The Dale Jr. Download - 116 - Martinsville: 'I couldn't believe what I was seeing'

Episode Date: November 3, 2015

Dale Earnhardt Jr. discusses his drive in Martinsville plus his reaction to the Kenseth - Logano wreck; Kelley Earnhardt Miller joins Takes A Nation; fans voice their opinions 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. It's open, Greg. We are pitting. We're poor tires. Hell yeah. Get after. You're now listening to the Dale Jr. download presented by Spy. Check out Dale Jr. signature dirty-moe sunglasses from Spy at Spyoptic.com.

Hey, everybody. It's Jr. post-race Martinsville. It was a wild race. I didn't expect it to get it. that wild but anyhow we'll kick it off I had a real fast car in practice we didn't qualify good we ran okay the first session top ten but the second session we weren't good so we started about where we usually do there we ended up taking off in the race and it wasn't good the car didn't drive good had a lot of issues and we

needed to you know get on pit road and get to work so we had to make a lot of changes and a lot of adjustments to try to figure out how to fix our balance issues. We had the car burning the left rear tire off and killing the drive off. We just had a lot of things to work on. The car wasn't turning in the middle. We made a lot of changes and actually as the track got rubbered up a little bit toward the end of the race, our car got a little better. I think by the end of the race, it was pretty good.

I don't know if we was the best car there, but I think we were going to be pretty good. So we're definitely a top five car. But we, you know, we got the car running good. It's a wild race. I love racing there. I love that, you know, I love close racing and rubbing on guys and so forth. We had a little, played bumper tag with Jeff for a little bit. I don't know, he, as soon as he caught me, run in the back of me.

So I didn't know I didn't like that too much. I waited on him to run into the back of the next car he caught, he didn't. So I was kind of offended a little bit. But anyhow, I was happy he won the race. I do love respecting, but, you know, you got to race people, how you want to be raced, and vice versa. So they need to race you that way. I didn't think he did there for a second. But I'm happy they won. I'm glad for Allen. He's an awesome guy. I got a lot of respect for Allen, too, and I hope he wins this championship because he deserves it. They've been working real hard. to get there and I've been

able to see that effort up close and so I got a lot of respect for him and his team and obviously Rick you know you want Rick to win another championship so that'd definitely make the boss man happy

um the guys just ran up so anyhow I don't know we don't know if we got too aggressive on anybody else me and Denny race pretty hard at the end he did, he gave me a little bit of the bumper, pushed me up off of two and got the spot, but it was cool, good racing.

I mean, I don't mind, you know, getting moved around a little bit as you, you know, as long as you don't wreck me, and as long as you don't mind me moving you around. So it was all good. We had a fun day. But everybody's going to be talking about that mess with the 22 and the 20. So, you know, here's my opinion on it. And I thought the 22 was pretty aggressive at Kansas, but what did him in was kind of how he handled it afterwards. You know, he said things that would piss off anybody that just got wrecked by him.

So I think that, you know, what he said after the fact of was what bothered Matt the most. You know, it's a difficult situation to handle if you're Joey. You know, after you punt somebody, it's a fine line to walk. and I guess he didn't walk that the way Matt thought he should have. So that really frustrated Matt. I think Matt also thought that maybe the two had something to do with him wrecking at Martinsville. So maybe that fueled the fire a little bit. I'm just guessing on that one, but I saw maybe some scanner interaction about Matt

wondering if the two took him out. Actually, the two broke a tie rod in. That's why they all wrecked. so but i think it's you know matt at the moment thought that the two had just ran over him so or clipped him somehow so there's a lot of things going on there and uh man you know i think guys that guys hit that wall hard and matt really they all went in there hard i could not believe what i was seeing i mean i've seen guys get wrecked but damn that they put that f*** in a fence But anyhow, don't wreck Matt.

Don't piss Matt off. So that's what you get. So I hope you guys enjoyed the download, and we'll talk to you later. Whole Junebug there. I love how he always introduces himself in case you weren't sure what you were listening to. This is the Dale Jr. download presented by Spy. That was Dale Earnhardt Jr. We've got my man, Travis James Major's, best spotter there is in the business for the 88 team.

when we also have a special guest this week. I don't know if I want to call him a guest. Travis Peterson's been on this podcast before. I mean, you're certainly part of the family. But, you know, you show your face every once in a while. So I'll still call you a guest. A special guest. The engineer for the 88 team is with us,

and Miss Amanda is with us as well. Hey, guys and girls, before we get to our opinion on what junior just said about the Gordon issue, which is very interesting, 22 and the 20 and all that. There's one thing you can't deny, T.J. That is the atmosphere at Martinsfield Speedway. I mean, that was electric yesterday. I mean, it felt like, honestly, when Kenseth teaboned Joey Lugano and when Jeff Gordon won the race, it sounded like your Buffalo Bills playing in a meaningful game, which hadn't happened in a long time.

It sounded like your Bill's defense with a pick six taking it to the house. It sounded that loud. It was definitely loud. It was not just once, but numerous times, you know, when it happened. And then, you know, we stopped all the cars and the drivers were getting out. There was cheers and booze. And the fans were into it. You know, it's great to see the crowd be into it like that, you know, and be passionate.

And whether you liked it or didn't like it, you know, it's glad to see the rise in them. Yeah, for sure. I mean, Travis, that's what you, I mean, NASCAR had a big day. No matter, you know, what you want to talk about, controversy, etc. there's a lot of things that fans could be very passionate and entertained by, for sure. Yeah, for sure, you're right. I mean, between retaliation and then the guy on his farewell tour making his shot at Homestead secure, that was definitely exciting.

It was interesting. You're talking about the fans and it was great under red flag. They showed a replay again and they cheered so loud that Dale asked us over the radio. He said, what just happened? He was waiting to see what happened because he couldn't see the scoreboard. And they're like, we just showed a replay again. the fans are pretty excited still. I was in the bathroom.

I'm glad you were in. Were you in the bathroom? I actually, yeah, I told it. I said I was not where I could tell right now. I was actually, it was a red flag, man. What do you want me to do? No, no, I mean, I have no problem with you using the bathroom. If, in fact, you really used a bathroom.

