Would Hocevar's Driving Style Be Accepted By Older Generations of NASCAR?

- The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. - This is the most fun I've had in this chair in the last hour and a half. - I don't know if we've ever argued. Did I piss y'all over the weekend or? - I'm still soured at all what the best man at your wedding. - Who was your best man, Dale? - TJ. [laughing] - TJ. - You don't need a cool best for that race. What are you thinking? - Get 'em, DJ. Hellboy, it's starting to show. - All right then. - Hey everybody, it's Dale Junior back again for another episode of the Dale Junior Download. We are in the Arby's studio and this episode is presented by Arby's and their new meat and three bucks. You get more meal for your money at Arby's, we have the meats. We have a great show for you today. A lot, I got a lot to tell you. All right, so my buddy, Sean Broly, if you remember the old nationwide commercial with Sonny and Sean, my best buds. Sean has a chicken coop, gives me some eggs, when they tell you or when you hear that they're better, those eggs are better than store bought, they ain't lying. This egg sandwich that I had this morning was fantastic. - What was on it? - Egg and mayonnaise. I didn't have time to cooking bacon. So it was, Amy did it. - Cheese. - I was five minutes from leaving the house to take the kids, we had a very small window. Egg, a little mayo toast. That was my sandwich. - You know the eggs good, if that's all it's on it, and it was a good sandwich. - And it was, it's like, this egg was like, hey man, don't even add any salt, no pepper needed. - But you better put some mayonnaise in there. - I have lots of flavor. - But I need mayonnaise. - I thought maybe, you need that for the bread. - I know, I thought maybe bread egg was just a little too plain. - Yeah, you need a little something. - Yeah. - Amy's gotta step up her bread game. - These were decisions that were made at split second. - Made of the executive level. - Yeah. - This wasn't a daily call. - Split second decisions, kind of like being in the draft at Daytona. Open up the door with a refrigerator, grab something. Mayo. Okay, we're out of here. Let's get the toast, into the toaster. Quick. Bam, bam. It was fast. - Yeah, it was like a pit stop. You ain't got time to do that. - The next thing you know, we've let a lap. We're leading the field. - That's a nice day for me to make you that sandwich. - Oh yeah. Tamlet don't make you sandwich. - Can she make three next week? Can't bring them into us? - Tamlet don't do it. - No, I'm not getting an egg in my sandwich now. - All right. - Amy is amazing. She was awesome this morning. She gave me some advice. I had some, I had some, I had a little, I had a little thing and I was trying to figure out with work and she gave me some advice that made me feel confident in my decision. Love mornings like this. - Let's go Amy. - Yeah. Like Amy coming out tomorrow. - Yeah. Oh yeah. - Nope. - Well, Thursday. - Anyhow, also, I busted the (beep) out of my elbow. I did. It hurts. - It was funny. - Not just now. I did this at home. So, Amy, if you're a dad, TJ, you have experienced this. I get, we have a routine at night where we put the kids down to bed. I put Nicole to bed. Nicole always wants to read a book and most nights we do. If we're getting to bed on time, we read a book. So, I go to sit in her bed to open up and read this book. Amy has changed the end tables. They're collar. And I'm not the (beep) out of my left elbow. On this thing, I sat down in that bed like jumped into it and landed on my elbow on this end table and holy fracking a it hurts. It's really sore. I already had tennis elbow in this elbow. - Now it hurts twice. - Now I got two things happening. Speaking of elbows, did you guys see my man, Jaden Daniels dislocated the left elbow? - Thankfully, I have not seen the video and I don't know on it. - It happened last year and it looked exactly the same. So, Jaden Daniels, the quarterback for the Washington commanders, he dislocated his elbow. He fell on it, losing his balance last year. So, he tried to land, he tried to catch his fall and his elbow dislocated and it was like, what the hell? And he missed four weeks, came back wearing a brace and landed on it and re-injured it. He didn't dislocate it a second time, but he had too much pain, left the game. And we're like, what the hell? So, there's no, you can get surgery for this. I've just, this is all, I have learned a lot of medical knowledge on X in the last 24 years. - And we know that's where all the doctors are all. - I am very out there. I could almost perform the surgery at this point. - Easily. - I guess, for a dislocated shoulder, you can get surgery to make the tendons a little more, make the joint more stable. But for what he does to catch a 210 pound body falling down on the ground the next time, surgery's not gonna keep the elbow from dislocating again. It's just, it's one of those things where once it happens, it's kind of like, it's easier to happen. - It's easier to happen again. - It's potential for that to happen. Yeah. And so, here we are, week two. The, I think the left guard stood on his foot at the hike of the ball under center. And fourth down, three seconds left in the first half. Should have, yeah, should have been kicking the field goal there, should have done it. - I think it's cool, the coach had confidence in them to score. - I agree. - Listen, it's hindsight is nice. But anyways, that's not why he got hurt. He stumbles backwards, puts his arm in the dirt and it fricking dislocates again, identical. Here we are, two weeks into the season. We're gonna lose our quarterback for about four weeks, minimum, and when he comes back, is he gonna really play the rest of the year? - Nope, season's over. - Yeah, season's over, but what about his career? I mean, how? - And he not wear just a brace or something to help strengthen it? - He's going to have to wear a brace, the rest of his career. And it needs to be one bad (beep) brace. - Yeah, it looks like Robocop or something. - It needs to be super bad ass. But he needs to wear the brace if he wants to play. He's a bad ass quarterback. And he was really, really good in that game up into that point. They put, they left so many points on the field. They came so close to scoring on a couple trick plays. They had a touchdown that was a touchdown that NFL said wasn't a touchdown. That was (beep) but there was about 21 to 28 points laying right there for them. And they could have made this a really close game with Dallas. But what's interesting is Caleb Williams goes out with Chicago. We now learn that it's a very mild hamstring injury. And he felt like it was much more severe. - God, I thought he was done for the year. - I thought they're going to amputate his leg. - I know. - He caught, well, he catching a lot of (beep) that he is. - But you know, sometimes you just don't know. - Yeah. - And only he knows how much pain that was in the moment. And then Jackson Dart last night with the knee. - I know. - That looked really bad. But apparently, you know, he's back out on the sidelines, wanting to get back in the game. So maybe after, you know, it's an ML, MCL. - MCL I think. - One or two level strain, whatever. - Could have been worse. - So, but, you know, what's going on? What is going on? Like. - It's a hard, it's a hard-hitting sport. - Yeah. - I feel like it's like this every year with, yeah. - I, I'm gonna tell ya, man. Listen, somebody showed me some statistics that would come, that would conflict with this statement. But I feel like when I watch football in the 80s, your day I'm starting quarterback, usually made it all year long without issue. Now, I know my guy thighs and my broken leg. - The players are bigger, faster, stronger. - And ligaments haven't gotten better. - That's it. - I agree. - That's it. - Yeah. - I remember when I was a kid-- - Back in March, I-- - I know. I hate to say this, but it's true. I feel like, you know, players were less likely to go out of games injured. You had receivers. - Yeah. - I remember just, you know. - That was your starters all the time. - I remember Washington had a group of receivers like Art Muck and Sanders and Clark, that they were just on the field all the time. - Every play. - Yeah, they didn't have these mild injuries that seemed to be nagging and they did, you know, players do injure and players did injure back then. But it was just way more rare. And I think that's a great point. Players have gotten faster. The game has gotten faster. The hits, the cuts, the things they're asking their bodies to do just in non-contact play is a lot tougher. And you're right, ligaments haven't changed. And so it just sucks 'cause, you know, you invest in these players emotionally and mentally. And you, you, you, what-- I mean, not every team's like this. I'm sure with Josh Allen, you don't feel this way. way TJ, but when I, when I watch Washington play, I am nervous, any, I'm nervous for, oh, I'm nervous every play. I'm nervous every play. I'm nervous every play that I'm going to lose a key. Oh, yeah, individual on the team. Yeah, even, even a daughter, a tackle or anybody. Oh, God. Yeah. Like anybody. We lost, we lost our left tackle, a badass in, in the, in the, in the, in the training camp, he tore his peg, yeah, peg muscle. He's out for the year. I do remember, though, the most important player on our offensive line. Yeah, you need him. Oh, there's so many issues. Do you remember whenever, um, like, there actually was a decent amount of injuries because like the giants had, um, Jeff Hossettler come in for Phil Sims, Bill's had Frank right come in and play in Super Bowl. Yeah. So, yeah, it just wasn't, I don't know, I, maybe I didn't look at it as hard as a kid, but now I'm watching every play on Michael. Something about it feels more common, more, dude, we had at the, like at the, it's, it feels like it's not like this for every team. Every team is a little different, like the frequency of injuries. It feels like for Washington at least, we'll play a game and we got five dudes that have, that have got some pretty, you know, concerning injuries in their five guys that I, you know, we need on the field. Every game we have like a pretty important, you know, person go down and it feels like I don't really watch other teams as closely. Obviously not being as big a fan, but feels like that, you know, you guys get, you guys get through games without really losing a key player. Yeah. I feel like we're always, you feel like it's. Oh, yeah. Looking at the injury report, I mean, we were out a couple of players for the game. Yeah. At Oliver went out before the game in Pratt and warm-ups. He got hurt in practice before the game. Well, it's like our best defensive line. Yeah. It does feel like injuries in NFL are, are rapidly increasing in frequency. Do you think it's because of, I was saying about this because we're more in tune because of, we, we actually play more attention. Well, we play fan and football. So we know probably a lot more players and also the social media stuff during the week. We don't, we've never really heard about injuries during the week before. And now if a player leaves on anything of a player, we know right away from a reporter. It's a different time, man. So for sure, I, I enjoy being a fan and I like our, you know, fans football. I'm having a terrible. I'm going to, I scored 118 points last night. Josh, my buddy Josh Schneider still beat me 126 to 118. I got a decent team that I drafted with AI. I remember that conversation we had. