Jeff Gordon & Ryan Blaney LIVE from Daytona

Summary

The Dale Jr. Download

Episode: Jeff Gordon & Ryan Blaney LIVE from Daytona
Date: February 12, 2026
Host: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (with Freddie, Jeff Gluck, and special guests Jeff Gordon and Ryan Blaney)
Podcast by: Dirty Mo Media, SiriusXM

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Episode Overview

This special live episode from Daytona brings fan-favorite perspectives on the eve of the Daytona 500 with racing legends Jeff Gordon and Ryan Blaney joining Dale Earnhardt Jr., Freddie, and Jeff Gluck. The group dives deep into the stress and excitement of Daytona qualifying, the newly revised NASCAR points format, behind-the-scenes racing stories, team dynamics, and the personal lives of drivers off the track. There's also some fun discussion on facial hair, farm life, and memorable memories with Dale Sr. The show wraps with a lively ranking debate on the most anticipated races for the 2026 season.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Daytona Qualifying Stress and Relief

[02:26–07:02]

• Jeff Gordon and Dale Jr. swap stories about the anxiety of getting a car qualified for the Daytona 500.
• Both reflect on the mental gymnastics teams go through—sometimes even hoping not to make the top 10 in qualifying just to avoid having to re-run.
• A funny story about Noah Gragson ignoring a NASCAR rule, with everyone agreeing that “it’s just his style.”

Quote:

• "We get to be a part of this. And I can tell you the stress that all of us at HMS went through along with you last year... right up to the very last corner, last lap of the duels. To get that thing locked in had to feel good last night." — Jeff Gordon [02:42]

2. Noah Gragson's Rule-Bending Antics

[05:31–07:33]

• Discussion of Noah being the only one to break a rule, and the consensus is he's just wired that way.
• Jeff Gluck: "He's actually a lot smarter than he lets on. I think he kind of plays dumb." [07:02]

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3. New NASCAR Points Format – “The Chase is Back”

[07:33–14:35]

• Enthusiastic reactions from drivers and teams; perception is that this system returns importance to consistent performance all season.
• Eliminates the scenario where a fluke winner claims the title; success will favor the true season-long frontrunners.
• Key insight: Simulations showed it’s almost impossible for someone deep in the seedings to win the championship under this format.

Quote:

• "Being in that top five, being in that top six is critical. It really makes that regular season as important as the postseason." — Dale Jr. [13:14]

• "If somebody clinches it at Martinsville, people are gonna be like, wow, that's unbelievable." — Jeff Gluck [15:04]

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4. Dale Sr., Jeff Gordon & Business Behind the Rivalry

[16:17–21:52]

• Dale Jr. prompts Jeff Gordon about the real relationship between his dad and Jeff—rivals on track, partners off.
• Dale Sr. was instrumental in teaching Gordon business savvy with licensing/merchandising.
• Behind closed doors, many competitive drivers (Schrader, Rick Mast) put racing animosity aside for business.

Quote:

• "I remember he's the first one told me, you gotta own your rights to your likeness...he was the one that really led me down that path." — Jeff Gordon [19:18]

• "He'd put his arm around him...and then the next week, spinning them out, wrecking them...That was the kind of relationship if you got into that inner circle." — Jeff Gordon [18:10]

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5. Classic Racing Lessons from Dale Sr.

[21:52–24:43]

• Jeff Gordon describes two memorable “life lessons” Dale Sr. taught him on the racetrack (rookie year incident at Phoenix, practice at Michigan).
• Reminiscing about veterans teaching rookies “the hard way.”

Quote:

• "As a rookie, every rookie that came in—you had to teach them that lesson, it was your duty... If they thought they were too good... here comes that Dale Senior moment." — Jeff Gordon [24:10]

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6. The “Gluck Cast” Announcement

[29:27–32:54]

• Jeff Gluck unveils his new Thursday show, “Gluck Cast” on the Teardown feed—giving him a chance to weigh in on sport topics after wider industry dialogue.
• Dale Jr. praises the media’s mid-week discourse and unique perspective.

Quote:

• "No one has a better understanding of what's being talked about... than the people in that room." — Dale Jr. [31:40]

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7. Ryan Blaney Joins: Mustaches, Llamas & The New Points Format

[34:05–54:22]

• Blaney gives comedic updates on his mustache (“my wife likes it, so my boss can’t complain”), and his new llama (“they make great livestock guardians for small animals—will destroy a coyote or fox”).
• Dale Jr. and Ryan swap farm animal stories; Dale’s building an ark-like barn for his rescued donkeys and mules.
• Discussion turns serious as Blaney talks about the mental shift required by the new points format: consistency, not “hail marys,” will define the year.

Quote:

• "This points format is an elevator down and a staircase back up, it's just, it'll be really tough to limit your mistakes... it'll be hard to claw your way out." — Ryan Blaney, quoting Joey Logano [43:07]

• "I think now it's going to be a pure art form, which is what racing is and should be." — Ryan Blaney [45:15]

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8. Bowman Gray, the Clash, and Denny’s Radical Ideas

[45:50–51:37]

• Blaney fondly recalls racing at Bowman Gray—nostalgia, quirks, and wanting the race to continue at least one more year before rotating. Excitement about possible All-Star Race there.
• Freddie shares a funny story about Bubba Wallace getting mad at Blaney, even when he knew Blaney wasn’t at fault.
• Race format brainstorm: Denny Hamlin’s pitch for turning Homestead into the Clash site, or running Daytona with open technical rules—Blaney’s up for wild ideas.

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9. Daytona 500 Anticipation & Family Legacy

[51:37–54:22]

• Blaney gets personal about the significance of Daytona: grew up watching his dad, now wants to give his own son that legacy.
• Remembers his father’s strange near-miss in the infamous 2012 500 (Jet dryer crash: "My dad would have hated it, even though he won the 500, he would have been like, didn't matter." — Ryan Blaney [53:49])

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10. 2026’s Most Anticipated Races (The Great List Debate!)

[56:25–64:14]

• The crew reviews Jeff Gluck’s “most anticipated races” for 2026, arguing placement of San Diego, Homestead, Chicagoland, Daytona, Wilkesboro, and others.
• Strong agreement that returning to old, worn tracks (like Chicagoland, Wilkesboro) is a win; skepticism about needing to move the championship finale away from Homestead.

Quote:

• "Chicago land at number three...imagine, it's extremely abrasive now. There's a massive bump in the middle of three and four...must-see can't-miss racing in the NASCAR season." — Dale Jr. [61:47]

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

| Timestamp | Quote | Speaker | |------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------| | 02:42 | "We get to be a part of this. And I can tell you the stress...to get that thing locked in..." | Jeff Gordon | | 07:02 | "He's actually a lot smarter than he lets on, too. He kind of plays dumb." | Jeff Gluck | | 13:14 | "Being in that top five, being in that top six is critical..." | Dale Earnhardt Jr.| | 19:18 | "You gotta own your rights to your likeness...he was the one that really led me down that path." | Jeff Gordon | | 24:10 | "As a rookie...you had to teach them that lesson, it was your duty...here comes that Dale moment."| Jeff Gordon | | 43:07 | "This points format is an elevator down and a staircase back up..." | Ryan Blaney | | 45:15 | "I think now it's going to be a pure art form, which is what racing is and should be." | Ryan Blaney | | 53:49 | "My dad would have hated it, even though he won the 500, he would have been like, didn't matter." | Ryan Blaney | | 61:47 | "Chicago land at number three...must-see can't-miss racing in the NASCAR season." | Dale Earnhardt Jr.|

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Opening and Qualifying Stress: [01:46–04:31]
• Noah Gragson Antics: [05:31–07:33]
• Points Format Deep Dive: [07:33–15:24]
• Dale Sr./Jeff Gordon Business Stories: [16:17–21:52]
• 'Life Lesson' Racing Stories: [21:52–24:43]
• Gluck Cast/Media Reflection Announcement: [29:27–32:54]
• Ryan Blaney Joins (Mustache, Llama, Farm Stories): [34:05–39:20]
• Bowman Gray Memories & Bubba Story: [45:50–47:59]
• Points Format Effect on Driver Mindset: [42:03–45:50]
• Most Anticipated Races Debate: [56:25–64:14]

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Tone & Atmosphere

The tone is candid, light-hearted, and engaging—typical Dale Jr. Download style. There’s good-natured ribbing among friends and deep mutual respect among competitors. Listeners will feel immersed in authentic, behind-the-scenes NASCAR culture—with standout moments of both humor and nostalgia.

