It's not effortless because racing is hard, but I just kind of wanted you to talk to that a little bit.

[Justin Allgaier]

I still screwed it up in Charlotte because I. I chose to make a different pit strategy. But I don't feel like that was a mistake, like. Like what you're talking about, right? Like, it wasn't. I put myself in a bad position and got myself wrecked or something along those lines.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But.

[Justin Allgaier]

So to answer your question, yes, you know, the championship definitely made a big difference as far as, you know, just how I feel in the race car, you know, what I'm trying to accomplish in a race car. But probably more than anything, the championship race last year, right, like, we're down almost two laps, like, backs against the wall. You just. You're over it, right? Like, I wanted no part of the rest of that race. I just wanted to get out of the car and get to the rental car and get to the airport and just, you know, at that point, you know, Ashley and the kids are there and, like, they're excited. You know, you got a shot at a championship. And you just. You're like, man, I'm a failure all the way through, right? Like, there's nothing about this week that that is going right? And then when we win the championship and I look back on and I go, man, I don't know that I could ask for it to. To be scripted any better of how you come back and win A championship. The only way it maybe is a little bit better is if I win the race, Right? Like, that's the only. That's the only thing that maybe makes it better.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But I don't even remember that we didn't win the race.

[Justin Allgaier]

My wife didn't either. She asked me where the checkered flag was.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know in my mind, we did win the race. I just kept you. Every time somebody tells me, oh, yeah, y' all didn't win that race, I'm like, well, we didn't. Oh, yeah.

[Justin Allgaier]

But it. I think just, in my opinion, it's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Gotta be weird for the guy that did win it. Who won.

[Justin Allgaier]

Riley, Who?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, brother.

[Justin Allgaier]

Yes. See, that's the thing, right? But. But I will say, like, I, I, I just. I'm in a different place, right? I, I just. I think I'm able to relax a lot more in these races, Oddly enough, my heart rate. So, like, you know, I track. Not on this watch, but I track my heart rate during the races. My heart rate as a whole this year has just been lower, especially third stage. And I think that that's just adding to that just calmness, you know, and being able to execute.

[Commercial Voiceover]

I feel like it makes you even.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

More dangerous to the rest of the field because, yeah, you. You've raced your entire career almost a bit. Almost a bit over your skis all the time, Right. And you're just such a hustler and a pusher, and Gator is a great nickname for you, but now it seems like you're perfectly positioned on those skis. You, You. You don't drive over what you're capable of doing or what the car's capable of doing quite as often. You still hustle. You still do great on restarts and get. You know, you're aggressive, but your confidence is higher. The one thing, I guess we do need to go back to Charlotte so we can laugh about it now. The decision to stay out was yours. You made it.

[Justin Allgaier]

Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And what was the conversation like after the race with Jim, your crew chief?

[Justin Allgaier]

Well, you know Jim, Right. Jim is probably the most passionate person I've ever been a part of in the sport. I mean, I'm like, there are probably not many more people that I think. I don't think people realize how passionate he is about the sport and effort and money puts into it. And it did not go at all the way that I thought that the conversation was gonna go. Yes, he and Eddie and I. Eddie de Haunt, my spotter. We all had sat down and had a conversation, and they're like, look, obviously we wanted the call to work out, right. But don't be afraid to make calls or decisions in the driver's seat because you're. You're driving it. You're seeing everything that's going on. And. And, you know, I think the Charlotte decision was a little bit of. A little bit of a lot of things that kind of merged into one. Right. I had a little bit of a misunderstanding on how many laps were to go. I was under the impression we were gonna have 12 or 13 to go when the green flag came out, not 20. So that. That would have probably have swayed my decision a little bit more. But the biggest thing is I saw some cars hedging to stay out. I knew some guys were out of tires, and I just felt like, as the leader, we were a sitting duck. Right. We were going to. The other cars were going to do the opposite of what we did. And actually, Taylor Gray and I had this conversation on the. On the. The stand this week at driver introductions, and he's like, man, we were just doing opposite of you. Right. Whatever you did, we were doing the opposite of. So he's like, thank you for making my decision easy because. Right. But I just think, you know, in the xfinity series, especially a cup side, I think it's. It. You're going to see a lot of two tires. You're going to see, you know, you're going to see. Everybody's going to come to pit road, though, on the xfinity series side. I feel like you get a handful of cars that are maybe having a really good day, feel like maybe they can hold off, you know, and. And. And net a better finish, and we saw that, too. Right. I think Jeb stayed out. There were a few guys that were not, you know, not at the back of the pack, but they were, you know, middle of. Middle of that top 10, top 15 range that stayed out. It just wasn't enough. Right. If I had a few more and we don't get all those cautions, I think it works, but, you know, I. I'll own it. Right. I think we, as drivers, we all make decisions sometimes and make mistakes that don't work, and that was definitely one of them that. That I'm going to live with.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What's the, you know, gut feeling as the season rolls on toward the playoffs? Where. Where do you guys need to get better and what are you looking forward to? You got Mexico coming up. A bunch of different things happening throughout the year.

[Justin Allgaier]

Yeah, I'm looking forward to the summer Months. I, I feel like it's not nearly as hot as what we're used to at this time of the year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You jinxed it.

[Justin Allgaier]

Yeah, I know. I, I feel like that's where we've been the best. Like, as a group, we're the best. When tracks are hot and it's slick and, you know, guys are falling out of the seat. So I'm a little bit sad that the weather's been cool. And I know that sounds crazy because I know Nashville was like the perfect weather for the fans. So I don't, I don't want the fans to have a bad experience. But, you know, I think I'm gonna definitely lean on our teammates a lot for this, these coming up races. We got some road courses coming up. Obviously, Connor has had a lot of success in the road courses, but I look at Cota, Carson was right there with him, and arguably, if they don't get the flat tire, they're battling it out for the win. So, you know, I'm going to lean on my teammates a lot for, for these upcoming road courses. And then I just feel like we got a lot of really good tracks. You know, we need to get more bonus points in the, in the bank for playoffs, and we do all those things. I think we're, I think we're on the right, right plan.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

While we have you here, I guess you might be able to actually add a little bit to this conversation if you got a minute. Yeah, there's a, you know, there's a conversation, and I'm asking you because you do test for Chevrolet with the next gen car. Yep. You have for years. So you do have some insight on that car. Talking about 750 horsepower coming to short tracks. I don't want people to think that this is an all encompassing decision to go everywhere, but Elton Sawyer said on Tuesday on Sirius XM NASCAR radio that it's on the table. They're working closely with the industry to consider how they might be able to get there. Drivers have been begging for more horsepower. They want as much as 850, 900 horsepower back in the cars. Take me to Martinsville. Let's just think about Martinsville. In my opinion, the Martinsville product should be always insanely entertaining. And there was a little run there. If we go back to, say, the race where Hamlin and, and Chase Elliott got into it, I left that race, I left the broadcast booth thinking that if we could bottle that up every weekend and sell it, that we'd be exactly where we want to be as a sport. Because it was fascinating. And so that's what the potential is for Martinsville. Does this get us closer?

