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- [00:00]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Amy told me I should run the Daytona 500 next year. We were laying in bed Sunday night after the race. She's like, you should just drive it next year. I'm like, hello. Losing a tire, running out of gas, wrecking a teammate. You never know what's going to happen. NASCAR is full of crazy stories. Make your race day story even more epic with FanDuel. FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook, is giving all new customers a shot at $100 in bonus bets. New customers can bet $5 and get 100 bucks in bonus bets if their first bet wins. FanDuel has so many to bet on your favorite drivers and races, from individual race winners to prop bets to which driver is going to take on the championship here on the Dale Jr. Download. Each week on our Dirty Mo Doe segment, we are previewing the upcoming NASCAR race. Before you place any bets, make sure you want to hear what we have to say. We're talking drivers to win, head to head matchups, top manufacturers and a whole lot more. Get in on the NASCAR action. For a chance to win big, just visit fanduel.com dirtymo that's fanduel.com Dir dirty mo for your shot at $100 in bonus bets must be 21 plus in present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 in presenton DC first online real money wager only $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as non withdrawable bonus bets which expire seven days after receipt.
- [01:18]
TJ Majors
Restrictions apply. See terms@sportsbook.fanduel.com gambling problem.
- [01:21]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit fanduel.com rg call 1-888-78-9-7777 or visit ccpg.org chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24. 7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPENY or text hopeny in New York, Dirty Mo Media Junior Motorsports and I have a new partner this year and we couldn't be more excited about this. A lot of y' all may have heard Arby's has come on board and we're loving every second of it. And Arby's has entered the chat with a meal deal that raises the bar for value, introducing the new meat and three box for 7.99 that's filled with with Arby's quality favorites. Each meat three box includes your choice of one sandwich. The classic roast beef that is hand sliced and slow roasted. Or you can go with the crispy fish sandwich. All this comes with the melty mozzarella sticks, some crispy curly fries. Everybody loves those. And a peach cobbler roll for dessert. Guys, you got to try that dessert. It's really good. And you get a small drink. It's called meat and three. But you're actually getting five items all for only $7.99. Nobody out there is giving you this much value for your money. This is a value meal that won't leave you hungry. You know, you don't have to settle for less when you get more from Arby's. Available for a limited time at participating locations. While supplies last. Prices may vary. Get your meat and three box at an Arby's near you today. 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.
- [02:53]
TJ Majors
I don't know if we've ever argued. Did I piss you off over the weekender?
- [02:56]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I'm still sour that I wasn't the best man at your wedding.
- [02:58]
Russell
Who was your best man, Dale? Tj.
- [03:02]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Tj. You don't need a cool vest for that race. What are you thinking? Get him, tj. That way. It's starting to show.
- [03:11]
TJ Majors
All right then.
- [03:12]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Hey, Everybody, it's Dale Jr. Welcome back to another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. I'm with my co host TJ Majors and it's post Daytona. Are you recharged and ready to go to Atlanta?
- [03:25]
TJ Majors
Oh, man, not quite yet. I don't know. Daytona's a long week still.
- [03:29]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I know, man. I'm still wore out.
- [03:30]
TJ Majors
I am too.
- [03:31]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
This is my second Red Bull, so we have a lot to cover. But first, gotta tell you, this episode is presented by Arby's and Arby's new meat and three box. You get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meats. Everybody got to see the new Arby's commercial we did with Justin Allgaier.
- [03:55]
Russell
That was good.
- [03:56]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, man, we nailed it. Great relationship we have now with Arby's. We have the meats. Meat in three box on the table right there. Tj, you get quite a deal when you. When you get one of those 7.99. So everybody loves a good deal. But. And I'm gonna tell you, I gotta. I gotta tell what my. One of my favorite. So when we were at the shoot, doing the Arby shoot, I got hungry, right?
- [04:22]
TJ Majors
I was gonna ask you if you Ate.
- [04:23]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I'm like. I'm like, I'm gonna order from the. We're in Arby's.
- [04:26]
TJ Majors
I'm like, why not?
- [04:28]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The Arby's was closed for the recording of this shoot. But I was like, you know, there were people there, you know, working, but they weren't serving the public. And I was like, hey, can y' all make a. They're like, yeah, we'll make anything. And so they have a buffalo chicken slider, and, man, is it good. I had no idea. I'm a sucker for anything. Buffalo. That's your reason?
- [04:50]
TJ Majors
Not what I was expecting.
- [04:51]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, man, it is good. So I'm just saying it's a little. Gonna need some napkins. But that's the best part. That's the best thing about buffalo. When they just too much. Soak it.
- [05:04]
TJ Majors
Yeah.
- [05:05]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yes.
- [05:06]
TJ Majors
So it's easy to underdo it.
- [05:08]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. If they don't go. If it ain't. If it's buffalo. If it's called buffalo, like buffalo wings. And they're not just soaking wet. If it's kind of dry, you're like, what the hell, man? This thing.
- [05:19]
TJ Majors
Oh, for sure. Yeah.
- [05:21]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I don't like that. But anyways. All right, let's get into it. Justin, our guy, gets the 40 car out on the racetrack and got to the lead during the race. Sure, a lot of people were anxious to hear our. Our, you know, our comments on just how that ended and what all went down in the wreck and all that. But I just got to say, out of the gate before we get to that, we, you know, went down there last year. We struggled with speed, didn't qualify well. You know, Justin did a good job to get us into the race, and then we got lucky and dodged all the damage and crazy stuff at the end of the race and got a. Got a top 10, but didn't have a car that was all that effective, you know, and we went, you know, all. As we were building this car, we were, you know, man, this car's better. It's going to do better. It's. We got more power and hearing all these things, and that's the optimism in the company at, you know, at Hendrick as far as building engines and so forth. We've. We've been told the same thing about our Xfinity stuff this year, that we gained a lot of power over the off season. So we're anxious to get to the racetrack and beyond Daytona to really learn where we're at. But we get to the racetrack, and, yes, car qualified better, had Better speed and, you know, great guys in the team. They were pretty optimistic. Greg's so hard on himself. We qualify, you know, 14th, which I would have been thrilled with. And he was so mad that we didn't make the top 10, but he's like, I should have done X. I should have done X and Y, and we would have done this and we would have done that. I'm like, we're fine. We're good. We're happy. But race starts. So before the race, actually, I'm standing with Jeff Gordon and Rick Hendrick, and I said, y'. All. I was like, you know, this fuel saving stuff, you know, I don't. I don't like it. I don't like watching it. I don't like. You know, I sat on the pit box during the duel, and I can sit on the pit box on the duel, and we can go to the throttle trace for any driver. I can watch three drivers at a time and what they're doing with their throttle. Anyone in the field, I can change it, and I can look at anybody. And I'm sitting there and I'm watching them all run 40, 50, 6% throttle. Just sitting there holding their throttles right around 40, 50, 60%. During the duel, I swear, man, I fell asleep. I mean, I was literally our cars in the race, racing on the track, and I am. I'm about to fall asleep. I'm not joking. I'm not. I'm not exaggerating this at all. I was like, how in the hell am I this damn bored? But we got before the pre. You know, before the pre race or during the pre race, I went to Rick and Jeff and I said, y'. All. I was like, I know that. I know that all of the big teams that are going to run every single week, all these teams that are here today feel like they know exactly how they have to run this race to win. We're a team that's here for this race only. We don't have a sponsor for next week. We don't have a car. We don't have a race. We're not going beyond this. I was like, why can't we go out there and run hard and say, to hell with saving the fuel, let's just take our chances, take our risks that the cautions will fall in such a way that will benefit us and save us when we're. We're running short on gas and have to come down pit road early. I was like, you know, let's us riding around in 25th all day. Long hoping that we're doing everything right to try to put ourselves in a good place to win and then we don't win. I mean, we're. I don't want to be non existent. I don't want to be like, I don't want to, you know, I don't want to disappear when the race starts and not anyone ever see us. I was like, in our situation with our car and our partners and our one off race, we need to mash the gas and go to the front and lead laps. And that might be our only opportunity to really show everybody we were there. Right. And that's what we did.
- [09:37]
TJ Majors
Yeah, for sure.
- [09:38]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The car looked great, but really the only reason I think, I mean, the car was great. The car was a really good, competitive fast car. No kidding. But it looked so good because we weren't saving as much. You know, a lot of guys running. A lot of guys were still running 60% throttle throughout the entire first two stages.
- [10:00]
TJ Majors
I said save fuel. Save more and more than I wanted to.
- [10:02]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. And so we were, we were, we were trying to save. We weren't trying to get too. We weren't just like on the mat all the time. He was in certain situations, unable to make passes, boxed in or whatever. And he would save in those moments and then, you know, eventually we would find our way into, you know, the lead or the front of a. The front, front of one of the, you know, the lines in the draft. And man, that was exciting. Right before the wreck, we had gotten the lead probably 10 or 20 minutes before that. And I was watching his throttle trace and he hadn't had a chance to really understand what he would do when he was in that situation with the throttle and he gets in the lead and kind of got pushed out there pretty far. And they came running up, running back up to him, caution come out. And we were talking. I was like, man, it's awesome. Finally be in the lead and get that thing up there. It looked great. And I was like, they played some of that on the television because I could see the words on the screen. What they didn't play was we had a conversation around the throttle and how much throttle he needed to use while leading. He thought that as he was in the lead with all the drag on the car, which it has a ton of drag, he would need to use more throttle. And he was hard in the gas while out front. And I said, man, when you get the lead, you can really come back off the gas, back to 40 or 50%, 60%. Let those guys let that, let that energy from the pack behind you kind of push you forward. Like the beach ball effect I always talked about. I was like, you don't have to be as aggressive on the throttle. You can. You kind of got out too far. And he's like, yep, yep, gotcha. And, you know, we get back racing again and we get back to the front and got back in the lead and we got pushed out too far. And man, they came running hard up on him, like, really, really fast. Denny's about 10 mile an hour faster as he runs up on the back of the 40 car. Denny's got two or three guys up his ass and he, he's got, he can't lift. If he lists, if he lists for the 40, he's getting wrecked, he gets wrecked, or certainly somebody behind him gets wrecked. If he goes. I saw some of his comments on his show yesterday, last night. If he goes the inside, you know, he probably clears him easily. But I think Justin showed some indecisiveness a little bit about. All right, if you're coming up on Justin, you're thinking, is he, Is he, is he going to leave the outside? Is he not? Because it looked like he might and he. And there was enough room for a car, right? It was tight, but there was. I mean, Denny's coming so fast, he's got to go one, one side or the other, right? And he just kind of, he picked, he picked the side that Justin was blocking. And I want to, I want to say that it, it's a racing deal. There is fault. There is, There is, there is fault for what happened. But I mean, it's, it, it's kind of how those wrecks go down. Every wreck that happened yesterday was somebody's fault.
- [13:02]
TJ Majors
Oh, for sure.
- [13:04]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You know, and it's an accident and you know, I hate it happen. Justin's beat himself up over it.
- [13:13]
Russell
And.
- [13:13]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Thinking about what he might have. Could have done differently. I'm sure he's going to run it back through a million times in his head. But I still, I know, look, there's. When the car is wrecked and the wreck has happened and that our race is over, there ain't nothing you can do to change it. And you kind of got to, all right, what are we going to do? We're going to take stock in what happened. There's some positives here. We led some laps, we showed we had a really capable car. We had a car that, I mean, who had won the race. I don't think any. Otherwise, I don't Think otherwise. I think we had a, there was a lot of guys there that had cars that could have won the race, but we were one of them. I felt like that we were a car that could do some things when it needed to do some things. You know, we weren't. Last year we were running around kind of with our arm tied behind our back, not really with a car that could make any moves and be on the offense. And this year it was completely different. So just a great job by Hendrick Engine shop. They are hardworking group. I go over there and I'm always impressed and they're, I mean, when you think about race teams and they're always trying to get better, they're always trying to find an edge. It's hard to measure all the other departments and how they improve. You know, you might, you don't, we don't really, we don't really take cars to the wind tunnels as often. We don't get a ton of time. We don't really go in there and we can't really work on the bodies. We can't really change the quarter panel, defender and go, man, we gained some here, we gained some there. So it's really, really hard to measure improvement outside of every department but the engine shop. I, I, you know, my suspension guys aren't going to build suspension that goes faster. All I want them to do is build suspension that don't break transmissions, rear ends, all those things, hubs just make it where it doesn't fall apart. But the engine shop, they got, they build motors and they also find horsepower and they continue to find it year after year, every year. Now, not just hms, but all engine departments are always in search of a half mile an hour here, a half mile an hour there, a little bit of horsepower here, a little bit of horsepower there. And they do every off season they find two or three, you know, and that and the whole, the whole sport sort of keeps shoving that, you know, shoving that power and that peak power higher and higher has forever. And so that's pretty impressive to be able to go into the engine department and see how that work is done and see all the incredible, incredible machines and oh, massive, massive machines that are creating these parts and doing things insane.
