Victory Edition: Dale Jr. & Connor Zilisch

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Dale Jr. Download – Victory Edition: Dale Jr. & Connor Zillich

Episode Information:

• Title: Victory Edition: Dale Jr. & Connor Zillich
• Host: Dale Earnhardt Jr.
• Guests: Connor Zillich, Chase Briscoe
• Release Date: June 24, 2025
• Platform: Dirty Mo Media, SiriusXM

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Introduction and Guest Appearance (00:00 - 02:10)

Dale Earnhardt Jr. kicks off the episode by introducing his special co-host, Connor Zillich, the recent winner of an Xfinity race. The initial few minutes include promotional segments for sponsors like Safety Culture and Chumba Casino. Dale hints at an engaging discussion centered around the Xfinity series win and various team dynamics, setting the stage for an in-depth conversation.

Notable Quote:

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. (00:00): "We're going to talk about the Xfinity series win. We got all kinds of things going on. Dirty mode, Doe. That's gonna be a fun episode today."

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Behind the Scenes with Safety Culture and Team Partnerships (02:10 - 06:10)

The conversation shifts to the role of Safety Culture as a workplace operations tool, highlighting its partnership with Trackhouse Racing and its impact on team efficiency. Chase Briscoe joins the discussion, praising the collaborative environment and the seamless integration of Safety Culture into the racing operations.

Notable Quote:

• Chase Briscoe (03:08): "Track House has got. Is very lucky to have a lot of good partners and people and, and yeah, Safety Culture is one of them."

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Personal Anecdotes and Team Dynamics (06:10 - 14:34)

Dale reminisces about building informal racetracks and fostering team camaraderie, sharing stories from his personal experiences. He highlights the importance of relationships within the team and introduces Marty Lindley, emphasizing his pivotal role and deep-rooted connections in the racing industry.

Notable Quote:

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. (03:33): "But now the car farm racetrack story, that's like a lot of people have done that over the years."

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Dale Jr. as Crew Chief: Strategy and Execution (14:34 - 38:13)

Dale transitions into his unexpected role as a crew chief for Connor Zillich during the Xfinity race at Pocono. He details the challenges faced, including navigating technical inspections and strategizing pit stops. The segment delves deep into race strategies, fuel management, and real-time decision-making, showcasing how Dale applied his racing knowledge to support Connor's victory.

Notable Quotes:

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. (25:18): "Everything went really good. We, we. I stood, I stood by the pit box for practice, watched our lap times, got a lot of confidence in our car."
• Chase Briscoe (15:41): "Yeah, well, I don't know if he knew for sure at the time either. He's like, oh, we maybe."

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Race Day: Overcoming Challenges and Securing Victory (38:13 - 58:57)

The episode narrates the intense moments of the race, including strategic pit stops, unexpected suspensions, and pivotal restarts. Dale shares how the team's cohesive effort and bold strategies led to securing the lead and ultimately winning the race. The collaboration between Dale as crew chief and Connor as the driver is highlighted, demonstrating effective communication and trust.

Notable Quotes:

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. (52:36): "When you get those restarts and you're nervous... you're not in control."
• Chase Briscoe (50:24): "It's tough to pass because of that, because... you can have such a good run off the corner, but it doesn't matter because you lose it right when you get within that."

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Post-Race Reflections and Lessons Learned (58:57 - 85:35)

Post-race, Dale and Chase reflect on the strategies employed, the importance of communication, and the adrenaline rush of being in pivotal roles. They discuss moments of tension, such as near penalties during pit stops, and the exhilaration of victory lane. Dale also shares insights into his personal growth from the experience, feeling more confident in broadcasting and understanding the crew chief's responsibilities.

Notable Quotes:

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. (79:16): "We lost the track position that we were trying to get through the strategy. And Connor went back and got it past the two at the end."
• Chase Briscoe (76:42): "I looked in my mirror and I knew that he was back on the racetrack and he was... a straightaway behind me."

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Audience Interaction and Future Outlook (85:35 - 117:36)

The latter part of the podcast involves engaging discussions with listeners' questions, covering topics from race strategies to personal experiences. Dale addresses fan inquiries about memorable racing moments, the intricacies of being a crew chief, and the evolving nature of NASCAR racing tactics. He emphasizes the balance between camaraderie and competitive aggression necessary for success on the track.

Notable Quotes:

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. (89:41): "Mark Martin and what he taught me... he was a great guy to race against and learn from."
• Chase Briscoe (93:00): "It's really the whole field. But, you know, some guys are still more egregious with it, I would say, than others."

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Conclusion and Upcoming Content (117:36 - End)

Dale concludes the episode by expressing gratitude to his team and sponsors, reflecting on the exhilarating experiences shared. He teases upcoming segments and episodes, including interviews with other racing personalities and deep dives into historic racing seasons. The episode wraps up with promotional content for merchandise and future events.

Notable Quote:

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. (120:29): "This Dirty Modo segment's brought to you by FanDuel... always bet responsibly, please."

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Key Takeaways:

1. Team Collaboration: The synergy between crew chiefs, drivers, and support staff is pivotal for race success.
2. Strategic Decision-Making: Real-time decisions, especially regarding pit stops and fuel management, can make or break a race.
3. Personal Growth: Stepping into different roles within the team enhances understanding and fosters personal development.
4. Competitive Aggression: Balancing friendship with fierce competition is essential in high-stakes racing environments.
5. Fan Engagement: Interacting with listeners and addressing their questions strengthens community ties and enriches the podcast experience.

Overall, "Victory Edition: Dale Jr. & Connor Zillich" offers listeners an inside look into the complexities of racing strategy, the importance of teamwork, and the adrenaline-fueled moments that define victorious outcomes in NASCAR.

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Note: Advertisements, intros, outros, and non-content sections from the transcript have been omitted to maintain focus on the core discussions and insights of the episode.

Transcript

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hey Everybody, it's Dale Jr. Welcome back for another episode of Dale Jr. Download. We're gonna have a co host join us today. Connor Zillich, the winner from the Xfinity race and this episode is brought to you by Safety Culture. Thank you for everything they do. We're going to talk about the Xfinity series win. We got all kinds of things going on. Dirty mode, Doe. That's gonna be a fun episode today, Ass Junior. That'll be another great segment. So let's get to it.

[Connor Zillich]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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

[Connor Zillich]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Can you not tell I'm mentally ready?

[Travis]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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

[Travis]

You haven't scratched the surface yet there, boy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, what the do you want?

[Connor Zillich]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You ain't picky. This ain't walking in and have it your way, mother. All right. St Burger King. Travis is like, wrap this up. They don't have no fun around here. Hey, Everybody, it's Dale Jr. Back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. It's dirty Air. It's Tuesday and I'm here with my co host, but it's not TJ Majors. We got a special co host guest today. It's Connor Zillich. What's up, Connor?

[Chase Briscoe]

What's up? Thanks for having me. It's going to be fun. Crew chief.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, yeah, it should be a lot of fun. We got a lot to talk about. Thanks for giving us a little time today and want to remind everybody that this episode of the Dale Jinger Download is brought to you by Safety Culture, the workplace operations tool. Giving teams from the racetrack to the factory floor what they need to get the job done quicker and improve every day. Safety Culture is a partner of Trackhouse where Connor does a little cup racing.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah, sure are actually this weekend.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, is that right?

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What are the Safety Culture folks like? They're pretty cool to work with. Yeah.

[Chase Briscoe]

Track House has got. Is very lucky to have a lot of good partners and people and, and yeah, Safety Culture is one of them. They're mainly with Shane but they've spread out and done some races across the board and yeah. Enjoying the NASCAR stuff. I think Shane, Shane brought him into it and. Oh yeah, they're. They're having fun.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's good. Shane seems like a cool dude.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah, he's awesome. And it took him a little bit to get warmed, warmed up to everything here. But yeah, I go to his house and he's got this farm that he turned into a racetrack and he bought these beater cars and we go out there and race these beater cars around his farm and yeah, he's, he's a, he's a fun dude.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's cool. He has not told anybody else about that.

[Chase Briscoe]

Oh, maybe I shouldn't have.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But now the car farm racetrack story, that's like a lot of people have done that over the years. We had a little go kart track on the property and I bought, I cut a dirt track down at the bottom of the hill on my property.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And we bought 18 Revo Indoor Go karts.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Gas. Gas powered though. And, and we'd race them on that dirt track and we'd pack it and get it ready. We'd spend all day getting the track right, you know, and get the top groove worked in. And we had a truck with racing, racing slicks on that we would pack the track with and had a, we had a I wire, I piped in a water system from the creek so we'd spray the track and man, it was, it was first class. Yeah. And we'd, we'd invite Junior Motorsports or Hendrick Motorsports. We'd have 150 people come out there. Yeah, we'd have like heat races and we'd spent all night, you know, getting to eventual show. Yes. It was fun.

[Chase Briscoe]

It's cool. Those are the most fun, fun things to do, friends.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I got a Bunch of pictures. I got a bunch of pictures because from one specific night where some people that SVG knows, Paul Morris and some other V8 supercar racers.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Had flown. They shipped one of their cars here. I kept it at my shop, and they were going to take it to the wind tunnel and do some other stuff with it. And Paul flew over here with a couple other guys. Oh, and Kelly, a couple other racers that would end up. Actually end up racing over here for a while. Owen. Owen ran an Xfinity racer, too. Ran my late model for a year. But Paul used to race V8 Supercars. And we still talk today. Anytime SVG races, he'll be out on the racetrack. We were at Mexico, and I'm texting Paul, and Paul's in Australia, and I'm like, hey, man, tell me what he's doing with his feet. You know, tell me how. You tell me how he uses a clutch and stuff. So pretty cool. But, yeah, those racetracks at the house, you got to build you one. You got.

[Chase Briscoe]

I still live with my mom and dad. I think they'd kill me if I tried to build a racetrack at our house.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm surprised, man, as mature as you are. You moved. You went off to Europe when you were 12.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And now you're back home, and you don't live alone. You don't erase it.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm still full time.

[Chase Briscoe]

They don't pay me the big bucks yet.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're. You're game in the system, so.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah, well, I don't have to pay any rent.

[Connor Zillich]

Sounds like Junior Motorsports needs to pay him a little more.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Dale, whatever. He's doing good. He just made him. He just made him a nice little check this weekend.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

With that win at Pocono. The coolest thing that I learned about all of this is. So Isla, my. My oldest daughter says she wants to grow up to be a gymnastics teacher. And I was talking to your mom and dad yesterday, and she said she was an Olympic gymnast for Canada.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And I'm like, hey, I need to introduce you to Isla. Tell Isla how to do this thing she wants to do. She wants to be a teacher, but it's funny. Yeah. And then I tried to take them into the gift shop and get them a bag of. Here, where's. Where?

[Chase Briscoe]

Jerky.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Bag of jerky, boys. Beef jerky. But we're out.

[Chase Briscoe]

Sold out.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

In stock. Yes.

[Chase Briscoe]

Oh, that's a good problem to have.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

My gosh. Yeah. Your dad apparently likes jerky. And I was like, man, I got the best jerky in the world.

[Chase Briscoe]

I know I need to get some. I need to get. I haven't tried it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Should be some. They should have it in there now. That came in yesterday.

[Chase Briscoe]

I'll go over there after this.

[Connor Zillich]

Put on Dale's tab.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. You can have a free bag. Well, hey, let's talk about this race weekend. We had a. We'll get to the cup race here in a bit. Be fun to get Cotter's take on that. But obviously, the Xfinity race went really well for us. I was asked to sit on the pit box. Marty had gotten suspended a couple weeks ago for lug nuts. I remember that race, and I got the text message that Marty was going to be in trouble. Yep. And. And I was like. Well, I was like, man, he's timed this perfectly. Because everybody knew about the challenges with the logistics to getting to Mexico. And I thought, well, he won't have to go through that. Right. And he decided, you know, he was going to actually go to Mexico and then forego the suspension toward the Pocono weekend.

[Chase Briscoe]

He thought I was going to win at Mexico and not Pocono.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Is that right? Is that what was up?

[Chase Briscoe]

I think no. But it would have been a pain in the butt to get every. All the travel stuff worked out. But didn't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

When.

