The Dale Jr. Download - 102 - New Hampshire: Gritty Weekend

Episode Date: July 21, 2015

Dale Earnhardt Jr. sounds off after his tenth top 5 finish of the season at New Hampshire; NASCAR writer Jim Utter weighs in on Kyle Busch; Interior Specialist for the 88 Nationwide Chevrolet Adam Jordan joins Take's A Nation. 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. Appreciate all the hell. Appreciate the hard work. A pretty ass run right there. All the whole weekend, pretty gritty. Way to be. I think that's a good word. You're now listening to the Dale Jr. download presented by Spy.

Check out Dale Jr.'s signature dirty-mow sunglasses from Spy at Spyoptic.com. Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. Just on a Monday after New Hampshire, it was a real hot race. I've seen a lot of drivers wore out I was hot My face was hot The rest of me was fine

It's my face It's kind of weird But even later at night Trying to go to bed My face felt like it was sunburnt But we had a good car I didn't like the way it drove But it was still fast

And we were able to finish good I don't think We had any engine problems Actually we had a bad gauge So old pressure gauge Was showing 120 pounds That's not good So I just thought

Maybe we were getting pulled on straightaways, and I was hoping maybe there was something wrong with the engine, but there's not. So I don't know what to think about all that. We've run pretty good, though, there over the last several years. We just haven't been able to win. It would be good to win that race in New Hampshire, a race in New Hampshire. But we'll have to wait to the next opportunity to go back. We got on the outside of the 41. We'd race him with the Kurt a lot during the day, and I don't think he knew I was out there.

We got on the outside of him in one and two. and coming off turn two, he just came up like his spotter didn't tell him I was there, and I tore his bumper up, and his bumper got stuck in my bumper. It was causing us a lot of problems, so we ended up having to come down pit road and pull his bumper out of my bumper and patch a hole and fix this and fix that. I didn't know if he was going to be as competitive with all that trouble, but we ended up driving back up through there. Had a pretty good car, so that helps out in the situation.

like that yeah right at the end i got the race pretty good with my buddy matt kenseth me and him have raced each other all our careers it's always fun to sort of work together on the racetrack and race each other and he wanted that top five finish and so did i he was struggling pretty bad and i was just having a hard time trying to get around him we ended up finally getting around him so that was pretty cool i always enjoy racing him pretty uneventful really just real hot so all right we're going to andy got new rules big spoilers a lot of drag There's not more downforce. From what I'm told, there's a piece that they put on the bottom of the rear bumper

that actually makes this package have less downforce in the back than what we have ran all year. So I don't know how true that is, but that's what Jeff Gordon has been telling me. So I can't really call this a high downforce package. It's just a high drag. We'll see how the racing is and looking forward to it. It should be an interesting weekend for everybody. So tune in.

Enjoy the download. Thank you, Dale Jr. for that. I'm Mike Davis. I'm here with T.J. Majors and Amanda Wolfmeyer. Taylor is not here. I wonder if he's boycotting the podcast since Kyle Bush won again. Hey, that's a good part. I never even thought about that. Yeah, because, you know, he doesn't like this Kyle Bush winning thing going on. And, you know, we had technical difficulties. I wonder if Taylor created those technical difficulties, specifically so he didn't have to talk about Kyle Busch winning again. I don't know, because he gets pretty fired up about it. He gets on a soapbox. I almost feel like he would have liked to have been here, though, to.

reiterate his points in this. Well, he does have quite an opinion on this, and we're going to bring in Jim Utter from the Charlotte Observer, soon to be motorsport.com. We're going to bring him on and talk about that here shortly on this podcast. But for now, it's me and TJ and Amanda and Dale Jr.'s hot face. Man, that's some interesting perspective. I thought the cooling device came into your helmet. Like, I assumed that your head would be the coolest part of your body.

It does, yeah. They actually, there's more cooling than that. They've got it aimed on their backs. They've got all sorts of stuff now. Really? It's like luxury. Oh, yeah. Seriously.

What is this first class now? The seats have vents in the middle of the back and stuff. And they, they, oh, that's why I don't, um, cater to the drivers. That's why you don't feel sorry for them? No, I don't feel sorry for them. Did you feel sorry for Dale when you heard that he had a hot face? Uh, negative. Maybe that means he needs to trim that beard.

Yeah. That's a good point. Another top five, though, for Dale at New Hampshire. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what to think about this race. It was sort of uneventful, but it should have been. I mean, you've got water bottles.

You've got Jimmy Johnson getting mad at T.J. majors. That's actually not what happened. But we'll talk about that in a second. So I guess it wasn't as uneventful as it seemed, but Dale Jr. finished top five. Had some unfortunate situation going on where he had to make an unscheduled pit stop to repair some damage and clawed his way back.

So eight top five at Loudon. I think, did I hear this right? He now has the most top fives of all drivers without a win. Yes. Sort of a dubious distinction. Yeah, it's a record. But, TJ, I mean, what were your thoughts on the race? You hear what Dale Jr. had to say.

I mean, he's even bringing up what he thought was motor issues. Never even heard that during the radio chatter. There were other issues. What was your takeaway from the race? You know, I know we came home fifth and we, you know, we fought hard for that fifth at the end. But I don't know, I felt like there for a while, part of me, you know, in the middle part there,

and we were racing up to third and fourth and stuff. I thought, you know, if we could get some track position out front, we had a shot at, you know, possibly getting a win there. I feel like we had a lot of obstacles come our way in that race, and pit crew was great. I think, you know, we just handled everything that got thrown at us, and, you know, I feel like the team fought hard. You know, fifth place is still a solid. I mean, I don't think any of us are happy with it, but we are, but we aren't. Well, it's good to be mad when you're fifth, but I feel like we definitely had a top five card,

We got that out of it. You know what? Loudon is sort of a track that we've struggled. It has been a struggle. You think about starting in 2006 all the way up to 2010 or 11. That was a problem track for Dale. Yeah. And slowly but surely we're getting it back together.