- [16:08]
Russell
I get you want to race and be up front and everything, but is it, was he a little too aggressive in the fact that like, you're not racing for stage points, you're racing for the finish. So why go out that hard there in that stage?
- [16:24]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Man, we were there to lead, run up front, we got One damn car. One car, one race. You want me to run 20th?
- [16:31]
TJ Majors
Well, the only part that I don't understand is if you are not running 100%, which no one up front probably really was, like, why throw blocks? You know what I mean?
- [16:42]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Like, he didn't throw a block.
- [16:44]
TJ Majors
What did he throw?
- [16:45]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Dude, he was close. When Denny's about five car lengths away from him, he was actually closer to the wall. He said he sort of faded away from the wall as we go into the tri oval, and that, okay, it wasn't a block.
- [16:57]
TJ Majors
Why even make it that close?
- [16:58]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He's against the wall, half a car length between him and the wall. Coming down past the gate, he starts to fade into the travel, and that's when he opened it up for the outside. He should have stayed tighter against the wall, and he faded down the racetrack just at the right moment. When Denny's there to make a decision on what Denny wants to do, and Denny's seeing him fade down. And in my eye, in my mind, and Denny's as well, I'm going to the outside. And when he did that, he squeezed Denny in the wall. It was a bad mistake on his part. It wasn't a block.
- [17:30]
TJ Majors
Well, I didn't mean really block, but, like, why. I guess to back his point up. Like, why create a circumstance that close at that point in time?
- [17:37]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But I seen guys dozens of times get the lead and pull up in the outside line.
- [17:42]
TJ Majors
Oh, my gosh, it was bad. There was some guys throwing really bad blocks later.
- [17:45]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, I mean, not so much throwing blocks, but I mean, all day long, going all right. I'm in the lead, and I want to be in front of the outside line because that line was. That was the line continuously with the most energy. And so I seen plenty of guys pull up there. His mistake was allowing himself to get pushed out too far and not understanding how to not let that happen.
- [18:05]
TJ Majors
Yeah, it opens the door for that.
- [18:06]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
How to let. How to not allow his car to get so far out and let it nose over. And those guys come at him at 10 mile an hour, you know, and was a series of unfortunate circumstances in terms of, all right, he gets pushed out too far, car noses over. He's got guys coming at him at 10 mile an hour, and he's going into the trouble as he's kind of shading down and allowing. If they're catching him on the back stretch, I doubt it happens, Then he.
- [18:35]
TJ Majors
Probably goes not happening on the back.
- [18:37]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I mean, if they're going down a straight piece of asphalt, then he just goes around him. And so they just happen to be catching him right in the tri oval as he shaded down. It was just. I mean, I'm not take. I'm not saying that just. Or Justin has, you know, no fault in it. Justin is 100% responsible for this. I mean, he's. You know, Denny has.
- [18:58]
TJ Majors
I thought Justin drove a great race.
- [19:00]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
If Denny has any fault in it, it's very, very minimal. But, I mean, look, he's. He's. He. He's almost.
- [19:06]
TJ Majors
He's to the rear tire.
- [19:07]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
A foot and a half. Yeah, a foot and a half to his outside. So there's plenty of room there. At one point before the 40, squeezed him up in the wall. But I don't have a problem with us running hard and racing up front trying to win a Daytona 500.
- [19:22]
TJ Majors
I thought Justin did a great job. He was behind us and competitive for a long time. He was right there.
- [19:27]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So I hate it. Took out a bunch of cars. It, you know, wrecked a lot of good race cars, wrecked some HMS cars. I'm sure, you know, they were disappointed in. In the. In the situation and some of the decisions, you know, that we were making as a team. But, you know, I felt like, again, you know, I wanted us to go up front, run up front, try to put ourselves at the front of the field as much as possible. We had a partner that have put all of their funding behind this program for this one race. You know, they, you know, Chris Stapleton's sitting right beside me on the pit box.
- [20:11]
Russell
That's what I love. He's all in, like, he was there.
- [20:13]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Does he want to sit there and watch his guy run 60% throttle in 20 20th?
- [20:18]
Russell
It's a fair thing to say.
- [20:20]
TJ Majors
Overall, from the other side, it looked like a pretty successful weekend from qualifying on.
- [20:26]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, I was pretty happy with the weekend. They towed the car back to the garage and got to look at the damage. One thing I learned that was interesting about that we were, you know, we probably weren't going to fix the car, but we wanted to see if we could. I think that's just kind of human nature in racing. When you. When you crash, you kind of think, all right, man, let's. Let's see if we can fix this thing. But we got back there and the NASCAR official. This is a. There's a picture right there on the NASCAR Twitter post. The guy in the red shirt, it's down, squatted down. He's a NASCAR official, and he's looking at that right front, and he sees some Deflection in the clip. So on the front clip right at the top hoop bar, that right behind the top shock mount. So they've changed these clips to allow them to crush. They cut a bunch of slots in them. All right. They cut about a, you know, they cut a lot of slots in the clip that are about 2 inches long and that allows when the clip has contact with something for it to crush and absorb. And we had like a little bubble of a, of a dent, a little bubble or knot that had formed on that upper bar that, you know, right behind the shock. It was, it was. I mean, in my mind it's nothing. I mean it's not like the clips, the clips bent. Yes, but could the car go out there and compete? No problem. Yes. It would have been entirely safe. But they told me they're like any, any frame damage and it's a no go. And so they told us right there like, you're not going back out. We also had some damage to the, to the header which was, I mean that was like an HMS no go. So when the header gets mashed. Yeah, we're not going to change the headers. We had a lot of damage to the right front upper that would have had to been changed. We changed the tow links to be able to get the car back on the trailer and load it up. But I mean, there's a lot of damage. But that was interesting to me. I had, I didn't know about that frame damage. No go, go, fail or pass sort of thing NASCAR does. But that was just, I'm just noting that because I'll tell you, I learned more about the next gen car and the function of the parts and pieces this weekend than I have in the four or five years that it's been in the garage. When I go down into the infield or get around a race car as a broadcaster, I'm not going to go crawl underneath William Byron's car in the garage. Right. I'm not going to go stick my head under the hood of Denny Hamlin's Toyota. I can go talk to the, you know, the crew chiefs and ask questions, but you know, they're limited on how much information they want to share with you. So it's been tough to kind of learn the car. Not impossible, but man, it was fun to again, like kind of even more so than last year. I was, I got to crawl over the top of this thing and really kind of. And going through the wreck taught me some parts and pieces and taught me some, some things that you know NASCAR's processes and so forth and. But it was a lot of fun. I learned a ton. Don't know if we'll get to do it again. You know, we'll see.
- [23:57]
TJ Majors
Said that last year.
- [23:58]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I know you don't.
- [23:59]
TJ Majors
I know you don't. It's trending in the right direction though.
- [24:02]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I don't know, man. You know, you'll have to see. I suppose these brands, you know, did. It's not a Chris Stapleton decision. He has, he has a blast. He loves it. He's all in. He's all. He was right there at the garage. We were trying to fix the car and work on the car after a crash, but you know, the brand has to decide whether they're. What's happening is working. I know I saw a lot of bottles of liquor, you know, at the racetrack. That stuff was everywhere. We went over to Total Wine to sign some high rock vodka bottles and. And they had splays all over the place. Traveler. Yeah, I saw it all out through the infield. The hats, the shirts, the merch, Tons of merch getting sold. So I think it's good for them, but it's, you know, if they don't, if they think, hey, man, this was great. We went, we, we, we've. We've kind of tapped in and got everybody in the tent, so to speak. Now let's take our dollars maybe and go do something else. You know, they always. Brands shift around, right. From different sports to sort of tap into a new market. But we'll see if that was that. If that was it. Man, I had a blast and I enjoyed our opportunity to. To see what it's like to days.
- [25:21]
Russell
And you guys had the lead for that minute, so that'd be cool to just.
- [25:24]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Sorry.
- [25:24]
Russell
Yeah. And you were able to have the lead. Like that's pretty cool moment. They played your audio during the race and like hearing your guys excitement was pretty cool.
- [25:31]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I tell you. I love it, man. I love the competition. I'll say this too. You know, as we kind of shift away from. From the 40 car a little bit, the whole weekend felt good from a fan, from a, from just a. Just an observer of, you know, and a fan of nascar. There felt like there were more people there. I might be wrong. Might have been the same damn amount of people as last year, but it just felt like there were more people excited about what was happening. It felt like there was more.
- [26:07]
Russell
Same on tv.
- [26:08]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. Felt like there was more on track activity. Probably not, but it just felt like it. Maybe we were more Excited about ARCA and Truck. You know, there were more names in these races. There were more interest. Interest stories. Human interest stories in all the races. So we were all kind of tuned into what was happening throughout the weekend. Speed. It felt like a speed week. We won't say weeks, because we're only there for a handful of days, but it did feel like the old atmosphere.
- [26:41]
TJ Majors
Had a little bit to it.
- [26:43]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I felt like it was a lot. I'm gonna be. I'm. I'm usually. You know, I'm usually a. I'm usually the kind of person that's like, all right, what's gonna go wrong? What's not, you know, what's. You know, I'm. I'm not. I wouldn't say I'm a pessimist, but not an optimist, but I'm gonna tell you, man, I feel like we're going in the right direction. We. As a sport. So we made the change with the Chase, right? We brought the Chase back, man. I'm still super excited about that. Somebody posted on Twitter yesterday, man, it's fun to check the points standings after the race. And, you know, a lot of that. Yeah. Somebody said, man, it's fun to go have to look at the points and see where everybody's at. And I freaking agree. I agree. I'm glad to have to look at points. I want to be interested. And so we fixed that, and we had this meeting Denny talked about. There are some conversations about some things that they might do with the Clash. Well, that was from a meeting that a lot of us, a lot of folks in the industry got together with some NASCAR folks, and we just had a casual bull session for a couple hours. That's good. Laid it all out there. You know, what do we think? And that is the kind of stuff that we used to do back in the day. Helton would get a bunch of drivers, and we go. We'd go down to Whiskey river on my property in the saloon and drink beer.
- [28:16]
TJ Majors
Bull.
- [28:17]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And that's where we came up with double file restarts. Now, these. The double file restart idea was NASCAR's, but they took it and brought it to that meeting. We sat and drank beer and bull about it, and we talked about other things that, you know, other processes and competition, things that. That would make sense. And a lot of really good ideas were vetted out and. And. And materialized through those conversations that we used to have. And so we're. It's like a. It's like a step back in that direction to. To do those type of things and have that kind of conversations. And, you know, we talked about fuel savings, like how, how if we could, if we can, how can we come to a place where, you know, we like what we see all the time, right. Fuel savings and fuel mileage, that's going to be part of races. Fuel's going to be the conversation at times. All kinds of tracks. Right. It's not just Daytona and Talladega, but I think we got an epidemic that we need to kind of look at and say, hey, how come we might not be able to get rid of it entirely, but how can we get back to feeling like, you see the guys are out there racing, right? And so there's got to be some way to figure out, you know, a solution. And that's what those conversations about. So we made this choice to go back to the Chase. We're having these conversations with NASCAR that are fun and everybody's kind of able to talk openly and honestly, and there's just some really, really good energy. And I'll be honest, I, I, the Daytona 500 that I got to see up until the crash was a lot of fun. Now I had a car out there that was driving hard and trying to go to the front. So I was, I was getting what I wanted from watching that car when we crashed, went in the garage. I guess there was some serious 3 wide fuel savings going on that, I.
- [30:17]
TJ Majors
Know it was nail biter.
- [30:19]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I missed that part. I didn't get to see that part, so I can't comment. But apparently that was not a lot of fun. I saw the social media where the.
- [30:28]
TJ Majors
Fans are like radio on the charger for about 30 minutes.
- [30:30]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, I heard the comments from Blaney and the others, but so again, yeah, we gotta, we gotta, we got an epidemic that's kind of creeped into restricted plate racing at Daytona. Talladega, we won't really see this. I don't think as much as Atlanta, do you think? No, some, but not like I was race like hell in Atlanta.