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, I, AI told me who to draft and I did the opposite and your team still sucks. My team still sucks. Yeah. Should listen to that. I couldn't bring myself to do what AI said to do because then if I sucked, I would really be an idiot. Like, man, you didn't even draft your team. AI did 129 to 97 over Sean Broley. You won. Oh, took Sean down. He can give you no eggs. 2 and 0. All right. Um, I, uh, I've been spending some time with this, this week working on my late model stock car. We're getting it ready for Newport. That is the next car's tour race in Newport, Tennessee on October the 3rd. The final race of the season for the cars tour is South Boston on the 17th of October. So two events left this coming month. And this weekend, a huge race to Martinsville 300. There's like 87. I think there's a few more entries that have yet to confirm. So we could get around 90 cars for the, for the 300 at Martinsville for this weekend. It's on Saturday. And so yeah, there's 87 cars for 40 spots, 32,000 dollars to win. Um, there's heat races. Cars will advance, uh, into the field from the heat races. This is must watch television. So I believe it's on flow. What a list. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's all the late model stock drivers in the country. That's your late model stock owners. There's all your late model stock cars. Now that's, I would say there's about 40% of the late model stock guys not on that list. Yeah. Late model stock, the car, the footprint of the car, it's not very big. It's, it's really small. And so that's what I think, you know, the cars tour is fun and unique racing and short tracks around the mid-Atlantic area, uh, area of the country is unique to, to, to limit it and late model stock cars. But here you go. The best of the best. This weekend at Martinsville for the 300. Somebody's going to win a clock. It's a, it's a life changing experience. Either you see these guys win these races and it propels them into new opportunities. Or you see an old veteran that's ran late model stocks at his local track his whole life finally win the biggest race of his career. Um, I'll be tuned in Saturday. Um, yeah. Oh, that's a good list. This is what I wanted to tell you. So we, we've been, uh, you remember back in the NASCAR, uh, 2003 days, when we would run some AI races every now and then we'd get maybe, yeah, we'd throw some trucks on R.P. and just, yes, races, yeah, turn them way up. I've been wanting to do like a 1987 500 mile at Talladega with our little group against the AI. But we all have to use like the 1987 cars, like we have to pick a car from that decade. And we're racing against the 1987 field. Hmm. Um, I guess we could have our own customs in the field, but we're racing against the other, you know, we've single file on it and lappers on the inside and stuff. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. The real deal. Yeah. But there needs, I only want to do this with people who really want to finish the race. Like no, I don't, I don't want to call out any names, but like there's a couple guys in our group that would like, you know, just wreck guys and be like, yeah, man, if I cut down on me or, you know, there is, yeah, we don't need a lot, you know, no, no necessary costions. Yeah. Let's just run it. That would take a while. I know it. We should stream it. I think it might get a little boring at times. Yeah. Well, because we're probably gonna get strong out a little bit. Okay. Get some good analysis. I kind of like that. I mean, I want to experience that DJ. Yeah. I mean, yeah. I think it'd be fun if we had about six, 10 of us and we jumped in and ran a full field AI Talidega, turn them some up where they're tough. They're hard to beat. Yeah. It have to be up. Yeah. It's driving around them. Wouldn't be fun easily. Yeah. They got to be like tough passes. Yeah. Well, I mean, I'm more interested to see how the strategy and the race itself played out. Not so much the act. I mean, I'm not really. Yeah. You want to see does it go green for a run? Does it? That's right. Yeah. Do you wear your right rear out? Yeah. Probably you're going to start struggling. You're probably going to kill the right front than the right rear to follow. Yeah. And then the AI drives back by you. Yeah. Yeah. Let's figure that out, man. We need to see if 500 miles AI can be even. You can do it. Yeah. Yeah. This week's 30 air segment is brought to you by Bass Pro Shops North America's premier outdoor and conservation company plan your next adventure at a Bass Pro Shops near you or online at BassProShops.com. Diving into Bristol, we're going to go right into the cup action and right into the big conversation of the week. Blaney and hosts of our. Did anything else even happen in that race? I know. Well, you don't get men. You don't get moments like that too often where who won? Yeah. That's right. We're going to talk to the winner later today. Joe the gun is going to call in later in the show. And we're going to obviously ask him a little bit about this, but the, you know, the whole, I guess, first off, the own track stuff. I saw, I saw a video where Lagano was talking about a moment during the race with him and Christopher Bell. That was absolutely 1000% identical to what happened with Blaney. And it's identical. They come up off the corner. Joey's got a little bit of a run to be inside. And Bell, Bell just kind of closes the door and Lagano lifts and gets out of it. There's a little contact, but, but everyone carries on. Lagano, listen, Lagano is like, man, you know, that was me not wanting to make an enemy right there. And living to run the next corner and I've raised him a lot. He's raised me a lot. And I given, you know, me and him have some give and take. And it just, you know, and it was identical. I mean, if you painted the car, you could, you know, it looked just the same. in the situation with with Hocivar and Blaney. Now Blaney comes up off the corner and and and come down the race track. He clears him and then we did clear him on the exit. He wasn't clear when he come down. No. So slightly. Yeah. Hocivar's got a small run to the inside off the top. Yeah. Off the top, the momentum. And Blaney comes down, shades down the race track. And Hocivar doesn't cut him a break, whereas Legano does with Christopher Bill. Now Legano, Hocivar does not have to. Doesn't have to cut him a break. Um, this was short track racing. You know, Blaney comes down, Carson didn't have a whole lot of time to really consider cutting him a break even in that moment. Sometimes, you know, sh*t, and so fast at Bristol, your mind's in a blender. They've been running for, you know, lap after lap after lap whipping around the racetrack. Um, see, I disagree with, uh, to me, this wreck happened because Blaney came from kind of a school of racing where if you run me down and pass me, I'm not crossing you over at that point because you're faster than me. You ran me down. You passed me. Go on. Yeah. You know, you've been faster me all night. I'm not, I'm done. We're just going to cost ourselves more time. We're going to bring the fourth place car closer. Leaders going to get further away. I don't agree with, I mean, yes, Carson can make that move and absolutely whatever I'm trying to win the race. Well, that's not how you do it. And like Joey big brains it. Joey's going to live to fight another corner like you said and probably not have an enemy now. Bell probably made that move. Joey might have had a great extra to something and bell might not know when he was there. Yeah. But to me, I mean, I like, even like if I'm me and you're doing it, I'm not, you passed me. I messed up. That's why you're in front of me. Anyway, I messed up. You're faster than me. Why pull this move? Like that's where I'm at with it. Yes, he can make the move. And but it's not. I listen. This. So I, you know, the, the board burden throw in the booties video that we see most times we come around the Bristol. They always show it. Yeah. If you watch the in car camera, I get a little bit of a run up off the bottom. I've been behind him for a couple of laps and I'm barely, barely better than him. And it just seemed on, it just, it just so happened on the corner. Exit of two, I get a little bit better drive up off the corner behind Ward. And I dive to the inside. And we don't even get to the corner. And I can tell that he's coming down. And I actually straighten the wheel and don't make, I do not try to attempt to turn in the corner and I clip him, spin him out. I did not have the intention of wrecking Ward Burton. When I got in the throttle to exit turn two, um, if I could undo that, I would definitely not wreck Ward Burton. I know that down, I bet you down, I bet you that host of our feels the same way. I bet you host of our feels like, yeah, I really didn't have to do that. I do. I know he probably doesn't, he probably doesn't act that way. He doesn't portray that. But there's no way that he goes to that whole thing and says, no, I shouldn't have done nothing different. But then why does he keep doing that? I know that two weeks ago, we were talking about the same scenario. No, I'm