The Dale Jr. Download - 111 - New Hampshire: Dale No

Episode Date: September 29, 2015

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is ready to shake off the disappointing run in New Hampshire and look ahead to Dover; JR Nation vents frustrations 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. I'm supposed to run out of gas because I think I am. I will be ready for you. Coming to you here. Coming to you. You're now listening to the Dale Jr. download presented by Spy. Check out Dale Jr.'s signature dirty-mow sunglasses from Spy at Spyoptics.com. Hey, everybody.

It's post-New Hampshire hunting season started, so I'm walking down this dirt road. getting ready to climb in a stand. We went into New Hampshire, you know, thinking we were going to be a little bit better than we had been there in the past. And the car was great. Practice pretty well. We qualified pretty decent. We've been struggling and qualifying. And we got really aggressive with how to set the car up.

And that worked out really good. Qualifying was good. It's been such a struggle. So anyways, it was pretty happy Saturday with the balance of the car. Had a couple little things that I was a little worried about at the end of practice as the track kind of tightens up toward the end of the last practice. But when we started the race, we had some great restarts moving forward, passing cars, and being aggressive on restarts, and felt like that we had a pretty good car. So, yeah, we ran in the top five most of the day.

We were a little bit tight in the center. We were kind of loose off, but I could adjust that with the track bar. Really like my car on the long runs. It wasn't as good as the 20 or the 11. They seemed to have the good long run speed. Still, the four was a class in the field. He's been faster than anybody every week. I don't know what that's all about.

But I guess we'll get right to it. You know, we ran out of gas. I really didn't know we were short on fuel, but we ended up, running out and I know the four and the 41 ran out of gas also and it sucks you know we it sucks that things ended up that way but to be honest with you I uh you know I'm I'm not mad at Greg I'm not mad at anybody you know that you know you're gonna race for 20 years and you're gonna have days like this you're gonna have races like that you're gonna have

miscalculations and we got to run you know in this sport you know races are won and lost and positions are gained and speed is gained on just fractions of an inch and very small measurements and there's just you know you push everything from the way the car is made and how it goes through tech to the fuel mileage you push everything to the very breaking point and you got to gamble and be aggressive and sometimes those gambols are going to pay off and sometimes they're they're not and you know you're gonna you're gonna have these kind of things happen it's just the way it is I mean if I if it happened to me 10 years ago I'd be complaining like a sport brat but you know I'd be throwing everybody under the

bus but I don't know I don't feel like that today I enjoy you know I think Greg is a huge on our performance and he he wants to take responsibility for what happened. You know, and that's, I don't want him to do that. We make decisions together. He's got more than, you know, he's not the only guy up on that pit box helping him understand and feel mileage and make all these decisions. So, I mean, we make these choices together, but he's feeling pretty bad about what happened. I mean, he's going to pick himself up and we're going to get him down the road and go to Dover

and try to do what we have to do. But I'm not mad at him and I'm not, you know, he is a huge reason why our performance is better this year. I mean, I don't know how this past weekend's result affected our average finish, but before this weekend, our average finish is as good as it's been in my entire career. I mean, I'm competing and performing and running on a consistent basis better than I ever have. You know, I'm proud of, you know, the year we've had when you make a change, when you change such a powerful player in a team like the crew chief position or the driver position or the lead engineer, it's going to have an effect what you want it to be as seamless.

And you want to always improve that position. If you change the driver, you want a better driver. If you change the crew chief, you want a better crew chief. You don't want to move laterally or go or regress, you know. And I felt like that when, you know, and I told Steve Lassartre this when he was, going away. I said, I'm going to shoot you straight. I said, you've got to help me find a better person than what you are. You've got to help me fill this void. You've got to let me know what you think about the guy coming in. He's got to be as good or better. And I feel like we've

done that. I know that Greg's going to learn. He's going to go through these growing pains, and he's going to be a star. He's going to be a superstar in this sport. you know so he'll learn from today he'll put this in the notes he'll never make that mistake again and you know we'll never make it together so it's a tough deal i feel bad for gregg but at the same time he's a grown man he can handle he knew what he's getting himself into and he can handle this situation so we're going to move forward we feel like we got a good enough enough team to go to Dover and do what we've got to do to make it to the next round. So let's go do that.

Let's put it in the rearview mirror, folks. It's over and done, nothing you can do about it now. Let's go back to work and get our done and go on. I'll see you all in Dover. Hope you enjoy the download. All right, that's Dale Jr. Here on Dirty Mo Radio, appreciate his comments as always. With Amanda and Mike, Taylor, that's stump.