- [30:51]
TJ Majors
Yeah, Atlanta's got another year on it with age now you're not handling is too critical. Yeah.
- [30:56]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So, yeah, I'm not worried about it this coming weekend, but we do have an epidemic. And all these crew chiefs, man, all of them are saying, man, you can't unlearn it. You know, it's here, here to stay. And I'm like, come on, y'. All, y' all are the smart ones.
- [31:13]
TJ Majors
I mean, they're kind of right.
- [31:14]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
They are, but let's try, let's, let's Try. Let's at least have a conversation.
- [31:19]
TJ Majors
Always evolve.
- [31:20]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Let's have a conversation. All right. And so before I tell you my, my idea on what I think would be things that could, could change it, I feel like, and I feel like NASCAR is on the right track as an industry. I am. I have never. I've been so disappointed and so critical over the last several years. Frustrated, you know, at times, Joe, just super frustrated. I am very, very happy today with the direction we're going.
- [32:00]
TJ Majors
Yeah, the buzz was good.
- [32:02]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I'm learning that no matter how badly I want it to be a certain thing, it's never going to be perfect and I'm never going to get everything I want. But I'm getting a lot of what I want. And I see an industry that's trying to find the answers right. And so I'm pretty happy. I'm pretty excited. And I am really, I'm more interested in what happens this year in terms of how, how our season develops, how drivers gather points throughout the year. And I'm more interested in that week to week than I've been in over a decade. I am so thankful for that. And I feel like my passion as a fan and my passion about how, you know, storylines develop and all that stuff and who's going to figure this out and who's going to come out on top. I. That's coming back to me, you know, so I'm excited about that and hope everybody's sort of feeling the same way. All right, everybody. The 2026 NASCAR season is officially here. And you know what that means? It means new rides, new paint schemes, and another year of unforgettable moments out on the racetrack. And if you want to bring all of that action home, you've got to check out Lionel Racing. They're the official diecast of nascar. They've got the largest selection of officially licensed NASCAR diecast. From race wins to the newest cars hitting the track, this season, they've got it all. They're incredibly detailed with the same paint and the same sponsors and same attitude that you see on race day. They're must haves for collectors and fans alike. And right now, to kick off the season, Lionel Racing is offering free domestic shipping. When you use promo code, download 26. That's free shipping just for the fans of the Dell Junior download. So head over to lionel racing.com make sure to grab your favorite driver's latest diecast and start the 2026 season the right way. That's download 26 for free shipping only at Lionel Racing. Dot com. Hey everybody, it's Mike Davis here. I have a question for you. Now be honest, how many drill bits have you snapped just trying to finish a single job? Listen, I've been there. Nothing will kill the momentum faster than when that happens. That's why I want to talk to you about can cut drill bits and cutting tools. These are American made family owned drill bits that automotive and fabrication professionals have trusted for decades. And once you use them, you will know why. And here's the good news. Right now you can save 25% off your entire order with the code Dirty Mo.
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Tyler Reddick
My drill bits from Cancut came in.
- [34:51]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Handy just a couple of weeks ago. So I bought an old drill used metal trailer. I already had a hitch pin for it, but of course the pinhole wasn't.
- [34:59]
Tyler Reddick
The same size as the hitch pin.
- [35:01]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And that how it always happens. So yes, I needed to drill a hole.
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I had my can cut drill bits.
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Dale Earnhardt Jr.
There for the job and it was so easy. I wish you could have seen the way this thing bites through that steel. It was so effortless. And man the durability, the precision of this thing, it was incredible.
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Tyler Reddick
And yet I was off to my next project.
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- [36:03]
Tyler Reddick
Get it done right the first time.
- [36:05]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
With USA made can cut drill bits and cutting tools. When we go to, you know what we're seeing at Daytona and Talladega with the fuel savings, I don't, I don't know that I have a solution. But here's a couple things that have changed. We took away the point for leading a lap. We also took away the bonus points for leading the most laps. Those are two small, very somewhat insignificant nuggets in the grand scheme of things. But I promise you, if you put anything out in front of these drivers and teams, they will go for it. That is one small thing in a Big pie, one small slice in a large pie. That would push the teams back toward pushing harder throughout the event. Right. If you were. If you knew that if you could get to the front and lead a lap at some point and you were going to get a point, you would do it, that doesn't fix the problem entirely. Teams are still going to, you know, once they've led that lap, they're. They might revert right back to saving fuel the rest of the race. Fine. But they've. We found a way to get them to charge for a little bit. Right. That's progress. NASCAR took that away, and I'm going to assume that they took it away because it's a whole point. We changed the point system from, you know, to giving. Instead of giving 180 points to the winner of the race, now you get 75 or whatever it is. So they thought, well, a whole point for leading a lap seems like a lot. So let's just get rid of that. We'll get rid of those and we'll give somebody the point for the fastest lap. I personally think the point for the fastest lap is silly. I think they should go back to giving. Instead of having a point for the fastest lap, I think they should take that point they're giving to the guy for the fastest lap and give it back to the person that leads the most lap. You could still have the icon on the, on the fun little rundown on the, on the TV screen, and it could move as someone retakes that crown. Right. As the race plays out. Right. I also. I still feel like I don't have a problem. I still feel like it's perfectly fine to give a whole point to somebody who leads a lap.
- [38:29]
TJ Majors
I'd much rather do that than a fast lap.
- [38:31]
Russell
Yeah, the fast lap. It seems useless. It's never talked about.
- [38:33]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
No, it isn't. Go back. Let's go back to. I propose the idea of going back to giving people points for leading laps. Giving people points for leading the most laps. That would be one thing that I think would slow, slightly affect things. Here's the other thing that I think would help. Or here's the problem right now is like, you got guys that are running. You got the whole field sitting there running 60, 40, 50%. Probably even the guy leading. Even the guy leading the race is running 60%. Right. If there's a person that's running, you know, in the middle of the pack and they're like, man, I'm a run wide open, they, they, they, they, they. If they go And. And pull out of line and mash the gas to 100%. They cannot drive away from the field. The car has so much drag on it and such a large spoiler that even running wide open, the pack running 60% throttle, will. Will hang right on to them. And so I. I discussed this with Denny, and I believe he agrees that if we were to take enough drag off the cars. So what are you gaining? All right, let's just go back and say, all right, what's the advantage? You're gaining? Right. By saving this fuel. It's, you know, for every. It's a second or two on pit road, right?
- [40:06]
TJ Majors
Yeah. It cycles you to the front of the group.
- [40:07]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. So when you come down pit road, you're on pit road less, you take. You come down pit road 30th in a big pack, and you pull off pit road first, fifth, tenth, whatever. Right. So it's a couple of seconds at most. If I took enough, I need to know exactly what nascar. I think what I propose to NASCAR is find out how much drag to pull off the car so that if I'm in a pack of cars that are running 60, 70% throttle, and I mash the gas 100%, I drive away from them. I break the draft and pull away. And if I'm running wide open and I'm driving away from that pack, then I'm negating their advantage and they're going to have to chase me down, because then if I get so far ahead now I have the advantage. If I drive out to four or five, six seconds away from the pack, then I'll just, you know, I'm going to be adding more fuel when I come to pit road, but that's how many seconds of fuel I'll be taking, right? Yeah.
- [41:14]
TJ Majors
I mean, yeah, theoretically, if you get that far in front, you're.
- [41:18]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So it should come out if you can. What would probably happen is you might get four or five, six cars pre race that go, hey, man, when we get a chance, we're all going to link up, mash wide open, we're going to drive away from these guys. Remember when the horse cars drove away from the field at Talladega by themselves?
- [41:38]
Russell
Yeah.
- [41:39]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I'm not saying that was what was going on. I'm just saying if you got four or five guys that teamed up and said, hey, let's jump off this strategy of Saban and let's run wide open together, drive away from the field.
- [41:49]
TJ Majors
Yeah, they were fast.
- [41:50]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, the. The. The. The car currently can't do that. Because it has so much drag. So there's no point for anyone to go wide open because they can't gain an advantage by driving away from the field. Cause the car has too much drag, though, there in lies the issue. And that I would love to hear from a crew chief to tell me why that wouldn't steer us back in the right direction. I'm not saying it fixes the problem, but why wouldn't taking the drag off the car fix it? I know that, you know, if I'm running y. So, okay, they might tell you this. They might say this. Okay, Dale, you know, you've taken the drag off the car. Now I can pull away from this pack. But the pack just runs 80% throttle instead of 60. They're still saving gas. They'll run 80% to keep up with the 100%. Right. The guy that's full throttle, the pack's just gonna sit behind him and still save, still beat him off pit road.
- [42:55]
TJ Majors
You're still going to have.
- [42:56]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You're still going to have people, I mean, do it.
- [42:58]
Russell
Yeah.
- [42:59]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I've drove race cars with all types of packages at Daytona. Different splitters, wings, spoilers, restricted plates. And yes, you're. If you're second, third, fourth, fifth, you're not wide open. We weren't saving gas. We were just trying not to hit the guy in front of us. But you're not always wide open. But we weren't thinking, hey, we're saving gas. We were just driving in a draft.
- [43:27]
TJ Majors
You know, so what does that race like, though, in a pack?
- [43:30]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, that's. That's going to be the tough part. NASCAR is terrified. I believe, that we're all going to end up on the top in a big string like we were at, you know, the end of 2016 or so. You know, we were. You know, Jimmy won the Daytona 500. I think I finished second. And we ran around the top of the racetrack for a majority of that race. It was relatively uneventful. They're worried, I think, NASCAR is that we mash a button, figuratively. We change some things. And they go from running three wide, and the casual fan thinks that's amazing. The fan that doesn't really know about the fuel savings thinks this is amazing. And they go from that to running single file, from one, from first to last, and then they're going to be. NASCAR will be so disappointed if that's what we end up with. And I agree. That's a risk you take. And I'm. And I wouldn't be comfortable throwing something out There to see how it works without a real understanding of what we might get. My, my preference would be that they take the rear spoilers off and just have like a quarter inch trip lip or something there. Yeah, whatever they thought they might need. But I, I don't know if they can actually set the car up to where that's actually drivable without a rear spoiler on it. The other thing you would need to do is probably detune the engine. So you don't want the cars to run over 200, 205 in the draft.
- [45:07]
Russell
Right.
- [45:07]
TJ Majors
Sure.
- [45:08]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You don't need them. You don't need them at a sustained 205 miles an hour and that's fine. They will, they can, they can, they can run 195, 200 and handle terribly and still look like they're going fast. And that's, that's plenty quick in the draft.
- [45:23]
TJ Majors
Oh, yeah.
- [45:24]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So how do we get to, how do we get to 200, 200 in draft on average? Right. How do we. I think, you know, they, they don't want to go over the certain number for some reason. There's like a lift off where there's just a frequency of cars getting upside down really increases at a certain number. So whatever that is, let's just say it's 200, 200 mile an hour driving, terrible. Drivers got their hands full. Teams have their hands full trying to make the drivers comfortable. I think we can acquire all that and it would just be a massive shift from where we are on the rear spoiler, the drag and all the numbers to go to something completely the opposite on the rear spoiler. But I'm with you. I want them to go into the corner and be loose. I want them to chase the cars up the track. I want them to get to the fence, you know, just using a lot of freaking race track.
- [46:23]
TJ Majors
I want the lead to be an advantage where right now I almost feel like the lead's a disadvantage. Yeah, I want the lead to be able to get there and be like, okay, well, I don't know.
- [46:35]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I always loved, I don't agree with that. I always loved like in 1983. Look at 1980 in the, the 1979 Daytona 500. From 79 all through up until we put the plate on the car in 89, you. There was a slingshot pass. You wanted to be second. You wanted to be second.
- [46:53]
TJ Majors
I'm okay with that.
- [46:54]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. So the leader was, well, the leader was vulnerable. You didn't want to lead and, and you knew the guy was going to sort of back off at the flag stand, get up the racetrack in one and two and come down the back straightaway and drive by you. And that was the plan. That was how Cale was going to win in 79. That was how all the, you know, dad won all his races in the 80s at Talladega in Bud Moore's car and in Richard Childress car with the slingshot pass on the back.
- [47:20]
TJ Majors
I like. I do like the sling. I like being able to back up somebody and get in a big run. But, like, I don't like the pushing somebody. There's two cars linked together, then the guy just pulls out and slips by like that.
