Marcus Smith on Why The ROVAL is Gone…For Now

Summary

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The Dale Jr. Download

Episode: Marcus Smith on Why The ROVAL is Gone…For Now

Air Date: February 3, 2026
Host: Kelly Earnhardt Miller (filling in for Dale Jr.), Dirty Mo Media
Guest: Marcus Smith, President of Speedway Motorsports

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Episode Overview

This episode focuses on a major schedule shakeup in NASCAR: Charlotte Motor Speedway's Roval will revert to the traditional oval layout for the playoff race ("for now"). With Dale Jr. away, Kelly Earnhardt Miller hosts an insightful, candid conversation with Marcus Smith about the reasoning behind these changes, their impact on teams and fans, additional updates on North Wilkesboro Speedway and Dover, and broader themes around NASCAR's culture, innovation, and point systems.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why the ROVAL is Replaced by the Oval (04:11–10:20)

• Genesis of the Decision

  • Decision sparked during a routine Charlotte team strategy meeting in January, led by Jessica Fickensher, who suggested returning to the oval for the October playoff race.

  • The idea had been floated before (especially by Dale Jr.), but the timing and context made it resonate this year.

    “Jessica Fickensher said, smart lady—she said, 'What do you think about going back to the oval in October?'...I said, if you guys think the fans will like this and it'll be the best thing, certainly the racing is good…so that was kind of how it happened.”
    — Marcus Smith (04:19)

• Fan and Partner Feedback

  • Marcus emphasized that fan excitement and preferences guided the final decision, validated through conversations with NASCAR, TV partners, and Bank of America (the event sponsor).

  • The initial introduction of the Roval in 2018 came as road courses were surging in popularity; however, recent changes to the car and officiating diminished its excitement.

    “...the way NASCAR officiates the racing hasn't been as exciting as it had been initially. So, you know, we want to deliver excitement...Those amazing, highlight worthy moments in racing.”
    — Marcus Smith (06:44)

• Impact on Teams, Drivers, and Fans

  • Return to the oval allows expanded camping (especially in Turn 1 & 2), simplifies operations, reduces conversion labor, and could increase event atmosphere.

  • Drivers have mixed, but generally positive feedback. Dale Jr. notably claimed vindication:

    “The best driver feedback I had was from Dale. He said: ‘If you’d start listening to me, you’d make this decision two years ago.’”
    — Marcus Smith (07:50)

2. Strategic Outlook: Will the Oval Stay? (10:20–11:26)

• Marcus indicated adaptability is key: The Roval isn’t gone forever, but the classic oval is “here for now”—they’ll revisit which layout best serves fans and the sport on a year-to-year basis.

  “...after reviving North Wilkesboro Speedway, there’s nothing that’s not doable...for now we’re going to be running the oval, but we’ll see what happens.”
  — Marcus Smith (10:28)

• The Roval will still be used for sports car experiences and private events outside of NASCAR.

3. North Wilkesboro: From Abandoned to Points Race (16:16–20:22)

• Marcus detailed the emotional and economic revitalization of North Wilkesboro, crediting team effort and especially Dale Jr.’s advocacy.

• The Speedway, once thought “impossible” to revive, will now host its first points-paying NASCAR race in 30 years.

  “To me, it actually kind of feels like a mission trip...This is rebuilding a special place in a community that brings the community together, that creates great economic impact.”
  — Marcus Smith (17:39)

4. All-Star Race Moves to Dover: The Rationale (19:13–22:48)

• The All-Star Race shifts to Dover for the first time. This gives Northeast fans a marquee event and potentially better May weather.

• North Wilkesboro hosts the points race instead.

• The All-Star format was discussed: Marcus highlighted the race’s experimental history (choose cone, segment racing, restarts), emphasizing their willingness to innovate and take risks.

  “If you’re not taking risk, then you’re not trying enough to move your business forward.”
  — Kelly Earnhardt Miller (22:42)

5. Upcoming Events: Ten Tenths Motor Club, Heritage Invitational, IROC Revival (23:23–25:57)

• Marcus announced the Ten Tenths Motor Club and a new Heritage Invitational event featuring the IROC (International Race of Champions) cars on a private road course in April.
• The event is open to the public and will celebrate historic racing with a car show atmosphere.

6. Playoff & Points System Shakeup (26:15–36:22)

• Both Marcus and Kelly reflected on the playoff/points format change: NASCAR is returning to a “classic,” season-long points system, eliminating cut-off races and the “winner-take-all” final.

• Marcus values simplicity—“just give me the rules and let’s go play.”

• Both shared nostalgia for the old system but recognized new fans might find it fresh.

  “You can’t really have one without the other. You’ve got to have the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Second place shouldn’t be all that great, I think.”
  — Marcus Smith (29:03)

• Marcus and Kelly discussed how many drivers (and likely crew chiefs and new fans) have never raced under this old system—making 2026 a unique, “back to the future” year for NASCAR.

  “It might be similar with our fans...We have new fans coming in all the time and they haven’t seen the old style of points racing before. So this is a kind of a back to the future moment.”
  — Marcus Smith (34:36)

7. Culture, Collaboration, and the “Underdog Mentality” (37:35–39:28)

• After years of legal tension, Marcus and Kelly express optimism for a more united NASCAR ecosystem in 2026: teams, tracks, and NASCAR aligning for fans’ benefit.

