Nobody's Complaining About A** Kickings

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Dale Jr. Download – "Nobody's Complaining About A Kickings"**

Episode Details

• Title: Nobody's Complaining About A** Kickings
• Host/Author: Dirty Mo Media, SiriusXM
• Release Date: May 13, 2025

Overview In this engaging episode of The Dale Jr. Download, NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. and co-hosts TJ Majors and Travis delve into a comprehensive discussion about the current state of NASCAR racing. The conversation spans upcoming events, in-depth race analyses, driver dynamics, and the evolving landscape of race formats. Personal anecdotes and listener interactions add a relatable touch to the technical discussions, making the episode both informative and entertaining for fans new and old.

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Upcoming Events and Schedule

Dale kicks off the episode by outlining a busy week ahead:

• New York City Trip: Dale is headed to NYC to promote the four-part Earnhardt documentary series coming to Amazon. He shares his excitement about the upcoming premiere and the industry's anticipation.

  “[01:02] Dale Earnhardt Jr.: …the four-part series that's coming out on Amazon and pretty excited about that. It's worth it. It's worth a watch.”

• North Wilkesboro Speedway: Following the NYC trip, Dale will transition directly into broadcasting for the CARS Tour weekend at North Wilkesboro. He anticipates a robust turnout with over 70 cars across the pro late model and late model stock classes.

  “[02:27] Dale Earnhardt Jr.: …we are over 40 entries for the late model stock. Probably might cap out around 45. And our pro late model class is nearing the 30 car entry mark.”

Race Analysis: Kansas Race Breakdown

A significant portion of the episode focuses on dissecting the recent Kansas race. Dale and his co-hosts provide a critical examination of race strategies, driver performances, and the overall competitiveness of the event.

• Race Dynamics: Dale emphasizes that the race wasn't as one-sided as some commentators suggested, highlighting moments where drivers like Chase Elliott and Brad Keselowski battled for control.

  “[08:59] Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Not an ass kicking. And so they had to go to work, get control of the race back.”

• Tire Issues: A key discussion point is the impact of tire management, particularly how Kyle Busch’s team struggled with tire pressure adjustments, leading to performance drops.

  “[10:19] TJ Majors: He was losing pace. Slowing down.”

• Driver Behavior: The hosts delve into the complexities of driver interactions on the track, critiquing the current defensive driving styles enabled by composite car bodies.

  “[33:27] TJ Majors: You got to retain your position.”

NASCAR Dynamics and Car Mechanics

The conversation shifts to broader NASCAR dynamics, focusing on how car setups and race formats influence driver strategies and race outcomes.

• Composite Bodies vs. Steel Bodies: Dale contrasts the new composite car bodies with the older steel designs, expressing frustration over reduced visibility into car damage and the resultant impact on racing styles.

  “[39:48] TJ Majors: Every part of the car.”

• Stage Cautions and Race Formats: The hosts debate the effectiveness of stage cautions, suggesting alternative methods like lap clocks to maintain race integrity and unpredictability.

  “[60:32] Travis: …it throws a little bit of a very, you know, there's a little bit of uncertainty into it.”

Driver Development and Team Dynamics

A heartfelt segment on the development of young drivers and the pressure they face in high-stakes environments.

• Mentorship and Experience: Dale reflects on his transition from driver to broadcaster, emphasizing the importance of creating entertaining races for fans rather than solely focusing on competitive success.

  “[44:10] TJ Majors: It'S the unknown, you don't know what's going to happen. And you want to watch because of that.”

• Patience with Young Talent: The hosts discuss the maturation process for young drivers, advocating for patience as these athletes develop their racecraft and decision-making skills.

  “[53:43] TJ Majors: …you are putting them in these cars and they are too young for it.”

Personal Anecdotes and Listener Q&A

Towards the end of the episode, Dale shares personal stories and engages with listener questions, adding a personable and relatable dimension to the technical discussions.

• Broadcast Rehearsals: Dale recounts his experiences during practice broadcasts for Amazon and TNT, highlighting the learning curve and camaraderie involved.

  “[68:36] Dale Earnhardt Jr.: …the rehearsals fun. It's easy. We go over to the NASCAR building.”

• Decompression After Races: When asked how drivers decompress post-race, Dale humorously admits to unwinding with friends and alcohol, while also touching on the mental toll of continuous competition.

  “[81:49] Dale Earnhardt Jr.: I drank.”

Betting and Predictions

In a light-hearted segment, the hosts discuss betting strategies and predictions for the upcoming All-Star race, sharing insights and humorous banter.

• Top Picks: Hosts recommend favorites like Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski, while also entertaining long-shot bets on drivers like Josh Berry.

  “[94:55] Russell: …Ryan Priest wouldn't be a bad top five if he advances.”

Conclusion

Dale wraps up the episode by previewing future content, including interviews with motocross racer Aaron Plessinger and segments with other NASCAR personalities. He also promotes the Dale Jr. Foundation’s annual raffle, encouraging listeners to participate.

“[86:46] Dale Earnhardt Jr.: …I had a top 10 parlay and it cashed.”

Key Takeaways

• Race Strategy: Effective tire management and adaptive strategies are crucial for race success.
• Driver Behavior: Current defensive driving styles may detract from the excitement of racing.
• Race Formats: Potential changes to stage cautions could enhance unpredictability and fan engagement.
• Driver Development: Patience and mentorship are essential for cultivating young racing talent.
• Personal Insights: Dale shares his journey from driver to broadcaster, emphasizing the importance of entertainment in racing.

This episode offers a deep dive into the intricacies of NASCAR racing, combining expert analysis with personal stories and interactive segments, making it a must-listen for racing enthusiasts seeking both knowledge and entertainment.

Transcript

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What bet did I have? I had a top 10 parlay and a cast.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Who's the man? Everybody. Everybody. Throw your money in there.

[Russell]

I'm not gonna lie.

[TJ Majors]

It's the first thing I thought about.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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

[Travis]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Can you not tell I'm mentally ready?

[TJ Majors]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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

[TJ Majors]

You haven't scratched the surface yet.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, what the do you want?

[Travis]

I. I just think the last few laps it was just like, stop every time.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You ain't your picky. This ain't walking in and have it your way, mother. All right. St. Burger King. Travis is like, wrap this up. They don't have no fun around here. Hey, Everybody, it's Dale Junior back again for another episode of the Dale Junior Download. It's Tuesday's 30 year and TJ's here, my co host. How's it going, TJ?

[TJ Majors]

Oh, it's going really good. Well, how's. How's things going?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Man, it is going. We got a busy week. I'm headed to New York City this week to talk about the Earnhardt documentary, the the four part series that's coming out on Amazon and pretty excited about that. It's a. It's a. It's a. It's. It's worth it. It's worth a watch. It's worth the time. But we got a premiere of that coming up soon, which will be pretty fun. Some of the industry will be getting together to watch the first episode of that. But after the trip to New York City, I come home and then go right into the booth to work the races for the CARS Tour this weekend. I believe on Thursday night, our pro class, our pro late models, are going to be racing 75 laps at North Wilkesboro own flow. And I'll be in the booth with Eric, who's our lead or who's our. Who's one of our play by play guys with Blake McCandless in the booth. But Eric, me and Harvick are going to be in the booth on Flow Thursday evening for the pro late model cars tour 75 Lapper at North Wilkesboro. Then Friday night it'll be simulcast. That means it'll be on both Flow and Fox Sports one. That'll be the late model stock part of the cars tour event. Big old network.

[TJ Majors]

Big network.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Nervous.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

100 laps for the late model stocks and it's a. So the, you know, it's all star weekend around Wilkesboro. Big deal. So to have us, they got the modifieds there. It's great for the modifieds and we've also been part of this weekend for a couple of years now. And it is massive for the cars tour to be able to be there. Whether we're racing on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, the closer we can race to the all star event and is the better because more fans are coming into town. More fans are going to be able to see what we're doing and get a taste of what this series is all about. And so I think we are over 40 entries for the late model stock. Probably might cap out around 45. And our pro late model class is nearing the 30 car entry mark. So man, 70 plus cars for, for our two classes. I'm pretty happy with that. Big deal for the cars tour to be racing this weekend at Wilkesboro again. I'll be in the booth for both shows. You can watch both the pro and the late model stock Thursday and Friday night on flow but you can also see the late most stocks Friday live on Fox Sports 1.

[TJ Majors]

I'm looking forward to it. So you know like, you know how it is when we, when you traveled, if there was another series at the track, you like to go watch like modifieds raced it loud. And you always like to kind of keep an eye on that. You know, being at the track, the, you know, knowing the late models are going to be there. It's kind of like talked about in the garage area. Like hey, you going to late mile race? You're going to be there for that. Like so people are excited about. The industry is excited for it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All the great drivers coming out of the cars tour. Corey Haim, Josh Berry, Carson Kwapple, Butterbean. Butterbean.

[TJ Majors]

Another win this weekend for him. Time to get our next box.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Kate Honeycutt. Bunch of good talent coming out through the series. If you want to be, you know, if you want to have a chance to kind of be racing in front of the right people and get attention on what you're able to do behind the wheel of a race car. Plus, I think the cars tour is the best place to earn racecraft. Tell me another series out there. I put it up against any of them in terms of trying to just teach somebody how to race and get through an event. Learning how to race across the finish.

[TJ Majors]

Line doesn't happen much these days for a lot of Kids that are coming up, they get into super fast cars and then you get to an ARCA car or something and you lead every lap, you don't learn anything. Leading every lap. Like, you just don't learn any racecraft.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think Carson Hosvar's badass talent, but I wonder what, you know, what the perception, general perception might be of him had he came to the CARS Tour and learned how to, you know.

[TJ Majors]

Well, did he.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How to not piss everybody off?

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. Did he drive a race car or do you drive a snowplow in the Cars Tour? I'm just curious.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know. I don't know what that reference is, tj.

[TJ Majors]

Well, he likes to hit a lot of stuff.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know. Well, he would learn to stop that quick.

[TJ Majors]

And some people don't like to learn, though. Well, I know exactly what you mean. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hey, CARS Tour, let's move on. Car store, one more time. Cars Tour, Cars Tour, let's move on. I could say that all day long. We could do an hour of that. CARS Tour. You asked me if I was nervous about being in the booth. I did a little rehearsal for Amazon and it went good. We'll talk about it later in the show. We did one for TNT earlier.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Weeks ago. And so both of those. I don't want to talk about it too much because Travis will get upset.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But we had a really. We had a lot of fun.

[TJ Majors]

Are they similar when you do them, though, are they very similar or are they two different landscapes?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But I also. I want to say also. And a lot of people might not. Might not have caught this. I was in the booth doing the pro late model race at Orange County a couple weeks ago. Accidentally. I didn't really intend on doing that, but ended up in there for a while. Yeah. And so I feel pretty good about doing this pro and late model stock race for the car store. And I went over and did Harvick's podcast this week. We talked about that a little bit. Man, that was interesting. We talked about everything, really. We did like a 30 minute interview and we were all over the place.

[TJ Majors]

Can't imagine.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, it was interesting. I mean, you know, I'm. I'm curious watching Harvard kind of get into this broadcast and stuff.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. And how his stuff flows.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And seeing how he does an interview and all that. And. But it was fun and thankful for them to ask me to come over and do that. But we are. Yeah, we're gearing up, getting ready, because I go to work here soon. We got the all Star race in Wilkesboro. And then. Then, yeah, I'm working.