- [47:30]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I don't. Well, I would say that, you know, that the car currently just has too much drag on it, and that's why it's such a disadvantage for the lead car. You put that car in a. In a train at the back of the train, it's so much more efficient than it is when it's out front. I think the current, like, the O'Reilly race is how I think we would want the cup car to look.
- [47:52]
TJ Majors
It's a good blueprint.
- [47:53]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It is. You know, where are they at on their. On their, you know, their drag to power. What's. What's their. How is all that?
- [48:01]
TJ Majors
Because those guys can build runs. They can pass. They can. They have their hands full at times.
- [48:06]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Our guys were not handling good in our. And I was in the competition meeting yesterday. They were all complaining about being loose and uncomfortable and not able to really, which is, you know, kind of what you want. I don't want my cars to drive that way.
- [48:19]
TJ Majors
Yeah.
- [48:19]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And my race team. But as a. As a fan, that's. I definitely want. I don't like the cars stuck, glued to the track.
- [48:26]
TJ Majors
It's usually a good race when drivers are complaining.
- [48:28]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [48:29]
TJ Majors
I mean, when they're fighting things, in my opinion.
- [48:32]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, I agree. I mean, it's. There's work to be done. But I want to tell you, man, NASCAR knows it. NASCAR recognizes it. They're not ignoring it. They're not denying it. I know that there's some effort behind the scenes to try to make this thing as good as it can be. At the end of the race, there was this interesting sort of debate around Riley Herbst and Brad. Brad was upset thinking Riley wrecked the. Wrecked the field for no reason. Says the dumbest. One of the dumbest things he's ever seen. There was no chance. He had no chance of blocking my run. I had a huge run. I don't know If I could have gotten by the 45 or 47 to win the race. But I would have liked to have found out that wreck looked like the rest of the wrecks to me. I know, T.J. you're probably. You know, this is personal to you because you're spotting for Brad.
- [49:33]
TJ Majors
I do think it was a dumb move. I don't think it's a. I mean, I don't blame him for trying. I don't think Riley was like, oh, I'm going to wreck these guys now.
- [49:40]
Russell
What's the move to make then?
- [49:42]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Did Riley. Riley didn't come up the track in front of him. He came, he drove into him. Did. Is it lack of awareness? I thought it was more like, you know, he. He's looking at what's happening out in front of him. He's looking over here on the left, and he's just. He didn't have all the corners of the car covered, you know, and it was more. It wasn't so much like, hey, I'm going to wreck these. It was more like, hey, I'm pulling up into an area where there's a car. And I didn't know he was there.
- [50:13]
TJ Majors
Well, I don't. There was definitely no talk. No talk on his radio about Joey getting behind us and starting to shove us. There was zero info.
- [50:21]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So he was lacking some context.
- [50:23]
TJ Majors
I know right now, if two cars are coming with a run tandem like that, you don't get in front of them, you're going to get your wrecking.
- [50:28]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I think he drove into you, so he's pushing.
- [50:30]
TJ Majors
See, watch when Joey gets to us here.
- [50:32]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I get it. Y' all come with a big run, like right here. So he drives up into you.
- [50:38]
TJ Majors
I don't know. I just thought he was going to go with the 45 and try to secure the 45, winning.
- [50:43]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I get it. But I'm telling you, I don't think he knew y' all were coming or even out there.
- [50:50]
TJ Majors
I can partially agree with that.
- [50:51]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That.
- [50:51]
Russell
And I also think, like, yeah, you go with the 45, or if you make the move to the right and it works, there's a chance. You win the Daytona 500. You got to make the move.
- [50:59]
TJ Majors
I don't. I don't.
- [51:00]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I don't think he had a chance.
- [51:01]
TJ Majors
No. And if you're telling me he had a chance and you're. And we didn't, then you're. You're an idiot.
- [51:07]
Russell
I don't.
- [51:07]
TJ Majors
We're blowing by him and he had a chance.
- [51:10]
Russell
I think he had a lot of Momentum.
- [51:12]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Let's not. Let's not try to debate whether he had a chance to win the race. Did the guy. I think the guy made a move with no intent. Yeah. I don't think it was just. He was just unaware. Yeah, I agree. And in all of that busyness. Yeah. Not that it's right.
- [51:27]
TJ Majors
It's just racing.
- [51:28]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It's just race. Yeah.
- [51:29]
TJ Majors
I don't.
- [51:30]
Tyler Reddick
I don't.
- [51:31]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, he's probably like, oh, I had no idea there was a car there.
- [51:36]
TJ Majors
Yeah. It's just the end of a plate race, man. It happens. It'll happen again in the future, too.
- [51:40]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
There was a lot of that going on, us included. I mean, it was very similar to Iraq.
- [51:48]
TJ Majors
Very similar.
- [51:49]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So look, Riley gets a lot of catch a lot of. He got in his cup car last year. Didn't get many good results at all. Catches a ton of for it. But I'm not going to get on his ass on this one. I think it was just another.
- [52:03]
TJ Majors
I mean, that he should have. He should have secured the 45 as victory, in my opinion.
- [52:08]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I think he 45 didn't need no security. He won.
- [52:11]
Russell
He did.
- [52:12]
TJ Majors
Chase.
- [52:13]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I guess he didn't mean.
- [52:14]
TJ Majors
Chase didn't get a chance to really race him because Riley got him, too. So Chase made a move that's like, all right, I'm not going to wreck here. I'm still going to try to win a finish because if he throws that block, he gets wrecked.
- [52:27]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Chase smart move. Chase made Chase. So I tell my drivers, I told my guys before the. The Xfinity race, I said, no big blocks. So at the end of the race, you're not allowed to drive from the top of the racetrack to the bottom. I said, you get to choose one lane. You're going to move one lane. That's all you get. And that's the way Chase races. He's like, man, I'm going to move, but I'm not. I'm not Chase. I'm not going to drive all the way across the racetrack and wreck on your nose. You know, I'm not going to get spun out on those. Your car trying to block you all the way to the damn apron. He's like, I'm going to move a little, and if you got me, you got me. That's what happened at Talladega when. When we got wrecked on the back straight away with Jimmy.
- [53:17]
TJ Majors
Yeah.
- [53:17]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I was like, you know, they're coming. He's. He's got a hell of a run off the back off of two on the top and I'm gonna move one lane and then I was going to let him go.
- [53:25]
TJ Majors
That's all you can do.
- [53:26]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [53:27]
TJ Majors
Without wrecking yourself.
- [53:28]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. I still got wrecked. But we. Yeah, we. I like, I liked Chase's explanation. I mean I thought that he did everything he could do and I do appreciate his like, hey man, I'm willing to do X, Y and Z to win the race. But like, look, he moved a little bit but he didn't wreck himself or the, or the guy that actually ends up winning a race. That's just good race there.
- [53:55]
TJ Majors
He cannot make that block fully without wrecking himself or the 45 with him.
- [53:59]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Not at all. Yeah. So smart move by Jason anymore on the cup deal?
- [54:03]
Russell
No, I think overall I think the ending helped, but it was. I thought it was a solid day.
- [54:07]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [54:07]
Russell
A good start to the season.
- [54:08]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I agree. I'm looking forward to this weekend. I might go to. I know there's some weather. Talking about some weather coming in, but I might go Saturday also come in.
- [54:17]
Russell
NASCAR getting that race in because that rain.
- [54:19]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, they moved it up a whole hour. Boy, that was nice.
- [54:23]
Russell
Yeah.
- [54:23]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Start early, get done by six.
- [54:25]
TJ Majors
I know it actually like was awesome.
- [54:27]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Damn right. Like could. Hey, I'd take it every week.
- [54:30]
TJ Majors
I know it was awesome.
- [54:31]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. NASCAR messing around gave us the chase back. Gave us a real genuine point system. Gave us a one o' clock start. What's next? Dude, that fly Carlos and Thunderbirds.
- [54:46]
TJ Majors
I do that flyover was nuts.
- [54:49]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The flyovers, the fire was rough. They, they kept practicing every day.
- [54:54]
Russell
They do it every week.
- [54:55]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Every time. But they said this year it seemed so this year everybody was like, man, it seems a little more intense. This was going on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
- [55:05]
TJ Majors
He's not lying.
- [55:06]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
They. They would. And there's no warning and they just start doing it and man, if you're outside like it. You could get some potential ear hearing damage.
- [55:17]
Russell
Tj, what's it like from the spotters booth?
- [55:18]
TJ Majors
It is loud. Like if you don't have. I put my headset on whenever, whenever I saw them start to practice, whatever. And if I didn't have it on, I put it on because it's so loud.
- [55:27]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. So they, they were, they were practicing Thursday and they flew over and I mean it blew my right eardrum out and had fluid in it in my ear the rest of the weekend. And I was like, damn, that seems more aggressive than in the past. And then I was reading about it and somebody was asking, actually asking. One of the pilots interviewed one of the pilots and said, hey, this year's. This year's practices seem more intense. And he's. He. They're like, are you lower? They're like, we're not lower, but we're going faster this year than we've ever went. And so I'm telling you, dude, it was. I wouldn't let my kids outside if it was going on. It was that bad. Down in the center of the race. Wow. It was. I had a. I'm serious. I blew my eardrum up. It did. Like, I've already got some hearing issues with my years of racing and so forth. And it popped my right eardrum. And it was. They were much more.
- [56:38]
Russell
They probably got together like, yeah, let's.
- [56:39]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Really way louder this year. Let's go louder this year. Let's go faster.
- [56:42]
TJ Majors
They were loud.
- [56:43]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It was loud, but I ain't complaining. Freedom.
- [56:48]
TJ Majors
It's pretty awesome. It was awesome.
- [56:50]
Russell
There's nothing better than a flyover.
- [56:51]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Cost of freedom. Dirty Mo Media Junior Motorsports and I have a new partner this year and we couldn't be more excited about this. A lot of y' all may have heard Arby's has come on board and we're loving every second of it. And Arby's has entered the chat with a meal deal that raises the bar for value. Introducing the new meat and three box for 7.99 that's filled with Arby's quality favorites. Each meat in three box includes your choice of one sandwich. The classic roast beef that is hand sliced and slow roasted. Or you can go with the crispy fish sandwich. All this comes with the melty mozzarella sticks, some crispy curly fries. Everybody loves those. And a peach cobbler roll for dessert. Guys, you got to try that dessert. It's really good. And you get a small drink. It's called meat and three. But you're actually getting five items all for only 7.99. Nobody out there is giving you this much value for your money. This is a value meal that won't leave you hungry. You know, you don't have to settle for less when you get more from Arby's. Available for a limited time at participating locations. While supplies last. Prices may vary. Get your meat and three box at an Arby's near you. Today, Austin Hill won the xfinity or the O'Reilly. That's going to take a little while to get you.
- [58:05]
TJ Majors
It is.
- [58:06]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
No offense, O'Reilly. This is the way it goes, man.
- [58:09]
Russell
The Nationwide, the Bush series.
- [58:10]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It happens, right? It's still the Bush series to Me.
- [58:12]
TJ Majors
I know I call it that once in a while.
- [58:14]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yep, yep. I still. I mean, everybody knows what you mean when you say bush series, but O'Reilly, the O'Reilly series. I'm just going to call it the O'Reilly series. I know it's got this long moniker or whatever. O'Reilly, it's going O'Reilly. I mean, every other iteration. It's Xfinity series, Nationwide Series, Bush series. So it's a rally series. What it is, what we're calling it. Austin Hill, man, the dude is hard to beat. I get so. I get so frustrated. Austin Hill's got to love this, too. We. He loves kicking our ass at that racetrack in Atlanta in Talladega, and I can't blame him. And, yep, he's good at it, and he knows he's good at it. We try to scheme about how we're gonna beat him, and we just can't figure it out. And then fans go on the Internet, and they're like, dude, you got four cars. It's one guy, four cars. How. But y' all just don't know, man. I mean, that damn car is fast, T.J. like, when we try to get. Get around him or go buy him, it's fast. He's fast, and the car is ridiculous. And he actually is the. In the Xfinity series, by far the best one at it.
- [59:37]
TJ Majors
He has gotten really good and really comfortable with that car. He knows exactly what he can do with it, and it's. It's. It's hard to beat.
- [59:45]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So, you know, I've told my guys, you know, to adjust their strategy each time we go to Daytona. And let's try this. Let's try this. All right, this time we're going to do this. This time we're going to. And it just. It ain't. It ain't as simple. People, I guess people think, man, just line your four cars up and you'll four go by. No, we won't. And so, you know, we can't. And you know what happens if we lined up, four guys are going to line up behind him. You know, Jeb Burton and all these other guys are going to drive right up in there behind him, and he's going to get all the help he needs.
