The Dale Jr. Download - 101 - Kentucky: 'Here's the low down on that...'

Episode Date: July 14, 2015

After a long night in Kentucky, Dale Earnhardt Jr. details what went wrong with the brakes on the No. 88 Nationwide Chevrolet. Fans weigh in on Danica incident during Reaction Theatre. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is Dale Jr., and you're listening to Dirty Mo Radio. I don't know, wreck and lose one class, and then don't turn it at all the next. I don't know how to drive. Yeah, we're just asking ourselves that same question in here. You're now listening to the Dale Jr. download presented by Spy. Check out Dale Jr. signature dirty-mow sunglasses from Spy at Spyoptic.com. Hey, everybody's Jr. Post Kentucky. Sitting here Sunday trying to get ready to go to Chicago.

We've got to test three days there. It's going to rain a little bit. Thursday's the rain day. Hopefully we're not there four days. We've got to get to New Hampshire, and I'm looking forward to that. But back to Kentucky, admittedly, that's not one of my best tracks. And, you know, we had a lot of rain. Didn't really get a chance to try to improve the car.

But anyhow, we ran the Xfinity race for Helmonds. That was a pretty good time. Not the best night, finish in eighth. Really didn't have a competitive enough car, but I learned a lot. It seemed to be able to carry some of that stuff over to Saturday night in the cup race. Starting off in the cup race, here's a lowdown on that. I forgot to turn on a few switches in the car that helped cool the brakes and help keep some tire tips down. I did get the gear fan on, which is important, because it would have broke the gear pretty quickly.

but we took off running error in the first run, the brakes started fading a little bit. Luckily, the caution come out and got the switches on. Come down at pit road, pull a little tape off the brakes. That should fix it, right? Everything should go back to normal, cool off. The brakes and the pedal should come back, and that's not what happened. It continued to get worse and worse each run. We had a pretty good car, though, when we drove, we started, shotgun on the first.

field after the competition caution and we drove all the way up to 13th place so you know we had a pretty good car a top 10 car maybe not a top 5 car but definitely a top 10 car and so you know i was still pretty confident um we made some big big changes to the car throughout the night on some runs it was just terrible on some runs it was moving up through the field pretty good so sometimes we wouldn't change anything and it would drive really good and then another set of tires was really bad. So I don't know whether we were just getting some odd-ass tires or what. But anyhow, we ended up having a lot of brake problems and it got so bad at one point that if I didn't pump the brakes all the way down to straightaway, it'd go to the floor going in the corner.

So we're sitting there pumping the brakes, pumping the brakes, pumping the brakes, pumping the brakes, pumping the brakes, lap after lap after lap, trying to just stay out there and not get lapped until we can try to fix it. We're trying to, you know, when the cautions would come out, we'd bleed the right front, run out of time, caution would come out, we'd come in and bleed the left front, and we'd try to see how that would help, and bleeding the brakes helped a little bit, but it would eventually get hot on the long run and it'd run out. So it was so confusing as to why that was happening, because, you know, we should be getting

enough cooling to them that they should be good, but they weren't. And anyhow, I started to kind of take it easy. We were sitting there running along, pumping the brakes a lot. Just let Danica go by, and we went down the back straightaway, and I'm pumping the brakes, and they're not, you know,

I can't pump them all the way to the floor on the straightaway because you don't want to slow the car down while you're trying to accelerate. You're just pumping them trying to get the fluid up, trying to get the pedal up. Well, when we got to the corner and I mashed a brake, it went all the way to the floor. And I put, I let off the brakes, mashed it again to the floor. At this point, I'm going to hit her.

I let off again and mashed the brakes and it goes to the floor, and then I hit it. I ran the back of her. So I couldn't slow the car down. There wasn't nothing I could do about it. Ended up running the back of her, knocking her in the wall pretty good. It saved us from hitting the wall, though, so. That was a silver lining. Anyhow, she flew off the handle, got pissed off.

Our spotters communicated and told her about the brakes. She still ran into us on pit road for whatever damn reason. That just brings a lot of unwanted attention to both of us for all the wrong reasons. So, I mean, I've been there. I've done that. But, you know, knowing what I know now, you just want to make a bad situation worse. So that sucked. I couldn't do anything about it.

and I hated it wrecked her car because, you know, nobody wants to get wrecked out of the race. Well, the next thing we did was come down pit road and we bled both sides again. We bled the right front and then the left front. And then we put new fluid in it. And at this point, I think that what had happened was we cooked the fluid at the start of the race. And once that brake fluid gets to a certain tip and gets cooked over, it bubbles and creates air in the lines. and just never really a good thing.

I remember in 99 I had break problems at Richmond and I wrecked Jimmy Spencer because I didn't have any breaks getting in a turn three. And we bled them things all that long, never could get them to come back. So it's just a, it ends up being a temperature thing, and once you get that fluid ruined, it won't return and start helping you.

So we put some new fluid in it on this particular caution, and that seemed to at least allow them to live to the end of the race. At the same time, they said they looked down at the brakes, and we didn't have any pad left, so they said to be careful with 40 laps to go that we were eventually going to get down to the metal, and it wasn't going to stop at all at that point. So that also told us a little something about what we needed to do

to prevent this in the future. We ended up taking it easy, driving up through there, finishing 21st. We were catching a lot of guys just need another 100 laps to really get back to where the car should have finished. But we should have finished 8th, 9th, 10th, somewhere around there,

especially with the lap times we're running at the end. Even still pumping the brakes on the straightaway, we still ran pretty competitive lap times. And we did improve some, you know, we made some major, major changes to the car and learned some things there that might help us at Darlington.

