The Dale Jr. Download - 120 - Sprint Unlimited: We're Baaaaack

Episode Date: February 15, 2016

The Dale Jr. Download is back as Mike Davis and Taylor Zarzour recap the Sprint Unlimited and preview the Daytona 500 after hearing from Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Reaction Theatre returns and a new segment debuts. 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. Hopefully we learned a little bit about our crash for fair stuff. That might help us a little time. Work on it from here. Finish 15. Way to battle. Hey, everybody's Jr. Just sitting in the bus here after the Unlimited.

And that was not the finish we wanted, obviously. Especially for Tax Slayer, I tweeted about that. And what I mean is that that's their only race this year. So they've been such an amazing partner at Junior Motorsport. and they're still going to support our Xfinity program, but they were coming on to the car for a one race deal here this year, and I really wanted to do a better job than that for them. It's tax season.

I want people to try out their service, so it's a shame we couldn't get them a better finish. Anyways, the unlimited is what it is. It's an all-or-nothing race. You go out there and you want to win. If you don't win, it really doesn't matter where you finish. So, congrats to Denny. He did a good job.

He's a great plate racer. He's really coming into his own. as far as plate racing goes. He's very aggressive, which I think that's a key element to... He's smart and aggressive, you know? He really is daring with his passes and moves and where he works the draft, but he's smart, you know, he doesn't wreck his car.

So I think his style's, I feel like, real similar to my own, so I kind of thought that was neat, not surprised at all they did one. Anyhow, you know, we started the race. We thought we had a pretty good car. everybody was talking about how great our car was in practice, but nobody really ran hard in practice. We didn't get a whole pack out there in practice. I don't think a lot of people saw what Denny had or what the 22 really had or some of those guys that were up front of the two. I don't think we saw exactly what everybody had potential-wise in practice.

So I just go out there and run really aggressive in practice because I try to learn what the draft's going to do as much as I can. Plus, I'm having fun. I ain't been in a car in a long time. That first practice is always a blast. When the race started, I was, you know, they were too wide. really there really wasn't anywhere to go it was early so I didn't feel like I needed to push the issue too hard finally we got on into got on into the meat of the race and got you know started you I needed to start making some headway and moving toward the front and that was what we were

doing I felt real comfortable with the choices we were making and I thought we were moving up toward the front I thought that you know I thought we was starting to you know we was going to put ourselves in a good position there starting to make some some some passes and moving toward the front. So we were coming down the front straightaway and I saw the 14 had right side damage from earlier. I don't know if the door slammed some guys or whatever, but somehow another he had knocked a whole right side of his car in, especially on the right rear. I don't know if you had even more contact that gave him a flat tire, but coming down out of the trial, down that short shoot into turn one, he had a flat and he realized he had a flat. And I had to make a decision

needed a lift there or try to go on by him. I was expecting him to slow down quite a bit. He's obviously got a flat tire and he's going to wreck going at the speed. He was going as he turned into the corner and the transition of the corner. So I expected him to slow down dramatically to try not to wreck. But I figure he thought he was going to get run into from behind by whoever might be behind him. A lot's happening in that moment. It's hard to, you know, know exactly where everyone is around you.

You don't want to slow down too abruptly. and get rear-ended. So anyways, I thought we would be by him and clear, but he drove off in the corner with the flat tire and turned sideways into us. And so not really, you know, can't say, you know, damn it, Vickers, what the hell were you thinking? But I just assumed he'd slow down a little more because the car wasn't going to make the corner. I thought he felt like he knew he had a flat. He was definitely off the pace and checking up. But, you know, I know as lucky it didn't turn the car into the wall. It just ripped the door open.

If we had, you know, there's two things you can do there. Number one, you know that I can see that there's some door foam missing and you can't race without foam. If you come down pit road, you can't leave pit road without foam. So we've got to catch up to the pace car because I'm thinking, man, maybe they can fix this thing real fast. We won't lose any laps. Maybe if we lose one, we'll get it back. So we can't pit till we are ready to fix the car.

we are ready to fix the car because they won't let us leave with, we can't come down pit road, look at the damage, and then, you know, assess it and go catch back up to the pace car and then come down and fix it. You can't do that. They won't let you on the track without the phone. So we called up to the pace car. We come down pit road.

I didn't know the rocker panel was gone. So they have the door panel, but no way to fasten it to the car because the rocker panel's not there. So that, you know, what's important about that is that we learned, in our, you know, we, the crash damage studies that these guys do and how they repair these cars is really important. You want to fix the car as fast as you can, so you can get back out there and you can compete and get the best finish you can. So we learn tonight that when we have a, we have like a door that can go on the car when we tear the door off. Well, that door probably needs a rock or fasten to it.

So we learned a lot about our crash damage tonight that might help us some other time in the season. say we get the door tore off again at Talladega in the chase and need to fix it very, very quickly, we now know that we probably need a rocker fastened to that door. We've got to do it better than we did it tonight. So that was the reason why I guess we didn't just say heck with it. Let's not finish the race, put it in the garage. We wanted to learn how our damage repair was going. So we learned some things there.

And then, in my mind, if the car can compete, go out. there and compete. Crazier things have happened in these races. You might get some of these laps back. End up getting a chance to race for a better position, which we finished 15th. It wasn't the greatest day, but still, I've had cars that could finish the races and we didn't finish. We decided to go home. That makes me sick. So it makes you know that you don't feel like you did your best. You know you didn't do your best because you didn't compete when you could, when the car could. So that's why you're out there running all the laps even when there's really no point. Also, you know, as a race car driver, you're racing for part of the purse, so you want to

get the best finish you can, so you can get the best pay check you can. That's about it. That car is an old chassis. We did put a front and rear clip on it, a new body on it, but the center section is very old. So that's why we run it in the unlimited because it's not quite as good as Amelia. But hopefully, you know, everybody's talking about how great this car is, Amelia for the 500. Everybody's talking about this car. There's so many Hurried. There's so many Hurst. to get over through the rest of the week. We've got to get through a lot of practices. We've got to draft with Amelia in practice.

