The Dale Jr. Download - 144 - Concussion Discussion With Dale Jr.

Episode Date: August 1, 2016

Dale Earnhardt Jr. offers great detail about his concussion experience, his progress in recovery, and what matters most to him. 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.

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The latest is the Spy Rangler-Daga sunglasses. You can find them and all the other ones online at SpyOptic.com. My name's Mike Davis. I'm here with Davis Williams, otherwise known as first name Davis. We are live in the Exalta Studios. It is a weird day because we anticipated downloading a race the race has not started but we are in here because let me just tell you what happened i'm in my office sitting there watching the broadcasts and seeing if they're going to race and dale junior walks

in dale junior walks in first of all he makes a comment about my shirt just completely disses it and then says let's go down and do the download so in the studio in the exalted studio with us today right now is dale jrmns what's up dale how's it going What's up with my shirt? You didn't like it? I don't, you know, maybe it was size too big. Oh, it's too big, huh? Yeah.

What about the pocket? You like the pocket? Or does that look like elementary schoolish? The pocket? I never didn't notice the pocket. What's the story of your shirt? If we're going to sit there and critique clothes. You got a big why on it.

Yeah. It says because, tiny litters. Never even saw the becauls. Yeah. I don't know. Amy got this. She likes shirts that make you think or contemplate. Or just confuse the hell out of you.

and don't know why. And I pick the shirt because it matches my shoes. I'm really particularly that my shoes and shirt. Got the orange and blue today. Orange and blue. So, yeah, so Dale comes in. He disses the shirt, which is what happens. That's normal.

And we're having a good day so far. And then we just start chit-chatting. And he says, well, you know, since we don't know if the race is going to happen, and as we tape this right now, we still don't know if the race is happening or when it's going to start. Let's just come on down here. and let's kind of shoot the breeze a little bit, and we can do the downloads. It's a bit different today.

So I think people listening to this podcast are most interested in any status updates or progress reports that you have on your rehab. So let's go ahead and knock that out of the way first. You've missed the last three races, including the postponed race at Pocono that is about to start as we tape this. You have a follow-up appointment this week.

You actually did tweet an update over the weekend. Yeah, I kind of got impatient. We've been updating once a week through the podcast and trying not to really get too, you know, get too busy with updates and keep them coming over and over. But I got a little impatient and sent out a quick one the other day. I guess there's days when you're, there's days when you're feeling positive and then there's days when you're frustrated. and that certainly comes and goes with the process. There hasn't been a lot of change over the last couple of weeks. As I said in the tweet, the symptoms have sort of plateaued.

There are days when I feel like that the balance is better, and then there's certainly moments when it's not. I'm sleeping a whole lot more, maybe a lot harder than a, than I did before, which is to be expected. My doctors don't want me sleeping too much, which is what, you know, commonly what you hear. You don't want to, you want to really kind of be diligent with everything you do, not only just your treatment and exercises and so forth,

but you can't be lazy and laying around all day long. That's not really training or working your brain. So, but again, the balance is up and down. The main issue that I have is this is called gaze stability, and I'm having, you know, that's the main problem, and that is what I believe is tied to the balance. Like the gaze issue and the problem with my eyes, being able to fix on an object at a great distance, and stay there with head movement, that's the problem. When I move my head, I sort of lose the object that I'm trying to target. that is hand in hand with the balance. So I think one cleans up and improves, so will the other.

It's only been three weeks since I really went and first got checked out. So that's really a short period of time in the grand scheme of things when you're dealing with these type of situations. But I'm very impatient and I want change now and I want improvement now. So I'm constantly texting my doctor telling him everything. I'm experiencing every day going, what can I do to get better tomorrow? And he's like, look, you know, you've got to realize that this might be a process and you just have to keep doing these exercises.

And each time I will go to get evaluated every few weeks. And each time I go, we'll take a look at where I'm at and adjust the treatment accordingly. And I just have to follow their orders with everything they want me to do. and hope that over time that that's going to make a difference. And the treatment for gays stability has been positive. What I've read and what I understand about that particular symptom, it does respond well to treatment. So I do like going and getting checked out and seeing my doctors

and getting updates with them and sort of readjusting the treatment somewhat. What one of the things my doctors have been telling me from the start is to, his motto is exposure and recovery. And when I got my concussion in 2012, the treatment was more about resting and staying off the computer and your iPad and, you know, getting yourself, don't go into areas that drive your anxiety and increase the symptoms and all that stuff. So it was more about resting and just kind of sitting on the couch and doing nothing. But this particular time, my doctor, wants me to expose myself to situations that drive the symptoms. And that would be going places that I'm super unfamiliar with. Even coming over to Junior Motorsports just on a weekday drives the symptoms up. They ramp way up for the first 15 or 20 minutes.

and then they go away. Now, wait, why is that? Is that because there's a lot of things in motion? Or is it because of anxiety? What is causing the symptoms to flare up in when you're exposing yourself to the public elements like? Yeah. Anxiety does it a little bit, and you don't even realize you have anxiety until you have,

you know, until it affects you. So I didn't think I had much anxiety in my life, right? So, but when you drive over here, the unknown of what's, you know, just the simple, simple things that you take for granted, you're, you know, you're going to come in here and going to go talk to Martin Frederick or going to go talk to Mike Davis and we might watch the race. You know, you know, just, you're out of your element. You know, when you sit on, when I sit on the couch, I feel really good. In your living room couch, right. Yep. Because you are in control of the situation.

