The Dale Jr. Download - 109 - Richmond: The Chase Checklist

Episode Date: September 15, 2015

Travis Mack, car chief for the No. 88 Nationwide Chevy, weighs in on the Richmond run and what needs to come together for the final 10 races of the season. Plus, the breakout star of Richmond Josh Berry 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 Moe Radio. Good job today. I don't know that we could have done that any better. Take true. Great job. Dale, way to stick with it. 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. Okay. It's our turn now on the Dale Jr. download presented by Spy with Amanda, with Mike. I'm Taylor. How you doing? You ready for the playoffs? The chase, baby? It's a chase.

The chase. What's it is our fifth or six year in a row? Let's think about this now. Made it the first year at Hendrick in 2008. Right. Didn't make it in 2009. It did go so well in 2009 or 2010. Made it in 11.

11, 12, 13, 14, 15. There you go. I'm not good at math. But that's five. All right. Move. We need to get a watch or something for five years in a row. Made it at,

made it once or twice back in the Budweiser days. 2004 when the first year of it went down. I still think we should have won it that year. 06. 05 we didn't. 06 we did. Yeah. So that's eight times.

Man, that's pretty strong. Eight-time Chase member, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. You know what? I think we're ready to win one of these things. I think so. I mean, come on now. I mean, I think that's quite clear, isn't it? In all seriousness, it's winner go home.

I mean, that's the mentality everyone on this team has, especially its driver. I mean, finishing second or finishing fifth or having the best last night. races like he had two years ago. That still bothers you. Yeah. Well, no, no. I appreciated the effort. That was great.

Beautiful, yeah. It made me believe for the first time that, yes, a championship is achievable, not just getting to the playoffs, but a championship is achievable. And I think everyone associated with this team believes that now. A championship is achievable, and that should be the goal, right? Oh, this is what we'll play for right here. This is why you race. This is the chase.

All things on the table. You got to go out. You got to make every round now. Got to make it count. We know from last year you could even be winning the damn race and still have things go wrong. So everything has to fall into place. But this is why we play the game. It's beautiful.

I love it. The thing that makes me the most confident certainly is the way this team and Dale Jr. Can drive during the race. No matter where they qualify, the way that this team can overcome adversity and make something out of nothing. We have seen it three consecutive weeks. We have seen it in a large part of his career. Steve Lattartre said it when he was Jeff Gordon's crew chief at Michigan five or six years ago. The 88 is coming and he's coming like a bat out of hell.

That's kind of his mantra. That's what he does. His father did that too. This is what he does as the race goes on. That to me gives me the most confidence is that this team can overcome adversity. The thing that gives me the most concern is 24 to 48 hours before the race starts. Yeah, the fact that we have to overcome adversity. That's the thing that you feel not so good about.

But you know what? This team just continues to show me resiliency. And I feel like if they can put all the things together, I'm not sure we've had everything in place yet this year because we've had the issues on pit road, we've had the vibrations, and we've had really, really good races and we've gotten a lot of good finishes. I still don't know that they've had their best race.

If you believe in peeking at the right time and the wrong time and all that stuff, you know, I still don't think that we've peaked. We clearly have to get more speed and we still have to qualify better. I mean, I think our qualifying has actually gone backwards a little bit. I mean, like, I don't remember us in the beginning of the year or even the middle of the year qualifying 26 for a race. You're putting restrictor plate racing in a different category, clearly, because he, I mean, he dominated Talladega and dominated Daytona. I mean. Yeah, I mean.

But, no, I see what you're saying. And I agree with you. I don't think this team has had its best race yet. If you don't include those, those were, the second Daytona race was just the most dominant thing you'll ever see. Daiga was great too. And certainly, if that car gets off the hauler in good shape, you'd have to like its chances in Talladega again. But obviously, consistent performance at those other nine tracks is what's so important. It's what's important.

But you know what? I like our driver in the seat. I like our crew chief. I like our team. I think that if we just put it all together, we can really make a run for this thing and have a little bit of luck go our way. I don't mind asking for luck.

You need it in the chase. Hendrick as a team has really been surprisingly down the last couple of months. I mean, I think the 48 especially to see the way that that team has kind of sputtered as the season has gone on has been surprising. And Jeff Gordon said it after the race. The 88 is the class of Hendrick Motorsports,

and he's right. It was cool to hear him say it. Yeah, it was. I might have rewinded it. A couple times? Three times. But he's right. He is right.

So the bad news is Hendrick means to catch up to Gibbs and Depensky probably. The good news is the car that's absolutely the most competitive through 26 races is the one we want to win. Yeah, you know what? I'm watching that Richmond race and watching those Gibbs cars run one, two, three, four. And I'm like, my goodness, what is going on here? These guys are on a rail. I mean, what is going on? And I know it's cyclical, and I get it.

And, you know, there was it just as recently as last year where Gibbs was down or at the beginning of this year? I mean, think all the wins Jimmy had the beginning of this season. Right, right. That's right. And then, you know, Harvick obviously had his run. And, you know, where's Harvick been in the wind column? So it's cyclical, but, man, those Gibbs things are fast. And I'm really eager to actually talk to Travis Mack on Speed Dial coming up here in a few minutes

because I think that's a question that we should ask him, Travis being the car chief of the 88 team. Just overall speed, you know, where his head is on this. I mean, what do they see when they go out to the track and see these gift cars? Kenseth, Bush, Lugano, top three there. Hamlin ended up finishing six. Eric Almerola finished fourth. He was going to, he tried at least to be the fly in the ointment to try to get into the chase

and he ends up finishing 17th, one spot out. How fast is your car got to be when you? can finish six on one leg. Tenney Hamlin, yeah. That's a good point, golly. You know, I don't want to spend too much time talking about the Richmond race. I'd rather talk about what's going on moving forward. Travis Mack, we'll talk to the car chief.

We'll talk about the chase and all of that. But again, when you just look at the stats, Amanda does such a good job of putting that all together. Started 29th, up to 21st by lap 30, up to 17th by lap 103, let's see, up to 8th by lap 2 96 and finished 5th. Yeah, but just gained on it all night. Gained on it, but it wasn't like one of those things where he just took off out of the gates and he was clearly a fast car. No, it was slow, steady progress.

They had to work to get that car. They changed everything on that car during the race and finally landed on something where he was competitive, but he inched up on it, and next thing you know, he's cracking on the top five, and I'm like, wow, who saw this coming? Because if you were paying attention to DeVendell's Twitter feed on Friday, you could clearly see frustration. Yeah. It was not pretty.

