I’m ROVAL’d Out

Summary

The Dale Jr. Download – "I’m ROVAL’d Out"

Podcast: The Dale Jr. Download
Host: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (with TJ Majors, Russell, Travis)
Date: October 7, 2025
Length: ~115 minutes

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Episode Overview

In this lively, candid episode of The Dale Jr. Download, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his crew dig into the state of NASCAR’s playoffs following the Charlotte Roval race. Dale’s in a reflective, occasionally cranky mood, venting about personal frustrations, playoff fatigue, and changes he'd like to see in the sport. The group debates playoff formats, stage racing, and the impact of TV/streaming deals, and welcomes SVG (Shane van Gisbergen) to discuss his recent oval progress. Rounding it out is a set of wild personal stories, betting talk for Vegas, and listener questions. The tone is unfiltered, humorous, and deeply insightful for fans of the sport.

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Main Themes & Segments

1. Dale’s Post-Race/Personal Mood

00:47 – 05:23

• Dale opens up about feeling “in a mood” due to a tough parlay loss and ongoing frustration with gaming (“You ever won a game and been mad at the end of it?” – Dale Jr., 03:37)
• “Comparison’s the thief of joy, Dale.” – TJ Majors, 07:56
• Dale’s family updates: one kid sick (seasonal change), and Dale’s insistence he doesn’t “do” allergies.
• The group shares light banter about apartment air filters, seasonal transitions, and the grumpy effect of near-miss NFL bets.

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2. Playoff Format Fatigue & The Roval Discussion

08:32 – 16:54

• Dale voices being “ROVAL’d out” and questions if this format makes for better racing or just distraction (“I am ROVALed the hell out.” – Dale Jr., 08:48)
• Dale critiques the recent race: not excited by Chastain/Denny drama, unimpressed by manufactured “moments.”
• “The more Joey Logano gets out of his car and talks about the playoffs, the more I don’t like the playoffs.” – Dale Jr., 11:03
• Discussion about whether the current playoff system detracts from celebrating dominant drivers (SVG), instead focusing on mid-pack points battles.
• “Are we wishing this season away, waiting for the next thing?” – Dale Jr., 15:25
• Group reflects on viewer fatigue, both about the playoff discussion and the format itself.

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3. What Changes Would Make NASCAR Better?

20:04 – 25:47

• In-depth talk on technical aspects and broadcast/media exposure:
  • Dale wants the car “stripped down” for short tracks (simpler tech, more raw racing).
  • Consensus that tire fall-off this season has been positive for racing.
  • Frustrations about NASCAR’s current place on TV and streaming—practice, qualifying, and races spread across different channels.
  • Need for a daily/weekly “pillar” NASCAR news show (“We need that pillar show, like RPM Tonight.” – Dale Jr., 25:04)
  • Value of practice for creating storylines and building up the race.

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4. Spotter Talk, Playoff Team Orders, and NASCAR’s Gray Areas

32:17 – 42:08

• Whether teams should be allowed to communicate points situations and manipulate race results.
• Dale is fine with teams relaying points to drivers; “Give me the information. Let me choose.” – Dale Jr., 34:02
• Longstanding tradition in NASCAR of helping teammates, but line crossed only when it’s “super egregious.”
• No clear black-and-white solution; NASCAR treats situations on a “feel” basis.

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5. Chastain vs. Hamlin: Where (If Anywhere) Is the Line?

36:53 – 42:08

• Should Chastain be penalized for his last-ditch move at the Roval?
• Panel agrees: Unless it’s outright blatant and damaging, it’s just hard racing—no penalty required.
• “If I’m NASCAR and he did that and it worked, I’d penalize him. If he did it and it failed, I wouldn’t.” – Dale Jr., 39:40
• Emphasis is on not making NASCAR the “bad guy” unless the move is dangerous or universally condemned.

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6. Playoff Standings & Points Comparison

42:08 – 45:46

• Review of standings heading into final playoff races; all agree it's still wide open.
• Old school points system comparison: William Byron would lead, Blaney/Larson/Bell trailing.
• Commentary on how the current system enables drivers who haven’t dominated to still be in contention.

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7. Stage Racing: Does It Still Work?

45:46 – 49:35

• Panel discusses stages—pros (strategy, field shuffling, restarts) and cons (too many yellows, some fans dislike).
• If stage cautions go away, do stage points still matter? General feeling: stages without cautions likely lose their impact.

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8. NASCAR Lawsuit & Charter System Drama

49:35 – 58:06

• The never-ending legal battle over charters is wearing everyone down: “It’s been detrimental to the success of NASCAR. I think it’s turning a bunch of people away.” – Dale Jr., 52:05
• Most team declarations defend the charter system, but few explicitly side with NASCAR.
• Both sides claim to want a “settlement” but can’t agree even how to mediate—“Feels like a work stoppage cloud… needs to go away.” – Dale Jr., 58:06

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9. SVG (Shane van Gisbergen) Guest Call-In

61:00 – 71:51

• Dale welcomes SVG to talk about his recent Roval win and oval progress.
  • “It’s been an awesome few weeks turning it around, getting better.” – SVG, 61:37
  • SVG credits improved performance to team continuity and IRacing, plans to race in New Zealand during the off-season.
  • Reflects on how NASCAR compares to Australian Supercars in physicality and tire management.
  • Enjoys the harder, yet (mostly) respectful racing style on ovals and in Cup: “You race hard and fair because it’s for a race win. So yeah, I really enjoy the style of racing here.” – SVG, 71:23

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10. Ask Junior: Listener Q&A and Wild Stories

76:41 – ~98:00

• Dale recounts his late model race at Tri-County, laments tire inconsistencies.
• Highlight: 10-minute, hilarious, and unbelievable story about Neil Bonnett being attacked by Dale Sr.’s pet deer, “Pistol,” leading to Bonnett shooting the deer in a fit of rage.
  • “There was Neil Bonnett standing equal to him going, he pissed me off, so I went and shot it.” – Dale Jr., 88:09
• Fun asides about shooting TVs, using dynamite on the property, and childhood/young adult mayhem.
• Discussing seeing his old cars stored at DEI, and a moment of nostalgia: “Gives me some hope that there’s a chance of reconciliation somewhere down the road.” – Dale Jr., 98:12
• Listeners ask about Dale’s maddest moment at a teammate (Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth incidents at Michigan).

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11. Dirty Mo Doe – Vegas Preview & Betting

103:33 – 112:13

• The crew reviews last week’s betting picks and previews their consensus parlay for Vegas:
  • Ford: Blaney
  • Chevy: Larson
  • Toyota: Bell
  • Top match-ups: Larson over Byron, Bell over Logano, Briscoe over Elliott, Hamlin/Blaney a toss-up (leans Hamlin on speed).
• “If you didn’t bet it, then that’s on you.” – Dale Jr., 104:43

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12. Wrap-up and Closing Thoughts

113:17 – End

• Housekeeping: Recap of other Dirty Mo Media network shows, fan merch contest, sponsor reads.
• Final lighthearted stories and playful banter.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “Comparison’s the thief of joy, Dale.” — TJ Majors, 07:56
• “I am ROVAL’d the hell out.” — Dale Jr., 08:48
• “The more Joey Logano talks about the playoffs, the less I like them.” — Dale Jr., 11:03
• “Are we wishing this season away, waiting for the next thing?” — Dale Jr., 15:25
• “Give me the information. Let me choose.” — Dale Jr. on team radio info during playoffs, 34:02
• “If I’m NASCAR and he did that and it worked, I’d penalize him. If he did it and it failed, I wouldn’t.” — Dale Jr., 39:40
• “It’s been detrimental to the success of NASCAR. I think it’s turning a bunch of people away.” — Dale Jr., 52:05
• “You race hard and fair because it’s for a race win. So yeah, I really enjoy the style of racing here.” — SVG, 71:23
• Story: Neil Bonnett vs. Pistol the Deer, 81:12 – 88:12
  • “There was Neil Bonnett standing equal to him going, he pissed me off, so I went and shot it.” — Dale Jr.

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Summary Table: Segment Timestamps

| Segment | Start | End | Note / Content | |---------------------------------------|---------|---------|-------------------------------------------------| | Dale’s Mood, Family, Banter | 00:47 | 08:32 | Bets, illness, seasonal, grumpy, allergy talk | | Playoff Format Fatigue & Roval | 08:32 | 16:54 | Roval discussion, playoff weariness | | Improving NASCAR – Car & Coverage | 20:04 | 25:47 | Car tech, broadcast, practice talk | | Spotter/Team Orders Discussion | 32:17 | 42:08 | Points communication, NASCAR gray areas | | Chastain/Hamlin, Playoff Drama | 36:53 | 42:08 | Penalty debates, line crossing | | Playoff Standings/Points Comparison | 42:08 | 45:46 | Leaderboard, old vs. new points | | Stage Racing Debated | 45:46 | 49:35 | Stage points/cautions discussed | | NASCAR’s Lawsuit Woes | 49:35 | 58:06 | Charter drama, settlement, fatigue | | SVG Interview | 61:00 | 71:51 | Progress, iRacing, ovals, racing culture | | Ask Junior/Q&A, Neil Bonnett Story | 76:41 | ~98:00 | Racing, wild stories, Q&A, old cars | | Betting (Dirty Mo Doe) Vegas Preview | 103:33 | 112:13 | Picks, parlays, match-ups | | Closing Thoughts, Plugs & Wrap-up | 113:17 | End | Housekeeping, merch contest, final banter |

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Final Impressions

The episode is vintage Dale Jr.: open, funny, occasionally cranky, and deeply knowledgeable. Listeners get a behind-the-scenes look at NASCAR’s on-track issues, off-track business politics, and the personalities driving both. Highlights include genuine debate on playoff formats, frank criticism of the sport’s direction, a star cameo from SVG, and some unforgettable Earnhardt family lore. This one’s essential listening for hardcore NASCAR fans and a great snapshot of where the sport stands—warts and all—in October 2025.

Transcript

[Dale Jr.]

There was Neil Bonnet standing equal to him going. He pissed me off, so I went and shot it. Tron, Ares has arrived. Hostiles. Repeat, we have hostiles. Mayday. Mayday. Oh my God. There's hundreds of them this Friday. We came here from the digital world. The war for our world begins. What in God's name is that?

[TJ Majors]

You and I, Max.

[Dale Jr.]

This is the end to this world. No, it's not. But I can help you.

[TJ Majors]

Tron Ares treated PG13 may be inappropriate for children under 13. In theaters Friday.

[Dale Jr.]

Get tickets now. Community Coffee just came out with new great tasting coffees. Their first light blend and iced coffee K Cups. This is a family owned coffee company that's been around since 1919 and they are now the official coffee of Dirty Mo Media. First light is bright, delicate and a light roast with notes of honey and brown sugar. Their iced coffee K cups are rich and refreshing and they stand up to ice so your coffee isn't watered down. Available in classic black and vanilla Swee Cream. Get 20% off these new Community Coffees by using the code [e-mail] that's code DALE D A L E20 for 20% off [e-mail] the following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. This is the most fun I've had in this chair in the last hour and a half. Yes.

[Russell]

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

[Dale Jr.]

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

[TJ Majors]

Who was your best man, Dale?

[Dale Jr.]

Tj. Tj, you don't need a cool vest for that race. What are you thinking? Get him, DJ Hell. Way to start the show.

[Russell]

All right then.

[Dale Jr.]

Hey, Everybody, it's Dale Jr. Back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. It's Tuesday, it's Dirty Air. My co host, TJ Majors. How's it going, TJ?

[Russell]

It's going good. How are you doing?

[Dale Jr.]

Pretty good, man. I'm all right. I mean mood, actually.

[Russell]

I can tell you just jumped the start here.

[Dale Jr.]

You can tell? I mean a little bit. Well, you had jumped start.

[Russell]

I mean you were started talking before they were ready to record.

[Dale Jr.]

They said 3, 2, 1 and I started to go. I thought that was the 3, 2, 1 jump.

[Russell]

The start.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, I mean, I felt like that was the cue to go. Three, two, one.

[Russell]

Could be. I could see where you could be misled by that, but man, I played.

[Dale Jr.]

We're in the conference championships of our Xbox Dynasty league.

[Russell]

You said you had A close one.

[Dale Jr.]

I played Duke, who I. Who I beat easily just a couple of games ago in the end of the regular season. And I tied it up 14 all at halftime and I was frustrated and then me and him couldn't score at all. And I finally. Oh, he's. He's going in on the one yard line. And I held him. Goal line stand, fourth down.

[Russell]

Really?

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

Dang.

[Dale Jr.]

He tried a couple runs, a couple passes, didn't work. Finally he lines up. Looks like it's going to be a QB sneak. I never did this before, but I picked Phil Gold block. I said I don't know what to pick all here because the QB sneak usually is always good for that yard and a half. Yeah, I don't know what to do. So I feel goal block. And it stopped it. Perfect.

[TJ Majors]

That's just great coaching.

[Dale Jr.]

And then now I am here. I am literally like on the half yard line and I'm like, what do I call? And so I came out in a, in a zone, run up the gut and yeah. Just kind of drove down the field. Ended up kicking a field goal. And I was so mad. You ever won a game and been mad at the end of it because it was like, didn't go as good as it should.

[Russell]

Oh, all the time.

[Dale Jr.]

God dang.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

How can we not just be happy?

[Russell]

This game, this new game. I've been like that almost every game I win. I'm just not happy at the end of them. So.