Nothing really can surprise you. Nothing is going to come in the front. door crazy nothing's going to happen but when I leave that environment and I go somewhere especially somewhere unfamiliar like when I was first going to get checked out and going to end going into the hospital lobbies and walking down these halls and not knowing where I'm going and what's next that drives the symptoms pretty heavily but as you're after an hour or two of being in those environments, your brain, you know, your brain kind of calms down and sort of regroups and gets a hold of the situation and the symptoms calm back down.

Just because it's getting acclimated? Yep. Is that what is that fair to say? Yeah. I think that, you know, there's a lot of, anywhere you go where there's a lobby where there's a lot of movement, a lot of talking, a lot of chatter, a lot of things happening in motion. You're in motion. Your head's turning and looking and you're observing a lot of different things.

That really drives the symptoms up. So my doctor wants me to expose. He wants me to go to the grocery store with Amy, and he wants me to basically just live. He said, man, just live your life. Don't shy away from doing these things because you think it's going to make you feel bad. Go there. If it makes you feel bad, that's fine.

That's good almost. Yeah, right. But don't make yourself sick. Don't get so overwhelmed that you're, you know, your nausea picks up. But once you're, you know, once you've had your feel of feeling like you've really exposed yourself to some heavy symptoms, get out and recover and calm down and get in a calm place where you're comfortable and get back to feeling great.

And kind of keep doing that. You know, expose yourself and then recover and expose yourself recover throughout the day. you basically are reacclimating yourself to these things that are driving you crazy and are driving your brain crazy and i've been doing that i've been you know sort of when the opportunity presents itself you know i went to went to lunch the other day with my mom and sister and carson that's exposure man going into a restaurant where there's tons of people and and a lot of movement and I've been doing those things every day, even when there's nothing for me scheduled to do.

I come over to junior motor sports and just interact with everybody. critique our clothes. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm trying to, I'm doing all these things. I've got a lot of exercises that I do at home that are visual exercises. Those are the ones that I like to do the most because I know I want my eyes to get better as fast as they can because that's part of, that's the part that's annoying me the most.

So I really, really work hard at those visual exercises. There's physical exercises that everybody does on a daily basis in a gym that my doctor says will also help the balance. Let me ask you something. I mean, you're telling us a lot about what you're feeling and the issues that you're having. But by doing that, you're opening yourself up to many other ideas and speculations about what this could be.

And I know those people mean well, but they're also not you. So how do these symptoms that you're speaking of point to concussion? Well, I'm not a doctor, so I have to lean on the professionals that I'm working with to help me understand what my problem is. When we first went to get checked out, we went through every single test. We went through every possible issue. you from inner ear. That's right. You didn't actually think this was anything to do with the concussion.

I really didn't. But we went through everything. We tried, I did blood tests. We got, we went checking for Lyme's disease. I mean, everything that we could think of. And basically you just go down this elimination list. And obviously with my history of concussions and knowing the event that I had in, Michigan, that wreck right there is where they believe that I picked up this issue.

And I didn't feel anything that next week. And I went to, we had an off week, went to Germany and had, you know, went and raced in Sonoma and felt great, red and good, felt awesome. So it was strange to me that these symptoms came out of nowhere. And I didn't know what was wrong with me and why I would just start getting symptoms for no reason. but we started doing a lot of digging and thinking and they seem to really feel confident that this occurred in Michigan.

I've never had a concussion that came on weeks after the event. Most of them, you know, you feel it immediately and then they sort of get better over time, whether that's 72 hours or a month. But you know this well too. Yeah. So this has been the opposite. This is the one, this is scary for. me because of the way it's been different and I'm having balance issues I've never had

balance issues before the I issues with the stability I've never had that before and how it didn't begin at the event it started my weeks later and came on very slowly very gradually and kind of continued to progress until it stopped and sort of stayed where it is I don't know what that tells me about how long this process is going to be. You just don't know. Right. So I felt like I had a good understanding of dealing with concussions in the past, but this is certainly

a new one. And they all do have different symptoms, and they all do react differently to treatment, and they all have their own time, and the length of the recovery is different for everyone. So, yeah, I am getting a lot of phone calls, and a lot of. lot of advice and you sort of you don't you know you definitely don't just discard everything you hear right you just got to put it on a shelf because where I'm working with some great doctors today and they're giving me treatment training exercises that I need to do and I have to buy in a hundred percent that what

they're telling me is going to fix it that's right I can't sit here and go well you know I'm going to do these exercises and And if it don't work, I got these other ideas. I'm just going to put all that idea on all those ideas and thoughts on the shelf. And we're going to work because the plan is this is going to work. And this is going to fix it. So you just, we wake up every morning hoping, you go to bed at night, hoping that when you wake up the next morning, you're going to be able to tell a difference.