sure that surely somewhere in his head, he's thinking, yeah, I could have done differently there. I could have probably let him, let him go surely, surely. I don't, okay, you can't continue to do these things. And then honestly, like at home say, man, I shouldn't have done that. He's got to be learning from it somehow. But he's not learning from that. That's the, it's a conversation with him. I don't think conversations matter with him. Have you talked to him? Does it, I don't care what your words are. Your actions tell me, no, I'm just saying, like, do you know, do you talk to him? Do you know him? Do you guys ever talk to him? Do you ever have conversations with him ever? I watch. I'll just read what you read on the internet. Well, have you, are you, so are your words that you're saying is that because you've talked to him? Yeah. And he's, and he's told you this. Have you not watched his interviews after the race is when he's like, doesn't care? He, that's, doesn't care. Like, that's a bit of an act. That's fine. But then your actions need to be different then. And he's, if he truly cared his actions would be different, they would at least be getting better, but it's still the same. I don't normally agree with Travis, but he, there's no sign of. I'm not disagreeing with y'all. I just told you that I, you know, I fucked up a wrecked ward. He fucked up and, you know, he could have cut him a break. He doesn't have to cut him a break, though. He gets, he gets the run. He makes the move. He's race car drivers racing. Now, is it smarter? Is it smarter to, you know, do what Joey did? Joey, yeah, Joey won the race. That was a great smart move, but Joey not to f*ck the 20. And he goes on when it, and wins the race. But, Husavar had a run, goes to the inside, 12 blocks. It spun him out. He f*ck drove over the right front of the 77. I, I disagree with that. Well, then what's your problem? My thing is, I'm disagreeing with you saying that I don't think a host of our goes at home and it's like, man, I could have, I don't think he thinks that he's done differently or cares. He puts himself. He puts other guys in positions and just doesn't like, yeah, Brack has asked you to do the same thing and he started his career. So did I. So did a lot of f*cking. And I mean, he's, he's either going to have to learn. He can't sustain this activity throughout his career. He can't. And he won't. He'll grow up in mature and be, you know, make different choices as he gets older. So let me ask you this. And when you did that to Ward, when you went home, did you tell to yourself, I shouldn't have done that? Or were you kind of stubborn saying like, I, I was right. If I, I'm trying to put yourself back when you're, if you interviewed me at the race, I'm probably like, man, I was underneath him. I mean, in the moment I'm sitting there going, I was under you. You were, you come down. You wrecked yourself, Ward Burton, you know, I'm, I'm, I hate that f*ck happened to you, but I have no f*cking responsibility in that. You were coming, I got a run. You can't f*ck at it. Bristol, if you get an inch, you got to keep it. You can't give the inch back. Nobody's going to let you have a f*ck somewhere down the road. That's the way racing works. And so at that racetrack, like you, you scrapped for that f*ck inch. And when you gain it and you get it on the guy and you get that much, even that tiny little bit of a position underneath somebody, you kind of got to stick with it. You got to go for it. Now, but that wasn't a scenario. If I go, if I go 12 hours, 24 hours, 36, 72 hours down the road, I might go, man, I didn't need to f*ck it. I didn't need that spot. That bad. I damn sure don't want Ward, man, at me. I like Ward. I bet, you know, hosts of our probably thinks Blaney's a cool guy. Even though, you know, they have this f*ck dust up and they fighting all that s*ck, I think before that, you know, earlier in the day, he probably didn't think it was an enemy. But I'm sure I would be surprised, I suppose, if I, if, if hosts of our doesn't have a change of regret over reckoning, because he certainly had a choice in a very split second. I'm not to turn him or not to, you know, to, to back out or do something different, but he didn't do that. And he didn't have to do that. And Blaney even admitted is like, you know, he, he takes a little responsibility for reckoning himself. And he should. What do you want hosts of our to do? I agree with when you're howling to somebody and you're faster and he gives you a foot, you take it, you have to, a Bristol. Especially whenever you're race, Eric, is you're literally behind a guy waiting for him to slip so you can get a nose in there. Cars, hosts of our just got ran down and passed. Yeah, I know. And the guy was better than you all night. And then you just stuff it in there. That's his, that's his youth. And you know, and he has every right to do that. But like, that's the difference between, that's the difference between Joe Ligano today and Joe Ligano 15 years ago. You know, that's, that's the difference. I guess we don't see any change in it. Like last two weeks ago, he's only been doing this for a couple of years. But I mean, he has a whole track record of spinning himself out for cautions. That, you know, there is a long list. Now that's a whole another conversation in my opinion. My thing is is it seems like it's, we can't go two weeks without a host of our on track incident. Yeah, we're two for three. Like two for three. If we had like a, I'm sorry, two for four. If you ask racing insights, how many people have been in incidents? Well, I'm saying recently. Yeah, it's a lot. I know. If we had a racist sense host of our cause and incident sign on their studio, it would never get past two weeks. Yeah. And that's my thing is like, he might think that he should have done it differently. Whatever. But at some point, I just got to go off your actions. Yeah. Well, I would say this, I came in here with a, with a, with a point to make. And I'd like to make it. And I don't want, I don't want the narrative to be, I don't want my narrative. I don't want the narrative around my opinion to be confused by you two, Yehoo's. So I feel like that we all agree that Blaney, you know, Blaney was aggressive on the move to come down in front of him. And, and got himself spun out there. The, uh, You know, Blaney went over there to, to argue with him or, and I think we're all surprised that hosts of our through the, through his punch. The whole thing, the whole fight thing was went way different than I would have expected. And NASCAR is probably over the moon with all of that, right? The, you know, O'Donnell goes on Harvick's show to tell everybody we're not going to find guys for what happened. I honestly didn't have a problem, I didn't have a problem with anything that went down. And it is absolutely a case by case scenario. I don't know if that's really hard. I don't know if people can really understand what that means, but you, you might, you might not find guys for what happened this weekend and turn around the next week and find somebody for something even less egregious the following weekend. And as a series owner in the car's tour, I have to kind of be careful sitting in this chair, condoning what we saw at the racetrack in Bristol. And then what we don't want to see at our own races, you know, in the pits, we don't have, you know, 25 security guys, we don't have, you know, all that ability to kind of control Carson does something from getting out of hand. And so, you know, I think you kind of like blindside punches crew members throwing fists, things that feel unethical things that when it feels bad, it typically is something that you want to look into, does it deserve a fine, does it, does it deserve some sort of a punishment? Yeah, usually can just watch it and tell. I know. I mean, this, in this instance, I think both parties would agree that none were necessary. And I'll defend Carson. Yeah. I, Blaney put his hands on in. Yeah. I don't blame him. Carson. Yeah. I would have swung too. Yeah. I, I agree that Carson has a, I agree that Carson has like a reputation, none of the drivers are very happy with him right now. I don't know that he might, I don't know that that matters to him at all, that he doesn't, you know, go the race track to make his friends. But, and it's, it's unique because we've been in this, we've been in this sport where we all were in the bus lot together, you know, arguments got squashed and cured or blown over or whatever. Everything would get taken care of in a couple of days. You'd call somebody or, you know, you'd see him at the race track or you'd see him at the bus lot or, I don't know. You know, it was back in the, back in the 80s, none of the drivers stayed at the racetrack. Everybody stayed in hotel rooms. None of the drivers did that much mingling outside of the racetrack. And so if you didn't, you got it, if you got underneath some ice skin or they got under your skin, you stayed pretty mad at him. And those, those, you know, you stayed pretty mad at that guy pretty much for, you know, it was a, that was a mark on that driver that you just hung on to every, every time you were around him, you raced him different. You raced him like a jerk, you tried to make it hard on him. And I grew up watching all of the guys be that way now. And the, as I started driving race cars, things were starting to change. The garage was a little friendlier, the drivers all were a little friendlier. They spent more time around each other. We had these driver owner lots inside of every racetrack where all the drivers literally camped all weekend side by side. You know, if you had a problem with the guy, you went to his camper, he talked to him. Now that was probably good, but at the same time, it took a lot of the, it took a lot of the anger and it took a lot of the rivalry out of the sport. Now there were still some good, good rivals, good guy, you know, good, there's still some couple of dudes that hated each other here and there. But I don't know, this is, you know, host of our wood. Not be that wild of an, of, of an anomaly. If you threw him into the 70s or 80s, now he'd get his ass kicked by a couple of these guys and they would, they'd get after him. But he sticks out like a sore thumb in this group of guys because everybody in this sport otherwise has ran, has a code