The Dale Jr. Download - 103 - Indy: If You Can't Win, Then Why Gamble?

Episode Date: July 28, 2015

Dale Earnhardt Jr. addresses the No. 88 Nationwide team's late race strategy; MRN Announcer Dave Moody calls; fans are in an uproar on 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 Moe Radio. And if it can happen on the pit road, it's happened today. Yeah, my guy's Jack and Lugs that left her a gun. 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 Jr. Just got home from Indianapolis. It was definitely a frustrating day.

Not a lot of fun out there. We had a lot of problems. Overall, though, the car ran okay. But we had a lot of issues. Just problems in the pits. Air gun go bad and jack dropped, and a couple of other things happened. But, you know, I like tracks with longer corners where you can kind of, I don't know. I don't know.

Indies is pretty historical. And it's really cool that our sport went there 22 years ago. and it's still pretty iconic, whether we're racing there or not. But one grew tracks, man. They're a bit tough to appreciate. Anyhow, I guess one of the things we could discuss is how we ran our strategy throughout the day.

We made our bed with a couple of decisions to do what we were doing on fuel, and we got caught out on the racetrack during a caution. just before we were going to pit the next lap and so that really ruined the strategy for us but we might have ended up a lap down had we got called on pit road under the caution so it's just the way the cautions fell

but anyways with a I don't know with several laps to go we were sitting out there in 16th or so and we were going to come down pit road and get four tires I don't know we didn't we the reason is is because who the hell cares where we finish if we're in it came

win the race. I mean, we were going to come down pit road in 16th place. A lot of guys around us pitted, and we were going to get four tires and come out. Probably, you know, we might beat two guys, we might lose two spots, what the hell ever, you know? So it was a wash, in my opinion.

We had a problem with an air gun and ended up or we had a problem with something. I don't even remember what it was, and we only could take two tires, and we lost four spots on pit road. So it didn't work out. But I guess the opinion is, you know, we, if with the old system, you would do everything you could to,

to get the best finish you could. And that might mean foregoing the win and say, you know, hey man, if we do everything X, Y, and Z and get lucky on the restarts, we might run 10th, or we might finish 8th, like some of those guys that we were racing with. But who damn cares about that? I mean, I'm sitting in 16th with 20-some lives to go. A lot of guys behind me are coming for tires. Do I want to be the last guy on old tires? No. I don't want to get eat up by new tires,

get in the wrong line on the restart and get screwed and not be competitive and not be on the offense. And we got two wins. We're in the chase. So what the hell is it matter between 10th or 20th? I mean, who cares? You know, if we do everything right, we finish 10th.

If we don't do everything right, we finish 20th, but it's a wash. Either way. I mean, it doesn't even matter. It doesn't even matter with this point system. So, you know, in the old days, five, six, seven, eight years ago, you would do everything you could to finish as well as you could and pile up points to make the chase or finish well at the end of the year,

but it doesn't even matter anymore. The way this system works, you just go win. If you can't win, you down do what everybody else ain't doing, you know. Do something different, try something different. The same old, same old is just going to get you the same boring ass results. So that's cool with the decision to come down and get four tires. Now, if you get down inside a 10 to go, you can't come on pit road and get four tires. It's just ridiculous.

Right. But there's enough laps. We had some time to be able to get by some of those guys if we got some good runs on the restarts and got by a couple of them pretty quick. But anyhow, just a real frustrating race. Those cars were a bit of a handful in traffic. You know, you could be real tight by yourself, get close to a car, get real loose. Had to really get after it. But the car had good speed.

Greg even made some adjustments in the race that helped us quite a bit. We just, you know, we need to be up front to win. You got to be up in the front, two, three, four spots to win the race. And everybody else was sort of stuck where they were. So, you know, it was frustrating. We'll move on. We don't go. Thankfully, we don't run too many tracks that really resemble that place.

We're going to Pocono that has some small similarities to him. but we run good at Poconos, we're not too worried about it. And, you know, we don't really, we don't run that high drag package there either. So we know, we think we got our stuff dialed in there and hopefully we'll have a good run. But we did make some big changes in the race to the car that I think might be some things we need to try at Michigan for sure. So we'll see. I know you guys probably pretty dang disappointed, but you're gonna have days like that. You gotta, you can't hang on to them.

You've got to get on down the road. So that's what we'll do. I'll talk to you guys later and enjoy the download. I'll tell you what. Woo! Now some heat. The high heat. They put Pedro Martinez and Randy Johnson in the Hall of Fame on Sunday.

That was Pedro Randy Johnson heat. That's right. Right there. He's animated about that. He's emotional about that. With T.J. majors, Mike Davis, Amanda, with my man Mike outside. That's right. I'm Taylor's Archer.

the Dale Jr. download. If I wasn't wearing a shirt that said Army Navy on it, I might have torn it off. Yeah. While I was listening to that audio. Did it fire you? I was fired up. Why? I love it. I love what he just said there. Who the hell cares about finishing 16th if you got wins? Right. Now, he should have,

he might have needed to mention that. Like, if he didn't have any wins, then he absolutely would care about 6th or 5th or 4th or 9th. You know, I mean, Jeff Gordon had a horrible day yesterday and finished 42nd. And that hurt him badly because he don't have any wins. So if you're in a position like that, then absolutely you got a points race. Two years ago. He said five, six years ago, hell, two years ago when they didn't have any wins and made the chase. There's no doubt Steve LaTart and Dale Jr. would have been thinking a lot and T.J.

would have been thinking a lot about points racing at the brickyard. But T.J. with this format and you already got two wins, hell yeah, go get some tires. You know, what does it matter? Yeah, well, then that race, we were back far enough. Tires, not enough of them pitted in front of us anyway. So I'd rather be, like he said, on the offense than driving out of Ramirez. So he much rather, it's a much, much more fun to do a race that way than it is to, unless you're leading Daytona or Talladega.

Then I would prefer to, you know, be defensive. So, yeah, I agree with him. I'm just glad he's just fired up about it, you know, is, you know, is, you know, was quite a supporting the team effort. Yeah. I think it's important to provide some context on why he's so emotional about it. First and foremost, a lot of people, I guess, on social media, and even Jeff Burton on the telecast, we're asking if you're, as far back as they were

at the time that caution flew with 20 laps to go, why pit and take tires when you could not pit, go up there and see if, you know, get track position? Furthermore, the 88 team had made a fuel stop earlier. They'd made two pit stops under a previous caution to get enough fuel to make it to the end. So why pit there when your advantage seemed to be fuel? And I think this is what Dale Jr. is alluding to. This car had been difficult. It couldn't pass all day.