[Dale Jr.]

Even when you win them?

[Russell]

Yeah. This has been my year.

[Dale Jr.]

So I woke up today. I bet, I bet a bet a little bit on the Monday Night Football game. Great game. Jags beat the Chiefs.

[Russell]

Yeah, we love that.

[Dale Jr.]

But a teen, that's. I guess that's his name. A team got 49 yards. Running back for the Jags.

[Russell]

I need a 50 ETN.

[Dale Jr.]

ETN. Sorry, I just. Yeah, sounds about right. Either way, I needed 50 yards. You got 49. I think they were going to hand it off to him on that final play that they scored on to win the game when they fell and he fell. Yep. And that would have been the yard I needed.

[Russell]

And yeah, I mean, Chris Jones wasn't going to tackle him, that's for sure.

[Dale Jr.]

You know, I bet. I don't bet. I'm betting like 5, 10 bucks on these stupid little parlays. And I'm so mad when I lose. I just don't like losing.

[Russell]

Well, I would want to lose like that on a busted play. He's going to get it.

[Dale Jr.]

And so I woke up today in A really mood. Sorry. I'm trying to get. I'm trying to talk it out.

[TJ Majors]

I like it. This is like your therapy.

[Dale Jr.]

Keep going. I'm trying to talk it out. All right. So I'm promise. I'm sorry if this sucks to listen to, but by the end of the show, I'll feel better, and that's really what's important. Yeah. Right. Call the listeners.

[TJ Majors]

Dale's in a better mood, which makes Amy happy. Yeah. So no.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, yeah. Or Amy is. Yeah, that's all good. We got one kid really sick. Good Lord. Nicole. Do y'. All. I'm just saying, that was a. That was a summary for everyone. Things are good at home. Except for Nicole. She's a little sick when the season changes.

[Russell]

Oh, yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Doesn't everybody just get sick?

[TJ Majors]

You just feel it.

[Dale Jr.]

I feel like that I only get sick when we go from hot to cold. Cold to hot. Right. So I'm going to get sick sometimes around this little pivot toward the fall, and then I'm gonna get sick sometime right before spring. Yeah, the clockwork.

[TJ Majors]

The problem, though, is you get these random, like, couple cold days.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

And it pops back up hot, too. So you might get it there.

[Dale Jr.]

Oh, yeah. Yeah. And your body's like. I was. I was gonna get sick. But no, we're still.

[TJ Majors]

Especially if you go over to friends, you're outside, you know, bonfire cold, kind.

[Dale Jr.]

Of have some of these little. These little sinus things that are. They kind of pop in for a couple days, and then the weather turns and you don't really have the cold. The real, you know, the big cold.

[TJ Majors]

Do you get the seasonal allergies where you just start sneezing?

[Dale Jr.]

No, I don't do allergies.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, you're lucky.

[Dale Jr.]

I don't do.

[Russell]

I get allergies here more than anything.

[Dale Jr.]

I don't let allergies come in. I don't let them. I don't let them bother me. I don't have allergies.

[Russell]

I think that's probably.

[Dale Jr.]

So far I've been allergy free.

[TJ Majors]

Lucky, man.

[Dale Jr.]

I just don't. I just don't let it happen.

[TJ Majors]

I thought.

[Dale Jr.]

What? Not today.

[Russell]

Allergies. Just not gonna happen.

[Dale Jr.]

I say not today. Allergies.

[Russell]

Yep. Not today.

[TJ Majors]

So every morning I should ever just wake up and say that.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. All right.

[TJ Majors]

I'm gonna try.

[Dale Jr.]

Once you change your air filter in your house, it's probably dirty.

[TJ Majors]

No, they do. Because I live in an apartment. They come through.

[Dale Jr.]

I wouldn't trust it.

[Russell]

You should talk to the people.

[Dale Jr.]

I'd still Check. If I lived in an apartment and they were doing that for me, I'd still. Look, man, y' all doing this or what?

[TJ Majors]

Maybe I'll get my own subscription and then just change it myself.

[Dale Jr.]

Filter time.

[Russell]

Yeah, maybe you can talk the apartment complex into using filter time for the whole place.

[Dale Jr.]

Oh, that'd be really good for me. Filter time too.

[Russell]

Travis said I've cleaned out a deal.

[Dale Jr.]

Dale. Yeah, I'm. I'm just annoyed. I don't know why. I want a parlay. Yeah, I want a.

[TJ Majors]

You were part of the biggest parlay of the weekend.

[Dale Jr.]

Oh, yeah. I want a plus 5,000 parlay.

[Russell]

Yeah, I was gonna say how you.

[Dale Jr.]

Not happy about that, but I only bet $5.

[TJ Majors]

That's okay.

[Dale Jr.]

I'm so mad. Well, I'm seeing all these other people that tailed this same bet, that bet $60 and. And they're like, oh, $3,000. I'm rich and I've got 280 bucks over here. Hey. I mean, it's like, yes, I won, but now I get to see how this is for me and great for everyone else. Yeah.

[Russell]

But I mean, it's not bad. You're still in the plus.

[Dale Jr.]

I know my head is not right. My head ain't right.

[Russell]

Guys, stop comparing other people on social media.

[Dale Jr.]

We're going to talk this out.

[TJ Majors]

Comparison's the thief of joy, Dale.

[Russell]

It is compared to others on social media. You bet big, you win big.

[Dale Jr.]

This is a very. I'm in. Admittedly, this is a flaw in my personality and exposing it here today. So I think it's a lot of.

[Russell]

People, not just you, that's happens a lot. You were happy until you saw someone else win more.

[Dale Jr.]

Yes. And I was like, why didn't I bet more?

[Russell]

Yeah, well, because you could have lost more.

[Dale Jr.]

That's right. And it was a big risk. Right. I bet small just for fun and that's the way it should be. And it is what it is. Right? Okay.

[Russell]

Yeah, 100%.

[Dale Jr.]

All right. Try to keep that in mind. All right. I'm sorry for complaining. The roval man. Matt. What?

[Russell]

Not a fan?

[Dale Jr.]

I don't know, man. I've wrote. I'm rolled out.

[TJ Majors]

I'm with you.

[Dale Jr.]

I am rovaled the hell out.

[Russell]

But it's exciting.

[TJ Majors]

Is it?

[Russell]

I mean, at the points race, you're not going to have. I don't know if you're going to have that.

[TJ Majors]

Race for 20th was entertaining.

[Dale Jr.]

So everybody knows that I like a season long format and I'm absolutely. If you know, whatever they go to if it's the four race final round or if they go to, like the original chase of a 10 race, I don't know what they're going to do. All that'll be great. You know, I'm not going to be. Oh, darn it. Pounding the table if the full season thing comes, doesn't come back, because I really don't think that they're. That's where NASCAR is going to go, but. So I'm ready for that mentally, but, man, I am exhausted. Something about, something about this particular year's playoff, it's just not. It's just not doing it for me.

[TJ Majors]

Well, what's been the highlight of this playoff so far?

[Dale Jr.]

Well, I don't know and I don't want to discredit. There's a lot of people. There's a lot of people with very good points about this year. You know, what, that, you know what happens at the end of the race with Chastain and Denny. But, you know, I saw that, I watched it, and I'm like, man, I didn't. I, I didn't go, oh, damn, wow. You know, Manchester, Chap, Chastain back backwards. I wasn't that blown away by it. You know, I saw a guy making a zero freaking percent shot. You know, it's like, it's like a full court can heave. That wasn't going in.

[Russell]

It might have.

[Dale Jr.]

No. Yeah.

[Russell]

I mean, it was a.

[Dale Jr.]

And so it wasn't like, oh, wow, you know, without, you know, if, if, if we don't have the playoffs, we don't have that. Well, I didn't want that. I didn't need that.

[Russell]

Did that really change anything?

[Dale Jr.]

That didn't make me go, damn, I'm glad we got the playoffs so I could see that.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

You know?

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

I mean, and I'll tell you this, too. The more Joe Logano gets out of his car and talks about the playoffs, the, the more I don't like the playoffs.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, my gosh.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

The more he talks about. And I know he's defending it and he. And I know he believes what he believes and I'm good with that for him. But the more he tells me why I should like the playoffs, the less I like them. Does that make sense?

[TJ Majors]

It makes perfect sense.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

But, like, I do feel that, like, this whole playoff talk to him is. It's this, like, personal.

[Dale Jr.]

It is personal.

[TJ Majors]

And so I 100%, I get his side of things. But when you come out and say you had a championship performance and you finished 20th, like, I, it Just doesn't sit right with me.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

He called their teams, they called their performance a championship performance on Sunday. Oh, just like, man, it doesn't settle.

[Dale Jr.]

Brad Kaslowski comes on social media and says, it's clear as day. We had a guy dominate the road courses this year, win by a mile. I mean, literally, if they had went green the entire race, he would have won by over a mile. Gone. He did the same thing at Mexico. And we end the race with a. Oh, ho hum. Yep, he did it again. And we're uber focused on the 22 and the. The one. The one. Which is a battle for eighth in points, roughly.

[Russell]

Yeah, the last.

[Dale Jr.]

So Brad. That's Brad's take. Like, man, it's obvious, like, that's. That's problematic or that's not really what we ought to be doing. And I kind of feel maybe I see his point. I see what he's saying. I see what he's saying. Like, is there another universe where everyone's going, holy svg, golly.

[Russell]

That's what we should be saying right now.

[Dale Jr.]

Right. Is there another universe where they're loving what SVG is doing and just in all of the performance and the ability and how he smoked them again. Yeah.

[Russell]

And again.

[Dale Jr.]

And are they happier over there in that universe?

[Russell]

Well, I think last year, the championship. The championship winner left in this race in 8th place or 9th place and then got put in because of a disqualification. And that's what we're. Look, that's why it's probably such a big deal right now, too, is because this was the champ last year, same position. You know what I mean? Like, but I agree with you. We should have the focus on the guy that's kicking everyone's ass right now.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

Not. Not the eighth place.

[Dale Jr.]

So, yeah, that's another conversation that. So one. I know that I'm getting some fatigue, which I think a lot of people are around this conversation of the playoffs versus the full season points versus this. Or what is playoff fatigue? Everybody's kind of. Well, I don't know that people are fatigued on what's currently happening on the racetrack in the end this season. Right. But I think they're fatigued with the conversation around what we're going to end up having. And I think I am, too, a little bit. But is it the fact that.

[Russell]

Is it fatigue because we know a guy that it's possible for a car that hasn't run up front most of the year and been really that strong all year now is still. Still eligible to win the Championship, and we're going to some of their best tracks. You know what I mean? Like, could that be part of it? Like, are we fearful of that a little bit?

[Dale Jr.]

I think. I think that, you know, I think.

[Russell]

Are we worried about that again? I mean, could it be?

[Dale Jr.]

I think everybody's just tired of the conversation, and it's a conversation that really doesn't need to be having happening during this playoff. Sorry if I'm rambling, but people talked about whether we should announce a new format before the end of this season, and everybody was like, oh, yeah, we can't do that in this committee. We were like, we can't do that. That would totally discredit this year. Everybody would go, all right, well, we're moving on. Everybody would move on emotionally toward the next season. And this year's champion would have been really a dud or, you know, a lame, lame duck kind of thing. We were like, don't announce the new format for the future before you crown this year's champion. And I agree. We all agree that's probably the best decision. I feel like that just even the conversation alone, us debating, even right this second or even talking about it, is doing just that. It's making this year feel like, man, it can't get over fast enough. It can't get over fast enough. And the. Can. We just can't get to the next thing. Can't get to the new format, can't get to what next year looks like. We're hearing all these things about, you know, a little more horsepower, whether that makes the. You know, whether the drivers really. Do they want more? Is that, you know, are they getting more? Are they getting enough? There's potential for a new playoff system. I think there's all these things that. And I. I'm very guilty of this, you know, looking forward to something. Looking. Looking beyond now and what I'm doing today to be. Because there's this thing in a week I'm excited about, and I'm wishing time away. Are we sitting here going, oh, man, can this just hurry up and end so we can get on with it? And I feel like that's what. That's where I'm at. And I don't love that. I don't like that. I want to enjoy this one.

[Russell]

Yeah, I've been there for about a month.

[Dale Jr.]

I want to enjoy this year, this playoff. I want to be excited, but I'm having a hard time, and I wonder if everybody is. Because we're starting, you know, we're seeing it in viewership. We're seeing it, you know, in just general conversation, you know, the general discussion. But then.

[TJ Majors]

But the playoff committee and this constant talk about it, then why make. Why did we make that public? We all know that the change is coming, so what is it gonna do anything? It's not gonna make it. We already think this is like a lame duck year anyways. Yeah, I mean, so come on, announce at least fans then. Have some excitement.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, I don't want them to announce it because it's. This is, for lack of a better word, it's like disrespectful to whoever might win this.

[Russell]

Exactly. Because they're gonna go back and say, well, if it was the other format, this guy would.

[TJ Majors]

We're gonna do that anyways.

[Russell]

Yeah, but don't take away from it now. Do it later.

[Dale Jr.]

