Race Manipulation, Lawsuits and Happy Birthday Dale

Summary

The Dale Jr. Download

Episode: Race Manipulation, Lawsuits and Happy Birthday Dale
Date: October 10, 2025
Host/Contributors: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Travis, Steve O’Donnell (NASCAR President), Denny Hamlin, Guest Female Host

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Episode Overview

This episode of The Dale Jr. Download takes a deep dive into key controversies currently swirling in NASCAR, from debates around race manipulation and playoff tactics, to the ongoing lawsuit involving NASCAR and team charters. Dale Jr. leads candid and detailed discussions with race insiders Denny Hamlin and Steve O’Donnell, blending unfiltered opinion with inside perspective. The second half lightens up with a celebration of Dale Jr.'s birthday and some lighthearted family talk.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. NASCAR Playoff Race Manipulation Debate

(01:03–06:46)

• Context:

  • Conversation arises around how much information spotters and teams can communicate to drivers about playoff scenarios during a race – referencing incidents at Martinsville and the recent Xfinity race where teams were warned for mentioning point situations. (01:03–01:52)
  • Debate on the “line” between strategic racing and race manipulation.

• Hosts’ Perspectives:

  • Dale Jr.: "I have zero problem with any spotter saying here’s a point situation. Let’s freaking especially for a playoff driver...as long as it ain’t super egregious." (02:03)
  • On policing manipulation: "You can’t police this stuff. It doesn’t bother me...as long as it don’t get to that egregious point." (03:12)
  • On gray-area calls: Compares it to “balls and strikes” in baseball—subjective, with rulings dependent on the officials’ interpretation each week. (05:00)

• Notable Quotes:

  • Dale Jr.: "If it feels like it’s...you know, I’m saying if it feels awful, it’s awful." (04:44)
  • Travis: “Kind of like the definition of porn, you know it when you see it.” (05:00)

2. Denny Hamlin’s Account of the Roval Race Strategy

(07:41–14:58)

• Denny’s Experience:

  • Recounts not being updated by his team on points, impacting tactical decisions in the final laps against Ross Chastain. Saw no point standings or positions; just raced for position as best as possible. (07:58–12:05)
  • Describes track surface challenges, how defensive lines and rubbered-up lanes forced him to think strategically about when and where to pass Chastain. (09:58–11:00)
  • Explains the mental calculus drivers do on whether to help or hinder playoff rivals. If he’d known Chastain needed his spot to advance, isn’t sure what he’d have done, but is glad the race “played out as naturally as it did.” (13:38–14:59)

• Notable Quotes:

  • Denny Hamlin: “If I would have made a decision...don’t pass the One...do you know how bad I would kick myself in the ass if the One kept me out of the final four?” (14:45)
  • “Just let it play out naturally. And in the end, that race played out as naturally as it did.” (14:59)

3. NASCAR Lawsuit and Charter System – Steve O’Donnell Interview

(17:50–28:18)

• Updates on the Lawsuit:

  • Steve O’Donnell: NASCAR is reluctant but obligated to defend themselves in a legal battle with teams over contract (not a monopoly). Emphasizes seeking mediation to “make this thing go away and get back to racing.” (18:00)
  • Discusses the stress and time sink: “I’ve spent 30% of every day working on a lawsuit versus talking to fans and getting the sport going, which is really tough.” (18:00)
  • Court-released text messages were discussed—O’Donnell clarifies his context and intent behind his quoted language, affirming his commitment to the teams’ best interests. (19:24–20:53)

• Charter System & Team Relations:

  • Many teams publicly express continued support for the charter system; O’Donnell reiterates NASCAR’s commitment, dispelling rumors that NASCAR is against charters. (21:21–22:18)
  • Mediation attempts and struggle to understand what might trigger a settlement ("Not to my knowledge" on whether further, productive all-in conversations have happened). (22:18–23:00)
  • Dale Jr. probes the need for both sides to "swallow pride" and warns litigation will likely drag for years. (24:08–25:19)
  • O’Donnell explains the original charter system’s intent: guaranteed starting spots, guaranteed income, and building long-term value for teams—which were missing before, hurting team owners’ investments. (26:27–28:18)