[Justin Allgaier]

I hope so. You know, I think that, I think that there's a lot of things that play into the horsepower conversation. You know, look, the era that you're talking about, right? Chase and Denny getting into it, they weren't, they weren't able to go to, to fourth gear, right, or to third gear at that racetrack. They weren't able to downshift and get that torque off the bottom of the corner. They weren't able to use that as a, as a tool throughout the course of their, their runs. Now, my hope is, is when you add horsepower, you take the ability to downshift away, right? If that next lower gear spins the tires because you have all this horsepower now, you're going to question like, okay, short run maybe for a few laps and the tires are good. I can, I can clip that thing down into third gear and, and I can accelerate off the corner. But when I get to 40, 50, 60 laps into a run, which we see at Martinsville a lot now, I might need to stay in fourth gear so that it doesn't spin the tires off the corner. And how much did I burn the tires up on the short run versus on the long run? But I believe in my mind, and I've had this conversation with Goodyear a lot, and it's not just as easy as putting a soft tire on the Cup Series car, right? The wider tire with the shorter sidewall, there are bigger constraints for them as to making a tire that's not just going to fail, Right. I mean, when we see some of these tire failures, it's, they're big failures, right? And it's, it's team induced. We know lower air pressure works. I mean, we always laugh because lower air and more camber always makes the car feel better. But that doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to live. And, and I think that I'm at least applauding that we're trying something. I feel like we've, we've sat in this box for a long time now with this next gen car, and we've been unwilling to waver from the box because that's, that's the product that we made and we're going to stick with it. And I think sometimes we need to make these changes that will, you know, hopefully open up the dialogue for what's next. If we go to 750 and we have no engine issues in the, in the, you know, OEs and the the engine builders say, hey, we could go to 800 pretty easily that now we're, now we're having more fruitful conversations. Right. And to your point, I've heard Doug's conversation. Scotty Maxim was on Sirius from Hendrick into Shop. And he, he said the same, right. 750 is no issue. We can, we can do this and it's, it's not going to be a problem. So I'm all for it as a driver, secretly, secretly hoping that that 750 trickles over to the Xfinity side as well. Like, I'm, I'm kind of begging for it as well. But either way, it's going to be, it's going to be great for the sport, I think. And yeah, would I like to see 900, yes, I would. But at this point, the cars are too good, the drivers too good, and the teams are too good to not make some kind of a change, to try to make the racing better. Because if you don't change it, we're going to have, it's just going to degrade over time more and more because the teams are just going to figure out how to, how to capitalize on it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think that Michael McDowell is, is correct in that horsepower isn't. The horsepower isn't what's wrong with this race car. And this is a very small change. And it might visually look exactly the same as what we see today in terms, if we just go to Martinsville and do this. I know there's a couple other short tracks, but let's just focus on one thing, right? The. It may not, it may be very marginal, what this does, but here's, here's what horsepower I know can do. All right, It'll be a little tougher on the tires. There's a hope that that would make things a little more difficult for the drivers, to your point. Maybe be able to, you know, have a little bit more of an opportunity to get to work around each other and get up underneath each other off the corner, stuff like that. If somebody's struggling, it'll lengthen the braking zone a little bit, so you'll be going a little bit faster at the end of the straightaway. Need to brake a little sooner. Longer braking zone. This car's brakes and this tire in the contact patch have really shortened up the braking zone. So a driver's ability to attack another driver and do something creative on the entry of the corner is gone. And so I just feel like that for the short track racing, it's, it's worth the gamble or worth the risk to make. To make the change.

[Justin Allgaier]

Well, I'm going to put it. I'm going to inverse you a little bit. Let's go to Phoenix, right? Like, let's take the opposite end of the short track spectrum and go to Phoenix. Think about all the things you just said, right? Longer braking zones at Phoenix. Tire spin off of the corners at Phoenix. I think it, I think it elevates a track like that more than it does a Martinsville, which is interesting because you would think adding horsepower, a place like Martinsville is going to be the place that it's going to fix first. And, and I, I almost think it's going to be the other way. I think. I think we're gonna steadily have to back it down, you know, over. You know, the bigger the short track is, the more it's going to affect it and back down. But one other thing to add to your point here, and, and I. You just brought up a good point that I thought about. Think about. When you started your NASCAR journey, you had to save breaks. If you just max break every time you got into the corner about lap 75, the rotors were glowing and you were like, I got no brakes. Brake pedal, right. The body. If you run right in the guy in front of you and plow in the back of him, the fenders are all smashed in it and you got nothing. Right? You're just hanging on. We don't have any of that now. There is no fall off. The parts are efficient. Like, there's no way to. The only way you got to be able to pass a guy is to run into them and then you don't damage your car. So as long as you don't wreck them, it's fair play, right?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I feel like that, you know, the, the, the change in horsepower would be minimal. It would make some small differences that maybe the eye. It would. The eye wouldn't. You know, the optics won't look really that different, but the, the drivers will have. Have probably a more entertaining experience in the car, and I don't think it's going to hurt anything at all to do it. So it's, It's. It's definitely worth the risk. Man. I appreciate you giving us a little extra time.

[Tim]

I have one question for Justin. We saw him get out of the Hellman's car through the, through the roof hatch not a week after Dale says if you get out of the roof hatch, he assumes you're cheating. Did you know that he said that, Justin? Did you. Are you trolling him.

[Justin Allgaier]

I did not. And the best part was I've been getting out of the roof for like the last three or four years. And Dale sent the clip from the. The. The podcast to Jim Pin and I. And. And I don't remember. Jim said something back and I was like, man, I'll begin out. And he said, I said what I said and I just laughed.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right. Yeah.