- [60:26]
TJ Majors
Well, yeah, because, I mean, a guy sees that Cardinal, I'm getting with him.
- [60:29]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's what it was like when I was racing out there. Boy, people, you know, anytime you pulled out of line, there was always somebody going, hell, yeah, somebody wants to dance that car. Because I know where he's going.
- [60:39]
TJ Majors
I wouldn't mind having a little bit of that back in the, in the cup series too. You know what I mean?
- [60:43]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I know what you mean.
- [60:44]
Russell
That's the thing is for some of these guys, a second place finish is a hell of a day. So if they can get up there. And you know what? I'll just stay behind Austin Hill.
- [60:50]
TJ Majors
Dude, if I'm Jeff Burton or any of them guys and I see the bumper of the 21, I'm going there.
- [60:56]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. Brandon Pool, all those guys.
- [60:58]
TJ Majors
Yeah, yeah. I do believe you can strategize at the end. Like there's a couple times we had him, we had him in the sights and he was in some trouble for a little bit, but we didn't execute well.
- [61:08]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
They came, they were smart. They came down pit road in the middle of the third stage, put tires on, gave himself because tires matter a little bit, gave him some comfort and ability to be aggressive and he had the car that he knew he could drive right through the pack and get back up into contention. So smart move by their team to give him that advantage. Austin done a great job behind the wheel as he always does at Daytona.
- [61:31]
Russell
How can he block so well?
- [61:33]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Just a ton of speed, ton of.
- [61:35]
TJ Majors
Car, but he doesn't block some of the runs. They're going to get there. And he knows it. And he does like what Chase said, he lives to fight another lap. And he, he knows, he knows he'll get there.
- [61:44]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He'll throw, he'll, he doesn't. I don't see him actually blocked.
- [61:49]
TJ Majors
I don't either. He doesn't throw these big haymakers.
- [61:51]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He moves early enough so that it's like more of a defense than a block. It's not aggressive. It's not like, man, what a dick move or boy, that was aggressive and stupid. He moves early enough because he's, he, he's got a great spot or two. They've been together a while. He's got, getting great information. He understands what line's starting to develop energy and he gets in front of that line before it actually materializes. And so he, he's good at controlling lanes and if you're able to get beside him, he's smart and patient enough to know that he's got the car that can recover and get pushed back clear again. He knows that man taking the lead from that car that he's driving is going to be difficult. And so, you know, we're, look, I mean, we, I mean, I'll, I will tell them going Talladega, I'LL tell my guys. All right, all four y' all line up and just. If you can drive by him and let's see what happens. They're not going to be able to do it. I'll be surprised. We found some more speed in our cars. I think we're closer. Our guys seem happier about the speed in their cars, so we're getting there. But right now he's still top dog, man. We got to take him. We got to figure out how to. How to take him down.
- [63:09]
Russell
And I mean, also, you got Jesse. Love that. His teammate, too. That's right. I mean, yeah, those two are the top.
- [63:15]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Jesse's great too, man. But, you know, Austin's just. Austin's got a. Austin's. The racing at Daytona and Talladega is. It's a, It's a mental skill. And not. It's a bit of an arrogance, but it's a mental skill and a confidence in your decisions to just make them, not think about them. He's. You're doing.
- [63:36]
TJ Majors
Yeah.
- [63:37]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I don't know how to explain it other than that. Like, I would tell my guys, don't think about what you should do. Do it. Just do things. Just be doing in the car. You have to just do. You can't be going, I'm going to wait and try this. I'm going to. I'm going. I think I might try. Should I get down? Should I get up in that line? No, you can't think. You got to do. And so Austin's a doer and he's got it.
- [64:04]
TJ Majors
The car helps.
- [64:06]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. I mean, car, absolutely. I was in that situation. I had an incredible race car and it made my job of doing way easier. When you don't have the car and I've been in that situation, your car not capable of making passes, you're kind of stuck where you are. You can't take the risk of getting out of line because the chances of you losing positions is high. And so I've been on both sides of it right now. Austin is, is. Is the guy that knows his car is capable of recovering from any maybe incorrect choice or decision he might make. And so he's. He's able to make a lot of, like, make a lot of moves knowing that a lot of them, most of them are always going to pay off. We're going to have Tyler Reddick call in here in a bit. Ash Jr. Coming up, Dirty mode. O as well.
- [64:51]
Russell
What do you make of Redick after a tough 24 season, going out there and getting the win?
- [64:57]
Tyler Reddick
Yeah.
- [64:57]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I mean, the Daytona 500 changes your life. It. Yeah, I think I'm thinking about, you know, he's going to. He's the kind of guy that, you know, once you win the Daytona 500, you go on a bit of a media tour and we'll ask him what he's up to and what his plans are in terms of that media tour. But he's the kind of guy that enjoys those type of things, I believe, and loves experiences, likes representing his. His brand, mj, all the things. So he seems to found some comfort in his. His situation, the team he represents, and the people that he works with. You see like a, you know, good. A good rapport, I guess, between him and all of a sudden all the 23 11.
- [65:52]
TJ Majors
It's a good mix.
- [65:53]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It is. So they needed it. You know, I think he's. They kind of. He came out of rcr, right? He goes in, he comes out of RCR with a couple of wins, and we're like, holy, man. He took the RCR stuff to victory lane. You know, not many people were doing that many times.
- [66:09]
TJ Majors
He won.
- [66:10]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. You know, and. And, you know, he got in the 2311 stuff and they had some success and some wins and stuff, but it's not. It's not, I don't think, been what Denny thought it would be.
- [66:22]
TJ Majors
I agree.
- [66:23]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And so, you know, they had a bit of a. Odd year last year.
- [66:27]
Russell
They won the regular season two years ago. They didn't win anything last year.
- [66:30]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yep. And so I think, you know, they're just glad to, you know, probably just glad to start the year off with a win at the biggest race and.
- [66:39]
Russell
They can focus on just racing because last year they had the lawsuit just looming over them, and you wonder how much that impacts what's going on.
- [66:47]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. So I don't know. You know, we'll see how it works out. Denny's team has been working really hard to try to kind of get into the next gear there. For a while it felt like that they had measured up to Gibbs. You know, they're. They're. They're getting a ton of resources from Gibbs, but it felt like that they had kind of were matching Gibbs, right?
- [67:10]
TJ Majors
Yeah.
- [67:11]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. Which you're like, holy crap. You know, and then it fell off a little bit. Now they, you know, they had some good success with the Indy race last year and all that. They've won and they've done well, but they've. They lost a little bit of that speed it looked like they had last year.
- [67:24]
Russell
The consistency wasn't for whatever reason.
- [67:26]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, I mean, I don't know really what you could put your finger on it, but we'll see. Man. It's only one race, but they got the start of the year off going good and it's a good start.
- [67:36]
Russell
TJ how, how's it feel, though? I know you obviously we're hoping to get the winter better finish without the wreck, but like to at least start the season off on a better note than last year.
- [67:44]
TJ Majors
Oh, man, it's. It's way different, way better. It's so much easier to maintain than it is to make up ground. And it's going to be even more this year with people, with the way the new point system is, it's going to be even harder to do. So I think coming out of Daytona and hopefully just go have a solid Atlanta and then you can start really focusing. But it's going to be much easier to be in that top 10, top 12, I hope so. What are we, six now? If you go and have an average Atlanta, you're top 12 probably in points, which is much better than 30th. If you leave Atlanta 30th in points or around 25th to 30th, it's going to be tough, don't you think?
- [68:22]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, that's what I was telling our guys in the Xfinity Series. You've got two races where there's high potential for tearing your up and getting a bad finish. And if they go into Atlanta, if they go into Daytona and wreck out and Finish, you know, 30th, you got to go to Atlanta and run on, you know, run scared, be overly conservative and paranoid, you know, about having another crap finish. And in this system from 20 years ago before you were given such a big advantage for winning and all of that, even, you know, I would say in this system 20 years ago and even more so now with the advantage given to winning and so forth and the, and the advantage given to the top three in the, in the Chase, if you, if you have a bad two or three or four races, if you're in a bad spot, if you're outside the top 20, tough after five events, you've messed up.
- [69:35]
TJ Majors
I'd say after three, it's going to be really hard.
- [69:36]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I agree. When we would start the year, I was kind of always like paranoid about like stubbing your toe early and coming out of the gate with three really kind of subpar results.
- [69:46]
TJ Majors
Some of you can't even control because.
- [69:48]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It takes, seems like it takes the whole year to climb back In. All right, so we've got our Daytona 500 champion on the line, Tyler Redick. Tyler, thanks for joining us today. I know you got a lot going on, my friend, but it's all good stuff. Tell me where you are and what you have going on this week.
- [70:18]
Tyler Reddick
Yeah, we're in, we're in New York City today. This morning we did esp, we did espn, we did get up, just got off of, you know, with, with Kelly and Mark and. Yeah, it's, it's nice. My wife's been wanting to go to New York City, so I, I picked the, the easiest path possible to, to get us there and that's when the Daytona 500, so.
- [70:40]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Dang right. That's a beautiful ring, man.
- [70:42]
TJ Majors
What's nicer, Disney cruise or New York?
- [70:47]
Tyler Reddick
Well, you know, I think Alexa's sitting right, right over here to my right. This is the first night you've been away from rookie since he was born, so it was definitely odd. I, I found myself waking up at like 3:30 in the morning expecting, you know, like to hear some crying or something. We're both crawling into our beds. So. Yeah, the parents just, you know, more than anything got some really good sleep last night, which was nice.
- [71:14]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, man, that's good. Yep. Any other, any other big shows this week before you get back to work?
- [71:21]
Tyler Reddick
We got first things first. Oh, I did Good Morning America yesterday. Yep.
- [71:27]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Nice.
- [71:28]
TJ Majors
Yeah.
- [71:28]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Cnn.
- [71:29]
Tyler Reddick
Yeah, we got a few more today. I'm trying to just, you know, I'm going where they, they point me. I, I'm trying to keep up, you know.
- [71:36]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. Well, this is the great thing about winning the Daytona 500. That media tour was, is a, is a very traditional experience and, and I think one you'll, you'll, you'll enjoy and look back on finally. Absolutely. You've had a couple of, you've had a couple of hours, you know, now a good night's sleep to, to reflect back on what this means to you. I mean, every, I've experienced it. Everybody says that when you win the Daytona 500, it changes your life. You'll be everywhere you go. They'll call you a Daytona 500 champion. How's that, how's that feel after, after you've had some time to think about it?
- [72:15]
Tyler Reddick
Just almost too good to be true, really. I mean, you know, I, I loved watching NASCAR races growing up. And one I would never miss is the Daytona 500. You know, there was many years there where I, I'd be sitting with my parents watching it and pulling, pulling for you. To win too. And just, I mean, it's unreal. You know, again, it's, it's one of those moments that are going to be a centerpiece of a centerpiece and highlight of your racing career. And it's just, yeah, you know, like I'm in the middle of that right now. It's just, it's just in the moments after the, we took, we won the race and coming back around to the start finish line and even celebrating with my team right under the flag stand, it just, it's just like, man, I was, I was told my wife many times, I'm just waiting for, just waiting to wake up, laying in my bed and, and sit up and we, you know, it's Sunday morning and yeah, it's just quite literally unreal. It does help. You know, it's a reality check. Seeing the ring, the watch.
- [73:23]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yes.
- [73:24]
Tyler Reddick
The jacket, everything that goes with it. Being able to celebrate with, with the team staying in Daytona an extra night. Gosh, I mean, it just, it happened. So much happened in that final, you know, couple of laps. There wasn't like a lot of. The only opportunity I really had to like get hit with the emotions of the opportunity in front of me was with that, was that caution was about eight laps to go. Other than that, everything just happened, you know, so fast. There was a lot of time to think about what was happening in the moment.
- [73:54]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
How about the traditional things you got to do Monday morning with your, you know, your footprint and all that stuff and the race car inducting everything into the, in the Daytona usa. How was that experience? I know I was, I was always kind of like, you know, it's, I wanted to party with my team.
- [74:14]
Tyler Reddick
Yeah.
- [74:15]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And go, you know, go stay up till 3 or 4 o' clock in the morning and then you got to get up at like 7 to do all that stuff. But it was like, all right, this is what, this is what's happening. So this is what we're doing. So how did you go? How'd you get through it?