I mean, there's no other way of saying it, man. It was a really disappointing finish and appreciate very much. Dale Jr. explaining, as he always does, how things went down. And I do, I hate it for the team and I hate it for Greg and all the guys that they ran out of gas because that's the last thing anybody wanted. Yeah, not only is it the last thing anybody wanted, that's the one thing that couldn't happen. Yes. And it also is the one thing that, unfortunately, for us, is the most avoidable. You can always just, even if it doesn't fit your strategy, you can always just pull her in there and put more gas in it.

So tell us how it happened, Mike, because you were there. Yeah, we made two big mistakes. There were two big mistakes. And the first one, it actually happened before the last pit stop. It happened to the pit stop before that. We didn't get enough fuel in the car. It was two tire pit stops on the last two stops and didn't get enough fuel in the car, didn't realize it. It obviously factored over the fact that even when they put the fuel in the car,

the last stop, which was at 212, it wasn't full. There were three-tenths of a tank missing. Didn't realize it at the time. And so, therefore, it ran out two laps shy. That was the first mistake. The other one is about tires, and what really should have happened, and then in hindsight, like, basically they guessed wrong on how everybody else was going to pit. In hindsight, and this is where it's really easy to sit there and go back and say,

this is where you messed up where you didn't. But they should have taken four tires on that last stop and not two. because that was basically a full 86 lap, 87 lap. I can't remember what it was specifically, but it's a full run. They put four tires on Dale's car at lap 160, and then that was the left sides that Dale ended the race with. That's almost half the race.

So you put four tires on with about 85, 86 to go, and that gives you an opportunity to either not pit, which they didn't pit under the last caution, or maybe come down and take two tires. But they guessed wrong. And it didn't work out. And so not only was, at the time, you didn't know that you were short on fuel, but not only were you short on fuel,

but new tires were going to just swally up. And that's what happened. Dale should have finished 12th. That's where we kind of were. That's where we netted out. In fact, if you count the fact that other cars were running out, he may have got into the top 10 there. But as it turns out, we run out of gas,

and that's the one thing that couldn't happen. And let me tell you something, Taylor. Everybody was just devastated. I mean, like, Dale was upset. I was upset. I'm still, I mean, listen, the fans that are upset about it, we're with you. Everybody was visibly upset about it. Greg certainly was.

But it took a man named Dale Earnhardt Jr. to kind of rally the troops and get everybody's head back because he says, listen, guys, we win together, we lose together. And he assured that team that there's nobody else I'd rather go racing with than you guys. Let's just make that clear. Did that happen in the hauler? Where was that? That's been happening for the last 24 hours.

That's been happening after the race. It's been happening. Clearly, he's walking to the tree stand, and he's still talking about this. By the way, let's get to the real point. What are the chances that he shoots a deer today as he's laying his thoughts down on the way to a tree stand? I would hope so. I think he's pretty much assured himself not seeing anything this morning. But here's the thing about it.

And I've really had to think long and hard about this. In this day and age, we want to see people get. knocked down, especially if they screwed up. It's not enough that they feel remorseful. It just seems like, you know, we have to see the jugular. We have to go, you know, we want people to feel how bad they screwed up because it's affected my life. But this chase format does not allow for that right now.

We don't have time to sit there and ponder on this. And by the way, I don't think Kevin Harvick's team feels after two straight days. And what's more, we haven't lost anything yet. Yeah, they're still in this thing. So we don't have time to sit there and throw rocks at Greg. don't have time to sit there and take blames and point fingers. We've got a championship when we're still very much in this thing, and that's where the mentality's got to be.

We screwed up, but it's not over. Yeah, no, that's absolutely true. I mean, right now, a point in, a point ahead of Kyle Bush, a point behind Jamie McMurray, who's an 11th, 11 points behind Jeff Gordon, who is in 10th. Obviously, winning at Dover takes care of everything. But certainly, if this team finishes where it is. should have in Loudon, if it finishes there in Dover, it has the kind of competitive car it had in Loudon, then there is nothing, you're right, there is absolutely nothing to worry about.

If this car comes off of the hauler on Friday, the way it did in Loudon, in qualifying and in practice, if it goes through the entire race the way it did in Loudon and finishes there, like Dale Jr. said, running in the top five all day, then there's nothing to worry about. Now, it's easier said and done, but if you can have the same kind of competitive performance in Dover, there is nothing to worry about. Yeah, what you've done is you've eliminated any chance of having mistakes or, you know, you can't have that happen. Can't do what happened yesterday again. There's no room for error. And, you know, you said, and you said it best, what happened is the one thing that couldn't have happened.