[Justin Allgaier]

I don't know. I don't know that you could cheat up in xfinity series.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Just stop right there.

[Justin Allgaier]

Oh, I really don't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Know.

[Justin Allgaier]

The way that they have them now on this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I will tell you, there's ways to cheat up anything.

[Justin Allgaier]

Well, I don't. I don't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We are not.

[Justin Allgaier]

I can assure you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I agree. Hey, I don't think you. I'm. Let's. Anytime anybody comes out the roof hatch and I will. I will fine tune it a little bit. Particularly a speedway. Yes.

[Justin Allgaier]

Okay. I'll give you that one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, boy. I get pretty. My.

[Justin Allgaier]

But I went to speedway. This year, I'm gonna have to change my celebration.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Please don't come out of the roof.

[Justin Allgaier]

I will not come out of the.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Roof, but I might have to call you out.

[Justin Allgaier]

My response. My response as to why I get out of the roof is because my old knees, it's way easier to go straight up and down than it is to stand on the door top.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I wouldn't even know how to open one of them damn things up.

[Justin Allgaier]

Oh, you. They're so easy now. Literally, you just grab the front little latch and it just pops right straight up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Spring loaded.

[Justin Allgaier]

It's spring loaded, not badam. So, I mean, you're good to go.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Cheaters, cheaters. I'm suspicious even of us.

[Justin Allgaier]

All right, well, then I'm going to go win a race and not get out of the roof hatch and be like, I told you, Dale, we weren't cheating.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Do it.

[Justin Allgaier]

All right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, buddy. I appreciate you coming on today. Thanks a lot.

[Justin Allgaier]

Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.

[Commercial Voiceover]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You believe that?

[Travis]

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

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[Tim]

The sun hoodie I've been using recently outside when I'm mowing my lawn, not trying to get sunburn out there. The best part, how light it is. Long sleeves but you're not really getting sweaty.

[Travis]

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[Russell]

So Justin's down 9th all time in Xfinity wins. He's. He's not. Next is Matt Kenseth at 29. Then Logano is seventh all time at 30 and Jack Ingram sixth. 31 wins. So he can.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He can easily get there. I like it.

[Russell]

Think about that. Well, and you're not far from 100.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, at Junior Motorsports.

[Tim]

How many do Junior Motorsports have?

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Damn.

[Tim]

Let's get through this year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, that'll be a big deal. Kelly will want to feed us some barbecue for that one.

[Tim]

We got. We got a beer toast today.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Deal.

[Tim]

You're missing out on all.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Dang. You're gonna have to get and speak. Yeah.

[Tim]

Guys, give me the mic here. Speak on behalf of Dale.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So do we want to talk about the Jim France Spire situation?

[Tim]

Let's do it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Apparently France was set to financially support an entry to be operated by Spire Motorsports. There was a 29 year old road course specialist, Jack Aitken. I'm assuming that's how I say that I've never heard of that guy. He drives for a France, a Jim France owned not the country. Action Express. Yes, I've heard of Action Express on the International Motorsports Association, IMSA on the sports car series. He was tapped to be the driver of this car that Spire Motorsports would operate. Originally Jim France went to Hendrick but they have only. They have four charters so they couldn't do it, I suppose. Well, you know, I, I think there.

[Tim]

Needs to be a separation of church and state.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, the Junior Motorsports owns a car that's in the car store, and I own half of the part of the car store. So does CAT level. At what level is it okay? And what level is it not okay? I guess at the highest level. Like, I could understand your point that Jim France or NASCAR shouldn't be involved in owning a car that's competing.

[Tim]

Like, we're seeing this over in IndyCar, the issues that they're dealing with.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I would think that Jim France. So this all probably came. Think about this, too. This all was being this. This idea of Jim France getting inspired to do this deal so he could run this driver. All of this has been probably worked on for a month, two months, maybe more. And so they were probably planning this. Maybe they saw what went down at Indy and had second thoughts. I'm certain that they saw what went down at Indy and thought, let's rethink this. Should we do this? Should we not? And I agree. I mean, it's problematic at Indy at that level. Right? It's problematic. It's a. It's a tough. It's a tough thing to navigate where Penske is competing, but also owner of the series. So the thing about Roger Pinsky is, is that he has so much respect amongst the industry. And this is. This is not a great time in the industry for GM with the lawsuit, if this. Let me ask you this. Does this. Is this a problem for the sport at all, or is this an issue? If everybody, the industry leaders and the charter owners all thought everything was going perfectly, would they mind then if Jim ran an open car with this guy through Spire? Probably not. Probably not. And I think that's why. That's why Roger Penske's been able to get to this point, at least without issue. Now, Indy, they've, you know, at the 500, they had a lot of problems, and now it doesn't look like it's such a, you know, now. Now it's created a lot of tough conversations for. For that.

[Tim]

But I think also for the Toyota and Ford teams, you had NASCAR team up with Hendrick and Chevy for the Garage 56 project.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tim]

And now you have him doing this. And so Toyota and Ford are probably going, what the hell?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah. I mean, Toyota and Ford are always going to be looking for something to complain about, but they would have.

[Tim]

They probably would have done the deal had he gone to them, too. So it's, you know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But yeah, they should have.

[Tim]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You think they were gonna. Oh, so you're telling me that. You know, I guess what you're saying to me is that if Jim France had went to another Toyota team or another four team, they would have accepted that opportunity.

[Tim]

Yeah. If he gone to Legacy, Legacy probably.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Would have said, why are they complaining?