- [74:27]
Tyler Reddick
Yeah, we, we, we were able to get, get the back room over there at Oyster Pub. We stayed there for quite a bit.
- [74:35]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yes.
- [74:37]
Tyler Reddick
Drank a lot of beer, celebrated hard. Ate some, ate some food and yeah, we went, if you can use your imagination, I'm not gonna name names. But we went across the street for a little bit. Yeah. And then my wife dragged me out of there. She's like, all right, this is enough.
- [74:57]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [74:58]
Tyler Reddick
Was able to drag me out there at what, 2, 2:30?
- [75:02]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Way to go.
- [75:04]
TJ Majors
Oh, but it's not even that bad.
- [75:05]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Good work.
- [75:06]
Tyler Reddick
I know this.
- [75:07]
TJ Majors
Yeah.
- [75:07]
Tyler Reddick
As a shock to you, but everyone, you know, thought I was feeling pretty bad when we woke up around 6:30 or 7:00'. Clock.
- [75:17]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, no, I mean from the night before.
- [75:19]
Tyler Reddick
I mean I, I mean I drank a lot, but you know, I didn't, I didn't feel bad. Bad. I was very surprised by that, you.
- [75:26]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Know, so very good.
- [75:27]
TJ Majors
Weird how that works, isn't it?
- [75:28]
Tyler Reddick
I know, I know. But you know, I wasn't doing like shots and stuff. I knew I needed to be.
- [75:32]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
No. Yeah.
- [75:33]
Tyler Reddick
You know, like someone.
- [75:34]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Dude, I'm gonna tell you right now, that's legendary work. Going into Daytona down toward the beach or having some beers after winning the Daytona 500, like actually going into town and getting down a little bit and celebrating.
- [75:48]
TJ Majors
That's how it should be.
- [75:50]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's. That is perfect.
- [75:51]
Tyler Reddick
You know, again I, when we would race in Volusia, you know, if we would come into town, you know, on if it got rained out or whatever it was, you know, when I was rolling with my friends like Devin Moran and Bobby Pierce, it always seemed like when I was younger, the place that we would roll into if we went to Daytona was Oyster Pub, you know, before I ever raced at Daytona International Speedway. So I didn't really play a hand in where we were going and how it all came about. I was, you know, in victory Lane doing the media and everything. And when I found out we were going to Oyster Pub, I'm like, man, that's just like, it's a perfect fit because, you know, just full circle moment, you know.
- [76:32]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, for sure.
- [76:33]
TJ Majors
Well, we won in 14. It was rain delayed and it didn't end till like one in the morning. So we never really got a chance to do that.
- [76:40]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, we got like.
- [76:41]
TJ Majors
I do.
- [76:41]
Tyler Reddick
We got a head start. I missed that race up, man. We were very fortunate.
- [76:44]
TJ Majors
I know.
- [76:45]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's awesome, man.
- [76:46]
TJ Majors
It's perfect.
- [76:46]
Tyler Reddick
Everything thing. And it was like 8:30 o'. Clock. Eight, 8:30.
- [76:49]
TJ Majors
And I'm like, oh, that had been awesome.
- [76:51]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Gosh, we've got. And they had. Hey. And we had the weather that had every, all the, all the flights held. So you couldn't leave even if you wanted to leave. You couldn't leave. That was awesome.
- [77:00]
Tyler Reddick
Oh, dude, the rain. I mean, so this thing has had a rough life already. So I leave the media center and it's raining hard outside and like go to open the rental car door and everything seems fine. But when I shut the door because it's so raining so hard outside, like the ring was wet, my fingers were wet from the rain. My rain just came flying. I mean it went flying like 50ft across the garage. I'm chasing it to the gutter, trying to keep it from falling into the gutter. And this when I was just on with, with Kelly and Mark, the dang rain came flying off again. After I gave Kelly a hug, I went, gave Kelly hug, went to shake Mark's hand and there the ring goes again. So, yeah, this poor ring's already lived a rough life, but that's okay. It's good.
- [77:45]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, that is good stories. We know you're busy, man and I'm thankful for the start of your season and how well it's going. I know you want to keep that momentum up. This all new sort of vintage point system is going to reward a great start to the year. And you have, you've, you've got a good, you've got some good work done already. So good luck. We'll see you in Atlanta. Enjoy the media, enjoy all of the attention because you'll be back to square one, back to zero when you get to the garage in Atlanta.
- [78:18]
Tyler Reddick
I know, I'm excited about it. I really enjoyed this. And yeah, we've worked so hard, man. I know we need to wrap but it's been so cool to work so hard to be more consistent at the speedway stuff and to be able to, you know, put ourselves in the mix at the end. I'm really excited about Atlanta too. Just the last time we were there I, I definitely screwed it up but we were in the mix. So yeah, Atlanta's really, really fun and it's been really great to be able to turn the super speedway stuff around for me as a driver and kind of get back to where you know, I like to be up at the front.
- [78:52]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Absolutely, buddy. You've put in the work and starting to reap the rewards from that. So enjoy your, enjoy your week and congratulations again. Thank you guys on a 500 champion.
- [79:02]
Tyler Reddick
Yep.
- [79:02]
TJ Majors
See you, man.
- [79:03]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Congrats. We are bringing back one of our favorite segments from last year. The ultimate racing collector presented by Lionel Racing, the official diecast of nascar. Lionel Racing. They're your go to source for all your racing diecast needs. We're your big collectors here at the Dale junior download and you can check out their latest pre orders@lionel racing.com. we're on the search for the most legendary NASCAR collections. Whether it's die cast, sheet metal, trophies, shirts, everything, it doesn't matter. We want to see it. Collectors are going to have the opportunity to submit photos and videos through DirtyMome Media Social posts for a chance to be selected. Videos do a little bit better, but send photos if that's all you got. We'll have a post later this week, respond to it and next week we're gonna select the winner. So it's always fun doing that.
- [80:00]
Russell
It was fun last year to see the different stuff though.
- [80:02]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I know, sheet metal, whatever. I agree.
- [80:04]
TJ Majors
Yeah, it was.
- [80:05]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
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- [83:07]
Russell
They're the best.
- [83:08]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [83:08]
Russell
No need to worry about it.
- [83:09]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. I'm pretty happy with my service. So let's get right to the Smash Junior Questions.
- [83:14]
Russell
First question comes way of red. I saw this conversation. They said if you could build a truck team with four drivers, you can't take anybody from Xfinity or Cup, obviously. Who would be your four drivers?
- [83:25]
TJ Majors
I'd probably throw Caden in there.
- [83:27]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. I think Kaden needs another year or two of Cars tour and he'll be ready. Jade.
- [83:33]
TJ Majors
I was thinking about that.
- [83:34]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Jade Evadian.
- [83:36]
Russell
Yep.
- [83:36]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Forget how to say her last name.
- [83:38]
TJ Majors
That's it.
- [83:38]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Very tough. I think she's got what it takes. And I've talked to. I talked to Corey Day this past weekend, who's raced with her a lot. He says she's the real deal. So I would get her in a truck I like. You know, I'm going to lean into the Cars Tour a little bit and, you know, you could pick one. I would just pick one guy, but you could pick one of many between. I know Butterbeans already in the trucks.
- [84:05]
TJ Majors
Yeah.
- [84:05]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But Connor Hall.
- [84:09]
TJ Majors
I mean, Tristan. Feed on Count Christian.
- [84:11]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, Tristan's good. Really good. McKee, Kate Brown. I mean, there's. There's a lot of Cars Tour guys that I think I would be fine and confident putting in a truck.
- [84:26]
TJ Majors
What about Dirt Series? Any. Any young kids you can think of other than you know, like Jade is there think any of them dirt guys would be good at putting in there? Like, like a Bobby Pierce or some of them guys, you know what I mean? Like, let him try.
- [84:39]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Who was the kid that was the dirt kid on the, the Dodge deal?
- [84:43]
TJ Majors
Carson Ferguson.
- [84:44]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
There it is. Carson Ferguson. Yeah. I hear good things about him.
- [84:47]
TJ Majors
Yeah, I heard he did really well in that deal. Like and for dirt, late model stuff.
- [84:52]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Brown, I mentioned him. Jared Fryer, Trevor Ward, all eight model stock dudes that I think are talented.
- [84:59]
TJ Majors
I would take cars, Ferguson, Jade, Jade. It'd be a toss up between Mike Christopher and Austin Beers.
- [85:08]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I do Austin.
- [85:09]
TJ Majors
Yeah.
- [85:09]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Austin's in our, in our fantasy.
- [85:11]
TJ Majors
He is.
- [85:12]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Austin's in our dynasty college football champion.
- [85:15]
TJ Majors
Dynasty modified guy.
- [85:16]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
How could you not pick him up? And he's talented.
- [85:20]
TJ Majors
Yeah, he champion now.
- [85:21]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. Who else we got? We got a fourth truck.
- [85:24]
TJ Majors
I still would just move Kaden up.
- [85:26]
Russell
What's your take on Cletus's truck racing on Friday?
- [85:31]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So Cletus busted his ass off. Busted his ass off the corner, which I figured might happen if you watched his test at Rockingham, which I did. He busted his ass off the turn to similar situation and got. Got in the wall with his truck. They cleared him, which is fine. Is he ready to race trucks right now? No. Will he be? Could he be? Yes, I would. If I was nascar, I would be doing everything I could to get him better. And what he needs is more ARCA races. He needs to race short track asphalt. I know he has a track, but I mean he needs to do more than Crown Vicks and things like that. He needs to go race unbiased. But I mean he could race in the cars tour. He could run the triple crown for the late model stocks for nascar. I don't care. He just needs to be racing more than he's doing it and he needs to get more experience and get better. I mean what happened to him at Daytona could happen to anyone. Happened to me. Could happen to anyone. It could, but I just think that he needs a bigger library of experience so that he can then be better at the truck and go back there and really compete. I want him racing in the truck series. I want him in nascar. I want him bringing his followers to our sport. I want him to have success. I want him to have fun. I would say that he might not tell us, but it probably wasn't too much fun what happened at the truck race, right? So why don't we as a sport get behind this guy and surround him with the Tools, get him in the sim, get him all the experiences we can get him so that when he does go out there, he knows what he's getting involved in. He knows what's coming, right? And so my feeling is that I don't know that he understands what's about to happen in these situations. He needs to have some inkling. And so we need to do everything we can to give him the support and help. And that's what I would do if I was nascar. I would be giving him. I wouldn't be worried about creating content and making clicks and how can we put him in front of the camera and how can we make a YouTube video that hits 2 million views? I wouldn't worry about that. I would be making him a race car driver. He's got the clicks, they're coming, they're there. I would be trying to make him a race car driver.
- [88:19]
TJ Majors
And all the experience he has up to this point, nothing is close to what that was like at Daytona.
- [88:25]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I mean, it could happen to anyone. Look, he didn't do anything that didn't happen to any of us, but I just don't feel like he's as good as he needs to be to be, you know, able to come out there and actually have fun and do well and have a respectable result and. But look, at the same time, I don't mind. They cleared him. I don't think he. I'm not saying he shouldn't have been out there. He wasn't ready, but he should. You know, they let you know. Kyle Petty raced in the ARCA series, one of his very first races, you know, and won the arca race in 1979. Didn't have much racing experience at all. His dad was like, why? Why are you going to mess around with this short track stuff? If you want to run cup, just get in a damn cup car. You know, he was racing in the cup series in 1980 and he wrecked out a lot of cars trying to qualify for races, but he eventually got it figured out. So I don't know that there's. I don't have like a, you know, a strict standard in terms of approval and so forth, but I do have opinions about it. I just would be working harder to give him, get him shorten that curve, that learning curve, like, speed up his opportunity to be able to learn what's going on. And I watched his in car at Bristol in the ARCA car, and I'll be quite honest, man, I mean, in the first 30 laps, like, he didn't know what Was going on or what he was doing. He's not driven around. He's not driven a race car around a short track. He's not, you know, he's ran some crown vic stuff and all these different things, and he has fun and it's awesome. But, like, to get in an arc car and go to Bristol, you could tell how he was using the throttle and so forth that he was very, very inexperienced. So he needs to be racing a lot. And I. If I was nascar, I would be trying to help him get that opportunity to race.
- [90:22]
Russell
This next question is, what's a song that puts you in a good mood? And, Dale, you can't use your typical. Your walk up song that you always play.
- [90:29]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, I can't? No.
- [90:30]
Russell
That one's off the table.
