The Dale Jr. Download - 134 - Star-Studded and Stumped

Episode Date: May 23, 2016

Dale Earnhardt Jr. dishes on Saturday’s All-Star Race and the gains his team made during the weekend. USA Today’s Jeff Gluck joins the show to discuss everyone’s fervor over the All-Star format and what JR Nation should expect moving forward. 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. Are they trying to finish all of them backing up there to those spots? Yeah, they are. Yeah, that's what I mean. I want to laugh. If you're laughing at it. It's the Dale Jr. Download presented by Spy.

It's the craziest paint scheme yet. Get the all-new limited edition Spy Rangler Daga sunglasses this weekend. It's Charlotte Motor Speedway. You can order them online at Spyoptic.com. Dale Earnardt Jr.'s thoughts in just a minute with first name Davis. and Mike Davis, I'm Taylor Zarzer. We'll also have Jeff Gluck calling in on speed dial. So we'll hear Dale Jr's thoughts here, Mike, in just a second,

about the All-Star race, about where the team's at, and things that are moving forward as well. But real quickly, that sucked. I mean, I don't know what else. The format didn't work. Whether we want to give NASCAR credit for trying, the effort, et cetera, I think everybody left confused on Saturday night, and that's unfortunate. It was confusing, but I've always admitted that how Dale Jr. finishes a race often determines how I think about formats and rain delays and all that stuff.

And so Jr. just scored his best All-Star finish since 2002, and that was a good thing. And moreover, I think that Dale Jr., if I'm taking his comments on the radio chatter, it sounded like he was kind of happy with this call. Yeah, I would say that's a good point. Two things. The format didn't work, in my opinion. Okay. Would you disagree with that? It was confusing.

It was confusing. And we can get with Jeff Glover. Yeah, we'll get into effort and all that later and attempt, you know, credit for trying all that. The format did not work. That's one of the thoughts I had. The other thought I had was the 88 made some gains on Saturday night. And that's what you should take from it, the gains. Not sit there and say, oh, there where they need to be.

It's not, nobody's saying that. But you needed to see something a positive out of this weekend, and I think that they did. Did you? I mean, like you hear Jr. says. And I'm eager to hear what Dale Jr. said here in his audio because, you know, that was one of the big things. You want to go into this All-Star Race and say, I mean, last week he said it on this podcast. He goes, I want to use this All-Star Race to try to win the World 600. We'll see Jr. later in the week, and that's going to be fun.

You'll have more on that coming up on Friday. But I know he's on the move this week, but he did leave some comments for us, Mike. did. Okay, so this is how this works. I mean, basically, Dale leaves his, you know, raw, candid comments on this podcast. He sends it to us. Sometimes I give him some things that I saw during the race that I want him to expand on that I think would be informative. And that's what I did this week because he was on the move. He wasn't going to have a whole lot of time to, you know, really go through and think this out. So I gave him some pointers. One of them was, did your team accomplish the goal for the weekend? Did you find speed in the car that you were looking for? The other thing I wanted him to expand on, and he talks about this is that incident at lap let's see what was it um it was about lap 71 72 where chase elliot was pitting right after a restart because he had to get that mandatory green flag pit stop in but it was right when the field was all packed up after that restart and ended up causing a wreck that we were not in but we almost were in i mean dale junior was like whoa you know what is that i mean he almost hit the wall he's trying to avoid chase so i wanted dale to sort of expand on that if he

thought that that was a turning moment for him being the fact that he avoided what a lot of other cars were not able to avoid in that I mean like you had who was it, Kinseth, Tony Stewart, Harvick, Casey Kane, all were collected up in that wreck around lap 72. So that's what we're going to hear. You'll hear him say, you know,

he'll kind of read off the bullet points, but that's what we do. Yeah, I love it. We get his raw, candid comments every single week, maybe none more so than last week, which we certainly appreciated. Here he is this week on the Dale Jr. download. We came into this race for the All-Star race looking to make some gains on our car. We hadn't obviously felt like we've been running as well as we need to.

So the All-Star race is a non-points event. You can definitely try some things you wouldn't try because you're not stuck with it for 600 miles. That's only 113 lap race. So we put a lot of stuff in the car that we'd never ran before that we wanted to run or heard that other guys were running. I'll be honest, you know, the car didn't show a lot of speed in practice. It wasn't very comfortable. We made a lot more changes before the race. When the race started, you know, the car was okay.

It was a little bit better than the 20 and 78 and 11 in front of me at one point in that first segment. but we still, on the long run, we're getting real tight. Greg made some adjustments. Every time we came down on pit road, we worked on the adjustments. And in the second segment, the car was getting a lot faster. Obviously, the track position was helping as we were getting closer toward the front and getting better air and downforce on the car. Greg also made some changes to help the front grip.

We just had a lot more front grip and rear grip, too. He really improved the grip around the whole car. The very last segment, we made some more adjustments that we, we understand that hurt the car. So that's good. I mean, we're understanding. We're making changes. The car's responding.

This is something that we hadn't seen over the last few weeks. We still have to find a little bit more speed for the 600 coming up this weekend, but we definitely feel like we've got a direction that we can continue to go in. In segment two,

we had a restart with four laps to go before everyone had to make the pit stop at lap 85, so we got to restart to lap 80-81. everybody had to pit by lap 85, so everybody was freaking out trying to get to pit road. Chase Elliott dove for pit road, and I don't think he told anybody up on the spotter stand, so at least my spotter didn't know about it. Didn't see anything down the back straightaway. That was a signal from Chase, but I couldn't really even see him.