It had very few quality passes. It struggled. This is not even counting the pit road stuff. It just wasn't passing. And furthermore, we talk about. Well, when you have wins, then that means you can gamble. Well, yeah, but gambling for 10th isn't necessarily the gamble you want to take. Gambling for first.

If he was going to not pit, stay out on the track and come out and restart first or second or third with 20 to go. Then let's talk. But when you restart 10th with 20 to go and you're going to get chewed up on those old tires, that's the logic behind it. And you're not passing cars all day. Well, I couldn't agree more. And to even further that point and to further Dale Jr.'s point, in the miraculous crazy chance they do become a factor at the end of that race, they only become a factor if you have tires on.

And Junior tries this crazy bonsai, I'm going to take it six wide, there's no grass or Casey Kane there, and moves around all those cars. Well, then you're in seventh or eighth place, and now, of a sudden, with a couple cautions to go, okay, maybe we got something here. Well, okay, so to take a step further, a lot of people are like, well, if you're not pitted, you wouldn't have been mid-packed and then you're right.

That wreck wasn't a mid-pack wreck. That's the only logical argument when you get wrapped up in somebody else's wreck. But that was really our doing. Was it not, T.J.? I mean, like Dale Jr. moved down on Casey. He could have done that in third place and made that mistake. I mean, it's definitely, there's a different style of racing back there. I will say that's the only really difference that I know.

Like there's a lot more cutthroat back there. It did spread out on those restarts. You're right. Yeah, but I'm saying like the guys are more aggressive. Yeah. Like they're, you got a run. You get a run up there in the front. You throw one little block and the guy follows you.

Back there, man, if you throw a block, two of them are coming behind you, you're going to be four wide. That doesn't happen in the top eight or so. Those guys, they're aggressive. They're aggressive, but they want to be there. And if you're not aggressive, you lose four spots quicker. And that's just make sure Dave. harder back then back there that's fair let's listen to a little

bit of this they had all kinds of problems on pit road I mean it was a nightmare day awful day it just really was let's listen to some of it here's uh pitting under green on lap 27 from the 10th position pretty good sheet pretty pretty

pretty good sheet here now far keep me up the day here how do you some information they say they got the lawn is they got tight They feel they've got five right front, four left front, and three to four on the right rear and three, four on the left rear. That explains a lot.

It makes probably junior feel a little bit better understanding what that shake is. Let's go through these quickly. I want to play a couple of clips at a time and then we'll react to them. Let's listen to lap 44 when they're in 14th position. I don't want to be a d' about it, but man, it's kind of f*** up. Yep. put four tires on here, guys. We've got to make sure to luck over those studs

really good. I'm glad I stayed out. They didn't really kill the end. The balance would be better. I never really got to work on it. Taking off, it was better. So far, we'll take the positives out of this. Like you said, you did a great job there.

And we'll give it four tires on you, and it's not over yet. You're dealing with a lot right there, T. Yeah, that was very frustrating there. for a while. Luckily, we didn't hit pit road under green because that would have put us a lap down. We would have been in a whole different race for a while. But it is frustrating when you have stuff like that and you can't progress your day. But he did a really good job of riding it out there and not losing more than four or five spots or whatever we lost.

That was, to me, that was pretty impressive. And really, I thought that was going to turn our day around to survive that. But it just kind of seemed to slow, you know, snowballed down. the hill. Caution fell at lap 90 in a wrong time from sixth position after a green flag stopped. Let's hear that, Amanda. Well, hindsight 2020 is probably a good thing. We didn't pit. We ended up all right here. It's going to restart somewhere around 13th. Yeah, I saw that. Yep, and then the caution came out 10 laps later, and they were in 16th position. All right, Dale. What do you got there? I don't know what to tell you to fix it.

I will say that I'm piety and I'm loose off. And when I get within four callings of anyone, I just get real loose off. I feel like we need to trim her out a little bit. You know, even if you can go through the corner, you're getting beaten so bad down the straightaway. Like we need to get the back down a little bit, put some rubbers in the left room.

Fine. Here's the thing that's important to know. We covered a couple of pretty big swath of race. right there. If you go back to the caution when they came, all right, well, this is what happened. Junior alluded to this caution in his audio. It was a little bit missed time for us. We had at that point already made our bed with a strategy because we had a green flag pit stop on lap 60 where we were basically working it backwards like we would a road course. We made a green flag stop when a lot of others did not. We took fuel and now

we've got this strategy in play. We needed to make a pit stop at lap 89, which we were planning to do, or actually we were planning to do at lap 91, the caution comes out of lap 90. It hurt us. They said it hurt us. And so at that point, now we're sort of playing defense again, and now we're going to try to get. The thing that really sucks about the fact that our strategy didn't work is because the car wasn't impassable.

It didn't pass a lot that day. So strategy was really the only way that we were going to cut up into the top five and even have a chance to win maybe. It just wasn't a very aggressive car because when it got behind, TJ, you speak to this, When it got behind other cars, it just couldn't make those passes. We only made passes, really, whenever two cars in front of us got held up. They were slowed down by racing each other. We'd get a run on and pass them that way.

Yeah. That's really the only way we would really be able to pass cars. And I noticed, you know, the only real shot we had at that point was getting a caution at the perfect time when we stayed out and we were running up there. We would have to catch it where, you know, or stretch it on fuel. You know what I mean? we were going to stretch it on that fuel deal and, and... Well, stretch it on fuel, and everybody else needs to run out, which none of them did. Yeah, well, that's what we were going to plan on doing, all of them cautions fell at the end,

and it just didn't work out. I mean, Greg did put us in position from where we were at, honestly. He gave us a shot, but it didn't work out. I mean, the chances are so low at that point if you're doing it, but we still had a shot if it had gone green. It was us in the 27 car, and 27 won it like that. Remember what he wanted? He absolutely did.

He won the race like that. That's a good point. And I'll take it a step further to that point. Stevie, I know you don't know this, you're sitting there calling the race, but Stevie was talking about all this strategy during the telecasts, and he said, listen, if you want to be good at gambling, then you have to gamble to lose. Like, you've got to be ready to lose and look like a fool.

