This Is Where Dale Jr. Draws The Line

Summary

The Dale Jr. Download: "This Is Where Dale Jr. Draws The Line"

Episode Date: April 21, 2026
Podcast Host: Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Co-Host: TJ Majors
Guests & Regulars: Russell, Tyler Reddick, occasional input from various crew
Produced by: Dirty Mo Media, SiriusXM

Episode Overview

In this candid, wide-ranging episode of The Dale Jr. Download, Dale Earnhardt Jr. returns from a vacation with stories and fresh perspective, diving deep into the latest NASCAR weekend's controversies, race strategy, and industry shakeups. The episode is filled with first-hand insights on driver mindset, technical discussions about race incidents, the evolution of NASCAR's drama, and the looming future of the O’Reilly (formerly Xfinity) Series. They also welcome Tyler Reddick—fresh off another win—for a revealing conversation about in-race decision-making, car handling, and strategy at Kansas. As always, Dale and his co-hosts blend humor, honesty, and expert analysis in exploring what’s working (and what’s not) in NASCAR.

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Highlights & Key Themes

1. Vacation Stories & Getting Back to Racing (02:02 – 07:07)

• Dale Jr. recaps his vacation to St. Martin and Anguilla:
  • Relates to winning charity auction trips and why they’re a steal (02:02–03:13).
  • Rents a “Moke” (golf cart-like vehicle)—finds it’s rough and impractical.
  • Loses his phone after it flies out of the Moke, ultimately finds it using tech features, but it's destroyed (04:12–06:13).
• Re-adjusting after time off:
  • "It's like waking up out of a coma. You're like, what year is it? What all is going on?" – Dale Jr. (06:56)
  • Admits it’s harder to plug back into NASCAR news after a trip.

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2. Kansas Race Recap & Cautions Controversy (07:16 – 18:22)

• Struggle to "Plug in" to Racing While Away:
  • “When I'm on a trip, it's hard for me to like plug into NASCAR … I just got it ingrained in my head that I ain't gonna watch the race today.” – Dale Jr. (07:16)
• Carson’s Flip Incident:
  • Shocking news by text about a big crash (“Carson flipped”). Ruins Dale’s evening. (07:24–08:41)
  • Discusses how race context and driver safety change one's reaction.
• Debate Over Cody Ware’s Spin & Race’s Only Natural Caution:
  • Dale and the crew pick apart whether Ware’s incident was avoidable or a necessary element of racing drama.
  • "We need more of those crashes and spins. We need self-spins. We need engine failures. We need things that are natural, naturally, you know, clunky." – Dale Jr. (10:43)
  • “As soon as you realize you can’t gain spots, you’re supposed to pull in?” – Dale Jr. (11:21)
• Decline in Natural Cautions Over the Years:
  • Technical improvements “scienced out to perfection” have made cars more reliable, hence fewer cautions.
  • “You're not going to have … failures. … It was common. We don't have that no more.” – Dale Jr. (17:47)

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3. Tyler Reddick’s Kansas Win: Analysis and In-Race Decisions

With Guest: Tyler Reddick
(57:24 – 76:36)

• Breakdown of Winning Move:
  • Dale probes how Tyler “sent it” so deep into the final corner.

    “Did you think in your mind, like, I'm just gonna send it in there and see what happens, or did you just have that much confidence in the car?” – Dale Jr. (57:25)

  • Tyler responds:

    “In hindsight … it looked like a real power move. But honestly, I think it just really shows how off, you know, the five was …” – Tyler Reddick (58:22)

• Thoughts on the Overtime Caution:
  • Chaos of late-race cautions, being "focused on winning the race but … just want to get out of here in one piece” – Tyler Reddick (62:16)
  • Dive into how aero and positioning work in the Next Gen cars, especially in tight three-wide situations.
  • TJ and Tyler discuss the huge effect of side-drafting and aero in door-to-door battles (64:18).
• Fuel Scare Near the End:
  • Tyler had a fuel pump malfunction, not a shortage, and explains mentally juggling points, pit decisions, and handling changes at high speeds (67:42).
• Tire Wear and Race Strategy:
  • Tyler details how pushing tires past their limits at Kansas changed his approach and actually set up his win (69:41).
• Talladega Strategy Previews:
  • New stage and fuel rules add complexity; Tyler expects more mixed strategies and must adapt mid-race (71:29–76:20).

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4. Are Dominant Teams Cheating? Debunking Conspiracies (18:29 – 21:07)

• Dale and crew tackle recurring fan conspiracy theories regarding teams “cheating” or NASCAR “setting up” wins for stars.
• “There's no way in hell NASCAR would risk the integrity of the entire sport. … What does it reward them?” – Dale Jr. (18:38)
• Acknowledgment that everyone in the garage “pushes the limits” but NASCAR oversight is tight:
  • “Everyone cheats. … Now, there's probably … not blatant, like, pure illegal parts anymore at the Cup level.” – Dale Jr. (20:40)

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5. NASCAR Team Silos, Struggles, and Future Moves (24:26 – 32:53)

• Kyle Busch and RCR’s Struggles:
  • Discussion of fraught team dynamics, professionalism on the radio, and Dale reflecting on his own career lows vs Busch’s current challenges.
  • Speculation on potential team moves—“weird feeling” Kyle Busch might end up at Spire, citing relationships and logic (29:05).
• Silly Season & Driver Market:
  • Up to 20 drivers rumored to be in contract years—expect earlier-than-usual “silly season” drama (30:47).
  • What defines a good fit for drivers desperate to return to winning (31:12).

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6. Industry Trends & Intermediate Track Racing (32:12–36:48)

• Intermediate Track “Snoozers”:
  • Dale says he’s not worried about the entertainment value unless multiple poor races stack up.
  • Strategy and tire wear discussed as keys to unlocking more exciting racing.
• Changing Pit Strategies:
  • The impact of stage points and cautions on splitting runs, with speculation about what could change if NASCAR scrapped some current stage break rules (33:18–35:33).

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7. Trackhouse, Rebuilding on the Fly & Competitive Gaps

(35:33 – 42:43)

• Trackhouse’s Slump:
  • “It's interesting Justin used the term rebuild … Rebuild isn't a NASCAR term.” – Dale Jr. (41:33)
  • Big off-season changes, team still finding rhythm; Ross Chastain, Shane van Gisbergen, and newcomers discussed.
• Cup Series Resembling F1 in Organizational Gaps:
  • “It's morphed more into F1 style where it's like this organization has the speed, right?” – Dale Jr. (40:13)
  • Denny Hamlin’s comments on how much of a car’s performance is “fixed” on arrival, not fixable at the track.

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8. Next Gen Car Evolution, Less Parity, and Trouble Diagnosing Issues (42:43–46:46)

• Teams struggle to fix cars at the track due to tight regulations and short practices.
• Practices can't offset the realities of bringing a less competitive car, and alliances may or may not yield access to key test data.
• The advantage of test sessions at abrasive or unique tracks (like upcoming Chicago test)—huge for those able to attend, as data won’t be equally shared.
• Debate: Should test access be open for all teams? Dale: "I think … for Chicago … it might have been better to have an open test.” (48:19)
• Technical thoughts on tire wear management, bump navigation, and setup secrecy.

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9. The O'Reilly (Xfinity) Series: Change, Electrification & Preservation (51:04 – 56:13)

• Discussion of John Probst’s comments about CUV body and electrification for the series.
  • Dale is resolute:

    “I think making a switch to anything unlike what we have would be a massive, massive mistake. And it would probably be … the end of the … rise that we're going up.” (55:01)

  • Suggests just modernizing key parts—not a radical new platform or electric spec.
  • Strong stand: “I don't want any of the parts … in the current cup car. I don't want no influence at all…”

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10. Listener Q&A, Fun Stories & Off-Track Banter (79:08 – 91:29)

• Advice for Mother's Day:
  • "Shoo her away for the day. She wants to leave. She doesn't want to have to be a mom or a wife that day.” – Dale Jr. (79:25)
  • "The man app": An app that automates gift-giving reminders and orders, a running joke for years.
• Childhood collectibles & nostalgia over comic books and trading card stories.
• Bucket list travels: Dale wants to see Japan "the right way," drive from Vancouver to Alaska, or live on a boat for a while.
  • Fascination with 'Alaskan log raft adventures’ and the serenity of being unplugged (88:29–90:09).

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11. Betting Segment: Dirty Mo Doe (96:30 – 108:14)

• Talladega is “a crapshoot”—no science, all gut and survival bets this week.
• Reddick, Byron, and crash-avoidance specialists recommend as smart bets.
• Championship betting:
  • Reddick, Hamlin, and Larson called out as top choices, and why this year’s field feels “normal.”
  • Fascination with ever-changing “favorites,” yet, also confidence the real contenders are standing out this year.

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• On modern car reliability:
  “All the little things like the oil, the systems in the engines, and in the cars. All that stuff has been scienced out to perfection. … And they don’t fail. … We don’t have that no more.” – Dale Jr. (17:05)

• Fan conspiracy talk:
  “There’s no way in hell NASCAR would risk the integrity of the entire sport. … What does it reward them?” – Dale Jr. (18:38)

• On the importance of natural drama:
  “I think I want our races to have more things that happen with Cody Ware.” – Dale Jr. (13:53)

• On electrification in the O’Reilly series:
  “I would not be interested in that. I don’t think Junior Motorsports would be interested in that.” – Dale Jr. (55:01)

• On being unprepared after vacation:
  “It’s like waking up out of a coma. … I don’t remember what I was doing when I left … what tasks that I need to continue that I was in the middle of.” – Dale Jr. (77:50)

• On handling big changes at Trackhouse:
  “Rebuild isn’t a NASCAR term.” – Dale Jr. (41:33)

• On race day unpredictability at Talladega:
  “This is Talladega. This is Daytona. This is a crapshoot.” – Dale Jr. (99:18)

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Engaging Moments

• The running joke about the Moke and losing his phone (03:24–06:13): Dale’s storytelling kicks the show off with humor and humility.
• Heated but funny banter over “everybody cheats” in NASCAR, but how hard it is to get away with it now (20:40–21:08).
• Detailed technical racing breakdown with Reddick: especially his explanation of how “side force” pushes cars wide, and the arrow differences in Next Gen vs. Gen 6 (64:18–65:20).
• Vulnerable reflections from Dale on being in Kyle Busch’s shoes during a bad stretch (26:41).
• Practical life advice and inventions—the “man app” for never forgetting birthdays or anniversaries (79:08–81:50).

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:02] – Dale’s Charity Vacation Recap & Moke Test Drive
• [07:16] – Kansas Crash, Plugging Back into NASCAR
• [10:43] – Natural Caution Debate & Denny’s Frustration
• [18:38] – Cheating and NASCAR Conspiracy Talk
• [29:05] – Kyle Busch’s Future & Silly Season Preview
• [35:33] – Trackhouse’s Growing Pains & F1 Parallels
• [42:43] – Tech Tests, Setup Secrets, and Tire Talk
• [51:04] – O’Reilly Series Electric Car Proposal Debate
• [57:24] – Tyler Reddick: Kansas Win Analysis
• [71:29] – Talladega Strategy & Changes
• [79:08] – Ask Junior: Parenting, Collecting, and Vacation Dreams
• [96:30] – Dirty Mo Doe: Betting on Talladega/Championships

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Summary Takeaways

• This episode is NASCAR "insider radio" at its best: thoroughly breaking down driver psychology, team politics, and rulebook nuances, with laughter and real talk.
• If you missed Kansas, you’ll feel like you watched after this, from the wild finish to the tire and fuel challenges.
• Dale's authenticity stands out—from “drawing the line” against change-for-change’s-sake in series, to embracing the chaos and luck at Talladega.
• Tyler Reddick’s segment is a must-listen for technical racing fans, especially on modern car handling and the risks of late-race restarts.
• For fans wondering who’s really in championship contention, the crew lays it bare: this isn’t shaping up for a fluke title; the best are rising, and chaos may not save the mid-pack.

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For more and to join the conversation, check out Dirty Mo Media across all channels.

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(All advertisements, promotional intros/outros, and off-topic material omitted.)

Transcript

[TJ Majors]

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[Dale Jr.]

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[Tyler Reddick]

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[TJ Majors]

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[Dale Jr.]

If you're like me, you have a lot of things on your mind. Work things, family things. What's for dinner things. So here's one last thing to think about. Protecting your engine. Just swing by your local take five for an oil change and ask for Pennzoil Platinum. Full synthetic motor oil. It helps protect against wear, keeps your engine running clean and gives you the kind of peace of mind you don't have to overthink. Just remember one thing. Ask for Pennzoil Platinum by name at your local Take 5 Pennzoil. Long may we drive? Hey everybody, it's Dale Jr. Welcome again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download here in the Arby's studio with my co host TJ Majors. Don't forget about Arby's new meet in 3Box. Get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meats and we've got a great show for you today. The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. This is the most fun I've had in this chair in the last hour and a half. Yes.

[TJ Majors]

I don't know if we've ever argued. Did I piss you off over the

[Dale Jr.]

week weekend or I'm still sour that I was the best man at your wedding.

[Russell]

Who was your best man, Dale?

[Dale Jr.]

