The Dale Jr. Download - 148 - Time to Heal

Episode Date: September 6, 2016

Mike Davis and Taylor Zarzour recap Dale Jr.’s Sunday in Darlington and discuss the news about Junior’s 2016 season. Jim Utter of Motorsport.com joins us on Speed Dial and Reaction Theatre is hot after Sunday’s finish in the truck race. 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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But I'm Taylor Zarser with Mike Davis and first name Davis here on the Dale Jr. Download presented by a spy. We are going to have Dale Jr. join us frequently on the Dale Jr. download in weeks and months to come. You certainly, I know probably heard his press conference. It's available right here on Dirty Moe Radio if you did not. And we will address it today.

And then after that, Mike Davis will kind of put a bow on some of the things that Dale Jr. has had to go through in the last couple of months, which we all hate it for him. I think all of us want him to be happy and healthy. And yes, we'd love to see him drive a race car again, but more than anything, we want him to have a clean bill of health. So let's talk a little bit about what the last couple of months have looked like. I guess it's been almost two months, right? Gosh, has it been that long? I guess it has, hadn't it? Yeah, it's like the second week in July. So, so, seven, eight weeks now, I guess, that this has been going on.

And I know it's been hard for you, especially hard for him and everyone that loves him and cares about him, that he's had to endure this. I think it first, everybody thought it'd be maybe a couple of week thing. He didn't even think, he wasn't even sure how it happened. And, of course, it was the Michigan accident, the doctor say. But no one thought it would end his season. But unfortunately, that's where we are. That's where we are.

Man, you say two months. I mean, it literally has been a journey so far, a journey that, you know, is not over yet, right? And so it's, and it's been a journey for everyone. Not just Dale, not just me, but just, you know, the fans even. I hope that what came out of Saturday, I'm sorry, Sunday when we did that press conference was everyone to kind of understand why they made the decision that they made on Friday. So Friday, the news came out that Junior would be out of the car for the rest of the year. unfortunate news for sure I don't know that it was terribly surprising in fact were you surprised when you heard that you weren't at all okay no in fact I supported 100% I mean yeah you got to do what the the doctors say and that's obviously their recommendation but I think I speak for the overwhelming majority of junior nation and saying everyone everybody wants to see him race again but not at the expense of hurting his long-term health so I think any level-headed person completely supported this decision.

Right. So it didn't seem like it caught many people by surprise. One of the things I want to say about that is that decision, when you come down to it, the doctor doesn't feel like it's in Dale's best interest to race anymore this year because it helps in his recovery. But don't lose sight of the fact that it's also a benefit to the teams, the sponsors. I mean, like to do this two to three week analysis and go, okay, is he clear now? Is he clear now?

Eventually, it becomes a bit of a burden. And you guys are around other sports. And I think that when you look at the possibility of coming back too soon and what that means when you can actually damage yourself worse, you guys have seen firsthand examples of that. Have you not? And, you know, Davis was just mentioning earlier this morning. It wasn't a concussion, but RG3.

Did RG3? He set a, he said, I'm going to be back by game one. Did he not? Back by week one. That was his thing. That was his thing. There's more issues, I think, that calls RG3's down. fall, but that was, I think, kind of a big one.

He put so much pressure on himself to come back week one, and, I mean, it definitely hurt him. When you set a timetable and you say, I've got to be back by X, you are then making the decision that I may not actually put my full recovery as my primary concern. I think that I have no evidence to go off of, but in any person I've discussed this with, they're all in agreement that it feels or seems more dangerous to come back from a concussion driving 200 miles an hour around a racetrack when you have balance issues than it would to play most stick-in-ball sports. That might not be completely accurate depending on what sport you're doing, but I think

all of us seem concerned about someone that had a significant concussion coming back with balance issues, operating a car with other cars, away from him at 200 miles an hour. So everybody seems to be on the same page about that. I'll give you an example. Jimbo Fisher, the head coach of the Florida State Seminoles, loves Dale Earnhardt Jr. A couple weeks ago, I was in his office,

and he knows about this podcast. He loves NASCAR. He takes his boys to races all the time, and he was asking me, grilling me about this situation, and he said the same thing I just said. Okay, so if a head coach, of one of the greatest college football programs in the world, everybody listening to this Tuesday,

watched him in primetime win last night. If he thinks, man, I wouldn't want to get him in that car until he was totally fine, it just seems more dangerous to do that than it would to say play football. He said that, then certainly I would feel the same way. Tori Hunter, the great outfielder that played for years in the majors, his son had what looked to be a pretty significant, concussion injury in the end zone Sunday night in the Notre Dame, Texas game.

And let's hope that Tori Hunter Jr. in the next couple weeks will be able to play football for the Fighting Irish. But if it were operating a car, I would be even more sensitive to win he should be back in that vehicle if he was racing a car at such a high speed and had balance issues. So I think everybody, Mike, is sensitive to Dale Jr.'s condition, maybe even more so than they would be with a stick and ball sport. So I think everybody's on the same page about him being very careful about when to come back from this. And that's good because I think our whole goal to this whole process is to make people understand where he's coming from. Actually, I'll tell you, this is actually Dale Jr.'s goal.

He's been way more transparent. I've said this a couple times on this podcast. He's been way more transparent than even I was comfortable with. I mean, when he's sitting there Instagramming his exercises and rehabs, I mean, that's like, all right, come on now. You don't have to do all that, right? But that's his nature, isn't it? It's therapeutic for him.

It absolutely is. He wants people to understand what he's going through, so they understand it gives him peace of mind. But we've also, like the whole reason why you bring Dr. Mickey Collins or invite him, he didn't have to come to Darlington over the weekend. But the whole reason to do that is to let people actually. actually hear from the doctor that's that junior has put 100% of his faith and trust into junior has said that he goes listen all this outside noise all the speculation and stuff I know it's going I know it's out there I know that a lot of people are saying hey you need to

come check out this doctor this doctor fixed me this we get a lot of that hey it's not the concussion it's you know it's the mattress he's sleeping on or it's the it's the oil in his engine airplane we've heard them all and junior we don't discount it we're not saying that's idiotic or anything it's just say listen I hear hear you. But this is the guy that I'm listening to. I choose to listen to him. I've made the decision to put all of my trust in what he says because he says he can make me better. And so what he says is what I'm going to do. We brought that guy and sat him in front of the media over the weekend. And graciously he accepted, I mean, because he didn't have to do that. A lot of doctors are not

comfortable doing that. And this guy, listen, he sees a lot of professional athletes, a lot of professional athletes, even when we are up in Pittsburgh, he sees all these professional athletes that are dealing with concussions, and they're all different. I can't overstate that enough. They're all different scenarios. That said, we bring him down, and he says what he says to help people really understand so they don't have to speculate. So we get a little aggravated when you see all this, Dale needs to retire, Dale needs to do this, Dale needs to do that. I'm like, listen, Dale Jr. deserves at this point of his life and for what he is being the honest person that he always is he earned the right to be trustworthy what he says you can bank on form your opinions

based on that and not anything else well i think the overwhelming majority does that mike i think that you you can't control um armchair quarterbacks you're going to have that in all walks of life especially nowadays when people have so much access to every single person on the planet There's a lot of good that comes with that, and Dale Jr. is a great example of the good that comes with that, but unfortunately, there's also some bad. So people are just trained to give their opinion, even if they sound incredibly ignorant. But I think that the, I know I speak for almost everyone listening that it would really appreciate Dale Jr.'s transparency. I think there'd be more noise. There'd be more irrational noise if Dale Jr. hasn't gone about this the way that he has.

in the last few weeks. So I think we're all grateful to him for that. All right, I've got two questions and a statement. Okay. And then we'll get to Jim Utter on Speed Dial. The first question is, are you concerned about Dale Jr.'s quality of life moving forward? Because I think most important to all of us listening is that. 100% no.

