What's Next for North Wilkesboro?

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Dale Jr. Download – "What's Next for North Wilkesboro?"

Release Date: May 20, 2025 | Host: Dale Earnhardt Jr. | Guests: TJ Majors, Christopher Bell

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1. Introduction to North Wilkesboro's Future

Dale Earnhardt Jr. opens the episode by expressing disappointment over not being slimed by Nickelodeon, segueing into the main topic: the resurgence of racing at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

2. Pit Strategies and Tire Management

Dale Jr. and guest TJ Majors delve into the intricacies of pit strategies, particularly the impact of taking two tires versus four during races.

• Dale Jr. [03:04]: "Two tires can really up your car, but sometimes it slows you down instead of speeding you up."

Key Discussion Points:

• Tire Choices: Taking two tires can tighten car balance, potentially disadvantaging drivers.
• Strategic Decisions: Staying out on four tires versus switching to two can significantly influence race outcomes.
• Team Strategies: The importance of buffer cars in making strategic pit stops work effectively.

3. All-Star Race Reflections and Broadcasting with Amazon

Dale Jr. reflects on the recent All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro, highlighting his involvement in broadcasting the event in partnership with Amazon.

• Dale Jr. [05:59]: "We had a great weekend for the Cars Tour and a dominant victory by Landon in the 29 car."

Key Discussion Points:

• Broadcast Partnership: Transitioning to Amazon's five-race broadcasting segment, bringing fresh perspectives and technological innovations to NASCAR coverage.
• Race Analysis: Insights into driver performances, including challenges faced by Connor Hall due to mechanical issues.

4. Driver Dynamics and Race Incidents

The conversation shifts to interpersonal dynamics among drivers, particularly focusing on incidents involving Joey Logano, Christopher Bell, and Corey Heim.

• Dale Jr. [56:37]: "I appreciate Lane owning his actions because that's the way he races."

Key Discussion Points:

• On-Track Conflicts: Examining aggressive maneuvers and their implications for driver reputations and race outcomes.
• Mental Fortitude: The importance of mental strength in enduring long races like the Coca-Cola 600.

5. Interview with Christopher Bell: Insights on North Wilkesboro and Cup Racing

Christopher Bell, the All-Star Race winner, joins as a special guest to share his experiences and perspectives.

Notable Quotes:

• Christopher Bell [72:56]: "North Wilkesboro is one of the best short tracks we have on the calendar. The atmosphere is electric."
• Dale Jr. [73:14]: "It's awesome to see the passion that the fans have for that place."

Key Discussion Points:

• Track Revitalization: Bell praises the repaved and reconfigured North Wilkesboro Speedway, emphasizing its excellent grip and racing conditions.
• Cup Racing Experience: Insights into the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, highlighting its alignment with the next-gen car's capabilities.
• Performance Challenges: Addressing issues with intermediate tracks and the continuous improvement needed for competitive performance.

6. Audience Q&A Segment

The latter part of the episode features an interactive segment where listeners submit questions via chat, discussing topics ranging from personal anecdotes to technical racing strategies.

Notable Interactions:

• Emily [82:44]: "Did you hear Morgan Wallen reference your dad in a new song?"

  • Dale Jr. [82:45]: "I always like it when they talk nice about dad. It’s cool seeing his legacy in pop culture."

• Dylan [83:31]: "What are your thoughts on the milk shower at the Indy 500?"

  • Dale Jr. [83:45]: "Champagne, whatever. I've never been slimed, but it would've been cool back in the day."

Discussion Highlights:

• Personal Memories: Dale Jr. shares nostalgic moments from his childhood attending races at Charlotte.
• Race Traditions: Conversations about victory lane traditions and the evolution of celebratory practices in racing.

7. Future Episodes and Events

Dale Jr. wraps up the episode by teasing upcoming content, including interviews with female drivers and coverage of fan events.

• Dale Jr. [105:08]: "Junior Motorsports and Dirty Mo Media Fan Day is this Thursday, May 22nd. Don't miss it!"

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Conclusion:

In this episode of The Dale Jr. Download, Dale Earnhardt Jr. offers a comprehensive look into the current state and future prospects of NASCAR racing at North Wilkesboro. Through insightful discussions with TJ Majors and a special interview with Christopher Bell, listeners gain a deeper understanding of race strategies, driver dynamics, and the evolving landscape of NASCAR broadcasting. The engaging Q&A segment further enriches the conversation, making it a must-listen for NASCAR enthusiasts seeking both technical insights and personal stories from the heart of the sport.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Dale Jr. [03:04]: "Two tires can really up your car, but sometimes it slows you down instead of speeding you up."
• Dale Jr. [05:59]: "We had a great weekend for the Cars Tour and a dominant victory by Landon in the 29 car."
• Christopher Bell [72:56]: "North Wilkesboro is one of the best short tracks we have on the calendar. The atmosphere is electric."
• Dale Jr. [82:45]: "I always like it when they talk nice about dad. It’s cool seeing his legacy in pop culture."

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For more information and to stay updated on upcoming episodes, visit Dirty Mo Media.

Transcript

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What about that green stuff from Nickelodeon? Yeah, the slime. I've never been slimed. Kind of wish that would have happened, but that ship is sailed. Nobody's sliming an old 50 year old man, all right? We're not doing it just to do it. It would have been cool to have happened back in the day.

[Ryan Ellis]

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[TJ Majors]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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

[Mike Davis]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Can you not tell I'm mentally ready?

[TJ Majors]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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

[TJ Majors]

You haven't scratched the surface yet.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, what the do you want?

[Mike Davis]

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

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You ain't.

[TJ Majors]

You're picky.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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. And it's Tuesday, so. Episode of Dirty Air with my good friend TJ Majors. What's up?

[TJ Majors]

How's it going, man?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's going pretty good. Do you have a good weekend?

[TJ Majors]

I had a pretty good weekend, yeah. Didn't end the way I wanted to, but it's all right. Still fun weekend.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, let me ask you, man, as so everything's based off of performance on the racetrack. That's whether you have a good weekend or not. I remember living that life.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, it's. It's a very performance based sport. So. Yes, it does matter.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So what happened to y' all? I mean, y' all qualified on the pole, ran pretty good. But then like they were not. Not to mean not being a smart. There were other teams that had some odd, you know, results after some solid performances, some good laps in the race. But, you know, what was this? What was the struggle?

[TJ Majors]

I mean, honestly, the first we took.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like that second set of tires or whatever, didn't.

[TJ Majors]

We took two and that's what hurt us.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Damn it. Who thought that was a good idea?

[TJ Majors]

Well, with the lap times weren't the other and the heat races weren't really.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Did anybody else take two and make it work?

[TJ Majors]

One other car and I don't know, two never. Two did not work.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Everybody made two.

[TJ Majors]

No, we didn't. See, we made in the heat race. We stayed out and held them off with four tires. They had four tires and held them off.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

People would. So that's something. I think that if you had never. This one thing, one of the many, many things in NASCAR that surprised out of me and if you'd never been around, you know, if you'd never drove a car or. Yeah, I guess if you've never drove a car or really, truly worked on one, you wouldn't really experience this. But two tires can your car up?

[TJ Majors]

Oh, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's just your car up, so.

[TJ Majors]

Doesn't have the grip either, so.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, it. You would think that drives different. Well, you would, you would think if you're out there running around, you got used tires, you come down pit road and if you put two on four on whatever, it's just going to be a little better, right? Two's good. Four is better. No, sir. Sometimes you could put two tires on and slow your car down. The two tires traditionally tighten a car up. You know, there's, there's a, you know, there's a reason for that, I'm sure. But two tires usually make the car tighter and If. And if your car's, you know, balance is kind of neutral, then it makes the balance bad, makes the balance tight. And so sometimes I would. I will say this. Anytime a crew chief ever said, we're doing two tires, I'm super apprehensive, like, how the car is going to fire off on the next restart because, yeah, traditionally, I'd say 75 of the time, I don't love the car after that. I've never really loved driving a car on two tires as far as turning and balance. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

And. And you feel like you're disadvantaged, too, because it depends on. I mean, you could be the buffer car with two tires, and that's not fun.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Well, I just always been surprised. I was always kind of surprised by that phenomenon in racing, how two tires can sometimes like it. Almost wish you'd never change. You'd rather have not changed tires than put two new ones on the right. How is that?

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, am I right? Yeah, there's been plenty. I bet y' all would have probably been, like, hell, we might as well not have changed tires. Couldn't have been any worse.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. No, I mean, yeah, right. It could have been the same. Yeah, right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, there's been many times where I'm like, this is terrible.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, you know, it'd been better off. Just left the old ones on there. It was driving better.

[TJ Majors]

I think we were hoping for a few more cars to have. Have a couple buffer rows, you know, to put two on. And I think if we had those, we might have been able. The first part of the race went exactly how we wanted it to. We didn't want. We wanted to. I mean, before the cost came out with the two and the one, we were starting to pull away from Logano.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Because he had wore stuff out, and that's exactly how we wanted it to go. But, yeah, then we just got behind and we ran just in inside the top 10.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. We're going to get into the all star race a little bit more. But first thing I wanted to do at the top of the show was mention a friend of ours, Brad Arnold, lead singer three Doors down, just told everyone a couple of weeks ago that he's battling cancer. And I just wanted to make mention that because we've been friends with Brad for a long time. I remember meeting him. I think the very first time I met him was at Tremont Music Factory. They were playing that night, and we had an opportunity to chat before the show, and then not knowing that he would be on Our race cars. He would be a friend that would be at my 30th and 40th birthday parties. I mean, we met similarly the way you might get a chance to meet any band that you happen to be seeing at a show, you know, whether through, through a meet and greet or whatever. And yeah, we struck up a friendship that's lasted for, for all these years and broke my heart to hear that he's going through that. And I think not only because he's a good friend, but because he is such a good guy, good dude, golly, he's the nicest guy. And you know, he's worked really hard to be a good person and to put himself in a good place. And I just really had always appreciated him because he, you know, never kind of let the success they had change him that much. And he's still, you know, pretty grounded as an individual. And I always really appreciate that about him. Anyways, we're hoping Brad can, can work hard and battle this illness and he's going to have tons of support for sure to get to work through this. So we're thinking about him. Just wanted to say that. Top of the show, get back to nascar. Obviously, the Fox part of the season is over. This week we're getting ready for the the world 600 and Amazon is coming into the broadcasting portion of the season. Amazon's going to kick off their five races. Amazon's never done NASCAR before. I got hired to be part of that booth. I'm excited about it. We got a great team. I think that we're going to have as far as pre race and so forth. I think we're going to have some pretty interesting content for people to enjoy. And I think they'll be some ways that I don't. You know, I say this carefully because I don't think that, you know, one TV partner is better than the other. And I don't think you would ever have that conversation publicly. But I know that Amazon will bring some new ideas. Just like anybody, you know, you get a new crew chief or whatever, you know, they come in, they say, hey man, it's something I've been doing on my cars. Let's try it on our your car. Let's see what you think. And Amazon, if you looked at any of their NFL coverage, they got some neat bells and whistles, some stuff on the screen that's different, fun new ways to deliver the information and data that they have. And there's so much information coming off of the next gen car that Amazon's going To try to use it in unique ways. So. And they're using Steve, I would say, most importantly to help, you know, to help them understand how to display this information. Because a lot of it's like, you know, straight up data off the race car. So I think, yeah, I think you'll have. I think you'll have fun and be interested, be surprised, happy to see what's going to happen. I'm anxious to get in the booth, get to work. Been a long time since I've actually called a cup race. I've been practicing a little bit. We. I got to do the Flow pro late model race at Orange county, and then I did the late model or the pro late model race again at Wilkesboro. Also did the late model stock race with Harvick and Eric, which was also on Flow and Fox Sports 1. So that was neat to work with the Fox Sports group a little bit briefly. Everybody there in the Fox TV compound was extremely nice. Just a great group of people that, that wanted to do a good job. And I thought we, we had a lot of fun with the, with the Cars Tour events over at Wilkesboro. Went off well. Can't wait to see what the number is. You know, Arvik's going to tell you how long when we'll get that information. I do know what we did with Flow and it was, it was comparable to our past weeks at Wilkesboro. So, yeah, I'm excited to see what that number might be and whether that might create some, you know, some opportunities down the road. But anyways, it's. It was a good weekend for the cars Tour. I thought we had, we had a couple accidents early in the race and that was mainly due because of the cup rubber being put down on the track. I've known this for all of my life. But anytime, especially on the cup side, if you, if you go to the racetrack, like New Hampshire, for example, the modifieds are practicing for sure. We would go out there sometimes we wouldn't even practice.