Well, that time I did earlier. Okay. I mean, I love what it's cloudy and chance of rain because no people can't tell. I have to be honest. I got to be honest. I got to be honest Amanda When they were talking about how dark it was And I'm sure that was really tough for you T.J.

It was actually dark, very dark. The last 30, 45 minutes I honestly thought, man, TJ's relieving himself Because nobody's even gonna, now it's completely dark. You know, we always go one step over the line. We're not even five minutes into the show. We don't have a line. Like hell, man, I can't see the track right now.

The camera angles don't do it justice. I'm gonna tell you what was really. What was really cool was, the rotors. Like, I could tell who had, who was using them up, you know. Normally you can't, I could see it a little bit sometimes during the day, but at night, man, it was, like, evident. You really could. You could see it on TV, T.J.

Stevie kept talking about it. Yeah. It looked like it would put in one of them apps where you adjust the color and stuff, you know, and everybody looked like that. Had a filter on it. Yeah. That would be a bad-to-the-bone night race that place would be. I mean, those cars are sparking getting in the corner all over the brakes.

They need lights there, man. I'm telling you. That'd be an awesome. Everybody loves that place. I think it's the class of the circuit and has been for years, especially since some of the changes that have been made. But I'd love to see lights there. Travis, I want to piggyback off something Jr. said, I know you've got to be ecstatic for all your boys that they're going to be going to Homestead with a chance to win a championship. Aside from the issues Junior and Gordon might have had on the track, it was neat to hear Dale Jr. call out Allen and all the people in that team.

I know you're close to him. Yeah, man, definitely. I mean, all their engineers, all their mechanics. Everybody at the shop, everybody across the whole campus back at Hendrick Motorsports is just stoked because, I mean, he's our last bullet right now because the rest of us have been knocked out. So we're going to do everything we can to help him. And we definitely are stoked that he's going to Homestead and we have a shot to take a hundred car to the championship for sure. Well, T.J, I think it's pretty cool that there's, there is a car that's in the Hendrick Shop that's going to have a chance to win a championship in Homestead.

Like Travis said, after all, that's gone on this season. and let's get to the issues with the 88 and the 20. What was going to, and excuse me, the 24, what was going on with them? You know, we were all, we were all in line there. He hasn't really got to us to even attempt to, he didn't even attempt to make a pass on us. And to me, he wasn't even close enough to make a pass yet, and it kind of caught us both off guard.

We were behind maybe the 18 or the 20 or something right at that point in the race. Some good cars, like it was top six or seven cars, I think. And, you know, Jeff just run. on there and we got kind of jammed up behind the guy in front of us in the middle of two and just laid the bumper to us hard we were getting ready to let him go and del junior said um he he said that and i believe we would have but you know as soon as jeff go was close enough to to take that look change lanes and you know we would have backed off and let him go or pulled though on the straight away and let him pass us and moved on but just that whole deal i think it

fresh i think it makes him mad just to be that courteous all day to other drivers and stuff and not really you know make anybody work harder than they had to and you know you're better than me right now, you go, you know. We race like that all day, and I have a guy come up there and just, you know what, you know, boom, get out of my way. It's kind of not something you expect from a, from a guy, you know, is a teammate. Yeah, a teammate and as highly respected as Jeff is, you know, Jeff's one of the, I mean, he's a future Hall of Famer easily. I mean, there's no doubt. So, you know, that's something they could probably personally talk about or text about or, or, or, uh, emoji about.

I don't know. In this teenage, yeah, you just put a, you flip the bird, an angry face, then a shake-hand fate, yeah, I got it. It's the updated emoji pack. I mean, I can pretty much have a conversation with just emojis, I mean. I want to ask you, Travis, we're going to get to a couple clips here in just a second. You heard Jr. talk about not the best qualifying run, but was great in practice. The car didn't get off to the greatest start on Sunday, but really came on as the race went on,

and especially the last 100 plus laps was really one of the best cars out there. Like Junior said, he wasn't sure maybe if he had the best car, but he certainly had one of them and ends up with a fourth place effort, which is certainly something to be proud of. What did you make of how competitive the car was, and what happened in qualifying? Well, qualifying, we kind of struggle, period. But, you know, we didn't think we were terribly far off,

and then every time we'd go out on a second run, it was pretty far off. we, for whatever reason, we couldn't adjust it right the second run, or we didn't have the setup to last more than a couple laps. But really, we got into qualifying. We had changed some things going into it. Ran good. The first round, we were excited. We were like, man, we added some speed to the race card. In the second round, we didn't make too many adjustments.

Tried to keep it consistent and help him a little bit because he said he was a little snug. And I guess we missed it a little because it was way free the next run, and we didn't even get close to making it. So that was terrible. And it really hurts your whole day, really starting that far back. kind of might have had something to do with the way the race went with the car not being great right away. I know what the problem was. Oh, tell me. We over-engineered it, Taylor.

Oh, shot fired. We over-engineered it. We got three engineers in there, and they all have different ideas. What happened was TJ came in there. Are you trying to suggest that Travis put the wrong engine in the car? No, it doesn't have to do with the engine. Oh, okay. T.J. came in there and tried to tell them what line to run.

No, I went up in there, and Travis, Greg and Adam are the other engineer and Kevin the other engineer They were all throwing darts at a board on adjustments Yeah, so that's when I knew we were in trouble He's coming in and make to just throw his shots today Dang, haymakers We will get to the 22 and the 20 issues coming up I know that reaction theater is going to be nuts about that

I think Junior made a very good observation about the two Getting into the 20 and to some degree ruining his day That certainly might have fueled the fire or might have made Kenseth even more upset with that whole organization. So we'll get to that coming up. But let's go through this race a little bit, Amanda. Starting 22nd on the day, you had, of course, the wet weather and it starts under green, yellow conditions. I had a competition caution that came out.