And let me tell you why. That Dr. Mickey Collins said it himself. and again, I'm with Dale. We listen to this guy. I've been in those rooms. I listen to Dr. Collins, and I'm going to tell you something, I believe him. He thinks and says this is fixable. And Dr. Collins not only said that on Sunday,

but he also said that Dale Jr. is working as hard as anybody that he's dealt with on the back end, on the recovery process. And Dale Jr., you know, every day is working, working, rehabbing. And I know that to be true, but Dr. Collins, to hear him, him say, listen, this guy is putting everything in. He's going all in on this recovery thing. That's what you need to bank on everybody. That's what you need to listen to, not anything else. That's the opinion that matters. And to answer your question again, Taylor, no, I'm not concerned. Well, that's good to hear because that's what we all want. I typically wouldn't ask for your medical

opinion on something, Mike. No offense. Well, my initials are MD. That is true. That is. That is. That's a good point. But given how close you've been to this whole entire process. Do you feel that Dale Jr. is going to make enough gains to get back into a race car, say in 2017? I think that Dale Jr., if he follows doctor's orders and he is, can give himself every opportunity to get back in that race car and have the edge that he is required for a competitive and winning race car driver. That's the other thing. People forget about that. You could put Dale Jr. back in a car, you know, in no. November if you feel like he's ready.

But he's not getting back in just to run 30th. Will he have the edge? He's got, you're going to have to basically rebuild everything, rebuild his confidence, rebuild his mentality. And what Dr. Collins is saying is we can do that. We can do that. But you're going to, he's basically going to have to break him down as far as his mental approach and build him back up to where he's not thinking about concussions when he's going into turn three.

at 180 miles per hour. That's a really good point. Comparing injuries is a very difficult slash, I think, tricky thing to do. But you don't want any athlete to return to the competitive field they're in until that they have that mental and emotional piece of mind necessary to compete. I'll say this. I had a lot of questions about Nick Chubb, the great running back in Georgia going into this past weekend mentally and emotional. Everybody said he had a clean bill of health after the terrible knee injury he had at Tennessee last year. And that guy clearly was completely ready in all phases to gash the North Carolina defense for over 200 yards on Saturday.

Because that point you want Dale Jr. to have that kind of piece of it. Right. Nick Chubb had the confidence that his knee was not going to shred when he makes that big cut. He's got to have the confidence that when he sticks and he cuts. it's going to hold together. I had the same concern for Kenyon Drake a couple years ago because he went through just a terrible injury for Alabama. And then when he came back, I'm like,

I'm nervous when he gets the ball because I don't even have the confidence when he makes those cuts because he's so fast, is he going to have the speed? But is he going to have the mentality to do what he used to do? That's a process in itself, you know, and that's where, I don't know, sports psychology comes in and all these other things.

It probably does. No, and those are some things. to work through. So listen, we hate that this has happened in the last seven or eight weeks, and we're all pulling hard for Junior. And I think you've given a lot of people peace of mind and some confidence. It probably settled some nerves. I'm sure he did and the doctors did this past weekend with those press conferences.

And Dale Jr., to a degree will do that in his appearances on this podcast moving forward in the weeks and months to come. But we're overwhelmingly going to talk about NASCAR and what. happens at the track in days and weeks to come on this podcast. And Mike Davis, if Dale Earnhardt Jr. isn't going to race on a weekend, the next Beck's thing I can think of is Elliott Sadler winning the X-Finity race and Martin Truex, Jr. winning the Cup race. It's pretty spectacular, wouldn't it?

It's a good weekend. Yeah, happy for them both. Man, now let me just tell you something. Let's go back to Sadler for a second. we've won 30-31 races as a definitive races as a company junior motorsports has over the years I don't recall Dale Jr. being as ecstatic as he was than this weekend when Elliot won that and he was just like a kid in a candy star he was beaming, beaming over this and I had to ask you all right really dude what's up why are you going crazy about this and his answer to me was

because I know how hard it is to do what he just did at Darlington raceway. He goes, you know, people are talking about, well, he almost lost it. He hit the wall with two laps to go. He goes, do you know how slick it is right there? That spot is a, it is ridiculous. He goes, I know how hard it is to do what he just did. I was so happy for it. And I'm telling you, so listen, you're hearing Dale Jr., one of the best race car drivers in the world, talk about the difficulty. So he is ecstatic. We all are ecstatic because this has been a roller coaster year if you're Elliott Sadler in one main. I mean, the guy is leading the point. I mean, the guy is leading the points and yet just a few weeks ago he was you know dead in the wind as far as his future goes

and then it gets turned all around uh with our announcement that one main is actually coming back that didn't happen that's that's unusual story in racing that doesn't happen and yet it did happen then the guy goes off and wins at darlington which is everybody's you know it's one of their crown jewels it's one of those things you like i would love to be able to put this in my career to win at darlington uh listen to breck griffin talk about it you know just spotting elliot sadler in that And it was a fabulous race. I mean, like Denny Hamlin was right there. He puts his nose out in front of Sadler.

They're going into turn three. Yet Sadler sort of pins him down, and then he hits that high line and goes out of that turn, which is a very difficult turn. He comes back and regains the lead and then holds him off in the white. Maybe the most difficult turn there is a NASCAR. Right. Right. Totally. Yeah.

So it's like, dude, you earned it. It's the second win of the year. I mean, I'll tell you, gosh, it's just so cool. It's so cool. It is. We'll start talking a lot about the chase. the playoffs and who's going to advance to each round, you know, coming up next week with Dale Jr. and future podcasts. I will say this, though. I don't know if you paid any attention to this, Mike.

There's almost no drama in Richmond this weekend for who's going to make the chase. Davis, correct me if I'm wrong here. I'm looking at the standings. And Tony Stewart's going to make it in, obviously, because he won a race. So he's outside the top 16, which means Casey Kane is 37. behind Ryan Newman to grab that last spot because Kyle Larson's in 15th and he's protected because he won. So there's very little drama in terms of point chase, right? There's not much going on here. Where's Newman? Newman is in 14th place, but isn't there something pending?

