The Dale Jr. Download - 135 - The Dale Jr. Sit-Down

Episode Date: May 27, 2016

Dale Earnhardt Jr. joined the gang plus CMS President and General Manager Marcus Smith on a special JRM Fan Day episode. Junior discusses what a 600 win would mean to him and describes his relationship with recent NASCAR Hall of Famer Rick Hendrick. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is Dale Jr. And you're listening to Dirty Moe Radio. The 600 is a race that I would love to win. Top race in the whole year that you might mark on your calendar that means the most to you. Hey, everybody. It's Taylor. That is usually the way the podcast starts. The Dale Jr. download every single week with, hey, everybody, it's Jr.

And he is here today. Wait, go ahead and scratch your beard so we know that you're here. I'm here. Yes. We hear that every single week here on the Dale Jr. Download. Do you? Yes.

Every week. You scratch your beard. While I'm talking to the audio? Oh, my God. You say. No, no, no, don't stop doing it. Awesome. It's how we know it's you.

Yeah. Can you tell I'm pacing in circles as well? Well, I can tell you that we, you know, right around the middle, Greg made an adjustment. And then if you hear like a donkey, you know, make a say, we know if you're inside or outside. Yeah. Unless the location of the bar. Okay, back on track. Yeah.

Dale Jr. Download, presented by Spy, with Dale Earnhardt Jr., Marcus Smith, president of SMI, and general manager at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and Mike Davis. Hey there. I'm Taylor Zarzer, and it's J.R.M. Appreciation Day. Fan Day. I know you love this day. I do. Actually, this is a great weekend because, obviously, the 600s in town in Charlotte, we had the All-Star race last weekend. So a lot of fans are in the area for the races over at Charlottlenmere Speedway. A lot of the teams, a lot of the shops in this area will open up their doors at some point during the week, particularly a lot of them do it on Friday when there's no track activity. And we get all the fans out here for a chance for them to get some autographs from our drivers.

We also have vendors and so forth sitting out in the parking lot for them. Some of our partners are out there showcasing some of their products. Some of the local people, we've got the Waterfow Association, a bunch of the folks out there that are showing what they have going on. So it's a lot of interactive stuff for the fans to get involved in and have fun with. We get a lot of repeat folks coming back every year. We see a lot of the same folks every year, so we must be doing it right. In fact, Marcus, we've got people from Japan in here.

Yeah, I love it. I love it. I was saying earlier, we've got people from all 50 states, 26 foreign countries, places like Japan, New Zealand, everywhere in between. I think that covers it. But it is, it's really awesome you guys do this. I asked Dale last night what he's going to do with his day off, and he said, I'm going to be over at Junior Motorsports with a bunch of race fans. So I love it.

This reminds me, a lot of our fans tell us, they love to go to the shops when they come to Charlotte and just take in all the sites that they can't see at other places. So it's really part of what makes these two weeks so special. Yeah, it's really cool that you're here today. It's fun. It's awesome weekend. Obviously, it's a holiday weekend, but it's really the best weekend there is for auto racing. Sunday is such an awesome day, and we're fired up about that.

We'll talk about that in a second. First, I want to know this. I think Mike Davis really wants to know this. Over the years, are there people or a person in particular a fan that sticks out, just something you remember about that they've done in order to tell you how much they appreciate you? Is there a certain story that you've got for us? A tattoo that you've seen? or, you know, a good luck, wish you support, you know, et cetera, that sort of deal?

You know, there's some moments that stand out. We were in Indianapolis one year, and a guy wanted me to sign his leg, and a lot of people want you to sign their arm or leg for a tattoo. and one of the things that I do, see when you ride on skin, it really doesn't look that great. Because they're just going to go get their artist to do the tattoo right over the top of it.

So I'll sign on a cue card or something real clean and tell them just to give that to their artist so they can get it done nicely. A lot of people don't know that. That's thoughtful. How thoughtful is that? That is really thoughtful. It is nice.

I just learn something. I just don't want it to be, it's already a very questionable decision. I just don't want it to be. Right. You don't want to complicate it. Now, hold on. I don't want it to look worse. And I've seen the result of the signing on the skin, and you don't want that tattooed, right? And you've seen the people that have actually got it tattooed, and you're like, really, not one point of this whole process, you thought that might not be the best way that's not going to look at it?

Do they just do Dale Jr? or Dale Earnhardt Jr.? Or just Dale Jr.? I've been signing Dale Jr. for about 15 years now. I dropped to Earnhardt a long time ago because it's just, you know, it was just so time-consuming. To me, honestly. And it's Earnhardt is a hard word to write. So is Zarser, by the way. If any time you've got to cross a T, that's very frustrating over and over and over. Maybe I should just sign Taylor Z to the three or four people in my life. You know, Richard Petty mastered that old tea thing.

That's a big old loop. I appreciate it. All right. So anyway, Indianapolis, what happened? Well, it just, you know, nothing crazy happened. The guy wanted me to sign his fake legs. So that was kind of weird and cool at the same time. That happens quite a bit.