  “...if NASCAR and teams and promoters and our media partners...by working together, we can do really great things...And I hope that all of us...really consider ourselves as underdogs, because that’s when we’re at our best.”
  — Marcus Smith (37:41/39:28)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Dale Jr.’s Influence on Oval Revival:
  “If you’d start listening to me, you’d make this decision two years ago.”
  — Marcus Smith (07:50)

• On Fan-Centered Change:
  “What I think is neat is that all of those parties care about what the fans think.”
  — Marcus Smith (06:05)

• On Taking Risks in Racing Promotion:
  “If you’re not taking risk, then you’re not trying enough to move your business forward, for sure.”
  — Kelly Earnhardt Miller (22:42)

• On the New Points System:
  “Just give me the rules and let’s go play and then see what happens.”
  — Marcus Smith (27:09)

• On North Wilkesboro’s Revival:
  “It actually kind of feels like a missions trip...rebuilding a special place in a community.”
  — Marcus Smith (17:39)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 02:51 — Marcus Smith joins; announcement tease.
• 04:11 — Decision process to drop the Roval for 2026.
• 07:50 — Dale Jr.’s feedback on the oval.
• 10:20 — Will the oval stay or could the Roval return?
• 16:16 — North Wilkesboro’s renaissance and impact.
• 19:13 — Strategy behind moving the All-Star Race to Dover.
• 23:23 — Ten Tenths Motor Club and Heritage Invitational/IROC event.
• 26:15 — In-depth discussion of the new NASCAR playoff/points structure.
• 34:36 — "Back to the future" for point systems—many drivers and fans haven’t seen this before.
• 37:35 — Renewed focus on collaboration and “underdog mentality.”

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Tone and Style

The tone is candid, insightful, and occasionally humorous—especially with stories about Dale Jr.’s passion for the oval and Kelly's family anecdotes. There's mutual respect and admiration between Kelly and Marcus. The discussion is optimistic, emphasizing adaptability, innovation, and a fan-first approach.

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Summary for Non-Listeners

If you missed it: This episode offers a rare insider perspective on how and why major track and format decisions are made in NASCAR, and the unique place the 2026 season holds as a bridge between old and new eras. Marcus Smith details the blend of nostalgia, fan demand, operational ease, and strategic thinking behind moving Charlotte’s playoff race back to the oval, what goes into such a significant change, and how Speedway Motorsports is innovating while paying homage to racing’s roots. The episode is also a great exploration of why and how the sport is constantly willing to evolve—sometimes coming full circle for the benefit of fans, teams, and the community.

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Transcript

[Marcus Smith]

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[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

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[Marcus Smith]

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[Travis]

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[Marcus Smith]

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[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

All right. Hey everyone, it's Kelly Arnhardt Miller here and welcome into the RV studio for another episode of the Dell junior Download. Where is my big roast beef with horsey sauce? Come on now.

[Travis]

I didn't get Your order. I'm sorry.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

All right. Obviously I'm not Dale Jr. 1. Look, I did try to borrow the, the sweatshirt and the hat, but I, I just wasn't digging the hats this morning. So Dale had a last minute change in the schedule. So I'm in today and excited to be here. I won't be by myself though in just a couple minutes. Marcus Smith, president of Speedway Motorsports will be joining and for a big announcement. Although I'm sure a few of you could be guess guessing what that is. So enough about that. Let's bring Marcus in. All right. Good morning, Marcus. How's it going?

[Marcus Smith]

Doing great.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

So, yeah, super excited to be here. Dale had to take off early this morning for an appearance that we have this afternoon. So I'm thrown into the ranks here and I'm excited. There's so, so much to talk about with Speedway Motorsports this year. So many changes and I've got a lot of curious questions. We're going to talk about the Roval.

[Marcus Smith]

Sure.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Right.

[Marcus Smith]

Oh, yeah, big news.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Big news. The, the circle track coming back into play, Chase race, all of those good things. We're going to talk about North Wilsbur having a points race. Did you see that coming? Right.

[Marcus Smith]

You know, a few years ago and.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Then the all star race moving to Dover as well. So tons of stuff happening. So, you know, first things first. And I'm, I'm super curious about this from a team owner standpoint because when they announced or you know, announcing the change with the Roval, you know, that's a race that a lot of times we'll run our fifth car and we'll have a road course ringer, as they call them.

[Marcus Smith]

Right, right.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

And a sponsorship or something that comes together that because somebody says I want to run a road course. And so with that news coming at this point in the year, what, what is that like? Like what? You know, what brought that on? What's the time frame? How does that come together like that?

[Marcus Smith]

That's a great question. So we, I don't know. I hadn't been thinking about it. I was thinking about lots of other things in our business going into January and coming out of December. But the Charlotte team was having a strategic meeting. They were kind of talking about your planning. And Jessica Fickensher said, smart lady. She's smart, she's smart. She said, what do you think about going back to the oval in October? And of course, it's not the first time I've heard that because Dale has said it many times and you know, but when Jessica Said it. And kind of in the context of the whole group, I said, well, what do y' all think? Is it, what do the fans think? And they, they said, you know, when you think about the point system kind of going back to the Chase and that story of kind of going back to the way we were, the last time the Chase was at Charlotte, it was the oval for the Coke 600 and the Oval for the bank of America 400. So I said, if you guys think that fans will like this and it'll be the best thing, certainly the racing is good. Dale will say, I told you so and we'll all have fun. And so that was kind of how it happened. And so then we made a few phone calls to NASCAR and our TV partners and of course bank of America is a sponsor and everybody thought it was good thing the fans were into it.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

How much influence does the TV partner matter? And the process with NASCAR just being a decision that you can make within a month's time from a strategic meeting that you guys have in terms of all of your conversation and then the other people that you have to talk with.

[Marcus Smith]

You know, what I think is neat is that all of those parties care about what the fans think. And I think just the timing was such that, you know, back when we, when we introduced the Roval, it was at a time when road courses were having this, this amazing surge. Fans were saying, boy, we love road courses, that they kind of race like a short track. And, and so we brought out the Roval and it provided another road course in the, in the schedule, a road course in the, in the playoffs. And it made for something new and different. So it was one of the highest rated races in TV for a couple of years. Great growth and great excitement and, you know, some great highlights from, from the race. But I think the new car and the way NASCAR officiates the racing hasn't been as exciting as, as it had been initially. So, you know, we want to deliver excitement. We want to deliver a great event that has fantastic competition and those amazing, highlight worthy moments in racing. So all those people, whether it's NBC or NASCAR sponsors, bank of America and others, I think we're all in it together to make great competition happen and see the fans happy.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Well, yeah, you obviously, you know, wouldn't, would it make a change unless you thought that good could come out of it, right? Dale, I can't talk from the perspective of running the Roval or running, you know, the oval, Roval and oval. I know that if he were in this seat he definitely would have a lot of comments about. But have you had driver feedback, you know, as it relates to.