He had a couple of top tens last year. This was his first top five there since I think 2012. So, yeah, I'll take a fifth all day long. Yeah. Clinch your spot in the chase, which I felt like we had clinched already, but I guess not. but now we're officially in. Fifth place at Loudon, I think that's another step

in the right direction. Hopefully they can build on that when they go back for the chase. But you talk about issues, TJ, early on Dale was talking about a shifter. I didn't know we even shifted it Loudon. Let's listen to this audio chatter

early on in the race, and then TJ and I will discuss it. All right, I can't shift because it can stand in water, Tim. How far what's that at? Well, I don't shift to keep it under 360. If I start shifting it, Pre-lamp pot.

Go ahead. Hey guys, we're going to look at a half round in the right rear. And we're going to pull one tab off. One tab off the grill. Why are we shifting, PJ? I just think it was something that the teams are, we have a gear roll and the way the gears are and stuff now. And the horsepower that's been taken out of the motors,

it's something that teams are starting to mess with a little bit. At Trax Lake Loudon and Phoenix, too, we've heard a little bit of it at Phoenix. I don't think anybody's got it down yet to where we'll constantly do it, but it's definitely in the ballpark now. If you could get it right, you might be able to gain a little bit of advantage at some point in the run by shifting, whether it's in the beginning of the run or late in the run.

I think it'd be later, if anything, probably. But, you know, it's definitely with the less horsepower in the gear roll now, I think it's close, close to being where it will be a benefit to do. What are they shifting off of two and four? Middle of the corners on both ends. Middle of the corner. Yeah, it's just the right size. a track where you can you can downshift and you get a better run out of the hole you get a better

run out of the corner because you get your pull more RPM and get more more power you know so that's what people are going for but I don't think anybody has you know got it down yet Dale Jr made a pit stop for two tires on lap 23 that was during the first caution the first debris caution this was the debris that did not involve water bottles but then he made a nice run I mean I'm talking from 14th to 5th over the span of about 50 lapse and they made a green flag pit stop but then Dale started getting a little chippy didn't really like his car let's listen to this it's okay I don't know feel like I'm I can't I'm not finding anything I like about it you know what I'm trying something because I don't

like what it did the last one 10 4 I see you working at it there we even don't go down to the straightaway as good as a 41 for some reason my car is just dead down the straightway yeah 10 4 I think if we can help that little bit of squirt when you get back to the throttle I don't know if you're shearing a little bit too much there and we could help you with you know like i said a little left rear wedge just a little bit get that little bit of squirt a little bit that's all fine but i know when i get in the gas before another guy yeah i tell far i hear you i hear you what did you i saw i saw exactly what he was talking about he was get rolling back into the throttle quicker but it's just off the corner it seemed like it would just lay down a little bit and i noticed that

earlier when we were trying to pass a 21 car. It just didn't seem like it had that normal, you know, straightaway power that we used to our advantage a lot, you know, it just didn't seem like it had that. And I could see him roll back into a throttle before, guys. He can see it in the car, too, from my driving experience. You can tell when you beat a guy back to the throttle because you can, you're going down the highway and you see you're running the same speed as another car and you just see that car, you know, pull away a little bit.

I mean, you know even two mile an hour, you just see the difference. I mean, you're that close and they've fucking. focus on stuff like that. They could see it. This was also early enough in the race where Jimmy and Dale were racing pretty tight. And Dale sucked up to the bumper of Jimmy, and it looked like at first that he hit him. It got Jimmy loose. Dale was able to make the pass. Jimmy didn't care for it.

Said something on the radio to the tune of, you know, tell T.J. majors that if he's going to race like that, then I'm going to remember it. I think I'm paraphrasing here. To pass. Yes. I'm paraphrasing here. So I love that Jimmy brought TJ into it because I blame TJ for any problem, regardless of whether he has anything to do it or not.

So it's good to see that Jimmy does the same thing. TJ, did you think Dale actually got into the back of Jimmy? Because they showed on TV that he actually didn't. Yeah, I actually thought he bumped him a little bit. But I don't blame him for doing it. To me, not that I want to see him hit a teammate or something like that, but to us that shows you the reason I was okay with it is because Jimmy was on, he stayed out, he was on O-Tire struggling.

Like, he was struggling at that point, and we're on tires. We can't afford to sit there and race him like that. We need to go. If we don't, if we don't, we get held up a little bit, two or three cars get by us. That track position is huge. You're talking, you know, seconds and seconds on the rate, like lots of time on the racetrack. If you don't get around him quick, we didn't cost Jimmy anything extra. He lost one spot to us.

We didn't knock him way up the track or anything. To me, that the aggressiveness that Dell Jr. showed that, like, look, man, you know, I'm taking this, you know, this is I'm going on. You know, that I like that. And I would be perfectly fine if somebody did that, you know, early on the race or, you know, that point in the race. If somebody does that to you, I mean, we don't lose anything by it. That's just a guy that says, look, man, I'm just flexing some muscle, you know.

And I like it. But I'm just glad to know that a six-time champion knows my name. I got to tell you, I had concerns when that moment happened on track when they played the in-car audio on TV. Did they play me? They didn't play you. They played Jimmy. And when he said that, I'm thinking, oh, my goodness, what if you were.

T.J. doesn't get that message relayed, and then we're in another situation later on in this race, where Jimmy's on the other end of, yeah. He's not like that, though. Plus, he had his hands full. I watched that run. He struggled that run. They had a lot of other things going on that, you know, they were trying to get right. But, yeah, I never did get the message, but. Oh, Earl didn't tell you? No, I had no idea. I thought we passed Jimmy. Wait a second. Let me think about this. That sort of bothers me. Maybe Errol knew we didn't touch them. I don't know. Or what if Jimmy and Dale are talking after the race?

And then I can see Dale not having a clue what Jimmy's even alluding to because he never got the message in the first place. I mean, Dale probably didn't even cross his mind that Jimmy was hot about it. Maybe they told Jimmy that we never touched him under a caution or something, too. That could possibly be it because Chad and else would have known. He has that monitor on his pit box that he possibly told him. And Chad watches a lot of the in-car stuff too. I know because they were calling the green by a junior's hands at Daytona by a junior's in-car.