I don't like that. Look, I don't want to. I don't want to. I do want to talk about the sport. I do want to talk about, like, hot button topics. I want to talk about this, but I do not want it to make a Joey Logano or a Blaney or anybody. Larson, Chase, Elliott. I don't want them to ever feel like that. That means that that championship that they won under whatever format, doesn't matter, is less than.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Make. Let me maybe. Can I say. Can I say this, and it makes sense. This is the hardest way to win a championship. The way we do it today is the hardest, most difficult way to win a championship. To put four guys on the track and you only have one race and it has to go right. Is the odds. Odds are against you in this format, more so than any other, in my opinion. And so I say that to help those guys feel like they achieved something difficult. Is it my favorite way? No. Do I prefer another way? Yes. But it doesn't mean that this. That championship that they've got and that trophy they got in their house isn't as valuable or as neat or as cool or as appreciated as any trophy or championship that was won in the first 50 years of the sport. And so I can appreciate Joey Logano. He is a Hall of Famer. He's a, you know, multi time champion, a true badass, clutch driver. Give him the car, he gets the job done. I've seen him do things that just really set him apart from most of the race car drivers on the racetrack. But. But, yeah, I'm just. I'm having a hard time watching this year's playoff play out. I don't know why you guys feel that same Sort of.

[TJ Majors]

I do like me because I just feel like it's. You're going to see another Penske driver that hasn't done a whole lot. And then Phoenix sets up for him perfectly. And while, yes, winning that one race is harder, but getting there with this format is easier because of the win and you advance and different, like, points resetting.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean that. Yeah. I think the final race is the most difficult way to do it. The most, like, potluck, kind of random. Hope it all goes well.

[Russell]

Hope you get the caution at the right time.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

What could change, like, right now that would make you more interested, like, right now that. What could. What would you change, like, other than just a full points deal? Like, what would get your interest?

[Dale Jr.]

Like, I do like the tire, the fall off. There's a lot. There's a lot. That's, like, one little thing there, but there's so many little things that I wish were different.

[Russell]

The tire has been great.

[Dale Jr.]

The tire has been great.

[Russell]

Again, that.

[Dale Jr.]

That tire this weekend.

[Russell]

Great.

[Dale Jr.]

Love it. So good.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Well done. Good. More of that, please. I'll be honest. Like, this car, you know, I've talked in length about this car on this show. Things about the car physically that I just don't think belongs on the car. Right. And so the underbody and. And all of that stuff.

[Russell]

Camera.

[Dale Jr.]

I would. Dude, I would really tear this car apart and strip it down and.

[Russell]

Do you need this? Do you need that?

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. Get rid of some, especially. Maybe I would not touch it in its current form for, like, the mile and a half and stuff. Maybe a couple things could change as you go forward, but, like, for the car I'm gonna take to Martinsville, I would. It would be like the. The unplugged version, you know, instead of the full band, it'd be the unplugged version of basic. Oh, yeah.

[Russell]

Here you go. You don't need all this extra stuff.

[Dale Jr.]

You don't need all that. It'd be. And it'd be. It'd be so basic and. And dull. You know, it'd be in. You beat the shit out of it. Go out there and beat the. Out of it.

[Russell]

It could look the same. It could look to you on tv.

[Dale Jr.]

Yes, yes. But underneath all the shell.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

We have a much, much leaner, lighter, linear. Yeah. Linear, leaner version. Yeah. You're on it.

[Russell]

I agree. I mean.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. You don't need all that stuff. Yeah. And so.

[Russell]

Would that be beneficial to look at that car and be like, hey. Or, you know, like a real racing These, like, now you can take a road course car and, you know, you can basically take these cars almost anywhere. Remember how we used to have you go over here, your short track cars? Yes. I mean, could you go over here and be like, hey, man, there's two short track cars. They're just cut way back. They don't have all this extra stuff on them.

[Dale Jr.]

And that's your road course car. That's short track.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

So you got a mile and a half super speedway car, two of those, and then you got a couple of. Yeah, I mean, I, I just. There's. You're just.

[Russell]

I'm okay with it.

[Dale Jr.]

You're asking me questions. I'm. I. You know, people say that, you know, where we, where we are on television is a big deal, you know, so that's a conversation to have. How do we find our. How do we make it simpler? Right. To. To find us. What was.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, it was. Vascar took money over.

[Dale Jr.]

That's the position.

[TJ Majors]

Right.

[Dale Jr.]

That's the message on social media from fans is that we're kind of starting to see that we took the best deal financially. But maybe there's some detriments to that. But then you'll hear. And I hear people say, well, we need to be on big network. You know, the CW is doing really well with the Xfinity series. It's easy to find. It's in a lot of households and it's all in the same channel.

[TJ Majors]

And I think another thing that helps is it's right next to NBC, fox, cbs, abc.

[Dale Jr.]

And so some people will tell you, man, we need to be on the big networks then. But then there's other people say, well, you got to go to. You got to be going to streaming. We were late to the party there. We were late to that, you know, so you not. You have people that do think my. Yep. If you were on big Fox every day, you know, every week, you know, just as an example, if you were on that channel all the time, that would. That would be better. And then you have other people saying, well, you got to the stream inside late. You know, if you would have done that sooner or if you would embrace that quicker.

[Russell]

Yeah, both sides.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. And so it's like, what's real, right? What. What do you can. Because you can you put yourself. Can you. Can you go back and put yourself on big network and stay there and succeed while everyone else is going to streaming?

[TJ Majors]

You could.

[Dale Jr.]

Or this.

[TJ Majors]

I think both could be right. But I think what hurts is practice. Qualifying's on one Channel, then the race on another channel. It's just too disjointed.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, that's, that's another part I think that, that, you know, that we're missing is the, the, the build up. Weekly shows, you know, tuning in on a, you know, get home from work, turn on the television and watch 30 minutes to an hour of, of talk conversation around the sport. This, you know, this podcast is, is fun to do, but we need more. We need like a, we need, we need like that pillar show, like RPM tonight, you know.

[Russell]

Yeah, that was a. Yeah, we need.

[Dale Jr.]

That one show that's like the all catch all. And we also, to your point, need practicing qualifying to be.

[Russell]

Storylines.

[Dale Jr.]

Storylines. Yeah, we need a little more.

[Russell]

This guy was fast.

[Dale Jr.]

I know the drivers don't care for more practice.

[Russell]

Yeah, but some do.

[Dale Jr.]

Some do. But it just, it gives you opportunity to like, understand what, what to expect on the race day. And it gives you an opportunity to talk and tell stories and stuff about what, what you could see.

[Russell]

I think it's great. I mean, for storylines, you see who's fast. You talk about a little bit, you see, you struggle and you talk about that. And that's every week.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

You have storylines every week from that?

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, for sure. Well, I don't know. I just was a. I, I got, I, I had a, I can't say it out loud, but I had a really. I had to tell. I had to sit my ass down and turn the TV on. And that took a little more effort.

[TJ Majors]

That's what Gluck said.

[Dale Jr.]

It took a little bit more effort to do it and I didn't like that feeling. And I don't know what that is. And I'm hoping it's just, you know, I'm just looking forward to anticipating next year and what things may look like and how things may be somewhat different. And that's made me feel like it's, you know, having to put a little more effort into sitting down and getting myself in front of the TV to watch the race and follow along.

[Russell]

I will say in person, the roval is entertaining.

[Dale Jr.]

I'm not going to lie. I was, I was entertained by how the 22 and the 1 were sorting that out. And I think only because it's Joey and I'm like, God dang, Joey's gonna do it again. If it had been anybody else, Reddick or whatever in that position, I would have not been given a who went, who went through. So I guess that answers a question for me. Without the playoffs, we don't have that Little moment of excitement. But if it was anybody but Joey, I wouldn't have cared. I would not have cared. I'd been like, okay, whatever, get on into the round debate, whoever that driver is. But it was Joey and Joey's a, Joey's a star. Right. And stars make you care if you like or dislike the star.

[Russell]

Oh, for sure.

[Dale Jr.]

Right. And I think that leans more towards Brad's point of what we're doing is distracting ourselves from creating stars, focusing on stars, you know, when, when you have a different format, you're looking forward toward the front of the field, talking about those people and those, that develops the stars, you know, and that's an interesting point. I'm not sure what's right, but if you have a season long format, you basically start the season with everybody in the bucket at Daytona. And after about 10 races you are talking only about five or six guys. And then that whittles down to four, three, two. And by the time you get the end of the season, you may be talking about two guys, three guys, four guys going for it with a few races left. And that is how you, you basically are putting the, the, the focus on specific individuals for a sustained period of time throughout the year. And those guys typically tend to be the same ones year after year after year. And that does in turn create a star. And so that may not be happening quite as prolifically or quite as easily or as regularly as it used to with the original system we used to have. Interesting thought. I think there's a university somewhere that's in some psychology majors that would be able to help us understand this. Instead of an ad agency coming up with hashtags. We should probably invest money. Yeah, we should maybe invest some money in some studies that would help you to understand like it's not numbers and statistics. We worry too much about playoff points and numbers and how it would work with this number and that number. And we need to really focus more on the fan experience, the emotional ride. And that is not found in a statistical study. But let's get back to the fricking race. The NASCAR playoffs are here and so is your chance to bring the intensity home. Celebrate every pass, pit stop and photo finish with a collectible car from Lionel Racing, the official die cast of nascar. Built for fans who live for the chase, Lionel Racing die casts are the ultimate trophy. Each car is precision crafted, featuring authentic paint schemes and hand applied decals. Plus each 1:24 scale die cast is part of a limited edition run, making every piece a must have for true collectors. Whether you're riding with team Larson, backing team Hamlin, or watching to see if Logano can win it all again, Lionel Racing has a die cast that reps your favorite playoff driver. Now through the end of September, get free US Shipping. When you purchase the Cup Series diecast of a NASCAR playoff driver, just go to lionel racing.com and use the promo code playoffs. That's promo code playoffs@lionel racing.com.

[TJ Majors]

Yo, T.J. see you been walking around with a new phone. Where'd you get that new phone?

[Russell]

Yeah, man, I love this phone. I recently joined a consumer cellular family and they hooked me up, man. I got a great new phone and the service is awesome.

[TJ Majors]

That's great. But like, how's it Iowa, Richmond, some of these other tracks? Because it's great when you're at home, but like when I'm on the road, my phone is crap.

[Russell]

You know, I travel a lot with the RFK16 and I have had nothing but success with this phone. I've actually, it is bailed me out numerous times now. I was able to flip the hotspot on and use some Internet on it. Text, calls, everything. Man, I'm, I'm, I could not be happier with this phone.

[TJ Majors]

All right, so, but how do I go about getting this? Because I don't have time. I'm not trying to go stand in line at a store, wait, grab a number, wait 30 minutes. Like I just don't have time for that.

[Russell]

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[Dale Jr.]

So Denny was unaware of the point situation. He passes Ross. This helps Logano. Gail, his crew chief, told Denny after afterwards that the team was sensitive because at Martinsville last year they had, you know, the race manipulation. So they were careful on what they were saying on the radio. And I've heard, I guess on DBC they said that zillich during the Xfinity race. This his team got warned for merely mentioning what the point situation was during the race. NASCAR was like, no, no, no.

[TJ Majors]

Tj, Is that. Are you guys. Are you allowed to give?

[Russell]

I don't. Haven't never been said. You can't exactly do that. But I don't. It's just somewhere. You just don't let the others.

[Dale Jr.]

I'm not saying I have zero problem. I have zero problem with any spotter saying, here's a point situation. Let's freaking, especially for a playoff driver. And honestly, you know, there's this conversation, there's all these videos. Was Cole Custer not trying to pass the 22? Was. Was. Was Bowman not trying to race the one? Who cares at this point? Who cares? Whatever. I mean, as. I guess as long as it ain't, like, super egregious.

[TJ Majors]

Well, you have cars holding up a car.

[Dale Jr.]

I mean, or guys coming down pit road, like, just blowing their whole race just to get off the track. Yeah. Or a guy spinning out on purpose. Right. And some obvious spin gate from back in the day, that was an obvious thing. They did the detective work, the CSI got the radio calls and all that, and they added it up and said, yeah, that's bull. And I think everybody would agree this stuff here is just what happens.

[TJ Majors]

Like, Denny should be allowed to make the decision.

[Dale Jr.]

He should give me the information. Let me choose.

[Russell]

Yeah, yeah, I agree with that. But I don't. You just don't mess with it because you don't. You don't want to get in trouble. So I don't. Anyway.

[TJ Majors]

Well, then you got.

[Dale Jr.]

You're not going to. You can't police it because there's conversations that happen during the week. I don't know that this happened, but let's just imagine every. All the guys in the Chevrolet world probably had some conversation at some point about what the situation was with each Chevrolet driver in the playoffs. And, you know, you can't police this stuff, so it doesn't bother me. Doesn't bother me. I mean, as long as it don't get to that egregious point where, you know, it's obvious and they're just like, hey, don't pass this guy. Get behind this guy. Hey, come on down pit road. Why just come down pit road, you.

[Russell]

Know, so is Last year the 12 pushing the 22 at Vegas? Is that obvious? Bother me, yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Harry Gant ran out of gas at Talladega. One lap to go for, like, he was going to run out for like, the last five laps at about, you know, probably a second or two slower lap. Rick Mast pushed Harry Gann around the track, pushed him, you know, at probably A, you know, a decreased speed of maybe 10, 15, 20 mile an hour and Harry wins race. No, I cared.

[TJ Majors]

Now, do you think, though, some people might say that's to prevent what happened at Martinsville, though, you have to place it the way they are now, because how do you judge that line?

[Dale Jr.]