That's, you know, there's potential to get in trouble. We've got to get through the 125 with the best finish we can get. So there's still some hurdles. And hopefully we, I'll be very, very excited and thrilled when we can put that primary Daytona 500 car on the starting grid Sunday for the 500. I'll be relieved because then, you know, I want to get that car in the day. on a 500, I don't want to run the backup. So that's what we pay attention to do the rest of the week.

You know, hopefully we can win the 125. Go ahead and get a trophy and get some confidence. We're not running the truck or the Xfinity race, so don't have any added pressure there or any added workload, so we can concentrate on the 500 and do the best we can. Enjoy the download. Appreciate you, my man. This is the download presented by Spy.

Be happy with the all-new Spy Dale Jr. Paint Scheme sunglasses. It's called the Livery Series. in the popular dirty mode general daga mccoy and admiral frames get yours today it's spyoptic dot com with mike davis and first name davis formerly known as intern davis i am taylor zarser and this is the dale junior download we appreciate dale and hart junior for his comments at the beginning of each and every podcast i have tried for five or six years to get first name Davis on every program I'm associated with.

I'm pretty fired up, MD, that you brought them along this year. Do you know what his real first name is, though? Lee. Lee. Yes, sir. Lee Davis Williams. Like, how many first names can you pack into your official name? Lee Davis Williams?

I got a bunch. I would absolutely have to go initials there because I think that's like way bigger, rednecky, LD Williams. LDW. LDW. LDW. LDW. Why are you not doing that?

I don't know. I can. L-D-W. J-R-M. What do you think? Taylor, should he just be L-D-W here on the Delgion of Download? Whatever you want.

I like First Name Davis a lot. I think that works pretty well, and he created that, which I was pretty impressed with. I mean, he was intern Davis. He's the single greatest intern in any internship and any classification of all time, and he'll forever be that.

But I do like First Name Davis. He does his old, I don't know if he still has this, but on his emails, well, I just got one from him. Yeah, no, it says Davis Williams. But I have about 7,000 emails from Lee Williams. No. Yeah, he used to have that on there. We just found out about this like two weeks ago.

I mean, like, he was keeping this hidden. I kept his secret safe for a long time. But we're fired up to have him with him. We still love Amanda. Amanda's been helpful this morning to us, by the way, and we wish her well. Yeah, because L.D. Davis, he stepped in. First of all, let's just tell you about our mornings. All right.

So on the very first day of the Dale, Dale Jr. Download, fourth season, we've had a fire alarm. In fact, right now, there's a nice little strobe light going off in the studio that we just, I guess we're ignoring LD. I mean, is that what we're doing? Yeah, we're ignoring it. I mean, because everybody else is. It's like there's a fire alarm and everybody's like, this is Daytona week, man. We got stuff to do. So we've got a fire alarm.

We've had technical problems, but man, we're here. Yes, we are. Yes, we are. And in part, we are here because of Miss Amanda Wolfmeyer. So we do appreciate her. Yes. And all that she did for us for the last few years and wish her well. And she's still a great friend to us for sure, especially this morning.

You know what? I've really missed these last couple months. I've missed this sound, Mike Davis. Oh, and he started us off with it right at the top of the show. I've really missed the beard itching. And I've got as full of beard right now as I've ever had in my life. And I'm... You're doing it.

It sounds great. You have got a great sounding beard. Thank you. I appreciate it. that's really what I've been working on these last couple of months. But I've missed that sound. Year four, we're fired up to bring you the Dale Jr. download presented by a spy. Mike, you have worked so hard on this.

You and Jr. created this a few years ago. He'd be very, very quick to interrupt me right now and say, man, this is all him. I just said, okay, but you did. You've put all this together. You've got obviously a lot of other things going on. I don't know what to think about you giving T.J. his own podcast. That's about the most dangerous decision you've ever made in your life. But certainly looking forward to hearing what he's going to do and all the different

podcasts that you're going to have this season on Dirty Moe Radio. But from it's year four, three years ago, our first podcast with with the Earnhardt ladies telling us trying to describe what it was like to lose Dale and how incredibly emotional that was to where we are today. It has been so much fun. Two years ago, of course, a junior winning the 500 was one of the most fun things that we've ever done on the download. And I got high hopes this year, my friend.

We've seen him grow so much as a human being. And certainly we've seen him grow as a driver too. And this year, I don't know about you, Mike. I'm not, you can't say it's championship or bust because of the format. You really can't. I mean, you know how I feel about that. and how frustrated I got at times last year at the format. But here is what I want.

I want at the end of the season to be able to say, and I know this is the goal with everyone from Dale to Greg to everybody associated with the 88, I want at the end of the season for us to be able to say no one had a better year than Dale Earnhardt Jr. And I think that's absolutely realistic. Well, we know about the issues that we had last year, and so I think that all of us,

I'll speak for myself, but I'll probably speak for a lot of people saying, we know that the issues that we had last year, I would hope to see them addressed and probably improved a significant amount, wouldn't you, Taylor? I mean, we know that we had issues on pit road a lot. I hope to see that improved. I think we had consistency issues at times. I'd like to see that improved.

And you got to expect, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that. Now that Greg Ives has got a year under his belt on the cup side, we know that he's a brilliant guy. We know that they can build fast race cars. Now let's see what all this means to us. Let's see what a year of improvements can do for us. And I think we listened to what Dale Jr. said, this unfortunate incident in the Sprint Unlimited gave us practice to repair.