At the end of the race, get out of the car and I'm communicating with Greg and the guys and what we determine really is the problem with our brakes is with this package with low down force package we used we used twice as much break as we would have typically used there you know it just we had an intermediate high speed you know package that we might use at Michigan or somewhere that you don't use the Harley any brake and that just didn't hold up it just got hot and it you know it gave up so we we pulled all the tape off the front of the car to give

it as much air as we could but the but the calipers rotors and brake pads and all that stuff is not built for the type of racing we were doing it'd be like taking you know your your mile and a half package to martinsville and expecting that to hold up it's just not going to do it so no matter how much air you put on it is the material and the parts are just not built for that so That's why it would burn all the pad off of it. And that's why, no matter how much air we tried to put on it, it wouldn't cool all the caliper and everything. The stuff's just too light and not built for heavy duty use.

For Darlington, we're going to use a lot of brake. This is the next track where we'll take this low down force package. We're going to use a ton of brake. So we're going to have to put a lot of cooling and a lot of heavy brake parts and calibers and rotors and stuff on this thing, like you did in the 80s and in the 90s. You're just going to have to really beef everything up to be able to put up with the beat

where interrida is going to go through. So I want to put a lot of responsibility on my shoulders because of forgetting the switch in the first place and cooking the fluid. But I'm afraid that, and listening to Greg, which I agree with, even if that had not happened, we didn't have a strong enough break package. We would have lost the pedal.

still and had problems with the brakes throughout the race anyway. So it's frustrating, but again, you know, you're looking at the speed of the car. You know, forget, you know, forget the result. What we need when we go to the chase is speed. We need fast cars and good luck. And no break problems and all that stuff. But we need fast cars first. We can't be aggressive on pit strategy and, you know, do things with the car unless the car's got speed.

So at one of my worst tracks where, you know, really it's just completely frustrating to drive. We had a top, you know, top 10 car outside, you know, outside the top 5 for sure, but top 10 car. So if that's as bad as we're going to run all year, I think that's a good sign that we're still on track to have a good season. Little runs like this, bad runs like this can be a sign of things to come. but I look at the speed of the car and that tells me that if we do everything right and have a good day, we're going to get a solid finish at one of our worst performing racetracks. I'm looking forward to New Hampshire. I really enjoy racing there.

It's a tough track, but a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to Darlington, especially with this package. All the drivers seem to really like it. And I'm looking forward to going there with this low down force package and seeing and how much fun we can have. It should be a pretty slick racetrack and a lot of real handful for the drivers. I'm also excited about Indian Michigan.

I'm just curious as to what that's going to do. The high-down force package that NASCAR is wanting to run there. It should be real interesting, and it'll be curious to do what kind of racing we have and how the fans like that versus what we saw in Kentucky. A lot of fan feedback was positive about, Kentucky. It'd be interesting to see what they think about Michigan and Indy. Very interesting time in NASCAR. The next several weeks, next month, month and a half, two months is going to be very interesting.

And everybody should pay close attention to what we're doing and what's going on as far as these rules. Because it's basically, you know, it comes down to the fan feedback, really, as to what NASCAR chooses to go in the direction they choose to go. So anyways, you guys enjoy the download. I'll be making lap after lap after lap after lap in Chicago. We'll see you in New Hampshire. That's good stuff from Dale Jr. I say this many times, but just so grateful for his explanation of each race. It's nice to host a podcast and have Mike Davis and Amanda Wolfmeier and Joe Slingerland

and his patriotic socks on the show quite frequently. and T.J. Majors' majors comes in here. But I, Taylor, Zars, are certainly grateful for Dale Jr. starting us off each week and explaining all that. Now, Mike, we're going to dive a little deeper into this, and we're going to hear some clips coming up, and we'll get Slingerlin in his socks to

help us understand some of this. But before we do that, I do have a couple thoughts. Listen, I know that some of this may not reflect the feelings of Mike Davis or Dale Jr. or others. This is just me, Taylor Zarser. I can't stand, Kentucky MotorSpeer. way. I don't like the configuration

of the track. I really like the package they brought out, and there was so much more passing. It was a much more entertaining race. And clearly, as Dale Jr. just said, most of the drivers appreciate that as well. If this place had a race in the chase, I'd be really concerned about what we saw

on Saturday night. And it doesn't mean that the boys don't need to go to work. They do. Like they said, Darlington's coming up and be another low-down force package, and you've got to get the break problems worked out. But if they had those kind of problems, Mike, in New Hampshire, going back there again in September in the chase, then I'd be really concerned.

But Kentucky's over with. I think that the Speedway, with its bumps, has character, and it has, you know, I know drivers are going to complain about that, but it has character. And so it does, to me, differentiate itself a little from the other mile and a halfers. I just wish there wasn't more mile and a halfers, period. Kentucky, Vegas, you know, wherever. Yeah, it just feels like the epitome of that.

that to me. So, yeah, I hear you. If we ran better, Kentucky's just not been a good race track for us. Even when we were good, we ran into some bad luck where we're hitting wires and whatnot. Johnson's tire. Yeah, Johnson's tire. I mean, so we just need a good race at Kentucky, and I think we'd start to feel better about it.

That's just my opinion. What do you think, Joe Slingerland? I don't know. I think the bumps and all that are kind of good, but I think some of them are in the wrong spots. I mean, a lot of drivers say they got to wear a mouthpiece when they run that track because they're, you know, feeling. fallout.

It could be smoothed out a little bit. They should brush her teeth better if they want to go on feelings. True. I don't know if we'd call this a fluke. Flukey issues. I mean, we had two big problems. And I don't think either one was actually related to each other, even though they involved the same parts.

One, Dale Jr. boiled the fluid at the beginning of the race. And the other one, we just didn't have the right break package on with this arrow package. And that was something that, I don't know if that really gets fixed with the more practice time or the test. If we'd have got all that stuff without the rain coming in. I don't know.

But we know now we're going to go to Darlington with bigger breaks and we're going to go to Kentucky with bigger breaks now that we know that that didn't work for us. And I can promise you, Dale Jr. is going to turn that fan on every time now. That's not going to be a problem. There's no doubt about that. So, you know, you live and learn. You're going to have races like this. Honestly, I was sitting here laughing at my notes from this race and they're hilarious. I was reading them to Amanda.