You know, just there's people that stand out because of where, maybe where they're from, like the couple from Japan that comes to Fanday, every Friday, they've came the last, we've had it eight years. I know they've been here the last three or four. And they make, they come from Japan just, you know, to go to 600. And this is something they do while they're here. And so you remember those folks when they show up. They always bring us something from Japan for me or for Amy.

And so there's the one or two that will stand out for whatever reason. You meet a lot of Make-A-Wish kids that you met. Like today I met a Make-A-Wish kid that I met. He's 25 now, and I met him when he was 13. Wow. Yeah, so it's crazy. because everybody, I was just, I met my, this has been a crazy day. When I first got here, I met Miss Pope, and Miss Pope was my art teacher in high school.

I hadn't seen her in 24 years. And she's here? And she was here this morning. And she, I'd wanted to see her, and so I think subconsciously, we sought each other out. She was my favorite teacher, so I was like, you know, and I never seen. see any of my teachers anymore. None of my friends from school, but I was like, I hear she's around. I wonder what she's doing.

And she was thinking the same thing. So she, really? That's cool. Yes, it is. We got it lined up to where she could be here today. So we get five, ten minutes to chat. And we were talking about how nobody looks the same. She looks as, you know, young and beautiful as she did when she was a teacher.

When she was my art teacher. But it was amazing. to we were talking about how nobody looks the same anymore and how you know and I saw this kid today uh well he's a young man now but uh saw this boy uh this kid today in the autograph line and he was 13 when I first met him and so that's happening a lot more that part that's cool and that's really kind of weird it makes you feel super old because people are like look at this picture man and I'm like that's cool I have to ask how how young are you in that picture 13 how old are you now 25 okay yeah what about when somebody brings your high school senior picture out and puts on a

cardboard cutout like this yeah yeah yeah I love that that's fantastic that's unbelievable by the way so it makes you it makes you feel real old did miss Pope does she she's seen in your recent artwork you know it's impressive you're quite the artist she hasn't she would we we did this drawing everybody did this painting for martin tricks is Catwalk for a Cause Foundation with Sherry. And I kind of, I cheated a little bit. We were supposed to follow instruction and do it specifically as instructed. And I went out, I totally went outside the box and was Googling images and getting different

ideas. And so mine looked quite a bit different than everybody else's. Our painting was like a sandcastle on the beach and all that stuff. I'm telling you, Miss Pope would have loved it. Bales, that they had all these. A plus. I made a 10 or 20 pictures up there, and Dales was the best of everybody. It was pretty cool.

I do appreciate that he had freely admitted he went to Google Images, though. Well, I needed ideas on shading. I needed a quick refresher course on how to make waves and clouds and so forth. So I was doing my homework. But I was so proud of it that when we were at the – When we went to Martin and Sherry's charity deal, I made Amy go over there and stand there and stare at it. And then I didn't have anybody to brag to. So Marcus comes walking by and I grabbed Marcus and I'm like, Marcus, check out this picture I painted.

And so we stood there and stared at it for a few minutes. Impressed Marcus. He was a good friend. He's a good friend. I did a double tape because, I mean, he didn't say, look, my picture's the best. He just said, look, I painted that. And Amy painted that. And I looked at the whole wall because they had a bunch of them.

and I said, dang man, yours is the best. Like, are you an art expert? And then I told him all about Miss Pope. And then she just shows up today. She just showed up today. That's, you know, that's no coincidence. This is kind of weird, actually. It's really cool is what it is.

It's not just because you want to sign a perfect autograph for their eventual permanent tattoo, but for many reasons, you care so much about the fans. All these people that are around us right now here in our dirty mo, radio studios and i know you to a degree you'll get this everywhere you go but this place is most special to you which leads me to this question it's quite obvious right which race you want to win the most right now in your career yeah the 600 is a race that uh i would love to win i think that if you're a purist in the sport that that's one of the top three if not the top two or maybe even the top top race in the in the in the in the whole year that um you might mark on your calendar that means the

most to you i've won the day tona 500 before um but i've never won a points race at charlotte i came in as a rookie and won the all-star race looked them and did not didn't know how difficult it was going to be to get a get a points win there we've had some fast cars we've led some laps and and uh always run into some kind of adversity or something happens or it just is it doesn't we I actually ran out of fuel coming out of turn four there one year. So it's a tough race to win. That still stings, too. That picture.

The picture of LaTart's head going down, yeah. It's like the worst half gallon ever. Yeah. We, you know, I look at, I look at Charlotte as a track that has a ton of history, an amazing story, how it was built. The trials and tribulations of difficulties they had trying to get the track. to be successful financially. The difficulty they had, just even getting the surface to last,

they had several issues with the surface there, the first race. But it's got a ton of history, and it's right in our backyard. When I was a kid, it was a race I would never miss. I was always, you know, there was nothing ever standing in my way to go to Charlotte. And when they built the condominiums in turn one,

And that was at that time a really bold move and a very exciting thing to have these condominiums at a racetrack. We're going to sit in a condo and watch the race. That was an incredible thing at that time. And then they built another set. A whole other set of nicer condos. And, you know, it's pretty crazy to think about what that track's been through and what's happened there, the history of wins, the racers that have been there. And it's 600 miles. Unique to itself.