[TJ Majors]

You wait for a little while, wouldn't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Practice for 10 minutes. The rubber that the mods would put down on the track would be slick and grimy. When our tar. Our tires would go out there on that and slide around and 10 and the first, probably 10 minutes of practice, we're actually just kind of taking that rubber and either replacing it or moving it off the racetrack. And then the track gets good.

[TJ Majors]

There's a crossover.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So we would avoid it. I think that that was, you know, that was kind of a similar situation for the Cars Tour at the drop of the green flag, they went down into term one and it had no grip comparable to what they were feeling in practice, and they weren't really ready for that. We had a couple accidents, but either way, hey, we got it. We got going and had a.

[TJ Majors]

That's something that, you know, they need to learn going forward.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know what I mean? That's not a situation they're going to be in all the time.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I wouldn't be too concerned about it. At least they know now next time, if they ever, you know, we go back to Wilkesboro, we're in the same situation. It might happen there, but we're not really running companion events with Goodyear radials anywhere else. So I would say that, you know, the. The arc attire and all that stuff probably wouldn't bother you that bad because it's kind of similar. The Goodyear rubber and the Continental or the Hoosier rubber is what conflicts with each other.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, they just don't mix our tires.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

On our late models and pros and even on the ARCA stuff and the. Is gumball rubber. And it lays on the track a unique way. You know, the radial tire is a harder compound and puts rubber down in a different way as well. And when you try to run one on top of the other, it's just a. It's just a. It's just a weird feeling. A unique feeling. But anyways, my, you know, wanted to want to say we had a great, you know, we had a great weekend in the Cars Tour and dominant victory by, by, by. By Landon in the 29 car. But just, you know, outside of that, we had some really good racing in the back and I think or in the middle of the pack even. And we had some kind of cool stories of some people overcoming some of those adversities early in the race. But Landon Lewis was not really nobody. Nobody had much for him.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So we'll see. He's won two in a row and. And now seems to be maybe the favorite for the championship already. Yeah. Connor hall, our driver at Junior Merch Force, had a couple of rough weeks.

[TJ Majors]

We started off hot.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, we did. But we had some. We. They. So he was driving through the pack, up the third or so fourth. And a bolt sheared off on the exhaust. The exhaust come off. The car is dragging the ground. And so had to come down pit road and get that worked on. That, you know, just kind of never.

[TJ Majors]

Really what shears a bolt like that off dragging the track.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Or they could say that it was loose and they didn't nut and bolt the car properly before the race and the bolt just come out. But he door slammed the 22 Lofton Laughlin. Yeah, he door slammed him pretty hard two or three times. And I know that the exhaust is sleeved out at the door so it can, it can abuse. Take some of that abuse and it's. But that it might have hit that door and drove that exhaust in and sheared that bolt off. Yep, that's what I think happened, but we'll never really know for sure.

[TJ Majors]

That's probably more likely what happened.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I thought it was great for our cars to be on the main stage at Wilkesboro in front of the industry. We had a great crowd, especially Friday night with, with everything else going on at the racetrack with, with, with the, with qualifying and so forth. So, yeah, we had a good, good, good crowd and a good, good weekend for the cars tour. And I think the next race for them is at Langley. Registration is already, already open for, for cars to get there. We tend to have a relatively smaller car count for Langley because it's such a far, long trip, about six, eight hours for our teams. But, you know, if we get 26, 28 cars, I'll be thrilled with that for this weekend. Talk about prime taking over the booth. I wanted to make sure y' all knew that practice and qualifying is Saturday at 1 1:30 on prime, and then obviously the races at 6 o' clock Sunday on Prime. And this will be interesting because I, I'm so used to doing all of this, you know, Xfinity or especially Xfinity race and stuff. It's gonna be interesting being able to basically just kind of watch the Xfinity race and do whatever I want to do.

[TJ Majors]

Is there things that you look for now differently than what you used to just watching a race now that you broadcast more? Like, is there things that you be like, okay, I want to see if this, you know, what they do during this time of the race. Like, you know what I mean? Like, is there different things you look for now?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

When I'm, It's. I don't know if this is interesting at all, but when I'm watching a race. So I'm gonna go back and I've never broadcast a Charlotte race. Never. Right. So I've got folders full and full of notes from 20, 18, 19, 20, all the way up until today of all of the races that I broadcast, so I can dig those out. And in those notes will be all of the unique things about that specific track. A bump in this Corner. Something weird about this or whatever, right? The pit box, you know, if there's a dominant pit box or whatever. I've got all this information that I've just wrote down over the years. And every year I, I'd get the same note out and rewrite it and add everything or anything new that happened over that weekend and then. And so the note just keeps growing year after year after year. And there's no notes for Charlotte. So what I'll need to do is go watch the last couple of six hundreds and sit there and watch those six hundreds and write down, create like a new note, right? And if I'm watch, I watch the race and go, oh man, that's neat. I'm gonna write that down. I'll talk about that. That's pretty. I think that's fascinating or I think that's important or I think that's something worth mentioning or it could happen in the race. So let me be ready. And so I'll have like a one or two page personal note. And as we're doing the broadcast, I did this. I did this. Everybody does this different. But wrote. I had a one page note for the Cars Tour late model stock race. And it was probably about five or six stories. And it's about, it's about a paragraph of information and when I would use it, I checked. I put a check next to it. All right, got that one in. Got that bit information in there. And it might be. I had something I wanted to say about Lanny Bice and she crashed early in the race, didn't use it, marked it off page. The Carson and Cade and Kwapa were racing against each other. They got crashed early and. And so I didn't use that. I was going to tell their story a little bit, but, you know, so there's stuff on there that I'm ready to use if it presents this opportunity to use it. I love kind of knowing the nuances of the racetrack because I'm the driver analyst. So I need to be able to say, okay, drivers are finding this to be a challenge. Drivers will have to think about this, you know, this bump, this hole, this slick spot, how the transitions are funky or how the car can get loose in this position or whatever. And so I need to have all that kind of written down. And the further removed you get from driving a race car at that racetrack, the easier it is to forget about those little nuances and things that the drivers are thinking about or dealing with. And so I just have it all written in a notebook in front of me to remind my. Puts me back in the car. Puts me. Puts me. Reminds me of the, the, the way, you know what it's like to drive the racetrack and like that. So. And it's even tougher with the next gen because I've never raced the next gen. So the next gen acts different than the cars that I raised in traffic inside each other where you know, however you're positioned on the car around you. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

The air everything.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so you know, I got to, I have to. I'll constantly try to talk to drivers about that to try to understand that those phenomenons more and more to be able to talk about them.

[TJ Majors]

So you got to work a lot.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I mean it's not. Yeah. You don't just. Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

You don't show up on Sundays.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Just show up and just start talking. Not, not to be a smart. I mean you don't, you know, you.

[TJ Majors]

Gotta, you gotta be prepared.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Over prepare. I like to over prepare. I like to feel like I'm over prepared. I don't know, some people probably work harder than I do but I like to feel like I'm more than ready. Right. But I got. We also we only got five races with Amazon and five with tnt. Ten race stretch. We. We would love to hit the ground like we would love to start this Sunday hitting on all cylinders but it's likely going to be clunky. There'll be some things that don't. Didn't feel awesome. I don't know if you'll notice it at home. You might. A lot of times man, we up and you don't even know it. But anyways, I'm looking forward to getting back in the booth. I hope that our. I hope that our broadcasts are as good as I think they'll be and I hope people will enjoy what Amazon brings to the table and as well as TNT in another five or six weeks.

[TJ Majors]

Well, I'm gonna be able to watch your first ones so. Because I won't be there at the track, remember. So going to critique the heck out of you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay.

[TJ Majors]

I'm going to be texting.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Do you want to tell people you're just going to say you're not going to be?

[TJ Majors]

Well, okay, so I have a little. Since Darlington, you don't have to be. Yeah, I miss Darlington.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You can't just say man, I'm not going to be at the track.

[TJ Majors]

I got a little procedure coming up this week and I'll be out for probably about a month, so.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, hey, we're wishing that that goes well. And that you bounce back. Yeah, like we know you will.

[TJ Majors]

I hope.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Mike Davis]

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[Emily]

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[Mike Davis]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Let's dive into. There's a lot of conversation around the Xfinity series racing at Wilkesboro, man. There's not much to that. I've always said this. I said something about, if they put a race there, I'll run it. I said that years ago. I said that when Wilkesboro came back. I said. I said it every year. That's not a new bit of information. I think Xfinity, you know, I'd rather have an Xfinity race there than Martinsville. That we're doing at Martinsville is for the birds. I don't. I don't love taking my cars over there and watching them get destroyed and watching our drivers destroy each other. So I'd love them to not go to Martin.

[TJ Majors]

I was waiting for you to end.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It and go to Wilkesboro. That'd be better.

[TJ Majors]

Martinsville can be a good race, though.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. Prove it. I don't know.

[Mike Davis]

I mean, I think it can be good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't think so. Not in the Xfinity series. It could be now they can't do it. I don't. I have zero confidence.

[TJ Majors]

It could be. If the drivers took it, you know, into the.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Zero confidence.

[TJ Majors]

I'm not.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Drivers can have a good, entertaining race at Martinsville. Maybe there was one, and I'm just. I've just forgotten it because of. So much destruction has happened. It's washed it from my memory.

[TJ Majors]

For every good one, there's, like, five bad ones.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know.

[TJ Majors]

Maybe more. I don't know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, look, I like Martinsville.

[TJ Majors]

I love Martinsville.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The stages. The stage breaks, I think, are killing Martinsville because the runs are so short. It makes people drive like idiots. And there's no. There's no, like, comers and goers. There's no tire fall off. There's no struggle on drive everybody. You know, I think the stuff stages there, 40 laps or something. It's ridiculous.

[TJ Majors]

So what makes you think that stages at North Wilkesboro are going to create any different racing?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I don't think they can just. They can run into each other. Wilkesboro. It's not that they won't.