[TJ Majors]

And it's back.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We're not talking about that. Later in the show.

[TJ Majors]

Not until later.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Can't do it, Travis.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Something going on in Ash Jr. Yeah. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Denny Rose gets mad.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Danny Bros will be mad if we ruin Ask Junior. But he's mad now.

[Travis]

I'm not mad. Fans just were asking about. So we're saving for as Junior.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, so let's react to Kansas. I. Can I talk about this? So I was doing a practice broadcast. Is that okay? Yeah, it's okay. Let me know when I've gone too far, Travis.

[Travis]

Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was doing a practice broadcast for Amazon. Is that okay?

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay. I was doing a practice broadcast for Amazon with Steve Latart and Adam Alexander, and we were over at the NASCAR building next to the Concord Airport. And so I, you know, I watch all the races, obviously, but we were broadcasting this one. We did it from start to finish, and I really enjoyed this race. I know a lot of people. So Larson wins the pole, sweeps the stages, wins the race. But honest. And there's some, you know, people thinking. I see people on social media and even people in our industry talking about an ass whooping. I didn't see it that way, honestly. There were. There were some points in the race where particularly Chase Elliot took control of the race. And I know Brad drove up there past him. Larson, I know Brad was on flat, you know, low air pressure, hacking away to run those fast lap times, and ended up biting him in the ass. Good job, tj. Yeah, but still, Larson, at that point in the race looked like, you know, hey, man, what's going. You better get together here. Barely top five, not dominant.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not an ass kicking. And so they had to go to work, get control of the race back. And there was a restart where Logano just about cleared him. Now, I don't know if Logano had enough race car to stay there if he were to get the lead. And then on the final 15 laps of the race, Blaney and Josh Berry outpaced the five car by five to six seconds. Yeah, it was crazy how fast those two cars were at the finish. And I was watching at the. At the. At the end to the 5. I thought the 5 was shredding a tire, kind of like Host of our did. Host of our had a flat with about three to go. That was. I was a close call for everybody because if he brings that yellow out, they don't want to do that. Be inspired in the connection.

[TJ Majors]

Did he not have a problem coming on there at the end. No, he just slowing down.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. He thought he had vibration.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Tons of. There's, you know, there's tons of rubber that builds up on the inside of the wheel and all over the car. By this point you could see it flying off the car. And I thought, yes, the tires unraveling or the tires down to the cords, but apparently that was not the case. He was panicking a little bit inside the car. Not. He wasn't saying anything over the radio, but he was losing pace. Slowing down.

[TJ Majors]

He was. And that's usually the sign of.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

In protect mode.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He thought. He wasn't sure if he might be in the cord. Yeah. And. But apparently he was, he was fine, at least on the right front, the right rear.

[TJ Majors]

I don't think he had a very good. At the end. I don't think he was the best long run car at the end of the race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He wasn't even the best long run car at the middle of the race. That's how Chase, Chase ran him down.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. And passed him.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And passed him. Right. Because he was, he was struggling there. If they went long, luckily the stages, the stages were in such a way that they could split them in half and he never really had to push the car into that area where he struggled on the long run. But there were a couple moments when they did and, and that was there.

[TJ Majors]

Was a handful of cars that weren't very good in the long run. And just to tell you the, like the difference from the beginning of the race, because we started in the very back working on the car, we had to go to the tail end.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Humble brag right there. We started in the back, the very back. Drove up to second.

[TJ Majors]

I'm just second.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But your lap time difference exploded a tire.

[TJ Majors]

We exploded it. The lap time difference is four to seven tenths a lap from whenever you're in the top two or three to where you're in the pack.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Should have thought about that. When you got up front. You should have thought about that. Adjusted your air pressure.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, we should have slowed down, I guess. Or no.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You could just put more air in the tire.

[TJ Majors]

Well, maybe I had to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Going faster. You're going to load it more. So the, you know, the, the, the race was entertaining because it, to me it wasn't clear that Larson was just going to win easily. And there were in the final stages a lot of restarts and opportunities for other people to try to take advantage of that. There were some really, really good races going on between Drivers from second on back throughout most of the day. Of course, the restarts are always bonkers. Tons of Fun to watch. 3 and 4 wide. A lot of, you know, guys.

[TJ Majors]

So nuts.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There it is.

[TJ Majors]

It's so nuts.

[Travis]

Kansas is being punished for last year's race, how great it was, and this one wasn't equal. So it's like, it's not a good race. But no, it doesn't have to be that great to be good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Listen, I don't know.

[TJ Majors]

It wasn't a good race.

[Travis]

Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

To me. To me, that race was prototypical nascar. If I showed up with no expectations, I'd been a satisfied fan. To your point, Travis, we were all like, oh, man. You know, just like Charlotte. Charlotte has been insanely good. Right. So I'm going into the 600 going. It's ought to be. Yeah, I. I'm expecting to be entertained. No problem. Now was. I agree. I'm not going to argue Kansas wasn't as entertaining as it had been in the past, but it was still what makes it.

[TJ Majors]

It's still what was so much better before, though.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't.

[TJ Majors]

Well, just.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There were some more and more drama. Field finish, you know, cars crossing the finish line. Closest finish in history.

[TJ Majors]

Um, but you can't have that every single race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And then he said, like, no one. Yeah, I agree with you.

[Travis]

It's not Larson's fault that the other driver is screwed.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's another thing. That. That's another thing. So there were some comments from some drivers. Larson was one of them, and Blaney was one of them. And listen, so there's been some duds of some. There's been like six or seven duds of a race right up until Texas. Texas was pretty entertaining, right? But before Texas, we had like a stretch of races on Jeff Gluck's good race pole. That was like 50 and below. And that was real. There was real concern from fans. That was. It was. It was genuine. It was a genuine complaint. Right? And somebody said to Larson, you looking forward to coming to Kansas after the last several weeks, you know how the racing's been kind of ho hum. And he's like, you know, him and a couple other drivers, Blaney included, were like, well, you know races, if a guy kicks ass, doesn't mean it's a bad race. Nobody's complaining about ass kicking. Nobody ever did complain about Larson or anyone else kicking ass and just kicking pure ass all day long.

[TJ Majors]

Nobody's ever think that's an accomplishment. Like That's a.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Nobody complained about that. Like, I don't know where Larson and Blaney are going with that comment because nobody complained about the ass kicking. What we complained about are the things that the drivers were complaining about and have been complaining about. The car doesn't race well. It's short tracks. The car is difficult in dirty air. It's amazing at the mile and a half. And so we're excited to go to Kansas and Charlotte and all the mile and a half, because it's good there, but it doesn't race on. It doesn't really race well in some other areas or, you know, we come out of Talladega and it was, you know, there's a lot of comments from drivers about how it races at Daytona and Talladega. All the fans just agree with that. That's all we're doing is just agreeing with what we're hearing from drivers. We, we see the race play out at a short tracker Talladega. We see something. We see a, you know, product that we don't. Not really entirely in love with the drivers get out and tell us why it looks that way, and we go, okay, great. We agree. That's. And so I was a little bit confused by that. Nobody has ever, Nobody was ever really complaining that somebody's kicking too much ass. You know, but if Larson, you know, Larson's been insane this year, and if he continues to be, I think the, you know, the purists and the fans who truly, you know, you know, enjoy the sport will, Will appreciate a good ass kicking. But, you know, so that was interesting, I guess, the comments. And I wasn't. I'm just reading them from text on a Twitter app out of context, no tone. I'm not, I'm not there listening to it. But did you guys have a, have a, an opinion about that at all?

[TJ Majors]

I think it's right. I think there's valid concern at some of the places like short tracks and, and the super speedways, where the racing just doesn't get as quite as good as we, as good as it could be or we have experienced in the past. I do think, I do think Kansas in a mile and a half are really good races. Now, I, I think these guys are so precise with their passes and the, the windows that they're clearing cars and the windows that they're positioning these cars in is insanely tight.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But the drivers have been on the lead front about the short track package, about Daytona and Talladega, about the. Just listen, the car can be great everywhere. You Know, it's just trying to figure out what that combination is that it needs to be a good short track car or to be a better super speedway or Daytona Talladega car, so it doesn't have. You can pull out and make moves and do what you want at the end of the race instead of having to stay in line. So the drivers have been at the lead front of that debate, and I just feel like that was a missed opportunity for them to continue to carry on that tune, and they pawned it off onto this narrative that doesn't even exist around people saying that the races are boring because somebody's dominating them. I know that people have said that about Larson because he does dominate races from time to time, more often than.

[TJ Majors]

Most, but the racing's good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He let. He let a ton of laps. He does. He's. He has led more laps than anybody this year. 200. But coming into Kansas, he was 200 laps more than the next guy in laps led. His teammate, William Byron, he doubled that on the field. He was up 200 laps. I think he had 596 laps, total lead or something like that. He goes into Kansas and added another 200 or something. So, I mean, easy 200. Nobody's complaining about that. We all know he is literally in the conversation for the best greatest driver currently in the world. And so to see him go dominate is not a shock, you know, or disappointment. And I thought. But anyways, I thought, you know, the race, I didn't understand that kind of. That that was like a Friday conversation going on on social media that I saw a lot of. Right. I really didn't understand that. But, you know, the summer stretch will be different. We're at Kansas. Go to Charlotte. There's a lot of intermediates. Michigan, Pocono. Michigan, Pocono. It's like we go, bam. Back to back to back to back to them damn tracks in the summer. I don't. It's the oddest thing. They put Pocono almost a month apart.

[TJ Majors]

We got some really good stretch of races coming.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You remember back when you used to race Pocono twice, and it was literally like a month, 30 days apart?

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, it was.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And you'd one. He'd kick ass in the first one, take the exact same back and couldn't even be running in top 10.

[TJ Majors]

We did win both of them the one year, though.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But, I mean, you know, we got road course, got all kinds of things going on in the summer. So this conversation will quell somewhat till we get back to a couple in A row Daytona, Talladega and do some more like that.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, it doesn't help when they're back to back. Like, you know, like when you go to a super, you know, like a Martinsville and then back to back, it was like a, you know, something else that doesn't race good.

[Travis]

Do you think the bigger problem is it's, it's also the same people winning?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not really. I don't, I don't feel like that.

[TJ Majors]

It's that I don't feel like it's that bad.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't feel like it's that repetitive.

[TJ Majors]

I don't either.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like a, like we got the big three dominating.

[TJ Majors]

You always have that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We got the. No, in the note it says Big three dominating. That used to be drivers. Now we're going to be talking about organizations.

