The Dale Jr. Download - 119 - Homestead: Season Wrap Up

Episode Date: November 24, 2015

What a season! The Download crew reflect on Homestead, Jeff Gordon's last race, and newly crowned Champion Kyle Busch. Reaction Theatre gets sentimental as the 2015 season ends. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is Dale Jr., and you're listening to Dirty Mo Radio. All right, sorry about that result today. Not the finish we wanted with the car we had. We were in the wrong place, wrong time, really good, as much we can do about that. Good season, though. You're now listening to the Dale Jr. download presented by Spy. Check out Dale Jr.'s signature dirty-mo sunglasses from Spy at Spyoptic.com. I'm so mad. I'm going to throw my hat.

I know all these people are waiting for me just to lose my mind. Yeah, I mean, I am. On this download today. I said, I told Amanda, and we got to watch Taylor. He's going to be, he's going to be mad. Well, I don't want to disappoint everyone because I'm pretty mild-mannered, I think, at least for myself. Mike Davis, Taylor's ours are Amanda Wolfmeyer all here with you on the Dale Jr.

Download presented by Spy. I want to start with the 2015 season for the 88 team. I thought it was a really good season. Yeah. You know, I think that Dale Jr. has gotten to the point of his career where he really, really wants to win and compete for a championship. And when you don't do that in the final four races of the season, that's certainly going to be disappointed. And it's, you know what it's like?

I was thinking about this a few weeks ago. The only thing I can compare it to is a college basketball team that wins 32 games and loses in the Sweet 16. Right. You know, with a round 32 is that everybody's going to remember, oh, man, that was the year that we lost in the Sweet 16 to Northern Iowa. You know, that's going to, that was the year we lost to Wofford or God bless Wofford or Weber State or whatever, you know, like we got some guy that started hitting a bunch of threes. And when they, we lost, man, I hated, but we won 32 game. You know what I mean? Like that's the, that's the hard part about this because this team won three races this.

year. They absolutely dominated restrictor plate racing. They had, how many top fives? Sixteen. There are 36 races in a season. Right. And 40% of the time, you're finishing in the top five? 44. That's ridiculous.

I'm a math guy. Oh, look at that. I don't know about that. Almost half of the time you finished in the top five. That's a really, really good year. Yeah. But they did not compete. in the last four races for a championship.

Now, they were screwed. I'll get to that in a second. Yeah. You know, and should have had the opportunity to compete in three of the last four races for a championship and certainly would have competed for the championship because they won Phoenix. Ugh, makes me so mad. But, so there is disappointment.

And I think going into 2016, sort of like the last couple of years, all of us will go in, especially Dale and especially the team, will go in. to next season saying it's time for us to win a championship. Yeah, and you know what? Typically, you think of a guy that's 41. You think his best years are behind him. And yet, I don't think so with Dale. It's weird.

I think it makes him unique, but I see him racing better now in his 40s than he did in his 30s. Well, his life has never been in better order than it is now. It goes to show you how all that stuff matters, especially confidence. Confidence matters. Look at Kyle Bush. I'll get to him in a minute. His life has never been in better order than it is right now. I know he's 30 compared to 41, but he's married with a child.

He's got better perspective than he's ever had in his life. Which, by the way, just completely annihilates one of my theories, and that's it. You're as competitive as you want to be a teacher having kids. Yeah, it just. And he just annihilated that. It goes both ways, but I do think that you're right about that when it comes to Dale. I do. I think his best days are ahead of him.

He's a very young 41. And I think also the fact that it'll be Greg Ives' second year. Right. I'm sure we're going to see a couple of announcements, as Dale has already alluded to, with some crew changes in 2016. But quite honestly, Mike, I don't, every announcement they would make is going to be for the better. We had a lot of hurdles to overcome on pit road this year, a lot of new faces, a lot of shuffling. I thought Ives did a really good job, but I expect bigger things for him next season.

Well, they are losing their lead engineer, and the reason I know that is because he's coming here. He's going to be Elliott Sadler's crew chief. So Kevin Meandering is coming here to crew chief, and he's bringing one of the guys on that team over to be his car chief. So that is something that they've been planning for a year. As a matter of fact, Dale's been wanting Kevin here as a crew chief for a while. But with Latart retiring, so to speak, and then Greg Ives going there, Dale knew that he needed Kevin to at least stay one. year before he went and did his crew chief thing, which was going to be here. So he's staying in the family.

So there are going to be little changes like that. And junior, well, I think that we all know how important an engineer is. So they already know who's going to be replacing him. They've known that for a while. So these are just normal for a race team. Every race team. Even Kyle Bush's race team is not going to be 100% the way it is this year. So they'll get that out of the way.

Greg's got another year under him or a year under him. I think we'll see probably better pit strategies, perhaps, in 216. You know, something he knows how to do a lot better now that he's had a year. I expect the pit crew to be better. I mean, it better be, right? I mean, I don't think we need to see the same problems that we had this year. So that's a safe expectation, I think. And then Junior just keeps, if his confidence stays up, I mean, yeah, there's no reason why he shouldn't be right there at the end next year.