There's no other event that we run. It's that long. And it definitely demands the most out of you physically and mentally. It's probably one of the more tougher races mentally. Your mind gets in this routine week after week of doing these 400, 500-mile events. You never really push yourself farther than that. So you realize in the 600 those extra 100 miles, that you feel that and you sense that as you're getting toward the end of the race, that your

mind's like, what's going on? Why are we still going? Not used to this. This feels abnormal. It definitely is an endurance test as much as any race in the entire year. Junior Marcus commented on the sun on my face. I do a lot of golf work, and I don't think there's any question. Is that what we call it? Golf work.

Okay, got it. I have a great assignment, yeah. And obviously we know that there are major championships in golf. Clearly, this is a major championship in NASCAR. Yeah. Well, I love the way Dale talks about it. And it is special. This will be our 57th year.

And when you think back about the history, that's really what makes an event like this special. You know, you can't buy history. You've got to earn it. You've got to endure it. And the things that happen for a driver, a team to win the 600 make it that much more special in those 57 years, all the great stories of those races and the like Junior said, the struggles of the track. My dad and Curtis Turner built it, started in 1959, ran the first race in 1960, and he

went bankrupt a few years later, and then, you know, he worked and tried to get it back, and then eventually started buying stock back and was able to, buy enough ownership back in that he was, that he took control of the track again. And we were all out in Rockford, Illinois, outside of Chicago. That's where my parents met and got married and started a family. I was five years old when we moved back to Charlotte. And it was all of a sudden, you know, we're racing. And I was a little kid, only five.

But we were always out there. If it wasn't race time, we would go out on the weekends and hunt. You know, try to clear out the grandstands of the pigeons, which made for some good target practice. But it's, it's, uh, can't do that. Uh, we might. I can't tell you. I can. Earnhardt outdoors kind of get.

Yeah. Can you imagine that? Carrey Earnhard does take care of that. He just walked back in here, I think. He's definitely game for that. Well, I'm telling you what, pigeons, you know, you got to, you got to go after them. That's what the word on the street is. Yeah.

Oh, man. We had... So we are in 360 podcast. I can feel one coming. Well, we would set up in the stairway and kind of in the turnaround area in the grandstands. My dad would go in the concourse and fire off a shot and all the pigeons would fly out. And my brothers and I would shoot them on the way out. You wait a little bit.

They'd come back in. You shoot them as they're coming back in. And I was probably 10 when we first went out there. That's a good date. That is fantastic. It's fun. You can't do it during race. race weekend.

I don't think so. Do not try this during race weekend, right? That's fantastic. Hey, you guys are getting so nostalgic about this. I want to also bring up, but just remind me is that this is where

Dale Jeter's first cup race was, and it was unique in the fact that if it's not enough pressure to, you know, debut in the Sprint Cup series, you know, at the time, it was the Winston Cup series, but there was like an entire marketing campaign, countdown to E-Day.

Oh, God, yeah. Boy, talk about pressure. I mean, that's ridiculous. And I remember this shot. I mean, I was, This was 2000. I was not even in the sport. I was in college.

I remember this shot of Dale walking down pit road to go qualify. And it's like nothing about that seemed like you were at ease about the whole situation. I was in the car about one or two cars away from having to go run my lap, and Tony Jr. was kneeling down beside the car with me. And I told him, I said, if I could, I would do anything in the world to trade with you right now. I bet. Did he say no thanks? I was scared to death.

How much practice did you have around Charlotte before you had your first race? That's a good story. We, in 1996, I believe, dad took me, it was either 96 or 97, dad had Tony Sr. And Tony Jr. take me over to Charlotte Motor Speedway, and we were the only people there. He must have talked privately with your dad or someone at the track to get the track to ourselves. Steve Park went out and ran the car for about four or five laps. It was either Steve or Jeff Green, whoever was driving for us at the time. The car was black, so it must have been back in the Goodrich days.

So Jeff must have went out there and drove the car a couple laps just to make sure it was in good shape. And then they put me in it. And I had no idea where to lift, where to mash the gas, and just I'd never been on any track bigger than a half mile and just didn't know what I was doing. Yeah. Did you know you're going, you knew you're going out there that day to run? Yeah. And I was scared to death.

Charlotte's been a scary place now that's going to be for you. Oh, man. Baptism by fire over there. The car, the getting down into term one was a bit of a bit, a bit, a bit, rough. It was just this, the landing was kind of harsh and kind of a bit violent back then. The cars would bottom out and spark and all that good stuff. And I went down in there on my fourth lap and bottomed out and spun out and hit the wall. Oh. Destroyed the car. Oh. No. No. I didn't know this is how the story is. Yeah. It doesn't end. It doesn't end.

It doesn't end. Good. Good. Okay. Well, I mean, your career wasn't over there. You probably thought it was. That was the end of the day, anyhow. But I wrecked the car and got out of the car and stood there in the corner. And so here comes Tony. Yeah, I'm just standing there. And here comes Tony Sr. And Tony Jr., and they drive up. And they were like, man, that last lap you ran was fast.

Yes. So I had ran this really, really good lap. And they were all laughing and cutting up. And I was thinking, man, I was in big trouble. Yeah. And obviously I wrecked and didn't know what I was doing, and I was going to, you know, you don't get me any second chances. But apparently I ran fast enough to get a second chance.