that they all race by that's really similar. And he doesn't really go by that code. Not that his code is wrong, it's just, he doesn't go by, it's different, it's different. And I don't know that they're going to, whereas, you know, Chastain, for example, had a little bit of a different code as well and has, would we all agree that he's sort of changed and polished his ways or, or, or cleaned up his act however you want to say it, right? He's not quite as much of a lightning rod anymore. And he doesn't right now have the speed to be up front racing with these guys and doing these things. He's not going to be a jackass in a slow car. Yeah. Nobody, everybody, he's smart enough, I think, to, to not be that way, right? Not be a problem running 30th. Yeah. But I just don't know that, I just don't know that the Denny Hamlin's of the world or whoever is going to try to, you know, talk some sense into this guy, I don't think they're going to get very far. I think another issue is that host of our, it seems to be, and I can be wrong, seems to be content. He's happy he made the chase. He's good for this year. It's been a great year. Ryan Blaney could have been the points leader, Leven Bristol and is now like 50 back. This is his career. This is a championship he's going for and you just wrecked him. And so he's pissed off. And so how drivers are operating with the chase is different. Does Carson race by his own code? Yeah. Does he, is he okay being raced with his own code because he wants you to do that. Okay. Well, when that happened, he didn't happen in the trucks when he took the guy or, you know, yeah. Oh, I mean, listen, I'm going to tell you, going, if you pile it all up here, he, definitely is unique. And whether I, I mean, some of the, I've told him when he was wrecking guys in the truck series, I told him, I said, man, you come here to drive my car. You can't do that. Yeah. You cannot do that. And so I'd rather, you know, I would just not let him drive my car if I feel like he couldn't make the adjustment. And so he, you know, if Spire, you know, Spire wants to make some, you know, ask him to do some things differently. They're going to try to do that. But I feel like that, so I feel like that he goes off a fan reaction. And if the fans are happy and if he's getting the reaction that he wants out of that engagement with fans, then he feels like that he has done his job well. And so I'm just saying, I don't, I think he has his own code, but when he gets raced by his own code, he doesn't like it. No, that's not, I don't know that's true though, because Corey, he shipped him and he did not, he did not, he liked to complain about it, but he didn't do it in the trucks. No, we got, we got to focus on what he's doing right now in the cup series, though, TJ, like, that doesn't matter. Corey, him, raced him, moved him out of the way. And did we see? Well, our complaint. I mean, go back. I don't know if we had a straight shot. Going back to the truck series, I'll say this, there was a few mistakes of not holding him accountable as a series, like they, like the RP deal, like they, they did not hold him. The Phoenix deal was bad. They, as a series, they let, they didn't hold him accountable and let him off the hook. And right and they, and, you know, I agree. I'm just saying like he doesn't, when you say he has his own code, but I think what, what I think I, I am saying, and I want to think Travis agrees with is that if you say, host of our, what's important to you, of course, I mean, he's going to want to win races and stuff, but he's going to say, man, I want to be in the highlight reel. I want fans to be, I want to, I want to do things that other drivers aren't doing in terms of energizing fans, getting fans excited. And he says, um, if someone says, Hey, man, do you want to sit out with him and sort of figure this out? Nope. Nope. Yeah. Don't want to. I want the rivalry. I don't, he doesn't, I don't even think he hates him. I think he just wants to fuck, dice it up with these guys. Yep. [BLANK_AUDIO] if, um, you know, blank, like if, if Laney wants to come over and, and have a competition or if somebody wants to come at him on the racetrack, I mean, he's like, hey, you know, he's like, this is what I'm here for. He wants kids in 20 years to go. I remember watching Carson host of our race. And that's how like he wants to be what these drivers work to him. And like, he wants to be in the highlight reals is Dale said. And I believe that he wants you to bring it to him. Mm hmm. Um, when, when, at the end of that race, when Gibbs is nipping at his heels and, and tapping him in the quarter panel and racing the dogs, he is probably on cloud **** nine. No, and good and well, that he doesn't have the car to win the race and likely won't win this race, but he's in the **** middle of the muck, getting it diced up, getting a little bit. Yeah, it's great to watch and I know, but he's, he's getting a little bit of what he dishes out and he's probably enjoying that as much. Is anything, yeah, Ty cost himself maybe the victory, but we don't see Carson complaining about how Ty raised him. He, he probably liked it. Yeah, like I don't get jugged around. He probably goes, he's probably watched that replay more than anything that happened with Blaney. Yeah. You know, he find, I think he sees a sign of respect if you're going to come at him. Yeah. You might be right. I don't know, but I just feel like that he wants to, he wants to create. I don't, I think drama is the wrong word. I think he wants to create moments. And so that's what he's trying. You know, he's, he's just into, he's, he's wanting to create moments. And the reaction to fans give him is, is telling his brain. I did my job well today. And when NASCAR is, you know, going to come up and say, man, no fines, all that, you know, hey, man, that put us up on a sports center. All this thing, hosts of RCs that as, I made O'Donnell happy. I did my job today. I got, I'm, I'm doing what NASCAR wishes, it prefers me to do, right? And so, um, right or wrong. I mean, that's what's going down. If the, the tide turns and some of these guys start, you know what? I'm going to race him like he raised me now for the next month. I could probably enjoy that. And I mean, you think DNF and for four straight weeks or something seem to care. I mean, at some point, you got to start care. I mean, at some point, maybe I think there's a, you know, as he gets older, his priorities and his, his wishes and what he enjoys about his life is going to evolve and change and, you know, he'll start making different decisions. But in this time frame now, this guy, this guy takes me months ago about wanting to buy a bunch of old retired male trucks. And I'm like, what do you want a male truck for? He's like, I want 12 of them. I'm like, why he's like to race them. I'm like, why he's like, nobody's ever done that. I'm going to do it on my property. Then I'm probably going to set them all on fire or blow them up. And so I mean, this is, this uniqueness, he, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't know how else to say this other than this is a, this is, he's a, he's a, he's in a unique generation that lives on, they're more free will. They're more by, you know, spur, you know, they're spontaneous. And you know, he is, he's pricing the shampoo of NASCAR. He's tick tocky and, and all these things, I'm not, you know, so I don't, I'm not sitting here. I'm not going to sit here and go, I don't understand. It's a, right, so I'm just going to say, hey, man, okay, you do you. That's what you're into. You go do you, man, I don't, I don't, I, that's not what I enjoy. That's not what I'm going to do my time, but I'm old. I'm f***ing you too. So I get it. And I, you know, he's, he's in the, he's in a world of, of social media platforms that didn't exist for us 20 years ago. Streaming and, and Twitch and all these ways to communicate, engage and, and, and gather and all these areas to find affirmation and, and support and things you're doing, decisions you're making, actions and things you're saying. And so that's what's driving him, right, in this direction. So I just think that, you know, there's, there are some things about his racing, though, that I really think he's going to need to, to clean up. And I would not, I would set this one aside. I don't disagree with you, TJ, that 12 ran him down past him. He should have said, you know, most people would have said, you got me, you know, go on, yep, but I would take this one aside. Now, and, and set it off to the side is not quite as problematic as some of the other things we've seen in the past, the stuff from the trucks, right? Is that, is that cleared up? Is that gone? Is that out of his system? If he, if he were pushed to the brink, would he, would he, would he write, hook somebody on the racetrack today? I don't know that answer. I don't know either. Um, you know, taking himself out of races for no reason at all. Doing things, you know, doing things to hurt his ability to have a good result. That seems to be in his system. That's happened this year. Those are the things that I think like, hey, man, come on. I mean, I've, I've had conversations with, uh, with people in his circle about these very things and how that, you know, that part needs to kind of, you know, get tuned up, right? And show, you know, show him a little bit more of the detail of what goes in to getting his stuff to the racetrack every single weekend. So he might, you know, have, have a better decision though. A lot of these incidents, it's his car. The one being damaged, yeah, no, it's a spire really like until someone gets in 4D and F's in a row, I'm just talking about like right now with how spire operates. And until it starts to be a detriment for their business, I think it is. You don't see it yet. No, they don't act like it. I think they do. I mean, I mean, do you, as of now, I doesn't look like, I think they're fine with how he's operating. I don't think so. I'll have, I'm just telling you what I know. Okay. Okay. What hosts of our says on camera or what Dickerson says on camera is one thing and not untrue or lie, but what they, what, what happens on Monday is they have, they have honest conversations about, hey, man, some of this stuff, you know, we don't, we need to, they don't sit down and go, my okay, man, let's get it ready for the next one. You