The car is moving forward 15th, 14th, 11th, 9th. And then there was some confusion on pit road. Dale and Greg trying to determine whether or not to pit. Let's hear, Jr. on this. I thought forward to go. I was already at the commitment line. I don't know if you got the in-car here. Yeah, I was just about to ask you where you were when you heard Stay Out

because I thought you were a little bit before that, so it must be a little delayed. Yeah, when you said Stay Out, I was right in front, was right at the box. I'm not losing. Yeah, I hear you. You come down, you pull more with you, or you stay out, and then they come. So 23rd right there, I think we could make it all the way back up there.

It'll be all right. Yep, so a decision to stay out just a little confusion there, T.J. Yeah, it was actually right as we were crossing the line. We had already kind of hit the line and we're basically all the way across it when Greg said to stay out there. It's one of those scenarios. You don't really know what the right to see. You don't know what everyone else is going to do, so you either you just pick one and go with it.

So, you know, there's no right or right. You don't really know. I mean, there's no chance Greg. Greg didn't know how many were going to pit behind us. but the only thing, you know, that I think we need to get better with that, is just have a plan going to it, like, okay, well, I think majority are going to stay out. Heck, but let's stay out. You know, let's just pick something and go with it rather than the last second decision

because it leaves nothing but room for air when you do that, you know. And like I said, we pitted when we want us to stay out. You know, we should have just, you know, let's stay out unless, you know, if no one in front of you pits, you know, pit. If everyone pits in front of you, stay out, something, you know. Yeah, I think Jimmy's pulling in in front of us. kind of helped the situation. We hadn't made a decision, and he started to fall on his teammate.

Yeah. They called it, and it was. I do think he was influenced by Jimmy as well there, but. It worked out well for us. With the way the next caution fell, we could take two tires and jump on the track position back. That's exactly right. Yep. And then moved up to all the way to sixth, I believe.

Yep. And after the next caution. Travis, what happened after the caution after that? Lapo 185 came in for four tires and came back out 27th? Well, we were discussing that one kind of similar situation. You know, not sure what to do there if we want to be on the offense and have tires, how many people are going to come with us. And, you know, we just ended up making that call.

There's times when you have to realize that if you're exactly even with these guys and as tight as Martin'sville is, as much as you follow each other around in a line, you have to try to make something happen by making a call to be off cycle or off strategy from them. And, you know, we joked about it after the box. We're like, well, we've been about 10th. So what's better starting 10th on a little bit older, right side tires or 27th and fortunately went a long run and we worked our way right back to where we would have been. And listen, it was the right decision too because guess what? Forty four laps later,

you're right back in tith position. Yeah. And I, you know, I'm not sure how that next restart would have went if we were up there, but I know we were a little bit older on tires on the right side. So odds are we would have maintained or fallen back. So, you know, with a long run, that really helped us out there. There was a bunch of cautions throughout the entire day. Let's go to a lap 378 Amanda, 90 laps on those tires. Now they're in a 14th position. All right. The trailing arm is broken half for the lifer tires before out that band.

Telfort. Yeah, that's 90 laps on tires. So I think we need to tighten you back up a little bit. The bridge isn't helping the exit. It's just sliding the back into the center at the start of the run. I don't like it. I want to be freer in the center off, but that's not doing it. Yeah, 10.4.

I'm thinking about taking those two rounds back out of the right rear and to take one back out of the left rear. I love them. Travis, I heard you chuckling when he said that the trailer arms broke, or maybe we just went for nine hours on these tires. Yeah, that was pretty much the case. We knew it was going to fall off, and that was one of the longest runs we'd had all day. You know, that was one of the things we were just in the car for all those shorter runs. I mean, it's not like you have incredibly long full-fuel runs in Martinsville, usually,

but usually they're a little longer than we had, and the car gets looser. you wear out the tires, and that was the first time it happened when he said the trailing arm thing, we all kind of laughed. Yeah, I will say this, Taylor. I noticed, I asked Greg if, I told him I thought there was oil on the track, like, a little bit, because everybody was sliding. It was like a light switch was flipped right that on that run. I could see, I thought cars had flat tires that didn't have flat tires because they were so sideways

off the corner, and that's when he started complaining, you know, trailing arms broke, and I'm sitting there thinking of my head, I'm like, no, it's not. You know, it's not broke. you just don't have any left for your tire less what it is. So, yeah, it was interesting, man. It was a lot of fun to watch. I'm not going to lie. I love to see those guys slide off the corner and really have to fight the cars.

I don't know that, I really, I mean, Talladega is so different and extremely entertaining. So is Daytona for very different reasons in a very different form. But I don't know that there's any race in the sport right now that I enjoy watching more than that. And that's one of the reasons. Yeah. How you manage tire, tire fall off, beating and banging. And you're right, how people manage, especially the left side. If you're not on the bottom, you know, like Martin Truex late in the race,

how in the world is you going to get back to the bottom after starting on the top? I mean, how do you find a way to get back into line? And there are so many fascinating things that happen there. I enjoy it. Any racetrack where your tire lasts less than your fuel does usually makes for a good race. That's so well said. Yeah, exactly. It really does because that's – and there's so much strategy, obviously.

Very stressful, I'm sure, for you guys, but it's so much fun for the fans. Well, it restarted 15th on Lapa 386 and kept gaining on it, really, really. One of the classes of the field, I thought, for the last 100-plus laps and ends up finishing fourth. He mentioned Hamlin beating on him a little bit there and getting that third spot there at the end, and he was okay with that. So he finishes in fourth position, the 88 team, with a really good run. Last thing I want to ask you about guys in regards to the,

in regards to the team. Travis last week, Jr., in his post-race commentary, he said, we'll be fired up. We're going to go to the paperclip again and try to get a win just like last year after we were eliminated from the chase. And he then said, in a somewhat humorous fashion, if you guys got some motivation for us for Texas and Phoenix and Homestead, please send it our way.

So what can we do to make sure that that team has a chance to win again on the three next Sundays. Well, let me just confirm for you that always extra incentive never hurts, but we definitely want to go win. We got nothing else to do the rest of the year now that we're out is win and hopefully finish as high as we can in points. But I listened to that, and I laughed the other week. I was laughing.