That is, drives you absolutely crazy because you wake up the next day. don't feel anything you wake up you open your eyes you set up you walk to the bathroom and you know immediately that nothing's different nothing's better nothing's worse but in the past you could always feel this improvement you know and no man i'm heading in the right direction so those days get you really really frustrated and those are the days where you might reach out and say hey tell me you can fix this i need to hear that again today and he knows You know, he knows that I, he knows me well enough to know that, man, all I needs a little positive reinforcement. I would encourage that when people are having those kind of days to reach out to their doctors and get that, you know, get that positive reinforcement that they're, you know, this is going to, this is going to work and what you're doing is what you need to be doing.

It certainly helps me to hear from him. And he does, he reaches out to me sometimes and vice versa. We have a great relationship, you know, but it's, you know, it's just, it's been real frustrating. And I wish I, you know, again, I'm going to go to bed tonight, hoping that when I wake up, I feel different. And when I do, I won't, I'll be excited to tell everyone. There's a side of you that's hesitant as well because this can go up and down. You know, you might have great days where you're feeling like you're almost out of the woods, and then you take two or three steps back for no reason whatsoever.

Some days, you know, if I really go expose myself in heavy environments and have a full, long day of being very busy and around a lot of people, the next day is really usually very crappy. The next day is the balance is really bad, and the eyes are really bad because of what I went through the day before. and so it's uh yeah i take a lot of notes so i'm to help myself sort of understand how the process is going and then i you know also if i you know if i'm waking up and feeling bad i can go back through the last couple of days and kind of see where maybe i i had a hand in making that happen

uh that that's not just doing you know that's there's a there's a reason for every repercussion so it's uh i'm really diligent about the note that that's note-taking and I'm super in tune with my body and how it's how it feels, how it's supposed to feel. And, man, I'm learning a ton about the whole process. I learned a lot in 2012. I've learned a lot since then. And, you know, like I say, every event and every concussion is different. And this one is completely unique to anything I've ever had in the past.

and it's like reading a whole new book. It's a completely new ballgame. So we'll see how we are in a couple days. We're going to get checked out tomorrow. And I'm anxious to get there. I'll meet with about five specialists while we're there. We'll go through a lot of different activities. And there'll be a ton of back and forth

and talking and answering questions. lot of exposure. You're going to get some exposure, right? All right. So this is what's interesting about this. You are very transparent and you have been through this entire process. Probably, I'll admit, even more transparent than even we would like you to be. Is that fair to say? I just don't know why.

I mean, I think that when, okay, I think when you're in this situation, you have a habit of wanting to share and be open. Well, that's you naturally, though. uh... yeah but so you know if i say to you uh... man i i woke up and i have the flu today you know what that is because you had the flu

so there's a bit of a uh... there's a bit of a frustration to try to explain your symptoms because not not a lot of people have dealt with this and know what it's like and they think well you know you look you look fine you talk you sound great i don't see you stumbling around you know, I don't see the problem. And so you feel this, you feel, since people can't literally see what's wrong with you,

you feel this, I guess, urge to drive home the description and let people know what you're dealing with and what you're feeling because they can't see it. And it's not obvious to everyone. And also, I've been out of the car and haven't been visual, haven't been at the track, the fans haven't, you know, the fans don't know anything other than what we've told them over the podcast and so forth. So I just want people to understand where I'm at, what I'm doing, and how we are, and where the progress is. So there's no worry or question that I've improved when I have it or that I'm getting worse when I have it, you know, or I don't want people dreaming up these insane ideas that crazy stuff's going on or whatever.

Although, but you'll admit that when we get nervous about all the symptoms, that's why. Because people will, like, hear what you say and then go, oh, well, that's got to be this. That's got to be this. And that we've seen a lot of that. But that being said, you feel, the reason I'm asking you this is you feel a need to be transparent for reasons despite of that. I'm not my own piece of mind, I guess. Well, that's fair to say, yeah. Because it drives me crazy wondering what people are wondering.

Oh, really? Yeah. Okay. So I'm sitting at home, not at the car, not at the track. My guys, you know, I go to the shop so my guys can see me and look at me and know that I got all of my arms and legs and everything, you know, I'm functional. And I can talk to them about what I'm dealing with and why I can't drive their car. And it worries me that, you know, I guess it worries me that people don't know what I'm going through and what I'm dealing with. and I want them to know why I can't drive and why I can't race.

Yeah. You know, because you feel pretty helpless, especially on Friday and Saturday and Sunday when the guys are working and the cars on the track. You know, you get, it's not a good feeling. It's not fun. And that's when I think it ramps up that you imagine people are hoping you can get back out there. And, you know, you see the support on social media.

Can't wait to your back. And I hope you return soon. And I just want to be as transparent as I can to help people, help my peace of mind and help everyone else as well, you know, understand the process and know that, you know, at least on a week-to-week basis that it's improved. It's not improved. It's worse. This is what's happened today. what we got told yesterday and what else you're going to do i mean there's oh i mean that's that's the part honestly that that also makes me nervous is when you say i've improved or i've not improved

then people will hold that against you when when this when it's changed no he said it's improved or no and so you need to have devil's advocates on your team just to keep the balance and keep everything absolutely we talk all the time sure me and you talk all the time about how to handle this and how transparent to be. I want everybody to go to, you know, to my evaluations. I want everybody to be there because. So call 855-740-1902 if you would like a ticket on the foot. No, I'm kidding.