[Chase Briscoe]

When you were. You were at Nashville for the Xfinity race, and it was the last stage, and I think the pit crew guys knew that they didn't hit five on the last stop.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I guess we can tell this story. Can we?

[Chase Briscoe]

I assume.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Well, what the hell is going to happen? Yeah. So Marty is out there. You're running second.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah. Yeah. I had a chance to win. I was me and all guy, and we had the field covered.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We knew. I get a text message with, like, 30 laps to go. There are lugs missing on your wheel. If we finish the race, we're absolutely getting suspended.

[Chase Briscoe]

And it's a fine. There's a. There's a hefty fine that goes along with it, too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There was a conversation of bringing you to pit road.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And putting the lugs on so you don't get suspended. Or do we stay out there, finish the race and take the suspension? Which I'm sure is kind of common. I mean, I'm sure that teams that are in this situation have this very conversation.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Every time. So it's probably not too taboo to speak about it, but. Yeah. So we're sitting there going, well, I was like, listen, I. Me and Bummy Bum Gardner. Mike Bum Gardner were talking about it in. In the infield. And I said, I'm getting ready to go to Victory Lane. And they're like, hey, man, you know, should we pit and. And not get suspended? I was like, that's a Marty decision. Well, Marty wants to stay out there. And I was like, well, he gets suspended, he won't have to go to Mexico. And they're like, well, maybe. And he ends up getting suspended. He decided to go to Mexico. Thinking you were going to win the race. You ended up destroying the race car. Yeah.

[Chase Briscoe]

You're welcome.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Finishing fifth or something, right? Fifth.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah. Fifth. Yeah. I don't know how. I don't know how I finished fifth.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't either. Apparently. Apparently he had the damn ball joint, was about to break in half.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah, there was a bunch of. A bunch of stuff.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He ends up taking Pocono off. He texts me, I probably still have the text. You want to crew chief the car? I was like, are you serious? Like, who. Who else. Who else is. Who else is going to. We. Right? We had Mike Bumgardner, who has crew chiefd our cars in the past. He's. He's kind of like our. Our top dude to techn director, runs everything on the shop floor kind of guy goes to racetrack overseas. Everything between the four cars or five at times. We got Corey Shea, who's done some pit crew or crew chiefing for the fifth car. We got all kinds of talented, incredible people. Pat on your car could have done it. Yeah, I mean, you know, anybody could have done it. Besides, I'm not anybody but anybody besides me. There's multiple people. So I was like, what is. What is going on? What is he trying to do? And Marty is. Marty's a little bit of a wild card like that. It's kind of done it and seen it all kind of guy. So he knows he wants to have a little fun every now and then. And there's a unique relationship, connection between our families. His dad, I'm sure you know, I'm not telling you anything you don't know, Connor. But for the people listening, his dad, Butch Lindley, is still today considered by many people in the industry as the best short track racer in history. In the 70s, he raced in the late Model and Sportsman division, which is now the Xfinity series. And he was really unbeatable. Beautiful blue or beautiful red. Number 16. Anytime you see that car, it's just like, you know, you, right? You think right away what a talented man that Butch was. My dad raced against him. They had some battles. Dad won A couple, but usually got beat by Butch. And so there was some big respect there. Marty was growing up as a kind of a grunt mechanic trying to find his way through the sport without his. Without his father's guidance. And my dad would have his guys pick Marty up on the way to the racetrack. I remember riding in a 15 pasture van one specific weekend going to Atlanta. We didn't fly on planes. We used to drive in the van and we're driving down the interstate and we pulled off in South Carolina on an exit ramp and picked Marty up and he went with us and was part of the team that weekend. And Marty would come in and out of our lives as a mechanic and then got himself into racing and ended up being a really, really good short track racer himself in pro cup and stuff like that. So his driver career doesn't take off. He goes into, you know, crew chief. And finally. And before he worked with Junior Motorsports, he was at Kyle Busch Motorsports doing trucks. So anyways, it's pretty cool that we get to work together. When we had the opportunity to hire Marty, I was thrilled because of the connection. So here we are, fast forward. And he's like, you should do this. You should crew chief the car this weekend. He's like, don't worry about it. The guys know everything they need to do. You won't have to really, you know, worry about adjustments and all the. All the. All the really fringe details. And. And he said, what you will have to do, I think you can do. And I was like, all right. I didn't know what those things were, but it was fun and I'm glad I did it. I got to the rate. I was like, hey, I want to be in the meetings. I want to just know everything I can know. And I came to tech on Friday, followed the car through tech. I told Amy, I said, I'm gonna go to the racetrack. Our girls and Amy were at a house in Pocono. We had went to Hershey park the day before, which was awesome. They're at the house. And I said, I'm going to the racetrack. I'll be there from probably 10 to 2, max. I just want to show my face, see what, you know, just. Just kind of be there. I didn't want. I did not want to walk up on Saturday right before the race and hop on the boot box. And that'd be the first thing I did. So Tech didn't go well. We ended up failing, having to park over back by the trailer and wait for them to call our name again. They Called us again around 2 o' clock, and we go back through. They didn't like our side skirt. They passed it the first time. The second time through, they didn't like the side skirt. They saw something on our other cars that they were like, oh, well, we'll check it on this 88 a little closer. Well, they made us take the side skirt off and put a brand new one on. And we had some spares in the trailer. We had to do a little hacksaw and cutting for that, and. But we get the car through tech, and then I could take off and get to the house. So that was fun. Thrilling.

[Chase Briscoe]

You're working on it intact.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It was an adrenaline rush. I can't, you know, I. So I can work on a race car, you know, I. I know how I. I can look at that race car and tell you what, every part is, how it works, why it works, the way it works now, the new cup car, I can, you know, I can somewhat do that, but I don't know it as well. All the physics and GE geometry and all that stuff still work the same, but all the parts look different. Right. So still learning on the cup side on the next gen, but I can look at that Xfinity car, and I've built those cars, and so that was really comfortable. The, you know, on race day.

[Connor Zillich]

Hold on a second, Connor. When you found out that Dale was the crew chief, what was your thoughts and what was going through your mind?

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah, well, at first, I thought it was a joke. Marty texted me, like, two weeks ago and was like, I think we're gonna have Dale crew chief it. And I texted Dale and I was like, so you're crew chief in this thing at Pocono. And I don't think he knew for sure at the time either. He's like, oh, we' Maybe.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was like, man, I don't know how you. I didn't think about how you felt about this.

[Chase Briscoe]

No, I felt good about it.

[Connor Zillich]

Was there any pressure? Like, was there, like, oh, crap, now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I got Dale Jr. Yeah, definitely.

[Chase Briscoe]

There was definitely some extra. Because I, you know, I can't let him come out here, crew chief at one time, and we go run 15th, like, that would be embarrassing. So, yeah, definitely there was some added pressure, but I just wanted to enjoy it. Honestly, like, it was just such a cool experience and such a cool weekend. And, you know, I hate Marty wasn't there to sit in victory lane with us and, you know, do his woos and have fun with us. But, you know, at the same Time. It was cool to be able to, you know, miss a key part of your team and still be able to go to victory lane. So, yeah, I was, I was shocked at first when Marty told me and I was, I didn't believe it. And you know, it took about a week and then, you know, I get a text on Monday, yeah, I'll be at your meeting on Wednesday for the pre race meeting. And I was like, man, he's taking it seriously. And then, and then I got to the pre race meeting and Marty told me that you were going to pit practice. And I was like, wow. I was like, that's, that's good. I respect the dedication. Right. If you're going to do it, you don't just want to, you know, show up on Saturday and sit on the pit box and, you know, have someone tell you what to do in your ear.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Chase Briscoe]

I'm glad you embraced the role and, you know, did it the right way. And, you know, I think it, I think it was definitely played a part of us having a successful day, you know, having. Having you understand the goals and the strategy and, you know, be able to manage the race from your end a little, little more seriously. And, you know, I definitely think you had more say than you expected to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes, man. So that was the best part. Everything went really good. We, we. I stood, I stood by the, I stood by the pit box for practice, watched our lap times, got a lot of confidence in our car. We were in group B. A couple cars, the 7 and the 17, which were the. Eventually we would understand and, and we assumed would be the best cars that weekend. We're in group A. We fired off a little off of them. The entire second group kind of did. But our car started to match those fast cars, the 17 and the 7 after a few laps. And I'm thinking, hey, we're in a different group. I think our group is a little slower, tracks warmed up, it's a little hotter. But we're running as well as those guys. At lap five and on through. We got a really good race car. We got a winning car. And is it was your first laps on the racetrack? Yeah, Literally. Literally the very first lap you ran on the racetrack went to P2 on the board.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And listen, dude, I mean, you're. I know, I know you hear this all the time and you, you're young and you really. I didn't know how to take praise of any kind really, when I was your age either, but that is a very rare quality and it speaks to your, your Talent, it speaks to the just raw, you know, ability that you just possess a God given skill, but also it speaks to your preparedness, your, your, Your attention to detail. When you're simming, work with Josh Wise, all of the things, the, how you're absorbing all of the meetings and the conversations. So you go. When you go out there on the racetrack, you're not exploring, you're ready to hit the track and go make a lap, you know, and that is so, so freaking awesome to be on a crew when you have a driver that can go out there and do that. Yeah, um, man, that. Yeah, dude. I mean, we.

[Chase Briscoe]

Do you remember going to places for the first time? You know, back, back. Yeah, it's intimidating. Like, I was going down the front straightaway for the first time and I got off three and I'm like, I needed damn binoculars to see turn one, and I was like, I know. It's this, Is this, this fast?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I remember pulling out on the racetrack for Talladega. My dad called me one day and asked me to come test his Xfinity car. And I was 16, and we went to town. I went, I showed up to Talladega and they were testing motors, and he said, all right, get in. I had. I'd only raced a street stock, maybe some, maybe some late model stock stuff, too. Short tracks. Short tracks, yeah. Half mile and nothing more than 360 horsepower. So I pull out on the racetrack and I'm looking down the back straightaway, and I'm like. I see the bank in a turn three off in the distance, and the track wraps around toward turn four. And I'm thinking, how does it not fly out of the racetrack when I, When I get down here? How do I not just ramp on out of this place?

[Chase Briscoe]

And they tell you, you got to be flat out.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. They're like, well, even back then, he, he might have been lying just to make sure I wouldn't lift. But he's like, if you lift off the gas, you're going to burn the pistons. It's, it's, you know, it's jetted a certain way that you got to stay in the throttle. You can't lift. It'll. It'll burn the motor. So he scared me into running wide open. But, yeah, I, I've. I remember, you know, I remember going to racetracks and being pretty intimidated and mainly just not so much. I mean, I knew I was going to have. We had a lot of practice, you know. Yeah, you don't.

[Chase Briscoe]

We get 20 minutes and we're Very fortunate to have simulators that are so accurate.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes. Yeah.

[Chase Briscoe]

In the simulators, we were running the exact same lap times, lap times that we fired off at. And that's tough sometimes. Like some weeks, you know, we miss it. Mexico, we missed. We were three seconds faster in the simulator than we were at the racetrack. And there's times that, you know you hit it and times you don't. And this weekend was definitely one of the ones where, you know, Justin did a really good job tuning the tire to, to make it as accurate as possible.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's good. Well, it was pretty impressive. The. Here's. Here's a little inside knowledge. So there's, there's some changes that'll happen to the car between practice, to qualifying and then back to the race. There's a, let's say there's a short list of things they'll change and adjust, and they're probably relatively common and similar week to week. It's not like a challenging puzzle. But Pat, I don't. I saw the list of things we're going to change. I'm like, yep, I don't need to look at this. Pat is going to do it. That's not something I need to worry about. So there's one thing that I didn't do right. There's one. There's. There's. There's a crew chief job that I wasn't privy to or wasn't really messing with. And. But, you know, I was, you know, I was still really not doing a whole lot other than just trying to be. Just being present for practice and so forth and, and sort of, you know, just kind of starting to make relationships with these guys right on the team. It was fun talking to your. Your guys and getting to know them even better. Where they, where were they working before they came to us? Where do they go to school? What did they want to be when they grew up? You know? Yeah, all those things. So had some great conversations. And by time we get to. To Saturday, we were ready. We had went to the track house facility in, in Concord. I did three stops with the practice crew. With the. During or with them during practice. They, I think, set that up just for, for me to really get a couple reps. They weren't really practicing that day, so that was super nice of them to do that. Literally, this is the same. Marty does this job. So this wasn't like a. We didn't adjust any. We didn't change anything. I just took Marty's place. He does this job for the pit stops every week. Basically, the left front tires laying flat on pit wall. When the car comes in, everybody gets. You know, once everybody kind of gets out of my way, I can take that tire, set it on the ground, but there's a stripe across the surface of the tire that signifies where one of the lug holes is, so that when the carrier grabs it, he can see that stripe and know to line that stripe up with one of the studs. And so I have to make sure that stripe is at top, dead center, 12 o' clock. So I put the tire on the ground with the stripe at the bottom, and I roll the tire forward toward the car to where when I get it out there fully extended, the stripes at the top, I got to get it out of the way of the. Of the. Of the Jackman. So he doesn't. I don't slow him down.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And as well as the changer, they both got to get through. And that's it. He grabs a tire, and then my attention may go immediately to the right front. Did it get over clean? He rolls the right front to us, to me and the sign guy. We got to make sure we corral all of those things and make sure they don't get loose and get a penalty. So it's pretty simple. If it goes right, it's easy. But we've seen some problems in the past where we've gotten popped for some penalties where those things can go wrong. So one little thing. Everybody has to do everything right. But that was fun. I was more nervous about that.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Than anything else.

