The Dale Jr. Download - 147 - Junior’s Got The Wheel

Episode Date: August 29, 2016

For the first time, Dale Earnhardt Jr. anchors the podcast with funny stories, intriguing observations, and live reactions to the best of JR Nation’s voice mail messages! TJ Majors and Mike Davis join him in the Axalta Studio. 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.

Hey, Junior Nation, now more than ever, exclusive, entertaining, and free content from the world of Dale Earnhardt Jr. is no further away than your fingertips. It's all thanks to Dale Jr.'s Dirty Moe Radio presented by Exalta. All eight DirtyMoe Radio podcasts are available on iTunes, SoundCloud, Stitcher, and of course, Dale Jr.com. So whether you're at home, at work, in the gym, on the run, or just hanging out, dirty mow radio gives Junior Nation its newest and most versatile way yet to plug directly into the world of Earnhardt. Anytime, anywhere. This is Dale Jr., and you're listening to Dirty Moe Radio.

This is the Dale Jr. download presented by Spy. The official sunglasses of Dale and Hart Jr. now features the official camouflage of Dale Jr. The signature 88 collection sunglasses now feature true timber camo. Go get yours at SpyOptic.com. Hi, I'm Dale & Hart Jr. I'm going to be the host. What? No.

You are the host? Yes. Who let you be the host? I did. I guess he has that pool around here. Yep. So you hear co-host Mike Davis. Our substitute producer today is Kelsey Tucker.

Yeah, there she is. Hi, Kelsey. Hi. First name Davis is away today. We're unable to patch you into Taylor. So I called Mike and we were just having a conversation about being friends. Is that what we were talking about? Yeah.

We're just having a buddy conversation and he said he was telling me about all this trouble with the, with the, with the, with Dirty Moon Radio podcast. and I said, I will help fill in, and now he's made me host. Wow. These concussions have made him full of it, apparently. That's another symptom. I went from coming to help to being the host. You are sort of like the backup. Are you the backup host?

I guess I'm the backup host. So now this is, you're like the Alex Bowman for Dirty Mo Radio? Alex Bowman of podcasts. Yeah. What's that feel like? It feels good. I brought some snacks. Listen, look at Kelsey.

Describe what he's bringing out here. He's got a bag of Cheetos and a bag of Fritos. Can you hear this? I have a Mountain Dew. He has a Mountain Dew. I put the Mountain Dew in my Yeti Coozy. You did. So it was stay cold.

It's stay cold forever. And so you brought these, what, for sound effects or just to eat? Because you said it, take an hour. Yeah. And so far, I think we're on pace to make it every bit in an hour, yeah. But that's cool. So do I get any of these, or is this all for you? I will let you have the Fritos.

Thank you. because the Cheetos. You're not going to take, yeah. Can't take a Cheetos away from Dell. Yeah. So pretty eventful weekend. A lot of first-time winners this weekend. I don't know that we've had like that many first-time winners in one weekend.

That was a lot. There was three. So Moffitt, this guy has been trying to get an opportunity and leave his mark for many, many years. He's driven in the trucks, the Xfinity Series, the Cup series. He had that great run in Atlanta in the 55 cup car filling in for Vickers and surprised a lot of people but didn't probably didn't surprise himself. And then, you know, you kind of saw him, he kind of disappeared a little bit, but he's got this great opportunity in the truck. Ended up winning this weekend. So that was great to see.

Didn't know what to expect from the cup race this weekend. The Hintock cars were really fast. They showed some great speed that they've been looking for over the summer months. Dude, I mean, seriously, I thought that was like one of the, I don't know, you could tell me better, but I thought it was one of the better weekends that we've seen in a long time as a group, just in speed. In general, from start to finish, I mean, Bowman goes in and qualifies six, doesn't he? Yeah, the cars were all very competitive. Just looking over at the practice times and everything, it was very surprising.

Gibbs has dominated the season, but this particular weekend you saw most of the Chevroletes running up front. and even in practice, qualifying, and so forth. We were hoping for, you know, Alex Bowman to get a great opportunity. This was going to be, I drove the car in Michigan and knew it was a good car and knew that we had a good handle on the car, and the car was fast in practice, and I thought it was great in the race. We just didn't get a great opportunity to show that. I remember that.

I was talking to Alex throughout the weekend about to have confidence, and he was a little bit worried about the arrow package that he hadn't drove before. But I told him the car should drive good enough that you won't even know that you're in a car with a different arrow package. And he seemed confident. They had a great qualifying run. They had good laps in practice. He was pumped up about his practice times in race trim. I read over all the practice notes, and it looked like they were real confident with their car.

So when the race started, he showed great speed. And I think in talking to Greg that they had a good top five operatives. if everything worked out well and they had an issue that brought them to the garage area to be fixed and that was disappointing. I know Alex was upset. He doesn't know how many opportunities like that he'll get to show he's capable. I believe in him and I know he's got the ability to do it to be in the Cup Series and be in a competitive car and do a good job behind the wheel. So it was a shame because I think he could have shown again like he did in New Hampshire that he'd belongs but hopefully he'll get more opportunities in his career did you talk to him afterwards i've just uh him and tj were kind of having some fun on the plane ride home and

we were joking back and forth a little bit he seems to be he's pretty realistic about um the situation and and um pretty mature about it to be honest with you uh i guess he's he's he's he's been uh through the highs and lows of this sport and and and And I told him, you know, that to take advantage of the opportunity, run hard. And, you know, you don't know how many chances you'll get to get in that kind of a car again to show what you can do. And I told him in New Hampshire, I said, no matter what, enjoy it, have fun with it because you're going to be in this car that's going to do things that you've always wanted cars to do and it's going to be competitive and you're going to be racing with guys you've always wanted to race with. So enjoy that, not put too much pressure on yourself. But hopefully he'll get more opportunities going down the road.

What happened, though? Is it fluky? Is it just a fluky thing? Yeah. Because he was running really fast lap times when they came back out. Yeah, he was in top five. His lap times were in the top five, top three at times. I don't know how he was as far as tires compared to the competition,

but I think his cycle was pretty close to the leaders. So he was probably on about the same tires. Yeah, I mean, without a doubt, they were good. They were competitive and going to, you know, able to run fast lap times. And he would have finished in the top 10 for sure. But maybe even, you know, the hindered cars, they were all right, you know, the 24 and the 48 were up front all day. And I think that Alex had that potential. I think, correct me if I'm wrong.

I think, you know, Jeff Gordon, when he's in the car, he brings an excitement based off of his credentials. Alex Bowman to me brings an energy that is not that Jeff Gordon doesn't necessarily bring I feel like the whole team gets energized behind this young guy having a chance to prove Am I wrong? Come sit down, TJ if you want to.

T.J. has came in. Of course he has because he... Did you call him? Did you not have faith in me or something? Is he like a... I just missed you, man. T. TJ, I did not call you. I promise you. He called. I'm going to check T.J.'s phone. You probably texting and said,

Junior's coming. He's going to host. But if it fails, I want you to be here. TJ, did I call you? No. Because TJ's got some podcast experience this year. Right. Did you know he was coming over? Yeah.

Okay. So that's why you're here. Yeah. I actually had to fight the traffic on 77, and I was actually going to go meet him a little earlier. But 77. He gets up in the morning, takes his daughter to school, and then his wife to work.