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Summary Takeaway

This live episode blends analysis and storytelling, offering a window into the real, personal, and professional experiences of top NASCAR figures. Fans get rich insights on the renewed importance of the regular season under the new points structure, hilarious off-track stories, and a sense of how legacy, family, and camaraderie shape the sport. With Daytona’s energy in the background, anticipation runs high—for the big race, for the Chase, and for the wild, unpredictable ride of the 2026 season.

Transcript

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The following is a production of Dirty Mo.

[Jeff Gordon]

This is like super professional.

[Freddie]

You're kind of surprised, aren't you?

[Jeff Gordon]

No, but this is for real.

[Freddie]

Oh, we're live.

[Jeff Gordon]

All right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right. Yeah, we just walked up.

[Jeff Gordon]

Does that mean you get it started?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I said, I popped on the headphones. I'm like, all right, somebody tell us what's going on here?

[Freddie]

So much.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're super professional. We thought we were going to do a better job the second year, but it ain't looking like it. Dirty mo Media Media SiriusXM right now, teaming up here for the stage and the fans on with Daytona. Hey, crowd. Good to see everybody. Got Jeff Cluck here. Freddie. And Jeff Gordon has joined us today. Jeff Gordon, hey there. What is your title? You're a part owner. What other titles do you have?

[Jeff Gordon]

Vice chairman.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Vice chairman, yeah. All right.

[Jeff Gordon]

I don't know what that means.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, it means you guys are fast this weekend. And, and, and I'm, I'm a, you know, I'm experiencing some of that with the car that we have, the 40 car with that Hinger horsepower underneath the hood. A Lot of work's been done in Austin.

[Jeff Gordon]

Congratulations, by the way. Yeah, but, you know, we, we get to be a part of this. And I can tell you the stress that all of us at HMS went through along with you last year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Jeff Gordon]

You know, right up to the very last corner, last lap of the duels. And to get that thing locked in. Had to feel good last night.

[Commercial Announcer]

I know.

[Jeff Gordon]

It felt good for us.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It really did. You know, last year was a struggle and, and we, you know, you, you've got to practice in the morning and then you have all day to wait around to see what kind of lap you're going to run and qualify. And there's a lot of tech and everything that you got to go through. It's super, super fun to be a part of it and very, very educational. I mean, I've been around this for a long time, but I learned so much being in that garage yesterday, going through that whole process with the. And so, you know, you get the car out of the trailer and you put it out on the racetrack, the driver's going to get a couple of runs in the 50 minute practice session. Very brief. It's either good or it's not. There's not a whole lot you can do at that point. Everything that's, you know, everything that the car's got has been done at the shop. And there's really not a lot of speed, really fine at the racetrack and. But fortunately this year, the car come off the trailer fast. And we go out there last night and the lap times that we started seeing, our car was gonna run about a 20. That's what it ran. And I walked up down pit road asking other crew chiefs and drivers what they could run. And once I sort of understood, after about three or four cars, I thought, man, we actually got a pretty good lap on the board. I wasn't really sure where that was gonna nest out. And funniest part, Jeff, we get going through qualifying pretty deep and I'm thinking, damn, we're gonna make the top 10 maybe and have to rerun and have to run again to try to beat Corey.

[Jeff Gordon]

But you thought that was a good thing?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I wasn't really sure. So there we were toward the end of qualifying, hoping to get beat so we could get bumped out of the top 10 so we didn't have to run again. It was the weirdest thing.

[Jeff Gordon]

The same thing happened to us, by the way, Jeff Andrews came over and he's like, man, that's a good enough lap. I think they'll be in the top 10, only 4,000 faster than Corey Lajoie.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Jeff Gordon]

And you have to understand folks, like. Like, first of all, right, Mr. H, buddies with Dale Jr. Used to be a teammate at Hendrick, Mr. H. And his partnership with him at JRM, and a great friend, Chris Stapleton. So this whole project came. Came to hms, and all that does is add additional pressure to all of us in the engine shop and all of us at hms, not just for our four cars, but for that car to get in the Daytona 500 is important, too. So, yeah, we find out, you know, you're 4,000 up on. On Corey, and then, you know, looking like you might be in the top 10. And then somebody comes over and says, hey, that that means that they might have to rerun second round. I was like, not Corey Lajoy out, please. Like, not Cory Lajoy out. Or both.

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, that was pretty interesting. I've never been in that scenario before, but it's a lot of fun.

[Freddie]

Was anybody surprised to see Noah be the only person to break the rule? Was anybody surprised about that at all?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Jeff Gordon]

What's funny is an email went out from NASCAR a couple hours before practice that reiterated, here are the rules. I'm sure that was not in his inbox or he didn't look at his emails, but I saw it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't believe he said that he forgot. I do not believe that he forgot. I believe that he said, I know Noah. He's worked with us at Junior Motorsports before. We had a ton of fun, but he is that kind of guy. I put a tweet out today. He's the guy that, if you say the stove is hot, don't touch it. He is going to touch the stove, and he's gonna get burnt, and he's gonna turn. He's gonna turn around. He's gonna turn around and go, yep, yep, it's hot.

[Jeff Gordon]

I thought maybe he looked around the car. He's like, there's no cameras in here. There's no way they're gonna know if I put my hand up there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I. I was. I noticed he'd run. And then I'm looking on the app, because I was standing on pit road with the app open, and I was like, where the hell's Noah's time at? It was pretty. It was pretty interesting. Gluck. I mean, what was. What was the reaction in the media center when y' all learned that he had made.

[Jeff Gluck]

Yeah, it was one of those, ah, of course. Kind of things. But I'm kind of with you. Like, I think that's one of those things where you kind of try to get away with something and then you got caught and you're like, oh, yeah, I just messed that up. Like, he.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He.

[Jeff Gluck]

Come on. Like, you don't just be like, I'm gonna put my hand up here. That's very conscious. You know what I mean? He's Noah. The thing about Noah is he's actually a lot smarter than he lets on, too. Like, I think he kind of plays dumb.

[Jeff Gordon]

No, I really.

[Jeff Gluck]

I really do.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Part of it.

[Jeff Gordon]

Yeah.

[Jeff Gluck]

Part of it's. It's an act. Part of it's an act. Part of it, you know, might be true, I'm saying, but, like, how much. That.

[Jeff Gordon]

How much fun he has is not an act. Yeah, for sure.

[Jeff Gluck]

For sure. But I'm with Dale. I think he knew.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Do you think he did on purpose? Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's possible. Well, there's a lot of changes this year coming into the season. One of those that I think a lot of us are really excited about is the change in the points format. Call it what you want. The Chase is back, or. I'll be honest with you. The way that the numbers kind of line up and how this is all going to be added up throughout the season, it's as close to going back to full season points as you can get without actually doing that. And so I'm very excited about it. I know that, you know, Jeff, talking to a lot of the drivers, Jeff Gluck and Jeff Gordon, both of y' all have talked to your drivers. Drivers in the media center. Freddie, you've heard from drivers as well, that there's a lot of excitement, I think, in how they feel they can approach this season and go out there and they kind of know this path a little bit more, you know, because this is kind of the system or similar system to what they've grown up doing over the years. So I'm seeing a lot of excitement in the drivers.

[Freddie]

Yeah, for sure. And it seems for me, like, you know, obviously, Everybody wanted a 36 race. You know, that was the big outcry. This was the best compromise by far. You know what I mean? I feel like, because you still have that 26 race playoff season where you can.

[Ryan Blaney]

You're.

[Freddie]

You can still have a couple hiccups and throughout the year, but you make that playoff, and now you've tightened the window. I was talking about on DVC a couple weeks ago, like, you'd go, the guy that was 10th in points at the cut or, you know, 16th points of the cutoff last year was 200 points out. Well, now he's going to be 70 points out of the leader, 100 points out of lead, whatever it was. And then like I said, the guy that second in points is the one that almost gets a little bit burned because you have that tight gap. You know, usually we've come down, we've seen one or two point gaps at the end of the regular season. Now that gap grows to 25. So I think it's just a good balance of you got to perform during the regular season. It makes the regular season championship mean that much more. And you could also have a couple of hiccups along the way and not ruin your whole season.