[Chase Briscoe]

I would be, too. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Chase Briscoe]

I mean, it's a small job, but it's a big, big responsibility.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You don't. Yeah. And they were the first. So we did three stops at practice, and each stop, they were like, hey, you gotta. You can't do that. You gotta change this. Hey, I need you to do this. That's not gonna work. And so they're serious, and those guys are pros, and they're like, if you do it this way, we're good. If you don't, if you, you know, screw that part up or this part of that part, we're gonna be a little slower. So they were serious about it, and they held me accountable. That was fun. So that was probably what I was most worried about. We get on the pit box, and I asked Marty, I said, hey, do you go to the car? Because I didn't really want to go. I wanted. I. You know, I. I didn't want. I didn't want to not be there. If you're used to Marty being there. I wanted to be there. Marty's like, I don't go the car. I'm like, oh, okay. Marty's different.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Than some. Most crew chiefs I've ever worked with. He does things a little differently.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah, definitely. I mean, I've not worked with enough to know, but I've worked with a few, and, yeah, they're all. They all do things differently, and you got to get used to it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. But, like, most of my cruises would eventually come out to the car and give you knuckles or something. Right. Marty doesn't go out to the car. So I was like, all right, I won't go to the car either. Then I don't need to be, you know, showing up out there for no reason. I asked Steve Latard, I said, hey, you know, Steve Latart is one of my best friends. And as I said to him a couple. Couple days ago, I was like, man, every. You've always. You always have a way, you know, a good friend knows when to be there. And. And Steve's the kind of guy that if you're getting ready to get involved in something, say we're going to do some broadcasting work or something, and he knows a shortcut or a tip of any kind, he'll be like, hey, man, they're going to ask you this. Make sure you know this or whatever. Right. He's going to give you the answer to a quiz on, you know, a question on the quiz.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So to speak, metaphorically. He's that kind of guy. And he always, you know, if he can help you out or if he can help you cut a corner, he's going to. He's going to give you the answers, and so that's the kind of friends you want. And I told him, I said, hey, man, you know, I think you should. You should come up, hang out. And he's like, oh, I'm not going to miss that. And I told him what I was going to do on the pit stops. I said, that's what you probably want to watch, because that's the part that I probably screw up. Yeah. And I was like, otherwise, man, come hang out on pit box. If you see something, say something. I ain't too proud. I'm not a crew chief. Right. I'm not. I'm not going in there going, I got this.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I was like, everybody, come hang out. If anybody, you know, sees a way we can make this better, let's do it. So I didn't care. He come and hung out a Little bit. He got up there after. In the middle of stage one or so. I can't remember exactly when, but he hopped up there. He just sit over there quiet, talking to some of our guys on the pit box, which I thought was cool for them.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And we're, you know, green flag drops and that's when all the kind of anxiety and nerves went away. As soon as you. Since you come off turn, you know, we had a little conversation before the race or under the pace lap, say, everybody, rah, rah, rah. We're gonna have a good day. This is awesome. Pit crew. They're. They're confident. I could see in their faces they got this. They know what they're doing. You know, they work on Sundays. This is no big deal. Yeah, Pat's feeling good. Guys on the box are feeling good. Everybody's pumped. And I think the reason why everybody felt like this was going to be okay was because we had been meeting and sitting and talking for the last four or five days. Right?

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah. It's nothing new.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The community. The vibe that I got from Marty was almost like he gave us. He gave us the playbook on Wednesday and then he just kind of stood, sat back and like, as we get the race started, I'm like, yeah, man, we're on our own. So Pat is Marty's car chief, right hand man.

[Chase Briscoe]

He's been. They've been together for. Before here.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. Been together for a long time. Pat is on the ground with the crew. Never came up on the box maybe once. But he. He was the brains. He was the. He was the wizard of Oz behind the curtain. And so it was so much fun, dude, I'm telling you, I wish I could relive this day over and over and over, because once I sort of. Once we get. We get through about halfway through stage one. And you know, that was a very basic, hey, we're going to run to the finish. We don't need to flip that stage. It's not even a conversation if we're going to flip a stage. It's stage two.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We're stage one. Straightforward. Don't. Yep. Don't need gas, not going to pit. Blah, blah, blah. So we ran that stage and that was. That was. It was good that it was that way. And I think every stage for every first stage in every race for the Xfinity series is probably just pretty straightforward. There's no stopping can. Can go on a tank of fuel. So. Okay, so that was nice. I looked over on a sheet of paper that engineers were Writing on. We're up there just writing notes like crazy.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And it, and it's, I write a lot of notes. I know I'm rambling everybody, but I write a lot of notes because I'll write down something. And you may see this if you ever sat around me, I write down. That's very obvious sometimes, but I need to write it for my mind to remember it. I, I, I can remember things by reading it off of a page, but if my hand writes it, it's, like, locked in.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so I'll be sitting down there thinking about things that I know I need to remember for stage two or for stage three, and I'll just write them down. And that locks it right in my brain. And that's how I work, and that's the way I do broadcasting as well. And so I look over at the engineer, and he had, he had two rounds TB track bar. And I was like, oh, nope. And I was like, Pat, he comes over, I'm looking down, I'm like, man, I think it was this what we're talking about. I was like, you got that? You're gonna put two rounds in the screw jack. He goes, yeah, screw Jack. And the engineer there was just a little, somebody got a little confused about what we were going to do.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so I was like, I don't remember. But I was just, I looked down at Pat and I was like, pat, you got them boys. You got this figured out. You got them boys straight. Because the crew guys are the ones that are going to go over to do this. Yeah, right. They can't stick it in the wrong hole and turn the wrong screw jack. That was the moment where it, where the, where the switch flipped. That's when it started to feel comfortable. And I started to really feel like, you know, I, I got to, I started to understand what my involvement in my role was. And so from that moment on, we started, we got into stage two. There's about three different strategies that you can, you can do at this point. We can stay out and win the stage pit at that moment, and we're going to lose a lot of track position, but we've got great stage one and stage two points plus a playoff point. And then I can just say, hey, man, you're going to race from 12th or so and get the best result you can give me. Or we can flip the stage, come in a little bit early, give up the stage point, give up the, the playoff point, and put ourselves in a really good position to win the race. That's what the 17 and the 7 did. We needed to be within about 10 seconds of the leader to do that. We were. Or we could win the stage, continue to run into stage three, not pit, and only pit one more time and race it to the finish. That is the. That is the best strategy. Because we win the stage, we get the stage points plus the payoff points, and we get all of the track position. And now we are the leader. But we'll have a little bit of a tire deficit and we can't. And if, you know, if we lose the lead now, we're at a tire deficit and we're in dirty air.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So then your job gets really hard as a driver. This is sort of similar to what we had done in 2014 with Steve and I, and this was something that we as a team had talked about in our meeting Wednesday. And the one thing that was important, I think, was when we left you out in the. When the 17 and the 7 come to pit road and you now are the lead car, I think in that moment, you gained a ton of confidence in the car. Right. You're driving away from these guys. You can see it. Right. You'd. Up to that point, in my mind, we're getting beat by the 17 that day. Unless, you know, you can kick some ass on a late restart or something. 17 was the best car.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

7 and us were about even. Maybe this, you know, whoever's going to be in front was probably going to control the second place finish. So that's kind of how it was looking to me. But when we put. When we were able to get out there and have a couple restarts and a few other things where you could drive away, I think it flipped a switch in all of our minds. Yours more. Yours. Most importantly, that, hey, man, if we have this track position, we're good enough to keep it. Yeah, Right. And Even if that 17 gets in my mirror, I can hold them up. I'm gonna hold his ass off. Yeah, Right. And so that was really important, and that was something I didn't really. I wasn't planning for that, but that's something that started to happen. It gave you confidence. It gave us the confidence to. To gamble on this risky sort of strategy because it was a risk on fuel. And I'm standing there talking. Tanner is sitting next to me. Tanner's our engineer. Tanner is in his first year with us. Tanner worked with Nice at the trucks for the last three years. Two years. He's been in NASCAR for four years flat. Before that, he Was going to unc Charlotte, I believe. Yeah.

[Chase Briscoe]

Engineer.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not even thinking about racing, so. This guy's still very green. Super sharp, though. And every question I had for him that weekend, he had an answer for. But I'm standing up, pacing at this point, and I'm like, man, should we do this? This is crazy, because if I run his ass out of gas, I'm gonna look like the biggest dumbass. Everybody's gonna go see. Told you.

[Chase Briscoe]

So this is why we shouldn't have done this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. This is exactly why we shouldn't have done this. Look at Dale, dummy. And so I'm like, but, man, we could. This is. This is so easy. This is exactly what we did in 2014. And. And this is. We talked about this. This is. This seems like the obvious thing to do. And I'm standing over Tanner going, hey, are you sure about this fuel? Are you sure? I'm, like, standing over here. I am. And I would walk away. I'd walk to the back of the pit box, and I'd holler from back there, Tanner, sure. Every, like, five seconds. And I am trying to get him to crack because you wanted to say.

[Chase Briscoe]

No, so you can.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I want him to. I'm beating it out of him. Like, I'm on. I'm trying to get him to crack and go, oh, I don't know. But every time, he's like, it'll work. We're good. We're good to 70. We're good to 70. And that set lap, 70, right? That gets us in our window.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah. 32, 33 laps.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I'm like, all right, we're gonna be. I said. I said to him, I said, I want to be one lap to the good. Like, I want to be able to run 101 laps confidently.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Our race was 100 laps. I said, if we get a yellow, we'll save the fuel we need for the green white checkered during that period. But I want to be. Can you tell me that I can go to 101? He's like, yep. And then I'd get up, walk away, and at a holler from the back of the pit box. You sure, Tanner? Tanner. And, I mean, I'm trying to get him to. To. To waver a little bit, but he's solid, man. He's like, nope, I'm confident. We got this. And I'm like, all right, we're doing it. We're doing it. Staying out.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And you win the stage. Awesome. Held the track position, got the stage point. And. And then you know, Steve says to me, he's sitting there, he's like, all right, man. He's like, you need to tell everybody on the radio what you're doing. I was like, oh, yeah. He's like, yeah, you need as many people as you can to buy into this. They're scanning you. Yeah.

[Chase Briscoe]

All the crew chiefs are listening to our radio.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And that's right.

