Time to Bring Back “Boys Have At It”?

Summary

The Dale Jr. Download

Episode: Time to Bring Back “Boys Have At It”?

Date: May 5, 2026
Host: Dale Earnhardt Jr., with TJ Majors, Russell, and guest analysts
Presented by Arby’s

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Episode Overview

In this post-Texas Motor Speedway episode, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his crew recap a dramatic NASCAR weekend, digging into the evolving racing product at Texas, pivotal strategy debates, and hot-button incidents that reignited calls for a return to NASCAR’s "Boys, Have At It" philosophy. The team unpacks new points-system impacts, contentious on-track paybacks, and the ongoing struggle to inject excitement and competition into superspeedway racing. Chase Elliott calls in to discuss his Texas win, and the crew looks forward to Watkins Glen with betting insights and fan Q&A.

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Key Episode Segments & Timestamps

• [01:40] – Texas Race Recap & Track Evolution
• [03:23] – Pit Road Penalties & Strategies
• [06:22] – Tire Wear & Its Impact at Texas
• [10:01] – Team Strategy Exposed: Stage Racing Decisions
• [21:28] – Chaos and Consequence: Bell, Logano, and Pit Road Wrecks
• [34:43] – Penske & Ford Team State-of-the-Union
• [36:29] – Point System Drama & Mid-pack Battles
• [37:04] – The Kyle Busch/John Hunter Nemechek & Priests/Ty Gibbs Debacles
• [40:50] – "Boys Have At It": NASCAR’s Role in Policing Payback
• [68:12] – Winner Interview: Chase Elliott
• [82:35] – Ask Jr.: Met Gala Talk & NASCAR in Pop Culture
• [102:44] – Watkins Glen Preview & Betting Segment

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Detailed Segment Summaries

Texas Motor Speedway: Racing Product and Track Evolution

[01:40–07:31]

• Dale hails the "edgy" new character of Texas after years of questionable racing, praising the wide racing surface and multi-groove action:

  “This place is awesome…Cars running the bottom, the middle, the top. It was fantastic.” (Dale Jr., 01:40)

• The crew notes improvement since the repave and ditching “Coke syrup” traction compounds.
• The race played out wild, especially in the O’Reilly Series, setting up Sunday’s Cup race with intense three-wide moments for the lead.

Pit Road, Strategy, and Tire Talk

[03:23–18:03]

• Fewer speeding penalties than expected:

  “Is anything change or were guys just more aware, more careful?” (Dale Jr., 03:25)

• Discussion of pit road light recalibration, possibly contributing to the anomaly.
• Tire strategy is dissected—Dale expresses concern over old tires holding their own ("shouldn’t happen"; 05:15), advocating for more aggressive tire wear to spice things up.
• Corey Haim’s strong showing on older tires spotlighted as a promising glimpse of his potential.

Team Orders and Stage-Point Strategy: The Keselowski Call

[10:01–14:41]

• TJ and Dale break down Brad Keselowski’s controversial decision to stay out and go for stage points, which resulted in a crippling loss of track position.

  “He took ownership...veteran drivers, you gotta let the crew chief, crew chief…” (Dale Jr., 10:26)

• Parallel drawn to Denny Hamlin’s similar overrule—more drivers making these calls from the cockpit lately.

Point System Pressure & Pit Road Wrecks: Impact on Chase Prospects

[21:28–35:44]

• Christopher Bell’s crash while leading is pointed out as a case study of the new point system’s unforgiving nature:

  “It was a 30 to 45 point swing. Bam.” (Dale Jr., 22:42)

• Similar story for Joey Logano, eliminated after a pit road incident, and the downstream impact on championship hopes.
• New system makes big wrecks and DNFs matter every week—no more waiting until the playoffs for drama.

Team Performance State-of-the-Union (Penske, RFK, Gibbs)

[34:43–36:29]

• Penske’s inconsistency: Blaney has speed, Cindric has improved, Logano seems stagnant or in slight decline, Wood Brothers regressing.
• TJ: “RFK is consistently running well...on half the tracks outperforming Penske on half the racetracks." (33:34)
• The points logjam around the Chase cutoff is highlighted—every point and pit call amplified.

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"Boys Have At It" Debate: Payback Incidents, NASCAR’s Response

[37:04–47:57]

• Kyle Busch vs. John Hunter Nemechek
  – Kyle Busch intentionally puts the 42 in the wall after contact.
  – Dale and TJ agree: If NASCAR acts, they’ll alienate fans who want more driver policing.

  “I honestly don’t feel like NASCAR is going to do anything about this.” (Dale Jr., 40:50)

• Preece vs. Ty Gibbs
  – Preece broadcasts his intent, then takes out Gibbs. Both incidents cause huge points swings.
  – Dale explains the emotional context of payback and “memory” on track:

  “When you feel like a guy totally disrespects you on the racetrack, you do not forget it. And it eats at you...until you can absolutely return the favor.” (Dale Jr., 46:22; recurring theme)

Notable Quote:

“We need to be entertained by not only what’s happening on the racetrack...but also taken on a ride emotionally with what guys are dealing with when they get knocked out early.” (Dale Jr., 55:07)

Superspeedway Racing: The Need for Change

[61:50–67:57]

• Christopher Bell’s “desperate” call for Daytona/Talladega package changes is amplified.
• Dale is adamant current cars are “too draggy,” making fuel strategy and track position paramount and passes nearly impossible:

  “It’s a joke. It’s completely—it’s a complete joke. And I look forward to changes.” (Christopher Bell via Dale Jr., 62:08)

• Crew agrees: O’Reilly and ARCA races are actually more racy and allow the “cream to rise.”

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Guest Interview: Chase Elliott

[68:12–80:45]

• Chase recaps his Texas win, praises his team’s improvement, and credits pit crew and strategy.
• On the rollercoaster of 2026 so far:

  “We better be developing. I better be improving...I was proud of all aspects of the weekend.” (Chase Elliott, 72:00)

• Discusses Texas’ tricky turn 3-4 bump, confirms there’s no safe way around it yet.
• Approaching Watkins Glen with "low" confidence due to last year’s struggles but hopeful for improvement.
• Comments on Glen’s tire pack changes: Doesn’t expect huge challenges, but cautions new risks for inexperienced drivers.

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Listener Q&A & NASCAR in Pop Culture

[82:35–94:07]

• Carson Hocevar at the Met Gala: Dale sees tremendous value in drivers branching into new cultural spaces.

  “We need our drivers in these unusual spaces, connecting with people that aren’t connected to our sport.” (Dale Jr., 83:39)

• Debates whether Hocevar can top Chase Elliott as Most Popular Driver—maybe, with continued off-track charisma.
• Dale reminisces about media moments—Rolling Stone, MTV—and the need for NASCAR to be in the broader entertainment conversation.

Memorable Moment:

• Dale’s standards for bus life at tracks: “Having somewhere to use the bathroom—your own. Yes. That was fantastic.” (Dale Jr., 98:55)
• Silly debate: “If you had to smell like a food for the rest of your life…” (96:00)

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Watkins Glen Preview & Betting Insights

[102:44–112:22]

• SVG, Bell, and Reddick highlighted as favorites for the Glen.
• Discuss Chase Elliott vs. Larson head-to-head—mixed opinions, but data says Larson has the edge in the Next Gen era.
• Briscoe quietly pointed out as strong value for a top 10.
• Parlay options and manufacturer bets discussed.
• Notable: Potential weather could influence SVG’s chances due to his off-road/rain experience.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Payback

  “I can relate to that frustration…I see the two situations a little bit differently. Wreck running in the back of a guy at speed…is slightly different than you both destroying each other in the middle of the back straightaway.” (Dale Jr., 46:56)

• On Superspeedways

  “This car is just too draggy…you see the cream rise in O’Reilly and ARCA because the good guys know how to get there...With the Cup car, you just can’t.” (TJ, 67:17)

• On Points System Drama

  “Now I’m not as focused on whether the race is great for the lead. I’m still entertained by the drama and ebb and flow as things unfold, stories…That was missing.” (Dale Jr., 55:07)

• Chase Elliott on Improvement and Consistency:

  “If you’re not continuing to improve from where you sit today, you’re probably not going to be in a real good spot come September, October, November." (Chase Elliott, 72:00)

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Episode Themes & Tone

• Candid & Analytical – True to Dale Jr.’s reputation, the crew dives deep into race strategy, team performance, and unwanted consequences of new and old NASCAR rules, mixing sharp criticism with enthusiasm for improvements.
• Entertaining & Relatable – Banter ranges from on-track drama to offbeat questions about bus bathrooms and favorite food smells, keeping things light and personal.
• Pop Culture & Fan Engagement – Strong encouragement for drivers to appear outside the racing bubble, expanding NASCAR’s footprint.
• Competitive—but Fair – Consistent call for “Boys Have At It” to return, but underscored by desire for safety and responsibility.

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• Texas Evolution & Race Recap: 01:40–07:31
• Pit Road Chaos & Speeding: 03:23–06:22
• Tire Wear & Corey Haim: 06:22–07:31
• Keselowski’s Stage Strategy: 10:01–14:41
• Bell & Logano Point Swings: 21:28–23:12, 28:29–30:23
• Penske Team Rundown: 34:43–36:29
• Kyle Busch vs. Nemechek: 37:04–40:50
• Priest vs. Gibbs & NASACR Discipline: 41:04–47:57
• Chase Elliott Interview: 68:12–80:45
• Ask Jr. & Pop Culture: 82:35–94:07
• Watkins Glen Bets: 102:44–112:22

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If You Missed the Episode…

This release is heavy on Texas analysis, but it’s the big-picture discussions—about the new points system, intentional wrecks, NASCAR’s approach to discipline, and how badly superspeedway racing needs an overhaul—that give it weight. The Chase Elliott interview is a solid window into a top contender’s mindset, while listener questions and betting segments keep things fun. The crew’s candid “insider” take makes it a must-listen for fans, especially those craving the old-school "Boys, Have At It" spirit mingled with sharp analysis of NASCAR’s evolving landscape.

Transcript

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

When you feel like a guy totally disrespects you on the racetrack, you do not forget it. And it eats at you and eats at you until you can absolutely return the favor.

[Russell]

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[TJ]

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[TJ]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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.

[TJ]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

weekend or I'm still sour that I wasn't the best man at your wedding.

[Russell]

Who was your best man, Dale?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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

[TJ]

All right then.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hey Everybody, it's Dale Jr. Back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. It's Tuesday. This is Post Texas heading into Watkins Glen this weekend. Got a great guest segment for you tomorrow as well. This episode is presented by Arby's. Don't forget about Arby's. New meet in three box. Get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meats, so let's dive right into it. A lot going on this weekend in the O'Reilly series, we learned that Texas is a slick racetrack. This was a repave a reconfiguration years ago. We've not had great racing on this racetrack. Crowds have suffered. We put PJ1 all over it. We did all kinds of things to try to get help. This racetrack survive this little rough patch and we are finally out of the woods. This place is awesome. It's wide and it. We no longer need to treat the racetrack with any kind of a Coke, syrup or anything like that. And we had cars running the bottom, the middle, the top. It was fantastic. In the O'Reilly series. Well, the truck showed that as well. The O'Reilly series, though, we had a really badass moment where they got, you know, three wide there for the lead between the 19 of cruise, we had the one of Zillich and then Larson. It's pretty wild what was going on there for a few laps as those guys were racing it out. And this was a great precursor for what would happen on Sunday. So the track is super edgy, especially the outside groove when the race starts. That groove would improve over time. And as rubber got laid down, more and more cars went up there to find speed. But I was really interested. Early on in the day, we heard from Mike Joy. 11 speeding penalties at the racetrack last year. Not as many this race, but a

[Russell]

lot of chaos on pit road.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, there was a lot of chaos on pit road, but I wonder why we didn't have as many speeding penalties. What has changed? Is anything change or were guys just more aware, more careful? We just had an anomaly. Anomaly? Anomaly. Did we just have an anomaly? What was the deal, tj?

[Russell]

Was there an emphasis for you guys on making sure.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was expecting lots of speed penalties.

[TJ]

Didn't get any, you know, something. Yeah, I don't know. Something was different this year. I mean, I don't know if something. What if some of the lines were different, but our lights, we had to adjust both days or on Saturday and Sunday. Yeah, I had to adjust lights.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. So that tells you like something has changed.

[TJ]

Something's changed.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right. So maybe there was a little bit of a change on pit road, but less feeding penalties, which is good.

[TJ]

And we were slow.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ]

All weekend on the light, we were

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

bumping up, you know, this race did play out quite interestingly and maybe it, you know, it prevented a lot of, you know, a lot less green flag stops or whatever. I love busting on people that speed on pit road. I don't like to see it, though. It's a. It's a, you know, it's a. It upsets somebody's day.