You know, I don't want, because that's the stuff, you know. At that evaluation, you see and you hear from the doctor and you get it straight. I wish everyone knew exactly what was going on, and that's, I guess that's why I like to be so transparent. I hear you. So it's, and I mean, I mean, I don't know that I wouldn't be like this if I was 25 years old, just getting going and trying to,

thinking about, man, I've got, you know, I want to race for another 20 years. I wouldn't be as transparent. I'd tell people, I've got symptoms. I'll be back when I'm good, you know. That's the end of it. But I've, you know, raced long enough that, and with my history and my concern about my,

well-being and my future and all that, I really don't have anything to lose by being transparent. I guess you're right. You know, I'd love to race more. I've got a, in my mind, my plan is to race more. I am, you know, I have plans to keep going. I'll worry about that when I'm well. I'll look at my, I'll talk to my doctors and say, what, what do I have left as far as the racing? My doctors are confident that they can make me stronger than I was before this event.

As far as long-term, man, I've got more, I want to race more. I got another year on this deal, and me and Rick have sat down and discussed our future and what else we want to accomplish. But, yeah, I wouldn't be as transparent if this was happening to me as a young. I'd be frightened to death at 25 years old going through this. Right. But, you know, at 41, I think that it's important for me, for my piece of mind, and it might help somebody.

You know, concussions are different. They react different. Symptoms are different. Treatment reacts differently. But for someone who's going through this or maybe is going to go through this, maybe what we're doing as far as being descriptive and explaining the process will entice them to seek out help and know that there's help and treatment. You know, when you get these kind of symptoms, anytime your brain isn't working the way you think it should, you take that completely seriously.

Everything else in your world stops because everything you take for granted no longer works. And you want help, right? And not a lot of people know exactly what to do or where to get it. So, and what to expect, you know. So maybe this will, you know, drive some folks to get treatment and get help knowing that there's a way to improve and get it righted, you know. I've done it in the past. It's happened in the past.

The treatment is very important to fixing the problems. So, you know, concussions, they're tough. Yeah. You know, people have learned so much in the last five to ten years on how to treat them and how to understand them. But it still takes the person with the symptoms to speak up and say, I've got a problem and I need help. That's what Ricky Craven said to us on the download a few weeks ago. And he said, you can't see it. Right.

I can't walk up to you and go, oh, man, you've got a concussion, don't you? You need to go over here and get this guy to work with you. It doesn't work that way. And let's take a quick sponsor break, and we'll be right back. Nationwide is proud to sponsor the NASCAR Foundation's Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award given to one NASCAR fan who's making an impact in their community with children's charities. Visit NASCAR.com backslash award to watch the stories of four amazing finalists and vote today and every day for your favorite.

The winner will get $100,000 for their charity. Vote today at NASCAR.com backslash award. Carrie Earnhardt here. Tune in this Friday to Unhard Outdoors as Hank Parker Jr. and I cover everything from the great outdoors to the activities that strengthen the bonds and families and friendships. That's Unhard Outdoors right here on Dirty Moe Radio. Ricky Craven, of all the things that he said, he said so many good things. But I asked him about regrets, and he said that his biggest regret is that he didn't give himself more time back then, which was crazy because at the time he was getting in the car because he thought he would regret not racing.

seen complete opposite. It was so ironic that the biggest regret that he has was the fact that he didn't give himself more time. The hardest thing to understand and realize, especially sitting here in this race shop with these race cars right out the window, the hardest thing to understand is what's most important in life, right? So, you know, it might be easier for someone who has children, which I don't, but I plan to have children in my future. but when you have, you know, for people that do have kids, you know, you can look at those kids and it registers right away what's most important. Absolutely. But for someone like me or a young race car driver that's not in that situation, the only thing that matters is racing.

That's right. It's hard to put your priorities in order. Right. And I think that's kind of where Ricky was at that particular part in his life. He's like, man, I'm just now getting some traction. My career is going in the right direction. I can't stop. I can't give up.

Even it's one race or these next couple weeks, I've got to get back in there if I can physically do it. And that's, you know, that's how we were. That's how I was 10, 15 years ago. But, man, after a few episodes and having some pretty serious symptoms in a couple of those episodes, it's a wake-up call. You start to think about, and you're hearing other stories, too, about people that are struggling as they get older.

And there's, you know, there's a lot of, there's a lot of bad, sad stories out there. And that makes you really start to, you know, put things into order, put your priorities in order. But there's treatment, you know, there's these guys that are struggling in their 50s and 60s. There's people out there that, you know, they want to help them. And like I say, we're learned, you know,

doctors are learning more and more about how to improve the quality of life for these folks. and, you know, athletes that are going through these issues today. Do you think we're ready to talk about your new look? What? Oh, my glasses? I mean, come on. Okay.

You've not been out there in the public, so I don't know if anybody knows it. Yeah, there have been a couple. I did. There's a couple photos, I guess, on my social media with my glasses. Does anybody comment? Hey, you got glasses. So I don't really read the comments because I don't want. Yeah, I got you.

You know, trying not to. I'm trying not to. to not you know everybody's trying to be supportive but um so i went to i noticed about a year ago that i needed reading glasses so i went to target and picked me up a pair and i've been i don't i hadn't really been using them that much but i was carrying them around with me and every once in a while popping them on uh to play with you know when i'm playing on my iPad or something but for the most part you know wasn't that bad that i needed I couldn't read what I saw in front of me.