You know, repair practice, which you cannot, you can't simulate that in the offseason behind Hendrick Motorsports. So I'm really pleased to see what they were able to do. And I think that car was pretty sporty after they were able to repair it. Unfortunately, it started off six laps down. and got two of them back, but was unable to contend, obviously, at the end. So, you know, we'll see. That's what I'm looking forward to this year because I think if those things are addressed, you get into the chase, you win you some races, you get into the chase,

it's a whole new ball of wax. And, you know, I hate to say luck is involved, but it absolutely is because we were unlucky at Charlotte when Carl Edwards, you know, basically ruined our chances to be able to continue. You've got to be lucky. and then if so let's just let's just make sure we're good first and then we'll see if we're lucky yeah um i love what junior said i wanted to be able to say damn it vickers uh but it was just one of those racing deals i certainly said that after talladega about seven or eight years ago

when uh when vickers collected uh junior and jimmy at the uh at the end of a tal another plate race there at talladega when uh when vickers was in the 25 car uh years ago but you can't say it from Saturday night. No, I mean, Vickers had a tire going down. You know, I was thinking through what Dale Jr. was saying, if you remember in this race, Vickers was in the middle, and I think that probably had a lot to do with his decision. And this is a guess, but I think that probably had a lot to do with his decision not to just slow down, because if you're in the middle, you've got to think that that's probably the last place you want to be

when you let off the gas, and especially in a restrictor plate race. So Vickers was absolutely in the middle. I did talk to T.J., and he said that he saw Vickers wiggle. coming out of four. And so he knew that something didn't look right. And Junior even alluded to it, he could see that something didn't look right. So he had a decision to make. He made a decision to try to go buy him.

And it ended up just not working out for him. He took the whole door panel off. And it looked like a foam packing party down there in turn one. It really did. Yeah, it really did. And as, you know, a lot of people that don't really understand the sport that are casual fans, many of them are tuning in, especially this time of year, certainly it would be turning in for the Daytona 500,

and they don't understand when people, you know, incessantly talk about sponsors. The more you're around the sport, you completely understand it. Certainly if you work for junior motorsports as you guys do, and you work exclusively from them, it's your livelihood. It's what makes the world goes around. You're so grateful to them for giving you an opportunity to go out there

and race on a weekend. week out business, their business, their support of you is vital. And Dale Jr. is genuine in what he said about Tax Slayer. You hate that. I mean, because like he said, this is their chance to be on the hood, thought he had a great car, really something that could have been competitive. And you do. Once you truly understand the business model of NASCAR, Mike, you do.

You hate it for Taxpayer or whoever's, you know, on the hood of the car in a given race that doesn't go well when you can't do anything to change it. Well, there's several reasons for Junior feeling that way. Let me give you some of them. One is we've had this partnership with Taxpayer probably five, six years. I can't remember exactly the first year. And Junior has driven a Taxpayer car many times. And you know what?

For some reason, we have just never been able to put it together when you have Dale Jr. and Tax Slayer in those races. And those are the most valuable races if you're Taxpayer, when Dale Jr. is behind the wheel. We've won races with Taxpayer, but it was with Regan. So I'm telling you it's just we've never been able to put. But Junior has really been wanting to have a good race for Taxlayer, and it just never really happened. Two, it's tax season.

I mean, this is the most important time for Taxpayer. We have, you know, they're on our car throughout the year, but really February, March is their big time of the year. And so this is something, and the third reason is this is their one-cup race. Now, they're on our car for 10 races in the Xfinity series, but this was their one-cup race, and this was an idea that Junior had to take them up to cup. and make it work for them, and we worked real hard to do that. And so, yeah, a little disappointing that we weren't able to have a better showing for tax player. It's one of them racing deals, man.

It's just what happens. I got a really funny story for you guys. Now, as first name Davis will certainly attest to, I've married way up. Well, I can attest to that. Yeah, you can attest to it. But Davis especially, first name Davis especially can because he did. He's very close to the family. and my wife's best childhood friend

sent me a text message on Saturday night wondering what in the world I had just put on Twitter. I tweeted Saturday night what I'm thankful for, number one, my faith, number two, my family, and number three, that Amelia wasn't involved in that wreck and would dominate next weekend. Taylor's a cheater! That's what she's thinking.

No, no, no. My wife's best friend text me on Saturday night, and said, what kind of wreck was I in? That's what she said. Oh, her name's Amelia? Her name is Amelia. And she is an extremely successful person out in California working for entertainment television. And she's like, what are you talking about it?

What am I doing next weekend? And I started laughing so hard because I never even thought of that, you know, like when I'm sending this out. And I was like, well, there's actually another Amelia in my life and it's a car. But I hope you're doing well. So, you know, she's like, I have no idea what this guy's talking about. But that's what I was talking about. Here's what I want to know from you. Yes.

Which Amelia is the most important, Amelia, in your life? I hope she's not listening, but it's a car. It's a car. And I hope that I hope she's able to perform quite well coming up in the Great American Race. I'll tell you what. I thought, I know that, you know, Junior's message obviously, his message for us was sent out the late Saturday night, but I really like what I saw in qualifying, Mike, especially in that first run.

Look, congratulations to our guy, Chase Elliott. I mean, good gracious. That was ridiculous. That last lap he put down, and at 20 years young, the man is going to be on the pole. Thought Kenseth had a real shot to be in that front row, and he will be starting on the outside. But like Jr. said, go into those Can-Am duels and see what you got and see if he can get near that second or third row. come Sunday. But congratulations to Chase. That was phenomenal.