I've read an article that said that he might have a penalty this week. Yeah, him and Larson failed post-race inspection. So there's some drama. It may not actually happen at Richmond. It might happen the day. It happened before. Or tomorrow. Yeah.

Who knows? Well, I can promise you that there's going to be more drama then because I think that NASCAR would love to put something on the line in Richmond. And I'm sure Ryan Newman will question their motivation. But that'll be fun to watch this weekend then with Newman and Casey Kane, who's a teammate of Dale Jr's. Be good to have him in the chase this year. All right.

More on what's going on with Dale Jr., Mike Davis, with Jim Utter. Let's speed dial. Speed dial. All right, we've got Jim Utter from motorsport.com, our big pal, Jim Utter. Utter, are you there? I'm here, man. How are you doing? Doing well, man. Thanks for coming back on the download. You know, we had you on here after our Watkins Glen Press Conference,

and I thought you had a lot of compelling and intriguing takeaways from that. So considering we had another press conference on Sunday at Darlington, I wanted to bring you back on here and get your perspective again. So as you know, Dale Jr., Rick Hendrick, and Dr. Mickey Collins all came to Darlington's Media Center on Sunday. What were your takeaways from that press conference? Well, I mean, I think quite honestly, it was kind of funny because it was a few days before that the release came out that Dale was going to put out the rest of this season. and as you are well aware, it seemed like it certainly soon after that came the plethora of media commentaries about how Dale should retire and not worry about coming back and he has nothing

less to prove and so forth. So the funny thing to me was what during the course of the press conference on Sunday with Dale and Rick Hendrick and Dr. Collins. I got the exact opposite take from Dale. It seemed like he was very confident that because he had gone through this similar situation in 2012 and had been told that he would return to normal if he did what was asked of him, he did and had some of the best. years of his career that he's been told the same thing in this case.

He's clearly been working just as hard or harder, and to me believes that he can get the same result. And that was the impression that I got, and I think many people did too. So I think it kind of put a damper on a lot of the media talk that perhaps Dale should, you know, should get ready to retire and consider that and so forth. But listening to the doctor is clear to me that he believes that Dale can return to normal, just like he did the last time. And if that's the case, he certainly sounds like somebody who wants to go back and end his career on a high note.

I want to ask you more about the ultimate media reaction, both from Friday and Sunday, Before I get that, let's go back to Friday. When you got the news release on Friday morning that stated officially that Junior was out the rest of the year, what was your reaction? Eyes, really, because the longer it had gone on, that, you know, he had been making trips, periodic trips, to see the doctor in Pittsburgh, and was coming, you know, a couple few times, you know, you were coming back, and it was going to be another two weeks of Jeff Gordon and or Alex Bowman, you know, being in the car. I just felt the longer that that went on, the likelihood kind of grew that at some point they would just say, you know, let's just do the rest of the season. Because, you know, the longer it went on, things became less plausible, like making the chase or things of that nature.

So I wasn't really surprised, and I kind of felt like, you know, to me, it was funny because I thought, well, at least he doesn't have to worry about, you know, getting back in the car when he's going to get back in the car. And that exact thing was brought up during the press conference on Sunday by the doctor, who basically said that once the decision was made that we weren't going to worry about the rest of this season, and he actually thought Dale had made significant improvement because that pressure or, you know, anxiety regarding that was no longer a factor. Right. Yeah.

Well, you know, my impressions were simply that I didn't think many people would be surprised by that either. And ultimately, I didn't see anything that really changed my mind on that. But what did surprise me, and you alluded to this just a little bit ago, was, it seemed like a lot of people had made up their mind already when it comes to the retirement part of it. And we wanted to, you know, through this whole thing, Junior's been very transparent. And we've been trying to avoid any speculation because that just gets you nowhere. And we thought that, you know, providing or having Dr. Collins come down on Sunday, that Sunday people could determine then if they think that it's a retirement is in the future or not.

But, you know, you saw some columns and you saw some opinions pop up on Friday before Dr. Collins and Dale even had a chance to really speak. Do you think that people had sort of made up their mind already, regardless of what was said in a press release, or regardless of what Dr. Collins would say on Sunday? Oh, when the decision came out that he wasn't going to be competing anymore this season, which I think was on Thursday. You talk about when the release came out? Yeah. No, we were supposed to do it Thursday, but Betty Jane France's memorial service was Thursday.

Oh, that's right. That's right. Yeah. Well, anyway, when it actually happened, I think it was just the green light for people to go ahead and publish a column that they, or opinion that they had already decided that they had formed. And, you know, that's what they are, their opinions.

But my point is, is like, nobody can make this decision except Delaer Hart Jr. Nobody. And first of all, he can't make that decision until he's cleared to return to racing. Right. So to me, it's kind of, it's kind of like you said earlier. It's kind of pointless. I don't understand the point.

Right. If a doctor never, I'm not saying this is going to happen, but if the doctor were never to clear him to return to racing, then he doesn't even get to make that decision. That's right. You know what I mean? It's irrelevant. So the least you could do is listen to me, in my opinion,

was to listen to see what the doctor said. And I was kind of surprised that he was going, because let's remember something. It's one thing for Dale Jr. to tell us what he feels, thinks, and believes. But when the doctor, who is no slouch, by the way, goes in front of the media and the world and tells everybody that he's positive that Dale Earnhardt Jr. can become a race car driver again.

He's kind of sticking his neck out too a little bit. And I thought that that said a lot about how he felt that this process had been going and how he felt that it ultimately would end, which is why you saw less, But you didn't see a lot of people changing their opinions Sunday because they'd already had their opinions. Right. You know, you just talked about Dr. Collins not being a slouch. I had a question here that I wanted to ask you. What was your impressions of Dr. Collins?

And did you think it was necessary for him to be there? I think it was necessary in the sense that it helped explain to people who are all of us who are not familiar with the details. and intricacies of this kind of problem and like the issues of concussions and so forth, to listen to somebody who could explain it and tell why this was different than the previous time that he had worked with Dale, I think it was 2012, and why he still believes that the same positive result is possible here that was possible in 2012. And at the end of the day, you know, part of Dale's recovery is kind of anchored in the fact that he has to believe what the doctors tell him.

And he really seemed to me that came across to me was that his previous experience in 2012, which at the time was probably just as scary as, as this one has been, he was reassured by a doctor that if he did certain things, he would be able to return to the race car and be just as good. And it happened, which I think for him,

you know, it's one thing, it's just in life for everybody, it's one thing for somebody to tell you, it's another to see the results. And because he saw the results and knows what happened previously, he has trust that the same thing, the same thing can happen again.

And to me, that's the part that came across very clearly throughout the press conference. And the fact, I think at the end that, you know, any questions that there were some secret plan being hatched for, you know, a new driver of the 88 car, I think Rick Hendrick pretty much squashed that at the end, too. I'm glad you said that because, you know, Dr. Collins did not have to come. We didn't have to invite him. we felt it was important for the very reason that you just said. And even if you did invite him, he was under no obligation. Under no obligation.