[Jeff Gordon]

Yeah, I mean, here's where I weigh. I always, even though I'm closer to the competition side of things, I always try to give NASCAR the benefit of the doubt, of the decision making. Right. That goes into it because you've got the fans that, you know, there's a lot of drama in what we've had cut, cut off and you know, who's going to advance to the next round. But then I know fans feel the same way that all the competitors do. A one race, you know, win for, you know, you go into it even and one guy's going to come out as a championship. While it's exciting, there's drama. I don't know if that, you know, really set well with, with a lot of people. So now we give up a little bit of that drama in the, in the rounds. But I think what we're going to do is crown a champion that, that, you know, people are going to look at and say, man, you know, like there's, there's not just a bunch of luck involved with that. Not that there was, you know, it's just sometimes there were, like with Denny Hamlin, I mean, that was a very unfortunate situation. If he built up a lead and had a points gap going into that final race, he. He had some margin there. That's what we're going to see now. And I do like that I joked in our first team owner council meeting that we had with nascar because, you know, while I think it's a good move to go to the Chase, I also got my butt kicked every year by Jimmie Johnson with that format when they went to it. But I do think it fits well if I go back to Comptia Son for Hendrick. We feel really good about it. You know, we just, we pride ourselves on, on being consistent throughout the season. We think Homestead's a great track for us to end the season, you know, we look at those 10 tracks and, you know, even the regular season, what can we do to. To get, you know, maybe that advantage of winning the regular season? Our four guys, I think it plays out very well for, for them and for our race teams. And yeah, I'm excited to see how it all unfolds this year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I'm excited too. So, Gluck, you might have some inside information on this, and I'm not, you know, I'm not sure what everybody might know, but when they started to talk about announcing this, and we were actually in the, in the middle of the, the. The release of the announcement itself, and I was talking to some of the, Some of the guys I know personally, the people that. And you, we all know personally, the people that created this system.

[Jeff Gluck]

Right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And adjusted on the old chase to deliver what we had today in terms of points, how much you get when you win a race and all those things. And what they were trying to do was maintain some, some semblance of a playoff format, but they wanted it to really come down to somebody who had done very well throughout the entire season or the regular season. And so they didn't want me to say this, but, you know, now that we're kind of far removed from that announcement, I think it's kind of okay. But you know, in most, they ran tons of models, they ran thousands and thousands of models with this format to try to. Try to break it, to try to see if it would actually spit out some fluke winner. And it never would. And so, you know, while we do have in a lot of here, people ask us, you know, 16 too many, should it be 10, 12? It doesn't matter. It really doesn't. Because the guy who's in 10th, 11th, 12th, ain't got a shot in hell. He don't. I mean, they'll have to have an incredibly miraculous playoff to be able to out point and make up the difference on those guys that are sitting in first, second, third. And so in all of the models that they ran, it was really always coming down to that first, second, third, maybe the fourth, the fifth every now and then. So being in that top five, being in that top six, six is critical. So that's why the good thing about that, I think, is that it really makes that regular season as important as the postseason.

[Ryan Blaney]

Yeah.

[Jeff Gordon]

And let's be honest, going even back to the format, we just came out of the playoffs. If you were 10th to 16th, you really didn't have a chance either. I don't know when the last time. Jeff could probably tell us when the last time that was done, if I, if ever. But I don't think he ever came into it and won the championship from that far back.

[Ryan Blaney]

Yeah.

[Jeff Gluck]

And I think the thing is, like, if somebody wins it in the miraculous way from seventh in a ten week thing, you go, holy crap, that's unbelievable.

[Jeff Gordon]

You deserved it, Tony.

[Jeff Gluck]

All those guys.

[Jeff Gordon]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jeff Gluck]

You would have to have that kind of run. You'd have to win five out of 10 races, you know, otherwise I don't think anybody wants to see that anyway. Like, that's the whole reason that everybody was complaining about this old format. Like the idea that somebody could come out of nowhere and it didn't reflect the rest of the season. People want to see something where they get to the end of the season and they go, all right, that is. That was the driver of the year. Like, that was what we. That, that went with what we saw the rest of the season. So, you know, I think there's going to be a great race, like you said, for those top four or five seeds, and, you know, that's going to be as important as getting that number one seed in a way, because if you're, if you're too far down, there's a 25 point gap between the first seed and the second seed and then it kind of goes down five points or something like that. But there's 100 points between first and 16th, so you've got to be, you know, up somewhere in the top five, six to have a shot at it. And I think everybody's going to be fine with that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Jeff Gordon]

And not that I had a vote on it, but, you know, I just, I felt like the whole season, I know Mark Martin was adamant, right. Needs to be a 36 race. And I got, I was fortunate to be a part of those. And I can remember, you know, the championship being crowned two, three races before the season was over too. And I don't think that would work. I really don't. So this really prevents that from happening over those 10 races, I believe.

[Jeff Gluck]

Well, even in the old Chase format, you know, nobody ever clinched it before Homestead anyway.

[Commercial Announcer]

That's right.

[Jeff Gluck]

I. And I don't think it'll. With the next gen car as close as everything is, I don't think it'll happen. Nobody, nobody's gonna. And if they do, if somebody clinches it at Martin's, people are gonna be like, wow, that's unbelievable.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So one of the things I wanted to talk about with, you know, With Dirty Mo Media is this. This year, Jeff, I don't know if you heard about this yet.

[Jeff Gordon]

Oh, man.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But we.

[Jeff Gordon]

I'm on the edge of my seat.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Every year we do a replica hood in the.

[Jeff Gordon]

I'm aware of this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right. Yeah. And so every year we do this replica hood and it's life size and it's a mock up hood that we kind of have a lot of fun with, and it's going to have the Dirty Mo Media logo on it. We did different ones over the years, like Bobby. Bobby Allison's Miller High Life and different ones. Last year we did like a Budweiser hood. And I said, you know what? This year I'm gonna. I'm gonna let TJ, my co host, pick the hood. And I've known TJ since 2000. I've known him for a long, long time. And I said, tj, you get to pick the hood. Any hood you want. He goes, all right, I got it. My favorite driver. And I was like, favorite driver? He goes, yeah, Jeff Gordon. I was like, I didn't know Jeff Gordon was your favorite driver.

[Jeff Gordon]

I didn't know that either, by the way.

[Freddie]

You've yelled at him too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He told me because he thought maybe it would moved down here from Buffalo. We helped him get a job over at MB2 and all that stuff. Maybe that might. Doesn't happen if he tells me he's a Jeff Gordon fan. So I think that was what he was worried about. So we got this beautiful hood in the studio, and it's replica of your Dupont scheme when you had the flames on it. So I'm gonna have to get you to come on to the show as a guest 100% so that you can get your autograph on that thing, man. But you're gonna be in that studio represented the entire season. And it's, you know, fans had such fun reactions to it. A lot of people thought it was awesome. Some people were like, what the hell, Earnhardt? But a lot of people, I was like, we weren't teammates. That was one thing. But some other people brought up some great things that I thought would be fun for you to talk about. Is even though you and dad were really, really competitive and fierce competitors on the racetrack, y' all did a lot of things behind the scenes that I think people either don't know about or they tend to forget about a lot of business deals y' all had together. Y' all owned properties together, Business properties and literal property. Talk about how all that happened. I mean, I remember when we were at Wilkesboro in 94. I was there for a late ball stock race, and he was taking you around the track in a pace car, just talking about the track. And he walked you over and said, I want to introduce you to Jeff Gordon.

[Jeff Gordon]

This.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

This guy's going to be a big deal. And so, I mean, y' all kind of had a friendship right out of the gate, but how do you become business partners?

[Jeff Gordon]

Yeah, I mean, first of all, who didn't respect your dad, right? I mean, you know, just absolute legend. And. And every time I was on the track, I felt like I was learning, you know, something, especially at this place, from him. And he was so hard to beat at these places. But, you know, you know, so I, of course, no matter what was happening on the racetrack, even when he was.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, Dale had.

[Jeff Gordon]

Your dad had a love hate relationship.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

With every competitor, by the way.