[Marcus Smith]

The best driver feedback I had was from Dale. He said. He said, if you start listening to me, you'd make this decision two years ago. So, yeah, I did laugh about that, too.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

That's funny. Well, most of the time, sometimes the only feedback that matters is Dale. Right. So what's the process like for your team, you know, to. Not. Not the physical process? Because I would imagine that it's gonna be a little lighter, that you don't have to configure the road course. Right, so it's gonna be lighter. But what's the whole process like? Does it change things for you as it relates to, you know, sponsorship, the amount of people? I imagine there's more camping spots available since you can use everything and things like that.

[Marcus Smith]

Like, probably the biggest thing is camping. I think, you know, that's going to be a big thing for fans to be able to camp again on that turn one and two side of. Of the oval. So it's. That's really the biggest thing. And of course, the. The work that goes into converting Charlotte Motor Speedway from oval to roval is. Is tremendous. So our operations team just got, you know, a huge relief. Yeah. So it'll be kind of neat. And I think, you know, the racing in May for the 600 has been fantastic. Bringing that to the fall will be, you know, I think, fantastic again, and it'll be neat to see how the teams react to that, you know, from the spring to the fall and, you know, certainly should be. Should be exciting.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Super cool. It is going to be exciting. You know, I do think with the points system the way it is, you know, road courses present a challenge for a lot of the drivers. Right. And lots can happen. There's a lot of beating and banging and moving around, so that strategy for teams and drivers should look a lot different, you know.

[Marcus Smith]

You know, I think you mentioned as a team owner, kind of the. The factors that you all think about and you go in from season to season, from my perspective as a. As a promoter and as a fan of nascar, throwing a wrench in the system sometimes actually produces some excitement. So if this creates a little bit more excitement, creates a challenge that needs to be solved for some of the teams, I think that generally works out pretty good for. For the fans and make some excitement happen for. For the teams, and it should be pretty interesting to see.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Yeah, very exciting. What can we expect in terms of the stability of the oval versus the roval is that something you're going to look at year to year is, you.

[Marcus Smith]

Know what, you know, I think after reviving North Wilkesboro Speedway, there's nothing that's, that's not doable. I thought you'd never get that speedway, you know, to actually operate again. So we, we've got a wonderful racetrack in the classic oval at Charlotte Motor Speedway. We've got a fantastic world class road course with the Roval and you know, we'll, we'll bring that back at, at different times. But you know, for now we're going to be running the oval and, but we'll, we'll see what happens.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Well, you know, the cool thing is, is I think that the adaptability is great, right, because you can react to what's going on in the market, what fans are asking for, you know, what the entire lineup of the series looks like track to track. And, and you proved that already with the Roval, so. Yeah, well, it is. Here we go.

[Marcus Smith]

That's right. I love driving the Roval. You know, as a, from a sports car perspective, it's super fun to drive and we've got a lot of customers that like to drive it. So outside of NASCAR week, we'll still have plenty of opportunities for our different driving experiences and OEM customers to come out and enjoy the Roval.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Very cool. You know, we did the Del Junior ride alongs for a lot of years at the speedway until the Roval came and then that was, you know, that presented a bit of a challenge. Not that people wouldn't have liked the Roval, but as you know what Dell Jr's temperature was on road courses, we've pivoted, we've done it at North Wilsboro and so maybe we can get back to Charlotte. It was, it's a, it's a fun weekend to provide for fans that did the ride alongs. With the hall of fame being here, we could just have a, you know, a weekend of all things taken in the races at the speedway and whatnot. So. All right, everybody. The 2026 NASCAR season is officially here. And you know what that means. New rides, new paint schemes and another year of unforgettable moments on the track. And if you want to bring all that action home, you've got to check out Lionel Racing, the official die cast 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, these things are incredibly detailed with the same paint, same sponsors, same attitude that you see on race day. They're must have for collectors and fans alike. Right now to kick off the season, Lionel Racing is offering free domestic shipping. When you use promo code download26, that's free shipping just for the fans of the Dell Junior download. So head over to lionel racing.com 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.com quince is all about.

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[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Yeah. You know, I mean, like I said, I think now that we have four full time cars, you know, they've got to look at each race like its own. Right. So I mean, the oval, obviously they have experience from other tracks, other mile and a half, you know, and that kind of thing that they can prep for and prepare for. I think, you know, I would guess that my drivers are fine without having the road course.

[Marcus Smith]

Yeah.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Because there's a lot of unpredictability with the road course. And you're either, you know, you can. You really either have the skill set to do that or you don't. Right. And you can work on it and fine tune. And I know that they've. They've done a lot of things like that to do, but. Yeah, it should, you know, I think it should probably make the load lighter in a lot of cases. Right. And I can't. I can't recall what's kind of back to back around there and everything, but you know, there's a. There's a whole different ball game and getting ready for the road course races and the cars and so on and.

[Marcus Smith]

So so forth, so. Right.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Yeah.

[Marcus Smith]

So probably a little easier lift for the people back at the shop as well.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

I would think so. Yeah, I would think so for sure. Well, you brought up north Wilsbur and you know, the. The revive is just incredible there. I got to attend the cars tour race there. Obviously I, you know, came to. To the first race when we had the car store race, but I got to go to the cars tour race there last fall with just kind of a standalone event, which was really cool for me because I really felt that old north wilkesboro vibe of me running around the infield, which isn't the same anymore. But you know, just. Man, it feels good when you go there.

