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Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I think Texas right now is starting to get into its peak. Don't change nothing, right?
TJ Majors
Guys were too. They're up the track wrecking by themselves.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Don't touch it. Don't change anything.
TJ Majors
I know.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Don't move anything, right? Leave it. It's good.
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TJ Majors
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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.
Mike Davis
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, I agree with him on this one.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So. Doesn't sound like you know what you're talking about.
TJ Majors
You haven't scratched the surface yet there, boy.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I mean, what the do you want?
Mike Davis
I. I just think the last few laps it was just like, stop every time.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You ain't. This ain't walking in and have it your way, mother. All right, let's take Burger King. Travis is like, wrap this up. They don't have no fun around here. Hey, Everybody, it's Dale Jr. Back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. It's Tuesday, it's dirty air, and TJ Majors is my co host.
TJ Majors
Ah, thanks for having me.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You just keep showing up.
TJ Majors
I do, yeah, I do.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Man, when y'all gonna get it right? What's going on with the 6 car? Y'all having some damn bad luck.
TJ Majors
Listen, if it tj. I know. Yeah. That makes two of us. I don't. I don't recall ever having a start of the. Of the year. Oh, yeah. If something's gonna happen, it.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Like, I went from thinking Brad's just about to win any minute to going, dang it.
TJ Majors
I even took a race off and we still lost a wheel and stuff. I mean, it was. Well, so I know it's not me, but. Yeah, we're trying. We'll get it right. Sometimes you don't.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The whole organization, I mean, Priest has been a bright spot.
TJ Majors
Chris has been pretty. Chris has been decent, too.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Priests has been good. Yeah, Chris. Chris is off a little, but it's just.
TJ Majors
He just had some luck.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Just bad luck. Yeah, I agree.
TJ Majors
I mean, apparently we need to. I don't know, we need to get.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
A box of cash in there or. What are you gonna do, Jobu?
TJ Majors
I mean, need something.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You bring somebody in there with the stones and the salt and all that.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
What Amy was talking about that on. Bless your heart. I don't forget what they call that. I feel like it comes in your house and.
TJ Majors
Yeah, I know what you're talking about.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Stuff out maybe changes the energy.
TJ Majors
Mm. I mean, Priest. It's like messing with Prius because Priest, like, gets. Almost wins Talladega. Then it gets thrown out, and then he's running good at Texas, too, and gets taken out.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Have an exorcist.
TJ Majors
We need something. We need to do something. I don't know, but, I mean, the cars have been fast at times and. And potentials there. We just need to put it all together.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, we already know the cars are fast. They all run the same speed. I mean, all the cars run the same speed, tj. All the cars just having bad luck.
TJ Majors
All the cars. They do, yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I mean, if I could put the six car.
TJ Majors
No, you're right.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
They 30th. 15th.
TJ Majors
Yes.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Or first. He'll run the same damn speed.
TJ Majors
Yep. Same car, same speed, all the cars.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Same speed, Same part, same cars.
TJ Majors
It's all the same, but yes, it's all the same. How's Formula One?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Hey, I went to F1. Went to my first F1 race. It was.
TJ Majors
That's disappointing. You're disappointed in Me that you finally went. Because we were gonna go. Remember? We were gonna go.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's what it is. What?
TJ Majors
I was mad you didn't go with tj. Yes. Because we were gonna go. One time. We were gonna go to Brazil.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Were we?
TJ Majors
Yes. And remember, they wouldn't let you go because they're like, wow, you get kidnapped, you know?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. Remember we were gonna have ransom insurance.
TJ Majors
And I'm like, oh, great.
Mike Davis
Nobody's kidnapping. Dj.
TJ Majors
One guy ruined it for the rest of us. The guy was going to take us. Ruined it.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Ransom insurance.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I had a good time at the F1 race. You know, Red Bull was in. Everybody knows Red Bull's in NASCAR some 13, 15 years ago. And they came in wide ass open. We were all excited. We were like, hell, yeah, NASCAR's cooler. We got a Red Bull team just like all, you know, Red Bulls everywhere.
TJ Majors
It was cool.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It was. And while we wanted to kick their ass on the racetrack, we wanted the Red Bull brand to succeed in our sport.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And for a lot of reasons, that did not happen. And so had, you know, me and Kelly been running that damn thing, maybe it'd be a little different, but just go. Put that out there. They're getting back into nascar, but they're doing it in a very. You know, they're. They're kind of dipping their toe in the water instead of just diving into the deep end, like driver stuff a little bit. Maybe they're coming in with SVG Connor Zillich. So they'll be, like, on cars here and there, helping these. They're really more behind.
TJ Majors
Slower approach.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, they're really more behind the athlete themselves.
TJ Majors
Red Bull athlete.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. Than actually owning the. The entire property or the race team. So. And it's interesting, man. It's been pretty funny. I was asked to do. So they got these Red Bull soapbox race videos all on YouTube. They've had them for a long time all over the world. They had these races staged every month all over the world. Right. And they asked me to. They want to introduce that to an American audience. So they. They're going to put a TV show together. And they asked me to be one of the analysts, and I asked them to bring bags in Mike Bagley, because he has amazing energy. And we. We had a lot of fun over a couple of days filming this TV show that's on Discovery now. You can go to Discovery Channel or the app and watch the Red Bull soapbox race with me and Bagley being the analysts. And so that's how I was kind of connected to Red Bull recently. Coincidentally, Connor Zelich drives our car and he's also a Red Bull athlete. And I took Amy. We had a lot of fun. We got to go to the Red Bull hospitality. It's out of this world first class. They build this entire three, four story structure and then they tear it down and move it to the next race. And crazy it is in the and for Hard Rock where we where the Red Bull deal was in this one turn. Hard Rock also had a beach club where they had a swimming pool and cabanas. I mean it looked like the back of, of the hotel where all the swimming pool and all that stuff is. It looked exactly like that and people were just kind of hanging out swimming in the pool, laying on their makeshift there.
TJ Majors
They built that there for that, built.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It there for that for just purpose. And the, the, the temporary structures alone like the grandstands and all of this, the pool party, the, the all the hospitalities like Red Bull. Everyone has a hospitality and they're massive build outs. All of that stuff is probably the most impressive part of it because it's temporary. It's there for the only that weekend. And then they take it all down and the property turns back into whatever stadium property. I was entertained by the race for the lead. Fortunately, Max Verstappen jumps into the lead. He's not got the fastest car. McLarens are the quickest cars there that weekend and they had to work hard to get by him. And that was really the entertainment of the race. Once the McLarens were clear of Max, there wasn't much, much going on. I mean there was some other things happening back in the pack. Hamilton was pissed off at his Ferrari and all these different things going on.
TJ Majors
But Orlando and Max had a little bit of a battle.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
They did. That part was fun too. But once Max got clear was, you know, once the McLarens were passed the, the, you know, the rest of the race was sort of, kind of what, what you might expect. But what I found interesting was so I watched, I watched the race and I see, I see the McLaren trying to put himself in position. Either either One of the McLarens were trying to put themselves into position to pass Max. And so when they get on the straightaway, right, the rear wing opens up and the cars get this incredible tow drs right and Max has got to defend it. And I'm sitting there watching it and I'm like, all right, you know, this is a pretty good run. Oh man, he's coming off this corner. He's right on his Ass. He's going to have an opportunity to go buy him and Max. What's Max going to do in the next corner to even try to defend this? And ultimately the McLarens get by. That was exciting. But what I was really taken aback by was the fans would go wild when there was even the potential of a pass. So they're going through a series of corners and there's this long straightaway where everyone knows if the McLaren is close enough to, to have DRS, he will use it and then. And make. To try to make the pass the next. And they start cheering in the corners leading up to that. Oh man, it's about to happen. That's sort of the energy. Oh my goodness. We might see a pass. And they are thrilled by this proposition or potential of a pass. And it might happen, it might not. And sometimes it doesn't. And they just go, oh. And then they wait for the next, you know, they wait for the next potential opportunity and they get rowdy before the pass happens. It's so wild. And so I was trying to think of that like, gosh, if that happened at a NASCAR race, the, it would, it would be just non stop cheering, hollering because that, because the opportunity or potential for a pass is happening so often.
TJ Majors
Yeah. Way more than formula.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Way more. Yeah. Not, not to, not, not to say one's better than the other. I just was like, wow, okay. You know, there's so few. I'm assuming, you know that battle that, that Max had with Piastri. Piastri.
TJ Majors
Yeah, yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That battle that they had was very spirited, really cool. And, and then Lando comes up and they have a, they have a battle as well.
TJ Majors
There's a rivalry there.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But it was different, right? The, the, the way that the two battles looked different and they, there was different body language. Right. And then after the race we had some comments from, from Lando that were telling about how he felt much more.
TJ Majors
Physical battle between Lando and Max.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. And so, and how each McLaren driver tried to set Max up was different. Right. And so that was kind of very, very entertaining at the Red Bull hospitality. I got to meet Max. So Max, I have one regret from that, but we had. So I was excited to meet Max. Right. This dude. I didn't know it, but saw it several. About a year or two ago that he followed me on Twitter and I'm like, oh, cool. The F1 champion of all. You know, the guy that's just kicking everyone's assim Racer. Yeah. Follows me on Twitter. That's pretty damn Badass. I was. And so. Which I have no idea why. And I've never had any interaction with the dude. But I'm a massive. I have huge respect for all of those guys now. You know, I'm a nascar, to me, is the greatest thing in the world. But I do feel like that if you get the F1, you must be one great race car driver.
TJ Majors
You've won a lot to get there.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Right. And so, you know, in my mind, Michael Schumacher, Senna, those guys are gods, you know?
TJ Majors
Yeah, for sure they are.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And. And so I have a lot of respect and hold Max to a pretty, pretty high standard. And so to be able to say hey to him was really cool. And I wanted to. I had thought to say, you know, dude, I'm a. I'm a mass. I have a big appreciation for what you do for sim racing because he's all over it. Twenty years ago, when I tried to tell my team that Sims were cool and they were helpful, or the simulator or a static rig or all that would be very important for us to pay attention to, they laughed. And now they're all spending millions of dollars. Hell, we're trying to get a static rig here at Junior Motorsports.
TJ Majors
Everybody wants.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
They laughed at us, didn't they, tj?
TJ Majors
Everybody laughed at us.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
They laughed at us. Get mad about that.
TJ Majors
Yeah, we were right.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
They laughed. We were right. And so you have, you have every right to sit here and be pissed off about how they, how they looked at us when we told. We told them we played video games.
TJ Majors
Yeah, See, we knew we were doing.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's what they would say. You just mess playing video games.
TJ Majors
That's.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
They thought when we were telling them that simulators were cool, that we were talking about Xbox and PlayStation. They had no idea.
TJ Majors
Yeah, stuff that sits in front of your tv.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. Anyhow, I wanted to tell Max, like, dude, I appreciate everything you do for the sim world. You legitimize it. He's one of the great. You know, he's. He's on the top of. He's on. He's the top at the top or near the top, depending on where you are in the fan base of the F1 world. And F1 to me, is at the top of the motorsports world. And so it's global. It's beyond global. Yeah, there's aliens out there watching F1. And so he, you know, he legitimizes iracing, let alone sim racing.
TJ Majors
He's on it all the time too. I've never raced with him, but I.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Mean, that's probably my favorite thing about the guy aside from the fact that he's amazing inside a race car and man to watch him. So I got to say hey to him. But what we talked about was the weather. I was like, man, it might rain today. You know, how do you feel about the wet? And he's like, I've been running in the rain all my life. Even when I was a little kid just playing in the yard around my streets, you know, as a kid on carts and stuff. He's like, I'm, I'm. I'm all good. If it rains, it rains. I thought for a second there afterwards, like spah. Maybe I was. Maybe I wasted my opportunity of conversation on something frivolous like something that he obviously is amazing at not saying. You know, I did want to tell him how much I appreciate him what he does for sim racing. But he. We had a. We had a charity sim race on iRacing about four months ago and he, you know, he didn't compete in it, but he did donate during the race.
TJ Majors
That's right.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He did a couple times and he was. And so we were very thankful for that.
TJ Majors
He's got a pretty successful. He's on a pretty successful, I think Sim Racing team. That red line or.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, if he's on it, I'm. It's a success.
TJ Majors
Yeah, they run all the big events too, like 24 Hour Race and Stuff so.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, pretty cool to go to F1. I was curious as to how we would talk about that because people want to know, well, did you like it better? Did you like it more? And it's just a different.
TJ Majors
I don't think that's a fair question to like it better.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
More.