That's important. You don't gamble thinking that it's just going to always work out. You've got to be ready to take your beating because a lot of times it's just not going to work out. You've got to have everything. He said that specific. And he used the Coca-Cola 600 from several years ago, which we all remember. He did. He did.

As being his big, you know, his example. That was a great analysis there. That was really good input. He talked about and talked about Las Vegas last year also. All right. Let's go through some of more of these cautions. I think Brett McMillan had Jr. Yesterday in the pits on the Indy network.

Laura, I think, passes out the notes, you know, after every caution. Brett McMillan probably could write a book just on Junior's pit stops. Oh, yeah. yesterday and all the things that happened in the pits. Let's go to the caution on lap 119 when Junior was in 17. Okay, so with these three yellows, it puts us probably like one to two short for making it to the end. One to go out the line next time, bye. Hey, Dale, we're going to come down.

Pit, pit here, pit. Guys, we're going to put those left on. We're going to top it off a gas that puts us so we can make it. What were you guys thinking when this was going? on if we didn't get any more cautions and you know juniors a lap short uh i mean i don't know when the race necessarily tj but maybe right there i mean to your point about minard when i hear one or two short i'm that's my that means we got a shot yeah to me to me you're going the distance from right there with everyone else that just pitted right around you i wish who did pit

with it see that that was the one thing that's i like the call i like the call because if we now There was about four. But I didn't know who else pit with us, basically. About four of them did. The 27 was the main one that I saw, but we all came out topped off at that point in time, and that put us within one or two of making it. And whenever you hear that, from my, whenever I hear that,

the first thing that crosses my mind is, okay, well, this thing goes green. We've got a really good shot right now. I mean, the chances are slim. Right. But at that point, what do you got to lose? That's your way. That's your way to win.

That was our shot. That's your way to win. I thought it was an awesome call by Greg. All right, but then caution came out at lap 140, and this is what you were talking about earlier in the race, when Burton and Junior also mentioned it, when Burton on the telecast scrutinized the decision. Let's hear it.

You know, about one lap we're going to have to start saving 80%. The guy we had to race for was a 27. Everybody else in front of us was four-lap short. We were two laps short, so this kind of bunches all back up to try to make it, the guys in front of us. All right. Well, I put four tires on it, but whatever you want to do here. Yeah, Teppler, I think all those guys, the leaders, all those guys are going to try to stay out here and make it. And, you know, Tenth on back is going to come for four tires.

If we stay out, we're screwed. So we've got to come down, four tires, just top it off here and go after it. 15 to go. I just don't know how you can scrutinize that. I mean, honestly, I know what you're, I know you explained Jeff Burton's, and I'll, I mean, Jeff Burton. I mean, Jeff Burden's one of them. He's doing a great job, by the way. I think that telecast is really good. Jeff wasn't scrutinizing the 88.

He was scrutinizing all the cars that pitted. There was a lot of cars that pitted. They're like, why is everybody pitting here? Why is nobody staying out? If I was Danica Patrick or Ryan Newman or Jeff Gordon, who wasn't in that position. But if I was one of the, Casey Kane, Tony Stewart, if I was somebody hadn't won a race,

absolutely understand why you don't come in and get 40. tires. But I honestly, you hear what Greg just said. You got two wins. I don't know why you would stay out, T.J. You almost need to clarify, like, when Jeff says that on the, on the air, like it means your strategy is completely different to mine. If I've got three wins, I'm not making nearly the same call as you are. For you, yeah, if you're Paul Mnard and him, you want to finish 10th out of this strategy. You know, win if you can, but you have to get the best finish you can no matter what. You can't afford to say, hey, let's put four on and try a knife through some of them again. No, you have to be way more conservative than what we will be.

I agree, T.J. I think that if you're going to talk about that, you do need to clarify it and say, for those that have not won a race, I would not go in and get four tires here. You make that point. Now, and I will say this, Dale mentioned this. If it's inside 10 to go, okay, we might talk here. You know, if it's, certainly if it's a green-white checkered or something like that, Stay out and try to block them to a victory. Yeah. Block them to a second or third. But at this point, this car showed nothing.

Like, it had no ambition to pass anybody all day. You're going to restart 10th on old tires. 11th place has new tires. What do you think will come out of that? The buffer car never wins. I'll go ahead and tell you that. The buffer car to me is the last guy that stayed out on old tires, and the cars behind him all have two or four are going to eat you up.

You don't want to be that car ever. Right. Before we do speed dial, obviously it just looked like Junior didn't see Casey Kane there. T.J., what happened? The spotting at Indy is very hard. The front side, you don't have, it's not a stand, really. I mean, it's a stand. It's not tiered. You can't stand above anyone else.

It's just like a little scaffolding, and you put 35 of us up there, and we run back and forth from side to side. You can't just stand in one spot and C-turn four and C-turn one. So you go to the rail on the front stretch. When you're going to turn one, you're down on that side of it. And then as soon as your guy gets out of sight, you run the other side. I measured, I ran like three miles during that race. Wow.

Yeah, I actually, it counted with my watch. I counted how many, you know, my steps and everything, and it went a little over three miles. So you're running back and forth on that thing. Well, we're coming on the front stretch. I'm watching him, you know, we were three wide. And we cleared Casey on the bottom. I was right to almost start finish line. You know, when they come by me, I've got clear sight line,

can see and we actually pulled him and we cleared him so as soon as i cleared him that to me that's you know we're carrying more momentum we're he's not going to beat us into there as soon as i clear him it's you know i know for sure i moved to the turn one side which is about eight or ten feet you got to move around six or seven people because you can't just see the whole time you got to move to where you can see and as soon as i get there i see a spinning and i'm like hmm i kind of knew what happened and obviously once you know i told him hold the break and everything casey joe into the corner, we didn't come down to block or anything, but Casey was way low on the track. He was right up against the wall on the front stretch.

So you're not really going to make a very productive corner out of that anyway if you go in down there. So we go into the corner and Casey drove in a little bit and I think Junior actually had a 13 car on the outside of him still. So he was just trying to get in, not overdrive the entry, get a good entry, and Casey snuck his nose back on the inside of there a little bit, and I couldn't call it because I couldn't see it. It's impossible to see from that.