• Notable Quotes:

  • Steve O’Donnell: "Nobody wants to go to court from the NASCAR side. We want to concentrate on racing. And that’s all I can say." (24:43)
  • Dale Jr.: “This is a turn off. It’s hurting you and them.” (25:44)

4. Birthday Banter & Family Moments

(28:52–32:11)

• Surprise for Dale Jr.:

  • The crew surprises Dale Jr. with a High Rock bottle cake for his 51st birthday, leading to celebratory jokes, confetti, and birthday banter. (28:52–29:53)
  • Dale Jr. discusses recently shaving his beard for a dermatologist visit, leading to stories about his daughters’ reactions, including Isla crying and “hissing” at him. (30:11–32:11)

• Notable Quotes:

  • Dale Jr.: “I like having the beard because it’s like a natural Photoshop.” (31:03)
  • Travis: “It’s makeup for men.” (31:07)

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Timestamps: Important Segments

| Segment Topic | Start Time | |--------------------------------------------------|------------| | Race Manipulation Rules & Playoff Ethics | 01:03 | | Denny Hamlin on Roval and Playoff Calculus | 07:41 | | Denny’s Passing/Strategic Calculations | 09:58 | | Lawsuit & Charter System State (Steve O’Donnell) | 17:50 | | Charter System Origins & Value | 26:27 | | Dale Jr.'s Birthday/Beard/Fatherhood Stories | 28:52 |

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Memorable Moments & Quotes

• Dale Jr.: "If it feels like it's...you know, I'm saying if it feels awful, it's awful." (04:44)
• Denny Hamlin: “Do you know how bad I would kick myself in the ass if the One kept me out of the final four?” (14:45)
• Steve O’Donnell: “I’ve spent 30% of every day working on a lawsuit...we want to see this go away.” (18:00)
• Dale Jr.: “This is a turn off. It’s hurting you and them.” (25:44)
• Dale Jr.: “I like having the beard because it’s like a natural Photoshop.” (31:03)

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Tone & Takeaways

The tone is frank, conversational, and occasionally irreverent, matching Dale Jr.’s personality and the candid, insider style of the show. The hosts do not shy away from calling out the sport’s imperfections while offering genuine affection for NASCAR’s culture and fan base. Both technical and emotional realities of racing—from manipulation and legal disputes to the importance of family and tradition—are discussed with humor and humility.

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For listeners:
This episode delivers a comprehensive, inside-baseball look at current NASCAR controversies, filled with insight only drivers, executives, and lifelong sport insiders can offer. It’s rounded off with lighthearted moments that showcase the personal side of Dale Jr. and his team.

Transcript

[Travis]

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[Dale Jr.]

Hey, everybody, I'm Dylan Hart Jr. And this is the Dirty 30. The best highlights from all of our podcasts this week. 30 minutes every single Friday. The Dirty 30 coming at you. Let's get right to it. Hey, everybody, it's Dale junior Back again for another episode of the Dale junior Downloaded so Denny was unaware of the point situation. He passes Ross. This helps Logano. Gail, his crew chief, told Denny after afterwards that the team was sensitive because at Martinsville last year they had, you know, the race manipulation. So they were careful on what they were saying on the radio and I've heard, I guess on DBC they said that zillich during the Xfinity race. This his team got warned for merely mentioning what the point situation was during the race. NASCAR was like, no, no, no.

[Travis]

T.J. is that. Are you guys. Are you allowed to give.

[Steve O'Donnell]

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

[Dale Jr.]

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

[Travis]

Well, you have cars holding up a.

[Dale Jr.]

Car and I mean. Or guys coming down pit road like Just blowing their whole race just to get off the track.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Or a guy spinning out on purpose. Right. In some obvious, you know, spin gate from back in the day. That was an obvious thing. They did the detective work, the CSI got the radio calls and all that, and they added it up and said, yeah, that's. And I think everybody would agree this stuff here is just what happens.

[Travis]

Like, Denny should be allowed to make the decision.

[Dale Jr.]

He should give me the information, let me choose.

[Steve O'Donnell]

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

[Travis]

Well, then you got.

[Dale Jr.]