Tj. Tj, you don't need a cool vest for that race. What are you thinking? Get him, TJ Elway to start the show.

[TJ Majors]

All right then.

[Dale Jr.]

Hey Everybody, it's Dale Jr. Back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. And it's Tuesday. Co host TJ Majors is here. How's it going?

[TJ Majors]

Hey, how's it going, Brett? You back in the swing of things?

[Dale Jr.]

No, not really. Went out on a trip to St. Martin's we went to a couple different. We went to Anguilla and a couple other spots. They're all little boat trips but we spent four days there. It was fun. We had bought this trip at a charity auction. We go. We go to all the charity auctions around town, right? With drivers, invite you and they come to yours. And you want them to come to yours, you go to theirs. Right. And every one of them probably has a. Some kind of a trip. Yeah, A little vacation getaway and those never. And I've experienced this happens at my own. They never go in auction for what they're worth. Really. Never. And you can get some of these at very, very good bargains. And so we always bid on the trip because it's more than likely going to go for less than it's worth. And if we can't take the trip, we'll. We'll give it to our employee of the year here at Junior motorsports. We'll use it somehow. We might even. I don't know, We. We find somehow to. To use it. But we had a great trip while we were on the trip. And I'm sure we'll talk about this a lot on Thursday with. Bless your heart. But while we were on a trip, I rented one of them. We get a mochi.

[Russell]

Right.

[Dale Jr.]

You know, or moke, whatever they call them things. A little golf cart thing. It's a little bigger in a golf cart. They call them mokes. And we've seen them all over Charleston and stuff, and we just never got one. We thought about it, but they're. Yeah. I don't know. They're just. I don't know. It's kind of like a car, right?

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, it's a little bit car, but not a car.

[Dale Jr.]

Yep. Yep. So a little large. Like, golf carts are convenient because of the size. You park them anywhere. Mokes are getting back into the car size. And you don't really. I don't know. You don't. I. I'm like. Only four people can ride on it. My golf cart. Six can be. So I'm not buying one. You know, we just look at them and wonder how they are. Wonder what it's like to have one. We rented one while we were at this house, and I'm gonna tell you, man, that ain't got no suspension on it. It is the roughest. It is the roughest riding.

[TJ Majors]

Really.

[Dale Jr.]

Damn it.

[TJ Majors]

So it didn't do itself favors.

[Dale Jr.]

Listen, it's in St. Martin's the roads are. The roads are kind of being banged up. You know, the roads are what they are. It's okay. But riding around in the mope, no suspension on a damn thing. I mean, all. Basically all the suspension you got is a sidewall of the tire. It's rough as. And so I'm damn glad I didn't never mess with one of them. Things also, we were riding home from dinner, and the moke, when you. As you. When you sit in the moat, there's no door, right? So my phone.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, no.

[Dale Jr.]

Went on out the moke. Going home from dinner. Okay. We get back to the house and I'm just kind of looking around for my phone. I'm like, man, I must have left it at the restaurant. I gotta run back to the restaurant. It's only a half mile. Mile of the road. So we riding up. We. Me and. Me and my buddy, we got to getting that damn mocha. Haul ass to the damn restaurant. Phone ain't there. I'm walking around. I got my Garmin watch. And when my Garmin watch is near the phone, I'll start getting the texts and alerts and stuff. I'm not getting. I'm walking around everywhere. We were in this little area. It's kind of like a little Burkedale.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

If you will. And there's restaurants and all kinds of stuff. So we're kind of wandering around and man, am I phone. It. It just ain't there. But I'm convinced it's there. It's gotta be. So we drive back home. We get back home, and long story short, the phone ended up exiting my pocket on the way home in a turn and ended up on the road. Got drove, run over a bunch. So the phone is destroyed, but it sent Amy a text that I had. We had been in accident.

[Russell]

Oh, yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

It's like, hey, sos. Sos. Dale's been in a crash. So it saw, you know, saw these G forces and was with Amy when the text.

[Russell]

When this alert got sent out. Yeah, okay, that's good.

[Dale Jr.]

And so she's like, well, there's, you know, here it is in this turn on the street. So we went to.

[TJ Majors]

So that showed you where the accident was.

[Dale Jr.]

Went right to the spot. There's the phone making noise like, hey, I'm over here. And I've been in Iraq. Help me. I had my iPad so I could still communicate with folks and receive text messages and then answer emails and stuff, but I'm getting a new phone. And again, I'm integrating into society after this. These trips tough, you know, apparently you go. I don't know how y' all are about trips, but if I go on a trip, when I come home, it's like, I've been going a year.

[Russell]

Yes. 100.

[Dale Jr.]

Yes.

[Russell]

You're like, how? Like, I don't want to. I don't want to work. I don't want to. Like, I want to Wake up and have drinks at 9am I don't want to.

[TJ Majors]

No, it's definitely, definitely more of an adjustment.

[Russell]

Even like a two day trip is.

[Dale Jr.]

It's like waking up out of a coma. You're like, what year is it? Yeah, what's, what's, what all. What all is going on.

[TJ Majors]

It definitely gets harder. I feel like as you get older

[Russell]

too, I know you're on.

[Dale Jr.]

I don't know how to say this too. And I think I need to be honest about this. And I don't know how to say this and I don't want anybody to take this the wrong way.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, boy.

[Dale Jr.]

But I was like, when I'm on a trip, it's hard for me to like plug into NASCAR. You know what I mean?

[Russell]

Oh, 100%.

[Dale Jr.]

I just, I just got it ingrained in my head that I ain't gonna watch the race today. So we're sitting there at dinner and I get a text message from. Or Kelly. Text messages, Amy Carson flipped. Does Dale know? And I'm like, flipped out. Talladega's next week. We doing flipping. We could flip it Daytona. We could flip at Talladega. We ain't supposed to flip anywhere else.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

And, and, and I went from, hey, man, thing. It's going to be cool. They gonna race. I'll check in. I'll see how they finish to 10 out of 10. Smoke coming out of my ears, dinner ruined, night ruined. Like, what in the. And so I watch a video of it. I'm like, how in the hell. I'm like, they come off the corner and he hits him and they wreck. What is going on? And then William Byron text me in the morning and he's like, man, I'm so sorry. He's like, I was just trying to go. And I got up. He's like, I'm sorry.

[TJ Majors]

I up.

[Dale Jr.]

And I'm like, damn it. And so that sucked. Yeah, sucked.

[TJ Majors]

So it sucked being there too, dude.

[Dale Jr.]

I bet. Yeah, I'm sure. I think I would have rather had been there than to learn that in the Caribbean. Yeah, you're trying, you're trying to, you know, half drunk, trying to drink a Mai Tai or a, you know, I will say cold beers.

[TJ Majors]

The only saving thing was probably when you probably found out, you probably already knew that everything, he was okay and all that.

[Dale Jr.]

Yes, of course.

[TJ Majors]

So. Because there was a time, I don't know if you knew this or not. It didn't. He couldn't talk to us.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, well.

[TJ Majors]

And that wasn't the fun part, so.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, I'm sure it wasn't a lot of fun banging around, bouncing down the back straightaway in that, you know, cocoon of a headrest. Hard ass foam on that day. Yeah, it was bouncing his little head around in there pretty good.

[TJ Majors]

The asphalt hits were definitely.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, well. And then Sunday, you know, watched all the highlights, watched a bit, you know, thankfully on YouTube, they throw the highlights together and put it on there and you can watch, you know, chunks of the race or all the race or whatever. So I, I learned that the only natural yellow was Cody Ware. Cody Ware spinning out. And there were some, you know, there's some opinions around that. So we're going to talk about that. But I mean, you know, Kyle Petty, I watched a little content with Kyle Petty and, and they're like, hey, man, that's just the way life is. You know, sometimes people spin out. It sucks. And I totally get how Denny feels because you, you race all day long. I don't care if you're going to win, you're going to run second, third, or fourth or whatever. You run all day long and you're like, how can we not got finish a couple more laps without spinning out? But it just happens. And so there's a side of me that totally gets where Denny's coming from. From. If I'm, if I'm the race car driver, I, I'm 100% on Denny's side. But at the same time, golly, man, that was the only natural yellow we had all day long. Like, we don't. We need more of those crashes and spins. We need self spins, we need engine failures. We need things that are natural, naturally, you know, clunky.

[Russell]

But this one is just a dumb one.

[Dale Jr.]

You're like, I know.

[Russell]

Yeah, you're. No, no. What I'm saying though is here, you got five minutes.

[Dale Jr.]

Get it out of your system. Go ahead.

[Russell]

You're five or six laps down. You just got into the wall. Why are you not bringing him in? You can't make up a spot.

[Dale Jr.]

Why would you bring him in? Why does he gotta quit?

[TJ Majors]

He was racing somebody, wasn't he? I thought I read he was racing two other cars.

[Russell]

He can't make up a spot.

[Tyler Reddick]

Like why?

[Dale Jr.]

What difference does it make?

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I mean, if there's a right.

[Dale Jr.]

If as soon as you realize you can't gain spots, you're supposed to pull in, get off.

[TJ Majors]

There was no other car within a lap of him.

[Dale Jr.]

That's some entitlement. That's a new level of entitlement.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, that is. That's not right.

[Russell]

He just got on the wall there on like 60 lap, like, okay, well,

[TJ Majors]

Tyler Reddick got in the wall and didn't pit either.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, I mean, when he also was

[Russell]

racing for the win.

[TJ Majors]

Well, running their own race.

[Dale Jr.]

He should hit the wall. He could spin out and ruin somebody else's race. He should pit.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, everyone's running their own race. That Denny's race is no more important than. Than any other car out there, in their opinion.

[Russell]

You're on old tires. You know it. You just got into the wall. Why wouldn't you?

[TJ Majors]

He didn't just get in the wall. He got into the wall way before that.

[Russell]

Bring the car in.

[Dale Jr.]

That's all like, bring it in for what?

[Russell]

I'm all like, what do you want him to do?

[Dale Jr.]

Put a brand new tire, tires on it for five laps.

[TJ Majors]

He ran more than. He ran more than like, a lap.

[Dale Jr.]

He got $5,000 a lap.

[TJ Majors]

I don't think the tire cut.

[Russell]

Because if we're worried about the tire, like, we've got a. There's a bigger issue at hand than if they're making decisions because of money.

[Dale Jr.]

Everybody does for a set of tires is the, like, I mean, it's five laps to go. Why would you put on a set, ruin them for five laps?

[TJ Majors]

I don't think they're just trying to save a set of tires. I think they're trying to gain as many spots because he pitches way more laps down.

[Dale Jr.]

If he's sitting here, it's the same. If he's sitting here, it's absolutely fair to say. Cudi Ware, finish the race. Don't spin.

[Russell]

I don't think Cody Ware's fault. I think it's the team and Tommy even admitted that.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, I think. How come the guy can't get to the finish line? Did he have flat?

[TJ Majors]

But, like, what. What did it.

[Dale Jr.]

You know, did he know he had a flat?

[Russell]

I mean, he was complaining about issues before.

[Dale Jr.]

When did he hit the wall lap? Many, many laps before. How.

[TJ Majors]

How far before, tj it was quite a ways before a couple from what I was. From what I. The info that I gathered on it.

[Dale Jr.]

Several corners.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, several laps.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. Okay, so he just had like 60 laps. You think the flat tire was random?

[TJ Majors]

I think it was wore out. Oh, totally.

[Dale Jr.]

Down to the fab fabric.

[TJ Majors]

I think it was wore out. Yeah. I'm just guessing. But 60 laps was a long way. People were hurting tires in 35 to 40.

[Dale Jr.]

Hey, all right. I mean, that to me, is a natural. Just a happenstance. It sucks.

[TJ Majors]

But let's be honest. I mean, Denny, like, just got the lead because of a kind of a lucky break.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, he got the lead because Tyler was running out of fuel or had a fuel issue. I don't know if you saw that.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, I did.

[TJ Majors]

So it's not like Denny had this gigantic lead.

[Russell]

This isn't like a anything for me.

[TJ Majors]

What is it?

[Dale Jr.]

I think I want our races to have more things that happen with Cody Ware.

[Russell]

Agree. But I don't want it.

[Dale Jr.]

Sorry it happened. Sorry it bothered something that you enjoyed.

[TJ Majors]

I don't want it. I don't want it to ruin Denny's race.

[Tyler Reddick]

Three.

[Russell]

No, I don't want it with three to go with the guy that's five laps down spinning on his own.

[TJ Majors]

Well, they don't control that well.

[Dale Jr.]

He didn't spin on his own. Flat tire.

[TJ Majors]

He wasn't like, watch this guy. Here we go.

[Dale Jr.]

Apparently he had a flat tire.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. You ever driven a cup car with a flat tire?

[Russell]

I haven't driven a cup car, period. But that is. I don't think that matters, though.

[Dale Jr.]

I, you know, But I do think

[Russell]

your point of lack of cautions is.

[Dale Jr.]

Oh, like, I. When I was watching the highlights and Mike Joyce said the first natural caution of the day, I was like, I feel terrible.

[TJ Majors]

Overtime.

[Dale Jr.]

I felt terrible for all the people that watched that whole thing in full. Yeah.

[Russell]

Why do you think we're having so little?

[Tyler Reddick]

Is it.