Well, you know, I'll take the blame. I mean, I should have saw it, but I don't almost have to be a 10-foot-tall person or have my own scaffolding there. But, you know, it's, it's, I didn't expect Casey to drive back in there after we cleared him. Most time when a guy in the middle and the outside clear the guy on the bottom, he just kind of gets in the next hole and you go on. Well, he actually got his nose back in there, and, you know, he was just racing. You know, that's what happens when you're back in that area. That's the type of stuff that they do. I got you.

And I'm not, we don't race back there a whole lot with that. Luckily, you know, we don't get him out a whole lot, but, you know, that's just the top. type of stuff that happens, and I hate that it happened to us, and I really didn't, I didn't expect Casey to do it, but he has every right to do it. I mean, he was, you know, he's on the racetrack still, so he's just racing. So he pretty fired up afterwards, or how do he handle it? I didn't know if he for sure knew what went on, but I explained to him. You know, I know when we went by, I watched him pass Casey on the front stretch. I watched him clear him. So to me, I felt comfortable at that point with it. You know, okay, we cleared that guy. We're going to

past 13 off the corner will be good, go to the next guy. Well, I never got to that point, but, you know, I explained to what happened. And normally, normally when he feels like I've done something, he pretty much lets me know when he knows that I, when he thinks I've done something wrong. He's pretty vocal about it and, or is known to be. And he was very quiet, very quiet about it. When I explained him what I saw, he just came back and said, you know, I know what happened. so to me and then I you know I talked to him after the race a little bit and he explained to me how he went down in the corner and

you know was just trying to back off a little bit early and get a good exit like I thought he was going to and and uh cases kind of drove in there and they made contact so Casey is uh he's in dangerous position right now uh in the points 14th in the points and uh if you consider the fact that there's one guy uh Kyle Bush, who's in 32nd, who you would imagine will be in the top 30 by the end of the regular season, if you will. That's one driver between 17th and 30th that's going to be in the chase. So Casey does not have much room right now. If a couple other guys outside the top 16 win a race, like say Kyle Larson, certainly capable of doing that.

Or Kyle Busch takes his spot up there here in another week or so. Yeah, exactly. It's going to be interesting to see if, uh, if Casey gets in this or not. All right, let's speed dial. Let's bring in one of the voices for MRN and also a huge success with his own sports talk show on Sirius XM NASCAR. He is Dave Moody. He's only one channel down from where I am.

From where you are? Yeah. But he's the Godfather. What are you? That's a good question. I'm just an early morning guy on 91, and he is certainly doing. doing a great job on Channel 90. Dave, how are you?

I'm doing good guys. I envy you at about 10 or 11 in the morning when you're just getting done. I don't envy you at 4 a.m. when you're just getting up. That's so true. That's so true. I'm always a little tired in the morning. Thankfully, my wife makes terrific coffee. Junior's run in Indianapolis was one to forget, Dave Moody.

Yeah, it was. And he'll probably be forgetting it as soon as possible. you know, when your day is highlighted by an unscheduled bout of agricultural racing, when the car is four feet in the air and the sod is eight feet in the air, that's probably a bad day. Well, but they're not going to have to mow that part this week. So I think that there was a contribution there that, you know, Jay Fry should be giving us a check or something, right? I mean, that's expensive pay for. What they're going to give you is a bill for all that sod they've got to replace.

I didn't think about that. That's a good point. Yeah, well. What do you make of all this? downforce package, drag package. What are you making out of this? Well, first and foremost, I give NASCAR high marks, two thumbs up, and a third if I had one, you know, for trying, because competition is all they've got.

That's the product. That's what they sell. And, you know, they've got to make the competition better whenever they can. So they're trying to do that. I didn't see a significant difference between Brickyard 2015 and Brickyard 2014 or 13 or 12. You know, they tried. I know the idea was to try and prompt a little, you know, Daytona or Talladega-style pack racing.

I didn't see any of that yesterday. You know, it may be more effective on a track like Michigan where you've got a little more banking to deal with and they can run a little more side-by-side than they can at Indy. The bottom line in my view, guys, is the same as my view is then since we started racing in Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It's not a track that was ideally suited for stock cars. That's right. 3, 400-pound high center of gravity stock cars have never performed well at Indy, and within certain parameters, I don't think they ever will.

Dave, what do you think the future of stock car racing is at the brickyard? As the years have gone on, people have been more and more concerned with that race. And, you know, I think all of us really that love stock car racing hold that race in high regard. I mean, if we're going to compare it to golf, I think we would see it as a major. Major. Yeah. But in terms of attendance, and now, like you said, the package and all the different things they tried, I don't know if it's working. It's always been a great spectacle. It's not been a great race, and that's the problem. If we just had, if we had a pretty good race, I mean, you know, the old country song, some days are diamonds and some days are stones. We don't need a diamond

every day. If we could get a seven and a half out of ten or an eight out of ten at Indy, I don't think anybody would ever complain again because everybody understands, you know, how important it is for the sport to race there, for the business side of the sport and the TV side of the sport and all those other things that are important. But the problem is, without the competition, without the good race, you're going to see what we've seen over the years. And that's the first three or four years, the place was jam-packed full with people that wanted to see something new and different and special and historic. But now it's not new anymore. It's not all that different anymore. It's not all the history anymore. And on top of that, the racing's not all that good, which is why you see

those empty seats. Dave, I think that you have your hand on the pulse of the fans better than anybody. What are you seeing out of Kyle Bush? You talk about historic. Are we seeing something historic? And does your feelings mirror the feelings of the fans? Well, we're absolutely seeing something special. I mean, we can all agree on that. Even the people that don't like it will admit that we're seeing something special with four out of five and three in a row out of Kyle Bush. That's a pretty amazing thing. One of the great comeback stories in sports, and it's far from over yet. I don't believe that yesterday will be Kyle Bush's final win for the season.

I think he's got some more up his sleeve. The way that team is running, we may not have to wait long. It is interesting, though, isn't it? The media last night was quite a bit of Kyle Busch, winning all the time. It hasn't taken long for Kyle to get back to status quo. Yeah, we'll see if he's a real factor in the chase. We've been talking a lot about it on this podcast. Excuse me, for the last few weeks.