[Jeff Gordon]

You know, like, like he would put his arm around him, hey, buddy, let's go hunting and fishing and let's do this. And then the next week, spinning them out, wrecking them on the, you know, you just kind of. You became aware and familiar with that. That was the kind of relationship that you could potentially have if you got into that inner circle. And I just always looked up to him, had the most respect. And then, you know, as my career started taking off the business side started taking off and, you know, back then we used to fly on planes together to tracks, and you just, you spent more time, you go up in the hauler, you know, the NASCAR hauler, and you just spent more time together as drivers than I feel like they do today. And you get to know one another whether you like it or not. And so, you know, just created some conversations with, you know, him and myself about your. I remember he's the first one told me, you gotta own your rights to your likeness. He's like, if you don't have that, you gotta go get that, you know, in your next driver contract. You need to, you know, control the licensing. And, you know, like, he was the one that really led me down that path. And then of course, when Action performance came along and the diecast market just blew up, he was, you know, leading that charge and riding. And he knew that, hey, it's not just a one man show. It was, this thing's going to be bigger and the sport's going to be bigger and the fans are going to get more access to things if all of us come together. And so he came to me and psychedelic. Now, of course, his way of coming together and throwing an idea. Hey, here's what you're going to do. A contract's going to come to you. There's no email, but contracts and come over. You're going to look it over. If you want to have a lawyer look at it, that's fine, but you're still going to sign it one way or another. That'll happen on Tuesday, you know, like that. And you just go, okay. And listen, every one of the deals worked out really well, so I'm glad it happened the way it did.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, that's pretty awesome. I always enjoy knowing that, how you guys were able to, like, he and you and him and all these other guys, like Schrader, Rick Mast, they all have stories about, you know, run ins on the racetrack with dad, but off the racetrack, y' all all figured out a way to, you know, put that aside till the next Sunday and do business and do things that were successful together. And then you get out on the racetrack and, you know, run into each other and flip each other off and be mad as you could be, you know.

[Jeff Gordon]

Yeah. There were two times that I don't think I've gotten over it yet. I can remember the first time, and I looked. This was such a huge life lesson for me as a driver. It was my rookie year in 93, and I think it was last or maybe second or third. No, it wasn't last race because it was in Phoenix. The last race back then was in Atlanta. So second or third to the end of the season, and he was, as he always was, in the hunt, you know, for the championship. I. He didn't win at 93, did he? I don't think he won 93. I know he won at 94 anyway, so. So I'm racing like I'm in seventh, something like that. And he and I are battling for that position. We had about equal cars, and somehow I got ahead of him maybe on a. On a pit sequence or something, and he, you know, he's just right on me. And I gave him inside. And we raced side by side for about two laps, and that was one and a half too many. Oh, and we went down to turn three, and I thought I gave him enough room, and boom, round. I go, pow. In the wall. And I was like, man, I didn't know I came down on. Crowded him like that. I realized later I didn't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jeff Gordon]

It was just his way of saying, hey, kid. Yeah, that's. That's not going to get done, especially with me. So. So I never, you know, I made sure that I was always understanding the situation. It was situational awareness was what the lesson was. And. And he had more on the line than I did that day, and I didn't need to race him that hard. And then what was the other one? Oh, shoot. Gosh darn it. I'm gonna think about here in a second.

[Freddie]

Sounds like you're over it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I'm definitely not. Oh.

[Jeff Gordon]

Oh, no, no. It was. We were at Michigan practice on a Saturday. Okay. And we were about to take off pit road, and Ray Abraham comes over. He's like. He's like, listen, just. You got a good race car. We're just trying to get this thing, you know, for the later practice, right?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Get it, Get a ride.

[Jeff Gordon]

Don't worry too much about right now. And he's like, just, you know, let Dale go. Because Dale, like, when in practice, man, he would run a practice like it was a race. He wanted to race you as hard as he could in practice. So we always kind of knew. Just stay away from. From racing anybody, really. And so. So I remember I come off pit road and. And let him. He yarded. You know, he's way out there over straightaway head. And then I start running, and my car is really good, and so I'm. I'm closing in on him, and then all of a sudden, he starts really slowing down. And so I'm like, okay, he's gonna let me go, and I'll. And he'll get in behind me. And I. I remember I come off of turn two.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Jeff Gordon]

Come off of two. And I mean, he's checked up on the outside. I get a big run, and all of a sudden, he gets right to my quarter panel just enough where I can't clear them, and we go down three. And I'm just like, surely he's gonna let me go, so I'm just gonna drive in real deep. No, no, he drove in deeper. Right on my door and sucked me right around. I backed that thing in the. In the wall. Destroyed the car.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Jeff Gordon]

And he was unscathed, as usual. And so, man, I got back, and Ray was pissed at me. He wasn't mad at Dale. He's like, what did I tell you? Stay. I said he was letting me go. I thought he was letting me go. So that was another life lesson.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Has there been moments that you remember being on the other side of that where you were teaching a young driver on the racetracks how it's done?

[Jeff Gordon]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, definitely. I mean, I. That's why later, you know, I realized, especially the 90, the 93 thing. Like as a rookie, every rookie that came in, you had to teach them that lesson like it was, it was your duty. You, when they came, if they thought they were too good or they, they were running up front and, and you know, using up a little too much track or what, you're like, yep, here comes that Dale senior moment.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Man, we can see.

[Jeff Gordon]

I might not wreck them, but I definitely moved them.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, I'm sure I learned a lot being around you on the racetrack and in the, in the office as well. It's been a lot of fun over the years and appreciate you giving us some time today. It's awesome to sit up here and just listen to some of these stories, you know, you, you, you're a great icon in the sport, man. It's awesome to see you as evolved as you are and, and hope you. Hope you have a good weekend this weekend with your guys. Hopefully you run 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 with that 40 out front.

[Jeff Gordon]

Yeah, yeah. Listen, listen. You say you got a better car this year. You finished 10th last year. So, you know, you, you got some big shoes to fill now. But no, it's going to be great. We're excited. We, you know, just excited about this year, the Daytona 500 and we got a great car, great chance, you know, for all of our guys and can't wait to work with you and, And Justin, the 40 team out there as well as like an extension of Hendrick Motorsports. Really cool to be a part of that. And thanks for not calling me a pioneer. You call me an icon instead. I think I like you're not pioneer yet.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think when you retire, when you retire, you're gold.

[Jeff Gordon]

Carl Edwards called me by time. Yeah, I laughed at that. But I'm honored that my hood is at the studio. That's amazing. And I can't wait to get up there and see in person.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Awesome.

[Jeff Gordon]

Jeff Gord. Thank you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Thank you. Jeff Gord. 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 ways to bet on your favorite drivers and races. From individual race winners to prop bets to which drivers going to take home the championship here on the Dell Junior 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 dirtymo for your shot at $100 in bonus bets.

[Ryan Blaney]

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[Jeff Gluck]

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[Ryan Blaney]

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[Jeff Gluck]

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[Ryan Blaney]

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[Jeff Gluck]

Which expire seven days after receipt.

[Ryan Blaney]

Restrictions apply.

[Commercial Announcer]

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[Ryan Blaney]

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[Jeff Gluck]

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[Ryan Blaney]

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[Jeff Gluck]

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[Commercial Announcer]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So we got a little bit of an announcement to make. I don't. Jeff, you want to do this? It's your. Your deal.

[Jeff Gluck]

Well, I, I've been jealous. You know, I have this podcast, the teardown that we do after the race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Jeff Gluck]

But I have to tell everybody a secret, I guess, because, you know, when you do a podcast right after the race, you haven't heard what anybody else thinks. So, like, I haven't heard actions detrimental or DBC or dodging your download. So sometimes you're just kind of like, I'm like, man, this just happened. We got off the pit road, we come to do the podcast, and I'm like talking about stuff. I'm like, yeah, I think this is right. This is what people are going to think about this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I love it because I wanted. I just got a buddy in here because you say what you say, I listen to what the fans say, and then I decide what I'm going to say. Worked out great for us, right, Freddy?

[Freddie]

Yeah, it was perfect. I go, I just disagree with anything GL says. I'm g, have a good show on Monday.

[Jeff Gluck]

Well, then. So then it gets to Monday and I start listening to all the podcasts. You know how that you guys followed sport, you know, the discourse works on social media and the podcast world and all that stuff. You're like, man, I don't know if maybe, maybe I was wrong about that or you have a different opinion or you have something else you want to say. Anyway, but my show is just after the race, so I don't have any else. Anything else to say. So I'm going to be doing a Thursday show now. It's going to be on the tear down feed. And it's going to be on my YouTube channel. And I'm not.

[Freddie]

Is this the name of it?

[Jeff Gluck]

This is the name. The name of it is the Glut cast.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Is it okay? I love it.

[Freddie]

You picked that name yourself, didn't you?