Absolutely. I think that our expectations, the excitement level, the enthusiasm we have for 2016 is as high as I can remember it being. Yeah. You know, I really do. For that reason, that made Homestead even more disappointing, if you ask me, because we thought it could win that race. Yeah, well, absolutely, especially as TJ was talking about on Sunday, especially given, and Greg was talking about this too, given some of the work they had done on the car throughout the 48 hours. hours, they felt like the later in the day, the better the car was going to get. And you really kind of saw that with Jimmy Johnson. You know, he was really moving through the field.

He went down a lap and was, I mean, he really got better as the day went on. So I do think that was, look, it was disappointing. There was nothing he could have done. At first, like LaTart said in the broadcast, it looked like it was Junior's fault. It was not. No. And at all. So, you know, you hate when your day is ruined like that.

But them the brakes. It's the last time that Jeff Gordon will ever race against Dale Earnhardt Jr. And I think that every fan in Junior Nation is passionate about Jeff Gordon. And always has been. To me, I really feel like he has been like, it almost has been like Junior versus Gordon. Hadn't it, Mike, I mean, forever, like with a bunch of fans. It was, especially before they were teammates, it was that way. I mean, I can remember.

Well, I'd go back to his dad. I mean, it was Earnhardt versus Gordon. The angriest I have ever been at a racetrack was in Talladego when they gave Jeff Gordon that victory. What year was that? 05. Yeah, 0-4-0-5. That was the angriest I have ever been on a racetrack. I didn't throw one of those bottles on the track, though.

But you didn't stop the guy from next to you. Well, it was just because I was too far to get it. I was just too far away to get it to the track. You didn't even want to try to chunk it? I mean, yeah, plus 2005, was a year where we were coming off six wins and then 05 we weren't winning anything and so yeah that was even that was another reason but yeah no i hear you so we've had our moments with jeff jeff is certainly he take away that talladay go to pick a taladega where jeff gordon wasn't mad at

dale for something yeah right he he is a fiery guy very emotional with his team with his spotter with his crew chief with his teammates asked jimmy johnson he's fire with everyone. And by fiery, you mean whiny? Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. You know what? But I am, I thought Kyle Petty made such a good point about his dad and how he could never channel that emotion in anything else that he did the rest of his life. And Jeff's going to have to deal with that now. But Jeff, I'm not going to tell you where he goes, but he is a, he is habitual about a spot he goes to in Charlotte. And I've seen him there. And one time I did go over to him and I said

I know I bug you up the track all the time and he was extremely nice and I said you know I do a podcast of Dale Jr. And I swear to you he said oh dirty Moe Radio. I don't know if that means he listens but he was aware of the podcast or he knows not to listen. He said you know we had his mom on

he said I love Dale Jr. He went on and on about the kind of person, the kind hearted person Dale Jr. is and how much he respects him. And I think that their relationship is only going to get better now that Jeff is not on the track. Yeah.

No, for sure. And you could see from junior over the weekend how much respect he has for Jeff. One of my favorite story, there's a couple that we've had with Jeff. But one of the best ones is when Dale was leaving DEI and we had already made our announcement that he was leaving DEI. and all of a sudden you started hearing this interest in Hendrick Motorsports. Now, I knew from being around Dell for several years how much he actually wanted to go drive for Hendrick Motorsports. It just didn't fit everyone else's narrative that they wanted him to go drive a three car at RCR.

And so I didn't know myself how important it was for Dale to go to Hendrick Motorsports. Neither did Jeff Gordon. And he thought Junior was just trying to kind of get his salary up. You know what I'm saying? And so Jeff called Dell and said, listen. You've got Mr. Hendrick really thinking that he has a shot at this. If I find out that you are just yanking his chain just to kind of get the negotiated things, he's like, you and I're not going to have big problems.

And Junior's like, man, no, I really, I want to go there. And he's like, all right, I'm telling him, because Mr. H is, he's really excited about this. He just told me, I think we got, I think he's going to come here. I think we're going to get him. And, you know, Gibbs was after him. Yeah. Richard was after. And Jeff went to bat and was sticking up for Mr. Hendrick because, you know, you

didn't want to get somebody that you love and respect, you know, get their hopes up and then see them crushed. And I always respected Jeff for that. I respected him for that. And I think Junior did too. Yeah, no, he did. That's a great story. But I have a lot of respect for Jeff Gordon and the race car driver. He's been the difference he has made in the Charlotte community, the amount of resources he has put into the hospital.

If you've ever had a kid at that hospital, you certainly appreciate Jeff. Jordan. I get goosebumps thinking about it. Yeah. I do think that people, if they see him at the track in years to come doing television work for Fox, they're going to say, man, I kind of like this guy. But he was. He did out of whiny side to him. You're right when he was in that car.

But I do think he is a really, really good guy. Did anybody actually listen to his radio chatter during the Homestead Race? They played a couple clips of it. He was on FISA! I listened to it. I took it off. We wrecked and I put it on Jeff. It's entertaining.

I watched. They had on NBC Sports Network, you could watch, and they had all four of their radios. And he was losing his mind. He always does. Yeah, he was. Kyle Bush was not losing his mind. He was the class of the field on Sunday for most of the day. Of course, Kislauski led a lot of laps.

Harvick led some as well. But Kyle Bush was in total control. Total. Yeah. Listen, I'm going to disappoint a lot of people with these comments. I don't have. any problem with Kyle Bush winning the championship. I really admire the man that Kyle Bush is turning into,

has turned into in the last couple of years, and this guy is a Hall of Famer. Oh, yeah. He is a Hall of Famer. He's a Hall of Fame. He is remarkably talented. He's the first ballot Hall of Fame. So I really don't.