So anyways, I've been noticing that my vision had been getting worse, and I'd go get my physicals and my family doctors like, yep, you know, that's just the old age, you know, it's going to keep getting further and further away. And, you know, before long you will need glasses every day and at least reading glasses. So in the last few months, I've been noticing that things far away, I'm not able to read as well. I can see and tell what stuff is, but it's just not quite as sharp.

It's just I can read pretty good, read words and letters and stuff pretty good, but just not quite as HD as it used to be. Which is so funny, because I don't know if you remember this, but you used to do eye exams, and you used to come back and brag about 2020. 2020, say like a beagle.

They set the record. I mean, Davis, listen to me. I even went to a few of these physicals with him. And I think he was memorizing the letters of what he was doing. See, I've been going to the same family doctor for 20 years. Same chart. Same chart. I've got that bottom row memorized.

I just tell them, all you have to do is memorize the bottom row. When they put you in front of the thing, just tell them, say, look, I can see the bottom row. Let's just go through that, get this over with, and read it off. And plus, they walk you right by the thing on the way to, you know, they're like, they walk you right by it and then say, all right, going to stand 20 feet away. So anyhow. Everyone has a chance to have 20-20 vision if they just pay attention to their surroundings when they're walking in. So while I was getting evaluated up in Pittsburgh about two weeks ago, we went to an eye doctor, and he ran through all these crazy tests, man.

It took forever. And he's like, yeah, you've got some issues with your eyes that have been there all your life. And he's like, we can give you some glasses, and they will make things better. He's like it's a very, very small prescription, but, you know, he didn't tell me to wear them all day. He didn't say, I'm going to ask him when I go back because I'm going back to see the eye doctor again. Right. Like, man, was I supposed to wear these every day all day or what's the deal? I don't remember him saying that.

If I was there, I felt like he said. I don't know if he said that, but that was the impression I got. I've only been wearing them when I know I'm going to go somewhere where they're, like, riding in a car, where I'm going to see distance. If I'm in my living room, I haven't been wearing them. But anyhow, I like them. They're good. Yeah.

It's a real light prescription because I've been giving them to people to try on, and they're like, I don't see anything different. No, yeah, I try them on. They miss me up. For me, it really is the difference between standard and high death and television. You remember the difference. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

So you're in high death. Yeah. So I, and what happened was is about a year ago, mom was having a pizza party at her house, making all these different pizzas. Yeah. That's the first and last piece party I've ever been to, but it's her idea.

So putting all these crazy toppings on these pizzas, right? We're making these pizzas. And most of the family was over there, and she had her reading glasses on the counter, and I picked them up being goofy and put them on, and I could not believe how much better I could see. With her glasses? Yes.

I had no idea. I couldn't see perfectly. How could you, right? Well, I'm just, yeah, I'm like, I can see perfectly, whatever. Especially if you spend a life of memorizing the eye charts. I put these glasses on, and stuff was so much clearer. So that's what drove me to start thinking about that, and it turns out I need some glasses.

But I don't think I'm going to do contacts. He told me that these glasses that he gave me should correct my vision to where I won't have to wear glasses or contacts all my life. I wouldn't want to wear contacts if I'm in a race car. Yeah, I don't think race car drivers. I don't know what race car drivers do in that situation. I'm sure there are some, but man, what happens if it drops out? Yeah.

That would suck. So I'm going to do the glasses until, you know. There's debris on the track. We don't see anything. No, really. There's something out there. Yeah. And I can't see.

Yeah, that would suck. So you're going to put the glasses on during the race? No, I don't need to wear. I don't. No, it's very small. But you want to see the race in high-deaf? I mean, I see pretty good. What else has been going on?

Man, so you talked about having to watch these things on TV. Yeah. That would suck. Yeah. That would, not nothing. No knocking on the network coverage. Well, actually. If I'm you, that would suck.

And to be honest with you, having you here on Fridays and Saturdays and whatnot, it's fun. It's good, but it also feels weird, too. So if it feels weird for us, I know it's feeling weird for you. Actually, let's talk about the network. They, so Friday, I'm watching. This past Friday? This Friday, I'm watching Pocono and practice, and they, got the miles per hour up across the ticker for all the cars.

And most all racers that I know or anybody that goes to a racetrack, they don't measure a lap time in miles per hour that we always do it in lap time. Right. Seconds. I can't, I never get out of the car and go, that 168, at 168 mine hour lap was good. Now, when I ran 165, I got tight down. there. You know, we don't do that. You know, we don't care. I don't know what the pole speed is in miles per hour, even, you know, week to week, it doesn't matter. All we do is look at times.

And so, Steve LaTart texts me, just how you how's it going, and I said, you know what? I'm watching this practice, and I wish you guys put the times up there. And I don't know why you do the miles per hour because I want to know is you know I'm looking at the the miles per hour and I'm wondering if you know I'm wondering if the 48 is two-tenths lower you know because that's a big difference between half a second slower right I can't tell because it's not up there right how much more do we need to gain lap time-wise because I I know maybe a tenth is doable we'll probably find that in the next couple changes but if we're half second off, man, we got

some big change to make, and I need, man, I need to start texting Greg's going on. But you're saying, how would you know if it's a last hour? Yeah. So I'm telling Steve, I'm like, put the dang times up there and quit this crap. Wait a second. Were they during a broadcast? During a broadcast? During a broadcast? During a broadcast or texting Steve?