[Jeff Gluck]

They said that I had to have a. Because it's on the teardown feed, it has to have my name in it. And I was like, I don't know about the Glut cast.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't think anybody's gonna forget it. Well, that's a good thing.

[Jeff Gluck]

They said you have 24 hours to come up with a better name than the Gluck house. And I thought about it and I.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I said, it sounds like there's a lot of NASCAR negotiations.

[Freddie]

Yeah, you better sign this right now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You got 24 hours.

[Jeff Gluck]

There's a lot of things that Gluck could be in with that shouldn't be in there.

[Freddie]

I thought that thing worked out great. I thought that was amazing.

[Jeff Gluck]

Anyway, so, yeah, the things that I love about this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So what I love about this idea is obviously so you and Jordan and many, many, many other people in that. In that room, in that press room, no one has a better understanding of what's being talked about, what's being discussed, what's going on in the sport than the people in that room. And the fact that y' all come. The reason why you can do the teardown is because of that very fact. So y' all come right off the race and you react. And I think that's why it works so well. And what we do kind of lack in our little bubble is that preview of that race. Right. The preview of that race from the same mindset. So I'm pretty excited about it. I love listening to Yalls content. I learned so much about things that are being discussed in the sport from y'. All. I think you keep all of us sort of up to speed on really, truthfully, what the big conversations are in the garage and in the industry. And so I'm pretty excited about this show and look forward to it. I mean, it'll be interesting to see kind of how what your perspective is going in then how you may change what you say and do on the teardown after the race. Right. Because you've got this, this preview and this post reaction now.

[Jeff Gluck]

Yeah. I mean, it's. It's so weird how like the conversation just weaves and flows throughout the week. We all follow it, right? Like it's. I think we're all in this community, this NASCAR Community. And you can see, okay, this is the topic of the week, and it kind of flares up, and everybody kind of hops on it. And every podcast is talking about it, and every writer's talking about it, and everybody's talking about social media. And then it kind of just goes another way, and then the next thing pops up and it's like. It's not like one person or something. It's just like, collectively, we all just said, all right, I guess we're going to be talking about this this week.

[Jeff Gordon]

All right, Everybody's talking about it.

[Jeff Gluck]

So I'm happy to have a chance to weigh in again if people aren't tired of listening to me. So thank you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm looking forward to it. So tear down the Gluck cast. All right. It's a weekly spin off.

[Jeff Gluck]

I'm going to say this, like, tear down. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So it's debuting February 19th, new episodes dropping every Thursday. And there'll be an audio version as well as a YouTube version. We'll all be checking that out. Our next guest wasn't going to be. Wasn't supposed to be here till 3:45, but I seen he's very punctual. We should just bring him on up here. Ryan Blaney driving number 12 for Pisky.

[Freddie]

Mike Davis won't let him up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Mike Davis, Leave. Leave Brian alone up here.

[Freddie]

Mike, let our guest alone.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Mike, can you. Mike, can you leave Brian alone? Thank you. Mike.

[Jeff Gluck]

Did you spot the.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Mike had him. Mike had him hemmed up over trying to get him to do a podcast, what he was doing with Jeff Gordon.

[Freddie]

When I walked up, Mike's trying to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Sign them all up.

[Jeff Gluck]

The Blaney cast.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The Bl cast.

[Jeff Gluck]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There he is. The mustache himself has arrived.

[Freddie]

This guy ruined the playoff announcement for.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Me, by the way.

[Freddie]

Like, no, they're in a playoff announcement. All I can look at is this guy's mustache. He's in the back row, and I'm like, this is the only thing I'm focused on.

[Commercial Announcer]

The mustache.

[Ryan Blaney]

No, I can't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I can't get rid of.

[Ryan Blaney]

Unless my boss tells me to shave.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Which one's the.

[Freddie]

Which one is the boss again?

[Ryan Blaney]

You know who it is?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, the one.

[Ryan Blaney]

One boss likes it. The other boss, I don't know. My wife likes it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep.

[Ryan Blaney]

But my main boss, who pays my bills, I don't. I don't know. But he hasn't said anything about it yet.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I was. I was surprised that the. The real boss liked it because Amy's pretty opinionated about my facial Hair. She prefer I don't have any.

[Ryan Blaney]

Yeah, right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But she likes me to keep it kind of short. I like to go really long in the wintertime.

[Ryan Blaney]

Right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like a real man. Yeah. You know, like, I'm going every day. But she's not a big fan of that.

[Ryan Blaney]

Yeah, I'm surprised my wife likes it as much as she does. But so I got. I got lucky on that.

[Jeff Gluck]

She told you to do it, right?

[Ryan Blaney]

She did tell me to do it. You know, I. You know, so I do the big beard and the playoffs and then the.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Winter, she just said, leave that.

[Ryan Blaney]

Well, and then I always, like, for a week straight, I play with it. So I'll do like mutton chops and then like a goatee and then like. So I'm like a different person for like a week. And then I got to my mustache and I had big handlebars. And she was like, I don't like that one. So I shortened it up a little bit and she was like, I actually like it how.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Who have you been told you look like?

[Ryan Blaney]

I get Ned Flanders a lot. I get Kurt Russell from Tombstone.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. What about the dude from Gaines of New York? The butcher. Bill the butcher. Yeah.

[Jeff Gordon]

Yeah.

[Ryan Blaney]

I haven't gotten that one yet, but that's a pretty good one for me. Yeah, I get better than Ned Flanders. Yeah, yeah. Someone I. Flanders is the. I got it for the first time down here. Someone just came up to me and showed me a picture of Ned Flanders. They're like, you look like this. I was like, man, that sucks. There's a lot of cooler people with mustaches. And, you know, Flanders was always a weird guy, I thought. But yeah, that person thought I looked like Ned Flanders.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I also heard you got a llama. Yeah, Like a real life llama.

[Ryan Blaney]

Yeah. Yes, he did. Yeah, I got a llama. I got a lot of questions about him. The main reason we got him, we have three little goats. They. They're great, like, livestock guardians for small animals. Really?

[Jeff Gordon]

Yeah.

[Ryan Blaney]

Not a lot of people know that, but they, like, will destroy a coyote or a fox if they want to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I did not know that. So dad had a couple llamas, and all I got told was, they'll see spit on you. Don't go over by them, they'll spit on you.

[Ryan Blaney]

So they. They do spit. Mine doesn't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And their breath or their spits really rank.

[Ryan Blaney]

Their spit is actually. They regurgitate throw up and then they spit it at you. So it's not just like saliva. It's like vomit that they spit at you. But the only ones that spit are, like, ones that are in petting zoos, and they get hand fed all the time. But this one, he was raised on, like, a llama farm with, like, 100 other llamas, and they never, like, hand fed him or nothing. So, like, he never spits. But it does get a little weird if he, like, he'll get right in your face. And I'm like, please don't do it. Not today.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Is he nice?

[Ryan Blaney]

He's very nice. Yeah. Very nice. He hasn't done anything bad yet.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not to get your personal stuff, but, like, you. Are you starting a farm?

[Jeff Gordon]

What are we.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What are we gonna get? Barn. We build a barn. I know you're next.

[Ryan Blaney]

Yeah, my. That's my wife's project. And I just say, yeah, Yeah. I mean, what are you gonna say?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So, you know, I got a fun story. Amy's going to be mad, but we. We got a tiny barn that was on my property when I bought it, and it's got three stables in it, and it's real small. And we get into rescuing because Amy likes to do that kind of stuff. And so we've had some other. We've had all kinds of animals over the years, but right now we've got four donkey, one mule, and a horse and a mini horse. And so we got too many for our barn, right? And Amy's. We got the Carolina carports people on the Xfinity program, and they're like, hey, we're really having fun with y' all sponsoring your race cars. We want to give you a free build. I was like, damn. All right. So I told Amy, I said, they want to give us a free build. You know, you want to. What do you think? And she goes, I will do it. We'll make it a barn. You know, we'll get more stalls and be able to have all these. All these rescues will have room to get out of the rain and all that stuff. And, you know, we got to thinking about how we wanted to build it, and we were going to build this barn, and she. So she starts designing it out of wood and. And starts building this thing, and it's going to have. You know, we're going to get some help from the carport folks before, sort of COVID it, but it looks like an arc. Like, I look out, I look people. People are like, hey, I take pictures of it, and I sent it. My friends, I'm like, we're building an ark.

[Ryan Blaney]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Cuz that's what it looks like. It's Crazy.