[TJ Majors]

Do you see the end of the truck race?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I did.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, I think that would happen.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I thought that was pretty entertaining.

[TJ Majors]

I think the. I think it'd be the same in an Xfinity.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

At xfinity, we've got 12 cars on fire, smoking, sitting on the front straightaway after every race. TJ not after every. Are you really gonna go?

[TJ Majors]

I just think you. I think cautions Restarts are going to create that type of racing at a short track, no matter what. In this. In. In the lower series, I think.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, look, I. If, If. If the Xfinity. If the Xfinity series goes to Wilkesboro and they just destroy everybody on the front straightaway coming to the checker, then. Then I'll say T.J. was right.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, if you get a green, white checker, you tell me the Xfinity guys aren't going to wreck it. North Wilkesboro.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They might, but it might be like one or two getting, you know, put in the fence, not the whole field like it just the way. I don't know, man. You've seen it. You've seen the finishes at Martinsville are nasty. They're ugly.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. The front stretch is narrow and it's hard. I mean, it is definitely a. I.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Just think with the multiple grooves in the lanes, they can get away from each other a little bit. If there will be contact, somebody might get turned around, but there's places to go and avoid.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, you don't have the whole field piling in. Wide ass open turn one and two.

[TJ Majors]

Is a little wider than the front stretch at Martinsville because that's where they normally wreck.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

Would you want it extended race as part of the weekend or make it a stand?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It didn't make it.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, I think the extremity cars would be great at Wilkesboro.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Standalone.

[Mike Davis]

No, I'm saying stand.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I don't. I don't get. I don't care. One. I don't care.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Race with cup or don't race with cup.

[TJ Majors]

Racing fry race trucks Friday, Xfinity, Saturday.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What does it matter? Why does it matter?

[Mike Davis]

Well, I was going to ask if it's standalone, what about competitive cautions?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't understand.

[Mike Davis]

What if you're not going to have the pit crews?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah, sure.

[TJ Majors]

How about just run the race and run the amount of laps.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know, y' all. You know, I. Listen, I know. I'm not saying the cars tour does everything perfect and everything right, but the method. So we don't have. We don't have live pit stops. We don't have. You know, we're not going to have our teams competing on pit road. So we have. I mean, if you. We're going to have a. You know, we're going to have yellows, and they'll be determined by a lap count. So you don't really know before the race starts when the yellow happens. A natural yellow resets that clock. So that's Kind of what I wish they would have done in all star race. It wouldn't have been quite as gimmicky as the, as the promoters. Yellow, say whatever we want. So anyhow, you could do the xfinity race like that. If it's 250 laps, 300 laps, whatever you're going to do, you could say that the lap counts 75. Okay. And if there's a natural yellow under that particular inside of 75 laps, if there's a natural yellow, the clock resets. It's, you know, you only get that yellow if you go 75 straight green flag laps. If a college comes out, you come down pit road, you exit pit road in the same position. So like if you come down pit road, you go to the back of the field, but you don't gain or lose a spot on pit road. And then you probably wouldn't be counting laps under yellow. Right. So maybe the race is actually shorter. So you got, you know, it's a 200 lap race, green flag laps counted only. I don't know, there's all kinds of ways you could do it to make it where the teams wouldn't have to compete on pit road. You just would. Only thing you would be competing against is, you know, getting your car fixed and not missing the green flag coming back out. Right. You'll be a little hustle if your car's damaged, which it might get damaged in that race. You'll be hustling to repair a car, but otherwise putting tires on it and everything else you can, you can do all that on your own time.

[Mike Davis]

And the drivers showcase their abilities and not have pit crews mess things up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, yeah, I think so. I mean, and you're in the xfinity series, they limit tires. So they're, you know, there's, there's not as much of a race as often on pit road, changing tires. I don't know. I don't know how it might work.

[TJ Majors]

What about.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think even with what I'm saying, there's still a potential for them to be competing on pit road. Right. Changing tires. I don't know. We'd have to figure that out. But I think it's doable because you definitely don't want the teams having to pay to fly the guys back and forth. That was something that always was a big deal, an extra expense. It makes it un. It makes it financially bad for the xfinity teams.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. Logistically challenging too. What about a 400 lap cup race? No stage breaks, full field.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You can.

[TJ Majors]

Still pay the Points at your stages, but keep going. Natural cautions only.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, we. Not. We haven't. We never did do that at the ovals. We did it. We tried it at the road courses and went right. We went right back to putting stage cautions back in. Honestly, man, that's the only. I hate to risk that not working for your first points race at Wilkesboro.

[TJ Majors]

How does it not work, though? What makes it not work? Just somebody whooping everybody or.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't. I mean, it might just. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

What's wrong with that, though?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

This is only about I. What I want to see or what you want to see is for sure. Right. Who cares about what anybody thinks? What do you want to see? Right. And so I'll be honest. I like the stage cautions because they bunch the field up, give me a restart, and I get to see some action in a. In a. In a. In a situation where there may be a dull race happening. Fair enough. I can admit that. But sometimes I think that the stages are too short and. And that's where I don't really love them in trucks and Xfinity.

[TJ Majors]

It's short trucks, terrible in trucks.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes. You don't even get going and they run. They got. It's like a little 35 lap or 40 lap sprint. They run the. Over each other and it's. It makes it.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. But in. In the cup stuff, you know, you can go. You. You'll go 100 lap. I don't even. I don't. They don't bother me at all. At Bristol. The runs, the stages are long enough.

[TJ Majors]

They are right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That we get to see people, you know, handle and go. Their cars go away. They. They hold some people up. We get to see a little bit of that. Hell, we saw it in the. In the All Star race this past weekend, and that was. That had, you know, some cautions at lap 100 and another one 100 laps later or whatever. So we had natural yellows. And I just think that if you're going to take a Cup race to Wilkesboro, that you don't. You don't take any risks or chances. Let the race kind of go and be with the. With the protocols we have in place in terms of stage caution and so forth, just to make sure you don't screw up the very first points back. Right.

[TJ Majors]

That's understandable.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'd hate. I mean, it could work out, tj where if you didn't throw the stage cautions, it could work out and be awesome. You know, maybe that's something you do down the road. If you really get that confidence up, do it. But are you willing to take that risk on the first points race back for Wilkesboro?

[TJ Majors]

So what do you run for, labs?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Wilkesboro tried for three decades to get back. It's back. Let's not. It's not taking unnecessary risk with it.

[TJ Majors]

What do you. What do you run for laps? Then what do you think's a good, like, 400 lap race?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think it's a 400 lap race, and I think your stages could be 125. 125. Yeah. 125. 150.

[TJ Majors]

Well, we'd be 125, 250, and then you have 150 to the end. Pretty good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I think it's fine. 125, 125, 150. There you go. There's your race.

[TJ Majors]

And the last stage would probably have a. Maybe not have a pit stop. Man, they'd be sliding all over at the end. They would be awesome.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah.

[TJ Majors]

And lap traffic.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think you'd be busting your ass at 125. Did the 99 blow to. Blew right front in the race. Do you know why he blew that right?

[TJ Majors]

I don't know. I don't know if he ran over something or maybe a fan quit working or something. I'm not sure.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's Papa. Did it pop the bead? I'm not sure because that was. That freaked me out. I was like, oh, maybe the right. Maybe the recording tires.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I don't think that. Right? No, I don't think so.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Y' all didn't have any tire issues? No, because they got. They ran that real soft tire, which I thought performed really good.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I thought it was awesome.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I want them. They keep saying, you know, go softer, go softer, go softer. And the fall off was good in the cup race. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

I'm even filing a little bit more. I mean, it was good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think so. Yeah. You can get more.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

So do you want to remove a race or what do you want? How do you make this a points race?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There's some folks out there that think that the All Star Race is not necessary. That to me, is not entirely like. To make the All Star race just disappear. Seems like a bit of a mistake.

[Mike Davis]

Why?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You never won one. Do you want something that, you know, I got a trophy on my shelf. And you're going to make that meaningless by making that race obsolete. All you. If you do away with All Star Race, all of those amazing finishes, the 87 race, the one hot night gone. Junk. Throw it in the bin back here in the back of the archives.

[Mike Davis]

Those aren't gone.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, well, I mean, you're going to look at. When are you going to, when are you ever going to celebrate those highlights? To a race that you.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, you're never going to play them again.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

To a race you deemed useless and one you didn't need.

[Mike Davis]

You can still celebrate them.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

When will you do that?

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, when are you going to celebrate? It's not, it's not, it's not, it's not a thing anymore. What are you going to. When are you going to bring it up?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If you didn't want the race to continue, when are you ever going to celebrate its history?

[Mike Davis]

Okay, so we, like, that's your reason to not move forward with, like, I.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Think that you got to fix, you know, you, you got to, you got a race that could be fun and something that people get excited about. We just experienced that this past weekend.

[Mike Davis]

So then what race do you get rid of to make this a points paying race to keep the All Star?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, there's plenty of options. There's a lot of places with two dates that don't maybe need two dates for sure. Kansas, for example, is not selling out. It's a great race.

[Mike Davis]

So we can get rid of a great race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Listen, Fontana, I know it's not here anymore.

[Mike Davis]

Why'd we get rid of Fontana? Memories.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, we lost them all.

[Mike Davis]

Gone.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They're gone. They are.

[TJ Majors]

Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Nobody gives. Nobody, you know, we're not continuing the legacy there anymore. I think that honestly, the All Star Race could continue. I would be okay with some way that we kind of combine the Clash in the All Star Race. So the Clash, to me, the. I'm so tired of saying this. The Clash should be poll winners only. I don't give a who else. I don't want anyone else in it. Poll winners only. But that's never going to happen. We're never going back to that. It's gone. Ship has sailed. I could scream it at the front doors of NASCAR headquarters for days. Not going to happen. The All Star Race should be winners only. Right. And do you like the Open? I do, I do.

[TJ Majors]

Like, I think it's exciting.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I would, I, you know, I wish they would go back to the stricter sort of, you know, the stricter requirements. Right. For both the Clash and the All Star race. But again, I could go to the doors of the NASCAR headquarters and scream at the top of my lungs for a week and it ain't going to do any damn bit of good. But maybe since there's this. Every time the Clash comes around, there's this tiny group of folks that are going, what are we doing this for? And there's even people that own these race cars and drive them that don't want to go to the Clash and compete. I'm wasting their time. Then you have this all Star race, and there's a small bit of group of people that think that the race should just go away. It's not fun anymore.

[Mike Davis]

It's only a million dollars.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep. Not. Not fun anymore. Not worth. Why are we doing this now? We had a great weekend at Wilkesboro. I think a lot of people would definitely love to repeat. Take both of those, right, and combine them. Let's celebrate the. Let's celebrate the drivers that have won races. The criteria could be, all right, race winners and past champions. You could have, you know, up to the last, you know, five or 10 years, get you about, you know, 20 cars in a field. You could have your open where a couple guys can race their way in and you can do your fan vote where your popular driver is always going to be in the race.

[TJ Majors]

23 cars.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

23 cars. Go to Bowman Gray. Go where you want to go. And we do this in January right after the new year, to sort of. It's a bit like a, hey, everybody, we're back off. Season's over. Get ready and take all the money that you're spending on both of those events and then put it into one pot, all the effort, and then you can take that purse and go from 1 to 2 to maybe $3 million. You need to pay enough money that they will wreck their mother to win it. That's what it needs. That's what a million dollars used to do.