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

[Steve O'Donnell]

You know, so is Last year the 12, pushing the 22 at Vegas. Is that bothering me? Yeah.

[Travis]

Now, my question, and I agree with.

[Dale Jr.]

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

[Travis]

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

[Dale Jr.]

And if someone went too far, it is a judgment. There's no line. There won't be a line in this situation. It's just got. If it, you know, if it feels like it's, you know, I'm saying if it feels awful, it's awful.

[Steve O'Donnell]

Never heard that.

[Travis]

Kind of like the definition of porn, you know, when you see it.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. So, I mean, it's like, all right, was that too much now? Didn't bother me. And honestly, this is one of those Deals where I think people are going to have to just lay back and let the, whatever the person that's in charge of this. Or it's a, probably a group conversation at NASCAR when they get back on Monday and they read all the script and see what every spotter said. They all kind of probably get together with about a handful of people in the room and go, do we hate this or don't we? And we just got to live with their interpretation of was it too much? And I'm okay with that. I'm all right with it. There's no clear like way to make sure this is cut and dried and black and white. And that's fine. That's one of them situation. It's kind of like balls and strikes. Every umpire sees it differently. This will be the same way for me. Maybe sometimes they may, they may rule too leniently or maybe sometimes they may rule too aggressively. And it is what it is. Watched the game, Monday night football game last night. There was a bunch of play, you know, past interference calls don't get made.

[Steve O'Donnell]

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

[Dale Jr.]

They got ass all the time. Well, it, you know, it, it happens. The game carries on and you, you accept the result at the end of the day. Community coffee is the official coffee of Dirty Mo Media. They're a family owned, fifth grade generation roaster that's been around since 1919. That's forever. They just came out with a new great tasting coffee, first light blend as well as iced coffee K cups. First light is a bright, delicate light roast with notes of honey and brown sugar. Their iced coffee K cups are rich and refreshing and they stand up to ice so your coffee isn't watered down. Available in classic black and vanilla sweet cream.

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[Dale Jr.]

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[Steve O'Donnell]

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[Dale Jr.]

I love the way the house smells when you make coffee in the morning too. It just makes me think that, you know, breakfast is close behind.

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[Denny Hamlin]

Welcome to actions detrimental post the roval. The end of the round of 12 for the NASCAR cup series. I am Denny Hamlin. I am that guy. Again, three weeks in a row.

[Dale Jr.]

This moment in the final corner where.

[Denny Hamlin]