[Russell]

I think Gluck said maybe. Is it because of the playoff format and people racing differently or.

[Dale Jr.]

No, no. I mean, dude, we don't. We. We haven't had many natural yellows for the last 25 years.

[Russell]

I mean, this is, according to NASCAR and sites, the fewest amount of cautions. There's many races since 2012.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, Kansas, usually.

[Dale Jr.]

So in 2012, what was going on?

[TJ Majors]

I don't remember.

[Russell]

You tell me.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, I think it's just the car is just not as. I mean, the lack of yellows has been. The lack of, like, natural yellows has been a thing for 25 years. It's not. I mean, some years there's a little more, A little less, whatever. But 2012. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you go back to 2002, 2004. We started having less yellows. We started having less engine failures. We started having less guys running over each other, accidentally spinning out on their own by themselves. Cars got more downforce. Cars got more grip for the cars, got easier to drive. You know, I, I, I think if a. I think if you had a driver come in here and sit down and give you, give us their honest opinion. They would say that, you know, the guys aren't going to bust their ass driving these cars. When we first introduced the next gen, you had a lot of failures, tire failures. You had a lot of guys busting their ass over correcting, crashing into the wall. You had all kinds of things. But they've made them better. They figured them out. They've gotten more stability. They've given the drivers what they've asked for, and that's a good car. And when they've got all got really pretty decent, solid race cars out there, they can get them to the finish line. All right, that's your job. Your job is to get it to the finish line without doing something stupid. I don't really know what the answer is. The engines are bulletproof for the most part. There's not a lot of part failures. There's not a lot of little nuance.

[TJ Majors]

You know, you said one or two a weekend.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. And it doesn't. I'm not talking about just breaking rods and breaking cams. I'm saying, like, there's all the little things like the oil, the systems in the, in the engines and then the cars. All that stuff has been scienced out to perfection. And they have spent millions of dollars developing all this technology on these cars that cannot fail. And they don't. They don't fail. They don't. Yeah. You're not going to have like a oil pump break and starve the engine of oil and break it like you used to have in the, you know, in the 2000s or 90s or 80s. You're not going to have fan belts flying off and breaking power steering pumps and things. You know, we used to have guys

[TJ Majors]

that would say natural failures.

[Dale Jr.]

What happened, man? Al Fan belt came off. Yeah. And the water pump seized up. This happened. That happened.

[TJ Majors]

And it was time and chain. It was common.

[Dale Jr.]

Common. Yeah. We don't have that no more.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

And so, you know, you know what's

[TJ Majors]

incredible to me is watching like that last lap with Tyler, you go back and watch Zen car, the amount of speed that he carries to catch. When I look down at the start finish line and we're running six, seven, something like that. And I looked at the lead Larson had. I thought Larson had the race in the bag. And then the amount of speed and throttle that Tyler can carry in that car around the bottom. Oh, my gosh.

[Dale Jr.]

Believe it.

[TJ Majors]

Like, it's incredible.

[Dale Jr.]

I couldn't believe he drove in there

[TJ Majors]

like he did and got. He almost cleared him in One and two from like.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

When they went by this finish line, he was like five, seven car lengths back.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

And almost clears Larson through one and two. And then it was like an incredible move.

[Dale Jr.]

And there's a lot of people that think that there's some sort of conspiracy just because the guys win a lot of races. That's not. That's not happening. There's no way in hell NASCAR would do. I know. I just got to say it. So people out there that really, truly believe this, there's no way in hell that NASCAR would risk the integrity of the entire sport. Everything they've built, everything that the sport is hinging on, and for what? What does it reward them?

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. What are they getting?

[Dale Jr.]

What are they getting out of it?

[Russell]

So it's also. Would be really hard to pull off, even. Let's say they wanted to.

[Dale Jr.]

It is.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

There would be so many people that would be in on this, and I'm talking about people that are making. Making a base salary. You think that guy gives a. You know, he's the one keeping the secret.

[Russell]

I'm sure Rick Hendrick signed off on this one. Yeah, I'm good with 26.

[TJ Majors]

Hey, Kyle, we're gonna need you to lift a little bit, one and two, so Tyler can pass you. Make it look good. Yeah. Okay. Right.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, some people out there really think it.

[Russell]

It's everywhere.

[Dale Jr.]

Coincidence. It is the craziest coincidence for sure. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, a few like Tyler's wins, they have just a lot. Like, three of them have lined up. Atlanta lined up perfectly.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Daytona 500 lined up perfectly.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

And this is the same thing. He got to run. It lines up just right. They've just. They've got speed right now. Darlington, they were. I mean, they've got speed. They've got fast cars.

[Russell]

189 laps. That's it.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tyler Reddick]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

And Tyler's just making it. Things are working out right for him. You don't even know what he's doing. He's not doing anything different right now than he was probably a year ago. And it's just working out so good. I mean, good for them.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. I'm. I'm. I wonder how long they can sustain the. The success before, you know, another team or another organization gets up in there and starts. Starts having that type. Similar type success, but

[TJ Majors]

it's just evolving all the time.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. Five wins, nine starts.

[TJ Majors]

It's crazy.

[Dale Jr.]

Insane.

[Russell]

No stage wins.

[Dale Jr.]

We've seen it before.

[TJ Majors]

Good time to be negotiated.

[Dale Jr.]

It's very rare, but it's, you know, yeah, it is. It is interesting, but I don't. I mean, are they cheating? I don't think that they're cheating more than anyone else. Everyone cheats. Everyone. I mean, there are. There are all. Now, there's probably. No, I don't think there's blatant, like, pure illegal parts anymore at the cup level. I just don't think. There are.

[TJ Majors]

Not like there used to be.

[Dale Jr.]

No. NASCAR's done a really good job of being able to kind of make the. The way the car's built, put together, bought, made. It's. It's. It's really hard for teams. So it's hard for teams to make a part that's not the part and get away with it and ever. But everyone in the garage is pushing everything to and beyond some limits and working in a lot of gray areas. And they're doing. They're doing it better than anybody else.

[Russell]

I mean, you hear after every race, the crew chief telling the driver, go pick up some rubber on your. They know that because the tolerance is so small.

[Dale Jr.]

That's right. And so Tyler and his team are. They're not going to races and dominating. They're going to races and they're running in the top five. And then when some goes down at the end, they're there. He's the kind of guy that's going to fire. Fire off and get up on the wheel and make something pretty impressive happen, like Briscoe.

[TJ Majors]

Briscoe was pretty far back on that last green. White checker. And where did he restart? Do you know? He restarted like in 11th or what?

[Russell]

I was going to say 10th. And. But he was. Was he the first on four tires?

[TJ Majors]

He was. And he got up to. What'd he get to? Third.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, that's pretty good.

[Russell]

Meanwhile, Briscoe dropped to 20th.

[Dale Jr.]

But you just said Briscoe dropped 20.

[Russell]

Sorry. Bell.

[Dale Jr.]

Bell. He got hit. Yeah, he got ran into the wall.

[TJ Majors]

That's another thing.

[Dale Jr.]

Like, there's a lot of contract there late in the race.

[Russell]

Those Toyotas, they don't. They get into each other.

[Dale Jr.]

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[Russell]

I mean, we, I, we really didn't like talk about it. He mentioned it like I know Kyle's been talking about it. I honestly don't think Kyle has watched the entire 13 minutes.

[Dale Jr.]

No.

[TJ Majors]

Well, so he's gonna watch 13 minutes of that. Kyle's not gonna watch 13 minutes.

[Dale Jr.]

I'll bet you a hundred thousand dollars his ass ain't watched the 13 minutes of it. If anything, he heard he probably in the way, the way this world works. He probably got a text from somebody about it. Hey guys. Talking about you. And then he goes to the racetrack and the media asks him about it and he goes, mother. Talking about me. I'd swap cars with him any day, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so Kyle's like, you know, that's kind of how it probably happened.

[Russell]

But hey, it's good for the sport.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, I guess. I. Yeah, I mean, I don't know, man. It's just, it's odd to watch watch them struggle the way they have. Jim went over there from here to be the crew chief. They came out of the gate with, with a great performance in qualifying at Daytona. And you know, it's kind of been tough ever since all the while Austin Dillon, you know, his kind of, you know, running. Where's Austin? He's, he's.

[TJ Majors]

He actually, he. I don't think he qualifies as great

[Dale Jr.]

as he doesn't qualify great. And he doesn't. They've not been great rcr RCR is not good right now. They're just not. You know, it's okay to say that. It's fair judgment, it's fair criticism, but Austin Dillon will if Austin Dillon's cars of 18th place car, he seems to kind of get home in 18th.

[TJ Majors]

I feel like Austin has been anywhere between 10th and 15th a lot. Just not noticeable, but just kind of there.

[Dale Jr.]

I know. I agree. And Kyle keeps having problems every week. You know, I think they would probably run just as good as Austin if they weren't having the issues.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

I don't know what that is, but it's. Kyle is a first ballot hall of famer. Dude is still a badass race car driver and he's just not having a good time right now.

[TJ Majors]

No.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

And it's hard for Kyle to go and when the car is not running good. Like you said, if you have an 18th place car, you can't just run 10th with.

[Dale Jr.]

And I'll be honest, a long time ago, there was a bit of a spat between me and him that was kind of ongoing. And every week in the media, the media would go to him or go to me and try to get a sound bite. And I was struggling with Lance and we were between, you know, between crew chiefs. And he said to the media, said, it's never the crew chiefs fault or it's never Dale's fault. It's always, you know, it's always the creatures. Never Dale's fault, is it, you know, really thing. And I mean, it's kind of what he's dealing with now, you know, and it's very similar. It's very. It is. It is very similar. He's in a. He's in a bad spot. He's in a car that ain't going.

[TJ Majors]

And he's running better.

[Dale Jr.]

His teammates doing better. Yeah. Or finishing, you know, running the, you know, getting the better results. But to Kyle's credit, when I listen to the radio, from where. From what I have heard, Kyle is remained relatively professional.

[Russell]

Agree.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. I would say more than I would probably expect. Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. So now there's other things happening on channel two between the spotter and the crew chief that are strange because you would think you would get that kind of from the driver, but the driver is actually the one that sounds the most professional out of the three. Right. Because on. On channel two, the which you talked about this, the crew, the crew chiefs and the drivers will go to channel two and say all kinds of crew chief inspired. Sorry, Spotter, the crew chiefs and spiral go to China too. And they, they, there's no filter over there. They just say whatever the hell's on their mind, you can't do that anymore. All their frustrations.

[TJ Majors]

You can't do it.

[Dale Jr.]

You can't. No, that's not happening on other radios anymore.

[TJ Majors]

Now it's. Everything's recorded and on there. Even like when people listen, it's like if you're listening on the app or something, it plays Channel one and channel two. Like, it doesn't, doesn't separate them. So people be like, oh, I heard this. And I'm like, that wasn't on channel one. But it won't be. You just can't say anything.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Not like we used to.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, my, my guess if I had to predict what's. What ends up happening. Kabush ends up getting an opportunity that gets him, gets him back toward the front of the field.

[Russell]

Hope so. But where, where would you.

[Dale Jr.]

I would. I just got a weird feeling he's gonna end up at Spire for some reason.

[Russell]

As you said, that's the team that's got some speed.

[TJ Majors]

He's driven there, he's won there. He's one of their trucks.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

And stuff. So.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. And they would probably absolutely take him.

[TJ Majors]

Well, him and Jeff Dickerson have a past as well.

[Dale Jr.]

A good one.

[TJ Majors]

Jeff spotted for him.

[Dale Jr.]

I think when you say somebody has a pass.

[TJ Majors]

No good. I mean they have a relationship.

[Dale Jr.]

All right. I didn't know if they had an argument.

[TJ Majors]

I didn't know they have a good relationship. No, no.

[Dale Jr.]

I would, I could see him getting over there. I think that he ends up getting in a decent car by. Before it's all said and done. Like he's not going to, it's not, he's not going to drive cars. He's not going to drive cars that are underperforming for the rest of his career. He's going to get in something. He's going to find his way back to the front. He's going to have a couple moments of all right, I still can do this. Proven it, proven it to himself and the rest of the world that he's, you know, as good as he's always been or he's as talented as he's always been. But you know, those, the times time and hourglass is running out father times undefeated, all that stuff. But I believe it happens and it could be, I mean, obviously it could be next year. He's a, he's. I got a long term deal at RCR that I know of. Do you.

[Russell]

I think he's up this year. That's what I was aware of.

[Dale Jr.]

I mean, that is the story moving forward. Right. And I believe that that's what happens in, you know, in the summer. What do you think, tj? When do we start here? When do we start? When does the media start really covering this part?

[TJ Majors]

I feel like this year might be a little earlier. I do feel like there's a handful of drivers like Kyle that are. That are up for contract.

[Russell]

And yeah, Pockers tweeted. I didn't give names, but he said there's close to 20 drivers that have contracts up, so.

[Dale Jr.]

Interesting.

[TJ Majors]

Well, I do agree that with Kyle, though, it seems like. I feel like that was kind of what people thought before could happen, and now it's probably gonna. It's probably gonna be another. You know, I mean, I do. I do think it's a good fit for him too, but.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. Well, it'd be interesting to. That guy that's got all the money over there at track or not Track House, but at Spire, where. I mean, he. He might pay Kyle what Kyle's looking to make, right? To.