What a guy. You do? I had to take her to work today. Y'all should invest in a second automobile. I really was, like, wrong away by that. text when he told me that's what he's like what you doing in the morning her she's getting fixed so i had to take her to work today i thought that was a regular thing i wanted to believe that it was what you do every day considering considering i do it every day wait tj doesn't have a job during the middle of the week

so i would almost think you'd let her take the car no no no okay no okay you know what it's like having it's a job no i know no i get that but i'm saying he needs the car because of the kid yeah i need the car she needs the carpool I would love to see you actually doing the carpool. You want to go one day? It's the mom minivan line. Sure. Can I bring a camera?

Yeah, sure. To all the moms and dads out there that know about the car line, I had a little introduction to the car line. I was riding in Kelly's car the other day, and she's got her sign in the... Oh, yeah, the window. Yeah, for the window. Yeah. And it says your child's name on it. And then on the back it has like freaking 40 rules.

Yeah. Things you can't do and aren't supposed to do. And I'm like, wow, I didn't know that this was this particular. LW. says that when he goes, you're not supposed to be on your cell phone. And he'll ride up and the lady will greet him and he'll be on his cell phone, not even talking to anybody, but acting like he's on his cell phone. Just to upset them. They're not that picky at our school, but it is a, there's a, there's a,

This is all news to me. I had no idea this was happening. Well, let me know any day you want to ride. When I went to school, we rode on these big yellow things. They still exist. School buses. They still do. Does yours ride it?

No. I dropped mine off. Mine started second grade today, and then I got my other one some preschool today. It started today. They're late. I don't know why. First grade. We're on week three.

Okay. Madeline's got three weeks. In my day. Yeah. You wrote the school bus. Are you being serious? Did you ride this? Yes.

You did? Did not? Dude. Hell yeah. To Moresville High? No, my sister had her license. She was two years older than me, so she had her license. So I was riding with her until I got my license.

Then when I got my little S-10. I guess at the military school, y'all just... You know, second, third, fourth grade. I hear you, at the military school, y'all probably just rode humvees or tanks, right? We walked. We walked. Marched. We marched.

That ain't a joke, man. We did. We walked. I was school bus from second grade until, like, 10th grade, probably. Yeah. were you? Not to 10th grade, no. Maybe 9th.

Through middle school I was. Yeah. Yeah. Which I enjoyed it. There was a girl on there that I liked. That's always a plus. She drove. I'm kidding.

She drove the bus. I'm kidding. Oh, man. A hot bus driver. My goodness. I've never had one of them. Yeah, they've made rules on the buses now, too, probably for that reason. Oh, yeah.

I'm sure. See, take it. Yeah. Can't sit here. So where are we? The Redskins and the Bills played this weekend. I'm glad you're here. T.J.'s wearing his Buffalo Bills t-shirt.

I noticed y'all were going at each other on Twitter a little bit. I sport my team even when we lose. I've got something Redskins here in my bag, I'm sure. Yeah, I keep it in the bag, too. Dude, he literally brought like a bag of gimmicks and treats. Gimics? And treats. I have soda and Cheetos.

I mean, I thought you were expecting Mowland to be here with all these Cheetos. and everything. No, those are for him. Make no mistake. I get hungry. So the bills, how are they, you know, not, this will probably get edited out, but how the bill's going to be this year? They won the offseason.

They won the off season, of course, if you ask Rex Ryan, but I think they've had a very terrible offseason. What do you think about Rex and his brother on the sideline together? Doesn't that sound like trouble? It's funny looking. To me, every time they show them, they're sand-nates to each other, and you see Rex and they're, I mean, it's funny looking. I mean, I like Rex.

the coach. He's a players coach, and I kind of like that. There are two defensive-minded coaches, and you think that they would have a hard time being on the same sideline together, but I imagine you got a good defense? We would have without, except if we drafted a guy that needed surgery and then our other guy from Alabama. Marcel Darius kind of let you down a little bit. Marcel Darius let us down. He's Alabama too, wasn't he?

No, he's Alabama guy, yeah. Yeah, and the Reggie Ragland. Oh, and he got hurt, didn't he? He tore his ACL, so things are. I'm thinking about trying out. I'm thinking about seeing if I can make the 53-man roster here coming up. Marcel Darius was drugs, right? They haven't.

He said what to rehab. They didn't say what for, but I'm guessing it was probably a drug. He missed a drug test. And then he goes into rehab, so I'm guessing that's probably part of it. Well, there's a massive rounds of cuts coming through all the teams, so there'll be a great opportunity to scoop up some players that you think might be able to fill them holes. The Redskins and the Bills played preseason games. or played a preseason game.

Yeah, do they? Yeah, every year we play. So we, the Redskins won. They scored 21 points in the second quarter behind the arm of Kurt Cousins. Kurt was in for the whole half. TJ was upset about that. Kurt hasn't played a snap the whole preseason and TJ's upset. Tom Brady doesn't either.

Did y'all watch the game together? I watch, I have the NFL pass thing and then I told him about it and I guess he got it. And it's pretty cool because you can watch all the preseason games and the season games after they're done. You can go watch a record. of it, you know. So you're saying you did not watch it together. No, I was in Michigan. Oh, you were in Michigan?

Yeah. That's right. Yeah. I forgot you're still working. Einstein. We're not. Geez. Yeah.

So, yeah, but the skins played, I can't, it was ugly. Well, it was cool in the beginning because they were actually, Tyrod was in and the bill's first ones. They didn't start their two good cornerbacks and stuff, but it was kind of fun in in the beginning watching them play. But then when the twos came in against the Redskins ones, it was not pretty. No. I had to quit watching it.

Yeah. But I like positional battle stuff. And I enjoy seeing some guys come in. You know, I know E.J. Manuel already, and I know what he's got. But I like watching, like, the second running back for this games came in and started running pretty good. And wide receivers trying to make the roster and stuff. I like watching stuff like that. Me too.

Yeah, it's fun going to the preseason games three and four because that's when you get to see. Usually those guys that are fourth string, fifth string, getting an opportunity to play the second half of the game. And, boy, they play hard. They do. Yeah. You get all them guys that want to make the roster that are. You know, it's a sad time in the NFL, too, because there's a bunch of guys going to lose jobs, you know.

It's life, man. It's part of it. A lot of these guys, though, they'll get picked back up on the practice squad, which isn't an awful gig. A lot of times those guys get called up in the middle of the season. Yeah, and the injuries, they'll get called back up, so they're doing their work, you know, and they get called back up. Even on the practice squad of an NFL team,

you're still probably the most successful person of your high school class. Yeah, probably. You still, you would brag about that. I think practice squad is, $6,000 a week. $6,000 a week. That's not bad. I think they make between $150 and $250 a year, like just being practice squad guy.

Yeah, you get the weekends off. Basically, yeah. You don't go to the games. Yeah, you don't go to the games, right? You don't travel. You get your weekends off. Yeah, you get to go hit somebody Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or one of them days. And, yeah, probably not.

The great thing about it is that you're on the fringe and you're able to be able to have access to the facilities to be able to stay. to be able to stay in shape and be ready. A lot of those guys that don't make the practice squad have to go and find their own opportunity, you know, the own opportunities to stay in shape and stay game ready in case they, you know, because they still believe in their dream, want to make it, want to get back to a team.

Hey, we had lunch with them just last Wednesday. While you were sitting there exerting up at your appointment, we were having lunch with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Yes. In their little cafe. It's funny because there is no, like, really unhealthy options. Like there's no sodas or anything like that. It's like juices and, yeah, right.