[Marcus Smith]

It does. Yeah.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

You have that history of passing it so long on the interstate and like, man, that was just such. I'm just looking up there at it now. Turns one and two thinking, could it just come back? And you brought it back.

[Marcus Smith]

It's amazing.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

I know. How do you. I mean, that, that, that has to be like a huge feather in your cap.

[Marcus Smith]

Well, I, I love. It's a huge team effort, you know, and I just love, like you said.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

When you started again by Dale.

[Marcus Smith]

Yeah, that's right.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

You're gonna have to put him on your strategic team.

[Marcus Smith]

I made him chairman of the board of Speedway. So. Yeah, he's. He's on the strategic team. Yeah. We have a strategic retreat now for the last Few years out in South Dakota to talk about.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Oh, that's right. That's right.

[Marcus Smith]

But, you know, it's just amazing. It's. To me, it actually kind of feels like a missions trip, you know, where you hear about people that go and help rebuild a church or rebuild a place for people to live. This is rebuilding a special place in a community that brings the community together, that creates great economic impact for that community. And it gives so many of us NASCAR fans a place to go and watch racing, watch the cars tour, watch the. Now a points race coming up. And it's really special and one of those places that I think you will enjoy a trip to North Wilkesboro Speedway. You'll enjoy going on Main street, enjoying the town and just the people. It's really fantastic.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

You've gotten a lot of very awesome compliments from the community there, for sure. It's really been a revitalization for that community, you know, because so many, you know, so many, so many small town royal communities have struggled and fought their way to prosperity, you know, and so it's awesome to see between, you know, Lowe's moving out of that area and the track closure this revitalization has been. You can see it and you can feel it.

[Marcus Smith]

Oh, yeah.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

And it feels good. So the points race there, what. You know, the decision to. To move the All Star race from North Wilsboro and have a points race, moving that to Dover, How. How did that all come about and work out and what was the strategy there?

[Marcus Smith]

You know, it was one of those things that we thought, what can we do to make a significant impact in the NASCAR season that would make people happy? So, number one thing I thought is certainly a points race at North Wilkesboro and then with the All Star race at Dover, this is the first time that Dover will see the All Star race. People that are in the northeast can come down and enjoy the All Star race. It's a great date for Dover, too. May is a fantastic time in that area. So, you know, we've had rain for the last few years at Dover. This should be, you know, much better weather window for us and for all the fans. So I think it's a bonus for the Dover fans and North Wilkesboro, you know, to see a longer race at Wilkesboro should be pretty cool for the competition. We haven't had a points race there in. Is it 30 years?

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Maybe.

[Marcus Smith]

I don't know, but a long time. And that should be fun. I'm excited to see that. See both of them.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Yeah. That response, I think, has been positive. You know, I think that change obviously comes with its critics on social media. My goodness. And you know, Dover doesn't feel like the, like a likely spot for an All Star race. But to your point about the Northeast fans, which are, you know, number one when it comes, if you look at the states as far as your fan base and, and what you got going on, you know, the, the Northeastern fans are there and so that's a great point for them to see. And Dover is exciting. I mean, Dover's a great racetrack. The feel of that roar, the high banks, you know, a lot of action there. So what can we expect that weekend, you know, as far as.

[Marcus Smith]

Fun?

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Because, you know, thinking of the All Star race from Charlotte and then North Wilkesboro, you know what expect.

[Marcus Smith]

Well, you know, we're working on the format, finalizing that It's. I think you can always expect some fireworks out of the All Star race. We've done some amazing things with the format out of the All Star. If you think about side by side restarts that didn't exist before the All Star race. We used to restart nose to tail, single file. Yeah. With the choose cone started out of first Legends racing on the quarter mile at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Then we implemented it for the All Star race. Whether it's lights and all these great kind of ideas, segments are part of what came out of the All Star Race. I think those are things that we've worked with NASCAR on to help create new and special and different things that have found their way into every weekend. So it's getting harder to think about, you know, what can we do next? But you know, we've, we've tried tires in the past with, you know, stickier tires, alternating tires, option tires, that sort of thing. So we always want to push the envelope. Always want to, you know, try to, to, to do something that might work, but it also might not work. And that's the, that's the double edged sword.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

It's a risk, right?

[Travis]

Absolutely.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

That's a risk. If you're not taking risk as you're, if you're not taking risk, then you're not trying enough to move your business forward. For sure.

[Marcus Smith]

We're risk takers. That's. That's part of what we do.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

You definitely are. Being a promoter, you have to have a little bit of that in your blood for sure.

[Marcus Smith]

I think so.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Yeah, I think so too. Well, that's going to be super exciting, you know, that you just, it really amazes me the innovation that you guys think about and changes to bring forth to the series and use of the different tracks and so on and so forth. So it's going to be exciting. It's going to be exciting year between seeing all these new things and how they work out.

[Marcus Smith]

Absolutely.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Yep. So you talked about road course racing for your sports car enthusiast. You've got another fun thing coming. So you did 1010.

[Marcus Smith]

That's right.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

The new venue and sports road course. What are we calling that?

[Marcus Smith]

What do we call that? So the Ten tenths Motor Club is.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Motor club. That's right.

[Marcus Smith]

Right outside of Charlotte Speedway.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

That's right.

[Marcus Smith]

No, it's, it's a new road course.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

I've been there. It's beautiful. I just haven't done the, I haven't done the, the car experiences yet. But I need to get you and Mr. H. Have me over there and have some fun.

[Marcus Smith]

It is fun. It is fun. Well, this is a great opportunity. We're going to host an IROC race in April around this really special event we call the Heritage Invitational. Mr. Hendrick and I, we, we've got a partnership on the the ten tenths club and we've got a beautiful track, two miles. It's gonna, it's an amazing car show and part of the car show. Working with Ray Evernham who's our executive director of the event. Ray and Rob have put together the IROC series to kind of bring it back. But it's the classic IROC cars. So we're going to be racing the classic IROC cars and drivers are going to come back and enjoy some racing at the 1010 circuit. It's a lot of fun. I want to race. I think Dale should race. It's going to be a lot of fun.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Now is this an event? Is it tv? Is it fans? Can fans come?