I'm like, how are we still on the lead lap? Yeah, that was amazing. These are my brilliant race notes that I have from this race. The caution's come out at just the right time. I don't know how we go lap down either, but it worked out. We never lost a lap at that race. That was my first thought. I couldn't believe that.

That we stayed on the lead lap. Maybe it gave us a false sense of hope, given all the break issues that were going on in the car. We're going to hear from all of that. I took down a lot of notes just now. Certainly the Danica thing, we'll get to that, hurry action. I love it when Junior said, flew it, ruin. Yes. Fluid, ruin.

Fluid, ruin. We'll get to all that coming up in just a minute as junior checks off lap after lap at this very moment at Chicago Land. Let's hear some audio. Let's start with some in-car very early on lap 18. I got no great lift. No far. Well, I'll try to get your fixed up here so you don't have to use them as that. You got all your fans on, correct?

No, I didn't have a fan's on. Sorry, that's my fault. Nobody's fault. It's mine. And as Dale Jr. went over, Mike, at the beginning of his audio, he felt terrible about that. But later on in his audio, he said, Greg said after the race, maybe they still would have had those same issues. Joe, let's talk a little bit about that. Do you agree with Greg that the break issues would have happened regardless of the fans?

Yeah, it would just would have if the fans were on, it would have prolonged it. You know, it was eventually going to happen. just with the package we had. There's no downforce on the car. So when you go on the corner, let off the gas, there's no drag to help slow you down. So you do have to use a little more break. Mike, I'm interested in your thoughts as well on that.

I mean, when you have a problem that early on, on lap 18 and you're already losing a lot of spots, you feel like, man, this could be a long night. Yeah, but we had to pit early enough. We did those two pit stops during the first caution and restarted 40th. And I still felt like we were so plenty early that if we could just find out what was the issue with those brakes,

and if he had not cooked the fluid early. And that was too early to know if you had. I didn't really feel worried. I think that even, I go back to my notes again, here's another note I have. Even when our car sucks, we're still pretty fast. And so, you know, again, I still think we're like a top 10 car at that point. It was fast, but it was inconsistent.

Like he said, it would, you know, after one stop, we wouldn't really make any changes because he was running good times. He was only a tenth or two off the leader, sometimes faster than a leader. And all of a sudden the next we do a stop, he'd go out there, and he'd be three, four tenths off the pace. So it's just kind of, it never balanced out just right if the setup was that close to where adjustment made that big a difference. And we did put some big, so. I mean, we swung for defenses on pretty much every stop. Let's go to the competition caution at lap 30, as juniors made it up to number 27 on the board, and they come back in.

I'm going to tell you about the balance from here all now. We'll work on the balance. I'll try not to throw a fit. It feels like it's all over to splitter. Early in the run, especially. I feel, I hear all kinds of things hitting underneath the car that weren't hitting the first run. I don't know why I hit that run.

But a lot of things banging and slamming, and it feels like it pushes that real bad on the splitter. Yeah, you know, we're looking at some pictures here. It looks like the splitter may be high. That's why you're causing yourself to have some push off the clitor. corner. As far as stuff hitting, it might be just, you know, the left side skirts and maybe a truck arm, I'm not sure. We put two rounds in the back trying to get your attitude a little bit better, maybe seal that splitter. If it's not it, we'll try something else, try to fix it.

Okay. What do we do if the brakes don't come back? Yeah, that's puzzling me right now. Sorry I don't have an answer, but we, you know, try to open on the grill, or the break holes just a little bit, so we've got a little bit more air. Hopefully they'll come back to you. I want to know what Mike Davis's note said after Greg I've said. That's puzzling to me. I'm not really sure what to do about the brakes at this moment. Let me see here. My note says I would have expected a better answer.

As a driver, you would expect a better answer to have some confidence. Like, okay, they'll come back eventually. Well, here's the thing. Regarding that splitter, I know Greg and Dale and even Joe wouldn't have known this, but as I'm sitting there watching this race and I'm monitoring other teams, there were a lot of people talking about that. I don't think that had anything to do with our brakes or whatnot. You know, you expected drivers to talk about how awful their car is with this new arrow package

and with all the bumps at Kentucky. So that you just knew was going in. You take out all the practice time, the test time that they were supposed to have, and now you really know you're just going to hear a lot of complaining. And you did. Everybody did. And you did. I mean, like, even the cars that were pretty good were complaining about the, you know,

the splitter hit the ground and dragging and they're all over the place. So it was hard to really gauge at that point who was really, really, really. good and who wasn't because everyone was complaining. I believe that's the time that Steve LaTard on television said, man, I love this new job. Yeah, I'll guarantee it. He didn't want to a part of that down there

on the pit box. All right, Joe, let's listen to this next in-car when the guys stayed out on the track. The caution came out on lap 80 and they were up to 13th but still had all kinds of break problems and they pitted, made a bunch of adjustments and still

they were wondering about whether they can bleed them or not Now, on caution during the Lapa 98, they were still 13th. Let's listen to this exchange. I didn't think we had that kind of speed to do this. I was debating more than two or four, but I don't think we got that kind of speed to be disarrant about it. We had, you know, in that last run there, we had top five speed in 20th and drove up to 13th. I know, but it doesn't have top five speed for 20 laps. It's awful.

game two spots for no tires that was seven spots I don't like it this speaks to Joe's point Joe said how inconsistent it was early in the race you didn't know how inconsistent it was Greg makes the call to stay out and not pit based off

the fact that the run before he was running top five lap times you know what would you what would you have done Mike if you were Greg any different than what he just decided to do I understand Dale Jr's frustration But to your point, if you're in Greg, I have this position and you're gaining seven spots, I think you would have done exactly the same thing. Well, I did.

I was standing on the wall telling him to stay out. Did you expect more people to pit then? Probably, yeah. I did. I thought a lot of it. I think eighth place had fresh tires in, right? Yes. Yeah.