What did Dad say about it? Well, he wasn't there. I don't remember actually having too much of conversation with him. I'm sure him and Tony talked about it behind closed doors a little bit. But I was. So that extra pressure wasn't there. No. Yeah.

I was frightened, excited. And when I was out there. they're driving, I remember feeling like I was, you know how, like when in the movies, when people were, when guys are trying to break a horse? Uh-huh. What do you call those? Horse Whisperer.

No, the horse, a wild horse. A wild horse. You're trying to get it to calm down. So, and the thing's just going crazy, right? And it's like and it's like and everywhere. Yeah. And that's what I felt like when I was driving that car. Like, I had no control. Everyone was happening. Wow. That's interesting. It was happening. Everything was just going so fast and

happening so fast that I didn't, I was like, There's no telling what's going to happen next. But sure enough. You know, if you didn't wreck, they probably would have said you could have gone faster. Yeah. You know? I mean, that's probably one of those things. I had no idea about this.

Yeah. I had no. I had nothing to reference what I was doing, so I didn't know whether I was really, really slow. Yeah. Or I was doing okay. So I was just like. But their reaction. Harder and harder.

He's lap. Wow. Yeah. Did you ride? Do you ever ride around the track? We didn't do. We probably should have. done that you never rode around the trail

we probably should have tried that when you when you were younger did you ever get in the side no no nothing a pace car ride i'm telling you man then Tony senior Tony junior they just throw it well i like to get out there and you just do it's a good thing

they didn't throw you up there airplane i'm on a pole and in pace i would cordial dale i would cordially like to invite you to join my wife betsy and my girls katy and grace and join us during the christmas uh celebration you have every year where you go around the track and see the lights. I'd like to invite you to do that.

I have been there and I have done that. It's dark. It sounds like you would have taken anything that you could have had a Christmas parade laugh would have been one of them. I would have taken it. I love all these stories. This is good stuff. Well, I know clearly you want to win that race. So let's talk about how that happens.

I know we were busting your chops about scratching the beard and everything, but all of us here that are listening and that are part of the podcast are so grateful for your weekly commentary on what's happening post each race and i was especially appreciative of your commentary a couple weeks ago because you could tell that you're so grateful for the effort that everyone on your team is making but that you're frustrated with the results that you're seeing right now so tell us i know that you're so tell us that i know that you're making that you're making but that you're frustrated and that last week in the All-Star race, you felt like some changes were made that really yielded

some positive results. So tell us where you're at right now going into this 600 on Sunday. Yeah, we think we did, you know, we did some good things last weekend and did have a good finish and a good result in the All-Star race, and I think that helped, that helped our attitude and our confidence a little bit. And me and we didn't qualify very well. Obviously, we've struggled in qualifying all year and that's been you know that's been some of the that that has been some of the fridays have been the harder days for us um just emotionally uh me and gregg do not like how things are going for us in qualifying and we take that very personally um so the friday afternoons and evenings are our our harder days of the tougher days but we sit and we talked last

night Greg was at my house till midnight talking about qualifying talking about our plan talking about how how we're going to you know prepare for this race coming up so you know when when we qualify like we did and Greg calls you up and says I'm going to come over let's sit down this just see you know have let's just talk it out and you know so we're spending the time together that I think we need to that he thinks we need to if we're if we're going to get better we're going to have to do it together that kind of attitude. So I thought that was awesome that he was over there last night and that we had a chance to hash it out and try to figure out what we can do to do better and qualifying. We always

race really well. I watched some of the telecast and I thought Jeff Gordon really hit the nail on the head when he was saying these guys always find a way to communicate and race really well. They don't qualify well, but they're always there in the races. And that's what me and Greg sit there and scratch our heads about. It's like, man, we can be the fastest car in the race or one of the best cars, one of the top five cars in the race. Why can't we go do this and

qualifying? What is happening and what's different? So it's a mystery. I know you're searching for that answer, but do you think it's speed-related or something else? I don't know whether it's how I drive the car. Is it something I'm doing differently when the

tracks full of race cars in the race versus when we're out there by ourselves or you know we really don't have a rabbit to chase. I don't know what it is, but we're going to figure it out. I mean, it's one of the things that I want to, I want the answer to, and I know Greg and the guys do too. They work way too hard for us not to have the results. And because they do.

I mean, those guys, they don't get frustrated and lay down. They don't get frustrated. They don't look at the results in qualifying and quit showing up. they work harder. They work longer hours, and they try all kinds of new things to try to figure out what it is that's going to make us qualify better. And so it's hard to watch those guys go through all that and put themselves out there and not be able to get the results. And so, you know, anyhow, we feel pretty confident that we'll get into Saturday. me and Greg are going to talk some more this evening

and try to figure out our direction for Saturday because you really got to take every minute in practice and maximize the opportunity to learn something. You can't waste any time making changes or being lackadaisical. Every second and every lap you get on the track as an opportunity to improve. And we need to, you know,

you got an hour and a half and then break. And you need to be able to do everything. And you've got to have a plan. All right, we're going to try this right where spring. to begin with and we're going to try that you know we're going to have a list of things you're going to run through it's pretty particular you don't just kind of show up and just go by to see your pants so we're going to we'll get a plan together tonight and we've got a few things that we want to learn and figure out that we that we think can help us and hopefully we've you know Saturday

evening Saturday afternoon we'll go through a debrief with all four drivers and all four crew Chiefs. We'll listen to what they learned and what they liked and didn't like. We'll match that up with what we went through and try to pick some of the low-hanging fruit and figure out some of the things that line up with our comments and build a setup and go to the race and race. Well, it's obvious the effort is there. And you just went through all the effort that's being made.