[Chase Briscoe]

We have an audio transcript too, on the. The GM tools so we can have everyone's radios and read what they're saying.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So that was where Steve comes in. He's like, hey man, tell everybody what you're doing. I was like, oh, okay. So I'm telling you, hey, Connor, guess what we're gonna do. Blah, blah, blah, blah. I paint the whole story out, right? And just, oh, man, we're gonna win this race. You just watch this great strategy. Here's what's happening. And the two, another Chevy driver and the 16 colleague car, they stay out. They do this with us. Whether it was because that they heard what we were doing, what, it doesn't really matter. But we needed a buffer between us and the 17.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah. Or there's some space to get some. Get to the lead on the restart.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Keep the clean air. Yeah. So that was pretty neat. Whether you're on the track or the job, wherever you are, things can go wrong. All right. Mistakes and mishaps happen. It's just part of it. What matters is how fast you see them and what you do next. That's where safety culture comes in. You might recognize safety culture from being one of the trackhouse racing sponsors. But what you may not know is that safety culture is an app that gives your team a simple way to flag issues, assign tasks and schedule maintenance. All right there in real time. You see a problem, you take a photo, tag somebody. Done. This allows things to get fixed with no waiting or back and forth. And the best part, everybody sees it. From the crews on the ground to the head office making key decisions, no one is guessing. Everyone is on the same page. Keeping your business running smoothly. In motorsports, work is fast paced and we have no time for second guessing. If crew chiefs, drivers and pit crews aren't on the same page, it could cost you the race. Safety culture helps your business operate like a well oiled race team, keeping everything running smoothly and in sync. When everyone's on the same page, from the floor to the front office, things run smoother. Your team gets better every day. That is what safety culture is all about. Want to see how it could work for your crew? Head to safetyculture.com SVG this podcast is sponsored by Squarespace. Squarespace is the all in one website platform to help you stand out and succeed online. Whether you're just starting out or growing your business, it has everything you need to create a professional site, manage your brand and get paid all in one place. We all know in NASCAR how important the paint scheme is and how it looks on the car. And well, the same thing when you're building a website. And Squarespace has that for you with their industry leading website templates, designer fonts and color palettes. It's all important. Get paid quickly with branded invoices and streamline your workflow with built in scheduling and email tools. No matter where you start, your website is flexible to what you need. I was talking to a friend the other day, tj who says building a new website in Squarespace has been perfect for him. You believe that?

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know what, in the end, the strategy really didn't matter. So it, you know, if you don't lose the lead, we could say that the strategy was one of the main reasons why we won the race. But you know, we talked about the restarts there. You know, I got all this data in front of me telling me, all right, man, if you line up in the outside line 71% of the time, you're going to gain a spot, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, I got all this information, this whole report in front of me to tell to sort of help understand what we need to do and to give you information. You had the same report, you've read it, you studied it all week. And so we're, we're doing what we can on restarts. Unfortunately, on one particular restart, we didn't get the push we needed. The inside line did a better job. They got off into the corner and we lost the lead. And I'll turn it over to you at this point, now it's in your hands where, where I've done, I've done what I can do on the pit box. But now we're in stage three and you're not coming back to pit road. Thankfully, I don't have to worry about setting a tire on the ground and doing something wrong. But now you got to drive the race car. You've got to figure out a way to get the lead back. So what's going through your mind at that particular point when you've had all, you know, I've told you, hey, man, if this is what you got, the lead, this is what we got. Yeah, this is what's happening. This is what I need. And restart didn't go Our way.

[Chase Briscoe]

And well, the first one did. So in stage three, the first one goes our way and I get the lead and Jesse's in second and the seventeen and the seven are behind him. And Justin's trying to pass him. And Justin. Justin couldn't get by him. And the 17 passes Justin and gets into third. And I'm leading the race. And I'm watching the two get smaller and smaller and smaller, and I'm driving away as the two's holding them off. And I talked to Jesse about this yesterday, and I was like, you won me that race like that. That was important, right, to have the two hold the 17 off. Because we had to run 10 laps in stage three to get into our fuel window before we could pit. So you told me, all right, these 10 laps, you know, we gotta run qualifying laps, get out front and set yourself a gap. And Jesse was able to hold the 17 off. And Justin actually told me. He was like, the 17 was so damn close to wrecking the 2 because he was just blocking. And, you know, the 17 would get to his right rear in the middle of the corner and Jesse would just clear. Clear high and take it. And yeah, Justin said that the 17 was. Was about a wreck him. So he finally gets by, and when he gets clear of the two, the 17 was three flying. Oh, my God, he was absolutely flying. And we pit on what, lap 67. We pit a little early, earlier than we anticipated. We were going to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, we could run to 70, but we were losing that. That, that time we were losing to the 17 was critical. We couldn't stay out. We needed to pit. We. We were going to run another lap or two, but we were losing the weight. Was going to cycle was going to put us behind the 17 if it. If it's. When it's all said and done. Because he's got to come to pit road, too. Yeah, right.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah, everyone's got a pit. We just have less opportunity to go farther into the window. So, yeah, we. He's coming and, and you know, he gets within five car lengths and you tell me to pit. So actually, I looked at it yesterday and that was like the best pit road run anybody did all race that one. I did. I nailed it. So, yeah, it was. We did the green flag stop. Our stop was really good. And. And you know, I look in the mirror and the 2 car is straightaway behind, and I'm like, all right, you know, that was a good cycle. And then the caution comes out and immediately I was like, hell, yeah. And you come over the radio, you're like, it's going to work out great for us. I had, what, one lap on my tires at the time? Maybe not even a lap. So, yeah, we cycle, cycle back to lead. Everybody else has to pit, and we don't have to pit. We. We just pitted. We're good to the end on fuel. This helps our fuel even more because we need these cautions to, you know, give you some. Some peace on the pit box, make sure that we're going to get to the end of the race. So, yeah, the caution, caution saved us. And, you know, I was able to restart from the lead, and that was the restart that I didn't get a good push. And I think the 7 and the 17 were on the bottom, and the 2 was lined up out back behind me. And the 17 and the 7 got such a good run, and they both passed me down into one, and I was running third for a little bit. And then another caution comes out. And this is. I think this is the caution where the 7 and the 17 about wrecked each other with Justin. Justin was underneath the 17, and I was row two on the outside. And Justin drives it off in there, and just the 17's on his door. And Justin got loose and slid up the track and hit the 17. And that was the moment where I was like, I have a chance to win this race now because I was behind the two and the 16, and I knew we were better than them and whatever. A few more cautions come out, and, you know, with 10 to go, I think we restart. And I'm restarting from third on in row two. And it's funny because in stage one, you know, you were getting warmed up to the crew chief role, and, you know, you were. You were more quiet. And by the time we got to stage three, I mean, you're on the radio. We're going to win this race. Go execute this restart. And you're pumping me up. Marty doesn't do that on the radio. He's a more quiet guy. But you were kicking me in the ass on the radio, and I could feel the emotion through the radio. It was cool. And you were amped up and telling me what to do with the side draft and coaching me up as much as you could. That last restart, I passed the 16. I start row two on the outside. I get by the 16, and, you know, I've got eight laps to get by the two, and we're. We're a good bit faster and. And, you know, I was pressuring them and. And one thing about the Xfinity cars is, Is, you know, that I've had to learn is the bubble is so big when you get behind a guy and you can have a run off the corner and you can come, you know, three back, two back, and you get to one back and you. You push them away in the air.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep.

[Chase Briscoe]

And it's tough to pass because of that, because, you know, you can have such a good run off the corner, but it doesn't matter because you lose it right when you get within that. That bubble. So I realized that I was going to have to make my pass on the entry of the corner and I was going to have to, you know, try and pack air and get them loose and do something like that to pass the two. So I'm pressuring them and I'm a lot better in the tunnel turn and every lap in the tunnel turn, I'm making up ground and I'm getting really close. And one lap I get, you know, within two or three car lengths of them. And in the tunnel turn and we're going into three and I drive it off in there to try and, you know, get to his inside to pack air, you know, get to his left rear quarter panel and get him loose. And he. He did it himself. He made himself get loose. I didn't even have to do anything. So, yeah, he overdrove the corner and I was able to get up under him. And. And one thing that Jesse did that I actually thought was really smart, that after the race I, you know, I took note of it. But when I was, I. I was. I came off the corner at his left rear and I pulled. Pull away so that I can time the side draft at the end of the straightaway to get the run and clear him into the corner. And he actually lifted as soon as we got onto the straightaway so that he could get to my right rear and side draft me into the corner. So that was pretty smart of him. I told him yesterday. I gave him some props for that, but I still ended up clearing him down into one. Our car, we just wrapped the bottom and got by him and that was the race winning move. But yeah, it was. It was a, it was a cool, cool day. And were you nervous? Like as a driver? You know, you get those restarts and you're nervous and, you know, I imagine it's the same from the pit box or even more because you have.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, you're. You're not in control.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Driving a car, I think you're. I think you're more nervous As a driver. You're more nervous as a driver because you are the quarterback. Right. As in, you know, the owner of the crew chief. You're more like the tight end or a receiver. There's other players on the field and. And there's other things going on, but the quarterbacks kind of got the ball in his hands at all times. And as an owner, you don't offer nothing.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

To the weekend.

[Chase Briscoe]

You're there. You're just there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. You were there. And it's like. I mean, it's. It's awesome.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Don't get me wrong. But damn, man, there's no sense of competition. Right. You're not. You're not really part of what's happening. But, you know, I learned a few things that I. I need to be, you know, I need to be more visible on the radio. I've always not done that because I didn't want the other. You can't do it all for all four, all the time. Right. And I didn't want to be like, oh, well, you know, he loves. He loves Carson. Carson raced his late models. He's going to take care of him and not do what he need, you know, not do the same for the other guys. I didn't want anybody to get twisted.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I would always really be kind of hands off. But this weekend really helped me. This weekend was so helpful for me in so many ways beyond just, you know, crew chief and Xfinity car and understanding the. What that looks like. I gained a bunch of confidence to go into the booth on Sunday and actually join Steve a little on talking strategy. Usually when. Whenever we get into a pit cycle or strategy conversation, I get. I step back to Steve. That's. That's his job. That's what he's there for. But I felt like that, man, I could confidently, like, add a little or agree with him or bolster his. His point of view, and that was helpful. So. And I know, hey, people are going to go, yeah, you. You know, you crew chief, one race. Yeah. But, like, it really did, like, give me a little bit of confidence to sort of, you know, understand more. Yeah. Help support Steve. I unders. I kind of understand. I always understand because he's so good at describing what we're about to see. He's way ahead of it. But I usually never got involved in that conversation. The other thing that it. That it helped me with was being more communic. Communicate communicative on the radio, like speaking, you know, telling you guys what I see and think. Yeah.

[Chase Briscoe]

It was funny. I. When, when you. You were one of the cautions come out and you're telling me, you know, side drafts, you were talk. Talking to me about that, and then you said something else, and you're like, I know I'm talking a lot. And I was like, yeah, like, no, keep. Keep talking. And, you know, I guess I had to give you the confidence that, you know, that I am listening. And, you know, I. 18, it's my first year racing this stuff. I. I have plenty to learn. And, you know, you're a guy who's learned those things, and if you can tell me something that I, you know, if I. If you can tell me something that can save me from making a mistake or save me from having to learn. Learn it myself, then, you know, that's. That's helpful. And, you know, I, I was definitely taking in what you were saying, and it was helpful. You know, it's not often you have someone on the pit box that has been through what you're, you know, as a driver, what you're about to go through. And, you know, Marty's got a racing background and, you know, he's. He's able to help, but it's different when, you know, you're. You're up there and you're able to tell me things that I can use and utilize on the racetrack. And, and, you know, that was. That was cool to be able to have that. And, you know, I'm glad that, because usually, you know, you're there and, you know, you watch the race and, you know, you don't have much say and you don't. You don't talk on the radio, and, you know, you definitely made a difference on Saturday and, And helped me some.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

People, and I was a little bit this way, some people. So when you're racing a car or really doing any kind of a job, how much. How much information are you able to absorb at the same time as you're doing this job? Can you handle one person talking to you? Can you handle two lines of communication, 3, 4, 5, all at the same time? Some people aren't built that way. You got a spotter, you got a crew chief. You may have an owner that's conversational as well, like a Roger Penske or a Hendrick that'll drop in every now and then. You know, there is a point, I guess, where I thought, man, I might. I'm. You know, you could say so much that you kind of. You take his focus off of the most important thing. And that was, you know, what he Needed to be thinking to get this restart right or whatever. Right. And so it was pretty impressive to see you. To see you kind of be able to take every little piece of advice and put it on the right shelf in your mind and know that. Know where it was and know when to use it and know when to go to it, when it was time to use that advice. And that's, you know, that's. That's a very good quality to have. But it. Listen, man, when it all comes down to the end, it wasn't nothing about the pit strategy. It wasn't anything about what the crew chief did. You drove the car, you got. You got the lead when we needed it. At the end of the race, you made the moves that got us into victory lane. It was a. I'm. I'm like, I, I. It still hasn't really sunk in. Like, I can't. I was standing there. Think when you come off of turn four and three, gonna win this or turn three?