[Marcus Smith]

It's all about fans Invitational. It's all about car nuts like me. It's about celebrating history in Iraq and this historic racing. It's also, you know, a big car show. It's a fun event to go to if you, even if you don't like cars. It's a really pretty place and you know, early April it'll be a nice. Yeah. Beautiful weather and we've got a great clubhouse there where you can enjoy, you know, some great food and beverage and just kind of hang out time.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Yeah, the, it's the, the patio area is immense and expansive and you can see over the track and just a beautiful place to. To be. So have you announced drivers for the IROC portion?

[Marcus Smith]

I think we have got to check out the Heritage imitational Instagram. And.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

And can we see a variety of drivers from different series, different.

[Marcus Smith]

Different. Different times and different types of IROC cars? We've got some of the older ones, some of the latest generation. It's. Yeah, it's gonna be fun.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

That'll be super fun. So we mentioned the impact that the Roval Oval could have on the Chase playoff format. Were you, as a. As a track owner and promoter, are you involved in those discussions when it comes to what a Chase series looks like in a playoff, in the point series? And how do you feel about the new.

[Marcus Smith]

Yeah, so I went to the initial meeting, I think it was called a playoff committee meeting last February, week of Daytona. Dale was on Zoom. We had a room full of people, drivers, a couple of media members, some team owners, presidents, and media. I mean, a little bit of everything was there, and it was an interesting discussion. I think, you know, the. The context was, should we do something different? There's always a lot of discussion. You know, every. At the end of every year, there's like, what. What do we think about the point system? What do we think about the rules of the game? And I'm frankly one of those people who thinks, just give me the rules and let's go play and then see what happens.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

See, I'm the same way. I say that every year when it comes to. I love the committees. I love being able. I like to be able to give feedback from the people that are in the line of fire. And you probably find that, too, in your business. You need to go talk to the people that are actually doing the job, doing the work, making the decisions, because there's minute details that are very important that can get upset very quickly. But at the same time, too many opinions to try to do something can get very hairy. So I'm just like, tell me the rules and tell me how to get there.

[Travis]

That's right.

[Marcus Smith]

That's right. So I think. I don't know how, you know, the consternation and kind of controversy sort of was created, but there was a meeting in February in Daytona last year, and that's when the discussion started, you know, and then, of course, that all played out through the ecosystem in the sport over the year, and there's a few other discussions and that sort of thing. I mean, I have opinions. So the first thing I kind of thought of was, well, what if this year is a great year? What if it comes down to a fantastic championship? And what are we going to say then?

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

We've taken it away.

[Marcus Smith]

Yeah. So I think things kind of Unless unraveled. Not. Not unraveled. It kind of came together as. As the season does. And like you said, every team shows up on race day to win. And you also keep in mind the points. And everybody wanted to be, you know, in victory lane and have the championship at the end of the season. So there's some heartbreakers I love. You know, the old wild world of sports guys said, you know, it's the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. You can't really have one without the other. You've got to have thrill of victory and agony of defeat. Second place shouldn't be all that great, I think. But it is important in nascar. Different than, say, a basketball game. Basketball game, you have a winner and a loser. In NASCAR, if you run top 10, that's pretty good if you run top five and whatnot. But there are some teams who think we can win every race, and when we don't win, we're not achieving our optimal best. And I think that's the part of excellence that every race team, every driver is chasing. So the new point system, I think if we all just say we're in 100%, I would really love it if we didn't debate the rules of the. Of the sport throughout the season. I think, you know, once. Once we have the. The rules, let's go race and let's. Let's run a championship and see what happens.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Yeah.

[Marcus Smith]

So it'll be neat to see what happens. I do think that there was some benefit in the cutoff races. We don't have those now, and that's okay.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Yeah, it's. It builds excitement, you know, and that's one of the things that, you know, my husband and I have talked about is just like, what. And. And of course, I lived through the years of playoff series with my dad and, you know, when it was he and Mark Martin or he and Rusty Wallace and all those kinds of things. And I remember that being exciting, you know, the excitement of, like you said, the thrill of victory and agony of defeat. If someone has a not so great race, you know, and it pulls them down or takes them out of contention for the top spot or whatever, and then what do they do to get back in it? I will not miss going to the last race of the season with three cars in the playoffs from junior motorsports perspective and not coming home with the championship, I will not miss that. The one race thing for me was tough because I felt like it just sort of, no matter how you looked at it, it spoiled everything you did for the Year because you were on the top of your game for the year, and you made it there. And then, you know, you. You. You lost us to another team that, yes, made it there, too, but maybe they were eighth in points, you know.

[Marcus Smith]

Right.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

And so I will not miss that part. I. As I was hearing about the playoff system, everything, I was kind of thinking, you know, I like the cutoff races. I was thinking of, you know, how you could take that same group of 12 or 16 drivers, depending on which series you're in, and accumulating the points throughout there, and then having it come down to maybe the last three races that, you know, there was a point situation and it wasn't a just your win and you're the champion kind of thing or whatever, because, you know, that has created, I think, of a lot of excitement, but. And you're, you know, there's not one great answer. Right.

[Marcus Smith]

Sure.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

People loved what we had. People like what they anticipate this year's gonna look like, and we'll see how it works, but, you know, I do. It will change the focus week to week instead of the winning you're in.

[Marcus Smith]

Right.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

You know, and everything you do and all the things like, you know, back in the day with the point system, before 2011, we had, you know, you could take your cars back in the garage and work on them. Right now, we. I think that they've. Have. They've been talking about that. I don't know if they've made any changes to that or not. Yeah, I'm not sure either. But, you know, that's. That's an important concept. It is what, you know, getting into a wreck and not being able to fix your car and not being able to bring things back out to help yourself in that format. So, you know, I don't really know. We won't know how it's all gonna go till it's went.