On top of that, the results last year, I mean, you're top five in them to death. You won three races on the heels of making a crew chief change and so many changes on the pit crew. I mean, you had a lot of success. leading laps and winning races, so you know that clearly it's going to happen. You have a lot of confidence that's going to happen. Yeah, Greg's a great, great talent, and we did have an amazing year in my book. Last year, I was very satisfied with Greg's job. I was satisfied with the job Greg did.

He's young in that role, but he's got a lot of experience and a lot of experience to lean on. I like all the guys. All our guys are the same guys that we've had for several years. and you know you kind of get off on the wrong path every once in a while you just got to rain it back in

and go back and look at everything that you were doing when it was working and kind of you get a little cute every once in a while or get a little aggressive or maybe you know too far outside the box but you have to try these things

you can't keep doing the same thing every week there's other teams out there learning going outside the box and every once in a while you're going to hit on something And that's what's going to help you win championships because you sort of go through everything you're doing and all your inventory and you get all your best eggs for one basket near the end of the season. So we've got a, you know, we've got a whole company behind us.

A lot of people working really hard. We've got all our teammates and, you know, their crew chiefs, their teams learning, researching and trying to find speed. It's a company-wide effort. That's awesome. Let me ask you, when you hear drivers sometimes they'll say, well, my car is better on long runs or I'm better on long runs than short runs. I always just wonder what's the difference in that. Is that something you feel in the car as a mechanical or is it as a driver?

How does that work for you? You know, some cars will take off better. Some cars, you know, you'll show up to a racetrack and the car will just have early run speed. It'll be fast those first few, five or six laps. Some cars maybe don't run quite as quick as the five guys that are kicking everybody's butt at the top of the chart. But maybe round lap 10 or 10, 15, 20, maybe you're actually faster than all these guys. It's amazing how that happens because you've got the same machine and the same guy driving. It's just circumstances to the setup of the car.

A lot of it's the tire too. A lot of times, the tire, too. A lot of times the tire is really a critical player in the whole thing. It connects the car to the road and how you feel. A lot of drivers, some drivers like a certain type of tire, a certain style of sidewall, a certain stiffness in the sidewall, or a certain compound. If you ask Kevin Harvick and Jimmy Johnson and all these guys,

they probably have a tire that they like the most or prefer, or a tire they really do well on. And you can ask them, and they'll tell you, Well, it's that tire we run at Michigan. And we run it at Charlotte. Yeah. They'll have, they have tires that they actually probably do like better. They have a track, too, the track, too, the courseness of the track and the way it's.

Yeah, there's guys that prefer different styles of asphalt and so forth. Lines to run, et cetera. That's a great question, though, Marcus, because, Dale, you talked about that after the All-Star race and your commentary for us about your concern about a long run the other night. But on short runs, car really took off. Yeah. So, but a lot of times it's exactly the opposite than that. So that's good stuff there. Mike Davis, what you got?

Let me, we're going to give away one of these exalted studio panels that Della signed. But before we do that, I want to ask one last question. So, Marcus, your dad was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame last year. So well deserved. Yes, thank you. Rick Hendrick and Richard Childress, Benny Parsons, Mark Martin. Raven Park. Raven Parks.

That's the class this year. I'd love to spend time talking about each of them. But Rick Hendrick, you know, somebody asked. me the other day about Rick Hendrick and I always have a struggle to try to encapsulate in words what Rick Hendrick really means just to me personally. They'll take a stab at it. Thank you. Seriously, not what he means to me, what he means to you.

Let me encapulate. What did you say? Encapsulate, yes. We'll spell that later. But he's such a, I mean, he's just gold. But like, how do you describe Rick Hendrick and how influential he is? You know, I've got a great relationship with Rick, and he's a man that I have a ton of respect for.

I love him, and he has given me this an amazing opportunity to work in a great environment with amazing people. He's single-handedly responsible for that company and what that company is today. His mentality and the way he drives people and gets people to want to work for him, work with him is an amazing talent. I don't know how he does it. That's right. I don't know how he works as hard as he does. I don't know how he remembers everybody's name.

He shakes everybody's hand, remembers what their wife's doing, where their kids are going to school. When someone's sick, I don't care if it's a guy working in the wash pit at the BMW store or is somebody working at the race shop. If somebody's sick in your family, he's flying you and them to the best doctors and he's always trying to connect people to give them the best help he can. I mean, he does all this stuff behind doors and doesn't want any credit for it. He just wants to help people.