The 16 ran into the back of him. The 16 was on my inside, so the 16 ran into the back of Chase, and the 16th was coming up with the track, and I lost control of my car and almost hit the wall. And then I looked behind me. I guess there was a wreck with the 14 and the 20 and a couple of the guys. So, you know, Chase was trying to do what he had to do to get to pit road. He didn't drive up the track.

He tried to get to pit road. But it was just a frantic and just bad timing, really. Everybody on top of each other trying to get to pit road at that particular point was pretty dangerous. And it resulted in guys. getting torn up so we waited till we had a little more room behind us to make our pit stop I was real happy with the result the team's pretty positive about what we learned feeling good about our car feeling good about the 600 think we can go in there and get competitive we're going to definitely need to get some track position and keep that track position you saw those

guys that were fast early in the race and cars that are very competitive we can't week out struggle when they would get back around 10th place and I felt the same way. So if you get stuck back there, you're likely not going to be able to get yourself out of it. You know, that's a whole another conversation. Running that race at night, that handicaps our ability to really showcase how much racing we can do. You saw in the afternoon, the truck race and the showdown were pretty thrilling. Well, in the afternoon, there's a little more track temp and that bottom groove isn't quite as dominant. That allows guys to use the middle and even the top throughout a run to gain an advantage. So as it gets cooler, the sun goes down, the track

tent goes down, the grip comes into the track. The track gets faster, that bottom groove becomes more dominant. It's a little bit more difficult to make a car work in the middle or the top. You can do it, but it's less of an advantage. So in my mind, I really wish they would run the All-Star race and the 600 during the day. The Charlotte Motor Speedway was repaved almost 10 years ago or something like that, eight years ago, and it's just not aged as quickly as you would anticipate. The track still has a lot of grip. The surface itself hasn't discolored, lightened or anything like that. It's maintaining it's maintaining really well,

which is the, that was the intent when they paved it. But we're all understanding now after the fact that we really want all these tracks to age. And the older asphalt seems to put on the better races. The group becomes wider. More opportunity to move around, find faster lanes

and pass guys, not have to be forced to follow them in their tracks. So with this track not really aging as fast as it needs to or we anticipated, it seems to be the best option is to run these races during the afternoon when there's some good heat in the race track. The track does seem to get wider. There are a lot of bumps and imperfections. The track is getting a lot rougher.

That's a good thing for the track itself and for the future of the track and the racing there. but at night, man, it just gets so fast you go right to the bottom. That's where you got to be. And it's really hard to pass if everybody's run the same line. Otherwise, I will say as much of a pain in the butt it was and kind of amusing at some points in the night, especially after segment one.

And all the confusion, NASCAR always did get the lineup sorted. I felt like everyone was where they were supposed to be, at least in and around me in the lineup. I wasn't out of place. Other guys weren't out of place. So all the restarts were satisfactory to me, and that's all you won't. It was kind of funny. Lapped-down cars pitting with lead lap cars and this and that and the other,

and everything kind of got confusing there at one point. But NASCAR did take the time to some. sort it out, make sure it was right in the end. The lug nut checking and all that stuff is a necessary evil until we find a better solution. There is certainly a better way. We just have to come up with that plan and activate that whenever it happens. But for now, it's a necessary evil that's part of the environment we're in. The outside line on the restarts was the best place to be. That was a big advantage for us late in the race.

I think on one of the later restarts in the second segment, we were 10th on the restart, got the green, moved up to 8th, caution come out. Restarted again, got up to fourth, caution come out. It was great to be on the outside. And later in the race, in that little 13-lapse segment, before our car got real tight, we were tighted that whole segment. But I let Brad go by in the case we got a caution to be able to have the opportunity to restart fourth.

Brad was going to pass me either way. But, you know, I was, I didn't really contest that position because I didn't want to get a sudden caution and have to restart third. That was not have been the preferred line. Well, we ended up finishing third after Larson got in a little bit of trouble late there in term one. that was a pretty exciting battle Kyle is an amazing race car driver all of us have known this for a couple years this isn't anything new

he has been able to showcase his abilities because I think his guys are getting smarter they're giving him some great race cars and he sure can drive them when you give him a good stuff man he's got the talent and that's the future of our sport

him Chase Elliott all those guys there's so many good guys coming up through right now there was a little bit of a lull and the quality of drivers or the opportunities these guys were getting. But through the K&N series, through all these guys

offering these kids these opportunities to race late models and so forth. You've got David Gillian, Gilliam was starting his team up and all kinds of people with these teams giving these people places to race, opportunities and cars to race. They're getting their chance

to showcase themselves. They're moving up into the truck series William Byron's and guys like that So the future is bright Really bright So I'm excited about that And it's fun to see Kyle Runwell Because Kyle Larson's a good guy

Well That's about it You know I thought I thought there's a lot of people That liked the racing From what I can tell on social media Not anybody

Nobody complained about the racing And that's important We got that racing going and we can get it even better. There's a lot more gains to be made. NASCAR is certainly working in the right direction. So they're racing and the cars racing each other and the ability to catch a guy, get to him and not get stuck behind him

to be able to try to pass him. I mean, when I saw that 22 car get up to the 42 and not get stuck behind him, he was actually able to drive all the way up to his bumper and get on his quarter panel and stuff, that stuff we couldn't do last year the year before. We haven't been able to do that in years. We've been so limited because of the big hole these cars were punching

that we couldn't even get to each other. We'd get stuck three, four, five, ten car links behind the car without any chance of actually being able to drive up to their bumper. So this is incredible what we are able to do this year. In my opinion, we got that, we're going in the right direction to see even more of that. so that's a very good thing something to be excited about yes you know

the all-star race is kind of goofy there's a few too many gimmicks in the sport for my taste but the racing is getting better but hopefully that's hopefully that racing

the good racing and the quality racing is going to continue to bring people to the racetrack it's going to get people to turn on the television. Ratings are going up. I'm going to Texas to celebrate Amy's grandfather's 80th birthday. I'll see you later.