So as we move on in this race, Dale Jr. had climbed in the top five and was doing very well up there. Stayed up in the top five. Everything was clicking. And then he had an incident with the 41 of Kurt Busch. TJ, what did you see there? We had worked on the 41 car forever. I mean, we tried everything. I watched him move all over the racetrack. We didn't have any pressure in or mirror anything, so he was able to try to utilize a lot of different grooves and stuff. and we just couldn't find anything. And finally he got close enough and rolled down into one and two and got a bumper on the outside of the 41

enough to have position off the corner on the outside to where you could run him down into turn three and kind of pinch him a little bit and then you're pretty much going to clear him because that's what guys on the outside do there. You drive that and make the guy run lower. You know, he has to lift a little early and you just roll around the outside of him.

But we got out there and, you know, I don't know if Kurt Spotter just wasn't looking or a Kurt, you know, didn't know we were there or just didn't care. One of those. But he just kind of came up like we weren't there and we hit off a turn two. And his right rear bumper went into our left front headlight. And I guess a piece, I couldn't see it real well because it's on the inside of the track compared to where I'm at.

But I'm sure TV showed, was it a fairly big piece? I mean... I actually was confused at that moment in time too because TV was focusing on the front. I know we were in the top five, but they were focusing. right there with the lead. So I didn't even know what the damage was, and then I heard the back and forth on the radio about, do we come in, do we not,

which is actually where you guys decided to stay out, and this is where this piece of N-car comes into play. Yeah, we ran a little bit after it happened, and the cost to come out. We actually stayed out. So I was actually surprised that we were going to come back down pit road and fix that and give up our track position that we'd already made our bed at that point in time

to be in that site. you know and I thought we were going to stay with it. Well, I tell you what, let's listen to that audio chatter real quick. This is about, this is Greg and Dale discussing the damage. I'm sure there's a piece. Didn't knock the down forced off the left front. Yeah, it's up for. You know, there's no hole in it or anything.

It's just knocked the top in a little bit. We're going to be fourth once everything cycles out. We've got one more stop to go. We're probably going to stay out here. If we can get somebody to look at that, TJ. Yeah, it's just left front right by the headlight. And like I said, TV was not even showing. what was going on between the 41 and the 88,

and I didn't even know who he had hit at that time, so I had no clue what the damage was. You know, from my perspective, it didn't look bad enough for me to, I wasn't worried about it, but, you know, it just, everything was spread out, and there wasn't really a whole lot going on.

So, and it kind of happened real quick. We weren't, like, we had just followed, we had worked him. I'm telling, it was a long time. We worked on him, and we finally, I mean, it was really kind of boring for a while, but we finally got out there, But, yeah, I don't.

I mean, Greg, Greg obviously saw something that he didn't like about it, and he decided that we needed to fix it. Well, the car just wasn't handling then at that point, and there was just as much issues going on with the 41 as there was the 88. Under the fifth caution, lap 199, the guys decided the pit. Here's what happened. The Faitin fan. We've got to come down, fix that nose.

It's got a little bit. It's got still some of his bumper in it. Oh, I got you. I know he's missing part of it. Man, that'd have been nice to work on that last culture. Either way, we're going to line up the same spot. So we'll come down. We'll pull that.

Put four tires on it. Fill out. Guys, we're going to pull that piece out. We're going to have a baron ready for that left front. So they had to pit. They restart 26, which sucks because, you know, you've been running in the top five for most of the race. There was 100 laps to go. You felt like, you know, they got enough time to march up through there, but who knows if they're going to be able to win this race at this point.

Because you have so many cars to pass. Well, Dale passed him. He went from 26 to 12th. The caution came out again for oil on the racetrack, and I thought this was hilarious because there were multiple drivers complaining about oil. I'm talking a lot of drivers, except one. Here he is. How far?

They're talking about oil everywhere. Well, I mean, they're raining, but talking about it. All right here, we got 50 laps on our tires. I think the only shot to win here is trying to get four tires. Splash the field. We'll put that wedge back into left rear. Okay. Did you see old, TJ?

No, you couldn't see it, but I had heard a lot of guys calling it in on NASCAR, you know, the radio. But at that point in time, you know, it's so hard to believe half of them, because everyone was still making up pretty good ground. There wasn't anybody sliding all the way to the wall, wrecking. So a lot of guys call in oil and stuff because they want cautions. Well, yeah, but usually if it's one or two drivers. But you've got to think it's the end of the race and your guys run an eighth, a tenth or whatever. What's his shot going to be?

You know the top six or eight are going to stay out. So if you're running 8th to 15th, man, there's a little everywhere because you're going to come down and put four tires on and hopefully get up to the top six. I'm telling you there's a lot of people talking about it. And as a matter of fact, a couple people actually made pits. And Kyle Bush was one of them, was he not? I thought there were a couple people that made pits because they thought they had tire problems or something going on and ended up not being the case.

It was the old. That was his late race move that actually helped win the race. I can't remember who he shot through at that point during that. restart, but that was a significant call for on his team. The two and 20, the two and the four is who he passed. He split him on the front stretch and then the caution came out and that cycle him to the lead. Yeah.

So, well, Dale Jr. restarted 8th on lap 257, about, you know, 50 or less laps to go. And climbed back in the top five. It was in fifth on lap 291 with 10 to go. That's where he stayed. The caution came out for a wreck on the final lap and that called it into the race. Dale Jr. called it a gritty ass. finish. It's pretty much a gritty-ass weekend for the 88 team.

And TJ, you take it and you go on to Indy, right? Yeah, I agree with describing it as that, too. I mean, we fought hard. We changed a lot of stuff in practice. And like you said, we've struggled there, and we've slowly clawed our way back into a contending car there. And I kind of look forward to going back there in the fall now. Hopefully we can find us a little bit more speed and, you know,

lead some laps and be in real contention for the win. Get rid of that record. he holds for the most top five finishes without a win. Eight top five finishes. But it was his 10th top five on the season. So you've got 19 races and 10 of them, Dale Jr. is finished in the top five. That's pretty impressive.

He's now officially in the chase and we'll go to work there. There was a couple things on this race that I thought were interesting. One was the water bottle issues. And I want to bring in Jim Utter from the Charlotte Observer to talk about that. But also Kyle Bush, he's just won his third race in the last four weeks. What exactly is going on with that 18 because they are on a rail right now? Two out of those three wins are he's caught really lucky breaks. Sonoma, he actually got two lucky breaks with the cautions.