[TJ Majors]

It did. Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's what a half. It was 200,000. It was half a million. And, boy, they were destroying each other for it.

[TJ Majors]

Ross Chassane would erect Logano and Bell for that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, well, he's a throwback, right? Ross Chastain is no different than the guys that raced in the 80s and 90s that would have, you know, done it. They wrecked each other for $10,000 halfway money. So that's why I like Ross. So the. You. You take, all of you take these two races that nobody really seems to know exactly what to do with, and you combine it, you put all the money you can into it to say, that's your. That's your coming out party every single year where you're like, all right, everybody, NASCAR's back and then we go race our season. Right. You come off of that race, Daytona and you go to Daytona or wherever you want to go. You can call it the All Star Clash.

[TJ Majors]

There you go.

[Mike Davis]

All right. Love it.

[TJ Majors]

Can we go and just get some practice and random draw qualifying put back into to the season? Can we just do that, too? That'd be cool.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I would love practice to come back.

[TJ Majors]

Random draw qualifying practice will.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Will be back one day.

[TJ Majors]

One day.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

One day we're going to wake up from this nightmare and go, oh, that was actually good. That actually helped us.

[TJ Majors]

I agree.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That actually drove storylines that actually engaged fans, that actually got people interested in the race weekend and who was. Who was developing into a contender or favorite for that race. Yeah, we're going to wake up one day and implement practice again because it definitely needs to be back in there. What else you want?

[TJ Majors]

I want random jar qualifying back.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right. Random draw qualifying.

[Mike Davis]

I like that.

[TJ Majors]

I thought it mixed it up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I agree.

[TJ Majors]

And it didn't keep the guy here here all the time because when you start on the front, you run, so.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep.

[Mike Davis]

I'm with you on that one, tj.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I think too. I mean, I don't some. They're probably. Somebody's having to do all that math, right?

[TJ Majors]

Oh, I'm sure it's computer based now, though.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I'm just saying somebody has to turn it on out. You relieve some. You relieve the. Either the person or the computer of all that stress.

[Mike Davis]

Just have somebody out there on pit road pulling a ping pong balls. Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's how we did it. And you go how it used to go. You know, you'd walk over.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And you'd be in the garage, walk over and draw a pill.

[TJ Majors]

Did you know that?

[Mike Davis]

I didn't know it was how use it for content. Like, it'd be great.

[TJ Majors]

Well, that's storylines.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah. Where'd you draw? I got a bad draw. Yeah, that's how they do it. Dirt. Right. They still draw and.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Awesome. You go.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, for sure.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

A guy gets a bad draw. That's just.

[TJ Majors]

That's it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Fate.

[TJ Majors]

That's it. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Now he's got to come. Overcome. Yeah. Good storyline.

[TJ Majors]

I think the, the storyline gone the way they do it now just makes it too easy for the fastest cars to stay on top all the time.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And it's not something that really is working itself into the conversation in terms of prepping the week, building up the week. I don't ever hear him going, oh, man, do you. You know, Denny had had this and this happen and now he's got to qualify. He's got a bad draw or a bad qualified.

[Mike Davis]

I was going to say that but I was scared.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I just don't think it's actually helping us. How we're doing it now is not really like adding to the.

[TJ Majors]

I liked random.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, me too.

[TJ Majors]

I liked random a lot. Mix it up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm sure there's some people that will tell us why we went away from that though. I guess Joe Logano got out of the car after the All Star race and said that he was annoyed with how he was raised by C. Bell. Apparently he's now walked that stuff back.

[Mike Davis]

Logano told NBC that how Bell drove him wasn't as bad as I thought it was.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There you go.

[TJ Majors]

I'm sure in the car it felt a lot worse.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Probably did well apparently because he got out of the car and said those things immediately. He must have thought he was really done wrong. But then. Yeah, you get out from a 40,000 foot view and watch it and you go, okay. You know that it's for a million dollars.

[TJ Majors]

It was really clean. For a million dollars. Clean, like super clean.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Christopher Bell is not a dirty driver. Has anybody ever seen Christopher Bell do anything like suspect? No, I can't say I have. I think that's kind of.

[TJ Majors]

It's a good point.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

One of the nice guys.

[Mike Davis]

I wish he'd have a little.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Adam Stevens got out and said that it was amazing how similar that. That Christopher Bell is. Reminds him a lot of Kyle Bush in terms of his prep and his dedication and his hard work. I thought that was a kind of a neat compliment. But Christopher Bell just, you know, had the better car and had to muscle him his way. By which we threw. We put them in an atmosphere where muscling by somebody's what we wanted.

[TJ Majors]

Like we created this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. We put them at a racetrack. Multiple. Multiple groove. Million bucks. Oh, you know, the. The soft tire. All of the things like if he drove, if. If there was a pass that was clean at the end of that race for the win, I would have been disappointed.

[TJ Majors]

That was cleaner than I wanted it to be already.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know. Wasn't enough fireworks.

[TJ Majors]

Now you had no tires. Holding off tires. That's what we want. And it was super clean. To be honest with you.

[Mike Davis]

I think Ross thought Bell was going to go up there and rough up Lugano and maybe then he could advantage of it.

[TJ Majors]

I did notice Ross. I think he was. He kept letting Christopher back in on the top A little bit, like, off, I think, because he wanted them to get into each other.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Joey gets out and says that stuff, and holy. Everybody went after him. Like, nobody really.

[Mike Davis]

This was an asinine comment to say.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

In the world of social media, which is. I know, a tip. A tip of the tip of the iceberg. But still, everybody was taken aback. Even Christopher Bell, when they told him in the.

[TJ Majors]

He was surprised.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He was like, really? He was like, oh. He was really surprised that Joey felt the way he felt.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. You got to be glad that Joey. Does this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Does it make it okay now that Joey walked him back? I don't know.

[TJ Majors]

I don't think it depends on how.

[Mike Davis]

Joey operates going forward, though.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I just feel like the. I still have a problem with Joey having that instant reaction, even though he walks it back a day later. I appreciate that. You know, he went and watched it, whatever, and he goes, all right. It wasn't that bad for him to have the instant reaction he had still is a irk. Making sense.

[Mike Davis]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Yes. But it's good because this is what we want, guy. He just lost a million bucks. Of course he's going to be pissed.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I would just. Yeah, but he could say, I'm pissed I lost a million bucks.

[Emily]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

I mean, I agree.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not like an, oh, it sound like.

[Mike Davis]

He'S making excuses because then he also. Marcus Smith. I need to talk with him. I'm like, they made it seem like Marcus had the caution thrown to screw over Joey. Like, no.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I don't know. The. Let's talk about that. The promoter's caution. And not a lot of people real happy with that either. I think more. More bothered by how it went down. Not so much that it happened. We all knew it was coming, but we all didn't want it to be. It didn't need to become the star of the show or it didn't need to become a character in the show. Right. The promoter's caution should have been no more than it should have felt and resembled a stage. Caution. Caution comes out. Oh, there's your promoters. Yellow. Okay, let's see what happens.

[TJ Majors]

I wanted to support more of a surprise. I don't feel like it was much of a surprise.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I didn't care about it surprising me. I didn't give a. When they threw that flag, I really didn't care, but I didn't need. I didn't need somebody in the flag stand, and I didn't need the pomp and circumstance. Pomp and circumstance of it. I thought it should have felt. I thought it should have been a caution thrown like any other yellow and college comes out. All right, there's your promoters yellow. We told you that was coming. It's possible that this was going to happen. Here it is. Here's. Now tell me, you know, what this means for Joey and what this means for the drivers. But it become this, you know, it become this silliness that wasn't necessary. We had an amazing race going on and the race still was good. We still had a good finish, but took up too much bandwidth.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. Too much talk about it kind of before and at like maybe like the build up to it was too much. I think it just.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know. I mean, I, I, you know, I think the track was trying to figure out a way to make it enjoyable for the fans and just kind of miss the target.

[Mike Davis]

Like that was. The thing is I wasn't there, so I don't. Maybe it worked for person.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I don't know that either. Maybe that's a good question for somebody that was there in person. Did it.

[TJ Majors]

They showed it on TV though, right?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, but tj, what we. How.

[TJ Majors]

I didn't see that part on tv. I just.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm not sure they did.

[TJ Majors]

Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

To Travis's point, how we viewed it from television is one thing, but how somebody was actually who. Somebody sitting in the stands behind the flagman right as this is going on. How did that feel? Was it as hokey and cheesy as it felt on tv? You know, so. And I don't know. I. I will say this too. Like, if I was. If I was in the TV truck, I would have not shown the flagman. They kept showing Michael right up there.

[TJ Majors]

That's what I'm saying.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I would have just been like, yeah, I'm not.

[TJ Majors]

Push the button.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't want to show. I'm not showing this. Now when he starts waving the flag, I might cut to him. Here he is waving the flag quick. Then back to the cars. But the caution itself didn't need to be dressed up and presented in such a way as, as, as. As a key part of the. The cast. It should have the. It should have flew as under the radar as it could have. And to your point, TJ Let the racing shine. Which racing was shining. You know, the racing was shining all night long. Then we had this goofy moment that felt goofy. Flag falls down on the track, all that. And then we got back to some good racing.

[Mike Davis]

Great racing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

What'd you think of staying out?

[TJ Majors]

It's a bad move.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Ended up not working. Out, I think they wanted. They were hoping that there'd be more people that stayed out with them.

[Mike Davis]

Like two or three more.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Just enough to. To make it a little more difficult.

[TJ Majors]

You need a couple cars like Ross or somebody that's just going to be there and race the heck out of you to, well, Ross people.

[Mike Davis]

Ross was one of them, but he didn't have enough.

[TJ Majors]

You need more people.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Will give Joey and his team a hard time for, for not pitting and oh, man, knew that was the obvious choice was to come down pit road. The tire, from what I've been told, does not slow down due to increased wear. So that tire lost speed because of heat. And so it's kind of similar to our tires at a cars tour, especially on tracks like this. You'll haul ass, go out there and run 50, 60 laps. You'll lose a half a second, maybe a second caution comes out, tires cool down, they fire right back off within a tenth or two of their best laps. And then they get hot and they slow down as they, as the temperature goes up. And then they can, they, you know, they cool off and they can fire back off again. And I think that, you know, that was what they were gambling on. It's like, hey, man, do you take a chance and give up even three or four spots for tires? Or do you think being in clean air, being the lead car, that you can do it? You with a wide track, hard to pass on the bottom. You know, Joey Logano, one of the hardest guys to pass. I honestly felt like that he was still going to win that race. I did.