TJ Majors
It's just. It's a different Storm Motorsports.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It didn't. It did not. Whatever love that I have for nascar, whatever that pie is, didn't change. It didn't change.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And I, you know, I will and I don't. And I think that that's fair. Is it an. Is it a great experience? Would I go again? Absolutely. Especially in another country. Look, I got a. I got a north. I got a, you know an American version of the, the global sport that F1 is. I would, I think my experience to go. If I were to go to Monaco or another country and see it would be even completely different.
Mike Davis
Just make sure it's a ransom free country.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
More. It would be even more epic. Right? To go.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
See it in another. To see it in its original form somewhere in Europe.
TJ Majors
Yeah. Like Italy when I like the Ferrari fans are going crazy and the smoke in the crowd and stuff.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That would be.
TJ Majors
Yeah, that.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I just got a little taste. Right. Of F1. I got the. It's kind of like, hey, man, you love sushi. Well, that's not really sushi, what they're making here in the States. You got to go pick a track.
TJ Majors
Where would you go?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You got to go to Japan to really get the real and so where.
TJ Majors
Would you go, though? If you could go spa, I mean, spa would be a good spot.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Would be badass.
TJ Majors
Spot would be really good.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Probably. Yeah. Spot.
TJ Majors
Probably Monza or spa would probably be my top.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I'm with you. Any of those would be awesome. The Xfinity race. Connor Zillich has a back injury. He should be able to return for Charlotte. That's the hope. They got two weeks off. People are going to be like, wow, you know, he's going to be back that quickly. Back injury, you know, all right. You know, it's enough of an injury for him to not compete for Texas, but, wow, he's going to be back at Charlotte. I mean, that's my reaction to it. But knowing what I know about the injury, he absolutely needed to sit out this race. He has a long career in front of him.
TJ Majors
Exactly.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
This is not that significant in the grand scheme of things. Absolutely need to take time to allow this to heal. When the doctors feel like he's ready, he'll be ready. They're saying it could be Charlotte.
TJ Majors
And NASCAR works with you on that as well as far as the waivers and stuff, you know, for your injuries. You don't want to mess with a back injury, man.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's right. When I got the. When I got the call or I got a call that, hey, man, Connor Zillich's backs messed up. Because I talked to Connor after the race, and he's like, I'm fine. Just soar. And then a couple days later, they're like, hey, Connor, you might not be able to race this weekend. And I was like, all right, call Larson. And so Larson had called us before and said, if y'all ever have a chance to, you know, he's. He's shown interest in driving our cars, and if we ever had an opening. And my. My. My. My. My team was like, well, we're gonna. We. We're working with Trackhouse. Let's see if Chastain can do it. I said, all right. So we had this relationship with track house Chastain, svg, Connor Zillich, all of that is a. Is a track house, you know, partnership Partnership. Yeah, yeah. The partner sponsors and all that stuff.
TJ Majors
A lot involved, matches up.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, Chastain can't do it because he would then exceed his. His limit of races that you can that a Cup.
TJ Majors
He has more races coming up.
Mike Davis
He's already got five on the books.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's right.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So back to Larson we go. And of course, Larson was like, yep, I'm in. He'll do it. He'll do anything. He'll race. He'll race anything. He's like, race more. You got it. And the funny thing about that was, is we were just on this show a couple weeks ago going after. He said he wanted to embarrass the field, which we are part of the field. We took offense. We said, hey, sign up for a couple more. Yeah.
Mike Davis
You wanted a shot at him.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. I mean, if you go, say that, give me all the opportunity in the world to try to get. Get you. And he's like, ah, no, don't have any more and no race plans at this time. Well, then the. The universe heard all that and said, let me show y'all something.
TJ Majors
Yeah, hold on a second.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, hold my beer. And that's how the universe works, man. And so there I was with. With Kyle Larson, who's nearly an automatic win plugged into your car, and now he's gonna go try to embarrass the field in our car. And I told him, all right, now I feel a little bit different. I texted him, I said, I feel a little bit different about this now. Yeah, when he's driving your car, it's great.
TJ Majors
Oh, I'm sure.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. I don't know about everybody else, but I love that 88 car. Back on the racetrack in the Cup Series with SVG behind the wheel and Safety Culture as a partner with. With him and the race team. You've seen the safety culture paint scheme. It's pretty good. Bright, colorful, and easy to see on the race track. And the 88 on the side looks great too. Safety culture is purpose built for 80% of the blue collar workforce. The people that are out there working hard every day. From factories to stores, even race shops like Trackhouse Racing, every detail is tracked and everyone has full visibility to make sure that nothing gets missed, because the workers on the ground, they know what is happening the best. Safety culture makes it easy to share those insights, giving visibility to other departments all in real time. This means you and your team get the job done faster. You make better decisions and constantly find ways to improve so you can spend your time where it counts. If you want to see how I can help put your business on the pole position. Head to safetyculture.com SV VG what's up everyone?
TJ Majors
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Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I was also very happy to see our old number seven, Justin Allgaier making it as hard as he could for old Larson. You know, they had a really spirited battle. Larson actually got loose underneath him.
TJ Majors
Oh yeah. That was almost a why are you in my car?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, like what are we doing?
TJ Majors
That would have changed your mind.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, you know, guys racing hard, that kind of stuff.
TJ Majors
He did a really good job of staying out. Justin right there.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, he didn't.
TJ Majors
Well, I mean from wrecking him basically.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But Justin did a good job saving it. Yeah, Justin had a really good car and you know that that was going to be a. Justin was in a car that had a chance to win. And with all the chaos that happened late in the race and how it got challenging for even Larson to pull the win off, you know, Justin could have been Right in the middle, all that, with a chance to seize an opportunity. And he ran into the back of Chris Wright coming through turns three and four. Oh, man. I. I've been. You know, I've been seeing all this guy's been getting about, you know, how. How, you know, some of the. I guess some people feeling like he's made a ton of mistakes and been a problem on the racetrack. But, you know, I don't. I'm a. I think that. I hate that our car was involved in that accident. I hate that it ruined Justin's chance at a. At a good finish. But I prefer a NASCAR where there are slow cars, inexperienced drivers.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Challenges, problems, potential issues, moving chicanes, whatever you want to call them. When I think about the, you know, the. My favorite eras of the sport or. Or some of my favorite races or what. When I was so in love with this, it had all of those imperfections. And we. I. We can all. You know, we will. As we move forward. Right. In year after year after year, I will sit at this table, and all of us, we will all talk and complain about who belongs out there, who doesn't, who deserves that ride, who doesn't, who should be in this car.
TJ Majors
That'll never end.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That'll never end. And it shouldn't. It's great that we can have those conversations.
TJ Majors
That's part of the fuel, and I.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Kind of prefer it. Now, the alternative isn't bad either, right? Having. Having. You know, having 40 car. Kyle Larson's out there. Yeah. That'd probably be pretty entertaining, too.
Mike Davis
But being eight laps down or whatever it was, and significantly off the pace, where you're potentially not even at significantly off the pace.
TJ Majors
There's. There's a minimum roll.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, that's a.
TJ Majors
He was meeting it.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's a whole nother conversation, too. So listen, I'll take you there, all right? I'll give you your chance. All right? I do not mind an inexperienced driver that's probably way over his head. Getting opportunities at the truck and Xfinity level. And there will be races where drivers make really bad choices in slow cars. So. And I think that that is just one of the many ingredients that make our sport interesting and intriguing and make a race.
TJ Majors
It's a story.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Interesting. Look, if he don't. If. If he. If. If our car doesn't run into Chris, I got no problem at all. Only. Only reason why I'm even a bit upset about it is because it was our guy that got involved in it. But, you know, I don't there's been. For years, there's been slow independence out there, grinding it away on the racetrack. They always knew where to be. You know, that's something this guy needs to figure out is like, hey man, where do I. Where am I supposed to go to get. To give the other guys the best chance to get around me? He didn't choose this properly at this particular point. Hopefully next time he does. A lot of other people got around him just fine, but we had all.
TJ Majors
Passed him numerous times.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But I'm not going to give the guy a ton of. What I can say is, and I've had this problem for a long time back even when I was way early in my own driving career. The minimum speed rule is not worth anything. The minimum speed rule is egregiously lenient.
TJ Majors
It's pretty slow.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It's ridiculous. I don't like using the word joke because I don't like. That's a hot take trigger word that just. It's insulting a bit when you use it to talking about the governing body and things that we're doing in the sport. I hate using that word. And so I hesitate to use it. The minimum speed rule. And if you look at what minimum speed is at all these racetracks, it is ridiculous. It is ridiculous and it should admit the. It should be a much more tougher thing to achieve. And so, you know, it's not as.
TJ Majors
Noticeable at some tracks other than others. Texas, it's really noticeable because the grooves are narrow and you don't have a lot of room to escape. If you go to somewhere like Kansas and you got. You catch a slow car, they run the bottom. You go five lanes above him and it's not an issue.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He wanted to, he wanted to bring up the point about the guy being eight laps down and being slow. Well, that's a minimum speed. That's a, That's a minimum speed issue for me.
Mike Davis
That's why I think NASCAR needs to get look into that.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, well, that's. I don't know why it's always been so forgiving. I remember sitting in the driver's meeting and hearing the minimum speed during the driver's meeting and going, what are we doing? Like, that is terrible.
TJ Majors
84 miles an hour.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And so it's just. I don't know that that would be. You know, there are ways for them. I get, you know, if NASCAR really wanted to try to make it more, you know, if NASCAR tried to want to force these guys to like tidy it up a little bit, they could do it in the Bump it up a little bit. They could do it with minimum speed and a few other things. I do not know. You know, there are. There is also the conversation around, you know, should you have to achieve certain things. Right. To get to a certain point, should you have, you know, should master this before you move on to that and master that before we move on to that or do you just need a certain amount of starts at certain racetrack? That stuff was also comes with. It was with its own set of problems. Right. And you would have, for example, like you would have somebody who might win the national championship in the grassroots Winston racing series, late model, you know, whatever you want to call that right now. It's the evidence auto parts weekly series. But you could have a guy that wins the national championship as many times as you want. Obviously a very good race car driver. Talented. And he can't go race at Daytona because he's not cleared and doesn't have a mile and a half start or something like that right there were he.
TJ Majors
Didn'T go to the next level.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. And that to me is problematic. Oh, he can't race in the truck race before he starts an ARCA race or he can't run the Xfinity before he runs in our. You know, I remember when we took Landon Castle to Daytona and we had to spend money racing him in ARCA because he wasn't cleared to start in the Daytona. This guy was a great race car driver that was plenty capable of going and running the Xfinity race at Daytona. But they wouldn't let us do it unless we. Unless he had this other start under his belt. So we had to go spend, you know, 25 to $50,000 that we didn't need to spend unnecessarily to run in an ARCA race. That was annoying as. And I've done that with, you know, we've ran into that sort of hurdle too with. With other drivers having to race them in the. In a meaningless. In our opinion, right. In his career, a meaningless race at either the truck or ARCA level to get him cleared to go run this Xfinity race. And it's like this dude is well beyond qualified, comparable to other people that are in the field. But we've got to go spend 25, $50,000 unnecessarily to just get in this 25th place truck and go run around and. Yeah, I don't know. That's. That's a whole. Whole nother conversation.
TJ Majors
Yeah, that's similar to Formula 1. They had the license that you had to achieve.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
There is a way. I think there's a perfectly middle ground. Right to system. System. Yeah. And you know.
Mike Davis
Yeah, I don't think it's black and white for approval. It should be case by case you present why your person's qualified to race.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I think I could get behind that. Honestly, I feel like that maybe it should be a driver council sort of thing where the drivers approve you. And that's kind of what it used to be like when you go to Darlington. Hell, even AJ Foy had to go through rookie. Rookie orientation at Darlington back in the. Back in the.
TJ Majors
Early AJ Foy going through rookie orientation.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Back in the late 70s, early 80s or something. Like I forget. I remember that being a thing. He had a rookie stripe on his car and everything. But at Darlington, the Cup drivers would sit in on that orientation, watching these rookies run laps and they would be the ones that would say, yep, he's ready. Nope, he's not ready.
TJ Majors
That's interesting.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. I mean, why. That's another. The best thing NASCAR could do in any situation is put the responsibility on someone else. And so here's a great.
TJ Majors
Especially guys they are racing with because.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
NASCAR is the one that catches all the. Well, you approve this guy and you're letting her race or him race and not this guy, not that girl. And yeah, why. You know, and then. So it's a. Nascar, NASCAR is catching all this. Just put it in the driver's hands and say here, drivers, you guys get.