And I know Greg feels terrible about it and everybody feels, I mean, like you said, everyone associated with Junior Nation, whether you're on the team, you're an employee or you're a fan, whoever you are, you feel terrible about it. Mike, is there something that needs to improve in terms of managing a race? I would say no because of what Dale Jr. just said. I think it's fair to ask the question. I would say no because of what Junior just said. It's the best average finish he's ever had in his career.

But Steve LaTart, to me, was a masterful points crew chief. And I say that because in 2011, 2012 and 2013, basically what you see in the chase is the format they use the entire season. Points racing mattered the entire year, those three years. And he was outstanding at it. You need that kind of mindset in the chase now. Obviously winning gets you into the next round. but if you don't win ally Ryan Newman last year or ally Dale Jr. two years ago,

then you have to have a great finish every week. You have to manage, you have to get the very best out of your finish possible, and LaTart was phenomenal at that. Does anything need to improve with this group? Well, LaTart was phenomenal with that probably because he made his own mistakes through his career. We've got to remember, Greg Ives is still in his first year, and you're going to make mistakes. And I think Dale Jr. speaks to that.

is that did anybody think that Greg was going to come in here and not make mistakes? It's going to happen. It just happens that Greg is happening to do it in a high-pressure situation in front of everybody. A lot of eyeballs. Steve LaTartes made his mistakes. The great strategist that he is, he's also screwed that up himself. And you learn from those mistakes.

To answer your question, what has to happen? What needs to improve is that Greg needs to learn now what not to do in these situations. If you ask me, and again, it's very easy to do it. hindsight, we were not in a position to where we needed to gamble. Like if we were in 12, say we made our bed. What happened is we made our bed at lap 2, 12 with that pit stop, and we did two tires, and we realized pretty quick we were going to get eaten up. It cost five, six.

We were going to get chewed up. And we gave up third place. We came in, we came out 18th, okay? There was a bunch of different strategies going on. There were some cars that stayed on the track and didn't pit at all. There were some that pitted and just took gas only. There were some that took two tires. took two tires. When it was clear that we made our bed, we also could have just said, you know what,

we're close on fuel. We screwed this up. Let's just come in here and get out of here with the 12th place finish and make sure we get it to the end because if we finish 12th or if we even finished 15th, we're still, we still go to Dover with a cushion and we don't, you know, we're not one point in front of Kyle Bush and the cutoff line. And so I think managing that and understanding the big picture, we didn't need a gamble. Kevin Harvick needed to gamble. Kevin Harvey needs a win. So we're not in the same situation. I just don't think we were in that situation to where we needed to push the fuel limits.

We should have never been in the situation to miscalculate. Again, I think it's fair to ask the question. My answer would be, I try to be honest. And the honest answer is he's statistically having one of the best, if not the best seasons of his career in terms of where he average finish. So you do have to consider that. If you're going to scrutinize Greg, you have to make sure you tell the whole story, which is all year they've had consistent performance in terms of average finish.

So it's a good response, I think, by Dale Jr. But let's go through the race here, Amanda. Let's start on lap 190. Dale Jr. is in the sixth position and is having a conversation with Greg. If you work on it and just make it loose or in without help the center, I'm going to be in big trouble because I'll have to bring the track bar down. and then that'll hurt the center even worse. So we have to hit the center here. I like the rounds in the right rear.

Maybe go back on that air pressure, put their air back in the right rear. You go, you know, half of what you did on the air pressure and put some rampant. I don't know if we put the air back in the right rear or not. If we did it take half of that out, maybe. I don't know. It still takes off okay.

If we pet here, we're only doing right side tires. If we pet, this is the termination. And that was obviously the back and forth that they were having there. I can tell you this. So they ended up pitting for two right side tires and made adjustments. And boy, did they work. And the restart, too, that's another thing is Dale Jr. was really, really good, especially when he was an even number, if you were, if you will,

and went from sixth to fourth to second. The red flag when Danica and Reagan had their accident, and Danica's car was in shambles and so was Reagan's. junior did restart in the second position. So he'd make it up four spots out there. Yeah, I mean, he was starting on the outside. If you were on the outside, you could just really get that jump and carry that speed into the turn and just pass anybody that was on the inside. So that's why he went immediately to the second because he was restarting fourth.

When he restarted on the inside, you never could get that. You just hope to not, you just hope to lose one spot and no more than that. It's crazy how that works out at so many different tracks nowadays with these restarts. And it certainly worked to his advantage. There. So, Caution comes back out, and he is in third position, and Junior talks about starting on the inside. I'm starting on the inside.

It's hard to do, on old tires, officially. Being that first guy, everybody's got to jump on you. Yeah, then four. Quinky yellow, Greg. Okay, we are right at our window, so we got to pay attention here. Obviously, that is where things went downhill. It actually went down on the clip before that, because what we didn't know then but know now is That's where the fuel did not actually get all the way in.