So, I mean, look, I hate people to, you know, base are picking on a quarterback. Yeah, on hindsight. But honestly, if you come out, if you come out third, then, yeah, I'm like, I'm all about it that early in the race. The way he spiraled afterwards, it definitely was you headed to do over again. Yeah. I mean, at the moment, it felt like, at least to me, it felt like the right decision. And Joe, the people in the pits obviously felt the same way. Yeah, it was, I mean, I thought staying out would have been the choice to do.

But it didn't pay off. You know, if more cars would have come in, yeah, I think it would have worked out. we may have not have lost as many spots being up there in clean air. Yeah. But you're getting stuck back behind traffic and then dropping back further on. Just was a snowball effect. Yeah. But like Mike said, ultimately Mike's right.

And they started talking about bleeding brakes quite a bit. And they took four tires and fuel, made a bunch of adjustments. Here's an exchange after that, after they decided to come back under caution. We've got to try something to order. So we're just going to come, jack the right side up, get the tire off, Have a lug that's ready. You aren't going to bleed the right front. It's going to be a porch coming out of there.

Yeah, that's why we've got to be nice and gentle here. Mr. Slingerland, what were your thoughts at that moment? I was talking the Travis Mack, and I told him we don't have to go in the garage area to bleed the brakes. You can do it on pit road. I've done it before. Same situation of Pocono. It just, it does. The brake fluid's so hot.

The calip or the rotors are at least 1,000 degrees. And when that fluid hits there, it's instant fire. So you just got to be ready. We had rags put over a thing. It did fire up a little bit, but there were people there with bottles of water, dumped it on there, went right out. Really? Yeah, it wasn't a, you don't want to splash around everywhere,

but when it, you know, it hits the rags, and it starts dripping down onto the rotor, and it just ignites. So there was somebody there dumped water onto as soon as it flared up, and it was fine. Here's what I'm curious about, because I think in the run before that, they had considered bleeding the brakes but Greg said we'll just start a fire

if we do this on pit road we need to pull it behind the wall but then all of a sudden for whatever reason and I think it's just being based off race conditions you guys decided to bleed the brakes on pit road what changed? I don't know I had said something to Travis Mac about just bring him down pit road

I mean you can do it on pit road without starting a fire and I talked them about it so I don't know if he went up and said something to Ives and then decided to do it saying we could get it done Okay. But yeah, I didn't think there was no point I'm bringing it back behind the wall. I mean, it's a touchy, you know, situation because you don't want it to start a fire. Because if you crack it open and you don't have a rag over the top of it, and it shoots out,

and it starts dripping down the firewall and stuff like that, then you've got to try and put little fires out all over inside the car instead of just one general spot. And it's game over probably, too. So what is that process then? To bleed the brakes, what do you have to do? So you come in, take tire off, hits a 716 wrench on the bleeder. You put the rags over the top, you tell Dale to pump it up and hold it. And then Greg is communicating over the radio.

You crack it open, his foot goes to the floor. And as soon as you see the fluid or stop dripping coming out, you lock it back down and tell him to pump it up again. You do that three or four times. Because when the fluid boils, you actually get air inside there. Even though it's a sealed system, air gets in there somehow some way. And you've got to get the air out because when there's air in the system and you push the pedal, the air comes up through to the pedal. And it's compressible. I'm like fluid.

Wow. That's interesting. They did that with a little left. That is fascinating. Yeah. And get all this done in 20 seconds. Yeah. It's a stressful situation.

You guys did the very best you could. All right, we're going to come back to probably the most talked about lap of the race in a moment of the race in just a moment. But first I want to hear this last exchange before we get to the Danica Dale situation. And that's Greg and Dale talking about how careful. to be with that break pad. Almost to the, all the way through the break pad here, so it's got to be smart. Oh, I don't have much of break. Yeah, it's getting close.

What's going to happen then? Well, you start hearing a little bit of metal. It'll still stop a little bit, but it won't stop as good, so that's why we need to do. We're not to the back to play yet, but. Okay. I was ready for Junior to answer by saying, is there an eject button? and hear you're going to hear a metal. Yeah, that was crazy.

Then you're going to hear an explosion. And then at that point, well, a lot of times when the brake pad wears out, there's actually a little keeper inside the brake or the caliper that holds the brake pad in. And when you come metal to metal, it goes past that little keeper. And it actually drops out. Then all the pucks pop out and you lose brakes and the wall you go. Yeah. Yeah.

That sounds about right. But he had, I went to the shop today, and I looked at him, and he had about a quarter inch of pad left, so at the end of the race. It's, I mean, for... It wasn't as dire. No, it wasn't as dire, but, I mean, you need to let him know. Yeah, for sure. So he needed those extra 100 laps to finish in the top 10. Okay, quarter would have made it with that brake pad.

Well, it should have gone into the wall. As Dale Jr. said, the silver lining is Danica's car saved the 88 from going into the wall. but because Junior basically had no breaks, he got in the back of Danica Patrick there. And the whole free world knew, Dale had no breaks. I mean, everybody watching the race, anybody listening to the race. And as I speculated on Saturday night, Danica's team had to know Dale Jr.

had an issue going on of some sort. And evidently, that was the case as the spotters were talking to each other. T.J. was talking to Danica spotter, and the teams were talking to each other. Yet Danica, as Dale said, still decided to get into Dale Jr. there on pit road. And I'm glad he said what he said there in his comments at the beginning, Mike. If Danica truly thought Dale Jr. was doing something reckless or careless or was being too aggressive with her out there on the track, then fine.

She has every reason to retaliate. But after explaining to her, the fella has no breaks. I just for the life of me don't understand that thinking. Well, I've got to be honest with you. I expected her to do a lot more than just running to him on pit road. I mean, when have we, you know, listen, Danica was upset about it. You know, I don't have a problem with that. I mean, I think we would be upset in it.