TJ Majors
You guys say is good, it's on you.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, that would be the way. That's what I would do. Yeah. And so because there's. There's a lot of conversation around, you know, that particular thing right now with different drivers this year trying to come in and race and, and a lot of arguments over their. Their qualifications and so forth and leave it to the. Let the drivers be the ones to sort of determine if they feel comfortable allowing someone to be out there with them. And then the fans really can't. How. If. If you're a fan, could you then complain? Well, the drivers approved or the ones out of there out there racing with him or her are the ones that have said they're good with it, then.
TJ Majors
How can they not be?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Right. That's the way I would do it.
TJ Majors
I think it's worth noting with Justin, Justin's interview, I don't know if you saw it or not.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I heard it was good.
TJ Majors
Justin did a great interview.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
What did he say?
TJ Majors
It just that it was kind of. He never blamed Chris. Just. I watched the whole situation unfold there. Justin got jumped on pit road by Kyle. Justin was leading. Kyle pitted a couple last for him. Justin runs a couple last longer, comes out behind him. So Justin is on kill. He's trying to catch him. And I watched this whole thing unfold and Justin was just trying to get there and try because he knew he had a few laps to get Kyle with the new tires and then it was going to get really hard.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
And Justin's interview, man, he, he just took. I don't think he didn't blame Chris, just kind of. He explained the situation kind of like that and the severe, you know, how he was amped up, like he was trying to go. And one of the better interview I've seen Justin do.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. So there was also that. I mean, wasn't. Wasn't Chris out there on old tires, Justin on new tires?
TJ Majors
Yeah, Justin had just pitted.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Right. So, you know, I've seen some of the best cup drivers in the garage run over each other at Darlington because of the, you know, because.
TJ Majors
Oh, for sure.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Because of the tire difference. One coming off, you know, one coming back on the track under green flag pit stops. I remember Michael Waltrip and Jeff Gordon arguing over, over, you know, something or Daryl and Oh, Darryl, there's an interview where Daryl Walter West West Western Auto. Darrell Waltrip is pissed, I think at Jeff Gordon because Jeff run over him when he was on old tires or something. And Jeff and Daryl gives this interview in the garage after the, after the accident about that. And I mean, you know, that's two veterans. Yeah.
TJ Majors
And that's also something to note like you. That's a good point. One car is on old tires, one cars on new tires. I mean that no matter what your minimum speed is, there's going to be a huge difference. That's. As a spotter like Darlington, like you just mentioned. That's one of the hardest things when you're running long and you got cars with tires coming. You're spotting from so far back that it's hard.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. They're going to get there fast.
TJ Majors
Yep.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I had a really good morning Saturday. Had a birthday party for Isla. Turned seven this week.
TJ Majors
Big party.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Big party. Yeah. We had 24 little ones out there having a lot of fun.
Mike Davis
Sounds riveting.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It was awesome.
TJ Majors
Yeah, it is a lot of fun.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Good food.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The dads and all of us were sitting around and drinking. So maybe you enjoyed it. Okay. There was something for everybody.
Mike Davis
All right.
TJ Majors
It is really fun.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
It's almost a dad hang. It was.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
We had Our. Yeah. So that was great. Then the. Then the. Then. Then the Xfinity race, and I think the 8 ran into something early.
TJ Majors
Early, early. Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He soldiered on to a top 10. The one ran into the grass like I did in 2014.
TJ Majors
Not quite as bad.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, ruined his day. It happens. Don't like it. Should they move the grass? No, thank you. Don't move the grass.
TJ Majors
I don't think so, either.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Don't put. Yeah, you don't need to even put this. You just don't even need to change the grass.
TJ Majors
Just so you know, to defend Carson, he followed a car through it so that it wasn't like he just drove through it. He was following a car.
Mike Davis
If your friend jumps off a bridge, are you gonna jump off a bridge?
TJ Majors
First time on the bridge. You know how far down it is?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I. I'll say this. The way I saw that is he was comparable to the other cars. We can argue that all day long. I don't really think we need to waste time on it. But he did what. I'm not. Look, I did, too, but he absolutely drove his ass into the grass, and he is the one responsible for that. There is no. Oh, well, you know, that car. This and that. Another. He got to know where the grass is. So don't move. Don't move the grass. Don't change the grass. Go around the grass. Justin gets wrecked. So Larson saves the day, wins the race, which we hoped he would. Otherwise, it was a rough day. I'm going to have a beer toast, and we're going to celebrate Kyle Larson kicking ass and Junior Motorsports winning. But I am disappointed, mostly disappointed with that race for us. Have you ever. You ever tried to put yourselves in my shoes? Do you know what it's like to.
TJ Majors
Go to Formula one races?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Do you know what it's like to put four cars on the racetrack and one of them win and the other three have days? Is that it's like mental gymnastics, emotional gymnastics.
Mike Davis
I don't. But I don't have to. I'm not in your. I never put myself in your shoes. Because that's not my problem.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
Mike Davis
As long as I have a beer toast, I'm happy.
TJ Majors
Yeah. I'm just trying to see the second stage of these races nowadays.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I mean, nor the other three problems.
Mike Davis
I mean, I'm not happy with it, but I can move past it real fast.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I can't.
TJ Majors
He doesn't care either way.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I can't because. I can't.
Mike Davis
Because you're the owner.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I can. I can. I can Move past Justin because Justin's won a championship. He's going to win races. Justin is fine.
TJ Majors
He's established.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He's established Carson has to win. Carson's future is not guaranteed. I think we can all agree that he's. He's got potential and there's. There's something there. And if the right things happen the right way, that he could have a 20, 20 year career, but it easily could go the opposite way. And these races are. These opportunities are, you know, frustrating.
TJ Majors
Stepping stones.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. These are the opportunities that are just not. We're just not. We saw last year, you know, in the few races that Carson ran, hell, he almost won Dover sitting in position. He run top five in every damn race. Almost Michigan.
TJ Majors
Almost won Michigan.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He would run top three if he didn't get wrecked. Yeah, he got his ass wrecked in that race by some idiot. But the, The. So we're going into the season going, man, there's real potential here. Let's get some wins. Let's lock in some support to continue to do this, right? Well, we got to get. We got to get them runs that we got to run good. There's a lot of pressure.
Mike Davis
Yeah, but it's not like he's still racing well and you look at who's won, it's like it's not.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's not going to.
Mike Davis
It doesn't make you feel better, but.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
No, no, no, that's not going to secure his future.
Mike Davis
Oh, I know, right?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I mean, he's. He's got to. We got to get. And Connor Zillich, right, He's. Connor Zillich has a pay, a Runway in front of him, a plan. Right. He's got trackhouse support. Everybody in this, Everybody in this industry thinks that. Golly, dude, this guy's incredible with the road courses. He figures the ovals out. It's. It'll be in. It'll be wildly, you know, popular. What he will be able to do going forward. So there's. There's a. He has. Connor has that machine behind him that Expect that excitement, that. That momentum. Right? And so Carson on the other. On the other hand, needs. Needs to get the runs and the finishes to be able to get that same excitement and momentum behind him.
Mike Davis
I mean, outside of the wins, he is getting the finishes, though, is he not?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I know we're early in the season and I tell him, I'm like, man, I did that. Texas. Put it out of your mind. Go to Charlotte, win the race. Everything's great.
Mike Davis
Are you worried that this could put more pressure on him, though.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Like, there's a lot of pressure on him already. Yeah, he is under tons of pressure.
Mike Davis
That's what I'm saying. And now you're sitting here saying, like, you need the results. Well, he's sixth in the Big Boy.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
What do you want me to do, lie?
Mike Davis
I'm just asking the question.
TJ Majors
I think Connor's.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Why are you so soft?
TJ Majors
I think Carson's having a great year. I think Carson's having.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Really successful.
Mike Davis
That's what I'm saying.
TJ Majors
I know we've been caught up in a lot of stuff.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I think his year's great.
Mike Davis
He's six in points. And look who the winners are. Kyle Larson's won twice. Allgire's won twice. Eric Amarol has won. Like, where is he supposed to get the win at?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I don't. Next week.
Mike Davis
Okay. But, like, I don't. Like, he's not racing bad. He just hasn't gotten the.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He's not racing bad. I didn't say he's racing bad.
Mike Davis
That's what you make it sound like.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Ran into the grass.
TJ Majors
He is. He is way more strict on. Yeah, like, he's strict on him, and.
Mike Davis
I'm okay with that.
TJ Majors
Yeah, it's fine. Yeah, it's good. It's a good thing.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I was the same way with Josh.
TJ Majors
Exactly. Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And. And Josh would tell you that. He's like, you're. You're.
TJ Majors
Josh panned out pretty good.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, Josh is amazing. And I. I believe in. I believe Josh Berry. He's out there. You know, I know he busted his ass in the. In the cup race, but he's out there leading the race in the 21 car, doing everything that we. Doing everything that we, me and him and anyone else in his little circle believe he could do. And, man, I see a world where that would have never even been possible. Like, you know, that. That whole. That whole split with the. Or the whole SHR thing and how badly he ran at the end of last year, he could be out of the sport entirely in another universe. Right. And we would never get to see him go win Vegas and run up front in this Wood Brothers car.
TJ Majors
And even going there, I mean, we didn't know how it was going to be.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I'm just saying. But we're seeing, like, oh, yeah, this. How about this dude.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Right. And how about the. You know, how happy are the fricking Wood Brothers right now? And so that's what Carson Kwapple can be. My fear is that we may never get to realize that. And so we got to get these wins we got to go to, to you know these races in this Xfinity car and make happen.
TJ Majors
I mean you definitely, you definitely got to win. Winning definitely always helps.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I am putting a lot of pressure on the guy and I don't know what else. I just gotta, I can't tell a lie.
Mike Davis
I appreciate that that's how you guys owner but I'm just asking some questions, that's all.
TJ Majors
If Carson goes and does what Carson can do, Carson will be fine.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, I know he's great. He's talented, he's smart, sharp.
TJ Majors
And Josh, Josh has graduated to the next level now too. I couldn't be happier with how Josh has transformed even since he's left here and went cup racing. He is a new Josh now too. And it's great.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I'm eager for the one to break through. Hey, it's Dale Jr. Did you know that we've got brand new merch 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 if you're a die cast collector like me, then you're excited about the start of a new race season. That's because now is the time when race teams are unveiling their new paint schemes. There's a lot of new diecasts on order, and it's also when new cars start to deliver from Lionel Racing, the official diecast of nascar. Whether you have Junior Motorsports first Cup series die cast already on pre order, or you're excited about Noah Gragson's move to Front Row Motorsports, or maybe Chase Elliott's new sponsor, Amazon Prime. There are a ton of exciting things happening in NASCAR this season. And what's so great about a die cast collection is that it can tell the story of it all like no other collectible can. To help kickstart your 2025 die cast collection, Lionel Racing has a special offer for Dale Jr. Download listeners get free US shipping on your next order when you use the promo code download 25 at Lionel Racing.com that's free shipping with the promo code download 25. That's download with the number 25 at Lionel Racing.com let's move on to the cup race. Ryan Blaney choosing the second row on the in on the inside instead of starting next to Larson late in the race and he got out and said, you know, I messed up.
Mike Davis
Why would you ever.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I can't, I can't imagine.
TJ Majors
I don't think you ever get off the front row.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The only. The only type of driver that I see make that move and I go, oh, okay. Is a guy like Chastain, because I know that he's probably thinking, I'm going three wide. But Blaney is not that guy. Blaney is not going to put his fellow competitors in a three wide situation, and just. Unless they just got a restart, I just don't. He's not that kind of guy. Aj. AJ Almendinger. Oh, yeah. Three wide. Every fricking restart. AJ Almendinger. Fact is, three wide on restarts more often than he's too wide. And Chastain's the same kind of guy. Like, if they lined up there, I'd go, oh, they got a plan. And this should be exciting. But Blaney lining up there, man, I just. I feel like that in those situations, you just. You, you. I know that you don't want to. I know that you don't love, you know, restarting on the outside, but I think you have to.
TJ Majors
Oh, for sure.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. You just. You just gotta have to do it.
TJ Majors
Blaine, his car was fast. You don't want. If you can get clean air on your nose and you can make it through 1 and 2 and be on his outside through the exit, you got a shot.
Mike Davis
And McDowell got the lead. We got to ask on that restart.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
If we get a chance to see Blaney, we got to ask him what's going on.
TJ Majors
Logano would have never taken.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Something's going on third over second. Something's going on, guys. I mean, we had him on national television sipping his beer instead of chugging it. Now he's not. Now he's not taking the front row. What's happening? He's. Is he settling down? Is he getting comfortable?