Yeah, congratulations to Chase, I guess. But you know what? I realized when he just won the poll at 20 years old, like all those things that we were just so happy about that he did here at Junior Motorsports, start to feel a little annoying. Now it's not, now that it's not with us, because I really wanted that poll for Dale. Now, I know that there was this guy named Matt Kenseth in between the pole and Dale, but I'm just telling you, Chase, I mean, you're 20 years old. What were you doing when you were 20 years old, Taylor? Seriously, what? There's nothing good.

God, you tell you that. You talk about 20 years old to do, and I'm happy for him, but man, I have a feeling this is just the start of it. Because the kid is so good. But yeah, so yeah, I'll step up and congratulate him. But I've got a little bit of an asterisk for it because. I understand your frustration. Clearly, a junior was thrilled for. and those guys were communicating a lot during qualifying,

and I think will be great teammates moving forward. He's certainly the future of Hendrick Motorsports. There's no question about that. I mean, you've got, I mean, Dale will be the first to tell you. Jimmy would certainly be the first to tell you that they don't have many years left doing this. I mean, there's no announcement coming or anything like that. But they're in, you know, the last handful, last decade of their career, and Chase clearly is the future.

And by the way, I thought Jeff Gordon did a really good job so far. broadcast booth. I'm going to be excited to hear his perspective. You mentioned it, Mike, late in the year that you thought that Jeff, it'll be interesting to see where he will get that competitive juices flowing again because he can be extremely competitive, maybe to a fault, as we've seen in the past on the track. But I do think he'll do a good job up there in the booth. And hopefully his first full race will be calling his old teammate 88 to the start finish line with another win in the Daytona 500. I think what Dale said is so true.

If you can just get through Thursday, have a really solid run there, and be somewhere near the second or third row, I think he will breathe such a sire relief, and then let's start it and, you know, may the best man win. Well, listen, we said this last year. I've gone back and listened to our comments after the Daytona 500 last year. Remember, this is the same car. and what we didn't know then, but we do know now is how great that car is, because it went off and won itself for several races, should have won three.

So many variables go in to whether you can win a Daytona 500, no matter how good you are. And if you remember the Daytona 500 last year, we were running towards the front of the pack that whole race, but then something happened. I think the 51 had wiggled or it just really bottled up the line we were in. And next thing you know, we find ourselves with 20 laps to go. like 17th place and nowhere to go. Traffic jam. The best car out there, arguably, could not get anywhere.

We thought we were just doomed for a 20th place finish. It took a couple cautions and, you know, a green-white, checkered restart for us to be able to get back up there. That's just to say this. The best car out there still has to be lucky, and there's so many variables with Daytona that, you know, the duels and like, it seems like about 400 practices before the race. if we could just get through them, then we like our chances. But even then in that race, man, when you get caught in traffic,

I think you saw a little bit of that in the Sprint Unlimited with half the field. You get caught in traffic, you're just going to have to be patient. That's exactly right. Well, two, three years ago, to your point, Elliot Sadler collected Jimmy Johnson on the first lap, and Jimmy was back here in Charlotte watching the end of the race. I mean, so I forgot about that. It's kind of crazy what happens there. and you're exactly right.

There's also always going to be an element of luck involved in it. So interesting things about Daytona International Speedway, first name Davis's notes are through the roof. I've missed them, to be quite honest with you and other things that I'm involved in. I mean, if you write this much, you should be doing a book signing at Barnes & Noble when you write this much.

He's just the greatest. The place opened in 1959, $400 million renovation that has gone on there. We talked obviously about very, Dickers and Junior, 21 crashes in a 25 car field. And that speaks to what Dale said. If you ain't first, your last,

and certainly everybody was vying for that two and a half million, buying for that big check. There was an actual, there was two and a half million dollars in damages that occurred from six crashes on, on a Saturday night. And all three hundred cars were collected in that as well, which is just kind of crazy. We saw Edwards try to squeeze in between Kislauski and Kinseth,

and it sent Edwards into the wall. It was a huge wreck, and we went into overtime, and of course, Denny ultimately won the race. What was interesting is Greg Biffle said the bottom line was really slow on Saturday night, and we'll see if that has any impact in the duel. So that's really a summary of what happened in the Unlimited. Let's hear some radio chatter. Junior Nation, be sure to follow Nationwide 88 on Facebook and Twitter this week

as Nationwide will release their new TV spot featuring Dale Jr. on Thursday at 11 a.m. Here's some highlights or even low lights from the race. Hi, buddy. Ready. Green, green, green, rolling in front of you. Everybody's rolling. Nobody's checking up down there by himself. Up there. Still down there. There's three wide up there, about six rows back.

They got the 10 hung in the middle right now. Inside, 47 by himself, no one else. Getting real jammed up there again, right in the middle and stuff. No real pressure, nobody in your mirror, buddy. Bottom lane is kind of thinning out a little bit. They need to come up for the way to hold that door foam in there with a back giant Velcro strap that went through around the roll bar. That way you could raise without a door.

You know, you can get new phone, put it in there, wrapped around something. Passing somehow. Okay, I want you to shut your fans off and save fuel. late fuel. Yeah, I don't know if they're going to give us the lucky dog right away. We're like a lap and a half short if they don't. You know, if they do it like last time where it can't come down and fill up. Yeah. Well, I'll come only able to splash it.

Where did we catch the field? Sorry, I missed that. I said if we remember where we caught the field before that last green flag, we'd probably come in and splash. I have to rely on, T.J. Where did we catch them there? You get that time to splash it, Greg Okay, 10-4 Oh, we only lost three laps I didn't know we were

Six whole Lapt town I thought it was only three or four Yeah, it was only three when it was under caution And they took off there, so Ten four All right, buddy, they are wrecking back there Cautions out, caution's out 48 is spitting down through the grass

I believe the grass ripped his nose off or something as well Careful safety trucks up here There's some rolling up here Already in front of you there Jimmy's rolling already Yeah that's 408's hurt pretty good

But we'll see We ran through some debris there So we go ahead and throw tires on it 10 4, 4 tires fuel 4600 buddy 4600 on us Coming to you guys here Greg Alright man

We're 10 away Okay 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Leading the grill Go, go, go. What are those giant pieces of paper are? Yeah, I don't know, buddy. They're huge.