How we handle those situations could be different than the way Danica does, but we know that Danica gets pretty temperamental about these things. And so I got to be honest, I thought for sure there would be a post-race discussion. But to her credit, I might actually give her credit, she slammed her helmet down and went in and just didn't talk to anybody. I honestly didn't expect that. I thought that there would... I thought for sure, you think that at least she's going to talk to the media probably and vent a little bit,

but she didn't even do that. So you think back to the Tony Stewart situation in Richmond, he did the same thing. And I think Danica and Tony did have a conversation when she got out of the race car. And I wonder if he didn't suggest to her to kind of do the same thing. Look, I know you're mad. Just go into the hauler, vent in there. Let's not make it a spectacle.

I don't know about you, Joe. I'm glad Dale Jr. left her on the track in the commercial. Yeah, back going to know is, you know, I love having Joe in here because, like, what was Joe going to do? Was he going to separate him if it ever come to that? No. I'm going to stay right in the pit stall. Let them work it out. There you go.

There you go. Let those drivers work it out. That's what they're there for. Yeah, better find a new ride home. But what if their pit – what if Danica's pit crew went after you? Well, that's a different story. This guy is such a pot stirer, man. Well, I don't know how Ives is, but Stevie said, you know, if they come in our pit stall,

then you have, you know, free will to do whatever you got to do to protect yourself. So I don't know Greg's take on it, but that was Stevie's take on it. Slingerlund never imagined he would be in a situation if he answered these types of questions. But here we are. Listen, I just say, I know of a couple of thousand-degree race car parts that they might have been able to hold for, you know, that guy, hey, can you hold this for a second? And then get your message across that way? No, okay, maybe not.

Maybe I won't suggest on how to handle those situations. Make suggestions. Hey, you know what? I've got a question. And this is for Joe, since we didn't have him last week. You were one of the guys that ran out by Austin's car, weren't you? Yes. In Daytona?

Yes. Did you have a moment when you got out there? Obviously, your adrenaline's moving and you're thinking, oh, my gosh, is this guy okay? It's a big moment. But did you get out there and think I'm on a racetrack now with moving cars around me? What am I going to do now? It really didn't. That didn't occur to me.

When I ran up to the car, there was fuel dumping out of the fuel cell and oil dumping out of the oil tank. And that was my concern. I know the motor was kind of laying 20, 30 yards away from it. But something could have sparked a fire. And then, you know, there were, of course, our guys and the passenger side window. and then the 13 guys and the driver's side window. So if something did happen, that was my biggest concern. But there was the, oh, crap kind of movement of hopefully he's all right.

Yeah. You know, because there could be something you're running up there and you don't want to see that could, you know, stay with you for the rest of your life. Right. And thank God nothing like that. You know, there was nothing there like that. Amanda, I can't believe we've waited until now. I mean, thank you for bringing that up. Joe, I can't imagine what your emotions are like.

your guys just won the race and you're windspringing to the aid of the fellow driver wondering if something tragic is waiting on you. All of us were horrified by what we thought might be happening there. And so grateful that Austin walks away with Lane Frost hands in the air and on to the next race we go. Yeah, you think of the, I mean, the first thing that enters your head and I think it's anybody you think the worst. Like, oh my God, he didn't make that. That was atrocious, the wreck. the way the catch fence just like as soon as it hit it instantly stopped the car and threw it back out in the track and then the other concern was is he was there for 10 to 12 seconds maybe before the two car slammed into him

so you're wondering was he starting to unbuckle when the two car hit him gosh i never even thought about that so because i mean that's you know tragically that's happened before and somebody's lost their life where they were unbuckling and got hit by another car um so that was another concern I actually just thought about this because we actually have Jill Gregory on Kelly's show tomorrow. And this got brought up on her point of view from race control. Oh, wow. And she said, you know, that everybody just went into sheer panic mode with all the crew guys running out on the track. NASCAR not only had safety concerns of Austin and what was going on there,

but then they had to go into another panic mode of crew members now in danger as well. Yeah, because the cars, sorry, the cars, as they were wrecking, they were turning around and coming back. back down pit road backwards. So there were cars going by us as we were running out there and then as we were standing out there. Wow. The dangerous situation. Crazy middle of the night.

Dangerous situation. We were ecstatic about the victory. I know you were too, Joe. And it was fun to celebrate that after everybody knew everything was okay. But for a few moments, everybody held their breath. Yeah, definitely. Definitely worthy of bringing that up this week. All right.

We've got something cool today on top of the discount deal. that Spy always offers. Mike, take it away. Spy's got other items than just sunglasses. They've got some stuff they're trying out. They've got earbuds. They've got this Bluetooth speaker that's waterproof. It's really cool that they're doing this stuff,

and they sent a bunch of it to us to give away to whoever we think is deserving on Reaction Theater. So I don't know what our... We've got some people already in the store here saying that they deserve it. We've got the gentleman. and we met him on the way in here.

This was the guy that called with the Vanilla Ice song earlier in the year. He's here in the studio. He's waving. Oh, wow. Yeah, he's here from Iowa. He was one of my favorites. Yeah, he was a favorite. So we've got some new stuff.

So over the next few weeks, I think for the next couple months, we need to pick a collar that we feel like is deserving of whatever spy product we want to send them. All right. So I can't just go ahead and say, Mike, man, we got to give it to this guy. He's hilarious. We've got to pace ourselves, is what you're saying. We've got to pace ourselves. you know what, if he wants to do a second verse to his song, you know, he can always do that, you know.

It's just the timing, you know. Don't forget, you can go online to Splioptic.com and get yourself a pair of Dale Jr.'s signature 88 shades. This includes the Dirty Moe, McCoy, Quanta, General, and Farrah for the ladies. Once you are ready to check out inner discount code nationwide 88 and get 20% off that purchase. I'm at SEC Media Days in Hoover, Alabama. I've already gotten some compliments. In fact, Gus Malzahn, your favorite football coach? He's good.

He had something to say about my sunglasses. All right, let's get to Reaction Theater. I can't believe what is with Danica? You know, I mean, yeah, Dale ran into her. It's not like she was running up front. It's not like she was having this great race. She sucked, you know? And then to, you know, do a payback.