know, they sit down and go, should we, should this have happened differently? Yeah. How about this? How about that? What do you see differently that we don't, you know what I mean? Are you just, I mean, they have, no, they, they have conversations on, you know, they have conversations on Monday and go, hey, you know, this, you know, what happened this weekend doesn't need to happen again. Not necessarily about Bristol, but I guess are y'all not like, are y'all just hearing what I'm saying? I'm hearing what you're saying, going in one ear and out the other. But I mean, we're, I mean, we're not in their meetings. We don't hear it from the interviews or from the interviews and stuff we see. I can't, I don't have a recording here for you. From the interviews we see and the data and info that we get from social, it doesn't act like it. They just support what he does at Darlington. Well, Brad was holding them up for five laps. He should have wrecked him. I mean, like saying stuff like that, that's racing. You're not going to just pull up to a guy with seven laps, right? Lapse to go in a stage and him wave you by. Yeah. Like they're justifying his action. What it feels like, that's not reprimanding him. What it feels like is the person that goes and gets drunk the next day is like, man, I'm never drinking again. I don't think the next night rules around and they do it again. I don't think that they're upset that he wrecked Brad at Darlington. I know you are. I mean, I think I think they want him to behave better than he did when he was driving the truck. I think they want him not, not, not just, you know, not do anything detrimental to his own cars, the own, on equipment during the race to hurt his actions. They're not going to say, oh, man, you don't run into that guy like that. They're not going to do that. I mean, it's, but that's what that's one of the steps that you talked about is not putting yourself in situations. I didn't talk about that. I talked about like learning and growing, like looking guys in the trucks. Yes, um, you know, there's, there's things that he does. That he doesn't need to do anymore. And there's other things on the racetrack that I think just like this thing at Bristol, like I don't, I look at Bristol. That was a short track racing. That was, that was, could he've done something differently? He could have done something differently, but he didn't. It's also Bristol. Happens at Bristol. Guys wrecked Bristol. Guys, there's a lot of contact at Bristol. Darlington, same way, tight little face track, two grooves, two and a half grooves wide. Brad was holding him up. He lost his, he lost his patience. Should he have done it? Probably not. But does it happen at race tracks? Yes, it does, but it's just repetitive. And you started this conversation off with complimenting Joey on how Joey I agree made a big brain decision and I believe that Carson will one day become that veteran that makes those type of calls. Yeah, I should, but I think it's going to be a slower process than most because he seems very, he seems very happy with, yeah, he seems very happy and good with the way things are going. Yeah, I agree. I mean, I agree with that, but at what point does it break? I don't know what's going to break it. I don't know. People get, he put them in the wall and ruin his days, but I mean it doesn't look like it's going to happen. - That's not gonna happen. - No, I would say what would break it is if the fans turned on it. If he lost the fans, then he might sit there and go, "I don't like this. I'm getting the reaction, I don't wanna get." But right now, fans are like, "F*** yeah!" I mean, even if it's 50/50, 'cause you know, if you look on social media, I know it's a tough space to go get. - In real statistics, right? - You know, it's 50/50 of what happened this past weekend. You know? But he did, that's all he needs. He just needs a good, a good, reasonable majority to feel good about what will happen. And so maybe when he loses that, if that were ever to happen for whatever reason, then he might change what he's doing and how he does things. But he feels like that he's checking boxes, man. So he's driving the sport and creating some fireworks and so I think it continues. Yeah, very unfortunately for TJ. - I think it's exciting. - Yeah. - It's definitely gives us talking points. - Hey everybody, the 2026 season is in full swing and we've already had some really incredible moments while we love this sport. And when it comes to capturing those historical NASCAR moments, nobody does it better than Lionel Racing, the official die cast of NASCAR. Their race win die casts are some of my absolute favorites in my collection. The scuffs, scrapes, confetti, the damage, every detail that tells the story of that win. It's in these die casts. These things look like they were pulled straight out of victory lane. And right now, Lionel Racing is offering free, domestic shipping, just for delgender download listeners. You can use this promo code, download 26 at checkout. Head over to LionelRacing.com to lock in your favorite NASCAR moments into your collection today. The fight itself, you know, the action, I guess, or you know, moving on from Blaney, Hose of R and Hose of R, really. I guess the sum at all up is I can't wait to tune in this weekend and see what happens. That is really where my mind's at. That I walk away from Bristol feeling disappointed. Nope. That I walk away from Bristol feeling embarrassed. I didn't, did I, I hated my buddy Blaney. Guy's asked it, but I'm glad Blaney went on the, then he's showing and talked about it and shared his experience. I'm looking forward to hearing more from Hose of R on what he thought about it since the couple days have passed. Does all of this happen with the old format? That's a, we talked about this last week a little bit. And honestly, with everything, with all that we just discussed, that's all great. I think the greatest thing happening right now, the most exciting thing that's happening right now in the sport is this chase and how drivers are approaching these events. And we're seeing it as well in trucks, a Riley cup, we have been, and we had been in this playoff format for so long that we had totally forgotten, you know, what the chase could actually deliver. And now will all of them be like this? I'm not sure. But I was talking to coincidentally, Ryan Blaney last week. And we were just going over about how wild St. Louis was. Why in the hill that everybody lose their **** in that cup race is St. Louis. And he's like, man, I don't freaking know. He's like, I've been thinking about this and I don't know. But he told me he said, man, we wouldn't be racing this hard in the first round of a playoffs. He's like, if I'm, if I'm a top five guy, I'm just trying not to screw it up, because I'm going to make the next round if I just don't **** up. And so I'm not driving 110%. I'm not taking big risks. I'm not dicing it up. I'm just trying to get home. And he's like, you know what? Honestly, it's almost the same in the next round. He's like, I know, in the next round, if I just kind of don't **** this up, I'm going to beat these guys. And now think about that. Now, you know, of course, the guys that are in the back of the playoffs are racing their guts out, right? Cause they're trying to climb this mountain. But you got half of the field and they're your best drivers in the field going out there just to try to make sure they get home without any real bad deficit on the day. They don't get to do that in the chase. No, they do not get to do it. And we the old playoff form, let them off the hook, especially if you want to race. I mean, a couple years ago, Denny said he wanted 20 points out of Atlanta. Yeah. Right now, you've got drivers in I need 40. Yeah. So great point. I remember when Denny said that, I want to go to Atlanta and get 20 points. That's like finishing mid pack. Yeah. So the chase has delivered more than I could have even imagined. When we heard that this was coming back, I knew that it was good. I knew that it was the right thing. I was optimistic that it would be better, more entertaining. But I didn't know why or how. And here it is right here in front of us. We we are seeing in at least the last two weeks, drivers are racing frantically. And they don't all seem to really understand what the right mentality is for this long game. And throw in on top of that, the fact that Denny has looked relatively normal. Now if Denny was to start the chase with the same performance that he had all year long, he's sitting out there 50 points ahead at this point, three races in. And we're having a little bit different of a conversation. But Denny has fell back into the, you know, clutches of the rest of the field here. And you got Lagano, who's came from 20th and points at one point. I did not think the racing insight guys were telling me when he wasn't even in the top 16. Well, our predictor says he's got a 70% chance of making it. I'm like, I think he's wrong. He ain't going to fuck the chase. Not only did he make the chase, but he's, you know, clawed his way all the way back up into the top five and points. It's really miraculous that this happened. And so I got to tell you that if you enjoyed the fight, if you enjoyed the drama, the, the passion, it's the chase you need to be thinking. And so it's pretty fantastic. I don't know, you know, I don't know what to expect over the next three weeks, going to these three mile and a half. She got Kansas Vegas Charlotte, all back to back, then we go to Phoenix, Talladega, Martinsville. I love the way these tracks are lined up, especially for a guy like Joey Lugano, I didn't think we'd be talking about Joey, but here we are. You know, you got three mile and a half. Where are the, where are the fuck you go to on the mile and a half? When we go to, when we go to Kansas, it's 23 11 going to go out there and win like we've seen them do many, many times at this race track. Are they going to have their hands full with with HMS Chevrolet's or Pinsky forts? I don't know. I felt really sure and confident, maybe back mid season that we were going to see five Toyota's racing for the top five, every single week when we go to tracks like Kansas, Las Vegas and Charlotte. But I don't know right now. So I, the other thing that I love is the schedule. And I know this wasn't intentional, at least