[TJ]

Terrible penalty.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It is a terrible. So that was kind of good. I'm glad. I don't want to actually see speeding penalties, but when you do, when you do go to a racetrack where there are traditionally more than normal, you are hyper aware of it.

[Russell]

I think it's also, like, for a fan, you're like. You're unsure because you don't know how fast it was. And so it's just like an odd

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

call to, like, just taking their word for it.

[Guest Analyst]

Yeah.

[Russell]

You're just taking like, oh, they were 0.05 over. And you're like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And the driver's saying, I don't know how they called me. I don't know. I was going.

[Russell]

My lights, I had green.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And then it's like, whatever. The bump in turn three and four was a big deal in the second groove especially. So a lot of guys busting their ass through that corner turn one or two treacherous as well. Saw some guys getting upset.

[TJ]

In its own way.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

In its own way. Yeah. There's speed to be made in the second or third groove, whatever you want to call it. They're not getting all the way to the fence like we used to back in the day, which I hope that's coming down the road with this racetrack as it continues to age. But they. I think it's time to start working on the tire there. We had a moment in the race where, for example, Erik Jones wins the stage, his first stage win ever, on 20 lap tires that, you know that. Look, I'm. I'm happy for Eric, but that shouldn't happen. It should not happen. The guys with tires should just eat him alive. So that's an absolute, like, not red flag. Oh, bad, good year. But more of like a, hey, man. It's a. It's an. It's a. It's a signal that the track has gotten to a point to where I think we can start working the tire back in the other direction. When you repave this place, you got a bulletproof tire that you got to bring. They got to be conservative. They can't have failures, and they got to protect the drivers. And we all love that.

[TJ]

It's fast.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It is fast. And they've got a. I think, though, it's time to start working that tire back the other way. There was tire wear, though, was. There was.

[TJ]

Yeah, it's definitely tire wear. But that when he won that stage, it was a real short run to the end, right?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's right.

[TJ]

And he had a lot of cars that stayed out, too, so that kind of helped him in that. But I think if it goes 5 lap run or 3 lap run or something like that any further, that he's going to get chewed up. But still, I mean, we're used to guys coming from 10th and winning.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We kind of had the same thing later on in the race where Corey Haim, he got the lead staying, you know, by some strategy to be able to stay out on some older tires and just drove away. And he ended up clocking off. Let's see, he ended up running 26 of the race's fastest laps during this period of time. You know, then you throw him back in the pack on tires and he kind of struggled to really make make way through the field the rest of the day. But hey, before we move on, that's a sign of things to come for Corey Haim. That, that guy right there when he put, when he put him at the front of the field, he's sitting there running the fastest laps of the day on a little bit older tires than some other cars. It this kid is given the opportunity, we know he's going to be incredible.

[TJ]

What I like I watched Corey there in the beginning. We were around him and he isn't content. He has to learn the air a little bit more. But he's always looking kind of like what Tyler. You know how them guys are like Briscoe Tyler, them guys, he has that ability, but it's going to bite him. Like it bit him at Texas at

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

times it did bite him. Jose Var on the pole. Couple of things I noticed right out of the gate. Jose Var qualified really well, as did his teammate Suarez.

[TJ]

Front row.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. Suarez dropped to 17th place by lap

[Russell]

30, which I don't think is shocking though because then they talk about his balance was off.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Listen, I also saw Jose Var struggling as well. So Suarez car started tanking around lap, you know, 1520. Host of our also started dropping a little bit and struggling to match pace with the top 10. After about 35 laps now he was able to race hard and find a balance that would allow him to maintain his track position throughout the day. And he ends up coming home. Both these guys come home with top five or top 10 finishes. But Suarez was in big trouble. One of the things that stood out to me when I was looking back at some of the guys fastest laps of the race and I this is just something, I don't know, a neat stat that I would love to, that I'd love to have the answer to. So most every car in the field ran their fastest lap between lap 175 and lap 220. Most everyone ran their faster laps toward the end of the day. The fastest laps for the seven and the 77 were laps two and laps three. So like they didn't their cars, I don't know, do their cars not improve throughout the day. It's definitely probably not situational.

[TJ]

That was the cleanest air that either of them had all day.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. But everyone, the whole field all ran their fastest laps in this other part of the race entirely.

[TJ]

Yeah, I don't. I mean. Yeah, they should have been. That's kind of weird.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It is weird.

[TJ]

It is weird.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And it just kind of tells me that they did they. You know, and they didn't look as good after they changed that first set of tires. You know, for whatever reason, their cars had great speed and qualifying. They went out there and I mean, Suarez finished in the top 10 as did host of our. Host of our. To me was a backside of the top 10 cars. Juarez was not host of our.

[TJ]

Definitely had a better race going.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

This is the. This is the numbers. Suarez on speed ranked 22nd in the field. Yeah, you know that. And how commend him for getting a top 10 finish with.

[TJ]

Yeah, he did a good job.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, basically the 20, 22nd place

[TJ]

race car that he was on the same strategy we were.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ]

And we stayed out and he had pit. We stayed out to try to win the stage. And he pits, keeps his track position.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, you guys did not. That was another thing that happened in the race that was really interesting to me. TJ And I know Brad said he overrode the. And made the decision. He took. He took ownership of that decision on social media, saying that, hey man, that was on me. And we've heard drivers say this in the past, man, even vet, you know, veteran drivers, you got to let the crew chief, crew chief, you know, kind of walk me through, I suppose not so much what led up to that, but what the conversation's been like since, you know, Brad stays out to try to win the stage. He was in third place. The Costa comes out, everybody pits, he stays out. They run one lap or whatever to the one lap, one lap to the end of the stage. He finishes third.

[TJ]

So which is where we were running.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No game, no loss. But now he's got to come down pit road and he gives up 27 spots.

[TJ]

27th.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right. So he comes out 27th. Basically come in from third to 27th and you finish 20th. 13th, 13th, sorry. Before all that jump jumbled up mess at the end of the race, I think you're running 20th before the last caution. Let's see.

[TJ]

It got close to getting even out, but we had a little bit of luck at the end with wrecks and stuff.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But so the, you know, the decision to come down pit road and. Or not come down Pit road and come back out on the racetrack in 27th. What was the conversation over the radio at that point?

[TJ]

Well, I honestly, I think we thought maybe more would stay out, especially guys in the teens and stuff that aren't

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

going to get, Try to win, try to run well in the stage, get

[TJ]

some stage points, make your day a little bit better and then battle out the, the rest of the race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That was what you saw Jones do, Eric Jones do in stage one.

[TJ]

Bunch of them, whole bunch of people.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That gave you the confidence to make this decision.

[TJ]

Yes. It ended up being only us and priests that stayed out. So that put tires.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Brad restarted 18th on the last restart, grabbed five spots to be able to get a respectable 13.

[TJ]

Respectable. Yeah, but you're just planning on more cars staying out, I think. And if you get the stage win, get points there. We obviously didn't have a winning car, but when we were in the top three right there, honestly with Swart, we were better than Suarez at that point. And he finishes what, he finished fifth or sixth or something?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[TJ]

So I feel like if we come down pit road, maintain, gain a spot just in that area, I feel like we could run top five, you know, so. But it's, it's part of it, you know, you got to go for chance, you know, take chances when you can to get stages and things like that. And like you said, luckily we got back to 13th. It kind of made it reasonable and. But you still, you know, at times, you know, Brad's very smart race car driver and he knows way more than what you probably think he knows when he's racing on what laps, who's doing what strategies and things like that. And, and you know, sometimes you can't see the bigger picture from in the car and, and you know, it's hard for him to see that sometimes. But, you know, I think it's business normal going forward. I mean, there's no, you know, I think each race is going to be its own, own animal every week and just gotta try to make the best as you can and keep racing.

[Russell]

We saw, I mean, we saw Denny overrule his crew chief too. So a couple instances where drivers, I think doing something normally don't do.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Russell]

Which is especially odd for Denny.

[TJ]

Yeah. And I think they're the ones in the car driving it, knowing how challenging it is. You know what I mean? Like, and if you can, if you can get points when you can, you, you can take them. Because if you, you know, you pit and you come out there, I mean, you could have gotten A wreck. We could have gotten one of them wrecks or who knows, you know, I mean, you just never know. So you almost, I, I do think there's a play for take points when you can get them as well. Especially if it's a top, you know, top three to five position. You got to take as many points

[Russell]

as you can, get the points banking and see what happens.

[TJ]

I mean, if you look at the points, we're right around, look at who are right around still. I mean, you can see, I mean, it's tight right there, man. And you almost got to take, you almost got to take every point that you can. Right?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So yeah, Brad sitting ninth in points, actually very respectable, I think. But it, you know, so surrounded by Larson, Byron got Ty Gibbs, Christopher Bell behind me. I mean, a couple of guys. Yeah.

[TJ]

So tight window it is.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, this is another thing that I see. Christopher Bell Pitts at lap 33, the breaking the stage in half will be running to lap 4041. You see guys coming down pit road earlier. We know that Denny Hamlin and his guys like to run long sometimes. You'll see that payoff at the end of the stage. But if you're not Denny Hamlin, now that's easy for Denny to do. He's running in top five. Right. It's easy for him to stay out there and run long. But if you're a 25th place car, I just have never really understood the point of, you know, if you're running 25th, you're running 20th. Right. Everybody starts coming to pit road lap 33. Why are you staying on the racetrack to give up all of that time? Now you're coming out of, you know, when you do make your stop at lap 40, say, you know, Texas, you, you, you came, you know you came. You were 22nd when the cycle started. You come off pit road and you're 32nd.

[TJ]

Yeah. So I know exactly what you mean. And I thought the same thing as you at times. But if you, the way that these stages are, they're splitting it like it's 70 laps.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[TJ]

People are doing, you know, they, if they're pitting, lap 30, they're pitting. And if you look at their times, they're actually cars that are falling pretty hard around lap 30.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ]

And then so the next run they got to go 40, 45 laps like. And that makes the second half of that harder, harder.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But look, the seven or, I'm sorry, yeah, the seven is Suarez. So he was a 22nd place car. He's not a Great race car, not great on speed. And he pitted with the guys that came early. He's like, yeah, hell yeah. Bring me to pit road. Even though my car sucks at lap 25, I'm coming down pit road. And that, I think, was the. That and some other strategies about pitting later in the race were the things that allowed him to get this 10th place finish, your top. Top 10 finish. Sometimes I just kind of wonder, look, I'm gonna catch hell from some of the crew chiefs that are, that are in these positions.

[TJ]

We did the opposite end up in front of him.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So, I mean, you ran long.

[TJ]

We ran longer than him. Yeah.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[TJ]

So.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, he was, he was junk at the first part of the race. I, you know, I just. If you're in 25th, you know, you're

[TJ]

trying to jump some cars, come down

[Russell]

pit road, do something, you've got the ability to try it, stay on the

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

racetrack and just bleed more and more time and give up. You don't have track position and you're giving up more.

[TJ]

Yeah. I will say though, that watching visibly, some of these guys, when their cars fall off, they're. They're out of control, man. Like, they are like. And they fade really fast.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And get the pit road, make an adjustment.

[TJ]

So one, One thing too is you can actually. It's easier to pass a car 30 laps into a run with that. If you have, if you have, you know, if you're 5, 4, 10, better a lap. It's easier to pass that car than it is when you're a tenth difference a lap.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know what I mean? I get it. But you're giving up. You're giving up a straightaway or more to the field by staying out seven more laps.

[TJ]

Yeah. But you're get. You're banking on gaining that back with 15 extra laps.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They got to run place.

[TJ]

Oh, yeah, I get it now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If you're Denny Hamlin or somebody with a top, if you got top 10 speed. Yeah. But if you're 22nd place car, 25th place car. I don't, I think, get your ass on pit road, try to turn your 25th place car into a 15th place car.

[TJ]

Yeah. The problem is like that whole group, all pits at like the same time.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ]

So you got to do. You almost have to do something different. You come out within a spot or where you were because you're not really gaining.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I just, I. I'm not an expert. Look, I'm going to take this, but when I'm sitting there watching these races and I see all these guys I see the cycle begin and you always see like eight guys stay out.

[TJ]

I want to be the guy that starts it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The eight guys that stay out are always like the guys that are running 20th to 30th.

[Chase Elliott]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's like, why are we doing this? You know, are you banking on a yellow? What's going on? There's less yellows this year. Less likely to get that yellow you're looking for. You're trying to get it to pay off on lap time at the end of the race. But what you give up, you don't make it up the stage ends too quickly.

[TJ]

I don't think you make it up on the leader, but I think no,

[Russell]

you're not worried about the leader.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Worried about the leader.

[TJ]

I think you may. I do. I mean, I've, I know rarely, Rarely

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

though do I see that guy drive himself to 15th from 30th.