[TJ Majors]

It's true.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Used to be drivers. Just a couple years ago, it was Truex, Kyle Busch and Harvick winning like 80% of the races one year. It was ridiculous.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So, yeah, we're nowhere near that. And you still have, you know, you still have the, the potential for, I mean, you know, you still have potential for guys. New guy. There was a, there's a point in that race yesterday or Sunday where there's a ton of dudes in the top 10 that hadn't won races or were about to have some seriously respectable results. And you see spire with Josevar and those guys kind of creeping up into the top 10. So it, I, I think that if it was just like if the top 10 looked the same every week and the guys running first and second, third. Yeah, then you'd have an argument. But anyhow, Larson wins the race. Pretty compelling drama and storyline throughout the day. Byron had a tire issue early. He probably screwed over a bunch of people's bets by messing up. I know it wasn't really his fault, but yeah, they got bit by the tire, but. So NASCAR changed the left side tire. The team showed up in practice, they went out there and everybody was having left rear tires go down. So everybody in the garage went, we got to put a little more air in the left side tire. So. Because if the lower they run the tire pressure, the more the car will travel. That gets the diffuser close to the ground and creates more downforce. They've probably got everything they can in the suspension to be able to get the car low as they can get it. Now the only thing left is taking air out of the tire. They do that, but eventually the tire will fail and so they have to find out where that that line is. And as NASCAR changes the tire, that number and that air pressure number, that sweet spot changes and the teams also have to think about. So when the car's cold, all the brakes, everything's cold. You're going to go out on the racetrack and. And by lap four, air pressure is going to be x. Well, when you go into the race and you get everything hot and then you pull, you know, you throw on a set of tires in the middle of the race, just rolling around under caution, you're going to build a pound of pressure. So now you got to be thinking about things a little dynamic things like that so you can pull more air out, get a little more aggressive. Well, we're too far blowing left for a tire. Hit the wall. So that's what the teams are doing all day at Kansas and some of these other mile and a half with this tire. But you saw a lot of issues in the first practice. Everybody saw it. Everybody fixed their second practice race. Not a ton of problems. Teams get, get aggressive in the race. Couple teams get bit that re that gets the field's attention. Everybody starts, you know, getting back conservative again. Late in the race, teams get more aggressive. It's the last run of the day. Well, we're going to swing for the fences. Speeds are faster because it's four or five o' clock in the afternoon. Fastest part of the day for the racetrack. You know, late in the race, people start having tire issues again. It all. It's a fun thing. I think that's a fun dynamic. I love that. Yeah, I do too. I know Goodyear doesn't love it because they probably catch a little for it, but it's not their fault. It's the teams being very aggressive with air pressure.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, always.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. But they have to be.

[Travis]

Think about in this next gen car, there's very few things that the teams can tinker with. So like this is something that a team can try to gain an advantage and I like that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Hey, Estelle Jr. Did you know that we've got brand new merch for from our star stripes and beers collection available now. We've got tanks, tees, beach towels and more. Just in time for summer. Check it all out at shop.dirtymomedia.com safety culture helps businesses stay on top of the details in their data and processes so that they can focus on improving. Whether your business is big or small, it can be easy to lose track of all these details. Our friends at trackhouse racing, they use safety culture so that they have the confidence every detail is Always covered. Safety culture is purpose built for 80% of the blue collar workforce. The people that are out there working hard each and every day. From factories to stores, even those shops as big as trackhouse racing, every detail is tracked and everyone has full visibility to make sure nothing gets missed. Because the workers on the ground, they know what's happening the best. Safety culture makes it easy to share those insights, giving visibility to other departments all in real time. That means you and your team get the job done faster, you make better decisions, and you're constantly finding ways to improve so that you can spend your time more wisely where it counts. If you want to see how it could help your business, earn the pole position, head over to safetyculture.com SVG in practice, it looked like Denny Hamlin might be the best. Denny Hamlin has been incredible at Kansas in terms of just sheer speed. I put him over, I put him against anybody at Kansas over the last several years. You got four wins there in the next gen. He's been really good. Just can't seem to put it all together for whatever reason in the last couple of trips.

[Travis]

But I mean this one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Go, go get on defending. I'm going to let you in. I'm going to let you in. Calm down. Beating on the door here to defend his buddy. We don't have many mechanical failures like that and that's literally the first clutch failure of any kind that I've really heard about. But I'm sure there's more to the story and nothing nefarious, just a, just an odd occurrence. I mean these, these things are kind of like tanks in terms of the nuts and bolts these days, how they're built.

[TJ Majors]

Really well.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, so just a really unfortunate deal for Denny, but going to the big three, dominating. I thought about this. So when we were doing our little Amazon practice broadcast before the broadcast, they said, what's your driving thought? You know, they go to each broadcaster, each analyst and say, what are you paying attention to? And I was like, well, I feel like, you know, we used to talk about the big three when I came into broadcast and that was kind of a. Always a storyline. Who are the dominating drivers? Well, I think the big three has changed to now it's organizations with this race car. It's like all organ. Like when, when one or when one team figures it out, the whole organization moves forward because the cars are so similar and the way they set them up, when one finds something very good, they all just do it and you got. And the drivers have to adapt to it and Drive it that way. They set it up to go fast, and that's the fast way for this car to go. And you figure it out and go out there and drive it. And so I think that the Big Three has now shifted to organizations, obviously. Hendrick, Joe Gibbs Racing, and Penske, and out of the gate this year, and still today, I really feel like that Penske has been the most consistent team to be at the top of the speed charts, and they were there. They were fast at Kansas. They were fast at Kansas in the fall. I think Blaney had the best car for most of that race.

[TJ Majors]

If you were to rank the Pensi cars, what would you rank them right now?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Blaney, Josh Berry, Logano, Cindrick.

[TJ Majors]

Okay, that's my.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I know Barry's technically the Wood Brothers, but it's Blaney assisted enough. I mean, it's a Pinsky assisted car. I call it a Penske car, you know, but equipment wise, for sure. Yeah. And so I'll put him in this group. They brothers are prideful people. No disrespect, but there is a connection there, and I have to. I have to include him.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, for sure.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So.

[TJ Majors]

And it shows.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I think that Hendrick, up until the. Up until this race, this is my opinion. Before the race, Penske was the fastest, which is odd because usually this is them. That's them at the end of the year. I don't know what that means for them at the end of this year because they're rarely this quick early in the season. Hendrick is the most consistent and very boring right now. Larson's kicking ass, Right? Having great year, running good. Got great statistics. Just mile and a half is amazing. He's dominating at the mile and a half. His mile and a half average Finish is like 4.5 or some. The next best driver's 10th. The next best driver's best average finish at a mile and a half is five spots worse.

[TJ Majors]

Was that C. Bell?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It was Byron. I don't know what it is after this race. It was Byron before, but he had a bad day, so maybe somebody else has jumped into the second spot in average finish at mile and a half this year, but it's still a lot. Five positions. So excluding Larson, HMS has been very monotonous. Just prodding.

[Travis]

Chase is fourth in points and not a win.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, right.

[Travis]

Bowman's eighth.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes. And now. So I would say that they're kind of the number two team. And Gibbs, to me, has. I know that C. Bell's been awesome, but they're up and down, up and down. And here lately they kind of been more down than up. And so they're all very close. Right. I'm not saying one, there's a massive advantage for one or the other. They're. They're the three teams that I look at now. You'll have a track house that'll pop off and get a top five or some it, or maybe even win a race. 23:11, same thing. But they're the B teams. They're second tier teams.

[TJ Majors]

To me, I'm surprised you put Penske in front of Hendrick still, because we went to a couple before the race. TJ well, I'm saying even in general, because we would like, even change my.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Mind after, after watching that Kansas race.

[TJ Majors]

I thought that Penske would have a little bit more speed, like, especially like Martinsville, like Blaney would lead 490 of laps at Martinsville. And honestly, Homestead, I feel like they've been better and they didn't get the finish he blew up. So Blaine blew up Phoenix.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They dominate Phoenix usually. Yeah. At the end of the year, not at the start of the year.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, I just expect, I think.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think they've been good this year. Better than they normally have in the first half of the year. After this race, though, I got to say, it's about even now. I mean, has Hendrick, you know, I know it's one damn race. And this sport sort of ebbs and flows week to week, every damn week. We got.

[TJ Majors]

Every week, which is awesome.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, we got a new championship favorite every two weeks. But, you know, that's a fun conversation for me is to like rank the teams, grade the teams, judge the organizations because it, this next gen car and how it's such a kick car has made that conversation relevant. And so, you know, after, I guess after the end of that race, I was really, I guess even during the middle of that race when Chase Elliott drove to the front of the field, I'm like, this is impressive. I haven't seen the speed out of this car. I haven't seen this kind of speed out of many of the HMS cars outside of Larson. But Bowman drove up to the front of the field early in the race. Byron was probably going to be a contender, had the tire not, you know, blown.

[TJ Majors]

They were strong.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They were strong, man.

[TJ Majors]

They were strong.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, Bowman, I think that looks good for them going into Charlotte. I really do. I think we'll see somewhat similar speeds and, and performance from these organizations at the same race at the next race, right?

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. I agree. Charlotte will be similar to Kansas.

[Travis]

What do you make of the angry drivers? Seem like a lot of people were on edge.

[TJ Majors]

Well, so I like listening to this and the point that I had with this, you can, in some of it's. You can understand it. But like guys that are just struggling, you can tell they're. They're struggling by their radios. Like Kyle, I mean, he is struggled. You can tell by his reactions.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like, listen, I watched the in car with Kyle and I saw it also with a lot of people. They. We have a. We have these statistics that we get from racing insights and they grade the drivers from, you know, the best, the second best, the third best, the worst. They're all graded in passing, pit road, defense, speed defense and speed. Defense is now a statistic. You know, we used to just say, man, Newman's hard to pass or Joe Logano blocked the out of you at Daytona and Talladega. Just reckless blocking. Right. We used to just, we used to just say, this guy fits in this category. But now we go, you know, well, he's the sixth best defender or he did the best this week at defending. And that's a real stat. Now they have the digital camera in the car and they know at a mile and a half or anywhere else, really, if they see a guy in the mirror and he's not in their lane, if they just drive in, if they just pull in front of him, he's screwed. He is because the air stops going under that car to the diffuser, and it just takes all the air and downforce away from that driver. And so defense is now maybe the most important strategy.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. You got to retain your position.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And so, you know, that's interesting. It's entertaining. Is it what I prefer? No, not really. I'd love it if the guys that are faster could just drive right up to the back bumper and knock the guy in the ass and move on. But, you know, the way this car is, we, we. We're not going to get that next week at Charlotte, you know, or the net. When we go back to points racing at Charlotte. We're not. You know, we got to talk about.

[TJ Majors]

When you were driving, if you put your car in front of another guy on an intro to corner, you were getting.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I had to be careful to drive. If I was going to drive across his nose, he could definitely manipulate the air to his amount. I put myself in a bad position because he could definitely get right, you know, lift me up, lift me up. And the air going around his nose is so condensed it almost acts like a rubber bumper where he doesn't even have to touch me, and he can kind of move my car loose.