And if someone went too far, it is a judgment. There's no line. There won't be a line in this situation. It's just got. If it, you know, if it feels like it's, you know what I'm saying? If it feels awful, it's awful. So, I mean, it's like, all right, was that too much? No, it didn't bother me. And honestly, this is one of those deals where I think people are going to have to just lay back and let the. Whatever the person that's in charge of this, or it's probably a group conversation at NASCAR when they get back on Monday and they read all the script and see what every spotter said. They all kind of probably get together with about a handful of people in the room and go, do we hate this or don't we? And we just got to live with their interpretation of was it too much? And I'm okay with that. I'm all right with it. There's no clear, like, way to make sure this is cut and dried and black and white. And that's fine. That's one of them situation. It's kind of like balls and strikes. Every umpire sees it differently. This will be the same way for me. Maybe sometimes they may. They may rule too leniently, or maybe sometimes they may rule too aggressively. And it is what it is. Watch the game. Monday Night Football game last night, there was a bunch of play, you know, pass interference calls. Don't get me.

[Russell]

Oh, I know. Well, that's the Chiefs, buddy.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, it, you know, it. It happens. The game carries on, and you. You accept the result at the end of the day. Ross, Rex Denning. There's a question here. I've got to read it. Should NASCAR have penalized Ross for that move? Is that really a why question?

[Russell]

Well, this is because it was Denny and.

[TJ Majors]

No, no, I mean, is that it?

[Dale Jr.]

Who.

[TJ Majors]

Because if that move works, who brought.

[Dale Jr.]

Who would. Who would have thought of such a thing?

[Russell]

Well, so if the move works, what's wrong with it?

[Dale Jr.]

No, no, no. Who is out there asking this question besides this piece of paper?

[TJ Majors]

Well, I mean, Denny said that if that. Jared asked Denny if that move worked. Jared, should Denny, should NASCAR have penalized Ross? He's going in there and Just wrecking. I mean what's the. What's that different from Austin Dylan and.

[Dale Jr.]

Richard in the car store? That's a. That that gets penalized.

[Russell]

So only if the other comes out.

[Dale Jr.]

Nope. A guy Connor hall got wrecked.

[Russell]

Oh that's right.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Because if not then you're basically telling driver to just send it in there if he's needs that point and well.

[Russell]

That'S no different that that corner is no different than any other corner on the circuit earlier in the year. That one point like if you get.

[Dale Jr.]

Mood Ricky Rudd got Ricky Rudd Davey Allison at Sonoma.

[TJ Majors]

I think there's a difference between going in there and racing aggressive and Ross was saying it. I'm going in there.

[Dale Jr.]

If that had it. It was a zero chance. But if that had worked and he did get through a bit, NASCAR would have penalized him.

[TJ Majors]

So why not make a statement or penalize Ross on Sunday for what? For that move anyways. Should the result matter? If we're saying if it worked then.

[Russell]

He did the same thing at Kansas.

[TJ Majors]

But if it worked and you're saying he'll penalize him then why not penalize him for it? It's still not working. He still did it.

[Dale Jr.]

I think NASCAR is trying to avoid being the bad guy there.

[TJ Majors]

This is the perfect time to do it though.

[Dale Jr.]

No it ain't because you're not going to. There ain't no world aside from Denny Bros. And I don't mean I'm serious. There's nobody that would appreciate NASCAR doing that except for the Denny Bros. There's nobody. If NASCAR penalized him for trying to go for it and it even in a failed attempt they would catch so much.

[Russell]

Why they have the playoffs. They want situations like this. Right?

[Dale Jr.]

That's true.

[Russell]

They want these drama filled.

[Dale Jr.]

I'm just. They would catch.

[TJ Majors]

Then why are we penalizing him if it works?

[Dale Jr.]

That's what I'm assuming they would. We don't know they will you.

[TJ Majors]

But you. You said you would penalize.

[Dale Jr.]

I would.

[TJ Majors]

So then why don't we penalize.

[Dale Jr.]

I don't think anyways because I don't want to.

[Russell]

I don't think they penalize him.

[Dale Jr.]

But I get. I mean it's. That's the only way I can answer that question is if I'm in the. If I'm NASCAR and he did that and it worked, I'd penalize him. If he. If he did it and it failed, I wouldn't penalize him. That's. Sorry.

[TJ Majors]

So I think this is the perfect time for NASCAR to do it. Because Ross didn't advance, I don't think.

[Dale Jr.]

It would be popular. And I think NASCAR needs to try understand how to avoid doing unpopular things. It's.

[Russell]

Why are you penalizing him again? Because he's going for it.

[TJ Majors]

Because he's just going, what's the difference between this and Austin Dillon wrecking Austin Dillon.

[Dale Jr.]

Right.

[Russell]

Hooked again.

[Dale Jr.]

That's true. I think NASCAR did say they were fine with the first move.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

He writes, second move.

[TJ Majors]

You're just opening your. I think you're opening yourself up for future stuff like this.

[Russell]

I don't think you should change it. I think. I don't think part of the suspense and drama is.

[Dale Jr.]

I think there's a. I think there's measure. You know, there's a measured approach to these type of things. NASCAR won't really step in there until. Unless it's truly over the line and, you know, think of the hill. Mellon.

[Russell]

That's what I was thinking.

[Dale Jr.]

Martinsville. Right. Exciting. Awesome one. Once in a lifetime. Kind of like, holy cow, can't believe he did that. What kind of guts did it take to do it? NASCAR didn't love having to step in and say, hey, we're going to make this illegal, but we probably should because it was dangerous for him to put himself in that situation. He even talked about how painful it was to run the wall like that. Do we need drivers, like, putting themselves in physical harm trying to do whatever it might take? There are some limitations. And I look at this the same way. Hey, I think, you know, it was a. It was a move. The only Ross Chase Chastain is going to probably try to make, maybe Josevar, some other guys maybe do this, but most guys aren't. Most guys are going to go, hey, I'm too far behind. I'm not going to go. If I plow in there, I'm taking us both out. I'm going to miss the corner and probably get penalized some, you know, 30 seconds or whatever that penalty is. So I'm not doing it.

[Russell]

I don't think it's worth messing with.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, a lot of guys. Yeah. And so I think, I guess if it had worked, then NASCAR would say, ooh, we don't need to encourage it. You know, we believe that, you know, 90% of our drivers wouldn't have tried this. If it fails, then we can look the other way.

[Russell]

I don't think you mess with it. Yeah, I don't either, and I don't think you penalize them either.

[Dale Jr.]

So the playoff standings going into the next race, Vegas Talladega Martinsville. The final round before the final race. Hamlin, Blaney, Larson, Byron, all above the cut line at plus 8 to plus 4. And then Bell, Chase Elliott, Briscoe, Logano, and this is interesting, Bell's minus four, and I think early in the season we had him as a favorite. Chase Elliott's minus 14. Briscoe also minus 14. They got a little work to do. And Logano minus 24. I think any of these guys could do it.

[TJ Majors]

What kind of finishes do you need to, like, average to give yourself a chance, you think?

[Russell]

Depends on. I mean, Joey's going to need to average way better than the other guys. But let's say, like, Denny and. Denny and Blaney are just going to go out there and take stage points in the first two stages and see where they end up in the final stage. They're not really, probably going to throw Hail Mary for a win. I would say those guys are looking anywhere from, you know, fifth to tenth if they could get. Yeah, I'd say fifth to seventh in that area. If you can get anything better than that, it's great. But, yeah, Joey's gonna have to. Joey's gonna have to do some creative things, and Paul's gonna. Paul's gonna be doing. He's gonna be doing the opposite probably at some point to try to get a win. You know, he's gonna put Joey up there in the top five, just like he did at Kansas. Yeah, he's gonna put Joey up there in the top five at some point on a disadvantage and say, joey, I need you to hang on here. And Joey's going to get the caution. Fifteen laps later, and they're all going to come up, hit road, and next.

[Dale Jr.]

Thing you know, tires.

[Russell]

Yeah, well, he's going to. He's just going to be. Do something different. He's got to, at this point, I think.

[Dale Jr.]

I mean, I. Anybody could get in there, any of these eight, and then we'll go. We'll go to Phoenix. I see some of your notes here, T.J. you're talking about the cup. Old school points. William Byron would be leading with the original point format. Blaney would be -27, Larson -35, and Christopher Bell -46. Chase Elliot at -64, and Denny -78. 100 points out in seventh will be Chase Briscoe. I'd say that still is alive, you know, 100 out.

[Russell]

I do, too.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, pretty. Pretty tight little battle. Hey, everybody, you want the latest Dale Jr. Download apparel? Visit shop.dirtymomedia.com we're always adding new stuff all the time. Especially like when we say something silly on this show. We'll put it on a T shirt again. Check it out at shop.dirtymomedia.com Trimble is the technology company that connects your physical and digital world so industries like transportation and geospatial can get hard work done faster than ever. Every day brings new challenges, decisions, adjustments, real time moments that matter. With Trimble on your team, you're in command of purpose built tech ecosystems and connected solutions that keep work flowing end to end. Turn data points into decision points, deadlines into finish lines and possibilities into profits. Check out what Trimble can do for [e-mail] because with Trimble, you can act smarter, move faster and lead with confidence. Trimble confidence at every turn. You know, there's a lot of people that want to get rid of the stage cautions, but they don't mind you. I don't think a large majority of people mind them giving them points. Love it. Yeah. But if you don't have this, I guess if you don't have the cautions. So the only, the thing that I, the only thing that I really like about the stages, I don't give a. About the points. I don't care if they give them or don't give them. It makes no difference to me. What I like is that guys will flip stages.

[Russell]

Yeah. Cycles the order a little bit.

[Dale Jr.]

It puts. Maybe a fast guy is going to go, all right. I'm taking the chance to win this race and I'm gonna go back in the field for a little bit. And then you get to see him try to work through the field. Right. Trying to get back toward the front. All this sort of, all this playing out. Right. That's what I like about the stages. And if you take the yellows out, that goes away.

[Russell]

And if you take any, like you have to pay something for it because if you don't have a reward for the stages, everyone's gonna do the same strategy. We're all gonna pit at the same lap. You know what I mean?

[Dale Jr.]

I think in most. But don't you. Don't you think though, TJ that if you took the stage cautions out, then at a lot of these tracks you can't afford to flip the stage. You're putting yourself a lap down hoping for a yellow that might not come?

[Russell]

Well, if you take the cautions out completely. Yeah. I mean you're gonna. It's gonna make it a little bit different. I think you're taking plate races well, no one's.

[Dale Jr.]

That's fine, but no one's gonna. If they take the cautions out, then.

[Russell]

Just pay the stage points.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, but why do you need to do that? Because nobody's gonna. You pay the stage points now. Right. And you have the caution. And it does have this opportunity to sort of flip the field a little.

[Russell]

Bit at some tracks. Not everywhere. Yes.

[TJ Majors]

And you get the restart, which gives you action.

[Dale Jr.]

So if you take the caution out, then don't. What's the point of giving the points? I don't even see how that matters anymore.

[Russell]

I don't know if you.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, I mean, you can still give points, but it's like, yeah, okay, I guess. I mean, I don't. I don't. I have just more math for me to do. As a fan.

[Russell]

I. I think if you're doing stages, you got to do some points because that gives a. That does cycle thing. It gives more incentive to try to do that and be off the wall a little bit.

[Dale Jr.]

And.

[Russell]

And it does cycle.

[Dale Jr.]

But if you take the cautions away.

[Russell]

Just let it run out.

[Dale Jr.]

And so people are saying, you know, I, I don't like the cautions. I don't like the stages. And basically taking the cautions out basically ends the stage era as we know it.

[Russell]

Yep.

[Dale Jr.]

You're just going to be given some points at certain points in the race. And it's similar to, like, you know, they used to have a halfway challenge, but it was cash.

[Russell]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

You're racing for some money.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

But. Yeah, I don't know. I just don't know if the points. If you need the points, if you take the cautions out, do you really need to leave the points and have them points available? And does it. Would it make people race differently? Probably not. Because they can't come. You can't flip a stage anymore. The caution, knowing the cautions coming allows you the chance to do some things. If, say, you get a yellow, everybody's coming down pit road anyway. I mean, hopefully.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

I mean, you're not gonna stay out to win the stage points if there's. For a yellow that's not. Yellow is not coming.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. So I mean, changes everything. The points really become obsolete.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. So I don't know what happens with that. That's one conversation that's not really happening is what. What if anything happens to stages. Right.

[Russell]

Yeah. Haven't heard anything about it. I don't mind the stages, honestly.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. It.

[Russell]

There's multiple strategies.

[Dale Jr.]

A lot of people that don't like them. You Know, in the conversation around of where's our. Where's our viewers went and what will bring them back.

[Russell]

You think Stages is up there?

[Dale Jr.]

A lot of people don't like them. I don't know. I don't know. Stages don't really bother me that bad.

[Russell]

They don't bother me.

[Dale Jr.]

Nothing really. Nothing really. Nothing is just outright awful. Just a lot of little stuff. I'll tell you too, man. I think the lawsuit is wearing on.

[TJ Majors]

Some folks and then I think a lot of fans are just frustrated and then the reports are coming out and you're like, can a reporter just put this in dummy terms for me?

[Dale Jr.]

Well, that's easy. Just ask your AI.

[TJ Majors]

But yeah, it's just. Yeah, I think all fans want it to be done.

[Dale Jr.]