[Connor Zillich]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I, I can't see you. I'm watching. So I'm watching on the monitor a little bit. But when you come off the corner and started yelling.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was like, he knows he's gonna win. He knows. You know, he knows he's gonna win this race. That was, like, such a relief.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah. No, that's the best thing ever. When you come off the corner, you haven't even made it to the finish line yet. And I mean, that damn button. Yeah, it's always there. It's always there. If you're gonna say something, you gotta have the button on.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It doesn't feel as good if you don't hear it. Somebody has to hear it. Even the good and the bad.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah, exactly. No, as soon as I came off the corner, that's the first thing I went to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, the guys. It was so much fun, man, sitting on that pit box. You can't really see out into the pit road because of the monitors, but I could see the water and everything flying up in the air.

[Chase Briscoe]

That's cool.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I know that there's a celebration going on down there. You just can't see. And then. And I turned around, and me and the guys on the pit box were. Amy said that we might all broke each other's ribs. I got up the next day, and I was sore all over.

[Chase Briscoe]

You didn't know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We were all. We were punching the sh. Each other, back slapping. I had two ribs out on my right side the next morning. I know. Like, I woke up sore from all.

[Chase Briscoe]

Of the, like, it's a good reason to be sore.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think we've done a good job sort of putting a bow on. On the infinity.

[Chase Briscoe]

Hey, one more thing, one more thing. In victory lane, I, I told Dale, I said, you know, I got out of the roof hatch, right. And he said, you know, you didn't. It was funny.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Chase Briscoe]

So what'd you think about that?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I said on this show several weeks ago that if anybody comes out of the roof hatch, I assume they're cheating the. Cheating up the roof hatch and that they've opened this roof hatch to sort of.

[Chase Briscoe]

This is turned on you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So nascar, when they tech it later. Oh, if they find something. Well, I've opened it. You know, it could have happened when we opened it to celebrate.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so because I'll tell you where this comes from. Used to race and racing at DEI had a teammate, Michael Waltrip slugger Laby, the Blue 15. When we went to Talladega Daytona, I knew I was racing the 15 for the win. Me and him were going to help each other if we could. And it really came down to who was leading at the end, who was going to win and who was going to help.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And if I could cycle myself somehow early in the race in front of him, then I was. He was going to help me win. And if somehow he was in front late, I was going to be the one helping him. And I knew what they did to their cars and I knew what we did to our cars. We'd come down pit road on, you know, early in the race, start taking rounds out of both back springs, getting the car down. Yep. Get. You know, you'd cross the tech legal and then you'd. You'd make it illegal in the race and do all. Everybody did all these things, but we were doing it. And I knew that Slugger was aggressive and we were too, with our car. You had to be. And we were, you know, we were sharing a lot of information, but there were other things that maybe we didn't share. And Michael would come out of the roof hatch when they won. And I'm like, they must be messing with that roof hatch. I bet that roof hatch is cheated up.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Because if. Because if you can raise that roof hatch a little bit during the lap, it'll knock the air off the spoiler. And I'm like, I bet they're doing something. So that's kind of where I have carried that from.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And you don't see many people pop out of the roof hatch. And if they're doing it At Daytona, Talladega. I'm out. I'm absolutely thinking your ass is cheating. I don't care if it's Junior Motorsports.

[Chase Briscoe]

And so you don't care if you're the crew chief.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Now everybody's coming out of the roof hatch where we win.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah, well, Justin told me, he said before the race, he's like, if you win the race, you have to get out of the roof hatch because you were my. And you said that. So I, I, yeah, that was the first thing I did when I stopped is I popped that thing open and climbed out.

[Connor Zillich]

It's a cooler way to get out of the car.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah, it's, it's a really.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I hate them. I think it's goofy looking then getting out through the window, I know they're there. So if you like get trapped up against the fence or something in a crash, you can come out of the car because like popping the side window out, climbing that way with all the headrests, it's just not possible. So I understand why we have them, but I just, I like, I like.

[Chase Briscoe]

Getting out of the room. I think it looks cool.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Really?

[Chase Briscoe]

I do, I do like it. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm not with you on this one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think I will disagree. I think it's like cartoonish. But hey, I'm, you know, I've never come out of one. Maybe, maybe I would enjoy it.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah, it don't matter how you get out of the car when you win.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, that's for sure.

[Chase Briscoe]

Who cares?

[Connor Zillich]

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[Travis]

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[Connor Zillich]

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[Travis]

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[Connor Zillich]

I mean, that's cool, but I'm assuming that it's probably kind of expensive, right?

[Travis]

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[Connor Zillich]

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[Travis]

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[Connor Zillich]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Today we got done with Victory Lane and I, you know, I ran to the media center and sitting there doing some of that and I and I text Stefan and I'm like hey man, he's here. You're you're sitting next to me at this point.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And I text Stephan, I said, hey, can they, can they get me out of here? Because I wanted to get to the tech.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was like, super nervous. Even when I'm not at the track and we win a race, like, I won't tweet, like, woohoo. You know, I won't tweet anything until I hear text clear.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Because I don't want to, you know. So I ran over to the garage and they're pulling the left side trailing arm off and they're doing all kinds of stuff. Right. That they do every week. And I'm standing there and you were nervous. I was nervous as hell. And so, you know, because they, I watched us go through tech on Friday and they were, they were tough. They tech out of us. Yeah. And I'm sitting there going, dang, this ain't over yet. And, you know, this has been an awesome damn day. But it all go to right here in a minute if they don't like something. So I stood there and went through that. That was pretty exhilarating.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah, I remember I walked over and I was like, I asked you, I was like, everything good? And you're like, oh, man. They're looking at this left rear trailing arm really closely. And I, I didn't, I didn't get like a oh, yeah, we're good kind of vibe. It was like, not yet, I don't know yet kind of vibe.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, they, they have these little tools and they're messing with the, the, the, the surfaces of the. Where the trailer mates up with the, the rearing housing and so forth. And there's a couple parts and pieces in there and they're missing. They're looking. And then they put it down and it's like, okay, all right, I think we're good there.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The guy moves on to another part. Well, here comes another guy. He squats down, he's messing with it.

[Chase Briscoe]

I'm like, it's not over yet.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What's this guy looking at? Why is he doing it? The other guy looked at it. It's good. So. But it, They're, They're. They ain't no bullshit, them inspectors. Yeah, they don't. They ain't playing no favorites. No.

[Chase Briscoe]

They have no friends.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So. Moving on to Sunday. Chase Briscoe wins the cup race. Finally gets him a win for Joe Giz Racing. He's going to be calling in here in a minute. That was a pretty, pretty interesting race. Connor, do you watch?

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah, I watch bits and pieces. Yeah, the cup cars, you know, it's tough to pass.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Chase Briscoe]

But Chase did an awesome job, man. He did a great job managing, you know, that had to been nerve wracking. I went through that at Watkins Glen, having to save gas and you know, every time you step on the gas after a corner, you hoping it just doesn't stumble and you know, the, the sense of relief coming off that last corner on the last lap is, is second to none when, when you're in, you know, a fuel saving race. So yeah, yeah, the fact he was able to save fuel, manage, you know, hitting his corners and keeping, you know, probably the best in our industry behind him, you know, in Denny was, was impressive and, and you know, it was. There were times in the race where it was more exciting than others. You know, there was, there was some good racing early on. You know, there was some, some passing, but you know, the majority of it, it was really tough to, especially the leader. The leader in clean air is just, it's, it's so dominant.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, this was a, this was a tough one. I thought as a broadcast we did a good job making three cars running nose, tail, single file for 30 laps to the end sound pretty good. The, the risk of the fuel issue for Briscoe made it a curious moment, which helped a little bit. But yeah, I was, it was frustrating to kind of sit there and watch that, you know, the top five not really be able to do much to each other. The track was faster, the track had more grip. There were a lot of variables that made passing harder. This car, as we know, is, is, you know, really difficult. In dirty air, you need all that clean air coming under that splitter and get to the diffuser in the back. And some of the variables in terms of the grip and the speed and comfort that the guys had, not that the cars were easy to drive, but it made getting to a car and getting around them harder. On Sunday, everybody from like, you know, six on back was in such air that, you know, nobody was comfortable and, and you could pass because everybody was struggling.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But yeah, when you got into the top five, it got harder and harder and literally, you know, impossible. Yeah, once you're in second or third, you were not going to pass the car in front of you. That's a problem. You know that I would, I would say that, you know, it's one thing about the car I don't really love, but it is what it is. And we talk about it, we talk about. We got a stat now called defense that we talk about where literally, you know, we say, hey, this guy's really good at looking at the mirror and putting his car where it needs to be to keep the guy behind him. It's. It's a reality of, of cup racing now. And so we discuss it. I wish we didn't, because I wish it didn't exist.

[Chase Briscoe]

But the digital mirrors change the game too. Like, I. Having that thing is like when I ran the race at Charlotte.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's.

[Chase Briscoe]

It's funny, actually. Josh. Josh, Barry and I. Josh. The Penske organization at the Coke 600 was not fantastic. And he was back there with me racing. Racing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know.

[Chase Briscoe]

We were racing for 30th, and I was. I'm trying to learn, right?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm.

[Chase Briscoe]

I'm out there for experience. So I'm mirror driving him for 30th, just air blocking him for last place, basically. I felt bad, but, you know, it was. It's just crazy how much you can destroy the person behind you. You can just destroy the race. If you want, like, if you want to be that guy, you can be that guy. And just. And just. It's crazy. And the digital mirror makes it so easy to see where they are. And it's completely changed the game and. And guys who are good at doing that succeed. You know, guys like Ross.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right.

[Chase Briscoe]

Ross is, you know, one of the best at it. So. Yeah, yeah, it's. It's changed the game.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, Chase is here. Chase Briscoe, the winner for Pocono this past weekend. Thanks for calling us up, man. You got me and Connor Zillich. Connor's my co host today. How's it going?

[Russell]

Yeah, man, thanks for having me. Congrats to both of you, by the way.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Same to you. We were just talking about, you know, Connor was sharing some moments from the 600 and how he's learned about the, you know, the way you can defend your position with the cup car. I think the fun conversation around the defense part and, and. And the air blocking and things, whatever. Whatever we want to call this is, is every drive. So it takes certain. The reason why Joey's good at it, the reason why Chastain's really good at it is because they're willing to be the biggest out there. Right? And like, it's not all. It's not ingrained in all of us to be selfish and purely selfish. Right. But you have to be. I always tried to, you know, I'm. I being. Speaking frankly here, like, I, like, I want to be everybody's buddy everywhere I go around the racetrack on the weekend. I want to be friends with Chase. I want to be friends with. With everybody. And, you know, I wanted. When I raced, I wanted to get out of the car and go, hey, man, that was fun. You good? Did you, you know, hope you liked racing me right now? You know, we'd go to Daytona and Talladega, and I would have to tell myself before I got in the car, you're gonna have to be an today. Because it wasn't ingrained in me to go out there and drive like that. I didn't do things intentionally like, screw you, you know, run you into the wall. I don't care. I don't care about your race. But I. But I knew to be good at Daytona, Talladega, I kind of had to be a bit of a jerk. And I think the way the cup car is today, you have to be a jerk everywhere you go. Am I. Am I overstating this Chase, or is that really part of the game?