Hey, the guy sees a lot of athletes, a lot of professional athletes. Trust me. He doesn't do press conferences for all of them. I mean, I haven't seen any. So he comes down, and the one thing that we wanted to achieve out of that utter, and I'm glad to hear you say that, is that Dale has stated on the record multiple times that he is putting all of his focus in and all of his attention on what his doctor tells him to do. 100%.

So all the outside noise, all the opinions, he knows they're there, but he just chooses not to listen to them. He's choosing to listen to his doctor. And seeing Dr. Collins on Sunday and having him out there in front of everybody and having to answer those questions, I hope showed why that's a good decision on Dale's part. Like that's a guy that you can put your trust in. That's a guy that, look, I choose to listen to him. And he says, if you do these things, I can get better. and then when that happens, then we'll worry about all the other static that's going on around.

But let's get better first. And that's what I hope came across. And it sounds like that it did. Well, I think it did, except for some people who had already made up their mind before the press conference. But, you know, but to me, that's what happened. And as I said earlier, the fact that he's listening to the doctor, and he has been through this situation with the same doctor before and gotten and did what he said, and it turned out good.

I mean, why would you not have any less faith in him when he tells you the same thing this time? Well, and to your point. And I think it's clear, particularly since this whole idea of returning to the car this season has been lifted off his shoulders, that he's already responding even better than he was prior to that. Well, yeah, to your point, though, for anybody that wants to say, well, it doesn't look like he got better. He's now out of, you know, four or five years later, he's now back in the situation only worse,

and he's not racing in 18 races and this, that, and the other. But the point that Dr. Collins said on Sunday was, this isn't the same concussion. This isn't the same injury. Dale is having a completely different reaction. to what has been a not one blow, but a combination, things that have escalated to this point. And so it's just a different injury that now they're trying to address and fix. Right.

And he also said that the work that he's doing this time can make his brain stronger so that he can withstand contact and not have the negative results that he had this time, contact that seemingly in other cases would not have produced this kind of reaction. That's the goal. It's not, nobody's making that prediction. You know, you can't sit there and say, like, can I protect him from any of this stuff? He's a race car. As long as you're a race car driver, there are dangers that will, that will always exist.

Yeah, that's a fact that I think escapes some people. It escapes people. But so, so he's not trying to make him completely, you know, like, like. Bulletproof. Bull, right. You can't do that. And Dr. Collins makes a point to not do that, not guarantee. There are no guarantees in racing. But you can rehab from what he knows and from what they've studied. What they've learned in the last 10, 15 years is we can fix these things if they're addressed soon enough. And junior got in front of it soon enough. Hey, listen, Utter, I got a few minutes. I want to get your perspective on a few other things from the weekend. And so I'm going to throw a few storylines at you and hit me with your quick thoughts, okay? All right. John Hunter, Nemechek. Rex Cole Custer to win the truck series race.

Go. Despite all the outrage, nothing we haven't seen before. You know what's funny? My dad called, and he goes, hey, I just loved that truck race. I thought it was awesome. And I said, Dad, I said, Dad, you know they wrecked us. Like, that was our truck that got that. And he goes, oh, he goes, it was?

Well, I still thought. it was awesome. And I'm like, all right, thanks, Dan. So, so you're saying nothing new here. No, I mean, people have been wrecking to, look, at one hand, we tell everybody all the time, people should do whatever it takes to win, and then when we do, people complain. So, I mean, listen, John Hon. Anima Check has to live with the repercussions of what he did.

There's no question about that. But to say that he did necessarily anything different than anybody else has ever. done in NASCAR, I think is ridiculous because he did it. All right. Next. How popular was Elliot Sadler's win at Darlington in the Xfinity Series race? Huge, huge popular. And why is that?

Elliot's a great guy. Everybody loves Elliot. And I think a couple things, number one, you know, Joe Gibbs Racing has been kind of tearing up the Xfinity Series this season. And it was kind of unexpected that, you know, that, you know, Elliot Sadler would be the one that kind of dethrone them in a race that's, you know, kind of one where they were probably expected to excel.

And I know it also was good timing. You just had the decision not long ago that one main was going to come back. For a while, Elliot's career was kind of up in the air while that was going on, and then they come back, and then he gets this really, crazy win at Darlington, which was great for him. And now he's going to be going to the first ever chase in the Xpenity series as a serious championship contender for a championship that he's never won before. And quite possibly could help Junior Motorsports to another championship in the

Expedity Series. I just think it was pretty well-received just about by everybody. Amen to that. Martin Trex Jr., Jr., is he still a nine-year? Is he still an underdog, or can we go ahead and make him a contender? He ain't been an underdog for forever. That team runs so good. The only thing underdog about it is in the results column

because he seems to have so many strange things happen to that team and have bad luck. But you can say the same thing about the forecar. And if you ask me personally, I think even despite when you're taking away simply the question of wins and losses. The 78, the four, and the two, to me, have been the most consistent cars this season, I think, and people should watch out for them in the chase. Tony Stewart, Rick, Brian Scott, and I haven't seen any of the effects or the implications

from that if there have been any announcements, but did he go to the NASCAR? Did he go to the NASCAR hauler? Was there any takeaway from that? And they said that nothing further would take place. The perks of being a retirement guy, huh? Yeah, well, and the other thing is, again, nothing we haven't seen before. Right. And if you were outraged by John Herbert Inect, where's your outrage for Tony Stewart? Because that was just the late, if not worse, than the first incident.

And if people say, oh, but, you know, it's even worse because John went on an evening starting to start a career, he should know better. Well, then you have Tony Stewart who's been to his entire career, and you would think would know better. Amen to that. All right. Here we go. Last question for you.

Best retro paint scheme from Darlington was? Oh, God, that's a tough one, man. I really like the Wood Brothers, more out of tradition. But I think I've got to go with the Hooters Car and Breakbiff. Hooters Car and Brickville. You're just such a typical dude. That's just a typical dude answer. That was so much long, you know.

I just have to be the great ghost for Johnson. I just wish I could have driven it. I hear you, buddy. Well, Utter, thank you again for coming on the download. We really appreciate you. I promise you, we want to have you on more, and hopefully it's not after more press conferences. Listen, I've been doing post-dale press conferences for him not racing.

Yeah. I want to be the guest for the post-press conference when he's returning to race. That's a deal. That's a deal. You can even come in the studio. Yeah. I like that idea. I'll be honored.

Wait a second. Wait a second. I need to check and see if Nate Ryan wants to do it first. And clear it with Kelly, please. All right, utter. Thanks. Have a good day, bro. All right.

Take care. Bye. Speed dial. Hey, everyone. This is Ron LaMasters, host of Listorically Speaking. Tune in every Friday at Steve Richards and I take a look through history at numbers, trends, topics, and lists from the world of junior motorsports and NASCAR. That's every Friday right here on Dirtymo Radio.