I mean, come on, Danica. You can't blame everybody every time you're, having a bad day. Dale, yeah, and three beers. Bye. Yeah, Mike, you just, I imagine your very first thought was reaction theater. Very first thought when that happened on Pit Road. Was it the fact that I tweeted out the number immediately?

What gave it away? Oh, yeah. No, it's good conversation, you know, those things. Yeah, for sure. All right, who's next? Well, damn, I feel like somehow I spit back. in time to 2010. The driver made a mistake.

The crew chief made a bigger mistake. We finished in the 20s, and Kyle Bush won a damn race. Good God. Two big things that are different, though, that keeps me from jumping off the ledge. And that's number one, we had top five speed tonight. We just didn't get it tonight. That stuff happens to big time auto race, and I'm not worried about it. And two, normally I'd have called in and gave the crew chief hell, but, um,

I'm going to lay off of him. Greg's got to go home to his daughter, and I bet it's a long week for more Greg guys at home. I hope she gives it to him pretty rough, though. He kind of deserves it. But I ain't worried about. We got two wins. We got speed.

We'll get it together. Dale yeah. There you go, Dado. Very good stuff this week from him. Love hearing from him more frequently than we had in the past. And he's right. Greg's going to hear it at home, Mike Davis. Oh, yeah.

His toughest critic. is his daughter. Yeah, she is. She's hard on him. What do you think she said to him? I don't know. I don't know. It was kind of hard being in a little kid's head.

Dad, look, we've got brakes and, we've got brakes in this car. Huh. That's interesting. Yeah. Yeah, look at that. I'm smart, Alec. Yeah. Should I ride my bike to school from now on?

Who's next? Well, he was in the wall in the back of Danica. She got all pissed off. I don't know why. She finished 34th, which is about nine spots, eight spots. I had where she usually finishes, but the fact that we finished on the lead lap was a good thing. That car was awful. So I'm ready for next week.

I'm still excited about last week, although tonight was very disappointing. There we out. Yeah, it was. It was disappointing. But Mike Davis, I just want to forget about Kentucky. I'll think about Kentucky next July, I guess. All right, who's next? Kyle Bush and Joe Gibbs Racing.

I can't stand that shit bag. in the 18 car. And second of all, if Junior Nation wants to put the blame on anybody for Junior's lousy performance tonight, y'all can blame me. I didn't wear my lucky underwear tonight, and I didn't listen to two podcasts of the Dale Jr.

Download and, you know, Kelly's Fastlane family, and, of course, JRM up front, presented by Dale's Pale Ale. I want to apologize to Mike and the guys. They put up a great podcast every week, and I'm sorry I missed it. Man, this sucks. I'm sorry, guys. I take full blame. You should.

You should. You should. He should take total responsibility for that, Mike. This is on him. Don't make that mistake again. I got no problems blaming somebody else. I do that a lot. Right.

I feel a lot better about our Kentucky. The only thing I did like about his call there is he did include the sponsors. I like that. Very nicely done. Very nicely done. He brings up a good point. He doesn't like Joe Gibbs Racing. Can we all just agree Joe Gibbs Racing brought it?

And Penskee brought it. I mean, those two teams, all of them were up there racing at the end. I mean, you got to tip your hat. They brought it, right? Yeah, for sure. No doubt about it. Who's next? Hey, Danica.

It's Junior Nation calling. We were already having not a very good night because, after all, we were running in the back with you. And then you just tried to show what you are really like. He just showed what a B. We call you are. So I knew it already, but thanks for sure and everybody else. You knew these were coming. You knew these were coming.

Hey, in a way, were you sort of happy that that happened only because it would take, at least in reaction theater, it would take a lot of the emphasis off of how bad our race was. You knew it would happen. Like, you knew that as soon as the Danica thing on Pit Road happened, they were like, oh, man, well, I know what 90% of the calls are going to be about now. It's not going to be about us. Joe, I feel like Mike Davis is a 25 or 24-year-old version of Taylor Zarzer. Like, I've gotten past all the salacious stuff.

Like, I don't, that stuff wears me out. It's kind of like what Junior said. We don't need all this extra side show stuff. And Mike's like, oh, no, no, no. Here I'm going to tweet out the reaction theater number. Here we go. He loves it. I don't know, man.

Oh, like me tweeting out that number mattered in that case. Oh, yes, it completely did. No, it would get rid of your Twitter account if it didn't. No, no way. I just, it was just an observation. Oh, yeah. I had nothing. Right, right.

Yeah. I love it. I love it. He'd love to fire him up. All right, who's next? Last year when I called in, I called myself the world's biggest Dale Jr. fan. Now I'm the most pissed off Dale Jr. fan. Not because we had break issues last night, a little bit because Kyle Busch one,

but mostly because of Danica Patch. Told you. Claims that Junior was lying about his break issue. But no, he actually had break issues all night. And the fact that she thinks he drove under him or her, maybe she shouldn't slow down in the corner, Danica. If it wasn't for Junior, you wouldn't have a job in NASCAR. So get it through your thick

Wow Well, I tell you. I told you, you don't need me. I like Danica. Right, right. I do. I like Danica. No, I'm not saying you don't like her,

but you definitely fuel the fire, my friend. Listen, you have, this is a biggest compliment I can give you. Dale Jr. is incredibly successful, and the fans love him. They feel like they're connected to him. But you, in the last handful of years, have made them feel even, closer to Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Because of your unbelievable ability that you have. And he would say the same thing. So when you Mike Davis tweet out, hey, what y'all think about Dan? I'm going to hit that phone number right now, Mike Davis. How many followers that you have on Twitter? Yeah.

How many followers you got, Mike Davis? It's like 40, 40,000. Total file? Oh. Yeah. 40, here I got it here. 44,000 followers. I'm sure it's because Mike's in Alabama.

a fan that he's got 44,000 followers. That's what it must be. That's about how many cousins I have. It's all family, Taylor. Yeah, if he's from Alabama, I agree with that. All right, it is next. I was really hoping they were interview, Jr., and he was going to give a response back

about Kentucky, and it would be very similar to what Kyle Petty said about Darlington years ago, about filling up the whole racetrack with water, and filling it full of bass, and they sell tickets for the fans to come over and watch Pro Bass fishing. But, as Kyle said, no one catch a damn thing all day.