[TJ]

Yeah. I mean. Yeah, you don't. It's hard to do that no matter what.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

A moment in the race that was really compelling. Gillen spins out, kind of gets. Not kind of gets put in the third lane around, you know, around turn four and bust his ass. Denny slowed down. Christopher Bell thought he could shoot the gap and get through, but he gets clipped. Wrecked out of the lead. I believe he's leading the race. He was wrecked out of the lead before the end of the stage. Christopher Bell I think would lose four positions in the points. He's going to go from, I guess, 9th to 13th.

[TJ]

That's crazy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It is so. And it's. And so this is one of the first. I mean, I'm sure there's been other examples earlier in the season, but this was like a great example of the new point system at work. Christopher Bell, a very unlucky, unfortunate situation right there where he gets clipped and ends his day. Car slaps the wall, the outside, the passenger side right before the flag stand and damaged the car too much for him to be able to continue. He's out of the race. No top 10 stage points. He's getting ready to literally. It was a 30 right in that moment. It's a 30 to 45 point swing.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

In the moment right there. Bam.

[Russell]

Oh.

[TJ]

If you're the first car out from. Oh, my gosh.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep.

[TJ]

Especially leading.

[Russell]

He's going to get 10 or nine at the worst on that stage right there.

[TJ]

It doesn't get worse. Yeah, it doesn't Chad Fincham passed him.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We will look back at this race, no matter what happens with Christopher Bale going forward, we will look back at this race and wonder what might have been. Could he have just gotten an average day right, you know, come away with

[TJ]

fifth to eighth, who knows?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

10 stage points, a top five finish, or a top 10 finish?

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, it'll make a world of difference for how his Chase is going to play out.

[Russell]

This is exactly. I remember last year saying, you want the wins to feel better and the losses to hurt more. And this is it. This is it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Another driver who had a similar issue in terms of points was the 22 of logano. So everybody's on pit road, and this one is a tough one, man. And apparently Logano is not looking at where he's going. He doesn't seem to react right.

[Russell]

Would you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Wouldn't you assume he's maybe looking at. Looking to the right? He's looking at his dash.

[Russell]

He's probably worried about the Cardos.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Who knows, right. He could be looking at the mirror, trying to clear himself high.

[TJ]

I mean, the 41 stopped right there, so that's tough, too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know. Look. Of course it is tough. That's my. That was my next question, guys. Where. Where does your opinion about the 41 parking in the middle of hit road? I know he needs to stop and wait. He doesn't want to be that. That runs into the 54. Who's trying to get out of his box. Yeah, but where should he have been? Somewhere else? Should he have positioned himself a little more left? A41. Look how high he is.

[TJ]

I mean, he's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's out there.

[TJ]

I don't know. He's right. Getting.

[Russell]

He's pretty close.

[TJ]

I mean, he's within a foot, two feet of the white line of the pit boxes. But, I mean, this was the problem.

[Russell]

When you have people taking two people taking four.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Look, the 22 could have been more, right?

[TJ]

He did. He didn't have two cars out there. There was only one. So just.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's unfortunate. And I don't want to. On Cole for. For. I just.

[TJ]

I mean, the 54 is moving. Cole has to stop. He's going to hit him.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I agree. But Cole could have cold. Might have. Would have cold drove through too many boxes had he been positioned. Yeah.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Cole kind of makes this decision right. Real, real late. He's not a allowing. Cole's not allowing himself the opportunity to sort of be more behind the 54 or like, stop, stop. So there's a gap. If you look where the 54 is, there's a gap behind him, an access point or there. You know, if you look at pit road.

[TJ]

Yeah, but this is also the first run of the race. Right. Or real early. So is Cole on the lead lap here? I think so. Yeah. Obviously he's on pit road.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

See the nose? Not a gap behind him. All right.

[TJ]

Just bad timing, man. And things. I don't know if you could. Cole's doing the right thing, but Cole's also racing cars.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What could they have done? Could Cole have done something different? Could the 22 have done something different? This just doesn't happen that often. It just doesn't happen that often, you know, and there's. Are there guys stopping on pit.

[TJ]

I mean, honestly, there's two. They're too wide. Watch how many cars are outside Cole before he turns in. There's two there. So, Joey. It looks like there's room for Joey to go through out there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There is room.

[TJ]

Look, there's two cars outside of Cole right there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ]

And there's only one car outside Joey.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There's room for Joey. So they're the guys stop on pit road that often? I don't think I see that that often.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

A guy literally parking it right there

[TJ]

when there's that many cars on the lead lap early in a race. Yeah. I mean, when you narrow the field down, it's only.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know there's guys that slow down, like to let people out.

[TJ]

Yeah. Well, they're probably saying it's going to be close. If he's. And if it. If your crew chief's telling you that it's going to be close. I think the thing is, if the guy's going to drop the jack, the crew chief saying stop.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[TJ]

And I guarantee the crew chief saying, stop, stop, stop. Because you don't want to ruin Cole. Yeah, he's telling Cole to stop. I'm sure.

[Russell]

I mean, is the spotter still at this point, is this.

[TJ]

No. I will say there's some teams that the spotter counts him in. Like during O'Reilly, I count. I count Carson in. And during the truck race, I can count them into some. But I give a 10 away. Mark. And then. But we always go over this like, hey, it's going to be close with the.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

With the.

[TJ]

With 54.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. That was the other thing I was going to ask is, like, are they. Do they know that it's going to be close with the.

[TJ]

Absolutely.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Then could they have anticipated this better and positioned themselves more. More behind the 54? Could they have down pit road.

[TJ]

No, you're not going to give up more ground because Cole at this point

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

on pit road, what if the 54

[TJ]

has a problem and you're laying way

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

back and dude, he came on to fit the. Cole came on the pit road in the back side of the top, you know, the last five cars on the field.

[TJ]

Yeah, but those are guys that he's going to be racing for to stay on the lead lap. You know what I mean? He's running his own race. He's got his own race to run

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

down at that point.

[TJ]

I don't. He wouldn't be on pit road if he was a lap down.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know, man. I think just wondering if this was avoidable.

[TJ]

Just bad. And that's just pit road, man. Like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, that was another incident where much like Bell the 22, he had no stage points from stage one and he doesn't get a chance to get any in stage two or three or good result.

[TJ]

That was a. It, like, it's hard. It's hard to believe that took Joey out of that race right there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, it's a massive. Damn. Yeah, for sure. Joey would lose two spots going from 15th to 17th in points. Now, he seemed very frustrated by what was going on right there. At the end of the day, he was. He was angry at the team at a little bit because he wasn't quite aware that they were taking two. Didn't seem like he was quite, you know, full of the information that he expects during a pit stop cycle.

[TJ]

You know where this starts. This starts in the beginning of the weekend whenever you. Where you qualify. Like they had a bad qualifier on. You have a bad pick of pits. I'm just saying, you know, everything.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Everything we've just compiled leads up to it.

[TJ]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, yeah, that puts Joey 17th in points right now. That was the boys. The boys on the Gluck and Jordan.

[TJ]

The Glut cast.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. No, no, no. Gluck cast is on Thursday. Yeah. On the teardown, they were talking. They were having a conversation about what's wrong with the 22. What's wrong with the 22. And we actually shared this on our dirty mo handles. I, you know, honestly. And I went and looked. I went back and looked at Joey Logano and where he was in points in the last four seasons. In 2022, at this point in the season, he was ninth in points. In 2023 and 2024, he was 13th in points. And then last year, at this point in the season, he's ninth. Now, of course, those all are better than 17th, but I honestly don't see a big difference in the way J. Joey's running today versus over the last handful of years. At this point in the year, you know, we were not.

[Russell]

He'd always catch fire at the end.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Or he'd win the race that needed to be won.

[TJ]

Yeah. I don't know necessarily. He wouldn't really catch fire, but he would.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He wouldn't.

[TJ]

Paul throws. Paul.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He'd get a win here.

[TJ]

We call him Big Balls Paul.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He grab a win here, grab a win over here, and then he'd grab a win back here, and he'd have three wins, go into the playoffs, and bam, bam, bam. Make through the rounds and. And he's a. You know, he would do those. He. He would win and succeed under that system. Honestly, I'm. I'm looking at him now. I'm. Course, I didn't. I don't expect him to be 17th, but he was 15th going into this race. That's not a big departure from what he's kind of been doing the last four years.

[TJ]

I mean, honestly, if he doesn't wreck it, Talladega, he might be 13th.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ]

Or even a little bit better, maybe.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ]

So.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I mean, I think it's just the 22 is what the 22 is at this point, and they've kind of been this team for a while. I think they would even agree that they're not running. Haven't been running well for the last five years in this stretch of the season. They haven't been doing what they would love to do.

[Russell]

How concerned should Penske be? You got Blaney up there, but then the rest is.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Blaney has reasonable speed, and Cedric's been doing good.

[TJ]

Yeah. Cedric's been having a really quietly good year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He has. He has. Cedric will sit there. You'll look at the running down, run

[TJ]

down, you know, eighth, seventh, something like ninth.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're like, all right.

[TJ]

Yeah, he's doing really good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, he's sitting. He ended up 15th in this race,

[Russell]

his 15th in the standings.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ]

Is it. But, like, in these previous years, though, we haven't had this point system, though. Now, how does. And they've always made ground up by getting that win, throwing that Hail Mary, you know, and getting that win, and then using that to just, I mean, leapfrog up there and just kind of keep throwing Hail Mary's. Like, you can't. I don't. I don't think that's possible now.

[Guest Analyst]

Yeah.

[TJ]

To just get all that back, like, is that concerning for teams in that area now. You know what I mean?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like, well, look, I think Joey knew that going into this system that they weren't going. They weren't. They haven't been doing enough to win under this style of system. So I think he knows that they've got to get it better. They can't live off of, you know, a handful of wins and, you know, give them to position themselves with that opportunity to win a championship. In the Chase, they have to finish well in the points, which means they have to run well every week. Every week. Right to your point. Like Cindric, his average running position this past weekend, 13.9. That sounds exactly like a Cindric kind of 20, 26 day. And I think that is up over what he's probably done in the last four years. And the other car, though, the Josh Berry connection with Wood brothers, they've. They've regressed from last year. They had a really solid, solid, solid year last year. In the back half of the year started to struggle, and now this year, it's been a real struggle for that car.

[TJ]

Front half was really good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And so, you know, it's. It's sort of. It's. It's. In most situations that what we're seeing. I think Penske is unique because in most situations, we see all of the teams in the same organization somewhat run relatively similarly, whereas in Penske, we're seeing everyone run a little bit differently.

[TJ]

Yeah, you got one in every tier.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, kind of do. So it'll be interesting to see if they can kind of, I don't know, clean that up a little bit. You're fortunate and happy to at least have a guy that does have the speed, which I think Blaney is that guy. You see Cedric kind of outperforming some of his traditional numbers, in my opinion. I don't know that I have real statistics to back that up, but I think Cinders outperformed.

[TJ]

I agree. I mean, just visibly seeing him every week, you're like, oh, there's two up there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think Pittsky's got to have some concern because our RFK is consistently running well. Most racetracks outperforming Penske on half of the racetracks. That's. That's a conservative guess.

[Russell]

I'd say RFK is the better forward team right now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I think that's fair. Make that argument any. Any given weekend. Well, in the. In the first stage, Briscoe was able to get some points, finishing in the top five, I believe, finishing fifth in stage one. He would have some contact on pit road. Kyle Larson comes in his box. This is kind of a thing that Cole. Cole Custer was trying to avoid. Larson's coming in the 19s leaving knocks the right front off the 19 car in the damage and would suffer for the rest of the race. Another situation where a driver that is, you know, kind of had a tough start to the season. This is Briscoe. He's sitting 16th right now. He's been trying to claw himself up the rankings since the season started. He ended last year, I think one of the top four teams. He was top five team.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Russell]

And we all thought, okay, second year, he finally knows how this Toyota car drives. He's going to take off this year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's in a deep, deep hole right now. He is 16th in the points. But coming out of that race with an opportunity to grab some points. Weren't. Wasn't really able to get. Gather all of the points that he would love to have had in his bucket. Going into Watkins Glen, though, they've got a chance to go out there and run well. He's been doing pretty solid numbers on the road courses. This guy has to be sitting here in 16th, right. 284. 284 points back from Tyler Reddick in first. He's trying to get into the state. Let's say he's looking at the top six. Man, I'd love to be in the top six for the Chase. Right. That is Carson Hosvar, who's 193 points back. So he's almost. He's about 90 points from sixth. 90 points. He has got a lot of work to do to give himself an opportunity to try to race for this championship.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Russell]

When you look at the guys he's got to overcome, it's not easy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No.

[TJ]

Well, that's what I'm saying. You look at them points, man, from like, from like ninth. Even, like, look at seventh. Gibbs, Larson.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ]

Byron, Byron, Bubba, Priest, Bell. I mean, Bell's back there in 13th. It's crazy.

[Russell]

Like, it's not like some guy that we didn't expect is up there. We're gonna. They're gonna fall off.