[TJ Majors]

It looked like it for a little bit.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I thought the choice to stay out was a bold one. It was not going to be easy, but I still had a lot of confidence that Joey was going to win. If it isn't, Joey Logano, who's been pretty dominant for the entire race, dominated this exact same race last year. If it's not him, then I think you're coming down pit road. I don't have confidence for anyone else. But due to the fact that it was Joey, their performance last year, how they'd ran throughout the day or throughout the night, yeah, I didn't have a problem with him staying out. In racing. Good enough is never good enough. You can always improve. And even with five wins so far this season, our teams here at Junior motorsports haven't slowed down one bit. One tool that can help with business operations is safety culture. Trackhouse racing uses safety culture to ensure every detail is tracked. Safety culture is purpose built for 80% of the blue collar workforce. The people that are out there working hard each and every day. From factories to stores and even race shops like Trackhouse, every detail is tracked and everyone has full visibility to make sure nothing gets missed because the workers on the ground, they know what is happening the best. Safety culture makes it easy to share those insights, giving visibility to other departments all in real time. This means that you and your team get the job done faster, making better decisions and constantly finding more ways to improve so you can spend your time where it counts. You want to see how it could help put your business in the pole position? Head over to safetyculture.com SVG Hey TJ.

[Mike Davis]

I see you walking around with the new phone. Where'd you get that phone from?

[TJ Majors]

Yeah man, so I made a big decision. I decided to switch the consumer cellular family and man did it hook me up. You know, as being part of the RFK6 team, consumer cellular network has been awesome man. I've had no problems at the track and man service has been a breeze. You know Travis, I don't know why everyone hasn't made the switch. Same great coverage. I'm so thankful that I switched the consumer cellular family. It's service I can rely on and guess what, it also saves me a lot of money.

[Mike Davis]

How, how fast did it take you to get this change? Because I don't feel like waiting around.

[TJ Majors]

You know it's really easy that they're 100% US based customer service representatives. Only took about 20 minutes. I chose the 2 for 60 plan and no long term contracts. So super cool man. Really easy to do. And the best part is now you can get your second month free with promo code DJD. Taxes and third party fees will apply so check consumercellular.com for more info. And remember code DJD.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Lane Riggs, Corey Heim in the truck series. Yeah. Hey before we move on to that, there's another beef in the cup series.

[Mike Davis]

Oh, forgot about that one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, Zane. Zane and Ty Dillon.

[TJ Majors]

I didn't even see what started this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well I saw some in car from a post on on Twitter that just showed a little hard racing. Nothing too crazy but maybe that's been something's going on for weeks. That's the only thing I can assume. Ty Dillon is doing a good job this year in that 10. I'm impressed by colleague as a whole they have improved over last year. Both of those cars were awful last year. Ty's had some really good runs this year. They're popping off and showing up here and there. The thing with Ty is. He's. He's like. He will pester the of you, you know, and, you know, the way he drives. I don't want this. I mean, this in. I mean, this in the nicest way. The way he races you is so annoying. It's almost a bit like Ross, you know, he just won't roll over. And, you know, he's going to. He's going to drive down in the corner and use you up a little bit if he needs to. He's not going to be apologetic about it. And he's just. He will hassle you. And I mean that as a compliment. You know, I think that that's. I think that works for him more often than not. He pesters and pesters and just won't stop trying to get by you, right? And in your mind, you're thinking, it's Ty Dillon. I don't. Maybe there's a lot of guys out there that don't truly appreciate his ability, right, or his stature or. You don't belong in front of me. You don't. You. I don't belong by. I don't belong behind you. You know, there's a lot of that ego going on out there. And so that's what's happening right in this whole thing is like, man, f you. You know, I don't. I don't. I don't belong behind you. And you're just gonna, you know, Ty Dillon's gonna go down the corner and hassle me and. And. And race out of me and hold me up and, you know, hold up my progress. Cost me an opportunity to get by the three guys I think I should be in front of. In front of us, you know, and I don't give a. About that. And so he's. He ain't trying to. He ain't trying to be out. He's trying to. He's trying to prove I belong here. Y' all ain't getting rid of me this easy. Lane Riggs, Corey Heim, Corey Haim is in a pretty good position to. To. To. To win this truck race. We had Late caution. Lane Riggs drove down on the inside into turn one. Runs him to the very, very, very top groove. Out of the groove, into the dirt. Corey Heim spun out in the marbles, and Lane lost the lead in all of that to teammate, his teammate, Chandler Smith. And Chandler wins the race. I feel like that Lane played right into my. My. My conversation from Kansas.

[TJ Majors]

He did. He backed right back into it, man.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, he went down in the corner underneath Josevar and just, you know, kind of. Kind of drove straight up the track right into him.

[TJ Majors]

Drove it in there hard enough.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Almost wrecked them both.

[TJ Majors]

Got loose.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Had a lot of time to go. Yep. Gonna hit him. Gonna mike. Wreck us. Better lift. You know, it would have. I don't know. I don't. I don't. You know, I will say he didn't run Corey into the fence, but dang, man. I mean, he did put him in the marbles.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, there was a slick spot.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Corey had every right to be mad.

[Mike Davis]

If this was his first incident.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Corey, yeah, it wouldn't be an issue. Corey came to him and said you'd been driving. You're driving like an idiot. You drive like. And if you don't change somebody I'm going to help. I'm going to take care of it. Lane was standing there drinking his water out of his straw, and he saw Corey Haim coming.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, it's been a while.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And he said to his guy, here comes Corey Haim. And then Corey gets there and Corey says, you know, whatever he says. Going to say, yeah, and boy, but Lane Riggs. Listen, I give Lane Riggs a little because I think. I think Lane could have avoided Kansas. I just didn't love. Like, I don't mind door banging. I don't mind guys getting loose up underneath. But he drove across the track to hit the guy on the left recorder panel. And I just. I thought that was a little aggressive. This was short track racing and little.

[TJ Majors]

Little more.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't think it was more. I think Kansas was worse for me.

[TJ Majors]

I don't know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I do, man. Kansas is a big old track. And he drove across the track to hit him in the left recorder panel. That. That was a. That was a.

[TJ Majors]

He spun this guy out.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know, but he took. He took a shot at Kansas that he was not going to make.

[TJ Majors]

It was a. Not a. Well, it wasn't a high.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There was no win. There was no success out of that for him in any way. But at Wilkesboro, I feel like that that could have worked out in his favor. That, you know, that might have been a winning move. Even though it was a little bit dirty. I still kind of what I. It's what I asked for. It's what I want. They did. I mean, he did not fence him. He. He did run him into the marbles, but he didn't just make him destroy him. Yeah, he didn't destroy him and force him out of the gas. He didn't put him in a situation where Corey Heim's Like, I got a lift or I'm hitting the wall here. But Corey was, was had every right to be angry, but Lane, this is the part that, that I, that I was glad Lane said, right instead of going, oh, I didn't mean to do that. Oh, you know, we'll talk about it. Oh, we'll figure it out. Or he, Lane said, I don't give a. About nobody but my team. I'm glad he owned it because that's the way he races.

[TJ Majors]

I do appreciate owning it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know I did. I'm like, all right, so now that I know that and I know that he has a self that showed me he has a self awareness to know that, you know, now when I watch him race, I see Kansas a little bit differently. I see Wilkesboro a little bit differently. He told us that's how he's going to do it.

[Mike Davis]

So it makes it okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Doesn't have to love it, but I can, I now know what to expect. Now I'm, now if Kansas happens, I'm not like, what the, you know what he's thinking, damn, that's stupid. Why do you do that now? I can go now. Man, he told me he don't give about nobody but him and his truck and his team. He's out. He's out. He is out for himself. Selfish as, I mean, to be great, to be good at racing, to be a good race car driver, you gotta be selfish.

[TJ Majors]

So if you, if he continues on this path, what makes it successful or not successful, you know, what does he have to do to be successful? Obviously, just probably he's gotta win races.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He gotta win. He's gotta, you gotta back this up. He's gotta win that race this past weekend. You know, I, I, he, he didn't have, he didn't really have a chance to win Kansas because he wasn't, he didn't never really get a position on Jose Var to be able to make a pass. His hope was, man, we'll hit him in a quarter panel and hopefully he hits a wall and I get to go by. But. Which isn't a, not a, not a, not a recipe for success.

[TJ Majors]

Not usually.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But this weekend he had position and maybe could have, you know, done things a little differently to actually get the win. So, yeah, I think.

[TJ Majors]

How do you think he wins the race this weekend? Race him through 1 and 2, then use them up a little bit in 3 and 4. Like wash them up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think what he, what he, he, he put all his, he put everything into that move in turn one and I think he could have. He could have maybe made a corner. Made. Made a corner and then tried all of that. You know, the last resort down in three or four. Put him in the marbles down there and maybe he beats Chandler to the finish line.

[TJ Majors]

Better chance, I think, of doing three and four.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And I mean, it's easy for us to sit here and say that, but I agree. He. Look, he said what we all needed to hear. I don't care about anybody but my team and my truck and that he ain't. He ain't out here to be friends or make buddies. Don't expect any favors on the racetrack from him. But yeah, he going forward. Let's. He's. If he starts stacking the wins, then he'll get. He'll get to where he wants to go.

[TJ Majors]

Is this a distraction for Corey? Because Corey's already.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Corey seems to be.

[TJ Majors]

Like, how does this. How does he handle this? He's already. Does he have a plan laid out in front of him already? Does this even matter to him? You know this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, because he's going somewhere.

[TJ Majors]

What is he going. You know what I mean? Does he have a path laid out for him?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, I, the, the, the opinion is that there is a path there. The opinion, I think in the Toyota camp is very, very high on him and that this truck thing's just a placeholder, just a stopgap opportunity for him to gain knowledge, race, gain racecraft. But I don't think his result this past weekend, good or bad, affect his future in any way. I think it's. It's. There's already a on ramp. Yeah. Motion in play. Right. I can't say what I think that is.

[Mike Davis]

I mean, he raced in a cup race already this year, so that kind of tells you what they're thinking.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, but what is. What are we going to Where. Who's. Is he going to get Riley or what? Yeah, push Riley out. What's going to happen there?

[TJ Majors]

It was Danny Rose saying.

[Mike Davis]

Yeah, I don't have any information from defamation.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Information stumbling here.

[Mike Davis]

I'm just saying though. Okay, but what happens if Denny retires?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, did you see how he just kind of.

[TJ Majors]

I hate he granddaughter struggled to get that out.

[Mike Davis]

What happens if. When Denny retires though, there's going to be a spot open?

[TJ Majors]

Why don't you tell us?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Danny retired.

[Mike Davis]

I said when.

[TJ Majors]

Damn. Y' all talked about.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean that must be happening soon. Corey ain't gonna sit around forever.

[Mike Davis]

I don't know when it's happening.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, man, you foreshadowing all right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

I'm just saying, I think the fact that you put him in a cup car says that Toyota thinks a lot about him.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Dude. Yes. I, I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if he's in Riley's car next year.

[TJ Majors]

He filled in for Erik Jones for a while there, didn't he?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Would y' all?

[TJ Majors]

No, I wouldn't. No, I would.

[Mike Davis]

Really, I think. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

Why, why would you.

[Mike Davis]

It's a fully sponsored car.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It won't be fully sponsored with.

[TJ Majors]

You don't think Corey can get.

[Mike Davis]

I don't, I don't know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What.

[Mike Davis]

Yeah, I just know that he's got a fully sponsored car. Also, like, we don't Even know if 2311 is going to have charters next year. Who knows?

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, you probably know.

[Mike Davis]

I have zero information.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I don't know. I, I, I think Corey Heim is.