Always appreciate getting his perspective each week here on the Dale Jr. download. It'll be fun to have him in person on Friday, which we certainly encourage you to come see. Mike will have more on that. Coming up a bit later on. Again, I use the word gains earlier. There's a lot to chew on that junior just went over, but the one thing that I Taylor will concentrate on is that Dale Jr. seems to have a little bit of confidence

in his voice from what he saw on Saturday night. He appreciates all the things that the team tried, Mike, and they were working. And the fact that they're trying a bunch of things, and as the race was going on, the adjustments that Greg Ives made were working, you can tell gives him some confidence going into this weekend. He said the word,

direction. They've got a direction. Yes. And that is something certainly to be happy about it. It's worth noting that it wasn't just after the race that he said, oh, that was a good car. Like it was after basically the second segment. No, I'm sorry, it was during the second segment. We just made a pit stop for two tires. And that was a strategy call that actually gained us three or four positions in this race.

Junior was an eighth. He comes in, takes two tires on lap 83 during the second segment. He comes out and restarts. fifth. That was a big plus for us on a pit strategy thing. And it was also the pit stop where he all of a sudden said, I'm starting like this. I like this. I'm happy with the car. And so they gained on it quite a bit during this race. And I think track position does. He mentioned this. Track position obviously matters as well. That's why you're going to go in there and really kind of look at that and make sure that they are staying up where they can be competitive. I mean,

when you get back in the middle of the pack, your car may not be set up to race back there. You You know what I'm saying? Absolutely. Something to look forward this weekend. But I think it was a really good weekend. I think they came in there, got what they were looking for, made gains on it. You said it best. He's got a little confidence in him.

We'll see how it transpires over to this weekend. Speed dial time with our friend Jeff Gluck of USA Today. Mike Davis, I remember when Jeff Gluck was the nicest guy in the world and nobody probably even his future wife knew who he was. Now he's the nicest guy in the world. Everybody knows who he is. And that's a good thing. That's a good thing.

He's been one of the best beat reporters that we've had on this circuit. And I'm glad he's getting his recognition, although this would probably make him very uncomfortable for us even saying this. So if that's our goal, I think we're doing a good job. Gluck, how do you feel about being world famous now? I really didn't know that I was. I hope that, like, with being world famous, he would get, like, more money or something.

but maybe somebody hasn't gotten a memo or at least I haven't because I'm still living in the same apartment I've had for like nine years. I'm waiting for the same to translate into something, I guess. You're married now. That's an upgrade, man. That's an upgrade. Oh, yeah, for sure. That's an upgrade.

But, like, if you're world famous, don't you, like, get, like, a three cup of coffee at Starbucks or something? I don't know. You should. Let's work on that, Taylor. We'll make that the Dale Junior downloads goal for the next month. You're a pretty convincing guy. I think we should have his bosses at USA Today on is, I think, what you need to do, Mike, and see if we can help him out.

I know you've got a lot of questions to ask Jeff about what happened in the All-Star race the other night. I've got a really simple one, Gluck, that I want to ask you. Do you think we'll ever see a format like that ever again? Well, that's a good question. you know, first of all, I just have to say that I like the format going in. So I don't want to stand here and be like, this format, oh, my God, it should never come back because in some ways, I mean, I was hoping it was going to translate into a good race, but I don't think it should come back now just because it's sort of tainted.

And that's not Brad Keselowski's fault or, you know, the guys that came up in the format, but it's just unfortunate because the way the circumstances played out, Now, if you said to somebody, hey, we're going to try to do that same format next year just with a couple different tweets, I think the fans are going to be like, what are you talking about? You know, Dale Jr. on pit road after the race had a pretty compelling argument for just making it as simple as possible. And I think that the reaction to next year's format should be like, all right, let's just try to simplify this and make it clear for everybody and get away from making any, any sort of complex rules because clearly it just didn't work out. But Jeff, here's my question to that. To that very point, I mean, if you look at any sports all-star event,

they're typically pretty boring. I mean, is that not fair to say? Yeah, absolutely. And this All-Star race have been boring for the last few years. So is it fair to bang on NASCAR for trying to create an exciting all-star format? You know, especially when it's commonplace for NASCAR fans to critique every week whether a race was boring or not. This is the All-Star event.

So, like, shouldn't we give them a pat on the back for trying? Well, I feel like, yes, for sure. Because, I mean, look, the point was, let's try to, you know, they said to themselves, let's try to do something where the fans are going to get a good finish. You know, drivers, if you have any ideas, how can we make this better? And Kozlowski, you know, he's an outside-the-box type thinker, as you know, and he, you know, kind of comes up with this kind of crazy idea. but the object was that there was going to be a whole bunch of cars on older tires

that had been slower all night, and then there was going to be the fastest cars on new tires, and they were going to have to zoom through the field, and they were going to be going to be going to be like, holy cow, this is crazy, they're coming, you know, can they catch them, can they catch them, the last one winding down. And as it turned out, there was only two guys on old tires who were quickly passed.