Yeah. So Chase starts in Chicago. And, you know, with the way that this team has competed the last couple of years, you think about some of the places the junior has won and the places he's had chances to win, places that historically we would have scratched our head and said, wow, it's amazing he's winning, sweeping polka, oh, or having chances to win in Dover like he'd did in the chase two years ago. You look at the schedule, Mike, and there isn't really a track in this chase that concerns

me. Is there one for you? Like Darlington and I'm sorry, I know how much you love the Glen, but like Darlington and the glen and a couple places like that, I'm always like, man, I don't know what we're going to be like there. There's not one race in the chase where I think, golly, I just don't know what kind of car we're going to have for them. I do really wish the Glenn was part of the chase.

I was still confident, and I would even make predictions. But, yeah, you know, we've had a couple of unfortunate luck at Dover, but we know that we run well there. I mean, he should have won Dover last year if it wasn't for that, dagum, Jimmy Johnson. That's right. You know, Chicago's a track that I think that we've gotten a lot better at. I mean, he has won there before.

It was a while ago. But, you know, no, I feel. confident in all those races. Those are all race tracks that he has traditionally done well at. Maybe Loudoun is But you know we've gotten better at Loudoun so like that, like a year ago then I would not have felt great about Loudoun. Defending champion at Martinsville. Right. Obviously he's always running really strong. Talladega you're bringing back that piece. Being back the piece.

Homestead. He likes. Yeah, absolutely. They've tested there and he likes it. And so again, almost had a heart attack at Kansas, which was right after the 600 when they ran out of gas, and then in Kansas, he almost ran out of gas again. Finished second to Kozlowski there a few years ago. I wouldn't mind seeing some redemption at Kansas after last year because that was a race that we had them covered, boy. I'm telling you we had him covered, and he's out there leading that race, and I think it was a tire went down.

That's right. And right into the wall. I think that obviously more speed is the biggest thing that everybody would say they need to see from this car moving forward. Yeah, speed is what we need. What Rocky was it when Mickey, the trainer, was like speeds what we need? Yeah, that was when he's chasing.

Lightning and fast speed. You're crap thunder. Yeah. That's what we need to do. We need Dan to call up, Daddo to say, Don't look at me like that. Amanda, that's Rocky. I'm looking at you that way because I've never seen one Rocky.

What? What? Are you serious? I don't know what you're talking about. Taylor, I'm sorry. I'd never meant to bring you into a situation like this where somebody in the room has not seen Rocky. Amanda, God bless you.

Okay. Adrian has the baby, all right? They're worried they're going to lose the baby. Okay. And so Rocky's there all days, you know, all times the day and the night. And Mickey, the trainer, is there with him. He's praying in the church. He's beside himself because Adrian's in a coma after she gives birth to their first child.

Because she was at the pet store working when she shouldn't have been. That's exactly right. She's worked too long. Yeah. And Mickey had questioned Rocky's heart and probably gone. too far and questioning Rocky's heart. There was some fragile feelings. And so then

Adrian miraculously comes out of a coma. And then she tells him to win. And she says there's one thing I need you to do for me. Win. And the baby she had was like the hairiest chihuahua-looking thing I've ever seen. Oh, my gosh. It was crazy how Harry. How much hair was on that.

It really was. We need to get. We're off track now. No, not. We're on track. This is what we need for the chase. Seriously, this is great. And then so after that,

Mickey has Rocky chase a live chicken around, and he's not ready to fight Apollo Creed and beat Apollo Creed. That's right. Until he can catch that chicken. And guess what he does? We need speed, Amanda. And guess what he does, Amanda? He catches the chicken!

You know what? Because he has speed! We need to get Dale Jr. to chase a chicken this week. That's what I'm talking about. He needs speed. Greasy fast speed. You need... For 360, you need Jr. to chase a chicken.

You really do. I've got chickens. I can bring them. Make Dale Jr. Chase the chicken. This wouldn't even be the first time. You are not ready to win a championship until you can catch that chicken. This wouldn't even be the first time I brought my chickens to work.

That's true. Yeah, that's true. It orbit on 360 for that matter. That's right. So let's bring the chicken. If Junior chases it, we'll go to Greg Eyes and said, we found speed. Oh, I am all about that. I think that would be the greatest 360 ever.

Speed dial. Okay, for SpeedDob, what are we doing this week, Mike Davis? Got to talk to my man, Travis Matt, Car Chief on the number 88 nationwide team. Used to be here at Junior Motorsports, left us. He won a championship and took off, just like Team Mac does. What's up? Good, how are you guys? We're doing good, man.

You busy today? Oh, yeah. I'm hard at it today getting ready for Chicago, starting the Chief. I support him completely for, you know, building his brand and then moving on. Well, he's actually, he went back to Hendrick Motorsports is where he started. Team Mac came over. We stole him from Hendricks. so it's only natural for him to go back.

And certainly he's done a very good job as the car chief. Travis, let's talk a little bit about where this team is through 26 races. There are a lot of people that look at one company or maybe two companies in particular who have had speed consistently through the season and are concerned about Hendrick Motorsports. How would you evaluate 26 races with the 88 and with Hendrik? As far as the 88 goes, I mean, I feel like our cars have had great speed. Sometimes it's hard to tell just watching TV. but feel good about our cars.

You know, obviously there's things you need to work on and get better at. Qualifying, for instance. We don't qualify the best, so we know we need to work on that. You know, starting up front like some of the other guys, they tend to have a better race, you know, just able to stay up front the entire race. And most of the time it takes us, you know, the entire race to get up there to the top five.

We still have a shot at the win yet. So once we work on qualifying, get that figured out, I think our cars have great speed. I got to ask you, Travis, be honest. now because when we watch a race and even if you unload and you're not the fastest, we always just know that you guys are so good that you're going to come on through the field when the race starts, or at least when you get in the crux of the race. However, this weekend, it seemed like Junior was more animated than usual about where you guys

were on Friday, and yet you still finish in the top five. Be honest. Did you really see a top five coming out of this car on Friday? No, you know, at first, you know, there was runs where we had good speed and then the next run we didn't have good speed so we were definitely hit our midst on Friday and it was hard to tell you know I think it people don't believe of us but you know a lot of times we don't know what we got until the race start you know they like to know more educated guess than that but sometimes I tell you know you'll know on lap 10 same time I do so we got to get better coming off the truck for sure and make Dell a little happier on Friday so we could get that qualifying effort that we need

and that's obvious to everyone I mean certainly like TJ has said on this podcast before you you'd rather have it the way that we have it, where you've got a great racer who is going to always be so good as the car as the race goes on. But qualifying historically has been a problem for Dale Jr. It's not just this year. That's the way it's always been. He's always been much better in the race. His father certainly was like that. I was going to say.