[TJ Majors]

You could play offense, though, like, use it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I didn't want to drive down across somebody's nose because it was going to take my car out of the racetrack. But the way they got to drive these cars now is worth talking about. But watching that in car is so frustrating. You can sense why the drivers get frustrated. They're driving through the corner, throttle up, and then they come up off of turn four and cross the wake of the car in front of them and have to jump out of the gas because the right front's about to knock wall down. Because as soon as he crosses that wake, it shuts the air off to the diffuser and everything else. The whole car loses air. And so that, to me, is too extreme. They still race like hell. If you're looking at it just from the. From the grandstand point of view, they're racing like hell. Looks awesome. Looks awesome. But if you plug your ass in the seat and ride with one of those guys, it's frustrating to watch when they have to jump out of the gas because they cross the wake of some car, or this guy or a guy saw him running that lower line, and they drove down across them in front of them, right? You'll see them. They'll go down in the corner.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, terrible.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Guy goes into the middle of the corner, right, Leading the race, and he drives into the middle because he's going to say, all right, man, I know the guy behind me is going to either go low or high, and if. Wherever that guy goes, especially if you're Ross Chastain, you drive up in front of him or drive down in front of him, right? Ross is the best at it. One of the best defenders, as we say. He goes. He sees that. He drives in the corner, in the middle of the corner, looks in the mirror, he says, oh, you want go low? I'll go low. He drives down in front of them, and. And they just. They can't finish the throttle. And so it's. It's a. It's an art. It's fun to watch somebody, you know, defend and block and take air away. It's not how I prefer my. My stock car racing to be, but it's what we're going to have when we go to Charlotte and go forward until something really major changes in the car. And so.

[TJ Majors]

Well, remember a handful of years ago at Kansas, this is the. This is one of the. The biggest defending Moments that I can remember is whenever Kevin Harvick had a car that was the fastest car all day, 4/10 faster. And we held him off for 40 last by doing Joe Ligando. You run the big arc into the corner, wait for him to go to the bottom because you took away the top because you're running ridiculous arc and you just turn down in front of any nose slides up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I went to in, I think it was 1999. We went to Japan. Flat racetrack, Motegi big. It's a giant New Hampshire. Yeah, really flat. NASCAR was playing with the spoilers and the valence and they had a 6 and 6 rule. So 6 inch front ride height, 6 inch rear spoiler. And so it had terrible front downforce by itself and a lot of blade on the back. When you got behind the car, you lost all the front and you didn't lose as much back. And so this feels. And it was awful. Like when we drove down in the corner behind somebody, you just, you. Even if your car was turning better, working better, you just slid across, slid the fronts across the racetrack and the guy just drove away. And you couldn't get within two car lengths of nobody. And so it kind of reminds me of that. It's too. It's too extreme. So I can kind of understand the frustration from the drivers as they're trying to figure, you know, trying to figure out how to get to the finish of this race and get a good result. There are some cars, though, that do really well in traffic. I mean, at the end of that race, the 21, Barry was driving right by fools. It was wild how much speed he had. Blaney had that kind of speed too.

[TJ Majors]

At the end, and he had it set up for a longer run, too. And the cool part about these mile and a half now with this car is the multiple grooves. If you go like, if I'm. If I catch you and you run the top and my car is good, I can still run below you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

And get it and you know, side draft. You come on off the extra the corner.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I saw that conversation that Kyle Busch and you know, we're going to lean into a lot of what Kyle was saying because he was on actions detrimental. We got a lot of great feedback from, from that race and from Kyle and him and Denny both had a conversation around the composite bodies ruining the art of racing and passing. Kyle said it's the composite bodies. That's what it is. Right. Like everybody just runs into, everybody runs over, everybody hits. Everybody hits the wall because we all Just bank on the fact that the body's just going to pop back out. We're going to be fine. He's referring to when we drove the steel race cars. If you brush the wall with the steel race car, so you would. They would work on the side of that steel body flange and create side force right in front of the right rear tire and back at the tailpiece. And if you flat, if you hit touch the wall, you took all that out and you lost counts and side force. You lost downforce, you lost turn and ability. And so you couldn't. You didn't want to touch the fence. You didn't want to bounce into any other cars or run it. You. It's. I thought it sucked, honestly. I remember in the 80s and 90s, just guys knocking at each other and it was awesome to watch. And it looked like it was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Then at some point in the late 2000 teens, you know, 2000, I don't know, 2012 and on, the bodies became so important and they were so tweaked and perfected. Even this. I mean, every. You just got every little thing you could.

[TJ Majors]

Every part of the car.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If you touched anything with it, it. It hurt it. It killed the speed and performance, killed the body's ability. And I didn't love that. I thought that sucked because I wanted to race hard and. Or I wanted to be able to race somebody hard and we couldn't touch each other.

[Travis]

No beating and banging.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No beating and banging. And yeah, if you did get, you know, you run the wall at a place like Homestead and if you did rub, run into the fence, you know, you had to run. You. Your car drove like till you get to pit road and they pull it out and try to fix it, make it better. But I. So I. I don't like. I'm. I'm kind of. I'm. This is sound maybe weird. I like the composite bodies because the drivers have been able to get more aggressive with them. In some cases, too aggressive. Particularly in Xfinity series, we destroy cars for no reason because. Because they just. They look at the bodies and stuff, like just throwaways. And they're not really. They're kind of expensive. But I do miss being able to look at a car and see the damage. So a next gen car, Bubba Wallace, comes off turn two. Somebody slipped there. Somebody almost busted their ass in front of him, and he popped the hell out of him. Ran right in the back of them off turn two, look at the car. They keep going down the straightaway. Look at the car. It's fine. I know. Inside, around the ductwork and all that. It's bust. All that loose. It's hurt his car. He's lost drag. He's lost. He's. He's added drag. He's lost all his. It's not sealed up. So he's lost horsepower.

[TJ Majors]

Something's moved.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, Air going back into the engine intake and all that. So I know that it hurt his car, but I can't look at it and see it and that. I don't like the neck. Remember when the next gen first came out and they were so stiff they would kill the fence and it looked like it was fine?

[TJ Majors]

Oh, yeah. You know, Kill the fence.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And it looked. It just had scratches all over it, but otherwise it didn't change shape. It don't bend and fold up. It does a little bit more now that they've made some adjustments to it to absorb the crashing.

[TJ Majors]

But it just doesn't crinkle.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I got. Yeah, don't crinkle. I was. I was so used to seeing car. I was so used to seeing a car crash and looking at the. Looking at the car and going, I know just about everything that's probably bent. And now I don't feel that way as much. It's harder to see. And so. And as. And that. That Bubba Wallace deal is a perfect example. He's. He's probably got a chance to run, let's say 15th, right. At best at Kansas. Runs in the back of that car off turn two. Hurts his intake and. And overall hurts the power that the car can create. Probably creates some drag because he's. He's. He's unsealed the body in certain points. And I can't look at it tell you. I can't look at it and tell you as a viewer, hey, this is a problem now. And this is why he's going to run 28th today. You know, and so that. That's the only thing that I don't love about the composite bodies. Otherwise, I like that they race like assholes. I know that we give Carson Osavar a lot of. And at times we've gave Chastain some and some other guys, but I would want. I want more of those guys in the field. I want more of those guys out.

[TJ Majors]

You wouldn't say that if they cleaned you out.

[Travis]

What if you were driving, though, and you're not a fan slash broadcaster.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's right. So if I was driving when I was driving a race Car. When I was a race car driver, I was selfish. It was about me. It was about what was good for me. And that's not always what's good for the sport. That's not always what's good for entertainment. That's not always what's good for the fan that bought the ticket. And so that was one of the things that I learned when I got out of the driver's seat and stepped into the booth. I said, holy. It is important that this is fun to watch. Like, this has got to be good to watch. And so having. Having a wild card or. Or two or three or four or five out there that you're not quite sure what kind of decision they're going to make down in the next corner is kind of good. You know, having that guy that's like, hey, man, he's a loose cannon. It's kind of good when you're, you know, trying to be, you know, entertained and you're, you know, I think if.

[TJ Majors]

It'S the unknown, you don't know what's going to happen. And you want to watch because of that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You just. You got to have a lot. We talk about personalities, and I know that personality conversations kind of driven a lot more toward, like, what they're doing off the track, but you also need those personalities on the track. You got to have the good guy, the villain, the up. You got to have the guy that just can't get it right. They got to have the guy that's stupid fast, but terrible decision maker. You need to have all these different people with all these different variables and.

[TJ Majors]

Throw them all in the bucket and let them race. Yeah, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Put them in the cage and see what happens. And so, you know, I kind of. I kind of think that's my perspective as a viewer. When I was on the racetrack, I wanted everybody to not run over my ass and stay off me and not up around me, you know, but that's kind of boring.

[Travis]

I agree. That's why, like, Jose, after his press conference, he kind of downplaying flipping the bird. I'm like, if you throw.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Flip the bird, he can't. Well, he kind of can't. So that's a penalty or that's a potential for a penalty. So I think that. I think that drivers have kind of been programmed to never own up to doing anything wrong or nefarious over the past several years. I don't mind that he didn't own it. And I, you know, that doesn't bother me as much as it bothered you because I know that he, by owning it, has opened himself up to some sort of retaliation from nascar. And NASCAR is reactive. So if he owns it and there's a big backlash on social media, NASCAR then reacts to that.

[Travis]

Yes, but can't they say the heat of the moment, like it's not.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You would love for that to be the case.

[Travis]

They want before though, haven't they?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Do you want to be host of our. And take that chance?

[Travis]

But I feel like they have done many times where there's like, oh, he in the moment. He said it like, I wish they.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Would have done that in Talladega 2004. He. The moment.

[Travis]

Explain that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

When I said the word it was.

[Travis]

Harmless, you know, now that's ridiculous.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It is. But that's you deal with. So are you going to take that chance by going by, you know what are you being a tough guy? I spun out on purpose at Bristol, bragged about it. They busted my ass. If I'd have never said nothing, they would have never done nothing about it. Same thing for flipping the bird. We can all see him flipping the bird.

[Travis]

We can see it spinning out on purpose and flipping the bird are not the same.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, I saw it from the bird.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

My point. Now I know they're not the same. I'm not saying they're the same. I'm just saying if you want to admit to some nascar, then can. Can act on it. They've always told. They've always told us, indirectly told us, don't admit to doing it. We're trying to cut you a break here.

[Travis]

Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so that doesn't really bother me that much that he didn't own it.

[Travis]

I'll change my opinion.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He could have turned it into a fun joke.

[TJ Majors]

I would have.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know exactly what he said.

[TJ Majors]

He started to, like, admit. Then he was like, ah, I don't know, like. He kind of faded away, didn't he? I mean, who. My. My problem. Who's he to be flipping the bird on anybody?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know.

[TJ Majors]

You know, he's ran into.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay, I got an opinion about that. Did you? So Lane Riggs goes down into turn one. He's underneath Josevar, right?

[TJ Majors]

Definitely uses him up on both. Wow, dude.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The wall saved Josevar.

[TJ Majors]

Well, let's say both of them, right? I mean, really.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But yeah, nobody, nobody thinks that that's totally cool. I mean, what. What?

[TJ Majors]

I don't think that's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How much talent does that take to go down in the corner, drive up the racetrack into the guy's left rear corner, panel Damn near wreck both of you. Yeah, I'd have flipped his ass off, too.

[TJ Majors]

But I mean, the, the guy. If you switch the trucks and put the, you know, Carson on the inside lane on.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's definitely a Carson move, that there.

[TJ Majors]

It's going to be the same thing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You think Carson would. Yes. I'm not.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, he did it. Yeah.

[Travis]

So that's. You're not allowed to flip someone off because you've done it before.

[TJ Majors]

I, I mean, he's the. They're, they're.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Who's arguing what now. Are you now on Carson side?

[Travis]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm on Carson's side.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

For the bird flopping.

[Russell]

No, no, no, no.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

For the sake of argument, I, I.