There's somebody in the comments that has. That is going to go, hey, tell me what this means. AI and whatever, you know, whatever AI tool you're using. And I go read that and it's like, okay, but do you think that possibly the lawsuit and it dragging on his turn turns people off?

[Russell]

I would say yeah, it's getting old, I guess. I mean, yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

So with that said, there was a. A group of owners wrote letters in. Not so much in NASCAR's defense, but I think NASCAR was hoping these would be in NASCAR's defense, like, and maybe NASCAR, you know, I think there was an intent by NASCAR to get the team owners to sort of say, we're kind of on their side. Right, with this whole deal. But a lot of teams avoided that in the wording of their. Of their letters that they wrote. And they basically just said, hey, we want the charter system to stick around. It's very important. I now have this entity I can sell that I didn't have before. And so it opened up the door, I guess, for 2311 and front row to say, hey, these letters say everything that we've already said that, you know, I. Nine of the 13 charter teams submitted signed declarations and basically both sides argued that that was positive for each one. NASCAR thought it was good for the teams to come out and say that the charter system is good, but no one I don't believe would step in and actually say, you know, where with NASCAR on this. No. And I think NASCAR was kind of hoping that might be the end messaging, you know, summary.

[TJ Majors]

The message basically says, like, can you guys please figure this out because we don't want our business screwed up.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. And I think there's real fear. So if I had to guess, if I had to guess, I think there is Some concern that this is not. This is actively, as we speak, been detrimental to the success of nascar. It's turned a bunch of people off. I think it's turning a bunch of people away. It is not done NASCAR or it's not done either side any favors. It's kind of gotten. It's gotten a little ugly and personal at times that it's not been a great look at certain times for both sides. And I'm on the boat that absolutely wishes this would get settled soon. It just. Everybody's tired of. Of this. And, And I don't. I don't know what. I don't know what it would take to get both sides happy. I think everybody's got their heels dug in and there's some pride and some ego involved. And I don't know. You know, I just feel like there's also. In the past 24 hours, there's been. NASCAR has kind of came out and said that they are absolutely willing to settle and that they would like for there to be a judge appointed to some sort of. A judge that would help both sides come to some sort of agreement.

[Russell]

Meet in the middle.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

A mediator.

[Dale Jr.]

I'm not sure, though. So apparently they've had. As recent as August, they've had conversations about settling, but the mediator has been someone that 2311 is very favorable of, and that's been their response to this. So NASCAR came out and said, we're open to a settlement. We'd like to have a judge appointed. Mediator 2311 responded saying, we also are open to a settlement, but we already have a mediator. We don't want a different one. And having a judge come in would need to have to relearn this entire case would likely not result in. In an agreement. And so what?

[Russell]

Doesn't sound like this is going to reach an agreement either.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, this doesn't sound like it's going anywhere. And I'll. I'm wondering too, if NASCAR didn't just remind it was this, Was this, Was this more. Was this really nothing more than NASCAR going. By the way, we do want a settlement if that, you know, not, not that we think one's going to happen, but we just want people to know that we're. We're. We're not against the settlement.

[TJ Majors]

I think that's a big thing. Is public perception.

[Dale Jr.]

Public perception, for sure.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

And so, you know, it's just a reminder, I think more than anything of, by the way, like, you know, we're not over here. We will settle under the Right. Terms. Right. We're totally down with that. Not not even expecting it to happen, but just so that the public knows and that maybe could, that, that could be what this is. We're going to have a chance to know more here in a couple of days. But I thought that was pretty interesting initially. Right out of the gate my hopes got up that it could be a good move in the right direction. Like, oh man, maybe finally we can get this over with. But the more then you see 2311's response and it doesn't sound like that they can even agree on how to come to terms with a conversation to settle. Right. Not only can we not agree on the lawsuit and a settlement, we can't agree on how to have that conversation.

[Russell]

But I can't. You can't. Like I, I kind of agree with nascar. I don't you want to have someone that's in the middle completely. Right. If you're having a media, you're supposed to be in the middle, not one sided.

[TJ Majors]

Well, that's NASCAR saying that the mediator is not in the middle though.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, where's the response from 23:11?

[Russell]

If they say they already have a mediator, that tells me that, you know, could that not. If it does favor them already, that's not really a mediator to me.

[TJ Majors]

Well, how so how do we know though that the mediator's favoring one side versus the other?

[Russell]

I mean, I don't pull up the response. Please think you do.

[Dale Jr.]

But they had previous settlement conversations in August with former chief legal officer of the NBA serving as the appointed mediator.

[Russell]

And the NBA definitely not going to be one side there a little bit.

[Dale Jr.]

And so despite, and this is from 2311, I believe despite the best efforts of that mediator, they were unable to resolve the matter and they met continuously, numerous times. It appears that if they continue any mediation efforts, 2311 wants that NBA appointed mediator to stay on.

[Russell]

I hope it comes to a settlement.

[Dale Jr.]

I don't see how it's going to.

[TJ Majors]

Do that, but I don't know how.

[Dale Jr.]

I don't see how. I don't see how. And I think as long as it keeps going, I think it's, you know, it's definitely not helping. It feels a lot like what a work stoppage or something like that would be like, you know, for like Major League Baseball or Strike. This feels like it's doing the detrimental things that something like that does to a sport. This feels like it's doing the same thing. Does that make sense?

[Russell]

Yeah, I mean I know what you mean. Just a cloud that needs to go away.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. All right. Well, as unfun as that is to talk about, it's definitely what's happening in the sport today.

[Russell]

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[TJ Majors]

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[Dale Jr.]

All right. So joining us today on the call in is race winner SVG coming out of the Roval. Another big win in what's been an incredible season for you this far. But I honestly want to talk more about the performance on the ovals over the last couple of weeks or the last couple of oval trips. Man, things seem to be really starting to come together. I know that's got you excited, especially going into Vegas. Talk about how the past couple of weeks, what's been the difference maker for you to be able to get the car more comfortable and you to understand what you need.

[Steve O'Donnell]

Yeah, well, hey guys. Yeah, it's been an awesome few weeks turning it around, getting better. And we had a pretty rough playoff run for whatever reason. And then, yeah, got to New Hampshire and I don't know, it just started clicking again and had some speed and we were running inside the top 10, which is awesome. And before we spun out and then Kansas just seemed to keep building on it and yeah, confidence was there and had some good battling and coming back through the field was a lot of fun. Had some good racing and just, yeah, amazing to be competitive and to be confident to move around and yeah. And then the Roval obviously capped off a pretty good three weeks for us.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, for sure. You know, I think, I don't know when everybody expected you to start to figure out the ovals, but I thought, you know, if you're given the time that you would eventually, you know, have some, have some moments where we'd start to see the progress. You know, I, is this, is this a situation of where you almost wish the season would continue or are you ready for, you know, for the end and an opportunity to sort of hit the reset button and get, get ready for 20, 26?

[Steve O'Donnell]

Yeah, I guess, you know, it's, it's a long, grueling year. Like you see all the team guys, it's obviously good this week. Everyone's pretty upbeat still, but it's a long year for these teams so they're ready for a holiday. But for us drivers, I love it. I race every week if I could, but yeah, I think it's, it's just been good to get some momentum and yeah, I feel like I'm really still learning a lot every week, so a break will be good, but I could keep going too. It's a lot of fun.

[Dale Jr.]

What do you do with the break that allows you the opportunity to sort of, you know, be able to continue to seamlessly improve and get to where you want to go going into next year. What will you do this off season?

[Steve O'Donnell]

I just keep studying as much as I can. We got good continuity with our team and crew chief spotter. Everyone's staying on, so that's really going to help. And yeah, I'll have a good little holiday in New Zealand, do some racing over there and some old cars and stuff. And then, yeah, come back here, start getting ready. The season will come around pretty quick again, I bet.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

Sprint car. Doing any sprint?

[Steve O'Donnell]

No, no sprint cars this year, unfortunately. It's just. I'm only going for two weeks or so and, yeah, it'll be time off.

[Dale Jr.]

What are you gonna drive over there?

[Steve O'Donnell]

We're doing our big paddock race. You do with our friends, so that's probably the big race building. We build up old cars and go racing and spend a couple of days in a paddock.

[Russell]

Is this official? Is this official or just like, you know, just run with you?

[Steve O'Donnell]

We think it is, but it's not.

[Dale Jr.]

So. I know you've been on iracing a lot and I'm a big fan of iracing and kind of wonder how much you might attribute your. Your growth and progress to racing online, even at home.

[Steve O'Donnell]

Yeah, so I do quite a lot. I've always done it for years and. Yeah, race, race with some friends on there and I kind of stopped for a while and. Yeah, but I find it really good. I find the Team Sims are really good, but you don't get to race anyone. Getting to race on our racing and you can race Joe racing in his underwear on the other side of the country and you'll be smoking here or whatever, you know, like, it's crazy, the talent that's on our racing and. But the battling is awesome. And yeah, I find. I find it's a really good tool, racing. And I try and do it, you know, once a week or something on a night, and it's pretty fun.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, the. The round coming up, we have Vegas and then Martinsville and Talladega. You know, what is your. I guess of those three tracks, which the one you're looking forward to the most?

[Steve O'Donnell]

I don't know. It's a pretty big contrast of tracks, isn't it?

[Dale Jr.]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Steve O'Donnell]

Probably the mile And a half are the ones I'm still not the most comfortable with. So hopefully we keep building on Kansas at Vegas this week and keep learning there. But yeah, I enjoy the super speedways, but I haven't got a good result there yet. So hopefully I go good at Talladega and, and get a finish, you know.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, I thought, Yeah, I thought your approach to, to speedway racing was really good. When you were in the first year in the Xfinity series, you weren't a guy that you just kind of sit there and let everybody make moves and you just kind of. You kind of took ownership of what you had and took what came easy and you'd end up with a relatively good result. Now, when you go to Martinsville, we. I've seen some guys with, I'll just, you know, A.J. almendinger comes to mind, but guys that have a ton of talent on road courses tend to not find Martinsville to be that foreign to them. Explain that to me why you feel like maybe Martinsville might have been one of the ovals. I suppose that came more natural.

[Steve O'Donnell]

Yeah, I guess because you got more of a downshift and you know, you got a bit more technique with your braking and how, how you can use your tools with the brake bias, the gear change and how you get the car into the corner so you can kind of influence it a little more as a driver. Unlike a big oval. But yeah, still pretty difficult. You still see the regular oval drivers that are amazing there and you know, it's a, it's a tough track. I got a decent result there last year. I think I got a 12.

[Dale Jr.]

Yep.

[Steve O'Donnell]

With some strategy and we did our pace last year, but then a wheel fell off. Sorry to start of this year.

[Russell]

Yeah, no fun.

[Steve O'Donnell]

That wasn't good. That wasn't good. But yeah, it's a, it's a crazy race. I, I enjoy racing there until the end of the stages or the end of the race when everyone just loses their minds in the normal, in the normal racing. I find it a really fun track.

[Russell]

Is it different than Xfinity when you. Is the cup race a little bit different than Xiny racer? Because I remember an interview you did after the Xfinity race. You were like, you know, that, that was kind of rude of that guy. How they kind of get at the end.

[Steve O'Donnell]

Oh, man, I didn't even need breaks in that last green light kicker in Xfinity. I was. That was one of my first, first oval, short track oval here that last year. And just the disrespect people had for their equipment was pretty eye opening.

[Russell]

That's a good way to put it. I mean, that's a very good way to put it.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Steve O'Donnell]

But it's fun. I feel like the cup guys race with a lot more respect, you know, and. And there's a bit of toing and froing with the tyre wear and stuff now. So. Yeah, I think it's. I think it's a bit better racing there.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, talk about that. I know that, you know, in the V8 supercar stuff, there's definitely degradation and if you don't take care of the tire, you can suffer on drive and all those things. On the long run, you gotta be pretty smart, but you still drove the shit out of those things. From what it looked like on television, the tire that we've been able to sort of develop and bring along this year, particularly this past weekend, tons of fall off, tons of wear. You had to be really careful. How serious, I suppose, was your own concerns late in the race with tire degradation and trying to keep the rear tires on the car?

[Steve O'Donnell]

Yeah, it's funny, you're driving and would start a stint doing a 28, 128, you know, and you could do a 26 if you wanted, but you'd be in the 30s pretty quick.

[Russell]

So I don't think everybody could do that.

[Steve O'Donnell]

You know, there's a few fast cars, but, you know, it's. It's odd.

[Dale Jr.]

You.

[Steve O'Donnell]

Obviously it makes good racing cars coming and going, but you don't want to make it too much of a tire conservation where everyone's just, you know, moping around at half speed trying to save tires. So I think the amount of tires we had and how much fall off there was, there was two stoppers, three stoppers and stuff like that. I think that keeps it interesting. But I felt like you could still push and make moves and, you know, the start of stage three, those guys went way harder and passed me and then they paid for the price for it later.

[Russell]

So, yeah, that was a question for me. Did you. When the 5 and 20 got a little aggressive there, kind of got by you and two there and. And you kind of let them go. What was your mindset right there? Did you know you. How you. You had them back or.