It's like the size of a dam. That bag blowing down the short shoot, man. It's gigantic. It's been like three or four of those. Yeah, when they get hit, it disintegrates into about 15 little pieces that fit grills perfectly. Another one. I wonder where they're going from. Probably construction.

That bag still on the track. somewhere over here on the front stretch and in turn one. No pressure buddy. Five just hanging out back there. It'd be ten to go at the line. At the five just below a tire in your mirror there is tire debris on the racetrack. He might have just a little bit. It looks like a one-up over the safer barrier so he's down below the line now. It should be good. Cautions out debris in turn two. We'll get another one back. Why is there no free pass? There's a, uh, should be a free pass, let me check.

I heard free pass and NASCAR caught out. Their radios are terrible. Yeah, no free pass, I guess. Okay. Maybe inside the end-to-go, there's a rule or something. Is there no free pass with a tent to go, Greg? I've never heard that before. Yeah, the thigh was the free pass, and he was the reason for the caution.

So, did you copy that, Greg? I don't know he was a lab down. Yeah, he was the reason for the caution. Copy that. While I was sitting in the pit box, the battery went dead. I didn't have the man's on or anything. So that's twice this happened in the... It happened in the garage the other day too.

Yeah, 10-4. You didn't have your AC or anything on either. I didn't have a helmet blower on, but it's never really been an issue before. Yeah, 10-4. Here he is coming up behind you. Only car coming to you. He will have a run. Four back, two back, one back. He's there.

No caution. It's caution is out. Cauts out. Pull them up. All right. Hopefully we learned a little bit about our crash for fair stuff. That might help us a little time. That's all right.

We'll work on it from here. Finish 15. Way to battle. There you go. Some race chatter from Saturday night. We will play it every single week here on the Dale Jr. Download. And again, it is brought to you by Nationwide.

By the way, did you know, you know I got a theory on this offseason stuff? you know, it's kind of like I equate it to your cell phone charge. It's like you can only get about a 70% charge with the way this short off season is. Do you feel the same way, Davis? Yes. I mean, it's like, you know, you can't get a full charge the way we've got this schedule. You're on 10, 10 and a half months. Then you're like, okay, now it's time to recharge, right?

There's not even enough time to get a full recharge. It really snuck up on me this year, as much as I can remember. And I think you're absolutely right on that. Certainly all of us have opinions on how long the season should be, but this is what we got, and it's going to be what we got for the foreseeable future. We also have Reaction Theater. It is back. I cannot wait to hear it.

What we got, Davis? Where the hell do I begin? Let's first start with Nilspar, whose race view application has the long channel for the 88 team. The mobile application that NASCAR has has absolutely no audio. at all. And on the in-car cameras on the audio application, for the 88 team, whose car do they have? The 22. What happens? Brian Bickers, whose head is firmly implanted up as app, Rex Jr. Brian Bickers never could be great. If NASCAR could ever do anything right, get anything right, they should make the crash great again. It should only be pole sitters, past class champions,

and maybe past Cup champion, so I ain't even sure I want that. I'm sorry. I just need to bend. This is not the fucking way. This season is supposed to start out. And Brian Bickers being in the 500 next weekend. Holy shtray.

I've missed reaction theater so much. I know. Well, okay, so let's address a couple of these things. First of all, I will say this. The issues with NASCAR.com and raceview were actually because our team went to Channel 2 and didn't necessarily nor would they they didn't tell anybody but that's not really their job

to go telling everybody what channel they're on it's really their business so they switched to Channel 2 and here's why if people long time Dale Jr. fans will know at Daytona we have always had some sort of interference or bleed over from other radio channels that are like outside the track like you'll hear a construction worker talking about

lower that crane or doing something And it's like, we're in the middle of a race. So they are using Channel 2. And NASCAR.com had Channel 1, which a lot of people mistaken. They thought, oh, now it's fixed because I can hear TJ. It wasn't fixed. TJ and Greg Ives will often talk to each other on the backup channel, which in this case was the Channel 1, not Channel 2.

Do you see what I'm saying? I do. So when NASCAR.com figured that out, you know, we had already wrecked. We were already six laps down. They finally got it figured out, but that was the issue that went on this past weekend. Clearly it will not be tolerated by her. Nor should it. I mean, I'm not saying people should be okay with that.

You pay for a service. You expect to get it. So that's something that NASCAR.com will have to address and know that we're probably going to be on Channel 2 again at the Daytona 500. I noticed you didn't want to explain Brian Vickers being on the track and defend that or try to explain it any better to her. You just explain what was going on with Channel 1 and Channel 2. but she clearly has a real issue with him just as much as she has an issue with anything else. I'm like you. My issues with Vickers have nothing to do with Saturday night.

They have everything to do with 2005. Was it really 2005? Wasn't it? Yeah. It was 2006. Yeah, I looked at him. That's a long time. I've sort of forgiven him for that.

But look, I know you haven't. But the guy had a tire going down. He's in the middle of group. What are you going to do? I'm okay. Yeah. We do have a very funny Vickers, Dale Jr., mistaken identity story that we've told in this show before.

So that's funny. But that was not funny. What happened on Saturday night? By the way, we're all pulling for Tony Stewart. A guy has been through a whole lot of hell. No matter how you feel about him or whatever, and I hope he's back and healthy. It's just unbelievable what this has been through the last couple of years.