I was like, man, I can't wait until hopefully some of the callers give us some ideas because that'll be pretty entertaining. I mean, Texas, you got the six-shooter, so that's a cool trophy, kind of like a clock. That's true. Actually, I think it was on our team meeting. the other day we were joking about, hey, we're going to go get a clock, we're going to get some six shooters, we're going to go to Phoenix, we're just going to get some sun out there because it's going to be warm.

Mike Davis said on Twitter, your move, Eddie Gossage, after all that happened at the paper clip. I almost dread the advertisements that are going to start here on the day or so. Well, they've already been replaying all the fights. They wanted something to happen. Yeah, well, they're going to get it, too. You know that there's going to, this is not the end of Kenseth and Legando. We're going to get to that, I'm sure, here in reality. action theater and we'll sprinkle in our thoughts on it.

Last week, we told you about Spy's new sunglasses style in the 88 collection called Daga. Dale worked closely with Spy to create this new style for his collection. You can go check them out now at Spyoptic.com. And the good news, you can receive 20% off the purchase of this new style along with the other shades available in the signature 88 collection. Just remember, dinner nationwide 88 at checkout to take advantage of the discount. All right. Let's hear what we have to say, I'm sure, on the 22 versus the 20.

All right. I'm watching this race here, and I'm trying not to get crazy about it, but Matt King is just fucking real-up. Put that, Joe LaDano! That's what you, you know what I'm talking about? Go ahead and this road. Oh, Lidano, it's Kevin Harvick. That's what happens when you guys like a little f*** like Joe Lidnaz's like.

That's dumping my fucking hell yeah. Wow. Oh, boy. Well, I think he speaks for a lot of the people there were in the stands that were going crazy. Let me ask you guys this. Kenseth is real close buddies with Junior and they've been tight for a long time. Kenseth has won a championship, guys, in a gazillion races. Was that the most popular moment of Matt Kenseth's career?

It might be. Do you want to say yes? We got a championship last year, though. Yeah, Texas last year was pretty entertaining. It was, but I mean, like, that, it was like Kinzith took a kickoff to the house. I mean, that place was up for grabs. I don't know, man. I know the old, when he won his championship, it probably wasn't as exciting because it was the old style.

Yeah, he won by, like, Phoenix, you know, or he locked it up and it wasn't even that exciting. So this, between last year at Charlotte, when Matt got Brad between the haulers and this. Oh, but that was a Charlotte, yeah, excuse me. And this, I mean, Matt, this chase, man. Man, let's put some pressure on back. It brings out some craziness. The Penske drivers keep getting mad at a little fired up, it appears.

Yeah, there's no doubt. All right, who's next? I was raised an Earnhardt fan from birth. Became a junior fan when the time came for that and rooted for them my entire life. Never in my life did I think I'd root for Jeff Gordon to win a championship. I'm a huge Earnhardt Jr. fan. I wanted to win every last race going in,

but I want Jeff to come out with a championship. It's fitting. He deserves it. He's an amazing driver. It's all I got. I hope to hear this on the download. I don't think there's any question that it would be a very popular win, guys. I mean, when we talk about what would bring the most eyeballs to the sport,

the fact that Jeff Gordon in his very last race has a chance to win his fifth championship, there's a tremendous amount of intrigue for the sport for that reason, no doubt. First off, I am not a Matt Kinseth fan, nor am I a Jolly Lagano fan. I do not like what Matt Kinseth did today, but a lot of the announcers and everyone are saying that, you know, NASCAR needs to say an example of this, you know, possibly penalizing Matt Kinseth, not letting him race to next couple of races or whatever. They did not do anything to Jeff Gordon whenever he intentionally wrecked Clint Boyer in 2012 at Phoenix. They did not do anything to Kevin Harvick last week whenever he intentionally wrecked 10 cars at Talladega. Now, yes, I know we can't prove that Kevin Harvick did that on purpose, but you know what? Anybody with a functioning brain knows he did it on purpose.

So if Matt Kenseth does not own up to what he did to Joe Legano and does not say, yes, I did it intentionally, can NASCAR really do anything about it. I don't know if they can. Anyway, maybe Junior can get a win at Texas Phoenix or Homestead. Hell yeah. Well, after the race, well, after Kinzeth did that, he was interviewed by Marty Snyder. on television and he mentioned that he had to do something for the respect of the garage. He did mention that. I don't know if that's a complete admission, but certainly that's bordering on it.

And Jeff Burton said on the broadcast guys, Travis, I'll start with you. He said on the broadcast basically what that reaction theater caller just said, that he wonders if something needs to be done to prevent somebody being intentionally wrecked. I think it's a very double-edged sword. You got they want the boys have at it. And it's exciting, but at some point, there's something's going to have to change, in my opinion, because you can't have people blatantly wrecking each other every week. I don't think whatever happened between Harvick and Trevor Bain was very good,

because obviously that hurt our chances, but, you know, you just can't have people wrecking each other and stuff like that. I think Matt, in his standpoint, he had to respond, or else he was going to keep getting used up, as he felt those guys were doing to him and he wanted to make a statement to prove that he wasn't going to let stuff like that slide. But for the sake of the sport, we cannot consistently wreck cars and have things like this happen

because it's just, it's bad for everybody else involved. What do you think, T.J.? Well, I think it goes back to, you can't suspend him. There's been too many incidents that have happened just like it. You go back to Brad and Carrow at Atlanta. Brad drives into the bottom. Carrow comes out across his nose, flips out,

comes back and flips him on the front stretch. I mean, with white gloves on, and he turns right, and nothing was done there. And then Jeff, you know, did it. There is a precedent set. Yeah, Jeff did it at Phoenix, and, you know, Harvick did it to, you know, seal his chase deal at Talladega. You know, there's a, I don't think what happened between Joey and Matt was Joey picking out of Matt.