Mike Davis
Married life's changed him.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Married life.
Mike Davis
I mean, do you think Penske drivers, last two weeks, these guys be sitting there going, what about me?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, I guess he's sitting there going, I'm next. Watch. I'm putting money on him at Charlotte.
Mike Davis
Who do you think is the next non winner to win this year?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The next non winner. Damn. I mean, I'd have to see the list.
Mike Davis
So you've got Larson, Hamlin, Larson, Byron.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's already one yet.
Mike Davis
No, these are the winners. These people that have won already.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, damn. I said I'd have to see the list. I know winners starts naming drivers.
TJ Majors
That's exactly where my mind went to.
Mike Davis
It's a shorter list of people that have won, so why would I list out everyone that I want to know.
TJ Majors
The top driver that has not won yet. Not.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Give me five. Give me five. Give me a multiple choice.
TJ Majors
Who has not won yet. Top five.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
What do you think we are?
Mike Davis
Chase hasn't won. Reddick hasn't won. Blaney hasn't won.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Bubba.
TJ Majors
Well, I would say going to Kansas, Reddick would be a really good pick for that one. They've been super fast there.
Mike Davis
He could have won this past weekend.
TJ Majors
Shoulda, coulda.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's great. Yeah, that's a great call for Kansas. The Toyotas and particularly 2311.
TJ Majors
Yes.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So.
TJ Majors
And the Seabell Reddick thing is kind of faded a little bit, but it.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Kind of had a couple off days.
TJ Majors
Yeah, it's. What? I don't know. Just kind of been quiet.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Michael McDowell. Let's move on to Michael. Unable to hold on to the lead. Oh. Or his race car.
TJ Majors
Yeah, that happened, too.
Mike Davis
We had this dude, he only took two tires last time he pitted.
TJ Majors
He was just trying too hard. And he said in his interview, too, he's like, I. He's like, you can't take the fight out when you're racing that hard. Like, he said he still had it in him, and that's what happened. He just overstepped it. He did a great interview as well.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But damn, TJ just. TJ just given accolades for these interviews. Did you see that?
TJ Majors
I mean, he was. He was. He didn't lie about.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He was like a bad interview this weekend. Any bad interviews?
TJ Majors
I only watched those two.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
All right.
TJ Majors
They were both good.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He loved them.
TJ Majors
Yeah, they're both good. They took. They took credit.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Do you think that Michael should have chilled out and said, hey, man, my ass is kicked today. I'm just going to get this thing home?
TJ Majors
I think he should have top five. Didn't came home. He had a shot at winning.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It wasn't going to win, like, once, you know, like, if you still think, hey, man, there's a chance. Okay, I can see busting your ass for a chance, but I think everybody.
Mike Davis
Knew and Lagana was gone.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, everybody knew.
TJ Majors
Third's better than hitting that damn wall off of 2, I can tell you that.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I mean, hit hard, especially for his team. Spire, right. There's this thing hing.
TJ Majors
He's reckon this is a building block. Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
They need to get that car home. Damn.
TJ Majors
Yeah. Great interview, though.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Great interview. Oh, my gosh. So logano wins. Started 27th, drove through the field. He had a little mix up on the back straightaway, though. What do you think? I know Bubba. Took blame for it. Bubba bounced off the outside wall.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Come down across the nose of 22. They were tight, though, guy.
TJ Majors
Great interview by Bubba.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Great interview by. They were tight, though.
TJ Majors
They were tight.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I don't think Bubba really had to take responsibility. I think it was just a racing deal.
Mike Davis
But do you think drivers are a little like, I don't know. I better just say I'm sorry now before. I don't. I don't want to piss Joey off going forward.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I was watching. I watched that and I thought, man, I. If I watched that and I thought, man, I bet Bubba's pissed. And then he got, you know, because I thought, you know, Liana kind of used him up. Yeah. Logano was at his left not hitting him, but Logano was like at his left.
TJ Majors
Isn't that what you're supposed to do that late in the race?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It was a late. I thought it's the middle of the race.
TJ Majors
It was pretty late.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, either way, I was like, oh, man, I would be pissed if I was Bubba. But he got out and he's like, hey, my fault, man. Yeah, I guess it, man.
TJ Majors
If Bubba clears him by like a foot, he's coming down in front of him into three, though. You know what I mean? So you ha. You like, you got to take them.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Chances when you draft and Is so important.
TJ Majors
It all got to keep that position.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And they're aggressive with it. So Logano survives all this crazy chaos. I thought it was so funny, man. People were saying, man, I sat through this. I sat through all this for a Logano win. That was the. That was the whole. Like this. That was the description of the race. That should be like the. That should be like the. The. The. The title of the thumbnail.
TJ Majors
Nashville 2.0.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I sat through this for a Logano win. I knew that a lot of people felt that, especially after the past couple of weeks. Chipper Jones congratulates Joey, a Hall of Fame driver with a masterful win. This is what NASCAR fans expect from you. Hard charging wins and gracious top fives and tens. Well done. And then I did see a picture. I don't believe it's AI Or Photoshopped Austin. Of Legato Victory Lane with the Atlanta Braves hat on.
TJ Majors
Yeah. Austin posted a picture with Joey in the background. Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So did Joey take an Atlanta Braves hat to the racetrack or bar one off a fan's head? What was the situation?
TJ Majors
That was somebody's idea. If that was somebody's idea, we got.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
To know Joey's coming on. Yeah, we got to know did your ass decide? All right, I'm taking an Atlanta Braves hat with me until I win. And I'm gonna take a picture.
TJ Majors
Yeah, I don't want Chipper Jones meet me at.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's pretty. That's some true. That's some A plus troll.
Mike Davis
Yes. I respect Joey then even more if he did that move.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, I'm hoping he says. Yep. Soon as that went down, I got my Atlanta Braves hat and I packed it. I put it in my bag.
TJ Majors
I don't think it was Joey. I think I know who it was, though.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Damn it, T.J. don't ruin it.
TJ Majors
I'm sorry.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Don't ruin it.
TJ Majors
I'm not ruining it. We'll ask him.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Let's talk about Texas. I. There was this rumor, the track itself, the bump and turn three and four, all of that, there's been. Where are we all on Texas. Right. Texas was this grand, amazing thing. Had it. If you think back, though, it had a very. A very challenging, troubled beginning. Mark Martin went out there to drive on it in a test, and it looks sketchy. And they had problems where they actually had to repave the racetrack. They had an issue where all, you know, in one of the first races there, they all went down in turn one and everybody wrecked. And there was just a lot of trouble with the racetrack itself, and the drivers were very vocal about it. And the track had to spend a lot of money to sort of get the track where it was accepted among the industry and particularly the drivers. So the first couple of years there were tough, and then it settled in and became a very, very popular stop on the circuit. I was fortunate enough to win a couple races there in the Xfinity and the Cup Car. And back in those days, man, the place was awesome. The infield was. Was. Was a place to be a late night party. It rocked. It rivaled. Talladega, believe it or not, and Watkins Glen and some of the more raunch sort of places to go to when you're. When you're looking at, you know, kind of fun things to do outside of the race itself. Camping outside of the racetrack was. Was fun and exciting and wild and a good time throughout the race weekend. Over the course of the last couple of decades now, the track has fallen off in terms of lack of attendance, lack of excitement, lack of good racing, and to. You know, at one point, I can't even remember why they did this, but at one point, they kind of thought to reconfigure the racetrack, and they changed 1 and 2. We raised hell about that because now the entrance to turn one was kind of a no man's land. It was giant and super stupid wide and none of us. And we all kind of had to go down really slow into this flatter turn and it raced even worse. And you know, NASCAR was also going through these really weird packages for these. For the mile and a half racetracks with the. With the previous car, and it just was not putting on great races. And so when they. There was a repave in there as well that also was very detrimental to the racetracks racing product. And everyone, including, I think, you know, people that own the racetrack and work there were like, what do we do? Like, this was a jewel and a gem of a place in a great area for the series. The sport needs to be in Texas and needs to have great things going. And now it's sort of getting overshadowed by Coda and all of those things. And so I think for me, there's some real concern about the future of this racetrack and what should happen here to kind of bring it back and get people excited. Honestly, man, it's happening like the last couple of races there. I know that we don't love everything about the next gen car and how it races, and there's that conversation, but setting that aside, this track is challenging. Now. This track has multiple grooves. They quit treating that outside line, trying to force the cars to race up there. And now they're finding their way up the racetrack. Naturally how it should happen. And you know, you don't. Putting grip. Grip in any lane of the racetrack. Manufacturing grip in any lane of the racetrack on a paid racetrack, to me is just a bad idea. And so they quit treating this track and now the cars are starting to move around and really get up the racetrack. There's bumps and things that aren't right. Good. Hell, there's an article in the. There's an article in the. In. In the news from 20 years ago with me and. And maybe Jimmy Johnson or another driver complaining about the tunnel bump in one and two. Well, now it's the tunnel bump in three and four. That's. That's problematic. And at least for these, These cars, with the way they set up the next gen car, which is fine. It's fine. Yeah. And just, you know, if you. Yeah, it's an. It's a challenge. It's. It's a care. It's a. It's character.
TJ Majors
That's what we want.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yep. And so there was a rumor going around that some track on the NASCAR circuit was considering getting the Atlanta treatment But I believe that it's not Texas. Had you heard that.
Mike Davis
I haven't.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Had you, T.J. i've heard.
TJ Majors
I have heard people say Texas needs to go to, like, an Atlanta style repave or reconfiguration.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I'd seen some messages on Social about someone thinking that there was a track that was considering that, but it is not Texas. And I know a lot of people were going, oh, it's got to be Texas, because, you know, well, Marcus owns Atlanta and he loves what's happened there, so why wouldn't he try to take it to Texas?
TJ Majors
Yeah, but I mean, that's probably natural for them to say Texas first.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I think Texas. Yeah, of course. I think Texas right now is starting to get into its peak in terms of the age of the asphalt, how slick it was. Dude, those Xfinity guys were busting their ass all over the place.
TJ Majors
Everybody, guys, everybody was.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It's. That's what we need. Don't change nothing.
TJ Majors
Guys were too. They're up wrecking by themselves.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Don't. Don't touch it. Don't change anything.
TJ Majors
I know.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Don't move anything. Right? Leave it. It's good.
TJ Majors
I think it's great.
Mike Davis
So, yeah, I mean, attendance was packed.
TJ Majors
There was actually a lot.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That was the other thing. So people. I saw this. I. So I'm privy to privity. I'm privy to ibity dibbity. I'm privy to some information. And so there was this. You know, the track quoted is saying, this is the best attendance we've had in the last 15 years. And people were saying, people were looking at the crowd right in the front straightaway and going, ah, it's a good crowd. I don't know about 15 years, but it's a good crowd. I don't know if I. But what you don't know is that they sold out 15 or more suites that were not sold at all over the last several years. And I've. So I've been up at the suite level working the broadcast, and when we. We're working from. We're working in this one bank of suites that are from, like, probably almost the flag stand all the way to turn four. Empty. Empty. Not even. Not even being used. Not a. Not. Not no one in there. No drinks, nothing. And. And you're like, damn, man. I mean, all of this stuff, just not no one here. So those. You know, there's a lot of people that are at this race that you didn't see on the broadcast. And so apparently, apparently they. They got a new president at that racetrack who is re. Energized. Excitement brought in some people that are interested in purchasing those suites for their businesses and bringing in their employees and treating them for the afternoon to a race and all those things. Right. And so I don't know, man. It's pretty exciting. I think, you know, Texas in my mind. Leave it alone. Don't touch it. Keep this. This president. Keep doing what you're doing. Crowd was great. Get some. You know, I think people saw that and go, hmm, that looks like a good one. To add to my. My list of possible trips.
TJ Majors
It's a fun weekend.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. If you're going to go to a couple races, Dallas is a good area. You might have seen that. Fort Worth. You might have seen that and went. I think I might like to go to that next year. I used to go to Texas. I quit going.
TJ Majors
It's a great area, too.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, God. It's built up big time around.
TJ Majors
Oh, my gosh.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And you got Heartache barbecue out that way. Hard a Roanoke. Roanoke's just about four or five miles up the road.
Mike Davis
Stockyards aren't far away.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Stockyards. I've never been to stockyards, but I don't want to go. I want to go.
Mike Davis
Why haven't you been there?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I've never been. My wife won't take me.
Mike Davis
How about you take her?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I. She's from Texas.