There's tea, but there's, Not sweet tea. Oh. Of course, that may just be in the entire north. But I'm saying. But so there was like, you know, a big salad bar, but you could get some good stuff, but it was all, like, healthy. Is it nice in there? I mean, nice enough for sure.

Yeah. I've only been in one practice football facility like that. He's probably been to the Redskins before. I don't know. But I went to when Michigan Wolverines deal, when they redid that whole thing up there, I've been inside there. And it is nice in there. It's cool. I like it.

It's cool. Yeah. Kind of like we have a pit practice program, you know, for the developmental guys. Kind of the same way. Well, this was the team, but I just said you knew that, like, I wonder. Guys like getting his little burrito, and I'm like, I wonder if he'll be on the team next week. That's what it was in my mind at least. Yeah.

So how was the racing weekend for you? It was very well. I'll ask you that question, to be honest with you. I mean, like, you had a front row seat for all that stuff. It was awesome. Did you, like 35-ish or whatever was? Did you loosen the plug wire? Oh, man.

I was getting, I was really nervous. because I thought we were going to blow up. By the way, don't ask me. Ask Del, he's the host. I'm the host. I was really nervous because Greg's telling me on another channel, he's like, hey, make sure he lifts early because I don't want to back this car in. And, I mean, we were still carrying it.

It's hard to, no matter what speed you're carrying in Michigan, if you blow up down in the corner, you're probably going to have some trouble. I've never heard that advice from a crew chief. Yeah. It was very, it was weird. Scroll this page. Read this number, the right side. There is every action theater about that.

Back off early. Because I really don't want you to back into the fence To close up Try to save it If you can Yeah I've I told Greg I'm like Greg We're still carrying in a speed that I feel like

I feel like let's go when he lifts We are going for a ride still And that's when we kind of got close to We made the call to come down pit road And take a look at it Yeah It's interesting It's tough with the ECU

And the computer and all that good stuff It's tough to understand what's wrong with the car. We've had some alternator issues or battery issues and different problems in the past and you always tend to make, at least I always tend to make the wrong decision

and something maybe I could have even fixed on the racetrack by switching to battery two or trying to recycle the ECU. Those things typically sometimes can fix the car. That ECU can just get a bit glitching it in a bug and shut down a cylinder and if you just recycle it. I think we came down pit road one time with a bad battery and just needed to switch batteries. Yeah, I remember that.

Lost a lap or two. So I know Greg and the guys were, they probably could have fixed the car on pit road, but went to the garage, lost a few more laps than they probably should have. But those are things that you really can't foresee or, you know, the ECU was giving them a lot of errors that were incorrect or leading them down, I guess, the wrong path as far as what I, the discussion I have with Greg. But they ended up figuring it out and getting them back on the track, able to get out there, it's important. No matter how many laps down you are to get back out there and compete, especially when the car

was as competitive as it was. You can get back out there and run some great laps and sort of build your confidence back up and what you have to be able to go to the next race. So they got to finish the race. They made up a lot of spots and showed that they had a car capable of. of running well. Anything else you want to add to that, T.J.? I would have loved to hear your commentary

if you were in there scrolling in pages. I thought the same thing. I would love to hear that. Right. I'm not sure. Sitting there kind of thumbing through. You're talking to the fan listening, you're talking about on the digital dash,

the driver scrolling the pages as he's driving and reading off information to the crew about what he's seeing on the dash. Error messages. error messages and so forth, right? Yeah, I just know that when Greg asks you questions about that sometimes, you're just like, where's that one at? What's that one?

He's like, where's that one? Dang, dong. I actually thought that in my head from whenever a while ago, Tony Jr., he was like, are you losing? Ding dong. Are you tight off? Nothing. Does it live?

Ding dong. I forget about that. Oh, yeah. I was actually. thinking about that in my head when he was asking about scroll one page read the right side numbers and i'm like oh no like i pictured him with like one of those old atlases uh like those big gigantic books sitting here trying to turn the pages and driving yeah you're telling the kids shut up i'm trying to concentrate yeah it was uh interesting time but i was i was actually thinking in my head what

he would have done at the time and i i think we would have probably had some pretty good commentary for yeah we'd have some great audio for today mm-hmm so we'll get to on to the race winner, Kyle Larson. Larson became the second driver to win his first career race at Michigan. Dale Jarrett pulled off the feet in 1991 at the same race. Larson was in his 99th start. He finished second four times before breaking through on Sunday and breaks a winless streak for Gannasi Racing dating back to Talladega, 2013 with Jamie McMurray.

I remember that. With Larson's victory, the sports celebrated through. three first-time winners for the first time in NASCAR history. We talked about that. Michael McDow won the Xfinity Race at Road America, which was pretty exciting. A lot of people in the sport in the industry, really, reached out to Michael and showed their appreciation for his win on social media and so forth. He's a popular driver in the garage.

The chainless plug real quick. Jamie McDowell's wife was on Kelly's podcast last week. Go check that out on DirtyMilley. All right. There you go. Yeah, Michael's very well-liked. guy in the garage has been working real hard his whole career to get opportunities so that was pretty cool and we talked about Brett Moffitt so Kyle he's been running really good and people

assumed even as a rookie he may go ahead and get a win that year they've struggled a little bit on and off over the past couple of seasons but it seems like this year that he has something magic in the combination he has with with crew chief and engineer so they've been to fast I thought they I think they've been fast pretty much all season you're not seeing that in the points position but he doesn't have to worry about that anymore with the win which locks him into the chase so that's pretty exciting for him he's a great guy great he's a great father and good guy outside the car he'll be a star in this sport for a really really long time he's the kind of guy that you want to be a

star in the sport for a really long time so I was happy to see him win I like to see the raw emotion, man. The victory lanes start to get so robotic, and it drives me crazy, but when you see his emotion, and I think, you know, the current loss of his buddy that he had, maybe had something to do with it, there was a lot of emotion going on. But, man, even Chip Ganassie, the guy that's been in racing forever, he's one of the biggest races, and seeing him, he was like a kid in a candy store

in that victory lane. That's what I thought was cool. I wanted to chase to win, but I thought that was really cool that Kyle won. Yeah, it's fun seeing any of them guys win. It's going to be awesome when Blaney wins. It's going to be cool. It's going to be cool when Chase wins. It's going to be fun.

It's fun watching them guys race up there, too. They know how hard these races are to win. They're hard to win. And, you know, he's sort of broken through. Larson's broken through now, and I'm sure he'll get more victories in his career, quite a few. And, yeah, we were excited for Chase. I thought Chase had a great opportunity to get a win. I thought for sure he was going to win it.

What happened on that, you think? Just was it the old tires? No, it's just a, you know, it's kind of a crapshoot on that, that particular racetrack with how that front straightaway is and how wide it is. Chase and, let me think here. Blaney was behind him. Yeah, Blaney was behind him. Chase and Blaney just didn't do as good a job as the guys did on the bottom groove.