Yeah, we text, me and Steve text all the time, and mostly we text more during the broadcast. That's weird. Yeah. But good for Steve. And I also we also, I also talk to Burton through Steve.

use text during the broadcast. So, yeah. So it's fun. Anyhow. I'm sure it is for them, too. Steve doesn't seem to mine. I don't like, I'm not trying to bug him or anything, but he's, we just go back and forth. Anyhow, he says, we're going to fix it.

We'll fix it for tomorrow. And so Saturday morning, I'm watching practice. And he said, a fan called in and he said, you know, he wants to see the time. So we're going to put the times up there. Oh, you're saying he said this on the telecast. Yeah, he said on telecast. A fan called in. Yeah.

So now NBC is going to be inundated with fan calls now. Yeah, that's great. That was hilarious. So they fixed it? So they put the times up there, and he's like, hey, I didn't say your name. I didn't want to blow you up, put you on blast. And I was like, yeah, it's probably smart. And then he said, but I did get six or seven text messages right after this saying how much better that is.

And I said, well, damn, now I kind of wish I had gotten the credit on TV. Right. Did you tell him whose idea it was? No, I didn't want to put you on blast. Well, tell them. Yeah. That's right. But I definitely like that, you know, seeing the lap time on that ticker.

Basically, I'm watching the broadcast. If the broadcast is going to show the miles per hour, then I've got to go somewhere else to find the speed, the lap time. You know, the network doesn't want me to leave in the broadcast, right? So put them both up there if you, you know, you've got enough fans that want to see the speed. I wonder if anybody will complain about that or if they'll notice. We need a poll. We need to start a Twitter poll from the DirtyMode radio.

handle. What do the fans prefer? Lap times or the miles per hour? I know what they'll say now. On the ticker. I don't know that that's going to be a legit poll. Why? Because they've already heard your opinion.

Well, like it would need to come from an independent thing, not 30- credit to have an opinion of their own. That's exactly right. I think you need to give more credit. People will say, hey, don't be messing with that. You know, they will. Fans are very passionate about. What's funny is that, like, that's almost

now become one of my pet peeves is the people that critique TV broadcasts because I always like everybody's an expert at TV broadcasts. Now you've become exactly what I dislike. Well, I... But although really what I dislike is the people that dog the commentating. I don't like

that. I don't be... Or commercial. Hey, are the commercials? Is there too many commercials? I don't do. I mean, I'm going to tell you right now. It's just the lap times. That's the only thing that's mug doing so far. I can't control commercials. and I can't control what comes out of the commentator's mouth. I'm surprised you thought you could control the...

I can't... I didn't think I could, but I know that that's a lever that's adjustable by fan comments. I guess, but what's it like to be you to be able to say, I think I want to have the lap times. And the next day, NBC, which isn't a startup. I do got some friends in the booth. God, I know.

Yeah, they're my friends too. I can't get the lap times up there. Hey, Steve, Mike Davis wants to the lap times. What do you think he does? Anything else you're going to change while you're in your sabbatical? No, I, you know, I tell myself that I'm not going to watch any of the practices and I'm not going to watch the race. But, man, when it comes time, I'm plugged right in and sit right down.

And, you know, I miss being out there. I miss the people. The people I miss the most, you know, you get text messages from folks in the industry and in the garage, and it makes you want to go to the racetrack and see them. I miss all that stuff, way more than the driving, even to be honest with you. And I can say that because particularly in the last 10 years, I have really come to appreciate the friendships and the camaraderies. in the team, in the company, in the drivers.

So all that stuff, I think when you do finally ever walk away from racing cars, and it won't be the driving that'll be the hardest part to leave. It'll be the atmosphere environment and the people that make the sport what it is. So that part's been, you know, that part's been interesting. I didn't anticipate that. I thought it was just going to be like the driving only. But, you know, I talk to my guys regularly. I FaceTime Greg guys this morning at 9 o'clock

And most of the guys were in the hauler So I got to see them talk to them Texting back and forth with Jeff I've talked to Greg just about every day We're all pretty connected pretty well Even though I'm not able to not going to the track I got a few more questions for you, Dev Hold on let's take another quick sponsor break and we'll be right back

Be happy with the all-new spy and Dale Jr. paint scheme sunglasses It's called Delivery Series They're available in the popular dirty mode general Daga McCorme and Admiral Frames. The craziest paint scheme yet was recently released. Get the all-new limited edition, Spy Ring, Verdega sunglasses online at SpyOptic.com. First of all, I don't even know, has the race even started yet?

I mean, it's a little past noon when we're recording this now. Do you know if the race has started? One to go until a green flag. One to go. It's about to start. Well, we should go check it out. Well, hold on. I got one more thing to ask you.

You know, Davis, I was just sitting here thinking, if he's in the studio right now, There's a lot of Dirty Moe radio listeners that would continue this Mike Davis-Sucks theme. If I didn't at least ask him about some of the, not conspiracy theories, but some of the things that people tend to bring up a lot. And he's here. So I've got to ask him, right? First and foremost, you started getting a little bit more animated during races.