He was the better car at the time. Matt was blocking the heck out of him. Right. And he did run him into the wall a little bit going into turn one. and Joey's trying, at this point you've got two guys trying to win a race. One's trying to continue on in the championship, and one's just trying to win. Joey doesn't want to look at that guy and be like, you know what,

he's not the chase. I need to let him win this race. I mean, I want to win. And I get that, and I think, and we talked about that, T.J. A couple weeks ago, I think what Junior said about how Joey handled it is what probably makes Kansas so upset. I agree with that. Joey, the way he handles a lot of these issues, and Lord knows he's in plenty of them.

you know, his father on the track, you know, trying to wait to do something. And Todd Gordon, his crew chief is, get out of here, man, you know, and get off the track, dude. You know, Joey's a grown man. He doesn't be his dad there. That's the thing that I think that really bothers people like Kinseth and so many others is it's time to act like your own man, Joey. And he does, he seems to welcome hiding behind not only his dad, but other people on his team. And that, that bothers me. I mean, I think it bothers a lot of people.

I don't really know if he welcomes hiding behind something because he's not telling them guys to do that. You know what I mean? Your crew guys are always going to stand up for you. And, you know, it's never going to end with that. The crew guys are always going to be there for their driver and stuff. But, like, you know, I agree. You know, Joey's a per-he, he's a grown man.

He can handle himself. You know, if he does something, he's going to pay the consequences of it. But I think there needs to be something done here to show that, look, this can't be done. If you intentionally wreck somebody that ruins the outcome, of the race or, I mean, like Junior said, that was a hard wreck, man. Say that goes out there and breaks Joey's leg or something, man. I mean, is that really worth it?

They were racing for a win in Kansas, and Matt got spun out. Matt kind of would Matt have spun Joey out? I believe he would have. Yeah, I would have. I don't think that was a wrong analysis. He blocked him into the fence. Everybody saw that too. I would have, anybody would have spun anybody out trying to win a race at that point.

These things aren't easy to win. All right, let's hear the next one. What a great day it was. Dale qualifies 22nd. comes out in battles all day, has a hell of a run of the front. Nice finish in fourth place, and our teammate at Hendrick, Jeff Gordon, punches his ticket to Miami. Oh, and speaking of punches, there may be some more thrown.

Matt Kenseth, that was awesome. Thank you for finally putting Joey Legano right where he belongs into the fence and watching him have to calm his daddy down. You may be able to hide behind your dad in the pits, but not on the track, Joey. Hendrick Motorsports, going for the championship with Jeff. The rest of the year is going to be a hell of a year for Dale. Junior.

Dale, yeah. Did you plan that caller right after you made the comments? That was like a perfect segue. I don't know, man. It's hard for me to be happy with somebody intentionally wrecking somebody that hard, because I'm sitting there thinking, what if Junior spun Matt out at Kansas for the win? And Matt came back and did that.

I don't think in any means it's correct what he did. I think a lot of people feel that way. They felt that Joey put in his place. That's why the fans cheered. But at the end of the day, it's not a good thing to have that. It was no doubt. It's a heat of the moment thing. It's a scary thing to be knowing that any point of these guys,

does this mean Trevor Bain drives Harvick straight into the fence hard one of these times? I mean, is that right? It could. I mean, that's what we're saying. I think what it also means, TJ, is they're going to see more fireworks in Texas. I just... I don't know, man. I hope we don't because we are going fast.

I think for Joey's case, he better not try to retaliate because he has too much to lose. That's a good point. Exactly. Because then he would have to go to Phoenix having to get a win. Chances are, I mean, you look how far back he is in the points now. He's 38 points out with only two races. I feel like the thing between Joey and Matt's over. I do.

Just wonder if something's going to happen. It seems like it does every year with this new format. There's a few that aren't over. I can tell you that. Who's next? Hey, this is a question that probably won't be addressed on racks and theater because I'm not entertaining, like a lot of y'all's calls. But this wreck that McKinzeth did against Lugano, he says he didn't do it on purpose. Harvick said he didn't do it on purpose last week.

I really think that if Kenseth gets fined, Harvick ought to get fined. And I wonder what y'all think about that. And I think anytime you wreck on purpose, it's a horrible thing. And I really don't think Junior would do that. Junior's a class act, and I was pulling for him, but I'm glad that Jeff Gordon got the win today. You know, since we are trying to promote rational, level-headed people today, Travis and TJ, there's your winner. We'll listen to the last... That was good.

We'll listen to the last couple of Reaction Theater calls Amanda, but you go ahead and mark that down. That's our winner. She said, I know I'm not going to be so entertaining, but I've got a question. And it's a great question. Yeah. If you have a valid point or even just a question,

you're usually going to get on. I just don't pick crazy people all the time. Travis, you start. What did you think about that question? It's exactly what a lot of people wonder. You know, everybody wondered last week. It's like the one guy said about how everybody believes Harbick did it on purpose, but he said he didn't, and they did nothing. And everybody

can blatantly see that Matt did it. But he says he didn't do it on purpose. So it's a question. It's kind of what we've been talking about the whole time. We all agree that stuff like this doesn't need to happen and it's wrong. But what they do here is definitely going to set a precedent. And it's a hard call to make. I wouldn't want to be the guy because of all the situations that have happened in the past. I mean, they haven't done to sort of. so many things and this is just the most extreme case. So now what happens? TJ, what would you do to Harvick and what would you do to Kinzith? I think it's, I think if you're going to have the ball of the wrecks of them on purpose,

you need to admit it. I mean, why hide it? You look more like a fool. You know how I know Matt was lying? Because he had his sunglasses on at night. I mean, it did. And it was dark there. If you're going to do it, just tell people you did it. I mean, it looks obvious. You look more like a fool than to lie about it when Harvick's teamed him up in the mirror. there he is, he turns right, perfect. You got it. When they'll restart before, you're all the way up by the wall out of the way.