Ross needed one position and you were, you were that position. Yeah. I didn't know anything. Suddenly the one is like being. You can see he's slow, he's. He's fighting his car and whatnot. And at that point, again, I have no idea. Never did I get any update on what position we're in. Never did I get an update on the points, anything. So at that point, I just think this is another spot I've got to. To gain. I didn't even. I don't know where the 22 was. I didn't know if the 22 was 10 spots in front of me or 10 spots behind. No, absolutely no clue whatsoever because I didn't get that information. And in the race car, you gotta understand, it's tough. I can't even see the pylon, you know, unless it's a caution. So when we're running that last stage, green flag, green flag, green flag. And there's all these different, varying strategies. There's absolutely no way to know where this strategy netted me out. After my last green flag pit stop again, I had no idea what position we were even in. So I didn't know whether Chastain was in front of the 22 or the behind or anything. The one was slipping. I caught him with about two to go. Might have been two to go or like a lap and a half to go. I actually caught up to him and I try to make a move. Coming into the front chicane, he was trying to aggressive, you know, he didn't really aggressively block it. But what I felt like is that if I would have jammed it in there on the front stretch chicane, I risked wiping both of us out. Like, I wanted to not wreck myself nor him again. I want no parts of whatever goes on. So I'm like, he's so slow. I'm. I've got plenty of opportunities left in this for the next, you know, two miles, whatever it is, there's plenty of opportunity that I'm going to pass them. So I didn't pass them there. Then I make a move again after the front stretch, Chicane we take the white, I go into turn one, and. And you got to realize, fans, what you can't see on TV is this track. When I say it's one lane, it is one lane. There's rubber that all these tires have shredded on the inside and the outside of this one lane. You can't see it on TV. You can see it under caution when the TVs aren't going, when the cameras aren't going so fast. But I'm hesitant to dip out of line at any point because every time I did, I would get into the loose rubber and my car would take off. And so I go into turn one, I show him I'm gonna go low, and then I see that there's loose chunks of rubber all in that bottom lane. And I said, well, if I'm gonna. If I'm gonna go in there and attempt to pass them, I'm more than likely gonna just end up doing the out of them, knocking them into the terror barrier. It's fine. There's a point on the track where there is no rubber, that I'm absolutely going to pass him. And I thought that that was turn seven. You've got lots of room on the exit of turn seven to make the pass. And I thought that was the safest place for me to make a move on him. So essentially, yeah, I waited all through the infield portion of that track, just waiting to then pass him off of turn seven. And unfortunately, he never made turn seven. I think he said that he stuck it in the wrong gear. What he's saying there is he went to first gear. Most team, most cars were running second gear through turn seven on older tires, if you go to first, it will make the car turn really abruptly. Well, and in his case, since he had no rear grip when he went to first, it sheared the back. You saw it sheared the back of his car around. Left the bottom wide open for me, and I thought, well, that's the easiest pass I've made all day. So, you know, my strategy of passing him in turn seven happened, and then I don't know that he's desperate. No one told me that. Be careful. He needs your spot to get in. Why are you upset that you. You didn't have that information? There's obviously two reasons that I would want to know, right? One is, you know, if these guys are battling, it would give me a much better understanding of why, you know, you know, understanding to prepare if I'm going to attack the one. Well, I. I need to know that he's going to be really aggressive, blocking him. That, that could have been a simple message. It then allows me to say to myself, well, what. Who, who do I want to race? And it's not race manipulation if I'm trying to get the best result. For me, I got no allegiance to Ford or Chevy or Joey or Ross, but I have interest in myself winning a championship. And so I think at that point, and it is a double edged sword, I think that you can argue which one you would want to race. I think that I still go out there and I try to pass the one because I think the One has a better shot of getting to Phoenix. I think the 22 has the better shot of winning Phoenix. So I can't win Phoenix unless I get there first. Does that make any sense?

[Steve O'Donnell]

Yeah.

[Denny Hamlin]

So I, it's not a given that I want to race Ross over Joey. Ross would have a better shot of keeping me from getting to Phoenix than Joey would. In my opinion, on pace. Had I known, I probably would have thought about it and I, and I don't know what I would have done, but I certainly would have thought about it and all those things would have crossed my mind. They crossed my mind Saturday night, given this situation. What, who do I really want to advance? And I thought the same thing. Well, the devil you know or the devil you don't like. Which one could make my path to Phoenix harder? One would make the actual Phoenix race harder. That's, that's the, that's the balance that you just don't know. But I know for sure that if I, if I would have made a decision had I known and then had I made the decision, don't pass the One. Do you know how bad I would kick myself in the ass if the One kept me out of the final four? Like, I don't know that I would. My, my mental would be gone. I'd just be like, you overthought it.

[Dale Jr.]

What the hell?

[Denny Hamlin]

Don't do that. Just, just let it play out naturally. And in the end, that race played out as naturally as it did.

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[Dale Jr.]

Today. We got a great guest coming in here, Steve o' Donnell, the president of nascar. Let's talk about the lawsuit. How can we make this go away?

[Steve O'Donnell]

Oh, man.

[Dale Jr.]

So why is this not going away?

[Steve O'Donnell]

I would say. Here's what I can say. I can't get into too many details straight, but. But what I can say is we didn't bring a lawsuit. We don't want a lawsuit. I've spent 30% of every day working on a lawsuit versus talking to fans and getting the sport going, which is really tough. We filed something yesterday and we asked for the court to set up a mediation. The reason we did that is because we had a mediation in New York. I can't get into the details. We don't want to be in court. Don't get me wrong. We'll defend ourselves in the sport to no end, but we want to see this go away. So our next step was to try and get in front of a judge in Charlotte and just say, hey, what can we do here? Make this go away. That's our goal. Still not sure what the other side wants. We don't believe it's a case. That's a monopoly. We believe it's a contract dispute, which it is what it is. But, you know, our goal is to make this thing go away and get back to racing.