Dale, yeah. Going to New Hampshire, see if you can get top 10, maybe even top five out of her. There you go. I bet you agree with that guy, don't you? Yeah, I'm not going to argue much with that. I love Darlington. I don't know. They don't need to.

I can't believe they even commented. Hey, listen, Darlington is back in the weekend. It belongs. You kidding me? I'm really fired up for that race. And there's always been great passion. for the lady in black. I'm really fired up for that one.

It's just Kentucky, man. I don't know. It's done like Kentucky, huh? I look the people of Kentucky. I just don't like that. No, you don't, Taylor. 855, 7.4-1902 is your number. Well, there we go.

Everybody listens to Mike Davis, so we'll get them 100 more right now. All right, it is next. Tonight's car was an absolute dumpster fire. If Daddow isn't running laps around his neighborhood or country farm, wherever the hell he is, being all winded and shit, over the phone. I don't know what the hell we're going to do, because that was a total clubbing of a baby seal I saw tonight.

Absolutely helpful. One thing we can take away from tonight is though is Dale Jr. Great guys have a great communication, and that was evident over the radio, and there's a lot to be drawn from that. Dale, you have eight jack for coax. Wow. Can't remember the liquor. I just want to say between Monterey and Los Angeles,

I just took a trip with my family. In San Simeon, California, there are some beautiful seals that aren't being clubbed that are right on the Pacific Ocean. If anybody is interested. I'm not a believer in clubbing them, but beautiful seals. Yes, you are, Taylor. 855, 740. You baby seal clover are you? Wow.

I love this. Unbelievable. And final one. Because it's all about that break. About that break. No pedal. I thought he's about them brakes, about the brakes, no pedal. It's all about the brakes, about the brakes, no pedal.

Need to bring Stevie back. Oh, no, come on. Go ahead and tell NBC that. No, I'm just playing juniors. Breaks were bad. But he was, I telling you, every inch of that car was from bottom to the top. Hashtag, that's all there needs to be said. Hashtag, 7 beer-flavored waters.

Hashtag. Dale Yag, get him next week. All about the brakes, no pedal. My six-year-old would love that. That was strong. I was singing that in my head all day yesterday after I had listened to that call. I bet you were laughing pretty hard. I can't imagine all that Amanda listened to this week.

I got to tell you, that last one to me was the favorite for the week. Yes. Amanda and Mike, so that's just my vote. Submarine Mike? Is that who that was? Yeah. He gets the first buy prize of the year then. There you go.

All about the brakes, no pedal. What do you want to send him? What do you think, Amanda? You think he's a speaker or an earbud kind of guy? I feel like he sings a lot. Maybe he wants a speaker. Give him a speaker and another pair of Slinglerons patriotic socks. You keep the socks going.

We'll send a submarine mic a speaker from Spy, and we'll get this thing going. So it gives people more incentive, more reason to call up to reaction theater and bring it. Bring your A game. And you don't always have to sing. But the singing ones are good. You got to be creative. Yeah, those ones are good. Probably have to stir the pot.

But, yeah, call in each week here. We'll have a winner each week that we will announce. Time now for It Takes the Nation presented by Nationwide. You know, I love it when fans come here to the studio here at Junior Motorsports and introduce themselves. And we had that happen today. And I'm like, we've got to take this opportunity and have our guy, Jeff here. in for Takes a Nation. Jeff, tell us where you're from, first of all, and why are you here?

Well, I'm from Des Moines, Iowa. I came down for a family reunion over in Knoxville, Tennessee, and I was like, I'm close enough to Charlotte. I got to make the drive over, check out the podcast, so here I am. Jeff, we're not really that close to Knoxville, Tennessee, though. You know that, right? Close enough. I always say to my wife that I want to come to Charlotte for vacation, and I said, man, I'm only like four hours away. I got to go. She's like, you got to do it. So me and my dad made the road trip over today and went to Hendrick this morning, went to Charlotte Motor Speedway, took the track tour, and end up here to check out the podcast. I'm glad you're here, Jeff. You introduced yourself. Amanda and I were on our way down to the

studio to do this taping, and you introduced yourself as, do what you tell us, how did you introduce yourself? I said, I'm the Vanilla Ice Guy. The Vanilla Ice Guy. We need to actually pull that clip and play that right now. So people can remember who the Vanilla Ice Guy is. This was one of the calls from earlier in the year for reaction theater. Let's play it. All right, stop. Del Jr. won Tel Delaidega this weekend, moving from top to bottom,

blocking everyone who tried to get beside them. If you had a problem, I will solve them. Check out the radio as T.J. is spotting. Boom, boom, boom. Bill Jr. won that Tel Degga. Jeff, I got to tell you, man, that's pretty talented. pretty good. How did you come up with that one? Actually, I've just been waiting for a junior to win

because I kind of had that song in my head at the beginning of the season. He finally did it, and words just worked out perfectly, and called in and made the phone call, and all it was. And you guys played it. Were you a one-take wonder, or did you have to do it a couple times? One time. Really? Most of my calls, I usually mess up and take a couple,

but this time it was just the first time. So you're a regular caller on reaction theater? Yep. All right. What else have you done? Have we played any of your other calls? You've played quite a few. My first one ever was Phoenix's second race of 2014.

Okay. And I talked about having a kitty pool down on the pit box. I don't know if you remember that one. Do you remember that? Steve Lartre with the... Steve can kick back and relax. Yep. That was my first...

Oh, because we won the Daytona 500. That's right. And so he's now just relaxing at the kitty pool. Yep, that was my first time ever calling. Good one. I did the Pocono Beach Boys. song. Did you?

See, I love that. That was great. Well, I got it from you. You tweeted out Pocono, like Beach Boys. I'm like, I'm going to run with it. And it worked out that Martin Turex won. That was good. Juniors go to Victory Lane is what I came up with.