What a crazy. crazy weekend at the track that's too tough to tame. The Lady and Black saw a lot of craziness this weekend. And good stuff from Utter and Mike Davis there. All right, let's get to Reaction Theater now. Hey, just want to give a shout out to the Junior Motorsports Twitter account. Whoever made those, the Thunder video game gist for the Xfinity. The races are pretty awesome.

That's one of my top five favorite games. So props to you guys. Give them hell, yeah. Davis? It was you? No, I had to put that in there to shout out Jordan Erickson. Was it your idea? No, it was his idea.

He did the entire thing, and then Heath White executed them out of their end. They were getting them credit because they were awesome. Did you have any role in this at all? You've been the social media guy or no? Just to prove them that they look good. Okay. They were cool.

So unlike Mike Davis, you're taking no credit for something you didn't come up with. I like that. It was all them. Jordan's the man. Good. Great his job. All right, who's next? Hey, I just wanted to call.

I'm a first-time caller, and really positive to hear what Junior's got to say, and he's going to do very well next year. I wouldn't be surprised if he wins his championship next year. But let me talk about that truck race, and Cole Custer should have won that freaking race. And then I give shout out to Elliot Sadler, you know, for winning the Xfinity race. That was awesome.

And also, I want to give a shout. Shout out to Nationwide 8 Twitter handle. They were giving away five diecast cars the past five days. And I actually won one of them. So that was pretty awesome. You guys take care. Bye. Nice.

Very cool. That's a daymaker. That is. That's a daymaker to win a die cast. Hey, you know what? He brought up that Canada truck race. We haven't talked about that. I did with Utter, but Taylor, have you.

I've heard about it now. I've got to go watch this thing. Yeah, I equate the truck race to, or Cole Custer's tackle of John Hunter and Eamichick, who started to run. Did he not start to run? Yeah, he did. He was running the other way. Like the LSU guy that tackled that poor dude after the play. Some wonder if that was intentional or not, or like if he knew the play was over with.

I don't think there's any doubt to what happened on the track a few days ago. Right, yeah, there was no question on that. But, yeah, what a crazy race that was. And I don't know that we'll be done talking about it. Yeah, there's several calls. Yeah, I'm sure. All right, who's next? So it's 10 o'clock on Friday morning.

I decided to stop work, start drinking, because it just came across the wire, Junior's out the rest of the year, and this shit sucks. So I'm going home to get fucking wasted. But I am happy for Junior because I think this is really what he needed. I think if he got back in the car, he would have been risking. not being fully healthy. At least we know that if he comes back for Daytona, that he'll be way more healthy then than he would have been now.

So yeah, it all sucks, but we all need to get used to the fact that, you know, four or five years down the road, junior might be completely out of NASCAR. So we just need to hope he gets healthy and comes back for any amount of racing. I don't even care if he comes back for one race. I guarantee you I'll be at that damn rate.

Also, I wanted to say that in lieu of this, I believe the Dirty Moe Radio needs to have a track correspondent at every single race from here on out. And my personal opinion is this should be sloppy yellow. Dale, yeah, zero beers. Did he just say floppy yellow? He might have. Okay, sloppy. Floppy yellow will be dance. I know Mike's going to question whether or not Datto had that person call in.

I agree with him. I think that that's a great. idea to have Datto as the track correspondent. He spoke for a lot of people, though, in what he said. And by the way, regardless of the concussion, the day is going to come where Dale Earnhardt Jr. Retires that hopefully years from now. But yeah, that is something to consider. Hey, you know what? This caller just reminded me of something. I think that we should ask Dale Jr. The way people ask a presidential candidate or, you know, who are you endorsing? who do you saying that we should who should we vote for i think dale junior owes us uh who should

we actually pull for for the rest of this year since you are not in the car it's funny because you always talk about his honesty i'd be very curious to hear if he gave us that um i think he would okay good you know we know that there's some candidates there let's almost like who is your vice president dale junior how great would it be if he said anyone but jeff gordon all right who's next Hey, I know everybody wants Junior back in the car next week, but hey, take all the time you need, Jr. Okay, you said something that really resonated with me tonight was you were a fan of the sport long before you were a driver. Well, why that resonates with me, I was a fan of you before you were a driver.

I won him to race next year. And the whole reason why I know he's going to race next year is he's, he's going to race next year, is he's passionate for the sport and he cares so much about it. You talk to him, you listen to him, he cares about NASCAR. He's doing everything he can to come back 100% to make the sport go on. Dale Jr. will always be an ambassador of NASCAR. Good stuff, Tim Brock. We appreciate you, my man.

You've been a huge part of this podcast for the last handful of years and I know that will continue. Who's next? Getting ready to watch the green flag drop here on the Southern 500 but I had to call in and say horse shit. That is bull shit.

Cole Custer deserved to win that race. That dumb ass son of Bich. John Hunter Nemechek. I ain't got no damn talent piece of shit. Dumb ass driver. Right up there and went left when he should have been

going right. That was dirty, stupid racing. Hell, I wouldn't even call that racing. All he was doing was wrecking. Bull shit. Coahut cusser's got more talent his damn pinky toe than that son of a fucking guy. That f***er needs his ass woke. Way to go, Cole. I'm glad to see you jump out while and go over there and tackle his ass. I wish I'd say he looked about like crimson tide out there, but I'm a Georgia fan, so go dogs. Congratulations, Elliot Sadler, Dale Jr. I respect the hell out of your brother for sitting it out. Take care of yourself. Come back strong, come back better. Well, I'll be praying.

for you, brother. Hold your head high. Junior Motorsports. I'll hold your head high. We'll go back and get them. Custer, I have a chance to put his ass in the wallet. Dale, yeah. Tell yeah.

Hey, you know what? I want that guy to be. Yeah, I want him at the track. On Dato's track correspondent team. Yeah, hire him Dado. Come on. Get him on Team Dato. Hey, listen, here's another thing about that.

Did you see, Davis, the tweet of the video of Cole Custer boarding that charter flight and everybody giving him standing ovation? Everybody in the flight. Taylor gave him a round of applause when he boarded to play. Did you ever even see Bill Simmons's tweet about CoCuster? You said that to me. What about that? How about that?

Yeah, he tweeted that CoCuster sounded like a great movie name for a Nick Cage character. That's fantastic. Who's next? What the fuck? John Hunter, Neiman Tech, you idiot. Now you're going to be the one that's hunted. Hope you like your middle name, you dumb. Cool way to raise one.

Ain't no way. Win the championship. Dale, fucking, yeah. Fucking, hey, Cole Custer's a hero. Neiman Check's an idiot racing. That was reckoned to win. Get him cool. Dale.