I mean, fortunately, the racing in the final segment with Larson and Magano was good anyway. the new error package obviously working out but it just wasn't how the format was intended to go and I think by the time you even got to the final segment sort of the narrative had already been lost you know what I mean everybody was already dumping on it and this thing's too confusing and no matter what happened

in the final segment it just wasn't going to work well so let me ask you I mean was it really that confusing or did it simply become fun and entertaining on social media just to kind of dump on the whole situation because that's sort of what Twitter does at times, you know, when, you know, they exploit the smallest little confusion or smallest little problem.

I mean, was it that confusing? Yeah, I think it was. Okay. And not the rules itself, not the format. Because, like, I, dude, I studied up before this. Like, I was like, I'm going to know every rule going in. I'm going to be playing everything, people. And I know I listened so closely in the driver's meeting.

and I felt like I understood what was going on. And even when Kansas was staying out, I was like, well, okay, now somebody, if there's a caution right now, somebody is going to be penalized, and they're going to go lap down because there's going to be no chance to put under green, like they waited too long. So that part, I understood, but what happened was with the wave-around stuff, NASCAR just sort of didn't officiate it the right way, or I don't know what happened up in the tower,

but they weren't prepared for the scenario. And so they bring Kenseth down pit road, right, and serve as penalty. But that's the same time they open the pits for everybody. So what they should have done was bring Kenseth in by himself. He serves his penalty. So he's no longer the leader. Everybody, all those cars unlaps himself. Then they make their pit stop.

So they basically take a wave around, so to speak, on like, under caution. And then Kenseth would be the only car one lap down. Everybody else is back on the lead lap, and they go on the segment two. But instead, half the field is lap down. There's no way to get their lap back. And at that point, it was sort of the format's intention had been lost. Right. Jeff, last thing I want to say about this is I agree with you.

Ultimately, it was an unforeseen situation that really cost them. And it's why the drivers were frustrated. And I think a lot of casual fans that tune in for this event were frustrating. It's the All-Star race. To me, it's one of the most exciting events on an annual basis. Ultimately, I would like to have something like three segments. You must pit after the first two segments, and then you have a shorter dash for the cash in the final segment. That way, everyone can understand what you're doing.

Do you think they're going to make it somewhat similar to what I just suggested? I don't know. I mean, I agree with you, but I think, you know, Dale Jr. had a great. a great concept that I think would be applicable as well to making it simple as possible, is to don't legislate the pit strategy at all. Let the teams decide for themselves when they want to pit. And that makes it even simpler because then you don't even have to worry about a rule of when you can, you know, take tires or you have to do this, you have to do this.

Nothing mandatory about the pit stops. And then that brings strategy and do it without even having to make a rule specifically about that. To me, though, like Denny Hamlin's idea, you know, he said maybe you just do something where you throw a green white checkered at the end of the final segment. Because that's going to guarantee you bunch everybody up and it's a crazy restart. You know, maybe sort of that's the answer. Five to go. We're throwing a green white checkers for a million. Here you go.

So, but I do think something like you're saying with the, you know, simple segments, line them up, go. I would be in big favor of eliminations as well because of what we saw in the, in the, you know, simple segments. the preliminary races. I mean, Showdown was obviously the best thing of the day with Larson and Chase Elliott battling their guts out

to get that last transfer spot. I think if you cut a few drivers after every segment, then you'd have a battle to the back of the field to talk about. You'd have some crazy sort of last-lap excitement, and that might be something

you could add to it as well. I like that, Mike. I like that idea a lot. Because that means the first couple of segments really matter, and you have to be in a certain position to advance. And I don't have any problem with what Junior said either.

You know, Pitt whenever you want, I just think if you have less segments with less complication, I think all of us are going to enjoy this MD a lot more than we did the other night. Yeah, I mean, let me tell you another thing I like about that elimination idea. Gluck, you actually tweeted that. I like how you formulated your ideas based off of different sources. I mean, you got Dale's idea put in there. You got Denny Hamlin's idea of the Green White Checker.

The elimination thing is compelling because it all, also eliminates the sandbagging component, and there was some of that in this race. It sort of got lost because of everything else. They got lost, but you had Jimmy Johnson falling back and letting people pass him, let Biffel pass. You had even Dale Jr. Let Kuzlowski go by and take, at the time, to take third. This was in the last segment because Junior wanted to position himself to restart on the outside row

if there was a last restart there for a Greenwright-Checker thing. Not that that's ultimately the true definition of sandbagging, but eliminating people after every segment, you can't sandbag. You've got to actually get out there in front and stay in front. Yeah, and I think, too, the, you know, the sport needs that sort of norm bending moment from the Eldora race two years ago. I mean, that wasn't in a preliminary race. It wasn't even in the main event, but people still talk about.

That's like the number one Eldora memory, right? Yeah, yeah. And if you could create something like that, I mean, I know he was an underdog and it had it, but let's say you had like some, you know, somebody, what if the Benedetto say had gotten in the race doing that, right? And he's, it's the first segment and he's scrambling and somehow he makes the second segment. And everybody's like, oh, my gosh, what a great story. Like, he survived the cut. This is so cool. I wonder how far he can go.

You know, just even stuff like that, I think, would be neat. And it would add to it where you're not just watching the front, the leader for 50 laughs, 50 laps, he laps, but you have something to talk about that means something toward the back. All right, Mr. Gluck, one thing I want to ask you about with Dale Jr. in the 88 season before we let you go, he was obviously pretty adamant on this podcast last week about that he expects more from himself and from his team, very frustrated by the way the 88 has run the last couple of weeks. What did you make of his comments last week on this podcast? and what do you see for him moving forward in the 600?