All right, what we got next? Not the way we wanted to start the year off, but compared to the last couple of seasons, it's really not that bad of a sign. We haven't had very much good luck and he's unlimited, so I'm not going to get too upset. Besides, Amelia, she's safe in the hangar. She ain't going nowhere.

Hell yeah. That's a good attitude. I like it. That's pretty much how I feel, too. I mean, after Saturday night, I think that's the right approach. All right, what we got next? Well, I'm a Dale Jr. fan.

I believe he would have won tonight if it hadn't have been for Brian Vickers wrecking him early in the race. The other NASCAR drivers just need to learn how to drive or get out of the way and let the drivers that do know how to drive get to the front where they belong. There you go. Yep. I can tell you, I am pumped about these Can Am duels, well, at least the one Junior's in, on Thursday night. Because we've seen it often, especially in recent years with Amelia, et cetera. But watching him mow through a field of race cars is just such a joy to watch.

And man alive, did he do that in this event coming up on Thursday, Mike, last year. Boy, him and his dad. They find their way to the front of these duels. Didn't Dale Sr. like win like nine or ten in a row at some point? It's ridiculous, wouldn't it? It's like ridiculous, yeah. I'll say this, and I think that Senior would have admitted this freely today.

Watching his boy last year in this thing, that's as talented as anybody I've ever seen doing it. That was a great race. I actually forgot about that, but that was a phenomenal. criminal race. And, yeah, yeah, I'm looking forward to that. Did you say K&N Dules, though? Canam. Canam.

Canam. Yes, the K&M duels this year. Are you serious? I didn't know this. Serious, yeah. Canam. Can't am. Goodness.

Go, man, trying to just say, you've always given me so much grief for calling it the shootout and all these things that don't exist anymore. I was trying to get the right terminology, man. Jump on board. I'm not going to give you a hard time. I make that. I make that same mistake. I mean, I will probably call it the Gatorade Dules before it's all over.

with grand nationals are coming up on Saturday. Did you see Junior's shirt, by the way, that he tweeted the, make the clash great again? Yeah, I did. He calls me up last week, and he's like, I need a shirt. And I said, and he goes, and I need it by this afternoon because I'm leaving for Daytona tomorrow. And I said, all right, what, just what do you got? Hashtag, make the clash great again. I'm in the middle of a conference call, and I'm like, I couldn't help but laugh.

I mean, that's kind of like, that's the kind of instructions we get from the boss sit around here. I need a t-shirt. Well, that's important. Make the clash great again. Lots of respect for him wanting to wear that. I also enjoyed watching him jump like a bunny rabbit while Marty was interviewed Kevin Harvick on television.

He had an eventful weekend. All right, let's go next. Oh, my God, I saw that, and I was thinking, just like Britney Spears. Oops, he did it again. By God, man, hey, no worries. Got next time. Keep it up, baby. Woo!

There you go. Who did it again? Is that a Vickers? Is that what that was? I know the Vickers not. Okay. Who's next? What the f***?

Reaction theater, count your beers. Who counts my beers? My ex-wife counts my beers. That's why she's my ex-wife. Ginger's going to win tonight, but I really don't care because Amelia's going to win next week at Daytona, and that's what they should care about. We're going to play the f*** up on everybody next week on the Daytona 500. Thank you.

It's amazing how tough it is to complete sentences once you've had a big night like that. It is rough. It is rough. Shout out to his ex-wife, too. That's right. If you ever call out an X on reaction theater, that's almost like a sure-fire way to get put on reaction theater. Yeah, you're in. Like, you've got to, Davis, just moving forward, if you ever call out an X, and it can be husband or wife, that's something we're going to probably want to play.

First name, Davis, do you have that list of all the life advice I've given? given you over the years? Yeah, I do. You do? You do, okay. I'd love to. Life advice podcast one day. I would love to see all this advice because I don't remember half of it.

But put that down on the life advice sheet that I've given you. All right. If you call out your ex, you will make it on to Reaction Theater. Like during the off week, during the off week, we ought to just do a reaction theater podcast, nothing about just venting about your exes. I would be fascinated to do this life. We should have done it for Valentine's Day, especially. That's true.

We should have done that, right? Yeah, we've, oh boy, I've had a lot of fun. And unfortunately, first name Davis can, has seen plenty of it. All right, what we got next? I'd say that damn Jeff Gordon made the Fox broadcast actually, actually okay to watch and listen to. God, those guys, I hated Fox broadcast, but man, Jeff Gordon, he changed the whole, the whole chemistry, the entire broadcast, just by him being there. really, it's actually really good.

I think maybe, maybe this year won't suck so bad, and I can actually watch the TV. Go to get the season started. I'm not worried about the 88. This race don't mean anything. Amelia's fast, badass fast. Let's go win. It's Daytona 500. Hell yeah.

Hell yeah. You know, I've got to admit I didn't actually listen to the Fox broadcast, which I rarely do listen to the TV broadcasts. So I don't know. I'm listening to everybody else talk about how well, Jeff Gordon did, which I'm not surprised. Yeah, I'm not surprised, but maybe I need to turn the volume up on that. I'm pretty pumped, to be honest with you, about the analysts now that are going to be calling races.

You know, DW is DW and he's fine. Jeff Burton's fine. But I'm really pumped that we get LaTart for half the season and we get Jeff Gordon for half the season because I think those guys are both going to be terrific for years to come. So he was. He was real. I agreed with everything, everything that was just said. He was really good on Saturday.

That's good. It's good to hear. All right. What's next? What's up, fellas? It's 6 o'clock Sunday morning. I'm on my way to get some more ass-kissing gifts for my wife and my children. I really wasn't that disappointed.