If you want to go back, you'd go back to his dad. He didn't care about qualified. Certainly there are some parallels there. But if you can put your finger on something, Travis, I mean, if there is a way to improve that, in Chicago. How do you do that? Yeah, in Dover, in Loudon. I know that this is what you spend your entire day going over.

So believe us, we know that that's what you're dealing with. But what are some of the things you're trying to do in order to make for a better hot lap? Well, right now, you know, we've been talking about for a couple weeks. Me and Greg and engineers just talking about what we are doing, you know, and maybe just going down a different path, just trying something completely different. you know, what's the worst going to happen? We're going to qualify 20th, you know, if we keep kidding ourselves because that's about our average, you know.

So we're just looking into different things, things we see in the garage, other guys are doing maybe, that might be in a little advantage. And, you know, as a company as a whole, we haven't really qualified that well. So we're kind of looking at what all four teams are doing the same, that, you know, maybe we need to do a little differently. What is different about junior's driving style on that lap than, say,

and you're right about the whole company, but what's different about his style than, say, Casey Kane, who has one, who's always been very good in qualifying? You know, I think Dale is more of a Casey, you know. If he had a gal in front of him, he would take him down and passing, you know, maybe qualifying. He's out there by himself, you know, and you're trying to hit your marks, and it's just hard to tell what you're doing.

You know, sometimes he'll put up a great lap, but he felt like he was slow, and then other times it feels like he put down a good lap, and, you know, we're 25th. So, you know, maybe if we more head of a pack qualifying deal, you get out there and pass a couple guys, and, you know, he puts down some good laps. So it's just hard to do when you're trying to hit marks, and you're not really sure, you know, how deep to drive in and when to get back in the gas and how you compare to the other gas.

Mike, I think with all your pull in NASCAR, you need to see if we can get somebody like Ryan Newman or Casey Kane to go out there and see if Junior can catch him. I was thinking Amanda probably has them rabbits or something around her farm, that we probably get a couple rabbits put him out there. Chase one of those things. Yeah, I was kidding about that. I was actually kidding about it with him this weekend.

You know, we watched Josh Berry go out, and he got right behind the 22 car and qualified. He actually qualified really well. Dale was thinking it was too close to me. You know, I was kidding. I was like, man, maybe pick the fastest guy and qualify on them and just go out there and follow him, you know, taking down. If we catch him, we're going to qualify pretty good.

Yeah, it's not bad advice there. You know what? is as frustrating as Friday might have been. I heard a story, Travis, where it could have gotten a lot more frustrating because there was a near accident in the garage during practice. What can you tell us about that? Sounds like you've been talking to Tyler. How did you know?

Oh, he gave me a hard time about it. I was a little heathed on the radio. I backed him out of the garage. You know, the 24 had an instance in Loudoun where they backed out of the garage and he ran into Boyer, I think it was, you know, and tore the car up and, you know, almost ran over a couple fans. And the dangerous situation, so I always back him out. And I've told him before not to back out unless he hears my voice, so, you know,

hear some mic clearing you. But, you know, he put the wind on that up and just took off and reversed wide open, you know, and trying to make the last couple runs in practice. We're in a hurry. He had his radio switched over to radio two, and he wasn't listening on Radio 1. I might have lost it a little bit on the radio. I was going to be yelling. I don't blame it.

The 42 car was coming at a high rate of speed, and it was right over the two-car generator. It worked out. It was okay. We didn't hurt anything, but I was preheated. So you had Kyle Larson coming. You had the two-teams generator. Probably some fans.

I mean, Richmond is a compact, you know, crowded garage. I honestly, Taylor, don't even know how it doesn't happen more often. Not with us, but just, It's just so dangerous. I'm terrified in there. Yeah. I'm into this race. We're talking about numerous times, and they've had that feeling.

Bristol, Martinsville. I mean, yeah. So basically, Dale was on the wrong radio, and he didn't hear Travis saying, hold up. Stop. Yeah. I know a couple of the words there, but. Right. I'll paraphrase in the clean version.

I think Tyler told me that Travis finally said, does anybody hear me on this radio? And everybody did except the one person that it really matters. Exactly. But you know what? Crisis averted. You guys came out of that unscathed and then race back into the top five, which I'm telling you. That to me is so impressive with you guys, how you are always able to persevere.

You have this resilience about you that you're never out of it. You just, you're never out of it. That's right. You know, I kind of feel like we're the kind of the team flying under the radar. You know, when we finish the 26 races, third in point, you know, and we've had a pretty good year so far. You know, we definitely could get better, but I think everything's coming together at the right time. You know, in the years past, he's run good all year, led to points going into a chase. It wasn't very impressive going into the chase.

You know, I feel like this year, you know, we're going to max out at the right time, and that's what it's going to take. Well, I think you just hit on something both of you did, that this team is as good, if not better, than everyone else is. And that is battling adversity, getting better as the race goes on, you have to have that ability. And the last three races are perfect examples of that. And like we said last week, that's one of the criteria you have to have to win a championship. Certainly you have to have incomparable speed to everybody else in the field. Is that the thing that has to improve, Travis, in order for this team to win a championship? I mean, clearly we see it with Gibbs.

We've seen it with Penske at times, certainly too. Is that what has to improve for this team to win a championship at Homestead? You know, I think it's not really one thing. Everything has to come together at the right time. You know, we can't have the fastest race cars and then have bad pit stops. You know, you can't have the best engine and then not the best body on the car for down force. You know, everything has to come together at the perfect time and just click. You know, and then we'll get us a few wins here in the chase and go to Homestead and run for the championship.

Let's do it. Well, we're all pulling for you. That's for sure. We appreciate your time, my friend. Yeah, no problem. We've got to get this Chicago car ready and go down there and win a race. We're smooth first three races. Make it a fast one.

That's right. It is. See you, buddy. See you, man. Travis Mack joining us here, the car chief on Speed Dial. Good stuff here on the Dale Jr. download. All right, it's time for reaction theater and our chance to hand out either a pair of spy earbuds or their wireless speaker to our favorite caller.