Man, that's crazy. You were so good at it the first time, but you failed the second time. And this week, come on, man, Matt rode around. I heard him standing the gas right in front of me. Yeah, I agree with that. I heard him. I agree. Remember Boyer a couple years ago after he made the chase,

and he went on the whole media circuit saying, I don't know what you guys are talking about. Yeah. You know, slipping and sliding all over Richmond. That's like Jeff saying, oh, I was on a splitter through three and four the whole time. It just took off on me when I got Clint. I mean, I don't know. Just admit it.

I mean, man up. If you're going to be a man enough to wreck a guy on purpose, don't hide. What's the difference? I mean, if you're going to hide behind it, that's like saying, you know, that's like picking on Joey and his dad. Well, you make the call. He said Joey's not going to win the championship, right? If I'm not correcting that, I'm pretty sure he said that on TV. So you're going to say that and you're going to go wreck him.

You're going to say you didn't do it. I mean, it's like you said. Just something up to it. If you all know what happened. admit you didn't. Well, don't be... Direct them. That's boys have that.

Don't act like a big tough guy and then then say you didn't do it on purpose. Well said. Who's next? Here's your crazy. Yep. That was a drive baby coming up through there. I loved it.

I loved it. And hey, Matt Kenseth, you're my hero, baby. I love Matt Kenseth's name. I thought you just said, not everybody. Yeah. Well, she was enthusiastic. I liked her. Yeah.

Yeah. Good gracious. I'm glad she's that. Let me tell you, that is what the Martinsville Grandstands felt like. Yeah, if this ever gets out, maybe they can move that race up to 12 o'clock next year so we make sure we get it in. Or just put some lights out there. I would be off for a night race at a Saturday night race. Junior's been calling for that for years.

I'm telling you, man, I think that would be terrific there. They can't be that many lights. They need to move the date up a little bit, though. Yeah, right after daylight savings time was pushing it. That's true. Both of those races, sometimes the weather can be a factor for sure. Yeah. And it would be nice to.

It's a great race track, though, man. It's so awesome. All right, last one. This is a big bowl. I'll tell you this is right here. NASCAR parks, Matt, Kansas for the rest of the year for paying back that little Joey Legano. I will not renew my season tickets at Texas Motor Speedway.

I will turn sloppy yellow into strictly my band's tour bus. And I won't spend one. second wasted watching NASCAR. NASCAR created a circus when it developed an idiotic chase format. All these media members and pundits that are giving Matt Kenseth's hell

they're all talking about it all week. That payback was going to happen in Martinsville. Because the Martinsville wastes is four. NASCAR better be the smart thing and tell Joey Lagano and the other 15 chasers say, hey, when you live about

the sword? Why about it sword? So if that's the way you want to win races and make it farther in a chase, just understand payback is it? I love about that

it. It's time for Texas week. The smoker's fired up. I got biscuits marinating. I'm moving in Wednesday at noon. Thank God. It's a good time to be in Texas. Free dinner. Yeah, that sounded real good.

I'm thinking we need to stop by. Aaron, any person any person near Fort Worth, Texas, that I like more than that guy. And you do, you need to go check him out. You may agree or disagree about his thoughts on the wreck or whatever, but I love his passion,

and he is so supportive of the 88. Datto, of course, had his own segment with Mike a few weeks back. That is a bold statement, though. That's a bold statement. He made a good point. He's not leaving NASCAR. Dato, you're full of it. You're still going to come to the track.

It's too fun to hang out. And plus, there, I won't let him. I'll go find him, and I'll drag him out there. I'll drop yelow myself to the track if I have to. He likes to drink and cook too much to not go to that race. That's a really good point. Where else is he going to find that kind of entertainment?

He brought up a good point. 24-7. All you have to do is call toll-free 1-855-740-1902 and leave us your voicemail message, and we'll play the best each week right here on Dirty Mo Radio. And congratulations to the lady that called in with a calm lady. Very level-headed, rational call in question. The Calm Lady. About Harvick and Kenseth these last couple of weeks. Time now for It Takes the Nation presented by Nationwide.

Hey, welcome, everybody. It's Takes a Nation on Mike Davis. I apologize in advance. I sound terrible. I feel great, but I sound terrible. But I'm here with Kelly Earnhardt Miller. Yesterday, Kelly and I were on a trip on Monday. That's why I wasn't on the rest of this podcast.

That's when they taped. But we went to Illinois, and somehow I caught some something i don't know what it was i know so you caught it during the day i guess i noticed that in the morning you were fine but then coming home you sounded like that i'm like what happened did i sound like this coming yeah you know maybe it was just the kind of allergies in the air because we were in farm country yeah we went to illinois and uh had a good visit with our new partner brand and uh that was a lot of fun but here's why i've got you on here okay all right you do a lot of things here you wear many gloves you're in control of everything but one thing you also which which

leaves me completely out of control. Probably, yeah. But one of the things that you also are expected to do is give us hunting updates when Dale and your husband and others go hunting. And I don't know if anybody knows this, but Dale is off hunting this week. And LW, your husband is there with him. They're hunting with Martin Truex. Any updates?

Can you give us, you know, any text messages, any pictures? What do we got? Well, we have a few problems with where they're at is that service is not the greatest. Okay. If you can imagine that Dale's anywhere without internet, that's pretty incredible in itself. But they do have internet and they got it hooked up yesterday, but it's just not optimal. But I have, obviously, L.W. and I've checked in together. And the weather's a little hot this week.

You know, yesterday in Illinois, it was the same thing. It was nice and warm. And they're having to deal with that a little bit too. So the weather's a little hot. The deer aren't moving around as much as they would like them to. I think Gus has barked off a few. Oh, so he, Jr. took Gus? Yeah, so he and Martin drove.

They had a vehicle that they had purchased, like a 99 Chevy truck. Wait, wait, wait, wait, hold up. That's funny in itself. Hold on. They bought a 99, 1999 model truck. Yeah, it's really nice, too. Four-wheel drive, got a cattle guard thing on the front of it. It came from Delin Hart Jr. Chevrolet down in Florida.