I mean, I was disappointed, but I really wasn't that upset last night after the rage. But I wasn't upset with Brian Vickers. You know, it happens. And he seems like he's a pretty decent. guy. Well, there was that time that he wrecked us, Caledega, a lot of Jimenez.

Oh, what the hell? Fri. I'm really glad to have you guys back. I can't wait to see Amelia Earnhardt on track this week, and hopefully that baby retires next Sunday and goes to Daytona USA. Oh, yeah, boys. Amelia. Amelia Earnhardt.

Yeah. Should Amy Field have mixed emotions about Amelia? No, Amelia's terrific. And yeah, I love that we've given her a full name now. Well, I mean, she was named after, if I heard this correctly, after Amelia Earhart. Yeah. There you go. Because she flies.

She does fly. But let's go ahead and just, very close. Let's just go ahead and change darn heart. And we all live happily ever after here. Man, if things go well Thursday and or Sunday, I mean, really, that there is going to be, she might be in the Smithsonian by next. Monday. You know what? That brings up a good point.

I'll try to be quick, Davis. I think that we often, like, overcook, overblow these chassis. Like, we almost make them more than what they are, like some chassis finishes in, like, six straight top tens. We're like, oh, we're bringing her back, and she gets a name and everything. But this car actually deserves it, being as good as it's been. And being that it, it's sort of old. I mean, you think about it.

If Lartre built it at this point, it can be classified as an antique almost. And yet it's still getting a. done. So I do think that it deserves the attention that it's got, don't you? Totally. I mean, it's crazy. You just think of how dominant was all of the 2015 season

and it absolutely could have won the 500. We saw what happened at Dago, should have won both Tala Daga races, won the second race down there, the Firecracker. The duel last, it was ridiculous. It was, it was crazy. It was one of the greatest

years, if not the greatest, restrictor plate year from one car slash driver we've ever seen. Yeah, I mean, Tony Stewart had a car back in 2004 that I remember won three consecutive races, maybe even four. And, you know, those are the types of cars that, you know, all right, now you're talking. Forever. Yeah. So, so they, you know, and I think Jeff Gordon had one that, back in the days, back in

the 90s that just, just completely annihilated everything it ever raced, you know. So, but yeah, this one, this car, especially we'll see how it does Sunday. But, I mean, I'm telling you, if this thing shows up Sunday, makes it to Sunday and shows up on Sunday and really just mows them down, man. It belongs somewhere. For sure. All right. Who's next?

I can't believe Brian Vickers, seriously. 20 laps in and he proves he needs to go back to filming his stupid Zerolto commercials. So frustrated. Junior had the best car. Oh, Brian. Come on. Listen, we cannot be that upset with Vickers, right? My buddy Don Roar is probably just about to go crazy right now at all this.

Bickers had a tire go down. I love those go. Kevin Neeland, Arnold Palmer, and Chris Boller. Who's in that, Davis? Chris Bosch. Arnold Palmer, yeah, Kevin Eland and Brian Bickers. Cry to group. It is kind of a strange.

It is. If I saw the four of those guys eating lunch, I'd be real, real confused. But come on, I mean, when a tire goes down at a restrictor plate track, what are you going to do? What are you going to do? Blame Brian Vickers, evidently. Who's next? Well, before Junior Nation decides to start freaking out about the crash tonight, let me just remind them of what happened the last time.

The 88 crashed in the Sprint Unlimited and Denny Hamlin won the Sprint Unlimited. This is the Daytona 500 I'm talking about anyways, but it rained very hard. There was a tornado warning out for the track. The race was delayed six and a half hours. Oh, yeah, and Junior won, and joined Twitter. You know, not bad for a guy who drank three and a half jacks of Coke to remember that stuff. But, go to junior, man. Kick some aspects weekend.

Let's bring him in another win, shall we? Hashtag three jack and Coke. Did he say three jacks of Coke? the first time? He did. Yeah. Well, I love that Jacks, Daniel. I do too.

John's a good man. Oh, gentleman Jacks. He's a good fellow. We've gotten along quite well through the years. Well, maybe history repeats itself again with, I hope not. I hope we don't have to wait. I want to see that race scheduled, start as scheduled on Sunday. Who's next?

Last one. Mike Davis, you suck. All right. Davis. I can just see Davis's face here. He couldn't wait to get to that reaction theater. Save it for last. By the way, if you also say Mike Davis sucks, you will be on.

You most likely be on reaction theater because if you talk about your ex-wife or you say Mike Davis sucks, you will make it to reaction theater here on the Dale Jr. Download. Really good stuff. this week. I have really missed that. I know that through the years on an old local radio show I was doing, we, Davis and I had a blast, and Mike Davis had a blast listening to him. These four years have been so much fun doing reaction theater, and you can always participate. It is open 24-7-365.

Mike likes to say you can call toll-free and leave us your voicemail message. I'm not real sure you can even call toll-free anymore, but you can dial. 855-740-1902 855-740-1902 and leave us your message and we'll play the best of them each week on the Dale Jr. download. Talk about your ex-wife or make fun of Mike. There's a real chance you will be on the podcast. So there you go. That was actually Martin Friedrich left that voicemail. That's great.

That was Martin? Yeah, that was Martin. Yes. I love it. Well, that changes things. Yeah. Yeah. The ongoing rivalry between those two in the office continues.