He was running behind us at Sonoma. A guy goes off the track and he hits pit road, the caution comes out, cycles him up to the front. You know, Kyle Busch is good enough where if you give him the lead with an okay car, he's going to be hard to pass. And this week, you know, this last race, he what was he like a third place car probably most of the day? I'd say he was at least top five. Oh, yeah. He was a third to fifth place car probably.

But then he pits late. He basically short-pitted everybody. Right. And caught a caution at the right time to get cycled to the lead. And, you know, and Kyle's no slouch. You give him the lead, it's going to be hard to pass him. But that happened twice at Sonoma because he was running behind us. We passed him and we were right.

We drove away from him. He gets that caution, right? It gets up front. That's what can happen. So you just got to, you know, I'd rather be lucky than good most of the time. And he's got some luck. I mean, you're going to make you pay. Let's speed dial.

My boy, Jim Utter from the Charlotte Observer, soon to be motorsport.com. Utter, when do you head over to motorsport.com? Wednesday. I have a big whole day of unemployment. So we're actually talking to you in your final hours with the Charlotte Observer. Is that right? That is correct. My final hours are ticking off as we speak.

Congratulations on the new gig. We wanted to bring you on here to discuss some of these. things that happened in the race. For Dale Jr., he finishes in the top five, and it was mildly uneventful, but if you can call it uneventful, when he runs into Kurt Busch and has to pull his bumper out of the fender

and then gets into it a little bit with Jimmy Johnson, but he just a top five for Dale. On the other hand, you got Kyle, who can't seem to not win these days. What are we watching out of this 18? That's not a bad problem to have, by the way. I wish we had it. Is it fluky?

I mean, because, you know, like at Sonoma, he caught cautions at the right time. You know, he is getting a little bit of luck, which is fine. You take that, right? But like, or is he really, is he peaking already? Man, I don't even know how you describe it because he's only run like eight races, right? This has only been race number eight of his season, and he's won three. And I don't care how you win him, push, pole or drag the car into victory lane. Three to eight, it's pretty good winner percentage.

and if you were doing that in the last 10 races of the season, I would say you'd have a pretty good shot of winning a championship. And I think the stunning thing to me about it is that some of the places where he's won are really done well already are not the places you would have expected, or not where I would have expected to say, hey, I thought Kyle could win some of these races, and here's the list of where I think they were going to be, and Sonoma was not on that list.

Okay, so what is his situation now going into, Indy, where is he in the point standings? What does he still have to do to get in the chase? He's 58 points outside of 30th place. He's got seven races to make up that 50-point gap. But if he continues running the way he's been running the last four races, he'll make up the gap in about three weeks. Yeah.

Well, everyone seems to have. I wish Taylor was here because Taylor has a strong opinion about this. He does not think that Kyle should be eligible. for the chase. He understands it was an unfortunate situation that happened to him at Daytona, but rules are rules, and that's just the way it is. Like, you don't miss, you know, a third of the season and then still become a chase contender. But everyone has an opinion about this. I don't know that there's a real point in debating it now, but we never really need a point to debate anything anyway. So what is, what's your opinion? Is it fair that he's even

eligible to make it if he gets in the top 30? Well, here's my, here's my, here was my When they first announced the new chase format, they said there were going to be waivers available for missing races based on one of the things that they mentioned were injuries to drivers. Also mentioned from the start was that you had to be in the top 30 of driver points in order to utilize your wins to make the chase. So in my opinion, NASCAR hasn't really done anything here that it didn't say was possible for, from the get-go where I would have had a problem if they had waived the top 30 rule. I don't think that's fair to the people who show up every week. And they would have only done that if Dale Jr. was the one that had been... No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

Well, you had to go there, didn't you? I'm kidding. But that's interesting, though, Utter, because you're saying that they did say that this was a possibility. So in other words, they're not being inconsistent with this. No, where they've been inconsistent, though, is that they granted waivers to some people for things other than injuries. So now you give the impression that if anybody needs a waiver for any reason, they're going to get one.

And that's the box they put themselves in by doing like, you know, granting one to Kirk, even though he was suspended for something that had nothing to do with, you know, racing, the one for Tony Stewart last year after the accident in a race that didn't have anything to do in particular with NASCAR. But the actual waiver giving to Kyle was the waiver that we all, thought was the main reason people should have got one to begin was which was for suffering an injury in an NASCAR rate right there you go that's interesting let's shift gears a little bit and talk about water bottles tj i want you to chime in here uh from the roof what you saw i mean this

isn't the first time that we've seen water bottles tossed out of the car in fact if you listen to brackislowski and jimmy johnson after yesterday's race they say it happens all the time uh well mike weren't you part of a water bottle incident with Jimmy Spencer back in the day? Oh, now that's interesting. Let me think about this. I was, well, here's the thing. I got to think about it,

because I was involved in a lot of different situations. Yeah, the pit stop one. Well, he threw one at me. Is that what you mean? Yeah, and the water bottle incident with Dale Jr. Remember the water bottle? You were supposed to get ready for him, and you messed it all up with the stomach stuff?

That was with Dale Jr. Yeah. That was with Dale Jr. But this was, did Jimmy throw, Jimmy threw something at me. Jimmy threw something at you, but he also got caught on television throwing something out of the car once, but I thought it was a water bottle, but it may have been something

else. Or it might have been a roll bar patting. Or maybe like a spit cup. I mean, it could have been anything. It could have been anything. Turkey leg. Turkey leg. Stop it, TJ. Goodness. Anyways.

God, is this a big deal? Like, it caused a couple cautions, right? I mean, shouldn't that be a problem? Yeah. You know, I think, I don't know why the drivers have to throw a water bottle out. They all have, to the left of their driver's seat, there's a, like, a real nice padded cover thing that covers the doorbars

and the padding and all the stuff behind it, and they have pouches in them. That's where the drivers keep their sunglasses and stuff like that. Or if they pull a tariff off, they stuff it in there. They would absolutely fit a water bottle, too. I understand throwing it out under caution, because the safety checks can come around and pick them up, off the apron or a caution or something, but first of all, I don't think we need to be throwing the yellows for water bottles.