- [90:31]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, I mean, I'm just gonna have to look at my. What song puts me in a good mood?
- [90:38]
Russell
Just, like, drinking my hand. I hear that. And I'm instantly just like, in a good mood.
- [90:41]
TJ Majors
Probably sailing for him.
- [90:43]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Why are you picking? Myself?
- [90:44]
TJ Majors
I'm just kidding.
- [90:45]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Okay.
- [90:45]
Russell
What about you, TJ?
- [90:46]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
TJ?
- [90:47]
TJ Majors
Good mood, huh? Mr. Brightside.
- [90:50]
Russell
Okay, that's a good one. That comes on at bars and people instantly are singing and gets the vibes going.
- [90:58]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I mean, I like a lot of songs.
- [91:00]
TJ Majors
He does like.
- [91:01]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I like a lot of songs.
- [91:03]
Russell
Well, you don't have to pick one then.
- [91:06]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
George. Thor. Good. One shot, one bourbon, one beer is a good one. That gets me in the mood. Ti's new song, Let them know it's good. I did not see that coming.
- [91:23]
Russell
I did not have that on my bingo card.
- [91:24]
TJ Majors
I did not see that going.
- [91:25]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Dude, it's good. It's like old school. Ti That's.
- [91:28]
Russell
See, that's like the rap music I like is like the old school. Like, yeah, 90s 2000.
- [91:32]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Let them know is good. Like, it gets me hype, gets me ready to go. Yeah. I'm just looking through the stuff I've downloaded recently.
- [91:48]
Russell
Especially, like now. Like, we've had some nice weather. Put the windows down. You just like, man, I just want to go have some drinks.
- [91:53]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. I don't know if. If I. I have a playlist on. On my phone for kind of like it's houseboat rock instead of yacht rock. House boat rock. It's all the same kind of stuff.
- [92:10]
Russell
Somebody had come on Eileen. Someone blame it on my youth by Blink 182.
- [92:14]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. Oh, the Blink 182 song. My favorite blink song is stay together for the kids.
- [92:29]
Russell
I don't think I know that.
- [92:30]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, man. It's hard. That's the video where all the kids are in this concrete home and there's this wrecking ball kind of crashing through it and tearing it apart. And it's really heavy. The music stay together for a few. I like the. If. If I'm being honest, and if I can. If I'm. If I can pick what I. If I'm able to pick the music and play what I want, I'm gonna play hard. Punk, primo, kind of. The Wonder Years, Danger, Summer, Some Blink, Angels and Airwaves. Maybe a lot of Angels and Airways songs. Good for me. The whole. Yeah, the whole Dreamwalker album's pretty badass album. I got a controversial statement.
- [93:24]
TJ Majors
Oh, boy.
- [93:25]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I think that. I know. I think that Angels and Airways is better than Blink. I'm sorry. I know there's a ton. I mean, Blink is like. Blink is everything to a lot of people.
- [93:36]
Russell
Yeah.
- [93:37]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Massive fans out there, and I am a fan, but I was a much. I enjoyed Angels and Airways. More Tiny Moving Parts is a good band I like.
- [93:51]
Russell
I don't think it's that crazy of a tape. I thought I was buckling in.
- [93:54]
TJ Majors
Yeah, I don't. I don't think it's that crazy.
- [93:55]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You don't think so?
- [93:56]
TJ Majors
Not really.
- [93:56]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I was pretty good. I was hesitant to really put that.
- [93:58]
TJ Majors
Out there because, yeah, they're pretty good.
- [94:00]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [94:01]
Russell
Somebody said must. Must say. Surprised at Junior's music choices.
- [94:06]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I don't know why people are surprised. I've talked about this length, about my. My love for alternative music, alternative rock. So I have a big. Big alternative rock guy from the 90s in the grunge and really punk and popular. Current punk and stuff like, you know, Blink and Angels and Airwaves, which isn't current, but, I mean, you know, stuff like that is the closest thing to alternative music that we have today. So it's like where I go. It's just where I. I got sent there right by my. By my interest in alternative music. Trying to find something somewhat similar to what that used to be.
- [94:46]
Russell
You run the gamut, Dale. You can. I feel like if someone puts a song on, odds are you're gonna be okay with it.
- [94:51]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. Hey.
- [94:51]
TJ Majors
Yeah. I don't.
- [94:52]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's a good habit.
- [94:54]
TJ Majors
Yeah, more like.
- [94:55]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I don't know.
- [94:55]
TJ Majors
I like more classic rock stuff.
- [94:57]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I do, too. I'm a big boss. Skaggs guy.
- [95:01]
Russell
Boss.
- [95:02]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. It just. He just came across. Lido Shuffle the Lee. Okay. What song? I'm going to tell you right now. Top of my list. Put on if you can't play the who song. I like Eminence front Lido Shuffle. Lido Shuffle is going to put me in a good mood.
- [95:23]
Russell
Good to know. Another question here. Do you have any irrational fears? Like, I have one that like, I have an 18 wheeler just not going to see me and just like.
- [95:34]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Sorry.
- [95:34]
Russell
Like an 18 wheeler just going to like not see me and just change lanes and.
- [95:38]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh. I mean, if you have a fear, it's really irrational to you. Be hard to figure out what's irrational if you feel like it's a rational thought.
- [95:51]
Russell
Well, do you have any fears that most would say is irrational?
- [95:54]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, no.
- [95:55]
TJ Majors
Do you, T.J. i don't think so. I don't think I have any. Yeah, I don't have any. Like that.
- [96:03]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [96:04]
TJ Majors
Not that I know of.
- [96:06]
Russell
Or once I had a bloody nose and then for a while there I thought I was just gonna like wake up in like a pool of blood. Like, it's not gonna happen.
- [96:14]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [96:15]
Russell
But that's like a thing that, like, I don't know.
- [96:17]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I don't want to. I hesitate to say because maybe they're not too irrational, but I worry. I think there's times when I will say this, I do this. There are times now that I've reached 50, 51, and I see people at my age dealing with some health issues. I've lost some friends that are around my age. I start to worry about the end. I get worried about what is it going to be and what's going to be the thing that finally, you know, takes me out. And so, you know, I think back over all of the dumb. Did you know, sitting in a. There used to be this tiny room in the back of dad's deer head shop and it was really small. That's where they kept some transmissions and rear and gears. And we would go in there and they had a parts washer. And I always. Every race, every race I would. I would clean the wheel bearings and get them ready and pack them. And you'd go in there and you'd. Parts wash with no gloves on, splatter all over, getting it all over you. But you got your hands in this stuff. And then we get the brake clean and spray that all over your hands and then you smelling it, you get high in there.
- [97:51]
TJ Majors
Sometimes you clean your hands with SD20.
- [97:53]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. And I mean, you know, you just think. I look back, I'm thinking, what all these chemicals and crap that I've been around that I shouldn't have been around, shouldn't have messed with, should have been Better about wearing gloves and things like that when I was younger. And then I think, you know, well, damn, Richard Petty's, you know, damn, 90 years old, raced with asbestos floorboards in his race car. And he's still here, you know, and you know, you always. I think about all these years I smoked cigarettes and you know, I didn't have to do that, shouldn't have done that. And even though my doctor tells me I don't have to worry about it now, that I'm well clear of that. And then you got the lady that's. There's a 90 year old grandmother that's smoked cigarettes all her life.
- [98:35]
Tyler Reddick
Yeah.
- [98:35]
TJ Majors
I don't get it.
- [98:36]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
She's still alive and kicking, so I don't know, I get in my head sometimes and worry like I'm closer to the end than I am the beginning. And Amy will say, just enjoy the day.
- [98:52]
TJ Majors
Yeah, she's the opposite.
- [98:53]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Just enjoy one. Just enjoy it. Just live. And when it, when you, when it, when it ends, it ends. But you know, why are you gonna. She's right. Like, why are you gonna sit here and worry about the end. Eventual coming of the end of your life? Right. And spend the final, you know, several years doing that instead of just enjoying what's going on. I got my health. I feel great. I feel young. I need to go bebopping around and have some fun.
- [99:22]
Russell
Lisa says her daughter's got a fear of elevator. Someone else said they have a fear of worms.
- [99:26]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. So, yeah, I don't see those.
- [99:28]
Russell
Like, those are a little like.
- [99:29]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, I have the jewelry phobia.
- [99:31]
Russell
Oh, yes.
- [99:32]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It's not a fear. Like, I'm not scared of jewelry. I just get. It's. I just think it's disgusting. I'm not, I'm, I'm like, it's an ick for me.
- [99:43]
Russell
So did Reddick with the Rolex and ring.
- [99:45]
TJ Majors
Both of you, necklace, Rolex, ring.
- [99:47]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I don't care. I don't care if somebody wears it. But I don't, I don't. The person that my wife, that I'm going to be affectionate with, I'd rather her not have a whole lot of it. It's an ick for me. I can't fix that. I can't. I wish I could. I wish I could turn it off. I wish I could pull that fuse.
- [100:04]
Russell
Yeah, that's an Iraq. Yeah, that's a perfect.
- [100:05]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It's an ick.
- [100:06]
Russell
Yeah, I forgot about that one.
- [100:07]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It's not a fear, but it's more of an ick. And I don't mind it on other people. I don't want people to think, oh, I can't, you know, I'm going to give deal some complex or being around him, I'm not bothered by it with other people. Yeah, but my daughter's got their, I can't get in their way. They got their ears. Yeah, they got their ears pierced. They wear necklaces and all that stuff and it's a nick for me, but you know, I gotta, I gotta let it go.
- [100:32]
Russell
Last question I saw, unfortunately, Robert Duvall passed away. Did you ever get to meet him when he was doing Days of Under anything?
- [100:42]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
No, no. Badass actor, man. I, I know he did Days of Thunder, that was awesome. But he was in Lonesome Dove, so I was. Lonesome Dove is an eight hour miniseries that was on regular television. And I'm gonna tell you right now, if you look at the cast, it's insane if you've never watched it. I know it's a lot, but I mean we're down to, we're bingers now, right? We sit down and watch eight hours of damn shows all the time. If you haven't seen Lonesome Dove, you need to watch is incredible. It is so, so good. And just some serious heavy hitters in there. And he was one of the lead characters. I remember when I was, I think I was 10th, 11th grade in school, in high school when that came out. And you're, you know, I'm a, I'm a kid, I'm not in miniseries. Ain't supposed to be impressionable on me, you know, I mean, I'm not supposed to be diving into a miniseries. I'm hanging out with my buddies or playing video games or whatever. Right. But I don't know how I got, I'm, I'm thankful that I tripped into watching that show. And I remember going to school and talking about it with my friends, like sitting down in school going, dude, you see last night's episode? Holy. It is a good, good movie. Amy bought me a book about that movie recently. Like that's how, that's how much I enjoyed Lonesome Dove. So I was a big fan of his. And then he get, you know, before he was in Days of Thunder. Awesome. Well, man, hey, look, that dude lived to 95.
- [102:24]
Russell
That's a, that's a life.
- [102:26]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I, I mean if I got. That's 15 more years than I'm expecting. I'm. I'm thinking like 80 is a good number. If I can get 80, I'll be pretty happy. Anything past 80s like, extra.
- [102:37]
Russell
And it seemed like he had his fast, but it's not like he was like, yeah, aging.
- [102:40]
TJ Majors
I can't even believe that. I'm not even halfway there yet, and I feel like that's ridiculous.
- [102:44]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. I hope. I know that things don't get easy, and I know there's. You know, I was just talking to a fellow this morning that's a lot older than me. He's like, man, when you get old, age is a pain in the ass because everything starts to hurt and nothing works. And doing things that you took for granted is monumental to accomplish. And I'm like, yeah, I'm not looking forward to that part, but I don't, you know? I would love to live that long. Golly. I know, man. Not many of us will be that fortunate.
- [103:20]
TJ Majors
Agreed.
- [103:20]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. All right.
- [103:21]
Russell
Well, that's what we got this week for us, Junior.
- [103:23]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. That was heavy, man. We got into some deep stuff, deep conversations.
- [103:27]
TJ Majors
Yeah.
- [103:28]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Stop it. Stop it, Travis. Asking those deep questions, man. We got everybody in here pondering their life choices.
- [103:39]
TJ Majors
Yeah. I mean, I'm. Now I'm, like, scared of looking for semis on the road.
- [103:45]
Russell
Someone was, like, Final Destinations made. Ruined everything for. For me.
- [103:49]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [103:49]
TJ Majors
Is my nose gonna bleed here in a minute.