And a lot of people interpreted that during races. A lot of people interpreted that as, oh, man, the relationships are fractured and Greg. What is your response to that? Because clearly what I'm listening to you today talking about FaceTime and Greg Ives and missing the people, that runs contrary to what people speculate when you get animated during the race.

For all these years, they still haven't figured out that you're going to yell during a race. That's on a good day. Drivers are in those cars and it's hot. It's frustrating. The car may be frustrating. The competition could be frustrating.

TJ may frustrate me. I mean, you never... That happens also. Yeah, it's not like this... You know, I've won three... We won three races with Greg last year. We ran great. We started this season off great.

We, you know, obviously as a company, understand that we need to... We need to get a little better. And there's a lot of people working really hard to close the gap on the competition. It drives me... It really angers me that anyone would attack Greg or attack my crew, my pit crew, if we have a bad stop,

you know, it frustrates me when people insist on a change immediately. So I know how talented Greg is, and I know what he's capable of and what he'll be in the future and what he's going to go on down the road and do. I'm glad to be able to work with somebody that's as talented as he is. and, you know, we're just, you know, we're not on an island here struggling. Right. You know, this is a global issue.

And it feels like it doesn't. You can't, yeah, I mean, it's not on Greg. Right. So, and what, and through this struggle, we're learning. You know, I'm confident that even through this, he's not, he's not got his blinders on to what's happening around him. Amen. And he's learning through this process. And, you know, but again, like I said, we had a great season last year,

and we had a really great beginning to our year this year. There's a lot of variables that control how competitive those cars can be, and we will figure out how to put it together and how to get it good again. And, you know, I believe in Greg. It'll be proven that he's a capable of crew chief, and that's the end of it. You know, anytime we don't run well, the first reaction for us is we need to, you know, let's spend more time together. Yeah.

Let's go do stuff. Let's go talk. Let's hang out. Let's go to dinner. Right. Ten years ago, maybe even five years ago, the reaction would have been, well, I'm going to go over here and sit down. You guys figured out, you know, everybody split up. You're saying that, but that tends to be what your reaction would have been.

Yeah. Well, I'm saying, yeah, I'm saying five or ten years ago, when things didn't go right or we didn't run good, it wasn't, we didn't come together. Right. You know, it was somebody else's problem, go figure it out. Yes. It was just so frustrating, and you just bury your head and say it.

But the reaction now is, well, let's get together and talk about it. Let's get all the guys together and engineers together. Let's get the cart chief together. Let's sit in a room. Let's discuss it. that is going to produce results. And it's a company-wide attitude that everybody gets together and everybody talks it out. I mean, we have meetings every week.

We've got some of the smartest guys in the garage working in our company. I don't feel any need to defend Greg. Okay. Any of my guys, anybody on my pit crew. I got the, I'm with the team, and I'm part of the. the team that can get the job done. And just as accountable as any of them. So, yeah, when people sit there and start that stuff, they're talking down on you.

And that's, that's, all right, that's settled. My last question for you, help me. I strive to try to be logical when I'm watching these races. I want to understand. Help me understand what I'm watching with Gibbs. Help me understand why they're so dang good. Yeah. And why, you know, people, like the best teams in races.

like a Hendrick Motorsports and, you know, even S.H.R. They have their moments. But what am I seeing with Gibbs right now? And I don't want to hear these people just like, they're cheating. Shut up. Enough. Let's be reasonable and logical. What are we looking at that? What are they doing? You know, there's a, I'll say that they have found grip in their cars. and these theories and ideas and parts and pieces that they have, whatever they are that are making their cars fast, are available to everyone in the garage. And they have found a package, whether it's in the front geo,

whether it's in the rear-in-housing, they have found something that sets them apart and gives them constant speed, Week in and week out, practice qualifying race. In multiple series. Yep. Yeah. In the Xfinity series as well.

So it's impressive because they have done such a great job of sharing it, where it's infectious to every team. All the guys run great week after week. They have, you know, you have to give them credit for not only, you know, developing the speed in their cars, but how they have spread that throughout the whole company. So that says a lot about the mentality within the organization from the top down that this speed and this competitive advantage is available to every car. And not, you know, not a lot of, not a lot of companies accomplish that.

Right. Even good cultures, it would be hard to do. Even in the best cultures, it would be hard to do. It is very, very hard. It's hard to get a four-car team where all four cars are competitive. And so I just, I'm impressed as hell. I believe in this sport thing cycle. They cycle to the top.

It's their time to shine. It'll cycle back to someone else one day. And hopefully it's HMS. and Chevrolet. But nothing lasts forever. That garage is so compact and everyone works so close that even the best kept secrets

eventually find their way loose and start to spread through the garage. And then some engineer, some fortunate soul will figure out a new idea and a new way to build a better mouse trap. It's an engineering race.

Yeah. That's really the race that's going on here. That's what I've been thinking. It's an engineer's race, and we are all just players in the engineering race. That's what it feels like now. I'm impressed, and I think that it's, they've been a great organization for a long time, but I feel like that they just, everything has aligned for them. They are producing really good power.