[Marcus Smith]

Yeah.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

And we'll see. And we'll see what? Drama, consistency, all those different things have played out for you.

[Marcus Smith]

Yeah. You know, one interesting thing I thought is the first year of the point system with stage points. The first year, not every team was really focused on stage points, but they turned out to be really important. So after that next season, they were like, wait, we need to win some stages.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Yeah. So they'll figure out some things this year that are going to matter. I was reading. Dale and I were talking about this on a trip last week and the point system and everything. We were talking about drivers who either have experienced the system or haven't. You Know, and I read a thing from Kyle Larson. He's never raced in anything but the playoffs, the cutoffs and everything. And so as a driver, from his perspective, he has no clue. And I bet there's. Honestly, I bet when you look at the field of drivers since 2011, I think is when it changed that there's probably, I'd guess if it wasn't 80% of them out there that haven't raced under the old point system. You know, if you think about it.

[Marcus Smith]

And you know, it's the only one they've done.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Yeah. It's all they've known. So it's going to be, it's going to be a super interesting year. Super great year. Lots of cool things happening. I mean, you guys have a lot of great things happening. Anything else for any of the other tracks that we can expect?

[Marcus Smith]

Well, you know, following up on the driver thing, 80% of the drivers haven't raced in anything besides.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

I bet they haven't. You know, I haven't looked at the stat, but.

[Marcus Smith]

So I bet it might be similar with our fans. We have new fans coming in all the time and they haven't seen the old stuff style of points racing before. So this is a kind of a back to the future moment, you know, for, for the sport. So it'll be interesting to see how it plays out. I know every, you know, crew chief and engineer and, and the, all the smart people on every team are focusing on how do we win that championship, how do we win those races. And that's, that's the thing that I'm excited about. For all the fans out there, as we watch this season unfold, there's something a little bit different. There's a challenge. A lot of those crew chiefs haven't raced under the system either. So for them, it's, it's a new thing. I know there's a lot of math involved.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Yeah.

[Marcus Smith]

But it's safe to say that if you win a lot of races, your chances are good at winning the championship.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

I want to see the spreadsheet that NASCAR ran to come up with, you know, how the points ended up. Right. I read that they just modeled out anything and everything.

[Marcus Smith]

Yes.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

I told our. One of the guys in PR upstairs, he's. He's kind of that historian, mathematician person that always brings up the stats, you know, that, that we can pay attention to. And I said, you know who, if we ran the last. Since 2011, ran the scenarios, who would have ended up the champions?

[Marcus Smith]

Yeah.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

And I think they said Connor would have ended up the champion last year in Xfinity, which we, you know, to be expected. 7. You know, this organization won 17 times. He won 10 times. You would think that you would come out with the championship in a case like that, but I think my dad, if I'm not mistaken, there was a year where he ran. He won a lot of races and came up short. So.

[Marcus Smith]

Yeah.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Yeah. So it's gonna be fun.

[Marcus Smith]

Didn't Jimmy Johnson win under three different point systems? I think it's possible. Changed a few times.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure he did. Yeah, because he was in the 2000s, and then it changed in 2011 and so on and so forth, so I'm sure he did. We've talked a lot about working alongside nascar, the TV partners, your sponsors, like bank of America, that are important to your organization. Have you. You know, we started this trend of working together many years ago in terms of the teens, the sanctioning body, the tracks, and having the mentality that, you know, we can all lift our sport together. Have you seen that working? What do you expect in the future, now more than ever, since we had the lawsuit and all the ugliness that came out during that, now more than ever, it feels that NASCAR is reacting to fans to different things that, you know, maybe they could have reacted to before. How do you see that moving for you guys as a track owner and moving forward?

[Marcus Smith]

I think it's really great that we get to start this season without a lawsuit.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Me, too.

[Marcus Smith]

Without the tension of, you know, conflict between teams and tracks and nascar. Last year, last few years, there's been a lot of conflict, and we would talk about working together, but there wasn't enough of that. And I am totally confident that if NASCAR and teams and promoters and our media partners and OEM support, I mean, you've got this huge ecosystem that by working together, we can do really great things. We can create these amazing competitions that, I mean, we're really blessed to be able to do something that we like that's really fun, and we get to work with people that we like, and none of this is essential in life, you know, but we get to do something that's really fun, and millions and millions of people like to watch it and like to engage in it. So going into this season, and I hope that all of us in the NASCAR and racing ecosystem really consider ourselves as underdogs, to have that underdog mentality, because that's really when we're at our best and to be able to work hard to go the extra mile for our fans for each other and not have that conflicting mindset that has really existed for the last few years. So that's I think is just a huge opportunity for us and it'll be more fun too.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

That's a super cool perspective of the underdog. I think that just made me think that probably being in the Xfinity series for us and having the success that we've had over 20 years and wins and so on, we kind of do that every year because we have new drivers. You know, we have got Raja this year and you want to see him succeed and perform. And so like you said, you throw everything you have at it, you dig deeper, you think harder and you know all of those things. So that's a super cool perspective. Well Marcus, it's going to be a great year. We're getting started here and the next week or so with Daytona and we'll go from there, hit Atlanta and hit a few more of your great tracks and looking forward to the year.

[Marcus Smith]

Thank you. It's great talking with you too.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Thank you.

[Travis]

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[Marcus Smith]

A wish your heart.