- [103:51]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I mean, I feel. I feel like that I've said this before, but I think our. Our. Our. All of our, like, stories is written. That's kind of how I live life. Like, man, your destiny has already been decided. Like, I don't know.
- [104:08]
TJ Majors
Sounds like Back to the future line.
- [104:10]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It's probably BS but that way I don't have to worry about it. If I assume that whatever's going to happen to me has already been decided, then, yeah, I just get to live blissfully and ignorantly and just kind of go about what I want to do. Keep on partying and having fun, because somehow the end has already been decided.
- [104:32]
Russell
Tomorrow could be the last day, so you might as well have fun and drink today.
- [104:38]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
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- [105:01]
Russell
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- [106:50]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Place your bets. All right, it's time for Dirty Mo Do. This segment of Dirty Modeau is brought to you by FanDuel. FanDuel. They're the premier gaming destination of the United States. Guys, are we. Are we gambling today?
- [107:08]
Russell
We're always gambling.
- [107:09]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Are we gambling today?
- [107:10]
Russell
I have a basketball baton for tonight.
- [107:13]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Vanduul. Vanduul's asking me. Do we want to log in? Yes, we do. Yes, we do. All right, I've got a. I've got a really nice one up today. I'm already one leg down Switzerland for the win over Italy Olympics. Yeah, buddy.
- [107:30]
Russell
And what.
- [107:31]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
What sport? Hockey. Hockey.
- [107:33]
Russell
Nice.
- [107:34]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I. I got a little parlay. Of course. That's right. I hope that's right, buddy. Well, we're going to Atlanta, another track where it's almost impossible to pick a winner. Russell, what in the hell should we do? Like, we. What.
- [107:55]
Russell
What.
- [107:56]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
What went wrong first with our picks this past weekend.
- [108:00]
Russell
It's.
- [108:01]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It's just a product of Daytona and trying to win the Daytona 500. We had Chase Elliott in the list, and, boy, he came close. So we're not complete buffoons. No, we're. One is dual. Like we're not totally there. We're not totally incompetent. There's some competence. There's a little. You got to look hard, but there's some confidence here.
- [108:20]
TJ Majors
If you didn't watch the race and looked at results, you would think otherwise.
- [108:24]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You got to look hard. But we are competent at this.
- [108:27]
Russell
I think we're going to start off the weekend, though.
- [108:30]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
We're going to. In O'Reilly race. We're going to. We're going to bet that Austin Hill. No doubt. Wow.
- [108:35]
TJ Majors
Whoa.
- [108:37]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Just more motivation for me to somehow figure out how to beat this guy. I might have to go drive the fifth car. Oh, God.
- [108:49]
TJ Majors
Or we just kind of put somebody in there to. Hey, when 21 gets outside, just rub them a little bit, you know, get him into the fence.
- [108:57]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Amy told me I should run the Daytona 500 next year.
- [109:00]
TJ Majors
Really?
- [109:01]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. I was like, what? We were laying in bed Sunday night after the race. She's like, you should just drive it next year. I'm like, hello? Are you okay?
- [109:13]
TJ Majors
There's a lot of momentum in the sport.
- [109:15]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, man. I don't know. Anyhow, what. What do we do knowing it seems like we know no more about how to pick the winner for this race at Atlanta after Daytona. I don't understand. I don't believe there's anything we could take away. I don't. I disagree. I disagree. I think. I think Chase Elliott's a great bet. He was up there. He's gonna win. He's defending winner there.
- [109:46]
TJ Majors
Jeez.
- [109:46]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Won there last time it was there. I think, you know, he's been there. Josevar was good at Atlanta last year. He. He was there in his duel. He was up there at the end of the 500. I think there's. There's some stuff we can. We can. That we can go off of. All right.
- [110:01]
TJ Majors
Do you think this race with the new nose on the Chevy changes things a little bit, though? Like.
- [110:11]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I. I think where it could change stuff is Ford's dominated there in qualifying. Will we see that continue? They've. They've won every poll There. Since we've reconfigured this track. I got a theory. I got a theory. Okay. They have won poles, which is all about speed, all about straight out, run by yourself speed at the track that's been reconfigured and repaved. What we see though, at the end of the races isn't a bunch of Fords up there dominating, right? And so as tires age, as the track loses grip, handling becomes more important. Straight line, streamed out, trimmed out. Speed is no longer your friend. I feel like that from what I've heard, if everything's true about the Chevrolet, they not only got, they, they just made their car that was pretty good last year, even better. And so if you like Chase and if you like Josevar going into Atlanta, you've improved their chances to go out there and make, get, get the job done. Because of the changes to the car, apparently the car has more downforce but less Dragon. And those are two things that I don't know how you do that. That's a hard thing to do, is adding downforce while reducing drag.
- [111:33]
TJ Majors
It doesn't sound like it makes sense.
- [111:34]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Those two things don't happen at the same time. But what they've done, what they've told everybody they've done, so we'll see. I know that NASCAR made a little adjustment to the nose of the Chevrolet right at the ninth hour going into Atlanta, going into Daytona, but I don't think it's really changed the cars all that much. And the advantage that they may have created by adding, you know, by changing the body some somewhat is, should bode well for, for, for a Chase or a Husvar. How do you feel about that, Russell? I, I, I'm still for them. Absolutely. The right side tire is going to change.
- [112:14]
TJ Majors
This is pretty big.
- [112:14]
Russell
Yeah, the, this just came out.
- [112:16]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The construction, that's what's underneath the tread is similar to changes made for the tires used at other one. It's designed to have more wear. The construction tread combination. The Atlanta tires are only used at Atlanta, but it's a tire that will lean toward. I suppose what we've been seeing Goodyear do to increase wear at all the other racetracks. I love this. I mean, you know, I was, I know that Goodyear is taking a big risk here without an opportunity to really go there and do a ton of testing to truly understand how this tire is going to react. I know they've probably done a little bit of testing, but it's hard to really simulate what 40 cars out there is going to Do a race. Yeah. So this is a bold move by Goodyear to try to give us more of what we want. If the cars are now going, it's going to lose grip. It's losing grip. Every year we go back, handling is a premium. We see that at the end of these races. Guys need to be aggressive and changing lanes and so forth and be able to hold that car wide open. And now you're going to give them a tire that supposedly should in all theory wear more and lose grip over the course of the run. So you're going to have to dial in the handling on the car. It's going to be important. You may give up a little bit of speed in qualifying. You may see your favorite driver have a poor qualifying or a mid pack qualifying effort. Don't despair. They could have built that car to race well and it may cost that speed in the qualifying run. But don't despair. If your guy doesn't qualify all that great could actually mean that he could have an advantage when he's tucked in that pack three wide with no air on the car and them tires are really pissed off.
- [114:06]
TJ Majors
Don't judge it by the first, the first stage and stuff either because a lot of times the cars that qualify good tend to stay up there and work with each other. But once the, once you pit and everyone's on a little different fuel deal there. I hate to say that word but you know, people are going to take people up front, are going to use more people in the back, take less, are going to come out in front. It's going to cycle a little bit. So it should build as the race goes on and so we have some tire wear.
- [114:29]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I agree. What do you think, Russell? We won't have as much fuel talk this week as we did last week. I agree.
- [114:36]
TJ Majors
Not as much. There will be some.
- [114:37]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I sure as hell hope not. Yeah, well, because when you, you can't pit here. You almost lose laps when you pit here. Right. So, so you. It's not going to be like short pitting or coming early. You know, you're going to run as long as you can and you're going to want to be more full than not.
- [114:52]
TJ Majors
No, but even, even yellow, even after the stage, like there's still longer stops because it takes longer. You know what I mean? You can do tires before you can.
- [115:00]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [115:01]
TJ Majors
Finish the fuel. So there is going to be some cycling like that.
- [115:03]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, there'll be some, but it won't be as much of that fuel only deal.
- [115:06]
TJ Majors
It'll be hard to dominate Yep.
- [115:10]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. Well, I like the Chase and host of our idea in terms of picking a winner. We have some group bets. Let's see what we think of these. What? Explain to me what these are.
- [115:27]
Russell
You can use pick one driver. They have to finish ahead of the other drivers in the group. Really?
- [115:31]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, basically ahead to head between four drivers. Between four drivers. Wow, that's interesting. So we got Stenhouse, Bowman, Priest and Buscher. Who you picking there? I like Chris Busher plus 285. I like Bowman.
- [115:42]
TJ Majors
Yeah, Bowman has been strong there last race. I mean he's, he's the reason he secured Chase the win last race.
- [115:48]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
They need to rebound so he's going to be really smart. They had a terrible finish this past weekend, so he's got to go there and get top 10. So while he may, you know, I think his risk assessment will be really good. He's pretty smart and savvy at the, at these types of tracks. Talking about Bowman.
- [116:06]
TJ Majors
Yeah.
- [116:06]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So I think he's probably going to go there and just try to lock down that top 10 finish.
- [116:10]
TJ Majors
I feel like Bush is still hard to beat at that stuff though.
- [116:13]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
- [116:13]
TJ Majors
He's just so good at it.
- [116:14]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I'll take Bowman.
- [116:15]
Russell
What about in house?
- [116:17]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
No, thanks. His luck was last year.
- [116:20]
TJ Majors
Yeah, it's just.
- [116:21]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I don't know. He was good there last year too though.
- [116:23]
TJ Majors
I changed since last year.
- [116:25]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I don't know how that team's doing. He finished second in the 500.
- [116:31]
TJ Majors
Okay. Riley Herbs finished what top five? Six two.
- [116:35]
Russell
Yeah. See?
- [116:36]
TJ Majors
Going to run top five at Atlanta now.
- [116:37]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Predictor asking. I asked. I take your guy. Take your take Stenhouse. I'll take Bowman. Okay. Okay. All right, the next group, Kyle Busch, brackets, Lowski, Ross, Chastain and Bush. Again, I like Kyle Busch. I liked the speed.
- [116:55]
Russell
I mean Daytona, but I like the.
- [116:57]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Speed out of him. Yeah, I like Kyle Busch too. I think in this group I'm a Ross Chastain guy. Are you? Yeah. I got a group, tj.
- [117:09]
TJ Majors
Wonder who I'm gonna pick.
- [117:11]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Who you gonna drive into a wreck? I mean more like it.
- [117:13]
TJ Majors
As long as Chase doesn't spin out in front of us, we're pretty good there. All right, so Brett, I mean the six is usually pretty good there. So I don't think it's far fetched.
- [117:23]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Brad's gonna. Yeah, Brad, you know you're going to take Brad. No one's taking Boucher on this one. Yeah.
- [117:29]
Russell
I have a question. There's a lot of people that are in leagues where you can only Pick one driver to win.
- [117:35]
TJ Majors
Yeah.
- [117:36]
Russell
Who's a driver that you might want to pick if you're in one of those leagues?
- [117:39]
TJ Majors
Chase, do you want to use them up yet, though?
- [117:43]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, you get to pick.
- [117:43]
Russell
You can only pick the driver once.
- [117:45]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, then I'll take host of our in this race.
- [117:47]
TJ Majors
Man, this race is such a dice roll. I feel like this is definitely one you throw a I.
- [117:51]
Russell
That's why I think kind of a.
- [117:53]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I do not like host of ours. A throwaway. But no, this is where you want.
- [117:56]
Russell
To pick a heavy hit.
- [117:57]
TJ Majors
I might. I mean, this might be a McDowell for me.
- [117:59]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I was gonna say any spire car. I feel like.
- [118:01]
TJ Majors
I feel like McDowell. Maybe even a Suarez. Suarez sends it like Atlanta.
- [118:05]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, you could do Suarez here.
- [118:07]
TJ Majors
So just call me the predictor.
- [118:14]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Some good calls, man. All right, Russell, thanks for tuning in today. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it, buddy.
- [118:20]
TJ Majors
Good seeing you, Russell.
- [118:21]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Tim's. Tim's, good to see you. Thank you. Thank you. The Dirty Modo segment brought to you by FanDuel, the premier gaming destination in the United States. Thanks for joining us today in the Arby's studio. Don't forget about Arby's new meat and three box. You get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meats. Check out DirtyMomedia on Instagram, Facebook X and TikTok. Have you tried Community coffee's new first light blend and iced coffee K cups? This is a family owned coffee company that puts Community in every cup since 1919. First Light is a bright, delicate, light roast with notes of honey and brown sugar.
- [119:02]
Russell
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- [119:11]
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
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