[Russell]

I think it's, I mean, super accurate to what you're saying. There's some guys that are certainly, you know, just more willing to do it or okay with, you know, living that way. But honestly, I feel like you've seen this evolution to where, you know, five years ago, it was, you know, a couple guys that were okay with doing it thought it was just part of the game, where now it's. It's really the whole field. But, you know, some guys are still more egregious with it, I would say, than others. But all of us are doing it to a certain extent. That's something that, you know, even my dad has been getting on to me a lot about that just over the course of last year is. He's like, you gotta start being dirtier, like, with your mirror. I'm like, well, that's not how you raised me to race. Like, you don't race that way. He's like, well, everybody else is gonna do it, so you need to be doing it too, if you're gonna win these races. So it's. It's honestly just part of the game now because it is such a tool in the toolbox. You know, you can do so much thing, so many things to manipulate the guy behind you. And. Yeah, I mean, a lot of the times, especially on mile and a half racetracks, I mean, you literally just go into the corner and say, you go to the bottom and that guy goes to the middle. You just turn your hands to the right and drive straight in front of him because it gets him so Tight. So it's frustrating to race that way. And obviously, whenever you're trying to pass somebody, it's extremely frustrating. But it's certainly a huge tool that you have as a race car driver now is just manipulating the air. And, you know, the air and dirty air has always been a thing in racing, but we just have been getting smarter and smarter with it and realize more and more how big of a tool it actually is over the course the last, you know, 20 years.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, for sure, man. Well, let's talk about this. This job you did on Sunday, we watched you pull out of your pit box early. There was some miscommunication on what needed to happen there. They wanted you to wait on fuel. How did that happen?

[Russell]

Yeah, so whenever you're waiting on fuel, you know, especially at pocono, you know you're going to be waiting on fuel because honestly, almost everywhere we go now, we almost wait on fuel because the tires get changed so much faster than when they can put fuel in it if you're needing to fill up the tank. But James had came over the radio, said, hey, you're going to be, you know, going on me. So the tire stop itself, I felt like, was a little slow low. So I was just anticipating already that I wasn't going to be sitting there waiting as long in the pit stop before I, I mean, all but stalled the car. I mean, it was so close to stalling. So as they got done with the left side tires, I just started revving it up. I mean, I'm like rod checking this thing in the pit box, like almost eight grand. And James came over the radio and he was just keyed up the whole time. And I think he went to say wait, but as soon as I heard anything, I just went. Because it was so loud, I literally couldn't hear. So as soon as I heard a voice of any kind, I just assumed that meant go. But he was saying waiting, waiting, and then he was going to say go. So I just went. And as soon as I went, you know, I let off the clutch. Well, the engine gets quieter because it's not revved up so high. And I could hear him saying, wait. And if you go back and watch the broadcast, like, you see me almost like, stop or not stop. I'm still rolling, but I'm not spinning anymore because I instantly tried to get off the gas and try to sit there as long as I could. And my fuel guy honestly wants the race. He had a zero plug, which is essentially like, as soon as the car stopping, he was Already engaged. And he actually followed it out. And, you know, those couple tenths of a gallon that we were able to get because of him was honestly the biggest reason that we won the race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Damn, that's awesome. I think that we all. So I saw some fans wondering if the prime broadcast were overstating the seriousness of the situation, but knowing if you could see the body language of the team, James on Pitbox and. And. And the dialogue between you and him on the radio, you knew that this was a very serious situation. I would have said once you got off pit road and on the racetrack and I heard James and all that stuff go down, I thinking, ain't no damn way he's making it to the finish. I would have bet anything on it. How do you think. I guess, you know, we know you saved the fuel. How do you learn how to. How to do that?

[Russell]

Yeah, to be honest with you, I was kind of learning as I go as well. I've never really been in that situation, certainly in the lead. I've done it before where I was running, you know, 18th, and we're just trying to get to the end. But as soon as I came off pit road, I obviously knew that I'd left early. So as soon as I pulled on to the back straightaway, I just started running, you know, wide open, halfway down the straightaway, and then 70, 50% throttle, the rest. And the next lap I came around, I think it was Denny pit. And I looked in my mirror and I knew that he was back on the racetrack and he was, I mean, a straightaway behind me. So I instantly just kept trying to save more, more and more. And then the caution came out. So as soon as the caution came out, you know, cut it off. I mean, I think it took us two laps just to catch the field. I mean, we were going so slow trying to save fuel, and under caution, obviously, I was able to save a ton. I mean, literally, as soon as I got to the restart zone, I finally fired it back, back up and went to second gear. Like I was just doing everything I could to just absolutely maximize saving. And under that next green flag run, they told me what I was doing with the, you know, the partial throttle. Running 50 was going to run us out anyways, so just start lifting all the way. So, you know, Pocono, there's those kind of three sets of cones getting into the corner. You know, turn one, for example. We're typically just past the. The one cone. So it goes three, two, one. I was all the way lifting out before the Cones even started and would just roll. And there's parts of the race where I was cutting the ignition off, but the power steering would go out and I'd miss my corner. And so I ended up just leaving it running. But then also on top of all that, I was just short shifting every straightaway. I would try to just get to fifth gear as soon as I came off the corner. And then a lot of the time during the race, I would run fourth, fourth gear through the tunnel turn and I just started leaving it in fifth, just trying to save a little bit of fuel. So, I mean, it kind of took it all right. It all added up just to give us that little bit to, to be able to, you know, finish the race. I mean, it literally ran out as I pulled into victory lane. Obviously I did a burnout, but I also cut it off as soon as I took the checker flag because I was wanting to do a burnout. So, yeah, I didn't have very much left.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I saw that man. Yalls commitment to the burnout is, is, should be celebrated because yeah, thought you cut the, you cut, cut the engine and then, you know, you burn, you turn, you crank all that front, front brake in to do the burnout. I really appreciate that. I do want to ask you before you leave and I'm hoping you give us a good answer. But this in race tournament, we got five races here with TNT getting ready to start up this weekend. And there's an in race tournament for a million bucks, I bet. You know, I would say if I'm a driver going into Atlanta, I'm not really, you know, that concerned with it. It is what it is. However, you know, I want to go do well in Atlanta and that's what I'm be thinking about. Let's assume that Chase Briscoe gets through rounds one and two and he's still in the tournament. When, at what point do you start to give it and think, man, I might get a million bucks here?

[Russell]

I mean, I, I, I'm worried about it already. Week one.

[Chase Briscoe]

Who are you racing against this weekend?

[Russell]

Noah. So I was already talking smack to him. Golf almost every single weekend together and we're probably out of everybody on like the circuit. I probably talked to Noah more than anybody. So, yeah, he was actually my first text after the race. They sent me the bracket thing and I told him, I said, I'm coming for you. And he said, well, you already won, so I'm just going to wreck you. Lap one.

[Chase Briscoe]

I was, I was wondering, I was like, man, like does it get to a point? I mean, you're racing for a million dollars. Like if you're, if you're side by side with this guy for 14th place come the last race of the thing, like what are you doing to win a million? Like you're going to wreck a guy for 14.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's.

[Russell]

I don't know, I think it's going to be interesting because like we've never done it where you're just racing head to head. Right. Like in the playoffs you're only racing against pick 15 or 11 or seven or three other guys, but it's never just been head to head. So that, that is going to be interesting. I think in the racetracks that it's at or just very hard racetracks. I feel like to be racing kind of head to head. You know, the road courses, they can do something completely different. And truthfully, the teams don't care about the head to head part.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right.

[Russell]

Like they're trying to maximize the finish where the driver is almost more concerned about the head to to head deal at times. Especially if you haven't, you know, had the best year, you're trying to win a million bucks. So it's going to be interesting just to kind of see how that plays out because I really don't think the teams, you know, are going to call their strategy based on just, you know, one other guy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right.

[Russell]

We're in the playoffs. You do call your strategy based around the other guys. So I don't know. It is going to be fun, I think, just to have that element I love like college basketball and March Madness and everything. So I think bringing that element, especially this part of the season where, you know, it is kind of like the dog days of summer where like you don't really have much to talk about, I think will be really exciting for, for our sport. And yeah, hopefully all the drivers embrace it. I saw some guys didn't even know what was going on. I certainly have already checked out everybody in my bracket and yeah, I feel like I have a hard road to get there, but it'll be pretty rewarding if we do.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If, if a driver says they don't know about it and don't know what you win, they're full of.

[Russell]

Yeah, I agree.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They're just, they're trying to sound too cool for school. If you ask me. The, the last thing I'll ask you, you've given us too much time, so we're very thankful. Do you know how much of the million dollars you get to keep?

[Russell]

I have no Idea. That's a. A great question. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I have no clue because you got to go ask.

[Russell]

I don't get even know if when I did my contract with jgr, if.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We even knew it was going to happen.

[Russell]

So.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, you better write amendment.

[Chase Briscoe]

That's funny.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You might want to add a new page to that contract, buddy.

[Russell]

Yeah. Yeah, I might need to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You got a little leverage now after.

[Russell]

As a car owner, what would you give your driver?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I would give you all of it.

[Chase Briscoe]

Hell yeah.

[Russell]

I like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I like a car owner.

[Chase Briscoe]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I've already made my budget was. My budget was set when the season started.

[Russell]

Yeah, but I can't win it without the car.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know, but I've already budgeted what I'm going to spend on you this year.

[Russell]

All right, well, I like it. I like your answer.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We got the sponsorship. We got everything lined up. You go race.

[Russell]

There's a lot of diapers you can buy with a million bucks. I. I like.

[Chase Briscoe]

How is. How is dad life? I'm sorry. We're sorry keeping you, but how's. How's three kids? It's got to be a lot.

[Russell]

It's good. We can talk here for an hour if you want. That's been a lot of fun. It's. It's wild. You know, twins is a lot. Going from, you know, one to three right away is definitely just craziness because, you know, man, at some point somebody's always crying or something. Somebody's got a blowout.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You go from man to man to zone defense.

[Russell]

Yeah. Real quick. It's. Honestly, it's not been as hard as I anticipated up to this point. I'm sure my wife would not love hearing that answer, but I think within the next month, they're going to be crawling and then it's going to be absolute full blown chaos.

[Chase Briscoe]

Chaos. Yeah.

[Russell]

Yeah.

[Chase Briscoe]

How old are the twins?

[Russell]

They're eight. Eight and a half months.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[Russell]

They're about to be moving, and it's crazy. I remember with my first with Brooks, I was like wanting him to crawl. I was wanting him to walk, do all these things. And then as soon as. As he starts doing it, you're like, man, it's pretty nice when you just put him on the bed and you knew he wasn't going to go anywhere.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Chaos.

[Russell]

The twins, when that happens.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. All right, buddy. We're going to let you go, man. Thanks so much. Good luck going forward. See you in Atlanta.

[Russell]

Yep. See you guys. Thank you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Connor Zillich]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hey, everybody, it's Junior, and this is an episode of Ask Junior, her segment of Ask Junior for the Dell Junior Download. And appreciate everybody tuning in. Want to say thanks to Xfinity? As you know, Xfinity WI Fi is booming. That's what we're using right now as we speak. And it's. It's booming like the roar of a NASCAR engine on race day. Fastest V8 engine, reliable as an elite pit crew. Gives you the power and speed to have NASCAR in your home or podcast, whatever you want to do, choose the right plan for you and you're off to the races. And it's a great experience. It's a great experience actually being a customer. Sometimes you'll get an email and they'll say, hey, we're going to double your speed just because I don't know why they do that, but I love it. We're always ready to go faster around here, and Xfinity WI Fi gets the job done. So thank you, Xfinity, for everything you do for us. They've been a great partner here for the Dirty Mo Media crew for years, supporting NASCAR in all types of ways, obviously. So just a great, great partner. We love the support and we love being customers. So thank you. So let's get right to it, man. Let's get some questions. Are we. Are we. Are we populating out there?

[Tampa Tim]

We are. Yeah. Someone in the YouTube chat says, is this real? So, yeah, we are.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We are live real. I don't know.

[Tampa Tim]

Like, is real life?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know. Do I need to hold up a sign?