Well, what if it's in the track? I mean, most of them roll down out of the groove. I know, but Loudon is not a high bank track. I mean, it's feasible that it could be in the groove, right? Ah, yeah. I mean, they're not throwing them out in the corners, though. I mean, they've got two hands on the wheel on the corners. They're throwing them out down the straightaways, and they're rolling all the way to the bottom

or sitting down the line. See, I think we throw too many cautions for a piece of debris against the wall. I mean, if you get against the wall loud, you're already probably wrecking. They're probably going to throw the caution anyway if they see you. Yeah, they're going to throw the caution. They throw the caution when they see a guy spin out, not even spin out, get sideways and get way up there. Sometimes they throw the caution. You know, a mile and a half tracks when there's a, you know, we're carrying a lot of speed

and it's something sitting on the line or something where they could get to. But I think there's just too much of it for water bottles to be out there. Can we agree on one thing, though? if someone is thrown out a water bottle while the race is under green, it's probably not because they just finished it up and need a refill, right? Yeah. And that's kind of where I'm at. I listen to Kuzlowski's logic, and he said that, you know,

those empty water bottles, they just kind of bang around in a car, and it's not really conducive. And I had two immediate thoughts. One, we engineer things that trick out these cars that can do it. We get the most brilliant guys in all the world working on. on race cars and we can't figure out a way to make it water bottle stay still and two yeah but don't some people now i i i i pistoni from mrn raised a point earlier today that that caught my eye which was don't some people have like hydration systems where they don't use water bottles and dale

juner's one of them yeah oh is it okay yeah like i understand the point where look if the water bottle's being thrown out of the car it's being thrown out because somebody's doing it for a reason yeah but i also understand t j's point which it's one of Water bottle is not that big a deal. Well, okay. Well, then here's my other point then that I, my other reaction to what Kislowski said. If I can't do it on a highway, if it's illegal for me to do it on a highway, I don't really want them doing it on a racetrack. And I know it's not, you know, doesn't really constitute as littering out there for them.

But here's a thing. If I see something on the interstate and I'm driving, I have enough time and the situation allows me to swerve and miss it, I'm going to do it. And I know that, this is my gut reaction, and I see something up there, I don't want to run over it. And that could honestly cause a wreck. So regardless of what the, you know, we always get it out of the groove, I don't see how that that's the best solution just throwing water bottles out. I agree that we ought not to be throwing water bottles out, and I think it's kind of silly to do it. I'm not sure it needs to be like we need to have NASCAR policing and wasting their time policing water bottles. I would look at it as something with all the dozens of cameras they have now,

why couldn't they, after the fact, say, we reviewed the videotapes of the following three people throw out water bottles and assess some penalty after the race is over? Right. I can't imagine you couldn't find, I mean, they got how many 45 cameras pointed down on the front stretch now? I mean, surely the water bottle culprit can be identified. Well, we were talking about this before we started recording today up in the office, and Tony Mayhoff said it's not a water bottle issue.

It's a consistency issue. Like if NASCAR doesn't throw the caution for all the other times the water bottles are cost, why did they do it on Sunday? Oh, well, yeah, that's a good point. And my answer to that was, well, they're probably an explanation. The other side of that argument is, is after Sunday, every single time you see a water bottle, somebody's going to be demanding a caution. Including you.

Well, probably, yeah. consistency purposes. Hey, Utter, before we let you go, one last question. Is the 88, you know, Dale Jr. officially clinched his spot in the chase after this top five on Sunday. Is he a legitimate contender for the chase? Oh, absolutely. Anybody who's won races already, I would consider a legitimate contender. He's already got some extra bonus points to start with, and they've been, I would say, as of late, he's probably been the cream of the Hendrit Crop. As of right now, now that could change. But, I mean, you know, seriously, if you look at the last month or so, I mean.

We've definitely been running pretty good. I mean, definitely. You know, Jimmy's had some problems. Jeff, the 24's got some. Even Casey's kind of disappeared from, it seems like he was running up front almost every week, and now he's kind of like just not up there. Is Kevin still the one to beat?

Is he still? You know, I had some questions about that, and then they finally, because they hadn't let a lap in the last, last three races before Sunday. Wow. Now, they had good finishes. They were like fourth, eight, six, you know. But they hadn't let a laugh, which was very unusual for them compared to the...

There's nobody on fire right now. I mean, minus the 18, who's gotten a little bit of luck on his way. He's probably the hottest car right now on the track as far as running good-wise, but nobody's really standing out. Like, the four of last year was more dominant at this point, and Truex has kind of cooled off a little bit. Yep. So, I mean, it's...

I really think it's kind of evened out a little bit. I mean, Kyle stands out particularly because of the wins, also because he's done it in such a short period of time. But Kevin, I think they led 59 laps and were out front for a good bit Sunday, so they looked like they regained a little bit of what they had been missing the last few weeks. But I would agree with TJ. Right now it just doesn't seem to be like there's not one big dominant person, although most of the attention right now seems to be on Kyle.

Yeah. Well, Jim Utter, we appreciate you being on here, Maddie. Jim Otter from the Charlotte Observer, just for another day, and then he's unemployed. Then he's unemployed for a day. Is that right? And then you start your new job at motorsport.com, hopefully for longer than a day. Yeah. And it would basically be the old job, just doing it for somebody different.

How long had you been at the Observer? Oh, man, you had to ask that question. I started when I was a senior in college at UNC Charlotte, 24. This is my 24th. Wow. You're old. Yeah. I'm even a little older than Dale Jr.

Change of pace for you coming then, man. I'll tell you what. Well, good luck to you at your new gig. I appreciate it. I appreciate being on, guy. See you, man. All right, it's time for Reaction Theater, and our friends at Spy have given us some swag to give away

to our favorite caller, TJ. Remember, we did this last week. And as a matter of fact, Amanda, back me up on this. I called you a little while ago because there was a new bag of sun, glasses sitting on my desk and I was like Amanda what is this all about and she didn't even know but spy has actually sent not just the earbuds and not just the the wireless speaker the wireless speakers but now we've actually got some sunglasses to add into that pot of uh giveaways tj you're looking at me like

you want some of these right i mean a bag of goodies why wouldn't i you need to call reaction you know what tj was not with us last week so he has no idea that we spy sent us earbuds and they sent us these wireless speakers to give away to our favorite caller of the week That's awesome. A spy. Yeah. So we got to pay attention. And I don't know what the qualifications here are for the winner. I think it's just whoever we feel like deserves it.