I don't have a problem with Kyle Bush. What I have a problem with? is NASCAR allowing Kyle Bush to be eligible. Once they said he was eligible, I wasn't pulling against Kyle Bush. And wasn't, really, I had no emotion when he won. I wanted Martin Trex to win. I'll be honest.

I did. I thought that would have been the best story. Would have been unbelievable to see a small shop like that win. But really, I wasn't upset at all when Kyle won the race. I know a lot of you listening were I wasn't. I'm upset that NASCAR has shown no consistency with their so-called rulebook in the last couple of years. If somebody does something to compromise the integrity of the championship two years ago in Richmond, well, we'll just put another guy in the field.

If we're having trouble with restarts, you know what? we're going to change how many green-white checkards we're going to run in the middle of the season. We'll change the rules. If some guy who happens to be really popular breaks his leg because we didn't do a good job protecting the integrity of the track, well, then guess what? You know what? Let's make a special exemption, special circumstance, and allow them to race in two-thirds of the races and race for a championship. That's my problem, Mike.

it's not that Kyle Bush won the championship. In the last 25 races, he absolutely earned what he got on the track. It's NASCAR's inconsistency. I don't think that if Greg Biffle would have missed the first 11 races, they would have put Greg Biff, said Greg Biffles eligible for the championship. Now, there are people that say that you're wrong about that.

I just, I believe it. I really do. I know you do, but there is. Was it Jim Utter earlier this year called into the show? And said that that has always from day one when they started this chase. Of the new format. Yes. Of the new format. They gave themselves the right to be able to do this for medical exemption.

I understand they gave themselves the right. I know that. And he's right. When have they ever had another opportunity like this? I'm telling you, maybe I'm a conspiracy theorist, I'm telling you, I don't think they would have done that for some other people. Well, did they do it for Tony Stewart? It wasn't for medical, but he never, he never wanted to race.

And again, the difference is he missed a couple of races. he didn't miss 11. It's just awkward to me. First of all, it's a little awkward that you miss a third of the season. And look, if they told me that I'd be eligible, I'd go out there and try to win a championship too. Again, I have no problem with Kyle Bush. Right, you're not going to say that that thing.

You know, I want all the races to matter, and I hate what happened to him. I really do. I mean, he was talking about how it was fascinating, listening to him after the race on NBC Sports Network, on how some days he would think, do I really want to get up and use all this energy? to go to the bathroom or am I going to pee in a bottle.

Yeah. You know, I mean, like, that's what he was going through. I'd take the bottle. And he did sometimes. That's what he was going through eight months ago. And now he's winning a championship. That's a remarkable story. I just, I would like to see if driver points are going to matter,

then I would like to see somebody race in almost all the races. Denny Hamlin, you could argue, took off some races this year because he could. I don't like that. I don't like the precedent that is being. that's being sent there. And certainly, before the chase, nobody would have been eligible to try to win a championship. It's just different times.

But I guess the thing that bothers me, I know there's a special exemption. It just seems like NASCAR is making a lot of fly by the seat of their pants decisions. Which I think is ultimately, I think that's ultimately where your biggest beef is. It's not necessarily inconsistency on this chase format and who you let in.

But I think you're frustrated just with the perception of inconsistency across the board. Is that fair? Yeah, and I think it's going to continue to be that way, Mike. Yeah, especially as long as you have to make judgment calls and that kind of thing. If what happened at Talladega to Dale Jr., which made me a lot more upset than Kyle Bush winning a championship, you want to talk about me being infuriated? What happened at the end of this October's Talladega infuriated me?

Sure. Infuriated me. And the reason it infuriated me is because let's try it. And again, it could have happened to anybody. It was circumstance. But let's try a new way of deciding this race with how many green-white checkers we're going to do. Now, five years from now, if that happens, then I'll say, you know what, that's the way it's been. But it's the lack of consistency with the way NASCAR decides its rules and decides, I think, based off of how many eyeballs are going to watch the race,

and which way the wind is blowing sometimes, they seem to make some decisions in this day and age. Well, you know, I was thinking about this at the end of that homestead race, and I was trying to think, you know what, this has been a rough year for NASCAR, if we're just being honest. And I think that because they've had a couple different, like, controversial things that happen, starting with Kyle Busch at Daytona 500, ending at Martinsville with Matt Kenseth taking out of the guy when he's nine laps down. But in between, if there were opportunities for NASCAR to kind of trip up on themselves,

they have found a way to do it. And that's just unlucky in a lot of cases. Talladega, the ending of Talladega being one of them. But there was also a lot of rain delays this year. And I don't know that that could be at a worse time because NASCAR sort of at the crossroads of, you know, you've got these empty seats that you can see on TV and you've got ratings that are kind of here and there.