Well, I'll tell you what. What I made is he's pretty honest guy. I mean, obviously we all knew that, but he's not afraid to put it out there and truly speak his mind, I think. Obviously, he understands what kind of weight his words have, but he's still willing to be honest with the fans and say what's going on and say how he feels.

And I don't know if fans realize, you know, around the sports world how rare that is just in general. Because, I mean, you know, to get that kind of candor is pretty unique, I think. But I don't think it's something that you're going to get fixed overnight. I think that, you know, obviously the Gibbs cards still have a lot of speed. It's going to be something where it's an evolution and it's probably not going to be, you know, one weekend they're going to show. up and all of a sudden, it's like, wow, they're fast and everything's all better now. You know, it's going to take little baby steps and little, you know, finding tenths of a second or something like that.

But obviously, he's still in good position, you know what I mean, like for the chase. And that's the thing about this new format. I mean, 16 guys making it in. So if you miss the chase, you have to be having a not very good year. So it's probably, I think Dale Jr. is going to win a race or two. still I wouldn't count that out but points wise he's going to make it anyway so as long as you're setting yourself up for the fall

I think that's the biggest concern you know well said there Jeff last thing I want to ask you USA Today now has to start your engines podcast and you've been a part of that how much fun you having with that and where can people find it well thanks it's really kind of embarrassing compared to your podcast I mean we're like very not professional about it We have a lot of work to do. But we're not trying to learn.

We never tried for professionalism. Trust me on that. Yeah, well, it comes across. Like, I mean, a lot of times it's me after a race standing with like Mike Hembrie in a closet at the track using my cell phone to record the podcast. You know what I mean? Like, we're like literally just trying to get our thoughts out there. We need to work on like getting it to sound better and things like that. But it's on iTunes, and if you go to start your engines.

The IndyCar one right now is a lot better because IndyCar is, like, really working with us on trying to, like, get their guys out there. So, like, they give us the race winner every week. They put them on the podcast, which is really cool. Like, I wish NASCAR would kind of be like, hey, guys, would you like to have the race winner? But I don't have happened. Instead, you've got Mike Cambri in a closet. That's what you've got. It's very uncomfortable, too.

The rooms are very small on me and Mike. Yeah. Well, buddy, good best of luck with that. I enjoy listening to you guys. I didn't know y'all were in a closet. I don't think that changes anything for me. It might actually add an element of humor for me, the listener. But I'm glad that you're doing it, man.

Welcome to the podcast world. We love having you on this one as well. And I really appreciate you coming on explaining all this to us. Absolutely, yeah. I'm getting more and more into podcasts, too, and like the Door Bumper Clear podcast this year that you guys have added. I mean, gosh, that's so good. I love listening to that in the car, too.

So, yeah, keep up the good work you guys are doing as well. I don't want to give T.J. too many problems, but I'm going to tell you something. I do learn something from Door Bumper Clear every week that I listen to it. And so I know Taylor's, I can hear Taylor sighing on the other side here. But admittedly, Brett Griffin and T.J. majors do bring a whole lot of no and in perspective and vantage point that honestly we don't have. It's really, really, really good, and it makes me really sad because it completely,

it's completely going to T.J.'s head. That's why. The podcast is hilarious. It's entertaining. It's informative. Yes, we can't do that. But it makes me sad because T.J. is becoming more famous because of it.

And that's dangerous. But Glocka, thank you very much for your time today, my man. We look forward to seeing you down the road soon. Yeah, thanks. Good talk to you guys. I appreciate you having me on. It was awesome. Take care, buddy.

That's Jeff Glock joining us here from USA Today. Time now for Radio Chatter Replay presented by Nationwide Junior Nation. Check out the ride with Dale Jr. To help kids everywhere campaign from Nationwide and Nationwide Children's Hospital. Really, really cool stuff. In case you missed it, Dale Jr. It would be driving the number 88 Nationwide Children's Hospital Chevy SS during the Kentucky race weekend. And you can have your name on the car.

Two exclamation points. name on the car. Simply donate to the hospital at nationwide children's hospital.org slash Dale Jr. And your name will be placed on the hood of that car. Only a limited spots are available, so you need to act quickly on this. I've got some more comments I've got to make on this in a second. Check out nationwide social channels on Facebook at Nationwide 88,

on Twitter at Nationwide 88 for more information and for updates. Speaking of Twitter, so if you were following Mike Davis, who has 6 million Twitter followers, there's only one name that I bet you would want on the hood of the car in Kentucky. And his name is Ira Joe Hussie, correct? Man, did you, like, I saw this name during the introductions of the All-Star event. He's on Kevin Harvick's pit crew. Apparently he's been in the sport forever. and I see his name flash across and I'm like,

greatest name ever? Like he belongs in a NASCAR race, which is where he is, or on the cover of a country music album. True or false. He should be entertaining a year. True or false, you started calling Gracie Ira Joe yesterday.

True. Absolutely. I'm going to the courthouse to get it legally changed. Her, Lily's name, I mean, Ira Joe Hussey. It could go clearly for a girl or a boy. Either way.

Because Ira Joe, I mean, that's a big old dude that I think that he is. If Ira Joe Hussey is the guy that they showed on the screen at the same time that they put his name up there, I mean, that's a big dude. You don't want to mess with it. I think it's a fabulous name. And I like to call out what I think are fabulous names. Trust me, I've spent a life as Mike Davis. Like, there's a hundred of us just in this zip code here.