And you think, okay, there's several reasons why that could happen. I mean, one, you've got the right side jacked up. If you remember what Lartre was really good at last year is that he would say, leave on me, leave on me. Don't leave on the jack because you know what? You got that car jacked up, and so you're not getting everything in the fuel. So when they jack down, don't leave on the jack. Leave on me because they're getting that extra fuel and filling it up.

That's why that didn't happen this past week. So that happened on lap 190. That's when that happened. What about at lap 210? Did it happen again? They may have actually gone two stops without getting it completely full, which would have obviously lend to the fact that he ran out. Makes sense.

That was the weirdest thing is that Greg wasn't telling Dale to save fuel. He did like for a second during the final caution, and Junior was like, oh, really? What? Is that right? But it never came across the radio channel. Like, hey, be saving. We're close.

it just, it was a miscalculation. So they got right side tires and fuel at lap 210. Actually did restart to 17th, but as it cycled through and got back up to 12th, Mike. But man, that was a killer. It wasn't the big blow, but it was a blow that certainly probably ended up costing them six or seven spots on the track. You knew that there were a bunch of cars that stayed out. I mean, again, it's so weird when you got all these people doing their own stretch. But basically, you go the whole race setting yourself up for the last stop.

And you hope to not have to take four tires on the last stop. You hope to take four tires on the stop before that. So you can take two or none and get the track position. But we were on old tires. That's the one thing that's just like, this just did not work out well for us. And you kind of knew it at this point. Let me, on behalf of Junior Nation, try to describe what was going on right now with fans. maybe some of you were listening to the radio chatter,

maybe some of you were on Twitter trying to follow different people to see what was going on, and or certainly you were watching the race. No matter how much information you had at your disposal, you were in shock, you were confused, you were bewildered, you were, how, what, wait a minute, 10 minutes ago we were second, what happened here? That's what you were thinking. How did this all, and certainly you've done a good job, junior's done a good job, Junior's done a good job of trying to describe how it all happened,

but still there was mass confusion with fans. I can tell you that. And you can simplify it by saying this. I think we thought more people were going to just take two tires on that pit stop during the eighth caution, the lap 212, and they didn't. And we didn't think as many people were going to take four tires on the ninth caution. We thought there would be more people staying out, and they didn't. Everybody came in and took four tires.

So they restarted 17th, got back up to 12th, and here is Greg about that run. Okay, you got back up to 12 there, so we're going to stay out. There's three cars, four cars in front of us that we're going to be able to make it like we were. Yeah, that don't really matter. How many behind us before new tires are going to be overtaking me and sending me back to 12? There's 25 cars on the lead lab. We're 12. Yeah, how many do you think you'll stay out, give me a cushion?

I think six are going to stay out. those other guys are going to have to come in pit. That's the kind of information you need right there, Mike, because you have to know if you're going to get freight trained. Well, but if you go before that, you can see right here, Greg says there's three to four cars in front of us that were going to be able to make it like we were. It was nowhere on his radar that we were short on gas.

He thought that there were other cars in front of us that are going to be able to make it now that this caution is out. And obviously, that's the part that's really the most frustrating. because we ran out of gas for two laps to go. We thought we were good at this point. So in hindsight, yeah. In hindsight, I would have liked to come down and got some tires here. You know, it's funny, Joey Lugano finished third.

And I went back and asked like, how did he finish there? What did he do? He took four tires on that 2-12 pit stop, and he took four tires on that pit stop. He took four tires on both of those, and then I don't know where he restarted. It had to been somewhere back in the teens or maybe even 20th. but at that point he just could mow them down and then wait for the people to run out of gas that ran out of gas and he finished third.

That's the way to do it, I guess. It's just crazy how it all worked out. Start at 7th on that restart at 242, fell back to 12th, and then ran out of gas with three to go and finished in 25th position. So Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin are in the next round. There are 10 more spots available.

Carl Edwards, by the way, his team is in the best spot with Joey Lugano, tied for the most points of drivers that have not clinched a spot. Jimmy Johnson, Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch, Brad Kislauski, all those guys are in really good shape. Truex, Jeff Gordon, round out the top 10. McMurray's 11th, and again, junior is in 12th, one point behind McMurray, one point ahead of Kyle Busch. You did not have a good day in Loudon. is also one point back. Harvick is 23 points behind Dale Jr. for 12th. In other words, again, probably has to win in Dover in order to get to the next round, and Clint Boyer absolutely has to win to get to the next round. So here's what you got for Dover. You know that