He's got an amazing heart. But if you want to just, if you want to be blown away, look at his stats, the championships, the wins, the top fives, that's incredible to have accomplished what he's accomplished. in this sport. It's surprising to me that he hadn't been voted in sooner, but just the stats alone. Yeah, yeah.

You know, he's gave and gave and gave and gave to this sport for many, many years. He continues to send these four amazing race teams to the track every week that are a huge part of the sport, and he's got a lot of great talented drivers, and he's worked with a lot of talented drivers, giving a lot of guys a lot of opportunity. You know, he's just, he's got a lot of, he's got a lot of things that he's done to help the sport, and he's been a huge asset all along the way.

He's, he's in those conversations with the France family and the track owners and the drivers and the team owners. He's in all those conversations, and whenever they're sitting down talking about the future and the direction and the choices we got to make and the tough choices to make, he's one of the guys that you want in the room. Yeah. And then I'll also ask you about your kids in the same conversation. He's done that with me, to Dale's point, I mean, he does. He doesn't forget a name.

It's incredible. He has an incredible gift. He has an incredible gift. And you just mentioned a lot, Dale, about his professional success, but you have such a a personal connection with him and you always have. And, you know, I know he has stated this publicly. He did it when you announced that you were going to race for him. But I was on the track at Bristol Motor Speedway a few years.

ago and we were talking about this podcast and he was asking all kinds of stuff about family etc but then he just kind of looks over at you in the corner and he says man i want to win a championship with that guy i mean he and i know you've said it thousands of times how many how much you want to win a championship for him and for everybody but um you know he he has said he said it that day that he thinks of you as a son and hopes you think of him in some sort of way is almost like a dad and you know you've lost something but you gained something and there is a really a real real special bond there. Yeah, it's kind of circumstantial that we and him went through what we did when I lost my dad and he lost his son. We, you know, kind of our paths crossed and we saw an opportunity

to help each other and be a part of each other's lives, and I think he wanted that as much as I did. And it's really paid off for me. Just, I mean, just outside of the racing, it's been a real blessing to have him in my life and have him as a mentor and someone to go bounce off information and you know just all the personal things that you're get you go through uh when you got questions and and it need advice and he all he's the kind of guy that you you need advice and not even know how to ask for it and he he has the he has the perfect answer and um i've really leaned on him He's helped me outside of driving a car. He's helped me tremendously.

And I think that he's had that effect on so many people. It'll be a great night. Like Mike said, all those people mean something to you, but definitely wanted to talk a little bit about him. I'll just throw in there real quick, Taylor, that the way Dale is talking about Rick Hendrick is the same kind of way that Daryl Waltrip talks about him. and so many people, like we're saying.

I mean, he's made such a huge impact on my life and so many. It's really hard to encapsulate it. It is. And so happy for him being in the Hall of Fame. Your brother, Scott, and Jimmy was with them recently. And he just comes up because of how much. I was watching the ceremony last year and told Winston Kelly that, I said, I told him, I said, man, I want to come to the ceremony next year,

but I just want to just give me a seat. I want to walk in there, sit down, and watch it. But I didn't know, you know, knowing now, I know I'm going with Rick, Rick getting inducted band, but the ceremony itself for Rick, Mark, Benny, all those guys. It's going to be so interesting, just, I think for me personally, but for fans in general to watch that ceremony. That's going to be awesome.

You're going to learn some things about these guys that a lot of, of us maybe you didn't even know each and every one of them. Maybe they wrecked at Charlotte Motor Speedway after their fastest lap the first time they ever went out there. You talk about accomplishments in this sport and, you know, this will be something that will make these guys really emotional. And I don't think that they'll realize that until they're up on that stage. There's no question.

That's so true. So I cannot wait to see like Mark and those guys get up there and accept their induction. Yeah. This is the Dale Jr. presented by Spy. It's the craziest paint scheme yet. Get the all-new limited edition Spy Rangler Daga sunglasses this weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. You can also order them online at spyoptic.com. All right. Let's give away this panel. Marcus and I were talking about this. We just, there's these panels that the Exalta folks give us for the studio and they sent us some for

DEL to sign and this is the first time we've ever actually given one away. Marcus, we have no planning involved in this. We were talking about before we started taping this podcast that maybe whoever came here from the longest distance, which I think if the Japan folks are here, there's an early favorite. Natalie, how do you want to do this?

I say have him show a driver's license of the furthest away. All right, Natalie's going to walk out there. That's a good idea. How far away? Who thinks that they could possibly have been a candidate for the longest distance? Your buddy from high school probably won't. win this one. We got somebody.

Where are you from? Saskatchewan. That's pretty good. That's an early favorite. Saskatoon. Can anybody beat that? Can anybody? They're shaking their heads, no.

All right. And there you go. Do you mind coming in? Come on in. Do you mind Saskatchewan? The rough riders. I love it. That's awesome.

Yeah. How about that? All right. What's your name, sir? Pete Harris. Pete? Thanks for coming. You came from Saskatchewan.

Yeah, I did. How long does that take? Well, by playing, it's not that long, but if you were to drive it, it's another course. That's right. And how long have you been a fan of Dale Jr.? Oh, for years and years and years and prior to that, so. All right. Awesome.