A newer one wasn't in the cards? Nope, nope. They wanted to spend $2,500 on a vehicle to pay. put at their land, you know, so that they could drive to town and go back and forth to the airport and things like that. So this vehicle, it was more than $2,500 because he realized that you Chevy trucks are in high demand. Sure. And their price points are not that low. But it's pretty cool. They love it. Dale drove it around here in North Carolina for about a couple weeks to, you know, make sure that everything was fit for their road trip. And he and Martin after the race in Martinsville

drove there with Gus, which I was just amazed by. Yeah. And, and, and, and, you know, and, and, and, he and, And Gus is active, very active, barks a lot. And freakishly strong, too. And very strong, yes. Leave a racework with him. In fact, I had to buy one of those little things that you twist down in the ground to put him outside. Because, you know, Dale's, he's used to a doggy door, and he's got this nice vint yard and this heated dog house and an indoor dog room and all this. But there it was going to be a little different.

So, and I bought like 80 pound and below. And Dale looks at her. He's like, oh, he's above 80 pounds. It's like, oops. So, Gus, I think L. Dub told me that Dale could hear Gus barking from his tree stand yesterday. So I'm not sure if that's influencing hunting or what's going on. It probably doesn't help. It was 39 degrees there this morning.

They're seeing more deer action this morning. Okay. So we'll see what kind of report we get. We'll see what we get. That's good. You know, there was a time, Kelly, that I just knew that Dale did not inherit that love of outdoors that your dad had. You know, it was kind of obvious. but now I realize I was wrong.

I mean, what happened? I mean, because Carrie and even yourself, you guys love the outdoors and you marry LW. So if you didn't love the outdoors, you were going to eventually. But now Dale is really taken to this thing. And then we also announcing like new, you know, Earnhardt Outdoors and this new true timber camo relationship, which we'll talk about in a second. But did this just sort of happen recently or did he always have it just not the opportunities? I think that it's always been there.

I think it's just been, you know, untucked and discovered of late. You know, he went hunting with my dad. He enjoyed that. When my dad was alive, they enjoyed, you know, that kind of thing. And, you know, I don't just kind of, maybe a product of his age and how things were happening for him and what was happening. But LW is a fanatic hunting. And Dale's been on a few hunting trips over the past five years, you know, at least maybe once a year. I think that, you know, they got the opportunity to get.

their own land, which was important to Dale. It's kind of their own thing. They're building it and they're managing it. And all of that has, you know, it's he is. You know, he's not just showing up at some ranch and, you know, the celebrity there for the couple days. Right, right. You know, this is just, you know, I think he can own this.

Yeah. And it's made him want to be more of a part of it. Without a doubt, I mean, I've been on hunting trips with devil. We would go to some outfitters and, you know, as part of a group. And there is, first of all, there's a level. of pressure that you have, you know, like everybody's kind of looking to see, like, what you're bringing to the table as far as how, you know, your talent and how good you are if you're out of your element or if you're in it. And that's magnified with Dale. Yeah. I mean, everybody's like,

you know, let's see him shoot his bow for the first time. God help him if he misses his target, you know, all of a sudden he sucks. You know, it's just like everything's magnified with Dale. But yeah, this is a place he can just go and do his own thing. And the last 60, yeah, the last 60 days, it's all that we hear in our household. So if he's texting with LW, if he's in, if he's visiting, that's all they're talking about. At Carson's birthday party, they spent all their time talking about that. It's just, I got this, I got this. We're going to bring this.

What about this? You know, on and on. So I hope they have a good week and come home with something. And if not, they're going to give it a whirl, I think, again next week and see how it goes. I was in your office last week, and we got a text at about the same time. and it was from LW and he said, True Timber, baby. And then your response was,

I bet he got a deer. I bet he got one. Sure enough he did. It was pretty nice too, right? Yeah, it was. I think it was a 13-pointer, older, mature deer, one that he hadn't seen on his cameras. So that's always pretty exciting.

He was hunting at a lease that he has in Ohio, and so he was pretty excited about that. Yeah, that's cool. You know, we mentioned True Timber. A few weeks ago, we announced that Dale now has this exclusive camo brand, True Timber, and he's even got equity ownership with it with Johnny Morris and Rusty Sellers. What can we expect out of this, Kelly?

Like, how big could this honestly be? I think that, well, there's tons of opportunity with True Timber. You know, they've been around for, I think, eight years or so, just kind of in the patterned business and fabric and that kind of thing. And they've just, you know, every year grown. And this year is just a huge year for them, obviously teaming up with Johnny Morris and Bass Pro shops. There's tons of opportunity there.

know, to place their product and have relationships with different licensees. But Dale's very excited about it. It's something, you know, that he can continue on after racing whenever that might be and something that he can help be a part of and grow and have input in. And Rusty and Johnny are just great people to be around, just down home. They're right out of South Carolina. So, you know, they feel just like us. And, you know, so we're all excited about the relationship.

The pattern's great. LW has been testing out, field testing the product and giving them input. And so I think he had a zipper break on something the other day, and he's like texting up rusty. Oops, look what happened here, fellas. You know, my zipper broke. That's funny. It's good stuff. It's good.

Field testing camo, I would have thought like, you know, 100 yards. He still doesn't see me or something like that. But, no, that's cool. So he's field testing camo. He's already got a trophy buck that he could say. And he was wearing true timber when it happened. Yeah, but you know what's now happened? with this trophy book.

Okay, so let me tell you this little story. We have two deer, three deer actually hanging in our living room. So when LW. and I got married, you know, I'm like, okay, I'm going to have to, you know, make him a part of the house, you know, and what can we do? So we kind of changed the whole living room concept. And we've got these two massive deer staring at us. One's from Iowa. One's from Kansas.

They're both 20-some points, you know, big deer. And then my little nine-pointers on the wall from Pennsylvania. So in Pennsylvania, we have a cabin. We've got deer from the time he was 16 on the cabin wall. up there and also the bear that I shot a few years ago. And then they've got their hunting land that, you know, whatever they shoot up there, they're going to, you know, showcase on the walls there. And so this buck from Ohio from this lease, there's no cabin or anything there.