[Dale Jr.]

In the past month or so, a lot of, you know, everybody's been talking about discovery, discovery, all these things that might come to light. NASCAR having to open up its books and so forth. And there's been a bunch of anticipation around that. But some text messages did come out.

[Steve O'Donnell]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Did you know, I guess in the days ahead that that was going to happen.

[Steve O'Donnell]

Yeah. So let's go back to that, man. You know, I'm a big boy and not afraid to shy away from Stu stuff.

[Dale Jr.]

Right.

[Steve O'Donnell]

So this was two years of a negotiation. Right. And you know me well enough. I'm a passionate guy where my emotions on my sleeve, probably too much. Right. But in the text messages, I'll. I'll just refer to mine. What came out was the way it was presented in court was that I said f the teams. I didn't say that. I said in April. The context was if we did this deal the way it was, I felt like it would be an F to the teams. I was defending the teams to. To my boss, which was. Which was Jim France. And so that I was a little disappointing that it came out initially without the context. Hate the language I used. Right. You never want to see that out there. It is what it is. But where we are today, you know, Jim France comes In my office. And, you know, I'm like, oh, man, this isn't good.

[Dale Jr.]

You know, I'm.

[Steve O'Donnell]

I'm trying to defend the teams on this. And he said, look, I. I don't hire yes men. I hire people to tell me what they feel is right and how do we get to a good deal. So I feel like, you know, all that's out there, I knew it's out there. There's no surprises. The other side's kind of emptied their bucket of here's all our text messages. It sucks. It sucks getting deposed, but it is what it is. And I stand by the fact that, you know, I was trying to put a deal together that that worked for everybody. We made some changes since I said that before we got to the end deal, and, you know, I feel like we got to a place that other teams, you know, got their arms around.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. In the last week or two, there was a lot of teams that came out, wrote. Wrote some notes of support of the charter system. And I feel like while they didn't basically come out and say, hey, we saw a NASCAR on this whole thing, they were in support of the charter system and very in support of something, some settlement, some way for this to be to be handled. Did that move the needle at all?

[Steve O'Donnell]

So what I think that did, Dale, is it helped, you know, it's being positioned that NASCAR wants the charter system to go away. You know, Jim France, the one thing about Jim, is charter system is in place and said, I will live by whatever we signed. He had a choice. Right. He could have said, you know, we don't want charters in the future. No, we've seen the value grow for teams, which is awesome. And what we wanted to come out there, because you go to trial and we saw it written, was the charter system could be up in the air. That's not good for us. A lot of. That's a lot going on there. So I think the team saying, hey, there's a concern here, if this goes to trial, that anything could happen to the sport, including charters going away, that's a concern. And I think it's position that. Oh, no, don't worry about that. We see it as a concern. And, you know, if it goes away, it's not a. That's not a win for NASCAR that charters went away. We support charters. We got 13 teams that signed up with them.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. If you went to 2311 tomorrow and said, we're going to make them permanent, does that end this battle?

[Steve O'Donnell]

I have no idea. I mean, I.

[Dale Jr.]

How could you all not know that. How could y' all had. Y' all have been in mediation, you've had conversations. How could you not understand what might trigger real progress?

[Steve O'Donnell]

Yeah, I'm going to leave that deal. I mean, honestly, to. Look, there's been one mediation, as I've, as I've said. That's it. Was that the August that was court appointed in New York. Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

So there was no, there's been no other conversation. There's not been a time at any point in all of this where everybody's kind of been in the room or at least on the call to say, hey, is there a route?

[Steve O'Donnell]

Not to my knowledge.

[Dale Jr.]

Damn. All right. And so the mediation in August was managed by this dude from the NBA.

[Steve O'Donnell]

I'm not sure what he was, the.

[Dale Jr.]

Mediator, Some guy that's from the NBA. And you guys want a court appointed mediator?

[Steve O'Donnell]

We'd like to see. We'd like to see. We didn't get anywhere. Right. So. So we thought, hey, let's. Someone in Charlotte can help us get somewhere. Let's do that.

[Dale Jr.]

The mediation in August was very brief.

[Denny Hamlin]

Like, pretty brief.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, you, you, you walked in with.