I'd be very freaking impressed if it was. But the way the schedule was laid out, it painted this picture of Toyota dominance. They were fast everywhere, but we did have a lot of mile and a half's where they shined right around Wilkesboro, the entire complexion of the schedule changes. We go to all these funky tracks and do all these kind of quirky little things, even all the way up to this point, we really haven't ran on many mile and a half since the middle of the summer. It's been a while. It has. And so it's sort of it's sort of confused me on who I feel like is the favorite. I had such a confident opinion of Danny Hamlin, midway through the season. Now he could he could definitely turn it up, turn it back up in these next three weeks. But I don't know anymore. I love that it wasn't predictable, you know, and I didn't even look at the start of the season, I didn't look at the schedule and go, man, we're going to get this sort of, we're going to run these races, run at these race tracks and we're going to get this understanding. And then right in the middle of the season, They're gonna yank the rug out from under us. And we're gonna go through about five or eight weeks of different winners. People that we didn't think had competitive cars, people that we didn't think had a shot in hell, get back into this thing. And so it's been a great, great season. And so I'm looking forward, it's got me, again, like I've said this before on the show, it's got me here every single week. I cannot wait to tune in on Sunday and see what goes down. The swings and points has been crazy. Yeah, I agree. You know, it's pretty impressive. Legano has averaged better than a five, better than a fifth place finish in these three races. Ninth, third and first Kyle Larson, who we were sitting at Charlotte with Kyle Larson. And he's like, I'm driving my ass off to run top five, driving my ass off. And we've got to execute and have a great day to get that top five finish. He's sitting there with a 2.6 average finish in three races. Now he's the only hindered car that's been able to be competitive. This chase is chase Elliott and Byron have struggled. But so is so of a lot of people. Denny, Denny is behind Bubba Wallace and Austin Cindrick in average finish over the three races. Reddick is even worse. Chase Briscoe and Ryan Blaney, they're outside of the top 10 in average finish in the chase. Briscoe with a 21.6 and Blaney with a 24. Blaney run 4th, 35th and 33rd. I know it's out of his control a little bit for the most part. Briscoe's 6th, 32nd, 27th, incredible. Host of ours 3rd at a 7.3, 11, 8 and 3rd. Now when he looks at that, does he think he's doing anything wrong? Exactly. That's why they're probably not. Yeah. So it's it's been compelling. Christopher Bales hanging around average in an eighth place finish and tie Gibbs with also an 8.3. Bubba Wallace with a 9.6. It's been it's been a hell of a couple of races. They're in our family has always trusted Bass Pro Shops for our outdoor adventures. And that's something that hasn't changed even today. I grew up shopping there and now I enjoy bringing my family along as we gear up for our time in the outdoors together. That's also why I'm proud to partner with Johnny Morris and Bass Pro Shops. They're tremendous supporters of conservation and the outdoor traditions that bring families together. And right now Bass Pro Shops is celebrating the fall hunting classic. It's the biggest hunting sale and event of the year. Whether you're preparing for opening day, maybe you're upgrading your gear or stocking up for the season ahead, you'll find savings on hunting essentials, apparel, optics, trail cameras, and much more. Plus club members enjoy exclusive savings and they earn points toward free gear while helping support conservation efforts across North America. Don't miss the fall hunting classic happening now at Bass Pro Shops and Cabellas. A little bit of news pertains to UTJ. Brack has Lowski is changing his crew chief. Jerry Bullins is stepping down amicably amicably parting ways. He's going to take a similar opportunity with a different organization. So he's going to go crew chief somewhere else. Apparently, that's where I read it. And Mike Scarbowski. Yep. So you got Kizalowski and Scarbowski. I mean, that's a match made in heaven. TJ, you got to change your name. Yeah. Yeah. Major Lowski. Yeah. Major Lowski. He's an engineer with the team and he's going to be the interim crew chief for Brad in the remaining races this year. Wishing Scarbowski the best just because he's now Kizalowski's crew chief. So you got Scarbowski and Kizalowski. Interesting to make that with what? So it sounds like a like a lineup for baseball game. So it's a law firm. Yeah. I don't think it's that. I mean, we're right. Low drive or set of real Scarbowski with a catch. TJ, what's your thoughts? I don't know if I have much to say about it now. I mean, you said it. You said it's a little. Have y'all seen that that have y'all seen that thing on social media where that guy does the, oh, guy got to look it up. Yes. Oh, my God. It's hilarious. Get it. Yes. I want to hear it. Martinez will a fly out of slam it a fly out. Yes. You got to watch this hilarious. Scarbowski, off the bat. TJ, what? Back to what I was asking you. I mean, I don't think it's, you know, obviously, the results haven't been as what, what everybody or what, you know, what we expected. So I don't think it's a, I mean, we're not in the chase. So if you're going to make changes, so you're like, let him get some reps. Basically, yeah, see if he's, if he's good to be the full time, I guess. And that's probably what they're thinking. Yeah. I mean, we made a change like that at the, at the, but eight, right? At the last race is didn't Tony Jr. leave early. Tony Jr. left to go to HMS early. Early. Yeah. Yeah. That was a weird time. It was a weird time. A weird time. Yeah. Yeah. Were you, were you doing the butt car back then? I did the last 10. You did the last 10? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I'll be damned. Yep. That's a trivia question. Yeah. Could be. I didn't know you got to spot the butt car. That must have been amazing. That was probably not the most amazing times of that car. What? I mean, the last 10. We ran good till the motor blew up. We ran. We ran good. Yeah. I mean, at times, we ran pretty solid. It was like hit or miss in them. Ten races. I think we ran really good. I think we had, like you spun out of Phoenix off a turn two and crashed it, which wasn't fun. Really? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I bust your mask. But it will tire off the land. We don't run good. It martensville. Top 10. Till the motor blew. Tire came off at Atlanta. Oh, that hurt. Yeah. Mm-hmm. That hurt. That hurt. That was a big one. Me and that was that one. Me and. Probably. Yeah. I don't remember who was all. I know that's the. I remember. Yeah. I remember it well. Well. So let's cover the O'Reilly series really quick. Junior Motorsports had a little bit of everything happening. Sammy Smith in the eight was just a little loose all night long. Roger. Had some pretty decent speed early on, but burned through the right front tire in stage one. A lot of drivers had this issue on a green racetrack. I think this is a good example of why sometimes they do have competition yellows at some races, although I don't blame NASCAR for not making that adjustment. Most of the field didn't have issues. The one car with Carson Quoppel was the fastest car there. They had a loose wheel late and that wheel would. Would help spit out the brake bleeder on the right rear. And ended up with a bad result. The stage finishes for Carson and kind of saved him and saved the night from being a total loss. Yeah. Justin Algar had a great car damaged the nose heavily at the end of stage one. Lots of debate on what to do about that. Decided to stay out and get his solids second place finish in stage two. And was sitting there with a chance to win the race late. When that was spoiled by a low percentage move by Jesse love. Jesse drove down into term one sends himself and Justin into the wall. Jesse immediately apologized to me later after he got out of the car. And I hope that we'll be able to race well against him going forward. His move ultimately cost him a lot more than it cost us. And you know, I'm sure he would he would love to have that one back to do over again. Algar obviously was a little confused as to how you know why. Why Jesse would would make that move. It was not going to work and it just surprised Justin for the most part. I mean, I know that some of these guys may have a little bit of a different opinion. But I think Justin is one of the most respected guys in the garage. I could say that confidently and I think he races these guys relatively clean for the most part. It wouldn't certainly make that kind of a move. But anyways, it's hopefully something that Jesse wouldn't do again given the same opportunity. Justin was still able to get a great result. Shelton Creed is on a career run. That I'm hoping he can't keep up as we go forward. But Shelton's a great dude, always great to see him have success. And it's good to see that especially after all the times he's had to move around from different organizations to try to find a good combination that's working for him. So I know that I know that it's nice, probably very gratifying for him to be able to go to Victor Lane and win races after you know, it seemed like years and years of him just kind of coming close and running second and just almost getting there, but not quite getting it done. And I know he wants to win this title. So we're going to race him hard. So anyways, pretty fun night at the racetrack on Friday. But I wish it would have went a little bit better and ended up with a JRM car and Victor Lane. Yeah. Does a driver come up to you saying my bad like as an owner? or that like does that do anything for it? Like you appreciate it, do it like. - Well, I think that it doesn't really change anything because it was a, it doesn't change the result, it doesn't change the, you know, it's just disappointing. It's just disappointing, but I mean. - Doesn't not look better like down the road, like you think like okay, well. - I made a lot of dumb moves. I made a lot of dumb moves. That's what you think about. You're like, man, did I make that move? It