[Tim]

Because it's not for them. So you can not saying they're right or wrong, but I'm just.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I think it's kind of. I wouldn't necessarily think it's a good thing to. I think it's. That's the type of thing for me that needs to be grandfathered in. That's one of those things. It's kind of like the four charters versus teams now can only have three. Had Jim France and his family owned cars for all of these decades of nascar, then it would, you know, you grandfather that in and if that ever ended, we would just be done with it. But at this point, it just doesn't seem like it's very productive to do it now. And Jim doesn't need to. Need. Doesn't need to do it right. It's not, it's. It's not a, it's not like a viable business proposition or opportunity that I think that's necessary for him as a, as a, as a businessman to do it right. It's like, here's this fun thing on the side. Yeah, we'll get my guy. He'll race. He's awesome. I like him. He's in my. He's in my IMSA car. This is cool. It's kind of one of them fun things that you kind of want to do with your buddies, but it's not necessary because dude owns a sport, you know, so what he might have, could have done was shield his involvement. He probably could have still got Jack Akins in the Aspire car, still got him at the Ray, on the racetrack at Sonoma and shielded his involvement or even his connection to Jack and the partners that would support this program. So, yeah, I don't know how this all leaked out or how it was discovered, but it certainly could have been done differently where it would have still happened, not bothered anybody. Jim's not out here trying to like, you know, fool anybody or trick this, trick the sport or trick the other other, you know, owners. Doesn't sound like that to me. Sounds like he just wanted to run Jack in a race, thought it'd be cool, but probably doesn't need to. He probably doesn't need to be in the same conversation around ownership of an actual physical car on the racetrack. As the owner of nascar, I think that would probably be my, my preference. I'm not up, I'm not upset about it. I could because I do it in the garage tour.

[Tim]

I mean you bring up a valid point that. But I don't know. I think it's, it's different because. I don't know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tim]

Your family doesn't. It's, it's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, there. I'll say this like it's a fine line to walk. He's just gonna, you know, Jim's just trying to run this one off, deal an open car at Sonoma with a road course ringer and, and it's not got legs to become anything. Probably more than that. Right. I run a full time car in a series that I own and it can, does and oftentimes makes things difficult. Roger Penske full time car, multiple cars competing. That's a whole different animal and absolutely treacherous and tough to navigate.

[Tim]

Wouldn't be a bad thing that if a couple times each year NASCAR just had an open car that you could get some other people in to get some new names and faces.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's not it. Yeah, I mean that's a fun conversation there. Just as long as there's no nefarious reasoning behind it. Right.

[Tim]

You just, the France family could say, hey, this year we're racing with legacy and we're racing with spire and the next year. And so we're getting these new young faces in that we want to see them in nascar.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There's a big difference, I think between the France family owning a charter and them just fielding a car every now and then for, for a cool, you know, kind of a cool connection.

[Tim]

Promotion for the sport.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Promotion for the sport. Yeah. I don't, I mean, dude, they, you know, series owners, promoters, they've been doing this forever. Humpy Wheeler, how many times does he put people in cars throughout the 70s and 80s at Charlotte to drum up support? And he's the one out there finding the partner, the sponsor to Santa Will. He gets the sponsor, calls Will Cronkite, says, will buy this car. I got the money. Will buys the car and poof, now Will's going to have a race team on the racetrack. I mean that to me is kind of somewhat similar to what, what a promoter does. And Jim, as the owner of NASCAR has promoter tendencies. As the owner of IMSA has promoter tendencies. He's trying to do everything he can to make the sport better. And maybe that was his idea to try to cross pollinate between the two. Right. How, how to get IMSA and NASCAR a pop. So I Don't really see it like as him trying to do anything egregious or wrong and I'm not bothered by it but I don't, I do think that's a fine line to walk and definitely create some discourse in, in the garage. Would that be correct?

[Tim]

I agree with you and if the lawsuit wasn't going underway it would probably be even less.

[Russell]

Yeah, I think it's different because it's, it's through spire like it's not like it's their own team.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. The CARS Tour had a great weekend at Langley this, this past Saturday night. Chase Burroughs is going to get to victory in in. He's a weekly racer up at Langley, not a consistent weekly racer or a full time racer with a CARS tour. And that's unique because rarely do we get the weekly racers participating with us when we come to their racetrack. We encourage that, we want that and when they beat us it's actually a good thing I think for our series. So I was happy to see that outcome. If our car can't be successful there's always a good outcomes. And Chase Burrow getting the victory. He had a strong car. We had a little bit of a fight. Connor Jones and Parker Eatman after the race. I think Connor's probably going to get a little, little monetary fine and probation. Connor's had some mix ups over the past several years. Had a little truck thing at Homestead and several altercations or arguments in, in short track racing and I, I hope to have conversation with him. He's a heck of a little driver. Just needs to try to control himself outside the race car and inside the car at times but he's been doing better. He's gotten some support around some people in the industry that have tried to help him kind of control those decisions. But it's still a little work to do but pretty exciting race for us. We're going to Dominion. I think it's the 14th of June so we got a week off. Then we go to Dominion for another race in the series. Is doing great. Also on the west coast the CARS Tour had a big race at Kern county and Kevin and Keelan Harvick raced against each other and Keelan come out on top in that victory. Kevin got wiped out in a crash but Kevin is doing some really great stuff with that western portion of the CARS Tour. A lot of growth in the CARS Tour, a lot of great conversations being had and some new announcements coming down the line. But so far it's been a solid season for us as a business but yeah, let's go. Let's get some ass Junior going. Hey, NASCAR fans, you know booming speeds when you see it. At Xfinity WI Fi, there's booming speeds like the roar of a NASCAR engine on race day. It's as fast as a V8 motor and reliable as a great pit crew. Xfinity WI Fi gives you the power and speed of NASCAR in your home. Choose the right plan for you and you're off to the races. It's the best streaming experience for NASCAR and all your favorite sports because Xfinity WI Fi is booming. They don't just raise the bar. They stream in overdrive. They're a proud premier partner of nascar. Thank you, Xfinity, for everything you do here for us at Junior Motorsports. Looking forward to some great questions here. Andrew.

[Andrew]

Yes, this first one is coming from Tony on Twitter. How nice is it to not have to wear a tie at the racetrack?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I got good at tying them, so I was kind of sad that we stopped wearing them.

[Tim]

What?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I know. I mean, look, five, six years ago, I didn't want to wear no tie. But then once you learn how to tie one and you got all these cool colors and stuff, I don't know. It was kind of a fun form of expression. I'm all right with it, though. We're. We're definitely more casual, and I think we're going to continue that going into the TNT portion of the broadcast over the next handful of races. So I'm not complaining at all. I'm glad we don't have to wear sports coats. Those are uncomfortable. I don't like sports coats. They're uncomfortable. They're heavy, thick, especially during the summer. I just don't. I don't find them comfortable at all. So if I get a sports coat that's comfortable, it looks like because it's too big or I'm wearing it too big. So I'm like a 40, 42 regular. And, you know, they're all up in your pits. The. Just not comfortable.