[Travis]

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[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Thanks again to Marcus for taking time out of his busy day to come in and talk about a lot of the changes that Speedway Motorsports has made for the year and why they're making those. Now it's time for Ask Kelly. Never thought I would be in this position. Hey everybody, it's Kelly Earnhardt Miller and We're live on YouTube. If you were expecting Dale, sorry he had a last minute change in his plans and couldn't make it. But we still wanted to go live with you today, so it's Ask Kelly. Presented by Xfinity. Xfinity is waving the red flag on your Internet price hikes and raising the green flag for savings. Now you can get speed and reliable WI fi you need locked in at one price for five years. No surprises, no late yellows, just a straight shot to victory lane. And just like that folks, we've got a winner. Xfinity. Imagine that Travis is still here with us today. Thank you Travis for being here.

[Travis]

I'm enjoying today with you, Kelly. I think it's a nice little change of pace.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Hey, everybody needs a little change of pace these days, right?

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Not that this snow weather hasn't been enough for us, right?

[Travis]

How has what was your snow weekend like? Do you have a fun weekend or relax?

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

You know what, I was home by myself. My boys were off doing a seat fitting and so I played in the snow a little bit with my dog, Zeus, but he wasn't having much of it. And so I just watched and had a glass of wine and watched. I watched. I watched, like, three series on Netflix and got all kinds of TV in, which is something I never, ever do. Ever.

[Travis]

I was gonna say, especially with the season right around the corner.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Yeah.

[Travis]

You to get some relaxation and.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Yeah, it was fun.

[Travis]

Yeah. I didn't go out in the snow once, and I'm perfectly fine with that. I went and stayed inside all Saturday and Sunday.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

I didn't have to cook. I could just eat what I wanted, when I wanted, how I wanted. I'm like a snacker. So if the boys are gone, I just, like, snack on stuff.

[Travis]

What's the go to snack?

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Tillamook snack? Cheese and green grapes.

[Marcus Smith]

Ooh.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Oh. So Dell and I have that in common. Green grapes.

[Travis]

That's where he gets it from.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Well, we got it from somewhere.

[Marcus Smith]

Yeah.

[Travis]

I'm more of a kettle chip.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

I did have some ranch dip because last weekend when I went to the store for the ice storm, I was craving. I wanted to have, like, ranch. I have to have ranch sour cream with the dip that you mix up. Right. That's, like, the only kind of dipping, veggie dips kind of stuff. So I had that last weekend, but I ate it all. Yes. I ate an entire. Was that. I think it was 16 ounces of sour cream and ranch dip. Yes, I did. In one week. I know that's bad. So I wanted it again. But can you believe when I went to the store on Friday that there was zero sour cream? Everybody talks milk and bread. It was sour cream. There was no sour cream whatsoever.

[Travis]

People buy the weirdest things, like when, like, yeah, the storm's coming, like, so.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

I had to get a different style of ranch in a container dip, which it was okay. But it wasn't as good and creamy as I like it. So.

[Travis]

Yeah. Anyway, so you mentioned seat fitting. So a lot. This is a question that we get. A lot is about why it's racing. So what's he up to lately? Like, how's things going with him?

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

So they just went to Texas to seat fit because Wyatt is going to be racing sprint car 360s this year, which is making mom nervous. But we'll get through it just like we have everything else. So we've got a full slate, probably over 50, 60 events. We're going to run the Champ off road series again. He got the championship last year. That's a really fun series. To run in the trucks, off road trucks. We're going to venture out in the junior late model this year. So we've ran limited late models. He's had some good success in that. And so we're gonna be bumping up the late model asphalt racing. So got a lot on the plate. We'll still do some micros here and there. We'll do the outlaw carts here and there. But it's gonna be a fun year, new year of learning for Wyatt.

[Travis]

What is that like being. Putting the mom hat on and watching and like doing that?

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

The sprint car stuff is, is interesting and somewhat scary. You know, the trucks are built like army tanks and they do lose a lot of their sheet metal. And he's been upside down and. Because you can bike and get over, but they're built so strong that I don't have any issue there. Don't really have any issue in the late models. It's what I grew up on and all. But I'll tell you, the weaned and the sprint cars and the non wing stuff is stressful. And a lot of the tracks that they talk about going to are some bigger tracks and they're going really fast. And so it makes me nervous. But at the same time, this is what we know. We're a racing family, this is what we do. Can't talk them out of it. He's got it from both sides from his dad and I and, and so we roll with it.

[Travis]

So that's one thing you don't see in other sports is like he could be racing up against a 55 year old. Like you know, at times you're racing against grown men, grown women, like it's all, you know, encompassing.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Yeah, we were just watching Volusia last night, speaking of that. And the 360 sprint cars were there. And in the top 20 starters there were probably be about, there were about 10 or 12, you know, high limit or World of Outlaw racers. You had your Brian Browns, you had your Brady Bacons, you had a lot of top names. And Wyatt will be racing against some of those folks in just a few short weeks at Central Arizona. And when you think about it like that, it is mind boggling. You've got just, you know, feature winner after feature winner. Going up against my 14 year old son, we'll be racing up against. So it's, it is pretty crazy.

[Travis]

Brian wants to know, does White ask about your racing career? Do you guys, have you guys ever talked about that?

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Well, yes, we do. And Wyatt just needed to be there to experience My career, because Wyatt judges my career based off of stats and because I didn't have a win. Anytime it's brought up, he says, well, mom, you never won. You never won. So he. He doesn't have much to say about my racing career and aggravates me at times, but, you know, we just move on.

[Travis]

And then you realize he's a teenage boy.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Yeah. And then I'm like, you just don't know. You just don't know.

[Travis]

So do you ever watch him race and do you ever, like, see yourself in him with things that he does or Dale or your father?

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Yeah. You know, I know it feels and sounds kind of cliche, but I do see just the tenacity that he has when he gets in the race car. And the determination he has reminds me a lot about. Of my dad. He, you know, he just has it, and I don't know if it's from which side of the family it is or whatever. And you can sit here and say, oh, well, that reminds me of, you know, dad, or that reminds me of this or that. But, you know, he's definitely got something that's innate and. Yeah, just very cool at the same time. He's just a kid when it comes to it. In fact, this weekend, the car owner sent me a picture, and he was in a box, and he jumps out of the box, and he's like, hey, is this one way performance? And meanwhile, they're over fitting his seat. So he's a kid with the box. Give them a box they can do. Have all kinds of fun and having fun and, you know, driving a heavy old sprint car at the same time. Pretty crazy.