And, you know, see, there's crossroads and that you get hit with a lot of weather. And yet, when there was opportunities to get lucky in some of these circumstances. It seems this year NASCAR was never lucky in anything, whether it was rain, whether it was a new rule. If they made a new rule in the middle of the year, you bet the week after it became an issue about something that how the race was determined. And I don't know. I just I think that NASCAR would never admit it, but I think they were ready for this year to be over and start new in 16. If I were in charge of NASCAR, I wouldn't have a special exemption that says you can, no matter how you got hurt,

which was extremely unfortunate, which NASCAR has to accept a lot of responsibility for, regardless of how you got hurt, I wouldn't have a rule in there as long as I had driver points. I wouldn't have a special exemption that says you can miss 11 races and still qualify for a championship. I would have that rule. Given that these are the rules,

Kyle Bush absolutely earned it. Okay, let's take that out. Let's say forget the rules. ultimately what you want to have at the end of any sports season is the champion was worthy of being a champion. And that goes back to why I would have had a problem with Newman last year. Do you think Kyle Bush forget rules, forget how he got there? At the end of the day, did NASCAR champion were they worthy of that championship? He earned it.

Like, who else is more deserving of the championship than Kyle Bush? I put it that way. I can't find anybody. I don't have a, again, I don't have a, again, I don't have a prize. problem with him winning the championship. That's not my issue. No, I know. I'm just saying for discussion's sake, I, in my own head internally, try to justify, are, not at my happy, am I at peace with this? And I can't think of another driver who was more deserving of a championship than Kyle Bush based off the body of work. You could say,

Joey Logano had a phenomenal year. Joey Legano is won. Kevin Harvick had a really, really good year. Jimmy won a lot of races. But he also had races where he just flat stunk. Junior had a whole lot of top fives, but all of them would have been worthy of a championship, I feel. And Kyle Bush is one of those people. That's fine. That's absolutely fine. I do think that, you know, if he wouldn't have been eligible for the championship, I certainly don't think he would have won this many races. You know, had he not had a championship, once they said you're eligible for the championship, I think he took off. And that's to his credit. It's really remarkable job. Amanda, I am sorry.

sorry we have let you down and we have not gone through all of your notes of what happened with the 88 team, but I appreciate you putting them together. Oh, we can sum up real quick. We got stuck. We started. We pit. We wrecked. We wrecked.

Got wrecked. And then we were multiple laps down and a good car and a good opportunity. I didn't see Junior getting passed by the leaders a lot in those yellow 88 numbers. But it did. It was a disappointing day. but it was not a disappointing season. No. By any means.

I really, I thought Dale Jr. could win, but I was really disappointed because I wanted him to a set new personal best in the top five and top ten categories. He was tied. He had 16 top fives going in. He had 22 top tens. And I would have been, it would have given this season a little bit more of an identity, you know. And I was a little disappointed that we weren't ever did that. Before we go to reaction theater, anything you'd like to say about Junior Motorsports in 2015? A lot of success.

Didn't win a championship, but another very successful year. And one of those drivers will be a junior's teammate next year. You know, that's a great question, to be honest with you. I was proud of the way our company sort of rebounded in the middle of the year. We went through a funky couple of months. Same as Hendrick, really? Same as Hendrick. That's a good point.

And it had a lot of people concerned because we were clearly down on speed. We didn't take advantage. We won a couple races early on. with Kevin. But we didn't take advantage of that big chunk of time that Kyle was hurt. And so then here he goes, Kyle comes back, Kyle starts winning again. And not just that, but we were clearly not that fast. And that was all of our teams.

So you have the defending champion who's not fast. And then you put Kevin Harvick in a car, and he's finishing fifth, which means that he might as well be 30th. And we honestly had a gut check time. And, you know, the company rebounded. And we ended up going off and winning some more races. You know, Regan Smith came back and won some races. And Chase Elliott won at Richmond.

And so, you know, that's how I'm going to remember this season for junior motorsports and being able to sort of weather the storm. And then hopefully that, you know, we have a good offseason and build good cars and come back to 2016. We've got a completely different lineup of drivers. Not completely different, but vastly different. And we've got Al-Gyard. It's going to be driving our seven.

Elliot Sadler and what is it, the nine right now. So, yeah, it's going to be interesting. The good news is the difficult news for you is that Elliot Sadler doesn't like to do any media. That's the tough news for you is he doesn't like to do anything in front of a camera or that has a microphone. So you're really going to struggle to get him to do podcasts. I disagree with you. I'm totally kidding. Completely tongue and cheek.

Yeah. He might be, it might be the Sadler Moe Radio before it's all done. I mean, this guy. Sadler Mo Radio. I mean, something tells me in 2016, Junior Nation and Dirty Mo Radio listeners are really going to enjoy some of the things that Mike Davis and Elliot Sadler do together. We would like to have an Emporia podcast. Hermie and Elliot? Wow.

But, you know, yeah, I'm looking forward to Elliot. being here and I've known him for years and I think he's just a lot of fun and I would like to move him from Virginia. That's the one downside is that he lives in Virginia still. And if I had, if he was a Morseville guy, man, we'd do some damage. We'd do a lot of damage. But yeah, but he's going to be fun. We still think he's got some good years in him and, you know, Justin Allgaier's got a good opportunity in his seven cars. So I don't know. And I will say this. Let me, let me, I think this is important. we are now in the best shape from a sponsorship standpoint, which I know you're tired of hearing it fans,

but the fact of the matter is it's why we are able to keep the lights on. It's why we have Dirty Moe Radio. It's why we have J.R. 360s. It's why we have all of the employees that we got because of the funding, and we're in best shape that we've ever been now. All right, well, I'm going to renegotiate now. This week is your last chance to take advantage of Spies' awesome offer for all Dirty Moe Radio listeners.