It's a boring name. Ira Joe Hussey. There is not another Ira Joe Hussey in this world. It would make your life if the name Ira Joe Hussey. was on Dale Jr's car in the Kentucky race. Oh, it'll happen. It'll happen. Okay.

Now, let's listen to Radio Chatter-replay. All right, let's get your front tire fans on here and get ready to go. All right, man. Nice smooth shift. I'll let you know when you can change lanes after the start finish line there. Creep a little bit. Ready. And...

Ring, ring, right, good, roll, all good, now, all good. Other being rigid, how is your balance? Out of the race track, I've got any grip on the right front or the right rear. I'm real tight, and I'm almost spinning out. Just the whole right side, skipping across the race track to the corner. All right, so we're going to make a big swing at this lap 46 we just completed there. The track bar down in each. Just slick on the right rear, and when I use the throttle it slick on the right rear.

A tight off throttle. Front left for his spring in and pull a bunch of wedge out. So see if that's a good direction we need. We are the lucky dog. I didn't know I was racing the 20 for this fact. Alright, so they're gonna post the 20 car. He has a penalty. He has not made a stop in this segment, so he's in trouble. So I don't know if that gives us a wave around.

Cossin is out, caution is out, caution is out. It's real, real harsh. My head's banging around in the headrests real bad. Getting off into turn three. Down through the middle of three and four. The track, we've got a lot of imperfections. We've made the ride way harsher on the right front. Still lined up inside.

Everything is good from me. It's still lined up inside. Say hi here. Jesus. Cross is out. Causes out. You are clear. You are clear.

Pretty big wreck over here. The problem is first car lap down is 14th. there's no way that can get them on us. I'm just saying are they trying to finish all of them backing up there to those spots? Yeah, they are. If you're laughing at it. Round this two, five, four, three, two, one.

Hard, hard, hard, hard, hard, hard, keep going, hard, hard, keep going hard, hard, hard, hard, and for the 19. Good. 4,000, 4,000. No pressure, no pressure, no pressure. Good stop. Get to him. I probably shouldn't have given up third,

or I probably didn't have much of choice. That too is pretty bad. Yeah, I'd tell for us. Got a little more speed. So that's radio chatter replay, presented by Nationwide. And again, really cool what they're doing with the Kentucky race. Mike Davis trying to get Ira Joe Hussey's name on the hood of that car. It'll happen.

It is time now for reaction theater. All right, Jeff, here, great guys. He gave me frustration for the first half this race season. Great changes and great way to get the third. Unfortunately, the fish would come for us. unbelievable crazy-ass racing going on tonight Saturday night Full more racing

at Charlotte NASCAR you still could beat in the hall with the rule changes but it was fun watching it crazy shit going on a quick question when Larson ran in the wreck

they're at the end of the race shouldn't the costume come out usually does you have same same gym as in front as well hashtag Dale yeah hashtag straight ass crazy racing

hashtag no beer. Wow, that's surprising the last part. What I guess did. Yeah, there's definitely beers involved. I couldn't. Did he ask a question? Yeah, he asked if Akoshi should have come out when Larson got into the wall. When Larson got into the wall? Yeah. No, I don't, it would have been nice, but yeah, I mean, no, I don't have a problem with them not throwing a caution there. I felt bad for him. Yeah, well, I mean, our only shot of winning, Dale actually was positioning himself for a potential last restart, and so, you know, it would have given him one more crack.

at it but you know I don't think they should have thought of caution it's funny like I used to have no whatever reason I just had no interest in Montoya or that car now I kind of like Carl Larson you know like I mean I'd say on one hand he's a guy that I would root for you know as a future of the sport kind of guy no junior's a big fan of him so yeah it's it's kind of fun to actually look at the 42 and not say ugh I just For the record, I never said, ugh, when I was in it. I did. But that's fair.

Okay. I did laugh. Well, I laughed at first when he hit the jet dryer, and then I didn't laugh with how long it took to clean up that mess. Who's next? Well, despite the fact that junior finished third and apparently liked his car at the end of the race, that All-Star race sucked. Mass I should never listen to Keselowski. He's an idiot. You think he's taking it on the chin right now, MD?

Yeah. I guess. I'm not so sure he apologizes for it, though. Again, it's just all perspective. Again, you know, listen, we all are experts in hindsight in 2020, but, you know, personally, I think I take the position that I don't knock. I don't know. I get that it was confusing, and I get, and I understand that you don't want confusion in your format. That's when you, that's a good, that's a good indicator that it's probably not where it needs to be. That being said, I like the attempt. I like the attempt, I guess. No, I appreciate the effort. I think that's fine. Who's next?

I'm sure there's going to be a lot of calls complaining about the format and everything else. There's nothing wrong with the format. Just some crazy stuff went down. What I want to talk about is how about Junior hanging it out there on the high side, full wide on the last restart. Got to give the guy credit. Got up on the wheel. Got up there where he needed to be.

Then his third with the slow car. Got faster as it went on, but I still feel the need for speed. Dale you. It's good synopsis right there. And there's something about him taking the high side that just fires you up. Yeah. It really is. And then when you realize it's four wide, you want him to not be four wide on the high side.

I did not think that was going to end well for us. No, I agree with that. Yeah, it's always kind of crazy in Harry when you're four wide. But I don't know, watching him pass cards on the high side is more fulfilling. than him passing cars on the bottom. For whatever reason. He likes it up there. He sure does.