I'm going to start calling. If we feel like it's somebody that needs a little pepped up or if it's somebody that was overly exuberant or if it's somebody that was just funny or somebody gave us just a really good performance. Somebody that stands out. Somebody that stands out, we will award something from the spy goody bag. And now that includes spy sunglasses. Now, don't forget.

You can still go online to spyoptic.com and get yourself a pair of Dale Jr. signature 88 shades. This includes the Dirty Moe, McCoy, Quanta, General, and Farah for the ladies. I guess you could, if you're a guy, you can still wear the Ferris. It's just not preferred. Right, Amanda? I don't know. I have a pair of Ferris. I don't think it looked very good on a male.

But could it look good on TJ? I think you should put it on. He's got a big head. I do have a big head. So once you are ready to check out, enter discount code, nationwide aid, and get 20% off that purchase. All right, reaction theater. Hey, do I hate Kyle Bush?

If there was anyone more annoying, I don't know if I could think of anyone else besides him. Maybe Jimmy Johnson. He's whining a little bit, beginning of race, but whatever. Good win, good fight out there, Day Jr. Just keep running hard like that. We'll go back there and chase. You get the W there.

We keep moving on. We're going to win that championship this year, baby. Just keep taking notes. Greg, you keep learning, getting it under your belt, come chase time. Races like that, we're going to be ready to roll. Get that speed, get the center of turns figured out. Actually, get a little more grip. Go get them, boys.

Dale, yeah. He's got it figured out. I like his plan. He knows what to do. We just need to do what he said. Right? Yeah. Should we have Greg call him? We'll get his phone number.

Yeah. I'll catch him up with Greg. Well, just sit this guy on the pit box with Greg and then we'll have it figured out. We will win the championship. Need a little more grip, Greg. All right, next call. I wonder if NASCAR decided to change the rules package for more downforce to help the Toyota teams. It seems like after they have done this, that the Toyota teams are running much, much better.

I also think that they did this to get Kyle Busch into the chase no matter what, and Toyota pushed him back into his car too soon. He is not ready, and he has to do more surge at the end of the year. But I think it's all to do with getting Kyle Busch, which Toyota is. knows is the only team capable of getting in the chase. I mean, I don't... Wait, wait, did she just say... Kyle Busch is the only Toyota team capable of getting into the chase?

Yeah, that's not true. No, that's not true at all. Well, I would first like to point out that there was no different downforce pack. You know, these new packages that they've been testing out was not run at New Hampshire. Right. First of all. So that didn't apply. Yes.

All, second of all, I am personally offended because she thinks that Kyle Bush is the only Toyota team When my husband works for, you know, on Carl Edwards team, I'd like to think that he's got a shot. So, you know, I'm a little upset about that. If they all go by fuel mileage, he does. Say, you don't took this personal. I did, I did. But I also don't think that Toyota pushed him into the car too soon either.

No, he's, Kyle is doing fine. Kyle would have raced that thing with a broken leg if they were to, if they were letting. There's nothing about Kyle's whatever you want to call. He can drive right now. He's perfectly capable of driving a race car. obviously. Yeah. So I'm not a Dale Jr. fan, but I do have a reaction to all this.

I think that Dale Jr. should have wins this way, and I also think that he should win Sprint Cup this year. I'm a Jeff Gordon fan, but Jeff Gordon is not doing so well as you can tell, and I'm not moving over to Dale Jr. That's not what I'm saying, but what I'm saying is somebody is rigging stuff, and they are messing things up, and I think it's wrong. They are messing with Team Hendricks too bad. I'm not talking about Casey Cane and Jimmy Johnson,

because they run for themselves. Hashtag water bottles. Get them off the track. Get them off the track. How about a non-Dell Junior fan calling Reaction Theater? I like that. Yeah. I think that if we could get other drivers or other fans of other drivers

calling in a reaction theater, just make it more diverse, open discussion. It ain't a good year to be a Jeff Gordon fan, though. No. Yeah, you never know. He could win Pocono and catch fire and win the chase. Well, he could win Indie this coming weekend, honestly. Yeah.

Junior, could give me a favor? You send Gus over to Brad's house going to drop a fuck deuce in the yard. So I'd rather see Brad winning Kyle Busch. Come on, man. He lives right next door. Give him a little pat on the butt. Tell him go over there and do a good job. If it ain't you winning, rather see Brad at least,

for that fucking Kyle Busch character. What do you think about that, T. I don't know what Dale Jr.'s dog dropping a deuce in Brad's front yard. But really, it's the least Dale could do, right? Oh, yeah. Gus is a big dog. I wouldn't want him doing that my yard. Jimmy Johnson can kind of suck

because he thinks Jimmy run into him there. He could just calm his nerves a little bit, take a deep breath and realize that he was absolutely a dumpster fire today and didn't have a chance. Back off Jimmy Johnson. Anyway, all in all good race. Hate to see the Kyle one again. That sucks.

Anyway, we're on to the next one. There you. I mean, that's funny. Jimmy. I mean, Hey, listen, Jimmy was upset. With you, T.J. Yeah, it wouldn't even upset at Dale.

Yeah. I would be mad at you, too. This is a highlight of my day knowing that six times called me out. Yeah, but not in a good... I don't care. I don't care. I can't get it to good way. I'll take it to bad way.

All right. As I sit on my back porch, sipping an ice cold, Dale's pale ale, while wearing my spy, dirty-most sunglasses, I realize that three of the last four races have been rough, especially with Joe Gibbs racing and that arrogant POS in the 18 car kicking our ass, making things rough for us here at Junior Nation, but it is only July. And this season is far from over.

We've got some great tracks coming up. And with how Dale performed today by coming back from starting 19th, working his way into the top five, only to damage the left front fender and lose more track position, and then make all of that up and still get a top five finish. Most top fives of anyone who has never won a race at New Hampshire. So what have JGR has been handing it to us for the past number of races. In both Cups and Xfinity, they can and have been beat before.