The guys on the bottom committed, pushed. Let's see, he had Kozlowski behind him. Larsenai Kislauski behind him, right? Yeah. Kzlowski knows what he's doing. They all hit, too. They did hit. I thought all four of them were going to wreck for a second because when I looked up there,

they were both rows were jacked up. In that situation, it's just kind of, you know, happenstance as far as who's going to come out on top. that it really, there's no one with an advantage. You think the leader has the advantage being able to, you know, know when he's going to go and everyone having to guess. But at that particular track with the pushing that you can do to get to turn one and the time it takes to get to turn one,

the advantage that the two guys that actually do get locked up well have, you know, Larson them did it better. Wow. Yeah. And it's interesting. Yeah. I mean, I'm sure it was really frustrating because it's such a, you know, Chase is sitting there.

watching it happen and going you know by time you get to turn one it seems like forever and uh he's sitting there watching his you know himself lose the lead and he knows how challenging it's going to be uh to get it back but he ended up wrestling his way back to second which is impressive at that particular racetrack especially late in the race like that and passing brad to do it yep yeah uh very competitive race cars so he shows he's showing his talent his ability obviously um we were hoping he was going to get the win It was great to see Hendrick Motorsports be competitive all day. Chase led 31 laps. That's the third most of his young career.

And Johnson led 37 laps, the second most in the race. And in his previous eight races, he has only led one lap. So it's just unusual. Yeah, it is unusual. We've had a really rough summer, but I've been in the shop the last, several weeks, and I'm seeing some really, really good stuff. Oh, tell us. I'm kidding.

I'm seeing those guys really, really dig deep. And I think what we brought to Michigan shows that we're making some gains. And I don't think that we're, you know, obviously as we get closer to the chase, I think that we have more to bring to the racetrack. Oh, really? Yeah. All right. So I'm excited about that.

excited for Hendrick Motorsports and think that that will be competitive in the chase. See, I always thought that that's a cliche. I just thought that's what people say oh, we're saving our stuff for the chase. And I just like, not nobody's saving their stuff. Are you saying that that's actually what happens?

It's not a saving. We just... It works picks up kind of as you get closer to. You know, it's this, everything sort of cycles and Gibbs cycle to the top. And everybody in the garage is so close together so you can see what's going on and what they're doing. There's some things that you can't see,

obviously within the suspension, understanding how they're setting up the front end of the car, maybe how they're working the rear end of the car. And you can't see those things, but over time you get clues, and the clues sort of add up to where you might understand what they're doing and how they're doing it. and you basically

this happens every single year if you look at if you look at like for example when Bragg Hazelowski won the championship they were chasing Hendrick all year long

and they saw all you know they just sit there and watch the clues and started to figure out what was happening and what was making what was making speed and they basically took

um took the idea and made it better made it their own. And the same thing happened with Kyle last year. Gibbs wasn't that great when the season started. And they sort of looked around in the garage and saw what other teams were doing and they take those ideas back to their shop

and they put their own little spin on it and make it even better. And then they're strong in the chase and win the championship. So it just so happens that this is the situation that Hendrick finds itself in where they kind of struggle throughout the summer. But I knew the whole time,

that we would figure out what everybody else was doing and where the speed was at. And we're starting to, we're understanding it and we're actually able to act, you know, starting to implement it into our own stuff, and it's going to start to show more and more speed. What we saw in Michigan isn't all that I think we have and isn't what we're capable of.

I think that we're capable of dominating in the chase if things line up just right. Man, that's good to know. No, it's exciting. I expect that the 48 and the 24 to be really, really competitive coming down here to the end of the season. That's fantastic. Is there anything else we all want to talk about other than that? Do you want to talk about Darlington or wait?

Get on the second page. You've got a whole second page here. Yeah, look at that. Do we just want to. Well, we've kind of touched on it already. We talked about Chase. Yeah. Although I did wonder, yeah, you know, I don't know if you got to answer that.

Why is he so hard on himself? Yeah, he's so hard on him. No, really. Like, it's the most depressing post-race interviews ever. When Chase is upset with himself, and it's like all the time. I mean, he just basically is like, I suck, I'm terrible, I let everybody down, I'm sorry, I'm going to try to do better. And it's like, dude, you're fantastic. I know where that comes from.

So he grew up around the sport, and he's the son of Bill Elliott, who he thinks is the best race car driver there ever was. and he was an amazing race car driver, but he, to chase, obviously, his father is the coolest thing ever, and he's grown up in his shadow and learned from him and learn from him. And so anytime he sort of falls short of what he thinks he should have accomplished that particular day, he has this, he sort of has this feeling to apologize to everyone. or admit his false

because he feels like that the fans expect him to emulate his father and be perfect and what he sees in his father

right which isn't reality his father had to work hard to get competitive and probably had made mistakes and

chases you know just going through the process but I understand exactly where that that comes from and he just has a he just feels like he has a lot of pressure being who he is he feels like

when he doesn't do what he's supposed to do he needs to apologize or admit that he understands that he didn't do it the way he needed to so that people uh you know he he obviously he's kind of like me i think is he makes it bigger than it really is i do the same thing i worry about things and make them worse than they really are and i think that he's more concerned about um that he should be, but I could totally, he could be a little less hard on himself, but sad. I totally get where it comes from, man. It's that, it's being the son of a guy who was really successful and you're trying to come in and make your own mark, but at the same time, there's these expectations that are just so

unrealistic for him, and he feels like he's either having to be apologetic or at least admit his fault when he doesn't when he doesn't meet those unrealistic expectations but he also wants to win really bad which is awesome you can't take that away from him and you don't want him to change that was something cool he said they said you know talking about next week and does he have a chance to win and he said if i show up next week you can bet that i'll expect to win if i'm going to show up there so that's that's the same kind of confidence that's what i remember you you know you always said i'm the best driver at the racetrack and you got to have that confidence so even though he's beating himself up man he's still got when he wins i think a lot of that when he starts winning because when he he's going to win a lot of

races well i'm going to tell you something so i think back i will always remember that end at darlington in his first year here at junior motorsports and we just haven't been going to darlington this weekend but i'm saying the way he won that race and the people that he passed at the end of that darlington race it was the second win because he had won the week before but still that was amazing driving i've like I would love to see him do that again this weekend. He could. So we have another, we got another rising star that we're a big fan of. Blaney, Ryan Blaney.

He had a pretty funny interview post-race. You want to run that audio? Yeah, we're going to run the audio right here. Listen to this. With another strong top-fight finish, you were in the thick of it. Ryan, I had to ask, I saw you looking over towards victory lane. What was it like seeing another young driver celebrate his first victory? I don't know.

Good job to him. I don't really care. Grants on Kyle. on the first win, that was cool. That restart, I don't know, we all got bottled up, and I was getting shoved, and I was chubbed in 24, and we were, I kind of all spin our tires. He kind of sucks. He deserved that win.

So Blaney, he's a hilarious guy. He is, actually. I'm starting to learn about him as we go. You guys know the guy. Yeah, he is. He's my neighbor. He's actually moved into a house right close to us, so I can, you know, I hang out with him during the week every once in a while.

and funny guy, real down to earth, but he is a matter of fact kind of. It is. He is very matter of fact, which is part of his humor. Plus, you know, you got media sometimes that are always trying to go for that heartstring angle. They're going for that big emotional response, and you could see them teeing that up. Like, what is it like to gaze over to Victory Lane and see a first-time winner that's not named Ryan Blaney? What are your emotions right now? Like Marty Smith, every question he ever asked.

ask is something like that right like and so lady's like i don't care i don't know that's good for him i guess that's that's that's ryan too i'm like he just made a fan out of me right there that was so funny so we got darlington coming up this weekend jeff gordon's going to be back in the night and so we got darlington coming up this weekend jeff Gordon's going to be back in 88 the gray ghost i'm real sad i have too i wanted to drive that car um we We went out and did all that work at the racetrack, taking pictures and carrying on. You're welcome, Jeff.