spyoptic.com and check out the full line of Dale's signature 88 collection sunglasses. It includes a dirty mo, McCoy, Quanta, General Daga, and Farah for the ladies. When you get to check out enter discount code nationwide 88 to get 20% off. Reaction theater. Okay, I know if Junior would have won the championship in this format, we would all be at, this season just reinforces the fact that this is a total sham of a way to present. of champion. I mean, we talk about NASCAR is not football and baseball and basketball,

but that's exactly what Brian France tries to make it when he creates this, quote-unquote, game seven ceiling with the format we have. I mean, it's just a total crowd, and it's just frustrating, but I'm proud of our dream and the team. What a great season they have. Much better than their point in the system we have, but look forward to great things next year. Great season, enjoy the download all year. Good job, everybody.

Thank you. First of all, thank you for those kind of words. And you know what, I think this guy nails it. I think we just want to see the person that we like win. And ultimately, if Dale Jr. was winning this thing, then we don't have any problems or we'd have not near the problems that we have today. And when it's Kyle Bush, well, then it's magnified. I mean, am I right?

No. You know, you want the teams or the people you cheer for to succeed. You want the ones that you don't like to fail miserably. and however that happens, it happens, and that ultimately determines whether you like the format or like this, that, the other. That ultimately, you know, helps you get to that place. Who's next?

Well, I know Dale's probably pissed, pulling his hair out, but NASCAR's rules, NASCAR's fault. They let it happen like this. I don't like the way it was, but I think there should be 12 races in the chase, three races each round. Anyway, hell of a year for Dale Jr., three wins. Not nothing to shake a stick out there.

Building for next year, I guarantee it will probably do a hell a lot better next year. We're going to be in that final round. We're going to win this shit. Hell yeah, Dale yeah. Hell yeah, Delia. Let me tell you why I'm... Citadelia.

Let me tell you why I am not trying to stop or damper this whole narrative of Taylor being mad. Because I don't want it to switch up... That's just what you always do. No, no, it's not. I don't want it to switch back to that earlier in the year narrative of Mike Davis is basically on Kyle Busch's team. Like I'm some big Kyle Busch support. Routy Radio.

As long as you're the focus on this. Routy Radio. I'm starting to feel like Amanda might be going to Routy Radio. You sound like a big Kyle Bush fan to me. Not really. You can't deny a man's great year. Yeah, you can't. She's just waiting on Carl Edwards to be relevant enough to have Carl Edel of Radio.

I love it. Shots fired. Wow. Who's next? I just want to say thanks Amanda Mike Taylor T.J. For all you guys work on the download each week. I don't think there's a driver out there

NASCAR is connected to his fans as Junior is and you guys play a big part of that. With that being said, Clint Boyer is a There we go. There we go. He's going to take a ride from Justin Allgaier next year and he's going to be the guy that replaces Tony Stewart in two years. What the fuck is up with that?

Secondly, the greatest spotter in NASCAR history, that being TJ majors, of course. that last week that teams wouldn't have raced the seasons the same way based on chase rules changing and everything else. That's understandable. But it pisses me off that people are going to look back at this season 15, 20 years from now, and they're going to see an 11th or 12th place points finish. And they're probably not really going to appreciate just how good junior and the 88 team were this season.

That's why this system is f***ed up. Plain and simple. Y'all have a happy Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas. There you. You too. I'm going to send that guy something if you don't. I mean, because that got crushed it. What are you going to send me?

I mean, I don't know. I might send him a cooosie. You're used spy glasses? Yeah, I might send him a coozy. Some tickets to a football game. What about your Wrangler sleeveless shirt? No, I'm not sending me that. He's farting from that, maybe.

No way. I'm wearing my valveline hat right now. Hey, can I just ask a quick question? Now, I've been a strong. I love what that guy said. No, he's right. But he also just reminded me of something. Would the chase format be a little easier to swallow?

If the season was shorter. Probably so. It's too long. I mean, Dale Jr. said it forever. Everybody feels that way. It's so long. But I think it probably would. I mean, the Daytona 500 is like in less than three months.

You don't have time to even want NASCAR. I know. If you shortened it by 10 races and you took it from 26 regular season races to 16. So you had 16 races. It's a regular season? You kidding me? And then 10 Chase. Wow.

Would it be better? Heck yeah. I mean, I think so, right? Dale, yeah, it would. It would be awesome. That guy made a great point. People are going to look back. Dale Jr. finished 11th or 12th.

Man, he was a top five drive. That was a top five team in 2015. And that's the shame. And it is that, it's frustrating. It's like losing in the round of 32 when you're the fifth best team in the country. That's a great analogy, actually. He was actually seventh in points going into that race, too. Like, that's how much that accident dropped him in the point standings.

Seventh, 12th is a lot to me. No, it is. Yeah. Okay, first time I've called. First, let me say, Go Team 88, Godell Jr. This season, with a rookie crew chief, I'm happy. We have three wins. I think we're set for next year. However, as a fat girl, I'm a little upset that Kyle Busch won

because now I have to give up M&M's for a really, really, really long time. And yes, I slurred that. That's probably because I've had. I don't know how many beers are in a pitcher. but I'm on my third pitcher. So all I can say is go Dale. Let's take Daytona next year and better season. We're going to win the championship in 2016.