[TJ]

I mean, this is kind of cool about this. You still have some guys that just been. Had a lot of speed, and you still have some guys that haven't been the fast lady, but they know how to put races together. You know what I mean? They got a little bit of both.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's with the. He's with the organization that's one of the best performing organizations in the series right now, Joe Gibbs Racing. And they've got to have a really, really good stretch in the summer to give themselves a chance at this championship.

[TJ]

Have to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Have to.

[TJ]

It starts now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, for sure. A lot was made of Kyle Busch's day. God qualified.

[TJ]

It was.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Guy qualifies in the top 10. Ran really good all day long. Got a little frustrated at points in the race and then toward the end didn't have the track position that they had had all day long. They're back there racing for around 15th with John Hunter Nemechek going down the back straightaway. Gets up, you know, him and John Hunter Nemechek make contact. It turns the eight into the wall and then they go down into turn three and he intentionally crashes the 42.

[TJ]

Allegedly.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I mean, it's pretty.

[TJ]

Yeah, I know. I.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Pretty clear.

[TJ]

Absolutely.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was watching some of the comments that Denny made on his podcast and I have to agree. Look, the eight car of Kyle Busch. Kyle Busch put out some SMT data. Could the 42 have been higher? Yes. But even with all that said, was the 42 shaded down? Yes, he was. If I am trying to side draft a car, I'm going to. I might shade down a little bit to get to him. Not saying that's what he was trying to do, but if I'm the eight, I am not going to let that guy get my quarter panel. And so if I'm the eight, I'm going to actually be down the track a little bit. And that's one of the points that Denny made. Denny made. Hey, Denny said, you know, if we were to switch cars, which was a comment that Kyle made the week before, then he's like, if we were to switch cars, I would have been down the racetrack trying to get away from the 42 so that he couldn't dump all that air on my rear spoiler. And so that was the one thing that I would. I was, I was kind of curious about. I kind of have to agree with that. And so tj, you got a point.

[TJ]

I mean, I, I know exactly. And like for. In Denny situation. Yes. And his car you absolutely get away from. But Denny, the 8 isn't the 11. The 8 doesn't have the speed that 11 has on the, on the straight. Actually the corner of the straightaways, like it just doesn't have it. So it's easier. Yes. You would stay away in a situation like Kyle. It's easier to pin that guy against the wall and just stall both of you out and try to beat him into the corner than it is to get away because he's got momentum. Like it's almost better to stall guys out. When you're on equal cars, if you're in a really good car and you're going forward, absolutely you. You get away from that guy. But it's harder and I don't like. I don't really like. Denny doesn't run in that a lot. So I don't think Denny knows exactly what it's like to be in that situation.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ]

And like honestly if we didn't. There's many times in that race we come off the corner and Brad would try to stop. You know, we get away from a guy and they clear us before the entry to the corner.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So watching the SMT data and how when the eight goes down into turn one and two, the momentum he has going by the 42 off of turn two, it almost feels like that it's going buying so well that it's. He's. He feels like he actually might have had him cleared or might have the potential to clear but his momentum is good enough that I don't think the 42 is going to drive back by him.

[TJ]

I do. I think the 42 pulls him back and he clearly he.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If he pulls him back. Yes. But if he.

[TJ]

I don't think he had. I think 42 has got enough momentum to do it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

When they turn to their dead. Damn sure both running the same speed in the SMT data right there. If he gets away from him, 42 is maybe going to come back just a little bit.

[TJ]

He's going to get. He's going to have his front tire in front of his which all that matters in the three.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I don't know. I feel like if you let him side draft you certainly give him the chance to go by you the lab

[TJ]

before he did the same thing with us and Brad had to lift off of to like Kyle was coming up and Brad had to lift.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Kyle's just taking. Yeah, he's taking everything he could.

[TJ]

He was driving in a.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Take what you want. He must have had to spot her just like you.

[TJ]

Yeah. You're not saying that. You're not saying that on exit right there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, listen that's. I think what happened with John Hunter and Kyle Busch is just, you know, two guys with racing to me two guys with really interesting personalities that just clash in the. In that very moment. But down in turn three, Kyle Busch intentionally crashes the 42. He turns right, bounces off of him, sends him up into the wall. I honestly don't feel like NASCAR is going to do anything about this.

[Russell]

I hope they don't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, there's another situation later in the race between.

[Russell]

Earlier in the race early.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm sorry, between Priests and Ty Gibbs. That was equally as intentional.

[Russell]

I mean, he said it before he did it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, he said, you know, Priest was mad with, with the 54 and he said he's going to take care of it. He went out there, he sent him down into turn three. Did he have the intentions of wrecking him? I don't know. He knows kind of what he's doing out there and how hard he's hitting these guys and what might happen to him if you hit him like that. But it ended the 54 day. Huge point swing for the 54 as well. Ty Gibbs, he was sitting fifth in points and now that knocks him back to seventh, which is right outside that sort of place you want to be to have a shot at this championship. So a big swing, big, big blow to the 54 team. I'm sure those guys aren't going to forget that.

[TJ]

Do you feel like it's self inflicted, though?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, the question, the question I think I'd love to talk about is what does NASCAR do? Will they react to either one of these situations? I feel like given the current environment with what has happened in nascar with Phelps leaving the text messages, the lawsuit, o' Donnell coming on as the new president, I don't think they want to do anything to ruffle the feathers and the general popular opinion. And so I think, just my guess, and I mean I'm not trying to start, no. But I don't believe they react here because I feel like that they may fear reacting to this would create bad negative publicity and feedback from fans. And so we, I've been in the sport long enough to see the ebb and flow of boys have at it and how it comes and goes and it's fair, it's a. And it is never going to be, it's never going to be this flat, perfectly managed situation. You're going to have times where you got to reign it in. They're going to have times running a series where you've got to react and say enough's enough. I'm going to frickin make an example out of somebody. But right now I don't think is that time. Right now I think is a time where they may allow this, this one to go and I could come up with, and I just explained a lot of reasons why they might do that. So I Don't expect any penalty. I don't expect any. You might do probation. You might. You might do something subtle, but I don't believe they're going to do any money or any points. And if this were to continue and become more problematic. Yeah, they might rein it in and show, you know, make an example out of somebody down the road. Because again, it does peak and valley between how NASCAR and any series has to manage the actions of drivers on the racetrack. That's my. That's my opinion. I don't think anything happens here.

[Russell]

Tj what do you think?

[TJ]

I don't know if anything happens. I know that if I was on that car that got wrecked, I'd be really pissed off.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, of course. And they will be. And they are.

[TJ]

I mean, you're running. This is one of the places where you're running fast and you're in the throttle a lot. And if you're. This isn't a Martinsville where you ship a guy up the hill a little bit or spin them out. This is Texas where it's arguably one of the fastest places and most treacherous places that we go to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And you might not see that rebuttal or response at Watkins Glen. You may have. No, you might have to wait a while.

[TJ]

Yeah, I don't know, man. I. I feel like this is just unnecessary. You know, Kyle was actually having. Kyle was having a pretty solid day. A good building block to better days. And even if he doesn't, if they don't wreck there, What's Kyle finish? 13th to 15th.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, his right front was destroyed.

[TJ]

I'm just saying if he doesn't. But if they, if he doesn't come up on him and have that accident.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, if it doesn't happen on the

[TJ]

back straightaway, he finishes in the top 13th to 15th, maybe 12, I don't know, somewhere in that area. And that's a solid day for to come back and start building off of, in my opinion. And you know, Kyle, to me, I mean, look at his.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He restarted 11th on the last.

[TJ]

I mean, okay. Finished within two, three spots of that right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And 20th, last car on the lead lap.

[TJ]

He got into it. Got into somebody at Bristol Riley and wrecks him there, you know, so like to me, man, you gotta.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I didn't think about that.

[Russell]

He was on one Sunday. Cause he was cussing at host of our two. It was.

[TJ]

Yeah, but I mean, just finish the day off, man. You had a good day.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[TJ]

There's no reason. The last thing you want to do is be in. This is not what you want to be in the news for.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, no, listen, The. The. The act. The act of wrecking the guy is. Yeah. It's a total. It's uncalled for. You can't. You know, he shouldn't have done that. But I don't think NASCAR does anything is all I'm saying.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Russell]

I don't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Priest, though, if they don't do anything to.

[Russell]

No, I'm not.

[TJ]

Not.

[Russell]

Not him being punished or anything, but just like him getting mad at Ty seemed like to me, the average fan. It seemed like for nothing.

[TJ]

Well, you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know. I think you need to be in

[TJ]

the pack there a little bit more, buddy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Within the race. Well, then explain like this what he did to Ty. We don't. There may be 15 instances that led up to that. There may he. This may be. Hey, I don't. I don't want to make assumptions.

[Russell]

It could have been lap 10. Lap. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It could have been five weeks ago.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It could have been something six weeks in a row. You don't. Yeah. I mean. And dude, I'm telling you, when you feel like a guy totally disrespects you on the racetrack, you do not forget it. And it eats at you and eats at you until you can absolutely return the favor.

[TJ]

And they finally push you over the edge.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. And then they'll. And you're like, you're ready. So something has happened. I'm sure of it, where Priest has it in his head that little.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And then this happens in the race and he's like, enough. I am done. And so I. I can relate to that frustration. And I don't know. I see. I see the two situations a little bit differently. Wreck running in the back of a guy at speed during the heat of competition is slightly different than you both destroying each other in the middle of the back straightaway. And then you going down there and slowing down and wrecking him. You know, I mean, there's something about that. That ain't. They're not exactly the same. They are. They are somewhat similar, but not entirely the same. And I would say you could look at Kyle's deal and go, that's a no no. Right. You. You slowed and intentionally waited and then parked him. Priest was more like an old school traditional chrome horn. See you.

[Russell]

Get out of the way.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Get that. Send in your ass. I'm gonna send you.

[TJ]

And that window that Ty closed the door on, like, was tight. Like, when he came down in front of him, like, that's probably not like. And I think that's what Ryan was getting mad at is, you know, obviously Ty had a really fast car, so

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

the one car comes from the outside, and he knows I want to get to the bottom.

[TJ]

Ryan's really low right there already.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Listen for, in my opinion, the ones on his outside.

[TJ]

Yeah, but Ryan's already like, you're not running that line.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I get it. But the 54 gets under him down the straightaway, and the one goes in the corner and crosses the nose of both cars, and the 54 doesn't know the one's going to do that. So the 54 loses the nose. Right. He go. That's what sends him up the track into the. Into the side Orion. It's not like he cooked the corner and just missed it. Right. He had no idea the one's going to drive into his lane. Right. And take the air. So the one drives across the nose right here in front of the 54. 54 gets tight up track. And so actually, the 54 is sitting there thinking, damn, I saved us. I saved. The 54. Is probably sitting there thinking, damn, I priest. You got to appreciate that, man. It didn't take us both out. Right.

[TJ]

I disagree.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ]

Because from my view at Texas, the 54 is in a lane that you don't race in. And if you're already too wide and somebody drives that because it's just like, you're never. You don't make the corner. Like, he is way low. Like, if I were to pull that

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

up on super low.

[TJ]

If I were to pull. And that's just not like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ]

And if you got. What Ryan's saying is, you got a good car, you're gonna get around me eventually. I'm racing my ass off here with these guys. You're gonna probably get around me. Your car's better. Why force this issue?

[Russell]

Yeah.

[TJ]

And that's where. And obviously, there probably might have been some other things leading up to it, but he misses the corner, comes up, packs air on Ryan. Ryan loses more spots, and then he slams the door on him within like a. When he closes the door in a three, what are they, two feet apart? Maybe? I mean.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. When he actually runs them over. Yeah. I mean, you talking about that part.

[TJ]

Yeah. And three.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ]

You see what I mean about the run right here, though? Like, what? Look at the run the 54 has. Like, I tried. That's. That's. That's tight, man.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Now, that is. That is frustrating for a driver. Like, you're. You're on the inside, right? The guy drives by you, and he knows he's just kind of clearing your nose and he's going to cross. He's going to drive in front of you. He's driving in front of him on purpose. Right, to take the air. Shut the air off.

[TJ]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right. And you know you're doing that and. Yeah, that would, that would.

[TJ]

I promise you, Ty cleared himself right there because the spotter is not going to clear you within that quick. The spotter did clear him. I wouldn't watch his in car, but it was at. It was like clear. Oh, he hit you because. So, you know, he cleared him after he saw Ty move.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ]

So I don't know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Interesting. Before the 22 is destroyed on pit road, Byron spun off a turn four. And also later in the race, the five of Larson would spin. So for turn two, 24 could rebound and end up in eighth place, while Larson ended up finishing 34th. And a tough day for the five car. He's. He lost two spots from sixth to eighth in points. Just right outside that sort of magical window that we think's gonna. You're gonna need to be in to win a championship.