[Russell]

To.

[Dale Jr.]

To move on to a different program. He might. That would be maybe where he could land the contract financially that he's looking for.

[Russell]

And a fast. A relatively.

[Dale Jr.]

And the car that can run top 10 and give Kyle some opportunities and some wins.

[TJ Majors]

And it gives him. I feel like that gives him. He does like to run the other series, like trucks and stuff, and that gives him some opportunity.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, he's talked about running, driving our stuff. He wants to come race our cars.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, there you go.

[Dale Jr.]

Because he wants to get back to Victor Lane, but. And that moving Aspire would present some avenues where that. That could. That could be a possibility.

[TJ Majors]

He just wants to wreck Carson too. I'm just kidding.

[Dale Jr.]

You don't like them cup guys.

[TJ Majors]

No, I don't mind the cup guys.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, am I concerned. Here's another note. What's. What's. Am I concerned about intermediate tracks not being entertaining enough? Not really. They've been kind of the bread and butter for the next gen car. And until we have. Until we have two, three, four of them in a row where they're not all that fun to watch or then. Then we gotta. Then we got a conversation to have. But it's just. This was one Kansas. Every now and then has a race like this, and it's okay. Yeah, it's okay. So not too worried about it. Now if we go to Charlotte for the 600 and it's a long snoozer

[Russell]

now we got issues yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Then we'll have to have a conversation.

[TJ Majors]

What makes it not a snoozer? Well, I mean, you're gonna have very similar racing.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. Yep. I mean, you know, you just. You want to. You want a guy that can pass, drive through the field. You want something to talk about, a guy coming up through the. Through the pack, somebody that, hey, he's going to arrive toward the front and will he be able to go up there and take the race away from whoever's got it under control?

[TJ Majors]

And let me ask you this. So we were having. There was a lot of talk about. There was a lot of people wearing their tires out by like, lap 35. 35 was like, pretty far. Yeah. But it happened to be. 35 was almost. It was a little short. I think the stage was 90 maybe. So it's almost right in the middle. So what guys were doing is they're just splitting it a little bit. What happens if you can go most of a fuel run? Like we used to. Like, we used to run to things out of gas when pit. Right. We'd almost pit. Like we only got five laps left. Let's pit. Now we're just cutting in half and pitting.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, we want the tires to wear.

[TJ Majors]

But do you think if we get rid of the stage break that they would run or, you know, people would stretch it out more?

[Dale Jr.]

I mean, they'll run till they feel like they either need tires or fuel.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, right. I guess. I don't know. I feel like. Right. I feel like every time we get to the point where guys start really fighting the cars, like, because guys are starting to really struggle right before they would pit at like 35ish, like 35. So.

[Dale Jr.]

Okay, that's to. To answer the question, I think you would need to say if they don't have the caution. Right.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

But they award the stage points.

[TJ Majors]

Sure.

[Dale Jr.]

Would you not still. Maybe you would run that. You would run to get those points the best way possible, which is probably still by cutting it in half, you're going to have to. If you stay out there and bleed lap time to the guys that do cut it in half. Right?

[TJ Majors]

Yep, that's right.

[Dale Jr.]

Then when you cross the line and those points are awarded. Right. You want to. You're giving your. You're trying to get them right.

[TJ Majors]

Because we learn you're always going to go for them.

[Dale Jr.]

I know.

[TJ Majors]

If you're in a position to go for.

[Dale Jr.]

Right. If you're not, then maybe you do something different.

[TJ Majors]

Well, that's what I'm saying, though. Those guys you're going to have the top seven or eight, maybe seven. Probably take all them stage points. But what if you have the guys that run, they make one less stop, you know what I mean? Or, you know, they can.

[Dale Jr.]

They.

[TJ Majors]

I just think it open. I mean, you're going to have to. If you keep short pitting. If I can run 80 laps, then you can.

[Dale Jr.]

The entire race went under green.

[TJ Majors]

I'm just saying. It definitely gives different strategies more of an option though, doesn't it?

[Dale Jr.]

It's. Yeah, it opens it up a little bit, I suppose. What's wrong with track house is the next note. Look, I didn't write this one. Justin. Justin. Mark says. I mean, Bristol was one of those races and one of those weekends where you just got to zoom out a little bit. You got to realize we're in a building phase right now. We're working hard. We got some highlights from the weekend, but ultimately, at the end of the day, it was a tough race, tough results, and just another step in the process of rebuilding the race team. Chastain,

[Russell]

he said that this past offseason was the biggest change that he's had to deal with.

[Dale Jr.]

Changes in what was like rebuilding his

[Russell]

crew chief and just I think a little bit of everything.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, look, I mean, track house came in when the new next gen car was developed and raced. They were able to smartly take advantage of everyone else's inexperience with the car, be competitive, win some races, put themselves in a great position as a company to be successful. They. They've lost a step for sure over the last two or three years. Now Shane's come in and won some races for them at the road courses and whatnot.

[TJ Majors]

And see, I feel like last year was a really successful year for Ross.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, take out the road courses, though. Ross had a big night at the 600. But I mean, yeah, they. They have. They went from a team that was running top 10, felt like they're running top 10 regularly.

[TJ Majors]

We talked about Shane a lot.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, I'm saying way back when the next gen just came out. Now they're a team that pops off a great run. Like they could show up at Charlotte like they did last year and win the race and you'd be like, here or here? Yeah, it's either they're either 5th or 25th.

[Russell]

They ever hit it, the setup or they don't.

[Dale Jr.]

And yeah, that's hard to. That's hard to. That's gotta be tough, I think, for a company to understand. Okay, how are we doing that? How. What is happening when we're landing on what we need to be doing and then we're not near it the next week. The. There's no obvious things staring them in the face. That's saying, hey, here's the problem. And so that's got to be frustrating and difficult for a team right now. Ross is 20th in points, Shane is 18th. Shane is steadily sliding down the rankings after having a pretty solid start to the year.

[Tyler Reddick]

And.

[Russell]

And Suarez, who is no longer with you, is outperforming your.

[Dale Jr.]

Suarez is doing well over at the. He's 16th in points. They didn't get rid of Daniel because he couldn't do the job. I mean, Daniel's. Daniel's an accomplished driver and pretty solid talent. They just had Connor coming up.

[Russell]

Generational talent, you know.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, you're gambling on Connor being, you know, the next great thing. And after coming out of a successful season like he had in the O'Reilly

[TJ Majors]

series last year, where is Connor in the point?

[Dale Jr.]

He's. He's down there pretty good.

[TJ Majors]

Remember we had the conversation, does he make it to the top 20 or whatever? About a month or two ago. I don't think. I don't think you do.

[Russell]

But back to. I think obviously they knew what they're banking on kind of being, you know, future. But Suarez out racing Ross is a issue that is.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, I mean, look, it's. It is reality of the situation. This is a tough, tough sport. It's competitive. It's very competitive. Connors told us that. He's like, man, you know, come up here, there ain't no days off. They know laps off, they. No corners off. It's the grind. And these guys race the out of you whether you're running 30th or third. And he's right. You know, you go into the. You go to the rally series, no disrespect to anybody in that series, but everybody's on a different agenda, right? There's teams out there, they're like, man, you know, we just gonna try to get this thing home. We can't tear this thing up. We gotta finish top 20, you know, come on. Top 25, which is. No, no donuts. You know, there's a lot of that going on. Guys out there just trying to make a living.

[Russell]

It also seems with the cup, and I may be wrong, it feels like Kaiser getting out of the car more often this year than passing going, we just didn't have it or we missed it. It just seems like, yeah, there's more variables that teams are dealing with.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, it's. It's morphed more into F1 style where it's like this organization has, has the speed, Right?

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

And so, you know, you, you sh. If you're in an organization that's struggling, you show up and you feel like, you know, chances are you're not going to have seen a ton of progress in the last five days. You're going to show up to the racetrack and struggle. And if you're a 15th place car, you're going to be a 15th place car most weekends.

[Russell]

Yeah. Denny said that 50% of the car, whatever you bring to the track is whatever you got, you can't fix that. So if you get there with 30%, there's 20% that you're at best, you're going to get to 80%.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I agree with a lot of that right now, which is also why we talked about. I know you can't change a lot in practice, but I think if you had a couple different practice sessions, maybe you could do more to the cars and like, like Denny is fortunate. All the good, all the really, you know, the Gibbs cars, Hendrick cars, they show up and they're within. They're really close. You know, sometimes the other teams don't show up as that close. Yeah, they can't show up as close. So sometimes I feel like a little more practice would get some of them closer at times. Yeah, but he's right. I mean, it's hard. You don't fix a lot of it. But in the. What do they give us? 25, whatever minute, 50 minute practice, two 25 minute practice or two 20 minute practices or whatever it is. That's it.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I feel like, you know, teams. Teams are going to have some tough. Teams are going to struggle, and right now, track house is one that's definitely trying to turn things around a little bit. It's interesting Justin used the term rebuild a couple of different times. And you know, you don't, you don't often. Rebuild isn't a NASCAR term. NASCAR term, you know, but apparently they've, they've decided to shuffle the deck a little bit this off season. Chastain saying a lot of big change and that might take some time to

[Russell]

net out because you think about it, Ross has a new crew chief. Connor's crew chief is new. I don't know about svg. So there's, I mean, all sorts of stuff that they're moving around.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I don't think SVG is having a terrible year by any means, but he's definitely.

[Dale Jr.]

I mean, he's the highest one in points.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I mean, I think he's.

[Dale Jr.]

He started out the year really good. Last couple of weeks have been tough, but.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, and he, I mean, I watched his qualifying lap. I mean, he was, can't. He was almost wide open. He tried to hold it wide open like he was like. No lack of effort.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. Talladega. This weekend I'm going to go over to the Cars Tour Racing hangout.

[TJ Majors]

Where is it at?

[Dale Jr.]

It is in Caraway. I'm gonna go try to just kind of watch and observe and, and help the series best I can while you guys go to Talladega.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. There's also a Chicago test going on at the Chicagoland today. Today and tomorrow.

[Dale Jr.]

Is that right? I'll be curious to, to hear about how they feel about the bump in over the tunnel in three and four. That was very, very severe and we haven't run the next gen car there. Yeah, right. And so trying to get across that is going to be a real handful for a lot of teams.

[Russell]

How big of advantage is it for the guys? I know Denny's one of them that's going to be at that test, going to attract that massive.

[Dale Jr.]

Because I'm telling you, you. So this car with the, this car with the underbody, it's really important to try to figure out how to get that car down on the ground as close as possible and create as much downforce as you can and have the platform, the pitch of the nose up, down, ass down, get that thing really doing what it needs to do. But you also got to go across one of the. This is going to be a top three in terms of severity, a top three bump down in the middle of three and four and you've got to get the car on the ground, but get across a bump. Right. And not drag this, you know, drag the bottom of the race car off. And so who the guy. The teams that don't get to go to do the test are going to show up for the race weekend and have to figure this out in a real short period of time. While the teams that are at the test are going to get to science this out and really narrow in on where they need that car to be for the driver to be comfortable.

[TJ Majors]

It's a big advantage.

[Dale Jr.]

Huge advantage. And they get. So it's. It's Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney and the O'Reilly teams that are there would be Justin Allgaier and Brandon Jones. So the teams that are there are going to be able to bring home all kinds of great information, data and all types of things that are going to help them run sim and all kinds of programs to be able to help all of their drivers and teams make a. Make the best guess on kind of how to start the weekend. The other teams that don't have this information are going to have to show up with a. Trying to hit a moving target.

[Russell]

You know, should we have a test like this at a track that none of them been to?

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, I think you have to test the tire to make sure the tire is going to be able to hold up. It's very abrasive weight, so it's really abrasive. This racetrack is extremely abrasive. And now that we haven't ran on it for several years, it's increased dramatically probably in times in terms of abrasiveness and how it's going to wear the tires. So what's probably going to happen is, I've seen this a million times. They're going to show up to this test. They're going to. The first set of tires is going to wear off the car in 10 laps and Goodyear is going to freak. They're going to put on the hardest set they got there and that's what you're going to end up testing the rest of the test. And they're going to figure out how to make that tire. They're going to get to where that tire is living and they're going to go, all right, our work is done. Which is, which is fine. I mean, to have a super, super hard tire at a very abrasive racetrack like that, it's probably what you have to have. But I'll be surprised if they are aggressive and we show back up and we're having tire issues. But we. It's. It's there. It's absolutely possible.

[Russell]

I think if it's a new track, every team should have the, I should

[Dale Jr.]

say, tire wear issues. There's more than likely going to be some teams that are going to gamble on air pressure. And with this bump, you could get yourself into some trouble there. Getting too low on air and sent, you know, putting the tire through too much as it goes across some of the imperfections on the surface of the racetrack. And then you might have some guys having some tire issues in terms of flats. We've seen at the back of the car, the right front, Left front.

[TJ Majors]

So self inflicted a lot.

[Dale Jr.]