I think I hurt my back, actually, doing that photo shoot on the banking in turn three. I didn't know that. How did you work your back in a photo shoot? I don't know, but I had a terrible back injury for like three weeks. Really? Yeah, I had to get a lot of work done. But, yeah, I really, the gray ghost, obviously, Buddy Baker made it famous when in the 1980 Daytona 500,

Bobby Allison drove the car as well, silver and black, chrome numbers. It doesn't get any cooler than that. And NASCAR obviously does not allow the chrome numbers anymore. We would be running them. But we got as close as we could. The orange on the car is a nod to nationwide's colors

and a bit of a throwback to them. So that's why there is some orange on the car. Who has the best throwback paint scheme this year, guys? Oh, man, I don't know. He has the best one. I think we're going to. Let's take the Grey Ghost out. Clearly, we're biased.

We're going to take that one out of the equation. There's a lot. There are. This whole program, I was like, I was telling Chip Wilde who was working. Now at Daytona, but he was running Darlington. I was like, dude, you don't know what you got on your hands here with this retro stuff. Every other sport has like this throwback, you know, idea that they do, whether it's the NFL or what have you. This could be, Darlington could be forever the throwback weekend.

And they were looking at like a three-year plan. And I said, just let people, yeah, and don't even, you know, you're celebrating different eras, like 84 to 95 and so forth. I said, just leave it open. Leave it open. And it let everybody bring their own rendition, whatever they think of throwback. is. And it's even okay when somebody brings a throwback from like a completely different form of motorsports. Like I think Joey Legano did that last year. Yeah. But, you know, whatever anybody's interpretation is of a throwback, just let Darlington forever be that weekend where we kind of celebrate

the past. And so I love this whole plan. I love this whole promotion. And so what's your favorite? Last year, we saw the 43 team come in really strong. Yes, with the uniforms. Yep. They had the Fumanchu mustache. Yes. The uniforms, they were bright. They were perfect.

The Wood brothers brought it. Yes, it did. There's a couple teams that came in. White pants. Yep, there's a couple teams came in and did it right. And so what's been interesting is that people saw that. Other teams saw that. And now everybody's coming real hard this year with all these great schemes.

And so they should. That's, that's, and you're even seeing it in an Xfinity series, which didn't really happen a whole lot last year. The Xfinity Series drivers and teams are even, you know, most of those are even participating. We're in Bailin one this week. Yeah. I think it's cool, man. It's just getting started. You wait.

This whole, this program is just going to keep getting cooler and cooler. And it's great for Darlington. You know, it just adds to the history of that, that track is such a historic track, and it's perfect. It's perfect place to be doing it there. Right. But anyways, it's hard to pick a favorite this year. There's a lot of great ones out there. I love the Bush car because I was a big Kell Yarbril.

The Bush car is kind of cool. I mean, I need to see them on the track, but there's somebody to pick from. It's hard to pick just one when they all look so cool going around. You know, when you put a pack of them out there, I'm excited to see that. Jimmy's car is really cool. It is. Which is funny. Lowe is on the hood of Jimmy's car.

Right. So Lowe's looks back in the history of the sport, and they see this, they see the blue and yellow number two, which is synonymous, which my dad drove in 1979 and 1980, right? So they're thinking, man, this is awesome. We're going to do a Lowe's throwback that Dalyarnhart drove, and Jimmy's excited. He's texting me. He's like, you got one of your dad's old uniforms and all that stuff. Don't think they'd let you drive with that. But yeah. He wanted to actually wear it to intros. And it would fit probably.

Wow. Don't we have it hanging on a wall in there? It smells like 40 years old. Yeah. It smells every bit of 40 years old. Not that we would take it out of the frame, but I'm pretty, isn't that that 1980 uniform that Dale Earnhardt's? I have it.

Yeah, he's home. I have it. No, I have it at home. Which one is that, though? That's 82. That's 82. All right. You took a picture in, didn't you?

It's in your, it's right outside the door of your office. You should know all that. That's what I'm talking about. Got to come to work first. I brought it up. That's the one I'm talking about. I just didn't. I had my years wrong.

Yeah, I don't... This is a funny little story. Oh, the one you're talking about it is yellow. Yes. Okay, got it. I got it. I got it. Damn.

Yes. So there, so Jimmy or Chad texts me. He's like, what do you know about this car? He sends me a picture of the car. And I said, David Pearson ran second in that car at Talladega in relief for my father. My father was out for four weeks. with broken collar bones.

And David drove that car at Talladega, ran second. That was the only race Lowe's was on the hood. I don't know why. It must have been a local chain, but they had Lowe's on the hood for that race and that race only. And so it's kind of unique, kind of weird. Jimmy gets excited about it. And then I have to tell him the story.

He's like, man, I'm going to run one of your dad's throwbacks. And I'm like, well, David Pearson drove that car. Oops. And Lowe's us on the hood for just that race. But it's still really cool. It's still really cool. Because I've always wondered what that paint scheme would look like on one of the modern cars. It's kind of fun seeing these old schemes on the modern cars.

And I didn't have the guts to do it. Plus, David Pearson is no, you know. Hey, what? Yeah, David Pearson's a legend. It's not like Staten Barrett filled in for a couple of races or something. Especially at Darlington. Darlington might be where he made his legend. Yes, yeah, absolutely.

So David Pearson, I'm sure he'll be honored. He probably won't. I wonder if he even knows the connection to that car. I don't know. The gray ghost people, that family loves the fact that you're running. Yeah, they're in here and all this. Yeah, they love it. Yeah.

I love that car. This is the second time. time we've ran it. We ran it in 2008 All-Star race and had a pretty successful night. Under the lights

of Darlington, though, it's going bring a whole new level. This does change the... Y'all still haven't said who y'all's favorite is. I gotta wait. I got to wait until I'm there.

I think it was it was the Tide Car that I like. I like the Tide Car's cool. Been done a lot. But it's been done a lot. And you know what? I thought it was sort of unique

that Landing Castle came out with J.D. J.D. McDuffie. Yeah. McDuffie's car. It's very simple-looking paint scheme, but it feels so retro. Yeah. It looks cool.

I just was actually Googling it up, so we could look. Yeah, he did, Landon, that does look very good. Landon did a Snapchat story about J.D. McDuffie and an old truck. Yeah, Landon is a Snapchat legend. He is giving me Snapchat tips. I have my own personal Snapchat, and he's giving me tips on how to be a good Snapchat. Did he tip you on Instagram? Because, you know, you sort of caused a little bit of a ruckus over the weekend.

You know that? What I do? Kelsey knows this. Oh, my God. Yeah. What did I do now? You Instagrammed a picture of something that said wife. Married.

Married. Right. And I know you explained it. I know it. I get it. But Instagram's a picture thing. Nobody's got time to read. That's true.

I did not know that people didn't read. No, you don't get time to read. Just go either like the picture. sure you don't like it or you set off a hundred fire alarms for the PR people and it was just what case I didn't think about that. Dale's already married. Yep. If you read the explanation, he was saying, we went somewhere and I was looking at a

documentation of mine and it said that I was married and I was like, man, I got to get used to this. This is cool. I was showing it to Amy. But clearly that's a mistake for the record. Yeah. They're not actually married yet, people. They jumped the gun.

Yeah. Not married. He's not married. I was like, isn't that neat? This is what it'll say, you know. There was the first time you've seen that. Yes. That's a moment.

That's a milestone moment. I had someone told me, they said he has to be getting married in the next 60 days. And I was like, okay. And they're like, because marriage license is only good for 60 days. And if that's a marriage license, and I'm like, you know. That's not a marriage license. I don't think the marriage license says married. Wow, this is like a four alarm fire.