[Travis]

Well, first I admitted that I was wrong on him is press conference because what you said. Yeah, but I'm saying, is he not allowed to give the bird because he.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I would have flipped him off, too, after that over in turn two.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, I don't blame him for flipping him off, but Carson's has wrecked many cars over the last two, three years, and I don't see anybody acting at that level like, flipping him off.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's had a lot. There's been a lot of said about.

[TJ Majors]

Him said about him, but you don't see it like, like that.

[Travis]

Like, wait, so. Because no one's ever flipped him off, he can't flip off somebody?

[TJ Majors]

I didn't say he can't flip him off. I just said Carson took a lot of.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I, I rightly, so. Deservingly.

[TJ Majors]

Carson's been doing this long enough now to me and.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, but the thing that bothers me, if we want to get on Carson's ass thing, it bothers me. Is he called Riggs a kid? Riggs is older. Is he some. Is he, Is he already, like, is he. Is he himself appointing himself some sort of veteran? Y' all heard that that's a power move.

[Travis]

The only thing that could have been worse if he called him like buddy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Or like sport, man, that kid's gonna win a lot of races.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

What the.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Is that you're a kid.

[Travis]

Is that him saying, I'm in cup and you're not?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like, that was a very egotistical move.

[Travis]

I love it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't. I think it makes, I think it's an asinine way to look. It's awful, but asinine way to look at things. Riggs is older than him. And then I know that Riggs is not in cup, but in terms of, like, I don't know. Ability.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Talent I don't really set them too far apart.

[TJ Majors]

No, they. You could. You could take the numbers out the truck and we probably wouldn't be able.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

To tell, but I think you could put rigs in the 77 and eventually get, you know, reasonable results.

[Travis]

100%. But I like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I like a little. Carson's earned that opportunity to. I don't know that he even meant it as a dig.

[Travis]

Oh, well, then.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, I think he really believes in his head that that guy's a kid and he's this veteran of the Cup Series. That is what's wild to me.

[Travis]

Yeah, that's stupid.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. It's preposterous.

[TJ Majors]

That's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't think he was trying to make a dig. I think he was.

[TJ Majors]

I don't think he's making a dig.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, that kid. He's going to be fine, you guys.

[Travis]

You think he's 18 years old in truck series.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Oh, oh, Riggs, he'll be fine. He's going to win his share. Raises that kid. Dude, you're still a kid. You ain't too far from that crazy ass you were pulling in Phoenix in that championship final. Remember that?

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, all that wild is going on.

[TJ Majors]

What a crazy kid he was back then.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, man.

[Travis]

Wait, how old. How old do you think these two are?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Carson?

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, Josevar is probably 22, 23.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, he's younger.

[Travis]

That I'm being told. They're both 22.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right.

[TJ Majors]

Kids, these kids these days. We can go.

[Travis]

So does that change it now?

[TJ Majors]

No, no, you. He's right. You could. They're almost identical.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They're nearly in the same place in their lives. I know that Carson's in Cup and lyrics in Truck, but they're both, you know, they're both still at the very early stages of their careers.

[TJ Majors]

If you change the path, I fully believe Lane could look just like Carson in that cup car.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, yeah, I don't. I don't. I don't disagree with him.

[TJ Majors]

My problem with Carson is. I don't. Like, he's not. He needs to be finishing these races off now. Like last week at Texas Running, and you know what I mean?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Going Sunday Hat.

[TJ Majors]

And he had a good run going at Texas, though, too, and he threw it away. Like, he just drives somebody up the hill running into the fence. You know what I mean? Like, I need to see him growing from these moments because he's made a lot of mistakes and we keep seeing the same mistakes. That's my question.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I. I hear you, but I don't have a whole lot of confidence that that's going to happen anytime soon. I think that it will. But I'm. Listen, I'm telling you man, we, we expect way too much out of these guys. We put them in cup cars. We do, you know, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 years old. And you, you're. There'll be the anomaly that comes in. Kicks ass. It makes no sense but they're just badass. Yeah, right. And it's a maturity thing up here in their head. Has a lot to do with just how, how mature they are in terms of judgment and decision making. But Most people are 22 year old. 22 year olds. Right. And they're going to up.

[TJ Majors]

They're going to act like that and.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They'Re going to act like that and it's going to be too big for them. It's going to, it's going to be too big for them and they're going to up a lot. If you can be patient, if you can be patient with a guy like Host of our. The 26 year old host of our will be the driver that you want him to be. But you got to be patient with that. Wait for him to get there. Look at, look at Joe Logano, perfect example. If the right people didn't have the idea to give him a second chance. He's not a three time champion. I mean his deal, I think we all forget just how rough the Gibbs deal went and how even at the end of that Gibbs deal, when he got, when he got sent to Penske, I think even me, all of us were like, yep. Well, that slice bridge didn't work out, did it? Yeah, well, you know, it did work out. He's a badass. He, you know.

[TJ Majors]

Well, three times.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. But I mean there was a point where I think all of us were kind of like this. This ain't going so well. And will it? But you know, we, the sport was getting younger and younger, going younger and younger. Get these guys in these cars soon as you can get them in there and they ain't ready for it. A lot of them aren't. Some. There's the anomalies. But you know, Joseph are, is worth waiting waiting for.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And most of them are, most, all of them are.

[TJ Majors]

He's got speed which is the main thing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. But can you wait?

[TJ Majors]

Yep.

[Travis]

How long do you think it takes a driver to kind of find his.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All different for every person?

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Travis]

What was it like for you?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I got, I came in and I came in and won in my I don't know, 16th start at Texas. Then we won Richmond, then we won the All Star race and I'm like, this is just as easy as the Xfinity series. And then we got our teeth kicked in the last half of my rookie year and it was like, okay, I don't know why we were so good out of the gate, but this is really hard. All of a sudden I think 2004 was when it all started to come together. You know, in a perfect world, you know, that 2004 season happens and we continue to build on that. You know, we made, I made some bad decisions, we made some bad decisions personnel wise that derailed that, that thing from happening and what it might have been. But so I would say four years for me. Byron, four years roughly.

[TJ Majors]

He's a good example.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Logano, another four years.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. @ least.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I mean it's for some guys. I mean there's real true multi time champions out there that are going to need that four years. And if you can be patient and wait, you know, you get paid out, you know, it pays off.

[TJ Majors]

But four years is a good number.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Ah, you throw in a 20i at 22. So much pressure belonging in a cup car. I did not. Yeah, I'm glad I wasn't. I would have never panned out, you know, and some guys just are too, too young for it. Fun conversation. Yeah, we moved all over the place. Good job, kid. Good job. Dirty air.

[TJ Majors]

Good job, kids.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Cars Tour short tracks bring on the short tempers and there's also a million bucks on the line. The NASCAR All Star race roars back to North Wilkesboro Speedway May 15 through May 18 for an action packed weekend at the 58 mile bullring. It's one of the best tickets in racing and it's also one of NASCAR's most iconic tracks. Starting it off are the two Z Max cars tour races. I love when the cars tour gets its chance to race at Wilkesboro and I'm going to be there working the booth for that. There's also going to be the pit crew challenge presented by Mechanicswear, the All Star heat races and The Window World 250 Craftsman Truck Series race and a Jayco and concert all on Saturday, free for Saturday and Sunday ticket holders. If that isn't enough, how about the NASCAR wheel and Modified Tour on All Star Sunday. They'll get the green flag right before the All Star Open where those guys that are trying to make the show for the biggest all star event in sports. There's never been an All Star race weekend like this. So much racing all in one weekend. Get your tickets today at North WilkesboroSpeedway.com Military personnel, first responders, law enforcement, teachers and other government service personnel can save on tickets thanks to govx. Visit northwestborospeedway.com for details. You know that feeling you get when you're watching drivers fight it out on the racetrack, giving it everything they've got for the checkered flag? Well, you can capture that feeling forever with cars from Lionel Racing, the official diecast of nascar. The ultimate way to celebrate the biggest moments in racing. These diecasts aren't toys. They're authentic, high quality replicas of your favorite rides from the sport's biggest stars, including myself and the guys on my race team. Whether you're a longtime collector or a fan who's new to the sport, Lionel Racing die casts bring the heart of racing to your shelf or man cave. With incredible detail. They're built with precision, with all the exact decals, logos and paint schemes you've seen on the actual cars. And trust me, these cars make you feel like you're right there in the middle of it. So head to lionel racing.com your favorite racing team shop or any authorized retailer and start building your collection today. And don't forget, you can find a wide selection of die casts at the Lionel stores and Concord Mills near Charlotte Motor Speedway and Opry Mills in Nashville. So what's this caution idea?

[Travis]

So they were talking about Kyle and Denny.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay.

[Travis]

We're talking about those kids. If you don't throw your first stage caution until you have 75 consecutive green laps or whatever the number.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I like it.

[Travis]

Whatever. Depending on the sounds like cars tour.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So the cars tour sounds like half.

[TJ Majors]

The field is going to be a lap down.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The cars tour has a deal. Is this most Explain what the car store does and then I'll. Is this similar? I'll ask you. So we have 125 lap late model stock race, 100 lap pro late model race. If they go 45 laps of green, the caution comes out. If there's a natural yellow, that clock resets. Is that kind of what they're talking about?

[Travis]

I think so. But it also may have sounded like he was for like a. You're not going to have a stage caution.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Get rid of stage cautions entirely.

[Travis]

Yeah, you still.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You still have a ball.

[Travis]

You pay all your stage points.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Let me. Let's explain it to the fan. Let's not all argue talk over top of each other. People are listening to this. So no stage break caution. That Goes away. You still pay points out at certain moments in the race as we do today. I'm fine with that. Okay. I like people accumulating points during the race. It does create a conversation that I think we need to have around somebody who finished 14th getting 5th place points or the 5th best points or the guy even winning the race not having the most points as the guy in second or third because of what happened throughout the race. I don't know if I love all that, but hey, that's another conversation. But anyways, no stage cautions still pay out points at certain points in the race as we do today. But there's a lap clock, a lap counter. You run a certain amount of laps green and if no caution has come out, you throw the yellow. If there's a natural yellow at some point in that mix, it resets the clock. I like that. And that way, I think it changes fuel strategy, all types of things to be able to get the teams to have to, you know, have to race a little bit. Not that they're not racing now. I'm just saying I think it would change kind of how we viewed the races too. As a fan. Yeah.

[Travis]

You're not, you're not saving fuel.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. You're not. Yeah. You're not saying fuel because you know exactly what's going on, what's going to happen. It throws a little bit of a very, you know, there's a little bit of uncertainty into it.

[TJ Majors]

I think at some point you get. You might get to a fuel savings deal.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They're still going to game it.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. Because you're, you're going to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I like it. I like.

[TJ Majors]

You're going to short fill sometimes for a faster stop, which is going to put you in a different fuel window at times. But like. So what's the mile and a half, number? 75. Like what did they say?

[Travis]

I think he was saying like 70. 75 for Kansas. Maybe I could be wrong. They were spitball.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

First stage was 80 laps.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're going to throw a yellow five laps to go on the stage. Even though you're not having a stage.

[Travis]

Caution if you go green.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know. So the caution is going to come out of lap 75. You're going to ride around under caution for a couple laps, then somebody's going to get a bunch of points and then you know you're going to go back to green and.

[Travis]

No, no, no. When that 75, then that would be where your. That's where you pay your stage at probably then.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, so you're Saying, okay, you're paying stage caution.