That's been his problem is being this consistent and being a real factor when the chase starts. I don't think there's any doubt he's going to get in, by the way, six races to gain 23 points on 30th. Dave, last thing, how much concern would you have if you were associated with Jeff Gordon, or if you were a Jeff Gordon fan about him making the chase? Well, you know how it works in this crazy game. You know, you're mediocre for 15 or 16 or 18 or 20 or 22 weeks, and people start to panic. People start jumping off the bandwagon, and what's wrong?

Has he lost it? Can the team get it done? And then, you know, you go out next week at Pocono or anywhere else in the next couple of weeks, and you win yourself a race by hook or by crook, and the whole lay of the land changes. You're not on the bubble anymore. you're in the chase, and all of a sudden, all you need is a nice little five or six race hot streak late in the season to become a championship contender.

So if you're a Gordon fan, yes, it's time to be concerned. Is it time to panic? Maybe not yet. If you're a Tony Stewart fan, it's probably time to panic. If you're a Jeff Gordon fan, you just get that kind of little, that uneasy feeling in the pit of your stomach, and you keep hoping for better this coming week. What about the 88? everybody looks at this team and they see that Dale Jr. as a driver and as a team have been gaining on it these last few years.

Do you feel more confident the 88 will be a real factor as we get to Homestead? Yeah, I think they're going to play at least as significant role in the chase as they have in the regular season. And in the regular season, they've gotten to that magical point where every single week, barring misfortune, bad luck or something falling off the race car, which it doesn't very often. Every single week, they're a contender for a top five or even a win. It doesn't always happen, but at least they can contend for it. In an order to win a championship, that's where you have to be. You have to be one of those teams that can turn a bad day into an eighth

and a good day into a trip to victory lane. And I'm seeing that out of them right now. I think they, like Jimmy Johnson, have been kind of in research and development mode for a few weeks, But I think they're going to be very interesting to watch come chase on. You know, by the way, Mike Davis, I know that you try to say, well, I've got a beat-up car, and I can't afford anything. I don't want to hear any more of that. You're talking about my personal car?

I'm talking about your personal life. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. With all the money that you're making here at Junior Motorsports, you can afford to listen to Sirius XM Speedway and all the other great shows they have dialed in, late shift, loose ins, Skinner, the morning drive, trade and paint, all these programs that they've got on Channel 90. You can even go on-demand.

Moody's been having to read this like I have. You can go on-demand and download the new and improved Sirius XM app. Moody, he has no excuses. That a boy, Taylor. You're a good company, man. I got you covered here, and I'll make sure management knows about this. The problem with Davis is, on the rare occasion, where he opens his wallet, but the only thing that comes out is moths.

I mean, he's tighter than a coat of paint with no primer. That's the problem. He doesn't spend the money. That's exactly right. Dave, great perspective, as always. We'll be listening this afternoon. Thank you, sir. Hi, boys.

Thank you. All right. Dave Moody joining us here. Great work. Of course, he'll also be in Pocono, where Junior does such a great or has been so good there recently. So there you go. That's Speed Dial with Dave Moody this week on the download.

Time for reaction. Theater and our friends at Spy have given us some swag to give away to our favorite caller. On top of the earbuds and wireless speakers, up for grabs. Don't forget, you can go online to Spyoptic.com and get yourself a pair of Dale Jr.'s signature 88 shades. This includes the Dirty Moe, McCoy, Quanta, General, and Farrow for the ladies. Once you are ready to check out in her discount code nationwide 88, and get 20% off of that purchase. Reaction Theater.

Can I just tell off by saying, Kyle Bush? Like, really? four out of five last races I don't know what they got under the hood or what they're doing but I can't stand Kyle Busch tough run for the 88 team to seem like they had the car

and they need them all day and the incident when Casey came you know you gotta catch your teammates and strike there I know it's late in the race but you can't turn your teammates you know this seems like Dale Jr. Can never catch a break

with any of his teammates you know he's had it he's had this fast with Johnson and you know I don't know what it is going on at Hendrick but it doesn't seem like, you know, teammates being teaming. I don't think that's fair to you, T.J.?

No, I mean, to an extent, I don't think we would do that to somebody. I don't think Junior would drive like that, but Casey has a right to. He didn't drive under his hand. That's the old junior, I'm going to wreck him. In case, he saw an opportunity. Casey's trying to race his way into this chase, man. So he's doing what he's got to do. He's a race car driver.

Who's next? Well, a broken air gun got us back in the pack, and turned a so-so day into a shit day. Can't say it was Casey's fault. He was just there. Wish it was Greg Biffel. That's right. I would have somebody to be pissed at.

Chase had a good day. Hashtag six bears. Dale yeah. That's pretty good. Yeah. Sometimes you just got to call it what it is. When you get your butt-wooked, you just say you got your butt-wooked.

I mean, no excuses. Who's next? I want to call Taylor's Arsarves. They're out on the mat. And I'm like to hear him explain exactly how he thinks. The 18 does not deserve it in the chase. He makes that top 30, especially when the 18 has done just as much in a few races. There's only one other drivers have been able to do so far this year, and that's winning four races.

He's done it in fewer races, and that still deserves to count it something. And I'm not a Kyle Bush fan by any means, but you've got to admit a man can drive the car. He can do it well, and what he's doing is just phenomenal. You just can't argue it, you know, no matter how much Dale Jr. fans and Junior Nations doesn't like the guy to have it. What he's doing right now is downright historical. It's remarkable. I'm not a hater. I'm with Taylor.

I hate Kyle Bush. I'm like, Taylor doesn't hate Kyle. And they always copy Junior on there, and I'm thinking Junior's probably going to call you up and say, what's this guy that's host in this podcast? Why is he? Hey, I don't hate Kyle Bush. I've said it on every podcast. I really don't.

I don't know how I feel about his brother, but I don't hate Kyle Bush. Liar. Okay. So. So here's what I want to say. It has nothing to do. If Dale Jr. missed 11 races, the whole free world would be going crazy.

How they just letting Junior me and the chase because he's the favorite son of NASCAR. Like that's what they would say if you missed 11 races. If you miss a third of the season, if you miss 40% of the regular season, listen, I'm not trying to discredit anything that he's done. I'm not. I just have a hard time with driver's points when one guy misses 11 races.