Mike Davis
I'm aware.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I'm a guest in her state. This is the thing where I think it's her taking me.
Mike Davis
Okay, that's fair.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. And so it's like, show me Texas. Right. So.
TJ Majors
So the weekend in Texas also. I mean, you got. They start on Thursday night there. They did start Thursday with the. The high limit sprint cars right there, too. So it's a full weekend of racing, unlike some other.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Unlike pretty much all the other racetracks. Yeah. There's not going on. And so. Great point, tj. You got. You got trucks, Xfinity Cup. You got dirt cars, sprint cars. Texas is. I mean, it went from. I would say Texas went from like 25th on the list to maybe inside the top 10.
TJ Majors
It's creeping up.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, yeah. Big jump.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Good job.
TJ Majors
And the track. Having character makes it worth it. I mean, that's a big part of it.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
We should celebrate that. Good thing.
Mike Davis
Let's have a beer toast today for it.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Beer toast for Texas.
TJ Majors
I didn't know Travis is going to Texas. Did you go to Texas? Oh, yeah. I see him walking through the garage area, and I'm like, what are you doing here? He's like, oh, just. And I look at his thing. He's got a meet and greet pass for Denny and everything on Danny Bros. Danny Bros. Danny Bros. Well, I figured Denny wanted dinner cooked for him on the road, so Travis went and had to cook him.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You know what Sundays are for. You know what Sundays are for in the Travis household? Danny tweeting about Denny.
TJ Majors
Do you tweet about Denny?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, yeah.
Mike Davis
I mean, tweet about his race.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He tweeted all day. Damn blown motor.
Mike Davis
Why wouldn't I?
TJ Majors
Do you tweet about the Xfinity teams that you work for?
Mike Davis
Yeah, actually, I do.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He is.
TJ Majors
You stuttered.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
This man. This man invested at least two hours in Denny's driver's introduction antics. So drought. You know, Denny does the horns down because then he's a die hard, lifelong. Die hard, lifelong Ohio State fan. And. And so, you know, Denny caught a little bit of for it because he's visible. He's Denny Hamlin and he enjoys that stuff, too. Riley Herps did it. Yeah.
Mike Davis
I'm still wondering why Riley did it. I've been looking for an answer.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Riley Herbs did it, and it was the crickets. No one noticed. And. And he's like, hey, why is Riley Herbs not getting all the my man Denny's getting for this?
Mike Davis
No, I'm not.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's what you said.
Mike Davis
I'm questioning Riley.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Nope. You were like, why is Denny getting so much hate?
Mike Davis
I did not say that.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You were.
Mike Davis
You, like, show me.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I'll leave Danny alone.
TJ Majors
I got. I do have a question.
Mike Davis
Yeah.
TJ Majors
With Denny blows up, like, on lap. You know, whatever. I don't know when it was early on.
Mike Davis
Yeah.
TJ Majors
Why did you stay for the entire race?
Mike Davis
Because Reddicks flew with us.
TJ Majors
I mean, back in the day when that happened, that driver just found another way home.
Mike Davis
Yeah, but he's also the.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Also a car owner. Tj. He can't leave. His car might win.
Mike Davis
Yeah. If his car wins. That's a bad.
TJ Majors
I mean, there's also a team playing.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Unless he has a seven year old having a birthday. Listen, make sure that goes in there.
Mike Davis
I was.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Don't take that out. Don't edit that part out.
Mike Davis
I was hoping we'd leave, but we didn't.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yep.
Mike Davis
But, yeah, you can't leave. Then you're.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He was hoping they would leave because he doesn't know where the plane may go next.
TJ Majors
Denny, bro. He's like, who knows?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And he's sitting there going, was Denny gonna take us to Cabo?
TJ Majors
Denny. Hey, Denny.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
We could.
TJ Majors
We're in Texas Yeah, let's stop in Vegas, play a couple slots.
Mike Davis
Yeah, that'd be nice.
TJ Majors
Hit the slots.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Are we gonna go to New Orleans? Yeah.
TJ Majors
Where do the Denny Bros go next?
Mike Davis
Yeah, Kabba would have been nice, man.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Denny Bros. We need a.
TJ Majors
Another T shirt.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
We need a sound design for that.
TJ Majors
Yeah. What could it be?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Denny Bros. But we need some. We need some, like, superhero music behind it. The one thing your mom wants from you is for you to call her this Mother's Day. Give her a call and give her an Aura digital picture frame. Aura Frames was named the best digital photo frame by Wirecutter and featured in 495 gift guides last year. So the next time you call your mom, send her that new pic from that trip you're telling her all about, right from your phone. Andrew, you've used Aura before.
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Yeah, it's pretty cool. We have a couple and we have one at our house. So when you add a picture to it, it's kind of fun waiting to see who notices the new photo that you added into the rotation. Aura has a great deal for Mother's Day for limited time. Listeners can save on the perfect gift by using auraframes.com to get $35 off plus free shipping on their best selling Carver mat frame. That's a U R A frames.com promo code. Dale Jr support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply.
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Dale Earnhardt Jr.
All right, Joe Logano has joined us here on the Dale Jr. Download. The winner of this past weekend's race to Texas and the guy who just had to update his app. Do you have your phone? Does your phone have the latest update? Are you one of those kind of dudes that goes around like, rarely updating their phone when a new update comes out?
Joey Logano
I rarely update.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I bet. Yeah. Comes up, I have to update immediately.
TJ Majors
Technology and Joey are. Don't mix very well.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
No.
Joey Logano
No mix at all.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
All right, man. Wow, you got some trophies behind you. Some championship trophies. Where are you?
Joey Logano
I am at my. My shop. I got a little.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You're at home.
Joey Logano
A toy barn up at the home today.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's very nice. Isn't it fun to be home?
Joey Logano
Oh, it's great. I love it. I moved my home office here, and I can just walk up the driveway and go to work. It's awesome.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yes. So I have to say, I grew up. This might not make a lot of sense. This might tell everybody how old I am, but I grew up watching America's Funniest Home Videos. Right? Great show. Bob Saget was a host and. And he was like this all American. You know, everybody knew. Everybody knew. And then you learn later in life that Bob Saget also does stand up where he cusses a ton. And that was kind of my experience. When I saw the things you said about your teammate. I was like, this is like, when I learned Bob Saget cuss, I was like, Joey Logano, what a foul mouth. Did your mother have a problem with that? Did your wife say, hey, what are you doing? Because I could hear my mom going, man, let's do. We could do without that. I could see my. My wife's grandmother calling me and going, what are you doing?
TJ Majors
Yeah, you're backtracking.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, no, I'm trying to figure out.
Joey Logano
How to say this correctly.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
What foul language came out of your mouth? Foul language.
Joey Logano
It happens. Here's the thing. I'm very emotional, and what you see is what you get.
Mike Davis
So.
Joey Logano
And I think that's, like, really hard for people to understand sometimes because, like, I'm naturally a pretty happy person. Like, I enjoy life and I'll, you know, whatever Comes to my mind is going to come out of my mouth, and most of the time that's okay. But then you put me in a competitive environment and like, I really, really like to win and I really want things to go a certain way, and I work really hard to make sure it does. And when it doesn't, I get pissed off and. And the filter thing is still not there, and whatever is in my mind comes straight out of the mouth and.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
Joey Logano
Unloaded pretty quickly.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So it's funny because when I was a little kid, I would get around dad's. Dad's peers, like Rusty Wallace and those guys, and you would. You took. I don't know why, but you took notice of, like, who. Like Rusty Wallace says an F word in every sentence. Like, Rusty says the F word a lot. Just in general conversation around his. Around people. And he, you know, and then there, you know, there's other dad cuss quite a bit around his buddies, but. And I say the F word right here on this show a lot. And a lot of cuss words. Generally I have to be really careful when I go home because it slips out. But, Joey, I've never heard you say a cuss word ever. Until, I don't think until. Until you were talking on your radio.
TJ Majors
Really? I don't think so.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. Joey doesn't seem like the kind of.
TJ Majors
You know, I don't think he doesn't cuss a lot. When's the last time you got in trouble for cussing?
Joey Logano
I don't know. I mean, did I get in trouble this time?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
No.
TJ Majors
I mean, when. When's the last time you did get in trouble for any cussing on a radio?
Joey Logano
I feel like I'm pretty conscious of it most of the time. I don't really have a reason to most of the time. And I got kids now, so I. I try to be my best, which my wife told me. She goes, you know, when that all happened, the kids were at MRO.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Watching.
Joey Logano
TV at mro, just like, oh, I bet.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So I saw. I saw a photo of you in victory lane with an Atlanta Braves hat on. Was that. Is that a. Yeah.
TJ Majors
Who gets credit for this?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I need to know. Were you. Did you. After last week and everything with Chipper on the Internet, which is all now good. Y'all have kind of had a little back and forth and everybody's happy. But when you had that go down, did you get a Braves hat and stick it in your bag to take it to the racetrack? Should you know, where did the Braves hat come from? No.
Joey Logano
It was an idea in Victory Lane.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I was there.
Joey Logano
I was like, oh, man, we should get a picture with a Braves hat on and just send it to Chipper as a.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You know who had it?
TJ Majors
Lawyer. Lawyer. Warren told me that Drew helped out with it.
Joey Logano
Drew did help out. There was somebody who works for nascar.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Hat, had the hat and have it on that day.
Joey Logano
And I said, let me borrow that thing real quick.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well worth it.
Joey Logano
It was. And then I was kind of like, well, how do I do this?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And.
Joey Logano
And I was really busy yesterday. I didn't have the opportunity to do anything. And I was. I wake up early in the morning and it was like five this morning, and I was scrolling through social, which I should not do, but I was.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And.
Joey Logano
And I was like, you know what? I figure out how to handle this. And then I saw he tweeted something nice to me, and I'm like, oh, geez. Of course he said something nice.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, the picture.
Mike Davis
How do I handle this?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
No, no, no. I think the picture was fine. I thought the pic.
Joey Logano
We're good.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You had the picture of Victory Lane. Then Austin does the picture in the team debrief, and then he does a tweet. It's like, hey, you know, we all can understand. It was funny.
Joey Logano
Austin did come in with that Braves hat on yesterday, and I thought, what? He did that last week, it wouldn't be that funny. But now I know he was on.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The show last week, and we told him that he should have done it last week. Like, man, you missed opportunity.
TJ Majors
Yeah, he was pretty good about it. We pride him a little bit.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He really would have been hilarious.
TJ Majors
Yeah, it would have been good.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, so the race. The race for you at Texas was really eventful. You had to work really hard to get the track position. It was really chaotic. And I know that, you know, you had some comments about the car in practice and difficult difficulty passing. We know that still exists. The next gen car. Problems aside, Texas seems to be or becoming a very, very fun race, at least to watch. What's it like for the drivers out there? Because the bumps are characteristics. They're creating crashes, they're creating cautions, they're creating restarts. They're just in slick. Everybody in the Xfinity truck and the cup were busting their ass. It just seems like everything we would want. Is that what you're feeling behind the wheel?
Joey Logano
It's a tricky track. Like, it's really technical, yet it's really fast. And that makes it pretty unique to have kind of both of those.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Right.
Joey Logano
Kansas this weekend, it's a. It's Hammer City, right? Like, it's. It's fast and smooth, and it's as hard as you can go. But, you know, you go through Texas and you have one and two. That's such a flat entry, and you have some options down there, which is nice, whether it's the bottom or the top there, and then three and four. It's like, man, you're ripping through that corner, and then you get to those bumps, like you say, and it's out of control. Like, it is really sketchy, and it bites people, and it's kind of like versus reward of how fast you want to go through that corner and what are you willing to put out there? Because when you hit it wrong, it's going to just swap ends on you, and you're going to back it in. So, with all that said, I mean, as a fan, I mean, I was in the box booth Saturday or Friday night for the truck race, and it's. I mean, there's a lot going on. Like, I mean, the racing's pretty entertaining all the way through. And so, I mean, even if that race ran green, Blaney and the five of Larson were going to have a battle, right? And was he gonna be able to pass or not? I don't know, but it was gonna be a battle to the end, and either way, with the restarts at the end was still a battle.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It was an exciting race to watch and know you're thrilled to be able to walk away with a victory and pretty excited overall, I assume, about how much speed Penske has this season. Usually you guys are the ones that develop that speed and have it at the end of the year when it really, really counts. But starting off the year, strong man, and wishing you the best going to Kansas, and thanks for giving us a little time today.