[TJ Majors]

He doesn't need to waste time with this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, no. I mean, you know what? He could for fun.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, he's got, he's already got a path, though. And Elaine, like, this is where Lane needs to be careful because these guys, if they start coming back, they're going to hinder your progress. You don't have a. Does Lane have a set path? Probably not.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Lane doesn't. So Lane. I don't think that Lane has anything lined up beyond what he's doing right now.

[TJ Majors]

He's got to make it work.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's got to win races. He's. And that's why he's got this attitude. Hey, dude, I don't give a about nobody. You know, I'm racing. He, he's racing for his career. Every lap. All right, it's time to send us pics and videos of your ultimate racing collection for the Lionel Ultimate Racing Collector. We all love our Lionel Diecast. And it doesn't have to be just Diecast, though. You can send us whatever you got. Whatever your collection is, send it over. Last month, our winner had an awesome basement.

[Mike Davis]

Big Dan, I think his name was.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, Big Dan definitely brought it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He had an awesome basement.

[Mike Davis]

Rusty Wallace.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Who says that? Dude. What? I was at your place. Awesome basement.

[TJ Majors]

That sounds creepy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What does? It's weird.

[Mike Davis]

What, what would you like to be?

[TJ Majors]

I don't know. I mean, you, I mean, you had an awesome basement at once.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

This line, right? I'll challenge. I'll, I'm challenging everyone to bring it.

[Mike Davis]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What the is this, 1990?

[Mike Davis]

What would you like it?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And last month, our winner has an awesome, awesome basement.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, he brought it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right. I'm challenging everybody to bring it. I'm challenging everybody to send in your collection to try to win this contest. Last month's winner, Big Dan is that was his name. He had a hell of a collection at a badass bar. Assuming we're presuming it was. It was downstairs man cave. It was a man cave like room. Very well built out. A lot of great collectible things. A lot of cases. Huge Rusty Wallace fan. Huge. Or he just stumbled into a massive Rusty Wallace collection by accident. It's possible. We don't want to make any assumptions. We will be posting on Twitter and Facebook. Respond to those posts with your picks. Your videos if you already have submitted last month, you lost. You're a loser. But you did not bring it. You still got a chance to bring it. To come back, the greatest comeback in collectible history could be you.

[Mike Davis]

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[TJ Majors]

Me and my family love to spend as much time outside as we can, but my girls hated having to deal with the bugs. But that's no longer a problem thanks to Pesty. Plus, with it being kid friendly, I don't have to worry. The best part was how easy they made it. They mailed me my kit and took less than 10 minutes to put together. And with Pesty, I told them where I live, what kind of bugs I was dealing with and they were able to customize the treatment to make sure it wasn't a problem and it was taken care of. Now is the time to protect your home from bugs with pesty. Go to pes.comdel junior for an extra 10% off your order. That's P-E-S-T-I-E.com Dell Junior for an extra.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

10% off 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?

[TJ Majors]

I'm glad they're there. If I were to build a website, I'd have to have somewhere like that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Sounds pretty good. I like building websites. My buddy's new company, they're looking to get people's attention and get people to visit their website and with the built in SEO tools that Squarespace has, they are able to maximize their reach and grow their business faster. Pretty neat. The other feature they really like is Squarespace has everything you need to run an E commerce business, which is important especially for a brand like ours. You know, everything can be done from payment to fulfillment, all with Squarespace. Your business might be brand new, but that won't prevent you from doing business and making money. Head to squarespace.com dalejr for a free trial and when you're ready to launch, use offer code DALEJR D A L E J R to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. All right, so we got Christopher Bell, the winner from the All Star race, joining us here. And thank you, Christopher for giving us some time today. I know you're busy. You got a big week coming up with the 600, which is an exciting race in this season. And we're going on prime for the first time with Amazon, so it should be pretty, pretty interesting to see how the broadcast looks. But thinking back on the All Star race, loved the passion and excitement that you showed on the front straightaway. Every time we see, you know, we have people win races, we love to see how much it means to them. I guess. Talk about that, what was, why was that race or that win so, so exciting for you?

[Christopher Bell]

Well, first off, I want to say thank you for getting us North Wilkesboro Speedway back.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That I can't. Wish I could take all the credit, but it's been fun being a part of that process. To be honest with you. I did it selfish reasons just to get it scanned for NASCAR or for iracing. And then we ended up doing that late model race there and got Marcus's mind going. But, yeah, it's a hell of a racetrack. Looks like a lot of fun to race on it.

[Christopher Bell]

Dude, it is awesome, man. Like, I. I just can't believe how good a repave track is. Like, yeah, I mean, you've. You've lived through repaves, I'm sure way more than me. And normally, repaves are terrible, and everyone dreads going to them. But this. This reconfiguration, the new pavement, it. It adheres to the tire really well. You move around. It's. It's. I mean, it genuinely is one of the best short tracks, if not the best short track that we have on the calendar. Like, it's. It's awesome. And just to see the passion that the fans have for that place is, you know, the. The atmosphere is electric, and it's. It really is a unique. A unique experience going there for the all star race. And every time we've been there, the fans have showed up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What's it like riding the elevator up to victory lane?

[Christopher Bell]

So I Literally, from the first time I saw the elevator ride, I think it was a late model race. That one late model race after you guys, we'd whacked all the grass out, I'm like, dude, that is freaking cool. That is got to be one of the top three victory lanes. And so I. I've been wanted. Wanting to do that for a long time. And it was. It was a very special moment that I will cherished for the rest of my life.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, man, it's awesome to. To win the all star race. It. It is an exhibition, but it is something that I think a lot of drivers kind of like a Daytona 500, it's cool to have on your resume as we pivot and go to the 600 at Charlotte. I feel like that the 600 at Charlotte has been one of the top, most entertaining races for the series over the last couple of years. What's the driver's perspective about going there and racing? I know the mile and a half stuff looks like a lot of fun for us to watch. Not exactly sure what it's like behind the wheel, but give us a little insight.

[Christopher Bell]

Yeah, I mean, the. For whatever reason, the mile and a half stuff has been really good for the next gen car. And it. Charlotte has. Has really become. The Charlotte oval has become one of the best tracks on the schedule for, you know, this rules package in the car that we have today, it races really, really good and it's surprising because normally, the next gen car doesn't take bumps very well. And Charlotte turns three and four is probably one of the roughest tracks on the. On the schedule. But it's. Yeah, it just. You have options. You have different lanes, and that allows you to get big runs off the corner and make passes. So it definitely. Race is really good. And I think it's more of a product of the racetrack than the. You know, than the. The 600 miles or. Obviously, the Coca Cola 600 is a marquee event, and it's a crown jewel, But I think it really comes down to Charlotte's just a great track, and it fits. It fits this rules package that we're in right now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You talked about the bumps in three and four. What are your options getting down in the corner? Can you go under those bumps? Is there a way to. You know, obviously, maybe they're not as bad up atop the corner racetrack. Where do you not want to be in that corner?

[Christopher Bell]

Yeah, so they. They are bad on the top, for sure. And last year, I remember I tried to really blitz the top of 3 and 4 on. On low air pressure, and. And my car actually bottomed out pretty bad and caught me off guard. But it seems like if you're gonna run the bottom, it takes a really big arc because it's rougher on the. The lower part of the track on entry to three. So it takes a really big arc to get down to the bottom. To miss that, the large. Whatever it is down there, I don't even know. It feels like mountains. Whenever the tires start to age, you lose that ability to arc that big, whether you get loosened or tied in. And then it just starts paying off. To start rounding that entry and keeping your momentum up around the top. They've really hit some. Hit on something really good with the. The track treatment, I think. I don't even know if it's resin. I think it is resin that they put on the top half of the track. And like, turns one and two, there's. There's a little bit more grip the higher you go. And obviously, the shortest distance down there is better on new tires. So it's just. It's a place that moves around a lot, has good. Good options, and that's what it takes to have good racing nowadays with this car.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You've talked about the intermediates kind of being somewhere. Y' all need to get a little bit stronger. You. Yeah, y' all have. Y' all have. Y' all had. Been there. Y' all were. Y' all seem to have really good speed last year. How. How help us kind of understand how you. How you lose that. How. How do you find yourself and where do you go looking, I guess, to gain back that competitive strength?

[Christopher Bell]

Yeah, that. So that's a great question, and it's the same question that I've been asking my team and, and I'm sure Adam's been, like, looking at me, being like, dude, I don't know what's on going tell you. And certainly at the end of last year, it felt like intermediates were really, really good. We had great races at Kansas and Vegas. Even Homestead was pretty good for me in the fall last year. And then we go back this year. I think Vegas was the first intermediate track, and it just was a little bit off. And obviously Kansas was a little bit off. Darlington. Anytime we have that big diffuser and bigger spoiler, the on car, we just haven't had the pace to contend for, you know, leading laps and stage wins, race wins. But I will say our. Our teammates have been close. Like, Denny has been really fast at a couple of these tracks. He won Darlington, so we don't have to look far, but we're. For whatever reason, I don't know if we're trying the same stuff that we did last year, and then other guys have just learned and improved a bit. Little, little bit. But certainly the 20 team has been off of our teammates, so it is refreshing knowing that it's. It's in our company and, and that just shows that the. The Toyota cars and we have all the resources and the tools to. To be competitive. We just got to work on the details a little bit more and, and get it to where I can hold my right foot down a little bit further.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Is it an overall grip thing? Is it a. You know, is it. You lose front grip, rear grip, or just overall grip? So.

[Christopher Bell]

It'S interesting because. So I'm going to use Kansas and North Wilkesboro as examples. Here at Kansas, I go out to practice, and I actually felt really good about my car, and I thought my balance was nice. And I come in, I tell Adam, we got it this time. He goes, okay, look at the lap times. And it was just off. Like, we were close to half a second off at certain times in the run throughout practice, specifically compared to the Hendrick cars. And I'm like, oh, that's. That's not good. Whenever I'm feeling comfortable in the car, I like my balance. And then we go to North Wilkesboro this weekend, and I was completely sideways to Unload off the truck and practice like just loose as a goose. And in our pace was fast. So I'm like, man, that's a. That's a really good sign. And it was really eye opening that like when. Whenever you have the car potential, when you have the speed, you have it, and then sometimes you don't have it. So I knew at North Wilkesboro, like, we got the balance. If we got the balance in, I was going to be able to compete. And then that heat race, they hit it perfect and I was able to drive away. I felt like we were a little bit better in the heat race than we were on the main event on Saturday night. But, yeah, the low downforce stuff has been pretty good. We need a little bit more on the intermediate package.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right on, man. Well, you got 600 miles this weekend to dial her in and know you're gonna have a lot of fun out there. We'll be watching and enjoying the broadcast. So thanks for giving us some time today. Looking forward to seeing the rest of your season and hopefully working your way into the playoffs and going for that championship, bud.

[Christopher Bell]

Thank you, guys. We'll see you next time.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, thank you. Hey, NASCAR fans, it's time for Ash Jr. Here with TJ Majors and myself in the Dirtymo Media studio Tuesday. And it's dirty air. And it's also time to talk about some Xfinity WI Fi booming. You know booming speeds when you see it, tj. I do the Xfinity WI Fi well. It's booming like the roar of a NASCAR engine on race day. It's as fast as a V8 engine and as reliable as an elite pit crew. Xfinity WI Fi gives you the power and the speed of NASCAR in your home. Choose the right plan for you, and you're off to the races with the best streaming experience for NASCAR and all your favorite sports. Because Xfinity WI fi is booming. They just don't raise the bar. They stream in overdrive. Xfinity, they're a proud premier partner of nascar. I'm going to try to open up the chat. There it is. All right. Good to see everybody. Good to be here. Hello from Des Moines, Iowa. Good morning from Greensboro, North Carolina. Awesome to have everybody join us today. Hello from Australia. Good to hear from you. Texas. New Zealand.