It doesn't mean he's not, he is absolutely one of the best drivers in the sport. That's the thing I have a hard time stomacking. But I agree completely with Dale Jr. Is they shouldn't have this stipulation that you must be inside the top 30 or you must have raced in almost all the races, et cetera, and then make a special circumstance. That's the thing that bothers me is there shouldn't, be any special circumstances. Either you're in or you're out. I don't know if you heard this last

week, but Jim Utter brought up a very good point last week when we interviewed him on speed dial. He said they didn't make a special circumstance. That was actually in the whole bylaws from the beginning that for a medical reason, you can be put into the chase. That was their only waiver. That was the only waiver. He says that's been that case from the beginning. But is it a minute, look at how he got it though. This is my point. I think it's absolutely medical. Wait, wait. Listen, all I'm saying is it's not the special asterisk that we thought it was.

You're telling me if David Gillil and missed 11 races, they would make an announcement that he would be eligible if he got inside the top 30. They would have to for those rules that they saved it. He says it's in it. A medical waiver for having an accident during a race. Listen, and listen, you know Jim. Jim would call NASCAR out any chance he gets. He said this one is not it because they did say from the very beginning with this new

new rules. Fair enough. We can go round and round about it all day. I'm sure Jim has done his research. That's not my argument. You don't like that there's an exception. All I'm saying is, is that that wasn't new for Kyle Bush. That was an exception for Kyle Bush. You still don't hate Kyle Bush, but that's what you got accused of this week. Don't hate Kyle Bush. What I do? I congratulated him, and I got, I caught heck for it. Who's next? I don't know what we got to do. I don't work on race first, but we got to do something. I think we're going to have to get all the junior nation down there. the Hendrick shop and we're going to have to start fixing these cars ourselves.

Fire everyone. Even the spotter because really, TJ, that was your fault for not giving Junior the, hey, you've got a car down low. You probably shouldn't go down there resulting in our fit. So thank a lot, TJ. If we show up to the chase and we are slower than that or even as fast as that, I would be ashamed to wear my Dale Jr. hat and jacket in public. I might as well on Kyle Bush apparel. Sorry, Taylor. I had to go there. Dale, yeah. Let's go win next week. Because you hate it. That's why.

You know, I think we should all go down. Submarine Mike, Mike Davis, and me are going down the shop. We're going to fire everybody. We got this. Let me tell you why that's a bad idea. We're third in points. That's one of the reasons. That's one of the reasons. Also, that we're totally incompetent. That's another. Well, we, won't this guy call me when we go Talladegan and see how bad he wants me? Oh, here we go.

DJ. Fire! There we go. DJ! Call me when we go to Talladegas. Travis James, get you some. You like it now. Who's next?

We know we can go straight to the other way and give kudos. But when NASCAR seems to be putting together a package to benefit that driver so he'll make the chase, we deal fans, I would say we have a problem with that. I think that's why you got so much crap, Davis. So, being a Dell fan, Dale Jr, he just kept on coming on. Hendricks team, hmm, I don't know what's said about that.

Got another race next week. We'll get her done. Dale, yeah, you guys have a good day. You do the same. I caught crap because I congratulated Kyle and I caught him an incredible driver and I will stand on that.

I'm sorry. I don't apologize for that. The guy, what he's doing, people do not understand how difficult it is to do what he just did. And they did, look, do I even have to explain that NASCAR? How dare you write a tweet like that?

Do I have to explain that NASCAR didn't change the rules package to help Kyle. Evidently you do have to explain it. They didn't change the rules package. What Kyle's doing is very difficult, but Kyle has been very lucky for half of it, so let's keep going on. Okay, okay, but that's fair. No, it happens. But I look at his overall body

of work, and I'm just impressed. I mean, the fact that he, in the Xfinity race, the fact that he pushed that kid into a mistake on the final lap is... Well, I mean, I don't know, Derek Cote might have helped that a little bit. Whatever. Okay, so you're saying that he's just lucky every time. Kyle, but he's just a benefit of a

rules package change and he's lucky and he all the most wins in infinity series history is luck Kyle with I don't care what the rules package is Kyle's going to be a good driver he's good yeah I don't know he's also a benefit of rule 43 dash 5 dash 7 which is somewhere buried in rule you hate her you're such a hater my family is so freaking piss that Kyle Bush won this race that they are done with NASCAR for the rest of the season And if Kyle Bush wins the championship, they're done with NASCAR, period. And Mr. H., you at best have a come-to-Jesus meeting with all your teams because you're running like... Now, come on, get with it.

Your Hendricks, come on. Come on, Hendricks. Let's go. Hey, come on, Hendricks. That's a good... Hey, fair points. I think Hendrick Motorsports needs to keep trying to figure out how to find speed. Anyone that's ever met, Mr. H. knows good and well.

he's not going to stand for this. No. Everybody. Anyone that's ever met him knows you don't have to say that to him. Who's next? NASCAR's a piece of s'bri. Brian, France, a piece of shit. Kyle Busch is the biggest piece of shit.

I don't like any of them. NASCAR is completely rigged this whole situation with Kyle Busch to keep their friggin' names in the news. I don't know what the hell went on with Dale Jr. today, but it really truly sucks. Anyhow, you all take care. Their luck next year. week.

Bye. Who do they, I'm just thinking who they want to win in Pocono. I hope it's junior. Yeah. It's just ridiculous.

Hey, look, look, I don't, I don't think anybody should apologize for feeling bad after that race because it did suck. Let's just, at the end of the day,

it was one of those races. I mean, come on. No, it's not fixed. If it is, then Jeff Gordon's going to win in Richmond on some crazy last lap. Oh my gosh.

You know, fire. If he wins in Richmond. Or something's going to happen and then Brian Francis is going to put him in the Never mind. I'm just kidding. All right, because that doesn't happen. What a crap day.

That just sucks. I'm in the pits, missing the lug nuts, breaking a jack, lug nut gun dying on us, running through the grass, and then that jack-hs went in the race. But as they say, in racing circles, amongst all the drivers, crews, and donors, I'm sure you've all heard it. Kyle Bush.

Reaction theaters open 24-7. All you have to do is call toll-free 1855-740-1902 and leave us your voicemail message and we'll play the best each week right here on Dirty Mo Radio. Taylor, you forgot something. We got to pick somebody

to receive spies. Oh, that's right, yeah. Who do we like out of that group? It doesn't have to be like, you know, pro-Dail and they're just somebody that stuck out to us. Who did we like? I thought the guy that ripped TJ was pretty good. That's what I was thinking.