You are who you say you are. Fantastic. Absolutely. Yeah. All right. Great. Well, it's already been. You're going to the race this weekend.

Oh, you bet. I was there yesterday, and I was cheering for you. Well, you're going to go over and watch the Xfinity Race Saturday? Yes, I am. All right. Yes, I am. Yep. That's great.

It's a real privilege to be here, and it's a privilege to be this close to you. No, I appreciate it. And I think you're something, you're awesome. Well, I appreciate you coming all this way. That's awesome. Oh, I appreciate that, man. Yes, sir. Yeah, I do.

Awesome. Congratulations to you, sir. Thank you very much. Absolutely. Oh, wow. Thanks for coming to the races. That's awesome. From Saskatchewan.

All right. That's really cool. Yeah. Really, really cool. All the different fans of Junior Nation and Dale Earnardt Jr. We appreciate each and every one of you being here today for the Dale Jr. download. Okay, we got a few things left to do before we run out of here. And we got some off-the-track questions for you, Jr.

Off-the-track. Yeah. You just did an interview with your good friend, Chris Cooley. Oh, yeah, yeah. And Chris Cooley with Washington Redskins play tight-in for the Redskins. Now he has his own radio show on ESPN. My man, first name, Davis, over here says that in that interview, you said that you get updates about the Redskins games during the NFL season.

Now, who is providing you with these updates? Well, see, okay. What I said was, is that some of the busier tracks, which is pretty much everyone. except Talladega and Daytona, that I can't really ask for these updates. And I don't want to give anybody the opinion that I'm not focused. No, I'm doing a caution flag.

Yeah, still, though, I mean, I've got to be on task. All the guys in the pits are focused. Of course, I'm sure they're sneaking around the back of the pit box looking at scores. Well, you're not texting like Kozlowski. Yeah. So I tell, T.J. knows that I want to know. And so if, you know, if they're doing really good, he'll tell me. He'll just say, hey, man, you know, skins are up, 14.

There you go. Clear on the left? Yeah. Door bumper. Skins are up, clear, clear, clear. Fitting in five, four, three. And if he, if I'm in a bad mood or if something, if I need, if he needs to fire me up, he may even lie to me and say they're winning when they're not.

Make sure he doesn't give you Buffalo Bills updates. So he knows better than that. So Cooley's your boy. I mean, he's been down here, has stayed with you and everything. Is he the kind of person that might be invited to a wedding per se? My goodness, you put me on the spot right there. Well, in fact, we haven't heard much about that lately.

So I just want to make sure if Amy is still on board with this. You know, like getting married? Yes. Yes, of course. Okay, all right, I just want to make sure. Did you have preemlies? What about, what about it? I can not believe.

Mike Davis. This is his idea. No, no, what if, does Amy approve coolly coming? No, I'm kidding. I might have been put up to this, by the way. My goodness. You know, I have a little, I have, so a lot of the wedding details are private. At least, I am not at liberty to discuss them.

That's right. That's a good woman. That's right. Yes. But we, you know, it's been a lot of fun. Me and Amy, I sort of, We have a list, you know, that we're working on, and I, you know, when, and I sort of add a little bit to it as we go.

But we're certainly going to have to narrow it down as we get closer. And I'm excited about, I'm excited about that whole process. Marcus, what if he wants to get married outside Bristol Motor Speedway? We could do it. Okay. I just want to make sure that's available. We can do it inside Bristol Motor Speedway. Yeah.

Yeah. Listen, if you're doing that, do it at Bristol. I don't want to mess up the pigeon shooting at Charlotte. That's what you do it. We do. We would clear the pigeons out before the wedding if you want to do it at Charlotte, and we've got Speedway TV there. Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

We could do it there. Elvis could preside. I've checked out. I mentally checked out. This is when you want the redskins scores like atap, right? Cassie and I, we celebrated our, we had our 10th anniversary. We went out to Vegas with some friends during Vegas weekend, and we went to one of the little chapels on the strip, and we dressed.

in like 70s outfits. That is fantastic. I had like, you know, one of those suits that are all, I don't know, stretchy and everything. I forgot what you call it. But spandex? Kind of like spandex. But, you know, it's not tight. I forgot what you call those things.

Like a John Devoltz outfit. Oh, yeah. And she, you know, the girls had that and the guys had their outfits and we had Elvis, skinny Elvis. That's fantastic. It was pretty good. It was fun. Well, listen, if Amy is still searching for it.

for ideas, Jr. I mean, there you go. Oh, man. Go see Marcus. That was a recommitment. Yeah, I guarantee it was. How committed are you? Well, let's see you put this on. Yeah. Junior Nation, check out the ride with Dale Jr. to help kids everywhere campaign from nationwide and nationwide Children's Hospital. This is so awesome. In case you missed it, Dale Jr. will 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. 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 the car. Only a limited spots are available. So you must act quickly. Marcus seems like a good name to put it. Is it how much you give or everybody is it kind of random?

Check out nationwide social channels, Marcus. Okay. On Facebook at Nationwide 88 on Twitter at Nationwide 88 for more information. That's cool. And updates. If you have any questions, you can go there. I like that. That's fun.