They have great downforce and very good looking. bodies on their cars and they also have a lot of good things going on as far as geo and suspension that are that are really helping them so it's a total it's a lot of different variables that have aligned to allow them to be this competitive they've in the past always seemed to miss one of those way down on power but had great handling cars and vice versa so and even if one team hits on it, all four, or all, you know, six, seven, if you count all the series, I mean, they're all hitting on it. They are.

It's crazy. It's frustrating. It is frustrating, but at the same time, you know, I'm, I'm, it doesn't, I'm not surprised because I, you know, it cycles, man, you know, it's cycled since I can remember, you know, Cal Yarborough won three championships in a row, Jimmy Johnson won five championships in a row, in a row. Right. You know, there was a time when Jeff Gordon couldn't be beat.

Week after week, they showed up with more speed than everyone else. You know, it's just a, you know, there was the era where Junior Johnson stuff was just dominant with DW in that Mountain Dew Car. Things happen like this in the sport where, you know, you know, his company gets an advantage and gets an edge. And it's up to the rest of the, it's not up to NASCAR to not. knock them off their pedestal or find a way to give the rest of the competition an advantage, it's up to all the other companies and everyone in the garage to work hard to reach that standard and surpass it. What's happened in the past is, you know, you find, you know, like I say, the garage is so tight

that these little ideas and theories that are helping Gibbs and made their cars quick, find their, you know, they just start, they start coming to the surface. somebody sees something, it's, you know, how they're doing a geo or something like that, and someone tests it and someone understands it and figures it out, and then it becomes prevalent in the garage. But what people do is it's sort of this game of where you take a great idea and you make it your own and you put your spin on it.

You see how a guy made something great, made something work. Maybe it's just something as simple as a part, like a spindle. You look at that and you go, wow, okay, I see why that gave them grip. But you know what I would have done? I would also add this, this, and this. And now it's got more grip. All right.

So now that company has the advantage. And then someone else will see that and go, that's awesome. But I would also add A, B, and C. And so this is how the world works. That's just how it works. Yeah. And that's the way it kind of flows through the garage.

And I'm anxious for us to figure out, you know, where that speed advantage is. You've got to look in all areas. You can't just stay focused. You know, for the longest time, we were talking about skew and the housings and all that good stuff. You can't just sit and focus at one particular part of the car. You've got to look at everything and open up all the available options to improve your cars. And everybody's chasing them.

Trust me. And it's going to be interesting, especially as we get close to this chase. You know, a lot of teams are working real hard to try to figure out how to find that advantage and get that speed advantage just to be able to compete with the Gibbs cars. And I would not be surprised if someone comes into the chase that we're not even looking at and dominates or runs well enough to compete with the Gibbs cars. We've seen that in the past, too. We saw Jimmy when Bragg Kozalowski won his championship,

they were really chasing after Jimmy all year long. Jimmy had a very competitive regular season. Well, what happened was that Kazelowski and, and Penske understood the advantage, put their own spin on it, and made themselves competitive enough during the chase when it mattered. And so we saw that with... Wait, no, wait, was that just fortunate timing?

Yeah. Was that on purpose? Fortunate timing. Okay. And, you know, we saw that as well with Gibbs. Last year, even, the first half of the year, Gibbs wasn't that great. You know, they really didn't come on until around Charlotte. And so they really, you know, they started to see them get more competitive throughout the summer.

But at the start of the year, things weren't, they weren't where they are now. And so, you know, they understood, and they saw some things and some, maybe they saw some stuff aerodynamically and saw some other things and improved engines and did all this other stuff that gave them this advantage they had today. But they saw the competition improving and where the competition may be better. And they went home and went to work. and they took the competition's ideas and also added their own to it, and now they're this competitive.

So these things sort of have a way of cycling, and I know, I just feel, I don't think it's just a, you know, it's a Gibbs championship to lose, you know, what Gibbs driver is going to. Of course not. Right. No, I think that's, I wouldn't crown them yet. No, I think someone's going to start pop. Someone's going to pop up in that chase, and I don't know who it is,

but somebody because it'll be a surprise but someone will become relevant when the time is right and i don't think that they're sitting there waiting but they're working on it but they're working on it they're going to find it and the timing will be purely coincidental it's pretty fun talking racing with dell junior in the exhaustive studio isn't i tell you well i mean it kind of reminds me back when we were you know we'd ride in a car coming back from some race and i would have something that happened to the race just mulling on me and i'm like it's just such a a stupid question that I don't even want to ask Dale and then I'd ask it and then

he would always answer because I think he generally likes talking racing. And you want us to understand what we're watching. At least that's my impression. Now if I'm wrong don't tell me because it might hurt my feelings. But to help me understand what it is I'm watching, it's always fun to go to Dale Jr. about it. I think we should probably go watch this race. I appreciate you, Dale.

Hi, buddy. This is a pretty good update. I'm sure it'll generate a lot of interest. Davis, you got your hands full to edit this thing. Junior, let's go watch this race. Jeff Gordon's going to give him hell today. Let's see how he's doing. All right. This has been the Dale Jr. download presented by Spite.

To get all the latest news, photos in the schedule for Dale's Exalted 88, head over to Exaltor Racing.com. The photo galleries of Dale Jr. are much more from his runs in the Exalted 88 on exalta racing.com. Thanks for listening to Dirty Mo Radio.