[Steve O'Donnell]

Oh, that was later on. Nah, Carl. Carl did a pretty good move and put me in the marble. So, yeah, between one and two, he just went half throttle to try and put the 20 in between us. And it was actually a really good move by him and pushed Me into the marble. Quite smart racing. Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Does the, I guess, you know, now that you're. How much. How physical would the racing be in New Zealand and Australia? Comparable. So is. You know, I know when you came over here, you were kind of taken aback by how ridiculous things could get at some of the end of these races, particularly like your first coda experience in turn one on the late restart, things like that. But what happened with Kyle at the, at the. At the Roval, that to me is like, I love seeing that. I like contact a little, you know, just within respect. Right. And I think Kyle really enjoyed that little exchange. What are you thinking when that's going down and, you know, are you having as much fun as we think he is? Yeah.

[Steve O'Donnell]

Oh, I, I loved it and I started it by giving a Little Tap at 7 by accident and he just swerved right down onto me and then it was on, you know. Yeah, he kept bumping me wide and I'm all for that. You know, I brought it on by starting it accidentally, but then it got rough and then once I caught him later, I, I passed him. But yeah, like some of the other stuff you see going on in the field, like the hosts of our thing or, Or Daniel, even at the last corner, you'd get crucified for that at home. But really I like it here because you kind of. With Kyle and I, it sorts itself out, you know, and it's, it's respectful afterwards and, you know, you had a hard race and it's between you guys, there's nothing, you know, he wasn't going to grandstand me or I wasn't going to do the same to him. But you race hard and fair because it's for a race win. So. Yeah, I really enjoy the style of racing here and there's obviously a line that can be crossed sometimes, but I feel like everyone I've been against has raced me hard but fair.

[Russell]

What is that line getting spun out virtually or breaking, you know, breaking a tow link or something or, you know, damaging the car where they can't continue?

[Steve O'Donnell]

Yeah, like you could, you know, Carl could easily put me in the wall after we, you know, I passed me and he just gave me those little bumps, you know. But yeah, there's some guys, you know, that would do silly things and they have no questions about it. It's. But yeah, most guys in the field, I race there, you know, to race clean around them and they'll give you the same back.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, for sure. Well, man, it's a lot of fun to see I know just four weeks and the season will be over with and we'll all be having to wait for the next one to start. But have a lot of fun over the next four weeks enjoying the remainder of this year, bud. And thanks for giving us some time today.

[Steve O'Donnell]

Thanks, guys.

[TJ Majors]

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[Travis]

Yeah, Travis, you know, I think mental health is so important, you know, in therapy and just understanding yourself, where your anxieties come from, being able to process your thoughts, that I think is so valuable. I've found a lot of benefit in that.

[TJ Majors]

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Our listeners get 10% off the first [e-mail] dalejr that's betterhelp.com dalejr.

[Dale Jr.]

This episode of Ask Junior is brought to you by Xfinity. A new read from Xfinity today. This is important so we'll, we'll all, we'll all listen. Over the past 11 years, the Xfinity series has grown into something very special. Xfinity has backed young drivers helping tell their stories and given them a shot at making it to the cup series. And they've brought you the fan along for the ride. Through amazing content, giveaways and access you just don't get anywhere else. Now, the series name might be changing, but Xfinity, they're not going anywhere. Eleven years, one incredible ride and the next lap is going to be just as good. So I love to hear it. Kind of wondering what Xfinity may be doing next or where they may start to focus some of their marketing in the sport. We'll all be eager to see what that looks like going forward. But, yeah, the, I had a really unique opportunity to work in hand in hand with the series sponsor, ironically, Nationwide, that sponsored this, the series before Xfinity did Nationwide, would, you know, they shepherd the series, basically, in a way, and they make it their own. And we in turn, like, call it the Xfinity series. And that gets ingrained in your head. Right? So this change will be abrupt, but, you know, we'll, we'll move forward and have that same experience with the new sponsor. O'Reilly. So, but, you know, they, they are, you know, they are a, they sponsor race cars. They sponsor here. They do, they do other things to sort of ingrain themselves into the sport. But the partners, the big partners like, like Xfinity, that support as a series sponsor are, are to really be appreciated because they, they're, they're spinning a big check. They're writing a big check for that opportunity to be the title sponsor of a series. And as a series owner, knowing what that does and what good that does for the series, I can, I can, I can really appreciate Xfinity and all of our past sponsors that have been titled sponsors for the cup series. Xfinity, the trucks, you got to have them, you know, and it was concerning, I think, when we went to cup and they started, you know, we went, we went away from that one, one big model to, like, all these different ones. You have like four or five different partners doing it. It's a little nervous about that, but anyhow, very thankful for Xfinity and what they've done for the series that we race in. And, yeah, it'll be just like it was with Bush, Nationwide and now Xfinity. It'll be, it'll be tough getting used to a new, a new sound and a new way of, you know, a new way of saying it or describing the series. But you love to have partners like this that are long term. Yeah, they did a good job.

[Travis]

A lot of great people over at.

[Dale Jr.]

Xfinity, too, we've gotten to know over the years.

[Travis]

But let's get to some of the questions from Xfinity. Ash Jr. The most common one I saw was people wanted to know, how did your race go at Tri county this past weekend?

[Dale Jr.]

We had really good speed in practice and, like, really good speed. I'd never raced there before and it's got really good asphalt, a lot of grip. So I don't typically like to go to those racetracks or I don't, I don't. I like the old wore out slow tracks. But I was like, all right, we're going to go do this. And, and man, I thought we were really good. And then we put on our tires for qualifying and they did not feel like the same tires that I practiced on. And that's kind of a theme, I guess, in going on right now in short track racing is, is just, you know, kind of is a bit of some consistency issues at times with the tires. But, you know, I've drove race cars all my life and no two sets of tires ever acted exactly the same. You know, even back in the day when we were racing cup full time, gosh, every set you put on changed the balance of the car some way somehow. But when the race began, I was really loose. We were so good in practice and when the race started, we were way too loose. And this tire, the way this tire works, it doesn't really wear out, but it gets hot, it gets mad. That right rear got pissed off after about 10 laps. And then I was kind of limited to only being able to do what I could do and I moved forward. We started 24th or something like that, and we got up around 15th or so, but I just got too loose and couldn't really make more progress. We got caught up in an accident. We had the left front, the left front suspension fall off the car. I think we've been a few things also in that crash, but we worked on it and worked on it, worked on it. Come up down pit road a bunch and finally got the balance reasonable at the end. Finished 12th. Not awesome, not terrible, just kind of okay. But I had a blast. I had a lot of fun and I'm kind of. I kind of wish I could do another one this year, but I don't have a race on the schedule, but I wish I could go run one more.

[Travis]

Looking at some of the YouTube comments, we want to thank Tina. She's. She wanted to let you know that she's buying a Sunrise orange truck from your dealership.

[Dale Jr.]

Wow. Awesome. Yeah, we have a. Yeah, we have a Chevrolet and a Cadillac Buick GMC store in Tallahassee. It's actually two stores. They're about five miles apart. We have a great, we have a great crew down there rocking and rolling. We've been rocking and rolling on those stores for a couple years now. They have. That's been A lot of fun. So, yeah, if you're looking for a. If you're looking for a new car or used car, you can go to hendrickcars.com and they will find exactly what you're looking for, and they will bring it to you. That's. You know, I don't. People probably think, you know, what's the big deal? I remember I worked at dealerships for all of my life, been around them all my life. And I remember when you didn't get cars delivered, you go. You go to the dealership and you bought it and you drove it off the lot.

[TJ Majors]

Whatever colors they had there, that's what you were stuck with. You couldn't get the color.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. You can't. They didn't search around in their inventory all over the country like hendrickcars.com does, and. Oh, well, we got. What. So this. This new truck I bought. I said I bought it from my store. It actually come from Charleston. Oh, yeah. So there's the idea. When you listen, I think. I think this is how it works. I really don't know.

[Travis]

They trade, don't they?

[Dale Jr.]

Nope.

[Travis]

No.

[Dale Jr.]

Basically, Rick owns their Chevrolet stores. It's not just Rick. There's Chevrolet stores all over the country. But when you're going on to hendrickcars.com they'll sell you the truck or the car, whatever you want, and they'll find it from wherever store it is, and they'll have it sent.

[Russell]

Right?

[Dale Jr.]

Right.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

And so you're buying it from your store, but it actually might have physically been at a different place. Right. And so just gives people more options and stuff. Yeah. That's not how they worked for years. You know, stores were independently owned. There was no Internet. There was no, like, sort of web of being able to, like, hey, you know, if. If the Chevrolet store in the other town had the vehicle you wanted, you had to go over to him to buy it.

[Russell]

You had to call over there and ask.

[Dale Jr.]

They weren't gonna send it to the other store and be like, here's the enemy.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, they're the enemy. Yeah. So it's kind of neat how it works.

[Travis]

Now, this next question is from Patty. She heard there's a story where I guess your dad's pet deer named Apple almost killed Neil Bonnet once.

[Dale Jr.]

Not Apple. Pistol.

[Travis]

Not Apple. Pistol. Okay. What's the story behind that?

[Dale Jr.]

I guess I was about 22 years old. 20. Neil Bonnet was dad's best friend. Best friend. And when Neil come around, he talked to you, but he didn't talk to me much. You know, nobody really talked to me all that much. That guy, you know, that. That. That generation, they weren't back slappers. They didn't come in the room, go, hey, Dale junior. What you been doing, man? Hey, good to see you. He just was. He'd say, hey, how you been? Good. Okay. And that was that. And that was about all he's gonna get on that visit. But he was in town, and he was. He was gonna fish in Dad's lake while he waited on dad to finish up something. Dad was busy up in the office. And so Neil goes down, grabs fishing rod, goes down to the lake and is fishing, and he's down there. And dad had this. Dad had a lot of deer on his property, but he had this one called Pistol that had been hit by a car and raised by humans. Yep. And it was now an adult deer. And it had this. Its nose was broken, like, severely bent, and one side of its rack was all messed up from the accident from years ago. But this deer and I had played with this deer, like, when it was a smaller deer and just had a little spike rack, you know, he'd come up and rub on your leg, and you could pet him, and he'd come right around you like a dog. But as he got older and he started to mature, he got a little more physical. He'd get rougher, harder pushing, hitting on you and stuff. And eventually dad, you know, kind of shooed him away from the house so much, you know, and was like, get out there in the property. Dad had 390 acres. He's like, get out there and just be a deer, you know? So Neil's on this bank fishing, and Pistol come up behind Neil and nudged him in the back of the leg like, I want to play. And Neil's like, shoe, get on. Neil's casting. That deer ran at him wide ass open and hit him at the. At the knee and took him. Took him out and then jumped on top of it. And the deer. Deer punctured. Punctured his chest.

[TJ Majors]

Damn.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, deer's attacking him. So it's rut. It's rut. And the deer get really aggressive around that time. And so now this deer's attacking him. Neil was able to grab the rack and get out from under the deer and get in between the deer and a tree. And he grabbed a log. This is Neil's story. He grabbed a log and swung and hit the deer in the head and stunned it and was able to get out of there. And so Neil. No one knows any of this is going on. And I'm in the deer head shop working on my late model car. And Neil comes in to the office. He comes into the shop and his shirt is. His shirt's like kind of unbuttoned and torn, but I didn't. I mean, he's not bleeding all over the place or anything, but he's mad as hell. And he says, where's your daddy shotgun? And I was like, it's. He keeps it in that. He keeps it in. There's one in the office right behind the door. He had a shotgun sitting right behind the door. I was like, it's right there in that office. Or a rifle, not a shotgun. Like, where's your daddy's rifle? And daddy had like a. 2, 7 deers, 30 out 6 or something, right? Sitting in the. Sitting in the office.

[Russell]

Was he mad? Like, was he?

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, he's very angry.

[Russell]

Very angry. Okay.

[Dale Jr.]

So he said, all right. He grabs that gun, he goes, come on. And to you. Yeah, you're going with him now. So we get in the truck and he's in the passenger seat and he's like, take me down to the. Take me down to the pond. So we're driving down into the property, down the hill through the gate. Dad had a 10 foot fence around this property. We drive through there, and it ain't far to get to the pond, but we're coming toward the pond. And out in front of us on this sort of big grassy hill is a pistol. And he said, stop the truck. And he got out and laid the gun across the hood of the truck and shot the deer. And I don't know why.

[Travis]

I'm like, at this point? Yeah, you have no idea.

[Dale Jr.]

I have no clue. And he gets back in the truck, drive me over there. We drive over there and we pull up on this deer. And he gets out and he beat the deer with that damn gun, cussing at it.

[Travis]

Oh, my God.

[Dale Jr.]

And we get back in the truck. He's like, take me back up to the shop. We drive back up the shop. He walked in there, put the gun behind the thing, and that's when he starts looking, you know, at his chest and stuff. And I was like. And I'm starting to put it together. I'm like, what happened? He goes, man, that deer attacked the. Out of me. I was fishing on the bank and he jumped on top of me and he poked. I mean, he poked holes in him. And I was like, golly. And I'd never ever seen Neil Bonnet mad at anything. Never, right? And he didn't like, he didn't call dad and go, hey, man, I'm going to go take care of this deer. He just did it.

[Travis]

Took care of business.

[Dale Jr.]