[TJ Majors]

Whoa.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, man. It's Maine. All right. I was just talking to Latart this morning. Central Texas. I love this technology. It's bringing us all together.

[TJ Majors]

What's the tarte got to do with any of that?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's From Maine. Oh, I am excited to get to these questions. So let's get started. Andrew's here with us.

[Emily]

Yes. This first one is from the YouTube chat. Emily wants to know, did you hear your Morgan Wallen reference your dad in a new song on his new album?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Emily]

What'd you think of that?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I always like it when, well, I always like it when they talk nice about dad. Anytime, you know, his. Anytime he's kind of referenced in a song, I think it's kind of cool. Especially as, you know, we, we, you know, it's a different generation, younger people appreciating his legacy and all that good stuff. It's kind of cool how his legacy has lived on and continues to be, you know, kind of something discussed in pop culture.

[Emily]

This next question, let's see, is coming from Dylan. You know, the Indy 500 is on Sunday. You've been showered with beer before. What are your thoughts on the milk shower? And, and would you be, would you be all right with that as race car driver?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. You won the Indy 500? I don't really. There would be just a few select things that I wouldn't want dumped on me under any occasion. But if I'm, you know. You went to the Indy 500, I don't think you care. Milk or beer? Champagne, whatever.

[TJ Majors]

Buffalo sauce.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Buffalo sauce. What about that green stuff from Nickelodeon?

[TJ Majors]

Slime?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Emily]

Have you been slimed?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I've never been slimed. Wow. Kind of wish I that would have happened, but that ship is sailed.

[Emily]

Remember the, the race at Chicagoland?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Nobody's sliming old 50 year old man. All right. We can find them, right? We're not doing it just to do it.

[Emily]

Yeah, you got to win. You got to win something.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It would have been cool to have happened back in the day when I was popular and it would have been, you know, and I might have had a reason to go on Nickelodeon and get slimed. I think Truex got slimed on Nickelodeon. Well. Or in victory lane. Yeah, in victory lane for the Nickelodeon race.

[Emily]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There you go. Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

What could have been.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep.

[Emily]

Kenzie wants to know, with the, you know, the Coke 600 this weekend, your home track growing up, do you have a favorite memory as a kid running around the Coke 600?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Charlotte was great because we didn't get to go to, we didn't get to go to all the races. And so we knew we weren't going to miss Charlotte. So you knew the whole family was going to be there. The Earnhardts and the Yuries always parked in the last turn of the road course. So the road course, the traditional road course that they run, has always been there in the infield. And we always parked up on very top of the outside of the last turn. You know where that wall is that divides the road courses, the entry to the road course, and the exit. We. We parked kind of right up on top of that hill, and that wall wasn't there, but it was a pretty good vantage point to be able to see over the rest of the trucks and campers to watch the cars go through Turns 1 and 2 and around the rest of the racetrack. And then they built the suites, the condos, and we went and stayed. You know, we'd go and hang out in the condos, and that was fun. It was a little stuffy in there. You know, you had to be dressed up a little bit more. You weren't wearing T shirts and jeans and getting dirty and playing in the mud and dirt with your friends in the infield. I, you know, but I just, you know, just always went. I don't know. I don't really have a memory that stands out. I mean, that all. The all star race in 87 was a vibe. I mean, damn, that was a wild. That was a wild day. But I remember, you know, I remember dad winning, and I remember us having some tough races there. Blown motors.

[Emily]

But, yeah, let's see, with Memorial. Another Memorial Day question. What is your. Must have hot dog and burger toppings. Are you a ketchup on a hot dog guy?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Sure.

[Emily]

You make some Chicagoans upset.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Really?

[Mike Davis]

Oh, no, they hate it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So.

[TJ Majors]

Are you serious?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's so stupid.

[Emily]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

You can't put ketchup on a hot dog in Chicago.

[Emily]

No.

[Mike Davis]

There's establishments that won't even provide ketchup.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, interesting.

[TJ Majors]

Dang.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I put ketchup, mustard, and I like dill relish, but. But mostly. Probably. I don't really deal. Relish isn't actually that important.

[TJ Majors]

No, it's disgusting.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't like the other relish, the regular relish. Like, I like dill relish, but I need chili, ketchup and mustard. That's pretty simple. Now on Che. On the burger. Yeah. Cheese, ketchup, mustard, pickle, no tomato.

[Mike Davis]

No, no, don't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, no, no tomato.

[Mike Davis]

No.

[TJ Majors]

On every. Everything ever.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Now I eat tomato. By. I mean, I'll eat tomato on bread with salt and pepper. Man.

[Emily]

Wait, just.

[TJ Majors]

Just so disgusting.

[Emily]

Just bread and tomato sandwich.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, it's disgusting.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Tomato sandwich.

[Emily]

I've never heard of that.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, yeah. That's disgusting.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Really? Yeah. My dad used to eat them all the time.

[Emily]

Really?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Emily]

Damn.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You gotta get like, you know, nice big ripe tomatoes. Not no little stuff. It's gotta be so big that it almost takes up the whole piece of bread.

[Mike Davis]

So how can you not put it on a burger and like it, but you can like it on its own?

[Emily]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know.

[Emily]

Tomato is very much a topping. You gotta blend with other stuff. Forget about it.

[TJ Majors]

I have.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You have had a tomato sandwich.

[Emily]

Oh, no, not a tomato sandwich.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So you have it.

[Mike Davis]

Can we make. Can we have him try one on? Ask Junior.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Major sandwich is the best. Thank you, Blake.

[Emily]

I will try it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Tomato and mayo sandwich. Brandon, how do I. Tomato sandwich. Yum. Pamela. Everybody else seems to think it's perfectly fine.

[Emily]

I've never heard. I just. I've never heard of it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, that's okay.

[Mike Davis]

Cause you're 12.

[TJ Majors]

So.

[Emily]

Wait. If I were to do this. If I were to. I'll eat a tomato sandwich. What type of bread?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Put some Hellman's mayo on the bread. It doesn't matter what kind of bread. But traditionally, yeah, a little bit of mayo, not a ton mayo. Right. People think you got a cake. Don't just put regular spread of mayo, salt and pepper on. Put the tomato on there, salt and pepper, and then make it and eat it quick.

[Emily]

What would it take to get you to eat one of those?

[TJ Majors]

Nothing. I'm not doing it for nothing.

[Emily]

It's not a price.

[TJ Majors]

No, there's a price, but $5? No, I'm not even.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

$10.

[TJ Majors]

No.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

$20. You need to add a lot of $5.

[TJ Majors]

No.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

25.50.

[TJ Majors]

No.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

25. 75. We've got to be getting close because I know how cheap.

[TJ Majors]

No, let's start at a thousand.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, damn, dude.

[TJ Majors]

I hate tomatoes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, he just doesn't like tomatoes. It ain't so much that he doesn't like the sandwich idea. Just not a tomato guy.

[TJ Majors]

No, I'm not. Tomato guy. Sandwich idea is not bad at all.

[Emily]

Alright, so we'll do the same without the tomato.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Boo says to toast it. That's not a bad idea. Oh yeah.

[TJ Majors]

All right.

[Emily]

I like that. Yeah, we'll have Mikey eat one of those sandwiches.

[TJ Majors]

Have you ever tried liver mush?

[Emily]

I've not tried liver.

[TJ Majors]

I. You cooked it that one time so good.

[Emily]

What this? I might get, you know, crucified for this. But what exactly is.

[TJ Majors]

We don't ask that, we just.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Emily]

Sounds.

[TJ Majors]

No, I mean when he cooked it, the time I tried it, it was burnt and I just put Ketchup on and ate it. So it was all right.

[Emily]

So is it like a meat?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, probably.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's like a meat. It's some. It's got meat. Cut it really thin and you make it really crispy.

[Emily]

Oh, that doesn't look bad.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, you make it crispy. Look, don't. Don't worry about what it looks like before you cook it. It's not fun. Cut it thin, put it in a frying pan and flip it and make it crispy. Custard.

[TJ Majors]

Cover it with ketchup.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, ketchup. Ketchup.

[TJ Majors]

Oh, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Jesus.

[TJ Majors]

Cover it with ketchup.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Stop that. You put mustard on it or you don't put anything on it.

[Mike Davis]

How about cheese?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You could. Yeah, you could, I guess. And then you make it a sandwich. You can eat it by itself though. You know who's a massive fan of livermush is Stenhouse. Really? Yeah. Huh. It's me and Stenhouse. We text about.

[Emily]

That's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's what you buy anytime I'm eating it or cooking it.

[TJ Majors]

What are you doing?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Vice versa?

[TJ Majors]

Eating a Livermore sandwich. What do you think I was doing?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Because it's like we're the only two in the world that like it.

[Mike Davis]

Their text back and forth is just liver mush.

[Emily]

And then like the occasional happy birthday.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No.

[Emily]

Oh.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't. Wait. I don't really send many happy birthday text messages.

[Emily]

It's hard. There's a lot.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

A lot of letters.

[Emily]

It is. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Too much work. It's a lot of work. If it doesn't. It doesn't like spell it out for me. I gotta type in the H, A.

[TJ Majors]

P. Oh, it's so nice. Now. Like a keyboard shortcut, you know? The best thing they did is stop when you did want to type a word. It doesn't correct that word to something else now. You know what I mean? Like there was a lot. When you type a swear word, it would always correct it. Now it doesn't do that.

[Emily]

Duck.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. Yes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Have any of y' all ever ate Spam?

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Mike Davis]

At it once.

[Emily]

Wait, what is it?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Is that meat Spam? It's kind of like a baloney.

[Mike Davis]

It is Sizzle pork. Mm.

[TJ Majors]

What?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't think I'm a big fan of it. I would eat it. I don't. I would not eat it. But I'm not something. Not something I seek out. I hadn't had that forever.

[Mike Davis]

What if you're in Hawaii, would you have it? Cuz that's like where it's popular.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ Majors]

I didn't know that.

[Mike Davis]

Yeah, like it's served everywhere.

[TJ Majors]

Hawaiian rolls. I guess I would Spam and Hawaiian rolls.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean I'm sure they make it taste pretty good make. I'm sure they add a couple other things to it.

[Mike Davis]

You know, my grandfather always had some spam at the house.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

See from Hawaii you ever had someone.

[Emily]

Said nasty in the group chat? Group chat?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, we don't know what they're referring to. There's a lot of things.

[TJ Majors]

It could have been tomatoes, liver, mush. Could have been anything.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Thank you Xfinity for bringing us this this Ask Junior segment today. Thanks for supporting us here at the at the Dale Jr. Download DirtyMome Media and be sure to check out the Xfinity WI Fi and experience the booming speeds for yourself. It's fast and for NASCAR fans, that just means that you get a great streaming experience and you can, you can enjoy NASCAR and all your all your favorite sports. Because Xfinity WI Fi is booming. They don't just raise the bar. You're streaming in overdrive with Xfinity, a proud premier partner of nascar.