[Travis]

Like, if you go.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

This is still a stage break.

[TJ Majors]

Are you throwing the yellow or not?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That. Dang it. You're confusing yourself, Travis.

[Travis]

You throw in a yellow, if you go 75 consecutive, then there's going to be a yellow. There's your stage.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's what we're doing already. We're just doing it 80 laps.

[Travis]

Yeah, but if you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But if not, change the thing.

[Travis]

But if you have a caution on lap 15, you're gonna now have to go 75 consecutive green before the next one.

[TJ Majors]

So you're going to the end of the stage no matter what. Unless there's a natural yellow.

[Travis]

If there's a natural yellow, it resets it. So then you're gonna drive through the stage.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, so you don't stop. You're not stopping at the.

[Travis]

Yeah, you're not stopping for the stage.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Unless there's no caution.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I mean, I see what they're saying.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, it's weird.

[TJ Majors]

That is weird.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I kind of like the idea of just, you know, I wouldn't put it so close to the stage.

[Travis]

Yeah, that number could be changed.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I wouldn't. I wouldn't put this anywhere near where you're going to give the points away. Right. And so if there's a. If you're going to give points away after. Honestly, man, if you're. You could move those points to anywhere you wanted. So, like, if it's a. What was that race? 200 and something.

[TJ Majors]

67 ish. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You could move the points to 100, 200, then 267. And then you could say, okay, you're going to get your points at a lap. 100. Everybody's getting paid some points here. Have some fun. Drop the green, run 75 laps. If no caution comes out, poop caution.

[TJ Majors]

I don't mind that because natural yellow resets. How it's set up now is you have a shorter stage. Shorter stage than the longest at the end. I don't mind having a long one in the beginning. Like 100 lapper.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, we don't know.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I know. Same.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not a long stage because it's no caution. There's no caution for it.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. Which I'm fine. I mean, I'd rather keep running.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That would be the. That would be the other thing. This is so confusing. Everybody probably listen. That would be the other thing is to TJ's point, the long, the finish, the. That. That rule of throwing a caution every 75 laps has to go away at some point. So that you do not throw the yellow inside of, you know, 50 or 25 laps to go. You could say, all right, if we're, you know, if a cop, you know.

[Travis]

Your last stage caution yellow that you're.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Going to throw is that lap competition yellow. I didn't call it a stage caution anymore at that point. Competition, competition.

[TJ Majors]

Because it's not, you're not in the stage with it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, yeah, I don't mind it at all. I think it's fine. The industry, or I'd say this, the networks want yellows so that they can go to break.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, the plan stuff makes it easier for them.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Stuff makes it easier. And that's a. Yeah, it's a part of it.

[TJ Majors]

I definitely think there might be something to do. A good place to start with this might be somewhere like a plate race, like a super speedway where you just don't stop, don't throw the yellow.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But you know there'll be some yellows because you got this lap clock.

[TJ Majors]

Well, if you're going to run that, I'm just saying right now, if you were to go to Daytona next and just say, hey, we're just not going to throw the yellow, does that take away some of the fuel stuff? Do you race hard the whole time more or what?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We had caution free Talladega races that were fantastic races.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, let them run.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I don't think you have to have yellows at Talladega and Daytona for it to be fun, but they still got to change the car there because you got guys sitting there running.

[TJ Majors]

Wait, it's not gonna.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You can't pull out a line because somebody's got so much drag on it. They just send you to the back.

[Travis]

Hey, tj, That's a cool new phone you got there. Where'd you get it?

[TJ Majors]

Man, I am actually loving my new phone. I joined the consumer cellular family and man, they hooked me and I could not be happier.

[Travis]

How's that been? Because recently when I was at the track, I was in and out with my service. How's it been for you, you know.

[TJ Majors]

Traveling to the track each week with the RFK 16? The, the being connected is super important and it could not have been better at the track. I am super happy I made this switch and it's so simple to do. I like this is the biggest part. I could not believe how simple it was to do. I called and it was probably about 20 minutes on the phone. Super easy to make the switch.

[Travis]

Well, you've got me sold, but now my question is how do I make the Change though, so I can move on with Consumer Cellular.

[TJ Majors]

You know, if you want to join the Consumer Cellular family, great nationwide coverage. You call their 100 US based customer service representatives in about 20 minutes. Like I said, you'll have it. You'll be set up for good. And I chose the two for sixty dollar plan. You know, they talked me through each part of the process and helped me decide what was best for me. And I know exactly what I'm paying each month, which is also great. You know, everything is no long term contracts and just so easy. And now you can get your second month free. And this is very important. With promo code DJD, taxes and third party fees will apply. So check out consumer cellular.com for more info. And remember, code DJD.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We're live for the the Ask Junior portion of the show. Xfinity WI fi is booming.

[TJ Majors]

Booming.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

NASCAR fans, you know the booming speeds when you see it. Xfinity WI Fi, well, it's booming like the roar of a NASCAR engine on race day. It's as fast as a V8 engine and reliable as an elite pit crew. TJ booming. Yeah. Xfinity WI Fi gives you the power and speed of NASCAR in your home. Choose the right plan for you, you're off to the races with the best streaming experience for NASCAR and all your favorite sports. Because Xfinity WI fi is booming. It's booming. They don't just raise the bar. They stream in overdrive. Xfinity is a proud premier partner of nascar.

[Emily]

We have a bunch of questions. This first one is from Danny, who wants to know how did the TV rehearsal go for prime?

[Travis]

Hey, Dale, you can talk about it now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right. So we were told we're not allowed to discuss this.

[Emily]

Yes, because we had a question.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

This is the port show where gates are open.

[Emily]

We wanted to do it live.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I had fun. It's a good time.

[TJ Majors]

Great. Next question.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It was, I mean, the rehearsals fun. It's easy. We go over to the NASCAR building. There's a NASCAR building. NASCAR studios now has this nice, nice, real big building over by the Concord airport. Went over there, got into a room with all the monitors. It's where they do the off, you know, it's where they'll do the CW and stuff like that. Yeah. So when they're not at the track and it's not too bad, of course, you know, you love, you love looking out the window of the booth at the racetrack and seeing crashes happening in real time. But we, we had fun and felt natural. And I think we're going to do good work.

[Emily]

So how did it work with. Did you just, like, talk the whole time, or were they, like, mimicking commercial breaks or throwing it to people and.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, we didn't throw it to anybody. We had no pit.

[Emily]

Right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, so we. But we did go to break through, things like that. It was really. It was really stripped down.

[Emily]

Next points race. It's on, you guys. It's gonna be fun.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I've never done the 600. That's a great.

[Emily]

Oh, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So that's. That's a great way to, like, get your feet back into the pool is just dive into the longest race of the year. Seriously, I'm excited.

[Emily]

Ironically, this next question is from TJ on Twitter, but it's not TJ Majors.

[TJ Majors]

I was. Because I'm not.

[Emily]

But you can submit questions if you're interested. They want to know, what was it like singing with Kenny Chesney in front of the crowd at the 3 tribute concert at Daytona?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That was so long ago. That was so long ago. I remember the weather being kind of iffy, and. But every band that showed up was not deterred due to the. You know, because of the weather. And some of these bands that were in this lineup were. Were not. You know, not. Not necessarily NASCAR fans maybe didn't really know much about dad, but, you know, they were asked to be there, and. And it. It felt like it wasn't a real concert, if that makes any sense. It kind of felt like we were just kind of throwing our own little party. Mm. But when it started, the weather started getting weird. None of those acts were like, yep, we're gonna go. We're not gonna go until it rain. You know, rain stops. Because, I mean, it is. There was electrical cords and all kinds of stuff out on. On the. On the deck getting wet and potential for shock and all those things, but everybody went forward. Let me think.

[Travis]

Do you remember the song?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Back where I come from. So 2. Kenny's a good friend. Seeing from time to time, when we get down to Key west, he might have his boat there. You know, just if you see his boat out in the marina. Hey, where you at? Running, you know, meet him at a bar. Go drink beer, have fun. Great guy, easy guy to be around. Didn't really know him back then. I was very hesitant to go up on the side of side of the stage because I don't want to get drug out there in front of everybody. I don't want to sing. That's. I don't want to sing that song or any song in Front of a crowd of people. I was scared to even go do a karaoke at a bar after six beers. Right.

[TJ Majors]

But he'll chug a beer on the jumbotron, though, no problem.

[Travis]

That's different.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's not the same. Have a choice Again, you don't have a choice. You're not looking to get on the jumbotron. Kind of the same thing. But he didn't give me a choice. He drugged me out there. And then they. You know. And we end up singing that song. And that's the way it goes. But I was. It was. I was a. I was nervous. It looked. Now I can look back 20 years and go, man, that looked fun. Boy, did you have fun. No, I was nervous. Yeah. And then the other one that maybe that. There isn't any. There might not be that much footage of. We. He came to concert in Charlotte and he would. We. We were kind of guests backstage. We're on the side of the stage, concerts going. And I'm standing there, and I'm like, don't. Don't ask me to come out there. He in between songs. Good. Come on, man. Come on. Waves me on out there. And I go out there in front of all these people, and we're standing side by side for a second, right? He's talking, hey, Dale Jr. Hey. How y' all doing? And then like a second later, I don't know where he's at. I'm standing there by myself.

[Emily]

You don't know where to go.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Or he's. He. He. He gets behind me, jumps on my back. What? Runs and jumps on my back and almost went off the stage. Like, he jumped on my back and I went forward and almost went into the pit at the front. I mean, literally, it was all I could do, every muscle in my legs, my back and my. To not fall over. And I was like, okay, I guess this is what we're doing. It was so weird. But, yeah, the other band that played. I don't know why I can't think of their name. This is bothering me. They had that song Iris.

[Travis]

Goo Goo Dolls.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, Goo Goo Dolls were there, and that was the band for me. Like, I was in alternate music and Goo Dolls or had some big hits back then. This is 01, you know, right at the back end. 01 and. Or O2 sometime around then. But they were the band that. I was like, you guys have no idea why you're here, right? You had no clue who, Dylan Hart. You never watched the lap. But I'm so glad that you're here.

[Travis]

Right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And they were the one that were like, when it was really. When the rain was real bad. They were the one that went. Went out there at the start of the weather and still performed. And I was like, man, that's cool. Because they could have been like, you know, if this. I'm gonna go to the hotel.

[TJ Majors]

They wouldn't do that. You know where they're from? Buffalo.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Really?

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So that was cool.

[Emily]

Tells you everything you need to know about them.

[TJ Majors]

Yep. They wouldn't leave on that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Now that felt cool. They were predictable bands, right? Like, it was a Dale Earnhardt tribute deal and it was. There was. There were some bands. You go, yep. That's who I would expect to be there.

[TJ Majors]

Goo Goo Dolls would not know for sure. Great band, though.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Emily]

Yes. Well, speaking of kind of, you know, no Shoes Nation, you know, the beach themes. This is from Bill. What's your favorite beach game? Aside from drinking so, like, corn.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Cornhol.

[Emily]

Spike ball.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What the hell is spike ball?

[TJ Majors]

Oh, no, you're not a spike ball guy.

[Emily]

Spike balls, like. I don't know how you describe it. Hey, this is in this question Bocce.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I really don't even care. I don't know what those are. You gotta learn. I'm gonna play games. No, no.