[Russell]

That's the thing too, is like, you lose just a few points and you're gonna drop a bunch of spots because it's so tightly packed.

[TJ]

Look at Josevar. Look at Host of our up there. That Talladega deal was huge for him.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Was huge. Host of our in six right now in points, and he's highlighted that on his social media. If there is a car that could be one of the 15% that would win the championship in the simulations, the thousands of simulations that were ran for this new point system, if there's a car that could win the championship outside the top six, it's Kyle Larson. So while he is falling out of the top six, sitting in eighth right now, I still think their title hopes, even if the chase started today, are in really good shape.

[Russell]

If he was like an 11th do, like, how far back do you think he can overcome Larson outside the top?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I would put. I would say anyone outside the top 10 has zero chance.

[Russell]

Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Less than a 2% chance.

[TJ]

It's going to be hard. Super hard.

[Russell]

Yeah, I agree.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But I think a Larson from eighth. Yes. Still doable. One, maybe two wins. He's popped right back up to the top three. Top two. All right. Don't forget about stopping by the online merch store. We have some new stuff dropping called the zero to freedom line. That's the zero to freedom line. This drops on May 6th. Let's take a look at some of These shirts in the zero to freedom line. Look at that. Full sin since 2013. You got the eagle there. This is a nice one, man. Good clean on the front and on the back you got the American flag with a bunch of looks like some, I don't know, some, some gen 5 race cars stripes, star stripes and stock cars. And then another clean front there on the blue dirty mo. And again the eagle. Zero to freedom. And if you don't want sleeves and we got this number, check it out at shop.dirtymomedia.com May 6 A couple of those new shirts will be on there for you guys to to enjoy.

[Russell]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

One of the things about Texas, you know, it's been a tough track, not put on some great races over the last several years, but the surface has gotten better. And with this point system and the blows that we see these guys taking in terms of going out of the race early. Christopher Bell the 22 Logano those are big, big moments that did not matter in the old system. And so now I'M not as focused on whether the race is great for the lead. I'm more in case maybe there's not a battle for the lead. I'm still entertained by the drama and ebb and flow, the things unfold, stories. The stories. And so. And I'm telling you, that's really where we need to be. We need to be entertained by not only what's happening on the racetrack and how the cars engage with each other and how they interact, but we also need to be taken on a ride emotionally with what, you know, what guys are having to deal with when they get knocked out of the race early and can't get any points or. Or they win a race like Jose Var, Right, and boost themselves forward multiple positions. And so, you know, that's. That was missing. That was absolutely gone in the past. And so it's so fantastic. I'm just so thankful that I can sit down, watch a race. I am sitting down as soon as I turn the race on, knowing that I might see somebody have an incredible day and other people have terrible days that are going to impact their season in that moment right there in the middle of the year. Race 10, race 11, race 12. I'm going to see things happen in this race that are going to. Going to have an effect on the final outcome.

[TJ]

Yeah, there's a lot more. There's a lot of emotions are building for a lot of guys.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes. I didn't like the old format, but I am realizing more and more with each passing week of what. How much we missed out on over the years in terms of this drama, you know, and how this is playing out. It's so much better and they really nailed it in terms of how they benefit the winner and how the tough races are big, you know, big, big deals and big blows to the teams.

[TJ]

Do you think, like, just on it real quick. The points, the way they are now before, like right now, if you're 15, 17, the points, it's like, all right, well, we're going for wins only now. And now, like, I think you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There's. There's a balance between. Yes. We're a team that can basically take any kind of risk we want because winning is all we are going to be able to do. Right. We're not going to battle for a championship. But there is also. There's a lot of pride. Right or wrong, there's a lot of pride in making the Chase and not making it.

[TJ]

Oh, absolutely.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's. It. It's kind of like, you know, when you're. When there's a. There's a. There's a kid in the class that's having a party and you get that invitation or you don't.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're like, all my friends are going, I didn't get invited. What the. That is exactly what it feels like when the season is over and the chase is about to begin and you're either in that group or you're not. You're. You see all your buddies in that group and they don't give us that. You're not there. They're off doing the media, prepping for the chase.

[TJ]

Not worried about you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're. No. You're seeing these guys that are the 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th in the chase that ain't got a chance in hell winning this championship, getting interviewed and all kinds of, you know, they're being paraded around and your ass is at home embarrassed. You're. You're embarrassed for your team, your crew. You just know. You're. It's just a signal. It's just a signal that you're a failure in that particular season. And adversely, you know, on the other side of that, if you're one of the teams that gets in, it's a feather in your cap whether you got a shot or not, you know, and especially in this process, it's an earned feather. You're really working your ass off to make sure you get in there and it's going to. It's going to be a battle all the way down to the last couple of races.

[Russell]

And host far said it like in the old format, if you just barely get in, you know that you're probably getting eliminated early now, at least you have the chance to get hot and move up some spots.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You got a chance if you. Yeah. If you're to explain that, I think. Yeah. So if you're a car that's not very good, but you do squeeze into this playoff, you're alive for 10 weeks.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're not eliminated after three rounds.

[Russell]

Uphill battle last year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're alive for the entire process to be able to find a way, man, maybe we can get 10th out of this. Jose Var told me he goes top 12 is my goal. Top 12. He's like, you know, we're going to. We're going to bust our ass to make the chase. But I think if we get in the top 12, we are overachieving, and I agree with that. Yeah, I think that's awesome. So when me and Steve. When me and Steve La Tarte got together, my season was my. My My career, our performance, how we ran every week was we were a 25th place car in points, in results and we didn't get together and go, man, let's go win some races. That was, that'd be frickin asinine. Me and Steve got together and said, top fifteens, let's get us the top 15. All right, man, we got about five of those. Let's go get us the top 10. All right, man, Nothing but top tens from here on out. Chip away, chip away.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And then, honest to God, dude, in like two years we had become a team that, that showed up to run top five and expected to do that every week and did we not do it?

[TJ]

T.J. i remember doing, I remember battling for the lead, I remember would lead at some point.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We were battling for the leading the regular season points with, with Biffle and we were, yeah, so, you know, all through the winter, all through the summer, we're sitting there, one of the top three teams in the sport in terms of putting points together week in and week out. We didn't just, you know, that's Josevar's idea of, hey, man, 12. That's a good way to look at things.

[TJ]

Every week after the race, these guys all get to their car or get to the plane and they look at the points to see where, how close they are to the next guy. Before, if you were a, if you were in out of it, like you just gotta win, gotta win, don't even really matter. Right? Like your points, it didn't matter if you were 25th in points. Right. You just were going for the win.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's right.

[TJ]

So now you're looking at, you're, I mean, that's why, you know, not, that's why Brad probably stayed out. He. We were trying to get every single point we thought we could to move up a spot, so.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, you wanted to talk about Christopher Bell and Talladega.

[TJ]

Yeah, I thought those were interesting comments.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, Christopher Bale got an opportunity. You know, there's been, I'm going to say something.

[TJ]

The media agree with him.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hey, the media been doing a damn good job at the racetrack. We've been, we've been getting whatever the difference is these days, we've just been getting a lot more sound bites from drivers at the racetrack during the race weekend. We're getting a lot of Kyle Busch stuff, we're getting a lot of Christopher Bell, Talladega stuff. Denny, the media is doing a fantastic job giving us the opportunity to hear from these drivers in the media center. And I really Appreciate it. And we did get Christopher Bell talking a little bit about Dega. We heard also from, I heard some, I saw some clips, I think post race from Blaney and a couple other drivers. Basically, Christopher Bell says, we desperately, desperately need change. We've needed change for a long time. So hopefully that is the last time we race that speedway package. And I think a lot of us in the industry will be excited about that. It's literally a lottery race. It's atrocious. Now the track, now the strategy is so spelled out that it becomes all about fuel saving. We try to adjust the stage links so that we're not fuel saving. Well, you can't pass. So it becomes all about shortening the last pit stop to as short as possible so you can, so you're still saving fuel in stage two, even though you can make it to the end after the last pit stop. It's a joke. It's completely, It's a complete joke. And I look forward to changes. He went on to say that. I believe he went on to say that he's excited about the testing that's coming up in the off season. He's hoping that's going to bear some fruit. I love this. I love. People are saying this because I agree. I have not liked the next gen car at Daytona and Talladega don't like it. I watched the guys race and I can see how frustrated they are with their inability to make a difference. Listen, the races still play out in dramatic fashion and someone that could, could look at some of these races and go, what's wrong with that? That, that was wild. But all I'm saying is when we line all these guys up, they're, they're all in. It's. We basically get a two car train and the two guys at the front of that train are in a perfect position to win this race with 50 laps to go, 40 laps to go. As soon as they got enough fuel, they don't need to get back to pit road. The guy leading the inside and the guy leading the outside, one of them

[TJ]

is going to win.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And they don't do anything really stupid. They're going to probably win one of them because the cars that are in second and on back, they have so much drag on these cars, when they pull out of line, they're going to the back of the field. Everyone knows that. And there's nobody in their right mind that's going to go with them. And so when a guy pulls out of line, it's like, see you, pal. That was dumb. Don't do that. And when, if you're in the pack and you see that, what's your thoughts? You think, I ain't getting out of line. Look what they just did to that guy. I ain't moving. And so everybody sits still and they don't make any moves because their cars can't. Even when the pack is sitting there running 50, 60% throttle saving fuel, a single car running wide open is going to the back of that pack because it's so draggy. It's so draggy. That right there is the core issue with the car. And NASCAR has this information, and they know it, and they're going to go test and they're going to try to figure this out. I applaud them for their efforts. I'm hopeful, and I'm pulling for nascar. I'm pulling for all the drivers to rally around the idea of trying to get this right. Let's all get our arms around it and get in the room and when they go test, get something, get going. We don't need to fix it entirely. Let's just try to figure out the direction we need to go. Right. Let's just see a little bit of. All right, man, there it is. All right, let's. Let's keep going that direction.

[TJ]

Yeah, I agree with. I agree with his comments 100%. It's frustrating.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I'm glad that they're finally saying it, because this is. This ain't new. This has been going on for a couple years now, and there's really not been enough people talking about it. And, you know, there's always that comment of, well, we like what we see, or, you know, fans are excited, they're standing up, cheering at the finish, you know, and so, you know, TV numbers, whatever, you know, there's always these metrics that can. That can argue that nothing's wrong, but this car is just too draggy, and they've got to figure out, you know, exactly what it is that it's going to love and going to. Going to provide us with some bigger moments. The O'Reilly car, the Arca car, even at Talladega, that ARCA race, I know those guys are really inexperienced and everybody's kind of just kind of driving by the seat of their pants, but it looks better. It's funner to watch. There's. There's guys making moves, there's places to go, there's runs to take. Yeah, and you see that in the O'Reilly series as well.

[TJ]

The O'Reilly to. To me, the cream Rises the top and the Riley cars because the good guys know how to get there and they can get runs and they can take and they can manipulate air a little bit. They can do things like that. With the cup car, you just. We can't do that. We can't give the guys a chance to really show their ability and. And stuff. It's just whoever it's like used to. I think the. I think I saw a stat that the only time there was a change on. In lanes at the front was on a restart if somebody chose a different lane.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ]

Other than that, nothing changed. And you're just not really. To me, we're not getting a chance to see the drivers separate themselves and put on the show that they can put on.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I have to agree with you. All right, we got winner Chase Elliott calling in Chase. Not getting ready to go on the golf course at least. Doesn't look like it.

[Chase Elliott]

No.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Last time you won earlier in the season. Getting ready to play around. What's in the. What's on the. What's on store. What's in store for today?

[Chase Elliott]

I got some media stuff to do today around. Around home.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And you look like you're in one of your daddy's old race shops.

[Chase Elliott]

I am in the shop. You are correct. You are correct. So got some. Got some stuff to do around here today. But. And then, yeah, I got some work to do for Watkins Glen this afternoon. So just kind of rolling right along.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Heck yeah, man. Well, hey, congratulations on an awesome win at Texas. Had a fast race car. Number one, pit crew on pit road. Second, these are the racing insights statistics. But second on restart speed. Third, defense seven. Of course, when you're up front, you don't have to do a lot of defense passing. You were the first. First ranked car in passing. So, you know, when the race started out, Denny looked really good. You were kind of climbing your way through the top 10. Did you recognize early on you know how. Just how good your race car was?