[Andrew]

Are you into, like, ties as much as, like, your sock game? Like, is that something like you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I gotta pick it up. I gotta pick it up on the socks, man.

[Andrew]

Oh, really?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

I've been slacking.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

My sock game hasn't changed in the last five years. So it might be time for, like, a sock audit. I did a sock. I did a. I talked about this on Bless yous Heart. I did a sock audit on the. On the ankle sock. Right? Got rid of all the stuff I had brought in, all new stuff. It Might be time for a sock audit on the long stuff. The dress sock.

[Tim]

Russell, where are you on socks?

[Russell]

I, I'm a pretty basic sock guy. More of like an athletic sock guy. How, how long do you wear your socks for? Like, how many wears do you get out of them?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We talked about that. You know, I don't really have a number. I just keep wearing them till they're, till they look like they need to go in the trash.

[Russell]

Latard tries to tell us he does like three. Three wears and throws.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He told me he doesn't wear the same pair twice.

[Russell]

He does. He. He totally does.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So three wears and he throws them away.

[Russell]

Yeah, that's what he says.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like the ankles, the cheap ankle socks, you know, that you buy in bulk. Yeah, that's possible because they kind of wear out and I wear them outside. I wear, I wear them out in the garage or out on the front porch or something, you know, because I know they're, you know, they're, they're just, you know, dime a dozen. So I don't mind that. But my. Yeah, hang on to. I could talk for. In length about socks, to be honest with you, but I don't.

[Russell]

Do you have a particular brand?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Do you have a particular. I don't. No, I don't. I'll say this. When it comes to long dress socks, if they're, if it's tough to get over my heel, you know, some of them are kind of small. It's like hard to get them on. Right in the freaking trash. Right in the trash. They don't, they don't stay. They don't stay in my house. I don't care for brand new. I don't care how cool they are, what they got on them. If they don't go on with ease. Junk. Get them out of here.

[Andrew]

Russell, you are obviously like in the booth with Dale and Dale. Rick Allen was talking on the podcast about a month ago. You know that you're going to have it different with three guys in the booth. Have you noticed? It's, it's different interacting with everyone in the booth just in the immediate one versus doing like four people in two booths.

[Russell]

It is different in the other. We used to have two and two. You have a chance to talk to like Dale and Burton back in the days would talk for like a whole segment and so we could talk. I could talk to Rick and Steve all about like what we're going to say next and that kind of thing. But still, having three people is not a bad thing because you can Talk to individuals while the other person's going. It takes. It's talent to be able to talk when other people are talking to somebody else. And it does not affect what you're saying. I think that's the hardest thing to do. And people don't understand how hard that is and how talented people are that are on tv.

[Andrew]

Have you noticed a different stale. Like, is it easier just seeing everyone in front of you like in the same room?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's more chaotic. It feels like, yeah. It's just, it's to, to Russell's point. So when we were had, when we were in split booths, we would. Each booth would have a little bit of a break here and there, you know, and you'd have a minute to sort of gather your thoughts, maybe prepare like your chain, you know, just sort of taken. Take a, take a screenshot of, of where you're at, where the day is and maybe what, how your, what you thought the most important things were at the start of the race, how those have changed or what's really important now and to make sure your conversation and the information you're giving the viewer is valuable and, and, and dated. Right. And so I don't know. We don't really have that chance now. Now it's like soon as the green flag drops, man, you're just. It's a sprint, but it's a long. You know, it's a, it's. You're sprinting at sprinting speed, but you got a long way to go. All the way to the finish line. It's fun as hell, though. Most fun thing I've done at the racetrack besides driving a race car.

[Andrew]

Well, that's good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Sometimes it's funner than driving a race car. Yeah. Yeah.

[Andrew]

Because you can just, you know, enjoy the chaos that's going on in front of you. You know, you don't have to answer anything. Okay. We got a question from the YouTube chat. Michael wants to know. I guess this is for both of you guys because you're broadcasting for so long, especially some of these cup races. What are your go to booth snacks?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I eat kind of the same snacks at home, so I bring a couple in my bag. There are snacks in the booth. There's this little trail mix pack. It's about 230 calories. I might have one of those at the night races. They'll bring a sandwich in there. So like during, during the 600 and during the Nashville race, I ate a dang sandwich during the broadcast. So you got to do it quick, like grab A couple bites during each break. Try to have your mouth clean and ready to speak clearly, you know, before you come back on air.

[Tim]

Russ, have you made Steve mad with your food orders yet this year?

[Russell]

No, but this past weekend he reminded me it was Nashville last year where I added the jelly to the peanut butter sandwiches. So, yeah, I'm more of a protein guy, protein bar guy and cashews kind of thing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Go to Interesting. Yeah.

[Russell]

Do you agree, Dale, or not?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, the cashews man. Cashews. Cashews are interesting.

[Russell]

You don't like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I like not, not so much a cashew guy. I, I've always. I like the. I like the other kind. What?

[Russell]

Pistachios?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Pistachios, Yeah. I like those.

[Andrew]

This next question coming from our good friend Bozie on Twitter. What would it take to see you hop in a car at the Rolex 24 again?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, all right. So here. That's a great. We had this, you know, we had the, the podcast last week with the. Some of the team from the 2001 Corvette team. And I went to, I went to broadcast the 24 hour race over the last handful of years for NBC and I really got a firsthand update on how those guys race and what that series is like. So when I ran the Corvette during testing in 01 and 04, during the race in 01, during the race in 04 with the prototype, there wasn't. It was okay and to be expected. If you were a couple tenths or so off of the, the, the A driver we had, you know, the guys that are driving in this series, every single week driving this car every single week, you'd get in there and you'd be 3, 10 off, a half a second off maybe. And that was kind of to be expected. You weren't going to find it. You could try your ass off. You weren't going to find it. But it was okay because when the race started, everybody dialed it way back. The cars were two, the cars were two breakable. You had to be really careful and you didn't want to hit anybody and have to repair anything. And so you really kind of just drove way down, like 80 or 90%. And so then the elite drivers of the pros would drive down to our level. Now I kept trying to race hard to be able to say, hey, look, I'm running the same lap time as you guys now. But I still, when they wanted to turn it on, I still wasn't going to be as fast as they were. And neither was dad and, and that's kind of what you see in a lot of the cup drivers that go over there and run. You know, they're good and there's guys that get really close, but they're just a touch off of like the best drivers in the field. Well, now those cars are much tougher. The drivers have all gotten better, they gotten smarter, they got more tools. And every car has elite drivers in it. There's some program guys, there's some, you know, rich bought, you know, rich CEOs out there, but there's mostly really, really, really fast drivers. And they run that entire 24 hour race like they're qualifying. It's like insane. They just push, push, push, push, push. And so I wouldn't be, I wouldn't see myself at this age as a very valuable part of any kind of a combination of drivers to be able to go out there and compete. It's fun as hell, but you're gonna find my ass probably at a 24 hour lemons before I go back to Daytona and run that race. That's kind of my speed these days.