And that was the other dynamic of this whole thing. Like, the process of all that playing out is big enough, right? That's a wow enough story. But he shot one of dad's deer. And then. And they were that close of friends. So later on, like, two hours later, dad comes in, and I got to watch dad learn what happened. And I got to watch dad not say to Neil Bonnet shooting his deer without saying, hey, I'm gonna. Wow. Right? And so that's that. Neil and dad were so equal. You know, I'd always looked at dad as, like, bigger, better, stronger, tougher, more man, more common sense than anyone in the world. He was just a man's man. No one was better than him, and no one was more of a badass than my dad. But there was Neil Bonnett standing equal to him going, he pissed me off, so I went and shot it. And that. You go, you know, only, only. Only option you have, Dale Earnhardt, is to thank me or not say anything at all, right? And Dad's like, well, all right. I guess that's what happened. I guess that's, you know, I guess that's what happened. And so, you know, that's.

[Russell]

That.

[Dale Jr.]

That's. That.

[Travis]

That is wild.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, it was. I feel like I've told that story.

[Travis]

A. I've never heard that story.

[TJ Majors]

The chat saying they've never heard the story either.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

Why was the deer named Pistol?

[Dale Jr.]

I don't know really for sure, but he was. We got him. He was relatively young and not a threat at all. No, not a threat whatsoever. Now he matured. It's, you know, three or four years. He's a buck with. With a. With one sides, a really big rack, and he had gotten too aggressive. Like, he. At that point, I knew not to not touch, mess with him because he. He didn't know how painful the rack was because he want. When we. We had. We had taught him to push, you know, and. And we taught him to, like, wrestle and play and, you know, he was a deer without a rack at one point.

[Travis]

Right.

[Dale Jr.]

You know, you could play and wrestle with him, and he had, you know, and in his mind, he's still animalistic. In his mind, he don't know.

[Russell]

He don't know.

[Dale Jr.]

He's not a pet. He's not like, he's not trying.

[Russell]

Still wild.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, he's still wild in there. And so as he Got to grow in this rack. You were. I was like, you know, now this is not comfortable anymore and he could hurt me, and I'm going to be careful, and I don't want to be around him anymore. It was cool to see him, and it was cool to be able to get that close to a deer. That was, you know, that was the mature. But you didn't want to play with him anymore physically. And. Yeah, I guess he wanted to play and Neil didn't want to play. And then he got mad. I don't know. And then Neil got mad. That was something.

[Travis]

That certainly is something. Oh, my gosh. The chat's like, wow, what a great story. That was so. Well, I don't know where we go from.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, I just want to say Neil, dad, you know, every dad and Neil were so close, right, Man? Yeah. Yeah. And Neil Bonnet, man, I hate that I didn't know him better, you know, And I hate that. I hate that he, you know, I hate. We can't talk about that today. You know what I mean? I'd love to be able to sit down with Neil right now and have him tell you that story.

[Russell]

Dude, for him to. To go and do that.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

Tells you a lot about him already.

[Dale Jr.]

Yes. Well, some people won't like it, but, you know, hey, that's what happened. Yeah.

[Travis]

Here's a follow up, actually, from. Remember the question a few weeks ago?

[Dale Jr.]

Did y' all see. I want to bring. This reminds me of something I saw on the Internet. Nascar, man. Yeah. Put up a quote that Tim Richmond had. And I usually when I see quotes from drivers from back in the day, I don't. I just, like, take it with a grain of salt. Like, I don't know if that really happened. Did he really say that? There's a lot of quotes that people say. Dad said that. I'm like, I don't remember him saying that. I'm not sure about that. They're just like.

[Travis]

I can remember when he used to drive over at 2, 3 in the morning, spinning tires, doing donuts in the driveway, shooting off that shotgun. Tim Richmond on Dale Earnhardt.

[Dale Jr.]

Isn't that crazy?

[Travis]

It's wild.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. They were all like that, you know.

[Travis]

Why would he do that?

[Russell]

Why not? Why not just sit two or three.

[Dale Jr.]

In the morning, go mess with Tim.

[Travis]

That's crazy.

[TJ Majors]

It was a different time.

[Dale Jr.]

Tim was. Tim lived on the lake. And, you know, they. They'd. They'd be raising some hail. I mean, I can't even.

[Travis]

You can't imagine doing that today.

[Dale Jr.]

No. Right. You'd get arrested. Yeah. Right. Even if you were doing, you know, trying to mess with your buddy.

[TJ Majors]

Dale Jr. Drives over to Jeff Gordon's house.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

I mean, it was. It was a different time then, but, like, we, like, you're. You have similar stories, maybe not that wild, but, like.

[Dale Jr.]

It kind of somewhat happened this weekend, something similar to that. That was really like, okay, this is what's going on. We were at Tri county for the race, the late mile race. And I had a meet and greet with 20 people from Sundrop. And so my. My camper's right up against this. This. This fence, the property line. So we're sitting there having a conversation with 20 people from Sundrop, and literally, the neighbor next, right next to us, like, 30, 40ft away, is shooting the gun.

[Travis]

Oh, my God.

[Dale Jr.]

You're shooting a target. I imagine I just hear a gun going off, and I'm like, yeah. I mean, we're in, you know, up in the mountains.

[Russell]

Sure.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

You know, it's Saturday.

[Travis]

Why not?

[Dale Jr.]

Great data. What the hell? Yeah, great. Great day to sight that thing in.

[Russell]

Why not?

[Dale Jr.]

And I'm standing there, and I'm like.

[Travis]

So where are you guys from?

[Dale Jr.]

This isn't that strange to me, but maybe some of y' all are uncomfortable. I don't know.

[TJ Majors]

Wife's like, honey, don't you think you should wait on another day when there's not people there?

[Dale Jr.]

Nope.

[TJ Majors]

I do it every Saturday, doing it.

[Dale Jr.]

And I'm thinking some of the people in this group I'm doing this meet and greet with are like, I really want to move back. I like to put my little distance between me and that noise. How long did it go on for? 10 minutes.

[Travis]

Oh, my God.

[Dale Jr.]

Just to, you know, shoot a few rounds. Reload.

[Russell]

Yep. Check your aim.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. Take a minute.

[Russell]

We had a buddy shoot a TV with a shotgun one time.

[Dale Jr.]

Why?

[Russell]

Remember that?

[Dale Jr.]

Who did that?

[Russell]

Topher.

[Dale Jr.]

Oh, yeah. Christopher.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

We used to blow stuff up. A dynamite for fun.

[Dale Jr.]

I mean, well, when I went. What?

[Russell]

We did.

[Travis]

Gotta unpack this.

[Dale Jr.]

TJ Was when TJ Used to work with a certain race card. Right. Wow. What the hell?

[Russell]

Go ahead.

[Dale Jr.]

Marin Sterling Marlin used to give TJ Dynamite. What? Yes. Little tiny sticks.

[Travis]

Oh, yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

No, just little tiny. There used to be this little outbuilding or this shed on my property. Blew that thing all to hell. Yes. He took that dynamite and stuck it in there.

[Russell]

We throw it in the pond, just watch it blow water in the air.

[TJ Majors]

Did you ever have a potato gun?

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

Yeah. Nothing. It's nothing like dynamite.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Russell]

We used to go to. We used to go to the grocery store and buy every watermelon they had and come back. Oh, yeah, we blew them all up in your yard. Your yard was covered with watermelon one time.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. He opened TJ up, man. He just goes and goes.

[Travis]

What else. What else can you tell us, C.J. rambunctious?

[Russell]

Well, I mean, like, he's got. I mean, that there. Everyone knows the flower stories and. And things like that, but. Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis]

Who's your dynamite guy? Yeah. Sterling marlin.

[TJ Majors]

What?

[Russell]

Sterling firecrackers.

[Dale Jr.]

That's what he called. They were fire. They were just big, giant firecrackers. But they would do some damage.

[Travis]

It sounds like they would.

[Dale Jr.]

I'm glad that. That. I'm glad that we had fun. I'm also thankful that no one got hurt. Myself. Myself. It is most important. It is a miracle.

[Travis]

James Taylor in the chat, not this singer. I'm assuming he said I might have thrown a TV off a penthouse.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis]

In Port Canaveral. Don't do that, folks.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. I go to. When I go to Texas with Amy's family that they. They shoot household objects and TVs and things like that. Just down in the woods just for fun. There's a lot.

[Travis]

I feel like that'd be awesome.

[Dale Jr.]

There's a little of. There's on their farm. There's a little sort of trash pile and they go down in there and just shoot stuff.

[Russell]

Shoot what's there. Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

I mean, it's. Yeah. Not wrong. I shot. I've shot a. You know all those. Some of the cars on the race car graveyard.

[Russell]

Oh, we've shot.

[Dale Jr.]

We've shot the.

[Russell]

Yeah, they're good.

[Dale Jr.]

So the gossamer car. The Gossamer. The Xfinity Gossamer car. The shell that I have is off the backup. It's not the primary. The primary car is ndi. We saw some photos leaking.

[Travis]

Yes.

[Dale Jr.]

Of the primary gossamer cars there. But I got the shell off the backup and that car and multiple. We go back in there and shoot the hell out of them things.

[Russell]

Just.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, wow.

[Travis]

Oh, my God. That car was in a crate. What happened to that car?

[Russell]

When I first got just as good as a target when I first moved to North Carolina, he used to get the stickers, the bullet hole stickers and put them on his car. That got old. So we just started doing the real thing.

[Dale Jr.]

I did. You did Red truck and had the bullet.

[TJ Majors]

People thought those were so cool.

[Russell]

They were, yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Oh, where'd you get that man. You had to put them on, right. Because they had a shadow, and you had to make sure where you put it on there, where the shadow wasn't facing the wrong way.

[Russell]

Yeah. So it looked wrong.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. Because you'd see some people riding around. You're like, dude, your bullet hole's upside down. You're a dummy.

[Russell]

What an idiot.

[Dale Jr.]

What an idiot.

[TJ Majors]

Loser.

[Russell]

Poser. He's a poser.

[Dale Jr.]

Be cheesy. Just be right.

[Travis]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow. What an ass.

[Dale Jr.]

Junior. Yeah. This went off the rails.

[Travis]

This one really did go off the rails. But I think that's a good place.

[Dale Jr.]

Just when we're starting to have fun.

[Russell]

Way to blow it up, Andrew.

[Travis]

I know. I got the wrap up. That was four minutes. You mentioned seeing those photos leak from dei. What was like reap. What was that like, seeing what was in there.

[Dale Jr.]

I was just glad to know that stuff still well taken care of. It actually made me feel good that some of my cars are still there, like in the front. Like when you go and you look and you're looking back there that they still celebrate all of the history. I didn't know, you know, you don't. I don't. I haven't talked to anybody on that side in so long. I haven't talked to Theresa in so long that I don't know really where they are emotionally about the relationship or the lack of a relationship. And so I was happy to see that some of my cars are still in there. Gives me some hope that there's a chance of reconciliation somewhere down the road, even. Maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Even though it's unlikely, I just. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Russell]

We'll just shoot the. Make the. The fake one instead.

[Dale Jr.]

So. The real one. Yeah, yeah. The backup. Yeah. Yeah.

[Travis]

Well, that's cool. I did see those photos, and it was. It was neat to see what was inside. I've never been.

[Dale Jr.]

For sure. Yeah.

[Travis]

Just a lot of curiosity, but thanks to Xfinity for this. Ash Jr. Went off the rails. But it was a fun one.

[Dale Jr.]

We still got three minutes.

[Travis]

Three. You want another?

[Dale Jr.]

No, no.

[Travis]

I do have a follow up then.

[Dale Jr.]

Just to follow another follow up for the follow up.

[Travis]

No, no, no, no. So remember when you were like, I can't remember. The maddest I've ever been at a teammate. This was a few weeks ago.

[Dale Jr.]

Oh, good.

[Travis]

Someone.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, you and Mark Martin found.

[Dale Jr.]

Oh, I was mad at Martin.

[Travis]

Yeah. Mark Martin. You fenced him off to.

[Dale Jr.]

At Michigan.

[Travis]

Yeah. And then you gave an interview that someone said was funny as hell.

[Dale Jr.]

I was so mad.

[Russell]

Yeah. I Remember that?

[Travis]

What happened?

[Dale Jr.]

No, like this happened with. This happened with Mark and also another year in the Bud car happened with Matt and it was almost identical. Michigan Turn 2. Probably a late restart. We're all, you know, I'm trying to, you know, run eighth or something. I've been running, you know, seventh or eighth all day long and you're busting your ass trying to like just get that finish, you know, you've been running there all day and in your mind you're like, well, at least I want that. I've been there all day. And you get run into the wall by your teammate off of two and you finish 12th or 14th. Yeah, like, come on, man.

[Russell]

And I remember that. I was mad too. You race all day and then that happens. You're like, really? Yeah, Yeah, I yelled at Brick House for that.

[Dale Jr.]

The spotter.

[Russell]

Yeah, I did yell at him that time.

[Dale Jr.]

And it was on. It was unusual because Mark typically, you know, wouldn't. He wasn't that kind of guy. And I don't know that he meant to do it, but, you know, he's. I've, I've been that guy too. On the inside, when you're like, I need to throttle up and there's a car out there and I need to throttle up and I can't. You can't get in the gas because you're going, you're going to hit them, but you're. At some point you're just like, I'm. I'm coming up. I'm just.

[Russell]

It.

[Travis]

Yeah. It's like the give and take is over.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis]

Did you end up talking to Mark about that? You said it was not a normal.

[Dale Jr.]