I thought the guy that ripped me was pretty good. I thought the guy that ripped everybody. You know, was it the last guy that effed everybody? Yeah, let's pick the one that seemed the angriest. Give us some happy lenses. I think the one that ripped TJ, he didn't just rip T.J. He said he recommended that Mike and I go over and take over at the shop. Yeah, I kind of was not good for anyone.

I mean, it was the most absurd call. Who was the most, who was the angriest? The last guy. I'm with T.J. The guy that F NASCAR. Ryan France, NASCAR. And the way he ended it was great. Let's do it.

I don't appreciate Amanda spelling out the word. She's going to be a mom at some point in her life. I don't know. She needs to be doing that. Oh, whoa, you're pregnant? No, I'm not. Amanda, what do we want to send? Do we want to send them shades or do we want to send some speakers?

What do we want to send? I think he needs a pair of shades to make him happy, in my opinion. I don't know. The speakers might be cool because he can blast himself cussing things. That's true. Well, that'll be next week when he cusses us out. Very good. There you go.

Congratulations. Time now for It Takes a Nation presented by Nationwide. So the whole premise of this Takes a Nation segment is to showcase people that play a role in Junior Nation, you know, whether you're an employee, whether you're a fan, a friend, family member, something that makes Junior Nation great. And the gentleman that joins us today has emerged this year to me. know you've been around Mike for a while, but you've really emerged this year as one of our favorites on Reaction Theater. You go by Submarine Mike on Twitter, but what is your actual name? My name is Mike Mitchell. I'm from Jacksonville, Florida. Mike Mitchell, and so thank you. What are you doing in town today?

Well, I went up this past weekend to my stepfather's health issues, went to help my mother, and then while I was up there, I took a chance to catch a pirate game just because I haven't been up there since 2008. You have been one of our favorites this year on Reaction Theater. We play you quite a bit, and it's not because you pay us money to. You say you haven't bought any special advertisement on DirtyMill Radio. You're just super creative. Well, I try, and I've got a lot of help. My wife works with me on it.

Like, I'll come up, like I came up with the hook. For all about the breaks a couple weeks ago, I'd heard that song earlier in a day, and then Junior had break problems, and I was the song, you know, the song is it gets in your head and I was thinking all about all about that bass all about them and it just hit me all about them breaks and I was like Cheryl can we do something with this and she goes yeah because she she has a music business degree but as part of that degree she had to take she had to take as she puts it a couple songwriting classes so that's how we can make sure we could get the cadence right and the right amount of syllables and stuff like that and just to remind

everybody that was after kentucky when we just had break problems the entire race Amanda played this call that Mike left on Reaction Theater that week. Kentucky's about them brakes, about the brakes no pedal. It's all about the brakes, about the brakes, no pedal. That's a good one, Mike, but let me tell you something. I got a favorite.

Of all that you've done this year, you've done a bunch. I've got a favorite. Do you know what it might be? I think it's the T.J. Major's song. That was good, too. If it wasn't my favorite. If it might be one we did cause he's biffle. There you go. The biffle wouldn't just

cracked me up. Amanda, let's play that. Because he's out at time. Because he's biffle. Clap along if you feel Jack Rouch is past his prime. I just love that. That was hilarious. How long have you been a junior fan? Junior, since his

rookie year and at the time, Bush, I've always been a senior fan. I became a senior fan in 79. Was visiting my aunt and uncle. They raced late models at a local dirt track. And they said, come watch this race. And it was a 79-500. And I'm I'm originally from West Virginia, and our state colors are blue and yellow,

and Dale was riding. You know, I was eight years old, so I picked the blue and yellow car because that's WVU colors. Yeah. Stayed with Dale from that point on. And you're from Jay, so you live in Jacksonville now because you were in the Navy. Yes, I retired from the Navy in the Jacksonville, Florida area. My wife, I met my wife down there. She's from there.

I'm telling you what, a guy that, we've got a guy that actually worked on submarines in our studio. This might be a first. I mean, that's pretty cool. Is that where you got crazy? I heard, you know, if you're on a submarine, you end up getting kind of stir crazy. And is that what we're seeing, a product of craziness there? That's probably part of it. I mean, you guys like to prank each other.

A little bit. Yeah, well, we take it to another level on a submarine. Yeah, I bet you do. It's just a bunch of guys. There's no human resources. There's no, at the time, there was no women on submarines. They are just now starting to get on submarines, so you could be a little more blue if you wanted to be. Does that make you want to re-enlist back into the Navy?

No. I mean, I don't care if they're on I'm almost 45 years old That's a young man's game Yeah, totally, yeah Alright, so who does submarine not like as far as drivers Well, I've always been anti-Kyle Even when, you know, he was starting to get them cheers

After he came back from the broken leg Yeah, no No, I just couldn't pull yourself from out of here You know what, I don't even boo him I turn my back when he's introduced them When I'm at the track of Daytona Really? Because, like Dale Sr. said, It doesn't matter whether they're cheering or booing

As long as they're making noise so I refuse to make noise. So you don't make noise. Nope. You don't contribute one way or another. Nope. That's interesting. I like that.

That's a good strategy. Yeah. Just turn your back. And I'm not a big fan of probably Joey Lagano gets on my nerves a little bit. And I can't pinpoint it. There's nothing specific. I mean, take nothing away from either of their abilities to drive a car. They're obviously great.

But I don't necessarily root for someone because they're great. I mean, even on the rare occasion, Alabama's bad. Do you stop rooting for them? No. No. So, you know, it's just there's something, just something weird about Joey, to me. No bearing on Joey whatsoever, just to me. The great thing about sports and, you know, fandom is that you don't actually have to have a good reason to cheer for somebody or to not cheer for them, for that matter, right?

Right. Fan is short for fanatic. It doesn't mean that has to make sense. Right. Yeah, it doesn't mean logical. Yeah, not at all. Right. Well, cool.

I appreciate you being on this segment with us. And I hope to hear from you again. Did you even think about a song after this indie race? No, because honestly, I only watched half of it because I went to that pirate game. Because, again, I didn't get much chance to do that. So I didn't feel it appropriate because there was no real inspiration. Just like after New Hampshire, I watched the whole race, but there was nothing. Yeah.