I really appreciate somebody's honesty. I do too, but I'm staying away from this one. Why don't she steering clear of Eminembs? There's delicious. There's two things I want to say. One is the victory celebration when Cowbush down some M&Ms and then chased it with a monster energy drink was hilarious. He did.

I turned it off. I mean, you want to talk about, I didn't even get to that point. You want to talk about a jolt, you know, they used to have jolt cola or whatever it was. But douse yourself with M&Ms and Monster Energy. So that made me think of that. Secondly, I don't know if you ever watch the Pioneer Woman on Food Network. This woman's crazy. Crazy.

And she will pour M&Ms into any dessert that she's got, douse it with butter or sugar. I think this lady on reaction theater probably. But all her food is good. It's insanely good and insanely bad for you, and something tells me that this woman that just called probably likes her. With that. I think she's living right. That's my opinion.

There you go. Hey, I like him and am. I do, too. I'm sitting here looking at Kyle Busch, dude donuts. And I mean, isn't this the same that missed 11 races at the beginning of the year? And you just, well, I'm sure, uh, 10 is a shing the brick right now. I'm just sitting here like, well, the fuck.

But I do know why I Cobbush won the championship. After he wrecked the Daytona, he just got both of his legs removed and got some bionic legs. He was like the Frient Terminator. He just won the championship off some bionic legs. Chuck for Dale Jr. wrecked,

but it's going to win the Daytona 500 next year. So, yeah, have a great offseason. Roll tide. Oh, look at there. Roll tide to you, too. Big game Saturday. I just love that people think

that Taylor's losing his mind. That's fine. I can get behind this. I can get behind this movement. I stated the truth, but I still think it's funny. I still think it's funny regardless if that's what people want to say. I feel like you're going to let them down, though. So can you just amp it up a little bit? In an effort to capture my feelings about the race on Sunday, I decided to sit down and write a haiku to adequately express how I'm feeling. Clint Boyer wrecked Dale. Kyle Bush is champion. Homestead

Sucked Here's in 2016 And next year's Iiku ending with Homestead is awesome I love that guy I really do Dad-O is

He is back on Twitter By the way He is? Yeah Sloppy Yellow is the name of his Twitter handle That's his buzzes Twitter handle

Are you in charge of that? You're in charge of that How many Twitter handles do you have? No I'm not in charge of sloppy yellow. I thought that was Datto. It might be, but you can't confirm that. It could be a son.

Who knows? No, there's a lot of people that are like in the band Sloppy Yellow. There's a lot of members. I thought it was Daddow. I'm unfollowing. I'll put it in this way. If it's you, I'm unfollowing you and Dadow. Hey, I got something.

Your Twitter opinion matters when you actually tweet for the first time since August. It's a fair point. It's a fair point. I'm still on sabbatical. Why? I because I save all my thoughts for this forum right here. I want my thoughts to be saved for this. That's a good save, but I'm not biased.

Yeah, you like that, Amanda? Who's next? I'm going to just call them to say, man. So proud of this 88 team and that whole crew really started to get taken out earlier in the race. Honestly, I was so proud just to see them back on that track and never given up. Really solid season. We have a lot to be proud of and a lot to look forward to. So I think we need to work with that and build up.

Also, the haters. Kyle Busch deserved that championship. I was going to give anything to not see Kevin Harvick win that thing. Anything. You know, I know they missed 11 races, but you can't take away the other, you know, 25 they were in or whatnot. They kicked some... So congratulations to them, and congratulations to Jeff Gordon for his awesome career, man. I mean, obviously, I was born for Gordon and really happy for him and his whole family.

This race gave me the feels, man. I think it gave a lot of people the feels, but this is the Dalia kid, and we'll see you next year. Dillia. Della. I think Gordon's going to be good in the booth. Oh, yeah, I think he will be too. Yeah, I think he'll be good and have a really good career doing that. I mean, he's never been afraid to tell the truth, ever.

Yeah. And you gave an example of that earlier. Yeah. I think that it'll be good in the booth. Not that he won't be, you know, receive his fair share criticism because, you know, everybody's a TV expert. You didn't know that? Oh, yes, you are. I mean, everybody has an opinion on the broadcasting.

Though I don't think LaTart got much grief, did he? I guess maybe think people thought he was a Gordon Jr. Homer because of where he worked or wherever, but I thought he did a phenomenal job. He was good. That's a good point. He is the exception to the rule. Reaction Theater is open 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 Dirtymo radio. Time now for It Takes the Nation presented by Nationwide.

Well, what a treat we have today because I'm sitting here. I come in the booth here with Amanda and I look out the window and there's Andrew DeWirth, my man, from Tallah. What is your title at Dillenhart Jr. Chevrolet and Dillenhart Jr. Buick GMC. I'm screwing it all up, right? You tell me what you do. I'm the executive assistant to the general managers there and kind of just keep all the pieces rolling and make sure the trains arrive on time. So you do have Deller and Hart Jr. Chevrolet and you have Dailenhart Jr.

Buech GMC Cadillac. Bueck GMC Cadillac. These dealerships are in Tallahassee, Florida. Yes. And they're about what? Would you say 10 miles apart? Exactly. 10 miles apart.

How's the business? Business is good, lots of fun. We've had record months every month down there. So it's been real exciting to have everybody a part of the newness that's happening in Tallahassee. It's bringing a lot of attention to the area and a lot of new faces. So it's fun. Dale Jr. loves going down to these dealerships.