I had no idea. It was. You know, we had media calling While Junior sitting there Just Instagramming, just Instagramming away Having a good old day. He's done, did it. He's done. Yeah, y'all take it from here, fellas.

They're gone. All right, y'all want to get some reaction theater. These are already going to be pretty good, actually. I got a quick question. Do you not worry about what spotters are going to do with all these different paint schemes? No, I don't worry about it, should we? Yes.

So apparently, TJ wants to talk about how hard his job is. No. This reminded me one of the only few times. We didn't get into that, so we got to get that done. Let's tell us about your life. Like, there's only two times this has ever happened.

You've got your own podcast for this very thing. Go ahead. Tell us about it. He's the one that. You want him to hear it. It was at Darlington. And I looked in front of us, and then I looked back, and I swear I saw our car passing another car.

And I started, I'm like, outside, outside. And he's against the wall by himself, like, just running the corner. and he's like, what? And I'm like, oh, man, there I'm right. What pages of the manuals at on? Yeah. Flip pages. You got to put pages up here.

But that's like one of the only two times that I've lost our car. Like, I looked back and I swear we were passing somebody, and I started yelling outside. So this is going to be like, I think it'll happen. Not to me, but it'll happen to a lesser guy. Okay. You just called yourself a lesser guy from the other experience. I learned. If you.

All right, if the fans listen and. listen to your spotting this weekend and you make a mistake, what are you willing to do? Per mistake. Wow. Depends on how bad the mistake is. No, that's serious. This is a good question.

I'll tell you what. You donate. Oh, wow. $20 per mistake to the Dale Junior Foundation. That's a deal. Every time I don't make a mistake, you do. No. And there needs to be something that you have to do in the carpool line

that breaks the rules of the carpool line. I mean, what do you want me to do? Get yourself expelled from school, basically. You have to have one of the ladies tap on the window. Sir? Sir, no. Right, you need to pretend like you're asleep. Because Kelly says they bang on the window when you're doing something.

Oh, we can do the sleeping driver. Yeah, you can do the sleeping driver. Do you're like, sleepy driver. You're rolling my head back and you can see a little bit, you're creeping up, and they're all like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. So you need to Snapchat Sleepy Driver. Or, that's the first mistake. if he does the same mistake or he does another mistake,

you have to lay on the horn. We're going to ride with you. You've got to lay on the horn any time we say lay on the horn. Are you riding? No, I would for that, yeah. Okay. All right, deal. You'd be there actually the car behind you.

Yeah, every time you say lay on the horn, well, you might get pulled out if you're there not to pick up a kid. Not really to pick up a kid. All right. You might get thrown out. So let's play the reaction theater for Michigan. I might pop my soda. Just got done to listen to the.

the race and man I don't even know with Bowman finished I just know chase Elliott had that one and then a caution comes out and I know he's putting all the pressure on his shoulders to that bad restart he had but you know what his wins coming the awesome battle all day with both those cars they were top of the field yeah yeah talk to you guys later yeah thanks for following us all race yeah that's a good call that's a good way to start off the reaction theater don't mind our top three lap times late in the race there geez Are you offended?

I think he was saying that he ran well. I don't even know we're Bowman finished. I don't even know we're Bowman finished, to be honest with you. Where did he finish 30th? I don't know. He finished 30th. I don't know either. There we go.

All right. Were you paying attention? When he came back out on the track, he was 40th? Yeah. There you go. All right. Number two. Speedway, Michigan.

That was a brick people together. There's next time to get better junior. Dale you out. Not, not, you know, anything crazy in that call, but I do like it when they call from the track. When they come from the race, I always like to put them in it because that's pretty cool. I got a question for you real quick about this. So we're five laps down and we're catching cars that are running basically top 10.

And we're kind of spread out. And I got guys coming up to me saying, hey, you know your five laps down, right? Because they're racing guys behind them a little bit. What do you think, you know, would you get aggravated or somebody doing that? Like in the car? A spotter? No, like the other driver. Another driver.

You're running 9th. There's a guy five laps down that has some trouble, but it's real fast still. coming back up through. You know, there was guys like, all right, it's happened before and we've just let them go. If there's like cars running, if I catch two guys and they're running for position, I wouldn't bother them.

But if it's a guy just sitting there running by himself, I'm going bang. Yeah, we were pretty much singled out, but I had two of the other than guys come and be like, hey, you know, you're five laps down, right? I said, yeah, we're getting ready to be four. And, you know, but it was kind of funny because I just, you know,

some guys get more, you don't want to mess up a race with guys, but it was funny that when you get, get singled out and you can run guys down because Alex was actually putting together some pretty good laps for a while we would run guys down and it was just funny to see them get get angry and stuff so you had people get lippy with you up there on the roof yeah wow it's drama up there man i was there one time and he almost got to fight with his co-host on door bumper clear it was one of my favorite that's when i knew i had to get them a podcast was that when i gave breath the finger uh you and brett you and brett y'all were making y'all were gesturing to each other that just looked like fifth grade

yard fight. All right, go ahead. What's the next one? Mike Davis doesn't suck. Mass car without Dale Jr. It doesn't matter who's driving the 88. If it's not Dale Earnhardt Jr., it sucks. Damn. Everything sucks. There you go. Yeah. She does stickers. But Mike Davis don't suck, what's that? flu despair and agony on deep dark depression excessive misery if it weren't for bad luck would have no call

hurry back junior that same lady it might be it is but she got a tune in her yeah i got a call back i thought that was submarine mike for a minute I'm so glad to hear William byron signed by a hundred motorsports and we'll be racing for junior motorsports next year. That is great to hear. It is awesome to hear that one main financial comes back after saying they are going to lead. I hope Dale Jr. gets better.

But, hey, we are great. Junior Motorsports is awesome. Have a good one. I like that guy. I do, too. Let's send him something. That was all you, right? That was all you, right, Mike?

No, but listen, I could have said it better myself. That was great. I agree. We're real excited to have William come back after driving our late, cars and being able to, you know, understand who, you know, what kind of guy he is and what kind of driver he is. Pretty cool. And one main coming back for sure. Really excited to have, uh, Elliott keep driving with us. And so right. It's going to be great. This is Ryan Lockhe. I was just watching this periscope by this guy named Mike Davis. He was talking about Hooters. Again,

there's 800 numbers. I thought I'd give it a shot. I think it's a sex outline. What the fuck? I get some dude voice on there told me to leave a message. Not cool, bra. So I'm out of here. That's one of my top five of all times. It's so cool, bra. It's so good of Ryan Lockney to call her action theater. As soon as he hung up, he kicked in a bathroom door. Bra. Nice one, bra.

I, as an Ohio State University fan, cannot, absolutely cannot, bear to root for a University of Michigan car. I am so glad that Dale Jr. was in the car this weekend because I don't know what I'd do with myself. The University of Michigan car came in 30th. I'm so happy. I'm so happy. You know what?

We got a lot of calls about this, so let's reserve comment until we get them all out because there's going to be some more here coming up. But that's the whole Michigan paint scheme, there's some points that are still to be made. Let's play the next one. I think first name sucks. I miss Amanda.

Second, I hate Greg Biffle, but there's new Hooters throwback card. It looks pretty sweet. Probably why it's a divorce now. It's been to spend it too much. I'm there. Last submarine, Mike, get off your

freaking high horse. You're not as funny as sloppy yellow. Team sloppy yellow for life. Dale, yeah. Get it well, Dale. We're praying for you. That's nice.