was there a point in my life where I would have tried that move, even if it wasn't the right move to make. Probably. So. - But I think you can expect Jesse to race you cleaner or Justin. - I hope. - Yeah, well, that's what I was saying. - Well, I hope. - It's respect for him to reach out. - That's the thing. You're, it is respectful that he reaches out. - But he has to live by it now. - What I think now is, all right, he said he was sorry. He said he regrets it. Let's see. - Yeah, exactly. - Now we go, if we go to, if we're sitting there at Phoenix, right, and battling him for the lead late in the race, is he gonna door us into the fence, you know? Hopefully not. - Yeah, that's what I'm saying. He's got to, if he's gonna do that and reach out to you and say that, he has to live by it now. - Now at the same time now, I got a couple guys in my cars that they're not perfect gentlemen. They're not like, you know, they're not all just an hour guy. These season veterans, they're guys that I'm not sure what their capable of when put in those same scenarios. I would like to think that they wouldn't race that way. And I hope that they would know what I expect. And so, you know, it will just have to see how the season shakes out. But I told Jesse, I was thankful for him reaching out. And I was disappointed in angry at him, but hopefully, you know, we don't have to do that again. I don't, you know, and there's so many years that have coming on, but there is a, there's a bond between maybe not JRM and RCR, but me and RCR, like bum, bummy in our shop. Those guys at RCR love him. They, RCR guys have great relationships with JRM guys. But even beyond that, my relationship with Richard, with Austin, with Mike Dylan, I would think, now we're gonna compete, we're gonna race hard. And they're, they're gonna race you hard. You better, you better show up and know that you're gonna get raced really freaking hard. But, you know, I think that when Jesse does that, you're like, dang dude, you don't know all the history. You don't know all the history in the layers and sh*t. And so that shouldn't happen between our teams. You know what I mean? My team shouldn't be doing that. You know, they shouldn't be doing that. And I'm hopeful that we won't have to worry about that. I want to make sure everybody understands that Danny Hamlin still, after a, a tough week in Bristol has a chance to become the oldest cup champion at 46 years old. Bobby Allison in 1983 was 45 years old in 11 months and 17 days. And I think Danny will be older by three or four days. Should he win the championship this year? Still, still has that shot. What's your concern with the 11 team? Well, I, I'll be concerned if he's like a, you know, fifth place car at Kansas. If he doesn't go to Kansas and run in the top two or three in stage one, I'm gonna be like, hmm, what's going on? Yeah, because they, I mean, it just seems like they just, we got to remember, man, they were, they were pretty lights out. Yeah, I just need to get the feeling at some point in the race that Danny has the car to win the race at some point. Whether he get, you know, who knows what happens? But you need to have that feeling of like, okay, this car can win the race. Yeah. Yeah, I think it'll be interesting. So when you go to, when we're watching Kansas this weekend, is Danny in the top three? How many Toyota's are in the top five? Those are a couple of quick questions. I, I want to answer in stage one. Yeah, where are the fours? At this point, when we were at Kansas earlier this year, you had Blaney running eight through ninth. And he was for the most part, one of the better fours. The rest of the fours were behind him. Everybody else in front of Blaney was a Toyota or maybe a couple of Chevrolet's. So are the fours still right there in the running order? In this race, where is Larson? Is Larson busting his ass driving as hard as he can to run fifth or sixth all day? Where is he a little bit better now? Is he neck and neck with, you know, whomever's running in the top five, top two, top three. And I believe, you know, that things are not, I believe the things are different. Then they were this point, you know, at the third, you know, third mark of the season or the end point of the season. I think that the Toyota advantage might not quite be there anymore. Whatever that rule change was, yeah. I feel like Kansas is going to tell the tale. I feel like it's maybe not quite a significant, but I still feel like it's there, yeah. Kansas and Vegas and Charlotte will definitely let us know. And this is also the time where teams can usually put more, a lot of the teams can put more focus on cars that are, you know, continuing on, but you know what I mean? Like your strongest cars usually get JGR can't do that though. No, not all of them can, but some of them can, you know. Good. I mean, they got four. I mean, they can't. Yeah, yeah, it's tough. Kyle Arson is leading the chase. The third driver to lead the point standings this season, following Bristol in the first non Toyota driver to lead it all year. Denny was the points leader, starting back in San Diego in June. 11 race stretch is the leader of the points. After clawing back to be able to come back and pass. Tyler Reddick who now sits seventh in points after all this. I don't know the last time Reddick had a complete race. Yeah, I know it. It's been a rough. I was like, this is like a, I thought I talked about this earlier in the year. Like, it's almost, it's almost bad to get hot that early in the year. Yeah, because it's hard to keep it. Yeah, it's hard to keep it all year. Legano gained the most points on the leader at Bristol 35 points. And he has the most points gained on the leader over the last two races. 56 total points from back from 72 back to 16 back. Pretty incredible. And I think Russell said Joey wasn't going to have a very strong Bristol too. So who said that? I think Russell said that. Yeah, I mean, we didn't have much. I mean, we tell it us otherwise. We still thought top 10 at worst. Yeah, but Russell said he just, I think he's throughout a stat of like two top tens and how a ton of races there is something, but yeah, I don't remember what it was. But all right. So that's dirty air today. The Earnhardt family has always relied on bass pro shops for our outdoor adventures. And that tradition continues today. I grew up shopping there. Now it's a place that I love sharing with my own family, gearing up together for everything we do outdoors, whether it's fishing in the pond or weekend getaways. And also very thankful for the support to Johnny Morris and the entire bass pro shop team have shown across all of our business ventures. Whether it's dirty, Mo media or the race team or late model stock races, they believe in what we're building. They've stood behind us every step of the way. They're not just great partners. They're also great people. Be sure to check out everything they have to offer no matter if you're going fishing, camping, hunting, they've got it all at your nearest bass pro shop store. You can also shop online at basspro.com. Dirty Mo media is on the search for the most legendary NASCAR memorabilia collection. You want to be the ultimate racing collector presented by Lionel racing? The official die cast of NASCAR will Lionel racing is your go to source for all your racing die cast needs. You can check out their latest pre orders at Lionel racing.com. It's die cast sheet metal trophy shirt. And a mix of everything, that's what might get you the ultimate racing collector. We want to see it. So collectors, you've got the opportunities to submit photos, videos, do this through dirty Mo media social post for your chance to be selected. We will have a post later this week. You respond to that. Videos are best. Photos though have one at times. And next week, we'll select a winner. The ultimate racing collector presented by Lionel racing. All right. We got Joey, we got no calling in on the Dale junior download. Joey, thanks for giving us some time today. I know winning races, everybody wants to talk to you, especially with everything you've done over the course of the second half of this season. I think at one point, you were 20th or so in points or somewhere back there. And Russell with racing insights told me you had a 70% chance of making the chase. And I said, that's no, there's no way that can be correct. Not only have you made the chase, but you're sitting just a couple of points out of the points lead. And I don't think that there was anyone in the world who thought this was possible. I thought that they had made up. point system that would make that impossible. But you have done, uh, you've done the rarest of things, man. Uh, you've, you've, you've basically taken a spot in the backside of this chase. And you've drove, you know, you've driven your way all the way up into the front of this thing with a real, real shot of winning the championship. And I know that, I know that you are very proud of that. Uh, but honestly, like, aren't you even a little surprised? Uh, I thought we can get there. I did not think we'd get through this quickly. Yeah. Um, right. I mean, when the, when the chase started, I thought, okay, we, we can win the championship. It's going to be very, very hard to make up 70 points on these guys. And I thought, gosh, if we do that, it's going to take all the races to do it. And the facts are, man, you can score so many points with, you know, the stages now. And then the race wouldn't be in 20 more than anybody else. You stacked up a few of those days. You're right there. So, yeah, you can still make it up. You can get there. And uh, as easy as, I say, easily, as quickly as we got there, we, we equally, someone else can do the same thing, right? All we did is stack together a 10th place day at Darlington, uh, a good stage points day and a third place finish at Gateway and a first and a third on the stages and a win at Bristol. Like, it's all, like, that's achievable stuff for a lot of teams to do. So, you know, we're, we're there. And that's great. Um, but long, long ways to go. But, uh, yeah, definitely further ahead than I expected to be at this point. Yeah. I'm really captivated by the chase. I'm captivated by the points. I thought that we all kind of had an understanding of how this, you know, how the points might go, how they may work. What we've learned is we