And also, 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 Mo, McCoy, Quanta, General, and Farrah for the ladies. Once you're ready to check out in her discount code nationwide 88 and get 20% off of that purchase. All right, Ms. Amanda, what you got? Who, Chase Elliott got the win at Richmond. How about that? Put him back in the championship hunt. Man, I'm 25 years old, and I'm calling this dude a kid, and he's doing better than me. man, go get yourself another championship and prove to everyone that

when you get to Hendrick Motorsports, you are going to win yourself a Sprint Cup. Get it, Chase. How about that? You know, all these people, not around here necessarily, have been St. Oz, the championship of the Xfinity level is over with. Not so fast, my friend.

Yeah. Yeah, you know what? Junior Motorsports, that might have been the best overall race for all of our teams that I can remember us having, you know, as a company. As far as all three cars, yeah. Regan had a chance to win that.

He and Chase were running one, two, for a while. And then Josh Barry, who became the media darling for that race and well-deserved. I mean, he raced that thing all weekend. That was just a really good night for Junior Motorsports. Busher didn't have a good day. So that's a 21-point difference between Chase and Chris Busher now. It can happen, man. Yeah, there you go.

If Chase and Ernie really get this thing clicking like they showed, and Junior Motorsports is a company, finds that wait hold it speed then watch out you hear that Amanda speed's what we need sounds like we got a lot of drivers chasing chickens then that's right we need to chase more chickens who's next let me tell you something man I gain a lot of respect back for Greg ice tonight last few races kind of shady but tonight a lot of respect to Greg really first half of the race was kind of kind of rough second half of the race

have a main, you know, Greg, great job, hashtag 6B is, hashtag 6 years ago. Y'all have good one. Halfway. He's halfway home. Yeah, yeah. We got the flags out. It's an official race.

Nice. Yeah. Greg has done a really good job, I think, with this team. Don't you? I mean, as the season has gone along, I think he has really, really excelled. I thought, and that's what you want. You want everybody to get better as the season goes along, and I think in his first year as a crew chief at this level, he's done that. People forget, and I forget, this is his first year as a Cup crew chief.

I mean, think about the learning curve. He got baptized by fire. You know, you start your first cup job as Dale Jr.'s crew chief. I mean, they can't be easy, so I think he's done a great job. Who's next? What a great wrong for Team 88. But it looks like that championship for 2015 is going to go through yoga's racing. Unless Hendrik pulled something out of their ass in the next 10 races, there's no way.

Junior, Jimmy, or Jeff is going to win this championship this year. Joe Gibbs is pulling this. Hell, yeah. I got to tell you, though, I mean, like, if you look back historically, no one saw Tony Stewart winning four years ago. Nobody saw Brad Kislauski winning with 10 races to go three years ago. Certainly nobody's shocked when Jimmy wins, as he did two years ago. But Harvick wasn't the favorite going into this thing.

Lugano had won a bunch of races coming into the chase. He won Richmond last year coming into the chase. So my point is, things can change. It's like that, you know, NFL team that goes undefeated in the regular season, and they very rarely actually go win the Super Bowl. You know, sometimes it's that – sometimes it's a wildcard team that just hits that run. I mean, you cannot, please, let's not go ahead and crown Joe Gibbs the champions yet. I mean, they are running good for sure, no doubt about it.

But the way this format – we said it last week. week the way this format is it certainly sets up well to even out the play and field with the rounds you know with the levels you have to go and Kyle Bush for one has never been anywhere as close to his strong in the chase as he has been in the regular season if you will yeah I think he'll be good this year though I honestly I think that but and certainly you're right but he historically he has not had some of the best races this time here Taledaga will shake the whole thing up really will it really will I mean think about that for a second Some of these cars at Gibbs could be involved in the big one.

Yeah. And there you go. Yeah. So, all right, who's next? Hey, guys. Just finished watching the race. I really hoping on the last restart that Almeralick could have got up there and got the win into the back and his way into the playoffs or the Chase.

Like the driver, I won't mention. His name's on the door and the quarter panel. Good showing for the 88. Look forward to the Chase. Go Jr. Great job, everybody. Hashtag, enough beers where I thought I should call. but not enough beers where I think I should go do karaoke.

Karoki. Karoki. I like that. That's pretty good. But clearly he's had enough beers if he can't say karaoke. Who's next? All right. Craig.

I'm glad that people are calling in and giving him props because they sure do pick up the phone to give him critiques when things aren't going well. So I'm glad people are calling in and saying he had a good race. That is refreshing, I have to say. Like, in college football world, when I miss a pick, I mean, my Twitter explodes. That's exclusive to college football, Taylor? People, wait a second, Mr. Bristol.

I don't know what you're talking about. I haven't been perfect on this show. But if I miss a pick, people come after me left and, oh, I can't wait until Monday and Taylor's going to have to eat, blah, blah, blah, you never get the credit. That happens in college football, huh? Yeah. Okay. In other words, you suck making picks all around.

I've been 100% accurate on this show. Yeah, right. What you're talking about? Who's next? Okay. Twitter's got to be pulling a prank on me right now. Because Paul Minard's in the chase. Jay McMurray is in the chase. And Dale Jr. finished with Richmond?

You guys got to be kidding me. Like, I'm lost. I think you guys pulling a prank on me. I don't know. I don't know. I've been drinking since freaking noon. It's about freaking 9 o'clock. I forgot count.

I'm going to put a... put a point at 15 beer deep. But I don't know. You guys are freaking pulling with me. I can't believe it. Yeah, yeah, let's go win the championship. Was that four frickens? I think it was four frickens.

You should have beeped the fricking. Just to be funny. Who's next? Well, Kyle went up to Richmond. He was looking for a race to steal. He spent fast in his car out in front so far to make them regular squeal. When he came across his young man saw on our wheel and racing it hot, And the boy jumped up on a hickory stump and said, Shrub, let me tell you what.

The boy said, my name's Chase Elliott, and it might be a sin, but I'm going to show you yet you're going to regret. I'm the best it's ever been. Oh, Chase, you gas that car up and race the others hard because Hells broke loose in Richmond and Rowdy Shrubs dealing cards. And if you win, you get this shiny trophy made with glass, but if you lose, Routy Shrub kicks your ass. Hell yeah, Chase, Chase, yeah. No beers? Go get him tomorrow night, Dale. Can I just say

Well done Mike Let me just say The fact that Junior Motorsports had What I think is its best night Has everything to do with the fact That Kyle Busch was in that race You know what I'm saying And all the heavy hitters were there

And Josh Barry even passed Kyle Busch twice They didn't beat him at the end Josh but that was because of a pit stop But we outran What I think is the best You know at the Xfinity series for sure That might have been Submarine Mike's best work. That was close.