Jimmy Johnson is going to be Jimmy Johnson at Dover. You know Kevin Harvick will not anyone out of the way. He's got to. He will be a man on a mission. Kyle Bush is in the same, but just think if Kyle Bush had not wrecked in this past race, then we're sitting

13th. So you've got Kyle, you've got a lot of things that are going to happen in this Dover race and we've got to come out unscathed. We've got to come out with the same speed that we had at New Hampshire, which was a bright spot. I'll tell you one thing. That car was fast. I mean, it was, it came

out. It was a top three car. Yeah. And that is what's most frustrating, but it's also the reason why you can live on and say, you know what? We're going to be, at least we got speed. We've got our speed. We've been looking for that for the past month. We got it. They showed up

and we just had a strategy backfire on us. Well, listen, I think that, again, I'll say what I said at the beginning. If you have that kind of speed on Friday, the first round of qualifying did enough to get in. It got a little scary. It got a little scary. at the end.

Yes, it was. But the second round of qualifying was great. And then obviously started the race 11th. And if Dale Jr. is going to start anywhere near the top 10, I think all of us are pretty confident with the kind of day that he's going to have. Because we've always said this, he's just such a great racer. Yeah. You know, on Sunday when the green flag drops, you know that he's going to pick up some spots.

So look, if they have a similar kind of speed and a great entire weekend, then I think all of us are confident. that move on to the next round. No room for error. It's time now for reaction theater. Today we probably need to gift our angriest caller a pair of earbuds or that Bluetooth speaker. We need to cheer up and motivate Junior Nation.

Plus, 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 Farrow for the ladies. Once you're ready to check out inner discount code nationwide 88 and get 20% off of that purchase. here we go. You ready for this? No. Earmuffs right now.

Are we just trying to hand this thing to JGR? I mean, on another note, that was a hell of a good car, definitely possible race-winning car. You know, we had a good car a year or two ago at Dover. I hope we bring something similar because we're going to need it. That little tiny one-mile track scares the hell out of me. But, fuck. Come on, guys. Who's next?

I know Junior says that they're a team, when they got to lose together, yeah, yeah, yeah. My problem is this, when a driver is able to save fuel, he gets all the credit. When a pit crew screws a driver and not put enough fuel in, they should take the blame. This pit crew has got to get their act together. They're killing Jr., and if things don't turn around, they're going to be out after next week. I don't know what more I got to say. I've been sitting here since the race ended. I'm stunned.

stunned. Well, Junior said at the beginning, they're taking more credit than Junior even thinks they need to. And that's important to know. I know it may not satisfy people completely. I mean, I get it. But trust me on this one. And I was there. I mean, I'm not at all these races. I was at this one. Everybody was taking full responsibility for this. I mean, and Dale Jr.'s done a good job of reminding them, hey guys, we're in this together. Let's not beat ourselves. We still are very much in this thing. Who's next? For that guy has to be an engineer. He's a fucking moron. Why you don't pick? You stay out when you're running 12 with 63 to go. Didn't you run the damn car out of fuel?

I don't even know where the hell Dale Jr. finish. This is b***. I could call better race than this, and I just stood on my couch and follow the fucking information throughout the rate. Get some fucking mass skills, engineer, man. You know what's interesting about this, Taylor? I think he would need that in order to be qualified for that job. I'll tell you, man.

You know, we saw, if you watched any college football games over the weekend, and you saw some college football games completely get affected by coaching decisions there, especially in the fourth quarter, as you get down to crunch time. And I'm going to just tell you, it takes some balls to sit up there on that pit box. It's hard, man. It's hard. It's not easy. No, I tell you what. It's not easy. It's easy to stand on your couch and say that the engineer needs math skills. I mean, for God's sake, don't you think he's got some?

Yeah. It was a bad day. It was a bad day. Look, I'm not, there's nothing I can defend about it. It was a bad day. Everybody feels awful about it. Who's next? If I hear anyone being disappointed about the fact that we finished 25th and we, oh, you know, fuel mileage and all this, you know what?

We had a great car. We had a great driver. We had a great crew behind everything. You know what? We gambled. But you know what? It didn't work in our favor. So instead of being grumpy and upset about it, you know what?

I'm looking at the positive. Hey, we finished 25th. If we finished 26, guess where we would be? 13th and points, fighting to get back into the top 12. So you know what? I'm not stoked about it. I'm not proud of it. But you know what?

Hey, it could be worse. Dale, yeah. You'd actually have three people tied for 12. But anyway. It could be worse, and that is true. But I think all of us would like to have a few days to fume. And then we'll move on to Dover. At least I know everybody yesterday needed to get it out of their system.