Joey Logano
I appreciate that. It's nice to have some speed early in the year, like you said, and it's nice to finally capitalize on the speed. We've done everything that we could to ruin that at some point. We've had the opportunity to win a lot this year, so it's nice to finally capitalize on the first one and hopefully keep stacking in.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
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TJ Majors
I'm glad they're there. If I were to build a website, I'd have to have somewhere like that.
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Sounds pretty good. I like building websites. My buddy's new company, they're looking to get people's attention and get people to visit their website. And with the built in SEO tools that Squarespace has, they are able to maximize their reach and grow their business faster. Pretty neat. The other feature they really like is Squarespace has everything you need to run and e commerce business, which is important especially for a brand like ours. You know, everything can be done from payment to fulfillment. All with Squarespace. Your business might be brand new, but that won't prevent you from doing business and making money. Head to squarespace.com dalejr for a free trial and when you're ready to launch, use offer code DALEJR D A L E J R to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.
Andrew
And we are live.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
All right. Did they hear that part?
Andrew
I don't know.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
We are live.
Andrew
I think they hear that part because.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You say it with such inflection. Well, I believe that you believe they hear it.
Andrew
I want you to know.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
All right. You could just say, and we're live.
Andrew
I could do that. Yeah, but what's the fun in that?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's a good point. That's a great point.
TJ Majors
You're alive. It's booming, Andrew. Like infinity WI fi.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, that was booming.
Andrew
That's it. That's a good segue, tj.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's right.
TJ Majors
You're on it today. You're welcome.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, you know booming speeds when you see it, tj.
TJ Majors
I do with Xfinity.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Except for the RFK stuff here lately. Xfinity WI Fi hits Xfinity WI Fi. Well, it's booming. Like the roar of a NASCAR engine that is a Chevrolet. Sorry, just had to. It's as fast as a Chevy V8 engine and as reliable as an elite pit crew. Xfinity WI Fi gives you the power and speed of NASCAR in your home. Choose the right plan for you, and you're off to the races with the best streaming experiences for NASCAR and all of your favorite sports. Because Xfinity WI Fi is booming. They have not just raised the bar. Tj, it's streaming in overdrive. Xfinity in overdrive. Boom. Premier partner of nascar. All right, everybody's on here.
Andrew
Jay wants to know, what is that pink sheet behind TJ's shot? And it's like that pink slip of paper.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, yeah. Well, if I should. I'll tell you what. This is a reason why I have. It's a speeding ticket. And the reason why I have this here and framed is because some tried to sell it online. What? Yeah, come on. Some jerk was like, I'm gonna sell this online. I don't know how you even get this. Probably illegal.
TJ Majors
And so I gave it to him.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And so I had. Dude, I had to buy it because it had my license. License tag number. It had driver's license number by address.
Mike Davis
How fast were you going?
TJ Majors
Well, you were illegal.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It's, like, important stuff.
TJ Majors
You were illegal to get it.
Andrew
How fast were you going?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, man, you ain't gonna believe this. 45 and a 40.
Mike Davis
Oh, come on.
TJ Majors
No way.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yes.
TJ Majors
No way. Kidding me.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
45 and a 40.
TJ Majors
Well, that's what he wrote it as. He was probably going faster. He did him a favor.
Andrew
That's what the cop wrote it.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yes, it's possible. Yes. There you go. I was probably doing more than that. And they probably knocked it down.
Andrew
How did you get him to knock it down? You talk your way out of it.
TJ Majors
Exactly. I've been. I've been riding with him when he was in pulled over before. I've never seen him get a ticket.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I don't say, oh, now what are you supposed to.
TJ Majors
Yeah, I mean, I've been pulled over.
Andrew
Once, and I mean, you run your mouth. No, you kidding me? I was scared to death.
TJ Majors
They take his license, they come back and say to have a good day.
Andrew
John wants to know, what would your last meal be like? What's a good. What's. What's on that category of like? This is deserving of a last.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I'll. I will take this opportunity to say that some of the. I love buffalo.
TJ Majors
I was going to say buffalo chicken, something like that.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I love Buffalo. And there's two choices.
Mike Davis
What's your last meal? So you can both.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Can I add both?
Mike Davis
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
All right. I would get chicken wings from the 500 Club, which is a new place here in Trout. It's kind of Troutman, Estatesville. So Rick Allen, Stenhouse, Ham, Denny, a bunch of people invested in this golf course, and it's got a restaurant on it called the 500 Club, and they hired a really, really good chef. Well, I went up there because I was helping Rick Allen with some photos and big framed photos and stuff. I had a lot. I have lots of giant framed racing memorabilia and photos and stuff. And I had. We walked through my collection. I was like, take whatever you want to put it on the walls of the. Of the locker room and all that stuff down there and at the clubhouse. And so I went up there and had lunch one day with Rick. And they're. Buffalo chicken wings are the best buffalo chicken wings that I've had in a long time. So I would get chicken wings from the 500 clubs. You can go up there and eat there any day you want. They'll be glad that you came. And if you're a Daytona 500, win your automatic member.
Andrew
All right. Does that count for spotters, too?
TJ Majors
Yeah, I was gonna say just drivers.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And so there's A couple Daytona 500 trophies and suits and stuff in there.
Andrew
It's pretty trophies.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Stenhouse and.
TJ Majors
Wow.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Michael Waltrip and different people like that. Michael's an investor as well. I'd have theirs. Chick. Those chicken wings. And then I would have Chick. Buffalo Chick. Buffalo shrimp from the Raw bar in Key West. Yep.
Andrew
Buffalo theme.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. And probably about two or three dozen oysters from there. Oh, I'd have to get a pepperoni and a pepperoni with banana peppers. I'd have to get. Wait, wait, wait. I'd have to get pepperoni. Gross. With banana peppers. From Pie in the Sky. Yeah, I just took Travis there for the very first time this week. Last week.
TJ Majors
Nice.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Pie in the Sky Pizza. They're a mom and pops joint there's on Main street in Mooresville, and they have a. They have a. An Italian sub, and you got to get it toasted.
TJ Majors
Yeah. You have your own sub there.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
Do you know. You know that, right?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's it.
Andrew
There's a. Yeah, but I.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
They. I call it the Dale Jenner sub. I don't know if they call it that anymore.
TJ Majors
Well, that. His is.
Andrew
They don't call it anymore. So are you guys, like.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I don't know.
TJ Majors
His has, like, mustard and stuff on it, and that doesn't come stock with mustard.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So I've been eating there since I was in school. I've been going to Pie in the sky all my life to eat. It's been there since I was 15, 16 years older. It's been there before that, but I've been going there since I was in high school.
TJ Majors
Family owned. Great place.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. And they just got into a new building. It's not a new building. It used to be the cleaners, but they remodeled this building and it's awesome. And so I used to get the sub toasted and I get no, may I get no tomatoes. And I liked mustard. Comes with mustard, mayo, and it comes with oil and vinegar, which is. It's just really, really, really good. And so they called it the Dale junior Sub for a while and. But I wouldn't go in there and go, I want the Dale junior Sub you'd like.
Andrew
I want my sandwich.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
They would. I would go in there and ask for what I'd want and they go, the Dale junior Sub.
TJ Majors
They called it that. Maybe they did.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
They did call it that. But I could go in there and order.
Andrew
They knew what you think.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I think that. I think that was just a thing that. And it's faded. Go in there, tj, ask them for the Dell junior Sub. See what they say. They probably look at you and go, no, exactly. What is that?
TJ Majors
Because the sun runs it now, I think. And he knew then because he.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I don't think that they know what the. The sub. The Dale junior Sub is. I think it was just like I was going there so regularly.
Andrew
Yeah.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
They knew your order, but now they. If you went to. Or you. I had had people go in there and order the Dale junior Sub and get it. I don't think that's a thing anymore.
Mike Davis
I don't see it on the menu.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It is not on the menu.
TJ Majors
I'll bet if you called and talked to the person that had been working there for a while. Not something.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I would be very proud if somebody were to go there and order it. Asked for it and it actually did not go. They knew what.
Andrew
They knew what to do. Yeah, Yeah.
TJ Majors
I think the son would know. The guy that run. I think he runs it now.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I think we're wasting a lot of time. We're wasting these people's time.
TJ Majors
Next question.
Andrew
Let's see. Next question. I'm also seeing a comment on the YouTube chat. You're part of the no Tomatoes.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Will I be playing. Oh, will I be playing Grand Theft Auto 6? Of course.
Andrew
Yeah. Someday.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Someday.
Andrew
Yeah. Eventually.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Someday.
TJ Majors
Yeah. One day for another year I got.
Andrew
I know, I know.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Amy's gonna be, you're 60. Why are you playing video games? I'll be like, I was playing them at 50.
Andrew
Well, actually. All right, this is the perfect segue. Craig wants to know what was your favorite video game growing up?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Damn. You know what? I was just. Me and Amy were just talking about this. What are. So I've had an iPhone since the first iPhone came out. Now, some of you guys are too young probably to really remember, but the very first app I downloaded on my iPhone was the beer drinking app.
Andrew
Yep. That was fun.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But you remember flight control where you had the airport and you had to direct all the planes?
Andrew
I had a very similar one with boats.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, yeah.
Andrew
It was so much fun.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, my God. So we were. Me and Amy were thinking about old iPhone games.
Andrew
I miss that.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. Yeah.
Andrew
Do they really fly?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Control is still there.
Mike Davis
Oh, that's.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I thought about doing it today. I thought about getting it.
TJ Majors
It's so.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It'd be just like. But I'm afraid it's just like, you know, me and Amy got an old Nintendo and we're like, oh, boy. Excite Bike, you know, double dribble.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And. And we start playing and we're like, so slow. Tell what that is. Like, it's so bad. You know, and we played it on such a. You know, we're playing it on this, you know, this big screen.
Andrew
40 doesn't translate over, you know.
TJ Majors
Yeah. That's not good.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Like, it was being played on a 27 inch TV or 13 inch or, you know.
TJ Majors
Remember the mafia game we used to play?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yes.
TJ Majors
Remember we had this guy.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So listen, this is awesome. We had a guy here that used to run our IT department. And let's just be. I'll just go ahead and put this out there. If there's a way for me to cheat in a video game, I'm doing it.
Mike Davis
Oh, I found out already.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. And so I got nothing to say. I am not. I am not to be trusted.
Mike Davis
We're aware.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Right. I'm gonna. I'm gonna bend innovation, break innovation. Every room, creativity that I can do. And so now I've got my. I've got. I got some. You know, I've got some character, but there. But for the most part, I will hack. And so now I won't illegally hack to get kicked off of Steam and things like that. And I'm gonna do. I'm not gonna do that. But we had. There was this little mafia game on the old original iPhones. And all it was was basically Mafia wars way before.
TJ Majors
Okay.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
It's not.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It was just a. It was literally.
Andrew
I'm seeing a few comments.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It was just text yeah, it was just. It was just.
Andrew
Oh, okay, okay.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You mashed buttons to collect money. Then you might argue, you might fight this guy, but you just might lose.
TJ Majors
Lose your money.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The button to say, I'll fight this guy.
TJ Majors
Get attacked in the night, win or lose.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And then you would get attacked throughout the day while you were just kind of doing your daily thing and at night. But while you're. While the game's happening, you're. You can be attacking and collecting money. And it was just pushing buttons. It was no movement, no. No animation, no real video game moment. We, Our IT guy wrote a program.
Andrew
Oh, my God.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That would click, click the screen.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So we figured out how to port this onto the laptop.
TJ Majors
You could play it. You could play it on the computer as well. The website. And he made it so you could click things on the website.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And we figured out how to be able to, at night, while we were sleeping, continue to wage war and continue to fight. So you would go to. I had this thing sitting on like a five gallon bucket in the utility closet at my house. Running all night on a little laptop.
TJ Majors
Yeah, we all did.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
We all did. And I'd go to bed. You didn't want to get attacked. If you got like $100,000, I'd wake up and I'd be like, $4 million. Yes. Kick some ass last night.
TJ Majors
You know, if you sat dormant, somebody could attack you and take your money, everything.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And then.
TJ Majors
So.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But during the day, you're playing like, we're all, hey, man, you jack somebody, you're playing. You know, we're playing this game. I got into clash of clans. Pretty heavy.
TJ Majors
We were all in a clash. Clans. And then he ruined it.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
How did I ruin it?
TJ Majors
Because I woke up, we were all in the same size towns and. Or whatever we were building here.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I spent some real money.
TJ Majors
I woke up. I woke up one morning and looked at his. And he had these walls that were like three levels higher. And I'm. I text him like, dude, what the heck? And he's like, sorry, I got drunk. And Rage upgraded. That's exactly what he said. I'm like, are you serious?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Sitting there drinking beer? I'm like, 100 bucks.