[Andrew]

The lemons. Remind me what those are. Those are like just the.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You got a car that I think you got a limit of what you can spend on it. Everybody's out there to have fun.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're gonna be fixing this thing a lot more than you're actually gonna be driving it.

[Andrew]

Is this one where you can like trick the car up to like design it and make it look like what?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There's a creative, There's a creative element.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

People do, but like all us sitting right here, us four could go, go racing. Have a great time.

[Andrew]

Okay, this next quad. This next question is from racing with Tim. And he wants to know, did your dad support any professional or college teams?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Atlanta Braves. Big Atlanta Braves fan. Knew a lot of the players. Knew Bobby Cox, manager at the time. Would text back and forth with them or communicate back and forth with them to the dugout, to the racetrack. He was a massive Atlanta Braves fan. Trying to think otherwise. Not so much. He didn't really have a team in the NFL. I remember when Washington was playing Oakland in the Super bowl in 1983 or 84 and Washington were the defending champions in the NFL and Oakland destroyed them. Theisman threw a pick six inside the 15 yard line. Got just jogged into the end zone. It was so. Oh, Marcus Allen just destroyed Washington. Giant gaps, big runs. It was awful. I cried, I think. And dad sitting over there cheering like hell. And he didn't even have a. You know, he started the damn game. We watch it in the living room together. He wasn't a freaking Oakland Raiders fan, but he thought it was. He was just cheering for them because they were winning, I guess. But that pissed me off. College. I can't say that I remember him being particular about a team in college either. Yeah. But he loved the Braves. They were very the team. And dad, they were. They were on top of exactly everything the Braves were doing. He had multiple players that he was friends with. Jody Davis was one of the players that he would hunt with. And that's how I think how he became a big fan of the Braves. Joey was a catcher. Jody was a catcher. And Jody would come to the NASCAR races. And I think Jeff Blauser and several other players dad become friends with over time.

[Andrew]

That's cool. We're seeing. We asked the chat, who is your favorite sports team? I'm seeing Bills, Commanders, Pacer Patriots. So I appreciate everyone chiming in. Yeah, go ahead.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I like. Obviously, I'm a big Commanders fan. And in college, Amy's a Wildcat, so she wants me to pull for Kentucky. We hadn't really. I haven't really been asked to do a bunch of that, but I know that that's always on the table. I play. I pulled for the Gamecocks for years because Spurrier was there. Steve Spurrier, when I was really young, sent me. He sent me some autographed footballs when he was coaching for Florida just out of the blue. And I always thought he was cool. Met him a couple times. He's actually been a guest on this show. And we went to him down in South Carolina to interview him for a Dale Jr. Download. But. Or it was maybe I was back when I was on XM radio, but either way. So I kind of pulled for anything he did. And so I kind of became a Gamecocks fan there for a while. I still want them to do well. Actually. Lou Holtz used to coach for the Gamecocks, and I asked Lou to come to DEI and speak to our company right after dad passed away. Lou was a great speaker in his time and hard to understand, but he had great messages. But that was a lot of fun. So anyways, I pulled for the game. We actually had a kid that played running back for the Mooresville Blue Devils, our home team that I went to high school. Actually got got accepted to South Carolina. And when he was on the field, we were always watching to see what he could do. He rarely played, but it was pretty cool to have somebody from our school playing on the Field for the Gamecock. So at my, at my core. Thanks. I appreciate you, Travis. At my core, I am a Tar Heel. No question. Like if you said, hey, what's your. What's the A team for you? I'm a, I'm a North Carolina Tar Heel. I think that everyone, whatever state you're from, it's like an obligation for you to have to pull for that particular team. And I know there's a lot of teams in North Carolina, but no team is like the North Carolina Tar Heels. They are the North Carolina team. All the other ones are like that. They're the B, C, D. But the Tar Heels are it. And the Carolina blue man. It's beautiful. Can't be beat.

[Tim]

You said that Lou. You asked Lou to come speak. So did he end up come speaking? What was it like?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I donated some money to his charity. He came to speak to us, told us great stories. I was just trying to find ways to help us morale wise go into the next season. I don't remember exactly when he came. It might have been immediately after dad passed away. Maybe it was in the middle of the season. Maybe it was going into 2002. I can't really remember. But I felt I'd heard somewhere that, you know, something sprung into my mind from something I'd heard about him speaking and I should get him to come talk to us. And so that was good.

[Andrew]

That's cool.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I like the Braves too, because dad did. So I'm a Braves fan.

[Andrew]

Yeah, but that's like the closest team we have here to North Carolina anyways.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Tim]

Well. And back then it was one of the main teams that were on network TV was them were the Cubs.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I liked. I remember watching, I remember exactly where I was when I saw them lose the World Series. I think it was to Detroit. Who could Kirby Puckett play for?

[Tim]

Minnesota.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm sorry. It was Minnesota and Herbic. They, they beat, they lost to them. And I remember being at the care. I remember being at the beach on North Carolina coast with a friend of mine and watching them lose. We were, we thought for sure they were going to win the series. But yeah, it's been fun being a Brace fan. I'm not the not Chase Elliott level of Braves fandom, but I know that's a massive deal for him.