But don't you think that's fair? I mean, like, I'm not faulting anybody. Listen, this is weeks of people think we're sugar-coding and everything for yes, man, and whatever. Listen, it's fair. I get it. There were mistakes made. Nobody's denying that. And, you know, a lot of people vent different ways.

And reaction theater is a good place to do it. Who's next? Are you freaking kidding me? Do they actually pay Greg guys to do his job? You have one of the five-fastness cars on the track all day. But yet you stay out instead of coming and getting some gas to make sure you make it to the finish. 25, number 12 in the chase now. If we don't make it, I don't care what they got to spend.

They need to breathe speed Latar it back. Thank you. I don't know. You'd have to get him off that golf course. You would have to make Latarth the crew chief, but guarantee him at least four days of golf a week. I don't think he's coming back. I don't think so either. I think the man is living the dream now.

Who's next? Top five car, finish 25th. Genius. Genius. I sure as hell hope that rental car you are using to leave the race track has a f***ing gas and I wouldn't want you to run out. That's pretty funny. It had gas.

That's pretty funny. It did. That's pretty funny. Yeah. Mike Davis made sure of that, huh? Yeah. Who's next? Hey, guys, so what's your deal going to be?

This week, we're not going to talk about Loudoun because it was so lazy. Let me tell you one thing. This is not going to happen to us. We are not going to be eliminated into the first round. So let's all get our heads together and do a little bit better next week. Thanks. Let's have a great week. Dale yeah.

I think she's on the same page as us. Yeah. Who's next? know what the hell you guys did to screw up what was turning out to be a good day, running into the top five most of the day. I'm freaking believable. Now, he's only one point up to make it to the next round of the chase. Well, hopefully you've got to screw it up next week, and we move on to the next round.

On the other hand, congratulations on a good weekend for junior motorsports with two top fives with Reagan and Chase. Taylor and Mike, I'm going to make the prediction. of Talladega in a couple weeks for the first time, and Junior's going to win the race of Talladega. So let's go to Dover next week and have a better freaking finish so that we can move on to the next round. Dale, freaking yeah.

I like the friccans. Frickens are good. Yeah, man, I appreciate those. I know. It's less work. I got a feeling I know what's coming next. Take it away, my man. Today wasn't what I would call a fantastic day, but I don't know.

know what everybody's all upset about. We're still in the case. We didn't lose the case today. We're still in it as far as I'm concerned. What did you got that? Is that you? Son. I'd have stepped on his picker a little bit.

What a good. What a predictive victory. Never in my life that I ever, I'd be wishing Tyler was back on the job. Needley, Mike Davis' ass back in North Carolina. I hear you. Well, we can absolutely do this. We're not out of nothing yet.

Nobody's been eliminated. We're 12. It's close. But in the end, I believe we'll be there. Let's keep the faith. And Dale yeah. Dale yeah. We can't give them one every week.

I wish we could. And by the way, I do see the Twitter handle at sloppy yellow. So that's a thing. I have seen it out there. I see a bus that looks like it's got the great state of Texas flag all over it. So follow, if you wish, at sloppy yellow. I think we've got to give it to the guy, the rental car guy. I thought he was pretty far.

I like that. I'm good with that. I think Taylor and I actually agree on our votes this week. That was good. There you go. Reaction Theater is open 24-7. All you have to do is call toll-free 1-855-740-1902. Leave us your voicemail message and we'll play the best each week right here on Dirty Mo Radio. Time now for It Takes the Nation presented by Nationwide. All right, welcome to Takes the Nation. Listen, you know, once a month I like to have our store merchandising, licensing people in to talk about, you know, stuff that we've got out there for sale for junior fans. And I'm joined by. the lovely Kathy Earnhardt Watkins, who has been on Takesonation before, but I'm glad to have you back. Hi, Aunt Kathy.

Thank you. I always enjoy coming and talking to you, Mike. Here's why I wanted to have you on. I was in New Hampshire this past weekend with Dell, and I saw a lot of Dale-yea T-shirts, the new shirts, the cool shirt. I think it's the best shirt that is out there in NASCAR right now. It's the one with Dale Jr.'s glove, the skeleton glove, sort of serving as the white shirt. and yeah the Delia shirts and I just you know what it just it's it's so cool to see that and there you know there were a couple people that wanted to sign them in the garage and I saw some

dirty mow radio hat so I said you know what I want to get Aunt Kathy in here because I get a lot of questions about where you get the Delia shirts Aunt Kathy you can start right here in the Junior Nation store is that right that's correct you can always come to Junior Nation to get the best deal the best pricing on all your Delia products, whether it be your DirtyMay Radio hat or the new Delia shirt, I have a short sleeve, I have long sleeve. Oh, you do? And I have ladies styles in the Delia.