And I know this because I've gone with him before. And I see how he reacts. And it is quite a difference when Dale goes to the dealerships. It does feel like it's his, and he really takes ownership. And not just the name on the thing, but just the employees and their livelihoods. And when an employee, when a salesperson sets a record, he likes to hear about it. And he likes to congratulate them. And it's something that I've noticed at Adele.

He really loves this dealership business, right? Oh, yeah. He comes down and has just a great. great time with the employees and the ones that are hitting these records he likes to you know call him and spend a few minutes with them and talk to them and really find out how their days are going so how are you guys hitting records is it you no it's all you no absolutely it's the men and women that are in those stores every day that are going at it and selling cars i mean we've got young men and women that are selling 30 cars a month and then technicians and um one of our collision

centers are our only collisions send that down there right now they're top 10 in the nation right now Oh, wow. And so it's pretty exciting. What are people buying these days? What's the hot vehicle? Silveradoes. Yes, Silveradoes. Silverado.

I told us Silverado. You can't beat them now. They're good. They're good trucks. Absolutely. So you're selling them Silveradoes. Silveradoes and Camaros. Really?

Yeah. Why is that? What's going on right now? The Silveradoes and the Camaros? Silverado is just everyone loves them a lot. And it's just a great truck. the Camaro, you know, it's just a natural-born badass. Yeah, I mean, it's just fun to drive.

Yeah. And people are loving them. Yeah, that's cool. Now, you, why are you up here? Why am I in Dirtymoil radio studio right now? And then all of a sudden I look at it and I see Andrew DeWurf. What are you doing up here? Well, we came to pick up the Wrangler 3 car to bring it and put on display there at the

dealerships. Wow, good for you. So how aren't you going to have it down there? Until the end of April. So this is the one that Dale Jr. won the day. Tonya race in 2010, made everybody cry. He goes in there with the old Wrangler paint scheme, the year that his dad was being inducted into the Hall of Fame, the first class of the Hall of Fame, and went in there and won it.

Yeah. And so this thing is, it's dirty. It's not been cleaned since that, it's not been cleaned ever, actually. It's straight out of victory lane still. Yeah, and Dale said, don't touch it, don't clean it. So you have instructions? Yes. You got to take care of it.

Yes. You got help? Oh, yeah. Who all came up with you? Our body shop manager, Greg Cole. He came up and Jerry Furnish, who has the trailer. So you got the trailer. Are you riding back with him?

No, I'm taking back the SS. I wonder what type of pressure it is to know that you're hauling the number three Wrangler car that Dale Jr. won in. What kind of pressure comes with that if you're the driver? You know, have you vetted this out properly? Do you trust the guy that's driving his thing to Tallahassee? 100%. Okay.

A little nervous. I told him, I said, man, you got to be careful. Don't let that thing fish tail on you. Now I'm nervous. Wait, do you think that could happen? What's the weather like? It's perfect. All right, good, good.

Well, by the way, Andrew, you recently had a kid. We did. I guess your kid's probably, what, four months old now? Exactly. How about me? I mean, I don't even have notes for this. Not even a magic eight ball. This is how much our partners mean to us.

It's like I know you. So how's it going? That's great. Her name's Harper Drew, and she's the best. Lots of fun. You had any good daddy moments or accidents or mishaps? I mean, four months, you got plenty of time to screw something up, right? Just once.

The other day I was going to school, and the old blowout happened. Hey, got to have that. And, of course, I was in a hurry. You're not talking about tires either. No, no. But it burnt some rubber. I hear you. Well, good for you.

Well, thank you for being here. Safe trip back to time. Alhassy. It's good seeing you. Hope you keep breaking records. Yeah, we are. We're going to have a great November, and we wish we'll keep going strong. Last question, do you think Dale will be back down before Daytona? Yeah, we hope so. I think so. I think we're going to do a big fan day at the Buick GMC Cadillac store and really turn it up up there. We got a big red down there right now too. Juniors? Juniors truck? Big reds down there.

Oh, look at you. I was one of a big red win. I thought somebody might have stole it. Oh, gosh. So anyway, if you're in the Tallahassee area, I'll tell you where you need to go. You need to go to Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet. Or Dale Earnhardt Jr. Bueck GMC Cadillac. That's it. There's a lot to remember in that. And go see Andrew.

Tell him dirty-mo radio sent you. Yeah, and follow us on Twitter and Facebook, too. What are they? It's Dale Jr. Chevy, and the other one on Twitter is at Dale Jr. Chevy. The Buick store is at Dale Jr. BGC. Dale Jr. B, B, C. Got it. All right.

Thank you, Andrew. Appreciate it. Thank you, buddy. Hey, Junior Nation members, did you know that you can get a special discount when you switch to Nationwide? Call 877-297-2246 or visit Nationwide.com forward slash junior nation for more information. Don't forget, Nationwide is on your side. Let's throw the white flag.

White flag right there, white flag. Sponsored by ESPNU's broadcast of Northwestern and Illinois. This Saturday at 3,000. Which nobody will watch. Come on. It's rivalry Saturday. DVR it, man. Listen, look, here's what's on T.