[Andrew]

Well, that is a good place to wrap Ash Jr. This week.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Thanks to Xfinity for supporting us here at Dirty Mo Media and at the Dale Jr. Download and bringing us the Ask Jr segment every single week. They're a great partner I have. I'm using all of this technology right here with Xfinity WI Fi. I'm a customer and very happy with my service. The speeds are incredible and their Wi Fi is fast. And the NASCAR fans, we know what fast is all about, and we want it as good as it could possibly be. And Xfinity WI Fi is just fast. It's booming, and you can choose the right plan for you and you're off and running and you'll have the best streaming experience for NASCAR and all your favorite sports. Just they don't raise the bar. They stream in overdrive. Xfinity is a proud premier partner of nascar, and they may email you out of the blue one day and say, hey, for no extra charge, we're going to bump your speeds up because I know a couple of myself and several other customers around this area have, have gotten those. So that's always nice. So thank you.

[Travis]

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[Tim]

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[Travis]

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[Andrew]

See the details@kubota orangedays.com this is an ad by BetterHelp. Travis, I don't know about you, but it feels like there's a stigma around mental health when it comes to men.

[Tim]

Yeah, it's kind of like you're kind of brought up that men keep your emotions in check. You don't show tears. You kind of always start trying to stay tough.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right?

[Andrew]

I mean, men face immense pressure today. It's no wonder that 6 million men in the US suffer from depression every year. And it's often undiagnosed.

[Tim]

It's okay to struggle. It's okay to say, you know, I need help. I think admitting that is a strength. And I think there's one way to help yourself out, and that's through better help.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right?

[Andrew]

I mean, I've used better help. And if you're a man and you're feeling the weight of, of the world, talk to somebody. BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform, having served over 5 million people globally.

[Tim]

It's convenient, too. You know, you don't have to go into somebody's office and talk to them. You can do it on your time, remotely, from your apartment, from your house on the couch where you're comfortable and you're not nervous.

[Andrew]

It's always. And you can even message people. That's one thing I've really felt beneficial from. Even if you don't have time to get on the phone and talk, the message ability is still really, really helpful.

[Tim]

And it's also nice that if you realize, you know what, this isn't exactly what I all kinds of therapists, you can switch, you can make that change. You're not stuck with that same therapist for the entire time.

[Andrew]

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[Tim]

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[Andrew]

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[Tim]

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[Andrew]

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[Tim]

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[Andrew]

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[Tim]

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

[Andrew]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Place your bets ladies and gentlemen. Place your bets. Well, it's time to do the Dirty Modo segment with you. Tampa Timms and Russell's been here for the whole show, so we're going to dive right in. This segment on Dirty Modo is brought to you by fanduel. We were going to do a parlay last week of the top manufacturer. So, like, you know, we picked Pre for Ford, Hamlin for Toyota, Larson for Chevy. Obviously, that did not hit. Blaney was the top forward. I guess Hamlin was the top Toyota, and Larson surely wasn't the top Chevy. That was Carson Hosavar. So if anybody hit that parlay on manufacturers, that's pretty impressive. We'll do it again this week as we lead into Michigan. But before we move on to next week, Tim's, can you give us a quick recap of how your bets paid out?

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah. Went four for four on matchups.

[Commercial Voiceover]

Damn, boy.

[Tampa Tim]

So I was happy about that. Everything else was. So we actually ended up a small, small loss, but I was proud of the matchups. Four for four, that's tough to do.

[Russell]

What was our favorite matchup?

[Tampa Tim]

Cody Ware over J.J. ailey. That was a heated battle for 35th.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right.

[Russell]

Tim's was counting his money. J.J. ailey started the race in the garage.

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah, exactly.

[Tim]

Somehow he got back to the lead lap.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right.

[Russell]

And then he got back on the lead lap, and then Cody Ware had a flat tire. And then Tim's was not happy.

[Tampa Tim]

No, I was not.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But.

[Russell]

And then somehow they were on the same lap at the end, but Cody.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Ware pulled it off.

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah. Good for Cody Ware. Needed it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, let's move on to Michigan. We've talked about this predictor model on the show before, and, Russ, can you give us a Dummies101 explanation of what the model is?

[Russell]

So it's an advanced.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Calm down, calm down, slow down there.

[Russell]

Advanced statistical model, which basically takes. We track every lap of every race. And so it takes into account, like, recent races, recent races at the track, track type. We do. How fast they are over the runs. It takes into considerate pit crews, it takes all this into consideration and then puts it into. Basically predicts a finishing order is how we do it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, well, what does the predictor have for us this week? What are some of the bets that you think are good ones to make?

[Russell]

I think Denny Hamlin is a runaway favorite this week in the predictor, and then. Then it goes. Larson and Byron are like, the top tier, I would say. And then we would go chase Blaney now this one. Whereas the model, you know, scares me a little bit as Ty Gibbs up in the top in the second. I know, I know, but I can explain that. And then Busher, Bell, Redick, Logano, Bubba Wallace, kind of.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So why does the predictor have Ty Gibbs up there? Is that a flaw in the predict Predictor?

[Russell]

I wouldn't say.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Is that a glitch in the predictor? Is a predictor not perfect.

[Russell]

So, so his average.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Gibbs is awaiting your answer.

[Russell]

So his average finish at Michigan is the best of all. Drivers like that have more than three starts. He's finished 10th, 11th and third there. So like it takes Michigan because we don't have a lot of other comp tracks to Michigan. So Michigan is very highly weighted. So with him doing so well at Michigan, it pumps him up and then but 2025 is kind of disaster for him. So I say that with, with that as a caveat. But that's, that's why it's so good. And he, he just runs so like he was fast at Michigan. So it takes all those laps into consideration.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So you can't be that thrilled to have to use the word caveat when describing your predictor. Mr.

[Russell]

I had to. I have to.

[Tim]

So you can get plus 195 odds for Ty Gibbs top 10 then if you believe Russ.

[Russell]

Yeah, I don't believe me. That's what the predictor says. I don't have a great feeling about it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But let's put together the parlay for the manufacturers. We're going to stick with Hamlin. I think we'll go Larson over Byron because Larson's has had had past success here and I just feel like that he's due for a rebound now. The Ford will be the tough call there. I just got a feeling that it's a Penske Ford, but which one between Logano and Blaney.

[Tampa Tim]

I had a feeling about Logano.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, me too.

[Tampa Tim]

And if we didn't go Penske, I was gonna say Brad. I have a good feeling about Brad this week too.

[Russell]

What about Bucher? Buscher's been the, the fastest car of anybody on long run speed at, at Michigan in the long in the next genera it's one there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Just don't feel it this year. I think he's struggling a little bit.