Self inflicted, yes. But. And with that bump, right. The teams have to be careful about skirting near that danger zone. Of low air that could, we could probably see some teams cross over into the danger zone there and have some issues in practice and then dial it back out and but you know, tire wear or tires like you had this weekend where you said tires wearing out in 35 laps and guys were running through the fabric. You could see that in the race a little bit. But I imagine that this tire test Goodyear will determine a hard enough tire that it'll, it'll live.

[TJ Majors]

You could. This last weekend there was some of the driver back into play in it. Like you could run too hard in

[Dale Jr.]

the beginning, cost yourself on the back end.

[TJ Majors]

You could. Yes. Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Which I love that.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I like it too.

[Russell]

Do you think every team should have the option to test out a new track to so that there's not an advantage?

[Dale Jr.]

I don't see why, you know, you couldn't do that. But the teams that would be expensive for the industry.

[Russell]

Well, it's up to them if they don't want to.

[Dale Jr.]

It's easy to say that.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, I, I, I think it should be if you're going back to a place, give them the option if you want to go.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. So tracks open? Come on.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, yeah. I mean, you love track time.

[Dale Jr.]

I mean, I think it's fine. I think for Chicago with the challenges that it presents and the advantage I think that it gives to a team that does get to test. It might have been better to, to have an open test.

[TJ Majors]

But yeah, I mean San Diego, everyone's going there for the first time.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Clean slate. No one's been there. Practice intertest and yeah, that's fair to me.

[Russell]

So you look at a team like Legacy, no alliance with JGR 2311. So they're going in absolutely blind. Some of these other same teams.

[TJ Majors]

Other ones. Well, I mean not don't forget you got, you know, they can choose, you know what info they're going to give. You know what I mean?

[Dale Jr.]

Like the teams that have went can disguise can, can determine how much they share with what they learn.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, I mean, I'm guessing, right.

[Dale Jr.]

I don't know.

[TJ Majors]

I don't know.

[Russell]

Depends on what your alliance agreement exactly and how honored you want to.

[Dale Jr.]

That was definitely the case, 2010 years ago. 10 years ago when there's teams that had alliances, there'd be some, you know, not all the information would be on the sheet.

[Russell]

How much of as a driver do you try to keep instead of sharing with your teammates?

[Dale Jr.]

There's not much from a driver standpoint. You know, they can see smt all the information, data and stuff like that. But you know, there's some rare moments or instances where driver might know something or understand how to do something differently around a racetrack, but it's mostly going to be in that setup sheet. So there'll be a setup sheet or a book with all the information of how the car is set up and all of that information in there might

[TJ Majors]

not be entirely truthful or maybe they'll have smp.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, I'm sure that happens especially when teams start competing with each other as they get closer to the championship.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, they don't want to get beat.

[Russell]

Got to be very protective of it.

[Dale Jr.]

They do. All right, everybody, y' all have heard about us. Talk about this on the show. And it's that time again. We're in search for the most legendary NASCAR memorabilia collection to be our ultimate racing collector. This is presented by Lionel Racing, the official diecast of nascar. Lionel Racing is our go to source for all our racing diecast needs. You can go to their website and check out the latest pre orders@lionel racing.com Die cast sheet metal trophy shirts, a mix of everything. We want to see it. We want to see your collection. You'll have the opportunity to submit photos videos through dirtymome Media social posts for a chance to be selected. We'll have a post up later this week. Respond to it. Videos are the best. And next week we'll select the winner and announce it here on the show. Lionel Racing.com There was one other topic

[Russell]

that I saw that didn't add. Did you see the comment from Jeff Probst about the Riley series?

[Dale Jr.]

Oh boy. John Probst is NASCAR

[Russell]

evp.

[Dale Jr.]

Evp. His comment, this is an Adam Stern tweet and he says long term, you see, you see it as we do have the CUV body that we developed in our electric vehicle. I'm not sitting here saying today that we're breaking news, it's going to cuv. But, but there are the things that are on the roadmap to consider. So you have a truck, a CUV and a cup. That's three very different bodies that are relevant to our OEMs today to create that brand identity for each series. So he thinks that there's a possibility. The I, it's, it's my belief, I'm probably, it's my belief that absolutely the electric car and the, that body style and all that is something that NASCAR is looking at as a possibility for the future of the O'Reilly series. I would say that the O'Reilly series has got a lot of good things going right now. Viewership is continuously on the rise. And our cars, we can all kind of relate to those cars when we look at them, when we see them on the racetrack. I think, I think making a switch to anything unlike what we have would be a massive, massive mistake. And it would probably be that, that'd probably be the end of the, the rise that we're going up, right? Things are going well. We got a great TV partner, we, we have great numbers, we got great fan engagement and I think any kind of a change like that, so dramatic, dramatic as that would be, would, would destroy the series as we know it. I would not be interested in that. I don't think Junior Motorsports would be interested in that. I'm certainly not interested in that car or that body or any of that. I think they need to leave well enough alone. Quit fiddling with everything and having to feel like everything needs to be improved, fixed, changed. Just the series is doing really good. There is an issue in terms of parts and pieces. The parts and pieces that we use aren't in our be manufactured in manufacturer. They're not being developed or made at a rate that the series can sustain itself. What I would love for them to do, and this is a big conversation to have, but what I would love for them to do with the O'Reilly car is take that 9 inch Ford rear end out of the car that we're running and make me a modern version of that. Take all the front suspension off of our car and make me a more modern version of that. Not an over engineered hub or rear end like I like we got in the current cup car. I don't want any of that that's in the current cup car. I don't want no influence at all that the current cup car has. I don't want any of the parts, I don't want the bolt on front and rear clip. I don't want none of that. I want if, if you want to do anything to the O'Reilly series, take that. Take the parts that are in short supply and let's figure out how to make a more a newer modern take on that specific part. Whether it's ball joints, different things like that that are, that are, you know, when our cup teams moved away from this technology, the people that made it don't have. There's not a demand this series and so forth. There's not enough demand I suppose to be able to continue to make a lot of the parts and things are just getting tougher and Tougher to get. And so I would just think about how we take what's working. This is working. This series is working. This series is working the way it is. So if we need. If we need anything, we need to try to figure out how to, you know, Keep this thing going the way it's going. And. And I don't know. I think I. I don't. I don't love the idea or the thought of the. The city, the series, changing vehicles and wouldn't want to be. I don't know how to say it. I just wouldn't be interested in that.

[Russell]

I agree with you.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

I think. I wonder if this is his trial balloon. I don't think they've been thinking about it, but it's like, let's put this out there.

[Dale Jr.]

And man, I don't know, man. There's some conversations that the series has to have with. With itself, the owners, the nascar, all the executives and so forth. And I honestly feel like that those conversations are long overdue and we need to be having them today because I don't think the series owners are as excited about that idea as he may be. Hey, this is Dalenhardt Jr. And for all the latest Dale Jr. Download gear, including the I'm will drink some beer T shirt that we've been talking about here around the office, head over to shop.dirtymomedia.com for all the latest merch. All right, so we got our race winner calling in. Tyler Reddick is back again.

[Russell]

Just a co host at this point.

[Dale Jr.]

Yep. We're just going to. We're going to actually change the name the Tyler Reddick download. Change in the name of the show. Yeah. So Tyler Reddick. I mean, there's only a few questions that I need answers to. One of them being how do you drive down into the corner that deep? No one else seems to be able to be able to make that car perform the way you did this past weekend. Was it. Did you think in your mind, like, I'm just gonna send it in there and see what happens, or did you just have that much confidence in the car from all how it ran most of the day? I mean, you were having some trouble there toward the end getting in the wall a little bit as a fuel issues. But I mean, you just. You full committed down into turn three and seem it was a beautiful thing. What, what's your thoughts about when you go back and watch that?

[Tyler Reddick]

You know it. Yeah. In hindsight and especially after, you know, watching the replay, you know, it looked like a real power Move. But honestly, I think it just really shows how off, you know, the five was. For whatever reason, man, I mean he was able to, you know, make the right move on Denny on the restart, get to the lead. But I mean, in clean air like that, you know, clear sail if you will, down into the corner and not have the run he did off the corner and me to have the run that I did off the corner, yeah, was odd to me. But yeah, like, I mean I was far enough back. Tj, you know this. Like there's more than. There should have been more than enough time for him to cover that move.

[TJ Majors]

And dude, when I looked down at the start finish line, I looked down and saw the gap because we're racing for six, fifth, something like that. And I saw the gap and I'm like, damn if I was going to win this race. And I look, I look up and I'm like, how did this just happen?

[Tyler Reddick]

Yeah, it was. I mean, I, I mean I drove down in there pretty normal. Well, I mean, first time on two tires all day, but you know, about what you'd expect the grip to be able to take. And I mean I just, I got it to the bottom and I mean I would imagine if he could have, he would have covered it. I think he just got tight or just was tight, you know what I mean? I believe he even said that post race. You know, whether you look at how Denny attacked the corner racing, even the 19, the 19 alongside him, I mean. Yeah, I mean I think more than anything Kyle's balance just wasn't there. That last, that last restart, I mean he made the right move to get the lead but his car wasn't underneath him. And that just kind of helped make me look like, like a superhero there. And you know, if anything, once I saw, you know, he was having those handling issues right. I knew that I just needed to make a smart move, you know, just stay alongside into three. And most more likely I was. More than likely I was going to clear him on the bottom because I made up that much ground the last corner. So yeah, just very fortunate that someone who's really, really hard to. To pass was just really, really boxed in with what he had left for, for balance, you know.

[TJ Majors]

What did you saying, Cody?

[Russell]

Where.

[Tyler Reddick]

Yeah, I don't know. I guess I need to

[Dale Jr.]

something.

[TJ Majors]

What did you think, what did you think in three and four when you saw that spin? Because I know it's right in front of you. You saw the smoke and, and I do believe that the caution, I mean he started coming Back up the track. And I understand the reason for the caution at that point, but, I mean, that was kind of had to be like, because Danny had just gotten around you, and I feel like he was in position to probably win the race at that point.

[Tyler Reddick]

Yeah, no, he, he. I mean, I. I was going to try and get something back to him, but it was pretty wild. I passed him first time all day. Started to lose some rear grip. Just as soon as I pass him, it's like, oh, I hit the light switch and now what do I do? And yeah, it was going to be really hard for me to do anything with him. With one to go, then he kind of found something he had left. I. I don't know.

[TJ Majors]

Just racing. Like he raced Bubba last year.

[Dale Jr.]

You know,

[Tyler Reddick]

we come off too, and we. We make contact, and I was like, oh, no.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, yeah.

[Tyler Reddick]

Like I. You know what I mean? Like, he. The five comes up, which he should. I mean, he's clear to the wall. And the five comes up and Denny loses nose a little bit. I'm trying to just, you know, in my mind, to answer your question, what do I think when I see the caution is crazy as it may sound, you know, I got. I end up winning this race, right. But in my mind, I'm like, great, we got an overtime restart. What. What's gonna happen?

[Dale Jr.]

You know, you gotta come down.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Tyler Reddick]

Focused on winning the race, but at the same time, it's like, man, I really just want to get out of here in one piece as well.

[TJ Majors]

I think we're all like that when

[Tyler Reddick]

that cost, you know, so it's like, man, just don't take any huge risks on the restart. And that's when. I mean, I got tied into one when we were three wide and loud. Chris reads my outside, and it's like in a different, you know, winning, you're in format, I'm probably more aggressive and shutting off Christopher and just not letting him get some outside. But at that point, it's like, let's just. Let's just get out of here and survive, right? And then we get off of two, and Denny gets tight, gets into me, and then I go flying up track and hit Christopher.

[TJ Majors]

So if you take that away from. From Bell, does he. Does Denny clear you on the bottom? You know what I mean? Does that make it? Because I see a lot of that when guys slide up in one and two and block the third lane. The bottom clears.

[Tyler Reddick]

Yeah, I mean, I. I think for me, I was just, you know, trying to run is the less the least amount of distance possible.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Tyler Reddick]

Once I knew we were three wide, I was trying to just be respectful. I mean, again, we're battling for the win, but I'm. As much as it may sound, you

[TJ Majors]

don't want to ride me.

[Tyler Reddick]

I don't want to wreck. And just trying to give them room and. Yeah, just. It kind of looked like looking back at it. The 11 was close enough to my left rear, and then the Christopher was close enough to my right rear. Just those two cars on both ends of me. Not alongside, but just close enough. Like, I mean, I got tired. I had to have a big lift. So it's one of those things. Maybe if I would have just been up the track more, I would have got a little bit of push off from Christopher and maybe.

[TJ Majors]

Maybe got a run.

[Tyler Reddick]

Yeah, I mean, it's. It's so hard to say, what does

[TJ Majors]

it feel like in the car when that guy gets inside you and they start pushing up and they get into your door? Because that seems to have more of effect than obviously getting right on behind somebody down in the corner. Doesn't do anything for the car in front. But when somebody gets inside you and they start coming up, I see a lot of people lifting off a turn two of the outside car main a lot, because. Does that guy just. Does it just push your car up?