Wow, I didn't even know that you had long sleeve. Yes, sir. And it's almost winter, so it's time to go ahead and throw those sleeves on, and you can do it with the Delia. And you've got the ladies cut, because that was a big thing. I know the first week when we came out with this new Delia shirt, the ladies immediately asked, hey, you got one for us, and the answer is yes. It is. It's definitely, yes, and we're trying to always offer, especially the Delia, those specialty teas that have things that aren't on normal t-shirts for the ladies as well, because we know they are part of our big fan demographics.

Absolutely. I mean, you've got to take care of the ladies first anyway. They are your shoppers. That's right. They are our shoppers. And they like to represent, I think, better than the guys do when it comes to their loyalty and their fandom of Dale Earnhardt Jr. I'm especially excited about this shirt because we try to keep certain things kind of close. And the gloves, as you know, the driving gloves that Dale Jr. wears is a special to him. He doesn't let them. We don't sell them. We will never sell them. And we're very careful even about designing.

We've never, ever designed anything with the gloves on it. And so that particular mark alone is special, unique. you will never see it offered on just anybody's product unless it was designed and comes out of Junior Nation. And I even sent an email to Dale. I remember when we saw this graphic first and I said, Dale, listen, I really like this shirt, but I need you to sign off on it because this is using your glove and I know how protective you are of that. And he loved the shirt. I mean, he was so excited about it.

So when we see it out there and when I go to the track and I see all these people wearing it, it's cool. And I wanted to bring you on DirtyMell Radio to first of all say thank you because you really push that along and also tell them that you can get that. You can come to Junior Nation store. If you're not in the area, I get it. There's a lot of people that live all over the place. And you can also go to shop junior nation.com. Correct. And also you can still go at the racetrack and get them at the racetrack.

I saw Ray this past weekend and he has those Delia shirts in his Junior Nation souvenir trailer. So it's really cool. But I'm going to tell you something. There's a lot of other cool stuff in this store and on shop junior nation.com. And I'm going to tell you something. I think a hot item right now is that valvine stuff, that throwback stuff.

A lot of people love their throwbacks. You know, of course when Dale Jr. wins in a special Mark car, it adds a little bit of extra to it. But that valveline, that throwback. It's sharp. I bought some for myself because I could relate to it back in the day old as I am. Yep. I love the

Valvaline products. They did a great job in designing that, so I do have some Valvene. Another brand that's been really, really done well and has some very unique art, unique designs is our Whiskey River line. It's always big and very interesting to fans. It's not racing,

but yet it is still Del Jr.'s Whiskey River, so that brand alone has some very unique, cool design. and shirts that you can wear to the racetrack. Well, I tell you what, if you are a junior fan, you need to come by and see Kathy Wackens, Aunt Kathy as we call her. She's Dale Jr.'s aunt, the sister to the intimidator. I think that means that she should have a little intimidator in her, but you know what, she's too sweet to intimidate.

I think she's just too nice. Not if you had heard what my plan was in the beginning. Yeah, there's a little bit of a confession to make here. Maybe we should air this out on Texanation. Let's hear it. I, first of all, Mike Davis has always been very careful. He has included me in some of his pranks, but he's been very careful not to disrespect or embarrass me, and I do appreciate that. But I also know that he does such a great job, and people enjoy seeing those pranks that I had thought of doing, having my friend that designed the Del Yati do a caricature art of Mike in front of an old retro.

microphone, Mikey D here on Dirty Remote Radio and asked Del Jr. to take that piece of art. And of course, Amanda was going to put cameras out everywhere. We were going to have Del Jr. go in there and throw that art down on Mike's desk to say, oh, what is this, Mr. Davis? Or you're trying to make a dollar now on the cloud or something like this. I see this T-shirt for approvals. I like where your head's at.

You're thinking ahead. You're trying to get a little prank action. going on, even if it was at my expense. I told Kathy, though, I'm like, this one is going to be tough because Mike can sniff a prank out from a mile away. I was like, we'd really have to think this one through. Well, let me tell you what happened, Amanda, because I don't even know if you know this. But I'm in Aunt Kathy's office last week.

I was about to, I was packing up, about to go to New Hampshire. I think this was last Wednesday or Thursday. She loved this little graphic, this caricature so much that she pinned it on her board. She printed it out and pinned it on her board. She also has some other funny little things around the board And one of those things, not the character But one of those things caught my attention when I was in her office It was kind of a vulgar little thing

That I won't even say on the radio But I was looking at it and I started laughing about it And that's what made me notice this character What is that below it? What is this? And it was me in this like cartoony looking thing And she says Oh yeah, I was going to prank you with that

But I think she got so excited You got to ask that the prank play out first before you go pin it up on your board. The day I pinned it up is the day after I decided I was not going to go do with the prank. And so I just pinned it up on the board just to enjoy it then. It was just so random. I'm like, why is there a cartoon character of me on your board? Where does this come from? And I thought it was hilarious.