Who's next? It's because what you love, Jr., it's what you were born to be. And here you sit thinking, well, Dale Jr. is not a thinker. Dale Jr. is a driver. He's a doer. And that's what you need to do. You don't need to think. You need to drive.

You need speed. You need to get out there and you need to rev your engine. You need to get fired up. You need to grab a hold of that line between speed and chaos, and you need to wrestle it to the car. ground like a demon cobra. And then when the fear rises up in your belly, you use it. And you know that fear is powerful because it's been there for billions of years. And it is good. And you use it. And you ride it. You ride it like a skeleton and horse through the gates of hell. And then you win,

junior, you win. And you don't win for anybody else. You win for you. You. You know why? Because a man takes what he wants. He takes it all. And you're a man, aren't you? Aren't you? I've never heard you talk like that before. I'm about to get it on because I'm as hard as a diamond in a storm right now. Oh my gosh. 10 beer flavored waters last night. Hashtag Mike Davis still sucks. Yes.

And that might be submarine Mike and his wife's best call ever. That really might be the best call that they've ever made, by the way. Is this the first time that Submarine Mike and his wife have ever left a call? they weren't singing when they weren't singing I don't know I know it did make my remake go what the hell are you listening to? Well, well done

by a submarine Mike's wife playing the role of Susan in Talladega Knights there. I like that. Who's next? Yeah, I can't complain about third place too much that was a good race. The car got better. They got the car running pretty good and looked really good

racing with them guys and building some good stuff for next week. And that's what I'm sure they want to win that $600 next week. And I'm sure everybody, I know myself, point to the race. I'm like, this format is stupid. I don't understand what's going on. But I said I was pretty pleased with it. And that's because junior finished well or not.

I'm pretty sure if they got caught up in a wreck or finished bad. I would hate the system. Go it away. Go out the garbage. of course. It's good when you're up and it, but it's really bad when you're down, but I look like the 88th is going good, going up from here. So, yeah, go get him in the six harder, buddy.

You know, do we know this guy's name that just called in? He calls in a lot to Reaction Theater. Do we have a name for him? I don't have one. We don't. I have his phone number, but I don't have it. Okay, call him up and ask him what name we'd like to call him in the future. But Mike Davis, I'd like to call him out because out of all the people,

that ever call into reaction theater, he's the one that I would want to go have some beers with and watch the race. He knows, I don't know Ira Joe Hussey, but I guess he'll work for you. You know what I'm saying? Like, just listen to his voice. I'm like, yeah, this guy's one of them. He operates the same way I do on a race day. All right. So now we know what voice excite you in a very platonic way, I might add.

Okay? I just want to make that clear. All right, got it. I'm writing it down. Platonic way. Got it. Yeah. I think that means asexual.

Who's next? I'm sure nobody's shocked that I'm running, but you may be flabbergasted to know I'm not running because I'm pissed off. I'm running because I'm in a good mood. Dale Jr. challenged himself, his crew, 4888 shop, and Hendricks figured something out for his damn toilet. Hell, they finally had a little bit of speed there. I don't know if it was greasy fast, but it was pretty speedy. You know, if Carl Edwards getting stopped on pit road,

got caught a missing lug nut. Maybe NASCAR put a stop to their shenanigans. Maybe old Dale Jr. get a whirl-cocola-600 victory this weekend, and he don't have to worry about getting one before he tires. I say, let's get us a victory over the holiday weekend. Give us two things to celebrate. Oh, yeah. Listen, his running had an incredible impact

on the end of the 2014 season, I believe. It might have been 13. I think it was 13. You're right. It was the end of the 2013 season. His running did. Had a big impact. And so that's why he's doing it

because he wants it to have a big impact again. I really respect him and appreciate him for that. I even respect him and appreciate him more because he wrote Mike Davis sucks in the concrete the other day and sent a picture out. Why did he do that? Because Mike Davis sucks. Better question.

Where did he do that? What do you mean? He wrote it in wet concrete? I tapped the picture to your show sheet. Yeah, he doesn't read the show. He doesn't look at the show sheet, obviously. You look at the last page. I look at the show sheet.

Datto in the concrete writes Mike Davis sucks. Oh, he's showing me a picture. Well, that jerk. He better smooth that out before that thing's dried. I hope he doesn't. I hope it's there forever. And he looks so happy. He really does.

He really does. That is the man. All right, one more. Well, I'm walking away with a better feeling than I did last week at Dover. Looks like we got the car going in a positive direction. I think we just need to hang in there. We'll get there. And I tell you, as far as the format goes, at first it was confusing,

but it definitely was exciting compared to previous formats. Hell, the only thing worse than the previous all-star format, has been watching Datto poor fucking conco all weekend long. Wow. Periscope. Somebody please take his Periscope account away. He is fraud, wasting, and abusing the Internet. Anyway, keep it up.

Hell yeah. Hashtag Mike Davis still sucks. Soppy Yellow is on fire right now with the amount of tweeting and periscoping he's doing. And I disagree. I think that Datto on Periscope is a good thing for everyone. It is hilarious. Yeah, I think he needs to keep that up because I find myself with catching. I may not catch him live, but I'll go in there and see that he's periscoped about 12 times in the last several hours.

And so I'll go and I'll look and see what his topics are. I may catch one or two, but they're always pretty funny. Like he'll periscope a game of Jenga. But somehow Datto makes that interesting. I don't know how he does it. So, no, he doesn't need to stop periscoping. He's a damn fine American. Reaction theater number is 855-740-1902.