[Tyler Reddick]

I mean, it's insane. I mean, in some ways, it's. It's like you're right up the back bumper of another car and, you know, they cross your way. Can you just lose the nose? It. It literally feels like someone is just shoving you to the right. It takes off so abruptly and violently. Yeah, and so, I mean, it's powerful if you can time it and use it to your advantage. You know, it's a really effective tool when you're racing other cars. And unfortunately, like, what happened to us on that. That final restart, you know, it was kind of just chain reaction. Denny got tight, I got tight, and, you know, Christopher got smoked. So, yeah, it happens very, very fast. I mean, that's just kind of the nature of the next gen car. Honestly, everything that we were kind of used to is drivers in the Gen 6 car, the tendencies of the arrow side, you know, whether it's getting loose or getting tight in traffic, everything is just sped up exponentially. With the next gen car.

[Dale Jr.]

Do you see a lot of guys out there still struggling with that after all this time? I mean, we've had the next gen car for several years, and I do watch new drivers come out of the O'Reilly series and get in that car. And I watch them find themselves in situations where the air goes completely the opposite of what they expect. They, you know, they put themselves, they, you. And I watch, you know, I watch guys that have been driving this car for six years, you know, heading into the next corner where you don't want to end up arrow wise, right? And so you all are searching for a place for you to be and be comfortable. And, and we see a lot of guys kind of struggle with that for a while when they get in that car for the first time and go out there and race it. Do you still see people that have been in this car for several years still kind of struggling to know where to put this car and where to be in comfortable places? In terms of aero,

[Tyler Reddick]

I feel like that really, in my opinion, I think that shows up even more when you have an ill handling car. Um, when your car is handling and doing what it should, you kind of know what it's going to do given those circumstances. So you know how to adjust. I feel like where it gets tough is when you have a really loose handling car and the rear of the car is just not. You can't trust it. You know, just what this car does when you're offset right, offset left in traffic, when you have the, you know, when you lose the air behind somebody and then you get it all back and the thing snaps loose. I mean, to some degree I, I feel like it's. You do see that, but I feel like more times than not, that is a lot of it seems to be the case. In my opinion, when, when drivers are just having, or just finding a really ill handling car, the tires have really gone away. I feel like, you know, when, when the right rear wears out or the rears, you just overheat your tires, that stuff really shows up more because this car just becomes that much more unpredictable. You know, it, it is glued to the racetrack for a lot of laps. And when the tires wear out like that and get to that point, it's no longer glued to the racetrack. So now it's just exponentially losing grip. So I think that gets shown up that my, my opinion shows up more when, when a car's handling is really gone to the wayside.

[Dale Jr.]

Do you guys understand what might have been going on with the fuel there toward the end of the race? That was something I never really definitely

[Tyler Reddick]

weren't low on fuel.

[Russell]

Right.

[Tyler Reddick]

I was, I was just talking to, to my fueler, Brian Deal about it. He was like, you know, thanks for throwing me under the bus like man, that wasn't my intention. It was a driver again in the lead, but, you know, going into three there when I drove it straight in the fence, which was not cool. But I mean, I'm trying to figure out if I need to pit or not. You know what I mean?

[Dale Jr.]

Sure.

[Tyler Reddick]

Literally trying to win this race. But my mind because of points is like, I do not want to run out of fuel and not finish this race. Yeah, like you don't want to. I'm, I'm good with it. I'll pit. Yeah, I'll take.

[Dale Jr.]

You don't want to drive by pit entry, run out of gas at the end of the front straightaway.

[TJ Majors]

Yes.

[Tyler Reddick]

And so, yeah, it's just, it's. I mean, I haven't got the official word back from, from the folks at Toyota Racing or trd, but yeah, it just seems like the pump, from my understanding, the pump just, just failed.

[Dale Jr.]

Wow.

[Tyler Reddick]

It happened on the front stretch, so I'd flip the switch to go to, you know, the secondary, if you will. And yeah, I mean, I was going down the back just trying to understand, you know, I mean, I, I feel like you're, you know, if it's out of fuel, that you're typically not going to get a lot of fuel left when it, when it goes to it. So I was just trying to understand what our situation was. And I think in the three, Billy told me, you know, we're plenty good on fuel. It shouldn't be that I just, you know, wasn't focused going into three. Like I said, the handling had gone away a little bit. Kind of had trusted, had a car that I could trust the back of, back of the car all day long and just got a little loose. You know, these cars did these super high fast race, high speed racetracks like Kansas, somehow Homestead, it kind of works. But like place like Kansas, man, you get too close to the wall, the car just loses grip and you get sucked in the wall and you crash. So just a mistake on my part.

[TJ Majors]

Could you notice at Kansas, like you could, you could, you could hurt the tires and, and you know, I don't know what your tire wear was, but. Yeah, yeah.

[Tyler Reddick]

I mean, I don't know how much it was touched on in the broadcast, but we were running, running third, comfortably in third. I think we were somewhat closing in on the five. I think Denny was leading that first stage and the five had gotten by us. We were within range to like maybe battle the five for, for second in the stage and about three or four laps to go. The thing just Kind of took off tight and I was like, that's a little weird. I wasn't really near anybody. I didn't make a mistake. And then like, I just thankfully 80% the car into the next corner and it went all the way up and dang near smoked the fence. I'm like, oh, we got, you know, we had then I think about eight against.

[TJ Majors]

But that was a little bit longer run compared to the first one, right? That was a little bit longer probably in stage one. Yeah, yeah, because you probably come between 30 and 35 and then the second stage was. You probably ran 10, 15 laps longer on the second set.

[Tyler Reddick]

Yeah, but, yeah, I mean, you know, as much as that cost us time and, and kept us from being able to like, you know, battle with those guys on pit road at the stage end to try and jump them on pit road, it was honestly kind of a blessing in disguise because it really helped me understand, okay, we've. I was kind of in this spot where I wanted to free up, but I didn't want to all of a sudden have loose balance migration in the run. But I mean, we recording the right front, so it's like we're going to have to free up and just find a way to make it work. And it, and it helped us get faster throughout the day. So in some ways that tire issue for us that we survived got us in the direction of getting faster throughout the day and, and then being able to, you know, close in on the, on the 11 in the last run, which, as we found out when I got the lead was just a little too loose. But yeah, it was good.

[Dale Jr.]

We go into Talladega with, with the new system and how this is playing out, the new point system? Is there, is there any of, is there any different emotion going into a race like Talladega? Is there a different game plan, a different attitude, approach, personality that you take to this race with, with the point system the way it is today?

[Tyler Reddick]

I don't think so, you know, like season long. Right. Finishing these races is more important. But I feel like race to race, the mindset that I, I found in 2024, I've had it other times, like even running trucks and in different formats and whatnot. Like, I feel like race to race, I've had a pretty good mindset when it comes to speedways. One thing that we weren't able to tip our, you know, put our hat on anything out of 2025, but one of those things that we could do that with was that we scored more points than anybody at the Speedway Super Speedway races. So that was telling us like, all right, time in and time out, we're like, we're, we're staying out of the trouble, but we're being aggressive enough to score points, stage points and be up there in the mix at the end of the races. So, yeah, I feel like for me, we just, you know, we try and hit the strategy as best as we can Now, I mean, for sure how that's going to look this way.

[TJ Majors]

What's your strategy this weekend?

[Dale Jr.]

I know.

[Tyler Reddick]

I mean, we've done a good job of kind of figuring out what it is and kind of, I mean, in a lot of ways, I don't know. Call me. Maybe this is not fair to say, but almost got a little stale because, you know, the, the setups and how you would approach each stage with the lengths and everything were very similar, you know, between Daytona and Talladega. So you just kind of got used to, okay, this is what we're going to do. And I feel like some of those, I mean, I feel like that same fuel saving strategy is going to take place, but now the lengths are different. So, like the, the rhythm, the routine that you kind of have and how you approach, approach the stages will be different. So I'm curious. I mean, I feel like, you know, the guys that are super have been really good at it. Joey, Ryan, Austin, like the Penske cars always seem to really be on top of it, honestly, you know, I feel like RFK is really good at it too, so. And we've kind of been able to sneak our way in there into that conversation as well with how we go about it. So it's going to look different, but I feel like the teams and drivers that figure out how to manage that best will find their way to the front.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

Is Michael going to be there? Because I feel like if he's there, then we can just know that you're going to be there for the win.

[Tyler Reddick]

I, I don't know if he's coming or not. I, I guess I'll find out when we get there.

[TJ Majors]

Travis.

[Dale Jr.]

The. They did flip the race pretty much. Where for the final, final two stages, you can run those without needing to come for fuel. Do you think that will, do you think that that guarantees us a final stage where drivers are all out, or will they have ran the race backwards, so to speak, like in a road course to where they're still, you know, they're still saving fuel toward those final, you know, in that final stage, trying, you know, because they've measured it out to end to land in this spot where they don't have, you know, don't have enough fuel to really just go wide ass open the whole final stage. What do you think?

[Tyler Reddick]

Yeah, I, I, I do. You know, I feel like, you know, the, the teams or cars that aren't happy with the position where they're at, you know, in stage two, I, I just, I don't know why you wouldn't try to. If, if you're not where you want to be and you're not going to get the stage points you want. Yeah, say, I mean we're going to save, then they're going to try and just cut it close, take as much,

[Dale Jr.]

take only what they need.

[Tyler Reddick]

Yeah, I mean I, I think you're going to see cars up there that aren't going to need to save and you're going to see some that do. But certainly I feel like if enough cars get up front that need to save fuel, I mean they're going to somewhat be able to kind of control it. So it's wide open. I mean it could go that way or you know, I mean it just when we get the cautions, if there's cautions, you know, who's, who's willing to take that risk, those sort of things will really set that up. I don't see it being one way or the other. I, I do feel like there's going to be a mix up, if you will, at the front and I mean we've seen it though. Enough cars get to the front of the field that need to save that fuel. There are ways for them to drag the pace down and keep the track position. So we'll see how it all plays out, man. I mean we'll change it up, you know, but I, I do feel like the, the strategy is still going to be in play. Yeah, it's just going to take a different mixture if that makes sense.

[Dale Jr.]

I think that makes perfect sense, man. I appreciate you trying to explain it to us. Thanks a lot for today. Awesome to have you stop in. I know you're busy, you know you got a lot of media to do when you win races like this. So we appreciate, appreciate you giving us a little bit of your time today, Tyler.

[Tyler Reddick]

Absolutely. Thank you guys.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah man. See you. Congrats.

[Tyler Reddick]

Thank you.

[Dale Jr.]

Hey Everybody, it's Dale Jr. And you are here for an episode of Ash Jr. And obviously I'm with my co host TJ Majors. We've been sitting here talking racing Kansas. We talked to Tyler Redick. We did a little, we Did a little dirty Mo Doe talking about Talladega. So if you want to know some of our choices on. On some of the fun things to. To bet on FanDuel or what have you, we got some pretty interesting stuff. We even talk about championship favorites. What. Who are the favorites? As we look at the points today, you'll be surprised. There's not many guys that I think have a shot at winning this championship. It's a very small pool, and right about now is the time to start thinking about that bit. So, anyhow, not to rehash everything that we went through, but I. I was on vacation for a couple days, and so I'm kind of coming back. I don't know if y' all experienced this, but anytime I go on a vacation, when I get back, I feel completely unconnected and oblivious to everything that's been going on. I don't remember what I was doing when I left, what responsibilities are pressing, what tasks that I need to continue that I was in the middle of. When I went out of town.

[TJ Majors]

You left me right in the middle of. You did leave me hanging with your social media clips from Isla and sell, those FaceTime calls. I mean, I had to answer a lot of questions about that. Oh, the kind of stuff you're teaching our kids. I mean, whatever.

[Dale Jr.]

Oh, yeah.

[Russell]

What are you doing, Dale?

[Dale Jr.]

Hey, that was the question really is, did you deserve.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

The comment.

[TJ Majors]

No, I was just.

[Dale Jr.]

What did you say that she said?

[TJ Majors]

I didn't say anything.

[Dale Jr.]

I was.

[TJ Majors]

Sometimes you, like, you hear him FaceTime, you kind of peek in there. And she saw me, and she's kind of like, get out of here.

[Dale Jr.]

I got you. Yeah, well, we've got. We got Xfinity waving the red flag on Internet price hikes and raising the green flag for savings. You get the speed and the reliability in the WI fi that you need. Tyler Reddick just locked in five wins. You can lock in five years at the same price with Xfinity's five year price guarantee lock. No surprises, no late yellows, just straight shot to Victor Lane. And just like that, we've got a winner. Xfinity. Imagine that. Let's get to your questions.

[Russell]

So first question first wants to know he's got. He's a father with two little kids. And any advice for how to handle Mother's Day? Coming up with making sure that he has all the little gifts and stuff.

[TJ Majors]

Don't forget.

[Dale Jr.]

I think that's the best advice.

[Russell]

Yeah. Like, what do you do?

[Dale Jr.]

Oh for day. Well, this is what my wife told me. She said, I want to leave the house. I want to get away from y'.

[TJ Majors]

All.

[Dale Jr.]

So send her somewhere. Get her, you know, get her a spa day, whatever it is. I would. This is what I did. So, you know, you get her a spa appointment. That's an hour. Get her a nail appointment. That's like two hours after that, you know, or three hours after. Put a little time in between. Maybe call one of her friends and say, hey, where do you and her want to eat lunch? I'm going to set a reservation, and I'll tell her to be there. And she won't even know that you're

[Russell]

going to be there.

[Dale Jr.]