underestimated stage points and the value of stage points. They were important. They always have been, but they're even more so important now. And, um, I think NASCAR did an incredible job, uh, working with a lot of people to create a point system that's entertaining. And it's also rewarding, uh, uh, for the drivers who go out there and get the job done. So pretty impressive stuff. Um, you know, when you're, when you look back at, uh, what went on with Blaney and host of our, um, I've got to ask you, man, I don't think that you and host of our are in any way similar. But early in your career, you were kind of poked and prodded by some of the veterans in the sport. You were kind of targeted at times. Uh, and so you know a little bit about like what it is, what it's like to unwillingly or willingly be drug into some of those scrums and be a part of the media conversation and be a bit of a lightning rod in the sport. So when you see what host of our has going on, um, does it kind of bring back some of those memories of what it was like to be, uh, you know, kind of pissing off a veteran here and there every other week or every few weeks and, and trying to figure out how to navigate yourself into a better space in the sport and finding your lane. Uh, yes and no, like a little bit, right? I mean, I think Carson, I are quite a bit different people and go about things quite a bit differently. Um, and sure I had some run-ins earlier in my career, but they're still word far less, but in much different ways too. Um, and but the world was different too, then, right? Like the things that I did then are 100% acceptable to go dude today. Like it's, it's normal. You know, you, you know, how much deracing has changed as you move into this next gen car. The, the aggression level is crazy, right? Tony Stewart wanted to what my ass because I blocked them. Yeah. That's all it took, right? Like today blocking is like that's part of the game that happens all the time. It doesn't even make anyone mad. It's just like, oh, that's part of it. So it's just the game has changed a lot. And yeah, I mean, I look at it and like it's just like, there is moments of, uh, some, some things that I remember, right? Of gosh, like I look at and go, I lost a championship because I didn't handle things correctly. Yeah, and that forever eats me up inside more than anything. And I think you've got to eventually choose a lane and decide what are you here to do? Are you here to, and I had to do this, right? Am I here to be fiery and build a brand and do all this stuff? Or am I here to win championships? Which one do I want? And I would trade popularity all day long for championships because that's all I'm here to do. That's all I want to do, right? Like I wanted to be a race car driver to win. That's it. Like cool cars, sure, but really just want to win. And sometimes you have to adjust the way you go about things to make sure you have a chance to win. And like I said, I didn't. The whole thing, if I go back to Kansas, right? That's that's the scenario I'm talking about when, when that all happened in Kansas, I could have handled everything post-race so much better to where I could be sitting here possibly with four championships right now, shooting for a fifth. But instead, I'm here with three going for four because I didn't handle things correctly. And it still pisses me off because it's my own fault. There's no one else to blame but myself. And I'll never get over it. But it is what it is at this point. Do you think that we're trying, you know, we're all sitting here today kind of talking about where does this go? Where does this go? What is the end result for Carson? What is his objectives? What drives him? What motivates him? And it's I get this feeling or this sense that so in most cases, all through the decades of racing, you know, the veteran drivers would grab the guy around the neck and have a conversation with him. And he'd have a, you know, get a handful of those conversations. You start making different decisions. You start kind of falling in and trying to do things differently. But it doesn't seem like that that's what motivates Carson. It doesn't seem like that that's what he's after. He's not after to gain the respect of his peers or to the other drivers on the race track. And so how do you how do you guys coexist? You know, if he's going to stay in this lane and kind of be this way, how does how do you guys race on the race track with him? I mean, I don't know. I don't know. That's that's up to him, right? Like it's it's it's all fixable, right? Like I feel like for me, you know, surely in my career was I known as the aggressive guy, sure. But over time, like you start to kind of figure out where you want to be. And the whole like in the garage, right, the people you're racing against, that narrative changes over time, depending on how you race people. And over the last 10 years, I don't really like really been in the middle much at all. Right? And then I feel like I'm one of the most respected drivers on the race track. Like I feel that around me. I feel like I feel like I have a lot of respect when I'm racing in some other cars. I'm treated fairly, right? Like if I race someone hard, you're sure I get it back. But in general, I have a lot of respect on the race track. And that's earned over a long, long time, right? I guess I'm almost 20 years into it. It takes a long time. And I had to make up for some stuff in the beginning. But it's always first of all, and it's just kind of again, though, what's your goals? Like what do you what are you trying to do? Everyone can have different goals. You can win in different ways, right? Like whatever you're trying to do. But for me, it was always I want to win the championship. Yeah. What do you think about, you know, when we at the middle of the season, we had Toyota and they were really dominant. There's been a lot of change in the sport, not only to the cars, a little structure change on the front of the cars, but the race tracks that we started going to completely change the narrative and the way this, this, the championship's shaping up. Now we're going to go back to what I think are the first mile and a half. So we've been to in quite a while. And the first, are you as eager as opposed to get out there on the racetrack and kind of see where you stack up? Where are the Toyota's? Where are the Chevrolet's? Where's Pinsky at? Or do you have an idea of where you feel like you guys will be? You never know, right? So you get there. And so many things have changed since the last time we were at a mile and a half, especially the last time we're at Kansas, whether it's, you know, some of the rules things have changed. Our car updates are setups have changed drastically like all these things have are quite a bit different. So am I curious? Yes, I'm very curious to see like where we're at. But you know, just kind of is when we get there we'll get there and we'll see how it all works out. But it's a, you know, again, it's one of those tracks where downforce is going to be King, horse power is King. And it's a good measurement of where you truly stack up on on big tracks like this. So we'll see where it is. All right, I got a question for you. What were your thoughts and to that race inside the helmet when you're watching what's going on in front of you? Because you've been on the other side of that where you've, you know, made the pass and had a, you know, had kind of a win taken away. And now like what's going through your mind when you saw them guys start to do that to each other? Were you surprised that it was carrying to the lengths that it did? Oh, so happy. You know, for 20 years, I've been telling these drivers to just get out of my way, you know, and they did. They finally just got out of my way for me. The door around I So it's just kind of a, honestly, it was a bit of a gift. But, I mean, there is nothing like, there's a coolest moment of the whole thing, really. It's like you're standing at the start finish line as a hundred thousand people there or whatever, and they're all screaming and yelling and like it's just so much energy, right? And all the eyes were at that moment before the fight started, everyone was looking at me and you get the microphone to say whatever you want. Like, that is a cool experience, it's very unique. But a lot of fun, and then obviously the fight broke out and everything went over there. But it was a fun, you know, couple, 30 seconds or so. That was pretty neat. - Were you surprised that Ty carried the carson so high when he kinda thought maybe he could just drive by him on the bottom? Were you surprised that he kinda went in there and did that? - In turn three, you're talking about? - Yeah. Well, I was there, so he couldn't really get to the bottom. So he was kinda committed. So, you know, when he went in there and rooted him up, you know, at that point, you know, thank a lot of media, three wide bottom. And, you know, when you're three wide into three, you gotta check it up quite a bit, such that you hit the grip strip on the bottom. - Yeah. - And I checked up and those two shipped it in there. - Oh yeah, you could see it. - And I was like, I don't think, I looked to the right middle of the corner, looked up there like they're gonna spin and come down the racetrack. There's no way they don't wreck here. I was surprised I didn't wreck it. But they went in there so hard. 'Cause Ty couldn't get to the bottom. I was still at his left rear, so he couldn't get there. But it was, yeah, it was pretty extreme. - Well, hey, man, we appreciate you giving us some time. No, it's a busy day for you. And good luck when you go to Kansas. It's gonna be a lot of fun for all of us. We can't wait to tune in and see what happens next in this incredible chase that NASCAR's got. Hopefully you're in the mix all the way to the finish line, man. - Hope so. We're gonna get shot right now. We'll just keep her rolling. Keep the momentum. - Thank you for having me out. - Thank you, buddy. - See you guys. - All right, y'all, thanks for joining us here on the Nail Junior Download for our Tuesday show. This is from the Arby Studio. Don't forget about Arby's new Meetin' Three Bosch. You get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meats, and we'll see you tomorrow. (upbeat music) Check out dirtymo media on Instagram, Facebook, X and TikTok.