That's really cool. It is. It's fun when the fans can, I don't know if fans get a kick out of putting their name on the car. They can, you know, they'll obviously be able to look online and see where their name is and know it's out there running around. Let me ask you the magic question. Will it be a diecast? Oh, certainly. That's cool.

Yeah. You know, if you could have that die cast, your name's on it, then that'd be awesome. Oh, we'll make a diecast out of anything. It don't matter. Joe Mattis upstairs, though he'll make a diecast. You need to bring back the pluck chicken diecast that they had in Stroker 8. Yeah. The chicken, yeah, the chicken, what was that?

The chicken bucket special? What was it? Something like that. Yeah, yeah. I'm surprised y'all haven't done that, actually, over Charlotte. We actually, we're going to be showing Stroker Ace, I think, tonight on Speedway TV. Whoa, whoa, whoa, stop everything. Of course you are.

Are you serious? Yeah. No, I love it. Like a drive-in? Yeah. They do that stuff all the time. It's fantastic. We watch cars on it a few years ago.

So how is the audio during that? You got, we have speakers in the infield, but you also have. Your radio. You can turn your radio? Yeah. Like 101.1.5, I think. Holy, really. Isn't that pretty cool?

Yeah. Yeah. Does that for the Christmas stuff each year, too. I think there's a romantic date and Miss Davis' future tonight. Stroker race on the big screen. Yeah. Double check that schedule. It might be Talladega Nights.

It's one either tonight or tomorrow night is stroke race, which is my favorite. I also like stroke race quite a bit. Yeah. Me and one of the reporters in the thing we're discussing. Stoke races. place. Yes. In history,

racing movie history. It's up there. That in Speedway, Elvis, you know, that movie, that was really good. And a lot of that was shot at Charlotte. At Charlotte. It was. And what's the coolest thing, one of the coolest things about that movie is you look in the stands and all the fans are wearing like nice outfits.

The guys are wearing sport coats. And it looks like they're all at a horse, like a Kentucky Derby. Yeah. But they're at the 600. Yeah. Yeah, no, that's really cool. And I love how you do, you guys do that every single, every single race weekend. It's outstanding.

You know, it's really cool what's happening this weekend, Dale Jr., and the fact that you have this fan appreciation thing. I know you're so appreciative and also fired up about what's happening in junior motorsports. I figured last up, we absolutely need to mention what's happened in this year with your race team. The last couple of years, I mean, the momentum that's been gained, the championships, etc. How mean, how cool is that? Yeah, the work we've done here has really been very rewarding. We've grown into a very, you know, a successful team, very healthy.

We're winning races. We've got exciting relationships and partners. So when we first started our Xfinity team, we just wanted to survive and wanted to be able to compete. take cars to the racetrack and try to compete. And that's a fun challenge. We still do that. We still look at it as, you know, it's enjoyable, it's fun. We go and try to take our cars and race against the rest of the competition.

And we've, you know, the championships and wins and all that stuff along the way has really kind of been a giant bonus. And we never really set a goal for wins or championships. We just wanted to be there. And we really enjoy leaving some sort of mark on the sport, whatever that is. So being out there and competing was what was important to us. And I feel like that we've, we're a good part, an important part of Xfinity Series, and we love being there. People ask us all the time what our plans are for the future.

We love where we're at. We love the Xfinity Series. We love the environment and the racing that it provides. and, you know, this is our, that's kind of our home. So things are going real good. We're real healthy right now. We've got a lot of great talent. Also, before we go, I wanted to thank,

I know we had all our drivers out here signing autographs for Fan Day, which I appreciate all our guys coming, but Kevin Harvick came out here today. And for a guy, I know how busy he is because being out there and competing with him. And I know all the other things that he has. has going on but to have him come out here today meant a lot to me Marcus for you to come out and see what we're doing I know you're going around town

and seeing a couple of the shops and checking out what people are doing today we appreciate how connected you are and how grounded you are and plugged in to everything you've certainly got you got such some you got the best intentions and it's a lot of fun to to talk and work with you and so we appreciate you coming by Thank you, man. Great to be here. Yeah, but this is great for the fans.

We love it every year. This is our eighth year. Can't wait for next year. We'll see some of the same folks and hopefully some new ones as well. That's great. Go get them Sunday night, my man. Thank you, man. I'm looking forward to.

Really, really appreciate what you do for all your fans. This podcast is so much fun to do. Yeah, it is. And the access you give fans, everybody is so grateful for that. And self-included. I mean, we love doing it. So thanks, thanks, my man. Appreciate it.

Thank you. All right, Marcus, thanks to, I really appreciate you being here this week. Thanks to Dale. Thanks to First Name Davis. Thanks to Mike Davis. Thanks to the rest of the staff. Natalie, Dustin, everybody that's here today.

Tyler, I'll get to you, Tyler. Short game, Tony, everybody that's here today. We appreciate you. This has been the Dale Jr. download. I'm Taylor Zarzer. It's presented by Spy. Thanks for listening to Dirty Moe Radio. Hey, Dirty Mo Radio listeners.

Make sure you follow at Exaltor 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 Winters 400. Go follow them. At Exalta Racing, you'll be glad you did.