TJ Majors
I got drunk and rage upgraded.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, you can buy your way to success. Success. Yeah, I think what. But the original question was video game. What video games do we play?
Andrew
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So I had. When I, When I went to military school, we had this little common area where we could buy candy bars and soft drinks and everybody kind of would get there. When we had these down times, right? Everybody would go there. It's a pool table, a couple video games. And one of the video games was Mike Tyson Punch Out. Stand up console. Stand up console. I have one of those in my house. And so Mike Tyson Punch Outs. Pretty cool. I'm not all that great at it anymore. I tried to. I can get past Bald Bull, and that's about it. But if I fired it up right now. But I. I remember, like, standing in that. That area in military school. You're home sick as hell. You don't know half of these kids very well. You all just met months ago, but you're standing there cheering on somebody because they got all the way to Tyson and y'all. And they would lose. And then you're like, man, tomorrow, go try again. Tomorrow is going to be the day. And we'd all, you know, be 20, 30 of us crowded around this one console, standing on top of the pool table watching one guy try to beat Tyson.
Andrew
It's like live sports.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, it was awesome. That was. We had nothing else. Right.
TJ Majors
And so between Mike Tyson and your. The Playboys you brought in, that was Christian school. Oh, my bad.
Andrew
But, yeah, dj, get that right.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, I. I mean, I've had all the consoles at the original Atari. I'm 50, so I've seen about all of.
TJ Majors
Most of mine were EA Sports games.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I played a lot of, like the. In the original Nintendo, I got pretty heavy into playing that a lot. A lot of Mario Brothers, original Zelda.
Mike Davis
What about goldeneye?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Nope.
TJ Majors
Oh, goldeneye was so fun.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Play Little Contra.
TJ Majors
It was good.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Renegade, Excite Bike, Double Dribble, all of those.
Andrew
I've seen a lot in chat. I'll go through a list here. Paper Toss.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Nope.
Andrew
Lighter app.
Mike Davis
Paper Boy.
TJ Majors
You mean Paper Boy.
Andrew
Oh, Paper Toss. Like the one with the fan. I'm talking about.
Mike Davis
Oh, that's a.
Andrew
This is when we were talking about iPhone games.
TJ Majors
Yeah, we did play that in the beginning. Ball in the bucket.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Mafia wars might have been the game.
TJ Majors
Tj, I don't think. Mafia wars is not the same. I've seen it on there now.
Andrew
Mario Kart, NBA Jam, World of Warcraft, Flappy.
TJ Majors
Oh, we did. I did play some World of Warcraft. The original ones commanding zombies.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I played. In terms of racing games, I played Bill Elliott's NASCAR Challenge on PC. It was a DOS program.
TJ Majors
Game was so awesome.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You loaded it with floppy disk.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I was like, holy, this is awesome.
TJ Majors
It was awesome.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Days of Thunder on Nintendo could have been great. But you. The car, you drive into the corner at the bottom and the car just plowed to the fence. And so you'd be tapping it, your.
TJ Majors
Thumb would hurt like, oh, get the wall.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Every freaking corner. It just wouldn't turn. And your tires wore out extremely fast, comparable to the competition.
TJ Majors
And you caught those lap cars at the wrong time.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. And they were in the block like they block like crazy. And so that game, while it could have been great, it was very frustrating to play, but it was still really cool to.
TJ Majors
I enjoy car game.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I like Alistair Junior's IndyCar on console. Yeah, that was pretty awesome. You could design the cars, paint your own cars. Was pretty neat. IndyCar racing on PC for Sierra Papyrus, which is now.
TJ Majors
Yeah, the original IndyCar game was fun.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That was pretty good. And yeah, now you know, then the NASCAR games, car games that were on and I just dropped console altogether. I only played only after. After I got my PC. After I got into PC gaming in 95 or 96 with IRACE or with. With the original NASCAR game, I got into PC. I quit consoles unless it was Madden. Maddening college for sure. Oh, Bases Loaded. Yeah. Basically original Nintendo.
TJ Majors
Yeah. Bases. That was good.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Bases Loaded was good. Golly. I had a kid, a buddy of mine, the preacher's son. I'd go over to his place and play Bases Loaded man. And he just kicked my ass. It used to annoy the out of me. He loved baseball. We trade baseball cards and stuff like that. But it's so annoying when you sit down and play a video game with somebody who's way better than you. Oh, my God. Is that why you cheat? Yeah, Cheat to win.
TJ Majors
Now I know why you hate playing me.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I cheat to win.
Andrew
That was good, tj.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So we. I will, I will. I'll put this out there. I beat tj.
Andrew
You'll put this out there.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I beat TJ in college football. And one of the things that I did was I took my. This is a hack and it's kind of. It's bull. But you can take your wide receiver in, your tight end and your fullback and right before training in the off season, send them to the offensive line like a tackle, move them to tackle, and then they'll train as an offensive lineman and get these really badass run blocking attributes and then when training's over, you move them back to their original position. So then when you run the ball, I got like a wide receiver and a tight end out there pancaking guys like he's a guard.
TJ Majors
Oh, yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And like he's a tackle. And so, yeah, I had to study.
TJ Majors
A little bit on how to beat you, but I practiced a little bit and I kind of had a good game plan for it. But it's still fun. I've. Listen, I've seen one time, I mean this is a long Daytona one time you and Shane the bus driver played Madden and it almost ended up in a fight because he got so mad at you.
Andrew
Yeah, dude, I, it's like the IndyCar drivers.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I don't get this way with, I don't get this way with the college football but man, when we had. I was in the madden league with TJ, probably 2012, 14 and I, I don't think anything ever made me as angry as playing is some of those games and there was nothing in particular that happened. Just losing. Yeah, it's frustrating, you know, and the, you know, you think, oh man, why didn't he catch that? You know, you throw it to receiver and the receiver gets popped, he drops the ball and you don't get the first down and you got a punt. You're like one job, you know, you're like so mad. And I had to quit. I was like, you know what? I really don't think I need all this anger and negativity in my life. I know a way to remove it and that's just to, not to play the game. But. And I'd won a couple championships and I won a, I won a couple of Super Bowls. So I was pretty happy.
Andrew
You knew when to hang it up.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Proved it in, in Madden we would, we would take wide receivers and move them to tight end. Then you'd have like a 93 speed real fast. He just streak and nobody could cover, nobody could cover him.
Mike Davis
We got to find a way to lock it so you can't go into edit and change the player's position.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, as long as that's open, it's still fun. Gonna have to.
Andrew
Yeah, TJ's still having fun.
TJ Majors
I don't have any, I don't make any rules for the college deal and I'm not going to this time. It's too much. Everyone's having fun. Just play it.
Andrew
I think that's a good place to wrap. I want to, I want to remind everyone. JREM Fan Day May 22nd at 8:30am Autograph session. Wristbands will be given out first come, first serve. Get a chance to meet you Dale at 10:30. Kelly Wyatt 130 Carson Quapple, Justin Allgaier, Sammy Smith, Connor Zillich, Connor hall and Kaden Kwapple.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Dirty Mo Media is going to be doing some live stuff as well. So we'll be on the dirty Mo media stage doing some live podcasting. Might have, might see. Might have a Amy Earnhardt sighting. Whoa, out there.
Andrew
It's just in.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I know that's probably not been announced yet.
Mike Davis
Well, it has, allegedly.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
We'll see. Hey, all right, everybody. Thanks to Xfinity for bringing us today's Ask Junior segment. Be sure to check out Xfinity WI Fi for booming speeds. Their WI Fi service is fast and for NASCAR fans, that means that, yeah, you're, you know, they're going to raise the bar and you're going to have a great experience. You're going to be able to stream NASCAR and all your favorite sports at booming speeds. Choose the right plan for you, and you're off to the races. It's streaming in overdrive. Xfinity, proud premier partner of NASCAR Kubota.
TJ Majors
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Mike Davis
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TJ Majors
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Mike Davis
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TJ Majors
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Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Place your bets. All right, so it's time for Dirty Modo, and we got a full damn house here. Everybody's here. Tim's squad, Tims and the Professor. Russell. The professor is joining us remotely. Thank you, Russell.
Russell
Thanks for having me.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Let's. Let's get right to it. We can. We can talk about this past weekend at Texas Tim's. Did you have any success?
Tim
Oh, no. God, no. Our best bet did hit, and that was about the only thing your best bet. Our Austin Dillon Top 10. It cashed. Everything else was in position to hit, and then they all crashed. Got screwed by a caution blue and motor something.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
So. Well, we encourage everybody to make these bets on our favorite betting app, which actually sponsors this segment, fanduel. So we did. We. We all did the world of justice by bringing up the Austin Dillon top 10. He goes out there and gets it done. But nothing else worked.
Tim
Nothing else worked.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
No, really, it was. What was. What was. I was gonna do.
Tim
Geez, you're gonna throw a couple guys in the top 10 parliament.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
They didn't get there.
TJ Majors
I think two or three got Ricky. I think you had Ricky.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Did I have Ricky?
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, boy.
Tim
I think the other guy. I forget now, but.
TJ Majors
Oh, it was like Priest or somebody. Priest. Yeah.
Tim
Somebody wrecked.
TJ Majors
Dude, you were. It was. That was good.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I was close.
Tim
Yeah, you were close. That was a big payout, man.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. I forget what I told people to do. Yeah, I should. I should remember.
Tim
I should have wrote it down.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah. Well, we're moving on to Kansas unless there's other sports betting conversations to be had. I know that there is one bet that I am tailing on Fanduel with our boy Travis. And it. And it won last night.
Mike Davis
Cash.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It did. Cash. Good job, buddy.
Mike Davis
I shared it.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
You helped me double my money.
Mike Davis
You're welcome.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Thank you very much. But on to Kansas, we have the favorites. Larson, obviously at plus 400. Byron Reddick. Blaney Hamlin at plus 800. Bell at 1100. Logano and. Wait, did I say Elliot? I didn't. Right. Bail in Lagana or Bell. And sorry, bail's at plus 1100. Logano and Elliott are at 1800. 1800. I like the Reddick bet for a win. I think it, you know, 23, 11 has been amazing there. Everyone knows that.
TJ Majors
What's Bubba?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, that bet.
Tim
2,200.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Dude.
Tim
I know.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Good value there it is. Well, that's what Vegas thinks. Russell, what's the predictor telling us? Well, hold on.
Russell
I'm going to go back to Redick. You said you liked Reddick. I know he was one there, but he's finished 20th or worse in five of the last seven races there. He's finished 20th or worse in the last eight mile and a half races or five mile.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Okay, we're not betting him. We're good. We're getting it. We're getting it.
Russell
I know he's won there. I know 2311 is good there, but that's the one caution I would. I would give you.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
What about Bubba? Bubba, he's.
Russell
He's got that win there, but other than that, he hasn't been great there.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Oh, man. Well, what does the predictor think we should do?
Russell
The predictor agrees a lot with Vegas. Larson, Hamlin, Byron, by far the outstanding favorites. Then Bell, Byron, Elliott, Redick is in there. Chastain, Bucher and Blaney.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Where's the good value?
Tim
I personally think it's Denny Hamlin because he's plus 800, but he should be probably closer to Larson at plus like 450 plus 500.
Mike Davis
Does his where he's going to qualify hinder your thoughts on that though?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Do you know where he's going to qualify? He told the Denny Bros. That he's going to qualify somewhere.
TJ Majors
Well, he's going to.
Mike Davis
He's going to come out early when the track's dirty.
TJ Majors
He's obviously already talked to Travis about this.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
He's coming out early. Dirty track, probably. Really?
Mike Davis
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Dang.
TJ Majors
Does it will hurt his qualifying? Not as bad.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The number might go even better. We might get even better value.
Tim
Yeah, I would hold off anyway. I'm just saying. Plus 800 right now is pretty good, but at worst it's going to go.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Down because he could qualify poorly. The number could get better and we get better value.
Tim
Yes.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And he still wins. We all win.
TJ Majors
Yes.
Russell
23Rd though, so it's not like he doesn't know how to win from back there.
Mike Davis
And the next gen car.
Russell
Let's not talk about that. Travis, come on. It was.
TJ Majors
So why not, you know, what's wrong with. To me a busher, a priest, even a Kyle Busch was running well there last time, so. But you know, Bucher almost won the race.
Tim
Yeah, I'm. This week I'm. I'm focusing on teams that are really Good. And then we'll narrow it down after practice and qualifying. I think rfk great. They have good speed there. Even last week at Texas, I'm looking at raw speed. Had good speed. Spire had some speed. You might look into some of those guys if they, if they practice well.