[Jeff Gluck]

Wow.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And I just kind of got to step out of the way. I got two little girls and. And Amy, and it's like, that's what they want to do.

[Ryan Blaney]

I know what you should get next. The llama. Oh, you should get two llamas next.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I might. Well, if you want to. Only I think I'm. I'm a rescuer, so. Only if you're.

[Freddie]

All right, well, if your llama needs.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Rescue, your llama needs rescuing. I'm your guy.

[Ryan Blaney]

Okay. We'll just open the gate one time.

[Jeff Gordon]

He's out.

[Ryan Blaney]

He needs a resc. Rescue. He's rescue.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If he becomes a problem, you know, if he's harassing the goats.

[Ryan Blaney]

All right, if I tell you that me and him got in a fist fight, then you got to come rescue.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You probably have to rescue me. Spits on you. And you sock him away.

[Ryan Blaney]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Anyhow. Yeah, I think that's. That. That's in your future. The barn. Go ahead and start snaking the ground, bud.

[Ryan Blaney]

That's next.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[Ryan Blaney]

Yeah.

[Jeff Gordon]

Really?

[Ryan Blaney]

It's. And I'll tell you, I saw.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So it's the. It's the. The Thunderbirds are flying overhead, and I saw a picture from village. He took a ride with him, boys today.

[Ryan Blaney]

Did he.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Have you ever done anything?

[Ryan Blaney]

I did it my rookie year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Really?

[Ryan Blaney]

Did you fly with it?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, it must be a rookie thing.

[Ryan Blaney]

I think it is a rookie thing. Mine was 20 minutes 10 years ago, and that was one of the coolest things I've ever done in my life.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The only rookie, he just must be getting multiple rides today.

[Ryan Blaney]

No. So the thing about Thunderbirds, you only get one. The only.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know, but he's the only ever again. There's still.

[Ryan Blaney]

Ever. Yeah. One ever. You can't, like, do it every year. Like, it's a very strict process. Yeah, but it was the coolest thing ever. The guy made me throw up.

[Freddie]

I threw up everywhere.

[Ryan Blaney]

Yeah, I did black out. I didn't black out. I puked, though. I don't know which one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You have a key suit on.

[Ryan Blaney]

I did. I still puked.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I did. The Blue Angels. No, they don't do as many GS, but they don't do the suit either. I passed out.

[Commercial Announcer]

Yeah.

[Jeff Gluck]

This is what happens when you get Brian Blaney on the stage. America, baby.

[Ryan Blaney]

That is the coolest thing ever. What other place does this?

[Freddie]

Let me tell you something. When you're on that roof pre race, it feels like they are going to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hit you in the head.

[Freddie]

Like they are. You feel like you can reach up and touch them. It's insane. Some of the videos we get.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So we had Jeff Gordon up here and everybody, you know, we're going to talk to everybody about this and we're going to. We're going to talk about it all year long. I think by the end of the year, people will be sick of it. But the chase is back. The points, the way you guys will decide who the champion is. You were in your part of the announcement. You've had time to kind of think about this and soak it all in. You've had time to sit rooms with engineers and crew chiefs and your team organization to talk about how you'll approach the year based off of the new format. So, you know, how's that all going and what are your thoughts? Because I, I think some. A massive mental shift for a driver.

[Ryan Blaney]

Because I believe it is.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right.

[Ryan Blaney]

Yeah, I think it's a massive shift. I've always been like, a huge believer in don't overthink things. I think it's easier for people to overthink this stuff. Like if you're just trying to figure out, like, oh, strategy here and there that, like, the, the goal of every week is to run the best you can every week. But I think with this thing, I feel like you have some people thinking twice about, you know, hey, I might make this low percentage move, you know, that I would probably make in the previous format that maybe I don't want to make in this one because bad days are going to really suck and good days are going to be celebrated even more just because the way the points format is. So I don't know, I think just consistency is going to matter even more and it's going to be a lot of pressure on these teams and drivers to have no mistakes because it's going to be someone really. Joey Logano actually said this earlier today and it stuck with me is this, points, points, new points format is an elevator down and a staircase back up, like, so it's just, it's. It'll be really tough to limit your mistakes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[Ryan Blaney]

And it'll be hard to claw your way out of it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[Ryan Blaney]

But I like it. I think it's. It's where the sport needed to go.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I remember, I've said this before, but I remember starting the year, you know, 20, 25 years ago, starting the season and thinking, man, these, these first four or five races really have to go good because if I have four bad races, I'm gonna be 30th, 28th, 22nd points and. And it's gonna be a hard staircase up to try to even, you know, get close to where these guys are going to be. And in the past format, you know, you, you could, you could eliminate that issue by going out and winning a few races. Right. And you don't have that luxury, I suppose, or that opportunity this time. So, you know, I think as a driver, to your point, you'll have to really, you know, start to season out. Even in daytona at the 500 going, I got to be smart, I got to be, I got to be correct in every, every decision I make.

[Ryan Blaney]

Yeah. And I feel like, you know, we would come down here for the 550. It's a speedway. You could get tore up, you know, easy and, you know, you wouldn't really think about it, like, oh, you know, I, I have faith we're going to win a race, we'll get in the playoffs and all that stuff. But yeah, like you said, I mean, starting your season off on the right foot, starting the first month of the year off on the right foot is going to be really important because if you do find yourself in that hole, let's say you have a terrible first month and you 30th in points and then you're kind of getting stressed out, like, I got to run good now. And then you're like spiraling out of control. So it'll be, it'll be crazy. It'll be wild. But I love how they, where they went and I think it's going to make for an even better way to kind of crown our champion and better races in general, I think.

[Jeff Gluck]

Yeah. I mean, you said at the announcement that it's going to get back to the beautiful art form that you grew up loving. And I think there's a couple of things of that, right, because like, number one, you had the guys that were so desperate to try to win their way in and you know, of course they're going to make crazy moves. But then you also had the guys that had already won and it didn't matter if they were going to finish fifth or second or whatever. They all mattered. If they wanted got more playoff points, they're going to do stupid stuff too. And it really, like, yeah, some of the end of these races was, was kind of shit show.

[Ryan Blaney]

And I, and I hated that side of it. Like, you know, like you mentioned the guys who needed to like win a race to get in, whether it was a speedway or maybe they have an opportunity, you know, to, to win a certain race, but they would make some moves that are just like. It took a lot of the purity out of racing. To me, you know, you saw a lot of stuff and they get out of the car and be like, well, I didn't want to do that, but I had to. And I hated that excuse so bad. But the points format made it. You have to run that way. And I think now it's going to be a pure art form, which is what racing is and should be. So I think we're going to get a lot of that back, which is good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

One of the things I'd love to talk to you about, you've had the experience and opportunity to race at Bowman Grade the last couple of years with the Clash. How much fun is it to go to that racetrack with these cars? It just. It's an odd couple sort of thing, but it's also nostalgic and as vintage, as throwback as you could possibly get. What's the future of Bowman Gray?

[Ryan Blaney]

I hope we go there for at least another year. I mean, I think you can move that clash around, you know, just kind of like the All Star Race and stuff like that. I grew up the town over from Winston Salem, where Bowman Gray is, so that was kind of a special place for me. I went there a lot as a kid and ran there when I was 9 or 10 years old. I raced a little bandolero there, but I have a blaster. I think it puts on a great race. Like you see comers and goers and tire fall off and stuff like that, and take out of that second half of that race the other week of just the, you know, what it turned into, it was really sloppy with the weather and there's nothing you can do about that. But I think it's good. The fans, I think, really enjoy it, so we'll see where it goes. But I hope it gets another year, at least. And then rotate it and then maybe it'll work its way back.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It hasn't really been. I don't think this rumor has been discussed by the people that truly make the decisions, but could you imagine seeing an All Star Race there racing for a million dollars?

[Ryan Blaney]

I can imagine. I can see it. We've gone to all these different types of places. Yeah, we've gotten all these different. They didn't have the afterburners on on that one. That was a little lighter. That was a.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That was five of them.

[Ryan Blaney]

But yeah, I mean, I could definitely see the All Star Race being there, and that would be a big show.

[Freddie]

Did you think Bubba was actually mad at you last week?

[Ryan Blaney]

I didn't think he was, but I know how he gets.

[Freddie]

And I was like, so, so tell.

[Jeff Gordon]

Him it wasn't me.