[Steve O'Donnell]

With some terms, I think. So the way mediation works and I can't get into ton of detail, all I can say is that I think there is an understanding from both sides. Hey, what do you think?

[Denny Hamlin]

Right.

[Steve O'Donnell]

Leave. Talk to the other side. What do you think? And then is there any proposal you'd like to put forth? I think that happened and then, you know, meeting broke up. So there was a conversation between both parties briefly. But yeah, no real progress. So, you know, hopefully we can get something going because our goal is there's a.

[Dale Jr.]

The way to get you guys to settle is everybody's got to swallow pride. Everybody's got a. This has gotten personal. It's already, you know, it's very personal on both sides and the dislike is apparent. How does. You got to fix that? I suppose at some point. Because look, I mean, the. In the end, no matter what happens, if you go all the way through court, you're going to be here, NASCAR is going to be here, and they're more than likely going to be here. So I mean, you'll have to get in the sandbox at some point.

[Steve O'Donnell]

I don't disagree, but all I can say is when you get sued for something and you want a settlement with things that have nothing to do with what you sued for, it's hard to make sense of that. So that's the struggle right now. And I can tell you that listen. Willing. Able. Our folks have said. You know. And that's why we filed what we did. Nobody wants to go to court from the NASCAR side. We want to concentrate on racing. And that's. That's all I can say.

[Dale Jr.]

Well if it does go to court then there's no matter. I think both sides would appeal. It's another year. Year and a half.

[Steve O'Donnell]

Yep.

[Dale Jr.]

Do I feel like that this has been detrimental.

[Steve O'Donnell]

Thousand.

[Dale Jr.]

I would. I would compare it towards. It's not exactly the same but in terms of how it makes the fan feel I would comp it to work. You know work strikes work stoppage that we see in other sports. Those are absolutely detrimental when they're. When there aren't any games. But this. This is a turn off.

[Steve O'Donnell]

I don't disagree.

[Dale Jr.]

I know. And so. But it's. It's hurting you and them.

[Steve O'Donnell]

It is. But you know we're going to defend what we believe is right. That's all I can say is we put something in place that 13 other team owners signed up for. 13 other team owners are actually working with us right now to help grow the sport. And you know we got to defend what we think is right without.

[Dale Jr.]

When the charter system wasn't there and there wasn't a guarantee from NASCAR that this. You know. For. If I owned a charter right now. Now that the agreement's in place I'm guaranteed a certain amount of money before the charter system for the fans.

[Steve O'Donnell]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

What was I guaranteed before?

[Steve O'Donnell]

Yeah. No. I think it's a very fair question. So you look at the original. Why charter system? Right. The original reason for a charter was guaranteed starting position. And so what happened. You and I go back right. When we had 60 cars at Daytona 500 Tabasco would come in. Right. Millions of dollars sponsorship. Going home. Going home. Going home. And at the time we all thought it's okay. It's big business. NASCAR and sponsors in that was a big blow. And a lot of money left the sport from potential sponsorship. So the owners asked for permanent starting positions. Now the challenge with that if you're. If you're nascar.

[Dale Jr.]

Right.

[Steve O'Donnell]

If you just are looking purely at the fans and I don't know if you see this but fans miss the days when the Gatorade when those races made.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Steve O'Donnell]

000 people. That mattered. Right. They love 60 cars. Who's going home. Right. All that went away. That's okay. Like because we said we want guaranteed starting positions. So then the guaranteed starting positions were also okay. What money can we also guarantee as part of this? So we looked at that as well. So the original deal was, you know, guaranteed in every race and there'd be a set amount of money that you could be based on. And then the third piece was this value. So I 1000% agree. If Junior motorsports was a cup charter owner, you know, 10 years ago, 20 years ago. Right. Put your life into the sport. You said, hey, that's enough. What did you have? And that's not good. Right? You've put all kinds of Recount all kinds of things into the sport. So if he wants to get out at some point and that value is now going up, that's great. And I think that will help, you know, someone invest because they see their value going up. So those three things were the reason for charters. Those were the reasons. When we went back in, we felt like we delivered on those, and that's.

[Dale Jr.]

Where we were at.