To call that way after the direction. I did like that car, by the way. The Hooper's car was good. You see his suit? Yeah. No, it's cool. It was pretty cool.

I should say, and Dale, I don't know if you're even aware of this. All right. So since you've been out of the car, there's this competition going on between a guy named Submarine Mike

and then our friend in Texas, It's sloppy yellow, Dato. Datto. And they're trying to, on who the unofficial president of Junior Nation is. They're trying to actually, it's turned into a campaign. And so that's what he's alluding to. And then we're going to probably hear from these cats here in a second. And now, deep thoughts with your president's submarine Mike.

Do you ever wonder if the reason Dato hasn't been to Pocono? It's because he tries to buy tickets in turn four. Hashtag anybody but Dato. I wish someone would tell Taylor, you don't go to the orthodontics. to get a Bluetooth. I'm sorry, sir, that is not covered by insurance. I think Daddo needs to go on a diet because every time he periscopes, he has to upgrade his data plan. Get in my belly.

Do you ever wonder if Junior is so bored on Sundays, he acts like Peyton Manning and the new DirecTV Sunday ticket commercials? Junior on Sunday morning. Tag anybody but Datto, hashtag Mike Davis Rocks. Hashtag Taylor Zars are suck. I don't know why everybody We either suck or we're wrong I don't know but That was pretty good

You liked it? I liked a lot of production there I liked to the Upgrade your data plan joke That was pretty funny I almost thought he said his Dato plan That ought to be what Dato's data plan it is Yeah

Are you unlimited Dato? To look at him he is I'm sorry All right go ahead Congratulations to Alex Bowman I thought he raised a very good race It's good to see. That's a good kid.

I hope he gets a ride somewhere. I really like his feedback. He's very calm, cool in the car because Greg was asking him to read hieroglyphics and flip pages and read the VIN number backwards. That's a hell of a lot to do when you're fighting traffic and going backwards and trying to figure out what the problem is. So good job, Alex Bowman.

Good job Team 88 getting a fast race car there. But boo, for Hendrit Motorsports to put University of Michigan on my 88 car. That is absolutely despicable, horrible. I'm glad that car turned out to be a piece of shit. If the University of Michigan would have won that race, I would have been heartbroken. You need to quit putting other teams on the 88.

When Dale Jr. drives a Dallas cowboy-themed race car, then I believe it's okay. But there ain't no way in hell Dale Jr. is driving a Dallas cowboy race car in Texas. I promise you, ain't ever going to do that shit. Don't put anybody else's. team on there either. It's two devices. Nobody likes it when they do that

shit. Nobody likes Michigan anyways. Congratulations to Ryan Larson is good there at the end of the Ryan Larson. Congratulations to Target. Let's get him hell 88. Let's do something in the Grey Ghost. I can't pick a winner, dude. They're both funny.

Larson. Ryan Larson? God, Dad, there are two different devices. He was on a soapbox and then he went and called the winner of the race the wrong name. It's like, almost nullifies everything. Does this happen every week with these two? This is good. It's been happening.

Yeah, it's starting to ramp up. So, all right, he brings up, would you actually drive a Dallas Cowboys car? Hell no. All right, there we go. Datto's right. He wouldn't do it. It was very strongly opinionated at the racetrack. There were people coming up being like, go blue.

I know. And that makes me, as a driver of the car, uncomfortable, especially when you're not a fan of that particular team either. Right. You know, it's not something that is difficult to. support. It is. You're asking the fans to pick the sign. There was others being like, hey, man, I could I have a uniform after the day?

And other people were like, man, up that car wrecks. You know, it was opposite ends the whole day. That was coming from the spotters too, right? Oh, everybody. Everybody. More hardships on TJ's life. Hail to the motherfuckers. Hail to those big s'fickers.

Hail, hail to Michigan. A cesspool in the ground. Michigan. All right. Okay. He's from Ohio. That wasn't Kuzlowski, was it? That might have been.

No. He loved Michigan. He does. What else we got? Crazy Cajun down here in Lafayette, Louisiana, South Louisiana. It's still a two bit wet. Good deal for Carl Arson getting his first win. Kind of sucks for Alex B, man.

I think that dude had a hell of a car today. Well, I really want to address these a lot on Twitter to start talking like, oh, I hope the 88 blows up just because that paint can. Good job, dude. It's not just the driver. You know, we root for the team, too, Team 88. These guys, they work their asses off from these cars, and they want a good result as well.

Well, back to shovel and sand and praying to God, the water don't rise any high out there. Love you guys. Hell yeah. Dale, yeah, and our thoughts and prayers are with all the people in Louisiana. Absolutely. Yeah, 100%.

Floods. I got a cousin down there that I've been keeping up with. But, yeah, so first of all, thank you for calling. And, yeah, we definitely are thinking about you. And he's got a point, you know. You support the 88 team, you know, through thick and thin. Right.

Yeah. I don't know, man. It's hard to bite your tongue, though, I guess. I guess so. Because those college rivalries are intense. It's huge. I mean, just from this weekend, I mean, especially being in Michigan and Ohio State being close to, those two literally, you know, they love each other.

It'd be like Alabama and Auburn, you know. Well, even I was uncomfortable. Even when they ran the Alabama paint scheme at MWR, it just, it's. I forgot they did that. It just isn't comfortable. I don't, I didn't like the paint. scheme, to be honest with you. Everybody's like, you got that diecast?

I'm like, no, I don't want that die cast. No, I'm sorry. Anyways, that's Reaction Theater. Be happy with the all-new Spy Dill Jr. Paint Schemeen sunglasses. It's called the Livery Series. They're available in the popular dirty mode, General Dega McCoy, and Admiral Frames.

You also can get the all-new limited edition spy wrangler Degas sunglasses online at SpyOptic.com. Those Wranglers, man, they're crazy. They are crazy. I almost thought you didn't have a say-so in them, What? Yeah, I know. You didn't like them?

No, I don't. What's wrong with you? You don't like them. No, they're just, I would like them at the beach. They would like them at the beach. Well, take them to the damn beach. I don't go to the beach. Well, that means you do like them.

But if I'm at the beach, I'll take them. But like, I wouldn't wear them to a business meeting or something. I wouldn't. I hope you would wear any sunglasses to a business meeting. Unless it was outside. It was sunny. The Wranglers are fine. Okay.

And they do, they do well at the beach. Okay. You would know that. better now. They have the happy lens. Can I do the nationwide segment? Yes, go right ahead. As you know, Nationwide is a proud sponsor of the NASCAR Foundation's Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award, given to one NASCAR fan who is making an impact

in their community with children's charities. There are four amazing finalists, and each week we are telling their stories. Today is a good one. Andy Hoffman is the father of Jack Hoffman, whose story came to national attention when he ran for a touchdown during a Nebraska football spring game. a couple of years ago. Y'all remember that? Did you see the videos?

Yeah, that was cool. Jack's dad started this foundation to raise money to help kids with cancer. Andy and the Team Jack Foundation were at Michigan this weekend for the race. Here's the Jack Hoffman story. It is Jack Hoffman of Team Jack

coming out of the field right now and is fourth down and short. A young man who has battled brain cancer is on the field right now for the husband's. My name is Andy Hoffman. and I founded the Team Jack Foundation in 2013. There is nothing more disheartening than being told that your son is going to have to start a cancer therapy

that they've been giving kids since 1982. You know, to put a blunt, it just pisses you off as a dad to know that this is the best our society does for kids with brain tumors and not just brain tumors, but all forms of pediatric cancer. We are leagues behind lots of different cancers for kids. Now it is definitively switched to pediatric brain cancer being the number one killer of kids. It's difficult as a parent,

and then it's also difficult when you think about how childhood cancer parents or kind of feel sometimes like the kids might be getting overlooked, and it's just heartbreaking, and you just wish they didn't have to go through it. We got our start in fundraising through the sale of T-shirts.