Fucking, yeah. Hey, Taylor. I just watched, that is fantastic. Yeah. That's not like, hey, man, I'm, you know, we've seen a whole lot of pushing and shoving, Gordon and Boyer and Brad Kislowski and Harvick and all these guys. Lugano's been involved in. just about all of them.

That was, that, that's a form, that's an open field form tackle right there. Wow. Good technique. So listen to this. I told Jim Utter to this storyteller, but I'm going to tell you too because I didn't tell Utter the end of it. So my dad calls me yesterday on Labor Day and he's like, hey, I just wanted you to know that truck race was awesome.

It was awesome. And I'm like, dad, we were the ones that got wrecked. And he said, oh, really? well I still think it was awesome and so he's carrying on and then he but then he goes and we move on to football and he says that LSU guy he deserves to be set for the entire year and I'm like no wait a second whoa you want to sit that guy for the year but you think what John Hunter Nemech did was awesome putting a guy in the wall on purpose yes and I'm like that doesn't make any sense he goes I don't care LSU got needs to sit and John Hunter Nemechek

needs a sponsor and I'm like good heavens if I have Maybe we should put your dad on the podcast. Oh, he was preaching on it. He loved the truck finish, forgot that we actually ran a truck race and that Cole Custer was our guy, didn't care when he found out, but thinks the LSU guy was awful.

There you go. That seems rational to me. Who's next? Can I get an Elliot, yeah. Elliot, yeah. Look on that. Penny Hambone. Somebody gets that kid a cup ride.

No, seriously. someone put him in the 88 car. Mike Davis, you challenged everybody about 10 days ago about calling in and we still got to do to Dale Jr. download. I haven't called in over a month because I'm pissed. And I know nobody can help what's going on, but I want to see good things for Dale Jr.

I'm not worried about the 88 team. I don't root for the 88 team. I'm a Dale Jr. fan. So let's put some guys we can actually all get behind some JRM drivers with Dave. there for a few years, guys that's paying some dues like Elliot Sadler. Put him in an 88 cup car. Get it done. Yeah, Mike Davis.

Well, Alex Bowman counts, doesn't he? Yes. What do you? What is that, Davis? What's wrong with you? Davis, who does Alex Bowman drive for? Us, but the guy's qualifications are some guy that's been around a while. Sadler's the man.

Come on now. I love Sadler. No, no. He was always number two. to behind Dale Jr. when he was out there for me. In that M&M's car. M&M's car, even before that, you get the old the Wood Brothers car.

Yeah. He's been in some pretty good rides. Hey, guess who I met this weekend, guys? Put him in the 88 car. Talladega, Mike Davis. Make it happen. Okay. I'll work on that. Let me work on that. I'll just call up Mr. H. Listen, guess who I met this weekend, who was standing outside the media center when we were leaving the press conference. Timmy Truton, the guy that wrote the Dale Yes song. Oh, wow.

Yeah, he was like, hey, I'm Tim Truton. I wrote the Dale Yes song. He even told Dale Jr. is leaving. It was hilarious. That's awesome. Dale's like, okay then, man, buddy. No, Dale gave him a big old high five and then he signed something for Timmy. It's cool.

That might be the hardest you've ever laughed. It was fantastic. The first time we played that. All right. Who's next? I'd be lying if I said I wasn't upset to hear the junior was going to race again this year. but at least Junior's still here so we got next year to look forward to

so I don't care what happens for the rest of this year as long as the Toyota doesn't win the championship or Toyota wins the manufacturer's championship I'm just hoping that the 88 car does a good job and they run good finishes and they learn from all the different drivers

they're going to have in the car I know Alex and Jeff are going to do a great job and let's hope that either Elliot Sadler or Justin Allgaier can bring home the championship for junior motorsports. Elliot, yeah, Justin, yeah, and Jeff, yeah. Let's go wrap up a good year, boys. Dale, yeah. Doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?

Yeah. Elliot, yeah, it's kind of clever, but the rest of them, yeah. Martin, yeah, and all that. Do you think that some Dale Junior fans just spit their drink out when he just said, Jeff, yeah? Yeah, it's still goes down. a little different. It comes up different, too. Who's next?

Well, I could talk about the great win for Elliot Sadler and Junior Motorsports, but I'm not going to. I can talk about how Nevecichick is a little pompous prick that should have his beat, but I'm not going to. I can talk about all the great and wonderful

things that I heard on the Dale Jr.'s pressure at Darlington, but I'm not going to. I'm going to tell you what I'm going to talk about. That fat, piece of shit, Tony Stewart. Oh. He's a three-time damn champion. He's got the most awesome paint scheme out there.

His crew's got the Coca-Cola pants on, looking fantastic. And because that piece of shit is having a bad day, he goes and wrecks Brian Scott for no damn reason, ruins a half a million dollar race car. And I'll be damned that Tony Stewart is his last Darlington 500. And what's he do? He acts like a jack-of-cry baby and then blows up a motor. And God almighty, am I going to miss that son.

I was going to say. What am I going to do without Tony Stewart to be mad at when he's gone? I'm a little depressed. I'm going to go for a run. Oh. Hell yeah. I agree completely with that. That's exactly how I felt.

What a spoiled little cry baby. What is Stewart doing again acting like this? Man, I'm going to miss that guy. That's exactly how I felt. You know what? It was almost like he had to do that. You know, it's like one more, like Ozzy Smith, the last time he played baseball, had to do a cartwheel onto the field.

You know, Stewart had to wreck somebody and act like an idiot. You know? He said one time, I'll never forget. They were at Talladega, Micah. This has got to be 10, 12 years ago. And David Gilliland and Stewart got into it. And Stewart, I mean, verbally undressed Gilliland on national television, wrecked him.

I mean, they all went crazy. And the next day, Tony Stewart was. was asked about it, you know, after, and this is the way he always is, smoke is 24 hours later. He's like, man, you just can't fix stupid. Old Smoke. Oh, Smoke was actually the guest on Motor Mouse on Dirty Moor Radio last week or two weeks. When was it, Davis? Was it last week?

Best weeks. Whenever Motor Mouse, they have alternating weeks with Fastlane family. But yeah, they had an exclusive interview with Tony Stewart from Tony Stewart's house. Very cool. Yeah, and he was vile and every bit as, he was every bit of Tony that you expect. Yeah, trust me. Didn't hold that. He's been terrific for NASCAR.

There's no doubt, and I know he'll be extremely involved, obviously, with his team moving forward. But we will miss him on the track. I think Dad O nailed it. All right, who's next? Hello, Junior Nation. Submarine Mike here. Uh-oh. Normally on Reaction Theater, you hear me being silly and having fun.

Today, I need to speak to you about something very serious affecting Junior Nation. That is Datoitis. Datoitis is a disease that is attacking the very core of our fan base. 32.7% of you are affected by this horrendous disease. You're probably asking yourself, what are the symptoms of this terrible affliction? Number one, do you get overly excited when you see a sloppy old yellow bus? Number two, do you suddenly have the feeling that Texas is a cool place to live? Three, and probably the worst symptom, are Taylor Zazer's lips permanently affixed to your back side?