[TJ Majors]

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[Mike Davis]

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[TJ Majors]

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[Mike Davis]

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[TJ Majors]

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[TJ Majors]

Check out the full lineup and get 50% off your first order at truewerk.com dalejr that's 15% off at T R U-E-R K.com Dell Jr Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Place your bets, everybody. It's time for Dirty Modo with Tampa Kim's. And the professor is here. Russell, thanks for coming back.

[Russell]

Thanks for having me.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I appreciate it. This segment of Dirty Modo is brought to you by FanDuel, the premier gaming destination in the United States of America. Good old usa. Last week, Russ was big on Logano and Blaney. Good thing we didn't tell any of those bets.

[Russell]

We were close, but we did avoid Keselowski.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, maybe we get a refund for being close. I'm not sure how this works.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, refunds.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Do we get the refund for being close? Did we not say top five for those guys? Oh, we did. Well, did anybody make any good bets that cashed?

[Tampa Kim]

I don't know if it was a good bet, but Chris bush or top 10?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Be careful. Travis is sitting next to you. He will let you know.

[Tampa Kim]

I bet Chris bush are top 10, and, boy, was that a sweat the whole race. I don't think he touched the top.

[TJ Majors]

No. Yeah.

[Tampa Kim]

And then he finished struggle. So I was like, oh, my God. So good for that.

[TJ Majors]

But, yeah, you still won.

[Tampa Kim]

Yeah, yeah, it doesn't matter. I'm happy with that.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, he still won't, but I had.

[Tampa Kim]

Bubba to win the Open, too, and that was frustrating.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There was a lot going on in that race, especially at the end. A lot of guys that were fading. Some guys that gained a ton of track position late, like Chastain, that held on to it, kind of screwed up a bunch of bets, I'm sure.

[Tampa Kim]

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I had Brad in a matchup bet, too, I think, against Kyle, so that was tough to. To see, tj, but we were right.

[TJ Majors]

Around each other for a while.

[Tampa Kim]

Yeah, it was. It was gonna be a good race. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, for the Coke 600, see here the top five. Larson's at plus 500. Reddick and Hamlin plus. Plus 700. Bell and Blaney plus 750. Russ, do you agree with all that?

[Russell]

I agree with all that. I'd add William Byron in there as well, but other than that, those are. Those are my top five.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right. Tim's.

[Tampa Kim]

Yeah, I. Byron, I had started at plus 900. I like that a lot. I think he should be up There with those guys. A little bit more on the odds.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, so there's some feature featured matchups this week. Christopher Bell versus William Byron. What do we think?

[Tampa Kim]

I like the Denny over Kyle Larson1.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Wait, wait, wait.

[TJ Majors]

Easy, Travis.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, Christopher Bell versus William Byron. Do we have the predictor for that? Russell?

[Russell]

They're like, right on each other. And look, listen to this. So that they've been in the next gen car 120 times together.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep.

[Russell]

Byron's finished better 61 times, bell 59 times.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like Reddick. What about Tyler, Reddick, Blaney?

[Russell]

It's almost the same thing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like, damn, you could. I just don't. Damn.

[Russell]

They are 60 versus 60. But when you look at, like, mile and a half tracks, I would. I would lean towards Redick. He's a little better, but it's like by 1:1 position.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'll take Blaney then. I don't see. I don't get a feeling that Reddick is putting his best performance on here lately.

[TJ Majors]

And you didn't like him in Kansas.

[Russell]

Redick has never finished outside the top 10 in the 605.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's going to happen. Denny, Hamlin, Larson.

[Russell]

You got to lean Larson a little bit.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It leans Larson, Kyle Busch, Alex Bowman.

[Mike Davis]

Hold on, Tim. That's when you wanted. Right.

[Tampa Kim]

Yeah, I disagree. I think anytime the doubles in play, I think you just fade. Larson, I think you feel.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Fade that. Okay.

[Tampa Kim]

I don't think there's a lot of focus there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah. Kyle Busch and Bowman, this is.

[Russell]

This is the only one that I feel confident that it's Bowman.

[TJ Majors]

Because Kyle's gonna spin out. Duh.

[Russell]

I mean, and recently, he's done much better on the mile and a half tracks than.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Russell]

Kyle Busch.

[TJ Majors]

So Alex has been sneaky fast lately, like, quiet.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, he has. Yeah. And both of them. Both of them have a hard time, like, getting to the finish. Right. They'll have. Both of them. I think both of them will be. Have moments in the 600, but it's the. I struggle, like, feeling confident about which one's going to have the night, you know, like, at the end of the day, on paper, like, which one's going to have the better result? Because I honestly feel like both of them will probably look pretty similar.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, there's no line. There's no official lines out on any of these yet. But be interested. I think if I had to go through the four, I would say Christopher Bell, Blaney, Larson, Bowman. That'll be mine.

[Mike Davis]

Russ, what's. What is the Predictor. What are some other drivers that are the predictors high on?

[Russell]

So I think the, the sleeper one would be Josh Berry. Like he, he's 11th on the predictor and that's way higher than he normally is. You know, one Las Vegas, he was sixth in the last mile and a half race and just has, has run way better recently. So I think that's the one we got to look at. Maybe top 10 bet. I, I think winning is a little of a stretch, but. And then, and then if you're not looking for another like maybe top 10 bet, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. I know it's a surprise prize, but he's been seventh and two of the last three six hundreds. He's been top 15 and seven of the last nine six hundreds.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Russell]

Running right there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The thing about the 600 is you, that extra 100 miles, while maybe it doesn't seem like a massive addition, it does add to, it does create opportunity for guys like Stenhouse to, you know, overachieve a bit by a few positions. Right. And to your point, I think that's this, is this race always, you know, puts the mental side of it to a test.

[Mike Davis]

Could you feel it when you were in the car? Like, okay, like, oh yeah, you would.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Get to lap, you would get to the 500th mile and you'd go into reserves. Right. Because your body and everything about your mental, everything, you're like muscle memory giving. Well, no, like you're, you're every week you're doing the same distance pretty much and your body is trained to like expend all of its mental and physical ability in that period of time. And when you get to that moment in that file, in that 600 mile race, you go into reserves and that last 100 miles is really where you see who's, who's mentally strong, who's got, you know, who's got the most in the tank. It'll be in its opportunity for, for guys like Stenhouse that will be smart, take care of their car, run 20th, 18th, 17th, 15th, and by the end of the night they'll get up there and snag a couple spots and find themselves with a, you know, a 10th, 11th, 12th place finish in this long race. It's a long race, just another 100 miles longer than most. But it, it's that 100 miles might, might as well be another 300, to be honest with you. So that, that'll. I, I don't know if I have as much confidence in some of the other things we've said here today, but I think that Stenhouse bets a pretty good one.

[Russell]

Dale, we don't, we don't do 500 mile races on mile and a half tracks anymore either.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So.

[Russell]

Yeah, like this is like all our 500 mile races are super speedways. So this is, this is even more taxing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's a great point. Yep, it's a great point. So it's just always been a race where you've had, you know, you've had guys like McDowell or you can see some of these guys in the back getting those top 15s or maybe even that fringe top 10 that, you know it's going to be that, that one of three or four top tens that they're going to get throughout the year and just kind of taking. Taking a risk on who that might be. But we'll see.

[TJ Majors]

You got something different, Tims.

[Tampa Kim]

I like a lot of what the professor said. I would add maybe Almondinger to that list. Although obviously he's had a lot of, you know, engine failures and stuff like that.

[TJ Majors]

I would put Brad in there. This one, this is the Brad's type of race. Are you, are you against that one too?

[Tampa Kim]

I like that Professor.

[TJ Majors]

I'm talking the professor over here.

[Russell]

He's very, very low on my predictor this week.

[TJ Majors]

Perfect.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hold on.

[TJ Majors]

That's exactly what I wanted to hear.

[Mike Davis]

We have. There's tears in this predictor. What tier is he in, Russ?

[Russell]

He is. He is in tier three.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, perfect. Now there's tears in TJ's eyes.

[TJ Majors]

Now there's not. This is just fuel for the fire here, man. This is good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Now I will at some point.

[Russell]

He was runner up last year, right? You're a runner up last year.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. Do you not remember him getting ready to pass bell before the rain came? That probably predictor doesn't show that we don't remember that. Yeah.

[Russell]

Fast at Kansas and he had some speed in the All Star race, so. All right, well, I'm a little nervous about that. But I still think you're not outside the top 10.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I will. No, I think let's take, let's do a Brad Keselowski, Stenhouse, Josh Berry Top 10. I want only one I'm really worried about. There is Josh. I think Josh has a speed but does he have the mental fortitude for the 600 miles? Where to your point his. You know they're running traditionally 400 miles. There's a giant chunk of more racing to do. More trying to get through things without making mistakes.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah, I, I don't I'm not worried about from what I've seen with my eyes. Issue with Josh. Yeah, I'm not worried. He's matured a bunch and I really. I think Josh has come a long way.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right. Thank you so much. Appreciate you coming through, Professor. Thank you, Tim.

[Tampa Kim]

Thank you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Thank you, fanduel, for bringing this dirty movie do segment, the premier gaming destination in the United States. Now it's time for the white flag. All right. The teardown was live on Sunday on YouTube and Twitter. They were joined by the poll winner of the 2025 Indy 500. That's rookie Robert Schwartzman.

[Mike Davis]

That's pretty impressive, rookie to get the poll.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Never ran an oval. Wow. What a car, dude. Yeah, I mean, he's talented, too, but damn, that car must be good.

[TJ Majors]

Yeah. How many guys are wrecking, though? Holy cow.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I know. It's treacherous actions detrimental. And door bumper clear dropped on Monday. And this week's episode for the Dale Jr. Download guest edition on Wednesday has three guests.

[Mike Davis]

I'm looking forward to this one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I am, too. Laney Bice, Jade Avedisian, and Isabella Robusto. Those three now, you know there's a lot of talented female drivers out there, but I wanted to bring in three that I've been paying attention to. I've had the chance to really watch them race over the last couple years, want to get to know them. And so it ought to be a lot of fun talking to them and seeing where they are in their careers. And then also on Wednesday, we have speed street. You won't want to miss this one. Lots of drama going on with all of the issues with cars passing tech and so forth. Cars getting in the fence, a lot of crashing. Connor Daly is going to bring us all up to speed and we're going to see also what he's been going through with his own personal experience trying to get ready for the Indy 500. Herman Schrader also drop on Wednesday. Junior Motorsports and Dirty Mo media fan day is this Thursday, May 22nd at Junior Motorsports shop here in Mooresville. Autograph sessions, food trucks, live shows on the Lionel stage. Sirius XM radio is broadcasting all day. Bless your heart. Live at noon. Door bumper clear will kick it off at one. Jordan's gonna be joining them as well, Mr. Bianchi. And then if you want more information about that, go to dirtymomedia.com fan day 2025. And don't forget about our. Also don't forget about our our [e-mail].

[Mike Davis]

We got some New stuff New stuff.

[TJ Majors]

Check it out.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Nerdymomedia.com Go see the new merch. New stuff out. Tell me what you like. Tell what you don't like. We'll see you next week.

[TJ Majors]

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