[Russell]

So who's, who's your best forward pick? You, you get to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I've got to go Logano, I think that the guy is just, it's just, he's just the kind of guy that will manipulate he'll between lane choice between how you have to race in the restarts through one and two. He's just really good at not getting, not being on the wrong End of that whole deal. And he'll find his way toward the front, even. Maybe he's not the fastest forward. He won't be the fastest forward during the race. He won't. But I just think that his ability to, you know, get the end result that the other guys struggle to always get is going to put him in position to win this prop. The only thing that I worry about is just Blaney having another weekend like he had this past weekend in Asheville, where he shows up super fast and he just, you know, Logano never gets within a couple car lengths of that car. That's the only problem I see. But let's go, Logano, Hamlin and Larson.

[Tim]

Last week, if you would have done it, $1 would have paid you, like, $77.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Holy.

[Tim]

Yeah. So that people for this. If you're making this bet, this is a fun one. We know it's a long.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. You know, underdog betting, anywhere between 1 and $5 is probably where I'm going to be. So if I was to place the bet, I wouldn't be betting more than that. It's just a fun bet. Something that we can all come back here the next week and go, damn it, what the hell are y' all thinking? Or we can all celebrate that we all won. It really doesn't matter how much you win. It's the fact that you either won or lost. So, yeah, be responsible. What are some of the other things we need to pay attention to? You know, I'm always going to ask you about the underdog or the.

[Russell]

So I'll start with, like, the guys I'm scared of is Bowman. Average finish at Michigan at 24th. I'd stay away from him. Bell has Never finished top 10 at Michigan, and he's been. He's two DNFs in the last three races there at Michigan. So that's the surprising ones for me. I like Josevar again. He's been really fast this. This year lately. As we talked about earlier, he was 10th at Michigan last year. It's a home race for him.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Damn. So can't believe we're talking about that.

[Russell]

And then. And then Erik Jones is another Michigan guy. He's been. He's been top 10 two of the last four races this year we talked about earlier. And then he's been top 10 two of the last three at Michigan.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I can't see. I mean, the 77 is going to win someday. Are y' all seeing the. Are you seeing the odds reflect that, or is it still good money?

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah, he's like + 2100 right now to win, which I think he's. He has the Ty Gibbs treatment when Ty Gibbs is running. Well, a year and a half ago, you know, he. They were not going to get beat by Josevar. That's what they're done. They're not doing this year.

[Tim]

I mean, it's minus money for a top 10 for Josevar.

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, you guys got any more to add?

[Tim]

Any of the best Tims?

[Tampa Tim]

No, no. Professor and me are pretty much no outright winner. I don't, I don't love the odds right now. I mean, Larson and Denny are the favorites and they're. They're pretty much top two for me.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And wait for qualifying.

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah, that's what I'm gonna do.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, well, appreciate you Tim's for coming through.

[Tampa Tim]

Thank you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The Dirty Modo segment was brought to you by fanduel. They are the premier gaming destination in the United States.

[Commercial Voiceover]

White flag.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Time for the white flag. The teardown was live on Twitter and YouTube following Ryan Blaney's dominant performance at Nashville. And door Buffer Clear dropped on Monday. They were joined, as we mentioned, by Jeff Dickerson. Jeff had a lot to say about Carson Hosvar. His driver actions detrimental with Denny Hamlin also came out on Monday. Denny didn't have to fly home for the birth of his son during the race. And do we have any news about that baby Watch?

[Tim]

As far as I know, Watch is still underway.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right. Well, he had a. He had a great run coming home third. Denny has been solid at Nashville. One of these days, I think he's going to get the win. But my interview tomorrow for the Dale Jr. Download will be with none other than Ron Howard. Ron's going to give us a chunk of time to talk to him about obviously his team doing such a great job on the Earnhardt documentary that came out last Thursday. The final two episodes came out last Thursday. And we'll talk to Ron just about his life and some of the things we're curious about. So very thankful for that opportunity. Herman Schrader and Speed street also have new episodes on Wednesday. And rounding out the week is another episode of Bless yous Heart. Amy. Amy and I will be giving another episode. We've got some great content already drummed up for that Thursday show. Saving the Best for Last. Becoming Earnhardt is returning. I talked about this a little bit with some folks, so it's not exactly news, but I'm very excited about it. The series is going to focus on the 1980 cup season it's Dad's first championship. We went to the studio last week. We knocked everything out. We've been working on this for a While. First episode, June 15th. I hope you'll listen to Becoming Earnhardt. If y' all respond well to these, hey, we'll keep doing them. We'll grind through 81, 82, 83. We'll just have a blast.

[Tim]

I'm looking forward to it just because after watching the documentary and the first, you know, the first episode, really diving into how his, his career started. So now getting more in depth. Look on just that season doing, doing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Becoming Earnhardt 1979, which is still available out there if you wanted to go back and listen to that was the most, one of the most rewarding things I've ever done in podcast form. How it motivated me to, to dig for the, the new, the stories and nuggets, the process of it coming together and what I learned from that and just the new things that I discovered about dad. And it almost, it really helped. One of the toughest things I think about when you lose a parent is when we think about them, we typically think about who they were in those final few years, their temperament, personality. Dad was a completely different person in 1979 and 1980, and I wasn't really even well introduced to that particular person right as a kid and all the. I just didn't know what was going on in his mind and his life. I didn't know his day to day things he was challenged with, dealing with. So gosh, this has been so fun to sort of dig, look behind the curtain, peel back the layers. So rewarding. So hopefully you'll, you'll Entertain listening to 79 season of Becoming Earnhardt if you haven't already the first season and then we'll have this new one for you on June 15th. So thank you all for today. See you tomorrow with Ron Howard. Should be a blast. Take care.

[Commercial Voiceover]

It's madness in the Motor City as NASCAR on prime heads to Michigan International Speedway. 200 miles per hour feels even faster than it sounds. These white knuckle three wide thrills bring us one of the the fastest tracks in the cup series. So strap in and stream Michigan. Sunday at 1:30pm Eastern. NASCAR it's on. Prime McCrispy strips are now at McDonald's. Tender, juicy and its own sauce. Would you look at that? Well, you can't see it, but trust.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Me, it looks delicious.

[Commercial Voiceover]

New McCrispy strips now at McDonald's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Bottom of the.