[Travis]

Yeah. So upcoming this weekend, Daytona 500. What's your emotions with Junior Motorsports trying to qualify in the 500 again this year.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Hold on just a second. This is live. I know I'm in the middle of being a mom at the moment, so. One second. My kids got.

[Travis]

That's okay.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

School issues.

[Travis]

Oh, Dale's always on his phone. Anyway, so I think the fans are used to a little sidetrack every once in a while. You know, mambo doesn't turn off well.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

I'm seeing, like, I got 13 texts, and it's Wyatt and his teacher trying to get into the. The teams I set up for him. So. Yeah. So anyway. All right, so go ahead.

[Travis]

Daytona 500, second year, Junior Motorsports. Gonna try to make it. What's the. Are you able to be calm? Are you, like, an anxious person?

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

No, I'm not an anxious person whatsoever. I am super calm. You Know, I feel like, especially when you're going to do something for the second time, I feel more prepared, more ready. I know what to expect. You know, I know how hard it was last year against the other competitors to make that race and all. And so, you know, now I have a little bit of understanding about what we're gonna go through and what could happen or might not happen. I still have high expectations, obviously, to do well and to make the race, but, yeah, I'm pretty. I'm kind of. It is what it is kind of person I don't get too hyped up on. I have a little saying on my social that says, don't worry about what you can't control.

[Travis]

It's a good way to live. I don't know how, like, you and other owners sit on the pit box, because I would. I'd be a nervous wreck, and I'd probably make an, you know, the crew chief and stuff even more nervous. I'd have. They probably like, please get off the pit box.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

No, I'm good like that, you know, and I don't think Dale's super anxious or nervous like that, but he has a lot more commentary that he wants to tell them just because he's raised and, you know, he thinks, you know, he. He can think about that aspect of it a lot more than I can. And so he's in their ear. So maybe they want him to get off the pit box for that reason. But, yeah, Yeah, I don't think any of us are too, like, crazy nervous or anything like that.

[Travis]

It probably also helps that, you know, you also have, you know, Junior Motorsports race on Saturday. So, like, there's so much going on. There's not really a whole lot of time to actually, like, there's not a lot of downtime.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Right. Yeah. True to sit around and go, okay, what's going to happen?

[Travis]

So are you excited to get the new cup news O'Reilly season started for you guys?

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

That's going to get. Take some getting used to.

[Travis]

I'd say I Bumblebee, but I am.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

You know, it's been fun seeing the graphics and all the different things for the cars coming along. And, you know, we did a driver's photo shoot and everything last week, and having them all in here, having Raja part of our team has been super fun and cool to get to know him better. And, yeah, I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be, you know, obviously different with the championship and everything, the way it's going to play out. And we're going to have to look at each race a little differently and look at the year a little differently, and so. But I'm excited. We've got, you know, a lot of. A lot of changes that we've made in terms of crew chief pairings and drivers and all of that, but the core and the foundation of the business is still the same. And I feel like 17 wins, obviously, is a lot to try to shoot for, but, you know, I think you'll see us in the victory circle quite.

[Travis]

Often, and that's a good. You know, you want to have that bar like, you always want to be challenging. You don't want to, you know, settle.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Yeah, you got to have the bar set high.

[Travis]

So you mentioned the change, and that's, you know, the playoff format now, the Chase, obviously, we saw how the season ended last year. Three cars and not getting the win. Are you excited to. To. For the chase to come back?

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

I am. You know, I'm excited that the one race opportunity is out. You know, the. Yeah, the championship points series should be good. I think we'll miss aspects of the playoffs, you know, in terms of the cutoff races and things like that, but, you know, overall, I think we'll be crowning champions that have put in, you know, consistent hard work, winning, et cetera, all year long. And I think that's what should be rewarded at the end of the day.

[Travis]

Yeah, that's one thing that I kind of wanted was the cutoff races, because you get that, like, game seven moment. But, you know, I think rewarding the drivers for winning, I think will be a good thing. And so I'm excited to.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

Yeah, I think. I think, you know, if we. If it could have looked a little different, and I would have liked to. Kept some of that kind of cutoff race aspect, but that last series of races, be, you know, three races or something that kind of lined up the best four and then kind of worked it out from there, you know, but again, everybody's going to talk, well, such and such isn't good on this type of track, and you're not good. And this is the kind of tracks that were in that series. And da, da, da, da. There's just always going to be something.

[Travis]

Always going to be somebody that's critical something. Right.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

That's right.

[Marcus Smith]

That's right.

[Travis]

All right, well, I think that's it for today. We're gonna keep it a little short here.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

All right. Everybody was expecting Dale. They. They left us. They didn't come on for my segment.

[Travis]

No. I think a lot of people here. We had one. One fan said, need more. Kelly and Dale, love the sibling back and forth. I think people were happy to see you jump on.

[Kelly Earnhardt Miller]

I'm just kidding. It's. It's fun. All right, well, we're gonna close it up. NASCAR fans, listen up. And Xfinity is waving the red flag on Internet price hikes and raising the green flag for savings. Now you can get the speed and reliable wifi that you need locked into one price for five years. No surprises, no late yellows. Just a straight shot to victory lane. And just like that, folks, we've got a winner. Xfinity. Imagine that. All right, everybody, thanks again for tuning in. This has been really fun filling in for Dale in the RB studio. Don't worry. He's gonna be back tomorrow for this guest segment. And also, Del and Amy will be together for Bless yous Heart, which comes out on Thursday this week. Meanwhile, have a great week.

[Marcus Smith]

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