That was pretty strong right there. That is pretty strong. And I know he's already won, but right now it would be a hard not to give it to him because that was impressive. Well, let's see. We got this last one that Amanda's marked. Who we got? Well, uh-oh. Thanks to Taylor.

Oh! Failed attempts at positive mojo this year. That's my neighborhood again. Love this man. Start running. Try to. I've got to get some positive energy here. Team 88 since Daytona.

I'm a little pissed. We don't have any more wins. I'm a little pissed. We can't get a good starting position. I am thrilled to be starting this new round to playoff. With the momentum that we have. We have one goal starting today. And that goal is to get out of this first round.

A win would be nice, but quite frankly, we don't need wins. We need to do what we've been doing, and we'll move on. Taylor, Mike, if I lose one f***ing pounds running in my neighborhood, or I get in any better shape, I'm going to be pissed. Hell yeah. There, ladies and gentlemen, he's your champion. I wonder if Dan could catch a chicken. Oh, you know he's.

could. No, no, no, no. With a weapon. Listen. But not with his hands. Listen. Daddo actually's been spending a lot of time here in North Carolina. He's doing some work.

Or actually, I think he's doing it in South Carolina. But he's going to be coming up here soon. What do you say that we get a chicken and see if Dan can catch it? I think we need to get Junior to chase the chicken first. I mean, come on. If we're going to win a championship, let's go after it, man. Why don't we just all try to chase the chicken? That's fine.

I'm in with that. Did that sound bad? Why are you laughing? I'm just, this is just, we're off the rails today. It doesn't sound tremendous. So you're giving it to Dan? Absolutely. What about Amanda?

Oh, see, I think I want to give to the second caller that congratulated Greg. Said he had a good race. I like people there are calling. I feel bad. I feel like people are so hard on. Wait a second. Greg must take a beating that you must not let all the way through here because you seem emotionally. She's all about people in the pits.

You know that. Well, if you think about the Alaska, couple weeks of calls that we've had. You even pointed it out at one point. It was like, get your S together, get, you know, what's going on with Greg? I was like, I feel like people have been really hard on him. It was unnecessary. I'm glad he's... I understand what you're saying. Okay. But Dato started running two years ago and ran every single week for reaction theater. And Dale Jr. did not win, but had an epic historical nine-week stretch. That's right. And so... And guess what? If we had the...

same points format, including what happened with in Chicago two years ago, this team would have won that championship two years ago. And Dado started running and everything changed. So I'm just saying, look, I do respect you. Amanda, you have, you are the president of reaction theater. I'll do respect, Mike. So you do get the last word, but I had your back, Dado. Do I get a vote?

I haven't you voted yet. I honestly think. honestly think, but both Datto and Mike have won this year. Dato's one already? Yes. Yeah, Dato's one already. Do you remember what you sent either one of them? I do remember that we sent the wireless speaker to Dato because we thought it would be good

and sloppy yellow. Okay. Oh, okay. And then what did you send a mic? I think he got the speaker as well. Okay. Let's send those, both of them some sunglasses. Okay.

Let's just send them some sunglasses. Both, I think they deserve it. They brought their A game. Dato's running, okay? That's going to have to keep happening if we're going to win a chance. championship. We got to keep him happy. We do. Okay. But Mike also, I was impressed. I mean,

he gave us a little devil. The devil went down to Georgia. You know, for the most part, he hit his rhymes. It was great. So I think we just send him both sunglasses. And we're only penalizing him because he's already won and been so creative. Yeah, but so has Dado. So it's a fair shake

there. Fair enough. All right. Well, there you go. Reaction Theater's open 24-7. Datto's the man. All you have to do is call Toll-Free 1855740 1902 and leave us your voicemail message. We'll play the best each week right here on Dirty Mo Radio. That really did make my day. I know. It made mine too.

It was good. It was good. I was so surprised. I wasn't expecting to hear from him and especially not running. He does not like to run. I might actually have to go back and listen to that series of reaction theaters from two years ago. Get you fired up? Just to remember.

And folks, those are all in the archives. I was going to say you're in luck. You can easily find them at Dale Jr. That's right. If you already are subscribing to the podcast, they're right there. Go to iTunes. Go to whatever you got. Go back to this would have been our first year of doing the Dale Jr.

downloads. It would have been like episode. Yeah, so it would have been legitimately. It would have probably been episodes 27 through 36. That's exactly right. Well, we did a couple. We did 40. Did we do a couple extra?

Okay. Yeah. We didn't take any weeks off in the Priam Amanda era. We've gotten older. Thank God we do that now. Yeah. Yes. No, they were episodes 31 through 40 is where you want to search.

And you will love hearing some of that stuff. Really, really funny. Time now for It Takes the Nation presented by Nationwide. I tell you what, I am really excited about this week's Takes the Nation because guess who I've got in studio, Amanda. Just guess. Take a guess. Don't even look in front of you.

Just guess. Josh Barry. You didn't give me a chance to guess. Because you took too long. I was excited. I'm telling you what, I'm still on Cloud 9 after Josh Barry's race this past weekend. and I think we all are, because Josh, I don't know if you notice this. You were sort of a fan favorite, my friend.

This is your fourth race or third race? This was your third Xfinity Series race. And all your starts to be with Junior Motorsports. This is your first race at Richmond, correct? Ran a K&N East race. No, but in the Xfinity series. Right. And you go in there, and man, like, you lay the wood to people.

I mean, from practice to qualifying to the race. Dude. am I wrong? It went pretty well. I don't know about laying the wood. You laid the wood. Chase is lucky that caution came out there at the end. You were coming.

Yeah, it might be. Might be. But in all seriousness, buddy, how are you feeling a couple days after this weekend? It's had to been an incredible weekend. Yeah, it was an incredible weekend. It still hasn't really sank in, I don't think. I mean, it was unreal how noticed I was in the race, after the race, you know, post-race going,

and we were joking about sitting next to Kyle Bush in the media center, and it was unreal how quickly things changed. But we had a great weekend, really, from start to finish, and it carried over to the race. You're always, you know, after practice, you're always like, well, I hope it goes good and qualifying. And then after qualifying, we're like, well, that was pretty damn good. And then the race, you're like, well, it just goes.

If it just goes half as good as everything else has, we're going to be all right. And then it went even better. I mean, it was unreal. It was unreal to see the success that we had. But it just, I think that track, and we had a great car. I mean, the Speedcoach Chevy was awesome. And that place and everything and how the race played out just played right in my favor, I think. Obviously, Dale was proud of you.