Our best songs come when something grabs you, like the brakes or the Biffle song. Something grabbed you and you can make that connection to a song. Yeah. See, I was a big Red Al-Yal-Yakovic fan growing up, so. I think that an anti-Kyle Bush song is in the works here in the next few weeks. We're trying to come up with a Mike Davis song since we did a T.J. Major song, too, just so you know. Good luck. I'm not that interesting. I'll tell you, I promise. Well, I've noticed that. I'm having trouble.

Yeah, well, listen, the thing about Mike Davis is that there's probably four Mike Davis is within your own block in Jacksonville. It's sort of common. I went to high school with three other Mike Davises, just so you know. But I wanted to say thank you guys. I didn't expect to be able to be on here. It's really awesome of you to allow me to be on here. And the fact that you guys put the podcast studio down here in the gift shop, I mean, that's great for the fans just to come because it's cool to see any kind of show being produced, whether it's a podcast, a TV show, whatever. Just really cool you guys to do that.

Really nice fan experience. Well, thank you, Mike. It's a pleasure having you here. And thank you nationwide for sponsoring this segment, allowing us to talk to fans and people that are instrumental behind Jr. And I want to let you guys know between now and August 7th, Nationwide is asking fans to show their support for Dell Jr. and the number 88 team by sharing their fondest memories.

I bet you've got a few of those, Mike. Personal experiences and most exciting stories, fans can submit their stories, photos, or videos via Twitter, Facebook, at Nationwide 88. Or Instagram, NW88, using the hashtag My Dell Story. There's been a lot of good ones so far. I've been noticing those in the past week. So they can also submit them to MyDellStory.com. Check out the website to see all of these amazing stories. Pictures and videos from Junior Nation, they're pretty special, and don't forget,

Nationwide is on your side. This is Tiff Daniels, and here's what's coming up this week on Dirty Mo Radio. On Wednesday, the notoriously funny Kenny Wallace, who will be making his final NASCAR start this weekend at Iowa, joins Kelly on Fastlane Family presented by Wella Professionals. Thursday, you can catch Junior Motorsports Up Front, presented by Dale's Pale Ale. Co-host Heath White returns after his two-week absence, and we all know Regan Smith will have something to say about it, so don't miss it. And remember, you can always catch Dale Jr's at track press conferences on said Jr., presented by Nationwide.

Dirtymo Radio podcasts are available free of charge 24-7 on Dale Jr.com, iTunes, and all major podcasting outlets. Let's throw the white flag. White flag right there, white flag. White flag, white flag. I'd like to sponsor White flag this week by Chipotle. I went there today, man, I'll tell you what. That place is really good. Well, that's not going to cut it this week.

We've got a better sponsor. This white flag is brought to you by goodies. Headache relief so strong that it could even get you past days like Sunday. Dale Jr. and the number 88 nationwide team spent the morning celebrating their Daytona win. A win that many forget was just three weeks ago, guys. This guy has fallen. I'm not watching NASCAR anymore. It's over.

It's over. It's 22nd. Oh, yeah. Just three weeks ago. go, we were winners. The guys enjoyed a team breakfast for this morning and we'll be ringing the traditional victory bell this afternoon. They've also got some pretty important competition meetings today as they prepare for Pocono. As you might note, Dale Jr. from time to time likes to go to Walmart. Who doesn't, right? Do you Taylor? I went this weekend.

Okay, there you go. He'll be doing that this Thursday on behalf of Diet Mountain Dew at the Walmart in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina from noon to 2 p.m. Again, that's this Thursday at the Walmart in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. I have been to that Walmart and almost bought a place in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. I've gone and slid down Jockey's Ridge near Kitty Hawk North Carolina. First in flight. I love that place.

I'm not kidding. So you've been to the Walmart and Kitty Hawk? I have. I for sure have. And you like it? It's one of the first things I do when I go to DC. Go to Walmart? Well, I tell you what, if you go there this Thursday, Dale Jr.

are going to be there from noon to two. I might go. This weekend, the Xfinity series is at Iowa Speedway. You can watch that race on NBC Sports Network on Saturday night. Ben Rhodes, Regan Smith, and Chase Elliott are running for Team Junior. Then on Sunday, NBC, S-N, this is the sports network. They will also carry the Sprint Cup race at Pocono.

Dale Jr.'s paint scheme will be the Microsoft Windows 10 car. You might remember that from his road course at Sonoma. Do I want to, you want to get me going about road course? Ringer. Yeah. Lastly. Sonoma Ringer. Lastly, I have a very important favor to ask of you, so please do not miss this,

Dirty Mo Radio listeners. Today, through its social media channels and websites and newsletters, Junior Motorsports is sending out a fan survey. If you don't do anything else for us in this lifetime, we're asking to please take the survey. It's hugely important to us. We pride ourselves not just on having a nice, big fan base called Junior Nation, but also communicating with them and knowing about them

and giving them stuff that they want. This is where this survey is going to be hugely important for us. So I ask, take five minutes of your time, fill out this survey. Again, it's at jaramraising.com, Dale Jr.com, our Twitter. That's a good idea. All of that stuff. It's very important questions. that we need answered.

And then it will also make it what you're while. We're offering a $250 gift card for one lucky entrant. That's straight up $250, however you want to spend it wherever you want to do. First name, Davis. Take the survey, help us service you better in the coming here. We'd really, really appreciate it. Taylor, that's it for me. Very good.

Appreciate everybody. Dale Jr.'s comments were fantastic. Thank you, Amanda. Submarine Mike, you're awesome. Thank you. Travis James. Good to see you. Get some sleep, man.

You look tired. You do look tired. Did you just wake up? You need to get some sleep. Yeah, right. For rulebook loving, brickyard, loving Kyle Bush, loving Mike Davis. And for Kyle Busch, Hayton? Taylor's Archer.

We'll talk to you next week on the Dale Jr. Download presented by Spy. Thanks for listening to Dirty Mo Radio. Well, that'll wrap another episode of the Dale Jr. download presented by Spy. And guys, remember, go online to Spyoptic.com. Choose your favorite Dale Jr. signature 88 pair of sunglasses. And when you're at checkout, enter discount code nationwide 88. sure you get your 20% off your purchase. Happy shopping, guys.