[Chase Elliott]

Yeah, it's interesting. I've never. You're on top of your stats. I don't think we've ever opened up. I've never had an interview opened up talking about passing stats and defense stats. So props to you for doing your homework. But yeah, I thought actually on Saturday, you know, I mean, it's always hard to tell. At least it is for me. Like, you know, people are like, oh, you know, how's your car? And I'm like, ah, like, man, I don't know. Like, I think, you know, there's weeks Where I. I think we're in the ballpark. But a lot of times until the race starts, it's kind of hard to tell for sure. But I felt like on Saturday there was at least potential in it, which I thought was a really good sign. And I thought we had pretty good pace for a balance that I didn't think was totally put together as well as it could have been. So yeah, I went to bed Saturday night thinking, man, yeah, if we can just piece together a couple of these little things, I think it would ultimately help our pace. And fortunately we did that. I thought we put my corner together really well. Obviously when you start the race off and you're in the mid teens like we were, it can be kind of difficult to know what the pace of the leaders are like. I don't know how fast those guys are going, but I felt like at that point in time my car was driving pretty well and we had done the things that I was asking for overnight or at least a lot of them. So yeah, I felt pretty good about it. I just. There's just a lot of race to unfold and kind of never know how things are going to go. But yeah, I felt like we had a lot of potential in our car and had pieced together the things I wanted and was able to kind of march forward, which is always a good thing at a track that's really tough to pass too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I noticed, man, you were super excited to get the win, the first win of the year. As early as you did, you said as earliest you've. You guys have won a race in the season and then didn't really. I really didn't take away just how important that was. But now you're the only other multi time winner in the, in the series. This, we've talked about it, this point system, how this is playing out. You've got yourself up in third place in points, which is a really, really good spot to be. You guys were incredibly consistent last year. Just, you know, getting a victory lane was the next step. You're doing that now. I don't know, man, I just, I feel like you probably don't like this and I certainly didn't at this point in the season either. But I feel like you guys are looking like one of the favorites to put together the type of season you need to be able to win a championship this year. You got the speed early in the car and you got, you know, things happening on pit road. All things are pointing in the right direction. Is that how you feel? Do you See areas where you guys could improve.

[Chase Elliott]

I definitely think there's room for improvement, for sure. And I also think, too, like, it's. It's still really early, and. And I think that if you're not continuing to improve from where you sit today, you're probably not going to be in a real good spot come, you know, September, October, November, when they're gonna hand out the big trophy. So I just think that at this point in time, it's like, man, we. We better be developing. Like, we. We better be improving. I better be improving. And I think there are still areas that are deficient that. That we can go and extract more out of. With that being said, I'm. I'm super proud of our team. I'm proud of everybody's effort. I thought Alan called a really good race. I feel like our pit crew did a great job. They've been really good. I just haven't put them in a great spot a lot for their talents to be showcased. So I'm glad that they're getting the recognition that they deserve on pit road. I felt like I managed the race well. Honestly, I was proud of all aspects of the weekend, and I thought that was one of our strongest races in quite some time. So, yeah, I think for me, it's just, you know, hey, like, after Martinsville, it wasn't like, hey, we gotta win. We can relax. It was, man, we're. We're in a good spot. We have a really great group of people. Let's capitalize on that. And it's really cool that we gotta win now. We have a longer Runway to add to that, you know, a longer Runway than we've ever had before to add to that throughout the season. So, yeah, we've just been digging in, and I feel like talking about the right things and teams and pushing me. I've been pushing them and. And all those conversations have been fun, and it's been, you know, a fun development process with this new car and being involved in that, too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

One of the things I noticed during the race at Texas, when you're out front, you would fire off and get a reasonable lead, whether it was Tyler Reddick or Denny Hamlin. There was a point where they could reel you back in. But if. If the run would last, I'd say, beyond 25 laps or so, you get up into that top groove or the higher side of the racetrack and start to drive back away. Are you managing your pace throughout the run or you, you know, were there just pockets of. Of. Of the run where they were Better. And you just would have the better long run speed. What was the deal with how the gap would change between you and the leader at times? Yeah, are you in the second place car?

[Chase Elliott]

No. That's a great question. You know, obviously I can see, I can see that visually they weren't necessarily giving me lap times every lap, but I could certainly see that visually. And I think a lot of it was lane choice dependent and getting up to the top lane a little, maybe a little earlier than me or you know, taking a little more risk on one lap versus the other. And I think that's the big one with Texas is like the place is really treacherous. I mean, you can really, you can bust it very easily, especially in 3 and 4. And I think how you kind of manage those bumps on that end of the track are really important. Obviously there's a lot of pace to be had over there. The, you know, track's really gripped up, has a lot of banking and you can build a lot of momentum over there. But it definitely comes with, you know, with a pretty high risk. And I think some laps, whether you had super clean track or if you maybe just missed your entry a little bit, you know, that would put you in a, in a tougher spot to get across the bump. So I think a lot of it was probably just track dependent and how, how tricky it was to, you know, put together a full lap of momentum and, and remember that full lap of momentum starts a half a lap before that one started too. So, you know, all those things kind of, kind of add up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Where, what about that bump in turn three and four? Is where is it the worst? And was there, is there a thought in your mind, does it get worse? You know, I can't remember how it used to be. Does it get worse the higher you go? Is there no chance at all of trying to get around the top of that bump or anything like that?

[Chase Elliott]

No, the, the bottom lane, I feel like has, like, it's a little more ripply, so there's, there's more content, but I think it's a little smaller and they seem to be more like dips. Whereas when you get to the middle and then into that lane just above the hash mark, I feel like it's an actual bump in the road and it, I couldn't get around it. I tried to push it up higher and higher, but man, the, the again, it's like you're kind of weighing these risks. Right? You know, how hard do I run across the bump if I get my rights? A little too Much up in the gray. I'm definitely going to crash. So it's a, It's a fine line, but no, I don't think the groove has widened out enough yet to, to get around it. And honestly, I don't even know if it's. I've never run around the top up there high enough to know if you can get around it for sure.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right. Looking forward to Watkins Glen. It's been a great track for you. I really don't know the statistics, I guess, for you and the next gen. I know you've had a lot of success at that racetrack, though, over the years. What's your confidence level going into Watkins Glen in the next gen car?

[Chase Elliott]

It's pretty low right now. If you watched how we ran last year, boy, I was, you know, obviously great track for us. We had a. Had a great run a great stretch of two or three years up there. Missed a year during the COVID thing and that was the place I. Boy, if I could have talked the state of New York into having us, I would have gone up there and lobbied myself because I wanted to go up there so bad. We were, we were running so good at that track and, yeah, didn't get to go. But, you know, the last couple years have. Have been tough and, and this past year in particular, I mean, that was. When you, when you look back, I mean, that was arguably like one of our worst races of the year. I mean, super, super poor. So I think a lot of that falls on me. I think I had kind of gone down some bad rabbit holes of trying to make pace in wrong areas and doing things to catch up to the competition and. Yeah, so I'm. As much as we struggled, I'm actually looking forward to getting back. I think for that reason, just because I think that there were some good lessons from Cota that I learned earlier this year. Having one road course and already, you know, already checked off and then just kind of what we went through last year in some areas that I think we can be better in. So I'm. Yeah, I mean, my confidence isn't super high just because of our performance last season, but I am actually looking forward to going and just trying again. I think we can do much better.

[TJ]

What do you think about the changes coming up to the Glenn with the tire packs down in terms of one and the carousel?

[Chase Elliott]

Yeah, you know, I, I don't know what to think about that. I think. I think that I totally understand what they're trying to accomplish there. I think. And just how wide we had gotten to running off, you know, particularly the carousel. The exit of one, I thought has been a little bit of a wash. You know, like, there's been times where I feel like running wide's been good and there's been times where it hasn't. But yeah, I mean, I think it's all fine and great until one of us cleans them things out, you know, at some point in time. So hopefully that doesn't happen. But certainly there's a pretty high probability because that's, you know, in pretty close to the, you know, to the groove. And if you have an incident, you're going to be. You're going to be kind of headed straight towards them.

[TJ]

Yeah. Do you think it's going to be challenging for some of the younger guys? They haven't, they only know running wide off these corners. Like you've, you've been doing the Glenn long enough where you've had to run the carousel and one not as. Not wide like that. And do you think it'll be challenging for some of the new guys, like having to learn this again? Because, you know, the Glenn can bite you too, if you're, if you're not careful?

[Chase Elliott]

I don't think so. I mean, I think that, you know, the, the running wide thing had, had turned into, like, let's just take more. Just more and more and more. I think that the racetrack is really designed for you to, you know, stay around the rumble strips and if you have to back it down a little bit to do that, I think that that's fine. I don't. Yeah, I don't think anybody will have any problems with that, but could be totally wrong.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think Saturday might be wet, but Sunday's looking all right. Chase, thank you. Thank you for coming through, man. I know you got a lot going on. We appreciate your time. Always. Good luck this weekend. Good luck going forward. Awesome to see you having success, buddy.

[Chase Elliott]

Yeah, man, I appreciate it. Thanks for having me. And yeah, I hope you all have a good week.

[Russell]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, let's do some ass, Junior. I want to make sure that we celebrate Xfinity for waving the red flag on Internet price hikes and raising the green flag for savings. You get more speed, reliable WI fi that you need locked in at one price for five years. No surprises. No late yellow straight to victory lane. Just like we like it. Xfinity. Imagine that. Let's get to the questions.

[Russell]

First question, we had a few people wondering, what'd you think of Carson Hosavar last night at the Met Gala?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Listen, I think that was fantastic. And the reason why I would have never expected a driver to been invited to that. I don't even know what it is. I think it's a little bit of a celebration of fashion and art. Doesn't matter. We, you know, we need drivers. Not all of them. We don't need them all going to this thing. We need one. We need one over here, one over there, and one doing this thing and one doing that thing.

[TJ]

I agree.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We need our drivers in these unusual spaces, connecting with people that aren't connected to our sport. Back in the day when it was badass to be in the Rolling Stone magazine, right. I mean, that was a great opportunity for me and it and it and I reached so Many people got to showcase who I was to so many people that were not watching races on Sunday, MTV Cribs. I went and got to introduce Linkin park during the MTV Music Awards. Those were fantastic opportunities. Terrifying. But, but at the same time, the, the door was opened by Budweiser to be able to go to these different things and do a lot of fun stuff. Go to, you know, walk a boxer down the aisle at a boxing match. I was a huge boxing fan. Doing those kind of things are, are real, a real privilege, you know, in a real opportunity to get out and not so much promote yourself, but really introduce the sport to a, to a new audience and it adds a little, you know, it adds a little credibility to the sport where it had none.

[TJ]

Absolutely.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, so it's good. And there may, there's a. Listen, I've read the social media. There's a lot of fans that are like, hey, that's cool. He went and did that. I, you know, whatever. There's a lot of fans that think, why see over there doing that? I don't like that. It doesn't matter. Let the guy do what he wants to do and let him go promote and be where he wants to be. He had a lot of fun. I watched his interview. He did a great job, represented himself well, spoke well, did. Knew what the hell he was wearing. Seemed to have a real understanding of why he was there and what he was supposed to accomplish. So I was really proud of, of, of host of our. You throw these guys into those scenarios where they're totally a fish out of water and sometimes it doesn't go that well. But I think he did a good job. So I was good. Yeah.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Russell]

What was your reaction when you got that Rolling Stone request, like when they brought it to you?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It was, it was, it was badass. So, you know, it was. I was proud to be able to take our sport where it wasn't getting access. You know, we talk about, you know, they'll. I don't want to, I'm not complaining here or trying to put anybody on blast. And I might be incorrect in some of this to, you know, statistically. But there are times when, you know, we get coverage on some networks and then there's times when those networks don't mention us. Right. There's times when we're front page news and some newspapers and sometimes those newspapers totally ignore our sport. Right. For years dependent upon relationships we have with different networks. Right. Forever. ESPN was a leader in sports. Right. And so if you weren't getting coverage on espn, you know, what the hell, right? We would always complain that, man, this badass thing happened in our race Sunday, and ESPN didn't even talk about it. And so, you know, you're trying to, you know, you're trying to take the sport where it isn't and get it in front of people that don't watch it and don't see it, and that's what this is all about. So we need more of that. You know, we need guys hosting Saturday Night Live or whatever it is, right? That's a big deal when Jeff Gordon got to do that, you know, and we need, you know, when motion pictures are made about our sport, whether it's a comedy that's poking fun at us like Talladega Nights or a more serious movie, it doesn't matter when those things are being even considered, it says a lot about the. Where our sport is and the value of it. So we need more of that. We need those. Those type of things happening. We can't just do what we want to do in our little bubble and think that's really going to be enough to. To get us back to the numbers that we all want to get back to, you know, back to, you know, when the peak of the Sport in the 2000s, we're. We're way far away from that. We've got to be putting ourselves in front of these folks to showcase what we're doing.

[TJ]

Do you think there's a day that's unders, too?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah. There's. It's happening, is it? Oh, yeah.

[Russell]

Nice.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'll be shocked if it doesn't happen.

[Russell]

I forget who asked this question in the chat, but do you think Carson Hosavar can eclipse Chase Elliott for most popular driver?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I believe there will be years where Chase has some real competition, you know, and I honestly feel like that that's happening already, you know, and Chase will probably tell you, too, like Blaney and a couple of those guys. There's years where, depending upon what they're doing off the track and on the track, they can give him a real run for his money. I would love to know just how close the battle is. Right. Is it significant in terms of the difference between Chase's votes and other drivers, or is it relatively a competitive race?