And we need to show that these teams can and will be beat. And in junior motorsports, while top fives and top tens are nice, we know that Chase and Regan are not satisfied at all. Chase, you're the reigning Xfinity Series champion, so start racing like it. You're second in points and not far back from the leader. I know you can do it. In this season, they all the guys have shown, just how much they can overcome adversity

and grab those top fives and top ten. And I know for a fact, we're all tired of seeing Kyle Busch win every week. But be happy in the fact that Greg and the pit crew gave us fast stops every week. Be happy that we have fast race cars every week. And be happy that we have the best spotter in the business, T.J. Majors, to guide our boy every week.

This season's not over. And I know more wins. are coming. Kyle, he can't win every week. Hashtag one case of beer. Hashtag, it ain't over. Can I get a tail, yeah? Michael Taylor!

Tell yeah. That's good. That reminded me a Belushi and Animal House when he's trying to fire him up. Now, he had me. I was getting pumped up and I was getting motivated and I was ready to go tear into something until he brought up PJ.

I knew you're going to. You know, I was on the verge of I thought it was average until that. That's my winner. Okay, so we got a vote. We got a vote on who's getting the new spies. First of all, we need to decide what we're going to send. What do you think?

What did we send last week, Amanda? Submarine Mike got the wireless speaker. Okay, so submarine Mike got the wireless speaker. Who are we going with this week, and then we'll decide what we're going to send them? Do you have any female sunglasses? Yes, we do. I almost vote for the woman. Which one?

The Jeff Gordon fan? Yeah, the one that says, because maybe that will swing her and we'll get her on our side. I like where your head's at. Yeah. He are, man. All right, Amanda. Now that TJ has pleaded his case, I kind of feel like I'm on TJ's side. Okay.

I like where your head's at. I tend to agree. I think that we need to spread some of the love to outside of Junior Nation. Maybe switch the lady over. Get another fan on Junior Nation. I think so. Don't get me wrong, though. The last two are great.

I mean, the Jimmy one and obviously the one that, that's a good motivational speech. I will tell you that. You should keep that one. Yeah. We'll put it in the pocket. But that didn't win sunglasses. Now, I got to give it to the female.

So Amanda will contact the Jeff Gordon fan and send her a pair of Feras, Spice sunglasses. Reaction Theater is open 24-7. All you have to do is call 1855-740-1902. Did you guys notice? I wish Taylor was here because did you notice that I didn't instigate anything this week?

Like he accused me of being an instigator And I felt like You know what? And they just let everybody have their own opinion, I guess That I don't want to sway to anybody You had a week with your kids, man You're a little soft this week Is that what it is?

Because I would almost I would be willing to argue That it would make me even more senile Yeah, I don't know Crazy Little girls change you, man Thank you soft to your older age Not when you're by yourself for a week

Time now for It Takes the Nation Present it by Nationwide All right We're joined by Adam Jordan, our interior specialist on the number 88 nationwide team. Adam, how are you today, buddy? I am doing awesome. Are you off today

or are you working? No, we finally get a nice off day. Good for you. Much needed, much deserved, too. You guys had a test last week. How did that go? I think it went really well. I think we learned a lot. I mean, when you give the people that weren't really smart on the team three days to work on a car,

you know, from 8 to 5, they They can figure a lot of things out. But I think it was really good. Well, the reason we wanted to have you on here today, we'd been talking about with Jim Utter and T.J. Majors, this whole incident with the water bottles being tossed out the window of driver TBD or the mystery driver, whoever it was. And we sort of got into discussion about that.

Now, Dale Jr. doesn't even use water bottles. And so I wanted to call you and get you on this segment and sort of explain the setup that you guys use to keep Dale hydrated? Yep. Our system is really, really simple. Basically, we have a box that sits under a seat that's like just fits right underneath of him. I put an ice pack in it, and it's just like a bag that I feel with 80 ounces of fluid.

And basically, I run a Campbellback straw, as you will, all the way up, pass his seat around his shoulders, and it drapes over his shoulders. And then anytime he wants a drink, he just picks it up and drinks out of it. It's just like a straw. There's no mechanism or motors to it or nothing. You just drink the fluid out of this bag that's been underneath of it. Okay, so it doesn't run like through his fire suit or anything like that. It just rests over his shoulder.

Is that right? Yep, yep. So all I do is basically just velcro a little thing to his seatbelt. And I have a little Velcro piece to the hose. And basically, once he gets completely buckled in at the beginning of the race, I just lay that Velcro on it, so it keeps it kind of in place. and it just drapes around his body. And if you can see when you see an in-car, you'll see it fopping around, you know,

especially because he's going left, he'll always fly to the right. And he just rides there the whole time. And anytime he wants a drink, he just picks it up and puts it underneath of his helmet. And it's really simple. Yeah, I mean, you talk about it simplicity, but it almost sounds like it's so convenient. I wonder why not all the teams are doing this. I mean, we can't be the only ones out there doing this, right? Most of the hindric people do the same thing we do.

Some people think they don't do it because it weighs more. But, I mean, that's apples, oranges. You know, like, you know, you'll have a lot of opinions about it. And that's why some people do, just drink bottles just because of weight. Gotcha. Okay. So it's really just driver preference, then, like everything else, which is what you guys are always trying to do. Yeah.

Now, we do have a drink bottle holder in the car. Like, so if something happens to that system, like it gets air in it, or it comes in something like that where it doesn't work. Like, I have the option to give him a drink bottle during a pit stop. Oh, okay. He has a holder he can put it in, but we never use it. Well, that's interesting then, because, you know, with the drink, this is one of the topics that we were talking about is that Brad Kislowski,

and I'm not going to let you, I'm not going to make you speak to what Brad Kislowski's points were, or anything like that. But Brad had mentioned after the race that, you know, empty water bottles will sit there and kind of just go all over the car, and that's not very, that's not safe either. And so what they'll do is they'll just chunk it out the window, and it's no big deal. And my first thought to that was, well, look, we've got some of the smartest people in the world working here,

you know, and all these engineers. Why can we not devise something to just keep the water bottle still? It sounds like we've already got a cup holder, you know, for that. I just, that's why I didn't necessarily buy his logic on that. But obviously, I'm not a driver, and he is, so he would know more about that than I would. But that's interesting that we have a holder. And I'm not buying his logic at all either,

because if we put a drink bottle in there and it moves around, doesn't stay still, it's not accessible by the driver, us interior guys, that's the first thing we're going to hear about. So just for our sake, we're going to make sure one, it's nice, you can reach it, and it works, because if not, it comes back on us. We're the ones that's going to get in trouble, no one else. Yeah, Velcro is a wondrous thing, you know? I mean, it could be just as simple as that, right? I mean, or if I just not smart enough to understand this.