TJ Majors
To me, Spire has a lot of front end speed like qualifying and practice speed. But they, I have, I don't, don't see it all race yet.
Tim
Yeah, I think McDowell shocked me that he was around at the end.
TJ Majors
Well, it was because of the cautions. If, if we had a long run with the two tires, he would have faded, in my opinion.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, yeah.
Tim
Not, not a bad point there. But I think one team that is going to be fake and to avoid his track house. They have the finishes, but they're like mid 20s in the raw speed and I don't trust that at all.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, Will, can the predictor tell me a good three driver parlay for top 10? No.
Russell
Hey, that's not nice.
Mike Davis
I just want to avoid these parlays.
Russell
What if, what if we did like a busher red or Chastain and Bowman Got it.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's a good top 10 parlay for us.
Russell
That's what I like.
TJ Majors
Bowman's a sleeper there for me.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah, I think so.
Mike Davis
Russ, is there someone on the model that you think is lower than they or they should be higher?
Russell
I would say Joey Logano's 12th and he's been, he's been super good this year and especially on this tire. He's, he's, he's done very well. Like, he's the second best on this tire this year behind Byron.
TJ Majors
Where was the other. Where, where has he been super good at? Because I don't, I mean, I just don't see the speed there quite. And last year, I think the spring race. Pensacar struggled quite a bit at Kansas in the spring race. Got a little bit better in the fall.
Russell
But look at the last two or two of the three mile and a half tracks this year. It was last week that all the Penske guards were fast. And then Vegas.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
All right. I like. I might, I might add a fourth to my top ten parlay. Josh Barry.
Tim
I was gonna say he was.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Remember when he subbed for. I think it was Chase. Nope. 48. I thought he sub. He did, yep. Sub for the 40. He was. I watched him pretty quick. Did pretty good in that race. I know the. Probably didn't get the result, but it's.
TJ Majors
Hard to beat momentum and I feel like Josh and that team's Clicking right now.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
And they.
TJ Majors
So it's hard to.
Tim
Especially on the mile and a half.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yes.
TJ Majors
Yeah, for sure.
Tim
He'd be good top ten bet. So you probably get some good plus one bet. Yep.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I'm gonna do a four driver parlay. Ooh, I'm not really gonna bet, but that's what I would try. Now we're gonna try to remember that I said this right. Where can we write this down? I need like a. We need some. Put it one of those chalkboard paint.
TJ Majors
A little dry erase board.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
We need to paint this wall. Give me some chalk, chalk paint.
Russell
So the other guy like with our. Our NASCAR insights. Dale, our new stats is that Ryan Blaney's been fourth in the speed rating this year at camp in the past at Kansas in the next gen car. He's been third in in 2025 and on like tracks and he's been third in long run speed. And he's the fastest in the passer rating on mile and a half tracks this year. So he's the only one that is is on all those lists.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
But he is way down the list in in beer chug ability and in lane choice.
Mike Davis
Russ, what's Ross Chest staying at Kansas. He's the one of the few drivers that has plus money. He's going head to head against Reddick, who you said hasn't been racing great.
Russell
So I like him. He's got four finishes, a seventh or better in the last six at Kansas with a win last year, and he's finished seventh or better in the last seven races of 20, 25 or five of the last seven. And he's been top 10 in five of the last seven a mile and a half tracks.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, man, that's some good information and we'll see how all this pans out over the weekend. Thank you professor, for gracing us with your expertise, your Emmy winning knowledge.
Russell
Thanks, Dale.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Thank you Tampa Tim's for coming through, man.
Tim
Thank you.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Good job. Kinda. I mean, you didn't really do a good job last week, but I did not know.
Mike Davis
Yeah, but you can't bet on it, so at least you're not betting on it.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I know this sucks for me. Why really does. Because I don't get to play.
Mike Davis
Yeah, but right now you'd be giving you losers.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Well, that's true.
Tim
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I do love the top 10 parlay.
Mike Davis
No, you hate that because you're not going to win.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I know, but I just like the idea of bad over like picking one singular driver.
Mike Davis
Okay, but the reason you shouldn't is you're getting plus money for a driver. You don't need to parlay that.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yeah.
TJ Majors
I'll tell you what.
Tim
I like the one we created today.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I do.
Tim
I like that one.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Do you remember what it was?
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Tim
It was Butcher, Bowman, Chastain, Barry.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Okay, Butcher.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Tim
He said. Well, professor said Butcher.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Did he?
Tim
We could take him off. I would take him off. I like Barry, but I like Barry, Bowman and Chastain better.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Let's leave Butcher. Okay.
TJ Majors
I would leave Butcher.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's a lot though. That's four of the ten spots.
Tim
I know.
TJ Majors
What if it hits?
Tim
We'll bet Bush are separately.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I am not going to bet four drivers. That's two. We got to pick third.
Tim
Could you round robin that maybe he could. I'm not going to get into that though.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
All right, well, thank you fanduel for supporting the Dirty Mo media. I'm sorry. Thank you fanduel for supporting Dirty Modo and it's the premier gaming destination in the United States and especially here at Dirty Mo Media. All right, it's time for the white flag. Head on over to shop.dirtymomedia.com for all our new merch and today is a big day. Our stars and stripes and beers collection drops today. We're we got everything you need for this summer so go check it out@shop dirtymomedia.com the tear down was live immediately after the race on Twitter and YouTube. If you haven't already gotten to to Dirty mo Media on YouTube, you need to subscribe. Turn on notifications. You won't miss all these great shows. Door bumper clear dropped on Monday. They were joined by Rodney children. That's right. Rodney coming in telling us all about his past experience here. He left spire and we'll see what's going on next.
TJ Majors
See what's next for Rodney.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
They had some green. They had some interesting comments too on the all star race and the run. What you wrong idea. Actions detrimental with Denny Hamlin also dropped on Monday. Sunday's race didn't go well for Denny, but his podcast was great.
TJ Majors
Denny didn't win but America did.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's right, Denny Bros. Denny, very sad.
TJ Majors
You got your interview with Todd Bodine coming up Wednesday. How is that gonna be good?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Nope, not a good interview. You'll want to miss this week's.
Mike Davis
Every other interview that TJ heard was good though.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yep.
TJ Majors
Good interview.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Good interview. Yeah. I'm excited to get Todd in here. I caught him a cue ball headed. You did. We'll have to talk about it.
TJ Majors
Pike's Peak, right?
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Yep. Yep. It'll be fun to chat.
TJ Majors
All right, you got Herman Schrader and Speed street also dropping on Wednesday. May is here. Big month of May. You don't want to miss what Connor Daly has to say with the Indy 500 coming up. Big event. He's very knowledgeable on that subject and it'd be awesome.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That's right. On Wednesday. Make sure you check out NASCAR's Full Speed Season 2 on Netflix. Holy. Another episode or another season of full speed on Netflix. We get to rewatch everything that happened in the playoffs last year. Get a little behind the scenes.
TJ Majors
Look, not half speed, but the Denny.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Bros. Had to love that first season.
TJ Majors
Denny Bros.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
They had to love it. Denny was everywhere. Is he gonna be in this one a lot you think? I think so.
Mike Davis
We'll find out.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Denny Bros. Are tuning in. The five episode series gives you a behind the scenes look into some of the drivers that as they battle for their way through the playoffs to try to win the championship. And although we know how it all turned out, seeing some of the behind the scenes and the real personal moments, the good and the bad from some of these drivers is exactly what we need.
TJ Majors
Exactly.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
I'll be tuning in.
TJ Majors
Yeah.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Thursday means another episode of bless your heart. Amy and I were in Miami this weekend for the F1 race. We'll chat about our trip and all kinds of other fun things that we've experienced.
TJ Majors
JRM Fan Day is May 22nd. 8:30am Autograph session. Wristbands will be given out. It's first come first serve, so make sure you get here nice and early. 10:30am Be Dell Jr. Kelly and Wyatt Miller. 1:30pm Carson Copple, Justin Allgaier, Sammy Smith, Connor Zillich and Connor Hall. Also joining Kaden Kwapple.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That'll be a lot of fun with fan day. No Xfinity race next weekend. No car shore race. Enjoy Kansas and everything Kansas has to offer. It is an amazing racetrack that should never be reconfigured or messed with. It should never be reconfigured.
The Dale Jr. Download – Episode: Texas: Don’t Change Nothing
Host: Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Co-Host: TJ Majors
Guest: Joey Logano
Release Date: May 6, 2025
Podcast Network: Dirty Mo Media, SiriusXM
[00:00] Dale Earnhardt Jr.: "I think Texas right now is starting to get into its peak. Don't change nothing, right?"
Dale Earnhardt Jr. opens the episode by highlighting the current state of the Texas racetrack, emphasizing that it has reached an optimal condition that shouldn't be altered. Co-host TJ Majors concurs, reinforcing the sentiment that maintaining the track's current state is beneficial for the racing dynamics.
Notable Quote:
Dale Earnhardt Jr. at [00:00]: "Don't change nothing, right?"
The conversation shifts to Red Bull's ventures into NASCAR and Formula 1. Dale Jr. shares his experiences attending his first F1 race, discussing Red Bull's strategic approach to entering the sport. Unlike their previous attempt 15 years ago, Red Bull is now integrating more thoughtfully by supporting individual athletes like Connor Zillich rather than controlling entire race teams.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
Dale Earnhardt Jr. at [05:05]: "They are getting back into NASCAR, but they're doing it in a very... they're kind of dipping their toe in the water instead of just diving into the deep end."
A significant portion of the discussion revolves around driver performances, particularly focusing on Justin Allgaier, Kyle Larson, and Carson Quappel. Dale Jr. expresses frustration over the inconsistent performances and unforeseen challenges faced by their drivers, attributing some issues to bad luck rather than lack of skill.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
TJ Majors at [03:20]: "We need something."
Dale Earnhardt Jr. at [04:00]: "All the cars run the same speed... they all run the same speed, tj. All the cars just having bad luck."
Dale Jr. delves into the debated topic of NASCAR's minimum speed rule, criticizing its current leniency and advocating for stricter enforcement to maintain race integrity. He argues that the existing threshold allows underperforming vehicles to linger on the track, disrupting the flow and competitive spirit of the races.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
Dale Earnhardt Jr. at [28:25]: "It should be a much more tougher thing to achieve."
TJ Majors at [29:35]: "That's what you think about it."
The hosts reflect on historical racing strategies and their evolution over time. Dale Jr. reminisces about past racing eras characterized by imperfections and spontaneous racing moments, highlighting how these elements contributed to the sport's excitement. He contrasts this with modern NASCAR, where increased regulation and uniformity might be detracting from the sport's unpredictability and thrill.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
Dale Earnhardt Jr. at [25:45]: "That'll never end. And it shouldn't. It's great that we can have those conversations."
Joey Logano joins the episode, providing firsthand insight into his recent race at Texas. He discusses the challenges of the track, particularly the technical and fast aspects that make Texas unique. Logano also shares his thoughts on race strategies, driver emotions, and the importance of maintaining composure under pressure.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
Joey Logano at [69:35]: "It's a tricky track. Like, it's really technical, yet it's really fast. And that makes it pretty unique to have kind of both of those."
The episode wraps up with announcements about upcoming events, including the JRM Fan Day on May 22nd and the release of new merchandise from the Stars and Stripes and Beers collection. Dale Jr. also promotes the NASCAR Full Speed Season 2 on Netflix and hints at future podcast topics, such as a visit to the F1 race in Miami.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
Dale Earnhardt Jr. at [78:51]: "The five episode series gives you a behind the scenes look into some of the drivers that as they battle for their way through the playoffs to try to win the championship."
Throughout the episode, Dale Jr. and co-hosts engage in lighthearted banter, sharing personal stories and anecdotes. Topics range from video gaming experiences to humorous incidents involving team members, adding a relatable and entertaining dimension to the podcast.
Key Points:
Notable Quote:
Dale Earnhardt Jr. at [92:03]: "He was like, hey, man, I'm a... I'm a mass. I have a big appreciation for what you do for sim racing because he's all over it."
Conclusion:
In this episode, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his co-hosts provide an in-depth analysis of the Texas racetrack's current state, driver performances, and broader NASCAR regulations. Through insightful discussions and engaging interviews with drivers like Joey Logano, listeners gain a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and triumphs within the racing community. The episode seamlessly blends technical analysis with personal stories, offering both seasoned fans and newcomers a valuable listening experience.