[TJ Majors]

The only game he plays on the beach is move the. The shade thing. When the sun moves. So you stay in the shade.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

My games. Moving my ass under the umbrellas. The sun goes across the sky.

[TJ Majors]

What do you call that thing? The shade thingy?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Umbrella.

[TJ Majors]

Shaboomi or shabam or. I don't know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's. It's an easy one Person put up shade.

[Travis]

Dale is not breaking a sweat.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Try not to.

[Emily]

You never throwing a ball or Frisbee or anything?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I do like to throw softball, baseball, any kind of pitch I do. Or football. Football's pretty fun.

[TJ Majors]

Kite if the kids are there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Sometimes I do take kites out with the kids.

[Travis]

What about a Frisbee?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Nope. Yeah, they're more annoying than anything.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, I get the. I've thrown Frisbee, but sometimes it's just like. Yeah. I don't really know how to end.

[Travis]

Up just chasing it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

If you have a football, you should never throw a Frisbee.

[Emily]

Were you a boogie boarder back in the day? Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep.

[Emily]

That was good stuff.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

You can do it now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, I'm not a boogie boarder these days. I don't really get in the water unless I got to go, oh, yeah. I set up on that beach and drink all my Beer. And I'll go down in there and get in a.

[Emily]

Cool off or.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. No, not really. I'm cool. I'm cool.

[Emily]

You do have that shade.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right.

[TJ Majors]

Beach.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Don't get me started. It's almost summer. My girls. Alice, last day of school was Thursday. Oh, and my favorite thing to do from, you know, the start of June to the end of August is load all the shit I got on my little pool cart and take it out on the beach and set it up. You know, unfortunately the. You know, the rest of the family doesn't feel that way. They want to go out there and in 30 minutes they're ready to go back to the house. And I'm like, no, this is like a four hour thing, man. I got the cooler, I got this. I've packed snacks. We got the food, we got the drinks. Yeah, Speaker, It's. We are.

[TJ Majors]

You don't need a wagon for 30 minutes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We got the toys and all this stuff. I'm like, let's go.

[Emily]

Beach is a solid two to four hours thing.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, at least.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And we are like 200ft, yards, whatever.

[Emily]

We're very close to the water. Oh, to the beach, right? Yeah. From the house.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's like.

[TJ Majors]

It couldn't be easier.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It couldn't be easier. No, couldn't be easier.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. It couldn't be easier. But more convenient.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

My family is not like an all day beach family. Can't tell you how disappointed.

[TJ Majors]

I gotta be honest though, you don't look like. You don't look like an all day beast type guy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I have. I'm just saying, listen, I have Budweiser beach chairs and umbrellas that I have saved since 2000.

[Travis]

That doesn't make me look like a beachgoer.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm just saying, like I am. I'm 25 years of preparation for my four hour beach days.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, so Budweiser, son.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm pulling out of my warehouse.

[TJ Majors]

So Budweiser sent him a bunch of free stuff.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Doesn't mean you're a beach guy that I've saved forever.

[Travis]

It sounds like you didn't use it enough.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I didn't live on a beach.

[Travis]

Because you're not a beachgoer.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What the hell are you. What are we arguing about?

[Emily]

I don't know yet. But Dale literally is saying he's a beachgoer.

[TJ Majors]

He is now. He is now. But I'm saying you don't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Look, these guys will sit here and just argue with the person that's saying anything to be arguing with them even. Even if it means Five minutes later, they flip their argument.

[TJ Majors]

I'll flip it here in a minute.

[Emily]

Okay.

[Travis]

Isn't that a good thing that we're willing to admit that we're were wrong?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

When did you do that?

[Travis]

When we were talking about Carson Hosar.

[TJ Majors]

You're speaking for yourself because I'm not admitting that. I am not admitting that.

[Emily]

You just admitted that you were going.

[Travis]

To flip TJ Carson host.

[TJ Majors]

But I'm not wrong.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We need a talking to everybody in the chat.

[Emily]

We need community notes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We need dirty Mo Media to put out a post. My man's going to do it right here. Beach.

[Emily]

That's it. That's the tweet.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Beach. Beach day. Right? Beach day. Is this 30 minutes or is this four hours? You get to pick. No, in between. You're going to the beach. Are you out there for four hours or is this a 30 minute trip? Let's see what the answer is.

[Travis]

Gonna be a landslide. Four hours.

[Emily]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't want to feel like I'm.

[Emily]

Because to your point, why would you pack going to the beach? That's such an effort.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Amy. Amy's like, we don't need to pack all this. We're not gonna be out there that long. I'm like, we're not. Damn it.

[TJ Majors]

I know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What day are we going to go out there and be out there?

[TJ Majors]

He's right. He's got this wagon and he's got so much in his wagon, they can.

[Emily]

Go to and from the house.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right.

[Emily]

So it's pretty easy.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, but he's not.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, he's saying, dude, I'm sitting down and I ain't moving.

[TJ Majors]

I know, I agree. I mean, if we go to the beat, we're. We're sitting under that shade for hours.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I like to sit there and judge everybody else.

[TJ Majors]

Yes. Layout, run that battery dead in your speaker.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What they got?

[Emily]

All right, good stuff. So beach game following this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm pumped, though. Y' all got me excited for summer.

[Emily]

Oh, it's here.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

This year's summer is gonna be awesome. Yeah.

[Emily]

Hell yeah, it is.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was talking to Al on the way to school today about how badass the last day of school was. Her last day of school was Thursday and she's just now into the school thing. This is. She's a first grader and I'm like, man, she's so sad. She's like, I don't want to go to school. I'm like, you got two days, then you're done for the summer. And the last day of school is the best.

[Emily]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, that's like, this is the second to last day. You probably ain't got to do any hard stuff today.

[TJ Majors]

No, the last week is nothing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, everybody's happy on the last day of school. She's like, really? I'm like. She's like, when you were in school, I was like, yeah, we were happy. She's like, ninth grade. I was like, every grade. All the grades, we were happy. Last day of school. All the kids. Everybody in school. School was happy. She was like, really? I'm like, yeah, it's last day of school. Off for summer. Have you not seen Greece?

[TJ Majors]

Oh, boy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's how it should. That's how it is. Remember everybody coming out, running out of school, and then there's a carnival at the school. It's like, what is going on?

[TJ Majors]

Celebration.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What is. What school is this?

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But that was imprinted in my mind. The last day of school is what it's like. Is what it's. That's what it's like. Y' all remember that? You've never. I'm too old. Yeah, you haven't seen. Yeah, y' all gotta watch this.

[Travis]

You can call him kid.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's a great movie. We're not getting too many questions today.

[Emily]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Sorry, everybody.

[Travis]

Quality over quantity.

[Emily]

Well, yeah, but the YouTube chat, they are.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, we're just running our mouths.

[Emily]

Tara says, huh?

[TJ Majors]

Greece is the word.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Sorry, that's.

[Emily]

Greece is the word. Oh, yeah. Martha from Miami commented that exact thing. Greece is the word.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

One world, one goal says that, too. Yeah.

[Emily]

No, that is Martha Miami.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Sorry.

[Emily]

She's the best. Let's go to a question from Facebook. Kevin wants to know, how do most drivers.

[TJ Majors]

What?

[Travis]

No, no, no.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was reading these comments from about Greece. It's awesome. What a fantastic movie. You need to see it. I do have to watch it, honestly. I think you'll love it. Yeah, you will love it. Okay. Yep.

[Emily]

All right. It's on my list.

[TJ Majors]

Maybe.

[Emily]

This question's from Kevin. How do most drivers decompress after a race?

[TJ Majors]

Everybody's different.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Everybody's different.

[Emily]

How did you do it, then?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I drank.

[TJ Majors]

Hell, yeah.

[Emily]

That's what we figured the answer out.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Of hell for how much. I talk about drinking beer and. And all that, but I know that it's probably annoying to some people, but my. I was full of adrenaline after a race, and I just was like, so my weekend was working. I didn't have a weekend. Really. Like, everybody, you know, works. You know, works during the week. And then Sunday was Friday night. Yeah, you're like, Saturday and Sunday I got off. I'm gonna watch the race. I'm gonna do whatever I want, mow my yard, whatever. Right? You're gonna have fun, go fishing. I didn't really have a weekend, and so I would. We would do our, you know, work during the week and prepping for the race. Then we'd go work on the race weekend. And so as soon as the race was over, I was like, hell, yeah, I'm ready to. I'm ready to, you know, blow off some steam, race some hail. No one else was really ready to do that because you come home and everybody's like, Sunday night, getting ready for work tomorrow. Boy, we're going to take it easy. I'm worn out from my fun this weekend, but you get home and you're, like, ready to stand on the gas. And so I'd call around to some friends that were also in the industry, and they're flying home from the race, and they'd come over to the house and we'd set up till four in the morning sometimes see the sun come up. Just bull. Drinking, listening to music all Sunday night.

[TJ Majors]

Before I traveled, first time I moved down here, used to call on the way home when I lived in that little gray house with d' Neal, and he'd call on the way home, and we, like. It was Sunday night, drink and hang out.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like, that was like, Friday, Sunday night, you know, was the whole Friday, Saturday, Sunday weekend smashed into like six hours, you know, and then you'd get up Monday and have to, you know, you know, shake off a hangover and get back to the routine.

[Travis]

What we like, though, when you're, like, the traveling, were you already starting to, like, immediately after the race? Like, are you need a moment to get over a race or what?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, like, if I finished bad. If I finished bad, I was mad until the next race. Like, I wanted the. I wanted. If I finished bad, I wanted to start the next race immediately. The neck. As soon as I got out of that car, I wanted to start the next race, to be able to try to redeem myself and get myself happy again. It was like a. It was like your own personal sad. Your own personal happiness, your own personal depression. Like, if you ran bad, you were in a depressed state until you got a chance to change that by another result. And so you might go weeks where you're just, like, in the worst place mentally because of how things are going in your professional life. And when you had a great race, you rode that high until the next race, and you're like, all right, now we got to have another great race. And you lived race to race. To race. Emotionally, you know, I don't know that every driver does that. Some people look at it. Some people look at the. You know, their lives or their existence in a broader sense. You know, and it depends.

[Travis]

If you've got, you know, wife, kids, all that changes everything.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Back then, I really didn't have any. Anything else but my professional.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Stuff. And so I rode every emotion dependent upon how that last lap went in the car. Right. And kind of a way to do it, but I didn't.

[TJ Majors]

You know, it's tough mentally.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was built.

[TJ Majors]

It's tough mentally when things don't go good for a while. I mean, it's very tough.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Like, very tough.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Thank you, Xfinity, for bringing us today's Ask Junior segment. Be sure to check out Xfinity WI Fi and experience the booming speeds for yourself. Their WI Fi service is fast, and for NASCAR fans, we know you love fast. Xfinity WI Fi is not just fast, it is booming. That's their new slogan.