I guess, you know, that's kind of where I was. But I knew that Dale, Dale's hydration system doesn't really use a water bottle in the first place. So that's interesting. That's why I wanted to bring you on here. One more thing before we want to let you go, buddy, and that is you tweeted after the race that the team had been, you know, the last few weeks have been very hard for the team, but you guys have soldiered through it. How hard has it been? And what have you guys been doing to persevere?

to it. Sticking together, staying positive. Like, I feel like I've been in racing a while now. And the last four weeks has been, just scheduling-wise, not, you know, racetrack-wise, has been one of the hardest I've ever been through. If you go back to Sonoma, you know, Sonoma messes up your body just from the time change. You get back, you have Daytona. It lasts until 3 a.m.

Right. You know, we got back at 6 a.m., had to go right to work. worked Monday and Tuesday, went right to Kentucky, spent the entire entire time in Kentucky, got back, had one day off the regroup, went to Chicago, I was there for three days, came back on Wednesday night, and Celeste again on Thursday for Loudoun. So that's, you know, four weeks that's pretty tough on your body. Yep, pretty intense. And you guys, and then you got Indy coming up this weekend.

What are you guys thinking for Indy? It's going to be really interesting. one with a new downforce package for that whole deal. One, we get to have data on the car for practices, which is something that we've never done. I think it's going to be a real year, and we're going to be a real year, Rican, and what's really crazy is it's indie, and it's a big deal.

It's a huge race. I think we're going to have really good speed there because I think we're using a lot of things that we use at speedway races that might help us out, and if we get the car to turn, I think we're going to be really successful. Adam, thank you so much for joining. us last minute. Enjoy the rest of your day off. Good luck at Indy. I'm hoping

that you're kissing bricks at the end of that race, buddy. That would be awesome. Yeah, I hope so good. Have a good one. Really cool to have a team member on Dale Jr.'s nationwide team. On Takes a Nation, always look forward to that. So thank you again to Adam. And folks, listen, this video series

that Nationwide has been putting out every week. It's just fabulous. Last week, they were talking about greatest moments in Dale Jr.'s career. J.R. Rhodes was talking about the I-Rock race between him and his dad, which is one of favorite moments the Martinsville victory last year Amy Ryman was talking about that so check out this video series you can follow Nationwide Nationwide 88 on Twitter and on Facebook they tweet out these links to the videos every week and remember Nationwide is on

your side all right super busy week for Dale Jr. yesterday he did some production work for the Dale Jr. Foundation if you notice his Twitter feed Carolina Panther Greg Olson was part of that that's right he's a good dude yeah Exciting stuff going on with the foundation. If you want more info, go to the Dale Jr.foundation.org. Now that he is locked into the chase, do you know what that means? No, what does that mean? It means that Dale can now participate in advertisements for the chase.

Nice, T.J., nice. He'll do that tomorrow, and you'll see those commercials while in a few months. All right? We'll be keeping an eye out for that. Thursday morning, he's doing production work for Diet Mountain Dew. And later that night, he's heading to Indianapolis, where he will be looking for his first brickyard for, That's right. That's right.

He's the best finish there's fourth. Kiss the bricks. 2012, fourth. T.J. Are you going to be down there to kiss the bricks in time? I'm all, yeah, I will lick the bricks if we win. I'll be okay with that. If that's what it takes, I mean, yes.

So T.J. is going to lick the bricks. I'll send you a picture too. If we win, yes, I will pitch. You will do a picture of licking bricks. Sure. God, that's gross. Those bricks. What do you mean?

That's gross. What do you mean? It's a brick on a racetrack. I'm not being confusing. That's gross. I mean, it's clean. It's not clean. No, it's not clean.

Not clean. Bricks on a racetrack are not clean after a 500 or 400-mile race. Well, they're not dirty. They're beautiful. All right. And they deserve love. Okay. Well, it's about time you gave him some.

His best finish in that race is fourth. Achieved in 2012, the Brickyard 400 is 3.30 p.m. Eastern Time on NBC Sports Network. Don't forget the Xfinity Series race is the day before on Saturday. You'll have Regan Smith, Chase Elliott, and Kevin Harbeck running. for Team Junior. That race is on NBC. What is that about? Is there some big sporting event going on?

The Xfinity race is on NBC, and the Cup race is on NBC Sports Network? Is Tour de France ending on Sunday? Yes. I bet that they're putting the finale of that on NBC, so that pushes NASCAR to NBC Sports. That would be the only thing I could think. Brickyard 400. Why didn't start so late, first of all? That was another question I had.

I mean, think about it, though. Like, they moved the Daytona race a whole day. So if they can do that, like... My problem is that is what if you wake up and the race is delayed a couple hours for rain? You're flirting with darkness already. Ending the race of darkness. There's no lights there. So that's my problem with it.

Well, that means that if we win, we don't have to see TJ licking bricks. That might be a good thing. No, we'll just have to use a flash. All right. Oh, yeah. They have those things, right? Well, that's it. Hopefully T.J. is looking bricks.

I hope so. We need to get us a win there. That would be really nice to do that. So anyways, again, sorry that Taylor wasn't here. He tried. He honestly did. We were trying to get him in. He's at the ACC football meetings for Sirius XM,

and we tried to connect with him. We just had some technical difficulties. But appreciate you, Amanda, as always. TJ, thank you for being here. No problem. And this is the Dale Jr. Download presented by Spy. We'll talk to you next week. Thanks for listening to Dirty Mo Radio.

We'd like to thank each and every one of you for tuning in to another episode of the Dale Jr. download presented by Spy. Now go to Spyoptic.com and find your favorite pair of signature 88 collection sunglasses. And when you do that and you go to checkout, remember to enter code Nationwide 88. That's Nationwide 88 and you'll get 20% off your purchase.