I thought that was funny until you just said that. Now you don't think it's funny anymore. No, I'm mad. No, I'm hurt. All right, before we get to White Flagg, a couple other phenomenal notes from First Name Davis, Chase won the poll, as we know. The last four poll winners, Chase, this is his first race in the 24, Jeff Gordon in the last 500, Austin Dylan in his first race in the three,

Danica Patrick, her rookie year. It's been crazy who's been on the poll the last four years. Dale Jr.'s average starting position at Super Speedways last year with Amelia was 3.25. He'll be in the first duel on Thursday night. Of his 26 career victories, 10 have come at Daytona and Talladega's average finish at Daytona 12.7 is better than all but one track. And Jeff Gordon said this about Daytona. He said, quote, I think the focus and the sense.

storyline has got to be on junior. Hendrick dominated the restrictor plate races last year with very few changes I would expect for their dominance or their strength to still be there. And of course, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and restrictor plate racing go hand in hand. If you look at how he's raised, he's been aggressive. He's worked really hard to maintain track position. He's also at a fast race car, which helps. Hard to disagree with any of that. And to Gordon's point, Mike, about junior maintaining track position. I certainly think that you will see. see him try to get to the front and stay there as quickly as possible. That formula has really worked in the last few years.

It's where the best air is. And so that's where I expect to see Dale. For sure. All right. Let's throw the white flag. Well, Taylor, unfortunately, I've got another unsponsored year of white flag. So you know what that means, right? It's up to us again.

Shoutouts. Yep. So who we got this week? Who you want to make the sponsor of White Flag? This week, I'm going to give a shout out to Barbisol. Barbisol. Yeah. Which you probably haven't used much of, right?

I used a little bit of Barbisol on my neck for the first time. So they deserve the whole sponsor of this magnificent segment because you shaved your neck? Just a little bit of my neck. It made a tremendous difference. I want to thank them very much. And they get to sponsor this week's White Flag segment. All right. Here we go.

Dale Jr. is doing the ESPN Car Wash today, which is Monday. By the way, do you like being back on Mondays, Taylor? Does it feel like your home again? I do love Monday. Yes, absolutely. So although by the time you hear this podcast, Junior's probably going to be wrapped up with his ESPN run, but you can still go on Dell Jr.com and see what show schedule he was on,

or if you do catch this as we release it, he probably still has a few left over. But that's where he is. He's up in Bristol, Connecticut today doing the ESPN car wash. By the way, speaking of Car Wash, Davis, have you watched your car lately? No, I have not. Yeah, you probably should do that. I need to too also. All right, back to Dale.

He's got a busy week. He heads back to Daytona this evening. Tomorrow he has Daytona Media Day. Dirty Moe Radio, by the way, will have you covered with an all new Said Jr. presented by Nationwide from Daytona Media Day. On Wednesday, he has a few appearance rounds to make and also a special press conference. That too will be covered by Said Jr., presented by Nationwide. That's all I'm going to tell you about that.

And then on Wednesday afternoon, he has a date, Taylor, with Amelia, in the form of a cup practice. 5 o'clock and then again at 6.10 p.m. As they prepare for the, what is it? The Can-A-M Doles. There you go. I don't think I'll be able to say that without throwing in a little Alabama slang. He'll have a date with Amelia for the Can-A-M Doles. The Dules are Thursday.

Junior is racing. Then the first one, he'll start second. I feel confident that that might be the worst running position he will have that day. It'll only get better. The Dules are being televised on Fox Sports 1 at 7 p.m. Friday, more practice and more interviews. On Saturday, more practice for the Daytona 500, more appearances. I will say final cut practice starts at 12, 15 p.m., and that will either be a very important

one or a very easy one, because easy in the fact that if their car is where they want it, they probably won't run many laps in that final practice. Junior isn't in Saturday's Xfinity Series race, but four of his cars are. Four, not even three. Four. Here you go. Elliot Sadler in the number one, one main Chevrolet. Casey Kane in the number five Helman Chevrolet,

Justin Algeier in the number seven branch Chevrolet, and Chase Elliott is in the number 88 tax slayer Chevrolet. Your poll winner for the 500 is going to be in our number 88 car on Saturday. So there you go. And by the way, I will remind you it is tax season. And Taylor, all that big time serious XM, ESPN touchdown radio money you make. You really, really, really ought to consider doing your taxes. I noticed, Al, you didn't say,

All the money I make from the Dale Jr. Right. Right. There you go. I think this is tax exempt probably, right? I mean, you make so little money here. Well, I hope they have a great day on Saturday with Chase. Saturday is the day to pull for Chase, not Sunday.

Saturday is the day to pull. That's right. That's right. For Chase, and I'm with you. I hope that that last Saturday practice is absolutely stress-free. Well, you know what? Speaking of Chase, you know, being in our... car and winning the poll.

I was listening to that note you were reading about the poll winners, and you're talking about Austin, Dylan, Danica Patrick. I don't remember where Jeff Gordon finished last year in the 500, but I don't think it was well. My point is, the poll hasn't been very well. Hadn't been very kind. No, the poll has not been very kind to the guys in the race. So we'll see how Chase does it.

Well, and I mean, we can go back even further. Junior won at five, I guess four years ago. And then wrecked in practice. Right. So right, and had to go to the back. So it doesn't necessarily, you're right, yield great results in the race. Let's hope for an unbelievable 500 on Sunday. And we'll have our second edition of the Dale Jr.

Download presented by Spy next week. And I cannot wait. Year number four is underway. It's underway. For LDW, aka first name Davis, aka formerly intern Davis, also known as Lee Davis, What was your nickname in high school? Come on. I mean, like DW, D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D, stuff like that.

D-D-D-W. Also for Mike Davis, I am Taylor-Zarzer, and of course for Dale and Art Jr. And this has been the Dale Jr. Download presented by Spy. Thanks for listening to Dirty Mo Radio. Hey, Junior Nation. Thank you for listening to the Dale Jr. download presented by Spy. Be happy with the all-new Spy, Dale Jr. paint scheme sunglasses. It's called Del.

They're available in the popular Dirty Moe, General Degah, McCoy, and Admiral Frames. Get yours today at Spyoptic.com.