Surprise her with a. With lunch, with a friend. There's all. All sorts of stuff. But shoo her away for the day. She wants to leave. She doesn't want to have to be a mother, mom. She doesn't want to be a wife that day. She just wants to go and. And treat herself and know that she's,

[TJ Majors]

you know, it's a good idea.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. She needs to know that everything's gonna be fine and that she can go on and come on back when she feels like it.

[TJ Majors]

I might have to upgrade my membership packages for my service that I was gonna have for that app. Remember that app I was gonna make a long time ago where you sign

[Dale Jr.]

up and put in the dates, get the reminders?

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. It does it automatically for you. This would be the.

[Dale Jr.]

That would be. Somebody needs to come up with that. I know, the dad app.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, that man app.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, the man app. So then it gets a couple days away. It orders you the flowers.

[TJ Majors]

It does it for you. You just does all that you want to spend.

[Dale Jr.]

So here's the budget.

[TJ Majors]

Yep.

[Dale Jr.]

And it does all. It sets all the appointments and does everything for you.

[TJ Majors]

You'll get an email and it'll tell you, hey, we sent this. This time, this date. Like, you're really smart.

[Dale Jr.]

Yes.

[TJ Majors]

How long did I tell you that? It was like 20 years. 15. 15 years ago, I said that.

[Dale Jr.]

Subscribe to that. I'll tell you, it's filter times new company. It's absolutely silly, but you miss one of them damn dates. Oh, buddy, man, you'd pay any. You'd pay anything to dial that back.

[TJ Majors]

You put in that you. When you subscribe, you put in the. The dates that are important to you and who it's for, and you tell you their likes and stuff. And we go through and figure out and send the stuff automatically. And, you know, you get an email saying, hey, you know, they're getting you Know whatever is getting this on this day, just so you know.

[Dale Jr.]

Done smart.

[Russell]

Because anniversary, Birthday.

[TJ Majors]

Done all of them.

[Dale Jr.]

Bird day.

[TJ Majors]

Birthday.

[Dale Jr.]

Sorry.

[Russell]

All right, this one person, I can't find their name. Said, send Amy to the Freedom Factory. Mom pre. Think Amy'd ever want to go?

[Dale Jr.]

She done. She's done racing. She tried it.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, I spotted that.

[Dale Jr.]

She never doing that again.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, she's not doing that again.

[Dale Jr.]

No, it's not even.

[TJ Majors]

That was scary for me.

[Dale Jr.]

Scary for you?

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. Spotting that was scary.

[Russell]

You spotted for Amy.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, of course. That's what he does for a living. He's an expert spotter.

[TJ Majors]

Expert. You saw my work Saturday.

[Dale Jr.]

Great.

[Russell]

How was that spotting framey?

[Dale Jr.]

It lasted three quarters of a lap.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, it was quick. It was like Carson Quaffle's race.

[Dale Jr.]

It was the green, green, green. All right.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, we're in it.

[Dale Jr.]

All right, hold the break.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, that race was not. Because she was in that. Them. The Bandolero cars on the front stretch of Charlotte, they were scary already, so.

[Russell]

All right, next question. They. Someone said, you know, I know you're into trading cards. Did you ever collect comic books or anything else as a kid?

[Dale Jr.]

I brought a box today. 89 tops. Some good bubble gum. These are the hanger packs. These are fun, cuz you can kind of see who's in them.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah,

[Dale Jr.]

they're fun. Resealed this that year. You would want to get the Randy Johnson rookie.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, like Ryan Sandberg.

[Dale Jr.]

Oh, Sandberg's are all good in the 80s. What was the question? Sorry.

[Russell]

Did you ever collect like comic books or like. I was big into starting lineups as a kid.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, I didn't collect anything, but I did enjoy. I did enjoy cartoons. They. It was a comic book around cars called Cartoons. Mad magazines. I used to get tons of Mad magazines, you know, to fold. Fold the last page together and it made some kind of funny thing. Oh, yeah, I used to remember that. Oh, man, I used to read Mad magazine a ton when I was, you know, 10 years ago.

[TJ Majors]

Like Archie.

[Dale Jr.]

Same time Archie and Jughead.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Did a little bit of Archie and Jughead. MAD magazine was a big deal. I'm kind of. I'm kind of flipping out right now. My mind's blown because it's just not. Not doing it anymore. It's not around anymore. Yeah, but now I don't know what happened to Mad magazine, but it was interesting for sure. Surprised my dad and Teresa let me read that, considering how strict they were with other things like wrestling and stuff. But now I didn't Really? I didn't really collect. Collect anything. So.

[TJ Majors]

You know what I just remembered? Remember the tough stuff books for card collecting? And it had, like. It was one of the ones that told every. You looked the card up and it told the price, like. Yeah, it's like, same thing as Beckett. Well, they put one of the pages had all the teams address for their stadium. Well, I sent. Remember they're Washington running back Ricky Irving or remember him?

[Dale Jr.]

Kind of. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

So I sent a car, two cards into him to get signed, got him back, and I thought, oh, this is actually really cool. So I sent in. I had a Michael Irvin rookie card from the Cowboys.

[Dale Jr.]

Oh, you sent it in?

[TJ Majors]

I sent it in and never got it back. I've been mad about that. That's why I hate the Cowboys.

[Dale Jr.]

Why don't you just go on ebay and buy the card?

[TJ Majors]

Maybe it's my card. I don't know.

[Dale Jr.]

I'm just saying it's a good. Yeah, close the loop.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, maybe I should. I just remembered about that. Still mad?

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

Someone said, you ever get into goosebumps? Was that after your time?

[Dale Jr.]

I don't know nothing about.

[TJ Majors]

I think.

[Dale Jr.]

What is that?

[Russell]

The books?

[Dale Jr.]

No.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, that's not happening.

[Dale Jr.]

No, sir. Oh, I want to go to the. If I want to go to the antique mall.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, yeah. Oh, they got hard stuff there. They do.

[Dale Jr.]

They got a big antique mall here in Mooresville.

[TJ Majors]

A lot of comic book stuff there, too.

[Russell]

Next question. You're just coming off your vacation. They want to know if you were to go to any country you haven't been to.

[Dale Jr.]

Oh, I'll tell you, man, I. There's a couple I want to go back to, but I want to go back to Japan. When we went to Japan in 1999, I wasn't. I didn't eat sushi here in the States, and it's different. I know, but I'm just trying to say, like, I wasn't. When I. When I went to Japan, I did not appreciate the opportunity that I had to, like, enjoy that culture, all the food and different things. I would love to go back to Japan and spend a week there with Amy. That'd be awesome. I'd love to go to Australia. I was there in 06. TJ went. And I'd love to take my family back.

[TJ Majors]

That's a lot of fun.

[Dale Jr.]

It's so great. And so we.

[TJ Majors]

We did it right.

[Dale Jr.]

We did it right. But I'd love to go back and do that, but to a country that I've never been.

[TJ Majors]

Maybe a state Alaska.

[Dale Jr.]

I've wanted to drive. There's this road from Vancouver. Ish.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Up through to Alaska. And I wanted to drive that road because I don't know how long that might take. But there's all these old vintage mining towns and stuff that were, you know, that are still there and some original saloons and stuff like that. But that would be that and man, how beautiful would that be? Drive up through there. Northern Canada up to. Up into Alaska. I've never been to Alaska.

[TJ Majors]

Would you like to do some of that gold mining stuff? That'd be kind of neat maybe.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

Would you do one of those like cruises up through Alaska or did you want to just go and stay at like one spot?

[Dale Jr.]

I kind of want to drive through. Through the wilderness, if you will.

[TJ Majors]

You told me about this town that they. There's like this rafter.

[Dale Jr.]

Oh, they did? Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

You know, I'm talking about on here.

[Dale Jr.]

Talked about that on here multiple times. But there's a river in Alaska where I don't know if they do anymore. But it's like a seasonal thing where all these, all these guys, you know what, you know, city slickers where they like paid to go Russell cattle. Remember?

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

And so there's dude ranches and stuff. And so there's a. There's. There's a river in. In Alaska where I think, you know, I don't know if they still do this. It'd be curious if they do. But guys get together and they build rafts in this particular town and they set out on this river and go down this river until they don't want to do it anywhere. Route Alaskan Log Raft Adventures on the

[TJ Majors]

Yukon river when you told me all this, I was like he's going to do it. Like we're going to have to do this.

[Dale Jr.]

There's guys that they'll build a 20 by 20 raft, put a couple of tents on it to be two or three dudes on there. They just, you know, they just float down the river and they cook and eat and talk and hang out and have fun. And when they're done, they just park the damn raft on the side of the river and get off.

[TJ Majors]

You're done.

[Dale Jr.]

And so that in this video that I was watching and this was. This was 20 years ago that I saw this. So it's very old. So they're going down this river hanging out videoing themselves. And on the side of the river's old rafts that you know, were from the last year, the year before or several years ago that guys were Just like, yep, we're done. We're ready to get off. Yeah. And I don't know that they do anything other than fish and hang out and talk.

[TJ Majors]

What else could you do?

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. I mean, it sounds fun.

[TJ Majors]

It does.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Sounds cold.

[Dale Jr.]

I tell you. I was on this trip. We went to St Martin's in Anguilla and a couple other places this weekend, and I would like to live on a boat for a chunk of fun. Yeah. I'd like to have. I'd like to have my family and live on a boat and not like a. Like a catamaran or something like Carl Edwards is doing. Right. And sail and. And, you know, spend a month or something like that in the ocean. That'd be badass. I would love to be on a sailboat. What does it feel like to be on a sailboat and look out and not see a piece of land anywhere? Be wild, right?

[Russell]

It would be peaceful.

[Dale Jr.]

It'd be peaceful. Wild.

[TJ Majors]

I followed a couple little.

[Dale Jr.]

A little bit. Anxiety. I don't know.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, probably. I follow a couple people that. Actually, there's, like, a family of four or five that live on a boat, and they're gone like that.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

And they, like, they're sitting there doing their school work during the day. They dock or they. When I say dock, they drop the anchor at some of these places and they dive in and swim. I mean, I'd like to do it,

[Russell]

though, where, like, turn the technology off and, like, you might get on just to see what's going on, but for the most part, like. Yeah, you're just out there. Like, you're no connection to the world, really.

[Dale Jr.]

I'll tell you, man, we went to St Martin's in Anguilla, and we were all over these islands, going to marinas and getting on boats and getting in taxis and going here and going there and doing things, losing your phone. And they're living. They're living just how we are oblivious to what's happening there at this moment. They are just as oblivious to what we're doing over here, for sure. And it feels. Yeah, it looks like a lot of fun. Amy thinks that we would go over there and do it and. And after a while, we'd be like, all right, you know, this is. Okay. This is like Groundhog Day. Same thing every day, you know? But I don't know.

[Russell]

I could get into it. Jay Wayne said, just make sure you take Wilson with you, just in case.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, for sure.

[Russell]

So Reddick thought he was running out of gas. At the end of the race, what's that feeling like?

[TJ Majors]

Which time?

[Dale Jr.]

It's. It's frustrating. I mean, if you. When you. He didn't run out of gas, right? So let's be clear. Like, he. He was still one. He still won a race. He. He didn't run out of gas. But I'll say the one race that I think about is Pocono, me and Tony Jr. 2008, we had ran. We'd ran fifth to eighth all day, and we weren't good enough to pass anybody, but we were good enough to not get past. And I busted my ass for 400, 500 miles, whatever that race was back then, it might have been a 200 lapper, but I had busted my ass to. To, you know, finish what I. I wanted to finish what I started and get what I thought I should get. That's how I raced every race. And we. We ran out of gas off of turn two, coming to. Coming to two to go. Like, we were. We were short quite a bit. That's a big racetrack. And Tony Jr. Never really said that we were close. And, I don't know. I got out, showed my ass a little bit. I smashed. I grabbed my helmet and smashed the fender of the race car and knocked. Knocked a big ass. Didn't offender. And I was just mad, but I kind of regret doing that. But Antonio Jr. Was mad at me. He's like, nope, that's not how we're gonna act. But, man, when you. If you know you're gonna be short is one thing, right? Because you can pedal and do things during the run to kind of expect it. Yeah. There's times when we're in. We've been in races together, TJ and we're running along, and all of a sudden, the. The crew chief would say, hey, can you save me a little gas here? And it's like 10 to go, 15 to go.

[Russell]

Like, a little too late.

[Dale Jr.]

What the. Yeah, like, I could have done that. I've loved to have started doing that 40 laps ago, but that makes you pretty nervous. Man, when you run out of gas, it just sucks because you just eat. You just. You bleeding spots. Yeah. You've just. You just. The race is ruined.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, most notably, Obviously, the Coke 600.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. But at least. At least there, we got to coast across the line for a top 10.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. Vegas similar. Vegas was similar once.

[Dale Jr.]

We're in third there, I think.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. And then I feel like when the rules reversed, we had enough fuel. We're running second to Kurt at Pocono and we're listening. They're like, all right, Kurt, you gotta save fuel. And I'm looking at his laptop.

[Dale Jr.]

I just saw a clip the other day where Brad beat us at Kansas.

[TJ Majors]

We ran second.

[Dale Jr.]