855740 1902. It's open 247-365. And you can always leave your voicemail message, and first name Davis will play the best of him if he clears out the ones from the previous week. Never live it down. Never live it down. Nor should he.

Be happy with the all-new Spy Dale Jr. Paint Scheme sunglasses that's called the Livery Series. They're available in the popular Dirty Mode, General Daga McCoy, and Admiral Frames. Crazyest Paint Scheme yet was released last week at the All-New Limited Edition. Spy Rangler Daga sunglasses. Junior tweeted him out.

Check it out this weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Or you can order online at spyoptic.com. Junior actually tweeted them out inadvertently before he was supposed to. Yes. Yes. I love it. And then when I told it, we were in Philadelphia at the time, this was last week. We were in Philadelphia at the time.

And I said, I don't think they wanted you. And he's like, well, it's too late now. I'm leaving it. All right. So apologies to spy on that. Sorry if the old boss man got in front of our marketing strategy there. But yes, it is out now, so you should go check out the Wrangler. That's one more reason why we've loved Dale Jr.

And love doing this podcast. Speaking of Dale Jr., we have a podcast to do with him coming up soon. I bet you have something about that in White Flag. White Flag right there, White Flag. Well, you would be correct, Taylor. In fact, all I want to talk about in White Flag is this coming week in the racing and Fand Day. We'll start with Fan Day. If you are in the area, you as in Taylor and you as in fans.

Taylor, I know you will be in the area. I also want the fans to come by on Fand Day. That's this Friday. Taylor, just give them a little flavor on what fan day here is like. It's really cool, man. I mean, just there's so many people around Junior Nation that have access to come in the store and see all the drivers, Dale Jr. included, get an autograph. The fact that you get to watch some of our shows will be terrific.

I think you'll really enjoy that. But, I mean, you really do. You feel like you're part of the family on Fan Day. Yeah, I mean, it's a carnival outside. You've made a lot of people. There's people right now in the studio that have been watching this podcast. Like, on Friday, it will be packed. It will be packed out here.

There will be so many booths and so many things and the activity set up. Carrie Earnhardt's going to be out there teaching people how to shoot a bow. Oh, man. Actually, I think he's going to be out there. I'd heard that idea. I just maybe. Maybe. Oh, he is.

Yeah, good. Good. Because I feel bad if I got everybody excited about that and then it didn't actually happen. He's going to be out there. Are you going to do it, Davis? Have you ever shot a bow? No, never. That has to happen.

Yeah. We'll have to see this. Davis. Please make sure you hide the women and children when this happens. You know, by the way, Taylor. Yeah, he thinks he's Robin Hood now, just the idea of it. Yeah, so on the fan day, Taylor, you mentioned this a little bit, but I want to explain. The Exaltza studio here will be just a buzz of activity.

Earnhardt Outdoors will be here taping. 10 a.m. The download will go off at 11 a.m. Taylor, that's you. Dale Jr. will be in studio. J.R.M. up front at noon. Door bumper clears at 2 p.m. Motor mouths will be chatting with fans outside throughout the day. You're wondering, well, what about Fastlane family? Well, Kelly Earnhardt is going to be on Earnhardt's going to be on outdoors with Carrie and Hank. So, you know, there's only so much Kelly that we can spread around here. So this thing will be popping all day long. I mean, Kelly, Dale, I'm sure Sadler, got a lot of drivers coming in here. So that'll be fun Dirty Moe Radio. Davis, what are we going to do?

Are we going to actually put out a Dale Jr. download then that Friday? Special Dale Jr. Download. Oh, how about that, Taylor? I like it. It's a great idea. All right, here we are. Expedited racing happens this Saturday. Elliot Sadler, Justin Algar and Cole Custer going for Team Junior.

I'm excited to see Cole Custer run this. It's funny. He was fun. Richmond had a good finish there. Yeah, yeah. He's a wheel man. He can do it all right. Sunday is the greatest day of racing in the world.

Do you know that, right? I mean, you wake up to Formula One, Monaco. that's just such an awesome event there. So you wake up to Formula One. Does anybody have any money up that event? Good gracious. Good heavens. Yeah, Davis.

Do you have a yacht that we could go watch that race? We do the download from Monaco. Why about that? Yeah, we can do that. Put $250 on an exaggerator. There you go. We're in a paddle boat. All right, you've got the Indy 500 that starts in the afternoon,

and then NASCAR's World 600. It's 6 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Central. Junior will be driving that number 88 nationwide Chevrolet that race will be on Fox and the Performance Racing Network. Love it. Cannot wait. Let's get us a victory, man. Time to get in the – and time to go to Victory Lane and get fired up. I'm not making any predictions here on the show, but I think Sunday night's going to be a good night.

That's all I'm going to say about that. Good stuff this week on the Dale Jr. download presented by a spy for Dale Jr. for First Name Davis, for Mike Davis, for Jeff Gluck, for Ira Joe Hussie. There you go. I'm Taylor Zarser. This has been the Dale Jr. Download, presented by a spy. Thanks for listening to Dirty Moe Radio. Hey, Dirty Mo Radio listeners, make sure you follow at Exaltar Racing on Twitter,

because if they reach 20,000 followers before May 13th, they'll partner with Pocono Raceway and give away $88,000 to one lucky winner if Dale Jr. wins the Exaltza. We paint winners 400. follow them at Exalta Racing. You'll be glad you did.