[TJ Majors]

Booming.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Booming. Choose the right plan for you, and you're off to the races with the best streaming experience in NASCAR and all your favorite sports. Because Xfinity WI Fi is booming. They just don't raise the bar. They stream in overdrive. Xfinity, the proud premier partner of nascar. Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Place your bets. All right, it's time for Dirty Modo, and joining us is the professor joined us last week. Russell, thanks for tuning in. Also, Tampa Timms is here. This segment of Dirty Modo is brought to you by FanDuel. FanDuel's kick ass. That's not their slogan, but I just say. I like to say. I like say stuff. Say stuff like that. You know what else is kick ass? Car store. The car store. We have Tampa Tims and. And we got to talk about some of the bets you made. You cashed a bet, Barry over Keselowski. Boy, you bet you were nervous about that for a while.

[Russell]

Oh, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Till that left rear tire exploded going into turn one.

[Russell]

Appreciate it, T.J. thank you.

[TJ Majors]

Did you celebrate on that?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I did.

[Russell]

Just a, you know, minor fist pump.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You took a loss on the Denny Hamlin for top five.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep.

[Russell]

That sucks.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And then Justin Haley, top ten at plus 1100.

[Russell]

Yeah, he was around there kind of all day. He was close.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. And, Russ, you warned us about betting on 23 11. Man, were you right. Struggle for those.

[TJ Majors]

I thought they would run better.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What a struggle.

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah, they were right outside the top 10 all day.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, what bet did I have? I had a top 10 parlay and it cashed.

[Russell]

It was Barry Bowman and Busher.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Who's the man? Everybody. Everybody. Throw your money in there.

[Russell]

I'm not gonna lie.

[TJ Majors]

It's the first thing I thought about. Party time.

[Russell]

Oh, my God.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, dude, I'm happy for everybody. I can't bet this. Everybody else gets to win. Yay. Who here tailed my awesome idea?

[Russell]

I would never. But now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No one. No one.

[Travis]

I know it.

[Russell]

I want to see if anybody did.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Why would the guy who's done this all his life know anything about this?

[Russell]

You last week had Stenhouse, Eric Jones.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And somebody else said, we're trying to make money. All right.

[TJ Majors]

Hey, hey. All right.

[Russell]

Congratulations.

[Travis]

Damn.

[TJ Majors]

I reluctantly.

[Russell]

Yeah, I reluctantly.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

To know there's got to be a person that somebody did it.

[Russell]

Someone tweeted us. Please see the cash.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right. This weekend, it's All Star Race. The lines aren't out yet. It's hard to handicap field because it's, you know, it's a new track, relatively. We're not really sure what we're going to get. Logano went there and destroyed the field last year. Some great racing back in the pack, but Logano had the whole field covered for the most part. Who. Yeah. What do you. How do you play this? How do you even. How do you even have fun with this? What are the fun things to do? Obviously, I'm bored to death by betting a pure favorite, so let's find something fun.

[Russell]

I don't. With no odds, it's tough to know, but I think I'm just gonna hammer Josh Berry and have fun. I mean, he's probably not going to be one of the favorites.

[TJ Majors]

He's. Oh, man.

[Russell]

Tour track guy. He's got some speed this year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

His numbers will be preferable.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

To making a bet. Yeah. Okay.

[Russell]

What do you think, Russ?

[Tampa Tim]

I. I struggle with that one. He hasn't been very good on. On the short tracks lately. He's got one top five on the short tracks in his. In his cup career, and that was with the 48 team back at Richmond.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, tell us who. Tell us what you're leaning toward.

[Tampa Tim]

Well, the favorites have to be Hendrick or Penske. Guys, they've won the last five. Larson and Logano have won five of the last nine. Logano would be. Be the number one choice for me. He's won this twice, including last year. Like you said, he dominated. He's been top 10 the last 10 all star races.

[TJ Majors]

Which.

[Tampa Tim]

That's the longest of streak of all time. Then Larson, he's won three of his last five All Star starts, but, you know, he's coming from Indy, so I don't know how much. He's not gonna get any practice or anything, so. But I think the same thing happened last year. He finished fourth, and he's won two of the last four short track races this season are in the Cup Series, so you can go with. Blaney's another guy I like to watch. Like, he's won three of the last 10 short track races. He finished fifth and sixth here in the past. And to go, he's on Penske, so I like the Penske bandwagon. And then, you know, Toyota's kind of struggle in the All Star race lately, last 2017. But I like Denny of all those guys.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's.

[Tampa Tim]

He's been first and second on the.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Short track races the last two.

[Tampa Tim]

Two short track races. He was runner up in this race last year. You know, he's had speed all year, too, so.

[TJ Majors]

But if you like the Penske guys, you can't throw Josh Baron. There's a long shot.

[Russell]

I mean, I'm saying you can, but he.

[Tampa Tim]

He just. He just hasn't performed on the show.

[TJ Majors]

Who's your long shots?

[Tampa Tim]

Well, it's not your guy I would stay away from.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I wouldn't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You didn't have to even say that. That was so unnecessary.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. Dang. Tell me something I don't know all year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, tj. Hey, you want to keep your job?

[TJ Majors]

I mean, if something can happen, it's gonna happen to us.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Obviously, you're supposed to deny that, tj.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, facts are facts.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We're gonna be good.

[TJ Majors]

We are gonna be good. But I want to know his long shots. I think Priest is a long shot. I think that's a good one.

[Tampa Tim]

Hold on, tj. How many top fives do you have in a short tracks in the next gen car, do you think, Brad?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Zero.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, one, two. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Martin. I was close.

[TJ Majors]

Martinsville.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Y' all laugh. I'm close, man.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, but I mean, we were leading Bristol when the tire blew.

[Tampa Tim]

It was actually Bristol.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, no, we're black. We finished decent at Martinsville 2, three years ago.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Jesus Christ. Where are we going? Russell, where are you going with this?

[TJ Majors]

He asked me a question.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

TJ's trying to ask you. TJ has asked you repeatedly for your underdog.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And we know you're the. You're the numbers guy. We know you're the expert.

[Tampa Tim]

I don't like any underdog where he said it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Don't bet the other dog this week. No.

[Russell]

Well, T.J. when you said Ryan Priest, I actually am weary about guys that have to qualify their way in because I don't know if they're gonna be able to. That's to the front like that.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, that's true.

[Russell]

Like, I like Butt Buck. He's had good runs here, but because he's had to qualify his way in in the open, I don't know if that's a great bet.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. Yeah. I don't. If Priest gets in, I think he's a. A good or a long shot, but.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

This race is so gimmicky. And. And the one person that shines.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How dare you.

[TJ Majors]

It's very gimmicky. And the person that shines the gimmicky races is Joey Logano. Most of the time.

[Russell]

Yeah. It's awesome.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Point gives it. You had to. You had to on the event to get to your point. I can appreciate it.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, I didn't say it was a bad event. I said it's gimmicky.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay. Gimmicky is a trigger word around. It's a.

[TJ Majors]

It's an all star race. I mean, he's a kid.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, that kid cars tour, so the other.

[Tampa Tim]

The other thing to look at is belt. They have that pit crew competition this week that's part of the qualifying, and Bell's team has won that the last two years.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're gonna. Can you bet them to win it? Three in a row is that.

[Russell]

I don't know if you can bet on that game. I don't think you can.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Why'd you bring that up then?

[TJ Majors]

Who's the hot pit cruise right now? Who came off Kansas hot?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Did y' all hear who. Who had a good parlay this weekend? I'm bringing it back. I'm gonna bring us back. All right. Why. So why would we care about Bell's pit crew? So he could qualify. Well.

[Tampa Tim]

Well, he'll qualify well. And then if it comes down to a pit stop, then. Then he's gonna have.

[Travis]

Who's been the top, like five picks.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, Joey Logano's team was fastest.

[Travis]

Last week of Kansas, but for the season. Russ, do you have that for the season?

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah. Bubba, Ty, Gibbs, Denny, then Butcher and Kyle Larson's team.

[TJ Majors]

I think Bubba's team had the fastest stop at Kansas, too.

[Travis]

Overall, Denny's team's got that new Jack maneuver to go.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, really? You'd know all about it.

[Travis]

Just saying.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, you're excited about that, aren't you? Oh, boy.

[TJ Majors]

I was cooking dinner for Denny. He told me about this new jack maneuver we're doing. It's fast.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, well, what's our. What's. What did we learn from this segment?

[Travis]

Bet the favorites.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Bet the favorites.

[Russell]

Won the pit crew challenge.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep.

[TJ Majors]

Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Bet the favorites. Bet the favorites.

[Travis]

Next week we'll have.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We'll have.

[Travis]

Be able to break a full race down, though.

[TJ Majors]

There's got to be one long shot. Just one. Can we give us one? Just one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Gave us one. Josh Berry.

[Russell]

I think you can bet top fives in this one, too. Ryan Priest wouldn't be a bad top five if he advances.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think I'm going to put Larson.

[Travis]

Oh, no.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Logano. And who else should we add to our top five parlay?

[Travis]

Nobody.

[Russell]

Blaney.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right. Larson. Yeah, I will. Because, you know, he did. No, no, Blaney. You know, Blaney kicked some ass at the. At the Clash. Had a pretty fast car. So I'm going to go Blaney, Logano, Larson for a 3, 3 car parlay.

[TJ Majors]

For their top fives, Larson, Priest, and Barry.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Dude, that's like swinging for.

[Russell]

We're betting big one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We're betting on the majority of the top five finishers to. You know. You know. Yeah, pretty. That's pretty risky.

[Russell]

It's very risky, but it's the All Star race. It's supposed to be.

[TJ Majors]

It is the All Star.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I'm gonna do that.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I ain't gonna bet. Bet a favorite for a win.

[Russell]

I'll tell you this week. How about that?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're. Oh, okay. Should have tailed it last week. You'd all be big winners.

[Russell]

I need that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, well, hey, that's. That's the end of the Dirty Mo Doe segment presented to you by FanDuel. FanDuel is the premier gaming destination in the United United States. Thank you, Russell, for coming in, gracing us with your presence. An expert analysis expert. I appreciate his honesty. He's like, yeah, no, he's straight up underdog.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, he did.

[Travis]

Yeah, he did.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, it's time for the white flag. The tear down was live after the race on Twitter and YouTube. Reacting to Larson's win. And on Monday, actions detrimental came out with Denny Hamlin. Kyle Busch was a guest on the show. It's awesome when Denny has a guest, especially somebody as dynamic as Kyle Busch. He had a lot of great things to say. Door Bumper Clear had an awesome show as well this week. Another RCR driver on on hand as guests there with Austin Dillon, Herman Schrader and Speed Street. Come out tomorrow. My interview with Aaron Plessinger also drops on Wednesday. For those who don't know who he is, he's a professional motocross racer. These dudes are wild. I can't wait to sit down with him and learn all about that sport. And Thursday is another episode of Bless yous Heart with my wife, Amy. The Dale junior Foundation's annual Wendell junior Ride raffle is underway this year. We are giving away a 2025 Chevy Tahoe that is loaded up with some of Amy and I's favorite things. We've got some hats that I have. You can't get them anywhere. They're hats that I've had made. We got a beach shade, a slushy machine, JBL speaker just to name a few. You can see a YouTube or you can see a social media video of all the things that we put in the back of this Tahoe. And I think you'll want to check that out because it's really pretty cool. But I also should mention that the foundation is going to cover all the taxes on the winner for the car and purchase a $25 raffle ticket for your chance to win. Head over to www.thedalejrfoundation.org www.thedalejrfounder.org for more information and to purchase your ticket. We'll see you tomorrow.