We don't own any part of it. And he says, you know, I got a little bit of a dilemma. And I'm like, what's that? And he said, well, you know, where am I going to put this deer? I said, well, that's a good question. Where are you going to put this deer? And he said, well, you know, we've got to come up with something around the house, you know. So we have a pool house, and I'm pretty sure that we're going to make this our outdoor slash pool house.

Like, so I'm pretty sure that we're going to have some deer on the wall in the pool house. Do you know another good place for it would be, right? I'm a good wife. You are a good wife. But let me just throw one more thing. I think the pool house will win out. But, you know, the Dirtymo Radio studio here, we need something to hang headsets on, right, Amanda? Yeah.

It would organize it a little bit better. But, no, that's cool. Well, listen, Kelly, you've got your own show that you're about to record with Andy Petrie, and it will air next Wednesday. You've got the second part of your Steve Park interview, which was phenomenal. My goodness, it was so good. I know. We've been knocking out of the park, Amanda, haven't we?

I'm telling you, folks, if you've not listened to the Steve Park interview, the first part of it aired last week, if you love Dale Earnhardt, If you like Dale Earnhardt, if you heard of Dale Earnhardt, but don't really have an opinion, listen to this interview that Kelly had with Steve Park. I feel like today with Andy is going to be very similar. Andy Petrie is going to, you got him in studio today, and that'll air next week. So these are just awesome interviews you're doing, and I really appreciate that. And hey, junior nation members, did you know that you can get a special discount when you switch to nationwide? All you got to do, call 877-697-27-2246, or visit nationwide.com forward slash junior nation.

That's J-R. Nation. Don't spell out, junior. J-R. Nation for more information. And don't forget, Kelly, you need to remember this. Amanda, you need to remember this. Nationwide is on your side. Here's what's coming up this week on Dirty Mo Radio. Tomorrow, tune in as part two of Kelly's interview with Steve Park.

We'll be on Fastlane Family presented by Wella Professionals. And after a couple weeks off, the boys on Junior Motorsports Up Front presented by Dale's Pale Ale are back. You can check out their latest episode on Thursday. Remember, you can always catch Dale Jr's at-track press conferences on said Junior presented by nationwide. Dirty Moe radio podcast 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. I'm not going to be as entertaining as Mike, I feel.

Come on, no. That's what the other lady said, and she won. Well, that's true. You should let Travis read it. Okay. I'll read it. Travis or Travis James? No, Travis James has read it before.

I think we should. Yeah, this one's really long. I don't want to read this one. We should let Travis Peterson read White Flagg. Just read it. Read it. Read it. Yes, sir.

Travis James. I didn't know that. I'm going to stare you the whole time. I can't read this paper if I'm making eye contact with him. Okay. Would you two to sit on with it? All right. Sorry.

All right, Dale's taking a couple days off beginning this week, but things will pick back up for him starting Thursday. Dale, his sister Kelly, and one of the newest drivers to J.R. Motorsports Stables, Elliot Sadler, will be doing a photo shoot for one main financial. That's the primary sponsor for Sadler when he comes to join J.R.M. in the 2016 season. On Friday, it's off the Texas Motor Speedway, where the first practice will kick off at 1230 Eastern Time, followed by the qualifying at 645 Eastern, and both can be seen on NBC Sports Network. In between practice and qualifying on Friday, they'll be making an appearance at the 1030. true timber stage outside the Speedway with our friends from Bristol Motor Speedway. If you're at the track, you can catch the appearance at 3.30 central time.

Also, if you haven't heard the news, we've announced yesterday that Jeb Burton will be driving the J.R. Motorsports-Hawse Automation Chevy on Friday night during the truck race. Nice. Coverage for the truck race will be seen on Fox Sports 1 at 830. All-Man. TJ messing up. I'm blaming him, just like I blame it for everything else. That ESPN, is that hard to say? It was actually Fox Sports 1 and Eastern.

It was Eastern. It was PM and Eastern. I got me. It's going to be on Fox Sports 1 at 8.30 p.m. Eastern. If you can't watch, our friends at M.R.N. We also have coverage at 8 o'clock. On Saturday, they'll run two practices. First one's at 11, and the final practice for Cup is at 2. Then they'll switch back over to the owner role for the Xfinity Series race where Regan Smith, Chase Elliott, and Kevin Harvick take on Texas.

You can catch that at 3.30 Eastern on NBC as well, and PRN at 3 p.m. Eastern. Then Sunday's race day. They'll start the day off with appearance at the Chevy Stage at 10.30 central time. And it's time for the race to begin at 2 p.m. Eastern on NBC and PRN at 1. There you go. TJ, I want you to pay close attention to Travis and his performance on Sunday, all right? Give us a report next week.

I give you report every week on him. I know. You know, you did say you have nothing but time the rest of this chase. Now's the time to work on that pit road map that I need so dearly. Oh, man, this guy. Every week he complains that he can't figure out where people are in pit road. Like he doesn't have eyes or something. I'm on one of the top cars, and I have the ones.

worst pit road map from my engineers every week. All these other guys have the nice little car numbers. He acts like the engineers only one can handle it. Like, T.J. is some pre-Madona that walks in and expects us to hand him a piece of paper that's laced in gold. You get paid to do that stuff. He's very high maintenance.

Is there somebody that you don't bicker with T.J.? I love it. This is what happens every week. Watch some try. This happens. It's good, though. Don't start. You're next.

It's why I get fired up when he's on the podcast. It's my man, T.J. Travis, awesome stuff today. Amanda, thank you. for Dale Jr. I'm Taylor Zarzer. Appreciate you listening to us on the Dale Jr. Download presented by Spy. Thanks for listening to Dirty Mo Radio. Hey, thank you guys for tuning into another episode of the download. Now, as we've told you, the Signature 88 Collection has a new style. It's called Dega. Go check it out. It's got different colors. You can choose your color

frame. It's a pretty awesome style. Dale worked really hard on it and he really likes it. I hope you guys will like it too. Now when you go to SpyOptic.com, you decide to make a purchase. Don't forget to enter code nationwide 88 at checkout so you can get 20% off that purchase.