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah. Like with today's newspaper.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tampa Tim]

But no, the. The YouTube chat is going. It's great to see everybody. But this first question is from Pat, and they saw you tweeted a great story, I think it was yesterday about Mark Martin. And they wanted to know, like, what was that moment like watching Mark arc into the corner. And what other lessons have you learned from him over the years?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, so it was early in the morning. It's a fun Twitter post I made. Just kind of came to me. But I'll never forget this moment. I never will. There's some moments in life, right, that just imprint. And I was young. Mark was always the car to beat. When we would go to Xfinity races and he would unload, you know, the Winn Dixie car, it was like, gosh, it's. He just had another 3/10 that nobody had everywhere. And it was just like Kyle Busch in the Xfinity series. You know, he was going to be one of the guys that. He's going to go out there and lead every lap, and it's going to be hard to beat. But you would. You know, you would watch him in practice, and we would show up, and Xfinity was the first. They didn't have the truck series back then. Xfinity was the first car on the racetrack for the weekend tracks. Track hadn't had a lap on it. A little bit dirty, very green, dusty a little bit. We pull out on the racetrack, and he would go out and put a lap down. He would hammer the gas and drive off into one full commit. I'm in. I'm in my first or second year of Xfinity, and I'm. I got to work up to it. I'm going to run my best lap around lap five or six and still be in the top five in practice, right? If not one of the fastest cars. But Mark could go out there and just boom, off into one. I'm like. So I wasn't. I wanted to be great at Charlotte, and it was a track that was very intimidating to me. Had a very nasty bump down into turn one. I'd busted my ass and wrecked my. Wrecked a car there testing, and I'd wrecked off a term. I'd wrecked a lot at Charlotte. So I'm like. I pull out on pit road, and there's Mark Martin sitting there, waiting for the official to wave us onto the track. And I work my way up there toward Mark. I'm gonna follow him out there. So we go off on the racetrack, and I'm going through the gears. He's hauling ass. I'm like. I'm trying to keep up with him. We go through three and four wide open, you know, trying to build up speed. Come off. Come off turn four. Bouncing around down the front straightaway, and I'm like, man, I'm. I'm scared. It's the only word I can really use to describe. I'm scared because I know to stay with him, I'm gonna have to go in the corner like he does, and that's hard to do. And I didn't want to wreck. I'd wrecked a lot at Charlotte. I bust. I just was like, I gotta figure Charlotte out. And we're headed down the front straightaway, and I start to fade to our turn into the corner. I start fading left to get down into the bottom of the corner. And he just drives. He just drives straight, really wide arc and just stealing the gas. And there's dirt flying, offside tires because he's out there in that nasty mess. And it. Wow down in there, and he's gone. I was like, God almighty. How. You know, how did he. Why. He didn't have to do that. He knows his car's amazing. He knows it's going to be fast. He doesn't have to go out there, really do anything in practice. He's just going to, you know, qualify and race and win. But here he is, first minute of practice, he has went off into that corner faster than anybody else will go all weekend. And I was like, holy shit, dude. I mean, that. That's what a cup driver is right there. I got a long ways to go, and, man, it was something. I'll never forget it. Mark. You know, I would end up racing Mark a little bit throughout the year in 98 and 99. One of my proudest moments was passing him at Richmond on the outside and beating him heads. Heads up. Holy. Oh, man. I was proud because I knew dad was watching and all that, you know, And Mark has always been so. So supportive to me, friendly to me. We were teammates, but he taught me and everyone else during those years when he was racing the Xfinity Series so much. And he was such a great example for folks like me to sort of try to emulate. And I might be Dylan Hart's son, but I'll be honest, a lot of the things that I learned on the racetrack and what I was able to do as a driver in my career are due to Mark Martin and what he taught me. So, you know, he wasn't. He was a great guy to race against and learn from. Wow.

[Tampa Tim]

I love that. I love that you kind of mentioned the fearlessness of just go. That's the one thing I don't think I can comprehend quite yet about you race car drivers. Just like you have to have a certain level of fearlessness to attack each corner the way you do. But next question is from Tom. How was the beer toast? As a crew chief, you didn't get to celebrate it as an owner, but as the winning crew chief, how was that?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I was not going to be there physically for the beer toast that they used they had scheduled. So I called the shop, and I said, hey, I'm coming over, and I'm gonna. I'm gonna. I just want to speak to the employees. I didn't want to do a beer toast. I didn't even think about ringing the victory bell. All I wanted was to get a microphone and say to everybody, thank you. And so. But they. You know, they. As our employees, do they. They take. Take it. They take the baton and they do what they do. And when I got there, we ended up ringing the bell a little bit, but so Ally got to ring it, which was fine. I didn't. I did not want to do it, but I didn't need. I didn't think about it. I just wanted to say thank you. Because, you know, being able to sit on the pit box and. And pit and crew chief, the. The race was a. Was something I would have never asked for. There's certainly people at Junior Motorsports that are more qualified, have done it already that have the experience that could do it. So I would have never assumed or asked for that opportunity, but it was great to. To go through that experience. I was way more involved in what happened on Saturday than I thought I would be. Man, it just, like. It was a dim dream come true. It got really comfortable. Like, I guess in stage two, I got super comfortable with kind of helping run things as it was, but it was great. Man, what a great experience.

[Connor Zillich]

As the owner, you obviously see all the hard work that gets done in the shop, but as the crew chief and then seeing the things that you were. They made your job easier. Do you have a greater appreciation this week for the crew and the shop floor?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think the appreciation was already way up there. It's just. I'm just grateful to be able to have this opportunity to see the sport through so many different vantage points and lenses. Right. Man, I would have never thought that I would get a chance to live a day in a crew chief's shoes. Right. And that's what happened. I went through the entire weekend and just really tried to understand the experience, and it's a lot of pressure. I knew they were. I knew they were under a lot of pressure. And I'm sitting there going, all right, we can try this strategy. Win the stage and stay out and run to lap, you know, 70 or so or 67, 68. Nobody else is going to do this, so I'm going to. I'm going to stick out like a sore thumb, and if I run Connor out of gas, everybody's going to go, yep. That's why Dale Jr. Shouldn't have been on a pit box. And so I was really. I was like, I was standing there with the. I was standing over the engineers literally, you know, shouting at them, going, are you sure we can make it on fuel? Because God darn, we're going to look like idiots. And so I was so angry, but I needed to, like, scare the truth out of them, I guess. But it was fun as hell. But I was like, you know, if I, if, if we, if we do this, we got to be sure about it. And I asked the engineer next to me, I said, I want to be one lap to the good on fuel. Can I be one lap to the good on fuel? Can my. Can you promise me we can run a 101 lap race? And he said, yep, no problem. And then I screamed at him a couple times to tell me if that was true or not. And he said, he's. He never. He never. He never changed his answer. And I was like, all right, I'm buying in. We're doing it. And so we were. We made the commitment to make that strategy work. And we had talked about that strategy on Wednesday in the, in the meeting in the team debrief. And so it was sitting right there in front of us like, hey, here's your chance. And yeah, that's not really what won the race. Connor won. You know, we lost the track position that we were trying to get through the strategy. And Connor went back and got it past the two at the end. So he kind of. He's the reason we won the race. Not. Not the pick call. But it was fun as running that deal. And I'm telling you, by the third stage, I was running it. Sorry for my language. Hell yeah, dude. I was on that. I was on that. I was on it. It was. It was my team by that point. It was awesome.

[Tampa Tim]

It sounds like a blast.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It was a blast.

[Tampa Tim]

I do have follow up about the beer toast, but. But since we're on the topic, you know, you're talking about all the different vantage points that you have been able to do. And I saw a comment in the YouTube chat from Kelly. Is the next job going to be spotting? Could we ever see you up on the spotting stand?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I spotted for my friend Brad Means that's Jimmy Means son. He was racing a late model at tri county in 1997 or 8.

[Tampa Tim]

All right, so you did it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I spotted for him and got him. Drove him right into a wreck, so.

[Tampa Tim]

Oh, great.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I don't want to. Spot spotting is miserable, man. They're up on the roof. It's your cover. You can't. You know, you gotta. You gotta wear long sleeves. It's 100 degrees.

[Connor Zillich]

Get a cool shirt.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's hot. It's miserable, and you get blamed for everything, and. I don't know. No fun. And they're moody, and they're a little. Oh, boy. Spot the spotter. Gossip in the back. Oh, I don't know. I. That ain't for me. TJ's told me enough to make me not want to ever spot. Yeah. Even he's like, hey, come up on the roof and watch from up there. I'm like, no, what? No, I'll just get in a suite right underneath you. But, yeah, I would. I would absolutely love to. To crew chief again. Now, I'm not. You know, and you can. You know, we talk about this early in the show. There's things about the crew chiefing job that I didn't do, surely. Yes, I understand that. I'm not a fool. I know there are a lot of things I never fooled with. The adjustments that we made between practice and qualifying and then getting the car from qualifying back into the race, that was. I let Pat handle that. I didn't even know what they did. You know, I could see it on a sheet, look at it, but I didn't care. I'm like, I'm not messing with that. You just make sure you do what you're supposed to do, Pat. But I would love to call a race again that it's fun. It's a. It's an adrenaline rush and getting off the pit box and just setting that tire down there, it's not hard to do, but you can screw it up. And you're the. The guys that are coming around the car, the jackman, the changer, they'll tell you, don't screw it up. These are the things you can do to slow this pit stop down. Don't do that. So, I mean, it's fun. It's fun to be part of it, and it's fun to get on the radio and coach the driver to fire up the pit crew for the pit stops and stuff like that. They respond to that, you know, and that was neat, being the. In the coach, if you will. That was freaking awesome.

[Tampa Tim]

So it's fun to be a crew chief, not fun to be a spotter.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

When it went. Listen, we won the race, too.

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's always fun when you win.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, it's fun because it all worked out. Now, it could have been really miserable, easily.

[Tampa Tim]

But, for example, it wouldn't be fun if you get blamed for your driver coming down pit road when it's closed. Which leads into the next question from Dan. Have you given TJ Hell for Brad missing pit road?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I've. I. I wasn't sure if that was a TJ Deal or not. I think it's a. Brad.

[Tampa Tim]

Tj I'm gonna.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm going to hold off. I'll say. Let's say. What do you think TJ Is going to come in here and say, oh, I don't know.

[Tampa Tim]

I saw him yesterday, and he. I mean, he. He. He spoke to me like he was a team player. He's like, yeah, you know. You know, could have done better on that.

[Connor Zillich]

He's not going to say. He's not going to say It's Brad's fault 100%, though.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, I didn't think. I thought we'd never hear TJ Claim any responsibility.

[Tampa Tim]

Maybe that's why he told me and then took the week off.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's why he's not here.

[Tampa Tim]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's at home right now. No, he's not. He's not.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He doesn't ditch.

[Connor Zillich]

Has that ever happened to you, Dale? Or, like, how does that happen?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, it could happen in a number of ways. Either the information, you know, somebody could talk over the top of somebody, and the information doesn't get to the driver, and he doesn't know what to do. The spotter could give you the wrong information, tell you to come down pit road when it's closed, when it's, you know, tell you it's open. Come on. The crew chief could make the. I mean, there's multiple ways of how that could happen accidentally. And, yeah, we were all dumbfounded when it did. And we could stand there and go, wow, what a bunch of idiots. Look at the six. How do you screw that up? But it happens. It can happen in. In to the best, you know, and, man, well, I remember one of the dumbest things where I think it's Bristol. Oh, my gosh. I can't believe I did this. Even today. So dumb. Caution comes out going down the back straightaway. Immediately get on the microphone, mash the button, and I'm talking to Tony Jr. And I'm telling him all the things that I want him to fix on the race car, it's too loose. This is too. I think we could do this. I'm giving him all this great information, man. I'm like, oh, man, I'm really helping here. We're gonna get this car adjusted, and we're gonna haul ass. And I get off the button, and he goes, well, all that's great, but I needed you to come down pit road with everybody else. And I had talked on the microphone all the way around the racetrack, past the entrance to pit road, and missed the opportunity to come and pick. And I knew it because I'm watching everybody go down pit road, and I'm like, what? And it's just a, you know, dumb mistake, but, you know, those things can happen.

[Tampa Tim]

It's like when you're, like, in a long phone call and, like, you miss your exit just, like, driving down the. Oh, man. Yeah. That's. That is embarrassing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Thank you for sharing Tapas to the best.