[TJ]

I don't really know, but those numbers ever get posted?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They don't never get posted.

[Russell]

Say, first, second, third, like, which, that's fine.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But, you know, I think there will be stars that come and go, and Joseph are in a position to really take advantage of this. Thing, and he's the kind of guy that's ready to do it. He is. He is happy to have some fun on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and show that to the world. We should embrace that. That guy, you know, he's, he's done some things with Cletus, which are great. And so he's, he's not going to sit on his hands on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then go to racetrack and try to win races and think that's going to be enough. Right.

[TJ]

Stay relevant.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's on his, he's on his rig most nights during the week.

[TJ]

Streaming.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Streaming. You know, he's taking risks, Right. Putting himself out there because some people might not love who he is, but he's going to take that risk. I think that shows some courage and hopefully he, he does. Hopefully he does a good job representing himself and his partners and everybody when he's doing those things. But I'm. It takes some courage to go do what he did, to go to this Met Gala. Right. That is not a place where I would feel comfortable. No. And I wouldn't want to do it. I wouldn't have interest in doing it. My wife would go, oh, hell, we're going to. But, you know, ain't nothing I'd want to do. But he did. He got the call and he said, hell, I'll do that. Yeah, why not? I did not. It's not a place where I'd expect to see him.

[Russell]

Yeah. And the way that he handled the interview, it just felt endearing to him. So, like, it just, it worked.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So I think the more he does those things and the more he, you know, he didn't hit it out of the park, but he didn't ruin it either. He did a solid interview. And the more people like NASCAR and his partners get confidence in him to put him in them spaces to represent us, all of us.

[TJ]

Right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think the more you might see that.

[Russell]

Yeah. John Barnett said congratulations on the 12 finish in Texas. What, what do you like when you see your two cars about the battle and, like, are you getting nervous, worried?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Don't like it? Well, try not. I don't want to say anything controversial, but. And I oftentimes find myself wondering whether I am backwards in the way I think about some things, but probably, yeah. When. Look, I, I, of course I want, if I take four cars, racetrack, I want to run first, second, third and fourth. I do.

[Guest Analyst]

But

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

it's really nerve wracking when they're, when they're, when they're battling aggressively. And honestly, like, whether it's Justin and Larson, Larson gets in our car and he's there to win. And he's only going to run a handful of races, and he don't. He ain't about nothing but damn winning that race. He ain't there to be a good teammate. He ain't there to do nothing but win. Get a trophy, Get a trophy and when. So if him and Justin are duking it out, I'm like, you know, Larson, come on, man. You got to get. You know, Justin's running for a championship here. Justin, come on, be smart here, man. Don't take any chances, you know, and if it's them, too, or it's Larson and. And Zillich, you got Larson, who a lot of people have him in the conversation, is one of the greatest drivers in the world today. And then you got Zillich, who wants to be that in that conversation. You got him driving down into turn three, Zillich on the inside, where, you know, the inside car is going to get loose, and he get. He gets loose. Right? I mean, you're just. Or was it otherwise?

[TJ]

It was that way, I think.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ]

I can't remember what position they were just.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think Larson was on the outside. But they're probably. They are racing the hell out of each other. And one side of me is going, freaking, yes, Go after two. Two amazing drivers, right? I mean, golly, what else can you ask for? They're in my car. But, damn, that's amazing. But at the same time, you're like, all right, man, let's not. Let's not, you know, accidentally cut his left rear tire or let's not, you know, damage our right front fender or, you know, you don't. You don't want to see them do anything that's going to make their day long or hurt their chance to win the race. And so it's. It's nerve wracking. I want them to all do great, but not at our own expense, you know, and we've seen that in the past, right? And I'll tell them, too. I think I said this in the competition meeting to the crew chiefs, you know, you guys are going to put five, four, five great race cars out on the racetrack. And if they're all running up front at times, they are going to hit each other.

[TJ]

Watkins Glenn last year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They are going to bounce off each other. We ain't going to love it, but that's. That's what is going to happen at times. If they're all running at the front of the Field.

[TJ]

So the end of that race, there was a split second there where I thought all three of them were wrecking for the lead off of four. As sideways as Brent Cruz was.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was like, it's inevitable. Kudos to Brent Cruz.

[TJ]

Yeah. Great run.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Dude. That's a shoe. Badass little race car driver. Great car control. To be able to race those guys. Not put them in a bad spot. Not to not door slam anybody.

[TJ]

Oh, no. They were, they were in a bad spot.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They were all made it. They were all. They all made it. Yeah, look, they all made it. And Brent Cruise did what he what he could in that scenario to give those guys a chance.

[TJ]

I haven't seen a car that far sideways.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And he's a young kid, man. And make it so he's going to get even better and smarter and less likely right to put people in bad spots as he goes down the road.

[Russell]

Cheryl here said just received her first four pack of jerky boys. No autograph, but hopefully the next one will have one.

[TJ]

Maybe get the gold.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

This is, this is great. Thanks for this opportunity, Travis. I got in the mail 1500 empty bags for of of jerky boys. Beef jerky. I'm going to sign all of them and they get mailed back to Nashville where we make our jerky. We make it ourselves and we bag it. And I'm. We're going to drop those bags of autographed bags into some shipments.

[Russell]

Oh, yes.

[TJ]

Randomly.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And so Those, the first 150 that I signed should be at our. Our facility now getting bagged. So hopefully some of those coming up, some of those start landing in shipments soon. But. And it's really, I don't know that they have a plan on who gets what bags or what shipment gets. What do you need to do it just. We just, you know, we got a new four bag subscription. You, when you subscribe before, you only got two bags. We got a four bag subscription now and you get every bag cheaper. Jerky boys is on fire. On fire. I gave some to Cletus. He loved it.

[TJ]

It's good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So it is good stuff. Yeah, it's. I haven't had anybody try it that said they didn't prefer it.

[Russell]

Yeah. Speaking of food, if you had to smell like a food for the rest of your life.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh my gosh.

[Russell]

What food would it be?

[TJ]

These questions. Am I shooting liquid out of my finger for this fruit?

[Russell]

No, you just. You just smell like a food.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'd say a fruit. No.

[Russell]

That's why I'm trying to find the safe Answer.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I'm trying to find something that

[Russell]

smells like an orange. Good, citrusy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Orange might be a little strong.

[TJ]

I don't know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Citrusy might be a little strong, but, you know, not too bad. Maybe lemon, lime.

[Russell]

Let's say bacon.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Bacon. No, I don't want to smell. You smell like bacon. That's terrible. Think about everyone else's experience. Like, what do you want other people to smell when they walk up to you but don't?

[Russell]

When you walk down and when you walk into the kitchen and you smell bacon, doesn't it just, like, make you happy?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not if I know that you. That smells like bacon. I'm going to go, man, if you, you been around him. He smells like bacon. That ain't a good smell for you.

[Russell]

I disagree.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think I'm going to cheat and say a fruit.

[TJ]

I don't know. I mean it. I, I, I see what Travis is saying, though, because sometimes when you like if you put something in the crock pot and it cooks all, you're like,

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think the only thing maybe that could do better is pancakes. Maybe blueberry muffin.

[TJ]

Pancakes aren't much different than bacon.

[Russell]

A good pastry.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Safe. Safe, yes. Pastry smells are safe. Yeah. What are other people saying?

[Russell]

Somebody said chicken. I think they're joking. Biscuits and gravy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Is cinnamon a food?

[Russell]

Somebody said lavender. That's not food.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Is cinnamon a food?

[TJ]

Yeah, I mean, cinnamon's a food. Yeah.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How about sugar?

[Russell]

The sugar smell.

[TJ]

Cinnamon rolls.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

A little bit.

[TJ]

Cinnamon rolls in the oven. You could probably go with that's pretty good. Cinnamon rolls.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Rolls. That's, that's where we are in the vein of pancake waffle, cinnamon roll.

[Russell]

Maybe a good bourbon or good tequila.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Now, don't want to smell like alcohol. That's going to get you a lot of looks.

[Russell]

So it's a smoked.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Anytime you get pulled over for speed and you're going to have to go through about a half hour. Sir, here's as junior, I chose doing handstands and somebody said smoked ribs.

[Russell]

Kiwi cantaloupe.

[TJ]

I'll go cinnamon roll.

[Russell]

Hard to beat that Jedi said weed.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, my gosh. Churros. Isn't that, isn't that something, man, when you're at a, when you're at an event and you catch a little weed, just. Yeah.

[TJ]

It's depending on the state you're in.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Where is it? Some states. Yeah.

[TJ]

Oh, yeah.

[Russell]

Sometimes you can spot the person, but. Yep, that's love.

[TJ]

I usually think, I hope I'm not the random that week.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ]

Like that's normally the thought process in my head.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, because you were around weed, you

[TJ]

think, I don't know. You just don't know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Drug test.

[TJ]

I don't know. I don't know, man. You just don't. I don't work, so.

[Russell]

No, it doesn't attach to your follicles.

[TJ]

And hey, I just don't want to be near at that point. Keep my hard card.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

All right, so we had pancakes, coffee, coconut. So some other good ones. When you were racing full time, would you always stay on your bus or were there times where you wouldn't?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I. I always took my bus everywhere except for Sonoma.

[TJ]

Sonoma.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What else? Track. What else?

[TJ]

Sonoma.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What else? Track.

[TJ]

It's the only one I can think of.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Sooma, I didn't take it.

[Russell]

What was like, the best that you loved about the bus and the worst part?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Go to Fontana, dude. I mean, you know, having somewhere to use the bathroom.

[TJ]

Oh, that's.

[Guest Analyst]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Your own. Yes. That was fantastic.

[TJ]

Because we had the west coast swings with Fontana. Sonoma was the only outlier by itself, so it didn't go there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I have a fifth wheel now, and I'll take it to probably. If I'm doing these 10 races in broadcasting in the summer, I'll take it to probably six of them. Six or seven, even Charlotte. I'll park it over there. Just to have somewhere to use the bathroom also.

[Russell]

Just to get away. Yeah, I mean, I've. Listen, if you're in the infield, you gotta use the restroom.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. There ain't nothing in the. Yeah, the restrooms there are not very good, dude. There used. There used to be a restroom. There still is a restroom in the NASCAR hauler, and I used to use it if I need to use the bathroom during practicing or if I was in the garage. I went to the NASCAR hauler and used it.

[Russell]

It's smart. You only use a public restroom.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

Got your fire suit on.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'd walk in there, I'd be like, how you doing, Mr. Hilton? I'm here to use the bathroom.

[TJ]

The 8, when we got the new hauler on the 88 was nice.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, so that was good. I don't think anyone has a bathroom on their hauler, even today. But back in 2015, we got a new hauler and I had them put one of them dry urinals in it. What is it?

[TJ]

Yeah, I'd say. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What's it called? There's a brand.

[TJ]

Yeah, I don't. I don't know the brand name.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They're probably saying it in the thing. But there's a brand of urinals, and it. Yeah, it was great. It was in this little closet. And so. And Jimmy would come over. All the drivers would then come to our hauler to use the bathroom. So we saw a lot more of our teammates.

[TJ]

Except for the only thing. Only person I think didn't like it was the truck driver. Squigs. I don't think he liked it because he had to empty it all the time.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, he probably did.

[Russell]

Did he?

[TJ]

He probably didn't like it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's a small. Small. It's a small thing to ask.

[Russell]

Would you always park your bus by the same drivers?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I always parked my bus in the same spot, yeah. So the drivers beside me may change, but my spots were always the same every racetrack. Still Today, I park in the same spot at Daytona, you know, and we'll go to some other tracks, and we'll still in the same location.

[Russell]

Gotcha.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And Daytona. Bubba Wallace has been my. My neighbor for a while now since he started Racing Cup. Truex was on the other side, and now.

[TJ]

Yeah, it used to be Matt.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Kansas was a room. Me and Kansas were side by side for almost every racetrack throughout the 2000s.

[Russell]

Oh, yeah, because you mentioned your smoke fumes. All right, well, that's it for S. Junior this week.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right. Hey, appreciate everybody tuning in. Had a lot of fun. We got a great guest for you tomorrow. Not gonna tell you who that is. Big surprise.

[TJ]

Big surprise.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Bless your heart. Later this week. Thank you, Xfinity, for waving the red flag on Internet price hikes and raising the green flag for savings. You get the speed and reliable WI fi that you need. Best part is, you're locked in at the same price for five years. Imagine that. That's a long time. No surprises, no late yellows, straight to Victory Lane. That's how we like it. Imagine that. Xfinity. Lace your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Place your bets. All right, this segment of Dirty Mo do is brought to you by fanduel. If you listen, last week we gave out Keselowski over Briscoe and Suarez over Chastain. Cashed them both. That was a good day. Hell, yeah, brother. This week we had to. Watkins Glen. We all agree who the favorite is.