[Freddie]

So Ryan dumps him, right? I mean, typical Ryan movie. Just runs in the back of us like he always does. So in the moment, I tell I as it's actually happening, I go, that wasn't a 12, it was the one got shot into him. And Bubba comes. We go to the pits, fix the car. We come out and Bubba starts like door slamming Ryan and flipping him off. And I'm like, you know it wasn't him, right? He's like, yeah, I know it wasn't him, but don't tell him I know.

[Ryan Blaney]

Sorry, dude. I don't know what you want me to do. Yeah, I secretly hate Bubba.

[Jeff Gordon]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, me too.

[Ryan Blaney]

Yeah.

[Jeff Gordon]

Actually.

[Jeff Gluck]

I'd like to get your guys reaction to something that Denny threw out yesterday on during media day. He said, what if you took the Clash to Homestead and you gave everybody sort of like the preseason test in a way, and then the second day of it. So you gave everybody a day to practice because everybody wants to be good at Homestead. Now you were already kind of down in Florida anyway. Then the, the end of the practice basically was the Clash. And then so everybody kind of got like data. And then it. You kind of waited like 10 months all year, come back there and be like, man, how's this? Is this who's going to be the champion this year? You know, like that kind of thing? Like, I think. Any idea?

[Freddie]

Denny has.

[Commercial Announcer]

Amazing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Honestly.

[Ryan Blaney]

Yeah. You're not going to get that bonus, Freddie. You're not getting that bonus. That's an interesting idea. You know what I've always thought would be cool for a Clash or an all Star race is like if we brought the Clash down here and you just open the rules up like that. Do any. We'll do whatever you want. Run whatever spoiler you want to run. Like if you want to run a 1 inch blade, go at it and good luck to the guy holding on to it. If you want to run like a four inch blade, go ahead. Like I thought that would always be. That always be kind of cool.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Do you think you could set up a next gen car that could run at Daytona without a spoiler or.

[Ryan Blaney]

Probably. I mean, it could run. Drivers would be. It would be pretty sketchy.

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[Ryan Blaney]

I mean, you'd be going so fast. Well, you'd be hauling ass.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Let's say we figured out how to make it run 95 to 200.

[Ryan Blaney]

How would you do that without. You have to put like a 200 horsepower motor in it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I would just, I would make it run that speed. Could you drive it? Could I fix it? Could I set it up?

[Ryan Blaney]

Yeah, you can. I mean you can fix up anything to drive with no rear spots. Some regard, right? Yeah, you could drive it. It just. You wouldn't be a lot of. A lot of off throttle time for sure. But that'd be kind of cool.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Because I know in the pan. TJ were talking about this on the, on the podcast this week. I know that incoming. That's pretty serious.

[Ryan Blaney]

That was, that was the afterburners.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know in the 70s, Dave, Marcus and them guys were qualifying the Dodges at Talladega with like a little 118 inch wicker on the back. And you know, they come down here in the 90s and have this spoilers lay down to 15, 20 degrees and you're thinking, man, what, what, how much do we really need? You know? Yeah, because it was, I remember racing it, you know, in 04 here in the dual. Lifting. Lifting all the way out of the gas.

[Ryan Blaney]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Plowing into the corner.

[Ryan Blaney]

I would love that. Yeah, I think that'd be more fun to me as a driver than running around there wide open or next to wide open, you know, like, have you ever seen the spoiler on Bill Elliott's right? Like world record car in Talladega? Like the thing has got like 5 degrees of spoiler angle on it. It's not even there, it's just there because the rulebook said you had to have a spoiler on the car. Like that's. I just think opening that up would be. Would be pretty neat. But back then was super cool because there was no data or anything. Like no engineering. They just did it like that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Eight hours of practice.

[Jeff Gluck]

Yeah.

[Ryan Blaney]

They were like, well, let's try this.

[Jeff Gordon]

You know, lay it back.

[Ryan Blaney]

Good luck. Like, you know, I think that's so cool though. That ingenuity back then was just something you can't even match.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, for sure. You know, Daytona has always been a special place to me. I know every driver has their own, you know, their tracks that they love, but how does it feel for you? I suppose when you get ready to come to the Daytona 500, first race of the year, you'd love to be able to put your car in victory lane and over at the Daytona USA there for an entire season.

[Ryan Blaney]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, that would be the dream. I came down here watching my dad run this race for a long time and As a kid, that was super neat to just see the whole week, and then Sunday morning was unlike anything else. And now to be able to compete in it for as long as I have, and my family's now coming to watch me, I think that would be the coolest thing for me, if we're able to do it, is having the family that I grew up with and my dad, who I used to watch, now they're watching me to share that in victory lane together for my family. And my son's three months old. He wouldn't remember it if we did it, but it'd be a cool picture to show him in, like, 10 years. Like, hey, bud, you remember. I know you don't remember this, but look at. Look at you. So, yeah, it'd be cool. And, yeah, the staple of leaving your car in the museum for the whole year is really neat. So hopefully we can do it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Freddie]

Were you that your dad almost won one of the most infamous five hundreds?

[Ryan Blaney]

Yeah. 2012.

[Jeff Gluck]

Yeah.

[Ryan Blaney]

Were you here with. No. So it's a quick story about that one. So that was actually when you and my dad kind of started talking a little bit.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Ryan Blaney]

2012. Because you were all on the back stretch with that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Ryan Blaney]

Juan Pablo hit the jet dryer, if y' all don't forget. Remember, into three, and dad was running for Tommy Baldwin. And they stayed out. Like, they have damage, so they just stayed out. Juan Pablo hits the jet dryer. So they're leading the race, and the track's on fire. And so I was down here all the week with my dad for speed weeks. Like, this is when we were here for, like, 10 days. So I got out of school for enough days. And that race was run on Monday. Monday night. So I had to go back home to school on Monday because my mom was like, you can't miss anymore school. So I remember sitting at the house, watching the tracks on fire. Dad's leading, and I was so mad because I was like, they're gonna call this race, and I'm not gonna be there after. I was there all week, 10 days.

[Jeff Gluck]

And I was like.

[Ryan Blaney]

So it was weird because I was. Wanted him. Wanted him to call the race and dad win. But I would have been so mad because I wouldn't have been here to do it. But somehow they got the track cleaned up. I didn't think it was ever ready. I thought the track was dangerous. I think they could have called it, but. But it's funny when my dad talks about that race and people ask him, like, do you wish you would have, you know, they would have called it and you would have won it. And he's like, no, he's like. Because that would have been the biggest asterisk in motorsports. You would never heard the end of it. And my dad just know how he is. He would have hated it. Would have hated. Even though he won the 500, he would have been like, didn't matter.

[Jeff Gordon]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, Ryan, I appreciate you giving us some time today, coming up here, you know, giving the fans an opportunity to hear from you. A lot of work left to do before you get ready for Sunday, but I'm wishing you well, man. It's awesome to see you going out there and doing well and doing great things.

[Ryan Blaney]

Yeah. Thank you guys for being here.

[Jeff Gluck]

All right, buddy.

[Jeff Gordon]

Yeah.

[Ryan Blaney]

Have a going.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Ryan Blaney, we.

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We're going to pivot a little bit to some things that, one of the things that Mr. Gluck put together and I wanted to debate. Yeah, all right. Some of, some of the things that you, you had a top 10 most anticipated. What? Most anticipated races.

[Jeff Gluck]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Of 2026.

[Jeff Gluck]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Freddie, have you seen this list?

[Freddie]

I have not seen.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, well, here's the list. Number one, San Diego.

[Jeff Gluck]

Yeah, I, listen, I heard, I heard you on the download last week. Oh, how'd that go with tj? You guys, you guys, you know, I get. You don't think you said San Diego should be like number five or something. Yeah, like way down. I mean, it's not, I'm not saying it's the most prestigious or something. I mean it's most anticipated. Like it's a new race. It's on a military base. We've never seen this before. Like, you know, that's, I. How is it going to go?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, I don't know. I mean, I guess I'm curious. Most curious.

[Freddie]

We're at, we're at the most anticipated race of the season.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I agree with you.

[Jeff Gluck]

That's what he's.

[Ryan Blaney]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

500 at the top of that.

[Commercial Announcer]

Yeah.

[Jeff Gluck]

I don't, I think Daytona was number two. So like I think Homestead, I had Homestead above you did you got.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's San Diego, Homestead, Chicagoland and then Daytona.

[Freddie]

Is Daytona on the list? Has it made. Hasn't made the list.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's fourth, sadly.