[Tampa Tim]

Well, that is a good place to wrap ass, Junior this week. It was a lot of fun, but thanks to our friends at Xfinity.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Thank you, Xfinity. Thanks for everybody for tuning in. I hope you'll listen to the rest of the show. We have, you know, we had Connor Zillich on to talk about the Xfinity win, Chase Briscoe, and also listen to the White Flag. There's some good information about all the content we have going out this week. And also at the end of the White Flag, you'll learn about the next episode of Becoming Earnhardt that's coming out on Sunday. We've got the fourth episode coming out in the. We're focusing on the 1980 season. It's really good this year. You guys got to check it out. I'm pretty pumped about it. So, anyhow, thank y' all. I had a. I've had a great weekend at Pocono getting ready, geared up for TNT and Atlanta and all that good stuff. So a lot of work to do this week, but we'll see you. Thank you, Xfinity, for supporting the Ask Junior segment. Be sure to check out Xfinity Wi Fi Experience the booming speeds for yourself. It's fast, and as NASCAR fans, we love everything quick and just choose right plane for yourself, and you're off to the races. You're streaming everything you need. Nascar, all your favorite sports, and they don't raise the bar. They stream in overdrive. They're a proud premier partner of nascar. Thank you, Xfinity. We'll see Y' all. Later. All right, it's time for this month's selection of our ultimate racing collector. That's presented by Lionel Racing, the official diecast of nascar. Lionel Racing, they're your go to source for all your racing diecast needs. Check out the latest pre orders@lionel racing.com. i'm going to be getting the race win of Connor Zillich and I will be paying American dollars for it. I'm going to go out there and buy it myself. Probably get Connor to autograph it for me. I think they're selling an autograph version with my autograph on the back. Connor's on the front as well. So that's cool. Yeah, that'll be really cool. But let's take a look here. This month's winner is going to go out to Matt Frederick. Frederick, Matt, Good job. Congratulations. I've got the video right here looking at Matt's house. He's got some body panels, quarter panel piece from Kyle Busch and a wall of die casts. Tons and tons of die casts. I love.

[Connor Zillich]

It's got. It's a mirrors behind it, so I don't know, it just makes it pop.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I agree with that, man. Good job. This is all stacked up, wall mounted.

[Connor Zillich]

He's got a fire suit hanging.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. I'm not there yet. Stop it. Just a good job, man. I know you've got a ton invested in this and proudly displaying all these different die casts and wow. Incredible, man. So many. There's the fire suit, the old ortho. I wonder who that is. It's probably like a Greg Biffle or somebody. He's got some other stuff going on, some cans and things. Pretty neat. More quarter panels. Oh, we got another room over here. Boy. Some more stuff. More diecast. Got his TV good. Got a little man cave. Pretty awesome. And a Larson poster, a Hamlin poster. There we go. Yeah, he's one of the Denny bros. Eric Jones and Denny Hamlin right there. Sports clips. Good job, man. All right, Matt, congratulations. Appreciate the video. Good job filming. Even if you didn't win this month, give it a try. Next month we'll announce another winner. Keep sending us all these great collections. We appreciate everybody who's out there supporting the diecast industry. I'm a collector and I enjoy being a part of it. So, yeah, good job.

[Russell]

Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen. Place your bets.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, it's time for the dirty bodeaux segment with Tampa Timms and Russell is back with racing insights. Thank you, Russell, for joining us today. Tampa Tim's How y' all doing. Doing good. Have a guess. Russell. Good.

[Kelly Crandall]

Thanks for having me.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Well, appreciate everybody coming in. Let's go ahead and get right to it, man. For the Pocono race, we had our manufacturers parlay. Denny Hamlin, Byron in the Chevy and Blaney in the Ford. We did not win. What the hell? Well, why didn't we Kill us.

[Connor Zillich]

It's not our fault.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Killed us for sure, man. Came out of nowhere. You're not good at Pocono. Denny Bros. Failed us. Yes.

[Connor Zillich]

I didn't know Denny failed us.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not the Denny Bros. Couldn't get it done.

[Connor Zillich]

Yeah. He needs to step it up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He does. We head to Atlanta. I think this is a waste of time, but I'm gonna ask the question. What does the predictor tell us?

[Kelly Crandall]

Russell, thanks a lot.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Dale.

[Kelly Crandall]

Blaney and Byron up top.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, really? Oh, boy. Who else?

[Kelly Crandall]

But here I have a. I have a sleeper here in the top five this week. Austin Cindrics is third this week. Oh, then we go the bell. Chase Elliott, then Kyle Busch. He made it to tier two this week. Larson, another surprising one. And Joey Logano.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, here. I'm just gonna get the parlay out of the way because that's got my mind rolling now. Chevy driver is gonna be Kyle Busch, even though he unintentionally said some really dumb stuff about me crew chiefing. He didn't mean to sound dumb, but he. He accidentally sounded dumb. Kyle Busch is my Chevy driver. Austin Cindric will be my Ford and my Toyota driver who's in a must win. What's the what? Because then he's not Bubba.

[Connor Zillich]

Bubba Reddick?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Bubba Reddick will be up there, but he'll do something. He'll. He'll wreck himself.

[Kelly Crandall]

Ty Gibbs is in a must win, too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, but I don't like him in Atlanta. Bubba I like better. So, Bubba, Kabush and Cedric, what do you think for that parlay? I like that. I like that. There's not much else you can like in Atlanta. No, I mean, you can't even get close to being happy trying to make a bet around that race, but that's not too bad. We'll. We'll go with that. Let's. Let's talk about the bracket challenge. That is one thing we can do with Atlanta. Right. And the bracket challenge is going to give us tons of opportunities to get outside, you know, because you don't want to bet a winner on this week. You don't want to do any of that dumb stuff. You're just pissing Money away. But the bracket challenge is going to present so much opportunity for us to feel like we're making a confident decision. The featured matchups, now you can bet on every matchup and parlay them also. But the featured matchups we're going to do right here today are Keselowski vs Kyle Busch, Joe Logano vs Alex Bowman, Larson vs Redick, and Chastain vs Erik Jones. In the Keselowski Kyle Busch matchup, Kyle is favored at minus 130 and again we have him in our parlay. So I think we all are going to say that Kyle Busch wins this out. Yeah, I would agree. He goes and makes it happen.

[Kelly Crandall]

I think he's a sneaky one to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Go all the way. Yeah.

[Kelly Crandall]

Like, because if you look at, you look at how this plays out, you know, he's, he's great at this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Kyle Busch go winless this year, but wins the bracket in the million bucks.

[Kelly Crandall]

I think he could.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Wow.

[Kelly Crandall]

Like, you go, he gets past Atlanta. Then you go to Chicago where he's. He finished fifth and ninth in both races. Is there. And he could be up against Denny there, who's not good on road courses lately. Then he goes to Sonoma. His average finish with RCR there is seventh. Then he goes to Dover. He's on the pole there. Last year he finished fourth. He's a two time Brickyard winner.

[Chase Briscoe]

So.

[Kelly Crandall]

And he's in the weakest. If you say like quadrant, like group.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, is that what we're gonna say, quadrant? Yeah, I don't think we're gonna use. We're not going to say that again. We're not going to name these things quadrants. You and you, you are the people. You're the, you're the reason. You're the guy that we're calling these deals drafting tracks. You're the reason for that.

[Kelly Crandall]

I am, I am. And I stick by that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All the people in the industry that are like me that want to continue to call them restrictor plate tracks and we don't count Atlanta in that group. We got you to thank for all the confusion.

[Kelly Crandall]

I could defend myself if you want.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But if you walk, you walked into the sport and you just started doing your own, just making up. All right. Alex Bowman, Joey Logano, Joey heavily favored, wouldn't even touch Joey. If you want this, if you like this one, you bet Bowman. But I, I don't like this one at all.

[Connor Zillich]

But what about with the parlays?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, you could parlay Joey.

[Connor Zillich]

Would you put Joey and Denny together?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not at Atlanta, no. Because Joey, it Takes it takes one bad block or takes one bad move, he's gone. Why don't we let the expert tell us?

[Connor Zillich]

That's why I'm asking the question.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay.

[Kelly Crandall]

So you wouldn't take him because of the juice, though?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Kelly Crandall]

Moving on. It's more of the juice wise.

[Connor Zillich]

I don't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I don't like minus 230, and I don't like the randomness of this track for him to be favored that much. That's a lot. I like it. Tyler Renick versus Larson. Larson's favorite here, even though he professes to not quite enjoy or understand really, the style of racing, but he did. Hey, I will say this. Everybody that ran Atlanta last time came out of there saying that was the funnest shit they've done in a long time. Right. So attitudes are changing around the style of racing in Atlanta. Does that mean, you know, Kyle Larson goes in and starts getting the results that we typically see from him at all the other racetracks?

[Kelly Crandall]

He has the best average finish in the last four drafting tracks.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There it is.

[Kelly Crandall]

What tracks are there on the drafting track in Atlanta?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Michigan. That's a drafting track. Are you including that stat? It's not the same. Why not? They draft.

[Kelly Crandall]

They don't have the same rules.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Did you. We talked about it this weekend at Pocono. They drafted. Did they draft down the straightaway? The front straightaway? We talked about the draft at Pocono.

[Kelly Crandall]

Did we qualify at Michigan? Did we qualify at Michigan?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Kelly Crandall]

Do we qualify at Atlanta?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I guess.

[Kelly Crandall]

Yeah, we just qualify. It's not practice. We don't have practice. The same rules at.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What the hell. Oh, what. So if practice doesn't exist, you call it a drafting track? How. What. Is that one of the reasons.

[Kelly Crandall]

Yeah, and that's crazy. And the same rules.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It is silly.

[Kelly Crandall]

It's. It's all the same rules package.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's this younger. It's this younger generation.

[Kelly Crandall]

I've been doing this for a long time, Dale.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, you don't act like it. If you were. If you had been, you'd still be calling them restricted plate tracks, and it would be Daytona and Talladega. Atlanta, because Atlanta. What are you gonna do when Atlanta ages and we might be there this weekend where Atlanta ages and they're all lifting and sliding around and nobody's drafting or pack racing.

[Kelly Crandall]

Then we'll remove it as a drafting track.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What?

[Kelly Crandall]

It'll go back to being a mile an hour.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's going to be ready at some point. Chastain vs Jones. Chastain massively favored here? Well, not really. It's basically Joey Logano and Bowman reversed. So Chastain's minus 230. But, man, I'm liking Erik Jones right now. Erik Jones has won races at Daytona. Erik Jones and that team are kind of on an uphill climb. I like this upset. You can make the argument the 43 team has more speed than the 1 team right now. You could make that argument. Yeah, I like. I like Eric Jones here. I think this is incorrect.

[Kelly Crandall]

So is Daytona a drafting track and Atlanta drafting track? Is that why you have you connected those on me?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Shut up. So I like Eric Jones here. Am I only one? No, I plus 165.

[Chase Briscoe]

I love that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I think we've done our. Done our work here. I think we've turned in this tough weekend into easy win and easy victory for the for the betters out there. I agree. Good job. Good job, fellas. Good luck, everybody. I can't bet, but you can. Dirty Modo. This Dirty Modo segment's brought to you by FanDuel. You can go on there and maybe get your profit boost the premier gaming destination in the United States. Have some fun out there, but always bet responsibly, please. White flag. I decide for the white flag. Thank you to Safety Culture for bringing us this episode of the Dale Jr. Download. Remember, from the racetrack to the factory floor, Safety Culture is the workplace operations tool that gives companies what they need to get the job done quick and improve every day. The teardown was live from YouTube and Twitter. Following the race on Sunday, Denny Hamlin returned for actions detrimental after taking a week off for the birth of his son. And Doorbopper Clear dropped on Monday as well. They had Kelly Crandall as a guest. She's a experienced part of the media group that follows and covers our sport. And also tomorrow, an interview with Daniel Suarez for the Dale Jr. Download will be dropping. I look forward to talking to Daniel tomorrow. Herman Schrader and Speed street will be out on Wednesday as well. And then an episode of Bless yous Heart with my lovely wife Amy. It's fun being a Victor Lane with her and the girls. We'll talk all about that and more. And then Sunday, the fourth episode of Becoming Earnhardt. But we focus on the 1980 season in this series and the fourth episode will be available for y' all. We'll see you next week. Get ready for July 4th with early savings at lowes. Right now, get up to 40% off select major appliances and get an additional.

[Chase Briscoe]

10% off two or more select major.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Appliances plus get 33 stay green or premium two cubic foot mulch bags for just $10. These deals are coming in hot. Lowes we help you Save valid through 625. Selection varies by location while supplies last C lo's.com for more details. Excludes Alaska and Hawaii. If you're looking for new ways to get ahead, then you're our kind of person. We're Udemy, and we help learners like you upskill in AI, productivity, leadership and management, and more. Learn at your own pace from real world experts. You can also prep for certifications that show employers what you know upskill for the career you [e-mail]. now back to your regularly scheduled listening.