By the way, I showed my little girl that. And I said, what do you think of this? And she says, you look like a monkey. And so I said, okay. Well, thank you for your honesty. Well, Ann Kathy, thank you for joining Takes a Nation. I really appreciate it. We're going to have you on again.

You know, as you get new stuff in the store, I want people to know about it because we've got the best stuff out there. And if you can't find it at the store, call 704-799-4-8, and we'll be glad to help you right out of the Junior Nation store. Who should they ask for? Whoever answers that phone, that's the telephone number right in the store, and whoever answers the phone can help you. Fantastic. Thank you, Aunt Kathy. Hey, Junior Nation members, did you know that you can get? get a special discount when you switch to Nationwide, call 877-697-2246, or visit Nationwide.com

forward slash junior nation for more information. And don't forget, Nationwide is on your side. Here's what's coming up this week on Dirty Mo Radio. Tomorrow, Kelly will have RCR driver Brian Scott's wife Whitney on Fastlane Family, presented by Wella Professionals. Thursday, Regan Smith and Heath White are back and have Mike Davis in studio with them on Junior Motorsports Up Front, presented by Dale's. Hell L. 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. All right. Last week, Dale announced an extension to his partnership with Taxpayer.com. Taxlayer will turn to Junior Motorsports for a seventh season.

But get this, they're also sponsoring one cup race on Dale's number 88 next year for Hendrick motorsports. And if you think about that, you do not see sponsors this day and age that committed to a driver. I mean, you agree with that, Taylor? Oh, there's no doubt. So, you know, if I'm a member of Junior Nation and I am, I'm taking notice of that. That's all I'm saying. This Thursday, Dale will be at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta for a promotional appearance for the October 25th race at Talladega. Now, he's not in Atlanta on October 25th. I need to clarify that. He's at Atlanta this weekend at the College Football Hall of Fame, but he's promoting the Talladega race on October 25th. It's part of the Atlanta. the Talladega victory tour.

For tickets to that race, go to Taladagasupesupertweider.com. By the way, when you're there, there's a special ticket package for kids, 12 and under, so check that out while you're on there. Chase Elliott and Regan Smith are still locked in a pretty tight points

race in the Xfinity series. As the races wind down, this Saturday's event will be on NBC Sports Network. Regan will drive the number 7 Fire Alarm Service Chevrolet, Chase the number 9 Napa Auto Part Chevrolet, and Ben Rhodes,

the number 88 Alpha Energy Chevrolet. Sunday's Cup race, I feel like we need to do a big group hug when we even talk about this race at this point. But Sunday's Cup race will be at 2.30 p.m. Eastern Time and televised on NBC Sports Network. Dale will be in the number 88 nationwide Chevrolet. Taylor, if you're the praying type,

probably want to throw one to the man upstairs. Junior Nation, if you're the praying type, this is a good week to go ahead and throw that up there because it's a big race for us. For Amanda, for Dale, for Mike, I'm Taylor. You've been listening to the Dale Jr. download presented by spy. Thanks for listening to Dirty Moe Radio.

So Amanda, that's another show in the books, but you know, usually we do a little spy optic, commercial, read, feel, whatever it is we do, but I got to show you something. I want you to hear something. So you know how Dale gives us audio after every race? Yes. And he's off hunting, and so, you know, he was going to give us the audio and his take of the race, and we got it, obviously. We played at the beginning of the podcast.

But this is what we got first, and I thought this was pretty first. and I thought this was pretty funny because he's sitting there hunting with Martin Truex and I'm sure he explains to Martin hey I got to do this audio real quick he'll hold on let me just explain what happened to the race and then we'll get back to hunting this is what we received hey race fans this Dale Jr. Post New Hampshire I know y'all are upset I just want to tell y'all to take it easy even though Martin went to Toyota he's still a Chevy guy at heart Everything's going to be fine. So I hope you enjoyed the download.

You hear a true expect. What? What? If you didn't catch, though, that Martin did an extension or he's re-signed with the furniture row. Right, with Furniture Row. And they've been so good in that car this year. But I just thought that was hilarious. So there's a little inside.

There's a little behind-the-scenes comedy given to you by Dale Jr. And we'll also add the fact that he's probably out there wearing spot. because that's what he wears and you can wear spy optics too man how does it happen well you just go to spy optic.com and pick out your favorite signature 88 pair of sunglasses once you're at checkout on their website enter nationwide 88 and you're going to get 20% off that purchase