[Jeff Gluck]

I get it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Jeff Gluck]

You know, it's just like I think that Daytona's got to get back to some, some a series of clean finishes, a series of, you know, look, nothing against William Byron, but you know, run 10th on the last lap and what's wrong directing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What if that happens in San Diego? You're gonna be disappointed.

[Jeff Gluck]

I don't think that will happen in San Diego.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But, you know, we have no clue.

[Jeff Gluck]

We've never in there drive through the smoke in the end of. You know, it's just like when, when you guys, when we felt like, at least from speaking from my standpoint, we felt like I could see you. You were doing magical things at this racetrack. Denny, when he won a couple of 500, you're like, wow, I can't believe the move he just made. The way he set that up, the way he slowed down the back stretch. Let those guys catch up. You know, it was like, oh, my gosh. Like there's, you know, there was less of the lottery ball aspect. It felt like. And recently it's felt like, oh my gosh, you know, they're all coming down. These guys dominate the race. They all wreck somebody that's running, you know, seventh, tenth, whatever ends up winning it. You're like, okay, how do I, how do I wrap my head around this? You know what I'm saying? Compared to what we used to see.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I went to San Diego a couple weeks ago. Ago for a completely unrelated function. But I stayed in a hotel and was able to look out over this area where they're going to have the racetrack. It is going to be incredible. That is going to be a lot of fun. I am looking forward to that race. Luckily, I'll be part of the broadcast team that point of the year. I'm also excited about Wilkesboro's Point race.

[Jeff Gluck]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, that place, I think we all, we all have such short term memory and we've kind of forgotten like how unlikely that was. That was at one time. Yeah. You know, even myself, I thought, there's no way this place is ever coming back.

[Jeff Gluck]

Well, that's why I thought you were gonna get mad that I had it at number 11.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I thought it was great. You, you had it in 11. It was like a, it was like a, you know, kind of a, you know, one of the, one of the few you mentioned that didn't make the list. But it's, it's. I thought that was a high ranking at 11. It's, it's, it's first race back and it made the list and it's actually in the top 15. That's. I think that's pretty good. I thought you were gonna be like.

[Jeff Gluck]

Yeah, this needs to be number like three.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You had me wrong.

[Jeff Gluck]

I know. Well, you, you, you brought it back. You were the One that did the weed whackers and you know, like you saved it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I thought, you know, I'm that thankful and grateful that it's even on your list.

[Jeff Gluck]

Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right. And so, you know, I was. There's a couple other ones here. Talladega 2, Charlotte 2, Martinsville 2. I agree with all those. You had the 600, the coat. 609.

[Jeff Gluck]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That race arguably is. Has been the best race of the year.

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

For two. For two years.

[Jeff Gluck]

I know, but I'm so anticipating like the fall oval race, for instance. Now that now the roval's gone, it's going to be that time of year again. That freshness is going to be back. For the Charlotte oval race, you're overhyping.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Or over anticipating you often by your own expectations.

[Jeff Gluck]

Yes, every week I do that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[Jeff Gluck]

That's how I live my life. Overhyping myself.

[Commercial Announcer]

Yeah.

[Freddie]

Was the Brickyard on the list at all?

[Jeff Gluck]

It was like number 10.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Number 10. That was that. I think that should have been a little lower, actually. I think I like.

[Freddie]

I'm a big fan.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You like that?

[Freddie]

A bigger fan of that one these days. I don't know why, it's just one of my highlights.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I like the Brickyard, I do.

[Jeff Gluck]

But I mean when it came back from the road course, I had it way higher because it was like, oh, finally it's back. But you know, it's just like. It's just like with Bowman Gray. I think I had. I mean. No, I think I have Bowman Gray, number 38 or something. I mean.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

38.

[Freddie]

How long was this list?

[Jeff Gluck]

38 races. 38 races.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

38.

[Jeff Gluck]

Because I was like. Well, I was. I was also really cranky because I did that list when I was sitting snowed in my.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I could tell you were.

[Jeff Gluck]

And I'm like, I'm not anticipating this. Why am I still here on a Tuesday waiting for a Wednesday? You know, I was grumpy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's not fair to Bowman Gray. You made the list after all the weather they went through.

[Jeff Gluck]

Yeah, it's true.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Chicago land at number three. I'm really excited about that one. That's a very worn out racetrack. I mean, imagine it's extremely abrasive now that's been sitting there with no racing. There's a massive bump in the middle of three and four. That's probably going to be bone rattling when these guys go over it. We're going to have cars all over that racetrack trying to find grip. That is going to be. Must see. Can't miss racing in the NASCAR season.

[Freddie]

Yeah, I mean, it's a sister track to Kansas and we've seen what Kansas has put out there with this car. So I mean it's, it's. I'm so glad we're going back there. I actually, I, I started to enjoy the, the Chicago street course and like that, that area. But I'm glad we're going back to oval racing over there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I thought the street course was fun for a couple years and I'm, I'm fine with like going around and doing things like that, like the San Diego deal. I'm cool with like trying out some things like that. And to know that there'll be probably two three year deals, that it's not going to be something that we're stuck with forever is good. I'm good with that. And we heard Ben Kennedy say recently there are some ideas or conversations around some new venues. Is there any rumor to where we might be going next beyond San Diego?

[Jeff Gluck]

I was kind of surprised because, I mean, you know, you heard the Brazil thing for a while for the Clash and I don't know if that kind of petered out, but I haven't really heard recently. I, that's why I was kind of putting up, you know, for a while we were doing, you know, really outside the box stuff. You know, we had the Mexico thing, we had the LA Coliseum, now we have the San Diego thing. That's why I put Chicago up high on the list because I was like, man, the next gen car there. I mean, you thought the slide job thing was great with like, you don't even, you don't like that kind of racing. Don't even watch. Like that was pre Next gen car.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, right.

[Jeff Gluck]

So now we're going to see the next gen there. Like, that's all awesome. Like, so I think that's, you can, you can actually make some of these, these North Wilsboro type decisions where you bring back these old tracks. And I'm, I'm pretty stoked about that. I don't even think you have to like create, like if they can. I wish they could bring Fontana back. Now it's warehouses. But yeah, you know, if they brought, if they had magically brought Fontana back, like, you know, can they bring Kentucky back?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't, I don't know. Why would you want to bring Kentucky back?

[Jeff Gluck]

No, the next guy that go to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

San Diego, we tried to put good races on there. It was hard, it was tough.

[Jeff Gluck]

Give the next gen a chance. That's all I'm saying.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, we got one minute. Left. We're what? We're going back to Homestead at the end of the year. Where do we take that race next? They talked about it moving around. What are the other options outside of Homestead? I mean, Homestead seems to be a race favorite.

[Jeff Gluck]

I mean, okay, here's the thing. We talked about it moving around when it was the one race championship. Now that it's just the end of the chase, do we have to. Can we just keep it there? Like, I'm. That was such a great championship venue for all the. All those years. We all got used to it and then it moves to Phoenix and you're like, all right, you know, okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And.

[Jeff Gluck]

And, you know, now they finally agreed to move it around and. Because it was the one race, but now it's not.

[Jeff Gordon]

So just.

[Jeff Gluck]

Just keep it there. It's fine. Everybody like that, I think.

[Freddie]

Have you got show approved yet?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, not yet. We'll talk about that. We've. We've had a lot of fun sitting up here talking with you guys. It's been a lot of fun. We got a crossover show coming up next. Dirty mo media, SiriusXM. All right, after that, we're gonna have SiriusXM Speedway with Dave Booty. Stick around. Thank y'.

[Commercial Announcer]

All.

[Jeff Gordon]

Thank you, guys.

[Jeff Gluck]

Thank you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Check out DirtyMomedia on Instagram, Facebook X and TikTok.

[Freddie]

Gentlemen, whether you're two dates in or going 20 years strong, a Valentine's Day gift is always a good idea, even if you let the kiddos pick it out. Just hit the Walmart app and get it delivered in an hour with express delivery. Sound good?

[Ryan Blaney]

Great.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Subject to availability.

[Ryan Blaney]

Restrictions and fees apply.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We heard you.

[Jeff Gordon]

Nine years of bring back the snack wrap and you've won.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But maybe you should have asked for more.

[Ryan Blaney]

Say hello to the hot honey snack wrap.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Now you've really won.

[Freddie]

Go to McDonald's and get it while you can.