He said so in the press conference. He said so on Twitter. But what was, like, the response from everybody else that you got, you know, as the night kind of wore on. Nearly everybody here that has my number, what reached out to me to tell them how, or tell me how impressive that run was and how everyone was just pumped around here. And it was so cool. And even the first two times last year we ran, you know, each, I mean, it could have, it should have went better than it did, but we still did a lot of good things. And I think over the time that I have been out of that car, I think, you know, I've continually

gotten better as a race car driver. But I learned. a lot from the mistakes I made in the first two races. And I think, you know, learning from those mistakes, plus going to a track and a car and a race that kind of fell more into what I'm used to every Saturday night racing short tracks. I mean, it just was like a, it just made it way successful. Yeah, yeah. So I got to ask you a question because when you pass Kyle Busch the first time, I think everybody watching was like, wow, Josh just legitimately passed Kyle Busch. Did Josh Barry just say to himself, though? This is what I want to know from you in the car.

Did you say, I just passed Kyle Busch? Hell yeah, did. I mean, so, like, as focused as you are, you did know what you had just accomplished. Yeah, hell yeah. Hell, yeah, I was running out. Catch him, I'm like, man, this is going to happen. Did you wave to him? Did you shoot him a bird?

No, nothing bad like that. I definitely knew it, though, and I caught him, and it's like, after that, it was just, like, reset. And I'm like, the next one was a Ligano, and I'm like, I'm like, go get him, too. Oh, how about that that would have fired me up, Amanda. I would have going to go crazy. I ended up ultimately getting in second. Dave's like, well, you're the fastest car on the track. Just keep going.

And I was catching Brian Scott that one run. And then we were getting ready to have to make a green flag pit stop. So I think the good Lord was probably looking out for me right there and throwing that, having a caution, instead of making me have a green flag pit stop. So I was okay with that caution. We were about to have to pit anyway. This is good, though, because I was going to ask you. I mean, pit stops, it's got to be difficult when you don't make them like this in these types of cars.

It's not like you can go out there and practice them and simulate this. You can have all the pit stop practice you want behind a shop. It ain't the same. So how difficult was that? I mean, it's just hard because you don't ever, like you said there, you don't ever do it. I mean, I've done it in three races. I bet I've made a, if you told me I'd made 10 pit stops, I'd be surprised. You know, I mean, probably three or four races is usually what you get.

And it's just hard. It's hard to put it all together. You know, you can try to do one thing right and more or less not screw up anything else. You know what I mean? And those guys are so good because they do it every week. And especially the cup guys who pit 10, 12 times a race some week. So it's just, it's, I never, I wish I had that experience. That's one thing I would really love to have had before these races.

But, I mean, I just told myself to not do anything dumb, not slide through the box, don't speed. Don't do anything that can take a pretty good day, which we were having, and make it a really bad day. And I think the more aggressive and being more consistent on pit road will just come with more experience. You know what it also seems like would be very difficult if I'm you, and that would be restarts,

especially if you don't have a whole lot of seat time in these cars, but the horsepower that these things generate, how you keep from sliding your tires every single restart, that baffles, man. That's another thing that I was just so impressed by that you, and a lot of other these kids, kids that jump in these cars and just drive them and don't like completely butcher and wad up the field on a restart.

It blows my mind. But was that difficult or was that pretty quick? I mean, being in the short track probably helped you a little bit. Yeah, yeah, that helped it. I think they actually, for the most part, they went all right. I think that our car just took a couple laps to really get going. So I kind of just found myself racing people early and it kind of would lose some time and we'd get spread out. and then after, you know, five, six laps, we'd get better,

and then after like 10 laps we were getting better. And just longer we went, the better and better we got. The restarts, you know, they actually went pretty decent. You always hope to gain time, but, you know, the only one that really had a problem was the last one. And I got, actually got pretty aggressive and went three wide, and then kind of got, you know, used up a little bit. You then had to boot somebody out of the way.

And then, you know, by the end of it, we're back at seventh. I'm like, well, hell, that could have been a lot worse. I asked you this question last year after your first race at Iowa. I'm going to ask it to you again. What other driver out there that you raced against, not the Kyle Bushes or anybody, but what other driver out there impressed you? And I don't even know if you remember your answer from last year. I do.

We brought it up on Dirty Moor Radio earlier this year. But who else did you race against Friday night that you're like, man, that guy can drive? Eric Jones. Yeah? I would say Eric Jones. I think he has a lot of talent. And he kind of comes from, he's similar, like the late model path. He ran super late models, but still the same kind of deal.

And obviously we've seen the success that he's had this year. And he benefiting from Kyle's injury earlier in the season. I mean, he really made the most of that opportunity. So that'd probably be my answer, I'd say. I think he's definitely going to be around for a long time. Do you remember who you said last year? We had him on a guest on Kelly's podcast this year. and it was Landon Castle.

Yeah, I do remember that now. Yeah. You know, and Landon, given his equipment that he was racing, and you could just tell that he gets everything he can out of the car. And we actually told him that, and he was very appreciative of that earlier this year when he was on Kelly's show. I don't want this to end. So I want to go into the media press conference afterwards

because I'm going to tell you something. I think you are in front of the microphone and in that press conference longer than the winner, longer than Dale maybe? I mean, like, I can't remember how long. That was a good 15 minutes, but it was all you. But 13, he was talking about Josh. So I'm going to taste up.

There's a lot of sponsors that pay a lot of money to get as much exposure as Josh Barry and Speedco got Friday night on that whole telecast and in the press card. What was your thinking? That had to have been a surreal moment when you're standing up there and the media are just fired off questions at you. And they're like saying, you know, forgive us, but, you know, this is kind of the first time We're actually seeing you race and hearing about you, and you're answering these questions.

And it's like they didn't want it to end either. Yeah, it was, I mean, it really just shows, I think, how bad, you know, some of these series need that feel-good story. I think they need somebody like me that comes in there, and they loved that. You know, they loved that they didn't know about me. You know, it was so crazy. And as for myself, I mean, it was unreal.

Like, they told me to park left on the pit road. and I'm like, and I'll see the camera and stuff. I'm like, okay, I guess that makes sense. And Tiff's like, we're going to be here a while. Like, we got, we're the story. We got NBC, we got MRN, we got, we got to go to the media center. We got Sirius after that, blah, blah, blah. I mean, it was like, I'm like, holy cow.