[Steve O'Donnell]

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[Guest Female Host]

Who's that? Oh, it's somebody's birthday. I think we have a little bit of a surprise.

[Dale Jr.]

Double birds coming. Y' all have really good surprises.

[Denny Hamlin]

What is this?

[Guest Female Host]

Cue the surprise.

[Dale Jr.]

Oh, man. Is it Cole Swindell and another trip to key West?

[Guest Female Host]

Nope. 51 is a little bit more basics.

[Dale Jr.]

Look at that.

[Guest Female Host]

So High rock usually sends a cake for Ralph's birthday, and this year we've got a High Rock bottle cake. That's pretty cool.

[Dale Jr.]

That is. Thank y'.

[Steve O'Donnell]

All.

[Guest Female Host]

You're welcome.

[Dale Jr.]

Thank you and all my friends. Like all of you, I suppose y'. All. Holy moly. Was that your confetti?

[Guest Female Host]

It shot right over your.

[Travis]

It's a big cake.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Guest Female Host]

Nothing like a good jump scare for your birthday.

[Dale Jr.]

I know, right? This is fun.

[Travis]

Are you gonna take a bite out of it?

[Dale Jr.]

No. I will eat it, though.

[Travis]

We give you a fork if you want to try it right now.

[Guest Female Host]

What kind of cake is it?

[Dale Jr.]

Do we know Redville? I don't know.

[Guest Female Host]

I sure hope it's a carrot cake.

[Dale Jr.]

We'll get a piece here. When the show, at the end of the show, we shall all have. Have a piece.

[Guest Female Host]

Okay. Sounds good.

[Dale Jr.]

Just. Yeah, I've shaved my beard. I know everybody's probably Seeing that I've done that, let's just get that out of the way. I went to the. I was going to the dermatologist. I haven't been in a while, and I was going for a full body checkup, and I just said, you know what? I don't want to take any chances. I've had some. I've had some work that I had to do on some areas on my. On my temples from sun.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

In my ears. And so I wanted to make sure all that was good to go. And some. Some of that was, you know, my. Some of that stuff's kind of down on top of my beard line, but. Yeah.

[Travis]

What do the girls think of you when you're clean shaved?

[Dale Jr.]

Isla cried.

[Guest Female Host]

I warned Isla. I was like, hey, Daddy's gonna shave his beard tomorrow. And I enjoy it because I get to see the man's face. Like, when he gets that. When it gets so long you can't even see his facial expressions.

[Dale Jr.]

I don't. I like having the beard because it's like a natural Photoshop.

[Travis]

It's makeup for men.

[Steve O'Donnell]

Yeah.

[Guest Female Host]

It's make. Well, now, how fun is that for you? Like, to have this extra face you can put on.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. And then, like, you can. You can, like, make your. So, like, you can make your jawline sharper and, like, you make things disappear, you know, so it's like male Photoshop, natural Photoshop.

[Guest Female Host]

I don't know. It's getting. It gets out of hand, though. And then it's not so cute anymore.

[Dale Jr.]

I know.

[Guest Female Host]

It's just rugged. You know what I mean?

[Dale Jr.]

That's.

[Guest Female Host]

But we told the girls you were going to do it, and Isla literally was like. She knew she's seen it before and she was mad, mad that it was going to happen, mad it was mad that he was going to shave that beard off.

[Dale Jr.]

She just. I think she didn't care. She just wants to have a reaction. Just so we're. We have a reaction. Her reaction.

[Guest Female Host]

Well, maybe that's true, but she, like, full on started to cry and then she hissed at him. She liked.

[Dale Jr.]

She wanted to react, so we'd go, oh, it's okay. Oh, it's gonna be fine. It'll grow back. She wants all that attention.

[Guest Female Host]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. Yep. She's really indifferent.

[Guest Female Host]

You think?

[Steve O'Donnell]

Yep.

[Guest Female Host]

Okay.

[Dale Jr.]

That's what I would. I would bet. I would bet my. I would bet on that. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Instagram, Facebook, X and Tick Tock.

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[Denny Hamlin]

Tonight's meal Tilapia Surprise with boiled cabbage.

[Dale Jr.]

Begin cooking steps 1:50 now.

[Guest Female Host]

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