If you have any or all of these symptoms, fear not, junior nation. I used to work for the government. I'm here to help. Introducing the Datoitis Rehabilitation Program bought to you by the makers of the slap chop. For only three payments of $88 and $88, you receive an intensive six-week program, which includes every Submarine Mic reaction theater call and a continuous sleep. Plus stars and stripes butt paste. The All-American way to keep Taylor's lips away. Plus, much more that you will find out when you call.

Call 1-855, not Dato. That's 1855, not Dato. Operators are standing by. But wait, there's more. The first 88 callers get a free autographed picture of Mike Davis. So call today before Datoitis ruins another. other life. There's no, there's no controversy whatsoever

here. I'm on Team Dato. Taylor, shots fired at you, buddy. No, it's fine. No. That's fine if he wants to throw shots at me like that. I stand by my support of sloppy yellow and Team Dato.

And why is that? I think he is one of the greatest track correspondence in the history of motorsports. And I appreciate the passion that he brings to Junior Nation, and most importantly, I appreciate that he identifies all of the people that also believe that Mike Davis sucks.

So there's so many reasons to be on Team Dato, and I am. Sorry, Submarine Mike. Poor Submarine Mike. Just can't get Taylor's endorsement. Yeah. Can't. Team Dotto. What does Submarine Mike have to do to gain your love?

He has to start periscoping for no apparent reason on a daily basis. There you go. Submarine Mike, he is set. If you start periscoping on a daily basis, pariscoping wouldn't be hard for somebody named Submarine Mike, would it? Y'all get it? Yeah, got it. Yeah, good.

That was stiff. Good. Just making sure y'all got it. All right, who's next? Okay, we are first-time callers. My name is Mitzi Prophet, and this is Joshua. Josh has been listening to this for as long as we can remember, and we want to give a big shout out to

to Dano, aka Sloppy, big old yellow. Sloppy yellow. Sloppy. So, first thing we want to say is, Elliot, you did an awesome job. I mean, that was some hard racing. So I'm going to let Joshua tell you about who he met at the track.

His one wish was to meet one person at Darlington. Steve's, I love Stevie to death. I want to be a, a nice. for a radio station here in South Georgia. Joshua goes to Georgia Southern. He's going to school to be a radio broadcaster. His one wish to see Stevie, and Stevie happened to be coming out of pits,

and we were so, so happy. It was like a dream. And he kind of got aggravated because we had dirty-mo radio shirts on, but I think the first thing we had on was door bumper clear, and he said, oh, yeah, by the way, T.J., he still don't have no shirt. So we thought we'd pass that by. And we want to say we love WRL radio. I love it.

It gives me the break at work sometimes when I've had a stressful day, and it makes me laugh out loud and makes everybody in the office think, what the heck is she in there laughing about? And it's just great. You guys are awesome. Last thing I want to say is Dale Jr. Your health is so important. Take care of yourself.

We got you. We're behind you forever. We love Dale Jr. Okay, one thing Joshua's got to say, he's just busting to say, so get ready. My name is you friggin' suck. We were trying not to, like, let him say it out loud at the race. But, you know, sometimes you've got to say what you got to say. That's right.

My thing we're going to say is, Bill. B-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h. Great stuff, Mike Davis. How about that right there? Man, Mike Davis sucks. Dale bleeping, yeah. I love that kind of passion. Steve LaTart was the one person he always wanted to meet.

I mean, come on. Georgia Southern? Georgia Southern, right on, man. Hey. I love it. Man. Nation is so great. I'm a graduate of Georgia Southern.

Look how great I turned out. All kinds of different. We all have different challenges in life. We all come from different places. We all sound different, and we're all part of Junior Nation. I love reaction theater. 855740 1902 is the number. Be happy with the all-new spy Dale Jr.

Paint Scheme sunglasses. It's called the Livery Series. They're available in the popular Dirty Mode, General Daga McCoy, and Admiral Frames. It's the craziest paint scheme yet. It was recently released. You can get the all-new limited edition Spy Rangler Daga sunglasses online at Spyoptic.com. It's time now for the nationwide segment. Nationwide is proud to sponsor 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. Visit NASCAR.com slash 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 slash award. This week, we hear the story of finalist Jim Giaconi and Tuesday's children. My brother went to work early on September 11th and he disappeared. This is the only place that we have for my brother.

This is his memorial. There is nothing that has happened to me that I wouldn't have traded to have him back. I'm missing terribly. My name is Jim Giaconi, and I've been a volunteer with Tuesday's children for the last 10 years. I got involved with Tuesday's children after my brother Joe was killed on September 11th, 2001. The high-level mission of Tuesday's children is to help those who were lost on 9-11, their children and their families. to offer them advice, to help them further their education,

not to mention the more in-depth mental health programs and long-term healing programs that we have. I am not a rich man, so I thought the most valuable thing I could give was my time. Jim has been one of our most involved family members. He helps us out in so many different ways. He's gotten in-kind resources for us, helped plan programs, he's gotten venues for us.

He's done marathons and triathlons. And he's instrumental in our mentoring program. I thought by sharing my time with boys that were affected by September 11th, I would be sharing my brother with these boys also. It's nice for them to have a solid role model. And they look forward to that. And they do things that I wouldn't be able to do with them

or wouldn't even think to do with them. They built the hovercraft, and they've set off rockets in the park and fishing. There's just something nice about. having that bonds. My time with the boys is actually therapy for me. I never try to be their parent. I just try to help steer them.

We get along so well because we are all of the same maturity level. It's a good relationship. We still remember my dad and his brother. He's able to have fun with us and distract us a little bit from it. It helps us move on. He's a really good guy. He's a lot of fun. It's important to, like, have a friend that has gone through the same thing as you have a lot of the stuff I did with Jim. I probably wouldn't have done on my own.

Jim has personified what we want a Tuesday children volunteer to offer. I think this was a perfect way to make my brother live on. I think he would be proud. For the rest of our lives, we will be thinking about the senseless attack on our country on September 11th, 2001. unreal that that was 15 years ago. Jim had a brother killed on 9-11, and today he mentors kids, young kids who were impacted by that tragedy.

Thoughts and prayers with everyone impacted by one of the worst days ever, but those people will never ever be forgotten. Mike Davis, I would strongly encourage you and everyone listening to go check out the Freedom Tower in New York. It is a powerful place to go, and they did an amazing job of rebuilding that, incredible tower. All right. Let's throw the white flag.

White flag right there. White flag. First of all, Taylor, what makes you think I haven't been there? I guess that's a good point. Maybe you have. No, you're right. I haven't. But I just want to know, what makes you think I haven't? I'm kidding. I just was saying, hey, it's the coolest elevator I've ever been in. Ever. Really? That is cool. It goes, Mike, it shows you New York like 400 years ago all the way to present day as you go, this video as you go all the way from the bottom to the top. and it's pretty cool stuff. This white flag is brought to you by the Freedom Tower elevator. There you go.