[Russell]

Do we even need Russ?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hey, Russell. Hey, that's not fair.

[TJ]

What's predictor say?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, bud. Well, it is svg, but it's Watkins Glen. And if there is ever a road course where we feel like the field is closer, you might say it's here. So it's not A. It's not a. You know, given. It's not a certainty, who can challenge svg? Let's. Let's hear it for me.

[Guest Analyst]

It's Christopher Bell.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's. What?

[Guest Analyst]

Yeah, he's my second one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What, sir?

[Guest Analyst]

He's my second one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay. I wouldn't have guessed.

[Guest Analyst]

He was runner up to him there. Last year he was third. Two years before that, um, three. Three road course wins. He's. He's been really good on the road courses lately.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That.

[Guest Analyst]

That's my.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We've talked my guy. That. Is he the Chase? Is he the Chase Elliott of road courses in the next gen?

[Guest Analyst]

No, SVG is.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, well, you can't count. SVG is the SVG of road courses.

[TJ]

This.

[Guest Analyst]

I mean, Reddick would be your other one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Reddick.

[Guest Analyst]

Now he hasn't.

[TJ]

What's his track record?

[Guest Analyst]

He hasn't been as good as Watkins Glen, but he's been good on the road courses. Remember, he won this year at Cota, so.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, all right, there's two guys, you think that are going to be up there in the top five battling it out. You guys want to move on to some top 10 belt bets or do you want to. You got any other, you know, dark horses?

[Guest Analyst]

I like Buescher, but I don't know if he can really battle for that win. Yeah, you know, his last win was here, but in 2024, I guess he would be more of a top five, top ten bet.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep.

[Guest Analyst]

Right on. You know, Zillich would be like a very, very long shot. Very good at this track. I would say this is one of his best tracks in nascar.

[TJ]

Is he really that big of a long shot, though? Because I think he's going to be pretty good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's the almost. He's plus 285 on the books. He's second favorite.

[TJ]

I think he's going to be pretty good here.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Damn, they got him high.

[TJ]

Yeah, he was actually fast at coda. He doesn't get a chance to show it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ]

Minus 6:50 for a top 10.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Unbettable. Unbettable.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Can't even play with that.

[Russell]

Jesus.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No fun. No, he was fun. Why are they doing that to us? Because they know I know. All right. Well, I mean, not bet against it. Heck, can you bet against him? You probably will get a head to head against them. Yeah.

[TJ]

Which will be nice. I don't think they're out yet, but

[Russell]

I'm checking to see if.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Interesting.

[TJ]

What about Suarez? What do you feel about him?

[Guest Analyst]

I like him for a top 10,

[TJ]

but that's I do too. Yeah. No, I'm. That's. Yeah, I think he's gonna run pretty good.

[Russell]

We got some matchups that came out.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Matchups are out. Let's hear it. Let's get the matchups.

[Russell]

Gibbs plus 100 versus McDowell minus 135.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Gibbs over McDowell. I'd take Gibbs.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Russell]

Chase Elliott minus 120 versus Larson minus 110.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Sorry again.

[Russell]

Elliott minus 120. Larson minus 110.

[TJ]

It's close.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We just talked to Chase Elliott and he talked. You know, he did say that his worst race last year. Watkins, Glenn. But they're better. You pick Larson.

[Chase Elliott]

Yeah.

[TJ]

And he. Chase didn't seem. He said he wasn't confident going in there, so. But that doesn't mean he don't run a roll of speed and get. You know. Have a great weekend.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[Russell]

SVG minus 400. William Byron plus 270.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean if he has a problem, it's obviously.

[TJ]

But I don't know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're looking at your notes here. Racing insights. You think Larson versus Elliot. You take Larson.

[Guest Analyst]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean that's the only head to head that was really interesting to me. So I almost want to go with Chase because you know that last year they weren't winning a lot of races and. But they were very consistent this year they got more speed, man. I just. And Chase, even though Chase admittedly says he didn't run good there last year, he's chomping at the bit. You know, he's chomping at the bit to get back there and prove that they can find the speed. He said he found some things that coded. That felt pretty good. Yeah. But.

[Guest Analyst]

But you. If you look at the way Chase Elliott's running this new car on road courses, it's. It hasn't been good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It hasn't like. But I don't know. Is Larson much better? Yes. Yes. Coda. Yeah. Well.

[Guest Analyst]

Yes. And here he's one here.

[TJ]

Yeah. I was going to say Larson's pretty good. He's done pretty good at the Glen.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right.

[TJ]

Yeah. I agree with Russ on my head

[Guest Analyst]

to head tool has him like all green versus Chase Elliott.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I get it. I just feel like that Chase is going to upset that. See how it goes, man. I'm making this outside on Chase. You guys all are on Larson.

[Russell]

I don't know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Because it plays out.

[Russell]

Do we think there's something like Larson just each week it just seems like he's not at his best.

[TJ]

I think Larson is the same as he kind of always is. He's really fast, kind of a shot to win. But he kind of, sometimes he oversteps at times. But he's, that's kind of always been in how he is. Isn't Russia.

[Guest Analyst]

Yeah. He hasn't run well at Watkins Glen lately either. But I just think he, he's just better on road courses than, than Chase. In this car.

[TJ]

In this car. Yeah. I mean Chase obviously had the old car.

[Guest Analyst]

Yeah. Like Larson won the, the first, the last race in the old car and the first race in the new car here.

[TJ]

Does weather make anything change on your end?

[Guest Analyst]

That's not factored into any of my stuff. Let me put it that way.

[TJ]

So I, I, I really don't know how it would change things because these guys all know the techniques and stuff now. Like it's not, it's not such a big deal anymore. Right.

[Guest Analyst]

But do you think it changes SVG's chances?

[Russell]

It improves it if it's the worse the weather is?

[TJ]

Yes and no. Yeah. I mean a little bit. I think he just has more experience in these type of things.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But I found a nugget. Let's share longest active top 10 streaks on road courses. How many does Chase have and how many does.

[TJ]

He's gonna find a way to beat

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

you here because they're running top 10.

[Russell]

He's gonna guess he's gonna beat Russ with his own website.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think Chase and Larson Both run top 10.

[Chase Elliott]

Yeah.

[Guest Analyst]

They're both at 2, aren't they?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, they are. They both, they're tied. They're tied. Yeah. But it's not a, it's not a, it's not a runaway here for Larson.

[Guest Analyst]

But guess what?

[TJ]

I don't think.

[Guest Analyst]

But guess what.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Guest Analyst]

Larson finished better than him in both of them.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know it's about to turn the tides. Turn it can't happen forever. Can't be the same for everybody.

[TJ]

It's only two of them.

[Guest Analyst]

Hey, I love that Amazon's coming and you're back in the notes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What do you think about Chase Briscoe? Those guys need a rebound. They've got to gain some grounds and the points. It's coming up on a, on a track where they can, they could probably make a little bit of hay. Best average running position on road courses since 2025among full time drivers. That's seven races. He's fourth.

[Guest Analyst]

You don't need me anymore than. I think you're reading the notes again.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I like them for a top

[Guest Analyst]

10 or possibly top 5. Bet he was in 6 last 2 years there.

[TJ]

I would not have thought that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What's that?

[Russell]

Plus 110 for a top 10.

[TJ]

It's great.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's a good number. I like it. All right, so a couple top 10 bets. I think I would say Chase, Elliot, Briscoe. Could you. Could you parlay a couple of these or.

[TJ]

I could probably. Everybody, besides the top three guys are very bettable, so you could definitely parlay those.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right. Put a couple of those guys in there. Anybody else y' all think might sneak into the top 10? What about AJ Almendinger?

[Guest Analyst]

Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

McDowell.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

McDowell. Dude, McDowell has struggled this year.

[TJ]

I know, but he.

[Chase Elliott]

He.

[TJ]

He's a road course merchant.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What was this coda like?

[Guest Analyst]

McDowell was fifth. Dakota.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Fifth Dakota. All right, dude, his. He has been abysmal.

[TJ]

Yeah. And when the other cars.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't bust out abysmal often.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Jesus. I don't bust that one out too often.

[TJ]

And his teammates have been fast, and he just hasn't been in the same ballpark.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's struggled to match their speed for sure. Now, broke horses are different. Different beasts for sure. And that's where he shines. Maybe a McDowell put. McDowell, Almond, Dinger. Dude, I don't know. This top 10, there's just not enough cars. I like, I like Ty, Gibbs, Briscoe. I mean, these are the obvious ones, right? Bell, Reddick, Gibbs, those three guys, I think they're. They're. They're very confident to finish in the top 10 for this race. Butcher, I would say the fringe guys would be my Almondinger, my. My. My Chase, elliott, my Larson, McDowell, Briscoe. Any kind of part, you know, package of three or so of those guys. What do you think? Totally agree.

[Russell]

I like all those games.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

You could do a couple of parlays. Two drivers here, two drivers there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right.

[Russell]

Have a little fun.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Anything you don't like about that, Russell?

[Guest Analyst]

No, I like everything you're saying.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, man. That's a first.

[Guest Analyst]

Well, you're reading the notes now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Guest Analyst]

You know, it's hard for me to disagree with you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm reading your notes, so of course you're going to agree with it. All right, well, now I know how this segment needs to go for the remainder of the season. All right, we found the secret. We've unlocked the secret. I just say everything Russ likes. Yeah.

[TJ]

It goes well.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. All right, well, I guess. What else. What else are we missing? Are there.

[Guest Analyst]

You want to do a manufacturer parlay?

[TJ]

We've been staying away from that for one, though.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

This is a good week for one. All right, Svg for Chevrolet. Give me Bush here for Ford. Bushire on the Ford. Yeah.

[Guest Analyst]

I think it's Bella Reddick. Whichever one you like better.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm going to go with Bell. Bell. I mean, his average running position in the last seven races, road courses, is three spots higher. That's a lot. Three whole spots. Because, I mean, if you look at. You got eight guys here in this list that I'm looking at average running position. Shane van Gisbergen is far out in front at 3.1, just way out. Then you got. So Tyler Reddick in third all the way to AJ Almendinger is. There's only one position. Tyler Reddick is 11.1 and AJ is 12.6. So they're very tight, but Christopher Bell is kind of sitting out there, a little bit of a Gap in second place at 8.6. So he's performing better than Redick. Just, you know, traditionally of the last seven races on road courses, where did

[TJ]

Bell finish at Coda? Was he. I don't remember.

[Guest Analyst]

He was third.

[TJ]

Oh, okay. Yeah.

[Guest Analyst]

Like his last. Hard to go against four road course races are third, third, second, fifth.

[TJ]

Yeah, it's pretty bad.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You just don't need Reddick to finish second and you'll be all right.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Russell]

If you parlay the SVG, Bell and Bush plus 1422.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Can you do. Oh, how. How badass would it be if you could bet the top three finishers in correct order, you might be able to somewhere.

[Russell]

I don't know if they all svg.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Christopher Bell, Tyler Reddick.

[Russell]

I wish they would offer that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But top three, that'd be cool.

[Russell]

That would be crazy odds.

[TJ]

Gosh dang. That would be so hard to predict.

[Russell]

That would be like, I don't know

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

if you could get a better opportunity to actually get it right this weekend.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Russell]

Those odds would be ins.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. All right. Hey, man. Appreciate you guys coming through. Thank you, Russell. The Dirty modo segment is brought to you by FanDuel, the premier gaming destination in the United States. We'll see you. All right, everybody. It's a great show. Thanks for joining us here at the Arby studio. Don't forget about Arby's new meet in three box. You get more meal for your money at Arby's. Arby's. We have the meats. We also have Fan Day May 21 at Junior Motorsports. There's a lot going on. A lot of autographs, a lot of vendors, a lot of free samples, a lot of fun things to check out, race cars to look at, tons of things to do at our Fan Day, but I think the standout that you'll want to be here for is at 12 o' clock for one hour.

[Russell]

Amy, Amy and some other guy and

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

myself will be doing Bless yous Heart live from the RV stage. We'll also have Door Bumper clear. They'll be on from 1 to 2 with Jordan Bianchi from 11 to 12. Mike Davis coming back as a podcast co host. I have begged him to come back on our show, but he's going to be with Kenny Wallace and friends. There'll be some surprise guests on that show. That's 11 to 12, but kicking us off on the stage is Dangerota and Larry McReynolds. At 9am 9 to 11 they're going to do two hours with SiriusXM's On Track. All live shows from 9 till 2pm if you can't make it out, check it out on Sirius xm. They'll be posting our shows like Normal as well on our social media handles, but I'm sure many of you are gonna come see us and have some fun. Check out dirty mo media on instagram, facebook x and tick tock.