She's like, yeah, you were the top story of that race. And then, and then, I mean, that was just all crazy. And I just tried to go through that without saying anything dumb or anything, which I actually thought it did a pretty good job. for you did a great job tried to be honest about it Dale Jr. gave us a couple scares there during his but you were great

so then you know whatever we went home and I got home and I was like I was wired up and I couldn't sleep I was like I'm gonna turn that race on and see because everybody was texting me I had like 100 texts on my phone I mean all kinds of people text to me saying man they raved about you on the broadcasts you know Speedco was

all over that like we talked about earlier and I actually didn't even think I mean they were Carl Edwards, his name-dropping Speedcoach, supporting me. And it was unbelievable to hear. And I sat there and watched that race until I stayed up way too late, but it was awesome. I was going to ask you, how long did it take you being in your house? Did you start watching that race? I got home.

It probably, it wasn't a half hour probably. I think I took a shower, grabbed a beer, and then turned it on, and then sat there and watched it and just couldn't believe it. I mean, it was so cool. I mean, it was exactly as a race car driver who was struggling and looking for, you know, to make the next step and to get that partner to kind of help push, you know, I mean, that was exactly what I needed. We got to get a sponsor for this guy.

I'm telling you. I want him in our race cars. I love the story. You're right. You bring up the point. I mean, this is a good story. Dale, if you want to hear how Dale and Josh met each other, you need to go to the said junior, the most recent edition of said Jr., and you can hear Dale's full press conference on Dirty

Mel Radio, and he tells that story. So we won't retell it, but I'll tell you. eye racing was involved and that you lived in Tennessee. You moved here. You had a test. Lived with his mom. Yeah, lived with... That was hilarious, Dale, talking about that.

Lived with Dale's mom and her husband, Willie, which... What was that like? It was... Honestly, they were great to me. I just tried to stay out of their hair the most I could. You know, I just tried to do my own thing, but, I mean, she was awesome. Can you guys live with Brenda? I mean, she was great.

She is an amazing cook. I don't think I've had food that good since I left. there. I'd go back today for dinner if she'd invite me. But, you know, it's awesome. They're great to me for doing that. And then, you know, I ended up, like I said, I started working here and then got my own place. And it just seems so long ago now. But, I mean, like we said, I mean, it just makes for such a great story. You're back in the late model this weekend?

We're running the car, the cars tour, late model stock race at Myrtle Beach this weekend. So I'm looking forward to that. Myrtle Beach is one of my favorite tracks. That's great. It's a great track. And we've had a lot of success there. We're actually two for two in that series. So we're going to try to make it three in a row.

How much are they packing into those grandstands these days at Myrtle? I mean, honest, that place has kind of been struggling a little bit. I feel like this tour race, they seem to bring a lot of cars, a lot of sparks a lot of interest around there. But I think they just struggle a little bit because, you know, when they race there during the summer, everyone goes there to go to the beach. Right, it's vacation time. And then in the wintertime, we have a couple coming up like this week won't be more so.

but their big race is the Myrtle Beach 400, and that's in November, and it's always ice cold. Yeah. And I don't care who you are. I mean, it's tough to go to any kind of sporting event. I mean, any kind of thing when it's real cold. So I hope they have a great crowd. That tour's been drawing a bunch of people, and it's been pretty successful so far,

and we've enjoyed being a part of it. So hopefully they get a good field of cars and a good amount of people watching. Well, anybody that's been keeping up with Josh's career, and especially this season, I mean, he's got two championships for us in the late models. already won the championship last year. We just wins all the time in the late model. Hopefully he gets another one this weekend at Myrtle. And I'm going to tell you something.

I really want this guy sponsored. We've got to get this guy in an Xfinity Series car because he can really do some good things. And it is such a good story. And he's such a great guy. I mean, he lived with Brenda. I mean, how can you come out of that experience? You know, and still have all your wits about you

and be able to race a car and keep it on the track. Josh Barry has achieved that. I mean, get him a sponsor, right? Yeah, that reminds me. something funny when we were talking about watching that broadcast is the beginning of it, it's probably, I mean, literally it took one lap front of him to start talking about me. And they had that cause, they had a wreck on like the first lap, the coach comes out. Carl Edwards was like, who's this Josh Berry guy?

What's his story or something? You know, where's he from? Oh, yeah. And I think he's meaning like, what did Josh Barry race before this? You know, is he a dirt racer? Is he a road course race or whatever? You know, and the lead if he goes, he's from Tennessee. And Carl Edwards is like, okay.

Okay. Okay. I guess I set myself up for that one. He's like, that was, he's like, I didn't really mean that, but okay, he's from Tennessee. I noticed I started getting tweets immediately from fans going, Mike Davis, what is your job? Let them know what his story is. Oh, yeah. So it didn't take it long.

Now Josh has his fans that are now, you know, making sure we're doing our job. But that's good. He deserves it, man. I'm telling you. Great job, Josh. And thank you for being on Takes Nation. You've been just an awesome story this year and a lot of fun to be around. Fans, check out Nationwide's promotion.

this week on at Nationwide 88. All you have to do is wish Dale Jr. Good luck for the chase by using hashtag Good Luck Dale. And 88 fans will get a poster size tweet sent to them signed by Dale. Again, check out at Nationwide 88 and send Dell Jr. a message on Twitter

using hashtag Good Luck Dell. Also, this week is your last chance to celebrate Dale Jr.'s birthday with him at Track. Tour Dirty Moe Acres and support Nationwide Children's Hospital. Check out omaze.com slash Dell Jr. That's O-M-A-Z-E.com slash Dale Jr. for all the details. Here's what's coming up this week on Dirty Moe Radio.

Tomorrow, Kelly will be joined by Ms. Melanie Self from motor racing outreach as they discuss the better half dash coming up Charlotte weekend on Fast Lane family presented by Wella Professionals. Thursday, Regan Smith and Heath White will chat with Richmond race winner Chase Elliott on Junior Motorsports Up Front presented by Dale's Pale Ale. Remember, you can always catch Dale Jr. at track press conferences on said Jr., presented by Nationwide. Dirty Mo Radio Podcasts are available free of charge 24-7 on Dale Jr.com, iTunes, and all major podcasting outlets. All right, Mike Davis. Let's throw the white flag.

White flag right there, white flag. All right, now I see this guy next to me. He's a member of my family. I don't know what he does for you here. I know he does something. First name, Davis, is a lot. I'm telling you. I mean, he produces a podcast. What's his official title here? I guess it's social media manager. Is that right, David? What is your title here? Social media manager is what I usually say to people.

But you can also hear him on Junior Motorsports up front every week. Unless you wanted to listen last week when Davis and Heath just decided not to do one. Oh, that was very nice. I said, where's the podcast, guys? And they're like, yeah, Davis comes over from his office. We decided not to do it. I'm like, oh, you could just do that, huh? Okay.