It's not something running. No, it's not something I think we have to discuss or, you know, we might have had a five minute conversation about it afterwards. I saw, I talked to Matt and you know, you have a conversation and they're like, yeah, I'm sorry to happen, man, but we're going. We're just going. We're all going. I had to go.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

So I did the same thing to Denny off of Fort Michigan. Michigan, for some reason is very prolific with this type of move. And we were, we were. I finished fourth or something like that and. But coming up off of turn four, I just gassed it and made Denny have to lift. If I didn't do that, he would have side drafted me down the straightaway and cars would have went by. I'd have lost a few spots. So I had to do it. I had to. And that's probably the way Matt and Mark were. And we finished the race, and we get out, and Denny and me are in bumper to bumper on pit road, getting out of our cars. And he's like, dude, what the hell? And I was like, I had to do it, man. You would have. I couldn't. Couldn't. I couldn't be side drafted by you down the straightaway. I had to go. You would have cost me a spot or two. And I. And I said I did it because I. I kind of thought you about. You would have done it to me. And he was like, what? You don't know me that well.

[Russell]

Well, apparently he knew him well enough because he did it two weeks ago.

[Travis]

He learned it from dad.

[Dale Jr.]

I remember saying that.

[Russell]

I was like, travis, he's not smiling at all.

[Dale Jr.]

I remember, like, you'd have done it. And he goes. I mean, he was so taken aback.

[Russell]

He would have done it.

[Dale Jr.]

You don't know me that well. Then I guess I was like, he.

[Russell]

Tore up enough your Xfinity cars. He'd have done it, didn't he? Yeah, he tore up some of your city cars. Okay, hit it. Done it.

[Dale Jr.]

I forgot about that.

[Travis]

Well, shout out to Elite Precision on Twitter for bringing that up.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

All right. In racing and in life, speed is an optional. It's expected. And as an Xfinity series team owner, I rely on things that perform under pressure, and that's why we like Xfinity. Wi Fi. Fast, dependable Internet. One price locked in five years. No contracts, no slowdowns, and no nonsense. Xfinity there. Proud premier partner of nascar. Thank y' all for joining us today. It's a lot of fun. Best part of the show. I say it every time, but it truly is.

[Russell]

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[Dale Jr.]

Thank y'. All. Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Place your bets. All right, it's time for some Dirty Modeau. And today we don't have Tampa Timms, who's taken yet another vacation. Zero dedication to the job, just off on vacation all the time. But we got this. We have Russell in the house. How's it going, Russell? Good. Good.

[Russell]

Yep.

[Dale Jr.]

This segment of Dirty Modeau is brought to you by fan Jewel. And let's go ahead and. And go over our. I'm looking at this, and I'm like, all right, I'm looking at our parlays. Where's the Ford?

[TJ Majors]

We never.

[Dale Jr.]

We never picked a Ford.

[TJ Majors]

No, but you. The two names that we talked about were the top two Ford. Yeah, if you listen to us.

[Russell]

Yeah, it was.

[TJ Majors]

You would. We would have hit. Yeah, one of us would have hit it.

[Dale Jr.]

Huh? Mine. Mine Hit what was my Ford.

[TJ Majors]

I had the 17, but Butcher was who you were talking about.

[Dale Jr.]

And then.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, and then Russ mentioned another name would be Priest.

[Dale Jr.]

Did. Who was the top forward busher. I'm basically calling this a win.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, it's a win. If.

[Dale Jr.]

If.

[TJ Majors]

And if you didn't bet it, then that's on you.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. Damn right, guys, Way to go. All right.

[TJ Majors]

Good job, Dale.

[Dale Jr.]

Good job, me. Tim's also had SVG and Bailey. Russ had SVG and Bell. TJ Went Reddick, Travis went Reddick. Didn't pan out, but we all had good purpose and reason why we made those decisions. Let's see, the favorites this week going into Vegas are Larson at plus 500, Bell at plus 550, Hamlin at 600, Byron 900, Logano 1000. Logano. Yeah. I wouldn't put much on that.

[TJ Majors]

Why not?

[Dale Jr.]

It's just not a. I mean, it's.

[Russell]

One of his best tracks.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, he won there last year, didn't he?

[Russell]

He's won there a lot.

[TJ Majors]

What's the number saying Logano?

[Predictor]

Yeah, I. I understand why Dale says it, but. But, like, he's won this race twice before, went on the winning the championship.

[Dale Jr.]

So I think the odds. They're giving him too good odds. I would want that at 1500, 1800.

[Predictor]

They're just not running that well to do that.

[Dale Jr.]

No.

[TJ Majors]

Vegas knows, though, that people are going to think that. So that's why they're.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, I don't know. That's a. It's a trap. So you saying avoid it I mean, I think Blaney could beat him, man.

[Russell]

Blaney is.

[Dale Jr.]

I'm just saying of the Fords, I think Blaney could outrun him.

[Russell]

He could.

[Dale Jr.]

Should outrun him. What does the predictor say on the forward side? Best forward for the predictor.

[Predictor]

Blaney.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Predictor]

You know, he struggled there in the sprint in the spring, like, on paper, but. But he had, like, the third best.

[Dale Jr.]

Car, I would say, speed wise. Yeah. Yeah.

[Russell]

The disrespect for Josh Berry. Geez.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, that. Well, I think, you know, Barry, in that race, did win, but he was, you know.

[Russell]

Yeah. It wasn't top six all day.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, I had. I'm not. I agree. You know, I don't have.

[Russell]

Wasn't. He wasn't having a car.

[Dale Jr.]

Perfect memory of that event, but, yeah, I think it cycled to where it. He got an opportunity to get to track position and was able to hold it and have the fastest car at the end of the race. I've definitely got Barry as a top 10, but I'm sure the odds are not going to be much if Blaney.

[Russell]

Can get through practice and that with no issues, because hasn't he. He's had practice issues the last two or three times. Or two of the last three or something. Right. We had crashes early in practice and was in a backup car or something.

[Dale Jr.]

Yep.

[Russell]

So that's definitely something.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, let's go. What's everybody for?

[TJ Majors]

Plus 3500. So you might top 10. You might get a good number.

[Dale Jr.]

Dang. Right. I do that. He. Barry finished 16th this weekend. He's, you know, admittedly not that great on the road courses. Started near the back, almost dead last.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

John Wood, the pessimist that he is, said that he was going to, you know, have a bad day. They ended up with a good result. Top 20.

[Russell]

Yeah, he was solid. Just quiet.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

All day. That's all you got to do.

[Dale Jr.]

And I think, you know, coming off of some momentum, they go into this weekend attracted. You know, Barry's won the Xfinity race there. He's one cup race there. Definitely can get in there and get a top 10. I think they go there expecting a top 10. So that might be good money. Yeah.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

So what's. Everybody else's Ford? Everybody going Blaney? Anybody want something different?

[Russell]

It's hard to go against Blaney. I know Joey got the same year.

[Dale Jr.]

I think let's not all do it different. Let's all come to consensus of one particular parlay for this weekend. All right. So Blaney's the forward. All right, let's go to Chevrolet. Larson is at plus 500. What's the predictor tell us?

[Predictor]

I have him at the top three win. He's been dominant mile and a half this year, like number wise.

[Dale Jr.]

All right. And Byron struggling.

[Russell]

So is Larson back? Are we back on the Larson train? Is he back or are we still down on him? Where are we at?

[TJ Majors]

I never.

[Russell]

Acting like he's back.

[Predictor]

I never left him. He's been top 10 the last three races. Like, that's his best stretch since, like before, you know, the. The whole indie Charlotte.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, I really don't. Has there been a Chevrolet that's been a standout, like, in speed? Not really. Yeah, they've been kind of not. They've been sitting right on. Right behind those Toyotas last couple weeks, Right? Yeah. Wouldn't you say?

[Predictor]

All playoffs, really?

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. Well, be interesting to see if they can. They can shift forward.

[Russell]

Is this not a strong track for Byron?

[Dale Jr.]

He struggled though the last several weeks, like, and he doesn't seem to have an understanding of what's going on.

[Russell]

I feel like Byron's strong at Vegas.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Predictor]

So he's been top ten the last five races here.

[Dale Jr.]

Fourth lap two.

[Russell]

That's pretty good.

[Dale Jr.]

Pretty good.

[Predictor]

I know, but I'm with Dale. Like, they just struggled lately.

[Dale Jr.]

Like.

[Predictor]

Yeah, big time struggles. Like, same. Same tire as Kansas. They were not good at Kansas.

[Russell]

Yeah. Didn't they have something happen though? And they got back in the pack and had to work their way back up through. I thought he actually made it back up into the top 10. They made good from being.

[Predictor]

Massive adjustments on one of those stops.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Predictor]

Came back to finish ninth. But they were. You know, they. They ran seven. Like, their average running position at Kansas was 17th.

[TJ Majors]

What's chase at Vegas? Because my theory is, like, I feel like he got a playoff win. And whether he got lucky or not, I feel like you see a driver get one win and it just kind of loosens them up in the playoffs and then they can find that next one.

[Predictor]

He's just. It's not. This is not his best track, especially in the next gen car.

[TJ Majors]

Never mind.

[Dale Jr.]

But.

[Predictor]

But it's the same tire as. As Kansas and we just. He just won at Kansas.

[Dale Jr.]

I don't.

[Russell]

You know, it's hard to go against Larson if Larson can have a clean day. I think he's the favorite, in my opinion.

[Dale Jr.]

Just.

[Russell]

But he's got a. He just has the moments at times. Like he had that wreck off a two. He got into the wall off of two by himself. Wrecked with Bob on the front stretch. I mean, he just. If he doesn't take himself out, he's the top, in my opinion, for the Chevy Larson agreement.

[Dale Jr.]

Larson it is. Let's go to Toyota. Is going to be Bell, Hamlin.

[Predictor]

I'm going with Bell.

[Dale Jr.]

I like it.

[Predictor]

He's been. He's been top. He finished second in the last two playoff races here. Should have won this race last year.

[TJ Majors]

Let.

[Predictor]

155 laps.

[Dale Jr.]

Feels like it's time for him to, To. To do something right. It's. He always kind of shows up and he.

[Predictor]

And he's on the best streak of late, too.

[Russell]

What about the 19? Chase has won here before, and now he's in a much. You know, I feel like he's in a competitive car this week, too. So you don't feel like he could surprise some people? Because I do. I think the 19 has been faster. I just had something kind of derail their races, but I feel like it's been fast. Chase is pretty good there, too.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Predictor]

And he has the most top fives on mile and a half tracks this year. 2 of all drivers. So. But he wasn't. It was early for them this. This year. He was 17th there in the spring. Yeah, like, they didn't get going until later in the year.

[Russell]

I feel like he got. I feel like he got a lot better. So, I mean, I wouldn't be afraid to take. I wouldn't be afraid to take Briscoe.

[Dale Jr.]

But let's go with Bell for this particular week. And so that's your parlay for this weekend. Bale, Larson, Blaney, a couple featured matchups we'll go through real quickly, guys. Kyle Larson, William Byron. I think we all agree. Larson.

[Russell]

Yep.

[Dale Jr.]

Christopher Bell, Organo. I'm definitely going Bell there. And Briscoe, Chase Elliott. That's a. That's a tough one. But maybe Briscoe edges out. Chase, Elliot, the two chases.

[Russell]

I think he can.

[Dale Jr.]

And then Blaney and Hamlin. I don't know. That's. That's also very difficult.

[Russell]

I don't feel like Denny's been great here. Yeah, he's okay.

[Predictor]

I go with Denny. He was great at Kansas.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. All right, we'll go with Denny Hamlin. And that'll be the Dirty Mo Doe segment, brought to you by FanDuel, the premier gaming destination in the United States. White flag. All right, it's time for the white flag. We're going to wrap this show up. The tear down was live on YouTube and Twitter following the race. If you hadn't already. Go over to dirty mo media's YouTube page. Hit the subscribe button, turn on notifications. You won't miss anything. The tear down. Always fun to catch up with those guys, man. Jordan Bianchi, he's got his heels dug in. Yeah, he does got everybody spun out. Oh, yeah, yeah. And actions detrimental. Dropped on Monday. Once again, Denny found himself in the center of the drama as he does every week, back to back to back, willingly or not. And door bumper clear Also dropped on Monday. They were joined by Lee Diffie. Thank you, Lee, for coming through.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

And my guest interview with Steve o' Donnell drops tomorrow. We're going to have Steve on the show talk about things. And Herm and Schrader and Speed street also drop an episode on Wednesday. Thursday, another episode of bless your heart. And then on Friday, dirty 30 and also dirty Mo Media is there. They're having a merch contest for the fans. It is called Dirty Mo making merch. Bless your heart fan edition. That's a lot. But hey, get the point. Head on over to shop.dirtymomedia.com and click the making Mo merch contest. Click that tab for all the information. And the cutoff for this is October 13th and you need to know that first place is going to win 500 bucks. All right, so that's a lot of money.

[Russell]

It is.

[Dale Jr.]

Alrighty. That's the show. Thank you all. We'll see you tomorrow.

[Travis]

Tyler redick here from 2311 Racing. Game night's fun until someone spends five.

[Dale Jr.]

Minutes lining up one shot.

[Travis]

Chalk.

[Dale Jr.]

Breathe.

[Travis]

Rechalk. Still aiming. While they figure it out, I fire up Champa casino. I can spin anywhere, anytime.

[TJ Majors]

And there's always a new social casino game every week.

[Travis]

Week spins happen way faster than that shot. Waitings for amateurs play [e-mail] let's Chumba.

[TJ Majors]

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