Hold on Amanda. Give us a little bit of his Pocono song. Not even Ketlowski could get a win at Pocono. That's where juniors. But I'm guessing he's had a paleo. I'm telling you, man, that's pretty creative. I liked it. You sound like a beach boy.

No, I don't know about that. You can go from vanilla ice to beach boy like nobody I've ever heard. All right. So you're here in Charlotte checking it out. When are you going back home? Actually, going back to Knoxville night and tomorrow we're heading back to Iowa. So it's going to be a couple days of drive back there. You got a lot of time on the road ahead of you.

You know what, Jeff, I can't let you go on back to Knoxville and then to Iowa without taking one of these cool spy prizes on them. We just started this week some giveaways for reaction theater callers, but you're one of our favorites. So even though you didn't call in for this week, you didn't call in, but you know what? You're one of our favorites. We're going to send you back with one of these cool. What do you want?

Speakers. Amanda, what's his options? You got earbuds or like a Bluetooth wireless speaker? I'll take the earbuds. I listen to the podcast at work. Fantastic. So, you know, you guys keep me entertained all week. Thank you very much for listening to Dirtymo Radio and being a reaction

theater caller and for your creativity. It really, really entertains us. And so we're very grateful for you. And I hope you keep listening. I hope you have a safe trip back to Iowa. All right. Thank you. Hey, folks, what did I tell you?

This video series at Nationwide is feeding to its digital and social media channels. It's just awesome. It's exceptional. Last week was by far my favorite one, the one with the fans, and Dale Jr. Surprising them. If you have not seen these videos, go to Nationwide's Facebook and Twitter pages at Nationwide 88. new ones every Tuesday for the next seven weeks, and they don't even take the old ones down.

So if you've missed some, you just go there, catch up. All right? So, yeah, thank you nationwide for putting out that video series. Thank you fans for watching them. Let us know what you think. Tweet to Nationwide 88. Leave comments on the Facebook page. And do not forget, Nationwide is on your side.

Hey, everyone. I'm Tip Daniels, and here's a look at what's coming up this week on Dirty Moe Radio. On Wednesday, Kelly returns to Fast Land Family, presented by Wella Professionals and will be joined by NASCAR VP Jill Gregory. Thursday, even though Heath White is on vacation, host Regan Smith will be holding down the fort

with first name Davis on Junior Motorsports Upfront presented by Dale's Pale Ale. And they'll be joined by our very own Ben Rhodes who's racing this weekend in Loudon. Don't forget, you can always catch all of juniors at track press conferences on said junior presented by Nationwide. Dirty Mo Radio Podcasts are available

free of charge 24-7 on Dale Jr.com, iTunes, and all major podcasting outlets. All right, Mike Davis, let's throw that white flag. White flag, white flag, white flag. White flag right there, white flag. Hold tight. Here we go. It's the white flag brought to you by Joe's socks.

That's right. Yes. Stars and Stripes. Yeah, stars and stripes. That's a good one. This is going to go to slingerlandsguns.com and it's on today. This one's going to be easy because Dale, as he said at the beginning, is testing in Chicago all the way through tomorrow.

So that's the bulk of his one. workload this week. This weekend, the Xfinity Series and Sprint Cup series head to New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Saturday, Stay Green 200 will be televised on NBC Sports Network. Regan Smith will drive the number seven Anderson's maple syrup Chevrolet, Chase Elliott, Elliott, the number nine nap auto parts Chevrolet, and Ben Rhodes is back in the number 88 Alpha Energy Solutions Chevrolet. Sunday's Camping World RV sales 301. Make sure we get that extra mile in there.

Hey, you make sure you put enough fuel in the car for 301 miles. Not 300. I love that race. It's short and sweet, and it's like, in and out. It's like, all right. I do, too. I'm glad they did this. I agree.

I hear you. It's going to be better if we got breaks. Got them breaks. You know what I'm saying? After last week, my knees can't take 15 stops. There you go. Yeah, fire on the sound out there, too, yeah. This race will be televised also on NBC Sports Network.

I should also mention the Performance Racing Network is carrying all the race action all weekend. Dale will be back in the number 88 nationwide Chevrolet and look to rebound after Kentucky. I said earlier also that he had two top tens, a 10th and a ninth last year at New Hampshire. And lastly, I want to say this. In the excitement of the Daytona victory last week, we failed to mention that this was our 100th episode last week on this podcast,

the 100th episode of the Dale Jr. Download. So Taylor Zarzer, you've been a part of it from the very beginning. We've had a lot of fun talking about it, talking racing. So thank you, buddy. And, uh, hey, man. Thank you. Let's keep her going. I'm, I'm having a blast.

It's been, it's been a lot of fun. I actually think I've got the lead in appearances because last year you decided to go off with junior every week during the chase. That wasn't exactly my decision, but we'll go with it. If I had my way, that was a little different, but yeah, I was kind of thrust in the position, unbeknownst to me the week before. Yeah. So, yeah.

Mike doesn't like the Dale Jr. download. Call eight five, five. No, I'm just kidding. No, it has been a blast, and we can't wait for a hundred more, and 100 more after that. Keep her going, and we appreciate all the support that everybody gives us here on the Dale Jr. downloads. We thank Dale Jr. so much for all of his comments each and every week.

Thanks to Amanda Wolfmeyer for putting up with us for so long each and every week and all the great production work that she does. Thanks for everybody that came to listen today. For Mike Davis, for Joe Slingerlin, for Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Amanda, I'm Taylor Zarzer. You've been listening to the Dale Jr. Download Presented by Spy. Thanks for listening to Dirty Mo Radio.

Thanks for checking out another episode of the Dale Jr. download presented by Spy. I hope you guys enjoyed the show. Now go online to Spyoptic.com and check out all of Dale Jr.'s signature 88 collection. If you find a pair you like, enter discount code nationwide 88 at checkout, and you're going to get 20% off your purchase. Happy shopping.