I didn't know if that's the rules around here. That's my boy. Do you have member of Taylor's family on your business cards? I don't. I don't even have business cards, actually. You don't? No. Is that supposed to worry you something?

No. Oh, my gosh. No, Cetty asked. If I needed something. I said, I didn't think so. This is staying in, Amanda. In all seriousness, he used to be intern Davis, the greatest intern of all time. Right, at WF&Z?

On the show that I was part of. Oh, we don't talk about it. We don't give the letters anymore. No, no, you can. I'm just saying I was also part of that show. Yeah, and he was the greatest intern of all time. And now he works for you. And now he works for us.

In fact, Davis is here because you and I went to lunch in January. Was it January or December or something like that? He was in January. And you told me that. I said Davis is available and you said I'm going to hire him by the end of the day. I texted him from the table. Okay, Davis, let's read, White Flag. Huge week for Dell Jr. is the chases across America, but that doesn't start until tomorrow.

Today, Dale Jr. will be at Hendrick Wintersport today for competition meetings as they prepare for Chicago this weekend. Wednesday morning, he'll take off for L.A. When he gets there, he'll film a segment with Mark Wahlberg for the show Walburgers. You're a big fan, right? You love Mark Wahlberg? Yeah. My brother lives in Boston, he ate there the other day. He said it's delicious, and they have their own beer, and it's delicious.

Wallbergers? Yeah. So that's a Boston restaurant. I guess. I don't know. I know there was one in Boston. There's. And by the way, you read sort of, he went to South Carolina, so it's going to take him a long time to do this.

Speaking of South Carolina, do we want to bring up? We'll talk later. That episode will air later in the fall on A&E. Then Dale will take a segment on the show The Suit with comedian actor Joel McKeel on E-network. Dale will proceed to Fox Studios for the Fox Sports Car Wash. We'll do interviews with America's pre-game, Fox Sports Radio, and the Jay and Dan podcast. The Jay and Dan podcast. They're the dudes that do like the...

Jay, or a Nate. The sports center of Fox Sports One. I know that's like the biggest insult ever to compare to ESPN, but that's what they do. They're like the main anchors on the one or something like that. And Dale will be on their podcast. There you go. He'll close his Wednesday schedule with an appearance on Jimmy Kimball Live. Okay.

I heard him. You heard him? Oh, yeah. That's a big one. On Thursday, you can listen to Dale on Sirius X-Im NASCAR Channel 90. Trading Paint with Chalky Myers and Jim Noble. Too bad Mike Davis can't hear that. First name Davis can, though.

Then Dale will leave Chicago for Chase Media Day where we'll do a lot more interviews. At 3.30 p.m. on Thursday, he'll participate in a fan event in Lincoln Park called Chase Fest. That's with all the chase drivers. When that's ever, believe it or not, Dale will actually be able to go to the racetrack. He's not racing the truck race Friday night, but this new driver, Kyle Larson is. Did you know that? Kyle Larson is running a truck course. The same guy that he almost crashed in practice in the garage backing out of his stall is now running a truck force.

Lawson will be in the double zero Haas Automation Silverado. That races Friday night on Fox Sports 1. Dale Jr. won't be in the Xfinity Series race on Saturday, but his drivers will be. Regan Smith and the Tax Slayer Bowl Chevrolete. The rap video just went up if you want to see that. Last week's winner Chase Elliott, the Taxlayer Bowl rap. Oh, the rap video. Just went up.

When is Regan started his hip-hop career? That also has gone up. Last week's winner Chase Elliott and the Napa Chevrolet and Casey Kane, the number 88 Great Clip Chevy. that race is on Saturday on NBC Sports Network. Hey, Chase Elliott won that race. If there wasn't a costume. There was a dude in the 88 that may or may not be sitting next to me right now.

Joshua Berry. Dialed up. Tennessee's Joshua Barry was coming. He was coming, boy. The first chase race for the 2016 Sprint Cup is Sunday from Chicago Land Speedway. Dale Jr. will drive the number 88, Died Mountain Dew Paints, and the Sunday event. You can watch it on NBC Sports Network.

That's it. That's it. First name Davis. First name Davis reading White Flag this week, sponsored by Josh Berry. That's right. You like that? I like that.

I like that a lot. You know, Davis, I don't know what you sound like when you get excited about anything, but that was pretty much the same level of boy. Like, I bet Amanda didn't even have to touch one of those tops. You know what? He has decided to him that he doesn't show only to a few people, and he gets real while. Oh, he, yeah. You just need to go to Columbia to a football game.

Or his Facebook page. That they win. And good luck to Amanda Wolfmeyer with this edition of the Dale Jr. Download was presented by Spy. She is probably concerned about what's going to happen. We thank Josh Barry for joining us on the Takes the Nation segment this week. So we thank Dale and Art Jr. We think Travis Mack.

We thank Mike Davis. We thank first name Davis Williams. For all those people, I am merely Taylor Zarzer. Let's go win us a championship. Let's do it. Thanks to Datto, too. This has been the Dale Jr. Download presented by Spy. Thanks for listening to Dirty Moe Radio.

Well, this week's episode kind of went off the rails, but I think we pulled it back in. No, we had a good show. Maybe it stayed on the rails, like all the other episodes went off the rails. I don't think so. No, no, no. Where did it go off the rails? It was my fault. I mentioned Rocky, and we went off the rails.

But you know where it got back on the rails? Dan. Dado, Dan the Junior fan. This might have been the first time I've heard him run, because I wasn't around that first season. Oh, isn't it great? Was it everything you thought it would be? I felt kind of bad for me. He was out of breath.

Oh, no, that's how Dan runs. I mean, like, he doesn't have to run far to get winded. Oh, my goodness. But, you know what? I was happy that he called in. I wasn't expecting it. And I also, that's why I wanted to send him sunglasses. Like, he, if anybody deserves spy sunglasses, he does.

For getting out there, getting a little fitness, got a little exercise going, getting ready for the chase, got to run off some of that energy. Hopefully some good mojo. Right. And then, you know, Submarine Mike, he got it to. Yeah, got to send him some sunglasses. But yeah, I mean, Spy Shaded. When you bring your A-game like that, we got to send that man some shades, right?

Right. And also, for those of you that didn't get a chance to get these shades this week, you can still go online to SpyOptic.com and get 20% off your purchase of any of Dale Jr. signature 88 collection. All you got to do is enter Nationwide 88 at checkout and get that 20% off your purchase. That's right. Nationwide 88.