Yes. And Exalta, because Exalta does make Dirty Mail Radio possible. Go to Exaltor Racing.com for all your news on the number 88 team and follow Exaltor Racing on Twitter and Facebook. I said it last week, I'm going to say it again. There is a spectacular raffle going on right now. It's called Weekend with the 88s. It features the ultimate dream weekend with racing and pro football.

Brought to you by Dale Jr. and Carolina Panthers tied in Greg Olson. go to Weekend with the 88s.com to purchase your ticket. If you want to hear all the things that are involved in that, you can go to that website or you can just listen to last week's podcast because we went through it in great detail. And Dale Jr. even said he's not nearly the highlight of this. Like he's one of the low-end deliverables on this prize package. It's incredible.

You agree it's incredible. Yeah, it's absurd. So to be eligible, you've got to do this by September 18th. So weekend with the 88.com. So Team Chevy is giving away a 2016 Chevrolet Silverado. Taylor, me and you are both Silverado fans, are we not? Yes. Team Chevy is giving one away.

I'm so excited. I can't talk. The more people that enter, the more prizes they'll give away, visit www.winn your Chevy.com and enter for your chance to win today. The Xfinity Series and Cup Series are both at Richmond this weekend. You can bet Junior Motorsports will be there. Friday nights race. will feature your most recent winner and current point leader, Elliot Sadler,

in the one main Chevrolet. Justin Algar will be in the branch Chevrolet and Alex Bowman in the Cessna Beachcraft Chevrolet. That race is Friday night on NBC Sports Network and Motor Racing Network. Saturday Night's Cup race will have Jeff Gordon in the number 88 exalted car. That race will also be on NBCSN and MRN. Lastly, don't forget that you are actually listening to a podcast. That means it is available on multiple platforms. And on those platforms, Taylor, you can actually subscribe to it.

which means it'll come to you automatically on your smartphone, tablet or computer. So do this. Tell your friends and spread the word and let's continue making Dirty Moe Radio, the place to go for all sorts of racing entertainment. Listen, Reaction Theater alone is worth a subscription to Dirty Moe Radio. And it's free. I should say it's free as well. Toll free, just like Reaction Theater is.

Two things to mention. One, I know First Name Davis will not take this out of the Dale Jr. download because I butchered it so badly. It will make me look awful, and I'm sure he'll keep it. Good. Good job. So let me make a correction to an egregious error I made. I forgot about Mr. Bushers win earlier this year. So Jamie McMurray is in 16th place right now in points, seven ahead of Ryan Newman.

That's before the possible points fine comes down at some point today. So he has a seven-point lead over Newman, but we'll see how much steeper that hill is to climb once NASCAR makes its choice. Okay, hold up. to stop right there because see here's what I want you to do Taylor because you know somebody is going to basically attack you on Twitter saying you're wrong Taylor and then you're going to be able to say listen to the end of the podcast asshole yes Casey Kane has a huge hill to climb almost certain almost needs to win really uh to get in and as does you know like guys like almondninger Trevor Bain Paul Menard Ricky Stenhouse Greg Biffle Danica Patrick

Patrick they would all need a win Clint is my boy lawyer, as Daddo says. Oh, God. Just stop already. And here's the last thing in shameless self-promotion. You know that I'm a proud graduate alum of the Performance Racing Network. Well, actually, this Saturday night, Mike Davis, I am back on the Performance Racing Network. They own the national, international radio rights to the Battle at Bristol. on Saturday night, and I will be serving as the play-by-play broadcaster for the Virginia Tech versus Tennessee broadcast.

You can hear it on Sirius XM, College Sports Nation, Channel 84 and across the entire country on terrestrial radio, too. So I'm very pumped about that game, and the fact that we're going to call a college football game at my favorite spectator sporting event, Bristol Motor Speedway, is pretty crazy. So NASCAR and college football come together Saturday night, and I love those two things. things dearly. My man first name Davis is spotting for me, Mike Davis. Yeah, no, I know this. So good luck with that. No, I'm kidding. That's the hardest, it's the hardest spotting job ever. So it's got to be. Like, how far away will you be from the field? Well, I mean, we're in the normal NASCAR press box. But like, so will this be, can you think of a football stadium that would be further from the field than this one?

No, not unless you were in another area. Are you bringing binoculars, Davis? Hell yeah. So just so you guys know. Elliot, yeah. Here's what happens. what Taylor's talking about. Taylor's doing play-by-play. He'll have a color guy, which will be Gino Turetta, Heisman Trophy winner. Am I correct? I'm not misspeaking, right? Yes, the host of the broadcast is Doug Rice. Okay. So the sideline guys are Jim Noble and Brett McMillan. Okay, now, but listen, what play-by-play guys will have is a spotter, just like race car drivers have as a spotter to kind of tell them information. And so, Davis, your job is specifically what for Taylor this Saturday? Oh, wow. Look at stats. Identify players on the field,

ball carriers, tacklers, anything going on that I see down on the field. And you're saying, are you bringing binoculars or something? Be better. Are you bringing like T.J. Majors? Usually I don't have to have binoculars I can see just fine. Are you going to try to get on door bumper clear next week because you're a spotter now? They still have me. I told my man Kirk Herb Street who's doing the game for television.

I said, I'm coming to get a monitor out of your booth. And he said, I really will try to find one for you. And I said, I'm serious. We have to have one. have Colossus, as you guys know about, that's suspended above the field that new incredible video board that they have there at Bristol Motor Speedway. But it'll be an interesting vantage point on Saturday night. Last thing, Taylor on that.

Last thing. I want to know. I'm just sitting here debating whether I should challenge Taylor, which is more like challenging his professionalism, which he soared through at Charlotte Motor Speedway when doing PA work. But would he dare? Would he dare say a Dale yeah on that broadcast? Do you honestly think I wouldn't do that? I might give Datto or a Mike Davis sucks on the air.

No, no, don't do that. Don't do that. Don't do that. You're saying you might say Dale yeah on the air? Listen closely Saturday night. Sirius XM, College Sports Nation Channel 8. Touchdown radio. Well, it is a joint venture with Performance Racing Network and Touchdown Radio.

and you can hear it all across the country too. Well, good luck. Who knows? Maybe Mike Davis sucks it in. Maybe sloppy yellow gets mentioned in Adelae, or even in Jeff Gordon, yeah. Jeff Gordon, yeah. On the Saturday night. Yeah, you're not welcome back if you say that.

When he gives me credit at the end of the show, where the chances he says first name accidentally. I hope he does, no really, or intern. Intern first name. He will forever be interned Davis in my family, that's for sure. That's for sure. For first name Davis, for Mike Davis, for Dale Earnhardt Jr., and for all of Junior Nation. I'm Taylor Zarzer.

This has been the Dale Jr. Download presented by Spy. Thanks for listening to Dirty Moe Radio.