We ran second in Kansas. Brad's Brad's second career win. He was clutching the car down in the corner and saved enough fuel. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

And so, well, they told Kurt to save fuel. And I'm like, oh, we got this guy. He's got to back up to us. And I look at his lap time at Pocono, and he starts running faster. When he's, like, going. He's slowing down, lifting earlier and going faster. I'm like. Like. I'm like, damn it.

[Dale Jr.]

Like, yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Why can't this work out?

[Dale Jr.]

Oh, yeah. All right, everybody. Appreciate y' all tuning in. It's been. It's been a fun show. I hope you'll check it out when it comes out later today. Thanks for sharing your. Your day with us here on Ask Junior on YouTube. Xfinity is waving the the red flag on Internet price hikes and raising the green flag for savings. Get speed and reliability you need with your wi fi locked in. One price, five years. No surprises, no late yellows. Right to victory lane. It's Xfinity. We've got a winner. Imagine that. Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Place your bets. Get your bets down, ladies and gentlemen. Get your bets. All right, it's time for Dirty Modo, the segment brought to you by Fanduel. Fanduel is the premier gaming destination in the United States, and it's time to talk about Talladega, one of our favorite races when it comes to gambling.

[Russell]

We don't need Russell for this week.

[Dale Jr.]

Just throw a damn dart at the dartboard. We're going to do a little bit of a. We did a manufacturer parlay last week. One of them almost hit. Who's that?

[Russell]

Not yours.

[Dale Jr.]

Not mine. No, mine was terrible.

[Russell]

I think it was the Russ, TJ and Tim's kind of all agreed on.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, Larson, Reddick. Busher was the one that missed.

[Russell]

You know who beat Buscher?

[Dale Jr.]

Brad, because I ruined it. Well, we had a Talladega. The favorites are Legano Blaney and Byron Redick. Larson, Elliott are in the conversation. Russell, what are your thoughts? I don't think you can go away from the Reddick train here. That's. That's where I go. He's won three of the last 13 undrafting tracks. One both of them this year. Other than that, I'm. I get scared. At Talladega to even try to tell you what's going to happen. Yeah, well.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, my gosh.

[Dale Jr.]

11 different winners in the last 11 races at Talladega. So TJ seems to have this, like,

[TJ Majors]

some of these wins are like the, like, three of the last 13. Well, two of them because the right guy showed up at the right time and. And things happened in front of him that were perfectly laid out. Yeah, but, I mean. Yeah, but like, the. You can't. It's not a dominating win. Like, it used to be. Like, these guys used to dominate these tracks. And like, then you say, yeah, you get on that train because those are the guys that know how to manipulate air. Manipulate. Not the guy that gets the lucky. Push it down, halfway down the back stretch, all the way to the line. That's like, you're counting that and, like, you're giving it too much credit. Russell, your predictor's wrong.

[Dale Jr.]

Hey, came. He came in here. I think that was his main. That's TJ's main goal today, was coming here.

[TJ Majors]

Chose violence.

[Dale Jr.]

He's been waiting for this.

[TJ Majors]

Russell. I've been waiting for this.

[Dale Jr.]

Unload Russell. You tell him the backstory while you're mad at me.

[TJ Majors]

I'm not mad at you.

[Dale Jr.]

I'm not mad at you.

[TJ Majors]

Right before the race. It's Russell's fault. Car ended up upside down. Let's hear Russell looks. Russell. I mean, Russell were having a, you know, product. We're just talking about stuff. And then he's like, don't wreck him. And then, like, five minutes later, we're upside down.

[Dale Jr.]

I said, don't wreck him on the first couple laps is what I said.

[TJ Majors]

We almost made two.

[Dale Jr.]

I turn it on and he's on his roof.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Russell]

Sound advice you probably should have heeded.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, I did say. I did walk away from that saying, I will do my best.

[Dale Jr.]

That he does have. He does have a predictor.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

I think I would listen to a guy who owns a predictor.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, I got. I can make my own predictor as well.

[Russell]

Oh, I'd love to see that.

[Dale Jr.]

Tim's. You're always. You're always. You're probably the.

[TJ Majors]

What's up, Tim?

[Dale Jr.]

You're the. You're the best person you need to say.

[TJ Majors]

You didn't say hi to Tim's yet. You haven't even seen him.

[Dale Jr.]

Did I?

[TJ Majors]

I think so. He did not.

[Dale Jr.]

You're the best person to ask around Talladega Daytona.

[Tyler Reddick]

I just.

[Dale Jr.]

My stretch. I do believe in the predictor. I do appreciate Russell and his value, but this Is Talladega. This is Daytona. This is. This is a crapshoot.

[TJ Majors]

Thank you.

[Dale Jr.]

What are we going to do?

[TJ Majors]

I think you just bet guys that are consistently up front and you hope they miss. Miss the wreck. They get the right time, push. Guys like Austin Dillon.

[Dale Jr.]

Tyler Reddick.

[TJ Majors]

Tyler Reddick. Brad Keselowski's up there. I mean, he's got to win one of these, right? Yeah, I don't know. I'm spotting.

[Tyler Reddick]

But they all have good odds too, like Brad's +2000.

[TJ Majors]

That's good for a guy who runs up front. Austin Dillon's plus 5,500.

[Dale Jr.]

That's.

[TJ Majors]

That's good.

[Dale Jr.]

You know, I would bet those guys

[TJ Majors]

and take a shot. Plus wreck avoidance. We gotta look at that category.

[Dale Jr.]

Crash avoidance.

[TJ Majors]

Before last race it was William Byer and then he gets in a wreck. Now he's off the charts.

[Dale Jr.]

Yep. So. Well, you know, going into there. We know going into Talladega, there's really no rhyme or reason. Of course, yes. A little bit of money on Reddick, Byron, all these guys that we mentioned. Who are some of the dark horses? Give me two dark horses.

[Russell]

Cody, where top ten.

[Dale Jr.]

I like Zane Smith. Zane Smith. Top five. Top ten. When I would start with top ten if we can. Yeah, he was. He was top ten last year. Won the poll for this race. Last year.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Finished top 10 and for the last five drafting track races. Okay, you sold me. But TJ doesn't like those numbers. You sold me. All right. What about Stenhouse?

[TJ Majors]

People are going to say Stenhouse, Stenhouse.

[Dale Jr.]

It's a good bet, but his stats haven't been that great. A bit. Plus 5,000 to win.

[TJ Majors]

Do it.

[Russell]

120 for top 10.

[Dale Jr.]

They haven't been that great. But he's always worth a bet. Yeah, he was runner up in the 500.

[TJ Majors]

The scrappier the race, the messier the race, the better. San House. Yeah, like, I kind of like Cole Custer too. I feel like he's always. I like Eric Jones. Eric Jones.

[Dale Jr.]

Throwing around some names I think you could throw into a top 10 bet.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah,

[Dale Jr.]

we got some numbers on the championship. Reddick at plus 400 to win the championship. Do we have Denny's odds? He's 450. 450 with this.

[TJ Majors]

Any bro knows.

[Dale Jr.]

And with the way things are going, I think that it would be. I think it would be a smart money to put down something on the guys that are in the top three.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. This early.

[Dale Jr.]

If you believe that they could stay there. Tyler Reddick. I believe does to Denny Hamlin, I believe. Does. We said it every year for the last. I don't know. It feels like 10 years. This could be Denny's year. I honestly, you know, honestly feel like betting money on Denny to win the championship is a good idea. Look around. You know, in that top five, top six, I see Larson, Chase, Elliot, Byron, they're all kind of right outside the top top five there. Those are the only other people in the conversation for me, really. Like, if you're talking about making bets for the championship, everybody can chime in here, but I think you're betting the top three. If you believe those three, you're going to stay. And the only other people I would even consider putting money on would be guys in the top six, top seven at this point. What do you think, Russell? I'm Reddick, Larson, Hamlin, that's where I would stay.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I agree, too. I think a way to try to bet them is to try to bet them on their slump. You know, they're going to go through the roller coaster. Bet them on the slump. That's the best number you're going to get. And don't bet Redick right now, because this is the highest he's going to be. What about Blaney?

[Dale Jr.]

How many weeks do you think the books need to recognize a slump?

[TJ Majors]

I would say two to three.

[Dale Jr.]

Two to three bad races.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Tyler Reddick]

You'll go through that like Bell did it last year.

[TJ Majors]

One, three out the gate. Slow summer. It lasted longer now, but I would. I would have put him. Maybe July.

[Dale Jr.]

Would have bet him. Yeah, he's going to come back up smart.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, it's crazy that we go a week later, Blaney's hot at Bristol, and now we don't hear from. You know what I mean? Like, to me, Blaney's still in the conversation.

[Dale Jr.]

I know. That's been something that's always fascinated me, and I don't remember that being the case when I was younger. But in the last, like, 15 years, we go from our. Our championship favorite literally changes every week. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

In last week, zero.

[Dale Jr.]

This as a broadcaster. Every week we go into the booth talking about another guy that's the championship favorite. Depending on what the. What they did the last week, it's nonsense. Does it worry you with. With Blaney being, like, so many intermediate races in the Chase? Yes. Like, he hasn't been that great on those tracks.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. But I mean, if he survived. But if he survives them. If he survives them and gets to the near the end, I mean, the Season still ends pretty strong for him, doesn't it?

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. I mean, well, it's still, what, four, four or five of the 10 races are in on intermediates.

[TJ Majors]

You still don't think Blaney can run fifth, six at an intermediate and, you know, still win it like a Martinsville and not a Phoenix.

[Dale Jr.]

No, not. They got to get their act together.

[TJ Majors]

Well, I mean, this last week, he got. I mean, he had a hole in his nose from the first stop.

[Dale Jr.]

I understand. Yeah. I'm just saying, like, to his point, it's a 10 race championship race now, and you kind of got to look at it.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Bigger.

[TJ Majors]

Bigger thing.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. I, I like Denny a ton for this. Reddick is certainly, if he can continue to, to be great. Kyle Larson just. I don't, I don't know if I should be nervous about him if he's not into top three. I guess I like, I think Kyle Larson or Chase Elliott and even William Byron could actually get a lot of points. But is it going to be enough in terms of the deficit? They'll start.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

The playoffs in if they are not top three.

[TJ Majors]

It's hard to go against, like, Denny right now, though, where he's at and he always running.

[Dale Jr.]

You know, you, you would know as well as anyone how confident are you, Russell, in betting Larson for the championship if he's fifth or sixth starting the playoffs, I think fifth or sixth, you're okay. Any, Any further back, I would be worried. And that's for Larson. But when you look at like. Yes. Yes. Yeah. So if it's anybody, when I expect him to, you think he's gonna, like, I expect him trudge forward. Yeah, I, I think he's gonna finish in that three or four.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I do.

[Dale Jr.]

The highest percentage I have right now is third.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. I mean, if he can finish top three, I gave him a damn great shot at winning the championship. But, man, you know, everything I've heard and, and seen, I just feel like even, even a Kyle Larson will have a very difficult path forward to try to win the championship from sixth, seventh, maybe even fifth. Definitely doable, but against. But when you look at the, those Chase races, they all set up for. For Larson or Hamlin, when to me, like, it's like Darlington. Those two come up.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. But even Reddick's got a lot of speed. Tyler's got maybe one of the best. I mean, he's obviously got one of the fastest cars, but Denny is just more consistent. To me, like, like I was. We were talking about earlier. Tyler's went, you Know, two or three of them have just been at the right times, but he's in the right spot. But Denny's leading a lot of like how many laps is Danny like compared to Tyler? Probably quite a bit. Right.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. We're not talking about Ty Gibbs who's right in the middle of all this.

[TJ Majors]

Just won his first race.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. Fourth and eighth in the stages this past weekend. Ended up with a top 10 and ninth

[TJ Majors]

plus 2200 to win the championship. If you do think he has a. Is going to do that, that's a good, good time to place it right now.

[Dale Jr.]

I don't think so, though.

[TJ Majors]

So I would save your money, but

[Russell]

I don't think he's winning this year.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, I mean, if, if we're talking, you know, I guess it's that time of year where you could basically say there's. There's literally only about five or six guys have a shot at it.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, it's going to take a heck of a run.

[Dale Jr.]

How about that?

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Pretty cool. That's cool. Yeah, I like that. I do too. I kind of like knowing.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

I mean even Byron and Bell, which I. I would. What is it? I'm feel I'm kind of nice and I'm relieved. The guy sitting in 16th isn't gonna steal this thing.

[Russell]

See you, Joey.

[Dale Jr.]

Nothing against Joey. I'm just saying I love that it feels like it's happening. Happening. I feel like it's happening normally. I just like, I love how this is working like a normal.

[Russell]

We're gonna get a true champion. What a concept.

[Dale Jr.]

I don't know.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Know what I'm trying to say? Trying to be nice. All right, well, that's the Dirty Modo segment brought to you by FanDuel. Thank you, Russell for coming in. Thank you, Tim.

[TJ Majors]

Thank you.

[Dale Jr.]

Remember, the fanduel is the gaming destination of the. The premier gaming premiere. Always use premiere of the United States States. Thanks for joining us here in the Arby studio. Don't forget about their new meat and three box. You get more meal for your money at Arby's. Arby's we have the meats. Check out dirty mo media on instagram, facebook x and tik tok.