We're a blue-collar family, we're grassroots, we're extremely rural Nebraska, and so we're a start in fundraising. We kind of took that lunch bucket mentality when it came to solving this problem. He got this idea and nothing was gonna stop him from doing it. He's kind of made it his mission to raise money for research and try to help these kids.

You know, he wants to effect change, and this was the way that we've decided to try to do it. Our goal is to raise as much money as we can, as fast as we can, and put it into the hands of the best researchers in the world to help find a cure for pediatric brain. pediatric brain cancer. We have raised a little over three million in three years,

and we do our gala every year and then our radiathon, and those are probably our largest events. We recently started doing color runs, and then we just every day call donors and write letters, do direct mailers with volunteers. It's about finding a cure and finding better treatment for all children. He is not going to sit back and let something decrease his kids' potential for quality life, but he's not going to let it be that way for anyone that has pediatric

brain cancer. For whatever reason, God chose us, and so we felt like it was our job, our obligation to the other families to use all of the blessings that in our life to try to do the most amount of good as possible. Listen to this crowd. That's good stuff. Yeah, good stuff. Visit nascar.com slash award to watch the,

the stories of all four finalists and vote today and every day for your favorite. The winner will get $100,000 to their charity. I heard that. That's awesome. It's something they've done every year. The drivers are heavily involved. During the Vegas championship week, we have the announcement of the winner. The Betty Jane France Humanitarian Works, yeah.

And that's a great function that we always have a lot of fun and end up going to and pretty neat you get to meet all the finalists you get to really understand their story and um it's pretty cool pretty fun program i i'm so i'm i'm i'm it just keeps getting bigger and bigger every year yeah good stuff white flag let's drop the white flag white flag right there white flag right flag a big shout out to exalta which brings you dirty mail radio jram three 60 del jr jrm rasing dot com and all of del jrador's digital platform follow exaltor racing on Twitter and Facebook, and you can always visit exaltor racing.com for up-to-date info on the 88 team and Dale Jr. All right, look, let's get serious about this weekend for the 88s.

We've been talking about it a while, but now I'm serious, all right? You hear me on this? Dale Jr., listen to this. Dale Jr. and Carolina Panthers tied in Greg Olson have put together the ultimate sports VIP experience called Weekend with the 88s. It's a raffle. One raffle ticket cost you $18.88. That's a good deal.

Listen to what the winner will receive. double occupancy room at the Ritz Carlton and Charlotte, North Carolina for four nights, meet and greet with Dale Jr., meet and greet with Greg Olson, tour of junior motorsports and Bank of America Stadium, $200 gift certificate for Junior Nation retail store, assorted Carolina Panthers and NASCAR gear, garage passes and tickets to the Xfinity Series race and the Cup race at Charlotte, parking pass free game, sideline passes and tickets to the Carolina Panthers,

Monday Night Game versus the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And these are just the highlights, there's actually a lot more in it. Here's the best part when you purchase a raffle ticket 100% goes directly to the Levine Children's Hospital. So you're making a difference in kids' lives, and that's what this is really all about. The raffle ends September 18th. A winner will be drawn September 20th. Go to Weekend with the 88s.com. Weekend with the 88s.com.

So you're going to go to an exfinity race, a cup race, in a football game in three days? That's right. Unreal. And the tour of the facilities, yeah. So it's a four-day package. $200 to come spend in the gift shop. Yeah, right. So it's like...

Room and board. Meeting you is not even the best part, right? Oh, that's all down at the bottom. Right. You know what? I just was realizing as I was reading that. I've said double occupancy room at the Ritz Carlton, and then right after that I said meet and greet with Dale Jr.

I guess I should clarify the meet and greet is not in your room at the Ritz Carlton, okay? Just moving on. I want to say that for the record. Looking at Dale's schedule this week, he's got some work to do. I was just to be like, looking at your schedule this week, you have some work to do. I do. Competition meetings tomorrow. Hendrick on Wednesday appearing at the Walmart in Lewistown, Pennsylvania.

Yeah. On behalf of Diet Mountain Dew. Lewistown, do we know where that is? Are you sure it's not on behalf of Mountain Dew? Because this year we're Mountain Dew. It could be, yeah. But your schedule, it says Diet Mountain Dew, which I hope it does because that means Tyler Overstreet. I messed up.

Yes. Also on Wednesday, Dale will be doing an interview with Nickelodeon's Hammer Down. We ought to talk about this. Hammer Down is hosted by Carson Ellage, Junior's niece here, and it just started at its third season. This year, Dale's other niece, Kennedy, Carson's sister, is on the show. And I believe that's who you're doing the interview with on Wednesday. I may be wrong, but I think it is.

So Hammer Down is on Nickelodeon's Nicktoons each week. A fantastic show for kids. Speaking of kids, I also, I want to just mention NASCAR's recent announcement beginning in 2017, kids ages 12 and younger, will be admitted free to all Exfinity and Camping World Truck Series races. We've been begging for this for a long time. It's a big step in the right direction. TJ can pick up Madeline in the carpool line,

bring her right to the Trinity race, and he doesn't have to pay because the Lord knows he's cheap. It's a throwback weekend at Darlington. Stay tuned to Junior Motorsports Social Channels this week for a paint scheme unveiling. We'll have Elliott at Sadler, Justin Algar and Kevin Harvick racing for Junior Motorsports. That race is Saturday at 3.30 p.m. Eastern on NBC.

On Sunday, the Southern 500 will start at 6 p.m. Eastern on NBC. Jeff Gordon will be driving the great ghost, that lucky SOB. didn't even earn it did he just just doesn't know he's getting him step into does he and that's it that's it for white flag Dale thanks man for hosting today on the Dale junior download he didn't even have to break into a sacks I know he didn't what's up with that we didn't have a moment just had a lot to say

we didn't have a moment to really snack it's not live there's always a moment there is you're right all right buddy well thanks for having me thanks for letting me host welcome you're welcome back anytime yep in the exalted the studio. Thanks for showing up unannounced, TJ. Seriously. I mean, again, screwing up my first host gig. I was really just coming by to make face through the glass and stuff. You know, that's what I was going to do. Well, but you ended up walking in the door.

You told me to sit down. You told me to sit down. All right. Well, cool. It was fun. Thanks, fellas. You did good. Thanks. See you all later. See you. Later. Hey, Junior Nation. J.R.M. On Tour 2016 is on Tour once again on September 2nd at the Bilo located in Darlington, South Carolina. Stop by for an afternoon filled with all things racing, including an autograph

session with J.R.M. Drivers, Justin Allgaier, Alex Bowman, and Elliott Sadler from 5 to 6 p.m. And tons of giveaways, including race tickets and J.R. Swag Item. We can't wait to see you there. Hey, everyone. This is Justin Allgaier, host to Junior Motorsports Upfront. Tune in to Dirty Moe Radio every Thursday as Jonathan Davis and I talking about everything in Junior Motorsports, welcome guests and more. Thanks for listening to Dirty Moe Radio.