All right, you know what I'll include it. Here's what's on tap this week. Illinois versus who? Northwestern at Soldier Field. Taylor Zarser Al Groh on the call on ESPNU. You did a good job. I'm telling you, I've watched it. I watched you called the South Carolina Citadel game.

And Citadel won, which I still can't get over that. But, man, you do some good TV stuff. now. Thank you, buddy. I appreciate it. You're going to keep going for that? All right. Good. Good. Yes, man. ESPNU, 330. Saturday. I mean, there's this little thing called the Iron Bowl. I don't know. Maybe I'll Tebow the Iron Bowl and just watch. Just our commercials. All right. Here's what's on tap this week. It's Thanksgiving. It's football. It's rivalry week. I'm traveling. Are you guys traveling? You go anywhere? Where are you going? St. Louis? No, we're going to the mountains. Really?

The Wolfmeier Troutman family is headed into the Mount. Oh, is you like bringing the whole family? Oh, yeah. Not just you and Kit. No. Wow. Are you going anywhere other than football?

Nope. Thanksgiving in Charlotte and then football in Chicago. And then to Mobile, Alabama, to see my godson be baptized. Oh, right on. I mean, you do have like 14 brothers and sisters. So you probably have about 12 godsons, right? Roll tide. Roll tide.

A few did. It's a few did. A few 10 minutes to send you into the holiday. You have until December 3rd to vote for the Benny Jane France Humanitarian Award, which is presented by Nationwide. Roll tide. The award recognizes a NASCAR fan who has made an impact with the kids through their charity. Not just ours or kids either.

Just any kid. Do you know what Beeloma says? He says Wu Pic all the time. Yeah, I can't get on board with that. Anyways, what were we here? They make an impact with kids through their charity work in the local community. The winner will be recognized in the championship. chip banquet with a $100,000 check and a new car.

By the way, I was listening to the download on the way home last week, and I thought I really nailed the Price's Right version of that, the new car. Do you remember this, Amanda? I thought that was great. I loved it. You caught me by surprise with it, too. I mean, I'm just saying, I'm just saying, I'm, you know, I could go there. Roll tight of that.

Go to NASCAR.com backslash award. Again, voting ends December 3rd. If you want a chance to win Dale Jr.'s, fire suit, gloves, helmet, and shoes, now you can. Go to Wear It Likedale Jr.com and purchase a $10,088 will be sold. I'm going to give you a little bit more math. That means that you have a 1 and 10,088 chance to win. Oh, wow. Do you know what your chances to win the lottery are?

Higher than that. One and 175 million. So spend $10 on this. So you're telling me there's a chance. What I think I'm trying to say is that you'll win if you just do the $10 thing. I mean, one in 10,088 is pretty much guaranteed winning. I don't know that I'm going to get on board with that comment. Amanda usually agrees with you.

You can't agree with that. Amanda agrees. You have a better chance. Yeah. It's a raffle. It's a really good chance. Go heels. The sprint unlimited is 80 days away.

So we've got some time before we need to talk about that. I do want to end this white flag by saying thank you to Amanda for all that she does on this podcast and Dirty Moe Radio. I mean, she produces like 40 podcasts a week. And then... Or four. And then, also, thank you, Taylor. I mean, we just completed our third year of the Dell Jr. Download.

We've done 120 of them. 120? Yeah. Or 119 or whatever that number is. There have been 120 podcasts. So... How about that? It's good run, man.

It has been a great run, man. It's been a lot of fun. Thank you both. It's been a lot of fun. I thank T.J. as well. Well, I'm certainly grateful to Dale and to you for wanting to start this platform. It's been a hell of a lot of fun, man. And there is no one that tries to connect with their fans more than he does.

And he has more fans than anyone, yet still does a better job of connecting to each of them than anyone else does. Think about that for a second. Yeah. It's pretty remarkable. Amanda, I love you. And I'm, and I just kind of awkward That's all I wanted to say. I love you, Amanda.

It got real in here. No, I really love Betsy. Really love her. But in a platonic, in a platonic way, I love you. Oh, Taylor. I do. I love you too. Yeah.

I think there needs to be a hug. All right, come on. Oh, Taylor. There we go. All right. She would not have hug TJ just now. I can promise she's a little scarier. I wouldn't have let her hug TJ.

I appreciate him too, man. He's a hell of a lot of fun to have on these. these podcasts every week. I never know. He never knows what he's about to say next. We got surprises about T.J. for next year. Don't tell him that I said this, but I agree with that

reaction theater caller. He's the best of the business. We don't want him to know that that was said because it will, trust me, blow up his head. So don't tell him that way if you see him, ladies and gentlemen. But he is. He is the best in the business. All right, ladies and gentlemen, that's it.

For Amanda, for Dale Jr., for Mike. I'm Taylor. You've been listening to the Dale Jr. Download presented by Spy. Thanks for listening to Dirty Mo Radio. Well, that's a wrap on the 2015 season of NASCAR. I hope you guys enjoyed it, and I hope you guys enjoyed today's episode of the Dale Jr. Download. Now, don't forget, especially since the holiday shopping season is coming up,

you've only got this week to go take advantage of the discount code that Spy has given us. So go online to SpyOptic.com and find your favorite pair of signature 88 sunglasses and also check out their new style Degah. They're pretty cool. And when you go to check out, enter code nationwide 88, and you'll get 20% off that purchase. Everybody have a wonderful holiday season.